From The Get Your Kids Out Of The Government Schools Department:

From Best of the Web Today:

Those Who Can't Do

Check out "New Business Item 91" (penultimate item in above link) from the annual meeting of the National Education Association, America's largest teachers union, last week:

In the interest of member health and safety at NEA sponsored events; NEA will explore alternatives to using LATEX (natural rubber) products (such as latex balloons and gloves) during NEA sponsored events.

According to this page, lambskin is not as safe as latex, but "polyurethane is an option for people who are allergic to latex." This does make us wonder, though, just what goes on at those NEA conventions. It probably involves cucumbers.

A foolish young British Moslem babbles.

From Best of the Web Today:

'Sassy' Suicide Bombers

Yesterday's London Guardian carried a rather troubling piece by Dilpazier Aslam, a "Guardian trainee journalist" who is Muslim. It amounts to an apology for terrorism:
If I'm asked about 7/7, I--a Yorkshire lad, born and bred--will respond first by giving an out-clause to being labelled a terrorist lover. I think what happened in London was a sad day and not the way to express your political anger.
Then there's the "but." If, as police announced yesterday, four men (at least three from Yorkshire) blew themselves up in the name of Islam, then please let us do ourselves a favour and not act shocked. . . .
Shocked would also be to suggest that the bombings happened through no responsibility of our own. OK, the streets of London were filled with anti-war marchers, so why punish the average Londoner? But the argument that this was an essentially US-led war does not pass muster. In the Muslim world, the pond that divides Britain and America is a shallow one. . . .
The Muslim community is no monolithic whole. Yet there are some common features. Second- and third-generation Muslims are without the don't-rock-the-boat attitude that restricted our forefathers. We're much sassier with our opinions, not caring if the boat rocks or not.
These are very unwise things to say. If Britain suffers more Islamist terror, articles like Aslam's are more likely to persuade Englishmen to curtail the civil liberties of their Muslim neighbors than to offer them sympathy.

Exactly. As I said...

Taranto runs rings around the kerfuffle-de-jour pushers.

This Seems to Settle It

Unless we're missing something, Joe Wilson has disproved his own accusation that someone in the Bush administration violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, USA Today reports:

The alleged crime at the heart of a controversy that has consumed official Washington--the "outing" of a CIA officer--may not have been a crime at all under federal law, little-noticed details in a book by the agent's husband suggest.

In The Politics of Truth, former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in Washington, D.C., where they married and became parents of twins.

This meant that Plame would have been stationed in the U.S. for six years before Bob Novak published his column citing her two years ago today. As USA Today notes:

The column's date is important because the law against unmasking the identities of U.S. spies says a "covert agent" must have been on an overseas assignment "within the last five years." The assignment also must be long-term, not a short trip or temporary post, two experts on the law say.
All the Democrats who are braying for Karl Rove's head can't be very confident that he's committed a crime. If they were, they would wait for an indictment, which would be a genuine embarrassment to the administration.
(Thanks to the Best of the Web consortium.)

Dick Baddour, call your office.

Yeah, you too, Lew Perkins. And you, Bill Self.

It looks like Roy Williams got out of Kansas just in time, Toto.

Roy Williams violated NCAA rules when he was the basketball coach at Kansas, approving payments to players who had used up their eligibility, the school said Friday.

After conducting an internal review, the school said Williams -- preparing for his third season at national champion North Carolina -- approved payments to graduating players and other Jayhawk players who had exhausted their eligibility.

The violations, which Kansas reported to the NCAA last month, were among several involving the men's and women's basketball programs, and the football program, ending in 2003.

Most of the violations involved arranging for test preparation and transportation for prospective athletes. The school began its investigation on the same day athletic director Lew Perkins arrived on the job in June 2003.

The university, which put its athletic department on probation for two years, said the violations wouldn't carry any television or postseason sanctions, but would result in a reduction of scholarships in the football and women's basketball programs.

In a letter dated July 1, the NCAA told the university its staff was reviewing the self-report and conducting follow-up interviews. NCAA vice president David Price told the school the investigation was expected to be completed by the fall.

The men's basketball violation will be addressed through extra education about the rules regarding gifts. No other sanctions against the program are planned.

Steve Kirschner, a spokesman for North Carolina, said Williams was traveling Friday and not immediately available for comment. The school planned to release a statement later Friday.

The school said three representatives of the university's "athletics interests" -- Dana Anderson, Joan Edwards and Bernard Morgan -- gave cash and clothing to graduating student athletes and other players who had exhausted their eligibility.
(Thanks to ESPN.com for the heads up.)

More evidence of Get Fuzzy's supercool hipness.

Click to enlarge.

More often than not, Scott Adams gets it.

Click to enlarge.

I get mail...

Michelle (left) and Hitlery (even lefter)
Click to enlarge. IF YOU DARE!


In response to yesterday's Violation of the Natural Law Update,

Carl Spackler said...
hiliary clinton is the anti-christ.



First things first, Carl.

Good luck with that Masters berth, man. You deserve it. When you get there, give Michelle Wie a big sloppy kiss for me. (Oops! She lost today.)

As for Hitlery, (Get with the program on that one, man.) I am an orthodox Catholic and therefore cannot say more than she is obviously working with the forces of the Antichrist. Wittingly or unwittingly.

Whatever she is, she needs to be watched.

News flash!

"Often on the Internet people are deceitful."

This gem is from the delightfully named Terence Wrong, executive producer of "Hooking Up", a new reality show about internet dating from those Disney pinheads.

Religion of Peace Update.

Theological sunshine and gumdrops (Courtesy of WND.) from a guy about whom Howard Dean will soon say "At least he's not Pat Robertson".

Less than a day after the terrorist bombings in London, the Palestinian Authority's official television channel broadcast a sermon calling for extermination of all non-Muslims.

"Annihilate the Infidels and the Polytheists! Your [Allah's] enemies are the enemies of the religion!" said Suleiman Al-Satari in a July 8 broadcast translated by Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch, or PMW.

"Allah," the cleric continued, "disperse their gathering and break up their unity, and turn on them, the evil adversities. Allah, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one."

Referring to the timing of the sermon, PMW's Itamar Marcus noted that clerics in the Palestinian authority routinely include Britain in the "infidel" category.

"Such a call does not represent a new policy or even a shift in policy," Marcus said. "While the PA is careful to exclude this hate ideology from the image it presents to the foreign media, to its own people in Arabic the PA has always presented itself as part of a greater Arab-Islamic conflict against the West."

Marcus said this enmity is focused primarily on the U.S. and Britain, who are seen as the dominant forces of Western civilization.

Palestinians are taught that it is predetermined that Islam eventually will rule over America and Britain, he pointed out.

The representation of current affairs as an Islamic-Western religious conflict is of particular significance given the overwhelming religious sentiment in PA society, Marcus said.

A recent poll showed 69 percent of Palestinians want the PA to follow Islamic law, or sharia, while just 16 percent prefer laws passed by their own Palestinian legislature. Another 11 percent wanted both.

Welcome to America, Mr. Howard. Now what the hell are you doing in bed with the Slave Chinese?

The CSM (Please don't make me type the whole name. It makes me cringe.) reports on a visitor coming to Washington. (Thanks toWND for the heads up.)

Australian Prime Minister John Howard arrives in Washington Friday, beginning a five-day US swing with a visit to one of his closet allies, President Bush. The trip comes at a time when Australia's ever-closer relationship with China is causing no small discomfort at the White House.

Australia has recently inked multibillion dollar gas and coal deals with the Asian giant, and negotiations for a free-trade deal are under way. Experts say the warming ties could compromise Australia's foreign-policy decisions - especially in matters relating to Taiwan's independence from China.

This concern was first borne out in 2004, when Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer commented at a press briefing in Beijing regarding the Taiwan situation. He said that under the ANZUS treaty, an alliance between the US and Australia that determines when each country would go to war on behalf of the other, Australia was obliged to invoke the treaty only if there was a direct attack on either member's soil.

This statement was countered in Washington by a US State Department aide who clarified that according to the treaty, an armed attack on either of the treaty partners ships in the Pacific would obligate them act against the common danger. So, for example, if US ships were under assault while defending Taiwan, Australia must come to America's defense. Mr. Downer immediately retreated from his statement.

In March, when China passed its anti-secession law allowing for an armed attack on Taiwan, Downer once again sat on the fence when he was quoted as saying that the ANZUS treaty could be invoked if war broke out, "But that's very different from saying we would make a decision to go to war."
This is a sharp shift in diplomacy since 1996, when Australia supported the dispatch of two US carrier groups to the Taiwan Straits in response to Chinese missile tests near the Taiwanese shore.

"China is an extraordinary market for Australia, but it's also Howard's biggest nightmare," says Michael McKinley, professor of social sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. "For Australia to have to make a choice between the US and Beijing over Taiwan is something that Canberra hopes will never happen ... and Howard will make the point with Bush that there is no contradiction between Australia's economic security being tied to China and its military security being linked to the US."

There are other divisive issues that have recently come to the surface. While the US and Japan oppose the European Union's decision to resume arms sales to China, Australia is not against the decision if it does not upset the balance of power in the region.

And then there's the free-trade agreement. Malcolm Cook, a China watcher at the Lowy Institute, a strategic think tank in Sydney, says the move to increase trade between the two countries was inevitable.

"New Zealand has been crowing for some time about how advanced their [free-trade] negotiations are with Beijing compared with Canberra, which was one of the last movers on this in the region. Canberra was in danger of being left out," Mr. Cook says.

One issue that will be off the table is that of Chinese defector Chen Yonglin, who left his job at the Chinese consulate six weeks ago and was granted asylum July 8. Initially his visa request was denied, and Mr. Howard was criticized for kowtowing to Beijing's pressure to return Mr. Chen to China.

I do not expect anyone to come to our defense. Not even a staunch ally like Mr. Howard.

I'll bet you $20 the Australians are forced to speak Chinese before we are.

Congressman Tom Tancredo gets it.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a staunch critic of the federal government's lax immigration and border enforcement policies, said yesterday he would request a briefing from the Justice Department on information it has on plans revealed by WND this week for a nuclear attack on the U.S. by al-Qaida terrorists.

Tancredo said he was greatly alarmed by the report and would seek whatever information he could get from the nation's law enforcement authorities – either in classified or unclassified reports.

Tancredo also plans to meet with the author of a book that provides new evidence al-Qaida has used the insecure Mexican border to bring nuclear devices into the country along with thousands of sleeper agents.

Al-Qaida's plans, known as "America's Hiroshima" according to captured terrorists and terrorist documents, calls for the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons, already in the possession of Osama bin Laden's operatives currently inside the U.S. The agents and arms having been smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border with the help of the MS-13 street gang and other organized crime groups, according to the report originating in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, a premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND.

The attack is designed to kill at least 4 million Americans.

Al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads, according to the report. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.
(Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the scary heads up.)

A kaka bill? How appropriate.

From Bruce Fein of The Washington Times come news of the impending Hawaiian crackup.

Who knew? Must be the humidity.

On the heels of apologizing for its old racism in thwarting anti-lynching laws, the U.S. Senate is poised to initiate a new racism celebrated in the so-called "Akaka Bill." It would summon into being for the first time a race-based Native Hawaiian sovereignty operating outside the U.S. Constitution. Only persons with at least "one drop" of Native Hawaiian blood would enjoy the right to create the new sovereign entity with its sweeping immunities from federal and state laws.

The Akaka bill would authorize and have the United States facilitate Hawaiian officials in relinquishing the State's sovereignty over a portion of its citizens and territory. In addition, it would authorize transfer of part of the state's lands, natural resources and other assets to the new race-based sovereign gratis, all without the approval of the state legislature or the consent of its citizens.

Proponents oppose any amendment, for example, a requirement of approval by a majority of adult Native Hawaiians before all Native Hawaiians are subjected to the new race-based government; a prohibition on racial, religious or ethnic discrimination; a proscription on secession; an injunction against evicting the U.S. military from Pearl Harbor; or, an obligation to honor the Bill of Rights. They even reject a requiring a plebiscite in Hawaii to determine if its citizens wish to carve out of every island multiple sovereign racial enclaves.

According to the most recent, comprehensive and reliable polling, 2 in 3 residents of Hawaii oppose a race-based Akaka bill. Native Hawaiians, who account for 20 percent of Hawaii's population, are themselves sharply divided, with 48 percent opposed. These percentages are stunning because the government of Hawaii has spent millions propagandizing in favor of the race-based legislation over several years. They discredit the representations of the governor of Hawaii and Hawaii's two senators and two representatives that the people of Hawaii overwhelming covet a race-based sovereign.

The Akaka Bill should be crushingly defeated when it comes to a vote in the U.S. Senate, which seems imminent. Race-based governments convulse communities and besmirch the nation's signature creed: E Pluribus Unum. During the long years of Jim Crow, lives were lost and liberties trampled by the racism whites practiced against blacks. It should thus be unthinkable that in 2005, the United States Congress would enter the squalid business of creating a race-based government. If the legislation is passed, the Senate will have earned the scorn Talleyrand cast on the French Bourbons: "They have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing."

This just in from India: Tape rekindles Bollywood-criminal nexus

Telephone transcripts revealing the alleged links of a top Bollywood actor with the Bombay underworld has sent shockwaves across the country.

The Hindustan Times newspaper reported Friday the transcripts appeared to show actor Salman Khan boasting of his connections with underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Chhota Shakeel. In the conversation, the voice threatened a woman, believed to be actress and former Miss World Aishwariya Rai*, with dire consequences for not performing in a stage show organized by Salem.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, has ordered a police inquiry to confirm if the voice is Khan's.

The newspaper, quoting Home Ministry sources, said a report had been sought from police in Bombay.

"If the investigation confirms that the voice is indeed Salman's, he would be questioned," the newspaper quoted a senior Home Ministry official as saying.

Bollywood, meanwhile, has backed Khan.

"I saw the news of the story on TV. Poor Salman, why is he targeted every time?" the newspaper quoted actress Shilpa Shetty as saying. "It is an old story. Why rake it up now."

* Ok, you caught me.

I only posted this story so I could add couple of photos of one of the most beautiful women in the world to my blog.

I call it marketing.

Mr. Mark Yost of Minnesota gets it.

Biased coverage

"An assistant editorial page editor with the St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press has written a column, headlined 'Why They Hate Us,' castigating his fellow journalists for biased coverage of the Iraq War," the Media Research Center's Rich Noyes reports at http://www.mediaresearch.org/. (The article is here.) Mark Yost explained that he saw the same media pattern when he served in the U.S. Navy in the 1980s.

"Substitute 'insurgent' for 'Sandinista,' 'Iraq' for 'Soviet Union,' 'Bush' for 'Reagan' and 'war on terror' for 'Cold War,' and the stories need little editing," he said. "The U.S. is 'bad,' our enemies 'understandable' if not downright 'good.' "

Mr. Yost, in his July 12 column, chastised most of the Iraq coverage as inaccurate.

"I know the reporting's bad because I know people in Iraq," he said. "A Marine colonel buddy just finished a stint overseeing the power grid. When's the last time you read a story about the progress being made on the power grid? Or the new desalination plant that just came on-line, or the school that just opened, or the Iraqi policeman who died doing something heroic? No, to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up."
(Thanks to Inside Politics and The Washington Times.)

The Mind (very loosely speaking) of Howard Dean.

More to love from the chief blasphemer, bugger (buggerer?), and 'borter. Just for laughs, let us hope Howard's end does not come too soon.

Dean got big laughs and lots of applause at the Oxford Hotel as he ribbed President Bush and the three Rs: Republicans, Rove and Rush:

A subtle ripoff of my classic Party of Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion.

• "Focus on the Family? What focus on the family? If you want to focus on the family, how about raising minimum wage?"

Said the rich doctor.

• "No Child Left Behind ought to be kicked in the behind."

Anal fixation, anyone? A classic anal expulsive personality, if you'll pardon my Viennese.

• "I'm not going to be lectured about moral values by Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and James Dobson - not going to happen."

Try winning an election or two, noise boy.

"If we are willing to stand up for what we believe in, if we set aside this idea that we ought to be like the Republicans in order to win . . . then I promise you we will take this country back," Dean said.

The state Republican Party issued a statement saying Dean came to "spew lies and hate speech."

Outside the Oxford, protesters held signs of aborted fetuses.

Inside the Denver landmark, Dean stressed that he doesn't know anybody who is pro-abortion, (Physician, know thyself. - F.G.) but he knows plenty of people who believe women should get to "make up their own minds."

As long as they make it up in the dead baby direction. If not, they aren't "authentic" women. Like Clarence Thomas isn't really black just because he would never ever think about voting for a clown like Howard Dean.

(Thanks to the Rocky Mountain News and Drudge.)

A Slave China thug threatens YOU with nuclear annihilation.

I do not think he has to worry.

From the FinancialTimes.com via Drudge:

China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Chinese general said on Thursday.

“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Zhu Chenghu.

Gen Zhu was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory included warships and aircraft.

“If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond,” said Gen Zhu, who is also a professor at China's National Defence University.

“We . . . will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds . . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.”

Gen Zhu is a self-acknowledged “hawk” who has warned that China could strike the US with long-range missiles. But his threat to use nuclear weapons in a conflict over Taiwan is the most specific by a senior Chinese official in nearly a decade.

However, some US-based China experts cautioned that Gen Zhu probably did not represent the mainstream People's Liberation Army view.

“He is running way beyond his brief on what China might do in relation to the US if push comes to shove,” said one expert with knowledge of Gen Zhu. “Nobody who is cleared for information on Chinese war scenarios is going to talk like this,” he added.

Said the commie-symp Slave China bootlicker at the State Department.

Q: Where did the Chicoms get this advanced missile technology?

A:
ARMED SERVICES.house.gov: "Testimony of Gary Milhollin Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School and Director, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control Before the Committees on International Relations and National Security United States House of Representatives June 17, 1998" (TESTIMONY SNIPPET: "When we look at the history of U.S. sanctions policy, we see a willingness to sanction China for missile proliferation in both the Bush Administration, which applied sanctions in 1991, and in the Clinton Administration, which applied sanctions in 1993. But in 1995, the Clinton Administration policy changes. China supplied the C-802s to Iran in 1995; China supplied other missile components to Iran and Pakistan in 1995 and has continued to supply up to the present time. And in 1996, the Administration refused to act on explicit findings by the intelligence community that the transfers occurred. Also in 1996, the Administration started transferring control over satellites exports from the State to the Commerce Department, insulating them from the application of missile sanction laws in the future. For some reason, the Administration decided in either 1995 or 1996 that missile sanctions would no longer be part of U.S. policy in dealing with China. Why did U.S. policy change? I don't know the answer to that question, but I urge the Committees to look into it. We do know the result of the policy change. It gave China a green light to proliferate. Our government's policy on sanctions has enabled Chinese satellite launch companies to sell missiles and missile components to Iran and Pakistan without fear of punishment. Thus, it may be that we are asking the wrong question about how our satellite export policy affects missile proliferation. Whether or not our satellite exports caused U.S. missile technology to go to China, they have made it easier for Chinese missile technology to go to Pakistan.")
(Thanks to TruthUSA for the link above.)

Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth" Revisited.

I am reading this "classic" for the first time since the 8th grade (or thereabout) and I have discovered I was correct all those years ago. It stinks. (It must. It carries the Okra Witless Seal of Approval.)

I do not care whether or not it accurately portrays Chinese life or not. I do not care if she won a Nobel prize for her body of work. The story stinks.

Everyone should read it, though. Read it so you can snicker intelligently if it anyone ever mentions it.

The Seraphic Doctor.

Biographies, articles, and the writings of St. Bonaventure can be found here .

Visit Saint Bonaventure University in Olean, NY. (If Bob Lanier had not been injured in a collision with Chris Ford of Villanova in the Eastern Regional Finals, the Brown Indians (as they were known then) could have beaten Jacksonville and UCLA and won the 1970 NCAA basketball title.)

Bonus Saint of the Day!

I cannot allow St. Swithin's Day pass without a mention. Swithin (or Swithun) was bishop of Winchester, England in the ninth century. He was especially known for his works of charity. Legend says it will rain for forty consecutive days if it rains on his feast day. He is, of course, invoked both for and against rain.

Check on the Winchester weather forecast here.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor of The Church. He was one of the greatest philosophers ever, but the perfecting of the soul by the uprooting of vice and the implanting of virtue was always his chief concern. Pray for us, St. Bonaventure.

Today's reading is Ephesians 3:14-19 .
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 23:8-12 .


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful;O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to Saint Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Body armor works.

See the video (courtesy of Jack Army via Blackfive) taken from a couple of terrorists after they try to take out one of Our Boys.

thunder6: Why We Fight.

This post sums it up nicely. It should be tattooed backwards on the face of every Senator and Representative so they can read it every time they shave.

What? All I need is five Supreme Court judges and it's the law of the land.

After losing so many innocent lives there is a natural tendency to view the terrorists as little more then blind and bitter zealots – but doing so would discount the true depth of their depravity. If you take a glance into their merciless ideology two things become readily apparent. The first is that they are in this for the long game. The second is that they have grasped an ancient truth – that the key to any fight is mercilessly hammering your enemy’s weak point.

A perfect example is the mission here in Iraq. The insurgents arrayed against us aren’t brave fighters or great warriors. In fact every time we fight toe to toe in a direct fire engagement they limp away like scared dogs. But the insurgents aren’t dumb, they have learned to hide their weakness by relying on IEDs, the modern equivalent of a bear trap. In the dead of night they skulk out of the shadows and lay their volatile traps, then lay in wait for one of our vehicles to roll into the blast radius.

When those brutal devices blossom into roaring, rending splinters they gouge men and machine alike. When those white hot pieces of metal find flesh to chew into they strike America's sole the gift of prescience; I don’t know what Iraq will look like when we do decide to pull out. But I do know that if we let the insurgents plan the timeline then we will have lost a key battle in this war without borders. My heart aches for the losses in London, but those horrible losses have only strengthened my resolve to help cut out this cancer.

If I could take the average citizen along with us on a combat patrol I have no doubt they would feel the same way. But I can’t. All I can do is hope that America will continue to support this mission and let us win this war. Is it costly? Very. Is it painful? Even more so. But in the end it comes down to this – in the entire history of the human race, from the dark avenues of prehistory up to this modern “enlightened” age, there are precious few instances where bowing to an enemy seeking your annihilation did anything but lead to a much uglier world. And I for one don’t plan on letting that come to pass.

Amen to all that, brother.

Michelle Malkin: A happy ending.

Last month, talk show host extraordinaire Neal Boortz wrote about a Greensboro, Ga., middle school that refused to allow a Marine to come visit a class of sixth-graders that had written him letters while he served in Iraq. After getting pressure from Boortz's listeners and others, the local superintendent apologized.

Boortz updated the story yesterday:

Next Monday, July 18th, the students from the Carson Middle School who wrote those letters to Sgt. [Zach] Richardson, along with their teacher, Matthew Lund, their parents and other community leaders, will get their chance to meet and talk with Sgt. Richardson and several of his fellow Marines. The meeting will take place at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation and will be followed by a lakeside barbecue at the Ritz to show support for Sgt. Richardson, his fellow Marines and the students from Carson Middle School who's letters meant so much. The Ritz-Carlton Lodge will be providing rooms to the Marines ... and having stayed at this particular Ritz-Carlton, let me tell you ... these Marines are in for a treat.

I don't know what eventually happened to the principal. I do know that she caused her school and the Green County School quite a bit of embarrassment. Her disdain for this Marine in particular and for what our armed forces were doing in Iraq in general was obvious. Matthew Lund is no longer teaching at the Carson Middle School. We hope he has found a job at a school that appreciates him and our men and women in uniform.

Bluesman of the Day.

The late, great Lowell Fulson.

Violation of the Natural Law Update.

Thanks to WND for the following links:

Clinton defends wife's abortion remarks
Hillary's 'sad, even tragic choice' statement called sell-out by some --Associated Press

Church says Mexico's Fox 'traitor'
Government put "morning-after" contraceptive pills in public clinics --Reuters

Minnesota abortions reach 30-year low
Lowest rate since 1975 attributed to new 24-hour waiting period by some --Associated Press

Fatalities blamed on birth control patch
About a dozen women have died from blood clots believed related to device --Associated Press

Russian WMDs hidden in U.S.? New evidence suggests al-Qaida after them.

It was little more than a rumor during the darkest days of the Cold War.
Did agents of the Soviet Union conceal nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction inside the U.S. and other western cities (sic)?

New evidence suggests they did – and that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorists network is determined to find them and use them with the help of bribed Russian spies or special forces soldiers who have maintained their secret locations for all these years.

According to a report by Gordon Thomas and David M. Dastych in the latest issue of the Polish news and opinion weekly Wprost, U.S. authorities searched in vain for the nuclear devices in New York City the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks.

They had been tipped off about the possible existence of Russian "suitcase nukes" in the area by officials in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to the report.

No nuclear weapons were found Sept. 12, 2001, or thereafter. But, more recently, U.S. intelligence services have become concerned about efforts by terrorists to buy off former Soviet and current Russian agents with knowledge of the weapons.

The report also cites the work of Paul L. Williams, an investigative reporter, former FBI consultant and author of several books, including "Osama's Revenge: The Next 9/11," which claims al-Qaida sleeper agents have already stashed suitcase nukes in several major U.S. cities as well as Rappahannock, Va., where the U.S. government maintains an underground bunker as a command-and-control center for wartime or national emergency.

As WorldNetDaily reported earlier this week, Williams describes how al-Qaida has already purchased some post-Soviet mini-nukes and hired Russians to help them operate them. The report was first published in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND's founder.

Williams predicted in his book a nuclear attack by al-Qaida would be launched before the end of 2005.

Several U.S. officials have alluded to the threat recently.

"It may be only a matter of time before al-Qaida or another group attempts to use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons," said Porter Goss, director of central intelligence before a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Robert S. Mueller III, director of the FBI, said: "I am also very concerned with a growing body of sensitive reporting that continues to show al-Qaida's clear intention to obtain and ultimately use some form of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear or high-energy explosives material in its attacks against America."

In addition, Thomas and Dastych report Britain's MI5 has identified 32 spies of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service operating under full diplomatic cover from their London embassy. The spies reportedly have links to deep-cover KGB agents who, during the Cold War, hid scores of genetically engineered biological warfare weapons in Britain's countryside. MI5 believes the Russian spies are still actively concealing the locations of the germ vials.

Meanwhile, KGB spymaster Alexander Kouzminov confirms his agents planted the vials. He, too, believes Russian agents are still involved in guarding them.

"Huge efforts and money was spent in our work," he explained. "It would be foolish to believe our people were stood down just because Russia took part in biological weapons talks in Geneva."
(Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the heads up.)

Headline of the Day

Kennedy rips Santorum for sex abuse remarks; Demands apology for '02 column linking Boston liberalism to church scandal

2002?

I am glad to see Senator Murder has ended his latest three year bender.

Wow. Who voted for this idiot woman?

treason:
the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family

Never say we aren't willing to help an editorial subject in distress, and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm clearly needs some friendly advice.
Last month the state legislature buried the Democratic Governor's top legislative priority, a grandiose proposal to raise taxes on insurance companies, banks and thousands of small businesses that private studies said would have cost up to 20,000 jobs. Ms. Granholm's plan was widely criticized, including in these columns in March and in an op-ed article on the opposite page last Thursday by state legislator Rick Baxter, a Republican, and Hillsdale College Professor Gary Wolfram.

Ms. Granholm was not pleased, going so far as to denounce the op-ed as "treasonous for the state of Michigan." The authors' high crime? Exposing Michigan as a high tax state and criticizing Ms. Granholm for wanting to raise taxes. Her choice of words was no inadvertent slip of the tongue, by the way--a Howard Dean-like temporary loss of sanity. The Governor has used the "t" word repeatedly and has even suggested that Mr. Baxter "should be removed from office."

Well, we recall that the first time an American was accused of "treason" for opposing high taxes was when New Englanders dressed as Indians and dumped tea in Boston Harbor. And it was America's most famous tax protester, Patrick Henry, who declared: "If this be treason, make the most of it." Ms. Granholm was born in Canada so maybe she missed this American history.

Sorry to say, the facts laid out in Messrs. Baxter and Wolfram's column and in our previous editorial are well-established. When it comes to high taxes, the Wolverine State ranks fifth both in per-capita terms and as a share of personal income. Michigan also has the nation's highest unemployment rate. There is no shortage of studies that have linked these two phenomena.

More troubling about Ms. Granholm's recent combustion is that she seems to believe that the problem is that the rest of the world will find out about Michigan's high taxes, not the high taxes themselves. But Michigan's inhospitable tax climate is hardly a state secret, especially to the state residents and businesses who have to endure it.

Gratuitous Specieist Shot of the Day.

Maybe It's a Pandemic

"The world's oldest panda held in captivity has died at a south China zoo at the age of 36, or the equivalent of 108 human years, according to the Chinese government," reports the Associated Press:

Meimei died Tuesday at the Guilin City Zoo in the Guangxi region, where she had been living for the past 20 years, the Xinhua News Agency said. Because of her old age, Meimei had recently suffered from eating difficulties and the gradual failure of various organs, Xinhua cited zoo officials as saying.

This is further evidence for our contention that the survival of pandas is an affront to the theory of evolution.

Note the claim that Meimei was "36, or the equivalent of 108 human years." Does this mean that pandas come from a planet that takes three times as long to orbit its sun as Earth takes to orbit ours? No, it's just that pandas die young, and pro-panda propagandists try to mask this fact by referring to their age in "panda years," a totally mythical construct.

Also, how come all these pandas have doubled names--Meimei, Hsing Hsing, Ling Ling, etc. etc.? Is Sirhan Sirhan a Palestinian panda?
(Viva Taranto!)

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update.

The World's Greatest Deliberative Body
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)

The Associated Press reported yesterday on a debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Rick Santorum:

Clinton has kept mum on Santorum's book, until today, when the two senators passed each other in the basement of the Capitol.

"It takes a village, Rick, don't forget that," Clinton called out.

"It takes a family," he countered.

"Of course, a family is part of a village!" she replied.

The two continued on in opposite directions.

Our greatest sportsman says goodbye at the cradle of golf.

The greatest sportsman of our lifetime spent about an hour waiting out a rain delay, with five or six fans, near the sixth fairway of famed Congressional Country Club in 1995. They all were swapping stories — okay, mostly listening to his stories — while the fans took turns holding steady a gallery stake on which the great man was pulling to keep his back limber. He was so unassuming that it was like talking to a neighbor over the hedgerow: approachable, comfortable in his own skin. But goodness, did his back — its disks abused by so many golf shots, its nerves weakened by a childhood polio scare — ever need the help!

Nearly seven years earlier, when Jack Nicklaus played the ceremonial opening round at the English Turn golf course he had just built to host the New Orleans stop on the PGA tour, his back was so bad that he had trouble hitting his opening tee shot more than 200 yards. At age 48 then, he was telling people his back was so beyond repair that he might hang up his golf spikes for good. But he kept on playing, the entire 18 holes, all the while chatting amiably with whichever one or two of the hundreds of fans on hand happened to fall in step beside him. By the 15th hole, a daunting par 5 with an island green, he was loose enough to reach the putting surface with two mammoth shots.

Less than four weeks after that round at English Turn on Nov. 1, 1988, Nicklaus began a routine of daily, vigorous back-strengthening exercises, more than a full hour a day, every single day, for some 2,400 days up to that rain delay at Congressional — and beyond. He added two U.S. Senior Open Titles, six other senior "majors," and, at age 58, a final-day charge to finish in an impressive sixth place in the 1998 Masters — ahead of young defending champion Tiger Woods, ahead of Phil Mickelson, ahead of reigning U.S. Open Champion Ernie Els. All of this on a rickety and painful back and a hip so degraded it soon would need total replacement with some new-fangled alloy.

Clearly, this is a man who does not easily give up top-flight golf competition.

Just as clearly, though, he has chosen well the venue for his final major round. Well, indeed, but in several respects rather oddly. After all, the Old Course at St. Andrews, where the British Open starts today, does not (on paper) seem like a Nicklaus-type golf haven.

Even the most casual of golf fans knows that the Old Course at St. Andrews is the ancient "home of golf," the place where grazing sheep and nature's own whimsy preceded Old Tom Morris in helping design the links. But Nicklaus's own golf course architecture tends toward the heavily engineered, massive-earth-moving variety.

Nicklaus at his heyday was best known for his toweringly high golf shots. High-ball hitters usually have trouble handling wind — but the wind off of St. Andrews Bay and the nearby Firth of Tay can be so fierce that not even pounds sterling used as ball marks are safe (one of mine blew 100 feet across the green before coming to rest in a swale).

On stateside courses, Nicklaus has been known to disfavor "blind" shots where the target can't be seen. But at St. Andrews, the gorse is so high that tee shots on six straight holes are mere matters of faith, with the fairways utterly hidden from view by the bushes.

Nicklaus's course designs tend to feature well-defined greens, sometimes tending toward the smallish, heavily guarded by hazards. At St. Andrews, most greens arise almost unobtrusively from the fairways, but sprawl to relatively massive proportions.

So St. Andrews doesn't seem like a favored playground for Nicklaus. Yet to hear him tell it, it was love at first sight: "The first time I went around the golf course, I said, 'Man, this is great.' I loved it."

So this man known for his directness loves a course known for quirkiness. This golfer known for brute strength loves a course requiring artistry. This conservative middle-American, apparently open and uncomplicated, loves a course full of diabolically hidden bunkers where flinty Scotsmen ply their trade.

But Jack Nicklaus always was perceptive. He recognized that this place, this old course, is a proving ground that rewards intelligence and excellence, nerves and talent. The townspeople who walk the narrow street by the 18th fairway — and stop to applaud a good shot pulled off by anyone who happens to be finishing an ordinary round — appreciate the game for the game's own sake, respect good character, and will warm to anybody willing to endure uncomplainingly the rub of the green.

They took to Jack Nicklaus immediately, even when American fans still resented his challenge to King Arnold Palmer. They cheered and admired his sportsmanship when he lost and his graciousness when he won. And he in turn took immediately to them. He won two British Opens at St. Andrews. The university there granted him a rare honorary degree. And the Royal Bank of Scotland has put Nicklaus this week on its five-pound note, an honor bestowed on no other living person except the Queen and Queen Mother.

So it's no wonder that Nicklaus chose St. Andrews for his farewell to major tournament golf. Great champions love great stages.

Massacre of the Day

Ten years ago yesterday a little collateral damage in the left's war on reality tried to free themselves.

In the predawn darkness of July 13, 1994, 72 desperate Cubans-- old and young, male and female-- snuck aboard a decrepit but seaworthy tugboat in Havana harbor and set off for the U.S. and freedom. A few miles into the turbulent sea 30 year-old Maria Garcia felt someone tugging her sleeve. She looked down and it was her ten year-old son, Juan. "Mami look!" and he pointed behind them towards shore. "What's those lights?"

"Looks like a boat following us, son." She stuttered while stroking his hair."Calm down, mi hijo. Try to sleep. When you wake up we'll be with our cousins in a free country. Don't worry." In fact, Maria suspected the lights belonged to Castro patrol boats coming out to intercept them.

In seconds the patrol boats were alongside the tug and -- WHACK!!--with it's steel prow the closest patrol boat rammed the back of the tug. People were knocked around the deck like bowling pins. But it looked like an accident, right? Rough seas and all. Could happen to anyone, right?

"Hey WATCH IT!" a man yelled as he rubbed the lump on his forehead. "We have women and children aboard!" Women held up their squalling children to get the point across. If they'd only known.

This gave the gallant Castroites nice targets for their water cannon. WHOOSH! The water-cannon was zeroed and the trigger yanked. The water-blast shot into the tug, swept the deck and mowed the escapes down, slamming some against bulkheads, blowing others off the deck into the five foot waves.

"MI HIJO!-- MI HIJO!" (My son!) Maria screamed as the water-jet slammed into her, ripping half the clothes off her body and ripping Juan's arm from her grasp. "JUANITO! JUANITO!" She fumbled frantically around her, still blinded by the water-blast. Juan had gone spinning across the deck and now clung desperately to the tug's railing ten feet behind Maria as huge waves lapped his legs.

WHACK! Another of the steel patrol boats turned sharply and rammed the tug from the other side. Then-- CRACK! another from the front! WHACK! The one from behind slammed them again. The tug was surrounded. It was obvious now: the ramming was NO accident. And in Cuba you don't do something like this without strict orders from WAY above.

"We have women and children aboard!" The men yelled. "We'll turn around!--OKAY!!"

WHACK! the Castroites answered the plea by ramming them again. And this time the blow from the steel prow was followed by a sharp snapping sound from the wooden tug. In seconds the tug started coming apart and sinking. Muffled yells and cries came from below. Turns out, the women and children who scrambled into the hold for safety after the first whack had in fact scrambled into a watery tomb.

With the boat coming apart and the water rushing in around them, some got death grips on their children and managed to scramble or swim out. But not all. The roar from the water-cannons, and the racket from the boat engines din muffled most of the screams, but all around people were screaming, coughing, gagging and sinking. Fortunately, a Greek freighter bound for Havana had happened upon the scene of slaughter and sped in to the rescue. NOW one of the Castro boats threw out some life-preservers on ropes and started hauling people in, pretending they'd been doing it all along.

Maria Garcia lost her son, Juanito, her husband, brother, sister, two uncles and three cousins in the maritime massacre. In all, 43 people drowned, 11 of them children. Carlos Anaya was three when he drowned, Yisel Alvarez four. Helen Martinez was six months old.

"I Hate The Sea," is the title of a gut-gripping underground essay by Cuban dissident Rafael Contreras. It's about some young men Rafael met on the beach near Havana. They stared out to sea, cursed it and spit into it. "It incarcerates us," they fumed, "worse than jail bars."
(Thanks to Human Events Online.)

Q: What do you find on Page A16 of the NYT or the WP?

A: Proof the Koranpot Dome scandal does not exist. (Thanks to The Buffalo News via Yahoo!News.)

Military investigators examining alleged abuse of inmates in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say they found treatment such as leashing a suspected terrorist and forcing him to behave like a dog. But they say they found no evidence that there was torture or that senior leaders imposed unlawful interrogation policies.

A few individual interrogators and military personnel are facing punishment, but a recommendation by investigators to admonish the former prison commander because of the treatment of one prisoner was overruled by a senior general.

In all, the findings track what the Bush administration has said, and what subsequent military self-investigations have found: The excesses with prisoners were the work of a few mid- or low-level personnel acting beyond their authority.

Investigators assigned to look into FBI agents' allegations of abuse at Guantanamo presented their findings to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

They were unsatisfactory to some Democrats and human rights groups.
"I am deeply concerned about the failure - indeed, outright refusal - of our military and civilian leaders to hold higher-ups accountable for the repeated reports of abuse and torture of the prisoners at Guantanamo," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

Earth to Ted...Earth to Ted...

If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise: The baby killers are having a picnic.

The Washington state unit of Chopped Up Kids 'R' Us plans a party whose theme is Let's Violate the Natural Law and Hope Nothing Bad Happens.

SCREW ABSTINENCE PARTY

Thursday, July 14, 2005
6:00-8:00pm

Tired of Bush & Co. spending your tax dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage initiatives that promote dangerous misinformation?
Let them know you keep it real when it comes to your sexual health and decision making.

Vee vill make zee decisions for you, you poor opressed vagina possessors!

Come laugh, learn, socialize and buck the system at NARAL Pro-Choice Washington’s Screw Abstinence Party.

They're gonna do what to girl's systems? Oh, buck. Never mind.

Featuring:Pork Filled Players – Seattle theatre’s hottest sketch comedy group performs a sex ed class for adults

If they are adults, they should know how to do it by now. (And they call us backwards!)

Toys in Babeland – Seattle’s sleaze-free (???? -F.G.) , sex-positive purveyors of adult toys offer tips on “Sexy Safer Sex”

Instant Translation: They are going to teach the hags who attend how to masturbate. (Talk about an IQ gap between the sexes!)

Lady Jane DJ – Seattle’s First Lady of the turn tables spins the latest in Hip-Hop and R&B

Wait. Your victims like Hip-Hop. Your donors like white folks' music.

Hors d’oeuvres – Scrumptious Appetizers generously donated by Watertown.

Mmmm. Filet of Fetus. Yum!

Ticket Prices:

$15.00 “The Birds and the Bees” - Gets ya in the door.

$30.00 “The Full Monty”- Gets ya in the door, a Screw Driver (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Too clever. - F.G.) drink ticket, & a Screw Abstinence T-Shirt. T-shirt sizes are limited so order yours ASAP!

I'll bet you $20 they'll only have XXXL.

*Please note, this is not an all ages event, you must be 21 years or older to attend*

THIS STINKIN' FASCIST CUNT-RY! A 12 YEAR OLD CAN HAVE HER BABY TOSSED IN A VEG-A-MATIC WITHOUT HER PARENTS KNOWING, BUT SHE CAN'T GET A DAMNED HIGHBALL AT THIS LOSER PARTY WHERE ONLY THE BROADS WILL HAVE ARMPIT HAIR?

All funds raised at Screw Abstinence will assist NARAL Pro-Choice Washington in our work to secure comprehensive and medically accurate sex education, as well as guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices.

Instant Translation: Blah blah blah, we murder kids. Most of them poor and black.

Sincerest appy-polly-loggies to Mr. Jimmy Kennedy for abusing his lyrics in the headline. (Click the link to hear the music and see the real lyrics.)

Fyodor giveth, and Fyodor taketh away.

After having solved the third world debt problem and the USA's constitutional crisis (without the lynching of any Supreme Court Justices) in surprisingly short order, I would like propose a solution to the problem of America's best friend in Denmark, Mr. Aage Bjerre.

Let us combine FREE AAGE BJERRE! with TAKE SOUTER'S HOUSE!

We take Justice Souter's house through (irony of ironies) eminent domain, turn it into the first of many Liberty Hotels and give the food concession to Mr. Aage!

Everybody wins!

Especially Freedom.

Speaking of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha...

It is time to prepare for the Tenth Annual Pilgrimage for Restoration, brought to you by the Company of St. René Goupil with the National Coalition of Clergy and Laity .

Whether you can join the Pilgrimage for all four days or just on Saturday, it is well worth the effort.

This year's theme is Restoring True Devotion to Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ Present in the Holy Eucharist .

If you can make it to Auriesville, NY from Wednesday September 28 to Saturday October 1, please come and join other concerned Catholics in pilgrimage and prayer for the sake of His Church.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today we honor Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin, and patroness of the environment. Blessed Kateri was a Mohawk convert to Catholicism who died in 1680 at the age of 24.

Today's reading is Exodus 3:13-20 .
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 11:28-30 .
(Or any reading from the Common of Virgins may be used.)


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful;O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to Saint Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Military's Energy-Beam Weapons Delayed

Not enough of your tax dollars at work in the right place...or, Support Your Local Operation Sheriff.

For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and virtually inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. "Directed-energy" pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on "Star Trek" could be set to kill or merely stun.

Such weapons are now nearing fruition. But logistical issues have delayed their battlefield debut — even as soldiers in Iraq encounter tense urban situations in which the nonlethal capabilities of directed energy could be put to the test.

"It's a great technology with enormous potential, but I think the environment's not strong for it," said James Jay Carafano, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who blames the military and Congress for not spending enough on getting directed energy to the front. "The tragedy is that I think it's exactly the right time for this."

The hallmark of all directed-energy weapons is that the target — whether a human or a mechanical object — has no chance to avoid the shot because it moves at the speed of light. At some frequencies, it can penetrate walls.
Since the ammunition is merely light or radio waves, directed-energy weapons are limited only by the supply of electricity. And they don't involve chemicals or projectiles that can be inaccurate, accidentally cause injury or violate international treaties.

"When you're dealing with people whose full intent is to die, you can't give people a choice of whether to comply," said George Gibbs, a systems engineer for the Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad Program who oversees directed-energy projects. "What I'm looking for is a way to shoot everybody, and they're all OK."

Almost as diverse as the electromagnetic spectrum itself, directed-energy weapons span a wide range of incarnations.

Among the simplest forms are inexpensive, handheld lasers that fill people's field of vision, inducing a temporary blindness to ensure they stop at a checkpoint, for example. Some of these already are used in Iraq.

Other radio-frequency weapons in development can sabotage the electronics of land mines, shoulder-fired missiles or automobiles — a prospect that interests police departments in addition to the military.

A separate branch of directed-energy research involves bigger, badder beams: lasers that could obliterate targets tens of miles away from ships or planes. Such a strike would be so surgical that, as some designers put it at a recent conference here, the military could plausibly deny responsibility.

The flexibility of directed-energy weapons could be vital as wide-scale, force-on-force conflict becomes increasingly rare, many experts say. But the technology has been slowed by such practical concerns as how to shrink beam-firing antennas and power supplies.

Military officials also say more needs to be done to assure the international community that directed-energy weapons set to stun rather than kill will not harm noncombatants.

Such issues recently led the Pentagon to delay its Project Sheriff, a plan to outfit vehicles in Iraq with a combination of lethal and nonlethal weaponry — including a highly touted microwave-energy blaster that makes targets feel as if their skin is on fire. Sheriff has been pushed at least to 2006.

"It was best to step back and make sure we understand where we can go with it," said David Law, science and technology chief for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.

The directed-energy component in the project is the Active Denial System, developed by Air Force researchers and built by Raytheon Co. It produces a millimeter-wavelength burst of energy that penetrates 1/64 of an inch into a person's skin, agitating water molecules to produce heat. The sensation is certain to get people to halt whatever they are doing.

Military investigators say decades of research have shown that the effect ends the moment a person is out of the beam, and no lasting damage is done as long as the stream does not exceed a certain duration. How long? That answer is classified, but it apparently is in the realm of seconds, not minutes. The range of the beam also is secret, though it is said to be further than small arms fire, so an attacker could be repelled before he could pull a trigger.

Although Active Denial works — after a $51 million, 11-year investment — it has proven to be a "model for how hard it is to field a directed-energy nonlethal weapon," Law said.
(Thanks to AP and Yahoo!News.)

Look Ma, no crime!

Byron York, writing for National Review Online, drives a stake into the heart of the Rovepot Dome scandal (formerly the Plameplot Dome scandal). But our betters in the media will never let it die.

The lawyer for top White House adviser Karl Rove says that Time reporter Matthew Cooper "burned" Rove after a conversation between the two men concerning former ambassador Joseph Wilson's fact-finding mission to Niger and the role Wilson's wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, played in arranging that trip. Nevertheless, attorney Robert Luskin says Rove long ago gave his permission for all reporters, including Cooper, to tell prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about their conversations with Rove.

In an interview with National Review Online, Luskin compared the contents of a July 11, 2003, internal Time e-mail written by Cooper with the wording of a story Cooper co-wrote a few days later. "By any definition, he burned Karl Rove," Luskin said of Cooper. "If you read what Karl said to him and read how Cooper characterizes it in the article, he really spins it in a pretty ugly fashion to make it seem like people in the White House were affirmatively reaching out to reporters to try to get them to them to report negative information about Plame."

First the e-mail. According to a report in Newsweek, Cooper's e-mail to Time Washington bureau chief Michael Duffy said, "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..." Cooper said that Rove had warned him away from getting "too far out on Wilson," and then passed on Rove's statement that neither Vice President Dick Cheney nor CIA Director George Tenet had picked Wilson for the trip; "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip." Finally — all of this is according to the Newsweek report — Cooper's e-mail said that "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly that there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger..."

A few days after sending the e-mail, Cooper co-wrote an article headlined "A War on Wilson?" that appeared on Time's website. The story began, "Has the Bush administration declared war on a former ambassador who conducted a fact-finding mission to probe possible Iraqi interest in African uranium? Perhaps."

The story continued:

Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched to Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's government had sought to purchase large quantities of uranium ore, sometimes referred to as yellow cake, which is used to build nuclear devices.

Plame's role in Wilson's assignment was later confirmed by a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation.

Luskin told NRO that the circumstances of Rove's conversation with Cooper undercut Time's suggestion of a White House "war on Wilson." According to Luskin, Cooper originally called Rove — not the other way around — and said he was working on a story on welfare reform. After some conversation about that issue, Luskin said, Cooper changed the subject to the weapons of mass destruction issue, and that was when the two had the brief talk that became the subject of so much legal wrangling. According to Luskin, the fact that Rove did not call Cooper; that the original purpose of the call, as Cooper told Rove, was welfare reform; that only after Cooper brought the WMD issue up did Rove discuss Wilson — all are "indications that this was not a calculated effort by the White House to get this story out."

"Look at the Cooper e-mail," Luskin continues. "Karl speaks to him on double super secret background...I don't think that you can read that e-mail and conclude that what Karl was trying to do was to get Cooper to publish the name of Wilson's wife."

Nor, says Luskin, was Rove trying to "out" a covert CIA agent or "smear" her husband. "What Karl was trying to do, in a very short conversation initiated by Cooper on another subject, was to warn Time away from publishing things that were going to be established as false." Luskin points out that on the evening of July 11, 2003, just hours after the Rove-Cooper conversation, then-CIA Director George Tenet released a statement that undermined some of Wilson's public assertions about his report. "Karl knew that that [Tenet] statement was in gestation," says Luskin. "I think a fair reading of the e-mail was that he was trying to warn Cooper off from going out on a limb on [Wilson's] allegations."

Pope Benedict XVI administers a beat down to that boring drone, Harry Potter.

Thank goodness. Those books'll rot your brains as sure as listening to Bill Moyers will. (Thanks to Lifesite.com.)

LifeSiteNews.com has obtained and made available online copies of two letters sent by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was recently elected Pope, to a German critic of the Harry Potter novels. In March 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Gabriele Kuby outlining his agreement with her opposition to J.K. Rowling's offerings. (See below for links to scanned copies of the letters signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.)

As the sixth issue of Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about the novels is now finally being revealed to the English-speaking world still under the impression the Vatican approves the Potter novels.

In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.

"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.

The letter also encouraged Kuby to send her book on Potter to the Vatican prelate who quipped about Potter during a press briefing which led to the false press about the Vatican support of Potter. At a Vatican press conference to present a study document on the New Age in April 2003, one of the presenters - Fr. Peter Fleedwood - made a positive comment on the Harry Potter books in response to a question from a reporter. Headlines such as "Pope Approves Potter" (Toronto Star), "Pope Sticks Up for Potter Books" (BBC), "Harry Potter Is Ok With The Pontiff" (Chicago Sun Times) and "Vatican: Harry Potter's OK with us" (CNN Asia) littered the mainstream media.

In a second letter sent to Kuby on May 27, 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger "gladly" gave his permission to Kuby to make public "my judgement about Harry Potter."

The most prominent Potter critic in North America, Catholic novelist and painter Michael O'Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the "judgement" of now-Pope Benedict saying, "This discernment on the part of Benedict XVI reveals the Holy Father's depth and wide ranging gifts of spiritual discernment." O'Brien, author of a book dealing with fantasy literature for children added, "it is consistent with many of the statements he's been making since his election to the Chair of Peter, indeed for the past 20 years - a probing accurate read of the massing spiritual warfare that is moving to a new level of struggle in western civilization. He is a man in whom a prodigious intellect is integrated with great spiritual gifts. He is the father of the universal church and we would do well to listen to him."

I in no way meant my headline for this post to imply Potter could ever become a member in good standing of the Drones Club.

I think Darby Conley gets it.

Click to enlarge.

Why, lookee here. A perfect example of the undercurrent (raging torrent?) of anti-human thought infecting Islam.

Bouyeri Confesses to Van Gogh Slaying

The Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh confessed Tuesday, saying he was driven by religious conviction. "I don't feel your pain," he told the victim's mother.

Mohammed Bouyeri stunned the courtroom when, in the final minutes of his two-day trial he declared: "If I were released and would have the chance to do it again ... I would do exactly the same thing."

"What moved me to do what I did was purely my faith. ... I was motivated by the law that commands me to cut off the head of anyone who insults Allah and his prophet," he said.

Psssst! Mohammed! You forgot to mention Iraq and the US Crusaders! And the Jews!

I read the Koran in high school. It did not make any impression on me then, and I do not remember a word of it now. But I think I would have remembered something like that.

If this is really what your religion teaches, you better get out. If this crap is the product of a few evil men screwing with the "word of the prophet", you better get them out.

There will come a point in this war when the West will put aside its beliefs in tolerance and plurality and religious freedom (for you). The consequences will not be pretty for anyone. But do not fool yourself. You cannot win. Pray to your god for your survival.

If you doubt me, read some history.

Bouyeri, 27, faces life imprisonment in the Nov. 2 killing of Van Gogh, who was shot, stabbed and nearly beheaded on an Amsterdam street. A verdict is to be handed down this month.

Bouyeri glanced at notes, paused between sentences and chose his words carefully. Some spectators rose to their feet as he spoke, visibly stunned by his comments.

At one point, he addressed the victim's mother, Anneke, who was sitting in the public gallery. "I have to admit I don't have any sympathy for you," he said. "I can't feel for you because I think you're a nonbeliever."

The killing is believed to have been an act of retribution for Van Gogh's film "Submission," which criticized the treatment of women under Islam.
The killer left a five-page note fixed to the filmmaker's body with a knife. Along with religious ramblings, the note threatened Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the screenplay for Van Gogh's film, and others he perceived as enemies of fundamentalist Islam.

Lead prosecutor Frits van Straelen told the court Bouyeri would kill again unless he is locked up for life.

Yeah. That will really deter the other morons, too.

"The accused preaches a message of hate and violence," Van Straelen said. "He preaches that anyone who thinks differently can be killed ... He is and remains a danger to our society."
(Thanks to AP and Yahoo!News.)

Bollocks! British Bombers Bourgeois Bios Baffle the Banausic!

Well, well, well. Nice, educated, middle class British Moslems blew themselves up and slaughtered dozens of innocent commuters. So much for the Poverty Causes Terrorism Theory.

Police removed materials from tidy single-family houses Wednesday in this northern city that is home to a large Muslim community, searching for evidence in the neighborhoods where three of the four suspected London suicide bombers lived. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that a fifth suspect is being sought, citing unidentified sources. Police refused to comment.

In a series of raids on six residences Tuesday, police hunted for explosives and computer files that could lead to the mastermind behind what were believed to be the first suicide bombings in Western Europe. They arrested a man, identified by the British news agency Press Association as a relative of one of the suspected bombers.

At least three Britons of Pakistani descent are suspected of carrying out the July 7 attacks that killed 52 and injured 700. Surveillance cameras captured the men as they arrived in the capital 20 minutes before the explosions began.

News reports have identified three of the four as Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old cricket-loving sports science graduate; Hasib Hussain, 19; and Mohammed Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old father of an 8-month-old baby. Press Association, citing police sources, said police had identified the fourth suspect, but no name was reported.

Police have not publicly confirmed any of the identities. Investigators will now have to determine whether the men acted alone — or had help in planning the bombings.

Tanweer's uncle, Bashir Ahmed, said his nephew had gone to Pakistan earlier this year to study religion, and that the family believed he was attending "some religious function" on the day of the bombings.

"It was total shock, I mean, it's unbelievable," Ahmed told reporters.
"Our lives have been shattered. It's impossible to describe it. We have had a very pleasant time here. I don't think we can continue here."

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair met with British Muslim lawmakers and pledged to open dialogue to tackle a "perverted and poisonous misinterpretation" of Islam. He also said his government would begin consultations on new anti-terrorism legislation.

Addressing the House of Commons, Blair said the government also would look urgently at how to strengthen the process for excluding from the United Kingdom those who incite hatred and make it easier to deport such people.

Neighbors of Tanweer in Leeds' rows of Victorian-era red brick houses were apprehensive and hostile, walking fast past reporters gathered at the cordons. One warehouse worker, who would only give his first name, Saj, said Tanweer was a "good lad" and athlete.

"He was quiet," he said. "He was religious. He went to every mosque here. There are loads of mosques here."

Press Association said the men had driven a rental car to Luton, 30 miles north of London, and then boarded a commuter train to London's King's Cross station. Police closed Luton's train station Tuesday and carried out nine controlled explosions on a parked car, which the BBC reported contained explosives.

Closed-circuit TV video showed all four men arriving at King's Cross by 8:30 a.m. on July 7, about 20 minutes before the blasts began, said Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch.

U.S. intelligence agencies are checking the names of the men against their databases looking for any U.S. connection, President Bush told chief executives Tuesday at the White House.

Two militant Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Although police stopped short of calling them suicide attacks, Clarke said "strong forensic and other evidence" suggests one of the suspects was killed in a subway bombing and property belonging to the three others was found at the sites of the other blasts.

Bad ideology causes terrorism. Moslems around the world must cleanse their religion of these anti-human beliefs.

And soon.

FREE AAGE BJERRE!

Pizzeria owner jailed for refusing to serve French, German tourists in Iraq protest
(Thanks to Yahoo!News and KRON4.com.)

A Danish pizzeria owner has been jailed for refusing to serve French and German tourists in protest of their countries' opposition to the U-S-led war in Iraq.

A Danish court found the owner (Aage Bjerre) guilty of discrimination and fined him nine-hundred dollars. He refused to pay, and will now serve an eight-day sentence.

He tells The Associated Press that eight days "is a small price to pay" compared to those who serve in Iraq.

Amen to that, brother.

Germans and French were barred from the pizzeria after two signs were posted in February of 2003.

The pizza maker says he has received hundreds of fan letters from the United States, but had to sell the pizzeria after repeated vandalism and a large drop in sales.

I don't know about you, gentle reader, but my town could definitely use a pizza place owned by genuine freedom fighter. Speaking as an eater proud of his Italian heritage, I say "Bring on the Danish pizza!"

Aage Bjerre's Web page is here.
Sign his Guest Book here. (Be sure to read the idiots' comments attacking Mr. Bjerre as well as the good ones.)