Now that's scary.

The Masturbator of Horror is a pinko. Big surprise.

From Nerve.com:

Stephen King launching left-wing radio talk show

Author Stephen King, who has redefined prolific, is also a radio-station owner in Maine, and speaking at a press conference at his homebase in Bangor the other day, the Zone Radio Corp owner announced the launch, September 12, of a new drivetime talk show, The Pulse Morning Show, that will air six to ten a.m. on weekdays, as well as online at zoneradio.com. King said, "We're a little to the left, but we're right."

What sounds like Maine's own version of Air America will be hosted by former journalist and Green Party vice-presidential candidate Pat LaMarche, and former reporter Don Cookson. Judging by the press conference, LaMarche will do most of the talking, with Cookson occasionally chiming in. The show will have a humorous bent, and look to counterbalance the conservative leanings of other Maine stations. LaMarche said the show will have an eye towards politicians and public officials in Washington D.C. and Augusta who push around Mainers, especially regarding welfare recipients.

Sounding like the folksy "Uncle Stevie" you know, King said "We'd like to burn some feet once in a while — make some people a little bit angry. There are some people who deserve to be taken to the woodshed from time to time." Summing up the mission, King told reporters, "We're going to try to be informative. We're going to be provocative. We're going to be amusing and we're going to try to be a positive community force."

Jerry Leiber, Requiescat In Pace.

From the Mercury News:

Songwriter Jerry Leiber ('Hound Dog,' 'Stand By Me') dies at 78

Jerry Leiber, who with longtime partner Mike Stoller wrote "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Yakity Yak" and other hit songs that came to define early rock 'n' roll, has died. He was 78.

His death was confirmed Monday by his longtime publicist, Bobbi Marcus.

With Leiber as lyricist and Stoller as composer, the team channeled their blues and jazz backgrounds into pop songs performed by such artists as Elvis Presley, Dion and the Belmonts, the Coasters, the Drifters and Ben E. King in a way that would help create a joyous new musical style.

From their breakout hit, blues great Big Mama Thornton's 1953 rendition of "Hound Dog," until their songwriting took a more serious turn in 1969 with Peggy Lee's recording of "Is That All There Is?" the pair remained one of the most successful teams in pop music history.

Their writing prowess and influence over the recording industry as pioneering independent producers earned them induction into the non-performer category of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

"The music world lost today one of its greatest poet laureates," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Over their career, they had 15 No. 1 hits in a variety of genres by 10 different artists. They were instrumental in helping launch Presley's career with such songs as "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock."

Nick Ashford, Requiescat In Pace.

From the UK Telegraph:

Nick Ashford, Motown legend, dies aged 69 from throat cancer

Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, has died at the age of 69 from throat cancer.

Over nearly five decades, Ashford and his wife Valerie Simpson wrote songs including Motown classics Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand (recorded by Ross) and You're All I Need To Get By (made famous by Gaye and Tammi Terrell) and they also wrote pop hits such as I'm Every Woman, which was a hit for Chaka Khan and, later, Whitney Houston. They also wrote the wonderful catchy soul song Destination Anywhere.

The pair also had success writing for themselves, with perhaps the biggest known hit sung by being the 1980s hit Solid As A Rock.

Ashford's father, Calvin, was a construction worker and Nick got his musical start at Willow Run Baptist Church, singing and writing songs for the gospel choir. He briefly attended Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti, before heading to New York, where he tried but failed to find success as a dancer. In 1964, while homeless, Ashford went to White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, where he met Simpson, a 17-year-old recent high school graduate from South Carolina, who was studying music. They began writing songs together, selling the first bunch for $64.

Their first major success occurred when they came up with Let's Go Get Stoned for Ray Charles. That song became a huge hit, and soon, they came to the attention of Motown Records and began penning hits for their artists. They started out writing for Gaye and Terrell; in fact, Ain't No Mountain High Enough was originally their hit, until Ross later re-recorded it and made it her signature song.

The duo, who were married for 38 years, helped sell millions of records for several artists. They also had success as their own entity, but despite Solid As a Rock their hits dwarfed those that they penned for others.

In recent years, the pair continued to perform. They also were owners of the New York City restaurant Sugar Bar, where many top names and emerging talents would put on showcases.

Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire said: “They had magic, and that’s what creates those wonderful hits, that magic. Without those songs, those artists wouldn’t have been able to go to the next level.”

Among the other artists who had hits with their songs were Gladys Knight and the Pips (Didn’t You Know You’d Have to Cry Sometime) and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (Who’s Gonna Take the Blame).

Recently, they received a songwriting credit on Amy Winehouse’s song Tears Dry on Their Own, which contains a sample from Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

Ashford is survived by his wife and two daughters Nicole and Asia.

Some commie cow you've never heard of pumps hot lead into the head of public discourse.

From The Blaze.com

Rep. Frederica Wilson: ‘The Real Enemy is the Tea Party

Last night at a town hall meeting in Miami sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, the subject was supposed to be jobs, but Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D- FL) turned it to partisan politics and told assembled job seekers:

“Let us all remember who the real enemy is… the real enemy is the Tea Party… the Tea Party holds the Congress hostage.”

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, herself known for vitriolic anti-Tea Party rhetoric, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson were also present at the town hall. The stated intent of the gathering was to hold a preview discussion of a mega jobs fair in Miami held today.

At least one citizen, an older woman, walked out of the meeting last night in disgust and told CBS 4 News:

“We expected more than this. We did not come here for politics, we came here for solutions.”

Remember that every time you vote, madam.

Watch Congresswoman Wilson explain her theory about halfway through the clip, courtesy of CBS

Somebody must have taken Marxine Waters off the Thorazine.

Rep. Maxine Waters says "Tea Party can go straight to hell"

Rep. Maxine Waters, the liberal lawmaker from southern California, continued to press for Democrats and President Obama to adopt a more combative style ...

- cbsnews.com

Another victory in the war against the baby choppers.

From Fox News:

Planned Parenthood to End Abortion Services in Three Arizona Cities

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Planned Parenthood is ending abortion services in three Arizona cities to comply with recent state laws that placed restrictions on abortions, the organization announced Thursday.

Starting Friday, women will no longer be able to terminate their pregnancies at the Planned Parenthood clinics in Prescott Valley, Flagstaff and Yuma that offered abortion through medication. Women can still receive surgical and medication abortions in the Tucson and Phoenix areas, but will those services will cease at some suburban locations.

"I think we've really done women a disservice in all parts of the state by imposing rules that have no medical significance and just creating barriers," said Bryan Howard, president of Planned Parenthood of Arizona.

The move came a week after an Arizona a state appeals court allowed key parts of a 2009 state law restricting abortions to take effect. That includes a requirement that women see a doctor in person the day before getting an abortion to hear about risks and alternatives, and allowing health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions for moral or religious reasons.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled the provisions constitutional and said they do not put an undue burden on women seeking to end their pregnancies.

Howard said the group likely will appeal the ruling to the Arizona Supreme Court but believed it was broad enough to impact a separate challenge over 2011 laws regarding abortion. Planned Parenthood withdrew a request for a preliminary injunction in that case ahead of a Sept. 12 hearing, Howard said.

But Howard said he was unclear whether provisions of the 2011 law that prohibit nurse practitioners from performing medication abortions would go into effect immediately but decided to scale back abortion services anyway. Flagstaff, for example, has only a nurse practitioner who performs abortions.

Dave Cole, solicitor general for the state attorney general's office, said it would defer to the judge in the case on when the laws are enacted.

The Arizona laws are part of a wave of restrictions that legislatures across the country have passed, reducing access to abortions. Other measures include bans on late-term abortions and preventing coverage in new insurance exchanges. More than half of U.S. states require waiting periods for abortions -- typically 24 hours, while a larger number require some type of counseling beforehand, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Kansas, two abortion providers are challenging new regulations for hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices performing five or more elective abortions a month. A North Dakota law, also being challenged, would prevent the state's only abortion clinic from performing medication abortions. Funding for Planned Parenthood is also under attack in some states.

Preventative care will be more important than ever in Arizona now that women, particularly in the northern part of the state, will have to drive farther to reach abortion clinics if that's what they choose, Howard said.

Penguins Update.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The Kid gets another opinion

Sidney Crosby has visited specialists in Michigan and Georgia to learn what continues to cause a recurrence of headaches.

Kovacevic: Silence deafening

The waiting goes on for firm news about Sidney Crosby's status, and it's not just the fans' waiting. It's the Penguins, too. (2011-08-24)

Pens await news on star Crosby

Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux and coach Dan Bylsma said this week they communicated recently with team captain Sidney Crosby. (2011-08-24)

Lemieux, Bylsma cautiously optimistic about Crosby

Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux and coach Dan Bylsma said this morning they communicated recently with team captain Sidney Crosby and expressed cautious optimism that he will be ready for the start of training camp next month. (2011-08-23)

Stop me if you've heard this one UPDATE.

Odds of your child dying in a car accident are 1 in 23,000.
1 in 6 Americans lives in poverty.
1 in 6 American kids is starving.
1 in 9 elderly Americans is abused.
36,000 Americans die annually from the flu.
12,000 Americans die annually from the flu.
1 in 160 American kids is born with autism.
1 in 150 American kids is born with autism.
1 in 110 American kids is born with autism.
60 million American adults are obese.
1 in 4 girls is sexually abused by age 18.
1 in 6 boys is sexually abused by age 18.

Plaiggunner Joe worries there won't be enough Chinese slaves available to prop up the second Okhrana term.

The second most powerful racist stooge in America wants more coolies to be bred...RIGHT NOW.





America's Vice Viceident is merely displaying the bloodthirsty reasoning that is typical of the elitist establishment everywhere and always: People are the property of their moral and intellectual superiors.

From The Weekly Standard:

Joe Biden: 'I Fully Understand' China's One Child Policy

Good news, reproductive rights advocates and neo-Malthusian environmentalists! Vice President Joe Biden has no problem with the government forcibly sterilizing people and compelling abortions. From his remarks at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China yesterday discussing the U.S. debt:

What we ended up doing is setting up a system whereby we did cut by $1.2 trillion upfront, the deficit over the next 10 years. And we set up a group of senators that have to come up with another $1.2 to $1.7 trillion in savings or automatically there will be cuts that go into effect in January to get those savings. So the savings will be accomplished. But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China. You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I’m not second-guessing -- of one child per family. The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.

So hopefully we can act in a way on a problem that's much less severe than yours, and maybe we can learn together from how we can do that.

It's perfectly understandable that you let the government tell you how many children you could have if that helps get the debt under control, right? Republicans better get together and compromise on the president's grand bargain sometime soon, or else.

EXTENDED VIDEO: Biden Won't 'Second Guess' Chinese One Child Policy

Romney Jumps on Biden Remark About China’s One-Child Policy -blogs.wsj.com

Joe Biden slammed after declaring he 'understands’ China ... -telegraph.co.uk

SEX IS DEATH. (Gee, officer, I just wanted to get laid.)

I came to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lusts. I had not yet fallen in love, but I was in love with the idea of it, and this feeling that something was missing made me despise myself for not being more anxious to satisfy the need. I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something. —St. Augustine, Confessions

What's all the fuss about, kiddies? These are just botched abortions that cut out the middle man.

From the NIH:

Homicide: A Leading Cause of Injury Deaths Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in the United States, 1991–1999

Jeani Chang, MPH, Cynthia J. Berg, MD, MPH, Linda E. Saltzman, PhD, and Joy Herndon, MS

Jeani Chang, Cynthia J. Berg, and Joy Herndon are with the Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. Linda E. Saltzman is with the Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

• Other Sections▼

Abstract

Objectives. We identified risk factors for pregnancy-associated homicide (women who died as a result of homicide during or within 1 year of pregnancy) in the United States from 1991 to 1999.

Methods. Pregnancy-associated homicides were analyzed with data from the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Results. Six hundred seventeen (8.4%) homicide deaths were reported to the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System. The pregnancy-associated homicide ratio was 1.7 per 100000 live births. Risk factors included age younger than 20 years, Black race, and late or no prenatal care. Firearms were the leading mechanism for homicide (56.6%).

Conclusions. Homicide is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated injury deaths.

• Other Sections▼

Although the pregnancy-related mortality ratio, defined as the number of deaths caused by pregnancy complications per 100 000 live births, has remained relatively unchanged in the United States over the past 20 years, the number of injury-related deaths during pregnancy and the postpartum period is being increasingly recognized and studied, particularly deaths caused by homicide. In 1999, homicide was the third leading cause of injury-related death for all women (pregnant or not pregnant) of reproductive age, 15 to 44 years of age, after deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents and suicide, and it was the second leading cause of injury-related death among women aged 15 to 24 years and among Black women of reproductive age.1 Moracco and Runyan reported the highest homicide rate occurring among women under the age of 35 and found that the homicide rate for Black women (15.8 per 100 000) was more than 3 times higher than that for White women (4.3 per 100 000).2

Several state- and city-based studies have recently reported that homicide is a leading cause of death during pregnancy and in the postpartum period.3–9 One inner-city hospital study indicated that homicide has become the leading cause of death during or within 90 days of the end of pregnancy.10 However, studies have not been conducted at the national or regional level that focus on the identification of risk factors for and groups at high risk of homicide during pregnancy or in the postpartum period. Our report describes homicide deaths occurring during or within 1 year of pregnancy in the United States from 1991 through 1999. We used a national, population-based data set to identify characteristics and risk factors associated with these deaths.

At least one man is willing to stand up to Slave China, and it isn't Dumbo the Presiphant.*

From AP via Yahoo! News:

Senator: Fighter jet deal with Taiwan might bypass Obama

Congress may be able to approve the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan even if President Barack Obama should object, a Republican senator said Tuesday.

The United States is legally required to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons. However, authorizing the multibillion-dollar, long-pending sale of the 66 planes would anger China, which regards the self-governing island as part of its territory.

The Obama administration is due to give its decision on the deal by Oct. 1. Lawmakers and analysts in both Taiwan and Washington widely anticipate that the administration will opt to upgrade Taiwan's existing fleet of F-16s, rather than sell the new, more advanced planes that the island has been seeking for several years.

The Pentagon spokeswoman for Asia-Pacific security affairs, Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, said Tuesday that no decisions have been made on potential arms sales to Taiwan and that the department does not comment on potential weapons systems for foreign military sales.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who spoke to reporters by conference call after touring the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth, said not approving the sale of new planes would be a blow for a crucial U.S. ally and could cost 2,300 jobs at the factory.

An amendment to the defense authorization bill could be introduced on the Senate floor, likely in October or November, to approve Taiwan's request, Cornyn said. If such an amendment were approved by Congress, Obama still would have the right of veto, but exercising it would mean scuttling approval for a wide array of defense programs.

In May, nearly half of the Democrat-led Senate sent a letter urging Obama to authorize the deal. There is likely even broader support in the Republican-controlled House.

Giving the green light would set back Obama's efforts to cultivate a stable, cooperative relationship with China, which has reacted to previous arms sales to Taiwan by cutting military ties with the U.S.

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has forged closer ties with Beijing, reducing tensions across the Taiwan Strait to their lowest in six decades. But Ma, who faces re-election next year, sees the F-16s as a way of improving Taiwan's negotiating position with the communist government on the mainland.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949.

* An Asian presiphant, of course. An African presiphant would be racist.

Natalie Munroe's brilliant plan to rid her classroom of kids who don't want to learn continues apace.

From AP via Yahoo! News:

Student ranks thinning for teacher who called students 'dim'

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — More than 200 parents have told a Pennsylvania school district they don't want their children taught by a teacher who called students "frightfully dim" and "disengaged, lazy whiners" on her personal blog.

Central Bucks East High School Superintendent Robert Laws say he expects the district to get "a lot more requests" from parents who want to keep their children away from English teacher Natalie Munroe.

The Doylestown Intelligencer reports 62 requests came from parents whose children were scheduled to be in Munroe's classes. District officials had estimated Munroe would have 90 students in her three classes.

Munroe was suspended in February after district officials learned of her blog.

Laws says a substitute will likely be hired to take on the students who won't be taught by Monroe. Classes begin Tuesday.

Rising from the fever swamps of left-fascism like a slime covered troll, it's an unfunny and unattractive racist moron.

Mistus Janeane done got herself all riled up 'cause of some uppity negro who dared to leave the Democrass plantation.

Garofalo: Herman Cain Has ‘Stockholm Syndrome’
by Bob Parks of Canada Free Press ["...Because without America there is no Free World"]

Nothing much has changed when it comes to my opinion of Janeane Garofalo.

Mr. Cain doesn’t need help responding to Garofalo (as responding to an irrelevant comedienne wouldn’t be presidential), but seeing how Garofalo feels she can tell blacks to whom they can freely and Constitutionally associate with, as well as how they should vote, maybe she woke up in the wrong century.

I have one question for Ms. Garofalo:

f the Democrat Party has done so well for blacks over the last half century (because before that, they proudly killed black people), why every two years do they have to remind their representatives not to take the black vote for granted? Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus within the last couple of days were asking President Obama why his campaign bus “listening” tour was avoiding black communities?

Democrats clearly use blacks for votes and make promises they have no intention of keeping. All they ever come back with is how racist the Republicans are, vote for the Democrat, and they don’t do ##### except for repeat this script two years later.

Exactly what has improved in the black community?

(That was a rhetorical as I don’t think Janeane frequents the Hood all that much.)

Is it Stockholm Syndrome to want your family to escape generational failed schools in drug-infested, crime-ridden neighborhoods where there haven’t been jobs in a few decades? Apparently that’s where people like Janeane Garofalo insist we stay and anyone who wishes to leave will incur her wrath.

Garofalo believes she’s so intelligent but she wades in her own ignorance. As I wrote in my previous commentary on her and Hollywood, blacks experience more racism in her circles than they ever do around conservatives. Liberals still believe blacks are too stupid to get ahead on their own and need an Affirmative Action boost. I work for a conservative who doesn’t believe in Affirmative Action which means I got the job because I was the best available, not just because I’m black.

I don’t consider myself a spokesperson for has-been celebrities so I don’t speak for them. It’s clear Garofalo believes she speaks for all of us thus she has a superiority complex when it comes to black people.

She doesn’t so she shouldn’t.

The war against non-moderate mohammedans continues on the home front.

From AP via Yahoo! News:

With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in Muslim areas

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Police Department has become one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies, targeting ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The operations have benefited from unprecedented help from the CIA, a partnership that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying.

The department has dispatched undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

Neither the city council, which finances the department, nor the federal government, which has given NYPD more than $1.6 billion since 9/11, is told exactly what's going on.

Many of these operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit.

A veteran CIA officer, while still on the agency's payroll, was the architect of the NYPD's intelligence programs. The CIA trained a police detective at the Farm, the agency's spy school in Virginia, then returned him to New York, where he put his new espionage skills to work inside the United States.

And just last month, the CIA sent a senior officer to work as a clandestine operative inside police headquarters.

The NYPD denied that it trolls ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. Police operations have disrupted terrorist plots and put several would-be killers in prison.

"The New York Police Department is doing everything it can to make sure there's not another 9/11 here and that more innocent New Yorkers are not killed by terrorists," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. "And we have nothing to apologize for in that regard." AP's investigation is based on documents and interviews with more than 40 current and former New York Police Department and federal officials. Many were directly involved in planning and carrying out these secret operations for the department. Though most said the tactics were appropriate and made the city safer, many insisted on anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak with reporters about security matters.

In response to the story, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil rights organization, called on the Justice Department to investigate. The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

"This is potentially illegal what they're doing," said Gadeir Abbas, a staff attorney with the organization.

After the terrorist attacks, New York hired retired CIA official David Cohen to transform its intelligence division.

Among Cohen's earliest moves at the NYPD was asking for help from his old CIA colleagues. He needed someone who had access to the latest intelligence so the NYPD wouldn't have to rely on the FBI to dole out information.

CIA Director George Tenet dispatched Larry Sanchez, a respected CIA veteran, to New York while Sanchez was still on the CIA payroll, three former intelligence officials said. Sanchez directed and mentored officers, schooling them in the art of gathering information, officials said.

There had never been an arrangement like it, and some senior CIA officials soon began questioning whether Tenet was allowing Sanchez to operate on both sides of the wall that's supposed to keep the CIA out of the domestic intelligence business.

"It should not be a surprise to anyone that, after 9/11, the Central Intelligence Agency stepped up its cooperation with law enforcement on counterterrorism issues or that some of that increased cooperation was in New York, the site of ground zero," CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said.

Cohen also persuaded a federal judge to loosen rules and allow police to open investigations before there's any indication a crime has been committed.

With that newfound authority, Cohen created a secret squad that would soon infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods, according to several current and former officials directly involved in the program.

The NYPD assigned undercover officers to monitor neighborhoods, looking for potential trouble. Using census data, police matched undercover officers to ethnic communities and instructed them to blend in, the officials said. They hung out in hookah bars and cafes, quietly observing the community around them.

The unit, which has been undisclosed until now, became known inside the department as the Demographic Unit, former police officials said.

"It's not a question of profiling. It's a question of going where the problem could arise," said Mordecai Dzikansky, a retired NYPD intelligence officer who said he was aware of the Demographic Unit. "And thank God we have the capability. We have the language capability and the ethnic officers. That's our hidden weapon."

Cohen said he wanted the squad to "rake the coals, looking for hot spots," former officials recalled. The undercover officers soon became known inside the department as rakers.

For years, detectives also used informants known as mosque crawlers to monitor weekly sermons and report what was said, several current and former officials directly involved in the informant program said. If FBI agents were to do that, they would be in violation of the Privacy Act, which prohibits the federal government from collecting intelligence on purely First Amendment activities.

Browne, the NYPD spokesman, flatly denied the accounts of mosque crawlers and rakers. He said the NYPD only uses undercover officers and informants to follow leads, not to target ethnic neighborhoods.

"We will go into a location, whether it's a mosque or a bookstore, if the lead warrants it, and at least establish whether there's something that requires more attention," Browne said.

Last month, the CIA deepened its ties to the NYPD. It sent one of its most senior spies to New York to work out of police headquarters, on the CIA payroll. He is a special assistant in the intelligence division but U.S. officials said he is not doing intelligence-gathering. His name remains classified.

"It's like starting the CIA over in the post-9/11 world," Cohen said in "Protecting the City," a laudatory 2009 book about the NYPD. "What would you do if you could begin it all over again? Hah. This is what you would do."

Waging war on the image of a man of peace, or, He's dead. What can he do to us now?

From USA Survival News [Hey, don't blame me. If the AmericaLast media did their job properly you could read about this outrage everywhere.]:

Communist-created Statue to Honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Cliff Kincaid

With President Obama preparing to preside over the official unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the last thing the administration needs is a controversy over the “Made in China” label for the 30-foot structure. But the shocking truth, known for many years, is beginning to be picked up by some media outlets as the special event approaches. The project in honor of the American civil rights figure was “outsourced” to Lei Yixin, a Chinese government-approved sculptor best known for creating edifices glorifying Mao Tse-Tung, father of Communist China and notorious mass-murderer.

The 4 acres of land for the memorial were granted by Congress and $10 million of the $120 million cost came from U.S. taxpayers. A law authorizing the memorial was signed by President Clinton in 1996. Ironically, the $10 million in federal funding was in a 2005 appropriations amendment co-sponsored by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Communist sculpture and King statue

On Sunday, August 28, 2011, the 48th anniversary of King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Obama will deliver remarks at the memorial dedication on the National Mall. The White House says the memorial “will commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contributions to world peace through non-violent social change.”

Mao, in a 1968 official Chinese government pamphlet, declared that King had been “assassinated by the U.S. imperialists” and that they had “killed him in cold blood.”

These statements were featured in a published “Statement by Comrade Mao Tse-Tung, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, In support of the Afro-American Struggle Against Violent Repression.”

“So this is what we’ve come to. Our national memorials are now being made in China,” commented one blogger. The London Telegraph said, “Critics have openly asked why a black, or at least an American, artist was not chosen and even remarked that Dr. King appears slightly Asian in Mr. Lei’s rendering.” Other observers agreed, with one noting, “King looks half Chinese in the sculpture. 1000 years from now that is what people will think.”

On Monday’s “NBC Nightly News,” however, anchor Brian Williams aired a “Lasting Legacy” story about the opening of the monument to the public without mention of any controversy. The omission may have something to do with the fact that NBC Universal was one of the financial contributors to the memorial. Other contributors include CBS and the government of South Africa.

Many public and political figures and business executives provided the leadership for the process of building a national memorial honoring King. A “Donor’s Wall” will recognize “high level” ($1,000,000 and above) donors.

But sculpter Gilbert Young, a world renowned black artist known for African American art, had formed a group, When King Is Ours, which was designed, in his words, to protest “the appointment of a communist Chinese artist, famous for glorifying the mass murderer Mao Zedong,” to do the King monument. He also complained that the project was using slave labor.

Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in a Chinese prison, protested the choice, while Ann Lau, chair of the Visual Artists Guild, said, “Lei’s selection is as inappropriate as to have hired Leni Riefenstahl, the notorious Nazi propagandist film director, to direct a film biography of Simon Wiesenthal,” the Nazi hunter.

A petition launched by Young declared, “The planned monument to our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been awarded to an artist from a country with a reprehensible history of civil rights violations against its people. The granite to be used for King's sculpture will be harvested using slave labor--Chinese workers are not even provided masks to protect their lungs from the silica dust. They die in droves because the Chinese government considers them just as important as the students who protested in Tiananmen Square. The world watched the tanks roll over them. No human rights, No civil rights, and yet the honor of sculpting Dr. Martin Luther King? Not on our watch.”

The petition declared, “King is OUR national treasure. We will not have an artist famous for his statues of the murderer Mao Tse Tung, and tool of a government that labeled King a ‘reactionary running dog,’ sculpting the King Monument. Would we allow an artist famous for his statues of Hitler to sculpt Ann Frank? Combine these facts with another: There is not ONE national monument to a leader of any country anywhere on this planet with the name of an African American artist on its base. We protest. And we demand the right to interpret and present our own historic proclamation in this first ever national monument to an African American man.”

In a plea to potential sponsors of the memorial, Young said, “Here was the opportunity for a national monument to a Black man in Washington D.C., to be created, developed, designed, and executed by the best that African America arts and culture and development has to offer, a testament to all our own achievements as Black people who benefited from the Civil Rights Movement.”

Damn! That sucka is straight out of Pyongyang, homey!

The California NAACP in 2007 passed a resolution declaring, in part:

“Whereas, The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation has chosen to outsource the production of the monument to Dr. King to the People’s Republic of China, the country with the worst record of human rights violations and civil rights abuses in the world, which is an affront to the ideal of human dignity…

“Whereas, The Foundation has chosen to employ as Artist-of-Record, Lei Yixin, an artist from the People’s Republic of China, who is renowned for his many sculptures and busts glorifying Mao Zedong, murder of 70 million innocent Chinese, which is in direct opposition to Dr. King’s philosophy and to the ideal of positive social change throughout the world…

“Be it finally resolved, that the California State Conference of the NAACP demands that the King Memorial Project Foundation name an African American artistic team as Artists-of-Record for the monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and that an oversight committee be created to enforce these resolutions.”

In Vermont, a major source of U.S. granite, granite manufacturers and labor unions condemned the decision to allow the monument to be created using stone quarried and carved in China by laborers working in deadly conditions for wages that amount to less than $2 per day.

According to one report, “Vermont's congressional delegation — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, independent Sen. Bernard Sanders and Democratic Rep. Peter Welch — wrote to Harry Johnson Sr., the president and chief executive officer of the [Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.] in 2007 pressing him to use American granite instead of imported stone because ‘this great American monument should be built with American products.’”

Sanders settled for a pledge to use American products in other parts of the memorial.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts “found that the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries,” noted Thomas E. Luebke, commission secretary. The term “socialist realism” refers to a form of “art” first introduced in the Soviet Union that was used for propaganda purposes and to highlight communist leaders as heroic.

The King sculpture is 30 feet tall and shows him in a confrontational pose, with his arms crossed.

However, Jesse Jackson, a former aide to King, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus were given a special tour of the memorial and they have expressed no public criticism of the project. Jackson will be speaking at the ceremony on Sunday.

An indication of what Jackson may say came in a recent interview on MSNBC, where he said that King would be “very mindful of the foes of President Obama, those that in fact attack him relentlessly, as he used his powers to stop the hemorrhaging of 100,000 jobs a month.” Jackson also claimed that King would be a champion of homosexual rights.

Please ignore the goat rapists behind the machine guns.

Optimism and triumphalism reign at The "Christian Science" Monitor:

Why the West need not fear Libya's Islamic warriors

Golly, that's an optimistic headline.

Many Libyan rebels are devout Muslims; some have even supported Al Qaeda against US troops abroad. But Western support has raised their opinion of the US.

Right! How could I forget? Nobody ever turns on the people who give them guns.

Clad in combat fatigues, Abdel Karim Hasadi relaxes in the lobby of Derna’s opulent Pearl Hotel. The devout Muslim schoolteacher-turned-rebel commander is at ease with his emerging status as the leading figure in a city with a long and important history of Islamic piety.

But the rise of men like him is making Western officials uncomfortable. NATO Adm. James Stavridis warned last month of “flickers” of Al Qaeda in the uprising against Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, and a 2008 US diplomatic cable called the city of Derna a “wellspring” for anti-American fighters in Iraq.

Indeed, a strong current of Islamic fundamentalism runs through this Mediterranean city in Libya’s rebel-held east; many of its young men did go to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight US troops. And while Derna has a population of only 100,000, its influence extends throughout the country, giving the West pause about whether a post-Qaddafi Libya could be colored by Islamist fundamentalism.

But many Libyans say this holy city will pose a threat only if Qaddafi is able to once again brutally suppress this uprising the way he did a smaller one in the late 1990s.

Mr. Hasadi dismisses the idea that Al Qaeda will somehow take root amid the Libyan unrest.

“I thought badly of the US before, that’s true,” says Hasadi. “But that’s changing now – they’re standing with us against Qaddafi.”

He says jitters about pious fighters from Derna seeking to impose on Libya the harsh brand of Islamist rule favored by Al Qaeda just play into Qaddafi’s hands.

“Qaddafi likes to try to make us out to be Al Qaeda, to discredit us,” says Hasadi. “What do I want? Three basic rights: a constitution, freedom, justice. No more one-man rule. Is that what Al Qaeda wants? Really, having a beard and being a Muslim doesn’t make you Al Qaeda.”

For the Libyan revolution’s rank and file, Islam is a central cultural fact of life. Fighters call themselves holy warriors and expect their reward to be heaven if they fall while fighting to oust Qaddafi. They also generally agree, when asked, that a future Libyan constitution should not violate stipulations of Islamic law.

But that doesn’t make them extremists, locals point out. In fact, it places them firmly in the mainstream of Libya and many other Arab countries.

Many in Libya do worry about Islamist militancy – but only if Qaddafi wins, not if he loses.

“If Qaddafi holds power and stamps out all legitimate political opposition, then many of the young might find Al Qaeda or things like that attractive,” says Abdel Kader Kadura, a law professor at Garyounis University in the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi. “They will feel they have no choice, [other than] turning to that or giving up.”

Indeed, many in Derna trace the city’s export of fighters to places like Iraq and Afghanistan back to Qaddafi’s repression, particularly in 1996, when tanks rolled into town to crush the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

“It started out with the Islamists in 1996. When you ignore people, oppress people, they turn to faith,” says Ashour bin Taher, a liberal-leaning Derna native working with the rebel council in the city. “The fighting was ugly and it lasted for months. And then Qaddafi just rounded up everyone. Islamists, liberals – it didn’t matter – you went to prison. That creates hatred.”

A 2008 US diplomatic cable put its finger on the problem: “Frustration at the inability of eastern Libyans to effectively challenge Qaddafi’s regime, together with a concerted ideological campaign by returned Libyan fighters from earlier conflicts, have played important roles” in turning locals to militancy, the US diplomat wrote. “One Libyan interlocutor likened young men in Derna to Bruce Willis’s character in the action picture ‘Die Hard,’ who stubbornly refused to die quietly. For them, resistance against coalition forces in Iraq is an important act of ‘jihad’ and a last act of defiance against the Qaddafi regime.”

Derna is deeply proud of its heritage of resistance – against the Phoenicians 1,400 years ago, against a US expeditionary force in 1804, against Italian colonialism in the 1920s, and later against Qaddafi.

It owes its history, in part, to its geography. About 800 miles east of Tripoli, it lies between Libya’s Green Mountains – historically a redoubt for rebels – and the Mediterranean Sea. The city’s founding myth is built around an expedition in the 7th century in which a small force of early Muslim companions of the prophet Muhammad came to wrest Derna from the hands of its Phoenician conquerors.

They were killed to the last man in the attempt, but the city’s main mosque is named for those early Muslim martyrs, and locals offer up their story freely when asked why they hate Qaddafi (though they also point out that he murdered and tortured residents more recently).

As for Hasadi, he is equal measures amused and exasperated at reports he fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, has plans to create an Islamic emirate in eastern Libya, or is now or has ever been a member of Al Qaeda. None of it is true, he says.

He calls the 9/11 attacks a “tragedy” and says, “we completely reject attacks on civilians.” But he supported Al Qaeda attacks on US troops in Iraq and in Afghanistan because, in his view, they were defending Muslims from US aggression. Now, he says, the standing of the United States has risen substantially in his eyes.

“It feels a little funny,” he says. “We all saw the [French] planes on Al Jazeera when they started [bombing Qaddafi’s positions weeks ago]. We were cheering them. We really have to thank [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy and Obama.”

Hasadi’s reputation as a devout Muslim who sees in his faith a call to confront oppression – along with his aura of competence – is at the core of his support here. But, as he tells it, he was a reluctant exile and never fought overseas (many news reports have said he’s a “veteran of fighting in Afghanistan” without providing details).

He fled in the late 1990s, first to Sudan and Jordan, but quickly left both countries because they routinely arrested men wanted by Qaddafi and sent them back to Libya. He sought European visas, but couldn’t get one. So he ended up in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, he says, where he lived the quiet life of an Arabic teacher.

Hasadi denies training with Al Qaeda or the Taliban. “All my military training was here, when I was in the Army in 1982,” he says. “Fighting against the US in Afghanistan? There was nothing for me to fight. All there were were airstrikes; I never saw a single American soldier. Then I left.

“Before, I was a peaceful man, I spoke my mind, but that was it. Qaddafi is the one who pushed me into the position of going to Afghanistan. He’s the one who made me a fighter now.”

Today, he sees the US as standing with the Muslim community of Libya, and says he has no ambition beyond the defeat of Qaddafi. What about foreign jihad?

“No, why would I? I just want to live in my country and teach,” he says. “People say the international community is after the oil? OK, take all of it. Just protect the people in return. The killing needs to be stopped.... That’s really all I want.”

Emperor Haile Unlikely surpasses Alexander The Great in military genius and wins World War III.

From The "Christian Science" Monitor:

Libya endgame nigh as rebels celebrate in Tripoli

Oops! How did a photo of the new Martin Luther King Jr. statue get in here?


Libya's endgame appears to be at hand, bringing to a climax an uprising against Muammar Qaddafi that just weeks ago appeared to be stalled by inexperience, disunity, and a lack of resources.

For months, Libya has been stalemated as rebels have surged forward, only to be pushed back by Qaddafi loyalists. But aided by NATO airstrikes and better organization, rebels have been steadily building momentum.

On Sunday, rebel groups fighting in the west of Libya linked up with armed protesters inside Tripoli and seized Green Square. They insist it has been renamed "Martyr's Square," and a street party was under way there, according to Sky News. CNN reported that at 4:30 am local time that any celebrations were over, and rebel troops controlled the square.

While Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's whereabouts are unknown, rebels have reportedly captured at least some of his sons. One of his eldest sons, Mohammed Qaddafi, was giving an interview to Al Jazeera at about 8:30 p.m. Eastern time saying he was in rebel custody when gunfire broke out in his home and the line was abruptly cut off.

While there are bound to be Qaddafi loyalists still about, it's hard to imagine a scenario where Qaddafi remains in power.

The story continues at the links below.

1 | 2 | 3

EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS EASTERN U.S. - TEA PARTY, BUSH, GLOBAL WARMING, AND GOD ARE BLAMED

From CNN:

Virginia earthquake rattles East Coast

A strong earthquake in Virginia shut down a nearby nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon and sent out seismic waves felt by millions from Georgia to northern New England. Three aftershocks were reported by Tuesday evening.

No major injuries or extensive damage were reported after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The quake prompted evacuations of office buildings and the precautionary closing of monuments in the nation's capital.

A surge in calls by cell-phone users after the event affected service in many areas, federal officials said.

Aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 2.2 were recorded later in the afternoon, followed by one of 4.2 just after 8 p.m. ET, officials said. More aftershocks are possible in the coming weeks.

"It's one of the largest that we've had there," U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said of the quake.

Most federal buildings in Washington had reopened by late Tuesday afternoon, but officials were taking all precautions before giving the all-clear to some of its most iconic structures. The U.S. Capitol was cleared for employees to come back to get their belongings, but inspectors asked people to limit their time inside the building while engineers continue to work around the complex.

A helicopter inspected the Washington Monument, and it was found to be structurally sound, the National Park Service said.

But a secondary inspection revealed cracking in the stones at the top of the monument. Structural engineers on Wednesday will determine the best way to repair the monument before it is reopened, the agency said. The grounds have been reopened except for an area about 100 feet outside the plaza.

Wherein Fyodor reviews a film and ruminates on the state of Dumbass Cinema.

What could have been an all-time great dumbass movie tries to be too cute. If only the guys who made it even pretended to take it more seriously, this would have been a classic.

Rubber (2010)

When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession.



Looks pretty darn dumbasstastic, doesn't it? Guess again.

You see, kiddies, the most important thing to remember in making a really great dumbass movie is this: The movie [and those who make it] must not know it's a dumbass movie, or at the very least, convince the audience that it was not intended to be a dumbass movie. The second ingredient for making a truly awesome dumbass movie is a certain lack of polish and sophistication. This brings us to Cowboys And Aliens. [See my post Dumbass movie alert!]

I should have known Senor Spielbergo, Ron Howard, et al. would fill the thing with millions of dollars worth of special effects and a plot. [That clown Roger Ebert lamented the presence of aliens in the picture and said it was a shame because it would have made a great Western. He went on to lament that Hollyweird doesn't make real Westerns anymore. Memo To Mr. Ebert: To make a real Western you need real men and women behind and in front of the camera...and in the audience. We ran out of those a couple of generations back. Hmmm...I wonder why...You know, that would be a great subject for a movie.]

The final thing you need to make a dumbass movie a classic of the genre is a bit of whimsey. You know, like the giant flying stone head in Zardoz or the colorful bad guys and Donald Pleasence's eyes in Escape From New York.

Rubber has ingredients two and three. It looks cheesy and what could be more whimsical than a murderous tire with telepathic powers? Sadly, the filmmakers' bludgeoning of the audience with the message "WE'RE REALLY HIP AND COOL AND SO ARE YOU BECAUSE THIS MOVIE IS A LAMEASS JOKE FROM BEGINNING TO END AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEFT ON THE PAGES OF THAT FILM SCHOOL NOTEBOOK AND EVERYBODY KNOWS IT."

It's sad, really. They probably had fun making the miserable thing. Too bad they couldn't let their audience have some fun too.

Fyodor's Rating: 1 cannolo [out of 5]

Hot For Teacher Update.

Isn't it interesting how differently these stories are treated when the victim is male?

From The Saginaw News:

Judge won't change venue of lawsuit against former teacher convicted of sex crimes with male student

A lawsuit filed by the male teenage victim of sex crimes by former Freeland High School teacher Marcie L. Rousseau will be heard in U.S. District Court here, and not in a courtroom in Flint or Detroit as requested by the teenager.

U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Tuesday ruled against the teenager’s motion for a change of venue. The plaintiff, now 18, stated in his May 5 lawsuit that he “wishes to pursue this action as far away from the glare of local media attention as possible.”

Ludington, however, stated in his ruling that the plaintiff’s contention that media coverage will decline after the case is transferred to Flint or Detroit is “speculation, and unsupported by the evidence (the) plaintiff himself has proffered.”

The judge also ruled that the fact the plaintiff lives in Saginaw County, and the fact his claim arose in Saginaw County “take priority in assignment of the case to a place of holding court.”

No trial date has been set in the case.

It isn’t immediately clear if Rousseau’s victim is still a student at Freeland High School, but he was at the time he filed his lawsuit against Rousseau, 34, now in prison for sex crimes with the student in Saginaw and Midland counties.

The victim was 16 at the time of the crimes. According to police reports, the student admitted having intercourse at least 100 times with Rousseau — and that the pair engaged in other sex acts at least 75 more times — between May 2009 and February of 2010.

His lawsuit seeks “something in excess of $1 million” for damages to the student, according to his attorney, Farmington Hills lawyer William R. Seikaly.

The victim states in his lawsuit that the relationship “was not consensual,” a claim Rousseau denies in her answer to his lawsuit.

He alleges Rousseau convinced him “that she was in love with him, wanted to marry him and was only sexually involved with him and no other.” The suit alleges Rousseau knew such representations were false and that she made them to seduce the youth.

Rousseau also denies those assertions.

Rousseau, the lawsuit claims, engaged in unprotected intercourse with the student on numerous occasions. The teenager claims he has suffered and continues to suffer “physical, psychological and emotional injury” because of Rousseau’s “sexual abuse” of him.

Rousseau likewise denies those claims.

The lawsuit names Rousseau, the Freeland Community School District, Freeland Superintendent Matthew A. Cairy, Freeland High School Principal Jonathan Good and former high school Assistant Principal J. Barry Weldon Jr. as defendants.

The suit alleges various community members many times brought to the attention of Cairy, Good and Weldon the “real possibility that Rousseau had engaged in inappropriate behavior with her students on multiple occasions.”

The teenager alleges the three administrators “neither completed a proper investigation nor reported the findings as they had a legal and ethical obligation to do.”

In their written answers to the lawsuit, Cairy, Good and Weldon deny those claims. Cairy and Good also maintain that whenever they received any complaints from community members about Rousseau, “said complaints were investigated in full without substantiating the concerns that were raised at that time.”

In court documents, psychiatrist Gerald A. Shiener states that as Freeland students, relatives and acquaintances of the victim become aware he is the plaintiff in the lawsuit, “there will be additional trauma to the (teenager) which will cause additional problems for him and likely delay attempts at recovery.”

Part 19: SEX IS DEATH. (Hot for teacher) is here.

Dr. Albert Brown, Requiescat In Pace.

World War II continues apace.

From Yahoo! News:

Oldest survivor of Bataan Death March dies at 105

A doctor once told Albert Brown he shouldn't expect to make it to 50, given the toll taken by his years in a Japanese labor camp during World War II and the infamous, often-deadly march that got him there. But the former dentist made it to 105, embodying the power of a positive spirit in the face of inordinate odds.

"Doc" Brown was nearly 40 in 1942 when he endured the Bataan Death March, a harrowing 65-mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to walk from Bataan province near Manila to a Japanese POW camp. As many as 11,000 died along the way. Many were denied food, water and medical care, and those who stumbled or fell during the scorching journey through Philippine jungles were stabbed, shot or beheaded.

But Brown survived and secretly documented it all, using a nub of a pencil to scrawl details into a tiny tablet he concealed in the lining of his canvas bag. He often wondered why captives so much younger and stronger perished, while he went on.

By the time he died Sunday at a nursing home in southern Illinois' Nashville, Brown's story was well-chronicled, by one author's account offering an encouraging road map for veterans recovering from their own wounds in many wars.

"Doc's story had as much relevance for today's wounded warriors as it did for the veterans of his own era," said Kevin Moore, co-author of the recently released "Forsaken Heroes of the Pacific War: One Man's True Story," which details Brown's experience.

"The underlying message for today's returning veterans is that there's hope, not to give in no matter how bleak the moment may seem," added Moore, whose nephew just returned from military duty in Afghanistan. "You will persevere and can find the promise of a new tomorrow, much like Doc had found."

Brown, recognized in 2007 at an annual convention of Bataan survivors as the oldest one still living, couldn't muster the strength to talk about his experiences until about 15 or so years ago, said his granddaughter, Susan Engelhardt of Pinckneyville, Ill.

"I'm not a big military buff at all. But just reading the story about the death march and the situation in the Philippines, it's an incredible story. And incredibly sad," Engelhardt said. "He's an incredible man, and he had an incredible legacy. He came through horrible times and came out on top, rebuilding his life. But so many of those men and women triumphed."

Brown's account described the torment that came about every mile as the marchers passed wells U.S. troops dug for natives but weren't allowed to drink from once they became prisoners. Filipinos who tried to throw fruit to the marchers frequently were killed.

Brown remained in a POW camp from early 1942 until mid-September 1945, living solely on rice. The once-athletic man — he lettered in baseball, football, basketball and track in high school — saw his weight whither by some 80 pounds to less than 100 by the time he was freed. Lice and disease were rampant.

Despite the hardships, Brown focused on bright spots, including a prisoner called on to fix Japanese soldiers' radios. The prisoner managed to steal radio parts, scraping together enough components to build a functioning unit of his own. Brown helped craft a listening tube for the device, which brought the captives news from San Francisco that the U.S. actually had won a battle the Japanese soldiers were celebrating as a naval victory.

"He had this incredible spirit to live and overcome," Moore said. "Positive thinking or whatever you call it, he survived."

Born in 1905 in North Platte, Neb., Brown was the godson of Wild West folk hero "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who often let the boy sit on his lap and tug his beard. Brown moved with his family to Council Bluffs, Iowa, after his father — a railroad engineer — died when a locomotive engine exploded.

He studied dentistry at Creighton University in the 1920s and was called to active duty in 1937, leaving behind a wife, children and a decade-old dental practice his war injuries prevented him from resuming.

By the time the war ended in 1945, the 40-year-old Brown was nearly blind, had weathered a broken back and neck and suffered through more than a dozen diseases including malaria, dysentery and dengue fever.

He took two years to mend, and a doctor told him to enjoy the next few years because he had been so decimated he would be dead by 50. But Brown soldiered on, moving to California, attending college again and renting out properties to the era's biggest Hollywood stars, including Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland. He became friends with John Wayne and Roy Rogers, doing some screen tests along the way.

"I think he had seen so much horror that after the war, he was determined to enjoy his life," Moore said.

More common sense from Kathleen Parker...

From the Albert Lea Tribune:

Public profanity has gotten worse

Column: A Little Sanity, by Kathleen Parker

Scene: An elevator in New York Presbyterian Hospital where several others and I were temporary hostages of a filthy-mouthed woman who was profanely berating her male companion. It wasn’t possible to discern whether he was her mate or her son, but his attire (baggy drawers) and insolent disposition seemed to suggest the latter.

Every other word out of the woman’s mouth was mother (you know what), presumably a coincidental reference to any familial relationship. Finally, she shared with us bystanders her belief that said MF would not be welcome in her house (Hark! Good news at last!) and that he could very well seek shelter at his “MF’ing” father’s house. Aha, family ties established.

At this point, in a variation of deus ex machina, the elevator doors opened and we, the numb majority, were able to escape our too-close quarters, but not the diatribe, which continued unabated down the hallway, through the exit and onto the sidewalk.

A few of us made eye contact and returned the stare of recognition common among hostages. The understood sentiment is helpless indignation. What, really, can one do under such circumstances?

It was comical in a way. Seven or eight adults standing at attention, eyes forward, pretending that nothing is amiss or untoward, figuring we’d just get through this and thanking the stars and the moon that no children were on board and that this woman would not much longer be part of our lives. Our better sense instructed us that interference would not be rewarded with contrition. But what if she had decided to punch him? Then what?

Her exit and our release were accepted with silent gratitude, but I have been fuming ever since because, though she was gone, she didn’t really exit our lives. She managed in those fleeting moments to make a mark, to alter our lives in some way. A vile invader, she made coarse and unlovely a period of time that was not her own. What gave her the right? And what about those other dozen or so people who dropped the F-word along those same hospital corridors as the hours passed?

I can’t claim virginity in these matters, I should confess. But the elevator incident was so profoundly unpleasant that I’ve done a little soul-searching. How easy it is to casually let slip a word without thinking how it makes others feel. Perhaps relevant to my sensitivity, I was in the hospital that day for the birth of my great-niece. There’s nothing like following the intimate miracle of childbirth to make one wish for a gentler world.

Public profanity is nothing new, of course, but it inarguably has gotten worse. It was hilarious (and shocking) in the 1970s when comedian George Carlin poked fun at our cultural aversion to the seven words you can’t say on television. His act now can be viewed as a period piece. We can say most anything anywhere now, and we do. Penalties may arise from behavior that accompanies foul language, but the words themselves are constitutionally protected. As they should be, I hasten to add. Like most Americans, I’m willing to have my sensibilities offended rather than surrender the freedoms that permit such offense.

Context is everything, and (non-obstetric) delivery matters. I attended a tea not long ago when the subject of Tiger Woods came up. A British woman, in her refined accent, said: “Oh, he’s such an ahs-hoal.” I told her we could use that word in any circumstance if only we pronounced it the way she did. Pinkies extended, all together now.

Let’s just say, the woman on the elevator had context and delivery issues. Her verbal fusillade may have been a random event, but her actions were neither singular nor disconnected from a broader range of cultural pathologies. Lack of civility in words bleeds into a lack of decency in behavior, and so it goes.

Good behavior is nothing but good manners, simply consideration of others. Recently out of vogue, manners get hauled out the way most people attend church — at Easter and Christmastime. But manners aren’t just gray-haired pretensions practiced by smug elites on special occasions. They are the daily tithes we willingly surrender to civilization.

A swear word here or there might not constitute the unraveling of society, but each one uttered in another’s involuntary presence is a tiny act of violence against kindness, of which we surely could use more.

From the Never-Ending Nonsense Department:

From Washington's other newspaper:

Never the Twain shall be censored - Kathleen Parker

While sorting through the perennial lip-pursing tempest about a certain word in Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” — the “N-word,” as we now say it — I turned for inspiration to the master himself.

“The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is . . . the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning,” Twain wrote.

This is a familiar refrain among writers and editors, who toil in solitary agony — agonize in solitary toil? — over the perfect combinations of vowels and consonants. Finding just the right word, when it occurs, is the stuff of arias.

But what about eliminating just the “wrong” word? This is for the editor to urge and, in a righteous world, the writer to decide.

The latest affront on Twain’s word selection, replacing that N-word with “slave” to protect the sensibilities of moderns, is the work of a well-intentioned heretic. What was it someone or other said? The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Then again, Twain himself recommended Heaven for the climate and Hell for the company.

While on Earth, let me add my voice to the chorus of those who, in the name of all that is hallowed, object to the alteration of literature for the benefit of illiterates. The fellow who edited the new Twain edition, Alan Gribben, isn’t illiterate, of course, and therefore has no excuse. He’s a professor of English at Auburn University. But he aims to increase the likelihood that non-readers will read more Twain if the author isn’t so offensive.

No one would find this more offensive than Twain, who was, not least, reliably pithy about the small-minded and overly sensitive. And no one would argue that the word in question isn’t emotionally charged and, in certain contexts, highly offensive. The issue here isn’t whether the word is good or bad (I personally despise it), but whether one should rewrite another’s literary work.

The simple answer is, no.

As even Gribben concedes, in Twain’s remarkable work, his use of the word was both common to the times and an indictment of slavery. If readers can’t understand this, then perhaps a teacher might enlighten them. The purpose of reading isn’t just to run words past a pupil’s pupils but to enhance understanding and reveal truth through what we call “teaching.”

That some teachers and librarians find Twain offensive is regrettable. But let’s be clear: These facts are an indictment of teachers and librarians who should find another line of work, not proof that Twain needs fixin’.

At what point, besides, do we stop with the red pencil? When will we have sanitized the library such that no one’s feelings are hurt? And who gets to decide? These are not new questions, but they bear repeating as we seem to know less and less.

Excising the particular word in question would keep busybodies occupied for the foreseeable future. Other offending writers include such luminaries as William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren and Herman Melville, among countless others. Were these writers racist? We cannot read minds, but it seems to me that racism and the sort of worldly intelligence that inspires men and women to art are incompatible. Relatedly, the inexhaustibly quotable Twain wrote:

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

More to the point, these writers selected each word painstakingly to create a world they envisioned as necessary to their purpose. That the world has changed, and our language with it, is no argument for rewriting or reconstructing the creator’s intent. To do so is both an assault on intellectual property that should be sacrosanct, and an insult to the intelligence of those whose minds we attempt to mold.

A teacher above all others should be ashamed.

Is the N-word problematic in a nation forever shackled to a racist, slave-owning past? Absolutely. But removing it from books won’t eradicate it from history, nor alter the pain it provokes. Should we talk about the harm it did and still does? Certainly.

But selectively editing literature, like history, is denial by another name. When it comes to denial and truth, as everyone knows, never the Twain shall meet.

If Benito Insane Okhrana actually believed in God, he might get away with blaming the Almighty for his incompetence.

From Washington's other newspaper:

Bad luck? Bad faith? - Charles Krauthammer

“We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, got the economy moving again. . . . But over the last six months, we’ve had a run of bad luck.”

— President Obama in Decorah, Iowa 8/15/2011

A troubled nation wonders: How did we get mired in 9.1 percent unemployment, 0.9 percent growth and an economic outlook so bad that the Federal Reserve pledges to keep interest rates at zero through mid-2013 — an admission that it sees little hope on the horizon?

Bad luck, explains our president. Out of nowhere came Japan and its supply-chain disruptions, Europe and its debt problems, the Arab Spring and those oil spikes. Kicked off, presumably, by various acts of God (should He not be held accountable too?): earthquake and tsunami. (Tomorrow: pestilence and famine. Maybe frogs.)

Well, yes, but what leader is not subject to external events? Were the minor disruptions of the current Arab Spring remotely as damaging as the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74? Were the supply disruptions of Japan 2011 anything like the Asian financial collapse of 1997-98? Events happen. Leaders are elected to lead (from the front, incidentally). That means dealing with events, not plaintively claiming to be their victim.

Moreover, luck is the residue of design, as Branch Rickey immortally observed. And Obama’s design for the economy was a near-$1 trillion stimulus that left not a trace, the heavy hand of Obamacare and a flurry of regulatory zeal that seeks to stifle everything from domestic energy production to Boeing’s manufacturing expansion into South Carolina.

He sowed, he reaps.

In Obama’s recounting, however, luck is only half the story. His economic recovery was ruined not just by acts of God and (foreign) men, but by Americans who care nothing for their country. These people, who inhabit Congress (guess which party?), refuse to set aside “politics” for the good of the nation. They serve special interests and lobbyists, care only about the next election, place party ahead of country. Indeed, they “would rather see their opponents lose than see America win.” The blaggards!

For weeks, these calumnies have been Obama staples. Calumnies, because they give not an iota of credit to the opposition for trying to promote the public good, as presumably Obama does, but from different premises and principles. Calumnies, because they deny legitimacy to those on the other side of the great national debate about the size and scope and reach of government.

Charging one’s opponents with bad faith is the ultimate political ad hominem. It obviates argument, fact, logic, history. Conservatives resist Obama’s social-democratic, avowedly transformational agenda not just on principle but on empirical grounds, as well — the economic and moral unraveling of Europe’s social-democratic experiment, on display today from Athens to the streets of London.

Obama’s answer? He doesn’t even engage. That’s the point of these ugly accusations of bad faith. They are the equivalent of branding Republicans enemies of the people. Gov. Rick Perry has been rightly chided for throwing around the word “treasonous” in reference to the Fed. Obama gets a pass for doing the same, only slightly more artfully, regarding Republicans. After all, he is accusing them of wishing to see America fail for their own political gain. What is that if not a charge of betraying one’s country?

The charge is not just ugly. It’s laughable. All but five Republican members of the House — moderate, establishment, Tea Party, freshmen alike — voted for a budget containing radical Medicare reform knowing it could very well end many of their careers. Democrats launched gleefully into Mediscare attacks, hardly believing their luck that Republicans should have proposed something so politically risky in pursuit of fiscal solvency. Yet Obama accuses Republicans of acting for nothing but partisan advantage.

This from a man who has cagily refused to propose a single structural reform to entitlements in his three years in office. A man who ordered that the Afghan surge be unwound by September 2012, a date that makes no military sense (it occurs during the fighting season), a date not recommended by his commanders, a date whose sole purpose is to give Obama political relief on the eve of the 2012 election. And Obama dares accuse others of placing politics above country?

A plague of bad luck and bad faith — a recalcitrant providence and an unpatriotic opposition. Our president wrestles with angels. Monsters of mythic proportions.

A comforting fantasy. But a sorry excuse for a failing economy and a flailing presidency.