My juvenile sense of humour

There is little that I find funnier than seeing talking heads lose it or say things that they aren't supposed to say. These days, with taped shows, we don't get to see it that often, so when a YouTube clip like this one becomes available, I have to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bbbi5SAne4.

Caution: Strong language, including profanity, but it is very funny.............

Nancy Pelosi loses it

Despite the essentially uncontrovertible proof that General Petreaus' Surge has worked, the Democrats are sticking to their playbook, which is that the Surge has failed (you remember, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid pronounced it a failure even before it actually began), so now we have Nancy Pelosi screeching again that the Surge has not succeeded, and that whatever decrease in violence there has been should be credited to...............Iran: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/8571. You read that right.

It's strange, but the first thought that ran through my mind when I read this was that Tip O'Neill would NEVER have said something like this. Regardless of his differences with whoever the President was, he always placed the interests of the country ahead of those of his party...............

Ouch!

Scott McClellan, former White House spokesman, has written a book in which he eviscerates the President and his close advisors, essentially implying that they lied the United States into the Iraq War. Well, his little book attracted the attention of the former Senate Minority Leader, 1996 Republican Presidential nominee Robert Dole, who had THIS to say about McClellan: http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0508/Bob_Dole_unloads_on_McClellan.html.

Good for Senator Dole. The fact that the MSM is treating McClellan like he's royalty now (after it trashed him on a regular basis when he was he White House mouthpiece) is yet more evidence of the media bias in this country............

And they're going to free him?

Samir Kuntar committed one of the more heinous terrorist attacks in Israeli history, and yet now the mind-numbingly stupid Olmert government is taking about freeing him as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3549774,00.html.

I'll give Kuntar credit for one thing: He's one leopard who has definitely NOT changed his spots, as he is vowing to resume terrorist acitivities as soon as he is freed. For more on what kind of human vermin Kuntar is, go here: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211872831853&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

They just noticed?

There's a story circulating the wires that Spanish is becoming the primary language in Miami: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080529/D90V6OEO0.html. BECOMING????? I lived in Miami for three years in the early 1990s, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that that was already the case back then. Miami is a suburb of Havana, and it has been for quite some time.........

We better hope not

Time Magazine has a piece on the similarities between President Peanut Farmer and President-wannabe Barack Obama: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1810056,00.html. I still classify President Peanut Farmer as the worst President of our lifetime (and he's pretty much locked up the title "worst ex-President" forever), and if Obama is walking down the same road as a him, that's a very bad thing indeed...........

A Hollywood great passes on

Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Carol Burnett show. The chemistry between the various cast members was amazing, but what I particularly loved was the interaction between Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, mainly because Conway used to completely crack up Korman. Sadly, Harvey passed away today: http://www.comcast.net/articles/tv/20080529/Obit.Korman/. With his passing, Hollywood has lost one of its most underappreciated yet funny stars............

LBJ, friend of Israel

Call me historically ignorant, but I had no idea that former President Lyndon Baines Johnson was a friend of Israel: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/28/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-LBJ-Tapes.php. Judging by his comments, he was a better friend to the Jewish state than an of his successors in the White House (though his immediate predecessor, John F. Kennedy, reportedly also harboured strong positive sentiments towards Israel).

One the theme, LBJ was also personally involved in the saving of Jews during the Holocaust: http://lennybendavid.com/2008/05/lyndon-johnsons-historical-connection.html. I am sure that among the thousands of people protesting the Vietnam war there were many Jewish people, and I wonder if among those who chanted "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many babies did you kill today?", any of them knew about this?

Don't read books........burn them!

Apparently, there are some lines that even the U.N. still won't cross. An Egyptian government minister who was in line for top post with UNESCO has likely seen his candidacy go up in smoke (pardon the pun) after he called for the burning of books by Israeli authors: http://www.nysun.com/foreign/egyptians-bid-for-un-post-in-doubt-over-burn-quip/78844/. Let's not forget, Egyps is a country which has signd a peace treaty with Israel. If this is what the Israelis can expect from their "friends", what in the world can it expect from the rest of the Muslim world?

Most jokes have in them a kernel of truth

ESPECIALLY this one, which could just as easily be a comment on Canada, Europe, or life in the United States under President Obama:

The Squirrel and the Grasshopper

WORLD VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE AUSTRALIAN VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dancesand plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warmand well fed.

A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving.

The ABC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food. The Australian press informs people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopperis allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.

The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Council of Australia demonstrate in front of the squirrel's house. The ABC, interrupting a cultural festival special from St Kilda with breaking news, broadcasts a multi-cultural choir singing "We Shall Overcome".

Bill Shorten rants in an interview with Laurie Oakes that the squirrel has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him payhis "fair share" and increases the charge for squirrels to enter Melbourne city centre.

In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrel's taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want to work.

The grasshopper is provided with a council house, financial aid to furnish it and an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile. The squirrel's food is seized and redistributed to the more needy members of society, in this case the grasshopper.

Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home. The local authority takes over his old home and utilises it as a temporary home for asylum seeking cats who had hijacked a plane to get to Australia as they had to share their country of origin with mice. On arrival they tried to blow up the airport because of Australians apparent love of dogs.

The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and attempted bombing but were immediately released because the police fed them pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody. Initial moves to then return them to their own country were abandoned because it was feared they would face death bythe mice. The cats devise and start a scam to obtain money from people;s credit cards.

A 60 Minutes special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrel's food, though Spring is still months away, while the council house he is in, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain the house. He is shown to betaking drugs. Inadequate government funding is blamed for thegrasshopper's drug "Illness".

The cats seek recompense in the Australian courts for their treatment since arrival in Australia.
The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get money for his drug habit. He is imprisoned but released immediately because he has been in custody for afew weeks. He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him. Within a few weeks he has killed aguinea pig in a botched robbery.

A commission of enquiry that will eventually cost $10,000,000 and state the obvious is set up.
Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for grasshoppers and legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased. The asylum seeking cats are praised by the government for enriching Australia's multicultural diversity and dogs are criticised by the government for failing to befriend the cats.

The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose. The usual sections ofthe press blame it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity and his traumatic experience of prison. They call for the resignation of a minister.

The cats are paid a million dollars each because their rights were infringed when the government failed to inform them there were mice in Australia.

The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing, the burglaries and robberies have to pay an additional percentage on their credit cards to cover losses, their taxes are increased to pay for law and order and they are told that they will have to work beyond 65 because of a shortfall in government funds.

Does any of this sound even vaguely familiar to you ?????

President Peanut Farmer goes after Israel........AGAIN

The man's loathing for Israel really knows no end, does it? Apparently, his "Peace, not Apartheid" book wasn't enough. Now, he's breached the longstanding Presidential ban on discussing Israel's nuclear status by proclaiming that Israel has 150 nuclear weapons: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/987703.html,

The ramifications of this pronouncement are enormous. Undoubtedly, Iran will use this information to justify its pursuit of nuclear weapons. So, what President Peanut Farmer has done (perhaps intentionally, perhaps not) is to give the Iranian nuclear program a big boost.

I didn't think that it was possible that he could prove to be worse as an ex-President than he was as a President, but he is rapidly proving me wrong.

Debunking a myth

I have avoided the Mohammed al-Durra story throughout this blog's short life, mainly because I have never viewed it (the story that Israeli troops killed al-Durra) as being legitimate. Pallywood-style fake deaths are nothing new to those who follow the coverage of Israel in the MSM, and supporters of Israel have learned that the MSM takes as gospel truth anything that is said and shown to them by the Palestinians. The al-Durra blood libel was just one more of those stories, in my mind.

That said, I SHOULD have paid more attention to this story, if only because of the hold it still has on the public's imagination. Mohammed al-Durra has become an iconic figure in the Muslim world (as well as in Europe, where people apparently still love to believe in a good yarn about those EEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Jews). The story that he was shot by Israeli troops stubbornly persists, though increasingly large cracks are appearing in the official version of the story, as propagated by France 2, the official French television network. Charles Enderlin, the journalist who narrated the report which first accused Israel of killing al-Durra, now has considerable egg on his face after a French appellate court vindicated blogger Phillipe Karsenty, who had accused Enderlin of fabricating a hoax. Enderlin then sued Karsenty for defamation, and won a symbolic victory at the trial court level. Rather than pay, Karsenty appealed, and he won big time: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121183795208620963.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

Charles Enderlin has now appealed this decision to France's highest court. If he wins, you can be sure that it will be splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the West and the Arab World. If he doesn't, you can be sure that the decision will receive the same amount of attention that Karsenty's victory received, which is to say, none. Can't let a good blood libel die easily now, can we?

I already like the guy

Newly-elected London Mayor Boris Johnson has discontinued the agreement his predecessor, "Red" Ken Livingstone, had with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to acquire fuel oil at a reduced price: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121183743752820909.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. Apparently, and unlike a few American legislators (and how are YOU today, Congressman Joseph Kennedy?), Johnson realized the propaganda that was being generated by this plan and the fact that many Venezuelans were not sharing in the glories of Chavez' "Socialism for the 21st Century".

Good on him, I say..............

When you've got it, flaunt it

I can't relate to the absurd amounts of money the rich and beautiful people spend on things, ranging from million-dollar cars to BILLION-dollar homes (you read that correctly): http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/home-india-billion-forbeslife-cx_mw_0430realestate.html.

That said, I don't begrudge them the ability to do buy these things. It's their money, they can do with it what they want...............

Happy Memorial Day

As people in this country celeebrate Memorial Day, please give a thought and your thanks to the veterans who served this country over the years, both those who made it home and to the many who did not. ALL of them have my thanks and my admiration.

Stanley Cup Finals Preview

The Stanley Cup Finals that many expected to occur has finally arrived; the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. the Detroit Red Wings. All of the cliches apply here; youth vs. experience, dynamite offense vs. rock-solid defense, etc., etc. The trendy pick is that Pittsburgh's young guns will give it an edge over Detroit, but I don't think that the Penguins have come across a team like the Red Wings that doesn't give up the puck. EVER. There is a reason that Detroit piles up such huge edges in shots every game, and Marc-Andre Fleury is going to be tested in ways that no team up until now has tested him. In Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, the Red Wings have the two best "two way" players in the game, players who are equally adept at scoring or shutting down the opposing team's best players. In people such as Kris Draper, they have the prototypical "grit" player.

I see this year's Pittsburgh team as being a lot like the 1983 Edmonton Oilers, a dynamic, young team that is one year away from being the best in the sport. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Fleury, Ryan Malone, et al. will win a Cup (or two, or three..........) before all is said and done......but not this year.

Red Wings in five.

Democracy, Massachussets-style

You almost have to laugh when you read stuff like this. Massachussets is the bluest of the blue states, but now now you have politicians openly manipulating the system to favour their party. It used to be the law in the Commonwealth that the Governor would make an appointment if a sitting U.S. Senator could not finish out their term. Then, John Kerry ran for President when Mitt Romney was the governor and, well, it was simply unacceptable to the Democrats running the leglislature that a Republican might appoint another Republican to serve out the term, so they changed the law so that a special election would be held to fill the vacancy. Now, there is a Democratic governor, and there is a definite possibility that Ted Kennedy may not be able to fill out his term due to his illness. No probem there for the Massachussets State Legislature, which is considering changing the law back, so as to guarantee that the seat remains in Democratic hands: http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_142002341.html.

It's both shameless and pathetic, but that's hardly a surprise these days.

Pakistan surrenders

This is a really bad development which seems as though it is being ignored by the MSM. Pakistan's new government has reached an "accord" with the terrorist elements in those infamous "border territories" which will see it pull the army out in exchange for an agreement by the terrorists to stop homicide bombings: http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080522/FOREIGN/510395498/1003/foreign.

In essence, what this means is that al Qaeda and its sympathizers now control a large swath of Pakistan adjacent to the Afghan border. If someone can tell me how this is in any way a good or even a neutral development, I'm willing to listen.

Exactly!

I have been screeching (with no one listening, apparently) about how the collapsing dollar is at the root of many of our current economic problems, the cost of oil among them. Finally, it appears as though others are starting to pick up on this idea: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121150088368615927.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

When you think about it, it really doesn't take a genius to figure this out. As the dollar drops in vallue, it takes more of them to buy things. Pretty elementary, if you ask me. So, why isn't Barack Obama talking about this? Why isn't Hillary Clinton? Why isn't John McCain?

Let the pro-Obama spin continue

A writer in the New York Times by the name of Jodi Kantor has written a piece which supposedly talks about how Florida's Jewish voters are reacting to Barack Obama: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/politics/22jewish.html.


Honestly, I thought that this was a ridiculous article, because it ultimately implied that if Jews don't vote for Obama, it is because they are either A) stupid and ill-informed, or B) racist. That is unfortunately the way this election is going to be spun. Every vote against Obama is going to be because the person who cast that vote was either stupid or racist (or both).

I'd like to suggest to Ms. Kantor, who wrote the article, that maybe, JUST MAYBE, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Obama that have nothing to do with his race, which the author of this piece either ignores or minimizes:

1) He has the most left-wing voting record in the Senate since he was elected in 2004.
2) He has advocated personal, face-to-face talks with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who on a weekly basis promises to wipe out Israel.
3) Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his spiritual mentor (who he only dumped when it became politically disadvantageous to maintain his association with the guy) is an outspoken supporter of the Palestinians.
4) Two of his initial foreign policy advisors were Robert Malley and Samantha Power, both of whom are strident critics of Israel.
5) Al Qaeda is not supporting him, but Hamas has spoken approvingly of him.
6) He has NEVER denounced Farrakhan, contrary to Ms. Kantor's representation. He has distanced himself from some of Farrakhan's views, which is not at all the same thing.

These aren't matters of opinion, they are statements of FACT. Then again, why would the New York Times want to let those pesky facts get in the way of a good slam at anyone who dares deviate from the increasingly hard left position the paper espouses..............

Just plain creepy

A company based in California (where else?) has managed to perfect a system to clone dogs: http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/v/7924569. I'm a dog owner, and while I love my dogs, I would never want them cloned. Each dog, like each person, is unique. It doesn't matter how much another dog may look like the ones I already have, it still won't be THAT dog.

Another question comes to mind. Once we start doing this, how far are we from cloning people? It can't be that far and you have to know that some company will try to do it, and soon. Not a good precedent, in my opinion............

This is the source of the bitterness

People from outside this area often wonder why Philadelphia-area area sports fans are so, well, angry. THIS is why: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/05/14/philadelphia.drought/index.html?eref=si_topstories.

100 collective seasons of professional sports futility, with not much hope on the horizon. Contrast that with, say, a city like Boston, where in the past decade they've had three Super Bowl Championships, two World Series titles, a return to glory for the basketball team and even the woebegone Boston Bruins seem to have turned the corner.

I don't buy it

Syria and Israel have apparently been holding back door peace talks for about a year, with the assistance of Turkey: http://www.sana.sy/print.html?sid=175427&newlang=eng.

I don't trust the Syrians as far as I can throw them. This is just a ploy on their part to divert attention away from their activities in Lebanon, such as funneling Iranian arms to Hezbollah. They're also doing stuff like this: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211288131705&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

No stool pigeon!

An African Grey Parrot in Japan somehow got lost before being "captured" by police: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_fe_st/odd_japan_parrot_returns. The thing I love about this story, apart from the happy ending? The bird absolutely would not talk to police, but once it was turned over to a vet, it started chattering away, telling the vet where it lived.

I don't know why, but I find this story to be very funny..........

Pitchfork Pat goes off the deep end.......into an empty pool

I'm not sure who's more delusional, the far left of the Democratic Party or the the 1930's isolationist wing of the Republican Party, as represented by people such as Pitchfork Pat Buchanan. Buchanan, who's never met a Nazi he didn't want to defend, now blames the German invasion of Poland in 1939...........on Poland: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26606. You see, those unreasonable Poles refused to give up Danzig. Imagine that. I am sure that Hitler would have been completely satisfied if Poland had turned Danzig (now known as Gdansk) over to Germany. Yup, it would have been PEACE IN OUR TIME.

Heartfelt best wishes

Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachussets has been diagnosed as suffering from a malignant brain tumour: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356745,00.html.

I may agree with Senator Kennedy on virtually nothing, but I wish him nothing but a speedy and complete recovery. I know all too well the havoc that the evil illness of cancer can wreak on a person, having lost both my parents, one of my aunts, and one of my grandfathers to it.

Fun and games, Palestinian-style

What's the fun thing to do in Gaza? Well, if you guessed "shooting videos of dying or dead people on your cell phone videocamera and then trading it with your buddies, you'd be right: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23718649-15084,00.html.

How sick, how DEPRAVED, must a culture be that something like this is countenanced?

Shortsighted pandering

There is a very real reason that Congress' approval rating is lower than even that of the President. It's because it does shortsighted, stupid partisan things like changing the rules in the middle of a debate on a free trade deal with Colombia: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121124379355805567.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

The system had worked wonderfully for over 30 years........until Nancy Pelosi and her union sycophants took the reigns of power in the House of Representatives. They've now killed the "fast track" authority that enabled the Bush 43 Administration to negotiate the free trade deal with Colombia. Why? Ostensibly, it's because of "human rights concerns", but the reality of the situation is that it has everything to do with cozying up to the Democrat's union base as we approach the November General Election. The fact that this move will harm relations with a key strategic ally in an area of the world where we don't have that many friends matters not at all to Pelosi et als.

Technically BDS.........but BDS nonetheless

Those suffering from BDS are all over the place. What's fascinating to me is that they simply can't help themselves, and ultimately, they always reveal themselves, such as the Washington Post's Tech Writer, Steve Gillmor: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/17/AR2008051701285.html. Get a load of this comment, which is buried within an article WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT A DISPUTE BETWEEN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE. Here he is, discussing a Facebook explanation of the dispute:

"The tortured PRspeak rivals the current Bush Administration press officer's gyrations in denying our idiot president's appeasement charges are about Obama, while John McCain drives the Straight Talk Express over the Democratic nominee as he eats a hot dog on the campaign trail."

Pure BDS.......................

The global test

Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has some words of warning to Americans who date to think that they can heat their homes at 72 degrees and (gasp!) drive SUV's: No, you can't: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-wpxs1Re-8vx2Zk5xnYygW1W67w.

Here is his specific quote:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

Hmmm. So, other countries should have a veto over what we do?

Time to starting hating France again

That Nicholas Sarkozy honeymoon didn't last long. It turns out that his government is just as anti-Israel as any of its predecessors, as his foreign minister, Bernard de Kouchner, has been meeting with Hamas: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668673709&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. The fact that even the Arabist EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization doesn't matter to these people.

God, I HATE France.................

UPDATE (12:35 p.m.): Then again, why SOULDN'T France talk to Hamas, given that the feckless, duplicitous Olmert government is doing the same thing: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984388.html.

I'm not sure who hates Israel the most, the Arabs, the Europeans or the Olmert government..........

Newsweek abandons all pretext of objectivity

It's a poorly-kept secret that the MSM is in the tank for Barack Obama. How bad is it? Even Saturday Night Live did a piece on it several months back. The latest fluff piece comes courtesy of Newsweek Magazine, which talks in glowing terms about how the Obama Presidential Campaign is valiantly overcoming any and all hurdles it is encountering: http://www.newsweek.com/id/136440.

Honestly, I have no idea how John McCain is going to be able to overcome Obama and his lackeys in the MSM.................

Israel's military situation: An Insider's take

This is a link to a fascinating interview in Haaretz with Major General Amos Yadlin, the head of the Israeli Directorate of Military Intelligence: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984274.html. In it he talks of the many threats Israel faces, including Iran, Syria, and of course Hezbollah and Hamas. The long and the short ot if is that when the next war involving Israel begins--and it is a question if when, not if--it will be a very different war from the one Israel fought against Hezbollah in 2006. This time, Hezbollah has missiles that will reach Tel Aviv and beyond.............

"I hate the Jews!" "Well, I hate them MORE!"

Only in the bizarro world that is the Middle East can you have Islamofascist terrrorists accusing each other of being soft on Israel: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0arauyjLz9xhnBdnw6pEEOpKErwD90OBAVG7. This is so bizarre that it's almost comical.

I would normally make a comment about how this story has received virtually no MSM attention, but threats against Israel aren't news, unfortunately. It's only when Israel attempts to do something about those threats that the MSM checks out the situation.

I have the answer to this question

The article asks, "What do the Saudis want?": http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/what_do_the_saudis_want.html. Aside from money, I think that the answer is fairly obvious. How about the death of all Americans (especially Jewish ones), or at the very least their conversion to Islam? Isn't that what Wahhabist Islam teaches?

Why the U.N. should be expelled, reason #3,894,234,623

The U.N. is appointing a special investigator to investigate racism. So far, so good. Where is this investigator being sent? Not Saudi Arabia, where all faiths other than Islam are banned. Not Iran, where calls for genocide against Israel and Jews are greeted with a collective yawn by the world community. Not France, where race riots in the infamous "banlieus" are commonplace. Not China, where the Falun Gong is being brutally oppressed. Nope, the U.N. is sending that investigator............................HERE: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1684309820080516?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true.

If you needed yet another reason to hate that odious organization, there it is..........

Beware the Crazy Ants!

Seriously! There is a species of ants now infecting the Houston area which has a predilection for eating electrical equipment, or something like that: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5779654.html.

I guess that in a world that also has creatures like the Duck-billed Platypus, the Three-toed Sloth and the Walking Stick, there's room for these critters, too.............

Has it really been 10 years?

Ten years ago this coming Thursday (May 22), it will have been a full decade since one of my favourite tv shows of all-time, Seinfeld, went off the air. I really can't believe that it's been that long and to borrow an old cliche, it really does seem like it was "just yesterday". I can still spout off lines from the show ("No soup for you!"), and when you tie in the fact that Mrs. BHG and I left for Hawaii the next day, there are all sorts of emotions and thoughts running through my head right now.

A couple of other 10-year anniversaries from this year: One of my favourite movie comedies, There's Something about Mary, is also now a decade old, and was it really ten years ago that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire captivated the Baseball world with their assault on Roger Maris' single-season home run record? Of course, we can pretty much be certain now that their home run totals were steroid-fueled, but at that time, it was a lot of fun..............

A little defensive, are we?

Yesterday, President Bush delivered a long speech to the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) in which he extolled the virtues of Israel and spoke glowingly of the long friendship between the two countries: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html. During one part of of his speech, he spoke about unnamed individuals who want to negotiate with dicators and terrorists. His exact words are as follows:

"There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is--the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it."

Apparently, these words ticked off more than a few Democrats. The statesmanlike Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, called them "bulls--t" (http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0508/Biden_Bushs_comments_were_bullshit.html). Presidential hopeful Barack Obama whined that the remarks constituted an unfair attack upon him (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668647342&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull).

You have to think that that the reason the Democrats were so peeved about the speech was because it hit so close to home. The fact that President Bush was taking a swipe not at Mr. Obama but at President Peanut Farmer seems to matter not in the least to them.

Think twice about getting coffee in Saudi Arabia

The latest from the religion of peace and tolerance: A professor in the Islamic state was sentenced to 150 lashes AND eight months in prison because he met an unescorted women at a coffee shop: http://www.netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=952207&cat=World&head=Saudi+professor+to+get+150+lashes+for+unchaperoned+meeting+with+a+woman.

Seems reasonable to me.................

The sad fate of Lebanon

Lebanon always impressed me as a country with "potential". It seemed to have all that was required, good geography, an industrious people, etc. Now, it is increasingly and rapidly becoming Hezbollahstan: http://online.wsj.com/article/global_view.html. It's really only a matter of time before the Shiites take over the country, or it is officially annexed by Syria.

As Bret Stephens wrote in the Wall Street Journal, the blame can be laid in many places; on the U.N., which has ignored the disarmament resolutions it passed in 2006; on the United States, for pursuing an inconsistent, hesitant foreign policy vis-a-vis Syria; on Israel, for not doing real damage to Hezbollah when it had the chance in 2006; and, of course, on Syria and Iran. Regardless, the end result is going to be ugly. If I were a Sunni Muslim or a Christian in Lebanon, I'd think seriously about relocating, and soon................

Have you ever been tempted to do this?

Have you ever been minding your own business when you discover that your wife is having an affair, so you put her up for sale on eBay? Me neither, but one evidently ticked off Brit thought that this would be a great idea: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1165282.ece.

I don't know why, but I find this story to absolutely hysterical. Then again, I am a deranged son of a gun....................

Did you know about this?

I sure didn't, because the myopic MSM here can't stop gazing at its own navel. Germany is apparently moving ever closer to a "strategic partnership" with Iran: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121080192012192979.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. This seems to fly in the face of Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough talk against Iran.

The Iranian government is one scary collection of individuals. Germany was already the moving force behind one Holocaust. Does it now wish to ally itself with a country which is promising the next one?

Goodbye to a true hero

Irene Sendler was a Polish Catholic woman who rightfully is called the female Oscar Schindler. She was directly responsible for saving countless Jewish lives: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1950450/Irena-Sendler.html.

May she rest in peace.................

More wildlife problems

It has received virtually no coverage here in my neck of the woods, but bats are dying in large numbers due to a strange illness known as "White Nose Syndrome", and the number of affected bats is spreading: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/05/14/qc-batscanadaquebec0514.html. No one seems to know where this illness originated, or how/why it is spreading.

Lest you think that this doesn't matter, let me disabuse you of that notion. Bats are key cogs in helping fruit-producing plants and trees pollenate, and they also serve as equally vital allies in keeping insect populations under control. Any decrease in their numbers would be a bad thing indeed..................

Good on Australian PM Kevin Rudd! But...........

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has indicated that his government is considering filing charges in the International Criminal Court against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "incitement to genocide" based on the Iranian bigot-in-chief's comments about wiping Israel off the map: http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/rudd_mulls_court_action_against_ahmadinejad_546900. Of course, this has already been contemplated once before: http://jcpa.org/text/ahmadinejad-incitement.pdf.

While I am glad that Mr. Rudd is showing himself to be a friend of Israel, I am concerned about the precedent this would set, because you just KNOW that those who hate Israel (and the United States) will watch what happens here very carefully to learn how they can use this to their advantage.

Lebanon's end game

That light at the end of the tunnel in Lebanon is a train speeding rapidly in the direction of the Lebanese government: http://www.nysun.com/news/who-lost-lebanon. This is an excellent summary of the impending destruction of the Lebanese state as we know it. Was just a few short years ago that the world was lauding the "Cedar Revolution"? Of course, since then the world abandoned Lebanon in 2006 when Hezbollah gave Israel the opportunity to either destroy or sharply blunt the terrorist organization's power, and Israel then blew that opportunity, aided by a West which screamed that Israel was using "disproportionate" force to deal with Hezbollah. For more on the same subject, go here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982879.html.

Lebanon is dying, and we in the West are to blame...............

The foundation has been laid

Should Barack Obama go on to win the Democratic nomination for the Presidency (he will), but then go on to lose to John McCain in November, the MSM already has the narrative set out. It's because we Americans are a bunch of racist rednecks: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051203014_pf.html. It matters not in the least that maybe, JUST MAYBE, we won't vote for Obama not because of the colour of his skin (he could be purple with silver stripes for all I care) but because he is in my view a far left figure who would dramatically hike my taxes, socialize our medicine, gut the army, kowtow to anti-Semitic tinpot dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and abandon Israel. Nope, according to the MSM narrative, I'm lying if I try to tell you that the reasons I just listed are in any way valid. If I don't vote for Obama, it's because I'm a racist, plain and simple.

Just watch as this becomes the global spin on the Obama campaign, regardless of whether it wins or loses in November............

Super in name only

My old friend Dr. Patrick James has written in very detailed fashion on how the whole "superdelegate" issue could potentially prove to be the undoing of the Democratic Party in November: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/05/12/superdelegates-democrats-politics-oped-cx_pja_0513superdelegates.html.

When you think about it, their presence has already proven to be an albatross circling over the party's collective head. Unless they commite "en masse" to Obama and soon, the party will continue to spend money that would really be better spent on battling the Republicans in the fall, and if they do go in favour of Hillary Clinton, the very real possibility exists that Black Americans will sit out the election in November in protest. That would doom the Democrats' chance at recapturing the White House.

Plant rights; the latest European idiocy

I kid you not. This is what the Europeans are up to: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/065njdoe.asp.

I guess that I shouldn't be surprised, but yet, I still am.......

Lebanon surrenders

I've given short shrift to the goings-0n in Lebanon, where the government attempted at least slightly to curb the power of Hezbollah, but was then stabbed in the back by the Lebanese army: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJgv8fe22QIw&refer=home. Whether out of fear or because it was compromised, or some combination of the two, the Lebanense Army refused to support the government as it attempted to oust Hezbollah from its positions of power in Beirut, and the end result was Hezbollah taking over Christian and Sunni areas of the cities.

This whole process has long-term ramifications for the world in general and the region in partiuclar. First, the Lebanese government has now been officially exposed as being completely impotent. Second, Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian masters now know that the Western backers (including the United States) of the Fouad Siniora government will do nothing of consequence to support it. Third, Hezbollah will now likely give up even the pretext of respecting the terms of the 2006 ceasefire with Israel. Fourth, Hamas will likely now attempt to follow suit and take over the West Bank. Fifth, Israel will continue to do nothing, despite the drumbeat of war getting louder from both its south and again now from the north.

Great Britain circles the drain

"Circling the drain" is an expression I learned from a police officer friend of mine. It refers to anyone who is terminally wounded/injured. I am coming to the conclusion that this unfortunately is the case with the U.K., where its religious leaders can't even agree that British culture is worth defending: http://www.meforum.org/article/1890. Worse yet, we have the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, singing the praises of Shariah, complaining that to the extent that Christians elsewhere in the world are mistreated, it is because of Western policies and opining that there is nothing wrong at all with allowing communities in the U.K. to basically exist with no interaction with the greater British culture. Call me a radical, but I think that it's that type of morally relativistic, laissez-faire attitude which causes significant chunks of the Islamic community to think that the 7/7/05 Tube bombings were perfectly acceptable.

In appreciation of excellence

Gregg Maddux just goes out, year after year, and unassumingly does his job. He's been doing that for 20 years now. Yesterday, Maddux won his 350th career game, just the ninth pitcher in Baseball history to do that: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/gameflash/2008/05/10/20003_recap.html. I doubt that we'll ever see another pitcher approach that total, and I don't know that people appreciate how difficult it is to be that good for that long. Maddux will likely end this season with somewhere around 355 wins, and I suspect that he'll hang it up at that point. Never the most physically gifted of pitchers, he relied on cunning and pinpoint pitch location in order to get people out, a task at which he excelled for years. My hat is off to him, one of the smartest and most capable pitchers of modern times.

Silence in the face of tragedy

A little over a week ago, a tropical cyclone struck Myanmar (Burma), killing 23,000 according to the corrupt military junta which runs the country, and over 100,000 according to more objective sources. Countless more have been rendered homeless and have no access to food or fresh water. Yet, what does the government there do? It blocks foreign aid, allowing only a trickle in, and seems far more focussed on an upcoming referendum which would "legitimize" its rule: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=bad79639-c716-4083-9559-edf349914f36.

This is one case where the world community seems ready, willing and able to avert the catastrophe which may already be occurring. I will add this, though: The U.N. Security Council has said nothing about this tragedy. The despicable Human Rights Commission is also mum on the subject. So, the U.N. is still following its script. I guess that tens of thousands of dead Burmese don't equal a fractional number of dead Arabs on the West Bank or in Gaza...........

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all! I lost my mom to cancer over 14 years ago, but still miss her very much. To all of those who still have their moms, please treasure them and reward them for all that they do for you.

Londonistan indeed..............

The Telegraph is reporting that by the year 2035, there will be more practicing Muslims in the U.K. than Christians: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1936418/Practising-Muslims-%27will-outnumber-Christians-by-2035%27.html.

Can anyone say that they find this even remotely surprising? Gotta love those ever-tolerant Brits (except when it come the subject of Israel, of course)..........

Re-legitimizing Israel

Efraim Karsh has what can only be described as a brilliant rebuttal to all of those who claim that Israel's existence is illegitimate, that everything it has done is illegitimate, etc.: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/1948--israel--and-the-palestinians--annotated-text-11373.

The war against Israel's existence is very involved, and it is being fought on many different levels. Yes, there are military battles, but the Arabs and their allies on the left and in the MSM have come to realize that a large part of the war comes from shaping public opinion. Part of THAT battle involves changing, inverting or outright lying about facts. If you read Karsh's article, you will have some ammunition to respond to those who wish to see the end of the world's only Jewish state.

My point exactly!

I blogged about this just yesterday, and as soon as I go into Yahoo! this morning, what do I see? Another article on how oil prices continue to skyrocket BECAUSE OF THE FALLING DOLLAR: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080509/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices.

The evidence is right in front of us. Why can't our idiot politicians, either Democrat or Republican, see it? Why can't the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, see this? Why can't anyone in the Bush 43 Administration see it?

Someone who sees it the way I do

I have blogged incessantly about the dangers of the falling dollar, and how the collapse of the Greenback has ramifications both short- and long-term on all of us, ranging from how much we pay for a tank of gas (don't blame the oil companies for the cost of that fillup. Blame a dollar that buys about half as much oil as it did just three or four years ago.), the cost of that flight to L.A., etc., etc., etc.

Well, I just came across this gem from Lawrence Kudlow, and I apologize for not putting it on m blog earlier. It's a piece he wrote in early March on how important it is and was to all of us that we have a strong dollar: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LawrenceKudlow/2008/03/04/resurrect_king_dollar?page=full&comments=true.

Please read it all.

This is just sick

Hackers decided that it would be a good idea to hack into the Epilepsy Foundation's website and put on it flashing images which are known in certain cases to cause epileptic siezures in those who see them: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24510864/.

I want someone--ANYONE--to explain the mentality of the hacker who thought that this was a funny thing to do, or a good idea.

Very interesting

A huge local story over the last few days was the murder of Philadelphia police Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski and the subsequent manhunt for the third bank robber involved in the robbery in which Liczbinski was shot. One of the robbers, Howard Cain, was killed shortly after the crime, and it turns out that he was a Muslim. I say that because it has come out that the cemetary associated with Cain's local Mosque has refused to allow him to be buried there: http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080508_Mosques__We_will_not_bury_this_Muslim.html.

To that Mosque I say, good on you!

Happy 60th Birthday, Israel!

May 8, 1948-May 8, 2008. It may not be the happiest of birthdays for the world's lone Jewish state, but it is a testament to the will of its people that it getting to celebrate this birthday at all. Lord knows, if it were up to the Muslim states and the political left, this day would never have occurred.

UPDATE (11:55 a.m.): Canada's National Post has a detailed examination of Israel on this anniversary, and it can be found here: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/israel/index.html.

Are they that clueless?

Apparently, my fellow Jews are either blinded by ideology, trapped by years of brainwashing that told them that they HAD to vote Democratic, or maybe these numbers are just a reflection of the liberal bias of a well-known polling outfit: http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/05/obama_winning_over_jewish_vote.html. Either way, I'm not particularly happy to read this. Hopefully, Jews will eventually see that today's Democratic Party is not the party of their parents, or even the party of 10 years ago.

She can't do it

I don't see any way that Hillary Clinton can overcome Barack Obama's delegate lead, and apparently, others are starting to recognize that fact as well: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article3884579.ece. He cleaned her clock in North Carolina, and she barely beat him in Indiana. The only possible way she could win now would be to get the Michigan and Florida primary votes to count--she won't win that battle--and then to convince the superdelegates to come down on her side, which is increasingly unlikely.

The long and the short of it? Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign is toast.

More proof that the MLB players union doesn't get it

Baseball fans don't like Barry Bonds. They are sick of the whole story, and most fans believe that he juiced. THIS is why Bonds is not playing baseball this season. Yet, we now have the players union apparently investigating the owners for collusion against Bonds: http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=408786. Gee, Donald Fehr, do you think that maybe, JUST MAYBE, owners realize that this guy is a complete jackass and that they would risk alienating their fan base if they sign him?

A rare victory.......

...........in the anti-Israel divestment battle. Methodists have voted overwhelmingly to not divest from companies that do business with Israel: http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/108378.html. In fact, they're going to try to foster closer ties with the Jewish state. Given the steady stream of bad news about Israel, it's nice to see this story.

What if they threw a campaign and nobody came?

Apparently, Ron Paul is STILL running for the Republican Presidential Nomination: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502314.html. I suppose that all of the non-Paulistinians out there (which is to say, pretty much everybody) are shocked to find this out. I know that I was!

Freedom of the Press, Saudi Arabian style

If you suggest that religions other than Islam are worthy of respect, you get a religious fatwah issued against you, calling for your death: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/03/INHA10C1TA.DTL.

Hmm. You would think that with all of our gnashing of teeth, rending of garments, and general kowtowing every time someone dares say ANYTHING which could remotely be construed as negative about Islam, the MSM here would be a little bit more up in arms when its fellow members are facing death for daring to be open-minded............

Don't like heights?

Then don't watch this: http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562. I don't have many phobias. In fact, I don't have any........with ONE exception: Heights. Lock me in an enclosed space with spiders, snakes, etc., it won't bother me at all. Bring me up a high rise, and I turn into a jellyfish. It's quite sad, really..............

An admission

Maybe it's just me, but I never "got" horse racing as a sport. Sure, the animals are incredibly beautiful, but the industry encourages ever-more muscled horses, which puts an incredible strain on the forelegs, hind legs, etc., making incidents such as this one inevitable: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/other_sports/20080506_Uncertainty_hangs_over_Eight_Belles_tragedy.html. Just two years ago, we went through the whole Barbaro soap opera, and again, it was much the same story. A horse breaks down either during or immediately after a race. In Barbaro's case, the horse lived another eight to nine months before the veterinarians realized that he couldn't be saved, unlike Eight Belles, who had to be euthenized right on the track minutes after the Kentucky Derby ended.

At what point do we as humans say that we're asking too much of these animals, all in the name of our viewing pleasure? Why is this "sport" even necessary? As an animal lover, I truly wonder about the answers to these questions.

Look in the mirror, Europe

Europeans often wonder why Israelis do not trust them. I wonder........do you think that it could have anything to do with the fact that EU funds one anti-Israel group after another, and then refuses to provide any accounting for this support: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121003096750769111.html.

The EU tries to pass itself off as an "honest broker" between the Israelis and the Arabs, but it is anything but. The numbers don't lie.

I report, you decide

This is why some people should not be allowed to own dogs, and why poodles as a breed should be banned because they are SUCH fru-fru dogs: http://www.ocregister.com/video/index.php?bcpid=1127694947&bclid=1137834804&bctid=1231040168.

These people ALL need lives.

Valid points

I'm not a big fan of Tom Friedman, despite his possessing of an intellect that is vastly superior to mine, if only because he is simply too unrealistic about the situation in Israel. However, he is right more often than not, and though this column initially deals with the proposal by Republican presidential hopeful John McCain to roll back the federal gas tax over the summer (a proposal seconded by Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, but rejected by her opponent Barack Obama), the underlying theme is our oil dependency in general: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html.

This has been an issue that has been of concern to me for a long time. At some point we need to ween ourselves off the oil addiction. Let's leave aside for the moment the considerable financial cost, a cost that is mounting by the day). This is a national security issue. Oil comes largely from OPEC, a collection of Arab Autocracies and other thuggish nations (such as Venezuela) all of whom hate us. It also comes from Russia, another country whose leadership is not exactly what I would call friendly. Yes, a fair amount does come from Canada, unquestionably an ally, and still more from Mexico, which says that it is our ally (I question that), but for the most part it comes from the Middle East.

Ask yourselves: Do you REALY want to support the economies of countries who despise us?

Reality bites

Condoleeza Rice may be the most naive Secretary of State I have ever seen. I'd prefer to believe that rather than my other thought, which is that she may be the most anti-Israel Secretary of State in my lifetime. Given her competition includes James "F--- the Jews" Baker, that's saying something. She appears to be completely unaware of the reality on the ground in Israel, which is that Hamas does NOT want peace with Israel in any way, shape or form. That is why it is launching missiles at border crossings where fuel is being shipping (biting the hand that feeds you is the cliche that comes to mind): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html?ref=world.

The whole situation brings to mind the old story about the child who murders both of his/her parents and then cries that he/she is an orphan. The Palestinians are that child.

A stereotype

That's what Washington State Congressman James McDermott is. He is the prototypical "Angry Left", blame America first type. Don't believe me? Look at this revealing article, which admittedly comes from McDermott's future opponent in the 2008 Congressional election, Steve Beren: http://www.berenforcongress.com/rainier.html.

McDermott, as you will recall, was one of the Congressmen who went to Baghdad right before the start of the Iraq War in 2003 to propagandize for Saddam Hussein's regime. Now, it comes out that he really doesn't think very much of either this country (we are running "gulags" in Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq), and our troops are "mercenaries" who are either felons or too stupid and/or poor to know better than to enlist in the army.

Shame on the State of Washington for continuing to send this man back to Congress.

Hockey Talk

So, the season is over for my Montreal Canadiens, who were eliminated in five games by the Philadelphia Flyers (a team they beat four straight times during the regular season). Once again, the Habs were the victims of shoddy defensive coverage and awful goaltending at times by Carey Price. I live in Flyers country, so for me, this is particularly painful, because as I am finding out the hard way, the only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner, and that is to a large degree what I am experiencing right now. This is just miserable.........

The end of the line for Red Ken?

Early returns from the local elections across the U.K. are indicating that the ruling Labour Party took an absolute beating from the opposition Conservative Party, and that even Red Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, may very well have lost: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mayoroflondonelection2008/1920348/Mayor-election-2008-Tories-look-to-Boris-Johnson-to-seal-election-success.html.

Given that Red Ken was an Islamofascist-loving, anti-Israel freak, I feel no sense of loss whatsoever at his defeat..............

No, really!

The NGO Human Rights Watch is apparently anti-Israel: http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_monitor_s_report_on_hrw_bias_and_double_standards_continue. I am sure that this revelation is not much of a surprise to anyone who has seen Human Rights Watch's consistently biased and frequently hysterical pronouncements against Israel. Still, it's nice to have the numbers to now back up that contention.

Jews planned the Holocaust

You have to give it to Hamas. It's propagandists are nothing if not inventive. While on one hand it denies that there ever was a Holocaust, on the other it is now claiming that it was Jews (and specifically, those EEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLL Zionist Jews) who perpetrated the Holocaust so as to murder those of their faith who were handicapped: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870534661&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. This is straight from Hamas TV, and this is who President Peanut Farmer wants Israel to meet?

Hockey Talk

Frustrated beyond belief. That's what I, as a Montreal Canadiens fan, feel right now. There is no question that Montreal has badly outplayed Philadelphia throughout much of the series, admittedly aided in large part by refereeing that has gone the Canadiens' way through almost all of the series. Last night, the worm turned. I'm not saying that the zebras favoured the Flyers, because they absolutely did not. What I am saying is that you knew the Flyers were in line to get a late penalty call in their favour. Well, enter Steve Begin, whose asinine, moronic penalty with about five minutes left in the game led to Daniel Briere's game winning goal with 3:38 left in the game (RJ Umberger, who scored 12 goals all season, scored an empty net goal--his sixth of the series (!!) to ice the game with a little over one second left). And let's be perfectly clear: There is NO DOUBT in my mind about the call on Begin. It was absolutely a penalty, and it had to be called. I hope that he slept well last night, knowing that he cost Montreal the game, and very likely the series. Philadelphia is now up three games to one, and I expect the Flyers in Game Five to take their customary 2-0 lead and roll to victory. Here's a fact that jumps out at you as a hockey fan: Montreal's ONLY lead in this series at any point was when it scored in overtime of Game One. That's it.

All of my obsessing and moaning about the Habs may be a moot point anyway, because I don't know that any team in the East will be able to match the Pittsburgh Penguins combination of firepower at the offensive end and solid goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury in between the pipes. The New York Rangers are finding that out the hard way, and are now on the wrong end of a 3-0 series deficit. Game Four is tonight, and don't be shocked if the Pens wrap it up right in Madison Square Garden.

Out west, the Detroit Red Wings appear to have found their mojo, and they are quietly steamrolling the Colorado Avalanche. That series is 3-0, and I think that the Red Wings make it a clean sweep tonight. Finally, the Dallas Stars have forged a 3-1 series lead over the San Jose Sharks, who showed a rare bit of backbone in avoiding elimination last night. Assuming that the Stars do not become the third team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 series lead (I don't see them doing that), expect considerable changes in the Shark Tank, starting with head coach Ron Wilson. That team is much too talented to struggle in the post-season the way it does......

Racism in the name of anti-racism

The preparation for the followup to the infamous 2001 "anti-racism" conference in Durban continues, and it looks like this one will be an even more venomous assault on Israel than was the 2001 conference: http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YjVjYTQ0NmM5ZjM3ZWM5NDIyZjQ5ZDQ0NTU1ZTYzMDk. Israel has already said that it will not attend the Conference, as has Canada. The U.S. will also apparently not attend, though watch out if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is elected President. However, the EU will be there, rubber-stamping the anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli proclamations of its Islamic masters.

And then Europeans wonder why Israelis don't trust them?

The Boycott/Divestment from Israel campaign rolls merrily along

I guess that this shouldn't be a surprise. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has voted nearly unanimously to pursue a divestment from and sanctions against Israel campaign: http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14568&Itemid=86. One by one, union after union, academic organization after academic organization. They all slowly (or not so slowly) move towards a "Boycott Israel" position.

The South Africanization of the world's only Jewish-majority state continues...................

Denying Reality

Words fail me here. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice won't use the dreaded "J" (Jihad) word, because, you know, it would be mean: http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/05012008/postopinion/editorials/jihad_newspeak_108969.htm. God forbid ANYONE should link Islam with its violent, Jihadist component.

At what point does political correctness become a national security threat? I'd say right about now............