The Urban Grind

Hey everyone,

Just a quick post to wish you all a safe, happy healthy New Year.

Well, I've finally gotten to it.

I'm not going to give a blow by blow account of the mounting dead and how much each country is contributing, or how the U.N. has implied that the Western countries are "stingy" and should raise taxes, as that's already being done quite well by other sites.

Barking Moonbat Early Warning System does an excellent job of exposing Jan Egeland as an eternal malcontent who would milk us all like cows. (Heck it sounds like the entire U.N. to me -- always blaming America for all the ills of the world, while at the same time, whining for more of our money.)

The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is covering the tiff between President Bush and the U.N. over relief efforts.

What interests me the most is how people are reacting to this terrible tragedy. On the one hand, there are the environmentalists who are faulting human beings trying to improve the quality of their lives:

"Coasts are under threat in many countries," said Brad Smith at environmental group Greenpeace. "Development of roads, shrimp farms, ribbon development along coasts and tourism are eroding natural defenses in Asia."

Scientists say a build-up of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere from human burning of fossil fuels threatens to trigger more powerful storms and raise sea levels, exposing coasts to more erosion.

Smith at Greenpeace said damage to coral reefs was also making coasts more vulnerable to battering by the sea.

These environmentalists are a piece of work. They believe that man’'s moral duty is to sacrifice his own well being, comfort, quality of life, and pleasure for the non-human, in this case nature. They view human beings as interlopers who are raping benevolent Mother Nature. In their view, nature has a right to exist for its own sake, just -- because. But human beings have to bend over backward for Nature.

For a blunt objectivist commentary on environmentalists in general, click here.

For a religious perspective, Rabbi Daniel Lapin has an excellent commentary piece on how the lack of Judeo/Christian Western values, as opposed to poverty is to blame for the massive casualties:

On December 26th, 2003, over 30,000 victims perished in the Iranian earthquake in the town of Bam. To explain the vast death toll inflicted by an earthquake no stronger than that which struck the Californian town of Paso Robles within a few days, Iranian authorities pleaded poverty. It costs considerably more to engineer large-scale nuclear capability as Iran has done, than it costs to retro-fit buildings for safety in an earthquake-prone zone. The problem is not poverty, it is priority.

We took seriously the commandment in the twenty-eighth verse of the Bible, “And God blessed them (Adam and Eve) saying ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.’ ”

Not by coincidence did the overwhelming majority of these scientific and technical developments take place in the west.

Western civilization’s second distinctive cultural imperative is the importance of preserving human life. This too derives directly from our Biblical roots and distinguishes us from the peculiar fatalism toward death found in so many other cultures.

Together, these two values enshrined in the west in general

He also implanted in us a culture in which each and every life is really important. That is why Deuteronomy chapter thirty states, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.”

To read Rabbi Lapin's entire commentary, click here.

Ramsey Clark!
Not really surprising since he had acting as the general counsel for the government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

But what I would like to know is, why isn't Ramsey Clark, at the very least, in jail?

I mean, there doesn't seem to be a rogue dictator hoodlum, terrorist or murderer that the man doesn't love, or love to defend!

For a brief bio by Michelle Malkin on all his lovely activities since being Lyndon Johnson's Attorney General, click here.

Among other things, Clark was a lawyer for the Vietnam Veterans Against The War, in which John Kerry was quite active:

Clark traveled to Hanoi, North Vietnam, from July 29 to August 12, 1972, under the sponsorship of the Stockholm-based International Commission for Inquiry, a Communist “peace” front. He was taken on a guided tour and denounced the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam. He also visited American POWs held by Hanoi, falsely declaring that they were in good health and their conditions “could not be better.” Such visits by American figures gave the communists the confidence to continue in the face of defeats on the battlefield.

More recently, Clark has been collaborating with the communist Workers World Party (WWP) in staging “anti-war” demonstrations against U.S. Iraq policy. Brian Becker, a member of the WWP secretariat, helped organize those protests and was the moderator of the Ramsey Clark press event on Haiti.

He also supported FBI killer Leonard Peltier:

Leonard Peltier is the symbol of the struggle. Outside of this country, he is outside of movie stars and maybe a few athletes, like Mohammed Ali, one of the best known Americans. And they see in him the struggle of our indigenous people, for their dignity, for their sovereignty, for their future. And they wonder how it is that he's been held so long?

I think I can explain beyond serious doubt, that Leonard Peltier has committed no crime whatsoever. But that if he had been guilty of firing a gun that killed a FBI Agent, it was in defense of not just his people but the integrity of humanity, from domination and exploitation.

And naturally, NPR thinks he's just grand.

Sometimes I wonder why I still bother reading the drivel that comes out of the mainstream press. I mean, it's not like my blood pressure will shoot up or anything since it's quite low. I guess I just can't believe these people are for real.

Eleanor Clift, in my view, the heiress apparent to Helen Thomas' throne believes the following items should have received more attention from the MSM in 2004:

American casualties in Iraq: Supporters of the war cite the relatively low number of U.S. military fatalities (now around 1,300) compared to the 58,000 deaths in Vietnam. But coverage rarely focuses on the wounded, whose official number is close to 10,000. If you include those who have developed mental disabilities as a result of the stressful urban warfare, the rate of injured climbs to more than 30,000. And the number of those killed or hurt in two years of fighting in Iraq is greater than the number for the first four years of the Vietnam conflict.

So Ms. Clift would have liked to have even more coverage of the American dead, all the better to erode the resolve of the American people in fighting this war on terror. What about the casualties in Afghanistan? Somehow I don't think she would be as interested in that.

Civilian deaths in Iraq: The U.S. military doesn’t keep count of “collateral damage,” but a report by researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins indicates that 100,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the American invasion. Supporters of the war say that’s an exaggeration, but even if it’s only 10 percent accurate, 10,000 innocent Iraqis lost their lives in the cross-fire between their countrymen and an invading army.

It seems to me that liberals have a very hard time placing the blame where it's rightfully due. Civilian casualties are a sad fact of life in any war. But it's not the Americans who are causing them. How about the cowardly insurgents who think nothing of hiding inside mosques and amongst women and children, in essence, using them as human shields?

Stress and strain on National Guard and Reserves: John Kerry called the Pentagon’s reliance on these part-time soldiers to fill out the U.S. presence in Iraq a back-door draft. Forty percent of the 150,000 troops serving in Iraq are Guard and Reserves. They’re not youngsters, and interrupting their lives entails enormous social cost that will take its toll in failed marriages, children left behind, stalled careers and reduced productivity.

The only time any liberal gives a flying monkey's fart about the American military is when the army (in this case, one of VOLUNTEERS) acts in defending our interests.

Cost of the war: John Kerry was accused of exaggerating during the campaign when he said the war cost $200 billion. George Bush waited until after the election to ask for more funding and Congress is anticipating another “supplemental” budget request when it assembles next year. The cost of the war is now well over $200 billion and counting. Yet Bush wants to make his tax cuts permanent, making him the first wartime president to cut taxes rather than raise them to pay for his war.

Well if you feel the main role of the government should be that of a sugar daddy, as opposed to it's real responsibility of protecting its citizens from the initiation of physical force, and protecting their property rights, then I can see how this figure might seem excessive.

Health-care insurance—its cost and access: Bush convened an economic summit to gin up a phony crisis in Social Security, which he proposes to solve by partially privatizing the program and borrowing the trillion dollars in start-up money it would cost. The summit was a Potemkin village that ignored the far more immediate crisis of 45 million Americans without health-care coverage.

Now to be fair, I don't think that frivolous malpractice suits are the only thing responsible for the spiraling cost of health insurance. There's also the issue of state mandates. And quite frankly, I've never heard of any politician addressing this.

The useless Star Wars program: The Pentagon delayed the latest test of this fanciful idea until after the election, and when the emerging technology flunked the test, a Pentagon spokesman insisted it didn’t fail, that it was “incomplete.” Such Orwellian language has given rise to a popular bumper sticker in Washington: BUSH-ORWELL ’04. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. A missile-defense system is religion to the right. Conservatives believe in it as an act of faith. Even though the more likely threats to the nation come from a suitcase bomb, the Bush administration continues to pour billions into Star Wars, a construct of the cold war.

So let me get this straight. When the United States wants to build up its defenses, in this dangerous day and age, it's simply a "useless Stars Wars program?" It seems like I only hear the term "Star Wars" used to describe the U.S. Was it "Star Wars" when the USSR was arming to the teeth? Is it "Star Wars" when the Iranians are enriching uranium to build nukes? Is North Korea having nukes also "Star Wars." Ms. Clift blanks out here.

The assault on the teaching of evolution: We thought this was settled 79 years ago at the 1925 trial of a high-school biology teacher in Tennessee, when celebrated defense attorney Clarence Darrow represented John Scopes in the legendary Scopes "monkey trial.” Now Christian fundamentalists are hawking a new theory, intelligent design, which posits a God-like figure overseeing evolution. Critics call it “creationism dressed up in a lab coat.” What’s next? The earth is really flat?

Hate to break it to you, Ms. Clift, but America is a religious country where most people believe that human beings are more than just highly evolved animals. I think it's safe to say that once you start viewing people as only sophisticated animals, you're just a short step away from excusing all sorts of immoral behavior/actions. And to me, it seems like THAT'S what the Christian fundamentalists ultimately want to convey.

The dominance of right-wing media: It’s a food chain to die for—first Drudge, then Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, then The Wall Street Journal. When they get hold of a story, they can make it a blockbuster. Going into the Christmas season, they made the word “secular” sound worse than liberal. When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the “holiday tree” in Rockefeller Plaza and not the Christmas tree, he was accused of being a secularist.

Good Heavens! There goes that big bad dominant right wing media! So CBS, ABC NBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, and the nauseating National Public Radio with their constipated sounding commentators are just not enough for Ms. Clift.

For the full commentary, click here.

As usual, whenever liberals perceive any threat to their sacred cows, be it our ailing public schools, or in this case Social Security, they become hysterical. The so-called First Lady of the Press comes to mind with her latest rant.

Here are some of her pearls of wisdom:

Bush wants workers to earmark 2 percent of their Social Security payroll taxes for individual private investment accounts, a move that would undermine funding for the 69-year-old program that was designed to provide retirees with a secure income

The emphasis in Social Security should be on "security." Bush's plan to rely on the stock market undermines that value.

Now in my experience, most financial planners tell people who are looking to save money for a rainy day to invest in stocks, being that they have a record of outpacing inflation.

And between you and me, I have a hard time believing that Ms. Thomas and like minded people are relying ONLY on Social Security to finance their retirement. I think it would be safe to say that she has a good chunk of her own money invested in stocks.

But NOOO! Ms. Thomas doesn't want that for other Americans.

But, getting back to the viability of partially privatizing Social Security, Donald Luskin does a good job of responding to the usual bromides thrown out by those who want to keep raising our taxes to pay for this broken system.

That's what Israeli fashion photographer Adi Barkan is working towards. Together with Likud Party legislator Inbal Gavrieli, who has tabled a bill demanding that models not be employed without a doctor’s certification that they’re not underweight, Barkan is working to present a more realistic image of women in Israeli fashion magazines.

Although this is a very good thing, I don't see it catching on in the States or Europe. There is too much at stake. If women, generally, were to feel good about themselves, as opposed to feeling fat, then Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire would no doubt, be out of business. Not a bad thing come to think of it.

I mean, I'd like to know once and for all, if men find THIS attractive:


D & G 2005 Collections 

Or This:



Betsey Johnson 2005 Fashion Show 

As Opposed to Marilyn Monroe here:


Marilyn Monroe in a Bathing Suit 

Or here:


Marilyn Monroe 

If they're not getting hysterical over the removal of a hawk's nest, you can be sure they're doing something even crazier -- having their dogs Bar-Mitzvahed, rather Bark-Mitzvahed.

Unfortunately, the gruesome murder and mutilation of Bobbie Jo Stinnett by Lisa Montgomery is nothing new.

At the very least, the eight month old baby girl that Lisa Montgomery cut out of her mother's womb has been reunited with her father and is doing well.

The Washington Post has conducted a year long examination of death record data from several states, from the year 1990. The paper documents the killing of 1,367 pregnant woman and new mothers.

The killers are usually the women's husbands or boyfriends. Apparently these "men" didn't want the responsibility of being a parent or having to pay for child support. Or they just plain wanted the women out of their lives for good.

Still there are some who would say that the men resented losing control over the women and their bodies. (Typical psychobabble b.s. if you ask me) But the bigger issue is the fact that they felt they had a right to kill these women as a result of their feelings.

I hate to say it but I'm not surprised. For at least forty years, the cultural norm has been that sex doesn't have to have consequences. (And who are we kidding here, it's ALWAYS had consequences.) Women can be free to explore their sexuality or have sex like men by popping birth control pills and getting abortions.

And speaking of the pill, I am just now remembering a conversation I had a long, long time ago with an old high school friend. My friend M. went to a male gynecologist -- When M. told him that she used she used a condom a diaphragm for birth control, the man was enraged. He told her that she should be on the pill -- and that every young woman should be on the pill. Needless to say, my friend did not agree.

When she told me this, she asked why it was that she should injest hormones and possibly endanger her health just for the purpose of being at a man's beck and call.

I completely agreed with her and still do.

As I see it, the sexual revolution has benefitted men more than it has women. In the past, if a man wanted sex without commitment, he could pay money and go to a prostitute. Now he gets it for free since many women will often sleep with a man on the first, second or third date. It's no wonder that men are commitmentphobic, since they already have access to the milk without having to purchase the cow, so to speak.

Bear in mind though, I am not blaming women. In a society that degrades modesty, and where women are ridiculed for having TOO LITTLE sexual experience, women will often
do what they *think* it takes to avoid being left out.

As Wendy Shalit put it in her excellent book A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue, a cycle is set into motion:

"Once the social pressure is on for women to have 'life experience, sexual and otherwise,' a cycle is then set in motion. More women try to get this experience to fit it, but then the more women who do, the more pressure there is in turn on other women who do not, and the more likely it becomes that the inexperienced woman will in fact, be left alone. To a man who says to a young woman, I prefer a woman with life experience, sexual and otherwise, because I like a woman who knows how to please me in numerous ways, and you probably will be a clingy drag, so go out and learn a little more, honey, before I will condescend to have you pleasure me, the proper response, it seems to is, is, That's nice, I happen to prefer a man who's not a jerk, so goodbye."

But getting back to the murder of pregnant women, what I see here is that these "men," who are no doubt used to sleeping with women without giving the matter a second thought, are shocked and angry when they come face to face with the result of their actions. Hence they strike out like the monstrous spoiled brats they truly are. In a way, we have created these monsters.

Frankly, it seems that our Social Security system is almost beyond repair. But then again, the half of the country that voted for John Kerry seems to think it's fine the way it is, as long as those pesky rich people keep getting more of their money taxed... But to be fair, I don't know how much good privatized a portion of it will do, as the Bush Administration is suggesting.

Still, officials have refused to rule out the possibility that high income earners might be forced to make larger payroll tax contributions.

The lovely Star Parker predicted that something exactly like this might happen:

What it means is that Social Security reform, as currently discussed, is focused on bailing out politicians and not American citizens. When politicians tell us that they are dedicated to "saving Social Security," they are telling us that they know the system no longer works, but they don't have the courage to end it. They are telling us they don't want to do the hard work of figuring out how to meet obligations to those who have already paid in and allow working Americans the option to exit from a very bad deal.

Rather than looking for opportunities to raise money to meet obligations by cutting the substantial fat out of our federal budget, or by looking for creative means for borrowing funds to meet obligations, politicians will shift the burden to us. They will raise our taxes or our retirement age or cut our benefits so they can "save the system."

Can you all guess which group of immigrants Germany is restricting?

Believe it or not, it's not those proponents of female circumcision who refuse to assimilate into Western society.

It's the ex-Soviet JEWS, the three quarters of whom they SAY are on welfare.

New rules will mean those applying to come to Germany will have to show knowledge of German and be under 45 years old. They will also not be eligible for social aid, the paper said.

To say that Germany has it backwards would be the understatement of the year.

Now if only the U.S. would have some cojones and do something about our porous Southern border.

Via Worldnetdaily.com

in 2000, a Juarez cartel of Mexico’s drug gangs placed a bounty of $200,000 on the heads of each U.S. lawman.

In March 2002, four heavily armed Mexican army soldiers showed up on American soil, close to San Diego. They were armed with three submachine guns and an M-16 rifle. They illegally entered the country near Tecate, Mexico.

There have been other witnessed and documented “armed incursions” into U.S. territory by heavily armed Mexican army units. In March 2000, two Mexican army vehicles that carried over a dozen soldiers armed with automatic assault rifles, pistols and submachine guns drove into the U.S. near Santa Teresa, NM. They shot at Border Patrol agents.

A 28-year old ranger was killed as he and Border Patrol agents were about to nab two gunmen with ties to Mexican drug thugs. This happened in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument August 2003.

There was a high-speed car chase that ended in Bisbee, Ariz. Eyewitnesses say they have seen Mexican military and paramilitary police assisting Mexican nationals cross illegally into the U.S. In 2002, U.S. Park Service Ranger Kris Eggle was killed in a drug-related shooting. An American father and daughter were held at gunpoint inside the U.S. on their own property by a gun-toting squad of Mexican soldiers. The U.S. government released the officials – with their weapons intact, of course.

A year ago, a detail of U.S. Marines came under automatic weapons fire near the border, two miles west of Naco, Ariz. Chris Simcos, owner of the Tombstone (Ariz.) Tumbleweed newspaper pointed to the statement of FBI agent Susan Herskovits that the agency is involved in the investigation because it involves an assault on federal law-enforcement agents and involves gunfire from across the international boundary with Mexico.

As if there weren't enough already...

For one thing, the pro Ba'ath, pro Saddam group La Resistance operates out of Paris. And recently, Jacques Chirac gave the royal welcome to the head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt.

On November 19, 2003, the U.S. State Department revoked Jumblatt's diplomatic visa following his comment expressing his regret that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz wasn't killed in a Bagdad missile attack. But believe it or not, there's even more:

More recently, Jumblatt gave an interview to the Arabic London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on February 12, 2004, in which he said: “We are all happy when U.S. soldiers are killed [in Iraq] week in and week out. The killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq is legitimate and obligatory.” The Progressive Socialist Party leader has also said he felt “great joy” at the destruction of the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia in 2002, because it carried an Israeli astronaut.

More...

I often have a hard time believing that people like the author of this New York Times commentary piece are for real.

The writer laments as follows:

why are Germans - and not just Germans but other Europeans as well - in such a state of anxiety and uncertainty about matters that have been more or less settled in the world's biggest country of immigration, the United States, for years? Why this discomfort with multiculturalism, this belief that assimilation, accepting the leitkultur, is the only way?

Hmmm...let me see. I can think of several reasons.

Could it be perhaps that they, gasp, don't want female circumcision to become the norm?

Or maybe they don't want to see young women gang raped by sometimes fifty to eighty men at a time

“There was a trial in Lille where a 13-year-old girl was gang raped by 80 men. Sometimes, it’s 80, or 50 or 10. It’s absolutely terrible,” says Bellil. “In the case of Argenteuil, it was horrible. A young woman was raped in a school. Of course, everybody knew, but they're so afraid of these young men that they prefer to close their eyes. That's the price of peace in the ghettos.”

When the verdicts came down in this case, the courthouse turned into a madhouse. Eighteen teenagers were convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl over a two-month period. But what really shocked France was how the mothers of those boys reacted.

“You call this justice, seven years in prison for some oral sex,” says one mother. “It's the girl who should be behind bars.”

Or perhaps, they don't want what happened to young Sohane Benziane to be the norm:

Sohane was burned alive in the basement of an apartment complex by a gang leader who had told her that he didn't want to see her on his turf. After her murder, her sister, Kahina, dedicated a memorial at the site of her killing.

And just in case there was any doubt about where loyalties lie in these projects, when the young man accused of killing Sohane returned with police to show how he had doused her with gasoline, the highrise he had controlled broke out in cries of support.

Now how on earth are decent, civilized human beings supposed to co-exist with people who believe that pouring gasoline over a woman and setting her on fire is a good thing? Never mind what crazy Richard Bernstein of The New York Times says about assimilation not being important.

Today we're helping the Washington state GOP by donating at
http://www.wsrp.org/donate.htm or volunteering as a recount observer at
info@dinorossi.com

You Are Most Like Samantha! For you, dating is the ultimate sport You're into guys with power, looks, or a lot of money. You rather have a great two weeks than a great forever. But even you fall victim to love from time to time :-) Romantic prediction: You'll find love in the next few months... But you'll be the last one to realize it. Which Sex and the City Vixen Are You Most Like? Take This Quiz Right Now! Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

The fact that I'm the most like "Samantha" is news to me, as I am quite straitlaced. Oh well it's funny at least.

I never thought it would happen. At the beginning of the trial, I thought to myself, this will become a circus just like the O.J. trial, and Peterson will walk. But luckily, I was proven wrong. Even so, I was surprised that the jury came out in favor of the death penalty. But I'm glad I was wrong about that as well.

Still there are plenty of crazy women out there. So I won't be surprised if Peterson ends up getting love letters and marriage proposals while he's in jail.

Bad news folks.

Looks like the co-op board of 927 Fifth Avenue has caved into loonies like Mary Tyler Moore and the National Audubon Society. They are working out a tentative agreement where the hawks Pale Male and his mate Lola can come back to their "home" at 927 Fifth Avenue.

Obviously, I feel very strongly about this, since it's my third post on the subject. What I did was call the building's managing company, Brown Harris, and they referred me to the lawyers. When I called the law firm, the receptionist was amazed that I was actually against the rebuilding the hawks nest. She said I was the first person she spoke with who was *against* the return of the birds of prey.

Anyway, for those of you who are Manhattan residents, you might want to make the following calls:

927 Fifth Avenue Law Firm - 212-521-5400

Senator Hillary Clinton - ask for Dan who's in charge of environmental affairs

Senator Chuck Schumer

Let's show these moonbats that we take property rights very seriously.

It seems that some on the left can't accept the fact that George W. Bush was re-elected fair and square. Protesters are urging Ohio's delegation to the Electoral College to delay casting their votes. They don't accept that Bush won Ohio by 119,000 votes, thus winning the 20 electoral votes necessary to get re-elected.

Meanwhile in Manhattan, we have another sore loser, an artist by the name of Chris Savido. His portrait, Bush Monkeys shows from afar a painting of President Bush. But when looking at the painting closely, one can see that the image is made up of monkeys and chimpanzees swimming in a marsh.
The painting created quite a stir when it was shown at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the managers to shut down the exhibit.

Naturally, Savido is crying "censorship." He's mortified about the loss of freedom of expression.

These moonbats don't even know what censorship or freedom of speech really is. What the law really means is that the government can't jail him for his offensive portrait of president Bush, or for saying that he hates the President. It DOES NOT mean that tax payers or anyone should have to pay for a forum for the expression of ideas which they find repugnant.

This is what was communicated in a scathing email from the head of Move On's political action committee Eli Pariser this past Thursday.

I say good! Let everyone know that you people own the Democratic party. For one thing then, maybe most smart Jewish people who reflexively vote Democrat no matter what, will have their eyes opened. Maybe then, people will see the current Democratic party for what it truly is -- a party of pacifist pansies who want to tax the heck out of productive Americans, open up our borders to just anyone, not defend its citizens, and surrender our sovereignty to the U.N. and the World Court.

Civil liberty critics say that this legislation will weaken civil liberties and further erode privacy (boo whooo freaking whooo).

The new legislation broadens prohibitions against providing material support to terror groups, makes it a crime to visit a terror camp that provides military-style training and allows the FBI to obtain secret surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" extremists not known to be tied to a specific terrorist group. It also makes terrorism hoaxes a federal crime and toughens penalties against people who possess weapons of mass destruction.

So far so good.

But there's more to keeping Americans safe. Half of it includes sealing off our porous borders. And no politician, be they Democrat or Republican will go near the problem of illegal immigration with a ten foot pole. And that's a shame, when you have border town hospitals going bankrupt and heinous crimes being committed by people who shouldn't even be here in the first place.

Take for example the case of the Salvadoran gang member who admitted yesterday in a Fairfax County court that he lead the gang rape of a woman, whom he ended up killing by kicking her in the neck with such force that her left vertebral artery was ruptured.

In 2002, Hernandez went to Georgia, where he was arrested and deported. He told immigration authorities he was Mexican, so they sent him to Mexico, he told police. He quickly reentered the United States through Texas. Later that year, he robbed and beat a small child in Houston and was arrested.

In August 2002, detectives Perez, Dennis Harris and John Vickery interrogated Hernandez in a Texas prison. Vickery said Hernandez admitted the rape but not the slaying. In a subsequent conversation with Perez, he acknowledged kicking Garcia. He also admitted participating in a stabbing in Alexandria three days after Garcia's slaying and said he intended to kill the victim, who escaped. He still faces charges in that case.

But then again, to some people, the problem is that there AREN'T ENOUGH benefits for those who enter our country illegally.

According to a study done by the University of California, the Souteastern part of the United States has the nation's fastest growing Hispanic population, and the educators in those states are the least prepared for them.

U.S. Census surveys show that Latinos have a higher dropout rate than their white and Asian classmates. To the researchers at the University of California, some of the problems are:

parents who don't get involved in schools because they don't know English, and perhaps had little formal education themselves; and the barring of undocumented immigrants from competing for scholarships or even getting in-state tuition, making college prohibitively expensive.

As an aside, I think it would help if you came to this country to be an American. Otherwise, notice the use of the terms "undocumented immigrants." What part of "illegal" don't these moonbats understand? And why should they be rewarded for breaking our laws by being given in-state tuition rates?

Oy. Such lunacy!

The study then wrote about the techniques some schools used to teach tolerance and to make the non-English students feel welcome:

In North Carolina, for example, teachers tried an experiment to teach tolerance to their American students. For one day, all signs in a classroom were written in Spanish, and teacher was brought in who spoke only Spanish. The Spanish-speaking students were the only ones able to answer questions and follow the lesson, teaching their white peers that the immigrants are not stupid.

For one thing, I can't imagine this happening in another country.

NYC moonbats protesting removal of hawk's nest 



Moonbats holding a candlelight vigil for the Hawks 

Some people, unfortunately way too many, just can't understand the concept of not wanting to step over bird droppings, along with pigeon and rat carcasses when walking out the door of a ten million dollar apartment. Indeed no one should be exposed to that.

To them, and Mary Tyler Moore, it's irrelevant that the animals these birds of prey bring to their nest, kill, and tear apart for food, can cause a health hazard, say for example, contamination, Lyme disease and the West Nile Virus. But noooo!! Pale Male and his mate Lola must not be homeless!

Also, I was amazed by the letters to the editor of the New York Times.

Here's one that I found the most offensive:

I am like most New Yorkers. We live in cramped apartments without views. We climb endless staircases laden with groceries and laundry. We stand body to body in hot subway cars and deal with roaches as big as kiwi fruit and rats as big as dogs.

So it is inconceivable to me that the residents of 927 Fifth Avenue, with their vast, luxury apartments and coveted park views, can't deal with a little waste.

Last spring, I was part of a spontaneous gathering in the park that paused to watch the red-tailed hawks go to and from their nest high above 927 Fifth. Like us, they found special ways to be resilient in a city that is often inhospitable.

I only hope that the hawks can continue to thrive despite those selfish residents of 927 Fifth who have sacrificed the pleasure of many for a cleaner facade.

This comment of typical of the collective/statist/liberal mentality. It seems that in this woman's view, people who have paid million dollars to live in Manhattan's most exclusive neighborhood, should sacrifice their hygiene for the sake of the collective massess who like viewing the hawks through their telescopes. The fact is, it's their apartment and their property to do with as they wish. And if they don't want a huge hawk's nest on it, then that's their right.

It seems to me like Mary Tyler Moore, and the rest of these ditzy moonbats could use a good therapy session with Dr. Charles Krauthammer. He would straighten them out for good.

Joan and Melissa Rivers will be back on the Red Carpet critiquing celebrity fashion starting with the Golden Globe Awards next month. They were temporarily replaced by Starr Jones due to contractual issues with E Entertainment Television, which have have apparently been straightened out.

I say, more power to them since I think Joan Rivers is hillarious. Still Melissa and Joan Rivers are not without their critics, who say the duo is way too nasty. Boo hoo freaking whoooo!

Here's how I see it. When reading a computer magazine, one expects to get an honest look at the best and worst rated computers. The same holds true of audio equipment magazines. But if you open up a fashion magazine, you won't get any of that. You'll never read about a fashion writer saying a certain outfit is ugly or that it's unrealistic for a woman of a certain age to wear. Quite the contrary. Every new design is presented as the latest greatest must-have. So, if low-slung pants make you look six months pregnant, then it's up to YOU to diet, do abdominal crunches and/or get liposuction so as not to look pregnant -- heck, the magazine will have covered those topics as well.

So I say Joan and Melissa Rivers should bring it on!

It seems to me that Colin Powell's "raison d'etre" is kissing foreign tukhas (behinds).

I mean, am I the only one who doesn't care what foreigners think of America?

The other day, I read about how some Americans traveling abroad are pretending to be Canadian. What a bunch of whimps! Personally, I would never travel to a country where Americans are hated.

Manhattan's koo koo liberal celebrities and environmentalists are at it again, this time over the removal of a hawk's nest built on the cornice of the luxury co-op building at 927 Fifth Avenue, at 74th Street.

Actress Mary Tyler Moore, a fifteen year tenant of the coop was quite bent out of shape:

"I am so outraged that they would do this without so much as a by your leave," said Mary Tyler Moore, who has lived for 15 years in the co-op at 927 Fifth Avenue, at 74th Street, where the nest was built in 1993 above a cornice in clear view of Central Park.

"These birds just kept coming back to the edge of the building, and people kept coming back to see them," said Ms. Moore, who recalled at first craning her neck outside one of her windows to look up at the bottom of the nest. In more recent years, she said, she has strolled frequently across Fifth Avenue to Central Park for a better view.

"This was something we like to talk about: a kinder, gentler world, and now it's gone," Ms. Moore said last night.

Well I hate to break it to Ms. Moore and the other liberals, but there's nothing kinder and gentler about having to step over large bird droppings and pigeon carcasses every day, especially when you've forked over millions of dollars to live in Manhattan's most exclusive neighborhood.

And for the life of me, I can't understand anyone who says the rights of hawks to build their nests and lay eggs wherever they please trumps those of human beings.

Fifteen year old Mathew Ridley, who stands 6 foot 7 inches tall had to withdraw from his school in Swindon, Wiltshire, England after three years of bullying by classmates. The bullying went on for three years, and took a devastating toll on young Mathew's self esteem.

In terms of fighting back, Mathew was afraid of inflicting serious damage on the other boys who were much smaller than him. He also did not want any kind of criminal record, since he's an aspiring policeman.

And while I'm on the subject of bullying, there's a special, government sponsored anti-bullying program in Britain. Part of it consists of students wearing wristbands that say "Beat Bullying" which is seen by some as causing more bullying:

"We were afraid that they would make kids wearing them a target.

"Bullies will find any excuse - but I'm disgusted something with such good intentions should end up being abused like this."

The wristband campaign was launched by Radio 1 at the beginning of the anti-bullying week on November 21.

Launching the first Anti- Bullying week, the schools minister, Stephen Twigg, said : "Bullying creates misery for thousands of children and it is crucial that they know they are not alone.

"Wearing the band will give young people the opportunity to make a visible commitment that they are not prepared to tolerate bullying and will stand by their friends."

However, school pupils were quick to spot the reality of wearing the wristbands. Writing on the BBC's Newsround website, Rosie, 13, from London, said: "Ugh... I'm sorry, but in one school near me, it's made it a whole lot worse. Bullies are stupid, everyone knows that, and so they came up with a stupid idea.

"They basically thought 'Hey! Everyone who's wearing a wristband must be scared of bullying!' So they decided to bully the people wearing wristbands. So, it's made a difference, but not a good one."

But there was also support the for campaign. Izzy, 12, from Bath, wrote: "I think the fact that all the celebs are wearing the wristband will make a difference, because it might make people realise that it's not cool to bully."

However, a third, Shona, 13, from Norfolk, said: "I didn't even know it was anti-bullying week last week, and neither did the bullies at my school."

Now I've heard all the typical psycho-babble about why bullies bully -- that it's all about the bully being an insecure person, etc. And it seems that so many bullying programs these days seek to delve into this "root cause" of bullying, all the better to supposedly, prevent it.

However, I think most people who were ever bullied will say that it wasn't done to them by the nerdy, shy, quiet kid sitting by himself in the corner of the classroom picking his nose. It was done to me by the pretty, wealthy, well dressed and well coiffed girls who were part of the so-called "first best clique." These were the girls that seemed to have everything going for them. Still, some of you might say "but if they were truly secure, they wouldn't feel the need to bully others." And I can see your point.

But when dealing with this whole bullying issue, the whole focus is on "root causes" as in why are the bullies so insecure? And what makes one person get singled out for bullying as opposed to another?

All I have to say in response to these questions is that I don't give a rat's behind. While insecurity may SEEM to be the reason why people bully others, the larger issue is that fact that these brats FEEL THEY HAVE A RIGHT to get their jollies by bullying other kids. And to me, that falls under the category of VERY BAD MANNERS.

Granted I'm not saying that kids have to be best friends with all their classmates, but part a big part of having good manners is treating others with respect and common courtesy, which kids should be taught.

You know, it's like the war on terror. Liberals want us to understand the "root causes" for why the rest of the world hates us, so that we can make the rogue regimes like us. Most sane people, however will just want to hunt down and kill the terrorists.

The photovoltaic cell is old news. The latest way to exploit the sun is through tiny materials that can directly convert sunlight into large amounts of hydrogen.

Hydrogen Solar of Guilford, England, and Altair Nanotechnologies are building a hydrogen-generation system that captures sunlight and uses the energy to break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The company's current project is a fuel station in Las Vegas that will soon be dispensing hydrogen fuel.

I say, the sooner the better! Every drop of oil that we import from Middle Eastern rogue states gives them more money with which to develop nukes or other WMD's. Furthermore, I don't think Saudi Arabi should have a veto over our foreign policy, especially in this war on terror. And that can be made possible by developing alternate, less expensive fuels.

This week, you can help out the Washington state GOP by calling 425-646-7202 to volunteer.

France is moving to revoke the broadcast license Hezbollah run TV station Al Manar.

A petition was put out by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, which was signed by the head of France's four major political parties.

The Al Manar people naturally blame this all on the pesky Zionists.

At a speech marking Student Day at Tehran University, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was heckled by students who shouted "shame on you" and "where are your promised freedoms" to which Khatami responded:

There is no Third World country where the students can talk to their president and criticise the government as you do now.

Wow that really says a lot, huh?

Things like this just strike me as just another way for the mainstream media to undermine the war on terror and to take a swipe at President Bush.

And this bit of news also seems like the same thing to me.

In the case of the torture allegations at Guantanamo starting in 2002, my thought is that those terrorist prisoners are being treated way more humanely than they would have if Saddam were running the place. Also, fron what I understand, the Geneva convention only applies to soldiers in uniform of a specific country. These insurgents, would, I believe, be considered guerillas, who are not covered.

And finally, I'm have a hard time getting worked up over the so-called mistreatment/torture of these terrorists. Remember, these people are in Guantanamo because they were caught trying to kill, or helping those trying to kill coalition soldiers.

In the case of the CIA Bagdad Chief, what is the point of broadcasting to the whole world that there are problems in Iraq? It only emboldens all the terrorists and their rogue state sugar daddies.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that the mainstream media has it in for President Bush. So they'll do anything, even if it means endangering our soldiers, and undermining the resolve of our country to see this through, to make President Bush look bad.

Can someone please explain to me why the idiot Norman Mineta hasn't been fired?

All the agency has been doing lately is strip searching women.

The beloved U.N!!!

Yup. They want Robert Moses Park on 42nd Street for an annex to house their diplomats and staffs while the fifty two year Secretariat building is being renovated.

For an organization of rogue states that is anti-American, pro-terrorist and who has stiffed New York City for millions in fines and taxes, I say throw them the hell out of this city, and our country.

I mean what colossal nerve! What chutzpah!

With his sad brown eyes and soft, floppy ears, Marley, a 2-year-old Boxer, is the kind of dog that's hard to resist. Just ask his co-owner Ashley Wilson, a music director at a Seattle rock station. After splitting up with her live-in boyfriend, Todd Templeton, just before Christmas last year, Wilson and Templeton exchanged Marley informally every week. Then, last August, according to a lawsuit filed by Wilson, Templeton abruptly ended the arrangement and kept Marley.

Instead of giving up or just getting a new dog, Wilson joined the growing ranks of animal lovers who are filing lawsuits over their pets. After consulting Adam Karp, a lawyer in Bellingham, Wash., who says he has handled about 100 animal-related cases in the past four years, Wilson filed suit in late October. She has already won at least a temporary victory. Last month a superior court judge ordered the exchanges to resume immediately, pending a final ruling. (Templeton declined to comment on the case.) About seeing Marley for the first time in three months, Wilson says, "His tail was wiggling out of control. I just hugged him and started to cry."

I'll be the first to admit I'm biased here, since I'm not exactly a pet person. Should we treat animals as humanely as possible? Of course? But I kind of draw the line at lawsuits.

It's like the rest of the country is going as koo koo as Manhattan with its famous Animal Medical Center, where people's pets can get treated for teeth grinding, and cataracts, among other things. In fact, a few years ago, New York Magazine did a feature on this place. One thing I remember about the article was a woman with a pet rodent who wanted surgery for the animal's overbite. During its surgery, the animal had a bad reaction to the anasthesia. The vet, who was allergic to rodents had to give the animal mouth to mouth. But still it was not enough -- the rodent died. When the doctor broke the news to the woman, she asked to be left alone with the rodent for a few minutes, ostensibly to mourn its death.

As I'm typing now, I'm reminded of some people in my building with large dogs who don't bother to put them on a leash when leaving their apartments. They just don't take into account that not everyone will want to be slobered on by their beloved dogs in the elevator. Its as if the fanatical love of their pets trumps common courtesy to other human beings. Oh well.

Christopher Pittman, who turns 16 this April, is being prosecuted as an adult for the murder of his grandparents in November of 2001. His father, Joe Pittman, blames the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) anti-depressant drug Zoloft, saying "his sense of right and wrong was clouded by the antidepressant."

Authorities say Pittman shot his grandparents to death as they slept because they had scolded him for fighting on the school bus.

"When I was lying in my bed that night, I couldn't sleep because my voice in my head kept echoing through my mind, telling me to kill them.

Yeah right. Something, or someone else is always to blame. Personal responsibility has become passee, kind of like treason.

Now to me, twelve years of age is old enough to know for certain that murder is a moral faux pas. At least I knew it at that age, as did my entire family. And if young Christopher didn't know it, regardless of what the voices in his head were saying, I'd have to say his parents screwed up royally with him. I mean, face it people, the purpose of parents, on a very basic level (as opposed to teachers, neighbors and friends) is to civilize their children. And part of that training should be that it's wrong to murder.

But, I guess I'm digressing a bit. There *have* been reports of people taking the similar drug Prozac also having suicidal tendencies. That's why it's so important to go to a competent doctor and to learn as much as you can about the pros and cons of these medecines. And if you're having strange thoughts, tell your parents or your doctor!

As it stands now, I say let the boy, and his parents go to jail.

I just got my very own Blogopoly piece, courtesy of Aaron the Liberal Slayer:


My Blogopoly piece 

Yesterday, Lee Peterson, father of Scott Peterson who was found guilty of the murder of his wife Laci and their unborn son Connor, took the stand to paint a softer picture of his son, describing him as:

"a perfect baby" who became a hard-working young man intent on putting himself through college despite his family's advantages.

"He was sunny, motivated, always took care of business, always had a direction," Lee Peterson said as his son's defense lawyers opened their case in the penalty phase of his double-murder trial. "You wouldn't catch him lying around in bed."

Lee Peterson recalled when he gave Scott his first golf club at 3 and how the two of them bonded over a game both loved. He said Scott had dreams of professional golf and followed a high school teammate, future star Phil Mickelson, to college in Arizona. But after a semester, Scott realized the limits of his talent and returned to California, his father said.

Well, not to burst Ditzo's bubble, but murdering your wife and unborn child cancels out all the mumbo jumbo sprouted above.

And what kind of cold, depraved, sociopathic human being could deliberately kill his pregnant wife just to be free to whore around? (I'm sure there are plenty.) I'm sure with someone like this (Scott) there were plenty of signs. Perhaps Laci was so in love and happy to be pregnant that she totally missed them. Or maybe she sensed something was off, but couldn't bring herself to admit how bad the situation was. Love is blind, they say.

But we'll never know.

As a Manhattanite, I am very happy about this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has picked as his homeland security secretary former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who helped the city respond to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later went to Iraq, Republican officials said on Thursday.

I just remember the rage and sadness I felt that day, along with the confidence I felt in Rudolph Giuliani being on the scene right away with Kerik at his side overseeing the rescue, recovery and investigation of that horrible attack. (Granted, I always thought Rudolph Giuliani was the most awesome Mayor New York ever had.)

All I can say now is that I hope Kerik doesn't let political correctness stand in the way of protecting Americans. This whole issue of illegal immigration is like the Emperor with no clothes. No one, except for Tom Tancredo wants to go near it. It's like, HELLO!!! THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES ON, AND HIS SUBJECTS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY! I mean, political correctness is out of control when you have certain people comparing the phrase "illegal alien" to the "N" word, and I'm not kidding. That was covered a few months agon on "Hannity & Colmes."

Only recently has the maximum security Jefferson City Correctional Center removed its violent video games from its recreational center. Apparently, inmates have been enjoying violent games such as "Hitman: Contracts" where players can use everything from meat hooks to silencer equipped pistols to carry out their make believe killings. This had been going on for months until a reporter finally alerted officials.

I just have to say, these prisoners have it good, between the weight rooms, where they can bulk up to be able to beat the crap out of anyone, and now the violent video games.

Guess what folks --

France, Germany, Russia AND Britain are sticking up for Kofi Annan regarding the oil for food scandal. I mean, what else would France Germany and Russia do? I was surprised a little regarding Britain.

Norm Coleman the other day called for Annan's resignation. But that's not enough. The whole U.N. is rotten to the core. I say throw them the hell out of our country, and stop giving them our hard-earned tax dollars. Let them take up residence in Sudan or any other rogue state.

After all, just think of the many apartments that can be built in that huge space in Manhattan. Maybe, just MAYBE then New York City rents won't be soooo sky high. But then again, that's just wishfull thinking on my part.

More...

Better late than never...

Today we're helping Louisiana candidate for Congress Charles Boustany
by donating at

http://www.charlesboustany.com/content.cfm?id=22&sec=4&type=4

The following are the newest additions to my blogroll:

Aaron The Liberal Slayer

The Antiprotester Journal

Beautiful Atrocities

Donald Luskin

Enjoy!