Media Only Willing to Offend Christians

A media dilemma: The rest of a story

As a non-practicing Catholic, you can usually count on me to stay out of most discussions about anti-Christian bias; but this is so egregious that it's worth starting an argument over.

For several days now, much of the world has been caught up in Islamic protests around the world based on cartoons which depict Mohammed in an unfavorable light. The media dutifully reports about the outrage of Muslims, but will not show the public what it is that is so incendiary that it should justify Muslims threatening to create civil war in Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Let me get this straight: you can offend any number of Christians you want, but if you risk offending a Muslim then you must censor yourself to protect their fragile egos? This is the ridiculous position of most major media outlets in the U.S.

As the article points out, almost no American media outlets have had the tiniest bit of courage required to reprint or show the cartoons which have gotten the Islamo-fascists so upset. Oh sure, you can show a hostage being beheaded or air a bin Laden tape preaching hatred and intolerance toward even moderate Muslims if it makes that evil Bush administration looks bad; but if it might upset Osama bin Laden or his fanatical followers, then you have to protect the public from the offensive image.

How can these people manage to walk a straight line while being twisted up in the pretzel logic required to justify both positions at the same time and still claim they're "objective" with a straight face?

These are the very same newspapers that regularly publish editorial cartoons making fun of Jesus, God and Christians. Why? Because the majority of Christians tend to vote for Republicans while the majority of journalists - and Muslims - are Democrats. It has nothing to do with the sensitivity they're pretending to possess, it's all about politics...their politics and a driving need to insult their opponents at every opportunity while protecting their political allies from even an imagined slight.

Every day, more and more, the media is showing that they don't care who they side with as long as it isn't anyone who might vote Republican....

U.N. Drags Israel Into Iran Weapons Dispute

Dispute Over Israel Delays Vote on Iran Nuclear Resolution

This sort of thing is exactly why the U.N. is so impotent. The issue before them is whether Iran should be allowed to develop nuclear weapons: it's really a yes or no question. So how do they handle it? By dragging Israel into it, of course.

I doubt very much that the Bush administration would be willing to include any language that has any mention of Israel in it. As they've already said, putting any such language in there would give Iran the excuse to continue developing weapons.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the U.N. isn't going to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Even if a resolution is adopted, the Iranians - like the Iraqis and others before them - will promptly ignore any imposed sanctions and there will be plenty of corrupt hands waiting for their oil money to help them skirt the rules.

They're wasting time while the clocks ticks down....

Cartoon Follies in the Islamic World

Cartoon Crisis?

Squiggler has an excellent round-up of the stories and columns about the latest Islamic "outrage." I'm not even going to try to duplicate it, just recommend that you go there for the whole deal.

For my part I have to ask, would it be such a bad thing for this to be "it": the moment when the Islamic-fascists give up the pretension to taking part in society and reveal their pseudo-religion in all its ugliness?

It's a conflagration that's coming. We can either take it piecemeal or swallow the whole thing in one mouthful. Personally I think it would be better to have it all in one fell swoop.

The Islamo-fascists have no idea what they're up against. They think that they struggle only against a small majority of Americans who are willing to stand up and fight, but having lived in Europe for the majority of my childhood I can tell you that getting on their bad side is nothing to laugh at either.

For years, they have been able to preach their hate while protected in the West by governments too weak-kneeed with multi-culturalism to stop them by saying "this has gone too far." So the industrialized world has slowly been infected with their disease.

Better to force it out in the open and to start a conflict which will force governments to choose sides: either for Islamo-fascism or against it. They will soon find that their particular brand of intolerance is not welcome when it's an all or nothing proposition.

Would it be uncomfortable for a while and would there be bloodshed? Yes to both questions. But it's discomfort and bloodshed that's on our doorstep anyway. Even they think it's inevitable, but they wait until they have gathered enough strength to tip the balance toward them. Better now when the scales favor civilization over primitive hate...

How prophetic will Bush's ultimatum from 2001 that "you're either with us or against us" appear when the looming conflict arrives, and how foolish will those who mocked him be proven?

NAACP Engages in Racism for Profit

Yet They Wonder Why Bush Doesn't Come To Their Convention

I wonder if it's possible to nail down the exact point that the NAACP stopped being about fighting for racial equality and turned into a "hate whitey Republicans" profit machine?

Once again Julian Bond has called Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell "tokens" - essentially saying that any white person who would hire them is doing so only to hide their racism, not because they were 4 Star Generals or ran the University of Stanford or anything that might be considered actual qualifications for the job.

He also said that Republicans are Nazis. Nice. That's beyond politics and well into "hate speech." It's interesting that a group of people who profess to be so sensitve about the use of the "N" word would so casually toss around a word like "Nazi" to describe those who have committed the egregious sin of not kowtowing to his Racism-For-Profit organization.

What angers me most about this kind of rhetoric is Julian Bond is a liar. He's not the backwards redneck or the project dweller who hates because he's ignorant. He doesn't even hate: he just talks the talk to make money for his organization.

If he, or anybody in his organization, REALLY believed that Republicans were Nazis would they ever have issued an invitation for them to speak at their convention? Of course not! No self-respecting organization would ever invite a Nazi to give a key-note address - let alone one which existed for the ostensible purpose of promoting racial equality and understanding.

It would be unthinkable to do so, yet that's exactly what the NAACP does over and over again. Actions speak louder than words: and their own actions call them liars and profiteers.

So why does he call these people tokens and Nazis? Because without the overheated rhetoric no one would pay attention to him or his organization. The donations would stop flowing, and Mr. Julian Bond would have to find a real job.

So instead he and his staff sit down to find ways to keep the coffers overflowing with cash by setting up Republicans as false bogeymen. He then tells his potential donors how they need to keep giving to the NAACP so it can go on protecting them from those evil Nazis who, evidently, would otherwise have sent them off to death camps to be annhilated with the Jews.

The only noble cause Julian Bond is fighting to protect is Julian Bond's pocketbook and that of his cohorts at the NAACP....

If He's Not Wagging His Tail, You're Sick...

Canine Scent Detection of Cancer at Nerac Blog

Just another one of the ultra-cool things that dogs can do that we can't, and yet another reason why dogs are a man's best friend.

One thing I know for sure, I'd rather have a dog smell my breath than have to go through the prodding and poking involved in an annual checkup.

Where Do They Find These People?

A Mama's Rant: WIFE SWAP

Ever wondered (like I do) where they find the people to participate in these reality shows? A Mama's Rant received an e-mail from ABC for their show "Wife Swap," and I thought you'd like to see how they go about promoting their show to prospective participants.

Iran Plays For More Time While U.N. Dallies

Iran 'will face Security Council'

Ooooh...I'm sure the mullahs in Iran are absolutely quaking in their boots at the prospect that they are being referred to the Security Council. So what? Saddam Hussein spent over a decade in power after being referred to the Security Council and was only removed from power ultimately by the determination of an American president fed up with the impotence of United Nations action.

All of this is wasting precious time while Iran works behind the scenes to develop a nuclear bomb. Once they have a bomb, then there's nothing anyone can do to stop them and they know it. So they play for time. More time for diplomacy means more time for research and development. They know it, and they mean to play it out as long as it takes....

Bush Gets Medicare Drugs Right

Federal Costs Dropping Under New Medicare Drug Plan

According to this article in the New York Times, federal costs for Medicare drugs will be 20% lower than expected this year. For anything in government to beat cost expectations by 20% is a stunning achievement, for that drop to occur in Medicare and specifically in drugs is nothing short of a miracle.

Why the huge drop? Why, the Bush administration's Medicare drug plan, of course. Despite the Democrats' best efforts to derail it, downtalk it, and generally do everything they could to get in the way of seniors getting Medicare drug coverage; it is on track to provide significant cost savings to the government while allowing seniors access to drugs that they otherwise could not have afforded.

Despite every single prediction they had about how the Bush plan would fail, the best they can do is complain there is too much choice out there. Are you kidding me? Try taking that one to the electorate: Bush plan gives you too many choices, elect us and we'll take your choices away!

Score a huge one for the Bush administration. When even the New York Times has to grudgingly admit that a Republican plan is working as advertised, then you know you've really hit a home run.

High School Bullies Break Basketball Record

High school star's 113 are points of contention

I have to agree with the coach of the losing team on this one: I'm not impressed with this "record" at all.

High school athletics is about sportsmanship and team play. There's nothing to be gained by beating up on a bad team. It's like the 6' bully beating up the 4'5" guy: yeah you beat him, everyone already knew you could, what exactly did you prove by doing it?

A good coach would adjust his school's schedule so that he was always challenging his team by playing against worthy opponents. Playing against a team that's not even half as good as yours and then trying to claim some kind of accomplishment because you did exactly what everyone knew you could do before the game started is the act of a bully scared of real competition not that of a sportsman.

High school athletics is as much about teaching a kid how to handle defeat gracefully as it is about how to be gracious winner. This coach has gone out of his way to teach his students neither lesson.

The player already had her college guaranteed, so there was nothing riding on the game. This was purely about rubbing the other team's face in their inability to keep up.

Congrats, coach...you taught your players how to be bullies, but taught them nothing else...Too bad they won't know how to handle it later in life when they're getting their butts kicked because now their opponents aren't half their size with half their skill...

Apple Faces Frivolous iPod Lawsuit

Turn Down iPod Volume: Suit

You can count on it like clockwork: whenever there is a wildly successful product being sold, there will be a lawyer ready to file a stupid suit to get his piece of the money.

This time it's the iPod and some moron in Louisiana who evidently needed to be told that if you listen to anything at high volume for long enough you can cause hearing damage.

This ranks up there with the "I didn't know hot coffee was served hot" lawsuit against McDonald's for lawyer malfeasance. There is no way that this guy didn't know it could be a problem. No one who has ever been subjected to loud noise and been left with the ears ringing can't figure out on their own that loud noises can harm your hearing. On top of that, the iPod ships with a warning that listening to it at high volume can cause damage. Is it Apple's fault that this guy can't or won't read?

I am absolutely disgusted with a legal system that allows stupid people to extort money from anyone with a deep pocket who stands close enough to them. If ever there was a case that screamed out for tort reform, this is it...

When Incest and Marriage Collide

Man forced to marry four wives in six months

When your family tree has no branches because you keep marrying inside your own family, is there any wonder that you wind up in a mental hospital?

This is the kind of thing that burns me up when people say we need "honor other cultures." This culture involves taking multiple wives from within their own family trees. Even if you disregard our own social prohibitions against that sort of thing, that's a recipe for all sorts of genetic problems - like insanity, for example.

The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice. Many African cultures practice female genital mutilation. The list goes on. Just because a native culture exists doesn't mean that it deserves to keep existing despite what many bleeding-hearts say.

There is such a thing as cultural extinction - whether it's natural or forced on it by another culture. It's not always a bad thing, and I think this article is a perfect illustration of a culture in serious need of extinction.

Republicans Given Credit For Democratic Failure

Republicans Were Masters In the Race to Paint Alito

This overlong "analysis" article contains typical wrongheaded analysis by reporters too blinded by their ideology to see what's really going on.

They go into intimate detail how the process went forward, yet miss the overarching message of the nomination process: the Democrats already lost two elections because the judges issue and not enough of them were willing to risk re-election to make a point the public wasn't buying.

The Democrats have been crying wolf over every move made by the Bush administration, claiming that every nomination or proposed program will bring the sky crashing in on the country. People aren't buying it. After five years of Bush's presidency, they see that all of the apocalyptic talk from the other side of aisle has meant very little to their daily lives.

This president has faced more outrageous propaganda and outright slander than any in history, yet still his opponents fail to understand the obvious: their message has failed.

There might be a great number of people who are dissatisfied with the way things are. But they also recognize that the Democratic party and their army of special interest groups is not a viable alternative. No one is listening to them any more. They're even losing the most liberal to the Green Party and other splinter political factions.

While it may feel good for Republicans to gloat and read articles about how smart they were, they would be wise to understand the truth: they won because the Democrats lost before they ever took the field.

Bush Defies Expectations in SOTU

Bush extends terror war to all tyranny

Every time his critics think they've pounded President Bush into submission and forced him to pare back his agenda into something more acceptable to the Left, he comes back with bigger and bolder plans. Last night's speech was no exception.

Despite all the criticism of the war in Iraq, he hammered away at the regimes in Iran and Syria most especially with veiled threats and encouraging revolution from within.

My favorite moment was when he embarrassed the Democrats after their shameful show at having stalled Social Security reform during the last session. After setting them up and allowing them to put on their partisan display, he slammed them with the statement that the problems aren't going away and that it's no time for partisan politics. Ouch, Democrats. Not such a good idea to try to horn in the President's time. Expose the Left has the video.

And as for the Democratic response. When the best you can do as a retort is to rehash an old movie line, you know you're playing a weak hand...'nuff said...

News Puts Out Feeds: Now Cries Foul

Search engines challenged on "theft"

The companies that report the news have now found a new scapegoat for low readership and ratings: Google.

What really is happening here is that they want a piece of the revenue Google gets for doing exactly what they made possible by distributing their own RSS feeds. The ironic thing is that most news is put together by the wire agencies - AP, UPI, etc. - and the newspapers, et al. are only re-publishing the same story as every other publisher who subscribes to that news agency.

In essence, they're mad because Google is re-aggregating what they aggregated from other sources in the first place...and making money on it that they think belongs in their pockets instead.

Since it's their own RSS feeds that Google uses to aggregate their news, the publishers are going to be hard-pressed to make their case stick. I think the end result of the case will be a judgment that this is nothing more than sour grapes because someone else found a way to do the publishers' job better than they did it...

Democratic Plan to Tar Republicans Hits a Snag; But Plan Moves Ahead Anyway

The Money Trail

While the Democratic spin doctors were licking their chops to try tarring Republicans with the Abramoff scandal, they forgot to make sure their own hands were clean in the matter.

Harry Reid, John Kerry, and Hilary Clinton (to name just a few of the bigger Democratic names involved) have all benefitted from association with Abramoff and/or his clientele; so it's going to be very difficult for them to claim that anyone who took money from Abramoff is necessarily corrupt and needs to be voted out of office. It would be seeming political suicide for the 90% of Democratic Senators who did the same thing.

The crazy part is that they're going to do it anyway, and it will probably have some effect. History has shown that they will simply say that sure Democrats took money, but their intentions were honorable while those evil Republicans are despicably corrupt and danced with the devil while they plotted to kill babies with the illicit funds.

Rather than accept that there is deep-seated corruption in Washington on both sides of the aisle, there is a significant portion of their constituency who will believe them - not because it has the ring of truth, but because it helps justify their irrational tin hat anti-Republican conspiracy theories that they can't let go of without destroying their entire world view.

They don't just want to believe Republicans are evil incarnate, they need to because if Republicans aren't evil then the world doesn't make sense for them any more. They forced themselves to repeat 'Blood for Oil' and all the lies of Fahrenheit 9/11 to keep their mental house of cards from falling down, why should they start worrying about facts now?

...Speaking of Art Appreciation

Art expert fooled by chimp's painting

This just demonstrates once again that most art isn't, and most art experts aren't...

If your work can be mistaken for that of a chimpanzee - even by an "expert," I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably not nearly as good as you've been credit for it being.

Personally I think Satscho understands the true value of the painting more than the "expert" does...

But Is It Art?

Artist paints with her breasts

We've heard of people who paint with their feet, but this is definitely a new one. I can't imagine that there's any true 'art' value here, but if you're in the market for a 'breast painting' my guess is that appreciating fine art isn't exactly your strong suit.

Try Your Ham With a Little Something Extra

'Dog sh*t' ham

Yummy! This sort of thing makes you want to start reading the ingredient labels on the food you buy from now on.

While it was great fun while it lasted, how do you explain to a prospective employer why you got fired from your last job?

Here We Go Again At Post Office

Seven dead after Calif. postal shooting spree

It has to be asked at this point: what is wrong with postal workers? Too many shootings have occurred not to wonder what is missing in the interview process that so many people who are willing to not just off themselves, but groups of other people are winding up working there?

I don't care what they say, their work is not so incredibly stressful that it's going to lead people to just snap. Most of the sorting, etc. is done by machine, most stamps are purchased at somewhere other than from a postal employee over the counter, and most priority packages are being sent by private courier services. They're union employees, so it's not like they don't have job security and benefits. There's no good reason other than that the Post Office is going out of their way to hire the mentally unstable.

If there has to be gun control of any kind, it looks like prohibiting any one who works or has worked there from owning one is the best place to start.

Palestinians Demand Handouts

US urges Arab states to fund Palestinians after Hamas victory

The spokesman for the Palestinians demanded...you heard that right...that the U.S. and E.U. continue to fund their violent regime. The sense of entitlement to our tax dollars is all I need to say that they don't deserve it. They seem to forget that they don't have a right to my money. Never did. And now to *demand* it?

They're protesting the "humiliating conditions" of being required to give up terrorism. Too bad. It should have been done a long time ago. If this is what they consider humuliation, they have either forgotten or never known the meaning of the word.

If they're looking for sympathy for their cause, issuing demands isn't the way to get it.

Saddam to Duck Trial

Lawyer: Saddam to boycott next session

The show trial of the decade will evidently have to go forward with the presence of Saddam Hussein for a day or two. Aw shucks! Is that supposed to bother anyone because I can't say as I really care whether he's there or not.

Everyone knows at the end of this he's going to be found guilty. The only question is what sentence is going to be imposed. Everything that happens up to the day of sentencing is just showmanship on both sides.

Scientist Lacks Courage of His Convictions

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

Over the past few years, the NY Times has become the home for every crackpot and conspiracy theorist who might possibly shed a bad light on the Bush administration, so the fact that this article appears there should come as a surprise to no one. The headline screams about global warming, but it's just another disgruntled government employee story that's only marginally related to global warming.

Hansen evidently is upset that he's just a scientist and not a policy maker and is therefore required by his employer not to make policy pronouncements. Shocker! If that's news, then every file clerk who thinks they can run the company better than the CEO should be immediately placed in charge of company press releases and promoted to the corner office or given their own article in the NY Times about their employer is "trying to stop [them] from speaking out."

If he really thinks his employer is so awful, he should have the courage of his convictions and quit. That's what everybody else does. Instead, he goes crying to the NY Times that there's some sort of vast conspiracy to keep him from speaking out. Sorry James, those are the rules you signed up for when you accepted your job. You don't get the option of unilaterally changing them when they don't suit you any longer.

This whole thing is ridiculous on its face. No one can be forced to keep quiet, but you can be forced to shut up by your employer if what you're doing violates company policy. But even that works only so long as you're willing to play by the rules and keep working there. The wonderful thing about the USA is that you always have the freedom to quit and find employment elsewhere.

But I guess Hansen is more interested in playing the victim than he is serious about the issue he supposedly feels is so vital. If he was serious, he'd quit and make his speeches without worrying about anyone else thought or said.

Since actions speak louder than words, we can only be left with the conclusion that he's either a complete coward or a self-important, disgruntled employee with a serious martyr complex. I'm leaning towards the latter...

Since even he doesn't see any need to do anything about this supposedly serious situation besides whimper and whine without taking any real action, why should anyone else care either?

Palestine To Lose EU Backing

Hamas faces European aid threat

On the heels of Bush's pronouncement that Palestine would lose U.S. foreign aid if Hamas doesn't disarm, Germany's chancellor is saying that the EU will follow suit if Hamas doesn't renounce violence.

The full text of the statement isn't available, but there's a difference between "renouncing violence" and disarming. If all the EU requires is a pro forma statement that it renounces violence then it gives Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians license to continue the Arafat doublespeak of saying they want peace while turning a blind eye to their own people committing suicide bombings.

Nothing short of requiring full disarmament is going to have any impact on the situation, and I'm still not sure that the EU has the backbone to take it to the limit by demanding it.