Bottled Water Theatens Evironment

Bottled water, a natural resource taxing the world's ecosystem

Irony thy name is bottled water...

Catch almost any "environmentally conscious" activist these days and odds are good that they'll either have bottled water in their hands or at least nearby. It's the ultimate drink of the politically correct crowd. Yet a new study shows that these people are committing as much environmental damage as the evil people they claim are "destroying the planet."

A quick read through the article yields some interesting statistics:

1) You could power 100,000 automobiles a year with oil consumed making those bottles.

2) That 86% of those plastic bottles wind up in landfills, and they'll take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

3) Bottling water is leading to water shortages in some of the most impoverished areas of the world - thereby contributing to Third World poverty.

For what? As the article points out, the bottled water they're drinking is no safer than the tap water they're eschewing.

So the next time somone has something to say about your Humvee, remind them about how much damage they're doing with their bottled water...

Intolerant Muslims Burn for Valentine's Day

NEXT, THEY CAME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

So burning Valentine's Day cards is regarded as peaceful, moderate Islamic protest?

Here's a clue: if you're setting ANYthing on fire that wasn't specifically intended to be torched, it's not a peaceful protest. But this is what passes for "moderation" in the Islamic world today.

I know that the politically correct thing to say is that we are not at war against Islam, but as story after story makes clear: those "peace-loving Muslims" we hear so much about are the minority not the other way around.

Those minority Muslims are living in as much fear of the rest of Islam as everyone else. They are under the same death sentence for dissent as non-Muslims.

Michelle nails it on the head when she brings up dhimmitude because that is their end goal. This is a fascist political ideology masquerading as theology, and the world needs to wake up to the fact that politically correct "multi-culturalism" is dead unless you're willing to accept eventual dhimmitude.

There is such a thing as right and wrong, and to call a thing by its true name is not "prejudicial" or "intolerant": it's the first step to addressing the problem that threatens the entire non-Muslim world.

The majority of the world's Muslims have no desire to live side-by-side with Christians and Jews with a mosque across the street from a church and a synagogue. There is a minority who are willing to do so, but they are denounced as unclean traitors every bit as vulnerable to the riotous masses as the unbeliever.

Read the websites of even so-called moderate clerics such as Ayatollah Sistani, and you'll find directives declaring non-believers to be the equivalent of urine, feces and the like. Does this sound like the kind of person who'd be happy to be your neighbor and be a constructive part of your multi-cultural neighborhood?

The irony of this card-burning protest is that Islam has been proclaimed as a "religion of peace," yet even cards to celebrate a day of love aren't safe from destruction. Just saying a religion is peaceful doesn't make it so.

A couple of old saws come to mind: namely that actions speak louder than words and that none are so blind as those who will not see...

It's time to stop listening to the words, take blinders off, and actually see what's going on...

More Reason Not to Burn Flags

Warning to protesters from Welsh flagmaker

This could make the issue of whether or not to protect American flags from burning with a constitutional amendment completely irrelevant. If trial lawyers get a hold of this issue, they could make burning flags illegal (or at least prohibitively expensive) on safety grounds alone..

Government Cutbacks Get Serious in Romania

Toilet roll falls foul of cutbacks

You know things are bad when the government can't afford toilet paper for its employees....

Come to think of it, maybe we should hire this guy to tighten some belts in government here in the U.S....

RU-486 + Bacteria = Death?

Government Calls Conference to Study 2 Deadly Infections

That's the question that a scientific conference is going to investigate. I have no idea whether the RU-486 is causing the bacterial infections that killed four women. My question is why RU-486 isn't being pulled off the shelves until we know one way or other as we do to pretty much other drug we suspect of having deadly side effects?

The answer is, of course, politics. Abortion activists have a lot invested in the success of RU-486. They will keep it on the shelves until they actually see a woman die in front of their eyes - and perhaps longer.

They don't care about women's health, despite all their protestations. They care about their politics and winning. If there is a link established between RU-486, all the activists who pressured the FDA for so many years and who made so many assurances about its safety will have not only egg on their faces, but blood on their hands. The politics of abortion and public opinion would change, and the pill's defenders know it. So they resist even taking ordinary precautions in a case like this.

I'm going on record as saying that the pills should be pulled off the shelves until we know for sure one way or the other. I only hope that no more women wind up dying in the name of abortion politics...

Hilary Clinton and King Kong..

Separated at Birth 26: King Kong and...

Y'know...I had never really thought about it before, but....

But I Thought Homosexuality Wasn't a Choice?

Shy Swedes fail to seduce gay penguins

At Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany, they have too many male penguins, and at a zoo in Sweden they have too many females. Not a big problem: just bring some females from Sweden and even up the odds, right? That's what zookeepers thought too. Unfortunately the penguin gals are more the shy types and didn't manage to find any mates.

Here's where the story got a little funny to me: homosexual "militants" protested the Bremerhaven Zoo for "interfering in the penguins' freedom of sexual orientation." Really. No kidding.

According to the homosexual community, homosexuality is something you're born with - it's not a choice. So if that's the case, how can introducing females "interfere" with the male penguins' same-sex pairing? Could it be that the "militants" were afraid that the male penguins - given a choice - would choose a female over a male?

That's exactly what they feared. It tells me that they themselves believe that homosexuality is not necessarily an in-born trait over which the individual has no control: that it can be an adaptive or learned behavior subject to reversal in at least some circumstances.

So why should I buy into their argument that homosexuality is always and in every case an uncontrollable genetic trait when their own actions prove that they don't buy into it either?

Democrats and Colleges Fight Diversity

Measure promoting intellectual diversity approved by House

Democrats and college boards are incensed that there should be diversity on campus if that diversity means that they should have to compete on the field of ideas.

A bill pending in South Dakota would require colleges in that state to report on what they are doing to ensure that ideas from across the political spectrum are encouraged on campus - to which colleges respond that the government should keep its nose out of their institutionalized discrimination against conservatives.

Liberals have worked for many years to create an insular environment on college campuses in which to brainwash the youth by systematically excluding, demeaning or dismissing opposing points of view. Across the country, professors are using their positions to intimidate conservative students into liberal conformity by giving low grades to any work that expresses a conservative bias, embarrassing students who deviate from standard liberal dogma in class, and denying teaching assistant positions to those who hold differing political views. The boards use the same ideological discrimination to deny conservative professors the tenure, department chairs, and grants they would have otherwise earned if they held the "correct views."

Now the professors' little kingdoms are being threatened. They're scared to death that they can't compete on the field of ideas: that students free to disagree without fear of reprisal will actually do so. How will liberalism survive?

Here, here, South Dakota. It's high time colleges that are the recipients of so many millions of tax dollars are forced to play fair and actually broaden their students' minds instead of narrowing them....I only hope that the national Republicans are paying attention and enact something similar at the national level for all colleges receiving federal tax benefits or federal grants. It's time to level the playing field...

Spelling Bee Judge Can't Spell

Parents Protest Child's Spelling Bee Loss

Ordinarily the first thing that comes into my mind when I see headlines like this is that there's some crazy parent out there who can't deal with the fact that their child isn't the next Einstein.

That's not the case here, however. It turns out the young lady correctly spelled the word she was given, but the judge incorrectly said she didn't. This is the sorry state our education system is in today.

Over and over again, we hear how important the teaching profession is and how teachers are heroes, etc., etc. And for good teachers, that's all true. I had some great teachers to whom I'm very thankful.

But I also had some lousy ones, and so has everyone else. The teaching profession has lots of lousy teachers who can't pass the very same proficiency tests they're supposed to be giving our children, but the NEA - the national teacher's union - won't admit to there being even one bad apple in the bunch.

In this case, I fully support the parents of this young lady. Not because the spelling bee is such a huge deal, but because this school district won't admit that they screwed up and the teacher was an incompetent who had no business judging spelling skills.

If the school district would stand up and say this person doesn't belong in front of students because they lack even basic spelling skills and we're going to remove them from the classroom until he/she can learn them, then I would say a lawsuit would be going overboard. I would even settle for: hey we screwed up big time, but they won't even admit they did. Instead they want to stand on a technicality that the protest wasn't immediately lodged: though I'm sure they never told anyone ahead of time that those were the rules.

The school district's tactic is to vilify the parents by implying that they're wasting precious dollars pursuing a lawsuit. Hey morons, if you'd admit you screwed up no one would be filing a lawsuit, so who's the one wasting the money? You are...

These are the cowards and fools in charge of teaching our children. Am I scared about the future? You bet...

Strip Club Waitress Back on the Streets After Attempting Mass Murder

Woman Accused of Mailing Condom Explosives

A 40-year old mother of two tried to blow up a TV station, a radio station, a biker club, a college, and the 2 strip clubs where she was formerly employed. No, she's not tied to al-Qaeda: she's a strip club waitress with an axe to grind.

She says she "did not think they would explode." Yeah, right. She just happened to mix Drano and gasoline and mail these packages because she thought they made a nice gift? Whatever.

She uses the incredibly lame excuse that she was supposedly "mistreated by men." Ummm...you worked in strip clubs, honey. If you work in a strip club, you know the calibur of the clientele and you know what they're there for. If you don't like it, there's always waitressing somewhere the clients don't expect women to get naked. But since when did mailing bombs become a viable alternative to finding a new job?

She fully planned to kill a whole lot of people, and - I hope this makes you sleep better tonight - she's free on $10,000 unsecured bail. Basically, they let her walk out on the promise that she would come up with $10,000 if she skipped town. What????

That's the part of story that incensed me. I'm not particularly surprised that a woman who works in a strip club isn't exactly of sound mind. What does surprise me is that she gets busted trying to commit mass murder, and they let her back on the streets.

This happened in Boston: ancestral home of the bleeding-heart liberal, so I really shouldn't be too terribly surprised by the lenient treatment, but I figured that even Bostonians have enough common sense to keep a close eye on their mass murderers. I guess not.

And people have the nerve to wonder why no one trusts Democrats when it comes to their safety?

Democrats Admit to Being the Party of 'No'

Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities

The article highlights the sorry state of today's Democratic Party. Beset by infighting, lack of a message, and no worthy national leaders; Democrats are already starting to whine about missing an opportunity to take control of Congress.

If you're a Democrat, the article highlights some of the very real problems with your party. It can't decide what it stands for because so many of its most vocal and activist members are so far out of the mainstream in their political views: a situation that does not lend itself to winning over centrist and independent voters.

One of the reasons Democrats hated Newt Gringich is because he was a real threat to their political power. He knew what it would take to return Republicans to power: a clear and positive message appealing to a broad range of voters that the party could call its own. He put together a platform that gave voters a reason to vote FOR Republicans instead of just AGAINST Democrats. The result was the 1994 election in which Democrats were swept from office in record numbers.

For several years now, Democrats have defined themselves only as what they are against. Until Democrats find their own Newt Gingrich, they will remain wanderers in the wilderness...

Media Cowardice Causes Staff Walkout

NY Press Kills Cartoons; Staff Walks Out

The NY Press lost its entire editorial staff in fell swoop by refusing to run the Danish cartoons that have set the Muslim world aflame.

I complained about the media cowardice last week, and others have made similar complaints throughout the blogosphere. Questions about the media's willingness to offend Jews or Christians but tiptoe around Muslims are starting to be raised and the media is being challenged on their obvious religious bias.

Bravo to the editorial staff who took a stand for their journalistic integrity and actually walked off the job rather than comply. It was an act of courage which they admittedly took with some degree of reluctance, but I can't blame them: giving up your income voluntarily is never an easy decision to make.

Hopefully, their walkout will raise the profile of the religious bias issue to a level that even the media won't be able to ignore.

Media Tells Only Half the Story About Bus Accident

Teen Using Restroom Falls Out Bus Window

As is so often the case, the most interesting part - or even most relevant part - of the story are the parts that the article *doesn't* mention. And as is so often the case, it's a political decision for them to withhold the information.

The first significant point: no mention about any safety problems with the bus. If there were a defect which would allow someone who was using the restroom properly to simply fall out of a window, it would have been the headline. But not a peep. No matter how severe the lane change, it would have to be a pretty glaring defect for something like this to happen, but not a peep. Interesting.

They say the teen fell out of the window while using the restroom on the bus. Just close your eyes and imagine what the teen would have had to be doing and in what position he had to have been for it to have been possible to fall out of a window when the bus swerved to change lanes.

He may have been in the restroom, but there's no way he was just an innocent victim. He was doing something stupid that involved him hanging out of the window, and as a result he wound up falling out of it. My guess? He wasn't alone in that restroom...

The end of the article states that he had been at the Capitol "to lobby with a group on the issue of AIDS." When a newspaper fails to mention the name or political alignment of a group, you can bet it's a group that the media wants to protect in some way: if it's a conservative or Republican group, it's always mentioned front and center. So we have an unnamed "group lobbying about AIDS." Add to that a desire by the media to protect the identity of the group...Hmm...Could it be that it was a gay group and that this teen was engaged in illicit activities in the restroom?

Bet money on it...

"Native Americans" Not Living Harmoniously With Land

National Review had an interesting discussion in "The Corner" today that brought up several points I've been making for years:

1. Native Americans aren't "native" at all. The ethnic group that calls itself Native American are, in fact, immigrants just like everyone else. Unlike Europeans who came over by boat, these folks originated near what we now know as Mongolia and essentially walked over the land bridge between Russia and Alaska - eventually settling across North America.

I have no problem with them not wanting to be called "Indians" because they are not originally from the Indian sub-continent, but I refuse to call them "Native Americans" just because they happened to get here first. If we must assign a name, then they are more properly "Mongolian Americans," but they are most definitely not "Native." They're immigrants just like everybody else with no inherent claim to the continent.

2. They weren't the great caretakers of the land that the politically correct crowd would lead you to believe. They used the land differently than Europeans, but they wreaked devastation on the landscape they found, hunted animals to extinction, and generally did as much ecological damage as they deemed fit without regard to renewable resources or any of the other environmental awareness for which they are credited.

3. European immigrants were not always fair to the people they met here, but it was a two-way street. History is replete with unprovoked massacres of European settlements and double-dealing by this group.

4. They were not universally peaceful or living in harmony with each other before the white man's arrival. Friendly relations between competing tribes was the exception rather than the rule with tribal warfare not being at all uncommon.

I say these things not to trash-talk those who call themselves Native Americans. I say them because: a) it's the truth whether you like or not, and b) because the European settlers have been unfairly vilified for doing no worse than they did to and for themselves.

It's time to get off the "blame the white man" train that so many people have hopped on in recent years. An objective reading of history ultimately reveals that no group of people has an exclusive right to either the "morally superior" or the "victim" cards.

I'm sick and tired of those who claim that white men are evil because of this or that historical "fact" that upon closer examination turns out not to be nearly as factual as they would like you to believe.

Enough's enough...You treat me with respect, and I'll treat you with respect. I don't care where your ancestors came from; but don't try to say I'm evil because you don't know your history well enough...

"Yes, there are problems...but there is also freedom"

Laura's Iraq Journal

Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham is over in Iraq making the rounds with the troops. The title to this post is a direct quote from the mayor of one of the Iraqi towns she has visited thus far.

It's probably the best summation of the current situation in Iraq, and an important reminder of the what Bush-haters would like you to forget: Because of our actions, more than 20 million people are free.

Do yourself a favor and bookmark her journal. Put your politics aside. Read her daily postings from the scene and decide for yourself if we're doing a good thing in Iraq or not...

Wellstoning the King Funeral

Wellstoning the King Funeral

Democrats seem to have completely lost the capacity for shame and embarrassment. Even after losing a Senate seat because of their shameless politicizing of the Paul Wellstone funeral, they were determined to repeat their mistake by doing the same thing at Coretta Scott King's funeral.

I was living in Minnesota when the Democrats turned Wellstone's funeral into a political rally, and the excuses for their distasteful behavior coming from the Democratic camp are almost word-for-word replays of the post-rally excuses offered in Minnesota at the time.

It's a sign of deep desperation that they should use the occasion to play politics during a ceremony which was supposed to honor Mrs. King's memory. Year after year they target Bush and the Republicans, and again and again he beats their pants off. Like an undisciplined and poorly coached team that is getting blown out by halftime, the team is losing their cool and getting into confrontations at inappropriate moments - making matters worse by incurring penalties at crucial moments in the game.

Democrats could have used the opportunity to align themselves with King's cause, remind people that these are values they share. Instead, they chose to take potshots.

The average Joe knows that you don't start a fight at a funeral: it's disrespectful to the deceased. Behavior like this is going to ensure that the Democrats are taught another lesson in basic manners at the ballot box.

Rock the Vote Rocked by Failure

Rock the Vote Is Stuck in a Hard Place

It's not surprising that the L.A. Times would completely miss the real story of Rock the Vote's failure: it lied to its target audience by taking sides, and it picked the wrong one to boot.

When Rock the Vote started, it was supposed to be a non-partisan effort to register young people to vote. Certainly a noble goal worthy of support from both sides of the political aisle.

What Rock the Vote quickly became is an advocacy group that focuses its efforts on promoting liberal causes. So the donations from the deep pockets on the other side of the political aisle dried up: what kind of fool would pay to support the opposition? That only left liberal donors to keep the group afloat, and those donors were already giving money to every other leftist advocacy group and political campaign under the sun. There simply wasn't enough money to go around because no one had built making up Rock the Vote's donor deficit into their budget.

Was there mismanagement? No doubt there was, but that isn't the real reason that Rock the Vote is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. They're in debt because they thought they could spend a fortune bringing out young liberals to defeat Bush in the 2004 election. The thinking was that they would make it all back when grateful donors credited them for John Kerry's electoral success because they would claim that they were responsible for turning out the youth vote. Unfortunately for them, John Kerry lost in a big way and the anticipated donations to make up the shortfall never arrived.

The old saying goes that you reap what you sow, and what Rock the Vote has sown is turning out to be nothing more than rocky soil...

A Note to Canadians

A commenter to this post said,

"That's why Canada don't get attacked or receive as much threats."

It's an old argument from Canadians which Americans get tired of hearing. So let me answer it for all Canadians who think this way. You may not like what I'm going to say, but consider it tough love:

The reason Canada doesn't get attacked or receive as many threats is because, in the greater scheme of things, Canada doesn't matter.

If you're trying to strike a blow against an important social, cultural, economic, or political target, you're not going to think about Canada...at all...ever.

Canadian culture amounts to a cross between British, American, and French (depending on where you live). So why would anyone go after the mish mosh you present when they could go straight to the source in America, Britain or France?

Your economic system and political systems are also a kind of "me too"-ism with Britain and the USA - so, again, you're not the tempting target, we are.

Like it or not, Canada is pretty much "America Lite." Whether it's by design or by indifference, Canada has no significant military presence, its economy is almost wholly dependent on trade with the U.S., and most of its culture is imported across its southern border. If not for the United States Canada wouldn't know who or what it was, and it would be a sitting duck for any who chose aggressive action toward it.

The smug attitude of so many Canadians who enjoy the protections of the United States while enjoying lifestyles enabled by thriving off our economy and then turn around and act as if they know the better way to "get along" annoys and angers all thinking Americans.

Only because we are the stronger, wealthier, more influential target does Canada escape notice. In a world without the U.S., Canada would have been overwhelmed while its citizens sat around and watched with studied indifference.

Canada has never, not once in its history, been the pre-eminent power in anything - except maybe hockey. Neither its government nor its people could possibly offer any useful advice to those who are because you have never experienced either the responsibilities or demands it places on a country. What do you know about it? It's like asking a the doctor's receptionist about neurosurgery...She's been nearby when the doctor performed it. She might even have an opinion on how it's done. But her opinion is completely worthless when it comes to operate.

Do some decisions by Americans or our government upset people? Yes they do...Around the world, countries depend on the U.S. to be there, to take the lead when crisis strikes. Inevitably some people aren't going to be happy about how we handle things, but unlike Canadians, we don't have the choice to stick our heads in the sand at the first sign of trouble. Who would protect us - or them - if we followed your lead? Canadians? Yeah right.

The United States has been the undisputed leader of the free world for more than half a century while Canadians did what? Grew fat and happy, disdainful of the guardians of their safety like ungrateful and spoiled children who think they know better than their parents the ways of the world - more than happy to offer the benefits of their vast inexperience and call it advice.

I'm glad for Canadians that hiding behind the collars of their shirts works as a foreign policy - wouldn't the world be a much simpler place if every threat could be scared away by taking such bold stands. You can stand back and criticize America and American decisions all you want, but I don't see Canadians volunteering to take over the reins. It's all Monday morning quarterbacking and second-guessing: the worst kind of cowardice.

When Canadians are ready to do their part, I'll listen to their suggestions. Until then, shut up and sit down...

Cigarettes the Secret to Long Life

Dog, 22, on 10 cigs a day

Not smoking them...eating them...Maybe that's what we've been doing wrong all these years...

Google Bans BMW website

BMW falls foul of Google 'web spam' rules

This is kind "inside baseball" website stuff, but it has deep implications for how you'll find information on the internet into the future.

BMW, like many companies, employed what are called "doorway pages" on their website: pages which search engines can find which cause those websites to appear high in search results when users type in certain search phrases. Visitors who click on the link found by the search engines are redirected to an entirely different page. If you've ever used a search engine and found yourself looking a page which doesn't have anything to do with the link that you thought you were clicking on, this is probably what happened to you.

Needless to say, this sort of thing makes search engine owners very unhappy. Engaging in so called "black hat" (because bad guys wear black hats) techniques is grounds for being removed completely from the search engine, and Google has been aggressively going after this and other kinds of trickery that webmasters use to get their sites listed more highly in search results than they otherwise should.

Google has been warning webmasters for a long time not to engage in these practices, but evidently BMW thought being a major corporation granted them immunity from the rules everyone else is expected to play by. Google didn't care about BMW's status, and on Saturday they removed BMW's German language site for engaging in these shady practices.

So what does this mean to you? What it means is that hopefully Google, and other search engines, are getting better and weeding out such trickery - no matter who's engaging in it. It also may mean that you might not be able to find some familiar brand name websites in search results if their parent companies don't heed search engine warnings.

Conservatives Take Symbolic Lead of Candian Government

Conservatives sworn in as Canada's government

Stephen Harper is taking over the Prime Minister's job in Canada today after his Conservative Party stunned the Liberals in the latest election. But if you're looking for major change to come as a result, you're likely to be sorely disappointed.

His party controls barely a third of the legislative seats, and the rest of the legislature is unlikely to go along with any serious reform. What is likely to result is that there will be less harsh anti-U.S. rhetoric coming from the Prime Minister's office, but pretty much business as usual otherwise.

It'll be interesting to see if the Canadian people really want change from the anti-U.S. stance that the Liberal government had pursued or if they were just looking to make some cosmetic changes.

Given what I've seen so far, it's probably just going to amount to just putting a new shade of makeup on the same old pig and teaching it some manners...

Yemen Allows Terrorists to 'Escape'

Cole Attack Planner Escapes Yemen Prison

Everyone who believes that Yemeni officials didn't purposefully allow these al-Qaeda operatives to 'escape' raise your hands? Anyone? That's what I thought...

There's little doubt that there was official involvement in the "escape" of the planner of the USS Cole bombing and other convicted terrorists. Yemen has long been a safe harbor for terrorists, and despite paying lip service to turning over a new leaf this latest episode is all the proof necessary to show that they haven't changed their ways at all. It's the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, and it looks like not much has changed since he left home to wreak havoc on the rest of the world.

This cannot stand, and Yemen needs to be held responsible. Yemen has been the beneficiary of a ton of U.S. foreign aid in exchange for their cooperation - cooperation which evidently was not real in any way. All aid needs to be stopped immediately and we should demand repayment of all sums paid to date until they hand over these "escapees" to American justice. I don't really care if their citizens would object or if other countries would be upset. That was our ship that was bombed: he should never have been in a Yemeni jail in the first place.

It's time to stop pussyfooting around with these little countries who think it's absolutely fine to say one thing publicly while supporting al-Qaeda and similar groups privately.

Super Bowl Ads Terrible

The Super Bowl just ended, and I have to say: this was the worst year ever for commercials.

Every year people tune in as much for the new and inventive commercials as much for the game, and this may have been even more true than ever with so many people not caring one way or the other whether the Steelers (yawn!) or Seahawks (double yawn!) came out on top.

Even this soon after the end of the game, I can't say there was even so much as a single ad which stands out in my memory. ABC spent as much time promoting their schedule as they did the game, but that's what they paid the big bucks for the privilege of doing.

The Steelers won because the Seahawks kept shooting themselves in the foot not because they were the better team today, and the commercials were uninspiring and boring.

The Super Bowl was a total snoozefest all the way around...

Unions Guilty of Hypocrisy

Do As I Say . . . II

The Art of the Blog has caught unions doing exactly what they complain about employers doing. It goes to show once again that unions have long ago outlived their usefulness to society.

First they have pretty much singlehandedly destroyed the American auto industry. Through ridiculous union work rules, outrageous salaries for even the menial jobs and the virtual impossibility of firing incompetent workers, they have made it impossible for American car companies to produce a quality car at a price point that is competitive with imports.

Second, unions have a long and storied history of crime and corruption in their leadership. Does the name Jimmy Hoffa ring a bell? It's become a cliche that the leadership regularly embezzles from its membership, and many unions are still under federal supervision because they were found to be under the virtual control of the Mafia.

Third, they steal money from members to support Democratic candidates in violation of member wishes and the law. They long ago became simply yet another special interest group that forms a part of the Democratic party machinery. The law requires that if a member requests a refund of their dues which were spent for political purposes, a union must comply. Try being a Republican and doing that. Between the virtual impossibility of actually getting your money back and the physical intimidation that often accompanies any request, the unions are blatantly flouting the law by illegally spending members on Democratic political causes.

Fourth, they use illegal tactics to enforce their strikes. It's not even unusual any more to hear about union members attacking replacement workers hired during strikes. The unions condone and encourage the intimidation by their members. Last I checked, that's assault and battery, and in some of these cases, aggravated assault.

Now this...If it's OK for them, then they have no argument that it's not OK for their employers. It's time to get rid of unions and the blight they cause.

Republican Leadership Leads to Crime Reduction

Meth Busts Down

Brian spotted an article highlighting a report from Virginia State Police pointing out that ever since a new policy by then Governor Warner was implemented meth busts have been reduced by about 70%.

It's one of the things that Republican leadership has always been better than Democrats at doing: reducing crime. The most notable example is Rudy Giuliani cleaning up New York from the crime-infested cesspool it was under Dinkins and Koch by cracking down on even minor street crimes.

I think it's probably because Republicans understand, that "root causes" are a bunch of liberal bleeding heart claptrap.

Poverty doesn't cause crime: poor character causes crime. If you want proof, look at Appalachia. It is *the* most impoverished area in America; yet it is virtually crime-free. Why? Because the people there take character, honesty and integrity seriously. They don't make excuses about "root causes" and "bad childhoods" for criminals when they break the law, they ostracize them and demand punishment.

I don't have much hope for further reductions in Virginia crime under the new Democratic governor. His liberal base would never let him take the tough steps required to actually do something to address the issue.

AOL and Yahoo Contemplate Suicide

AOL and Yahoo take lead in putting price on e-mail

In what may be the dumbest move yet on the internet, both AOL and Yahoo are looking at trying to charge companies to send their customers e-mail. The end result: people are going to desert the free e-mail services of Yahoo in droves and AOL is going to lose even more of its customer base.

This is an utterly ridiculous plan which - according to the PR people - is designed to reduce spam, but it's really just a thinly veiled plan to increase the bottom lines of these companies. Evidently they feel that their users are too stupid to figure that out.

The article barely touches on the potential downside for their customers: that unless a company is willing to pay, their mail won't make it through as everything from registration and order confirmation e-mails to newsletters and coupons that the customer has requested will be routed to their spam filters.

Given the number of other choices available either for free or at significant discounts to what AOL charges, why would anyone continue using their services? If I place an order or register for something online I don't want to have to wonder if I'm going to get my confirmation because the company I order from hasn't paid AOL or Yahoo's extortion fee. Answer: I won't, and neither will most other people. We'll simply find another free e-mail service that doesn't have their ridiculous charges attached.

AOL has made so many ill-advised moves since the early days of widespread internet use when they were the dominant player (remember that?) that this would be just another in a long list. Yahoo should know better, but their moves of late haven't exactly inspired confidence in the long-term strategy there either.

It'll be interesting to see how long this lasts. My guess is that it'll be dead in the water not long after they implement it as soon as they see how people react to e-mail extortion...

Middle Eastern Governments Exploit Cartoons

Some See Gov't Roles in Cartoon Protests

The Syrian, Iranian and Egyptian governments are being implicated for blowing up the current cartoon kerfuffle into a full-fledged violent episode which has so far resulted in street riots, embassies being set afire, gunmen seizing offices, and threats of further violence against Western interest around the world.

When do we say enough is enough for these governments? How much is the rest of the world supposed to tolerate before we say "You are the weakest link" and remove the cancer they spread?

Chronic Drunk Gets Light Sentence

Notorious Bad Driver Gets Year in Prison

This guy has been convicted more than 40 times of drunk driving or driving without a license and all he gets is a year in jail. One year. That's it.

There ought to be some serious questions asked of the authorities and courts in North Dakota why he hasn't been jailed for longer periods of time much, much sooner.

He says he has a "drinking problem." Ya think so, Craig? Duh! It took you 40 convictions to figure that out? Evidently drinking is as big a problem as low IQ for this guy...I understand that he has an addiction which is now classified as a "disease," but it's a disease of choice. He chooses to keep drinking. You can talk to me about it being a "disease" when you show me the person who can make the choice to have cancer.

His mother and lawyer are, of course, claiming that he's a changed man. Sorry, you get a chance to be given credit for being a "changed man" after first or second conviction...After the 40th plus conviction, you just need to be locked up and put away for a long, long time.

Iranians Like Nazis

Iran threat like Hitler: Merkel

It's good to see that someone other than the U.S. is taking the threat of Iran seriously, and ironically enough it's Germany who is comparing the dangers of appeasing Iran to the appeasement of Hitler and the Nazis before WWII.

Merkel is absolutely correct, though about 4 years behind President Bush in understanding that state sponsors of terror like Iran and Syria are a threat to global peace.

I have said for many years that history will be much kinder to President Bush than his current critics will allow. He stood up against Islamo-fascism when the whole world said he was a crazy cowboy - much the same as Ronald Reagan when he faced the USSR.

Mark my words: his opponents will come crawling back and pretending that they never said the hateful things they have said and that they were with him all the time exactly as the very same people did after Ronald Reagan successfully defeated the Soviet Union...

But we will be here to remind people that once again they were on the wrong side of history and fought against doing the right thing every step of the way...

Internet Predators a Massive Problem

'To Catch a Predator' III

I watched this episode of Dateline NBC as well as the previous predator episode. It was eye-opening to say the least.

You hear an occasional story about a young boy or girl being victimized by a predator they met on the internet, but the stories here are an indicator that this a much larger problem than has either been admitted or realized.

The group Perverted Justice is doing laudable work in trying to help root out these predators before they can harm children, but the truth is that this is work that should be performed by law enforcement at all levels: federal, state and local.

Dateline was able to arrange meetings with 50 predators over the course of three days...50!...Let me say it again: 50! And it was in just one city for just three days. That's an astounding number of men who are looking to victimize young boys and girls.

I hope these exposes on Dateline NBC lead politicians and law enforcement officials to authorize, fund and run task forces designed specifically to hunt down, prosecute, and ensure that these perverts receive lengthy prison sentences.

These disgusting animals need to be taken off the streets permanently and how we, as a society, need to do more to ensure that they never see the light of day again. The best advice I can give you is to urge you to read the article for yourself and forward it to your representatives: from city council to county government to state delegates to federal legislators.

Something needs to be done...

Something's Fishy in Ferry Sinking

British help for ferry rejected

Something's seriously fishy about the ferry that sank off the coast of Egypt earlier this week. My suspicions were first aroused when I heard that the fire initially broke out when it was still close to shore yet the crew decided to continue the trip anyway. Why?

Now the article makes it clear that help was offered almost immediately by both the British and U.S. navies but was refused. Why?

The article also details other highly suspicious activities by the crew such as locked cabin doors to keep people off the deck. Again, why?

There are lots of unanswered questions, and given the history of honesty inquiry in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia I doubt we'll ever know what really happened here.

One thing *is* clear however: it didn't have to happen at all...