Why Aren't We Rioting? Why Aren't We Unhinged?

Saudis and other Muslim nations routinely Shred the Christian Bible....why haven't we declared a Crusade?

Bibles found in the possession of visitors to Saudi Arabia are routinely confiscated by customs officials, and in some cases copies allegedly have been put through a paper shredder, according to religious rights campaigners.

Reports from the Islamic world of the abuse of Bibles and other items important to Christians emerge from time to time, but generally have little impact - in contrast to the wave of Muslim anger sparked by a Newsweek report, since retracted, of Koran desecration by the U.S. military.

During the 1990s, Nalliah spent two years in Saudi Arabia, where he was deeply involved with the underground church.

"It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport, and if they find the Bible, that the Bible is taken and put in the shredder," he said in an interview this week.

"If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."
A friend of his, a fellow Christian in Saudi Arabia, told him of witnessing a particularly unpleasant incident involving a Catholic nun.

The man had been in the transit lounge at the airport in Jeddah - the gateway to Mecca, used by millions of Hajj pilgrims each year - when a nun arrived at the customs desk.

"Some fool [travel agent] had put her on a transit flight in Jeddah. You don't do that to a Catholic nun, because she's going to be tormented."

"They opened her bag, went through her prayer book, put the prayer book through the shredder ... took the crucifix off her neck and smashed it, tormented her for many minutes."

Where is the outrage? My bad, I forgot....we only care if captured Islamofascist killers of Americans get their religious symbols desecrated, not if people merely travelling get accosted....silly me...and especially Christians....they should routinely have their holy objects spat and shredded, after all, the great Satan George W. Bush claims to be a Christian, and since he is EVIL (tm), we must torment the Christians....

Media Ignoring News Contrary to their Agenda? Surely You Jest....

Of course, Linda Foley thinks covering with balance is wrong, so who knows about actually covering truth....

Here is the story:

As distrust of the press grows, news articles are relentlessly scrutinized for bias, but almost no one is focusing on stories that are simply ignored. For instance, a May 18 report in the Afghan newspaper Kabul Weekly said the riots that killed 17 people were not about disrespect for the Koran in American detainment camps--they were a show of force by the Taliban and another fundamentalist group, Hezb-e Eslami. "These demonstrations were organized by the Taliban and their supporters, and only some naive people joined the protesters," the newspaper said. The BBC picked up the story on May 22, but so far as I can see, it was completely ignored in American news media. If you edited, let us say, a large newspaper in Washington or New York, or a prominent newsmagazine accused of causing these famous riots, wouldn't you want to check this one out?

No, you wouldn't because at this point the MSM will take any story that talks about their influence, even if it is negative, to pump up their garbage egos. They want to think it is all about Watergate and the glory days when the world jumped at what Dan Blather or Tom Brokaw said, not the New Media of today where Drudge, or Instapundit, or Hugh Hewitt can bring the bubble crashing down on their heads.

Here is some more from the article:

Foley sent a letter to the White House calling on it to pursue the "worldwide speculation that the U.S. military targets journalists and the media." In other words, she doesn't have to back up her charge, but the White House should start trying to prove that what she said is false.

John, you should know this one. You don't have to prove something real. Just say it and then force someone else to prove it fake. In the MSM, when dealing with the US, it is guilty until proven innocent, and even when documents are fake, then they are still held up as being accurate.

And there is this outrage, that the MSm failed to report about AI, as usual, because it shows the international community for what it is:

Rule 18. A different omission marred the reporting of Amnesty International's report charging torture in U.S. detainment camps. The group didn't just call Guantanamo a "gulag," an over-the-top remark that was universally reported. In a press release that most reporters ignored, the group also invited foreign governments to snatch certain visiting American officials off the streets and bring them to trial for crimes against humanity. The suggested snatchees, should they travel abroad, were President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA Director George Tenet, and other unnamed civilian and military officials. Amnesty International said that "all states have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute people responsible for these crimes," just as the British pounced on Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. The snatching recommendation wasn't new, but the Amnesty press release is a useful reminder of the dangers of signing on to the International Criminal Court.

Just try and screw with Rummy or our President....The Belgians tried it with Rice, and they got smacked down. Gee, then I guess we should have kidnapped Saddam, we should kidnap Kim Jong Il, and I wonder if AI would think that would be OK? And lastly, there is this, for PK, who thinks I made up the training manuals for Al Queda....READ IT, PK, AND APOLOGIZE:

Mainstream media have been reluctant, in all the coverage of treatment of detainees at Guantanamo, to mention that the al Qaeda training manual specifically instructs all of its agents to make false claims of torture. The New York Times seems to have mentioned the manual's torture reference only once, in a short report from Australia. Several other papers mentioned it as a one-line quote from a military spokesman who pointed it out. But until the Washington Times ran a front-page piece last week, a Nexis search could find no clear and pointed article in the U.S. press like the one by Alasdair Palmer in the London Sunday Telegraph, with the headline "This is al Qaeda Rule 18: 'You must claim you were tortured.' " He wrote that the manual doesn't prove "that the Britons were not tortured in Guantanamo. But it ought to encourage some doubts about uncritically accepting that they were--which seems to be the attitude adopted by most of the media." Amen to both points in that last sentence.

As Glenn Reynolds would say, Indeed....

Ohio 2nd District Update

Who is the first Candidate to Go Negative?

Answer: Pat "proven Conservative" DeWine.

He began airing anti-Bob McKewen commercials today on the radio emphasizing that Mr. McKewen has been working in the Virginia area for the past decade as a lobbyist, not staying in Ohio where he is a former House member.

Seems like Pat is taking a page from the Jeannie Schmidt handbook of smear campaigning. Sad, truly sad.

Next, expect Patty to attack Jeannie's support of the state tax increase.....then, expect Jeannie to air family value commercials about Pat's interesting relationships in the past....

Since Matt is busy watching the Reds Lose again, he reminded of Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment: Don't eat your own....Take note...

Someone Help Danny into the Padded Room....

From Captain's Quarters:

Dan Rather appeared on Larry King Live last night to discuss the outing of Mark Felt as Deep Throat. King couldn't resist the urge to compare the Watergate story to that of the disgraced 60 Minutes II report on George Bush's TexANG service, and Rather couldn't resist the urge to once again claim that no one had proven the Killian memos as fraudulent:

KING: Well, I don't know another word. You might still believe the story, by the way.
RATHER: Well, without getting into that because the panel, this panel that was chosen by CBS to look into it, they issued their report. CBS adopted the report. I said at the time and I say now, I read the report. I absorbed it. I carried forward in my work. Anybody wants to know the panel's version of what happened should read the report.

The situation that we had and still have is the last line of this has not been written. I will be very interested to see the last line of this story (INAUDIBLE) written. But, you know, I've acknowledged that we didn't do it perfectly. I wish we had. Others may say, well, you didn't do it well. They're entitled to that judgment. ...

Now, the documents were a support for those and an important support, and when questions were raised, well, how do we know that documents are true? We had some problems. However, I do want to point out, and I -- listen, anybody who wants to castigate this or fuss with this, have at it. I will point out that the panel, which was headed by a President Nixon, Reagan, Bush family supporter and a journalist who said that George Bush one was one of the greatest people he ever met -- this panel came forward and what they concluded, among the things they concluded after months of investigation and spending millions of dollars, they could not determine that the documents were fraudulent. Important point, that we don't know whether the documents were fraudulent or not.

KING: Are you saying the story might be correct?

RATHER: Well, I'm saying a prudent person might take that view.

Wah! Wah! I was made to look stupid so I blame the investigative panel that saved my arse and suggested I keep my job...How typical....But wait, Captain Ed keeps going with the goodies, namely the report Rather encourages everyone to read:

Furthermore, Rather flat-out lied about the findings of the Thornburgh-Boccardi report. Peter Tytell, the man hired by the panel, reported unequivocally to Thornburgh and Boccardi that the Killian memos had been created by a computer. This excerpt comes from Page 1 of Appendix 4 of their final report:

Tytell concluded, for the reasons described below, that (i) the relevant portion of the Superscript Exemplar was produced on an Olympia manual typewriter, (ii) the Killian documents were not produced on an Olympia manual typewriter, and (iii) the Killian documents were produced on a computer in Times New Roman typestyle . Tytell acknowledged that deterioration in the Killian documents from the copying and downloading process made the comparison of typestyles "to some extent a subjective call." However, he believed the differences were sufficiently significant to conclude that the Killian documents were not produced on a typewriter in the early 1970s and therefore were not authentic.
The report lists in detail all of the discrepancies found by Tytell between known examplars of true TexANG documents and the Killian memos produced by CBS and their rabidly partisan source, Bill Burkett. That information has been in the public record for over four months. To go on national TV and claim that the CBS report does not render a judgment on the authenticity of the Killian memos is false -- and given Rather's proximity and interest in the issue, one must presume that the falsehood is deliberate.

Captain Ed asks if CBS has a problem with their featured newsie lying on the air? My answer, is of course not, otherwise they would have dishonored Rather by firing his arse on the spot. This type of lying is loved. The lib motto, remember is: never let the truth get in the way of a good smear, claim voter intimidation even if there is none, claim prisoner abuse even if there is none to amnesty internation...WHOOOPS, MY BAD! DIFFERENT LIAR PLAYBOOK THERE!

Hugh Hewitt has a similar take:

It is hard to be angry or even exercised over the sad spectacle of an old man trying so hard not to admit that he'd been played for a fool, but when Rather asserted, twice, that a "prudent person" might judge the absurd forgeries as real, the damage done by the Thornburg whitewash became undeniable. Rather, and who knows how many others, have convinced themselves that there's a chance the forgeries weren't forgeries, and have also seized on "the panel's" conclusion that no political bias was at work.

Like a grandpa indulged his peculiar memories, Rather's not the problem. He was with Teddy, don't you see, charging up the Hill, or with Patton's Third Army, just like it was in the movies.

Foley Forgot to Pass the Bong....Again! And Other Hits...

Linda Foley, the union head who said US soldiers were targetting journalists because of the evil corporations or something simliar that would have spewed from Tim Robbins's mouth, is at it again....Here is her latest gem on journalism:

"The conservatives have got us, as a country, now believing that balance -- giving both sides -- is the same as truth, and there are some things that are just false," said Linda Foley, president of The Newspaper Guild, during a panel discussion on media reform at the "Take Back America" conference in Washington, D.C.

In other events at the panel at the conference in DC, people talked about the misinformation about John Kerry.

An audience member wondered how the press should have dealt with attacks on the military record of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Panelist Paul Waldman, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a group dedicated to exposing "conservative misinformation" in the media, said something similar probably will happen in the 2008 campaign.

Gee, misinformation like being in Cambodia in Christmas of 1968 changing your life? Nope, that was from Kerry himself. Tales of CIA ferrying in one of the noisiest boats in the service and a magic hat from a CIA operative? Nope, liberal stuff again. Boy, Paul, you certainly are crazy.

Now, if you want to talk about liberal misinformation, let's see--Bush paid for an abortion (no evidence), Bush was AWOL (no evidence, well we have some fake documents that some call fake but accurate), Bush knew about 9/11 in advance (courtesy of the DNC chair), and other sundry loads of crap. I see nothing about conservative misinformation. Oh, Paul, could you mean voted for it before voted against it? Sorry, that came from the candidate himself.
Waldman continues in lunacy:

"We don't know exactly what form it will take because we don't know who the candidate will be, but there will be something similar," he predicted. According to Waldman, "Democrats could raise George Patton from the grave and he'd be attacked as weak and unpatriotic."

But they could only have raised him from the dead if Kerry and Edwards would have won, as John Edwards claimed they could do with Chris Reeve. But wait, the madness in the echo chamber of the left continues:

While noting that many media outlets did the right thing regarding the Swift Boat Veterans' claims, Waldman said "they did it too late.

He is right. The media didn't even start reporting the charges until they had been out for over a month or so on the blogosphere, and could have actually investigated them rather than seek to besmirch them before checking them.

Now the descent into madness:

Media Matters for America describes its mission as "monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," but it also has another goal, Waldman said. The group also aims to "discredit the right-wing media," he said.

Funny, I thought such a job would be to report the facts, to tell the truth. Yet nowhere do you see anything about the truth, rather, you see discrediting and "correcting." Interesting, isn't it? Sounds like something out of Goebbels. But wait, there is more craziness ahead:

Some audience members asked how the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio can be "protected from political bias."

"This is another one of those cases where no one had really thought of injecting this kind of political bias before the Bush administration did," Waldman replied.

"One of their greatest political strengths is audacity," he added, noting that in a different administration, "someone would have said, 'We really shouldn't do that. We're going to get criticized.' And their response is: 'Who cares? We're going to do it anyway.'

"So now, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is financing secret studies on [retired PBS broadcaster] Bill Moyers and putting pressure to politicize CPB to 'turn' PBS and NPR," Waldman stated.

Excuse me, anyone who has listened or been forced to watch PBS (outside of Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, two faves)or NPR could tell it had a left wing bent. I mean, BILL MOYERS USED TO GET DIRTY INFO ON BARRY GOLDWATER'S WORKERS FOR LBJ FROM THE FBI! He was a plumber for LBJ! He called Sean Hannity ponography! Come on! Listen to most of NPR and you get little beside death toll in Iraq and Bush is evil. Mr. Waldman is showing his own self-loathing projection. Seeking balance is only fair. It is only right, that something with public money should represent the public, not the lunatic fringe. PBS hasn't had conservative programming since Firing Line with Bill Buckley went off the air.

Get out of the echo chamber....come out into the light...see reality...OR

continue to pass the bong around the shadows.

Hope for College Kids...Even in Staten Island....

As Glenn Reynolds said, "it is about the graduates, not about you. From Staten Island Live:

Best-selling author Erica Jong was booed and told to "Shut up!" and "Go Home!" during her 40-minute speech yesterday at the College of Staten Island's commencement exercises.


A little less than halfway through her speech, some graduates began tossing around an inflatable beach volleyball. Some even got up from their chairs, just yards from her podium, to go chat with friends and family who were seated behind them.

She complained that getting to the truth is tougher than ever because "words have been corrupted."

"Advertisers, politicians, celebrities, they all think they have a good reason to tell us the opposite of what they mean," Ms. Jong said. "They advertise products like Viagra that could blind you or hormone pills that could cause breast cancer.

"Politicians speak the opposite of what they mean. They say clear skies when they mean pollution. They say collateral damage when they mean killing civilians."

The public, said Ms. Jong, "writes off many lies as PR (public relations)" and has stopped expecting the truth.

"Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes pledging their love to Oprah when they really mean PR," Ms. Jong said. "Do we really need wellness when we have health? News is what they don't issue in press releases."

Ms. Jong's remarks were met with some vehement disapproval.

"She gave a political speech when she was supposed to be doing a pep talk," said the father of a CSI graduate who declined to give his name. "Some graduates wanted to throw stuff at her. Whoever heard of a commencement speaker talking about body bags?"

Dorothy, a 48-year-old mother of a CSI graduate, categorized Ms. Jong's speech as "all-around bashing.

"It was disgusting, despicable," said the Fort Wadsworth woman, who would not give her surname. "She called politicians liars, called us all liars. She trashed America. Mostly, she just wanted to talk. It was personal spewing. There was nothing about graduation."

Gee, Ms. Jong....are you Howard Dean's Speech consultant?

As Glenn Reynolds notes, at the end of his post--Really, it's not about you. Except when they boo. Then, well, it is.

WTF? Spas for Terror? It could only be....

Yep, the lefty dominated US State Department. Mona Charen tells it all in this article.

"Real Men Moisturize." So begins an article on "Sharp Dressed Men" that appeared in a State Department funded magazine aimed at youth in the Arab world. The magazine, called "Hi" is published in Arabic and English. A State Department website explains that Hi is published "with the hope of building bridges of greater understanding among our cultures."
The article continues: "In fact, some of them, like Michael Gustman, a 25-year-old public relations account executive from Boca Raton, Fla., even have separate moisturizers for the face and body. Facial pores can clog with too heavy a salve, it seems. Not long ago, these and other habits would have been considered odd for a male. Gustman exfoliates. He gets manicures. He gets pedicures. He gets facials. He gets his hair done every two weeks. He accessorizes. He puts effort into getting ready for a date. He loves cooking complex dishes. He's a refined, evolved, sensitive guy. In a word, he's a metrosexual."

The photo accompanying the story pictures the male author seated in a pedicure chair, pants rolled up to his knees, along with half a dozen women enjoying the same treatment. (The women's faces aren't visible, but we can guess that they look puzzled or possibly even repelled.)

First things first. Is this what the U.S. State Department thinks America is really like? How many men, outside a tiny subset in major cities, are the primping, feminized "metrosexuals" the article lauds? Not many. You cannot enhance understanding between one people and another by presenting a false version of one side.

But more importantly, is this the way to "build bridges" between the Arab world and ourselves? Does the State Department believe that Arab males -- some of whom do not permit their wives and daughters to go out in public without a male family member as escort, others of whom think nothing of killing a daughter who dishonors the family by fraternizing with a boy -- are going to be impressed with a vision of America in which males are feminized "exfoliated," smooth-skinned eunuchs?

This is an outrage!!! What is next? Lucianne retorts: Queer Eye for the Exploding Guy. I think there could be even more--extreme Berka makeover....Trading Caves...and everyone's favorite, Monster Camel Shop. Geez....let's get serious about understanding....this crap from the state department is insulting to Americans, not just Arabs.

Where is the Anger?!? Where is A Stern Rebuke from AI?

This is the 16th Anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre in China. Where is the outrage by the Left? Where is the cries of oppression against the Chinese by the Lefties? Here is the lame press release by Amnesty International, they didn't even mention the Chinese gulags still in operation or the continued oppression and suppression by the Chinese government, well, they mentioned it, but mostly as an afterthought. Where is the biting language? Where is the dripping condescension? Boy, what watchdogs for freedom and liberty.....NOT!

Danica Patrick, the WNBA and Debbie Schlussel

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I give you Debbie Schlussel:

WNBA players had Title IX to succeed, but are in season nine of extreme failure. Danica Patrick—the rookiette race-car driver who came in forth at Sunday’s Indy 500—didn’t have Title IX. They don’t have it in racing. The IRL only has that amazing non-governmental program, called, “The Free Market.” And unlike the WNBA, Patrick competes against the men on their own turf. And succeeding.

That’s the lesson of the last week in sports: Feminism is phony. Sports are showbiz. Good-looking women get endorsements. Women who look and act like men don’t. Women who succeed against men on their own turf get respect. Women who constantly whine about equality—yet need their own, separate, unequal league to succeed—don’t get respect.

Yep...that is absolutely correct, Debbie. She's got more to say on the subject...read the whole thing.

Mark's Remarks

Ms. Patrick is far cuter than anyone in the WNBA, which helps( though I think Sue Bird and a handful of others are quite good looking as well). However, the premise remains--subsidized "equity" leads to mediocrity and less interest. Somoene fighting up in the free market showing she is just as good as a man in driving ability (did you see that spin, etc.?) invigorates people and shows hard work is the key to "equity." Now, you will have your whining babies like Robby (I must be Related to Jeff)Gordon, who gripe about Ms. Patrick's weight. But come on, be a man, not a girly-man, and compete, quit crying because she has a quality ride and you couldn't cut it in IRL or NASCAR!

Holy $#|+ Update

A Yahoo News Alert:

COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, Ky., has agreed to set up a $120 million fund to compensate victims of child-molesting priests.

Still no word if the bishops will cooperate with the authorities in prosecuting cases against these monsters...

MIA: Part II

A US Newsire press release:

For the first time, the National Archives National Personnel Records Center will open to the public nearly 1.2 million official military personnel files of former U.S. Navy and Marine Corps enlisted personnel who served in the military between 1885 and 1939. This opening will also include 150 official files of "persons of exceptional prominence", including former Presidents, famous military leaders, celebrities, entertainers and professional athletes who served in the military and who died at least 10 years ago.

Selected excerpts from those files will be available for the media at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis and at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. Among the individuals whose files will be highlighted are: Charles Lindbergh, Joe Louis, Steve McQueen, Clark Gable, Elvis Presley, Alvin York, Wendell Wilkie, Edouard Izac, Hank Greenberg, Douglas MacArthur, John F. Kennedy, Humphrey Bogart, Grover Cleveland Alexander, John Lejeune, Jackie Robinson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Jack Kerouac.

Notice a missing name? Say...John Forbes Kerry, who by the way, fought in Vietnam...

Missing In Action

8 days and counting since there has been a post over at the Ohio GOP blog...anybody want to place bets that the political director is working on a platform now??? What happened 8 days ago? Isn't that about the same time the CoinGate story broke?

Principled leaders take a stand, Jason... And bloggers confront challenges, not run from them...

You Said It Brother...

NRO's Cliff May on The Corner:

Today, I’m pleased to say, there could be no repetition of Watergate. Two reasons:

1) The DNC is no longer housed in a hotel suite, it’s now in a multi-million dollar building, professionally guarded. This, of course, is the result of decades of congressional campaign finance reform – taking the money out of politics.

2) With the DNC led by Howard Dean, who would be stupid enough to believe there was any information at the DNC headquarters worth stealing?

Preach on, my brother...preach on...

Deep Throat-aquiddick

My latest piece for the MVCA is up a little early. This week's topic: Deep Throat Revealed!

CoinGate Update

From the Toledo Blade:

The Ohio Ethics Commission is investigating whether a former high-ranking aide to Republican Gov. Bob Taft violated state ethics laws by accepting $39,000 from Tom Noe.

A major question in that probe is whether Mr. Noe, a Toledo-area rare-coin dealer and prominent Republican, used state funds or his own money for the payment to H. Douglas Talbott, the ethics agency said.

Mr. Talbott, also a former aide to Gov. George Voinovich, served as director of boards and commissions for Mr. Taft from 1999 until May, 2000, when he left to become a lobbyist.

Mr. Talbott said he accepted $39,000 as a "loan" from Mr. Noe in September, 2002, to help buy a house in Lakeside, Ohio, for $213,000.

The thing about this is...it could have been avoided if the state legislature had worked with Ken Blackwell...

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, said the controversy over Mr. Talbott is a reminder of why the legislature should adopt a "lobbyist ethics reform'' bill. In 1999, Mr. Blackwell worked with Mr. Jacobson and other legislators pushed a bill to tighten ethics rules for lobbyists, but the bill never became law.

Paranoid, Fearful of the Press, Synchopantic...

Am I talking about Richard Nixon, with all the hubub around Deep Throat being revealed? Nope...It is Waffle Time again....Yep, Johnny Boy is imploding again...

Yep, keep on seeking to silence the New Media...see how that helps you, Johnny Boy...By the way, have you sent in Form 180 yet?

Finding REAL WAR CRIMES In Iraq...and More MSM Stories

From Indepundit:
IN THE SPIRIT of helping Amnesty International uncover actual war crimes being committed in Iraq, I submit the following:

[I]n the city of Ubaydi, Multi-National Forces rescued a local Iraqi man yesterday morning during a raid on a suspected terrorist safe-house.
The construction worker, recently employed to build an animal hospital, was found blindfolded and beaten in a house. The house also contained various IED making materials and communication devices. He explained to his rescuers that while driving to pick up medication for his young child, terrorists kidnapped him from his vehicle; and while being held hostage, terrorists repeatedly beat and whipped on his exposed back, legs and arms.

Coalition forces are treating his wounds and will return him to his home once his wounds have received proper medical attention. After analyzing his wounds, doctors believe he was held for nearly three days.



Just in case AI wasn’t clear whether or not these actions constitute war crimes, I’ve taken the liberty of consulting the handbook:

The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited. (Fourth Geneva Convention, Protocol I, Article 51)
[...]

The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents: (a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular: (i) murder; (ii) torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental; (iii) corporal punishment; and (iv) mutilation;

(b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form or indecent assault; (c) the taking of hostages; (d) collective punishments; and (e) threats to commit any of the foregoing acts. (Fourth Geneva Convention, Protocol I, Article 75)


I expect to see this prominently featured in their next annual report.

And, it turns out, there really HAS BEEN TARGETTING OF JOURNALISTS IN THE MIDEAST--but, oh shucks, It WAN'T BY AMERICANS!:

A prominent anti-Syrian journalist has died after a bomb destroyed his car as he started the engine in a Christian district of Beirut.

The killing of columnist Samir Qaseer four days after the start of Lebanon's staggered parliamentary elections has shocked a country still coming to terms with the February assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Opposition figures were quick to point the finger at allies of Damascus and urged anti-Syrian leaders to close ranks.

Security sources said Mr Qaseer of the An-Nahar newspaper died instantly in the blast that destroyed his white Alfa Romeo car outside his home in the Ashrafiyeh district.

Mr Qaseer has for years called for an end to Syria's role in Lebanon. Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April under international and Lebanese popular pressure.

And, lastly....oh the humanity in the American Gulag (tm)....


I tell you, Americans are so bad...really, I mean, the fact that they can secretly force terrorists with their minds to kidnap and attempt to kill Construction workers in Iraq, and can manipulate the Syrians into blowing up a journalist.....

Tales of HORROR from the American Gulag

Bill Ardolino from INDC Journal does the investigative reporting that is too horrible for network and cable news. It is absolutely horrifying what is going on down there in that hell-hole. I blame Bush.

CAIR Gives Away Anti-Semetic Koran

What I find interesting about this story is that the Los Angelas School District felt compelled to ban the book. Apparently, it's okay to bring the Koran to school, but you can't bring the Bible...

2 North Korean Nuke Shipments Intercepted by US

An update on an item from yesterday...

Looks like Kim Jong Il is trying to import nuke tech as well...

CoinGate Update

The Toledo Blade has an interesting accounting of who got how much from the infamous Mr. Noe.

I'm left with one question: if all this money supposedly came from the Ohio workers' compensation fund, why is it now being given to charity?

This whole ordeal has illustrated that the Ohio GOP is out of touch with the constituency they supposedly represent. While a politican can't screen EVERY contributer, it is important to get to the bottom of the matter as quickly as possible and make things right even faster. I don't see that happening. WHy? The Ohio GOP isn't interested in principled leadership, but rather in continuing to build the "big tent" and win more elections. This is what politics has always been and the Ohio GOP seems bent on maintaining the status quo. Every day they become more like the lunatic fringe that has taken over the Democratic Party...and it saddens me.

Shat Update

Mark...what do you have to say about this? Enquiring minds want to know! (HT: LLamas)

Iran Nuke Update and a John Bolton Bonus

First, the Iran Nuke Update from Bloomberg:

The U.S. and its allies in a program to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction prevented Iran from obtaining material for its nuclear weapons program within the past nine months, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

"The trans-shipment of material and equipment bound for ballistic missile programs in countries of concern, including Iran" was blocked as was the transfer of "equipment used to produce propellant" to a "ballistic missile program in another region" of the world, Rice said.

Rice disclosed the intercepts in a speech celebrating the second anniversary of the Proliferation Security Initiative, a global effort started by President George W. Bush to stop trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

Rice gave no details but said that the U.S. and 10 of its partners in the initiative have cooperated on 11 successful interdiction efforts over the past nine months. Iran was the only nation interdicted that she cited by name.

The missing piece of information I want is "shipments from WHERE?"

And now, the John Bolton Bonus:

Noticeably absent from the PSI event was John Bolton, Bush's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. As undersecretary for arms control and international security, Bolton has led the U.S. drive to win endorsement for the nonproliferation initiative, negotiating cooperation agreements with worldwide.

Senate Democrats blocked a vote on his nomination to the UN post last week. The earliest the Senate could vote again is June 7.

Remember this the next time some liberal blathers on about wanting to stop weapons proliferation...

Like Rearranging the Chairs on the Titanic

Another Yahoo News Alert:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) Secretary-General Kofi Annan has fired staffer Joseph Stephanides for his role in the oil-for-food scandal.

I suppose Kofi can't really fire himelf now can he?

The BrainWashing Factory Clamps Down...

As if public education were not liberally slanted enough, we get this lovely bit of news:

Brooklyn College's School of Education has begun to base evaluations of aspiring teachers in part on their commitment to social justice, raising fears that the college is screening students for their political views.

The School of Education at the CUNY campus initiated last fall a new method of judging teacher candidates based on their "dispositions," a vogue in teacher training across the country that focuses on evaluating teachers' values, apart from their classroom performance.

Critics of the assessment policy warned that aspiring teachers are being judged on how closely their political views are aligned with their instructor's. Ultimately, they said, teacher candidates could be ousted from the School of Education if they are found to have the wrong dispositions.

"All of these buzz words don't seem to mean anything until you look and see how they're being implemented," a prominent history professor at Brooklyn College, Robert David Johnson, said. "Dispositions is an empty vessel that could be filled with any agenda you want," he said.

Where is the ACLU on this one? The society for free speech? Anyone? Anyone?

That's right, they are nowhere to be found because this discrimination against those whose views don't jibe exactly with their instructors helps these groups. More to the cause of social justice, less common sense in the classroom. Who cares if the kids don't know the three branches of goverrnment, but by God they can call Bush as fascist! Now that's education! Give me a fraggin break!

What Could be behind this? Who is driving it? The article continues:(any emphasis added by me)

Driving the new policies at the college and similar ones at other education schools is a mandate set forth by the largest accrediting agency of teacher education programs in America, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. That 51-year-old agency, composed of 33 professional associations, says it accredits 600 colleges of education - about half the country's total. Thirty-nine states have adopted or adapted the council's standards as their own, according to the agency.

In 2000 the council introduced new standards for accrediting education schools. Those standards incorporated the concept of dispositions, which the agency maintains ought to be measured, to sort out teachers who are likeliest to be successful. In a glossary, the council says dispositions "are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice."

To drive home the notion that education schools ought to evaluate teacher candidates on such parameters as attitude toward social justice, the council issued a revision of its accrediting policies in 2002 in a Board of Examiners Update. It encouraged schools to tailor their assessments of dispositions to the schools' guiding principles, which are known in the field as "conceptual frameworks." The council's policies say that if an education school "has described its vision for teacher preparation as 'Teachers as agents of change' and has indicated that a commitment to social justice is one disposition it expects of teachers who can become agents of change, then it is expected that unit assessments include some measure of a candidate's commitment to social justice."

So, as you can see, yet another brainwashing and discriminatory tool from an organization I am sure is supported by the NEA (a simple search confirmed this). So, rather than promote diversity of opinion, we are attempting to pigeonhole people into believing a certain way, or..guess what?...YOUR DREAMS OF TEACHING ARE OVER!!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA!

Does this sound familiar? It should...In Nazi Germany and in Stalin USSR the education establishment had similar litmus tests for teaching candidates...And speaking litmus tests, who are the ones who champion that cause now? Shhhh...be quiet now...It is liberals who champion this cause of having some type of litmus test on any issue (or global test, if you are John Kerry). They are the ones stilting opinion and creativity.

So, what are we going to get from this? Yep--a bunch of crazed Ward Churchills on campus...and we wonder why our education system is in a rut...Check out this literacy course instruction from this same Brooklyn College:

Critics of the dispositions standard contend that the idea of "social justice," a term frequently employed in left-wing circles, is open to politicization.

"It's political correctness that has insinuated into the criteria for accreditation of teacher education institutions," a noted education theorist in New York, Diane Ravitch, said. "Once that becomes the criteria for institutions as a whole, it gives free rein to those who want to impose it in their classrooms," she said. Ms. Ravitch is the author of "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn."

A case in point, as Mr. Johnson of Brooklyn College has pointed out, is the way in which the term was incorporated into Ms. Parmar's course, called Language Literacy in Secondary Education, which students said is required of all Brooklyn College education candidates who aspire to become secondary-school teachers. In the fall semester, Ms. Parmar was the only instructor who taught the course, according to students.

The course, which instructs students on how to develop lesson plans that teach literacy, is built around themes of "social justice," according to the syllabus, which was obtained by The New York Sun. One such theme is the idea that standard English is the language of oppressors while Ebonics, a term educators use to denote a dialect used by African-Americans, is the language of the oppressed.
A preface to the listed course requirements includes a quotation from a South African scholar, Njabulo Ndebele: "The need to maintain control over English by its native speakers has given birth to a policy of manipulative open-mindedness in which it is held that English belongs to all who use it provided that it is used correctly. This is the art of giving away the bride while insisting that she still belongs to you."

Among the complaints cited by students in letters they delivered in December to the dean of the School of Education, Deborah Shanley, is Ms. Parmar's alleged disapporval of students who defended the ability to speak grammatically correct English.

More proof Bill Cosby was correct.....Now, before you go and think, hey Mark, maybe she is just speaking metaphorically, maybe she is just trying to raise some awareness, and does not have a political agenda...Well, check this out and tell me the educational industry is not fascist and oppressionist when it comes to divergent views (namely, conservative views):

Speaking of Ms. Parmar, one student, Evan Goldwyn, wrote: "She repeatedly referred to English as a language of oppressors and in particular denounced white people as the oppressors. When offended students raised their hands to challenge Professor Parmar's assertion, they were ignored. Those students that disagreed with her were altogether denied the opportunity to speak."

Students also complained that Ms. Parmar dedicated a class period to the screening of an anti-Bush documentary by Michael Moore, "Fahrenheit 9/11," a week before last November's presidential election, and required students to attend the class even if they had already seen the film. Students said Ms. Parmar described "Fahrenheit 9/11" as an important film to see before they voted in the election.
"Most troubling of all," Mr. Goldwyn wrote, "she has insinuated that people who disagree with her views on issues such as Ebonics or Fahrenheit 911 should not become teachers."
Students who filed complaints with the dean said they have received no response from the college administration. Instead, they said, the administration and Ms. Parmar have retaliated against them, accusing Mr. Goldwyn and another student of plagiarism in January after the semester ended.
Ms. Parmar referred a reporter's inquiries to a spokeswoman for Brooklyn College. Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, Inc., a New York City public relations firm representing the CUNY school, later responded. The firm's Colleen Roche told the Sun that Ms. Shanley, dean of the education school, spoke with students about their complaints December 21.

Though students said Ms. Parmar did not inform them about the new dispositions assessment policy, an e-mail obtained by the Sun from one of Ms. Parmar's colleagues, Barbara Winslow, suggests that the aspiring teachers were in the process of being evaluated by the new standard.
Writing to three history professors, including Mr. Johnson, who had Mr. Goldwyn as their student, Ms. Winslow said the School of Education had "serious concerns about his disruptive behavior in the SOE classroom as well as aggressive and bullying behavior toward his professor outside the class."

She wrote: "The School of Ed is trying to be more systematic in looking at what educators call 'dispositions,' that is behaviors necessary for being a successful teacher in the public schools. Being able to do excellent academic work, does not always translate into being a thoughtful, self-reflective and effective teacher for youngsters."

In his reply to Ms. Winslow, Mr. Johnson wrote: "I'm very, very surprised to hear this. I have Evan in class again this term, and he is once again one of my best students - an active participant in class, unfailing courteous to the other students - basically, a real asset to the class in every way."

Another professor who received the e-mail, who asked not to be identified by name, said he told Ms. Winslow he had no complaints with Mr. Goldwyn.

The third professor did not respond to a reporter's inquiry.

Ms. Winslow, an assistant professor who also teaches at Brooklyn's Women's Studies Program, did not return calls seeking comment on her e-mail.

In his letter of complaint, Mr. Goldwyn defended his objections to Ms. Parmar's conduct in the classroom, writing, "While Ms. Parmar has an obligation to express her own views in the classroom, she is not entitled to penalize those students who disagree with her - especially on issues, such as those we have covered in this course, that are highly controversial."
Another student who submitted a letter to the dean called Ms. Parmar "an exceptional teacher" but said she alienated some students in the class. That student, Simon Tong, wrote: "Although I do believe in some of the teaching methods she has introduced, this does not change the fact that it has come at a cost. She felt it was necessary to expose this 'white power' but at the cost of offending those who were listening."

Speaking to the Sun, Mr. Tong defended Mr. Goldwyn's classroom behavior.

"Evan is not a bully," the student said. "He is able to voice his opinion. He is very vocal about his opinions."

The plagiarism accusations against Mr. Goldwyn and the other student involved their final assignment for Ms. Parmar's course, which required them to develop a "critical literacy" lesson plan intended for "linguistically and culturally diverse students."

Mr. Goldwyn, according to those familiar with the academic charges against him, was accused of failing to attribute a question he used in his lesson plan that was paraphrased from a Web site.

The other undergraduate, Christina Harned, a senior who expects to graduate in December, was charged with plagiarism for submitting a definition of Jim Crow laws in her lesson plan that she acknowledged she copied from the online Encarta encyclopedia. She said she was not aware before handing in the assignment that using the definition constituted plagiarism. "It wasn't a term paper," she said. "It was a lesson plan."

Brooklyn College insists that the charges of plagiarism had nothing to do with the students' complaints about Ms. Parmar.

"The claim that the allegations of plagiarism were retaliatory is baseless," Ms. Roche said.

In January, the two students met with Brooklyn College's dean of undergraduate studies, Ellen Belton, and were instructed to redo the assignments. Both students' final grades for the course were lowered by at least one letter grade, according to the students. Ms. Harned, who says she has a cumulative B-minus grade-point average, received a C-minus for the course, and she said Mr. Goldwyn ended up with a D-minus. He could not be reached for confirmation.
Four students, Ms. Harned said, dropped out of Ms. Parmar's course during the semester. One of the students was a former mechanic from Bay Ridge, Scott Madden, who said he wanted to become a teacher because "I like explaining things."

Mr. Madden, 35, said that after he disputed a grade he received from her, Ms. Parmar encouraged him to withdraw from the course. He said he changed his plans to take the course in the summer after finding out that Ms. Parmar was again teaching both sections of the required course.

"Basically, she's a socialist, she's racist against white people," Mr. Madden said. "If you want to pass that class you better keep your mouth shut."

In an interview with the Sun, Ms. Harned said she dropped out of the School of Education and switched her major to political science because of her experience in Ms. Parmar's course.

"I'm blacklisted," she said. "How am I supposed to move forward in a department I'm not comfortable in?"

That is the point of the new format, critics of the dispositions standard said.

"In its most pernicious form, then, dispositions theory is a tool for education schools to ensure that the next generation of public school students is educated solely by those teachers who have accepted the kind of extremist beliefs articulated by Professor Parmar," Mr. Johnson wrote.

After reading this, some questions come to mind:
1. What does ebonics have to do with promoting LITERACY?
2. What does Mikey Moore propaganda have to do with a course in LITERACY?
3. If action was not retalitory, why was action only taken against those who disagreed with Prof. Parmar?
4. Why is it that someone who wanted to explain things is told to drop out when expressing concerns over a course?

The education establishment is the most closed-minded, left wing repressive socialist bunch you may encounter outside of a moveon.org orgy/meeting. It is ridiculous that people should be subjected this way. When people weren't allowed to have a job because of the color of their skin or their race, it is discrimination. When we say, well, they were too conservative or didn't understand the nuance of Michael Moore's "facts", then we call it evaluation based on dispostion.

Give me a break....it is blatant discrimination, repressive to free expression, and should be called by its true name--totalitarian fascist socialism. As an educator, I can tell you I was blacklisted by my colleagues and supervisor for my views, even though I didn't go around preaching them in the break room or in front of class, the way the militant lesbian english teacher did, or the enviro-whacko biology teacher did. No, I tried to tell both sides. For example, in a unit on the 1980s, I mentioned both positive and negative arguments about Reaganomics. Of course, to find the positive arguments, I had to go way outside the supposedly objective textbook. My supervisor saw my lesson and accused me of teaching propaganda rather than facts. When I showed him the statistical analysis, he said, well, we ALL KNOW it was a disaster, no matter what the numbers say....hmmm....says a lot about developing the analytical abilities of young minds to think on their own, doesn't it?

Recess Appointment for John Bolton?

That's what the editors of National Review are advocating...and I am inclined to agree with them on this one. Between the Democrat Smear Machine and the Crying Man, there is nothing to indicate that the nomination will move forward even though Bolton has majority support.

Tom Clancy, Call Your Office...

Tell me this doesn't sound like the start of a Tom Clancy novel to you...[Source]

A Chinese navy submarine has been damaged during exercises in the South China Sea, Beijing said Tuesday, but officials refused to say whether there were any casualties.

Japanese press reports said the sub stalled after a fire broke out aboard the vessel while it was submerged.

It was being towed Monday above the water by a Chinese vessel toward the Yulin Naval Port on China's Hainan Island, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing Japanese and US defense sources.

"The incident happened while the Chinese navy was organizing submarine emergency exercises," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan, refusing to give more details or confirm that a fire broke out.

The Defense Ministry declined comment.

The only thing missing is Fred Thompson saying something to the effect that the Chinese don't take a dump without a plan...or something...