Another One of Allah's Little Barbarians

You may have forgotten them, but they haven't forgotten YOU.

Man arrested in ‘step-by-step’ plot to blow up Capitol, Pentagon

The FBI arrested and charged a man Wednesday for allegedly plotting to blow up the Capitol and the Pentagon.

The 26-year-old Massachusetts man, Rezwan Ferdaus, was arrested as part of an FBI sting operation in which he was made to believe he was working with members of al Qaeda, who were actually undercover agents.

Yeah, the old killing for Allah thing, once again. But you can't just assume that this is typical of Muslims, even though they're the only religious group, you know killing people:

According to the DOJ, a focal point of Ferdaus’s plots revolved around “jihad” and his desire to carry out the will of Allah.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Carmen M. Ortiz, stressed that any underlying religious motives to Ferdaus’s actions should not reflect on the Muslim culture at-large.

“I want the public to understand that Mr. Ferdaus’s conduct, as alleged in the complaint, is not reflective of a particular culture, community or religion,” Ortiz said.

Yeah, we wouldn't want this to reflect poorly on the Religion of Peace, would we?

Maybe the U.S. Attorney should spend his time prosecuting this monster and less time counseling the public on how they should feel.

What Happened to Color Blindness?

I'm thinking there are a lot of people who find the concept of "color blindness" threatening. No, I'm not talking about white people, after all, we elected a black President, didn't we? No, I'm talking about a number of blacks who just can't let their victimology go.

Roger Simon says to Disband the Congressional Black Caucus and I have to agree.

Read the piece, he makes some good points.

Morgan Freeman Does Woody Allen

Wow. The creep factor in Hollywood is getting out of control, even by their dubious standards:

Morgan Freeman Free To Marry Step-Granddaughter

That's just nasty.

And this is the guy who's worked up about the Tea Party being racist? Were I him, I'd avoid the publicity that comes from hateful, politically charged statements.

Again, that's just nasty. I feel as though I need a shower just for having written about it.

America Doesn't Suck

Well, we may suck by American standards, but we certainly don't suck by global standards:

Economy Got You Down? 5 Ways America Is Still on Top

Is "Tax the Rich" all Obama has?

It seems to me that may be the case. Even if he had a a valid point, which he doesn't, "The Rich" just don't have the funds to bail his scapegoating backside out of the hole he's dug for himself. Even the Chicago Sun-Times is beginning to wake up and smell the naked demagoguery:

Obama’s faulty math: Higher taxes for rich just doesn’t add up

When President Barack Obama rails against “millionaires and billionaires,” as he does often, Republicans accuse him of trying to divide the country by class. In his speech calling for $1.5 trillion in tax increases, mostly on high-income earners, Obama declared, “This is not class warfare. It’s math.” The problem for him is that his math doesn’t add up.

For starters, Obama’s tax increases hit individuals making $200,000 and families and small businesses earning $250,000. That’s far from being a millionaire. Sen. Charles Schumer, one of a number of the Democrats critical of Obama’s tax plan, notes that $250,000 “doesn’t make you rich at all” in high-cost-of-living, high-tax New York.

Furthermore, the numbers dispute Obama’s assertion that “the wealthy” don’t pay their fair share of taxes, according to an analysis of recently released IRS data for 2009 by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The study shows that taxpayers earning more than $200,000 accounted for 25 percent of the nation’s adjusted gross income for that year but paid 50 percent of the $866 billion in 2009 income taxes.

Also, those awful corporations that left-wing Democrats hate so much pay a lot of taxes. The 1,900 largest corporations accounted for two-thirds of the $227 billion in 2009 corporate income taxes, according to the foundation.

The numbers measuring the impact of Washington’s stimulus programs aren’t any better. The Federal Reserve declared Wednesday that the country faces years of low growth and announced a new $400 billion economic salvation program. The Dow nose-dived 283 points Wednesday and 391 Thursday. A couple of weeks ago, Wall Street reacted with another plunge after Obama announced his latest $447 billion jobs program.

That cobbled-together mixture of temporary tax cuts, short term credits and infrastructure spending is supposed to create 2 million jobs. Do the math and that comes out to the government spending $223,000 for each new job.

Bitter and sanctamoneous liberals have been using "The Rich" as their all-purpose boogeyman since the dawn of the Left. The "math" that the President touts so heavily doesn't work now any more than it ever did; there's just a whole new audience of budding socialist simpletons who believe that it sounds like a new, fresh, solution.

You know, I think there's a reason that our schools put such a low priority on history; it assures that there are always a new generation to rediscover socialism in the hope that, eventually, it will end in something other than failure and genocide. The Socialst model is the only idea they have. Santayana was, indeed, prophetic.

So, You're Defending Him Because He's Black, Right?

What I want to know is how defending Obama because of his race is any different from attacking him because of his race?

Cleaver: If Obama wasn't president, we would be ‘marching on the White House’

Unhappy members of the Congressional Black Caucus “probably would be marching on the White House” if Obama were not president, according to CBC Chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).

"If [former President] Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House," Cleaver told “The Miami Herald” in comments published Sunday. "There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president."

CBC members have expressed concern in recent months as the unemployment rate has continued to rise amongst African-Americans, pushing for Obama to do more to address the needs of vulnerable communities.

Yeah, I get the point of "sticking with our guy", that's human nature. At some point, however, we're all going to have to look at our situation objectively, and that includes those who worship the very idea of "the first black President." The President had two solid years of a Democrat House and Senate and as much political capital as any modern president yet he chose to squander it all on an unpopular and unaffordable health care plan and untenable levels of federal spending. The nearly three year-old chorus "it's Bush's fault" is looking lame even to Obama's most ardent supporters.

It's time to move beyond race and acknowledge that Obama's not "The One"; he's an extreme Leftist who's well out of his depth and has proven himself incompetent.

I Think Bloomberg's Right on This One

Mayor Bloomberg predicts riots in the streets if economy doesn't create more jobs

Bloomberg speaks of rioting as a result of our economic situation, but I don't think he goes far enough. Just below the surface, this country is a simmering cauldron on any number of fronts.

I'm seeing 2012 shaping up to be similar, in terms of societal tumult, to 1968. We've been seeing an uptick in incidents of union violence, and all along the Left, the rhetoric gets hotter by the day.

The 2008 election was remarkably free of not only racism, but scarcely any reference to Obama's race whatsoever and we, as a country should be proud. Unfortunately, there's an entire industry that exists to exploit race and there are already rumbles that Obama's failures are a result of racism. On the Right, there are people who are getting tired of being accused of non-existent racism and/or extremism, simp for being a member of the "loyal opposition".

We are a highly polarized country and we're becoming more so by the day. No, 2012 wil not be pretty, and it has nothing to do with the Mayan calendar.

Congratulations, and I Hope He Got a Prenup This Time

Paul McCartney Set to Wed Nancy Shevell in London

Is This What an Obama "Recovery" Looks Like?

Remember the much heralded "Recovery Summer"? That was last year, in case you've lost track. Not only was the summer of '10 not one of recovery, the entire year was historic, in a sad, painful way:

U.S. Poverty Climbed to 17-Year High in 2010

The U.S. poverty rate rose to the highest level in almost two decades and household income fell in 2010, underscoring the lingering impact of the worst economic slump in seven decades. Data released by the Census Bureau today showed the proportion of people living in poverty climbed to 15.1 percent last year from 14.3 percent in 2009, and median household income declined 2.3 percent.

The number of Americans living in poverty was the highest in the 52 years since the U.S. Census Bureau began gathering that statistic.Those figures may have worsened in recent months as the economy weakened. “Families are struggling to put food on the table, and they don’t have the purchasing power to help the economy recover,” said Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The Disgrace of Being Paul Krugman

Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, sought to plumb the depths of journalistic depravity yesterday and he succeeded.

September 11, 2011, 8:41 AM

The Years of Shame

Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?

Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.

Yes, Mr. Krugman, the reasons for accepting no comments are painfully obvious.

It must truly be a disgrace to even be an associate of the author of such an odious piece of pixillated toxin. Certainly, we all have a right to our own opinion on any range of issues, no matter how corrosive, but some sense of common decency should regulate what we state, or write, public ally. I find it amazing that the New York Times continues to allow such material to appear under its masthead.

Obama and the Village People

President Obama just concluded another plea to the American People to cajole the Republicans into passing the Jobs Bill NOW (!). He was flanked by police, firemen, teachers (some, right out of central casting) and even a guy with a work shirt (sleeves rolled up) who looked to be a construction worker.

They were like a 21st Century version of the Village People.

As in his "Joint Session" speech, he repeated variants of the phrase "Pass the Jobs Bill NOW" ad nauseum, as though he were practicing some sort of mass hypnosis.  Is this what passes for statesmanship these days?  The entire episode was so contrived that it should have been an embarrassment to all involved.

Ten Years On

You may have noticed that I am writing this on 9/12 rather than 9/11. I spent much of the anniversary watching the excellent coverage on Fox with one eye, and reading some beautifully written pieces online with the other.

There are always stories I’ve never heard, it’s as though the story is, in many ways, still unfolding. Some 3,000 people died that day and their deaths effected untold numbers of people around them. We will be hearing new stories for the rest of our lives, and for those who lived through the history, that keeps the history alive. For future generations, it provides a rich and detailed record unmatched by any other historical event.

Ten years is a milestone, a decade. Ten years is 9/11’s first step into the mists of history where, alas, it will be deformed and mutilated by some for their own narrow interests – that’s already happening in the case of “Truthers”, and the radical Left. People who were 10 year-old children in 2001 are 20 year-old young adults today. There are 10 year-old children who are being schooled as to what that day was about, and how they should feel about it. There are those who romanticize the “sense of unity” that existed on 9/11/01, and, indeed it was palpable and very real. Unfortunately, it was as fleeting as summer in northern Maine and was far more short-lived. Ten years hence, we are far more fractured and polarized than we were before the attacks – instead of focusing on the enemy; we’ve turned on each other and begun the process of self-consumption. It makes one wonder if that, in itself, is something of a moral victory for the enemies of civilization who attacked us 10 years ago. In many ways, the evil that came from without, 10 years ago, awakened and liberated a far more dangerous evil from within – those who actively deny even the existence of evil.

Yes, the world changed on 9/11/01, but it’s still open to debate as to whether the cause of western civilization has moved forward during the last decade, or is emanating the stench of death. There’s far too much evidence to suggest the latter, though hope always springs eternal.

A Perfect Choice for the "Word of the Day" on 09/10/11 - Bellwether

I subscribe to the dictionary.com "Word of the Day" and noticed that today's is "Bellwether". Rather fitting, I must say:

bellwether \BEL-weth-uhr\, noun:

A leader of a movement or activity; also, a leading indicator of future trends.

Alas, a good choice.

There Are Revolutionaries, Then There Are Mobs

This whole "Arab Spring" business has seemed like thinly veiled mob action to me. News like this does nothing to dispel that notion:

Egyptian protesters pull down Israel embassy wall

They need to get a handle on this immediately, if this devolves into full-scale anarchy there will be no way to pull it back.

SICK

Memo to these a-holes, pranks are clever and funny, not pathologically cruel and destructive. I'm all for First Ammendment protections, but this is in the territory of "yelling fire in a crowded theater" and should be punished accordingly.

NBC News Twitter Feed Hacked, Fake Ground Zero Terrorist Attack Reported

A hacker group broke into the NBC News Twitter account Friday, sending a series of tweets about a terror attack on Ground Zero to the news outlet’s 129,000 followers.

“Flight 4782 is not responding, suspected hijacking. One plane just hit Ground Zero site at 5:47. #groundzeroattacked,” the account wrote.

“This is not a joke, Ground Zero has just been attacked,” the account tweeted. “We’re attempting to get reporters on the scene.”

No such terror attack happened at Ground Zero in Manhattan Friday evening. A group calling themselves “The Script Kiddies” claimed responsibility for the hack, advertising its own Twitter account, which was suspended immediately after the incident.

Yeah, some jail time is in order - this isn't what "freedom of speech" is about.

The Underemployed v. The Unemployed

And the bad news in the job market just seems to abound. Happy Labor Day!

Unemployed face tough competition: underemployed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The job market is even worse than the 9.1 percent unemployment rate suggests.

America's 14 million unemployed aren't competing just with each other. They must also contend with 8.8 million other people not counted as unemployed -- part-timers who want full-time work.

When consumer demand picks up, companies will likely boost the hours of their part-timers before they add jobs, economists say. It means they have room to expand without hiring.

And the unemployed will face another source of competition once the economy improves: Roughly 2.6 million people who aren't counted as unemployed because they've stopped looking for work. Once they start looking again, they'll be classified as unemployed. And the unemployment rate could rise.

In other words, it's worse than you think and it's going to get even worse before it gets better.

Peace is Overrated

If you're chasing that elusive state of being called "peace", be advised it's a phantom, and a dangerous one at that.

As long as evil walks the Earth, we will either have war or subjugation to that evil. To paraphrase Patrick Henry, peace is not, or should not be so dear as to be purchased at the price of slavery. Those are really our only two choices and those who say otherwise are either fools or agents of evil.

I was raised with the idea that “peace” is the ultimate goal and, in some spiritual way, it probably is. We should understand, however, that it’s largely unattainable. If we sacrifice our souls in the name of peace, we will lose all and will still have war in the bargain. It’s a fools errand to sacrifice anything in the name of peace – if peace is not worthy and acceptable for both warring parties, in and of itself, then it’s not worth pursuit at all.

If we put peace above all else, we will always be at the mercy of those who have not such lofty values, those whose ends justify their means, no matter how grisly those means may be.

Babel on the Thames

How could anyone in their right mind think this is a positive development?

John Cleese: London is no longer English city

FAWLTY Towers legend John Cleese has come under fire after declaring: "London is no longer an English city."
The comic, 71, said that the mix of cultures had helped the capital win the 2012 Olympics.

But he added that it can be hard to find an English person and that the "parent culture has dissipated".

Cleese, who is performing in Sydney, was asked on Australian TV what he thought of last month's riots around the UK.

He replied: "I'm not sure what's going on in Britain. Let me say this, I don't know what's going on in London because London is no longer an English city.

"That's how they got the Olympics. They said, 'We're the most cosmopolitan city on Earth', but it doesn't feel English.

"I had a Californian friend come over two months ago, walk down the King's Road and say to me, 'Well, where are all the English people?'

"I love having different cultures around but when the parent culture kind of dissipates, you're left thinking, 'What's going on?' "

The Monty Python star's remarks prompted criticism from Mayor Boris Johnson, who said London's diversity should be "celebrated".

Labour's Ken Livingstone added: "To stay competitive London must be a global centre of business, culture and innovation, none of which can be achieved without people of all nations working and living here."

More than a quarter of London's population is from an ethnic minority, and there are 300 languages spoken.

There lies our future; diversity is just another word for capitulation, and eventual destruction.

A Great Musical About a Monsterous Individual

I've always loved the musical "Evita", even knowing that the real Eva Peron, and particularly Che Guevara, bore little resemblance to the romantic figures in the play. Yeah, she was a real friggin' saint:

Eva Peron ‘kept Nazi treasure taken from Jews’

"Don't cry for me Argentina", indeed. I will always love the play, but have, and always will, consider it a work of fiction.

Zero Job Growth

I'm the first one to assert that government doesn't create jobs, and that holds true regardless of which party holds the White House. That said, the government sure as he'll can destroy jobs, and they can sure as hell inhibit the growth of employment.

Which brings us to last month's job growth number of ZERO. If you think you've never heard of such a thing, you may be right. It hasn't happened since 1945. For the historically challenged who may be reading this, that was 66 years ago, at the end of World War II and no, George W. Bush had nothing to do with that one.

We're more than two and a half years into the Age of Hope and Change, how's that working out for ya?

All Back from Mackinac, Jack

Mackinac Island, that is. If you think that that title rhymes, then you are obviously unfamiliar with French pronunciation of Indian words, but that's an entirely different matter that just proves the inimitable annoying nature of the French. But I digress.....

We had a wonderful time, visited the UP; a region about which I had always heard, but heretofore had, unfortunately, never visited. That was an oversight that's now been remedied.

It was a relatively short stay, but then it's a pretty small island. It was a wonderful few days, a lovely drive, and it was good to get away. The yoopers were warm and engaging, and we even met a very nice conservative couple from Canada, what're the odds of that? My hair is nearly down to my shoulders now, I wonder what gave me away?

That and other intriguing questions, observations, insights and even pics regarding the trip to the Upper Peninsula to follow - stay tuned. Right now, I'm dealing with the post-drive recovery process.