baldilocks

Goodbye, 2006! (Tully)

Likely my last post of the year, and I wish to nominate a late entry for Best Headline of 2006. In this category, the actual article content is irrelevant to the competition, though perfectly fair game for discussion purposes.

Science Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep

So many ways to read that...but as a headline, it's a gem! In any case, the article itself is about gay activists being worried that scientists might develop a method of "curing" homosexuality, even reducing or eliminating the possibility through pre-natal treatment.

The research, at Oregon State University in the city of Corvallis and at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has caused an outcry. Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player who won Wimbledon nine times, and scientists and gay rights campaigners in Britain have called for the project to be abandoned.

Navratilova defended the “right” of sheep to be gay. She said: “How can it be that in the year 2006 a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments?” She said gay men and lesbians would be “deeply offended” by the social implications of the tests.

The whole thing just begs the question--feet, or pods?

[Cross-posted to Stubborn Facts.]

All Your Open Threads is Belong to Us! (Tully)

It's a New Year's Weekend open thread! From the end of the year to the end of Saddam, whatever you'd like to bring up. (Remember your manners, though!)

A Warning To The Right (UPDATED: February 15, 2008)

I’m tired of it all.

I’m tired of the insinuations about Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) because his dead father was a Muslim. I’m tired of the insinuations about his middle name—Hussein—and the racist/bigoted insinuations that I’ve seen on the Right that flow from there. I’m even tired of the assertion that the senator isn’t even really a black American (whatever that means to a group of people who are demonstrably of mixed-race for the most part) because he has a white mother and a non-American black—i.e. African—father and, yes, since his father and my father were/are of the same tribe and nationality, I take that last bit of information quite personally.

Like me, Senator Obama wasn’t even raised by his biological father* and, though he had an Indonesian step-father who was probably a Muslim, he says that he is a Christian. And, like me, Obama has been long interested in knowing more about his heritage--probably since, like me, Obama was born and raised here in our beloved USA with a zero amount of it, outside of our middle and surnames. And, unlike most black Americans, the senator and I are blessed enough to know at least some part of our African heritage--something that is very prized among the mostly slave-descended black American population.

But Debbie Schlussel determines such interest as something else. Well, guess what. I was raised as a Muslim also. My mother and (black American) step-father subscribed to the creed of the Nation of Islam back in the day. And like Obama, I went to a Muslim school—for longer than he did. I even have a high school diploma from Clara Muhammad Elementary and Secondary School, obtained when I was fifteen, since the school didn’t take summer breaks.

But things change. Both my mom and my step-dad are now Bible-believing Christians, as am I. Dad is now even a Methodist pastor. However, I wonder whether our conversions will be questioned as Senator Obama’s is being even now by Schlussel, who calls the senator’s middle name “a Muslim name.” Well, no. It’s an Arabic name. And there are many Arab Christians who, obviously, have Arabic names. Here’s one. Here’s another one.

In spite of our shared heritage, I wouldn’t dream of voting for Senator Obama, no matter how "well-spoken" and "handsome" he is. (And, in my opinion he isn't "all that.") His stances on abortion, economics and the Global War on Terror--to name a few issues--are an anathema to me, though they are no more Left-leaning than, say, Senator Dick Durbin's (D-IL). However, when I look at many conservative opinions on the man in question--he who appears to be being groomed for the number-two slot for the Democrats in the 2008 presidential election--I see all too much bigotry being put forth as reasons not to vote for the candidate who will probably be Senator Hillary Clinton’s choice for running mate.

Is that how the Right wants to portray itself?

BTW, there are a lot of black Americans with Arabic first names—my youngest sister is one of them. She was born in the late seventies when my parents were still “Muslims,” but she is also now a Christian. She and millions of other black Americans were dubbed names like “Ayisha,” “Amira,” “Jamal,” and “Malik,” but are no more Muslim than is Lt. General John Abizaid (aka "the Mad Arab"). Does the Right want to alienate such people?

Considering that most black Americans vote Democrat anyway, perhaps some on the Right believe that black America is a lost cause as it relates to bringing a substantial portion of that number over to the Republican Party. Well, if some of you keep going down the road you’re going with respect to Senator Obama, you can count on that number approaching 100% and kiss the White House goodbye. As a conservative Republican, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for a ticket with the too-Liberal/Leftist senator on it. However, no group of people can stand having his/her heritage being insulted for very long—an issue for which any person has no choice.

Vote for the person who stands for what you believe in—and leave the bigotry at home.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

* My biological father is an atheist. Note how much that affected my belief in a deity.

UPDATE: Not really related, but since General Abizaid is mentioned here, I'd like to note that he's retiring in March of next year, after thirty-four years of service. Wonder if he's interested in running for president. :-)

UPDATE (February 15, 2008): I notice that as Kenya implodes and as Obama's campaign surges, I'm getting some hits on this year-old post. Well, a couple more items for readers to chew on are here and here. While you're reading these items, remember this axiom: if the rock didn't hit you, don't yelp. --JAO

Iran in Flux (Tully)

Ahmadinejad allies fail to sweep Iran vote

Ultra-conservatives close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have failed to sweep twin Iranian elections with embattled moderate forces recording a respectable performance, initial results have showed. Centrist cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani appeared to have sprung a surprise by reaping by far the most votes and beating a hardline rival in the election for the Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the supreme leader.

Ahmadinejad's grip on power is not as solid as some seem to believe, nor is Iran of one mind on their foreign relations and future path.

Citizen SMASH and Paul Silver both pointed last week to this article in the Arab News that provides some good background on the current Iranian political situation.

UPDATE: For anyone who doubts the nature of the current Tehran regime, here's some extra reading.

[Cross-posted to Stubborn Facts.]

Jamil Hussein, Come On Down! (Tully)

Breaking everywhere....

Eason Jordan Vows to Find Jamil Hussein

And Michelle Malkin is going with him. Road trip!

Yellowcake Redux (Tully)

Pajamas Media, citing a confidential United Nations report [PDF], breaks the story that Iran is actively seeking uranium in Somalia.

The article goes on to say that the report affirms Al Qaeda's presence in Somalia, albeit without naming the group.

[F]oreign volunteers also provide training in guerrilla warfare and special topics or techniques consisting of bomb making and the use of bombs against different targets such as a variety of different types of transport and buildings. Other techniques include kidnapping and the conduct of assassination by ambush and sniping… . [T]he ICU is fully capable of turning Somalia into what is currently an Iraq-type scenario, replete with roadside and suicide bombers, assassinations and other forms of terrorist and insurgent-type activities.

Fighting the Last War

Any military man knows you shouldn't do this; and then they go ahead and train, equip, and set up the logistics for the last war.  History is a bloody testament to our inability to MOVE ALONG.  It's bewildering that right now, in spite of widespread information on Fighting The Last War Syndrome, we're being inundated with new examples.  Maybe 2007 is going to be the "Year of The Last War."  From the ridiculous to the bizarre and the over-the-top to the truly frightening, here are some famous last wars currently being fought:

Europeans are still seeking to bring the worker's paradise to the continent, while the Democratic National Committee considers getting behind that hot new defense scheme, NATO:  (Via Breitbart:)

OPORTO, Portugal (Reuters) - European Socialists promised on Thursday to work to rebuild Europe's strategic alliance with the United States now that the Democrats control Congress after last month's elections.

Socialist leaders attending a meeting of the European Socialist Party pledged that with the Democrats on the rise, strong ties could be renewed with the United States after years of cool relations with Republican President George W. Bush.

Howard Dean, chairman of the national committee of the U.S. Democratic Party, is attending the two-day conference together with the leaders of leftist governments of several countries and party leaders from across Europe.

Then there's Britney Spears, perpetually trying to peel off the goody-two-shoes image.  (No links needed, unfortunately, everyone on the planet has seen her antics already.)  Uh, Brit, we got it that you're not a Mouseketeer anymore.  Can we talk now about the job of MOTHER?

A strong contender for Last War champion has got to be Nancy Pelosi. Here's a woman who hasn't even taken delivery yet on the Emperor's New Clothes and already she's defaulted back to Haight-Ashbury.  Every time she opens her mouth I expect her to channel Timothy O'Leary and start telling us to "Tune In, Turn On and Drop Out."  The rest of America got over the sixties by, at the very latest, the eighties, but Nancy just can't find her way off the Viet Nam War protest lines.  She just knows if she finds the right magic committee chair appointments, we'll FINALLY achieve peace in our time. 

Nancy is so strongly saturated with Last War Syndrome that her followers are similarly afflicted just from breathing her fumes. Completely forgetting that girls started wearing jeans to school before most of them were born, Nancy's fawning media accolytes recently almost wet themselves in their excitement about how STUNNING and MODERN Nancy looked in her pantsuit.

My God, next thing you know, she'll be using her new powers to de-criminalize THE PILL! 

And we can't forget Hillary Clinton, manic in her attempts to triangulate past Bobbie Ann - Polly Kyle - Gennifer Flowers - Whitewater - Susan McDougal - Cookie Baking Boycotts - Paula Jones - Monica Lewinski - Health Care - The Iraq War yes no yes no -  Dick Morris - Barack Obama - whew, have to catch my breath here. 

Hillary can't put down the triangulation tool because that would leave nothing but her basic personality.  Which presumably was torched by Bill on the way to the Governor's Mansion in Arkansas, and has been MIA ever since.  Except for temper tantrums, blaming of underlings and smarmy ex-cheerleader impersonations at campaign events, of course.  Can't medical researchers find a fast-forward button for people? We all know Hillary's bound for oblivion and footnote hell in the shadow of Bill.  Why can't we just get it done NOW?

The upcoming presidential campaign will be a mind-numbing sinkhole of Hillary reprising the high-speed 180, ad nauseum.  The prospect makes a diet of Polonium 210  look kind.

And speaking of poisonings and incomprehensibly ornate plots, have you placed your bets for the Kremlin's 3,783rd round of  spy / military / diplomat / gulag tag?  Those madcap boys in the mink hats just never get tired of it, do they?  I'd worry more about the unsporting switch from good old cyanide to dioxins and now to radioactives, but they're still slipping the goods into the same old vodka, so what the heck!

I'll make only passing note of the "economic justice" crowd agitating for the thousandth time about living wages and economic opportunity;  on their way to notch up the minimum wage for the 78th, and still ineffective, time. 

We'll leave the stoned silly academic censors, now going into their third decade of honoring free speech by trying to shut down the communications of everyone who disagrees with them.  50 and 60 year old professors rant at their puzzled students, who wonder how a tenured, beemer driving grandfather can deprecate "the man" with a straight face. 

Radical feminists are forever locked in a battle against wage inequalities and Playboy style porn. They marginalize themselves and sell out their principles in an outdated effort to appear "inclusive."  Their daughters laugh at them, then take up the entrepreneur's cross and worry about date rape drugs and the genital mutilations of millions of their Muslim sisters. 

Women's Studies programs all across American anxiously count the number of female authors in literature class anthologies.  Genuine revolutionary women are trying to come to grips with the fact anti-culture Islamists are outbreeding, intimidating and murdering all the rest of us. Their serious and urgent fear is that every scrap of western literature, regardless the sex of the author, will be lost to the tides of Jihad.

But you get the picture.  Fighting the Last War is certainly all the rage.  Problem is, the next war has already started and we are already losing.  This is a war for civilization, a war for the souls of men, a war for freedom, prosperity and dignity.  Jihad seeks to unplug the reformation, the industrial revolution, the divine light of the rights of individuals.  We can't fight this one like we've ever fought before.  And our learning curve must be short.  The lights are already going out in Europe, Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East. 

So back to those who get their news from "People" magazine.  Perhaps we could fight terror with tarnished bling.  Let's put burkas on Britney, Paris, Rosie, Katie, Hillary, Nancy and every radical feminist in the country, wire them up with speed and caffeine so they can't stop talking, then smuggle them into select women's compounds. 

Ahmadinejad et al would surrender within days. 

 

Just Getting It Done

Thanks to PajamasMedia for a link to a great video by some of our best on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

What, you're still here? Go watch it and then come back.

Nice pictures and summaries of some of the work done by our military, including the Sun Kings who appear in the video, can be seen here. 

According to the San Francisco Moonbat Party,  these guys and gals resent their jobs and believe our best days are behind us.  Someone alert John Kerry that these poorly used, misled, uneducated, repressed and reflectively vicious troops urgently need him to save them.

Or not.  Consider this:

Could the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln operate the New York Times and staff John Kerry's offices?  In their SLEEP. 

Could the buffoons at the Times and John Kerry's staffers operate the Lincoln?  In their DREAMS.

A Date Which Will Live In Infamy (Tully)

December 7th, 1941

The U.S.S. Arizona

The list of crew members still on duty aboard the U.S.S. Arizona.

Much much more here. And while I really really hate saying anything nice about the New York Times, do yourself a MAJOR favor and go check out this previously unpublished 64-year-old special report in today's New York Times. Thank you, ladies and gentleman. I take back 14% of all the nasty things I've said about you.

[Cross-posted to Stubborn Facts.]

San Francisco Reaps What It's Sown (Tully)

SAN FRANCISCO: Navy scuttles plan to commission warship here, citing local politics

Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter vetoed plans to commission the Makin Island, the Navy's newest and most powerful warship, in San Francisco in 2008 because of a perception that the city is anti-military.

Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. J. Michael Myatt, chairman of a high-powered committee that was to support a commissioning ceremony for the Makin Island, said he has been informed that the ship would not be commissioned in San Francisco, as scheduled, but in San Diego.

Myatt said he had been told that the Navy was concerned about San Francisco's refusal to provide a homeport for the retired battleship Iowa, which would be turned into a museum, and for the city school board's decision to abolish junior ROTC training in San Francisco high schools.

One of the factors that turned the Pentagon against San Francisco, he said, was widely quoted anti-military remarks made by various city politicians. Some of the remarks got considerable attention, especially ones made by Gerardo Sandoval, a member of the Board of Supervisors, who was quoted on national television as saying national defense should be left to "the cops and the Coast Guard."

Call it a very justified "perception." Maybe they were worried about the Molotov cocktails recently favored by San Francisco anti-war protesters. Or maybe they just didn't feel welcome. For some odd reason.

Some tasty snark on the news from Michelle Malkin at Hot Air V-blog.

[Cross-posted to Stubborn Facts.]

"The AP is making up war crimes" (Tully)

Jules Crittenden at the Boston Herald becomes the first MSM member to publicly take AP to task for Making Up The News.

The AP is making up war crimes. But the resulting stink in the blogosphere has barely wrinkled a nose in the mainstream press. The ethics-obsessed Poynter Institute seems to be oblivious to it. It has to do with the AP’s Iraqi stringers and an oft-quoted Iraqi police captain named Jamil Hussein. Problem is, the Iraqi police say Capt. Hussein does not exist. The Iraqi police and U.S. military say an incident described in an AP report - Iraqi soldiers standing by as people were burned alive in a mosque - didn’t happen. Another AP-reported incident, U.S. soldiers shooting 11 civilians, also never happened, the military says.

Crittenden also has some sound advice for MSM-criticizing bloggers at his own excellent blog.

UPDATE: AP continues to "stand by our reporting," and claims they have "proof" including photos. But despite several days having gone by, no photos have been released. No bodies have been found or reported. No new graves, no funeral processions. No burnt homes. And no Captain Jamil Hussein has appeared. What is known--a Molotov or something similar was lobbed at the door of the al-Hurriya mosque, which caught fire, which fire was quickly extinguished. THAT'S IT. The whole thing. Out of which came the AP's "we stand by our reporting" tale of four mosques attacked with rockets, numerous homes torched, dozens dead, and several Sunnis forced to stand, be drenched with kerosene, and torched one by one. And it never happened. That's the level of factual reporting we get from the Associated Press out of Iraq.

[Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds. When does he sleep? Also, cross-posted to Stubborn Facts. ]

Here's A Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares (AskMom)

This is a message from the Uppity Unburka'd Gun-Toting Grandmas of the Free World to Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  so-called President of Iran and teller of poisonous, slithering lies:

Bite Us. 

You loser.  Your pansy excuse for a religion requires you to offer us a chance to submit and convert before you try to kill and enslave us.  Offer noted for the record.  Tragically for you, we have guns and bad attitudes.  Our sons and grandsons have bigger guns and worse attitudes.  Our military has the biggest guns and the worst attitudes this earth has ever seen. 

I've got news, Mahmoud my boy.  We're pretty committed to this democracy thing we've got going here.  And none of us is all that excited about giving up our job, education, voting rights, intimate body parts or ability to feel the sun on more than just our eyebrows. 

We don't fancy our daughters and granddaughters as breeding stock for you and your genetically subnormal followers, either.  The girls are uppity too and expect to choose for themselves who the daddies of their babies will be.  "Smelly violent hate-crazed camel molester" doesn't seem to be a strong favorite, sorry to have to disillusion you about that.

Oh, and nice try on the Jewish thing, by the way.  Trouble is, since we live here, we know these people as our neighbors and friends.  If they control anything, it's as individuals who worked for it and earned it, and not as some mythical cabal using some devilish powers.  Are you sure you're not just jealous that the smart, hardworking Jewish guys have some of the prettiest girls begging for their company,  while you have to kidnap and bribe even ugly women to get within a mile of you? 

Just a last little technicality.  Your prophet was a liar, a thief, a murderer, a child molester, and a megalomaniac paranoid psychopath.  Ours was a chaste, honest, humble, self-sacrificing carpenter and fisherman, a wise and gentle teacher.  Your prophet believed that a million people should die rather than one hair of his own head be harmed.  Our prophet was willing to die himself to save even the most wretched man, and wanted no man ever to be harmed on his account.  If God is just, and merciful, and loving as you claim to believe, which prophet was of God and which the imposter? 

So keep up with the smarmy pseudo peace overtures and the not-very-well-veiled, you should excuse the pun, threats.  The first serious hit you take at an American city or even just a school full of American kids, the Chamberlains among us will be silenced.  The entire population will be focused on moving every last Iranian off this planet and into the arms of your God, known to us by his real name of Satan.

As you seem to approve of deceit and deception, child rape and murder, beheading and all forms of mutilation, barbarous cruelty and unending brutal stupidity,  you should be quite at home there in hell.   Now don't write back, we've got the spam filter turned on.  You might try something just for the Democrats in Congress.  They love devious, weaselly letters and they'll submit to anyone who threatens them with anything. 

Just remember, if you convert them we won't take them back.

This is a message from the Uppity Unburka'd Gun-Toting Grandmas of the Free World to Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  so-called President of Iran and teller of poisonous, slithering lies:

Bite Us. 

You loser.  Your pansy excuse for a religion requires you to offer us a chance to submit and convert before you try to kill and enslave us.  Offer noted for the record.  Tragically for you, we have guns and bad attitudes.  Our sons and grandsons have bigger guns and worse attitudes.  Our military has the biggest guns and the worst attitudes this earth has ever seen. 

I've got news, Mahmoud my boy.  We're pretty committed to this democracy thing we've got going here.  And none of us is all that excited about giving up our job, education, voting rights, intimate body parts or ability to feel the sun on more than just our eyebrows. 

We don't fancy our daughters and granddaughters as breeding stock for you and your genetically subnormal followers, either.  The girls are uppity too and expect to choose for themselves who the daddies of their babies will be.  "Smelly violent hate-crazed camel molester" doesn't seem to be a strong favorite, sorry to have to disillusion you about that.

Oh, and nice try on the Jewish thing, by the way.  Trouble is, since we live here, we know these people as our neighbors and friends.  If they control anything, it's as individuals who worked for it and earned it, and not as some mythical cabal using some devilish powers.  Are you sure you're not just jealous that the smart, hardworking Jewish guys have some of the prettiest girls begging for their company,  while you have to kidnap and bribe even ugly women to get within a mile of you? 

Just a last little technicality.  Your prophet was a liar, a thief, a murderer, a child molester, and a megalomaniac paranoid psychopath.  Ours was a chaste, honest, humble, self-sacrificing carpenter and fisherman, a wise and gentle teacher.  Your prophet believed that a million people should die rather than one hair of his own head be harmed.  Our prophet was willing to die himself to save even the most wretched man, and wanted no man ever to be harmed on his account.  If God is just, and merciful, and loving as you claim to believe, which prophet was of God and which the imposter? 

So keep up with the smarmy pseudo peace overtures and the not-very-well-veiled, you should excuse the pun, threats.  The first serious hit you take at an American city or even just a school full of American kids, the Chamberlains among us will be silenced.  The entire population will be focused on moving every last Iranian off this planet and into the arms of your God, known to us by his real name of Satan.

As you seem to approve of deceit and deception, child rape and murder, beheading and all forms of mutilation, barbarous cruelty and unending brutal stupidity,  you should be quite at home there in hell.   Now don't write back, we've got the spam filter turned on.  You might try something just for the Democrats in Congress.  They love devious, weaselly letters and they'll submit to anyone who threatens them with anything. 

Just remember, if you convert them we won't take them back.