When Scientists Have a Heart of Darkness

Who peer-reviews the peer-reviewers?

Here's what Phil Jones of the CRU and his colleague Michael Mann of Penn State mean by “peer review.” When Climate Research published a paper dissenting from the Jones-Mann "consensus," Jones demanded that the journal "rid itself of this troublesome editor," and Mann advised that "we have to stop considering Climate Research as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers."

So much for Climate Research. When Geophysical Research Letters also showed signs of wandering off the "consensus" reservation, Dr. Tom Wigley ("one of the world’s foremost experts on climate change") suggested they get the goods on its editor, Jim Saiers, and go to his bosses at the American Geophysical Union to “get him ousted.” When another pair of troublesome dissenters emerge, Dr. Jones assured Dr. Mann, “I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!”

Which in essence is what they did. The more frantically they talked up "peer review" as the only legitimate basis for criticism, the more assiduously they turned the process into what James Lewis calls the Chicago machine politics of international science. The headline in the Wall Street Journal Europe is unimproveable: "How To Forge A Consensus." Pressuring publishers, firing editors, blacklisting scientists: That's "peer review," climate-style.

When the peers are mafia-style thugs, you get mafia-style science.

The Insane Running the Asylum

POLITICALLY-correct penpushers have banned calling yobs "youths" - so as not to hurt their feelings.

Government bureaucrats insist they must be called "young persons" instead.

Why not just call them yobs?

Annoyed civil servants had to spend hours correcting the document itself, after they were the first to fall foul of the new rule.

More than 100 mentions of the banned word had to be deleted in the 26-page code.

Stupid.

Coming to America?

Better hope not.

Want to fix the National Health Service? Go private

One of Labour's great triumphs with the National Health Service is that people now go into hospital to die rather than to be cured. It seems to render the whole debate about assisted suicide utterly pointless. Who needs a Dignitas clinic when you can check into a hospital in Basildon and be relatively certain to be taken out in a box?

It is a further achievement of our monitoring, regulating culture that even the monitors and the regulators don't seem to have a clue how bad things are – or they certainly didn't in Basildon. This exposes one of the great pretences of the NHS: that it is there first and foremost for the benefit of patients. It isn't. It exists these days mostly for the benefit of various trade unionists who are fully paid-up members of the Brown clientele, and who earn good money as petty bureaucrats trying to "manage" things that, if they need to be managed at all, could be far better done by fewer people in much more efficient systems.

SEIU anyone?

Good Advice

Yeah, he's an atheist. Nobody is perfect. Religion deserves much of what he says about it anyway. And most of what he has to say in this video is spot on.

The Opposite is Also True

I found this very interesting and thought provoking. Learn something new everyday.

'Nuff Said

"This is Your Brain on Political Correctness: Dead."

Major Nidal Hasan had an enabler

Commissar Lynch has it exactly backwards: it's the craven submission to political correctness, the willingness to leave your marbles with the Diversity Café hat-check girl, that leads to death—real death, with real corpses, from Texas to Ontario. And when the guy’s on the table firing wildly and screaming "Allahu akbar!", the PC enforcers won’t be there for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dennis Prager is right on with this message.

911 Can't Stop the Violence

She called 9-1-1 just before being beaten to death with a blunt object outside of her home.

That's not the main point of the article at the link but it is something to consider.

The Gravy Train

How politicians 'solve' problems

No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems – of which getting elected and re-elected are No. 1 and No. 2. Whatever is No. 3 is far behind.

Many of the things the government does that may seem stupid are not stupid at all, from the standpoint of the elected officials or bureaucrats who do these things.

The current economic downturn that has cost millions of people their jobs began with successive administrations of both parties pushing banks and other lenders to make mortgage loans to people whose incomes, credit history and inability or unwillingness to make a substantial down payment on a house made them bad risks.

Was that stupid? Not at all. The money that was being put at risk was not the politicians' money, and in most cases was not even the government's money. Moreover, the jobs that are being lost by the millions are not the politicians' jobs – and jobs in the government's bureaucracies are increasing.

And they want to do more of this.

How-to of the Day

It's not difficult to make a woman happy.

Offensive Congressman

When I first saw this video I thought it was faked.



How is it that they don't take congressmen like this away in handcuffs? Or at least a straight jacket? What part of complete travesty of our constitutional government don't they understand? If you refuse to defend and protect the constitution you should be removed from office. Period. Isn't that the oath they take?

Sticking It To You

Government Deficits and Private Growth

For anyone who wondered if last winter's federal seizure of the financial services industry would have adverse economic consequences, an answer is now available. The credit market has been tilted to favor a single borrower with a huge appetite for money, Washington. Private borrowers, particularly small businesses, have been sent to the end of the queue.

The Obama administration is not and has no intention of creating a climate of job growth in America with the exception of government jobs. All the talk of creating jobs from this administration is just that - talk. The stimulus was payback to the unions, lawyers and politicians. It does nothing to feed the economic engine of this country. This is not only business as usual in Washington, it's business as usual on steroids. It is the most selfish, greedy and ruthless administration I have ever seen in this country.

Throwing It All Away

The trial of terrorists in New York will be a circus and a sham at best and probably a train wreck. A circus train wreck.

Trying the Sheikh to Try Our Faith

It has been increasingly obvious that this administration is dedicated to destroying the nation’s economy by increasing its debt, imposing changes to our healthcare system—one sixth of the nation’s economy, taking ownership in General Motors and AIG, and doing nothing substantive about a rising unemployment rate.

It has done this at an astonishing rate of speed as if it realizes it only has a limited amount of time in which to bring down America.

The only element of the system that Obama has not yet significantly harmed is our system of justice. Americans implicitly believe in our system of justice which is fretted about with all manner of ways to protect the rights of the accused.

The Sky is Falling

The Global Warming/Climate Change Hoax is over and it's time for the mainstream media to fess up. The liars have been exposed and it's time to end it. Now.

The global warming fraud exposed

First, the data simply does not support their conclusions. Second, they know the data doesn't support their conclusions.

Global Warming Meltdown: Climategate!

The hoax has its roots in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an instrument of the United Nations Environmental Program, for whom global warming was the open sesame to achieving a one-world-government by scaring nations into signing a treaty that would control their use of energy, the means of producing it, and require vast billions to be sent to less developed nations in exchange for “emitting” greenhouse gases.

Energy is called "the master resource" because, if you have lots of it, you can call your own shots. If you don't, you are condemned to live in the dark and keeping people in the dark about the global warming hoax was essential.

For years the IPCC has been controlled by a handful of the worst liars in the world, utterly devoted to taking actual climate data and twisting it to confirm the assertion that the Earth was not only warming dramatically, but that humanity was in peril of rising oceans, melting glaciers and polar ice caps, more hurricanes, the die-off of countless animal species, and every other calamity that could possibly be attributed to "global warming", including acne.

So, around November 20, when some enterprising individual hacked into the computers of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU), making off with thousands of emails and documents that demonstrate the level of collusion and deception being practiced by its scientists.

The Hockey Stick was never accurate--and CRU knew it

The infamous "hockey stick" temperature graph purporting to show a runaway acceleration in global temperatures beginning in 1850 was never accurate--and the Climatic Research Unit knew it wasn't accurate when they published it.

SNL Obama Skit

Black is a Choice?

Jesse Jackson: 'You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man'

"We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill from Alabama," Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. "You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man."

Here is a protege of Martin Luther King Jr. who has not comprehended the message. Sad.

Look at the Facts

The Last Call You May Ever Make

On a related note, it is unbelievable to me that our military personnel are not allowed to carry weapons on base. Why do we treat trained soldiers like children? Civilian police officers took out the terrorist in Ft. Hood - not that there's anything wrong with that, but it is a military base. How many people could have been saved if some of the people there had guns on them? Just let concealed carry permit holders carry their guns. No extra permitting or expenses required. Or better yet, allow military personnel to get a federal carry permit so they can carry at any base in the United States. It's the least we can do for them. How embarrassing is it for soldiers to be sitting ducks? It's crazy.

No gun zones are some of the most dangerous places you can be.

This Boggles the Mind

Schools let students seek secret abortions

A 12-year-old girl is prohibited from bringing aspirin to California public schools without a note from her mother or father – but in many California districts she may sign herself out of classes, leave her junior-high campus without parental permission, secretly have an abortion and return to school before the end of the day – and her own family may be none the wiser.

Let the Compensations Begin!

Court: Army Corps of Engineers liable for Katrina flooding

"The people of this city are vindicated," said Joe Bruno, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys. "They didn't do anything wrong. It's now time for them to be compensated."

"It has been proven in a court of law that the drowning of New Orleans was not a natural disaster, but a preventable man-made travesty," the attorneys said in a statement. "The government has always had a moral obligation to rebuild New Orleans. This decision makes that obligation a matter of legal responsibility."

Incompetance to the Nth Degree

First question out of the gate, "I don't know, I'd have to look at that..." He didn't look at that already while considering his options? One of the first things you might consider is how has it been done in the past. He should have at least known the answer even if he didn't agree with it. It doesn't get any better in the rest of the video.

Graham grills Holder

Just Another Tax TKO

Taxes knock out Pacquiao-Mayweather bout... from NY, NJ

"Nothing would please me more than to have it at Yankee Stadium, but the way the tax structure in New York is set up, it's impossible."

New York and New Jersey will have to build a wall to keep people from escaping the high taxes and oppressive governments. Add California and Ohio to that list. And Massachusetts. Probably more.

Government Mandated Insanity

Upset about FirstEnergy's pricey, hand-delivered light bulbs ? You ain't seen nothing yet

In just a few days, people dressed in green T-shirts and green caps will begin the rather enormous task of delivering two 23-watt, warm-white, compact fluorescent light bulbs to every residence FirstEnergy serves.

They won't ask whether you want them. They'll just leave them on your doorstep, in a bag that will also contain a brochure called "More Than 100 Ways to Improve Your Electric Bill."

They won't ask for payment, though. As you might expect with an electric utility, that's already wired.

These whiz-bang new light bulbs -- which cost FirstEnergy $3.50 each, and which you could buy all by yourself at any number of stores for even less if you were still trusted to do that sort of thing -- will cost you $21.60 for the pair. You'll pay it off over the next three years, at 60 cents a month added to your electric bill.

This is all about global warming, of course. Or to be less specific, climate change. Or to be more nebulous yet, greenhouse gases.

The General Assembly passed a law last year requiring Ohio's utilities to reduce their customers' energy use by 22 percent, and to shift 12.5 percent of their power production to "renewable" energy sources -- solar and wind, for instance -- all by 2025.

The Great Light Bulb Boondoggle is the leading edge of an energy-reduction effort to comply with commands the government of Ohio has issued to the tides of technology.

Those commands -- to foist immature and inefficient generation methods on consumers and push aside less expensive, more efficient power sources, like coal -- will be enforceable only at great expense to the public.

I Had a Hamster Once...

But I don't ever want to live like one, not even for 1 night, and certainly not for $148.10.

French hotel offers guests a night as a hamster

"The Hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small," Falquerho said, dressed as a hamster.

However, the price is soon to go up as today's hamsters need, according to the owners, Wifi and a giant TV screen.

Video at the link.

The Real Guantanamo Bay

Self-Explanatory

Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot

“The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.

The Worst President Ever!

Barack Obama's deep bow to the emperor of Japan and earlier bow to the Saudi Arabian king is so deeply offensive to America’s history and traditions that it cannot and most (sic) not be explained away in any fashion.

The Real Great Society

The fundamental principle of society is that of individual self-preservation and self-realization. There will be no perfected society that is not made up of perfected individuals. A chain is as strong as its weakest link. A castle is as strong as its least-guarded door. If in society there are links that are weak, society is weak. If in the great household of men there are individuals that are imperfect, then the household of men remains imperfect. Perfect units are needed for the perfect unity. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of individuality is not individuality, but the realization of the commonwealth. The ultimate reason why every man must be perfect is not that the man should be perfect, but that the community should be perfect. Therefore, every individual must aim at high things, noble things, and desire honor. This is ambition in its simplest, purest form; and this is not evil, but wholly good.

--G. Campbell Morgan: Ambitions, The Westminster Pulpit.

A society's strength comes from the quality of the character of the individuals of that society, not from the government, and not from the elites. It cannot be forced on society from the top down. From strong individuals come strong families, strong families make for a strong city, from strong cities, strong states and strong states form a strong nation.

Creating Wealth

Money is not like Energy, How Democrats Are Destroying Our Economy

As a kid you learned in science class that energy never increases or decreases in amount, it simply transfers. The sun provides energy for the plant to grow, then the energy transfers into the animal when the plant is eaten. Later the animal releases the energy in its activities, and waste. The waste, then, transfers the energy into the ground for the plant to use, and et cetera. So, the idea is, if energy increases in one location, somewhere else there is less energy.

The politicians, leftists of the Democrat Party in particular, seem to think that money is like energy. If someone becomes wealthy, then there must be somebody at the bottom doing without. Money, however, is not like energy. Someone becoming successful does not take away from somebody at the bottom. For each success there is not a non-success.

Self-Made Machine

So True

The revolution will be televised, but it will be up against American Idol. --Frank J. @ IMAO

I Love You, Now Change

The Man Who Despises America

In May, Obama immediately issued a statement that he was "shocked and outraged by the murder" of a Kansas doctor specializing in partial-birth abortions. He called it a "heinous act of violence." Attorney-General Holder mobilized U.S. Marshals nationwide to provide protection to abortion clinics.

But Obama remained silent the very next day when two U.S. soldiers were gunned down by a Muslim extremist outside a Little Rock recruiting station. After repeated prodding for a presidential comment, the White House faxed an after-hours statement to select media outlets two days later offering a tepid remark that Obama was "saddened" without even mentioning the soldiers were murdered.

Five months later, another Muslim fanatic gunned down nearly four dozen Americans, killing 13, at the Ft. Hood army base. It was an act that demanded the most serious demeanor of the military's Commander-in-Chief. Yet, Obama referenced the massacre in the most insincere fashion just seconds after a jocular shout-out to an audience member during a public speaking engagement. It was the equivalent of attending a funeral in swimwear while en route to the beach.

Who's An Extremist?

Change: War on Terror America

Obama's War on America By Alan Caruba

While the debate rages about the White House policy regarding conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a very real war is being waged here in America…by President Obama and his appointees.

"All Socialist Roads Lead to the Same Destination"

Lessons from the Berlin Wall

We ought to take the time to look at not only how the Berlin Wall came down, but why it went up.

The value of celebrating the fall of the wall is mostly sentimental and emotional. It was a great time in human history – the videos of tearful, newly freed East Germans smashing the symbol of their imprisonment to pieces are unforgettable. But how did that wall get there in the first place? Why did East Germans tunnel underneath it, walk through minefields to get over it, and even build a hot air balloon to escape their country?

The answer is: Socialism. Totalitarian government. The belief that the government knows best, and has the right to dictate man’s lot in life.

Why is Communism Still Cool?

20 years after the Berlin Wall

And let us never forget the evil that raised that wall in the first place, the evil that continues to enslave so many with tragically false promises of peace and prosperity. One wall down, but many more still to go, many nations still prisons, many souls trapped within -- with so few hammer blows being raised to rescue them, and no shortage of masons willing to raise the walls higher still.

Great video at the link.

Been Down this Road Before

Don't Jump to Conclusions: Shut Up and Die.

If you've ever wondered why people put up with the governments they have, look around you and see normal people, acceptable people, socially successful people, and see them extolling the current government we have. Then you'll see why there are Communist or Nazi or apartheid or Muslim governments. Most people cannot see themselves, let alone see themselves as evil. and mostly they are not evil: they are banal. They are acritical, social, and law-abiding conformists, which explains, to my mind, how Nazis can enjoy vast support of Germans, Communism among Russians, Velvet Fascism among ordinary Americans. Nobody rushes to think they might be wrong. If we ever speak to Iranians protesting their lunatic government today, what will they say to us about us? Or Hondureans? Or whomever comes next under the boot-heels of Obama? It's our government today that is evil, and yet most people among us think we are good, just as we've always been. that's why people get evil governments: they don't see themselves. They will not look.

This is where we are now. We still have a chance to turn it around if people would just look, really look, and be honest about what they see. But we are so far from where we started, so far from the truth. We're going down the same, well-worn road many before us in history did but we will not see. It will end the same way it always does. The road still leads to the same place.

I think often of Primo Levi, "The Drowned and the Saved," in which essay he writes that most concentration camp inmates assumed that if they played by the rules they'd get by. They didn't realise that the rules were set up to ensure that the rule-followers would die in three weeks. following the rules meant death by design. And the majority followed the rules to death. Levi saw them as the drowned, not even worth asking the names of, the already dead as soon as they disembarked from the trains. They had no chance. They'd follow the rules and die. Levi committed suicide in later years. Will we do the same? Will we wtch the Conformity Hippies look at their feet and hope that if they don't say anything, then maybe no one will torment them? You know it's not going to work. It doesn't even matter if you love the fascists, you're just more shit to the elite. don't go jumping to conclusions. Let the government tell you what to think. Just follow the rules. Just shut up and die.

Ooooh that Smell

Lenny Cacchio says something doesn't smell quite right:

Let me see if I have this straight.

I read in the news today that Mr. Obama is going to send a diplomat to Pyongyang to negotiate with the North Koreans. But he has refused to meet with Congressional Republicans (despite repeated promises to do so) over health care legislation.

The Obama Administration protests and indeed tries to oust the Hondurans for upholding their constitution, but he won’t hold Iran to account for election fraud.

Mr. Obama tells the American people not to jump to conclusions over the Fort Hood Massacres by a man named Hasan, but he did jump to conclusions over a white police officer named Crowley.

On that last one, ABC News investigations reveal that Major Hasan had repeated contacts with a radical cleric known to be a recruiter for Al Qaeda.

Blues Break

Divided We Fall

The Hole at the Heart of Our Strategy by Mark Steyn

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a "tragedy" (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the “War on Terror.” Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America’s enemy abroad were killed in the safety and security of home by, in essence, the same enemy — a man who believes in and supports everything the enemy does.

And he's a U.S. Army major.

And his superior officers and other authorities knew about his beliefs but seemed to think it was just a bit of harmless multicultural diversity — as if believing that "the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor" (i.e., his fellow American soldiers) and writing Internet paeans to the "noble" "heroism" of suicide bombers and, indeed, objectively supporting the other side in an active war is to be regarded as just some kind of alternative lifestyle that adds to the general vibrancy of the base.

"Beyond Stupidity, there is Ideology"

Wrecking America By Alan Caruba

I am always wary of conspiracy theories. Most can be explained away as shared ideologies which, in the case of the current and recently past Congresses and White Houses, can be described as socialism. It did not and does not matter which Party was or is in power.

The other explanation for the national car wreck we're in is just plain "stupidity." Another way of describing this is “willful ignorance.” Both apply when the President, Senators or Representatives say things that have no basis in fact either historically or empirically.

Justin Wilson Day

I started looking up his videos after remembering his catch phrase for the post below. I miss this guy, used to watch him all the time.

Playing Us For Fools

The people aren't buying it, Mr. President

They are proposing to spend $1.5 trillion over 10 years on a new social program that looks like Medicare's ugly twin sister, containing more than 50 new layers of bureaucracy, and somehow it is going to magically reform Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and reduce the deficit at the same time. Right!

And I can fly.

It will be a whole lot more than $1.5 trillion before it's all said and done, too. As ole Justin Wilson used to say, "I GARONTEE !!!!!!!"

Justin Wilson:

Quote of the Day

"It is so bogus that society is sending a message right now and has been for probably the last 40 years that a woman isn't strong enough or smart enough to be able to pursue an education, a career and her rights and still let her baby live."--Sarah Palin

Bonus:

"Don't ever let anyone to tell you to sit down and shut up."--also Sarah Palin, same speech.

Yes, It Is.

'Islam not responsible' for Fort Hood massacre: US imam

"Islam doesn't command anybody to do something like that,"

Islam may not have directly commanded this guy to do what he did but Islam provides the atmosphere, the impetus and the subtle, in some cases, and not so subtle in others, encouragement for these things to happen. Not every or even most followers have it in them to do such things but the message permeates Islam and gets through clearly to those who would.

Who am I going to believe, the imam or my eyes and ears?

Learn Something New Everyday

About Face on Honduras?

Obama backing off strong support for Zelaya?

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is asking the Obama Administration why, after pressing for his reinstatement, it now says it will recognize upcoming Honduran elections even if he isn't returned to power first.

He still wants Zelaya reinstated but apparently not insisting on it. That's really good news for Honduras.

These Obama Songs in School are Deeply Distubing

Hat tip: HotAir

Barack the Balloon Boy

No one saw Barack in the balloon?

Any self-respecting cultural critic not trapped in the spring of ’03 ought to be able to do this in his sleep: there he was, Barack the Balloon Boy, wafted ever upwards on great gaseous clouds of hope and change, only to have his approval numbers crash farther faster than any president of the last 60 years. He found the reality TV show of campaigning more congenial than the reality of governing. He thought his multi-trillion-dollar ballooning debt could defy the laws of economic gravity but it just floated off over the far horizon and was never seen again.

I wish his debt could be never seen again.

Man vs. State: the Basic Issue

"It is obvious what the fraudulent issue of fascism versus communism accomplishes: it sets up, as opposites, two variants of the same political system; it eliminates the possibility of considering capitalism; it switches the choice of 'Freedom or dictatorship?' into 'Which kind of dictatorship?' -- thus establishing dictatorship as an inevitable fact and offering only a choice of rulers. The choice -- according to the proponents of that fraud -- is: a dictatorship of the rich (fascism) or a dictatorship of the poor (communism). That fraud collapsed in the 1940's, in the aftermath of World War II. It is too obvious, too easily demonstrable that fascism and communism are not two opposites, but two rival gangs fighting over the same territory -- that both are variants of statism, based on the collectivist principle that man is the rightless slave of the state -- that both are socialistic, in theory, in practice, and in the explicit statements of their leaders -- that under both systems, the poor are enslaved and the rich are expropriated in favor of a ruling clique -- that fascism is not the product of the political 'right,' but of the 'left' -- that the basic issue is not 'rich versus poor,' but man versus the state, or: individual rights versus totalitarian government -- which means: capitalism versus socialism." --philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

Hat tip: The Smallest Minority

The World Doesn't Want to Sing Cumbaya with Obama

Russia 'Simulates' Nuclear Attack on Poland

Obama must respond. His reset button silliness and his decision to axe missile defense has the Russians drooling at our weakness.

The rest of the world is playing a deadly serious game of king of the hill.

Honor Killing

Noor Ignored

Noor Almaleki, whom I wrote about over the weekend, has died, the latest Western victim of a Muslim honor killing. If there were a Matthew Shepard murder every few months, Frank Rich et al would be going bananas about the "climate of hate" in our society, but you can run over your daughter, decapitate your wife, drown three teenage girls and a polygamous spouse, and progressive opinion and the press couldn't give a hoot. Indeed, as The Atlantic notes, it's merely an obsession of us right-wing kooks.

Honor killings and political correctness

Yesterday, Noor Almaleki of Arizona died of injuries sustained when her father allegedly ran her over in his Jeep in what officials called an attempted honor killing. The twenty-year-old Almaleki had apparently become, according to The Arizona Republic, "too Westernized." In the past few days, the incident has caused a furor among conservative bloggers. Why? They believe that political correctness has prevented the story from getting picked up in the mainstream press. Are big media sources too wary of discussing honor killings?

What If Christians Were Doing This?

Good question, to which we all know the answer.


Cultural Values

I was struck by this passage:

Peter-Ali Almaleki said he loves his sister and that should she not have to be suffering her injuries. But he added that the family lives by different cultural values.

"One thing to one culture doesn’t make sense to another culture," he added.

This would be a less ludicrous argument if Mr. Almaleki hadn't run down his daughter in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's all a bit culture à la carte, isn't it? Infidel motor vehicles, fine. Infidel guarantees on individual rights, no way. Maybe when you're such a sorry excuse of a believer that you're incapable of pulling off your lousy "honor killing" without resorting to a Grand Cherokee, you're the one who's becoming "too westernized."

I think the father should be the one to kill himself. He's the one who brought his family to live in a foreign culture. The dishonor, as they say, is all his. Not to mention that honor killings bring dishonor to Muslims, at least to those who look from without. Honor killings are repulsive and not a great way to attract converts. "We kill our wives and children if they don't follow our religion of fear and intimidation, won't you join us?" "Ummm, No."

And speaking of liberals, they've pretty much copied the whole fear and intimidation playbook but they don't give their children a chance to grow up and decide. Well, unless it's convenient.

Get Government Out of the Way

In the Beginning God ...

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

Congress is actually using your tax dollars to pay social scientists to find ways they can avoid actually talking to their constituents while improving their chances of reelection.

Threatening the Powerless

Obama forces a deal to restore Zelaya to power in Honduras.

Roberto Micheletti, the leader of Honduras’s de facto government, relented only after senior Obama administration officials landed in the Honduran capital to take charge of the talks, pressing the point that the United States would not recognize the coming presidential election unless he accepted the deal.

Though senior administration officials played down their role, Latin America experts said that the agreement represented a breakthrough for President Obama, whose relations in the hemisphere were tested by the crisis.

This was not actually a crisis, the Honduran government ousted a Chavez-wannabe president, and did it legally. Only the communists thought this was a crisis and it is very telling that Obama strong-armed a communist back into power. As usual Obama bullies the little nation unable to defend itself. He has to protect his relations with tyrants and dictators.

Are you a Rascist?

Check this handy chart to find out.

Interview with Rush Limbaugh

The Ends of Power

by Ronald L. Dart

When Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem after the city had fallen, he wrote with a sad heart about a broken country. He was old but when he had first begun to preach, he was so young he considered himself a mere child. Over the generations, he warned about what was coming. He had been reviled, hated, rejected, thrown in jail, tossed into a dungeon, and left to die. Rescued through the back door, he was in prison until the city fell.

But now, freed by the Babylonians, he walked the streets and thought about what he had seen and heard. For a long time, as he preached, he had assumed that repentance was possible. But now, as he considered the tragedy of Jerusalem, he had to wonder if the die had been cast long before he first began to preach as a very young man. Now, on this day, it seemed that everything he had preached had been in vain, and there had been no hope from the outset. So why had he been commissioned in the first place?

He knew the answer as he formed the question. The people had to be told what was coming and why. And the roots of evil went so deep. No one remembered where they had made their first mistakes. As he walked, Jeremiah formed the words he would later write: "What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading" (Lamentations 2:13-14 NIV).

So, why did they listen to the prophets who were false and reject the one prophet who told them the truth? It isn’t hard to answer that. The false prophets told them what they wanted to hear. And by the time Jeremiah came on the scene, it was too late to change the hearts of the people. But they still had to be told. Jeremiah doesn’t seem to have been melancholy by nature, but by the end of his days, there was no brightness on the horizon. His faith in God had to tell him that the hope that indeed lay ahead was beyond his meager span of years.

For some reason that I don’t fully understand, I feel drawn to Jeremiah these days. Maybe it is because I am sensing that the die is cast on this nation, and our precious freedom is slipping away. And, just like the people of Jeremiah’s day, we can’t pin down the moment when we began the process.

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