A bit of justice

The blog Israel Matzav is posting about something I find hilarious:

An Emory University professor has urged the university's Carter Center to cut its ties with former President Dhimmi Carter if it wants to survive:

A noted Emory University anthropologist is calling for the Carter Center to distance itself from its namesake in the wake of the former president's latest book and recent comments about Israel.

Writing to Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman to decline a position on an advisory panel, Melvin Konner also offered a piece of advice.

"If you want The Carter Center to survive and thrive independently in the future, you must take prompt and decisive steps to separate the center from President Carter's now irrevocably tarnished legacy," wrote Konner, adding that the center has to make it clear that, on matters of the Middle East and the Jewish community, Carter does not speak for the institution.

"If you do not do this, then President Carter's damage to his own effectiveness as a mediator, not to mention to his reputation and legacy, will extend, far more tragically in my view, to The Carter Center and all its activities," wrote Konner, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Emory and the author of "Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews."

As I said, hilarious. The CARTER Center is being strongly urged to cut its ties to CARTER before he drags them down with him.

We might call this a Christmas gift to sanity itself.

We might also take it as a warning that God keeps his promises. The Lord told Abraham in Genesis 12:3 "And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse . . .".

Carter has survived a great deal of his own foolishness with his reputation still intact, at least among those on the left. This latest episode, his one-sided racist anti-Semitic screed of a book seems to have been the straw which broke the camel's back.

He will still be able to get by, touring the Middle East giving lectures to Islamofascist audiences for large fees however his days of being taken seriously by any civilized people may have come to an end.

This photoshop of the cover of Carter's latest book captures its true spirit far better than the actual cover.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Merry Christmas to all

1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Luke 2: 1-20 (KJV)

Happy Kwanzaa?

Since the gullible are celebrating the false holiday of Kwanzaa at this time I offer this essay by Paul Mulshine which was posted on Front Page Magazine a few years ago as a public service.

On December 24, 1971, the New York Times ran one of the first of many articles on a new holiday designed to foster unity among African Americans. The holiday, called Kwanzaa, was applauded by a certain sixteen-year-old minister who explained that the feast would perform the valuable service of "de-whitizing" Christmas. The minister was a nobody at the time but he would later go on to become perhaps the premier race-baiter of the twentieth century. His name was Al Sharpton and he would later spawn the Tawana Brawley hoax and then incite anti-Jewish tensions in a 1995 incident that ended with the arson deaths of seven people.

Great minds think alike. The inventor of the holiday was one of the few black "leaders" in America even worse than Sharpton. But there was no mention in the Times article of this man or of the fact that at that very moment he was sitting in a California prison. And there was no mention of the curious fact that this purported benefactor of the black people had founded an organization that in its short history tortured and murdered blacks in ways of which the Ku Klux Klan could only fantasize.

It was in newspaper articles like that, repeated in papers all over the country, that the tradition of Kwanzaa began. It is a tradition not out of Africa but out of Orwell. Both history and language have been bent to serve a political goal. When that New York Times article appeared, Ron Karenga's crimes were still recent events. If the reporter had bothered to do any research into the background of the Kwanzaa founder, he might have learned about Karenga's trial earlier that year on charges of torturing two women who were members of US (United Slaves), a black nationalist cult he had founded.

A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of them: "Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said."

Back then, it was relatively easy to get information on the trial. Now it's almost impossible. It took me two days' work to find articles about it. The Los Angeles Times seems to have been the only major newspaper that reported it and the stories were buried deep in the paper, which now is available only on microfilm. And the microfilm index doesn't start until 1972, so it is almost impossible to find the three small articles that cover Karenga's trial and conviction on charges of torture. That is fortunate for Karenga. The trial showed him to be not just brutal, but deranged. He and three members of his cult had tortured the women in an attempt to find some nonexistent "crystals" of poison. Karenga thought his enemies were out to get him.

And in another lucky break for Karenga, the trial transcript no longer exists. I filed a request for it with the Superior Court of Los Angeles. After a search, the court clerk could find no record of the trial. So the exact words of the black woman who had a hot soldering iron pressed against her face by the man who founded Kwanzaa are now lost to history. The only document the court clerk did find was particularly revealing, however. It was a transcript of Karenga's sentencing hearing on Sept. 17, 1971.

A key issue was whether Karenga was sane. Judge Arthur L. Alarcon read from a psychiatrist's report: "Since his admission here he has been isolated and has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, such as staring at the wall, talking to imaginary persons, claiming that he was attacked by dive-bombers and that his attorney was in the next cell. … During part of the interview he would look around as if reacting to hallucination and when the examiner walked away for a moment he began a conversation with a blanket located on his bed, stating that there was someone there and implying indirectly that the 'someone' was a woman imprisoned with him for some offense. This man now presents a picture which can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and elusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the environment."

The founder of Kwanzaa paranoid? It seems so. But as the old saying goes, just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get you.

ACCORDING TO COURT DOCUMENTS, Karenga's real name is Ron N. Everett. In the '60s, he awarded himself the title "maulana," Swahili for "master teacher." He was born on a poultry farm in Maryland, the fourteenth child of a Baptist minister. He came to California in the late 1950s to attend Los Angeles Community College. He moved on to UCLA, where he got a Master's degree in political science and African Studies. By the mid-1960s, he had established himself as a leading "cultural nationalist." That is a term that had some meaning in the '60s, mainly as a way of distinguishing Karenga's followers from the Black Panthers, who were conventional Marxists.

The rest of the essay goes on to detail the "gang war" between Karenga's United Slaves and the Black Panthers over control of the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA which culminated with the shooting of two of the Panthers by two members of US.

This was when Karenga's slide into paranoia and delusion began to accelerate leading to the incident in which he and two accomplices tortured two female US members because Karenga believed that they were attempting to poison him by placing "crystals" in his food.

And what of the "holiday" that Karenga created?

LOOK AT ANY MAP OF THE WORLD and you will see that Ghana and Kenya are on opposite sides of the continent. This brings up an obvious question about Kwanzaa: Why did Karenga use Swahili words for his fictional African feast? American blacks are primarily descended from people who came from Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Kenya and Tanzania—where Swahili is spoken—are several thousand miles away, about as far from Ghana as Los Angeles is from New York. Yet in celebrating Kwanzaa, African-Americans are supposed to employ a vocabulary of such Swahili words as "kujichagulia" and "kuumba." This makes about as much sense as having Irish-Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day by speaking Polish. One possible explanation is that Karenga was simply ignorant of African geography and history when he came up with Kwanzaa in 1966. That might explain why he would schedule a harvest festival near the solstice, a season when few fruits or vegetables are harvested anywhere. But a better explanation is that he simply has contempt for black people.

An essay by Tony Snow going point by point taking Kwanzaa apart can be found archived on Jewish World Review. Snow's article does to the principles of the holiday what Mulshine's Front Page Magazine piece does to the holiday's founder and they should be read together.

Christmas Eve Music Video

Tonight's Christmas music video is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's video of what is probably their most loved number. Christmas Eve Sarejevo, alternately called Sarejevo 12/24.

Posting will resume tomorrow

I'm sorry for not posting anything today other than the search engine bait about Miss Nevada. Yesterday one of my molars broke when I was eating lunch. There was hardly any pain, unless I bit down. I was resigned to subsisting on soup and eggnog until Tuesday or even Wednesday but when I spoke to one of the deacons in my church (who is a dentist) about how soon he could see me after Christmas he told me to come by his office this afternoon.

He fixed me up in time for us to make the evening Christmas Eve service.

And for coming in on Christmas Eve and X-Raying and drilling and filling he charged me $50.00.

Needless to say all of my dental business are now belong to him.

Here is an update on the Miss Nevada Katie Rees situation. As most of you know she was stripped of her title after pictures of her exposing her breasts and buttocks made it onto the Internet.

Some of the photos also showed her drinking underage, she was 19 at the time. And some of the photos also showed her kissing other young women and fondling their breasts.

Crude and tasteless bloggers might have headlines like:

Miss Nevada nude lesbian action!

Or

Barely legal teenage beauty queen bares all!

I am, of course above such things.

Someone who is not is Dr. Figg who is featuring a link to the uncensored or watermarked photograps.

As you have figured out this is another experiment to see how many search engine hits I can generate.

Miss Nevada Katie Rees stripped of title for nude pictures

As most of you know Miss Nevada, USA was stripped of her title because some pictures of her exposing her breasts and buttocks, as well as drinking underage and kissing other females, were posted on the Internet.

For those curious about what the chatter is all about you can see the pictures here. Warning, these are not safe to open at work. A more work-friendly version can be found here.

All I can say is that I am very grateful that small digital cameras were not ubiquitous during the days of my misspent youth.

This post is a shameless attempt to grab search engine pings. Resume your normal blogging activities and pardon the interruption.

Tonight's Christmas Music Video

This is Trans-Siberian Orchestra performing Good King Joy live in Toronto in 2003.

Makes you wonder what they're hiding

From Front Page Magazine:

As Jews began their Hanukkah celebrations this week, commemorating the recovery of the Holy Land and the Temple from foreign invaders by Judas Maccabeus, and more than a billion Christians prepare for one of the holiest days of the church year, where the doors of Christian churches will be thrown open to anyone willing to hear the good news of Christ’s coming to earth as a human to redeem humanity, millions of Muslims are preparing for their own spiritual journey next week in the annual trek to Mecca to perform the Hajj.

But quite unlike the Jewish and Christian religious celebrations of Hanukkah and Christmas, if you are a non-Muslim, don’t plan on investigating the mysteries of Islam by joining your Muslim friends on their trip to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj – you’re not invited.

Perhaps no better contrast between Judaism, Christianity and Islam exists than the treatment of non-believers on the respective holy days of each religion. I recall fondly the many times that I have participated in the Passover seder at the invitation of Jewish friends and have each time been awed at the profound meaning attached to every element of the seder which is designed to illustrate the fascinating historical narrative of the Jewish people over the millennia that is the foundation of both the Christian and Islamic faiths.

I also remember the occasion several years ago when a Chinese friend of mine who was finishing his PhD at Ohio State joined my family and me for our Christmas Eve celebrations. After joining us for worship, he told us with tears in his eyes how that was the first time that he had ever heard the gospel message that Jesus Christ had come into the world to save sinners – a message that had been branded as counter-revolutionary and been outlawed in his own country. Needless to say, we were delighted when he joined us again the following year for Christmas Eve, where he was anxious to tell anyone at church who would listen how he had embraced the free offer of the gospel and become a Christian the previous year. Having returned home to China, my friend is now a leader in the underground Church there.

Such is not the case for Jews and Christians in Islamic lands, however, where people of those faiths are subject to countless acts of intimidation and violence on a daily basis. Even in their synagogues and sanctuaries, believers are not immune from attack. In fact, many are prevented from approaching their own holy sites. In the Holy Land, Muslims occupy the Temple Mount – the historic location of the ancient Jewish Temple – and Jewish worshippers are subject to regular assaults by stone-throwing Muslim crowds at the nearby Wailing Wall and other sacred sites. And it was the mere presence of a Jew – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon – near the Temple Mount in September 2000 that sparked the second intifada that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Jews, Christians and Muslims in recent years. Jews have also been forbidden from visiting the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron – Judaism’s second-most holy site – since it was converted to a mosque in 1266.

[. . .]

Getting back to my original point – one of the constant complaints of Muslim apologists is that Westerners just don’t understand Islam. Fair enough; but is that entirely the fault of non-Muslims who are shut out of Islam’s most important rituals? And might it be the case that those of us, Christians and Jews alike, who are angered at the treatment of our brethren in Islamic lands do so not because of our alleged “Islamophobia”, but rather on the basis of real grievances?

As former President Jimmy Carter travels the country promoting his book identifying Israel as an apartheid state because they refuse to capitulate to Palestinian terrorism, perhaps he might take some time and try to join his Wahhabi patrons during the Hajj this year and see what religious apartheid is really all about. While believers and non-believers alike will enjoy the Hanukkah and Christmas holidays, the invitation for Jews and Christians to join their Muslim friends and neighbors for the Hajj this year didn’t get lost in the holiday mail. It was never sent.

Not that I would for one second want to go to Mecca with the towel-heads, but it does help illustrate the point. Islam's endless outrage comes directly from their bottomless sense of entitlement. After all the murdering pedophile "prophet" told them that all the world belonged to them.

The Duke rape case continues to fall apart

From The Washington Post:

Prosecutors dropped rape charges yesterday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of assaulting an exotic dancer at a team party, saying in court documents that although the accuser "initially believed" she had been raped, she can no longer testify with certainty about crucial aspects of the alleged assault.

The dismissal of the rape charges eliminates a serious accusation facing the players but leaves the trio facing kidnapping and sexual-offense counts, which carry significant prison terms.

With no DNA linking any members of the lacrosse team to the victim, defense lawyers said District Attorney Michael B. Nifong should go further and dismiss the case.
"End this suffering . . . end this case -- because there is no case to bring," said Wade Smith, an attorney for Collin Finnerty, one of the three Duke students charged.

Nifong should never have brought this case to begin with. From the beginning it was about nothing but politics. Nifong was trying to get reelected in an area which not only has a large Black population but is one of the most stridently left-liberal regions in the state.

The chance to demonstrate his progressive credentials by prosecuting a group of "rich White-boy" students at the elite university for raping a poor Black woman was just the thing he needed to put him over the top in the coming election.

Nifong seized the opportunity and ran with it. he went before the press and labeled the lacrosse players "racists" and "rapists" and assured the public that the DNA would conclusively prove their guilt. However the case began to unravel almost as soon as it was filed. The stripper's credibility was called into question by the other stripper who was with her when the supposed rape occurred.

One of the students who she positively identified as one of the rapists turned out to have not been at the party when the alleged rape took place, and to have eyewitness and photographic evidence to back him up.

The DNA test showed that although DNA from several men was on the stripper none of it belonged to any of the lacrosse players. It also came out that Nifong suppressed this information.

Then we found out that the photo lineup which led to the identification of the lacrosse players by the alleged victim was tainted. She was shown a PowerPoint presentation of the 46 members of the team with no photographs of other young men of similar age and appearance added. The lineup became a "multiple choice test with no wrong answers". It was impossible for the accuser to damage her credibility by picking someone who could not possibly have been at the party because she was never given the chance to do so.

Since a man cannot rape a woman without leaving some DNA evidence on her body (even if he wears a condom he will leave some DNA on his victim unless he showers and scrubs all the dead skin off his body, shaves all his head and body hair off and then wears a mask and gown like a surgeon in the operating room) the charge of rape became unsustainable. Rather than do the honorable thing and dismiss the all the charges Nifong has dug in his heels and only given as much ground as he absolutely had to.

The reason for his stubbornness is, I think, that the dynamics of the case have changed. Originally he had a case which was weak, but still had enough credibility to make him look good to the local press and population. He set the trial date for the Spring if 2007 in order to move it well past the election season so that when it fell apart and was dropped it would not harm him politically. After all months would have passed and other stories would be in the headlines and not many people would be paying attention.

He clearly did not count on the ability of talk radio and the Internet to turn his prosecutorial malfeasance into a major issue with long legs. Legs long enough to keep pace with him as each detail of his mishandling of the case emerged.

Nifong is in the position now of having no choice but to press forward and attempt to get some kind, any kind, of conviction. Because if he doesn't - if the case falls apart so badly that he has to dismiss all charges before it even goes to trial -he faces the realistic possibility of impeachment from office and disbarment.

If this happens it will not only mean disgrace and the ruin of his career, but both Durham county and Nifong individually will be subject to lawsuits from the falsely accused lacrosse players with will amount to tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.

Mr. Nifong has painted himself into a corner from which there is no way out which does not leave him seriously damaged. However it is a position in which he did not have to be in. His own dishonesty and unscrupulous behavior in carrying out the duties of his office have landed him where he is and he deserves no sympathy.

Tonight's Christmas Music

Some people just have too much time and money on their hands. This home has its Christmas lights synchronized to music, in this case The Carol of the Bells.

You buy a kit to do this. You get a controller for the lights that plugs into your PC. Pop in a CD and it makes the lights dance to the music. Some of the kits even come with a licensed low power FM transmitter so that neighbors and people driving by can get the full effect.

An open letter

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but it is the absolute truth.

You have no constitutional right to not be offended!

That's right. If something offends you, from a Santa hat on a bus driver to a neighbor smoking a cigarette inside his closed apartment It ain't none of your goram business!

If Nativity scenes bother you then GET OVER It!!!

60+ percent of the people in the United States identify themselves as Christian. Just because you have the freedom to dissent from the majority without legal penalty DOES NOT mean that you have the right to cram your unbelief down your countrymen's throats by suppressing any public display of Christian belief.

Bottom line; you want to be an atheist or Buddhist or Muslim or any other goram thing - fine BE IT! Be it, then get down on your knees and thank whatever it is you pray to that you aren't in the majority of nations in the world that would put you in jail, or turn you into a second class citizen or stone you to death for rejecting the dominant religion.

Give thanks and shut the frak up and stop trying to tell the great, vast, overwhelming majority of us how to live our lives!

Looking back

Paul Kengor reminds us to count our blessings:

In December 1981, much of the world lived in totalitarian darkness. This was captured at the time by Freedom House, the group begun by Eleanor Roosevelt and today headed by freedom fighter Nina Shea. Freedom House published its map of global freedom, which showed the world's free nations in white and unfree nations in black. Nearly all the great Eurasian land mass was colored black, from the western border of East Germany, through eastern Europe and the massive spaces of the Soviet Union, and on to the huge terrain of China, and still further down to Vietnam and the South China Sea. The contrast was pointed out by a presidential candidate who hoped to transform the darkness: "If a visitor from another planet were to approach earth," said Ronald Reagan, "and if this planet showed free nations in light and unfree nations in darkness, the pitifully small beacons of light would make him wonder what was hidden in that terrifying, enormous blackness. We know what is hidden: Gulag. Torture." Reagan noted that "the very heart of the darkness" was the Soviet Union.

What was that totalitarian darkness like? It sought the persecution and even annihilation of entire classes and groups of hated people. According to the 1999 work by Harvard University Press, The Black Book of Communism, at least 100 million people were killed by Communist governments in the 20th century, a conservative figure that we already know underestimated the total. (We now know, for example, that Mao Tse-Tung alone killed 70 million in China, and Soviets authorities like Alexander Yakovlev maintain that Stalin himself killed 60-70 million in the USSR.) If one combined the total deaths in World War I and World War II and multiplied them by two, they still did not match the deaths by Communism in the 20th century.

These governments robbed individuals of the most basic rights: property, speech, press, assembly, the right to life. Communists had a particular antipathy for religion. Of special attention this time of year -- in December -- Communist governments went so far as to inspect houses in search of Christmas trees, as they tried to also strip the right to celebrate the birth of Christ.

[. . .]

In 1980, according to Freedom House, there were 56 democracies in the world; by 1990, there were 76. The numbers continued an upward trajectory, hitting 91 in 1991, 99 in 1992, 108 in 1993, and 114 in 1994, a doubling since Reagan had entered the Oval Office. By 1994, 60% of the world's nations were democracies. By contrast, when Reagan lamented the lack of freedom in the mid 1970s, the number was below 30%. Few presidents got so much of what they wanted.

There has been an explosion in freedom worldwide since the 1980s. This democratic transformation is one of the great stories of modern humanity, and one of the least remarked upon, as high-school texts -- among numerous other sources -- are completely silent on the subject.

This is a truly global blessing that transpired in the lifetimes of most of us. Unfortunately, many of us Americans are not good at counting our blessings or remembering our history. A look back at 25 years ago this month can help us to be grateful for what we have, especially at Christmas time, when we pause to remember the ultimate source of light that conquers the darkness.

Few times in the history of the world has one man has such an enormous impact upon his times. At various times in its history the United States of America has been blessed by providence with the leadership of great men. The nation's founding one of the extraordinary collections of great men to have ever lived all at the same time. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Mason, Lee and so many others all coming together at the same time and place to give birth to a nation conceived in liberty and founded upon a delegation of power from the sovereign people to the government rather than upon the gifting of privileges to the subject people from the sovereign government.

Of course Reagan did not act alone. In the 1980's there was a collection of the great as well. Margaret Thatcher, Pope John-Paul II and Lech Walesa were all stars which glittered brightly in the firmament of freedom. But it was Ronald Reagan who stood out front.

As the President of the United States Ronald Reagan was the leader of the Free World. America's power, the military power and the economic power -both of which Reagan had rebuilt, put iron behind every challenge which was hurled at the Soviet juggernaut. From the Pope's vow to "take off the Crown of St. Peter and fight beside his people" if the USSR invaded Poland to the threat of SDI, which finally called the USSR's bluff and broke the back of its communist government it was Ronald Reagan's unbreakable determination to fulfill the vow made by one of his predecessors to ". . . pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty” which sustained and carried the final great battle in the long cold war.

We were blessed to have him.

A history lesson

From David Zucker.

Hat Tip: Freedom or Death

The judges get one right

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 — A three-judge panel on Thursday overturned a key segment of the campaign finance law that banned issue advertisements paid for by corporate or union money in the critical weeks before federal elections.

The case, which was heard by a special federal court panel in Washington, now heads to the Supreme Court. If upheld, the ruling would unravel one of the tougher restrictions on the use of unregulated donations that interest groups pumped by the millions of dollars into political commercials.

The case was brought by Wisconsin Right to Life, which has been fighting the restrictions since 2004, claiming they infringe on its First Amendment guarantee of free speech, among other grounds.

Unfortunatly this is not an outright overturning of the odious McCain-Feingold law. However if the Supreme Court upholds the panel's decision it will represent a serious erosion of the law.

McCain-Feingold for all intents and purposes repealed the free speech part of the First Amendment, at least as far as political speech goes in the time just before an election (the time when it really matters).

With luck we can tear this legislative turd down on brick at a time.

I been tagged

Rodeo of the mind has tagged me to participate in the Christmas Meme. Here is how it works:

Ok, this is how it works: The player (me) must list 3 things that I would love to get for Christmas. Then I must list 3 things that I definitely do not want to get for Christmas. Then I tag 5 friends and list their names. The one I tag needs to write on their blogs about their Christmas wishes then tag 5 more people. They must also clarify all the rules. When you tag someone you need to leave a comment that says “you’ve been Christmas tagged!” in their comments and tell them to read your blog. Ok everybody..

OK here are the three things I want for Christmas:

1. A Glock m21 (.45 ACP).
2. A new car, preferably something with all-wheel drive since I have to drive in the mountains in every season of the year. A Subaru Forester would be nice since it can carry all the supplies needed for a nice day at the range.
3. A wicker basket containing the heads of Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong-il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with some nice ripe honeydew melons.


Here are the three thing I do not want for Christmas:

1. A gift subscription to Mother Jones magazine.
2. Tickets to a rap concert.
3. A bottle of Drambuie.

Now, I tag:

1. White Trash Republican
2. Dr. Figg
3. Born Again Redneck
4. The Pagan Temple
5. Perri Nelson

In case you forgot why Murtha is scum

From The Washington Post:

Four U.S. Marines were charged with multiple counts of murder yesterday for their alleged roles in the deaths of two dozen civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year. The accusations set up what could be the highest-profile atrocity prosecution to arise from the Iraq war.

[. . .]

None of the murder charges carries a possible death sentence, because the Marines are not accused of premeditated murder. But the charging documents indicate that they did not properly identify their targets, did intend to kill the people in the houses and should have known that their actions could lead to the deaths of innocent civilians.

The 24 civilians were killed in a neighborhood near the spot where a roadside bomb killed a Marine who was driving in a convoy of Humvees. Early media reports suggested that the Marines went on a rampage after Lance Cpl. Miguel "T.J." Terrazas was killed, but they have claimed through their defense lawyers that they were following their rules of engagement when they responded to the attack.

[. . .]

Attention to the case increased earlier this year when Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) alleged after briefings from military officials that the Marines had killed civilians "in cold blood."

From what I've heard about the incident at Haditha nothing wrong was done. It was very tragic, but not criminal. If fact if the whole affair had not become a cause célèbre for the Left the men, based on an honest investigation of the incident, would never have been charged:

Wuterich has long claimed, through his lawyers, that he was responding to a coordinated attack on his unit and did nothing wrong that day. He and other Marines have told their lawyers that they received small-arms fire from the houses they attacked. They used standard house-clearing techniques to ensure that the threat against them was eliminated from two houses, they have said. The slayings of the civilians -- including women and children -- were an unfortunate result of the Marines' attack, they have argued.

Neal Puckett, one of Wuterich's civilian attorneys, said in an interview yesterday that the allegations do not contradict Wuterich's version of events. Puckett said there is no evidence that the Marines lost control or went on some sort of a rampage.

What happened was that the Marines took fire from some houses and proceeded to "clear" them by going room to room shooting into the rooms before entering in order to get the insurgents before the insurgents got them. Tragically there were civilians in the houses and some of them were killed.

Scenes like this were played out all across Europe during the Second World War by all the armies involved and no one even considered the possibility of charging someone with a war crime because of it.

What happened at Haditha was terrible, but not criminal, at least not on the Marines' part. If you want to charge someone with a crime for what happened then charge the terrorists who make war from in the midst of the civilian population. Just like they did in Lebanon when they launched their rockets from residential neighborhoods.

Blogger Beta update

I am still very happy with Blogger Beta, or since it is out of beta now I guess that it is just the new Blogger.

I still have not had one image fail to upload and I have not had one post eaten.

So far so good.

Tonight's video

Here is another video of Lunasa focusing on Kevin Crawford on the whistle.

Tonight's sermon on the 'net

New Ecosystem member Dr. Figg (an ordained minister) has mounted his electronic pulpit to denounce a great evil:

That's right beloved. A mezcal, but not a mezcal with a wholesome and nutritious insect larvae. No this mezcal is polluted with a filthy and disgusting scorpion! A scorpion which does not change the taste of the beverage. A scorpion which does not absorb the impurities from the mezcal and make it smoother. A scorpion which simply sits at the bottom of the bottle and acts as a marketing gimmick to separate sinners from their money!

The rest is here.

I have taken the decision to appoint Dr. Figg to the post of official chaplain of the Hillbilly Ecosystem.