THE TENSION

Monday, May 28, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 28 May

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Barbarians have Crashed the Gate

On Memorial Day remember those who died to give you the freedom to read this.
It's the end of the world as we know it...

I've often said liberals cannot help but be themselves. So, when it comes to their behavior on this Memorial Day, they perform just as expected.

Instead of showing, as an elected leader, due respect for those who have died to secure and preserve the freedom their office represents, AP reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is away on an overseas trip to embrace a foreign audience over global warming.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and seven other House members left Saturday for meetings with scientists and politicians in Greenland, Germany and Belgium on ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is defending his decision to use the Memorial Day weekend as a platform to ramp up his opposition to the war in Iraq, reports The Associated Press. Check out John Edwards' Memorial Day "end the war" initiative can at www.supportthetroopsendthewar.com.

The Journal News reports some veterans say they're upset with John Edwards' call for anti-war demonstrations on Memorial Day.

A Web site paid for by the Edwards campaign, under the title, "Reclaiming Patriotism," lists "10 Things You Can Do Over Memorial Weekend to Support the Troops and End the War." Among those are a suggestion to make signs that say "Support the Troops - End the War," and to bring them to Memorial Day parades and events.
Veterans say the Edwards campaign is politicizing what's meant to be a day of remembrance.

Of course, Democrats defend Edwards by saying Bush politicised 9/11 in order to win the presidency in 2004. However, for us normal folks, any argument that attempts to legitimise one wrong with another is an argument that just won't fly.

Outside Boston, Natick police said they were searching for whomever stuffed decorative American flags in trash receptacles around the town square and set them on fire reports thebostonchannel.com and The Boston Globe.

Bearing out the notion that the war in Iraq is no more dangerous to service-aged Americans than the average day-to-day life in any large blue-state city, WWLT reports five people were killed in New Orleans in a bloody Memorial Day weekend.

The New York Times tries to convince us As Allies Turn Foe, Disillusion Rises in Some G.I.’s and Roadside Bombings Kill 2 More G.I.’s in Iraq. However, like their lack of honesty in reporting, the Times' editors fail to convince us they know formal grammar in their use of the lowly apostrophe. Need I ask, just where is Jayson Blair?

Reuters reports comic actor Charles Nelson Reilly, a lauded Broadway performer and campy game show guest in the 1970s and 1980s, has died in Los Angeles, a representative for the actor said on Monday.

In the case of "Global Cooling," this Memorial Day brings some welcome relief from the heat of this traditional summer kick-off holiday. KFYR in North Dakota reports it`s windy, cold, and there`s snow on the ground. There's snow in the forecast for Britain today. And a late Spring snow breaks 1911 Canadian record.

And lastly, The New York Times reports that a plunge in CD sales is shaking up big recoding labels. The recoding industry is busy blaming everything but the most obvious: the music they are trying to sell us simply stinks.

Tags: Decline and Fall of Western Civ, Open Thread, Wire, Headlines, United States
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and Politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life, Culture, Buzz, Tension

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Monday, May 21, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 21 May

It's the end of the world as we know it...

While politicians in the U.S. continue to argue whether or not al-Qaeda exists outside of Afghanistan -- and debate the finer points of the "Bush's illegal war" and the "Surge" -- the Guardian reports Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaeda elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.

"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

The Associated Press reports Iraq's military is drawing up plans to cope with any quick U.S. military pullout, the defense minister said Monday, as a senior American official warned that the Bush administration may reconsider its support if Iraqi leaders don't make major reforms by fall.

However, in grudging concessions to President Bush that will be sure to cause a firestorm from their far-left constituency, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of at least some of the billions in earmarks they want for domestic programs, AP reports.

A Florida doctor was convicted Monday of providing material support to terrorists by agreeing to treat injured al-Qaeda fighters so they could return to Iraq to battle Americans, according to The Associated Press.

Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 52, was convicted in federal court in Manhattan after a three-week trial that featured testimony by him and Ali Soufan, an FBI agent who posed as an al-Qaeda recruiter in a sting operation that led to four arrests.

<...>

The charges against the New York-born Sabir, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, carry a potential maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Sept. 12.

Reuters reports a Denver Zoo monkey has died of bubonic plague, apparently after eating a squirrel stricken with the disease, Colorado health and zoo officials said on Monday.

From the blog that recently brought us the bogus Apple news fiasco, engadget now brings us a story about Isabodywear underwear that purports to fend off cellphone radiation.

The briefs are purportedly constructed with threads made of silver, which the company claims will fend off harmful cellphone radiation; moreover, in an effort to really prove just how effective these undergarments are, it suggests that phone calls originated within the confines of your new underwear simply won't connect.

If you wanted proof that the global warming hysteria is about to reach Biblical proportions, Reuters reports what we already knew: climate change is not science; it is a mixture of politics and religion. Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders are urging President George W. Bush and Congress to take action against global warming, declaring that the changing climate is a "moral and spiritual issue."

In an open letter to be published on Tuesday, more than 20 religious groups urged U.S. leaders to limit greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources.

"Global warming is real, it is human-induced and we have the responsibility to act," says the letter, which will run in Roll Call and the Politico, two Capitol Hill newspapers.
A-men.

Venezuela is to give the American actor Danny Glover almost $18m to make a film about a slave uprising in Haiti, with President Hugo Chávez hoping the historical epic will sprinkle Hollywood stardust on his effort to mobilise world public opinion against imperialism and western oppression, reports The Guardian.

AFP reports a pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick, becoming parents after being together for six years, a British conservation organisation said Monday.

However, the story is not really clear on exactly how the birds know they are gay.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ: Immigrant Assimilation

The truth is out there
Open thread:

Selwyn Duke, writing at American Thinker, says today's immigrants are not assimilating into our culture. This portends the destruction of the western civilization that has given us everything we hold dear, from our freedom to our prosperity, not for reasons of race, but because of circumstances at least partly created by Americans ourselves.

Assimilation is not a process magically initiated upon setting foot on American terra firma. Rather, it only occurs when one or both of two conditions are met: The foreign elements must have a desire to assimilate or the host nation must place pressure on them to do so. Unfortunately, neither is the case today because both immigrants and native-born Americans are far different than they once were.

Duke says, "America is being erased. The stabilizing majority that forged her unique culture is being eroded through the importation of culturally imperialistic forces by treasonous politicians." If this happened anywhere but in western nations, the outcry over this kind of cultural imperialism would be staggering.

A wise person once said a definition of insanity is ". . . doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This aphorism has been attributed variously to Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, and for all I know, Chief Seattle. Given that we have a greatly diminished sense of national identity, Muslim terrorists blending into a multicultural mish-mash, Spanish supplanting English, and Mexican flags going up while American ones come down, should we really stay the course?

The [Muslims and Mexicans] invasion sympathizers may call me names, but I'll simply render a diagnosis: They're insane. They have turned immigration into an institution. It's time for it to be institutionalized.

Tags: Decline and Fall of Western Civ, Open Thread, Wire, Headlines, United States, immigrant, alien, illegal
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and Politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life, Culture, Buzz, Tension

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Sunday, May 20, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 20 May

It's the end of the world as we know it...

UPI reports British health officials want an investigation into possible hazards of wireless communication, which is increasingly being used in British schools.

The inquiry comes after recent research revealed new threats of radiation from wireless communication, or WiFi, The (London) Independent reported.

First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year, reports the National Post.

"I really don't understand why they keep showing it," says McKenzie (his parents asked that his last name not be used). "I've spoken to the principal about it, and he said that teachers are instructed to present it as a debate. But every time we've seen it, well, one teacher said this is basically a two-sided debate, but this movie really gives you the best idea of what's going on."

McKenzie says he has educated himself enough about both sides of the climate- change controversy to know that the Al Gore movie is too one-sided to be taught as fact.

The Associated Press reports a man who tried to position himself as a leader of the anti-war movement by claiming to have participated in war crimes while serving in Iraq is facing federal charges of falsifying his record.

A complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle charged him with one count of using or possessing a forged or altered military discharge certificate, and one count of making false statements in seeking benefits from the Veterans Administration.

Former President Carter, forever retaliating against America for booting him out of office after a disastrous four years of incompetence, says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy, according to The Associated Press.

Reuters reports the White House on Sunday fired back at former President Jimmy Carter, calling him "increasingly irrelevant" a day after Carter's comments were made public.

A woman blames the devil and not her husband for severely burning their infant daughter after the 2-month-old was put in a microwave, a Houston television station reported, according to AP.

"Satan saw my husband as a threat. Satan attacked him because he saw (Joshua) as a threat," Eva Mauldin told Houston television station KHOU-TV.

The Associated Press reports Playboy bunnies are now on the endangered species list. An endangered rabbit named after Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is getting some help from Florida wildlife officials, who next week will try to block predators from the rabbit's home.

Coming soon: Brood XIII. It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it's actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest after spending 17 years underground.

AP reports the red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don't bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.

One-hit wonder Tommy Tutone made the phone number 867-5309 famous in the band's 1982 hit single, which uses the digits over and over in its catchy refrain.

USA Today reports a Rhode Island company and a national firm are battling over the right to use the number, which doesn't reach the "Jenny" that Tutone sings about, but could find callers a decent plumber.

Tommy "Tutone" Heath told The Boston Globe that he'd prefer if neither company used the number.

"It's ridiculous," said Heath. "If I wanted to get into it, I could probably take the number away from both of them."

Finally, WFTV informs us a high number of moms admit to pot use. A number of mothers in the Phoenix area admit they use marijuana to wind down after a long day, television station KPHO reported.

Of the hundreds of mothers Pausa surveyed, 52 percent said they smoke pot at least 10 times a year.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 17 May

From alien abduction to alien amnesty
It's the end of the world as we know it...

Unable to simply enforce current immigration laws, key senators in both parties announced agreement with the White House Thursday on an immigration overhaul that would grant quick amnesty to millions of illegal aliens already in the U.S., reports The Associated Press and Reuters.

The Washington Post notes, to satisfy Republicans, the bill's provisions would come in force only after the federal government implements tough new border controls and a crackdown on employers that hire illegal immigrants. Republicans are demanding 18,000 new Border Patrol agents, 370 miles of additional border fencing and an effective, electronic employee-verification system for the workplace.

However, South Carolina Sen. Republican Jim DeMint's statement echoed many conservative's feelings on the issue and was linked on The Drudge Report:

"I hope we don't take a thousand page bill written in secret and try to ram it through the Senate in a few days. This is a very important issue for America and we need time to debate it."

"But the little we do know about the bill is troubling. According to reports, the bill contains a new 'Z Visa' that allows those who entered our country illegally to stay here permanently without ever returning home. This rewards people who broke the law with permanent legal status, and puts them ahead of millions of law-abiding immigrants waiting to come to America. I don't care how you try to spin it, this is amnesty."
On the issue of illegal immigrants, Selwyn Duke, writing at the SmallGovTimes.com sarcastically says, "Western civilization has become old, tired and decrepit; it’s a mere shadow of its former self, running on fumes and on empty. Perhaps its time for it to be euthanized." He says we should be outraged by the pandering to the illegal alien lobby, and further, that the three most important factors in immigration policy are deportation, deportation and deportation. Still, to focus our eyes narrowly on just illegal immigration is to lament only the salt thrown into the wound while accepting the wound itself. Illegal immigration is not the problem. It’s an exacerbation of the problem.

More from The Associated Press; Reuters.

While many liberals would have us mistakenly believe the U.S. is the most loathed nation on the planet, The New York Times points out immigration to America has caused for the first time the number of nonwhite Americans to move above the 100 million mark; demographers are identifying an emerging racial generation gap.

The Times, however, goes on, trying to make white Americans feel guilty, stating that the development may portend a nation split between an older, whiter electorate and a younger overall population that is more Hispanic, black and Asian and that presses sometimes competing agendas and priorities.

“There’s a fairly large homogeneous population 60 and older that may not be sympathetic to the needs of a diverse youthful population,” Dr. Mather said.
With Democrats holding both houses of Congress and the rise in minority population, perhaps it is time conservatives realize they are also now a minority and start acting like it.

Speaking of the majority party, who are the ones actually acting like a minority, The Politico reports Congressional Democrats are wielding a heavy hand on the House Rules Committee, committing many of the procedural sins for which they condemned Republicans during their 12 years in power.

"The Democrats have not made good on a single promise they made during 2006, especially when it comes to fostering a more open and deliberative House of Representatives," Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said. "Instead of making the House more open and deliberative, they've gone in the opposite direction, doing things we never even contemplated during our time in the majority."

Not satisfied with all the attention his crisis mongering has brought, former VP Al Gore writes of yet another crisis in his new book, "American democracy is now in danger." And this time it isn't from climate change. Rather, Gore says, America is is in danger from the "marketplace of ideas."

The former VP stumbles around his thesis, citing various polls and demographics to back his argument. In the end, Gore, like so many of us, simply misses that which is clearly right in front of us: An ideological template applied by the mass media shapes rather than reflects the public consciousness.

Reuters reports bullet analysis used to justify the lone assassin theory behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination is based on flawed evidence, according to a team of researchers including a former top FBI scientist.

A nude car wash offering an X-rated sideshow and topless cleaning in Australia's tropical Queensland state has been given the all-clear after police and officials said they were powerless to scrub it, according to Reuters.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 16 May

It's the end of the world as we know it...

The Associated Press reports environmental activists are building a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat - where the biblical vessel is said to have landed after the great flood - in an appeal for action on global warming, Greenpeace said Wednesday.

"Climate change is real, it's happening now and unless world leaders take urgent, decisive and far-reaching action, the next decades will see human misery on a scale not experienced in modern times," said Greenpeace activist Hilal Atici. "Those leaders have a mandate from the people ... to massively cut greenhouse gas emissions and to do it now."
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns governments have until 2012 to "plant the seeds of change" and make positive moves to limit carbon emissions, reports Sky News.

Reuters reports a remote chain of Arctic islands is advertising itself as a showcase of bad things to come from global warming.

Forget that January is actually a summer month in the southern hemisphere, LiveScience wants you to worry about news that some ice that melted in January 2005 in western Antarctica adds up to a chunk the size of California .

However, there are still mature, rational voices above the alarmist din. The EPW Press Blog reports prominent scientists have reversed their belief in man-made global warming.

The Associate Press reports Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Wednesday called for a rational debate on global warming, rejecting what he called "hysteria" driven by environmentalists.

The average temperature in April 2007 was 51.7 F. This was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 47th coolest April in 113 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, according to NOAA.

Unable for the third time to support the claim that they are expressing the voice of the American people (without having to buy that support with earmarks), The Associated Press reports the Senate on Wednesday rejected legislation that would cut off money for combat operations in Iraq after March 31, 2008.

Despite the fact that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama voted for the measure, the Senate obviously doesn't have the guts to simply defund the war. More from The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Democrats Wednesday announced agreement on a $2.9 trillion (that's a whopping $2,900,000,000,000.00) budget blowout for 2008, promising a budget surplus in five years but only by allowing some of President Bush's tax cuts to expire, according to The Associated Press.

The top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, said the Democratic plan would produce "the largest tax increase in U.S. history, billions in new spending, and no attempt to address the long-term fiscal crisis" looming in federal retirement programs and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.

According to TVNEWSER, Democrats have officially announced "the dates, media sponsors and cities for the six DNC sanctioned debates." Democrats are sticking to "safe" forums where hard questions will probably not be asked. In other words, the Dems have decided to dis Fox and their voting audience.

Senate Democrats and Republicans are working feverishly with the White House to put the finishing touches on an immigration proposal that could be announced later today or tomorrow, reads a post on the blog, REDSTATE. The deal would give illegal aliens living in the United States amnesty, according to confidential sources. It would also allow illegal aliens to bring their parents, spouses and children into the United States.

And finally, here's a story that embodies the fall of the West. AFP reports Battling against a deeply patriarchal society, Arab Israeli and Palestinian lesbians are uniting to break the taboo of homosexuality and politicise the right to be female and gay.

And how does that define the fall of Western Civilization? If you have to ask....

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 15 May

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
It's the end of the world as we know it...

A new Gallup Poll finds continued low levels of public support for both Congress and President George W. Bush. Americans approval of Congress is 29%, down more from last month's reading and even lower that Bush's approval rating at 33%.

Left to speculate, I can only assume Americans are disappointed that Democrats, who now control Congress, are still acting like the minority party.

Along with the dismal failure to pass promised legislation during the "first 100 hours," many Americans feel Democrats simply have no intention of fulfilling their promise to stop earmarks and end the so-called culture of corruption.

Reporters for the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and other news outfits, show their foolish ignorance when they write that the Defense Department's decision to block a dozen bandwidth sucking video and file sharing sites will somehow limit soldiers' access to news and cause troops undue hardship.

With the block in place, soldiers will still have access to just about everything else found on the Internet. They can send e-mail; they can surf the Web. The blocked video sharing and networking sites are relatively recent innovations; their presence and effect unknown in past military conflicts. In the final analysis, however, it's highly unlikely soldiers are going to post personal video messages to their loved ones for all the world to see on You Tube.

The Associated Press, The Washington Post, and others report the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73.

In an upside down turn of events, unregulated XM Radio announced today that the company, for their bad on-air behavior, has suspended Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, hosts of "The Opie & Anthony Show" and ceased broadcast of the show for 30 days, effective immediately. However, CBS Radio, a unit of CBS Corp., said the pair will be on air as usual tomorrow.

XM officials may not have believed the two had taken the incident seriously.

"Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter. The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them," the company wrote in a release issued Tuesday.

Reuters reports a U.S. troop pullout from Iraq would leave the country as a potent launchpad for international terrorism and Washington would be forced to go back in within a couple of years, a leading al Qaeda expert said on Tuesday.

Rohan Gunaratna told a security conference at Lloyd's of London insurance market that Iraq, like Afghanistan in the 1990s, would become a "terrorist Disneyland" where al Qaeda could build up its strength unchallenged.

A new gang war is raging on the Internet, according to CNET.

It's like something out of the Sopranos. Antivirus researchers at Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs have identified criminal gangs engaged in a turf battle online. The primary groups are responsible for the Warezov and Zhelatin worms, and these worms then download Trojans that are in turn responsible for a majority of the spam and malware circulating on the Web. Basically, new spam and new phishing attacks are designed to switch your remotely controlled PC from belonging to the Warezov gang or the Zhelatin gang. The resulting botnets--collections of remotely controlled PCs--have proved profitable, luring unsuspecting Internet users to purchase porn or other services attributed to organized crime activity.

CNET also reports a new U.S. Senate proposal would allow limitless H-1B visas and green cards for foreigners with master's degrees or higher in any field from an American university--or anyone with such credentials in the science, technology, engineering or math fields from abroad.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 10 May

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Nature's fury made life miserable Wednesday from one end of the nation to the other, with people forced out of their homes by wildfires near both coasts and the Canadian border and by major flooding in the Midwest, according to The Associated Press.

A new study by NASA scientists suggests that greenhouse-gas warming may raise average summer temperatures in the eastern United States nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2080s.

The research found that eastern U.S. summer daily high temperatures that currently average in the low-to-mid-80s (degrees Fahrenheit) will most likely soar into the low-to-mid-90s during typical summers by the 2080s. In extreme seasons – when precipitation falls infrequently – July and August daily high temperatures could average between 100 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit in cities such as Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta.

The Associated Press reports a thief covered his face with a pair of blue women's underwear and used a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter in a botched robbery of a convenience store, police said. "I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried," State Police Sgt. T.C. Kearns told The Journal in Martinsburg, VA.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, yesterday posted its worst monthly sales figures since its records began in 1980.

The Guardian reports the company said same store sales fell 3.5% in April on the same month a year ago. Same store sales measure the performance of stores that have been open for at least 12 months.

Federal revenue collections hit an all-time high in April, contributing to a further improvement in the budget deficit for the year, reports The Associated Press and The Washington Post.

A 10-year-old boy is guilty of beating a homeless Army veteran two months ago, a judge ruled Thursday as the child was in court shackled and wearing an oversized white jumpsuit, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutors say the boy, another 10-year-old and Jeremy Woods, 17, ganged up on John D'Amico, 58, as he and a friend walked through a Daytona Beach neighborhood on March 27. The older man was beaten and stoned with a concrete block.

The Associated Press reports thin people may be fat inside.

"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.

ABC News Online reports a search team continues to look for a rocket carrying ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, almost two weeks after it hurtled to the edge of space from New Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Houston-based Space Services Inc, which organised the "memorial spaceflight," says the telephone-pole sized rocket descended by parachute into a rugged area that a search team has repeatedly failed to reach.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Saturday, May 5, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 5 May

Here is today's digression:

Sarah Baxter, writing in the Times Online proves she is as much deluded as the "Disillusioned supporters of President George W Bush [who] are defecting to Barack Obama." Conjuring up memories of the `06 Congressional elections, Baxter points out that Democrats are once again trying to win against Republicans by casting themselves as more Republican than Republicans. One can't help but notice the constant race-baiting rhetoric, however:

For his optimism about the future, Obama has been dubbed the “black Ronald Reagan.” He frequently challenges the black community to support two-parent families and encourage school students, instead of criticising them for “acting white.”
Newsweek reports that George W. Bush has the lowest presidential approval rating in a generation but the online news rag fails to point out the new Democrat controlled Congress is flirting with the same all time low job-approval ratings.

For what it's worth, as long as Democrat candidates are running against Bush they aren't running against the Republican candidates.

Writing in The Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman and Lyndsey Layton report that Democrats have simply failed to live up the the promise to "Drain the GOP 'Swamp'" in their first 100 hours in office.

In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol.

<...>

But now that initial progress has foundered as Washington policymakers have been consumed with the debate over the Iraq war. Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them.

<...>

"This leadership, these Democrats have shown that they can fight," he said. "Now they have to show they can govern."
We will know when Democrats can govern: they will stop acting like they are still the minority party.

On the other hand, Democrats are going to have a hard time of it going into the `08 presidential election if the U.S. is still in Iraq. No matter how bad they want Bush to fall under the weight of the war, seasoned Democrats know if they can't saddle Bush with defeat in Iraq, they will still have to deal with the problem if they win the presidency.

The New York Times points out Congressional Democrats are under increasing pressure from the anti-war left and predicts the pressure to grow as Democrats continue to fail at their attempts to govern. The whole thing brings to mind the image of trying to herd a bunch of cats.

Not to be out-gloomed and doomed by former Vice President, Al Gore, The Associated Press reports former President Bill Clinton said Friday that disasters such as worldwide famine and an obesity epidemic could destroy the U.S. health care system unless politicians begin to look ahead and cooperate. It's all a matter of consensus!

"Each of these are threats that we know are going to happen. This is not like saying, 'What do we do if the president of China is kidnapped tomorrow,'" Stone said. "It's not even that there is really technical disagreement about these things. It's just a matter of figuring how we can get governments to act."

A soccer game between Muslim imams and Christian priests at the end of a conference to promote interfaith dialogue was canceled Saturday reports AP because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part.

AP reports a music teacher who twice ordered a seven-year-old pupil to hit himself in the head with drum mallets will not return to the Parkway, Missouri School District next year.

State officials say the 36-year-old teacher intended the head-banging as a lesson to Justin Barricklow about hitting the drums too hard.

And finally, The Independent reports there was an almost audible sigh of relief in parts of America's capital this weekend after ABC News said it would not reveal the identities of scores of clients of the alleged "DC madam" because they were not well enough known to be "newsworthy."

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 1 May

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Illegal Aliens Have Crashed the Gate

A Mayday for this May Day:

AP reports immigration rallies held across the country Tuesday produced only a fraction of the million-plus protesters who turned out last year, as frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to pass reform kept many at home.

A cameraman for the NBC affiliate in Houston was captured on home video sporting a Mexican flag on his camera while covering a rally in the Texas city that supported illegal aliens, drawing angry shouts from counter-protesters, according to World Net Daily.

Why all the illegal alien hoopla? Reuters reports almost one in two Mexicans has a family member working in the United States, and a third of those were sent money in the past year, according to a survey published in Mexican daily El Universal Monday.

It seems the little green men are really not so green after all. Illegal aliens again? I won't digress further. The Times Online reports Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.

Scientists from NASA say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.

Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
From the man who buys his dubious so-called 'carbon offsets' from a holding company he has interests in, AP reports Al Gore condemned Canada's new plan to reduce greenhouse gases, saying it was "a complete and total fraud" because it lacks specifics and gives industry a way to actually increase emissions.

Speaking of inconvenient Al, Bloomberg reports a California hotel is placing Gore's global warming book in night stands instead of Gideon Bibles. Of course, that would be a politically correct move when the politics of global warming becomes religion. You can't really expect any more from folks who confuse the facts of scientific truth with popularity contest of consensus.

In other popularity contest news, continuing to force the Democrat Congressional majority to act like they are still the minority party, AP reports President Bush Tuesday vetoed bloated legislation containing billions in pork and a time-line to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.

We can only hope that the Democrat majority will, sooner or later, actually try to fill the big shoes Americans bestowed upon them in the last election.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 28 Apr.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

The Sun reports that the EU is demanding cows alter diets to reduce global warming emissions.

The call came after the UN said livestock emissions were a bigger threat to the planet than transportation emissions.
U.S. researchers have simulated half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer, reports BBC News.

Fox News asks what do a plunger, a playpen, a jockstrap, fake plastic breasts, a pregnancy test and five pairs of underwear have in common?

They were among nearly 260,000 items of sometimes bizarre trash that either was left or washed up on New Jersey's beaches last year. The total: about 40 tons.

'Mama Mike' Bloomberg is at it again. The mayor is telling New Yorkers how to live their lives. This time, he wants them to cut down on electricity. And pay a hefty price up front in the hope of saving money down the road, reports The New York Post.

But Bloomberg's not just offering advice; he plans to force New Yorkers to live as he sees fit: i.e., frugally, over the long-term - and green.

The truth is, the mayor's ideas may save New Yorkers money one day - or they may not.

Like it or not, [New Yorkers] will soon be investing a hefty chunk of [their] spare funds in equipment that, like CFLs, will save us money (supposedly) later on. And that will let the city launch a "frontal assault" on global warming - even if no scientist in his right mind would argue that it'll have one iota of an impact on temperatures.

AFP reports the demise of a call-girl ring and pending trial of an alleged madam claiming thousands of clients has Washington "riveted" by the chance powerful men may now be caught with their trousers down, with a senior state department official apparently first to fall.

The funny thing is, the only ones "riveted" in Washington is the press corps -- and then only when and if the sex scandal involves Republicans.

Cigar anyone?

Speaking of Washington, AFP reports the U.S. Congress' vote to push for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was wrong and will bring comfort to Al-Qaeda insurgents, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.

"If there is a perception of an America defeat in Iraq, that will leave the whole of the Middle East in great turmoil and will be an enormous victory for terrorism."

Susan J. Douglas tells us why women hate Hillary.

Not that long ago, feminists wanted to be treated as equals. Now, the new wave of old feminism demands a Granny "Sex in the City" approach ever so evident when Douglas concludes:

If Hillary Clinton wants to be the first female president, then maybe, just maybe, she should actually run as a woman.

And finally, Hogzilla, a near-mythical monster hog that roamed south Georgia, is about to get a little bigger, reports AP.

An independent filmmaker is producing a horror movie about the super swine called "The Legend of Hogzilla," and has even enlisted the beast's killer on the set as an adviser.

Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civ

Friday, April 27, 2007

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 27 Apr.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

We are asked to accept without question the notion that the United States, the most powerful nation on the planet, is overwhelmingly responsible for the coming apocalypse of climate change and therefore must bear the brunt of effort needed to combat global warming. However, the proponents of climate change theory usually hold to the notion that the United States, the most powerful nation on the planet, has lost a war and must abandon the effort because the country is not strong enough to combat terrorists and overwhelm those few who prey upon innocents in Iraq. I call it backwards logic.

Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits. Some are even calling sales of carbon credits fraudulent.

A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.

Some companies are benefiting by asking “green” consumers to pay them for cleaning up their own pollution. For instance, DuPont, the chemicals company, invites consumers to pay $4 to eliminate a tonne of carbon dioxide from its plant in Kentucky that produces a potent greenhouse gas called HFC-23. But the equipment required to reduce such gases is relatively cheap. DuPont refused to comment and declined to specify its earnings from the project, saying it was at too early a stage to discuss.

The current debate about global warming is "completely irrational," and people need to start taking a different approach, say two Ottawa scientists.

The Standard-Freeholder reports Carleton University science professor Tim Patterson said global warming will not bring about the downfall of life on the planet.

"I think the proof in the pudding, based on what (media and governments) are saying, (is) we're about three quarters of the way (to disaster) with the doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere," said Patterson. "The world should be heating up like crazy by now, and it's not. The temperatures match very closely with the solar cycles."
Patterson explained CO2 is not a pollutant, but an essential plant food.

Billions of taxpayers' dollars are spent to control the emissions of this benign gas, in the mistaken belief that they can stop climate change, he said.

Newsday.com reports a flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season.

No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions.

The Senate approved a $124 billion Iraq war spending bill yesterday that would force troop withdrawals to begin as early as July 1. Reuters reports Iraqis are glad U.S. soldiers could soon depart but fearful of what they might leave behind, after the U.S. Congress approved a bill linking troop withdrawals to war funding.

"U.S. forces have to leave Iraq but not now," said Abu Ali, a 47-year-old trader from the southern city of Basra, on Friday.

"The Iraqi government and its security forces are unable to control security, especially in Baghdad and its neighborhoods."

Calling Sheryl Crow "a high profile proponent of the destruction of innocent lives," Reuters reports the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis resigned as head of a children's medical charity that featured the singer for a benefit concert.

Archbishop Raymond Burke resigned as chairman of the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation after its board of governors refused to pull the plug on Crow's Saturday concert in St. Louis.

She is "well-known as an abortion activist" and proponent of stem cell research, he said in a statement on Wednesday, and her appearance is "an affront to the identity and mission of the medical center, dedicated as it is to the service of life and Christ's healing mission."

A man was held Wednesday on charges that he performed dental work on customers without a license in his "filthy" garage, authorities said. Roger Bean, 60, was arrested Tuesday and held on $6,000 bond, according to The Associated Press.

Chicago police Thursday released portions of an essay used to charge a Cary-Grove High School student with disorderly conduct, leaving several experts puzzled at an arrest based on such schoolwork.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Asked to write about whatever he wanted in a creative writing class, would-be Marine and honors student Allen Lee, 18, described a violent dream in which he shot people and then "had sex with the dead bodies."