Brutally Honest

Pakistani women burned by acid or fire - Los Angeles Times refuses to mention Islam

Imagine with me for just a moment what the gist of this article might be if some sect of radical Christian men were doing this to their wives:

Saira Liaqat squints through her one good eye as she brushes a woman's hair. Her face, most of which the acid melted years ago, occasionally lights up with a smile. Her hands, largely undamaged, deftly handle the dark brown locks.

A few steps away in this popular beauty salon, Urooj Akbar diligently trims, cleans and paints clients' fingernails. Her face, severely scarred from the blaze that burned about 70% of her body, is somber. It's hard to tell if she's sad or if it's just the way she now looks.

Liaqat and Akbar are among Pakistan's many female victims of arson and acid attacks. Such tales tend to involve a spurned or crazy lover and end in a life of despair and seclusion for the woman.

These two instead became beauticians.

The women can't escape the mirrors or pictures of glamorous models that surround them, but they consider the salon a second home and a good way to make a living. The two also serve as reminders of that age-old lesson on beauty -- a lesson that, needed or not, they learned the hard way.

"Every person wishes that he or she is beautiful," says Liaqat, 21. "But in my view, your face is not everything. Real beauty lies inside a person, not outside."

"They do it because the world demands it," Akbar, 28, says of clients. "For them, it's a necessity. For me, it isn't."

Liaqat and Akbar got into the beauty business in the eastern city of Lahore thanks to the Depilex Smileagain Foundation, an organization devoted to aiding women who have been burned in acid or other attacks.

About five years ago, Masarrat Misbah, head of Pakistan's well-known Depilex salon chain, was leaving work when a veiled woman approached and asked for her help. She was insistent, and soon, a flustered Misbah saw why.

When she removed her veil, Misbah felt faint. "I saw a girl who had no face."

The woman said her husband had thrown acid on her.

Misbah decided to place a small newspaper ad to see if others needed similar assistance.

Forty-two women and girls responded.

Misbah got in touch with Smileagain, an Italian nonprofit that has provided medical services to burn victims in other countries. She sought the help of Pakistani doctors. Perhaps the biggest challenge has been raising money for the cause, in particular to build a special hospital and refuge for burn victims in Pakistan.

You keep reading and you'll find not a single mention of Islam in the article.  Nary one. 

Amazing.

More amazing is that Religious Leftists, who are quick to pounce on anything resembling sexism or abuse by men against women (most especially if Christians are alleged to be doing the victimizing) are as quick to turn a blind eye to what's going on here, the horrendous objectifying of women that is the direct result of the thinking coming from the blind and evil embrace of the Koran.

Let there be little doubt about the bleating that comes from the left and the end game they have in mind when they see stories like this one.

While focusing on the women abused by men meme, they miss the elephant in the living room, radical Islam and the by-product of that wayward religion. 

This Obama will fix if elected by mere talking.

Yea, right.

Obama's abortion lie

At last night's Saddleback forum, Obama spoke to the issue of abortion:

So Obama's goal is to reduce the number of abortions, a goal he deems worthy of pursuing:

Because the fact is that although we’ve had a president who is opposed to abortions the last eight years, abortions have not gone down.

Really?

The number of abortions performed in the United States dropped to 1.2 million in 2005 -- the lowest level since 1976, according to a new report.

The number of abortions fell at least in part because the proportion of women ending their pregnancies with an abortion dropped 9 percent between 2000 and 2005, hitting the lowest level since 1975, according to a nationwide survey.

Well... I'm sure Barack simply made a mistake, after all there's nothing in his history that would suggest that he has anything in mind but to reduce the number of abortions.

Really?

Last week Doug Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee drew my attention to a previously unnoticed January 2008 article by Terence Jeffrey stating Barack Obama actually did vote against a version of the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act that was identical to the federal version, contrary to multiple public statements Obama or his surrogates have made to rationalize his opposition to the IL bill for the past 4 years.

Since then we have found 2 separate documents proving Barack Obama has been misrepresenting facts. 

In fact, Barack Obama is more liberal than any U.S. senator, voting against identical language of a bill that body passed unanimously, 98-0. In fact, Barack Obama condones infanticide if it would otherwise interfere with abortion.

Here is the statement with documentation released by NRLC this morning:

New documents just obtained by NRLC, and linked below, prove that Senator [Barack] Obama has for the past four years blatantly misrepresented his actions on the IL Born-Alive Infants Protection bill.

Summary and comment by NRLC spokesman Douglas Johnson: 

Newly obtained documents prove that in 2003, Barack Obama, as chairman of an IL state Senate committee, voted down a bill to protect live-born survivors of abortion - even after the panel had amended the bill to contain verbatim language, copied from a federal bill passed by Congress without objection in 2002, explicitly foreclosing any impact on abortion. Obama's legislative actions in 2003 - denying effective protection even to babies born alive during abortions - were contrary to the position taken on the same language by even the most liberal members of Congress. The bill Obama killed was virtually identical to the federal bill that even NARAL ultimately did not oppose.

I'm sure the MSM will be bringing these inconsistencies to the attention of the American people any day now.

Any. Day. Now.

"A political paradox of monumental proportion"

Locutisprime, at his place, on the Obama opinion expressed last night that Clarence Thomas wasn't qualified to sit on the Supreme Court:

Obama when asked who he would not have appointed to the Supreme Court, immediately targeted Clarence Thomas. And his reasoning was prescient IMO.   "I don't think he was a strong enough jurist or a legal thinker at the time for that. I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of the Constitution"

Which IMO was a political paradox of monumental proportion. Coming from a man who has only the weakest political experience, yet represents himself as a seasoned leader.  Obama went after Clarence Thomas as if his inexperience as a jurist was a justification of non-qualifier in Obama's mind. Obama was clearly playing to his race and to black America on that representation and by targeting Clarence Thomas.

Chutzpah points for Barack on this one.  To knock a man's assent to power on the basis of his inexperience when you're barely qualified to run for city council is an exhibition of unparalleled chutzpah.

Or stupidity.

Your choice.

Quote of the day

I predicted the inevitability here... Iknow... it's akin to predicting the wetness of water or the blueness of the sky... nevertheless, from she who has become most quotable at Brutally Honest:

I also find it rather hypocritical for GW to call into question the invasion of Georgia on Russia's part, and yet it's somehow ok for us to invade Iraq? Do as I say, but not as I do!

Which makes bringing this back up all the more necessary:

This highlighted statement is an astonishing one. The clear implication is that what America did in going to war with Iraq is the moral equivalent of what Russia has done to Georgia.

...

In the situation in Georgia, a lawful, self-governing nation which respects human rights (and happens to be an ally of the United States) is under attack. In Iraq, we deposed one of the most wicked and cruel regimes of modern times. Saddam Hussein committed genocide against his own people; President Mikheil Saakashvili has not. As for the nature of the "invading" nations: one (the U.S.) was performing an act of liberation; the other (Russia) is attempting to crush a newly-liberated nation. As for the legal justification for the war: Russia has none; the United States, on the other hand, won unanimous approval in the United Nations for Resolution 1441, which stated that Iraq was in material breach of its obligations and warned Iraq of "serious consequences" (which all parties understood to mean war) for its continued violations. In addition, Iraq, unlike Georgia, had violated 16 U.N. Security Council Resolutions in the course of a dozen years.

The shallowness astounds. 

Seriously.

This will resonate...

... in leftist circles:

Russians were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barak Obama being elected president of the United States.

The line came on the main news of Vesti FM, a state radio station that — like the Government and much of Russia's media — has reverted to the old habits of Soviet years, in which a sinister American hand was held to lie behind every conflict, especially those embarrassing to Moscow. Modern Russia may be plugged into the internet and the global marketplace but in the battle for world opinion the Kremlin is replaying the old black-and-white movie.

The Obama angle is getting wide play. It was aired on Wednesday by Sergei Markov, a senior political scientist who is close to Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister and power behind President Medvedev.

“George Bush's Administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain,” said Dr Markov. “Defeated by Barak Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet - the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia . . . Bush himself did not want a war in South Ossetia but his Republican Party did not leave him any choice.” The Americans were now engineering an armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Dr Markov added.

Expect progressives to pounce on this meme in 3... 2... 1...

John Kerry is Obama's Vice Presidential pick?

Oh please... please... let it be so:

If you look at who is speaking at the Democratic National Convention, you will notice that John Kerry is not slated to speak. Note that everyone else related to him: his wife, his kids, his step kids and his foundation are all given stage time. Also, if the theme is "Securing America," Kerry has lots of foreign policy experience. Richardson and Biden are slated to speak -- leaving Kerry and Kaine as the ones to watch for that VP slot.

That's my Governor

And he's on the VP shortlist.

Nice.

Via Michael Goldfarb at John McCain's blog who chimes in:

Of course the Russians complied with his request. They've also started inflating their tires in order to reduce domestic demand and free up oil for export markets. It's like we don't even need to elect Obama to the White House--he can stop the rise of the seas, heal the planet, and bring us peace in our time just by issuing press releases from the comfort of his Hawaiian retreat.

Wow... makes me want to vote for him if I only had no-brain.

Idiocy portrayed as enlightenment

From Rev. Susan in Ca. speaking about The Obamessiah:

I think he reaches across the aisle moreso than other senators, whether republican or democrat.

Really Rev. Sue?  Really?  And you base that opinion on what exactly?  Seriously, on what?

Certainly not on the record:

The NYT looks at the National Journal rating of Obama as the most liberal member of the Senate and the fallout it could cause. "In many ways, the Obama campaign is challenging the fundamental political premise that has prevailed in Washington for more than a generation: that any majority coalition must be carefully centrist, if not center-right. Bill Clinton ran in 1992 as a candidate willing to break with liberal orthodoxy on many issues, including crime and welfare, and eager to move the party -- which had lost five of the six previous presidential elections -- to the middle. Mr. Clinton’s New Democrats assumed a certain level of conservatism among voters.

Mr. Obama and his allies are basing his campaign on a different bet: that the right-leaning political landscape Mr. Clinton confronted has changed. Several major Democratic strategists, and outside analysts as well, argue that the country has shifted to the left because of the Iraq war, the economy and seven-plus years of President Bush, and that it has become open to a new progressive majority."
 
McClatchy does a fact-check of sorts on Obama's senate record vs. his presidential rhetoric. "Obama says if he were president, he'd take politically courageous stands while forging the consensus needed to enact universal healthcare, immigration revisions, global warming legislation and a withdrawal from Iraq. His three-year record in the Senate, however, offers little evidence that he can do what he's promising. His party was in the minority for his first two years, and in the third he began campaigning for president and missed lots of time on Capitol Hill. He was absent from or only partly involved in some key bipartisan efforts to head off stalemates on judicial nominations, immigration and Iraq war policy."

Someone will have to one day help me understand the liberal mind... because I have only two possibilities to explain the Rev. Sue and all she represents:

1. Someone exhibiting absolute and complete ignorance... or
2. Someone hell bent on attempting to carry forth a lie, willfully and with malice.

If you can offer up other possibilities, by all means, do so.

 

What biased media?

This biased media:

The Edwards mess is the most recent and visible, but hardly unique, example of the mainstream media’s hear no evil/see no evil approach to newsgathering. How many other stories has the MSM missed, denied or avoided? From Rathergate to Reverend Wright to the success of the surge, the pattern is the same: MSM stalls, shuffles its collective feet, and doggedly ignores information for as long as possible until they can no longer do so with a straight face. The fact that these stories without exception work to the detriment of Democrats is apparently a grand coincidence.

And the notion that they are upholding some “journalistic standard” is rendered absurd. Edwards’ story wasn’t important on Thursday, but it was on Friday because he confessed? No, the level of proof changed, but the story’s relevance did not. If it wasn’t worthy of investigation before the ABC interview then it was unworthy of mention afterwards. Their explanation for their editorial decision-making is no more credible than . . . well than Edwards himself.

There is a reason why the news media’s trustworthiness is rated so low. MSM news reporting by and large has not improved or become more rigorous with the advent of so many alternative news outlets. (To the contrary, the 24-hour landscape of cable news has sent them scurrying for their niche audience, wary of any mildly opposing views that might offend their target audience.)

What kind of fool would watch an MSM story today and walk away satisfied that they've heard the truth?

What kind of fool?

These kinds of fools.

The Religion of Idiocy

Seriously:

Politics reared its ugly head at the Olympic Games once more on Saturday after an Iranian swimmer refused to compete alongside Israeli Tom Be'eri.

Mohammad Alirezaei was due to race against Be'eri in the fourth heat of the 100 meter breaststroke, but pulled out, apparently under the orders of the chiefs of the Iranian delegation.

"This isn't the first time this has happened and it doesn't surprise me anymore," Olympic Committee of Israel General Secretary Efraim Zinger told The Jerusalem Post. "Politics takes precedence over sport with the Iranians and the Olympic spirit is as far from them as east is far from west.

"My heart goes out to the Iranian athletes. In the Athens Olympics one of their sportsmen, who was a gold medal favorite, had to pull out because he was drawn against an Israeli.

"There's no place for this kind of behavior in the Olympic movement and it's a shame it continues."

H/T to Seraphic Secret, who opines:

Let's explore why the Persians would act in such a dumb and insulting manner:

1. The Persians view all competition with non Muslims as a religious test: Islam over non-Islam. To lose to a Jew would be theologically indefensible. It's like admitting that our G-d is stronger than their G-d. Real sophisticated theologians in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

2. They're just a bunch of racist, Jew-hating Islamo Nazis.

3. All of the above.

Hey, I have an idea, let's get Barack Obama to fly on over to Beijing and engage the Iranians in, what does he call it? Oh yeah, “tough diplomacy.” I'm sure BO, with all his ivy league charm can, you know, get the genocidal-yearning Iranians to sing kumbaya and embrace the Israeli delegation.

I mean, two years in the trenches as a community organizer, AKA Socialist agitator, has definitely prepared BO for dealing with The Islamic Republic of Iran.

Barack Obama: Like coming out of a sexually dry period

I kid you not:

Have you ever gone through a really dry period sexually? At first you get angry that you're being neglected and ignored, and you act out. Then one day you wake up with a sense of nonchalance and you start to marvel at how much you're getting done, and how much easier it is not to care. And then... one day, maybe a stranger comes and begins to romance you and strokes your hair in a sort of contemplative way, uttering the most delightful insights. He touches your hand softly and then a little more firmly, awakening the feelings that you thought you'd left behind, and then you start speaking really poetically and hearing melodies and then suddenly you WANT IN! You want back in the game and you think 'spring is here'... YES WE CAN!

Barack Obama is inspiring us like a desert lover, a Washington Valentino. We who have felt apathetic, angry at two (likely) stolen elections, K-Street hegemony, the "pornography of the trivial"* in journalism and culture; we who are heartbroken over a war we knew was wrong, we who thought (especially after Baby Bush got in a 2nd time) that America got what it asked for; we who stopped wanting to participate 'cause it doesn't matter whether we do or don't; we have a crush. We're talking about it; we're getting involved, we're tuning in and turning out in numbers we haven't seen in ages. My musician friends and I are writing songs to inspire people and couples all over America are making love again and shouting "yes we can" as they climax!

Yea... and the rest of us might soon be suffering from a venereal disease.

Sheez.

H/T to Gerard who reacts thusly:

Yes, Lili Haydn, coming off like a string of wet firecrackers. Lili Haydn - late of "Porno for Pyros" now leader of "Ignorant Sluts for Obama" - of whom the best that can be said is, "She has the brain of a singer."

Umm... she has a brain?

News fit to alter and hide

Bob Owens has details:

CNN altered their original story to gin up outrage against someone they helped to portray as a "typical" racist right-winger, instead of the equal opportunity, anti-authority whackjob the more complete AP story and the very Secret Service affidavits CNN obtained seemed to indicate.

They doctored the story, and by swapping out the URLs and hiding the contents, they're attempting to play a very subtle game of hiding the evidence of the paranoia and anger they helped manufacture by shifting to a new, comment-free URL on the CNN Political Ticker Web site, while still maintaining the old URL with the comments, perhaps in hopes that those bloggers and journalists who have already linked to the primary URL won't catch up with their sleight of hand.

CNN edited out the threats against President Bush to help build on fears in the African American community and among the political left that an intolerant, racist white conservative may attempt to assassinate Barack Obama, and now they've attempted to cover up the fear they helped stoke by moving the comments generated out of public view, while attempting to deceive the bloggers who linked to the original story by leaving online, but hidden.

It didn't work, and CNN has a lot to answer for.

News you can use.

"You remember Bush, right?"

The Anchoress has a linkfest going on over there this morning that's good, as usual, but this particular reference jumped out at me:

You remember Bush, right?  The guy who goes to Asia and tells China to free her people, while the press jeers, the guy who, while in Asia also meets with Democracy Activists in Burma and gets ignored for it, the guy who drew enormous and supportive crowds in Korea, while the American press yawned?

Sure, you remember Bush!  He’s the guy whose life was threatened along with Barack Obama’s but only the threat to Obama was newsworthy for a very long time at CNN.  Bush?  You mean the creepy moron who will be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as soon as congress can figure out how to do that without exposing itself or having to put some of its own members under oath? 

Yeah, that guy!  The guy who does more than just talk about freedom and progress.  The guy who has brought real hope and change to people all over the world, and yes, here in America.  But you don’t want to hear it.  It’s the wrong and inconvenient narrative, the embargoed one.

This takes me back to Sonja and her piece I linked to some days ago.  You might remember this excerpt:

My first thoughts are that all Christians need to take a course in critical thinking.  This is critical.  As an adult convert (at the age of 30) who went to a regular liberal arts college and learned the art of critical thinking and discourse, I have been regularly appalled at the lack of critical thinking that I see amongst the brethren and sistren.   It is why so many are now so bitterly disillusioned with President Bush.  Those of us who are critical thinkers saw him for who he was back in 1999; a charlatan.  But most Christians only heard what they wanted to hear in 2000 and again in 2004.  Having done that, and been so badly burned they seem unwilling to trust any politician again.

You'll note two glaring things here in these two quoted excerpts.  The Anchoress, while defending President Bush, provides tons of fodder substantiating her defense.  Sonja, while attacking the President, provides nothing, nada, zilch to substantiate her idiocy.

But wait... there's more:

I woke up this morning and realized I’m watching this dream come true.  On August 28, 2008 … 45 years to the day later, Barack Obama will accept the nomination for the Democratic Party.

This year. This election. We’re choosing hope. We’re looking at the content of someone’s character and not the color of their skin. Yes, Amen and all good things, we’re choosing hope. Let justice roll down like a mighty river and may grace abound …

- Ravine of Light

That was Sonja back on June 5th... glowingly Obasmic and poetic in her support for the Obamanation.

Roll forward to this week:

I’ve viewed life primarily through the lens of a Democrat.  I worked for my senator when I was in college. Senator Stafford was a life-long Republican and I thoroughly admired him and supported his work. I believe that the government’s job is to protect it’s citizens, to provide a safety net for them should they need it, and several other things that I haven’t yet verbalized enough to write.  I still don’t know who I’ll be voting for in the upcoming presidential election. There was a time when I certain it would be Obama … but recently I’ve been thinking about Nader.  I know … throwing my vote away again.

Well, well, well... what happened?  I thought justice was rolling down the river like a mighty river?  I thought grace was abounding?  Now we're considering voting for... Ralph Nader?   Ralph Nader?

And this decision, we have to assume, is arrived at via Sonja's masterful embrace of " the art of critical thinking and discourse"?

Yea... right...  Critical thinking led to her embrace of Obama, her throwing Obama under the bus and now her embrace of Ralph Nader?

I'd like to suggest that Sonja has instead embraced uncritical emoting and so typifies and exemplifies what passes for liberal thought today.

Thank God for The Anchoress who rather than speak about her critical thinking skills simply gives us evidence for it.

And thank God for people like Sonja who best represents that school of thought emoting thinking people should avoid.

Bush Derangement Syndrome on wheels

Coming to a town near you:

An anti-President Bush museum rolled into his adopted hometown but found few willing to enter the biodiesel bus devoted to casting his legacy as a failure.

Only about two dozen people walked on the bus Wednesday and looked at critical exhibits on the Iraq war, economy, environment, health care, education and Hurricane Katrina.

Julie Blust, spokeswoman for Americans United for Change, the group that created the exhibits for the bus, said Crawford - the 700-resident, one-stoplight town near Bush's ranch where most folks support the man they consider their neighbor - was more of a symbolic stop among the 150 cities in the nationwide tour that started in June. In other cities, the bus has attracted dozens to hundreds of people, she said.

"We wanted to show the Bush legacy while he's still in office and look at his many disasters over the last several years," Blust said. "We thought, 'What are his library and museum going to look like, and how can we counter that?' This is a type of museum on wheels so more people can see it."

Nice.

It really is The Church of Chicken Little

Seriously:

"Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C, warns top scientist", trumpets The Guardian today from its front page. Couched in different words, the same message would be equally at home coming from the mouth of a fire-breathing preacher – the text being: "Prepare to meet thy doom".

The preacher would, of course, demand that we "repent our Sins", which is exactly what the "warmists" are doing. Repent thy "Climate Crimes", they tell us. Reduce your carbon footprint and walk lightly on the face of this Earth. Only then will you be saved.

In terms, there is no difference in the tenor of the messages.  Thus, in "climate change", we are not dealing with science but a belief system.  The "scientists" are merely the High Priests of this strange new religion, their bible the IPPC assessment report.  This is the Holy Writ, handed down from on High.  There can be no deviation from The Word.

And if you deviate, you're a heretic, you are in fact worse than a holocause denier.

It's an amazing thing really when you think about the fact that this religion is absolutely welcomed to be preached by politicians and ensconced in our public school curriculums and yet Christianity is anathema.

Amazing.

Amazingly stupid.

H/T MarineCorpVet.

The dumbing down of racism

Thank you Obama... Thank you Barack-ists.

Thank you:

1.If you think Obama's the most  liberal member of the senate you...may be a racist.

 

2.If you object to Obama  raising your payroll, capital gains and estate taxes you...may be a  racist.

 

3.If you'd prefer a president  have at least some foreign policy experience you...may be a  racist.

 

4. If you're in favor of  drilling for oil and building nuclear power plants you...may be a  racist.

 

5. If you think "Vero Possemus"  is Latin for "Massive Ego" you... may be a racist.

 

6. If you wonder why Obama was  hanging around William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn you...may be a  racist.

 

7. If your pastor is nothing  like Rev. Wright or Father Pfleger you... may be a racist.

 

8.If you don't want the  majority of justices on the Supreme Court to be like Stephen Breyer you...may be  a racist.

 

9. If you're not impressed with  Obama's 100% NARAL rating you...may be a racist.

 

10. If you're not sure whether  Obama opposed or supported FISA reauthorization you...may be a  racist.

There are 15 more and it takes me back to this post of roughly 2 months ago that came to us via Bookworm:

When I vote against Obama on November 4, 2008:

• It won’t be because Obama wants to withdraw from Iraq, which I think will weaken America’s interests beyond repair, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama thinks that a nuclear Iran is no threat to the Western World, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because I think it’s an incredibly stupid idea for the most powerful nation in the world to approach evil totalitarian dictators as a supplicant, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because I hate the idea of a President who will subordinate America’s interests to the UN (as he inevitably will), it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama has the thinnest resume ever in the history of Presidential candidates, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because I think Obama’s Leftist connections (Ayres, Dohrn, Soros, Pfleger, Wright, etc.) show him to be either stupid about or complicit with an agenda antithetical to basic American values, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama consistently chooses as advisers people who have opted for the wrong side in the completely binary debate about Israel’s right to exist, it will be because I’m a racist.

And yes, there's more of that too.  And then there's this:

Can Obama laugh at himself?

Of course not. That would be racist.

What we can take from this I believe to be clear. 

Modern liberalism is all about redefining terms such that in the end, meaning is lost.  Beyond doubt, it is the most pervasively stupid ideology that there is.  I mean think about it, because of their idiotic ideas, those they espouse their progressive ideas will help the most are instead hurt and victimized and yet... yet... we're reminded time and again how erudite and smart the proponents of liberalism are and in their view, how stupid and backwards we who oppose their idiocy are.  It's an amazing thing.

I am convinced... beyond a shadow of a doubt... that you are one of two things if you consider yourself a modern day liberal:

1) A complete idiot, something you can do something about by simply thinking critically through the issues or
2) Delusional, something you're likely able to do nothing about.

Which, if you call yourself a liberal, are you?

Bin Laden's driver gets off easy

I think this to be a travesty.  He should've been made to leap out of a burning skyscaper:

A U.S. military jury Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden's driver of war crimes — making him the first war-on-terror captive convicted by contested tribunal at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The jury announced the verdict against Salim Hamdan at 10:16 a.m.

It cleared him of the more serious crime of conspiracy but convicted him of multiple counts of providing material support for terror.

Conviction can carry a maximum life imprisonment.

The six U.S. officers who convicted him gets to next deliberate on his sentence.

Here's a good sentence.  Release him back into Afghani territory, somewhere in the vicinity of the United States Marines, and then cut them loose to find him with rules of engagement that allow them to do their jobs.

Anything less is crap.

Nation Auto Group in Northern Virginia: Buyer Beware - The Follow-up

Back on the 22nd of July, I put up my initial post on my oldest son's experience with a Nation Auto Group dealership in Alexandria.  I thought tonight it was time to reveal details and hope that in doing so, I can educate the buying public in that area.

The bottom line is that my son bought a newer used car and traded in an older car back in February.

Little did we know that we would soon engage in battle with the dealership and their corporate office in the attempt to do two simple things. 

1. Pay off the loan on the car traded in, as specified plainly in the contract signed as part of the deal, and
2. Transfer the title and tags appropriately for the new car in my son’s name.  The latter was finally done in mid-July… after nearly 6 months had passed since the deal was signed and nearly 3 months of dealership lies and our cajoling to make things right. 

Actions we had taken to resolve these issues over the ensuing weeks and then months included:

• Contacting the Better Business Bureau
• Contacting the Department of Motor Vehicles
• Contacting the Police
• Contacting the Commonwealth’s Attorney
• Contacting the Dealer Board that governs this dealership (and those in the area operating under the same name).

The pay-off for the trade-in, we were told time and again (and a couple of times via fax), would happen in “a matter of days”.  Only after a visit was paid to the dealership by a detective we had contacted did they finally send a check to the bank.  We thought it was over.  A few days later, we were apprised that the check bounced.  We were notified by the bank that the account had insufficient funds.

That’s when I decided to put up the initial post.  The day after it was published, it was listed number 3 among 13 million Google Search hits for Nation Auto Group with Safe Search filtering on and 3 out of 115 million with Save Search filtering turned off.  I was surprised by that to say the least and since then those numbers have changed somewhat but it allowed me to do what I did next.

I called each of the Nation Auto Group dealers and made them aware that Google would take them to my post.  I asked them to Google it themselves.  I then simply told them this was my initial step in publicizing their behavior, that more was forthcoming, and that I wouldn’t stop until they met their contractual obligations and paid off the old loan.   

By 5 PM that afternoon, my son was called by the dealer in Alexandria and told that a Cashier’s check for the payoff amount would be hand delivered the next day to the bank holding the loan but that too turned out to be a lie. In fact, it took another 5 days.

We are now free and clear of any issues but it has left a most disgusting aftertaste.

My advice to anyone buying a car from this dealership is simple.

Don’t do it. 

Though the problem was finally resolved, the stress and turmoil caused, the lying and the manipulation that took place, the dishonesty that seemed to be part of every conversation we had with people at the dealership, is simply too much for anyone to have to experience. 

In my less than humble view, this dealership ought to be closed down and the people who run the place should never work in sales again.  They’ve done all they can to reinforce the stereotype we're all familiar with as to salespeople.

So summing up and in 7 words. 

Do. Not. Buy. From. Nation. Auto.

Period.

Well then... it must be ok...

... if Pelosi is saying it's ok:

California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may be trying to save the planet — but the rank and file in her party increasingly are just trying to save their political hides when it comes to gas prices as Republicans apply more and more rhetorical muscle.

But what looks like intraparty tension on the surface is part of an intentional strategy in which Pelosi takes the heat on energy policy, while behind the scenes she’s encouraging vulnerable Democrats to express their independence if it helps them politically, according to Democratic aides on and off Capitol Hill.

Pelosi’s gambit rests on one big assumption: that Democrats will own Washington after the election and will be able to craft a sweeping energy policy that is heavy on conservation and fuel alternatives while allowing for some new oil drilling. Democrats see no need to make major concessions on energy policy with a party poised to lose seats in both chambers in just three months — even if recess-averse Republicans continue to pound away on the issue.

There you have it folks. 

Nancy Pelosi is stating that it's ok for Democratic congressmen (and women... lord knows I don't want to be seen as sexist) to listen to their constituents.

Aren't you glad that's cleared up?

The humorless Religious Left (UPDATED)

The following, according to yet another Religious Leftist blog, is proof positive that "Focus on the Family is a hateful and divisionist empire of highly concentrated evil".

That was lots of things but evidence for "a hateful and divisionist empire of highly concentrated evil"?

Please.  Coming from a site that claims itself to be "a monthly satire, humor and alt-style print newspaper in Colorado Springs Colorado", one would think they'd not have a problem with the video.  One would think.  But apparently, one would be wrong.

It'd be interesting to know what these buffoons think of Islamic extremists.

H/T to Mike who apparently agrees with the "highly concentrated evil" meme.

Naturally.

UPDATE: I had some additional time to peruse this site's Religion category.  Do so yourself though understand some posts are Not Safe For Work (NSFW).  To see for yourself what these people can make fun of while taking offense at the embedded video and then to have somebody like Mike (and his thin-skinned co-religious leftists) also take umbrage is... well... it's evidence for lunacy.

I'm serious.

Sheez.

Here are but just a few excerpted reactions:

This can't be real...
Please tell me this isn't real.
Really.
Someone tell me this isn't real.

       

Posted by:wilsonian | August 05, 2008 at 04:45 AM             

as "the friend" - I couldn't believe it either - shocking, isn't it?

i really hope this gets into the press and people are held accountable for this. it smacks of racism and such mean spirited division.

       

Posted by:Heidi Renee | August 05, 2008 at 05:39 AM             

Oh dear, oh dear!!

       

Posted by:Glenn | August 05, 2008 at 05:47 AM             

Would it be wrong to pray for Christians to just shut their mouths?

       

Posted by:david | August 05, 2008 at 06:39 AM             

This is so sad to see and so narrow... no wonder we have a bad reputation.

       

Posted by:Betty Todd | August 05, 2008 at 07:29 AM             

...oh!

...phalueeze!!

...this IS for real

...but the man nor the organization are

...'tis MOST embarrassing to even be in the same state

...God help them...and us!!!

...UGH!!!!!!!!!!!

...just what our world needs

...so now, Mr. Roberts, how, in this case, do you love the unlovely?

Posted by:Wes Roberts | August 05, 2008 at 08:36 AM

Oh the sanctimony.  Oh the hypocrisy.  Oh the freakin' idiocy. 

Get a damned life people.

The Religion of Piece (UPDATED) (TWICE)

Click on the image to read more.

UPDATE:  We're accommodating them elsewhere, how long before we accommodate them for what the cartoon depicts?

Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

...

Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what's happening is wrong.He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that's located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion."If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians," he said.

Bookworm also has much more, including this opinion I completely agree with:

Tyson didn’t have to do it this way.  Instead, it could have done what more and more employers I know do.  They tag a few major holidays as dates on which they close the office:  New Year’s Day, July Fourth, Christmas, etc.  Then they announce that there will be two or three other “personal days” that the employees can use as they will.  You want to take Good Friday off?  Fine.  Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur? Great.  Eid al-Fitr?  Go for it.

...

The real concern therefore with Tyson’s approach to its Muslim employees is that, rather than providing a flexible environment in which people of all faiths can feel welcome, Tyson is giving several inches to a religious group that historically and habitually takes a mile.  Or, to use a remarkably appropriate Arab proverb:  “If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow.”

I’m not worried about the Eid al-Fitr nose sneaking into one corporate tent that happens to have a large Muslim work force.  I am, however, quite worried about the increasing number of tipping points that have an acquiescent Western population slowly cede more and more power to an aggressive (and intolerant) religious population. 

Amen.

UPDATE 2: Reverend Sensing speaks to accommodation:

As Mark Steyn has pointed out, multiculturalism is a high-minded concept that lets us feel good about ourselves, but how will it feel when the majority of Shelbyville's school board is Muslim, and school holidays are converted to the Muslim calendar?

Oh, you say, that could never happen? Sorry, you need to be beaten by a cluebat. Everywhere in the world where Muslims attain a significant plurality of a population, including "non-Muslim" countries (read, Europe), this is exactly the kind of thing that happens. Why? Simple: Muslims know what they believe and will defend it to extremity. We don't know what we believe, not any more, and therefore have no concept of defending it.

You might want to keep a close eye on your 9 year old girls.

The Pelosi Premium

Via Larwyn, Free Republic:

Pass it on.

Obama: Big Oil should send stimulus checks

Be afraid, be very afraid:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Friday announced an “Emergency Economic Plan” that would give families a stimulus check of $1,000 each, funded in part by what his presidential campaign calls “windfall profits from Big Oil.”

Details are in this six-page policy paper.

The first part of Obama’s plan is an emergency energy rebate ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families) as soon as this fall.

“This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said. “Or, if you live in a state where it gets very cold in the winter, it will be enough to cover the entire increase in your heating bills. Or you could use the rebate for any of your other bills or even to pay down debt.

Someone ought to enlighten our Enlightened One:

Almost 43 percent of oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and asset management companies that have mutual funds. Mutual funds manage accounts for 55 million U.S. households with a median income of $68,700.

Twenty seven percent of shares are owned by other institutional investors like pension funds. In 2004, more than 2,600 pension funds run by federal, state and local governments held almost $64 billion in shares of U.S. oil and natural gas companies. These funds represent the major retirement security for the nation’s current and retired soldiers, teachers, and police and fire personnel at every level of government.

Fourteen percent of shares are held in IRA and other personal retirement accounts. Forty five million U.S. households have IRA and other personal retirement accounts, with an average account value of just over $22,000.

Fourteen percent of shares are owned by individual investors who purchase stocks on the open market.

1.5% of shares are owned by corporate insiders – company executives and CEO’s.

As you can see, taxing profits will only take money from your pension, retirement account, mutual fund or stock earnings; a plan which simply takes your wealth away from you and transfers it to government bureaucrats with no promise of lower prices at the pump.

So instead of taxing profits just what can we do to make the prices come down to reasonable levels that we all can afford? Increase supply. Increasing the supply of energy sources is the only way to make the price go down in any meaningful and real way.

So... if I read this right, The One, The Obamessiah, is asking us to send ourselves a check as a stimulus package.

Brilliant.

An overinflated ego's energy policy

Inflate your tires.

Incredible.

Do nothing Congress does more nothing (UPDATED)

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the institution of slavery, and the subsequent Jim Crows laws that for years discriminated against blacks as second-class citizens in American society.

Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, drafted the resolution. Cohen explains the apology's long journey for Congressional approval and the significance of its timing.

-NPR.

RevLurch, in a rarely seen flash of brilliance at The DesperatePreacher Site, sums it up for me:

And it means? Politicians get to act like they did something instead of actually doing something about gas prices, foreign dependency on oil, extremist terrorist groups, and the banking crisis. I'm so glad that my congressional representatives can make a meaningless gesture that does nothing to actually improve the lives of the citizens who voted for them and pay their salary. I'm glad the United States Congress has time for empty gestures.

Preach it brother.

UPDATE: RevLurch is battling the apology apologists:

Deke in TX wrote:  Empty to you, Lurch, but maybe, just maybe, it will mean something to some and aid in healing.

As for the agenda that you outlined - that will require more consensus then exists in both houses as well as the White House.

Aid in healing what? Will there now be fewer "racists" because of what congress did? Will fewer inner city kids grow up hopeless because of what congress did? Will schools be improved? Will I no longer have to be subjected to abusive "hate speech" masquerading as "diversity training?" I doubt it. This is just an attempt by a congress that has done absolutely nothing to make it look like they did something.

And guess what, when I pay somebody a six figure salary with generous benefits to do a job, that is difficult as you so succinctly stated, I expect them to do it. I know it's a tough road and there is hard work to be done. This kind of political posturing is just a waste of time. As you stated, it will require more consensus and to get there we need to be working toward that consensus. We need to not be dealing with past issues that are for the most part, not relevant to the current issues facing our country. If we work on those issues I brought up, it goes a long way to helping people of all races.

He has a blog here, I'm thinking we should go over and encourage him as he fights the nonsensical.

That's gonna leave a mark

Bob Owens on the Left's selective outrage:

As innocuous as that post [on the Tennessee shootings] was to most normal people, online progressive activists and bloggers, wasting no time in trying to twist the tragedy to their political advantage, flooded my inbox and the comments section of that post with crude language and spittle-flecked, half-formed thoughts of rage.

Some claimed that by writing this post, I was "a lying fascist thug," apparently for merely pointing out that in addition to his stated hatred of gays and liberals, he targeted a church "after expressing beliefs to neighbors in the past that he had an abiding anger against Christianity, an anger that appears rooted in his childhood." It was later confirmed that Adkisson did have issues with religion dating back to his childhood, and that the specific church he targeted was one that was once attended by his ex-wife.

Another went off on a rant in another direction, hissing, "So if he had targeted a mosque, that would be OK because it wasn't a church, I presume. You know, them 'sand people' and all that..."

Rarely have I seen strawmen created and then slaughtered with such ferocity, especially by a political group so thoroughly untroubled by the thought of the slaughter most experts predicted would occur in Iraq if their calls for an immediate pullout in Iraq had been heeded in the past few years.

Another stated "your side launched a terrorist attack yesterday. Two innocent Americans died. Why does your side hate America so much?"

Indeed, the meme that the attack was domestic terrorism seems quite popular among some on the far left, and they have trotted out this tragedy as example of a specific kind of domestic terrorism, one that they've branded as "eliminationism."

They spare no bile or blame in asserting that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and others in the conservative movement indirectly contributed to Adkisson's abbreviated rampage.

Give their newfound concern about domestic terrorism, and their stated disgust with those who would advocate threats of harm as a political tool via eliminationism, I find it the pinnacle of hypocrisy that they offer unswerving support and near-Messianic devotion to a political candidate who began his ascension up the political ladder with a fundraiser at the home of a well-known pair of domestic terrorists.

Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn belonged to a group that declared war against the United States, bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, and other buildings, and attempted to blow up a dance of American soldiers and their dates, only to have the pipebombs prematurely detonate instead, taking only terrorist souls.

The leftwing political blogosphere has no tolerance for domestic terrorists at all...

...unless they're long-time friends of their Presidential candidate.

There's no better skewering than the skewering of a predictable leftist meme.

Nicely done Bob, as usual.

"I'm trying to save the planet, I'm trying to save the planet!"

That from our illustrious Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who is obviously suffering seriously from delusions of grandeur:

With fewer than 20 legislative days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the entire appropriations process has largely ground to a halt because of the ham-handed fighting that followed Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”

“I respect the office that I hold,” she says. “And when you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.”

There's more... none of it worth a plug nickel but nevertheless, if you're into megalomaniacs.

My advice to the Speaker if she's serious about saving the planet... resign.

And take her ideological comrades like John Murtha, Harry Reid and so many others with her.

The sooner the better.  For the planet.