Political Digest for November 26, 2010

I post articles because I believe they will be of interest, not because I agree with every—or even any—opinion in them.

Funny earmarks cartoon

http://www.comicallyincorrect.com/comicallyincorrect_002.htm

Asian gang prowled streets searching for rape victims: Two respectable Asian family men trawled the streets, picking up, raping and sexually abusing up to 100 young girls over 18 months, police believe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8157739/Asian-gang-prowled-streets-searching-for-rape-victims.html

“Asian” is what the British press is allowed to say, as using “Muslim” when there is a crime is not PC. ~Bob. Excerpt: At home, Abid Saddique and Mohammed Liaqat, both of whom were married with young children, were considered clean, upstanding family men as well as devout Muslims. But once they left their front door and their wives behind, they turned into vodka-swilling, cocaine-binging paedophiles who spent every available moment randomly targeting young girls on the street, befriending them, and then horrifically abusing them. The 28-year-olds were at the head of a 13-strong gang who would film the assaults on their mobile telephones. …The victims, aged between 12-18, ranged from girls in care to a 14-year-old A-grade student from a strong, middle-class home. They were predominantly girls with a troubled background.

British soldiers in Afghanistan: meet the troops

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/8134201/British-soldiers-in-Afghanistan-meet-the-troops.html

Excerpt: After saying goodbye to his wife and daughter in the UK, Cpl Donald McMaster introduces his surrogate family - the troops with whom he will serve the next six months.

Are wind farms changing the weather?

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=a3fe78f74dd7c210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News

Excerpt: As China plans new era of turbine power, the technology may not be as green as it seems. About 12 kilometres north of the Huitengliang wind farm at Xilinhot , Inner Mongolia , herdsman Siqinbateer has observed a weird phenomenon in his pasture that baffles even meteorologists. "The ground heats up quickly, like a pan on a stove, the wind blows like a headless fly and not a single drop of rain falls," he said in August, during the rainy season. He pointed at the spinning blades of the wind turbines over the horizon. "This started happening after they came." It is not just a herdsman's superstition or his distaste for modern technology. Siqinbateer's claim is backed up by government statistics.

West to the West Wing 2012

http://westforwestwing2012.com/about/

Perhaps a tad early, not that I wouldn’t vote for him over a lot of folks, including the incumbent. And we can call Democrats who don’t agree with him “racists”—won’t that be fun? ~Bob. Excerpt: Allen West is the only person on the public scene who has the combination of all the qualities we desperately need in our next president — not in 2016, not in 2020, but as soon as possible: in 2012. You can look at all the most frequently mentioned possibilities — from Sarah Palin and Marco Rubio to Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and several others, and — gifted as each of these individuals is in his or her own way — none of them have all the qualities we need if America is to survive as a Constitutional republic. And none of them — not one — will talk openly, knowledgeably and honestly about the number one threat to America’s existence: radical Islam. Not just terrorist attacks, but the creeping sharia right here within our borders, as in the New Jersey case where a judge let off a man accused of raping and beating his wife because the man was a Muslim and sharia law allows such abuse. Allen West knows the enemy as none of the others do. He is a scholar of Islam, but unlike most Islam experts, he has had actual battle experience in Iraq and, after retiring from active duty, as a civilian military adviser in Afghanistan. He is a warrior, but unlike many warriors, he has two master’s degrees — one in political science from Kansas State University, and one in political theory and military history from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Officer College. His deep study of military history has given Allen the kind of insights you hear from Victor Davis Hanson but not from most of today’s political leaders. In addition to formal degrees, Allen has made an extensive personal study of Islam and Islamic history.

A regional approach to the medieval warm period and the little ice age

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/a_regional_approach_to_the_medieval_warm_period_and_the_little_ice_age.pdf

Still another scholarly work showing the MWP was both real and world-wide. Ron P. Excerpt: Conclusion: The presently available palaeotemperature proxy data records do not support the assumption that late 20th century temperatures exceeded those of the MWP in most regions, although it is clear that the temperatures of the last few decades exceed those of any multidecadal period in the last 700–800 years. Previous conclusions (e.g., IPCC, 2007) in the opposite direction have either been based on too few proxy records or been based on instrumental temperatures spliced to the proxy reconstructions. It is also clear that temperature changes, on centennial time-scales, occurred rather coherently in all the investigated regions – Scandinavia, Siberia, Greenland, Central Europe, China, and North America – with data coverage to enable regional reconstructions. Large-scale patterns as the MWP, the LIA and the 20th century warming occur quite coherently in all the regional reconstructions presented here but both their relative and absolute amplitude are not always the same. Exceptional warming in the 10th century is seen in all six regional reconstructions. Assumptions that, in particular, the MWP was restricted to the North Atlantic region can be rejected.

Giving Thanks for the Free Market

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/11/25/morning-bell-giving-thanks-for-the-free-market-3/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Excerpt: As described by Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford in his diary Of Plymouth Plantation, the first Pilgrim winters in America were tough. The colonists failed to produce adequate food and shelter, and as a result, many did not survive. But eventually the colony rebounded. The Pilgrims did build sufficient homes and did plant enough crops to feed the entire colony. So great was their bounty that they celebrated with a harvest feast that eventually became the Thanksgiving holiday that we celebrate today. But what was the key to the colony’s turnaround? What drove them from poverty to prosperity? The answer may surprise you. When the first Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony, all property was taken away from families and transferred to a “comone wealth.” In other words, the Pilgrims tried to do away with private property. The results were disastrous. According to Bradford, the stronger and younger men resented working for other men’s wives and children “without any recompence.” And the women forced to cook and clean for other men saw their uncompensated service as “a kind of slavery.” The system as a whole bred “confusion and discontent” and “retarded much employment that would have been to [the Pilgrims’] benefit and comfort.” Unable to produce their own food, some settlers “became servants to the Indians,” cutting wood and fetching water in exchange for “a capful of corn.” Others tragically perished. It was not until private property rights were restored and every man was allowed to “set corn for his own particular” that prosperity came to the colony. Bradford reported, “This had very good success for it made all hands very industrious. … [M]uch more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. … Women went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn.”

You're not taking our baby! Heartstopping moment two young parents risk their lives to save their child in dramatic carjacking
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332864/Two-young-parents-risk-lives-save-baby-Kansas-carjacking.html

Great pictures. Courage has a happy ending. ~Bob.

Stimulus Provided Large Jobs Boost, Says CBO Report

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/stimulus-provided-large-jobs-boost-cbo-report-concludes/19732820?a_dgi=aolshare_email

I remain unconvinced. Why not print a trillion more dollars, spend them on favored groups, and give everyone jobs? ~Bob. Excerpt: Here is one thing you can be thankful for: The heavily criticized American Recovery and Reinvestment Act generated a rise of between 1.4 and 4.1 percent in national output from July to September, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. With the unemployment rate still at the forefront of public concerns, the CBO said the stimulus package also created between 1.4 million and 3.6 million jobs during the same period. The stimulus did not, however, decrease the unemployment rate to below 8 percent, as the Obama administration promised when it sold the stimulus at the height of the recession. That figure remains at 9.6 percent, a rate the CBO believes would be between 10.4 percent and 11.6 percent without the Recovery Act. If the CBO numbers are to be believed, the report is but one more piece of evidence that shows that the effects of the worst recession since the 1930s were greatly mitigated by the stimulus, Reuters reported.

Exposing the human rights facade

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=196659

Excerpt: The people and institutions that claim to uphold human rights and democracy are in fact nullifying these core moral principles. At 87, Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch, began his second life. Thirty- three years after he founded Helsinki Watch in 1976, which evolved into HRW and became one of the most influential human rights organizations in the world, he disowned his earlier creation. In October 2009, in an explosive column published in The New York Times, Bernstein denounced HRW and its leaders for distorting and exploiting human rights to attack democracies, and for playing a central role in turning Israel into a “pariah state.”

Tennessee judge places blame for man killed by drunk illegal alien at Obama's feet

http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-national/tennessee-judge-places-blame-for-man-killed-by-drunk-illegal-alien-at-obama-s-feet

Excerpt: On November 5, Mexican national, Ramon Neri, 23, admitted to driving drunk and causing the crash that took the life of a father of five, Tika Koirala, on Christmas morning last year. Neri had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .16 at the time of the accident. Neri tried to play upon the court’s sympathies, saying that he first walked across the border when he was only 15, ending up in New York in order to help his family. Through an interpreter, he said: “I was the one that was helping them stay afloat financially.” Over the next several years, he went back to Mexico, only to return to this country again. During that time, he was arrested multiple times in both New York and Nashville. Among the arrests, there were several for driving without a license.

Tea party activist launches Arizona-style immigration initiative for California

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/24/3208449/tea-party-activist-launches-arizona.html

Excerpt: The California secretary of state's office on Tuesday authorized a signature drive by a tea party activist to put an Arizona-style immigration law before California voters.

Called the "Support Federal Immigration Law Act," the proposal was submitted to state authorities in September by Michael Erickson, a tea party activist in the Bay Area city of Belmont and former chair of the Sonoma County Republican Party. (California has gone Brown, now hopeless. The “Entitlement Riots” will start there first. ~Bob.)

Quote

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value ZERO." --Voltaire 1729

Full Body Scanner -make TSA agent's day with these fashion tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HXEENr2iDE&feature=player_embedded!

Too funny.

Hamas-linked CAIR to Muslims: Pat yourselves down in airport security checks

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/hamas-linked-cair-to-muslims-pat-yourselves-down-in-airport-security-checks.html

"It's all right, kaffir, I have checked myself and found nothing!"

From a press release sent out by Hamas-linked CAIR -- a group that never saw an anti-jihad terror initiative that it could support -- today (thanks to Twostellas): If you wear the Islamic head scarf and you are selected for secondary screening, ask the TSA officer if the reason you are being selected for secondary is because of your head scarf. If the officer confirms you were referred to secondary because of your head scarf, before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer, who should be of the same gender, that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They should not subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down. You can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officer perform a residue swab of your hands.

Protesters oppose pardon for Pakistani Christian

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUWglt0yLb7Jqc3LTtxBjVVHGVBQ?docId=d706bc79e7094edbbce2eaa7bcd0d211

Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Around 250 hard-line Muslims staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, warning the president not to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting Islam. They also denounced any attempt to change Pakistan's blasphemy law, which critics say is often misused to persecute Christians like Asia Bibi and other minorities. Her case has prompted outrage from human rights groups and a personal appeal from Pope Benedict XVI for her release. But hard-line Islamic groups in Pakistan have pushed back and some have even threatened officials in the past who suggested reforming or repealing the blasphemy law. These groups have significant power since politicians from the major parties rely on them for votes.

Taliban true followers of Islamic ideology: Pakistan minister

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20101124/876/twl-taliban-true-followers-of-islamic-id.html

Bet this brings in a lot of American tourists. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Taliban are 'the true followers of Islamic ideology', says a Pakistan minister who also believes that 'America is the biggest terrorist of the world'. According to federal Minister for Tourism Maulana Attaur Rehman: 'Ulema and Taliban are the true followers of Islamic ideology and America is the biggest terrorist of the world, which is creating hatred against them.'

Moderate Muslim Watch: How the term "Islamophibia" got shoved down your throat

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/24/moderate-muslim-watch-how-the-term-islamophobia-got-shoved-down-your-throat/

Excerpt: The word “Islamophobia” is a nice example. Many of you, I’m sure, have felt a wash of annoyance upon hearing the word used to dismiss your concerns about what are obviously very real pathologies in the Islamic world. I find myself particularly vexed when the word is applied to me; for God’s sake, I’m sitting here in the heart of a city of 20 million Muslims, why would I be here if Islam itself gave me the vapors? The phrase “some of my best friends are Muslims” is more than a cliche in my case; most of my best friends are Muslims, all of my neighbors are Muslims, and the way I live my life would make no sense at all if I had a phobia–an “irrational intense fear” as the dictionary has it, one characterized by an “excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared stimulus”–of Islam. I’d be like an arachnophobe hanging out in the woodpile, now, wouldn’t I? I have a rational fear, however, of political Islam, particularly the Wahhabi and Iranian revolutionary strains, which pose a very real threat not only to me and to the West, but–as Mansur very correctly points out–an even greater threat to my friends and neighbors.

Now here’s a point you might deeply consider: The neologism “Islamophobia” did not simply emerge ex nihilo. It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia. If that name dimly rings a bell, it should: I’ve mentioned it before, and it’s particularly important because it was co-founded by Anwar Ibrahim–the hero of Moderate Islam who is now trotting around the globe comparing his plight to that of Aung San Suu Kyi. Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former member of the IIIT who has renounced the group in disgust, was an eyewitness to the creation of the word. “This loathsome term,” he writes, is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.

Rage of the girl rioters: Britain's students take to the streets again - and this time women are leading the charge

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332811/TUITION-FEES-PROTEST-Students-streets-girls-leading-charge.html

The “Entitlement Riots” started in Greece, then France, now Britain. California is coming soon, as there are more “entitled” and fewer dollars every day. Look at the pictures. ~Bob. Excerpt: Rioting girls became the disturbing new face of violent protest yesterday. They threatened to overturn a police riot squad van as they smashed windows, looted riot shields, uniforms and helmets and daubed the sides with graffiti. Police fled the van as the young demonstrators against university tuition fees yelled obscenities only yards from Downing Street.

Anticommunist Movies Break Through Hollywood's Iron Curtain

http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2010/11/anticommunist-m.html

Excerpt: Bleak as things look lately for lovers of liberty, it may turn out that the catastrophic 2008 election was the high water mark for authoritarian collectivism. Even Hollywood could be starting to realize that we've swallowed something very harmful and need to have our stomachs pumped. After generations of dominance by the Left, the movie industry is taking aim at communism:

We still hold these truths

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaF1cpsDjf0&feature=player_embedded

Marines Unsure of New Rifle Plan

http://www.military.com/news/article/marines-unsure-of-new-rifle-plan-.html?ESRC=marine.nl

Excerpt: The general in charge of training and equipping Marines for the future fight said Nov. 16 that it is still unclear how infantry units will need to adjust to replace their light machine guns with the service's new automatic rifle. Lt. Gen. George Flynn, who heads the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, told reporters at a Washington, D.C. breakfast that the service plans to finish outfitting five battalions with the new M-27 Infantry Automatic Rifle next month and then will observe how those Marines use it on deployment before changing the organization, training, and tactics of infantry units around the new weapon. But Flynn pushed back at critics of the M-27, saying the improved accuracy of the Heckler and Koch-made automatic rifle makes up for a lower rate of fire compared to the M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon it's being fielded to replace. (H&K makes good stuff, and this weapon is supposed to be a lot less delicate than the SAW. Let's hope it works out as well as the commanders think. –Del)

Reflections on an Ailing Society

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/

Excerpt: Insanity is a force-multiplier in nuclear poker. North Korea is playing the Huns of the 5th-century AD to us, the tottering late Romans, who paid to avoid for a while the misery that was second nature to the barbarians. We are lectured, quite rightly, that Korea is grandstanding at a time of succession, that it is broke and wants a crisis to bring in some more bribe money (as if being unhinged were as good an asset as oil exports), that it shows off a new nuclear plant to garner more cash, and that it is close to implosion and has few choices. I hope so, but I am afraid also that 2011 will be our 1979, inasmuch as 2009-2010 bowing, apologizing, and treating enemies as friends and friends as neutrals is all so reminiscent of 1977-8. In short, North Korea may think 20011-12 is about the last chance it is going to get with a Carteresque president, and it wants to make the most of it, pronto.

How Many Drowning Polar Bears Can Dance On The Head Of A Pin?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100065251/how-many-drowning-polar-bears-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin/

Excerpt: In a nutshell, here’s what happened. In 1962 Rachel “more blood on her hands than Stalin” Carson published her junk science bestseller Silent Spring, predicting dire consequences (a cancer “epidemic”, no more birdies, etc) if man carried on spraying evil chemicals especially DDT. Despite none of this being true, environmental campaigners successfully demonised DDT as the new killer menace, leading to a drastic reduction in the use of this insecticide by the World Health Organisation (the UN body responsible for financing and co-ordinating the global strategy for fighting malaria), leading in turn – inevitably – in a massive world wide increase in malaria rates, and therefore in the number of third world deaths. (There is no limit to how many millions of black, brown and yellow kids liberals will let die in misery if it makes them feel good for saving the birds. ~Bob.)

President Obama Looks Like A Lame Duck On The World Stage As US Global Leadership

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100065133/president-obama-looks-like-a-lame-duck-on-the-world-stage-as-us-global-leadership-goes-awol/Excerpt:

President Bush may not have not have won the Nobel Peace Prize and was hugely unpopular at the dictator-friendly United Nations, but he was mightily feared by America’s enemies. Many a tyrant shuddered after US tanks rolled into Baghdad and removed one of the most odious psychopaths on the face of the earth from power. Even the supposedly unbeatable al-Qaeda wilted in the face of the surge in Iraq, suffering huge losses and humiliation at the hands of US forces. George W. Bush believed in American exceptionalism and wasn’t afraid to show it. He also believed that human rights and the spread of liberty and freedom across the world really mattered, and would be an integral part of American foreign policy. It is frankly hard to decipher what the current US administration believes in with regard to its foreign policy, except the language of appeasement and a belief in American decline as a global power. With the exception of Afghanistan, where the brilliant General Petraeus has recently been wiping the floor with the Taliban, the Obama administration is floundering in a sea of confusion on the world stage. And even in Afghanistan, military successes on the battlefield are being undermined by a destructive, artificial exit strategy set in path by the White House, which hands the long-term advantage to the enemy.

Barack Obama Gets Another Shellacking from the Tea Party

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100065119/latest-gallup-poll-barack-obama-gets-another-shellacking-from-the-tea-party/

Excerpt: According to USA Today: Just about as many Americans want Tea Party-backed members of Congress to take the lead in setting policy during the next year as choose President Obama, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. In a survey taken Friday through Sunday, 28% say Obama should have the most influence on government policy next year while 27% say the Tea Party standard-bearers should. GOP congressional leaders are chosen by 23%, Democratic congressional leaders by 16%. The results reflect the strength of the Tea Party movement as the GOP prepares to take control of the House of Representatives in January. These are striking figures when you consider the vast resources at the disposal of the White House, which is still backed by an overwhelmingly liberal “mainstream” US media, from The New York Times to the major television networks. In contrast, the Tea Party movement is largely a collection of thousands of local, grassroots groups, with extremely limited resources, and faced with a vast and hostile liberal media machine which tries to demonise it at every turn. As I’ve noted before, the Tea Party will go down in history as one of the most successful US political movements of modern times, playing a key role in the conservative revolution that swept America in 2012. Barack Obama continues to decline in the polls, while the Tea Party maintains its strength, and continues to build upon it.

Obama's Statement of Support for Lebanon Shows His Lack of Support for Lebanon

http://www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/11/obama-statement-of-support-shows-lack-of-support-for-lebanon

Excerpt: Even when you say the right thing it can only highlight the fact that you haven't been doing it. Take President Barack Obama's statement on Lebanon. The wording is all correct, yet it only makes the fact that this has nothing to do with actual U.S. policy stand out even more vividly. Thus, when Obama said that he is committed to keeping Lebanon free of "terrorism," the fact is that-in part due to weak U.S. policy-the country is largely under the control of Hizballah, a terrorist group. Right now, Hizballah doesn't have to make many terrorist attacks since it has already used terrorism successfully to gain veto power over state policy. Obama's statement was timed for Lebanon's Independence Day, but that is only all the more ironic because Lebanon has once again lost its independence to Iranian and Syrian control. The message was also prompted by growing tension over the special tribunal investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

TSA is a Joke to Al Qaeda too

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/22/tsa-is-a-joke-to-al-qaeda-too/

Not a joke. An ally. Even when their attacks fail, they damage us. At Khe Sanh ville in 1967, the NVA could keep us up all night on jittery watch by having one guy tell the villagers to stay in that night. The only defense is to find them and kill them. ~Bob. Excerpt: "Operation Hemorrhage" - al Qaeda's name for the ink-cartridge attacks - cost only $4,200, which they claim "will without a doubt cost America and other Western countries billions of dollars in new security measures. That is what we call leverage." The fact that the attacks failed is irrelevant; the underwear bomber didn't detonate his bomb but the Obama administration went off the deep end in response. It is "such a good bargain," al Qaeda explains, "for us to spread fear amongst the enemy and keep him on his toes in exchange of a few months of work and a few thousand bucks." Al Qaeda has correctly diagnosed that the most effective terror attacks are not "spectaculars" like Sept. 11, 2001, but numerous small-scale strikes that prompt the government to overreact. "To bring down America we do not need to strike big," they reason. "In such an environment of security phobia that is sweeping America, it is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and less time to launch and thus we may circumvent the security barriers America worked so hard to erect." They call this "the strategy of a thousand cuts. The aim is to bleed the enemy to death." The new strategy may show the influence of al Qaeda operations commander Saif al Adel, who until recently had safe haven in Iran, and who has long challenged al Qaeda's orthodoxy favoring "big bang" attacks.

Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks proves short-lived

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112400488.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

This is going to become the kiss of Death. ~Bob. Excerpt: Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks - money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest - was short-lived. Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe's water rights claim against the government. Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government. Kyl's office insists the measure is not an earmark, and the House didn't deem it one when it considered a version earlier this year.

Live Ammo Found in Seat Back Pocket of Southwest Flight

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/live-ammo-found-in-seat-back-pocket-of-southwest-flight/19732315?a_dgi=aolshare_email

So that’s where I left it. Damn stuff is hard to track. ~Bob. Excerpt: In preparation for landing, please bring your seat backs and tray tables to the upright position, stow away all carry-on luggage, and remove any live ammunition from the seat back pocket in front of you. In the midst of a national freak out over TSA "we might touch your junk" pat-downs, somehow a child on a Southwest flight to Phoenix knocked a loaded gun magazine from the seat pocket in front of him, according to Gregg Canes, a CNN photographer who was on the flight.

The Virginity Capsule - Now for Sale

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/11/virginity-capsule-now-for-sale.html

Excerpt: We have discussed the phenomenon of hymen restoration surgery for Muslim women to appear more like virgins for their wedding night, and how it is illegal in many Arab countries. But since it can save the lives of many women who might be murdered by their new husbands, the procedure is even covered by British national health insurance. But now, there is a cheaper method. According to Elaph.com, a capsule is being sold in Arab communities in the Middle East - including in Israel - that is inserted vaginally before the wedding night. It then explodes, giving off a red dye that resembles blood, thus potentially saving the woman's life, as well as her reputation. Not bad for a few bucks.

Rallying Cry

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/featured/6456128/part_3/rallying-cry-.thtml

Excerpt: At the root of all this is a terrible culture malaise. There’s a widespread belief — lovingly nurtured, daily, by the BBC — that if the government didn’t take ever greater chunks of our income and spend it on ‘vital’ areas like health and education, social injustice would prevail and the nation would go to hell in a handcart. Yet, as Durkin showed, this has not been the Hong Kong Chinese example. There, thanks to the groundwork of perhaps the 20th century’s most able and farsighted administrator — a British civil servant called John Cowperthwaite — Hong Kong has been run since the 1960s on impeccably classical liberal lines. The top rate of tax is 15 per cent; the poor don’t pay any. The economic growth it has experienced as a result has been spectacular, but not to the detriment of the poor (who remain perfectly well looked after) nor to public services such as the transport system (shinier, cleaner, vastly superior to our Moscow c.1950-style Underground because — true Arthur Laffer principles — low-tax regimes bring in more to the Exchequer than high-tax regimes.

U.S. aircraft carrier's arrival off Korean peninsula also sends a message to China

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112407028.html?wpisrc=nl_headline

Excerpt: In dispatching the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was putting on a show of U.S. support for South Korea.

Canada won't attend Durban racism 'hatefest,' Kenney calls it 'charade'

http://beta.ca.news.yahoo.com/canada-wont-attend-durban-racism-hatefest-kenney-calls.html

Need this type strong leadership in the US. ~Bob. Excerpt: Canada will not attend a United Nations conference on racism next year, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday. "Our government has lost faith in the Durban process," Kenney told a news conference. "Canada will not participate in this charade. We will not lend our good name to this Durban hatefest. "Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."

Remember That Crazed “Tea Partier” Whose Threats Led to Lockdown of 300 Schools and Resignation of Joyce Kaufman as Allen West’s Chief-of-Staff?

http://weaselzippers.us/2010/11/25/remember-that-crazed-tea-partier-whose-threats-led-to-lockdown-of-300-schools-and-resignation-of-joyce-kaufman-as-allen-wests-chief-of-staff/

Excerpt: The woman charged by the FBI with making a threat that led to the lockdown of more than 300 Broward County schools after hearing the words of right-wing talker Joyce Kaufman isn’t a member of the Tea Party — she’s a member of the Green Party.