Reading the recent column on “Magic Words” by the brilliant economist Dr. Thomas Sowell put me to thinking about the subject.
Words have power. The power to inspire. Men have fought and died for words, from soldiers and heroes to gang members ready to kill over being “dissed.” Words have the power to hurt, as any teen outcast or rejected suitor can tell you.
And a facility with words can bring you fame, fortune and power, as President Obama has most recently made manifest.
But words often do not have precise meanings. And, in fact, it is often the successful political candidate who finds words which inspire voters’ support, by meaning whatever the hearer wants them to mean.
Precise words get politicians in trouble. It’s widely assumed that President George H. W. Bush’s famous, “read my lips—no new taxes” pledge cost him re-election, when he was forced to agree to a tax increase proposed as part of the budget by the Democratic-controlled Congress. It remains to be seen if President Obama’s campaign pledge that voters earning under $250,000 wouldn’t pay a penny more in taxes if he was elected will be hurt by his more than doubling the cigarette tax, which hits poor folks the hardest, and thus is a “regressive” tax supposedly hated by liberals (until they need money for pet projects).
So a great part of the political art is to find words that inspire voters, but which mean whatever the hearer wants them to mean. This helps you hold disparate coalitions together, at least until after Election Day. Barack Obama successful tied his campaign to two of these words, “hope” and “change.”
We all want “hope,” so it’s a great word. But we all hope for different things, of course. According to the results, 55 million of us were hoping that John McCain would be elected President. Obama didn’t do much for that hope.
And “Change” is a constant. The only way to lose on that one is to promise no change, because the world changes willy-nilly around us, with increasing celerity, wanted or not. It’s pretty powerful if folks are unhappy with what has happened recently, though the voters are rarely paying enough attention to understand who or what caused the things they are unhappy with. One might say that if it wasn’t for the nescience of voters, few politicians would get elected.
No electorate in the world wanted “change” more than the Germans in 1932. And they got it—good and hard!
What are some other weasel words without precise meanings, which sound wonderful to voters?
Fair: We all want to be fair, but what does fair mean? Suppose four guys go out to lunch, and split the check four ways. Is that fair? Suppose one had a tuna sandwich, and another had lobster? Then maybe it would be fair to say that each pays for what he eats? But suppose one of the guys makes $100,000 a year and the others make only $50,000. Would it be fair to say the one who makes the big bucks should pay twice what the others do, regardless of what he eats, because he makes more? You probably wouldn’t think it was “fair” to ask your friend to pay for your meal, though an increasing voting bloc feels it is very fair to ask other people to pay for things they want.
Let’s take another example. Suppose 100 adults with jobs live on your street. And you get together and decide that it would be wonderful if you had a new playground that would cost about $10,000. So you vote and the new playground wins.
Then you have to vote how much each person should chip in to buy the playground, and the vote goes like this:
Five of the adults are charged a total of $6,000 for the playground everyone will use.
Another 45 of the adults have to get together and chip in an additional $3,700.
And the last 50 adults have to pool their resources and come up with $300 between them. Is that fair? (That was the US tax code in 2006.)
Well, President Obama and his Social Democrat Party said no way is that fair. Those five people have to come up with a lot more money than just $6,000, so the 45 pay less, and the 50 who were paying $300 now pay nothing.
Under that help-the-rich guy George Bush and the Republicans in 2006, 5% of Americans—those with incomes over $153,000, paid 60% of the taxes, while the bottom 50% of Americans paid 3%. (IRS figures.)
Once more than 50% of the public pay nothing, what is to stop them from voting to take everything from those who pay more? And all in the name of being fair.
Rich: While we are on the subject of money, what is “rich”? The old joke is that an alcoholic is some one you don’t like, who drinks more than you do. For the most part, “rich” is, “compared to whom?” Compared to Barack Obama and John McCain, I’m poor. Compared to Bill Gates and George Soros, I’m dirt poor. Compared to a college student living with four other students in a one-bedroom apartment, I’m very rich.
College students, in fact, are among the poorest adults, but will often end up in the top 25% of incomes later in life. Only a small percentage of Americans who are in the bottom 25% at any time will stay there their entire lives, and many move to the top 25%.
And compared to hundreds of millions of people living in third world countries, most of the “poor” in America are rich beyond their dreams.
According to Candidate Obama, the “rich” are the top 5%, who he thinks, contrary to IRS numbers, are making over $250,000 a year. It was quite brilliant. Promise 95% of the people that if they vote for you, you’ll make the other 5% pay for everything they want. That he didn’t get 95% of the vote one attributes to older voters who learned math and had a feeling of déjà moo (I’ve smelled this BS before).
Still, as Oscar Ameringer said, “Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.” So I suppose politicians will continue to get elected by attacking the “Rich”—whoever they are.
Justice: Do you believe in justice? Of course, we all do. The problem is that none of us really know what “justice” is.
Young thugs out for a joy time of breaking windows, torching cars and looting stores like to chant, “No Justice, No Peace.” Not that they are eager to see justice done for those whose property is destroyed. But it cloaks their vandalism in the guise of a noble cause, so they can enjoy destruction while feeling good about themselves.
And “Social Justice” is politician speak for “I’ll take his property or money and give it to you, because he doesn’t deserve to have all that while you have less.”
Is justice giving an accused criminal every possible chance to defend himself? Sure. How about every possible legal maneuver to drag out the proceeding for years? Ah, maybe. How about if dragging out the proceedings for 10% of the criminals means the courts are so clogged that the other 90% get to go free or plea bargain their sentences down? How about if the technicalities of giving the accused 100% justice, to the Nth degree, puts a murderer back on the street—and you are the next victim? Has justice been done? Does not more “justice” for criminals mean less justice for victims? If the courts act in a way that gets you, an innocent person, killed, has justice been done?
I think there is so little of what I call “justice” for the decent, law-abiding folks in today’s world, that the only thing stopping the rise of vigilantism is that those decent folks have been raised to be law abiding. But the popularity of movies like Gran Torino and songs like Beer for my Horses means a lot of the folks who are the foundations of this country feel there is too much “justice” for the thugs, gang-bangers and parasites, and too little for them. So vigilantism may be coming. We’ll see if it brings “justice.”
Reform: I’m certainly for reform. In fact, when I upset an incumbent state senator named Joe Ward by nine votes out of 60,000 back in 1972, “Government Reform” was one of the three planks I ran on. I bet you are for “reform” as well. In fact, almost any change a politician promotes is said to be a “reform.”
Here in Illinois, due to bi-partisan corruption, they’ve reformed government so many times, that we taxpayers can hardly afford anymore reform.
Were the issues I supported reforms? Alas, reform, like pornography, is in the eye of the beholder. One of the “reforms” I supported was reducing the size of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 240 members to 160. The idea was to reduce cost, make legislators more visible, increase the prestige of the individual Representative, and make the legislative process more efficient and streamlined. That it was hated by the professional politicians, 80 of whom (mostly Democrats), were going to lose jobs, was no small part of its appeal. That the public strongly supported it, and my opponent had voted against it (thus defeating it by one vote in a confused legislative situation) made it an especially handy club for me to bludgeon him with.
But, if I were in the Commonwealth today, I could offer a new “reform.” Let’s increase the size of the Massachusetts House from 160 to 240 Representatives. It will make the individual legislator closer to his constituents. It will give more opportunity for minorities to have a voice in the house. It will provide a broader range of experts in the legislature to speak to increasingly-complex subjects. Give me a minute, and I’ll think of a few more reasons why going the other way would also be a “reform.”
So, think carefully when you hear some candidate like me propose a “reform.” Every change a politician suggests is pictured as a reform. After all, Rod Blagojevich ran as a “reformer.”
Affordable: We all believe that people should have “affordable” housing, “affordable” healthcare, “affordable” heating and “affordable” food.
And they do. If you are living in some shelter, even a tent, or are one of five students in a two-room apartment, and are paying for it, you have “affordable” housing. And you have “affordable” healthcare—that is, as much as you can afford, and are willing to pay for. If you are eating, you have “affordable” food—you afforded it, didn’t you.
What “affordable” means when a politician says it, is that he is going to give you more of something you want more of, and make someone else pay for it!
There are exceptions, but most folks would like to have a home that was a bit bigger, nicer and in a better location than the one they have. And once that larger, nicer home is “affordable” for you, it’s not too long until you start wishing that something a bit larger was “affordable.”
I read that between 1970 and 2005, the average size of a new American home increased by 50%. Garages used to be one car, then two, now a lot of middle class housing is built with three car spaces. Most people didn’t have air conditioning in 1970—I was 36 when I lived in my first air conditioned home, because I moved to Florida.
If you have a family of five, living in a non-air-conditioned, three bedroom, 1,200 square foot home without a garage, which you can afford, doubtless you’d like the taxpayers to make a 2,500 foot, 4 bedroom home with AC and a garage “affordable” for you at the same cost. And so it goes.
As Dr. Sowell has often pointed out, cities where the politicians have promised to make housing more “affordable” through rent control, like New York and San Francisco, have the most expensive housing in the country. Builders want to make more money to “afford” more things for their families. So they shift building investment dollars to luxury apartments and condos, not covered by the controls, from standard apartments.
And it was the demand to make housing “affordable” by forcing banks to give loans to people who couldn’t pay, through the Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that was the first domino in the current economic downturn. All that really helped poor folks, right? Maybe by making everyone poor through a housing bubble and 401k collapse.
Healthcare: Okay, you say, you've got me here. Everyone knows what healthcare means, right? Sure. But what are the parameters? Any honest economist will tell you that the cheaper a desired good or service is, the more the demand for it is. And if it’s free, the demand goes way up. (Why don’t teenagers turn off the TV and lights, or shut the door when they come in? Because electricity and heat are a “free good” for them—they aren’t paying the bills.”)
As healthcare gets cheaper, people use more of it. Which is why insurance companies want deductibles and co-payments.
I want my employer to have a doctor in our office, who will be available at a moment’s notice if I feel ill, give me a physical once a month, run a CT & MRI every three months and dispenses no-cost prescriptions to me as needed—or as desired. Ridiculous, you say? Why would you say that? It certainly qualifies as good “healthcare” and did not candidate Obama say that “Healthcare is a Right”? So, I only want my rights here. And I want it to be affordable—I want someone else to pay for it.
With a nod to Maggie Thatcher, the problem with “affordable” is you eventually run out of other people’s money to pay for everything you want to be able to afford.
Freedom: Let’s end with this, because conservatives like me tend to throw “freedom” around more than liberals. Everyone is in favor of Freedom in principle—just not in practice. The problem is, again, defining freedom. Sowell says it boils down to the right to do something other people don’t want you to do, and that’s probably as close as we can come.
So liberals don’t want you to have the freedom to own guns, and while they claim to be big supporters of the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech is banned on liberal run campuses, and left leaning countries in Europe (plus Canada) because speech that offends some group is banned as “hate speech.” The UN wants to ban “defamation of religion” at the behest of Muslims—who you can be sure will go on saying the vilest things about Jews and Christians in their own countries. It has gone so far that in some places, a non-Muslim can be charged with hate speech for accurately quoting the Qur’an and the Hadith. Dare you say that Muhammad had sex with his youngest wife when she was nine? Nope, hate speech, though it’s reported in the Muslim holy works (the Hadith) and is the basis for allowing 45-year-old men to marry nine-year-old girls in many Muslim countries.
Conservatives don’t want Gays to have the freedom to marry each other, or people to have the freedom to read anything they consider pornographic. (And liberal feminists as well, on the last point.)
Of course, every society puts restrictions on freedom to protect the rights of others. One can’t murder someone with impunity. Or so we hope. In the old days, blacks could be murdered with impunity by white racists in many areas, but thankfully, those days are over. Now, in our enlightened times, black children can only be murdered with impunity by black gangbangers in areas where intensive policing is prohibited by charges of racism. That no doubt makes a huge difference to the victims.
That some restrictions on freedom are clearly necessary to protect others gives those who would restrict freedom the cover to decide what is best for others. Conservatives fighting the freedom of Gays to marry, or the freedom of people to see X-rated movies are doing it “to protect society” as are liberals trying to ban guns. And let’s not get into the struggle between the freedom of a woman to control her own body and the freedom of a child to be born.
I generally come down on what I believe is the side of the greatest freedom. But when any of us says “Freedom,” as with other words that sound wonderful, the devil is in the details.
Or, as Lincoln might have said, “With the right weasel words, you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time—and those are pretty good odds on Election Day!”
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sowell on Numbers
Magic Numbers in Politics
by Thomas Sowell
by Thomas Sowell
Words are not the only things that enable political rhetoric to magically transform reality. Numbers can be used just as creatively-- and many voters are even more gullible about statistics than they are about words, apparently because statistics seem more objective.
The latest Congressional crusade is to clamp down on small finance companies that provide "payday loans" and check-cashing services in many low-income neighborhoods where there are few banks.
A common practice in making small loans of a few hundred dollars for a few weeks is to charge about $15 per hundred dollars lent. Politicians, the media, community activists and miscellaneous other busybodies are able to transform these numbers into annual percentage charges of several hundred percent, thereby creating moral melodramas and demands that the government "do something" about such "abuses."
Of course, these loans are seldom borrowed for a year. They are often loans for a couple of weeks or less, to meet some difficulty of the moment by people who live from payday to payday, whether they are being paid by a job or are receiving checks from Social Security, unemployment compensation or welfare.
The alternative to getting a payday loan may be having the electricity cut off or not having money to buy some medication. It is worse to borrow from illegal loan sharks, who have their own methods of collecting.
While $15 per hundred dollars may sound like a high rate of interest, it is not all interest. The finance company incurs costs just to process a loan, and these costs are a higher proportion of the total cost for a small loan than for a large loan.
When Oregon imposed a limit of 36 percent annual interest on what a finance company could charge, that meant charging less than $1.50 for a hundred dollar loan for a couple of weeks. A dollar and a half would probably not even cover the cost of processing the loan, much less the risks of default.
Not surprisingly, most of the small finance companies making payday loans in Oregon went out of business. But there are no statistics on how many low-income people turned to loan sharks or had their electricity cut off or had to do without their medicine.
This is just one of the many ways in which self-righteous busybodies leave havoc in their wake, while going away feeling noble.
Statistics played a key role in creating the housing boom and bust that led to the current economic crisis......
Read it all here:
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli and popularised in the United States by Mark Twain.
When Doctors Opt Out
We already know what government-run health care looks like.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993462778328019.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993462778328019.html
Tea Party Videos
RI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DdXAO7NBVo
AZ
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=100&subsectionID=159&articleID=67033
And here a CNN "Journalist" (it is to laugh) argues with the protesters (in Chicago, I think, home of such centrist Democrats as Blagojevich, Daley, Rezko, etc.), and calls them right wing extreamists.
http://www.mediabistro.com:80/tvnewser/cnn/cnn_reporter_at_chicago_tea_party_its_anticnn_since_this_is_highly_promoted_by_the_rightwing_conservative_network_fox_114141.asp
If you'd like to complain to the FCC about this illegal coprorate contribution by CNN to the Democrat Party, here's the form:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgb/fcc475B.cfm
RI Tea Party Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/thrufire/RITeaPartyApril2009
The Chicago Trib's John Kass on Tea Parties
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-16-apr16,0,7670103.column
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DdXAO7NBVo
AZ
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=100&subsectionID=159&articleID=67033
And here a CNN "Journalist" (it is to laugh) argues with the protesters (in Chicago, I think, home of such centrist Democrats as Blagojevich, Daley, Rezko, etc.), and calls them right wing extreamists.
http://www.mediabistro.com:80/tvnewser/cnn/cnn_reporter_at_chicago_tea_party_its_anticnn_since_this_is_highly_promoted_by_the_rightwing_conservative_network_fox_114141.asp
If you'd like to complain to the FCC about this illegal coprorate contribution by CNN to the Democrat Party, here's the form:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgb/fcc475B.cfm
RI Tea Party Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/thrufire/RITeaPartyApril2009
The Chicago Trib's John Kass on Tea Parties
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-16-apr16,0,7670103.column
Thursday, April 16, 2009
How mini cars stop global warming
This is from the National Center for Policy Analysis. They send a daily synopsis of articles about the economy, healthcare and other issues, which can keep you informed with a small time commitment.
You can subscribe for free at www.ncpa.org.
The article below is good news for the environment. After all, dead people have a relatively small carbon footprint, once they finish decomposing. And dead kids don’t grow up to have kids of their own, an extra bonus, carbon-wise. No wonder the government wants to force the industry to produce smaller cars, and Al Gore wants a steep gas tax hike. After all, he and the Obamas, Kennedys, Kerrys, Clintons, George Soros and their Hollywood friends won’t be driving them.
And, of course, the more people driving motorized skateboards, the lower the chances that I’ll get killed as I wheel my Hummer from my 15-room home to the country club!
Guns Don't Kill People, Smart Cars Kill People
Three front-to-front crash tests, each involving a microcar or minicar into a midsize model from the same manufacturer, show how extra vehicle size and weight enhance occupant protection in collisions. These Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests are about the physics of car crashes, which dictate that very small cars generally can't protect people in crashes as well as bigger, heavier models.
The Institute didn't choose SUVs or pickup trucks, or even large cars, to pair with the micro and minis in the new crash tests. The choice of midsize cars reveals how much influence some extra size and weight can have on crash outcomes.
The laws of physics prevail:
The Honda Fit, Smart Fortwo and Toyota Yaris are good performers in the Institute's frontal offset barrier test, but all three are poor performers in the frontal collisions with midsize cars.
These results reflect the laws of the physical universe, specifically principles related to force and distance.
Greater force means greater risk, so the likelihood of injury goes up in the smaller, lighter vehicle. Crash statistics confirm this:
--The death rate in 1-3-year-old minicars in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2007 was almost twice as high as the rate in very large cars.
--The death rate per million 1-3-year-old minis in single-vehicle crashes during 2007 was 35 compared with 11 per million for very large cars.
--Even in midsize cars, the death rate in single-vehicle crashes was 17 percent lower than in minicars.
The lower death rate is because many objects that vehicles hit aren't solid, and vehicles that are big and heavy have a better chance of moving or deforming the objects they strike; this dissipates some of the energy of the impact.
"There are good reasons people buy minicars," says Institute president Adrian Lund. "They're more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests. Equally clear are the implications when it comes to fuel economy. If automakers downsize cars so their fleets use less fuel, occupant safety will be compromised. However, there are ways to serve fuel economy and safety at the same time."
Source: Press Release, "New crash tests demonstrate the influence of vehicle size and weight on safety in crashes; results are relevant to fuel economy policies," Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, April 14, 2009.
For text:
http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr041409.html
For more on Regulatory Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=38
You can subscribe for free at www.ncpa.org.
The article below is good news for the environment. After all, dead people have a relatively small carbon footprint, once they finish decomposing. And dead kids don’t grow up to have kids of their own, an extra bonus, carbon-wise. No wonder the government wants to force the industry to produce smaller cars, and Al Gore wants a steep gas tax hike. After all, he and the Obamas, Kennedys, Kerrys, Clintons, George Soros and their Hollywood friends won’t be driving them.
And, of course, the more people driving motorized skateboards, the lower the chances that I’ll get killed as I wheel my Hummer from my 15-room home to the country club!
Guns Don't Kill People, Smart Cars Kill People
Three front-to-front crash tests, each involving a microcar or minicar into a midsize model from the same manufacturer, show how extra vehicle size and weight enhance occupant protection in collisions. These Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests are about the physics of car crashes, which dictate that very small cars generally can't protect people in crashes as well as bigger, heavier models.
The Institute didn't choose SUVs or pickup trucks, or even large cars, to pair with the micro and minis in the new crash tests. The choice of midsize cars reveals how much influence some extra size and weight can have on crash outcomes.
The laws of physics prevail:
The Honda Fit, Smart Fortwo and Toyota Yaris are good performers in the Institute's frontal offset barrier test, but all three are poor performers in the frontal collisions with midsize cars.
These results reflect the laws of the physical universe, specifically principles related to force and distance.
Greater force means greater risk, so the likelihood of injury goes up in the smaller, lighter vehicle. Crash statistics confirm this:
--The death rate in 1-3-year-old minicars in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2007 was almost twice as high as the rate in very large cars.
--The death rate per million 1-3-year-old minis in single-vehicle crashes during 2007 was 35 compared with 11 per million for very large cars.
--Even in midsize cars, the death rate in single-vehicle crashes was 17 percent lower than in minicars.
The lower death rate is because many objects that vehicles hit aren't solid, and vehicles that are big and heavy have a better chance of moving or deforming the objects they strike; this dissipates some of the energy of the impact.
"There are good reasons people buy minicars," says Institute president Adrian Lund. "They're more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests. Equally clear are the implications when it comes to fuel economy. If automakers downsize cars so their fleets use less fuel, occupant safety will be compromised. However, there are ways to serve fuel economy and safety at the same time."
Source: Press Release, "New crash tests demonstrate the influence of vehicle size and weight on safety in crashes; results are relevant to fuel economy policies," Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, April 14, 2009.
For text:
http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr041409.html
For more on Regulatory Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=38
A Response on Government Health Care
This was a comment on the health care article I published earlier, but I thought it deserved it's own spot on the blog. ~Bob
Anyone that thinks government healthcare is a good idea needs to be a VA patient for a year or two. I suffered disc damage in my back while in the service. Predictably, over the years it has gotten worse to the point where I really can't work a full day anymore. IN addition, the pain prevents me from sleeping effectively. I average only 5-25 minutes of REM sleep a day.
My condition is surgically reversible. The VA? The VA neurosurgeon said that at my age (53) I would likely be stricken by arthritis soon and blah blah yada yada. Basically, because I was so old that the surgery would be a waste of the government's money.
Their solution is to keep me on ever increasing doses of painkillers and let the drugs and insomnia solve the problem of surgical costs for them.
Am I bitter? YOU BET. I thought I had a deal with my country when I volunteered and served. Am I the only one? Heck no. I live in a town of 3,500 people in the middle of nowhere Wyoming and there are two other older veterans here that have been treated the same way.
SO, the next time you think you need Nanny Sam providing for your every need just remember that the minute the government thinks you have outlived your usefulness they WILL make these kinds of "value" judgments and you will be left to die "comfortably."
--Mike Stebbins
Anyone that thinks government healthcare is a good idea needs to be a VA patient for a year or two. I suffered disc damage in my back while in the service. Predictably, over the years it has gotten worse to the point where I really can't work a full day anymore. IN addition, the pain prevents me from sleeping effectively. I average only 5-25 minutes of REM sleep a day.
My condition is surgically reversible. The VA? The VA neurosurgeon said that at my age (53) I would likely be stricken by arthritis soon and blah blah yada yada. Basically, because I was so old that the surgery would be a waste of the government's money.
Their solution is to keep me on ever increasing doses of painkillers and let the drugs and insomnia solve the problem of surgical costs for them.
Am I bitter? YOU BET. I thought I had a deal with my country when I volunteered and served. Am I the only one? Heck no. I live in a town of 3,500 people in the middle of nowhere Wyoming and there are two other older veterans here that have been treated the same way.
SO, the next time you think you need Nanny Sam providing for your every need just remember that the minute the government thinks you have outlived your usefulness they WILL make these kinds of "value" judgments and you will be left to die "comfortably."
--Mike Stebbins
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Bright Guy Disease
Recent exchanges reminded me of this essay I wrote a few years ago. It's in my book, Chaos for Breakfast, was published in several newsletters, including the Mensa Bulletin, and translated into Dutch for the Mensa organization in Holland. It's my take on what psychologists call Narcissistic Personality Disorder. ~Bob
Avoiding Bright Guy Disease
Is it just me, or is “Bright-Guy Disease” (BGD) on the rise? Oh, you may call it by a different name, but we’ve all had co-workers, board members or bosses with it.
“Bright-Guy Disease” is my name for the condition that too-often afflicts very smart people, who have usually been very successful. Because of their intellect, they’ve frequently had to deal with folks who aren’t as sharp as they are. Since they are so successful, at some point they subconsciously conclude that everybody else (with few exceptions) is dumber then they are.
If they have an idea, it has to be a great idea, because they are so much smarter then you. If you disagree with their idea, you must be not just refuted, but crushed, because disagreeing not only proves how stupid you are, but means you fail to recognize their brilliance.
If you have an idea, it must be dumb, because if it was a good idea, they would have thought of it first. After all, they are so much smarter then you.
In my experience, “Bright-Guy Disease” most often affects men, perhaps because the glass ceiling has kept women from equal levels of success, perhaps because girls are socialized to be cooperative, while boys are socialized to be competitive. As though to make up for this, the few cases I’ve observed in women seem to be particularly virulent.
What are the symptoms?
Fellows with BGD talk more then they listen—a LOT more. Larry King says he never learned anything while he was talking. But the BGD-victims don’t need to learn anything—they already know it all.
BGD sufferers will frequently be angry and will often shout to make a point. This is perfectly justified to correct your error, just as you would feel justified in shouting to keep a small, not-to-intelligent child from putting his hand in the fire.
People with BGD conclude they are experts in many fields, since they’ve been successful in one. They know more about the law then any attorney, more about medicine then any doctor, and certainly more about association management then you do.
They will also not hesitate to bend the facts to fit their worldview—since they are always right, facts are things that simply must be made to agree with them. Should the facts ever indisputably prove they are wrong, they will simply move on and stop discussing the issue—but they will remember who proved them wrong.
Unfortunately, victims of BGD are always the last to recognize the symptoms. If you think you might be suffering from BGD, ask yourself three questions:
Do I respect the people around me for their knowledge, experience and intellect? Everyone knows more than you do about something. Anyone can have an idea that is better then yours. One of the best advisors I’ve had in association management was a part-time janitor, Bob Murray, well past retirement age, who simply had great insights into the way the office was working and staff interactions.
When was the last time I changed my point of view because of someone else’s opinion? If you can’t recall, it may be because you have BGD.
Do I find myself angry a lot of the time with people who disagree with me? Sure, we all get angry over integrity or performance issues, but divergent points of view are valuable.
Coping with BGD
Just recognizing the problem will help keep you out of the line of fire. Confrontation with BGD victims is to be avoided, hard as that may be. They will simply increase the level of their rhetoric until you are beaten down. And they can be vindictive if you cross them.
They enjoy confrontation and arguments because they need to prove, daily, how much smarter they are then you. (Update--today they spend a lot of time commenting on blogs, trying to put you down to reassure themselves of how smart and valuable they are.)
Keep in mind that, while some folks are awed by their intellect and success, many others will recognize them for what they are, so you will have allies. But don’t lose your cool and get into a battle with them—it seldom helps. (Been there, did that, still bleeding.)
Instead, give them enough rope to hang themselves. If their idea is really wrong, the longer they expound on it, the more people will realize it, without help from you.
Approach them obliquely. Phrases like, “You’re absolutely right, I’m just worried about X.” Or, “I agree, and hope that X doesn’t derail the plan.” X, of course, is some inconvenient fact that doesn’t fit their idea. People with BGD will often slowly change points of view, or modify ideas to fit the facts, maintaining that was their position all along. The strategy is to guide them to the correct path while letting them claim credit for being there all along.
Of course, if all else fails, you can take the approach once taken by an attorney speaking to a fellow lawyer with BGD.
First Attorney: “You know, Darrell, between us we know everything there is to know.”
BGD Attorney: “How’s that, George?”
First Attorney: “Well, Darrell, you know everything there is to know in the whole world except that you’re a jerk—and I know that you’re a jerk!”
But this might not be the best approach with your boss!
Avoiding Bright Guy Disease
Is it just me, or is “Bright-Guy Disease” (BGD) on the rise? Oh, you may call it by a different name, but we’ve all had co-workers, board members or bosses with it.
“Bright-Guy Disease” is my name for the condition that too-often afflicts very smart people, who have usually been very successful. Because of their intellect, they’ve frequently had to deal with folks who aren’t as sharp as they are. Since they are so successful, at some point they subconsciously conclude that everybody else (with few exceptions) is dumber then they are.
If they have an idea, it has to be a great idea, because they are so much smarter then you. If you disagree with their idea, you must be not just refuted, but crushed, because disagreeing not only proves how stupid you are, but means you fail to recognize their brilliance.
If you have an idea, it must be dumb, because if it was a good idea, they would have thought of it first. After all, they are so much smarter then you.
In my experience, “Bright-Guy Disease” most often affects men, perhaps because the glass ceiling has kept women from equal levels of success, perhaps because girls are socialized to be cooperative, while boys are socialized to be competitive. As though to make up for this, the few cases I’ve observed in women seem to be particularly virulent.
What are the symptoms?
Fellows with BGD talk more then they listen—a LOT more. Larry King says he never learned anything while he was talking. But the BGD-victims don’t need to learn anything—they already know it all.
BGD sufferers will frequently be angry and will often shout to make a point. This is perfectly justified to correct your error, just as you would feel justified in shouting to keep a small, not-to-intelligent child from putting his hand in the fire.
People with BGD conclude they are experts in many fields, since they’ve been successful in one. They know more about the law then any attorney, more about medicine then any doctor, and certainly more about association management then you do.
They will also not hesitate to bend the facts to fit their worldview—since they are always right, facts are things that simply must be made to agree with them. Should the facts ever indisputably prove they are wrong, they will simply move on and stop discussing the issue—but they will remember who proved them wrong.
Unfortunately, victims of BGD are always the last to recognize the symptoms. If you think you might be suffering from BGD, ask yourself three questions:
Do I respect the people around me for their knowledge, experience and intellect? Everyone knows more than you do about something. Anyone can have an idea that is better then yours. One of the best advisors I’ve had in association management was a part-time janitor, Bob Murray, well past retirement age, who simply had great insights into the way the office was working and staff interactions.
When was the last time I changed my point of view because of someone else’s opinion? If you can’t recall, it may be because you have BGD.
Do I find myself angry a lot of the time with people who disagree with me? Sure, we all get angry over integrity or performance issues, but divergent points of view are valuable.
Coping with BGD
Just recognizing the problem will help keep you out of the line of fire. Confrontation with BGD victims is to be avoided, hard as that may be. They will simply increase the level of their rhetoric until you are beaten down. And they can be vindictive if you cross them.
They enjoy confrontation and arguments because they need to prove, daily, how much smarter they are then you. (Update--today they spend a lot of time commenting on blogs, trying to put you down to reassure themselves of how smart and valuable they are.)
Keep in mind that, while some folks are awed by their intellect and success, many others will recognize them for what they are, so you will have allies. But don’t lose your cool and get into a battle with them—it seldom helps. (Been there, did that, still bleeding.)
Instead, give them enough rope to hang themselves. If their idea is really wrong, the longer they expound on it, the more people will realize it, without help from you.
Approach them obliquely. Phrases like, “You’re absolutely right, I’m just worried about X.” Or, “I agree, and hope that X doesn’t derail the plan.” X, of course, is some inconvenient fact that doesn’t fit their idea. People with BGD will often slowly change points of view, or modify ideas to fit the facts, maintaining that was their position all along. The strategy is to guide them to the correct path while letting them claim credit for being there all along.
Of course, if all else fails, you can take the approach once taken by an attorney speaking to a fellow lawyer with BGD.
First Attorney: “You know, Darrell, between us we know everything there is to know.”
BGD Attorney: “How’s that, George?”
First Attorney: “Well, Darrell, you know everything there is to know in the whole world except that you’re a jerk—and I know that you’re a jerk!”
But this might not be the best approach with your boss!
Is Government Health Insurance Cheap?
The false comparison between the costs of public and private medical plans.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966918025015509.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966918025015509.html
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sowell on Words
Magic Words in Politics
Thomas Sowell
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government bonds. But, instead of buying more of those bonds as our skyrocketing national debt leads to more bonds being issued, China has been selling some of its U.S. government bonds this year.
The Chinese are no fools. They know that all this unbridled spending-- even when it is called "investment"-- means that inflation is coming. That in turn means that the dollars with which U.S. government bonds will be paid off will be worth a lot less than the dollars with which the bonds were bought.
Governments around the world have played this game for centuries, robbing those who trusted them enough to buy their bonds. Like Bernard Madoff, they call it "investment."
Inflation also means that all the talk about how higher taxes will be confined to "the rich" is nonsense. Inflation is a hidden tax that takes away the value of money held by everyone at every income level.
Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has if you count the tail as a leg. When they answered "five," Lincoln told them that the answer was four. The fact that you called the tail a leg did not make it a leg.
It is too bad that Lincoln is not still around today. He might emancipate us all from our enslavement to words.
When you call something a "stimulus" package, that does not mean that it actually stimulates. The way individuals, banks and businesses in general are hanging onto their money suggests that "sedative" package might be more accurate.
This is not a new phenomenon, peculiar to this administration. President Bush's "stimulus" package did not stimulate either. The same was true back in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "pump-priming" by spending government money to get private money flowing.
The circulation of money slowed down back then the way it has slowed down today.
Read it all here:
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/04/14/magic_words_in_politics
Sowell makes me think. His frequent discussions of language remind me that politics is art of the weasel word. Have to write something on that. ~Bob
Thomas Sowell
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government bonds. But, instead of buying more of those bonds as our skyrocketing national debt leads to more bonds being issued, China has been selling some of its U.S. government bonds this year.
The Chinese are no fools. They know that all this unbridled spending-- even when it is called "investment"-- means that inflation is coming. That in turn means that the dollars with which U.S. government bonds will be paid off will be worth a lot less than the dollars with which the bonds were bought.
Governments around the world have played this game for centuries, robbing those who trusted them enough to buy their bonds. Like Bernard Madoff, they call it "investment."
Inflation also means that all the talk about how higher taxes will be confined to "the rich" is nonsense. Inflation is a hidden tax that takes away the value of money held by everyone at every income level.
Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has if you count the tail as a leg. When they answered "five," Lincoln told them that the answer was four. The fact that you called the tail a leg did not make it a leg.
It is too bad that Lincoln is not still around today. He might emancipate us all from our enslavement to words.
When you call something a "stimulus" package, that does not mean that it actually stimulates. The way individuals, banks and businesses in general are hanging onto their money suggests that "sedative" package might be more accurate.
This is not a new phenomenon, peculiar to this administration. President Bush's "stimulus" package did not stimulate either. The same was true back in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "pump-priming" by spending government money to get private money flowing.
The circulation of money slowed down back then the way it has slowed down today.
Read it all here:
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/04/14/magic_words_in_politics
Sowell makes me think. His frequent discussions of language remind me that politics is art of the weasel word. Have to write something on that. ~Bob
Monday, April 13, 2009
Guns and Crime--Updated
Whoa, Australia bans guns and violent crime goes up? Who could have predicted that?
Australia experiencing more violent crime despite gun ban
http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d8-Australia-experiencing-more-violent-crime-despite-gun-ban
Update:
As firearms sales surge, Democrats drop assault weapons ban
John Byrne -- Monday April 13, 2009
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/As_firearms_sales_surge_Obama_Administration_0413.htmlAs firearms sales in the United States hit new highs, the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are squelching talk of a renewal of the assault weapons ban passed by Congress that lapsed in 2004, saying they don't want a distraction from their agenda and don't have the votes in Congress.
Australia experiencing more violent crime despite gun ban
http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d8-Australia-experiencing-more-violent-crime-despite-gun-ban
Update:
As firearms sales surge, Democrats drop assault weapons ban
John Byrne -- Monday April 13, 2009
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/As_firearms_sales_surge_Obama_Administration_0413.htmlAs firearms sales in the United States hit new highs, the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are squelching talk of a renewal of the assault weapons ban passed by Congress that lapsed in 2004, saying they don't want a distraction from their agenda and don't have the votes in Congress.
Finally some good news, but...
The story the mainstream media longed to write….
Obama rescues Captain, Navy kills civilians
Demonstrating his amazing international virtuosity today, President Barack Obama walked across the water to rescue an American ship captain who had become separated from his vessel when he went fishing with local Muslims. Unfortunately, the US Military overreacted and in what can only be called “premeditated murder” shot and killed three of the Muslim fishermen.
President Obama apologized to the world, and to Muslims in particular, for the “wanton murder of three innocent fishermen.” Asked about reports that the Muslims had allegedly tried to seize the Captain’s ship, Obama said that, “Americans have to be more appreciative of other cultures where they have a long and rich tradition of spreading the wealth around, a lesson for our greedy free-market obsessed citizens who have more rigid views of ownership.”
Protests against the American military broke out across the world, with looting and a dozen deaths reported. European leaders praised the president, while condemning the “needless deaths” of the Muslim seafarers.
Here's what I wrote about dealing with the pirates, back in November, 2008:
Dealing with Pirates
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2008/11/dealing-with-pirates.html
And on the rescue, this Jarhead says, "Go Navy!"
Obama rescues Captain, Navy kills civilians
Demonstrating his amazing international virtuosity today, President Barack Obama walked across the water to rescue an American ship captain who had become separated from his vessel when he went fishing with local Muslims. Unfortunately, the US Military overreacted and in what can only be called “premeditated murder” shot and killed three of the Muslim fishermen.
President Obama apologized to the world, and to Muslims in particular, for the “wanton murder of three innocent fishermen.” Asked about reports that the Muslims had allegedly tried to seize the Captain’s ship, Obama said that, “Americans have to be more appreciative of other cultures where they have a long and rich tradition of spreading the wealth around, a lesson for our greedy free-market obsessed citizens who have more rigid views of ownership.”
Protests against the American military broke out across the world, with looting and a dozen deaths reported. European leaders praised the president, while condemning the “needless deaths” of the Muslim seafarers.
Here's what I wrote about dealing with the pirates, back in November, 2008:
Dealing with Pirates
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2008/11/dealing-with-pirates.html
And on the rescue, this Jarhead says, "Go Navy!"
The Free World Bars Free Speech
The MSM is starting to catch on to the threat to our liberties. Maybe.
This is from the Washington Post, of all places.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/09/AR2009040903155.html
This is from the Washington Post, of all places.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/09/AR2009040903155.html
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Harvard and The Marines
The government should provide no funding, including research and student aid on campuses that ban US Government programs like ROTC. But there is no chance the bedwetters in Congress will develop the spine to do so. Barack doesn't really support this--just more empty talk from President BO. ~Bob
*****
Why not give our officers the best education?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914908909399225.html
By Joseph Kristol and Daniel West
'ROTC must go because we oppose the policies of the United States and we oppose the military that perpetrates them. The lines are clearly drawn; the time to take sides is now."
It was the spring of 1969, and the leaders of the Harvard chapter of Students for a Democratic Society were (with the above statement issued to the student newspaper) agitating to cleanse their campus of "imperialist exploitation." To opponents of the Vietnam War, members of the military -- even students in the Reserve Officers Training Corps -- embodied the policies they despised.
Forty years ago tomorrow, April 9, 1969, this sentiment culminated in a mob of students storming University Hall. Eager to be at the forefront of radical activism, they turned to violent protest. Arsonists torched a Marine Corps classroom, and the administration buckled. ROTC was purged from campus, symbolically repudiating the Vietnam War.
Today, America congratulates itself for having overcome the knee-jerk radicalism of that era. "Support the troops, oppose the war" is the modern battle cry of the antiwar movement. Americans seem to recognize that those in uniform shouldn't be blamed for policies set by elected officials.
But not at Harvard, where ROTC remains officially unwelcome.
The students of 1969 have become the faculty of 2009, and today students who wish to participate in ROTC are forced to train at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We are pawns in a political chess game. The issue is no longer Vietnam, but President Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that bars gays from openly serving in the military. Because of that policy, the university classifies ROTC as a discriminatory organization and has severed all remnants of support.
So Harvard today happily pays for future bankers to take accounting courses at MIT, but refuses to pay for aspiring military officers who take ROTC courses. Since 1994, anonymous donors have generously picked up the tab, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for Harvard's ROTC students.
Sadly, the number of Harvard students who choose military service has dwindled. Harvard, where ROTC was founded in 1916 and which once boasted over 1,000 participants, is now home to only 29 cadets and midshipmen, spread over four years and four branches of service. Recruitment opportunities are deliberately limited, and the student handbook cautions students against joining ROTC, remarking that the program is "inconsistent with Harvard's values." And cadets begin every semester seeking to avoid the professors known to exhibit hostility toward students who wear their uniform to class.
Rather than embracing the mutually beneficial relationship Harvard might share with the military, the faculty prefers to stand in the way of progress, abdicating its responsibility to contribute to one of our nation's most important institutions.. The same Harvard that once produced 10 recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and warrior-scholars such as Teddy Roosevelt and John F.. Kennedy, now turns its back on its proud, patriotic history.
But there are reasons to be hopeful that the 40-year exile of ROTC may be drawing to a close. Today, the faculty is out of touch with a student body that is generally supportive of ROTC. The support that both Barack Obama and John McCain expressed during the 2008 presidential campaign for the return of ROTC to elite college campuses showed Harvard's stance to be far from mainstream.
We are also fortunate that Harvard's new president, Drew Faust, has privately praised and met with cadets and midshipmen, and publicly stated her hope that the day ROTC returns to campus is not far off. Though she remains bound by Harvard's discrimination policy, she spoke at last year's commissioning ceremony and expressed her desire to see our numbers grow.
This is encouraging, but it falls short of the appropriate policy: support for the military and those who serve in it, regardless of federal policies. ROTC should be fully and unequivocally welcomed back to Harvard. Accomplishing this would take leadership and courage from President Faust. Perhaps she will be inspired to show this leadership as she joins Gen. David Petraeus in recognizing the ROTC graduates at our commissioning ceremony in June.
Messrs. Kristol and West, seniors at Harvard University, will be commissioned second lieutenants in the United States Marine Corps in June.
*****
Why not give our officers the best education?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914908909399225.html
By Joseph Kristol and Daniel West
'ROTC must go because we oppose the policies of the United States and we oppose the military that perpetrates them. The lines are clearly drawn; the time to take sides is now."
It was the spring of 1969, and the leaders of the Harvard chapter of Students for a Democratic Society were (with the above statement issued to the student newspaper) agitating to cleanse their campus of "imperialist exploitation." To opponents of the Vietnam War, members of the military -- even students in the Reserve Officers Training Corps -- embodied the policies they despised.
Forty years ago tomorrow, April 9, 1969, this sentiment culminated in a mob of students storming University Hall. Eager to be at the forefront of radical activism, they turned to violent protest. Arsonists torched a Marine Corps classroom, and the administration buckled. ROTC was purged from campus, symbolically repudiating the Vietnam War.
Today, America congratulates itself for having overcome the knee-jerk radicalism of that era. "Support the troops, oppose the war" is the modern battle cry of the antiwar movement. Americans seem to recognize that those in uniform shouldn't be blamed for policies set by elected officials.
But not at Harvard, where ROTC remains officially unwelcome.
The students of 1969 have become the faculty of 2009, and today students who wish to participate in ROTC are forced to train at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We are pawns in a political chess game. The issue is no longer Vietnam, but President Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that bars gays from openly serving in the military. Because of that policy, the university classifies ROTC as a discriminatory organization and has severed all remnants of support.
So Harvard today happily pays for future bankers to take accounting courses at MIT, but refuses to pay for aspiring military officers who take ROTC courses. Since 1994, anonymous donors have generously picked up the tab, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for Harvard's ROTC students.
Sadly, the number of Harvard students who choose military service has dwindled. Harvard, where ROTC was founded in 1916 and which once boasted over 1,000 participants, is now home to only 29 cadets and midshipmen, spread over four years and four branches of service. Recruitment opportunities are deliberately limited, and the student handbook cautions students against joining ROTC, remarking that the program is "inconsistent with Harvard's values." And cadets begin every semester seeking to avoid the professors known to exhibit hostility toward students who wear their uniform to class.
Rather than embracing the mutually beneficial relationship Harvard might share with the military, the faculty prefers to stand in the way of progress, abdicating its responsibility to contribute to one of our nation's most important institutions.. The same Harvard that once produced 10 recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and warrior-scholars such as Teddy Roosevelt and John F.. Kennedy, now turns its back on its proud, patriotic history.
But there are reasons to be hopeful that the 40-year exile of ROTC may be drawing to a close. Today, the faculty is out of touch with a student body that is generally supportive of ROTC. The support that both Barack Obama and John McCain expressed during the 2008 presidential campaign for the return of ROTC to elite college campuses showed Harvard's stance to be far from mainstream.
We are also fortunate that Harvard's new president, Drew Faust, has privately praised and met with cadets and midshipmen, and publicly stated her hope that the day ROTC returns to campus is not far off. Though she remains bound by Harvard's discrimination policy, she spoke at last year's commissioning ceremony and expressed her desire to see our numbers grow.
This is encouraging, but it falls short of the appropriate policy: support for the military and those who serve in it, regardless of federal policies. ROTC should be fully and unequivocally welcomed back to Harvard. Accomplishing this would take leadership and courage from President Faust. Perhaps she will be inspired to show this leadership as she joins Gen. David Petraeus in recognizing the ROTC graduates at our commissioning ceremony in June.
Messrs. Kristol and West, seniors at Harvard University, will be commissioned second lieutenants in the United States Marine Corps in June.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Big Brother Health Care Killing People
Another example of how big government means well and does harm:
Why 'Quality' Care Is Dangerous
The growing number of rigid protocols meant to guide doctors have perverse consequences.
By JEROME GROOPMAN and PAMELA HARTZBANDThe Obama administration is working with Congress to mandate that all Medicare payments be tied to "quality metrics." But an analysis of this drive for better health care reveals a fundamental flaw in how quality is defined and metrics applied. In too many cases, the quality measures have been hastily adopted, only to be proven wrong and even potentially dangerous to patients.
Health-policy planners define quality as clinical practice that conforms to consensus guidelines written by experts. The guidelines present specific metrics for physicians to meet, thus "quality metrics." Since 2003, the federal government has piloted Medicare projects at more than 260 hospitals to reward physicians and institutions that meet quality metrics. The program is called "pay-for-performance." Many private insurers are following suit with similar incentive programs.
In Massachusetts, there are not only carrots but also sticks; physicians who fail to comply with quality guidelines from certain state-based insurers are publicly discredited and their patients required to pay up to three times as much out of pocket to see them. Unfortunately, many states are considering the Massachusetts model for their local insurance.
How did we get here? Initially, the quality improvement initiatives focused on patient safety and public-health measures. The hospital was seen as a large factory where systems needed to be standardized to prevent avoidable errors. A shocking degree of sloppiness existed with respect to hand washing, for example, and this largely has been remedied with implementation of standardized protocols. Similarly, the risk of infection when inserting an intravenous catheter has fallen sharply since doctors and nurses now abide by guidelines. Buoyed by these successes, governmental and private insurance regulators now have overreached. They've turned clinical guidelines for complex diseases into iron-clad rules, to deleterious effect.
One key quality measure in the ICU became the level of blood sugar in critically ill patients. Expert panels reviewed data on whether ICU patients should have insulin therapy adjusted to tightly control their blood sugar, keeping it within the normal range, or whether a more flexible approach, allowing some elevation of sugar, was permissible. Expert consensus endorsed tight control, and this approach was embedded in guidelines from the American Diabetes Association. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which generates report cards on hospitals, and governmental and private insurers that pay for care, adopted as a suggested quality metric this tight control of blood sugar.
A colleague who works in an ICU in a medical center in our state told us how his care of the critically ill is closely monitored. If his patients have blood sugars that rise above the metric, he must attend what he calls "re-education sessions" where he is pointedly lectured on the need to adhere to the rule. If he does not strictly comply, his hospital will be downgraded on its quality rating and risks financial loss. His status on the faculty is also at risk should he be seen as delivering low-quality care.
But this coercive approach was turned on its head last month when the New England Journal of Medicine published a randomized study, by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, of more than 6,000 critically ill patients in the ICU. Half of the patients received insulin to tightly maintain their sugar in the normal range, and the other half were on a more flexible protocol, allowing higher sugar levels. More patients died in the tightly regulated group than those cared for with the flexible protocol.
It gets worse. read the full article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914878625199185.html
Why 'Quality' Care Is Dangerous
The growing number of rigid protocols meant to guide doctors have perverse consequences.
By JEROME GROOPMAN and PAMELA HARTZBANDThe Obama administration is working with Congress to mandate that all Medicare payments be tied to "quality metrics." But an analysis of this drive for better health care reveals a fundamental flaw in how quality is defined and metrics applied. In too many cases, the quality measures have been hastily adopted, only to be proven wrong and even potentially dangerous to patients.
Health-policy planners define quality as clinical practice that conforms to consensus guidelines written by experts. The guidelines present specific metrics for physicians to meet, thus "quality metrics." Since 2003, the federal government has piloted Medicare projects at more than 260 hospitals to reward physicians and institutions that meet quality metrics. The program is called "pay-for-performance." Many private insurers are following suit with similar incentive programs.
In Massachusetts, there are not only carrots but also sticks; physicians who fail to comply with quality guidelines from certain state-based insurers are publicly discredited and their patients required to pay up to three times as much out of pocket to see them. Unfortunately, many states are considering the Massachusetts model for their local insurance.
How did we get here? Initially, the quality improvement initiatives focused on patient safety and public-health measures. The hospital was seen as a large factory where systems needed to be standardized to prevent avoidable errors. A shocking degree of sloppiness existed with respect to hand washing, for example, and this largely has been remedied with implementation of standardized protocols. Similarly, the risk of infection when inserting an intravenous catheter has fallen sharply since doctors and nurses now abide by guidelines. Buoyed by these successes, governmental and private insurance regulators now have overreached. They've turned clinical guidelines for complex diseases into iron-clad rules, to deleterious effect.
One key quality measure in the ICU became the level of blood sugar in critically ill patients. Expert panels reviewed data on whether ICU patients should have insulin therapy adjusted to tightly control their blood sugar, keeping it within the normal range, or whether a more flexible approach, allowing some elevation of sugar, was permissible. Expert consensus endorsed tight control, and this approach was embedded in guidelines from the American Diabetes Association. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which generates report cards on hospitals, and governmental and private insurers that pay for care, adopted as a suggested quality metric this tight control of blood sugar.
A colleague who works in an ICU in a medical center in our state told us how his care of the critically ill is closely monitored. If his patients have blood sugars that rise above the metric, he must attend what he calls "re-education sessions" where he is pointedly lectured on the need to adhere to the rule. If he does not strictly comply, his hospital will be downgraded on its quality rating and risks financial loss. His status on the faculty is also at risk should he be seen as delivering low-quality care.
But this coercive approach was turned on its head last month when the New England Journal of Medicine published a randomized study, by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, of more than 6,000 critically ill patients in the ICU. Half of the patients received insulin to tightly maintain their sugar in the normal range, and the other half were on a more flexible protocol, allowing higher sugar levels. More patients died in the tightly regulated group than those cared for with the flexible protocol.
It gets worse. read the full article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914878625199185.html
Thursday, April 9, 2009
And you thought he was a Socialist!
From the National Center for Policy Analysis. I urge you to subscribe to their e-newsletter at www.ncpa.org.
OBAMA'S MOVES A STEP TOWARD FASCISM
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declared last week that some banks will receive huge amounts of new government Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money even if they don't want it. President Obama, Geithner, et al. tell us they do not want to run companies. But when they fire chief executives, install new ones, remake boards of directors and force mergers, that is exactly what they are doing, says Steve Stanek, a research fellow with the Heartland Institute.
Geithner's announcement that his agency is conducting "stress tests" that could force banks to take more federal money comes just a week after leaders of the nation's largest banks met with Obama and told him they want to pay back the TARP money they have already received, not take more of it.
Last week, he announced he would decide, apparently with no firm guidelines, which companies -- including nonfinancial firms -- could pose "systemic risk" to the financial system; such a designation would give the government unprecedented powers to inject itself into any business it chooses, says Stanek.
All of us -- not just corporate executives and shareholders -- should be shocked and frightened by these actions, says Stanek:
The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to appropriate money, yet trillions of dollars have been spent, borrowed and committed in the form of various guarantees without congressional approval.
The Constitution also blocks the government from interfering in private contracts; various court rulings since the 1930s have weakened the protections, and now the executive branch is shredding them.
In addition to recent attacks on (admittedly unjustifiable) contractual bonuses at American International Group, the administration has recently moved to impose unjustifiable mortgage "cram downs" that require lenders to rework loans.
These recent actions amount to a fundamental move away from individual rights and toward state corporatism -- better known as fascism, says Stanek.
Source: Steve Stanek, "Obama's moves a step toward fascism," Chicago Sun-Times, April 4, 2009.
For text:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1510990,CST-EDT-open04c.article
For more on Economic Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=17
OBAMA'S MOVES A STEP TOWARD FASCISM
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declared last week that some banks will receive huge amounts of new government Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money even if they don't want it. President Obama, Geithner, et al. tell us they do not want to run companies. But when they fire chief executives, install new ones, remake boards of directors and force mergers, that is exactly what they are doing, says Steve Stanek, a research fellow with the Heartland Institute.
Geithner's announcement that his agency is conducting "stress tests" that could force banks to take more federal money comes just a week after leaders of the nation's largest banks met with Obama and told him they want to pay back the TARP money they have already received, not take more of it.
Last week, he announced he would decide, apparently with no firm guidelines, which companies -- including nonfinancial firms -- could pose "systemic risk" to the financial system; such a designation would give the government unprecedented powers to inject itself into any business it chooses, says Stanek.
All of us -- not just corporate executives and shareholders -- should be shocked and frightened by these actions, says Stanek:
The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to appropriate money, yet trillions of dollars have been spent, borrowed and committed in the form of various guarantees without congressional approval.
The Constitution also blocks the government from interfering in private contracts; various court rulings since the 1930s have weakened the protections, and now the executive branch is shredding them.
In addition to recent attacks on (admittedly unjustifiable) contractual bonuses at American International Group, the administration has recently moved to impose unjustifiable mortgage "cram downs" that require lenders to rework loans.
These recent actions amount to a fundamental move away from individual rights and toward state corporatism -- better known as fascism, says Stanek.
Source: Steve Stanek, "Obama's moves a step toward fascism," Chicago Sun-Times, April 4, 2009.
For text:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1510990,CST-EDT-open04c.article
For more on Economic Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=17
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Records of the Holocaust
When President Obama sits down "without preconditions" with the guys in Iran who wants to murder every Jew in Israel, and denies the Holocaust, it would only be polite to give him a gift to cement the friendship. I suggest an iPod with this clip about the German records of the Holocaust. Shows survivers of the death camps reading their records as children. Very powerful.
Of course, according to the left, "War is not the Answer." So we should have left Hitler alone. He wasn't going to invade us. Not right away.
(Sorry it starts with a short commercial.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2274705n
Of course, according to the left, "War is not the Answer." So we should have left Hitler alone. He wasn't going to invade us. Not right away.
(Sorry it starts with a short commercial.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2274705n
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Music for Conservatives
Enjoy:
Til the last shot's fired (Wounded Warrior Project)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0mm4u2VzDs&feature=player_embedded
Where have you gone, Mr. Jefferson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUBIJCXz9M8
Two Trillion Bucks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRKVv98sh0M
Freedom Never Cries
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/706270
Jazz for Conservatives
http://kathleensings.com/socialism.html
Til the last shot's fired (Wounded Warrior Project)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0mm4u2VzDs&feature=player_embedded
Where have you gone, Mr. Jefferson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUBIJCXz9M8
Two Trillion Bucks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRKVv98sh0M
Freedom Never Cries
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/706270
Jazz for Conservatives
http://kathleensings.com/socialism.html
Monday, April 6, 2009
Democrats work to keep poor kids poor--and voting Democrat
Another interesting short article from the National Center for Policy Analysis. Subscribe at www.ncpa.org.
DEMOCRATS AND POOR KIDS
Education Secretary Arne Duncan did a public service last week when he visited New York City and spoke up for charter schools and mayoral control of education. That was the reformer talking. The status quo Duncan was on display last month when he let Congress kill a District of Columbia voucher program even as he was sitting on evidence of its success, says the Wall Street Journal.
In New York City with its 1.1 million students, mayoral control has resulted in better test scores and graduation rates, while expanding charter schools, which means more and better education choices for low-income families. But mayoral control expires in June unless state lawmakers renew it, and the United Federation of Teachers is working with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to weaken or kill it.
Duncan's help in New York is in stark contrast to his department's decision to sit on a performance review of the D.C. voucher program while Congress debated its future in March, says the Journal. The latest annual evaluation was finally released Friday, and it shows measurable academic gains:
The Opportunity Scholarship Program provides $7,500 vouchers to 1,700 low-income families in D.C. to send their children to private schools.
Ninety-nine percent of the children are black or Hispanic, and there are more than four applicants for each scholarship.
The 2008 report demonstrated progress among certain subgroups of children but not everyone. This year's report shows statistically significant academic gains for the entire voucher-receiving population:
Children attending private schools with the aid of the scholarships are reading nearly a half-grade ahead of their peers who did not receive vouchers.
Voucher recipients are doing no better in math but they're doing no worse; which means that no voucher participant is in worse academic shape than before, and many students are much better off.
The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lie beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs, says the Journal.
Source: Editorial, "Democrats and Poor Kids; Sitting on evidence of voucher success, and the battle of New York," Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2009.
For text:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123897492702491091.html
DEMOCRATS AND POOR KIDS
Education Secretary Arne Duncan did a public service last week when he visited New York City and spoke up for charter schools and mayoral control of education. That was the reformer talking. The status quo Duncan was on display last month when he let Congress kill a District of Columbia voucher program even as he was sitting on evidence of its success, says the Wall Street Journal.
In New York City with its 1.1 million students, mayoral control has resulted in better test scores and graduation rates, while expanding charter schools, which means more and better education choices for low-income families. But mayoral control expires in June unless state lawmakers renew it, and the United Federation of Teachers is working with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to weaken or kill it.
Duncan's help in New York is in stark contrast to his department's decision to sit on a performance review of the D.C. voucher program while Congress debated its future in March, says the Journal. The latest annual evaluation was finally released Friday, and it shows measurable academic gains:
The Opportunity Scholarship Program provides $7,500 vouchers to 1,700 low-income families in D.C. to send their children to private schools.
Ninety-nine percent of the children are black or Hispanic, and there are more than four applicants for each scholarship.
The 2008 report demonstrated progress among certain subgroups of children but not everyone. This year's report shows statistically significant academic gains for the entire voucher-receiving population:
Children attending private schools with the aid of the scholarships are reading nearly a half-grade ahead of their peers who did not receive vouchers.
Voucher recipients are doing no better in math but they're doing no worse; which means that no voucher participant is in worse academic shape than before, and many students are much better off.
The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lie beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs, says the Journal.
Source: Editorial, "Democrats and Poor Kids; Sitting on evidence of voucher success, and the battle of New York," Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2009.
For text:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123897492702491091.html
Eulogy for a professor...and Western Civilization
This was sent to me by Del, a Marine buddy. His comments are below. It is well worth reading.
It's a eulogy for Professor Gerry Kelebay, but also for freedom of thought and the very concept of the University. And for Western Civilization. ~Bob
http://www.ebireflections.com/?vol=001_vol&iss=002_issue§ion=02_politics&item=02_politics.htm#id02_politics
Bob, that piece is in fact more depressing than anything else as far as I am concerned. It provides that nice, sharp picture of Western Civilization on this side of the old Iron Curtain being well on its way to cultural suicide, while the old communist countries have had their original societies so damaged by the two generations of corrupt communist rule that they no longer have the strengths and virtues of their past.
Aggressive secularism (or "godlessness" if one prefers more dramatic terms) eventually leads to a lot of the population substituting a value system based entirely on self instead of on their former Judao-Christian ideals. Once a large fraction of the people are looking out for themselves only, with few compunctions about how they do it, things pretty much go to hell because there isn't a social compact anymore to really hold things together. When not enough people are willing to subordinate themselves to the greater good, there is little chance of their being any greater good.
Hence, the all time superb quote from Burke- "All that is necessary for the victory of evil is for enough men to do nothing". He doesn't say "for enough bad men to take over" because if enough people don't fight the evil, it doesn't take very many bad people to turn everything into an unholy mess. Lenin taught that you could take over any society with 3% of the population, if they were armed, organized, and ruthless.
Even if you don't have that 3% organized, if enough people don't or can't resist, maybe nobody takes over society, but it just degenerates into chaos. With regional strongmen ruling their little fiefdoms. Somalia with the warlords is a good example. It's back to barbarism, but with armored vehicles, radio communications, and an AK-47 for everybody.
The underpinnings of our society have been undergoing erosion and sabotage for at least 30 years now, and we have been badly weakened. There's still a solid core of good people with good values, but the political process has been corrupted, the media has been perverted, and a great deal of the educational system is dysfunctional or worse, promoting the sabotage.
All is not lost yet, but we sure are at risk. We can only hope and work towards an awakening of that core that will finally sweep enough of the craven and corrupt politicians out of office that a rebirth of common sense and real leadership will help us start climbing out of the hole that we've been dug into over these decades.
God Help America
Del
It's a eulogy for Professor Gerry Kelebay, but also for freedom of thought and the very concept of the University. And for Western Civilization. ~Bob
http://www.ebireflections.com/?vol=001_vol&iss=002_issue§ion=02_politics&item=02_politics.htm#id02_politics
Bob, that piece is in fact more depressing than anything else as far as I am concerned. It provides that nice, sharp picture of Western Civilization on this side of the old Iron Curtain being well on its way to cultural suicide, while the old communist countries have had their original societies so damaged by the two generations of corrupt communist rule that they no longer have the strengths and virtues of their past.
Aggressive secularism (or "godlessness" if one prefers more dramatic terms) eventually leads to a lot of the population substituting a value system based entirely on self instead of on their former Judao-Christian ideals. Once a large fraction of the people are looking out for themselves only, with few compunctions about how they do it, things pretty much go to hell because there isn't a social compact anymore to really hold things together. When not enough people are willing to subordinate themselves to the greater good, there is little chance of their being any greater good.
Hence, the all time superb quote from Burke- "All that is necessary for the victory of evil is for enough men to do nothing". He doesn't say "for enough bad men to take over" because if enough people don't fight the evil, it doesn't take very many bad people to turn everything into an unholy mess. Lenin taught that you could take over any society with 3% of the population, if they were armed, organized, and ruthless.
Even if you don't have that 3% organized, if enough people don't or can't resist, maybe nobody takes over society, but it just degenerates into chaos. With regional strongmen ruling their little fiefdoms. Somalia with the warlords is a good example. It's back to barbarism, but with armored vehicles, radio communications, and an AK-47 for everybody.
The underpinnings of our society have been undergoing erosion and sabotage for at least 30 years now, and we have been badly weakened. There's still a solid core of good people with good values, but the political process has been corrupted, the media has been perverted, and a great deal of the educational system is dysfunctional or worse, promoting the sabotage.
All is not lost yet, but we sure are at risk. We can only hope and work towards an awakening of that core that will finally sweep enough of the craven and corrupt politicians out of office that a rebirth of common sense and real leadership will help us start climbing out of the hole that we've been dug into over these decades.
God Help America
Del
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Banks not allowed to pay back taxpayers?
One of the most frightening things I've read. According to this article, President Obama is refusing to allow the banks to repay the taxpayer money they were lent, in order to keep control of the banks.
If it's not the case that this administration wants the government to control every aspect of the economy, as the Soviets tried to do and failed, then the President better explain immediately why the taxpayers shouldn't be paid back whenever possible for the billions we've poured into what used to be private companies.
Things like this make me believe that those who claim Obama wants a completely Soviet-style controlled economy are not fringe kooks. Certainly, he feeds the paranoia.
http://online.wsj.com:80/article/SB123879833094588163.html
If it's not the case that this administration wants the government to control every aspect of the economy, as the Soviets tried to do and failed, then the President better explain immediately why the taxpayers shouldn't be paid back whenever possible for the billions we've poured into what used to be private companies.
Things like this make me believe that those who claim Obama wants a completely Soviet-style controlled economy are not fringe kooks. Certainly, he feeds the paranoia.
http://online.wsj.com:80/article/SB123879833094588163.html
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Poetry Blog
I have a colleage and friend, Russ, who is a thoughtful liberal, with whom I often exchange political barbs. Russ and I share a love of traditional poetry. He writes moving, well-crafted sonnets and some blank verse that is very like Robert Frost (whom we both admire). I recommend his poetry to you--you can't get his quality verse and poetic craftmanship very often in this time of zero standards.
Russ has started a blog for writers of traditional, or "bound school" poetry, to which he kindly lets me post my efforts as well. If you are into such, you may want to visit:
http://tenniswiththenetup.blogspot.com/
He explains the name on the blog.
What made me think to post that here was receiving my April, 09 issue of Leatherneck, the Magazine for Marines, which published one of my poems, below. I haven't posted it on Tennis With The Net Up, as it has too strong a political point.
Vietnam Vets
A generation that was split
Twixt those who served and those who spit
On service, flag and country now
Grows gray and makes a peace somehow.
Our hearts are seldom filled with calm,
For memories of Vietnam
Will pulse with every beat until
The day those hearts grow cold and still.
We smile across the breech and yet,
The men who served cannot forget.
For tears may dry and bones may heal,
And memory grow less raw and real--
But comradeship still plays its part,
And scars still linger on the heart.
Our eyes tell them we’ve not forgot
That we were there—and they were not.
We watch our comrades fade away,
And know that honor had its day,
And could we now, we’d serve again.
We know who were the better men.
Robert A. Hall
Former SSgt, USMC
Russ has started a blog for writers of traditional, or "bound school" poetry, to which he kindly lets me post my efforts as well. If you are into such, you may want to visit:
http://tenniswiththenetup.blogspot.com/
He explains the name on the blog.
What made me think to post that here was receiving my April, 09 issue of Leatherneck, the Magazine for Marines, which published one of my poems, below. I haven't posted it on Tennis With The Net Up, as it has too strong a political point.
Vietnam Vets
A generation that was split
Twixt those who served and those who spit
On service, flag and country now
Grows gray and makes a peace somehow.
Our hearts are seldom filled with calm,
For memories of Vietnam
Will pulse with every beat until
The day those hearts grow cold and still.
We smile across the breech and yet,
The men who served cannot forget.
For tears may dry and bones may heal,
And memory grow less raw and real--
But comradeship still plays its part,
And scars still linger on the heart.
Our eyes tell them we’ve not forgot
That we were there—and they were not.
We watch our comrades fade away,
And know that honor had its day,
And could we now, we’d serve again.
We know who were the better men.
Robert A. Hall
Former SSgt, USMC
Friday, April 3, 2009
Hypocrisy
This was sent to me by a friend and fellow Marine vet. I post it with his permission. ~Bob
I love it. Boston College students invite Bill Ayers, proud anti-American and hotshot socialist professor that he is, to speak at the college. The family of the police officer that was killed by one of Bill's fun group of communist-loving domestic terrorists reacts, and many family members (in the hundreds) of Boston police officers announce their intention to exercise free speech and come to the lecture in protest. The college reconsiders this, decides it's smarter to show respect for the local community and the family of the murdered officer, and cancels the public presentation. It is rescheduled as a private affair for interested college faculty and students only.
While this is still a bit of an affront to all those who know Ayers to be a "social activist" who despises this country while luxuriating in the benefits of living here, it's not a totally unreasonable resolution of the situation. That the students want to hear him is a sad thing as far as many of us are concerned, but it is a free country.
But here's the good part-Ayers is incensed!
The Boston Globe quotes him as saying, "It's kind of a shameful thing to the administration because one can certainly understand why in Saudi Arabia or Serbia or China why speakers would be canceled for a variety of reasons," he said. "But in the US, in a democracy, that doesn't make sense."
He then compared the reactions of BC administrators to giving in to a mob mentality, saying "Let's say the mob gathers outside the gate at BC and demands that they teach astrology, or creationism, or that the world is flat," said Ayers. "Should they then give in to the mob and teach those things? Absolutely not. So why should they do that with this?"
The fact that he is still coming to speak to those who want to hear him (and getting paid to do it) seems to escape him entirely. That the school has a perfect right to choose who will come to speak there as a guest or paid lecturer, and can make that decision based on whatever criteria they like, escapes him. That no Black college (or probably any other) will be inviting David Duke or an American Nazi to speak there will never register with him. Where was Ayers when William Shockley tried to speak at Yale years ago about his theories on race and was shouted down and driven from the podium, or more recently when a Moslem woman who was trying to describe the downside of fundamentalist Islam for women was also shouted down and driven from a college stage?
Apparently those incidents did not arouse his ire or move him to protest the outright silencing of those speakers. That must be due to his omniscient understanding of what is rightful speech and what speech cannot be tolerated.
In the very few parts of the gospels where Christ is condemnatory of anyone, it is the hypocrites that he rails at. Bill Ayers could show those Scribes and Pharisees a thing or two about hypocrisy.
Del
I love it. Boston College students invite Bill Ayers, proud anti-American and hotshot socialist professor that he is, to speak at the college. The family of the police officer that was killed by one of Bill's fun group of communist-loving domestic terrorists reacts, and many family members (in the hundreds) of Boston police officers announce their intention to exercise free speech and come to the lecture in protest. The college reconsiders this, decides it's smarter to show respect for the local community and the family of the murdered officer, and cancels the public presentation. It is rescheduled as a private affair for interested college faculty and students only.
While this is still a bit of an affront to all those who know Ayers to be a "social activist" who despises this country while luxuriating in the benefits of living here, it's not a totally unreasonable resolution of the situation. That the students want to hear him is a sad thing as far as many of us are concerned, but it is a free country.
But here's the good part-Ayers is incensed!
The Boston Globe quotes him as saying, "It's kind of a shameful thing to the administration because one can certainly understand why in Saudi Arabia or Serbia or China why speakers would be canceled for a variety of reasons," he said. "But in the US, in a democracy, that doesn't make sense."
He then compared the reactions of BC administrators to giving in to a mob mentality, saying "Let's say the mob gathers outside the gate at BC and demands that they teach astrology, or creationism, or that the world is flat," said Ayers. "Should they then give in to the mob and teach those things? Absolutely not. So why should they do that with this?"
The fact that he is still coming to speak to those who want to hear him (and getting paid to do it) seems to escape him entirely. That the school has a perfect right to choose who will come to speak there as a guest or paid lecturer, and can make that decision based on whatever criteria they like, escapes him. That no Black college (or probably any other) will be inviting David Duke or an American Nazi to speak there will never register with him. Where was Ayers when William Shockley tried to speak at Yale years ago about his theories on race and was shouted down and driven from the podium, or more recently when a Moslem woman who was trying to describe the downside of fundamentalist Islam for women was also shouted down and driven from a college stage?
Apparently those incidents did not arouse his ire or move him to protest the outright silencing of those speakers. That must be due to his omniscient understanding of what is rightful speech and what speech cannot be tolerated.
In the very few parts of the gospels where Christ is condemnatory of anyone, it is the hypocrites that he rails at. Bill Ayers could show those Scribes and Pharisees a thing or two about hypocrisy.
Del
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
A Religion of Peace?
The Evidence for March 2009
I thought this might be instructive for those who believe that violence and hatred from Muslims is created by a “tiny minority of extremists” who have “hijacked a religion of peace,” and that true Islam is “tolerant.”
Below are just the stories that came to me in this one month. Dates are when I saw the story, not necessarily when it happened. Having a full time job, I didn’t spend a lot of time searching. I’m sure there are many more.
I thought this might be instructive for those who believe that violence and hatred from Muslims is created by a “tiny minority of extremists” who have “hijacked a religion of peace,” and that true Islam is “tolerant.”
Below are just the stories that came to me in this one month. Dates are when I saw the story, not necessarily when it happened. Having a full time job, I didn’t spend a lot of time searching. I’m sure there are many more.
The picture above is of a 43 year old Muslim cleric, and his second wife, a 12-year-old child. He has been charged with child abuse in Indonesia, but Muslims are protesting, because Shari'a law allows marriage at age 9, based on the perfect example of the Prophet. See the story under March 18th.
If you can’t read all the stories, just read the headlines and think about it. One can hardly wait to see what hate and death this "Religion of Peace” gives the world in April.
Want to learn more? View this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-871902797772997781
Subscribe to the e-newsletter on http://www.jihadwatch.com/. It's free—but scary.
Read this website: http://thereligionofpeace.com/. It keeps a more extensive list of recent jihadists attacks than what I’ve gathered, below.
And yet another good source for what’s happening across the world:
http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/
March 1, 2009
Kassam rockets continue to hit Negev
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410732719&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Islamic hate-preacher gets OK to march in London calling for the implementation of Sharia
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025059.php
Missile threat to British troops
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5822094.ece
March 2
Ten years in prison for murdering 45 innocent people
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jS8Cg0JoxeazNJFwAMTMfnWI3Osw
Six killed in Pishin girls’ madrassa suicide blast
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\03\03\story_3-3-2009_pg1_6
Obama Security Breached: Schematics for ‘Marine One’ Found at Iranian IP Address
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025072.php
Pakistani kidnappers set latest deadline to kill American
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=70154
Yemeni Jew killer deemed unfit for trial
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235898324041&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
March 3
Bulgaria MP Yanev: Numerous Southern Villages Are Converted to Islam by Force
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=101658
Pakistan Attack on Cricket Team Leaves 5 Police Dead
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agNpf4qdFAyE&refer=
March 4
Pakistan: Young couple in hiding after tribal court sentences them to death
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?name=News&file=article&sid=3417
Jordan: Teenager murders 30 year-old sister over alleged affair
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025095.php
Norway: Muslim girls beaten for not wearing the hijab
http://europenews.dk/en/node/20590
March 5
Taliban blow up Pakistan music shops
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hBMCt5YhEC4hRzH2UqzEI1FKHoOg
Former Muslim bakery leader allegedly brags in jail about journalist killing
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_11842728?source=emailLiam1304
M'sian man fights baby's secret conversion to Islam
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20090305-126458.html
Muslims attack Christian community in Punjab
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14650&size=A
Explosion in a Pakistan mosque wounds over 30
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1980699&Language=en
March 6
Egyptian cleric: The Jews "are enemies not because they occupied Palestine. They would have been enemies even if they did not occupy a thing."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025130.php
Daily Mail removes reference to Muslim husband telling his wife to read the Qur'an as he strangled her
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025128.php
Militants bomb ancient shrine in Pakistan (Militants? Presbyterians, no doubt!)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29528251/
March 7
Fear of death stalks women in Swat
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/fear-of-death-stalks-women-in-swat-ha
Iran: ICC warrant for mass-murdering Sudanese president insult to Muslims
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025134.php
March 8
Muslim Cop Beats Up Home-less Man, Claims Islamophobia
http://europenews.dk/en/node/20816
Egypt: Rumors of Muslim girl involved with Christian boy erupt into violence and death
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025145.php
Iraq suicide cyclist kills 28 in Baghdad
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jKyBx-sxJaZYnh07KQpA41erRdPQ
Davis Cup, pro-arab anti-israeli demonstration, riots and hate
http://tedekeroth.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/davis-cup-pro-arabic-anti-israeli-demonstration-riots-and-hate/
Two Buddhists killed in Thai Muslim south
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSBKK466416
March 9
Women and children bear scars of most acid attacks
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=277431&version=1&template_id=44&parent_id=24
Saudis order 40 lashes for elderly woman (75) for mingling
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/09/saudi.arabia.lashes/index.html?eref=edition
Afghanistan: Court upholds (20-year) jail term for 'blasphemous' reporter
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=3.0.3085587696
March 10
Egyptian Christian Burned Alive; Father Murdered Also
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025179.php
Pakistan: One Woman Dead In Attack On Christians
Would-be rapist instigates attack in response to charges leveled against him.
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=short&idelement=5844&backpage=summaries
Libya Tortures Four Christian Converts From Islam
http://www.aina.org/news/2009039174117.htm
UK jihadists used welfare and earthquake relief money to finance jihad
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025165.php
March 11
9/11 defendants: "We ask to be near to God, we fight you and destroy you and terrorize you. The Jihad in god's cause is a great duty in our religion."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025198.php
Pakistani jihadi organization targeting U.S.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025193.php
Sudanese Lecturer Demands Fatwa Allowing ICC Prosecutor's Killing
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/14481.htm
March 12
A BRITISH mother of two is being held in jail after being found guilty of adultery - for having a cup of tea with a male friend.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25177107-954,00.html
Canadian given 10-year sentence for UK bomb plot
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090312/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_terror_sentence
Dutch authorities foil terrorist attack
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025214.php
Honor killing in Germany: Girl's face "beaten beyond recognition
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025203.php
Extortion, Guns and Visa Fraud
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=326250&paper=59&cat=104
March 13
Man who beheaded wife pleads "innocent"
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stbehe0314,0,4443778.story
FBI tracking jihad recruiting in Minneapolis
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025218.php
Libya “Detains” And “Tortures” Four Christians For Leaving Islam, Group Says
http://www.worthynews.com/5195-libya-detains-and-tortures-four-christian-for-leaving-islam
March 14
Make Every Woman Wear A Burkha
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/89222/-Make-every-woman-wear-a-burkha
8-year-old girl is shot at in MP for spraying colours on a (Muslim) man
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=3&contentid=200903122009031203014107514bea34
"Martyrs' Trilogy," memoirs of Bali attackers exalted as heroes
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14704&size=A
Iraqi footballer shot dead by fan (not, apparently in the name of Allah, but indicative)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7944919.stm
A mild-mannered English teacher tried to kill his sister and continued to issue threats of violence even while in prison for an earlier threat. He says it's because he's a Muslim.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025233.php
March 15
If you can’t read all the stories, just read the headlines and think about it. One can hardly wait to see what hate and death this "Religion of Peace” gives the world in April.
Want to learn more? View this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-871902797772997781
Subscribe to the e-newsletter on http://www.jihadwatch.com/. It's free—but scary.
Read this website: http://thereligionofpeace.com/. It keeps a more extensive list of recent jihadists attacks than what I’ve gathered, below.
And yet another good source for what’s happening across the world:
http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/
March 1, 2009
Kassam rockets continue to hit Negev
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410732719&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Islamic hate-preacher gets OK to march in London calling for the implementation of Sharia
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025059.php
Missile threat to British troops
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5822094.ece
March 2
Ten years in prison for murdering 45 innocent people
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jS8Cg0JoxeazNJFwAMTMfnWI3Osw
Six killed in Pishin girls’ madrassa suicide blast
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\03\03\story_3-3-2009_pg1_6
Obama Security Breached: Schematics for ‘Marine One’ Found at Iranian IP Address
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025072.php
Pakistani kidnappers set latest deadline to kill American
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=70154
Yemeni Jew killer deemed unfit for trial
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235898324041&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
March 3
Bulgaria MP Yanev: Numerous Southern Villages Are Converted to Islam by Force
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=101658
Pakistan Attack on Cricket Team Leaves 5 Police Dead
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agNpf4qdFAyE&refer=
March 4
Pakistan: Young couple in hiding after tribal court sentences them to death
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?name=News&file=article&sid=3417
Jordan: Teenager murders 30 year-old sister over alleged affair
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025095.php
Norway: Muslim girls beaten for not wearing the hijab
http://europenews.dk/en/node/20590
March 5
Taliban blow up Pakistan music shops
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hBMCt5YhEC4hRzH2UqzEI1FKHoOg
Former Muslim bakery leader allegedly brags in jail about journalist killing
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_11842728?source=emailLiam1304
M'sian man fights baby's secret conversion to Islam
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20090305-126458.html
Muslims attack Christian community in Punjab
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14650&size=A
Explosion in a Pakistan mosque wounds over 30
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1980699&Language=en
March 6
Egyptian cleric: The Jews "are enemies not because they occupied Palestine. They would have been enemies even if they did not occupy a thing."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025130.php
Daily Mail removes reference to Muslim husband telling his wife to read the Qur'an as he strangled her
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025128.php
Militants bomb ancient shrine in Pakistan (Militants? Presbyterians, no doubt!)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29528251/
March 7
Fear of death stalks women in Swat
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/fear-of-death-stalks-women-in-swat-ha
Iran: ICC warrant for mass-murdering Sudanese president insult to Muslims
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025134.php
March 8
Muslim Cop Beats Up Home-less Man, Claims Islamophobia
http://europenews.dk/en/node/20816
Egypt: Rumors of Muslim girl involved with Christian boy erupt into violence and death
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025145.php
Iraq suicide cyclist kills 28 in Baghdad
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jKyBx-sxJaZYnh07KQpA41erRdPQ
Davis Cup, pro-arab anti-israeli demonstration, riots and hate
http://tedekeroth.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/davis-cup-pro-arabic-anti-israeli-demonstration-riots-and-hate/
Two Buddhists killed in Thai Muslim south
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSBKK466416
March 9
Women and children bear scars of most acid attacks
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=277431&version=1&template_id=44&parent_id=24
Saudis order 40 lashes for elderly woman (75) for mingling
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/09/saudi.arabia.lashes/index.html?eref=edition
Afghanistan: Court upholds (20-year) jail term for 'blasphemous' reporter
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=3.0.3085587696
March 10
Egyptian Christian Burned Alive; Father Murdered Also
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025179.php
Pakistan: One Woman Dead In Attack On Christians
Would-be rapist instigates attack in response to charges leveled against him.
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=short&idelement=5844&backpage=summaries
Libya Tortures Four Christian Converts From Islam
http://www.aina.org/news/2009039174117.htm
UK jihadists used welfare and earthquake relief money to finance jihad
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025165.php
March 11
9/11 defendants: "We ask to be near to God, we fight you and destroy you and terrorize you. The Jihad in god's cause is a great duty in our religion."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025198.php
Pakistani jihadi organization targeting U.S.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025193.php
Sudanese Lecturer Demands Fatwa Allowing ICC Prosecutor's Killing
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/14481.htm
March 12
A BRITISH mother of two is being held in jail after being found guilty of adultery - for having a cup of tea with a male friend.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25177107-954,00.html
Canadian given 10-year sentence for UK bomb plot
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090312/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_terror_sentence
Dutch authorities foil terrorist attack
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025214.php
Honor killing in Germany: Girl's face "beaten beyond recognition
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025203.php
Extortion, Guns and Visa Fraud
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=326250&paper=59&cat=104
March 13
Man who beheaded wife pleads "innocent"
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stbehe0314,0,4443778.story
FBI tracking jihad recruiting in Minneapolis
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025218.php
Libya “Detains” And “Tortures” Four Christians For Leaving Islam, Group Says
http://www.worthynews.com/5195-libya-detains-and-tortures-four-christian-for-leaving-islam
March 14
Make Every Woman Wear A Burkha
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/89222/-Make-every-woman-wear-a-burkha
8-year-old girl is shot at in MP for spraying colours on a (Muslim) man
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=3&contentid=200903122009031203014107514bea34
"Martyrs' Trilogy," memoirs of Bali attackers exalted as heroes
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14704&size=A
Iraqi footballer shot dead by fan (not, apparently in the name of Allah, but indicative)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7944919.stm
A mild-mannered English teacher tried to kill his sister and continued to issue threats of violence even while in prison for an earlier threat. He says it's because he's a Muslim.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025233.php
March 15
(Wonder if these are the “moderate Taliban the administrations wants to work with?)
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/afghan.taliban.threat/index.html?eref=edition
Two Israelis murdered in jihad terror attack, moderate Fatah takes responsibility
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025250.php
Minister beaten after clashing with Muslims on his TV show
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162039/Minister-beaten-clashing-Muslims-TV-show.html
March 16
Muslim blames American culture for beheading
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/03/muslim-blames-american-culture-for.html
Tourists blown up as they admire sunset in Shibam, Yemen
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25192366-401,00.html
Thousands of girls in Britain have suffered genital mutilation
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025256.php
UK: Imam's daughter converted to Christianity, and her father came after her with an axe
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025255.php
March 17
Pakistan: "The Taliban have ordered the killing of women seen in market areas"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025273.php
Islamists kill five people in Algeria
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j9prZeurLKNTYKAiqXMs4CJuzmUw
March 18
Had to add some context to today’s stories!
Brutal Murder of Ahmadi Muslim Husband and Wife In Pakistan
The deceased, Dr Shiraz Ahmad Bajwa and Dr Noreen Bajwa were husband and wife and were both trained as doctors. The assailants first taped together the hands, feet and mouths of both victims. They then tied rope around their necks and strangled them to death. Dr Shiraz and Dr Noreen were expecting their first child.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/brutal-murder-ahmadi-muslim-husband-wife-pakistan/
Muslim Cleric Arrested for Molesting Child Bride
(Jakarta, Indonesia) Last August, a 43-year-old Muslim cleric, Pujiono Cahyo Widianto (aka Sheik Puji), married 12-year-old junior high school student Lutfiana Ulfa (pic) as his second wife. http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/196868.php
New York: "Man" convicted of conspiracy to murder Americans
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025296.php
Two out of three serious teenage criminals are children of parents born outside the Netherlands. In most cases, no prison sentence is imposed. (Guess it would be “Islamophobic.)
http://www.nisnews.nl/public/180309_1.htm
March 19
"Fundamentalist elements" suspected in torching of music school in Jenin
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025300.php
No more safe at home, Pak Hindus flee to India
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/18sld1-hindu-families-face-the-heat.htm
'Your temple is a threat to our religion'
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/18sld2-hindu-families-face-the-heat.htm
March 20
Hamas: We may be "forced" to kidnap more Israeli soldiers
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237461634849&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Iranian Extremists Threaten to Kill 3 Ex-Muslim Pastors
http://christianpost.com/Intl/Persecution/2009/03/iranian-extremists-threaten-to-kill-3-ex-muslim-pastors-20/index.html
Jordanian charged in threat to Jewish school
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/jordanian-accused-of-mailing-threatening-letter-to-jewish-school.html
Taliban threatens to behead founder of jihadist website
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025328.php
Somali Islamists behead two sheikhs – group
(And three elderly women—but that doesn’t count. Women are property in Islam.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSLK425430
Brother of girls murdered in honor killing threatens to kill their aunt
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025319.php
March 21
Jordanian beats daughter to death for wearing makeup in 'honour' killing
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hwjvTpIchKrok25w73HCuTfNOKYA
Terrorist car bombing averted at Haifa mall
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237461637566&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
All homosexuals should be stoned to death, says Muslim preacher of hate
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163510/All-homosexuals-stoned-death-says-Muslim-preacher-hate.html
India says has proof Pakistan involved in Mumbai attacks
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/March/international_March1707.xml§ion=international
March 22
Pakistan: Woman set ablaze by husband dies, police fail to arrest husband
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168554
Report claims al-Qaeda can recruit in UK at street level
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2497079.0.report_claims_alqaeda_can_recruit_in_uk_at_street_level.php
Religious bullying and the mutual social control among young Muslim women in Danish educational institutions appears extensive.
http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2009/03/denmark-girls-supervise-each-other.html
Mother of three killed by brother
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168372
March 23
Pakistan: "Unidentified men" blow up school for girls
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025368.php
In Iraq, Chaos Feared as U.S. Closes Prison
Ex-Inmates Reanimate Sunni, Shiite Militias
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032102255.html
Yemeni Condemned to Death for Israel Contacts
http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=16151
Muslim moral police burn a girl alive in Ghaziabad
http://www.webnewswire.com/node/450416
March 24
Somalia: Islamists Destroy Graves (Not even dead Muslims are safe!)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903231600.html
Weapons found at Bangladesh Islamic school
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=72485
Four School Children Killed in Bomb Attack in Iraq's Mosul
http://english.cri.cn/6966/2009/03/25/2001s468194.htm
Hunted in Bangladesh... the terror suspect freed twice by courts in Britain
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164844/Hunted-Bangladesh--terror-suspect-freed-twice-courts-Britain.html
Spain: Press, Morocco Announces End To Gay Tolerance
http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ME03.@AM59231.html
Muslim militants issue new threat to behead Red Cross worker
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/261430,muslim-militants-issue-new-threat-to-behead-red-cross-worker.html
March 25
Villagers burn girl alive in 'honour killing'
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Villagers-burn-girl-alive-in.5103494.jp
Media help escalate honor killings, study reveals
In “Moderate” Turkey, the study also showed that 26.2 percent of the parents and 25.9 percent of the students said they support such killings.
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=170502&bolum=100
March 26
Muslim "Reformist": Muslim countries must have nukes in order to "strike terror in the hearts of the enemies"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025404.php
Afghan bomber accidentally blows up militants (The news isn’t ALL bad)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/27/2527452.htm?section=justin
In Loving Memory of Aqsa Parvez and All Victims of Honor Killings Worldwide
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025395.php
Former Maple Leaf employee charged in needles-in-meat case
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/03/27/guelph-meat.html
Suicide attack kills 48 at Pakistani mosque
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7967594.stm
More Muslim Pedophiles Arrested in Britain
http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/british-police-seem-to-go-to-no-end-to-tip-toe-around-muslim-crooks-and-pedophiles-on-march-27-2009-6-muslim-men-were-arres.html
March 27
Unreported World travels to Turkey to investigate honour killings, which have now reached record levels with more than 200 girls and women killed in the past year alone.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/episode-guide/series-2009/episode-3
Saudi cleric teaches boy to hate, curse Jews
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2061.htm
Filipino group with al-Qaeda ties threatens beheading
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/03/26/filipino-group-with-al-qaeda-ties-threatens-beheading/4626/
Qaeda says hit Koreans in Yemen over U.S. ties
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE52Q21L20090327
Women told: 'You have dishonoured your family, please kill yourself'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/women-told-you-have-dishonoured-your-family-please-kill-yourself-1655373.html
Rape victim converts to Islam to marry accused
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=NLetter&id=4564d4ad-4290-4163-a2e7-0aaf0de26557&Headline=Rape+victim+converts+to+Islam+to+marry+accused
March 28
Iran executes 16 year old girl for “crimes against chastity.”
http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/iran-execution-of-a-teenage-girl/
Saudi mufti okays marriage for 10 year old girls
http://www.alarabiya.net//articles/2009/01/15/64297.html
Pakistan: Christians Brace For Sharia in Swat Valley
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5858&backpage=summaries&critere=&countryname=&rowcur=
Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into U.S.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/27/hezbollah-uses-mexican-drug-routes-into-us/
Taliban militants in northern Pakistan are preventing 300,000 children from being vaccinated against polio, the World Health Organization says.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/27/Taliban_opposes_polio_vaccinations/UPI-16181238174110/
Teen army cadets in uniform targeted by vicious (muslim) thugs
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1165346/Teen-army-cadets-uniform-targeted-vicious-thugs-blamed-deaths.html
New York Muslim child: "Who are struck by Allah's wrath?" "The Jews"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025424.php
March 29
Wanted by International Criminal Court, Sudan's president gets lavish welcome at Arab League meeting in Qatar
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025436.php
Iranian missile experts in North Korea ahead of rocket launch
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25259115-601,00.html
Weapons flowing into Gaza
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237727570243&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Bloody clash in south Philippines
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7969474.stm
March 30
Pakistan: Army fights militants after storming police academy
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3154715690
UK Woman sentenced for jihad leaflet
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7972580.stm
In Iran, a case of eye for an eye
http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/03/30/03/1427-82/index.xml
Spain: Mother sentenced to 17 years for forced marriage. Family threatens to stone 14-year-old.
http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2009/03/spain-mother-sentenced-to-17-years-for.html
UK: Mother-in-law 'kept her sons' three wives locked up like slaves or dogs for 13 years'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166117/Mother-law-kept-sons-wives-locked-like-slaves-dogs-13-years.html
March 31
Latest Gitmo releasee: Al-Qaeda operative accused of taking part in anthrax plot
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025466.php
Hamid Karzai signs law 'legalising rape in marriage'
(Our ally upholds the Qur’an.)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5080797/Hamid-Karzai-signs-law-legalising-rape-in-marriage.html
Italy: Muslims try to blow up 14-century fresco
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025459.php
UK Muslim Taxi Driver Bludgeons Rider With Baseball Bat
http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/uk-muslim-taxi-driver-bludgeons-rider-with-baseball-bat-again.html
And we leave you with a wanted War Criminal, responsible for 300,000 dead, performing a Muslim pilgrimage in Islam's holiest city, Mecca.
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=10108339&nav=8H3x
It has come to this. Reporting the facts is now considered to be "hate speech" and "islamophobic." The UN is trying to outlaw reporting the truth or quoting from the Qur'an and the Hadith.
Brutal Murder of Ahmadi Muslim Husband and Wife In Pakistan
The deceased, Dr Shiraz Ahmad Bajwa and Dr Noreen Bajwa were husband and wife and were both trained as doctors. The assailants first taped together the hands, feet and mouths of both victims. They then tied rope around their necks and strangled them to death. Dr Shiraz and Dr Noreen were expecting their first child.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/brutal-murder-ahmadi-muslim-husband-wife-pakistan/
Muslim Cleric Arrested for Molesting Child Bride
(Jakarta, Indonesia) Last August, a 43-year-old Muslim cleric, Pujiono Cahyo Widianto (aka Sheik Puji), married 12-year-old junior high school student Lutfiana Ulfa (pic) as his second wife. http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/196868.php
New York: "Man" convicted of conspiracy to murder Americans
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025296.php
Two out of three serious teenage criminals are children of parents born outside the Netherlands. In most cases, no prison sentence is imposed. (Guess it would be “Islamophobic.)
http://www.nisnews.nl/public/180309_1.htm
March 19
"Fundamentalist elements" suspected in torching of music school in Jenin
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025300.php
No more safe at home, Pak Hindus flee to India
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/18sld1-hindu-families-face-the-heat.htm
'Your temple is a threat to our religion'
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/18sld2-hindu-families-face-the-heat.htm
March 20
Hamas: We may be "forced" to kidnap more Israeli soldiers
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237461634849&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Iranian Extremists Threaten to Kill 3 Ex-Muslim Pastors
http://christianpost.com/Intl/Persecution/2009/03/iranian-extremists-threaten-to-kill-3-ex-muslim-pastors-20/index.html
Jordanian charged in threat to Jewish school
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/jordanian-accused-of-mailing-threatening-letter-to-jewish-school.html
Taliban threatens to behead founder of jihadist website
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025328.php
Somali Islamists behead two sheikhs – group
(And three elderly women—but that doesn’t count. Women are property in Islam.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSLK425430
Brother of girls murdered in honor killing threatens to kill their aunt
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025319.php
March 21
Jordanian beats daughter to death for wearing makeup in 'honour' killing
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hwjvTpIchKrok25w73HCuTfNOKYA
Terrorist car bombing averted at Haifa mall
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237461637566&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
All homosexuals should be stoned to death, says Muslim preacher of hate
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163510/All-homosexuals-stoned-death-says-Muslim-preacher-hate.html
India says has proof Pakistan involved in Mumbai attacks
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/March/international_March1707.xml§ion=international
March 22
Pakistan: Woman set ablaze by husband dies, police fail to arrest husband
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168554
Report claims al-Qaeda can recruit in UK at street level
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2497079.0.report_claims_alqaeda_can_recruit_in_uk_at_street_level.php
Religious bullying and the mutual social control among young Muslim women in Danish educational institutions appears extensive.
http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2009/03/denmark-girls-supervise-each-other.html
Mother of three killed by brother
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168372
March 23
Pakistan: "Unidentified men" blow up school for girls
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025368.php
In Iraq, Chaos Feared as U.S. Closes Prison
Ex-Inmates Reanimate Sunni, Shiite Militias
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032102255.html
Yemeni Condemned to Death for Israel Contacts
http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=16151
Muslim moral police burn a girl alive in Ghaziabad
http://www.webnewswire.com/node/450416
March 24
Somalia: Islamists Destroy Graves (Not even dead Muslims are safe!)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903231600.html
Weapons found at Bangladesh Islamic school
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=72485
Four School Children Killed in Bomb Attack in Iraq's Mosul
http://english.cri.cn/6966/2009/03/25/2001s468194.htm
Hunted in Bangladesh... the terror suspect freed twice by courts in Britain
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164844/Hunted-Bangladesh--terror-suspect-freed-twice-courts-Britain.html
Spain: Press, Morocco Announces End To Gay Tolerance
http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ME03.@AM59231.html
Muslim militants issue new threat to behead Red Cross worker
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/261430,muslim-militants-issue-new-threat-to-behead-red-cross-worker.html
March 25
Villagers burn girl alive in 'honour killing'
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Villagers-burn-girl-alive-in.5103494.jp
Media help escalate honor killings, study reveals
In “Moderate” Turkey, the study also showed that 26.2 percent of the parents and 25.9 percent of the students said they support such killings.
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=170502&bolum=100
March 26
Muslim "Reformist": Muslim countries must have nukes in order to "strike terror in the hearts of the enemies"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025404.php
Afghan bomber accidentally blows up militants (The news isn’t ALL bad)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/27/2527452.htm?section=justin
In Loving Memory of Aqsa Parvez and All Victims of Honor Killings Worldwide
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025395.php
Former Maple Leaf employee charged in needles-in-meat case
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/03/27/guelph-meat.html
Suicide attack kills 48 at Pakistani mosque
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7967594.stm
More Muslim Pedophiles Arrested in Britain
http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/british-police-seem-to-go-to-no-end-to-tip-toe-around-muslim-crooks-and-pedophiles-on-march-27-2009-6-muslim-men-were-arres.html
March 27
Unreported World travels to Turkey to investigate honour killings, which have now reached record levels with more than 200 girls and women killed in the past year alone.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/episode-guide/series-2009/episode-3
Saudi cleric teaches boy to hate, curse Jews
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2061.htm
Filipino group with al-Qaeda ties threatens beheading
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/03/26/filipino-group-with-al-qaeda-ties-threatens-beheading/4626/
Qaeda says hit Koreans in Yemen over U.S. ties
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE52Q21L20090327
Women told: 'You have dishonoured your family, please kill yourself'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/women-told-you-have-dishonoured-your-family-please-kill-yourself-1655373.html
Rape victim converts to Islam to marry accused
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=NLetter&id=4564d4ad-4290-4163-a2e7-0aaf0de26557&Headline=Rape+victim+converts+to+Islam+to+marry+accused
March 28
Iran executes 16 year old girl for “crimes against chastity.”
http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/iran-execution-of-a-teenage-girl/
Saudi mufti okays marriage for 10 year old girls
http://www.alarabiya.net//articles/2009/01/15/64297.html
Pakistan: Christians Brace For Sharia in Swat Valley
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5858&backpage=summaries&critere=&countryname=&rowcur=
Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into U.S.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/27/hezbollah-uses-mexican-drug-routes-into-us/
Taliban militants in northern Pakistan are preventing 300,000 children from being vaccinated against polio, the World Health Organization says.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/27/Taliban_opposes_polio_vaccinations/UPI-16181238174110/
Teen army cadets in uniform targeted by vicious (muslim) thugs
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1165346/Teen-army-cadets-uniform-targeted-vicious-thugs-blamed-deaths.html
New York Muslim child: "Who are struck by Allah's wrath?" "The Jews"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025424.php
March 29
Wanted by International Criminal Court, Sudan's president gets lavish welcome at Arab League meeting in Qatar
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025436.php
Iranian missile experts in North Korea ahead of rocket launch
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25259115-601,00.html
Weapons flowing into Gaza
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237727570243&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Bloody clash in south Philippines
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7969474.stm
March 30
Pakistan: Army fights militants after storming police academy
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3154715690
UK Woman sentenced for jihad leaflet
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7972580.stm
In Iran, a case of eye for an eye
http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/03/30/03/1427-82/index.xml
Spain: Mother sentenced to 17 years for forced marriage. Family threatens to stone 14-year-old.
http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2009/03/spain-mother-sentenced-to-17-years-for.html
UK: Mother-in-law 'kept her sons' three wives locked up like slaves or dogs for 13 years'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166117/Mother-law-kept-sons-wives-locked-like-slaves-dogs-13-years.html
March 31
Latest Gitmo releasee: Al-Qaeda operative accused of taking part in anthrax plot
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025466.php
Hamid Karzai signs law 'legalising rape in marriage'
(Our ally upholds the Qur’an.)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5080797/Hamid-Karzai-signs-law-legalising-rape-in-marriage.html
Italy: Muslims try to blow up 14-century fresco
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025459.php
UK Muslim Taxi Driver Bludgeons Rider With Baseball Bat
http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/uk-muslim-taxi-driver-bludgeons-rider-with-baseball-bat-again.html
And we leave you with a wanted War Criminal, responsible for 300,000 dead, performing a Muslim pilgrimage in Islam's holiest city, Mecca.
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=10108339&nav=8H3x
It has come to this. Reporting the facts is now considered to be "hate speech" and "islamophobic." The UN is trying to outlaw reporting the truth or quoting from the Qur'an and the Hadith.
All this murder, terror, violence, hatred and misogyny, in one month, from thousands with the name of God on their lips. Yes, there are hundreds of millions of peaceful Muslims. But there are millions who subscribe to the violent, 7th century teaching of the Qur’an that Islam must rule the world, by force as needed, and the violence and murder are acceptable in the service of Allah.
This is a religion that has large elements that are also a political movement, that are intolerant of other faiths, (Try to build a church in Mecca!) and that recognize no separation of “mosque and state.” Tens of millions of Muslims believe that it is acceptable to murder non-Muslims, to murder female family members over “honor” and that any atrocity done in the name of Allah is blessed. And the peace-loving, moderate Muslims are a silent majority, intimidated and as likely to be victims of the violence and hatred as are Jew, Christians and Buddhists. If they are a majority. There’s no way to tell.
April will bring the same, and May, and June and most in the West will avert their eyes, mutter comforting clichés and hope not to be victims themselves.
This is a religion that has large elements that are also a political movement, that are intolerant of other faiths, (Try to build a church in Mecca!) and that recognize no separation of “mosque and state.” Tens of millions of Muslims believe that it is acceptable to murder non-Muslims, to murder female family members over “honor” and that any atrocity done in the name of Allah is blessed. And the peace-loving, moderate Muslims are a silent majority, intimidated and as likely to be victims of the violence and hatred as are Jew, Christians and Buddhists. If they are a majority. There’s no way to tell.
April will bring the same, and May, and June and most in the West will avert their eyes, mutter comforting clichés and hope not to be victims themselves.
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