Love only Lasts A Year......

According to scientists, here.

Dinner With A Frenchman.....

I had the extraordinary opportunity to have dinner last night with a dozen or so UN employees at an expensive mediocre Middle-eastern restaurant in Geneva last night.

Inevitably, the topic of discussion turned to Iraq and the Frenchman said 'Of course Iraq is a failure and that Bush lied, people died.'

I asked him how was it the rest of the world agreed with Bushes position and he argued that Bush fooled them all, implying that he alone was at the nexus of gigantic conspiracy to fool the world on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Bush must be a mad genius, then I think!

Then, of course I asked about this...

February 17, 1998: "If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton

and asked him about the US strike on Iraq, code named Operation Desert Fox.

December 16, 1998: The United States and Great Britain begin a four-day air campaign against targets in Iraq, Operation Desert Fox. The stated mission: "to strike military and security targets in Iraq that contribute to Iraq's ability to produce, store, maintain and deliver weapons of mass destruction." UNSCOM withdraws its staff from Iraq.

A full 1998 time-line is here. All of this, of course, resulted in blank stares since none of the previous problems with Iraq, that led to many of the conclusions proffered by GWB are discussed, mentioned or digested in the press, today. The press is not reporting on a war or providing information to the public for digestion, they are putting forth a agenda and this is one that is anti-GWB and anti-Republican. That which is contrary to this position is ignored and overlooked.

This leads to easy conclusions like the French UN employee that I chatted with last night, parroting the American Democrats talking points of "Bush lied, people died" and Iraq is a failure and quagmire. The press is doing the world a great disservice through their biased and incomplete reporting. Its really ashame that they are throwing away the trust of some of the people to pursue their narrow political agenda.

Despite....

the

Negative press coverage of the war in Iraq in recent weeks has emphasized rising pessimism among the American public about the conflict. But a new survey found that 56 percent of the public thinks that efforts to establish a stable democracy in the country will succeed.

The American public has always been able to see through the political and crass political posturing and knows what is right for the nation as a whole.

Early Users Of WMD....

The delivery methods were somewhat cruder then but had the desired effects.

Since 1346, when the Mongols catapulted corpses contaminated with plague over the walls into Kaffa (Crimea) and forced the besieged Genoans to flee, there have been many documented cases of the use of biological agents against people.

and I just read about this one...

In 1993, Iran reportedly plotted to contaminate water supplies in the United States and Europe with an unspecified biological agent, and Israeli Arabs plotted to poison the water in Galilee with an "unidentified powder."

Iran with nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver them with intercontinental missiles is worrisome to me but not so to some, such as the IAEA. Iran is probably figuring that by playing the spineless Europeans against the Americans, they can buy huge amounts of time by continuing to negotiate and developing the weapons. When finally they do have a couple in their arsenal, they can then play their cards differently.

Terrorists Go On Trial in Jordan For Smuggling VX Nerve Gas...

The terrorists are being charged with smuggling into Jordan 20 tons of VX nerve gas from Syria and planned to detonate a bomb to disperse the deadly gas. The planned attack targeted the Jordanian intelligence agency but could have killed as many as 80,000 in the ruthless attack.

The big question, that the traditional American and European press is vapidly overlooking is how did these killers get hold of 20 tons of this stuff in Syria? Hello, earth to mainstream media!!! Some have been writing about the possible sources but as far as the MSM is concerned, its like listening to crickets chirp on a hot summer night. Nothing else is happening.

So does Syria have capability to produce these WMD or were they imported from a third country? Lets see, Syria borders Turkey, Lebanon, Israel occupied territories, Jordan itself and Iraq. So, either the 20 tons of VX nerve gas came from Syria itself....or from Iraq, that was known to have produced it in the past. Well, if I was a betting man, I would put a wager that they originated in Iraq and Syria now holds this material. So, where are the non-existent Iraqi WMD? Maybe in Syria? Others may disagree with me and think that Syria is one of the most developed chemical and biological WMD producers with help from the Russians. And there has always been the rumors that Russia moved Iraqi chemical and biological weapons before the war since they were concerned that they would be implicated in the spread of these weapons to Iraq and Syria.

We also know this...

UNSCOM inspectors reportedly were closing in on an Iraqi program for the production of VX, a deadly chemical agent, when the standoff between Iraq and the U.N. Security Council began in the autumn of 1997. In November 1997, the inspectors found new evidence that Iraq had obtained at least 750 tons of VX precursor chemicals. Evidence of VX production was first revealed in 1995.

So what did happen to this material? some say it was secretly destroyed. So we actually know they were destroyed as a fact? Did the weapons exist at all at one point? If they did exist and weren't destroyed, then what became of them. Is anyone satisfied with any of the speculation surrounding any of these claims?


So why has the traditional press been so silent on this story? Possibly that it doesn't fit into the leftist media/Democrat story line that Bush lied about the existence of WMD? So the media, as I have said many times before is more interested in pushing its anti-Bush/anti-Republican agenda than seeking the truth? Shocking.

And of course one of the blood thirsty Islamic killers had this to say on how proud he is to be planning to kill 10's of thousands of innocents...

"If you consider the jihad to be terrorism, then, I declare that we are proud to bring terror to your very hearts. The word terrorism is a medal of honour for us," Sammik said.

This is the sick kind of mind that has been created in the closed Islamic world.

Post Starting Up Again Soon...

In Europe and tomorrow, I arrive at my friends house in Geneva. Then I can start posting again.

IS The Chinese Government Covering UP Hundreds Of Deaths From the Bird Flu???

This is worrisome since the Chinese government finds it necessary and desirable to cover-up almost anything. Its very difficult to trust what is going on in china and reports like this gain currency since the Chinese government has so little credibility on telling the truth.

According to the source, since 2004, deadly epidemics are breaking out in many parts of China, including Avian Flu. Since 2005, military was put in charge of epidemic control, leading to tightened information blackout. This kept the accurate report on epidemic situation from coming out to the international community.

The source also said that, the announcement by Chinese Health Ministry is also masking the real situation by resorting to 'technical treatment' or 'unique academic modification and interpretation.' Even when they allow foreign experts or international organizations into China for inspection, they can do it only under Chinese authorities' supervision, which made it almost impossible to uncover the real truth.

Lets hope that this isn't true. But that is all we have is hope since no-one can get a straight answer from Chinese officials.

This Is What I keep Telling My Wife...

Filtering out useless information can help people increase their capacity to remember what is really important, researchers said on Wednesday.

So I ignore a lot of stuff and only try to remember what is truly important. Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, first date, et al. aren't really that important I think.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

BEFORE...



As I have said in earlier posts, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.

AFTER...



So maybe a little history and some background on turkeys would be fun. Turkeys are native to North America and can be found in the wild in many places in the USA.

Cool Facts

A native of North America, the turkey is one of only two domesticated birds originating in the New World. The Muscovy Duck is the other.

European explorers took Wild Turkeys to Europe from Mexico in the early 1500s. They were so successfully domesticated in Europe that English colonists brought them back with them when they settled on the Atlantic Coast. The domestic form has retained the white tail tip of the original Mexican subspecies, and that character can be used to distinguish wandering barnyard birds from wild turkeys which have chestnut-brown tail tips.

The male Wild Turkey provides no parental care. When the eggs hatch, the chicks follow the female. She feeds them for a few days, but they quickly learn to feed themselves. Several hens and their broods may join up into bands of more than 30 birds. Winter groups have been seen to exceed 200.

Attempts to use game farm turkeys for reintroduction programs failed. In the 1940s wild birds were caught and transported to new areas, where they quickly became established and flourished. Such transplantations have been responsible for the spread of the Wild Turkey to 49 states.

As I child, I never saw a wild turkey but in the past 15 years, have seen wild turkeys on may occasions, sometimes in flocks of 20-50 birds. One one occasion, when I was walking near my summer house in upstate New York, I was started by a young bird that was hiding under some shrubbery. The bird panicked and flew away but crashed into a neighbor's window. It broke the external storm glass but not the inside glass and got wedged between the 2. I had to spend some time dislodging the bird from its trap.

When walking in the woods, sometimes you will find an area where the leaves and other debris has been scratched away forming hundreds of bare ground circles. This is the result of a flock of turkeys foraging for food.

But even more interesting...

Wild turkeys are so pugnacious and proud that Ben Franklin once lobbied to name them America's national symbol. But their high-octane protective streak has made them the bane of dozens of neighborhoods. In the fall, flocks around Lexington, Concord, Bedford, and Carlisle can run to 40 and 50. In Central Massachusetts the numbers are closer to 200. And in the spring the males become so hot-tempered and quarrelsome they have been known to attack cars, joggers, and, yes, even little old ladies.

Italianize....

If I called myself Enzo Glenzo, then people may think that I am Italian?

Losing In Iraq?

The MSM is potraying the situation in Iraq poorly and the American public has responded by becoming more gloomy on the situation there and have held President Bush to account as indicated by his poor popularity polling. However, if it was so bad there, then how come...

American soldiers are also much more optimistic than American civilians. The Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations just released a survey of American elites that found that 64% of military officers are confident that we will succeed in establishing a stable democracy in Iraq. The comparable figures for journalists and academics are 33% and 27%, respectively.

Why is there such a large difference in these numbers. Probably, because the soldiers want to us to win in Iraq and the press and the liberal academics want us to lose. Why theses leftists desire the US to lose is one question that we should be asking them? We know why soldiers want us to win, because its their job to do so.

Chemical Plant Blast Threatens Water Supply Of 4 Million In China....

An explosion and fire November 13th at a chemical plant threatens the water supply of 4 million residents of Harbin, China in China's industrial northeast. The interesting thing here, is that water supply has been reduced for 4 days by city officials. Finally, they admitted after lying that the water supply has been reduced due to system maintenance, that it was actually reduced due to fears of contamination by chemicals from the plant.

The city government yesterday made a U-turn by admitting that fears of water contamination in Songhua River, which supplies the capital of Heilongjiang Province, were behind the city's four-day water supply cut.

On Monday, it rejected such fears as "just a rumour," saying the stoppage scheduled to begin late last night was for a thorough check of the water-supply system.

Its amazing to me that the first things that officials do in China is lie to their citizens. I am sure that this is standard operating procedure for Chinese officials in almost any case. Lie before telling the truth on everything. They haven't gotten it through their incredibly thick skulls in China, that people have a right to know what is going on, particularly if it impacts their health and that the duty of local officials is to protect these people's health.

Higher Pay Abroad....

Healthcare in the Philippines is being decimated by the emigration of professionals for better pay in the US and Europe. Hundreds of private hospitals have been forced to close due to a lack of qualified healthcare workers. It was especially disturbing to see that doctors are going back to school to get nursing degrees so that they too can work overseas for better pay!

Resident doctors in private hospitals receive a measly take-home pay of up to 18,000 pesos a month (HK$2,548) while nurses are paid 12,000 pesos. In contrast, they can earn tens of thousands of dollars if they work in the United States or Europe.

Many Filipino doctors also return to school to get a degree in nursing, because nurses are in greater demand abroad.

A 50-year-old surgeon with 25 years experience as a lung specialist is among medics leaving the country to become a nurse. The doctor, who agreed to talked on the condition he was not identified, spoke Tuesday of "a health system in terminal decline."

Of 40 doctors he graduated with 25 years ago, he says, more than a third have emigrated.

Wow, what are they going to do in the Philippines?

November 19, 1863....

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg

Retreat In The Face Of Adversity....

I have always said, "Out of adversity, there is created opportunity." I think that this is ever-so true in Iraq today. Also,

He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.
Adversity
Fosdick, Harry Emerson
1878-1969 American Minister

If you're going through hell, keep going. ~Winston Churchill

The essence of these quotes is that we have to make the best of what was [Hussein era] and what is [al-Qaida in Iraq]a bad situation. And out of this we will become stronger, better and more human. However, the recent debate on our intervention in Iraq has quickly melted down to one of silliness. The incredibly stupid idea of immediate pullout from Iraq advocated by the Democratic party in the US, is one that will fail on several levels. But most prominent in my mind is one elucidated in Captains Quarters....

The difference is that in the eight years between our run from Somalia and 9/11, most of us learned the bitter lesson that retreating in the face of Islamists does not connote reasonableness and humanity, but cowardice and powerlessness. Combined with our spinelessness in Teheran, Beirut, and in caving into hostage demands from Hezbollah in the mid-80s, the pattern clearly gave Islamists the accurate depiction that Americans could not stand any sort of casualties in war and would quickly retire after the first bloody nose.

Most of us learned that retreat means that the Islamists simply follow you home. The first WTC attack should have taught us that, but even though the Clinton administration insisted on treating it as an organized-crime case, other battles followed: Khobar Towers, Tanzania, Kenya, and finally an attack on the USS Cole, a daylight attack on our military that went unanswered. Each silence that followed each attack only emboldened our enemies more. They do not want peace -- they want a war, and will take it to our shores if we don't give it to them elsewhere.

Whether to agree or disagree with the reasons for going to war, is one for history books. But the US has a chance to change the calculus of the Middle-east, an area populated with hundreds of millions of losers. The past strategy, Clinton's non-intervention after screwing up in Somalia was to ignore the problem. This clearly did not work as Islamists escalated culminating in the 9/11 attacks.

Who, among us, after that, thought that these kookie Muslims were going to stop there and go home? I think and you probably think that these kinds of attacks were likely to continue unless something was done about it. So we did something about it, we invaded Afghanistan.

Who thought, that after the corrupt and inept UN Iraq sanction regime fell apart, that the kookie Saddam Hussein was going to miraculously become a good global citizen? Those willing to take that bet were bound to lose and was a risk that I would be unwilling to take.

So now we are in Iraq. Lets make the best of it while
we have a chance. The US and the Iraq is moving forward with a purpose. And that purpose is to create a peaceful and productive nation where people have the opportunity and can try to achieve their dreams. We have sacrificed a lot as a nation and to withdraw now is just a plain old bad idea.

Maybe the Democrats are actually deploying this strategy...

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

But I doubt that. The Democrats are just pussies.

Generosity index...

When I lived in Africa, I noticed that there were very few American's there that hailed from liberal Democratic leaning states like New York and California. Most of the people that I knew came from places like Georgia, North Carolina, etc. I always wondered why since liberals are always blathering about helping the poor and all that. But generally, that is all that liberals do is talk, whereas Christian conservatives actually do something about it.

From Polipundit, I found this list ranking the most generous states. Notice how out the top 10, none are blue states...

Mississippi
Arkansas
South Dakota
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Alabama
Louisiana
Utah
South Carolina
West Virginia

This doesn't surprise me at all. My leftist home state of New York ranks 26th, just in the middle.

No Undo Button....

As I have written about before, here and here. I am not an advocate of the death penalty in my home nation of the USA. The reason being is that the system for trying and convicting people has proven fallible. This case illustrates my point from Clayton Cramer's blog...

HOUSTON -- A decade after Ruben Cantu was executed for capital murder, the only witness to the crime is recanting and his co-defendant says Cantu, then 17, was not even with him that night.

The victim was shot nine times with a rifle during an attempted robbery before the gunman shot the only witness.

That witness, Juan Moreno, told the Houston Chronicle for its Sunday editions that Cantu was not the killer. Moreno said he identified him at the 1985 trial because he felt pressured and feared authorities.

Oops. He didn;t do it? But he has executed 10 years ago and isn't guilty? Well, we can't give his life back can we?

I am just not convinced that social retribution in capital punishment cases deters the crimes nor does it prove economical. So why do we continue to pursue this option?

And then there is China, where more people are executed every year than the rest of the world combined. And despite the use of execution for punishment of crimes involving corruption and stealing of state funds, Chinese officials continue to rape the country of its wealth.

Islam, The Cult of Death...

Continues its killing spree...

Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader gave the casualty figure of 17 dead and 26 wounded but did not say how many were civilians.

Islam has become and is a shame on all humanity. Killing for the sake of killing. Arab men are useless nobodies and hide behind suicide bombings to give their useless lives meaning. When was the last time you ever heard, in the past 500 years of an Arab doing something that benefits anyone? Probably never? Sorry but I don't pour over the news looking for a tidbit where an Arab did anything remotely positive for the world, because it would be waste of time. Arabs are a waste of time for civilized people.

I Just Had To Lift This Piece Found On Instapundit...

From The Riding Sun, a fellow New Yorker living in Tokyo...

Deep within its latest hatchet job on Bush and the Iraq war, titled "Bush at the Tipping Point", Newsweek hides the following paragraph:

On the ground, the shrewder analysts say, it's not entirely clear that U.S. policy has "failed." The TV news, not to mention Al-Jazeera, doesn't regularly summarize the stunning changes in Iraq, many of them morally and politically worthy. Saddam Hussein is gone and awaiting trial. Schools, hospitals and other institutions are operating in most parts of the country. Voters have adopted a constitution. And even many Sunnis are gathering in political parties that are maneuvering in advance of the Dec. 15 national elections. After the elections, the plan is that Coalition forces will use the growing number of capable Iraqi units to "clear, hold and build" a peaceful Iraq.

If that's what "the shrewder analysts say", shouldn't it be the main focus of the article?

So they use the less shrewed analysts for the rest of the article? It seem as if the MSM hasn;t been too worried about using their brains, telling facts or truth but more interested in promoting an agenda to futher their political aims. Why do we have to endure this poorly written trash?

5 Bucks For Water?

I hate the dirty fingers, too.

After Years Of Deadly Terror...

The Zarqawi family has finally gotten around to disowning him. Zarqawi is responsible for thousands of brutal slayings around the region, including beheadings of victims by his own hand, and these people only now feel threatened by this kook?

The family of al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, reiterated their strong allegiance to Jordan's King Abdullah II in half-page advertisements in the kingdom's three main newspapers. Al-Zarqawi threatened to kill the king in an audiotape released Friday.

"A Jordanian doesn't stab himself with his own spear," said the statement by 57 members of the al-Khalayleh family, including al-Zarqawi's brother and cousin. "We sever links with him until doomsday.

What planet are these clowns from? They should have disowned him and turned him in when they had a chance and were protecting him and sending him money for years. Now they have blood on their own hands. If Zarqawi was a chick, they would have slit his throat years ago and called it an honor killing.

And I wonder if they can disown him by saying "I disown you, I disown you, I disown you" like getting a divorce from your wife by saying "I divorce you" 3 times.

I have so little respect for these Muslims that tacitly advocated terrorism but when it comes to cost them, they turn against it. These people are just scum.

Trouble In Dodge...

It's important to keep fit as you get older, so my granny started walking 5 kilometres a day when she was 60. Now she's 62 and we don't know where the hell she is!

Anshar El Muslimin....

Just more sick Muslim crap....

A Web site purportedly set up under orders from a leading Asian militant gives instructions on how to shoot foreigners in the streets of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, or throw grenades at motorists stuck in traffic.
The Web site, called Anshar El Muslimin, contains diagrams of several locations and why they would be ideal for attacking people and how to escape.

Christians don't go around killing in the name of god, atheists don't go around killing since there is no God, Hindu's don't go around killing in the name of their many gods... why should any civilized people tolerate Islam, the killing cult, that supposedly a religion, at all? When we walk down the street and see a Muslim wearing a scull cap, I, for one, wonder if the fellow is a deranged killer. Muslims need to clean out their own house and it seems as if they either don't have the heart to do it or don't want to. At least George W. Bush is trying, has the heart to defend out people and American Democrats are sitting on their hands whining.

Bush Fooled Everyone Into Believing....

that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction years before he even became POTUS. Its amazing the stuff that he can do. Maybe he used time travel or mind control rays developed by the Tri-lateral Commission.

Read about all the stuff in a 15 year time-line that was saidby the global community about Iraq here. Particular focus should be made on the year 1998 and thereabouts.

Japanese Advertisement....

Again, interesting.

Japanese Have All The Fun....

Actually, it doesn't look at all that enjoyable. I don;t suggest that you try this at home. [Not work safe and very noisy].

The American Press Numbs The Mind...

This amazed me. How can these poll statistics be true?

Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans say the U.S. economy is in a recession. Forty-one percent (41%) disagree and say it is not.

36% of the people believe that the US is in a recession? That implies that there are job losses, GDP has fallen for 2 consecutive quarters and the stock market must be falling fairly dramatically.

Just for a little real information... Today, the S&P 500 stock index hit a 4.5 year high. GDP growth has come in +3.8%, +3.3%, +3.8%, for the first 3 quarters of this year, not too bad given that the long-term potential for the US economy to grow is around 3.0%. There have been 1.6 million jobs added to the US economy since 1/1/2005 or an average of 160,000 per month. Not the kinds of numbers that imply a recession.

The press coverage of the positive movements of the US economy have been poor at times and downright misleading at other times. As Larry Kudlow recounts earlier this year...

It's not even remotely as important as the Iraqi election, but the New York Times' impoverished coverage of the latest reading on U.S. gross domestic product deserves a mention. Both the headline and the thrust of the story by Times writer Louis Uchitelle suggest a big slowdown in economic growth. While this is statistically correct, it is analytically wrong. The main thought behind the story - that the economy has registered its weakest quarterly pace in nearly two years, held down by a surge in imports - is completely misleading.

Underneath the headline number of 3.1 percent real GDP growth was a huge 5.5 percent increase in private-sector output (less government spending and trade). Private consumption and business investment comprises 80 percent of GDP - a factoid the Times never relates. In fact, the tell-tale number in this latest GDP report is the outsized 15 percent gain in business investment - the single most important swing factor in economic activity.

Within this number, equipment and software investment jumped 13 percent. This is what Wall Street calls "cap ex"; it expands the entire economic infrastructure. Behind this investment explosion is the 20 percent rise in 2004 corporate profits. Business earnings allow firms to expand and grow the economy and jobs, too. When profits rise, the economy expands. When profits fall, the economy contracts.

It has become very difficult to trust the New York Times reporting over the past few years since their reporting is laden with anti-Bush and anti-Republican agenda. But this mushy reporting of fact is not just limited to the Times, it is a much deeper media malaise maybe revolving around the poor economics facing the print and traditional TV news media organizations that have lost so many customers to non-traditional online alternative news sources- more intune with the attitudes of mainstream Americans.

The only explanation that I have for the poor polling is that the press is painting such a bleak picture of the American economy that people's minds have gone soft. Their spending habits and national statistics do not bear out the gloom felt by average Americans on the US economy.

Chinese Rapper....

Champion on BET, here.

Bush Will Bounce Back....

I remember at the beginning of Clinton's second term there were questions of his presidency being relevant. Relevant is a funny word, meaning on having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand. A president is always relevant since he can have an impact even if he has had little or none or chooses to not become involved.

My own personal feelings are the Clinton squandered his presidency on issues that are irrelevant to normal people. One of the first issues that he took on was the gays in the military, don't ask don't tell solution. Not an issue that I have much interest or one that is important to anyone other than a tiny minority of people. He also choose not to deal aggressively with festering issues that proved to be costly in the coming years such as terrorism. One can argue that during his presidency that the economy did well and he balanced the budget. However, these achievements proved to be very short-lived. How successful is a policy if it does not last even a handful of years after one reliquishes the presidency to the successor?

So now, Bush is going through a tough period in his presidency. He will bounce back. Almost all Presidents do. Have a look at this....

Of course, Bush is not the first president to suffer a steep decline in popularity. With the exception of Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, every president in the past 60 years has seen his approval rating sink at some point to 37 percent or worse. Lowest of all was Harry Truman, who fell to an abysmal 22 percent in February 1952. Most have bounced back.

I know that it will drive the Democrats wild, when his approval ratings start to rise. This will probably happen just-in-time for the mid-term 2006 elections. And they will have a lot of things to answer for particularly their shrill "Bush lied, people died" meme that will be hard to overcome, in my humble opinion. It will be so much more difficult for them to garner support of those people that value safety and security at home given the way that these people are behaving.

And what is the Democrat's message to the American people on their positive plans for actions?

Why, the Democratic Party chairman was asked, do 52 percent of independent voters believe the Democrats have no clear message? Why do one in four Democrats believe that?

I don't know what it is. Just fight the Republicans every way that they can no matter how dangerous or costly it could be the country? The Democrats must come up with a stand. Being against Bush is a juvenile schoolyard tactic and lacks a long-term strategy. It just isn't one that works for me. I know that the Dems have a difficult time being the minority party after 60 years of being the majority but Bushes popularity will have little impact on their success unless they can formulate ideas that resonate with the voters. Its about time that they do that. And then we can debate the merits.

Saddam Didn't Have Chemical Weapons?

Tell that to these kids. You can see all the great pictures from Halabja here and what would have been in store for us Americans and lots of other peoples if we don't stop fellows like Saddam when the time is appropriate to do so. Do you trust that Saddam would have become a peaceful dictator when the UN sanction regime came apart?

The idea that Saddam didn't have chemical weapons,

Saddam never abandoned his intentions to resume a CW effort when sanctions were lifted and conditions were judged favorable

wasn't planning to reconstitute his nuclear program,

Saddam did express his intent to retain the intellectual capital developed during the Iraqi Nuclear Program. Senior Iraqis—several of them from the Regime’s inner circle—told ISG they assumed Saddam would restart a nuclear program once UN sanctions ended.

wasn't connected to al-Qaida in any way

Later that spring, the Clinton Justice Department prepared an indictment of Osama bin Laden. The relevant passage, prominently placed in the fourth paragraph, reads:

Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq.

Patrick Fitzgerald, a U.S. attorney involved in the preparation of the indictment, testified before the 9/11 Commission. He said the intelligence behind that assertion came from Jamal al Fadl, a former high-ranking al Qaeda terrorist who before the 9/11 attacks gave the U.S intelligence community its first intimate look at al Qaeda. According to Fitzgerald, al Fadl told his interrogators that bin Laden associate Mamdouh Mahmud Salim (Abu Hajer al Iraqi) "tried to reach a sort of agreement where they wouldn't work against each other--sort of the enemy of my enemy is my friend--and that there were indications that within Sudan when al Qaeda was there, which al Qaeda left in the summer of '96, or the spring of '96, there were efforts to work on jointly acquiring weapons."

and wasn't a threat to the United States or Americans is silliness. I do have to concede that Iraq wasn't an immediate threat, and that Saddam did not have the ability to deliver the threat over the short-term. His capacity was degraded. However, what makes people believe or trust that this crazy man wouldn't have tried to reconstitute his capacity to kill? Why should we leave him to his own devises when he has proven over-and-over again to be a threat to his people, his neighbors and potentially others? According to CIA's Duefler Report, often cited by the agenda laden press when it suits them, but completely ignored of its damning contents...

Saddam Husayn so dominated the Iraqi Regime that its strategic intent was his alone. He wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when sanctions were lifted.

And...

Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq's WMD capability, which was essentially destroyed in 1991-after sanctions were removed and Iraq's economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed. Saddam aspired to develop a nuclear capability-in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks-but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare (CW) capabilities.

Also, have a look at the what the a UN weapon's inspector had to say about this.

The beauty of being a Democrat is that one gets to think up and believe all kinds of conspiracy theories and simplify life into neat little phrases like "Bush lied, people died."

Then there is this supposed hawk Democratic House Representative Murta that is calling for immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Its exactly what the terrorists want, for us Americans to be defeated at home irrespective of what is happening on the battlefield. And Mr. Murta, what are the consequences of your policy of immediate withdrawal? Seems to me that this may not be a great strategy. The French have tried this for hundreds of years. Whether-or-not victory in Iraq is achievable, the Democrats want the US to pull-out so that the terrorists there can establish a proxy state like Afghanistan was in the 1990's. Then they will be able to complete their argument that Bush made the US less safe from terrorists. Indescribable. Playing politics with my family's and my life. Democrats cannot defend Americans from outside threats. Just not capable to do so.

And keep this picture in mind when the Democrats are foaming at the mouth... These children were apparently running away from Saddam's bombing in Halabja. The littliest one was riding on the back of the older girl and it looks as if the little boy in the forground was holding her hand when they all fell victim to the nerve gas. This is the kind of fellow that we were dealing with and the Democrats are implying that they would trust this guy to be a good world citizen? Not invading iraqi leaves the world open to such Saddam induced abuses. Democrats are so easily fooled!

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) were an integral element in the range of tools Saddam drew upon to advance his ambitions. WMD was not an end in itself. Therefore, to examine meaningfully WMD in Iraq means examining the leadership of Iraq concomitantly.

The Iraq experience with WMD stretches over 30 years and three wars. Thousands of victims died on battlefields, and civilians have been gassed in domestic terror campaigns. War and sanctions have ground civil society down to rudimentary levels. The most talented of Iraq have faced excruciating dilemmas—to comply with the Regime’s directions or risk careers, their lives, and the lives of loved ones. Chronic, systemic fear on the part of the best and the brightest was a feature of the intellectual elite.

Where Did Those Iraqi WMD Go?

A weapons inspector weighs in with his thoughts.

For Thanksgiving....The Rude Parrott.....

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.

Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer.

The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Get Called A Liar....

And if you defend yourself, according to the agenda laden left-leaning press, you are escalating the argument not defending yourself against attack. Less-and-less people are taking the main stream media seriously these days for good reason.

More Clowns....

The hate Israel and hate America first crowd continue to say and think things like 'what is so bad with wiping Israel off the face of the map?' Read what these bozos are saying and then think about your own positions on these topics.

Beer Is Good For You....

And prevents cancer.

More Headbanging Heartache With HSBC.....

HSBC designs every process and procedure that one has to do with the explicit intention of protecting their own asses in the event that something doesn't go right. This is why we have these stupid decoder thingies that "protect" the security of our accounts, but really its a way to save the bank valuable time and effort with the boneheads that give out their private data to phishers and other miscreants. So, all of the rest of us have to suffer while the handful of idiots get their money protected and HSBC can go back to sleep.

So, today, I had another lovely experience with HSBC. I have been busy the past couple of days with work and I just got to the bank minutes before it closed to get my subscription agreement for the LINK REIT. The subscription period ends tomorrow at noon, so I have to get it in quickly.

Of course, I picked up the wrong color form, the white one instead of the yellow one so I couldn't fill it out tonight. So, instead, I figured that I would do it online to save time and effort.

I was to prove ridiculously wrong that this would save time and effort by creating massive amounts of confusion in my sore little brain over the 2 hours that it took to straighten out the mess.

So, I went to the website and found that if I applied for a IPO loan, that I can get a 2% rebate. Great, so I applied for 150,000 shares that would cost a maximum of nearly HK$1.5 million. [Remember, that I only expect to get an allocation of less than 10% anyway so don't get all concerned with the large amount of money!] Of course I do not have that kind of liquidity available so we are allowed to borrow up to 90% of the subscription. So I poked around after filling out my online form looking for the loan application. It was nowhere to be found. Additionally, I forgot to write down my reference number from the application process and there was no resulting email from HSBC detailing what I had done. What a pain in the ass.

So, I called up several of the recorded lines and found that after about 6 times, I could get someone online that could answer my questions.

To my chagrin, I found out that joint accounts cannot apply online for an IPO loan. Of course I asked why not and she said that this was the rule. I asked her why this is a rule and she didn't know. Of course the reason why is that HSBC has figured that if a joint account holder can take out a loan without the consent of the other, that this may somehow open them up to liability or something and therefore punish us joint account holders by restricting our ability to do things. They figure that if someone takes out a loan and then absconds with the money, then joint account holder can claim that they never knew and try to weasel out of the liability. But with the IPO loan, the funds are only really a book entry and the go directly to the underwriters and gets paid back to the original account after the underwriting is completed. So there is no chance that a joint account holder can abscond with the loan.

Additionally, in usual Hong Kong fashion, the person at the other end of the line tried to explain to me that I was wrong and didn't read the section that explained that joint account holders cannot do this. She even claimed that there was a pop-up and I told her that if their was, I wouldn't be wasting my time on this call sweetie. Large Hong Kong companies always try to explain to the customer that they are wrong and didn;t do things correctly. Its the anti-matter service world of the "customer is always right" culture that I came from.

Its a problem that I have encountered over-and-over at this bank where they require blizzards of paperwork for the most mundane transactions in the name of protecting the joint account holder. Even if the transaction isn't as big. As my wife exclaimed to one of the automatons at the bank, I can take out all of themoney in the account if I so should desire right now, but you won't allow me to do these little types of transactions that have even less impact on my joint account holder!

This bank is just frustrating to deal with. I don't understand why I am still with them now. They are the most expensive one around and although they have legions are helpful young people diligently following the rules, things just take an extraordinary amount of time and troubles arise for reasons that I cannot comprehend.

LINK REIT Is Hot.....

The prospectus for the Link REIT is available today, will be priced next week and start trading on Friday November 25th. I figure that I will put in for a fair amount of this deal since retail investors will get it at a 5% discount to the official pricing. Although the estimated dividend yield is a little lower than was anticipated from the deal late last year, 6.31% vs. the 6.85% promised last year, it is still one of the yieldiest more interesting liquid investments that I have seen in Hong Kong for some time. If the initial pricing levels holds the 5% discount coupled with the 6.31% dividend gives a hefty 11+% yield to those that plan to hold it. Punters, start your engines!

Muslims Are Angry....

at the deaths caused by the many bombings by al Qaeda fanatics that have caused multitudes of deaths among their Muslim "brothers" capped by the brutal bombing in Amman, Jordan this past week.

There were even larger demonstrations on Friday after the weekly midday mosque sermons in Amman and at a mass funeral for victims. "We came to support our nation and our unity," said Ibrahim Haniya, 22, who marched with a group of friends. "These bombers didn't differentiate between Muslims, Christians or Jews. They were against the world."

These people still don't get it. Is it OK to kill if it is a non-Muslim? Of course al Qaeda is against their world, they are 7th century theocrats that want to destroy the world so that they can remold it in their own bizarre image. What does it take to convince the common man on the "Arab Street" that al Qaeda is not doing this for them!

Innocent civilian life should never be sacrificed to the fanatical desires of these grisly Islamist terrorists, irrespective of the victims religion. Its not OK to kill Christians or Jews since the message is that "if you oppose me, I will kill you too." Now people are just starting to learn the sad and horrible truth and hopefully the common Muslim man and woman can see the true light.

I wrote this back in July and it is ever so much truer today. We missed the opportunity to nip these killers by not allowing Israel to what it needed to do to eliminate the threats within their midst and now everyone is paying the price for this lack of foresight.

A couple of years ago, I saw an interview on TV with a young Israeli woman grieving over the loss of a relative to a suicide bombing. The imagery continues to stick in my mind. She was sitting under a tree wearing a flower summer dress, as she grieved and cried and warned the world that suicide bombings of civilians wasn't just an Israeli problem but one the rest of us would face.

Despite this being after 9/11, I pooed pooed her sentiments since I thought that the Israel-Palestine conflict was over land and would remain contained and eventually settled somehow. I had faith that people are reasonable and rational.... but I was wrong.

There is death cult within our midst and this cult wraps itself in Muslim religious fervor. When a patient has cancer, the disease has to be removed. Ariel Sharon was right to fight this disease with stiff medicine. George Bush is right to fight this with stiff medicine, and we too have to learn that we must fight this war with stiff medicine. We cannot win by caving into this barbaric bloodthirsty spawn of Satan but to meet it head-on with determination. I am now completely there.

We tried to appease the bloodthirsty killers in the Palestinian militants movements that were carrying out suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. We figures that if we didn't support Israel too much, then we would not get on the 'wrong side' of militant Isalmists. However, many of us were dead wrong. And Winston Churchill said it best...

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last.

We made a mistake and now everyone is paying the price of the appeasement that cost Israeli lives. That appeasement has also cost European, American and now Muslim lives in great numbers. We should all be fighting against the Moslem fanatics since we all are at risk, our children are at risk and all of our neighbors are at risk. Winston Churchill also said this about fanatics...

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

Terrorist Threat In Guangzhou....

The blood-thirsty Islamic terrorists, spawn of Satan, are now threatening Southern China. It just goes to show how absolutely crazed these circus clowns are. What would attacking targets in Southern China do? Maybe they are trying a last ditch effort to start a major global war. China would have no problem nuking hundreds of square miles of Arab desert homeland turning formerly big bustling Arab cities into shining sheets of glass.

The United States Government has received credible information that a terrorist threat may exist against official U.S. Government facilities in Guangzhou. This threat also may exist for places where Americans are known to congregate or visit, including clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools or outdoor recreation events.

And how stupid would China look after something like a terrorist bombing plot gets carried out on their home turf? Maybe the Chinese can control the compliant home crowd but have no ability to stop deranged Islamist killers. I hope that they can stop them, though. Its in everyone's interest that they do.

Now I Get It...

Instead of making an expected political speech, denouncing Israel, the terrorist explained on "60 Minutes" in 2001 that the Islamic suicidal terrorists are motivated by their wish to go to the Islamic paradise, where each of them would deflower 70 houris - beautiful virgins whose virginity is renewable, that is, while a former suicidal terrorist deflowers, say, the seventh houri, the first becomes a virgin again, and thus the deflowering may go on eternally, since the former terrorist's ability to deflower a virgin will be as renewable as her virginity.

Kind of virginiac rebirth, so to speak. And do they forget all the experience that they gain after the first time so that they continuously perform in a virginitic manner? What do I do now? Where does it go? Do I move. I have to go pee now. Does all of this happen to the lucky suicide martyr owner of the 72 virgins? Does the suicide bomber get tired though, at one point, or is forced to continuously deflower the renewable virgins? Come on Sallem, you can't quit now.... you have only deflowered 237 virgins and you have an unlimited number more to go before you can rest. No sleep or rest? Can a suicide bomber use astro-glide lubricant? How about maybe a break after every 7 to 10 virgins I love this hocus-pocus Islamic stuff.

And of Course...

The 72 virgins dating service brought to you courtesy by the US Army Rangers.

Let's Say....

Let's say that you were a suicide bomber and got short changed on the delivery of your 72 virgins... say you only got 68 in working order. Who would you complain to get your 4 more so you have your full complement of 72? Or does one just forget it and suffice with the 68? I just have to know!

Menage-a-soixante-deux.....For A Muslim Suicide Bomber...

Of course, these questions come to mind...

Martin Bodek has 72 questions on how this whole virgin thing works. Here are the top 10:

1) What if the bomber wants girls with more experience?
2) What if one virgin is no good in bed? Does she get replaced or is he stuck with 71?
3) If he's gay, does he get male virgins?
4) What if he's celibate? What does he get?
5) What if he hasn't reached puberty yet? Does he get 72 Xboxes till he comes of age?
6) If he's bi, does he get 36 of each?
7) If he blows himself up while building the bomb, does he still get credit?
8) What do you call a relationship with 72 women, a menage-a-soixante-deux?
9) Are they like 72 wives or 1 wife and 71 concubines?
10) What if he's ugly or smells bad and the virgins don't want anything to do with him?

72 questions for God on the 72 virgins, here. The big question is number 35...

If a bomber finds an infidel in paradise, can he blow him up and get 72 more virgins?

That would mean he would have 144 virgins, or 12x12. A dozen dozen, kind of odd that God thought of this round and easily divisible number I think. Yo, look at Muhammad, he's got 144 virgins, how did he get so lucky? But even so, this question is actually kind of stupid. Everyone knows that there would never be an infidel in heaven. And if a suicide bomber ever saw an infidel in heaven then he would probably be somewhat perplexed how this individual got here in first place. See, if an infidel got to heaven, then infidels aren't out of favor with God at all. If this is the case, then how did he get credit for the first martyrdom operation to start with? Kind-of troubling for the young suicide bomber, keeper of 72 virgins type, I think. He was probably thinking that God was thinking one way and then he finds these infidels wandering around heaven. Kind of disturbing for a martyr. But a martyr shouldn't really be disturbed since it is heaven you know. But just in case that there were, that is infidels in heaven, that can be blown up and this is without risk since a suicide bomber already has his 72 virgins, he figures that he can get get 72 more. Its kind of like monopoly with hotels on all the good places. After blowing up his next infidel, that can't be blown up after all since the infidel is in heaven too, and can't die again, the serious suicide bomber and one that strives to be more than just a single-time martyr figures that he is the winner since he has more than the standard 72 virgins. So he is the winner but maybe the other martyrs would get jealous. So everyone in heaven would have to keep their suicide vests strapped on just in case an infidel wanders into their heavenly space!

If You Are A Muslim Man....

Well, if you believed this...

"The virgins are calling you," Mohamed Atta wrote reassuringly to his fellow hijackers just before Sept. 11.

And it was really this...

New interpretations of the Koran claim that martyrs will only get a plateful of grapes when they reach Heaven, instead of the 72 virgins they were led to expect

and you are one of those crazy Muslim suicide bombers, you may feel like you made a mistake. But when you find out that you fucked up, you are already dead, stupid. Sorry no bargains with God , stupid. Just grapes??? Oh shit, I thought I was going to get 72 virgins. Sorry buddy, boy just 72 virgin grapes. After that you burn in hell for eternity. Stupid idiot.

Muslim Men Are Pathetic...

Do they really believe in this 70 virgins crap. If they do, then they deserve to die. Can't handle worldly woman, losers, gotta die before you get laid? Maybe you would do better with the girls if you are dead, losers. Muslim men are just totally pathetic. Gotta blow myself up to get a chick. Dah.

Terrorist Threat In China Rescinded...

I would think that it would be phenomenally stupid for terrorists to attack China and get them involved. I don't think that China would take very kindly to bombs on their soil from foreign terrorists.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security informed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on November 10 that Chinese security authorities have determined that the source of a reported threat against four
and five star hotels in China is not credible. The United States Government is not aware of any other information of any threat against hotels in China, including Hong Kong.

The Kid From Brooklyn...

Has a solution for airline terrorism in the USA, here.

Never Mentioned With The French Riots....

Of course we have heard about the trouble in France being underclass and immigrant status for some populations, but what is never mentioned is that France has one of the highest tax rates in the world. This has stifled growth, moved entry-level labor to other countries and regions and created stifling high unemployment and under-employment. In short, there is little hope for people just starting out particularly immigrants.

Economic woes may-or-may not be part of this eruption, it may be just French malaise in general but I think that the socio-economic model tested by modern Europe is proving to be a failure.

This should be a warning sign for American Democrats that look to Europe for guidance on these things. Democrats have never met a tax that they didn't like so they shouldn't be too sure that to raise those taxes that stifle growth, opportunity and vitality is a snapping good idea. Also, the liberal philosophy of taking care of the under-priviledged? Where is that? The payoffs have not appeared in Europe so what happened to all the investment? It hasn't worked in the USA either.

Church Under IRS Threat For Political Stance...

I am sure that lots of liberals will try to connect the dots with the following...

The Internal Revenue Service has warned a prominent liberal church that it could lose it's tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon a guest preacher gave on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, according to church officials.

The Rev. George F. Regas did not urge parishioners at All Saints Episcopal Church to support either President Bush or John Kerry, but he was critical of the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts.

The IRS warned the church in June that its tax-exempt status was in jeopardy because such organizations are prohibited from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

However, it is important to remember that its the IRSes job to collect taxes and is not directly responsible to keep churches out of the political arena since there is a separation of church and state in the US. However, with the set-up this is what they effectively achieve.

Also, there have been other churches that have lost their tax exempt status such as a church in Binghampton, NY that urged its congregation to not vote for Bill Clinton in 1992. So its not an issue of partisanship.

Since my Dad is a preacher, I am aware of several run ins with the IRS over a couple of tax related benefits offered to churches and ministers that are frequently attacked.

Its the nature of the beast and don't think for a minute that this is a free speech issue as they claim. Its not, they are a church and can speak freely but cannot have church tax free status if they do so. Imagine all the "churches" opening up if they were allowed to freely engage in politics and the potential abuse. Imagine the Church of the Latter Day Democrats. Egads.

Is Islam Really A Religion?

No, its a cult of death. What do bloody suicide bombings and attacks in places like Israel, The United States, Bali, Jakarta, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, Madrid, Morocco, London, etc. [now the Muslim riots in France] have in common? Besides largely targeting civilians, they are carried out by Muslims. And don't forget the 3 little school girls that lost their lives when hooded Muslim men hacked their heads off on their way to school in Sulawesi a few weeks ago. They carried the heads and left them infront of a church and a police station.

But the bottom line, is that the sick adherents to this twisted Muslim philosophy feel that it is justifiable to indiscriminately kill innocent civilians. And what do most Muslims do? Try to explain it all away and not take responsibility for their "brothers." They are the only ones that will be able to eliminate the disease but they are reluctant to do so, either out of their own fear or being infected with this hate themselves.

As far as I am concerned, it is very difficult to take Islam seriously as a religion since it is just so unjustifiably violent. What are they teaching these people? That it is OK to kill or maim anyone for any reason? Islam is really just a powerful cult and it will be difficult for sensible people to face the trouble that we will have with these people going forward. There is no talking sense to a bloodthirsty crazed Muslim militant so why bother? It would be better to just summarily eliminate this disease as quickly as we can.

It will be costly in lives but it would be better if we do it sooner rather than before these crazed people get tea upper hand.

HSBC Takes Another Customer Unfriendly Move..

HSBC, besides having the most expensive products in town, is now forcing me to use some kind of contraption to log onto my account. This is very unfortunate since as a joint account, there are two people that use this account. Its not clear to me how we work it out that there is one device but two people that need to access the information.

Usually, what I do is I go into the vendor, in this case HSBC, ask questions as to how I can solve this issue. They will come up with all kinds of stupid ideas like one person carries and the other can call that person to get the code when they need it. Then I will respond, we are not so stupid to not have figured that out. What we need is a solution not some idiot employee stating of the obvious. Then, in my usual casual style, ask why they never suggested that one solution is to move your account to another institution where one does not have to leap through hoops to save the bank the trouble of actually doing something online, like they should be doing.

Is there another bank that I can use that has the kind of website that they have without the idiotic problem associated with this new device?

Typical Liberal Reaction....

I remember after the hurricane, that Bush was being blames for the levee breaches by a myriad of pundits and news organizations. I felt that that kind of reaction says a lot more about the pundits than it does about Bushes stewardship over the New Orleans levees. And on its face, its just silliness since the typical liberal's reaction is to blame Bush for everything.

As more level headed analysis is starting to show, the levee breaches were not caused by the little bit of dirt that Bush didn't put onto the levees in the past few years but 40 years of mistakes, failed management and the like.

The problem is symbolic of a broader issue that has undercut safety over the years, say the investigators: Safety is too easily compromised because no single agency is in charge.

"You have multiple agencies, some of which aren't on speaking terms with each other," says Raymond Seed, another Berkeley professor who heads the investigative team from the National Science Foundation.

Just as the gates at the mouths of the canals were opposed by local levee and pumping agencies, environmental groups in the 1980s derailed plans to erect a structure to block storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain. Engineers now say that undercut safety.

*Investigators found signs that poor maintenance of levees had compromised safety.

Bea says he believes large trees allowed to grow near levees may have contributed to the failures. Investigators say they also found leaks caused by portions of levees that had sunk and not been repaired.

If you have multiple levels of government working on problems and multiple agencies involved in different aspects of a project, you get a "dumbing" down that brings every level of management to the lowest common denominator. So, if that is the way that it is set up, expect failure as the result.

Additionally, pundits that like to blame Bush when it rains never give him credit when the sun is shining. So they completely lose their credibility since everyone knows that they are not approaching issues from a balanced perspective. Right Tom?

Euro-English....

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with"z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou"
and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl

SCOTUS Nominee Alito....

80% chance of confirmation and 62% chance that he garners more than 60 votes in the Senate on Tradesports.

Besides, I don't understand why the liberals are so upset about with this guy, Alito. He seems to be a solid highly qualified candidate with deep credentials.

US Military Personnel....

I was out last night with a friend of mine and we noticed all the US military personnel wandering about. There is a boat in town and its easy to notice these American youth by the way that they dress and their very large size.

So my friend said that he was upset by the policy of some clubs to charge these hard working guys and gals to enter and some don't even want them in. Bar owners in Hong Kong are well practiced in taking advantage of the military, so there is nothing that we can do but bitch about it. But then my buddy went into his hard-left New York liberal meme on how the military are killers and are all disadvantaged high-school drop-out youths with no other choices, therefore, forced into military service. This liberal line, promoted by the likes of the New York Times and other agenda laden liberal groups just do not get their facts right.

Enlisted members tend to have higher cognitive aptitude than the civilian youth population, as measured by scores on the military's enlistment test. Persons who score in Categories I and II (65th to 99th percentiles) tend to be above average in trainability; those in Category III (31st to 64th percentiles), average; those in Category IV (10th to 30th percentiles), below average; and those in Category V (1st to 9th percentiles), markedly below average. The percentage of new recruits in Categories I and II (41 percent) was slightly higher than for their civilian counterparts (36 percent). Category III new accessions (58 percent) greatly exceeded, in fact, were nearly double the proportion of the civilian group (34 percent), while the percentage of recruits in Category IV (1 percent) was much lower than in the civilian population (21 percent). No enlistees were in Category V, whereas 9 percent of the civilian population scored in this category.

[The previous data was from 2002 and sorry, I couldn't find the more recent data] So, the typical liberal line on military recruits being high-school drop-outs with GED diplomas is just a crock of bullshit. Why do these left-wing liberal nut jobs spout out this garbage? Where do they get this idea? I think it is due to the echo chamber of New York liberalism where one person make some idiotic comment and others just feel compelled to believe it or just want to believe it. Please don't even know the facts but spout out the line as if it is gospel.

Another pet peeve of mine is the liberals chickenhawk line, "You wouldn't want your children to go to Iraq, would you?" Well, I don't want mine or anyone else's children to go to Iraq. Mine are 12 and 2 years old and are too young. When they each the age of majority, they can make their own decisions but until then, they are staying home with me, thankyou very much!

And as far as military recruiting is concerned, yes the Army has had a difficult time meeting its new recruit quotas. The liberal line is that people are afraid of Iraq or don't believe in it. There may be some truth to this since the press has done little but spout out garbage on Iraq for years, but Army reenlistments are above quota leading to an actual increase in force numbers. So, the people that are closer to the action and would probably have to return to Iraq if they reenlist aren't running away scared are they? And how about the Marines? They have been in the front lines of the Iraq war and why don;t we hear anything at all in the press about their recruiting? Probably since it doesn't fit the agenda that they are trying to promote they ignore it. Besides, the military has to compete for good recruits like any other business and this is what they do.

I have little time or respect for New York liberal blather. It really is a very narrow political agenda and does not reflect the average American's temperament or beliefs, but they all think that they are so much smarter than the rest of us. Without the facts, they bleet on-and-on about this and that, so how can they be smarter?

And I have to say, my buddy is one of the sweetest, nicest and friendliest fellows that I know, but his political views are really quite incongruent with his well balanced personality. He gets a little mean and nasty when he talks about this stuff. New York liberalism is like that I think, just mean and nasty, and condecending; they just know better than you do. At least in my experience.

Agenda Laden New York Times......

The New York Times is hostile to our men and woman under arms and little that they write on what these people say should or can be trusted.

Note this isn't a direct quote - and because it's in the New York Times we have no way of knowing whether it's fabricated.

Numerous misquotes and character assassinations perpetrated by the New York Times against our military volunteers are detailed, here and here.

I used to call the paper "The New York Democrat." But I wouldn't really call it a newspaper anymore.

A Boston Globe Surprise....

I was surprised to see this column by Jeff Jacoby in The Boston Globe.

The announcement on Oct. 25 that the first genuinely democratic national charter in Arab history had been approved by 79 percent of Iraqis was a major piece of good news. It confirmed the courage of Iraq's people and their hunger for freedom and decent governance. It advanced the US campaign to democratize a country that for 25 years had been misruled by a mass-murdering sociopath. It underscored the decision by Iraq's Sunnis, who had boycotted the parliamentary elections in January, to pursue their goals through ballots, not bullets. And it dealt a humiliating blow to the bombers and beheaders -- to the likes of Islamist butcher Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who earlier this year declared ''a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy" and threatened to kill anyone who took part in the elections.

No question: If you think that defeating Islamofascism, extending liberty, and transforming the Middle East are important, it's safe to say you saw the ratification of the new constitution as the Iraqi news story of the week.

But that isn't how the mainstream media saw it.

The reason I am surprised to see this is that the Boston Globe is the left-wing test arm of the New York Times. The NYT owns the Boston Globe and some of the most wacky leftist reporting is reserved for the paper. When they have some wild-ass thing that isn't appropriate for the "newspaper of record," that is where it goes to see how it flies.

And don't forget this...

Poll after poll confirms the public's low level of confidence in mainstream media news. Gallup recently measured that confidence at 28 percent, an all-time low. Why such mistrust? The media's slanted coverage of Iraq provides a pretty good clue.

Polls don't really excite me that much, though but there is a sickness in the US media. As I have posted on time-and-time again, the media isn't really presenting news anymore, its pushing an agenda. And the American public is no longer buying it, literally.

Restrictions Being Loosened on Chinese Yuan Currency....

As reported in the AP, loosening rules allow both Hong Kong residents and Mainland visitors freer access to exchanging the currencies. In my opinion, these looser restrictions seem to be forming a pattern that will make the Hong Kong Dollar and Chinese Yuan a single currency in the not-so-distant future.

The Hong Kong Dollar currently is pegged to the US$ and has a nominal value of approximately HK$7.78/US$1.00. The HK$ has recently appreciated nominally to 7.75 since whenever there is a large international H-share issue, like last weeks Bank of Communications, large amounts of foreign investment enter the Hong Kong market to buy these shares bidding up the value of the currency. These flows are difficult for the monetary authority here to handle and the currency is allowed to appreciate.

The Chinese currency now trades at approximately RMB8.05/US$1.00 after having been revalued around 3% this summer. The stock of money in China is much bigger and capital flows can be much easier absorbed once China gets their financial house in order. So, therefore, it is notable that the difference between the Hong Kong dollar and the Chinese Yuan is currently now only 3.7% and this leads me to believe that it will make sense for the SAR here to drop the HK$ in favor for the Chinese RMB at one point in the intermediate future. Additionally, there is pressure to allow the RMB to appreciate and any further appreciation will bring the currencies closer together in value.

The benefits for merging the currencies are obvious. The monetary authority here still relies on an outside entity to peg the value of the currency to the outside world, it gives Hong Kong banks and edge in competing on the global stage in China's financial markets and drive local Chinese banks to become more competitive.

Differing Accounts On Mine Divestiture....

China's mines, that I have dubbed as "Hellholes of Death," have been killing miners as unprecedented rates. Estimates approaching 20,000 mine accident deaths a year are incredible and China is feeling the heat to improve safety for the unfortunate people that work in the dangerous conditions. However, efforts had been confounded since many mines are small and owned, controlled or secretly controlled by local officials that have put their own profits over that of worker safety. Additionally, these officials have taken an active role in trying to deflect attention away from themselves as I wrote here.

Today's report in China Daily, details how a directive to report and sell off mine assets by government officials and executives of State Owned Enterprises has been successful.

Those who have withdrawn shares from coal mines include 3,002 civil servants and 1,576 heads of State-owned enterprises. They would be exempted from punishment, said Chen.

By October 20, 4,578 officials had reported investment in coal mines totaling 653 million yuan (US$80.5 million), said Vice-Minister of Supervision Chen Changzhi at a press conference.

Of the amount, 473 million yuan (US$56 million) has been withdrawn, Chen said, while summing up the two-month drive by four ministerial departments to clear collieries of officials' investment.

However, as I reported a while back, a Daily Standard commentary said,

But by the night of September 25, only 497 officials and SOE executives in nine provinces had agreed to give up their stakes in local coal mines, according to the State Administration of Work Safety, which oversees the execution of the State Council's order.

This figure is almost laughable, given that there are 24,000 small, privately run coal mines across the mainland. The administration itself estimates that "a considerable number of these 24,000 coal mines" have local officials as their shareholders.

So, according to the government, the divestiture has been a resounding success. However, this statement does not seem to hold much water when compared to some of the facts. Additionally, the government cannot be seen as failing in getting the officials and SOE executives to sell off their assets since this will show that the central government cannot control the local officials. I think that this issue goes a long way towards explaining the declaration of success found in the article.

But also, the Chinese people now have to hold the government accountable since they are declaring that the divestiture of the assets has been a success and this should lead to improved safety for the beleaguered mine workers. I think that this is highly unlikely and that the same dangerous practices will continue and that any decrease in the number of mine deaths will minor resulting from this policy without considerable further action.

Get A Chinese Name.....

You can have a Chinese name made for you, here.

Glenzo= Hu Kuang Li

Extensive and broad + reason and logic.... I like it. I think that it suits me just fine.

I Already Knew.....

that Bill Maher is a clueless moron. And not that funny either.