Ha Ha Ha...

I love reading liberal's material like here and here and here. The argument that Bill Clinton did all right and George Bush did all wrong is just not just silly, it is encrusted with conspiracy and deep illogic. I cannot argue against illogic nor the childish conspiracy theories that run deep through the Democratic parties mainstream. That is why I never argue with these people anymore. I just read this stuff and laugh. Good luck with your next election, with this kind of material you guys will continue to lose elections. How about a positive vision for the future one day? A utopian return to Clintonomics under the tutelage of Hillary?

What NOT To Do In The Philippines....

When visiting the Philippines, never show up the day before a major hurricane hits Manila as I did. I planned to start working on a project, but was unable to go to the office since the place is closed. The electricity is still out across most of the city as-well-as the country and there is a certain inexplicable edginess about the people. Service is dead slow and its extremely difficult to get around. Of course, my kids are having a blast since they arrived Friday night, but man its tiring.

We visited Intramuros today and going down to Tagaytay tomorrow. With us luck!

Al Sadr's Ugly Teeth....

33 year-old Anti-American Iraqi Shiite firebrand, Muqtada al-Sadr, shown here with his lovely teeth. I guess they don't teach one proper hygiene in Muslim wildman school.





If he fails at his current role, he seems uniquely suited to become a drunken brawler and beggar on the Bowery with the way he looks.

How To Drive Liberals Crazy....

Edition number 3,148. Read it and weep, or seethe if you are a DemNOcrat....

Former President Bill Clinton, never one to let truth stand in the way of a good line, has decided to reincarnate himself as our tough, anti-terror President. The man who ran away from military service and displayed striking contempt for our armed forces has now announced that he did more - and would do more - to combat Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda than anyone else. In his view, he should be recognized as the best man to fight that enemy.

I was also actually quite surprised at Clinton's continuation of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" image continuously being cast about. Conspiracy theories and all the baggage that they carry are a difficult task for a former President to carry-off and Clinton didn't handle this well. I usually see conspiracy theories from those that don't bother to try to use their intellect or to see the facts staring them straight in their face.

As far as I am concerned, Clinton is most concerned about Clinton. Any challenges that we faced as Americans and what successes we created are measured in the Clintonista world as to how HE looks as compared to these things. The defense of the nation is not about who looks better, did more, was astute at recognizing the risks, but what we need to do going forward to improve. That is not how Clinton see it through his little Clinton prism.

Too bad. He could be remembered as a great President but with behavior like this, the future will not look at him as well....

Talk and compromise - not clear moral principles and the will to do whatever is needed to support them - were the hallmarks of the Clinton Administration, reflecting the person at the top. Nothing Clinton says now can change that, though he still evinces conviction that he can talk us into anything - just as he thought he could when he denied point blank having had anything to do with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton always has been the one who, caught in a compromising position, would disarmingly ask, as the parody has it, "what are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" His instinct for lying, even under oath, earned him the second presidential impeachment in American history.

Clinton, a former President or just a mis-cast used car salesman?

Male Restroom Etiquette...

Must see the whole thing. Improper male restroom etiquette could lead to end of civilization as we know it.

Calling The IRS....

I did my yearly call to the IRS tonight to try to straighten out the problems that I have with taxes. I have to pay penalties and interest because its impossible to pay the right amount of estimated taxes and file the taxes on time. So be it. I was begged and ask nicely to have my penalties reduced and they did so to the tune of $100. Not bad for 30 minutes of work! But also I am having ongoing trouble with my son's 2003 tax year filing in which every check and the actually filing were lost that year. I have partially straightened it out, but my last communication with them has apparently been lost too! Oh well, I will have to send it to them again.

I was quite amused, that when I was put on hold, that the music that they play to keep one occupied is the "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies" from the "Nutcracker Suite." Someone has a sense of humor there!

China vs. Beer.....

Who do you think will win??

I Had Absolutely No Idea....

That today, September 19th, 2006 was talk like a pirate day. I would have enjoyed talking like a pirate all day if only I knew! I could have walked up to total strangers and talked like a pirate just for fun. Sorry that I missed it. But I really don't have to have an excuse like a special day to talk like a pirate, I can do that any day I want!!!



When I lived in New York, down near the Bowery, there were armies of guys that used to hang out down there spending all day, everyday, talking like pirates. Maybe I will talk like a pirate all next Wednesday just to entertain myself.

The Popes Comments Could Lead To War...

I think that we are already at war. Despite clarification and regret for the statements by the Pope, crazy Muslims continue to attempt inflame their 'brothers'....

The most extreme opinion was voiced by Hani Pahas in the London-based Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Hayat, who wrote "the pope's comments may lead to war; we fear that the pope's statements may lead to a war that we, Muslims and Christians alike, are trying to prevent through dialogue between East and West."

I think that Muslims are just a bunch of ignorant, uneducated and illiterate fools. I remember back in high school, otherwise bright people used to act stupid just to fit into the neighborhood culture. It was bizarre to see this action. If you were smart or took school seriously you weren't cool. We are destined to have a war with 'cool' Muslim clowns like this since the leaders and press in the Muslim world have no capacity for restraint or introspection.

If we reacted this way to every silly statement that some Muslim cleric or leader uttered [i.e. the crazy Iranians] it would be a very fine mess. Some liken this upcoming conflict as a clash of civilizations, but a clash of civilizations requires 2 civilizations and the Muslim world just doesn't count as one. They are inhumane fools bent on death and destruction.

One Of The Very Few Sensible Democrats....

Most of what I hear that comes from Democrats is nearly complete nonsense, but I was suprised by this piece written by former May of New York, Ed Koch...

My personal view is that if we told our regional allies -- Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan -- and our NATO allies that unless they join us with boots on the ground and share the casualties and cost of the ongoing war, we will leave; they would have no option but to come in; otherwise on our leaving the civil war would intensify and spill over Iraq's borders.

In all events, seeking as some do to make our involvement in Iraq a partisan issue and characterizing the President's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorists in an adversarial manner is endangering the country at a moment in time when we are facing an existential threat to our very survival as a nation.

Of course, the President, Vice President and Secretaries of Defense and State have made monumental mistakes in the conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Great mistakes in handling the war against terror were also committed by prior administrations. Now is the time for everyone to acknowledge the enormity of the danger we face and for reasonable people in both parties to join together to formulate a unified approach to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and indeed, to our foreign policy in the entire Middle East.

I have almost no respect for DemNOcrats but I respect him.

I Just Had To Post This....

Something, old, something new, something borrowed and something explosive...



Click on it to see a larger version. Unceremoniously ripped off from Jawa.

Investors Daily Editorial And The Worthless Bloviating Of The New York Times....

More reflection on what Pope Benedict had to say...

Religion: Benedict XIV takes a swipe at the idea of holy war and says reason need not be divorced from faith. That's cause for reflection, not Islamic outrage.

To judge from the angry reaction of some Muslim religious leaders, the pope really touched a nerve with his Tuesday address at Germany's University of Regensburg.

Turkey's top religious official called Benedict's word's "abhorrent, hostile and prejudiced." Senior Islamic officials in Kuwait demanded an immediate apology. In what may the ultimate excoriation, the head of a Pakistani Islamist party accused the pontiff of making "Bushlike statements."

Got to love the "Bushlike statements" wisecrack.

I think that the Pope is doing us all a huge favor. Someone has to start engaging Islam and their penchant to react to even slight adversity, aggressively and violently. And Muslim defenders have to dig way back, 1,000 years, to the Crusades to slap back at Christians, that went through centuries of reformation. Islam has a lot of explaining to do for their violence and it appears as if leaders are just not up to the task of dealing with Islam in the modern world. Ergo, the over-top-reactions.

However, the New York Times wants to appease and surrender to the Muslim fanatics. They fear the Muslims since the Muslims deal in death. The NYT's has no problem giving Christians a difficult time though, since they know that we will turn the other cheek and won't riot in the street, kill each other, burn embassies and generally go wild. But the feckless newspaper misses the whole point of what the Pontiff had to say, and that is there is no place for religious violence in this world... he believes and I agree with him, that violence in the name of God is irrational and God cannot be anything but rational so forced conversions and killing in his name is not something that he would desire.

And I thought that this sums it up pretty well...

It looks, from this miserable episode, as if you can only have a conversation that deals – however remotely – with Islam on Muslim terms. Not much of a dialogue, then.

Muslims are just not partners with the rest of humanity in today's world. We have to recognize that and hopefully one day they will too.

Oriana Fallaci....

Died. I read quite a bit about her and some of her famous interviews a while back. Interesting lady. Notable was her recent trouble with Islamists and the courts over some of her writings in Italy...

Controversial Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci is to face trial for allegedly insulting the Muslim faith in her latest book, a court in Italy says. Ms Fallaci is being sued by the head of the Muslim Union of Italy, who says The Force of Reason is defamatory

But true to her own thoughts she did not waver...

She was a hell of a writer, too, one of the greatest of our generation. Her tirades against Islamic Nazi-fascism appeared in thirty different languages and sold more than three million books. In hard cover.

Her thinking is applicable to the clashes going on in the media between Islam and everyone else...

But we shouldn't be in a hurry to bury her. For the moment, she's still very much with us. All you have to do is look at the news of the day, replete with the grotesque distortions of Pope Benedict’s thoughtful speech in Germany. Those distortions are driven by one her pet peeves: the politically correct fear of offending Muslims, any Muslims, even those who want us dead and decapitated. She and Benedict evidently hit it off quite well, truly the odd couple, she the lifelong atheist (albeit, in her delightfully paradoxical formulation, a 'Christian atheist') and he the lifelong theologian.

Economics At Work....

Higher fuel prices during the first half of the year, had led to... yes, you can guess it, a decrease in demand! So when prices rise, people use less of... Eureka!

World oil demand growth was weaker than expected in the first half of 2006, OPEC has said.

"World oil demand growth in 2006 has been revised down by 0.1 million barrels per day (bpd) since the last MOMR (OPEC monthly report) to stand at 1.2 million bpd, as recent data shows weaker-than-expected demand in the first half of the year," it said in its report for September on world oil markets.

The developing world, according to the article, accounts for 92% of the growth in consumption and demand for oil.

Muslims Angry Again...

So what else is new? And of course, Muslims react with angrer and violence. This time about a couple of quotes by the Pope in a speech from a scholar 500 years ago. And a little background would be appropriate since the Pope is scheduled to go to Turkey in the next couple of months where Catholic clergy members have been attacked and killed recently, apparently in religious inspired violence. So, the Pope, trying to define that tolerance to others religions and the violence inspired by it [Islam], is something that modern people have to have a dialogue about.

He began his speech at Regensburg University with what he conceded were "brusque" words about Islam: He quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor as having said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The pope then used the word jihad, or holy war, saying that violence was contrary to God's nature and to reason.

But at the end of a speech that did not otherwise mention Islam, he also said that reason could be the basis for "that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today."

So, the Pope is defining the dialogue by stating that embedded in Islam appears to be an acceptance of violence. He also said that the quote he used appeared 'brusque.' However, we people, that read the news everyday, see this violence played out over and over, from Muslims killing civilians in Russia, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Spain, Great Britain, Morocco, to just name some. So, Muslims, instead of looking inward at their selves feel compelled to react to others observations and fight against that. I guess that Muslims expect us to just quietly sit back while their practitioners slaughter innocents around the world in the name of God. So, the pushback from Muslim appologists, that we have come to expect, has come...

The sharpest rebuke inside Turkey came from Salih Kapusuz, the deputy leader of the ruling Justice and Development, or AK Party, who said that Benedict would go down in history "in the same category as leaders such as [Benito] Mussolini and [Adolf] Hitler." He told the state-owned Anatolia news agency that Benedict's comments were a deliberate attempt to "revive the mentality of the Crusades: He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages." He added that Benedict "is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world..."

These Muslims are just idiotic. They go around killing people and performing incredible acts of barbarous violence and they have the temerity to criticize reform in the Christian world that has been ongoing for the past 500 years since the reformation. THEY SHOULD BE PROVING TO US THAT THEY AREN'T VIOLENT OR BARBARIC. Since it sure as heck looks to me as if they are violent and barbaric.

These Muslims clowns are amazing. They have to project their own shortcomings onto others in order to justify their sick behavior towards non-Muslims. This is no religion of peace but a religion that has infected people's minds with hocus-pocus silliness and hatred. It is so difficult to respect Islam since the actions of Muslims are so violent. As far as I am concerned, they are the ones that have to earn our respect not that they for just being Muslims deserve it.

A nice piece on this at Powerline, The New York Times wants us to surrender to this silliness.

Test....

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Know Thine Enemy...

Apology or finally recognizing reality...

Well, I’m sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large.

What I Think Of American Liberals...

One picture is worth a thousand words.

Rain....

It was raining so hard today that the street in front of my house became a raging torrent and tore the asphalt off and washed it down the road. Now there is a big hole and picees of asphalt strewn all-over the place. Kind of dangerous I think.

Flying On September 11th....

I was down in Manila last week on a frantic business trip and spent a relaxing weekend in a wonderful idyllic seaside, Boracay.

I am quite impressed with the security procedures that passengers have to go through in order to get onto a plane in the Philippines. After removing my shoes and my belt the airport screeners discovered some wires in my backpack. They included the powerpack to my batteryless laptop, the mouse and a hardwire for internet connections that I always carry with me if the need arises. I had to exit the screening area and recheck the wires into my checked baggage, scrambling around with untied shoes and holding up my beltless pants. Additionally, one is not allowed to carry on any liquids or gels of any kind, probably due to the recent capture of terrorists in England that planned on using liquids to detonate bombs on US bound planes. Also, solid anti-perspirant such as a speedstick is also not allowed on hand luggage. Not good for sweaty people like me.

The flight on 9/11 from Boracay to Manila and from Manila to Hong Kong went without incident.

More Safe Or Less Safe Over The Last Five Years...

According to the CIA...

In five years, more than 5,000 terrorists have been captured or killed. Al-Qa'ida's core operational leadership has been decimated, and their successors are in hiding or on the run.

Would you consider this to be a failure or success?

I have heard many opinions that the US is less safe than it was five years ago. Since there has not had another attack by al-Qaeda on US soil and if there are 5,000 less terrorists than five years ago, how does one figure that the US is less safe. Is it because more terrorists have been created due to changes on US policies since 9/11 and this totals more than the 5,000? Or has their been less with greater competence or more with less competence?

I have heard and read this 'less safe' hypothesis only supported with the belief that we are creating more terrorists than we are killing. So is there some hard data to support this?

One can argue that Iraq has created more terrorists than 5,000 but are they local insurgents or global jihadists? If they are global jihadists, then the 5,000 number is way too low and there have been 10's of thousands more jihadists killed than the 5,000 number.

Democrats Livid Over Portrayal Of Clinton Whitehouse for the ABC 9/11 Mini-series...

Democrats are upset over the docu-drama mini-series presented by ABC on the lead up to 9/11...

Several former cabinet members call the show's portrayal of events "terribly wrong." Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger have written letters asking ABC to pull the program.

U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D, NY) said, "We demand that ABC run a disclaimer with every frame."

Oh well, the thing happened and some of the blame has to be laid on Democrats too. They are just as responsible for the security of the US as are the Republicans and the attack happened to all of us. In my opinion, there has been a multi-generational failure of Presidents starting with Jimmy Carter in assessing the risk associated with violent Islamic fanatics.

However, for the Democrats to call for a halt to the series or disclaimers appears to me to be somewhat troublesome and hypocritical. 1st Amendment rights, are 1st Amendment rights. And the DemNOcrats have been very willing to slam the Bush Administration on alleged violations of these rights. So therefore, they cannot turn around and cry that this is not fair. Remember, there were lots of anti-Bush material presented prior to the last Presidential election, for example Fahrenheit 9/11. No one would have dreamed that one should have had disclaimers or to pull it in order that Bush not be portrayed in a negative light.

So why the double standard?

One Of My Best Buddies From High School Died in A Motorcycle Accident...

After the death of his younger brother earlier this year in a car accident, my buddy from high school died in a motorcycle accident in Atlantic City. His brother had 3 kids, Anthony was childless [actually he has an adult child from a previous marraige. And a grandchild, to boot. Geez, I guess I didn't know him so well during that period.] but had spent several years after going to jail working with troubled teenagers in my hometown.

Its amazing that the two brothers, I think just one year apart in age die in vehicle accidents only 6 months apart. I called Tony after Charlie died and we chatted for an hour. He was doing very well and had started a successful business. Its really quite awful and I am very upset.

Beer Scam....

Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer."

The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex.

Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several beers, men will often succumb to the des ires to sleep with horrific looking women whom they would never normally be attracted. After drinking beer, men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that "something bad" occurred.

At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life's savings, in a familiar scam known as "a relationship." In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage." Men are much more susceptible to this scam after beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females.

Please! Forward this warning to every male you know. If you fall victim to this "Beer" scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimized men. For the support group nearest you, just look up "Golf Courses" in the phone book.

For a video to see how beer works click here, And watch her face:

Beer Demo, here.

Ceding Values?

Mark Steyn argues that the two journalists abducted by Palestinians and then forcibly converted to Islam at gunpoint is a big political victory for Islamists since it proves that the West has no core value....

But that's not how the al-Jazeera audience sees it. If you're a Muslim, the video is anything but meaningless. Not even the dumbest jihadist believes these infidels are suddenly true believers. Rather, it confirms the central truth Osama and the mullahs have been peddling -- that the West is weak, that there's nothing -- no core, no bedrock -- nothing it's not willing to trade. In his new book The Conservative Soul, attempting to reconcile his sexual temperament and his alleged political one, Time magazine's gay Tory Andrew Sullivan enthuses, "By letting go, we become. By giving up, we gain. And we learn how to live -- now, which is the only time that matters." That's almost a literal restatement of Faust's bargain with the devil:

"When to the moment I shall say
'Linger awhile! so fair thou art!'
Then mayst thou fetter me straightway
Then to the abyss will I depart!"

In other words, if Faust becomes so enthralled by "the moment" that he wants to live in it forever, the devil will have him for all eternity. In the Muslim world, they watch the Centanni/Wiig video and see men so in love with the present, the now, that they will do or say anything to live in the moment.

I cannot agree with this concoction.

Crazy Muslims and those prone to this kind of propaganda will think that the infidels are weak and have no core beliefs irrespective of what happens. For the non-Muslim non-al-Jazerra market, the Islamists are seen as showing their own religion to be weak and shallow.

As most believe, religion is a core value, and I do not think that most Muslims desire to die for nothing either. Some will identify and see how weak the and silly these radicals are and who are actually mocking their own religion giving it the status of a temporary and convenient sanctuary from death, one that can be renounced at a moments notice.

But I do think that Mark Steyn in this piece does make a valid point, that multi-culturalism, political correctness and something similar to what I call the Oslo Syndrome have driven non-Muslim citizens to behave as if their is nothing wrong. He observes that Muslims criminals in Australia cannot be identified as Middle-Eastern looking and that news organizations have descended to a level where they publish even inept and obvious Muslim propaganda and try to pawn it off to what they think is a stupid public as news.

Some of this is the fault of weak PC liberalism and of some people that refuse to see the risk in some of Islam's most virulent supporters. Some Islamists will do anything and say anything to achieve their narrow agenda and what they want. They are the ones that do this in the name of THEIR religion. It is Islam that has become tainted. And until we realize this and all fight back, we will be marked for death by these people.

'Crikey....

I've been stabbed in the heart by a stingray.' Animal show host, Steve Irwin, was killed while swimming near a stingray whose poisonous stinger [ergo stingray] punctured his heart. Must have been one big stingray to do that. I have seen his show on Discovery Channel where he pulls rattlesnakes and other poisonous creatures out of dark and dangerous places. His energy and enthusiasm for wildlife will be missed.

Battle Over Pluto Raging....

After Pluto loses its status as a planet last week, protests erupt over the reassignment...

Friends and colleagues of the late Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, gathered on the New Mexico State University campus to protest the International Astronomical Union's recent decision to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

More protests on campuses in the US over the status of Pluto than over the Iraq war!

The decision over Pluto's status was driven by the discovery of several other objects, mostly smaller, that also orbit the Sun but also have trans-Neptune elliptical orbits-in other words- the orbit of Pluto and these other object pass inside the orbit of Neptune. But the former planet does not meet several critical conditions...

There are three main conditions for an object to be called a 'planet', according to the IAU resolution passed August 24, 2006.

[1.]The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
[2.]The object must be massive enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium.
[3.]It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto fails to meet the third condition.

The IAU further resolved that Pluto be classified in the simultaneously created dwarf planet category, and that it act as prototype for a yet-to-be-named category of trans-Neptunian objects, in which it would be separately, but concurrently, classified.

The news of Pluto's reclassification by the IAU was met with a mixture of bemusement in the press alongside stories of an astronomer backlash against the decision. Multiple petitions exist online asking the IAU for reinstatement.

Dr. Alan Stern (leader of the NASA "New Horizons" mission to Pluto) has derided the IAU decision, stating "the definition stinks, for technical reasons." Stern's contention is that the new definition should also exclude Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune, all of which share their orbits with asteroids. A number of astronomers have announced that they will not use the new definition of planet and will continue to refer to Pluto as the ninth planet.

The battles rages! I blame Bush and the Israelis.

Quote of the Day...

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history, with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila