Al Gore's Whine

The Live Earth concerts didn't do much for the environment but they sure produced a lot of noise. From John Berlau's article in the American Thinker:

Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed "jumped the shark", as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize the general public. In particular, the puny turnout in Washington, DC, where Gore himself personally showed up, has proved an acute embarrassment.

But although Al Gore's Live Earth concerts have failed in the ratings, he appears to have partially succeeded at doing what does best: shifting blame for his woes to his political opponents and getting the media to go along. Since last weekend, the Net has been abuzz with stories of how Gore overcame Republicans who allegedly did everything they could to stop the concert from being performed on Washington's National Mall.

"Al Gore foils opponents," proclaimed Associated Press, after Gore had just announced a "surprise" Live Earth concert in Washington, D.C., the next day. "Global warming naysayers in the political world have not been able to have their way, because this will - despite their best efforts - be held on the Mall," Gore was quoted in the story as saying.

The next day, Gore again took a shot at the opponents who he said denied him the use of Washington's famous Mall - the area surrounding the Smithsonian Institution museums between the Capitol and the Washington Monument - and the press again largely parroted his claim. In his speech at National Museum of the American Indian last Saturday, which the Paris-based wire service AFP called "a thinly veiled hit on members of President George W. Bush's Republican party," Gore declared, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall."

And "some" media outlets, who don't understand or don't care that Gore is spinning them, allowed him to peddle the biggest set of urban myths to appear on the Internet since Gore "took the initiative in creating" it.

If at first you don't succeed, blame someone else.

To start with, the Washington "show" consisted of country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood added to preexisting events with Indian artists. As Carter Wood observed at the National Association of Manufacturers' blog ShopFloor.org: "The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian had already scheduled a day of events -- including the Indian Summer Showcase 2007, which appeared to be absorbed into ‘Mother Earth - In the Spirit of the Live Earth Concerts.' There were already going to be performances, drum circles and spiritual/environmental speeches by tribal leaders. Al Gore and the Smithsonian's organizers just figured a way to add Gore's overtly political address and the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood performance to an existing event."

But Gore's most blatant falsehood - as phony as a three-dollar carbon credit - is his claim that Republican lawmakers or global warming "deniers" prevented him from holding the concert on the Mall. This spread through the left-wing blogosphere like the proverbial wild fire, with entries on ThinkProgress claiming that Republicans "had tried to block the event from happening in DC" and on Daily Kos declaring that "[d]espite Republican efforts ...to deny this, Friday Al Gore announced LiveEarthDC."

Nothing new here. The nutroots latch on to conspiracy rumors like tics on a passing hound dog. And like tics they burrow deeply into the flesh and feed off it as long as they can.

In truth, the only thing some GOP lawmakers objected to was an unusual last-minute effort to hold the concert on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, after its organizers discovered that Mall had already been booked for other events. Use of the Mall had been denied to Gore and his colleagues for one reason: they failed to apply for the proper permits before other parties had. And one of the groups "blocking" Live Earth's use of the Mall happened to be the Smithsonian Institution itself.

The truth is that Gore's desires for a huge concert on the Mall were actually thwarted not by Republicans, but by a very talented group of Irish Riverdance cloggers, Vietnamese folk artists, and African-American gospel singers. They were performing as scheduled at the acclaimed annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival and at a gospel show sponsored by the predominantly black Christian organization Together One Unity.

It seems the "nefarious right-wingers" who organized these folk and gospel fests had the temerity to schedule their events with the National Park Service, which runs the Mall, weeks and months before Live Earth's organizers ever contacted the agency, and then not call them off when Gore let out a sneeze.

[...] If Gore had really wanted a big event on the Mall, all he would have had to do was pick another weekend. The big bad Bush Administration and the mean old Republican-controlled Congress placed no obstacles in the way of antiwar rallies and Earth Day events held on the Mall in the past few years that bashed the President and the party. The Park Service issues permits in a professional manner without regard to an event's ideological content. But it will not let an event jump in front of the line, even if the organizer is a former vice president and Academy Award winner. As the Washington political newspaper The Hill explained, "Getting access to the Mall comes on a strict first-come, first-serve basis."

But that doesn't make headlines. There is no righteous conflict, no controversy over readily available guidelines to staging events on public property. No controversy? No problem. We'll invent some.

Gore's friends in Congress, namely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, then tried to bail out Gore's lack of planning with a thoroughly impractical alternative: putting the concert on the Capitol building's West Lawn. With rare exceptions, the only large public gatherings there are the National Symphony Orchestra concerts on the 4th of July and Memorial Day. Much attention was paid to Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-OK, who regularly challenges Gore's views on humans role in global warming and the effects of climate change, calling the concert a "partisan political event" that shouldn't be held on Capitol grounds. Gore shot back, with his oft-repeated claim that climate change is a "moral issue."

But even Democrats reportedly chafed at some of the practical impediments to holding Gore's extravaganza on the West Lawn. An all-day concert drawing huge crowds on the grounds of the Capitol, as opposed to a three-hour symphony performance there at night, could have posed formidable security challenges for those guarding the Capitol building. Plus, in the holiday concerts, the Mall is utilized to pick up the overflow in the crowds from the West Lawn. But, in this case, of course, the Mall would be hosting its own events and would be unable to absorb as much of the overflow.

I have participated in for public safety planning for events that involved thousands of people. It isn't easy to draw together the various public agencies needed to address safety issues for large gatherings. That's why there are time considerations when applying for these kinds of events. Even in private venues these planning considerations come into play.

These concerns may be part of the reason Democrats on the Hill backed off as soon as practical questions about the event were being raised. Unlike Inhofe, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, merely refused to let Reid's bill on Gore's concerts clear the Senate with "unanimous consent." According to The Hill, McConell wasn't necessarily opposed to hosting the concert at the Capitol, but "wanted more time for his side to look at the resolution." Reid soon backed off, and Gore announced that the concert would be in New Jersey. The fact that Reid and Gore didn't push harder suggests that they may never have wanted an actual concert on the Capitol grounds, but merely an issue to beat-up Republicans with.

In the meantime, out of the media spotlight, thousands of people gathered on the Mall for the festivals that had been properly booked. As Ludacris and Madonna crooned (if you can call it that) in the bask of media attention, the Folklife Festival was abuzz with the sounds of Southeast Asian flute music, folk songs and dances from Northern Ireland, and the bluegrass tunes of rural Virginia.

We'll Take A Greyhound

I usually drive wherever I go, so my sightseeing is generally restricted to glances away from the roadway. If the scenery is particularly impresssive, I'll pull over to take a good, long look or take a photo. America has some spectacular visages and someday I hope to see more of them. But I kinda wonder if I am ready for this.

LAGUNA NIGUEL - WARNING: If you are eating, stop. You are about to read about bottoms. Five thousand of 'em, all bared in the name of … well, that's hard to say.

No one at the 28th annual Mooning of Amtrak seems to know exactly why they pull down their pants every time a train goes by.

I wonder if sociologists have a specific reference, a nomenclature, for dropping trou and waving your ass at total strangers.
Or perhaps there is another reason for this. Are their butts too warm? Or too cold? Is there a priest inside the train throwing holy water out a window and giving a buttock benediction? Perhaps there is a curative effect to having a chain-link cross hatch pattern embedded in your ass.

They just hear the cry of "Train," and respectable men and women – we're talking grandmothers and grandfathers, guys who stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day and women who run day-care centers, OK? – sprint to this chain-link fence like lemmings, cackling and cajoling each other to join in.

It just doesn't fit in with my time schedule. The things I really want to do and the time I have to do them does not allow for casual butt baring.

Even the origins of this Orange County phenomenon (it's been featured on the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, and Ripley's Believe it or Not) are a bit fuzzy. It supposedly started 28 years ago in the Mugs Away Saloon when patron K.T. Smith vowed to buy a drink for anyone who'd cross the street and moon a train.

But ask if anyone remembers this guy and they say no. He moved to Idaho. Or Iowa. Or somewhere. Regardless, the legend lives on. And it's morphed into one of the most bizarro assemblages of humanity you'll meet anywhere: part Family Day, part "Girls Gone Wild," part street fair with mom; part Harley Rally on Spring Break.

What's good for one set of asses is good for another, so a few of the passengers on the train respond in like fashion. Of course there is a difference between the ass prints left on a chain link fence and those left on a train window.

Gramma Claire Lema of Riverside will end up giving members of her brood a towel – which she brought for soda spills and such – to wipe the windows clean of any telltale smudges left from the goings-on. (Moonings on the train are strictly verboten, but some passengers get rambunctious in returning the favor to the crowds.)

And I thought I was being careful when I packed some Benadryl. Hopefully Gramma also packs some Windex, Lysol spray and muriatic acid in case those windows don't clean up so well.

Another One Bites The Dust

I graduated from Moonbat Central (Syracuse University) in 1971. My oldest daughter was born during the Kent State riots in 1970. Needless to say, by the time I graduated I had my fill of bandanna clad wannabe revolutionaries.

One of those wannabes was David Ifshin. I remember this shithead running around campus like a little Che' windup toy. He went to North Vietnam in December of 1970 to preach his virulent brand of anti-American rhetoric with other student traitors activists. This traitorous piece of crap became Willy Clinton's general campaign counsel for the other traitorous piece of crap's sucessful run at the presidency. IMHO, the only praiseworthy act committed by this man was to die at an early age, 47, in 1996.

By now you may be wondering why I am celebrating this traitorous piece of crap's death eleven years after it occured. I'm not celebrating Ifshin's death (though I did do a little happy dance in my head when I first read of his demise). I am celebrating the demise of a liberal institution that has bred thousands of Ifshins over the decades. Antioch College.

If Syracuse University is Moonbat Central, then Antioch was the Moonbat Mothership. I can envision the mass suicide of hundreds of Daily Kos Kids once they learn that the butthole of the moonbat universe has finally slammed shut for the last time; it has pinced it's final liberal loaf. The mind numbed droppings of socialist professors have to find another spawning pond in which to propagate their species.

George Will has written a eulogy for Antioch College that details some of it's contributions to American society.

DURING THE CAMPUS convulsions of the late 1960s, when rebellion against any authority was considered obedience to every virtue, the film "To Die in Madrid," a documentary about the Spanish Civil War, was shown at a small liberal arts college famous for, and vain about, its dedication to all things progressive.

When the film's narrator intoned, "The rebels advanced on Madrid," the students, who adored rebels and were innocent of information, cheered. Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, had been so busy turning undergraduates into vessels of liberalism and apostles of social improvement that it had not found time for the tiresome task of teaching them tedious facts, such as that the rebels in Spain were Franco's fascists.

But this is a typical liberal education. Never let the facts interfere with a good emotional outpouring against "the man."

That illustrates why it is heartening that Antioch will close after the 2007-08 academic year. Its board of trustees says the decision is to "suspend operations" and it talks dottily about reviving the institution in 2012. There is, however, a minuscule market for what Antioch sells for a tuition, room and board of $35,221 -- repressive liberalism unleavened by learning.

Founded in 1852 -- its first president was Horace Mann -- Antioch was, for a while, admirable. One of the first colleges to enroll women and blacks, it was a destination for escaped slaves. Its alumni include Stephen Jay Gould, Coretta Scott King and Rod Serling, whose "Twilight Zone" never imagined anything weirder than what Antioch became when its liberalism curdled.

Rod Serling was a native Upstate New Yorker. He hailed from Skaneateles, about twenty miles from here. Fortunately he attended Antioch prior to it's capture and conversion.

In 1972-73, Antioch had 2,470 students. In 1973, a protracted and embittering student and employee strike left the campus physically decrepit and intellectually toxic. By 1985, enrollment was down 80 percent. This fall there may be 300 students served by a faculty of 40.

I see that Antioch's death has been a long, slow, debilitating one. Intellectual cancer does that.

In 1993, Antioch became an international punch line when it wrote rules to insure that all sexual conduct would be consensual, step by minute step: "If the level of sexual intimacy increases during an interaction ... the people involved need to express their clear verbal consent before moving to that new level." Does consent to a touch cover a caress? Is there consent regarding all the buttons?Although laughable, Antioch was not funny.

Former public radio correspondent Michael Goldfarb matriculated at what he calls the "sociological petri dish" in 1968. In his first week, he twice had guns drawn on him, once "in fun" and once by a couple of drunken ex-cons "whom one of my classmates, in the interest of breaking down class barriers, had invited to live with her." A true Antiochian still, Goldfarb says: "I do think I was made stronger for having to deal with these experiences."

Antioch sounds more like a sociological cesspool. I wonder if Mr. Goldfarb thinks he would be even stronger if the trigger was pulled two or three times? And speaking of pulling the trigger, read on about Antioch's proclivities for peaceful resolution and how the institution invites speakers who reflect the highest morals and ideals...

Steven Lawry -- Antioch's fifth president in 13 years -- came to the college 18 months ago. He told Scott Carlson of The Chronicle of Higher Education about a student who left after being assaulted because he wore Nike shoes, symbols of globalization. Another left because, she told Lawry, the political climate was suffocating: "They all think they are so different, but they are just a bunch of conformists."

Carlson reports that Lawry stopped the student newspaper's practice of printing "announcements containing anonymous, menacing threats against other students for their political views."

Antioch likes to dabble in menace: It invited Mumia Abu-Jamal to deliver its 2000 commencement speech, which he recorded on death row in a Pennsylvania prison, where he lives because 26 years ago he shot a Philadelphia police officer first in the back, then three times in the face.

This is one of the reasons why I truly despise liberal philosophy. It's the out and out insanity of closed thinking. I was exposed to a lot of different experiences as a student. I had to work full time for my last last two and a half years of college (senior and post grad) so I was spared from the total "campus experience." Unfortunately many students never recover as evinced by the following...

In an essay in the Chronicle, Cary Nelson, Antioch class of 1967 and now a professor of English at the University of Illinois, waxes nostalgic about the fun he had spending, as Antioch students did, much time away from campus, receiving academic credits.

What Nelson calls "my employee resistance to injustice" got him "released from almost every job I had until I became a faculty member." But "my little expenditure was never noticed" when "I used some of Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty money" to bus anti-Vietnam war protesters from Harlem to Washington.

Given that such was Antioch's idea of "work experience" in the "real world," it is unsurprising that the college never produced an alumni cohort capable of enlarging the college's risible $36 million endowment.

Those who can, do; those who can't teach.

I wonder how many of our nation's college instructors are like Cary Nelson, who views the misappropriation of government funds as a lark. Nelson sounds suspiciously like a congressman.

I've Been Busy

I took this week off to work on a major remodeling project at my church. It's all volunteer work and I've been putting in 12 hours a day. I hurt my elbow on Monday and then I really tore up a tendon today. So I'm sitting her with an ice pack on my elbow and hoping the ibuprofen works. I can't even make a fist. It hurts to type so I'm going to stop.

UPDATE:

15 JUL 05 - Got a ton of stuff accomplished this week. It's amazing what ibuprofen, ice and a tennis elbow brace can do. I got some more mud I have to throw up on the walls before they can finish painting but it is looking good.

Are Nukes Back In Play?

It appears that nuclear power may be coming out of the penalty box.

BOSTON - Thanks to global warming, nuclear energy is hot again. Its promise of abundant, carbon-emissions-free power is being pushed by the president and newly considered by environmentalists. But any expansion won't come cheaply or easily.

The enormous obstacles facing nuclear power are the same as they were in 1996, when the nation's last new nuclear plant opened near the Watts Bar reservoir in Tennessee after 22 years of construction and $7 billion in costs.

France produces approximately 80% of its electricity from nuclear power.

There is also fervent anti-nuke sentiment waiting to be restoked. Jim Riccio of Greenpeace said nuclear advocates are exploiting global-warming fears to try to revive an industry that's too risky to fool with."You have better ways to boil water," Riccio said.

But notice how Riccio also fails to mention any alternatives. If Riccio knows a better way then why doesn't he mention it?

But environmentalists aren't in lock step on the issue. Bill Chameides, chief scientist for Environmental Defense, said anything that helps alleviate global warming must be an energy option."I think it's somewhat disingenuous that folks who agree that global warming is such a serious issue could sort of dismiss it out of hand," he said. "It's got to be at least considered."

It's surprising to hear this discussion among environmentalists.

The U.S. has 104 commercial reactors, including five in Florida, that supply about 20 percent of the country's power.

The Department of Energy projects a 45 percent growth in electricity demand by 2030, meaning 35 to 50 new nuclear plants will be needed by then just to maintain nuclear's share of the energy market, said Scott Peterson of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's chief lobbying arm.

That growing demand, not global warming, "has been the single biggest factor in companies looking at building large nuclear plants again," Peterson said.

Must be all those power-gobbling 46" plasma HDTV's with the home theaters attached. Seriously, where do people think all the juice is going to come from?

Unfortunately NIMBY determines a lot of the politics surrounding power generating facilities. Look at the situation in Massachusetts when Sen. Kennedy nixed the creation of a wind farm in Nantucket Sound last year. These wind generators would have produced 75% of the electricity needed by Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Seems like the Senator is all for environmentally friendly electricity as long as it is produced far away from his property.

What's In The News - July 8, 2007

ROSWELL, N.M. - If for no other reason than to dress like a fruitcake:

If you truly believe a UFO and its crew of bug-eyed aliens came crashing down here 60 years ago, rest assured: You're not alone. At least 35,000 people have escended on Roswell this weekend for the 2007 Amazing Roswell UFO Festival to commemorate a purported flying saucer crash on a nearby ranch in July 1947. Participants have filled hotel rooms and nearly doubled the southeastern New Mexico town's population

LONDON, ENGLAND - It's the *cough* biggest effort yet *gasp* to Save *choke* The Planet.

"If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down!" Thus
Madonna revealed her plan to combat global warming. Clad in a black satin
leotard, she gyrated with dancers and simulated sex with an amplifier and a
guitar.

Don't read anymore of this tripe if you want to Save Your Lunch. In an emergency meeting, the Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Fenders has sent Madonna a "cease and desist" order for violating the International Washed Up/Wore Out/Rock Whore Sex With Electronic Devices Act of 1987.

John Buckley of Carbon Footprint, an organization that helps companies reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, said Saturday that Live Earth will produce about 74,500 tons of the gas."We would have to plant 100,000 trees to offset the effect of Live Earth," he said, speaking by telephone.

I'll tell you where you can plant 'em too. And you'd better do it by hand using gardening implements made from flint.

San Rafael, CA. - Goat lovers from all over the world are converging on San Rafael, sorta like the UFO fruitloops flocking to Roswell.

More than 240 goats were killed Friday morning when a big-rig carrying them tipped over in San Rafael's Canal area. Many of the animals, en route to clear vegetation in Mill Valley, suffocated when the rig overturned near Irene Street on "The Loop" traffic route, police said.

The flags of a dozen Islamic nations have been lowered to half mast in mourning for these potential brides. San Rafeal is about twenty klicks north of San Francisco.

The horrific scene took its toll on Marin Humane Society officials. Humane Society Sgt. Michelle Rogers, among the crew digging through wreckage, said 243 dead goats were pulled out of the tipped truck.

"I need a moment," she said, stepping away to compose herself.

Oh the capranity!

Ya Can't Uncook An Omlete, Or A Terrorist

Doctors in Scotland are in frenzy trying to save the life of one of the Glasgow bombers who received grieveous burns.

London, July 6: Kafeel Ahmed, 27, the former Bangalore man who suffered 90 per cent burns when he doused himself in petrol and set himself alight at Glasgow airport last Saturday, has been moved into a specialist unit in a desperate attempt to save his life.

I hopefully this unit has a steam table to keep him warm. Maybe it specializes in spreading marmalade and placing catsup on the home fries.

Kafeel, who was initially taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, has been transferred to a specialist burns unit Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he continues to be kept under armed guard.

The Royal Infirmary kitchen is where he belongs, right next to the sausage links and bacon strips.

Pictures were taken by members of the public with their mobile telephone cameras immediately after the flaming Jeep Cherokee was driven by Kafeel and his associate, Bilal Abdulla, into the terminal building at Glasgow airport. One shows Kafeel’s skin had peeled off.

Denny's should sponsor a new anti-terrorist breakfast special - the Kafeel Slam. Three eggs boiled in their shells, toast with petroleum jelly and an orange peel garnish.

Charley's Jokes

1. A man comes into the ER and yells, "My wife's going to have her baby in the cab!" I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, Lifted the lady's dress, and began to take off her underwear. Suddenly I noticed that there were several cabs ---and I was in the wrong one.. > > Submitted by Dr. Mark MacDonald, San Francisco

2. At the beginning of my shift I placed a stethoscope on an elderly and slightly deaf female patient's anterior chest wall. "Big breaths," I instructed. "Yes, they used to be," replied the patient. > > Submitted by Dr. Richard Byrnes, Seattle , WA

3. One day I had to be the bearer of bad news when I told a Wife that her husband had died of a massive myocardial infarct. Not more than five minutes later, I heard her reporting to the rest of the family that he had died of a "massive internal fart." > > Submitted by Dr. Susan Steinberg

4. During a patient's two week follow-up appointment with his cardiologist, he informed me, his doctor, that he was having trouble with one of his medications. "Which one?" I asked. "The patch, the Nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours and now I'm running out of places to put it!" I had him quickly undress and discovered what I hoped I wouldn't see. Yes, the man had over fifty patches on his body! Now, the instructions include removal of the old patch before applying a new one. > > Submitted by Dr. Rebecca St. Clair, Norfolk , VA

5. While acquainting myself with a new elderly patient, I asked, "How long have you been bedridden?" After a look of complete confusion she answered.."Why, not for about twenty years - when my husband was alive." > > Submitted by Dr. Steven Swanson-Corvallis, OR

6. I was performing rounds at the hospital one morning and while checking up on a woman I asked, "So how's your breakfast this morning?" "It's very good, except for the Kentucky Jelly. I can't seem to get used to the taste" the patient replied. I then asked to see the jelly and the woman produced a foil packet labeled "KY Jelly." > > Submitted by Dr. Leonard Kransdorf, Detroit , MI

7. A nurse was on duty in the Emergency Room when a young woman with purple hair styled into a punk rocker Mohawk, sporting a variety of tattoos, and wearing strange clothing, entered. It was quickly determined that the patient had acute appendicitis, so she was scheduled for immediate surgery. When she was completely disrobed on the operating table, the staff noticed that her pubic hair had been dyed green, and above it there was a tattoo that read, "Keep off the grass." Once the surgery was completed, the surgeon wrote a short note on the patient's dressing, which said, "Sorry,had to mow the lawn." > > Submitted by RN no name

AND FINALLY!!!.................

8. As a new, young MD doing his residency in OB , I was quite embarrassed when performing female pelvic exams. To cover my embarrassment I had unconsciously formed a habit of whistling softly. The middle-aged lady upon whom I was performing this exam suddenly burst out laughing and further embarrassing me. I looked up from my work and sheepishly said, "I'm sorry. Was I tickling you?" She replied, "No doctor, but the song you were whistling was, "I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener". > > Dr. - Wouldn't submit his name

H/T to Charley the Cop

Huh?

This is a zebrula - a cross between a horse and a zebra. It can be seen at a zoo in Germany.

Nuff said.

Celebrating the 2nd Amendment

Today all of us went to the range for a three hour session of flintlocks, percussion rifles, shotguns, assault rifles and handguns. Oh, and I forgot the cannon. And the mortar.

Kabooom! It shoots golf balls. The owner, a 74 year old black powder enthusiast, made it himself. His friend brought along a hand made mortar (I thought I took a picture but I didn't, rats!) that fires a cement cylinder the size of a frozen juice concentrate container. It was a hoot watching these field pieces fire projectiles with bright orange streamers attached. The streamers didn't do anything for accuracy of course, but you could watch the cylinder in flight. Five hundred feet up and a hundred yards down range.

There is something about freedom and the sight of three of my daughters firing a Bushie M4.

God bless America.

Naturalization Test Answers

Answers:
1. July 4, 1776
2. Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia.
3. 435
4. Speaker of the House
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Congress
7. The 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments 8. The right to vote.
9. For countries to discuss and try to resolve world problems or to provide economic aid to many countries.
10. John G. Roberts, Jr.
11. A Republic
12. The Preamble
13. 27
14. The American Indians/Native Americans 15. Form N-400 16. Nine 17. It freed the slaves.
18. The Cabinet
19. The first 13 states
20. There is no limit.

Fourth of July - The Road To U.S. Citizenship

I don't think there are many people who simply want to restrict all immigration into this country. Most of us understand that this is a nation of immigrants and we welcome those from other lands who want to becomes citizens of this great nation of ours. Many people dream of becoming Americans and securing for their children the freedom and opportunities that they do not have in their native lands.

The road to becoming a naturalized American citizen can be daunting for someone who is not familiar with our culture and does not understand our language. But we welcome those who have this desire for citizenship. We welcome them all as long as they understand and obey the laws of our land.

The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen. In Acts 22:24 a Roman officer orders him beaten (scourged) and nearly soils himself when he finds out that Paul is a Roman citizen.

Ac 22:24 the chief captain commanded him be brought into the castle, bidding that he should be examined by scourging, that he might know for what cause they so shouted against him.

25 And when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

26 And when the centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him, saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman.

27 And the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? And he said, Yea.

28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship. And Paul said, But I am a Roman born.

29 They then that were about to examine him straightway departed from him: and the chief captain also was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

The Captain was afraid; and he had not beaten him, merely tied Paul up. To be a Roman Citizen bestowed certain rights and privileges that non-citizens did not have. The Roman soldiers knew this and were afraid. Some of them undoubtedly were not citizens..

To be a U.S. citizen confers many rights and privileges that a non-U.S. citizen is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE. This is the rub. People pour across our borders and demand the same privilege's that citizens have. Our pandering politicians give them these privileges and expect the American public to accept this sorry state of affairs.

You want to be a U.S. citizen? You want to obey our laws and love this country as your own? Then God bless you my friend.

The following is a list of qualifications for citizenship. What really pisses me off is item #3 below. The recent immigration bill that was shot down directly violates this stipulation.

From the Post Standard:

To be eligible, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services department requires that candidates:
1) Be at least 18 years of age.
2) Have been lawfully admitted as a permanent resident (with a green card) for at least five continuous years.
3) Have no criminal record.
4) Can read, write and speak simple phrases in English.
5) Understand and know U.S. history and government.
6) Have good moral character.

The definition of bad moral character includes a conviction of one or more vile crimes, polygamy, prostitution, habitual drunkenness, income earned from illegal gambling, failure to support dependents and conviction of any controlled substance law, except for a single offense of possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.) Candidates must then fill out a 10-page application with submitted photos and pay a $400 fee, which will increase to $675 on July 30.

The person applying for citizenship must then pass a 96 question test. Here is a sample of twenty of them:

1. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted? (Answer needs to include month, day and year)
2. What were the original 13 states?
3. How many voting members are in the House of Representatives?
4. Who becomes President if both the President and Vice President die?
5. Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence?
6. What group has the power to declare war?
7. Name the amendments that guarantee or address voting rights.
8. What is the most important right granted to United States citizens?
9. Name one of the purposes of the United Nations?
10. Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
11. What kind of government does the United States have?
12. What is the introduction to the Constitution called?
13. How many changes, or amendments, are there to the Constitution?
14. Who helped the Pilgrims in America?
15. What U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form is used to apply for naturalized citizenship?
16. How many Supreme Court Justices are there?
17. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
18. What special group advises the President?
19. What do the stripes on the flag represent?
20. How many times may a Senator or Congressman be re-elected?

I'll post the answers tomorrow.

Operation Allah's Flashlight

In a stunning turn of events, two "Asian" men ran a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the entrance of the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, where it erupted into flames.




From the UK Daily Mail:

Eyewitnesses said two Asian men were in a Jeep Cherokee which was driven at speed with flames coming out from underneath at 3.15pm this afternoon.

After the crash, one of men, whose clothes were on fire, jumped out of the car and ran into the terminal building where he was tackled by a heroic holidaymaker. Police then jumped on top of him as flames continued to rise from his body while terrified onlookers fled in all directions.

One eyewitness, who knocked the terrorist suspect over with his forearm said: "The man was wrestling with police on the ground.

"I had seen him and the other man get out of the car. The flames were burning through his clothes. Police were telling everybody to get back.

The man was burnt rather badly, it is reported that he suffered burns to over 90 percent of his body.

Be watchful and keep an eye peeled for the next installment of Operation Allah's Flashlight.

This fiendish plan utilizes an ancient technology to create panic and to strike terror throughout the Western world.

It is known as L.E.M.

Light Emitting Muslims.

As efforts to curb terrorism have put a crimp in the international Semtex trade, other resources are being used to create fear in the hearts of Brits. Ergo the L.E.M. attacks. Muslims may burst into flames from any point of the compass at any time. So be certain to always have a cool liquid readily available, and perhaps a comfortable folding camp chair, in order to enjoy the spectacle when the occasion arises...

More Al-Foolery

In this installment of the Chicago Sun-Times, Al "Screamin' Mad" Gore and his Save the World GlowBull Warmening Circus are taken to task. Global warming tends cool down a bit under cold analysis of the facts.

In his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore pleads, "We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth." Gore repeatedly asks that science and reason displace cynical political posturing as the central focus of public discourse.

Science and Reason according to Al Gore's medical dosing cycle is the proper context of course.

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

Winding up for the intellectual smacker pie, one has to ask this question, "What didn't he know and when didn't he know it?" The answer is, "Yes, all the time."

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."

Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, "Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit.

Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine."

Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes. [Emphasis mine]

This is the deadly "Gore claims ... Yet" formula, known to cause liberal asshats to rend their own flesh in agony before their heads explode. I wish my hemorrhoids were shrinking as fast as Gore claims the glaciers are.

Don't you know we're all going to die in ten years if we don't *insert liberal mantra here* right now this very moment and even then it may be too late??!!??

I kinda derailed my train of thought because for a minute I thought Gore was blaming global warming for causing more tomatoes. I'm okay now. But I really like tomatoes.

Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.

Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, "Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa." [Emphasis, again, is contribution to Gore's debacle.]

Gore claims... and misses again. This passage is a variation of the "Gore claims .... Yet" formula. "However", however, is equally devestating.

Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, "the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain." In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s. [Emphasis, well, you know...]

The "Gore argues .... But" format is the terminal stage. No other contradictory element need be introduced after this. Global Warmening is now in meltdown, but not from the heat. Eventually a lack of oxygen will starve this inconvenient calumniation of science, this distortion of truth, this, this, this... pile of shit.

I dare say the Danes have also incurred the Wrath of Gore for refuting his illogical, inescapable, financially induced, spectacularly inaccurate, cross-my-offsets-and-hope-to-die scientific conclusions. Also know as bold ass lies.

Each of these cases provides an opportunity for Gore to lead by example in his call for an end to the distortion of science. Will he rise to the occasion? Only time will tell.

And ruin his retirement portfolio? Are you crazy?? This carbon offset BS is the sweetest scam Al Gore has managed to pull since his zinc mine was listed as a major environmental polluter.

THE WRATH OF GORE

Yeah, yeah I know. My PhotoShop (free knock off) kung fu is weak... Can any one fix this?

Let's Talk Border Control

Immigration Reform

Taking The Law When No One Else Will

The new Subway motto is "Eat Dead."

PLANTATION, Fla. -- One man is dead and another in critical condition after the duo was shot by a customer while they were attempting to rob a Plantation Subway shop Wednesday night, police said. Police said 71-year-old John Lovell II used a licensed gun to shoot the alleged robbers at the Subway on North Pine Island Road and Sunrise Boulevard.

According to investigators, two armed men entered the restaurant, pointing guns and demanding money. Lovell turned around and saw a gun pointed at his face. Plantation police said that's when he took the law into his own hands.

"As the customer was being forced into the restroom at gunpoint, the customer, who was in fear for his life and legally armed, shot the robbery suspects," said Plantation Police Department spokesman Robert Rittig.

Police said one of the suspects was fatally shot in the head. He was identified as 22-year-old Donicio Ricardo Arrindell. The other suspect, 21-year-old Fredrick Gerard Gadson, was shot in the chest and was able to run nearly 300 yards into a nearby Bank Atlantic parking lot while trying to escape, police said.

I am getting to really dislike the phrase "took the law into his own hands" as if there was anyone else there to do it. The cops were no where to be found when this went down. Since when are you taking the law into your own hands when you defend yourself from being robbed at gun point?

Thank God They're OK

It has been a hellish stretch of road for our brothers in the NY State Police. One Trooper narrowly escaped death in the following incident as reported in the Post Standard. It happened yesterday:

HELD AT TROOPER'S HEAD, GUN JAMMED

Ronald E. McCarthy, of Granby, had already rammed his minivan into a trooper's SUV, attacked him with a 4-by-4 and fought through pepper spray, according to police. Now the 250-pound man had state police Sgt. Joseph Domagola pinned against a roadside guiderail, pressing the trooper's pistol against the back of Domagola's head, witnesses told state police.

"Oh, my God! No! Don't do it!" shouted a woman driving by, according to one witness.

By chance, the .45-caliber Glock malfunctioned.

With the help of another officer and passers-by, Domagola wrestled McCarthy to the ground and handcuffed him, witnesses said. McCarthy, 45, of 250 state Route 48, is charged with attempted murder of a police officer, attempted aggravated assault of a police officer and menacing a police officer, all felonies.

This is where you got to suck it up, wrestling on the side of a country road with a maniac trying kill you with your own gun. This is the stuff cop nightmares are made of.

The drama began at about 5 a.m. Saturday when state police got a call asking them to respond to a suspicious fire at the McCarthy residence, said Maj. Frank J. DeGennaro, the commander of state police Troop D.

The home was severely damaged. State police Investigator Scott Harrington interviewed McCarthy, who said he returned to his home at 3 a.m. after being out of town. McCarthy said he became upset because his wife and family were gone and some of their personal belongings, as well as family furniture, were also missing.

During the interview, McCarthy was distraught and angry over issues with his family, DeGennaro said. McCarthy left the state police barracks at around 8 a.m.

McCarthy came back to the barracks around noon, swore at his family and police, threw an empty beer bottle at a Trooper and then sped off. That's like chumming the water in the Sea World Shark Tank.

DeGennaro said Domagola witnessed the incident, hopped into his marked Chevrolet Tahoe and drove after McCarthy. Domagola saw McCarthy make a U-turn. McCarthy "then tried to ram his car head-on into the trooper car, but he missed," DeGennaro said.

Domagola turned his vehicle around and gave chase and McCarthy again made a U-turn, pulling off and stopping on the west shoulder of Route 57. DeGennaro said McCarthy waited there and intentionally drove into the path of the Tahoe, this time striking it head-on.

Domagola got out of his SUV and went to check McCarthy for injuries, DeGennaro said. McCarthy immediately became combative, and Domagola tried to subdue him with pepper spray.

A word about pepper spray, mace and other non-lethal weapons. Sometimes they are more non-lethal than at other times. Some people do not react with getting sprayed with a highly irritating fluid other then getting highly irritated themselves. Or in numbnuts case, more irritated than he was to begin with. McCarthy tried to yank other people out of their cars but failed.

McCarthy reached into the bed of the truck and pulled out a 4-by-4, 8-foot long, wood fence post. He began swinging it at Domagola, witnesses said.

DeGennaro said Domagola drew his pistol and told McCarthy to drop the fence post several times. When he didn't comply, Domagola fired one round, but it landed in the pavement, the major said.

McCarthy dropped the lumber and Domagola put the pistol back in its holster, he said.

I'm not going to second guess the Trooper on this. The State Police are highly trained in the use of deadly physical force and he reacted as he was trained.

McCarthy charged at Domagola again and the two wrestled against a guide rail with McCarthy trying to grab the gun, police said.

"The man had all his weight against the trooper with the gun in his right hand," Miller said. "He was pointing and pressing the gun up against the trooper's head and at his neck, yelling something at him."

McCarthy weighs 250 pounds; Domagola weighs 200 pounds, DeGennaro said. Both men are a little over 6 feet tall, the major said.

"He pointed the barrel of the weapon at the sergeant's head," DeGennaro said. "They both had their fingers on the trigger guard."

DeGennaro said the empty shell from Domagola's first round was still in the chamber, likely preventing the second round from going off.

DeGennaro credits passersby and witnesses to the accident with distracting McCarthy, screaming at him to stop.

This is known as a "stove pipe jam." The gun could not go off because the spent cartridge never cleared the breech. Therefore the Glock could not cycle completely and the next round in the magazine was never loaded.

Thank the Good Lord above. The next paragraph is about gun control in a crisis.

Miller said Domagola took advantage of McCarthy's distraction to get the upper hand. "The next thing I know the trooper had his gun back," Miller said.

By then, the major said, Harrington had arrived on the scene.

Harrington "immediately went at him and I went right behind him," Miller said. Harrington "grabbed him on top and I grabbed his legs and the man fell to the ground. This man was still struggling to get free, but the officer ended up getting him handcuffed."

McCarthy and Domagola were treated at A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton and released. Domagola had scrapes and bruises, DeGennaro said.

This round goes to the good guys. At the end of his tour Trooper Domagola went home to be with his family. Right where he belongs.

I wonder how long it took him to fall asleep that night...

Dunky D's - Donuts Si, Illegals No

I love Dunkin' Donuts with a passion. I favor the flavor of their coffee (yummmmmmmmmmm)above that of Krispy Kreme (which isn't bad) and Starbucks (yeeeech *hurl*rowf*choke*).

I now love Dunky D's more than ever. Michele Malkin has posted a story about Dunkin' Donuts' efforts to fight illegal immigration by cooperating with government programs to screen potential employees.

Last spring, I praised Dunkin’ Donuts for volunteering to participate in a government database program to verify that workers are here legally. The company was responding to customer concerns about illegal employees. Only 6,200 out of the nation’s 8 million employers participate in the screening program. The company continues to be vigilant.

The Star-Ledger reports today that Dunkin’ is suing franchisees that it says were knowingly employing illegal aliens...

From the Star Ledger:

A bill that would require businesses to perform tougher background checks to make sure job applicants are not illegal immigrants has stalled in the U.S. Senate.

But in the meantime, the nation's largest doughnut chain has taken matters into its own hands, requiring all franchise owners to perform the background checks and moving to fire those they accuse of accepting fake IDs commonly used by illegal immigrants to find work.

So far Dunkin' Donuts has sued two franchises in New Joisey and more in other parts of the country.

In April, Dunkin' Donuts filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to terminate the franchise agreement it has with two stores in Central Jersey, saying the owners knowingly accepted false documents, used false Social Security numbers and paid employees in cash.

The company has filed similar lawsuits seeking to sever ties with franchises in Boston, Atlanta and Florida, where it is has accused three franchises of hiring illegal immigrants.

The lawsuits come a year after Dunkin' Donuts became the most well-known corporation to enroll in Basic Pilot, a voluntary U.S. Department of Homeland Security program that allows employers to perform electronic document checks to verify that applicants are eligible to work.

Dunkin' Donuts was started in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, MA.

From 1990 until December 2005, Dunkin' Donuts was owned by the fwench (Allied Domecq PLC which was acquired by Pernod Ricard). In March, 2006, Dunky D's was sold to a consortium of three US private equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners, the Carlyle Group and Bain Capital LLP for $2.43 billion.

Yes, Dunky D's found its way home again.
*sob*
I wonder if this cooperation with US immigration authorities would have occurred if the fwence still owned it? Somehow I doubt it.

So go ahead and stop by Dunky D's on the way to work tomorrow and grab a hot cuppa and maybe a few donuts for the guys at work.

Remember:
Everytime Dunky Ds' cash register rings,
Somewhere a wetback gets his wings ...
Clipped!

Big Weasel Goes To The Big House

Another anti-gun advocate says one thing and does another. Are we surprised?

From the LA Times.

The founder of an antiviolence group called No Guns pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal weapons charges. Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin is accused of selling an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers to undercover federal agents last fall.

But he needed this armament to protect his family, in case he decided to invade El Salvador.

Marroquin, 51, of Downey, is a onetime member of the 18th Street gang who founded No Guns in 1996.

The 18th Street gang is one of the most violent criminal organizations to come out of the City of Los Angeles in the past forty years. It spans several states and crosses international borders.

No Guns received $1.5 million from the city as a subcontractor on anti-gang efforts, but its contract was canceled last year.

The same people who were advocating for Tookie Williams must have hired this jackass to run anti-gang activities. It's like hiring a child molestor to babysit your kids.

But isn't this a lovely business model? Check it out.

1) You sell guns to the gangs that you were hired to eliminate.

2) When the gang shoots people with the guns you sold to them, you go back for to the idiots in City Hall and ask for more money to run your anti-gang gig because the gang problem is getting worse.

3) Then you sell more guns to that same gang because now their people are getting whacked by the friends of the people of the other gang they whacked so they need more guns to whack them back.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

And the liberals say that the tobacco industry is dangerous.

Marroquin is charged with three counts of manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon, along with one count each of machine gun conversion and possession of a silencer. He remains free on $260,000 bail.

Now where do you suppose he got that kind of money to put up for bail? Sure, California taxpayers, who else? And who supported this knucklehead?

His champions included former state Sen. Tom Hayden.

This just gets better and better.

But some law enforcement officials believed that Marroquin was a front man for the Mexican Mafia prison gang and that NO GUNS was a facade for illegal activity and a channel for public funds.

One was Richard Valdemar, a retired sheriff's sergeant and expert on gangs who led an investigation that resulted in the first federal racketeering trial of Mexican Mafia members; it resulted in the conviction of 13. Valdemar said the Mexican Mafia has a long history of using anti-gang and drug rehabilitation groups as fronts to acquire public funds.

"This is a major part of their operation," said Valdemar, whom Marroquin unsuccessfully sued for defamation of character in 2002.

Valdemar said he and others voiced these concerns to the Sheriff's Department and the city of Los Angeles.

Hee! Hee! The cops knew what was going on with these so called advocate groups, but did the City listen? Did the Sheriff's Department listen?

Oops.... who is the Sheriff? Is he the guy that completely ignored a court order and released Paris Hilton after three days in the slammer? Oh, that Sheriff.

Nevermind.

As part of its gang intervention efforts, the city through its L.A. Bridges program contracted with Toberman Settlement House, a Harbor-area social services agency, which in turn hired NO GUNS in 2003.

Bill Martinez, director of gang intervention programs for Toberman, said NO GUNS was hired because it was the only group in South Los Angeles working with Latino gangs. Over the next three years, NO GUNS collected more than $1.5 million in city funds as a subcontractor.

Marroquin's organization was contracted to help find job training for gang members and to mediate cease-fires, said Angela Estell of the city's Community Development Department.

I wonder what kind of training the Latino gang members received? Based on Marroquin's past experience, let's see what he has to offer.

Marroquin and his family have a long history of run-ins with police.

In 1998, Marroquin was tried and acquitted on illegal weapons charges. At the time, he was on probation for brandishing a gun at sheriff's deputies who had gone to his house three years earlier in response to a domestic disturbance call.

In 2001, the charred body of Hector Romero, the boyfriend of Marroquin's daughter, Charleeda, was found near Wrightwood, Valdemar said.According to several Marroquin family members, Romero was playing Russian roulette and shot himself to death.

They allegedly drove the body to the Wrightwood area of San Bernardino County, where gasoline was poured on Romero's crotch and ignited, said Valdemar, who participated in the investigation. San Bernardino sheriff's homicide
detectives eventually filed the case as a suicide and charged Charleeda Marroquin with mutilating a body, Valdemar said.

During the investigation, police searched Marroquin Sr.'s house and found knives and police batons — a violation of his probation — as well as 18th Street gang writings. Marroquin was charged with a probation violation.

Valdemar said his last contact with Marroquin was in 2003, when Marroquin moved to Cudahy. He said Marroquin began taxing Cudahy gang members and drug dealers, claiming authority from the Mexican Mafia.

Sergio "Checo" Villa, a local gang leader with his own mafia ties, objected, Valdemar said. Villa put together a crew to kill Marroquin, which included a gang member who was a Sheriff's Department informant, he said. Fearing that the informant might kill Marroquin, Valdemar said he told Marroquin of Villa's plans.

"He thinks I'm going to kill him," Valdemar said. "I said, 'I'm not here to hurt you. But you're in trouble. They're going to kill you.' He's says, 'It's just a misunderstanding.'

"Several days later, Villa was shot dead on a street in Cudahy, according to a county coroner's report. The homicide remains unsolved.

This guy is just a fount of wisdom to gang members. And what's this tax crap?

Tax collection is another area of criminal activity where 18th Street is well established. Typically, in an area that is claimed as territory by 18th Street, gang members will collect a tax from any business: legitimate or criminal. The potential taxpayers include street vendors, shop owners, prostitutes, and drug dealers, as well as the businesses which exist in the neighborhood.

Members of 18th Street then threaten to kill any individual who refuses to pay the tax. In 1994 alone, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office prosecuted 30 murders that were the result of hits made by 18th Street gang members for failure to pay taxes.

When the Mob did it, it was called extortion. Well, that's the Left Coast for ya.

Anyone wanna hire Big Weasel as a tax consultant? Or a fire prevention specialist?

Next Time, Empty The Damn Gun In His Teeth

This story out of Louisiana where the cops are more interested in taking guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens rather than criminals.

METAIRIE, La. (AP) -- A man with a gun was trying to force a woman out of her car at a fast-food drive-through when the woman's 17-year-old son wrestled the gun away from him and shot him.

Carl Chestnut, 44, of Kenner, is expected to survive wounds to his head and body, and will face armed robbery charges once he is released from East Jefferson General Hospital, Col. John Fortunato, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman, said Monday.

It would have been safer to hand over the keys and let the gunman drive off, Sheriff Harry Lee said Monday.

What Sheriff Lee doesn't say is that the perp, Carl Chestnut, was wanted for the murder of a 60 year old trailer park manager.

Arby's Carjacker Wanted For Murder
Posted by Wanda Miles June 19, 2007

The suspect in Monday's attempted carjacking at a Metairie fast food restaurant is wanted for murder.

The Kenner Police Department issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Carl Chestnut, 44, in connection with the death of Odrey Bordelon, a Kenner trailer park manager who was strangled in his home earlier this month.

Bordelon's body was found June 5 in his home at Dixieland Mobile Home and RV Park, 176 W. Airline Drive, Kenner. Authorities believe the motive was robbery.

And this....

Second Man Booked In Trailer Park Killing
Posted by Wanda Miles June 20, 2007

The second man wanted in the June 5 strangulation of a Kenner trailer park manager has surrendered to police, authorities said today.

Wayne Hayden, 50, of Metairie turned himself in Tuesday night, said Detective Shaun Watson, a Kenner Police Department spokesman.

Hayden and Carl Chestnut, 44, are suspects in the death of Odrey Bordelon, 60, who was found strangled in his apartment. Both will be booked with first-degree murder and aggravated burglary, police said.

Perhaps the Sheriff was just being particularly dense in this case. If that 17 year old lad had not wrestled the gun away from Chestnut and used it to defend his mother, who knows what other evil would have been committed by this murderer?

If every potential victim of a violent crime fought as hard as this teen, how many murders, robberies, etc. would be prevented? How many Sheriffs would be out of a job?

Criminals do what they do because 1) they like it, and 2) it's an easy way to get money. When a criminal perceives that there is a real risk of getting hurt or killed, all of a sudden that job at the car wash starts looking pretty good.

There are several studies, hotly contested by gun control advocates, that show how firearms are used by citizens to defend themselves. Called "Defensive Gun Use" (DGU), the studies indicate that at a minimum, over 100,000 DGU's occur every year (National Crime Victimization Study). Another study that strikes fear into gun confiscators, is that there are actually over 2 million DGU's annually (Kleck and Gertz). Whether you own a gun or, as in the instance cited above, take it away from someone else, you must be mentally and emotionally prepared to use deadly physical force to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Marvin Wolfgang, the late Director of the Sellin Center for Studies in Criminology and Criminal Law at the University of Pennsylvania, considered by many to be the foremost criminologist in he country, wrote this review of Kleck and Gertz's landmark defensive gun use study in The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Northwestern University School of Law, Volume 86, Number 1, Fall, 1995:

"I am as strong a gun-control advocate as can be found among the criminologists in this country. If I were Mustapha Mond of Brave New World, I would eliminate all guns from the civilian population and maybe even from the police ... What troubles me is the article by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz. ["Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun," by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, published in that same issue of The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology].

The reason I am troubled is that they have provided an almost clear cut case of methodologically sound research in support of something I have theoretically opposed for years, namely, the use of a gun in defense against a criminal perpetrator. ...I have to admit my admiration for the care and caution expressed in this article and this research.

Can it be true that about two million instances occur each year in which a gun was used as a defensive measure against crime? It is hard to believe. Yet, it is hard to challenge the data collected. We do not have contrary evidence.

The National Crime Victim Survey does not directly contravene this latest survey, nor do the Mauser and Hart Studies. ... the methodological soundness of the current Kleck and Gertz study is clear. I cannot further debate it. ... The Kleck and Gertz study impresses me for the caution the authors exercise and the elaborate nuances they examine methodologically.

I do not like their conclusions that having a gun can be useful, but I cannot fault their methodology. They have tried earnestly to meet all objections in advance and have done exceedingly well."

RIP Marty Henry

Officer Marty Henry went to his Maker last night.

Good bye Marty and rest easy, 'til we meet again.

Fortune Cookie Say, "No Way"

The Chinese want to sell cars in Europe and the United States. They are offering a product called the BS6, built by the Chinese auto manufacturer Brillance. The BS6 has failed rather dismally in its mandatory European crash tests.

Frankfurt - A car with which China's Brilliance wanted to conquer Europe's automobile market has failed to pass a benchmark German crash test, the German ADAC automobile club said today.

The BS6 sedan, made by Chinese car maker Brilliance, won only one out of a possible five stars in the crash test, carried out in accordance with Euro NCAP regulations, at ADAC's crash test laboratories, the organisation said.

It was the second time in less than two years that a Chinese-made car has failed the test, following the spectacular failure of the Landwind sports utility vehicle (SUV) made by Jiangling Motors 18 months ago, said ADAC spokesman Maximilian Maurer.

'The BS6 sedan performed almost as badly as the Landwind in November 2005,' Maurer said. .

Perhaps a better name for the vehicle might be the Death Star, or Mao's Most Excellent Revenge.

Here is the BS6 crash test video. It is in German but you can appreciate the images.



The article goes on.

The test consisted of a frontal and side crash at 64 kilometres (40 miles) per hour, and the front crash showed that the safety cell of the Brilliance BS6 was too soft and not stable enough, ADAC said.

Most European-made cars win four or five stars in the crash test, so the result is not encouraging for the BS6, which was launched at the last Geneva Motor Show.

'After Landwind's 2005 test result, it stopped being sold in Europe,' said ADAC's Maurer.

The BS6 could therefore face the same fate, he warned.

In the next video you can hear the German engineers laughing hysterically as the Landwind hits the barrier and almost disintegrates in this 2005 crash test.

The Chinese Landwind SUV was banned after a lawsuit was filed by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Crash Dummies. This video ain't pretty. The Crumble Zone on the Landwind extends all the way to the next area code. This vehicle wasn't safe even after it was fed into an auto compactor at the recycling center.

Obviously this car was designed with China's overpopulation problem in mind.

What, Me Bored?

This is another cool vid from glumbert.com. Some bizarre stuff but it is SFW.

glumbert.com - When graphic artists get bored

Officer Marty Henry

Marty Henry is a 32 year veteran of the Syracuse Police Department. He came on about a year or so behind me. We worked the south side together for a while back in the late 70's. Marty is a huge man, 6'5" and almost 300 pounds. And he is a gentle soul. For the last ten years Marty worked in the Personnel Division.

Yesterday morning a special ceremony was held in his honor outside St. Joseph's Hospital. The event was captured in this morning's Post Standard.

Hundreds attend "Signal 94" ceremony for Marty Henry, a cancer patient.

A line of Syracuse police officers stood at attention Thursday morning in a courtyard and saluted toward a hospital room containing one of their own.

Ten cars with lights flashing were in front of them. Behind them were more than 200 people, some in uniform, some in hospital scrubs, some in civilian clothes.

The parking garage and the skywalk that connects it to St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center were lined with people at 9 a.m. All were quiet.

Officer Marty Henry, a man Sgt. Tom Connellan called "the most beloved police officer on the force," was unseen behind a tinted window receiving his "Signal 94," a ceremony marking the end of his last shift on duty.

Henry, 56, an officer with the force since 1975, is being treated at the hospital. He has cancer, his family said.

The officers in the courtyard held the salute for almost 10 minutes. The cadets in the police academy saluted in their sweats. Tears moved down more than one cheek.

"God bless our friend. You're a fine example for all of us to follow," Deputy Chief Michael Kerwin said before the 911 center made the radio broadcast marking Henry's end of service.

Henry last served in the chief's office but was more known for his work in the personnel department. "Anyone hired (by the Police Department) in the last 10 years went through Marty to get here," Connellan said. When you came on the job, he gave you your badge. When you retired, he took it back," Deputy Chief Dave Barrette said.

He was also the man who planned Signal 94 ceremonies for retiring officers, Barrette said.

"Marty took sick a week after putting in his retirement papers," Barrette said.
He was supposed to retire in May but decided not to when he learned of his illness, Barrette said.

During his career, Henry had a couple of brushes with death. He almost died in the summer of 1981 when he was stabbed as he was going through a door, Barrette said.

Henry also was forced off Interstate 481 in 1999 whnen his vehicle was rammed from behind by a speeding sport utility vehicle. Henry went across the median and through oncoming traffic before hitting a tree, records state. His sons, Tom and Chris, were in the room with him. Tom works for Google in California, and Chris is in the Washington, D.C., police academy.

"He was shocked," Tom Henry said. "I don't think he realized the impact the ceremony would have."

The numbers of people that Henry had touched moved everyone in the room, he said.

After the service, as the police cars pulled away, police Chief Gary Miguel told officers that Henry was moved.

"He saw the whole thing and so did his family," an emotional Miguel said.

"I said, 'Marty, how many people do you think are out there?' " Miguel told officers.

"He said, 'A lot.'

I said, 'They're all here for you.' "

Marty is very close to death now. Say a prayer for his family. We're all going to miss him.

The Pattern

There is a pattern to the dire predictions of global warming proponents who demand immediate action to "save the planet." The planet is doing just fine thank you. It's the nutjobs that are in danger of overheating and exploding. From the Canadian Financial Post, here is an article written by Professor R. Timothy Patterson (director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University):

The mud at the bottom of B.C. fjords reveals that solar output drives climate change - and that we should prepare now for dangerous global cooling.

This flies in the face of the pattern of global warming.

Politicians and environmentalists these days convey the impression that climate-change research is an exceptionally dull field with little left to discover. We are assured by everyone from David Suzuki to Al Gore to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that "the science is settled."

At the recent G8 summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel even attempted to convince world leaders to play God by restricting carbon-dioxide emissions to a level that would magically limit the rise in world temperatures to 2C.

This is the typical liberal reaction to a perceived problem. Remember LBJ's War On Poverty? Just throw money at whatever is bothering you and it willl magically disappear.

The fact that science is many years away from properly understanding global climate doesn't seem to bother our leaders at all. Inviting testimony only from those who don't question political orthodoxy on the issue, parliamentarians are charging ahead with the impossible and expensive goal of "stopping global climate change."

This is not about science, this is about control. The communist/socialist models have all failed and have been discredited. This is the new communism.

Climate stability has never been a feature of planet Earth. The only constant about climate is change; it changes continually and, at times, quite rapidly. Many times in the past, temperatures were far higher than today, and occasionally, temperatures were colder. As recently as 6,000 years ago, it was about 3C warmer than now. Ten thousand years ago, while the world was coming out of the thousand-year-long "Younger Dryas" cold episode, temperatures rose as much as 6C in a decade -- 100 times faster than the past century's 0.6C warming that has so upset environmentalists.

But let's not allow opposing fact or opinions to get in the way of the global warming debate.

Climate-change research is now literally exploding with new findings. Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the field has had more research than in all previous years combined and the discoveries are completely shattering the myths. For example, I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations in the brightness of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of all energy on the planet.

In many investigations you follow the money to find the motive and the suspects. If you want to investigate the earth's climate you follow the energy that produces the weather.

Prof. Patterson was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council strategic project grant to investigate the causes of variations in commercial fish populations. Patterson collected mud cores 11 miters thick (36') from the bottom of Canadian fjords in order to analyze approximately 5,000 years of climate change.

Using computers to conduct what is referred to as a "time series analysis" on the colouration and thickness of the annual layers, we have discovered repeated cycles in marine productivity in this, a region larger than Europe. Specifically, we find a very strong and consistent 11-year cycle throughout the whole record in the sediments and diatom remains. This correlates closely to the well-known 11-year "Schwabe" sunspot cycle, during which the output of the sun varies by about 0.1%. Sunspots, violent storms on the surface of the sun, have the effect of increasing solar output, so, by counting the spots visible on the surface of our star, we have an indirect measure of its varying brightness. Such records have been kept for many centuries and match very well with the changes in marine productivity we are observing.

I think we're starting to see a pattern.

In the sediment, diatom and fish-scale records, we also see longer period cycles, all correlating closely with other well-known regular solar variations. In particular, we see marine productivity cycles that match well with the sun's 75-90-year "Gleissberg Cycle," the 200-500-year "Suess Cycle" and the 1,100-1,500-year "Bond Cycle." The strength of these cycles is seen to vary over time, fading in and out over the millennia. The variation in the sun's brightness over these longer cycles may be many times greater in magnitude than that measured over the short Schwabe cycle and so are seen to impact marine productivity even more significantly.

But there was a problem. The variations in solar energy, on their own, were not enough to cause the climate changes. Therefore another mechanism had to be present for these climate changes to occur.

Indeed, that is precisely what has been discovered. In a series of groundbreaking scientific papers starting in 2002, Veizer, Shaviv, Carslaw, and most recently Svensmark et al., have collectively demonstrated that as the output of the sun varies, and with it, our star's protective solar wind, varying amounts of galactic cosmic rays from deep space are able to enter our solar system and penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. These cosmic rays enhance cloud formation which, overall, has a cooling effect on the planet. When the sun's energy output is greater, not only does the Earth warm slightly due to direct solar heating, but the stronger solar wind generated during these "high sun" periods blocks many of the cosmic rays from entering our atmosphere. Cloud cover decreases and the Earth warms still more.

The pattern is clearer still.

The opposite occurs when the sun is less bright. More cosmic rays are able to get through to Earth's atmosphere, more clouds form, and the planet cools more than would otherwise be the case due to direct solar effects alone. This is precisely what happened from the middle of the 17th century into the early 18th century, when the solar energy input to our atmosphere, as indicated by the number of sunspots, was at a minimum and the planet was stuck in the Little Ice Age. These new findings suggest that changes in the output of the sun caused the most recent climate change. By comparison, CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales.

The pattern is now crystal clear, a pattern of denial, obfuscation and intimidation. This is the pattern of the politics surrounding gobal warming. It isn't about science and it never was. The science is still emerging. The science is not understood. It's about control.

In some fields the science is indeed "settled." For example, plate tectonics, once highly controversial, is now so well-established that we rarely see papers on the subject at all. But the science of global climate change is still in its infancy, with many thousands of papers published every year. In a 2003 poll conducted by German environmental researchers Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch, two-thirds of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries surveyed did not believe that "the current state of scientific knowledge is developed well enough to allow for a reasonable assessment of the effects of greenhouse gases." About half of those polled stated that the science of climate change was not sufficiently settled to pass the issue over to policymakers at all.

Another part of the pattern is that you'll never hear information contradicting global warming coming from the MSM.

Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world, especially Canada. As a country at the northern limit to agriculture in the world, it would take very little cooling to destroy much of our food crops, while a warming would only require that we adopt farming techniques practiced to the south of us.

So if the global warming crowd is wrong, then Canada's economy may be in serious trouble. Think about it; a shortened growing season and higher energy costs for heating. But the pattern is such that these possibilities are ignored.

Meantime, we need to continue research into this, the most complex field of science ever tackled, and immediately halt wasted expenditures on the King Canute-like task of "stopping climate change."

King Canute allegedly commanded the waves to turn back. The waves didn't listen nor could they. Even the power of the media has it's limitations.

Now We'll Know Where To Look

From the UK Guardian:

US soldiers and airmen fighting in Iraq are to receive a new weapon in their arsenal: a pack of playing cards to help them identify ancient ruins before creating new ones.

The Pentagon's move, echoing its post-invasion production of a deck of cards depicting "Iraq's most wanted", is part of a belated Pentagon scheme to prevent further war damage to the country's 11,000 archaeological sites.

More than four years after priceless antiquities housed in Iraq's National Museum were looted and much of the country's ancient heritage was despoiled, 40,000 packs of the playing cards will be dealt out to American troops - roughly one deck for every four soldiers.

The cards are illustrated with pictures of rare artefacts or sites of special interest, in the hope that soldiers will avoid turning them into battlefields.

You just know that the terrorists will flock to these sites like drunken college sophmores to Daytona during spring break. We'd be better off mining these sites and building tourist knock offs after we kill all the terrorists.

Each suit has a theme: diamonds for artefacts, spades for digs, hearts for "winning hearts and minds", and clubs for heritage preservation.

The cards also carry handy slogans. The five of clubs says: "Drive around, not over archaeological sites". Another asks: "This site has survived 17 centuries. Will it and others survive you?"

In what may be seen as an optimistic initiative, troops are asked to consider taking up alternative firing positions if historical treasures are at risk. Likewise, air force pilots are urged to bomb sensitively.

That's how to win a war - with alternative firing positions (perhaps less safe as you expose yourself by leaving vantage points that puts the enemy and a mural of Nebuchadnezzar's favorite goat at risk) and with delicate, caring, sensative bomb runs.

In one infamous incident in 2003, a site at Nebuchadnezzar's ancient city of Babylon was used as a helicopter landing pad and a camp for 2,000 troops.

Cool. I'd bivouac those bad boys right where the harem used to be.

Last year Donny George, Iraq's most prominent archaeologist, fled the country saying growing insecurity was making preservation work impossible.

Gee, that's what the Germans said after we fire bombed Dresden. Not many vets really gave a royal flush about that either.

Thousands of historic landmarks were annihilated during WWII throughout Europe. All of a sudden a garbage dump (that's what an archeological tell is, a heap of garbage and rubble) is more valuable than 1,000 year old Christian churches?

Hearts and minds? Grab them by the balls, the hearts and minds will follow.

Way Too Cool

This was just too cool not to steal. I dropped in on Phred's World and found this.

This is a B-1 bomber breaking the sound barrier. Now I come from a Navy family (my Dad worked on the F-14 back in the early 70's when he worked for Grumman's, my brother-in-law was the civilian administrator for the last avionics make over of the F-14 at the Pautuxet NAS) and my favorite shots of supersonic flight is that of an F-14 going supersonic about 200' from an aircraft carrier.

But this is a bomber! And this is Phred's story behind it.

Jet Noise is the Sound of Freedom

A story from a U.S. Soldier somewhere in Afghanistan...

"So we are up in the mountains at about 0100 hrs looking for a bad guy that we thought was in the area. There are ten of us, pitch black, crystal clear night, about 25 degrees. We know there are bad guys in the area; a few shots have been fired but no big deal. We decide that we need air cover and the only thing in the area is a solo B-1 bomber. He flies around at about 20,000 feet and tells us there is nothing in the area.He then asks if we would like a low level show of force. Stupid question. Of course we tell him yes.

The controller who is attached to the team then is heard talking to the pilot. Pilot asks if we want it subsonic or supersonic. Very stupid question.

Pilot advises he is twenty miles out and stand by. The controller gets us all sitting down in a line and points out the proper location. You have to picture this. Pitch black, ten killers sitting down, dead quiet and overlooking this about 30 mile long valley. All of a sudden, way out (below our level) you see a set of four 200' white flames coming at us. The controller says, "Ah-- guys-- you might want to plug your ears".

Faster than you can think a B-1, supersonic, 1000' over our heads, blasts the sound barrier and it feels like God just hit you in the head with a hammer.

He then stands it straight up with 4 white trails of flame coming out and disappears.

"Cost of gas for that: Probably $50,000

Hearing damage: For certain.

Bunch of Taliban thinking twice about shooting at us: Priceless.

Have a nice day from the good 'ol USA!

I get chills just thinking about this. I love the sound of jets. It is indeed the sound of freedom.

YEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAH!

A friend of the family has a brother who was a co-pilot for one of these babies. They flew so low once that the air turbulance took a barn right off it's foundation at an air show. And they were subsonic at the time. Oh baby...