When Not To Yell...

First this joke:

I bought a new Lexus 350 and returned to the dealer the next day because I couldn't get the radio to work. The salesman explained that the radio was voice activated.

"Nelson," the salesman said to the radio. The Radio replied, "Ricky or Willie?" "Willie!" he continued and "On The Road Again" came from the speakers.

Then he said, "Ray Charles!", and in an instant "Georgia On My Mind" replaced Willie Nelson. I drove away happy, and for the next few days, every time I'd say, "Beethoven," I'd get beautiful classical music, and if I said, "Beatles," I'd get one of their awesome songs.

Yesterday, a couple ran a red light and nearly creamed my new car, but I swerved in time to avoid them. I yelled, "A** H***s!"

Immediately the French National Anthem began to play, sung by Jane Fonda and Barbara Streisand, backed up by Michael Moore and The Dixie Chicks, with John Kerry on guitar, Al Gore on drums, Dan Rather on harmonica, Nancy Pelosi on tambourine, Harry Reid on spoons, Bill Clinton on sax and Ted Kennedy on scotch.

I LOVE this car!

I shamelessly stole the above joke from Wayne at Babylonandon for two reasons; one, it's funny, and two, something like this happened to me a few weeks ago.

I had just left the office and was driving over to the Crime Lab. I was on the cellphone calling the lab's receptionist to let them know we were bringing some evidence in and was making a right turn. Some idiot a half block away doing about 45 in a 30 mph zone got all freaked out and started beeping her horn and came up behind me all pissed off. She then passed me.

I waited until she was right alongside and used my riot control voice (I can be very loud) to yell, "The speed limit is 30, A** H***!"

I forgot I had the Crime Lab on the phone.

I forgot the cellphone was right next to my mouth.

I will never forget the receptionist saying, "I BEG your pardon?!?!"

I said "Oh no!" and then started laughing like an idiot. I tried to explain what had happened but was laughing too hard to get it out. The Lab is only a quarter mile form the office so I quieted down a bit by time I got there. I pressed the annunciator for admittance to the parking area. Of course the receptionist is also the person who raises the gate, so I got a good natured earful right from the get go. Then she has to buzz me in through the front door. Then I have to sign in at her station. Thank the good Lord above that she thought it was funny also.

I have an investigation I am working on so of course I have to be at the Lab almost everyday for awhile after that. She gnawed on me (in a good natured way) for about a week and then spat me out when there was nothing left but some grizzle and a few buttons. After suffering through that, I wish the radio had played "Marseillaise" as sung by the French Military Victory Choir of One.

An Amazing Break Through

Canadian scientists have seemingly cured Type I diabetes in lab mice.

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease...

This is really exciting. My father-in-law is one of the over 20 million Americans who suffer from this disease. How did they do it?

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

"I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more."

The substance is capsaicin, the stuff that makes peppers red hot and causes your eyes to slam shut if a cop uses pepper spray on you. It appears that capsaicin causes the pancreatic sensory nerves to shut down, then the pancreas starts to produce normal doses of insulin almost immediately.

Diabetes is known as an autoimmune disease and this research is making a lot of waves.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Dr. Hans Michael Dosch, an immunologist at the hospital and a leader of the studies. "In my career, this is unique." [...] Dr. Dosch had concluded in a 1999 paper that there were surprising similarities between diabetes and multiple sclerosis, a central nervous system disease. His interest was also piqued by the presence around the insulin-producing islets of an "enormous" number of nerves, pain neurons primarily used to signal the brain that tissue has been damaged.

The body works in amazing ways and this research only reinforces that notion.

It turns out the nerves secrete neuropeptides that are instrumental in the proper functioning of the islets. Further study by the team, which also involved the University of Calgary and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, found that the nerves in diabetic mice were releasing too little of the neuropeptides, resulting in a "vicious cycle" of stress on the islets.

And this treatment has long range implications. Just one injection into the lab mice lasted for four months! I imagine the pharmaceutical will be raising a stink over this.

I take my father-in-law to Rochester on a routine basis where until six months ago he participated in an experimental program to test a new method for treating congestive heart failure. Some doctors believe that the body's immune system is responsible for attacking the heart muscles!

I have not heard the results of the study yet and it was a double blind experiemnt (not even the doctors administering it have any idea whether it was the placebo or medicine that was used for any particular patient). But from what the cardiologist shared with me, this sounds a lot like what the doctors in Toronto are doing.

The Polonium Pixie

Much like Tinker Bell sprinkling magic fairie dust over Wendy and Michael, there appears to be one or more Russians spreading minute amounts of radioactive polonium in England. From Spiegel Online:

Andrei Lugovoi, 40, former KGB agent, currently a kind of mini magnate in the Russian soft drinks industry, is the man British investigators believe left an unmistakeable radiation trail across London.

He is now under quarantine in a Moscow hospital being treated for pixie dust contamination. It shouldn't have been that hard to find this guy, just follow the dead bodies and mutated squirrels. When he broke wind it must have been like Godzilla belch-blasting Tokyo.

Wherever the businessman appeared during his almost weekly visits to the capital of the United Kingdom, he left traces of radiation; in planes that brought him to Britain, in the hotels where he stayed, in restaurants and offices where he met contacts.

There is a reference in the article that:

The Geiger counters even buzzed in the brand new Emirates Stadium where he watched a dull draw between Arsenal London and ZSKA Moscow on that fateful Wednesday, November 1.

If you remember from my prior post, alpha particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper. They are only deadly when ingested. That he was emitting alpha particles indicates that the material probably had to be on the outside of his clothing. Or perhaps he was wearing the new Madame Curie line of men's cologne, eau' de Reactor.

With the subway bombings and all, you would think that the geiger counter activity would have had the bobbies all in a bother.

Scotland Yard's specialists have given clear hints that they regard Lugovoi as the main suspect, the man responsible for the trail of the murder weapon, the isotope polonium-210 [I fixed the typo] which points back to Moscow, where it's not exactly available on the open market -- only eight grams are exported a month.

There's a lot of blather in this article, so we'll cut to the chase. Alexander Litvinenko also met with an Italian wannabe mafioso, Mario Scaramella, on November 1:

The Italian has traces of polonium but the staff of the restaurant show no contamination. It's a different case with the waiters of the Pine Bar. All seven staff who worked that afternoon have tested positive for polonium.

The Pine Bar is a restaurant in the Millennium Hotel where Alexander Litvinenko met with the two other Russians: businessmen Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun.

Litvinenko is dead from radiation poisoning. The other two men are being treated in hospitals for radiation poisoning. Kovtun's car tested positive for polonium-210. Both men are also ex-KGB officers. And the Rooskies deny any part in it.

It just gets better and better. We'll be blogging about this for years.

RIP Charlie Dawson

Last Friday I stopped by the police retiree's luncheon next door at the PD. To tell the truth, I was dragged there by two other retirees. I'm in the middle of a very busy stretch and I tend to get very task oriented, but I was glad that they took the time to haul my ass out of the office.

I saw some guys that I haven't seen in twenty years. Everyone was heavier and grayer. One of the cops greeting us at the door was a fellow I recognized but couldn't remember his name. I had seen him a few times at the DA's Office and so we talked for a bit. Turns out he remembered me alot more than I remembered him. I had helped break him in almost fifteen years ago. My memory is getting bad.

Going through the auditorium glad handing people, I ran into Harry, one of my partners from the old Crime Control Team days in the mid-70's, and spent time catching up with him. His kids are scattered hither and yon and his wife, a school teacher, just retired this year. He retired from the PD in 2004. And then there was Ace and Steffie and Carmen and so many others. Sgt. Billy was there, he joined the department in 1949, the year I was born. He is 84 now and looks and sounds wonderful.

Others are not doing so well. I ran into a former sergeant that I didn't even recognize at first, he had deteriorated so badly - a mere shadow of what used to be a very intimidating physical presence. He is 81 now. I had worked with his brother back in 1970, prior to joining the department. This was a tough cop who was rather feared, he worked in intelligence and handled "special" projects . He was close to the Chief who wielded absolute authority. If he caught you screwing up you were truly up the crick without a prayer. As we spoke about old days and his brother who died some time ago, he started to tear up. He related hhis recent operations and how his health is very poor. I believe he is afraid of his impending death. He didn't remember my name. I told him who I was, but he confused me with someone else. I didn't correct him.

I left this bittersweet affair with mixed feelings. It was great to see the guys, but I wondered who would be missing next year. There's a few guys who left this world way too soon. Then this morning before church, I logged onto my email and got the dreaded message from my retiree's association, "Sad News."

Captain Charlie Dawson, age 92, passed away this month. He was the Court Liaison Officer when I came on and he retired quite some time ago, 1976, after thirty-five years of service. He was one of the kindest men I ever met. He used to carry candy in his pockets to give to children who came into the station.

That's not a bad way to be remembered. I'll bet Charlie is pleased.

What Are Friends For?

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Open the windows then fart in the car, and apologize.
COP FRIENDS: lock the windows, fart, then turn on the heat and laugh their ass off.
(We used to do this with mace, spray it in a patrol car's a/c vents on a hot night, make your buddy drive with his head hanging out of the window for an hour or so. Lord I hated that.)

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Tell you not to do something stupid when drunk
COP FRIENDS: Will post 360 degree security so you don’t get caught
(There was plenty of stupid to go around; needless to say I stopped drinking over 25 years ago.)

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
COP FRIENDS: Call your parents drunk as hell and tell them about the fat chick you tried to pick up

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.
COP FRIENDS: Will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...we screwed up...but hey, that was fun as hell!"

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Cry with you.
COP FRIENDS: Laugh at you and tell you to put on some Vagasil.
(Listen to a cop if he he tells to stay away from a broad! He already caught whatever she was carrying and is still taking pills for it!)

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
COP FRIENDS: Steal each other’s stuff so often nobody remembers who bought it in the first place.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Are happy that someone picked up a one night stand and leave them alone.
COP FRIENDS: Will Low Crawl naked into the room with a camera and hope for the tag team.
(Some cops are pretty strange that way. I never could see that. Three is definately a crowd.)

True story: A cop let himself into his fiancee's apartment a few days before the wedding and found his best man, another cop, in bed with the chick. Almost had a double homicide that night. It is never a good idea to mess with a man who carries a gun for a living. Like I said, plenty of stupid to go around often fueled by booze!

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
COP FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
COP FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowd's ass that left you.
(I tried to get into a dispatched bar fight to help a buddy of mine and could barely open the door. The reason being that he was stacking the unconsciousness bodies right behind the door. He hit like a freight train and was built like one.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
COP FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will try and talk to the bouncer when you get tossed out of the bar.
COP FRIENDS: Will man up and go after the bouncer for touching you on the way out.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will wish you had enough money to go out that night, and are sorry you couldn't come.
COP FRIENDS: Will share their last dollar with you, drag you along, and try to steal free drinks all night.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had enough.
COP FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, "Bitch, you better drink the rest of that shit, you know we don't waste. That's alcohol abuse!!!"
(And the downfall of many a cop's marriage.)

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Want the money they loaned you back next week.
COP FRIENDS: Can't begin to remember who owes who money after taking care of each other for so long.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will say "I can't handle Tequila anymore".
COP FRIENDS: Will say "Okay just one more," and then 2 minutes later, "Okay just one more".
(I remember those nights... sorta)

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will talk shit to the person who talks shit about you.
COP FRIENDS: Will knock them the hell out!!

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will tell you "They'd take a bullet for you."
COP FRIENDS: Will actually take a bullet for you.

Actually civilian friends are just fine!

Eat Fresh!

Paul Shlichta at The American Thinker, has a notion that the polonium that poisoned ALexander Litvinenko may have been fresh brewed.

During the next few weeks of confusion and cover-up about the Litvinenko poisoning, look out for the word ‘lead', which may yet pin the tail on the Russian donkey.

Lead, as in the element Pb, the stuff we drown worms with.

Polonium-210, the next-to-last link in the Uranium 8 radioactive decay chain, decays to lead-206, which is stable. Therefore a sample of pure polonium-210 kept for 138 days (its half life) would change into a 50-50 mixture of polonium and lead. On the other hand, a sample of polonium-210 without any lead in it would have to be fresh-from-the-reactor material.

The radioactive decay chain depicts the gradual transformation of Uranium 238 into Lead 206. If you check the bottom of the chart, you'll see that there are no other elements between Polonium 210 and Lead 206. When a Polonium 210 atom emits an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons = 4 atomic mass units) it becomes Lead 206.

It is very likely that the doctors treating Litvinenko tested for lead, the most common heavy metal poison. But although the news reports mentioned thallium (a byproduct in the production of Po-210), there was no mention of any traces of lead. If there was none, then Litvinenko was poisoned with freshly made polonium, only a few days old.

It reminds me of the James Bond movie, "From Russia, With Love."

Nothing says STFU like a hot, steaming batch of polonium.

I suggest that any purchase of the poisonous dose through a black market route-say a dealer in Jakarta who had a contact in Kazakhstan who could get it from someone in the Ukraine, etc.-would have taken weeks between reactor and assassin. The only way to have obtained fresh material quickly would have been through the auspices of a high-level official who could smooth the way for fast transport. Now who could that have been, I wonder?

Polonium - It's What's For Dinner

It seems that more and more people are dying from radiation poisoning, particularly people who piss off the Russian President, Vladimir "Polonium" Putin. From the Australian:

MOSCOW: A former bodyguard to Russian President Vladimir Putin was murdered with a poison that produced symptoms remarkably similar to those that killed former spy Alexander Litvinenko, it emerged yesterday.

It's amazing how these former KGBer's are popping up on autopsy tables all across the world like some kind of hairless, glowing mushroom.

Roman Tsepov died, aged 42, in 2004 after suffering severe radiation sickness brought on by a mystery substance he had ingested with food or drink.

It's a mystery how this crap can be transported and used with seeming impunity. After the death of Alexander Litvinenko we now see polonium 210 showing up in airplanes, restaurants, Italians and widows. Pretty soon it will be showing up on $20 bills along with traces of cocaine.

The case suggests that use of radioactive poisons - similar to the polonium-210 that killed Litvinenko - may be more widespread than previously thought.

I think one of two things will happen. More and more instances where former Russian officials died under mysterious circumstances will come to notice. Or reporters will finally get the picture that they are not dealing with the USA, and halt their inquiries for fear of reprisals. This is Mother Russia. And she can be a psychotic bitch.

Tsepov, nicknamed King of the Shadows, is said to have had several powerful enemies but the identity of his killer has never come to light. Tsepov survived three murder attempts in the 1990s. His friends believe his ties to lucrative businesses in Russia could have made him a target but claim he was not linked to a mafia gang.

In September 2004, he was admitted to Sverdlov hospital in St. Petersburg with severe food poisoning. As in the case of Litvinenko, doctors were baffled as his condition grew worse over the first two weeks. He began to show classic symptoms of radiation sickness: he grew pale, his hair fell out and his white blood cell count fell.

Sounds like he also died from terminal Putinitis.

Multiply Or Die

In the Book of Genesis, the command to multiply is given many times. Being fruitful, so to speak, is a sign of God's blessing.

Ge 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

Ge 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

Man's stewardship of the earth is seen as dominion over it. The hebrew word for dominion is pronounced radah, raw-daw' ; to tread down, i.e. subjugate; specifically, to crumble off:--(come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (bear, make to) rule,(-r, over), take.

The simplest way to ensure dominion over a land is to have overwhelming numbers on the land. We did this in WWI and WWII where the Allies put millions of boots on the ground in the PTO and ETO. And then we left.

In Powerline, Captain Ed refers to a November 26, 2006, Chicago Sun Times column by the inestimable Mark Steyn, where Mark compares the breeding capacity of a recent Palestinian suicide bomber, Fatma An-Najara, a 64 year old grandmother, and Katharine Jefferts Schori, the newest female Bishop of the Episcopal Church. It's like comparing a John Deere to a mule, or more accurately, a fire hydrant to an eye dropper.

The recently splattered grandma (May The Prophet Find The Rest Of Her) had her first child at the age of 12 and then spawned another eight. Her nine children produced forty-one grandchildren. All of those grandchildren look at their grandma as a hero, a martyr because she is now in Paradise bossing around those 72 virgins who were expecting a man. Poor things.

There is one woman in our church who can match her. She is still in her child bearing years and we're looking for number ten.

And now we come to the Episcopal Bishop, who was asked:

"Episcopalians aren't interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?"

Her response?

No," agreed Bishop Kate. "It's probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

The Episcopals will lose their portion because in a short while there won't be any of them to take a portion. Just like the Neanderthals. And here's Mark's money quote:

Here's the question for Bishop Kate: If Fatma An-Najar has 41 grandchildren and a responsible "better educated" Episcopalian has one or two, into whose hands are we delivering "the stewardship of the earth"? If your crowd isn't around in any numbers, how much influence can they have in shaping the future?

Bingo!

The fertility rate in the Gaza Strip is one of the highest on earth. If you measure the births of the Muslim world against the dearth of Bishop Kate's Episcopalians, you have the perfect snapshot of why there is no "stability": With every passing month, there are more Muslims and fewer Episcopalians, and the Muslims export their manpower to Europe and other depopulating outposts of the West. It's the intersection of demography and Islamism that makes time a luxury we can't afford.

Maybe we need more Mexicans and less Episcopalians, eh?

Kiss My Royal Irish Ass

How long has it been since we were treated to the Islamofascist verson of "Shock and Awe?" How long has it been since our hearts were torn out of our chests as we watched three thousand Americans lose their lives in an incredibly vile fashion? How long since we as a nation looked at those images of the WTC and the Pentagon, our eyes seared, and vowed, "Never Again!"

And how long since we thrilled to hear FDNY firefighter Michael Moran tell Osama Bin Laden to "Kiss my royal Irish ass!" I nearly came out of my skin when I heard that.

But yet the Democrats are already preparing their verson of "Dispute and Scoot" and they haven't even been sworn in.

I wish that Moran would deliver another speech, this one to the Democrats, saying that he'll plant his Royal Irish foot up their punk chicken asses if they dare to pull out of a struggle where our very existence is at stake.

Our Finest

I've already said my peace about the fwench-looking Junior Senator from Massachusetts and his low opinion about those who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let this link be a reminder of the finest men and women our Country has to offer.

http://www.clermontyellow.accountsupport.com/flash/UntilThen.swf

See if you can keep a dry eye.

Cop Killer Pleads Guity

Something caught my eye this morning. Yesterday a murderous smartass plead out to a life sentence.
MAYVILLE - Ralph "Bucky" Phillips Wednesday pleaded guilty to killing one state trooper and critically wounding two others during a five-month manhunt last summer, also admitting that he was enraged at police for arresting his daughter before one of the shootings.

Let's get one thing straight, Phillips does not give a damn about the Troopers he shot. He could care less that Trooper Joseph Longobardo died from his wounds. Phillips, who is only 44 years old, knows he is spending the rest of his life behind bars where he will be fed, clothed and his medical needs taken care of at the taxpayers expense.

In a day marked by demonstrations of family support for the killer, Phillips accepted plea agreements in Chautauqua and Chemung counties that are likely to put him in prison for the rest of his life.

There should be demonstrations of neck stretching outside the courthouse. His entire family sounds like a real piece of work.

In Chautauqua County Court, the career criminal admitted that he fatally shot trooper Joseph A. Longobardo and critically wounded Trooper Donald H. Baker Jr., who were staking out the home of a friend of Phillips on Aug. 31 in the Town of Stockton.

Phillips "mugged" for the cameras as he was lead into court yesterday (Wednesday)morning.

Earlier in the day, Phillips appeared in an Elmira court and admitted that he tried to murder Trooper Sean Brown, who had stopped him in a stolen car June 10. Phillips shot Brown in the stomach.

I hope that smirk is wiped off his face real soon in a maximum security prison cell. There is little that the family of the wounded and slain Troopers can say. I pray that this gives them some closure.

The father of the slain Trooper had a comment for Phillips.

One day earlier, when asked by a reporter outside the Chemung County courthouse if he had anything to say, Phillips responded, "have a good day." He has been seen smiling and waving in court, as well, which has prompted some people to criticize his attitude.

"He's just an arrogant idiot, what can I say," said Trooper Longobardo's father, Tony Longobardo. "I mean, people can see through him like they're looking through a window. Obviously he's a low-down life criminal. He's been a criminal all his life and he always will be."

Goodbye jerk. You've been a screw up your entire life. Now you're going where the big dogs play. Maybe the good Lord will use your circumstances to reach you and bring you to your senses. Or maybe not. Some people are just born for destruction.

Quebecistan

I don't think this is going to make a great difference in Canadian affairs, but did Quebec just secede from Canada?

OTTAWA: Canada's parliament has recognised Quebec as a nation within a united Canada, backing a controversial proposal that has prompted one minister in the minority Conservative Government to quit.

The House of Commons in Ottawa voted 266 to 16 in favour of the motion, which the Government saw as a way to head off pressure from Quebec separatists who want to break away from Canada.

I view this as an arrangement very similar to the one that has existed in the US for centuries: sovereign Native American nations/reservations. Only in the Canadian exercise, instead of tax free cigarettes, you cross the border to get over-priced baguettes and surly waiters.

But critics said the proposal could bolster the separatists, and the pro-independence Bloc Quebecois said it would use the change to demand extra powers, including Quebec's right to speak at international meetings. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Michael Chong resigned over the vote, and claimed the separatists would use it to sow confusion.

It is rather confusing what was actually approved by the Canadian Parliment. While the people of Quebec are now considered a nation, the Province of Quebec is not.

On November 27, 2006, an initiative by Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper to declare Québécois (Quebeckers) a nation within a united Canada was endorsed by the Canadian House of Commons. Though appealing to some separatist sentiments, this motion only refers to the people of Quebec and not to the province itself.

So the Nation of Quebec is renting the Province of Quebec?

French-speaking Quebec already calls its legislature the Quebec National Assembly and describes Quebec City as its national capital.

Go figure. I have no idea what these loons are doing.

There are 7,125,580 people residing in the Province of Quebec, which is is very rich in natural resources. The two largest population centers in the province are the City of Quebec (pop. 528,595) and the City of Montreal (pop. 3,308,645.) Perhaps Kofi Annan can start an Oil-for-Attitude program.

Many Canadian politicians have welcomed the motion as a way of appeasing the Quebecers. But others said it risked opening the door to the break-up of Canada in years to come.

I say bring it on! We'll annex Newfoundland and Ontario and let everything west of Edmonton become part of Alaska. Montana gets the rest! Yea!

No Use For Dense

There is grudging respect in the phrase "That guy just doesn't know how to quit," except when that guy is Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Then the operative expression is "That guy just doesn't have the brains to know when to quit."

After his idiotic remark about "study or go to Iraq" a week before the national elections, Kerry still feels he can run for president in 2008. A Quinnipiac University poll released today gives credence to the notion that Kerry should hire a quitting tutor.

Democratic Sen. John Kerry, mulling a second bid for the U.S. presidency, finished dead last in a poll released on Monday on the likability of 20 top American political figures.

There is a difference between being thick-skinned and dense. A politician needs a thick hide to survive the rough and tumble brawls of elections. There is no use for dense.

This is bad bad news for Kerry," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, which conducted the survey. "Americans know who he is, and have pretty much decided they don't like him,"

Unfortunately this information means nothing to someone like Kerry. He could receive a Quinnipiac tattoo and he still wouldn't get the message. The only shame is that there were only twenty politicians to choose from. Kerry might have scored even lower.

In the current poll, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, ranked first with a mean score of 64.2, followed by Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, 58.8, and McCain, 57.7. [...] Kerry was last with a rating of 39.6. In three earlier polls this year, he never scored above 46.3.

Peters' Prognostications

Ralph Peters at the NY Post has a different angle on the events we are witnessing in Europe. Where most of what I read seems to have Europe on the ropes, Lt.Col. Peters (US Army ret.). a former intelligence officer, sees different.

The notion that continental Europeans, who are world-champion haters, will let the impoverished Muslim immigrants they confine to ghettos take over their societies and extend the caliphate from the Amalfi Coast to Amsterdam has it exactly wrong.

That's what I have thought for some time now. The summer riots in Paris, the killings in the Netherlands, the bombings in England, everything pointed to a demoralized population just waiting for burqas and sharia law.

Don't let Europe's current round of playing pacifist dress-up fool you: This is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing, the happy-go-lucky slice of humanity that brought us such recent hits as the Holocaust and Srebrenica.

THE historical patterns are clear: When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened - even when the threat's concocted nonsense - they don't just react, they over-react with stunning ferocity. One of their more-humane (and frequently employed) techniques has been ethnic cleansing.

And it's not just this past century. Misha at AIR was posting along those lines not too long ago. The Danes, as much of Europe, have a brutal history.

The year 1492 wasn't just big for Columbus. It's also when Spain expelled its culturally magnificent Jewish community en masse - to be followed shortly by the Moors, Muslims who had been on the Iberian Peninsula for more than 800 years.

The Moors were invaders. It took the Spaniards a while, but they finally threw the invaders out. Muslims were not driven out of Europe until the Battle of Vienna in 1683 forced the Muslims into a gradual retreat that lasted for 16 years.

And Europe's Muslims don't even have roots, by historical standards. For the Europeans, they're just the detritus of colonial history. When Europeans feel ufficiently provoked and threatened - a few serious terrorist attacks could do it - Europe's Muslims will be lucky just to be deported.

In March, 2004, Islamofascists killed almost 200 and wounded another 1,700 in a horrid Madrid bombing. The result - Spain tucked its tail and ran. The French are too busy kicking the crap out of their own police to notice what else is happening. But that doesn't dissuade Peters. The EU nations just haven't been shocked enough. And they will be.

WE don't need to gloss over the many Muslim acts of barbarism down the centuries to recognize that the Europeans are just better at the extermination process. From the massacre of all Muslims and Jews (and quite a few Eastern Christians) when the Crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099 to the massacre of all the Jews in Buda (not yet attached to Pest across the Danube) when the "liberating" Habsburg armies retook the citadel at the end of the 17th century, Europeans have just been better organized for genocide.

The Germans certainly had it down pat, but they were fueled by a madman and centuries of anti-semitism. Can the same ethnic hatred be stoked by a series of obscene acts perpetrated by terrorists?

Far from enjoying the prospect of taking over Europe by having babies, Europe's Muslims are living on borrowed time. When a third of French voters have demonstrated their willingness to vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front - a party that makes the Ku Klux Klan seem like Human Rights Watch - all predictions of Europe going gently into that good night are surreal.

Peters can even see American Marines being mobilized to rescue Muslims from European ports. He believes that there will come a time when the Europeans' easy life style is threatened and that's when the change will begin.

The Europeans have enjoyed a comfy ride for the last 60 years - but the very fact that they don't want it to stop increases their rage and sense of being besieged by Muslim minorities they've long refused to assimilate (and which no longer want to assimilate).

There is more to this interesting article. Give it a read.

Bathtub Polonium?

Evidence - The many types of information presented to a judge or jury designed to convince them of the truth or falsity of key facts

Circumstantial Evidence - Evidence that proves a fact by means of an inference. For example, from the evidence that a person was seen running away from the scene of a crime, a judge or jury may infer that the person committed the crime.

While there appears to be no direct linkage between the death of former KGB then Russian FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko and his former masters, the rare substance that was used to bring about his death is strong circumstantial evidence that the resources of a nation/state were involved.

Or does it?

Polonium 120 is an alpha emitter and can be purchased legally without a license for $69 (plus $11.95 for S&H). Because alpha particles are the big kahunas of radiation (alpha particles are basically helium nuclei - two protons and two neutrons), alpha emitters are very destructive: imagine mini-deer slugs slamming through molecules within your body. But because of their size they do not penetrate far; alpha particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper.

And from the New Scientist: “Alpha particles are ionising. When they strike tissue they knock electrons out of molecules. Such damage can in serious cases wreck cellular machinery resulting in cancer, radiation sickness, or worse," said chemist Andrea Sella at University College London.

For more information on the effects of radiation on human tissue and why it is so devastating, read this Department of Energy article.

Radioactive materials aren't all that hard to procure. Read this story about a high school student who tried to build a nuclear reactor in his garage. He came a lot closer to accomplishing this than I care to think about. He nearly poisoned his whole neighborhood.

To be effective as a poison, polonium must be ingested (more on the effectiveness of polonium as a poison from Blogs of War). It is alleged that Litvinenko was given the poison at a London sushi restaurant on 1 NOV 06, possibly administered as a salt, polonium nitrate. He died last Thursday, 23 NOV 06.

From another source:

One of the deadliest radioactive isotopes is 210Po (Polonium-210). It is a strong alpha emitter with a half-life of 128 days. Polonium metal is also rather volatile, with a melting point of 255 degrees C, making it a particularly deadly component of tobacco smoke (inhaling alpha emitters is not a very good idea). Fortunately, polonium is found only in minute amounts in Nature.

Polonium is so radioactive that a 0.50 gram sample will reach temperatures greater than 500 degrees all by itself.

So it seems that a very small amount is needed to provide a lethal dose. Just how lethal is this stuff and what constitutes a lethal dose? Radioactivity in America is measured in curies (Ci) and internationally measured in becquerels. A becquerel is defined as "the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second ." A Curie is 37 billion becquerels.

One measure of lethality in radioactive material (decaying nuclei) is its half life. Plutonium (Pu-239) a deadly weapons grade metal, has a half life of over 24,000 years. Polonium, (Po-210) has a half life of 138 days.

For $81 ($69 plus $12 S&H) you can purchase a small amount of polonoium that generates 0.1uCi or one tenth of a microcurie (one millionth of a curie). A microcurie is the amount of radioactive material in which 37,000 nuclei decay per second, so one tenth of that is 3,700 nuclei decays per second. These small amounts are primarily used for certifying various kinds of equipment.

Here are some terms to help define what constitutes a lethal dose of polonium.

American Terms:
Curie (Ci) - Amount of radioactivity produced by a given amount of a substance.
1 Ci = 37 billion particle emissions per second

rad (radiation absorbed dose) - The rad is a unit used to measure a quantity called absorbed dose. This relates to the amount of energy actually absorbed in some material, and is used for any type of radiation and any material.
1 rad = 100 erg/g

rem (radiation equivalent, man) - The rem is a unit used to derive a quantity called equivalent dose. This relates the absorbed dose in human tissue to the effective biological damage of the radiation. Not all radiation has the same biological effect, even for the same amount of absorbed dose.
1 rem = rad × Q (for alpha particles Q = 20).

Roentgen is not used as it is a measure of exposure to x-rays and gamma rays in air.

International Terms:
Becquerel (Bq) - One Becquerel is that quantity of a radioactive material that will have 1 transformation (decaying nucleus) in one second.

Gray (Gy) - Used to measure a quantity called absorbed dose. This relates to the amount of energy actually absorbed in some material, and is used for any type of radiation and any material. One gray is equal to one joule of energy deposited in one kg of a material.
1 Gy = 100 rads.

Sievert (Sv) - Used to derive a quantity called equivalent dose. This relates the absorbed dose in human tissue to the effective biological damage of the radiation. Not all radiation has the same biological effect, even for the same amount of absorbed dose.
1 Sievert = 100 rem

The US Environmental Protection Agency lists a fatal dose as 1,000 rad. The US Nuclear Regulatory Agency states: The dose of radiation expected to cause death to 50 percent of an exposed population within 30 days (LD 50/30). Typically, the LD 50/30 is in the range from 400 to 450 rem (4 to 5 sieverts) received over a very short period.

So pick your poison: either 450 rem or 1,000 rad. If you use the conversion from above where rem = rad x Q (where Q = 20 for alpha particles) then a fatal dose is over 20,000 rem.

It starts to get real murky here. I believe that 1,000 rad is a single exposure, while the 450 rem is a continuous exposure over a short period of time. But it still doesn't tell me how much polonium is needed to give us this amount of radiation exposure over a three week period? Should this material be watched at least as closely as, say, firearms?

Polonium has a specific activity (amount of radioactivity - or the decay rate - of a particular radionuclide per unit mass of the radionuclide) of 4.5E3, or 4500 curie (4.5 curie times 1,000)per gram of polonium. This means that a gram of polonium will undergo 167 thousand billion nuclei decays per second.

I'd appreciate it if someone checks my math and my methodology. I divided 1.67E+14 (the number of decaying nuclei per second in a gram of polonium) by 3,700 (the number of decays in a microcurie of polonium). This means that a sample of polonium that emits .1 microcurie weighs only 0.00000000002 grams. That is approximately 2 ten billionths of a gram.

This crap is incredibly dangerous. I go to great pains to avoid using the NY Times as a source for anything, but this article gives an indication as to how much polonium was needed to kill Alexander Litvinenko:

Polonium 210 is highly radioactive and very toxic. By weight, it is about 250 million times as toxic as cyanide, so a particle smaller than a dust mote could be fatal. It would also, presumably, be too small to taste.

Anyone have a clue as to the weight of a dust mote? Will a dust mote of polonium generate 450 rad? The problem is that converting a curie to anything resembling a dosage measure is very imprecise. In fact, I can't find one. A curie is a measure of radiation activity, a rad is the measure of energy absorbed by tissue and a rem is the biologically effective dose in terms of the particle type. How many curies to generate 100 erg/g? Your guess is as good as mine.

Cultural Learnings of New York for Make Glorious Ass Whipping

The British comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, who stars in the surprise comedy hit, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" , was surprised himself when he tried his Romanian news reporter act on a no nonsense New Yorker. This month, after taping a Saturday Night Live segment, Cohen and a friend, "House" star Hugh Laurie, were walking to a local bar.

Going into his Borat character, Cohen approached a complete stranger on the street and asked him:

“I like your clothings. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with it.”

The stranger, obviously believing that he was being accosted by a pervert, responded by pounding Cohen in the face several times. Hugh Laurie intervened, sparing Cohen from serious injury. It is not known if Cohen received medical care for the thrashing.

Cohen had been warned by his managers not to pull this kind of prank outside of a television studio. He has been criticized (and is being sued) for duping people into saying ridiculous things on which he based his movie. This controversial art form has been labeled "ambush humor."

French (Not So) Civil Servants

A demonstration by so called professional firefighters in Paris, Tuesday, demanding higher wages, a premium for dangerous assignments (combat pay?) and better pension benefits turned into a riot.

Police say fifteen officers were wounded and two are in serious condition after protesters hurled flares, street signs and other heavy objects at them. A police vehicle, another car and several trash cans were also set ablaze. Thirty-five firemen have been taken into custody.

Sounds like the firefighters union has taken a page from the muslims.

Several dozen fire fighters attacked security forces with flares, bottles, stones and anything else they could find, including street signs and traffic cones. Police countered with tear gas, but were only able to disperse the mob after 30 minutes.

Many of the 6,000 firefighters who attended the demonstration wore their issued gear. This serves also to protect them from the water cannons, tear gas, night sticks, etc. that police officers use to disrupt violent demostrations. It also helps to protect their identities from police surveillance.

One gendarme suffered a head injury from one of the projectiles, while another had his leg broken after being hit in the knee by a sledgehammer.

Some how I doubt that the normally cordial relations between police and fire in Paris will be restored shortly.

This was not the first demonstration of French fire fighters in recent memory.On September 25, pompiers from all over France gathered in Paris, and after an altercation with police forces also managed to block the peripheral road.

So twice in two months the firefighters have tussled with the gendarmes. I'm hoping this is atypical behavior, but does it seem to you that french society is becoming a bit unraveled?

Our Government In Action

It seems that when the US Government is really, really concerned about something, it will find a way to address it. No matter is so trival that the US Government won't throw a few million, or ten, at it. So the subzero cockles of my heart were warmed when I read this story about the measures our government is willing to take to track another public menace .... cows.

The USDA is developing the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) to identify and track individual animals, the aim being to allow the USDA to track a diseased animal back to its source, through every location it's been, within 48 hours. Under NAIS, a national database maintains animal ownership and location histories.

How's that for service? Our government was so concerned over the possible loss of life resulting from Mad Cow Disease (or BSE) that a national database was created in order to protect us. Using techniques that

would combine GPS, cellular and radio frequency technologies to track cattle as they are in transit,

government officials will be able to track the location of any one of the 100 million cattle in the country, and do so within 48 hours. Just think of it, 100 million cows being tracked by the latest high tech so that you and I can rest easy in our beds.

Obviously what we need is a new disease to spur our government to additional action.

I have discovered such a disease: Mad Mexican Disease.

If we can track 100 million cows in freight cars, we can find 11 million illegals in pick up trucks.

Break out the RFID ear tags, errr, earrings.

My Kinda Guys

The new Haggar commercials are a scream. The ads feature Pete and Ted, two well dressed dads (clad in Haggar pants of course), giving self help lessons on loud stereos, lazy boyfriends, dogs crapping on your lawn and washing your car.

Go there, it's a stitch. And the pants come with a life time warranty? Maybe I'll get a pair.

Medical Advances

The National Review Online has an article detailing a new advance in British medical science, the elimination of undesireable children. These are not children still in the womb; these are infants, new borns.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology (RCOG) has recommended that a debate be had about whether to permit “deliberate interventions to kill infants.”

Deliberate intervention? I've seen those. Interventions with knives, shotguns, hammers, you name it. What we have here is another euphemism by the medical profession for murder. As the London Times reports, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology recommendation said:

A very disabled child can mean a disabled family. If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were available, they might have an impact on obstetric decision-making, even preventing some late term abortions, as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome.

And if you are not pleased with the outcome? Kid not to your liking? Still no problem if the RCOG has its way.

Some people advocate that parents be given up to a year to decide whether or not to allow their child to live. Princeton University's Peter Singer is one of them. But in some instances this has gone beyond the discussion stage.

[...] the March 10, 2005, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine published an article by Dutch physicians who have admitted to having euthanized 15-20 disabled infants. The NEJM provided them with a respectable forum in which to propose formal regulations to govern what amounts to eugenic infanticide.

This goes way beyond discussion. They are proposing regulations for the murder of new borns. Read 'em and weep:

The so-called “Groningen Protocol” (named after the Dutch hospital where the infanticides took place) posits three categories of killable infants: babies “with no chance of survival”; infants with a “poor prognosis and [who] are dependent on intensive care”; and “infants with a hopeless prognosis,” including those “not depending on intensive medical treatment but for whom a very poor quality of life…is predicted."

Sanctity of life meet quality of life. This is the battle ground between Christians and humanists. What is sacred because it was created in God's image is sacrificed because it may not have a good time.

For example, the July 10, 2005, New York Times Magazine published a column by frequent contributor Jim Holt proposing the merits of the Groningen Protocol. Holt suggested that the decision to kill ill or disabled babies should be governed by “a new moral duty,” namely, “the duty prevent suffering, especially futile suffering.”

And of course the only way this new duty can be discharged is through the death of a child. These so called moralists will line up at all hours of the day and night to protest the execution of a vicious serial murderer, but will allow the deilberate killing of an infant because it is the "kind" thing to do. Does this make any sense?

The Bone Yard

I was thinking of a tribute to our vets this week. I just wanted something with a little different emphasis on the service these men and women have made.

To the rescue.

A friend of mine, Al Hammel, sent me some pics of this, the Davis-Monthan AFB, Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AKA the USAF Bone Yard) located in Tucson, AZ. Additional views are , here, and here. Kodak has put together a very interesting tour of the facility here. These aircraft were serviced and flown by our vets.

They provided food and ammunition to our fighting troops.
They flew the wounded to hospitals.
They dropped thousands and thousands of tons of bombs.
They strafed enemy positions and blew up tanks.
They destroyed radar facilities.
They interdicted the resupply of opposing forces.
And a lot more...

Total American Air Force aircraft losses during World War II:

27,694 aircraft, including 8,314 heavy bombers, 1,623 medium and light bombers,
and 8,481 fighters as destroyed in combat.

Out of 135,00 men assigned to the 8th Army Air Force, 30,000 men lost their lives in combat.

Flying is a dangerous business. Just in training missions during WWII there were 6,351 fatal accidents with over 15,500 fatalities and the loss of over 7,100 aircraft.

These aircraft are a lot like our vets. They don't complain and they still serve as best as they can. Like the men who flew them, these craft are a credit to our nation.

This is the only AFB facility that makes a profit.

Davis-Monthan is where military aircraft are stripped down and prepared for storage in the hot, dry desert climate. With over 1,600 aircraft, the USAF Bone Yard is is the third largest air force in the world. Most of the aircraft that come into the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center are flown in under their own power. Some are refitted and readied for sale to other nations. Others, such as B-52's, are stripped of vital parts and used to keep their brothers alive and flying. Some planes are reassembled for use as target practise or in movies.

America built approximately 300,000 aircraft during WWI, most of them for the armed services. Approximately one half of them lasted through hostilities and downsizing and became surplus. Some of the aircraft stationed overseas were destroyed or off loaded out in the middle of the ocean. Some aircraft were sold; after the war you could buy a BT-13 combat trainer for $450 or a B-32 bomber for $32,500.

After WWII, the US had several facilities where surplus aircraft were stored and/or scrapped. Hundreds of millions of pounds of aircraft aluminum were recovered in this fashion.

By 1959, Davis-Monthan alone had 4,000 aircraft. In 1965 it was chosen as the single, primary facility for storage of all USAF surplus planes.

Cop Jokes

Got these in an email. Not bad.

My father always loved fast cars. Taking advantage of the empty roads one morning, he accelerated down a wide-open stretch. Unfortunately, a youngpolice officer was waiting at the other end, and Dad was flagged down. He greeted the officer with a cheery "Good morning!" "And a good morning to you, Wing Commander," replied the officer. "Having trouble taking off?"

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A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do ifyou had to arrest your own mother?" He said, "Call for backup."

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John Screwbrake got pulled over for speeding. He showed the cop his driver'slicense, told him his name and said his wife was having a baby at the local hospital and he needed to get to there fast. The cop didn't believe him, but decided to check out his story before he gave him a ticket. The cop went down to the hospital and rushed on inside. The first person he met was a nurse in the hallway. So he asked "Do you have a Screwbrake here?" She said "Hell no! We're so busy, we don't even have time for a coffee break."

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While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about six years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, "Are you a cop?" "Yes," I answered and continued writing the report. "My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?" "Yes, that's right," I told her. "Well, then," she said as she extended her foot toward me,"would you please tie my shoe?"

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My brother was a Police Officer for some thirty years. One of my favorite stories of his was when his Grandson saw an early picture of him in uniform he stated, "Barney Fife!"

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One Officer,while writing a speeding ticket, was being berated by the driver: "Why did you stop me and all these other people are speeding? Why didn't you stop them?"
The Officer replied, "Ever been fishing?"
Response, "Yes"
Officer, "Ever catch ALL the fish?'

Let The Seething Begin

From the UK's Cambridge Evening News, a young Muslim girl ordered a meatless burger at McDonalds and got the extra value meal instead.

Sixteen-year-old Jasmin Athas ordered a veggie melt meal at the chain's restaurant in Rose Crescent, Cambridge - only to find it contained a large rasher of bacon.

Maybe I could understand the controversary if an entire pig dropped out of the burger into her lap, or a moose, or a half eaten Republican congressman; but a piece of bacon?

Jasmin, who was visiting the UK from Sri Lanka and had spent the day in Cambridge because she plans to apply to university here, was shocked and felt sickened when she realised what she was eating.

There's no bacon in Sri Lanka? Sorry, but bacon is a food. Bacon is not a mouse turd. Or the headless corpses of three Christian school girls in Jakarta. Please spare me the outrage.

I hate lima beans and refuse to eat them, but sometimes my wife sneaks them on the table disguised in a can of mixed vegatables. I eat them. And I keep my mouth shut.

Mr Tillekeratne, 39, an accountant, said: "Jasmin was devastated. She felt sick for a week afterwards at the thought of eating bacon, which she has never eaten in her life. She has been a vegetarian for 10 years and somebody just destroyed that.

For six years of her life she was NOT a vegetarian. Is she disgusted and dismayed at her life prior to age seven? Is the accountant? Is she seeking therapy and compensation for those little tiny processed meat sausages she had in her high chair? And if she is so concerned about her food intake, then why is she eating at Mickey Dee's? I'd rather have a meat patty then trans fat laden deep fried french fries anyway.

A McDonald's spokesman told the News: "Naturally we were very concerned to hear of this customer's experience and that on this rare, isolated occasion we did not meet our usual high standards. We also appreciate how upsetting it must have been for her to consume a product that is against her religious beliefs and we offer our sincerest apologies.

"This was a case of genuine human error and we are taking the matter extremely seriously. The restaurant launched a full investigation at the time of the incident, with the staff members working on that shift."

Hey, bacon happens... Now lets see how the Religion of Peace handles this latest outrage.

Take A Breath

That goes especially for me. It was disappointing, but the Republican Party was asking for a drubbing.

I tend to associate the GOP with conservatism; that hasn't been true for years. The Contract With America died a slow, miserable death; it's rotting corpse is still twisting in the wind. UNder the Republicans the largest entitlement in history was passed. And thirty days after it was approved, the government admitted that they underestimated its cost by a third.

Perhaps its the smirk on the faces of Pelosi, Kennedy, Frank, Byrd, et. al. that gets to me.

But God is still on the throne, the democrats can't change that...

Vote

THIS IS WHY WE MUST VOTE.

As we vote today we must keep this foremost in our minds. If the democrats win, it's all over.

Please take the time to read the attached essay by Dr. Vernon Chong, a retired Air Force Major General and past Commander of Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio.

Subject: Muslims, terrorist and the USA.

Dr. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retired

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII). The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means. First, let's examine a few basics:

1. When did the threat to us start?
Many will say September 11, 2001. The answer as far as the United State is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us:
Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
Beirut, Lebanon Embassy 1983;
Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
First New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996;
Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998;
Dares Salaam, Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000;
New York World Trade Center 2001;
Pentagon 2001.(Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide).

2. Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms. The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.

3. Who were the attackers?
In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslim extremists.

4. What is the Muslim population of the World?
25%.

5. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?
Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated . There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons, including 7,000 Polish priests (see here and here).

Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities.

Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others. Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else.

The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us "infidels." I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?

6. So who are we at war with?
There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.

So with that background, now to the two major questions:
1. Can we lose this war?
2. What does losing really mean?

If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions. We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean? It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get.

What losing really means is: We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us, over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly, for terrorists to attack us, until we were neutered and submissive to them. We would, of course, have no future support from other nations, for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see, we are impotent and cannot help them.

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us.

However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast! If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us, if they were threatened by the Muslims?

If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else? The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war? Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by "imploding." That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose, and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win!

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation. President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously? This is war!

For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently. And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII, and immediately restored them after the victory and in fact added many more since then.

Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him? No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness, and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head. Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means.

Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause. Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war, perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying.

We have recently had an issue, involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our military police. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.

And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type of enemy fighters, who recently were burning Americans, and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq. And still more recently, the same type of enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of American prisoners they held.

Compare this with some of our press and politicians, who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the "humiliating" of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them. Can this be for real? The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense.

If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can. To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world. Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife.

Again I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they are absolutely oblivious to the magnitude, of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us, for many years.

Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels! That translates into ALL non-Muslims -- not just in the United State, but throughout the world. We are the last bastion of defense.

We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant.' That charge is valid in at least one respect. We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world! We can't! If we don't recognize this, our nation as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the world will survive if we are defeated.

And finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the world.

This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire. If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little, on the established French traditions. The French will be fighting among themselves, over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve.

Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece. And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.

They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the "peaceful Muslims"? I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose.

I hope now after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talking about! Do whatever you can to preserve it.

After reading the above, we all must do this not only for ourselves, but our children, our grandchildren, our country and the world.Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal and that includes the Politicians and media of our country and the free world!

Al Gore - Global Warming Whore

In a Sunday Telegraph article (UK), Christopher Monckton has started a series detailing the lies of global warming. He starts off with:

"Last week, Gordon Brown and his chief economist both said global warming was the worst "market failure" ever. That loaded soundbite suggests that the "climate-change" scare is less about saving the planet than, in Jacques Chirac's chilling phrase, "creating world government".

Chris Monckton hits the nail right on the head with that single sentence. Global warming is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for internationalists to change the way we are governed. Chris explains that his series will expose:

"how politicians, scientists and bureaucrats contrived a threat of Biblical floods, droughts, plagues, and extinctions worthier of St John the Divine than of science."

St. Gore, are you listening? Your "visions" are from those midnight chilidogs you slam down. Your cross-country travels alone have produced more Gaia killing jet exhaust gases than ten thousand SUV's. Chris goes on to state that:

"I'll show how the UN undervalued the sun's effects on historical and contemporary climate, slashed the natural greenhouse effect, overstated the past century's temperature increase, repealed a fundamental law of physics and tripled the man-made greenhouse effect."

[...]the UN abolished the medieval warm period (the global warming at the end of the First Millennium AD). In 1995, David Deming, a geoscientist at the University of Oklahoma, had written an article reconstructing 150 years of North American temperatures from borehole data. He later wrote: "With the publication of the article in Science, I gained significant credibility in the community of scientists working on climate change. They thought I was one of them, someone who would pervert science in the service of social and political causes. One of them let his guard down. A major person working in the area of climate change and global warming sent me an astonishing email that said: 'We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period.' "

What is significant about the Medieval Warm Period is that it ruins the "hockey stick" graph that so called climate experts used to prove their delusional theories. Chris continues:

So they did. The UN's second assessment report, in 1996, showed a 1,000-year graph demonstrating that temperature in the Middle Ages was warmer than today.
But the 2001 report contained a new graph showing no medieval warm period. It wrongly concluded that the 20th century was the warmest for 1,000 years. The graph looked like an ice hockey-stick. The wrongly flat AD1000-AD1900 temperature line was the shaft: the uptick from 1900 to 2000 was the blade."

This is the basis for their argument: if we don't do something NOW, it will be too late. We will all die. We will either 1) drown from the melting ice caps, 2) bake in the blistering greenhouse heat, or 3) be smothered in poo when all the other environmental disasters hit the fan.

And how did they get rid of this embarrassing information? Chris reconstructs the deceit:

1)They gave one technique for reconstructing pre-thermometer temperature 390 times more weight than any other (but didn't say so).

2)The technique they overweighted was one which the UN's 1996 report had said was unsafe: measurement of tree-rings from bristlecone pines. Tree-rings are wider
in warmer years, but pine-rings are also wider when there's more carbon dioxide
in the air: it's plant food. This carbon dioxide fertilisation distorts the calculations.

3) They said they had included 24 data sets going back to 1400. Without saying so, they left out the set showing the medieval warm period, tucking it into a folder marked "Censored Data".

4) They used a computer model to draw the graph from the data, but scientists later found that the model almost always drew hockey-sticks even if they fed in random, electronic "red noise."

These are the graphs shown in the Telegraph. The top one is the Hockey stick, showing the alleged sudden uptick in temperatures starting in 1900. Please note that the temperature in this graph shows an increase of perhaps .75 degrees Celsius over the last 30 years or so.

The second graph Shows the Medieval Warming period where average temperates increased from about 1000 AD to 1200 AD, and then decreased for the next 200 years. Bear in mind that the average temperature increased by 1 degree Celsius during the Medieval period.

"Even after the "hockey stick" graph was exposed, scientific papers apparently confirming its abolition of the medieval warm period appeared. The US Senate asked independent statisticians to investigate. They found that the graph was meretricious [emphasis mine], and that known associates of the scientists who had compiled it had written many of the papers supporting its conclusion."

mer‧e‧tri‧cious - adjective
1. alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.
2. based on pretense, deception, or insincerity.
3. pertaining to or characteristic of a prostitute. [Again, emphasis mine]

And there's more, lots more. The number of accurate weather/temperature stations has declined by 2/3 since a high of 6,000 in 1970. It is suspected that many of the 2,000 remaining stations are located near major populations centers which would generate more heat than rural setting, thus artificially skewing temperature recordings.

"The UN [...] says the graph isn't important. It is. Scores of scientific papers show that the medieval warm period was real, global and up to 3C warmer than now. Then, there were no glaciers in the tropical Andes: today they're there. There were Viking farms in Greenland: now they're under permafrost. There was little ice at the North Pole: a Chinese naval squadron sailed right round the Arctic in 1421 and found none."

"The Antarctic, which holds 90 per cent of the world's ice and nearly all its 160,000 glaciers, has cooled and gained ice-mass in the past 30 years, reversing a 6,000-year melting trend. Data from 6,000 boreholes worldwide show global temperatures were higher in the Middle Ages than now. And the snows of Kilimanjaro are vanishing not because summit temperature is rising (it isn't) but because post-colonial deforestation has dried the air. Al Gore please note."

Al Gore - Global Warming Whore. And his pimp is The UK's Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair has accepted the advice of Environment Secretary David Miliband to impose environmental taxes on English rate payers.

Typical families with two children could have to pay up to £1,300 more every year, [that's $2,471.07 USD using a currency conversion site tonight] according to estimates. The move came on the eve of today's publication of a major study on climate change which some experts blame on harmful man-made emissions. Tony Blair describes the report drawn up by former world bank chief Sir Nicholas Stern as the most important he has seen since becoming Prime Minister.

I will keep on top of this mess as it develops...

Crime Story

Crime stats can be used in various ways to describe the quality of life in your community. Sometimes these stats can be misleading without a proper perspective. In this post I will try to provide you with such a perspective.

Morgan Quitno came out this week with a list of the safest cities in the USA. Quitno produces this list of the safest and least safe cities with populations over 75,000 after the FBI publishes the latest annual Uniform Crime Report (2005 UCR).

Brick, NJ (actually a Town, not a City) was listed as the safest with a violent Part I index crime rate (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) of 55.9 per 100,000 population and St. Louis, Missouri, being the least safe with a violent Part I index crime rate of 2,405.5 per 100,000.

You can look at the national crime states for your state/town or city at the aforementioned link, or go here and download the entire file as an excel spreadsheet.

The FBI publishes crime stats for almost 8,200 jurisdictions. Quitno only uses about 380 of them in their comparative city listings (those being over 75,000 population). All told, there are 1,485 jurisdictions with a lower violent crime rate than Brick Township. The smallest jurisdiction (Teterboro, NJ) has a population of only 18. There were no reported violent felonies in Teterboro but there were 2 burglaries, 7 larcenies and 8 stolen cars. Huh? There are only 18 people in Teterboro. Someone must have stolen every car they owned! Twice!

And the least safe jurisdiction in the USA? It is Vernon, California (pop. 94) where police reported 28 robberies and 20 aggravated assaults last year for a violent crime rate of over 51,000 per 100,000 population. Either the crime reporting out of Vernon is all screwed up or there are two bars in town where every one gets the crap kicked out of them and robbed every Friday night. Twice.

But these listings leave out property crimes from the total "serious" Part I crime picture. Once you add burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft the crime listings change somewhat. There are 91 jurisdictions that reported no Part I crimes at all during 2005. The largest of these is Kingwood, West Virginia, population of 2,916.

If we use Quitno's criteria of safest cities over 75,000 population, the most crime free community is.... in New York. The Town of Ramapo (pop. 74,388 - okay I cheated a wee bit, it was short by 622 people) had a total of 749 Part I crimes for a total Part I crime rate of 1,006.9 per 100,000.

Looking at the jurisdictions with the highest rate of total Part I crimes brings us back to California. It's good old VERNON! Population of 94 wicked souls! They had 52 burglaries, 260 larcenies and 232 motor vehicle thefts! Crikey! Everyone here must cover themselves with $20 bills and then fall asleep in their cars in front of the town's two bars with the engine running and the car doors wide open. Their total Part I crime rate is 629,782.2 per 100,000!

The lesson here is that some statistical measures do not fit every situation.

Using total Part I crimes in the same format as Quitno, the safest, most crime free city in the USA (population over 75,000 and lowest total incidence of Part I crimes) is Lake Forest, California (Pop. 77,523) with a Part I crime rate of 1,408.6 per 100,000. The most crime ridden city in the USA is .... again St. Louis, Missouri (pop. 346,005) with a Part I crime rate of 13,458.8 per 100,000. That is an incredible victimization rate. It is five times higher than New York City's rate(2,675.5 per 100,000) and almost double that of Houston, TX.

There is something else misleading about these statistics. You are only seeing what are known as Part I crimes. Part I crimes are murder (and nonnegligent manslaughter), forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. Arson was added in 1986. No mention is made of Part II crimes. Except for drug offenses, Part II crimes do not usually show up in the evening news.

Quite simply, Part II crimes are everything else:
Simple Assaults
Forgery and Counterfeiting
Fraud
Embezzlement
Stolen Property Offenses
Vandalism
Weapons Offenses
Prostitution and Commercialized Vice
Sex Offenses (except rape and prostitution)
Drug Abuse Violations
Gambling
Offenses Against the Family and Children
Driving Under the Influence
Liquor Laws
Drunkenness
Disorderly Conduct
Vagrancy
All Other Offenses (except traffic)
Curfew and Loitering Laws (Juveniles only)
Runaways (Juveniles only)

The Part II crimes are often used as an indicator for the quality of life in a community. Just because no one is shot to death or no one breaks into your house doesn't mean that everything is hunky dory in YourTown, USA.

There is another problem with the FBI Uniform Crime Report. The entire state of Illinois is under reported. The reason for this is simple; Illinois has refused to comply with federal crime reporting standards for forcible rape. Illinois reports "criminal sexual assault" instead of forcible rape so the feds do not include it in the national stats for violent felonies. In addition, the State of Illinois only has seven jurisdictions reporting crime stats to the FBI. These jurisdictions are Aurora (pop. 167,266), Chicago (pop. 2,873,441), Joliet (pop. 130,026), Naperville (pop. 140,654), Peoria (pop. 113,161), Rockford (pop. 153,048) and Springfield (pop. 115,187). The 2000 US census lists Illinois as having over 12 million people living in 102 counties! To get an idea what is happening in Illinois you should go to their State's UCR web site.

Please don't get me wrong. The State of Illinois is not trying to hide anything. They compile a very comprehensive report on crime. It's because of the difference in the way they classify their forcible rape crimes that makes their stats incompatible with the rest of the nation. But I am rather mystified why only seven Illinois cities are reported in the UCR. The FBI does not provide much information either. All they say is this "Limited data for 2005 were available for Illinois." It could be that Illinois also has a different timetable for agencies to report their crime stats. Going back to 1995 (page 148) I see that Illinois only had four cities providing the UCR to the FBI. I guess they're getting better about it.

My whole reason for this is simple.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet or hear on the news.

God's e-mail

One day God was looking down at earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of his angels and sent the angel to earth for a time. When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not."

God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion." So God called another angel and sent him to earth for a time, too. When the angel returned he went to God and said, yes, it's true. The earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good."

God was not pleased.

So he decided to email the 5% who were good, because He wanted to encourage them, give them a little something to help them keep going.

Do you know what the email said?

No?

Okay, just wondering. I didn't get one either.

By Saying Something Stupid

The Junior Senator from Massachusetts and his wife have recorded a duet.
Hope you like it:

We know you sit around
Dreaming up something profound
For the evening news
You tax your little brain
Trying not to wax insane
And end up sounding confused.

Then afterwards you try to save some face
And drop a lie or two.
But then we’re just real thankful
That Bush is now the President
Instead of you

We can see it in your eyes
You still dispense the same old lies
We heard in two thousand four
And though your wife bites through the straps
And slips her meds
She still has tons of money galore

You practice every day to find some slanderous
Lies to say
Against our soldiers so true
But bloggers hear and spread the word
And then
You find you’re totally screwed

The democrats were posed
To take the House
And Heaven knows
How many seats they'd accrue
And then you go and blow it all
By saying something stupid
Like you always do!