Not Sure Which was Worse

Steve White is an eigth grade science teacher in Athens, Alabama. It seems Mr. White thought it would be cute to show show a Bush-bashing video to his students. Okay, aside from the appropriateness of showing a political video in a science class there is also this little wrinkle. Mr. Davis is running for congress.
Much is being made of the fact that the video was laced with obscenities (you can find a link on Michelle Malkin). To me this misses the point. If Mr. Davis cannot distinguish between a political rally and a group of kids too young to vote I have to question how fit he is to serve. It displays bad judgement at best. Does he really think actions like those in the story is going to gain votes for him? Sure, there will be the kook who will view him as a "free-speech martyr" and vote for him on that basis. The fact remains this man was using his class to advance his political views. Never mind that his politics are totally irrelevent to the subject he was hired to teach. The man obviously does not understand the concept of ethics let alone the ones related to his profession. He should be fired immediately and hopefully the people of the 4th District won't let him get past the primaries.
Now, before people start hollaring, "What about free speech?", this is about a politician using his "day job" to make political speeches to a captive audience. If the students were free to walk out of class without dear of reprisal gradewise I would not have as much a problem with White's antics, but that is not what appears to be happening.

To the 6209 Ahead of Me...

...stay healthy (for the sake of the country)

Get your position here

"Justice Delayed...

...is justice denied" as the old proverb goes. I started reading Maggie4life on several other blogs, mainly on Crystal Clear, as we discussed the case of Terri Schindler Schaivo. In, I remember Terri - the countdown begins, the Aussie lass explains how she came to follow the case from Down-Under. Her words are haunting, especially these:

What is even more shocking, though, is the way in which even to this day, almost 12 months after the feeding tube was forcibly removed on the orders of her guardian, Terri Schindler remains a person who cries out for justice. Even from the grave, Terri's voice continues to cry out for justice against all who were complicit in the decision-making that brought about her death.

This is where I am on this case. Unfortunately justice is still denied Terri while her widdowed "husband" gets face-time with Matt Lauer, according to Crystal who does a masterful job of fisking the...#%@&# (sorry I don't like using the language I was thinking.

But Wait! there's More!

The Dawn Patrol is reporting about Pedophiles' Pal Planned Parenthood Golden Gate's latest venture into tackiness. The same people who created "Superhero for Choice" has hit upon a new inducement: chance at a free iPod. Here is the copy, straight from their own website(look under "Did You Know?"):

You can win an iPod!
Come in for an appointment at any of our 8 health centers before April 30th and enter to win an iPod.
Make an appointment today!

I guess their justification is that their clientel represents a demographic that otherwise cannot afford iPods. Some lucky girl can now win one and be spared the stigma of possibly getting caught stealing one. An aborted child seems such a small price to pay, don't you agree?

No, I do not agree at all. Have they so trivialized human life that that the life of an unborn child is a "small price" to pay for a chance at an iPod? Apparently so.
Curt Jester has a great possible play list for the PP iPod

I hope this Hastens Their Demise

Michelle Malkin: MOUSSAOUI'S BUDDIES: U.S. AIRLINES? is a more than startling look at whay may have happened in the Moussaoui case. As you may have heard by now, the judge at the Zacarius Moussoui trial has gutted the prosecution case for the death penalty against Mousaoui. Allegations have come to light that the Transportation Security Agency lawyer who "coached" prosecution witnesses was acting to help two government bailout recipients, United Airlines and American Airlines. It seems that undermining the prosecution's case helps out their defense in a separate civil suit. According to the AP
If this is true then these two airlines deserve to become history. And I don't mean the kind of history you look back on with pride. I also think those who hatched this scheme should have to share a cell with Moussaoui himself. I feel for the many people who would lose jobs as a result of this scenario, but would they really want to work for such industrial whores?

Welcome Michelle Malkin Readers

Ceude mille failte(or for those of you not so blessed as to have any Scots blood in ye, "A hundred-thousand welcomes") to those of you thatMichelle Malkin sent over. Thank you greatly, Michelle.

She needs to get More Sleep...

...preferably when court is in session. Seems Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in Cape Town, South Africa last month giving a speech titled, "A Decent Respect for the Opinions of [Human]Kind. Too bad she apparently does not have a decent respect for the Constitution she was sworn to uphold.
In Her Honor's words:

To a large extent, I believe, the critics in Congress and in the media misperceive how and why U.S. courts refer to foreign and international court decisions. We refer to decisions rendered abroad, it bears repetition, not as controlling authorities, but for their indication, in Judge Wald's words, of "common denominators of basic fairness governing relationships between the governors and the governed."

The purpose of the SC is NOT to determine what is "fair". It is to determine if a given act violates the Constitution or not. Not what the justice wants the Constitution to say, but what it says. If this is her thought process, I hope she sleeps while cases are argued in front of her more often.

This Should Warrant Armed Response.

Pirate’s Cove tells about a plan to "storm the White House" The French stormed the Bastille. People, if you use rhetoric like this you should not be surprised if you get a violent reception If you meant it figuratively it would have been a good idea to say so because this can be construed as a direct threat.
United for Peace and Justice is behind this nonsense.

We are calling on all citizens and governments in every country to stand with us. We are calling on all Member Nations of the U.N.; All Representatives and Justices in the World Court and International Criminal Courts; All Human Rights Advocates; All Soldiers and CIA agents and government officials who have been blackmailed or are in fear of the dictators to join us in ending this reign of corporate terror in our government.

Okayyyyyyy...I guess the fact that the President was legally elected escapes them. I also guess that nobody ever told them (or most likely they didn't understand) that just because you don't like something does not make it illegal. I guess that they also think that forcing somebody to listen to Christina Aguilara is the thing as an acid bath.

...we must storm in, show them how many of us do not accept a criminal government.

This not "peacable assembly" as protected by the Constitution. This is an act of open rebellion that can, and should be met with force necessary to quell it. If this was a protest march, I would say, "have at it" it is the right and duty of Americans to do such to redress grievences with the government. This, however, goes wayyyyyyyy beyond that.
I rather like Pirate Cove's take on this, "Nutarama: now with more insanity!" I really hope this does not end with these any of clowns getting Darwin Awards. But given the tenor of the "call to arms", I'm not holding out much hope.

UPDATE

Job search is still plodding along, slowed by a diverticulitis attack that the doctor has ordered me to home until the 23rd. This also does not help the old hours worked column.
UPDATE:Have improved enough to go back to work yesterday.
UPDATE II:Still in some pain but still working even if it is pt, got a nibble on my posting on monster.com setting up interview time.
Son home from college so aside form a few comments very limited blogging this week.

Maybe Now They will Listen...

...and as Wayne Campbell would say, "Sh'eah right! And maybe monkeys will come flying out my butt!" In Grizzly Report: We Are At War. MonicaR relates her experience at a meeting sponsored by CAIR-Philly. According to Monica, "It pains me to say it. There was a sliver of me that wanted to believe my President when he told me that Islam is the 'Religion of Peace.' " Apparently this meeting erased even that sliver.
Read about her experience here rather than take my word for it. This was not some right-wing-kook-tin-foil hat-conspiratist rally, but this was from the horses mouths. I was always tought that if you want to be trusted then don't act in ways that raise suspicion. Apparently the good folks at CAIR never got that advice. At least not at this gathering.

This Proves it is a Bad Idea

MiamiHerald says former White House Occupant Jimmy Carter thinks turning port security over to an UAE-owned company is a good idea. If for no other reason, President Bush should scrap the idea. Carter's brilliance at security was exemplified for 444 days in 1979 and 1980.
Mr. President, run don't walk from this deal.

I Used to Like Her

I used to like reading Debbie Schlussel. However, after a couple of adolescent caps-locked responses to comments I made on her blog, and other instances of childish e-mails to other bloggers I can only say, "enough". If you are going to rant about a request for sources and threaten to sue over insutling remarks contained in an angry rant, then you need to be in another line of work, take a break or maybe just take a few deep breaths and count to ten. For gosh sakes, stop biting hands that are on the same side!

One More Reason to have a Raspberry Danish

Iranian Bakeries Rename Danish Pastries according to fox news. As you remember, Iranian President Hassan binSober declared a few weeks ago that Danish would now be called "Mohammedan Pastries" At least the confectioners' uniion came up with a more poetic (if longer and clumsier)name: "Roses of the Prophet Mohammed"
Excuse me while I go find a bakery.

Throw Mohammed from the Train

Beth over at MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is shooting for a record for most posts on a single thread. This is kind of fun in a somewhat sadistic politically incorrect kind of way. Sort of.

Great to Read while Eating a Raspberry Danish

The Usual Suspects by Michael Graham: Last Laugh about Islam is a great read. Since the link supplied only leads to the current installment of "The Usual Suspects" and will consequently change when the new one is out I will show it in its entirety here:

The Last Laugh About Islam

I offer the following recent news items, in no particular order: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding an apology from a Los Angeles talk-show host for making fun of Muslims. In reference to the oft-repeated spectacle of Muslim pilgrims stampeding each other to death during Hajj (a pillar of Islam involving a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia), KFI's Bill Handel suggested the annual Hajj should feature a "Hajj in the Sky" traffic copter.

This is a joke. It is not allowed.

On Jan. 30, Muslim gunmen stormed an office of the European Union in Gaza, in protest of a series of editorial cartoons in a Danish newspaper. The comics featured 12 artistic visions of Muhammad, including one where the prophet's turban is a bomb with a lit fuse, and another showing Muhammad in heaven telling newly arrived suicide bombers, "Stop! We have run out of virgins!" In addition to the armed assault on the European Union, Saudi Arabia recalled its Danish ambassador, Syria demanded the cartoonists be punished and Danish products were pulled from store shelves across the Middle East.

These cartoons are jokes. They are not allowed.

Just days before the gunmen were kicking in doors over cartoons, the Palestinians voted 60 percent for Hamas, a group previously identified by both the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including some Americans. Hamas won this election over the Fatah Party, whose armed wing ‹ the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades ‹ is responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths, including Americans. On 9/11, Palestinians watching 3,000 Americans die live on satellite TV were so overjoyed they danced in the streets and handed out candy to children.

Last year, American taxpayers gave more than $400 million to the Palestinians.

That is not a joke. It's a foreign policy.

When CAIR sent out a news release attacking KFI's Bill Handel over his "Hajj in the Sky" joke, they also complained that Handel referred to Islam as a "strange religion." And they didn't like his suggestion that Muslims had a problem with anti-Semitism.

Now, where'd he ever get that crazy idea …

"Strange religion" seems pretty mild to me. If masked Methodists were hijacking newsrooms over the latest installment of Doonesbury, I'd consider that a bit odd. If cracking jokes about Christian Scientists led their members to threaten public safety, I'd view that as somewhat out of the ordinary.

If Scientologists started getting all freaky about þ well, that's a bad example.

My point is, when you're talking about the only religion in the world currently linked to suicide bombings, honor killings, the stoning of homosexuals and a return to the electoral ideology of the Nazi Party, it's hard to avoid mildly judgmental terms like "strange," "disconcerting," and, "Holy crap, what the hell are these whack jobs thinking?"

If you can't use the words "strange" and "religion" in a conversation about Islam's influence on the world, then you can't have an honest conversation about Islam. That doesn't mean the conversation has to be negative. But the potential for negative, critical and harsh comments must exist for the conversation to be worthwhile. How can there be open, meaningful discourse with people who are ready to blow your brains out if Charlie Brown and Lucy misquote the Quran?

Don't Muslims ever kid around? Doesn't anyone in the Islamic world ever crack a joke? I mean, other than the classic, "These two Jews walk into a bar þ AND ARE BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS BY A MARTYR! ALLAH AKBAR! ALLAH AKBAR!"

Comedy is, by its very nature, critical. For there to be a joke, there must be somebody or something to joke about. Big boys and girls understand this. When people crack wise about us, we take our licks and go on.

If, for example, the Billy Graham crusades resulted in a parking lot pileup of crazed, car-crashing Christians year after year, I wouldn't be offended if radio talk hosts made fun of it. I would expect it. Then again, I also would expect the Billy Graham folks to figure out how to prevent another crash before the next crusade.

It's not talk radio's fault that Muslim pilgrims being stampeded to death while throwing stones at a symbol of Satan has become almost an annual event. It's shameful and embarrassing, and the Saudi government and others responsible should be ashamed. Instead, they're outraged that somebody noticed it and snickered.

Iran wants to play host to an international conference to determine the real facts about the Holocaust. Of course I'm going to laugh. What else ‹ take them seriously?

The insurgents in Iraq insist that American soldiers are "forcing" good Muslims to violate their faith and participate in democracy. "The Americans have no right to force us to choose our own leaders! They can't boss us around by making us be our own bosses!" What, you want me to pretend that's an argument?

No, that's a punch line.

It is impossible to look honestly at the current state of Islam in the world and not either laugh or cry. I choose to laugh. What the leaders of the Muslim world choose to do, we'll have to wait and see.

Let us know what you think: Email Suspects@aol.com or news@free-times.com.

And if You thought "Freedom Fries" was a Silly Gesture.

Michelle Malkin among others are reporting the latest rage in Iran, "Mohammedan Pastries", known to the civilized world Danish Pastries. Now I thought the act of referring to french fires as freedom fries was just plain silly, as was the new name for the deep fried taters. This latest act by the circus known as the Iranian government did not, however, provoke the same laughter. All we (by "we" I am referring to a small minority of US citizens) did was (badly) rename a popular side dish, we didn't riot, pillage and go out looking for French people to murder while burning down their embassy.
Of course this could be the real reason behind the idiot teacher in Ipswich, England demanding they stop calling another pastry, "hot cross buns". Soon as I get a whole job I plan on enjoying a surfeit of raspberry danish (what better choice of fruit) and hot cross buns.

I've Put this off as Long as I Can

I recently lost a job that I had held for over seven years, thus far I have been unable to get anything other than part time and we are floundering. The job search and stress caused by it is part of the reason for the sporadic posting I have been doing lately. Soon as this crisis is past the button on the left will disappear unless I decide to start treating blogging as a source of income (lol). But right now,and for the foreseeable future, the "make a donation" button is temporary.

And Why should Today be Any Different?

According to Michelle Malkin and the London Daily Telegraph a leading Islamic cleric is calling for an "international day of anger." My response is, "And that would distinguish it from every other day how?" Let's face it, all we hear, read and see in the news is how some Muslim somewhere is "mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore" then orders some wild-eyed sycophant to go blow himeslf up and take a few Jewish pizza-eaters with him.Alternately go kidnap somebody and saw their heads off.
Many American "journalists" think this is appropriate behavior. I say this due to their willingness to acded to their demands not to show the editorial cartoons because it might upset the Muslims' deeply held spiritual beliefs. Of it never stopped them from running similar items that any reasonable person would deem a smear against conservative Christians. Perhaps because they can be fairly certain the reaction will not be extremely violent and will in some places be applauded. If you think this is a veiled accusation of cowardice on the part of our news media, it is.

Amen, Cass!

Villainous Company: We're Supposed To Be Better Than This is an excellant discussion on civility (or lack thereof)in the blogosphere. Also, it is good to see Cassandra writing again (VC has been back running for a couple of weeks now)

Another one Rode Hard and Put up Wet!

The Pittsburgh Steelers have taken another horsey ride and are on their way to Detroit to face the Seattle Seahawks. They have been installed as an early favorite over the 'Hawks.
HERE WE GO STEELERS! HERE WE GO1