Ahmadinejad target of 'Rome X-ray plot', diplomat says

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of an "X-ray radiation plot" during his trip to Rome for the UN food summit earlier this month, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

The news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Italy, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, as saying that the plot was to use extreme radiation in the place where Ahmadinejad was due to stay.

The diplomat spoke out after Ahmadinejad himself charged that he had been the target of an assassination plot during his landmark trip to Iraq in March and his aides spoke of a similar attempt in Rome.

"One day before Ahmadinejad's trip, I checked and found out that the (security) X-ray machine set up in the place where he was staying gave off excessive radiation," Zohrehvand said.

He said that the regular radiation level of such equipment in Italy was "300" but on this machine it had reached "800".

He gave no indication of the units he was using but radiation is normally measured in millirems with the average American experiencing a total annual exposure of an average of 360, according to medical websites.

"First we suspected the machine was broken and after replacing it with another one it turned out that the radiation was controlled from another source," the ambassador said.

"When the president entered this place, the radiation increased and exceeded '1,000' so that the intensity of the radiation was completely felt inside the building," he added.

The diplomat did not say if the place where Ahmadinejad was staying was a hotel or official residence.

Ahmadinejad said in mid-June that enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their travel plans.

"Since the X-rays didn't work it is clear that they will be going after the President with gamma-rays next," an aide said, "with hopes of turning him into a version of the Hulk and that would ruin all of his clothings and force the country to do more business with K-Mart in order to acquire more of those inexpensive, threadbare jackets that he so dearly loves. We are therefore going to stay one step ahead of them as I have personally ordered boatloads of the very outer garments they hope we will run out of."

BLOGS4BORDERS Video Blogburst

Posted by Jake in Uncategorized |

Our weekly vlog — video podcast on illegal immigration and border security issues. In this weeks edition…

Budget Woes? Several states are cutting benefits for citizens, are they missing something obvious?

100% Preventable! Americans continue to pay the bloody price for open borders! When will the madness end?

The Other War: Mexican drug cartel hitmen assassinate a Phoenix drug dealer. Is there a Mexican military connection?

If you’d like to sponsor a show contact us here.

This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.

Police Hunt Man Who Allegedly Killed Wife, Two Grandchildren With Ax

"Police are hunting an elderly man after a vicious home ax attack in an Australian town that seriously wounded a female police officer and left her mother and two young children dead.

Police are seeking to question John Walsh, the father of wounded Senior Constable Shelly Walsh, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Shelly Walsh is in a serious but stable condition for at Orange Base Hospital. Her two children, a 7-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl, and her mother, Mabel, were killed in the attack inside her home at Cowra.

It is feared John Walsh, in his late 70s, is heading to the Newcastle area and may commit more violence.

A neighbor has told how Shelly Walsh ran to his house bleeding and screaming for help.

“Apparently she came in screaming that her father’s gone off and axed the kids,” Terry Lovett said.

Lovett, who is in Canberra, spoke to his wife by phone shortly after the tragedy unfolded mid-afternoon today.

He said said his wife, Cheryl, helped Shelly Walsh, who had a cut across her face.

It is believed that the eldest child of the injured officer, a 9-year-old, was at school at the time of the attack and checks are being made on this child's welfare.

Police have informed the father of the children, also believed to be a police officer, that they have been killed and are now protecting him with the belief John Walsh is on his way to harm him."

If Walsh makes it to Newcastle and has any familiarity with living off the land he isn't getting caught unless he wants to be caught.

Famous for coal mining...hence the name...and penniless Aborigines, Newcastle is enough off the beaten path to be a real pain in the ass for searchers, and anyone with knowledge of the old Abo trails could hide out indefinitely. If he comes out into the open to chop up the policeman father of his grandkids they shouldn't have all that much difficulty stopping an oldtimer with an ax, but this is Oz after all and the dozens of armed cops protecting one of their own might be enough of a giveaway to keep gramps in hiding. I've camped out that way enough times to know my way around, but wouldn't go to Oz if they paid me by the second.

Not much freedom there. Folks are subjects and have been disarmed. Which is why I came back to the states to begin with.

...And So Does Rutgers

"...While Rutgers might have trouble this winter finding the money to heat its dorms and classrooms, it continues to pour millions into its football and basketball facilities. There's no better way for the taxpayer-funded state school to impress out-of-state recruits, many of whom, if not for football or basketball, would be far too academically deficient to be accepted to Rutgers.

But that's what brand-name universities do. They spend a fortune on those least likely to graduate. Sick, ain't it? And if the recruits are good enough, they might only stick around for a year or two.

And so what that Rutgers, in order to better financially serve football and basketball, eliminated far less expensive sports - crew, fencing, swimming and diving - that not only produced All-Americans, but superior students, the kind colleges are supposed to attract and then graduate.

Yep, Bruce Johnson, the village voice of Rutgers since 1985, was no longer a good fit, not for the modern brand. He's out for the same reason the Scarlet Knights now wear black uniforms."

As soon as Rutgers was reasonably assured of its acceptance as a major football power, it did what all schools do in order to stay that way. Lowered academic requirements for football and basketball players, then told the rest of the campus they'd be cutting back due to money problems. While at the same time funneling tons of cash into upgrading their sports equipment and training facilities. Oh and yeah, time to fire the stand up guy who called their games and replace him with a trash talking motormouth.

Its win-win. They suddenly have lots more minority "students" vying to get in and who cares if only a very small percentage of them actually graduate. Its the politically-correct thought that counts because campuses (and Rutgers has too many to count located all through the state) that were once bordering on lily-whiteness are at long last the wonderful rainbow that attracts donations from wealthy loons.

Virginia Tech Majors In Take-The-Money-And-Run

"FOURTEEN months have passed since Michael Pohle's oldest son was gunned down in the Virginia Tech massacre.

"More than a year of unimaginable grief and pain. And now - improbably - something worse.

The university has profited handsomely from the deaths of 32 innocents, the father believes. All were slaughtered by Seung-Hui Cho, a known maniac to whom Virginia Tech honchos gave carte blanche to roam the campus.

But while families were grieving, the university was padding its bottom line. This is the discovery of Pohle and other parents, who held funerals when they should have celebrated graduations.

"This just makes us furious," said Pohle, who lives in Flemington, NJ. "I'm absolutely convinced in my heart that a well-orchestrated plan was going on."

In the days following the death of Michael Pohle Jr., the father learned his boy teamed up with Derek O'Dell. As I reported last year, they used their bodies to block the door to prevent the madman from re-entering their class. O'Dell survived. Michael Jr. did not.

Still in a state of shock, Pohle, as well as most families who lost loved ones on April 16, 2007, - which some consider Virginia's 9/11 - were pressured to partake in two financial giveaways. First, Virginia Tech handed out some $8 million donated by generous citizens. The average family got about $208,000.

Earlier this month, the state of Virginia gave out about $100,000 apiece. Pohle said he agreed to it only because the settlement guaranteed medical care to the gravely injured.

But now that the university has moved on, Pohle has learned the college has been raking it in.

On Oct. 20, 2007, six months after blood soaked the campus, Virginia Tech quietly held a gala black-tie fund-raiser.

All told, Virginia Tech raised some $111 million in the seven months following the massacre - compared with less than $40 million annually in the five years before.

"There's no question that huge jump in donations was as a result of that tragedy," said Peter Grenier, a lawyer who helped negotiate the Virginia settlement.

Virginia Tech acknowledges fund-raising is up, but denies the college asked for it.

"In light of the tragedy that occurred, many people turned their attention to Virginia Tech," said col lege spokesman Mark Owczarski. "Virginia Tech has never and will never solicit funds in terms of leveraging the tragedy in any way, shape or form."

What disturbs Pohle is the abrupt way the college stopped earmarking money for the families, who had until Sept. 15 to apply for money.

Within weeks, Tech held its gala.

"What I am questioning is, what level of planning went into this? We hadn't even had the one-year anniversary!"

Pohle insists he's not looking for more money. He wants answers.

Only then will a family who lost their beloved son find peace."

VT raked in what amounted to a $71 million dollar sympathy-windfall, then played pauper when it came to making restitution to the families of those slaughtered by their pet korean nutcase.

Higher learning has never been so low.

This Just In From Our Favorite Cookie....

'Nuff Said.

NY Model A "Suicide". Yeah, That's The Ticket...

A gorgeous supermodel fell from her swank downtown apartment to her death yesterday in an apparent suicide, officials said.

Ruslana Photo Gallery

Ruslana Korshunova, 20, whose face graced the cover of French Elle and Russian Vogue, apparently jumped from her ninth-floor apartment in her Water Street building in the Financial District at 2:30 p.m.

UPDATE: MODEL'S DEATH RULED SUICIDE

"I heard what sounded like a gunshot or a bomb or an explosion," said a stunned Con Ed worker talking to a cop nearby.

"I looked down the street, and I say to the cop, 'Did that person just get hit by a car?' " said the worker, who identified himself only as Patrick, 32, of Brooklyn.

The two men raced over. "Her arms were crushed," Patrick said. "Her head was on the left side and blood was coming out in a pool."

Cops said there were no signs of a struggle in the one-bedroom apartment, where she lived for only two months. And the balcony from which she plunged had construction netting around it that appeared to have been deliberately ripped."

Lem had it right when he mentioned the Russian mob. Dollars to doughnuts the cops aren't telling all, or at least I hope so.

Grizzly Mauls Teen During Alaska Bike Race

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — "Anchorage police say a teenage girl taking part in a 24-hour bike race was severely injured after a grizzly bear attack.

The girl was riding early Sunday on a park trail when attacked. She used her cell phone to call 911 but was unable to communicate.

"She was cut up and bit pretty good," said Anchorage Police Officer Jean Mills.

Another biker found the mauled girl around 1:30 a.m. and called police.

Medics were escorted by officers with shotguns into the dark woods to retrieve the girl, whose name has not been released.

Wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott says the bear may have been the same female that charged two runners two weeks ago on a nearby trail. That sow grizzly was with two cubs.

The bear bit her on the head, torso and thigh, Sinnott said. She also had a "sucking chest wound" caused by a puncture to the lung cavity.

"A midnight race along a salmon stream is probably a pretty bad idea when the salmon are there," Sinnott said."

Duh.

I sincerely wish the young lady a speedy and complete recovery. That said, what in the hell were these people thinking?

Problem was, they weren't. If it were my child, well first off she wouldn't be going to any race where large omnivorous animals live, but lets say I was somehow unawares, there'd be one sorry ass adult or two in charge of this thing who'd learn first hand what sucking chest wound was all about.

Murder Suspect Amanda Knox Boasts In Jailhouse Diary of Fan Mail From Men

Student-turned-murder suspect Amanda Knox brags in her jailhouse diary that she has received dozens of fan letters from men since she's been in prison for allegedly participating in the gruesome sexual assault and killing of her roommate in Italy.

Knox, 20, of Seattle, has been penning the journal behind bars in Italy. Excerpts were released this week in which the fresh-faced young woman attributes the intense interest in her case to the fact that she's pretty.

"I received 23 fan letters today — that makes the count up to 35 letters," London's Daily Mail quotes Knox as writing. "All of them reassure me that they believe me — the majority comment on how beautiful I am.

"I've received blatant love letters, a marriage proposal and others wanting to get to know 'the girl with the angel face.'"

• Click here to view photos.

Knox is behind bars for her alleged role in the grisly November sexual assault and murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, the British woman she shared a house with while studying abroad.

Detectives in Italy believe Kercher died fending off a drug-fueled sex-based attack the day after Halloween by Knox, Knox's 24-year-old Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast man rumored to be the couple's drug dealer. Sollecito and Guede also are in jail.

The British student was stabbed to death three times in the throat. Police think she was attacked after refusing to take part in a "sexual game." Kercher was discovered naked from the waist down in a pool of blood in the house she shared with Knox in the Italian university town of Perugia.

Italian police said this week that they have a new witness who claims to have seen Knox and two others leaving her house moments after Kercher was thought to have been murdered, according to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Knox released the hundreds of pages of journal entries, notes, poems and letters — all written from her jail cell — in an effort to clear her name and prove her innocence.

"I'm writing this because I want to remember," she says. "I want to remember because this is an experience not many people will ever have. I am not saying I am glad everything that has happened has happened. If it were up to me, my friend would never have been killed."

The University of Washington student — dubbed "Foxy Knoxy" by the British tabloids — says she is upset and distraught about Kercher's murder but is innocent of any involvement. She has been criticized in the press for acting cold and emotionless after her roommate was found stabbed to death.

In some of her diary passages, Knox claims one of her prison guards is obsessed with her and asks her inappropriate questions about her sex life, and she marvels at the Web sites set up rating how attractive she is, according to the Mail.

"Apparently someone out there saw me on TV and thought I was 'hot,' so they set up a Web site where people comment on how pretty I am," Knox writes. "Weird. Flattered but that really isn't important right now."

Knox and Sollecito have given conflicting stories and changed their accounts of what happened the night Kercher was killed. They blame their confusion on the marijuana they were smoking that night. The pair have broken up since they've been behind bars.

DNA tests show Kercher had sex with Guede the night she was killed.

Knox's diary entries are erratic in tone, according to the Mail, which reported that she swings from sounding desperate and self-pitying to narcissistic and arrogant. The newspaper obtained a copy of the 80-page journal in its entirety.

"If I were ugly, would they be writing me wishing me encouragement? I don't think so," Knox writes. "Jeez, I'm not even that good looking. People are acting like I'm the prettiest thing since Helen of Troy."

You think that YOU get mail, sweety, you should see the stacks addressed to serial killers and rapists. Thats why the death penalty is preferable to creating rock stars for the ghouls of the world who will copycat at the slightest prompt.

Iran to Hit Israel if Attacked, Control Oil Passageway

TEHRAN, Iran — "The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that Tehran would respond to an attack against it by barraging Israel with missiles and controlling a key oil passageway in the Persian Gulf, said a newspaper report published Saturday.

The report in the conservative Jam-e-Jam newspaper comes after the disclosure of a recent Israeli military exercise over the Mediterranean Sea that was seen as sending a message to Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.

Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said there were strong deterrents against striking Iran, including the country's missile power, the vulnerability of Israeli and U.S. forces in the region and the low probability of a successful attack.

Iran has spread its nuclear facilities across the country and has built key portions underground to protect it from airstrikes.

But Jafari warned that if attacked, Iran would strike back, including choking off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a narrow outlet for oil tankers leaving the Persian Gulf."

Remember now, this is the same country that couldn't defeat Iraq, whose military we defeated twice in a matter of days.

Telling the Israelis. who share our hardware and not the gussied up 1970 Russian metal, to beware.

Tell you one thing, If I know the Israeli Generals they're salivating for an excuse to kick some serious Iranian ass. Those 100+ aircraft weren't practicing just to take out the nuke capability.

Naked sushi comes to Clearwater bar

CLEARWATER — "Chef David Keir looks out over the crowd in the dark, smoke-filled lounge, then slowly slides the model's black kimono off her body.

She's wearing the smallest of G-strings and tiny flower-shaped pasties. Slowly, she lies down on a small upraised stage.

Illuminated by an overhead light, Keir, 35, places bamboo leaves covered with bright sushi rolls on her nearly naked body. First on her right upper leg, then her left thigh and, finally, her chest.

A line of customers, almost 30 deep, waits in eager anticipation for the free sushi and the accompanying show.

A glittering disco ball above him spins as a mixture of hip-hop, techno and club music pulsates through the Dirty Martini.

Two women dressed in skimpy school girl outfits dance on either side of the model, gyrating with serpentine skill.

Clutching metal tongs, Keir plucks a piece of sushi from a long narrow leaf, then places it onto a small, black plastic plate held by a patron.

Welcome to naked sushi.

• • •

The practice, started hundreds of years ago in Japan as part of the geisha culture, has rapidly spread around the world.

But it was never done publicly in Florida until four months ago, when Keir brought it to the Dirty Martini, an upscale Clearwater bar along U.S. 19 where bottles of Grey Goose vodka run $195.

Keir said his goal was to enhance his catering business, Bushi Sushi.

Soon he'll move to The Flo Lounge, another fancy club on Ulmerton Road in Clearwater, where naked sushi will be offered the first Tuesday of every month.

A 1998 graduate of New York's Culinary Institute of America, Keir started hosting private naked sushi parties in college. After graduation, he took the show on the road to Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

"I love art — music, paintings and poetry — and the best way for me to convey my art is in food," says Keir, a Vietnam native who was adopted by a New York family when he was five. "I was tired of putting sushi on a plate, so I took it to that next step."

By 2000, he found his way to Safety Harbor, where he opened Universal Meko, but it closed in 2002. "Because of the bad economy," he says.

He started a catering business and continued hosting private naked sushi parties. He advertised for models on Craigslist. Some he met at parties, and some were even girlfriends. Keir's models can make up to $500 a show, including tips, which he splits with them.

The blonde model from the Dirty Martini tells the St. Petersburg Times she's proud of what she does, not ashamed to be almost naked.

She won't give her name, though, and will only say she attends college in Tampa Bay.

• • •

Most historians agree naked sushi — Nyotaimori (Japanese for "female body presentation") — started several hundred years ago in the geisha culture.

Critics say it eventually became less about the art and more about titillation. Now, even in the country where it originated, the event is conducted privately or in the red light districts.

Naked sushi — banned in China because officials say it's unhygienic and infringes on women's rights — made its way to the United States in the early 1990s. It started in California and was featured in the movie Rising Sun, which starred Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.

It frequently spurs controversy. In 2003, human rights protesters shut down naked sushi at Seattle's Bonzai Pub and Bistro.

Protesters stood outside the pub, telling customers it was demeaning to women. The outrage forced the bistro to eventually stop the practice.

Locally, police have checked for violations and didn't find any.

And officials with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which licenses restaurants, say Keir hasn't violated health requirements.

Even Mayor Frank Hibbard, who convinced Hooters' owners in 2006 to reword a sexually suggestive billboard, says he's letting this one go. He says little about the event other than, "I wouldn't eat sushi off anyone's body."

Why, but of course you wouldn't, Frank. And thats because no hot young thang would let a dork like you within a mile of her glorious nakedness.

Oh, and the billboard they refer to, read: "Liquor in Clearwater, Poker in Vegas"

Mayor Frank was aghast and had it changed. He's the one pictured above. Not the hot body, the dude with the bad 5th grade haircut. Who doesn't have a problem with eating raw fish, but is put off by something that's seen contact with a woman.

Ghey.

"Well he can kiss my Chinaman-lovin' ass...

Bill Clinton is so bitter about Barack Obama's victory over his wife Hillary that he has told friends the Democratic nominee will have to beg for his wholehearted support.

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president's future campaign role is a "sticking point" in peace talks with Mrs Clinton's aides.

The Telegraph has learned that the former president's rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could "kiss my ass" in return for his support."

Hahahahahahahahahahaha...cough...hahahahahahaha...

Whew. Thats funny.

Everyone Clinton supports loses. What makes him think that Hussein's handlers want any part of a helping hand from the least honorable President of all time?

Federal Judge Won't Grant Injunction For Guns-Locked-In-Cars-Law...

...That goes into effect this upcoming Tuesday

You can click the headline link and read the sob sisters whining about installing metal detectors and other such nonsense, but if they'd stop for a moment, a gull-darned moment, they'd realize that if an employee was considered law-abiding enough to obtain a CCW permit, they all might actually feel better that there was someone, ANYONE around capable of defending not only his or her self from harm but infinitely more closer than the slow to be arriving police, should shit hit the fan.

Don't trust your employees, then fire them and find ones you CAN trust.

Okay? Feel better now?

Didn't think so. Lousy bosses are worrying about someone going into work-rage and capping their slavedriving ass but thats THEIR fault for having a slavedriving ass.

The blacks didn't stand for NO-COLOREDS-ALLOWED signs, neither did the chinamen or the spanish. Seems to me that the rest of us should be just as deserving of civil rights as they are.

Anyway, many folks I know already bring their guns to work. This way they won't get fired for it. Oh, and the following isn't going to work I can tell you that right now...

"The law, which Gov. Charlie Crist signed in April, will allow employees possessing concealed-weapons permits to keep guns in their vehicles while parked on their employer's premises. Not only will employers not be able to stop them, they won't be able to ask whether an employee has a gun in his or her car, either."

People have been telling me that employers have been chatting them up on it and I guarantee that come Tuesday they'll be asking if anyone brought a gun to work today.

Must Be Time For The Midwest But-Monkey's To Chime In As Well..

'Let's have some sanity concerning guns'

By Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices Panelist 2008

"I like shooting guns. If I could have one do-over in life, I would go back and accept the position on the University of Nebraska Women's Rifle Team that I turned down when I was in college because I was afraid of the time commitment. When the kids are gone and we have spare time, my husband and I plan to take up shooting.

The Supreme Court said we have a right to keep guns in our homes--to a point. Felons and people with mental impairments don't need guns."

Here it comes...are you ready?

But the key word here is HOME. Our founding fathers didn't intend for people to walk around packing guns. The purpose was to protect our homes. We never need people carrying guns in government buildings, schools, churches, and, yes, even stores. Nor does any citizen really need an assault weapon or armor piercing bullets."

This incredibly uninformed, dumb, socialist prig thinks that SHE knows whats good for all of us even though she isn't aware that vest-pocket-hideaway-pistols were favored by many the country-over just about right up until the major anti-gun laws went into being.

Men carried guns all the time, dear. Yes they did. You could buy one, along with the ammunition for it, at most halfway decent hardware stores across America. Blood did not run in the streets. Women and children did not run screaming into that dreadful night. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the future.

Liberals took over our larger cities, began handing out free money to any lazy creature that'd stop by and promise to vote. Crime then ran amok as those unfit for introduction to civilization nestled alongside real people, and then their liberal masters decided the only way to keep the pets from destroying themselves was to ban firearms.

The very first firearm I ever saw was a Derringer owned by my Great-Grandmother who passed away in 1970 at the age of 96, so that should give you some idea as to the age of the weapon. Many proper ladies carried one, Miz Tiller, and my dearest of relatives wouldn't leave home without it.

Bottom line, Miz Tiller, is the fact that you've not an inkling of what went on in America before the great gun-takeaways began, and without clue-one as to the history of it all you should be ashamed to speak as if you knew what was best for all of us.

Villains Thieves and Scoundrels...In Other Words, Obamas Folks

by Ralph Peters

"THE facts about your security are being torn to shreds by activist liars. And they think that you're too stupid to know the difference.

Let's lay out the worst current examples of media make-believe and election-year truth-trashing:

Whopper No. 1: America is less safe today than it was on Sept. 10, 2001. Oh, really? Where's the evidence? The Clinton years saw New York City attacked and Americans slaughtered by terrorists around the globe. Nothing was done to protect us.

And the true end of the Clinton era came on 9/11.

A record to be proud of.

Countless aspects of the Bush-Cheney administration deserve merciless criticism. But fair is fair: Since 9/11, we haven't suffered a single successful terrorist attack on our homeland. Not one.

Explain to me, please, how this shows we're less safe. What factual measurement applies, other than the absence of attacks?

God knows, the terrorists desperately wanted to strike our homeland. And they couldn't. Are we supposed to believe that was an accident?

Whopper No. 2: Al Qaeda is stronger than ever. Al Qaeda just suffered a strategic defeat in Iraq that may prove decisive. It can't launch attacks beyond its regional lairs. The cowardly Osama bin Laden can't show his face (remember his Clinton-era pep rallies?).

Yes, terrorists can still murder innocents on their home court. I personally prefer that to them killing Americans in Manhattan and Washington. Even in Iraq, al Qaeda's been beaten down to violent-fugitive status.

By what objective measurement is al Qaeda stronger today than it was when it had an entire country for its base and its tentacles reached all the way to Florida and the Midwest?

Whopper No. 3: Success in Iraq is an illusion - the surge failed. Folks, this is something only a New York Times columnist could believe.

Every single significant indicator, from Iraqi government progress through the performance of Iraqi security forces to the plummeting level of violence, has changed for the better - remarkably so.

If current trend-lines continue, it may not be long before Baghdad is safer for Iraqi citizens than the Washington-Baltimore metroplex is for US citizens. Iraq's government is working, its economy is booming - and its military has driven the concentrations of terrorists and militia from every one of Iraq's major cities.

And our troops are coming home. Where's the failure?

Whopper No. 4: Iran is stronger than ever. Tell that to the Iraqis, who've rejected Iranian meddling in their affairs, who've smashed the Iran-backed Shia militias and who didn't take long to figure out that Tehran's foreign policy was imperialist and anti-Arab.

The people of Iraq don't intend to trade Saddam for Ahmadinejad. Iran has lost in Iraq. At this point, all the Iranians can do is to kill a handful of innocent Iraqis now and then. Think that wins them friends and influence?

Whopper No. 5: The US-European relationship is a disaster. In fact, Washington and the major European capitals have built new, sturdier bridges to replace old ones that badly needed burning.

The Europeans grudgingly figured out that they need us - as we need them. The big break in 2003 cleared a lot of bad air (there was no break with Europe's young democracies). Relations today are sounder than they were in the fiddle-while-Rome-burns Clinton era.

Oh, and NATO has become a serious military alliance - fighting in Afghanistan, patrolling the high seas and conducting special operations against terrorists. The Germans announced this week that they're sending another thousand troops to Afghanistan. France is re-engaging with NATO's military side. Where's the disaster, mon ami?

Whopper No. 6: As president, Barack Obama would bring positive change to our foreign policy - and John McCain's too old to get it.

Hmm: Take a gander at Obama's senior foreign-policy advisers: Madeleine Albright (71), Warren Christopher (82), Anthony Lake (69), Lee Hamilton (77), Richard Clarke (57) . . .

If you added up their ages and fed the number into a time-machine, you'd land in Europe in the middle of the Black Death.

More important: These are the people whose watch saw the first attack on the World Trade Center, Mogadishu, Rwanda, the Srebrenica massacre, a pass for the Russians on Chechnya, the Khobar Towers bombing, the attacks on our embassies in Africa, the near-sinking of the USS Cole - oh, and the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Their legacy climaxed on 9/11.

You couldn't assemble a team in Washington with more strategic failures to its credit.

Whopper No. 7: Our troops are all coming home as psychos victimized by their participation in military atrocities.

Tell it to the Marines."

And speaking for the Marines, let me say this about that:

Barack Obama might very well be the dumbest, and I do mean D-U-M-B as in 57 states...politician I've laid eyes on since poor old Gerry Ford, so its only natural that the man would take the money and run, do his masters bidding, because where else could such a simpleton make a decent buck? "Would you like change with your fries?" is about all the simple sap is capable of without a teleprompter.

Look at the list of stooges, crooks, and wannabes his bosses have surrounded him with. Of course the guy thinks America sucks and needs to be rebuilt. It becomes more and more apparent with each passing day that Barack Hussein Obama is an uber-liberal automaton, something for the old lefties to own and play with

Now drop and give me 20.

Or I'll tattoo this picture on your &%#.

Page From A Chinese Coloring Book

...Wowser...that's enough to make a loons head spin. LOVING the chicoms while having to put up with their lack of fear regarding inanimate objects...

Great Idea For A Franchise

...If for nothing else than to make the Brady's apoplectic...

Thousands Cheer As Taliban Executes American "Spies"

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — "A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.

At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Masked militants pulled the two blindfolded Afghans from a car and forced them to kneel on the ground.

Waliur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, told the crowd that the two men confessed to aiding in a suspected U.S. missile strike on a house in the border town of Damadola that killed 14 people last month. The men disclosed the names of others involved, and they would be killed as well, he said.

"Whoever, for the sake of money, for the sake of America, harms the interest of the Islamic world will meet the same fate," he said.

Gunmen with daggers then pounced on one of the men — identified as Jan Wali, 36 — decapitated him and waved his bloody head to the cheering crowd.

The militants then argued over how to kill the other man because he may have been a teenager, before one lost patience and shot him with an assault rifle.

The crowd erupted in cheers of "God is great!" and gunmen fired in the air in jubilation. The celebratory gunfire killed two bystanders and wounded six, local official Fazal Rabbi said."

These are the type of barbaric madmen that our marxist liberal brethren...like Senator Obama...want to treat with kid gloves. Never wishing to admit that we are engaged in a war of cultures, 7th Century murdering pedophiles versus modern civilization, the leftwingers would create yet another under-class just as they did with blacks with the hope that they in turn become grateful enough to support liberal causes.

Now, at least Obama has something of an excuse for wishing to be kind and gentle to these murdering scum, what with him being raised and educated as a moslem and all, but there's not a hint of absolution to be found with regards to the run of the mill loon who loves his islamo-terrorists because they despise America almost as much as the Cindy Sheehan types.

Glenn Reynolds Recommends We Pay Attention Or We'll Lose The 2nd All Over Again

by Glenn Reynolds

"'YOU Won! Now What?" is a popular book for political candidates - but also pretty much the dilemma facing gun-rights activists in the wake of the Supreme Court's opinion yesterday striking down the District of Columbia's gun ban.

It's a happy dilemma, of course. I'm sure that many gun-rights supporters never thought they'd live to see a Supreme Court opinion to the effect that "Held: The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."

I confess that I was one of the Second Amendment scholars who doubted that there were five votes on the high court to support an individual-right view of the Second Amendment.

I'm happy to be wrong about that, but there were only five such votes - demonstrating how narrow the margin was, and how out of touch the court is with the American public, which believes the Second Amendment protects an individual right to arms by a 3-1 margin.

If, as some have been calling for, we had a "Supreme Court that looks like America," this case wouldn't even have been close. Ordinary Americans have generally believed that the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applied to, you know, the people.

It takes politicians, law professors (and, it turns out, four Supreme Court justices) to believe that a "right of the people" somehow actually doesn't belong to the people at all.

The individual rights-view finally won out, but just barely.

But winning in the Supreme Court is just the beginning of the story. Even the biggest civil-rights victories have taken years to percolate through the lower courts, often in the face of foot-dragging or outright resistance from lower-court judges, states and municipalities.

Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation unconstitutional in 1954, but it took a decade or more of slogging to make its promise bear fruit - and even then Congress had to give things a boost by passing the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts.

By contrast, in the 1990s the Supreme Court decided a series of cases narrowing Congress' powers to regulate all sorts of things under the rubric of "interstate commerce." But there were no hordes of public-interest lawyers to pick up on those decisions and bring new cases in the lower courts.

Without that pressure, the lower courts were free to ignore the Supreme Court's efforts to cut back on federal meddling - and that's what they did, to the point that some called it a "constitutional revolution where no one showed up."

If the Supreme Court's Heller decision is not to meet the same fate, Second Amendment enthusiasts will have to start bringing, and carefully litigating, follow-up cases so as to ensure that Second Amendment rights don't wind up championed mostly by "ugly" defendants such as drug dealers facing firearms charges.

Is the gun-rights movement mature enough to follow through on this week's victory? We'll find out."

Glenn Reynolds is a law professor, so of course he is confused about what a law is. And guns? Fuggedaboutit. As far as I can tell, most lawyers view the law as a convenient way to make money by doing nothing much than arguing over the obvious. Law school teaches them how to win, not how to respect law or we wouldn't be burdened with millions of ambulance chasers. Or corrupt politicians who've learned to lie better, for that matter. It was lawyers turned politician who decided that the 2nd Amendment really didn't refer to "the people" even though it did just that, lawyers turned politician who hit upon the idea to convince minority groups that raising kids who killed one another wasn't a bad thing because they wouldn't be doing so if it were not for guns, and on and on.

The preponderance of evidence clearly showed the Framers state of mind and intent in creating the 2nd Amendment, and leave it to a lawyer to think that criminals using guns in a bad way will make law abiding folks look bad. But whatever works, right? Just try to employ the same logic in banning cars because some like to drive when drunk, but good luck. If the soccer mom's can't get to practice they'll tear your throat out.

And last but not least, Glenn lad, in case you haven't been looking and its obvious you haven't, we've won victory upon victory as of late by fighting our asses off to regain what the clueless thought we shouldn't have in the first place. Most states allow concealed carry, more and more are creating Castle Doctrine's, normal capacity magazines are once again okay for the common peon to own, and the list goes on and on.

All of this didn't happen because we were reticent to express our opinions, Glenn. So thanks for the day-late, dollar-short, painfully obvious advice. But guess what? We thought of it all by our lonesome and didn't need a law professor who hasn't been paying attention to charge for it.

And The Gnashing Of Teeth Begins

"There are so many guns on the streets," said Pamela Bosely, a Chicago resident whose 18-year-old son Terrell was fatally shot in 2006. "If you didn't have the guns, we'd still have our children."

If some other mother was as loving as yours, Miz Bosely, perhaps she could have taught her son not to kill people. Rather than a ban on handguns, what we REALLY need is a moratorium against bad mothers.

"I just don't believe in guns. I don't like guns, period. And I don't think really anybody should be allowed to have guns." Kentucky coal miner Kyle Lea, 28, said the (recent) slayings reinforced his belief that gun ownership should be closely regulated."

And thank heavens few of us care what you think, or believe, Kyle. You are of course entitled to so silly a creed, but such stupidity is better served remaining yours alone and not spread like some insidious ailment. Or perhaps we should vote for preemption of the 1st Amendment in a similar manner that you and yours believe should curtail the 2nd. Something along the lines of a implanted computer chip that shuts down your vocal cords the moment something idiotic takes shape, or a device that leaves an everlasting imprint of your mutterings so that they may be traced back to the owner. Or how about only one dumbass opinion allowed per month or having to register to be a certifiable moron...

Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Gun Ban, Upholds Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a constitutional right to keep guns in their homes for self-defense, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun control in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most federal firearms restrictions intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Most of us don't need to be told what the amendment READS. Rather it was the liberal elite that needed to be reminded that the thing SAYS WHAT IT SAYS.

Now, the gainsayers...you know, the guys supposedly on our side who whine almost as much as liberals do when they don't get EVERYTHING their little hearts desire...will be out and about moaning that licensing wasn't tossed out as well as the dumb gun-locks and requirements for disassembly.

But we've come a long, long, way since the Clinton AWB and magazine capacity nonsense. They tried to take away our rights an inch at a time and thats the only way we'll be able to regain them. Well, we never really lost them to begin with but had to play the game so our marxist brothers and sisters could feel secure that their pet criminals wouldn't be harmed.

Look at it this way; if the decision pisses off Dianne Feinstein then its a winner.

Congratulations, folks. And thank you Supreme Court. All 5 of you.

Oh and PS, I almost forgot until reading Lems take on the matter. The Hogtown Irregulars had a special 4th of July bash planned should Heller be returned in our favor, and will be rounding up as many legal fully-auto platforms that can be found for one helluva watermelon killin' spree.

The Legal Age Of Consent In Saudi Arabia Is....Drum Roll Please...

One.

"Call it marriage, Islamic style.

Saudi marriage officiant Dr. Ahmad al-Mu’bi told Lebanese television viewers last week that it’s permissible for girls as young as 1 to marry — as long as sex is postponed."

Well then. How long should sex be postponed?

“You can have a marriage contract even with a 1-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of 9, 7 or 8,” he said. “But is the girl ready for sex or not?” What is the appropriate age for sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and tradition,” al-Mu’bi said."

In other words, as young as you want 'em to be.

Worker Shoots 5 Then Himself After Argument With Boss

HENDERSON, Ky. - "A man who killed five people and himself at a western Kentucky plastics plant called his girlfriend two hours before the rampage to warn her that he was going to kill his boss, police said Wednesday.

Police said Wesley N. Higdon, 25, had an argument with his supervisor about wearing safety goggles and using his cell phone while he was at his press machine Tuesday.

Later that night, as the supervisor escorted him from the building, Higdon shot him, apparently using a .45-caliber pistol he kept in his car. Then, he charged into a break room and the plant floor and kept shooting before killing himself, police said.

Hours after the shooting, police had set up a roadblock on the street leading to the plant, which is in an industrial area on the southern side of Henderson. Other employees at the plant were sent home."

Some were sent dead. Bloody shame that no one else had the luck to get to a vehicle in time to retrieve a gun. Might have saved the police the effort of setting up roadblocks. And perhaps some lives.

Even though killing innocent people is already as illegal as illegal gets, look for the anti's to push for additional laws making it MORE illegal . My heart goes out to the friends and families of the deceased, with hope that the gun grabbers don't stand atop these dead bodies to advertise their fondest hopes for the disarmament of all mankind, and the creation of even more murder holes.

David Codrea has his take over at The War on Guns.

Miz Coulter Is Taking No Prisoners...

"In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, "We can't drill our way out of this crisis."

What does that mean? This is like telling a starving man, "You can't eat your way out of being hungry!" "You can't water your way out of drought!" "You can't sleep your way out of tiredness!" "You can't drink yourself out of dehydration!"

Seriously, what does it mean? Finding more oil isn't going to increase the supply of oil?

It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race. It's the only solution they can think of to deal with the beastly traffic on the LIE (Long Island Expressway).

They also say that you can't fight your way out of a mugging or home invasion or rape.

It is, after all, the liberal way, Ann.

Total surrender.

Then the evil ones will come to their senses and the whole world will at long last participate in the biggest group hug imaginable.

Lets face it; they don't make sense, have never made sense, and never will make sense. Sense is for the little people. Deities are around to be worshiped and paid attention to.

Right, Lord Obo?

FAKE MISSOURI COP TEACHES OTHER COPS HOW TO STEAL

GERALD, Missouri — "Bill Jakob arrived in this small town with an offer to help police curb the community's methamphetamine problem.

He had a badge and a gun, and he told officials he had previously worked as an anti-drug agent in Illinois. He even drove a fully equipped Ford Crown Victoria, which he said was for undercover work.

There was just one problem: Jakob was no police officer. The 36-year-old man was an unemployed truck driver with a criminal record and had recently filed for bankruptcy.

Now this village of 1,200 people southwest of St. Louis is confronting allegations that Jakob and other officers mistreated and robbed many of the people they arrested.

At least 17 people have sued, and Jakob is in jail awaiting charges.

Complaints about Jakob's rough treatment of suspects led a reporter from the Gasconade County Republican newspaper to ask the sheriff about the new officer. That's when Jakob's story unraveled.

Gerald Mayor Otis Schulte defended Jakob's hiring, saying: "He had credentials. He had a badge. He had a phone number to call for verification. ... I don't know what else we could have done."

Authorities now suspect the person who answered the phone was Jakob's wife"

Oh yes. That was a hard one. Why, nowadays its next to impossible to figure out if you're calling a private home or some other police department. It'd take something like a...a...a service that lets you look up stuff, sort of like some information super highway. Maybe that global warming fella could look into it cause he seems real smart.

But the real story isn't that a con man hoodwinked a bunch of local yokels. The interesting part about it is his convincing "other officers" to cheat and lie and steal along with him. And notice the story refers to "other" officers, and not "REAL" officers. Ah hells bells, he was SO good at what he did, the man even turned the cops into crooks without them even knowing it.

Now who's gonna play him in the movie?

Too Cool. Not The Color...The Bumper Sticker

Healing

I've been slacking off here lately and things will just have to run their natural course before I get back to putting all of my heart into it.

To all those who expressed condolences in comments and mail, thanks, thanks a lot. My brother dying has put me into one hell of a funk but at least I've gotten past the denial stage of things. There has never been a man closer to me than he was, I loved and admired him for so many things. I still stop whatever I've been doing to think about some of the outlandishly stupid things we did as boys and men, and how he always had my back and how I never told him enough about the wonder of going through life with so dedicated a friend. And of course I'd like to take back every argument and every harsh word but that was part of the process too.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Hello and goodbye, as always, Fits.

Virginia Citizens Defense League Clues Us In On More Illegal Police Goings On...

**********************************************************
2. Three Fairfax County police officers prove the Keystone Kops are
alive and well
**********************************************************

We haven't had any issues with the Fairfax County police in quite a
while now. I have found them to be one of the best run police
agencies in Virginia.

However, three officers tarnished that image last week when they
unlawfully arrested a North Carolina resident who was legally carrying
a handgun and had a North Carolina CHP.

Hold on tight - this is a weird story.

The gun owner was pulled over for running through a red light, a
charge which the gun owner disputes.

The gun owner, believing that he had to disclose he was lawfully armed
as they do in North Carolina, dutifully told the officer he had a NC
CHP and was indeed armed.

The officer seemed to ignore the statement, but very shortly two more
patrol units pulled up. The next thing the gun owner knew he is in a
"felony stop" mode. He was asked to walk backwards towards the
officers, who then disarmed and handcuffed him.

While trying to unloaded his gun, THEY DROPPED IT ONTO THE ROAD!

The two officers and a SERGEANT then proceeded to tell him that he was
under arrested for:

1. Having hollow point bullets, which they claimed were illegal in
Virginia (!)
2. Taking a loaded gun across the state line, which the gun owner
was told was a FELONY (!)
3. Having a concealed gun that the police said he couldn't have since
he was from North Carolina (!!)

His car and gun were impounded and he was taken off to a magistrate.

The magistrate looked at the charges and told the police officers that
they had just made a false arrest.

The officers pointed out the possession of hollow point bullets. The
magistrate asked, "are they teflon coated?"

"No," replied on of the officers.

"Then they are legal."

Trying to find something that would stick and justify the false
arrest, one of the officers said, "We couldn't verify that his North
Carolina permit is valid."

The magistrate looked at the permit, noticed the phone number on the
back where one can call to verify the permit, called the number, and
within a few minutes found out the permit was indeed valid.

The gun owner was ordered to be released.

After being released from custody, the gun owner was given a hard time
by another officer about getting his gun back, but he did finally get
it back.

If all of that isn't bad enough, the arresting officer went ahead and
gave the gun owner a ticket for the alleged offense of running a red
light!

In essence, with that brilliant move, the officer was practically
BEGGING the gun owner to PLEASE sue Fairfax Count for the false arrest!

I have already talked to my high-level contact with the Fairfax County
PD about this entire situation and the gun owner has filed a formal
complaint.

In the past, Fairfax County PD has been very good when such internal
investigations are required. Now we will wait and see what happens.

What is clear is that Fairfax County PD needs to educate its officers
on:

1. Possession of hollow point bullets
2. Reciprocity laws
3. Lawful carriage of firearms across state lines
4. Safe gun handling (a few years ago unsafe gun handling by an
officer cause a gun to discharge, killing an unarmed, handcuffed man)
_______________________________________________________________
First things first...

Every one of these reprehensible toads should be fired immediately if not sooner, and please skip the "education" process as they themselves often tell US that ignorance of the law is NOT an excuse. No one in their right mind would believe that they could possibly be THAT stupid, that off the wall about something as simple as what the local firearms regulations are. They lost it, plain and simple, and went supercalafragalistic Nazi on the gentleman from North Carolina simply because they COULD.

Next up, whomever is responsible for allowing these criminals to "patrol" the highways and byways of Fairfax, Virginia should be stripped of rank and made available for free public seminars on the dangers of allowing out of control madmen to wear a badge and accost otherwise lawful citizens at will.

Once and for all, constables, WE run the country and need YOU because we're too busy to handle every little thing that comes along, got it?

Thanks to The War on Guns.

Great Olympic Moments Part I

Remember the bad old days when the Olympics were held in other commie countries such as...well...pretty much all of the Olympics outside the US have been, but that's another story...

This summer we'll be graced with watching chinese slavemasters putting on their version of just-let-the-kids-play, a far cry from the REAL Olympics that gathered warriors in order to determine who was top dog. The judging will be atrocious, that we can count on, with even non-commie judges giving the nod to commie-kids just to be fair. Think of it as affirmative action for marxist terrorists who don't get anywhere near the love they should.

Well that will be remedied and in spades. The kid can't box, wrestle, shoot a basket, nor be a good enough dwarven acrobat? No worries. The judges will tack on additional points just as if they were hiring otherwise unqualified minorities to work the subways.

We'll be keeping an eagle eye on the summer games so be sure to join us for all the merriment.

Ah, How's That Again?

THE OBAMA "LOOK" (?)

Fashion designers are stroking old Obo to beat the band, creating clothing that supposedly reminds them of the sartorial displendor of everyones favorite jughead...

Milan, Italy — "The latest "first" for Barack Obama comes off the Milan runway.

Calling the U.S. presidential hopeful "the man of the moment," Donatella Versace dedicated her Spring-Summer 2009 collection presented Saturday evening to Obama, creating a style she said was designed for "a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power."

Oh yeah. That there male model looks JUST LIKE Hussein. Dead ringer in fact. Doppelganger, even. Clone. Long lost twin.

Mirror image.

Next up, they'll discover old home movies of Marilyn Monroe wearing something akin to what Michelle fancies, then begin comparing THOSE TWO as well.

Simply cannot make this shit up.

Police Officer Shot, Motorist Dead After Traffic Stop

LEHI, Utah — "A police officer has been shot in the head and a motorist is dead after a traffic stop in Lehi, about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Lehi police say the officer was shot Monday by a woman driving a Honda Accord. She was killed after other officers fired at her.

No names were released. Sgt. Darren Paul says the woman's car has a Washington state license plate.

The officer is in critical condition at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo.

The woman driving the Accord was stopped after a gas station called police about an impaired driver.

Lehi is in Utah County."

Okay here's the deal. One on one, cops have a 60% chance of surviving a gunfight. For those of you in Rio Linda, 6 out of 10 times they win, and 4 out of 10 times their opponent wins. During such gun battles, an assailant who has overcome an officer is usually then killed by other responding officers.

With all of the training, all of the gear, any old impaired weaver can take down a cop and thats one of the reasons they're so afraid all the time. Their weapons are positioned in ridiculous places with regards to getting off a quick draw, and they're encumbered by so very much other stuff that it makes the most limber and spry of men downright clumsy. All a bad guy or gal has to do is draw and fire. There's no worries about collateral damage or proper procedure or hesitations due to an interfering conscience. Plus, it is always easier to ACT than it is to RE-ACT.

And if that weren't enough, there's always the dreaded GOLDEN BB.

Bottom line: The time has long since passed for law enforcement to get back to dressing lean and mean, and to ditch the bells and whistles. Wouldn't hurt to get to the range more often, either.

OBAMA'S DUBIOUS CRIME EXCUSES

by GeorgeWill

June 23, 2008 -- "LISTENING to political talk requires a third ear that hears what is not said. To day's near silence about crime probably is evidence of social improvement. For many reasons, including better policing and more incarceration, Americans feel, and are, safer.

The New York Times has not recently repeated such amusing headlines as "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling" (1997), "Prison Population Growing Although Crime Rate Drops" (1998), "Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction" (2000) and "More Inmates, Despite Slight Drop in Crime" (2003).

If crime revives as an issue, it will be through liberal complaints about something that has reduced the salience of the issue - the incarceration rate.

Any revival will be awkward for Barack Obama. Liberalism likes victimization narratives and the related assumption that individuals are blank slates on which "society" writes. Hence liberals locate the cause of crime in flawed social conditions that liberalism supposedly can fix.

Last July, Obama said "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities." Actually, more than twice as many black men 18-24 are in college as there are in jail.

Last September he said, "We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives." But Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, writing in the institute's City Journal, notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population.

Furthermore, she cites data indicating that: "In the overwhelming majority of cases, prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Absent recidivism or a violent crime, the criminal-justice system will do everything it can to keep you out of the state or federal slammer."

Obama sees racism in the incarceration rate: "We have certain sentences that are based less on the kind of crime you commit than on what you look like and where you come from." In 2006, blacks, who are less than 13 percent of the population, were 37.5 percent of all state and federal prisoners. About one in 33 black men was in prison, compared with one in 79 Hispanic men and one in 205 white men.

But Mac Donald cites studies of charging and sentencing that demonstrate that the reason more blacks are disproportionately in prison, and for longer terms, isn't racism but racial differences in patterns of criminal offenses: "In 2005 the black homicide rate was over seven times higher than that of whites and Hispanics combined. . . . From 1976 to 2005, blacks committed over 52 percent of all murders."

Do police excessively arrest blacks? "The race of criminals reported by crime victims matches arrest data."

As for the charge that the incarceration rate of blacks is substantially explained by more severe federal sentences for crack as opposed to powder-cocaine defendants (only 13 states distinguish between the two substances, and these states have small sentence differentials), Mac Donald says:

"It's going to take a lot more than 5,000 or so [federal] crack defendants a year to account for the 562,000 black prisoners in state and federal facilities at the end of 2006 - or the 858,000 black prisoners in custody overall, if one includes the population of county and city jails."

James Q. Wilson, America's premier social scientist, notes that "the typical criminal commits from 12 to 16 crimes a year [not counting drug offenses]" and says that 10 years of scholarly studies "have shown that states that sent a higher fraction of convicts to prison had lower rates of crime, even after controlling for all of the other ways - poverty, urbanization and the proportion of young men in the population - that the states differed. A high risk of punishment reduces crime. Deterrence works."

It works especially on behalf of blacks, who are disproportionately the victims of crimes by black men.

A recent report by the Pew Center on the States asserts that America incarcerates too many people and in the process diverts money from higher education. Wilson notes that the report does not examine whether the slower growth of public spending on higher education than on prisons may be explained by the surge in private support for public universities.

Wilson dryly adds that the report does not explore "whether society gets as much from universities as it does from prisons." A good question but not one apt to be studied in academia."

Obama is the poster-child liberal. He more often than not has the facts wrong, because facts themselves are quite ugly, and reality itself doesn't mesh all that well with liberal doctrine. Most of the country bends over backwards with one plan or another to keep first time offenders from taking up prison space, which in itself is a joke as more often than not it isn't the first crime committed but the first time he or she was actually caught doing it. He can't dazzle us with brilliance NOR baffle us with bullshit and it amazes me that such downright stupidity has taken him this far in life.

George Carlin dies at age 71

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - "George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

Carlin constantly pushed the envelope with his jokes, particularly with the "Seven Words" routine. When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace.

When the words were played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies. Carlin hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" and noted on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long."

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

When asked about the fallout from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction," Carlin told the AP, "What are we, surprised?"

"There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body," he said. "It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born May 12, 1937 and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.

While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.

"Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot," his Web site says.

From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Forth Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.

In 1960, he left with a Texas radio buddy, Jack Burns, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. r Carlin said he hoped to would emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade that Carlin grew up in—the 1950s—with a clever but gentle humor reflective of its times.

Only problem was, it didn't work for him.

"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."

Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin."

There was a time when this guy could make me double up with laughter. I remember his days as The Hippy-Dippy Weather Man character, but whatever he tried was fresh and different and his enthusiasm for generating laughter made it cutting edge. His heart must have been in horrible shape for him to have made it to the hospital with chest pains and dying but hours later. Thanks for all the fun, George.

Fall Of The Alpha Male?

By FAYE FLAM

"Among the side-blotched lizards of central California, the largest of the males have orange stripes; they're big bruisers who battle each other for the affections of pale-colored females. But other males are smaller, with yellow stripes. Survival of the fittest would suggest the orange lizards - the "alpha males" - would dispatch with these competitors, but because the yellow males mimic females, they're largely ignored. And while the alpha lizards fight, these beta lizards stay back by the shady rocks, getting busy with the ladies.

The official scientific term for this? According to eminent British biologist John Maynard Smith: "Sneaky f - - - ers."

For all you New York women who complain that the alpha Mr. Big's are out battling on Wall Street, leaving you only manicured metrosexuals, I have bad news - the yellow lizards are winning.

After questioning evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists to learn about male sexuality, I learned that alpha males are being phased out throughout the animal kingdom.

Biologists have a specific definition of an alpha male: roughly, it's a male who gets sex by beating up on other males and then monopolizing multiple females. It's all about sex and social status.

In dogs and wolves, for instance, everyone has a place in a hierarchy, from one to, say, twenty. Dog number one is the alpha male, but he's constantly challenged by dog number two. In baboons, there's just one alpha male ruling over a group of equally subordinate non-alpha males, all of which want to take him down. The main hallmarks of the alpha male are size and fierceness. In gorillas, alpha males grow to twice the size of females. Chimpanzee males aren't too much bigger than females, but they have nasty fangs the ladies lack.

Yet among humans, men have no special teeth and are just a little bigger than women, 173 pounds on average compared to 136.

What does this say about us? Stanford neuroscientist and primate expert Robert Sapolsky says he doubts humans have true alpha males because our society is structured in a much more complicated way than, say, dogs. We tend to belong to multiple social circles, so the guy who empties the trash for a big corporation might be a star DJ at night or dominate the company softball team.

But was it always this way? Anthropologist Tim White of the University of California says the nature of our ancestral men is one of the hottest debates in his field. Much of the controversy centers on the period 3.2 million years ago, about half way back to the time human ancestors split off from their chimp lineage.

Back then, Africa was populated by upright-walking creatures called Australopithecus afarensis. The best known of these is Lucy, whose skeleton was found in Ethiopia in 1974. Most scientists agree that Lucy was a female, but what did her boyfriends look like? The long-prevailing story was that Mr. Lucy was just a little bigger than she was. But other scientists are challenging that - arguing that Lucy had to contend with big, brutish alpha males. In a more recent human ancestor, homo habilis, males appear much bigger than their females, though some anthropologists think they may be looking at bones from two different species, said White. "These things don't come labeled."

If alpha humans were that much larger in the past, however, evolution somehow has equalized our size. The sneakers got ahead.

Part of the way sneaker males trump their alpha brothers is "male display." Instead of using force, males use beauty or art to impress. A particularly striking peacock will get the whole flock of females to chase after him, leaving all the runners up alone and dejected. "It's like Beatlemania," said evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller. Even today, studies show that males in the creative arts enjoy a big advantage - they got four to ten sex partners in a lifetime, compared to three for the average man.

Sneaker human males may even have used parenting skills to woo mates. If ancient males shared in home duties, females may have chosen him over the more obvious, larger male. In the animal world, we see this among monkeys and birds. Male emperor penguins risk their lives to incubate their eggs through the cruel blizzards of the Antarctic winters. Like other fatherly and relatively monogamous species, penguin males are no bigger than the females. So similar are they to females that scientists are mystified as to how the penguins themselves figure out which sex they are.

Human males are unique in their flexibility - able to use combinations of all the above strategies. Fathering, sneaking, beautiful displays - all this makes the old alpha males look not only obnoxious but boring. Where have all the cowboys gone? While they were out herding cattle, the skinny-jean wearing emo rocker took his woman.

Poppycock. Sexual dimorphism is alive and well, but occupation specific. Were Shaq to be trapped in an elevator with Rachel Ray, that was unluckily in a building bombed by the next wave of islamic madmen this time armed with nukes, scientists a million years hence would be amazed at the male-female disparity. The true equalizers that made men capable of defending themselves from all comers were Walter de Millemete who illustrated if not invented the very first 'practical' firearm circa 1326, Colonel Colt, John Browning, and Gaston Glock for those unable to afford a real gun. With one, the aforementioned Miz Ray could easily take down Shaq even if her moslem friends didn't off the two of them. The point being, today it is unnecessary for women to flock to the largest male.

SMART women, I mean.

And, 173 to 136 is, in reality, an enormous advantage, or perhaps Miz Flam hasn't heard of this thing called sexual assault that evil men have been doing to women with both ease and impunity. Actually though, where Miz Flam is finding these 136 pound women is beyond my ken. That is approximately Lisa's size, but she remains the exception rather than the norm with regards to the modern, adult female girth. Then again, I make more than 2 of her so its back to dimorphism again.

The Next Million Years

by Kyle Smith

"There's no reason to suppose that the next million years will witness any less change than the first million. If anything, as proved by the accelerating rates of change during the last couple of centuries and especially the last few decades, the future will be far stranger and more devious than the past. If the gulf of time and difference between us and our remote ancestors seems impossible to comprehend, then imagine the chasm dividing us from our descendants . . ." - Damien Broderick, editor of the new book, "Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge"

In the year one million:

* Chinese Democracy will be released.

* The time will be ripe for Eliot Spitzer's big comeback.

* Street-savvy advertisers and marketers will hotly pursue the elusive and much buzzed-about "Hallmark Channel Demo."

* The price of gasoline will finally catch up to the price of Evian.

* The let's-be-nice-to-Iran policies of the infamous Obama Administration (2009-2010) will pay big dividends when residents of the nine U.S. states not still experiencing unsafe levels of radioactivity are allowed to leave their homes and attend services at their local mosques, subject to discretion of neighborhood mullah boards.

* Cubs fans will be confident that this is their year.

* People will stop saying "Sex in the City" when they mean "Sex and the City."

* No one will quite be able to figure out how Metro and AM New York stay in business.

* US Weekly will break the story that late-20th century movie star Tom Cruise secretly led a scandalous life of wanton homogeneity.

* In a Quiznos in Ponca City, Oklahoma, two women will have the final conversation about how bad Andie MacDowell was in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

* The average human life span will be over 200 years, most of which will be spent flipping through TV channels.

* Alien beings from the Andromeda Galaxy will send their first-ever message to Earth, requesting more episodes of "Saved by the Bell."

* The last group of holdouts will decide to stop pretending they like jazz.

* Hollywood will release a couple more flops about the Iraq War.

* Downtown hipsters will go crazy for the frankfurter-based cocktail, the Weenietini.

* The total number of late-night topical comedy shows will surpass the number of TV watchers.

* Near-instantaneous transportation via jetpack will be an everyday occurrence, but only in sci-fi movies. In reality, everyone will be stuck in traffic.

* The moon will open for business as tourist attraction, billing itself as the new "Sin City" where visitors are allowed to consume alcohol and trans fats, jog without wearing helmets and disparage one another's religious beliefs.

* Denny's will be exactly the same as it is now.

* In the 'hood, the hot catchphrase putdown will be, "Must you wax so foppish, Sirrah?"

* Humans will be able to breathe even polluted air or underwater through advanced filter-protected gills built in to the sides of their faces. Except hockey fans, who will continue to breathe through their mouths.

* Manhattan rents will reach an average of $80,000 per square foot, or three Euros.

* The NBA will bar players from declaring eligibility for the draft before they have completed third grade.

* An international panel of renowned geologists, mathematicians and physicists will issue a long-awaited report conclusively proving that Bon Jovi sucks.

* Making use of exciting new technological advances, scientists with backgrounds in cryonics will figure out new ways to charge dumb people vast sums of money to stick their dead bodies in freezers.

* MSNBC will air one last tribute to Tim Russert.

* After a key planning commission agrees on a proposal, final approval will be granted (pending community protests, local business litigation and resolution of issues involving disbursement of funds from federal, state and municipal agencies) to begin a commitment to proceed with the completion stages of an agreement in principle to build the Second Avenue Subway.

To which I'll add, Hillary Rodham Clinton... the Rodham always comes back after she runs for office...will be no closer to paying back the millions owed to vendors than she is today.