Editorial Blog
August 8 to September 5, 2002
By JEFF RUSHING, Webmaster
Berkeley, California's radical extremist Leftism is becoming a parody of itself. The California Patriot reports that the University of California at Berkeley won't be singing the "Star Spangled Banner" because it's "too patriotic," divisive and political, as is "God Bless America." The Sept. 11 Day of Remembrance, sponsored by the Chancellor's office, the student body government and the Graduate Assembly, will also feature student leaders distributing white ribbons, instead of the red, white and blue ones they had originally planned. Why all the exclusion of pro-American remembrances on the day? According to Hazel Wong, chief organizer for the Associated Students of the University of California, "We didn't want anything too centered on nationalism-anything that is 'Go U.S.A.'"
Lovely, and perfect for these anti-American loons. Wouldn't want that pesky little thing mentioned that it's this exact freedom a nation she destates that was attacked last year.
Posted 09/05/02, 5:55 p.m.
Excellent blog from Jane Galt, regarding the recent poll that showed 55% of Europeans think America was "partly to blame" for the Al Quaeda attacks:
"In related news, 100% of Americans think that Europe was 'entirely to blame' for World Wars I, II, the Holocaust, and Communist atrocities in the former Soviet Union and associated territories. 99.8% of Americans think that 'The next time Europeans get themselves in any kind of trouble that requires US intervention, they can k*** my a**'. And 89% of Americans think that 'If those same Europeans are against invading Iraq, then it's time to put Saddam in a whole world of hurt.'"
Posted 09/05/02, 5:30 a.m.
Who knew it was this easy to keep death at bay?:
Reuters reports that the mayor of a French Mediterranean town faced with a cemetery "full to bursting," has banned local residents from dying until he can find somewhere else to bury them. Gil Bernardi, mayor of Le Lavandou on the coast 15 miles west of Saint Tropez, introduced the ban after a court rejected his plans to build a cemetery in a tranquil setting by the sea. Bernardi said most locals had obeyed the edict so far, but he was desperately trying to find a resting place for a homeless man who had recently passed away in the town.
Posted 09/05/02, 5:25 a.m.
News from the peaceful religion that is Islam:
Arab fashion designer Fida Naamneh has been "Salman Rushdie"'d for her low-cut black dress decorated with Allah's name. Muslim leaders have denounced her in mosques as an infidel and announced the sort of death threats once reserved for literary heretics such as Rushdie. The dress at issue is embroidered with three of the 99 ''asma,'' or names, of Allah --- ''al-Kuddus,'' ''al-Hakim,'' ''al-Bari'' meaning ''the most holy,'' ''the wise'' and ''the creator,'' respectively. The dress was part of a collection Naamneh designed for her final project at the college she was studying at in Tel Aviv, where she was the only Arab student.
Posted 09/05/02, 5:20 a.m.
Wednesday's treatment of Colin Powell is evidence No.1 that the Earth Summit in Johannesburg was, is and always will be a farce. As he chided southern African governments for the way they're not fighting famines (such as turning down foods that have been engineered, even though it's the same food we eat), and criticized 'president' Robert Mugabe for his thuggery as dictator of Zimbabwe, the Sec. of State was heckled and shouted down by protestors.
There is no compelling reason to support any kind of conference like this, where Mugabe is cheered and Powell booed, which also turned into a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel affair in which Arab delegates and fellow-travelers were blaming Israel for the conflict of 1948, claiming that the Jews are at fault for the tragic results of the Arab attempt to smother the Jewish state in its infancy. Next year we should stay home and keep our money (we gave away nearly a billion dollars this year for the supposed aim of helping Third Worlders get more access to drinking water, which will probably end up in more dictators' pockets).
Posted 09/05/02, 1:20 a.m.
Please tell me that I'm not the only person who has serious problems with getting these new-fangled sinks to work in public bathrooms. When did washing your hands become something only engineers could do?
Posted 09/04/02, 1:20 a.m.
The city council of heavily African-American Gary, Indiana is seeking to build a National Civil Rights Hall of Fame. Is this subject really something that should be remembered as a "Hall of Fame"? Seems like the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis serves the purpose they seek, and the MLK center in Atlanta similarly memoralizes the civil rights crusade of the 60s. Are they going to make it like sports halls of fame? Will there be busts of the main leaders, and votes for new members? Will statistics be important, such as Most Sit-Ins or Longest Protest Walk?
What’s really questionable about the project is that the council is seeking $5 million in local riverboat casino revenues to fund most of the project. The mayor is balking at the idea, and since he’s white, naturally the local black "leaders" are crying foul. Straight from the Jesse Jackson school of shakedowns as a form of income, Chicago's Rainbow/PUSH coalition has joined Gary clergy in threatening to organize boycotts of the casinos if funds for the hall of fame aren't released.
Posted 09/03/02, 5:17 a.m.
Good call from the federal court that overturned former pres. Clinton’s administration decision to give the bones of Kennewick Man to local Indian tribes in Washington state. The bones are said to be over 9,000 years old, predating all of these ‘Native Americans’ who claim the bones as their own, when in fact the Indians are just afraid that research will prove that they’re not the original natives, but perhaps from Polynesia. Let’s take a look and find the real history instead of caving into people simply because Slick Willie "cared" too much.
Posted 09/03/02, 5:11 a.m.
The slow news cycle has unfortunately focused way too much attention on Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters for the club’s steadfast refusal to allow women as members. It is a dumb fight, led by a woman’s rights group that is looking for publicity. Augusta National president Hootie Johnson is an even bigger dolt for acknowledging the group in the first place, when he should have just ignored their cries earlier this summer and let it fade away. By responding so cavalierly and with such disdain for the subject, he instead fed it to the media. Next summer I’m sure we can expect to hear from gay rights groups and animal rights groups ("We demand you give those squirrels on the property equal footing !").
Posted 09/03/02, 5:09 a.m.
Ever wonder what elitist feminists think of American women from the heartland, or women in general who take pride in family and/or religion? The ladies writing in "Jane" magazine apparently think you are a bunch of naive, holy-rolling, mindless drones.
Attending the nondenominational Women of Faith conference apparently for the sole purpose of making fun of the participants, Jane writer Ellise Pierce thinks the women aren't even good enough for terrorists:
"Last year, 375,000 women coughed up $67 a pop to take part, and Women of Faith attendees — including folks like WTC widow Lisa Beamer, who was there last fall — now outnumber Promise Keepers. This year's guest speakers are the missionary team of Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, who even the Taliban couldn't stand. The soul-saving business, even in a suck-ass economy, is booming. Hallelujah."
Do you think that's inflammatory? Then read about how they set up the article: "We infiltrated the sexist church of the Promise Keepers in our first issue. Now, their female flip side is even larger — thanks to whores, refurbished virgins and the militantly stupid." (Thanks to Kathryn Jean Lopez from National Review Online for pointing out this offense).
Posted 08/29/02, 10:20 p.m.
A new study has the Left in arms that the Georgia HOPE scholarship, given to all students with B averages to attend state colleges, is benefiting too many kids from middle-and upper-income homes.
An actual line from the article, told without a hint of doubt: "Nationally, researchers argue scholarships based on test scores or grades hurt minority and poor students because they generally score lower on such measurements."
Simple rebuttal from me: There are no other ways to determine how much the kids learn!
Longer rebuttal: Why do we feel the need to punish those who make the grades, without looking at the numbers and determining that since those who don't are more likely from poorer homes, no one should get the scholarship? Oh, yeah, because the leaders are liberals and would rather everyone fail than the "wrong" people succeed.
Posted 08/29/02, 10:07 p.m.
Why do so many want to make Sept. 11 a national holiday? We don't recognize days of tragedy against the U.S. as holidays, we remember days of victory. So we should instead remember VA Day, or Victory in Afghanistan. It was sometime in the fall, so lump it with Armistice Day, which is already there to recognize our victory in WWI.
Posted 08/29/02, 10:06 p.m.
Over at Steven's site we've got a nifty experiment: A point-counterpoint debate on the baseball strike. We may do more if it pleases us.
Posted 08/29/02, 1:04 p.m.
Researchers discovered that caffeine may help prevent skin cancer, not from drinking but by applying it directly to the skin. I can't wait until I apply my Hawaiian Tropic Coffee Bean Lotion! Won't that wake you up on a morning swim!
Posted 08/29/02, 3:40 a.m.
Trekkie-like inventors at Britain's Ministry of Defence have come up with an electric 'force field' to protect armored vehicles.
I'll pay $1,000 for the honor of being the first guy to say in battle, "Should we raise shields, Captain?"
Posted 08/29/02, 3:40 a.m.
Here's a shocker (<-sarcasm alert): Now that Jihad Cindy (aka Cynthia McKinney) lost in the Democratic primary with the help of Republican crossover votes (there's no party registration in Georgia), Democratic black leaders (that's redundant) are calling for the end to crossover voting in the state.
Posted 08/29/02, 3:40 a.m.
Call me a homer (no, not 'homely,' you meanie), but I find it incredibly satisfying as a CNN Healine News employee that we're beating MSNBC in ratings lately. Highly hilarious, indeed, that we can repeat the same news over and over yet still garner a bigger audience than the liberal talkie network.
Posted 08/28/02, 8:40 p.m.
Steve just sent me an email full of weird information, including: "It is impossible to lick your elbow."
If you are like me, then you're a 26-year-old overweight guy with a strange affinity for women who wear a hat with a ponytail poking out the back. But that's not important right now. If you're like me, then you just tried to lick your elbow, and failed.
Posted 08/27/02, 1:25 a.m.
A new outrage from the socialist bedwetting PC-niks in Norway, who are rather upset that McDonald’s released a sandwich called the "McAfrika." The concoction of beef, cheese, tomatoes and salad in a pitta-style sandwich is said to be based upon an authentic African recipe and is being sold to Norwegian consumers for about $4. What is their complaint? That it is insensitive to name a sandwich after the continent while up to 12 million face starvation.
What about the 100 million who aren’t starving? Will they mind having their continent’s name embraced by the fast-food behemoth? Should the sign read, “Billions Served, Except for the Africans Who We Don’t Care About”? Maybe we should create a McNorway burger, full of moose dung and moistened by the tears of the good souls who can’t bear the thought that others can’t afford a Happy Meal.
Posted 08/25/02, 1:19 a.m.
A new batch of the best Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
– A penny saved is a congressional oversight.
– Flopped Book #10: “How I Got My Mojo Back,” by Al Gore.
– Every time I walk into a singles bar, the words of my mother come back to haunt me: “Don’t pick that up. You don’t know where it’s been.”
– Sign in my beauty shop: “Sexual harassment in this office will not be reported. However, it will be graded.”
– If the lawyers prove that fast food restaurants cause obesity, imagine the field day people with beer bellies are going to have with the breweries.
– It is important to find a woman who likes to cook and clean; important to find a woman who makes good money; important to find a woman who likes to have sex. But it is most important that these three women never meet.
- Does anyone have soft wood floors?
- Any day now, I expect to see an awards show for the best performance at an awards show.
Posted 08/25/02, 1:09 a.m.
Malaysian censors banned a show of "Friends" this year for what it said portrayed "casual sex, promiscuity amongst youth, pregnancy outside the institution of marriage and prostitution". They're just catching on?
Posted 08/23/02, 11:27 p.m.
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN. Cynthia McKinney lost her primary last night! Good times, good times. Excuse me while I dance a jig . . .
Posted 08/21/02, 4:00 p.m.
More loving comments from good-hearted Democrats:
At the Connecticut state Democratic convention, liberal activist Ned Coll railed in a prayer-laced invocation against current Republican governor John Rowland, in which Coll yelled “Death to the Prince of Darkness! Amen.” He continued, "This guy is a glorified thug. He's about as honest as his eyes and when you take a look at John Rowland's eyes, be careful you don't regurgitate. . . . Let us look forward to waking up the day after election knowing that massive greed and sin has lost and our sacred state has come home to God... Team Democrat... start your engines!"
Yep, keep saying it, us conservatives are such meanies.
Posted 08/19/02, 11:41 a.m.
Rod Dreher of National Review Online posted this tidbit from the down-with-whitey slave reparations rally this weekend:
"At the black rally for reparations in Washington this weekend, speaker Charles Barron, a racist lunatic who sits on the New York City Council, remarked: "I want to go up to the closest white person and say, 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing,' and then slap him, just for my mental health." Now, this is actually a very good thing that the Hon. Barron has done. The David Duke-ish creep has exposed the "reparations" movement for the race-hate shakedown that it is. May he continue to speak his mind, and often."
Posted 08/18/02, 10:14 p.m.
I have to admit, I’m a little giddy, and not just from being on vacation. What’s so cool that I have to interrupt my days off to post an editorial blog? Hollywood’s favorite liberal, some would say quasi-socialist couple, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon getting creamed by critics for their work.
The couple put on a play in Edinburgh, Scotland, dealing with the effects of 9/11. The arts critic, Charles Spencer, at The Telegraph describes it by noting that “there was something about this whole event that made me queasy. An air of showy sanctimony prevailed, as a ghastly human tragedy was glibly, and prematurely, packaged for public entertainment.” He adds: “Alarm bells start ringing early in the proceedings when Sarandon's journalist tells the audience of the terrible "crisis of marginality" she and other New Yorkers experienced after September 11. This grand phrase actually means that she wanted to help, but couldn't think of anything to do, at least until the fire captain contacted her. The solipsism of this response to the hideous deaths of some 3,000 people strikes me as bordering on the obscene.”
What’s really disturbing, though, is that during the Q & A, Sarandon actually voiced this bit of opinion: “You're so lucky in Ireland, England and Spain. Everyone there already knows what it's like to have inexplicable terrorist violence."
Yes, Susan, I’m sure they pat themselves on the back for their good fortune every hour.
Posted 08/17/02, 9:40 p.m.
If purists were angered at Ted Turner for colorizing some classics, this should be head-shaking. The Italian health minister is trying to get movies that involve smoking to pop up a government health warning decrying the dangers of lighting up.
While they’re at it, how about a warning during infedility sex scenes that ‘This will lead to massive personal problems when a bunny is cooked in his kitchen,’ or during car chases, ‘Warning : The police will put a beating down on you for driving like this.’
Posted 08/11/02, 3:40 a.m.
A couple of days ago I wrote about the vitriol that liberals get away with, while conservatives are tagged as "hateful. "
The same day that Charlton Heston made a heartfelt announcement that he has the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, the online magazine Slate has a column asking if Heston should give up his guns. This is the epitome of bad taste, yet you’ll hear no one on the left acknowledge such abhorrence.
Posted 08/11/02, 2:56 a.m.
More peaceful coexistence from Pakistani Muslims. Three assailants hurled grenades Friday at people leaving a chapel at a Christian hospital near Islamabad, killing three nurses in the second attack against a Christian institution in less than a week.
Posted 08/09/02, 3:30 a.m.
Just when you thought the silliness of airline security couldn't get any more inane, along comes this: The New York Post reports that a Long Island woman was made to drink breast milk from three bottles before taking them on a plane with her baby daughter.
You can't make this stuff up. Even liberal New York talk-show host, Ron Kuby, couldn't take it anymore: "I'm all for random searches," he tells the Post, "but I do think the number of Caucasian, lactating mothers who have passed through al Qaeda training camps is negligible."
Posted 08/09/02, 3:30 a.m.
What is with this media-fed hubbub over Pres. Bush's three-week vacation at his ranch in Texas? Are presidents not allowed to conduct national policy away from the White House? Does it matter if he's playing golf in Crawford than Maryland? Do they think Dubya will have a vacation like the rest of us, with feet propped on the ottoman cracking open a bag of chips while watching "Big Brother 3"?
With all of Congress away for a month, there's not a whole lot of business being conducted, as the Beltway annually retreats during the dog days of summer. Maybe it's because the media loved to follow Clinton to the liberal haven of Martha's Vineyard, and those daggum Texans make it too hot and sweaty for a bunch of wussy journalists.
Posted 08/09/02, 3:17 a.m.
Some more Ponderables from Grif.net:
- Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?
- According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes. And women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars.
- How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a barbecue?
- Doctors can be frustrating. You wait a month-and-a-half for an appointment, and he says, "I wish you'd come to me sooner."
Posted 08/09/02, 3:02 a.m.
Robert Novak has a column this week that shows that the Clinton administration overestimated the strength of the economy leading up to the 2000 election by up to 30 percent, something that has led many CEOs to be led away in handcuffs. Novak ponders: "Did the federal government join Enron and WorldCom in cooking the books," to get Gore elected? Novak's most damning claim is that "the Commerce Department in 2000 showed the economy on an upswing through most of the election year while in fact it was declining."
Posted 08/09/02, 3:01 a.m.
Good article by the Washington Post on Supreme Court Clarence Thomas, loved by conservatives and demonized by blacks and white liberals. For instance, while visiting Savannah, Georgia, for a lawyers convention, he was laughing with friends until Abigail Jordan, a retired educator and local activist walked up and then abruptly said: "I just wanted to see what a group of Uncle Toms look like."
This is common among those who hate Thomas with a passion for "betraying his race." For instance, liberal commentator Julianne Malveaux, once cracked on a talk show that: "I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early, like many black men do, of heart disease." Can you imagine the outrage if a white male said that about Al Sharpton?
There's much more, of course, such as Eric Ferrer, one of three black board members of Hawaii's ACLU, voting to ban Thomas from speaking because it would be no different from "inviting Hitler to come speak on the rights of Jews."
This type of vile hatred is despicable, yet totally kosher among liberals. And conservatives are supposed to be the mean ones?
Posted 08/09/02, 3:00 a.m.
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