Put No Faith in the United Nations

"Now that John Bolton, our undiplomatic ambassador to the United Nations, will be stepping down, the Senate ought to take a hard look at the world body before confirming a replacement.

The U.N. was cobbled together toward the end of World War II, and it is clear from the charter that the five allied powers – U.S., Great Britain, France, Russia and China – intended to run the world. Only the Security Council was given any power, and any one of the five could veto any decision it made.

The alliance fell apart. The Soviet Union and the U.S. began the Cold War. Great Britain and France, weakened by two world wars, faded away as major powers. Communist China eventually replaced the Republic of China. In the meantime, any patch of land was accepted as a country, no matter how unviable, and admitted to the General Assembly, which has become a hall of babble."

Put No Faith in the United Nations by Charley Reese

The Road to Tehran

Polite society helped pave the way for Iran's Holocaust conference.
BY BRET STEPHENSS

" 'Not acceptable,' says Ban Ki Moon, new Secretary-General of the United Nations. 'Repulsive,' say the editors of Britain's Guardian newspaper. 'An insult . . . to the memory of millions of Jews,' says Hillary Rodham Clinton. Global polite society is in an uproar over the Holocaust conference organized this week in Tehran under the auspices of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."

Read more at OpinionJournal

Air Force Keeps Eye On North Korea

By Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea

"U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets can fly to North Korea in minutes from this base 48 miles south of the demilitarized zone. Across the border are hundreds of North Korean artillery systems aimed at Seoul, and missiles capable of hitting Japan, Hawaii and possibly the U.S. mainland.North Korea's recent tests of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons, along with its continuing buildup of mobile artillery, highlight the importance of air power in deterring Pyongyang by giving the United States a way to strike movable targets that appear increasingly threatening.The South Korean and U.S. armies still would play a critical role in any fight breaking the armistice that effectively ended the 1950-53 Korean War. But U.S. Air Force officials say their planes are particularly suited to destroying North Korean weapons that would threaten South Korea as well as the United States and its allies."Air power is exceptionally important in the Korean fight," Gen. Paul V. Hester, the Pacific Air Forces commander, said on a recent trip to South Korea from his Hawaii headquarters. "Air power takes care of the deep targets in our business."

Air Force Keeps Eye On North Korea

What did the Iraq Study Group tell us?

In two words: Not much.

Charles Krauthammer says:
"The ISG has not just been attacked by left and right, Democrat and Republican. It has invited ridicule. Seventy-nine recommendations. Interdependent, insists Baker. They should be taken as a whole. 'I hope we don't treat this like a fruit salad and say, 'I like this but I don't like that.'' On the basis of what grand unifying vision? On the authority of what superior wisdom? A 10-person commission including such Middle East experts as Sandra Day O'Connor, Alan Simpson and Vernon Jordan?

This kind of bipartisan elder-statesmen commission is perfectly appropriate as a consensus-building exercise for, say, a long-range problem such as Social Security. It is a ludicrous mechanism for devising strategic changes in the middle of a war."

Indeed, it is.

"The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of its political cares."
-- Alexander Hamilton

“History, by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.”

— Thomas Jefferson

"Do not walk behind me,
for I may not lead.
Do not walk ahead of me,
for I may not follow.
Do not walk beside me either.
Just pretty much leave
me the hell alone."

Report: China weighs covert ops to overthrow North Korea's Kim

WorldTribune.com

"Hu Jintao, head of the Central Military Commission, has ordered the Chinese military to draw up the attack plan as a move 'deliberately meant as a threat to the regime of Kim Jong-Il.' The report said the plan was leaked to sources close to Western intelligence in Hong Kong.

China has begun drawing up plans to attack North Korea, according to the Paris-based Intelligence Online newsletter.

The action follows China's displeasure at the Oct. 9 nuclear test, which Hu regarded as a snub to the International Affairs Leadership Group that he has headed since 2003." More info.

Manipulation of Culture.

"It is very important to realize that the electronic media, which provide mass audiences, have made our culture much more manipulable than it ever was in the past. Typically, historically, cultures have been slow to change. Ideas about what's real, what's important, and what causes what, change very slowly in history. They are grounded in the experience of peoples, and respond only to additional, cumulative experiences of peoples. With the rise of electronic media, the possibility of deliberate manipulation of culture has been magnified ten zillion fold."

-- Ex-U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Under Ronald Reagan) who recently passed away.

The Disingenuousness of Charlie Rangel

Another contribution from Anotmo. This one called, Disingenuous Disingenuousness. Thanks, Anotmo.

Disingenuous Disingenuousness

Rep. Charles Rangel says he wants to re-institute the draft because, without it, well-to-do and well-educated young people with good prospects in the private sector will avoid military service by not volunteering while the poor and uneducated with lower financial prospects will be forced to volunteer for the military as the only way available to them to improve their lot in life. The affluent political class whose sons and daughters are safely ensconced in Yale, Harvard or lucrative employment will, therefore, be more inclined to get us into wars that the poor will then have to fight.

Opponents counter with statistics showing that the average income potential and education level of our voluntary military are higher than that of the country at large and that the number of such volunteers has proved quite adequate to meet our military requirements.

All of which, misses the point entirely. Rep Rangel knows full well the truth of his opponents’ position. That is precisely the problem from his perspective. Rep Rangel wants the draft re-instituted not for the reasons he states but for the reasons his opponents’ state. With our current successful volunteer military, only those who wish to serve need do so. Those who do not wish to serve need not do so and are not threatened by the prospect of conscripted military service. With a draft, these latter would be threatened with military service and, Rep. Rangel believes, many would respond like in the sixties and express their personal reluctance to participate by opposition to the war itself.

Think back to the Vietnam protests. They did not originate among the poor and uneducated. They originated among college students who did not wish to participate, who did not wish to be drafted, and who did not wish to be called on to risk their lives fighting for their country. (At least not in ‘this’ war which, lucky for them, is an unjust war.) It is their counterparts today whom Rep Rangel seeks to mobilize by re-instituting the draft.

The Left persists in claiming that Iraq is another Vietnam. It is not because, among a great many other things, during the Vietnam War we had a draft and today an all volunteer military is fighting the Iraq War. By re-instituting the draft, Rep Rangel seeks to turn the Iraq War into another Vietnam War, as the Left remembers it, complete with the campus protests that ultimately led to our withdrawal and defeat in Vietnam.

The Left would, no doubt, be self-righteously congratulatory of themselves were that to occur, just as they were the previous time. That their victories are also U.S. defeats only adds to their self-perceived luster since, it turns out, both wars were unjust. So it would have been immoral for them to place their personal safety at risk by submitting to conscription into an unjust war.

Never mind that during the Vietnam War the Lefts argument regarding the draft was quite different. Then, their argument was that the draft discriminated against the poor because the rich could, through such instruments as college deferments and familial influence, avoid the draft while the poor could not. There seems to be no situation within which the Left cannot find a case for Republicans treating the poor deficiently.

Not to mention, because the Left never does, the millions of Vietnamese and Cambodian lives that were then sacrificed nor the millions of Iraqi and neighboring lives that would now be sacrificed in exchange for the subsequent great humanitarian cease fires of which the Left is so proud and beyond which their world view seems not to extend. They call this ‘reality’.

So, Rep Charles Rangel is being disingenuous regarding his reasons for wanting to re-institute the draft so that certain others can be disingenuous regarding why they are protesting the Iraq War. Were the former not true, the statistical facts would support Rep Rangels' position. Were the latter not true, those certain others would be protesting the Iraq War now even without being threatened by a draft.

How unrealistic can realists get?

"Baker and Hamilton have been labeled foreign policy "realists" in news stories and columns in the run-up to the release of the ISG report. But it doesn't seem very realistic to expect that we can get regime change in Iran and Syria through negotiations. Nor does it seem very realistic to expect that negotiations between Israel and Palestinians can reach a mutually acceptable solution when the Hamas government rejects Israel's right to exist." -- George Will

Magazine concedes globalism is a problem

By Phyllis Schlafly: "Economists, academicians and financial consultants for years have been preaching that globalism is the wave of the future and that anyone who wants to survive in business must ride it or drown.

All of a sudden, Business Week is having second thoughts."

Stating the Obvious

OpinionJournal

"Take, for example, the recommendations offered, to much fanfare, by the Iraq Surrender Study Group:

The problem in Iraq is that we can't withdraw U.S. troops because the Iraqi military is not adequately trained to maintain security on its own? Well then, the ISG tells us, all we need to do is to train the Iraqi military so that they can maintain security on their own, and then we can withdraw our troops.

The problem in Iraq is that the Iraqi government won't approve a crackdown to dismantle the Shiite militias? Well then, all we have to do is to convince the Iraqi government to approve a crackdown to dismantle the Shiite militias.

The problem in Iraq is that Iran and Syria are arming, funding, and encouraging Sunni and Shiite insurgents? Well then, all we have to do is to convince Syria and Iran to stop supporting these insurgents.

The problem in the region is that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict inflames anti-American sentiment? Well then, all we have to do is to convene a conference to negotiate peace in the Middle East.

See how simple that was? It's amazing that no one ever thought of these ideas before the Iraq Study Group came along. But no, don't thank them. It's all in a day's work for Captain Obvious."

.......................... 'The whole ISG report is a spectacular punt.'.....................

Read on...

Venezuela: Documenting the Threat

"With another election under his belt, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appears destined to remain in power until at least 2013 -- and, if his attempts to amend the constitution to abolish term limits succeed, perhaps even longer. Obviously, so long as Chavez -- one of the most colorful and strident leftist leaders in Latin America -- remains in power and touting the appeals of his Bolivarian Revolution, there will be no appreciable change in the tenor of U.S. relations with Caracas.

One of the more serious sticking points in the relationship in recent years has been the role Venezuela plays in fueling illegal immigration into the United States. A House subcommittee report released in October -- titled 'A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border' -- noted that U.S. military and intelligence officials believe Venezuela is emerging as 'a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere' because 'the Venezuelan government is issuing identity documents that could subsequently be used to obtain a U.S. visa and enter the country.' The theme and tone of the congressional report are similar to those struck by the State Department's principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, Frank Urbancic Jr., who testified before Congress in July on the topic: 'Venezuela: Terrorism Hub of South America?'

Washington has very real cause to be concerned in this regard. For years, Venezuela has been one of the most significant ports of entry into the Americas for aliens from other parts of the world -- including many 'special interest' aliens from countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan -- due to lax visa laws and a culture of official corruption. However, any true assessment of Venezuela as a security threat to the United States must be kept separate from the political issues related to Chavez and his purposely annoying anti-U.S. rhetoric. For one thing, Venezuela's role as a transit point for aliens being smuggled into the United States predates Chavez and his leftist regime. For another, the Venezuelan president would incur unnecessary risk to his position and his country if he were to knowingly assist jihadists planning a strike on U.S. soil. More to the point, the jihadists would gain nothing from fostering such a relationship either.

As it stands, there is plenty of opportunity for illegal immigrants and more sinister types of criminals to transit Venezuela -- and obtain Venezuelan identity documents there -- without any government assistance whatsoever." Read the whole thing here.

The Iranian Position

"The straitjacket the United States now finds itself in was not created overnight, but through years of careful manipulation. The Islamic Republic now is drawing the world's attention to its position of strength in the region, but there also are some internal issues that weigh on the minds of regime leaders and must be carefully managed if this strength is to be maintained.

Tehran has been maneuvering for years to secure certain interests in the region. First and foremost, of course, is the country's own national security, for which the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad was a prerequisite. With the establishment of a friendly (or at least neutral), Shiite-controlled government in Baghdad, Iran would be able to both secure the primary goal of security and be well down the path toward a secondary and equally desirable goal: regional hegemony.

Therefore, an Iranian strategy began emerging almost from the moment the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad fell in April 2003. The strategy has revolved around shaping events in the region and, crucially, external perceptions of Iran and its leadership. The chief tactics employed have been manipulation of political events in Iraq, a vocal emphasis on Iran's nuclear program, skillful use of politically incorrect (at times, seemingly maniacal) statements by Ahmadinejad, the activation of regional proxies and, above all, patience."

-- Stratfor GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT

What if the NBA had quotas?

"Before you could say 'Michael Richards,' in swoop the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as the other usual suspect 'black leaders.' Marching, screaming, stomping and howling will precede enough lawsuits to keep the entire American and National Bar Associations fully employed for the next decade.

Yet when it comes to colleges and universities admitting Asian-American students, this is, in effect, exactly what is happening. Because of the superior performance of Asian students on high school grades and pre-college aptitude tests, many colleges and universities, through unannounced policies, place these 'minority students' at the back of the line."

By Larry Elder

Supreme Farce: Part II

By Thomas Sowell

"From time to time, the Supreme Court of the United States makes a decision that causes anger or outrage, but that reaction usually passes with time, especially since there is nothing the public can do about it -- either to change the decision or to remove from the bench those who made it.

This has emboldened many federal judges at all levels to take advantage of their lifetime appointments to make rulings that impose their own personal views and call it law. Some have even added insult to injury by rationalizing such judicial activism.

In a recent interview, Justice Stephen Breyer claimed that laws are 'not clear,' so that judges are forced to base their decisions on the 'values' they see behind the laws, rather than the specific words in those laws.

'Not clear' is an old ploy and 'values' are a blank check." Continue reading....

The reality of Obama in 2008

By George Will

"What people see in him reveals more about them than about him. Some of his public utterances have the spunginess of Polonius' bromides for Laertes ('neither a borrower nor a lender be ... to thine own self be true'). In 2005, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action and the AFL-CIO rated his voting record a perfect 100. The nonpartisan National Journal gave him a 82.5 liberalism rating, making him more liberal than Clinton (79.8). He dutifully decries 'ideological' politics, but just as dutifully conforms to most of liberalism's catechism, from ``universal'' health care, whatever that might mean, to combating global warming, whatever that might involve, and including the sacred injunction Thou Shalt Execrate Wal-Mart -- an obligatory genuflection to organized labor." Continue at Will.

Talking to Iran a mistake for strategic, moral reasons

By Victor Davis Hanson: "One of the many bizarre recommendations in the recently released report from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group is the call to talk with Iran. A formal dialogue with the present Iranian leadership is, for a number of reasons, as misguided as it is amoral.

Our guides in these scary times of facing aggressive dictatorships still should be Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, not the British prime minister Stanley Baldwin and Joe Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, who leading up to 1939 thought good could come out of talking with the Nazis.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, waves to the students, as he arrives at the Amir Kabir Technical University, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 11, 2006. Iranian students staged a rare demonstration against President Ahmadinejad on Monday, lighting a firecracker and burning his photograph in the audience as he delivered a speech at their university, the state news agency said. (AP Photo/ISNA, Amir Kholousi)

First, the Iranian leadership goes beyond the usual boilerplate anti-Israel, anti-Semitic claptrap of the region. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has serially denied the Holocaust while promising the absolute destruction of Israel. Various mullahs have characterized Israel as a “one-bomb state,” implying a single Iranian nuclear bomb could destroy it. The vicious hatred is so institutionalized in Iran’s state-run media that a science-fiction TV series there depicts the evil alien queen as Jewish.

Why should we give stature to and empower a theocracy that apes the hatred of the Third Reich?" Continue reading VDH.

Kofi Annan's legacy: Rwanda, Dafur, Iraq and Oil for Food.

"When Mr. Annan was named Secretary General 10 years ago, he did so as the U.S.-backed candidate of reform. Jesse Helms, then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Mr. Annan that 'if you choose to be an agent of real and deep-seated change, you will find many supporters--and even allies--here in the U.S. Congress.'

Senator Helms's expectations were not met. Seven years later--thanks to U.S. military action that Mr. Annan did everything in his power to prevent--we learned that he had presided over the greatest bribery scheme in history, known as Oil for Food. We learned that Benon Sevan, Mr. Annan's trusted confidant in charge of administering the program, had himself been a beneficiary of Iraqi kickbacks to the tune of $160,000. We learned that Mr. Annan's chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, had ordered potentially incriminating documents to be destroyed. We learned that Mr. Annan and his deputy, Louise Frechette, were both aware of the kickback scheme but failed to report it to the Security Council, as their fiduciary duties required. However, we haven't yet learned whether the senior Annan illegally helped his son Kojo obtain a discounted Mercedes, an issue on which the Secretary General has stonewalled reporters." Continue reading at OpinionJournal.

North Korea appears serious about denuclearization talks

North Korea has indicated it is ready to "deal in specifics" about giving up its newly proven nuclear arsenal when it returns to six-party disarmament negotiations next week in Beijing, the top US negotiator said. But Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill predicted "very tough negotiations" when the talks resume at the weekend after a 13-month break and said there were no guarantees the process would achieve its goal of convincing North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Full Story

Appeals Panel Rejects Slave Reparations

Las Vegas SUN:
CHICAGO (AP) - "A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected most claims by slave descendants that they deserve reparations from some of the nation's biggest insurers, banks and transportation companies.

The three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that slave descendants have no standing to sue for reparations based on injustices suffered by ancestors and that the statute of limitations ran out more than a century ago." Read on...

This is a BIG restoration project.

New Secretary-General Pledges to Restore Trust in UN

About the Constitution

"On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare."
--Thomas Jefferson

McCain: 30,000 More Troops to Iraq

"Sen. John McCain said Thursday that America should to deploy 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq to control its sectarian violence, and give moderate Iraqi politicians the stability they need to take the country in the right direction.

McCain made the remarks to reporters in Baghdad, where he and five other members of Congress were meeting with U.S. and Iraqi officials.

'The American people are disappointed and frustrated with the Iraq war, but they want us to succeed if there's any way to do that,' McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq's heavily fortified Green Zone.

The Arizona Republican said five to 10 more brigades of U.S. combat soldiers must be sent to Iraq. Brigades vary in size but generally include about 3,000 troops, meaning he was recommending 15,000 to 30,000 additional forces.

Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman said the delegation had met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and urged him to break his ties with anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and disarm his Mahdi Army militia." Continue ......

Sen. John Kerry: Let's Talk With Iran, Syria

"U.S. Senator John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2004, said on Thursday the U.S. administration should engage in dialogue with Syria and Iran.

'I think it's important to talk and have dialogue, but you don't give up your principles and you don't make deals that are against your larger interest,' Kerry told reporters after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

'Syria needs to understand that and Iran needs to understand that, but I think it's important to begin a discussion,' added Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.

Kerry, who is considering a second bid for the U.S. presidency, cited the example of late President Ronald Reagan calling the Soviet Union 'the evil empire' but not hesitating to negotiate with then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Kerry left the Uunited States on Wednesday for a nine-day visit of the Middle East, including Iraq, and a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but not a visit to Iran." More...

John Bolton: Ahmadinejad Inciting Genocide

"Outgoing U.S. U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and former diplomats from Israel and Canada called on the United Nations Thursday to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with inciting genocide.

The U.N. International Court of Criminal Justice should charge Ahmadinejad for his threats against the United States, for calling for the destruction of Israel and for instigating discrimination against Christians and Jews, the group said.

'It's important that if we are in this stage where we're being given early warning, unambiguously, on what his intentions are, then it's time to take action,' Bolton told a Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations symposium.

Ahmadinejad caused outrage in the West last year by calling for Israel to be 'wiped off the map,' echoing comments by the Islamic Republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Speaking at a Tehran conference Tuesday that questioned the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, Ahmadinejad said Israel's days were numbered." Read on....

Reps. Flake, Delahunt Seek to Meet Raul Castro

"Leading advocates of easing sanctions against Cuba in Congress will fly to Havana Friday to assess the situation since ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in July.

The largest Congressional delegation to visit Communist-run Cuba has asked to meet with acting president Raul Castro, who two weeks ago said he was open to talks with Washington.

The Bush administration, which opposes a 'dynastic succession' from one Castro brother to the other, has rejected talks in the absence of democratic reform to Cuba's one-party state.

Cuba watchers said a meeting between the legislators and Raul Castro could mark a turning point in a hostile relationship that dates back to the start of the Cold War.

The three-day visit by 10 Republican and Democratic representatives comes amid heightened speculation that Fidel Castro, 80 and in power since 1959, is close to death." More details...

McCain Beats Hillary in New Poll

"Sen. John McCain would easily defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head race for the White House in 2008, a new poll reveals.

In the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey, half of those polled said they would vote for Arizona Republican McCain, while only 36 percent said they would choose New York Democrat Clinton.

The rest said they weren’t sure, or would vote for someone else.

The poll also found that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would give Clinton a tough fight – 42 percent of respondents picked Clinton over Romney and 36 percent picked the Republican.

The poll results 'lend credence to some Democrats’ fear that despite Mrs. Clinton’s clear strength within the party, she would prove too polarizing a figure to win the White House,” the Times reported." Read more...

“Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.”

—Jean Francois Revel

It's in Our Hands ......

"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves."

-- Joseph Warren (Boston Massacre Oration, 6 March 1775)

The Question of the Day

“An al-Qaeda terrorist detonates a car bomb in a crowd of schoolchildren—and in revenge, a Shiite militiaman kidnaps and murders his Sunni neighbors. How exactly are they motivated by the Arab-Israeli dispute 600 miles away? How would an end to that dispute persuade them to live in peace with their neighbors?”

— David Frum

“The Pelosi crew places its faith in the trusted conviction that the only thing required to bring forth the inherent goodwill of all mankind—even of Islamist terrorists—is for America to humbly acknowledge its transgressions, beg forgiveness, and make restitution to whatever degree is possible.”

— John Perazzo

“If the President is, indeed, determined not to surrender in Iraq and, thereby, to avoid inexorably setting in train dire repercussions worldwide, Mr. Bush had better make sure that the man to whom he is entrusting his key national security portfolio, Bob Gates, will follow his direction—not that of Jim Baker.”
—Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

“[Robert Gates] comes from a group of people I know well. They think that they are the be-all and end-all, and the media fawn on them and feed their insatiable egos. Their new way of dealing with Iraq is to figure out ways to leave. My way is more straightforward and simple: forget pandering to the Left’s pacifist instincts and just go ahead and kill the enemy, every single one of them.”

— Michael Reagan

“Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.”

— Henry Ford

JOKE OF THE DAY

Without any paperwork or for any reason, this old retired man everyone called Grandpa started getting a $500 check every month. So Grandpa and Grandma started cashing them.

It turns out the government made a mistake with the address; the checks were intended for another person with the exact same name.

Grandpa then received a notice that he had to pay back $6,000. Visibly upset, he complained to his grandson, an accountant.

His grandson asked: "Grandpa, didn't you wonder why you were receiving checks for doing absolutely nothing?"

Grandpa answered: "I just assumed the Democrats were back in power."

MORE PROOF

More proof the U.N. is still relevant and willing to take on the big issues of our time:

United Nations Step Up Efforts To Fight Doping In Sports
All Headline News - USA
New York, NY (AHN) - The United Nations is getting in on the fight against doping in sports. The International Convention Against ...

Hyde Comments on New Reports of Corruption at United Nations

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "In response to new allegations of corruption involving the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs, U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, issued the following remarks:

'I am aware of new reports of corruption and cronyism within the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). The UN office in question is, in theory, responsible for promoting effective public administration and good governance.'

'The UN has a history of building scandals on top of its scandals. Mismanagement thrives under poor oversight, which is then often lost under attempted cover-ups. The UN oversight authorities must engage in a full investigation of DESA's wrongdoing. The UN can regain credibility and curb future scandals, not with bureaucratic maneuvering intended to obfuscate its shortcomings, but with transparent investigations that hold violators of the public trust responsible for their misconduct.'

'I urge Ambassador Bolton's successor, as well as the members of the 110th Congress, to continue comprehensive oversight of the UN to ensure that the UN's role in the world's future is marked more by contribution than scandal.' "

Funny, but I don't recall Koffi Annan mentioning this detail in any of his speeches during his whirlwind "I'm-almost-gone-but-I-still-have-time-to-bash-the-US tour."

DeLay Predicts Hillary Presidency

Tom DeLay thinks Hillary will be the next President of the United States (gag me with a spoon) as does Dick Morris by the way. Delay predicts this because of the large shadow party they have built, comprising of large liberal groups and the media.

He is also predicting that Osama Obama (Teddy Kennedy's guffaw) Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. will be her running mate.

I have thought of this possibility for awhile as well. From a Democrat party point of view, this ticket, should they win, could set them up, at least in their eyes, as having control of the White House for potentially 16 years. Two terms of Rodham and two terms, by that time, a well seasoned Obama, who at this point, may have charisma, but obviously lacks critical experience.

Christianity is so tahhhrible Dahhhling!

Arianna Huffington (the long lost 4th Gabor sister) is in quite a tizzy today. Apparently she's acquired sound intel that there are actual Christians who are employed within the Defense Department.

Supreme Farce

Thomas Sowell: "The racial dogmas have changed since 1954 but they are still dogmas. And flesh-and-blood children are still being sacrificed on the altar to those dogmas.

Some of the learned justices are pondering whether there is a 'compelling' government interest in creating the educational and social benefits of racial 'diversity.' If so, then supposedly it is OK to do to white kids today what the Supreme Court back in 1954 said could not be done to black kids -- namely, assign children to schools according to their race." Get more Sowell.... (Cute, huh?)

James Baker's Terrible Iraq Report
By Daniel Pipes

The Iraq Study Group Report, cobbled together by ten individuals lacking specialized knowledge of Iraq, dredges up past failed U.S. policies in the Middle East and would enshrine them as current policy. A preposterously lengthy list of 79 recommendations lies at the heart of the report. To make matters worse, Mr. Baker had the nerve to admonish the Bush administration not to treat the report's 79 recommendations "like a fruit salad," choosing one idea while rejecting another, but to accept it as a whole. Even in Washington, a town famous for arrogance, this statement made heads turn…

Russia to Deepen Nuclear Cooperation with Iran
Moscow – International consensus on sanctions against Iran remains elusive, but Russia insisted Monday it would deepen economic ties, including nuclear cooperation, with Tehran...

ANOTHER CRISIS AVERTED?

Experts Puzzle Over Halt of Bird Flu
-- Las Vegas Sun/AP

Or is it more of a case of Chicken Little - Henny Penny the sky is falling, we're all doomed, fatalist-mentality, "junk science" perpetrated by the left and the media willfully and dutifully fanning the flames of hysteria?

Revelatory headline of the day

Taxpayers distrust how the government spends their dollars, reports say
-- USA Today

Las Vegas SUN: Muslim Charity Wants Charges Dismissed

DALLAS (AP) - "A Muslim charity accused of ties to terrorists has asked a federal judge to dismiss many of the charges the U.S. government filed against it after the 2001 terror attacks."

Inhofe: UN Report Pours 'Cold Water' on Global Warming

A United Nations study coming out early next year reportedly will lower estimates of mankind's impact on the earth's climate, a development that will pour "cold water" on "global warming alarmism," according to one climate-change skeptic. "We are all skeptics now," Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, said in response to media leaks about the U.N. report, which is set to be published in February. London's Telegraph reported Sunday that the draft report reduces its overall estimate of the human impact on global warming by one-fourth, and halves its predictions for rises in sea-level by 2100. Full Story

Pentagon Evangelism Called 'National Security Threat'

"Christian military officers who share their faith at work in the Pentagon pose a threat to national security, according to a group that advocates for religious neutrality in the military."

Pelosi: Rep. Jefferson Off Ways and Means

"House Democrats, insistent that they will hold lawmakers to higher standards, decided Tuesday that Rep. William Jefferson will not return to an influential committee until a federal corruption investigation involving him is completed.

Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said the Democratic Steering Committee had resolved that Jefferson, who last Saturday won a runoff election in his New Orleans district, will not be given back his spot on the Ways and Means Committee, the panel that determines tax and trade policies."

Ward Churchill Blasts U.S., Israel for 9/11

"Controversial professor Ward Churchill says the United States is responsible for the 9/11 attacks, because of its support for Israel and the sanctions against Iraq.

According to the New York Sun, Churchill, an ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado, gave a two-hour speech at New York City's New School on Monday night. In the speech, titled 'Sterilizing History: The Fabrication of Innocent Americans,' Churchill said America essentially was asking for the 9/11 attacks because of a historical pattern of mass murder.

Churchill gained national infamy after the 9/11 attacks by writing that many victims of the carnage were 'little Eichmanns' -- a reference to Nazi Adolf Eichmann -- because they worked for an evil nation.

University of Colorado officials have tried to fire Churchill, but they have been unable to because he is a tenured professor exercising free-speech rights."

Military Meets, Exceeds Recruiting Goals

WASHINGTON -- "Though Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday it is having success enlisting new troops. The Navy and Air Force met their recruiting goals last month while the Army and Marine Corps exceeded theirs, the Defense Department announced.

The Army, which is bearing the brunt of the work in Iraq, did the best. It signed up 6,485 new recruits in November compared with its target of 6,150 - meaning 105 percent of its goal.

All the services turned in similar performances in October as well, meaning they so far are meeting their goals for the 2007 budget year that began Oct. 1."

McCain news

McCain: I’ll Embrace Bush Democracy Agenda

Sen. McCain Blasts Iran's 'Deranged' Regime

Curt Weldon: CIA, FBI 'Out of Control'

WASHINGTON -- "Defeated Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon believes that the CIA and the FBI are 'out of control,' and that the next Congress must do better oversight to prevent them from continued interference in domestic U.S. politics.

The charge by the outgoing Republican congressman and deputy chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, one of the top targets of the Democratic National Committee in November's congressional election, was not idle speculation.

'Just yesterday, FBI Director Mueller took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging that the FBI had launched a criminal inquiry into the activities of two of its agents for misconduct in a federal investigation,' Weldon said.

'The CIA is out of control,' Weldon said. 'They are not leaking for the good of the country, or out of national security concerns, but purely to satisfy a personal agenda.' " More...

United Nations faltered under Annan’s shortcomings

"Secretary-general criticizes U.S. in his farewell speech but ignores his own failures United Nations faltered under Annan’s shortcomings"
Source: Kansas City Star

Attack on Halliburton called a 'gift for our Muslim brothers'

CAIRO — "The U.S. embassy has conducted a security review in wake of a suspected Al Qaida-aligned attack on Western oil executives in Algeria.

The Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call has claimed responsibility for the strike. A Salafist statement released on Monday said the attack on Halliburton was a "present to our Muslim brothers suffering from the new Crusaders who have targeted Islam and its holy places."

On Dec. 10, a busload of Western executives was attacked by suspected Al Qaida-aligned insurgents. Two people were killed and nine others were injured, including an American, in a heavily-guarded suburb of Algiers. The bus transported employees of a subsidiary of Halliburton, a leading U.S. security contractor."

Congress bans U.S. talks with Hamas-led Palestinians

WASHINGTON — "Congress has passed legislation that bans U.S. talks with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

The bill, passed by the House and Senate, outlaws talks by any U.S. administration with Hamas or ministries headed by operatives of the Islamic movement. The legislation forbids the administration from contacting or aiding the Hamas-led PA until the movement renounced what was termed terrorism and recognized Israel."

Israeli military intel warns of 2-front war

TEL AVIV — Israel's military is bracing for a possible two-front war in the summer of 2007.

"Officials said the General Staff has received intelligence assessments that Israel could be attacked from both Lebanon and Syria in the north as well as the Palestinian Authority in the south during the summer of 2007. They said the military concluded that Hizbullah and the PA would coordinate missile strikes against Israel.

'The last war [against Hizbullah in July 2006] caught both Hizbullah and the Palestinians by surprise,' an official said. 'Now both sides are in full coordination and when war erupts the missiles will fly from both fronts.' " Read on...

Stressed woman thought she was French

Now this would be terrifying:

A Bath woman convinced herself she was French after she developed a rare disorder.

Louise Clarke, 30, a recruitment consultant, babbled away in French for weeks, according to the Sun.

She demanded croissants, rang her pals to tell them she was living in Paris and even invited them over.

Louise said: "It might sound funny to others, but suddenly thinking you are French is terrifying."

Read more..

NATIONAL PRIORITIES

"National Priorities: When a secretary of defense gets confirmed 95-2 apparently because he says we are not winning a war, you know Uncle Sam must have a sign on his back that says 'kick me.'

We've come a long way from that day in April 1986 when President Ronald Reagan ordered Operation El Dorado Canyon, an air strike on Libya by two dozen F-111F fighter bombers in retaliation for a terrorist blast at a West Berlin disco that injured 200 people, including 63 U.S. soldiers, killing two.

Back then we took the fight to our enemies.

Now not even the prospect of a nuclear Iran gets our dander up. Back then we didn't wait for the U.N to pass a resolution. America was feared." Read on....

Well not anymore ... and that's just the way the Left likes it.

Nuclear race in the Middle East: Gulf states announce program

WorldTribune.com: "GCC leaders announced plans to conduct a feasibility study of a nuclear energy program that would include all six member states. Gulf Arab leaders said any nuclear program would be peaceful.

The higher committee ordered a GCC-wide study to be carried out to create a joint program in nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, according to international standards and arrangements a GCC communique said on Dec. 10.

Arab diplomats said the GCC decision was meant to challenge Iran's nuclear program. Teheran, denying full access to the International Atomic Energy Agency, has also insisted that its nuclear program was civilian.

'There is absolutely no need for a nuclear energy program in these oil-rich states,' a diplomat said. 'But it puts Iran on notice that the GCC will be able to rapidly build a program that could lead to a nuclear weapons option.' " Continue....

A VERY IMPORTANT TRADING PARTNER

“Mexico’s new president Felipe Calderon was sworn into office in Mexico City Friday with former President Bush looking on. They are an important trading partner. In addition to oil, silver and tequila, Mexico is the number-one producer of Americans.” —Argus Hamilton

“If you’re one of those dummies who goofs off in school, you wind up in Iraq. But, if you’re sophisticated and nuanced, you wind up on a commission about Iraq.”

—Mark Steyn

THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

“Very hardheaded realist terms: interest, stability, regional powers. But stringing them together to suggest that Iran and Syria share our interests in stability is the height of fantasy. In fact, Iran and Syria have an overriding interest in chaos in Iraq—which is precisely why they each have been abetting the insurgency and fanning civil war. Perhaps in some long-term future they will want a stable Iraq as a tame client state of the Syria-Iran axis. For now they want chaos. What in God’s name will a negotiation with them yield?”
—Charles Krauthammer

CAN WE TALK?

“Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil.” —Doug Patton

ABOUT THOSE INALIENABLE RIGHTS YOU ENJOY

“America derives its laws from its Constitution. It derives its values from the Bible. We don’t get inalienable rights from the Constitution; we get them from God.” —Dennis Prager

THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE. BUT, BOTTOM LINE? HUMANITY SUCKS.

“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” — H. L. Mencken

RESILIENCY OF EVIL

“It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.” —Albert Einstein

PARASITES

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”

—Thomas Jefferson

“The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.”

—James Madison

NEWS FROM OPERATION GRATITUDE

OPERATION GRATITUDE CELEBRATES SHIPMENT OF 200,000th CARE PACKAGE

And 50,000th Package of Current Holiday Drive

Encino, California; December 11, 2006
"Following another productive two days with hundreds of volunteers shipping thousands more care packages this past weekend, Operation Gratitude founder, Carolyn Blashek, announced today that the organization will reach two great milestones on Saturday, December 16, 2006: the shipment of its 50,000th package of this Holiday Drive, and the shipment of the 200,000th overall package!

Operation Gratitude Director of Operations, Charlie Othold, expects to hit this milestone moment during the 11am-12 Noon hour on Saturday, December 16th.

About Operation Gratitude

Operation Gratitude ( www.operationgratitude.com ) is the California- based 501 (c) (3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization that sends care packages of snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation addressed to individually named U.S. Service Members deployed in hostile regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and on military ships at sea. Its mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member's face and to express to all troops the appreciation and support of the American people. For safety and security, all assembling of packages occurs at the Operation Gratitude headquarters in Southern California. Since its inception in March, 2003, Operation Gratitude has shipped more than 190,000 packages to American troops deployed overseas.

Many of the troops who have received the surprise Care Packages express their appreciation through a constant flow of letters, e-mails and pictures, as seen in the Mail Call and Photo Gallery sections of the www.operationgratitude.com website."

The above information, directly quoted, comes from an email sent to me from Operation Gratitude. I do not have any affiliation with them other than donations I have sent. Please consider this a public announcement; and a consideration of a donation from you, dear readers, would be awesome.

Bipartisan support? Who cares?

“In Washington, sometimes it’s preferable to be wrong in a group than to be right alone. Nothing demonstrates the triumph of this truism better than the release... of the final Iraq Study Group report. The commission’s chairman, James A. Baker III, could not have been more obvious if he had used hand puppets to illustrate what he thought was most important about this supposedly momentous occasion: the fact that all the report’s authors actually agree with its contents. Their product, Baker gushed, is ‘the only recommended approach that will enjoy, in our opinion, complete bipartisan support, at least from the 10 people that you see up here.’ Whoop-de-do. No one in the media was sufficiently motivated to ask the emperors why they had no clothes on, or to raise the simple question, ‘Who cares?’ Instead, viewers at home (all three broadcast networks broke in to cover the ‘news’ live) watched as one commission member after another grew misty-eyed over their own statesmanship. Former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta waxed lyrical about how this document represented ‘one last chance at unifying this country on this war.’ Heads sagely nodded at the relentless self-adulation of commissioners who put their ‘partisan differences’ behind them in the spirit of unanimity, unity, bipartisanship, comity, handholding and all around mutual respect and love."

-- Jonah Goldberg

CHASING SHADOWS

“Recommendation 16 of the Iraq Study Group’s report calls upon Syria to agree to a peace deal with Israel in return for the Golan Heights. It further suggests that Syria be persuaded to end its interference in Lebanon, cease aiding Hezbollah, convince Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and intervene to obtain the release of two captured Israeli soldiers. Elsewhere the report declares that ‘Iran should stem the flow of arms and training to Iraq, respect Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and use its influence over Iraqi Shia groups to encourage national reconciliation.’ The authors of this report are supposed to be the foreign policy realists? These goals make President Bush’s ambition to germinate a democracy in Arab soil look positively minimalist by comparison. Instead of a sober new look at our options in Iraq, this report consists of platitudinous, utterly naive wishful thinking. No wonder it is being so rapturously received by the media... It is chasing a shadow to imagine that ‘settling’ the Arab/Israeli dispute will pacify the region. But the group chose a particularly inapposite moment to seek a solution to the Israeli/Arab dispute... Shiites and Sunnis are not going to stop killing each other because the borders of the West Bank are redrawn.”

—Mona Charen

EXPANDING GOVERNMENT

“A new Heritage Foundation study shows Americans are saddled with more government every year, and we’re becoming steadily more dependent on it. Since 1980, dependency has more than doubled, rising by 138 percent. That long-term trend continued in recent years under a Republican president and (outgoing) Republican Congress. Just since 2001 the index has jumped some 20 percent. To put it simply, the federal public sector is shouldering civil society aside. It won’t be easy to reverse it.”

—Ed Feulner

MAMMA SINGS BASS, DADDY SINGS TENOR

“Has everyone forgotten what the world looked like when America (and Israel) was feared? Have the foreign policy castrati taken over? Does no one sing baritone anymore? The terrorists in Iraq, and among us, use fear as a primary tactic. We form study groups and issue statements saying we must ‘act wisely.’ Iran’s dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vows to obliterate Israel and U.S. diplomats recommend we talk to him. Whatever happened to ‘if you touch us, it will be the last thing you touch’? Ah, but that was before political correctness and sensitivity training. Now, the only thing the thugs have to fear is fear itself. They certainly don’t fear us.”

— Cal Thomas

One of Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright until you hear them speak."

Hmmmm................ My mind is being flooded with thoughts.

Iranian Holocaust Conference Draws Fire From West

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Iranian conference on the Holocaust is "paving the way to further genocides," a Holocaust expert said here on Monday. Dozens of Holocaust deniers and revisionists from around the world are attending a two-day state-sponsored conference in Tehran that is examining the claims of the Holocaust. The conference has drawn fire from Israel, the West and Jewish groups but one source said the key would be how the world community responds to the conference. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki addressed the conference at its opening on Monday and said it was not intended to deny or confirm the Holocaust but to discuss it -- "to create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe." The Israeli government condemned what it called the "shameless initiative" of the Iranian government to convene the conference. Full Story

What I am wondering is this: In the sick twisted mind of Iranian president Mahmoud Imanutjob, what difference does it make to him if the holocaust happened or not? He is on record (many times) that he wants to destroy Israel and wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. So on what level of curiosity is he working from when he has stated the holocaust did not happen and wants it investigated, while at the same time is advocating and calling for the complete annihilation? Is the answer as to whether the holocaust took place or not going to have some sort of impact on his policy? I kinda think not. So what is the point to his exercise? To drum up support?

Revelatory headline of the day

Houston Chronicle:
Minimum Wage Hike Won't Solve Poverty

U.S. Report Rejected By Iraqi President

washingtonpost.com: BAGHDAD -- "Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Sunday strongly rejected a bipartisan U.S. panel's report on U.S. war strategy in Iraq, calling some of its recommendations 'dangerous' and a threat to his country's sovereignty.

'The report does not respect the will of the Iraqis in dealing with their problems,' he said in a statement released by his office." More details...

Russian envoy praises U.N. Iran draft

Boston.com: UNITED NATIONS --"Russia's U.N. ambassador praised a Security Council draft resolution on Iran's nuclear program, saying his country's concerns had been taken into account as negotiators met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the text.

U.N. diplomats said negotiators wanted to move swiftly on the draft, which would impose sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment and urge it to negotiate over its nuclear program. They said they anticipate a Security Council vote before the end of the year.

The draft resolution, which was circulated to Security Council members Friday, has been reworked to try to satisfy changes sought by Russia -- an Iranian ally and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.

The new draft specifies in greater detail exactly what materials and technology would be prohibited from being supplied to Iran for possible use in its nuclear and missile programs. The Russians and Chinese had previously complained that proposed sanctions were too broad." Read more.

Don't Let the Door Hit You in the A$$ on Your Way Out

Annan blasts U.S. in farewell - USATODAY.com: "In a farewell speech on U.S. soil today, retiring United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered a tough critique of President Bush's policies. He accused the administration of trying to secure the United States from terrorism in part by dominating other nations through force, committing what he termed human rights abuses and taking military action without broad international support."

Michelle Malkin says:

"Like Kofi Annan knows anything about remaining true to principles? He leaves behind a feckless, corrupted, global bureaucracy incapable of policing the predators in its ranks, unwilling to stand up to evil, and useless in the struggle against terrorism--or any other global threat.

And it's all President Bush's and America's fault.

Good riddance to you and your wagging finger, Kofi Annan. You will not be missed."

You're the worst best friend we never had .... or something like that. - HH

Britain: Terror attack likely over holidays

USATODAY.com

"Terrorists probably will attempt to attack in Britain over the holiday period, Home Secretary John Reid warned Sunday. He gave no details but said authorities know of about 30 major conspiracies.

'The threat in this country is very high indeed,' Reid said. He said an attack is not inevitable, but 'our security services have to be successful on every occasion to prevent that happening.' In August, Britain's threat status was raised to severe, the second-highest level, when an alleged plot to down trans-Atlantic jetliners with liquid explosives was uncovered. In November, Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of Britain's domestic spy service MI5, said her agency had foiled five major plots since transit bombings in London in July 2005." More.....

Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda

CQ.com

"Forty years ago, Sgt. Silvestre Reyes was a helicopter crew chief flying dangerous combat missions in South Vietnam from the top of a soaring rocky outcrop near the sea called Marble Mountain.

After the war, it turned out that the communist Viet Cong had tunneled into the hill and built a combat hospital right beneath the skids of Reyes’ UH-1 Huey gunship.

Now the five-term Texas Democrat, 62, is facing similar unpleasant surprises about the enemy, this time as the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

That’s because, like a number of his colleagues and top counterterrorism officials that I’ve interviewed over the past several months, Reyes can’t answer some fundamental questions about the powerful forces arrayed against us in the Middle East.

It begs the question, of course: How can the Intelligence Committee do effective oversight of U.S. spy agencies when its leaders don’t know basics about the battlefield?" Read on....

Hollywood Dodges the Truth on Terror

Commentary
By Michael Medved
Townhall.com

"The new James Bond film 'Casino Royale' drew strong reviews as one of the most realistic movies of the series, without recognition of its most obvious blind-spot.

Syndicated columnist Fruma Harrop praised the movie as 'ripped from the newswires' but the film, despite references to terrorist dangers, never associates those dangers with Islamo-Nazis. Since 9/11, Hollywood movies generally avoid depicting terrorist conspirators as Muslim. The adaptation of Tom Clancy's 'Sum of All Fears' changed the bad guys from Palestinians and Iranians to neo-Nazi Germans; in the airline thrillers 'Red Eye' and 'Flight Plan' the murderers are Russian gangsters and American security personnel, respectively.

Big studios avoid depiction of jihadist killers because those portrayals look too authentically scary for entertainment, but they're also intimidated by political correctness--and the bogus argument that telling the truth about terrorist threats promotes bigotry against innocent Muslims."

I did see the movie a week ago and I liked it. Heavy, Mrs. HH, and HH Jr. went together. The pros: (1) Lots of action, and I really do like action movies. (2) Daniel Craig as James Bond. I know this is his first James Bond role, but that said, he may be the best Bond since Sean Connery. He has the rugged good looks. He ain't got that "pretty boy" image. (3) The lack of gadgets. I thought it was refreshing not to have all the high tech stuff. It makes sense though .. after all ... "Q" is "dead." (Tongue in cheek. The real life actor who played Q, ya' know, passed away.)

The cons: There were a couple of scenes where the action became too far fetched. As you would expect with action movies, much of the action scenes went overboard and realism, should we say, gets stretched pretty good. Still, there were a couple of scenes that left both me and HH Jr. saying outloud, but quietly, "Oh, come on!" But all-in-all, it was entertaining, and all three of us enjoyed the action.

Bolton's Departure

By Joseph Klein

"We have just lost the services of one of our greatest U.N. ambassadors, sacrificed at the altar of liberal appeasement. Aside from his most virulent opponents in Congress and the mainstream press, the folks who are the happiest about John Bolton’s resignation are the U.N. bureaucrats. They were not used to someone of Bolton’s stature and intellect challenging their entrenched ways. They simply wanted him out of the way.

When asked for his reaction to the news of Bolton’s resignation, Kofi Annan took a condescending swipe at Bolton’s forthright style by saying “that ambassadors understand that to get concessions, they have to make concessions.” Of course, Bolton did compromise when necessary." Read more....

BACK AT IT

Had a busy weekend. I went to my god daughters' ice skating exhibition on Saturday and then raced to a Christmas party -- yes, CHRISTMAS party -- my employer was putting on. Today I did some Christmas shopping -- for CHRISTMAS gifts. I did not do holiday shopping for holiday gifts. No, I did not. It was for CHRISTMAS, thank you very much.

IS THIS SATIRE?

I think it is the real thing, and not satire:

UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL ANTI CORRUPTION DAY TO BE HELD ...
LoveFM - Belize
Tomorrow will be observed as the United Nations International Anti Corruption Day. Love news spoke with Bobby Lopez of Vision Inspired by the People. ...

The UN and international anti-corruption day? Heh, heh. TELL ME this a satire piece.

North Korea to test bio-arms on disabled, political prisoners?

"Not only is North Korea planning to carry out a second nuclear test early next year, according to Britain's MI6 secret security service, but it is also expanding its biological warfare program with thousands of people, including the disabled, dwarves and political prisoners as the guinea pigs, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is reporting.

Based on interviews with defectors from North Korea to its southern neighbor after the Oct. 9 plutonium device test, MI6 believes the next nuclear test Kim Jong-II will order 'will probably take place early next year.' " More..

Japanese, Philippine leaders condemn North Korea, vow to fight terror

Mainichi Daily News

MANILA -- "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo agreed Saturday on the need to stop North Korea's nuclear program, fight global terror and bring their two economies closer together." More....

ROSE COLORED GLASSES?

Too Beautiful thinks Santorum is crazy, criticizes his lengthy farewell speech, because.... well it's lengthy; but mostly finds fault with its' content. She The writer identifies and lists some of Santorum's "main points" from his speech as:

• "We" have "an enemy," to wit, "Islamic fascism... this relentless and determined radical enemy that is not just a group of rag-tag people living in caves but, in fact, people with an ideology, a plan, and increasingly the resources to carry out that plan, as well as, increasingly, a bigger and larger presence throughout the Islamic world, these radical Islamic fascists.
• "This is the biggest issue of our time."
• The U.S. is in a state of war, not only with this "presence," but with the nation of Iran. "The State of Iran specifically has been at war with us since 1979 when they declared war against the United States. They have not rescinded that declaration." Who knew!?
• The CIA, the State Department, and the Pentagon are part of the problem. They don't realize the US is at war; they want to deal with Iran.
• "The Baker-Hamilton report ... is a prescription for surrender."
• Many things "the Islamic fascists" have done are evil. Santorum embarks on a long passage where he relates several incidents he says have taken place in recent months, and then intones: "This is evil."
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the other evil Muslims understand America and how to exploit our weaknesses; "they respect us enough so they know what buttons to push and how hard to push them. They respect us enough to figure out what it will take to defeat us. I wish that were the case for the American people."
• "We have not only the Islamic fascists led by Iran, but we now have an alliance between Iran and North Korea."
• Something about Venuzuela.
• A lot more about Venuzuela and a completely nutty theory that Hugo Chavez has a plan to develop military bases across South America, creating a Soviet-style bloc.
• "Let's not overlook the role of Russia in working with all of these governments--Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela."

One can only assume that TB finds no truth in the above bullet points. We have nothing to fear from Islamic radicals. It's not a big issue. There is no such thing as evil. At least the Islamic radicals/fascists are not guilty of any. Iran and Korea have nothing in common, share in no mutual desire of seeing the United States falter and lose it's superpower status and/or destruction, and have no relationship at all with each other. Matter of fact, they barely know that each other exist. Venezuela is good. Hugo Chavez is good. Hugo Chavez likes us. Russia likes us. There are no Socialists or Communists in Central or South America. They all like us. They wish us well and want us to maintain our superpower status. Comments anyone?

A CHRISTMAS STORY.

I have seen this before, but it's that time of year and it made me chuckle. So I thought I would share it with you even though you may have seen it before as well . Merry Christmas to y'all and keep smilin'.


** A Christmas Story for people having a bad day....**

When four of Santa's elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mom was coming to visit.

This stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where.

More stress.

Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked, and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys. So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum.

When he went to the cupboard he discovered that the elves had hidden the liquor, and there was nothing to drink.

In his frustration he accidentally dropped the cider pot, and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor.

He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritable Santa trudged to the door.

He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't it a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?"

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.