Sex, Religion and the Media

Should legislators be forced to attend Muslim prayers?

The Virginian Pilot editors this morning came out with an editorial condemning 10 members of the Virginia legislature for avoiding a prayer by a Muslim cleric whose mosque was one that the 9/11 Jihadists highjackers attended. That seems to be a strange position to take for a member of the MSM that has in the past voiced opposition to prayer in public venues on the theory that a prayer said on public grounds is a slippery slope to the establishment of theocracy in America.

The Virginian Pilot’s editorial board has always been a haven for Lefties and it seems that they have taken up the cudgel for forced attendance at prayer, as long as it isn’t Christian prayer.

It also illustrates an insidious mindset that explains the atheist Left’s antipathy toward Christians expressing their faith in public. We have all read about the class valedictorian whose expression of belief in Christ was censored. But the media appears to consider it an outrage that ten members of the Virginia legislature chose not to participate in a religious ceremony by an Muslim cleric. They seem to believe that people should be forced to attend a ceremony that is devoted exclusively to a public prayer.

It’s not as if the legislators made a show of leaving the room, or made the kind of rude display that President Obama did when he chided the Supreme Court in his State of the Union speech. If we are to believe the outraged squawks coming from the Pilot’s editors, they went to the bathroom or dawdled in another room during the Imam’s prayer. Imagine the outrage if atheists or Buddhists or Muslims should be forced to attend a prayer breakfast sponsored by a Christian group.

I have a lot of admiration for the “Richmond 10.” Perhaps the next time the Imam speaks, more would join them. If we cannot be allowed to show our displeasure with a religious sect that inspires mass murder, terrorism as its primary weapon, killing on religious grounds and the stated desire to subject the world to its belief, not through persuasion but through force we have lost the war of ideas.

But of course in other acts of displeasure the Pilot editors are totally consistent. They are all for boycotts, demonstrations and walk-outs … as long as they are conducted by one of their pet groups.

Hypocrisy is not the exclusively at home on the Left - and its MSM wholly owned subsidiary - but it has moved in and left its toothbrush there.


The strange role of Sex on the Left.

Meanwhile in an adjacent part of the forest, the Virginian Pilot editorializes against Virginia’s Attorney General Cuccinelli’s letter advising Virginia’s schools and colleges that it is against the law for them to classify homosexuals as a protected class. And he’s right. Virginia law forbids it. And it’s the Attorney General’s job to make sure that the laws of Virginia are observed. But the editors believe that laws are for little people, that their sense of moral entitlement trumps the law. And of course, Virginia’s school administrators have been among the first to include gays in their list of people with special status.

Since gays are one of the Virginian Pilot’s protected pets, inveighing they go against Cuccinnelli and Governor McDonnell for contributing to Virginia’s “culture of intolerance” by not supporting a bill that would give the Governor power to create another class of protected pets.

Without the slightest sense of irony, on the Op-Ed page they publish a column by Margaret Carlson which accuses Conservatives of making a hero out of Democrat Eric Massa. For those who have been in a coma for the last week, Massa accuses the Democrat’s leadership and White House aides to Obama of forcing him out of office because he opposed ObamaCare. He tells a titillating story of being ambushed by Presidential Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the House shower room while both men were naked with Emanuel poking a finger in his chest.

Since Emanuel’s in-your-face slash and burn tactics are no secret, Massa’s description of Emanuel as the “devil’s spawn” who would “sell his own mother for a vote” sounds about right for a Chicago pol. But for some reason, Massa is now the subject of editorial scorn on the Left. Why? It turns out that the married Massa is a homosexual – or at least swings both ways.

Under the Virginian Pilot rules, you would expect Lefties to rush to the side of their oppressed pet. That these ad hominem attacks should cease. Someone should be interested in finding out why the accusations against Massa have been held back until just before the ObamaCare vote. But no; the guy’s gay and what he claims has no credibility whatever. For some reason, gays who are outed lose their credibility if their accusations are made against the Left.

Don't get me wrong, opinion leaders on the Right, notably Limbaugh and Beck both consider Massa has serious problems and neither is a fan of his politics or his ethics. But thieves and criminals often give each other up, and that may be what we're seeing here.

There’s a principle here. To the Left, what they do, say and think is right and if you disagree you are not merely wrong but evil. The editorial board believes that if you disagree with them that gays should be a protected pet you’re a bigot. On the other hand, if you accuse the Obama administration of forcing you out of office because you are gay, you’re a nutcase. The pleasant thing about the new age is that these people are being exposed for the pompous fools they are, their platform is discredited and the impact of their own hateful bigotry is lessening.

Obama Spiked ACORN Investigation

Not exactly unexpected, but still troubling:

Two specific complaints were filed against ACORN for alleged voter fraud in October 2008 by Lucy Corelli and Joseph Borges, Republican Registrars of Voters in Stamford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, respectively. As part of its continuing investigation into alleged criminal activities of ACORN, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents concerning this matter with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to Corelli, on August 1, 2008, her office received 1,200 ACORN voter registration cards from the Secretary of State’s office. Over 300 of these cards were rejected because of “duplicates, underage, illegible and invalid addresses,” which “put a tremendous strain on our office staff and caused endless work hours at taxpayers’ expense.” Corelli claimed the total cost of the extra work caused by ACORN corruption was $20,000. Likewise, Borges contended that: “The organization ACORN during the summer of 2008 conducted a registration drive which has produced over 100 rejections due to incomplete forms and individuals who are not citizens…” Among the examples cited by Borges was a seven-year old child who was registered to vote by ACORN through the use of a forged signature and a fake birth certificate claiming she was 27-years old. By burdening these election officials with fraudulent registrations, ACORN put those who legally registered at risk of not being put on voting rolls at all.

The FBI and Department of Justice opened an investigation. However, the Obama Justice Department, while noting that ACORN had engaged in “questionable hiring and training practices,” closed down the investigation in March 2009, claiming ACORN broke no laws.

But another ACORN group was prosecuted and pled guilty to doing exactly the same thing.

In April 2008, eight former ACORN employees from the St. Louis office pled guilty to voter registration fraud. Oddly, the FBI document that details the shut down of the Connecticut investigation seems to ignore this legal issue.

Different people, different times. Now it's the "Chicago rules."

"When you've lost Christopher Buckley you've lost the country."

Well, actually that's a joke ... a very poor joke ... as is Chris Buckley, the son who is not the man his father was.

But even a race and class obsessed snob like Buckley whose support for the Obama Presidency got him booted from the magazine his father founded is calling it quits on ObamaCare.

Unfortunately, assholes like Buckley insure that we have three more years of The One who keeps reminding us "I won!"

Mission Accomplished

The elections in Iraq and the ongoing development of representative institutions in that country are what we who supported George Bush throughout his Presidency were hoping and praying for.

Bush's opponents were declaring the war lost. Even more despicable they were calling the war wrong, the rationale for the war a lie, the conduct of the war immoral and the soldiers who fought in it criminals.

Now that Iraq is a success, the critics, the opponents and the liars who smeared the Bush administration are claiming the success as theirs.

No. You. Don't.

Mission accomplished, indeed
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / March 10, 2010

RONALD REAGAN liked to say that there was no limit to what a man could accomplish if he didn’t mind who got the credit. The transformation of Iraq from a hellish tyranny into a functioning democracy will be recorded as a signal accomplishment of George W. Bush’s presidency, and he probably doesn’t mind in the least that the Obama administration would like to take the credit....

In 2006 and 2007, few Americans expected to ever see such a magazine cover. Over and over they were told that the war in Iraq was lost, that there was no military solution to the carnage there, and that invading Iraq had been the biggest mistake in US history. Bush’s decision in January 2007 to change strategy and “surge’’ an additional 20,000 additional troops into Iraq was scathingly denounced. Such a “fantasy-based escalation of the war,’’ wrote The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, “could only make sense in some parallel universe where pigs fly and fish commute on bicycles.’’ Senator John Kerry called the surge “a senseless decision.’’ Barack Obama, gearing up to run for president, warned that doubling down in Iraq was not “going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.’’

But the critics were wrong. The surge turned the war around, giving Iraq a new lease on life. Where Saddam once ruled a ghastly “republic of fear,’’ Iraqis live today in democratic freedom and relative peace, dispelling daily the canard that democracy and Arab culture cannot co-exist.

Thanks to the global web spun by the Internet, the Left and its bootlickers in the state-run-media can no longer get away with the "Big Lie." They will be forever branded by their shameful words and deeds.

Obama caught lip-syncing his own speech

Well, it could be true ... so much of this administration is smoke and mirrors.

What will loons do?

"You cannot insulate your clothes with animal bones"

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happens

And that's the way it is.

The return of Louis XIV

There are 12,533 federal lobbyists in Washington at present. The federal budget is $3.55 trillion dollars. Most of the lobbyists are concerned about money, either as it affects the commercial interests of businesses or causes. Do the math, which works out to each lobbyist fighting to get $283 million dollars spent for his company, trade group or cause. Figure each lobbyist costing a million dollars and that’s a good investment in getting your part of Americans’ money.

The cost of getting hold of the trillions sloshing around the Federal sty is not that high. As government gets bigger, the cost of getting rich at the people’s expense goes down. To the history minded, it’s beginning to smell very much like the Sun King’s court.

WHEN GREEN KILLS

Mark Steyn:

In Australia, the Labor government, eager to flaunt its green credentials, instituted a nationwide environmentally-friendly roof-insulation program, using energy-efficient foil insulation. It certainly reduces the carbon footprint of many Aussies’ homes: At the time of writing, 172 of them have burned down. It reduces your personal carbon footprint, too: Four installers of the foil have been fatally electrocuted. As the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s Tim Blair noted, the foil-insulation program has a higher fatality rate than Oz forces in Afghanistan. And, if the electrician survives long enough to get the installation completed, the good news is that, unlike the electric Zamboni, the electric attic always has plenty of juice: Colin Brierley had the foil insulation put into his Gold Coast home and was electrocuted a week later. The environmentally friendly electric shock entered through his knees, exited from his head, and led to a nice stay in hospital in an induced coma.

Australians are not happy to discover their ceilings double as the Bride of Frankenstein’s recharge slab. Belatedly canceling the program, Peter Garrett, the Environment Minister, is nevertheless insistent that he bears no responsibility for the burnt-out rubble and charred citizenry. He is a celebrity politician, formerly the lead singer of the rock band Midnight Oil, but he has no intention of getting burned by what they’re calling “Midnight Foil”. As Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, breezily told a TV interviewer, “Peter Garrett can’t be in every roof in this country as insulation is being installed.”

They never are, are they? Likewise, the European Union grandees and eco-poseurs of the US Congress who mandated sudden, transformative increases in “biofuel” production and at a stroke turned the food supply into part of the energy industry and made grain more lucrative as fuel than as sustenance weren’t there in Haiti, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Mexico and even Italy when the food riots broke out. Nor was Al Gore able to be up there on every one of California’s 14,000 abandoned wind turbines. They’re not entirely useless, not if you’re an ornithosadist who enjoys seeing our feathered friends sliced and diced by the Condor Cuisinarts.

Read the whole thing.

Isreali Jews are Racists Claims Chris Matthews and NY Timesman Ethan Bronner

The Jews of Isreal don't care for Barack Obama because4 they are racists at the core. Or that is the theme being pushed by Leftists like Matthews and the NY Times.



Keep in mind that it was Matthews who gets a "thrill up his leg" when Obama speaks and occasionally even "forgets that he's black."

Goodwin Liu: Unqualified, and Hostile to the Constitution

From Powerline. Read the whole thing.


Liu attacked Roberts for an opinion he wrote. What was left unsaid:

Roberts did, here, exactly what a judge is supposed to do--not impose his own opinion as to whether a law or ordinance is foolish, but evaluate its constitutionality according to established principles and precedents. It is worth noting, too, that Liu described Roberts' opinion in this case as though it were outside the mainstream, while in fact Roberts wrote for a unanimous court, and every judge who looked at the case ruled the same way. Liu here betrays the arrogance of the left-wing academic: anyone who disagrees with me is an extremist, even if his disagreement represents a consensus among competent jurists.

"The most interesting political phenomenon in Europe"

Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) scored a major success. The PVV came in first in Almere (with 21.5 percent of the vote) and second in The Hague (with 16.9 percent). These are two of the country's major cities.

Wilders is a breath of fresh air:

Wilders defends Dutch sovereignty by, among other things, opposing the EU's centralizing policies. He defends Dutch identity by opposing the Islamization of the Netherlands. He seeks to accomplish this by, among other things, halting Islamic immigration. He also favors deporting immigrants who commit crimes, or who call for jihad or the imposition of Islamic law.

Wilders is a harsh critic of the Koran. It was his film on the subject, "Fitna," that got him banned in Britain.

The result?

On June 9 of this year, the Netherlands will hold its parliamentary elections. A poll taken yesterday by Dutch state television predicts that Wilders will gain 24 of the 150 parliamentary seats, which would make the PVV the third most represented party in the country. However, according to Belien, the De Hond poll, which many consider to be the Netherlands' most respected, predicted yesterday that the PVV will win 27 seats, the most of any party.

As someone who was born in the Netherlands, I am very, very encouraged by this development. The Netherlands in particular, despite its reputation for being a cradle of liberty (and libertarianism when it comes to sex and drugs) is in reality a politically repressed society in which consensus is the most highly prized quality in politics. The Netherlands has long been a socialist society with wage controls that forced my father, a small business owner, to pay his employees under the table to keep them.

It's the sort of society that Obama and his ilk would love to recreate here. It's also the reason that you will find Dutchmen all over the world, particularly in the US, Canada and Australia as they leave their home country and travel thousands of miles to find a better, freer life.

The Netherlands is a crowded country of burghers without any grandeur, a flat, pedestrian place know for its tulip beds, its toy town and its red light district. I would not want to live there ... again.

The Left is trying to Date Rape the Country

Interesting analogy from Liberty Belle:

The American people are saying "No" to healthcare. Hopefully Congress will listen to us instead of Date Raping us with this healthcare bill. Congress, No means NO.
...
...the mainstream media and left are trying to date rape us on a daily basis. In the past we acquiesced far too much, and now, when we are putting our foot down to say "NO" they are getting mad and hostile.

Chris Matthews unrequited love

Over at Free Republic "Eagle6" recalls:

My buddy and his wife had a Golden Lab that was in love with me until the day that he died. For 12 years he tried to hump my leg from the time I walked in until the time I left.

He looked at me EXACTLY like that.

Now THAT's funny.

Treason Is A Matter Of Dates

The NY Times discovers Climategate.

This observation, famously made by Talleyrand at the Congress of Vienna as the powers debated the fate of the turncoat King of Saxony, reminded the crowned heads of Europe that all of them had at one time or another worked with Napoleon. Talleyrand himself had served the emperor as foreign minister and trusted ally before switching to the other side as Napoleon’s power waned — and his megalomania grew.

These days, it’s The New York Times that is redefining treason. Three weeks ago, anyone who pointed at the lack of public confidence in climate science was aiding and abetting those horrible climate ‘deniers.’ Treason against Planet Earth! You had to be some kind of dread ‘right wing blogger’ or talk radio host to point out that blunders and arrogance had undermined the credibility of climate scientists and ended any short term chance of serious global agreement on urgent measures to stop global warming.

But a story this morning by John Broder gently lets Times readers know that something has gone badly wrong.

WASHINGTON — For months, climate scientists have taken a vicious beating in the media and on the Internet, accused of hiding data, covering up errors and suppressing alternate views. Their response until now has been largely to assert the legitimacy of the vast body of climate science and to mock their critics as cranks and know-nothings.

But the volume of criticism and the depth of doubt have only grown, and many scientists now realize they are facing a crisis of public confidence and have to fight back. Tentatively and grudgingly, they are beginning to engage their critics, admit mistakes, open up their data and reshape the way they conduct their work.

Admit mistakes? Open up their data? Change the way the work? You mean there was something wrong with the way climate science was operating last year? Is the Times telling us that the climate scientists–on the basis of whose work the whole world is debating complex and far-reaching changes in its economic structure and political governance–were using slipshod and careless procedures that need to be fixed?

Gosh, one has to ask, if these terrible things were going on for such a long time, why didn’t the New York Times notice this earlier on? Why didn’t the New York Times break this important story back when it was news, rather than lamely sweeping up at the end of the parade? Could it be that a climate of politically-correct group-think inhibited the editors and reporters at the country’s newspaper of record from recognizing a one of the major stories of the decade? Could the environmental writers at the Times be just a teensy bit too close to their sources?

Read the whole thing. Then keep in mind that people rarely change their worldview. Instead, if they have hold of the levers of power, they try to change the world to fit their perception of reality. The people at the Times are no different.

Can the majority be "the fringe?" It can if "fringe" is defined by the media.

Mark Steyn comments on the prosecution of Dutch politician Geert Wilders for "Islamophobia" and how that's working out for the Dutch establishment.

Gee, prosecuting Geert Wilders for "Islamophobia" in a politically rigged show trial seems to be working out just swell for the Dutch establishment. Local election watch from EuroNews:

Attention is also on Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party which is contesting locally for the first time after its strong showing in the European elections.

From Time:

The real victors in the next elections could end up being smaller parties at the fringes of mainstream politics, with polls indicating that the anti-immigrant Freedom Party of Geert Wilders might take second place.

From The Financial Times:

Early results from Dutch local elections on Wednesday night indicated that the far-right anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders was on course to make big gains in a closely watched vote ahead of a general election in June.

From The Guardian:

Big Gains For Far-Right Leader Geert Wilders

From Agence France-Presse:

...the big winner being extreme right, anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders whose Party for Freedom (PVV) is now estimated by some to be the most popular.

Asking the question that all these reporters miss because of their own prejudices:

...one is struck by the media boilerplate: Wilders is the "extreme" "far-right" "fringe", but the parties he beats are the "mainstream"? That there is a lot of what's wrong with the European political discourse. Maybe he only seems so "extreme" and "far" because you're the one out on the fringe.

Defining your opponents as evil has always been the way of tyrants in positions of power. Hitler did it, Stalin did it, Mao did it ... all with holocaust results.

And in his own inimitable way our malevolent little quisling punk is doing it.

Ann Coulter on the decision not to prosecute ACORN in Brooklyn for conspiring to set up a brothel employing underage prostitutes.

It looks like Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is on track to win another endorsement from ACORN!

This week, Hynes announced that "no criminality has been found" after his investigation of the videotapes made by investigative journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, which show ACORN employees counseling the pair on getting a mortgage for a house of prostitution.

(They got a choice of government loans: Phat Fannie Mae, Prince Freddie Mac or Barney Fresh Daddy Frank ... aka "Sir Fix-A-Lot.")

I'm just glad to know that Hynes conducted a thorough "investigation" first. Who did he have screen the videotapes, Gov. Paterson?

If his investigators had actually watched the videotapes, they would have found ACORN employees apparently advising a pimp and prostitute on how to defraud mortgage lenders, deposit prostitution money in a bank, hide money from the government and avoid detection while running a whorehouse with teenage girls from El Salvador.

I'm not a lawyer -- oh, wait, yes, I am -- but I count approximately a half-dozen state law crimes being discussed on those tapes, from money laundering to advancing prostitution.

Read the whole thing.

Dan Riehl Is Pissed

A few of the more forceful comments regarding Obama:

That this inexperienced travesty of a chief executive, Obama, more a byproduct of timing and media collaboration, than his own worth, or accomplishment, is personally advocating for the so-called nuclear option is the final straw.

It’s official. After months of threatening to push the button on the so-called nuclear option, reconciliation — the parliamentary maneuver that Harry Reid said “nobody” is talking about and that President Obama said Americans didn’t care about last week — is a go.

Reconcile this, you distasteful, malevolent little quisling punk -

He follows with this:

Only a fool with no clear appreciation of, or for, America past and present, would dare undertake what this pustule in the White House is attempting to do.

...
And there's this:

This neophyte, this joke we have in the White House has absolutely no idea of the force and the rage he is about to unleash on him and his entire political party. If there are not enough responsible adults left within his party to rein in this accidental, affirmative action jerk, this self-styled, extremely flawed little man, then his party is worthless to America. It deserves to be marginalized electorally and, ultimately, utterly destroyed, before being relegated to the dung heap of history with the rest of the marxist, socialist clowns Americans have dispatched before.

The gloves are coming off. I am reminded of the surprise on the part of Democrats during the 2000 Florida vote re-count when they found out that the Right can man the barricades. I really don't think that the Leftists in congress are afraid enough of the consequences of their actions. They think that the worst that can happen to them is that they will lose an election and go back to well cushioned lives in academia or some highly compensated job in the quasi-governmental social services sector.

They may want to consider "Plan B."

Obama leads to post racial America? How about a race obsessed America?

If the New York Times is the print edition of the Liberal establishment, PBS is the electronic media voice of state sponsored Progressivism. Having seen their saviour's popularity plummet like a meteorite hitting the earth's atmosphere, the denizens of PBS-land feel the need to point their man to serving their parochial desires. Having created a class of people whose education and attitude make them marginally employable. Combine that with an economy that's being suffocated by the Obama administration like a member of Hamas in a Dubai hotel room, and you have an unemployment rate among younger Blacks around 44%.

So Tavis Smiley wants some more of that delicious Kool Aid.

PBS host Smiley calls meeting to urge black agenda
By JESSE WASHINGTON (AP) – 4 hours ago

Two months after ending his annual State of the Black Union conference, Tavis Smiley is gathering African-American advocates to press the case for a "black agenda."

The decision was motivated by what Smiley called recent statements from some black leaders downplaying the need for President Barack Obama to specifically help African-Americans.

"I was compelled to do it because of this debate," the activist and PBS talk show host said Wednesday.

The panel discussion will be March 20 at Chicago State University. Panelists include advertising pioneer Tom Burrell, professors Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux.

It should be noted that all the panelists are highly compensated and have never been known to meet a payroll.

NRA News: UN Doomsday Treaty With Ginny Simone

This is worth watching ...



The people who wish to deprive you of your individual rights to defend yourself are wealthy, upper class, influential intellectuals. They can afford their own protective forces. They can demand and get real-time police protection. For the vast majority, police are a reactive force who come to the crime scene after your are victimized.

I was recently burglarized in broad daylight, the thieves carrying off a flat screen TV, a favorite of the current crop of burglars. The police showed up about 15 minutes after I called on arriving home. At least 5 officers eventually showed up at my home over a two hour period after my discovery. They were polite, searched the house for the burglars who were long gone, took some pictures and dusted for prints. There is zero chance that I will get my TV back. But that's what police do for the ordinary citizen: take notes and records after the crime has been committed and the perpetrators have left. Sometimes the criminal is particularly stupid and leaves witnesses; but most crimes are never solved and police are not responsible for preventing crimes. The best the can hope for is catching the criminal. And that's not much recompense for someone who home or body has been violated.

An armed citizenry is not a perfect solution, but protecting oneself with locks, alarm systems and - eventually - guns is better than waiting for the police to mark off the crime scene.