This is what the human detritus who public Wikileaks are aiming for.

At Ace of Spades we find a link to a TIME magazine article which - while it calls Rush "obnoxious anti-environmentalist" - has admitted that Rush is right about the extent of the environmental effects of the Gulf oil spill.

Limbaugh has a point. The Deepwater Horizon explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, ...But so far ... it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. "The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared," says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana.
Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the number killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 21 years ago. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but so far, wildlife-response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but so far, assessment teams have found only about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year.

Now, the despicable bottom feeding scumbag Michael Grunwald no doubt used Limbaugh's name simply to call Rush obnoxious, but we wonder why a government lapdog like TIME would carry a story like this.  And then it occurs to me that this is one way of taking the heat off Obama because it's now no longer possible to pretend that Team Obama acted competently after the well blew up.  So if the spill is now big deal, Obama's failure is no big deal.
It's the new media theme, if Team Obama screws up "X," "X" is no big deal.

Via Vanderleun

Greece has disappeared from the headlines since Greek Communists stopped burning people alive.  But Greece has not disappeared.

It might have disappeared from the notoriously parochial British media, but it is still there – Greece, that is. And their problems have not been resolved. In fact, they seem to be getting worse. The current round of troubles started a few days ago when the nation's lorry drivers announced their intention to go on indefinite strike today over plans to open up their sector to new licenses, opening up the transport business to new entrants.

Via Belmont Club

CBS News reports that Times of London reporters “scanning the [Wikileaks] reports for just a couple hours found hundreds of Afghan names mentioned as aiding the U.S.-led war effort.”
Recently Radio Netherlands described what Afghans who are suspected by the Taliban can expect to endure. The Taliban have cut off the hands of construction workers who build government-funded projects; sent a suicide car bomb against a district chief believed to have been working with US special forces. Death in many forms will be their lot. One informant Radio Netherlands described “holds a thick yellow sheet tightly around his face” to preserve his anonymity. Now it turns out he shouldn’t have bothered. If the London Times is right, his name might be one of the several hundred the British reporter has found in just a few hours.
Yet the dead are the lucky ones. The more unfortunate may wind up in a torture chamber similar to one found by Coldstream Guards. It features such amenities as chains to hang prisoners from walls. Not that the inmates would want to walk on the floor: that features broken glass. And there is limb amputation, kneecapping with an electric drill, eye gouging, bone-breaking or ritual rape to smash the will. Where the offender is not himself available punishment will be visited on his relatives.

It would be cosmic justice if a son or daughter of one of those Afghans who dies as a result of Julian Assange's self absorbed obsession were to hunt down and kill this little bastard, slowly and painfully.  I, for one, would not mourn.

One of the primary points of using a site like CNet’s Download.com to download little freeware programs is that they are a trustworthy company that has established a solid reputation for ensuring that all the software is virus-free. They even include a little blurb “Tested spyware free” with every download. Their Software Policies page says the following:

We test all software products submitted to us against a comprehensive set of criteria. In addition to screening for common viruses and spyware, we also look for other threats that might interfere with our users’ security, privacy, and control. [...]

We will not list software that contains viruses, Trojan horses, malicious adware, spyware, or other potentially harmful components.

Now I realize that it’s very difficult–nearly impossible in fact–to detect a custom-written virus made to be distributed in a certain program, especially if the virus/program writers are smart enough to time-delay payload delivery/internet communication.

However, detecting a standard-issue, in-the-wild, generic virus like Win32/Funlove which was first discovered in 1999 is beyond easy for a company like CNet.

Therefore it is inexcusable that they are hosting a program (Wave To Text 5.5890.9831) that is a delivery tool for this virus. It puts their entire inventory of files into doubt and shows that their testing procedures are not adequate.

Beyond the aspersions it casts on their testing procedures, they apparently don’t even do rudimentary monitoring of the user-ratings of the software. This piece of software (which CNet editors rate as five star) has a 1.5-star user rating with most of the ratings screaming “Virus!”Similar Posts:

• Hardware & Motherboard Identification
• junko.txt
• Open Source Software Reference
• Oasis Chorale
• Russian Police: AllofMP3.com Illegal [updated]

Some of you are old enough to remember — or not so old that you can’t remember (me? my memory’s still so good I can’t recall the last time I forgot anything) — that just a few short years ago the left was giving President Bush holy hell (actually, unholy hell) over his use of “signing statements” to specify parts of laws he thought unconstitutional and hence would not enforce.

Examples abound (Googling “Bush” and “signing statement” just returned about 33,700 hits), but here are excerpts from one of the more moderate criticisms, this from from James Bovard, author of several anti-Bush books:

President Bush has once again decreed that his personal pen is the highest law of the land. In a statement issued on October 4, 2006, he announced that he would ignore many provisions of the Homeland Security appropriations act he signed earlier in the day. His action vivifies that the rule of law now means little more than the enforcement of the secret thoughts of the commander in chief....

Bush pulled the same trick in March after he inked a renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, announcing that he would scorn notifying Congress on how the feds are using PATRIOT Act powers. Bush declared that he would interpret the law “in a manner consistent with the president’s constitutional authority to ... withhold information.” Bush is apparently convinced that he is entitled to govern in secrecy, and any provision of a law to the contrary violates his imperial prerogatives....

Apparently, the government is no longer obliged to obey any law that Bush does not personally approve....

So what is the meaning of “limited government” in the Bush era? Merely that the courts and Congress must be prohibited from limiting the president’s power. Bush’s signing statements are building blocks for dictatorship. The longer he builds, the darker America becomes.

Indeed, criticisms of Bush’s use of signing statements were so prevalent that one of President Obama’s first acts as president was to indicate his aversion to them. As the New York Times reported on March 9, 2009,

Calling into question the legitimacy of all the signing statements that former President George W. Bush used to challenge new laws, President Obama ordered executive officials on Monday to consult with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. before relying on any of them to bypass a statute.

Obama, of course, objected much more to Bush’s signing statements than he did to the idea of presidents picking and choosing what laws to enforce, as the next two paragraphs of the NYT article should have made clear:

Calling into question the legitimacy of all the signing statements that former President George W. Bush used to challenge new laws, President Obama ordered executive officials on Monday to consult with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. before relying on any of them to bypass a statute.

Now, to go from the ridiculous to the sublimely ridiculous, consider President Obama’s enforcement (or not) of our immigration laws. The president was not president when our immigration laws were passed, and thus he had not opportunity to issue a signing statement saying that he had no intention of enforcing them. But they don’t say “actions speak louder than words” for nothing, and the president’s action (actually, his inaction) speaks volumes.

Heather Mac Donald nails the administration’s non-verbal immigration signing statement perfectly this morning on NRO’s The Corner:

In enjoining Arizona’s landmark immigration law, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton maintains the Obama administration’s carefully cultivated fiction: that what concerns the White House regarding S.B. 1070 is its effect on legal, rather than illegal, aliens. Almost nowhere in the government’s briefs or the judge’s ruling is the arrest and detention of illegal aliens addressed. This fiction is transparent, however. The real threat posed by S.B. 1070 was that it would disrupt the de facto amnesty that the executive branch has accorded to the vast majority of illegal aliens. It would start to implement congressional mandates and the public will that the immigration laws be enforced. For that reason, it had to be stopped.

In fact, the president has not been completely non-verbal about his non-enforcement of federal immigration law. Recall that last month, for example, CBS News reported that

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl said at a town hall in Tempe, Ariz. that during a recent private meeting in the Oval Office the president said: “The problem is, if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’” In other words, Kyl said, the president is holding border security hostage to comprehensive reform.

The White House, of course, denied ... well, something. As CBS’s Chip Reid reported,

I asked Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton (subbing for Robert Gibbs) about it today at the briefing. "Kyl knows the president didn't say that," Burton said. He would not say exactly what it was the president DID say (Burton said he was not present at the meeting), and he deflected a question about whether Kyl lied.

Afterward Kyl's office said the senator is sticking to his guns.

Sounds to me like all Burton denied was that the president uttered the exact words mentioned by Kyl.

Feel free to send me the links when you run across examples of anyone who denounced Bush’s signing statements also criticizing Obama’s much more massive refusal to enforce federal law. Somehow I’m not worried about my inbox overflowing.

. . . the Constitution would be trashed.

And they were right! —

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order. . .

________
* As Glenn Reynolds likes to say.

Here's a really cool post about the offices and "man caves" of some famous writers and others. Go to the link and view the office/studies of Hemingway, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, and other men of renown. Since I was a boy, the retreats, studies, and offices of men have always fascinated me for some reason. Perhaps it was because I grew up watching my grandfather working at his desk (which I still own and use) - tinkering with old watches, rolling a cigarette with glueless OCB papers, smoking a pipe, listening to the radio, reading, working leather or making a belt buckle. A lot can be revealed about a man by what is in his office - photos, mementos, books, etc.

As Marshall Fishwick wrote in his wonderful mini-biography of General Lee, titled Lee After the War:

“Offices are silent biographies of those who spend much of their lives in them.” 

I've been wanting to post a video tour of my office for some time, but just can't seem to get around to it. Soon hopefully. Here's a site where you can take a virtual tour of Robert E. Lee's office. So, with all this in mind, I'd like to invite all my readers to submit photos of your "man cave", office, or study along with a paragraph or so describing your "retreat." Please take the time, this could be fun. I'll pick a few (maybe all), and post the photos here, along with your text. We'll then have a poll on the favorite and the winning submission will get an autorgaphed copy of my book about Jackson's Sunday school class. 
http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

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USA Today, 7-25-10, Pg 6A
Not found in the Roanoke Times – would be totally inconsistent with their declaration that the war is over:
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/05/roanoke-times-declares-end-of-war.html
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“We are at war with al-Qaeda” Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, a day after President Sarkozy announced the death of hostage Michel Germaneau, a humanitarian worker in Niger.
http://politifi.com/news/Sarkozy-blasts-AQIM-slaying-of-Frenchman-974112.html
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Are the French jumping to a premature knee-jerk reaction?
Is this a French John Wayne, George Bush, Cowboy thing?
After many Frenchmen have died in embassy and night-club bombings over the last 10 years, including three who died in the WTC 9/11 attack and the French troops that have died on the battle field why this rush to judgment and declaration of war now?
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This is very curious and certainly inconsistent with Obama’s strategy of making friends with the Radical Extremist Muslims as so well articulated by his NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/07/obama-nasa-islam.html
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Does a "declaration of war" mean that France is actually going to do something?
Certainly puts them in a better position to surrender should things go badly!
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Editor, The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

To the Editor:

I appreciate the sub-headline, appearing on your website, to a report on the BP oil spill: “The oil is clearing much faster than expected, but concern remains over the unseen effects” (“On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay,” July 28).  Being an economist, I’m accustomed to looking beyond the visible effects of economic and political actions in order to take account also of unseen effects that often swamp that which is immediately seen.

But a source of frustration when reading your pages is the frequent failure of your writers to do the same.  For example, whenever minimum-wage legislation is discussed in your pages, your writers see only the obvious – namely, higher hourly take-home pay for low-skilled workers who have jobs.  Your writers remain blind to the unseen effects on these workers - namely, fewer job opportunities or worsened work conditions.

Likewise with stimulus spending.  It’s easy to see the immediate, beneficial consequences of more government spending.  The unseen consequences, however - such as higher, enterprise-discouraging taxes in the future - are treated either as though they don’t exist or as if they are unquestionably minor in comparison to the seen effects.

There can be no doubt that the unseen consequences of economic and political activities on the environment deserve our attention.  The same is no less true for the unseen consequences of these activities on the economy.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

Related: Sumner’s essay on the forgotten man:

The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C’s interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man. . . .

John Nolte has some fun with Politico: 

You say MSM, I say Politico. You say corrupt, I say Politico....
Politico might be an online publication, a part of the New Media, but when it comes to corrupted, left-wing arrogance they make the Washington Post look somewhat honest … somewhat. Part of the reason I reserve a special place in my heart to store up a unique resentment for all things Politico is due to the very fact that they practice their dark arts online. Like a toxic virus they spread over to the Internet where the right (by design) and the left (by accident) are trying to forever kill off the very thing Politico is — wolfish left-wing propagandists hidden in the sheeps’ clothing of “journalism.”

I say MFM.  MSM was before we knew how corrupt the media is.

Scott Johnson at Powerline revisits the great debate between kings and free men; between the Left and modern Conservatives.

The economic "rights" asserted by Roosevelt in his second Bill of Rights differ and conflict with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are claims on the liberty of others. If I have a right to medical care, you must have a corresponding duty to supply it. If I have a right to a decent home, you must have a duty to provide it.
The argument for the welfare state belongs in the same family as "the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden." That's Lincoln again.
Lincoln memorably derided the underlying principle as "the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it."

If government really wants to help breathe life into the economy, there’s one simple and effective step it hasn’t taken, but should: Stop standing on the economy’s neck.

The Institute for Justice has a new report on The Power of One—one entrepreneur, that is. It examines the lengths aspiring businesspeople have to go through just to get permission to give other people jobs.

Some of the stories have to be read to be believed.

People who just want to get along ...

While engaging in astonishing viciousness, vulgarity and violence toward Republicans, liberals accuse cheerful, law-abiding Tea Party activists of being violent racists.
Responding to these vile charges, conservative television pundits think it's a great comeback to say: "There is the fringe on both sides."
Both sides? Really? How about: "That's a despicable lie"? Did that occur to you simpering morons as a possible reply to the slanderous claim that conservatives are fiery racists?

Ann gives examples; read the whole thing.

THE ROANOKE COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE

You are invited to

21st Annual GOP SHRIMPFEST

FRIDAY AUGUST 13

6:00 P.M.

VINTON SENIOR CENTER

(Next to Vinton War Memorial)

814 E. WASHINGTON AVE. VINTON VA

Special Guests:

Governor George Allen

Congressman Bob Goodlatte

plus

many other invited guests

TICKETS: For more information call

$25.00 per person Trixie Averill 890-6519 gopgirl2@aol.com

$30.00 at the door Polly Johnson 375-6465 loqaut@aol.com

$13.00 Kids 5-12

Kids Under 5 Free

P.O. Box 20923 Roanoke, VA 24018

Authorized and paid for by the Roanoke County Republican Committee

The place to be and the people to be with!!
Trixie Averill

Southwest Virginia Today has an interesting headline this morning:

Rare historic document find reveals details of slaves’ lives
It's about "a document found in the Smyth County courthouse that could prove invaluable to students of local African-American genealogies and other historians.  Titled “The Register of Colored Persons of Smyth County, Virginia, cohabitating [sic] together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866.”

I'd venture a guess and say, if the document was penned in 1866, those "slaves" were actually former slaves. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery the year before.

I know.  Picky, picky, picky.

Why do we have V.A. clinics?

Can't our honored veterans go down to the local clinic, or local hospital, and have services rendered?

Just wondering.

Tiny, inefficient government car $41000.

Andrew Klavan on Leftists' desire to shut us up:

The book’s French cancellation is, I realize, a rather small cultural event. Yet it gives specific color to the recent revelations on the Daily Caller website that left-wing journalists conspired to suppress scandals that might harm Barack Obama and to the brouhaha over Breitbart’s online release of a video that resulted in a government worker’s momentarily losing her job. In both stories, one thing leaps out at me: everywhere, the Left favors fewer voices and less information, and conservatives favor more. Everywhere, the Left seeks to disappear its opposition, whereas the Right is willing to meet them head-on.

"From Book Publishers to the Media: The Left’s Crusade to End Debate," Big Hollywood, July 27, 2010

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Related: An example of "the Left seek(ing) to disappear its opposition":

CNN has an interesting roundtable on the case of Jennifer Keeton, who has sued Augusta State University to keep from getting expelled for not repudiating her statements about homosexuality. Keeton expressed her biblical perspective on the subject in and out of class while working toward a degree in counseling, and the school mandated a “remediation plan” that appears to have required her to renounce her Christian doctrine in order to gain a diploma from the school. The school has responded that a bias against homosexuality would disqualify Keeton from certification, a position that would put most Christians in Keeton’s position.

Ed Morrissey, "University makes diploma contingent on supporting gay rights?" Hot Air, July 28, 2010

Roger Pielke, Jr. on "climate change" research:

Silly Science.

Maybe that's why all the predictions of gloom and doom, based on the most tenuous of analysis and linkage, are so entertaining.  Think Laurel and Hardy.

- - -

Related:

Kenneth P. Green and Hiwa Alaghebandian:

While nobody would dispute the value of a good PR department, we doubted that bad or insufficient PR was the primary reason for the public’s declining trust in scientific pronouncements. Our theory is that science is not losing its credibility because people no longer like or believe in the idea of scientific discovery, but because science has taken on an authoritarian tone, and has let itself be co-opted by pressure groups who want the government to force people to change their behavior.

In the past, scientists were generally neutral on questions of what to do. Instead, they just told people what they found, such as “we have discovered that smoking vastly increases your risk of lung cancer” or “we have discovered that some people will have adverse health effects from consuming high levels of salt.” Or “we have found that obesity increases your risk of coronary heart disease.” Those were simply neutral observations that people could find empowering, useful, interesting, etc., but did not place demands on them. In fact, this kind of objectivity was the entire basis for trusting scientific claims.

But along the way, an assortment of publicity-seeking, and often socially activist, scientists stopped saying, “Here are our findings. Read it and believe.” Instead, activist scientists such as NASA’s James Hansen, heads of quasi-scientific governmental organizations such as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, editors of major scientific journals, and heads of the various national scientific academies are more inclined to say, “Here are our findings, and those findings say that you must change your life in this way, that way, or the other way.”

"Science Turns Authoritarian," The American , July 27, 2010

Obama couldn't tout his success at creating jobs so he flaunted to his eager press the increase in America's manufacturing output.  From which jobs are sure to flow.  Soon.

Well, kiss that goodbye too:

Durable goods orders drop 1% in June

The latest economic indicator of Recovery Summer shows that manufacturing, which had been a bright spot in the weak recovery, looks like it’s heading solidly in the wrong direction. New orders for durable goods dropped 1% in June, and excluding transportation (autos), fell 0.6%. This follows a 0.8% overall drop in May and gives two straight months of bad news on inventory. [link]

Well, Obama will always have his growth in government statistics to brag about.  If nothing else.

The state of Arizona has been forbidden by a federal court to do anything, at least for now, about the flood of illegals invading that state and our country.

Obama's federal government refuses to lift a finger to stop the problem.

That leaves upholding the law to us.

Is that what they really want?

Dumbasses.

- - -

Weighing in on the subject of the court ruling yesterday, 9th District Republican Congressional candidate Morgan Griffith released the following statement:

(Christiansburg, VA) - Statement by Congressional Candidate Morgan Griffith on the judicial ruling blocking most of Arizona's immigration law:

Judge Bolton's ruling today is the beginning of a long legal battle that never should have been needed in the first place. The people of Arizona have been put into the position of needing this law because the federal government in Washington is not doing its job in enforcing existing law. The federal government should secure our borders and enforce all of our laws, including immigration laws.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Washington continue to block legislation needed to stop illegal immigration. We need a Congress that will finish building the fence across the southern border to control who comes in this country.

Secure the border! What does it take to get through to the Democrats?

- - -

Speaking of Democrats, Griffith's Democrat challenger, Rick Boucher, had this to say about the awful court ruling and what it portends for the United States of America:

- bupkis -

Yesterday seemed to be a day when we focused on race. Unfortunately. Such a downer.

But hearts may be cheered by this (link provided by Big Salt Lick):




Actor Morgan Freeman: "I don't want a black history month.  Black history is American history."

"I'm going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." 

There is hope ...

When The Virginia Bar Association hired Guy Tower as executive director, they got the right man, and so it's sad news to read that he is retiring, but happy news for him. Not many people can do so many things well, as the job requires and as he did, with good humor. I'm glad my time on the VBA board was while he was there.

Here he is on the left, with three other of my favorites - Patricia Epps, Judge Winship Tower, and John Epps.

I'm often admonished by academic historians that, for the most part, most academic historians are totally objective and apolitical in their historical analysis and I should not suggest their politics influence their "scholarship." If we are to accept that as true, then what did the author of *this article at History News Network mean when he asked if well-respected historians Eugene Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese had "switched sides?"
Sides of what?

*The article originally appeared in The New Republic. http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/

Andrew Klavan:

A personal incident has given me a particular perspective on recent news about the media. Last Tuesday, I received word that the French release of my thriller novel Empire of Lies had been canceled by publisher Seuil Policiers. The editor who originally bought the book had left the French company, and the new editor, my agent says, feels that “she can not publish . . . because of the political and religious aspects of the story.” This, even though it’s in breach of a contract for which I’ve been paid in full. Empire of Lies features a politically conservative Christian protagonist, Jason Harrow, who believes he has uncovered an Islamist terrorist plot being obscured by the leftist mainstream media. “Lies, lies, lies,” the emotionally troubled Harrow murmurs at his television set. “It’s all about what they don’t say.” It will come as no surprise that my friend Andrew Breitbart praised the book as the only thriller he’d ever read in which the mainstream media were the villains.
The book’s French cancellation is, I realize, a rather small cultural event. Yet it gives specific color to the recent revelations on the Daily Caller website that left-wing journalists conspired to suppress scandals that might harm Barack Obama and to the brouhaha over Breitbart’s online release of a video that resulted in a government worker’s momentarily losing her job. In both stories, one thing leaps out at me: everywhere, the Left favors fewer voices and less information, and conservatives favor more. Everywhere, the Left seeks to disappear its opposition, whereas the Right is willing to meet them head-on.

Read the rest.

Remember the last “good war?” Everyone now knows that six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War 2, that millions of Soviets were killed and more millions killed by the Japanese in China. An uncle of mine died in a Japanese prison camp. But how was the war fought by the good side?

Other than about 5 million military casualties inflicted on Germany and Japan (not counting the other Axis powers) we managed to kill a very large number of civilians. These include about 2 million Japanese civilians and 800,000 German civilians while the Soviets killed about 3.6 million more.   And let no one pretend that these deaths were accidental.  Civilians were targeted by both sides.

My father tells the story about being caught in the cross-fire between an Allied fighter and a German anti-aircraft gun hidden in some trees alongside a country road in Holland. Those casualty figures do not count civilians killed by “friendly fire” in German occupied Europe, and there were plenty of those as the Allied armies crossed Europe from the Atlantic until they got to the German border. One source puts the number of civilians killed by the Allies just in France at 67,078 men women and children with another 100,000 injured.
Of course these were negligible compared to the war waged against civilians by the Soviets. In Berlin alone they killed 1.2 million Germans and raped about 2 million women, most multiple times.
That was the good war. If anyone should think that this war was particularly brutal, that person is no student of history. Genghis Khan has come down to us in history for his leaving mounds of skulls to terrify his enemies and he only had bows, swords and spears to work with. The Romans, no barbarians they, knew no better way to conquer their enemies than to wipe them out. Julius Caesar conducted his Gallic wars by killing hundreds of thousands of the native tribes – including their women and children – and selling many of the rest into slavery.
On this continent, our wars were brutal and thorough. The Indians were nearly wiped out and their remains were settled into reservations. The South was so devastated during the Civil War that it took over a century of peace to recover.
Americans believe that going to war meant going to win; and that “war is hell.” But all that began to change during Viet Nam when the Left chose to use their opposition to the war by accusing the American of atrocities.  So today in Liberal-land, war is “heck.”  Our ruling class has decided that it had better not be hell and the destruction that once defined war can not occur. War is now waged as social reform by armed members of an expendable group whose real purpose us moral uplift. Men who are given medals for NOT firing their weapons.  Our betters will attend the funerals of slain Americans as part of their media photo-ops. But woe to the unlucky pilot or soldier who harms the enemy civilian. There is no more sure way of getting the ruling class’ approval than finding an American serviceman who makes a mistake. The entire mainstream media is obsessed with finding military mishaps.
War always was and always will be a horror, where killing and destruction is the means to achieving the political objective.  It should not be entered into lightly, but once begun, it should be pursued with the objective of winning as quickly and decisively as possible.  To do otherwise is a crime against the people sent to fight.  To pretend otherwise is immoral since it guarantees just enough bloodshed to fail.

An anti-immigration group is calling on the Obama administration to ensure a smooth exit for illegal immigrants who are trying to leave the U.S. due to the weak economy and Arizona's strict new immigration law....Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is urging U.S. citizens to pressure the White House and the Homeland Security Department to establish "safe departure" border checkpoints along the U.S. border for illegal immigrants so they can leave

Read Here: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/27/anti-immigrant-group-calls-safe-passage-illegals/

Dems Commit Blunder as they launch effort to equate GOP with far right Tea Party candidates as they do not get that the voting base supports the Tea Party movement in principle and voters will see the Tea party as David and the DEMS as Goliath. I think this effort will actually bolster the Tea Party movement and Power com November this year, next year and 2012…..if the Tea Party can stay cohesive and not fracture under the pressure they will now receive. From the Daily Caller:

Democrats have said they are running against George W. Bush this fall, or at least his policies. But on Wednesday, they’ll announce that they’re really running against the Tea Party....Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine will argue at a morning news conference that “the positions espoused by the Tea Party [are] the governing platform of the Republican party,” according to a DNC official who relayed details of the rollout ahead of time to The Daily Caller....Kaine’s tack is a swipe at House Republicans for not offering more specifics of how they would govern if they retake the House. But it’s also an attempt to force the GOP to own proposals by Rep. Paul Ryan — the Wisconsin Republican who is one of the few Republican lawmakers to propose a sweeping plan to tackle entitlements — combined with an effort to taint the GOP with some of the more radical positions taken by a few insurgent Republican candidates, notably Rand Paul and Sharron Angle, the GOP nominees for Senate in Kentucky and Nevada....“The Tea Party is now the most potent force in Republican politics,” the DNC official said. “While GOP leaders are still promising to hold town halls and online forums to develop a contract of their own, it’s already clear what that agenda will be based on what self-professed Tea Party adherents have said they stand for and the Republican adoption of the Tea Party.”

Read Here:Dems launch effort to equate GOP with far right Tea Party candidates | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

From the Daily Caller: If Education Secretary Arne Duncan has his way, kids would be spending a lot more time at school — and a three-month summer would be a thing of the past...Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon at the National Press Club Tuesday in Washington that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year. Then he told the audience of over 100 that he seriously supports longer school hours...“In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months of the year,” Duncan said. “This is not just more of the same. There would be a whole variety of after-school programs. Obviously academics would be at the heart of that. But you top it off with dancing, art, drama, music, yearbook, robotics, activities for older siblings and parents, ESL classes.”



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/28/education-secretary-calls-for-12-hour-school-days-longer-school-years/#ixzz0uz3pGihC


Read More Herehttp://dailycaller.com/2010/07/28/education-secretary-calls-for-12-hour-school-days-longer-school-years/

But not just anyone can be a Virginia Tech professor of English and find her rambling, incoherent nonsense published in Southwest Virginia's newspaper of renown.

See "Our Lives Need Flowers" in this morning's Roanoke Times.

Me?  I read it and realized our lives may need more flowers but a whole lot fewer fruitcakes.

* For more on this clown, a blast from the past.

I have my doubts.

A story in the news only bolsters my skepticism.  See "Alleged Adams negatives, bought at garage sale, in dispute" in today's Washington Post.  Briefly, it's about some guy in California who bought a bunch of photographic negatives at a garage sale for 45 bucks that may be worth $200 million if they prove to be authentic Ansel Adams photos.

Problem is, nobody knows for sure.

The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust and the Ansel Adams Gallery say they're simply good photos but not Adams photos.  A host of experts apparently disagree.

Who's right?  Anyone's guess.  They're photos.  "Artwork" that required a quality camera and a steady finger.  And nothing more.

So these photos, depending on who's finger depressed the button, may be worth 75¢ or they may be worth $200,000,000.

That's "art" for you.

It looks like a major publication picked up on my point from yesterday.  That being that Rust Belt Democrats may have reason to worry about their votes in favor of "climate" legislation coming back to bite them, but one local Southwest Virginia congressman has much more to fear.

Politico picks up on the theme:

Dems feeling burned on climate
By Darren Samuelsohn

Rep. Rick Boucher played a pivotal role last year in getting climate change legislation through the House.

Working with liberal Democrats from both coasts, Boucher demanded several key concessions for coal — the lifeblood of his Southwestern Virginia district — that helped lay the groundwork for the bill’s passage in committee and later on the floor.

Fast-forward more than a year, and Boucher is once again focused on climate change, though this time, it’s in defending his work as he goes before a skeptical and anti-incumbent electorate.

“Given the choice we had, it was better to do it the way I attempted to get it done,” Boucher said. “It’s right. It’s defensible. And I think, in the end, that’s going to be politically acceptable.” [link]

"It's defensible."  He says now.  Because he finds himself having desperately to do just that.  But less than  a year ago he wasn't defending it at all.  He was attacking it and running from it at the same time.  The Kingsport Times News, August 29, 2009:

"U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher voted for cap-and-trade legislation but said he doesn’t endorse the House-passed version of the bill."

That's right.  Boucher opposes that which he voted in favor of.

What?!

The Times News:

“I voted for it because I had to do that to be part of the process and to make the changes that have been made.

Boucher added the easy thing for him to do with the cap-and-trade bill would have been to just vote no.  “And I could have done that,” he said. “But that would have been a cowardly thing to do, and it would not have served well the interests of the district I represent with its large coal industry and the fact that so much of the electricity we consume is coal-generated. ... I would have been out of the debate.”

In other words, he voted for a bill that he opposed because the legislation was going to pass anyway and he would have been taken out of the debate had he simply voted no.  So he voted YES.  Ending debate.

In reality, though, the debate wouldn't die.  But his legislation did.  Because the debate that he gave up on turned decidedly against the economy-killing cap-and-trade bill.   That debate - with our side standing firm and shouting A RESOUNDING HELL NO! - as administered by those of us with no power and far less influence maintained throughout, was, in the end won.  Cap-and-trade was killed and buried.  Without any help from the man we send to Washington to engage in that debate and protect our interests.

Boucher said it would have been "cowardly" to vote no on the Democrats' "climate" bill.  But his constituents knew better and fought, fought hard, relinquishing no ground to his buddies in Congress.  We prevailed.  With Boucher nowhere to be seen.

Who's the coward?

So now we're entertained with the notion that Rick Boucher's actions are "defensible." 

Have at it, dude.  Defend the indefensible.

I had routine blood work done not long ago and was startled when I was told I had a problem.  This:

What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D
By Jane E. Brody, New York Times

Vitamin D promises to be the most talked-about and written-about supplement of the decade. While studies continue to refine optimal blood levels and recommended dietary amounts, the fact remains that a huge part of the population — from robust newborns to the frail elderly, and many others in between — are deficient in this essential nutrient.

If the findings of existing clinical trials hold up in future research, the potential consequences of this deficiency are likely to go far beyond inadequate bone development and excessive bone loss that can result in falls and fractures. Every tissue in the body, including the brain, heart, muscles and immune system, has receptors for vitamin D, meaning that this nutrient is needed at proper levels for these tissues to function well.

Studies indicate that the effects of a vitamin D deficiency include an elevated risk of developing (and dying from) cancers of the colon, breast and prostate; high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease; osteoarthritis; and immune-system abnormalities that can result in infections and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. [link]

Test results showed that I was seriously deficient in vitamin D.  So now I'm consuming a whole lot of these.

Though doctors tell me I'm not getting enough sun, I blame it on a lack of booze in my life.

So I'm committed to consuming a whole lot of this too.

The effort may have no measurable effect on my vitamin D levels, but I'll not be worrying about the problem at that point either.

Make no mistake, he worked hard to earn this:


The destruction of our way of life will have this effect.

Chart courtesy of RealClearPolitics.

Maybe this is what James Webb had in mind the other day when he called for an end to diversity programs.  Did we give government the authority to do this?

Gov't mandates diversity on Wall St.
By Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico

A little-noticed section of the Wall Street reform law grants the federal government broad new powers to compel financial firms to hire more women and minorities — an effort at promoting diversity that’s drawing fire from Republicans who say it could lead to de facto hiring quotas.

Deep inside the massive overhaul bill, Congress gives the federal government authority to terminate contracts with any financial firm that fails to ensure the “fair inclusion” of women and minorities, forcing every kind of company from a Wall Street giant to a mom-and-pop law office to account for the composition of its work force.

Employment law experts say the language goes further than any previous attempt by the U.S. government to promote diversity in the financial sector — putting muscle behind federal efforts to help minority- and women-owned firms gain access to billions in federal contracts. [link]

What this means in the real world is more firms will put token black and female executives at the head of their companies so as to gain advantage with the government. It's silly but its effective in states where this sort of institutional racism and sexism is practiced today.

Beyond that, though, one wonders, futilely, where in the Constitution that was written to outline very specific obligations we were turning over to our central government does this sort of meddling appear?

Another instance of our government punishing us.  In this case because of the color of our skin.

How did we get to this point?

* Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

With the ascension of Barack Obama we were to enter a new age of post-racialism.  We were to be beyond race.

What that meant to those on the Left is we were to do a whole lot more apologizing for past transgressions - slavery! -  that no one alive today perpetrated nor became victim to.  A whole lot more apologizing.

In reality, it wasn't to be a "post-racialist" America we were moving into but a post-leave-us-alone America.  Grovel was to be the order of the day.

And calls went forth for "dialogue."  Attorney General Eric Holder:

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

They wanted dialogue.

With us "cowards."

And are they ever getting it.

Trouble is, it's coming in the form of push back.  Instead of apologizing, as was the script, Americans are shouting: We demand a colorblind society.  We are not racists.  We refuse to recognize skin color as a condition of employment or advancement.  And we will not apologize for something unknown people from long ago did to other unknown people from long ago, none of whom we have or had anything to do with.  And with all the problems that exist in this country, why in God's name are we even talking about such foolishness?

Well, this isn't how it was supposed to be.

So the cry Racist! went up.

Fox News is racist. Republicans are racist. Tea Party goers are racist. Your mama is a racist. Your dog. Your hamster. Your 401k.

Dialogue.

It was all so perfect on Inauguration Day, 2009. The storyline was set to go to print. We would all be "good white folks" and follow the script handed to us.

It didn't turn out as planned.

Shucks.

We've moved beyond race, fellas. Get over it.

Or don't. We don't give a damn anymore and we are up to our eyeballs in real problems to deal with.