Right As Usual

Heard via Yeah, Right, Whatever , (which is awesomely good, itself) - The Emperor Darth Misha, of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, has been proclaimed the Jack Bauer of the Internet. He won 81% of the vote on PoliPundit's poll. Go to the link to see what was involved in the selection. Well deserved, Misha. I've always been fond of the Emperor since he added me to his Blogroll. He was the first really big blog to do so. Such a boost it gave to me! Tags = Blogging

It's official! Alito was sworn in today by the new Chief Jusstice, John Roberts. Guess who wasn't a happy camper? Here's the breakdown - where does your Senator stand? Democrats Yes Byrd, W.Va.; Conrad, N.D.; Johnson, S.D.; Nelson, Neb. Democrats No Akaka, Hawaii; Baucus, Mont.; Bayh, Ind.; Biden, Del.; Bingaman, N.M.; Boxer, Calif.; Cantwell, Wash.; Carper, Del.; Clinton, N.Y.; Dayton, Minn.; Dodd, Conn.; Dorgan, N.D.; Durbin, Ill.; Feingold, Wis.; Feinstein, Calif.; Harkin, Iowa; Inouye, Hawaii; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Kohl, Wis.; Landrieu, La.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Leahy, Vt.; Levin, Mich.; Lieberman, Conn.; Lincoln, Ark.; Menendez, N.J.; Mikulski, Md.; Murray, Wash.; Nelson, Fla.; Obama, Ill.; Pryor, Ark.; Reed, R.I.; Reid, Nev.; Rockefeller, W.Va.; Salazar, Colo.; Sarbanes, Md.; Schumer, N.Y.; Stabenow, Mich.; Wyden, Ore. Republicans Yes Alexander, Tenn.; Allard, Colo.; Allen, Va.; Bennett, Utah; Bond, Mo.; Brownback, Kan.; Bunning, Ky.; Burns, Mont.; Burr, N.C.; C...

I'm having a difficult time seeing this development as a good thing: Mexico's National Human Rights Commission will print and distribute at least 70,000 maps showing immigrants the safest routes to cross the border into Arizona, officials said Tuesday. Because, of course, the HORRIBLE, TOTALLY UNFORSEEN OUTCOME of dying while trying to evade the border patrol crossing the border to achieve a better life is the evil to be avoided. Not staying alive by staying in your own country, which, as we all know, is JUST NOT POSSIBLE. Update: Since I started this post, the Mexican government has backed down on the map distribution. But, they still won't accept their responsibility to keep their people on their side of the river. Vicente, if you value US-Mexico relations, take note. We currently have more urgent problems than Mexican aliens invading our country. But, that won't be true forever. If you act now, you may keep your job. If not, it could be a bad thing. The Sen...

Kevin W. at The Liberal Wrong - Wing has a chance for you to spout off about the wrongs of Liberals. My major complaint is how the Liberals have basically hijacked the Education Departments of most universities. The difference between my undergraduate years in the late 1980s and today is that, however annoying Education classes were then (mandatory attendance, Mickey Mouse assignments, tediously boring content), they are far more politically slanted today. I was lucky in my graduate education; my area of focus was on Technology. In general, my professors were more interested in the technology than in political indoctrination. However, there was one elective that nearly caused my circuits to blow. I did get even - check out No Indoctrination ; the college was Cleveland State. That site and Rate My Professor allow the unfairly put-upon to even the score. The situation in some universities is so bad that some students expressing a conservative point of view have been dropped from ...

I created the image below in response to the Michelle Malkin logo submissions activity. I seem to have lost some files for my better image editing programs, so I made it with the Windows Paint program.    

I found this essay on One Cosmos our society has become a plague of adult children and childish adults--that is, prematurely sexualized children who are burdened with all kinds of inappropriate concerns, and childish adults who psychologically do not grow beyond the age of 21 or so, and never enter the realm of the truly adult. Wow! That's what I've been saying - it's an issue of those who are grown-up, vs. those who petulantly want everything, all at once - that is, those who are childish. More below: The modern conservative movement is not just trying to preserve the traditional male element, but the traditional separation of the various spheres in general--civilized vs. barbaric, animal vs, human, adult vs. child--while the Democratic party is the party of mannish women (e.g., Hillary Clinton, Gloria Allred), feminized men (e.g., Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore), adult children (Howard Dean, John Edwards, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, et al), and even animal humans (PETA mem...

This is just plain wrong. Asthma sufferers may not be able to buy nonprescription inhalers much longer because the devices contain propellants that harm the ozone layer. An advisory panel voted 11-7 Tuesday to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration remove the "essential use" status that Primatene Mist and other similar nonprescription inhalers require to be sold, spokeswoman Laura Alvey said. Final revocation of that status would mean a de facto ban on their sale. First, much of the current research into the ozone layer is built on computer models. And, as anyone who understands computer modeling knows, a small change in the model can totally change the outcome of the simulation, which basically means that the research is - what's the word the French use? - MERDE! How many people (for environmentalists, those are the bipedal animals) could be affected? 3 million Americans use Primatene Mist for mild or intermittent cases of asthma That's MILD or INTERMITTEN...

Remember the stories I found about skirmishes at the Mexican border with men wearing the uniforms of Mexican army troops? I couldn't verify the story, so I concluded it was NOT PROVEN. Michelle Malkin has further information, and it looks as though the stories were true. Fox News has confirmation of the reports from Texas officials. Texas Governor Rick Perry has ordered an investigation. On the other side of the border, Mexico denies that its troops were involved, saying that the armed invaders were drug smugglers using Army uniforms and equipment. What's ICE saying? Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said reports of Mexican incursions into the United States were overblown and most were just mistakes. R-i-i-i-g-h-t. Just a little ole mistake. That happens all the time. What is ICE concerned about these days? Federal Agents Execute Six Warrants Searching For Counterfeit Designer Furniture As California Antique Store Widens Now, maybe they just failed to up...

I'm guessing the vacation did her a world of good. Her latest is priceless. Check it out. Tags = Blogging

The cable's fixed. But I may lose it again in the next week or so. I'm moving (date not certain, it depends on when the house can be closed on), so I may be without high-speed for a few days. I'll try to keep a stiff upper lip. Tags = Blogging

The cable's down, no idea when it will be back. One way or another, I've have some access by this evening, even if dial-up. Expect another glitch sometime in the next week or two - I'll be closing on a house, and I anticipate another screw-up.

**** I've corrected the formatting, spelling, and somewhat garbled syntax. ***** According to Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit, quoted in Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit, quoted by Michael Barone (US News & World Report columnist) :American democracy," writes Posner, "enables the adult population, at very little cost in time, money, or distraction from private pursuits commercial or otherwise, to punish at least the flagrant mistakes and misfeasances of officialdom, to assure an orderly succession of at least minimally competent officials, to generate feedback to the officials concerning the consequences of their policies, to prevent officials from (or punish them for) entirely ignoring the interests of the governed, and to prevent serious misalignments between government action and public opinion. Barone finds Posner's point of view "too astringent", but, in fact, it's not entirely misleading. It's certainly minimal and m...

this is quite disturbing. Chris Simcox, owner of the Tombstone (Ariz.) Tumbleweed newspaper, and head of one such border group. He's trying to get the word out; few are listening and, apparently, that includes anyone in Washington. In an e-mail to select correspondents last month, Simcox said there was "another" shootout very similar to others that have occurred with increasingly frequency along remote areas of the Arizona border – areas known to be frequented by drug and alien smugglers and elements of Mexican "authorities" (which often has included federal troops and police) that escort them to the border. "Details are basically the same; shots fired, assailants get away, drugs seized," he writes. "The [Mexican] soldiers we captured on tape have been seen laying down suppression fire during the drug dealers' dash back across the border – this is not hyperbole – our guys are being fired upon from the other side of the border and they will no...

Where to start? Apparently, I called for Alito too soon. No, it's not likely that he will be turned down, just that the Sore Loser Party Democrats want to reduce the time available for the Republicans to gloat. Not that they would, of course. But, just in case, the vote will be delayed a week. In other news, the Supreme Court upheld the Oregon Physican-Assisted Suicide law. Of course, the line-up of yeas and nays was the usual - the Kelo crowd thinks it's peachy keen to take your house, why should we be surprised that they think it's cool to take your life? KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which STEVENS, O’CONNOR, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, J., joined.THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion. Brokeback Mountain won - oh, the surprise! Listen, it was a shoo-in the minute they mentioned GAY Cowboys! Not that there's a Gay Mafia in Hollywood, of course. No ...

The fight to the death - I mean - the meaningless pause for the obligatory protest of the Supreme Court nominee - has ended. Alito will be confirmed. And the Democrats have paid the piper - I mean the Piperettes. From Mark Steyn, writing for the Sun Times Big-time Democrats are out there dancing for dollars in a cause so obviously non-viable that their media buddies feel obliged to signal that it's merely a charade. Does that satisfy anybody? If you were one of the elderly feminists at NOW, would you take kindly to hearing that the Democrat bigshots don't believe any of this shtick, it's just a routine they have to go through to keep the little ladies happy? Have you no dignity left, girls? It's clear that you have to real, ideologically committed allies in the Congress, just a bunch of toadies who are willing to bluster to keep the cash flowing. Tags = News and Politics

I woke up with my cold appearing to be worse. It wasn't; I just forgot to take my decongestant before bed. Remedied now. I fired up the portable real-time news updater (commonly called blogs), and found this interesting post via The Officers' Club what happens when the EU does something that displeases the Muslim world again- this time with nukes pointed at them and a large pool of extremists that could be recruited for terror operations within their midst? The EU’s playbook is that of liberalism, internationalism, and multilateralism. That works fine when there is an American armored division waiting around for somebody to get out of line- but when America disengages substantially from EURCOM, who will defend Europe? Not the Europeans. Referred by Vodkapundit I have a sinking feeling that they're right. And it will, unfortunately, take a near complete take-over of Western Europe to get much of the US to wake up and smell the Turkish coffee. I read Churchill's "...

In Glasgow, Scotland, a Catholic school is being pressured to be - well - more inclusive in its faith practices. AN ISLAMIC campaign group has called for a Catholic primary school to be based on the Muslim faith. The Campaign for Muslim Schools said 90 per cent of pupils at St Albert's Primary, in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow, are Muslim, yet children are having to take part in Catholic rituals like saying the Lord's Prayer and attending mass. Osama Saeed, co-ordinator of the alliance of Glasgow's main mosques and Muslim organisations, said he could see no reason why the main faith of the school should not change. I can, you peckerwood. Because the Catholics paid for it! (Gee, that reminds me of that moment when Reagan said "I paid for this microphone...") He continues, saying surely it should be possible for them to have one that is relevant to their own faith. Sure, it's possible. Not a problem. BUILD YOUR OWN SCHOOL, CHEAPSKATE! Courtesy of J Rob...

Michael Yon has a copy of a letter sent by Barbara A. Mikulski (Dem, MD) and Jim DeMint (Rep, SC), urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to take immediate action and formally request that the Government of Lebanon arrest and extradite convicted killer Mohammed Ali Hamadi to the United States. Hamadi was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md. He was paroled after 19 years in December 2005, and is known to be hiding in Lebanon. Fair's fair - I seldom agree with Mikulski, but this time, she deserves to be commended for being on the right side. Lebanon owes us - we've had good relations for a long time, and the Germans were wrong to release him. They did it so German kidnap victims would be released. I'm not supportive of cooperating with kidnappers - it's a sure way to decrease the safety of other citizens abroad. But, that seems to be the preferred tactic ...

Just for fun, I checked out The Wayback Machine (named, I believe, for the cartoon machine that Peabody, a dog, and his boy, Sherman, used to travel back in time). I found one of my first posts, from my short career on Right We Are! . I'll reproduce it below: Like the Pointer Sisters, I'm so excited! I’m the new girl (Woman? Chick? Old Lady?) at Right We Are!. I’m still in a state of shock that Maripat accepted my offer to help. It’s a little like seeing A-Rod sitting on a park bench, off-handedly saying, “Wanna toss a ball around?” and hearing back, “Sure.” Panic time! I’m a science teacher, formerly teaching in urban schools, currently unemployed, and completing my master’s in technology. I have 3 children and 2 grandchildren, and a husband who: · Cooks most of the time · Picks up after himself (most of the time) · Does laundry · Still rings my chimes What more could you ask for? I am another used-to-be liberal. I was born in 1951, so that makes me a Boomer. I was too caut...

I found this appeal to right-of-center bloggers, asking for support to reform the lobbying system we currently have, in light of the Abramoff scandals. I, personally, consider it the intelligent, pre-emptive activity that may keep the Democrats from sweeping in during the next elections. Remember the Carter years? Remember double-digit inflation? Remember bumbling, inept foreign policy? That followed the public's disgust with the Watergate scandals (and, in case you don't remember it, other political scandals of the times). Don't let it happen again. Visit, and either link or trackback to the site. Tags = News and Politics

I've been reading lately about the position of Arabic women in Middle Eastern cultures. I started thinking about an Arabic woman I knew, over 40 years ago, in Lakewood, OH. Her name was Mrs. Nadar. If I ever knew her first name, I've forgotten. Then, children seldom knew adults they weren't related to by their first names - they were either Mr. and Mrs., or Mommy and Dad. Indeed, many children were puzzled when their teacher asked for their parents' first names. We just never thought of them that way. Both she and her husband were from Egypt. They were Christians, and had spent their entire married life in America. Mr. Nadar worked, Mrs. Nadar did not. This wasn't unusual in the late 1950s and 1960s. The rare woman had a job outside of the house. Even without children, women didn't generally work. But Mrs. Nadar was even more tied to her home than most women. She never left without her husband. It took several years, and patient coaxing on the part o...

Via Betsy's Page , a NC blogging teacher, I found The Anchoress' son's intriguing theory about why Bush-haters hate Bush Bush is not following the narrative. He was supposed to be a semi-harmless goofball the press and the Dems could run a few circles around before being defeated in 2004. Instead, 9/11 turned him into a president with strong ideas and stubborn resolve. He couldn’t be moved or swayed, not by editorial boards, not by marching millions, and..and…the 2002 election went his way! And his poll numbers wouldn’t go down, dammit, they just wouldn’t go down! I think the kid may have something! Think about it - when do the conservative-bashers hate conservatives LEAST? When they can airily dismiss them: Pat Buchanan - they aren't as vicious about him as they have been of either Bush or Reagan. He's clearly over the edge, and has little influence. They can lightly bash him, but reserve the real venom for the more successful, and, hence, more threatening con...

Having no access to TV at the moment, I've been reading about the Alito hearings. From what I've read, the Democratic senators are on a recruitment binge for the Republican party, as they've not exactly been covering themselves with glory. In fact, it's been a God-send for the Republican's future media productions - all they have to do in the next election is to show the Senators bumbling around, trying to find a lost point. It should ensure that Republicans sweep the next election. I propose that we find a way to keep them busy for another week or so. Let's start rumors about the candidate's background, and let them run themselves ragged trying to find confirmation. Let them stall on the confirmation, and give the Republicans more fodder. Aw, c'mon. It should be FUN! Tags = News and Politics

I had originally created this post as a draft, but neglected to change the date when I posted. I've corrected that. FrontPage Magazine has done its usual excellent job in covering a little-known aspect of the illegal alien influx - they have been committing an inordinate amount of crimes : · New York State spends $270 million annually in criminal justice costs for aliens. It costs Illinois $40 million a year to incarcerate criminal aliens. · In Los Angeles, roughly 95% of outstanding homicide warrants (1,200 to 1,500) are for illegal aliens, as are up to two-thirds of all felony warrants. · A decade ago, a study by the California Department of Justice estimated that 60% of the state’s notorious 18th Street Gang (responsible for an assault or robbery every day in LA County) is comprised of those whose first crime was entering the country. Aside from the direct costs of losing jobs to illegals, paying extra for them to abuse the medical services they are NOT entitled to, and inc...

Because of my origin in Cleveland, I've long been watching the Iman Fazwa Damra deportation proceedings. Although he lost his residency some time ago, he's been delaying leaving. However, the end may be in sight: After Damra’s first choice, Canada, rejected his request, the imam reached an agreement with the U.S. government to relocate to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories, said a spokesman for the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. Damra, 44, of Strongsville, will remain in a Michigan jail until his deportation is resolved, which could take weeks or months, said Matt Albence, deputy special agent for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Damra’s deportation agreement eliminated the need for a hearing before a judge in immigration court in Detroit scheduled for next week. His friends and supporters expressed regret and sympathy for the leader of Ohio’s largest mosque, located in Parma. His famil...

While I was visiting Cleveland, I noticed something new - almost all the TVs in bars were turned exclusively to sports or movie channels. Even during the evening broadcast time, they didn't turn to the news. That's a real change. I can't remember a time when the patrons didn't watch the news. Think it may have anything to do with the MSM's decline in trust? Naw, I'm sure it's just a strange coincidence. Tags = Blogging

I found this coatrack at the church bazaar this Christmas. It struck me as the PERFECT item for 2 science teachers to have in their home. So, even though I was down to 1 last check, I bought it.    

I'm hard at work on my grading tonight - the grades are due to be entered tomorrow. When I took a short snack break tonight, I went outside to get a Diet Coke from my car trunk. As I was walking back in the 57 degree weather (eat your hearts out, Cleveland), it occurred to me that I was taking the can inside (in January) to cool it off. Normally, I would be taking the case inside, so it didn't freeze and ruin the trunk. South Carolina really is different from the North Coast (as Clevelanders like to call it). Tags = Weather

I hung around too long - if I'd done the grading, as I should have, I wouldn't need to get this off my chest. I found this unbelievable piece of - well - BLATHERING via Fausta's Blog: The Bad Hair Blog . As I read it, I knew that I would have to answer it, or face heartburn from the experience. I'm going to take it a section at a time. The writer is Jane Smiley. I'm having a hard time believing that she hasn't been institutionalized - her thought processes rival those dear, deluded folks who wear tinfoil hats and mutter about being "probed". Can't imagine that? Read on: I clearly remember back in 2000, when Bush cheated to "win" the Presidential election with the help of Justices Scalia and Thomas, who dishonored themselves in perpetuity by voting to stop the Florida recount, the Republicans gloated and gloried in the "win". They acted like a nasty Little League team, who wins on a technicality and then goes on to rub th...

I'm not a big fan of saving dying industries; it's both expensive and futile. Sure, it helps to have widely dispersed sources of raw materials and basic supplies like steel and computer chips. That's just common sense. But to protect an industry is to gamble that your long-term interests are better served by bucking the established market, which says that this industry is a bad bet, at least as currently incarnated. That's also the thesis of Tim Harford, who wrote the book The Undercover Economist: Exposing why the rich are rich, the poor are poor, and why you can never buy a decent used car and is interviewed in TCS Daily - The Undercover Economist you can point to a town where people are people are put out of work because what they did has now been shipped off to China. And the suffering is very real. But so was the suffering of secretaries who typed when they were all put out of business by Microsoft Word. We don’t look back and say, if only Word Perfect had neve...