Crying Virgin?

Stories like this one from The Associated Press always fascinate me. Not sure why.

In this story, a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary may be crying in one furniture shop in Florida. The replica of the Pieta, has what appears to be, a gray tear falling down the left cheek of the Virgin Mary.

The hypocrisy of the Democrats

I have to laugh every time I hear a Democrat criticize the war. I was opposed to it from the start. The Democrats, however, only became opposed to it once it started going badly. Give me a break!

Letterman's Top 10 list of George Bush moments

This clip speaks for itself.

[COLUMN] Don't let tragedy erode freedom

America’s gun culture is costing lives.

At least that is the opinion of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who promoted tough gun laws after a gunman there went on one of the world’s deadliest killing sprees in 1996.

“We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country,” he said.

Howard’s comments came after a disturbed loner, 23-year-old South Korean native Cho Seung-Hui, went on a shooting spree Monday at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., killing 32 people before taking his own life.

Howard’s view was the typical international reaction last week to the massacre. For example, the editorial board at the Times of London wrote in an editorial, “Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?”

While there is absolutely no evidence to back such a presumption, Tony McNulty, the British Home Office’s minister for police and security, seemed to agree with the newspaper.

“I think if this does prompt a serious and reflective debate on gun issues and gun law in the states then some good may come from this woeful tragedy,” said McNulty, a 1982 graduate of Virginia Tech.

It is hard to take the British seriously, however, when their gun laws are so restrictive that the country’s Olympic pistol shooting team has to leave the country in order to practice.



Read more!

Don Imus' ignorant remarks

In case you did not hear the remarks yourself, here is the video. The only thing more offensive than his remarks, is the reaction from black leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (who both, by the way, have their own radio shows and can only profit from Imus' show being pulled off the air).

Congressional approval rating already sliding

Recent news stories report that after the first 100 days of the new Congress, the Congress' approval rating is the highest it has been in a year. This interesting Web site by a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin who teaches statistical analysis of polls, public opinion and election results demonstrates that the Congress had a brief rise immediately after the election but that its approval rating has begun to slide.

I find this pertinent because it is further evidence that the ONLY reason the Democrats took control of the Congress in the last election was because of Bush's illegal, unjust and immoral war. The Democrats have no great ideas and have accomplished nothing in their first 100 days in power. Expect more of the same during the next two years.

If ancient Rome had the Internet ...

Found this list on another blog. Thought it was funny. Enjoy:

If ancient Rome had the Internet ...

• The destruction of Pompeii in A.D. 79 is the most viewed video at YouTube. The first comment is ... "OMG so cool! Volcanos ROCK!"
  
  
• Attila the Hun has his own MySpace page. Nobody ever rejects his "invite a friend" emails.



• The soothsayer's "Ides of March" e-mail fails to get Caesar's proper attention as it's inadvertently filtered into his junk folder.
  
  
• But at least Caesar's "Et tu Brute?" comment is available as a free ringtone download.
  
  
• The domain gladiator.rome sells for the record sum of 1 million denarii.
  
  
• The owner of hadriansucks.rome is compelled to hand over both the domain name and selected body parts by an independent domain tribunal chaired by ... Emperor Hadrian.
  
  
• "Naked Cleopatra" is the top search term on Google.
  
  
• Unfortunately, the Queen of Egypt dies an early death after misunderstanding IT's call to embrace an ASP solution.
  
  
• Hannibal blogs his way across the Alps with posts like, "Whoops, lost another elephant today."
  
  
• But he runs out of money when his PPC budget is plundered by an Iberian click scam organized by Publius Cornelius Scipio.
  
  
• Tiber.com opens, initially selling scrolls and tablets before expanding to include togas, pottery, and do-it-yourself mosaic kits.
  
  
• Websites like handsome-literate-male-british-slave.com pollute the search listings thanks to generous commissions at the slaves.co.rome affiliate program.
  
  
• Roman programmers moan about projects outsourced to cheap coders in Mesopotamia.
  
  
• The Colosseum is renamed the eBay Colosseum, with free wireless hotspots outside the lark's tongue restaurant.
  
  
• The volume of spam collapses when the penalty for not providing a working opt-out mechanism becomes equal billing with the lions at the eBay Colosseum.
  
  
• But we still get emails featuring Brunhilda, the lonely Visigoth, and hot deals on cheap peacock livers from Gaul.
  
  
• Nobody invents a spam filter good enough for the House of the Vestals.
  
  
• Classical geeks wear T-shirts proclaiming, "There's no place like CXXVII.0.0.I" (bonus points if you get that one)
  
  
• Finally, Rome burns to the ground while Emperor Nero battles online with Hakkar the Soulflayer in World of Warcraft.

JFK on cutting taxes

Gee, a Democrat who understood the evils of high taxation? His brother could learn a thing or two from President Kennedy. Cutting taxes is the only responsible way of growing the economy.

TRANSCRIPT:

The worst deficit comes from a recession, and if we can take the proper action in the proper time, this can be the most important step we could take to prevent another recession. That is the right kind of a tax cut both for your family budget and the national budget resulting from a permanent basic reform and reduction in our rate structure, a creative tax cut creating more jobs and income and eventually more revenue. And the right time for that kind of bill, it now appears in the absence of an economic crisis today-and if the job is to be done in a responsible way--is January 1963.

Such a bill will be presented to the Congress for action next year. It will include an across the board, top to bottom cut in both corporate and personal income taxes. It will include long-needed tax reform that logic and equity demand. And it will date that cut in taxes to take effect as of the start of next year, January 1963.

The billions of dollars this bill will place in the hands of the consumer and our businessmen will have both immediate and permanent benefits to our economy. Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary. And these new jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries and more customers and more growth for an expanding American economy.

Instead of being permanently saddled with excess plant capacity and the budgetary deficit that is created by this means, our goal must be fuller capacity and full employment and the budgetary surpluses that that kind of employment and capacity can produce.

Hat Tip to Club for Growth

Who knows what they'll tax next?

Another great advertisement by 18DoughtyStreet.com. Enjoy!

A world without America

This is the fourth of 18DoughtyStreet.com's weekly adverts. At a time of rampant anti-Americanism this ad -- produced with BritainAndAmerica.com -- aims to remind the world of the great economic, technological and political benefits that the U.S. has brought to the world. Several of the other advertisments the British group has created are also very good and I will post them as well.

[COLUMN] More hypocrisy from the left

Graph courtesy of http://www.willisms.com, current as of August 2005. As of today, Bush has made 171 recess appointments.

Liberals crack me up! There is nothing more humorous than listening to their continual, hypocritical whining.

For example, there is the rigmarole concerning Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales’ firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The administration fired eight lawyers and the Democrats and left-wing bloggers began hyperventilating. Of course, they forget that Attorney General Janet Reno fired all 93 U.S. attorneys in 1993 in an unprecedented act. Was there an outcry from the left? Of course not.

The fact is, U.S. attorneys are political appointees and the administration, regardless of political party, has every right to fire them without cause. Case closed.

The latest hypocrisy from the left concerns President Bush’s recess appointment of Sam Fox, a St. Louis businessman and major Republican fundraiser, to be ambassador to Belgium.

Bush nominated Fox to the position but withdrew the nomination when it became obvious he did not have the votes in the Senate.

When the Senate went into its Easter recess, Bush used that time-honored tradition of the recess appointment. That means Fox can serve temporarily in the post until nearly the end of Bush’s term.

Democrats are opposed to Fox, not because they believe he lacks the skills to be an ambassador, but because he gave $50,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group formed in 2004 that convincingly argued that Sen. John F. Kerry exaggerated his Vietnam War record. Many Democrats blame the Swift Boat Veterans for Kerry’s loss in the 2004 presidential election. They tend to neglect that Kerry lost the election because he was John Kerry, but that is neither here nor there.

Suffice it to say, the Democrats in the Senate do not like Fox because he exercised his First Amendment right to free speech and that speech was directed against a Democrat.



Read more!

Happy Easter

"The Resurrection" by Dieric Bouts, 1455

Happy Easter. I hope you enjoy the holiday and regardless of your faith (or lack therof), I hope you take the opportunity today to reflect on the main message of Jesus and that is, in my opinion, the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If all would follow that simple life rule, then most of the conflicts and problems in the world would dissolve.

Also, please enjoy the above painting. I love Baroque art, especially of the religious kind (as most Baroque art is).

Again, Happy Easter!

Iraq casualty update

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 3,267 Friday, according to count by The Associated Press

As of Friday, April 6, 2007, at least 3,267 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,634 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is seven higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 140 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 19; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, one death each.

———
The latest deaths reported by the military:
— A soldier was killed Thursday in Kirkuk province.
———
The latest identifications reported by the military:
— Army Pfc. James J. Coon, 22, Walnut Creek, Calif., died Wednesday in Balad when an explosive detonated near his vehicle; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
———
On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/.

U.S. home prices on a roller coaster

This video is a graph of U.S. home prices since 1890, adjusted for inflation, plotted as a roller coaster. I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from the graph (other than the volatile nature of home prices), I just thought it was a really cool idea, taking a graph and turning it into a roller coaster. Kudos to the author!

Great quotation from Ronald Reagan

"The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."

-- Ronald W. Reagan
(1911-2004), 40th U.S. President

Hitler citizenship revoked, and none too soon!

Town hosting G-8 summit officially revokes Hitler's honorary citizenship

The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 3, 2007

BERLIN -- The German town where U.S. President George W. Bush and other G-8 leaders will gather this summer has formally revoked Adolf Hitler's honorary citizenship, putting an end to questions over whether the decades-old honor was still valid.

The Bad Doberan town council voted unanimously on Monday night to revoke the citizenship conferred on Hitler in 1932, the year before he was elected to lead Germany, Mayor Hartmut Polzin said.

The town had argued that any such honor would have ended with Hitler's death in 1945, but Polzin said Tuesday that the council had wanted to put an end to the issue once and for all.

"Independent of whether this honorary citizenship was still valid after Hitler's death, the town council voted unanimously to revoke it," Polzin said.

Leaders of the G-8 group of industrial nations, of which Germany currently holds the presidency, are to hold their annual summit in June in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, which is part of the greater Bad Doberan area.

The anti-globalization activists that have become a fixture at any G-8 event had dug up the issue of Hitler's citizenship and made it part of their pre-summit mailings.

With the vote, Polzin said he hoped that this "ugly and unnecessary discussion" would be put to rest.

I don't think this story really needs any further comment, do you?

Hillary video

Millions of people have viewed the above video, which is a spoof on an old Apple commercial, which itself was spoofing George Orwell's 1984. The video was made by Phil de Vellis, a 33-year-old Barack Obama supporter who actually works for an Internet firm that works for Obama. However, de Vellis insists he made the video on his own.

Government employees

The above video is titled "Government Employees" on You Tube. Quite hilarious!

Military damaged by 'Bush's help'

The Daily Kos dug up this tidbit from an Aug. 21, 2000, speech by then-Gov. George W. Bush to the Veterans of Foreign Wars:

"The facts are stark and the facts are real ... our men and women in uniform love their country more than their comfort. They have never failed us, and we must not fail them. But the best intentions and the highest morale are undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, and rapidly declining readiness."

"... These are signs of a military in decline and we must do something about it. The reasons are clear. Lack of equipment and material. Undermaning of units. Overdeployment. Not enough time for family. Soldiers who are on food stamps, and soldiers who are poorly housed. Dick Cheney and I have a simple message today for our men and women in uniform, their parents, their loved ones, their supporters: Help is on the way!"

If this is their idea of help, then please, let the military members fend for themselves!

Another argument for school uniforms

I have long been an advocate for school uniforms (not that silly "campus wear" our local school district has). This video (not sure who made it but local teachers have recently been e-mailing it to each other) gives us another reason to support school uniforms.

Is al-Sahaf acting as a consultant to the U.S. government?

From the BBC:

Iraqi figures estimate civilian deaths in violence across the country rose by 13% last month, despite the security crackdown in Baghdad.

Data compiled by several ministries put civilian deaths in March at 1,861 -- compared with 1,645 for February.

A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says insurgents seem to have shifted their focus outside the capital to avoid recently introduced security measures. Read the whole article.

In addition to the increase in Iraqi civilian casualties, last week was one of the deadliest weeks in Baghdad, according to The Associated Press, with several car bombs. Also, two U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad and four soldiers were killed Sunday in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad.

Yet, the Department of Defense insists that the so-called "surge" is working and the violence in Iraq is declining.

Is it just me or is the U.S. Department of Defense starting to sound a lot like former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, (aka "Baghdad Bob" in the United States and "Comical Ali" in Great Britain) who rose to worldwide fame during the U.S.-led invasion by claiming there were no U.S. troops in Baghdad and that U.S. soldiers were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city's gates? Perhaps al-Sahaf is working as a public relations consultant for the DoD. After all, he was captured and then released without being charged and he and his family are alive and well in the United Arab Emirates.

Iraq casualty update

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 3,253 Sunday, according to count by The Associated Press

As of Sunday, April 1, 2007, at least 3,253 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,621 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is 10 higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 135 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 19; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, one death each.
———
The latest deaths reported by the military:
— Two soldiers were killed Saturday in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad.
— Four soldiers were killed Sunday in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad.
— A Marine died Sunday in Anbar province of a non-combat-related cause.
———
The latest identifications reported by the military:
— No identifications reported.
———
On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

Awesome Video!: "We're the Government -- and You're Not"

This video is about 10 minutes long but it is sooooo accurate! I highly recommend watching it!

At least Bush has a sense of humor

[COLUMN] Politics is killing our soldiers

There really can be no doubt to thinking people that the invasion of Iraq was a colossal mistake and our continued occupation only compounds that error.

Still, the behavior of congressional Democrats is sickening. Just as President Bush disgustingly uses American service members as props for his political theater at every opportunity, the Democrats are trying to use the war to score political points and spread their tax-and-spend big-government ways.

The perfect example is the Iraq spending bills passed by the House and the Senate despite a threatened veto from Bush. The bills call for a specific timetable to leave Iraq, which itself is a spineless tactic. The only timetable should be immediate withdrawal.

Let’s face it, the United States does not have the resources or personnel to conduct a successful counterinsurgency operation without creating a conscript military. Anyone who knows anything about military operations knows the rule of thumb for successful counterinsurgency operations is to have, depending on the intensity of the violence, between 10 and 20 soldiers or Marines per 1,000 population. With Iraq’s 26 million people, that would require between 260,000 and 520,000 ground forces, which is inline with my suggestion before the war began that some 500,000 ground forces would be required in Iraq. The lower figure would strain U.S. forces to the limit and the higher figure could not be achieved without a military draft.



Read more!