Said GM @ 10:28 pm Comments (1) | Permalink
Rick Moran called, and now the mad scientist is in.
First and foremost: though I am a card-carrying scientist, and mad, I am neither an epidemiologist, a specialist in infectious disease, nor an expert in virology. I’m not even a physician. That said, I do have a few comments on The Washington Post’s front-page article titled “World Not Set To Deal With Flu” about which Rick wrote at Rightwing Nuthouse, and my take on the potential for a devastating avian influenza virus H5N1 pandemic. They are offered as a different look at the same info and not any argument that the avian flu problem somehow doesn’t deserve even more attention. I have written on this before, in fact, but from a different angle (see below).
Rick asks: “Am I being an alarmist? Am I overstating the potential for unmitigated disaster?”
Rick, I simply don’t know. (I wish I were an expert, and could say YES!) However, I do have a few questions about this Washington Post article and the way that the danger of pandemic was presented.
The biology of infectivity: From WaPo author David Brown:
If H5N1 never becomes easily transmissible in human beings, it will never become a pandemic. If it does become transmissible, the consequences are difficult to imagine.
These are big ifs. While both statements are undoubtedly true, they — in particular the former — only appeared at the midpoint of the article, somewhat dulling its impact following all the doom and gloom preceding them. To date, I believe there is no human-to-human infectivity documented. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened already. And researchers seem to be fairly sure that it will go that route. Still, it annoys me that the information was withheld for so long in the story. >> Read more
Said The MaryHunter @ 8:42 pm Comments (2) | Permalink
A Chap walks up to another chap in a pointed hat and says:
Chap - You’re Merlin aren’t you?
Merlin - Why yes ..it’s nice to be recognised!
Chap- Bit of a Wizard ..I hear?
Merlin - Well Yes .. I’ve been told I’m skilled
Chap - Do tricks and things ..don’t ya..Magical stuff?
Merlin - Magical … yes that’s correct
Chap - Turn Kings into Frogs ..and that sort of thing ..Is that right?
Merlin - Well Yes ..I suppose I could Turn a King into a Frog!
Chap - Ever Mucked up ..Ya know, made a mistake?
Merlin - Well Yes …hasn’t everyone?
Chap - Can you reverse a curse?
Merlin - Yes I can … with knowledge of who applied the Curse and the actual words of enchantment, I could do it ….Why ?
Chap - I’m Cursed
Merlin - Really … and how long have you been bewitched?
Chap - Years…..
Merlin - Do you know the words spoken over you to lay this curse?
Chap - Yeah .. can’t forget them!
Merlin - What were they?
Chap - something like … Do you take this women to be your lawfully wedded wife!!!
Said Kender @ 12:43 pm Comments (2) | Permalink
Here is a blurb about a new product that is hitting the market.
Said Kender @ 12:37 pm Comments (1) | Permalink
For those of you in The Wide Awakes, and any interested parties, there is a huge exclusive tomorrow morning (monday, August 1st, 2005) at 8 A.M ish PST only on XRADIO.BIZ.
P.S. It does involve one of our intrepid members, and you will be awed.
Said Kender @ 12:09 pm Comments (0) | Permalink
Taking several things I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks into account, I have concluded that Liberalism is, indeed, a mental disorder.
Take, for example, some of the things they were selling through Cafe Press until enough people complained about it.
Also, consider their outrage when we challenge their patriotism, like Michelle talks about here. The 9/11 Memorial, in my mind, should be reserved as sacred ground to the memory of all those who lost their lives that day–the people who were jumping out of the buildings, and the firefighters who lost their lives trying to save them, among many, many others. The leftists want to be able to display their horrible anti-American artwork at the site, which I find to be despicable. It’s just as bad as “we support our troops when they shoot their officers”.
I honestly wonder what people are THINKING when they spew this garbage. Any decent person, in my opinion, would be appalled at these horrible examples of seditious treasonous behavior. This isn’t “appeasement”, this is out-and-out hating America. If they hate it so much, why do they stay? To see her destroyed?
Cross-posted at Cao’s blog. Sort of.
Said Cao @ 9:10 am Comments (8) | Permalink
‘Mainstream’-(n) epitomized by the Leftist uberman-an atheist, socialist, homosexual, social and judicial activist, living on one of the two coasts, who demands the right to abortion up until the moment of birth.
‘Parent ‘A’’-(n) an androgynous caretaker who may or may not be blood related to the post birth fetus in question.
‘Parent ‘B’’-(n) See ‘Parent ‘A’, only add another level of insanity.
‘Stem-Cell Research’-(n) Means only embryonic stem-cell research. Absolutely not adult or cord blood stem-cell research, but let me repeat, only embryonic stem-cell research.
‘Economics’-(n) a school of thought whose theories are misused by mental giants such as Paul Krugman in order to deny reality and advance the point that we are in the worst economy since the Great Depression.
‘Environmentalist’-(n) any rich Liberal who demands the government ‘do something’ about the environment while sitting in their air conditioned flat in the center of their concrete crusted metropolitan center.
‘Union’-(n) pseudo-socialist entity used to funnel money from government sponsored slave labor directly into the DNC coffers.
‘Journalist’-(n) a wordsmith who, even with mostly limited knowledge of the subject of his reportage, still is able to slant it towards his pro-liberal/anti-conservative agenda.
‘Values’-(n) anything that can in any way be linked to ‘a woman’s right to choose’. (syn.)-6 degrees of Roe vs. Wade.
‘Corporation’-(n) an evil entity consisting only of fat cat CEOs…and with, of course, some unholy connection to the sitting administration. (ant.)-a business for profit offering jobs to qualified individuals thus increasing that individuals quality of life.
‘Fascist’-(n) any Conservative who stands for what he believes in, but under no circumstances a Liberal who does the same.
‘The Second Amendment’-(n) ‘What the hell are you talking about…there is no second amendment…Oh, you mean that one.”
‘Mandate’-(n) any campaign to force a change in government or society, almost always to benefit only a very small vocal portion of society.
‘Home Schooling’-(n) a malicious attempt by red state Christian bigots to oppose Progressive indoctrination of children.
‘PBS(Public Broadcast System)’-(n) “Ha! You think ‘home schooling’ will keep our Progressive indoctrination from your children’s minds? And even funnier, we’re making you pay for it!”
‘Diplomacy’-(n) ceding American power and control to any entity or nation that feels it has been in any way wronged at any time in the past by the evil U.S. or it’s Capitalist policies.
‘Patriotism’-(n) blowing oneself and innocents to smithereens in order to force The Great Satan out of one’s homeland.
‘Feelings’-(n) the most important facet used in making any decisions, or for that matter, public policy.
‘Victim’-(n) anyone, as long as they are not a white male who is presently employed.
‘Islam’-(n) “The religion we hope defeats those damn Christians once and for all.”
For more go here.
Crossposted @ Sticks and Stones
Said Glen @ 7:27 am Comments (5) | Permalink
TMH - my favorite mad scientist - would be the perfect TWA member to give his take on the front page story in the Washington Post this morning about what appears to be the unavoidable catastrophe of a Bird Flu pandemic.
Tell me if I got carried away a little…
Said Rick Moran @ 7:01 am Comments (4) | Permalink
Or: The Joy of Fisking Arianna Huffington
Victor Davis Hanson is one of my favorite writers because he brings to current politics and punditry an awareness of classical history that is unparalleled. One can indeed learn so much from history — as indicated by several negative examples from the Democrats and the leftist elite in Hanson’s latest column, “The Past As Politics.” The column is a must-read for those who wish to guard against liberals who pretend knowledge of the history of Western Civilization, let alone our own country.
A beautiful example of this is Hanson’s inspired fisking of leftwing gadfly Arianna Huffington, who may have been a little too distracted thinking about the next private plane flight she could beg off of one of her jet-setting friends to have researched a bold claim she made.
On July 21, Arianna Huffington, on her Huffington Post blog, drew on her Greek heritage to warn us that Iraq is like the Athenians’ 415 B.C. disastrous attack on the Sicilian city of Syracuse. So, she huffs, “Maybe someone should send Karl Rove a copy of Thucydides.”
She should, instead, carefully reread her own copy of the historian’s work. The Athenians attacked a democracy larger than their own. Yet Thucydides implies that Athens still could have taken Syracuse had its generals and the people back home not bickered amongst themselves. Perhaps if the United States attacked India and lost, Ms. Huffington’s analogy might make sense.
Even wearing one’s cultural heritage as a badge is no defense against utter ignorance. But then again, what liberal ever cares to get the facts right before launching into an attack on a conservative, when emotion and vindictiveness can be used instead to rile the masses? My theory: the key is that liberals project their own ignorance onto others. It is true that most Americans probably wouldn’t know Thucydides from Simon Cowell, so the liberal elite can often actually bet that, due to the ignorance of the little folk, their careless or even disengenuous readings of history will slide.
There are many more examples in Hanson’s short and insightful column. I leave you with what I will now call Hanson’s First Law:
So, the next time someone quotes philosopher George Santayana for the umpteenth time that “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” just assume that what follows will probably be wrong. Having a Rolodex of cocktail party quotes to beef-up an argument is not the same as the hard work of learning about the past.
Hat Tip: Bergbikr
Cross-posted at TMH’s Bacon Bits.
Said The MaryHunter @ 6:43 am Comments (2) | Permalink
Man, I thought soccer sucked…well, actually I still think the sport itself sucks, but going to the World Cup next year just got a whole lot more interesting.
Said Kender @ 1:24 am Comments (0) | Permalink
Each week, all members prepare a short post about the most important issue of the week. For me, it was that a fellow blogger — a friend of a friend, so to speak — put out a call for assistance in locating this missing teenager. For my after-action briefing, I’d like everyone to take a moment to study this picture.
Cheryl is 17 years of age, 68” tall, and weighs about 140 pounds. She was last seen in the Marin County area of California.
If you have any information about this young lady, please immediately contact the San Rafael Police Department at (415) 485-3000 (or you can notify them electronically at srpd.org), or you can contact the Marin County Sheriff at (415) 499-7365.
Said Mustang @ 12:05 am Comments (0) | Permalink
What goes around comes around, I always say. The Pro American Artwork is up and it’s amazing. More pictures here.
From the SacUnion:
Thursday night the debate was elevated to new heights as more than 600 hundred people gathered to both support and oppose the display titled “A Creative Merger: Artists & Lawyers”.
But you can see by the pictures how many people were on which side. >> Read more
Said Cao @ 10:28 am Comments (3) | Permalink
This is an interesting little tidbit of information regarding the 100th anniversary of our nation. This hymn was written for the 1876 celebration sung for a celebration of the Centennial Fourth of July, and sung at Brandon, Vermont. “National Hymn” written by George W. Warren, for the centennial celebration of the United States Constitution. 2 Chronicles 22:6 “God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven?”
God of our fathers
God of our fathers, Whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies
Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.
Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.
From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.
Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way,
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.
The more I stumble upon our country’s long history of rich religious heritage, based upon Christian moral principles, the more I am appalled by what the leftists are trying to accomplish by erasing it.
hehehe. I just love this part:
Be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.
Cross posted at Cao’s Blog
Said Cao @ 10:16 am Comments (2) | Permalink
(PS: I wonder if anyone is going to turn me in to the Federal Authorites for having an unflattering picture of our former President?)
UPDATE:
Kender takes the 1st Place Prize with this gem:
All of my ethics could fit in this space right here.
Other great quips:
Marv : “Ya see dubya, this is us, and this here’s y’all….”
The MaryHunter: “It depends what the meaning of the word lubrication is.”
Said Duncan Avatar @ 8:09 am Comments (14) | Permalink
Stupidity comes in all forms, shapes and sizes. There are lefty fools, commie fools (low may their numbers be), righty fools (although to my way of thinking far fewer of them than of the lefty variety). There are libertarian fools, socialist fools (a whole lot of that variety) and then there are the PC fools. Oh, I know, some of you folk will say “Hey, wait, PC is a product of the right.” And you’d be wrong to say that. As a therapist, I’ve heard time and time again from my peers: “Don’t be judgmental.” What a load, wrapped in PC and expressed as an escape from making a decision.
As human beings, we cannot help but be judgmental, it is part of our nature. What the left still hasn’t learned, and I don’t think they will EVER learn is that words mean things.
In the case of the word “judgmental” I offer you the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language definition:
Of, relating to, or dependent on judgment: a judgmental error. Inclined to make judgments, especially moral or personal ones: a marriage counselor who tries not to be judgmental.
“A marriage counselor who tries not to be judgmental.” Ok, let us parse this for a moment. Mary and Joe come to you for marriage counseling. Joe has been having an affair, which he recently “broke off” but has been still calling his “ex” girlfriend. He drinks heavily and becomes abusive when intoxicated. He gambles their savings away. Your job is to help this marriage survive, both say that they want that. Are you really going to be “non-judgmental” and let Joe’s transgressions go by the wayside? Of course not, not if you are ethical. Now, you cannot be denigrating of Joe as a person, that would not be appropriate, but calling his behavior? Too often, the term “non-judgmental” is used across the board and such usage is inappropriate.
I submit that we are judgmental from the moment that we wake up and decide whether or not to sleep a bit longer or to get up. I typically wake up around 4 or 4:30 AM. I “choose” not to stay in bed, but get up, fix some coffee, do a little posting perhaps, read the day’s dispatches perhaps, or catch CNN or Fox (quietly of course, my bride is still asleep). When I choose to get up I have made a judgment. When I pick out my clothes for the day, I have made a judgment; when I choose who to sit next to on the bus or train or subway, I have made a judgment.
When Mohammad Atta got on board that plane in the morning of 9/11, he made a judgment. When John Kerry made that silly salute or offered to sign the SF180 he made a judgment (both of which I’m sure he regets). When you opened up this web page, you made a judgment. When Mayor Flower-Mountain Bloomberg decided to have every 5th subway passenger searched but not profile 18-35 year old Arab or South East Asian young men, he made a judgment. And a truly stupid one at that.
I wonder, daily, what it is going to take to get people to wake up out of their PC slumber and recognize that there is an identifiable group of people that want to kill us. Those people are not little girls (fourth photo down from the top), grannies or gramps in wheelchairs, Roman Catholic Nuns or retired Medal of Honor winners. No, these folk are of a certain type (H/T to Robert Bidinotto’s blog) and they do indeed mean to do us ill. Jihad Watch (link to the immediate left) notes:
The funeral of British suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer was held in absentia in his family’s ancestral village, near Lahore, Pakistan. Thousands of people attended, as they did again the following day when a qul ceremony was held for Tanweer. During qul, the Koran is recited to speed the deceased’s journey to paradise, though in Tanweer’s case this was hardly necessary. Being a shahid (martyr), he is deemed to have gone straight to paradise. The 22-year-old from Leeds, whose bomb at Aldgate station killed seven people, was hailed by the crowd as ‘a hero of Islam’.
Some in Britain cannot conceive that a suicide bomber could be a hero of Islam. Since 7/7 many have made statements to attempt to explain what seems to them a contradiction in terms. Since the violence cannot be denied, their only course is to argue that the connection with Islam is invalid. The deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Brian Paddick, said that ‘Islam and terrorists are two words that do not go together.’ His boss, the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, asserted that there is nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist Muslim.
Mr. Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, you are absolutely and totally wrong. The vast, vast, vast (I could add a couple of more here) majority of terrorist attacks (yes Reuters, I used the “T” word - scroll down for the T word entry) were carried out by Muslims. Not Baptists, Not RC Nuns, Not Buddist Monks, Not little girls and Not aging Afro-American Grandmothers. No, they have been carried out by: MUSLIMS, specifically, males between the ages of 16 and 35 who are typically Arab or South East Asians
The terrorists are just that, terrorists. Judge William Young got it right when he sentenced Richard Reid, the “Shoe Bomber” in January of this year as reported in CNN:
You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view, you are a terrorist.
And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not treat with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists.
We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.
So war talk is way out of line in this court. You’re a big fellow. But you’re not that big. You’re no warrior. I know warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders.”
If the worthy Judge can call a terrorist a terrorist, why can’t we profile for terrorism? “Well because, GM, that’s racist and judgmental.”
I’m beginning to think that no one is thinking. Or if they are thinking, they’re not thinking clearly. What is it about our fear of hurting someone’s feelings, of this namby-pamby, wishy-washy cant (Hypocritically pious language) that doesn’t allow us to make judgments when our lives and our civilization is at stake?
We cannot profile, because we must not appear to be racist or judgmental. Oh my gosh! You are a transit cop walking your beat. Over your radio, you hear “Be on the lookout for a 6 foot plus caucasian male with flaming red hair who is wanted for bombing a bus. Subject is wearing red suspenders, blue jeans and a white windbreaker jacket with no shirt underneath.“
Do you bother to look at grandmas, at children, at African Americans, at Arab Americans or do you look for someone fitting the profile, the description? The answer ought to be easy, but under Mayor Bloomberg’s orders, you can’t do that because the description includes the word Caucasian. Of course, I’m being sarcastic. But failure to profile those that fit the terrorist profile is not sarcastic, it is flat out criminal. Paul Sperry’s NYTimes as noted in Bidinotto’s blog above states:
Critics protest that profiling is prejudicial. In fact, it’s based on statistics. Insurance companies profile policyholders based on probability of risk. That’s just smart business. Likewise, profiling passengers based on proven security risk is just smart law enforcement.
Besides, done properly, profiling would subject relatively few Muslims to searches. Elderly Muslim women don’t fit the terrorist profile. Young Muslim men of Arab or South Asian origin do. But rather than acknowledge this obvious fact, the New York Police Department has advised subway riders to be alert for “people” in bulky clothes who sweat or fiddle nervously with bags.
Well, a lot of people wear bulky clothes. A lot of people fiddle with their bags. And for that matter, a lot of people sweat. Could the Police Department be any more general in describing the traits of an Islamic suicide bomber? Could its advice be more useless?
Truth be told, commuters need to be most aware of young men praying to Allah and smelling like flower water. Law enforcement knows this, and so should you. According to a January 2004 handout, the Department of Homeland Security advises United States border authorities to look out for certain “suicide bomber indicators.” They include a “shaved head or short haircut. A short haircut or recently shaved beard or moustache may be evident by differences in skin complexion on the head or face. May smell of herbal or flower water (most likely flower water), as they may have sprayed perfume on themselves, their clothing, and weapons to prepare for Paradise.” Suspects may have been seen “praying fervently, giving the appearance of whispering to someone. Recent suicide bombers have raised their hands in the air just before the explosion to prevent the destruction of their fingerprints. They have also placed identity cards in their shoes because they want to be praised and recognized as martyrs.”
Did you get that? A description of the “typical” terrorist “According to a January 2004 handout, from the Department of Homeland Security…” Profiles are used all the time in a variety of contexts from insurance companies to the FBI looking at the liklihood of a certain criminal meeting certain behavioral criteria. You profile when you screen applicants for a job. The list is endless, yet, because of our penchant for PC, because we are so afraid of being tagged racist we don’t use the noggins that God gave us.
Recently, to convince America that “Moderate Muslims” are not supporting terrorism at all,
a Fatwa was issued by Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA). The FCNA issued the fatwa, and the Council on American - Islamic Relations (CAIR) organized the press conference, stating that several major U.S. Muslim groups endorsed the fatwa.
Steven Emerson, author of the article also notes:
In fact, the fatwa is bogus. Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate. In fact, officials of both organizations have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and Islamic extremist organizations. One of them is an unindicted co-conspirator in a current terrorist case; another previous member was a financier to Al-Qaeda.
Also:
The Chairman of the Fiqh Council, Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Sami al-Arian, the alleged North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose trial began in June 2005 in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Alwani has been named in court documents as an official of several entities in northern Virginia suspected of being connected to terrorist financing. Documents released in the Al Arian trial show that Alwani funded the Islamic Jihad front groups in Tampa.”
The justly acclaimed Norm Geras notes in a recent article:
Human rights are an indispensable part of a morally decent society (though the eager embracing of victimhood is not, and there’s no doubt that the discourse of human rights has, along with multiculturalism, encouraged many to regard the status of victim of rights-violation as the most attractive one going, and hence to reach for it at the slightest provocation). But protection from those whose direct intention is to kill the innocent is also indispensable. Such protection may require us to be more ready to accept defensive policies which constrain, or in emergency infringe, individual rights than we’ve hitherto been accustomed to.”
Robert Bidinotto also waits and wonders when Islam will honestly rise up and condem the terrorist clique within.
To put an end to this screed, being judgmental is both normal and human and entirely appropriate in this day and age; the age of terror. Failure to use appropriate tools in this war (profiling) because of fears of not being politically correct is both foolhardy and criminal. When will we wake up to the enemy’s tactics? Not too late I hope. There are voices out there that are raising the issue, are there ears to hear and brains to decipher?
Xposted at GM’s Corner
Said GM @ 9:20 pm Comments (2) | Permalink
