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From the President Stalking-Horse files, here's Republican Congressman Cornelius (Connie) Mack on the peculiar sympathies of Barack Obama:

"Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez -- together with the likes of Cuba’s Castro brothers, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega -- is spewing a populist, leftist, and strongly anti-American brand of politics that is spreading throughout Latin America. There, a rebellion against Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution is gathering that the Obama administration seems eager to quell.

"One country, Honduras, rejected the Chavista vitriol and embraced freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. This should have been seen as a win for freedom over tyranny. But instead, President Obama and his administration condemned the Honduran people and stood with a 'who’s who' list of tyrants and thugs of Latin America."

(...)

"Instead of recognizing that the Honduran people were following their constitution and the rule of law, President Obama immediately called for Mr. Zelaya’s reinstatement...The administration then cut vital aid to Honduras and revoked the visas of many Honduran officials. They threatened not to recognize the November 29 presidential elections unless the will of the Honduran people was overturned and Mr. Zelaya was returned to power."

This link comes via HotAir. Chicago's mayor Daley appeases the cult of death; http://www.wgntv.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=b98fce45-27db-4a2d-85d9-21b7f1f91b82&src=fro

Tax refugees staging escape from New York

As part of its plan to comply with a federal desegregation order now decades old, Tucson’s school district adopted racial quotas in school discipline this summer. Schools that suspend or expel Hispanic and black students at higher rates than white students will now get a visit from a district “Equity Team” and will be expected to remedy those disparities by reducing their minority discipline rates.
. . .
The administrators want local principals to examine disparate suspension rates “in detail for root causes.” I can save them some time: the root cause of disparate rates of suspension is disparate rates of bad behavior. As for the root cause of that bad behavior, the biggest one is single parenting. If the Tucson school board wants to publicize the essential role of fathers in raising law-abiding children, it might start solving the problem of disciplinary imbalance.

(via David Thompson)

Also via David's Thompson's ongoingly-superb British site, this is perhaps the most to-the-point statement I've ever seen on the whole "gun issue."

From Hill Buzz: new, and unlikely, fans of Dubya, Laura, and Dick on accounta Dr. Utopia:

http://hillbuzz.org/2009/11/10/thank-you-former-president-george-w-bush-and-former-first-lady-laura-bush/

[begin quote]

… If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people. …

… We are now officially committed fans of George W. and Laura Bush. We are fans of Dick Cheney. Our gratitude for them makes us newly protective of them, and the continued role they play in this country. …

[end quote]

Hubba, hubba.

Antonia "get those facts out of my way, I'm typing!" Zerbisias:

"As much as I hate to admit it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right: Women are, indeed, a 'left-wing fringe group.'

Unhhh.

"...that's the phrase he used in September, in a not-so-closed-door speech to supporters, to describe organizations that have fought for women's rights in Canada.

"That was evident last week in Parliament when MPs, including 12 members of the NDP and eight Liberals, voted to scrap the long-gun registry, claiming it was what their mostly rural constituents wanted.

"No doubt. But how many of those clamouring constituents were women?

"Poll after poll has shown that women, including rural women, overwhelmingly supported the long-gun registry."

Don't touch that one - we all know from whence she pulled it. Commenter JNG pokes at it like a off-duty coroner wielding a swizzle stick: "I have been following this issue closely for a number of years and I have yet to see one of these polls. As a matter of fact, a reader poll conducted by the Star on November 7 showed that 62% thought it should be scrapped. A similar poll was conducted on the CBC website just a few days earlier which had 74% wanting it to be scrapped."

Zerbesias again: "One out of three femicide..." - yes, femicide - "...victims is still killed with a rifle, with country women the most vulnerable."

Yeszz, and if there were no rifles the men would have taken the women out to dinner and movie instead....

"Who knows how many women are intimidated by the shotguns and rifles...sitting in the gun rack?"

Yeah, who knows? I guess it would depend entirely on how many downtown GTA-prog twits are visiting farms at any given time.

Last word to commenter Marcus 1947: "There were 465 male victims of homicide versus 146 female vicitms. Yet according to Zerbisias, this is a 'women's issue'?"

Funnily enough, Flea sent me this last week, about women bloggers:

http://www.melissaclouthier.com/2009/10/26/why-there-are-fewer-womens-bloggers/

And yes, HillBuzz have been a fave site of mine since the middle of the election. I kept waiting to be told it was just a giant straight GOP hoax, but no, it seems to be for real: liberal gay men who cheer on women candidates, criticize their more over the top gay commrades -- and who can write really well.

EBD, good post. I instantly thought of Oriana Fallaci, another courageous female, who regrettably is no longer with us.

More science you can trust?

Large Hadron Collider: Damaged by a Time-Traveling Bird?

Sometime on Nov. 3, the supercooled magnets in sector 81 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), outside Geneva, began to dangerously overheat. Scientists rushed to diagnose the problem, since the particle accelerator has to maintain a temperature colder than deep space in order to work. The culprit?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091111/wl_time/08599193737000

Disproportionately represented? Possible, but I rather suspect observer bias on this one...as the alternative would have you arguing some variant of "the female of the species..."

But, accepting your hypothesis for the sake of discussion, let us then argue...

Greater (vested) interest?
Greater opportunity?
Greater capability?

EBD, in reference to your first paragraph. Could this be because men have been told for a couple of decades now that we are bad and anything we say is anti-societal or something. Just thinkin.

TJ, Orianna Fallaci is a perfect example of what I was talking about. It was an oversight on my part to not mention her.

Her courage has inspired other Italian *women* like Daniela Santanche. Contrast the nervous expression on the Italian male's face at 1:02 with the "don't go there, girlfriend" gestures of the old Italian woman in the orange vest at 2:42 - if you gave that lady a wooden spoon, and the guy a knife, my money would be on her.

Contrast also the Muslim guest's statement "I want to say to the Italians that...we don't ask that (the crucifixes) be removed from schools" with this:

"In 2003, the Union of the Muslims of Italy (UOMII), led by a radical convert to Islam named Adel Smith, brought a court action to have the crucifix removed from all public schools in that predominantly Catholic country. Calling the crucifix a 'small body on two wooden sticks,' and 'a miniature cadaver,' Smith and UOMII lobbied hard for their removal. Also on their agenda was the removal of an 'offensive' 15th century Giovanni di Modena fresco in the Bologna cathedral and the deletion of Dante’s Divine Comedy from the school syllabus. Smith said both showed the prophet Mohammed cast into hell and were blasphemous against Islam.

"The local Italian Court ruled in favor of Smith and the Muslims..."

(h/t Kathy Shaidle for that last one)

The Obama's most frequent visitor at the WH.

http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=ZGFmMDY4NzdkMmIwZTQ1MzU2ZDA4NGZhNzJlNGU2MTE=

FDR and Eleanor would be proud.

xiat, very important article. Crazily, 40,000 of New Yorkers pay about 50% of taxes for the 8 million inhabitants.

This explains why the bailouts were important on another level - New York State would go belly-up pretty quickly without huge bonuses in the financial sector.

And, yes - excellent point EBD. The rest of us have been beaten into submission, and keep our mouths shut.

Revnant Dream - Hope the Large Hadron Collider isn't just a typo!

Cuba announces "severe" energy cuts:

http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINTRE5AA4PW20091111

News or rumour? Lou Dobbs talking to FOX and thinking of leaving CNN re: his thoughts on immigration. Don't mind some of Dobb's stuff; was he considered the furthest right of the Left?

Tenebris, there may be some element of observer bias on this one, but I really don't think so. There are a lot of great male bloggers, but -- let's just stick to the Canadian context for a moment - I can't think of any off hand who have the cojones of Kathy or Kate.

I don't see any male equivalent of Orianna Fallaci, either, and personally I don't think John McCain or Huckabee or other Republican males can hold a candle to Sarah Palin when it comes to straight-talk and...balls.

Wrt your questions: greater opportunity is out the window straightaway - unless men are forced to stay home and do the ironing, or don't have access to computers, or don't have working mouths, or have had their typing fingers amputated while I wasn't looking. Greater opportunity? I really can't see how it's the case that women have greater opportunity to stand up and show guts.

Greater capability? Yeah, I think it's probably somewhere in that ballpark.

Ken (9:04): there may be some truth to that. Or maybe it's the case that when the current generation of men were growing up there were more (physical) repercussions to aggression, and that this folds over into adulthood.

Hard to say. Interesting topic, though.

Lou Dobbs is leaving CNN. Anyone with an over/under on when he shows up on Fox?

I don't think Lou Dobbs fits in at fox whatsoever.

that erik prince is sure some piece of work:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/middleeast/11blackwater.html?_r=1

I once sent a letter to Blackwater hqts supposedly from the 'commanding general American Forces, Iraq' 'advising' him that if Blackwater personnel EVER held guns onto American military personnel again
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-169660025.html
then Blackwater would be declared a hostile entity and their operatives were to be killed on sight by any means.

I didn't get a response. LOL !!!

Erick Larsen...re: going belly up

At Kathy's (8:38) link, here's Melissa Clouthier:

"Over and over, the women who blog are tougher. Like the shotgun wielding Western expansionists of yore, women bloggers take shots and can shoot back."

Verily.

Orianna Fallaci had the drunkard Chris Hitchens in a rage because she refused, in her last illness to tell him the contents of her private discussion with Pope Benedict. Orianna had an abortion once and wrote about it,though I never read it, but no woman, not even Fallaci can go through that, unscathed. If that's what it was about, it's certainly none of Bitchin Hitchen's business!

hmmm...interesting idea...how about putting Jack Layton on trial for crimes against humanity ?

It's political correctness. A lot of us would speak out but we suffer from angry white male syndrome.

I watched the Daniela Santanche video yesterday... it's love, I know it. ;)
Where is Canada's Daniela?

I know you wanted to only mention Canada's blogging women, so I'm not going to mention the name *Pamela*.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/11/pakistan.hero/index.html

Christian janitor died saving Muslim students

The premier of Saskatchewan thinks it's kind of a joke that he's run a huge hole in the province's finances, judging by his recent potash comments to Gene Simmons.

I wonder if those Saskatchewan residents who will be paying for the Wall Government's fiscal miscalculations will be laughing quite so heartily as Brad Wall and his out-of-province friends...

Regarding your comment about Women taking the hard stands; it's kind of like Nixen going to China. Does that make sense? No man could take the stand that these women do and survive the attacks from the left. When it is a Women that states the facts from the Right Wing side, alot of the ammo has been removed from the left's quiver.

I can see it, just have a hard time putting it into words.

EBD, thank you for that opening observation. I think you may an excellent point. May I respectfully add one more brilliant woman:

"We are gripped by a kind of madness in our society in which demonstrable facts and common sense are turned upside down in the service of an ideology - that is to say a governing idea to which all facts are wrenched to fit - even if it's demonstrably absurd. And this ideology is that people who are members of ethnic minorities, who come from Third World countries, basically can do no wrong and that if we criticize them or if we hold them to account for terrible deeds that they do, we are guilty of racism - because we are The West.

In this mindset the Third World ethnic minorities, who are deemed to be oppressed, can do no wrong. Or to be more precise, if they do wrong they must not be held responsible for that wrong. While we in the white skinned capitalist dominant West must always be held responsible for everything that happens, even if we are the victims.

This is a kind of absolutely Alice Through the Looking Glass, upside down, Orwellian, Kafkaesque, mad world in which truth and lies have been turned inside out, right and wrong turned inside out, justice and injustice turned inside out."

-- Melanie Phillips on Charles Adler's show, November 11, 2009

Thanks a lot Robert - not only did I hear Phillips this afternoon on Adler, that segment was actually the spur that got me thinking about the subject of tonight's post - I just forgot about it when it wrote it.

Phillips showed a pointed, utter absence of the - slightly-defensive - self-consciousness about being seen as a demagogue that men tend to have; she came across instead as a strong, calm, determined, unafraid, unapologetic, unvarnished-truth teller. She's a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

Wind , solar and perpetuum mobile

Stephen potash is taking a hiatus due to the financial hardships worldwide but it is necessary to feed the world so it will make a comeback. You can get by a year or two but the soil becomes depleted and must be renewed.
I think women bloggers are tougher and I agree that males being tough would be eaten alive. Women get more forgiveness and deservedly so, most politicians are men. That and passionate men not in the Arts are considered somewhat flakey. We are supposed to suck it up buttercup and not get too involved with issues.

I had considered starting a blog, until I caught on to SDA and Five Feet of Fury. I decided very quickly that I preferred their words to my own.
They stir the pot.
I took up song writing instead.

here's an example of your preamble - out on the street in fine form. Suzanne Reny did not give an inch.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/woman+against+anti+Royal/2208426/story.html

Why did the D.C. pedestrian cross the road?

vit ?

i'm confused...are you suggesting harry abrams...warren kinsella and the right revdrpoodle are cross dressers or transgendered ?

India's Northern Railways Company hires boxers and wrestlers to threaten to kick the poo out of ticketless riders.

xiat - that article about the individual states going broke is a big worry of mine.

Obama, Reid, and Pelosi can look high and mighty, expand programs, and lord it over everyone

Although they have a tax base to fund them, the Fed will gladly print all the dollars required to keep the "national show" going.

Individual states can't print money - so it's either tax baby tax, or go hat in hand to the feds. And the feds will demand behaviours in return.

It's going to get ugly. Sigh.

John, Vitruvius was clearly suggesting exactly that. Telepathically. Through me.

I feel used.

Theodore Dalrymple on The Cult of Insincerity:

"The desire to blur limits and boundaries, in order to overturn society, has long marked out a certain kind of leftist. Because in social phenomena there are always borderline cases, they wish to undermine the very idea of categories. They are like people who would deny that anyone is tall because there is a fine gradation between tallest and shortest. Thus, because some things were considered crimes that are so considered no longer, and some things that were once legal that are now deemed criminal, they deny that the crime is anything other that an arbitrary social construction. A criminal is someone who merely has difficulty in his relations with society as some men have difficulties in their relations with their wives (and vice versa). What more natural, therefore, than that they should all attend the same day care centre, where they will be cured of their difficulties by psychological means?"

(...)

"There is a moral exhibitionism, which is generosity of spirit at other people’s expense. This, I think, is one of the sicknesses of our age, the desire to appear more-compassionate-than-thou."

Wow: "Generosity of spirit at other people's expense..."

Oooh. Ooooh! Dawg!

Doug Casey lay the smack down on Howard Dean and Karl Rove. Fascinating debate.

EDB and Robert W: I posted the links on Melanie Phillips yesterday. Should read my posts occasionally.

There are few sensible news anchors or commentators on CNN, and today I heard that Lou Dobbs, who tells it like it IS, has aired his final show on that network.

If the USA is fortunate, Dobbs will run for President as an Independent, in 2012. Maybe Ed Rollins, as VP?

"I don't think Lou Dobbs fits in at fox whatsoever."

Dobbs had been muzzled at CNN for some time, especially in the last year since the WH inVasion...He was not happy there anymore. His farewell speech says it all; that there's too much PC and ideology going on in the MSM and that the Country is chsnging fast...Lou needs to be unleashed and my bet is FOX will have a spot for him.

Re Lou Dobbs' resignation video - he states he was proud to help build the world's "first" news network.

Not "finest", and not "best"

That word "first" was definitely chosen (and articulated) carefully. A nice underhanded insult methinks.

I've had a couple of women change the locks on me!! Very humbling. On the last change of locks, her boyfriend came home from the rigs. I was sorta glad I had chucked the key!!

That's true, what I've seen of him has been completely washed. We'll see what happens. I just seem to remember a few years ago he was probably the most anti-bush media figure out there. Beyond ridiculous actually. Something along the lines of "George Bush is destroying the middle class" blah blah blah...

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ezra Levant, Sean Hannity,Mark Steyn, and many others.