In 2000, America dodged a bullet in Al Gore. In 2004, they dodged a bullet and a flowerpot throwing crazy old aunt in the attic.

“Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States,” Heinz Kerry said. She identified both as “hard-right” Republicans. She argued that it is “very easy to hack into the mother machines.”
“We in the United States are not a banana republic,” added Heinz Kerry. She argued that Democrats should insist on “accountability and transparency” in how votes are tabulated. “I fear for ’06,” she said. “I don’t trust it the way it is right now.”

(Via Drudge)
James is on it too.

Readers here won’t exactly be sitting on the edge of seat to find out what I think about the quivering, stammering display of Prime Ministerial followship in cowing to anti-Americanism in Ontario and Quebec by turning down Canada’s participation in ballistic missile defense.
The Toronto Sun’s Greg Weston explains nicely why the decision may really be in everyone’s best interests;

IF AVERAGE Americans had been following Paul Martin’s stand on U.S. missile defence, they would surely be relieved by yesterday’s announcement that Canada will not be part of it. An Armageddon warhead incoming at 4 km per second is no time to be sharing command and control of North American air defence with a dithering prime minister.

Exactly – and consider, if you will, a future prime minister in the persona of a Jack Layton, Sheila Copps or similar creation of the far left.

So, I do not condemn his decision. Instead, I thank Paul Martin for his foresight. I’ll sleep more soundly knowing that the political authority overseeing Canadian defense has finally been turned over to saner heads and surer hands.

update: Paul Martin’s timing, as usual, is impeccable.

PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE FACILITY, KAUAI, Hawaii, Feb. 24, 2005 /PRNewswire/ — The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System and Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) destroyed a ballistic missile outside the earth’s atmosphere during an Aegis BMD Program flight test over the Pacific Ocean. Raytheon Company develops the SM-3. Lockheed Martin develops the Aegis BMD Weapon System.
The Feb. 24 mission — the fifth successful intercept for SM-3 — was the first firing of the Aegis BMD “Emergency Deployment” capability using operational versions of the SM-3 Block I missile and Aegis BMD Weapon System.
This was also the first test to exercise SM-3’s third stage rocket motor (TSRM) single- pulse mode. The TSRM has two pulses, which can be ignited independently, providing expansion of the ballistic missile engagement battlespace.
The SM-3 was launched from the Aegis BMD cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) and hit a target missile that had been launched from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.

via Drudge.
One of David Frum’s readers responds to Paul Martin’s assertion that “”We would expect to be consulted”prior to a BMD deployment.

In other words, Canada wants no part of missile defense right up until the time of incoming. At that point we can count them in.”

As gifted a writer…

“Bloggers are ordinary people, many of them uneducated and with nothing interesting to say. They’re sitting in their rec rooms, regurgitating and spinning what real journalists have dug up through hard work. They don’t have sources, they don’t report, and no one holds them accountable when they make mistakes or flat out lie. Yeah, there’s a new sheriff in town. Unfortunately he’s drunk, he’s mean, and he works for the bad guy.”

as he is a cartoonist.

I don’t believe I’ve expressed my views on feminism.
This bit at I Could be wrong has prompted me to share.

If there are prejudices in Universities against women in science, they are remarkably subtle. The prejudices against men are institutionalized and overt. Concerning institutional restrictions against any speech the feminists don’t like: these restrictions are massive, overpowering, and virtually 100% intimidating. On the rare occasion such speech is uttered by a professor in a prominent university, it tends to be national news.

I speak as a woman who has worked in a male work setting for all of my adult life. I can say with some authority that the time has come to dismantle organized feminism.
Allow me to first acknowledge the pioneering work of those who did break ground in the struggle for equality rights for women – the right to vote, the right to equal opportunity in politics and employment and property rights. I have gratitude and the deepest respect for the accomplishments of those who were, at the time, considered little more than legal property, subject to the authority of male family members.
As they say, though – “that was then, and this is now”. The “then” that “was” has been consigned to the dustbin of history for quite a long time. What loose threads remained in women’s equality were tied up a long time ago.
If women were the rational, thinking human beings our acronymed advocates claim we are, “organized feminism” could even choose to commemorate the moment of the movement’s modern obsolescence��- if “organized feminism” wasn’t such a monotonously predictable leftist waste of female flesh.

The moment occured in 1979. It came in the person of a woman named Margaret Thatcher.

Alas, in the eyes of organized feminism, this didn’t “count”. Margaret Thatcher’s ascent to the Prime Ministerial post in Great Britain – and two time re-election? Meaningless. An irrelevant footnote of history not worthy of true feminist recognition.
You see, Maggie Thatcher was a conservative, which unfortunately, made her a man.
(Had the grand “Iron Lady” only had the good sense to be a lesbian, the feminist movement would have died a natural death in an uncontrolled chain reaction of spontanious head explosions – but such was not to be.)
25 years have now passed, and Maggie Thatcher has lived long enough to see her accomplishments safely consigned to history. If her tenure as three-time Prime Minister of Great Britain are not sufficient to put the feminist movement to bed with a warm pat and a “well done”, well, this whole “equality” thing was just not meant to be.
Though women of today have demonstrated the ability to accumlate vast wealth and govern great nations, while women represent, numerically, the majority of humankind, we must accept that true “equality” can never be ours. The feminist movement has failed, through no fault of our own. It’s just that the goal wasn’t valid to begin with.
There’s no way around it, girls. It is time to throw in the towel and accept our inferiority to men.

“All of those who still don’t believe that Women’s Studies, Gender Studies and other absurd programs are just a front for extreme-left, pro-terrorist groups raise your paw.”

Joel Fleming is a student at a Canadian university. Perhaps this is why he doesn’t identify which one.

I am an atheist. I don’t believe in any divine presence, or any organizing force. That being said, I’m bowled over by the mental toughness it takes to be openly religious at university. In tutorial today, we were discussing from where morality is derived. One girl in the class was a devout Catholic and made cogent, reasonable arguments from her theistic perspective. The ridicule, vitriol and scorn poured upon this girl by the class, and especially by the TA, was, to my mind, disgraceful. I’ve participated in class discussions where students have advocated communism, defended shari’a and dismissed democracy as “one Western type of system.” Their views were opposed in a respectful, non-judgemental manner without a hint of personal acrimony or contempt. Where the fuck was that respect today?

It’s been missing a long time, Joel.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Michael Moore was a guest on SUNDAY MORNING SHOOTOUT, for which I am the editor. I recused myself from that taping. There are, to my knowledge, only five people that I fear may cause me to lose control enough to become (progressively) embarrassed, fired, arrested or executed. O.J Simpson is one; the second is the absolutely execrable Ted Rall, and the final three are Michael Moore.

The editor in question? Bill Whittle. I cannot imagine….

(I am only quoting from memory here, so it will be burned-neuron verbatim, believe me. His voice is echoing in my head like the endless fugue of screams and rudely spat-out cries of Sex Dwarf! in that classic old Soft Cell song – pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.)

‘Tis a miracle the universe lived to see the morning.

It took them two days, but Greenpeace has found a way to tie the tsunami in Southeast Asia to global warming. You see, it’s all about the mangrove swamps!

A creeping rise in sea levels tied to global warming, pollution and damage to coral reefs may make coastlines even more vulnerable to disasters like tsunamis or storms in future, experts said Monday.
Few coastal ecosystems are robust enough to withstand freak waves like the ones that slammed into Asian nations from Sri Lanka to Thailand Sunday, killing more than 22,000 people, after a subsea earthquake off Indonesia.
But global warming, poorly planned coastal development and other threats over which humans have some control are weakening natural defenses ranging from mangrove swamps to coral reefs that help keep the oceans at bay.

I notice that “human overpopulation” is seldom cited as a problem in the wake of such events. Even Greenpeace knows when an argument becomes an oxymoron.
(ht – Powerline)
update – Juan Cole (one man Al-Zarqawi fan club and professional conspiracy theorist), gets in on the act.

Charles Johnson connects the dots and finds they lead from Saddam Hussein to who else?

LONDON (AFP) – Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is preparing a legal challenge in the United States to his trial for war crimes, a newspaper reports, citing leaked papers prepared by his defense team.
Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer, has prepared a 50-page brief which contains advice to take the case to US courts to ensure he receives a fair trial, the Sunday Times reported after saying it had seen the document.
The action is to ensure that Saddam receives the basic legal rights given to those tried in the United States, such as full access to his defense team and an independent judge and jury, the newspaper said.
It said the leaked brief is entitled “The Iraqi Special Tribunal as Victors’ Justice – the Inherent Illegality and Bias of the Whole Process.”

George Soros.
Via Powerline

Global warming is threatening the future of parody.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Severe weather caused by global warming can pose greater physical danger to women than men, a Canadian attending a UN conference on climate change said Friday.
“For instance, often women don’t know how to swim, so in a flood situation that can lead to a higher instance of death or injury,” Angie Daze, a program manager with a Canadian group called Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change, said.

Angie Daze? Figures.
Via Craig Brett.

Powerline thinks it’s time for the Oslo folks “to hang it up”. This week they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Kenya’s Wangari Maathai. In addition to her qualifications as a world class tree planter, she’s been pretty good at watering conspiracy theories.

“Do not be naive. AIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists.
“I may not be able to say who developed the virus, but it was meant to wipe out the black race.”

She later claimed the quote was taken out of context. As Hindrocket notes, “If so, it must have been quite a context.”

Is there a left-wing enviromoonbat in the “mandatory” column of your Christmas holiday gift list, that you just don’t know how to buy for?

Problem solved.

(And a whole lot cheaper than an SUV.)

Applauding successful African-Americans can get you fired at the NAACP.
Via Outside The Beltway.

The government of South Africa is casting a reformist eye to country’s place names. They are too white.

Residents of Pretoria, named after an early war hero of the white Afrikaners who later invented apartheid, won a battle last year to keep the capital city’s name on the map, albeit as part of a broader metropolitan area called Tshwane.
Next year those towns celebrating British royalty and other figures will be under scrutiny, and several may face the chop.
Two that look set to go are the industrial city of Port Elizabeth, named after the wife of a Cape Colony governor, and George, a sleepy town on the south coast, more famous for its lush golf courses than the English king to whom it pays homage.
National Geographical Names Council chairman Tommy Ntsewa said: “Personally, I would support such a move, because why should we be honouring King George? For what? For colonising us?”

These problems are an inevitable consequence of the march of human progress and politics – coupled with more recently acquired sensitivites to the politically incorrect, place names are going to be a perpetual source of irritation. The ribbon-cutting celebration opening “Winnie Wharf” today may well become the offensive Port Elizabeth of tomorrow. And as we are coming to understand, the right of future citizens not to be offended ought to be enshrined in law.
On the practical side, though, ad hoc renaming of cities, towns and rivers is likely to be a cumbersome and contentious process. To address this, we should apply a sunset clause to all place names, so that they will automatically expire at set intervals. This way, each new political generation can respond more efficiently to those most recently insulted by the historical fact of their choosing.

ArabNews:

According to stall manager Hassan Saleh Salman Arawiti the serious problems at Alkhobar’s produce market began exactly one year and two months back. At that time, as a part of the Kingdom’s Saudization efforts, the municipality forced out the Bangladeshis who had worked at the market for more than a decade. Repeated raids involving the police eventually ensured that all the expatriates were permanently driven away.

Apparently, no one stopped to ask why the Bangladeshis were there in the first place. They…. uh…. work.

“The leaseholders of the stalls tried to hire Saudis but it wasn’t very successful,” Arawiti said. “Those Saudis had no experience in the produce business and couldn’t work the long hours the business requires for profitability. Most Saudis stayed just a week or two and they were gone. The labor problems led to some stalls closing at that time.”
Customers became dissatisfied with the environment at Alkhobar’s halaga. They didn’t want to deal with the poor service and variable quality of the produce there. Arawiti explained that many supermarkets had begun offering produce by the carton. Customers, especially women, liked the convenience of buying their fruits and vegetables from the same place they purchased their other groceries. The stall managers found that even after the situation at Alkhobar’s halaga stabilized, the customers didn’t return. These days only five stalls are functioning.

It takes two Saudis to replace each expatriat worker. One wonders why they went to all the trouble of chasing out the expats, when they could have achieved the same result by simply unionizing them.

A reader passes along this link to the online documentary Brainwashing 101.

Brainwashing 101 is a provocative short film showing how universities use tools such as “speech codes” to force political views upon students. In this cutting expos�, documentary filmmakers Maloney, Browning and Greenberg shine a light on political correctness, academic bias, student censorship–even administrative cover-ups of death threats–at three schools: Bucknell University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly).

You’ll need broadband to download the file. A series of stills and explanation are here.

Frank J. launches a new comic strip. I smell syndication!

A reader at Powerline passes along this flyer being passed around at Penn State and ponders,

“�You always wonder why groups like Amnesty International always seem to hold War Criminal Tribunals for Bush, but somehow missed holding one for Kim Jong Il or Hussein.”

Amnesty International has become a caricature of its former self. Today, the organization just another donation pit for the anti-American, anti-semitic left.

Reminiscent of enviro-leftist warnings about the “devastating flooding created by not enough water to fill the dam” Rafferty-Alameda project here in Saskatchewan in the 1980’s, Kevin Libin wonders if the Missile Defense Shield Antis might refine their message.

” [T]hey, on one hand, argue that the technology will lead to a new global arms race as nations build increasingly sophisticated weapons to evade the missile shield, and on the other, that the missile shield will never work anyway.”

Meanwhile, on the medical front, Michelle Malkin watches the NYT editorial board squirm through a plate of spaghetti logic to remind readers that race is a concept with no basis in scientific fact, while encouraging the FDA to approve a heart medication developed specifically for African-American patients.
No wonder the left clings so tightly to relativism and its associated realms. You need to set aside that objective truth bullshit to like, cut through the crap that comes with thinking really, really hard about stuff you wish wasn’t true and everything.

In late October, the New York Times reported that a study by a survey team from Johns Hopkins University found that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the war. Unsurprisingly, this figure has been added to the rhetoric of the finger pointing sect. Don’t expect it to fade away any time soon.
In Slate, Fred Kaplan fills in the absent explanation of the “mathology” employed.

The report’s authors derive this figure by estimating how many Iraqis died in a 14-month period before the U.S. invasion, conducting surveys on how many died in a similar period after the invasion began (more on those surveys later), and subtracting the difference. That difference�the number of “extra” deaths in the post-invasion period – signifies the war’s toll. That number is 98,000. But read the passage that cites the calculation more fully:

We estimate there were 98,000 extra deaths (95% CI 8000-194 000) during the post-war period.

Readers who are accustomed to perusing statistical documents know what the set of numbers in the parentheses means. For the other 99.9 percent of you, I’ll spell it out in plain English – which, disturbingly, the study never does. It means that the authors are 95 percent confident that the war-caused deaths totaled some number between 8,000 and 194,000. (The number cited in plain language 98,000 is roughly at the halfway point in this absurdly vast range.)

In other words, calculated using loose mix of algebra and astrology.