The Islamic World Must Pay Reparations For Their Violence

It seems to me that Saudi Arabia is the chief cause of Islamic violence in the world, since it is the seat of this hateful ideology and the chief financier of mosques and madrassas worldwide. Therefore Saudi Arabia should be held financially responsible for the murder and mayhem committed in the name of Islam.

Trillions of dollars are due the non-Muslim world -- the cost of 9/11, the cost of repairing destruction there and elsewhere in the world, the compensation due family members who lost loved ones through Islamic murder.

Saudi Arabia needs to sit down with the victimized countries and commit to payment of reparations for these deeds. A lack of payment, of course, means the West should take possession of Saudi Arabian assets, namely, their oil fields.

Again, to repeat and expand my suggestions for stopping Islamic aggression: governments of countries who are attacked should consider the following steps (note, these suggestions should only be carried out by legitimate governments, not individuals acting alone) --

1. Desecrate the bodies of dead jihadis in order to block their entrance into Heaven, e.g. dress them in women's lingerie, earrings and lipstick and bury them with the carcass of a pig. Cut off their penises. Deny them any last sacraments or religious rites.
2. Execute captured jihadis with bullets dipped in pig's blood, then proceed to step 1 above.
3. Destroy key Islamic shrines and mosques as reparation for each act of violence against the non-Islamic world. Better, announce in advance the mosque that will be destroyed when the next Muslim attack occurs.
4. Make it absolutely clear that a nuclear attack on any non-Islamic country, including Israel, will result in a nuclear response on Mecca and the utter destruction of the Kaba and the Great Mosque there.
5. Demand monetary reparations from the Islamic world for their murder and destruction, going back to 9/11 and even before.
6. Appropriate the money-producing oil fields and other assets that finance Islamic violence, hatred and evil. Seize their bank accounts and other assets worldwide.

We should start a movement that demands all of the above. The goal is not revenge; it is to create effective disincentives to jihad. We must not be shy or reticent about this; Islamic terrorists are completely ruthless and we must take bolder, stronger actions against them. Human lives are at stake.

For you attorneys out there -- why aren't you suing Saudi Arabia? Think of the legal fees that trillions of dollars in judgments would create. Think about it.

How to Punish the Jihadis

Whenever Muslims go on one of their killing rampages, the Civilized World removes the bodies, cleans up the blood, sweeps away the rubble and replaces the broken glass. The Islamic criminals who carried out the murder spree are generally all dead or captured by this time and there is no way to punish them or make examples of them. Or is there?

General John J. Pershing is said to have executed Islamic fanatics in the Philippines by first dipping the bullets in pig's blood, thus denying them entrance into Heaven. One fanatic was let go to carry the story back to the others. I don't know how true the story is but it sounds like a good idea. We could improve upon it, though.

Let's take the bodies of the dead terrorists and dress them in sexy women's lingerie, put lipstick on them and dangling earrings and take pictures of them in drag for dessimination throughout the Muslim world. Then we bury their dead bodies hugging the carcass of a pig, perhaps in a coffin emblazoned with the Star of David. In other words, deny them the last sacraments of their evil faith, and put them in a very embarrassing position for when the Islamic angels come to interview them in the grave (as Muslims believe).

In addition to that, the victimized country (like India) could select a sacred Islamic shrine for utter destruction, e.g. an ancient Mosque. Announce its destruction as reparation for the terrorist attack. Then take a wrecking ball to the structure, reducing it to rubble. Or, if the Mosque is behind enemy lines (the enemy being the Islamic world), use a smart bomb or guided missile to destroy the structure. In other words, target the symbols and hateful institutions of Islam. This tactic recognizes the fact that it is Islam itself that is responsible for terrorism, as it is a terrorist ideology as is well documented in its holy texts and traditions. We must rid ourselves of the short-sighted view that terrorist-jihadis are individual criminals; they are in fact agents of Islam and it is Islam itself that must be punished for the deeds of its believers.

If the world's Muslims don't like being held accountable in this way, then perhaps they should consider revising the Qur'an, reforming Islam or joining other faiths. In any case, we must hold Islam itself responsible for jihadi crimes until Islamic leaders worldwide take effective steps to stop Islamic violence.

Finally, a massive bonfire of Qur'ans could be held in the public square where the terrorist attacks occurred, with citizens encouraged to add one of the nasty little books to the flames.

Showing respect or tolerance to Islam has not diminished their murderous practices one whit; merely killing them is not a deterrence to their evil, because they believe their deaths in jihad will propel them straight to Heaven. So we must devise deterrents other than death to discourage them from their vile habits. The desecration of the bodies of their jihadis would be one way and the destruction of the holy sites where the murderers are taught and encouraged would be, in my opinion, worthy of consideration.

Finally, we need some simple slogans to support a new, energetic and effective counterforce to Islamic Jihad. I was thinking something like, "Islam is Unacceptable" or perhaps "ISLAM: the Root Cause of Terrorism."

Google Censors Atlas Shrugs

In a typically heavy-handed way, Google has deleted references to Pamela Geller's site, "Atlas Shrugs." Google Atlas Shrugs and you will get a list of other websites and blogs that refer to the site, but not the Atlas Shrugs site itself.

Geller has attempted to get an explanation from Google but has been treated shabbily by Google staff.

They say that the primary owners of Google are liberal Democrats and big supporters of Barack Obama. Apparently, the censorship of AS is due to the fact that Google doesn't want any publicity or discussions over Obama's birth certificate. Geller was an early critic of Obama for refusing to supply an official copy of his birth certificate. She was also the primary investigator of the forged document (a Certificate of Live Birth from Hawaii) supplied by a liberal website.

Democrats can be very Machiavellian, as I have said many times on this site. They are not for "freedom of speech" per se, they are for freedom of liberal speech. Those with something to hide will find ways to hide it. And Google has.

This kind of soft fascism has been seen before in prior decades. President Woodrow Wilson had the Post Office refuse to deliver newsletters and magazines that did not support his policies. He even had people arrested and jailed for failing to support them. The details are covered in Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism."

Welcome to Obama's America.

Murder in India: The Ugly Face of Islam

The Religion of Death, Islam, has been showing its grotesque face in India for the past couple of days. Once again we have radical Muslims murdering strangers who have done them no harm. Over a hundred people have been killed. Truly, Islam is the Religion of Death, Murder and Mayhem. If this violent ideology has any worth to the human race, it isn't at all obvious. Indeed, I have long concluded that its only effect on the human race is destructive and negative; it has no worth whatsoever.

The Muslim pirates who are now hijacking ships on the high seas are only following the example of their glorious prophet. Muhammad robbed trade caravans, stole the goods they carried and held members for ransom. If Muhammad was a man of God, then so was Blackbeard the Pirate, Al Capone and Gengis Khan. Then again, Blackbeard, Capone and Khan never attempted to justify their villainy by pretending to be prophets. Compared to Muhammad, they were refreshingly honest.

Sooner or later Islam must be wiped from the face of the earth. This barbarism has no place in a civilized world. We should not allow any more immigration of Muslims into the United States, any more than we should allow practicing head hunters, cannibals, slave owners or polygamists.

I would like to see every mosque converted to a cigar store (or liquor store or market specializing in pork products) and every Qur'an reduced to ash. What a glorious bonfire we could make. Of course, the world would have to get along without this priceless literature on head-lopping, finger chopping, mass murder, rape, stoning people to death and treating women as livestock. It would be a struggle, but call me a cockeyed optimist: I think we would find ways to adapt.

If that seems harsh, consider this: Islam is the only major religion whose primary tenets command unceasing violence against non-believers. Islam is the only major religion that commands and predicts the genocide of Jews. Islam is the only major religion that teaches the only sure way to heaven is to die in battle against the "infidels," infidels being people too civilized to become Muslims.

Islam is evil and no amount of rationalization or denial will change that fact.

The U.S. Economy: To Hell in a Hand Basket

As I sit back and calmly watch Western Civilization unravel, I find myself strangely unemotional about it all. The Dems finally achieved a major goal: to get control of the economy. All they had to do is severely wound it, then offer it band-aids to stem the blood. Brilliant. Machiavelli would beam with pride. Is the global warming scam even necessary any more? Fascism has come by other means.

I feel the economic decline personally. The appreciation in the value of my house over the past eight years is now gone. The house is worth about what I paid for it. I always figured I'd sell it for a good profit and use the money to move to a saner locale than California. That plan is kaput.

The company I work for is losing their ass in this economy and so cut back my hours from 40 per week to 24. They continue to hemorrhage money and I'm fairly certain my 24 hours will be cut back to zero soon. I am looking for other work but it's a tough market.

Still, I feel neither upset nor overly worried. Sometimes, in order to escape some rotten structure, you just have to let the damn thing collapse. Let the Dems have their fun. Since I feel no connection to, nor identification with, the incoming administration, I don't care much what they do. I almost feel like a detached observer of events. My bank account, however, would disagree. I am affected by these events as we all are.

After Thanksgiving, I will be polishing the old resume, however. Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all.

Perez Prado and "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White"

One of the great things about the internet is that you can find almost any topic of interest. Remembering the Kennedy assassination yesterday opened some channels in my mind. This morning I woke up thinking about a song I have always loved -- "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" by legendary band leader Perez Prado.

This song was popular in 1955. My father would take me and Bro deep sea fishing in San Francisco Bay. We would get up at 3:00 AM, drive from Stockton to San Francisco and take a charter boat out into the bay to fish for Salmon and Striped Bass. The world is a very unfriendly place at three in the morning. Before embarking over the freezing waters of the bay, we would stop at a restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf and have breakfast. Invariably, "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" would be oozing from a jukebox. I always associate the song with freezing my ass off at three in the morning, riding a pitching boat over the swells through patches of jelly fish, feeling slightly seasick and, ultimately, catching some big ol' striped bass.

But the song is more than that. It is just beautiful, and it's timeless. The lead trumpet part is just excellent, flowing up and down the scale like a roller coaster at Playland by the Beach. The bongos, the baritone sax, the musicians shouting "Hoo-Uh!" Life was so raw but so real then.

The song is embedded below. It will always be one of my very favorites. Enjoy.

45 Years Ago Today: My Personal Reminiscence of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

On the 30th anniversary of the assassination, I wrote my reminisences of that terrible day. They are below. This is the first time they have ever been published anywhere.

November 22, 1993
Thirty years ago this morning, I was chasing a badminton bird in the men's gymnasium at San Jose City College, in San Jose, California, the rubber soles of my tennis shoes squeaking on the lacquered wooden floor. I was in my physical education class. Soon, the coach would blow his whistle and we would head for the showers.

It was Friday, and I was looking forward to the weekend and the short, three day week before Thanksgiving that would follow. After showering, I put on my narrow, striped tie. For some reason I had felt like dressing up on that day, and wore a brand new tie I had just bought, a rep tie. I bought it because it reminded me of the ties our young President John F. Kennedy wore. Friday, November 22, was the first time I had a chance to wear it.

It was eleven o'clock when I walked from the gym to the science building for my Chemistry lecture class. I say it was my "lecture" class, because Chemistry always involved two classes taken in tandem: lecture and laboratory. We were to have a lecture on organic chemistry this Friday morning, studying the molecular structure and chemical formulae of various hydrocarbons.

Just as I reached the door of the science building, a classmate from a previous semester approached me. He was a typical student of the day, his black hair cut in a flattop, the bristles of which were pomaded to stand straight up. "Hey," he called to me, "Did you hear that Kennedy has been shot?"

I froze in dread and disbelief. I knew this guy was a "goof-off," someone who was rarely serious and not in the habit of displaying good taste in his humor. I thought it was some kind of sick joke. "Yeah," he continued, "I heard two students talking. One said to the other, 'Did you hear that Kennedy's been shot?' Then his friend smiled and said, 'Isn't it GREAT?'" The preppie fool then smiled big, showing his white teeth. I interpreted his smile to mean that he agreed with the sentiment that it would be great if someone had indeed shot the President of the United States.

I did not return his smile. I may have mumbled something about having to get to Chemistry, but I don't remember. I do remember thinking that if this were a joke, it was a very sick joke, indeed.

When I sat down in the classroom, other students were asking each other if the rumor was true. Then our teacher, a bespectacled blondish man of about fifty, emerged from his office and told the assembled class the news. "It's on the news. Kennedy was shot by a sniper in Dallas and the word from the State Department is that he's dead." We were stunned. My immediate emotion was one of burning hate for the preppie who had laughed about it in the corridor. I wanted to go find him and pummel his smiling face into pulp.

Then in an amazingly blatant display of bad taste and irreverence, the Chemistry teacher, who did not seem at all disheartened by this turn of events, told us to take out our notebooks. We were going to have lecture as planned, as there were many formulae to learn. That I even sat there for that hour numbly copying molecular structures off the blackboard still amazes me. But I was only nineteen. Today I would have risen out of my seat, said, "I for one do not feel like listening to a lecture in the aftermath of such a tragedy. I'm leaving, and I suggest all of you other students go with me."

My next class was Biblical Literature, which was held in the drama building. My teacher, whose name was Christian, was a portly gentleman with a goatee and a head shaved almost to peach fuzz. As the students sat down, he stood before us with wet eyes and a tear-stained face. I still remember what he said, three decades later: "In light of what's happened, I for one don’t really feel like discussing simile and metaphor, and I think the best thing to do is to just dismiss the class." Dr. Christian was a good man. I still remember a story he told us in that class, and I will digress to record it now.

While in college, Christian majored in religious studies, and came across a religious painting of a deer with a cross on its head. Christian and his roommate did extensive research in the library to learn the significance of this image. They finally found an obscure reference book which identified the deer as the symbol of Saint Thomas.

They took the painting to their apartment and proudly hung it in their small living room, confident that their earnest research had uncovered some arcane and ancient religious icon. Later their old gray-haired landlady came by to collect the rent. She took one look at the painting and exclaimed, "Oh! Saint Thomas!"

That class was a pleasant one for me. We used the Revised Standard Version of the Bible for a textbook, and for the first time in my life, I read the Bible. I remember reading the Song of Diana and Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon and the Book of Job. We studied the Bible as literature, for its poetic value, and I learned Biblical passages that are with me still. I loved Ecclesiastes, with its morose outlook on life and the hereafter, as its mood often matched my own.

After Dr. Christian dismissed the class, I wandered around the campus until my Psychology class met. I believe the teacher's name was Dr. Blum. He too, made a few short remarks and told us that the college administration had decided to dismiss all further classes for the day. I wandered towards the parking lot in a kind of stupor, then sat down on a bench near the administration building beside a young woman student. I noticed that her face was also tear-stained and flushed with grief. She was listening to a newscast on a portable radio. Walter Cronkite was describing the awful events, finally concluding his newscast with a grave and somber remark: "President Kennedy is dead." The finality of that shocked me to my core, and I stood up and stumbled in the direction of my first car, a 1951 DeSoto, waves of grief and despair washing over me.

As I came in the door to our home on Foxworthy Avenue in San Jose, my father and mother were watching the televised newscast. My father asked me in a very serious voice, "Have you heard the news?"

"Yeah, I heard," I said, and walked past them. My father called after me, "It's pretty damned rotten when they have to bring the President home in a box!"

I went into my room and took off my "Kennedy tie." I put it away in a drawer. I never wore it again.

Wednesday, November 24, 1993
Tonight there were a couple of television programs remembering President Kennedy. They were a collage of mostly black and white news reels of various events in his life, campaign speeches, interviews, news conferences, his inaugural address. His wife Jacqueline, or Jacky as we knew her, was often at his side. He was extraordinarily handsome and she was exquisitely beautiful. They were surely the best looking couple to ever represent this country as Chief Executive and First Lady.

The interviews, the candid shots of the President making serious comments about the hostile world of 1960, or joking personably in some endearing, self-deprecating manner, served well to remind us of how alive, vital and dynamic this young President was. How very proud we were of him, how much we believed in him! These reminders are necessary to make us realize just how much we lost when he died, to allow us once again to gauge the depths of the massive wound in our national soul.

Inevitably, one of these programs moved chronologically to the events in Dallas of November 22, 1963. Film footage from a car in the motorcade, a cheerful voice describing the throngs of well wishers lining the streets of Dallas, to the turn onto Elm Street by the Texas School Book Depository. Then the people crouching on the grass, the worried announcer exclaiming that "apparently, something has happened in the motorcade." We move to the scene of the Presidential limousine parked outside Parkland Hospital, emptied of its occupants and guarded by secret service agents.

The next scene is of news announcers listening to a telephone and repeating the words they were hearing from the Associated Press: "President Kennedy died at 1:00 P.M. Central Standard Time of bullet wounds."

The next scene began to dissolve the thirty years that have passed in my life. I was seeing a horrific scene I last viewed sitting beside my father in our living room on the evening of November 22, 1963, when I watched it live. Air Force One had landed in Washington, and a large freight elevator platform was being lowered from the side of the plane. Inside the enclosed platform a crowd of secret service agents clutched the handles of a black coffin. Jacky in her pillbox hat could be clearly seen standing behind the coffin.

The men carried the coffin down from the platform onto the tarmac, with Jacky following behind. It was night. The television announcer described the scene, but his words were hardly necessary. There was the chilling realization that the black box held the cold and stiffening body of the murdered President. My emotions ran the gamut from grief, shock, outrage, and a cold and consuming hatred for his assassin. Then newly sworn President Johnson walked arm in arm with his wife to a semi-circle of microphone stands where he asked "for your help, and God's."

Oswald! He was exactly as Jack Ruby described him, "a nothing, a complete zero." He stole the youthful President away from the American people, not for any political ideology, but merely to make his otherwise worthless, invisible existence preeminent in the minds of everyone on earth. He would go to his grave despised and hated, but no longer unknown. Now, everyone on earth, for generations to come, would know his name, just as they know the names of Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, John Wilkes Booth, and Bruno Richard Hauptman.

Another collage of poignant images followed. Jacky and her young daughter Caroline, hand in hand, walking to the flag-draped coffin, kneeling beside it, touching the flag. The somber parade through Washington, the caisson bearing the coffin, the riderless horse. John Jr., two years old, saluting the passing coffin. The streets filled with marching military in dress uniforms, followed by many civilian dignitaries. Jacky, her eyes shining behind a black lace veil.

A final scene showed the funeral party in Arlington Cemetery. The black, shiny coffin sits on supports over the open grave, and at its foot, the metal cup of what will be the eternal flame, as yet unlit. Jacky stands before it, and on her right stands Robert Kennedy. The flame is lit and erupts with a rushing sound. Shortly thereafter, not shown in this film, the coffin would be lowered into the open grave.

Tonight, thirty years later, John Kennedy's flame still burns.

November 22, 2008: Update. Make that 45 years.

45 Years Ago Today: My personal diary of the Assassination of JFK

I lived through the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. One of the advantages to being a old bugger is that you can remember historical events. I was a sophomore in college when Kennedy was shot. At that time I considered myself a Democrat and was a fan and supporter of President Kennedy.

Here are the actual entries from my diary of 1963. I was 19 years old.

November 22 (1963)
Friday
Our honored and respected president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, is dead. The nation and the world was shocked to hear that President Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin this morning in Dallas, Texas, as he rode through the streets in an open car while being cheered and greeted by thousands of people. The nation is practically in a state of shock, and I personally am deeply grieved over the death of this fine president and man, so young and alive, so zealous and dedicated to his country, to freedom, and to peace.
The shock, grief, and sickness we Americans feel now must be lived to be appreciated. May God rest his soul and give him peace.

November 23 (1963)
Saturday
It was a gloomy, rainy day. All flags in the nation flew at half mast, and will do so for thirty days. D----[my younger brother] and I bought a flag and mounted it in the living room window, with the three corners opposite the pole edged in black crepe paper.
We all feel sick with grief and despair, and a feeling of depression hangs over the nation. All churches have been requested to stay open continuously until after the funeral Monday; almost all businesses will be closed Monday and so will all schools.
My grief for our president is matched only by my burning hatred for his assassin, Lee Oswald; I will not rest until he is dead.

November 24 (1963)
Sunday
The preacher in church today preached a real good sermon about President Kennedy. The church was pretty crowded as many people who are not members of the church came because it was requested by President Johnson for all to pray for the soul of President Kennedy.
My hatred is dying, mainly because Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered today as he was being moved from the City Hall to another jail, the County jail, I believe. The murder was actually recorded on film, with sound. After I saw the expression on Oswald's face and heard his groan of agony when he was shot, my burning hatred began to cool.

November 25 (1963)
Monday
President Kennedy was buried today in Arlington Cemetery. An eternal flame burns at his feet. His grave is on a hill overlooking Washington. Only three days ago he was full of life and in his prime; tonight he lies cold and still in a brass coffin six feet under the ground. Officer J.D. Tippett of Dallas, who was killed by Oswald, was also buried today. Ironically, the murderer of these two good men was also buried today. There's no need to hate him anymore: he has to face God with these crimes on his hands; but the name of Lee Harvey Oswald will go down in history with John Wilkes Booth.

November 26 (1963)
Tuesday
Everyone is still depressed and probably will be for days.

November 28 (1963) - Thanksgiving
Thursday
Joe, Mike, D--- and I went to the traditional Thanksgiving day Big Game between Camden and Del Mar High Schools. Our alma mater, Camden, won 44-18. The game was dedicated to the late president, and very good sportsmanship and school spirit was shown on both sides. Del Mar impressed me with the friendly attitude of its students in spite of their loss.

Since the President's death, everyone seems a lot kinder to each other, and for the time being the "Rat Race" of our modern society seems to be discontinued.

Pirates and Other Scalawags

The Somali pirates have seized 38 ships so far this year, the latest an oil supertanker with a $100 million cargo. I don't know about you, but I find this annoying. The pirates are taking the supertanker to their lair in Somalia. Why an armed force doesn't just move in and destroy the place is beyond me. It seems to me that shipping companies ought to be arming their freighters to resist such attacks. Hide a squad of marines on a few ships and when approached by the pirates, kill the bastards. The pirates wouldn't know which ships would be so armed. It could be a kind of surprise: they'd never know which ships would be armed and ready for them.

Pirates on the high seas aren't the only scalawags who annoy me. Some idiots in Texas have indicted Dick Cheney and two other federal officials for alleged offenses against inmates of federal prisons. I'm sure Dick Cheney was in those prisons overseeing the abuses, the walls echoing with his evil laughter as the poor innocent criminals were mistreated. No, it sounds more like another Democrat political stunt, an attempt to criminalize any political opposition to leftist rule. We have seen these stunts too many times before.

Hey, we'll be back in power sooner than you think, Libbies. Maybe we can indict a few Democrats on treason charges one of these days. After all, my understanding is that there is no statute of limitation for treason, and we are patient.

Then there's the brouhaha over Joe Lieberman. The Left wanted to fix his wagon for supporting McCain over Obama and considered taking away his committee chairmanship as punishment. Since Lieberman supports many Democrat initiatives, this would have been politically asinine. They might have encouraged Lieberman to register as a Republican, further preventing a Democrat supermajority. Harry Reid, the bete noir on the Senate whose frowning and bitter face is so often depicted in news photographs, was pushing for the punishment. Allegedly, Obama told him to back off as Obama needs Lieberman's support and isn't dumb enough to shoot himself in the foot for petty revenge.

A fourth scalawag is Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. Johnson regularly purges his ranks of subscribers for disagreeing with him. Since Charley thinks everyone to his right is a racist or a Nazi, why, you must be a racist or a Nazi if you disagree with him. Ask Robert Spencer or Pamela Geller or Gates of Vienna or several others who have been deemed ideologically unacceptable to C.J.

Charley's ticked off because some blog called "The Infidel Blogger's Award" has him as one of the choices in a vote-your-favorite poll. The poll is for the "biggest pro-censorship ass-hat." Charley's winning that one handily. I voted for him. No need to thank me, Charley.

Blogging Slows as the World Waits for Obama

All of my favorite blogs are slow to report anything this week. There's nothing much going on worth blogging about (which explains my last post). People are taking the opportunity to wash their pajamas and go outside and see the strange bright ball in the sky -- what is that thing? Why does it hurt to look at it straight-on?

Yes, there is a serious world shortage of good blogger material today. However, Real Clear Politics has a fascinating article on how the Global Warming scientists have branded October 2008 as "the hottest October on record." This, in spite of the fact that it was one of the coldest, with snow flurries in London, rapidly growing sea ice and snowstorms worldwide. It appears the GW brainiacs published false data and drew bogus conclusions. They used a number of temperature readings from September in their calculations, instead of using October temperatures. Can you spell "Bovine Excrement"? The article is called "The World Has Never Seen Such Freezing Heat," by Christopher Booker in the U.K. Telegraph.

Now we have something new to blog about. Were the misreported temperatures the result of incompetence, fraud or another world-wide conspiracy? I'm betting it was the latter. Karl Rove will stop at nothing, I tell you, in his efforts to make a laughing stock of the liberal scientific community. Oh yeah, you'll laugh my friends, when the continents become totally submerged and we are floating around on what is left of the Exxon Valdez.

Okay, I milked it as best I could, but there's just not that much blogger-stuff around right now and we are all doing the best we can with what we have. Be patient. Obama takes office in another nine weeks. He will, I suspect, supply us with lots of new material.

For now, I am going to sit here in my back yard in the cool of evening, basking in the glow of anthropomorphic global warming, smoking a cigar and watching another "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" episode from Hulu television. (I can watch it on my laptop out here in the gazebo. My neighbors don't know I'm not blogging and I am not going to tell them.)

Flower Drum Song

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to see a live production of "Flower Drum Song" at the Center for Performing Arts in San Jose, California. I always loved the original production, made into a movie in 1961. "Flower Drum Song" was a Broadway hit in 1958. Fifty years have passed since it first made the scene.

The 1961 film starred Nancy Kwan, an exotic beauty, as well as James Shigeta and Myoshi Umeki.

As a conservative, I am most certainly not into ethnic grievances, but "Flower Drum Song" was not about that. It was a genuine celebration of the Asian experience in America, the culture shock for new arrivals, the striving to know, as new immigrants, what facets of their old culture should be retained and what discarded in their transformation into Americans.

"Flower Drum Song" of 1961 is a bit dated, with the hip young Asians saying things like "hep cats" and calling each other "daddio." Also, it isn't politically correct in our brave new world, where any ethnic theme is a potential minefield of outrage and victimization and hatred of white people. Imagine, Myoshi Umeki's character (Mei-Lei) had to get out of an arranged marriage in the original, and did so by admitting that she was in the country illegally. "My back is wet," she confessed to her would-be mother-in-law. She thus escapes her marriage to Americanized hipster Sammy Fong and marries Wang Ta instead. Poor Sammy has to settle for Linda Low (played by Nancy Kwan). Poor bastard. We should all suffer such a terrible fate.

Talking about "wet backs" today is strictly verboten, so the whole show had to be rewritten. The new story that replaced the old is lame, in my opinion. It features pretty, dancing Asian girls dressed up like boxes of Chop Suey take-out. Mmm, Chop Suey never had legs like those. In any case, I thought the silliness of these depictions was something akin to "The Producers" and their play "Springtime for Hitler," which featured German girls dancing around with giant pretzels and sausages on their heads. However, the latter was supposed to be ridiculous.

The only good thing about the new version of "Flower Drum Song" is that it preserves all of the original songs, songs like "The Flower Drum Song," "You Are Beautiful," "I Enjoy Being a Girl," "Don't Marry Me," and "Love Look Away."

I once was seriously involved with a Chinese woman, an immigrant from Hong Kong, who introduced me to the culture of San Francisco's Chinatown, with its open air markets, weird vegetables, ducks hanging by the neck in store windows, birds nest soup, mooncake with egg and Chrysanthemum tea. Gaudy, cacaphonous Chinatown, with its sights and smells and sounds, was an experience I will never forget. It is here where the story of "Flower Drum Song" unfolds.

Since my Chinese love story ended badly, the song "Love Look Away" always held special meaning for me. In the video below, a star of the modern production, Lea Salonga (a lovely Filipina), sings two songs. The first is "I Enjoy Being a Girl." (I suspect that, if Pamela Geller had a theme song, this would be it.) The second is "Love Look Away." Enjoy.

We Died, They Rejoiced

The Jawa Report has an article about the father of a U.S. Sailor who died aboard the U.S.S. Cole as a result of a Muslim bomb attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Jawa reports:

Jesse Nieto, a 25-year Marine veteran, has been banned because of displaying “offensive material" such as decals which say “Remember the Cole, 12 Oct 2000,” “Islam=Terrorism” and “We Died, They Rejoiced.”

The graphic at the left is one of the decals that Nieto displays in the rear window of his car. I recreated it with Xara X.

It's getting pretty bad when a Marine vet can't avail himself of the freedom of speech his own son died for.

Feel free to copy Mr. Nieto's graphic above and display it to your heart's content.

Election Post-Mortem: Are We All the Fat Guy in "Deliverance"?

Blogging has seemed less urgent since the presidential election has concluded. Now we are just waiting for Obama and the new and bigger majority of Democrats to take power. Once they do, changes will be rapid. Think of the barbarians sacking Rome, breaking into the wine stash, carrying away golden goblets and screaming maidens. Yes, it will be something like that.

There will be a move towards shoring up the auto industry. The auto industry is slowly dying of union-inflicted wounds, namely the outrageously high pension plans and post-retirement benefits for its many workers. These burdens were forced on the auto makers by the unions, when times were good and the auto makers could afford them; but now that the economy is in a nose-dive, those fixed costs are eating GM, Ford and Chrysler alive.

So if the Dems bail out the auto makers, they are actually bailing out their own voting constituents, i.e., over-indulged and overpaid union retirees. Unions. Outrageous benefits. Bankrupted companies. Recessions. Democrats. Beginning to sense a pattern here?

Hmm, come to think of it, my own state of Fruits and Nuts, also known as California, has the same problem: they are largely bankrupt from lavish retirement programs for state employees who are (surprise!) represented by militant unions.

President Bush wants to make our ally Colombia a trading partner with the United States; Obama does not. Why? Because unions aren't as ruthlessly strong in Colombia and some over-harried, overtaxed American companies may want to export jobs there so they can actually make a profit. American unions would rather those companies stay here where they can be more easily fleeced.

The American public is about to get the fat guy-in-Deliverance treatment. If you saw "Deliverance," remember the fat guy who was made to strip and get down on all fours? He was made to squeal like a pig while some homosexual hillbilly violated him.

Squeal piggies, squeal! Wheeeooo! Wheeeooo!

The Dems will tell you they are just making love to you. Oh please! Don't try to make something dirty out of it, it's a beautiful thing. You're not losing your freedoms, you're gaining security...well, security except for entrepreneurs, businessmen and capitalists. But then again, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.

If you're one of the eggs, tough luck.

Election Post-Mortems

Everyone seems to have a different idea of why McCain lost the election. My feeling is that McCain was headed towards a win until the financial melt-down occurred. That was the largest factor in his defeat.

A worried and angry electorate assigned blame to the party in power and voted for their opposites. This financial disaster was a godsend for Obama - it saved his campaign and assured his victory.

The blame, of course, belongs with the Democrats, but most Americans don't care about facts or history; they just want to vent their spleens at the ballot box. For these Americans, voting is largely emotional, not intellectual, and it is a big mistake to overestimate the impact of the latter on a given election.

The second biggest factor in McCain's defeat was McCain himself. McCain is a moderate who believes in many Democrat myths, like man-made global warming; he has sided with the Democrats a number of times to the detriment of his own party. Consequently, the conservative base of the Republican Party did not like him or trust him. He almost reversed this by selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate, but soon reverted to being McCain: ideologically ambiguous, lacking in ideological rigor and certitude about the rightness of his own cause. His ambivalent feelings about conservatism were obvious in his lackluster debates and stump speeches, and in his unwillingness to attack Obama on his radical associations and beliefs.

Most Republicans did not so much vote for McCain as they were voting against Obama. That kind of campaign is always weak. A far stronger campaign is one in which the base has a deep belief in their man and his principles (as they did for Reagan). That was not the case for the GOP candidate in this election.

In sum: we lost this election for two major reasons: (1) the sudden tanking of the economy six weeks before the election and (2) the lack of ideological rigor and moral clarity of our candidate.

There were other contributing factors, of course, but the above two are the major ones. Contributing factors include (1) the cyclical nature of politics following eight years of GOP rule, (2) the complete abandonment of objectivity and journalistic standards by the mainstream media and (3) Obama's youth, vigor and self-assurance combined with the historic nature of his candidacy.

That's it. Don't overthink the election. It's time to start thinking about the next one.

Smiling Bali Terrorist Executed But Still Smiling

The Smiling Terrorist of "Bali Bombing" fame was executed yesterday by firing squad in Indonesia.
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The terrorist, Amrozi Nurhasyim, was famous for smiling throughout his trial and expressed joy at being sentenced to death for the crime.
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Presumably, Nurhasyim is frolicking in Heaven with his 72 virgins, rewarded by the Great God Allah who enthusiastically approves of mass murder of strangers for any reason whatsoever. Ignorant and intolerant Westerners don't appreciate this cultural aspect of Islam and insisted on Nurhasyim's execution. No doubt, racism was a major factor.
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Nurhasyim had the last laugh before departing for that Big Bordello in the Sky by smiling broadly both before and after the execution.
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In a few months, Nurhasyim's smile will be broader still but you'll have to dig him up to see it.

Click on image to see it full size.

Old Boats and the Lonely Shore

There's something fascinating about an old boat on a lonely beach. Often their proud names, painted on the bow, are still visible and seem ironic in light of the boat's present state of decay. Names like "Discovery" or "Adventure" or "Enterprise."

I saw a photo (see below) of one such boat decaying on a beach in Alaska. It's name was "Try Again II." Maybe it should Try Again III since it's obvious the first two tries didn't work out.

These old boats are very photogenic, like the old rotting barns so popular with photographers. They give us a sense of passing time. What was once beautiful and proud is now dilapidated and abandoned, transformed by the forces of time and circumstance. In musing upon these relics we are made to realize that our lives too will pass away and new generations arise to take our place. Let us sail proudly and productively while we can.

Above photo is a Photoshop that I created from images off the web, combined into a new image. The grass is from a Photoshop brush. Click on image to see it full size. It makes a nice Windows desktop background.

Below is the photo of the Try Again II.

Yes, we will try again...until we get it right.

On the Good Ship USS Obama

The American Ship of State, after four years of Obama.

For Broken-Hearted Conservatives: Roll With the Changes

Some common sense from Pajama Media news chief, VRWC Network's John Galt.

The Tide Rolls Out But Will Roll Back In Again

Some advice to depressed conservatives and Republicans: keep this election in perspective. Politics is cyclical. The tide has rolled out but it will roll back in again.

Back on October 3rd my subconscious served up an epiphany. My gut told me that Obama would win the election, in fact, that it was a done deal. I wrote:

My intuition is often very accurate. This morning when I woke up, I had a strong feeling of certitude that we Republicans are going to lose this election and that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. It wasn’t a panicky feeling or a worried feeling or a feeling of fear, it was a calm realization, an inner knowing. It told me in a quiet but clear voice that the election is lost. The inner voice presented it to me as a done deal.

The reason is simple. Americans just get tired of the same brand, the same color, the same style and want to make a change. It’s a gamble that they are willing to take, that some way, somehow, someone new may have the answers to the country’s ills just as he promises. They just want a change, and not for any deep political or philosophical reasons, but as a simple reaction to boredom. That's the main reason Hillary lost to Obama. The public is tired of hearing about the Clintons. It's an old book that they've read before.

It’s as if they (the voters) have been driving a blue car for eight years and now want to buy a green one or a red one. After having been on a diet of bland food for eight years, they decide to throw caution to the wind and eat a banana cream pie. Whole. Screw it, they say, I’ll worry about the consequences tomorrow.

This need for change, any change, even potentially dangerous or harmful change, is somehow buried deep in the psyche of humans and is not entirely rational.

With the election of Obama, many Americans have purchased optimism and "hope," but their feelings of elation will be temporary. The collectivist agenda that Obama has promised always, always damages an economy and makes it much harder for ordinary citizens to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, we Republicans needed this route. Our elected officials failed us miserably, opting to trade Republican principles for longevity (or so they thought) in office. Karl Rove, they say, had a plan to make the Republican Party the permanent majority party...by becoming a carbon copy of the Democratic Party. Millions of Republicans stayed home during the mid-term elections of 2006. We don't want to exchange liberals with a D after their name for liberals with an R after their name. We are not seeking a different brand of arsenic with which to sweeten our coffee.

We have the opportunity to rebuild on a stronger foundation. Let's make good use of it. So buck up. Somehow we will find a way to muddle through.

As for watching the tide roll in and out, Otis Redding did a pretty good job of that. See the video below.

A Pox on the "Moderates"

In my next few essays, I will explore the types of candidates and issues the GOP must support in order to retake the United States from the Socialist Democrats.

Let's take the issue of "moderates." Moderates are pitched by the media as being cool-headed voters and politicians who avoid the hot-headed extremes of left and right, who are open to compromise and negotiation, who can see both sides of every issue and take a measured, thoughtful and reasoned approach to every question. There is an implication that if you aren't a "moderate" you must be a mindless zealot or fanatic.

What a crock. Moderates are indecisive, uninformed, ambivalent voters and politicians who can't make up their minds on any issue. They are fence-sitters without core beliefs or commitment to any real political philosophy. They are subject to the whims of political fads, hype and hoopla. Our goal in the GOP should not be to "appeal to the moderates," as if moderates have any specific view (their views are all over the map). Our goal with regard to moderates should be to convert them to full conservatism. Our strategy should not be to court them by appealing to their vanity as "reasoned" voters. Rather, we should seek to expose them for what they are, intellectually lazy individuals whose loyalties are subject to whatever political winds that blow.

For the record, both George W. Bush and John McCain are "moderate" Republicans. Neither has served or defended the Party well.

As John Hawkins at Right Wing News puts it:

It's worth noting that there is no "moderate" political party in the United States. When the American people go to the ballot box, we have a center-right nation choosing between the Republican Party and radical, left-wing socialists. A competent, conservative Republican Party will not only be more representative of its core supporters, it will win at the ballot box when it goes head to head with liberals. Look back to Reagan and the 1994 Revolution to see that principle in action. Now, look to 2006 and 2008 to see how an incompetent, "moderate" Republican Party does at the ballot box.

"Moderate" Republicans are those without a deep belief in the principles of their party and, in a fight, are unable or unwilling to defend them. That, no doubt, explains McCain's tepid performance engaging Obama in debate.

It also explains why Sarah Palin has a future in the GOP and the McCain staffers, who are now falsely blaming her for the defeat, do not.

Tomorrow We Begin Again

Elect Obama? Don't Do It, America

There is something very strange about Obama and the Democrats. They seem to instinctively know what is bad for freedom and prosperity and rush to embrace it.

Barack Obama has openly bragged that his cap and trade energy policies will send energy prices through the roof; that high taxation may reduce tax revenues (by eroding the tax base), but that it is nevertheless needed to achieve "fairness"; that he will slash the military budget by 25% and assume the posture of a pacifist-appeaser in facing the world's bullies.

America under Obama will be less free, less prosperous and less secure. The lives of ordinary Americans will be worse, not better.
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Socialism, i.e. "sharing the wealth" is an old fraud that has been tried in many times and many places and always results in less prosperity and financial security. But it sounds so good on paper! Some people have "too much" wealth, and others not enough; therefore, let's take the excess from the rich ones and give it to the poor ones, and then no one will be poor! It doesn't work, because an economy is not a static system and it doesn't take human nature into account.

When you steal the economic rewards from those who produce the goods and services, they stop producing or produce less; they stop investing, they stop taking the risks that an economy needs to grow, and they employ fewer people. When you give the stolen wealth to the non-producers, they lose any incentive to grow the skills, attitudes and work ethic necessary to move up the economic ladder. In other words, the population of producers decreases while non-producers increase and the economy goes steadily down hill.

Every college sophomore in every generation comes up with the same bright idea about the wonderful effects of wealth redistribution. It sounds so good. Utterly naive, they believe that no one else in the long sweep of history has ever had the same idea. The immature idealists in every generation want to start all over again and insist on proving it for themselves, taking all of us along with them on the same terrible ride. Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. Unfortunately, they make the rest of us repeat it as well, whether we want to or not.

The politically immature are with us always - they're called liberals, they're called Democrats.

America is in a strange place, politically. A strange confluence of many factors have created a historic opportunity for the far left to take over America and they are poised to do so. The result will be a form of national suicide.

Don't do it, America.

A Second American Civil War?

The Gallup poll today has Obama back in the lead at 146% to -86% over McCain. Or something like that. Apparently, the American people can't wait to elect a corrupt, ignorant and America-hating Marxist. That'll sure solve all of our problems.

I wonder if the Democrat Party has finally and irreversibly rendered the compact between the states inoperable. Has the basis for the Union been fatally damaged? Can the United States of America continue as it was designed by the founding fathers? Personally, I have my doubts. I don't know about you, but that's not the America my forefathers fought for, not the America I inherited or the one I want to leave to my children and grandchildren.

If Obama is elected, options for resistance to a new socialist, extreme left rule must be considered and discussed. Those options include secession, nullification of federal laws by individual states, and civil disobedience to Supreme Court edicts that undermine rather than express the intent of the Constitution.

Some feminist liberal idiot wrote this week that if Obama is not elected, there will be a second American civil war and that "blood will run in the streets." That's fine with me. Bring it on, bitches. I've got my Civil War musket ready, an 1856 Enfield rifled musket. I just need to buy some minie balls and I'm still looking for my Confederate kepi. But I'll be ready. Count on it.