Sebelius Pays $7,000 in Back Taxes: So What?

This story just in from the AP:

WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently
corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes
after finding "unintentional errors" — the latest tax troubles for an Obama
administration nominee. The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in
a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved
charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.

It seems the "errors" she made on her charitable contributions and business expenses were limited to a lack of documentation. That's no big deal -- if I lost my documentation but knew I had made the expenditures, I'd take the deduction. The tax rules aren't set in stone -- that's why they have an active tax court, and sometimes you can justify expenditures with other evidence or you can seek to obtain copies of the required documentation. Often, you can negotiate with the IRS.

Taking a deduction for mortgage interest on a house she had sold seems odd. Usually a taxpayer receives a form 1098 from the mortgage company stating the amount of interest paid for the year in question. It's hard to make a mistake because of this. However, if the seller financed the sale to Sebelius, the latter wouldn't receive a form 1098 and it would be easier to make a mistake.

I imagine that $7,000 in back taxes for a woman in her tax bracket is rather insignificant, especially since it represents three years worth of returns. As a financial professional who actually does tax returns, I am not offended in the least by this.

Making a mistake does not make Sebelius a "tax cheat." It is silly for us conservatives to make an issue of this, though if the tables were turned, the Dems would broadcast it to the world and put the dirtiest spin on it imaginable. Just because they are Machiavellian doesn't mean we have to be. Besides, we have much bigger fish to fry.

Via Memeorandum

Via Yahoo News

Songs To Fall In Love To: "The Way You Look Tonight"

It was two years ago now that Rod Stewart, a funky old Rock star, changed his tune and began singing great musical classics from "the Great American Songbook." These are songs that were written from the 1920s through the early 1960's by great writers like George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington and many others.

These songs are incredibly romantic and conjure up visions of full orchestras with string and brass sections, musicians in tuxedos, well-dressed men and women dancing. I love this genre of music. Think of Bob Hope singing "Thanks for the Memory" or Louis Armstrong singing "As Time Goes By." The list of great songs includes "Deep Purple," "I'm In the Mood for Love," "Moon Glow," "Sentimental Journey," "Makin' Whoopee" and many others.

Stewart produced five albums of this music and I bought all of them. Throw away your image of Stewart as the edgy rocker singing "Do You Think I'm Sexy." His dusky voice in these recordings captures the original spirit and feeling of these songs. I highly recommend his "Great American Songbook" series. This guy can actually sing.

Here's one of those songs, "The Way You Look Tonight." Think of that special girl you took to the Senior Prom and how blown away you were when you came to pick her up...and saw her more beautiful than you had ever seen her before.

This is why I want to play the old-fashioned upright string bass. I want to be a part of music like this.

The Dirty Online War Against Conservatives

Andrew Breitbart at the Washington Times discusses the online dirty tricks practiced and perfected by Democrat activists in the age of the Internet. In an article entitled Rules for Conservative Radicals he writes:

A digital war has broken out, and the conservative movement is losing. Read the comment sections of right-leaning blogs, news sites and social forums, and the evidence is there in ugly abundance. Internet hooligans are spewing their talking points to thwart the dissent of the newly-out-of-power.

We must not let that go unanswered.

Breitbart talks about the "Republican" imposters who call conservative talk shows pretending to be lifelong conservatives who are suddenly disgusted by the latest actions of their own party. They aren't Republicans. They are posers pretending to be conservatives to sow dissension in the ranks. They were first seen during the presidency of Bill Clinton when "seminar callers" would attempt to call the Rush Limbaugh show posing as Republicans who were "outraged" over the impeachment of Clinton.

Other leftist activists have targeted conservative websites and blogs with preplanned hostile commentary for the same purpose. They are commonly called "Internet trolls" who invade conservative sites under false pretenses in order to derail discussion or to shut it down by the sheer volume of their attack. Breitbart notes:

Uninvited Democratic activists are on a mission to demoralize the enemy - us. They want to ensure that President Obama is not subject to the same coordinated, facts-be-damned, multimedia takedown they employed over eight long years to destroy the presidency - and the humanity - of George W. Bush.

Breitbart notes that some conservative websites have shut off the comments section so they won't have to deal with these coordinated troll attacks.

It's important for us to understand our enemy and his tactics. Do read the article here.

Hat tip: memeorandum

Related Post: Andrew Breitbart Shows Why He's Becoming One of the Most Important Columnists in America Today In this post, Stacy McCain explains some leftist strategems and tactics and it is very worthwhile reading.

Gitmo Torture Techniques In Revealing Video!

Now this is really disgusting. How could such things happen in America? Okay, well, not in America, but in Guantanamo Bay, which is part of Cuba.

I saw this video and knew at once I had to switch from right to left and join the Democratic Underground. My eyes have been opened!

The Qur'an Challenge: Does Reading It Change Your Opinion of Islam?

Another great video from comedian Steven Crowder. I am really becoming a fan of this guy. Hat tip Creeping Sharia blog.

Stirring Image of the Funeral of Four Slain Police Officers

I got this photo off of Melanie Morgan's blog. It shows some of the many police officers who attended the Friday funeral of the four Oakland Police officers who were gunned down last week by a convict on parole.

In a previous post, I excoriated, quite rightfully, the radical black underclass swine who held a party to honor the murderer. They, like murderer Lovelle Mixon, are scum.

However, look at this picture of the officers attending the funeral. A large number of them are black. They are the black heroes of our time who threw their lot in with civilization, order, safe streets and upholding the law. They are our brothers and I thank them for their service.

It could just as easily have been black officers who were shot by that scumbag. I wonder if the underclass racists would have still held a celebration for the perp? Probably so.

Related article: A former New York City Police Officer describes the enormity of the tragedy and also condemns the scum who honored the murderer.

Lots of Visitors Are Looking for Christine Collins Photos

Sitemeter shows that I am getting a lot of visitors who are googling photos of Christine Collins, subject of the Angelina Jolie film "The Changeling." As my posts on the subject have moved up the Google ranks, more and more people are finding the photos.

To assist visitors in finding all relevant posts, here are the links:

More Photos of Christine Collins

Photoshop: Christine Collins Photo Repaired

The Changeling, An Excellent Film Directed by Clint Eastwood

Pro Terrorist Propaganda from Cartoonist Pat Oliphant

Pat Oliphant, a mindless shill for the Far Left, has published a truly disgusting, pro-Jihadi piece of propaganda in the form of a cartoon.

This piece of propaganda is discussed at the Corner here.

Yes, the Islamic terrorists will no doubt dessiminate this anti-semitic propaganda throughout the Muslim world and it will encourage them to keep killing Jews. Are you really that stupid Pat? Are you really that blinded by your Far Left ideology?

I have marked up Oliphant's cartoon and labeled it for what it is, Propaganda. If you want to run this cartoon on your blog or website, use this marked-up version so it can't be copied and used to further terrorism in other parts of the world.

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FUCK YOU, Pat Oliphant. And whatever syndicate publishes your trash.

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See related post at Israel Insider.

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See related post at the Jewish Journal.

Groovin' on the Upright Bass

I reported some time back that I am learning to play the upright bass (see picture of an upright bass). I am amazed and pleased to see a lot of progress in my mastery of this instrument.

I love many music styles, including rock, bluegrass, country & western and rhythm & blues. However, the genre I am looking to learn is jazz. Jazz gives maximum opportunity to improvise, but improvisation isn't as easy as it sounds -- where just play any darn thing that pops into your head. Being able to improvise requires a sound knowledge of scales and chords. What you are playing must resonate harmoniously with the key and chords of the song you are performing. You can't just play anything. It has to fit.

I have been practicing scales (do re mi fa so la ti do) in every key, for both major, minor and dominant 7th scales, as well as arpeggios (chords, which involve only select notes in the scale). If you want to learn bass, you have to practice your scales a million times each, until you could jump out of an airplane at 5,000 feet and rip through all of them before your parachute opens. Well, to be honest I am not going to test my knowledge this way.

Practicing scales allows you to exercise your fingers, using the right fingers at the right time for maximum reach, dexterity and tonal quality. It also greatly trains your ear and creates something called muscle memory -- you know where on the finger board to press without thinking about it; it's instantaneous.

Playing scales is only part of your ear training, however. You need to listen often to the music you want to learn. I play jazz CDs in my car going to and from work, with the bass speaker turned up and the treble speaker turned down so I can clearly hear every pop, twang and hum of the bass. I want to hear these bass lines in my head when the music is turned off and now I can.

So after doing all this for awhile, when you hear a jazz tune and are familiar with jazz chord patterns, like minor blues patterns, you know what to play instantly.

I'm using some CDs created for training jazz muscians. They are produced by a guy named Jamey Aebersold. Each CD comes with a book of the music so you can follow the chord patterns. This week I played the Minor Blues in II-V7-I pattern, took my bass out of the stand and...played the music almost perfectly on the first try. I was truly amazed. So regular practice actually works! Who would have guessed?

So to sum it all up, to play an instrument you must (1) learn what the music is supposed to sound like and (2) learn to make those sounds! Simple. Well, not really, you have to be willing to work and be patient.

I've also taught myself to read notes in the bass clef and that comes in handy when learning patterns and tunes from a book. Dang, I be a musician, Bro!

The Obama Song Video

And now for something a bit more upbeat. This song by comedian Steven Crowder is quite funny and it's making the rounds of the conservative blogosphere. Hat tip No Sheeples.

Unbelievable: Blacks Hold Memorial Service for Oakland Cop Killer

They buried four Oakland Police officers today. They were murdered by a black convict who was in violation of his parole. The murderer, the perp, was sought by police for abducting and raping a minor girl. Other police shot the bastard dead. Unbelievably, some blacks in Oakland thought the murderer a hero and threw a party in his honor.

New American Media apologizes for the killer, Lovelle Mixon. They write:

The killing of four police officers in Oakland shows the desperation of an
ex-felon. Lovelle Mixon was trying to avoid going back to jail and at the same
time unable to find any employment that would give him a second chance.

Oh, poor little murderer. He just wanted a second chance, so he shot four cops. Well, why didn't you say so? That's a horse of a different color altogether! I didn't realize how sensitive Mixon was. He was just frustrated! And I just thought he was an animalistic scumbag. He probably just needed a hug.

No, the killings don't show the "frustration" of an ex-felon, they show what a complete waste of a human being he was. His plan worked, however. He's dead and so won't be going back to prison.

Rush describes Mixon like this: "He was a parolee. He had spent lots of times behind bars, a genuine bad actor, genuine bad actor. He gunned down four cops and they threw a party in Oakland, California, to honor the perp."

Some of the individuals honoring Mixon called him a "hero." Hero my ass. They should dig the bastard up and shoot him again.

Related Post: Oakland: 21,000 Turn Out To Mourn Slain Officers

Michele Bachmann: You Da Lady

Michele Bachmann, R-MN, is a heroine when one is sorely needed.

The Left is in a faux tizzy because she told the truth about their new god, Obama: that he's leading us down the path to economic Marxism. She also said that we have to firmly resist Obama's initiatives, to in effect carry out "an orderly revolution."

That one really sent the moonbats into orbit. Way to shake 'em up, Michele! You da lady!

The South Will Rise Again: Individual States Assert Sovereignty

Twenty-eight states have now introduced resolutions affirming state sovereignty in light of President Obama's stimulus initiatives. The resolutions have passed in four states, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota and Oklahoma.

An article in the Christian Science Monitor quotes state Rep Michael Pitt of South Carolina, who says "Washington can be a bully, but there's evidence right now that there are people willing to resist our bully." That resistance is taking the form of a state sovereignty movement that the Monitor says is "by no means frivolous and could have significant political firepower."

Pitt's concluding observations are somewhat chilling. He says: "...this is a wake-up call. And if Washington doesn't heed that wake-up call, revolution is on the horizon."

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Read it all here.

This movement has at least one website, the Tenth Amendment Center.

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Pitt isn't the only politician bringing up the R word (revolution). Republican Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on the Sean Hannity show to "reiterate her calls for revolution in America," noting that Obama is leading the nation down the path of "economic Marxism."

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Great minds think alike. See my original post along the same idea.

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So let's sum it all up: almost three months into his presidency, Obama has inspired Boston-style tea parties throughout the United States, a new states rights movement and open discussions of revolution. People are very afraid of Obama's agenda and resistance appears to be building quickly and openly.

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Hat tip: Bro

Europe Losing Faith in Obama "He Faces a Public Relations Disaster"

According to Fox News, there is a growing impression across Europe that the Obama administration is inept and inefficient and increasingly poorly managed.

"I think as the president heads to Europe, he faces a huge public relations disaster," said Nile Gardiner, director of the conservative Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. "Europe is increasingly turning against his massive spending plans, which most European leaders see as a destructive way to move forward for the global economy and will only add to a massive American debt burden," Gardiner told FOXNews.com.

Read it all here.

Gee, there must have been something to those GOP charges that Obama didn't have the requisite experience to be President. And you thought it was just campaign rhetoric.

AIG Exec Resignation Letter Published by the NY Times

The New York Times has published AIG executive Jake DeSantis's resignation letter to AIG.

DeSantis was one of the AIG executives who received one of the bonuses that the mindless mob is now screaming about. However, DeSantis's resignation letter makes important facts clear that the clamoring airheads don't know or even care about. Some of those facts are as follows:

1. Neither DeSantis nor any of the other execs receiving the bonuses had anything to do with AIG's insolvency, which was the result of the credit-default swaps business. They were members of the Financial Products Division, which was profitable.

2. DeSantis reports working 10 to 14 hours a day while receiving a token salary of $1 per year duing the financial crisis; that he and other execs working long hours away from their families were promised those bonuses as a result of their hard work; and now they have been thrown under the bus by the leaders of AIG. DeSantis writes:

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly
supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit
default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many
others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of
deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those
losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity
— directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

DeSantis's comments and the facts he presents makes it clear how shallow and irrational the reaction of so many members of the press and public. According to many, these execs were supposed to work long hours for many months for nothing, even though their lines of business were profitable and they had nothing to do with that portion of the business that was hemorrhaging money.

Now don't you libbies feel like complete morons? You should.

Powerline has a great article entitled When They Came For AIG. Read it.

BREAKING NEWS: Teleprompter Found In Obama's Bedroom

The White House maid service has reported finding a teleprompter bolted to the headboard of the Presidential matrimonial bed in the living quarters of the White House. It had been left on. The words on it were: "Oooh. Aaah. MMMM. Was it good for you?"

More as the story develops.

Geithner Seeks Unprecedented Power to Seize Businesses

The borders between the federal government and private enterprise are being rapidly erased.

From Fox News:

Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner asked Congress Tuesday to give the White House unprecedented powers to seize large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, leaping beyond its present authority to seize only banks.

Geithner argued for such authority during the House Financial Services Committee's hearing on the handling of bonuses paid to executives at American International Group [AIG].

Read it all.

In the name of saving the economy, the Obama Administration is seizing the economy. The financial crisis is being used as an excuse to convert the nation to socialism as rapidly as possible, before the public realizes it's even happening.

Quote of the Day Re: the Barack Obama Economy

The quote of the day regarding the Obama economy has to be from The Other McCain:

We are looking at an ill-designed house of cards on top of a Ponzi scheme erected over the San Andreas Fault. The question is not whether disaster will result, but when.

Barack Obama's poll numbers continue to plunge as the public begins to realize that there's no one driving the train. We're on a steep downgrade and we've lost our airbrakes. Meanwhile, the conductor got off two stops back to have a cold beer and regale fellow bar patrons with stories about hope and change.

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Photo credit: Image from the Orlando Tea Party, via Libertarian Republican and Moonbattery.

Barack Obama: Naive, Ignorant and Dangerously Incompetent

Barack Obama is the biggest jackass to insult the office of the Presidency since Jimmy Carter. What we said about him in the presidential campaign has proven completely true. He is naive, ignorant, inexperienced, and burdened with a radical left ideology that simply doesn't work in the real world. However, his massive shortcomings are exacerbated by his massive ego, fantasies and delusions. He is every bit the bad news we told you he would be, America; but in your self-delusion, you voted for the asshole anyway.

Scott Johnson at Power Line expresses it well in his post today, "Why I Am Depressed." He writes of Barack Obama

I am depressed because the president of the United States is a fool who will immiserate us, render us wards of the state and lose us our life and liberty to those [Iranian Mullas] who understand what they are about.

The president of the United States is a fool says everything that needs to be said. Those who voted for him are fools too, but that's already obvious.

Image courtesy of Totus Blog.

Freedom Ain't Free: American Tea Party Anthem

This was passed on to me by Infidel Bloggers Alliance. It's a swinging song with a gospel beat and all the energy and joy thereof. It was written by a black patriot, Lloyd Marcus. IBA is hoping it will go viral so do feel free to repost it on your own site.

America: Regarding AIG - You're Full of It

My son, who works for AIG, came home from Los Angeles for the weekend. He knows all of the inner workings and facts about AIG and is heartily pissed off about the public brouhaha over the bonuses.

Some asshat in the media heard about some AIG executives getting paid 165 million dollars in bonuses and, oh, ain't it awful. Obviously, these greedy and irresponsible cigar-chomping, brandy-swizzling fatcats took their huge check from the government and immediately divided up the spoils. No doubt they twirled the ends of their Snidely Whiplash mustaches, snickered and said to America "Thanks Suckers! Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa!"

Joe Sixpack and Harry Hardhat did an immediate boil-over; "kill those executives! Kill them we say!"

Only it didn't really happen that way. But why didn't the Democrats speak up and set the record straight? The answer is simple: when the people are mightily pissed off, you don't risk making it worse by telling them they're wrong. Even when they are.

Democrat politicians, being moral cowards who live and die by polls and the direction of political winds, immediately expressed faux moral outrage and planned retroactive tax legislation that would tax the bonuses at 90% (it's unconstitutional -- something known as ex post facto law). Instead of telling the American people they had it all wrong, the Dems merely went along, tossed hither and yon by the prevailing currents of public opinion. The safe thing would be to deny knowledge of the bonuses (they knew) or approval (they approved them). Better to fake moral outrage, surprise and anger.

The truth is, those executives had bonus contracts in place before the downturn and before the bail-out. They have as much of a legal right to their contractual payments as does any vendor -- the landlord who owns the office building, the employees who get the paychecks, the insurance producers who get the commissions. Without getting paid, talent disappears quite quickly. The public anger is born of ignorance and a false impression of what actually happened, reinforced by cowardly politicians who won't risk the backlash of telling an unpopular truth. So an American corporation is now the target of a smear campaign and intense negative publicity.

My son tells me that the AIG office building in Los Angeles is encircled now by unmarked police cars, to protect the executives. The bad publicity has resulted in AIG losing millions of dollars in business and revenues as companies and individuals take their business elsewhere.

So let's see -- billions of dollars in loans to save AIG from a terrible economy that was created by government (in the subprime mortgage imbroglio); and now falsely denouncing AIG and punishing it for honoring its contractual obligations, with the result that talented excutives will go elsewhere where they can get paid, and insurance business will go elsewhere to avoid fallout from the negative publicity. Now AIG may fail because of it. And those billions in loans will never be paid back at all.

Way to shoot yourself in the foot, America.

See a related article at The Other McCain: MSNBC Omits Facts on AIG Protests.

The Real Robert Stacy McCain Stands Up

Frankly I was a bit disappointed when I read that an old online ally of mine, Robert Stacy McCain, began advocating "blog whoring" and cheesecake as a way to increase your blog hits. McCain is a serious writer and thinker and need not resort to such fluff.

Today the real Stacy McCain (which is what we, his older bunch of friends, are used to calling him) stood up. He has posted a great article about two heros of mine, one being Rush Limbaugh and the other General George S. Patton.

Lately the Democrats have been trying to "take out Rush" by smearing him; that's nothing new -- they've been trying it for years and it always blows up in their dishonest, lying faces. All their efforts have done is to demonstrate the Democrats' basic personal dishonesty and Machiavellian bent.

Stacy writes:

There is an entire mini-industry of Limbaugh monitors, vile little left-wing worms who spend three hours a day recording and transcribing his broadcasts in hope of catching that one "gotcha" quote. (Pathetic, isn't it?)

These nests of vermin specialize in the Ransom-Note Method of partial quotation, claiming to be "fact-checking" Limbaugh's monologues when in fact they're just partisan smearmongers. And then there is the standing offer of a handsome fee for a Newsweek cover story available to any Republican who will denounce Rush. So the man is always a target, always the object of the withering gaze of critical scrutiny.

Do I agree with everything Rush Limbaugh has ever said? What kind of question is that? The point is that Rush "is a man, you know," as the driver of Fairway Cab No. 1 so succinctly put it at CPAC. Whatever Limbaugh's faults, he has that one redeeming value: Courage to speak out, even when speaking out makes him the target of vicious personal smears.

Read the whole thing here. Be sure to read the story of Patton that follows it.

Thanks Stacy. Cheesecake is a dessert and always goes best when served after a good meal of red meat.

Jamie Glasov Explains: Why the Left is Just Plain Nuts

Note: I previously posted this article under the heading "The Psychological Pathologies of the Far Left." Then I remembered that most Americans voted for Barack Obama and are too dumb to know what that means. So retitled my article in simpler English that means the same thing and have reposted it here.

I started reading my new book last night. It’s by Jamie Glasov and is entitled “United In Hate,” about the coalition between the far left and militant Islam (see my previous post below on the subject). The book is good at explaining the mind set and the psychology of the far left. That mind set includes:

1. Self-hatred or self-loathing, leading to a desire to efface the self, to submerge the individual into the anonymity of the masses where personal identity and responsibility disappear. In the most extreme case, the leftist desires death, especially dying for the cause, as that goal gives him a tremendous sense of significance and purpose.

2. Estrangement from society as a whole, leading to sympathy for antagonistic or hostile systems that the leftist imagines will fulfill all of his psychological needs. Since he hates his own society he is naturally sympathetic to other systems that share his hate.

3. The desire for a political system where the individual will feel validated and empowered and given a feeling of purpose. The most powerful systems thrill him the most, particularly those that engage in mass killing and oppression. By identifying with these systems he attains a vicarious feeling of power. Glasov notes that both Stalin and Mao enjoyed their greatest praise and pilgrimages from western leftists precisely at the peak of their mass murder and oppression.

4. Guilt for being well off. Self-hating leftists imagine themselves to be victims of a society that has failed to provide them with a feeling of fulfillment or purpose; they naturally identify with other “victims.” However, western leftists live in the most prosperous nations on earth, and it is hard to feel like a victim under those circumstances. So they make unreasonable demands on the power structure so they can picket and march and preach hate of the establishment. They especially like to be arrested as this adds to their desired feeling of victimhood.

Glasov takes several key ideas from Eric Hoffer’s classic “The True Believer.” Just understanding the psychology of self-destructive leftists is worth the price of the book. I will write more about this book as I finish it.

My Son Works for AIG and We're Not Giving Back the Damn Bonus

My youngest son works for AIG in Los Angeles. I have a nephew who works for AIG in San Francisco.

What can I get my son to buy me with his million dollar bonus? Well a sea chest of fine cigars would fit the bill. Also, I have my eye on a fully carved upright bass from Romania. A little red sports car would also be cool.

I have advised my son not to return the million dollar bonus, but to instead buy his dear old Pop a bunch of neat stuff.

Then he informed me that, since he's a recent college grad and only in first year at AIG, he didn't get a million dollar bonus. Or any bonus for that matter.

DAMN! What kind of a bail-out is that? Chris Dodd, you incompetent bastard. I can do without the red sportscar and the bass can wait, but I really need those cigars.

United In Hate: Why the Left Loves and Glorifies Tyranny

I just got from Amazon.com my copy of Jamie Glazov's book, "United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror." I also heard Glazov on KSFO radio (San Francisco) talk about the book.

Glazov notes that the Left always supports the tyranny du jour. First they supported Fascism; then Soviet Communism; and today they support violent Islam and Jihad. This is not an exaggeration. Jonah Goldberg, in his book "Liberal Fascism," gives historical facts about the liberal dalliance with fascism in the 1930s (they liked it -- a strong central, socialist government where the interests of the state superseded that of the individual. What's not to like?).

The left's romance with Soviet tyranny is something I observed first hand, having lived through a few decades of that history. Basically, they wanted unilateral disarmament, meaning, we would prove to the Soviets that we loved and trusted them by eliminating or severely reducing our nuclear stockpiles, thus making them feel secure and voila, they would eventually follow suit by reducing their nuclear capability as well. Furthermore, we wouldn't oppose their subversion and conquest of other nations because those nations would be better off under communism anyway. Some idiots even suggested that we send great sums of money to communist third-world despotisms who hated our guts. Sort of like Obama is doing today with regard to Hamas, pledging to send them almost a billion dollars.

Today radical Islam is the new fad. Leftists throughout the West are importing millions of hostile Muslims and changing their laws and customs to suit the newcomers. The Left hates Jews and so admire the fanatical Islamic anti-semitism.

Well, you have to give the left credit. They always support regimes that create millions of smiling faces. Of course, those faces are skulls. See illustration above right.

Glasov points out that liberals greatly admire people and regimes that would surely kill those liberals if they lived under their rule. This would seem to confirm Michael Savage's observation that liberalism is a mental disorder.

On the radio, Glasov said that leftists want to establish a socialist "paradise" on earth and believe that can only be done on the ashes of the existing world. A great, cleansing cataclysm must occur to destroy capitalism and modern civilization; then the new socialist society can be created. In this regard they see militant Islam as a useful tool for that end, one that can help destroy the existing order. Destruction of western civilization brings joy to the leftist heart. It explains why so many of them were so gleeful when the 9/11 attack destroyed 3,000 lives and billions of dollars in property.

Yes, with a little destructive assistance from Islam, socialism can emerge to provide the new paradise. It's nonsense, of course. Socialism destroys human incentive and industrial production; under it millions of people have starved or were exterminated.

Of course, this one attribute -- millions of dead people -- is common to all of the tyrannies that the left has embraced. Millions died under fascism, communism and Islamism. There is no possible hope for a "paradise" under a leftist system. The left wants to eliminate what has worked better than any other system in human history -- capitalism and democracy -- and replace them with a system that has always failed spectacularly in providing either freedom or food.

They will accomplish this over our dead bodies. And that's the plan.

Remembering Charles Schultz and Charlie Brown

I didn't have much to do at work today so I drew this cartoon of Charlie Brown instead. It's a tribute to Charles Schultz, left and Vince Guaraldi, Right. Charlie's the guy in the middle.

Spring is on the way and with spring comes baseball. Kids will don their oversized baseball mitts and head out to the playing field in search of athletic glory.

Charlie Brown was the perpetual loser, never winning a single baseball game. Life gets discouraging at times and we all feel like Charlie Brown on occasion.

I miss him, his creator the great Charles Schulz, and Vince Guaraldi, the jazz artist who wrote so much of the cool music for the television cartoon series.  It sucks to know that there won't be any more Charlie Brown cartoons and there won't be any more Vince Guaraldi jazz.  What we have now is all we're going to get.

What has this got to do with politics and the current events of the day? Not a damn thing. Ain't it great? You'll have to excuse me, I'm a bit bored with it all and in a rather strange mood today.

Helping an Injured, Feral Cat

Yesterday morning I got an early start and was on my way to work. On Frazier Lake Road, just over the line into Santa Clara County, I saw the car in front of me hit a cat. Two feral cats, one black and one gray, were fighting on the side of the road and suddenly both darted in front of the car; it couldn’t stop and hit the gray one. The black one escaped injury. I saw both cats as the car hit them with its right front fender, then both cats dashing to the other side of the road, the black one running and the gray one dragging its paralyzed rear legs behind it as it propelled itself forward with its front feet. I knew at once that the collision had injured the gray cat’s spinal cord and probably broke its back. The black cat ran and squeezed through a fence and disappeared. It seemed to be uninjured.
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I stopped my car and looked for the gray cat, thinking that maybe I could take it to a vet or animal shelter to be put down. I didn’t want to leave it to suffer. The driver of the car that hit them made a U turn and came back and we both looked for the gray cat. It wasn’t immediately visible in the tall weeds by the roadside, so he left. I kept looking and found the cat hiding in the grass. It was a pretty cat with a nice coat, but it hissed at me and tried to drag itself away. It had no where to go, and stopped at a fence alongside the road. I was hoping to pick the cat up and take it somewhere for medical attention. However, though I spoke to it kindly it kept hissing at me, its ears back and its pupils fully dilated. I knew I couldn’t try to pick it up. It would undoubtedly bite and scratch me, and though it didn’t appear to be rabid, I couldn’t take that chance.

I called Mrs. Chomper and asked her to call the Animal Shelter. However, since I was now in Santa Clara County, the San Benito County officials couldn’t act. I gave Mrs. Chomper the precise location of the cat, latitude and longitude, from my GPS system. She called the Santa Clara Animal Shelter and they said they would pick up the cat.

The poor cat couldn’t be saved, not with those injuries (it clearly had a broken back or injured spinal cord), but at least it wasn’t be left to starve or die a slow and miserable death. Poor thing. Sometimes the only thing you can do for an injured animal is to end its suffering.

After work I returned to the place where I had left the cat; I wanted to see if they had indeed picked him up or just left him to suffer. He was gone, however, and I could find no sign of him anywhere in the immediate vicinity. I presume that the Animal Shelter made good on its promise.

I wish I could have done more for that cat, but sometimes you have to acknowledge your limitations.

Both of my pet cats -- one a black, 15 year old cat and the other a five month old tabby kitten -- were both feral cats. My youngest son captured the black cat when it was but a kitten, and my wife bought the new kitten from a private cat rescue society. The kitten had been born under a dumpster four months before. She is a frisky delight, an endless source of comedic antics and purring affection. She is also busily shredding my couch into rags, but that's another story.

I can't save all cats but at least I saved those two (with the help of my family).

I Know Robert Stacy McCain and You Sir, Are No Robert Stacy McCain

Stacy McCain has a popular blog called "The Other McCain." He's a good conservative, great writer, has an excellent sense of humor. Stacy has drawn a lot of attention from the blogosphere by writing an article entitled "How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog." He passed the one million mark on February 15 and decided to share his secrets with the rest of us.

A lot of what he says is obvious on how to get a lot of hits. Run some cheesecake once in a while. Okay. Seek links from big bloggers who can send a lot of traffic your way. And so forth.

The truth is, I love to see my blog hits grow, and this week they have been growing, with each day better than the one before. Even so, at this rate it will take me nine years to pass a million hits. The fact is, I don't want to be a shameless blog whore. It's hard enough just being a regular shameless whore. I write for fun, to vent and to share. I don't even use advertising on my blog, though I may start at some future date. If you are selling advertising, then it really matters how many hits you get, because the number of hits determines the amount of money you make.

I have known Stacy for more than a decade. We were in the Southern Heritage movement together a decade ago. Stacy, Mike Tuggle, I and some other people wanted to give a painting by a Chinese artist to an American Olympic gymnist of Chinese extraction. Stacy sent me the painting and I delivered it to the gymnist, and her crew filmed the presentation. Stacy was actually in the painting, which depicted a group of Confederate soldiers witnessing an immersion style baptism in a river during the Civil War. Stacy had posed in a borrowed uniform as one of the soldiers. He looked quite cool in a butternut jacket and slouch hat.

We were really proud of ourselves for organizing and carrying off that cultural project. Were we smart or what? We were.

At that time, Stacy was a reporter for a local newspaper in the South, but soon moved up to be a reporter for the Washington Times. After he wrote a few articles about communist influences and goals, I knew we really were kindred spirits. He understood the motivations of the Left in the same way I did. Since then his star has continued to rise among conservative writers and bloggers.

Stacy has been fighting the good fight for years, for conservatism and against the Left. He's been an inspiration to me for more than a decade. I wish him well and I hope he continues to write serious articles in addition to the fun stuff at his blog.

As for me...I will continue to write about things that interest me, scare me and piss me off. I don't if that will be enough to get a million hits in less than a year, but for now that's all I really want to do.

Chuck Norris to Run for President...of Texas

Chuck Norris, in his column at World Net Daily, thinks a "Second American Revolution" may be in the offing in light of Obama's incurring "perpetual debt" and giving aid and recognition to Muslim terrorist groups like Hamas. Norris has stated, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, that he might consider running for office: President of Texas. That would have to be after Texas secedes from the Union.

Norris notes that Texas was once a republic on its own, a nation called Texas before it was a state named Texas. Actually there are two states that can claim that distinction, i.e. of being a stand-alone Republic. California is the other. Norris believes that more than one state might secede from the Union rather than go along with the nation that the United States is becoming.

Norris is wrong about one thing -- it would be the third American revolution; the War Between the States was the second, fought over the question of whether any state had the right to secede from the Union. Abraham Lincoln thought not; in that, he was wrong; but what he didn't have to prove in court he enforced on the battlefield. Many Constitutional scholars still believe that states are sovereign bodies with the right to secede. I believe they are correct yet I hope it will never come to that. I'd rather see a less drastic solution.

Obama and the Democrats ought to proceed with great caution. The proliferating "tea parties" accross the country, Obama's plunging popularity and the growth of movements like the Oath-Keepers portend a revolutionary mood. There will be no "road to socialism"; there will be no abrogation of the Second Amendment and no confiscation of private firearms. It doesn't matter how big of a plurality of votes he won in the last election -- Obama may not suspend the Constitution of the United States. The people will not stand for it.

The Oath-Keepers: the Beginnings of Internal Rebellion Against Obama?

A society of members of the military and police have formed to oppose potentially unconstitutional orders and laws passed by Barack Obama and his Democrat supporters. They have listed laws and orders that they will not obey, remaining true to their oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States.

Their blog is http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/.

This is exactly the internal withdrawal of "consent of the governed" that I blogged about earlier. In light of what appears to be a serious historical effort to change the nature of the United States, its Constitution and government, I have argued that it is necessary for individual states to organize and clearly state what they will not allow from the Obama government. The Oath-Keepers are not a state, but a collection of individuals. However, their stance is an important first step at actively resisting the socialization of the United States and the perversion of our Constituton.

The list of laws and orders that the Oath-Keepers will not enforce or obey are as follows:

1. We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey any order to conduct warrantless searches of the American people, their homes, vehicles, papers, or effects - such as warrantless house-to house searches for weapons or persons.

3. We will NOT obey any order to detain American citizens as “unlawful
enemy combatants” or to subject them to trial by military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency”
on a state, or to enter with force into a state, without the express consent and
invitation of that state’s legislature and governor.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts
its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the
compact by which that state entered the Union.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning
them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of
detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign
troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to
“maintain control” during any emergency, or under any other pretext. We will
consider such use of foreign troops against our people to be an invasion and an
act of war.

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American
people, including food and other essential supplies, under any emergency pretext
whatsoever.

10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people
to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a
redress of grievances.

Thank God for the Oath-Keepers. I have added their blog to my list of "must-reads."

Join the Resistance!

An Amazing Coincidence

My nephew, Loco Weed, spent the weekend so I could do his taxes. Between the federal and state, he is getting a refund of $4,843.

By some amazing coincidence, that was also the exact amount of my fee. Who could have guessed?

More Photos of Christine Collins

Excuse my obsessing over Christine Collins. It's just that the photos of her on the web are terrible -- almost all of them appear to have been "Photo-shopped" 1920's style, by attempting to paint in backgrounds that look putrid. For example, look at the original of the top photo that is available on the web. In the photo above left, I just removed the ugly painted background and inserted a nice light shade of gray. In the photo on the right I put in an artificial background, i.e. a 1920's armchair and a 1920's living room decor. It's not original to the photo, but looks very nice. More importantly, it gives you a better sense of the real woman as she was in life. And, (he said modestly) the new background makes the photo good enough to frame.

Same case for the photo below. See the messed up original here. I removed the ghastly painted background and inserted an even shade of gray. I also removed some fading from her face to make it a nice natural even color. Then I inserted the same 1920's background to create a second, more ornate version. This lady loved her cloche hats, necklaces and furs. I suspect she would prefer the Photoshop restorations to the ugly originals.

Anyone blogging about the Changeling or the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders (or anyone else) are free to use these restorations as they see fit. See prior post for one additional restoration.

Okay, I'm done. Thank you for your patience.

Photoshop: Christine Collins Photo Repaired

When I see a photo marred by discoloration or other flaw, I get this desire to repair it in Photoshop. Earlier this week I wrote about the movie "The Changeling" starring Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins, a courageous mom in 1928 who took on the establishment in an effort to find her missing nine year old son.

The photo at the right is an actual picture of the real Christine Collins, who isn't quite as pretty as Angelina Jolie (but who is?). This photo is in several places on the net, but in the form below, in which part of the photo is blocked off as if someone were trying to frame part of the picture.

I removed the ugly frame and restored the photo to what it probably looked like in its original state. I used the clone tool and the healing brush almost exclusively in this effort. Photoshop is fun and a very useful tool. My restoration is in the public domain and free for the use of anyone who wants it.

Update: A reader directed me to the 121 photos of the crime that are available online at the Los Angeles Public Library (go here and put "Northcott" in the search window). Many of the photos there had been similarly defaced. It appears that in those early days of print media, newspapers would "frame" the part of the photo that they wanted to appear in print. In many other cases they would paint in a white background or dark background, depending on the photo, to make the subject stand out and appear more clearly in the news photo. They would also outline the subject (as they did above) for the same purpose, i.e. to make the subject stand out against a similarly colored background.

Top Photo: My Photoshop restoration.

Bottom Photo: Flawed photo found on the web.

Ann Coulter's Most Famous Quote

You frequently see the image at the left on leftist blogs and websites. Apparently, they think this very reasonable suggestion by Ann Coulter is a bad thing. Go figure.

Coulter rightly believes that killing leaders of Muslim countries and converting their minions to a (truly) peaceful religion would bring peace to the world. She's right. A major tenet at the heart of Islam is that Muslims are at war with all mankind and must remain so until we are all Islamic converts. As a survival strategy, converting them to our religion instead doesn't seem a bad bet.

Of course, I'd rather not invade their countries (though killing their leaders is certainly appealing -- thank God for flying drones); we could develop our own energy supplies and leave these barbarians to die on the vine. Who knows, they might invent some great new recipes for sand. Then again, they might have to. Maybe mix it with crude oil and sell it as brownies.

Leftists have a counter plan. Instead of invading Muslim countries, we should organize an invasion of ours through massive immigration of unassimilable, hostile Muslims so they can create huge enclaves in the West, then lobby for institution of Sharia law and censorship of all who object.

Eventually, they will become the major culture in our societies, reducing westerners to a state of dhimmitude. Leftists and libtards are already practicing for this happy state by wearing Muslim scarves, banning truth telling as "hate speech," prosecuting those who speak out at this rapidly developing dhimmitude dilemma, requiring halal food to be served in school cafeterias, and generally making complete asses of themselves. Well, liberals have always made complete asses of themselves; the ascent of Islam as the new tyranny merely gives them new ways of expressing themselves.

In other words, Leftists want us to become Europe.

Abe Lincoln Gets PWNed

It seems that there was a rumor, passed along in a watchmaker's family, that this watchmaker inscribed a secret message in the pocketwatch of Abraham Lincoln. This week the 150 year old rumor was proven true when a museum curator carefully removed the watch's back and observed the golden inner plate.

According to Fox News, the watch had a message all right. It said "Jonathan Dillon April 13 - 1861 -Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date." Another part reads, "Thank God we have a government."

That's interesting as hell. However, I notice the news media didn't report the biggest piece of script engraved on Lincoln's inner watch plate. It read, in large letters, "Jeff Davis." Jeff Davis was the President of the Confederacy.

The mainstream media have claimed that the the watchmaker in 1861 was a Union man and perhaps that's true. However, I doubt it. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy when Fort Sumter was attacked. He was sworn in on February 18, 1861. Therefore it appears the mainstream media got the story all wrong. It appears that the watchmaker was a Confederate sympathizer, not a Union man as they claimed. His comment "Thank God we have a government" most logically refers to the new Confederate government.

So Honest Abe got to walk around with his pocket watch, never knowing he was carrying around the name of his number one enemy. Abe Lincoln had been PWNED.

That's rich. As a Confederate descendant, I heartily approve.

See photo of the watch. Jeff Davis is inscribed on the piece of metal shaped roughly like a sleeve.

With a Wimp in the White House, Watch Out

The world seems to know it can kick sand in the face of our Presidential Weakling, Barack Obama. North Korea is threatening war and yesterday Chinese warships harassed an unarmed US Navy ship on the high seas. The wolves know when a wimp is in the White House and become emboldened and aggressive.

Wimpiness doesn’t bring peace. If anything, it leads to war because the tyrants believe their aggression will go unopposed. Then they go too far and a war begins. Well, hell, it took World War II to get us out of the last depression; perhaps Obama will start World War III to get us out of this one.

Dutch Supreme Court Decision Bodes Well For Geert Wilders

Dutch Freedom Blog has just translated a court decision in the Hague that is relevant to the Geert Wilders case. The Court has cleared a man who publically criticized Islam. Dutch Freedom writes:

In November 2004 [the defendant] had placed a poster before his window with the text: “Stop the Tumour that is Islam”. [I don`t think Wilders ever went that far]. Earlier the same man had been convicted by the District Court and the Court of Appeals in Den Bosch. According to the highest court in the land, there is not sufficient ground for a conviction if someone solely engages in defamation of a religion as such. Whether or not the adherents of a religion feel insulted is irrelevant.

Read the whole thing here.

The key point here is that Wilders didn't defame any religion, he merely told the truth, showing videos of the carnage wrought by Islamic extremists and linking them to key passages in the Qur'an which commands such atrocities.

This does not settle the Geert Wilders case, but it bodes well for him.

WARNING: Muslims(?) Using Fraud to Get Gmail Passwords

I just received a third attempt to obtain my gmail password. The wording of all of these messages is the same and they are a type of phishing attempt. If they can get your password, they can then delete your entire blog. I believe these attempts originate with online jihadis as they always come right after I criticize Islam.

Their phony warning email to me (and my responses in red) are below.

On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 3:32 PM, Gmail Account Team wrote:

Dear Account User

This Email is from Gmail Account Customer Care and we are sending it to every Gmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Gmailmail accounts so we are shutting down some Gmai accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account. Due to the congestion in all Gmail users and removal of all unused Gmail Accounts, Gmaill would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

CONFIRM YOUR IDENTITY BELOW
Gmail ID : stogiechomper
Password : F*CK-ISLAM*
Date of Birth:(6) (6) (66)*
Country: Saudi Arabia

Enter the letter from the Security Image ....... 85730i4

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences. Warning!!!

Thank you for using Gmail !
Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ
The Gmail Team

Nice try, you illiterate bastards. Your lousy spelling and punctuation give you away.

Islamic Extremism on "Gender Mixing" - Incident in Saudi Arabia

A couple of days ago I posted an article about the unnatural and inhuman Muslim practices towards women and "gender mixing." A story in the news today illustrates how true my conclusions were: that Islam is a pathology, not a religion. A 75 year old widow was sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail because a couple of young men were kind enough to deliver her bread to her house. What, do these Saudi jackasses believe the three of them were going to have a drunken orgy? Ridiculous!

CAIRO (AP) - A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

The woman's lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence.

He said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media, and he declined to provide more details about the case. The newspaper Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread at her home in al-Chamil, a city north of the capital, Riyadh.

Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the nephew of Sawadi's late husband, and the other as his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread. The men also were convicted and sentenced to lashes and prison.

Read it all here.

ISLAM: The vileness and sickness of this ideology never ceases to amaze me.

The Changeling, an Excellent Film Directed by Clint Eastwood

This weekend I watched Angelina Jolie portray Christine Collins, the mother of a kidnapped, 9 year old boy, Walter Collins. The film was The Changeling. The tale is a true story and the film sticks pretty close to the actual events. In Los Angeles in 1928, a psychotic pedophile named Gordon Northcott kidnapped and murdered around 20 young boys at a remote ranch in Wineville, California (now Mira Loma). The case came to be called "the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders."

Northcott employed the unwilling assistance of his nephew, Sanford Clark, whom he abducted from his home in Canada. When Sanford Clark's older sister complained to the Los Angeles Police, officers were sent to the ranch to take Clark into protective custody so he could be sent back to Canada. While in custody, Clark told the police about the murders.

The film centers on Christine Collins, and tells, truthfully, how the Los Angeles Police were under public scrutiny for corruption and felt a strong publicity need to find Walter Collins. They found another young boy in Dekalb, Illinois who claimed to be Walter. He wasn't, but the Los Angeles Police pressured Christine to take the boy home, insisting that he was indeed Walter, and had changed in appearance somewhat due to his kidnapping ordeal. Christine complied at first, but kept returning to the Police Department to insist that the boy was not Walter. Captain J.J. Jones of the Los Angeles Police, embarrassed and annoyed by Collins, had her seized and committed to a psychopathic ward on a "Code 12" commitment, which was merely a police device to warehouse problematic individuals. It gave the police dictatorial powers, as they could commit anyone to the ward merely on their say-so, without a warrant or other proof of mental disorder. Collins was kept for five days in the pyschopathic ward and forced to take psychotropic drugs.

Meanwhile, police discovered the remains of several boys at the ranch, most of them buried under the chicken coop, their bodies largely obliterated with lime. Gordon Northcott was convicted and sentenced to die by hanging at San Quentin on October 2, 1930. The film's depiction of the hanging was satisfyingly realistic and included Northcott's actual comments and statements just before the trap door was sprung, leaving his twitching body dangling at the end of the rope. The reality was even more just desserts than the film, however. In real life, Northcott's knees buckled with fear before the trap was sprung, taking the slack out of the rope. The result was that his neck didn't break and it took eleven minutes for him to strangle.

Christine Collins later sued Captain J.J. Jones for false imprisonment in the psychopathic ward. She won the civil suit and a $10,800 judgment against Jones, who never paid it.

Northcott at first admitted to murdering Walter Collins, but later retracted his confession. Walter's body was never identified, leaving Christine to vainly hope for his return for the rest of her life.

The Changeling is set in 1928 Los Angeles and looks and sounds very authentic: the clothes, the cars, the skyline, the trolleys, even the conversation. I love a film that accurately recreates the look and feel of another time.

The Changeling is a fascinating story based on actual events. It is a rare object out of Hollywood these days: a film worth watching.

The Unnatural, Abnormal and Pathological Aspects of Islam

I swiped this photo off of Atlas Shrugs. It shows Muslim women in traditional Muslim garb. It's a disgusting picture.

The most extreme Muslim cultures insist on hiding women's faces, hands, eyes and everything else. So the women have to wear these oppressive, ugly body sacks, as if they were highly contagious lepers. If a man didn't know better, he might mistake them for an overstuffed sofa and sit on them. He would then be stoned to death for illegal contact with a female.

Is this normal behavior? Without the influence of a fanatical religion, would women normally cocoon themselves in body bags? What other religions or cultures in the world practice similar oppression of females? This behavior is extreme by any standard.

And what does it say about Muslim men? That they are so bestial and barbaric that they can't view the face of a fellow human being (who happens to be female) without going apeshit and raping them? What a bunch of juveniles, who lack the self-control and civilizational skills to behave appropriately around unveiled women. Are they men or jackrabbits?

Did God really screw up when he made women? Why did he give them a face anyway, if it is never to be seen? Shouldn't he have covered their faces with long fur so they are not seen? Take a look at the miserable creatures in the photo. Is this what mother nature intended for the female gender?

In most cultures, sexual activity is considered normal. In Islam, it is considered a capital offense outside of marriage. Those who yield to human needs and indulge before marriage may be stoned to death, beheaded or hanged. The Muhammed-endorsed method, however, is stoning. Girls who fall in love with the wrong man can be murdered by their family in a so-called "honor killing." Muslims have developed cruelty and inhumanity to a high form of art.

The genders do not mix socially in Muslim societies and are kept completely segregated, as if being in proximity to one another would somehow detonate an atomic bomb. These practices are sick, perverted, abnormal and inhuman.

Islam is a disgusting "religion" if that's what it is. However, I think it qualifies as a pathology even more so than a religion. They should give it a special section in the medical literature.

Update: A Muslim woman burns her hijab in public to protest this oppression of women.

25 Nonplayable DVDs for the Prime Minister

This past week the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown and family, called on the Obamas in a state visit. They brought impressive gifts, including a pen set in a box made of wood from the HMS Gannet, a 19th century anti-slave British warship, a multi-volume biography on the life of Sir Winston Churchill, and some excellent dresses for the little girls. The Obamas reciprocated by giving gifts of their own. The PM's two sons scored a couple of cheap plastic models of the presidential helicopter. The Prime Minister and his wife received a boxed set of DVDs of famous American movies. I'm not sure, but I think they included "Scooby-Doo, the Movie," "Porky's" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." When you're trying to impress major heads of state, you may as well go all out.

However, what films the collection included is a moot point. As Mark Steyn pointed out at National Review Online, American made DVDs don't even play in British DVD players as they are a different format. But it's the thought that counts. Or in this case, the utter lack of same.

Some people have said the Obamas are "Welcome Back Carter," implying that our new socialist president is very similar to our old socialist president, Jimmy Carter. I remember when the Queen and Queen Mother visited the Carters, Jimmy kissed the Queen Mum on the lips, the only man to do so since her late husband was alive. She wasn't impressed. Personally, I think his slipping her some tongue was just too over the top. And making that loud sucking and popping sound was a bit gross. Think of the sound Bugs Bunny makes when he kisses Elmer Fudd on the lips. Or a bathroom plunger suctioned onto the floor and pulled off by brute force.

And calling people to dinner by yelling "Sooey, Sooey!" That failed to impress as well. The Obamas aren't quite that uncouth. Give them time. They're new.

The next time the Brits want to give deeply meaningful gifts to classless and unappreciative rubes, perhaps they would do better to simply buy them a gift coupon from Wal Mart instead. Not to exceed $50.

Is Barack Obama the New Salvador Allende?

Many, if not most conservatives have concluded that Obama is currently destroying the United States by bankrupting the nation. Some authors have concluded that the Democrats are doing this on purpose to create the conditions needed for transforming the country into a socialist nation.

In any case, Obama is a conservative's worse nightmare. He's a socialist and maybe a Marxist; he comes from a Muslim background, is partial to the Palestinians and hostile to Israel. He is a pro-abortion fanatic. He is anti-military.

Have we reached the point where revolution is justified or required? If not now, when? This is more than a theoretical question, because we as a nation have never had such a leftwing leadership before in our history.

In the dim recesses of history, there have been times when Americans felt they could no longer tolerate the government that oppressed them, and took revolutionary action to resolve it. The first was when the Founding Fathers broke with England, seceded and declared their independence. The second was when the South did the same thing to the Northern states, bringing on the Civil War. We haven't experienced such a cataclysmic event in 148 years and perhaps we are overdue.

Back in the 1970's, a Marxist, Salvador Allende, got himself elected to the presidency of Chile with a minority of the vote (he had more votes than several other candidates, however -- a plurality of 36.2%). Allende than began destroying the economy of Chile, as only a Marxist can do, because they are totally ignorant of even the most basic economics. Allende greatly increased the minimum wage, causing thousands of small businesses to fail and bringing on raging unemployment and inflation. Allende seems like an early version of Barack Obama.

Allende nationalized banking and other industries and socialized the health care system -- sound familiar? Inflation soared, foreign reserves declined and Allende soon announced that Chile would default on its foreign debt. Basic commodities and foodstuffs disappeared from market shelves and waves of strikes began, first by truckers, small businessmen and unions, then by housewives. By September 1973 the military figured it had to act and overthrew Allende in a coup. Good riddance. (Today the leftists claim that Allende's coup was staged by the CIA and that it was American opposition that caused his socialist experiment to fail -- the same old lies and excuses for failed socialism.)

Our indigenous Marxists, the Democrats, should take this lesson of history to heart. Socialism destroys an economy and makes the standard of living much worse for everyone, including the poor. It is a thoroughly discredited system; it has never worked and never can work. Expect your standard of living under Obama to get steadily worse. It will, if his agenda is not stopped.

Perhaps this country can survive the next two years until the next round of Congressional elections wherein a Republican majority can be seated; they can then stymie Obama's socialization program until we can kick him out in 2012. Or impeach him. By then I predict the Supreme Court will be a lot more interested in Obama's missing birth certificate than they are now.

Or, like Salvador Allende, perhaps Barack Obama will awaken one morning to find the White House lawn covered with tanks and soldiers. I hope it never comes to that. But it could.

Alan Keyes Opens a Blog: "Loyal to Liberty"

Alan Keyes, a great warrior for conservatism, liberty and common sense, has opened his own blog. It's called "Loyal to Liberty" and you can read it by clicking this link.

An example of Alan's thoughts:

Everyone's fussing over whether the Alleged Usurper's stimulus plan will help or
hurt the economy. Are they missing the point? Massive taxpayer resources are
being pumped into Obama's powerbase. His cohorts grow stronger, while the larger
economic impact of the plan makes everyone else weaker. Not much of a recovery
plan, but a great strategy for securing power.Then there are all those Hamas
loving Palestinians he's using taxpayer money to bring to the U.S. After 9/11
the Palestinians danced in their streets. This time they won't have far to go to
dance on our graves.

Alan, we wish you well. I have added your link to my "Must Reads" section.

A Desperate Escape

3:54:53 PM – An hour to go before I launch my escape. When the boys trip the circuit breaker, disarming the electrified fence and extinguishing the searchlight, then I make my break. I will climb the north wall and make for the forest…behind me are flashlights flickering through the dark boughs of trees, baying bloodhounds and the angry shouts of guards, an occasional gunshot or two and the tramp of running feet…I will desperately make my way to the boat hidden at the edge of the swamp where an old gypsy hag in a purple headscarf, smoking a meerschaum pipe, will row me to safety (?) among the alligators and scorpions and copperhead snakes…
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Or I could wait until 5 and leave through the front door. Yeah, that’s a better plan. I'll do that instead.
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Have a nice weekend.

To Hell In A Hand Basket: the US Economy

In light of Obama the Messiah, the Enlightened One, the Dear Leader, the Dow Jones continues to fall to new depths while the unemployment rate soars to new heights. The Dow is down to 6,571 and the unemployment rate up to 8.1%.

The wise and enlightened young people on college campuses everywhere voted for Obama-Yer-Mama because (1) he was young and had a nice smile, (2) he was a very trendy mocha color, (3) he vowed to suspend the laws of nature by punishing producers and rewarding lazy people, (4) he had really neat bumper-sticker slogans like "hope" and "change" which beat actual knowledge, experience and substance any day of the week, and (5) just because.

So now Commissar Obama is busily shooting the Kulaks for resisting the Revolution by actually producing things, and the economy gets steadily worse. Who would have guessed?

Don't complain, however. In order to remake the United States into the next collectivist basket case, unpleasant radical actions must be taken. Or, as Lenin once put it, "If you want to make an omelette you have to break some eggs."

Guess what? We're the eggs.