"The Great American Boycott"

"Immigrant rights". I am sick and exhausted of those who seek to undermine United States sovereignty. And I'm someone who has not taken a hardline on this debate. I believe in seeking practical, compassionate solutions, and not the emotional angry-as-hell-conservative non-solution that rants how we should round-up and kick out 12 million illegals to the proverbial curb. That is not a solution. It is a pipe-dream.

LA is bracing itself for a boycott of schools, work, and consumer activities tomorrow, even though the numbers are predicted to be less than that of last year (of course, last year, they did not anticipate the demonstrations to draw as many marchers as it did). 650,000 are said to have participated in LA marches last year, with about 72,000 of them being students.

One of the things that pisses me off, is the fact that many of these students are legal, natural born citizens of illegal immigrants. Anchor babies. They do irreparable harm to our country, with their divided loyalties between parents and ethnic heritage and recognition to the fact that their parents should never have been here.

I have compassion for many illegal aliens, who want nothing more than to make an honest living in a country such as we live in. But they need to recognize that we are a nation of laws; and what they do, undermines our country.

America needs control of her borders; we cannot take in, all at once, an endless stream of foreigners who wish to become American citizens, simply because they demand it. Those who wish to legally immigrate here should adopt American culture and customs and identity. They should be willing to assimilate. To not do so undermines America. So many people confuse America's idea of a "melting pot" and "a nation of immigrants" with the harmful notions of "diversity" and "multiculturalism", which disregards "e pluribus unum": "out of many, one". Instead of one people and one nation, what we end up with is a series of mini nations within a nation. It creates problems for the U.S., and it creates problems for illegals, by the very nature of the fact that they are here, illegally. So when they complain about such things as the heartstring tugs in this LA Times piece:

Andrea Perez, a 48-year-old housekeeper from Mexico, said many workers today are paid less than minimum wage and routinely abused. One friend, she said, had coffee thrown in her face by an employer who disliked the way it was made.

I hear violins playing in the background when I read this kind of nonsense, and think, "HELLO?! They would not have created the problems they face if they weren't here illegally to begin with."

"I just want people to recognize immigrants as humans," Perez said.

And I just want the LA Times to recognize the difference between legal and illegal immigrants!

I'm for sensible immigration reform; but I am opposed to illegal immigrants swarming into MY country, and dictating what my country should and should not do, on their behalf. As non-citizens, they should not have political influence; they should not be allowed to vote, influencing policies that benefit them, and that dissolves our national identity.

The path to American citizenship should begin with respecting our borders and our established laws. It should end with desire to be a part of America; not apart from it. This means learn the language and the traditional, established culture and customs of the United States; think of yourself as American first, and whatever your ethnic/national heritage last.

I love the beauty of most cultures; but not all cultures are created equal- by that, I mean, multi-cultures should not replace American culture, whose traditions and system of values has created the very means for which all other cultures and customs are accepted into the fold. We need to preserve the essence of who we are as one people; the bond of language, borders, and culture; and from that, we can then freely add on the adornments of our respective, varied ethnic heritages.



Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

The Hair-Combing Foppish Dandy Rides Again!

OMGLoLwtf?

Darth Cheney gives to Charity; Angry Liberal Granny Would Vote for a Savage Nation

Arthur Brooks, professor of public administration at Syracuse University and author of the book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatives, was invited on Michael Medved this past week (listen and download his interview on The Dennis Prager Show). On the program, they made mention of his recent WSJ article, Conspicuous Charity:

Mr. and Mrs. Cheney gave 78% of their 2005 income to charity. That's not a typo -- the couple donated $6.9 million [over the course of his Vice Presidency, I do believe- not what he gave in 2005-wordsmith], including the proceeds from stock options and book royalties that Mrs. Cheney routinely gives away. Their giving went to three nonprofit causes in health, higher education and services for inner-city youth.

Check out the audio of the Medved program at Flopping Aces. Listen in, 15 minutes into the 2nd audio (interview with Arthur Brooks). It's information that really deserves to be more widely known. The Food for Peace Program was started in 1954, and for over 50 years, America has helped to feed over 3 billion people in 150 countries. More than 60% of international emergency food aid comes from the United States. What President Bush has come to realize, is that simply "throwing free food" at the problem, doesn't help to lessen the problem. Our requirement for the program has always been that if we are to send food abroad, it had to have been grown in the U.S. This ends up hurting local farmers in Africa, who are trying to get a start at growing food. So what President Bush has proposed, in an attempt to get to root causes of hunger, is that 1/4th of all the food aid given by the U.S. has to be bought by the U.S. from local farmers. From the NYTimes:

It was here in Kansas City, at the 2005 food aid conference, that the Bush administration pushed for a fundamental change in food aid that would have diminished profits to domestic agribusiness and shipping companies. It proposed allowing a quarter of the Food for Peace budget to be used to buy food in poor countries near hunger crises, rather than buying only American-grown food that had to be shipped across oceans.

And Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns spoke at the conference on Wednesday to again make the administration's case for the same idea, contending that such a policy would speed delivery, improve efficiency and save many lives.

This is compassionate conservatism. Finding practical solutions that go beyond creating "feel-good" policies that achieve nothing, and sometimes only succeeds in making matters worse. I believe that both liberals and conservatives care about the environment, want to be charitable to those less fortunate, etc. We just have different ideas on how best to make the world a better place. It is worth noting, as Medved does, that

Former President Bill Clinton recently said at a fund-raiser for Bread for the World, a Christian group that lobbies on hunger issues, that it was to Mr. Bush's "everlasting credit" that he had proposed buying food aid in poor countries. Such a policy had never crossed his mind when he was president, Mr. Clinton said, but he thought it was a great way to help farmers in Africa and buy food more efficiently.

On a gratuitously lighter note...

The call from Granny Mary in Chicago is priceless! She's an 84 year old liberal who would vote for Michael Savage if he ran for President! Go on over and thank Curt for providing the entertaining audio.

CYA Director, George Tenet Scores a Foul

Christopher Hitchens slams Tenet a new one.

Blogging:
Captain's Quarters
CrooksandLiars.com (video download)
Dean Barnett
Flopping Aces
Marie's Two Cents
Michelle Malkin
Roger L. Simon
Sister Toldjah
The Anchoress
The Chatterbox Chronicles
The Strata-Sphere
Wizbang

15 Years Ago

I scanned this in, directly from my scrapbook. It's a photo I took on the campus of UCLA, by the Bruin Bear (for some odd reason, I can't remember what this square is called). I found a Daily Bruin dated "May 1, 1992" in my scrapbook, as well. It's yellowed over the years...but then, the liberal attitudes in the paper could sometimes pass for yellow journalism anyway, couldn't it?

If my journals weren't in storage, I'd look up what I was thinking at the time, and in the aftermath. As far as what I think today? I don't really have much to say at the moment. Marie and I did have a brief conversation about it, recently, though, as the topic came up.

Dr. Seuss is the Muse, at Mike's America

Harry Reid: Where Will You Fight Al Queda?

You won't fight Al Queda in Iraq. Will you fight them in Iran? Would you fight them in Afghanistan?

Will you fight them here or there? Will you fight them anywhere?

Would you fight Al Queda if they bomb our trains? Would you fight Al Queda if they hijack our planes?

Will you fight them like a mouse? Or will you just fight the White House?

Would you fight them with General Petraeus? Or will you just let Al Queda slay us?

Where will you fight Al Queda Harry Reid?

Will you fight them in our malls? Would you fight them in school halls?

Will you fight Al Queda at all? Or just let the President's plans stall?

Would you put our heads on the chopping block? And let Al Queda lop them off?

Are you here to play political games? Do you not care if the country goes up in flames?

Will you gut the Patriot Act and wait until we next get whacked?

Have you gone so far 'round the bend that you cannot give Iraq a chance to mend?

When will you learn? What will you do? How will you keep us safe? Do you have a clue?

Answer us please as time grows short. Al Queda is coming and we need a report. Will you fight them now or later? Will you wait until the cost is greater?

Credit: Mike at Mike's America (Well done!)

And here's Green Eggs and HamNation:


Hat tip: A Soldier's Perspective

Saturday Afternoon Matinee: Shane

One of the best and finest American westerns.....



Some significant and timely lines from the movie:

Marion: Guns aren't going to be my boy's life.

Shane: A gun is a tool, no better or worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel, or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.

Marion: We'd all be better off if there wasn't a single gun in this valley, including yours.

And of course, it's Shane's gun that rids the homesteaders of being victimized. Not pacifism. Not appeasement. It's thanks to rough men, like him, who are willing to do violence on behalf of the innocents.

The following was written by Stephen E. Bowles:

Narrative films can be generally categorized into those that are motivated by plot and those that are motivated by character. Many American films are often cited as belonging to the former category, particularly in comparison to some of the European films. Shane is pure plot and pure American. The characters, rather than autonomous individuals, are functions of the plot and move through their respective roles with the assurance of legend. They possess no depth or dimension beyond the surface; they are always and exactly what they seem to be. And, ironically, this is their strength and the strength of the film.

The plot of Shane is a masterpiece of simplicity. The Indian Wars have been fought and won. The homesteaders have settled in to farm the land, threatening the open range of the ranchers. The law is a three-day ride from the community, and the tenuous co-existence waits for eruption into "gunsmoke." The ranchers, led by the Ryker brothers, try to intimidate the homesteaders in an effort to force them out of the valley, but the homesteaders are held together by the determination of a single man, Joe Starrett, who wants to build a life on the land for his wife Marion and young son Joey. Into this tension rides Shane, a stranger who is befriended by the Starretts. A gunfighter by profession, Shane tries to renounce his former trade and join the community of homesteaders. As the tension increases, another gunfighter is recruited to bait and kill the helpless homesteaders. When Starrett is left with no alternative but to meet the hired gunfighter, it is obvious that only Shane is a match for the final shootout. He overpowers Starrett and rides into town where he kills the gunman and the Rykers. Now that the valley is safe, Shane bids farewell to Joey and rides off into the distant mountains.

Of all American genres, the Western is arguably the most durable. The Western has tended to document not the history of the West but those cultural values that have become cherished foundations of our national identity. The Western certifies our ideals of individualism, initiative, independence, persistence and dignity. It also displays some of our less admirable traits of lawlessness, violence and racism. Possibly more than any previous American film, Shane tries to encapsulate the cultural ethos of the Western.

Rather than avoiding the clichés, platitudes and stereotypes of the genre, Shane pursues and embraces them. With the exception of a saloon girl and an Indian attack, all of the ingredients of the typical Western are present: the wide open spaces, the ranchers feuding with the farmers, the homesteading family trying to build a life, the rival gunman, the absence of law, the survival of the fastest gun, even the mandatory shoulder wound. Embodying as it does the look and feel of the Western, becomes an essential rarity; it not only preserves but honors our belief in our heritage.

As myth, it is appropriate that Shane is seen through the eyes of a small boy. Joey is the first to see Shane ride into the community, more than the others he perceives the inner strength of the man, and he's the only one to bid Shane farewell as he leaves the valley. As both the child's idolization of an adult and the creative treatment of a myth, Shane is not a story of the West; it is, rather, the West as we believe it to have been.

Everything in the film favors its treatment of the myth. Alan Ladd—with his golden hair, his soft voice, his modest manner—is more the Olympian god than the rugged frontiersman or the outcast gunfighter. He rides down from the distant mountains and into lives of a settlement in need of his special talents. A stranger who doesn't belong and can never be accepted, he is a man without a past and without a future. He exists only for the moment of confrontation; and once that moment has passed, he has no place in the community. Even the way in which his movements are choreographed and photographed seem mythic—when riding into town for the final shootout, for example, the low angle tracking of the camera, the gait of his horse, the pulsing of the music with its heroic, lonely tones and the vast, panoramic landscapes all contribute to the classical dimensions of the film.

Shane is the generic loner who belongs to no one and no place. He possesses capability, integrity, restraint; yet there is a sense of despair and tragedy about him. Shane is that most characteristic of American anachronisms, the man who exists on the fringe of an advancing civilization. His background and profession place him on the periphery of law and society. The same skills as a warrior that make him essential to the survival of the community also make him suspect and even dangerous to that same community. In the tradition of William S. Hart, Tom Mix, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, Shane is the embodiment of the Western hero.

Shane is a reluctant mediator. There is a moral guilt about his profession that he carries with him as clearly as his buckskins. He wants to lay aside the violence of his past, but like the Greek heroes, of which he is kin, fate will not allow him to alter what is destined for him. Although he conspicuously tries to avoid the kind of confrontations he is best prepared to face, he suffers humiliation in doing so which is mistaken for cowardice. Once again he must prove himself, as if serving as the defender of those weaker will atone for his past and his profession. Consequently, a paradox emerges; he is both necessary and a threat to the survival of the community. In the Starrett family, for example, he begins to be more important to Joey than his father and more attractive to Marion than her husband. If the community is to grow and prosper, it must do so without him. Once he has served his function, he has no place and must again move on.

Shane is a tapestry laced with contrasts. The gun and the ax, the horse and the land, the buckskins and the denims, the loner and the family. In the end, the ax (peace) replaces the gun (violence), the land (stability) replaces the horse (transience), the denims (work) replace the buckskins (wilderness), the family (future) replaces the loner (past).

The unheralded mythic god leaves and the community is safe. Good has triumphed over evil, the family has been preserved, all the guns have been silenced. And yet there is a sense of loss. We have admired and appreciated Shane, but he exists for a single purpose and a single moment. When he has departed, we know we're safer and better for his presence; but we also know that we are again vulnerable.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) holds a news conference on Iraq on Capitol Hill in Washington April 16, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)

The above must be the oxymoronic photo of the week.


It is appalling, how ill-informed our Congressional leaders are. When Harry Reid said...

REID: He [Petraeus] said the war can't be won militarily. He said that. I mean he said it. He's the commander on the ground there.

BASH: But, sir, there's a difference...

REID: Are they critical of him?

BASH: ... between that and saying the war is lost, don't you think?

REID: Well, I — as I said, maybe it's a choice of words. I mean General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily.

Doesn't every soldier going there know that he's said that?

I think so.

...was he actually listening to Petraeus, or media headlines that suffer selective hearing?

What General Petraeus actually said:

"Any student of history knows there is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq," said Petraeus. "Military action is necessary to help improve security … but it is not sufficient."

When asked in the same interview if he would believe General Petraeus if the commander in Iraq were to give testimony contrary to what Reid has just said, Reid responded, "No." Unbelievable!

President Bush himself realizes that a military solution cannot "go it alone":

A successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations. Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities. So America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.

Senate majority leader from the great state of denial, Harry Reid, also gave a false representation of the Iraq Study Group. But the troop surge was recommended as a viable part to an overall security plan. CJ provides the rebuttal quote:

Iraq Study Group Report: "We could, however, support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective." ("The Iraq Study Group Report," 2006)

I'm short on time in doing better research (as well as responding to comments in previous posts, and making my rounds), but had to write something, quick. Senator Reid is just a loser on this, in so many ways. I wish I could respect all of our Congressional leaders, but I just can't. I feel nothing but contempt and anger. Lives are at stake, and I think it is the Senate Majority Leader and white flag politicians who endanger us all.

Excellent posts (to be updated, when I return from work):
California Conservative

Harry Reid, Senator from the 51st State....The State of Denial

Offsetting the Watermelon Brigade

"I think the “carbon footprint police” is blowing the climate change debate way out of proportion. Their goals aren’t necessarily that of conservation and better stewardship of natural resources, but to promote and spread socialism by telling others how to live their lives — which is the ultimate goal of the Watermelon brigade (green on the outside, red on the inside).

Man-made global warming is nothing but a wretched hive of junk science and hysteria. Period.

I favor ecological solutions based on free-market principles, and not based on government regulation, Chicken-Little fearmongering, or feel-good groupthink. Such positive steps benefit both the environment and the people who live in it."

- D.C. Thornton

Also visit:
Mike's America
A Convenient Fiction, a new movie by Steven Hayward (watch it, free!)

Terrorism, on the move...

If any of you caught the PBS Crossroads episode with The Muslim Brotherhood, Victor Comras at Counterterrorism Blog (he was on the program) sums it up with this: The film is strong as journalism, but weaker as analysis. I only caught the tale end of the show, but found it interesting. Read more....

Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower, will be on Hugh Hewitt today.

British authorities arrest 6 terror suspects, plus more....

On the growth of Islamic extremists in Great Britain.....

Christopher Hitchens writes about Muslim Pirates and Jefferson. I wrote about America's "first" war with Islamic Terror (I'd say our first war with modern militant Islam occurred in 1979, as covered by Bowden in Guests of the Ayatollah), last July.

Al-Qaeda Plans Attacks to Rival that of Hiroshima

Read

Saturday Cartoon Matinee: "I Feel Pretty"

Clearing a forest to make way for "the house that John Edwards built": $6,000,000

Criticism for the "slummy property" of one America: Elitist.

2 Haircuts from another America: $800

Paying for it out of campaign funds: Priceless!

"Cut-and-Run" Harry

Curse of the "Lunar" Month?

April appears to be a lunar month for lunacy. Wars that started/ended in April include:

• The American Revolution (Started with Paul Revere's Ride: April 18-19 April 1775)

• The American Civil War (Started April, 1861, ended April, 1865, thus "Across Five Aprils")

• The Bosnian War began in the first days of April, 1992

• The Rwandan Genocide began in April, 1994

• The Armenian Genocide began in April 24, 1914

Other events that have occurred in the month of April include:

• President Abraham Lincoln's assassination (April 14, 1865)

• The Frank Slide (April 29, 1903)

• The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (April 18, 1906)

• The sinking of the RMS Titanic (April 14-15 April 1912)

• The Armenian Genocide (April 24, 1915)

• Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination (April 4, 1968)

• Super Tornado Outbreak (April 3-4, 1974)

• Chernobyl nuclear accident (April 26, 1986)

• The 1992 Los Angeles Riots after the Rodney King verdict (April 29, 1992)

• The bloody end to the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas (April 19, 1993)

• The Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19, 1995)

• In Lebanon, at least 106 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre). (April 18, 1996)

• The Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, Australia (April 28, 1996)

• The Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado (April 20, 1999)

• The 2007 Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia (April 16, 2007).

To this list, I'd like to add the following dates:

• April 15 (need I say more? Of course, this year, it's the 17th...and still in April)

• April 10 and April 13: The birthdates of two ex-girlfriends- one of whom is severely bipolar; both of whom are severely afflicted with Bush derangement syndrome, and are unabashedly liberal.

I tried.

Trying to Make Sense of Psycho Cho

A Time to Weep and Reflect

Be vigilant, and never take for granted, the time that we have been given, here on this earth.

Prayers and thoughts go out to those, personally affected, as well as to a nation in mourning.

Guns Don't Kill People...

Discuss.

Can't We All Just....Move On Now?

What did French Intelligence Warn Us of, Before 9/11?

Strata-Sphere reports to us this morning that the French newspaper, Le Monde, has reported on 328 pages of classified documents, regarding Osama bin Laden's terror network, and drawn up by the DGSE (the French foreign intelligence service) between July 2000 and October 2001. It's also confirmed that

France's foreign intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al-Qaida was preparing a hijacking plot likely to involve a U.S. airplane, former intelligence officials said Monday, confirming a report that also said the CIA received the warning.

Strata-Sphere examines the timeline, and thinks this might explain the inexplicable actions of Sandy Berger:

The way the government works is material is ‘drawn up’ after it has been analyzed and vetted. This puts the evidence coming out possibly early 2000. Now by coincidence this is the time frame the infamous Richard Clark document was being passed around the NSC for comment - the same document which Sandy Bergler stole from the National Archives and shredded in his office. It would make sense that whatever the French detected not only did they pass it on to Clinton’s CIA, but our CIA probably detected it too! So I would wager the smoking gun Sandy Bergler risked serious jail time to destroy was something having to do with early warnings of a Bin Laden plot to highjack airlines, sourced or confirmed by the French. I see a strong need for an investigation of how this information was processed and distributed within our government and between administrations.

More from Angela Doland of AP World News

Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi, the former chief of staff for the agency's director at the time, said he remembered the note and that it mentioned only the vague outlines of a hijacking plot -- nothing that foreshadowed the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"It wasn't about a specific airline or a specific day, it was not a precise plot," Lorenzi told The Associated Press. "It was a note that said, 'They are preparing a plot to hijack an airplane, and they have cited several companies.'"

The Sept. 11 commission's report on the four hijacked flights has detailed repeated warnings about al-Qaida and its desire to attack airlines in the months before Sept. 11, 2001.

In a version declassified last September, the report shows that the Federal Aviation Administration's intelligence unit received "nearly 200 pieces of threat-related information daily from U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, CIA, and State Department."

The French warning, part of which was published in Le Monde, detailed initial rumblings about the plot.

In early 2000 in Kabul, Afghanistan, bin Laden met with Taliban leaders and members of armed groups from Chechnya and discussed the possibility of hijacking a plane that would take off from Frankfurt, Germany, the note said, citing Uzbek intelligence.

The note listed potential targets: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, Air France and Lufthansa. The list also included a mention of "US Aero," but it was unclear exactly what that referred to.

Two of the airlines, United and American, were targeted months later on Sept. 11.

Lorenzi said details of the threat would certainly have been passed along to the CIA, though he was unable to specifically confirm that they had been.

"That's the kind of information concerning a friendly country that we communicate," he said. "If you don't do it, it's an error."

He also stressed that officials could not say whether the plot they outlined in January 2001 was an early warning about the attacks to come in September.

At the time, Lorenzi said, officials had heard echoes only about a standard hijacking -- they had no idea al-Qaida planned to slam planes into buildings, let alone the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Uzbek officials apparently tipped off the French about the plot. Alain Chouet, a former top anti-terrorism official within the DGSE, said that an Afghan warlord from the Uzbek community who was fighting the Taliban at the time had sent men to infiltrate al-Qaida camps -- and their information was passed down the chain to Western intelligence officials.

Confirming information in Le Monde, Chouet said such intelligence was likely checked out before it was put into a note. He also said that to the best of his knowledge, "all identified threats, even indirect and minimal ones, were passed in both directions" between the CIA and the CGSE.

Personally, I'm not one that is into playing the "blame-game". We can point fingers all we want in a lot of directions, but I don't see it as particularly productive as we were all asleep (with a few exceptions) on the looming threat of terrorism on the grand scale of what happened on 9/11. It isn't Clinton's failure. It isn't Bush's failure. It's America's failure.

Still.....what the devil did Sandy Berger destroy?!? Goddammit...

Saturday Morning Cartoon and Saturday Evening Movie

"Here we go again....!" (LMAO!!!!)

I caught this on Hannity & Colmes a couple of nights ago. Decided to look it up after Marie's Two Cents mentioned Malkin was called a whore recently while hosting O'Reilly's show. Watch civil rights attorney, Leo Terrell. I thought this guy was going to burst a blood vessel.



The "progressives", by the way, are all giddy, believing that Laura Ingraham "stormed" off the set. Newsflash to you KosKiddies: It was a joke!

Listening to Michael Medved today, he reported that a WSJ piece got to the root of how all this broke out. It started out with someone at Media Matters listening in, at 6 in the morning.

On the morning of the original broadcast, there was little response to Mr. Imus's slur. Media Matters posted the video and transcript on its Web site and sent an email blast to several hundred reporters, as it does nearly every day. The post received dozens of comments, many heated, some more than 300 words long. The next day, top news outlets didn't mention the incident.

Apparently, a couple of days later, the National Association of Black Journalists eventually got wind of it. All they wanted was an apology. That's it.

And now we all know the rest.

Medved has an interesting observation: Apologizing might have led to Imus' demise. Medved noted how Ann Coulter was put in the media hotseat over her "faggot" comment in relation to John Edwards. She refused to back down. She refused to apologize. Eventually the fickle media and the short-attention span of the American public moved on; when it all blew over, Ann Coulter stood intact and none-the-worse-for-wear.

Imus may have been fired; but all this attention has probably rejuvenated his career. Howard Stern at Satellite Radio: .....move on over!

I think Imus' biggest baggage will be the fact that he sucked up to that race-profiteering windbag, Al Sharpton.

Apparently, Monty Johnson and the Duke LaCrosse Players have accepted Imus' apology.

And now Tom DeLay is calling for the Imussing of Rosie.

Previous Post:

Eh...why bother linking? Just scroll down two posts, ya lazy napping blog-reader!

General Pelosi: 2nd in line to the Presidency

"Imus be a racist, too...."

...Because I don't give a damn!

(You gotta click on the above cartoon)

I'm not that familiar with shock-jock, Don Imus. I caught him briefly on MSNBC, before, and he struck me as a bore. And a jerk. There seemed to be long gaps of silence, and that's no way to run a radio show; so I have no clue how he got his success. From what I've heard, his one comment about "nappy-headed hos" is just another day in the life of a crass, scowl-faced radio shock jock. So why the selective indignation? I could care less if he remains on the air or off, because I don't listen to him.

What he said, doesn't matter to me. How the race-hustlers and the easily-offended are responding to it, does matter to me.


On my drive home, I was listening to Dennis Miller (who has replaced the unrelenting negativity of ranting-angry-as-hell-conservative moonbat Michael Savage in the timeslot on KRLA870- thank God!). One of the most astute observation I've heard came from his guest, who I think is John McWhorter, of the Manhattan Institute; although I didn't catch the full name. He mentioned that decades ago, standing up to the racial slur of Don Imus might have been a way to fight for your dignity; but today, we are in a different place; and retaining one's dignity (he, speaking as a black American) in this day and age, means to just let Imus' words not have power over oneself. He said it so well, I wish I could find an audiofile, and confirmation of who Miller's guest was.

In the New York Daily, McWhorter writes:

the quest for an America where no one ever makes passing observations that are less than respectful of minority groups is futile. And why are so many of us so obsessed with chasing that rainbow anyway? The truth is that black people who go to pieces whenever anyone says a little something are revealing that they are not too sure about themselves.

Sticks and stones...

*UPDATE* Okay, I looked up The Dennis Miller Show. You can actually download his programs. I'll type out a transcript of the part that I liked (and yes, I was right: John McWhorter was his guest) and post it here. Or, just listen/download it.

Here's my partial transcript:

McW: "It was a very tacky thing to say; but the idea that somehow this was a major event in the progress of American society is absolutely ridiculous. I, as a black person, really don't care what that man said on his radio show for a few seconds, sometime; and the reason I don't care is because I like myself and he can't hurt my feelings and I'm busy; and as far as I'm concerned that's how any black person should feel; and any black person who doesn't feel that way, frankly, should...and there are so many real problems in the black community, that for the big deal- for the big news cycle- to be some colorful thing that some radio host- even a popular radio host- said, shows that people are more interested in a show than in doing hard work.

DM: Yeah, you know John, my only feeling on this is, that I'm a believer that the law of turns in history are long runs for people brought into this country as slaves I do think it's a...I don't think it's a forever turn, but I think it's a pretty long turn and I think one of the things that might be the hardest to master is a certain insouciance about something that stupid; do you concur with that, that there might be members of the community that are just still gob-smacked that somebody could utter something that primitive?

McW: That is a very good way of putting it. What people don't realize is that there are different ways of having dignity. And say 40 years ago, there was something very dignified about standing down the kinds of people who would say or do really tacky things; and when you did that, what you were doing was standing down 350 years of bs. But now that it's a completely different place, now that anything anybody says or along the lines of what Imus now kind of said as a joke- you're almost basically making fun of the idea that anybody would actually say it by saying it- now that we've gotten to that point, dignity is being able to take a joke; it's being able to be yourself whether or not something somebody said was...offensive or whether it was the best way that they could have put it, because: Life is never perfect! Basically, I have been saying that we see one of these things lately- especially with YouTube...and broadband...

DM: Yes, monthly!

McW: and it never changes; it's not as if all the noise we're gonna make now is going to stop somebody six weeks from now from saying something else that's a little bit tacky, and then we're just going to do the same thing. I think it's time to get over the fact that life isn't perfect.

DM: Yes, I look sometimes at the feminist movement and I see these women who are still, like, living in a Virginia Slims magazine ad from Look Magazine or something and I want to say, "You know, the next step here, honey, is the reaqcuisition of the humor gene", and I really think that, uh, if the black community now wants to have this quintessential revenge on somebody like Don Imus, that if you want to think about it that hard, I would recommend a "big-yawn-I'm-so-bored-with-guys-like-you-excuse-me-if-I-don't-care".

McW: That is exactly it. It's interesting- if I had a daughter- you know it's not only a black thing; there's also a feminist insult involved in "nappy-headed hos"- if I had a daughter who's playing on a basketball team....in a way, I would almost want her to confront the fact that there are always going to be people saying things like that, on the radio or in real life. Because it would show her that, "Yeah, somebody's going to say something like that; and the world will keep spinning, and you are the same person that you are; and that there are real problems in your life and the world that deserves your attention, other than the way somebody put something for a few seconds, sometime.

Also blogging, to be updated:
Allen Estrin
Always on Watch Two
Bloviating Zeppelin1, 2
Flopping Aces
Freedom Eden 1, 2, 3 (too numerous to list)
Further Adventures of Indigo Red
Marie's Two Cents
Mike's America
Michael Medved
My Republican Blog
Patriotic Mom
The Chatterbox Chronicles

Low Turnout (Click the 'toon)

Enjoy your Easter egg!

5,000-7,000 is a long way off from the 3,000,000 al-Sadr loyalists had hoped for.


Also check out:

Live Global Warming Debate

Gingrich vs. Kerry

You don't think the issue of climate change is a bit....political do you?

Nothing to Post.....So a Non-Update

I have been experiencing a bit of blog-burnout, as well as exhaustion from news-reading; so my apologies for not making my rounds of late, as thoroughly as I should.

Since blogging and blog-reading, I've found myself with little time to read books that have been piling up on my "to do" list.

For those of you who have been wondering what's been going on with me and the National Guard (and for those who missed my announcement, it is here), there's really nothing new to speak of. I am still waiting on the medical waiver. I contacted my recruiter as early as a few days ago, feeling like my life in the near future is hanging in limbo; and she said she hasn't forgotten about me, and to just be patient. Around the same time, I got a letter from my Dad who happened to mention how it took him 3 months to get a waiver for gout medication.

I guess I'll just have to exercise patience. My original plans were to ship out in summer or end of summer, anyway. So I suppose it doesn't really matter. But I feel a certain restlessness as the current conflicts that we are involved in, carries on...

Beware of Killer Bunnies Today!

Happy Easter!

I never really take the time to randomly look at videos on YouTube; until today, when this one caught my eye. I know nothing about "HappySlip", other than that she appears to be some sort of YouTube celebrity.

Since I don't have an Easter post....well, now I do. Enjoy! And Happy Easter to all my Christian and non-Christian visitors, liberal and conservative, alike!

From HappySlip:

Even though I am no expert in singing or playing guitar, I wanted to share my heart. This is dedicated to the One whose very nature is LOVE.

After reading these verses again and again, it inspired me to write the song.

Ephesians 3:17-19
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Lyrics:

When I try to look elsewhere or in others
I lose myself
For my life is nothing without you
My Creator

You give me meaning
You give me purpose
I find my destiny in you oh God

How wide
How long
How high and how deep
Is your love oh Lord

Unless the Lord builds this house
I will build in vain
I will sink in the sand
But I choose to stand on you
The Rock of my Salvation

You give me meaning
You give me purpose
I find my destiny in you oh God

How wide
How long
Is your love oh Lord
For when I fall
When I fail
You pick me up
And hold me in your arms

Oh Lord my God
Redeemer and my Friend
You’re the Alpha, Omega
The Great I am
And I give my all to you

How wide
How long
How high and how deep
Is your love oh Lord

I die to myself
So that you might live in me oh Lord
All the days of my life
Shine through me
Oh God of who I am
Oh God of who I am

A Little "Easter Egg" Recap in Cartoon-form