Don't mess with Texas -- if you're really, really sick.

They'll just kill you . . . and it will be legal.

John Hawkins has been on this outrageous case of state sanctioned murder for a week. I'm sure that you've all read something about it and have made your opinions known. In any case, here is the trail of John's informative posts up to now. As they say in Texas Hold'em, "Read'em and weep."

The Sad Case Of Andrea Clarke
An Andrea Clarke Update
Time Is Running Out For Andrea Clark
Some Good News On The Andrea Clark Front
Andrea Clark's Life Has Been Spared

To summarize, Andrea Clarke is conscious and can communicate. She doesn't want to die. We know this because she says so.

The staff of St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (the Baptists wouldn't do this) says her condition is hopeless and she is in constant pain from a bedsore. Put to death for a bedsore? This highly trained and professional staff arranged for Andrea's transfer to another facility in Illinois. Then they halted the transfer 20 minutes before her scheduled departure when it was discovered that the Illinois facility was a nursing home with a dialysis machine down in the basement. The St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital staff is just a little light on research, obviously. Andrea needs a lot more than a dialysis machine and walking up and down flights of stairs to the basement would be, er, difficult.

In any event, St. Luke's has magnanimously agreed to forestall the murder of Andrea until this coming Tuesday, one day (24 hours -- 1440 minutes -- 86,400 seconds) past the original deadline for pulling the plug(s) and putting Andrea to death. Mighty generous of them, I'd say. Wouldn't you?

John asks that we pass on the following contact information for St. Luke's in the event that they are still answering their phones. John further reminds us to BE POLITE.

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
6720 Bertner Ave.
Houston, TX 77030

St. Luke's Medical Towers 6624 Fannin
Houston, TX 77030

Main Telephone 832-355-1000
Patient Room Information 832-355-1000
International Services 832-355-3350
International from Mexico 001-95-800-010-1784

Email contacts:
St. Luke's Main -- (generalinformation@sleh.com?subject=Internet Email)

International Services -- (international@sleh.com?subject=Internet Email&cc=webcenter@sleh.com)

Those are pretty funky looking Email addresses. I hope they work.

UPDATE: All hail 'cause Gmail says the Email didn't fail.

TAGS: Andrea Clarke, John Hawkins, Right Wing News, murder

Mexican National Anthem

With all the furor over the fake Spanish version of the American National Anthem currently being sold for $10 US (110 pesos), I thought I might take a look at the Mexican national anthem and fill you in on its lyrics in English.

Now, as you read these lyrics and giggle, please keep in mind that the Mexican armed forces have never won a war in all their history. They've won a battle or two, like this one where the Mexican army, numbering 6,100, attacked the ruins of an old Spanish mission in what is now San Antonio, Texas. The mission, or what was left of it (basically just the facade -- the other "walls" were merely wooden picket fences), was defended by 189 men who were defending the 1824 Mexican Constitution which had been thrown out by Mexico's dictator, one Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. He also happened to be in command of this army of 6,100 cavalry, infantry and artillery which was attacking a wall defended by 189 men. After 13 days, the wall was finally conquered by the generalissimo, at a cost of 182 dead Texans and 1600 dead Mexican soldiers. The seven surviving Texans were summarily executed by being hacked to death with swords and machetes. So, a force outnumbering its opponents 32-1 requied 13 days to defeat those opponents at a cost of 8.5 dead winners for every dead loser.

Or this one, when, on May 5, 1862, French forces were forced to withdraw from their seige of Puebla (Mexico celebrate this as "Cinco de Mayo"). Mexico does not celebrate May 17, 1863, almost exactly one year later, when the French returned while on their way to Mexico City to take over the country and the city of Puebla surrendered. Besides, "Diecisiete de Mayo" just doesn't have the ring of "Cinco de Mayo".

And before all the squawking starts about Independencia and its subsequent executions by firing squad and Emperor Maximiliano's defeat and its subsequent executions by firing squads and hangings and La Revolucion and its subsequent executions by firing squad, hangings and assassinations, let's remember that these were either defeats of the Mexican army by peasant armies or defeats of one faction of the Mexican army by another faction of the Mexican army. Meaning that the Mexicans are good at kicking their own asses but not too good at kicking anybody elses.

Even the French (initially supported by the English and Spanish) were invited in by Mexican factions who wanted to join the European Habsburg dynasty. The English and Spanish were along because Mexico had welshed on its foreign debt and Benito Juarez was also threatening to nationalize all foreign investments in the country -- his theory being that if you owe the merchant more money than you can repay, just take over the merchant's business by force and, as the new owner, cancel the debt that you now owe to yourself.

Here's the Mexican national anthem:

Mexicans, at the cry of battle
prepare your swords and bridle;
and let the earth tremble at its center
at the roar of the cannon.

Oh fatherland
Your forehead shall be girded with olive garlands,
by the divine archangel of peace
For in heaven your eternal destiny
has been written by the hand of God.

But should a foreign enemy dare to
profane your land with his sole,
Think, beloved fatherland, that heaven
gave you a soldier in each son.

War, war without truce against who would attempt
to blemish the honor of the fatherland!
War, war! The patriotic banners
drench in waves of blood.

War, war! On the mount, in the valley
The terrifying thunder of the cannon

And the echoes nobly resound to the cries of
Union! Liberty!

Fatherland, before your children
Become unarmed beneath the yoke their necks in sway,
And your countryside be watered with blood,
On blood their feet trample.

And may your temples, palaces and towers
crumble in horrid crash,
and ruins remain saying:
The fatherland was made of one thousand heroes.

Fatherland, fatherland, your children swear
to exhale their breath in your cause,
If the bugle in its belligerent tone
should call upon them to struggle with bravery.

For you the olive garlands!

For them a memory of glory!

For you a laurel of victory!

For them a tomb of honor!

You know, one would think that a national anthem for a country whose armed forces have never won a war, much less a fair fight, would spend just a bit less rhetoric on war, blood and battle and a bit more on, oh, I dunno, the dove of peace, or lower water levels in the Rio Grand so as to facilitate wading across, or something.

TAGS: National Anthem, Mexican national anthem

"Crashing the Gate" can't get out of the gate

Drudge reports that Crashing the Gate, by Armstrong and Moulitzas Daily Kos Zuniga, has sold only 2062 copies at retail, and another 1568 at discount stores. I see that Amazon has slashed the selling price from 25.99 to 14.99. That's a 42% discount. Still no takers. They continue to ask, "How much does it Kos?"

Drudge further reports that Randi Rhodes of Air America has seen her minuscule audience shrink to a nano-audience, from 60,900 listeners to 27,900 in the past year. This means she has been abandoned by the city transport workers and now only the Pakistani cab drivers are listening to her show. You can tell, too. Listen as they drive past you: "rrrrahnDEE! rrrrahnDEE!"

Air America as a whole lost one third of its listeners as the liberal talk radio network fell from a 1.6 share to 1.0. Drudge quotes an Air America network "insider" as saying, hilariously,

the radio ratings released today do not reflect the overall growth of the broadcast.

"The demos are better, and listeners trust AIR AMERICA to give them the real truth on issues and the Bush presidency," says the insider. (what listeners?)

If I ever should suffer the misfortune of contracting a tumor, I hope it grows just like Air America. "No, doc. Don't schedule surgery and I won't be needing that chemotherapy stuff, either. My tumor is growing just like Air America and before you know it it'll dry up and be flushed away and we can watch it floating down the East River and out to sea."

TAGS: Crashing the Gate, Markos Moulitzas Zuniga, Daily Kos, Air America, Randi Rhodes

Here he is - Zarqawi

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has released a new videotape with his face unmasked. Now you can see the guy who has been doing all the killing.



Here is a video clip from the BBC. Nice vest he's wearing, don't you think? I'll bet he gets a real bang out of it when we catch him.

TAGS: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq

Spengler on Katrina. Who is this guy?

The inimitable Spengler, anonymous scribe published in the Asia Times, has done it again. He opines on the Katrina refugees from New Orleans as follows:

On a smaller scale, Hurricane Katrina emulates Chinese circumstances for the poor residents of New Orleans, the destruction of whose homes is the best thing that could have happened to them.

What he’s doing here is comparing the mass migration of poor Chinese from the countryside to China’s industrializing cities to the mass migration of poor New Orleans residents to rich urban centers around the country. The Chinese migration was forced by their government. The New Orleans migration was force by a big wind and high water.

Spengler makes two wider points here. First, he does not decry the loss of the “New Orleans” culture. That culture was propped up on the backs of poor people. He draws an apt parallel with tortillas.

Many beautiful things will disappear because poor people no longer will suffer to make them. One simply cannot find decent Mexican food in the United States, in part because traditional Mexican cuisine requires vast amounts of labor. Machine-made corn tortillas never will hold the savor of the hand-made article, but Mexicans migrate to the US precisely to escape a life of making tortillas by hand.

Well spoken, er, written. If we know this, then why aren’t we moving these poor people from poor urban centers to rich urban centers? And the answer to that brings us to his second point: The Chinese moved their people by government fiat. We can’t do that here. New Orleans residents were moved by an ill wind. That’s expensive.

Given the incidental costs of major hurricanes, there probably are cheaper ways to accomplish this, eg, simply pay them to leave.

Ok, so why don’t we do that? Because the politicians who "represent" those poor folk won’t permit the loss of the constituencies that return them to their halls of power election after election. If all the po’ black folk were allowed, or forced -- however you wish to look at it -- to elevate themselves into the middle class, what would Carl Levin, Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Charles Rangel, Al Sharpton, Al Gore, Louis Farrakhan and Cynthia McKinney have to do? What if the black folk began to listen to and follow Jesse Lee Peterson, Star Jones, Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell or -- Gasp! -- George Bush? We can’t have that, can we?

This is difficult to accomplish in a democracy, to be sure, for the elected representatives of immiserated black Americans form a bloc large enough to thwart legislative attempts to better their conditions. Were the urban poor dispersed into the rich regions of the country, they no longer would vote as a bloc for the sort of congress members who now conspire to keep them poor.

It was the great luck of the poor blacks of New Orleans that a great wind came along to carry them away from servitude to their political leaders. The Black Caucus of America's Congress keeps urban blacks as political hostages, much as the regimes of the Arab world have exploited Palestinian refugees, whom they refuse to take in, and expel when convenient.

And how do some Katrina refugees view thir new homes?

"I love New Orleans, don't get me wrong," one of the Katrina refugees told the New York Times. "But I thank God we are in Atlanta."

Spengler adds this slight caveat:

Will more money make them happier? I do not think so, any more than the loss of traditional Chinese culture in the globalized urban jungle of the coastal cities will make Chinese peasants happier.

But,

What it will do, however, is enable them to contemplate their unhappiness with a sense of empowerment. People with money, education and opportunity may be as miserable as any illiterate dirt farmer, but they have the means - how did Thomas Jefferson put it? - for the pursuit of happiness. Whether they choose good or ill is not up to this writer. But it is a vicious form of condescension to condemn people to perpetual poverty in the name of preserving traditional culture.

Spengler. Who is that guy? Yeah, I know. A racist, right?

TAGS: Spengler, Asia Times, New Orleans, Katrina, China

Michelle Malkin uncovers some faces

Posted by Dr. Raoul at Free Republic.

Administrative Message
April 13, 2006

To: UC Santa Cruz Community

From: Denice D. Denton, Chancellor, and David S. Kliger, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor

Re: Protest on April 11
On April 11, at the UC Santa Cruz Career Fair, a small group of individuals violated the principles they claimed to embrace - those of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. In using threatening and aggressive tactics to prevent interested students from contacting military recruiters, these protesters infringed on the rights of others and acted with intimidation, intolerance and disrespect. Many did so with their faces covered, unwilling to take public responsibility for their actions.

The university, like any public body, has established guidelines that protect rights of freedom of speech, expression and assembly. Moreover, this campus provides in its Principles of Community a clear statement of standards for behavior that it expects of all its members, including the expectation that reasoned discourse includes a free exchange of ideas with mutual respect and consideration of differences.

Despite repeated efforts to engage with the Students Against War group, to discuss the time, place, and manner in which their protest could occur safely, the group declined to communicate further. A letter to them on March 27 reiterated the desire to collaborate, but there was no response from the group.

We are extremely concerned by the behaviors of the approximately 75 protesters, whose actions are not consistent with the values of our campus community, including 15,000 students. We apologize on behalf of the campus to those whose rights were violated, and we will take appropriate disciplinary action against students who are found to have been in violation of campus policies.

In contrast to the disrespectful and sometimes dangerous behavior of the protesters, true character was demonstrated by the nearly 800 students who attended the career fair for its intended purpose and by the many faculty and staff who encountered the protesters with composure and self-control.

Our primary concern at the Career Fair was ensuring the safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors. We also held the goal of protecting the rights of our students to have access to the 90 employers attending the event, including the military recruiters.

Although the situation was extremely volatile, staff, faculty, and military recruiters used admirable restraint to prevent a serious situation from escalating to a point where public safety would have been further jeopardized.

We thank all those students, staff and faculty who made the best of a difficult situation, and we appreciate the vast majority of our campus community who demonstrate the ideals of our democracy by respecting the rights of all individuals.

"Many did so with their faces covered, unwilling to take public responsibility for their actions." It sounds to me like Michelle Malkin is just removing the masks. Now, a very breathless and excitable fellow named Ezra Klein calls Ms. Malkin a slug and says, while no doubt wetting his pants in a self induced state of trepidity, "A skilled and experienced rhetorical warrior, she saw the pale, white flesh of their throats and lunged." Jeezus! Remind me not to ever piss off that girl. My throat is covered by pale, white flesh, last time I checked, rhetorically. But that does beg the question; How, exactly, if most of the rioters had their faces covered, does Easy Ezra know that the throats were of pale, white flesh? Aha! Another racist.

Emotive Ezra claims that the students were merely, ". . . young, idealistic kids determined to save the world, feeling their way through uncertain thickets of ideology and unfamiliar collections of ideas, and naive about the dangers of direct political action outside a university's protected confines." Uh-huh. Feeling their way through the uncertain thickets with masked faces while creating a riot which the school's Chancellor, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor call, "disrespectful and sometimes dangerous behavior". And they were, of course, merely young, idealistic kids who the university had tried several times to contact and who had rebuffed the university by not bothering to respond. To Edgy Ezra, "young and idealistic" must mean "not playing by anyone's rules other than those made up on the go to suit oneself and/or one's immediate goals". OK, kind of like the Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts) or the Mafia. And, to Ezra, anyway, the "unfamiliar collections of ideas" must be those of free speech, free and open debate, lawful assembly and the pursuit of happiness - at least anyone's other than his own.

Effete Ezra's link to the supposed "scary stuff" death threats is hilarious.

You will pay for your seditious activities. It is only a matter of time...We are retired military snipers & we are watching you...

Anybody take that seriously? You have got to be kidding me. It sounds just like something that Sheriff Little Bill Daggett would say. That is the only "death threat" that they were able to post. The rest are more like this:

My sincere hope is that a couple hundred of the local patriots take a day off work for your next anarchist event, and come down to your little shithole with some axe handles and bust your f***ing heads. (And adds that the feds should stop sending money to support the university.)

and

We're coming to get you and when we do we'll hurt you..REAL BAD!

and

. . . you're lucky one of those recruiters didn't put his foot up your silly little ass.

Well, I've had a foot put up my silly little ass a few more times than I would care to relate and I can assure you that I never felt in fear of my life. And I might add that, "hurt you..REAL BAD!" doesn't mean "kill you", it means, er, hurt you..REAL BAD!. What a bunch of of sissy, whiney crybabies, Ezra included.

TAGS: Michelle Malkin, UC Santa Cruz, military recruiters

Starbucks and the meaning of modern life

Once again demonstrating that American academics can get paid for almost anything, a history professor has been researching and will soon have published a book about the Starbuck's experience.

A cup of coffee is just a drink. But a frappuccino is an experience. So believes Bryant Simon, a historian who is searching for the meaning of modern life amid the round tables and comfy sofas of Starbucks coffee shops.

I have three words of advice. Get

A

Life

TAGS: Starbucks, get a life

Something everyone should read about Iran

Please go to Atlas Shrugs and read the comment from the Iranian girl, Narges, in Teheran. You may read more at her own blog at http://livinginiran.livejournal.com. She has a little confession to make as well as a point about what can happen when citizens fail to exercise their right to vote.

Thanks to RocketsBrain for calling this to my attention.

TAGS: Iran, good people, bad leaders

Top 100 songs - 1955

I was reviewing my playlists for missing songs when I noticed this oddity from the Top 100 - 1955.

#3 - The Ballad of Davey Crockett, Bill Hayes
#22- The Ballad of Davey Crockett, Fess Parker
#24- The Ballad of Davey Crockett, Tennessee Ernie Ford

I had never before heard of the same song by three different performers being in the Top 25, or in the Top anything, at least in the same year. I can think of no other examples where three different versions of the same song by three different performers have appeared on any Top 1000 lists for a given decade, can you?

TAGS: Billboard Top 100 1955, music

No vote on immigration legislation per Sen. Harry Reed

Our borders have overflowed with illegal immigrants placing tremendous burdens on our criminal justice system, schools and social programs.
Sen. Harry Reed (D-Nev), Senate minority leader

Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits, often without paying taxes.
Sen. Harry Reed (D-Nev), Senate minority leader

Safeguards like welfare and free medical care are in place to boost Americans in need of short-term assistance. These programs were not meant to entice freeloaders and scam artists from around the world.
Sen. Harry Reed (D-Nev), Senate minority leader

Even worse, Americans have seen heinous crimes committed by individuals who are here illegally.
Sen. Harry Reed (D-Nev), Senate minority leader

From Thomas Sowell, Immigration Solutions, Part III

TAGS: Harry Reed, immigration, Thomas Sowell

Why do you people not tell our story?

Why do you people not tell our story? Why do you not say what is going on? Why do you come to our country and see what is happening, you see the schools and the hospitals and you see the markets and you eat with Sunni and Shia soldiers – everybody eats together, everybody works together –you see that Saddam is gone forever and we are free to speak and complain.

You see we are working and eating together and fighting together – Sunni and Shia – you see what we are building here, you see the votes we make as one people. Then you say to the world about a great war and horrible things and how we are all killing each other? We are not animals! We are Iraqis. Look around you! Look!

Iraqi army officer who formerly served under Saddam

As they say, you've got to read the whole thing. It may make you want to weep in frustration.

TAGS: Iraq, MSM lies, MSM distortions, liberal press

British anti-terrorist weapons team a waste of money

Britain has formed an elite team of scientists dedicated to developing weapons to be used against terrorists. I could have saved them a lot of money, and still can if they would only call.

This is the 1847 Walker Colt. It fires a .44 caliber soft lead slug powered by 60 grains of black powder and would blow a hole in a terrorist large enough to drive a Buick through. It has been thoroughly tested in long-running field trials by such well known and respected experts in the field as Col. William S. Cody, James Butler Hickock, Capt. Augustus McCrae, Capt. Woodrow F. Call, United States Territorial Marshal Rooster Cogburn, Josephiah Wales, William Anderson, Sheriff William Daggett, William Munny, Jesse Woodson James, Alexander Franklin James, Geronimo Goyathlay and the Thomas Coleman Younger and Bros. Co., Inc..

The only known failure of the weapon occurred in the Blue Bottle Saloon, Wichita, KA in 1885 when a poorly maintained unit blew up in the hand of Corky "Two Gun" Corcoran in a face-off against "English" Bob Postlethwaite. Due to this incredible piece of luck, Postlethwaite was able to shoot Corcoran in the liver with a Colt Peacemaker. The hole in Corcoran, however, was only large enough for a Volkswagen.

A certified weapon with only one known failure in 121 years of use. Why don't they ever call me first?

Malaysian man must pay every phone bill in the world

A Malaysian man has received a phone bill for $218,000,000,000,000.00 ($218 trillion). He has been given 10 days to pay up or face prosecution. Hell, I'd just write'em a check.

Apparently, the gentleman's father died recently. In clearing up his late father's affairs, he had the phone disconnected and paid the last bill of $23. Then he received a bill for the $218 trillion and change. The funny part here is that the article states,

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death.

Used illegally to run up a $218 trillion phone bill? Where were they calling, Andromeda?

Duke KO'd by phantom punch

After all the flack I have taken over posts related to racists and racism, I probably should leave this strictly alone. Suffice it to say that La Shawn Barber is pissed.

TAGS: Duke, lacrosse, rape

The best tequila in Mexico - Herradura Añejo

I have been asked about which brand of tequila is considered the best here in Oaxaca. Let me start by saying that Oaxaca is not noted for tequila. Mezcal is the booze of note here in the state of Oaxaca. And the difference between mezcal and tequila? Hardly any difference at all. First of all, both are distilled from the agave cactus (which isn't really a cactus at all). To be called tequila, however, the booze must be distilled from 100% blue agave cactus and be distilled in the state of Jalisco (Guadalahara). If the distillate is a blend of agaves or is distilled anywhere outside the state of Jalisco, it must be called mezcal. Also, if you have a bottle of tequila with a worm lying in the bottom, throw it away (the bottle and the contents, but bury the worm with full military honors). The worm thing is a mezcal thing, NOT a tequila thing.

There was a big deal a couple of years ago as Mexico went through the process of signing agreements with various countries to protect the name "tequila". The Mexicans wanted to require that the alcohol not only be distilled in Jalisco from 100% blue agave, but also be bottled there. The United States refused to go along because there are a number of bottlers, especially in California, who import the tequila from Mexico by the barrel and then bottle it there. US trade reps had to threaten to allow tequila to be distilled as well as bottled in the US, thereby robbing Mexico of its tequila exclusivity, before the Mexicans blinked and went along with the bottling deal.

There are a number of very high quality tequilas available here and my personal favorites are Herradura Añejo or Herradura Reposado. Herradura means "horseshoe" -- there is a big blue horseshoe on the label, "añejo" means "aged for a long time", in this case for two years, and "reposado" means "aged for not so long", or 11 months. While there are a number of tequilas considered higher quality (aged longer), I prefer the taste of Herradura over all others. And as for Jose Cuervo (Joe Crow), I might consider pouring it into my gas tank for my next high speed run to St. Louis, but I don't drink the stuff. Don Julio and Oro Azul (blue gold) are two other high quality tequilas that are very popular. As with any comparison between approximately equal quality brands, the key is the taste and Herradura's taste is the one that I prefer.

Just a quick word about tequila drinking etiquette. This business of licking the webbing between one's thumb and forefinger, salting the wet area, downing a shot of cheap-ass tequila in one gulp and plunging the webbing of the hand into the mouth to suck the salt and then plunging a lime into one's mouth to be noisily sucked is considered, well, uncivilized, uncouth, unsavory, unacceptable and it, er, sucks. A fine tequila like Herradura Añejo is to be savored, like a good sipping whiskey, a fine cognac or a good brandy. Tequila should be served in a special glass, called a Caballito (cah bah YEE toe) -- "Little horse" -- or tequillita (tay key YEE tah) which is slightly smaller in diameter than a shot glass and about two and a half times as tall. It will hold just about two shots of tequila. You don't have to ask for such glasses, that's what you're going to get. Your tasty Herradura should be accompanied, if you are a macho, with a shot of a chaser called "sangrita". I have tried and tried to duplicate sangrita at home using everything from Bloody Mary mix to Clamato to V-8 to tomato juice along with peppers, Tabasco, Worcestershire -- known in Mexico, interestingly, as "salsa inglesa", or "English sauce" -- and what have you but have never been able to even match the most common sangrita that you can buy in the grocery stores here. Here are the official ingredients of an average sangrita -- try your luck: water, tomato paste, orange juice concentrate, lime juice concentrate, Worcestershire sauce, onion, red pepper sauce, salt and spices.

If you are a señora you might, no, should prefer a lime juice chaser, also served in the same sized shot glass. If you are a señorita, drinking tequila would be considered, at best, daring, and at worst, a poor reflection on your character. In any case, whether you are a daring young lass or your character is so bad it no longer has a reflection, you should chase your tequila with the lime juice.

Now to mezcal for which Oaxaca is famous. Mezcal is made just about the same way as tequila and from the same agave cactus, but it probably is an agave blend rather than 100% blue agave. Also, the mezcaleros cook the agave over open wood fires imparting a unique smokey taste not present in most tequilas. Mezcal has an unsavory reputation as rot gut booze, but there are some very fine mezcals available. In addition, it is a very popular and tasty apertif when combined with cream and various flavors. The flavored creamed mezcals are almost limitless in variety. Orange, cherry, nut (probably walnut or pecan), almond, pineapple, peach, every oddball tropical fruit that you can think of and coconut are just a few of the flavors available. Every time I think I have seen and tasted every flavor extant, I find yet another mescalero with yet another unique flavor that I hadn't seen, er, tasted before.

I won't suggest a mezcal. I just don't have enough experience with this booze like I do with, say, Miller Lite or Jack Daniels Black Label or, for that matter, Herradura Reposado. The best thing to do is to visit Oaxaca and take a walk, or several walks around town. There are at least a dozen very high quality mescaleros with "showrooms" and they will happily let you taste just about every flavor they have available. Once you have selected one or two different mezcals, they'll pack the bottles in a nice cardboard box for your trip back. And I kid you not. You can get about half gassed just sampling the stuff.

TAGS: tequila, mezcal, Herradura Reposado

Legal vs illegal migrants: Finally, some numbers

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finally gives us some numbers with which to work regarding immigration, legal and otherwise. The study is long and detailed but includes charts and graphs for those of you with shorter attention spans.

One of the big problems with this ongoing brouhaha over illegal immigration is the moral consideration versus the hard nosed number crunching. All we seemingly see and hear are the moral considerations and we don't get the numbers that we need to analyze the issue in an intelligent and responsible manner. This study goes a long way towards correcting that deficiency. What impresses me most about the study is that the CIS shows that the results of this study are remarkably similar to earlier studies done in 1997 by the National Research Council, in 2004 by the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Treasury, in 1998 by the Urban Institute, in 2001 by the state of Florida and in 1997 by the state of New Jersey.

Here are the conclusions from the Executive Summary of the report, (highlighting is mine):

• Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.


• Among the largest costs are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).


• With nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or heavy use of most social services.


• On average, the costs that illegal households impose on federal coffers are less than half that of other households, but their tax payments are only one-fourth that of other households.


• Many of the costs associated with illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth. Thus, greater efforts at barring illegals from federal programs will not reduce costs because their citizen children can continue to access them.


• If illegal aliens were given amnesty and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual net fiscal deficit would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total net cost of $29 billion.


• Costs increase dramatically because unskilled immigrants with legal status -- what most illegal aliens would become -- can access government programs, but still tend to make very modest tax payments.


• Although legalization would increase average tax payments by 77 percent, average costs would rise by 118 percent.


• The fact that legal immigrants with few years of schooling are a large fiscal drain does not mean that legal immigrants overall are a net drain -- many legal immigrants are highly skilled.


• The vast majority of illegals hold jobs. Thus the fiscal deficit they create for the federal government is not the result of an unwillingness to work.


• The results of this study are consistent with a 1997 study by the National Research Council, which also found that immigrants' education level is a key determinant of their fiscal impact.
  
  The CIS provides great detail in their methodology used to compile this report. It's pretty tough to argue with the conclusions based upon the evidence gathered. The fact that this report's results so closely mirror other reports done over the past 12 years which have seemingly been ignored by both side in this fight means that this report's conclusions will probably be ignored as well.
  
  Maybe we can look at it like this:
  
  
  Here is a part of the 500,000 who marched in Dallas. If we are very conservative, we might estimate that one-half of them, or 250,000 were illegal immigrants. Using the numbers from the CIS study, that would be at least $675,000,000 in your money walking around waving Mexican flags -- and that's under the current rules. If all of those people were made legal, you could expect to see $2 billion of your hard earned tax dollars waltzing around under the eagle-with-snake-on-a-cactus banner. And that's just in Dallas. Remember the march in Los Angeles last week? In Tucson? In Chicago? Millions of them marching in your streets costing you billions of dollars.
  
  And the really discouraging part is that strict enforcement of the current rules, such as they are, to deny your tax dollars to illegal immigrants won't help the $2700 annual per-household deficit. Their American born children will still collect. If you folks in Dallas think that flushing $675 million per year is a damned sight better than $2 billion annually, call and write your congressman now.
  
  What to do? That's a tough one. Do we have the political will to track down and evict 11 or 13 or 15 million illegal aliens and evict them and their native born American children out of the country? Don't make me laugh. Not even I would propose such a thing. I think that the best we can do is maintain the status quo with respect to illegals currently here. We need to enforce existing law. If they get caught, they have to leave. No more of that ridiculous "Catch-and-Release" currently being practiced. The House Republican proposal to make felons of illegal aliens is pretty dumb, too. If we do not currently toss out those that we catch, how does renaming them "felons" improve our chances?
  
  About the best we can do is invest the funds necessary to enforce current law and to seal the border. We tell the Mexicans and any other government that starts bitching that when their immigration laws and citizenship requirements and treatment of legal and illegal aliens is consistent with ours, then maybe we'll talk . . . maybe.
  
  TAGS: Center for Immigration Studies, immigration, illegals, illegal immigration

God takes care of drunks, small children and the United States of America

Spengler, the ubiquitous anonymous columnist for the Asia Times, predicts a Bush October surprise.

Yet I believe that Bush will stage the strongest political comeback of any US politician since Abraham Lincoln won re-election in 1864 in the midst of the American Civil War.

And how, pray tell, will the besieged president, he of the Nixonesque poll numbers, stage this remarkable political reanimation in time for the November, 2006 mid-terms? Spengler says,

Americans rally around a wartime commander-in-chief, and Bush will have bombed Iranian nuclear installations by October.

Make no mistake, Spengler is not suggesting that Bush would bomb Iran just to save his administration and salvage the election.

Still, Bush has the opportunity to shift the subject away from the unpopular campaign to improve the politics of the Middle East, and back to the extremely popular subject of killing terrorists. He believes (and I am long since on record agreeing) that Washington will have to put paid to Ahmadinejad before very long, and there is no reason not to look for a political benefit as well.

And why does Spengler believe that Americans will overwhelmingly support an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities?

Americans are a misunderstood people. Only one in five owns a passport, and a tiny fraction of non-immigrant Americans learns a foreign language. US apathy regarding what might plague the rest of the world is matched only by US bloodlust when attacked.

Spengler points out that a slight majority of Americans opposes military action against Iran but that this opinion should be viewed as "not yet". Spengler also states that Bush won overwhelming support for the invasion of Iraq but is having to search for an occasional friendly face when it comes to investing American blood and money to rebuld the country and install a democratic form of government. According to Spengler, who is, of course, quite correct, Americans care little for the problems facing those in other lands but will overwhelmingly support the unleashing of the fires of hell upon those who hurt or threaten to hurt them here at home.

Spengler's opinion reminds me of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's reply when asked what he thought we would do in the aftermath of 9/11 (and I paraphrase, being too lazy to actually look up and source the actual quote),

"I am sure that the American response will be appropriately lethal."

Spengler points out that Iran's Mahmud Ahmadinejad is the popinjay villain right out of central casting that Americans would support seeing planted, or, at the very least, would chortle as his vaunted invisible submarines and 10,000mph rocket torpedoes, or whatever, are blown out of the water.

Spengler, and I am no big fan of much of what he has written, is firmly on record as believing that the Iranian threat must be met with overwhelming military force. In this day and age, overwhelming military force can only mean US military force.

As for the loyal opposition, Spengler gives them short shrift:

The Democrats already have begun to game the responses to a US attack on Iran before the election, as Last reports, which is to say that the Republicans have begun to game the Democratic response.

Spengler, whomever he is, is a serious journalist who calls 'em as he sees 'em, which is to say that he frequently pisses me off, but he has been and continues to be all over this Iranian business. As for President Bush's long term prospects as well of those of the American people, Spengler says,

God takes care of drunks, small children and the United States of America. Improbably, destiny has a surprise in store for George W Bush.

TAGS: George W. Bush, Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinejad

More on "A reader objects"

Well, as of this moment 12 people have commented in response to the post "A reader objects". Of the 12 comments, one is from a so-called Anonymous and, as such, does not merit a response from me. Nine of the comments are supportive of my positions as outlined in the post. One response is from a Mac Diva who refers to Ken Blackwell, Michael Steele, Lynn Swann, Bill Cosby and Salim Mansur as Uncle Toms and to my support of those people as further proof of my racism. Hmmm. Salim Mansur an Uncle Tom? Uncle Ismael, perhaps, but I don't think the Uncle Tom label fits Salim too well. Tom at Say Anything says this about Mac Diva:

After reading at the above link it has come to my attention, from reading at the link in the above update, that Jadegold has also gone by the name Mac Diva, a troll that has harrassed me since my days posting at Blog Critics.

She has, on occassion, claimed to be a lawyer, a teacher, a college professor, a soldier and pretty much anything else that is convenient to whatever argument he or she is making at the time.

At one point she even made a big stink about Say Anything guest poster Seth Yantiss being a racist (a totally unfounded allegation) here on this blog under the name Mac Diva.

In short, this person is one of the most dishonest (and truly deranged) people I've ever come across.

I might add that Mac Diva kindly provides a link to her blog where she has not posted since December 19, 2006. A New Year's resolution, perhaps? "I resolve not to post anything else in this blog until I might post something that is not pure crap." Or too busy reading and attacking other bloggers, I suppose. I don't think Mac Diva uses her real name, either. Try MAC Diva for a better fit. Ultimately, Mac Diva's response deserves no further comment.

Now we come to Sacha, who jerked my chain in the first place. I will not first address Sacha's specific objections to my views, or at least to the manner in which I expressed those views. What I would like to first address is the fact that Sacha chose not only to post a comment to the original McKinney post but also to respond to the "A reader objects" post. The "reader" in question was, in fact, Sacha. This is what blogging is supposed to be all about. A blogger writes something (yours truly, in this case) and a reader responds (negatively, in this case). Who has a problem with that? Not me, I assure you. Disagreeing and attempting to clearly state the grounds for the disagreement is much appreciated by this blogger, just as much appreciated as are the positive and supportive responses.

This blogger, under no circumstances whatsoever, believes that his positions and opinions are 100%, correct 100% of the time, unassailable and eligible for stone carving and public display alongside the Ten Commandments and the Pledge of Allegiance in various Red State courthouses around these United States. Nor does this blogger believe for one second that his ability to express his opinion is always crystal clear and done so with the very best and most accurate use of the King's English.

If Sacha is writing from the perspective of a black person, or, more specifically, from the perspective of a black female, then it is difficult for me to argue with her. How could I possibly understand the perspective from which she thinks and writes? I could not and I do not and I don't pretend to do so. About the best that I can do is try to explain my positions and listen respectively and try to understand her positions as best that I can, which is poorly. If we were to engage in a discussion about some factual issue, as opposed to the way that opinions about that issue were expressed, then we could go toe-to-toe with data, statistics, historical precedents etc., all in an attempt to sway the other with fact, as opposed to opinion.

We are not discussing a factual issue here. We are discussing the manner in which I stated, in jest, my opinion about Representative Cynthia McKinney. Sacha objected to the way in which I expressed my opinion. Then, in the following post, Sacha not only was more specific in identifying the terms that Sacha found personally offensive, but also offered some personal experiences as support for her opinion. Great! I am pleased to read them. I am more than pleased to ponder them. And there follows my response to Sacha.

1. I regret that the terminology that I used in the McKinney post offended you.
2. Would I write anything differently if I had it to do over again? I dunno. Maybe, maybe not.
3. Am I a racist? What is a racist? The term is thrown about with so much abandon these days that it has become meaningless. Every time someone opens their mouths about issues involving another race, another religion or another continent, they are accused by somebody, somewhere, of being a racist. The term has lost its meaning, completely. If one states facts and/or opinions critical of Islam, one is called a racist. What race are Muslims? If one states opinions critical of Israel, one is accused of being anti-Semitic, at best, and racist, at worst (even I have been guilty of this, I think, maybe once or twice). What race are Jews?
4. When a WASJ (White Anglo-Saxon Jacobite) supports someone of a different race, that someone is called an Uncle Tom by other members of that race. Is that not racist?
5. If I lived in Ohio, I would vote for Ken Blackwell. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would vote for Lynn Swann. If I lived in Maryland, I would vote for Michael Steele. I support Bill Cosby and his efforts to help black people. I think he's right. If J. C. Watts ran for any office in the land, and I were eligible to vote in that area, he would get my vote -- for any office, including that of president. If Dr. Condoleezza Rice runs for any office in the land, and I am eligible to vote in that election, I will vote for her -- for any office, including that of president. I believe in the positions expressed by the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson and would support him for office if he should ever choose to run. Does this all make me a racist?
6. I think that Louis Farrakhan is one of the most dangerous people in America and will applaud the day he dies. I think that Barry Bonds should hide his head in shame and that he is an embarrassment to America. I think that the Democrats should find someone, anyone, to run against Cynthia McKinney and get that maniac out of Washington. I think that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are race-baiters and professional extortionists who have done and continue to do their race terrible disservices. I think that David Duke is an irrelevant, bad joke and is best just ignored, unless some reason can be found to throw him back into the can for a few years. Does this all make me a racist?
7. I didn't coin the phrase "chocolate city". That term was invented by Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, a black person. When I use it, I am a racist? And when he uses it, he is not a racist? Nor did I coin the terms "ghetto blaster" nor "barrio-blaster". Those are common terms used on the streets every day by white folks and black folks alike. My use of them makes me a racist? When a black person uses those terms, he is not a racist?
8. When all of my race is accused of being racist because many people of another race refuse to take responsibility for their own futures, their own present, their own children, their own problems, instead choosing to blame it all on my race, and I object in a strenuous manner, that makes me a racist?
9. When I cite example after example of persons of that race who do not subscribe to those opinions and have taken those responsibilities, those people are Uncle Toms and my citations are further proof of my racism?

Sacha, I was serious when I said that I was tired of it. I see no reason to continue to diligently strive for political correctness to avoid injuring feelings when under a constant barrage of vicious attack and accusations of being personally responsible for problems created by other people and fostered by other people. I appreciate your visits and I appreciate your comments, critical or otherwise. I hope that you continue to visit and take a whack anytime you believe that I have crossed the line.

TAGS: racist

A reader objects

A reader named Sacha has objected to my post, Cynthia McKinney thought cop wanted $1000. Sacha says,

"Mark, This was the most bad taste I have ever seen from you and demeans every thing you have done on this blog so far. I recommend you delete this post and put up a small apology."
Sacha | 04.06.06 - 11:22 am

I responded in a comment but apparently there is a size limit to Haloscan comments and I was cut off at the pass, so to speak. I'll put my response to Sacha here.

Sacha,
Bad taste? I'll tell you what is "bad taste".

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist every time I criticize or disagree with anyone who is not a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant or Catholic.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist when I criticize people who live in the stone-age, who saw off other people's heads on video while chanting Allahu akbar, rape children and then condemn them to death for having sex outside of marriage, dump their wives and children by repeating three times in succession, "I divorce you", don't allow a woman to hold her own passport, don't allow a woman to drive a car, publicly beat a woman whose ankles are visible below her skirt, dress, burqa or whatever, set massive bombs to explode in the street where children are lined up to receive candy and then set off secondary explosives to kill and maim as many of the blown-to-bits children's rescuers as possible.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist when I object to people who come to the USA from countries with disfunctional governments and which have ALWAYS had disfunctional governments DEMANDING that the American taxpayer subsidize said disfunctional governments.

Bad taste is when liberal opponents of our government's policies celebrate every setback in Iraq and Afghanistan - setbacks which cost the lifeblood of American men and women.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist when I object to hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets waving flags of a foreign nation with a disfunctional government from which they have fled and which has been non-functional for the entire 185 years of its useless and miserable existence and will continue to be non-functional well into the foreseeable future -- at least another 185 years.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist because I state the obvious - that too many lazy good-for-nothing black Americans-by-birth sit on their asses and expect the American taxpayer to support them and their illegitimate children because "we owe" it to them due to slavery - which ended in 1864 - some 142 years ago and almost 100 years prior to my birth, if my math is correct. My great-great-great and great-great grandfathers were hard scrabble dirt farmers in Kentucky who never owned any slaves and my great-great-great-great grandfather came over by boat from Scotland - legally. I don't owe anyone a God-damned penny or even a hint of remorse for slavery and I don't owe even one citizen -- white or black -- or any gambling casino in New Orleans a God-damned penny, either.

Bad taste is when I am called a racist because I object to my taxes and taxes of millions of other Americans being flushed down that sewer called the United Nations so that it is provided with necessary funding to support tens of thousands of people in comfort in New York City who would still be riding camels or carrying spears if not for our largesse - and stupidity.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist when I dare to state the fact that those same people, living on our money and in our cities and quivering with the constant fear that a coup or revolution back in their home garbage pits will result in death sentences being handed out to them if they ever return, use their time and our money to attack us, call us imperialists, call us war-mongers, call us torturers, call us Nazis, call us murderers and then accuse us of either being behind every problem that arises anywhere in their God forsaken shitholes or of actively participating in every self-induced larcenous or genocidal pogrom which their own governments perpetrate against their own people - and then blame it all on us.

Bad taste is when a bunch of Hollywood hypocrites and Hollywood wannabees in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland (ME or OR - take your pick), Boston and New York City jump in to support the accusations and condemnations.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist because I demand bloodshed in retaliation for 3000 innocent lives being snuffed out by a band of cowardly murderers who are led by people who have publicly announced that they want us all dead, dead, dead. The fact that they have brown or black skin is immaterial to me. If the Australians had done it to us, I'd want to see rivers of their blood running in the streets of Adelaide and all of those white sons-of-bitches killed.

Bad taste is when I am accused of being a racist because I am willing to go tit-for-tat with Jackson, McKinney, Sharpton and any others who call me a racist, a Nazi, a Jew-lover, a cracker, Whitey, The Man, Honkey and whatever.

Bad taste is when I am called a racist piece of shit by someone without the guts to leave a name or the imagination to leave even a fake name and who can't bring him/herself to use the search tool so thoughtfully provided by Blogger.com to look for Ken Blackwell, Michael Steele, Lynn Swann, Bill Cosby, Salim Mansur and a whole host of other "darkies" who have never been mentioned in any but the most favorable terms in this blog.

And, finally, bad taste is when someone has internet access with a 500 Kbps or better DSL connection and a blog sits back and either ignores the constant torrent of insults and abuse or, when responding, carefully couches said response in gentle, diplomatic terms so as not to unduly rile or upset those hurling the daily filth against our people, our country, our God, my friends and this blogger. I'm tired of it and I'm not going to take it anymore. I also split infinitives at will.

Now I've missed the single biggest and most world famous event attended here in Oaxaca by visitors from all over the world -- the Procession of the 14 Stations of the Cross. I had to send wife and kiddies along without me to buy their Easter lilies and attend the procession so I could sit here and share my thoughts with you, dear Sacha. It has been worth it.

PS: Who apologizes to me?

TAGS: racist

NYPD Department Chief: NEVER F***ING AGAIN!

In 1978, Hasidic Jews (the Orthodox types who wear black suits, black hats, beards and pigtails), angry over something or other, stormed the NYPD's Precinct 66 station house in Brooklyn, causing the police to retreat. Since that infamous day, the station house has been referred to derisively as Fort Surrender.

Tuesday night, an elderly Hasidic Jew, 75 year-old Joseph Schick, was sitting in his car at a traffic light chatting on his cell phone. When the light turned green, he continued sitting and chatting. The two police officers in the car stuck behind him finally had to drive around his roadblock. When the officers observed that brother Schick was chatting rather than paying attention to business, the officers attempted to write him a ticket for using a cell phone while pretending to operate a motor vehicle. Brother Schick got irate, left his car, began berating the officers and calling out to passersby (presumably Hasidim, also, who had filled the streets in preparation for the Passover celebration), "See what they are doing to me?"

That started the riot . . . smashing windows, setting fires, chanting slogans . . . you know, just like in Paris - or Brooklyn, 1978. Now, NYPD Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, no doubt vowing, FORT SURRENDER -- NEVER AGAIN!, confronted the rioters outside the Brooklyn station house along with a bunch of witnesses, including City Councilman Simcha Felder, and screamed,

"Get the f***ing Jews out of here. I want heads rolling!"

and

"Simcha, if you don't want to help me, get the f*** out of here!"

Councilman Felder has taken some offense. The NYPD is denying that Esposito used the word "Jew" in relation to the word "f***ing". They say he said, ". . . f***ing people . . .." Councilman Felder, whose very name indicates that he is neither Chinese nor Arab Muslim, disagrees, emphatically,

"I dare him to say, 'I unequivocally did not say, 'Get the f- - -ing Jews out of here,' " Felder told The Post. "We will bring witnesses upon witnesses upon witnesses to confirm what he said. If they try to push this under the rug, they are in for a rude awakening."

but also reasonably,

"The remark he made about Jews - that could be made about blacks, Hispanics, about anyone else. It's inexcusable," Felder said. "When you use the word Jew with the word 'f- - -ing' in any fashion, something is seriously wrong. What should be done? I leave that to the mayor and the police commissioner."

What should be done is this:

• Chief f***ing Esposito acknowledges his use of the term "f***ing Jew" and f***ing apologizes for same;
• NYPD Commissioner f***ing Kelly f***ing apologizes, also;
• the f***ing moron Schick pays his f***ing fines for his various f***ing offenses and gets on with his f***ing life;
• the f***ing Hasidim who were arrested for smashing f***ing windows and setting f***ing fires in the f***ing streets during the f***ing riot get the f***ing book thrown at them by a f***ing judge.

That is all I have to f***ing say about this whole sorry f***ing episode, except to f***ing declare that I hope this soon all Passes Over.

TAGS: NYPD, Fort Surrender, f***ing cops, f***ing Jews, f***ing silliness

Whore to portray Mother Teresa?

An obviously loony Indian movie director, one T. Rajeevnath from Thiruvananthapuramt, India (that's pronounced Thiruvananthapuramt, IN dee ya) says that a computer shows that Paris Hilton's and Mother Teresa's features are very similar. Now he wants to do a movie of Mother Teresa and cast Paris Hilton in the role of the sainted Catholic nun.

Let's take a look at the respective features of the two, shall we?

Here we see Mother Teresa cuddling an unknown baby in the slums of Calcutta, India.
And here we see Paris Hilton cuddling an unknown
dopehead-child-abuser-wannabee-rock singer from Seattle, WA.
I am struggling to see any resemblance at all. Hmmm. Well, perhaps it is a resemblance in their respective life's work. Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who dedicated her life to the poor in the Calcutta slums. Paris Hilton is a Hollywood whore whose life's accomplishment so far is starring in a graphic sex tape which has been floating around the internet for a year or so -- or so I am told. I just can't seem to find any resemblance there at all, either.

Maybe their respective shoe sizes were identical?

TAGS: Mother Teresa, Paris Hilton, no resemblance

01-02-03-04-05-06

I'm sitting here waiting for 01-02-03-04-05-06 -- that's 3 seconds past 1:02 AM, April 5, 2006. Actually, that will be your 01-02-03-04-05-06, not mine here in Mexico where they write the day of the month before the month (DD-MM-YY). My 01-02-03-04-05-06 will occur at 3 seconds past 1:02 AM on May 4, 2006. I'm going to sit here and await that happy moment. Aren't you glad you stopped by to learn this?

TAGS: useless information

Caution - the British have gone insane!

I am having difficulty not believing that this is some kind of joke. Is April 5 the April Fool's Day in Britain? This London Daily Mail report says that the British Home Office, which apparently has authority over all of Britain's police forces, has issued guidelines to police officers to let criminals caught in the act off with a "Caution". This would include 60 different crimes, including burglary, arson, threatening to kill, actual bodily harm, the possession of Class A drugs such as heroin or cocaine, common assault, threatening behavior, sex with an underage girl or boy, and taking a car without its owner's consent (grand theft auto).

A "Caution"

counts as a criminal record but means the offender does not face a court appearance which would be likely to end in a fine, a community punishment or jail.

The British are already releasing repeat sex offenders who received life sentences from prison in as little as 15 months. The Home Office has organized crime (heh heh) into 4 categories, cleverly named 1, 2, 3, and 4, with 4 being the most serious crimes. I suppose a 4 would be mass murder, cannibalism, giving up 4 goals to Zidane and the like. Anyone caught committing a mere Category 3 crime, or less, who then confesses to the police - "Yasss, I pinched the bloody Bentley. So what?" - would receive a "Caution" if the police cannot establish that he had previously stolen a Bentley and received a prior "Caution".

This means that, in Britain, one may dope up on heroin and cocaine, stuff the remaining stash in one's jeans pockets, stagger next door, break down the neighbor's front door, gather up his china, be confronted by the irate neighbor, threaten to kill him, then commence to beating the shit out of him to help drive that point home, slap his wife around a bit, have sex with his 14 year-old daughter, follow that up by sodomizing his 15 year-old son, set his house on fire, then throw his china in the trunk of his Jaguar and drive off with it, get stopped by the police, confess everything, give up the heroin, cocaine, china and the Jaguar, receive your "Caution" and be back home in time to catch the BBC's Fawlty Towers rerun on the telly. Jolly good, oi say.

I don't wish to trifle with semantics here, but if this is not insanity, perhaps someone might please provide for me a better definition.

TAGS: Britain, crime, caution

He skates . . . He shoots . . . He scores!!!!

Scientists say that Jesus H. Christ, better known, perhaps, as simply "Jesus" or "The Christ", was the world's first ice hockey player. His bitter rivals from the Sanhedrin Sandalsoles derisively referred to him as "The Nattering Nabob from Nazareth" while his billions of followers yet today still worship him as the "Jerusalem Jet".

The Jerusalem Jet directs first Zamboni
Note to Jihadists, Islamists and Islamofascists everywhere: Notice how I can do this without fear that that Benedict feller will send his minions to saw off my head, rape and then stone my daughters, blow up my neighborhood and burn down my city? I am a little nervous about the Bible belt Baptist's reaction, but, hey, even they can take a joke . . . most of the time.

Gina Cobb predicts more Jesus scientific studies
The Curt Jester finds it all so reasonable.
Brutally Honest calls us hockey fans for what we are - neanderthals
John Martin says no, He was surfing!
David Price agrees that He was surfing.


TAGS: Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus H. Christ

Cynthia McKinney thought cop wanted $1000

Capital Hill police want an arrest warrant for Rep. Cynthia McKinney (Moron-GA) for assaulting a police officer when he tried to stop her after she avoided a security checkpoint (which Congress members are allowed to do sometimes) and had no visible Congressional ID (which Congress members are required to wear at all times). Congressidiot McKinney either slapped him, punched him or hit him with her cell phone, take your pick.

I think McKinney feared the police officer had come to collect the $1000 in taxpayer money that she illegally spent to fly Isaac Hayes to Georgia to dedicate some new building or other. CENSURE!! IMPEACHMENT!!! The money was paid out of McKinney's office supply fund which has caused her office toadies to function not only under the pressure of working for a complete moron, but also with a paperclip shortage. McKinney says she will pay the money back out of, er, other public funds, I suppose.

She claims that the Capitol Hill police should be able to recognize her, in spite of her recent hair style disaster and middle-aged weight gain, whether she is wearing the required Congressional ID badge or not. Here are some photos of Congressidiot McKinney. You may decide for yourself.

Here is Congressidiot McKinney as she has appeared to Capital Hill Police for several years. She is wearing her popular genuine fake Royal Canadian Mounted Police coat with the Himalayan Snow Leopard trim collar and cuffs. There were 7000 snow leopards left in the wild before the sacrifice of one of the rare creatures for McKinney's coat, leaving 6,999 still breathing and still wearing their own coats.

And here is Congresswoman McChocolatecity grinning from ear to ear because you paid for this junket and she didn't and Isaac Hayes humming the refrain from his ever popular "Youse Gots the SHAFT" and wearing a much smaller and tighter smile which says, "When can I please get the f*** out of here?"

Here is Cynthia McImbecile as she appeared to the Capitol Hill policeman when she evaded the security checkpoint. Does she look like someone trying to make off with $1000 in taxpayer money?

And here is Congresswoman McBitchslap listening to Beane B. Bean, the popular jugular who performs for London's famed Piccadilly Circus, as he testifies during the Congressional conspiracy hearings about Bush and Blair steering Hurricane Katrina directly at the heart of 100% black New Orleans where no white folks had lived since Jean Lafitte sailed away in disgust in April, 1814.

Here is Congresswoman McBarrioblaster, during Mr. Bean's testimony, holding in her left hand a copy of Mao's Little Red Book and in her right hand a grenade. Who knows what the hell that was about? In any case, she yanked the grenade pin and hurled the grenade at Mr. Bean when he began to testify about the Bush and Blair conspiracy to assassinate Mr. and Mrs. Borden with 81 combined ax whacks and then pin the sordid affair on Elizabeth (Borden, not Queen II).

Seconds later, the unfortunate Mr. Bean takes immediate, albeit unsuccessful evasive action to avoid the incoming live grenade.

And, finally, here is Congresswoman McSillyjackass, after the removal of Mr. Bean's shattered remains, holding up a water cup of the type in which she claimed the CIA introduced clean drinking water containing no gin whatsoever to poor, unfortunate ghetto blacks. She holds in her other hand a sponge of the type in which she claimed that the CIA introduced Irish Spring bath soap to those same downtrodden black American ghettos.

TAGS: Cynthia McKinney, moron

Hugo "El Chingon" Chavez is a racist pig - trains militia to shoot at white targets only

The women, some trembling, grasp the assault rifles and awkwardly lower themselves into sniper positions as they take aim and fire at white targets in the distance.

Hugo Chavez's new two million-strong Venezuelan civilian militia, whose hilarious motto is, "Fatherland Or Death", has no weapons. They are being trained to march and shoot, 900 volunteers at a time, in 20 week courses being directed by another middle-aged fat-ass named Rafael Cabrones Cabrices. Cabrones Cabrices believes that George Bush will soon direct the US military to invade Venezuela because, "That crazy man wants the petroleum."

Lessee, here; 2,000,000 volunteers being trained at the rate of 900 per 20 week course means that the 2,000,000 volunteers will be fully trained and ready for combat (sans guns) against the invading Yanqui horde in 44,444 weeks, or 855 years. Will George Bush, the "crazy man", still be president in 855 years? I doubt that, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid fear that it might be so. Chavez himself says, "If somebody meddles with Venezuela, they'll repent for 100 centuries. If we have to fight a war to defend this country, we'll make the blood flow."

The civilian volunteers, realizing that it is their blood that will be doing the flowing and demonstrating somewhat more intelligence than their leader, Hugo "El Chingon" Chavez, are casting about somewhat desperately in search of real guns, as when Cabrones Cabrices himself interrupted his interview with a BBC reporter and asked the reporter if the BBC knew anyone who could get them weapons.

"For defence one needs arms," he says. "It's logical."

No shit, Sherlock. Venezuela is now receiving shipments of a total of 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles recently purchased from Russia, as well as Russian helicopters to ferry the dead and dying, I suppose. That would mean one rifle for every 20 members of the civilian "Fatherland Or Death" militia. That reminds me, somewhat, of the Russian defense of Stalingrad, where every other man got a rifle and every odd man got the bullets. The bullet-carriers were instructed to pick up the rifles if - no - when the original riflemen were shot dead. El Chingon will have 19 militiamen available to pick up the rifle, one at a time, as each succeeding rifleman is shot dead by the invading Yanqui horde and then the Russian helicopters would remove the cannon fodder. Excellent strategy if I do say so myself.

Volunteers are being motivated by their highly professional trainers with shouts of,

"Kill the gringo! That gringo is taking away your women!"

Taking away Venezuelan women? What, are they expecting an imminent shortage of floor moppers, toilet cleaners and tomato street-saleswomen in East LA? Are they expecting Mexico to run out of women in the near (855 year) future? Hmmmm. At the rate that they currently are walking, wading, swimming and otherwise streaming across the border out of Mexico, that indeed might happen.

Not all of the volunteers demonstrate an accurate idea as to the requirements for modern combat against the invading Yanqui horde, however.

"I'm learning to defend my Fatherland and myself," she says. "It has nothing to do with weapons."

So, with what will she defend herself and her fatherland, TIFAL frying pans, broomsticks and a flyswatter? Some of the female volunteers do seem to get it.

"It was exciting, too good," gushed Yomaira Alas, a 28-year-old housewife, after
sex with an invading US Marine firing the gun for the first time.

TAGS: Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Fatherland Or Death

Here he is; your Mr. HIV Positive

The African nation of Botswana holds a pageant to select "Mr. HIV Positive". The pageant was held in an attempt to publicize the spread of HIV in Botswana which has reached the horrific rate of 1 in every 3 adults. The pageant organizers hope to use "Mr. HIV Positive" to help dispell some of the stigma associated with the disease and to encourage men to come forward for testing and treatment.

The whole affair seems somewhat . . . sad.

TAGS: HIV, AIDS, Botswana, Africa, Mr. HIV Positive

Sharia law written to legitimize murderers

Salim Mansur, my favorite Muslim commentator, levels an astonishing charge against his own religion. Writing in the Toronto Sun, Salim says this;

The Koran as the message of freedom -- for instance, "there is no compulsion in religion" -- was twisted into an ideology of power by some of Mohammed's successors as rulers of an expanding realm.

Then blood was shed. The earliest victims of usurpers in Arab-Muslim history were members of Mohammed's family.

Tyranny became the norm and the first among Muslim intellectuals -- religious scholars or the ulema -- devised the legal system, sharia, to legitimize and regulate the authority of those who murdered their way to power.

Read that part again, "...the ulema (Muslim religious scholars) devised the legal system, Sharia, to legitimize and regulate the authority of those who murdered their way to power." I have neither heard nor read, before, any other Muslim, or Christian or Jew, for that matter, make such an incendiary claim.

Salim is a Muslim and I am not, so it does not behoove me to argue either for or against his charge. Salim says that this bastardization (my term - not his) of Muhammed's teachings and the Koran's true meaning has left Muslims imprisoned

in a pre-modern psychology, which views freedom suspiciously as indulgence in corrupt practices, or worse, apostasy.

And,

The passage to freedom is through a valley of tears, and Muslims cannot set forth in sufficient numbers without first admitting their complicity in the making of their own captivity.

I am convinced that Salim Mansur has a death wish. Much more writing like this and he'll either have to flee Canada for the safer confines of the USA or retreat into hiding a la Rushdie. Right or wrong, the man is no coward.

Viewing Sharia Law as written to legitimize and regulate the authority of murderers and assassins is a different way of looking at all things Muslim. What a nightmare this must be for Salim and all other Muslims capable of independent thought. Their history has locked them into a war against the West which will ultimately become a death spiral for them. So many hundreds and hundreds of millions of Muslims are ignorant, dirt poor, isolated and controlled by likewise ignorant "religious scholars" who direct them to commit almost unmentionable atrocities - against themselves. I am quite sure that if someone took the time to research the numbers of Christians and Jews and followers of other religions who have been and continue to be assaulted, raped, murdered, assassinated or executed by Muslims and compared that number to the number of Muslims likewise assaulted, raped, murdered, assassinated or executed by fellow Muslims, the results would be shocking. I would venture to say that Muslims have and continue to assault, rape, murder, assassinate or execute each other in easily a 1000-1 ratio over all others.

Take Iraq, for instance. Conservative estimates are that 30,000 or so Iraqis have died and less that 3000 of everyone else has died since Hussein was dusted. That's 10-1 right there. And prior to our invasion, Hussein and his insane progeny, Uday and Qusay, are estimated to have murdered some 300,000 to 1,000,000 of their own people, almost all of whom were Muslim. That's a ratio approaching something like 500,000-1. The Iraq - Iran war killed 1,000,000 Iraqis and another 1,000,000 Iranians - all Muslim. You stack those kinds of numbers up against 3000 in the WTC attacks, a few hundred Marines, soldiers and sailors murdered over the years, a few hundred tourists in Bali and Luxor blown to bits or machine-gunned out of existence, a few Jewish schoolgirls murdered in Israeli pizza parlors and a handful of Israeli mothers and babies shot dead in their cars or kitchens and the ratio becomes, like, 2,000,000-1. If this keeps up for much longer, the various "religious scholars" and the various sheikhs, kings, mullahs and ayatollahs representing Islam, the religion of peace, will solve the Muslim problem for us. They'll all kill each other off and the thinking man's Muslims - like Salim Mansur - can get the religion back on the decent track that I am sure Muhammed would have envisioned.

TAGS: Salim Mansur, Muslim, Islam, Sharia Law, Muhammed, Koran