Del's Recommended Reading List (Last Updated Jun 27th at 11:52 AM EST)
Because I never seem to have as much time for blogging as I would like to have, I decided to take advantage of the "Shared Story" feature of the Google Reader application to create this list of stories I think my readers would enjoy. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. You can email me at 'del' at this website. Thanks!
“Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.” (emphasis mine)
Ce qui vous signifient disant, “nous,” Monsieur Obama? ¿Puede usted aclara, amigo?
There is currently no study showing that open-mindedness is the reason that left-wingers are more likely to read right-wing blogs. The study currently being discussed in the blogosphere just states that the behavior occurs, not the reason why.
It is just as logical for me to say that spite and venom and an eagerness to argue is the reason that some small segment of the left-wing reads right-wing blogs. If you go look at the regular leftists at Riehl World View, for example, they always have some snarky little comment to add to Dan Riehl’s posts. I have yet to see one left-winger say, “wow! You know, I never thought of it that way, but thank goodness you’re here to help me see that my opinion may not always be right.”
I think its more reasonable to assume that both sides read the other side’s blogs for the purpose of rolling one’s eyes, confirming that the other side is indeed idiotic and posting some one-liner that makes others on one’s political side of the spectrum chuckle or say, “yeah! What he said!”
But for some reason the left is always having to affirm to themselves that they are better, smarter, and gosh darn it, people like them more than people like right wingers.
TruthThroughAction.org brings independent filmmakers together to create edgy online film and video content to support the Democratic Party, its issues and candidates.
I’ll be honest: all liberals sound alike to me. I can’t tell one from the other and I don’t know their hierarchy. So while I am kind of familiar with the name, “John Aravosis,” his latest ignorant rant could have been written by Glenn Greenwald, and I wouldn’t know the difference. Many people on the left have very definite opinions on subjects they know absolutely nothing about, and I don’t have the time to sort them all out.
But anyway, John Aravosis demands to know why John McCain is getting disability from his military service. Instead of just looking at his own old articles and determining that, like every other injured war vet, John McCain’s retirement pay is determined by what happened to him during his service. So he gets $58K a year tax-free because of his five years of torture.
According to liberal logic, our vets deserve the best care, payments for disability and retirement benefits… UNLESS they will go on to serve in the Senate as a Republican and run for president. In that case, we are to hop into our little time machines, go back in time and deny them their tax-free retirement pay. Liberals don’t know what they want.
You’re ignorant because you have no idea how well-educated the men and women who serve in our military really are. I know exactly what you said because your remarks are video taped and I saw them online. For the rest of the world, they are:
I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got, the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s, it’s not as bright. So, that’s my little commercial for that.
The people you insulted risk their lives every day so you can make your uneducated ramblings to impressionable young people. And since you don’t live in a vacuum, I am also free to tell you that your opinions about people who join the Army make you look like a total clown; not that big scary one you wrote about once, but more like Bozo. Or maybe Flunky.
You lack class because you, so far, haven’t admitted what you said, tried to spin it into something you absolutely didn’t say, and haven’t apologized for what you actually said. You seem to be saying that illiteracy and lack of intelligence isn’t limited to the Army, but to anyone who heard what you said and didn’t hear you “supporting the troops.”
You’re free to exhibit any level of ignorance you wish and I’m free to tell you that you are ignorant. You’re free to lash out at anyone who admonishes you for your ignorant remarks and I’m free to point out that your temper tantrum shows you have no class. We’re both free to speak our minds, and it is only because men and women of high intelligence, good education, and a desire to serve their nation made it so.
Something that really bothers me is when public speakers and writers treat their audience like a bunch of idiots.
Forgive the redundancy, but moronic NY Times columnist Frank Rich does just that when he compares Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, with San Antonio televangelist John Hagee. Maybe they are equally despicable and bigotted. I don’t know. But John McCain hasn’t attended Hagee’s church as a parishioner even once, let alone for 20 years.
Frank Rich must think you are an idiot if you’re going to buy that John McCain must apologize for some guy who happens to endorse McCain’s run for president. That’s like saying Obama should apologize for Bill Ayers. Or at least kinda like that.
How do people with such weak skills in logic get a regular column in a newspaper unless that newspaper has absolutely no standards when it comes to persuasive writing? Frank Rich describes McCain has having “embraced” Hagee when in reality it is Hagee who has embraced the idea of McCain as President. Rich says that “Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s,” but the problem with that little bit of historical rewrite is that we already know from Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, that he most certainly does endorse Mr. Wright’s views no matter what he says about those views today. Mr. McCain has no such history with Mr. Hagee nor has he written any book endorsing Hagee’s views.
What a strange place Canada is
A few days ago, I was interrogated for 90 minutes by Shirlene McGovern, an officer of the government of Alberta. I have been accused of hurting people’s feelings because, two years ago, I published the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in the Western Standard magazine.
Ms. McGovern’s business card said she was a “Human Rights Officer.” What a perfectly Orwellian title.
Early in her interrogation, she said “I always ask people … what was your intent and purpose of your article?”
It wasn’t even a question about what we had published in the magazine. It was a question about my private thoughts. I asked her why my private feelings were of interest to the government. She said, very calmly, that they would be a factor taken into account by the government in determining whether or not I was guilty.
Officer McGovern said it as calmly as if I had asked her what time it was.
When she’s doing government interrogations, she always asks people about their thoughts.
It’s really hard for me to swallow that this type of action is taking place so close to home. Go read the whole thing. How sad for our Canadian friends.
Imagine that! Can you believe that giving law abiding, responsible citizens the rightto carry guns for self defense actually results in a decrease in crime and gun deaths?
Michigan sees fewer gun deaths — with more permits
Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold.
But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics.
The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.
It makes perfect sense to me. Go read the whole thing! It’s well worth the time.
A bizarre story on CNN about some stupid Iranian Republican Guards that decided to tempt fate this past week.
Iranian ships ‘harass’ U.S. Navy, officials say - CNN.com
The five Iranian ships made “threatening” moves toward the USS Hopper, the USS Port Royal and the USS Ingraham — and in one case came within 200 yards of one of the vessels, the U.S. officials said.
The U.S. Navy also received a radio transmission that officials believe came from the Iranian ships. The transmission said, “I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes,” the U.S. military officials told CNN.
When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they took up their gun positions and officers were “in the process” of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said. Video Watch what U.S. officials are saying about the incident »
After the radio transmission, one of the Iranian ships dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, the officials said. It was not clear what was in the boxes, the officials said. See a map of the Strait of Hormuz »
No shots were fired, and no one was injured.
This one will be interesting to follow. Has anyone else seen other stories about this incident?
Here is an interesting article about how the coverage of the first battle for Fallujah interfered with the US military’s ability to finish the job they had been sent to do, resulting in an Al Qaeda win in the city and a nightmare for the residents of Fallujah.
A secret intelligence assessment of the first battle of Fallujah shows that the U.S. military thinks that it lost control over information about what was happening in the town, leading to “political pressure” that ended its April 2004 offensive with control being handed to Sunni insurgents.
“The outcome of a purely military contest in Fallujah was always a foregone conclusion — coalition victory,” read the assessment, prepared by analysts at the U.S. Armys National Ground Intelligence Center, or NGIC.
“But Fallujah was not simply a military action, it was a political and informational battle. … The effects of media coverage, enemy information operations and the fragility of the political environment conspired to force a halt to U.S. military operations,” concluded the assessment.
Our nation needs to learn this lesson and make sure we don’t allow anything like this to happen in the future. The people of Fallujah suffered greatly under the resulting Al Qaeda regime that took over the region when our military pulled back.
No one should be prosecuted for waterboarding Abu Zubaydah.
Several investigations are under way to find out who ordered the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, apparently an effort to cover up evidence of torture. Leaving aside for a moment the wisdom of destroying the tapes, Id like to take a look at what was allegedly done to Zubaydah, and why.
Go read the whole thing. It’s a great piece that outlines who Zubaydah was, why we needed to know what he knew, and why it was perfectly moral to waterboard him find it out, even if it was illegal, which I disagree with. If it is illegal, then our laws should be changed, based on the simple doctrine of self defense.
Nor do they drive off to the nearest Army base, shooting range or hunting club to vent their murderous frustration.
It should only take a moment’s thought to understand why: Those places have people who have relatively easy access to weapons themselves.
It’s one thing to be homicidal and suicidal, but it’s quite another to consider that one’s murderous intent could be brought to an untimely halt through the immediate application of superior firepower.
However, there are places that draw these people like magnets, and they, too, are easy to locate: They are the places where the possession of firearms is forbidden, and that fact is widely advertised.
Some of these places even go so far as to publicly display their vulnerability to mass murder through the posting of signs that say “No Guns Permitted” or “Gun-Free Zone.”
Virginia Tech was proud of its “gun-free” status, and boasted about how safe a place it was once it posted signs forbidding firearms on campus.
Thirty-two people died there last April as the cost of that exercise in hubris and futility.
While USA TODAY predicted mayhem that never materialized, right-to-carry laws have spread from 15 to 40 states since 1991.
Statistics can’t console grieving families, but might be more useful than defeatist editorials in developing public firearms policy.
Our analysis of FBI crime data shows that in 2006, compared with the rest of the country, states with right-to-carry had overall average violent crime rates 26% lower.
Well, some of you might remember my little run in with the self described “porn-addicted” lefty gangsta wanna-be, Chuckles Adkins. The short version is he’s the guy that threatened to have a “hit taken out” on me when he got upset that I questioned his idiotic political positions. To make a long story a bit shorter, I woke his mom up and confronted him one night on the phone (funny audio here) and within about 30 minutes he quickly caved like a wet noodle, promising he was going to stop the ugly name calling and start reading his Bible again regularly. (I shit you not!)
Well, I found it in my heart to forgive the poor sap since it quickly became clear to me that he’s nothing more than a pathetic joke, holed up in his parent’s basement using his pseudo-anonymity ( a bit more pseudo then he seemed to know) as a shield behind which to lash out at anyone who rubs him the wrong way. I also decided not to call the cops on him after all, since I was quite confident that me and the XD9SC could handle whatever he might throw my way.
Anyway, I tried to be cordial to the man after his public apology to me because that is the kind of man I am, and we even had a pleasant discussion or two via email. We even found a few topics we can agree on!
So jump to today and now I’m cruising through my various feeds and what not in Google Reader and guess who’s name seems to keep cropping up left and right. That’s right! Grand Master Chuckie-Chuck!! (props to docweasel for the cool poster) And what he’s done this time is even worse than what he did last time. It seems this time his whole blog has mysteriously vanished. Imagine that!
You’ve really let me down, Chuck. I thought you’d learned your lesson….
I guess not. I wish I could be the fly on the wall and see what your Mom has to say about it this time.
“During the successful operation by ISAF and Afghan troops in Musa Qala, hundreds of insurgents including several commanders and tens of foreign fighters have been either killed, wounded or detained,” Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told a news conference.
“We can not say exactly how many enemies have been killed at this time as we are still busy collecting dead bodies from Musa Qala,” he said.
“Afghan and NATO troops also bombed an important Taliban meeting in the mountains of Sangin and Musa Qala district that led to a high number of casualties,” Azimi said.
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys!
Another story about how a law abiding gun owner saves lives…
Source: One gunman responsible for Colorado shootings
The Colorado Springs megachurch instituted security precautions after the shootings at the Denver area mission center, saving “hundreds of lives” at the New Life Church, senior Pastor Brady Boyd said Monday.
A New Life parishioner acting as a security guard shot and killed the gunman who entered the church Sunday afternoon after he had gotten no more than 50 feet inside the building, Boyd said.
Two teens, identified by police as Rachael Works, 16, and Stephanie Works, 18, were killed in what Boyd called “a senseless, random attack.”
Boyd said the teens were sisters and were shot in the parking lot. Police said their father David Works, 51, was also shot and is hospitalized in fair condition with two gunshot wounds.
Boyd said the female security guard was a hero in preventing further bloodshed, rushing to confront the gunman just inside the church.
“She probably saved over a hundred lives,” Boyd said of the guard, whom he said is not a law enforcement officer and used her personal weapon.
She’s a hero in my book and our country needs more such men and women! Harden up and learn to defend yourself, people!
Here’s a story about a man who took the time to learn how to defend his family. Thank goodness he did, because he was able to take one predator off the streets while defending his wife and children.
Homeowner Kills To Protect Family
According to neighbors, one of three would be home invaders is dead and two others are still on the loose after a DeKalb County man acted in self defense. The shooting happened around 9 Thursday night at a home on Stardust Circle off Columbia Drive in South Dekalb County.
A neighbor who only gave her name as Mrs. Heath, told 11Alive news her neighbor told her he was coming home from a school function with his wife and young children when three robbers confronted them in their driveway. “It was a home invasion, but the invasion was on the other foot this time,” Heath said.
She said the wounded robber died in her neighbors yard and the other two fled on foot. She says she heard her dog attacking one of the suspects as he ran away.
I applaud this man for taking responsibility for the safety of his own family! Congrats on being ready when you were the only one there to defend your wife and children!!
John Lott reminds us all of the mainstream media’s failure to make clear that this latest mass shooting has happened, yet again, in one of these ridiculous “Gun Free Zones”.
A Google news search using the phrase “Omaha Mall Shooting” finds an incredible 2,794 news stories worldwide for the last day. From India and Taiwan to Britain and Austria, there are probably few people in the world who haven’t heard about this tragedy.
But despite the massive news coverage, none of the media coverage, at least by 10 a.m. Thursday, mentioned this central fact: Yet another attack occurred in a gun-free zone.
Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn’t one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises?
Nebraska allows people to carry permitted concealed handguns, but it allows property owners, such as the Westroads Mall, to post signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property.
The same was true for the attack at the Trolley Square Mall in Utah in February (a copy of the sign at the mall can be seen here). But again the media coverage ignored this fact. Possibly the ban there was even more noteworthy because the off-duty police officer who stopped the attack fortunately violated the ban by taking his gun in with him when he went shopping.
Wake up, people! Nobody can protect you but you, and banning law abiding gun owners from carrying their concealed guns doesn’t save anybody. When will we all learn?
President Sarkozy of France is on the verge of a breakthrough in his ambitious plan to wean his country off the restrictive working practices he believes stand in the way of national prosperity.
Yesterday, the strike of rail and subway workers that has crippled France for nine days was clearly crumbling, as workers began returning to work in large numbers and union branches conceded that support for the dispute is collapsing.
“We think a dynamic of return to work has begun,” Julie Vion, a spokeswoman for France’s state-owned railroad network, SNCF, said.
Union leaders began to concede defeat yesterday. “We have to face reality. Since yesterday’s negotiations, things have changed. The strike is no longer the solution. The strike strategy is no longer winning,” a leader of the Sud union representing Paris underground railway workers, Philippe Touzet, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Congrats to Sarkozy for helping his country defeat the unions that are dragging the French economy down to the ground. Let’s hope the progress continues!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who might wander by my little spot here on the Internet! I pray that you and yours will have a wonderful day together to reflect on the many blessing we enjoy daily.
I’m have been blessed in so many ways that it is sometimes hard to believe that this life is real. I’m so thankful for my family, my health, my job and my country. We citizens of these United States of America are truly blessed in more ways than we usually even consider. Today let’s all count our many blessings and remember those who are away from home, protecting us all and making this miracle called America possible for the rest of us, and stop for a moment to thank God for his many blessings.
Thank you also to all of the members of our wonderful military. None of this bounty would be possible without your hard work and sacrifice.
A homicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least three children and three of the troopers, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.
Seven children were wounded in the attack in Baqouba, where U.S. soldiers wrested control from Al Qaeda in Iraq last summer.
The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as the American military said overall violence is down 55 percent since a troop buildup began this year.
Can you imagine that these sick bastards think that this type of attack is the key to eternal paradise? What a warped sense of the world!
If you’ve ever wondered why the art world is flooded with pieces like “Piss Christ” and such, while being mostly devoid of any honest criticism of the head choppers of radical Islamism, check out this interesting article about the fear that has settled across the European art scene with regards to criticizing Islamism:
Britain’s contemporary artists are fêted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism. Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals.
Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.
“I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”
Will we allow fear to rule our lives or will we stand up for civilization? I guess there artists have made their choice.
