Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the day - George W. Bush

I think people who want to be citizens of this country ought to learn English.

President George W. Bush

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie

Variety and others have noted rumors that a movie version of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged may be in the works.



Atlas mentions the rumors that Brad Pitt will play John Galt and Angelina Jolie will play Dagny Taggart.

[In other news, it was announced today that Al Sharpton will play Otto Frank in the upcoming remake of the "Diary of Anne Frank."]

As Atlas wrote:

She [Jolie] can't be a Randite. You can't be a looter and an individualist, maybe in coddlywood you can - but not in the real world.

emphasis in original

I can think of someone much better suited to play Dagny (even though her best role would be as Dominique).

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

If everything is the white man's fault, then the white man is the uncaused cause, the prime mover, while other races are merely helpless, passive, incapable of the dignity of free action. The unintended message conveyed by this monopoly of blame is the forbidden thought that though the white man may be bad, he gets things done. He alone makes history. He is stereotyped, in effect, as a malign superman.

Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

I would be more interested in what the Democrats had to say about high gas prices if these were not the same people who refused to let us drill for oil in Alaska, imposed massive restrictions on building new refineries, and who shut down the development of nuclear power in this country decades ago.

Ann Coulter, April 26, 2006

Price Controls Cause Shortages - repost

In light of rising gas prices and the tendency of politiciams to take advantage of the situation, it seems that we need a reminder of one basic principal (before it is too late):

PRICE CONTROLS CAUSE SHORTAGES.

If you don't remember this or if your congressman needs a reminder, check out -

this link for a brief visit to the 1970's

or

this link.

We need to spread the word on this issue. [Check out this post for the importance of blogging about economic issues.]

Oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants; Mexifornia

I am joining the chorus of those who oppose an amnesty deal for illegal immigrants. Michelle Malkin and the Washington Times post the story of a White House deal that would create amnesty without using the actual word.

Hillary Clinton is celebrating this news because this issue gives her a big wedge to capture some red states in 2008. Hillary foresaw this opportunity in November of 2004. But the Republicans apparently can not see that far ahead.

Also, check out "Mexifornia":



H/T Atlas

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Taxes are like abortion, and not just because both are grotesque procedures supported by Democrats. You're for them or against them. Taxes go up or down; government raises taxes or lowers them. But Democrats will not let the words "abortion" or "tax hikes" pass their lips.

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Environmentalism doesn't need the support of the church, it's a church in itself -- and furthermore, one explicitly at odds with Christianity: God sent His son to Earth as a man, not as a three-toed tree sloth or an Antarctic krill. An environmentalist can believe man is no more than a co-equal planet dweller with millions of other species, and that he's taking up more than his fair share and needs to reduce both his profile and his numbers. But that's profoundly hostile to Christianity.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Dr. Sue Blackmore

"If we decide to put the planet first, then we ourselves are the pathogen. So we should let as many people die as possible, so that other species may live, and accept the destruction of civilization and of everything we have achieved."

Dr. Sue Blackmore, writing in the Guardian, as quoted by Mark Steyn.

The Culture of Ventriloquism; L.A. Times; Michael Hiltzik; Patterico

Big thumbs up to Patterico for exposing yet another example of ventriloquist journalism.

For those who have not read the story, here is Patterico's summary:

Is an L.A. Times columnist leaving comments on the Internet under assumed “sock puppet” identities — identities which he pretends is someone other than himself?

Read on and judge for yourself. As for me, I’ve made up my mind, and the answer is “yes.”

Read Patterico's post for the details.



Based on the updates to Patterico's post, either more than one L.A. Times' employee has been doing this, or Michael Hiltzik continues to do this even after his suspension.

The Washington Post and Wuzzadem weigh in also.

I have not maintained a list of MSM/DNC lies this year as I did in 2005, but this episode certainly qualifies. As the fictional character was quoted as saying in that post,

we can't be sure of anything we do . . . anything we see.

The Times' columnist's use of alter egos to convey propoganda is standard operating procedure for the MSM/DNC.

Here is entry # 3 from the bias category list:

3. Ventriloquist journalism. A common tactic of the MSM/DNC is to get others to do its dirty work. Let it appear as if someone else is doing the talking so that "media bias" won't be so obvious. [Update] MSM/DNC often uses phrases like "critics say" "some say" "experts say" "sources have told CBS news" . . . .

A previous example of ventriloquist journalism from December 2004 and related commentary:

A good ventriloquist will never let you see his mouth move. But the MSM's ventriloquist act gets more obvious every day.

Usually, ventriloquist journalism takes the form of vague references to "widespread assumptions," "popular beliefs" and "generally recognized" facts:

But as far as good old fashioned MSM/DNC propaganda is concerned, nothing beats Reuters' subtle ventriloquist journalism and well poisoning technique:

Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.

Ventriloquist journalism is category # 3 on the bias list. Referring to a "widespread assumption" is an MSM/DNC commonly used technique that allows MSM/DNC to hide behind unnamed "others" as it spreads its propaganda.

emphasis added

That story, from April 2005, reveals the ease to which the MSM/DNC attributes its own biases and venom to the general public. In this atmosphere of widespread ventriloquism, it was too easy for Michael Hiltzik to make the transition from reliance on invented "widespread assumptions" to posting comments on others' blogs under assumed identities.

And don't forget ventriloquism's twin, the poll:

4. Polls. An offshoot of ventriloquist journalism is the MSM/DNC's reliance upon polls. The polls that the MSM/DNC uses are either (1) unreliable or blatantly false and/or (2) self-fulfilling prophecies. It is a common tendency among humans (especially those who have been softened by 70 years of the welfare state) to want to be on the winning side. When the MSM/DNC releases its polls showing some Democrat with a lead or that the "public" thinks that Social Security is just fine, those who might otherwise harbor doubts are intimidated into going along with the majority. I am sure that the MSM/DNC will continue their efforts to bully the public into acquiescing in the status quo on social security with just this tactic.

[Also - I hate polls.]

I think it is incorrect for bloggers to focus mainly on Michael Hiltzik. The fault lies in the culture of ventriloquism that pervades the MSM/DNC. If the MSM/DNC expressed its opinions in its own name instead of hiding behind contrived polls or vox populi, it never would have obtained the power that now slips further away with each passing day. We can hardly blame individual employees when they follow the pattern set by the establishment for which they toil.

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Horses are supposed to be dumb animals. But they are smart enough not to bet on people.

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!"

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.

Ayn Rand

Qutoe of the day - Joe Sobran

We often confuse intellectuals with scholars. But a scholar wants knowledge for its own sake. The intellectual wants knowledge for the sake of power, and the very word "intellectual" now emits a faint odor of politics.

Joe Sobran

Comedy Central, South Park, Muhammad image, Gaggle, Dhimmitude

Newsbusters' "Gaggle" cartoon today makes the point that Comedy Central has recently refused to air an image of Muhammad, even though the network aired such an image two months prior to 9-11-01.




Gaggle's point (and the point made by many others) is that Comedy Central is afraid of the muslims.


















H/T WAmbulance via Michelle Malkin

In fact, I am not so sure that cowardice explains the Rush to Dhimmitude of Comedy Central and so many other MSM/DNC outlets. I think a better explanation is provided by Ann Coulter:

Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant.

page 16, Treason

The truth is that the left hates America. When America was attacked by muslims, the left had found a new ally. The left has been described by Nelson Ascher as "Berlin Wall Orphans" - enemies of America in search of an ally ever since the Berlin Wall's demise deprived the left of its best hope for America's destruction.

And since terrorists support the left, is it too much to ask for the left to return the favor?

Worthington Elementary School; nuclear attack lockdown

I am amused by a California elementary school principal who mistakenly used the wrong emergency protocol during last week's immigration protests:

Principal Angie Marquez imposed the lockdown March 27 when nearly 40,000 middle and high school students across Southern California staged walkouts.

But Marquez, who did not return telephone calls for comment, apparently misread the district handbook and ordered the most restrictive lockdown — one reserved for nuclear attacks.

source - L.A. Times via Drudge [emphasis added]

As a result of the principal's use of the nuclear protocol, the bathrooms were locked down and students were forced to use buckets in the classroom in place of the restrooms.

If Al Gore runs for President in 2008, I fully expect him to use this story as proof that public schools are underfunded and cannot afford restrooms.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter - Treason

"Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant." -- Ann Coulter, P. 16

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

You know what's great fun to do if you're on, say, a flight from Chicago to New York and you're getting a little bored? Why not play being President Ahmadinejad? Stand up and yell in a loud voice, "I've got a bomb!" Next thing you know the air marshal will be telling people, "It's OK, folks. Nothing to worry about. He hasn't got a bomb." And then the second marshal would say, "And even if he did have a bomb it's highly unlikely he'd ever use it." And then you threaten to kill the two Jews in row 12 and the stewardess says, "Relax, everyone. That's just a harmless rhetorical flourish." And then a group of passengers in rows 4 to 7 point out, "Yes, but it's entirely reasonable of him to have a bomb given the threatening behavior of the marshals and the cabin crew."

Mark Steyn - April 16, 2006

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

It’s [the debate over "Passion of the Christ"] not between Christians and Jews, but between believing Christians and the broader post-Christian culture, a term that covers a large swathe, from the media to your average Anglican vicar. Some in this post-Christian culture don’t believe anything, some are riddled with doubts, but even the ones with only a vague residual memory of the fluffier Sunday School stories are agreed that there’s little harm in a Jesus figure who’s a “gentle teacher”. In this world, if Jesus were alive today he’d most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally-friendly car with an “Arms Are For Hugging” sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams.

Mark Steyn March 27, 2004

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

People used to say, "Ignorance is no excuse." Today, ignorance is no problem. After all, you have "a right to your own opinion" -- and self-esteem to boot.

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the day - Atlas Shrugs (Pamela)

We are a country at war with two dangerous enemies, the Fifth column within our ranks and Radical Jihadism.

Atlas Shrugs

The Ten Commandments, the sanitized version

I watched ABC's new version of the Ten Commandments last night (part I). I mention this only to point out that throughout most or all of the movie, there was no reference to the fact that the slaves were Jewish/Israelite. They were referred to only as "the slaves." References to passover and the passover ceremonies were not included.

Moses was referred to by the narrator as someone revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims. Apparantly Moses was just a historical figure who led a random group of slaves out of Egypt. These events apparently have no special significance to any one particular religion.

Open borders, Elian Gonzalez, and a simple question.

I have a question for the people who now demand open borders, amnesty, new euphemisms and special exemptions from law and language -

Where were you 6 years ago when the U.S. government tore a 6 year old boy from his real family so that he could be forcibly returned to the custody of Fidel Castro?

You don't need to answer. The question is rhetorical. You were probably working within your activist group in support of the administration and the political party that shipped Elian back to Cuba.

Elian and Marisleysis






The anniversary of this tragedy will arrive on April 22. The MSM/DNC will remain dutifully silent. As always, we watch and wait in vain for MSM/DNC to mention the obvious parallel.

-----------------------------
Michelle Malkin posts photos and video of yesterday's rallies in support of our brave new open borders world.

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

Ayn Rand

Trip to Mexico; David Bresnahan; News with Views

I received the following in my e-mail box the other day. It was written by David M. Bresnahan at "News with Views" last week. [I had never heard of that website before, but it looks interesting.]

Dear President Bush:
I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family, and I
would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across the border
from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few arrangements. I know
you can help with this.
I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration
quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do
here.
So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I'm on
my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need,
whether I use them or not.
3. All government forms need to be printed in English.
4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.
5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the flag
pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.
7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to
government services.
9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won't make any effort to
learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from
Pres. Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all police officers speak
English.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals on my
car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any
complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and
don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.
13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and
never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place on
the economy.
I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for
all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that Pres. Fox
won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
However, if he gives you any trouble, just invite him to go quail hunting
with your V.P.
Thank you so much for your kind help.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Nothing defines a culture so clearly as its religion. Every culture is organized around some transcendent sense of reality, some metaphysical order, some sense of the divine which it aspires to harmonize with.

Joe Sobran

Happy Birthday, Debbie Schlussel. [+ Unrelated photo of Shannon Schlussel.]

Happy birthday


For some reason, my computer has the idea that today is Debbie Schlussel's birthday. I hope she won't mind the public birthday wishes.



















This is Debbie's cousin Shannon. I know this has nothing to do with anything, but the photo will attract traffic to my blog.

The New Book, by Ann Coulter

from a July 2002 interview.

Mark Steyn, Michelle Malkin, Invasion, immigration

Mark Steyn's column today references Michelle Malkin's book, Invasion, in which she recounts one of the disastrous consequences of U.S.' lax immigration policy:

In Michelle Malkin's book Invasion, she recounts the tale of two fellows who in August 2001 pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot in Falls Church, Va., in search of fake ID from the illegal-alien assistance network that hangs around there. Luis Martinez-Flores, who'd been living here illegally since 1994, took them along to the local DMV, supplied them with a fake address and falsely certified they lived there. The very next day, the two guys returned with two pals of their own, and used their own brand-new state ID on which the ink was not yet dry to obtain in turn brand-new state ID for their buddies. A couple of weeks later, all four of them used their Virginia ID to board American Airlines Flight 77 at Dulles Airport and plowed it into the Pentagon.

We had better stop reciting platitudes and start thinking about our own survival.



previous citation to Steyn's April 9, 2006 column.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Right now, we get a lousy deal compared with the 15 million fine upstanding members of the Undocumented American community. I think the 298 million of us in the overdocumented segment of the population should get the chance to be undocumented. You know when President Bush talks about all those undocumented people "living in the shadows"? Doesn't that sound kinda nice? Living in the shadows, no government agencies harassing you for taxes and numbers and paperwork.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Jared Paul Stern

"We know how to destroy people," Mr. Stern said, according to a person reading a transcript of the meeting. "It's what we do. We do it without creating liability. That's our specialty."

Jared Paul Stern

[contributor to New York Post's Page Six.]

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

I can understand poor people who have to struggle to make ends meet. What I cannot understand are people who have plenty of money but who live so high on the hog that they have to struggle to make ends meet, just as if they were poor.

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

The New York Times ran a Tom Tomorrow cartoon sneering about Americans who believe with 'unwavering faith in an invisible omniscient deity who favors those born in the middle of the North American land mass.' This is how liberals conceive of America: an undifferentiated land mass in the middle of North America.

Ann Coulter

What you can do about the Yaliban professor

Click here, read the article, spread the word.

H/T Wuzzadem

Insta-lanche anniversary

Today is the first anniversary of my first Insta-lanche. [It is buried at the bottom of the page.]

Why does this matter to any of you? It probably doesn't, but I felt like reminding myself why I keep blogging even though I have no time for it.

Quote of the day - Will Durant

To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. Nothing is often a good thing to say, and always a clever thing to say.

Will Durant

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Everybody's busy professing their "respect": We all "respect" Islam; presidents and prime ministers and foreign ministers, lapsing so routinely into the deep-respect-for-the-religion-of-peace routine they forget that cumulatively it begins to sound less like "Let's roll!" and too often like "Let's roll over!"

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality, marking vulnerable points.

Ayn Rand