Come for the Politics, Stay for the Pathologies



Sunday, May 30, 2010

War and Remembrance

Lest we forget that this day started not as a “holiday” but as a day of somber reflection and remembrance. It began in an era when nearly everyone in this country believed that, although the price of freedom was high, it was a worthy cost. Many of us still understand that it is, and are truly grateful to those who have paid it for us.

This year’s Memorial Day tribute comes from Flopping Aces who lost one of their own this year.

 

Dedicated to the fallen heroes of the current and all past conflicts fought to keep the world, and America free from tyranny. It will always be a difficult and heavy load to bear.

Please accept our sincere, albeit inadequate, gratitude.

Holiday High-lynx

Miscellany from around the Web for an idle holiday weekend:

If you read nothing else today, read Wise Guys: The End of Free Market Capitalism  from American Thinker.

Councils of "wise men" will now rule America. This is an open assault on the Constitution and the freedom of the American people, and it must be stopped.

Politico Ben Smith on Clinton’s the Rich should pay more taxes:

"Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what — they're growing like crazy," Clinton said. "And the rich are getting richer, but they're pulling people out of poverty."

What are they smoking in the White House now? Do you think it a coincidence that Soros is heavily invested in Petro Brazil? I’m just asking. And by the way, no – the little people are not being lifted out of poverty. That’s just the way it’s written in the socialist prayer book. But what-the-heck, bring on the class warfare. We don’t have enough problems around here.

Doug Ross on the implausible plausible deniability of the Sestak bribery claim.

Atlas Shrugs reports on the White House Press Pool report from the Prez’s  Memorial Day BBQ: at Louis Farrakhan’s house. Keep in mind, this is via Jackie Calmes, a NYT reporter. As it turned out, Farrakhan’s house was across the street from the Obama’s soiree, but his house was heavily patrolled by thugs known as Fruit of Islam. I’m not making this up. Why on earth did the Secret Service not push these thugs entirely out of the way of Obama’s entourage? Oh, that’s right: because they’re moose-lums. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Ted Nugent (proud Michiganian currently ranching in Texas) remembers our fallen heroes, and reminds us why we must never forget to honor them.

Strange Democratic bedfellows at BP make that jackboot that we’re keeping on BP’s neck look more like a ballet slipper, if you catch my drift.

Blog Prof on our Michigan Governor’s Progressive PAC promoting Van Johnson, commie-Truther-green-czar-wannabe. No wonder Michigan’s economy rests comfortably at the bottom of the heap.

And don’t miss this read about our most thin skinned president – evah!  Find out how a complete narcissist views the world. Hint: it’s all about him. There’s a real news flash.

 In Obama's eyes, he is always the aggrieved, always the violated, always the victim of some injustice. He is America's virtuous and valorous hero, a man of unusually pure motives and uncommon wisdom, under assault by the forces of darkness.

Did I mention he was delusional too?

There’s so much more good reading out there, including Peggy Noonan’s latest bleat, but that one deserves it’s own post.

Have a nice holiday weekend. We can resume our efforts to retake the country next week.

Postmodernism: A Unified Theory of All the Trouble in the World

Article Originally Posted at American Thinker, May 2, 2010

 

Like the "fatal error" message that pops up unexpectedly on a computer, the phrase itself is menacing: "post-normal science." I ran across the phrase as I was reading Climate Change and the Death of Science. The author's explanation did nothing to allay my anxiety.

Once there was modern science, which was hard work; now we have postmodern science, where the quest for real, absolute truth is outdated, and "science" is a wax nose that can be twisted in any direction to underpin the latest lying narrative in the pursuit of power. Except they didn't call it ‘postmodern' science because then we might smell a rat. They called it PNS (post-normal science) and hoped we wouldn't notice.

This death sentence for science left me with the same enervating feeling I get at the precise moment I realize my hard drive is crashing. How could science, too, fall into the grasp of postmodernism's insanity? The author continues:

What has become of science? We thought that science was about the pursuit of truth. Then we became perplexed at how quickly scientists have prostituted themselves in the service of political agendas ... scientists refusing to share their data, fiddling their results, and resorting to ad hominem attacks on those who have exposed their work to be fraudulent.

Science has succumbed to the same virus that beset literature, art, economics, and the rest of the social sciences: postmodernism. Postmodernism is a progressive virus that negates reason, objectivity, and truth -- replacing them with relativism, subjectivism, and pragmatism. Having colonized every other branch of academics decades ago, postmodernism has now come for science.

There is no universally agreed-upon definition of "postmodernism." Like the philosophy itself, it means whatever the person who espouses the position wants it to mean. Three general tenets are acknowledged: Objective truth is unknowable, objectivity is fallacy, and modernity is a failure. By the last they mean that the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and the Industrial Age are all malevolent failures of reason and objectivity, as they failed to solve the world's existing problems and created new ones. Stephen Hicks, Ph.D. explains in his book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault:

Postmodernism rejects the Enlightenment project in the most fundamental way possible... [it] rejects the reason and the individualism ... And so it ends up attacking all of the consequences of the Enlightenment philosophy, from capitalism and liberal forms of government to science and technology.

Postmodernism developed into a political philosophy with Marxist/socialist roots. Its general tenets reflect a deep-seated disdain for the philosophical roots of Western thought, specifically repudiating individualism, an inherently American trait, as well as Western characteristics of objectivity, truth, reason, and logic -- all concepts fundamental to scientific method.

That's where post-normal science (PNS) comes in. According to the "inventors" of PNS, Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz, it is supposedly a scientific method of inquiry appropriate for cases where "facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent." What they describe however is more accurately recognized as politics than science, which is precisely the point: In postmodernism, everything is politics. And the aberration from "normal" science to post-normal science is designed for the purpose of manipulating and controlling high-stakes political artifice like "man-made global warming." This is not about determining "truth," which the advocates of post-normal science don't believe in -- it is about the power and control of politics.

Ravetz, again, quoted in Climate Change and the Death of Science:

This is a drastic cultural change for science, which many scientists will find difficult to accept. But there is no turning back; we can understand post-normal science as the extension of democracy appropriate to the conditions of our age.

For us, quality is a replacement for truth in our methodology. We argue that this is quite enough for doing science, and that truth is a category with symbolic importance, which itself is historically and culturally conditioned. [Emphasis added.]

Really? Science as the extension of democracy? "Quality" as a replacement for "truth"? How exactly does that work? Which czar defines quality? Who determines what "truths" are replaced -- East Anglia University's miscreant peer-reviewers? Absent standards and objective truth, there is no science. There is simply narrative, which is better-suited to propaganda than truth. Is it any wonder that we bitter clingers who still cleave to objective truth feel like we've fallen down Alice's rabbit hole?

Where did this insane movement come from, and how has it managed to captivate the world? Postmodernism's historical roots are in nineteenth-century existentialism, skepticism, and Marxism. Postmodernism evolved into an anti-rational movement based largely on the sophistry of "modernism's failure" -- specifically, objectivity's failure to eradicate war, poverty, and famine. Postmodernism emerged in its current political form around the middle of the twentieth century, when it was embraced by the new left. By the 1950s it was obvious that Marxist-socialism -- declared by the new left to be vastly superior to capitalism -- was both morally and economically bankrupt. The economic collapse and subsequent starvation of millions in the USSR, along with other atrocities committed by the regime, created severe ideological dissonance amongst Marxist cheerleaders. Intellectual leftists from both sides of the Atlantic needed to distance themselves from such public failings.

They found their new home in postmodernism. As only intellectual elitists can do, instead of abandoning their failed beliefs, they abandoned the principles that proved their belief system wrong.

In this instance, they ignored the fact that Marx's economic philosophy was based on rational objectivity. Ironically, postmodernism's rejection of reason, logic, and objectivity provided that rationalization. Accepting the premise that facts and falsehoods are culturally or socially constructed allowed them to sidestep the issue. As Hicks noted, "Postmodernism gives you, in effect, a get-out-of-jail-free card against any rational attack on your system." 

The amalgamation of the "old" postmodernist left, whose anti-modernist philosophy was based on sophistry, with the "new" socialist left, whose political philosophy was based on delusion, created a new political vanguard with a shared animosity for capitalism. Since both camps were heavily populated with elite intelligentsia, they were well-positioned to pursue their objectives through the education system. Subjectivity, relativity, and pragmatism became keystones of a new "education philosophy." As its belief system did not make any strenuous intellectual or moral demands, it readily attracted acolytes from a generation looking for neither.

Postmodernism's education cartel has dictated the terms and conditions of education for decades. They own the education departments in major universities, where the curriculum is likely to include the twelve-volume set Teaching for Social Justice edited by William Ayers. The portal between education departments and your child's classroom provides a conduit for an endless stream of postmodernism's collectivist garbage. Think not? How else to explain the likes of textbooks like Rethinking Math: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers? We should not be surprised that science has capitulated, too.

Running under cover of academic freedom and educational "philosophy," postmodernists have managed to do what other strains of totalitarianism only dreamed of: insinuate their beliefs into every aspect and level of education.

Not since the Middle Ages has the West needed to regain the sure footing of classical values so badly. The path we're on is headed in the opposite direction.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Of Mice and Men – Your Choice

President Obama cockily told us on the night he accepted his party’s nomination that people will look back and say “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

As Charles Krauthammer suggested, he’s going to try his hand at channeling King Canute  today when he shows up in Louisiana.

Yesterday the President finally, after nearly a year, held what is still nostalgically referred to as a “press conference” to explain that he’s in total charge of the oil spill in the Gulf, and takes full responsibility. Except that he also took the opportunity to blame Bush (twice) and BP (naturally) and claim that he didn’t know if the Director of the Mine Management Service was fired or resigned because he was “busy with a lot of other stuff” when she might have submitted her letter of resignation – if she hadn’t been fired. This is a leader who not only doesn’t know how to lead, he doesn’t even know how to pretend to take responsibility like a leader.

And seriously, who brings teleprompters to a presser? For what? To keep track of the key talking points for response to the pre-approved and/or anticipated questions? 

OIL-LEAK/OBAMA

I’m not sure it worked. When not fully scripted, this man has a brain stutter – like a 6 second buffer between his brain and his mouth that usually ruins whatever thought was there to begin with. Maybe that’s why he can’t answer the simplest of questions in anything under 5 minutes.

And note how, when he unwillingly wades into uncomfortable waters, his non-fluencies begin to exceed his actual words: uh, uh, uhs, um, ums, and er, er, ers. Had GWB handled questions at a presser like this, the press corp(se) would still be snickering about it on the 4th of July weekend. And yet, since he can smoothly read a prepared script, he enjoys the reputation of being not only a great orator but a deep thinker. Our standards are set on such a superficial level by MSM that they could probably get anyone elected. (Oh wait - they already did.)

In addition to stopping the tides, Obama also announced he’s put a hold on all future drilling in the Gulf – explaining that it’s just too darn dangerous to have to go down so deep to drill for oil. Of course he can only stop the drilling of American companies there, who are already prohibited from drilling shallow water wells. So the only people who will be drilling in the Gulf – shallow or deep – will be China, Mexico, Canada, Britain, Indonesia, Venezuela, and 4 others. He explained that it’s precisely because of this deep water danger that we never heard him saying “drill, baby, drill.” As Mark Levin asked, what is the alternative? Freeze, baby, freeze?

And not to split hairs, but how deep below the surface would we have to go to drill in ANWAR? Oh, that’s right, that’s surface drilling. But we don’t like that either.

We are told by both parties that we must wean ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil. To do that we need to allow drilling in this country. We need to build Nuclear electricity plants. But government overreaction to Three Mile Island resulted in regulation that now requires a 10-15 year lead time for any new facility. Needless to say, it’s neigh on impossible to cost-justify any investment with that kind of lead time. Now we are on course  to do the same with the oil industry. Why, with government, is the answer  either zero or a trillion? 

We can continue to pretend that this country doesn’t need new traditional energy sources, that “green” alternative energy is the answer. But we do so at great peril to ourselves, because it’s simply a sham. A claim about as supportable as global warming turned out to be. But that will not stop this administration from tying our hands and leaving us crucially vulnerable to future energy shortages.

Obama was elected with money from people who are invested in and betting on carbon credits and wind turbines; so look for a push back against everything else. And there’s our future folks: wind, solar and mice on treadmills. All of which can make approximately the same proportionate contribution to America’s total energy needs.

mice on usb tmBurn, baby, burn!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Plugging the Hole One Orifice at a Time

The image is suddenly popping up all over the web with different captions, but I’m giving the prize (so far) to Jammie Wearing Fool. It comes shortly on the heels of Obama’s ludicrous tale at his fake presser of his daughter popping her head into the bathroom every morning to ask him “daddy, have you plugged the hole yet?”

JWF’s Photoshop caption:

“Yes, Malia, daddy’s plugged the hole”

image

H/T Radio Patriot

Technorati Tags: ,

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

We’re All Socialists Now. We Just Need a Dictator. O, wait…

change-hitler-obama-lenin

I confess, Woody Allen’s bleating about how he wished we could make Obama dictator for just a wee bit induced a gag reflex. But then, like the Anchoress, I dismissed him as just another irritating little Hollywood twit. But when Friedman jumps in with his 2 cents, essentially espousing the same sentiment, you jut know it reflects the sentiment of the entire east coast uber-elite intelligentsia.

So I pass along my recommended antidote: read the Anchoress and Ann Althouse on the subject.

From The Anchoress: The Privileged Call for Limited Dictatorship

“Every murderous totalitarian government of the 20th century began with some insulated group of faux-intellectuals congratulating each other on how smart they are, and fantasizing about how, if they could just install a dictatorship-for-a-day, they could right all the wrongs in the world. It is the ultimate fantasy of the narcissist. And we’ve got whole generations of them, in control of our media and our government, all intent on ‘remaking America.’”

She explains how this group of better-than-thous really view the rest of America:

 So, Allen and Friedman–and others who have kept their faces before us for 40 years by coasting on the work of their youth, because they’ve done nothing memorable, lately–are feeling the shifting sand beneath their feet, and they’re wondering why America can’t simply submit to a fantasy of Limited Dictatorship. It’s so inconvenient for these elites to have to deal with the noise of the bourgeoisie – commoners who presume to opine on anything and who dare to object to the incessant lecturing from their betters.

 

Ann Althouse writes:

A love of autocracy often lurks beneath the liberal veneer. There’s this idea that the right answers are known and the people are just too deluded and distorted to see what they are and to vote for them.

As the Anchoress sums it up:


They propose dictatorship because they are no longer able to get away with their former arguments, which boiled down to: “shut up. You’re stupid. We’re cool.”

 

Plus, for extra-credit, check out the Bookworm Room.

Is it any wonder that history repeats itself, when the earth is populated with such morons?

Next up, along the same lines: Can I make a comparison between the German people’s acceptance of the tenets of Nazism v the West’s current acceptance of the tenets of Islamism? Clue: the answer is “yes.”

Monday, May 24, 2010

I Can See Illegal Immigration From My House: and November’s on its heels

From our email mailbag:

A reader sent us an email containing the photos from Doug Ross’ 2007 post “The pristine Arizona Desert”. A very nice repurposing of the post I think.

Hey everyone out there!

We, in Arizona, know you're boycotting us -- but you really should come out here and see our Beautiful Sonoran Desert !

It's just gorgeous right now!  We know you'd love it and maybe you can share what you saw with the rest of the country so they can love it too! 

az1

This is on an 'illegal super - highway' from Mexico to the USA ( Tucson ) used by human smugglers.

This area is located in a wash, approximately 1.5 miles long, just south of Tucson , Arizona . If a flood came, all this would be washed to the river and then onto the sea!

az2

It is estimated over 5,000 discarded backpacks are in this wash.  Countless water containers, food wrappers, clothing, feces, including thousands of soiled baby diapers. And as you can see in this picture, fresh footprints leading right into it.

az3

As we kept walking down the wash, we thought for sure it was going to end, but around every corner was more and more trash!  

az4

And of course the trail leading out of the wash in our city, heads directly NORTH to Tucson , then leads to your town tomorrow.

2nd from last

They've already come through here. Isn't Arizona just beautiful,  America ?

Why would you boycott us???

Our desert has basically been turned into a landfill.

last

The trash left behind by people illegally crossing our border is another Environmental Disaster to hit the USA .

If these actions had been done in one of our Northwest Forests or Seashore National Parks areas, there would be an uprising of the American people.....but this is the Arizona-Mexican border.

You won't see these pictures on CNN, ABC, NBC or the Arizona Republic Repugnant newspaper.  Nor will they mention the disease that comes from the uncovered human waste left in our desert.

However, with respect to CNN, ABC & NBC, they do offer us "Special Reports" on cheating celebrity spouses....

To save you the trouble, I verified this email story with Snopes. They confirm that these pictures were waste taken in the Sonoran dessert in 2007 and show the trail of trash left behind by people entering our country illegally across the Mexican border. The entry was updated in May of 2010. In addition, Snopes also provides a link to the National Park Service which includes another picture,

natl park service pic

Monumental Damage:
these routes are usually lined with empty water jugs and other discarded items.  Immigrants frequently rest or camp in the most desirable places, under trees.  The very same places where cactus seedlings germinate.  Immigrants collect wood and build small cooking fires. These fires also cook shallow cactus roots.  Trash heaps at these sites are not only unsightly, but are unsanitary and attract a variety of scavenger wildlife.  Nearby water sources are often so fouled by pollution that wildlife can no longer use them.  Some overnight rest stops are so heavily used that the damage is irreparable.  During the rainy seasons, vehicle routes become avenues for floodwaters, further increasing the resource damage.

… as well as a warning to Americans visiting the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran dessert:

Potential Danger:
As a result of illegal immigrants crossing out borders, other unlawful acts do occur within the monument.  Some of the illegals are armed, dangerous, and determined to complete the trip at any cost.  Most often these few are smugglers and drug runners.  They may drive a stolen vehicle or they may hire human "mules" to carry their contraband in homemade backpacks.  Other illegals may be opportunistic, not intending harm, but the struggle is long and the temptations are numerous. Though most criminals operate after dark and in remote areas of the park, they have been apprehended in areas frequented by visitors
.

If you think Arizona’s new law is simply racist legislation, I would ask if you would welcome visitors like this into your neighborhood?  Because, frankly, you are - whether you know it or not. 

So far all the Federal Government is willing to do about this atrocity is warn tourists they may be robbed, raped and/or killed by illegal aliens. Our own President stands in solidarity with the Mexican President, calling the Arizona law (which is a direct reflection of currently unenforced federal law) “discriminatory.” He called it a "a misdirected expression of frustration."  Perhaps, but we don’t have any way to re-direct it until November.

I don’t know about you, but I’m growing pretty tired of being accused of acting stupidly by a guy who  - in my opinion – has defined the term.

If you still think Arizona needs to be boycotted, feel free. But after a couple more years of this, there will be no need. You won’t be able to pay people to visit, let alone live there.

I CAN SEE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION-WM

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Hurricane Forecast You Can Believe In

America’s coastal communities brace for what could be the first tropical storm of the season. The late May storm, which would be named Alex, could arrive ahead of the normal June start of the hurricane season. The possible May start of the season, has many predicting that this season may be more active than normal.

Here at Dewey From Detroit, we are aware of the historic, post-normal change we are going through. So, in order to get a correct, post-normal forecast of activity for the 2010 hurricane season, we bypassed the old school source of the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration. Instead, we called upon the most preeminent post-normal thinker we know: Dr. James Hansimian Ph.D.:

HT/ National Center For Public Policy Research

Friday, May 21, 2010

Dancing Cheek to Cheek

Meet the two clowns from the political class who, due to a combination of idiocy and corruption, are at least as responsible for the financial meltdown of 2008-09 as anyone on Wall Street.  Here they are stepping up to the mic at the White House today to tell us how their new joint financial reform bill is going to fix the mess that got started in their respective committees. Of course, they don’t think they had a hand in the mess at all. They’ve said it so often and pointed the finger at the capitalist pigs on Wall Street so frequently that they actually believe it now.

Delusion: it’s an occupational hazard in this town full of occupational hazards.

barney and chris

Debit, on the left, and Credit, on the uh, other left.

Debit and Credit’s routine:

Debit: “Hey, Credit!”

Credit: “Yeah, what is it Debit?”

Debit: “Wanna swap?”

Debit and Credit: "bwaahahaha!”

Debit and Credit: So intellectually bankrupt they can’t buy a clue.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Homeless in America

I can’t get my arms around this. This story is just so wrong on so many levels:

A Muslim illegal immigrant from Ann Arbor who fears deportation to Iran because he is gay, is in jail today after leading a sit-in protest Monday inside the office of Sen. John McCain  over Arizona's new immigration law. Tonight in Detroit, a vigil for him is to be held in Clark Park.

Abdollahi is an illegal immigrant who moved to the U.S. with his family when he was three. Now openly gay, he says he fears deportation back to Iran because of that country's stringent laws against homosexuality, which call for execution in some cases.

No, he didn’t forget he was illegal when he decided to join in the act of civil disobedience. He thought it would be a good way to draw attention to his plight, and the plight of millions of other foreign-born children of illegal immigrants. I guess he was right about that.

"Never in our history has it been American to deny people their civil rights," Abdollahi said in a statement. Our history, Mr. Abdollhi? Your “papers,” if you had any, would identify you as an Iranian citizen. A political regime that recognizes very few civil rights. I’d fear deportation too. Did that thought enter your brain before you decided to stage an act of civil disobedience? Did it ever dawn on you that not being a lawful citizen you might not be granted “our” civil rights? 

"We have decided to peacefully resist to encourage our leaders to pass the DREAM Act and create a new standard for immigration reform based on education, hard work, equality, and fairness.”

Sorry to be so stubborn on this point, but they are our leaders Mr. Abdollhi, not yours. Although, having seen the ACORN get-out-the-vote effort last year in Ann Arbor, I’ve no doubt you might have voted for them -  possibly several times.

Of course the Michigan Messenger and Huffington Post are making Mohammad out to be a victim, as does Abdollahi himself.  In that regard he does seem to be quintessentially American, or at least a 21st century American, where we are all reduced to your group identity, and we’re all victims.

But I have some questions. His parents came here 21 years ago from Iran so his father could get a PhD from the University of Michigan. Presumably they had 2 different immigration lawyers who both botched the family’s immigration application on two different occasions resulting in them losing their legal immigration status. (What are the odds?) They decided to stay  anyway. I’m sure the opportunities were much greater here for them and their family. But isn’t it kind of irresponsible to allow your child to grow up as an illegal alien? Why wouldn’t a PhD from a prestigious school like the University of Michigan have the where-with-all to figure out how to correct this situation? Wouldn’t you turn every stone available to rectify your family’s situation? Yet there’s no evidence that the parents did anything else in 21 years to pursue legal status.  I’m just guessing they ignored it because trying to correct it would have been too hard. They might have had to leave the country for a while before re-entry, and that would have been both costly and inconvenient. Sometimes in life if you screw up, you have to pay the price. Or your kid does.

Nor is there any indication that Mohammad, who has been of legal age for 6 years and complains of limited work and education options because of his illegal status, ever pursued a path to legal citizenship. Other than hooking up with the professional grievance  group  Immigration Equality.  He’s just another victim of life’s circumstances. “Just waiting for the government to pass an amnesty, er, Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill.”

While that may be the way America operates now, that’s not how America used to operate. If our forebears had suffered from such passivity, such a lack of resolve and determination, there would be no America for Mohammad to  complain about  not recognizing his civil rights, Repressive regimes like Communist China and Iran do not recognize civil rights other than the ones they grant you.

Mohammad is probably a nice kid. His parents are probably nice people. And they probably aren’t any stupider than half the people in this country. But either we are a country of laws or we are not. And if we are not, we open the door to be ruled by tin pot dictators like the one ensconced in Iran. The rule of law protects citizens not just from each other, but from the government.

Yet Mohammad’s impassioned plea for “equity” is precisely where a culture that has rejected objectivity and reason in favor of subjectivity and  relativity takes you. Laws are interpreted not as written and intended, but on what we feel is equitable and fair today. We appoint Supreme Court justices who think empathy is a legitimate basis on which to interpret the Constitution and we have twits educated in the increasingly dysfunctional American school system, who think feelings should trump the Constitution and shape the law of the land.

imageJust a young kid with a DREAM, but no papers 

 

Well, I’ll give the kid this: at least he’s lobbying for a new law rather than just demanding citizenship. That would indicate a little better knowledge of civics than is demonstrated by Dayanna Rebolledo of Dearborn. She told the Detroit News “They want higher education because they were raised here and basically they're Americans just missing a piece of paper."

Well, that makes sense I guess, coming from a member of a generation that thinks a marriage certificate is “just a piece of paper” too. (unless its a Gay marriage certificate, in which case it’s a right) And apparently we all think that a Birth Certificate is no different than a certificate of live birth, both of which are just pieces of paper.

So why’s everyone so upset with Arizona for asking to see your papers? Oh yeah, that would be because it’s racist.

 

(And just for the record, I truly hope Abdollahi gets his citizenship. I’m just so tired of the interminable gamesmanship of identity politics and victimization.)

 

Monday, May 17, 2010

Breaking News: Aunt Zeituni Granted Asylum

The Hill reports that a federal judge has granted asylum to President Barack Hussein Obama’s Kenyan aunt, Zeituni Onyago:

Her attorney said in February she was seeking asylum due to medical problems related to Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder she says she suffers from, and because of threats of tribal violence in Kenya

zeituni-onyango

Aunt Zeituni Channeling Michael Jackson

IN OTHER KENYAN NEWS:

“Homeless”: Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo

President Obama’s brother George was found sitting in front of his hut, waiting. When asked “What’s new George?”, he replied, “Nothing.”

george-obama

“Nothing” is also reported to be new with President Obama’s other brother George.

George_obama

Anything I want… you got it

Anything I need, you got it.

Anything at all – you got it!

(with sincere apologies to Roy Orbison)

In case you have forgotten - or never knew because you graduated public school in the past 30 years -  what a “socialist dictator” is, here’s a short refresher course from AP: 

President Hugo Chavez announced Saturday the expropriation of a group of iron, aluminum and transportation companies in Venezuela's mining region.

Among the expropriated companies is Materiales Siderurgicos, or Matesi, which is the Venezuelan subsidiary of Luxembourg-based steel maker Tenaris SA.

Venezuela's socialist president said in a televised [address] that his government was going to take over Matesi because "we couldn't reach an amicable and reasonable settlement with the owners."

Chavez said production at the company has been paralyzed since midway through last year, when Venezuela's president announced plans to nationalize it.

…Since coming to power more than a decade ago, Chavez has nationalized major companies in the electricity, oil, steel and coffee sectors, as well as other private businesses.

Socialism: for dictators it’s really simple: “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine too.” For citizens, it’s pretty simple too: “What was mine is now yours too.”

Once you get it, Sean Penn seems like an even bigger idiot. What do you say we spread your wealth around a little more, Sean? All of it. Give it all to the Big Guy – not the one upstairs, the one in Washington – maybe he’ll use it to reduce our national debt. Or to “buy” BP so he can tell them how to fix that broken pipe.

VENEZUELAN LEADER HUGO CHAVEZ AND ACTOR SEAN PENN

Do you see two morons coming up or going down the tube? It’s not an issue of perspective, it’s an issue of education. From that standpoint, it’s a trick question.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

As seen on TV! But wait, there’s more

Detroit-wallpaperAnnual fireworks over the Detroit River 

Big, big round of applause for the Michigan State House! What the heck, shoot off some fireworks in their honor too.

On May 12th our beleaguered State’s House of Representatives did some really heavy lifting to  figure out how to reduce State expenditures increase State revenues. Here’s what they came up with: HOUSE BILL NO. 5999. It’s a bill that lifts the current ban on higher grade, more powerful fireworks. The rationale: Michigan residents just drive to Indiana or Ohio to purchase these banned fireworks anyway and hence the state is missing out on all the extra tax revenue that could be levied on such a highly regulated product. Boy, I sure hope Ohio never legalizes teenaged prostitutes.

If approved, the legislation would create a 5% tax on sales of the fireworks; businesses would pay $5,000 for a license to sell them and would renew the license each year for $2,500, providing an estimated increase in annual revenue of $5 million. (never mind that $5 million in Michigan gets pissed away about every 5 minutes) But wait, there’s more! The bill, according to its supporters, will create jobs!  Or save some. Or at least prevent some accidents caused by driving back and forth from Ohio with fireworks on board, or something.

I don’t really have any problem with the state legalizing 4th of July boom-toys, but the mealy mouthed rationale for its passage is rather insulting to our collective intelligence. The best part though, is the name of the bill that legalizes bigger and badder fireworks for use by every Tom, Dick and Harry who owns a Bic lighter:

1   Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the 
"Michigan fireworks safety act".

Don’t you just love a good government-speak story? Especially when it involves fireworks?

The legislation must now be approved by the Senate signed and by Governor Jennifer Granholm, who is said to support it. Unfortunately, the bill never had any amendments or floor debate in the house, and appears to have a few serious flaws. In their haste to resolve Michigan’s crushing economic problems, the House forgot to consult with any display fireworks companies – you know, the guys who actually know how to detonate fireworks? As a result, the language in the bill could eliminate municipal displays if not corrected in the Senate version.

I hope they remember to fix it, because eliminating all the municipal fireworks around the state  could really take a bite out of all those increased tax revenues and  new jobs we’re creating. Or saving. Or something.

kaboom_tutorial

 

Fat Cat Fever

Question:

Governor Christie, why are you so combative? Must you be so confrontational? Can’t we all just get along?

Answer:

Tom, you ignorant slut.

I’m combative because the State of New Jersey is nearly insolvent and I have to battle self-interested public unions, incompetent elected officials and a dysfunctional legislative body in an effort to stave off bankruptcy and battle to regain solvency. I’m confrontational because they all insanely believe that if we just continue to do more of the same thing - increase the size of government, raise taxes and spend more money - things will turn out differently next time.  And no, we can’t all just get along when at least half of ‘us’ are lying weasels and economic morons.

Next question?

 

Pundette is documenting everyone who has already signed on to the “Christie in ‘16 bandwagon.”

Be the first person on your block to own an original “I'm with Fatso” sweatshirt, “The Audacity of ‘Nope’” baseball hat or “Fat Cat You Can Believe In” bumper sticker.

 

h/t DVR

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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Where’s Ted Baxter when you need him

Old news, but it’s raining here today for the third day straight with more of the same forecast for tomorrow and everyone needs a good laugh. This one shows no sign of getting old. Ever.

Here’s CNN’s brain-trust, Rick Sanchez, demonstrating the skills he learned at the Barack Obama School of Teleprompter Reading:

 

He also got an associates degree from the Ron Burgundy Academy.

Rest well, America, you’re in good hands.

Hey! Will you Yanks clean-up your act?

From Glenn Reynolds mailbag, a special request:

Reader Patrick Whittome writes:

Glenn,

A British perspective on borrowing:

In Europe the left wing governments are falling away. Greece is pushing through spending austerity because it has no choice. In Spain, Portugal, Germany and many other countries they are slashing spending because the Greek ending scares them to death. The UK just sacked its spendy lefty government and got one determined to accelerate spending cuts significantly. We may have been the bad boys on irresponsible public spending for ages – but boy are we now getting a serious re-education! Canada, Australia and Sweden are countries that have been to the edge, pulled back, cut back and have emerged much the stronger and better managed for it.

And that, for me, leaves behind just two big spending basket cases: Japan and the USA. Japan’s crunch will come in the next two years as domestic savings run out and they will have to start borrowing externally – and find that they can’t at reasonable interest rates. A Greek end game awaits them. I’d advise banks and businesses everywhere to cut their Japanese exposure right now because it won’t be pretty.

So that just leaves you chaps across the pond. Will the timetable of collapse be Greece today, California tomorrow, USA 2012? Who knows. Obama is a very engaging and articulate man – but he’s spending you guys into the dirt. It’s an existential risk not just a tough political issue. Please would you be so kind as to elect someone prepared to deal with it – coz if you sink we all do.

We’re doing what we can.

I second that emotion.

Reproduced from Instapundit

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I See Morons

If you have ever had an interest in drawing, unless you were preternaturally blessed with innate talent, you probably picked up a book or took a class to learn the technique of rendering realistic images on a sheet of paper. And the first thing you are likely to read or hear is “In order to draw you must first learn to see.” This refers not just to seeing the camera image reflected on the lens of the retina, but the amalgamation and juxtaposition of all the parts making up the image: the shapes, shades, shadows and relative position. Once you’ve learned to actually see these things distinctly, you can draw what you see, rather than what you know. If you see it correctly, you can render it accurately.

Likewise, in order to teach something you must first learn how to think. You cannot just “tell” someone a concept, you must first be able to understand its components – grasp its foundation, implication and impact. Once you understand it correctly, you can explain it accurately.

Just as most people never learn to “see” properly, a disturbing number of people - even those who have chosen teaching as a profession – have not learned to think properly. Allow me to present several examples just from last week.

First, we have the case of the Jolly Rancher: an elementary school in Brazos county, Texas with a zero tolerance rule for “junk food." Ignoring the sheer idiocy of “zero tolerance” anything, as well as the notion that we can legislate health, focus instead on the action taken by the principal. When confronted with the the egregious behavior of a third grade girl eating a (single) jolly rancher at lunch, the principal opted for a punishment commensurate with the offense: she was given a week long detention.

… Jack Ellis, the superintendent for Brazos Independent School District… said the school was abiding by a state guideline that banned “minimal nutrition” foods, (and that) failing to adhere to the state’s guidelines could put federal funding in jeopardy.

“Whether or not I agree with the guidelines, we have to follow the rules,” he said.

The state, however, gives each school discretion over how to enforce the policy.

Because “following the rules” requires no thinking, no judgment, no use of discretion – any of which could get you in trouble. Lord knows he doesn’t want to jeopardize that federal funding. Better to let someone do the thinking for you. Didn’t work at Nuremburg, shouldn’t work here.

Next we go to the Cinco de Mayo American flag shirt incident in Live Oak California. Here, school officials, fearing provocation, sent 4 students home for the day for wearing shirts bearing American flag images and references to the Constitution. Why? because the 5th of May is traditionally a day that Mexicans celebrate their heritage. Never mind that it is a “celebration” honoring a minor military victory over the French and was invented by the Corona beer company to sell more beer. Mexican students concluded the kids were “disrespecting” them and marched out of class the following day in protest. The only take away from this is that it is considered inappropriate and “provocative” for members of the majority culture to express their cultural pride, but not for members of the minority culture. This seems an odd message for educators to be passing on.

Perhaps they could have used the incident instead as a “teaching moment” to pass on certain historically American concepts such as – oh, I don’t know – free speech, patriotism, tolerance and a respect for the rights of everyone in this great republic, not just the minority. Instead we get school administrators propagating vapid, politically correct speech which is designed to suppress argument, confrontation …thinking. There was a time when teachers and administrators would have considered it not only their responsibility, but an honor to address such a volatile situation. Now they can’t dive into the sand fast enough.

And then there’s this, in case the first two examples didn’t raise your hackles: Ann Arbor, Michigan: Dicken Elementary School set up a field trip for African-American students only, whites were specifically excluded. The trip was to meet with an African-American NASA rocket scientist. When challenged on the wisdom of such a segregated outing, Mike Madison, the school’s principal, defended the discrimination: “It was not a wasted venture for I know one day they might want to aspire to be the first astronaut or scientist standing on the Planet Mars.” Apparently it would have been wasted on white students, who were, by the way, very upset about being left out.

But that’s barely scratching the surface of what this issue is all about. Blogprof has a handy compendium of the issues and lunacy here. I could go on forever about the institutionalization of anti-white racism that is now being foisted on schools and school districts by the likes of people like Glenn Singleton, principal of Pacific Education Group, a consulting operation that mainstreams racist bigotry under the guise of diversity training. Seriously, how much of this crap will education systems and educators continue to swallow and regurgitate before rebelling? But you can read all about it (and you should) at the link above. I’ll just stick with pointing out the obvious irrationality of trying to teach children about the evils of racism by practicing blatant racist behavior. A more obvious example of logic failure would be hard to find.

So what goes on here? I would refer you back to my original premise: if you want to teach, you must first learn to think. Unfortunately, that is considered optional these days. And no amount of money pumped into the “education system” is going to fix that.

What do you see?

jolly ranchers

I see Morons.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Well Maggie, You Were Right

They’ve got the usual Socialist disease—they’ve run out of other people’s money.” Margaret Thatcher, speech to Britain’s Conservative Party Conference October 10, 1975

It’s official; Greece has run out of other people’s money. And they are really, really ticked off about it.  Quick, someone contact Margaret Thatcher and ask her what the next step is!

So Greece, the country that “gave the world Democracy,” has  demonstrated that there is nothing created by the human mind that can’t be likewise destroyed.

When Democracy works, it consists of a group of sovereign people who agree to be governed by a set of laws that recognize the basic worth and rights of men. Democracy requires that the people governed by it maintain the basic principles of a democratic state: free men bestowed with free speech and the liberty to pursue their individual interests in a state that metes out justice, and also reveres it. This form of governance requires that its able citizens practice self-reliance and personal responsibility. Government does only what individuals are not able to effectively do for themselves, such as protect the homeland from foreign  threat and invasion.

Socialism is nearly the polar opposite. It’s based on a hive mentality and functions as a collective. When socialist precepts interface with Democracy, it provides the where-with-all for the least productive members of the collective to vote to give themselves stuff  that is produced by the hive’s most productive members.

seven1 Seven of Nine Borg: Resistance is Futile

It’s not that the least productive are incapable of providing for themselves, it’s just that they discovered they don’t have to. And once they get stuff from other people, they really don’t like the idea of giving it up in exchange for taking care of themselves. Although that might be psychically more rewarding, they really are too comfortable with their unfortunate lot in life to change. Get a job? You must be joking.

This dangerous aspect of democracy, prodded by a not-so-noble tendency of human nature that likes getting something for nothing, was first pointed out by Socrates and Plato, and again much later by Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy’s  DNA carries the gene for it’s own demise.

Which brings us back to Greece, the cradle of democracy, which veered  off course to pursue a path towards socialism and is now left to deal with the aftermath. As the images beamed from Greece this week convey, that aftermath has devolved into chaos and anarchy – two more good words rooted in classic Greek.

Just a quick recap of how far Greece has strayed from the ideals of democracy: Fully one third of Greeks work for the government, which has socialized much of the country’s business and industry. These workers are paid much more than the market would bear under normal market conditions. They are paid for 14 months a year( some up to 16 months). Yes, that’s correct. Most government civil servants receive the equivalent of 14 months pay, plus exorbitant sick/vacation days. They can opt for an early retirement as early as age 45, and standard retirement is age 53 with 80% of their ending salary. All of which is indicative of the power of the civil servant unions. If they do not get the wage/benefits they want, they simply shut the country down by calling a general strike. And since the government runs everything from medical care to trains, it’s a fairly comprehensive shutdown. It doesn’t matter to them that their employer is broke and living on borrowed money.

In order to pay for these cradle to grave entitlements, Greece has imposed crippling taxes and has racked up egregious levels of governmental debt that they cannot repay. Indeed, the bailouts they’re seeking  from the EU and IMF are to repay just the interest on their debt, not the debt itself. If this governmental type of credit card lifestyle sounds familiar, it’s because it’s becoming common in many states in the U.S. too: like California, New York and Michigan. And that’s not the only similarity. The following observations on the Greek economy could be considered an omen for the U.S. if it continues its infatuation with European-style democratic socialism. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well.

The NYT noted earlier this year:

In Greece, commentators said the economic problems had exposed a general ignorance about the harsh realities of the global economy, while laying bare the strong sense of entitlement in a country where one out of three people is employed in a civil service that guarantees jobs for life.

From the WSJ Thursday:

The protests also brought out many Greeks who were resigned to belt-tightening. Their unhappiness at the cuts was matched with rancor toward a generation of politicians who they say spurred the crisis with decades of corruption, kickbacks and accounting legerdemain aimed at obscuring to the EU the true level of Greece's annual deficits.

The Times of London describes where entitlement mentality eventually takes you. And how difficult it is to modify it once it’s in place.

Some young Greeks prefer to blame their elders for the mountain of debt that has resulted in Greece, like a wayward child, being placed under the tutelage of the men from the IMF.

“I cannot help but blame my parents a little for what’s happened,” said Achilles Zacharoulis, a 36-year-old cardiologist. “They were here all that time,” he added, referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity. “But what did they do to stop it?”

Vaggelis Gettos, 24, is just as alarmed at the burden being heaped on the young by austerity measures expected to be announced today, and has pledged to resist them in more protests this week against what he sees as a plot to impoverish Greece.

When you pull back the curtains, the corruption that is deeply embedded in the machinations of the Greek power structure are stunning. But only because it’s so transparent.  Government “ghost” jobs are common, i.e. people get paid, but don’t  show up because there’s really no job that needs to be done ( a corruption not unheard of in Detroit), entitlements are so numerous and long tenured that street rioting and murder strike the public as a measured response to legislation cutting them back. They simply can’t seem to get their heads around the fact that  their government, having run out taxpayers to exploit, has been borrowing money for years to fund this Madoff scheme. and there’s finally no one left to bilk.

Greece is a small country, said to be corrupt and lazy. But the curious might ask, “how did they get that way?” The people who “gave the world democracy” were once independent, industrious, ethical. But as socialism set it’s roots and became entrenched, self-reliance and personal responsibility became untethered from people’s day-to-day life and corruption became just another accepted norm of the bureaucracy that runs their  lives and withers their souls.

But so what, you say? That could never happen here, we’re not a nation of rowdy anarchists. (Setting aside for another day the post about true anarchists being opposed to all forms of government and would be unlikely candidates for tossing Molotov cocktails to demand that the government reinstate the cuts in pay and benefits that the Greek government recently legislated.) If you believe that we’re better than that, that the Greek street theatre could never happen here, I’d suggest you consider this: the only thing preventing us from tripping down the alleyway to socialist entitlement, followed by the inevitable piper paying realization that we really can’t afford it, are the bitter clingers. The people who still believe in guns and religion because they know you might need both in order to maintain your self-reliance and exercise personal responsibility. But we’re doing our best to demonize and diminish them, in order for the more sensitive, caring party to swoop in and save all the victim-classes from themselves and their oppressors.

Still think it couldn’t happen here? Really? Don’t kid yourself, my brutha.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Dewey Street

Team Dewey is packing up for our semi-annual back and forth between fly-over Utah and fly-over Michigan, so posts will be negligible until our SUV arrives back at the town of it’s birth, Detroit.

But we DO have thoughts on Greece. Doesn’t everyone? Hope to find Wifi at tomorrow evening’s stop in fly-over North Platte, Nebraska where –amazingly – there is both a North and South Dewey Street. Rents appear to be higher on North Dewey, but since we have no ownership interest on either, it’s simply an observation.

 

dewyst

North Dewey Street, downtown North Platte, Nebraska

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

People Detroiters Love

ERNIE HARWELL 1918 - 2010

 If baseball could talk it would sound like Ernie Harwell – Mitch Albom*

 

Ernie is survived by his life long love, Lulu Harwell. They would have celebrated their 69th anniversary this August.

Detroiters are parsimonious with their “love” of public figures, so when one of them leaves this mortal world, Detroiters mourn.

Yesterday we lost one of the people Detroiters loved the most: the voice of the Detroit Tigers, Ernie Harwell.

If you grew up Michigan anytime after 1960, you would not only recognize Ernie Harwell’s name,  you would instantly hear his improbably melodic voice announcing “ …a fly ball into the upper stands in right field. Caught by a lady from Pinconning.” Amazingly, Ernie always knew who caught every fly ball, and where they were from. He was a story teller first, a baseball announcer second and every game was like a visit with a dear old friend.

Ernie remains to this day the only broadcaster to be traded for a player (in 1948, the Brooklyn Dodgers traded a catcher to the Atlanta Crackers in exchange for Harwell.) He spent 55 years after that as a major league play-by-play announcer, 42 with the Detroit Tigers. So long in Detroit, in fact, that we forgot he was from Georgia originally - despite the distinct drawl of the south in his elocution.

The fact that he was the voice of the Detroit Tigers was not only a given, it was a prerequisite for both baseball and summer. Being lulled to sleep by Ernie’s voice calling a late August game was what summer nights were made for, whether you loved baseball or not. He really was that good.

He was, quite simply, the best baseball announcer of all time, anywhere. I don’t have any objective criteria to back up that claim. All I can tell you is, if you ever heard him call a game, you know I’m right.

Well here, listen to a bit yourself:

 

There’s also Ernie Harwell’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame: “That’s baseball,” and “Ernie Harwell Remembers Tiger Stadium:”

 

Good night Ernie. We’ll miss you at the park.

Connecting the Dots

While the press is busily working on the “It’s Bush’s fault for ticking him off” meme, the White House - while not busy “keeping their foot on BP’s throat” (remind me: why is it that the Right is always portrayed as "jack-booted thugs?”) - is blaming Emirates Airlines for almost letting the Times Square bomber out of the country, we have an alternate opinion from former 9/11 Commission vice chair and Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton:

Hamilton reminds ABC News that “the 9/11 commission recommended that you had to have biometric evidence, documentarian evidence of people coming in and exiting” the country. “We’ve done a pretty good job on the first part of it people entering the country. But with regard to those exiting the country we simply have not been able to set up a system to deal with that and it showed in this case.

The most interesting thing here is that Hamilton thinks we’ve done a good job of getting biometric and documentarian evidence of people entering the country. Really? I guess that would be except for the 20-plus million people who have crossed our southern border illegally, and are therefore unknown to anyone in Homeland Security.

I hope terrorists never think of flying into Mexico City, instead of JFK.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Are You Feeling Lucky?

Authorities have arrested a suspect in the Times Square would-be car bombing. News flash to everyone who was rooting for the white, 40-ish radicalized Tea Partier: it wasn’t him. It was Shahzad Faisal, naturalized (Muslim) citizen from Pakistan; who likely spent the last 5 months training in a Pakistani terror camp. Surprise! The jihadis are back.

Why is America determined to follow Europe down the rabbit hole of politically correct gibberish?

Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugged reported Sunday:

The SUV was filled with propane tanks, fireworks, filled gas cans, clocks with batteries, and two clocks with batteries, electric wire and more. A police official said: “It looks as if the perp was trying to light it up, and was interrupted by the cops, panicked and took off. It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time. This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb.” A police officer who was on the scene said: “I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking. I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second.”

Despite all that, the feds said at first that it wasn’t a terrorist attack. Then what was it?

They also described it as “amateurish” and Mayor Bloomberg said for all he knew it could have been some guy who was upset about Obamacare. Well, that’s one way to keep the 40-ish, angry white, teabagger meme going.

Why are we following this suicidal route? Why can we not say crap when we have a mouthful of it? Do we actually choose “inoffensive” over free - and alive? How do you get your mind around this madness?

But we pad along, bowing to radical Muslim’s demands that Viacom pull an episode of “South Park” that portrayed the prophet Mohammad as a cute fuzzy little teddy bear (they did).  As WND reported, RevolutionMuslim.com last month warned there is a "very real possibility" that "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone will end up murdered like Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker killed by an Islamic extremist in 2004 after making a film critical of Islam. How much coverage of that have you seen anywhere other than WND?

Our government seems more concerned with being inoffensive to the Muslim world than protecting our own. We are not even allowed to acknowledge “jihad” officially. We welcome the lunatic Ahmadinejad who has repeatedly threatened to wipe our ally, Israel, off the face of the earth, while chastising Israel for its belligerence (building new apartments on their own land).

We tie the hands of our armed forces, take the word of known terrorists over our own troops and wonder why our enemies still try to blow us out of the sky and annihilate us on the ground. It’s because they hate our freedom and way of life. It’s called radical Islam, wahhabism, sharia, etc. It’s not going away of its own volition. Our great messiah cannot appease them.  They still stone women, because their religion tells them to. You do not fight this sort of depravity with political correctness.

We might choose inoffensive over jihad, but in the immortal words of Ali Limbali: “In the choice between freedom and jihad, Jihadis always choose jihad.”

But being as this is a jihad, the most crazed religious warfare in the world, and would blow your head clean off,  you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? (with apologies to Harry Callahan)