Archive for September, 2008
Posted by Richard on September 16, 2008
Unlike many of his countrymen, Paul McCartney isn't cowed by radical Islamists:
Despite several threats by extremists, Paul McCartney has refused to cancel an upcoming concert in Israel. He will go ahead with a gig in honour of the country's 60th anniversary.
"I do what I think and I have many friends who support Israel," McCartney told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth this weekend.
His comments come in response to a Sunday Express interview with the militant Islamic activist Omar Bakri Muhammad. "If he values his life Mr McCartney must not come to Israel," said Bakri, who has been barred from returning to the UK. "He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him."
"The sacrifice operatives" — that's Islamofascist-speak for "lunatic Islamist suicide-bombing murderers." I'm betting that they can't get past Israeli security.
Good for Sir Paul. I always liked him best.
HT: Instapundit
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: courage, islamofascism, israel, mccartney, music | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 16, 2008
Q: Why are wealthy liberal Democrats so eager to spend more of your money on the needy?
A: So they can remain in denial about how stingy they are with their own money.
Mark J. Perry's Carpe Diem — a site you should be reading regularly — has the most recent case in point:
The WSJ, Greg Mankiw and Tax Prof all reported on Joe Biden's tax returns (available here and summarized on Tax Prof). As Tax Prof (Paul Caron) points out: "Despite income ranging from $210,432 – $321,379 over the ten-year period from 1998 to 2007, the Bidens have given only $120 – $995 per year to charity, which amounts to 0.06% – 0.31% of their income (see chart below)."
Maybe Biden donates his used underwear to charity, like Bill Clinton.
Perry, the master of the graph that's worth a thousand words, offered this comparison of Sen. Joe Biden's ten-year average charitable contribution with that of others with six-figure adjusted gross incomes:
I don't quite match the $100k-$200k group — of course, I only have a five-figure income. But Biden donates just a little more than a tenth of what I do. And less than 2% of what others with $200k+ incomes give.
I don't begrudge him his stinginess — it's his money, and he has every right to do with it as he pleases. But he has a lot of nerve calling people like me greedy for opposing higher taxes.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: biden, charity, democrats, hypocrisy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 16, 2008
If you're a fan of the charming, quirky, and seriously surreal ABC fantasy series Pushing Daisies (I am), and you'll be in the downtown Denver area this Wednesday, September 17th (I won't be, darn it), drop by Larimer Square (1430 Larimer Street) between 10 AM and 2 PM. The "Mobile Pie Hole" restaurant will be there. They'll be giving out free pie, pie cutters, spatulas, etc., and playing footage from the show on plasma TVs as waitresses on daisy bicycles ride around.
If you've seen the show, that made perfect sense. If not, take my word for it, it'll be fun.
Other upcoming Mobile Pie Hole visits are scheduled in Dallas, Chicago, Philly, and NYC. More info at Pushing Daisies Touch of Wonder Tour (requires Flash player).
The new season of Pushing Daisies begins Oct. 1. If you've never seen it and have a broadband connection, check it out online — you can watch several complete episodes here. I bet you'll become a fan.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: comedy, daisies, denver, entertainment, humor, television | 2 Comments »
Posted by Richard on September 15, 2008
On Friday, I linked to a post by The Anchoress and alluded to some "unbelievably whacko stuff from The View." The most whacko thing to appear on that reliably whacko show was Whoopie Goldberg asking Sen. John McCain, "Do I have to be worried about becoming a slave again?"
Plenty of people have savaged Goldberg for that remark (here's a good one). But most have focused on its outrageous misrepresentation of McCain, the Republican Party, America, and … well … reality.
But what struck me was that little word "again." I have a simple question, Ms. millionaire Hollywood celebrity with a mansion, a private jet, an Oscar, several Emmies, numerous other awards, and millions of fans — when exactly were you a slave before? When you were young, was it hard picking cotton on the plantation in Manhattan?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: mccain, media bias, moonbats, politics, stupidity | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 15, 2008
Along with the usual ad inserts, my Sunday Denver Post contained something special — something that made me cheer: a DVD of the one-hour version of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. The slick, eye-catching card to which it was attached listed over 60 newspapers in which it was being distributed, so maybe you got one too.
You are going to watch it, right? You are going to pass it along to friends or family, right?
I've written about Obsession several times. I've contributed to the project. And I'm delighted that millions more people will now get the chance to see it.
Film critic Michael Medved called Obsession "one of the most powerful, expertly crafted and undeniably important films I've seen this year." You need to see this film. Your friends need to see it, too. It would make a great gift.
Using images from Arab TV, rarely seen in the West, Obsession reveals an ‘insider's view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. With the help of experts, including first-hand accounts from a former PLO terrorist, a Nazi youth commander, and the daughter of a martyred guerilla leader, the film shows, clearly, that the threat is real.
A peaceful religion is being hijacked by a dangerous foe, who seeks to destroy the shared values we stand for. The world should be very concerned.
The DVD in the Sunday papers is the shortened version that aired on Fox News. If you didn't get one, or if after watching it, you want to support the project and get the full-length theatrical release DVD (on sale now for only $14.95!), click here or on the Obsession banner in my right sidebar. If you have broadband access, you can watch a full-screen, high-resolution stereo presentation online for $4.95, which can be applied toward a DVD purchase.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: islamofascism, islamonazism, jihad, movies, obsession, terrorism | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 15, 2008
Going into today's game, I figured Denver had no better than a 50-50 chance of beating San Diego. I became more optimistic during the first half, but wasn't all that surprised by how badly the 3rd quarter went for them. When Cutler was intercepted in the end zone, I pretty much gave up on the game.
I had an errand to run and wanted to run it before post-game traffic got bad, so I heard the rest of the game on the radio. That reminded me of one of the drawbacks to watching HDTV: the several seconds by which an HD telecast is delayed means you can't watch the game on TV while listening to Dave Logan's play-by-play on the radio. Logan is so much better than the high-paid network TV guys.
If you're a Broncos fan, you probably watched, and you no doubt know all the amazing numbers and what an exciting game it was. Like me, you were probably expecting to see some overtime football when Denver scored with seconds to play. So I won't do a lengthy write-up, I'll just make two observations:
- It's a good thing for the Broncos that Brandon Marshall appealed his suspension and got it reduced to one game.
- Mike Shanahan has stones the size of Volkswagens.
UPDATE: Zombyboy has eight more observations than I do, and they're good.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: broncos, denver, football | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 13, 2008
Apparently, the Obama campaign has a new ad (I haven't seen it) mocking McCain because he doesn't use a computer and "can't send an email." Well, according to The Corner (quoting a Boston Globe story from 2000), McCain doesn't use a computer and can't send an email because of crippling injuries from the severe beatings he received while a POW.
He can't use a keyboard. Or comb his hair. Or tie his shoes.
I didn't know that.
If Obama has a shred of decency, he'll say, "I didn't know that. I'm sorry. The ad will not be aired again."
HT: Instapundit, who has much more. Including this:
And this comment has got to hurt: "I think they spent months trying to figure out how they can position Obama as better qualified than McCain, and basically came up with the fact that Obama can type."
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: mccain, obama, politics | 2 Comments »
Posted by Richard on September 13, 2008
There's a great post at Hillary Clinton Forum by Nancy Kallitechnis comparing Charles Gibson's interview of Gov. Sarah Palin with his earlier interview of Sen. Barack Obama. Kallitechnis concluded that "Gibson's extreme prejudice against Palin is very obvious" and her summary of the questions asked each candidate sure seems to back that up:
Obama interview:
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5000184
How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to "win"?
How does your family feel about your "winning" breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your competitor's [Clinton] speech?
Palin interview:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09…with-abc-news/
Do you have enough qualifications for the job you're seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Aren't you conceited to be seeking this high level job?
Questions about foreign policy
-territorial integrity of Georgia
-allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO
-NATO treaty
-Iranian nuclear threat
-what to do if Israel attacks Iran
-Al Qaeda motivations
-the Bush Doctrine
-attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan
Is America fighting a holy war? [misquoted Palin]
There's no doubt the Charles Gibson interviews showed extreme prejudice against Palin and extreme favoritism towards Obama. His manner towards Palin was much more negative. He asked her much more difficult questions and the questions were more adversarial. He constantly questioned her ability to lead but never questioned Obama's ability to lead, all the more amazing considering that Palin was the only one with executive experience and the presidency is the highest level executive job in politics. The camera angles always focused on Obama's face when he was talking making him the center of attention yet during Palin's interview the angle often focused on her back apparently for the purpose of lessening the impact of her presence.
I'm reminded of that SNL opening skit parodying the CNN debate, which had one CNN journalist ask Obama "Is there anything we can get you?" and another follow up with "Are you sure?"
HT: The Anchoress, who has much, much more about media treatment of Palin and general craziness (including some unbelievably whacko stuff from The View). Via Gateway Pundit, who has video from the Palin interview and some good comments and links.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: media bias, obama, palin, politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 12, 2008
Jonah Goldberg (emphasis added):
Feminist author Cintra Wilson writes in Salon (a house organ of the angry left) that the notion of Palin as vice president is “akin to ideological brain rape.” Presumably just before the nurse upped the dosage on her medication, Wilson continued, “Sarah Palin and her virtual burqa have me and my friends retching into our handbags. She’s such a power-mad, backwater beauty-pageant casualty, it’s easy to write her off and make fun of her. But in reality I feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National Socialism.”
And that’s one of the nicer things she had to say. Really.
…
On Tuesday, Salon ran one article calling Palin a dominatrix (“a whip-wielding mistress”) and another labeling her a sexually repressed fundamentalist no different from the Muslim fanatics and terrorists of Hamas. Make up your minds, folks. Is she a seductress or a sex-a-phobe?
But this any-weapon-near-to-hand approach is an obvious sign of how scared the Palin-o-phobes are.
Gloria Steinem, the grand mufti of feminism, issued a fatwa anathematizing Palin. A National Organization for Women spokeswoman proclaimed Palin more of a man than a woman. Wendy Doniger, a feminist academic at the University of Chicago, writes of Palin in Newsweek: “Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.”
It’s funny. The left has been whining about having their patriotism questioned for so long it feels like they started griping in the Mesozoic era. Feminists have argued for decades that womanhood is an existential and metaphysical state of enlightenment. But they have no problem questioning whether women they hate are really women at all.
This strikes me as completely unsurprising and quite in character. This is exactly how the left has repeatedly treated blacks who dared to depart from leftist orthodoxy: belittle them, condemn them as "oreos" (that is to say, not authentically black), do anything and everything to destroy them as punishment for their apostasy. Look at how they treated Clarence Thomas and Ward Connerly. Look at how they caricatured Michael Steele:
The people who loudly proclaim their concern for women and minorities always savagely attack any woman or minority who doesn't fall into line and do what they're told.
As I noted a short while ago (evoking incredulity from some readers), the left is far less tolerant and more judgmental than the right. They're convinced that anyone who disagrees with them is not just wrong, but evil. And because of their situational ethics and belief that the end justifies the means, they've convinced themselves that anything they do to defeat their enemies is morally justified.
Palin can expect more of the same. But I'm guessing it will backfire badly.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: feminism, media bias, palin, tolerance | 4 Comments »
Posted by Richard on September 11, 2008
Seven years ago today, barbarians with box cutters — primitive savages who could never build a World Trade Center or a 747, but whose insane ideology is dedicated to making the building of such things impossible — murdered 2,996 innocent people in pursuit of their war against Western Civilization.
Never forget that on September 10, 2001, Manhattan looked like this.
Never forget that on September 11, 2001, Manhattan looked like this.
Never forget that we watched people jump from hundred-story buildings to avoid an even worse fate.
Never forget that we were wounded, but our spirit wasn’t broken. We’ve fought back. And we will win.
As I have each of the last two September 11ths, I offer you passage from Gerard Van der Leun’s Of a Fire in a Field — a passage that moves me beyond words every time I read it — in which he recalled 9/11 and its aftermath, when he lived in New York:
Inside the wire under the hole in the sky was, in time, a growing hole in the ground as the rubble was cleared away and, after many months, the last fire was put out. Often at first, but with slowly diminishing frequency, all the work to clear out the rubble and the wreckage would come to a halt.
The machinery would be shut down and it would become quiet. Across the site, tools would be laid down and the workers would straighten up and stand still. Then, from somewhere in the pile or the pit, a group of men would emerge carrying a stretcher covered with an American flag and holding, if they were fortunate, a body. If they were not so fortunate the flag covering over the stretcher would be lumpy, holding only portions of a body from which, across the river on the Jersey shore, a forensic lab would try to make an identification and then pass on to the victim’s survivors something that they could bury.
I’m not sure anymore about the final count, but I am pretty sure that most families, in the end, got nothing. Their loved ones had all gone into the smoke and the dust that covered the end of the island and blew, mostly, across the river into Brooklyn where I lived. What happened to most of the three thousand killed by the animals on that day? It is simple and ghastly. We breathed them until the rains came and washed clean what would never be clean again.
. . .
Read the whole thing — and think about the question he asks you at the end.
And never forget.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 911, al qaeda, barbarism, heroism, islamofascism, new york, terrorism, war, world trade center, wtc | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 11, 2008
September 11 is the seventh anniversary of the worst attack ever on U.S. soil, when many of us finally realized that a dangerous and implacable enemy had declared war on us years earlier and wasn’t kidding.
September 11 is the seventh anniversary of the day that we watched in horror as people fell a hundred stories to the pavement and the skyline of Manhattan changed in a matter of hours.
September 11 is the seventh anniversary of the day that 2,996 innocent people were murdered by a small band of fanatical Islamofascists, and the world changed forever.
Remember September 11. Fly the flag.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 911, al qaeda, barbarism, islamofascism, new york, terrorism, war, world trade center, wtc | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 9, 2008
Nick Cohen in Britain's Observer:
During the 1997 British general election, the late Lord Jenkins said that Tony Blair was like a man walking down a shiny corridor carrying a precious vase. He was the favourite and held his fate in his hands. If he could just reach the end of the hall without a slip, a Labour victory was assured. The same could have been said of the American Democrats last week. But instead of protecting their precious advantage, they succumbed to a spasm of hatred and threw the vase, the crockery, the cutlery and the kitchen sink at an obscure politician from Alaska.
For once, the postmodern theories so many of them were taught at university are a help to the rest of us. As a Christian, conservative anti-abortionist who proved her support for the Iraq War by sending her son to fight in it, Sarah Palin was 'the other' – the threatening alien presence they defined themselves against. …
…
Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right.
…
In an age when politics is choreographed, voters watch out for the moments when the public-relations facade breaks down and venom pours through the cracks. Their judgment is rarely favourable when it does. …
Needless to say, read the whole thing.
(HT: No Oil for Pacifists)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: democrats, palin, politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 9, 2008
It's hard to say how much of tonight's Raider drubbing was due to improvement of the Broncos and how much was an indication of just what a sorry team Oakland has. But it was fun to watch the hated Raiders humiliated. If you want deeper, more thoughtful analysis, try Zombyboy's Ten Thoughts About the Broncos Opener. Me, I'm just going to have another beer and enjoy the afterglow.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: broncos, denver, football | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 9, 2008
If you live in Michigan, northern Ohio, or northern Indiana, you have an opportunity to see the outstanding film Obsession:Radical Islam's War Against the West for free on the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The screening will take place this Thursday at 6:00 PM at the AMC Fairlane 21 theaters, 18900 Michigan Avenue, in Dearborn, Michigan.
To reserve free tickets, send an email, indicating the number of tickets and the names of the individuals who will be attending, to: ObsessionDearborn@yahoo.com
More information: http://www.myspace.com/obsessionmovie
If you can't go see it for free, why not buy the DVD? And then share it with your friends. It's important.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 911, al qaeda, islamofascism, obsession, terrorism | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on September 8, 2008
A new Rasmussen poll makes it clear that the mainstream media aren't fooling too many people with their claims of objectivity:
According to Rasmussen, fully 68% of voters believe that "most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win." And — no surprise — 49% of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14% think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain.
Meanwhile, 51% of those surveyed thought the press was "trying to hurt" Mrs. Palin with its coverage.
Perhaps most troubling for the press corps, though, was this finding: "55% said media bias is a bigger problem for the electoral process than large campaign donations."
Ironically, the MSM may be working so hard on behalf of Obama that they seriously undermine him.
Given those poll numbers, I'm thinking that if the Republicans are smart, they'll secretly work to get Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews reinstated. In fact, they ought to be pushing for Keith Olberman to host NBC's Nightly News!
(HT: LGF)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: media bias, msm, politics | 2 Comments »
