:: PROLEGOMENA ::

:: Wednesday, November 24 ::

NEWS FROM PARODY

Today's first post touches on what someone learns and does not learn from the main stream media. From my first subscription to the Conservative Chronicle in 1992 to smart parody writing today, it is amazing still the news I learn from the jokers -gotta be careful, though... you need to be informed enough already, especially when reading Ann Coulter, to know if there is a joke in your facts.

Scrappleface is currently making good fun of the toll road collectors' imminent strike in Pennsylania:

"You can't just go out in the streets and find people who want to spend their days sitting down, listening to loud music and acting surly while taking money from people and putting it in a drawer," said an unnamed spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. "Who's going to do that for only $39,000 per year plus fully paid health insurance, eye and dental coverage, a prescription drug benefits program, 15 paid holidays, 10 sick days per year, four weeks vacation after 16 years and participation in the state retirement program.?"

But you gotta look it up... wow.. from PennLive.com News:

Toll collectors and maintenance workers have a starting base salary of $15.76 an hour and a maximum base hourly wage of $18.69, DeFebo said

:: michael Wednesday, November 24, 2004 [+] ::
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"AUBERNICA"
via Andrew Sullivan
I was not expecting this when I clicked the link:
http://www.wizznutzz.com/guernica.html


:: michael Wednesday, November 24, 2004 [+] ::
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MEDIA NOT-MATTERS

So every blogger is already on the retirement of Dan Rather. what. ever. When the event happens in March, every network will blabber on about it like it's the death of a movie star. The CNN article went far enough to describe the forged documents as allegedly forged documents. Good grief, there was more proof of that than there was to convict Scott Peterson - way more. Well, at least Rather didn't interrupt a broadcast of CSI.

It's pleasing to see FOX News more regularly reporting on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal, something the rest of us have known for many, many months. Surprisingly, BBC News, the Baghdad Broadcasting Company, is suddenly interested in the scandal, and more so than CNN is in its competition at CBS using forged documents. From yesterday's The Age, a report on BBC news not updated at the BBC site since Nov. 16, news which should have been dated months ago:

The BBC sent a reporter to Iraq and Jordan to track down people involved in the oil-for-food program, which has been described as the largest financial swindle in history. Virtually all said that Saddam took kickbacks from companies who sold goods to Iraq, and that the UN knew this. The businessmen - most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity - said it was standard to pay commissions, that nobody complained, and that was the price of doing business with Iraq.

:: michael Wednesday, November 24, 2004 [+] ::
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Anti-Semitism in Russia
via Alarming News (link at left)

Here are a few photos of a rally held by the National Fatherland Party of Russia. While word has it that this party is banned, there is a far-left Fatherland party which will be a part of Russia's new three-party system. I cannot see that they are the same, but isn't it still amazing how, world-wide, there are people in so many different cultures with a Jew problem. Add to that the millions of screwed-up minds who condemn Hitler but refer to the Israelis as Nazis, and will not recognize the genocidal desire of the Muslim world. I see it as evidence of the spiritual war described in the Bible.

Jewish columnist Dennis Prager wrote a book on the subject.

The atheist contrarian Christopher Hitchens has already gone there as well in Vanity Fair (scroll down to "Jewish Power, Jewish Peril).

And today, Jeff Jacoby writes about hating your enemies. It's an instructive perspective, and a cool follow-up to his outright condemnation of Yasser Arafat.

:: michael Monday, November 22, 2004 [+] ::
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ART NOT ARMS

That is the bumper sticker I frequently drive behind in post-election stress-traumatized Asheville, a city where I do know hundreds of fun-loving people in a vibrant, smart downtown culture. Here as well is a stronghold of anarchists and liberals, angry ones, and the reason I hesitated to sport a Bush sign on my SUV. The women among them wear black and stand "in silence mourning violence". The stupid anarchist kids among them dress like retards and march for "books not bombs", like they are actually going to read. Kerry-Edwards stickers are slowly dropping out of display, but before the election these people here in this town actually thought they were going to steer the national election, by organizing groups to literally "run against Bush" in matching tee-shirts, jogging around downtown; by driving in anti-Bush caravans to take people to early voting; by crashing organized downtown events with their Kerry registration campaigns; all this and much more, and they didn't even swing North Carolina!

It's interesting what doesn't swing them:

"In the south of Fallujah yesterday, U.S. Marines found the armless, legless body of a blonde woman, her throat slashed and her entrails cut out. Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the U.S. Navy Corps, said that she had been dead for a while, but at that location for only a day or two. The woman was wearing a blue dress; her face had been disfigured. It was unclear if the remains were the body of the Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, or of Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole abducted two weeks ago. Both were married to Iraqis and held Iraqi citizenship; both were kidnapped in Baghdad last month."

...and it's no wonder they still apologize for the equally un-outraged Muslims. But let's talk about that Marine in the Mosque...


:: michael Friday, November 19, 2004 [+] ::
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FAKING GOD

Kathleen Parker's Nov. 13 column is a lovely thought on authenticity:

You can't just suddenly start carrying around a Bible and expect to convince people you're a believer. It is also dangerous to invoke the Bible if you're not that familiar with it, as Howard Dean proved when he expressed his admiration for the book of Job, which he erroneously placed in the New Testament.

If you like Job, you know where it is.

You also do not tell children that Mary and Joseph were homeless when they were away from home to be taxed or say your favorite verse is John 16:3 (Gore). You don't stand at Black church pulpits and lie about voter suppression and abuse the parables of Jesus to attack your opponent (Kerry).


:: michael Wednesday, November 17, 2004 [+] ::
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NAIVE

I thought the anger would be about Margaret Hassan. But:

Shooting in Iraq Mosque Angers Muslims

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The fatal shooting of a wounded and apparently unarmed man in a Fallujah mosque by a U.S. Marine angered Sunni Muslims in Iraq on Tuesday and raised questions about the protection of insurgents once they are out of action

A Christian college friend changed my mind 13 years ago, when I said all those people over there were a bunch of animals. He corrected me on the spot, and changed my view into seeing them as worthy people because I could not disagree that God saw them as worthy people. The Hassan murder, on top of the near-complete absence of general Muslim anti-terror protest tempts me to go back to my old view.


:: michael Wednesday, November 17, 2004 [+] ::
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NO SURPRISE

French consider naming streets after Arafat

Also, wouldn't it be nice if this headline read, "Dutch Muslims Dismayed by Islamic Backlash"
when in reality:

Dutch Muslims Dismayed by Anti-Islamic Backlash

Since Van Gogh's death on Nov. 2 there have been at least 20 arson attacks on mosques and churches in tit for tat violence.
A Muslim school was damaged by a bomb on Monday, another set ablaze on Tuesday. There have been a number of minor arson attacks on churches and a classroom at a Catholic school in Eindhoven was destroyed by fire on Wednesday.
In the latest suspected arson attack on Saturday, a small mosque in the south was destroyed by fire.

Encouraging - even liberals can get sick of liberalism, in Holland at least... are we supposed to copy this enlightened European thinking over here? The French would say non, unless...

SURPRISE

I like to pride myself on being informed, so how in the world, with my attention so focus on this subject, did I miss this:

Israeli sources suggest that a quiet deal was made in which Israel would not reveal Arafat's HIV/AIDs illness -- reportedly well-known in intelligence circles -- in exchange for Palestinian officials scotching claims of poisoning.

Scotch is a rare verb; a judge once scotched a traffic ticket for me. Earlier this week, "welshed" was used to describe a Chinese mother who broke her promise to buy her son a PC.

But back to the point - I think the Palestinians won this little round, sort of blackmailing the Israelis with the poison thing, in spite of the fact that the poisoning accusation was totally predictible.


:: michael Sunday, November 14, 2004 [+] ::
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FRONT PAGE NEWS



The first paper I saw this morning was USA Today. The news about Arafat second to his huge portrait above the fold on page one. We have long known the general bias of the mainstream press when it comes to this subject, but today, in contrast to widespread Arab belief that the Jews own the US government, I am tempted to believe the Arabs own USA Today.

Jeff Jacoby's bold remark about Arafat, I am sure, will not be beat:

In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."

God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.

Well, God bless Jeff Jacoby for remembering at the end of that column the massacre at Ma'alot, which is as shamefully forgotten as the Al Sharpton-inspired massacre at Freddie's Fashion Mart in Harlem.
Ma'alot, however, was more on the level of the recent Chechen hideousness at the school in Beslan.

Best Ex-President Jimmy Carter rather ambiguously calls him "a powerful human symbol and forceful advocate." I will agree with our lowest-class ex-President, indeed he was a powerful symbol of the human nature to cling to power and desire legacy, but it stops right there. Of course Carter did not mean that because carter has always been in deial about human nature. Read on:

He said that while Arafat provided "indispensable leadership to a revolutionary movement" and played a key role in forging a peace agreement with Israel in 1993, he was excluded from negotiations in recent years

Indispensable? HA! Like Carter was indispensible during the Iranian hostage crisis. This Arafat bastard, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, postponed elections and blamed the Jews. He met Shimon Peres's amazing offer of all of Gaza, almost all of the West Bank, and a capital in East Jerusalem (where, golly, he might have been buried!), with a second Intifada - war - his response when instead today, ordinary Palestinians could be four years into building a state with significant foreign investment. Instead, Arafat will be buried in Ramallah, near the rubble pile he called headquarters.

How much longer will it be when West Bank streets are re-named, this time not in honor of suicide bombers? When will Palestinian children actually trade baseball cards instead of suicide-bomber cards? When will the costume parties no longer be a suicide-bomber theme? How long before a terrorist act against America will not prompt dancing and passing out candy on Palestinian streets? I am placing no bets. Ordinary, misled Palestinians will be paying for the Arafat regime for a long, long, time.
:: michael Thursday, November 11, 2004 [+] ::
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Mmm-Hmm...

(Via LGF) MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, will counter "religious and political extremism" next month in Long Beach. The poster provides you with the faces of the extremists: Pat Robertson, Rummy, the Great Satan Daniel Pipes, and oh! they threw in Osama.
Check it: http://www.mpac.org/conv_splash.aspx

Exercising open-mindedness, I visited the MPAC site to read their mission statement against terror, and it turns out they have something called the "National Anti-Terrorism Campaign". Nice, until just below that you see their media awards, to Alec Baldwin and to Michael Moore.

Michael Moore was honored for his courageous commitment to social justice and uncovering the truth. When asked why he does what he does, Moore stated, “I don’t know any other way to live but to follow my conscience. Moore stated emphatically, “I promise to do the best I can do to stand in the way of those who in my name and with my tax dollars attempt to take away our freedoms.”

Back to Daniel Pipes... why is he on the poster? Perhaps his exposé of one of the MPAC founders (condensed):

In 1993, he memorably asserted that "When Patrick Henry said, 'Give me liberty or give me death,' that statement epitomized jihad [Islamic holy war]." In 1996, he made the silly and inaccurate observation that "American freedom fighters hundreds of years ago were also regarded as terrorists by the British." Mr. Al-Marayati's intent here is obvious: to render jihad and terrorism acceptable to Americans.
Second, Mr. Al-Marayati apologizes for the most ghastly Middle Eastern regimes and draws moral equivalencies between them and America.
Third, Mr. Al-Marayati turns a blind eye to terrorism if it is of a fundamentalist Muslim persuasion.

MPAC's "extremist" label for Pipes reminds me of the temporary American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice, who called for a boycott of Starbucks after the Jewish CEO gave a speech denouncing terror.

:: michael Wednesday, November 10, 2004 [+] ::
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RACE-SPECIFIC MEDICINE?

At the sight of the headline, it makes sense when remembering that only blacks have sickle-cell anemia. Even if that disease is unrelated to the heart failure rates among blacks, it is proof that race can be a factor in disease.

Heart pill a breakthrough for Blacks

NEW ORLEANS - The largest study ever done solely on Blacks with heart failure raises the controversial prospect of the first drug that might be marketed to a specific racial group.

The experimental drug, BiDil, dramatically improved survival and cut hospitalizations for heart failure, a problem that affects 5 million Americans, Blacks 2½ times more often than Whites.

But, good grief, it gets complicated. There is understandable interest in protecting the patent, and including whites would put that protection in jeopardy. Bioethics classes nationwide are changing their syllabi:

However, some specialists believe the pill also would help whites and say it should have been tested among them but wasn't for business reasons.

:: michael Tuesday, November 09, 2004 [+] ::
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THE FLU IS JUST THE BEGINNING...

George Bush also brings us a new kind of stress disorder:

Traumatized Kerry supporters in Florida seek therapy: report

MIAMI (AFP) - Shocked supporters of defeated US presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) are seeking help from psychologists, who refer to their condition as "post-election selection trauma," it was reported.

Consider this an update to my "Society of Victims" post below. If only the suicidal Veal had been provided with the kind of attention he required before he left his body parts behind at Ground Zero for someone else to clean up. To his credit, he wasn't defending weapons-smuggling tunnels.

UPDATE: Veal's suicide is now reported to be not in response to the election. It was in response to being torn between two women. The point remains the same: the passion of so many people concerned about this election, the hysteria, e-mail alerts in all caps, the abandonment of reasons and definitions, the continued vandalism, and the world-has-come-to-an-end funk we observed in our Leftist neighbors on Wednesday, made the election-motivated suicide story very believable.

It also makes this sactimonious website of apology equally unsurprising:
http://72.3.131.10/gallery/1/
M'god - even America's pets are remorseful. These people need might do better considering suicide, or just moving to Canada. (via LGF)

No apologies for making light of Veal's suicide, either. Veal left behind pained relatives, emotionally devasted women, and a psychologically assaulting mess of blood and body parts for someone else to clean up on sacred ground.

:: michael Tuesday, November 09, 2004 [+] ::
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HELL HATH NO FURY
-like a woman about to lose her $100,000 per month allowance.

CLAMART, France (AP) - Yasser Arafat's wife said her husband is "all right" and lashed out at his top lieutenants Monday, accusing them of traveling to Paris with plans to "bury" him "alive."

In a screaming telephone call from Arafat's hospital bedside, Suha Arafat told pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television that she was issuing "an appeal to the Palestinian people." She accused his top aides, who are traveling to Paris later Monday, of conspiring to usurp her husband's four-decade long role as Palestinian leader.

"Let it be known to the honest Palestinian people that a bunch of those who want to inherit are coming to Paris," she shouted in Arabic, in her first public comments since Arafat fell ill a month ago.

"You have to realize the size of the conspiracy. I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive," she said, using Arafat's nom de guerre. He is all right and he is going home. God is great."

Palestinian Conspiracy? Funny, I though it was Israel who had poisoned him. This accusation was entirely predictable:

AILING Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been the victim of an Israeli poisoning, according to Palestine's delegate to Australia Ali Kazak.

Where are we now? - about to discover a rare moment of Israeli-Palestininan cooperation? Jews poison so Arabs can position to take over? Will the "honest Palestinian people" be able to help? Are there any?

Hell, you can't even find one who's not in denial:

the sign says
'Abu Ammar, you will overcome your sickness Allah willing. As you overcame the occupation'

:: michael Monday, November 08, 2004 [+] ::
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SOCIETY OF VICTIMS

One defining characteristic of humanity is the desire to be a victim, hence the success of political correctness. As I live in Asheville surrounded by angry liberals, I felt the mood on Wednesday. Most of the town as I know it was in a huge funk. (It threw me back to Bill Clinton's observation that the nation was in a funk in 1995 - the first time a President ever used that particular F-word. This is not Asheville's first collective funk, however, as this event secured George Bush's second term.)

So the e-mails have been in a flurry here. The rarer conservative gloating and the reactionary, sky-is-falling liberal forecasting complete disaster and bemoaning the "divison" caused by George W. Bush, which of course is only going to make the flu worse.

My use of the reply-all button was to be positive: regardless of the "true" motive of our war effort, still some good things happened there. The most ardent liberals need to acknowledge the release of women from the Taliban and the Ba'athists. Did any race/gender-conscious people notice the National Security Advisor?

Popular among the liberals here is the positive-thinking new-age particle physics documentary, What the Bleep Do We Know? (Recommended simply for the mind-blowing water-droplet photo scene.) Still, the liberals must struggle to remember what they paid their seven dollars for, or this:

Man commits suicide at Ground Zero
Distraught over the re-election of President George W. Bush, a Georgia man traveled to New York City, went to Ground Zero and killed himself with a shotgun blast, police said yesterday.

The suicide victim, Andrew Veal, 25, was discovered just before 8 a.m. yesterday when a worker for the Millennium Hotel looking at Ground Zero from an upper floor saw a man lying atop the concrete structure through which the 1 and 9 subway lines run.

This may have more to do with how Veal was raised, but for now we are left with a decomposing case of melodrama and a stupid kid leaving behind a psychologically disturbing mess for someone else to clean up after him. From that same article, an East Villager's stunningly stupid observation:

"It's a national tragedy," he said. "This election is devastating to all who believe in democracy."

And there is the problem, as I have argued from my very first blog: the disregard for the definitions of words. Record voter turnout and a popular vote win by more than 3 1/2 million is labeled as democracy in devastation, and therefore sufficient excuse for a narcissistic suicide.

So back here at home we conservatives watch as drama and definitional disregard keep our fellow beer-drinkers in a funk. Hopefully caring conservatives can enforce the bright sides, or at least remind the distraught liberals that they do have what they need to deal with the devastation, and the worst that can happen is getting the munchies.

:: michael Sunday, November 07, 2004 [+] ::
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WHERE WE'RE HEADED...

So far it seems little is changing on the left. In fact, the problem is escalating. Will the leadership in the Democratic Party speak out against this?

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Vandals spray painted vulgar messages on the walls of the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters and left a burned effigy depicting President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, police said.
Authorities detained several suspects early Saturday, hours after the attacks took place Friday night, but had not filed any charges, police spokesman Jim Sughrue said.
A police officer reported Friday that about 100 people wearing masks and gloves were walking down a street near the headquarters, authorities said.
The Republican president won re-election Tuesday after a challenge by Kerry, a Democrat. John Edwards, who was Kerry's running mate, is a senator from North Carolina.
``This is not a political statement,'' Sughrue said. ``A political statement is what we made Tuesday. This is a crime.''
Police said at least two windows were broken and it appeared that the vandals tried to put incendiary devices inside of the building.

The statesmanship so badly needed here is extremely rare within the Democratic Party, and they need the vandals' votes since they are part of the "base". Zell Miller's statesmanship was scorned, but now, when so clearly out of power, is the time for Democratic penance and for declaring right and wrong. I want to be an optimist and think they will do the denouncing that needs to be done.

:: michael Saturday, November 06, 2004 [+] ::
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CAUSE AND EFFECT?

Nov 3:
Rueters: Bush Wins White House, Reaches Out to Foes
Nov 4:
Rueters: Palestinian Leader Arafat in Coma
Al-Jazeera puts it more punctually:
"Official: Yasser Arafat in a comma"
However, Arafat's death is anything but punctual. Do you recall the phrase, "untimely death"? Have you ever thought about that? When is a good time to die?
Headline suggestion for tomorrow: "Yasser Arafat died today, and it's about god-damn time!"

Talk in the past speculated an imminent civil war between Fatah and Hamas at this time, for control of the billions in Arafat's accounts, where it has been while his fellow Palestinians live in squalor and blame the Jews.

No need to re-think those billions. US News provides a get-to-the-point headline:
End of the Arafat Era?
It includes this juicy fact:

West Bank hospitals, starved for funds by the massive corruption of his regime, aren't equipped to treat his ailment, reportedly a life-threatening blood disease.

So the old terrorist must be flown to Paris, treatment delayed by his own inaction. Sweet. On the other hand, Arafat in in Paris at his close friend Jaques Chirac's invitation. "Doctor Chirac," Arafat (used) to call him.

He could have learned something from Fidel Castro:
AP: Fidel Castro can live to 140, doctor says
But thank God he didn't.

One more question, will a widowed Sufa Arafat continue to live on a $100,000 per month allowance, or might she decide a deficient West Bank hospital is more worthy?

:: michael Thursday, November 04, 2004 [+] ::
...

I spent much of yesterday mentally preparing for a Kerry victory. I lost my faith in the Americans' ability to reject demagoguery and believed the MTV crowd was going to win it for Kerry. Trying to be optimistic, I thought, at least, a Kerry victory may win us better service in Paris restaurants for the next four years.

After all that filthy demagoguery, lying to black congregations and distorting parables, telling the lame they will walk, going ape shit over a falsified ammo dump story. After the major media's blatant meddling and manipulating, the CBS forgeries, NPR's Abu Ghraib obsession. After the media sacrifice of Howard Dean and very, very suspicious exit polls. After Rock the Vote, the fascism of millions of brainwashed college kids marching for Books not Bombs, George Soros' billions and Michael Moore's documentaries.

After all that, America's majority just decided that Kerry really didn't shoot that goose.

Wow, the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards did not win his own state for Kerry. Even his soon-to-be vacated Senate seat was won by Republican Richard Burr. He's not Al Gore, who lost his own state and even lost his own county, but it's got to hurt a little. Go ahead and cry, Edwards, let it out. You're not to old to cry... at least you don't look too old.

North Carolina re-elected Bush and sent Republican Burr to the Senate, but also re-elected the Democrat Governor Easley. I think this says something good about North Carolinian thoughtfulness when voting. Easley's opponent came across as young and a bit College Republican for NC's taste.

I think Daschle may be a little teary-eyed this morning as well. Fraud was obvious in the last South Dakota Senatorial go-around, but Thune took the high road and waited his turn.

Speaking of the high road: oh how the angry left lamented that Electoral College system when Bush lost the popular vote by half a million. Now Bush wins it by almost four million. Please, dear Left, lecture me again on what the people want.

:: michael Wednesday, November 03, 2004 [+] ::
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12:41 am November 3

NO FAIR! ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL VOTE SYSTEM!

Popular Vote 70% of Precincts Reporting

George W. Bush 51% 45,599,811
John Kerry 48% 42,661,905

Electoral
Bush 246
Kerry 207

Oh... by the way - I noticed nothing blew up in America recently. Did 45 million people just notice that?

:: michael Wednesday, November 03, 2004 [+] ::
...