Principles, Schminciples

So... in the interest of fostering cooperation and open competition, the IOC has agreed to internet censorship during the Olympic games.

*snort*

What a bunch of sissies. Either you stand for your principles - like they did so well (*another snort*) by banning the Iraqi team from the competition - or you don't.

Or maybe - just maybe - they didn't have any principles in the first place.

The Biggest Reason I'm a Conservative

I heard it crystallized last night:

"Individuals make wrong choices, but they make them for themselves; governments make wrong choices, but they make them for everyone."
-Mark Levin

...And This Just Really Stinks.

The IOC has banned Iraq from participating in the Olympics this year.

According to the article, it's because the government reorganized the committee that the IOC had assembled for them ... and according to the government, that committee - of whom several were abducted and have never been seen again - had been corrupt.

*sniff*

I don't have enough knowledge to make a real right-or-wrong call on this one... I mean, who do you believe - the Iraqi government (partly up for re-election) or the IOC?

I'm just bummed about it.

Religious Tolerance on the Campaign Trail

I'll let other people tackle the Obama-for-Emperor-fest in Germany.

I'll mention his Jerusalem stop.

Obama supporters (since I'll give his campaign staff a very small benefit of the doubt) held signs at the Western Wall in Jerusalem when he either:

1. made a show of stopping by for a prayer, and people who knew he was coming brought their own signs; or
2. didn't try to make a show of stopping by for a prayer, and someone in the know - pro or con - planted the signs; or
3. just happened to show up at a location where some unsuspecting supporters had already hung signs.

...I'm open to other possibilities; just can't think of any more at the moment.

But this is a RELIGIOUS site. Political ads do not belong at a place of worship - even if the place of worship is open-air. Whoever's decision it was: baaaaaaaaaad decision.

Interestingly, the rabbi offering a prayer with him wasn't calling for America's damnation.

Just one thing I have to note - the signs had his name in Hebrew; and his first name, "Barack" ("blessed" in Arabic, I've heard... and it makes sense) was spelled "Baraq" - with the harder "q" letter - instead of the "k" character which would make the word "blessed" in Hebrew. I'm assuming "they" (whoever) didn't necessarily want to give him the title "Blessed Obama" or something, and/or accurately transcribing the sounds of his name probably took priority, but I'm not an expert on transliterating names, either. It just caught my attention...

Inflammatory Words

Two police officers were viciously attacked for asking a girl to pick up (her? The article doesn't say, but it doesn't make sense that they'd ask some random person to pick up some random piece of) litter.

That was after she picked it up, carried it over, and dropped it in front of them.

So... what would you call a rabid group of 30 people?

“Whilst we would never use the word 'mob' which is an inflammatory word, we can confirm that eye witnesses have described their initial fear that officers were going to be seriously injured or killed.”

How ridiculous is that? There's a reason the word "mob" is inflammatory - it describes an inflamed, irrational mass of what would otherwise be considered human beings. One officer had BITE MARKS on his shoulder. "Mob" is the least offensive term I can think of for the attackers.

Wonder when they'll re-term a group of crows in the UK ... "murder" is such an inflammatory word... and the crows haven't even hurt anyone.

Campaigning, JibJab Style

Yep, they're at it again! (Thank goodness!)

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The Appropriate Response to the New Yorker Cover

... is LAUGHTER, for Lefties.

... and eye-rolling with a collective sigh and a shake of the head, for Righties.

Check out Stu's latest blog at Glenn Beck's site - here's an excerpt:

Since I don't think every Muslim is a terrorist and every person with a gun is a murderer, I assumed the cover of New Yorker was attempting to portray the Obama's liberating a terrorist stronghold.

More here...

Mourning One of the Greats

Tony Snow died this morning.

I'm so glad that he's no longer in pain, but his family and his country will miss him terribly.

What a great, great man. Always gracious and straightforward. Brilliant. Devoted to his family. Devoted to his country. Defending his convictions with eloquence and wit. We don't have many like him around, and it remains to be seen whether anyone of his caliber will ever enter public service again.

For me, he represented one of the few glimmers of hope for genuine integrity and goodness in government.

I hope his spark has caught on.

Watch Your Facts, AP...

Not that the following section isn't technically accurate, but it creates the most pervasive, misleading picture ever perpetrated on the American people without the help of the public education system (and which I've summarized previously):

A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions that Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.

A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Yes, Plame claimed her identity was "leaked" - well, aside from her showing up in public and hyping her desk job to people at parties.

Yes, Libby was convicted of the charges mentioned in the article.

But putting those two facts together in that sequence constitutes an EGREGIOUS non-sequitur.

Libby didn't leak anything. He may or may not have intentionally mis-remembered something in order to avoid association with a crime that was never committed.

Remember who the leak was? RICHARD ARMITAGE. (He would be a Clinton administration official.)

And Bob Novak - who KNEW his source - didn't even have the courtesy to pipe up and until after the mock-investigation was concluded, and the image seared into the public mind of vengeful Bush cronies outing a CIA agent.

Sometimes I still wonder why people just don't seem to understand facts anymore... and then I read a rehashed story like this and remember that it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the lies and anti-US propaganda we're spoon-fed for the duration of our education - only to be followed-up thereafter by the above-mentioned variety of agenda-ridden news production and thoughtless news consumption.

Oh - and some good news tangentially related to this post: we got a cache of yellowcake out of Iraq recently! Yay!!!

You Tell Me

Obama has chosen to ramp up the hysteria of his acceptance speech by moving it from regular old DNC HQ to a football stadium.

Per the article, the only other time that sort of move has happened was with JFK's presidency.

[Note: Obama is NOT JFK. Kennedy at least had the sense to defend the US...]

And he has the arrogance to use the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

[Note: Obama is NOT MLK. MLK dreamed of a color-blind society...]

So you tell me what he's going for - a legitimate candidacy based on real issues or a rock-star cult following, based on open-ended, undefined promises to make sure life is peachy for all of us?

Finding Offense, Scottish-style

According to this article, Scottish Muslims have gotten their collective panties in a bunch over a photo of a police dog on the local authorities' postcards.

Give me a FRIGGIN' BREAK.

Now a special group has the right to intimidate stores into not displaying emergency info posters because they're offended at a photo of one of God's creatures??? And they're cowing the POLICE over it???

It must be hard, living in this world and being so perpetually and easily offended.

I bet they'd be offended at my short, uncovered hair, too. Maybe I should send them all a family picture.