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My daughter

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And This is How Freedom Dies

Up in Canada they have Human Rights Commissions which field complaints about alleged violations of said rights. These days you can get in serious trouble just for voicing an opinion about the wrong person or group. I've mentioned Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant's recent travails with these commissions before. Both men had to answer to accusations of hate speech, Steyn for an article published in MacCleans magazine and Levant for publishing cartoons depicting the prophet, Mohammed. Here's the latest egregious example of the Alberta commission's fascist handiwork. My favorite line from the commisioner's ruling  is where she officiously avers that the right not to be offended (WHAT? That's a RIGHT?) "trumps the freedom of speech in the [Canadian] Charter." Wake up, folks. Liberty dies by baby steps and the baby's getting better balance and feeling more confident every day.


If you were in the mood for barrel jumping, curling, demolition derby or any other improbable and rarely-seen sport in the era before ESPN, you probably watched ABC's Wide World of Sports. Host Jim McKay was the articulate host of the program from its debut in 1961 to its final broadcast as a series in 1998. Mr. McKay died Saturday at the age of. For me it's impossible to think of the Munich Olympic tragedy without hearing him announce the horrific end: "They have now said there were eleven hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone." RIP, Jim, and thanks.

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We Got Satchmo

Quote of the Day:

"The bottom line for any country is, what did it contribute to the world? We contributed Louis Armstrong."
                           
                                                                                                                                                            - Tony Bennett
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To The Fallen

In deference to Memorial Day Monday, here's today's Quote of the Day:

            "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm."

                                                                                                                                                                    - George Orwell

Thanks to all those who gave their lives that we could eat hot dogs and go to ballgames in peace. RIP.


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Rowan and Martin - Together Again

Dick Martin, of Rowan and Martin, died Saturday night. Thanks to my friend Dick Hardwick I got to meet him once. Their 1967 comedy/variety series, Laugh In, changed TV. Dan Rowan died in 1987 but his son Tom is a buddy from the Bohemian Grove. Bet your sweet bippy(do we all have a bippy?) the duo's reunion party'll be a fun one.
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Churchill on Islam

Quote of the Day:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
                                                                                                                                                          - Winston Churchill
                                                                                                                                                             The River War, 1899


Seems to me that the phrase concerning the "final extinction of slavery" should be a serious and overriding concern of any person who cares about freedom and human dignity. Anything less is at the very least an example of what Bush senior called the "soft bigotry of low expectations" and at its worst a stubborn ignorance of a terrible injustice to half of the population in the Islamic world. You can protest people being uncomfortable with public breast feeding or how the government needs to pay for abortions, NOW, but there is true oppression in the world that might be worthier of your attention. Or at least a mention on your home page.


How do people this apparently dumb (and with this extreme an inclination towards socialism) get elected in this country? It's a rhetorical question but try to imagine a politician saying something like this even 20 years ago, much less one of the founders. The people who elect Maxine Waters (seen in this clip) must be constantly reminded that they're victims with a lengthy list of grievances that she can remediate.


Go to this link and listen to this debate between radio host Dennis Prager and Arianna Huffington, editor of the high-profile, liberal blog the Huffington Post. Maybe it's just me but it seems like she seems embarrasingly overmatched in this debate with  Dennis. Click on "Listen Now" on the Thursday, May22, 2008, "H[our] 1," show. Rarely do you get to hear this succinct a smack-down of so many liberal cliches.


A court in Texas has overturned the right of Texas Child Protection Services to have seized the children in a polygamous religious sect. This sounded like an egregious abuse of state power when it happened but people seemed willing to overlook it because of the polygamy angle. The agency claims they acted because of a "pervasive pattern of sexual abuse that puts every child at the ranch at risk" but never provided any evidence of such, having relied on an anonymous phone call to justify the seizure. And if, as in the recent California ruling, it's determined that you can marry whomever you wish, on what grounds will you forbid polygamy?


Steroids!! Get your steroids!! Hey, steroids!! These guys and gals may have overdone it a bit.


Where there's a problem there's a human will to solve it. A Canadian student discovers a microbe that digests plastic bags.

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Lou Marini - RIP

A great teacher, mentor and friend passed away yesterday. His name was Lou Marini and it may sound familiar to fans of the Blues Brothers movie since his son, Lou Junior, played Blue Lou, the saxophonist in Jake and Elwood's band. Lou senior was the saxophone instructor at Bowling Green State University during my time there and provided invaluable expertise and encouragement to me and many others by whom he was beloved. I'm sure he must be writing charts for God's band by now. We'll miss you, Mr. Marini.


Here are Ten Inconvenient Truths about environmentalism, as enumerated by Wired magazine. The article goes into detail but here are the 10:
LIVE IN CITIES:
Urban Living Is Kinder to the Planet Than the Suburban Lifestyle

A/C IS OK:
Air-Conditioning Actually Emits Less C02 Than Heating

ORGANICS ARE NOT THE ANSWER:
Surprise! Conventional Agriculture Can Be Easier on the Planet

FARM THE FORESTS:
Old-Growth Forests Can Actually Contribute to Global Warming

CHINA IS THE SOLUTION:
The People's Republic Leads the Way in Alternative-Energy Hardware

ACCEPT GENETIC ENGINEERING:
Superefficient Frankencrops Could Put a Real Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CARBON TRADING DOESN'T WORK:
Carbon Credits Were a Great Idea, But the Benefits Are Illusory

EMBRACE NUCLEAR POWER:
Face It. Nukes Are the Most Climate-Friendly Industrial-Scale Form of Energy

USED CARS — NOT HYBRIDS:
Don't Buy That New Prius! Test-Drive a Used Car Instead

PREPARE FOR THE WORST:
Climate Change Is Inevitable. Get Used to It

Don't freak out. Read the article.


I can't help it. I think this Dos Equis ad campaign is hilarious. The hero of the ads is the un-named "Most Interesting Man in the World" seen in grainy film clips at various times in his life doing manly-cool-interesting things. Things like surfing or arm wrestling with uniformed, third-world thug types or crawling close enough to release a Grizzly bear from a trap. And we learn things about him such as, "His blood smells like cologne" and that his beard is listed on his organ-donor card. At the end of each spot he says,"I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis. Stay thirsty, my friends." Maybe it's just me.






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Too Big? No Way!

I can't help it. I'm a guy and I want one: the just-unveiled Samsung 82", 3820x2160 pixel big screen, LCD TV. Only about $40,000 right now. Maybe by the time the World Series comes around it'll have dropped to $35 K or so. That'll make it more affordable.

Here's a big advance in prosthetic hand technology. The new one allows individual finger movement. Now you don't have to be quite so careful with that chainsaw.

Went to the Los Angeles Society of Singers event Monday honoring Andy Williams with their "Ella" Award for lifetime achievement. My boss, Mr Mathis, sang a song with the orchestra, a stellar a "aggravation" (as Norm Crosby put it) of LA's finest "cats." Here's a neat YouTube clip from John's 50th anniversary special featuring Andy and him on Andy's show in 1964. What a couple of great singers.

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Mars Flyover!!

Wow! You've gotta see this. A computer animation, using existing data, of what a flyover of the Mars contryside would look like. Truly incredible.

An interesting article on the legal and ethical amifications of battlefield robotics. It's gonna get there eventually, you know.

From the Department of Hey-Whaddaya-Know-About-That comes this story about why there aren't more women engineers, chemists and mathematicians. A representative sentence: "
Now two new studies by economists and social scientists have reached a perhaps startling[emphasis added] conclusion: An important part of the explanation for the gender gap, they are finding, are the preferences of women themselves."

Startling to you, maybe, Ms. McArdle. Many of us already live in the real world.


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Global Cooling

Here's a good article on global warming climate change with some good information on the way the framing of the debate has changed with the recent revelations of how the climate has actually been cooling for the last ten years. It also examines the manner in which the MSM has presented a biased account of the issue. A key quote:
A recent survey exposed the extent of bias among news programs on the three main U.S. networks: just one-fifth of stories about climate change featured opinions that dissented from the alarmist orthodoxy.

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Mommy? Daddy?

Hmmm. This sounds suspiciously like some sort of subliminal thing. Parents and 2 grandparents all forgot their 23-month-old toddler, leaving him to wander around the Vancouver, BC airport as they flew to Winnipeg. Reminds me of when my wife's family all (thirteen of them) climbed back into the station wagon and pulled out and away from a gas stop on a vacation trip leaving her youngest brother in the bathroom. Luckily they remembered him quickly.


Dave Barry's blog links to photoshopped pix of "Man Babies:" Head-swapping that's creepier than it sounds. And it sounds plenty creepy, thank you. Lord help us all.


A new record for the sale price of a work of art by a living artist. Careful.

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Barack Cried Uncle

What did Barack Obama know of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright's radical, black liberation politics and when did he know it? This article by Stanley Kurtz in the Weekly Standard takes a look at Wright's Trumpet magazine. His conclusion? Obama knew all along.


A couple of weeks ago my mom sent me note on the death of a man named Ted Key. Mr. Key created the comic strip character "Hazel" and also (and more impressive to me) the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman for the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Her accompanying question asked, "Why don't we hear about these people when they're still alive. What a shame to only be remembered when you die." Here's another example of someone who should've been a household-name heroine. Her name was Irena Sendler and she and her non-Jewish friends were responsible for helping 2500 Jewish children escape the Nazis from the Warsaw ghetto. Madam Sendler died yesterday. She was 98 and a truly Righteous Gentile.

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4 UATP

Wow!! Unassisted tripleplay by Cleveland Indians second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera. It's only the 14th one in major league history.
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Feminists's heads are Spinning

The inevitable result of identity politics; the dividing of people into ethnic and gender groups and pandering to their inate conceit. Feminists are understandably conflicted over whom to vote for. And I love this remarkably inane comment by a college student: "This pattern of old-style politics and adherence to un-feminist values is part and parcel of the campaign Hillary Clinton has run," Garfinkel wrote. "In this race, Barack Obama is the true feminist."
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None Shall Pass!!

It occurs to me that Hillary Clinton's professed belief in her ability to still win the Democratic nomination makes her appear like the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "It's just a flesh wound!"


In an attempt to upgrade their image, anti-war group Code Pink is urging women to come equipped with "spells and pointy hats" for what they're calling "Witches, clowns and sirens day."
"Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we're going to end war," Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com. Well, it's worked before. Oh wait...


A roud-up from Instapundit on the apparent capture of Al Qaeda in Iraq head, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.


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