The Farmer And The Lawyer
A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural South Dakota. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field on the other side of a fence. As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.
The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it."
The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are not coming over here."
The indignant lawyer said, "Do you know who I am? I am one of the best trial attorneys in the United States and if you don't let me get that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own.
The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes in South Dakota. We settle small disagreements likethis with the "Coyote Three Kick Rule."
The lawyer asked, "What the hell is the Coyote Three Kick Rule?"
The Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, first I kick you three times. Then you get to kick me three times, and so on, back and forth, until someone gives up."
The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.
The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees. His second kick to the lawyer's midriff sent his last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his rear end sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.
The lawyer summoned every bit of his strength and managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, "Okay, you old coot. Now it's my turn."
I love this part....
The old farmer smiled and said, "Naw, I give up. You can have the duck."
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Are Republicans Conservative?
I am so frosted by the latest Republican cave-in on ANWR.
Everyone understands that our country is overly dependent on foreign oil. How do we address the problem though? By refusing to drill for oil in our own country -- because environmental wackos and the "moderates" in Congress don't want to disturb the pristine environment in far northern Alaska.
Keep in mind that ANWR is a desolate, uninhabited area of tundra in northern Alaska. Who are we protecting it for -- caribou and polar bears?? You won't see this in the MSM, but here are some facts to keep in mind re ANWR:
I'm at the point where I seriously don't believe I can support the Republican party anymore. I've never joined the Party because I didn't think they were faithful to their conservative principles. Now I think they've completely abandoned them.
I am so frosted by the latest Republican cave-in on ANWR.
Everyone understands that our country is overly dependent on foreign oil. How do we address the problem though? By refusing to drill for oil in our own country -- because environmental wackos and the "moderates" in Congress don't want to disturb the pristine environment in far northern Alaska.
Keep in mind that ANWR is a desolate, uninhabited area of tundra in northern Alaska. Who are we protecting it for -- caribou and polar bears?? You won't see this in the MSM, but here are some facts to keep in mind re ANWR:
- ANWR is a 19,000,000 acre wildlife refuge in the northeast corner of Alaska. That 19M acres is larger than 10 states (W. Virginia, Maryland, Vermont, New Hamshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, Connecticutt, Delaware and Rhode Island).
- ANWR is north of the Artic Circle. A mere 3,950 miles from Chicago (in case you wanted to cruise by and check it out). However, there are no roads that go there.
- The area even being considered for exploration is 1.5 million acres, 8% of the total. And, keep in mind that this area is for exploration, not drilling. The area for drilling (assuming oil was found) would be a fraction of this, less than 2,000 acres. That's like drilling in an area the size of a postage stamp set in a shopping mall parking lot.
I'm at the point where I seriously don't believe I can support the Republican party anymore. I've never joined the Party because I didn't think they were faithful to their conservative principles. Now I think they've completely abandoned them.
Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone
Picked up on this story via a link from Michelle Malkin. One of her links brought me to this post from a blog, "ordinary everyday christian" and it's so good I'm posting it in its entirety (it's not that long).
In Honor of the 230th Marine Corps Birthday & Veterans Day
In honor of the 230th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, and in honor of all who have fought and sacrificed, whom we remember on Veterans Day, here is the story of a Marine of the Greatest Generation who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone
Medal of Honor Recipient, 1942
Navy Cross Recipient, 1945 (Posthumously awarded)
Killed in Action, Iwo Jima, 19 February 1945
Gunnery Sergeant Basilone's Medal of Honor citation:
For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action against enemy Japanese forces, above and beyond the call of duty, while serving with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Lunga Area, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 24 and 25 October 1942.
While the enemy was hammering at the Marines' defensive positions, Sgt. Basilone, in charge of 2 sections of heavy machine guns, fought valiantly to check the savage and determined assault. In a fierce frontal attack with the Japanese blasting his guns with grenades and mortar fire, one of Sgt. Basilone's sections, with its guncrews, was put out of action, leaving only 2 men able to carry on. Moving an extra gun into position, he placed it in action, then, under continual fire, repaired another and personally manned it, gallantly holding his line until replacements arrived.
A little later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone, at great risk of his life and in the face of continued enemy attack, battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment. His great personal valor and courageous initiative were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service."
After a period of recuperating from the battle for Guadalcanal, a national tour to sell war bonds, and his marriage to a female Marine sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant Basilone requested reassignment to the Pacific. He joined the Fifth Marines in Hawaii, preparing for a secret operation which turned out to be the invasion of Iwo Jima.
On February 19, 1945, Gunnery Sergeant Basilone landed with his Marines in the first wave. With his unit pinned down on the beach, Basilone destroyed a Japanese pillbox. Immediately thereafter, Gunnery Sergeant Basilone was killed when a mortar shell exploded at his feet. His widow accepted the posthumous Navy Cross. Gunnery Sergeant Basilone was the ONLY enlisted Marine to have earned both the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor during World War II.
The achievements of Gunnery Sergeant Basilone, along with three other legendary Marines - Daniel J. Daly, John A. Lejeune, and Lewis B. Puller - will be immortalized by the U.S. Postal Service with four stamps (pictured below), to be issued this week.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
"Underprivileged Youths"??
Part of being a liberal is never willingly having to face reality.
I saw this graphic on the rioting (note its spread to Belgium and Germany) in the WaPo. The description that accompanies the graphic on the WaPo site reads (and I am not making this up) "Rioting in Paris: Rioting by underprivileged youths has spread from suburban Paris to hundreds of other French cities and towns, and some were reported in Brussels and Berlin".
I wonder how many people who've had their homes or property destroyed are sitting there today wringing their hands and wondering what they could done to better understand the frustrations of these "underprivileged youths". I just have to shake my head at the apparently infinite capacity for self-delusion these liberals have.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!
Very interesting post on Captain's Quarters -- it appears the outbreak of rioting in Paris was far from spontaneous.
As Gomer Pyle would also say: Shazam!French Riots Come After Multiple Warnings Of Islamist Attacks
The riots in France have little connection to the Islamist terrorist offensive against the West, if the American media coverage gives any indication. However, alert CQ reader Mr. Michael points out that both American and French media sources warned of coordinated Islamist action against France in the weeks before the riot. Agence France Presse even had a quote from the maligned Nicolas Sarkozy noting the imminent nature of the threat in its 9/27 dispatch:
An Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a call for action against France which it describes as "enemy number one", intelligence officials said Tuesday."The only way to teach France to behave is jihad and the Islamic martyr," the group's leader Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, also own as Abdelmalek Dourkdal, was quoted as saying in an Internet message earlier this month.
"France is our enemy number one, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community," he was quoted as saying. ... Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that the risk of terrorist attack in France is "at a very high level... There are cells operating on our territory."
The French government took that warning seriously enough to make a sweep of Paris for GSPC operatives. It didn't make a dent, however, according to the Washington Post. On October 19th, John Ward Anderson reported to American readers that the Islamists had recruited French citizens for Middle East training in jihad, with the intention of having them initiate warfare within France:
French police investigating plans by a group of Islamic extremists to attack targets in Paris discovered last month that the group was recruiting French citizens to train in the Middle East and return home to carry out terrorist attacks, sources familiar with the investigation said.One French official said the extremists were using a virtual "underground railroad" through Syria to spirit European and Middle Eastern citizens into and out of Iraq. A senior French law enforcement official, who declined to be quoted by name because he was speaking about classified information, said French citizens had undergone terrorist training at camps in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
"There's always been an enormous jihad zone to train people to fight in their country of origin," the official said. "We saw it Afghanistan, in Bosnia, in Kosovo, and now we're seeing it in Iraq."
That prelude certainly seems more than a mere coincidence to me. Within six weeks of the GSPC announcement, we see a massive and coordinated uprising originating from the ghettoes in which Algerian and other Muslim refugees and their families live. The "riots' have sophisticated coordination between cell leaders, using the Internet and instant messaging as well as cell phones -- an odd tool for a spontaneous demonstration where one neighborhood would hardly have those phone numbers at the ready.
The Islamist connection might get ignored by the media now, but when it involved Iraq as a training base (as the Post article did), they had no hesitation in writing about it. One wonders why they have suddenly developed amnesia about it now.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Lincoln and Slavery
Abraham Lincoln, the "Great Emancipator", is widely thought to be the nation's foremost civil rights champion. But was he?
Here's an interesting quote from a letter to Horace Greely:
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."
Abraham Lincoln, the "Great Emancipator", is widely thought to be the nation's foremost civil rights champion. But was he?
Here's an interesting quote from a letter to Horace Greely:
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."
Mystifying Republican Appeasement
Why on earth are the Republicans agreeing to delay Alito's confirmation hearing until January? Once again, I can't help but think that since they do such a good job at acting as if they were a powerless minority, the voters may just accomodate them in the next election.
Investor's Business Daily has a good editorial on this point:
Why on earth are the Republicans agreeing to delay Alito's confirmation hearing until January? Once again, I can't help but think that since they do such a good job at acting as if they were a powerless minority, the voters may just accomodate them in the next election.
Investor's Business Daily has a good editorial on this point:
Dirt-Digging Delay
Posted 11/4/2005
Supreme Court: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced that the confirmation process for Judge Samuel Alito will be the longest in more than 14 years. Advantage: mudslingers.
Former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey came within a hairsbreadth of beating incumbent Specter for the Republican nomination last year, and there was a big reason: fears that, as the new Judiciary chairman, the socially liberal senator would sabotage President Bush's promise to appoint justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Now the worries about Specter are coming true. In spite of the White House request to wrap up the Alito hearings before year's end, Specter has acceded to Democrats in setting a timetable that would stall the start of hearings until Jan. 9. A full vote would come on Jan. 20 at the earliest — more than 2 1/2 months after Alito's Oct. 31 nomination.
Specter's excuse is all that time is needed to forage through Alito's hundreds of rulings. "We have to do it right," he said.
But what's "right" about the longest process since Thomas' 1991 hearings? What, exactly, will senators be doing over the next two months — besides vacationing for the holidays — that's more meaningful than a Supreme Court nomination?
Specter's decision is only "right" for those who need dirt on Alito. Those who want the Supreme Court to be a superlegislature that thwarts the will of the people will have extra time to spend millions filling the airwaves with distortions of Alito's record. Groups on the left are already depicting Alito as racist, sexist, anti-employee and in favor of criminals being allowed to carry machine guns.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nearly as long as Alito has been on the 3rd Circuit. What's more, she was general counsel for the extremist American Civil Liberties Union for seven years before that. She worked as a lawyer for radical feminist causes going back to the early 1960s.
That's a huge paper trail, but the Democrats in the Senate majority were not about to let the GOP spend extra time digging into her past. Ginsburg took her seat on the high court a mere seven weeks after she was nominated, and only three Republicans opposed her.
It's bad enough to see Republicans play dead when Democrats run the White House and Congress. With the GOP in control of both branches, Specter's act is inexcusable.
Background on the Paris Riots
As a final installment (at least for now) on the situation in Paris, here is an informative article from The Weekly Standard; it also has some very good background on how the French got themselves into this predicament (can you say politcal correctness in French?)
As a final installment (at least for now) on the situation in Paris, here is an informative article from The Weekly Standard; it also has some very good background on how the French got themselves into this predicament (can you say politcal correctness in French?)
The New York Times Clings to its PC Sensibilities
Per my post below on Islamist riots in Paris, I thought it would be interesting to see the Times' take on the situation. As you might suspect, they had an article on the rioting, but were at pains to explain that the rioters were frustrated and misguided youths, not criminals or Islamofacists.
I got distracted with other things and did not get a chance to comment. Never fear however. Tonight the guys at Power Line did see the same or a similar article and posted a quip that quite aptly captured my sentiments:
Bad to Worse in France
Per my post below on Islamist riots in Paris, I thought it would be interesting to see the Times' take on the situation. As you might suspect, they had an article on the rioting, but were at pains to explain that the rioters were frustrated and misguided youths, not criminals or Islamofacists.
I got distracted with other things and did not get a chance to comment. Never fear however. Tonight the guys at Power Line did see the same or a similar article and posted a quip that quite aptly captured my sentiments:
Bad to Worse in France
Rioting has spread from Paris to the Mediterranean, with arson attacks in Avignon, Cannes and Nice, as well as to Strasbourg and Rouen. The attackers are evil people; a couple of days ago they doused a disabled woman with gasoline and set her afire. Today they torched a nursery school and interfered with rescue personnel:
In one attack, youths in the eastern Paris suburb of Meaux prevented paramedics from evacuating a sick person from a housing project. They pelted rescuers with rocks and then torched the waiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry official said.
More than 800 cars were burned last night. The French government has no idea what to do, nor do the news media have language suitable to the nightmare that has erupted over much of France. The AP gives us the usual platitudes:
The violence — originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations — is forcing France to confront long-simmering anger in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.
Yeah, right. It's the most natural thing in the world for an unemployed person to burn cars, destroy schools, and set helpless women on fire. The authorities need to get a grip on the situation, soon. And wringing their hands about "poor housing" and "racial discrimination" isn't going to help. Napoleon's remedy--a "whiff of grapeshot"--still works, but I doubt whether France has the courage to use it.
The issue is rapidly resolving into an existential one: does France have a future?
Your Tax Dollars at Work
I've had "disaster fatigue" for weeks now. Well before the waters receded from New Orleans, and even before add'l hurricanes (Rita? and Wilma?) hit other parts of the country, I was sick and tired of the wall-to-wall non-stop coverage of the disaster and subsequent recovery effort.
Today, however, I followed a link Michelle Malkin had to this story. (When I read this, I'm reminded of other stories of how millions and millions of dollars of international aid to victims of last year's tsunami was either stolen or left to rot on the docks.)
I've had "disaster fatigue" for weeks now. Well before the waters receded from New Orleans, and even before add'l hurricanes (Rita? and Wilma?) hit other parts of the country, I was sick and tired of the wall-to-wall non-stop coverage of the disaster and subsequent recovery effort.
Today, however, I followed a link Michelle Malkin had to this story. (When I read this, I'm reminded of other stories of how millions and millions of dollars of international aid to victims of last year's tsunami was either stolen or left to rot on the docks.)
Red Cross Money Used for Drugs
Three New Orleans men arrested on drug charges at a Gwinnett County hotel told officers that they supported their drug habit with money from the American Red Cross and FEMA, police said.
The men were staying for free at the Amberley Suites Hotel on Oakbrook Parkway in Norcross by claiming to be evacuees. The three were first approached by officers who were called there to investigate a shooting. While the three were found not to be connected to the shooting, they were found with drugs and arrested, police said.
When officers asked the three men how they could afford to stay at the hotel, they responded that they obtained free hotels rooms easily just by displaying a Louisiana identification. One of the men, 20-year-old Michael Joseph Sanson, stated that he had a fraudulent i.d. card, according to police. He also had $600 that he said was obtained from the Red Cross.
A second suspect, 23-year-old Gary Lee Leonard, told authorities he had two hotel rooms and one home in Stone Mountain. He said he supported his $20-a-day drug habit with money from FEMA and the Red Cross but that he needed the money to "start over." Leonard stated that he and others like him deserved the money because they are from New Orleans.
Sanson, Leonard, and 22-year-old Ronald Michael Claude have been charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana, and one felony count of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. They are being held in jail without bond as police work to see if they can be charged with any other crime.
France Collides with Reality
(and it isn't pretty)
Here are a couple of interesting opinon pieces on the situation in Paris I saw via PowerLine. One is from the New York Post, the other from the New York Sun.
Here is an excerpt from the Post article:
"President Jacques Chirac and Premier de Villepin are especially sore because they had believed that their opposition to the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 would give France a heroic image in the Muslim community.
(and it isn't pretty)
Here are a couple of interesting opinon pieces on the situation in Paris I saw via PowerLine. One is from the New York Post, the other from the New York Sun.
Here is an excerpt from the Post article:
"President Jacques Chirac and Premier de Villepin are especially sore because they had believed that their opposition to the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 would give France a heroic image in the Muslim community.
That illusion has now been shattered — and the Chirac administration, already passing through a deepening political crisis, appears to be clueless about how to cope with what the Parisian daily France Soir has called a "ticking time bomb." "
The New York Sun also has a good op-ed on the situation and notes the same irony:
"If President Chirac thought he was going to gain peace with the Muslim community in France by taking an appeasement line in the Iraq war, it certainly looks like he miscalculated. Today the streets of the French capital are looking more like Ramallah and less like the advanced, sophisticated, gay Paree image Monsieur Chirac likes to portray to the world, and the story, which is just starting to grip the world's attention, is full of ironies. One is tempted to suggest that Prime Minister Sharon send a note cautioning Monsieur Chirac about cycles of violence."