Farris Hassan's Iraqi Adventure

A 16 year old from Ft. Lauderdale, Farris Hassan, had an excellent adventure over the Christmas holiday vacation. He went to Kuwait and Iraq...without telling his family. He's of Arab heritage, from his mom and pop, but doesn't speak Arabic.

The kid's an idealist and most importantly doesn't seem to be a jihadist wannabe. He seemed to be on a learning mission-learning what it's really like over there. He competed an essay during his adventure which he sent to his teachers. An excerpt:

"There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction."

"Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help. Unfortunately altruism is always in short supply. Not enough are willing to set aside the material ambitions of this transient world, put morality first, and risk their lives for the cause of humanity. So I will."

Pretty intelligent kid, actually, but not really very smart to have made the trip in his own fashion. I'm glad to know there is at least one Florida youngster like him.

(Discovered at Michelle Malkin's blog)

Religion of Peace, My Ass! (one more sequel)

You won't find this in the MSM, but a number of bloggers have written about it. Michelle Malkin does a great job publicizing this story about a Pakistani "father" who killed his 3 daughters and his step-daughter because she supposedly committed adultery. This seems to be based on a lie, but who cares about that. This was an "honor killing" that is much the rage in those backward countries practicing the 'religion of peace.'

This devout practitioner said "I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated," he said, his hands cuffed, his face unshaven. "We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor."

One thing I do know...CAIR and other "American" Muslim groups will not speak out loudly in condemnation. No, CAIR and other terrorist-enabling organizations are too busy protesting that their holy places are being monitored for radiation. Gee, why would anyone do that? (Too harsh? No, I don't think so.)

"THE GRAY LADY TOYS WITH TREASON"

This headline from the NY Post editorial on 12/27.

Has The New York Times declared itself to be on the front line in the war against the War on Terror?

The self-styled paper of record seems to be trying to reclaim the loyalty of those radical lefties who ludicrously accused it of uncritically reporting on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Yet the paper has done more than merely try to embarrass the Bush administration these last few months.

It has published classified information — and thereby knowingly blown the covers of secret programs and agencies engaged in combating the terrorist threat.

My only disagreement with the editorial is that there is no question: The New York Times has performed a treasonable act...one of many in 2005 alone.

Lying with Statistics

From the WSJ's Best of the Web from last Friday comes a perfect example of liars lying with numbers and/or statistics:

In the Long Run, We're All Dead
"With only 10 days left to go, 2005 already may prove to be the deadliest year for the metro area's homeless," reports Denver's Rocky Mountain News:
Representatives for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless read the names of 122 men and women--those who died on the streets or eventually died after living on the streets this year--during a memorial candlelight vigil at Denver's City and County Building, where the Christmas lights temporarily remained off. Last year, the names of 112 men and women were read.

"Those who . . . eventually died after living on the streets"? Does this mean--well, yes, it does:
Deborah Cameron, communications and advocacy specialist for the homeless coalition, pointed out that the fatalities covered a variety of causes, including natural, accidental and homicide. They also included men and women who used to be homeless, but eventually were discovered deceased in a home setting.

So these people want us to worry about the plight of the homeless who die at home?

Of course, this isn't the first time we've observed this seemingly rather transparent tactic of inflating death tolls. Last week we noted an AP story suggesting that survivors of Hurricane Katrina were actually victims if they later died of "connections . . . to the storm" that "are not necessarily obvious."

And in both 2002 and 2004 we noted that the Japanese media (and government too, presumably) include in the Hiroshima death toll survivors who died of old age decades later.

Can we at least do the same with Pearl Harbor?

As to that last question, I say Damn Right! Many servicemen died in battle after Pearl Harbor, in both WWII and Korea. And the rest that are now dead died from other causes, including old age. So, under that reasoning, their deaths should be directly attributable to the Japanese attack on 12/7/41.

And the larger point is: do not trust anyone's math or statistical presentation without looking at the methodology. If they want to make you feel sorry or guilty, they are probably lying. If they are liberals, they are definitely lying.

Is It Wrong to Wish Someone Dead?

I really think it is. You see, lately when I see almost any national Democrat on television or read their comments, I want them dead...immediately.

It has to be wrong. When this happens, I feel a little bit of my soul being sucked out. I don't know where it goes. I feel weakened.

And chastened.

And ashamed.

And stupid! That depth of feeling-that hatred- should be reserved for only the most evil people. And there is no Democrat really worth losing any part of the soul for.

And yet...

These Democrat bastards' actions and words have resulted in the deaths of American warriors and their partisanship is damaging American spirit and perhaps hastening the end our nation.

So I will continue my wishing. And continue losing my soul.

UPDATE:
After posting the above, I went over to see Media Lies. I've been so pissed with the Democrat scum and their MSM allies for the past several days that I haven't even been checking in with blogs I like. Well, antimedia nails what I feel, but writes very thoughtfully in his lengthy post Crossing the Rubicon.

Richard Pryor-Dead at 65

There's lots of thoughts about Richard Pryor and his career in the media and on a lot of blogs I read. Common thoughts are about his movies and how they were hit or miss. No one I've read has yet mentioned his first movie. Well, at least what I think was his first movie.

It was "Wild in the Streets" made in the late 60s and was about a very near future America in which people over 30 were put in concentration camps and kept on acid. The new president was a rocker who got the youth vote, I think after the voting age was lowered considerable. The acting was so-so and yet the movie was very cool (though stupid) for its time and I still remember parts of it. Big holes in the plot of course, but hell I was in my teens, so the thought of sex, drugs and rock n' roll was very acceptable. Loved the music and bought the album, which has long since been lost.

Pryor played a black panther-type dude who was part of the presidential administration. Small part, but he was dangerously cool.

Update

Just got off my ass and looked up this movie on the internet. Yep, pretty much like I remembered this 1968 movie. Richard Pryor didn't get star billing, but he and Chris Jones made this a memorable, if dated, movie.

Michael Schiavo - An Update

According to above link from the Orlando Sentinel:
Michael Schiavo, who fought for years to remove his wife, Terri, from a feeding tube that kept her alive, has turned his anger about Congress's intervention into political action. Schiavo announced Wednesday that he has opened TerriPAC to strike back at politicians who tried to keep his brain-damaged wife alive through congressional legislation he termed a "sickening exercise in raw political power."

Oooh, I'm sure every politician targeted by him should be very scared. This is an empty boast from a liar. Truly a bottom story for the MSM.

Michael Schiavo-a self-centered piece of crap. I've had more than a few posts on him and his accomplices. A continuing embarrassment to Florida.

Sami Al-Arian Dodged a Bullet

Well, ol' Sami skated this time on the most important charges against him.

Two thoughts:
Sami is a lucky terrorist and one lucky bastard.

The jurors are stupid bastards.

My other thoughts on Sami are posted elsewhere.

Update
Florida Cracker notes questions on the intelligence of the jurors.

A Marion County Judge Looking for Judge Ito-like Fame

A local judge disagreed with the plea deal arranged for Debbie Lafave for her trial in Marion County. Another Florida county judge in the case involving this same teacher for the same offenses allowed a plea deal with no jail time. That was sensible.

I believe this Marion County judge just wants some fame. This is a national story and will make plenty of headlines.

I'm the type of chauvinist that thinks a female teacher 'mentoring' a 14 or 15 year old 'boy' is different from a male teacher doing the same for a female student. I only base this on my history as a former boy. The type of sentence that's possible would be justified if a male teacher raped a pre-teen boy or girl. The facts in this case do not warrant this.

But our god-like judges feel they-and only they-make the rules.

According to the Ocala Star-Banner story:
The mother of the boy who is the alleged victim of lewd and lascivious battery by former teacher Debra Lafave doesn't want the case to go to trial. The woman, in an e-mail to the Star-Banner on Saturday, said she disagreed with Circuit Judge Hale Stancil's decision Thursday to reject a plea agreement and set the case for trial.

Maybe common sense will prevail. But I doubt it. This involves the law...common sense has little to do with it.

A Shooting in Florida...Can a Lawsuit be Far Behind?

Well, we've heard how a nutjob threatened air passengers with a bomb. He was killed by air marshals, doing what they are supposed to do. This genius was a manic-depressive, sorry, he was a kind, gentle person with bi-polar disorder who of course was not taking his meds. And of course his traveling companion, his wife, was unable to make him take his meds.

And of course this man was a saint killed by racist marshals because the sweet man was a person of color.

So of course his wife will sue the government. It's inevitable.

And of course the next time an air marshall has only seconds to make a decision in the future, there will be the inevitable delay. So of course in the future more people will die.

The air marshals should be applauded. And Americans should be very sad...for the air marshals involved.

Update
Florida Cracker has some pithy comments on this subject.
So does Palmetto Pundit.

Florida Fools and Democrats (but I again digress)

The Florida Democrat Party convened in Orlando for a few days to discuss their glorious future. So of course they had Howard Dean and Osama Obama (kennedy-speak) come to tell them how they will attain it.

According the the Ocala Star-Banner story:

United in their hunger to win next year, Democrats sought the right blend of symbolism and style for the recipe as they met during their annual convention this weekend.The message: Democratic activists need to knock on doors and reconnect with voters they may have ignored in the past, seizing on those dismayed by post-Katrina failures, the war in Iraq and a steady drip of ethical problems among Republicans.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told more than 1,000 hard-core party members Friday night that they needed to interact more within their communities to show disaffected Republicans and independents that Democratic positions are mainstream.

How appropriate that their meeting site was the home of Disney World. Where better to greet your fantasies?

Mark Steyn on Democrats...or "Defeaticrats"

In his Sunday Chicago Sun-Times column, Mark Steyn again gets it right about Democrats. Some excerpts:

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, came out with a big statement on Iraq last week. Did you hear about it? Probably not. Everyone was still raving about his Democrat colleague, Rep. Jack Murtha, whose carefully nuanced position on Iraq is: We're all doomed unless we pull out by next Tuesday! (I quote from memory.)
*******************
It's just about acceptable in polite society to disagree with Murtha, but only if you do it after a big 20-minute tongue bath about what "a fine man" he is (as Rumsfeld said) or what "a good man" he is (as Cheney called him) or what "a fine man, a good man" he is (as Bush phrased it). Nobody says that about Lieberman, especially on his own side. And, while the media were eager to promote Murtha as the most incisively insightful military expert on the planet, this guy Lieberman's evidently some nobody no one need pay any attention to.

Here's why. His big piece on Iraq was headlined "Our Troops Must Stay."

And who wants to hear that? Not the media and certainly not Lieberman's colleagues in the Defeaticrat Party. It must be awful lonely being Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Party these days. Every time he switches on the news there's John Kerry sonorously droning out his latest pretzel of a position: *** And all during those same two years Kerry and his fellow Democrats have huffed that these dates are far too premature, the Iraqis aren't in a position to take over, hold an election, whatever. The Defeaticrats were against the benchmarks before they were for them.
**********************
These sad hollow men may yet get their way -- which is to say they may succeed in persuading the American people that a remarkable victory in the Middle East is in fact a humiliating defeat. It would be an incredible achievement. Peter Worthington, the Canadian columnist and veteran of World War II and Korea, likes to say that there's no such thing as an unpopular won war. The Democrat-media alliance are determined to make Iraq an exception to that rule.
***********************
So Bush has chosen to embark on a project every other great power of the last half-millennium has shrunk from: the transformation of the Middle East. You can argue the merits of that, but once it's underway it's preposterous to suggest we need to have it all wrapped up by Jan. 24. The Defeaticrats' loss of proportion is unworthy of a serious political party in the world's only superpower. In next week's election, the Iraqi people will shame them yet again.

Just Listening to the Radio

Finished my rantings below and now paying attention to the radio.

Just heard a song by the Allman Brothers. This reminded me of another favorite blog, Florida Cracker, who is fan of the band, or at least of the long departed Duane Allman. This led me to remember that I had one chance to see them in concert in Daytona Beach (1970 or 1971?) but didn't make it. Wish I had seen them while Duane was still alive.

Thank You "AntiMedia"!

A blog I always read is Media Lies, run by antimedia, which does in fact expose the media lies, whether lies by commission or omission.

He has been running very informative pieces for some time now on "Today's Iraq report" which includes so many things the MSM doesn't report. It's a must read for me and should be for everyone.

I know this must take a lot of his time, but I personally appreciate it.

Thanks!

(Also, antimedia gave me some advice and support when I began this blog. The only downside has been that the quality of his blog sometimes makes me dissatisfied with mine.)

Ben Stein on Democrats

Ben Stein published his usual excellent column (above link) in the American Spectator on 11/21 titled "As Thanksgiving Approaches."

Some excerpts with which I completely agree:

For Mr. Fitzgerald to have such poor judgment as to weaken and enervate the only government we have over a total triviality that will almost certainly turn out not to be a crime is an abuse of prosecutorial discretion on a dismaying scale. It would be different (but not much) in peacetime. But in wartime, it is so bad that it unnerves the mind.

I am sure that Mr. Fitzgerald, like all of us, wants to be a good citizen and wants to do his job. I am also certain that he likes being famous. That's human nature. But what he is doing (I am sure not in intent, but in effect) is a great service to Abu-Musad al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden, and a great disservice to his country and to the law. It is not too late for him to drop the charges, dignify himself and his office, and go back to prosecuting criminals. I cannot believe this man would, if he thought about it, want to spend one iota of his energy helping the enemies of this country, but in my humble opinion, that's just what he's doing. I may be wrong.

*******************

I see a frightening pattern here: the Democrats wanted us out of Vietnam, and never mind the genocide that followed. The Democrats want us out of Iraq and never mind that the Baathists will fill the vacuum and all Iraq will be screaming in pain except the murderers, who will exult -- especially Osama bin Laden. Can it be that the Democrats really want to surrender to the same man who killed 3,000 civilians on 9/11 and laughed about it? Are we so weak that in only four years, after a war smaller in casualties than many unknown battles of the Civil War, we are already eager to surrender to the man who murdered women and children and made terrified couples hold hands and leap to their deaths from the World Trade Center? If so, there really is little hope for us as a people.

About National Democrats and Traitors (but I digress)

Ann Coulter had another great column (above linked post from FrontPageMag.com) on 11/25. It was titled "New Idea for the Antiwar Party: Aid the Enemy" and of course it was about Democrats.

Even though I thought the Viet Nam was not being fought the way it should have been (and, no, I didn't volunteer to serve and, yes, I held onto my student deferment and my high lottery number), I always supported America and our troops (many of which were my cousins). I thought North Viet Nam should have been destroyed and South Viet Nam should be aided to destroy the Viet Cong. I never had any doubts about that.

I also never had any doubts about how many of the Viet Nam war protestors really wanted America to lose. I thought most of them were traitors. Many of the these were Democrats and many of them are now in congress. And all of them are still traitors.

Some Coulter excerpts:
Antiwar protests in the United States during the Vietnam War were a major source of moral support to the enemy. We know that not only from plain common sense, but from the statements of former North Vietnamese military leaders who evidently didn't get the memo telling them not to say so. In an Aug. 3, 1995, interview in the Wall Street Journal, Bui Tin, a former colonel in the North Vietnamese army, called the American peace movement "essential" to the North Vietnamese victory. "Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement," he said. "Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

These same type of America haters are now trying to destroy American morale and willpower and staying power in Iraq. Some of them are still well known: Kerry, Kennedy, Fonda, Clark. All are Democrats or strong Democrat supporters. All are traitors.

Concluding Coulter Excerpts: (my emphasis)
The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats' behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle. They fill the airwaves with treason, but when called to vote on withdrawing troops, disavow their own public statements. These people are not only traitors, they are gutless traitors.

No Truer Words

These words applied to so many Democrats in the 1860s, and also in the 1960s...and today.











Thanks to FrontPageMag.com.

About Senator Lieberman

Just caught the linked post at The Florida Masochist. He's reminding us that Senator Joe Lieberman sounds sincere and very patriotic while he's standing up for the security of this nation and the valor of our warriors. (See the Senator's article in WSJ Opinion Journal.)

But the Masochist also reminds us that this same senator, while running for Vice President in 2000, did everything he could to disenfranchise servicemen so he and Al Gore could win the Florida vote and therefore the presidency. Fortunately for our nation, this cheating didn't quite work, even with all the combined efforts of the Democrats and MSM. So we Floridians, if not all Americans, should remember that Lieberman was more than willing to throw out his scruples and integrity when power was on the line.

Well, I haven't forgotten. The Democrats hit a new low in the 2000 election, but they've gone even lower since then.

I also haven't forgotten how Lieberman quickly gave up his supposed core principles to become Gore's running mate. It was sickening how his stated opinions on abortion, the military, ethics, etc. were cast aside in order to get on the ticket. It was disgusting to see him use his supposed religiosity and ethical conduct to mask the stench of the Clinton/Gore administration. The final immorality was trying to get servicemen absentee ballots dismissed.

Over the past years, Lieberman returned to his supposed morale and ethical code. And I applaud his article and other public professions that differ from the rest of the Democrats. But I'll never forget Florida 2000 and the unethical tactics this 'moral' man was a part of solely for the chance at power. Even so, he is still among the few moral men left in ghe Democrat Party.

To Blog or Not to Blog? What was the question?

I've been on vacation and was enjoying myself. Decided to not blog even though so much has been going on. I'm sure I'll be back to it in a couple of days.

I mean, there's been all sorts of things going on in Florida and nationally that I don't know where I'd begin.

I will say that the pretty female Tampa teacher who had an "affair" with a male student cut a deal to avoid jail. Yeah, I know I'm sexist, but I support that.

Nationally, the Democrats remain a bunch of traitorous bastards, but more than a few Republicans are getting on their bandwagon. Scum, all of them.

And, yeah, I know you are a traitor if you commit treason. But you can still be a traitor even if you haven't committed the legal definition of treason. If you try to destroy the morale of America and her brave warriors, you are traitorous scum.

There, I feel better.