Archive for November, 2008
Why Reporters–and Judges and Professors– Are Biased
Excellent article!! He is so right that liberalism IS basically a religion that’s trying to displace Christianity, and the reason they are succeeding is because they are not calling it a religion.
Why Reporters — and Judges and Professors — Are Biased
by Dennis Prager
That the news media were biased in the 2008 presidential election is now acknowledged by fair-minded people, left or right.
As Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin said this weekend at a Politico/USC Conference on the 2008 election: “It’s the most disgusting failure of people in our business. … It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage.”
Given how obvious this bias is, the question is not whether liberals in the media tend to offer biased reporting. The question is why? Why can’t liberal news people report the news without any slant?
The answer is that for people on the left, all — I repeat, (set ital) all (end ital) — professions are a means to an end, not ends in themselves. That end is the social transformation of society, meaning the promoting of “social justice” as the left understands that term.
For most liberal news reporters, therefore, the purpose of news reporting is not to report news as objectively as possible. The purpose of the media in general and of reporting specifically is to promote social justice and the social transformation of society.
For most liberal judges, the primary purpose of being a judge is to promote social justice and transform society. That is why liberal judges are so much more likely to be judicial activists than conservative judges. Most liberal judges do not see their roles as merely adjudicating a dispute according to the law. They see their role primarily as using the law and their power to rule on the law to promote social justice.
For most university professors — and many high school teachers, as well — outside of the natural sciences and math, the same holds true. The task of a teacher is to teach, i.e., to convey the most important information as honestly as possible. But, again, this conflicts with the social justice goal of the left. History teachers who merely teach history are of little use to the left. History — and English and political science, and sociology and other liberal arts — teachers must use their classroom to produce young people who will wish to engage in society-transforming work for social justice.
For most liberals in the arts (there are very few conservatives in the arts) there is no denial of their having an agenda. They state quite candidly that the purpose of the arts is to challenge the (conservative) status quo, to raise political and social consciousness by advancing a “progressive” political and social agenda. The artist whose agenda is merely to produce beautiful art is looked upon as a reactionary buffoon, and is not likely to be taken seriously — no matter how talented — in the worlds of music, dance, painting, and sculpture.
Even the natural sciences are increasingly subject to being rendered a means to a “progressive” end. There was the pseudo-threat of heterosexual AIDS in America — science manipulated in order to de-stigmatize AIDS as primarily a gay man’s disease and to increase funding for AIDS research. There are the exaggerated secondhand smoke data popularized so as to decrease smoking and fight “Big Tobacco.” And now we have the scientifically questionable belief in man-made carbon emissions causing global warming leading to natural catastrophe – and recommended “solutions” many of which, if adopted, will serve the goal of undermining corporate capitalism.
The best analogy of the directing of all human endeavors toward a left-wing purpose would be those early medieval centuries of European life when just about everything man made was supposed to reflect a religious consciousness. Virtually nothing stood apart from the Church. The arts were religious, the sciences were handmaidens of theology, and schools were religious in nature.
Most moderns look upon that period as a dark age — perhaps a bit unfairly at times. But the people who most scorn what they deem the religious “Dark Ages” are trying to building a secular-left dark age in our time. Because the left is a religion, a substitute for the Christianity it seeks to displace.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Guilty Verdicts in Terror Case Deal Blow to CAIR
When will liberals realize that CAIR is not a benign group??
Guilty verdicts in terror case deal blow to CAIR
Founding director of U.S. Muslim lobby group could face 20 years in prison
Posted: November 25, 2008
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
In a major blow to the terror-support network in America, the nation’s largest Muslim charity and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinan terrorist group Hamas.
The 108-count verdict against the Holy Land Foundation also deals a blow to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror-fundraising scheme.
One of the guilty defendants in the federal case, Ghassan Elashi, was a founding director of Washington-based CAIR, the most powerful Muslim lobbyist group in the nation.
Elashi and the other defendants – Mohamed El-Mezain, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh – could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
For the first time, wiretap evidence heard in the Holy Land case put CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, at a Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders and activists that was secretly recorded by the FBI. Participants hatched a plot to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charitable giving.
“Government officials ought to study that evidence to realize CAIR is not what it presents itself as,” said Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Awad maintains CAIR is a “moderate” group that condemns terrorism.
But during the Philadelphia meeting, according to FBI transcripts, Awad was recorded discussing the propaganda effort. He mentions Ghassan Dahduli, whom he worked with at the time at the Islamic Association for Palestine, another Hamas front. Both were IAP officers.
Dahduli’s name also was listed in the address book of Osama bin Laden’s personal secretary, Wadi al-Hage, who is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in the U.S. embassy bombings. Dahduli, an ethnic-Palestinian like Awad, was deported to Jordan after 9/11 for refusing to cooperate in the terror investigation.
Awad’s and Dahduli’s phone numbers are listed in a Muslim Brotherhood document seized by federal investigators revealing “important phone numbers” for the “Palestine Section” of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. The court exhibit shows Hamas fugitive Mousa Abu Marzook listed on the same page with Awad.
U.S. prosecutors also named CAIR’s founder and chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case. Ahmad too was placed at the Philadelphia meeting, FBI special agent Lara Burns testified at the trial.
Prosecutors also designated him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee” in America. Ahmad, like his CAIR partner Awad, is ethnic Palestinian.
Though both Ahmad and Awad were senior leaders of IAP, the original Hamas front, neither of their biographical sketches posted on CAIR’s website mentions their IAP past.
Elashi, one of CAIR’s founding directors, was chairman of the Dallas-based Holy Land charity, which provided seed capital to CAIR. Elashi is related to Hamas leader Marzook.
Prosecutors argued, and a Dallas jury agreed, that Holy Land was the Hamas fundraising arm in America.
Hamas was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995, and the trial centered on the $12 million the government said Holy Land and supporters funneled to the group after that date.
The conspiracy, prosecutors argued, was overseen by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egypt-based jihadist group that authorities say is the parent organization of Hamas.
Prosecutors unveiled a secret Muslim Brotherhood memo outlining the group’s ambitions in America. The memo, written in Arabic, called for “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
Douglas Farah, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent who is now an author and terrorism expert, says the memo reveals the “true agenda” of Holy Land, CAIR and other major Muslim organizations in the U.S. – which is “the abolition of the United States government as we know it and support for a designated terrorist organization.”
He added that the trial exhibits validate what already was “a clear public record of why these groups were founded and how.”
CAIR co-founder Ahmad, along with CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper, are on record in media accounts expressing their desire to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state. Ahmad has said, according to a newspaper report, the Quran, not the U.S. Constitution, should be the highest authority in the land.
Defense attorneys argued that the Holy Land Foundation was a legitimate charity “guilty of nothing but feeding Palestinian children” under Israeli “occupation.” They accused the government of bending to Israeli pressure and of relying on evidence predating the 1995 terror designation.
“It’s a sad day,” said Mohammed Wafa Yaish, Holy Land’s former accountant and a defense witness. “It looks like helping the needy Palestinians is a crime these days.”
Defense attorneys declined to comment but are already discussing plans for appeals, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The jury, which took eight days to reach its decision, also said Holy Land should forfeit $12.4 million because of several money-laundering convictions in the case. Prosecutors said the government probably will end up with about $5 million in Holy Land money frozen by federal authorities in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.
The Justice Department streamlined its case after a mistrial last year. It also persuaded the judge to allow documents from the Palestinian Authority that were not in evidence in the first trial, which showed that the PA considered the Holy Land Foundation to be among international sources of Hamas funding. They also showed that certain Islamic charity committees that HLF sent funds to were indeed associated with Hamas.
“This is one of the most significant victories the Justice Department has won in the war on terror,” said Andrew McCarthy, a federal prosecutor who put away blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and other terrorists for plotting to blow up New York landmarks last decade.
“Financing is the lifeblood of jihadist organizations like Hamas,” he added.
“With the assistance of willing co-conspirators, they conceal their activities and use the Muslim obligation of charitable giving to mask support that is actually channeled to their murderous agenda.”
McCarthy said the verdicts reached by average citizens show that “Americans aren’t fooled and won’t tolerate it.”
Some Muslim groups fear the conviction of America’s largest charity on terror charges will have a chilling effect on Islamic giving, known as zakat.
CAIR on its website invokes the Muslim obligation of charitable giving in soliciting donations from Muslims.
“CAIR is zakat eligible,” it says.
The group also quotes an Islamic “scholar” decreeing, “Muslims should have no hesitation in giving part of their zakat to CAIR.”
CAIR’s Ahmad joined in discussions recorded in Philadelphia to disguise payments to terrorists as charitable giving. In one exchange, defendant Abu-Baker is heard telling Ahmad that “I swear by Allah that war is deception” and to “deceive your enemy.”
Adding to Abu-Baker’s point, Ahmad compared the deception needed to fool the infidels with the head fake in basketball.
“He makes a player believe that he is doing this while he does something else,” Ahmad said. “I agree with you. … Politics is a completion of war.”
Wiretaps also caught defendants celebrating Hamas terrorist attacks on civilians. Jurors watched a video of a skit in which one defendant plays a Hamas terrorist who kills an Israeli citizen after saying, “I am Hamas, O dear ones.”
The jury was also shown evidence that Holy Land Foundation bookkeepers hid Arab bank accounts from the IRS and tried to conceal records of payments made from the overseas accounts to Hamas zakat committees.
Prosecutors argued that the fraudulent bookkeeping showed that the charity’s officials knew they were doing something criminal and tried to cover it up.
LINK: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81968
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Kindergarten Pilgrim, Indian Costumes Banned
Oh please!!! Things are getting more ridiculous all the time!!! Kids can’t even have a play depicting history??? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???
Kindergarten Pilgrim, Indian costumes banned
District cancels Thanksgiving tradition after parent calls paper outfits ‘racist’
Posted: November 25, 2008
By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Following protests from offended parents, district officials have told kindergarteners from two schools that they cannot wear construction-paper Pilgrim and Native American costumes to their Thanksgiving festivities.
Over the past four decades, children at the Condit and Mountain View elementary schools in Claremont, Calif., have alternated visiting each other to share a Thanksgiving feast and play day. The visitors dresses as Native Americans, the host class as Pilgrims.
After a letter from an angered parent and a heated school board meeting, however, the costumes are no longer allowed.
“It’s demeaning,” Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter’s teacher. “I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history.”
Raheja, an English professor who specializes in Native American literature and whose mother is a Seneca, says kindergartners wearing fringed, brown vests and feathers constitutes “dressing up as a racist stereotype.”
Other parents in Claremont, however, are outraged, contending adults should not use kindergarteners to make political statements.
“I was really upset with what is going on with the Thanksgiving feast,” said Rose Ruth, a Mountain View grandparent, as reported by the Claremont Courier. “I am part Native American, and I am not offended because the children are dressing up. What offends me is that one percent can come in and dictate to the rest of us what we can do and what we cannot do.
“And now the kindergarten costumes that they made now have to go home, and they can’t wear them,” said Ruth. “This is about the children, and they’re only 5 years old. They’re not adults; they’re not trying to do anything wrong.”
Kathleen Lucas, a Condit parent of Choctaw heritage, told the Los Angeles Times her son – now a first-grader – still wears the vest and feathered headband he made for last year’s Thanksgiving.
“My son was so proud,” she said. “In his eyes, he thinks that’s what it looks like to be Indian.”
Why not take a minute right now and check out the very special items showcased in WND’s “Thanksgiving Department.”
At a heated meeting last week of the Claremont Unified School District board, however, the parents objecting to the costumes succeeded in making their case.
“I found it to be surprising that in 2008 that we still would ask children to dress up in racist stereotypes,” said Raheja. “There are no other holidays in the school system where we are required to dress up as an ethnic or racial group. It’s a cartoonish image and I think they can come up with alternatives to this dress-up while at the same time retaining the beautiful and meaningful spirit of the event.”
Despite a vocal crowd in favor of the traditional costumes, the school board opted to ban the costumes from this year’s joint Thanksgiving celebration.
The issue, however, may not be resolved. The Times reports some parents plan to send their children to school in costume anyway, doubting that administrators will force the children to take them off.
“She’s not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear,” Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View, told the Times. “We’re tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It’s not right.”
Parent Stephanie Wilbur, a supporter of the costumes who said she was of Yaki descent and noted that her grandmother wore feathers, told the school board compromise might be possible but that the children who made their costumes for this year should not be disappointed by a sudden reversal of policy.
“I think the approach of this year with the cancellation and alteration was not done correctly,” Wilbur said. “I think [the feast] should be followed through for this year. Next year, we should go back to the round table and sit with all the kindergarten teachers and then we can find something in between.”
LINK: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81966
American Troops in Afghanistan Through the Eyes of a French Infrantryman
This is great!! We know what great guys we have fighting in our military, but it’s nice to hear it from a French infantryman.
American troops in Afghanistan through the eyes of a French OMLT infantryman
The US often hears echoes of worldwide hostility against the application of its foreign policy, but seldom are they reached by the voices of those who experience first hand how close we are to the USA. In spite of contextual political differences and conflicting interests that generate friction, we do share the same fundamental values – and when push comes to shove that is what really counts. Through the eyes of that French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman you can see how strong the bond is on the ground. In contrast with the Americans, the French soldiers don’t seem to write much online – or maybe the proportion is the same but we just have less people deployed. Whatever the reason, this is a rare and moving testimony which is why I decided to translate it into English, so that American people can catch a glimpse of the way European soldiers see them. Not much high philosophy here, just the first hand impressions of a soldier in contact – but that only makes it more authentic.
Here is my translation :
“We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while – they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army – one that the movies brought to the public as series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”. Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.
They have a terribly strong American accent – from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.
Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine – they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them – we are wimps, even the strongest of us – and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.
Here we discover America as it is often depicted : their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity lack of privacy and the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland – everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner. Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.
And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark – only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered – everything happens in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all – always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the ennemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later – which cuts any pussyfooting short.
We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is – from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.
To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers”.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Outnumbered Nearly 10:1, Marines Make ‘Em Pay
HERO ALERT! HERO ALERT! Now, THESE are real men and I’m so proud of what they do for us!!! They do what they have to while others cower in their beds back here at home and have the audacity to criticize them. Go get ’em marines!! We love you!
Outnumbered Nearly 10:1, Marines Make ‘Em Pay
by Bill Dupray
Looks like 250 terrorists picked the wrong day to screw with 30 U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. Frankly, is there ever a good day to screw with the Marines?
In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it. . . .
“The day started out with a 10-kilometer patrol with elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to Shewan, we were pretty beat,” said a designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified. “Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our ‘humvees’ was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast.”
The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.
“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”
And of all mistakes the terrorists made that day, the worst one was picking the patrol with this guy in it.
“During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.
“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”
The most amazing thing about the battle: Not a single Marine was seriously hurt.
Hoo-rah!
LINK: http://patriotroom.com/outnumbered-nearly-101-marines-make-em-pay/
Halperin at Politico/USC Conf: ‘Extreme Pro-Obama’ Press Bias
Well, duh! Once again, too little too late
Halperin at Politico/USC conf.: ‘extreme pro-Obama’ press bias
Alexander Burns
November 23, 2008
Politico
Excerpt
Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin said Friday at the Politico/USC conference on the 2008 election.
“It’s the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war,” Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. “It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage.”
Halperin, who maintains Time’s political site “The Page,” cited two New York Times articles as examples of the divergent coverage of the two candidates.
“The example that I use, at the end of the campaign, was the two profiles that The New York Times ran of the potential first ladies,” Halperin said. “The story about Cindy McCain was vicious. It looked for every negative thing they could find about her and it case her in an extraordinarily negative light. It didn’t talk about her work, for instance, as a mother for her children, and they cherry-picked every negative thing that’s ever been written about her.”
The story about Michelle Obama, by contrast, was “like a front-page endorsement of what a great person Michelle Obama is,” according to Halperin.
Snip
The biggest bias in the press is towards effectiveness,” said Heilemann, who is authoring a book on the 2008 race along with Halperin.
“We love things that are smart.”
Because Obama’s campaign was generally so well run, he argued, the press tended to applaud even his negative tactics.
“We’ll scold you for being negative,” Heilemann said, “but if it seems to be working, the tone of your coverage becomes more positive.”
Another of Halperin’s fellow participants, Los Angeles Times writer Mark Barabak, disagreed more strongly with the Time writer’s comments. Still, Halperin’s general point met with little resistance
“I think it’s incumbent upon people in our business to make sure that we’re being fair,” he said. “The daily output was the most disparate of any campaign I’ve ever covered, by far.”
Link http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=C5D8C5D4-18FE-70B2-A8220008CD2D5EA4
Interesting Look at Taxation
Friends of mine sent this to me and I think it is a GREAT way to explain taxation to folks. I LOVE it!
Interesting look at taxation
Taxation explained in terms we can all understand….
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.”
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But, if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 ( 25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “But he got $10!”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I did!”
“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
School says: If You Want to Say the Pledge of Allegiance, You’ll Have to Leave the Room
This is outrageous!! I cannot believe what is happening to this country. Now the patriotic kids have to leave the room if they want to recite the pledge??? We are gradually losing this country, and thanks to the biased MSM we conservatives have a hard time even getting the message out. I’ll try to find the email address of the school/principle so that we can let them know what we think of this anti-American policy!
If You Want To Say The Pledge of Allegiance, You’ll Have to Leave the Room
patriotroom.com
Bill Dupray
November 19, 2008
This is a great catch by New Conservative. It seems that the Commies in Vermont don’t want to embarrass kids who don’t want to say the Pledge, so they make the ones who do, leave the room.
This story sounds like how American kids would have to conduct themselves in a foreign country. If you were attending a school in Spain and wanted to pledge allegiance to the United States, they would probably have you step out of the room to do it, so as not to offend your host, the citizens of Spain. In this case, it is Americans in Vermont who are offended by American children reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance.
But we can’t question their patriotism.
From the Burlington Free Press.
No one’s for sure when daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance fell by the wayside at Woodbury Elementary School.
But efforts to restore them have erupted into a bitter dispute in this tiny town, with school officials blocking the exercise from classrooms amid concerns that it holds nonparticipating children up to scorn.
So the compromise – The school will allow the Pledge, but the kids who want to recite it must leave the room. The twisted, backwards logic in play here, from the mouths of educators, is breathtaking.
The brouhaha in the school began in September, when parent Ted Tedesco began circulating petitions calling for its return as a daily practice in the 19th-century schoolhouse, which has 55 children in grades kindergarten through six.
School officials agreed to resume the Pledge as a daily exercise, but not in the classroom.
“We don’t want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they’re different,” Principal Michaela Martin said.
Instead, starting last week, a sixth-grade student was assigned to go around to the four classrooms before classes started, gathering up anyone who wanted to say it and then walking them up creaky wooden steps to a second-floor gymnasium, where he led them in the Pledge. . . .
Martin and School Board Chairwoman Retta Dunlap defended the practice, saying it restored the Pledge to the school as requested, preserved the rights of students who – for political or religious reasons – didn’t want to participate and gave others the opportunity to pledge their allegiance. . . .
In an interview, Martin said the point of having the whole school gather for the Pledge was to protect children who don’t participate in it.
First of all, is Vermont such a universal mecca of religious and cultural variety that there are a lot of people who are offended by the Pledge? I guess we could assume that those who have no allegiance to the United States might be offended. But in that case, why would we care what they think?
Or we could just just call this what it is: a cover story for a bunch of white, America-hating lefties.
The sad part is that these people are teaching our children.
LINK: http://patriotroom.com/if-you-want-to-say-the-pledge-of-allegiance-youll-have-to-leave-the-room/
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Insane Rage of the Same-Sex Marriage Mob (and other Liberals)
This is true not only concerning the same-sex marriage issue, but about most liberal issues. When they lose they are RABID and hateful and act like spoiled children, but when we lose we take our loss like grown-ups. After Obama won, conservatives didn’t take to the streets and riot, we accepted it graciously and started planning our strategy. At this point the reality is that we probably should be more aggressive. As was stated in an earlier post (the Red Dawn post), we need to start using their own strategies against them and learn how to fight better if we want to win against such an underhanded enemy. But for now they need to look at how ridiculous they act when they lose and at how much hatred they spew.
The Insane Rage of the Same-Sex Marriage Mob
by Michelle Malkin
Before Election Day, national media handwringers forged a wildly popular narrative: The right was, in the words of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, gripped by “insane rage.” Outbreaks of incivility (some real, but mostly imagined) were proof positive of the extremist takeover of the Republican Party. The cluck-cluckers and tut-tutters shook with fear.
But when the GOP took a beating on Nov. 4, no mass protests ensued; no nationwide boycotts erupted. Conservatives took their lumps and began the peaceful post-defeat process of self-flagellation, self-analysis and self-autopsy.
In fact, in the wake of campaign 2008 there’s only one angry mob gripped by “insane rage”: left-wing same-sex marriage activists incensed at their defeat in California. Voters there approved Proposition 8, a traditional marriage initiative, by 52 percent to 48 percent.
Instead of introspection and self-criticism, however, the sore losers who opposed Prop. 8 responded with threats, fists and blacklists.
That’s right. Activists have published on the Internet an “Anti-Gay Blacklist” of Prop. 8 donors. If the tables were turned and Prop. 8 proponents created such an enemies list, everyone in Hollywood would be screaming “McCarthyism” faster than you could count to eight.
A Los Angeles restaurant whose manager made a small donation to the Prop. 8 campaign has been besieged nightly by hordes of protesters who have disrupted business, intimidated patrons and brought employees to tears. Out of fear for their jobs and their lives, workers at El Coyote Mexican Cafe pooled together $500 to pay off the bullies.
Scott Eckern, the beleaguered artistic director of California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, was forced to resign over his $1,000 donation to the Prop. 8 campaign. Rich Raddon, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, is next on the chopping block after the anti-Prop. 8 mob discovered that he had also contributed to the “Yes on 8” campaign. Calls have been pouring in for his firing.
Over the last two weeks, anti-Prop. 8 organizers have targeted Mormon, Catholic and evangelical churches. Sentiments like this one, found on the anti-Prop.8 website “JoeMyGod,” are common across the left-wing blogosphere: “Burn their f—ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers.”
Thousands of gay-rights demonstrators stood in front of the Mormon temple in Los Angeles shouting “Mormon scum.” The Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City received threatening letters containing an unidentified powder. Religion-bashing protesters filled with hate decried the “hate” at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif. Vandals defaced the Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, Calif., because church members had collected Prop. 8 petitions. One worshiper’s car was keyed with the slogans “Gay sex is love” and “SEX.” Another car’s antenna and windshield wipers were broken.
In Carlsbad, Calif., a man was charged with punching his elderly neighbors over their pro-Prop. 8 signs. In Palm Springs, Calif., a videographer filmed unhinged anti-Prop. 8 marchers who yanked a large cross from the hands of 69-year-old Phyllis Burgess and stomped on it.
In San Francisco, Christians evangelizing in the Castro District needed police protection after the same-sex marriage mob got physical and hounded them off the streets. Enthusiastically shooting themselves in the foot, anti-Prop. 8 boycotters are now going after the left-wing Sundance Film Festival because it does business in Mormon-friendly Utah.
Also targeted: Cinemark Theaters across the country. The company’s CEO, Alan Stock, donated just under $10,000 to the traditional marriage measure. Never mind that Cinemark theaters are hosting the new biopic about gay icon Harvey Milk. They must pay for the sins of the company head who dared to exercise his political free speech.
Corporate honchos, church leaders and small donors alike are in the same-sex marriage mob’s crosshairs, all unfairly demonized as hate-filled bigots by bona fide hate-filled bigots who have abandoned decency in pursuit of “equal rights.” One wonders where Barack Obama — himself an opponent of Proposition 8 — is as this insane rage rages on. Soul-Fixer, Nation-Healer, where art thou?
LINK: http://townhall.com/Columnists/MichelleMalkin/2008/11/19/the_insane_rage_of_the_same-sex_marriage_mob
Sparks Fly as ‘Gay’ Activist Mob Swarms Christians
Another example of the hypocrisy of the gays. They want us to show tolerance for them, but they show no tolerance for our religious beliefs.
Sparks fly as ‘gay’ activist mob swarms Christians
Residents of homosexual district: ‘We’re going to kill you. We know who you are’
Posted: November 17, 2008
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Hundreds of homosexual activists rushed out of bars and swarmed a group of Christians who were singing songs in San Francisco’s Castro District – and some even threatened to kill the worshippers.
A group of Christians had been singing and praying in the “gay” district for several days, but they never expected an angry mob would run them out. However, that’s what happened Friday night.
One woman who was attacked told her story at Pastor Lou Engle’s Justice House of Prayer in San Francisco. She said the group’s fellowship had been peaceful for several nights before the riot.
“People would come stand with us and join us,” she said. “We got to pray for some people.”
But then angry men began yelling profanities and warning the Christians to leave the district.
One asked, “Why are you here?”
The leader of the group said, “We’re here to worship God, and we’re here because we love you.”
A group of men approached the Christians and covered them with a large cloth, backing them into a corner. Then the angry mob began swearing and growing larger. The bars began emptying out, and a crowd completely surrounded the Christians.
The worship group began singing “Amazing Grace,” while an estimated 500 “gay” advocates sang, “We Shall Overcome.”
The woman said she and her friend were doused with hot coffee. One man took a Bible from her friend, hit her on the head with it, pushed her to the ground and began kicking her. People began lunging at the Christian group, blowing whistles in their ears.
“They started saying, ‘We’re going to kill you,'” she said. “They started taking our pictures and saying, ‘We’re going to kill you. We know who you are.”
Then she said a man jumped through the crowd and pushed her forehead.
Just then, a squad of police officers arrived in riot gear, surrounding the Christians and forming a protective human wall.
She said the police told them, “You have to leave if you want to make it out.”
When the group continued praying, an officer came back and said, “You don’t have a choice anymore. We’re going to escort you out.”
The officers then took the Christians to their cars. The angry mob began lunging at them through the riot gear and chanting “Shame on you!”
Some yelled, “We are going to follow you all the way home!” Others called the Christians “hypocrites.”
One man screamed into a camera, “We don’t ever want them coming back. Do you understand that, other Christians? Do you understand that, other Mormons? I’m talking to you, people. Yeah, you. Stay out of our neighborhood if you don’t like us. Leave us alone!”
Learn about the intimidating tactics and brilliant marketing techniques being used by “gay rights” activists – read David Kupelian’s controversial blockbuster, “The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom.”
The woman said her group had merely organized a peaceful fellowship and wasn’t there to condemn homosexuals.
“We hadn’t preached,” she said. “We hadn’t evangelized. We worshipped God in peace, and we were about to die for it.”
“Their rights were respected,” Joe Schmitz, an opponent of Prop. 8, told San Francisco’s KTVU Channel 2. “They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk, and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech, which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood.”
The following day, approximately 20,000 people marched in San Francisco to protest passage of California’s Proposition 8 protecting traditional marriage. Several thousand people conducted other protests around the nation in cities such as Manhattan, Chicago and Los Angeles. According to reports, many protesters feeling emboldened by the recent election chanted, “Yes we can!” – a slogan popularized by the Barack Obama campaign.
LINK: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81310
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