Smoking for Health Care...

C'mon... it's for the kids!


(h/t Bryan)

Leonardo DiCaprio: We need to get scare kids young...

Senator Inhofe takes the hollywood scare-mongers down hard. He's leading the charge against the global warming fear machine in the Senate. I have to say, I love him... in a narrow stance, manly kind of way of course:


Check out Senator Inhofe's YouTube channel for more.

Here's more from Inhofe (on Glenn Beck's show) discussing our need for more nuclear energy:

And here's Noel Sheppard with some news on who is funding the hysteria:

[A]s this global warming debate continues, and media regularly question the funding of virtually every individual and organization refuting the supposed consensus regarding the science involved, shouldn't the same scrutiny be applied to those advancing the hysteria?

Or, would that be too much like journalism?

That's a lot to ask, Noel.

Rudy Giuliani, and the ebbing of conservatism... (updated)

Pat Buchanan discusses the eroding soul of the conservative movement in his latest:

Sixty years ago, Robert A. Taft was the gold standard. Forty years ago, it was Barry Goldwater, who backed Bob Taft against Ike at the 1952 convention. Twenty years ago, it was Ronald Reagan, who backed Barry in 1964. Reagan remains the paragon – for the consistency of his convictions, the success of his presidency and the character he exhibited to the end of his life. About Reagan the cliché was true: The greatness of the office found out the greatness in the man.

Reagan defined conservatism for his time. And the issues upon which we agreed were anti-communism, a national defense second to none, lower tax rates to unleash the engines of economic progress, fiscal responsibility, a strict-constructionist Supreme Court, law and order, the right-to-life from conception on and a resolute defense of family values under assault from the cultural revolution that hit America with hurricane force in the 1960s.

With the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the breakup of the Soviet Union, anti-communism as the defining and unifying issue of the right was gone. The conservative crack-up commenced.

...

Gravitating now to Rudy's camp are those inveterate opportunists, the neocons, who see in Giuliani their last hope of redemption for their cakewalk war and their best hope for a "Long War" against "Islamo-fascism."

I will, Rudy promises, nominate Scalias. Only one more may be needed to overturn Roe. And I will keep Hillary out of the White House.

A Giuliani presidency would represent the return and final triumph of the Republicanism that conservatives went into politics to purge from power. A Giuliani presidency would represent repudiation by the party of the moral, social and cultural content that, with anti-communism, once separated it from liberal Democrats and defined it as an institution.

Rudy offers the right the ultimate Faustian bargain: retention of power at the price of one's soul.

Do you agree? I'm with Duncan Hunter in the primaries. We'll see from there. It'll likely be back to the same question that faced conservatives back in 2006... do you vote the lesser of two evils to defeat liberal socialism, or do you stand on conservative principle and either not vote (as many conservatives did in 2006) or vote for someone you know can't win to try and send a message to the failing GOP even though it will hurt big time in the short term?

Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters
sing "You Belong to Me" in The Jerk... just because:

And the following scene is worth watching too...

Bill Murchison discusses the Fall of the Religious Right?:

I don't see glee oozing from between every comma in David Kirkpatrick's New York Times magazine article this past weekend on the "evangelical crackup." He's a good reporter, whose coverage of conservatives I regard as generally well balanced. On the other hand, it isn't hard to visualize street dancing and fireworks displays outside Clinton headquarters. Kirkpatrick's focus is on the glug-glug sound as evangelical enthusiasm for conservatives and Republicans drains from the tub.

No one can predict, for certain, the speed or volume of the drainage. It suffices momentarily to note the potential effects of this once-unlooked-for phenomenon. Didn't Republicans used to own the religious right? They sure did.

...

The evangelical miscalculation, in my judgment, wasn't getting into politics. It was expecting that the practitioners of politics -- yea, from George W. Bush on down -- had the power to scourge the devil from his fortification in the human heart. For the harder task of cultural transformation and the spreading of Truth many evangelicals have shown scant appetite. They'd rather sign petitions and pass out campaign literature.

Sorry. The Good Book contradicts that notion. Hearken, brethren, to Psalm 146: "O put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man; for there is no help in them. Blessed is the God of Jacob for his help; and whose hope is in the Lord his God."

The South Rising...

Ed Lasky writes a great article today over at the American Thinker:

For generations, American elites from the North have treated the South as a benighted land of knaves, fools, and charlatans, a proper subject of scorn and satire and certainly not a region to be admired or emulated. They are comically wrong.

The South has long risen from the ashes of the Civil War, and by many measures it the most admirable region of our nation. It may well be on the verge of becoming America's dominant region, eclipsing the Eastern Seaboard that has reigned from our nation's birth, and sprinting past the ambitions of the West Coast challenge, as the reference point for where America is going and as the heart of American culture. ...

Read it all, y'all.

Update: Right on queue... a story blaming white southerners who voted Republican. Don't be too shocked that it came from a NY Times columnist either.

The United Nations... working its way towards irrelevance

Dr. Nile Gardiner leads off with a great piece titled Happy UNday?:

As overpaid and under worked United Nations bureaucrats quaff champagne and feast on canapés and shrimp in Turtle Bay to celebrate U.N. Day, it is important for the world to remember those who have been failed by the organization, or have suffered at its hands.

They include: the one million Tutsis slaughtered by Hutus in the Rwanda genocide of 1994 while U.N. peacekeepers looked on; the 10,000 Bosnian Muslims massacred at Srebrenica by the Serbs while under the protection of Dutch troops in a U.N. “safe haven”; the more than 200,000 villagers in Darfur killed by Sudanese-backed Janjaweed militias while the United Nations debated whether or not it was an act of genocide, and the regime in Khartoum sat on the U.N.’s Commission on Human Rights; the millions of Iraqis who suffered under the brutal boot of the Baathist regime while Saddam Hussein plundered the U.N.’s Oil-for-Food Program; the millions of inhabitants of Zimbabwe and Burma who continue to suffer at the hands of brutal tyrannical regimes while the U.N. turns a blind eye; the hundreds of refugees raped by U.N. peacekeepers in both the Congo and southern Sudan.

The U.N.'s failures, from its inability (and unwillingness) to stop ethnic cleansing in Africa and the Balkans to wide-spread abuses by U.N. peacekeepers across the world are legion. Inaction, incompetence, and even abject inhumanity have all too often been the hallmarks of U.N. operations, which have frequently demonstrated a callous indifference to human suffering.

...

Founded in 1945 with lofty ambitions to advance peace, prosperity, and security in the world, the United Nations can point to few significant achievements. Its two supposed finest hours - the defense of South Korea in the Korean War and the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq - were both American-led operations that frankly would have taken place even if the United Nations did not exist.

Without the presence of the world's greatest power, the U.N. would be an impotent body, lacking in legitimacy, and financially crippled.

The United States has been the United Nations' biggest contributor since its founding, giving over $5.3 billion annually to the world body. The U.S. provides 22 percent of the U.N.'s regular annual operating budget - more than the combined contributions of France, Germany, China, Canada, and Russia.

The U.S. contributes 41.5 percent ($1.12 billion) of the World Food Program budget, 24 percent of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees budget, and 9.4 percent of the UNICEF budget. The United States is the world's biggest contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations, funding 27 percent of the total worldwide U.N. peacekeeping budget ($870 million a year). Between 2001 and 2005, the United States gave $3.59 billion toward U.N. international peacekeeping operations.

The United States will have to bypass the U.N. where it is seen to be obstructing U.S. interests or incapable of action. The US will have towork more aggressively through organizations such as NATO, and lead coalitions of the willing in order to deal with specific threats to international security, as well as humanitarian crises. At the same time, America, together with close allies, should build more bodies outside of the U.N. system to handle global issues. The United States should for example seek the creation of a new human rights body outside of the U.N. that would be composed solely of democratic states that adhere to the basic principles of individual liberty and freedom.

The United Nations should have to compete in a global marketplace of international institutions. The U.N.’s privileged position as the dominant world body in areas such as human rights, humanitarian relief, and international development must be increasingly challenged, both by other multilateral organizations or by ad hoc coalitions.

Whether the U.N. goes the way of its predecessor, the League of Nations, and sinks into the abyss of history as a huge failure depends upon its willingness to be reformed as well as its ability to confront the challenges of today, whether it be the threat of global terrorism, the aggressive actions of a dictatorial regime, or the mass slaughter of one ethnic group by another. Terrorism, tyranny, and genocide remain the three great evils of our time, and the U.N. will be judged by how it responds to them. If the United Nations is not up to the task, then it will soon be time to take a bow and give way to a successor.

Now, let's hear from The Honorable John Bolton who asks the question Does the United Nations Advance the Cause of Freedom?:

The answer is, in my view, minimally or occasionally or—perhaps, more precisely—accidentally, at times. You could come at this question in a lot of different ways. Let's come at it empirically, because there is a lot of ground to cover, and necessarily there will be a lot of things I won't be able to get to. But the sheer magnitude of the substantive areas that the U.N. tries to deal with in a way is a revealing insight into its inadequacies, because there are so many things that it does poorly. One could say that if it were structured effectively, it would just try to do a few things and at least try to do them well. But it doesn't, and that is part of its basic problem.

Finally, let's go to our old buddy Mac Johnson who, while on the case of President Bush giving $500M to Mexican police, also takes him to task on the U.N.:

President Bush this week asked Congress to approve a supplemental spending bill for $42.3 billion. The bill is intended to fund U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, in a remarkable expansion of the meaning of the words “U.S. military”, “Afghanistan” and “Iraq” the bill also includes $724 million to fund U.N. Peacekeeping operations in Darfur and $500 million for Mexican police to fight Mexican drug dealers.

...

Sending the U.N. $724 million for a peacekeeping force that has not kept the peace is just silly. Actually, sending the U.N. anything is just silly. So if our goal is to stop Islamists from slaughtering Christian and Pagan civilians in Darfur, let’s use that money to buy three million decent rifles and pass them out to every Christian and Pagan in Darfur. Then the U.N. Nothingdoing force can go home and do nothing and the next time the Janjaweed Islamist militia cavalry comes by for some peaceful slaughter of infidels, the poor little Darfuris can bust a cap in somebody’s ass and/or camel - or even their horse. (The Janjaweed are a diverse group when it comes to transport.)

For a fantastic site covering the UN, check out Anne Bayefsky's Eye on the UN. You may also want to stop by Fred's Reject the UN blog.

You'll find all of my previous posts on the UN at the link below.

Pat Buchanan on Global Warming...

I agree with Pat, and he's a slightly better writer than I am. He's also a global warming disbeliever:

Like the panics of bygone eras, this one has the aspect of yet another re-enactment of the Big Con. The huckster arrives in town, tells all the rubes that disaster impends for them and their families, but says there may be one last chance they can be saved – but it will take a lot of money. And the folks should go about collecting it, right now.

This, it seems to me, is what the global-warming scare and scam are all about – frightening Americans into transferring sovereignty, power and wealth to a global political elite that claims it alone understands the crisis and it alone can save us from impending disaster.

...

While modest warming has taken place, there is no conclusive evidence human beings are responsible, no conclusive evidence Earth's temperature is rising dangerously or will reach intolerable levels and no conclusive evidence that warming will do more harm than good.

The glaciers may be receding, but the polar bear population is growing, alarmingly in some Canadian Indian villages. Though more people on our planet of 6 billion may die of heat, estimates are that many more may be spared death from the cold. The Arctic ice cap may be shrinking, but that may mean year-round passage through northern Canadian waters from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the immense resources of the Arctic made more accessible to man. Why else did Vladimir Putin's boys make their dash to claim the pole?

The mammoth government we have today is a result of politicians rushing to solve "crises" by creating and empowering new federal agencies.

Whether it's hunger, poverty or homelessness, in the end, the poor are always with us, but now we have something else always with us: scores of thousands of federal bureaucrats and armies of academics to study the problem and assess the progress, with all their pay and benefits provided by our tax dollars.

Cal Coolidge said that when you see 10 troubles coming up the road toward you, sometimes the best thing to do is nothing, because nine of them will fall into the ditch before they get to you. And so it will be with global warming, if we don't sell out America to the hucksters who would save us.

Spot on Pat. Thanks.

Yon: The bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening...

Michael Yon is doing important stuff that is deserving of your word of mouth support.

Read his latest titled Resistance is futile: You will be (mis)informed and please consider passing it along to a friend(s).

Here's his message about this latest dispatch:

Greetings:

It is clear that Iraq is turning a corner. Not only are Sunni and Shia talking here in Baghdad, but the fighting definitely is abating. I'll be out in Sunni and Shia neighborhoods all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Petraeus' ideas are starting to work.

I've been watching for days as LTC Patrick Frank pulls neighborhoods together here in the Rashid district of Baghdad. We've been swamped going to reconciliation meetings. ( Spent hours in meetings today. ) LTC Frank is one of many battalion commanders I have seen who are winning in their zones. A Washington Post writer was here for several days and his observations were similar.
Again, I suggest to media to get in touch with Infantry battalion commanders around Iraq. They are the sweet-spot on the ups and downs in Iraq.

I am working with the National Newspaper Association to get the increasingly good news about Iraq to a wider audience. This is described in the latest dispatch, Resistance is Futile. With reader support, this effort can get current news from the ground in Iraq in to 2700 daily and weekly newspapers in the US.

Michael
Baghdad

Michael also needs support to get his stories out into the MSM. Click here to donate via PayPal.

Click here to support through is website or online store.

AllahPundit goes into more detail here.

Dem’d if you do and Dem’d if you don’t...

Mac Johnson: The Anti-War Game Plan: I Win or You Cheated:

Anyone who’s ever played a game with a small child should recognize the Democrat Party’s strategy on politicizing the War on Terror. When things go poorly for their opponent, they yell “You Lose!” Whereas when things go well for their opponent, they yell “No Fair! You Cheated!”

Unfortunately for America, the Dems consider their real “opponent” to be any American who wants to win the War, rather than, say, Al Qaeda and other Islamist murder cults.

Regardless of who it is used against though, the “if you’re not losing you must be cheating” strategy is foolproof and works for any occasion. ...

Read it all.

John Stossel on Global Warming...

Sorry Al & friends, the debate is not over:


Update: Noel Sheppard follows up on Stossel's subsequent column that says ‘Don’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet’.

Babies aborted for minor disabilities..

From the TimesOnline in the UK:

MORE than 50 babies with club feet were aborted in just one area of England in a three-year period, according to new statistics.

Thirty-seven babies with cleft lips or palates and 26 with extra or webbed fingers or toes were also aborted.

The data have raised concerns about abortions being carried out for minor disabilities that could be cured by surgery.

...

In 2003 Joanna Jepson, a Church of England curate, instigated a legal challenge against West Mercia police for failing to prosecute doctors who carried out an abortion on a baby with a cleft palate at 28 weeks’ gestation. The challenge failed but raised public concerns over terminations for minor disabilities.

However, the latest figures — released by the South West Congenital Anomaly Register — show that dozens of abortions are still carried out after the condition is discovered.

Jepson, now vicar of St Peter’s church in Fulham, west London, said: “These figures raise grave questions about how the law is being implemented for babies diagnosed with a disability. I have strong doubts that the law is being used to protect the unborn.”

Also, the Archbishop of Canterbury urges re-think on abortion:

... There were nearly 200,000 abortions in England and Wales in 2005, according to the Department of Health, and a recent survey by the medical journal Lancet reported that one-third of pregnancies in Europe ends in abortion.

There have been calls in Britain for the upper time limit on abortions to be shortened from 24 weeks to 21 weeks but a recent parliamentary bill on the matter was defeated.

The archbishop made no direct call for legislation to be tightened, but he pointed out the paradox he saw between those who campaign for greater "foetal rights", condemning women who smoke during pregnancy, but fail to speak out about abortion.

Abortion is a far less politicised issue in Britain than in the United States. However, several bills have been introduced in parliament in recent months by legislators looking to tighten restrictions and prompt women to think harder about the issue.

Good.

Greyhawk: We've won the war in Iraq

On victory. (great photos!)

Celebrating thuggery

From Gateway Pundit:

This photo shows Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones of The ‘Jena 6′ having a cool time at the 2007 BET Awards that aired this week on BET. This photo also shows the real victim Justin Barker in the hospital after he was beaten unconscious on Dec. 4, 2006 in Jena, LA by six black students. Barker, who was cold-cocked unconscious, was treated and later released from the hospital. The photo was released by the LaSalle Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Here's the video.

Noel Sheppard has more.

Anatomy of a smear, and the MSM template it fits...

Of course, the New York Times. Read Good Lt. over at The Jawa Report. You can click through the link on his post to see Rush's original response. Here's that clip:


Tim Graham has coverage at NewsBusters also:

Newspapers are supposed to be so much better at television at providing hard facts and context to today’s news. That’s not what the Washington Post did on Saturday in a snarky Style section article on Rush Limbaugh raising $2.1 million on eBay (and donating the same amount) to a worthy charity auctioning off Senator Harry Reid’s snotty letter to Clear Channel Communications denouncing Rush Limbaugh’s remarks about phony soldiers like Jesse Macbeth.

Neely Tucker’s short piece failed to explain the context of (a) what Rush originally said on the air about phony soldiers and (b) what Reid’s letter to Clear Channel said about they should "publicly repudiate" Limbaugh for his comments. The Post tried to discount the whole affair as "petty bickering about patriotism" and "grandstanding."

Harry Reid is shameless.

Hillary Scandal Video Tops Google Most-Watched List...

Jay has the video.

Michael Israel with an amazing tribute...

The posts have been short and far between of late. There's a lot going on at home at the moment, so the blog therapy is unfortunately having to take a backseat to some real therapy. :-)

Speaking of therapy, this video has some strong feel-good healing power I think:


Thanks to Fred for the video tip, and thanks to all of you who keep stopping by from time to time. We all have a lot to be grateful for, and I'm grateful for the small gift of being able to share this blog with all of you... all three of you. :-)

Yon: Every time I’m ready to throw in the towel, soldiers like Pippin come to mind

An e-mail from Michael:

Greetings,

A new dispatch is published: Under Distant Stars.

I've just spent 10 days on the Iran-Iraq border with an excellent British "Battle Group" called 4 Rifles. We truly were living under the desert stars.

I am currently in Basra. There are reports that Basra is in chaos.

These reports are false. Basra is mostly peaceful; the British have not lost a soldier in combat for more than a month, and Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence has plummeted in the last six weeks or so.

The British have NOT pulled out of Iraq or Basra yet, but from what I can see, their force reduction decisions are militarily and politically sound, and are supported by top American commanders in Baghdad.

The news reports I am seeing about Basra are incomplete at best, and largely inaccurate.

(Reminds me of Mosul during 2005.)

V/r,

Michael

Check out Michael and other citizen military reporters linked in the sidebar to the left. Remarkable men... all of them.

Holy Hand Puppets!

A Friday feel-good. My viral video contribution of the day:

The amazing story of Patrick Hughes...

Patrick Hughes is a young man at Univ. of Louisville who was born blind and crippled and yet now plays the piano beautifully as well as "marches" in the Louisville marching band. This was a piece done during ESPN College Gameday on 12/2/2006:


Go to http://www.patrickhenryhughes.com to find out more about Patrick.

Speaking of amazing father/son teams... remember Team Hoyt?