Why do liberals love Islam?

We probably don't want to know what's at the root of the liberal's problem, but I suspect it's "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Liberals deride Christianity and Catholicism in particular for its strict approach towards sexuality, claiming that prohibitions against abortion, contraception, homosexual sex, and premarital sex are simply oppressive forms of prudish patriarchy. But Islam is every bit as traditional on these matters; indeed, Muslim nations are the best allies the Vatican has at the U.N. in fighting against funding for third world family planning initiatives. You can’t reasonably deride one while accepting the other.

Furthermore, Islam goes way beyond Christianity by embracing doctrines that actually are oppressive, demeaning to women, and tyrannical. Throughout the Middle East, there is widespread acceptance of polygamy, of giving adolescent girls in marriage, of female genital mutilation, of harsh criminal sanctions against fornication and homosexuality (a capital offense in some countries), all of which is done in accordance with interpretations of Sharia law that are accepted by significant percentages of the Muslim world. While liberals rightly revile American polygamists, they fail to acknowledge that every major Muslim country (with the exception of Turkey and a few smaller countries) legally provides for this disgusting practice.

(I always find it odd that liberals get outraged at polygamists — it’s the only sexual sin they still acknowledge between of-age, consenting individuals. Homosexual unions can be “marriage,” but not polygamous ones? Since when do liberals care about a strict limitation on the definition of “marriage?” Ultimately, I think it’s because homosexuals vote Democrat and drive Priuses, and polygamists don’t.)

Further, let’s look at how Islam treats religious and other minorities. In Darfur, Sudan, black Africans are being killed in a race- and religion-fueled vendetta of violence by Muslim militias, who have slaughtered more than 200,000 people. In Armenia, tens of thousands of Armenian Christians were slaughtered by the Turkish government at the turn of the 20th century; the Turkish government still won’t even acknowledge that the genocide happened. Sharia makes all sorts of provisions that non-Muslims in Muslim lands have to pay higher taxes and be subject to oppressive policies.

Read more: Liberal love affair with Islam

Reading Burma Shave signs cross country

“THIRTY DAYS - HATH SEPTEMBER – APRIL JUNE – AND THE SPEED OFFENDER” – BURMA SHAVE.

My mother drove her family of four children and her sister west on the Lincoln Highway in 1944 in a 4-door 1939 Ford. For some reason I have no memory of my aunt being in the car, and was quite surprised years later when I was told she too was with us. Then in 1945 Mom drove us back home to Illinois a different route, I think on Rt. 66. So we saw a lot of the country. But I do remember the Burma Shave signs. Can't imagine that I knew how to read at age 4, but maybe I did by age 5 having attended Kindergarten in Alameda, because I remember chiming in as we all read them aloud.

The Power of Choice

Really? Would you feel good about your own freedom as a parent to make choices if you got this letter from the government, sent home with your kids from school? Would you even read it?

And dig that song! What if the kids decide to use their "power of choice" in an unapproved way? I can really see teens getting into this pyramid stuff.

Something's not right in Fairfax County Virginia--is it the government bubble

According to 2009 county data, the median family income in Fairfax County is $122,651. Unemployment is way below the national level--Gosh--Franklin County would kill for their rate (5.4%). Nearly 60% of Fairfax Country residents over 25 have better than a bachelor's degree. A single family home median value is about $550,000. So with all this affluence and education--42% of the students in Fairfax County schools are eligible for free and reduced price meals. What's going on? If this rich county with its abundance of college degrees and government workers can't spring for their kids' lunches, who can? Something is really screwed up in the D.C. suburbs.

Airport 'Security'?

Thomas Sowell growls: "Those who made excuses for all of candidate Barack Obama's long years of alliances with people who expressed their contempt for this country, and when as president he appointed people with a record of antipathy to American interests and values, may finally get it when they feel some stranger's hand in their crotch."

Airport 'Security'? :: The Atlasphere

If the President had a Special Assistant for Reality

Great "what if" story by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal, wishful thinking about getting the President out of the Washington bubble with just one more staff member.

If Mr. Obama had a special assistant for reality this week, this is how their dialogue might have gone over the anti-TSA uprising.

President: This thing is all ginned up, isn't it? Right-wing websites fanned it. Then the mainstream media jumped in to display their phony populist street cred. Right?

Special Assistant for Reality: No, Mr. President, it was more spontaneous. Websites can't fan fires that aren't there. This is like the town hall uprisings of summer 2009. In the past month, citizens took videos at airports the same way town hall protesters made videos there, and put them on YouTube. The more pictures of pat-downs people saw, the more they opposed them.

President: What's the essence of the opposition?

SAR: Sir, Americans don't like it when strangers touch their private parts. Especially when the strangers are in government uniforms and say they're here to help.

President: Is it that we didn't roll it out right? We made a mistake in not telling people in advance we were changing the procedure.

SAR: Um, no, Mr. President. If you'd told them in advance, they would have rebelled sooner.

President: We should have pointed out not everyone goes through the new machines, and only a minority get patted down.

SAR: Mr. President, if you'd told people, "Hello, there's only 1 chance in 3 you'll be molested at the airport today" most people wouldn't think, "Oh good, I like those odds."

President: But the polls are with me. People support the screenings.

SAR: At the moment, according to some. But most Americans don't fly frequently, and the protocols are new. As time passes, support will go steadily down.

President: I've noted with sensitivity that I'm aware all this is a real inconvenience.

SAR: It's not an inconvenience, it's a humiliation. In the new machine, and in the pat-downs, citizens are told to spread their feet and put their hands in the air. It's an attitude of submission—the same one the cops make the perps assume on "America's Most Wanted." Then, while you stand there in public in the attitude of submission, strangers touch intimate areas of your body. It's a violation of privacy. It leaves people feeling reduced. It's like society has decided you're a meat sack and not a soul. Humans have a natural, untaught understanding of the apartness of their bodies, and they don't like it when their space is violated. They recoil, and protest.

President: But you can have the pat-downs done in private.

SAR: Mr. President, you don't know this, but when you ask for that, a lot of TSA people get pretty passive-aggressive. They get Bureaucratic Dead Face and start barking, "I need a supervisor! Private pat-down!" And everyone looks, and the line slows down, and you start to feel like you're putting everyone out. You wait and wait, and finally they get another TSA person, and they take you into the little room and it's embarrassing, and you start to realize you're going to miss your plane. It's then that you realize: all this is how they discourage private pat-downs.

President: I've wondered if this general feeling of discomfort might be related to a certain Puritan strain within American thinking—a kind of horror at the body that, melded with, say, old Catholic teaching, not to be pejorative, might make for a pretty combustible cultural cocktail. This heightened consciousness of the body might suggest an element of physical shame we hadn't taken into account.

SAR: Mr. President, the rebellion isn't shame-based, it's John Wayne-based.

President: I don't follow.

Follow the rest of the story, obviously a fantasy, but telling, none the less, with a great ending.

Ms. Noonan you may remember was one of George H.W. Bush's speech writers, but fell from grace during the G.W. Bush era, and lost her credibility with me when she when all gushy over candidate Obama's phony speech pattern and good looks. The lefties didn't like her for what they saw as her lame excuses for Bush (really weak, no matter which side you took), so I guess she just can't win. She's slowly, slowly been crawling her way back from her Obama-gusher mistakes of the campaign.

Decision Points--Enhanced interrogation

On page 168, George W. Bush in Decision Points gets around to "enhanced interrogation," aka torture for information. You will call it what you want depending on whether you hate or like George Bush, on whether you thought he was the original Satan/Hitler for taking us into Iraq and Afghanistan or whether he was keeping us safe after 9/11.

He writes, "The FBI began questioning Zubaydah [associate of bin Laden who had run a camp which trained the 9/11 hijackers], who had clearly been trained on how to resist interrogation. . . [He] was our best lead to avoid another catastrophic attack. . . [Looking at a list of options Bush was presented] George [Tenet] assured me all interrogations would be performed by experienced intelligence professionals who had undergone extensive training. . . There were two that I felt went too far, even if they were legal. I directed the CIA not to use them."

This is something that puzzles me every time a government official, from Eric Holder who seems like a shriveled wimp to Arnold Schwarzenegger with his massive body and Austrian accent, discusses a tricky decision. No government official can know everything about everything and they depend on lawyers to tell them what is legal. Lawyers don't agree, and apparently neither does case law, massive regulations or 2000 page laws passed by Congressmen who don't even read them.

So if a President is told plan A is legal, it is used, and "Zubaydah revealed large amounts of information on al Qaeda's structure and operations," and that information is in turn available to the next President who as a candidate thought and spoke ill of his predecessor, but continues to use and act on that information, which guy is Satan/Hitler, the guy who had to make the decision and did keep the country safe, or the one who tries to float above it all and not get his hands soiled?

Doctors say Medicare cuts forcing them to shift away from elderly

For all you boomers who joyfully and expectantly voted for Obama. Here's your thanks.

Doctors say Medicare cuts forcing them to shift away from elderly

But, it's not all his fault, you know. Congress has been adding mandates and expanded coverage for years--at some point, the piper had to be paid. This is the way socialized medicine works. It sounds fabulous until you have to pay for it. Or make cuts.

Volga Germans--The Mennonites

One of the languages of the German Mennonites of Russia is Plattdeutsch, also called Low-German . I first came across this story reading the Wycliffe Bible translators page about translating scripture for Germans from Kazakhstan resettled in Germany, who didn't know German. Most of us scattered around the world who have German roots trace back to pre-Germany days--i.e. there was no country known as Germany when my ancestors arrived in the United States. In fact, there was no United States in the 1720s, and they'd all pledged loyalty to the King of England. My Mennonite roots go back to Hannah, the brave widow of Hans Wenger, a weaver of Bern, Switzerland, who with the help of friends and family, emigrated to American for religious freedom in 1749.

Here is an account of the wanderings of the Mennonites who ended up in Russia. "The Mennonites occupy a special place among the Germans [of Siberia]. When the Mennonites left the Netherlands in the sixteenth century and resettled in Prussia, they did not see themselves as sharing a common origin. Among them were people of Flemish, Dutch, Frisian, and Lower Saxon ancestry. Two basic types of speech had been maintained by the Mennonites— molochnenskii and khortintskii. However, they took as a common language a Low German dialect (Plattdeutsch). As a result of their religious isolation, the Mennonites did not mix with the local peoples and thus maintained their traditional customs. At times they joined their different confessional groups into one ethno confessional unit. During and since the resettlement the Mennonites have been officially registered as Germans; most scholars think of the Mennonites as Germans. The Siberian Mennonites themselves trace their ancestry to Germans, although they also emphasize their Dutch origins."

Siberian Mennonites extend welcome to visiting Americans


Freedom has done what the Soviet Communists couldn't: "In the Germanic language family, Plautdiitsch claims a special place. Its long isolation from other German dialects and its close contacts have given it a specific character, which to some extent can be compared to that of Yiddish. The Plautdiitsch language, the sole descendant from the many West Prussian Low German dialects once spoken in the Weichsel delta area, is now spoken by Mennonites in many countries and has partly taken over the religious factor as the main identity marker. It is a pity that a language, that managed to survive centuries of isolation and many years of prohibiti­on, should now disappear where it has long had its most speakers - in Siberia. The increasing emigration to Germa­ny has left many Mennonite villages russified more than decades of Soviet Russification policy could accomplish. The Plautdiitsch speakers who choose to stay find it more and more difficult to provide their children with a Plautdi­itsch speaking environment, and in the long run it must be feared the language will lose much ground to Russian. In Germany, the children of Russian Mennonite immigrants will almost certainly only have passive knowledge of Plautdi­itsch.

One can only hope the language will survive in North America and in the isolated colonies in South America, where a revival can be observed." From the article "Plautdietsch, a Germanic language related to Dutch and Frisian, spoken in Siberia"

Canada has a Plattdeutsch radio station. You can listen here--pod cast. I listened to a poem in Plattdeutsch from Russia, and the rhythm was definitely Russian/Slavic; this sounds English.

The Volga Germans--still on the road after all these years

Immigration is always in the news. Borders open and then close--mostly for economic and political reasons, only occasionally for humanitarian. Ethnic minorities clash with nationals whose families arrived maybe 300-400 years ago. Somalis in Finland have to learn Swedish, the 2nd language of Finland due to the Swedish control of centuries, and returning Finns from Russia don't speak either Finnish or Swedish. It happens in all countries in all ages. In our typically self-centered way, Americans believe we are either the best or the worst at assimilating and resettling new peoples within our borders.

Several centuries ago, Catherine the Great of Russia (a German) invited Germans to resettle in Russia with their skills and thrift. Much like the European who immigrated to the United States around the same time, these Germans took their language, religion, customs and culture to Russia for a fresh start. They became known as the Volga Germans. They flourished economically and culturally, maintaining their German ways, until Stalin became worried about their loyalties to Germany (where they had never lived), and gave them 24 hours to relocate in Kazakhstan, USSR. In less than month one million were deported like animals and dumped in a strange country. They lost their possessions, and many lost their lives in forced labor camps. Most were Protestants, many were Lutherans, but a large number were Mennonites.

After the reunification of Germany in the 1990s, ethnic Germans were given the right to return to Germany, and so many Kazakhtan Volga Germans resettled in Germany. The older people who returned in the 70s still spoke high German, but recent arrivals speak "low German," or the younger Germans only know Russian. Some have now reversed this decision and returned to their "homeland" in Kazakhstan (where they are the second largest minority) rather than be outsiders in Germany who speak the language with difficulty, or don't want to learn it. The Wycliffe Bible Translators has a ministry to the ethnic Volga Germans in their own low German dialect, keeping with their mission of creating the Good News in the "heart language" of the people.

Meanwhile, in the 19th century, many Volga Germans moved to middle west and western United States to work in farming, particularly the sugar beet industry. In the 1970s before the memories and traditions of these scattered Germans whose ancestors had wandered all over Europe and Russia were lost, oral histories were recorded and are available at the Colorado State University archives in Ft. Collins. I've been reading through a few of the accounts by older members of this group (born in the late 1800s), and after you establish the rhythm of the stories, you come away with fresh appreciation for immigrant groups in the United States, who gave up everything (often very little) to start a new life (also with very little).

MAR data as of 2006 on Kazakh Volga Germans

FEEFHS stories Family Histories of Survivors of Stalin's Labor Camps

Subsidies to Fossil Fuel Consumption

Since 1981 the federal government has received $1.1 trillion in excise and sales taxes on petroleum products. It is currently subsidizing "green energy" 4 times more than fossil fuel energy. So when our tax policies and environmental regulations have managed to shut down all economic growth fueled by fossil fuels, and the return on green energy just isn't there because like ethanol, the inputs are just too high, what or who will take up that slack in tax revenue? Well, any business that has been coerced and cajoled into being green, that's who. And that really is you the consumer, because the price for being green will make you see red.

The Tax Foundation - IEA Study Ranks Nations’ Subsidies to Fossil Fuel Consumption

Podesta's advice to Obama on dealing with a divided Congress

Filtered through Eugene Robinson (WaPo) John Podesta the Cinton era lefty think tanker recommends, "Presidents can issue executive orders, the report notes. They can use their rulemaking powers, working through federal agencies that already have broad mandates under law. They can forge public-private partnerships. They can shape world events through diplomacy and command of the armed forces."

Robinson claims this is how Bush did it, but overlooks Bush's record for bi-partisan support for the War on Terror, the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Patriot Act. He ignores that the WMD was a drum beat constantly by Kerry, Edwards and Clinton before the 2000 election. Support by Democrats in congress for Bush's policies to keep us safe was huge--and they even took time to read the bills and acts! It was only later as their left sides began to belly ache that they back peddled, crying and weeping that they were misled. Give it up, Robinson. This article is totally phony and confirms that Obama and supporters don't have "decision points," only "finger points."

Light At Night Causes Changes In Brain Linked To Depression

This doesn't look good--assuming it's accurate. I like to fall asleep with the TV on. This study says even that amount of light in a dark room can interfer with your sleep.

“Even dim light at night is sufficient to provoke depressive-like behaviors in hamsters . . ." said Tracy Bedrosian, co-author of the study and doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University.


The results are significant because the night-time light used in the study was not bright: 5 lux, or the equivalent of having a television on in a darkened room, said Randy Nelson, co-author of the study and professor of neuroscience and psychology at Ohio State.

Who wants to be like a depressed hamster? Besides, didn't our mothers tell us this when we were kids?

Light At Night Causes Changes In Brain Linked To Depression

Bobby Jindal for President

Interview on 700 Club recently. He has a new book, too.


Gov. Bobby Jindal: Leading through Crisis - CBN.com
Uploaded by cbnonline. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

Again with the message? Now Pelosi

James Taranto notes: "The New York Times editorial board is displeased: "If Ms. Pelosi had been a more persuasive communicator, she could have batted away the ludicrous caricature of her painted by Republicans across the country as some kind of fur-hatted commissar jamming her diktats down the public's throat." So is the Times's Nate Silver, who notes understatedly that "Ms. Pelosi is not very popular with the American public.""

What the left doesn't get is that Pelosi, Reid and Obama communicated just fine. We didn't like what they were telling us!

P.S. to NYT: Nobody likes her. Not even the Democrats.

What else did Gore lie about? Everything.

I worked in the Agriculture Library in the 70s and 80s. I knew you just couldn't make the ethanol bio-fuel figures come out right. It was very hot research then, too. Too many inputs; especially water. And even 2-3 years ago, we were creating food shortages that caused riots in other countries.

Now Big Al has come clean. Sort of.

Gore: On second thought, I was just pandering to the farm vote on ethanol « Hot Air

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy", weeks before tax credits are up for renewal.

U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to use the fuel even when it is more expensive than gasoline. The credits are up for renewal on Dec. 31.

Total U.S. ethanol subsidies reached $7.7 billion last year according to the International Energy Industry, which said biofuels worldwide received more subsidies than any other form of renewable energy.

"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.

U.S. corn ethanol was not a good policy-Gore | Energy & Oil | Reuters
Of course, the worst thing is that all the investments and venture capital that has gone up in global warming smoke and mirrors is not available to do something really good and worthwhile to restore the economy.

The Korean War back in the headlines

So North Korea shelled an island controlled by South Korea and they woke the President up to tell him. The Korean War started in 1950--60 years ago--before Obama was born. There was an Armistice (July 27, 1953), which got us out of it, but there was never a victory or a Peace Treaty, so the War goes on for Koreans to this day. But it has really taken a toll on North Koreans. A decade ago it was estimated that 3.5 million North Koreans had been deliberately starved to death by their own government. It's hard to say what that number would be now--but it's all a result of the Amistice we signed in 1953--leaving before the job was done. And many want us to do that in Afghanistan and Iraq. Winning a war is nasty stuff. Negotiating the ending and walking away is even nastier.

How many decibels at a rock concert?

Or in the ear buds of your i-pod? Rock music 150dB.

New research from Swiss scientists suggests that people living near airports exposed to high levels of noise from air crafts are at increased risk of dying of myocardial infarction. That's an average daily noise level of 60 decibels--and I suspect that's less than what the i-pod user is pumping into his/her ears 24/7. Constant noise. It's not just for deafness.

JAMA November 17, 2010, p. 2116

Recipe for Cranberry Stuffing for Thanksgiving

Recipe for Cranberry Stuffing for Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Day Recipe Ideas | eHow.com

I've got all the ingredients for this one! Looks really simple

Update: Made it according to her directions. You'd better find a way to sweeten the cranberries, or it is unedible. I served ours with syrup, then threw the rest out!

Will Jon Stewart show up in Wilmington to ridicule?

HuffPo last spring reported that Stewart was getting 50% of his material from Beck--not plagerism, but mocking him. Then in Beck's newsletter today it was noted that Stewart's program was 66% ridiculing Beck! Beck is keeping this man alive--he has no material without him.

Now Glenn Beck has announced he will travel to Wilmington, Ohio to do a show and to support a Christian ministry/food pantry there because in 2008 Wilmington lost its major employer (9,000 jobs) DHL. On his show tonight he interviewed Sugartree Ministries Director Allen Willoughby. Originally for the homeless and street people, Sugartree has a food pantry and accepts no government money, which must be a real challenge. Everyday the staff prays for the shelves to be filled. Every food pantry I know gets government grants to keep their doors open, same with after school snack programs and summer lunch programs that are run by churches. This prevents the ministry from being able to tell the story of Jesus and his saving work.

Beck isn't the only celebrity to show up to help Rachel Ray remodeled their kitchen. They are now serving 150-200 people 6 days a week.

Everyone knows that unemployment checks and food pantries aren't the answers to our economic problem--the government needs to get out of the way and allow businesses to thrive. In past recessions, new businesses sprung up; not so much this time. Regulations, energy requirements, insurance rates, and inability to get bank credit are stifling the small business man.

Maybe Jon could do something funny about that?

There's a college in Wilmington. My uncle J. Edwin Jay was the president from 1915-1927.