What Is Worth Fighting For?

This picture is of victims of the terrorist bombing in Madrid Spain. Remember these were not soldiers. They were not at war. In fact, they were not even for war. But this did not matter to those without a conscience. Keep this picture in mind as you read the rest of my post.

I find it ironic that in the previous thread, one making the case against war, makes mention that those against abortion shouldn't have one. Defending, I suppose, her right to one. The monsters we are fighting would like to take away your right to drive, to wear perfume, to listen to music. You wouldn't have to worry about abortion. If you were intimate before marriage, you would be hanged or worse. They want you to wear a burka over your LIFE. And yet you don't see fighting this war as worth it. I suppose you think that fanatical way would never happen here. I suppose you don't care about the women who have lived this way for far too long.

Well, who would have imagined the Nazis? Who would imagined that a belief that furthering the human race would include gassing Jews and the disabled and that it would be accepted and practiced?

Those in Germany ignored a threat as well. They ignored a fanatical belief and pretended it wasn't there. We ignored this threat for too long until it came and slapped us in the face. Can none of you see how important it is to defeat it? Can none of you see the danger of a belief the leads those who follow it to see our death and their own as a delight to their God????

If we do not change things now, do you think that they would go away? Do you not think they would have made their way to our shores again????

You can argue all you want about why we went to war, the reasons, the WMD's, and why Iraq ect.., but the FACT is we are and have been killing the terrorists every day. We have thwarted 3 more attacks inside the United States. 10 more outside the U.S. Attacks that would have looked a lot like that picture. DO WE UNDERSTAND THIS? We have killed most of the leaders and now the terrorists have resorted to drugging the suicide bombers and using mentally disabled teenagers to kill themselves for bomb attacks.

The rotting flesh of Al Qaida will turn to dust. The little boys that would have been terrorists will not be. Women who were abused will have full lives. There may not be the same democracy of the West, but there will be freedom.

And make no mistake about it, freedom does NOT breed suicide bombers.

We are winning this war. We have paid a heavy price, but not nearly as heavy a price that has been paid in past wars. The men and women who have died for this war on terror have died for a noble cause, no matter what Cindy Sheehan says. We will never know what our soldiers and marines have saved us from . We will never know the carnage and evil we were spared. We will never count the body bags of our children. We will never know because of their willing sacrifice.

They gave up so much, but they saved us from so much.

History will look back at this time, I believe, as the 2 paths that diverged in the world. A place where man either took the road to self expression and freedom, or took the road to a growing belief in jihad.

In our fight, we never demand or ask of conversion. We only open the door to a willing choice.

That is the difference. And that is why we fight. And that is why it is right.

My Soldier.

I lay back against the grass and close my eyes.

I see you walking down a dusty road. You look strong and brave in your uniform, but I know that you don’t always feel that way.

You are walking toward me, but you never reach me. You are so far away, so very far away.

My nights are lonely, but I know yours are lonelier.

I want so much to touch your brave face, to wipe away the dirt and weariness.

I try to see you with me. I try to picture it.

But all I see is war.

And I must face the battle within myself, the one that fights the fear.

I know in the heat of a true battle, it is a battle you fight as well.

The fear wrestles me to the ground. It pins my arms and laughs in my face.

I open my eyes quickly and take deep breaths. I push the fear off of me.

I feel a breeze across my cheek. Do you feel it too? Do you feel my sadness? Do you feel my yearning?

I want this war over. I want those we fight defeated. I want you safe. I want you home.

I see you walking down a dusty road.

I see you walking toward me.

Keep walking toward me.

Victor Davis Hanson Rocks Once Again.

He just has a way of putting it all together in an easy way for us to understand. Read the whole thing.


"The old debate whether Saddam Hussein was involved with al Qaeda is now calcified. Liberal conventional wisdom denies any such linkage since there is no firm evidence that Saddam knew of, or was involved in, the September 11 attacks. Thus most on the left ignore entirely that Ansar al-Islam was doing Saddam's dirty work in fighting the Kurds, that Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas resided in Baghdad, that Saddam openly harbored Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmed Hikmat Shakir who were connected to the effort in 1993 to blow up the World Trade Center and various anti-American plots, and that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fled Afghanistan to the sanctuary of Iraq.

No matter. That was then, this is now — and there is no denying that al-Zarqawi is conducting al-Qaedist operations in Iraq, or that the sort of people who attacked us on September 11 are the sort of people now flocking to the Sunni Triangle and often dying at the hands of U.S. military forces. Everyone can agree on that.

The "flypaper" exegesis — that Iraq has become a magnetized burial ground pulling in wannabe al Qaedists — is widely dismissed as unsophisticated and yokelish. But we saw the same phenomenon on the Afghan border in late 2001 where the Pakistani madrassas thinned out as jihadists went over the mountains to the Taliban's aid — only to be bombed to smithereens, the survivors limping back to warn others to give up such a holy trek.
In one of the strangest developments of this entire war, the Western world hears almost nothing about the aggregate number of jihadists killed by coalition forces in Iraq, even though we suspect it may have been several thousand — 10,000, 20,000, 50,000? Surely this has had both a concrete and a spiritual effect on hundreds of thousands of angry young Islamists, who are beginning to realize that a trip to Iraq may be lethal — and unwelcomed by most Iraqis who just wish to be left alone to form their own new government. Whatever one thought about the nexus of Iraq and terror before, no one now denies that our jihadist enemies are in Iraq and are being fought and defeated there each day."

Another lefty.....

...doesn't understand normal civil behavior. I suppose being crude and boorish is protected by free speech, but it doesn't mean you have to be that way.

This woman was kicked off a Southwest airline flight for wearing a crude t-shirt after being asked to cover it because people on the flight were complaining:

"The shirt had pictures of members of the Bush administration, and a phrase based on the movie "Meet The Fockers," but with one crucial vowel changed."

The 32 yr old woman said, "There are bigger problems in this country, I can't believe people can be so petty."

Wait...they were being petty??? I suppose it never occurred to this woman that some people might be offended. I would have said the exact same thing if had been about the Clinton administration during his Presidency.

She is, of course, filing a civil-rights complaint against the airline. After offending people around her, why not go and waste some of the airline's money and time as well?????

via LST

Oklahoma suicide bombing.

Michelle has ALL the updates.

Another story not quite right....

I'm sure you will see the leftwing blogs slobbering all over this today.

"In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq Â…" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

And if I hadn't been watching Brit Hulme tonight, it might have seemed curious to me for a moment. But the news reported that all those interviewed in the room, even those who took notes, said that Bush never said anything like that.

Guess this reporter didn't get that report, huh? Nothing like ignoring a little truth to get in the way of a good story.

Let me add one more thing....

I forgot this important point the President made:

"Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals.

I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001, and Al Qaida attacked us anyway.

The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."

More Michael...

Michael Yon has tons of new stuff up and all of it good. Lots of pictures as well. Go. Read. Best reporting coming out of the war that there is.

The Speech.

I just heard parts of President Bush's speech today about the war on terror to the National Endowment for Democracy and it was just about the most powerful speech I have heard him give. Here is the transcript if you missed it. I suggest you read it since the media seem to not be printing the excerpts that I think are most important. First, Bush made it clear that Islamo-fascism subverts and exploits Islam.

He also made it clear that there will be no cut and run here. We will not show weakness. I was glad to hear him point out our past where we did show weakness in the face of this enemy. The following quote is the one that should be in all the papers:

"They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 1983 and Mogadishu in 1993, only this time on a larger scale with greater consequences.
Second, the militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against non-radical Muslim governments."

He explained the different factions of terrorists and explained clearly why they seek to terrorize us:

"First, extremists want to end American and Western influence in the broader Middle East, because we stand for democracy and peace and stand in the way of their ambitions."

Bush likened the ideology of Islamic militants to communism. And he said they are being "aided by elements of the Arab news media that incites hatred and anti-Semitism."

He reminded us of the history of evil:

"And the civilized world knows very well that other fanatics in history, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, consumed whole nations in war and genocide before leaving the stage of history.
Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply."

Bush made clear the differences between our enemy and ourselves:

"Zarqawi has said that Americans are, quote, "the most cowardly of God's creatures," but let's be clear: It is cowardice that seeks to kill children and the elderly with car bombs and cuts the throat of a bound captive and targets worshipers leaving a mosque.

It is courage that liberated more than 50 million people. It is courage that keeps an untiring vigil against the enemies of a rising democracy. And it is courage and the cause of freedom that once again will destroy the enemies of freedom."

We are facing a radical ideology with immeasurable objectives to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world."

And he finally made clear what we have accomplished so far working with partners in "Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and beyond": (I know this part is long, but read it! It is so important to understand!)

"..we're disrupting militant conspiracies, destroying their ability to make war, and working to give millions in a troubled region of the world a hopeful alternative to resentment and violence.

First, we're determined to prevent the attacks of terrorist network before they occur. We're reorganizing our government to give this nation a broad and coordinated homeland defense. We're reforming our intelligence agency for the incredibly difficult task of tracking enemy activity, based on information that often comes in small fragments from widely scattered sources here and abroad.

We're acting, along with the governments from many countries, to destroy the terrorist networks and incapacitate their leaders.

Together, we've killed or captured nearly all of those directly responsible for the September the 11th attacks, as well as some of bin Laden's most senior deputies, Al Qaida managers and operatives in more than 24 countries: the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing who was chief of Al Qaida operations in the Persian Gulf, the mastermind of the Jakarta and the first Bali bombings, a senior Zarqawi terrorist planner who was planning attacks in Turkey, and many of Al Qaida's senior leaders in Saudi Arabia.

Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least 10 serious Al Qaida terrorist plots since September the 11th, including three Al Qaida plots to attack inside the United States. We've stopped at least five more Al Qaida efforts to case targets in the United States or infiltrate operatives into our country."

And he ends with this:

"We do know, however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice. We do know the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history. And we do know the cause of freedom will once again prevail.
May God bless you."

This is the speech he should have made long ago, and should have been repeating at every stop.

Because while so many of us understand this fight, it is clear that many do not. Let the left have their say, but let us have ours.

I am confident in the debate that the truth and honor of we do here in this war will win out in the hearts and minds of the people of the United States. We just needed to make it clear.

And I think President Bush just did.

The Worst Evacuation Story from Rita.

I was with some friends this morning and we were discussing our evacuations. One of the girls had a friend who went and picked up her mother at a nursing home here and headed out to Dallas. Because of the heat and standing in traffic, or who knows what contributed, her mother died in the car and her friend had to drive five more hours to Dallas with her dead mother's body.

Awful. AWFUL.

Time to bring up our favorite subject again.

Those sneaky creationists.

This is the thing. It is clear that Congress can make no law establishing a religion. But how is suggesting a theory that states "materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God, ”(Intelligent Designer), establishing a religion? It just isn't.

Now, replacing evolutionary materials, I completely disagree with. But none of my evolutionary friends have convinced me that other theories of design shouldn't be looked at in the classroom.

Just saying, "it isn't science" doesn't do it for me. Just saying it can't be "falisfied" doesn't do it for me. You are judging what is a standard for science by a test created by a man. I think it is important for kids to know what so many people believe. And, simply speaking, if some things are too complex to be explained any other way, and scientists theorize about how that is accomplished. This is a theory.

Now you can make the case that someone could just make any old thing up as a theory. But the difference is many scientists and other intelligent educated people have valid scientific findings that prove that, at the least, there are things too complex to be explained any other way than an intelligent design.

But I am no expert, and can still be convinced either way. If you would like to read a discussion between those involved on both sides, Natural History Magazine has this excellent debate.

Oh Boy....

I don't know how I missed this one.

I tell you. It hurt my heart to read it.

I Spy.

First Modern Case of Spy Actually Placed Inside of White House

"Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history.

Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Espionage Case Breaches the White House
Death with Dignity or Criminal Act?
Person of the Week: Complete Coverage
"I don't know of a case where the vetting broke down before and resulted in a spy being in the White House," said Richard Clarke, a former White House advisor who is now an ABC News consultant.

Federal investigators say Aragoncillo, a naturalized citizen from the Philippines, used his top secret clearance to steal classified intelligence documents from White House computers.

In 2000, Aragoncillo worked on the staff of then-Vice President Al Gore."

via Ace

Wow. Weird, huh? Most of what he stole was sent through e-mail too. Kind of make it easy to sneak out.

My doggy is having a birthday! 4 yrs old! Sweetest dog ever!!! His name is Shaq and he is a lab mix and I adore him.

I got to get me some of these babies. LED lights light the toes of the slippers. Am I the only one who thinks that is just too cool? via boing boing

Nagin. Nagin. Nagin.......

Wizbang discovers buses that were on dry land and with an open escape route to get the New Orleans people out of the Super Dome.

This just gets more and more pathetic.

Question for Readers.

I am taking my daughter to New York for her birthday. I want to stay in the Theatre district. It has been awhile since I have been there and I can't even remember the hotels I stayed at before. If you know of any good ones or if you live in NYC or know others who do, could you leave a suggestion in the comment section. I would appreciate any restaurant suggestions too. Nothing fancy for food! Just good food! Anywhere in NYC.

Thanks Guys!

*note: If any of my family or friends are reading this, DON'T mention it to my daughter! It's a surprise!

Irrational 101

Christopher Hitchens is so awesome in making us understand Islam fanatcism. Regarding the recent Bali bombing, he has this:

"Indonesia is a mainly Muslim society, whose government takes a stern line against the war in Iraq and even Afghanistan. Its people, who are astonishingly hospitable to all foreigners, depend in millions of cases on tourism to make the difference between indigence and the minimum wage. Its elections feature Muslim political parties, many of them quite austere in their propaganda. Why on earth, then, would a fundamentalist group wish to bring discredit upon itself and ruin upon its neighbors by resorting to random slaughter?

Never make the mistake of asking for rationality here. And never underestimate the power of theocratic propaganda. The fanatics look at the population of Bali and its foreign visitors and they see a load of Hindus selling drinks—often involving the presence of unchaperoned girls—to a load of Christians. That in itself is excuse enough for mayhem."

He ends with this, but got read the whole thing. It's good.

"So, what did Indonesia do to deserve this, or bring it on itself? How will the slaughter in Bali improve the lot of the Palestinians? Those who look for the connection will be doomed to ask increasingly stupid questions and to be content with increasingly wicked answers."

Cotillion Girls Gone Wild!!!

Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is looking for some blogger babes (of the MALE persuasion!) It's sorta turning the table on the male bloggers who post babe pictures in the middle of their hard news (no pun intended!). Wizbang is famous for it. Anyway, go see Beth if you want to be objectified....;-)

News on Oklahoma bomber.

WorldNetDaily is reporting this:

"An Oklahoma University student who killed himself by detonating a bomb strapped to his body outside a packed stadium over the weekend was a "suicide bomber" in possession of "Islamic jihad" materials, according to a new report." via Reaganites Unite!

His name was Joel Henry Hinrichs IIII. I was afraid that this might be the case when I heard about it. I am also surprised that this has not happened before. Thank God he didn't hurt anyone. I'd like to know when and how he converted. I would also like to know more about the Islamic Society of Norman, which was near his apartment.

John Hawkins isn't the only one who has a favorites list.

Here is John over at Rightwingnews:

"It has been a little more than 3 months since the last time I ranked my favorite 40 blogs, so I thought it was about time to do it again, for the last time in 2005.

Do keep in mind that as the quarter has progressed, some blogs have of course moved up and others have dropped, based on how often I visit them, how much I like what I see when I get there, how often the blogs are updated, etc., etc. As per usual, do keep in mind that these sort of lists changes frequently over time based on a variety of factors. So if your blog didn't get included, it's no big deal -- it could be on the list next time."

'As per usual,' could he be any more arrogant? I mean really. Everyone who reads my blog knows that I never criticize other blogs, but I just have to make an exception here. I didn't really know enough about RWN to form an opinion until one the Cotillion girls, Ilyka decided to quit blogging as a chick and come back as man (cyber speaking) and she thought John had shown a lot of bias in not linking more women bloggers. His recent list of 40 looks like it has only about two chicks, so I'm thinking maybe she was right. But I kinda think that it's really about sucking up to John. When I posted on Ilyka when she quit blogging as a chick, Hawkins quoted me out of context and when I e-mailed him about it, he just brushed me off and didn't correct himself. Does that sound familiar????

Anyway, I certaintly don't care what an ego driven blogger thinks. But I thought I might give you my favorite blogs. Since I think my opinion counts just about as much as John's does.

I don't have the time I use to read all the blogs I like everyday, but the following I hardly ever miss. I notice that a few of mine are not on John's list. Not because they aren't fantastic, because clearly they are, but because he got in some little tiff with them at some point and that was that.

For intelligent news commentary and up to minute stuff it doesn't get any better than Little Green Footballs, Powerline, and Wizbang.

For everything I said above PLUS naughty hilarious fun, it doesn't get any better than Protein Wisdom.

Beautiful Atrocities is also one of the funniest blogs out there, but he seems to have gotten a life.

If one wasn't married and the other wasn't gay, I might be cyber stalking them both. That is how great they write.

Another funny guy with great commentary is the one I probably link the most...Ace of SpadesHQ

Garfield Ridge is pretty funny too.

I LOVE in your face conservative women and no one does that better than My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and Darleen's place and Knowledge is Power. (SondaK is naughty hilarious as well)

For intelligent thoughtful conservative babe commentary I just love Reasoned Audacity.

The girl who reminds me most of myself is NotADesperateHousewife.

The Poliburo Dikit is where I go when I want to argue with a RINO, there and The World Wide Rant.

And the premier milblog out there is Mudville.

Richard Landes, writing for Solomonia, describes one of the results of bias in the media in how "The Media Gets the "Intifada" Wrong"

"The AP caption, repeated by the NYT, identifies the bloodied civilian as a Palestinian, the policeman brandishing a club – implicitly the author of the youth’s wounds – as an Israeli, and the location as the Temple Mount. I guess one out of three IDs isn’t bad for AP when it comes to the Middle East conflict, although the thrust of the errors literally transforms the meaning of the photo. What the AP did with this caption is to impose upon it the firm expectations of their Politically Correct Paradigm: since the Palestinians are the David and Israel the Goliath, then a bloodied civilian near an Israeli with a club must be the soldier’s victim. And since Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount the day before had provoked Palestinian rage to which the Israelis had responded with deadly force, the injuries must have been inflicted on the Temple Mount.

What happened differs radically. The victim, Tuvya Grossman, was an American seminary student in Jerusalem whose taxi-driver went through an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem where rioting crowds dragged him from the car, beat and stabbed him nearly to death. He managed to escape and reach the place where this Israeli soldier protected him from his pursuers. This story here actually illustrates the Jihad Paradigm, not the Politically Correct Paradigm.

Palestinians, whipped into a rage by false rumors that Sharon had desecrated the al-Aqsa mosque, broke into wild rioting, which Israelis, as much as possible, constrained with non-lethal weapons (like this baton). The Jewish civilian here is the victim, and the Israeli David, scantily armed, stands up to the Palestinian mob...
...his subsequent retraction, and a successful lawsuit against both AP and the French paper Libération, had little impact on those who wanted to believe in Israeli villainy.

As in the case of the poison accusations of 1983, Palestinian and Arab media, like the Egyptian Government and their Post Colonial Paradigm supporters, have continued to use the picture as part of their Palestinian victim narrative. To this day, Tuvya Grossman's picture adorns a poster calling on everyone in the world to boycott Coca Cola in order to stop Israelis from killing Palestinians.

No picture better illustrates the mood of the media at the outbreak of the intifada. "Already already listening" as Werner Erhardt might have put it. The storyboard was up, they just needed the material to start pinning to it. On September 29, it was Tuvya Grossman. The next day, it was Muhamed al Durah."

via Dean's World

Every day I find more proof that I can't believe hardly anything I read from the press.

You Have to Love........

The Protest Warriors.

h/t BigDog

No Worries.

It seems no one is really happy over Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Some are concerned about her past political contributions to Democrats, but she has given to Republicans as well. It is not unusual for law firms to pass the hat, so to speak, for all candidates. I don't think that tells us much. David Frum has worked with her and says she is "a lovely person: intelligent, honest, capable, loyal, discreet, dedicated ... I could pile on the praise all morning." He is just concerned that there is no proof that she is a legal conservative.

Well, isn't that the point??? Bush is forced to put up stealth candidates because the Democrats will tear into anyone who has a record on their "sacred" abortion rights and other "hot button" issues. David Frum also makes the case that there were far more qualified candidates to choose from.

I don't blame Bush at all for these choices. I also just don't buy that she is not a conservative. Does anyone really believe that Bush doesn't know how the candidates he chooses feels about the "hot button" issues??? Of course he knows. And given how he feels about these issues, I don't think for one minute that he would nominate someone who didn't feel as strongly as he does.

No worries.

I stumbled onto this blog, tower of the sun, and found a post where the guy had contacted the Principal of his son's school and the school district, upset over a "religious" flyer sent home from school. He explains that when the Principal called him back:

"The Principle also offered to make sure that both of our sons do not receive any religious materials in the future. We explained that this option was nothing more than an "opt out" policy and that was not sufficient. It is not just about our child, it is about a breech of rights of all students."

Here (scroll down to 2nd post) he is explaining his position to criticism that he is anti-religious. He says,"You make it sound like I am anti-religion. Far from it. I am anti- forced religion."

What is this horrid "forcing of religion" on this child ?? What sort of sneaky claw of evangelist propaganda was FORCED? (Well, it was actually just put with a bunch of of take home flyers like all schools shove in our kid's folder every week) I'm betting the kid would never have even seen it if his parents hadn't pointed it out. I know my kids never look at them. But that isn't the point! Of course! It is the fact that they were practically making this kid do an alter call! A forced Baptism was just a matter of time.

But anyway, the flyer that was obviously demanding this kid's soul is the one you see above. That's right. The cute orange flyer for a "pumpkin festival." With proceeds to the poor and all that. Truly awful stuff. The kid will be damaged for life. He will question all his parent's beliefs (or non-beliefs)

*sigh*

The only religion I see endorsed here is maybe Charlie Brown's "The Great Pumpkin" faith. What a joke all this is. I feel sorry for the teachers, Principals, and school districts that have to put up with this crap from nutty parents like this. The flyer doesn't even mention GOD, for God's sake!

If a flyer came home from my son's school with a fun run for a Synagogue, I certainly wouldn't care. I get flyers all the time that are promoting "humanist" values. You don't see me running crying to the Principal.

It's just stupid. Poor kid. Now he will probably get all kind of grief.

The Screen of Ignorance.

Charles Murray has an excellent article at WSJ.com on the re-discovery of the underclass in the aftermath of Katrina.

He talks about the root of the problem of the underclass, which is pretty much what I wrote before on race, but he said it much better and with all those good statistics that the left leaners love so much:

"Why has the proportion of unsocialized young males risen so relentlessly? In large part, I would argue, because the proportion of young males who have grown up without fathers has also risen relentlessly. The indicator here is the illegitimacy ratio--the percentage of live births that occur to single women. It was a minuscule 4% in the early 1950s, and it has risen substantially in every subsequent decade. The ratio reached the 25% milestone in 1988 and the 33% milestone in 1999. As of 2003, the figure was 35%--of all births, including whites. The black illegitimacy ratio in 2003 was 68%. By way of comparison: The illegitimacy ratio that caused Daniel Patrick Moynihan to proclaim the breakdown of the black family in the early 1960s was 24%."

Murray makes clear that any and all govt. programs to help the underclass have been tried and they have failed. The interesting part of the article to me is how he pointed out that Katrina simply knocked down a screen between the poor and the middle class that the middle class had erected. We had created enclaves away from the poor.

This is so true. People are comfortable if they don't have to see the problem. We can pretend that it really isn't there. But Murray's last paragraph saddens me greatly. Because I know that it is all too true:

"Hurricane Katrina temporarily blew away the screens that we have erected to keep the underclass out of sight and out of mind. We are now to be treated to a flurry of government efforts from politicians who are shocked, shocked, by what they saw. What comes next is depressingly predictable. Five years from now, the official evaluations will report that there were no statistically significant differences between the subsequent lives of people who got the government help and the lives of people in a control group. Newspapers will not carry that story, because no one will be interested any longer. No one will be interested because we will have long since replaced the screens, and long since forgotten."

via Ace.

I stole this from Patterico's Pontifications This is the actual front page of the LA Times for Sept. 3oth. Which makes it appear as if the world has ended with Robert's confirmation. Maybe the LA Times thinks that it has? (Those are actually images of the California fires.)

Heh.

Disturbing...

Tammy Bruce has this:

"The CDC announced just today that small amounts of a highly infectious bacteria that causes "rabbit fever" was found in Washington DC on the Mall after last weekend's anti-war protests.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several government environmental air monitors in the Mall area detected low levels of Francisella tularensis bacteria that cause Tularemia, commonly known as rabbit fever, on September 24-25...The CDC said it issued an alert on Friday night as a precaution so medical personnel were aware of the situation and could report any suspected cases...Symptoms of the disease, which an infected person would have begun experiencing no earlier than on Monday, include: sudden fever, chills, headaches, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, muscle aches, joint pain, dry cough and progressive weakness...The CDC also said the bacteria can be used as a weapon if made into an aerosol that could be inhaled...

This story should be of particular note because of the obvious and continual meltdown of American leftists. Left-wing rhetoric before, during, and after the 2004 election exposed an increasing pathological violent hatred of the president and of America in general. Even today, Little Green Footballs exposed the extent of the left's inevitable meltdown with a post from a leftist blog actually advocating terrorism and murder."

UPDATE: We may be seeing the first effects of this infectious bacteria here. (scroll down just a tad)

via Don't Go Into The Light.

This simply must be captioned......

Thou Shalt Not Appropriate.

Nola.com has an AP story about New Orlean's Police looking into officers looting after Katrina. a Police spokesman "rejected the term "looting," but said authorities were investigating "the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items during the height of Katrina, from businesses."

Alrighty then.

via LST.