Livin' In America

Now you know.

Updates at the Sorboonne:

High dropout rates, antiquated resources and funding cuts have so plagued the Sorbonne, like universities across France, that its president, Jean-Robert Pitte, is calling for an overhaul of the university system. He wants to make admission selective and sharply increase tuition, measures critics call "Americanization."

So. Admission standards and paying your way is "Americanization." France sounds like a real cloud-cuckoo land.

Fortunately, Sarkozy doesn't need to stay in office to avoid prosecution. He'll probably turn the water cannons on protesting students.

This is hysterical! Though, it does confirm my suspicions about Chirac.

For about a decade he bent to every breeze in the French body politic. Why? In order to stay in political office. This wasn't political office for power's sake, however. This was political office in order to stay out of court.

Now that he's a private citizen, I expect we'll see investigation, prosecution, and imprisonment.

You have to pity the French in all this. They're in the middle of a vast stagnation because they twice elected a pure cipher whose only aim in life was to avoid prosection.

Still, he did feed them all that juicy anti-Americanism. Mmm mmm good.

Grim news in the war on terror.

This is interesting.

Hmmm. With the election of Angela Merkle and Nicholas Sarkozy, and now a profile of the mosques in Europe, maybe the Europeans are waking up.

I mean, leaders that aren't reflexively anit-American, and an assessment of the threat Europe faces.

It's almost too good to believe.

I like this post about law and cooperation.

An open letter to Senator Saxby Chambliss, after his appearance this morning on Fox to descuss the upcoming illegal immigrant amnesty bill.

Dear Senator Chambliss,

I caught you on Fox this morning. I have to say it was a pretty sorry display, especially compared to Senator Shelby.

You say the alternative to this bill is the status quo. Well, what's that, exactly? Failure to enforce current law? As I recall, the President signed into law a bill providing for a fence along a substantial portion of the southern border. And then decided not to enforce that law. Every morning I pass dozens of illegal immigrant day laborers at the Shell gas station at Shallowford and I-85. How about enforcing current law, rounding them up, and sending them home? You won't, will you?

Given those examples, I simply don't trust you, the President, or the rest of the establishment that's foisting this amnesty upon us. Beyond that, I simply cannot believe just how tin-eared you and the White House are on this issue. I can see how you enjoy illegal immigration - a low-cost supply of labor to mow your lawn and polish your airplane. The rest of us see the signs in Spanish outside the local elementary school, the billboards in Spanish on Chamblee-Tucker Road, and hear the announcements in Spanish when we call Wachovia. This wasn't the case as recently as 10 years ago. Now, however, the area around my house has turned into a little barrio. Another 10 years, and we'll have another Los Angeles, complete with drive-by shootings and gang graffiti. Not that you'll be worried, flying as you do over it all on wings waxed with illegal labor.

Taking a word from Ronald Reagan, I no longer "trust but verify." I simply "verify." And right now you, the White House, and the rest of your don't-enforce-current-law cabal are failing.

I'd encourage you to listen to your constituents - the ones that are here legally, and can vote legally, that is - and reverse yourself on this fiasco of a bill. Demand that current law be enforced. In particular, demand that the President build that wall. Show some resolve, some spine. For God's sake, at least stand up for the people who pay your damned salary!

If you're not interested in this, I look forward to your prompt and permanent return to private life.


Patrick Carroll
--

One would expect a person living in a glass house to avoid throwing stones.

Of course, Jimmah's never been all that smart. Couple that with a petty mean streak a mile wide and, well, you get the comments above.

If this immigration bill passes, I think I'll renounce my citizenship, apply for one of these "Z" visas, and save a lot on my income taxes.

Have you heard about this horrific double kidnap/rape/murder?

Of course you haven't, it doesn't fit the profile for any of the stories the legacy media wants to tell you.

Compare this with the Duke Men's Lacrosse Team. White on black crime? Check. Rich against poor? Check. Men against woman? Check.

Or with Matthew Shepard. Homophobia? Check.

Or James Byrd. White on black racism, leading to murder, in a state run by a Republican. Oh yeah, baby! Check!

But, black on white crime, with carjacking, sexual assualt, murder? Not a story.

And the legacy media wonders why newspapers are going out of business, and why the legacy media nightly TV news reaches less than 10% of Americans.

It's because they're not telling the news, they're telling the story they want you to hear.


UPDATE: "Here are the lies!"

Hmm. Well, this is an interesting election strategy.

Popular opinion is not behind the Senate's amnesty plan.

Money quote:

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who gained national prominence by targeting illegal immigrants living in his small northeastern Pennsylvania city, cruised to the Republican nomination for a third term on Tuesday - and unexpectedly won the Democratic nomination, too.

Listening to the Fox news channel on XM radio this evening, I heard one of these guys attempting to defend their remarks.

Uttery disgusting.

Oh, and where's Al Sharpton on this? Nowhere, obviously, because Condaleeza Rice isn't authentically "black."

Ther eare days when the hypocrisy piles up so fast you need wings just to stay above it.

Offered without comment.

Well, except to note that a graph of negative news stories over the same teim range would probably track much more closely. It's always 1968 somewhere in the legacy media.

In the last week, I've head global warming stories indicating that

- Dams and hydro-electric plants generate more greenhouse gases than coal-fired plants, causing global warming.

- Growing plants for biofuels will cause mass deforestation and starvation - simultaneously, causing, um, global warming and population reduction. Which makes them carbon neutral, I guess.

- Plasma TVs "waste" four times as much electricity as normal TVs, causing global warming.

Am I the only one out there who's seeing a bit of hype here?

We've won in Iraq.

Yes indeed, we've won.

How do I know, you ask. Well, today on the way home from work, I caught a report on the BBC about the Dura Market in Baghdad. A BBC reporter, just returned from 72 hours with a US Army platoon, was reporting in.

Now, given that lead in, I'd be expecting the normal baby-killer, civilian-assaulting profile for which the BBC is justly famous. Instead, the troops interviewed, a private, sergeant, and lieutenant, came across as professional and caring, despite massive pressure, and as totally committed to completing the mission. The sergeant, in particular, was really impressive, indicating that since we'd taken responsibility for peace in Iraq by invading, we'd be responsible for chaos in Iraq if we left prematurely.

None of the troops supported timetables for withdrawal, seeing them as nothing but planning tools for al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) (or "Mesopotamia", if you work fro the New York Times).

Questioned, the reporter allowed that the Dura Market had 200 vendors up and running and that the market was safe. Further, he commented that AQI was attempting to step up its tempo to match the American surge, in order to inflict enough American casualties so as to win the propaganda war in the US.

The bottom line to this report, however, was American commitment, and American success, and it's the first time I've heard anythign like this on the BBC in *months*. I think the BBC has figured out that AQI is going to lose, that Iraq will be stabilized, and that the US is not losing to this insurgency, and it (the BBC) doesn't want to be in a position of reporting disaster for the US right up to the point where miraculous victory occurs.

The BBC is covering its ass. We're winning.

When two cults go to war.

I heard about this while listening to the BBC World Service yesterday evening.

It seemed to me that on one side you had representatives of a fanatical cult trying to foist its views on the rest of the world and on the other...the Church of Scientology.

I really don't know who to cheer for here. Troskyists vs. Scientologists, what's the difference, really.

One hardly knows whether to envy their culinary experiences.

As an Irish guy, this has been one amazing week for me.

Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness sharing power in a government?!?!?!!! Cats lying down with dogs!

Then Paisley shows up to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne with Bertie Ahern?!?!?!!!

I can't for the life of me figure out what's going on. My suspicion is that the Catholics of Northern Ireland are out-breeding the Protestants and Paisley, seeing the writing on the wall, is making the best deal he can, while he can.

I hope things go well, but I have my doubts. McGuinness and Gerry Adams led a Marxist-Leninist insurgency that claimed dominion over all 32 counties of Ireland. I hope that these particular leopards have changed their spots. Given that the IRA has morphed into a drug smuggling cartel, maybe they're making the best deal they can too.

Run, don't walk, to see the movie "Hot Fuzz."

If I recall correctly, Mr. Scott did wear a red shirt, so losing the landing party was inevitable.


UPDATE: Mr. Scott found. I guess the curse of the red shirt is ended.

"...Katie is having such a tough time being accepted by the public, which seems to prefer the news from white guys...".

White guys. Ruling the world since, well, forever!

Future cell phone technology.

I, for one, welcome our new GPS overlords.

Tony vs. Paul.

Shift happens.

Happy I am to read of Perky Katie Couric's slide in the ratings. With any luck, the affable Eva Braun of American TV will soon be tossed on the trash heap.

Something else to note: total viewership of the evening news amounts to about 6% of the US population. Sell your legacy media stocks now!

You just have to love socialists.

Santiago's new public transport system is a complete failure, so Socialist World argues that the solution is to nationalize the country's *entire* transport system.

Human rights for robots?

Atlanta is bigger than Boston. Who'd have thought?!?!!? Democrats fleeing the high-tax, high-bureaucracy, highly-PC states they've created are moving from places like Boston adn New York, to places like Atlanta.

The downside, of course, is that sure as they're fleeing the middens they've created they're going to do it all over again.

I won't support McCain because of his attack on the First Amendment. That said, this Ted Rall cartoon is waaaaaaaaay over the top.

More on Rall's normal state of mind here.

The Religion of Pieces is at it again.

Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily-armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mind you, these immigrants, illegal and otherwise, were willing to do a job most Americans aren't.


UPDATE: Maybe it was just Sudden Jihad Syndrome.

A couple of weeks back I caught a BBC World Service article about the psychological problems of Palestinian children exposed to Israeli violence.

All heart-rending stuff, just the sort of thing to incite loads of hatred against anything Israeli.

This morning I caught this piece on Fox News. Basically, Palestinian TV uses a Mickey Mouse lookalike to encourage kids to go out and commit terrorist acts.

Do you think that might contribute to the psychological problems of Palestinian kids? I mean, when Mickey Mouse is telling you that your future should be to go out as a suicide bomber, are you going to face your day in a calm, happy way?

The US has provided lots of aid to the Palestinian Authority, including money. For this, we get a new generation of suicide bombers. Let's just keep the money. They'll still hate us, and want us dead, but at least we'll have saved some cash.

Rasmussen just posted an interesting poll. Lead paragraph:

Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.

In other words, 61% of Democrats are barking mad.

Personally, I find it kind of interesting that this isn't a lead story on CNN/HNN/MSNBC/CBS/ABC/NBC. Perhaps the legacy media hesitates to publish the fact that 30% of voters are complete nutcases, and that the nutcases are almost exclusively Democrat.

The latest news from the Middle East? Same old, same old.