He’s Right

You know, I found this link over at Memeorandum, I had not seen Dadblog before now. But what he wrote over there hit a nerve. He is absolutely right here and we - and the media - should be asking ourselves why we hadn't seen that before.

Something odd. Guardian Unlimited is covering the bilious Muslim reaction to Salman Rushdie’s knighthood which includes the following gem:

“This is an occasion for the 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision,” Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister, told the Pakistani parliament in Islamabad. “The west is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologises and withdraws the ’sir’ title.”

So, outrageous, no? Psychopathic, insane, disturbing, inane. But here’s the weird thing - there isn’t one reference in the GU piece to the other side of the debate. You know, the side you’re probably on. The side that says people have the right to say and think what they want. The side that says a piece of art can never justify media or hatred. The side that Voltaire would have been on. It’s not there.

It is NOT there. The media coverage is about the inflamed "Muslim Street." No real mention about the freedom of speech issue. Not a damned thing about the rights of Salman Rushdie to not have to hide from deranged fanatics with a fatwah in one hand and an attitude in the other. We are losing control of the issues, we are losing the initiative. Our media is increasingly carrying - verbatim - the issues and concerns of fanatics with no counterargument at all. It is stated as a simple matter of fact. Lloyd Shepherd (Dadblog) gets it dead on right here:

Because at the moment, if you were reading this coverage, you’d think the knighthood was in some way justifiably controversial. Please, someone with a brain and a degree, get up there and argue with these fascist morons.

There is nothing controversial about the honor bestowed on Rushdie. There is quite a lot that is controversial in the press coverage. And rather a lot to be ashamed of.

Ineffective UN “Human Rights Council” Votes To Neuter Itself

So, tell me again why we continue to prop up the farce of the corrupt and inept United Nations? Now their useless "Human Rights Council" has effectively - hell, literally - neutered itself. It has voted new rules that effectively ban the appointment of expert UN observers to specific countries to monitor human rights violations. And the first beneficiaries of the new ban on monitors?

Cuba and Belarus.

"There is an agreement on a text which covers completely the institutional arrangements" for the functioning of the council, Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico told journalists.

"It is the beginning of a new era for the United Nations and a new culture in dealing with human rights."

Negotiations had gone down to the Monday 2200 GMT deadline set by the UN General Assembly. Eleventh hour disputes included conflicts over the rights monitors and a demand by China for an increase in the threshold for passing a country-specific resolution to a two-thirds majority.

Despite being opposed to the dropping of the rights monitors, one diplomat said Monday they were an acceptable "price to pay" for Western countries anxious to see the council's survival.

As part of the compromise, the 47 nations on the council agreed that current rights monitors "could continue serving, provided they have not exceeded the six's years term limit," according to the text.

Under that rule, 10 country rights monitors had their mandates renewed. Only monitors for Belarus and Cuba were not renewed, as they have served over six years.

The experts or "rapporteurs" on human rights, who probe allegations of abuse in particular countries or examine areas of concerns such as torture, are regarded as the eyes and ears of the United Nations' system of human rights protection.

"Decisions to create, review or discontinue country mandates should also take into account the principles of cooperation and genuine dialogue aimed at strengthening the capacity of member states to comply with their human rights obligations," said the new rules.

Western countries had strongly opposed China's demand for two-thirds majority for country-specific resolutions, and according to diplomats Beijing withdrew its demand, instead securing tougher language for action on such resolutions.

"Proposers of a country resolution have the responsibility to secure the broadest possible support for their initiative (preferably 15 members), before action is taken," read the new rules.

Western countries — who account form only a minority of the council's members — had vowed to uphold the independence of the rapporteurs, while African, Islamic and other nations had sought to impose further controls.

According to Western diplomats, the new rules will make it virtually impossible to appoint new experts to monitor human rights in specific countries.

Yes, indeedy. A whole new era has dawned. Where the inept UN will exponentially increase its ineptitude to truly astronomical levels. These are the people who want to control economies in the West - despite the rampant fraud in their "carbon mitigation" schemes. These are the corrupt gang of thieves who stole gobs of money in the oil-for-food scam in Iraq. And now they are the people who will turn a blind eye to the depredations of the worst regimes on the planet.

Tell me again why Turtle Bay isn't a condo development right now. Or better yet, a landfill. It seems a more fitting - and safer for the planet - use of that real estate.

Tragedy

Obviously, I have a lot of fun here with my "animal uprising" shtick. But this is definitely not at all humorous in any way. An 11-year old Utah boy, out camping with his family was dragged from his tent and killed by a black bear.

AMERICAN FORK, Utah - An 11-year-old boy was dragged screaming from his family's tent and killed by a black bear during a Father's Day outing in the Utah wilderness.

The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent Sunday night in American Fork Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, when the stepfather heard the boy scream "something's dragging me."

The boy and his sleeping bag were gone. The cut in the nylon tent was so clean, his family, who was not identified, first believed the boy had been abducted, U.S Forest Service officers said.

Wearing flip-flops and without a flashlight, the stepfather searched frantically for the boy and then drove a mile down a dirt road to a developed campground.

"He was pounding on my trailer door. He said somebody cut his tent and took his son," said John Sheely, host of the Timpooneke campground, who alerted authorities by driving down the canyon to a pay phone.

The boy's body was found about 400 yards away from the campsite, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County sheriff's office.

Wildlife officers led by hound dogs killed the bear Monday. After the bear was shot, an examination of the remains confirmed that it was the killer, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said.

"Truly a tragic event, said Jim Karpowitz, director of the agency. "Events of this type are extremely rare in Utah."

Which is a fairly disingenuous statement. The fact of the matter - according to the article itself - is that incidents involving bear attacks are on the upswing in Utah. Just not a lot of deaths. Yet.

Authorities said the death was Utah's first fatal attack on a human by a black bear. It follows reports of several bear sightings during spring and occurred just hours after other people in the same primitive campsite likely encountered the same animal.

The attack occurred in American Fork Canyon, a popular camping destination with elevations as high as 11,000 feet.

"When it's hot and dry like this, bears are short of food," Karpowitz said.

In May, officials reported black bears in Provo Canyon and Park City, including one that ripped through a screen door at a cabin where residents had burned food and opened windows.

Officers killed that bear because it showed no fear when biologists tried to scare it away with firecrackers, the wildlife agency said.

In July 2006, a black bear bit the arm of a 14-year-old Boy Scout while he slept in a tent, also in Utah County. The female bear returned to the campground and was killed.

An ugly fact here, folks. Wild animals are not - in any way, shape or form - the friendly creatures seen in Disney movies. They are not human and they have no human characteristics. And the predators, such as black bears, will see humans as a source of food if they are not afraid of them. Back when I was growing up, a big night of entertainment was going to the local town dump in the Adirondack Mountains to watch the "dump bears" scavenge through getting food. The dumps are gone now of course, replaced by landfills. And we have ever increasing numbers of wild predators that are not particularly afraid of humans. There is a collision coming.

My heart goes out to that family. And especially to that 11-year old boy.

Losing The War Of Will

"Whether he means to or not, he’s encouraging our enemies to believe that they are winning the critical war of will."

That is the closing sentence of a commentary by Fred Thompson about Harry Reid, or, as Reid's hometown newspaper refers to him, Bozo. It is devastating - and it is spot on with what is wrong with Harry.

Well, you've heard by now that Senate leader Harry Reid insulted one of this country's brightest military minds, Marine Corps General Peter Pace — calling him "incompetent." Let me take a few moments to put this in context.

First, Harry Reid voted for the war, like a majority of our legislators. America decided as a nation to free Iraq and the region from Saddam Hussein's tyranny. I have friends, both Democrat and Republican, who questioned the decision at the time, but the Republic made a commitment based on constitutional and democratic procedures. So they are now a hundred percent committed to moving forward in a way that’s best for our country. None of them, by the way, believe surrendering to the forces of terror in Iraq is what's best for our country.

Harry Reid, though, has taken a different route. He made his statement about General Pace on a conference call with fringe elements of the blogosphere who think we're the bad guys. This is a place where even those who think the 9/11 attacks were an inside job find a home.

And why shouldn't they think that? Reid has led the attack on the administration, with Nancy Pelosi, charging it lied and tricked America into supporting the war. Ignoring multiple hearings and investigations into pre-war intelligence findings that have debunked this paranoid myth, they accuse an entire administration of conspiracy to trick us into a war.

Harry will come to be reviled by the rank and file of his party for the gross mismanagement of pretty much everything he has touched since assuming power. I have done my share of criticism of the Bush administration. But every bit of second guessing - by people who voted to take us to war as Harry did - is dead wrong. Because whether we all like it or not, this is the war we have. And every expert - that Harry is now ignoring in exactly the way he charges the administration did - is saying that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be a disaster for America. You are either in a war to win it or you are in it to lose. Harry has made his choice obvious. He's more than willing to send the troops in, then play partisan politics against those same troops. That is shameful, that is wrong. And that is one of the reason's Harry will have a place in history. It won't be a pleasant place, but he'll have one.

(And Fred Thompson appears to get it. Will matters.)

Harry Reid’s Problem With Democracy

Yesterday, I linked to an article by a former Clinton administration official, Ronald Asmus, who decried the current Democratic party's problem with democracy. His point: that the Democrats were abandoning a core component of what has been the very essence of what the party has stood for through the years, the spread of freedom and democracy. If you needed any proof that Asmus is correct, look no further than Harry Reid. He has scheduled a vote on the "card check" bill that takes away the right of American workers to use a secret ballot.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to hold a vote this Wednesday on perhaps the most unpopular element of the Democratic agenda. The Employee Free Choice Act has already passed the House, but now it faces real hurdles in the Senate because, contrary to the name, it undermines workplace democracy.

Under the so-called card-check bill, a company would no longer have the right to demand a secret-ballot election to certify a union, thus stripping 140 million American workers of the right to decide in private whether to organize.

Republican senators, except possibly Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, are uniformly opposed to the idea. "We went to the secret ballot in the early 1800s in this country for a darn good reason: If somebody's looking over your shoulder, your ballot doesn't mean much," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says, noting fears of intimidation by unions should the bill pass.

But conservatives aren't the only ones concerned. A February survey of 1,000 likely voters by McLaughlin Associates found that 79% of respondents oppose the bill, with only 14% in favor. Even Democrats opposed the idea, 78% to 16%.

So why is Mr. Reid taking the risk of putting the bill on the floor, since even if it passed it would face a certain presidential veto? Simply put, the card check law is the No. 1 priority of union lobbyists in the new Democratic Congress. Union membership numbers are down. In the 1950s, 35% of private-sector workers belonged to unions; only about 7% do today.

Of course, union officials blame others for their decline. "In the past few decades, labor law has been so twisted by corporations and their union-busting hired guns that it is now virtually impossible to form a union against an employer's wishes," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says–even though unions currently win just over half of the elections called over union representation.

This is raw political payback, of course. Reid has no problem lying to his own friends on the far left but has to pay back union support - even though a vast majority of voters oppose the measure. A "card check" will allow quite blatant coercion by union organizers. Which, of course, is what they want. But it isn't what the people want. That secret ballot means a lot - ask people in countries where it isn't allowed. That's where dictators can get massive approvals in elections - because if you vote the wrong way, you'll pay.

Angels In The Architecture

Or the security cameras, as the case may be. Police officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico are at a loss to explain what, exactly, their courthouse surveillance cameras captured on Friday. Video shows a bright spot of light entering in for the right side of the screen, flitting about a bit, then leaving. But nobody knows what it might be.

A surveillance camera at the First Judicial District courthouse downtown captured a strange image Friday morning that left sheriff’s deputies, lawyers, clerks and judges scratching their heads as to what it might have been.

Some thought it was the ghost of a man killed at the courthouse more than 20 years ago after bringing a rifle to the building and taking several people hostage. Others felt it had to be a reflection from a passing car or a piece of cottonwood tree fluff. Still others threw their hands in the air, but somehow liked the image anyway or at least the hullabaloo it prompted.

“I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s neat that it showed up on a Friday,” said Sally Saunders, assistant to District Judge Stephen Pfeffer. “Now we have something to talk about.”

Deputy Alfred Arana first noticed the image when he arrived at the courthouse early Friday morning and began reviewing the surveillance video from the night before, said Sgt. Vanessa Pacheco of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department. Pacheco arrived half an hour later, and Arana said he’d seen something he couldn’t explain on the digital video and asked Pacheco to rewind it, she said.

When she watched the video, Pacheco was stunned. “It’s something unexplainable,” said Pacheco, who watched the 12-second clip over and over Friday. “I don’t believe in ghosts so I don’t think that’s what it is.”

The image, which starts at 7:27:11 a.m., shows a bright spot of light that comes from either the roof or near the courthouse’s back door on Catron Street — which is used only by law enforcement personnel. The light flits with buglike movements toward the west, appears to move across the front bumper of a parked police car and then traces a small semicircle in a gravel area in the frame’s foreground before leaving the frame at 7:27:23.

“To me, it looks like a person walking, but I don’t know why they have this neon light on their head,” said Steve Aarons, a lawyer.

The light looked a bit like a crab and seemed to crawl like a bug, though Pacheco and others who regularly look at the video said they’ve seen bugs on the lens before, and they don’t look like Friday’s image.

Dammit, Uncle Guido, we told you not to wear the promotional, light-up Crabitat beanie in public just yet. We haven't finished safety testing after the redesign following that unfortunate accident a few weeks ago. (He is expected to make a full recovery. Well, except for the permanent bald spots). Guido really is incorrigible.

Alligators In Sewers Are Bad

Alligators in your basement are even worse. An eight-foot alligator has been removed from the basement of a home in Buffalo, New York.

A former Buffalo couple who operate a reptile sanctuary in Tampa removed the eight-foot-long gator from the Buffalo home yesterday. The person who owned the 170-pound reptile had contacted the state Department of Environmental Conservation and said he couldn't care for the gator any longer.

A DEC officer checked out the gator and contacted Laura and John Paner, who run the Croc Encounters Reptile Sanctuary.

It's illegal to keep an alligator in New York state, but officials say the man who raised the gator won't face any charges because he turned himself in.

The man was obviously an agent for the Animal Uprising™. He also had a bunch of lizards and snakes around his home. Our informants tell us that the alligator has been scouting the Queen City and is heading back to headquarters in Florida to brief the invasion force that is forming up down there. It is believed that their target is the Anchor Bar where they plan to replace the legendary Buffalo wings that were invented there with something more to their taste. Human arms.

Duke Settles With Lacrosse Players

Duke University has probably done the smartest thing it could have under the circumstances. It has reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the three lacrosse players falsely accused of rape. One hopes the young men and their attorneys squeezed every penny out of the university that they could, considering the number of tenured faculty there who called for the legal lynching of the innocent players.

Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans were indicted last year on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense after a woman told police she was attacked at a March 2006 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper. Duke suspended all three, canceled the team's season and forced their coach to resign.

The allegations were debunked in April by state prosecutors, who said the players were the innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" by Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. He was disbarred Saturday for breaking more than two dozen rules of professional conduct in his handling of the case.

The players' families racked up millions of dollars of legal bills in their defense, and appear likely to file a lawsuit against Nifong.

Duke said in a statement that it had reached a private settlement with each former student after determining "it is in the best interests of the Duke community to eliminate the possiblity of future litigation and move forward."

Rough translation: "We would get the living heck kicked out of us it if this went to court. We'd better pay up now or pay a lot more when the jury hands us our heads."

UPDATE: Others: Durham-in-Wonderland, TalkLeft, Facing South, Gateway Pundit,  Townhall, The Moderate Voice, La Shawn Barber's Corner, A Blog For All, Right Angles,

Black Cat = Blackout

Mascoutah, Illinois experienced a double attack by the Animal Uprising™ earlier this month. First power was knocked out, then water. And the power outage was not the cause of the usual suspects, the suicide squirrels, this time. No, this time it was a suicide cat.

Mascoutah residents recently experienced a temporary blackout after a stray cat got into a transformer.

Power was cut to approximately 90 percent of the city about 11 p.m. June 5 when the cat was killed by the electrical surge.

"This is the first time we've had a cat (get into the transformer)," said Mascoutah Public Works Director Danny Schrempp. "We've had raccoons, squirrels, everything else."

A loud noise awoke residents living near the power plant. The city dispatched employees to the plant to attempt to fix it.

The initial outage only lasted an hour and a half, but the power failed again at about 7:30 a.m. the following morning. 
 
"We were in the process of cleaning the substation of the remains when a gear failed while we were trying to get everything isolated," said Robert Litrell, power plant supervisor. "We switched the gear out."

But that's not all, not only was the town assaulted by an extra-crispy cat. At virtually the same instant a water main was broken. The local utility just thinks it was an old pipe, but we know what really happened, don't we? It was the alligators in the sewers. They broke that pipe intentionally. They're waiting down there for the crew that gets sent to fix it.

Man-Eating Sheep On The Loose!

New Zealand, where sheep literally outnumber humans by a ten to one ratio, is now exporting a movie about killer sheep chewing on humans. It is the Animal Uprising™ on steroids!

After decades of filling Britain's supermarket shelves with lamb, New Zealanders are exporting sheep of a different kind.

An extraordinary horror film that features a flesh-eating flock has gained cult status in a country where 40 million sheep outnumber people by a ratio of 10-to-1.

Black Sheep relates what happens when Henry Oldfield, a "sheep-phobic" whose fear of the animals dates back to a terrifying childhood experience, returns to the family farm to persuade his brother Angus to buy out his share.

Angus is running a reckless genetic engineering programme and when environmental activists release a mutant foetal lamb the farm's flock turns into rampaging carnivores thirsting for revenge on their human captors.

Since its eye-popping world premiere in Auckland, on what is claimed to be the world's largest cinema screen at 100ft wide and 33ft high, Black Sheep has become New Zealand's highest earning horror film. (Ed note: They have more than one?)

There is one thing missing from all this media attention. Sure, the movie is boffo box office and is being seen in more and more theaters. But that doesn't excuse the glaring error in the coverage. You see, this isn't a horror film.

It's a documentary.

Global Pedophile Ring Smashed

Police agencies from a number of countries have cooperated in smashing a world-wide pedophile ring. 31 children have been rescued as a result and some 700 suspects arrested. Details are still a little sketchy but the investigation has been in progress for most of a year now.

LONDON - British police, with aid from U.S. investigators, have shattered a global Internet pedophile ring, rescuing 31 children and rounding up more than 700 suspects worldwide, authorities said Monday.

Some 200 suspects are based in Britain, said the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center. Authorities would not break down where other suspects came from.

The ring was traced to an Internet chat room called "Kids the Light of Our Lives" that featured images of children being subjected to horrific sexual abuse — including streaming live videos.

Police rescued 31 children, some of them only a few months old. More than 15 of the children were in the United Kingdom, the child protection center said, refusing to elaborate. Authorities would not say where the other children were from.

Officials did say the United States, Canada and Australia were Britain's main partners in the investigation, which involved agencies from 35 countries and lasted more than 10 months.

Coverage from the Daily Mail here.

15 British children have been rescued after police smashed a huge global internet paedophile ring.

In the UK 100 paedophiles have been arrested and a further 100 are being investigated as part of the investigation into an online trading ground for indecent images of children and live exchanges of abuse.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre said altogether 31 children have been rescued from abuse.

The paedophiles used an internet chatroom called "Kids the Light of Our Lives" to swap photos and videos of children being subjected to horrific sexual abuse.

The last 10 months of the massive police investigation has involved agencies from 35 countries around the world.

Much of this is going to be redundant right now since so little detail has been released so far. I have some rather strong personal beliefs about pedophiles and am glad this bunch has been rounded up. If I had my way, all people convicted of this crime would spend the rest of their lives in prison. Period. What they have done is nothing short of murdering the childhood of their victims. Those victims will spend the rest of their lives in the hell that the pedophiles have inflicted on them. It seems fair to me that the victimizers never walk free again, either.

The Strongarm Of The Law

There has been a lot of coverage in the media about the Washington, DC judge who is suing the pants off a family over a pair of pants. Walter Olson takes a look at that situation today in the Opinion Journal. Olson runs Overlawyered.com, so he's familiar with a lot of the abuses that our legal system permits. Such as suing a dry cleaner over a missing pair of pants for $54 million.

When attorney Roy Pearson filed suit demanding $67 million from the Chung family, whose Washington dry cleaners had mishandled his pair of trousers, he must have felt he was sitting pretty. Menacing a merchant who's annoyed you with terrifyingly high legal penalties–that's the way to show who wears the pants, right?

Mr. Pearson probably had no idea that his Great American Pants Suit–the trial of which just wound up in a Washington courtroom last week, with a verdict expected this week–would stir commentary around the world and come to symbolize the extent to which lawsuits in America can serve as a hobby for the spiteful and a weapon for the rapacious.

It all began two years ago when Mr. Pearson walked into Custom Cleaners, a Northeast D.C. establishment owned by Jin Chung, Soo Chung and Ki Chung. He laid down $10.50 to have a pair of pants altered. The results dissatisfied him: The job wasn't finished on time, and he says the pants he was given were someone else's, which the Chungs deny. He demanded $1,150 for a new suit; the Chungs demurred. So it was off to court, with the claimed damages subject to alterations, in an expansive direction.

How billowy did those damages get? Well, it seems Mr. Pearson needed to be paid for 10 years' worth of weekend car rentals so that he could patronize a different dry cleaner. He wanted $500,000 for emotional distress and–though representing himself–$542,000 in legal fees. Best of all, he claimed that the signs on display at Custom Cleaners, "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Same Day Service," were fraudulent, entitling him to damages of $1,500 each per day under D.C. consumer law. He multiplied 12 violations by three defendants by 1,200 days, and soon was up over $65 million (later cut to a mere $54 million).

The real problem here is the lack of "loser pays" rules. The Chungs are being ruined financially over this and the law is part of the problem. Someone who knows how to game the system can ruin their enemy.

Interesting Times

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, takes a look at the Republicans struggling to gain the party nomination for president. And he concludes that the entry of Fred Thompson is very likely to shake things up mightily.

There are a variety of potential Republican scenarios. Almost all of them depend on how Thompson fares in the coming months because presidential politics, after all, is the ultimate zero-sum game.

If Thompson's support continues to grow, especially McCain and to a more limited degree former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who trails in the national polls but leads in fund-raising and the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, inevitably will see their presidential chances go down the tubes.

It is impressive that as a non-candidate, Thompson has so far elbowed his way past Romney in the national polls and pulled even with McCain. But, with his hat in the ring, Thompson will be judged by a different standard. We'll see if he is just the fresh-face flavor of the month as the other candidates hope, or the southern fried version of Ronald Reagan that his supporters believe.

Front-runner Giuliani, too, could find himself in an uncomfortable situation should Thompson catch further fire. History tells us that the former New York mayor's candidacy could be problematical should he face an opponent from the party's southern base.

We'll see if Thompson's candidacy is as attractive in the flesh as on paper, but his expected entrance early next month will bring a geographic and cultural dimension to the race that has not been in the mix until now. It is one that could work to his benefit.

The Sun Belt has dominated the Republican Party for the last half-century. In recent decades, religious conservatives have carried great weight in the process that has consistently nominated right-of-center candidates who reflected those views and values.

Neither Giuliani - whose views on abortion, gay rights, and gun control are at odds with the GOP mainstream — nor Romney, whose position on some of those same issues has changed to adhere to the party consensus, fit that political profile of recent Republican nominees.

He concludes that it will be an interesting summer. I've been saying that ever since rumors about Thompson began circulating. While it remains to be seen what will happen after Thompson formally enters the race, he is definitely going to shake some things up. And some people as well. I'm sure some candidates are thinking about that old Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times.