exit zero

July 25, 2004

Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?
Editor Daniel Okrent says – Of course it is.

Once again, the NY Times gets it wrong. First of all, they’re not liberal, they’re elitists and they’re leftists.

..and New Yorkers have known this for years. This ‘news’ is not fit to print because it’s too old.

The definition of liberal is anti-authoritarian and anti-elitist. A paper that sticks ads for Tiffanys & Bloomingdales between a multitude of articles downplaying the crimes and misdeeds of the rich, the powerful and the left-leaning could hardly call itself liberal.

The New York Times is liberal as Noam Chomsky is blue-collar. For years the Times has been staffed with plenty of limousine lefties whose attitude towards the rest of the world is ‘let them eat cake.’

Or, as Daniel Okrent would say: "let them eat those rolled, cream-filled gateaux which mullett-coiffed devout Christians and their ilk purchase and consume in bulk. What is the colloquial term..?

Ding dongs! Ah, yes, let them eat ding dongs..."

Anyway, that’s why most New Yorkers read the Daily News and the Post.

Posted by Mary at 11:35 AM | Comments (3)

July 23, 2004

real brownshirts..
Dean Esmay posted a link to the National Socialist German Worker's Party Platform. Here are a few points from the Platform:
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the maintenance of our people and the settlement of our surplus population.

4. Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen Hence no Jew can be a countryman.

5. Those who are not citizens must live in Germany as foreigners and must be subject to the law of aliens.

So does socialist=browshirt? Dean says:
Nazis were, indeed, pretty hard-core socialists (abolition of interest, redistribution of land, mandatory profit sharing for workers, nationalization of major industries, etc.), although they did embrace the principle of private property in some areas.

Still, here's my hint to people who like to compare modern politicians or governments to the Nazis: if someone isn't a racist militarist bent on mass murder and world conquest in the name of the master race, he's not a Nazi.

It’s true – despite the fact that the black bloc anarchists use some of the tactics used by the Nazis in their formative years, and despite the fact that Nazis were hard-core socialists, even the most extreme ANSWER creeps aren’t directly comparable to the brownshirts.

But there’s no question that Islamist groups are. In fact, the National Socialist German Worker's Party Platform reads like the Cliffs Notes version of Sayyed Qutb's dreams of genocidal jihad. It’s obviously the basis for Hamas’ Covenant:

Islamists and their supporters are racist militarists bent on mass murder and world conquest in the name of a master religion.

What does the 9/11 commission believe that we should do about this? From Jeff Jarvis:

The report goes on to make recommendations regarding Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. Then it turns to wimpy, Coke-commercial foreign policy that does not answer the question of how to bring democracy to the Middle East and rid it of terrorism. Put on your Birkinstocks and get our your guitar as you read this:
The U.S. government must define what the message is, what it stands for. We should offer an example of moral leadership in the world, committed to treat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous and caring to our neighbors. America and Muslim friends can agree on respect for human dignity and opportunity
What the hell does that mean? According to the Commission, we will win this war in... libraries?
The United States should rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope.Where such assistance is provided, it should be identified as coming from the citizens of the United States.
Excuse me, Mr. bin Laden, shhhhhhh!
Could we have won WWII in libraries? Could we have won by trying to be more popular in the German world? Should we have had more dialog with the SS?

I don’t think so.

Posted by Mary at 03:17 PM | Comments (5)
Go USA!
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United States is calling for U.N. sanctions against Sudan if the Khartoum government does not stop militia attacks in the Darfur region.

An estimated one million people have been displaced due to fighting between ethnic Arab militia and black rebel groups in western Sudan since fighting broke out last year.

The United States is circulating a draft resolution that would for the first time target sanctions against the Sudanese government.

While the Bush administration did not define the sanctions, the draft resolution submitted to the U.N. Security Council also demands the government of Sudan arrest the militia leaders involved…

Of course, the mighty voices of the international community are joining the US in this fight against slavery, ethnic cleansing and oppression..

...umm...they should be. Why is it that the only sound I hear is the rain against my window?

Posted by Mary at 11:57 AM | Comments (3)
Ordinary life
One of my favorite comics, Keith Knight, runs a series called ‘Life’s little victories’ - tiny little daily occurrences that make one quietly say "YES!!"

I had a bunch of those when I went into the Bronx to visit Grandma today. First, I was in the lanes leading to the upper level of the George Washington bridge, and they were backed up for forty minutes. The lower level lanes weren’t backed up at all. There was a gap in the guardrail dividing them, with many signs saying do not enter, entry forbidden and no illegal turns. I made an illegal entry into the lower level lanes and no police pulled me over. YES!

I found myself in the quick EZ Pass Lane and bypassed about a mile of traffic in front of the toll booths – YES!

Parking on Grandma’s side of the block is prohibited from 11am to 1pm on Thursdays. I arrived at 1:05 and had a whole block of spaces to choose from – YES!

Grandma was in good health and good spirits, her apartment wasn't air conditioned but it was cool and I got to talk to people I hadn't seen in awhile. It would have been a perfect day if the back tank of my toilet hadn’t exploded when I got home, sending a fountain of blue water shooting up to the ceiling. Life was back to normal..

Posted by Mary at 12:05 AM | Comments (2)

July 21, 2004

invertebrates
The Maldives are a group of Islands in the Indian ocean. It’s also an Islamic nation, which means that as a matter of law, all citizens are Muslim. Like the planned Palestinian constitution, their criminal laws will be based on the principles of Islamic law, or Shari’a.

Shariah penalties include death by stoning for adultery and cutting off hands and feet for theft. A Muslim who renounces Islam would be guilty of apostasy, which under the bill is punishable by death and confiscation of the offender's property. Under shariah law, slavery is allowed.

Shariah law is basically the legalization of crimes against humanity. Not surprisingly, these (literally) criminal laws, like most crimes against humanity, are supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Nations.

Surprisingly, these laws are also supported by the law school at the University of Pennsylvania. Apparently, they’re okay with stoning and slavery. They’re so okay with it that they’re going to use law students to draft a Shariah criminal code for the Maldives.

What can these students learn from these fascist laws? Well, since the Saudis contribute large sums of money to Ivy League institutions like U. Penn, they’re learning that our legal and our educational institutions can be bought by fascists whose morality exists at a parasitic, viral level. I guess that’s important to know.

Posted by Mary at 06:18 PM | Comments (12)
profiling
I read Annie Jacobsen's report about the Terror in the Skies. I’ve also read Michele Malkin’s take on it, Donald Sensing's opinions and Armed Liberal’s post, The Reverend and Eye.

In general, I agree with Sensing and AL. Profiling doesn’t always work. But that doesn’t mean I’ve never done it…

I was in New York City with my family a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, during the anthrax scare. We’d come in for dinner and a movie, bringing some money into the city, just like Rudy Giulinai asked us to do.

Times Square was crowded but subdued. The kids noticed how hesitant and quiet people were. Photographs of people who were missing in the WTC attacks were still pasted up on walls and telephone posts. The smoky crematory smell wasn’t as strong as it was downtown, but something funereal had settled over Midtown.

My daughter stopped to check out some black and white photographs at an outdoor vendor’s stand. He had a collection of the usual photos of the Brooklyn Bridge, the John Lennon ‘Imagine’ memorial, photos of the World Trade Towers displayed prominently.

The vendor was Middle Eastern – green eyed, light skinned, smiling and joking with his friends. He looked to be about fifty years old, Lebanese. His friend was about the same age. They were speaking in what (as far as I could tell) sounded like Arabic. A younger man, clean shaven, wearing hijacker khakis and an unfriendly expression, watched us carefully. He didn’t say anything and he didn’t laugh. When the vendor turned to us, something about his smile was false. Slowly, I started to realize that these guys were giving me the creeps. I also thought that if you were going to plan for a major anthrax attack in a crowded part of the city, this stand was a very good location.

In general, after 9/11, I believed that we shouldn’t profile Muslims in this country. I figured that they had come here to get away from all of the craziness back home. They wouldn’t bring it with them. I made a point of shopping at our Muslim owned 7/11. Whenever we got takeout, it was gyros & kebabs. I thought profiling was a bad thing, but these men made me nervous.

So, when the kids weren’t with me, I went back to the vendor’s stand. The vendor’s friend and the young man were gone, and his smile seemed more genuine this time. I shuffled through his photos, asked him how long he’d had a stand in Times Square and put my purse in one of the boxes under the table. I asked him if I could take a picture of his stand. He smiled, tolerantly, and let me look under the table to retrieve my purse. I didn’t see any vials of anthrax under there, no gas masks, no big bags of powder marked with a skull and bones – just framed photos. The vendor wasn't giving off any more bad vibes - he was very tolerant, even friendly. The creepy feeling was starting to dissipate.

From that silly exercise I got a nice, framed black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge (only $15) and some peace of mind. Yes, I was profiling, and I was making up loony scenarios, but when someone or something is making you nervous, it’s probably better to find out more about them rather than sitting and stewing in fear.

I have a premonition that something bad is about to happen whenever my kids walk out the door, because I’m an overprotective worry wart. My fears usually dissipate when I find out where they’re going, when they’ll be back, and who they’ll be with. Sometimes premonitions and fears are justified, and sometimes they’re not.

Annie Jacobsen sounds like another worry-wart mom. That’s why I’m glad she wrote this article. As the 9/11 commission pointed out, the passengers on flight 93 were the only ones who reacted effectively to the attack. We need to know more about how airline security works and we need to know more about individual passenger experiences. And we need to know more about these ‘musicians’.

Despite what our politicians and our media believe, we can handle the truth - it's in their best interests to tell it to us.

Posted by Mary at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2004

"Yes, I've got monkeys in my pants socks."
- Robert Cusak, concerned environmentalist and convicted pygmy monkey smuggler
In related news, via Yahoo: Sandy Berger, former President Clinton (news - web sites)'s national security adviser, is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department (news - web sites) after highly classified terrorism documents disappeared while he was reviewing what should be turned over to the Sept. 11 commission…

.. Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants, and also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio. "I deeply regret the sloppiness involved, but I had no intention of withholding documents from the commission, and to the contrary, to my knowledge, every document requested by the commission from the Clinton administration was produced," Berger said in a statement to the AP.

Say what? He had no intention of withholding documents from the commission so he stuffed them down his pants?

That lie doesn’t work for the shoplifter on the street. Monkey thief Robert Cusak didn’t even try to get away with it - it’s not going to work for Berger.

At ASV, Michele explains why:

When I was a young juvenile delinquent (made so by peer pressure from my cousins and not of my own doing because nothing was ever, ever my fault, you see) we often hung out a place called PlayWorld. Well, hung around outside is more like it. You know, loitering. PlayWorld was a huge toy store, much like Toys R Us, but without the talking giraffe. And without very good security. My friend Patrick liked to boast that he could steal anything from anywhere and never get caught. So we challenged him to steal a skateboard from PlayWorld. Patrick, true to his word, made his way out of the store with a skateboard stuffed down his pants. He just found the smallest skateboard he could and stuck it down the back of his right pant leg and proceeded to hobble out of the store as if he were a child gimp.

Unfortunately for Patrick, his father pulled up just as he was unloading the skateboard from his pant leg. When Patrick tried to explain that he was just "umm...holding it there because umm...I didn't feel like carrying it....", the father smacked him in the head and said: Patrick, you are a liar. And not a very good one. Because no man would put a skateboard down his pants unless he was trying to hide it. Pants are not crime accessories, young man! And then he marched Patrick back into the store and we never saw our skateboard stealing friend again.

You do see where I'm headed with this, right? Patrick's father had a point. Who would stuff something down their pants if they weren't attempting to steal that something? That's what pockets are for.

So Berger took a five finger document withholding and now he’s being probed (Small Victory has a great Cartmanesque take on that too).

This is such a flashback to the old days of the Clinton administration, when the crime committed was overshadowed by the embarrassing and overwhelmingly doofy actions of the perpetrator. If I close my eyes I can imagine that dot-com stocks are worth a hundred dollars per share..on the radio, Prince is singing 'Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999'.

Let’s sit back and listen to the secrets of the rich and the powerful, kept snugly in their pants.

Update: Berger ‘withheld documents’ by stuffing them into his pants and his socks.

I'm glad Mr. Cusak didn't try that with the pygmy monkeys.

Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis said that Berger was "a person of impeccable honesty and integrity"

Another Update: Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis also said that the person who made the relevant sock comment was a liar. He also said "..if that person has the guts, let's see who it is who made the comment that Sandy Berger stuffed something into his socks."

..umm..the person who made that comment was Berger.

...

Iowahawk has a bunch of updates - Trousergate Update: Clinton Aide Accidentally takes 9/11 Docs, Notes, Jolly Ranchers:

...According to FBI sources, Berger also stopped off at a Bethesda, MD Chevron FoodMart, where he inadvertantly stuffed his pants with three bags of Jolly Ranchers, a 24-pack of Bud Lite, a copy of Maxim magazine, and Listerine Pocket Mints before driving off without paying for 14 gallons of unleaded super.

An apologetic Berger said that "my bad," and offered to return several cans of Bud Lite to the Chevron.

If anyone, especially Dems, were wondering, yes, this is a parody.

..but in fact, the Dem blogs and the -so-called-liberal-media have been very silent about this. Spooky...

Posted by Mary at 11:07 AM | Comments (2)