Intemperate Thoughts

Who's to blame for high gas prices?:
"From drilling to refining to distribution, environmentalists have done everything they can to raise the price of gasoline."

How Dangerous Is Outsourcing?:
"Exaggerating the dangers of outsourcing and sending data abroad won't make our data any more secure. On the contrary, the facts of the Mphasis case suggest that in some cases, data may be safer once sent abroad. Reflect for a moment on how quickly the alleged criminals in Pune were caught. Consider for a second the fact that they were caught by the 'cybercrime unit' of the Pune police force. Ponder for a minute the fact that a place most of us have never even heard of before (really? 'Pune?') even has something called a 'cybercrime unit.' I know my hometown doesn't."

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze:
"These people are actually selling 'I love Social Security' bumper stickers, shirts and more. Is there a better way to show your friends and neighbors that you have completely lost all touch with reality? Here we have a system where they have to cough up 14% of their earnings every single paycheck, and that money is either (a) sent to current Social Security recipients; or, (b) spent by the Congress on some of their vote-buying schemes. In return for your so-called 'contribution' you are told that you will receive some sort of a benefit when you reach a certain age. The benefit is not guaranteed, and the age can be changed. And you're supposed to love this system? "

Alan Reynolds: Social security vs. stock returns: no contest:
"In the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, Thomas Garret and Russell Rhine earned the last word on this topic. They calculate what the return would have been to those who retired in 2003 if they had instead been allowed to invest the money they 'contributed' to Social Security in an S&P 500 index fund or 6-month CDs. Then, they compare what retirees' amortized monthly income would have been if payroll taxes were invested with what it actually is under Social Security. What they found was that 'over 99 percent of the U.S. population would have earned a greater return by investing in the S&P 500, and over 95 percent would have earned a greater return by investing in 6-month CDs relative to the current Social Security system.'"

THE LARRY SUMMERS JIHAD:
"Besides, what ever happened to academic freedom? We're told that in the case of Ward Churchill, outrageous anti-American statements should be considered protected speech with no consequences. Yet when Larry Summers suggests in a speech that there must be some reason why women don't do as well in math and science...now he should be fired.

Liberals are all for freedom of speech as long as they agree with what is being said. Once someone dares to challenge their lexicon, they must be gotten rid of. "

Marines driven out of UAW lot:
"[Y]ou don't come into my office and say, 'OK, we're not going to support some of your Marines.' I don't know what a foreign car is today anyway. BMWs are made in South Carolina now."
-- Lt. Col. Joe Rutledge, C.O.

Ann Coulter: Calling the kettle gay:
"So now liberals are lashing out at the gays. Two weeks ago, the New York Times turned over half of its op-ed page to outing gays with some connection to Republicans. There is no principled or intellectual basis for these outings. Conservatives don't want gays to die; we just don't want to transform the Pentagon into the Office of Gay Studies.

By contrast, liberals say: 'We love gay people! Gay people are awesome! Being gay is awesome! Gay marriage is awesome! Gay cartoon characters are awesome! And if you don't agree with us, we'll punish you by telling everyone that you're gay!'

In addition to an attack on a website reporter for supposedly operating a gay escort service and thereby cutting into the business of the Village Voice, another Times op-ed article the same day gratuitously outed the children of prominent conservatives."

Jonah Goldberg: How many are there?:
"Elite liberal journalists never have agendas, even when they're peddling and defending lies. Conservatives always have an agenda, even when they're trading in facts."

John Leo: Playing the old blame game: "Patricia Frankhouser of Jeannette, Pa., is suing Norfolk Southern Railway over injuries she sustained when she was hit by a freight train. In her suit, she argued that the railroad should have warned her that walking along the tracks was dangerous. She also charged that the train should have yielded the right of way."

Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze: More Zero Common Sense Policies:
"Today's lesson in government idiocy comes to us courtesy of the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. It seems last Thursday little 10-year-old Porsche Brown took a pair of scissors to school. That's right, a pair of scissors. These were 8-inch scissors. In other words, full-sized scissors...like sewing scissors. About the length of a width of a piece of paper.

Where you send your kids to school could be the most important decision you make as a parent. Turn them over to the government to be brainwashed, and this is what you get. This is how our government schools are teaching children to think, reason and resolve disputes. Good luck trying to sleep tonight."

Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze: Serves Them Right:
"Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts. Fine. There is no way in the world that is going to have any affect on my life or marriage. I do think, however, that if they want to be married they should take all that comes with it. Now it seems that they are. Gay couples who got legally married back in the Spring are now filing for divorce. How long will it be before the Boston Yellow Pages have listings for gay divorce attorneys? How will the ads be worded? Is the attorney gay? Or does he just represent gay couples? One gay couple recently had a mighty custody case ... over the three cats. The cats eventually went with the professor.

Another interesting twist .. and more evidence of the law of unintended consequences. Companies in Massachusetts who used to offer 'domestic partner' benefits are canceling those programs. These companies see no sense in offering benefits to unmarried couples who could legally marry and qualify just the same way breeders do. The gay rights activists are saying that this just isn't fair. It isn't fair because the decision for a gay couple on whether or not to get married is 'harder.'"

Senators Take Out $800 Billion Homeland Equity Loan:
"The U.S. Senate today voted to increase the federal debt ceiling to $8.18 trillion by applying for an $800 billion Homeland Equity Loan through Ditech.com.
Under the terms of the loan, which the President of the Senate Pro Tempore applied for online in only minutes, the United States government can borrow up to 80 percent of the value of the nation with no credit checks.
'At first we thought about cutting spending on bloated federal bureaucracies which strip people of their dignity by trying to solve their problems for them,' said one unnamed senator, 'but that's hard. So we decided to borrow more money instead.'"

Record tomato prices squeeze fast-food sellers' profits - Food and Beverage - Commodities: "A 25-pound crate of tomatoes is selling for $24, more than triple last year's $7 average price, and freight costs push the cost to about $30 a crate. With restaurants loathe to pass those costs on to consumers, a number of companies may see their bottom lines diced by rampant tomato-price inflation."
Sounds like the revenge of Tereeeza Heinz-Kerry to me!

Dennis Prager: 'Things you have to believe to vote Republican': A response:
"One of the more popular anti-Republican documents making the rounds on the Internet is titled 'Things You Have to Believe to Vote Republican Today.' Its popularity is exceeded only by its shallowness, which renders the document much more reflective of the liberals who admire it than of the Republicans it attacks. But given its popularity, I offer brief responses to its claims"

Dems Register al-Qaida Terrorists in Ohio Vote Drive:
"In a bid to get out the vote for John Kerry, Democrat activist groups in Ohio have registered at least two known terrorists involved in a plot to blow up a shopping center."

Tim Blair: THE TERRIFYING FACE OF FORGIVENESS
And these peace creeps don't think for a second that the Islamic Fascists they openly support wouldn't murder them at the drop of a hat if they had half a chance? Why don't they go over there with their Islamic terrorist buddies and fight against the Allies? What a bunch of spineless whiners and malcontents who enjoy the freedoms America provides but deny it for everyone else.

Jonah Goldberg: The myth of the disenfranchised:
"Already, in state after state, the Democrats have said that voter confusion over how to vote constitutes voter disenfranchisement. But, as George Will recently noted, disenfranchisement is something the government does to you. It's not something you do to yourself. If you can't figure out how to fill in the ovals or punch the chads - and some minority of voters will always botch it - that doesn't mean your right to vote was rescinded. It means that you didn't take your right to vote seriously enough to pay attention to the instructions. Democracy requires two things: an electorate that takes its responsibilities seriously and small-d democrats of all parties who take the process seriously."

Mike S. Adams: The impotence of being earnest
"Oscar Wilde also said this about making moral judgments: “It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.”
Oscar Wilde wasn’t bright enough to recognize that calling something “absurd” and labeling some people as “common” and others as “charming” are forms of moral judgment."

Dennis Prager: Why I cannot vote for John Kerry:
"A vote for John Kerry is a vote for Michael Moore, the ACLU, Ted Kennedy, trial lawyers, George Soros, the leftist academics who morally confuse generations of young Americans, and for Dan Rather, CBS News, and nearly the entire news complex that daily presents a proctologist's view of America. A vote for John Kerry is a vote for Jesse Jackson, whom Kerry has named a top adviser; and for Al Sharpton, with whom Kerry campaigns; for Sean Penn and his Hollywood world; and for the passionately pro-Kerry MTV, the greatest destroyer of young people's minds and souls in American history. And a vote for John Kerry is a vote for the countries that have abandoned us and against the countries that are helping us."

The Producer. Meet Mary Mapes, the crusading journalist behind CBS's current troubles. :
"Former employees of KIRO, the CBS affiliate in Seattle where Ms. Mapes got her start in the 1980s, agree. Some told me that the seeds of CBS's current troubles may have been planted more than 15 years ago when Ms. Mapes was a hard-charging producer at KIRO. Before she left Seattle to become a producer at Mr. Rather's 'CBS Evening News,' Ms. Mapes produced a sensational report on a killing of a drug suspect by police that rested on the shoulders of an unreliable source whose story collapsed under cross-examination. Sound familiar?"

Her former coworkers and friends describe her as being an advocate in journalism. She went into journalism to propagandize and bring about a great socialist revolution. While those say it is fine to be an advovate on the opinion side of the journalism shop, as it were, it is very dangerous on the news side of the shop. Mary Mapes, who is Dan Rather's right hand, appears to have a history of lying and forging news. The same thing can be said of ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/MSNBC in general.

Black Voters 'Afraid' of Electronic Voting Machines, Activist Says -- 09/30/2004:
"'I got the hell out of there Saturday, and I would suggest you do, too. Until we get rid of those Bushes (President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush), we're going to have a problem in Florida,' Bland said. "

No, Ms. Joanne Bland, the problem is not President or Governor Bush. The problem is Democrats and the "culture of failure" in "minority" neighborhoods. The problem is Democrats keeping poor people poor by discouraging achievement and encouraging mediocrity.

Black Voters 'Afraid' of Electronic Voting Machines, Activist Says -- 09/30/2004:
"An African-American civil rights spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines 'terrify' her, and that blacks are 'afraid of machines like that.'"

I thought the reason we went to electronic voting machines (without paper trails, by the way) is because some people (read: Democrat Floridians) are too stupid to put a stick in a hole. Monkeys in the jungle have figured out how to poke a stick in a hole in a tree to get food. Why can't we humans figure out how to stick a hole in a card to indicate our vote? Maybe this is more evidence that too many stupid people vote? While a literacy test would help keep stupid people from voting, unfortunately such things have been abused in the past and have since been ruled unconstitutional. While I'm not saying that one must solve a Rubick's Cube to be able to vote, but being able to read a ballot and poking a stick in a hole is not unreasonable.

Although I would not say that I am "terrified" or "afraid" of electronic voting machines, but I am concerned that they do not produce a paper ballot or any kind of paper trail. How do we know that there won't be voter fraud, which has been shown to be a primary Democrat tactic in the past? How do we know that they won't fiddle with the machines or that there isn't some hidden code in the device's programming to overcound Democrat votes and/or undercount Republican votes? What do we do if the device is mishandled or if it malfunctions and loses all the votes on the device?

Is Cat Stevens a Terrorist?:
"In 1996, Imam Hamza Yusuf declared, 'I am a citizen of this country [the U.S.A.] not by choice but by birth. I reside in this country not by choice but by conviction in attempting to spread the message of Islam in this country. I became Muslim in part because I did not believe in the false gods of this society whether we call them Jesus or democracy or the Bill of Rights or any other element of this society that is held sacrosanct by the ill-informed peoples that make up this charade of a society. . . . [T]here should be no voting or debate . . . [W]e have no room for ayes or nays.'"

And you still think that Muslims pose no threat to Liberty and to the United States of America?

Democrat slugs area GOP chief, GPD says.
Another example of the open-minded, tolerant, peace-loving Democrats going "postal" because they know they are losers. In this case, the Democrats sent a goon, an assistant professor at Santa Fe Community College -- influencing our young skulls full of mush in a government school -- to the Republican HQ to start a fight with the staffers there. Unfortunately for the professor/goon, he picked on the wrong guy to fight. The guy the goon decided to fight, Travis Horn, was a off-duty police officer. After Mr. Horn convinced the goon to leave the office, the goon took a poke at Mr. Horn. Mr. Horn was forced to defend himself and put the goon in a world of hurt.

The goon, still not learning his lesson, is still belligerant and threatens a lawsuit against Mr. Horn. This is one trial I'd love to be on the jury. IMHO, since the goon went out of his way to start a fight, and since deady force was not used, any injuries he sustained in that fight were of his own darn fault. In fact, I'd put the goon in the county lockup for a month and subject him to a few years of anger management therapy to see if that helps him learn the error of his ways.

If the Democrat goon had just minded his own business, none of this would have happened. Let that be a lesson to you Democrats. Keep your nose out of other people's business, and keep your dirty fingers out of our wallets.

boortz.com: HOW VERY PROUD THEY MUST BE:
"We're getting close to the start of the Olympics in Athens. Almost $1.5 billion (that's with a 'B') has been spent just on security for these Olympics. That's more than ten times what was spent on security in Atlanta eight years ago. There's one primary reason for these concerns over security and this spending. One reason, one word. Muslims. The great and wonderful peaceful religion of Islam has spawned a violent arm that wants nothing more than to kill anything not Muslim. How proud Muslims must be."

Terror in the Skies, Again? - WomensWallStreet
A vivid first-person account of an incident that happened recently on a domestic flight from Detroit to Los Angeles. In short, 14 Syrian men, allegedly musicians, boarded the flight. They did not associate with each other the flight and they were dispersed throughout the aircraft. Once in the air, they stood in the isles for much of the flight, cycling in and out of the restrooms carrying bags, cameras, etc.
A follow-up to the original article appears here.

IMHO, so-called "racial profiling" is not a bad thing if you have reasonable doubt. We were attacked by middle-eastern-looking young male muslims. Fourteen of them board your flight, that should get your attention. They stand up and walk up and down the isles, that would be suspicious. They cycle in and out of the restrooms carrying bags, that would be suspcious. To keep one eyes open for trouble and keeping an eye on the troublemakers is not "racial profiling". It is being aware of your surroundings and paying attention to suspicious characters.

Why were these 14 not searched harder? They are travelling on one-way tickets with no baggage except for their instrument cases, and they look like the kind of people who attacked us and have sworn an oath to the devil to destroy us. It is because the Transportation Security Agency has a "but for" policy. As in, "but for the fact they look like terrorists, is there any reason to search or investigate further?" As a result, they strip search toddlers, the elderly, and Norweigans, but not give a second thought about 14 Syrians with one-way tickets and no baggage.

Why did the Dept. of Homeland Security not investigate further? Why did they not verify their stories? Why did they not arrest and deport the 13 who were in the U.S. illegally on expired visas?

Michelle Malkin: Five reasons to fear the Democratic party:
"Here are five other reasons to be afraid, very afraid, of putting a Democratic administration in charge of guarding America's gates."
(A definite must-read for every American.)

boortz.com: 'SHALL WE FINISH IT OFF?':
"Those were the words of one of the 9/11 Muslim hijackers flying the plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The 9/11 Commission report released yesterday reveals the passenger revolt began at 9:57am on September 11, 2001, 30 minutes after the Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked the plane. The report says they intended to fly the plane into the White House or the U.S. Capitol, but were thwarted by the passengers of United Flight 93. As the passengers attempted to ram down the cockpit door, the Islamic jihadist pilot pitched the nose of the plane up and down to try and disrupt the assault. Eventually, when that didn't work the hijackers crashed the plane into the ground shouting 'Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!' That's right...Islam..the religion of peace was at work right there."

Scouting jetliners for new attacks - The Washington Times:
"Flight crews and air marshals say Middle Eastern men are staking out airports, probing security measures and conducting test runs aboard airplanes for a terrorist attack.
At least two midflight incidents have involved numerous men of Middle Eastern descent behaving in what one pilot called 'stereotypical' behavior of an organized attempt to attack a plane.
'No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack,' an air marshal said.
Pilots and air marshals who asked to remain anonymous told The Washington Times that surveillance by terrorists is rampant, using different probing methods."

Brent Bozell: The FOX-hater's upside-down world:
"They think conservative dissent is a clear and present danger to the socialist 'paradise' they want to inflict on society. "

Michelle Malkin: The dangerous game of catch-and-release:
"As for the federal government's priority of only enforcing the law against 'previously deported' aliens, Chamberlain wonders -- at a time when millions of illegal aliens are living, working, studying, voting and lobbying for their 'rights' -- how anybody ever gets deported anymore. Chamberlain is furious and decided to go public with the incident, despite a politically correct code of silence among police chiefs about open-borders chaos. 'We're asked by our government every day to increase our awareness and try to apprehend' law-breakers, Chamberlain mused, 'and then they tell me to kick 'em loose? It's frustrating.'"

NewsMax.com: New York Times Hides Berger's Shame:
"The scandal-plagued paper has buried the day's big news, about Sandy 'Light Fingers' Berger, at the bottom of Page A16 in a seven-paragraph wire story. This unpleasant reality isn't even mentioned on the front page."

Walter E. Williams: Free health care:
"The Fraser Institute, a Vancouver, B.C.-based think tank, has done yeoman's work keeping track of Canada's socialized health-care system. It has just come out with its 13th annual waiting-list survey. It shows that the average time a patient waited between referral from a general practitioner to treatment rose from 16.5 weeks in 2001-02 to 17.7 weeks in 2003. Saskatchewan had the longest average waiting time of nearly 30 weeks, while Ontario had the shortest, 14 weeks. "

boortz.com: LOONY LEFT TAKES OVER NAALCP
:
"Yesterday, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond delivered a speech bashing the Republican party, accusing them of 'playing the race card in election after election.' This is interesting, because it is Democrats that play the race card in every election, not Republicans.

It is Democrats that insultingly pander to the black community, begging for votes in exchange for welfare spending and hiring quotas. Through the soft bigotry of low expectations, the NAACP and their masters in the Democratic party have become the new pimps in the black community. They want to keep everyone as dependent on government as possible.

Bond continued, further proving his own stupidity and intellectual bankruptcy by saying that the Bush tax cuts were put in place to 'further enrich the already wealthy and to starve the government, making it unable to meet human needs.' By that statement alone, Julian Bond is now an admitted Communist. After all, he believes it is the job of the government to meet the needs of the people."

Jonah Goldberg: Malign Condescension - or Benign Neglect?:
"Leftists, both white and black, have always warned that poor blacks would starve if government stopped 'helping' them - or they'd turn to crime, riot, spontaneously combust, whatever. Personally, I've always found the notion condescending and racist that blacks would turn animal without the domesticating influence of government spoon-feeding."

boortz.com: FAHRENHYPE 911 FADING INTO OBSCURITY
:
"After barely opening at #1 (slightly edging 'White Chicks',) Fahrenheit 911 was blown away by Spider-Man 2, when it opened the following Wednesday. Now that Spidey has been in theaters for over a week, where is Michael Moore? Well, his movie has slipped to third, behind 'King Arthur,' which hauled in nearly twice as much on Wednesday. So what's the point of all this?

The point is, you hear none of this from the media. As Moore's movie tumbles down the box office chart, blazing the well-paved trail through the $2 movie theaters and onto DVD, the media is mum. No headlines saying 'Fahrenheit 911 slips to second, then to third at the box office.' Or how about 'Michael Moore movie having no political impact like we thought.'"

boortz.com: FLORIDA VOTING GAMES:
"The Florida Division of Elections has decided to allow 2,500 convicted felons back onto the voter rolls under the guise of not disenfranchising voters. By the way, that's also a pant load, because no one was disenfranchised in 2000. Every vote was counted, recounted and counted again. George W. Bush won the State of Florida fair and square (I know that makes you bedwetters cringe, that's why I love saying it.) This latest decision amounts to vote-hunting....in case the election is only 537 votes apart.

So yesterday The Poodle and The Puppy campaigned throughout Florida whining about how 'every vote will be counted' (even though every vote was counted in 2000.) Already, the excuse groundwork is being laid in case there is another close Bush victory there. People are questioning the ballots and lawsuits are being filed all over the state."

Nets Treat Liberal Label for Edwards as Unsupportable Accusation -- Media Research Center:
"FNC's Carl Cameron, on Special Report with Brit Hume, uniquely stated as a fact that Edwards is a liberal: 'Kerry, who had the most liberal voting record in the Senate last year, has now picked a multi-millionaire former trial lawyer with the fourth most liberal voting record.'"

Brokaw Corrects Allawi When He Claims Saddam-al-Qaeda Link --6/30/2004-- Media Research Center:
"That ended the interview, but I noticed that in Allawi's last answer NBC cut from what aired a sentence which appeared in the posted transcript on MSNBC.com: www.msnbc.msn.com
In the that version, Allawi's last answer began, with what NBC cut in ALL CAPS: 'No. I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al-Qaeda. AND THESE RELATIONS STARTED IN SUDAN. We know Saddam had relationships with...'
By coincidence, last Friday's (June 25) NBC Nightly News ignored a front page New York Times story, from that day, about how a document found in Iraq revealed that Hussein's regime reached out to bin Laden in Sudan."

Generating more heat than light:
"These are the intentional misstatements of fact that elevate Moore to the apex of American political bigotry. He may be fond of deflecting criticism with the 'It's just my opinion' defense, but that won't wash.
Do we excuse the racial or religious bigot just because it is someone's 'opinion' that blacks are inferior or Jews are the devil's spawn?"

boortz.com: HILDABEAST SHOWS HER TRUE COLORS:
"And now we have Hillary proudly and arrogantly announcing that the government is going to seize property from individuals for 'the common good.' Don't ignore the message here. You are not a free individual. You exist to serve the state. Hillary is here to show you the way."