Wednesday, August 27, 2003

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Ahh, Philly mayoral politics:

Last night, someone threw a bottle filled with gasoline and plugged with a wick through the front window of the Katz campaign headquarters in North Philadelphia. But there was apparently no attempt to light the wick according to police.

This all follows a confrontation that several witnesses saw outside the building yesterday. The dispute was between the mayor's son – Sharif Street – his driver and the landlord of the building.

The landlord told police that Shariff Street's driver told him that they were going to "take down" him and his building if he didn't have the Sam Katz headquarters removed. Other witnesses say it was Sharif Street who made the threat.

The Katz campaign has said they've rented the offices for about a month, but they just put up the signs in the windows 2 weeks ago. Campaign workers also say that almost immediately they started getting threats.


I actually heard that they didn't really mean any harm because they didn't light it. A friggin' Molotov Cocktail was thrown through the window of an opposing candidate for Christ's sake.

This is the town that re-elected a mayor who burned down two blocks.

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A party at the local skating rink or a Phillies game is all I ever got for my birthday party. Of course most of my friends Mom's weren't MILF's:

A Pennsylvania woman was arrested after allegedly buying her son and 3 of his friends beer and stripping for them in a hotel in an attempt to make up for a failed birthday trip to ride go-carts.

In the room, the woman gave the boys beer, gave them $1 bills, told them she wanted to be a stripper and asked them to put the money in her bra and panties, police said. She also exposed herself and asked the boys to spank her, police said.


I bet the kid won't forget that birthday.

Not this kinda MILF you idiot.

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The price of alleged infidelity under Sharia law:


A tearful 32-year-old woman cuddled and nursed her toddler in an Islamic appeals court Wednesday as lawyers pleaded she be spared death by stoning for having sex outside marriage.

Heavily veiled and draped in the sweltering courtroom, Amina Lawal appeared overwhelmed by the crush of riot police, journalists and rights workers as she arrived for a case that has sparked international campaigns on her behalf.


The "Religion of Peace" my ass.



Monday, August 25, 2003

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Mark Steyn is the voice of reason.

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Racist.

It is a word that is deeply troubling.

For a white person to be accused by a black person of that vile belief is extremely troubling. How, as a white person, who has never been accused of it respond? The old "some of my best friends are black" line just makes you sound and feel stupid. What is the correct response, if one exists. The Best Man at my wedding was black (he was), Does that suffice? Hardly.

I'm from the camp that aspires to the creed that, yes, we are different. Just as an hispanic is different, and a homosexual, and a white guy from Louisiana is different. I will form my opinion of you based on, as Dr. King said, the content of your character. I base judgement on the the content of your personality. If you are an asshole, regardless of ethnicity, I want nothing to do with you. If I find you to be lazy or arrogant, I will deal with you on a professional level, but will not bend over backwards because of the color of you skin.

I recently dealt with this issue. The fact that the word was thrown out, at me, with no proof was staggering. I don't look at myself as racist. But what is racist? My friend whom is black said that pretty much all white people are racist, they just don't know it. While discussing the issue, me saying I wasn't, him believing in his heart, that all white people prejudge blacks, asked an interesting question, that question was "what if I brought home your daughter?". An interesting question to say the least. I answered that it wouldn't matter if you had good character and treated her well. How would I really feel? Does anyone know the answer to that question until they are faced with it?

Charles Barkley's wife had a quote to this effect, (she's white) " the only people who have trouble with our marriage is white men and black women. It's an interesting quote in that it's basically true, to a point. The older generation, be they white or black, is appalled at the notion of inter-racial couples. More so on the white side. That said, a child who attends a largely African-American school who has one white parent and one black parent will be discriminated against by the students.

I'm ranting. A question though, am I a racist for criticizing Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton? What about O. J. or Rae Carruth? I sing the praises of Condi Rice and Colin Powell, who in the eyes of some blacks are "Uncle Toms". Am I racist? I guess it depends on who you ask.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

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I saw this today:

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened

Winston Churchill


I think the main problem that anti-war types have concerning the recent events in Iraq is that Bush stumbled over the truth and is sticking with it. We can't leave until we complete the task. What is the task? Peace in the Mid-East? No. It's putting any country that harbors terrorists on notice that we are not fucking around. We will make the regimes responsible pay dearly. This is not Imperialism or about oil, it's about our national security and that of our true allies. Blair and Howard among others see it, and Bush sees it. I feel sad that this must be reiterated on a seemingly daily basis.

From Tim Blair I poached this beauty:

If war against militant Islamic terrorists didn't happen in Iraq now, it was going to have to happen somewhere, sooner or later. September 11 and Bali are proof enough.


Better to bring it on now, at a time of our choosing, with all the cockroaches gathered for a showdown out in the open in Iraq, rather than cower at home, our economies shrinking, our civilians picked off, our enemies growing stronger, until we finally wake up to the fact that fighting is necessary, and find it's too late and we are too weak.


And this:

We've taken the War Against Terror to our enemies. It's far better to draw the terrorists out of their holes in the Middle East, where we don't have to read them their rights, than to wait for them to show up in Manhattan again.


In Iraq, we can just kill the bastards. And we're doing it with gusto.


I believe that W understands this and will act with resolve. Hell, it just may cost him the election if it continues. I don't believe that bringing the troop home with the job incomplete can be a winning campaign strategy however. The papers will pound the quagmire rhetoric, I don't think the voters will buy it.



Monday, August 18, 2003

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The Arab culture is just sick. And the Palestinians are feeling regret for a dead journalist. Why is Reuters showing only Palestinian reaction to the death of this guy?

Sunday, August 17, 2003

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This has been linked by lots of people, but I was away and didn't catch it til today:

When I read that Daniel Pipes had been nominated to the board of the United States Institute of Peace (a federally funded body whose members are proposed by the president and confirmed by the Senate), my first reaction was one of bafflement. Why did Pipes want the nomination? After all, USIP, a somewhat mild organization, is devoted to the peaceful resolution of conflict. For Pipes, this notion is a contradiction in terms.

I am not myself a pacifist, and I believe that Islamic nihilism has to be combated with every weapon, intellectual and moral as well as military, which we possess or can acquire. But that is a position shared by a very wide spectrum of people. Pipes, however, uses this consensus to take a position somewhat to the right of Ariel Sharon, concerning a matter (the Israel-Palestine dispute) that actually can be settled by negotiation. And he employs the fears and insecurities created by Islamic extremism to slander or misrepresent those who disagree with him.


Hitchens has some salient points. Would Pipes be a good nominee for that role? He is to the Israeli side what Said is to the Arab side. The entire blogosphere would be screaming bloody murder is Said was nominated.

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An interesting article about Germany, Poland and the Holocaust legacy.

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I returned yesterday from my favorite city in America, San Diego. I lived there for near ten years and try to go back annually. I have a nice deal where I have business in town every August.

I must say I was struck by several things. First, SD is a military town like no other, NAS North island, Point Loma Subase, Naval Station, and the Naval Amphibious base are all within close proximity to downtown. MCAS Miramar and Camp Pendleton are in the northern part of the county. Everyone in SD has a link to the military and it shows, a majority of stores have signs thanking the sailors and the jar-heads, and offer discounts. Granted this is just good business, but it also is done of the peoples freewill. Most people in SD have some connection to events playing themselves out in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether it's a friends son, a co-workers daughter, or a spouse. The town knows that we must continue the fight and not run like we did in Somalia and Beirut, the stakes are just to high.

The second thing I once again became aware of was the porousness of our borders and the ineptness of the Border Patrol. Here's just two examples from the past week.

First

After spending a month in a Tijuana prison, a relieved but visibly shaken Adrian Rodriguez held his wife's hand tightly yesterday as he walked across the border a free man.

A few hours later, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection held a news conference to announce tighter inspection procedures for vehicles such as the car Rodriguez bought at an auction of vehicles seized by Customs.

Rodriguez, of Chula Vista was arrested July 15 after he took the car to Tijuana for repairs. Inside the car, which U.S. inspectors had previously confiscated for drugs, the mechanic found a secret compartment filled with marijuana


The car was sold to him at auction by the Border Patrol and they have since checked other vehicles and found more drugs they missed earlier.

Next:

The announcement came one day after a 12-year-old Mexican girl was found in a van at a federal storage facility in Otay Mesa. She spent nearly two days alone in the van after it was seized at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C., said the additional inspections began late last week, but he did not say what led to the action, other than that "it was necessary."


I agree that they have had their hands tied on occasion:

A controversial order that largely barred 1,600 San Diego-based Border Patrol agents from stopping suspected illegal immigrants on city streets was rescinded yesterday by officials in Washington, D.C.

The directive, issued in an Aug. 8 memo from San Diego sector chief William T. Veal, had provoked widespread fury among the agents and touched off a public outcry after the memo was leaked to the media earlier this week.





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How not to win over Philly voters:

Just ask Sen. John F. Kerry, who's going to have to do some fancy chewing if he hopes to recover his front-runner image after stumbling this week through his first try at Pat's King of Steaks.

He ordered a steak with Swiss cheese.

Gasp!

Swiss cheese, as any local knows, is not an option. The Massachusetts Democrat may as well have asked for cave-aged Appenzeller. But even when Kerry was given a proper cheesesteak hoagie, he made matters worse by delicately nibbling at it as if it were tea toast.


That'll show your manly side JFK.

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Another mass-murdering tyrant goes to Hell:

Amin's murder methods were among the most sadistic recorded in history. In 1973, an anti-Amin guerrilla organization, Front for National Salvation, gave this description of what was happening in the country:

"People have been choked with their genitals, their heads bashed in with sledgehammers and gun butts, hacked to pieces with pangas, disembowelled, blown up with explosives, suffocated, burned alive in cars and houses after being tied up, drowned, dragged along roads tied to vehicles, starved to death, whipped to death, gradually dismembered."

The luckier ones were shot and then burned, buried or fed to crocodiles.


Of course he was afforded the opportunity to live out his life in peace thanks to the Saudis. I still love what the Israelis did to him at Entebbe.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

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An epic speech. I wish I had been there to here and see the response from the crowd, which no doubt, expected something different.

It is, in any event, such realities--the brutalizing and murder by the Baathist regime of tens upon tens of thousands of its own nationals--that the recent war has brought to an end. It should have been supported for this reason, irrespective of the reasons (concerning weapons of mass destruction) that George Bush and Tony Blair put up front themselves; though it is disingenuous of the war's critics to speak now as if the humanitarian case for war formed no part of the public rationale of the Coalition, since it was clearly articulated by both the president and the prime minister more than once.

Here is one approximate measure of the barbarities of the Baathist regime I have just referred to. It comes not from the Pentagon, or anyone in the Bush administration, or from Tony Blair or those around him. It comes from Human Rights Watch. According to Human Rights Watch, during 23 years of Saddam's rule some 290,000 Iraqis disappeared into the regime's deadly maw, the majority of these reckoned to be now dead. Rounding this number down by as much as 60,000 to compensate for the "reckoned to be," that is 230,000. It is 10,000 a year. It is 200 people every week. And I'll refrain from embellishing with details, which you should all know, as to exactly how a lot of these people died.

Had the opposition to the war succeeded, this is what it would have postponed--and postponed indefinitely--bringing to an end. This is how almost the whole international left expressed its moral solidarity with the Iraqi people. Worse still, some sections of the left seemed none too bothered about making common cause with, marching alongside, fundamentalist religious bigots and known racists; and there were also those who dismissed Iraqi voices in support of the war as coming from American stooges--a disgraceful lie.


I don't agree with what he said only because he echos my thoughts. I agree with him because he's right. The Left hates Bush more than the Right hated Clinton (and I didn't think that was possible). They have turned into revisionist historians in recent months and I don't believe it helps their case.

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Lileks is back!

Perhaps I the only one who winced at this: “God has once again brought an Easter out of Good Friday.' said Rev. Gene Robinson after his election as the first openly gay bishop. Good heavens, man, why don’t you just do the full James Cameron: hop up on the cross and shout I’m King of the Jews!

This story has irritated me from the start, and it has nothing to do with Rev. Robinson’s sexual orientation. The guy left his wife and kids to go do the hokey-pokey with someone else: that’s what it’s all about, at least for me. Marriages founder for a variety of reasons, and ofttimes they’re valid reasons, sad and inescapable. But “I want to have sex with other people” is not a valid reason for depriving two little girls of a daddy who lives with them, gets up at night when they're sick, kisses them in the morning when they wake. There's a word for people who leave their children because they don't want to have sex with Mommy anymore: selfish. I'm not a praying man, but I cannot possibly imagine asking God if that would be okay. Send them another Dad, okay? Until you do I'll keep my cellphone on 24/7, I promise.


Amen brother! Arnold, Gnat, and a Simpsons reference in one article. Go read him and drop something in his tip jar.

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Glenn has a story on pacifism gone amok:

BEWARE THOSE ARDENT FRENCH PACIFISTS!


The actress, Marie Trintignant, died Friday in a Paris hospital, with severe head and face injuries. Her rock star companion, Bertrand Cantat, is confined to a prison hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Ms. Trintignant was working on a film for television based on the life of Colette that is directed by her mother, Nadine Trintignant. . . .

As preparations were announced today for Ms. Trintignant's funeral at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, many people said they were stunned that a love affair between performers who so publicly embraced pacifist causes could end so violently. Both were ardent opponents of the war in Iraq.



Irony abounds.




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Biden has campaign funds stolen. So what, this guy steals money, Biden stole words:

And then, as the campaign continued, Biden used someone else's words in a speech. The campaign was over. In later years, the mistake seemed to pale by comparison to modern Washington indiscretions.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

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The most corrupt city in America has to be Camden, NJ. Well maybe Newark but that's for another day. Check this out:

Though the situation today is entirely different, the department's policy of taking over these cars has raised questions again. How did a 1998 Lincoln Town Car, reported stolen from a Pennsauken man in January, become the new "mayormobile"?

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office is reviewing how the police department acquired the car that was later assigned to Mayor Gwendolyn A. Faison.

The car was reported stolen from Robert Vinis on Jan. 9 and recovered that same day in Camden. City authorities say they followed all state-mandated procedures in trying to contact the owner and lien holder. But Vinis said he found out only from the Courier-Post on July 24, that his car had been found.

State Farm Insurance paid Vinis $14,000 for his loss this spring.

When a stolen or abandoned car goes unclaimed and can be auctioned, the police department has the right to acquire it for city use.


But wait, it gets better:

Faison and Camden police officials maintain there was no wrongdoing in obtaining the Lincoln for the mayor's use. The city paid about $3,000 for tinted windows, four new tires and a black paint job - the car was white when the city found it. Faison has had the car since June 27.Monaco said there was nothing wrong with the white paint job when it came to the tow yard in January.

Councilman Israel Nieves last week urged the prosecutor's office to look into the situation.

"The mayor is in complete denial of this issue and a lot of issues," Nieves said. "I think there's some negligence happening in the police department."

Pugh said he doesn't think there is anything criminal in the department's policy, but said it should be reviewed.

"You have many procedures in place and when they appear to be violated it's necessary for you to take an in-house look. No one did anything wrong but you have a bad policy," Pugh said. "I think the policy of utilizing stolen cars, especially outside of the police department, is a bad policy."

He said, "One thing I came to learn early on is you can be right and you can be wrong all at the same time."


I'll say, they actually tinted the windows and painted it. They got the certified letter back unopened and still didn't do due diligence in finding the rightful owner. Reminds me of a story from my old haunt:

The TV Show 60 minutes once ran the license plates of cars belonging to Mexico Federal Police Agents at a facility just over the El Paso border. The majority of those agents' personal vehicles were stolen from the U.S.




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It's been a long week without the Bleat. Hopefully tomorrow.

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Across the Atlantic tells the ladies things they should know. Stephen Green handled the other side.

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Tim Blair has some insiight on the Jakarta bombing:

Maybe they know that joke. After all, Indonesia’s blast masters practice often enough. But they’re stuck playing at home. And as a terrorist slogan, “Think global, act local” doesn’t cut it.


Meanwhile, consider the effect of this attack on what we might call Jemaah Islamiah’s target audience. We were warned that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would cause Muslims the world over to rise up in outrage against the West; that hasn’t happened, but the attacks in Bali and Jakarta may provoke across Indonesia an even greater opposition to terrorism than already exists.


Muslim terrorists might soon discover how dangerous it is to alienate the world’s largest Muslim population.


I think most Muslims are not happy with bombing like this or the Bali bombing. They killed MOSTLY Muslims. Eventually they will have their say.

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

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Camera has an update on the Tony Auth cartoon I mentioned the other day from the Inquirer. A takeoff of Nazi propaganda? You decide.
(Via LGF)

Monday, August 04, 2003

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Another group of terrorists. Don't get me wrong, I love animals. I currently have 3-dogs, a cat, 2-birds, 2-fish, and 2-hermit crabs. Should animals be tested on unnecessarily? No. If the testing furthers science and may save the life of my wife or child, that to me is a benefit. Until computer science catches up with biological science, this testing won't end.

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American terrorists strike again:

Dozens of investigators on Monday were probing a $20 million arson that appears to be the work of the Earth Liberation Front. If front activists are responsible, it would be the costliest attack ever by environmental extremists.

THE FIRE early Friday leveled a 200-unit condominium complex that was under construction in what had been a scenic canyon with nearby wetlands.
A 12-foot hand-painted banner found on the scene read: “If you build it — we will burn it — the ELF’s are mad.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported it had received an e-mail from the ELF claiming responsibility.
“It does look as we progress on that the ELF has taken responsibility,” said FBI special agent Jan Caldwell. “That does put it in the arena of domestic terrorism.”
San Diego’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, an interagency operation of federal and local authorities, was being briefed, Caldwell said. About 100 investigators, including an FBI Evidence Response Team, have been put on the case, she said, and that number could grow.


Where the hell do these people live? In organically-grown bamboo tepees? Building a complex in a built-up area is not a crime against the environment or anyone. $20-million in one radical move.

Capt. Jeff Carle of the San Diego Fire Department said three construction workers who were sleeping on the site managed to escape unharmed.

Several hundred residents of a building next to the construction site were evacuated as heat from the blaze broke windows and melted plastic blinds in their homes.
Carle said if environmentalists were behind the fire, he didn’t understand their motivation: More trees would be cut down to rebuild the structure.
ELF, like its counterpart, the Animal Liberation Front, appears to be a loosely knit group with no central leadership. Instead statements encourage people to strike out on their own, claiming ELF responsibility.


The construction workers were just trying to earn a living and more than likely were "living" at the site because they were immigrants--possibly illegal--who didn't want to spend the money on housing so they could send money home to keep their families out of poverty. What would the families have done if the sole breadwinners were murdered?

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It's always fun to fact-check Krugmans ass. Krugman truly believes that California is in the current fiscal shape it is due to tax cuts. One of the main reasons the state is in economic disarray is it's completely over-regulated. The California version of EPA, DTSC, is bloated to the point of exploding. I left there two-years ago, and granted they may have trimmed it somewhat, but I sincerely doubt it. Businesses, buoyed by NAFTA, fled across the border. Business can't compete in that state, especially if they manufacture hazardous materials or must dispose of hazardous waste.

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This has been the year of homosexual rights. The SCOTUS decision, Canada allowing same-sex unions, and Bush coming out last week against the idea of homosexual "marriages". Now the Episcopal Church has it's own issues. They don't specifically mention that the porn or touching were homosexual in nature, but the allegations are there:

Episcopalian leaders delayed a vote Monday on whether to confirm the church's first openly gay elected bishop after allegations involving "touching" and "pornography" emerged against the clergyman, a church spokesman said.

Jim Solheim, the spokesman, would not elaborate on the allegations against the Rev. V. Gene Robinson.

The presiding bishop of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, Frank Griswold, was expected to make a statement later Monday, Solheim said.

Robinson's spokesman Mike Barwell said he would comment only after Griswold released his statement.


I truly believe that the homosexual case has had too much ink. This is a process that has to slow down or it will fail in the near future. There has been great strides made in the last few decades. That could be set back if the issue is front burner daily. Here's some views I have on the subject.

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Senator Hollings retiring puts South Carolina in the toss-up category:

COLUMBIA, SC "With all of this attention, radio, tv and press, I'm constrained from changing my mind. I want to confirm what you have all suspected, that I will not be opting for re-election this next year. I say what you all suspected in that I indicated that last year, and we haven't had any fundraisers in this state for four years. It's not that we are quitting; we have a good year and a half worth of work.
"I'm truly worried about the country's direction. And a friend just mentioned you never hold back, but 'now you're leaving and not running, you're going to say anything and everything.'

"I said no I can tell you this categorically, we've got the weakest president and weakest government in the history of my 50 years of public service. I say weak president in that the poor boy campaigns all the time and pays no attention to what's going on in the Congress. Karl Rove tells him to do this or do that or whatever it is, but he's out campaigning. And I really don't think our friend Mark Sanford likes the job. As a result the state and the country – your state, my state, our country – is headed in the wrong direction with respect to our finances.


He called Bush a "Poor Boy" . Nice smack Senator. Are you going to act as insane over the next year as Sen. Byrd has been for a decade?

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Drudge has some damning info about Kerry:

KERRY IN SWEAT FLAP ON EVE OF UNION CONVENTION

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry hit turbulence on convention eve at the AFL-CIO, the largest US labor federation, after it was revealed the candidate has been wined, dined and fundraised by the controversial Susie Tompkins Buell.

Friday's WASHINGTON POST style-section splash on Buell -- the co-founder of the ESPRIT clothing company -- failed to include stunning allegations of sweatshop profiteering!


Kerry is the typical "Limousine Liberal", this will hurt him. He may win Iowa or New Hampshire, but I can't see him having mass appeal to the Dems. Dean has got to have the party shittin' it's pants at this point. Good!

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Looks like Lileks is having a great Monday.

Sunday, August 03, 2003

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Gray Davis is doing everything to keep his job, including risking the security of his state:

SACRAMENTO – With his political life on the line, Gov. Gray Davis has promised to sign divisive legislation that would give illegal immigrants the right to drive.

If the governor delivers on a driver's license bill that he has twice vetoed, Democratic activists say they will be armed with the spark needed to energize Latinos to turn out for Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election.


I lived in San Diego for 8-years. Alot of cars bearing Mexican plates are deathtraps, and alot don't have insurance.

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Another war that will go on for years:

Microsoft's Web site was made inaccessible for an hour and 40 minutes Friday afternoon when a denial-of-service attack overwhelmed the site with traffic, making it impossible for legitimate page requests to get through.
The outage, which began about 1:21 p.m. Pacific time, was the result of a conventional denial-of-service attack and not a software vulnerability being exploited, a Microsoft spokesman says.


Don't mess with US hackers.



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I guess the Russians should just sit back and take, just like the Israelis.

A terrorist attack that was planned to kill civilian and soldier alike, is an act of war. Granted the Chechnyans and Russians are fighting, but the act of suicide bombing is way beyond what civilized nations (France excluded) deem acceptable. These attacks, as are the attacks against Israel, are the acts of barbarians.

I know this has been said a million times, by a million people who write better than I do, but I can't comprehend the fact that some people actually see the point of view of the terrorists. If Israel wants to build a fence to protect its citizens-which is the responsibility of any elected government-why should idiots scream and bitch? The US is in this fight, albeit from the angle of trying to attain peace in a region that hasn't known it in a millenia. We must see this through and support Israel to reach this goal.

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As someone who is not a big soccer (football, futbol) fan, but has a son who plays, The United States tour of Manchester United is something to behold.

They sold out the new Lincoln Financial stadium, and in fact are christening that facility, and have sold out every stadium they've played in.

The eternal question in sports is why does soccer not have a bigger following in the US? Millions of kids play and millions of parents coach, so why does soccer not break in as one of the elite sports? Because it can never compete with the NFL juggernaut.

Fantasy football leagues for football are everywhere, and continue to grow. Sunday football is more than a tradition, it is an integral part of the American psyche.

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Buyer beware! In Pennsylvania, if you don't have hazardous waste contamination on the property you are buying, the seller does'nt have to disclose any known contaminants nearby:

At the Watson-Johnson farm next door, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had already spent a year investigating a 32-acre landfill in which 3,200 tons of lead, PCBs, and other chemicals had been illicitly buried in the 1960s.



No one - not the developer, the real estate agent or the appraiser - told the family of the toxic cache about one-quarter mile from their home. Legally, no one had to.

Under a Pennsylvania law that the Buteauxs and others hope to change, sellers are not required to disclose contamination unless it is on the lot itself. In a state where the EPA has identified 567 hazardous-materials sites - 271 in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks and Chester Counties alone - the onus is on the buyer to find any hazards lurking beyond the property line
.


If you should have any questions concerning waste in your area (in PA), go here Every other state can go here.


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Tony Auth has crossed the line (again) with this "cartoon".

I have some comments, but I'll let the good people of the Philly metro area say it for me:

Tony Auth's awful July 31 cartoon shows Arabs fenced in by a giant Star of David. I wonder what Auth's thoughts are on the Gaza Strip fence that has prevented any terror attacks into Israel from that region? Or what does Auth think of the U.S. fence that separates the United States from Mexico for the sole purpose of keeping out illegal immigrants, who, to the best of my knowledge, do not go to Los Angeles for the purpose of blowing themselves up in pizza parlors?

Strange how within the Israeli fence none of Auth's Arabs had bombs strapped to their chests or were making rockets for the sole purpose of killing innocent Jewish civilians.
Howard Ende


That is the essential point, isn't it? Read the others.