Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Speaking of Iraq Refugees

Apparently, and I've actually heard this from more than one source, any Iraqi who helps Americans in Iraq is targeted by the various terrorist organizations there, and they and their families are frequently killed.

Iraqi interpreters are one target, and apparently our government s doing very little to help these people, who put their trust in us to keep them safe.

So a GI has taken it into his own hands, and there's an article on it here (from Nov 2007):
Iraqi family thankful for haven in South Salem: Oregon Guard captain helped interpreter and his family escape threats to their lives in Baghdad

I know I spoke disparagingly of Iraqi refugees coming to the States a few entries ago,..but that was more the fact that we just don't have tyhe money to assimilate all the Iraqis into our country - we're having a bad enough time with the Somalis sent to Minnesota (look, ma, five feet of freezing cold snow! Why are we here?)

It's all about money..and bringing refugees over here and then dumping them on local governments to take care of, when they don't have the resources to do it. So we get the enclaves or ghettos, and the gangs of teens, and the violence, etc. etc.

I don't know the solution. We need money spent EFFICIENTLY, which is something I don't think the government, regardless of the political party in charge, is capable of doing.

We need religous people - Christians, Jews and Muslims - converted to atheism, but yes, I know that ain't gonna happen real soon. But frankly, I think atheism is the only way to save the human race. After 5000 years, religion has only brought us closer and closer to the brink of all out war.

Sad, sad world.

Paul Shanklin Parody Songs

I don't care for parody songs, and generally when Rush Limbaugh plays these I turn down the radio.

Nevertheless, thought I'd share a few of them (not all) here. Paul Shanklin does these...not sure if he's on Limbaugh's payroll or if Limbaugh just likes his work enough to feature it.

Click on the arrow twice to play.

Barack the Magic Negro (apparently a parady of Al Sharpton)


Al Gore on Global warming


Star Spanglish Banner


You're Our Guest Work (John McCain)


Bill Clinton: I Lied to You


Sneaking in America

Rush vows to Fight on

His Non-Concession Speech



After John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani bowed out of their races, Limbaugh did this little parody type thing.

The audio is a bit unsynchronized.

Well, it is interesting. John McCain is the front runner for Republican nominee, and Limbaugh has been ripping him for weeks, yet he won... is Limbaugh as influential as he thinks he is?

Giuliani and Edwards end their campaigns

After the Florida primary yesterday, Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards have ended their campaigns.

This morning, Rush Limbaugh is ranting, because John McCain won the Florida primary and all the news reporters are saying that he's going to be the Republican candidate, and that Limbaugh must really be upset by it.

And Limbaugh is laughing at them, and sharing audio soundbytes, in his first hour on the program.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Politics of Parsing

Two You Tube videos showing the way Hilary Clinton flipflops on the issues...and yet she won Florida (a state where the Democrats had agreed not to campaign because their primary doesn't count... except now Clinton is lobbying for it to count....

Not sure if its John Edwards who is posting this stuff, or a supporter...

Part 1



Part 2



Wolf Blitzer asks John Edwards about this

What is The Muntab Question?

Where the hell's Muntab?

Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, is one of my favorite writers.

The Discworld is a disc that rests on the backs of four elephants who stand on the shell of the giant astrochelonian, the Great A'Tuin, who soars through space. The Discworld has lots of continents, and lots of people, and lots of government, a great deal of which mirrors evenths that have gone on or are going on, on this planet we call Earth.

The early novels are pure entertainment, for all that they bring up, as satires, certain human foibles. But his later novels are extremely powerful as well as funny and entertaining, from Feet of Clay (on the nature of life and religion), Small Gods (religion), and Thud! (wars that go on for so long that no one remembers why.)

"The Muntab Question" is an off-the-cuff joke Pratchett employs in a couple of his novels, but it's a joke with a stinger. Our world - the good ol' Earth - is so small now that something that happens far away in a distant land that no one has ever heard of (at least, no one in the US ; ) ) can have a direct effect on what happens to us, here, in the US.

Some lunatic in Pakistan detonates a nuclear bomb in India? The fall out will cover all of the middle east.

Iraq refugees bring their Muslim religion "of peace and love" to the US, all of a sudden un-religious women are going to have to start wearing burkhas lest they be unmercifully harassed on the streets for being "prostitutes." And all T-shirts of Piglet will have to be banned in the interest of religious tolerance. (This has actually happened in England.)

China decides to flood the world with contaminated pet-food? Nothing we can do about it. All our clothes and a great deal of our manufacturing come from China... the amount of industries lost in the US in the last few decades is staggering...

I don't know the solutions to our problems... sending a rocketship full of extremely intelligent, productive atheists to colonize Mars or the asteroid belt would seem to be the only solution, but that will only save about a hundred people or so...

Anyway, that's my very pessimistic view of the world. Religions and ethnic wars have kept us in turmoil for ovr 4,000 years... civilization is crumbling - what is civilization after all but a device created to protect people from each other? - and the human being, the "top of the totem poll" brain-wise, daily shows that he, and she are just the top animals on the food chain...hardly human at all.

Rush Limbaugh update 1/29/08

I'll be sharing a lot of video from You Tube on this blog, since You Tube has rapidly become the place where people go to share video of events that impact them, and where others go to see "what's up."

I'm not affilitated with any of these You Tubers in any way...

So, to start with, here's a video entitled: Rush Limbaugh Morning Update 01.29.2008
and is from Limbaugh's webcam.

As usual, Limbaugh is pounding on Clinton (just like Sean Hannity does with his "Stop Hilary Express.") Now - don't get me wrong - I have no intention of voting for Hilary Clinton either. I'm a Republican. But that doesn't change the fact that I really dislike Limbaugh. You'll notice he takes some shots at Hilary's gender, which annoys me.

Anyway, it's all about the "Uncivil War" - a new term Limbaugh has coined for what's going on in the Democratic party vs Clinton and Obama, and of course he'll pound that catch phrase from here to eternity. (And ignore the Uncivil War going on between the Republicans with McCain and Romney. Well, that's because he's on Romney's side. As well he should be, as McCain, while serving as a Republican, is most definitely a Democrat in all his views.)



Friday, January 25, 2008

The manifesto

Politcal commentary.

We live in a small world, growing smaller by the second.

Is there anything we can do about it?