Eat Your Pet Day

Today is National Eat Your Pet Day. Those of you who are consumed with love for your pet can now...consume your pet.

Port Security Or Poor Security?

The recent announcement that a United Arab Emirates government-owned company will have operational control of 6 U.S. ports has stirred up a hornets nest of protest. As well it should.

The UAE company, Dubai Ports World, acquired the British company that had the contract. As is want with most holding companies, there should be no expectation that the management of port operations will change - the same personnel & procedures should remain in place. The company is also obviously interested in its investment.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff defended the security review of the company. Chertoff said the government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements that the company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns." The UAE is also working with the U.S. in its on-going fight against terrorists.

However, there are still valid concerns. The UAE was an operational base for the 911 highjackers & 2 of those highjackers were UAE citizens. The UAE is also a conduit for Al-Qaida money transfers. Additionally, Pakistan used the UAE to transit nuclear weapons equipment and technology to North Korea.

Some Congressmen are asking President Bush to end this contract. We agree. Too many foreign companies already own most of our port facilities, China being the most recent in California. We have no assurances from the UAE that they can prevent those who come into their company or those already there, from using the company's facilities to carry out terrorist attacks on our ports. Bribes, corruption & terrorist sympathizers are more apt to be found in a UAE company rather than General Motors.

Beyond all this is the unbelievable insensitivity of the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States which okayed the deal - add to this Homeland Secretary Chertoff & Sec. of State Rice, as well as others in the Administration who support the deal.

In this post 911 era, Americans are deeply sensitive & suspicious about any foreign control of U.S. assets, & most especially Arab control. Our ports are too important to trust them to the good faith of foreign companies.

It is time for the Administration to stop parceling out & internationalizing U.S. assets. President Bush has vowed to veto any legislation aimed at denying the UAE contract from happening. It is like the cat who swallowed the canary whole. The Administration may be satisfied with UAE control of the ports, but to the American people it just doesn't go down right.

School Editors Suspended for Cartoons

The editor-in-chief & opinions editor of the Daily Illini - a student-led newspaper serving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - have been suspended for publication of 6 of the 12 cartoons that have recently spawned self-righteous indignation by crazed Muslims throughout the world. A task force has been established to investigate "the internal decision-making and communication" that led to the publishing of the cartoons, said the newspaper's publisher.

"I pretty much have an idea how this is going to run, and this is a thinly veiled attempt to remove me from my position," said editor Acton Gorton.

"The board and publisher reaffirm that final decisions about content in The Daily Illini rest with the editor in chief," Cory said in a written statement. "But the board and publisher also recognize that journalistic norms regarding professional behavior dictate that it is the editor's obligation to engage other student editors and student staff members in rigorous discussion and debate of sensitive content."

On Monday, the paper ran an editorial apologizing for Gorton's decision and called the move "a blatant abuse of power" by a "renegade editor who firmly believes that his will is also the will of the paper."

"Renegade editor"..."blatant abuse of power". Sounds like something straight out of Pravda, the official newspaper of the dearly departed Soviet Union. Amazing. This is a shaft job by the task force against the editors, pure & simple. What is it about Muslims that cause professionals in news publishing to freely & willingly give up their right of freedom of the press. They have no reluctance to print anti-Christian works or photos of Abu Ghraib prisoners or bloody messes of bodies in accidents or any number of other sensitive areas. But cartoons of Muhammed are forbidden. Most all newspapers in the country have refused to print the cartoons.

This is not sensitivity on the part of the newspapers. That's what they want you to believe. Instead, it is pure cowardice & kowtowing. The newspapers, as well as tv news, know that the world is saturated with crazy, irrational Muslims & they are intimidated by them - they fear them. For them, the papers give up their right of a free press. In the process they are denying their readers & viewers the opportunity to judge the cause of the Muslim "unrest".

The media are a pathetic lot.

Al Gore - The Ugly American

Al Gore (remember him?) spoke recently at an economic forum in Saudi Arabia. Well, you just know that wherever Al goes his mouth is sure to follow. And it did not fail him, again sadly. He told a mostly Saudi audience that the U.S. government committed terrible abuses against Arabs after 911 & that it had indiscriminately rounded up Arabs & held them in unforgivable conditions.

"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong," Gore said. "I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."

This wise old sage does not give any particulars - no names of abused Arabs, no circumstances or details of abuse, no examples of "unforgivable conditions" in which they were held.

If he knew of such cases, why didn't he use his mouth right after 911 to point out what these poor folks were going through? After all, it was his patriotic duty to unmask the abuses of the evil Bush administration against these peace-loving Arabs.

Well, Al-Gore has his agenda - not to mention the hefty speakers fee he gets from the conference.

Gore is a petty, bitter, has-been politician who borders on a neurotic obsession to trash Bush, & in doing so trashes the USA. The old adage that politics stops at the waters edge no longer applies to the likes of Gore. Or Jimmy Peanut-brain Carter. Carter has his own bitterness to deal with & releases it in speeches overseas that do as much damage to the credibility of this country as does Al-Gores' rants. Does Gore need to be reminded that 15 of the 19 highjackers of 911 were Saudi Arabian? Where are his rants about this? Where are his rants about the Saudi government being less then fully cooperative in fighting terrorism? Where are his rants about the oppressive Saudi government & their continuing support of radical Wahhabi religious schools? But Gore knows which side his bread is buttered on- speakers fees. It aso assuages his perpetual bitterness. Too bad it further alienates Arabs to America.

Gore is a traitor to this country - a deplorable example of a former Vice-President & American.

But he is not alone. He has plenty of company with the likes of Carter, Michael Moore & most of the Democrat leadership. Throw in elitist rags like The New York Times & other "America last" media & it's no wonder this country is so divided.

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter - Coincidentally, White House Issues New Dem Strategy Plan

Cheney pointing out new strategy


Vice President Dick Cheney, while in Texas hunting for quail, accidentally shot & wounded a companion hunter. When a covey of quail took flight, Cheney followed one bird & fired his rifle. Unbeknownst to him, one of the hunters accompanying Cheney stepped into the line of fire. The hunter was treated for minor facial & chest wounds.

At the same time, the White House has announced that President Bush has developed a new strategy to deal with the obstructionist Democrats in Congress. Details of the plan were not revealed, but it is known that Vice President Cheney will head up a new group which will deal with the Democratic leadership in a more realistic & effective manner than previously thought possible.

An anonymous source reports that the keystone to this new strategy will be to invite the Democratic leadership to a quail hunt with the Vice President, where good fellowship & reasonable persuasion on the part of Mr. Cheney will show the Dems the errors of their way.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

3 a.m.



Christmas Basket



Going Home



Find anything wrong? Give up? Well something is very, very wrong. Indeed.

These 3 paintings are from a published series called "Storefronts: Fond memories of growing up in my minister dad's east Baltimore church." The artist is Lloyd Marcus. Lloyd Marcus happens to be a black man. But that is not what is wrong about the pictures.

Deltona, Fla., an Orlando suburb, decided to celebrate Black History Month by including an art exhibit. Marcus heads the Deltona Art and Historical Center. He was asked by Deltona city officials to submit some of his works for display. The city's public relations representative chose three of his works.

However, Deltona's acting city manager, Roland Blossom, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal he could not tolerate a mingling of church and state, even if the only evidence is a partial Bible lying on a table and a church sign, as in the "3 AM" painting.

"I saw the word 'Jesus' and the Holy Bible just sort of thrown in the painting," Blossom told the News-Journal. "What that forces anybody to do because this display is in a government building, they think this government is advocating in favor of one religion over another." "Just sort of thrown in" - the idiot is an art critic now. He's probably a white liberal who just knows what's best for blacks & religion.

"This is black history month," Marcus said. "I was raised in a storefront church in Baltimore, Maryland, and these are simply paintings from my childhood. I didn't paint them with the intention of selling religion. After all, they came to me. They [Deltona city officials] picked them on Friday and then they called me on Monday and said they had to take two of them down because of religious content. "I was really upset and angry because when you look at those paintings it's a black history month display and they have good positive black role model messages but because there's a bible on the nightstand or somebody wearing an I love Jesus baseball cap they can't be shown in a public building. That's crazy.'

"Maybe this will be a wake-up call that will get Christians to say 'We're mad as hell and we're not going go take it anymore.

"I am not angry at Deltona City Hall," he said. "The anti-Christianity movement speaks loudly and carries a big stick. However, this incident confirms that things have gotten out of hand. It is time for Christians, in a Godly way, to fight back."

To answer the question, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the pictures. There is, however, something very wrong in America when a jackass fool of a city manager can deem this to be an issue of separation of church & state. Something is very wrong in America when the thugs & Nazis of the ACLU can so intimidate towns with expensive lawsuits that the towns pre-empt the threat by going to ridiculous means to avoid it.

Deltona has not only done a disservice to itself in this idiocy of anti-Christian bias, but has harmed a black community that is proud of its religious reverence & the role model & pillar that the church provides in black communities. American society has also been damaged with another of the thousand cuts of anti-Christianity spreading across the country, spearheaded by the Godless & malicious ACLU - in effect, the Anti-Christianity Liberties Union.

Allah's Arsonists

Muslims burned the embassy of Denmark & of Norway in Syria, while their brethren in Europe & England staged all sorts of protests. The object of their wrath? This - a cartoon in a Danish newspaper - the prophet Muhammed with a lit bomb as a turban.

Say cheese, Muhammed


Islam does not allow for any visual image, no icon, of this Muhammed dude, whether the depiction is complimentary or not, though how they purport to know what Allah looks like is puzzling. Kinda like Santa Claus - anyone seen the real guy?

Further enraging these peaceful Muslims, more newspapers in Europe published the cartoon as a show of support for the Danish newspaper. It's called freedom of the press, we suppose. And that's the issue. When does freedom of the press conflict with the beliefs of a religion & to what extent must a free press curtail its freedom in order to appease a religion, or any group for that matter?

We believe that the press should be allowed great laxity when it comes to these matters. If a newspaper prints something that someone thinks outrageous, well that's what the slander & libel law suits are about. However, sensitivity is in the eye of the beholder & if someone or some group does not file suit, there is always the public relations backlash against that paper to be relied on.

But you do not burn down an embassy. Nor do you protest with threatening, even more odious forms of free speech like the delightful protesters below.

Geesh - smile, for Allah's sake



When Christians are insulted with "Piss on Christ" art or with artistic jars of urine immersing a crucifix, they do not burn an embassy, nor do they threaten beheadings or massacres. The best they do is complain to American newspapers who support such artwork as freedom of speech - the same newspapers who now editorialize against Danish press insensitivity to Muslim beliefs.

Ironic - she's not allowed personal freedom in Islam

Something is terribly wrong with the Muslim psyche. These peace-loving followers of the peaceful religion of Islam are either frauds or fanatics. In either case, they are becoming a growing danger to the more sane world at large. Consider the horror they inflict upon innocent people - Muslim or not, in the name of Allah. Consider the peace-loving Palestinians - cheering when 911 happened & voting into office a murderous terrorist organization to represent them to the world. Or consider the lunatic so-called President of Iran & the drive to produce a nuclear weapon - and to think the world was worried when Reagan had his finger on the button.

Islam must certainly be flawed for it to give birth to such pychopaths as now represents it. Be prepared for further conflict with this ilk.

Meanwhile, we think the cartoon riotously funny & thank the artist.