/var/log/otto

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a "tragedy" (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the “War on Terror.” Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America’s enemy abroad were killed in the safety and security of home by, in essence, the same enemy — a man who believes in and supports everything the enemy does.

And he's a U.S. Army major.

And his superior officers and other authorities knew about his beliefs but seemed to think it was just a bit of harmless multicultural diversity — as if believing that "the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor" (i.e., his fellow American soldiers) and writing Internet paeans to the "noble" "heroism" of suicide bombers and, indeed, objectively supporting the other side in an active war is to be regarded as just some kind of alternative lifestyle that adds to the general vibrancy of the base.

# posted by Otto @ 5:09 AM

I am always wary of conspiracy theories. Most can be explained away as shared ideologies which, in the case of the current and recently past Congresses and White Houses, can be described as socialism. It did not and does not matter which Party was or is in power.

The other explanation for the national car wreck we're in is just plain "stupidity." Another way of describing this is “willful ignorance.” Both apply when the President, Senators or Representatives say things that have no basis in fact either historically or empirically.

# posted by Otto @ 5:05 AM

They are proposing to spend $1.5 trillion over 10 years on a new social program that looks like Medicare's ugly twin sister, containing more than 50 new layers of bureaucracy, and somehow it is going to magically reform Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and reduce the deficit at the same time. Right!

And I can fly.

# posted by Otto @ 3:00 AM

"It is so bogus that society is sending a message right now and has been for probably the last 40 years that a woman isn't strong enough or smart enough to be able to pursue an education, a career and her rights and still let her baby live."--Sarah Palin

"Don't ever let anyone to tell you to sit down and shut up."--also Sarah Palin, same speech.

# posted by Otto @ 3:02 AM

"Islam doesn't command anybody to do something like that,"

# posted by Otto @ 8:30 AM

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is asking the Obama Administration why, after pressing for his reinstatement, it now says it will recognize upcoming Honduran elections even if he isn't returned to power first.

# posted by Otto @ 3:27 AM

Any self-respecting cultural critic not trapped in the spring of ’03 ought to be able to do this in his sleep: there he was, Barack the Balloon Boy, wafted ever upwards on great gaseous clouds of hope and change, only to have his approval numbers crash farther faster than any president of the last 60 years. He found the reality TV show of campaigning more congenial than the reality of governing. He thought his multi-trillion-dollar ballooning debt could defy the laws of economic gravity but it just floated off over the far horizon and was never seen again.

# posted by Otto @ 3:03 AM

"It is obvious what the fraudulent issue of fascism versus communism accomplishes: it sets up, as opposites, two variants of the same political system; it eliminates the possibility of considering capitalism; it switches the choice of 'Freedom or dictatorship?' into 'Which kind of dictatorship?' -- thus establishing dictatorship as an inevitable fact and offering only a choice of rulers. The choice -- according to the proponents of that fraud -- is: a dictatorship of the rich (fascism) or a dictatorship of the poor (communism). That fraud collapsed in the 1940's, in the aftermath of World War II. It is too obvious, too easily demonstrable that fascism and communism are not two opposites, but two rival gangs fighting over the same territory -- that both are variants of statism, based on the collectivist principle that man is the rightless slave of the state -- that both are socialistic, in theory, in practice, and in the explicit statements of their leaders -- that under both systems, the poor are enslaved and the rich are expropriated in favor of a ruling clique -- that fascism is not the product of the political 'right,' but of the 'left' -- that the basic issue is not 'rich versus poor,' but man versus the state, or: individual rights versus totalitarian government -- which means: capitalism versus socialism." --philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

# posted by Otto @ 2:26 AM

Obama must respond. His reset button silliness and his decision to axe missile defense has the Russians drooling at our weakness.

# posted by Otto @ 4:44 AM

Noor Almaleki, whom I wrote about over the weekend, has died, the latest Western victim of a Muslim honor killing. If there were a Matthew Shepard murder every few months, Frank Rich et al would be going bananas about the "climate of hate" in our society, but you can run over your daughter, decapitate your wife, drown three teenage girls and a polygamous spouse, and progressive opinion and the press couldn't give a hoot. Indeed, as The Atlantic notes, it's merely an obsession of us right-wing kooks.

Yesterday, Noor Almaleki of Arizona died of injuries sustained when her father allegedly ran her over in his Jeep in what officials called an attempted honor killing. The twenty-year-old Almaleki had apparently become, according to The Arizona Republic, "too Westernized." In the past few days, the incident has caused a furor among conservative bloggers. Why? They believe that political correctness has prevented the story from getting picked up in the mainstream press. Are big media sources too wary of discussing honor killings?

What If Christians Were Doing This?

I was struck by this passage:

Peter-Ali Almaleki said he loves his sister and that should she not have to be suffering her injuries. But he added that the family lives by different cultural values.

"One thing to one culture doesn’t make sense to another culture," he added.

This would be a less ludicrous argument if Mr. Almaleki hadn't run down his daughter in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's all a bit culture à la carte, isn't it? Infidel motor vehicles, fine. Infidel guarantees on individual rights, no way. Maybe when you're such a sorry excuse of a believer that you're incapable of pulling off your lousy "honor killing" without resorting to a Grand Cherokee, you're the one who's becoming "too westernized."

# posted by Otto @ 2:50 AM

Congress is actually using your tax dollars to pay social scientists to find ways they can avoid actually talking to their constituents while improving their chances of reelection.

# posted by Otto @ 9:34 AM

Roberto Micheletti, the leader of Honduras’s de facto government, relented only after senior Obama administration officials landed in the Honduran capital to take charge of the talks, pressing the point that the United States would not recognize the coming presidential election unless he accepted the deal.

Though senior administration officials played down their role, Latin America experts said that the agreement represented a breakthrough for President Obama, whose relations in the hemisphere were tested by the crisis.

# posted by Otto @ 9:22 AM

When Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem after the city had fallen, he wrote with a sad heart about a broken country. He was old but when he had first begun to preach, he was so young he considered himself a mere child. Over the generations, he warned about what was coming. He had been reviled, hated, rejected, thrown in jail, tossed into a dungeon, and left to die. Rescued through the back door, he was in prison until the city fell.

But now, freed by the Babylonians, he walked the streets and thought about what he had seen and heard. For a long time, as he preached, he had assumed that repentance was possible. But now, as he considered the tragedy of Jerusalem, he had to wonder if the die had been cast long before he first began to preach as a very young man. Now, on this day, it seemed that everything he had preached had been in vain, and there had been no hope from the outset. So why had he been commissioned in the first place?

He knew the answer as he formed the question. The people had to be told what was coming and why. And the roots of evil went so deep. No one remembered where they had made their first mistakes. As he walked, Jeremiah formed the words he would later write: "What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading" (Lamentations 2:13-14 NIV).

So, why did they listen to the prophets who were false and reject the one prophet who told them the truth? It isn’t hard to answer that. The false prophets told them what they wanted to hear. And by the time Jeremiah came on the scene, it was too late to change the hearts of the people. But they still had to be told. Jeremiah doesn’t seem to have been melancholy by nature, but by the end of his days, there was no brightness on the horizon. His faith in God had to tell him that the hope that indeed lay ahead was beyond his meager span of years.

For some reason that I don’t fully understand, I feel drawn to Jeremiah these days. Maybe it is because I am sensing that the die is cast on this nation, and our precious freedom is slipping away. And, just like the people of Jeremiah’s day, we can’t pin down the moment when we began the process.

# posted by Otto @ 3:24 AM

"Tom, you don't understand," he said. "Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts."

# posted by Otto @ 2:17 AM

I'm always appreciative when a fellow says what he really means. Tim Flannery, the jet-setting doomsaying global warm-monger from down under, was in Ottawa the other day promoting his latest eco-tract, and offered a few thoughts on "Copenhagen"—which is transnational-speak for December's UN Convention on Climate Change. "We all too often mistake the nature of those negotiations in Copenhagen," remarked professor Flannery. "We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case. The negotiations now ongoing toward the Copenhagen agreement are in effect diplomacy at the most profound global level. They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society."

# posted by Otto @ 1:07 AM

What possible price would warmists agree is just too high? Right now, greens want to spend trillions of dollars and export our manufacturing base to China and India in a foolish attempt to slightly ameliorate global warming. But it certainly seems that that's just the opening bid. If democracy is worth sacrificing, and dogs, cats, and unborn children are up for discussion, where is the line we will not cross?

What is the price we can all agree just isn't worth paying?

# posted by Otto @ 3:23 AM

I keep getting e-mails saying, "People will reach a tipping point and they'll no longer put up with this stuff." I doubt it. Right now the way to bet is that once free societies will retreat incrementally, one trivial step after another, into a totalitarian hell.

# posted by Otto @ 3:18 AM

Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions.

# posted by Otto @ 3:02 AM

Hey, that's pretty impressive when they can't get your big final-score death toll nailed down to closer than 30 million. Still, as President Obama's communications director might say, he lived his dream, and so can you, although if your dream involves killing, oh, 50–80 million Chinamen, you may have your work cut out. But let's stick with the Fenby figure: He killed 40–70 million Chinamen. Whoops, can you say "Chinamen" or is that racist? Oh, and sexist. So hard keeping up with the Sensitivity Police in this pansified political culture, isn’t it? But you can kill 40–70 million Chinamen and that's fine and dandy: You'll be cited as an inspiration by the White House to an audience of high-school students. You can be anything you want to be! Look at Mao: He wanted to be a mass murderer, and he lived his dream! You can too!

# posted by Otto @ 5:02 AM

I'm living a nightmare. A nightmare where I am forbidden to judge a person by the content of his character, because of the color of his skin. --GrumpyOldFart

# posted by Otto @ 3:43 AM

After witnessing a gay pride march, committed Christian Pauline Howe wrote to the council to complain that the event had been allowed to go ahead.

But instead of a simple acknowledgement, she received a letter warning her she might be guilty of a hate crime and that the matter had been passed to police.

Two officers later turned up at the frightened grandmother's home and lectured her about her choice of words before telling her she would not be prosecuted.

As to "an intention of hate," strange how the "pre-crime" language of Philip K. Dick's sci-fi dystopia now passes almost without notice.

The conformity enforcers of "tolerance" and "diversity" are growing ever more explicitly totalitarian.

# posted by Otto @ 3:20 AM

The trouble is it isn't tough, not where toughness counts. Who are the real "Untouchables" here? In Moscow, it's Putin and his gang, contemptuously mocking U.S. officials even when (as with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) they're still on Russian soil. In Tehran, it's Ahmadinejad and the mullahs openly nuclearizing as ever feebler warnings and woozier deadlines from the Great Powers come and go. Even Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is an exquisite act of condescension from the Norwegians, a dog biscuit and a pat on the head to the American hyperpower for agreeing to spay itself into a hyperpoodle. We were told that Obama would use "soft power" and "smart diplomacy" to get his way. Russia and Iran are big players with global ambitions, but Obama's soft power is so soft it doesn't even work its magic on a client regime in Kabul whose leaders' very lives are dependent on Western troops. If Obama's "smart diplomacy" is so smart that even Hamid Karzai ignores it with impunity, why should anyone else pay attention?

The strange disparity between the heavy-handed community organization at home and the ever cockier untouchables abroad risks making the commander in chief look like a weenie – like "President Pantywaist," as Britain's Daily Telegraph has taken to calling him.

The Chicago way? Don't bring a knife to a gunfight? In Iran, this administration won't bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won't bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won't bring a knife to a machete fight.

# posted by Otto @ 3:09 AM

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the president, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers – that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get lifesaving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

Does any of this sound like America?

# posted by Otto @ 3:02 AM

President Obama's late-night declaration of a nationwide public health emergency last night shouldn't be allowed to obscure the most important lesson of the developing swine flu crisis - The same government that only weeks ago promised abundant supplies of swine flu vaccine by mid-October will be running your health care system under Obamacare.

# posted by Otto @ 3:45 AM

While Democrats in Congress have spent months demonizing insurers as greedy villainous monsters,...

The average profit margin for health insurers last year clocked in at an anemic 2.2%. What does that mean from the investor position? They would have done better to put their money into FDIC-insured savings accounts at their local bank, let alone a CD or other guaranteed investment device. A 2.2% profit margin would normally trigger a stockholder revolt.

# posted by Otto @ 3:14 AM

"If you are going to lie back, in the bath, with the soap and you turn on the what's it called, the Jacuzzi ... imagine that, what kind of communism is that? We're not in times of Jacuzzi," Chavez said.

# posted by Otto @ 8:17 AM

"You know, the American people cherish their freedom of speech and a free and independent press."

"So to my friends in the so-called ‘mainstream media’ I say, ‘conservative talk show hosts may not speak for everybody but they speak for more Americans than you do.’"

# posted by Otto @ 4:38 AM

It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.

# posted by Otto @ 3:58 AM

Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.

The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want.

# posted by Otto @ 5:12 AM

When he came to the question, "How do we change [China]?" Mao laid the utmost emphasis on destruction:

"...the country must be...destroyed and then re-formed."

# posted by Otto @ 4:56 AM

The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found.

# posted by Otto @ 3:54 AM

And they sent an e-mail out claiming that they were the Chamber of Commerce, that they had done a 180 and Chamber of Commerce was now ready to join Obama on cap and trade, and it was false. It was a total hoax. They didn't check it; they didn't backtrack it; they didn't track it down; they didn't source it; they just accepted the e-mail. Folks, we learn today it's even worse. They had a press conference. The hoax group had a press conference. Yesterday in Washington, the National Press Club, US Chamber of Commerce Director of Communications Eric Wohlschlegel interrupted a fake press conference being held by a man calling himself Hingo Sembra, purportedly with the Chamber. You'll also hear an unidentified reporter in this bit.

# posted by Otto @ 2:59 AM

The Obama administration launched a new initiative Monday aimed at supporting affordable mortgages, backed by the federal government.

Several cabinet agencies announced a new program to provide assistance to state housing financing agencies (HFAs), administered in part by the government-run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac companies.

# posted by Otto @ 3:08 PM

Not long ago U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, told everyone they only had a few weeks in order to save the Earth from “climate change” and this week it’s the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown.

Ever since he was Vice President and a defeated candidate for the presidency, Al Gore has been telling people the Earth is doomed.

President Obama talks about climate change—remember when it used to be global warming?—and will no doubt sign the treaty coming out of a “climate” conference in Copenhagen in December. The real problem will be whether the Senate will ratify it because, if it does, the U.S. Constitution will be nullified in favor of a global government.

Ever since the first United Nations conference on “global warming” the only goal has been to establish a global government so that the “leaders” could grow wealthy while the rest of mankind is treated like cattle.

# posted by Otto @ 2:19 AM

Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases.

# posted by Otto @ 3:58 AM

These young men are, de jure, British subjects and, de facto, the demographic energy of every city down the spine of the country. "Islam will dominate!" they yell, impatient that it doesn't already, not entirely. The delusions of multiculturalism have brought about the death of England - in nothing flat. An amazing feat.

# posted by Otto @ 3:43 AM

I keep hearing that Glenn Beck is just a blowhard opinionist, contributing nothing but hot air. If that is true, why do we keep learning news from him? About Van Jones, about ACORN, about Anita Dunn . . . I mean, isn't that the New York Times's job? No? What a strange era we’re living in.

# posted by Otto @ 3:39 AM

In a speech before high school students last June, Dunn spoke passionately about her two favorite political philosophers, “the two people I turn to most” for answers to important questions like “how to do things that have never been done before.” Who are these paragons? One was Mother Teresa. Dunn didn’t have much to say about her. Most of her enthusiasm was lavished upon her other favorite fount of political wisdom: Mao Tse-Tung.

Mao Tse-Tung. That would be the deviant monster who, quite apart from his disgusting personal life, engineered the mass murder of anywhere from 50 to over 100 million people. Estimates vary so widely because murder on that wholesale scale is difficult to tabulate, especially in a country as backwards as China was under Mao’s long reign. But there is little doubt that Mao has the grisly distinction of being the greatest mass murderer in history.

# posted by Otto @ 5:22 AM

Reliance on foreign sources of energy weakens America. When a riot breaks out in an OPEC nation, or a developing country talks about nationalizing its oil industry, or a petro-dictator threatens to cut off exports, the probability is great that the price of oil will shoot up. Even in friendly nations, business and financial decisions made for local reasons can de­stabilize Amer­i­ca’s energy market, since the price we pay for foreign oil is subject to rising and falling exchange rates. Decreasing our dependence on foreign sources of energy will reduce the impact of world events on our economy.

# posted by Otto @ 5:06 AM

The human race is afflicted with a strange and persistent insanity that makes men think that human wisdom is equal to every challenge and problem faced by the human race.

Ray Stedman, in Letters to a Troubled Church

# posted by Otto @ 4:42 AM

"This economy is an embarrassment, and it needn't be this way. This is the United States of America! If this man and this administration would simply get out of everyone's way and turn the people loose, we would have a vibrant recovery faster than you can snap your fingers."--Rush Limbaugh

# posted by Otto @ 4:48 PM

The irony is, of course, that the people reporting this as fact are the same types who are always denouncing bloggers and the internet as forces of evil intent on destroying proper journalism – proper journalism being the kind that involves checking facts. In the case of Rush Limbaugh, however, it seems to be enough that the intention (i.e. to show the talk radio host is a racist) is considered pure.

Even those who have been primary movers in spreading these malicious falsehoods – which would lead to payouts of hundreds of thousands in British libel courts if lawsuits were ever filed there – are brazenly unapologetic.

# posted by Otto @ 4:47 AM

Allyson White said the standout burn mark left by her seatbelt across her chest was proof the claims of "amorous activities" with the driver were not true.

# posted by Otto @ 4:02 AM

The 22-year-old journalism student shoved his backside against the window of a low-slung double-decker train when staff forced him off in Lauenbrueck for traveling without a ticket,

Instead, dangling by his trousers, the man got pulled along for about 200 metres, all the while managing to keep his legs away from the wheels of the train.

# posted by Otto @ 3:38 AM