Free Speech Saturday

In light of recent events that have occurred both in the Middle East and here on our very shores, we have decided to start a Free Speech Saturday series where we devote a post each Saturday to the 1st amendment and the protections to what we can shout from our rooftops that amendment affords us.

And, yes, we realize it’s Sunday… Events beyond our control prohibited us from getting this up and out before this morning.




On Friday, the filmmaker who is alleged to be responsible for the rioting and killing over in the Middle East was brought in for “voluntary questioning” by the L.A. Sheriffs Department.

Just after midnight Saturday morning, authorities descended on the Cerritos home of the man believed to be the filmmaker behind the anti-Muslim movie that has sparked protests and rioting in the Muslim world.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies escorted a man believed to be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula to an awaiting car. The man declined to answer questions on his way out and wore a hat and a scarf over his face. He kept his hands in the pockets of a winter coat.

Sheriff's officials could not be reached by The Times, but department spokesman Steve Whitmore told KNBC News that deputies assisting the federal probation department took Nakoula to the sheriff's substation in Cerritos for interviewing.

(image courtesy Leslie at Temple of Mut whose views on the matter can be found here).



Because nothing says “police state” like “Just after midnight Saturday morning, authorities descended on the Cerritos home…”.



And we care not a lick that Nakoula was released without being further detained or arrested. We care not a lick that he is a previously convicted felon and that the Sheriffs were just doing some potential parole violation follow-up. It doesn’t matter anymore. The man has been outed by his own government, aided and abetted by a media who has done more leg work in getting into this man’s background than they did in vetting a certain presidential candidate back in 2008.

In the aftermath of 9-11 we came to the quick realization that the jihadists would prevail not by felling our buildings nor by killing our people but by making us question that which we formerly valued. When authorities are swooping in on you in the dead of night for some “voluntary questioning” because of a crappy Youtube video you made, the 1st amendment is in the “formerly” cross-hairs. Congrats, jihadists, you've got first and goal at the one.

People who should absolutely know better like a religious studies associate professor from Penn, Anthea Butler, are penning articles titled:

Opposing view: Why 'Sam Bacile' deserves arrest

Our favorite line from the horrible article:

If there is anyone who values free speech, it is a tenured professor!

Anthea, the exclamation point won't detract from the deplorable state of higher education in this country demonstrated by your excrable article.

Her logic that the crappy Youtube video provoked a violent response from believers in Islam sent us scrambling for our own copy of the Constitution to see if there was some sort of "incitement exemption" in the 1st amendment. She definitely has a different version than we for there are no such qualifiers in our copy.




With Nikoula’s release, it reminded us of a quote from Canadian journalist/publisher, Ezra Levant who was eventually acquitted of any wrongdoing by the Alberta Human Rights Commission after a 900 day investigation for his role in reproducing the Mohammed-as-terrorist Danish cartoons.

Pardeep Gundara – a second-rate bureaucrat, a nobody – had to give me his approval for me to be allowed to go back to my business. For 900 days I was in the dock, waiting for this literary giant to pronounce his judgment on me. And I found favour in his eyes – but barely.

Sorry. I don’t give a damn what Gundara or the HRC says. Getting his approval is not a success. I won't legitimize his arrogant "authority" by saying "thank you, master". I'll say: "who the hell are you? Besides a busy-body bureaucrat?"

Look at his rationale for acquitting me: because the Western Standard met Gundara’s home-made tests of reasonableness. We published the cartoons in “context”; we published letters that “criticized” them; and my favourite, the cartoons weren’t “simply stuck in the middle” of the magazine. Gundara must have thought for ten whole minutes to come up with that list of journalistic do’s and don’t’s. And – phew! – he likes me. He really likes me!

Sorry again, I don’t give a damn if he likes me. In fact, it rather creeps me out that a whole squad of teat-sucking bureaucrats spent 900 days inspecting me and the Western Standard. I positively want to offend them. In fact, that’s pretty much the only test of my freedom: can I do exactly what Gundara says I shouldn’t? I’m not interested in publishing recipes or sports scores. I’m interested in bothering the hell out of government.

(italics, ours)


A man to be admired, this Ezra Levant - we could not have said it better ourselves.


We hope you enjoyed this initial installment of Free Speech Saturdays of which we hope our resolve and this country's respect for the most fundamental right continues to make happen.

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9-11: Eleven years on

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It's human nature to let that horrific day sink further and further into our mental background. If there was one day, however, that we have to fight this instinct, it would be Sept. 11, 2001.

Leslie at Temple of Mut reminds us of why noting that her 10-year old son has known nothing but this country at war with our enemies:

And here’s a passage from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe.
…
They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us.

A special thanks to the first responders who instead of running away from the sound of chaos, instead, ran towards it, especially those FDNY firefighters who knew they were probably not going to make it back once they started up the stairtowers of the soon-to-be felled Twin Towers.

And a special thanks to those men and women in our armed forces who took the fight to our enemy ensuring as much peace and tranquility on our shores as could be hoped for over these past 11 years.

May God bless them and may God watch over the souls of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in aiding their fellow Americans and those defending us from our enemies.

California's disgrace

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The dismal state of the state of California owes much to basic incompetence and a religious zeal for failed statist policies but as you are about to find out there is also a moral failing that is at once symptomatic and causal to California’s overall wretchedness.

After the 2001 terrorist attacks, California lawmakers sought a way to channel the patriotic fervor and use it to help victims' families and law enforcement. Their answer: Specialty memorial license plates emblazoned with the words, "We Will Never Forget."

Part of the money raised through the sale of the plates was to fund scholarships for children of California residents who perished in the attacks, while the majority -- 85 percent -- was to help fund anti-terrorism efforts.

But a review by The Associated Press of the $15 million collected since lawmakers approved the "California Memorial Scholarship Program" shows only a small fraction of the money went to scholarships. While 40 percent has funded anti-terror training programs, $3 million was raided by Gov. Jerry Brown and his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to plug the state's budget deficit.

Millions more have been spent on budget items with little relation to direct threats of terrorism, including livestock diseases and workplace safety.

Moreover, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has been advertising the plates as helping the children of Sept. 11 victims, even though the state stopped funding the scholarship program seven years ago. The specialty plate fund continues to take in $1.5 million a year.

Somebody ought to do something about this, right? Well, how about one of the people responsible for this pilfering in the first place?

Late Tuesday, in response to the AP report, Brown ordered his finance department to audit California's entire specialty license program, which was established by the Legislature in 1992, said Elizabeth Ashford, a spokeswoman for the governor.

We imagine the Governor was shocked, shocked such behavior was taking place.


Of the $15 million that has been raised through this program, only $21,000 has been allocated to scholarships and even that portion of the program was discontinued in 2005 even though the plate program still advertises the scholarships being an active part of the program.

The original legislation said the remainder of the money would go to law enforcement, fire protection, and public health agencies to be used "exclusively for purposes directly related to fighting terrorism."

But in 2008, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, borrowed $2 million to close a budget gap. Last year, Brown, a Democrat, borrowed another $1 million.

So, are there any plans to repay the program? Shut up, they explained:

Neither loan has been repaid nor are their deadlines to ensure they will be. Ashford, said the loans have done no harm and that the governor has no immediate plans to repay them.

"We're trying to simultaneously balance the budget and fund important programs," she said. "If there was an indication that borrowing this money was going to negatively impact this program, we wouldn't borrow the money."

How the hell can you negatively impact this program when effectively, there is no scholarship program? Absolutely disgraceful.



What makes this all the more pathetic is that the amount that is significant with respect to college scholarships for the intended sons and daughters of California’s fallen is just a rounding error when it comes to California’s budget and specifically, California’s budget shortfall.

To put a wrap on this, allow us to feature your typical world-weary and disgruntled California Texas citizen:

Patricia Anderson, who paid $98 for a personalized memorial plate reading "WE R 4US," said she signed up for the program primarily to show respect for victims of the 9/11 attacks. Anderson said she was disheartened but not surprised to learn that much of the money has gone to fill the state deficit or used for general purposes.

"That's California," said Anderson, who now lives near Austin, Texas. "It's kind of a given these days -- nothing is spent on what it's supposed to be."

And this is precisely the reason why we are giving a big fat No to Prop. 29.


Misallocation of funds and having no intention of repaying the funding source while spitting on the graves of 9-11 victims. Congratulations Governors Schwarzenegger and Brown on your very, very special trifecta.

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What is wrong with this guy?

On a day of remebrance, reflection and unity, here is what the New York Time's Paul Krugman decided to put down on his blog yesterday:

Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?

Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

In Krugman's alternate universe, the solemnity of yesterday's commemorations had less to do with the loss of life and the shock and horror of an attack on our nation's soil, the likes of which have never been seen, and more to do with what Krugman perceives as a tacit acknowledgement of bad behavior in the wake of 9-11. Uhh, yeah.

"Fake heroes"? Who was calling these men heroes to begin with? Regardless of what you think of these convenient-to-be-Republicans, it was generally agreed that those men provided a healthy degree of much-needed and steady-handed leadership in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 to where even a wing-nut like Rosie O'Donnell was singing President Bush's praises before reverting to default Truther wing-nut form.

But "heroes" is a grossly misleading straw man since most everyone agrees that showing strong leadership in a crisis situation does not qualify for "hero" status rather knowingly putting yourself in harm's way even at the risk of death in order to come to the aid of another.

We imagine Krugman knows this all too well, which makes his attempts to air partisan grievances on 9-11 all that more pathetic.

How sad. On a weekend where most of the nation was enjoying late summer/early fall weather and reveling in the first full weekend of college and professional football and yet also taking in very somber and moving 9-11 commemorations, Krugman decides to set finger to keyboard to generate that blog post. Contrast that with the grace and dignity that both President Bush and President Obama (who visited all 3 attack sites yesterday: Shanksville, PA, Washington D.C. and Ground Zero in New York City) handled the ceremonies yesterday. What a sad, bitter, little man Krugman is.

9-11 open thread

The very first thing that was noticed was that the usual wild and wacky banter of the local sports hack DJs was unusually subdued when the alarm clock radio went off at 6 AM ten years ago. Odd. Getting reports of a small plane crashing into one of the two World Trade Center towers. After showering, went downstairs and turned on the television just in time to see the second plane hit the other tower.

Getting ready for some football (UPDATED)

(scroll down for update)


It's become a cottage industry across the blogosphere to bang on ESPN for their pretentiousness and over-inflated sense of self-worth (and we are just as guilty as the next blog for doing so) but they wouldn't be where they are if they consistently made bad programming decisions.


To wit, ESPN is showing high school football games all weekend. What a great idea.* The progression and symmetry is near-perfect. High school football this weekend will give way to college football Labor day weekend which will then give way to the NFL getting underway on 9-11 weekend. Whose not down for that?

Anyway, as if you needed any help, here is a hi-lite tape of Marshall Faulk while he was at San Diego St. which we stumbled across a week or so ago and we were waiting for a relevant opportunity to share it. Since it's too far past his Hall of Fame induction ceremony earlier this month, this would appear to be as good a time as any.









Faulk is probably our favorite back of all-time with LaDanian Tomlinson running a close second (yes, we were blessed to see both with our own eyes here is San Diego). And that's also the 1-2 combination of running backs we've seen that have maximized the full arsenal of their god-given running back abilities. Running, receiving and running after the catch, ball security and blocking... no one did it better than those two.


* We say this as medically diagnosed football addicts.



(UPDATE #1): As if on cue....

pretentiousness and over-inflated sense of self-worth...

Did we mention blatantly hypocritical?


So between ESPN Golf anaylyst Paul Azinger and ESPN's Kenny Mayne, who do you think got disciplined for the following tweets?:

Don't think too hard.



If you said Kenny Mayne, you live in some sort of fantasy world.

ESPN is coming down on Paul Azinger for mocking President Barack Obama on Twitter. The golf analyst tweeted Thursday the Commander-in-chief plays more golf than he does — and that Azinger has created more jobs this month than Obama has.

On Friday ESPN ‘reminded” Azinger his venture into political punditry violates the company’s updated social network policy for on-air talent and reporters.

“Paul’s tweet was not consistent with our social media policy, and he has been reminded that political commentary is best left to those in that field,” spokesman Andy Hall told Game On! in a statement.

ESPN’s Hall would not comment on whether Azinger, who won the 1993 PGA Championship, will be fired, suspended or punished in some way. “We handle that internally,” he said.

Going public with a violent fantasy about another person is apparently A-OK with the world-wide leader, however.

Video clip of the day

On Sunday evening, National Geographic will be airing a one hour special about President Bush's memories of 9-11.

Here's a tease clip:




One of the things that absolutely chapped our hide and which was emblematic of Bush Derangement Syndrome was the snarkful criticisms leveled at Bush as he sat there in that classroom with that 10,000 ft. stare after being informed by Andy Card that the second World Trade Center tower had been hit.

Like, what was he supposed to do? After being informed that the country was under attack, maybe a little soft-shoe in front of the tykes, perhaps some Shakespeare? Or maybe given the go-it-alone cowboy personae we had not yet seen, he could've demanded that half the class form a defensive perimeter while arming the other half with the command to storm the cafeteria in the hopes of nabbing the perp.

Seriously. While his Secret Service detail was most certainly securing the perimeter and Air Force One was being fired up, there's no doubt that what went missing in Bush's recounting of Card's "brief" was for Bush to keep his ass planted right there in that seat until which time he could make an orderly departure.

Aaarrgh... Ten years on this stuff still ticks us off.

Anyway, we'll be watching.

Photo image of the day

With respect to the earthquake that rocked the mid-Atlantic seaboard yesterday, we understand the skittish-ness that accompanied the tremor what with the 10 year anniversary of 9-11 approaching and their general unfamiliarity with earthquakes in general. Even still, us Southern Californians couldn't help but be somewhat bemused by the general freak-out that ensued.



Having said that, we scoured the interwebs to see what sort of pictures we could dredge up that depicted the devastation that the earthquake visited upon that region and the following is what we found:


... please brace yourself. It ain't pretty...

And tweets too...

Krugman says it wasn't big enough.

As all of DC leaves work at the same time, the United States experiences a brief economic recovery.

H/T: Instapundit

Nine years ago

Headline and sub-headline of the day (UPDATED)

New York mosque controversy worries Muslims overseas

Some can't understand the fuss over a house of worship and how a democracy promoting religious freedom could even be having such a debate. Others are offended at the conflation of the 9/11 attacks with all Muslims.

We realize that it's the height of the political silly season currently in these dog days of August but is it really too much to ask this nation's political left and the Arab "street" to wrap their brains around the notion that one can accept that there is nothing legally-speaking that can or should be done to prevent a Muslim community center from being built two blocks from Ground Zero while simultaneously believing that this same community center would better serve its alleged intent of tolerance and understanding by being built elsewhere?

It isn't but for the American left it's brutally obvious that this is simply about misrepresenting the views of those opposed to building this community center, mosque, whatever, at that particular location.

So, it's come to this: a completely natural, understandable and visceral response by 67% of New York City residents is proof-positive of this country's Islamophobia.

Unfortunately for the left, however, and similar to the Arizona illegal immigration issue, it's tough for your false narrative to gain much traction when you are on the losing side of a 70/30 hot button issue... particularly when prominent members of the left's own team like Harry Reid and Howard Dean as well as the hottest Muslim in the nation desire the mosque to be built elsewhere.

It slays us that the L.A. Times can run that article with a straight face. Maybe when the broader Muslim world gets serious about purging the extremist elements from their ranks, we'll actually start paying attention to rebukes with respect to religious tolerance and understanding.

And given the deliberate misrepresentation of mosque opposition by the left, who is it that really needs a lecture on tolerance and understanding?

And since when did critiquing a religion or aspects of a religion become synonymous with "hatred". When same-sex marriage supporters demonstrated in front of the large Mormon temple in University Town Center last year, that was simply American-as-apple pie flexing of 1st amendment rights, was it not?

As this whole mosque debate neatly illustrates, though, the American left is highly subjective when it comes to the practical application of the 1st amendment.

So, just in case there is any doubt as to where we and we believe most Americans stand on this:

By all means, build your mosque; but please, strongly consider a different location


(UPDATE #1): B-Daddy chimes in:

My position? I oppose the idea of a mosque at that site, but I also oppose action by government to stop it. I will applaud every protest at that site if the center is built. However, it falls into the category of lots of other things that I oppose, but refuse to support state suppression of, because granting the state the power to correct the problem I want solved inevitably leads to a long string of abuses of that very power. I don't like pornography, swearing, fools on motorcycles who don't wear helmets, cigarettes, fools in cars who don't wear seat belts, marijuana, and generally anything inspired by hippies. But in a free society, we put limits on the power of government to correct these ills, because the cure is truly worse than the disease.

Part of what is central to the concept of American exceptionalism is that the 1st amendment simultaneously allows for both the building of the mosque at Ground Zero and the ability to protest against building that mosque there. The concepts of freedom of religion and freedom of dissent in this country make this position fully consistent.

Of mosques, hate speech and gay bars

Greg Gutfeld's plans to build a gay bar adjacent to the Ground Zero mosque (Al Gayda? The Velvet Sword? Sharia Spa?) as a way to build a bridge to understanding with the Muslim community that is, we understand, somewhat hostile to homosexuals, brought this reaction from Megan McArdle:

This is kind of a jerk move. But it's a brilliant jerk move. I am hoping that at least one person will attempt to explain why we should support the mosque near Ground Zero, but not the gay bar next to the mosque near Ground Zero. I would find that very entertaining.

Indeed. After all the lecturing and tut-tutting the left has been doing with regard to center-right Nation's horrified response to the mosque proposal, it's time to turn the tables.

(For the record: though we believe building this mosque there is strictly an act of provocation and an incredibly insensitive one at that, we can see no legal standing to prevent them from building it there)

And McCardle gets her "one person".

The Ground Zero mosque spokesperson tweeted Gutfeld the following:

You're free to open whatever you like. If you won't consider the sensibilities of Muslims, you're not going to build dialog

Well, that's certainly a matter of opinion, now isn't it, champ? Just consider this a lesson in that whole American freedom and liberty thing cutting both ways.

But Gutfeld's gay bar got us to thinking about offensive/hate speech and actions. In some places, what Gutfeld is attempting to do, would get him frog-marched to in front of some civil rights commission (think Canada or parts of Northern Europe) but that's not what we do here.

In one of our posts regarding free speech in America, we talked about what constitutes hate speech and how, because we view free speech in this country much differently than other countries, the bar for hate speech is set much higher:

Precisely because the bar is set higher, the legitimization of hate speech is much more infrequent. Rather than officially recognize alleged hate speech in courts of law, the rantings of say, a Jeremiah Wright or the suggestions by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson that the acceptance of homosexuality in this country was, in part, responsible for 9-11, it is instead held up for public scorn, ridicule and mocking…. as it should. The question of legitimacy is taken off the table and in fact, it is viewed not as court-defined “hate speech” but rather, “illegitimate speech.” In other words, speech that is outside the legitimate circle of polite and civil discourse.

We will not take you to court, we will, however, make fun of you and then simply ignore you.

And this is what Gutfeld is doing. He has turned the tables on the mosque builders. He is gutting (no pun intended) the spiteful intent of these people with mockery and satire. He is de-legitimizing the mosque with this brilliant Alinsky-like tactic.

There is a parallel here and it occurred just 3 years ago in the same city:

A perfect case-in-point for this is the Iranian mad-bomber, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who came to New York last year to make a number of speeches and appearances. We understood the calls for banning and/or boycotting his speeches but we generally came down on the side of letting the man speak knowing that the true Mahmoud would reveal himself and sho’nuff, the raving lunatic, homophobe and anti-semite we knew him to be did not disappoint.

Despite the serious nature of what he said, we mocked and ridiculed the guy, essentially turning Ahmedinejad into a late-night punch line effectively neutering and delegitimizing his message.

This is part of American exceptionalism so bring it on. Instead of cowering in a corner or behaving like a bunch of humour-less, politically correct, Euro-scolds, Gutfeld has embraced his inner wild, wild West(ern civilization) and is fighting this fight on his terms.

America: where freedom and fun happens.

Poll question of the week

It's been a little while since we've done one of these. In fact, it's partly because we were crushed by the fact that you all thought that Timothy Geithner was a bigger hack than that miserable hack that runs the Justice Department.

We've recovered.

You may have heard that the Cordoba House has been granted permission to be built near the site of Ground Zero. The poll is asking for your reaction, so please follow suit and please add any further commentary in the comment section.

Interesting side note from the New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting yesterday where they voted to allow construction of the mosque: A construction worker, Andy Sullivan, who helped with the bucket brigades there at the site in the days after 9-11 had this to say regarding an important logistical matter:

Later, Sullivan told reporters that the controversy surrounding the mosque is far from over.

“You’re going to have a problem getting labor there,” he said. “Everyone I’ve talked to will not lift a finger to build that disgrace.”

Having spent 4 years back there while attending Seminary, New Yorkers are not the type to be trifled with. We see picket lines.




Addendum #1: OK, folks, one more certainty (but in a good way): death, taxes and Sarah B.'s commentary. Liberated from the comment section:

I think it is a horrible symbolic statement by the Islamic community. They have zero sensitivity to what the extreme elements of their faith did at that location. If Islam is a religion of peace, I say PROVE IT. Spend the next 10 years building a track record of sensitivity and activism that illustrates how tolerant they are of other faiths, a willingness to protect and nurture women, and banish and battle terrorism. Why the hell are WE the ones who are supposed to open our hearts to all their demands and whims? They need to be in the WORKING end of their relationship with peace loving, God fearing, law abiding America. They want to be here in this great nation, fine...pony up (and I don't mean financially).

Full disclosure: We voted (b). And lest you think we're getting weak in the knees, be it known, we think Sarah is spot-on. Much like today's ruling from a single judge here in California, there is a legal aspect to this as well as a PR one.

Now, we're not going to pretend to know what the real PR motive is of the people who wish to build this mosque. If it is to build a bridge to understanding and reconciliation then that is going to take years and years, if at all, considering the emotions surrounding this. There would appear to be more effective and discreet ways of doing so than building this structure within shouting distance of Ground Zero.

If, however, the motive is to symbolically provoke then, Mission Accomplished.

This story and the words and deeds that follow, through the planning stages, ground breaking, construction and dedication of this mosque will be the lead narrative of Muslim relations with respect to not only this country but the West.

Suffice to say, we're not looking forward to the next few years of construction development in the NYC.

Another victory for the reality-based community?

So, does this get the clock ticking on the tenure of the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department?

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president's advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

Of course, these civilian trials have nothing to with the rule of law but rather an ideological slanted appeasement to the Left. Once the President and the aforementioned miserable hack started making statements to the effect that KSM would never be set free even if he was acquitted, they forfeited any moral high ground on the subject of rule of law and civil rights. And they most likely forfeited anything resembling a fair trial as the presiding judge may very well have thrown out the entire case because of those statements.

Perhaps then, equal parts appeasement to common sense and the realization that their idiotic prejudicial comments jeopardized the outcome of the trial.

Live and learn: we’ll take these victories when and where we can as we (prematurely?) credit the Obama administration for heeding a 2x4 of reality upside its head.

Perspective

Was the last 10 years really as sucky as we think it was or that we were told it was?

Still, most economic models suggest that the fundamental source of growth is new ideas, which enable us to produce more from a given set of resources. To the extent that the rest of the world becomes wealthier, there’s more innovation, as my colleague and co-blogger Alex Tabarrok, professor of economics at George Mason University, argued recently. China, for instance, is moving toward the research frontier in areas such as solar power, scientific instruments, engineering and nanoscience, all of which can benefit the United States. Unlike the situation of just a few decades ago, a genius born in Mumbai now stands a good chance of becoming a notable scientist, whether at home or abroad.

We tend to focus on big events like wars or big atrocious events like 9-11 but linked article argues that globally-speaking the Oh-Nos weren’t too shabby.

We blog, you decide.

9-11-2009 (UPDATED)

6 A.M. We new something was amiss the moment we awoke. The usual frenetic pitch of the homers on the local sports talk radio who jolted us awake every morning was subdued and inquisitive.

There had been an incident at the World Trade Center. A small commuter plane appeared to have crashed into one of the towers. Not much more was known beyond that.

Shower. Head downstairs to turn on the T.V. to witness smoke billowing from one of towers. Hmmmm….. And that’s when the second one hit.

So we never forget, please go here.

And so we never forget the strength, grace and resolve for which this country has been blessed please stick around for a moment.




(UPDATE #1):We understand President Obama has declared Sept. 11 Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance. That’s cool but we’re sticking with plain ol' Patriot Day, thanks.

Anti-terrorism by the numbers

The President made his big national security speech at the National Archives today and in keeping with his forward-looking vision, blamed everything on the Bush administration… while, of course, opting to keep many of Bush’s anti-terrorism policies intact.

He called the prison at Guantanamo “a rallying cry for our enemies”. Really? You know what’s a rallying cry for our enemies? According to James Cromitie a.k.a. “Abdul Rahman” who is one of the four men who were caught in New York in an F.B.I. sting this week plotting to blowup synagogues and shoot down planes from the sky, it’s those damn Jews.

When the conversation turned to attacking a synagogue, Cromitie allegedly said, "I hate those Jewish "expletie." I would like to get a synagogue.

Cromitie also said that he wanted to return to Afghanistan to die as a “martyr”. But, but… Afghanistan is the “good” war.

Here’s what the President had to say about the 3 people we actually waterboarded

"As commander-in-chief, I see the intelligence, I bear responsibility for keeping this country safe, and I reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation. What’s more, they undermine the rule of law. They alienate us in the world. They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists, and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured. In short, they did not advance our war and counter-terrorism efforts – they undermined them, and that is why I ended them once and for all."

(italics, ours)

It’s the height of naivete to believe that these savages we’re fighting in the war on terror would treat any captives more humanely if only we weren’t water boarding our prisoners. For the Commander-in-Chief to hold this view is highly discouraging.

And reasonable people can differ on water boarding with respect to the rule of law but to claim that the decisions that were made over the last 8 years were “neither effective nor sustainable” is incredulous.

There’s a little saying, or more precisely, a single word that invokes a bottom line result when one wants to cut through the rhetoric and platitudes. It’s called “Scoreboard”. It’s a favorite of ours. Please join us, won’t you?


(Terrorism viewed as a criminal act and which no one seemed to take very seriously)

1993: World Trade Center bombing
1996: Khobar Tower bombing
1998: African embassy bombings
2000: USS COLE bombing
2001: 9-11 terrorist attacks

(Country wakes up, gets serious about terrorism, opens Club Gitmo and unleashes an orgy of enhanced interrogation techniques upon the bad guys)

Sept. 12, 2001 – present: 0

That, ladies and gentleman, is Scoreboard.

Welcome to your post-post-9-11 world

The panic you see here in this video is a direct result of the constant fear-inducing paranoia fed to the public for years by the Bush administration.

Seriously, how else would one explain such irrational behavior displayed by these people… it’s almost as if they had experienced a catastrophic event that cost thousands of lives in a similar fashion in the not-too-distant past. But of course, we know nothing like that ever happened.

Yep, we're in good hands.

Yes, but would we be infringing upon bin Laden's privacy?

Article here talks about new Predator imaging technology that allows the good guys (that’d be “us”) to be able to see inside buildings to track down, ID and kill the bad guys (that’d be “them”). Author opines that this new technology combined with an alleged secret order signed by President Bush to allow Afghan-based U.S. Specil Op forces to cross into Pakistan without Islamabad’s permission increases the odds of an “October surprise”.

And this…

Moreover, as Woodward writes, the president frequently relishes the death of individual extremists and insurgents in a way that even our professional soldiers find striking. Then-American commander in Iraq Gen. George W. Casey Jr. "told a colleague in private that he had the impression that Bush reflected the 'radical wing of the Republican Party that kept saying, "Kill the bastards! Kill the bastards! And you'll succeed."

Hate to be so reactionary but after watching the History Channel's "102 Minutes that changed America", count us among those who don’t mind a little blood-lust in the heart of our CinC when it comes to these “folks”.

9-11

This date will always be remembered for this...





However, every date on our calendar should remind us of this...

You try Explaining it.

Ogre aka Monsignor of Breweries has an item here regarding the memorial at Somerset, PA where Flight 93 crashed on 9-11. Critics of the memorial claim that several aspects of the memorial, including the overall layout are tributes to Islam.

We’re always skeptical of things like this… It seems like you can find a “red under the bed” everywhere if you look long and hard enough. But after reading the post including the attached link we're inclined to side with the critics. The legal term for our needle tipping that way is “a preponderance of circumstantial evidence”. One of these supposed tributes to Islam as stand-alone items could be explained away, perhaps, but when you start stacking them one on top of another, you couldn’t be blamed for scratching your head and wondering: “O.K. what’s really going on here?”

Of course, it could be worse. Critics could’ve divined actual crosses and tributes to Christianity in the design of the memorial instead.