Link of the day

File this one under: Our bad.

Our bad for not linking to this in far too long.

Our buddy, Mongo, started up a Facebook group, Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, Operation Outreach known colloquially in these parts as the Playdoh Offensive.

Our troops over there in the Kabul area send out convoys on a regular basis not to hunt down the bad guys but to the villages in the area for humanitarian purposes. The Playdoh Offensive has chosen to focus on the children. The link has all the details on the left-hand margin but it's as simple as going over to Target, Long's Drugs or Wal-Mart and filling up a cardboard box with pencils, crayons, drawing paper, soccer balls, basketballs, used clothing (good repair), shoes (huge need!), baby clothing (huge need!) and, of course, Playdoh and having the post office ship it over for about $12.

Basically the stuff you would love to have if you were a kid growing up in an impoverished, war-torn, 3rd world nation where the simple act of showing up at school can be death defying.


On a related note:

The husband of a co-worker of ours will be deploying to Afghanistan in a short while. We are kicking around the idea of our Project Office heading-up an "Adopt-a-Platoon" type program and hosting it on FaceBook with regular updates here at BwD.

Bumper stickers are swell but there's more to "support the troops".

We'll keep you posted.

Quote of the day

Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit has written President Barack Obama endorsing “strong regulatory reform” for U.S. banks. What’s more, Pandit wrote, “You can count on me and the entire Citi organization to support” Obama’s reform efforts.

And when the federal government owns 27% of your ass at Citi that's the sort of fealty we expect. So, just knock off any of this whining about crony capitalism and let Citi get back to cutting a backroom deal with the most transparent administration ever.


P.S. This is mildly reminiscent of a radio interview we heard years ago involving Sonny Vacarro, a legend in the world of AAU basketball and basketball sneakers. At the time, Sonny was working for Nike, or was it Adidas, or maybe even Reebok... can't be sure. Anyway, Sonny's big thing was his 5-Star basketball camp he held every summer in Pittsburgh which was merely an opportunity for high school all-stars from around the nation to showcase their wares in front of Division I basketball coaches. Sonny was notorious for shepherding these high school studs to whichever college had a contract with whatever shoe company Sonny happened to be working for at the time.

To say that the unregulated world at the intersection of AAU basketball, college recruiting and shoe companies is a somewhat shady realm is to be charitable. And Sonny knew it! But did Sonny ever feel compelled to hold back to at least stem the criticism that he was acting in an unethical manner? Ha! There was money to be made and employers to be satisfied and access to schools like North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas to be had.

Sonny, in this interview, was reduced to begging the hosts to "please make some rules" because the whole arrangement was seedy, sleazy and unseemly and no one including, admittedly, Sonny himself could help themselves from swimming, nay, luxuriating in it.

Now, we know that the world of Wall St. is far from unregulated and those very regulations that are in place are alternately ignored and leveraged by Congress to produce the desired results but the pitiful and supine behavior of both Pandit and Vacarro is demonstrable less of a "broken system" and more of ultimately failed human character.

The NBA just became a little more unbearable (UPDATED...Again!)

What to look forward to this evening:

The "Los Suns" jerseys the Phoenix Suns wear annually for the NBA's "Noche Latina" program just went from marketing gimmick to political statement.

And a playoff series with a narrative already worthy of The History Channel just added a subplot that would make for a rowdy segment on Fox News Channel.

In announcing the Suns would wear their Spanish jerseys for Game 2 against the San Antonio Spurs -- which falls on the Mexican holiday known as Cinco de Mayo -- Suns owner Robert Sarver went out of his way to knock Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law known as Senate Bill 1070.

Right on! Because nothing says shameless pandering to a constituency like mangled Spanglish.


(UPDATE #1): Typical sports fan not sold on the "Los Suns" stunt as revealed in ESPN poll, here.

An electoral landslide especially considering the squishy wording of the question. We believe the gap would be wider if ESPN was speaking truth to power and used "illegal".


(UPDATE #2): Liberating a couple of comments we enjoyed:

From Sarah B.:

The irony of this sounding like the stereotype of a right wing old white guy shouting at an immigrant and just throwing La and Los in front of English nouns kinds says it all.

Get off my lawn, Los Bastards!!!

From RoadDawg:

Does the bill specifically mention illegal "Mexican" immigration? I think not, it allows law enforcement to enforce the law of the land. This seems racist to imply only the Spanish speaking illegals are somehow a target or the problem and require the solidarity. The law is enforcing all illegal immigration. Why do the Phoenix Suns feel the need to profile Hispanics with the change of jersey? Especially with the aforementioned stereotype. It appears the Suns are the racists.

Indeed, the ironies abound everywhere.


General media note: We're big sports fans and avid consumers of sports media both electronic and print. You'd be pleased to know the group think that exists in the Op-Ed pages and the vast majority of media outlets is alive and well in the Sports dept. as well. Wilbon, Adande, Lupica (natch) and others have all dutifully fell in line with respect to their criticism of the Arizona (illegal) immigration law and/or their support of the lame "Los Suns" charade.

A steak dinner direct from BwD to the first sports columnist we read of who demonstrates the not-very-career-enhancing chops to buck the trend.

Life is easier with pasty white Michiganders

Earlier today, we gave MSNBC host Contessa Brewer some deserved grief for having to live with the distinct possibility that there are one or two Islamic extremists out there wishing to put another crater in a major U.S. city.

"...there are a lot of people who want to use this terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry."

And speaking of believing in a certain way and having different skin color here's how she relates the alleged Times Square bomber with the Hutaree militia that were rounded up in March.

But that being said, I mean, we know even in recent history you have the Hutaree militia from Michigan who have plans to, let’s face it, create terror. That’s what they were planning to do and they were doing so from far different backgrounds than what this guy is coming from. So, the threat is not just coming from people who decide that America is the place to be and you know come here and want to become citizens.

Appears that Contessa didn't get the memo.

Nine members of a Michigan militia will be released from jail pending trial after a federal judge on Monday harshly criticized the government's claim they had conspired to overthrow the U.S. government.

The decision is a significant defeat for federal authorities, who spoke in tough and triumphant terms after arresting members of a southern Michigan group called the Hutaree in March and charging them with conspiracy to commit sedition and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.

The government "need not wait until people are killed before it arrests conspirators," U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said. "But the defendants are also correct: Their right to engage in hate-filled, venomous speech is a right that deserves First Amendment protection."

If the feds want to head off any criticism that the arrest of these militia men coincided quite curiously with the tea party protests at the Capitol on the weekend of the ObamaCare vote, this is not going to help.

Poor Contessa. We wonder what her thoughts were regarding these militia members and any feelings of "isolation" they experienced and any "failed family ties" they may have been forced to cope with.

Look, we don't like trailer-dwelling, gun-toting, "Christian" meth-heads with bad teeth and bad hygiene any more than the next person. They drive down property values and yes, they may indeed by dangerous.

However, all we're asking for here is a little adulthood. A little maturity where the President doesn't ask for "civility" as he did a few days ago and then turnaround and debase the people who oppose his policies.

And maybe a little professionalism as well. Professionalism in the form of taking a couple days off, in the case of Contessa Brewer, in lieu of making a complete ass of herself as she did regarding the Times Square bomber because god knows, she really, really, really wanted that guy to be some white dude in his forties sporting a "Don't Tread On Me" t-shirt. Things would've gone so much smoother, now wouldn't it have?

A few thoughts on the Times Square bomb plot

In keeping with this administration's efforts to downplay the threat of jihadist-inspired terrorism we note that we keep being reminded that the Times Square bombing attempt was "amateurish" in nature. Had it detonated would it still have been amateurish? An "amateurish"-ly planned bombing scheme that does succeed would still be a "bomb detonating in Times Square" by which no one would've given a damn whether or not it was amateurish.

Betsy's Page has a nice round-up of some rather curious reactions (or call them talking points, if you are so inclined) to the bomb plot in its immediate wake (before the arrest of the suspect) and even given the benefit of hindsight there is an odd tone to them that now seem patently ridiculous.

And imagine the disappointment at MSNBC that the unidentified "white man" in his 40s who was suspected of being the bomber is a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent (Well, whattya know? Right on cue Contessa Brewer of MSNBC is like, totally bummed that the suspect may harbor some extremist views. Consistency!*)

And to think that Frank Rich won't be taking the week off afterall because "the column that writes itself" fizzled out just like the contents inside that Nissan Pathfinder.

Not to worry Franky-baby. You can always fall back on writing about the violence at Tea Party rallys.


* We started working this post yesterday and came up with the MSNBC hypothetical before we were alerted to Brewer's hand-wringing.

Let's bomb Arizona! (UPDATED)

(please scroll to bottom for update)


It's come to this: We fell compelled to support a law that our heart's not behind because the citizens of Arizona rightly feel the federal government has abandoned their constitutionally-mandated responsibilities to enforce the sovereignty of this nation by enforcing the borders.

B-Daddy has a great take on the role both political parties have played in bringing us to this point. He's right. Both Republicans and Democrats have exploited the illegal immigration issue for their own short-term political ends. Now we are stuck in this bind where we are having local law enforcement do the job the feds should've been doing all along. The irony that Arizona's last governor, Janet Napolitano, under whose watch this problem really started to blow-up, is now the head of Homeland Security is not lost on us.

By the way, you can oppose this law and still oppose this sophomoric and counter-productive boycott of Arizona goods and services.

How is boycotting the businesses of Arizona because you don't like a law the state legislature passed, helping the situation any?

We love how cheerleaders for a piece of legislation that provides the framework for an ever-increasing amount of government involvement into personal health care decisions have taken sudden umbrage to a state government's efforts to merely uphold the law.

To that end, Temple of Mut has the details on an Arizona BUY-cott with a list of Arizona-based businesses and retailers. Also, we made the suggestion of an Arizona money bomb or a one day online shopping spree of Arizona goods and services. ToM was kind enough to take that on and proving the incredibly viral nature of the Internet, May 5th, Cinco de Mayo has been declared Arizona Money Bomb Day.

Get online and show some support for the citizens of Arizona and in opposition to the intelligentsia, labor unions, wack-jobs on the left, open border types, racial preference opportunists and the entrenched political class of this country who act only in their best interests and not that of the country as a whole.


(UPDATE #1):

Another bit of irony that dawned on us while thinking about this subject: The socio-political set most vehemently opposed to the Arizona immigration bill because of the specter of racial profiling view the entirety of their political life through the prism of racial and gender set-asides, quotas and preferences. Of course, they fear racial profiling, their politics consists of nothing but racial profiling.


Tomorrow's the big day for tomorrow we bomb Arizona! Please see link above at Temple of Mut's for a list of businesses to patronize online during our Cinco De Mayo Arizona money bomb BUY-cott.

Dinner plans? We'll be at P.F. Changs in Mission Valley tomorrow evening, 6ish. Hope they serve margaritas.

Not on our dime or time

It's human rights season at the U.N. and the latest idea to roll down the pike is the establishment of a gender-based rights entity. Currently there is nothing yet in place and the co-directors of AIDS-Free World released a position paper, Without Operational Capacity the New UN Entity for Women Will Not Succeed. Rough translation: if it doesn't exist, it cannot succeed. Pretty sound logic. The report makes the claim that "discrimination against women is the most widespread and intractable problem affecting humankind.”

Short of establishing this entity, the UN did itself proud on the womens' rights front by naming Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women. We won't pretend to know all the details of the machinations of UN, but this Commission would appear to be a pretty good jumping-off point for establishing an entity that would combat "discrimination against women..." Current membership excluded, of course.

But we digress, slightly...

While there are plenty of reasons to oppose the new gender super-agency at the UN, Ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, just this week reiterated the Obama Administration’s support for “advancing the broad set of women’s issues through the UN system, including through the establishment of a robust, efficient, and effective entity to advance women’s issues and women’s rights.” Instead, the U.S. should continue to uphold the human rights for men, women, and children that are enshrined in the Constitution, and work to protect the rights of all vulnerable individuals worldwide through existing human rights institutions and treaties.

That entity already exists. It is known as the U.S. military which has been liberating men, women and children and allowing basic human rights to take hold the world over since the inception of our nation.

Thinking anything constructive with respect to human rights let alone women's rights will generate from within the UN is folly. The President would be well-served on the behalf of the country and women, in general, by dropping his support of any UN gender rights entity.

What's next...?

The Roman Polanski day care center?

And then they came for the whole-fooders...

Lefty granola-eaters shocked... shocked to find out Congress is using some backdoor manuevers to slip items into the Wall St. reform bill.

Of all the sneaky tactics practiced in Washington D.C., this recent action by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) is one of the most insidious: While no one was looking, he injected amendment language into the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173) that would expand the powers of the FTC (not the FDA, but the FTC) to terrorize nutritional supplement companies by greatly expanding the power of the FTC to make its own laws that target dietary supplement companies.

This is a little-known secret about the FTC and the nutritional supplements business: The FTC routinely targets nutritional supplement companies that are merely telling the truth about their products. Some companies are threatened by merely linking to published scientific studies about their products.

Welcome to the struggle, gang.

No free lunch

Milton Friedman was a violent man. No, he didn't advocate violence by any stretch. It's just that his ideas on the economy and that of freedom and liberty are in such violent opposition to the the current paradigm of the crony capitalism/economic fascism of Bailout Nation.

Part and parcel to this is the ruinous notion of a free lunch. Your Mom and Dad were right. There is no such thing and the longer we delay confronting unsustainable obligations be it, Social Security and public employee union pensions or all that wonderful health care we will soon be provided, the worse it's going to be.

Here's KT looking at the the other end of the equation: Profits:

All of the conversations revolve around what this or that government is going to do to solve the problems. This has the problem exactly backwards. Governments generate nothing, they only spend their nation's profits. Everything comes from profits. While austerity measures are all well and good, perhaps the more important issue is how to increase profits and how much they need to increase. Let's take the US as an example.

Read the rest about how punishing and disincentivizing profit-making by businesses both big and small is probably not such a hot idea at the link above.

And here's the object of a BwD man-crush on the subject of "free" making the dude with probably no less than a half-dozen degrees look like a 3rd grader. Profits allow for the illusion of free stuff. Somebody, somewhere is subsidizing what you formerly thought was free.



No free lunch

At long last....

... a Kathleen Parker column we can get behind.

The truth is that Americans love their free speech and have had enough of those who think they can dictate the limits of that fundamental right. Americans also love humor and the irreverence that underpins the joke.

You might say irreverence is our national religion. It keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously and from killing one another over differences of opinion. Cartoons get under our skin in special ways, driving past our defenses and aiming right for the heart of our self-importance. That's why we respond so emotionally.

Barring the occasional offensive punch line, humor is a mostly pleasant test of our allegiance to founding principles. Think of it this way: The degree to which one can tolerate ribbing about one's most deeply held convictions is the degree to which a society can remain free. We honor that notion through our laws and our sense of humor. We may not all laugh at the same things, but most understand that it ain't personal.

It's a spectacularly beautiful morning here in San Diego. As we prepare to lay some wagers on the Kentucky Derby later this afternoon, we hope your morning is budding in similar fashion.

Forget Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and George Washington for a moment. On May 1st, May Day, the Communist 4th of July, let's remember the laborers, farmers, blacksmiths and cart wrights of our own that are not celebrated like the aforementioned but still suffered and died for the cause of freedom and liberty that has resulted in the prosperity we now enjoy today.

Washington didn't make it across the Delaware by himself. Who are those people in that famous picture? Would we have the courage to be one of those people?

We're sure we are missing something and there is indeed a significant Revolutionary War veteran's memorial somewhere but if not and even still, perhaps we can fashion May Day into something other than a celebration of collectivism and promotion of lawlessness that it is today.