Snapped Shot

This one was too good to pass up. Who knew that our little buddy would show up in defence of Sudan's right to burninate the non-Muslim peasants "peacefully" ignite their denizens. Here's more on the terror-loving Islamic thug who's currently running Sudan, in case you're interested.

Yet another instance of an Arabic media organization talking out of both sides of their mouth? A "peaceful two-state solution," indeed... Many thanks to the folks at CAMERA Snapshots (no relation) for their fine work, and for the folks at MEMRI, who do so much of the heavy lifting that goes into these discussions!

Update 1-Mar: Uhh, [awkward silence]... followed by:

Oof, that hurts the team!

Now, about those magic carbon-offset indulgences the folks on the left are championing with great fervor. You know they're hot—they were included in the "presenter's thank you gifts" at this week's Oscar telecast:

The [gift offsets] "are enough to balance out an average year in the life of an Academy Award presenter," a press release from TerraPass asserts. "For example, 100,000 pounds is the total amount of carbon dioxide created by 20,000 miles of driving, 40,000 miles on commercial airlines, 20 hours in a private jet and a large house in Los Angeles. The greenhouse gas reductions will be accomplished through TerraPass' [program] of verified wind energy, cow power [collecting methane from manure] and efficiency projects." Voila, guilt-free consumption! It reminds us of the era when rich Catholics paid the church for "dispensations" that would shorten their terms in Purgatory. (H/T Larwyn)

So, TerraPass does what, exactly? Collects money, issues these certificates and then—funds wind farms and such? Is that it? Where, exactly? Not Nantucket, we know, but where? Does anyone know how much money is going into offsets and how much real alternative energy is being produced or how much tree-planting or flurescent bulb-buying is going on? I haven't been able to access terrapass.com, so we'll have to find out when the site comes back up. Who runs that joint, anyway? Shouldn't we be "following the money" a little—make sure it's all for real—before we buy all this eco-jazz hook, line and sinker? Shouldn't someone in the press be looking at this, even just a little? We're talking about potentially an awful lot of money with apparently no one asking a single question.

As usual, the right-hand side of the blogosphere is alone in asking the "5 W's." Critical thought, as usual, is still not welcome on the left, who collectively are more than happy to accept whatever the Environmental "Fundies" (to use a derogatory term invented by those bigoted lefties) tell them, without question!

Alas, it's much easier to unquestionably follow than to think for one's self, isn't it?

Surprise, surprise! Fidel Castro has popped up on fellow dictator Hugo Chavez's (who else?) radio show. Does this mean he's genuinely still not dead? Or is Hugo just dancing for the cameras yet again?

As usual, I have to do the esplainin' that the press refuses to do. Check out this little gem:



What's missing from this caption? Maybe an explanation of what these "anti-Zionists" are all about would be in order. While it's not identified in the caption, this group is most likely from Neturei Karta, who are a notorious group of Israel-hating, Holocaust-denying Jews.

It's worth noting that these guys also showed up at David Duke's little Holocaust-denying shindig in Tehran, something which REUTERS also fails to identify.

Believe me, folks: The only people in the world that take NK seriously are people whose agenda includes the destruction of Israel.

As an aside, do you notice how similar their signs look to those from certain other flaming leftist protest groups?


What do you suppose the odds that, if you were to "accidentally" examine the balance books between NK and International ANSWER, that you'd find that both groups are one and the same--mere Leftist puppets sent to masquerade around in front of an all-too-willing press?

One step at a time!

I hear about how CEO's make "too much" money on a daily basis here in the D.C. Metro area. From fellow Beltway Bandits who are literally becoming comfortably rich off of Federal contracts, no less doing so at the expense of the American taxpayer! With that in mind, it was fairly amusing to see this little tidbit (and a little hint: 2000 was in the previous Administration's reign):


(Thanks to Larwyn for bringing this to my attention.)

Did the Taliban know of Vice President Cheney's surprise visit to Afghanistan ahead of time? Or are they claiming to have invented fire?

I'm not expecting the Associated (with terrorists) Press to get to the bottom of that question any time soon...

Who knew that "average" people who testify before Congress were anything but average? I mean, the Guardians in the Press say they're average, right? (h/t BizzyBlog)

Is this a side-effect of the "open government" culture that brought us C-SPAN? After all, before our Congressional representatives spent all of their time worrying about how they would look in front of the cameras, they were able to discuss things relatively openly amongst themselves. Nowadays? I don't see much going on in Congress other than vapid grandstanding. Not exactly the best way to run a ship, as far as I can see.

Anyway, the moral of this story remains, as always, "Trust, but verify."

Lo and behold, in a followup to last week's story about Virginia's mandatory transfer of money from the Commonwealth to Merck, we find out from the director of the Federal Centers for Disease Control that Gardasil, Merck's vaccine for HPV, might not really be all that effective, and should not be made mandatory in any public school.

The chairman of the federal panel that recommended the new cervical-cancer vaccine for pre-teen girls says lawmakers should not make the inoculation mandatory, as the District and more than 20 states, including Virginia, are considering.
...
Taken in a series of three shots at $120 each, Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine on the market. About 45 percent of children would be eligible for free vaccines from the federal Vaccinations for Children program, while the other 55 percent would depend on the state programs and insurance companies.

And for the few of you that suggested that I'm going on an anti-vaccine rampage, consider this gem:

But cancer data show that lawmakers looking to force pre-teen girls to take Gardasil, the lone vaccine on the market, are targeting the wrong age group.

Middle-school girls inoculated with the breakthrough vaccine will be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness -- more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts HPV, The Washington Times reported last week.
...
Merck is still studying Gardasil's longevity and the potential for a booster shot.

See, that last sentence is what I mean about it not being "fully tested" yet. Until we've gone 10 years, and know what the vaccine's effectiveness is at that point, we really don't know if it'll be worth the Billions of dollars that we will be forcing ourselves to pay out for it.

Personally, I still think it's a bum deal.

Hopefully, Governor Kaine will see this money-grab for what it is, and send the bill flying back to the General Assembly, for some genuine debate, this time. The fact that this bill sailed through the Assembly the first time is a shame, considering all of the contradictory information that's out there!

The Boreacle uses more electricity in one month than the average American family uses in a YEAR?


Update: The Boreacle Responds. I say, so what? One would think that having a low gross "carbon footprint" would be more important to an environmentalist than a low net footprint that's offset by a mere transfer of "dollars," no?

See also here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here (ROFL!!), and here.

I love hearing other people blaming the United States for the failure of their horribly-mismanaged utopian socialist economies.

No matter how many times it's tried, Socialism fails. You'd think the human race would've learned something from history by now... I guess it's easier to blame a faraway boogeymen than it is to take responsibility for one's own actions, huh?

Here's some food for thought next time you hear someone from the ACLU pining on about "defending" civil rights... I'm very disappointed that this had to happen in the Virginia chapter of the ACLU... Do we, the citizens of this grand Commonwealth, really have to keep putting up with garbage like this? Or can we be comforted by disavowing all knowledge of the incident, considering that it happened in Arlington, VA DC.