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10/17/2003

Iraq: Grant or Loan?

Iraq: Grant or Loan?

Senate Defies Bush On Iraq Assistance (washingtonpost.com)

Defying weeks of intense White House lobbying, a narrowly divided Senate voted last night to convert half of President Bush's $20.3 billion Iraq rebuilding plan into a loan that would be forgiven if other donor nations write off the debt incurred by the ousted government of Saddam Hussein.

The 51 to 47 vote came an hour after the Republican-controlled House defeated a similar loan amendment, 226 to 200, setting up potentially difficult House-Senate negotiations next week as lawmakers rush to conclude a final spending plan for Iraq before an international donors conference next Thursday in Madrid.

10/16/2003

WorldNetDaily: With half his brain
tied behind his back

With half his brain
tied behind his back

WorldNetDaily: With half his brain
tied behind his back

At least Rush wasn't walking into church carrying a 10-pound Bible before rushing back to the Oval Office for sodomy with Monica Lewinsky. He wasn't enforcing absurd sexual harassment guidelines while dropping his pants in front of a half-dozen subordinates. (Evidently, Clinton wasn't a hypocrite because no one was supposed to take seriously the notion that he respected women or believed in God.)

Rush has hardly been the anti-drug crusader liberals suggest. Indeed, Rush hasn't had much to say about drugs at all since that spinal operation. The Rush Limbaugh quote that has been endlessly recited in the last week to prove Rush's rank "hypocrisy" is this, made eight years ago: "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."



(Liberals can lie under oath in legal proceedings and it's a "personal matter." Conservatives must scream their every failing from the rooftops or they are "liars.")

So the guy I really feel sorry for is Evan Thomas. How would little Evan fare in any competitive media? Any followers? Any fans? Any readers at all? And he's not even addicted to painkillers! This week, Rush proved his motto: He really can beat liberals with half his brain tied behind his back.

This Just In . . .

This Just In . . .

Apologies to James Taranto. . . .

Titian to Build on Monet's Success - Scotsman.com News - Scotland

Disturbing Bioweapon News

Disturbing Bioweapon News

I understand the need to research and comprehend various types of virii so as to expand our abilities to defend against them, but this article doesn't even give THAT explanation. In fact, NO rationae for recreating a particulalry deadly flu virus was given. Whiskey tango . . . . . . ?

Sunshine: Lethal Virus from 1918 Genetically Reconstructed

US Army scientists create 'Spanish Flu' virus in laboratory - medical benefit questionable

(Austin and Hamburg, 9 October 2003) – The 'Spanish Flu' influenza virus that killed 20-40 million people in 1918 is currently under reconstruction. Several genes of the extraordinarily lethal 1918 flu virus have been isolated and introduced into contemporary flu strains. These proved to be lethal for mice, while virus constructs with genes from a current flu virus types had hardly any effect. These experiments may easily be abused for military purposes, but provide little benefit from a medical or public health point of view.

10/15/2003

Man Convicted of Infecting Women With HIV

Man Convicted of Infecting Women With HIV

'He told them from the very beginning he was HIV positive. He's a very honest person.' [said his wife . . . on whom he was cheating] . . . .

Dica, who charmed his victims by posing as a wealthy lawyer, was found guilty of two counts of " biological grievous bodily harm" in the first conviction of its kind. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. . . .

Dica tricked his first victim, a 37-year-old university graduate who worked for the United Nations, by telling her he had undergone a vasectomy.

He deceived his second victim, a 38-year-old mother of two from Surrey, known only as Deborah, with lies about love and starting a family.

Today Mrs Dica refused to reveal why her husband of 18 years had embarked on an apparent campaign of revenge a year after he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1995.

While he roamed clubs and bars in south London looking for women to seduce, she would stay at home looking after their boys, aged 13, nine and six.

Malkin on Condescension Toward Minority Republicans

Malkin on Condescension Toward Minority Republicans

Michelle Malkin: Liberal bigotry, Louisiana politics and the New York Times


The condescension of The New York Times toward minority conservatives is so thick, you need a Cuisinart electric carving knife to slice it.

10/14/2003

Milloy on Global Warming Lawsuits

Milloy on Global Warming Lawsuits

FOXNews.com - Views - Junk Science - Global Warming Litigation Heating Up

No one knows for sure whether the Earth’s climate is changing appreciably or whether any such change is due to humans. One thing that certainly is heating up, though, is the global warming litigation environment.

Just-terminated California Gov. Gray Davis announced last weekend that the state will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over global warming. Nine other states and several eco-activist groups, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, are expected to join the lawsuit.

The basis of the suit is the EPA’s recent refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars. The EPA says it lacks the legal authority for such regulation because Congress has not declared that carbon dioxide -- the greenhouse gas at the center of the global warming controversy -- is a pollutant or that it can be regulated for climate change purposes.

Prager on Ideological Differences

Prager on Ideological Differences

Dennis Prager: The second American civil war: what it's about

Whatever your politics, you have to be oblivious to reality to deny that America today is torn by ideological divisions as deep as those of the Civil War era. We are, in fact, in the midst of the Second American Civil War. . .

Here, then, is Part One of the list of the major differences that are tearing America apart:

The Left regards America as morally inferior to many European societies with their abolition of the death penalty, cradle-to-grave welfare and religion-free life; . . . The Right regards America as the last best hope for humanity . . . .

The Left believes that impersonal companies, multinational and otherwise, with their insatiable drive for profits, have a profoundly destructive effect on the country. The Right believes that the legal system, particularly trial lawyers, lawsuits and judges who make laws, is the greater threat to American society.

The Left believes multiculturalism should be the ideal for American schools and for government policy. The Right believes that the Americanization of all its citizens is indispensable to the survival of the United States. . . .

The Left believes in equality more than in liberty. The Right believes more in liberty. For example, the Left believes that for the equality's sake, men's clubs must accept women. The Right believes that for liberty's sake, associations must be free to choose their own members.

The Left believes that when schools give out condoms to teenagers, they are promoting safe sex. The Right believes that when schools give out condoms, they are promoting more sex.

The Left believes that poverty, racism and psychopathology cause violent crime. The Right believes a lack of self-control, lack of religious practice and lack of good values are the primary causes of violent crime. . . .

Any one of these differences is enough to create an entirely different America. Added together, the differences suggest people who live in different worlds that are on a collision course.

And I have only listed some of the conflicting views.

Next week, in Part Two, I will discuss the other major conflicts making for the Second American Civil War.

McElroy on Cali Child Welfare

McElroy on Cali Child Welfare

FOXNews.com - Views - ifeminists - Child Welfare System Must Grow Up

Andrew Bridge of L.A.-based Broad Foundation explained why: money. 'The county will only continue to receive funding for the period it keeps the child in its care.' In various states, including California, there is a 'perverse financial incentive' to place and retain children in foster care rather than leave them in the home.

Thus, the first way authorities can take responsibility is to remove the financial incentive to destroy families.

10/13/2003

Steyn on Dems Performance

Steyn on Dems Performance

Desperate Dems no match for Arnie

Oh, well. If I were a Dem, I'd go with Howard Dean. Even if he loses, he'll de-Clintonize the party along the way, which ought to be the most important priority. Otherwise, it's all down to Sen. Rodham Clinton in 2008 -- or, as Paul Maslin would put it, the triumph of the Hill.

Free Speech in Alabama

Free Speech in Alabama

Suzanne Fields: Lighting the fire for free speech

Everybody's in favor of freedom of speech as long as it's his own. Often the most educated are the most easily offended 'sensitive' men and women who want to kick in the First Amendment when they don't like the speech it protects.

That's what happened at the University of Alabama, when a student put the Confederate battle flag on his dormitory door. The administration didn't like it, so it drafted a ban to forbid any public display 'inconsistent with accepted standards or University policies.'

The administrative powers figured that such a wide-ranging ban would give them the authority to say what was free and what was forbidden. But a group of Alabama students who thought the First Amendment actually means what it says, with the help of several like-minded professors and civil libertarians, called 'Bama's bluff. They displayed a veritable forest of flags and international symbols, waving them at a vigil for free speech, challenging the university to look for offenses.

Does Prof HaveTies to Terrorists?

Does Prof HaveTies to Terrorists?

Mike S. Adams: First thing we do, let's kill all the columnists

It all started about two weeks ago when a student came by my office to complain about remarks he claimed Pollard had made during a recent university-sponsored forum on the war in Iraq. During his visit to my office, the student claimed that Pollard publicly admitted to having friends in terrorist networks. Despite the fact that I knew the student well and considered him to be of the highest possible character, I have to admit that I had my doubts about history.