Ahmadinejad at Columbia University

In my opinion, the elitist liberals at Columbia University are doing us a tremendous service by showing us exactly who they are by allowing the Kidnapper-In-Chief of Iran to speak there, while silencing the military over the 'don't ask, don't tell' policies regarding homosexuals.

As Michael Barone points out, they apparently don't consider the execution of homosexuals nearly as offensive as forcing homosexuals to not discuss their homosexuality while in the military.

Glenn Reynolds thinks it's because the Kidnapper-In-Chief is so anti-Bush. I think it's simpler than that.

Quite simply, if you treat the SILENCING of homosexuals more harshly than you treat the EXECUTION of homosexuals, you are a hypocritical, non-thinking IDIOT.

So, the liberal elites at Columbia are not Bush-hating, anti-American protectors of the rights of homosexuals, they are simply idiots who believe that they can be advocates of homosexuals, while they give the key to the city to someone who EXECUTES them. Again, IDIOTS. No further analysis necessary.

Columbia's liberal elites, were they not idiots, would clearly recognize that the Iranian regime oppresses a 'protected class' - homosexuals - in the harshest possible way - summary execution. These non-idiots would then condemn the executions, and Ahmadinejad would not be allowed to speak.

That is what they would do if they were NOT idiots. They will soon establish that they absolutely ARE idiots. Watch.

Title for Teddy Kennedy's new book

Jay Tea at WizBang is trying to help Teddy out with a title for his new book. It made me think of this, which I found a long time ago on the Internet. Wish I could figure out whose work this is...

Never Forget.

It's hard to believe that it has been 6 years. 6 years since I walked out of the shower, glanced over at the TV, saw the smoking building, saw the plane slam into Tower II, and knew we were at war.

It's hard to believe, only because so many seem to have forgotten.

I haven't.

We saw an evil on that day that defied our collective imagination. We came together almost as one in the days to follow, behind a leader who, if his success exceeded everyone's wildest expectations, still could not possibly be expected to prevent another bloodthirsty, senseless attack like this.

And yet, for the past 6 years, he has managed to do just that.

Those of you who remember how you felt that day should recognize that because of the bravery of our servicemen, and the leadership of our Commander-In-Chief, you have only had to feel it again in your memories.

Those of you who are irate with this President over other issues - immigration reform, Harriet Miers, Terry Schiavo, the timing of the departure of Donald Rumsfeld, etc., should take a minute and ask yourself how important issues like these were to you on September 12, 2001, when you were simply worried about the survival of your family, and of your way of life. And you should briefly thank him for keeping the demons out of your backyard, so you could worry about other things.

Those of you who think 9/11 was an inside job are idiots, and I thank God that you are not in charge of anything. You choose to ignore an actual threat, and invent an imaginary one. You would get us all killed. You need to read this, you need to wake up, and you need to help the rest of us in our fight to protect your right to be an idiot.

May God bless our leaders, our brave troops, and the families of those who lost so very much that day. You are all in my prayers.

Never forget.

When I'm wrong about being wrong...

...I'll admit that, too.

It seems that the Bin Laden video (which I haven't watched, and am trusting the media and blogosphere to report upon for me) shows no video motion during ANY current events references...

Osama Bin Laden's widely publicized video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 58 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Well. I suppose I'll have to apologize to my readers for not doing the investigation myself and watching it myself. Had I done so, I'm sure I would have noticed that whenever Caveboy spoke about something modern, that his lips weren't moving. Why no one else out in the blogosphere noticed until now is beyond me; the mainstream media, on the other hand... well, they miss this sort of stuff all the time. I have good reasons for not watching Bin Laden videos, though:

• Bin Laden needs to speak English when he's talking to me. I don't know Arabic, and as a result, when someone sends me a message in Arabic, I can't understand it so I don't listen to it.
• I tend to boycott things I can't stand. Unfortunately, as much as I can't stand Caveboy, as an American blogger who supports the destruction of his movement, I feel compelled to blog about him occasionally (especially to speculate that he's pushing up Cacti somewhere). I used to blog about Michael Moore, too, but I ain't gonna watch his damn movies. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Not watchin' Bin Laden's damn movies, either.
• When I'm looking at a video of a man who has purportedly been living in caves for the past 5 years, I can't stop thinking about the smell. These are not good thoughts. These are not good smells.
  
• Finally, I'm pretty sure that Caveboy is dead. Since he's dead, his movie is fake. I don't watch fake movies. I didn't watch this one, and I didn't watch Al Gore's fake movie either.

Bin Laden's Blather

OK, so I can admit when I'm wrong about something. Apparently Bin Laden is alive, and he is sporting a younger-looking beard in his new video, to better attract the virgins. I was pretty sure he was dead, but this video is sprinkled with enough reference to recent events that it's clearly new, like since the first week of August.

The crux of this video appears to be that he's very disappointed in the Democrats for not ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he suggests that the easiest way for us to quell Al Qaeda's non-stop assault on our shores is for all of us to convert to Islam.

Hey, Osama? How' bout this, babe. You stop trying to kill us, and some of us might consider it. But if you keep trying to kill us, simply because you don't approve of our culture, we will continue to hunt you and your followers down like dogs, and we will kill you first. We will keep your group impotent, unable to attack, always hiding, and always on the run. You will remain a pathetic embarrassment in the history of Islam.

We will do this until you give up, or until you are all dead. We would prefer that you and your supporters give up, work and trade with the global community, become wealthy and self-sufficient, contribute your special goods, ideas and talents to the world marketplace, and help to protect everyone's right to worship as they please...

...but if you decide not to, that's your call - we're just going to wipe you and your followers out, that's all. Your choice.

The "Unexpected" payroll decrease

The Dow is down about 200 points thus far, with the only major economic news that "unexpectedly", payroll survey jobs dropped by 4000, when the consensus was an increase of 110,000 jobs.

The consensus was wrong, because the consensus failed to consider the impact of the Democrat's plan to raise the minimum wage. Job loss wasn't "unexpected"; it was predictable, and practically guaranteed.

You see, folks, when you raise the minimum wage, employers do not simply take the hit in operating expense, apply it to their bottom line, make less money, and move on; instead, they lay people off, give additional responsibilities to those that they keep, and keep their payroll, in raw dollars, about the same.

So, if you were in a minimum wage job this year, and you got laid off in the past month instead of getting the raise that you heard about on Good Morning America... thank a Democrat.

Thank the Democrat by voting Republican next time. We knew this was going to happen, and we tried to warn you. But unfortunately, you get the government you elect. You elected Democrats. You lost your job. Don't let it happen again.

Fred is in.

Fred Thompson made it official today.

There's just nothing like a wide-open field with no incumbent. Remember the race to replace Gray-out Davis?

At the risk of repeating myself, I'd say this is going to be an awful lot of fun to watch.

Wednesday Evening Palms

The Fairmont Kei Lani, Wailea, Maui, August 2005.

Quotable Ted

"But don't you realize -- that's where I sail!"

- Ted Kennedy (D-Chappaquiddick), regarding his opposition to Cape Wind, a proposed clean-energy windfarm for Nantucket Sound

Market Volatility and the Fed

Merrill Lynch has cut estimates on several large-cap banks, and says there's a 60% probability of a recession. Now, let's be honest; saying there's a 60% chance of something is only 10% away from having no idea whatsoever. However, one would expect that given recent concerns about liquidity, that such doom-and-gloom would result in a down morning for stocks... and one would be wrong.

At this point (just after noon Eastern), the NASDAQ is up about 1%, and the Dow is up over 30 points. Why?

I think it's because the market is in the process of pricing in a rate cut. A big one, like 50 basis points. The catch is, I don't necessarily see that happening, nor do I think it's a good idea.

First of all, I don't think the subprime problems are a big enough segment of our economy to warrant direct FOMC action. Second, I don't like the idea of the FOMC using policy to reduce market volatility.

When investors get spooked, the market is supposed to go down. When the Fed starts playing with interest rates to shore up stocks, these internal corrections don't happen as often, or as thoroughly, as they should. That can get us into a speculative environment like we had in the late 90s.

Look for no rate cut, or a 25 basis-point cut, in two weeks. Then look for a selloff. That's my prediction.