Isaac Schrödinger

A Stranger Passing By

Izzy Mo:

300 was awful. I just had to say that. The film 300 was terrible. I couldn’t get through 30 minutes without pointing out the historical and cultural inaccuracies. I just couldn’t do it.

Poor soul.

Why are all the bad guys non Caucasian? So the all white, oops I mean, Spartan army is good but the multi-culti Persian army of Indians, Africans, Arabs and Persians is bad?

Yeah, it would have been certainly historical to have a multi-racial Spartan army.

This asinine critique always amuses me. Reverse the situation. Imagine a movie about the Germans losses in North Africa and a reviewer who complains that the movie made the white guys look bad and that the multi-culti army of Brits, South Africans, Indians and Australians were made to look good.

As though it would have been prudent or historically accurate to add a little color to the Wehrmacht. You know, just so that whites don't feel bad.

The Definition of Courage

Koonj:

As my brother in Pakistan tells me, Pakistanis are talking about Pakistani Harvard student Samad Khurram, who declined to receive an award at Roots Academy from U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson in protest of US policies and actions, such as the bombing in Mohmand Agency.

This Pakistani student, who is living in one of the richest places in the world (in America) and attending the most prestigious university of them all (also in America), protests American foreign policy by refusing to accept an award from his Pakistani high school.

The fellow sure has principles.

I believe, however, that gestures such as these may vent some of the great frustration that the less powerful in the world feel toward US imperialistic policies. Such gestures enable them to hold their heads up high again for a bit, and, - well, - keep the peace a bit longer.

Peace has never been kept by dim, idealistic and gutless students.

To Be a Hero

A review of The Dark Knight:

It isn't an overstatement to call The Dark Knight the most sophisticated and ambitious work of its kind. Superior to all three Spider-Man installments and even its amazing predecessor in terms of conceptualization, writing, acting, and direction, Nolan's follow-up to Batman Begins is a dark, complex and disturbing film, not the least of which because it grafts its heroics onto the blueprint of actual reality rather than that of spandex-clad supermen. And while such a distinction may make little difference to those already eagerly anticipating the return of the caped crusader, suffice it to say that The Dark Knight qualifies as the first official comic book adaptation that truly succeeds in being a great artistic achievement in its own right.

That's just the first paragraph.

I'm planning to watch it on IMAX.

Drowning in Cash

Gateway Pundit posts about the benefits of oil revenue.

The second sentence of the first comment cracked me up.

All The World Needs is a Little Honey

Holy pooh! It's spectacular self-parody.

The Anti-Empire

Daimnation:

The rhetorical phrase "democratic empire" is patently silly. Internally, it's an ideological oxymoron. Externally, Germany and Japan - upon whom we forced democracy - are hardly subject dominions.

I've never understood that criticism either. The US is a weird sort of empire -- one that spends hundreds of billions of dollars of its own money to help other nations while not demanding any financial favors in return. One can, of course, disagree with the usefulness of such a policy but repeatedly calling the US an empire for engaging in this behavior is getting tired.

Nehalem Preview

Anandtech somehow got their hands on Intel's Nehalem processors. The successor to the Core 2 Duo will give the competition heartburn.

A Truly Bad Policy

The Examiner via Instapundit:

This year, it’s harder than ever for teens to find a summer job. Researchers at Northeastern University described summer 2007 as “the worst in post-World War II history” for teen summer employment, and those same researchers say that 2008 is poised to be “even worse.”

Terrible.

The percentage of teens classified as “unemployed” — those who are actively seeking a job but can’t get one — is more than three times higher than the national unemployment rate, according to the most recent Department of Labor statistics.

Why would that be?

One of the prime reasons for this drastic employment drought is the mandated wage hikes that policymakers have forced down the throats of local businesses. Economic research has shown time and again that increasing the minimum wage destroys jobs for low-skilled workers while doing little to address poverty.

The majority of voters are responsible for this.

According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent. In the past 11 months alone, the United States’ minimum wage has increased by more than twice that amount.

Click here to read what I wrote about the minimum wage four years ago.

The Joys of Being a Muslim

Umar Lee: I Would Not Have Been Muslim If…

What would have happened if I would have went to a masjid whose only religious activity is interfaith and where there is a minimal observance of the Sunnah? What if I was told Muslims, Christians, and Jews are one big happy family?

Lee doesn't specify exactly what he has been told about Jews and Christians by his model peers.

That on gender relations we refer to feminism and not the Sunnah?

Yeah, what could possibly be wrong with marrying pre-teens and beating a wife (of course, be careful not to leave bruises!).

That on business matters we refer to the Wharton School instead of the Sunnah school?

Interest is illegal in Islam. Definitely a smart idea to reject the successful economic system of the West.

64 Years Later

D-Day Today.

Supporting the Troops II

The Apostate: Supporting the Troops Some More.

Some military douchebags are very offended that I’m taking my valuation of humanity from the Milgram experiments, the Stanford prison experiment and the Nazis to state that thrown into appropriate cultures, most people of ordinary morality act in immoral ways. Soldiers (and frat boys and gangs) rape because the military encourages and fosters a macho rape culture. There should be nothing controversial about this, but apparently I’m supposed to be a naive little girl and trust most people to be good, “deep down.”

Many Americans would find the equivalence of the US military with the Nazi regime offensive. The Nazis systematically planned and carried out the slaughter of peoples at an industrial-scale level whereas a few American soldiers have humiliated and tortured Iraqis. You often times read of reports where the American soldiers are weary of handing over suspects to local Iraqi police or troops because of what will likely be done to the possible culprits. And no, we won't get to see the photos of that activity.

Of course, the US military fosters a macho culture. (What ought they do? Foster a sissy culture?) But when did being macho become synonymous with being a rapist?

Given the thin line of logic, do bodybuilders foster a rape culture?

Supporting the Troops

The Apostate:

I say, if they can’t drink until 21, they can’t pick up guns and kill people either.

Good point. The drinking age ought to be lowered.

Our male troops are also rapists. They rape their fellow soldiers and the women of countries they invade. If your son is a person of ordinary moral strength, he will become a rapist. To me, that’s a sufficient reason to keep a recruiter away from your son.

She has quite a low opinion of men.

Sluts and the City

The comments here are gold.

Exhibit A by Mommynator:

Yes - let’s go watch a movie based on a TV show about four selfish, clueless, promiscuous women who wouldn’t know true love if it walked up and smacked them upside the head.

They can’t find true love? Maybe it’s because they’ve been so busy seeking cheap neurological thrills through sex and shopping that they can’t see men as other than objects to be - well, you know - instead of as fellow human beings, one of which to accompany on life’s journey.

Count this 52-year old, 30-years married woman out of this nauseafest.

What is Stress?

Here's a brief example.

Indiana Jones Will Never Die

The Fire Ant Gazette on the new Indiana Jones movie:

If you think Bruce Willis survived some unbelievable things in Live Free or Die Harder, you ain't seen nothing yet.

At least supersonic jets aren't involved (I hope).

Sissy-in-Chief?

Hillary Clinton comes off so small in comparison to the other mentioned women. She's practically microscopic!

Link via Foreign Dispatches.

The Way The World Doesn't Work

Callimachus writes about his son and the state of American education:

He's in 11th grade. His course in American history -- or whatever name they disguise that by these days -- is coming to an end and the finale is a big project that will largely determine his grade for the quarter. In my high school, the college-tracked kids were taking electives by that time, and I remember writing two 20-page papers, on topics of the student's choice, approved by the teacher. One of mine was on the legal challenge to Reconstruction after the Civil War, the other was on the Congress of Vienna.

My son's comparable assignment: To write about the significance of the lyrics of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel.

It gets worse.

Also see this awful news from the UK:

There is indeed something Satanic about a person who has no interests other than themselves. And by insisting that everything be “relevant” and discouraging the development of broader interests, the educational authorities in Britain are doing great harm to the children put in their charge.

It Ain't Bleeding

Gateway Pundit:

This past year Iraq has disappeared from the front pages of the nation's newspapers and from the nightly network newscasts.

Gee, I wonder why ...

Unlike Her "Mother"

The Daily Mail:

She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs  -  her daughter, Rebecca, 38.

Here the writer describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon, and why she feels so blessed to be the sort of woman 64-year-old Alice despises  -  a mother.

Why do such feminists hate the very nature of women?

Link via Clayton Cramer.

Remember Them

Donald Sensing: For the fallen.

The most reasonable thing to do when battle begins is to run away, not stay and fight. Were they truly willing to die for their country? I don't think so. There's an old story that goes back probably to the Civil War of the young soldier whose commander asked him, "Are you willing to die for your country?" The young man answered, "Certainly not. But I am ready to die, unwilling."

The American armed forces really have no use for someone who is willing to die. We do not seek and soon weed out anyone seeking martyrdom in battle; this is a key distinction between us and our enemy. We do not send our soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines to die even though we know some inevitably will. Our country is instead ably protected by those who accept the risk rather than seek it.

The Power of Words

Pejman Yousefzadeh:

This guy may help save the English language. If so, we owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude.

Like, totally.

Stay Well

Rick Lee:

Here's the offending organ.

It does have a slightly evil look to it. Hopefully it won't misbehave again.

Barack F. Obama

Don Surber via Instapundit:

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama questions Republican Sen. John McCain’s commitment to the troops. [That's rich coming from a guy who doesn't even support the war. -- Isaac.] CQ Politics has the video. McCain has the son in Iraq.

Barack Obama is like John Kerry; the more he talks the more unappealing he becomes.

Give Appeasement a Chance

Pat Buchanan:

Chamberlain's negotiated deal with Hitler averted a European war -- at the expense of the Czech nation. That was appeasement.

German tanks, however, did not roll into Poland until a year later, Sept. 1, 1939. Why did the tanks roll? Because Poland refused to negotiate over Danzig, a Baltic port of 350,000 that was 95 percent German and had been taken from Germany at the Paris peace conference of 1919, in violation of Wilson's 14 Points and his principle of self-determination.

Later:

The cost of the war that came of a refusal to negotiate Danzig was millions of Polish dead, the Katyn massacre, Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz, the annihilation of the Home Army in the Warsaw uprising of 1944, and 50 years of Nazi and Stalinist occupation, barbarism and terror.

You read that right: The deadliest war in human history was started because the Poles refused to appease Hitler!

Fools can often see that appeasing a monster only increases the appetite of the beast, yet Buchanan extracts the exactly wrong lesson from history.

James Taranto:

One wonders if there is any point at which Buchanan would have said, "This time, Herr Fuehrer, you've gone too far!"

Apparently not.

Links via LFG.

Ignorant and Impotent

I didn't think it could happen but it did. My opinion of Senator Obama just tanked. (It wasn't that high to begin with.)

if elected, Obama promises to do his best to even the martial playing field world wide by gutting the military strength of the US — ostensibly, to divert that spending (from one of the few areas where government should be spending) to areas more in tune with his “vision” and to the vision of progressives everywhere

It's almost like he wants to lose the election.

Is America (Still) Great?

The Apostate:

Our leaders, the best among them, don’t do a very good job of representing our values. Half of them are in power to prevent government from actually doing anything useful — on principle, because dammit! they believe in “small government.”

More:

The people give generously to charities for services the government should be providing.

Since when was it the job of the US government to provide money for charity? There are tons of charities that one might not support. Why should any government take your money and distribute it among them?

I'd rather have the government not tax me for that sort of stuff; I don't mind giving money to worthy causes -- causes which I doubt the government would finance.

Still if you're feeling generous, here's a sample letter for the feds.

"Dear Federal Government,

I have so little time and energy for charities. So, here's [insert amount of money]. I trust you'll use it well!

Hugs and Kisses
[Insert name.]"

Moving on:

The people vote. The people fight. It’s not their fault that they are being systematically disenfranchised and it’s not their fault they don’t have the time, between holding down two jobs and taking care of their kids and doing the housework, to look up “the issues” on candidates’ websites.

So ... whose fault is it?

Working with what's given, there's a lesson here: Manage your lifestyle and don't have too many kids so that you can follow "the issues" on candidates' websites.

Or you can cut down on the TV viewing a little.

“Freedom” rings hollow when one examines America’s recent crimes against human rights at home and abroad.

America has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the grand enterprise of establishing democracy, freedom and human rights in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are no guarantees; history will eventually decide if she fails or succeed.

There is, however, nothing criminal about this matter. If you want to see "crimes against human rights", then just look at the other side.

You don’t have to have a college education or any kind of authority to have faith in your humanity in this country — as an American, you are free. I hope this spirit prevails over the impending disasters and Americans, when it comes down to it, fight to keep their freedom. They’ve lost it already on the books.

I'm a bit dense to see that loss.

P.S. Yes, Larry and I are buying guns if the jackboots do come. Larry’s always been an anti-gun liberal [...]

Some freedoms can be compromised.

A commenter asked why The Apostate supports Hillary over Obama. The answer starts off thusly:

For me personally? Because she’s a woman.

I wonder what the reaction would be if someone asked a Democrat, "Why do you support Obama over Hillary?" and the answer was, "Because he's a man. (Not much of one but still a man!)"

Later in another comment:

DCC, about letting the people off easy… I didn’t use to. But think about it: They did elect both Gore and Kerry, you know? If the Republicans stole two elections, that is NOT the fault of the people.

Wow. They "stole" the one in 2004 as well by winning the electoral college again. Why those dastardly Republicans!

By the way, the answer to the question is a resounding, "Hell Yeah!"

Experts to the Rescue

Schmucks:

Though he preaches research and good science in the classroom, the world's most famous archaeologist often is an acquisitive tomb raider in the field with a scorched-earth policy about what he leaves behind. While actual archaeologists like the guy and his movies, they wouldn't necessarily want to work alongside him on a dig.

I think they secretly envy him.

Link via Anwyn.

About Art

Think Tank: Tom Wolfe and the Derriere Guard.

You might have to scroll down a bit to see the link to the video. I found the last part quite humorous.

Apostate-in-Chief

An op-ed about Senator Obama in The New York Times. [Registration required. Use Bug Me Not.] Here, the author is writing about apostasy:

it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings.

This leads to a solid, and unpleasing, conclusion.

First link emailed by slickdpdx who blogs at Known Unknowns.

Hillary Clinton Meltdown

Celestial Junk: Possibly the Funniest YouTube Ever.

The little bit of Beethoven at the end makes it a classic.

Smokin'

Rofasix: Probably NOT a Dumb Blonde.

Anything But The "R"

Tim Blair:

She should tell them he’s a member of the Taliban. They’d be cool with it.

Read the relevant story here.

"This Evil"

Umar Lee: Interview of Joel Richardson: Editor of Why We Left Islam.

I have not read your book so I am not going to make any judgments on it. It has created some interest and in your blog you seem to be dedicated to hyping the threat that Islam and Muslims pose. Of course, as an American-Muslim, this is disturbing to me. The average everyday Muslim has to carry the weight of these sorts of anti-Muslim campaigns on their shoulders in their daily lives.

Yeah, life is so tough in America.

The Muslim child in school has to sit in a classroom being shunned by fellow students and maybe even treated poorly by their teachers, the Muslim job-seeker gets passed over for a job, the Muslim business-owner loses business because of their religion, etc. . You may say that this is not your intention, and that you would not encourage such ill-treatment of Muslims, but the practical effect of what you and others like you do creates a climate that leads to discrimination against Muslims. 

Why does Umar Lee think that mere assertions equals proof?

Anyway, read what Richardson has to say. Many times during the interview, Umar Lee puts his remarks in bold. At one point Richardson says:

As you likely well know, death for apostasy is clearly affirmed by Muhammad: “Whoever changes his religion (leaves Islam) kill him,” (Sahih Bukhari) as well as by all four Sunni Madhabs, and the Shi’a. The reason that I helped to compile Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out is to bring attention to these types of human rights violations. And I call on you and every Muslim of conscience to join with me in renouncing this inhuman evil Islamic practice.

Curiously, Umar Lee doesn't provide any reply to this statement.

Quoting Richardson:

I am not a student of American History or American wars and thus cannot comment on whether or not there is a war in American history that I do not support.  Alternately I would ask you if there was any war, battle or raid that Muhammad waged that you feel was unjustified?  How do you personally feel about the beheading of 700-900 Jewish men from the village of the Banu Qurayza?  Do you support this slaughter?  Is there a war that was executed by any of the four “Rightly Guided Caliphs” that you think were unjustified?

He also asks:

Let me ask you this Umar, is Afghanistan better off today than it was under the Taliban?

Lee's replies are illuminating.

The Fat Kiss of Death

Tim Blair:

Michael Moore - who supported Ralph Nader in 2000 (then later claimed to have been a Gore Democrat) and backed Wesley Clark in 2004 - now urges his remaining fans to vote for Obama.

Obama is so screwed.

Quote of the Day

Cliff May:

Surely, if there’s one thing we should know about Islamists it’s that they generally venerate, rather than dismiss, “ancient documents.”

Hunh. Jimmy Carter continues to enhance his position as the worst American president of the 20th century.

Loathing Liberty

Bruce Bawer: Hating America.

One excerpt:

Hutton is a true statist, the sort of person who feels less than fully comfortable in societies where the government fails to make its presence sufficiently felt: “In a world that is wholly private,” he writes, “we lose our bearings; deprived of any public anchor, all we have are our individual subjective values to guide us.” Part and parcel of this philosophy (which might well be straight out of Mao’s Little Red Book) is an enthusiasm for, as he puts it rather clunkily, “publicly owned TV stations with a mandate to provide a universal public service as guarantors that ordinary citizens will have access to core news and comment delivered as objectively as possible.” In other words, the way to ensure objective reporting is to put the government in charge! Hutton is dismayed that the U.S. spends too little money on public TV and that “only 2.2 percent of viewers” watch it; by contrast, he’s delighted with “European governments and the EU,” because they’re “aggressive in their regulation of broadcasting content” and ban, for example, “racist expression.” He favors, in short, allowing government bureaucrats to decide what is and isn’t racist (or, for that matter, sexist or homophobic) and to punish transgressors. It’s breathtaking to see a writer so eager to quash freedom of speech.

Read the entire piece.

Herstory!

You Tube: How Hillary Can Still Win.

Pejman:

She should major in miracles.

Obama Uncensored

Right Wing News: Barack Obama In Quotes: Version 1.0

"Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula? I mean, they’re charging a lot of money for this stuff." -- Barack Obama

What's arugula?

Another quote:

"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person..." -- Barack Obama

He just keeps on digging.

A Church in West Virginia

On Location with Rick Lee: Threat or Promise?

I wouldn't dare find out.

We Can Defeat Them

Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

I have some very serious "domestic policy" differences with Newt Gingrich. I never thought I would find myself watching him speak and wishing he were our front runner candidate for president, but viewing these two superb short statements by him did just that.

Click here for the first video. Watch the second here.

Barack “37” Obama

Michelle Malkin:

When I think of “small-town Pennsylvania,” I think of the people of faith and fortitude I met last week–with open hearts, big smiles, and a boundless belief in the ability to help others, even on a shoestring budget and a steep political incline.

Click here to find out what Obama thinks of these Americans.

McCain's Opponents

How can one be this historically ignorant and politically stupid?

In a newspaper interview in his home state, Rockefeller let loose this stinker: "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."

Huntley writes:

Never mind that laser-guided missiles hadn't been invented during the Vietnam war. Bombing is a part of warfare, and McCain was serving his country as have legions of other bomber airmen. Rockefeller smeared them all. One further point: McCain was a prisoner of war in Hanoi when U.S. planes bombed the city, on the orders of McCain's admiral father.

Gus Van Horn offers his take on the matter.

Islam In All Its Ugliness

Robert Spencer received a tremendous email:

I am writing to tell you about a small success story in the struggle against Sharia. I am a law student at the University of Cincinnati. Last Thursday our school hosted a Sharia apologist from Saudi Arabia, Dr. Abdulkareem Hamad A. Alsaiygh. He's Dean at the Center for Contemporary Islamic Studies and Dialogue among Civilizations, Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University.

Some hard questions were asked.

Among other things, our questions forced Dr. Alsaiygh to admit the following:

1. That apostasy is rightly punishable by death under Islamic law and the law of Saudi Arabia.

2. That there will never be a Christian church in Saudi Arabia.

3. That a Christian church is considered a national security risk to Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states.

4. That stoning is appropriate punishment for adultery.

There's more. Point #8 is the most comforting.

Heading into the event, the vast majority of students in the audience were sympathetic and welcoming to the speaker and his ideas. By the end of the event, they were all rightly horrified.

Unfiltered Islam tends to have that effect.

Barefoot and Naked

Daily Mail:

On a clear day, the view from the top will take in the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Ocean - providing you've a head for heights.

Plans for a mile-high tower in the Saudi Arabian desert have been unveiled by the billionaire owner of London's Savoy Hotel.

Austrolabe provides a prophecy from the time of Muhammad:

…Barefoot, naked, shepherds compete in building tall structures. [Sahih Muslim]

See, the building of such structures shows that the prophecy is coming true.

Two problems:

1. The people who want to construct these buildings aren't barefoot, naked, shepherds.
2. The building of "tall structures" has been going on for centuries. Given the wording, this prophecy has been coming true for all that time!

Anyway, some think that the project is a waste of money. A commenter says:

This tower is being built by a private company, Walid Ibn Talal has given money in the past to the Palestinians and to the poor in Lebanon, when Jenin was demolished by the Israelis he helped fund the rebuilding of the camp, this is why Mayor Juliani of NYC in 2001 refused his donation to help the victims of the attacks.

It's amusing how 1400-year-old garbage is treated with reverence but the true meaning of a recent event is perverted.

The Neocon Identity

Ummah Pulse:

"Trickle-Down Theory", which first surfaced in the 1930s, is an old con-trick idea which promises that if rich people were encouraged to make themselves as wealthy as possible through huge salaries, tax cuts, bonuses, stock options and perks, their wealth would trickle down to the rest of the population and thereby raise the standard of living for all. Although in theory it appeared appealing, in practice it has always led to a drastic increase in the gap between the rich and the dispossessed. The rich always get richer and the poor are always swamped by more destitution.

So what if the income gap got larger? Relative poverty ought to be meaningless. What matters is that one can live a comfortable, individual, debt-free life in most of the US for under $1,000-a-month.

Another point: There will always be poverty because some people just do not know how to save and spend money. One can give them a million dollars and a few years down the road they would be broke and wallowing in debt. Blaming Neocons (hunh?) for the poor in the US is asinine.

During the Reagan administration, the Neocon darlings could not tout Trickle-Down Theory for it was by then thoroughly discredited through bitter experience. So they came up with a new disguise for it. Trickle-Down Theory was re-branded as the Laffer Curve, named after its inventor Arthur Laffer, a colleague of Milton Friedman who had famously written a column, Hooray for Magaret Thatcher, in Newsweek magazine urging American politicians to follow her example.

What will those Jews Neocons think of next!

Throughout the 1980s there was continuous decline in the long-term capital investment upon which growth and jobs are dependent. In that same decade a recession began, the Federal Reserve was forced to raise interest rates to dampen inflation and unemployment rose, for the first time since the 1930s, above 10 per cent.

Correct. The unemployment rate in 1982-83 was the worst since the Great Depression. So, an interesting question presents itself: Why didn't Americans vote out Ronald Reagan in 1984 like they did Herbert Hoover in 1932?

Drowning in the Estrogen Ocean

The Apostate:

My feelings about working in a female-dominant environment are unexpected.

Hmm.

I have to admit I miss having some men around to mix it up. I love women. I adore them. I prefer their company to men’s. But something about an almost all-female environment really galls me, especially if the girls are of the type I grew up with — too much enforced femininity. It reminds me of being a segregated woman again, confined to female spaces, trapped in feminine judgments, no escape from girl-talk - like, ever.

It gets annoying very quickly.

What?

Right Wing News: Happy Easter!

I like the "My Butt Hurts!" one.

"Cyberspace"

Not your ordinary email:

'We just passed over the Himalayas and are en-route to Australia! The views today have been fantastic . . .,'' Gorie wrote in a ''Hello Earthlings'' e-mail he sent to friends from his days at Miami Palmetto.

That's from Gorie -- the shuttle commander of Endeavour.

That is the sort of thing -- along with an e-mail address that ends in mail.nasa.gov -- that attracts attention when it hits your inbox.

'Guess it gives new meaning to the term 'cyberspace,' '' said Mike Pedersen, 51, a former Miami Palmetto classmate and wrestling team partner who received two e-mails from Gorie since his friend blasted into space March 11.

''It reminds you that, gosh, our country still does some amazing feats,'' Pedersen said. "To get an e-mail like that is just amazing.''

American Marine

LA Times Blogs:

In his speech Wednesday on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, President Bush praised the bravery of Marine Gunnery Sgt. William "Spanky" Gibson, who lost a leg in Iraq but demanded to be sent back to help complete the U.S. mission there.

"When Americans like Spanky Gibson serve on our side, the enemy in Iraq doesn't got a chance," Bush told a Pentagon audience.

Who is this Gibson fellow?

While on a foot patrol in Ramadi on May 16, 2006, Marine Gunnery Sgt. William "Spanky" Gibson was shot by an insurgent sniper.

"Basically, the bullet disintegrated my [left] kneecap, completely," said Gibson.

Now, 21 months later, Gibson is back in Iraq, possibly the only above-the-knee amputee to redeploy to Iraq.

So Not Cool

This is discrimination. Via Instapundit.

Why can't there be a typical (*looks at arm*) beige person T-shirt?

Sugarcoating Hatred

Gateway Pundit:  How Does the Media Describe "G-d Damn America" Minister?

Sweet Sweet Sharia

Muslim Matters:

There’s nothing like the thought of a gym or swimming pool running women-only sessions (at the request of Muslim women) to get some men all worked up. Take the recent ‘controversy’ surrounding one of Harvard University’s gymnasiums. Andrew Sullivan rushes to denounce it as “shariah at Harvard’; Jihadwatch says they have submitted to Islam; and on and on it goes.

It’s hard to see what all the fuss is about.

Yup, nothing wrong with a little gender apartheid.

A Revealing Slip

Sepia Mutiny: Hussein Ibish Embarrasses Himself on The Colbert Report.

One War Hero

Gateway Pundit:

On this day in 1973, Lt. Commander John McCain was released from a North Vietnamese prison after spending five plus years as a prisoner of war.

Holy Schnikes!

I had to excerpt this part:

How to Melt a Tank in Three Seconds Or Less

Read the rest.

Biased View of Equality

Christina Hoff Sommers:

Math 55 is advertised in the Harvard catalog as “prob­ably the most difficult undergraduate math class in the country.” It is leg­endary among high school math prodigies, who hear terrifying stories about it in their computer camps and at the Math Olympiads. Some go to Harvard just to have the opportunity to enroll in it. Its formal title is “Honors Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra,” but it is also known as “math boot camp” and “a cult.” The two-semester fresh­man course meets for three hours a week, but, as the catalog says, homework for the class takes between 24 and 60 hours a week.

Math 55 does not look like America. Each year as many as 50 students sign up, but at least half drop out within a few weeks. As one former student told The Crimson newspaper in 2006, “We had 51 students the first day, 31 students the second day, 24 for the next four days, 23 for two more weeks, and then 21 for the rest of the first semester.” Said another student, “I guess you can say it’s an episode of ‘Survivor’ with people voting themselves off.” The final class roster, according to The Crimson: “45 percent Jewish, 18 percent Asian, 100 percent male.”

Whoa! Too tough or unexciting for females, I guess.

The essay goes on to describe how the US government is proposing a horrid solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Link via David Thompson.

John Connor, Get Ready

Judgment Day is coming this year:

Obama 'Frightens Me'. The Bible has warned us that 'A man will come from the East that will be charismatic in nature and have proposed solutions for all our problems and his rhetoric will attract many supporters!'

But Barack seems to be such a nice guy!? Hmm, I think he fooled us all!

Link via The Sandmonkey.

The Weak Lobby

Muslim Matters:

Alhamdulillah, despite the attempts of the LOBBY and its right-wing allies to increase Islamophobia and to exclude Muslims from the political landscape, they were unable, yet again, to stop the tide of qualified, educated, and politically savvy Muslims into positions of authority in this country.

Yeah, thank goodness, those nefarious Jews are losing their tight grip on