Last post

I will likely drop back by here now and again to make sure things haven't been fooled around with, but essentially this blog is closed. Now open for business at:

http://bluecrabboulevard.com/

Comments are closed down so the spambots don't fill the place up.

Bugs are worked out

Well, mostly the bugs are worked out at the new site.

Take a look.

New site working

The new site appears to be working properly. Comments are also working (and are moderated, whoohoo!)

Posting here on Blogger will be light to nonexistant, but I have new posts going up over at:


http://bluecrabboulevard.com/

Update: The double post shows one of the reasons I am bailing from Blogger. Too many little annoying problems. Google is really having some issues, they need to work these things out or they will begin to lose more and more customers.....

New site working

The new site appears to be working properly. Comments are also working (and are moderated, whoohoo!)

Posting here on Blogger will be light to nonexistant, but I have new posts going up over at:


http://bluecrabboulevard.com/

Link test to the new site

just testing the linking

A new home

Update 2

The new URL appears to be working now. (Cross fingers). Leave a comment if it isn't working for you. That way, I can scream at the appropriate people!

Updated

There is a problem with the DNS propagation for the new site, Blue Host is trying to get it fixed - for now, I will continue working on this site until the new domain propagates properly.

Well, having had quite a bit of fun with Blogger losing posts and having watched the trainwreck that is happening to Betsy Newmark, I bit the bullet today.

I have a brand new site of my very own with it's own URL. I'll keep this blog live for a little while while I get settled in the new place. Please update any links:


http://bluecrabboulevard.com/

You know

I take a lot of potshots at the MSM these days for their obviously slanted stories. This, however is crossing a line. National media is completely ignoring a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the New Mexico State University campus at Las Cruces. The threat was phoned in by a middle aged man with an Arab accent.....

I guess they don't want to admit there is a war on and terror threats are real.

By the way, I have been unable to find ANY other reference to this event other than the local news outlet linked above. That includes in any newspapers or television stations in New Mexico itself.

Update: I have found exactly one other local station that has this item now.

H/T LGF for the heads up on this.

Must have had a hot date

A Florida man was apprehended while trying to buy condoms and cologne with a phony $100 bill. We presume he missed his date since he has yet to make bail......

Blogger is again eating posts

I just had a post eaten by Blogger. I am kind of tired of this. One of the blogs I read regularly, Betsy's Page, has been completely erased by Blogger.

Today's theme

Appears to be seniority. I've noted before how odd news items seem to come in groups (see Blue Crab Boulevard: And this is even worse">).

It seems that aging Canadian baby-boomers surveyed recently are much more likely to spend their time watching television or surfing the web than in engaging in sex and romance. The study was sponsored by the company that makes Viagra.

Here at Blue Crab Boulevard, we see a solution. Send deprived Canadians for a vacation in Italy!

Don't drink and drive

Police in Italy stopped a car when they observed it zig-zagging in an erratic fashion.

They were somewhat surprised to find the car's passenger was a completely nude 70-year old woman who had been trying to have sex with the car's 59-year old driver.

The driver tested at three times over the legal limit for blood alcohol.

So, for all you adventurers out there, remember, if you're going to have sex while driving, don't drink!

There is no word whether the woman in the car is a member of a strippers union with seniority.

[I don't think the drano was strong enough.]

A great victory for workers everywhere

The union that represents strippers in Australia, Striptease Artists Australia, has won the right for the performers to have a meal break and to get overtime pay.

Well, I guess it's some kind of progress for the strippers. But a couple of questions come to mind:

A strippers union?

Is there going to be [shudder] seniority?

Somehow, the thought of a little old grey-haired granny dancing about with her walker comes to mind here.......

Excuse me, I have to go wash my minds eye out with Drano.....

Wow

I was planning to post this as soon as I read the headline:

"Spanish doctors cut 60-kilo tumor from woman"

I mean, a 132 pound tumor is, well, large. Heck, my wife weighs about that (or possibly less. Make that probably less - in fact, definitely less. I hope she doesn't read this). But when I read the whole thing, it mentions the world record tumor.

The record tumor weighed 302 pounds. That is larger than most little league teams....... They removed the tumor from the operating room on a separate stretcher!

I really hope the dog was just hungry

The San Diego NCAA Tournament Arena was evacuated when a bomb sniffing dog indicated a hit on a hot dog cart. A suspicious package was being examined by a robot.

This comes on the heels of several warnings about terrorist chatter reaching pre 9/11 levels.

"In a directive issued today (Friday), obtained by ABC News, the FBI says a posting on an extremist message board "advocated suicide attacks against sporting events as a cost-effective means of killing thousands of Americans."

Update: The suspicious package was determined to be harmless, so I guess the bomb-sniffing dog WAS just hungry this time, thankfully.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit for the reciprocal link. Welcome to Blue Crab Boulevard. Feel free to look around.

I'm not sure this is a good thing

Although I'm sure Glenn Reynolds will be all for it!

A scientist has developed a new technique for nano-assembly that essentially folds DNA strands like origami. This is a big step forward in nanotechnology, which should greatly reduce the cost of assembling many things.

So what's the first thing he assembled?

Billions of smiley faces. Yes, those hideous little grinning yellow dots. Fifty BILLION of them at once.......


The article does not disclose whether WalMart financed the research........

Spyware, trojans and now.....

Ransomware. A new trojan program can infect your computer and encrypt your files. It will then demand you pay a $300 "ransom" to get the password to decrypt the files. There is good news, however. A security firm has discovered the password. It masquerades as a file on your hard drive.

The password is: C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98

If this information has been useful to you, feel free to send $300 to me! Small bills, no consecutive serial numbers, please.........

Pi in the sky

I really don't think I would ever want an Xbox 360 at that price. A high school junior just missed getting one of the game systems. His parents made him a deal that they would buy him one if he recited 10,790 digits of pi to set a new record. He only made it to 8,784.


Only?

I have trouble with my own phone number! And I have a degree in math!

We have a definite sign

Of the impending collapse of civilization.

A man in Lodi, California is suing himself after causing damage to his personal vehicle while driving a city dump truck. Yes, he drove a city dump truck into his own car, then filed a claim with the city. When that was denied, his wife filed another claim.

I weep for us all......

I, Robot redux

Ok, those Japanese are just getting out of hand now. First it was the robot health care aide, now it's a robot carp. Yes, a CARP. You know - a giant goldfish! It is patterned after a koi, the highly prized decorative fish that so many Japanese (and Americans, too) keep as pets. The goal is to use it to monitor fisheries and possibly oil platforms.

Word is they actually taste better than real carp.

A word of advice

In case someone asks you for change: The is no such thing as a $1 Billion bill! A man was recently arrested with at least 250 phony $1,000,000,000 bills. A portrait of Grover Cleveland was on the bills.

The US has never issued a bill of that denomination. But the bills were apparently of very good quality.....

The mask slips

Russ Feingold spoke yesterday about his censure resolution, as quoted in the Washington Post:

Feingold, seeking liberals' support for the 2008 presidential nomination,
said he wasn't motivated by politics. But then he slipped. "If there's any
Democrat out there who can't say . . . the president has no right to make up his
own laws, I don't know if that Democrat really is the right candidate," he said
of his likely primary opponents.

So, as I have already said, this was all a ploy to endear himself to the far left.

Twenty bucks, same as downtown

Well, that was the punchline of an old joke. But this isn't: prostitutes in Daytona Beach, Florida have begun arming themselves to hunt for a reported serial killer. Reading the article, it appears many are carrying switchblades and teaming up.

Well, I can't fault them for wanting to defend themselves. But it kind of says a lot about the state of policing, doesn't it? Not that there is an easy answer, those who prey on streetwalkers have always been very difficult to capture. Nor is it a modern thing. Remember Jack the Ripper?

H/T Instapundit for the link

I, Robot

The Japanese have invented a robot to help care for the elderly. It can only lift about 26 pounds right now, but should be able to lift more than 150 pounds in five years. It can smell, hear and detect people's faces. They are working to make it able to determine people's health condition.

Wow, this is simply amazing. Why isn't something like this being invented in the United States?

Well, it's different

A small town in Germany has raised money for children's cancer charities by auctioning off a van load of snow.

Yep, they sold snow. I predict a great future on Wall Street.

Ahem

Well, it's always welcome news when a headline announces that a woman is proudly showing her giant mangoes off. For those of you with filthy minds, she really is showing off a 5 pound mango. Click the link - yes it is work safe!

Dumb, dumb, dumb

A 3-year old finds a loaded 9mm handgun under a couch cushion. Mom takes it away, removes the magazine and puts it back on the couch. 3-year old finds it again and shoots mom in the knee. She forgot to unload the round in the chamber.

Dumb as can be. First NO handgun should ever be where a child can reach it, loaded or otherwise. Second, if you don't know how to properly unload a pistol, you should not have a handgun. Period.

The first rule my kids learned was that every gun is ALWAYS loaded. No exceptions. Even if you personally cleared the chamber - it is still loaded. I think that is an important concept. You don't "treat it" like it is loaded - it IS loaded.

They also do not have the combination to the safe where all the guns (except one) are kept. My carry gun is always either on my person or locked in another safe.

Of course, this type of story will get the anti-gun folks in a lather. But there are already enough laws on the books - use them. This woman should not be allowed to own guns. She's also guilty of a Federal charge of allowing a child under 14 to have access to the gun. Charge and convict her of a felony and she can't own guns anymore. Problem solved.

Yellow snow

Well, if you ever really needed an excuse not to move to South Korea, here's a good one.

They just experienced a rather odd snowfall. It snowed yellow snow. Yes, really, yellow snow.

In the immortal words of Frank Zappa:

"And she said, with a tear in her eye

Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow

Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow" *

(Actually, the yellow snow falls occasionally when yellow dust is picked up by the wind from desert regions in Northern China. It is apparently toxic, too. So Frank's guidance still applies!)

*From Apostrophe ('), 1974

Criminal Mastermind of the day

So, this guy's brother dies and he decides to impersonate the brother to collect his pension. He goes merrily along this way for 26 years.

But then he repeatedly fails to pay a minor debt. The police catch him.

The say he collected at least $119,400 over the entire period. That works out to about $4,600 per year. Wow. Was it worth it?

Wow - I bet she gets LOTS of dates

A woman in Norway turned on her kitchen faucet and miracle of miracles, BEER poured forth!

Since the cost of beer in Norway is appallingly high, this must make her extremely popular!

(Actually, the bar downstairs somehow cross connected the pipes. They got water from their beer tap!)

Pointless grandstanding

Demonstrating the fundamental unseriousness of his politics yet again, Russ Feingold called for the censure of the President.

Oops. Seems nobody else among the Democrats wants to support him.

This is so obviously a ploy to endear himself to the far left that it calls into question his judgment.

Item: Congressional leaders (the gang of eight) were briefed on the NSA program. None raised objections. None have gone on record against the program since the NYT started blathering about it.

Item: What little case law there is on programs such as these seems to support the legality of the program.

Item: The "investigation" by Congress is not even remotely close to being complete.

Item: Several parties have brought legal action claiming they were targets but none have gone to trial yet.

Item: Not one single person has proven that any American was targeted or damaged by the program (perhaps the courts cited above MAY find something, but that has yet to be proven).

Russ Feingold wants to be President. By attempting to protect the rights of terrorists, I think he just shot himself in the foot. One can but hope.

The Martians are getting rusty

They failed to shoot down the latest orbiter that NASA sent to visit....

The Reconnaissance Orbiter safely entered orbit around Mars after a 310 million mile journey. Controllers applauded when the orbiter emerged from behind the planet and reported a safe insertion.

All these robot probes are nice, but I for one would love to see a manned mission as soon as possible. We have been neglectful of our space program for too many years now.

Good Riddance

Slobodan Milosevic apparently died of a heart attack while I was on vacation. Gee, what a loss....

Here's the kicker, though. His "trial", which will now be forever unfinished, cost $200 MILLION and took 4 YEARS (and wasn't even close to being finished when nature intervened).

Pathetic. Some people think there is such a thing as "International Law" - is this what they believe in? This farce of a trial costing enormous amounts of money and time? In the end, either God, nature or just plain luck was needed to end it (depending on what you believe in).

Spring Sky

Gee, it's great to be back from sunny Florida. Today we had a thunderstorm go over. This is the sky right after it passed over heading North. So it is cold and rainy here. Quite a change from sunny and warm!

Digital cameras are really handy, but they still are not up to the quality of my old Nikon 35mm cameras. Although the Pentax S40 I used for this picture (and all the ones I took in Florida) is a 4.0 Megapixel camera and is pretty decent. Of course, this is a tiny little snapshot camera and the lens is not even close to my old Nikkors. I used to use an 85mm f 2.0 most of the time - wonderful piece of glass that is.

My youngest daughter really wants to get her hands on my old cameras, but I think I will wait until she is a bit older before I let her play with them......

To Bond or not to Bond

Well, there's a brewing controversy about the "new" James Bond. Or to be more accurate, the newest actor to play the part of James Bond. The new actor is Daniel Craig, an Englishman. Critics have established a new web site to attack him, among other things, as too blonde.

Ok, I have enjoyed many of the Bond movies, but really only the ones starring Sean Connery (who will forever be James Bond to me).

But can we get at least some perspective here? This is a MOVIE and Craig is an ACTOR. If the movie is good, fine. Go see it. If it is bad, fine. Don't go see it. If you like Craig's performance, fine. If not, fine.

It seems some folks take their Bond addiction very seriously....

But it's just a movie, folks.

When the media repeats partisan talking points

Here's a headline:

"Polls: Public Worried About Gov't Secrecy"

The article reports on two recent polls. If you actually bother to read more than just the headline, it strongly contradicts the headline. A solid majority favors some secrecy. And a stunning 73% believe the President should keep some information secret if it will help with the war on terror.

Where's the worry? In the minds of the media that mindlessly repeat the Democratic Party meme about the "secretive" administration. Jerks.

If the reporter was honest, the headline would read "Majority favors some Gov't secrecy". But that would be honest. Can't have that, can we?

Rocket Garden

Every home should have one!

This photo is from the "Rocket Garden" at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center. If you have never visited the KSC, you really should try to go there. It is a really great experience.

Project Mercury

The previous post covered the tragedy of Apollo 1, where Gus Grissom died. The above photo is from launch pad 5/6 where Grissom made his first suborbital flight. The Redstone rocket is real, but the capsule on top is a mock-up. Two manned Mercury missions were launched from here, Alan Shepard's and Gus Grissom's (Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4, respectively). John Glenn's later orbital flight, as well as the rest of the manned Mercury flights, took off from pad 14. Pad 5/6 and pad 14 are both historical sites now.

Grissom's capsule, Liberty Bell 7 sank when the explosive hatch triggered prematurely. It was recovered in 1999. My family and I went to see the restored Liberty Bell 7 earlier this year.

Wikipedia has a very thorough article on the Mercury program here.

Incidentally, Grissom did have a successful flight in Gemini 3 (he named the capsule "The Unsinkable Molly Brown). But even that flight was marred when the two Astronauts were reprimanded for having smuggled a corned beef sandwich on board the craft. The crumbs released could have wreaked havoc in the capsule.

I think Gus Grissom was probably the most unlucky of the original 7 Astronauts. Regardless, he was still a hero. Who else would willingly strap a rocket onto their back?

In memoriam

On January 27th, 1967 at 6:31 PM, EST at pad 34 at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, an Apollo spacecraft with Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee aboard caught fire. All three Astronauts died. It is believed that all three succumbed to the poisonous fumes generated by the fire long before the fire could actually claim them.

Although two unmanned Apollo tests had occurred previously, the craft that claimed the lives of the three Astronauts will forever be remembered as Apollo 1.

I still remember the special reports as the media announced the tragedy. My best friend and I were both space nuts at that time and we followed the space program closely.

While in Florida, I visited Pad 34, now a historical site. The pad will never be reused for launches. The photo above shows the concrete launch pad for the Saturn 1B rocket. The metal gantry has long since been removed.

To three of my childhood heroes - Rest in Peace.

This is an interesting poll

The Harris Poll examined what institutions Americans have confidence in.

47% have a great deal of confidence in the American military.

25% have a great deal of confidence in the White House.

10% have a great deal of confidence in Congress.

This is an interesting result, no? The poll was unsponsored, by the way. Unlike Zogby's hit polling.

I notice the media loves to trumpet how badly the President is doing in polls, but they seldom mention how badly the Congress is doing and never, ever mention how little confidence Americans have in the media. They only got about 14% in this poll.

Here's the actual Harris Poll report.

H/T Instapundit for the link

I'm baaack!

Back from vacation, tanned, ready and rested. Ok, make that burned, frazzled and exhausted. But happy, nonetheless.

I have some new material I'll be working on soon, too. Sometimes a little time off can give you some new ideas....

Vacation

I will be busy trudging through Universal Studios in Orlando for a week. I have no idea if I can even get to the internet from where we are staying. If I can, I will try to post a little, but it will be very light. Back next Saturday.

Just in time for my son's weekend pass before he ships out.

How to read a newspaper article

Rule number one: Assume the author has sensationalized something in the article to generate interest.

Rule number two: Check any sources the author cites.


Case in point: Headline reads "Whirlpool baths: Enter at your own risk"

Key sentence: "Better think twice before soothing those aching muscles in a whirlpool bath or hot tub." (Emphasis added)

Actual article on study as published: "A Risky Soaking: Study Shows Whirlpool Water Can Be Dangerous (2/14)"

The study pertains to whirlpool bathtubs, not hot tubs that are normally chemically maintained. Reading the study it is obvious that they are talking about bathtubs that are drained regularly - and warning that the untreated water trapped in the pipes can become a breeding ground for bacteria. The only mention of hot tubs is a quote from the researcher giving some context:

"Moyes says that as long ago as 1972, studies were done to test the bacteria
levels in Whirlpool baths and hot tubs, but evidence collected has often not
shown sufficient reasons for concern. “That’s probably because a hot tub or
Whirlpool as a source of infection can’t be clearly distinguished from other
sources,” she said. “An example might be when you develop a respiratory
infection. The doctor can tell you that you do have a respiratory infection, but
he or she can’t tell you how you got it."

By adding "hot tub" to the lead sentence, the author sensationalized the story. (Incidently, the author also misidentified the online magazine the original article appeared in. That may or may not be her fault). Also, in fairness, I cannot state that the offending words were not added by an editor.

However, if this means the hot tub at the resort will be less crowded, I'm ok with that.

Wow - They actually topped themselves

Earlier, I linked to a story about the little hypocrisy issue the Clintons are having over the Dubai port deal. Husband giving advice to the Dubai folks on how to get the deal while wife works to legislate against the deal.

Glenn Reynolds points to a story in the WaPo about a Democratic call for Elizabeth Dole to remove herself from oversight of any port dealings since her husband, former Senator Bob Dole, is lobbying for the deal.

Exactly how is this different from what Billy-boy is doing?

Frankly, I agree with Glenn on this one, both are iffy ethically.

Barnstorming makes a comeback

During the 1920's the phenomenon of barnstorming occurred. Pilots returned from the first World War and wanted to make a living flying. Using surplus Curtiss JN-4 ("Jenny") airplanes purchased from the US government for as little as $200, barnstormers toured all over the US. They put on shows, did stunt flying (including flying THROUGH barns) and took people for rides. By 1927, however, federal regulations began to be enforced and the traveling barnstormers heyday was over.

Now the Chinese are bringing barnstorming back. A team of Russian pilots will fly jet fighters through Tianmen Cave in central Hunan province. Promoters are selling 20,000 tickets for around $840 each. The cave is 280 meters long and about 130 meters high. It gets as narrow as 28 meters.....

I don't think I'd personally want to be inside the cave, thanks anyway.

Just when you thought it was safe to get into the water

Along comes a Borg shark!

Scientists working at DARPA have implanted electrodes into sharks to use them as stealth spies. The work is still very preliminary at this stage, but a test in the open ocean off Florida is planned using blue sharks.

(Waiting now for the screams from the PETA folks, should start any second....)

This is what hypocrisy looks like

This is the most blatant case of hypocritical triangulation I have ever seen. While Senator Hillary Clinton is loudly condemning the Dubai port deal (using outright lies to do so), former President Bill Clinton is advising Dubai on how to quell protests over the deal.

He's also taken more than $300,000 from Dubai for addressing a summit there.

The dishonesty is totally breathtaking. Lefties accuse the Bush administration of being dishonest?

A manifesto

Some people who have experienced Islamic extremism first hand have published a manifesto in the same newspaper that originally published the cartoons that have been used to cause so much death and destruction.

MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

Presentations:

Ayaan Hirsi AliAyaan Hirsi Ali, from somilian origin, is member of Dutch parliement, member of the liberal party VVD. Writter of the film Submission which caused the assasination of Theo Van Gogh by an islamist in november 2004, she lives under police protection.

Chahla Chafiq Chahla Chafiq, writer from iranian origin, exiled in France is a novelist and an essayist. She's the author of "Le nouvel homme islamiste , la prison politique en Iran " (2002). She also wrote novels such as "Chemins et brouillard" (2005).

Caroline Fourest, Essayist, editor in chief of Prochoix (a review who defend liberties against dogmatic and integrist ideologies), author of several reference books on « laicité » and fanatism : Tirs Croisés : la laïcité à l'épreuve des intégrismes juif, chrétien et musulman (with Fiammetta Venner), Frère Tariq : discours, stratégie et méthode de Tariq Ramadan, et la Tentation obscurantiste (Grasset, 2005). She receieved the National prize of laicité in 2005.

Bernard-Henri Lévy,French philosopher, born in Algeria, engaged against all the XXth century « ism » (Fascism, antisemitism, totalitarism, terrorism), he is the author of La Barbarie à visage humain, L'Idéologie française, La Pureté dangereuse, and more recently American Vertigo.

Irshad ManjiIrshad Manji is a Fellow at Yale University and the internationally best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith" (en francais: "Musulmane Mais Libre"). She speaks out for free expression based on the Koran itself. Née en Ouganda, elle a fui ce pays avec sa famille musulmane d'origine indienne à l'âge de quatre ans et vit maintenant au Canada, où ses émissions et ses livres connaissent un énorme succès.

Mehdi MozaffariMehdi Mozaffari, professor from iranian origin and exiled in Denmark, is the author of several articles and books on islam and islamism such as : Authority in Islam: From Muhammad to Khomeini, Fatwa: Violence and Discourtesy and Glaobalization and Civilizations.

Maryam Namazie, Writer, TV International English producer; Director of the Worker-communist Party of Iran's International Relations; and 2005 winner of the National Secular Society's Secularist of the Year award.

Taslima NasreenTaslima Nasreen is born in Bangladesh. Doctor, her positions defending women and minorities brought her in trouble with a comittee of integrist called « Destroy Taslima » and to be persecuted as « apostate »

Salman RushdieSalman Rushdie is the author of nine novels, including Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses and, most recently, Shalimar the Clown. He has received many literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, Germany's Author of the Year Award, the European Union's Aristeion Prize, the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature, the Premio Mantova, and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He is a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, an Honorary Professor in the Humanities at M.I.T., and the president of PEN American Center. His books have been translated into over 40 languages.

Philippe ValDirector of publication of Charlie Hebdo (Leftwing french newspaper who have republished the cartoons on the prophet Muhammad by solidarity with the danish citizens targeted by islamists).

Ibn WarraqIbn Warraq , author notably of Why I am Not a Muslim ; Leaving Islam : Apostates Speak Out ; and The Origins of the Koran , is at present Research Fellow at a New York Institute conducting philological and historical research into the Origins of Islam and its Holy Book.

Antoine Sfeir : Born in Lebanon, christian, Antoine Sfeir choosed french nationality to live in an universalist and « laïc » (real secular) country. He is the director of Les cahiers de l'Orient and has published several reference books on islamism such as Les réseaux d'Allah (2001) et Liberté, égalité, Islam : la République face au communautarisme (2005).

These are truely brave people given the climate of appeasement running rampant.

(Any formatting errors are from me. this posting software is not exactly perfect....)

H/T to LGF for the link.

Are we witnessing the death throes?

Of the Main Stream Media?

They have gone from bad to worse in a very short time indeed. As Gateway Pundit observes, they are fabricating stories outright now.

I was on another blog's comments yesterday, and the resident lefty troll was trumpeting these "stories" all day long.

The agenda-driven poll showing a huge majority of troops want a withdrawal from Iraq simply does not gibe with my personal knowledge of the feelings that many troops actually express.

The wildly inflated reported death toll in the surge of violence in Iraq calls the accuracy of a once-great newspaper into question.

The CBS poll of the President's approval rating is so badly skewed toward Democratic responders that it is transparent to even an amateur that this is a badly skewed poll.

But they keep trying to whip up a frenzy. Even if they have to make it up.

This is simply disgraceful.

This has got to be a top ten contender

In the Criminal Mastermind department.

An 18 year old woman in Tennessee pleaded guilty to attempted murder. She tried to hire a hit man to kill four men. The men were to be killed, along with any possible witnesses so the young woman could steal what she thought was cocaine from the men. She told the hit man she needed the money from the robbery to attend modeling school.

The "hit man" turned out to be an undercover police officer.

Even worse than that is the fact that the white, powdery substance she thought was cocaine was actually queso fresco, a Mexican cheese.....

She was sentenced to 15 years in prison.