Welcome To Robert Fisk Elementary School: Just when you think the public school system can't get any sillier...

"The principal of Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica became "it" when she banned the children's game of tag--for reasons that included issues of self-esteem--from the playground late last month.

"But there was that statement in the school newsletter that seemed to trigger the debate. In the third paragraph of an article titled "Safety on the Playground," the piece reads: "The running part of this activity is healthy and encouraged; however, in this game, there is a 'victim' or 'It,' which creates a self-esteem issue. The oldest or biggest child usually dominates."

First they said dodge ball was too rough, then "Cowboys and Indians" wasn't permissible because children were pretending to shoot each other, and now it's tag. I guess the kids are supposed to just sit around by themselves and color Captain Planet coloring books at recess since apparently every normal game that kids enjoy playing has been deemed "dangerous" or "damaging to their self-esteem." It just boggles the mind to think that there are PC toadies out there on a playground, watching kids play tag, and thinking "Oh no! That child is being victimized! This game has got to be banned for the sake of that child's self-esteem!" How did America end up producing so many politically correct ninnies and how did they end up in charge of our public school system?

RWN Returns Monday: We don't update on the weekends so you can go out and look at that yellow, glowing, ball of fire in the sky without fear that you'll miss any RWN updates on your internet machine for the next two days! See you on Monday -- John Hawkins

America's Own 'Palestine Problem?': Jospeh Farah from WorldNetDaily wrote a column today talking about exactly the same themes that I touched on yesterday in my Mexicans: Southwest Is Ours post yesterday. Apparently, great minds think alike. Now if I can only get up to WorldNetDaily's traffic level I'll be a happy man...

Thanks to Wes for pointing this editorial out.

La Voz de Aztlan: Howard Owens at Global News Watch followed up on my "Mexicans: Southwest U.S. Is Ours" post from yesterday with some more info about groups claiming that California "along with Arizona, New Mexico and Texas rightly belong to Mexico." It's a worthwhile read for those of you unfamiliar with the "Aztlan" movement.

The 'Controllers' Ate Your Baby: This is too funny! I across an interview with someone named Victor Thorn and he imparts some of his wisdom to the masses in a long, rambling, and slightly unhinged interview. It's filled with gems like...

"I see this country being deliberately undermined by hidden forces that have seized control of our government by nefarious means, and thus use it to further promote their Globalist agenda. These shadowy figures, who I've labeled the Controllers, don't operate with our best interests in mind, but instead their own."

"...It is my assertion that these political leaders (George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, etc.) aren't elected, but "selected" by groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderbergs. If Americans ever peered behind the veil and saw the Wizard of Oz illusion that controls their political system, they'd be shocked beyond belief."

Read and enjoy! Thanks to Damian Penny for finding this interview.

The First Edition Of The Blogosphere Round-Up: Every week or two I'm planning to do a quick little review of some of some of what's going on in the blogging world. I'll try to keep it short but sweet....

AsparaGirl is back but Matt Welch is leaving for a while. On the humor front, File13's Amish Tech Support has been spreading like a disease through the blogosphere after it was "discovered" by Instapundit. Now if Glenn ever "discovers" Brass Knuckles Webzine I can get some political traffic going over there as well. Speaking of being "discovered", I'm still hoping that I'll be "discovered" by C-log, Andrew Sullivan, or The Corner so that Conservative influx of traffic will keep us growing at a rapid pace. Tim Blair and the VodkaPundit are doing "Instapundit-quality" work lately and the Instapundit himself is as good as ever. NZ Bear is starting to develop a nice "Matt Welchish" style although I wish he'd update his "Blogosphere Ecosystem". Dawn Olsen has a new pic up, Mickey Kaus never responded to my request for an interview, and On The Third Hand is another blog I'm starting to enjoy. That's all of the round-up for this week...happy blogging.

(**Update**: C-log linked me and added me to their permalinks this weekend. Much thanks to Jon Garthwaite at C-log)

Ask Osama -- Advice for the Faithful: RWN has once again scooped the mainstream press by finding all the material "the man" doesn't want you to see. Here's a little bit of Osama Bin Laden back when he was merely a harlmess advice columnist...take that Washington Post!

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Those American Planes: The Netherlands is starting to consider the possibility that we might have to open an Afghanistan sized can of whoop@ss on them over the
International Criminal Court...

"U.S. officials today sought to allay concerns among Dutch politicians after the Senate approved a measure authorizing use of force if a U.S. citizen is held by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

"...It will probably not get to the point where the U.S. will actually invade the Netherlands, but it is serious in the way that it is a warning the U.S. under no circumstances wants a trial of U.S. citizens" at the court, said Tom van der Lee, a spokesman for the Green Left party."

Tom van der Lee seems to understand our position very well. "(U)nder no circumstances" are we going to allow US citizens to be tried in any politically motivated ICC sham trial. If someone accuses an American of committing a "war crime" then they'll be judged by the citizens and laws of the United States, not by any UN run court. Many Americans, myself included, think that our sovereignty is something worth fighting for if need be. I hope no one has to learn that lesson the hard way...

Mexicans: Southwest U.S. Is Ours: This poll result may surprise some people but I've been hearing this sort of thing for quite a while...

"According to a just-published survey conducted by Zogby International, the polling firm found that a majority of Mexicans say the U.S. southwest "rightfully belongs to Mexico," and that Mexican citizens should be able to come into those areas freely, without U.S. permission.

The poll found that 58 percent of Mexicans agree with the statement, "The territory of the United States' southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico." Zogby said 28 percent disagreed, while another 14 percent said they weren't sure."

All of the Palestinian apologists in America should take a long hard look at that 58% number. That's because one day, if much of the world keeps buying the Palestinian's "terrorism is ok if you think your country is occupied" argument, we're going to see Mexican terrorists blowing up American civilians so they can "free" the Southwestern United States. Don't say I didn't warn you...

I Wouldn't Eat The Rich Even If They Tasted Like Chicken: Everyone knows the Democrats love high taxes as much as their own children so it was no surprise that they fought to keep the revocation of the death tax from becoming permanent. Nor is it a surprise to hear comments like this from a Democrat...

"Strip it all away, this is a tax relief for billionaires when we have a very big deficit and we have other priorities," such as health care, education, Social Security ( news - web sites) and Medicare, argued Sen. Byron Dorgan ( news, bio, voting record), D-N.D."

But what is Byron Dorgan actually saying? He's really saying "Sure you could get a tax cut, but that would mean one of those rich fatcats would have to get a tax cut too. Isn't it worth paying a death tax just so you can stick it to those rich jerks?"

This whole "class warfare" theme that the Democrats continually play up has it exactly backwards. We shouldn't be telling the public to resent the rich, we should be telling Americans to copy them. Most of the people who got rich, did so by serving the public. They entertained people, built a better product, created a service that people want, etc. Of course, not every rich person made their money this way. Some of them won the lottery, created a scam, inherited the money, etc. But so what? There are plenty of talentless, clueless, middle class people who lucked into a higher paying jobs than they deserved as well, that's just life.

I for one believe in an America where people can still get rich. In fact, the more rich people America has, the better off we'll be, especially if I'm among them.

I Will Terrorise Every Individual Who Comes Within My Way Of Islaaam: Once again, the right wing kaffir has crept into the heart of the "Youth of Islam" forum to acquire the material for the latest edition of A.C.P.O.T.I. Who else but RWN would risk a Salman Rushdie style fatwa in order to bring back some of the most pro-terrorist, homophobic, and bizarre posts you'll find out there on the net just for your amusement? But enough talk, let's get down to business...

Problem Solved: After I wrote my little rant about how silly it was to burden the military with all sorts of ridiculous environmental restrictions, one of our readers named Andrew contributed a comment that I thought was worth sharing =)...

"Here's an amusing anecdote: I used to be in the navy, and one of my instructor down in Pensacola was a grizzled staff sergeant from somewhere in the deep south. HE told us that once, his company was using some deserted island for artillery practice, and some random environmental group protested because there was a population of wild goats on the island, which could be injured in the shelling.

The solution? Send a couple of Hueys with marines hanging out both sides with M-16s to machine-gun every goat on the island. No more goats, no more protests. Heh heh"

The More Press The Better: Eric Olsen at Tres Producers writes a long, detailed, review of my "I Practice Speciesism" article. Give it a look...

U.S. Military Battles Environmentalists: While the military is fighting to protect Americans from terrorists who want to wipe us off of the face of the earth, they better not do anything that will "harm" the environment or the environmental whackos will come after them...

"Environmentalists are particularly angry with a proposal to exempt the U.S. military from several laws designed to protect the environment. And the top brass at the Pentagon are firing back, telling Congress those laws are compromising training areas and threatening military readiness.

...For example, because of endangered plants and animals along the 17 miles of coastline at Camp Pendleton, Calif., military activities are restricted to just a 500-foot stretch of beach. The Pentagon says it’s these kinds of rules that have to change if American forces can be properly trained for battle."

Now why would the military need more than 500 ft. of beach out of 17 miles? It's not as if they're doing anything important, dangerous, or complicated that they need to train for right?

"Our budget request to the president includes over $4 billion for environmental programs," said Undersecretary of Defense Paul Mayberry.

Among the changes are new tungsten slugs for the fabled M-16 rifle, replacing conventional lead bullets that can cause toxic lead accumulations in the soil and ground water at military rifle ranges. Environmentalists pushed for the move, while critics said the new material costs twice as much as lead and relies on raw material supplied by China."

Who cares if a military rifle range is polluted with lead? It's not as if the range doubles as a children's playground or national park when the military isn't using it. Plus, we may have to go to war with China someday over Taiwan and they're going to be supplying the raw material we need for our BULLETS? That's INSANE! It's even nuttier that we're doing all of this to please a bunch of Luddites who'd force every American to ride bikes to work and live in Unabomber style shacks if they were able to. I really wish Ralph Nader and the other greenies would just start a giant commune somewhere so they'd be too busy recycling paper and planting vegetable gardens to bother the rest of us with this silly stuff.

Prepare To Be Shocked!: I read one of the most SHOCKING stories of the year today and I still can't get over it! Before we get into this story, I want those of you with weak hearts to skip this story while the rest of you should make SURE THAT YOU ARE SITTING DOWN because this story is such a super shocking, shockoriffic, shockfest of shockingness that you may simply curl up into fetal position if you're not prepared...

"Israeli forces seized 10 bombs being prepared for attacks in Israeli cities as security agencies braced for a new wave of Palestinian suicide attacks.

The bombs were found in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in the headquarters of the Force 17 praetorian guard headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat."

It simply can't be true! Yasser Arafat says he wants peace! He's condemned terrorist attacks, we've all seen the announcements! Europe loves the man! The UN applauds like a rock star when he does speeches! He even won a Nobel Peace Prize! Besides, why would Arafat supply bombs to terrorists when he knows that wouldn't be "helpful" to the "peace process?" Everyone knows Yasser Arafat loves peace and would never help terrorists blow up women and children! What kind of crazy world do we live in when a man like Yasser Arafat "secretly" supports terrorism? What's next? Will Bill Clinton tell a lie? Will Jimmy Carter give lousy foreign policy advice? Will Noam Chomsky turn against America? I'll never believe in anyone again...sniff...sniff...

Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?: Democrats now seem to be upset that the FBI dared to do something right and that the Bush administration had the audacity to mention it...

"Several Democratic lawmakers yesterday questioned whether the Bush administration was trying to deflect criticism of the FBI by revealing the capture of a "dirty bomb" suspect one month after his arrest.

"I wonder if they have anybody else," Mr. Dodd said. "Everything is secret. They've got to hold people in secret. We've got to have secret meetings about homeland security. I'm getting concerned that this [announcement of a suspect] is a little hype here."

Does anyone else find it ironic that we have Christopher Dodd simultaneously complaining that things are being done in "secret" and then one sentence later calling it "hype" when information is released? Furthermore, do the Democrats not understand the image they're presenting here? They come off in this article as partisan crybabies who seem irritated that the FBI caught a terrorist because it might interfere with the non-stop b*tchfest about pre-9/11 intelligence that they're engaged in. If that's how they want to portray themselves, it's fine with me. I'm hoping that the Republicans can win the Senate back in November and every little bit helps...

I Created A Pretty Little Frankenstein: You know when I did my "Ranking The Political Bloggers" article I put Dawn Olsen in the #6 slot and described her writing as follows..."Olsen is a sex drenched, highly opinionated, writer who always entertains." Since then she dumped all that "annoying politics stuff" and basically turned her page into a "cam girl" site without the videos.

So was I responsible for the change? As the quintessential blogger who thinks the entire blogosphere revolves around them, I'd have to say "yes indeedy." Notice that I described her site as "sex drenched" in my review and she herself now describes her site as "sex-drenched" here and here. Some might say it's coincidence but I think they're "sex-drenched" Freudian slips.

Personally, I liked the political side of the site as well. So I'm hoping that Dawn will dig back into that side of the page as well -- or that she'll go all the way and put up the nudey cam -- either or... =D

I Practice Speciesism: Merriam-Webster defines "speciesism" as "prejudice or discrimination based on species; especially: discrimination against animals" and I have to admit that I am an enthusiastic practitioner of this form of prejudice.

• I don't believe animals have any rights other than those that man gives to them. If animals want their rights, let them have a revolution, overthrow the humans, and then they can write their own Constitution. (Cont)

UN: Negative Africa Development in '90s: I found this article discussing the UN's view of Africa's economic development interesting for a couple reasons. First off, it mentions that...

"Overseas development assistance flows far from growing, actually declined over the decade by as much as about 43 percent.

While he said investment laws "for the most part were indeed liberalized," investment flows to the region "were insignificant and concentrated mainly in oil and mining based countries," Botchwey said."

Now why would that be? Could it be because the money sent to a lot of these governments is being spent on Swiss bank accounts, weapons, and palaces for the thugs and dictators that run most of these countries instead of on hospitals, schools, and roads? Where's the accountability? Is it surprising that govenments don't want to give money to people who waste it?

Furthermore, everyone seems to be jumping on the "Bono bandwagon" and declaring that we have to waive off all of the African nation's debts. That's a nice idea, but you do realize that money still has to come from somewhere right? Either government or businesses are going to have to eat that debt. If the governments have to do it, expect a big cut in the amount of money given to Africa to make up for it. If businesses do it, African nations can forget about getting more loans. There is no free lunch.

Here was the real shocker in the article...

"Another lesson was the need to avoid an "overriding reliance on liberalization, privatization and marked-based reforms."

The panel believes that such reliance had distinct limits and in many cases "proved counter-productive in accelerating development and alleviating poverty." Instead, every African country "must evolve its own development strategy."

Excuse me? The only hope these nations have is "liberalization, privatization and marked-based reforms." The clowns who run half these countries aren't qualified to run a lemonade stand and the UN wants them to get deeply involved in directing their national economies? I think it's highly amusing that the most prosperous nations in the world have "liberalization, privatization and marked-based reforms" out the wazoo and yet the UN doesn't think that's what these African nations should be trying to do. If "liberalization, privatization and marked-based reforms" are such economic death, why don't the "UNocrats" go back to Europe and suggest that the EU implement an old school, Soviet style economy so Europe can reap the wondrous benefits of a centralized economy? What's good for the goose is good for gander right?

People have to understand that debt relief isn't going to make much of a difference for Africa in the long run. Furthermore, Western charity isn't going to get the job done either. We only have so much money to give and it's just going to be a drop in the bucket compared to what Africa actually needs. So what will help? Capitalism, free trade, Democracy, and freedom. The same things that made the Western world and part of the Eastern world prosperous can work in Africa too. They just have to give those principles a chance.

Murder In Britain?: This is a bizarre story...

"The parents for four soldiers found dead at an army base in Surrey are to press the home secretary for an inquiry in to their deaths.
The four died from gunshot wounds at the Royal Logistics Corps HQ in Deepcut over the past seven years.

The Army claims the deaths were all suicides, but Surrey Police is reinvestigating."

I know you're thinking "four suicides in seven years", what's so bizarre about that?

"In the same year 20-year-old Sean Benton from Hastings, Sussex, was found dead with five gunshot wounds, an inquest recorded a verdict of suicide.

"It wasn't until six months later that we discovered he had been shot twice in the head."

Who commits suicide by putting TWO rounds in their head? What about this guy who supposedly pumped five bullets into his chest? Furthermore, all of these "suicides" occurred at the same base. Don't be surprised if the next "suicide" features someone tying their hands behind their back before they use 7 or 8 bullets to shoot themselves to death. Strange things are afoot in Surrey...

Cops See Progress in Search for Missing Utah Girl: Do you know what my first thought was after I heard about this 14 year old kid who was kidnapped in Utah? Yes, you guessed it, I was thinking "the parents probably did it and cooked up a story for the nine year old to tell the police." I'm sure a lot of other people thought the exact same thing right off the bat although that doesn't appear to be the case (we all hope). Thank you very much for making us a more suspicious society Susan Smith....

More Graphics: James Corbett sent this in a little while back when I was asking for propaganda posters for the 'War on Terrorism"...

Click on it for the large version and hit your back button to get back to RWN. If you want to do a little photoshopping of your own, feel free to send it in because we're always looking for quality propaganda posters....

This Should Explain A Lot: If you've ever wondered why the Israelis seem hesitant to give the Palestinians a State these poll numbers should explain it...

"The JMCC interviewed 1,179 people in the West Bank and Gaza in late May and early June. The poll had a three percent margin of error.

Fifty-one percent of people surveyed said the end result of the uprising should be "liberating all of historic Palestine," referring to British-mandate Palestine, part of which was recognized as Israel in 1948....68 percent said they approved of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, down slightly from 74 percent in December."

Half of the Palestinians want to wipe Israel out and almost 70% of them support blowing up women and children at every opportunity. Who in the world wants to live next to people with this sort of mentality? It's like living next to a big batch of Aztecs...

SWAMPED: I am completely swamped so don't look for anymore updates until about 7 PM EST. Hopefully, by the FTP problem with blogger version 1.0 will be fixed by then so the permalinks will work again...

Al Qaeda Says It'll Use Chem, Bio Weapons: According to Fox News, here is a word for word warning from al-Queda....

"We have the right to kill four million Americans, including one million children," and it says, "we have the right to fight them by chemical and biological weapons so they catch the fatal and unusual diseases Muslims have caught due to U.S. chemical and biological weapons."

Now take that threat in concert with the recent news that Al-Queda had plans to detonate a dirty bomb in the US and the highly suspicious outbreak of smallpox in Pakistan. We also know these guys had rudimentary biological weapons labs in Afghanistan and there are dictators out there like Saddam Hussein who would be only too happy to secretly provide al-Queda with biological or chemical weapons. So what's the point of this mini-rant?

The point is that when al-Queda says they have the "right to kill four million Americans", that means they're serious about it and they're not just blowing off steam. Al-Queda is willing, capable, and ready to murder MILLIONS of Americans if we don't stop them.

So you know what I say to people who want us to sit on our hands? You know what I say to pacifists who say "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" and "violence never solves anything?" I say that when there are psychopaths who want to murder millions of Americans and every indication seems to be that they may be able to pull it off, saying that we shouldn't be willing to fight to stop them is immoral and wrong. Saying that we shouldn't hit Iraq and shouldn't be willing to do whatever it takes to stop al-Queda, the other terrorist organizations out there, and the regimes that support them is in reality the equivalent of saying "I want millions of Americans to die." At this point, it's simply a race against time. Either we wipe put the terrorists and the regimes that support us or the body count hits 7 figures in the US. To argue against getting rid of the terrorists is in effect no different than arguing that you want to see millions dead. That's reality, whether the moral equivalence crowd or the pacifists, like it or not.

As A Side Note: Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd mention that I'm averaging about 700 uniques per day for the month of June. That's not bad considering that I was averaging around 300 uniques per day two months ago. Roughly 50% growth per month isn't bad huh? I'm about 9 months away from Instapundit size if I can keep this up (har, har, har.)

Permalinks Down: My permalinks are down because of a technical problem with Blogger. I'm not sure what's going on with Blogger lately but they're having massive issues and they seem to be unwilling or unable to fix them. Their technical support doesn't seem to exist. Their support email doesn't work, I can't post in their tech support forums for some reason, and they don't respond to emails sent through their "new" help system. I hope they get it together so I don't have to move to a new news posting system. But, the lousy job blogger is doing lately is not acceptable. Does anyone know what the problem is with Blogger or have a suggestion of a new system I could use to take their place?

'Robin Hood' Rule Takes on Bike Owners: Here's a perfect example of a government solution that's a much bigger pain in the butt than the problem it's designed to solve. What's the problem?

"Police say a six-year study showed nearly 1,500 bikes worth $2 million were being stolen citywide (in Ft. Lauderdale) each year."

So what was the government's solution to this problem?

"(T)he city council has required riders to cough up cash and register their bikes with police, who have the power to stop a cyclist and ask for their two-wheel registration. Those who don't have one could be subject to seizure.

...So far this year, more than 500 bikes have been impounded for not having the $1 decal. If caught riding an unregistered bike, citizens face fines, community service or a simple warning."

So now we have the government stealing bikes from their rightful owners and giving them directly to the homeless people and "recovering" drug addicts who were probably stealing them in the first place. The government even makes crime less efficient. Furthermore, everybody has to go through the inconvenience of registering their bikes just for the privilege of getting hassled by the cops. But why stop with bikes? How many TV's get stolen in burglaries every year? What about VCRs or computers? Why don't they make everyone register them too? Then the police (who must be bored out of their minds if they have time to harass a bunch of sports nuts and kids riding their bikes) can check everyone's houses for stolen electronics. If you don't have your "TV license", the police can take your TV away and give it to some junky so he won't have to risk his life breaking into your house. That makes as much sense as what they're doing with the bikes...doesn't it?

The Daniel Pearl Video: Matt Drudge changed my mind tonight about posting a link to the Pearl Video. After listening to Drudge talk about how it turned him around and after hearing some of his callers discuss how if effected them (one of them was crying), I decided to post it. The video has been out for a little while so no one can accuse of simply "whoring for traffic." If you haven't seen this video, I'd recommend that you check it out. It'll let you know exactly what type of sickos we're dealing with and why we have to wipe them and their ilk off of the face of the earth...

White Power...Is For Idiots!: I went back to the fountain of ignorance and malice known as the "Stormfront White Nationalist Community" to see if they could come through in the clutch with a some moronic material for this article and boy did they deliver. Are you ready to read some of the most virulent, racist, scrawlings on the web? Well then dip into the latest edition of "Anyone Can Post On The Internet"....