Making The Case For The Loser-Pays System: This lawsuit is the poster child for why we need a loser-pays principle in our legal system...

"An Ashland man is suing Delta Airlines because he was seated next to an obese man during a two-hour flight last November.

Philip Shafer said that Delta breached its contract to provide him with a full seat and reasonable comfort. Shafer claims he suffered embarrassment, severe discomfort, mental anguish and severe emotional distress from the flight."

So basically this guy was uncomfortable for two hours and because of that he's suing the airline. Now how often have you been "uncomfortable" for a two hour period? Have you ever been to a party where you didn't know anyone so you kind of just stood around? Have you ever driven for more than two hours in the middle of summer without air conditioning? Have you ever been on a blind date where you knew five minutes in that you weren't interested in the person but you had to slog it out for the night so as not to be rude? If the answer to any of those questions was "yes" did you sue anyone because of it? Of course not, but if you had wanted to sue someone and there was a corporation with deep pockets involved, some parasitic trial lawyer would have taken your case. That's because cases like this are just like playing the lottery with exceptionally good odds. What do I mean? Let's look at what often happens in cases like this.

This Philip Shafer leech and his scumbag lawyer have sued Delta. It'll cost Delta let's say $75k to fight this suit in court win or lose. Plus, there's always the chance that Delta will lose no matter how good their case is. If that happens at best it means they'll have to spend more money for an appeal. But if worse comes to worse, Delta may have to pay out a large sum in damages and it may set a precedent that allows other "uncomfortable" people to sue them. On the other hand, Phillip Shafer and his lawyer are risking nothing but their time. His lawyer is probably taking the case for a piece of the settlement money with nothing up front. He knows that chances are that Delta will settle because in most cases it's in Delta's interest to do so. If you're Delta and you can talk Shafer and his lawyer into taking $50k, then you've just saved yourself $25k in legal expenses at least and you're no longer risking a precedent setting decision against you by some left-wing activist judge.

So Shafer and his lawyer agree to keep things quiet and in return they split $50k for being blood sucking ticks on Delta's scalp. Then Delta has to raise ticket prices on the rest of us to make up for the $50k they just spent paying off these shakedown artists. That's why we need to implement some sort of "loser-pays" rules to stop these frivolous lawsuits. I can 100% guarantee you that this guy would not be filing this suit if he knew he might have to pay even 10% of Delta's legal fees if he lost. By stopping this sort of "let's play the lottery" type of lawsuit, we could literally keep these bloodsuckers from passing untold billions of dollars worth of costs on to the rest of us.

A Mini-Review Of "Signs": I'm a big Mel Gibson fan so I was genuinely looking forward to seeing "Signs." Well I caught the movie after work today and I was absolutely blown away. In fact, I'd rank it as the #2 movie of the year just behind "Spider-Man" and just ahead of "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young."

"Signs" is the story of a ex-priest turned farmer who wakes up early one morning to find crop circles in his fields. Then things get weirder and creepier almost by the moment as everyone tries to figure out what's causing the crop circles while strange occurrences happen at an ever increasing pace. I don't want to tell you too much about the plot because their are some genuine surprises that I don't want to ruin for you. However, I can tell you little more about why you should see this movie.

"Signs" was perhaps the most perfectly paced movie I've ever seen. By that, I mean that there were no dead spots whatsoever for the length of the film. Every three or four minutes there was a plot twist, something that creeped you out, a surprise, something funny, a heart-rending moment, or an interesting development you didn't expect. Furthermore, the other elements of a great movie were there as well. The plot was unpredictable, the four main characters were truly likeable, and the storyline was compelling and even thought provoking. The only flaw in the movie were the really average special effects. But since the special effects were not a central part of the story anyway, I consider that to be a very minor point. Overall, this is a fantastic movie and I'd give it a BIG thumbs up.

The Sick Palestinian Culture: The Israelis captured two would-be suicide bombers and both of them have instructive stories to tell. The first one of them was a 17 year old kid named Jallal Halil Jarar who originally asked the Islamic Jihad to become a suicide bomber but later changed his mind. Why did he change his mind?

"The latter (Jallal Halil Jarar) apparently refused, reportedly saying that he was afraid of the reaction of his parents and that the family's home might be demolished in retaliation."

Now a lot of people have sharply criticized the Israeli policy of demolishing the homes of suicide bombers and/or their parents. In fact, we've heard far more complaints about that than the Iraqi & Saudi policy of paying the families of suicide bombers a bounty for their children's mass murders. Yet, we now see that this policy IS WORKING. There are in all likelihood Israelis alive today because Jallal Halil Jarar didn't want his family to lose their house.

The second prospective suicide bomber, Umiya Muhammad Damaj, surrendered to the IDF AGAIN because she was afraid her family's home might be demolished. But listen to how the Islamic Jihad had planned for her to avoid suspicion while she got in position to blow herself up...

"Damaj was contacted two weeks later and was reportedly informed that she would be given the opportunity to carry out an attack holding a baby as a disguise."

Holding a baby as a disguise?!?!? Every time you think the Palestinians can't sink any lower, they always find a new level of depravity, sickness, and evil to slither down too. As sick as the idea of blowing yourself and a baby up in order to kill enemy civilians is, do you know what's even more twisted? What would have happened afterwards. After the carnage was over Umiya Muhammad Damaj would have had her face put on the Palestinian equivalent of a baseball card so it could be given out to Palestinian children. If she killed enough Israelis or any Americans, there would be a public celebration where candy would be handed out, songs would be sung, and her mass murder would of been publicly lauded. Then her family would be paid more money than they could earn in 5 years by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a thank-you for Damaj's twisted act.

That's what Palestinian culture is really like and I for one have no qualms about calling it what it is; pure evil.

Letterman vs. Bin Laden: Dave Letterman recently riffed on the news stories out there claiming that Osama Bin Laden's son had taken over al-Queda with this top 10 list...

Top Ten Perks Of Being Osama Bin Laden's Son

10. Sometimes lets you work the camera for his videotaped rants
9. Touching moment when he teaches you how to torture an infidel
8. As busy as he is, Osama always makes time for Jihad Father and Son Day
7. Drop the old man's name at Kandahar TGI Friday's and you're looking at complimentary popcorn shrimp
6. Always asked to be celebrity judge at wet burqa contests
5. Has a surprisingly good collection of early 70's Dylan records
4. Fast-track membership process at the Tora Bora Country Club
3. Would be great for picking up babes if you were allowed to talk to babes
2. You are one United States airstrike away from running the damn business
1. At butcher shop, you always get the tastiest cut of goat

Check out Dave's Top 10 archives by clicking here.

Both The Aliens And The Dead Know Our Past And Our Future...: What do you get when you mix together fringe left-wing views, environmental extremism, and a lot of wild-eyed ranting about angels, aliens, and the dead? Why James Donahue of course! I'd never heard of him before yesterday when RWN reader James Corbett pointed him out to me, but apparently other people have judging by the healthy amount of traffic his page gets. While you're looking at what I considered to be some Donahue's most noteworthy quotes in the article and wondering if he just got out of a mental asylum, remember that there are apparently thousands of people who find this guy credible enough to regularly read his material. James Donahue not only proves that A.C.P.O.T.I (anyone can post on the internet), but that they can find an audience.

Where's The Outrage?: Five Americans were murdered by Hamas, a terrorist group that's supported by the Palestinian people and that's protected by the Palestinian government. Some of the death-worshipping savages who live in the "disputed territories' even had a street party to celebrate. Now where's the outrage? Where are the demands that we suspend all aid to the Palestinians? Where are the calls for the CIA and US special forces to get involved in hunting down and eradicating Hamas? I know the Israelis are capable of doing it if we ever got out of their way, but we're the one nation in the world that doesn't need anyone to fight our battles for us. Here's President Bush's response to these attacks...

"I am just as angry as Israel is. I am furious. But even though I am mad, I still think peace is possible."

Do you know how you make peace with groups like Hamas? You hunt them so ferociously that they get out of the business, you put them in prison cells, or preferably you kill them. That's when you have peace.

"Today we mourn the loss of American lives," Bush said at the outset of his meeting with the king. He said the terrorists were guided by "some kind of false religion" and were trying to kill off peace hopes.

"We are committed to the war on terror, to fighting the war on terror, to winning the war on terror," he said."

You'd never know it from the things that have been happening for the last couple of days. First we put the attack on Iraq off indefinitely and now we have Palestinians terrorist murdering Americans and we're responding by talking about "peace." I'm sure that's scaring the living Hell out of them. The 'War on Terror' is going out just like MacArthur said old soliders do; it's not dying, it's just fading away.

Rules For Terrorist Dating: Are you another Johnny "Bin" Walker Lindh looking to find a "little ms. terrorist right?" Maybe you're a terrorist sponsoring sheikh who's only on wife number three and needs a little advice to help you get back into the dating game. Well today's your lucky day because we've got all the advice you'll ever need...

Europe vs. America: Jonah Goldberg has done it again. He's written another great column about the difference between the American and European view of the world. This really sums it all up in a nutshell....

"Anyway, the gist of the disagreement between Europe and America is the 'peens think they achieved lasting peace through endless conversations in Swiss hotels with bottles of bubbly water and plates of runny cheese scattered about the table. Americans think the reason Europeans have achieved lasting peace has something to do with the fact that every time these conversations broke out into full-blown brawls, the United States marched into the room and imposed order like a parent getting the kids to stop wrestling over the remote control.

This is a profound difference in perspectives and a profound example of how history informs ideology. The Europeans think their "miracle" was achieved through talk. Americans think this miracle was achieved through tanks. And that is all the difference in the world."

Exactly...

Debating The War With The Democrats: Not exactly smashing stereotypes of liberals as mincing pantywaists, the left's entire contribution to the war effort thus far has been to whine. -- Ann Coulter

The latest line from the left about the ‘War on Terrorism’ has been that we need to ‘have a debate’ about invading Iraq. Of course, Conservatives have been holding up their end of the debate since shortly after Sept 11th. Here’s a quote from a column of mine that I wrote on Sept 16, 2001…

”The Osama Bin Ladens of the world have declared war on the United States. If we do not have the courage and the resolve to face and defeat them, then September the 11th will be repeated over and over again. It's time to stand up and do whatever it takes to stop these monsters and the people that support them. If not now, when?” (cont)

Clinton Pledges To Fight As Combat Soldier With Israeli Army: Now this is the type of lie that only a man with absolutely no conscience could tell.....

"While discussing his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East as president, Clinton stressed that America must remain involved because U.S. participation is the only way to ensure the long-term trust of the Israelis.

"If Iraq came across the Jordan River ... I would grab a rifle and get in the trench and fight and die," he pledged."

He'd literally fight and die to protect Israel from Iraq huh? Well last I heard there were Israelis fighting and dying to protect their people from the Palestinians. If Clinton is really ready to pick up a rifle and defend Israel I'm sure they could use the help. Plus, it would give Clinton a chance to find some hot Israeli girls to use his "hey baby, you know this could be our last night on earth..." line on.

Also just as an aside, I honestly, truly, really in my heart believe that if Clinton were in front of an Iraqi audience and he knew that it wouldn't get back to anyone, he'd have absolutely no problem with saying, "If Israel came across the Jordan River ... I would grab a rifle and get in the trench and fight and die." That's just the type of guy he is.

Gun Stats You Can Use: Paul Craig Roberts doles out some gun statistics in his latest column that are going to blow away the anti-gun left...

Just how dangerous are guns to kids?

"Did you know that water is 19 times more dangerous to a child than a firearm? In 1996, 805 children died from accidental drownings and 42 died from firearm accidents. (Gun control zealots inflate "child" firearm deaths by including teenage drug gang members killed in turf battles.)

Bathtubs are twice as dangerous to children as guns. Fire is 18 times more dangerous to children than guns. Cars are 57 times more dangerous. Household cleaners and poisons are twice as dangerous."

How useful are guns to law abiding citizens?

"Did you know defensive gun use prevents far more crimes than the police? National polls of defensive gun use by private citizens indicate that as many as 3.6 million crimes annually are prevented by armed individuals. In 98 percent of the cases, the armed citizen merely has to brandish his weapon. As many as 400,000 people each year believe they saved a life by being armed."

So does a high percentage of gun ownership increase or decrease the amount of crime in an area?

"Between 1973 and 1994, the number of guns in private ownership in the U.S. rose by 87 million. During this period, both the homicide rate and the percent of homicides committed with firearms dropped.

Another test of the relationship between guns and violence is provided by the concealed-carry laws now in force in 33 states. Gun control zealots predicted that traffic accidents and other altercations combined with an armed public would result in a bloodbath. Professor Malcolm confronts this false prediction with empirical evidence: "In all the decades of experience with concealed-carry laws in an increasing number of states, there is only one recorded incident of the use of a permitted handgun in a shooting following a traffic accident, and that was determined to be a case of self-defense."

The 17 states and the District of Columbia without concealed-carry permits enjoy an 81 percent higher rate of violent crime."

Jesse Jackson Cancels Hamas Talks After Bombing: Why did Jesse cancel his meeting with these terrorists? Sure they killed some people, including five Americans, but that's what they do isn't it? Didn't Jesse understand that before he went over there to try to get his face on TV? It's like canceling a meeting with Britney Spears because she did a concert last night. But here's Jesse's lame reasoning...

"We canceled that meeting to show respect for the victims and their families," Jackson told Reuters in a telephone interview after turning around at the Israel-Gaza border.

"We feel no useful purpose would be served to meet under the current conditions," he said.

What useful purpose could ever be served by meeting with Hamas? The only question worth asking them is, "What is your current location?" Maybe you could follow that up with, "Are there any civilians who would be killed if we shot a missile into the building you're in" but that's probably a little too obvious.

There Goes The Momentum: Yesterday I finished up a fairly negative post about Bush by saying that "(t)he only thing that gives me any comfort at all is that Bush SEEMS to still be serious about the war." If this story would have broken before I finished that post I wouldn't have written that line....

"Bush administration officials have told key lawmakers not to expect a U.S. attack on Iraq before the fall elections, allowing time for Congress to debate the possibility of war.

Senior administration officials gave the assurances in private conversations with senators planning a series of hearings that begin today into a possible U.S. attack on Iraq. The officials said there would be no ''October surprise'' -- a sudden attack before the Nov. 5 congressional elections to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein."

So we are going to screw around for more than a YEAR between Afghanistan and Iraq? This is exactly the sort of thing Clinton would do. He'd talk tough and then he'd move the date back. Then when next year rolled around it would be, "I worked harder on this Iraqi invasion than anything I've ever worked on in my life but it's just not feasible. So we're going to keep on working with the UN to get those inspectors in there because that's my top priority." Is Bush going to do the same thing? It's entirely possible that he is.

After the November elections the Democrats natural urge to capitulate rather than use force is going to come to the forefront and any momentum we have from our victory in Afghanistan will be long gone. Combine that with the short memory of the general public and the opposition of our nearly useless "allies" in Europe (other than Britain) and the Middle East to an attack and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Bush made some sort of face saving maneuver and gave up on really accomplishing anything.

I can only hope this is some sort of brilliant ruse or that there are factors beyond our control that the public is unaware of that are keeping us from hitting Iraq right now. Thousands of Americans have already died and millions more may die in the future if we don't have the will to see this thing through. Despite all of Bush's tough talk, I'm not sure that he's willing to do what it takes to win this war.

The Top 10 Things We'd Put On al-Queda's Website If We Hacked It: RWN teamed up with File 13's Amish Tech Support to come up with a few things that we would like to put on al-Queda's homepage if we managed to hack into it.

An Interview With Jon David, The Man Who Hacked al-Queda's Homepage: I scored a coup by getting an interview with Jon David, who hacked al-Queda's homepage. I wish I could have had a little more time to talk with him but considering that he's been getting interviewed by the likes of CNN, ABC, and the Washington Post today I was lucky to get him at all.

Bush Is No Reagan Republican: I can't even being to tell you what a complete and utter disappointment Bush has been to me. In many respects, he's actually governed to the LEFT of Clinton. Now don't get me wrong, I give him credit for his tax cut, his many attempts to drill ANWR, the fantastic job we did in Afghanistan, pushing the NMD, his current Israeli policy, and for his strong rejection of lots of terrible treaties among other things. But there are so many other things that he's drifted way to the left on.

He broke a campaign pledge and signed Campaign Finance Reform. He allowed a Democrat-sponsored government power grab for airport security. He signed a bloated 190 billion farm bill and he's going to sign a frighteningly expensive bill that provides prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries. Sure it's the Democrats that are pushing these bills, but Bush is signing them without complaint. Furthermore, the steel tariffs he signed up for are a terrible deal for most Americans and they invited billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs. Bush created military tribunals and then he refused to put Zacarias Moussaoui or anyone else in front of them. Then there's the gargantuan Homeland Security department, the fact that he signed the trial lawyer friendly Sarbanes Corporate Reform bill, his Ted Kennedy backed education bill, and his administration's welcoming stance towards illegal aliens.

Bush's reminds me of the pre-1980 Republican strategy of doing the absolute minimum required to hold on to your Conservative base while endlessly pandering to the left on the majority of issues. Whatever happened to the idea of wanting to be President so you could implement an agenda that you think is good for the country? The last President who seemed to have some sort of real goals beyond being elected to a second term was Reagan. Since then, we've had nothing but pure politicians and certainly put GWB in that category. All we have is a combination of Bush 41's ideological leanings, Jimmy Carter's "niceness", and Bill Clinton's mercenary political habits. That's a Frankenstein monster that I can't say does a lot for me. The only thing that gives me any comfort at all is that Bush SEEMS to still be serious about the war. By now I think McCain or Gore would have completely lost interest...

Signs Alan Greenspan Thinks The Economy Is Screwed: Just a few of the signs that prove Alan Greenspan thinks the economy is screwed...

"Urges Americans to run down to the bank and get everything out of there.

Sinks entire personal fortune into "far safer" Afghani Stock Exchange."

Read the rest of this one at the Daily Wonk List...

The Top 10 Reasons Sesame Street Never Caught On With The Palestinians: American culture is spreading across the globe like a virus but it doesn't catch on everywhere. Take Sesame Street for example, it just doesn't translate that well to the suicide bomber culture of the Palestinians in Israel's "Occupied Territories." That's why BKW and File 13's Amish Tech Support tried to figure out why the show really hasn't on caught on in Yasser Arafat's little fiefdom. Here's what we came up with...

Chalk Another One Up For The Good Guys: You ever heard of Alneda (the Call), the official al Qaeda website? Well check it out, you'll like what you see =)

The Left Sucks Up To Europe: Here's the close of Richard Cohen's latest whinefest about Bush's "unilateralist" foreign policy...

"Bush's problem, and our own, is that he keeps trying to apply a dated ideology -- the wisdom of Henry Cabot Lodge -- to a world where it still does not fit. The Massachusetts senator was a unilateralist. We tried that route once, and it didn't work. There's no reason to believe it will work now."

Let me take off the gloves and be totally honest here. We have no choice other than to be unilateralists because the majority of the world does not share our interests. Even if the UN wasn't a toothless organization, they're more interested in shackling us than helping us with our problems. The dictators and Islamo-fascists in the Middle East don't want an end to terrorism. They consider it to be a useful tool against Israel that allows them to score points with their people by killing Israelis while giving them just enough deniability to avoid an Israeli attack. Europe views regimes like Iran and Iraq great places to sell their goods and buy their oil. Furthermore, most of Europe resents and fears America's power so they actually don't mind seeing us hit with terrorist attacks. We'd view al-Queda sneaking a nuclear bomb into one our cities as the worst catastrophe ever to hit the planet but many European leaders would view it as a chance to catch up. In truth, most of Europe cares as little for American deaths via terrorism as they do for Israeli deaths. It's basically, "as a long as it's not us, who cares?"

So how important is it to have the world's approval? Is it worth it to let Saddam and Khomeini acquire nukes just so France will be happy with us? Should we let we Israelis be driven into the sea to make Germany happy? Is allowing al-Queda to set up another terrorist state in Lebanon or Somalia a good idea if it'll make Spain think we're "OK guys?" If LA and DC are vaporized in nuclear blasts but Belgium thinks we're nice people will that soothe the pain? If hundreds of thousands of Americans die in biological attacks but Jordan thinks we're not so bad after all is it worth it? Is Kofi Annan praising us in his next speech worth not doing enough to stop terrorists from poisoning a small town's water supply?

These are the real questions that have to be answered to decide whether we should act unilaterally or not. Basically it comes down to whether we should let large numbers of Americans die to please the world. People like Richard Reeves will tell you it's worth it, I say it's not. Make your own decision...

You've Got To Be Kidding Me: Is this supposed to be some sort of self-parody?

"French President Jacques Chirac on Monday lashed out at what he termed an "anti-French campaign" aimed at portraying his country as anti-Semitic, which he said is being waged by American Jewish groups under orders from Jerusalem."

Yes, it's all a plot by the all powerful "Jewish groups under orders" from Israel. I'm surprised he didn't mention the ZOG, Jewish lobby, or Mossad spies. As if that wasn't enough, Chirac went on the sing the praises of Hezbollah...

"During their meeting, Chirac rejected Israel's request that France add Hezbollah to the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, arguing that the group has a socio-political wing that fulfills important social functions in Lebanon. Furthermore, he said, a denunciation of the organization might actually harm Israel, as it would strengthen Hezbollah at the expense of the government in Beirut."

Using that brilliant logic I guess Chirac wouldn't consider al-Queda to be a terrorist group if they opened up a few soup kitchens across the Middle East. Want to know why the US has to act unilaterally so often folks? It's because our "allies" (and I use that word loosely) are for the most part led by clowns like Chirac. If we constantly found ourselves in agreement with people with this sort of mentality it would mean that something was terribly wrong.

I Hate Illinois Nazis -- The Blues Brothers: The email Jack_Boot promised mysteriously never arrived but I did receive the following missive from some poor soul who claims I introduced him to the Stormfront forums. Either this is Jack_Boot or 'suckpoop' is a much more popular word on the Nazi scene than most of us would have guessed... ;)

"Someone told me about rightwingnews.com and I went to it looking for real right wing news, and I looked over your stuff, and clicked the links to stormfront.com Thanks much! You are a suckpoop cartoon reactionary, probably a rabbi playing at being a white man, but you did give me a link to my Kameraden at Stormfront. Now I am considering whether to join the National Alliance or the World Church of the Creator. By the way, Hitler was the best friend the White man ever had."

I Ask You To Judge Me By The Enemies I Have Made -- FDR: One of the Nazi sympathizers at Stormfront finally ran across our A.C.P.O.T.I. section....

Jack_Boot: "Well, my friends, we've made the cut for another neocon Net-fly's hate list, this time it's somebody we've never heard of called John Hawkins, running a site he calls rightwingnews. I only skimmed it, but he singles out a few of us at SF for special treatment, calling us "idiots" and "morons", while elsewhere gushing over neocon leading light Jonah Goldberg, the jew editor at National Review currently leading that once-honorable magazine down the path to the New World Order and multi-cultural glory.

I'll send John a personal invitation to join our forum. I'm SURE he'll be happy to have us join his."

What can I say? Between these guys, the Islamo-fascists at the Youth Of Islam forums, the angry black guys with chips on their shoulders at Uppity Negro, & the hippie peaceniks at Warblogger Watch I'm annoying all the right people....

Operation TIPS Hysteria: When the 'Operation TIPS' story came into the public eye, people across the political spectrum went nuts. Now the far-left starts shouting "police state" every time John Ashcroft sneezes. However, a lot of other people went along with the far-left loonies this time. All we heard for days was "Operation Rats", "It'll be worse than the KGB", "it's turning citizens into spies", etc, etc. However, there were a couple of voices of reason out there....RWN and the Washington Post. Here's what I said about 'Operation TIPS'...

"My guess (and all you can really do at this point is guess) is that the Justice Department is simply going to have one centralized number for people to call into if they see something highly suspicious. So if you work at UPS and you someone sends a drum of anthrax through or if you are with a trucking company and you see a bunch of guys taking rocket launchers out of their truck and walking towards a nuclear power plant, you have one place to call where they can handle the situation and catalog the info. Yes, I would be concerned if this program was encouraging people to report things they see inside of people's homes or to make calls every time someone in the program sees someone walking around with a Koran. But so far, there is no indication that is what the program is going to do. Furthermore, when you consider how much press this program has already received, I sincerely doubt that the Bush administration would risk large amounts of negative attention for doing anything too much beyond what I've already described. I'm sure most the fringe left has already thrown on their "I went to a police state and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" outfits to go with their tin hats but I'm reserving judgement until we know a little more what this program will actually do."

It looks like the Washington Post and RWN were right and almost everyone else was wrong. From Friday's Washington Post...

"Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told senators yesterday that he had scrapped plans to include a centralized database as part of a controversial program enlisting millions of Americans as anti-terrorist tipsters.

...But Ashcroft said the program is not envisioned to include information garnered from private homes by, for example, a telephone service person. Information reported to TIPS would be passed on to relevant law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, he said."

So there's no database and no snooping inside of people's houses. So what we basically have here is a glorified version of Neighborhood Watch. Now shouldn't all those people across the web who got hysterical about 'Operations Tips' set the record straight by admitting that they got it wrong?

Blogathon: The Softcore Porn Movie: There was a Blogathon this weekend where bloggers posted every 30 minutes for 24 hours in order to raise money for charity. Dawn Olsen from Up Yours - And More Helpful Tips decided to participate.

Well the Blogathon started out normally enough for Dawn but it soon began to resemble a geekboy's version of one of those eighties party movies where these girls have to raise money to save their business by stripping down somehow or another. In Dawn's case, she got together with a bunch of her friends and by the end of the night they were in various states of undress (although no one ever got naked).

Now I know you're probably wondering what this has to do with Conservatism? Nothing really, but Dawn gives me links every so often and she's easy on the eyes =D. Check out her page and enjoy...

The RWN Guide To Osama Bin Laden: Short but sweet =)