I'm going to be heading out on vacation this week-end which means that the next update of RWN will be on Tuesday. As per usual when I go out of town, I'll put up a few websites I like in the daily news section late Friday night. If I'm not going to be here, maybe I can at least farm out a little traffic to some deserving blogs.

-- I wanted to give a big thank you to all of RWN's advertisers! They help make what RWN does possible. So first off, thanks to our returning advertisers...

Delta Star
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Remember, the money these blogs are paying is covering all the costs associated with RWN. So why don't you show them that they're smart to advertise with RWN by taking a look at their blogs? I'd certainly appreciate it if you could...

-- Just a quick tip for all the bloggers out there. If you haven't already done so, submit your blog to Daypop, Blogdex, & Popdex. It may help you get more traffic, it'll get more conservative stories out there, & it'll push more RWN posts to the top of the charts. Furthermore, it's free, quick, & easy to sign up. So make sure you're listed.

-- I'm looking for some new ideas for blogger polls. I do have some in mind, but I can always use more. Feel free to suggest them in the comments section

-- If you're in a giving mood, you'll notice my Wish List & Paypal account. Feel free to hit either of them to donate cash or buy me stuff.

There are always people on the left who can't wait to tell you sweet, sweet, lies about how wonderful socialized medicine is. But there is no free lunch folks. Not only will the money still have to be paid somehow, you'll be forced to endure the same sort of customer service you now get at the DMV, at your local hospital. Just look at this story from Britain where they already have socialized medicine...

"A GRAN made fake blood with crumbled biscuits and cranberry juice to trick her way into hospital for an operation.

She was desperate after three cancelled admissions — and came up with her fake blood plot."

If you thought waiting in the emergency room was bad, imagine having to wait through SEVEN MONTHS of agony to get surgery. "Oh, but that would never happen here". Yeah I'm sure they'd be just as efficient as the INS and as compassionate as the IRS. But back to reality...not only would we have a longer wait to get surgeries under socialized medicine, the quality of care would drop, and healthcare costs on the whole would go up. The government is not, never has been, and never will be as efficient and customer friendly as private industry. So putting the government in charge of our health care could only make things worse.

Thanks to Right Thinking From The Left Coast for finding this story.

Uh-oh, looks like one of those crafy Germans has got the goods of the 9/11 conspiracy!

"A former cabinet minister is drawing huge crowds and stoking the fires of anti-Americanism in Germany with a book arguing that the US government mounted the Sept 11 attacks as part of a plot to win global domination."

But why, why did we do it?

"Von Bülow, 66, believes that Sept 11 was staged to justify the subsequent wars on Afghanistan and Iraq."

Oh yeah, we got into a war with the tribesmen in Afghanistan that some people thought could last for years so we could take their rocks. That makes perfect sense. Then we took out Saddam which gave us instant access to all of Iraq's oil for free...oh wait it didn't. You mean we still buy oil from them now just like we did before? You mean we're going to spend 87 billion dollars there this year? It sounds like a real financial windfall for us doesn't it? What would Von Bülow say to that? Perhaps...

"If what I say is right, the whole US government should end up behind bars," he says."

And if you're wrong a bunch of loopy Germans will buy your book anyway. Luckily for Von Bülow, Germany has more than a few fellow moonbats who love these sorts of tomes...

"(V)on Bülow's ideas are very popular and polls show a fifth of Germans believe Washington ordered the attacks.

The CIA and September 11, written mainly from internet research, is a besteller, with sales of more than 100,000."

Internet research huh? There's nothing more dependable than what people write about conspiracy theories on the net now is there? But like I always say about the Germans, better that they spend their time obsessing over this sort of silliness than launching another blitzkrieg across Europe.

Ah, I love it when people on the left let the faux compassionate mask slip and show people what they're really like. Take someone named Teem for example who sent me this email....

-----

From: Teem
To: johnhawkins
Subject: Swine

"You dirty right wing piece of sh*t - you deserve an early death. We, the people of the world, deserve your early death.

Go to hell."

-----

Then there's the hate mail I got from Zachary Holladay. He was apparently shaking in terror as he talked about his embarassment at being an American....

From: zachary holladay
To: johnhawkins
Subject: (none)

"I am embarassed to be an American because of morons like you. Your article on apartheid in Africa terrifies me. I am scared because people like you feel that you have no obligation to assist in other countries. Well, guess what? We do. Africa is still suffering from the Age of Imperialism, which is greatly America's fault. I have to say that I am not proud to be an American thanks to you."

Hey Zach, if that article terrified you, make sure not to read this one by Kim Du Toit who lived in Africa for over thirty years because it'll make you weep with terror the way Bill Clinton probably does every time Hillary finds out about his latest girlfriend...

-----

Last but not least, there's this email from Sean Dinsmore who shows that friends shouldn't let friends write hate mail while drunk...

From: Sean Dinsmore
To: johnhawkins
Subject: shut the f*ck up

"i am not smart, but i know bush is pretty much a dictator of our country, and i know i dont want to send my stupid friends to die in iraq. my parents are rich so i got no worry of going to fight, similar to how bush got into office[@sshole]. unfortunately for bush, i am smart, as well as drunk right now, but even if i am drunk i can read his lies and stories he propagates in order to boost order for violence. My message is f*ck the left, f*ck the righ, f*ck war, it solves nothing, except who gets the cheapest oil contact..... mutha f*cka, if i ever see you, expect a nutshoot, @sshole"

-----

I was reading an article about global on Reuters and a particular phrase they used to describe the Kyoto Protocol really jumped out at me. I even emphasized it so it would be easier to spot...

"I don't think a negative decision on Kyoto would be in Russia's interest overall," Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told Reuters.

...Pachauri called on Russia to join 119 other nations that have ratified Kyoto as a first step to reining in climate change, ranging from rising sea levels to more powerful storms."

Then later in the article we see...

"Kyoto, a tiny first step towards reining in climate change, will only enter into force if nations accounting for 55 percent of the developed world's emissions sign up. So far, ratification has reached 44 percent."

For years we've had environmentalist whackos telling us that the Kyoto Protocol was the only thing that could save the planet from frying like an egg on the sidewalk of Baghdad in the middle of summer because of global warming.

But when conservatives pointed out that if even if the assumptions behind Kyoto were correct -- which is a huge "if" by the way -- it wouldn't work because nature, not man, is the major source of greenhouse gasses, we were ridiculed, mocked, poo-poo'd, and told we should just listen to the scientists (as if they all think Kyoto is worthwhile).

But now that only Russia's signature is needed to bring Kyoto into effect, the solution to the problem has turned into "a tiny first step". In fact, I'd bet that it would be such "a tiny first step" that no one would even notice that it was having any effect at all. It's funny how that worked out isn't it?

In a move that critics are calling "another act of cowboy unilateralism" the Bush administration has persuaded the United Nations Security Council to approve a resolution calling for international cooperation to rebuild Iraq.

Democrats in Congress immediately slammed the President for "this new go-it-alone gambit" which resulted in a 15-0 vote of the Security Council.

"Bush still hasn't learned that multilateralism is the only way to world peace," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, who plans to vote against the President's request for $87 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds. "Until the administration genuinely changes course, I cannot in good conscience vote to fund a failed policy that endangers our troops in the field and our strategic objectives in the world."

Mr. Kennedy added, "This 15-0 vote is another act of cowboy unilateralism just like the 15-0 vote on Resolution 1441 last year. Next thing you know, Mr. Bush will be wanting U.N. to take action to back up the resolution."

If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott, you can read more of his work at Scrappleface.

***Update #1***: The first comment in this thread from spidly was so good I thought it deserved to be posted on the main page...

"With a 15-0 vote it is now official that the "reconstruction" is a unilateral occupation against international law and with no international support."

Lol, that's just too funny...

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is considered a "moderate" in the Muslim world by the way, uncorked a rant about Jews that was as flaky as anything you'll find on any moonbat Nazi website on the internet. Here are some of the lowlights...

''The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy,'' Mahathir, a widely respected statesman in Asia and the developing world, said in a speech as he became chairman of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference. ''They get others to fight and die for them,'' he said.

...Mahathir said Muslims had achieved ''nothing'' in more than 50 years of fighting Israel.

''They survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back but by thinking,'' Mahathir said. ''They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others.''

Mahathir said the world's 1.3 billion Muslims ''cannot be defeated by a few million Jews,'' but suggested the use of political and economic tactics instead of violence to achieve a ''final victory.''

Make no mistake about it folks, he may be eschewing violence for now, but the type of "final victory" over the Jews that Mohamad wants isn't much different than the one Hitler wanted. Furthermore, Mahathir is no radical and his views are not on the fringes in the Islamic World. To the contrary, Naziesque levels of anti-semitism are commonplace -- although of course not universally accepted -- amongst Muslims the world over. Just look at the reaction from the other Muslim leaders who were there and you'll see what I mean...

"Initial reaction to his speech was positive. "I think it was a very shrewd, very deep assessment of the situation," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. "I hope the Islamic countries will be able to follow this roadmap. This one is a good roadmap by the way."

Arab League chief Amr Mussa also voiced support for Mahathir's comments, adding that the Islamic states have already said they wanted peace."

There is no "talking it out", no "being reasonable", no "acting like adults" with people who have this sort of mentality. You're either strong enough to defeat them or they're going to kill you -- it's that simple. If the Israelis ever forget that or for that matter if we do, there will be a butcher's bill to pay.

Here are a few things I wanted to touch on that didn't quite merit their own posts...

-- This Austin Bay quote is spot-on....

"Intel is never perfect and rarely certain. Those who argue it should be before acting are exemplars of Churchill's "unwisdom." Pathetic Neville Chamberlain waited for absolute proof of Hitler's perfidy. He got it -- Nazi blitzkrieg."

The problem we have with today's Chamberlains -- and there are a lot of them on the left -- is that they figure that even if something does happen they can just spin it away. You can be certain that many of the same Democrats who are criticizing George Bush today would be the first ones to blame him if we hadn't gone into Iraq and Saddam later somehow harmed our country. When it comes to defending our country, many politicians on the left take positions based on the politics of the moment, not based on principles. That's a big part of the reason why the left is so incapable of dealing with tough foreign policy issues.

-- Peter Kirsanow demolishes some of the cherished myths of the left about the 2000 Presidential race in his latest editorial. For example...

There's absolutely no evidence that a single person was intimidated, harassed, or prevented from voting by Florida law-enforcement officials.

...And in 24 of the 25 counties that had the highest ballot-spoilage rates, the county supervisor was a Democrat. (In the remaining county the supervisor was not a Republican, but an independent.)"

So where are all the black voters who were supposedly disenfranchised? Why don't we hear more about all the felons who voted since we all know criminals tend to vote for Democrats? Then there's the fact that all the vote counts before & after the election by the media all showed that Bush won. Anyone who's not a rabid partisan should be willing to admit at this point that Bush won the election in 2000 fair and square...

-- I have no idea where Michael Ledeen gets his information, but if this is true, we need to take action immediately...

"As reported here some weeks ago, the Iranians believe they now have all the necessary components for a nuclear bomb. The only question is how long it will take them to assemble and test it. Khamenei had hoped to be able to test an atomic bomb by the third week in October, but his scientific advisers recently told him they could not make that deadline. They are now aiming for November 4 or 5, the anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran during the revolution."

I don't care what it takes, under no circumstances should Bush risk letting the Iranians build a nuke. If that means we need to fly in there and bomb their nuclear sites like the Israelis did to Saddam, let's do it. If the only way to stop the Iranians is full out war, then start pulling the troops out of Europe and South Korea now and let's go to war. The Islamo-Fascists who run Iran are pro-terrorist, anti-American thugs and we should use ANY MEANS NECESSARY to prevent them from producing a working nuclear weapon.

Here's a note to Michael Newdow, The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and all the other humor-impaired individuals whose time is spent obsessing on such Earth-shaking issues as the total elimination of religious references from the public venue.

God just called...and he says you should get a life.

Newdow, as you might recall, is the Sacramento atheist who instigated the 2000 court case that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because the words "under God" amounted to a government endorsement of Christianity. The 9th Circuit, known for dedication to all things politically correct, agreed with him. Because of that decision, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. I suspect they know it's a total waste of time, but want to euthanize the question once and for all. (Cont)

Americans were murdered by Palestinian terrorists again today. It looks like a remote controlled bomb "killed three American security personnel and injured one".

But what were Americans doing in the Gaza strip? It was a diplomatic mission and the "convoy had been on their way to interview people for a scholarship in the United States when they were attacked. Then when the "US embassy personnel" came to the scene later the Palestinians through stones at them. Furthermore, the BBC reports there was "jubilation among Palestinians in a nearby refugee camp" over the death of Americans.

Why do we keep pumping money into this death cult? What's the point of trying to help the Palestinians build a state that would be every bit as much of a problem as the two nations we've invaded since 9/11? These people are part of a savage and vicious death obsessed culture, they're modern day Aztecs, and they absolutely hate us. So isn't it about time to stop bending over backwards to help them?

We should cut off every dime of American money flowing into the Palestinian territories for any purpose, give the Israelis carte blanche to deal with Palestinians as they see fit, and tell the Palestinians not to bother calling us again for any reason until Arafat and the rest of the terrorists are gone. You don't work on a "roadmap to peace" with human garbage like Arafat and the rest of the terrorists, you build it over their corpses. Until we and the Israelis accept that we're not going to make any real progress toward peace.

I was reading an editorial by left-wing columnist Harley Sorenson about a liberal cop he was talking to and these two paragraphs really jumped out at me...

"(The officer) is vehemently opposed to the kind of training cops get these days, training that in essence teaches cops to shoot first and ask questions later. He is appalled by the number of mentally ill people killed by the police, unarmed people killed by the police, innocent bystanders killed as a result of reckless police chases.

In our discussion last week, I told him that I cannot imagine myself shooting a 97-pound woman armed only with a knife, as cops have been known to do. "No, you wouldn't shoot her," Neil replied, "nor would anyone who has not gone through police training."

Now without question, there are some cops out there who are too quick to pull a trigger. Furthermore, it goes without saying that there are cops out there who are corrupt, do a poor job, and are generally rotten apples who don't deserve to be defended.

That being said, what Sorenson and his liberal cop friend are saying there is pure nonsense. Whether a woman weighs 97 pounds or not, if she's wielding a knife she can still kill you dead as a stone. As far as I'm concerned, her weight, sex, mood at the time, etc, mean absolutely nothing compared to the fact that she has a knife.

The same goes for people with mental disorders. Just because they're crazy doesn't mean that you won't be hurt if they hit you with an axe or shoot you with a shotgun. It's tragic when the police have to kill someone who's out of their mind, but if the choice is between shooting a lunatic and letting them endanger the lives of an officer or an innocent victim, I say pull the trigger and let the chips fall where they may.

Then there are the unarmed people who get shot by the police. This is something that you almost have to examine on a case by case basis, but from what I've seen, most (but not all) of the unarmed people who get shot by the police bring it on themselves. Maybe that sounds harsh, but if the police try to pull you over and you lead them on a high speed chase, run, attack the officer, etc, etc, & then make a sudden movement that might be perceived in the dark as going for a gun, you're making a potentially fatal mistake. That doesn't necessarily mean the police should shoot you, but the further you get from, "I sat in the car and waited for the police with both hands on the steering wheel" the more likely I am to give the police the benefit of the doubt if they blow you away.

What all this adds up to is that the police do incredibly difficult, dangerous, and dirty work for a low salary and they shouldn't be asked to unnecessarily put their lives in danger just because it's politically incorrect to shoot a woman or someone with a mental disorder. Just because they're cops doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to come home alive to their families every night like the rest of us.

Former Vice President Al Gore's planned new all-news channel is "all-news channel," according to Mr. Gore.

"We're aiming for a younger, hipper, not liberal audience," he said. "Our viewers will come from all parts of the political spectrum -- from those who favor a government-run universal health plan, to those who think that Kofi Annan ought to be in charge of the U.S. military. We'll even appeal to people who think that the rich don't pay enough taxes."

The network, a cross between CNN and MTV, will start operations as soon as Mr. Gore can muster enough advertising support.

"One of my advisors said liberal TV is dead on arrival with advertisers," Mr. Gore added. "That's why we're not doing the liberal thing. We'll cover stories that appeal to a broad audience -- from people who support a woman's right to choose abortion, to those who think the government should fund abortions on demand. Our newscasters will be a cross-section of ordinary Americans -- peace protestors, homosexual activists, animal rights defenders and really smart Ivy League grads who could be President of the United States if all the votes had been counted just one more time."

If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott you can see more of his work at Scrappleface.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has churned out a typical pro-illegal immigrant fluff piece that I thought was worth commenting on. It's titled, "Immigrants' safety net unravels -- Elimination of state indigent fund puts many in jeopardy" and as per usual with these sort of articles, they've found a sob story to try to tug on your heartstrings so hard that you'll abandon all rational thought...

"Aurelia Baltazar Loza slipped over the Mexican border into the United States with three of her children not long after her husband of 25 years was killed in a traffic accident.

The federal Medicaid program covers only the "emergency medical conditions" of illegal immigrants. Because it is saving Pedro's life, dialysis qualifies. A transplant does not, even though it could save Washington's health care system $35,000 a year for decades to come."

The article talks about saving, "Washington's health care system $35,000 a year for decades to come" by giving Pedro a transplant. I have a better idea; why don't we ship Pedro and his mother home and let Mexico worry about how to pay his medical bills? While I would be steadfastly opposed to denying anyone emergency care, I don't think the taxpayers of the United States should be expected to pay for the long-term care of people who are not US citizens. Simply put, it's Mexico's responsibility to care for their citizens, not ours.

Americans should not be asked to provide long-term medical care, an education, and a safety net for someone just because their parent managed to evade the border patrol and sneak into our country. We spend untold billions of dollars every year treating illegal aliens like Pedro who should never have been here in the first place. If that were to stop, not only in Seattle, but in hospitals all across America, we wouldn't have so many illegal aliens flooding into our country to begin with.

As I was reading a brilliant fisking of Andy Rooney, a particular quote that Rooney uttered caught my eye. I included the whole paragraph so you wouldn't suspect that I was taking out of context. The emphasis is mine...

'To begin with, we should change our attitude toward the United Nations. There has to be some power in the world superior to our own - for our own sake. Iraq isn't our problem. It's the world's problem.

You know, it might have slipped Andy's mind, but there used to be a power in the world superior to our own -- even here in America. That was Britain. As I'm sure all of RWN's readers are well aware, our forefathers weren't happy with how that superior power treated us and we had a little dustup called the American Revolution over it. If you think things would be any better under the UN, I believe you're mistaken.

You see, a lot of people, probably Andy Rooney included, believe that one day we're going to have one world government that rules all nations. When that days comes, they hope that government will insure peace, tranquility, and that we will all act more like the characters from Star Trek than real human beings. However, after reading the history of our species, I've come to the conclusion that if there's one world government, it'll be because one nation achieves overwhelming military superiority and pins every other nation beneath an iron boot.

While I would steadfastly oppose Lady Liberty sliding her foot into that iron boot, I like the idea of keeping our nation so strong, so burly, so unconquerable that no other nation or organization will EVER tell this country what to do again the way the British ordered around our ancestors. From the Founding Fathers on, Americans have shed their blood to keep our country free and under no circumstances imaginable should we ever give up our sovereignty to any other nation or organization, especially the UN. Our freedom is too precious for that...

Dennis Kucinich has now officially thrown his hat in the ring for President. Here are a few things he said yesterday that I thought were worth mentioning...

"I'm running for president of the United States to enable the armies of peace." -- Dennis Kucinich

"Freedom bids us to free ourselves from the shackles of violence. When peace becomes innermost, it then becomes outermost in our communities and our nation." -- Dennis Kucinich

"America cannot put its foot on the accelerator of war and advocate peace." -- Dennis Kucinich

Kucinich's philosophy sounds so familiar to me. Where have I heard it before? Oh yeah, from some of the more vapid Hollywood celebrities. Like Richard Gere who said,

"In a situation like this, of course you identify with everyone who's suffering. (But we must also think about) the terrorists who are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. It's all of our jobs to keep our minds as expansive as possible. If you can see (the terrorists) as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better."

or Shakira...

"I just feel that there are always pacifist solutions, and I think that the leaders know the exit to the conflict, it's just that sometimes they don't want to use them. They just want to continue playing their little game of power. And I feel that us people have the responsibility and also the obligation to demand to our leaders to give us the pacifist solutions. To give us a world in peace."

You know where these people are coming from folks? They're coming from "liberal fairy tale land" where you can talk out all your problems with people who want to kill you and as long as you're sincere, things will somehow work out in the end. Do you know why they always work out in the end? Because as Ann Coulter said,

"Negotiation and engagement are said to "work" because, after Democrats spend years dillydallying with lunatic despots who threaten America, eventually a Republican president comes in and threatens aggressive military action. In a fascinating fifty-year pattern -- completely indiscernible to liberals -- murderous despots succumb to "engagement" shortly after a Republican president threatens to bomb them. This allows liberals to hail years of impotent negotiation and engagement as a foreign policy 'win'."

Bingo! Getting a Democrat in the White House -- with the possible exception of Lieberman -- would be a dream for Al-Qaeda. That's not because Kucinich & the rest of the Dem contenders are sympathetic to them, it's because the left's passivity, extreme reluctance to displease our allies, and belief in a system of impotent international law makes them unable to meet any real threat to our country. The last Democrat in the White House who was serious about national defense was Kennedy & I don't see that changing any time soon.

Look out -- there are Nazi traitors in the White House -- or so say some of those crazy kids at the DU!

Here are a few comments of note from a thread called, "Am I just PARANOID or are there NAZI TRAITORS in the WH?" (I think we know the answer to that question by the way)...

beam_me_up: "...HELLO! The * is NOT the president of the United States. He is an installed SOCK PUPPET for an elite who are at their core Nazi Fascists. How could this have happened without the use of blackmail against both the Supreme Court of the United States AND the Congress AND whatever mainstream news sources they do not control from the inside?

HOW MANY MORE OF US ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DIE???..."

seventhson: "The actual Naziism is in the policies which the Bush family promoted, marketed, and sold to the U.S. as a bill of goods .

Just cause they threw out the logo does not mean they do not still use the idealogy of fascism to maintain their power grip since 1932."

Flying_Pig: "Interesting question. They could be just greedy, immoral...b@stards, which they are anyway. Greed and avarice are Bush favorites, and have been throughout their history. Still, looking at the fascist tactics they've adopted of late, it would be hard to argue that someone in the WH hasn't read Mein Kampf, and the rest of Hitler's works, and are using them as a masterplan for the U.S."

webster_green: "They are not Nazi traitors....They are very loyal to the Nazi ideology!"

leftofthedial: "well, I have no idea whether you are crazy or paranoid but you're right about that fascists occupy the White House and you are right that they hate the democratic, egalitarian principles on which our country was founded.

And the national media and financial institutions."

Jackpine Radical: "You're not paranoid, you're just wrong. And overly optimistic.

It's not the Nazis. It's the Illuminati who are running the show. The nazis were just unknowing puppets of the Illuminati."

Given that there are so many people on the left who think there are Nazis, Fascists, & Illuminati in the White House, is it any wonder that so many people on the left hate Bush? Oh, so you think these guys are fringe left-wing nuts? Well then how do you explain the most popular author on the left today, Michael Moore, saying the following in an exchange with Bob Novak on Crossfire last Friday...

NOVAK: Let me take another quote from your book. "The Patriot Act," you say, "is as un-American as 'Mein Kampf'." "Mein Kampf" is a vicious book by a mass killer. It forecasts the eradication of the Jewish population of Europe, war over Europe. Patriot Act -- that's obscene, to compare the Patriot Act with "Mein Kampf."

MOORE: No. The Patriot Act is the first step. "Mein Kampf" -- "Mein Kampf" was written long before Hitler came to power. And if the people of Germany had done something early on to stop these early signs, when the right-wing, when the extremists such as yourself, decide that this is the way to go, if people don't speak up against this, you end up with something like they had in Germany. I don't want to get to that point.

You want to tell me that Michael Moore wouldn't be right at home with the kooks who are posting in this DU thread? They're getting more and more delusional on the left these days...

Of course, there are plenty of people who don't have enough money to make ends meet in America. I've been there myself before and I'm sure plenty of you have been as well. But in truth, we really don't know how many poor people there are in America today because the statistics we use to measure poverty are a complete load of bupkis that dramatically inflates the number of people who are supposedly in poverty. Ralph de Toledano explains what I'm talking about in an excellent editorial I'd recommend that you read in tote...

"Nearly 40 percent of all "poor" households owned their own homes, and the average home of those classified as "poor" by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with a garage. More than 750,000 of the "poor" owned homes worth more than $100,000, and 71,000 owned $300,000 homes. Nearly 60 percent of "poor" homes have more than two rooms per person. That means that the "poor" have twice as much living space as the average Japanese. And the same percentage have air conditioning.

3. "The Census Bureau ignores household assets. In determining if a household is 'poor' the Census Bureau counts only the household's income in the current year. It ignores all assets accumulated in prior years. Thus a businessman who has suffered losses and as a result has a zero or negative income for the current year will be counted officially as 'poor' even if he owns a home and has several million dollars in the bank." So in a period of recession, when many people suffer a temporary drop in income or take investment losses, the number of "poor" increases substantially, even though it does not reflect national impoverishment."

I don't really follow baseball anymore, but I did take notice the huge brawl between Boston and the Yankees. In particular, I've heard a lot of people take shots at Pedro Martinez for tossing Don Zimmer to the ground during the brawl. Here's a comment New York's RINO mayor Michael Bloomberg that gives you a good idea of the sort of sentiment I'm hearing...

"If that happened in New York, we would have arrested the perpetrator. Nobody should throw a 70-year-old man to the ground -- period. You start doing that, pretty soon you're gonna start throwing 61-year-old men to the ground. I have a big vested interest in that."

Had Zimmer stayed in the dugout where he belonged instead of trying to get in a fight with one of the players, he would have been fine. But once Zimmer made a decision to get involved the fight, his age became irrelevant. I don't care how old you are, if you run up on someone in a brawl then you should EXPECT to pummeled. In fact, Martinez did him a big favor by just throwing him down instead of breaking his nose. Others might not have been as kind. So my sympathy for Mr. Zimmer is limited indeed...

I am not a huge Quentin Tarantino fan. I'm one of the few people who didn't like "Reservoir Dogs", I just thought "Pulp Fiction" was good, not great, and I didn't even bother to go see, "Jackie Brown". But, I do have to admit I wanted to see, "Kill Bill Volume 1" because there has been a huge positive buzz around this movie and because I'm a big a fan of martial arts flicks.

So did the movie live up to the hype? For the most part, yes. As is the case with most martial arts movies, the plot was fairly simple. Uma Thurman's character, the Bride, is left for dead along with the rest of her wedding party by Bill & the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad". After waking up from a coma, the Bride seeks revenge.

It does take you a little while to find all of this out because the sequencing of the movie is by design a bit odd and disjointed and I thought the pacing of the movie wasn't terrific either. The movie starts with a fight, has a big fight near the end, and has a little animated brawl in the middle, but I was starting to get a bit edgy at one point and wondering when we'd get some more action.

Part of the problem was that Tarantino has some pointless scenes in the movie that could have just as easily ended up on the cutting room floor without hurting the flow of the movie. We have scenes with a sheriff looking over the bride's wedding party, a long almost pointless sequence where Thurman gets a sword, and an aggravating scene that cuts back and forth between Thurman on a plane and Lucy Liu and her gang driving down the street that made me think back to the dance scene in "Matrix 2" -- Ok, Ok, it wasn't as bad as that, but it was still annoying.

All these minor irritations aside, the action was outstanding. The initial knife fight scene between Thurman and Vivicia A Fox was solid and the anime brawl between Liu's father and some mobsters wasn't bad either although it wasn't as fulfilling as a live fight. However, the climax of the movie, the big brawl at the end was as good as anything I've ever seen in a martial arts flick.

That is extraordinarily high praise, especially considering that almost all of the credit has to be given Tarantino since Uma Thurman sure isn't Jet Li -- heck, she isn't even half of Cynthia Rothrock. So to pull off a scene where Thurman fights off a room full of attackers a la Bruce Lee and actually makes it LOOK INCREDIBLE is a feat of film making to be admired. As a matter of fact, I think the way Tarantino shows martial arts sequences in this movie will be copied the same way the action scenes in "The Matrix" now are in the movie industry -- it was that good.

There's a lot more I could say, but if you've read this far, you have the gist of it. Overall, this is an entertainingly campy movie with fantastic action in it and given that I tend to underrate Tarantino films, I think many people may enjoy this movie even more than I did. Despite the little flaws I mentioned earlier and the fact that there is no ending to the movie (look out for part 2 coming next year), this movie still deserves a big thumbs up.

Here are five things other conservative websites do that just annoy the hell out of me. There aren't necessarily a lot of websites that do this stuff, but coming across things like this on websites that I like is like finding a fly in my soup. The things I'm going to mention here are not aimed at any particular website & of course are just my personal opinion. Here we go...

Anti-Muslim Sentiment: I'm not sure why some people feel compelled to lump every Muslim on the planet in with the psychopaths who want to kill us and their supporters, but it gets old, fast -- particularly when it's peppered with phrases like "camel jockey" & "towel head".

Clinton Hatred: Clinton was a dishonest third rate President who doesn't even have enough class & respect for the office to stop trying to undercut his replacement. But you know what? Clinton is not one of the worst figures of the 20th century, he's not one of the worst figures in American history, he's just another mediocre President who doesn't merit the Stalinesque level of loathing he gins up amongst many people on the right.

Conspiracy Theories: Whether they come from the right or the left, conspiracy theories bug me because they generally involve huge leaps of faith based on not much more than, "I wouldn't put anything past those guys". Treating conspiracy theorists like anything other than quacks who are almost always wrong diminishes your credibility because conspiracy theorists ARE quacks who are almost always wrong.

Dancing On The Graves Of Your Foes: There is something base and classless about celebrating the death of your political enemies. I mean can understand being happy that an enemy of your country has died, but getting all jazzed up because someone who disagreed with you over policy issues has kicked the bucket is unseemly and speaks poorly of your character in my opinion. At least let the family have time to get the body in the ground before you start going into a long spiel about how happy it makes you that they're dead.

Over-Use Of Nicknames For Your Political Enemies: It's OK to occasionally use a little play on words to mock your opponents, but it's so third grade to incessantly refer to someone or some group by a demeaning nickname. HA! HA! I called the Democrats, "Democraps," & Hillary, "Hitlery," fear my rapier like wit!!! Again, I can live with this in small doses or if you're making a particular point, but keep in mind that it sounds juvenile to do it over and over again.

Again let me repeat that this just my personal opinion and that it is not aimed at any particular website...

Mark Dubbin, the author of "Shadow Patriot" bought a main page ad on RWN to get the word out about his book. Here's the description of it from Amazon...

"The events of 9/11 affected many things in New York and the Mafia was no exception. Business suffered for Don Remondini after the attack, but he wasn't about to let it go. The cowards who cost him would receive a message from the Family if he had anything to say about it. They would think twice about their actions in the future. That much was certain.

Jim Pearce is Don Remondini's chief of security. As an Ex-Special Forces sniper, discharged from duty with diabetes, he is assigned to send al-Qaeda a powerful message from the Family. Operating outside the law, and using his CIA contacts, Shadow Patriot is a web of action and intrigue where the guilty will be made to pay, and payback can be a b*tch!"

I love the concept for this book and I have to admit that I'm thinking about buying it myself. It's not all that long and I'd like to read a bit of fiction. It would be a nice break from all the books on history & politics that I've been devouring lately.

In any case, if you're looking for some interesting, fictional, reading material, check out "Shadow Patriot."