Dukkke President Brodhead 'Apologizes' to Falsely Accused Lacrosse Players

As you may recall, in spite of significant evidence that the three falsely-charged students at Duke were innocent, Richard Brodhead, the president of Duke during this scandal, went ahead and suspended two of the three students, canceled the team's season, and fired the coach. He repeated the ludicrous false accusations of Mike Nifong and the Dukkke 88 who slandered the innocent men. And now, he says he's sorry:

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized Saturday for not better supporting the men's lacrosse players falsely accused in last year's highly publicized rape scandal. Brodhead, speaking at the university's law school, said he regretted Duke's "failure to reach out" in a "time of extraordinary peril" after a woman accused three players of raping her at a March 2006 party thrown by the team.
"Given the complexities of this case, getting the communication right would never have been easy," Brodhead said. "But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they were most in need of support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it and I apologize for it."

What Brodhead did was typical of university administrators. They will do anything to pay obeisance to the PC goddess. This apology is too little too late and he deserves to be fired.

U.S. missile defense test successful

Will wonders never cease? Our beloved federal government actually can do a few things right:

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - A ground-based missile successfully intercepted a target missile Friday in a test of the nation's defense system, the Missile Defense Agency said. An intercontinental ballistic missile interceptor blasted out of an underground silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base shortly after 1:15 p.m., and tracked a target missile that had lifted off from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, the Boeing Co. said in a statement.
The Missile Defense Agency said initial results show the interceptor's rocket motor system and kill vehicle performed as planned. Boeing said the warhead was tracked, intercepted and destroyed

How can this be? The wise sages of the left have been telling us smugly for years that "Star Wars" was an impossible pipe dream. (All the while ignoring the fact that the Soviets seemed very perturbed by the fact that we might develop a viable missile defense system).

And I recall the Clinton administration canceled all research on Star Wars. At the same time, North Korea and Iran were developing better and better offensive ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons to put on them.

The article goes on to mention that we now have operational interceptor missiles at Vandenburg AFB and at Fort Greely, Alaska. We can thank Bush for this, not Clinton. If Hillary is elected will she continue the development and deployment of missile defense? I doubt it.

New York Governor Spitzer Can't Take the Heat

Elliott Spitzer, who recently announced a policy change that would provide driver's licenses to illegal aliens, enticing more of them to come over the border, got his panties in a twist when he discovered that some other people didn't like his idea:

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Gov. Eliot Spitzer tore into New York City's mayor for lambasting the state's new driver's license policy for illegal aliens, calling it "legally wrong, morally wrong" for critics to say it will weaken national security and make it tougher for New Yorkers to fly.

The governor struck back at Bloomberg during a visit to an elementary school in Rochester. "He is wrong at every level _ dead wrong, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong," he said.

Elliott, didn't you take an oath to uphold the laws? If someone shows up at the state driver's license office who has entered the country illegally, why don't you call the Border Patrol and have that person arrested and deported?

The Perils of 'Diversity' Hiring

Here is a subject with which I am intimately acquainted. Jennifer Delton in the Chronicle of Higher Education, writes "Why Diversity for Diversity's Sake Won't Work"

The goal of diversifying college faculties may be a worthy one, but academic circles have largely ignored problems inherent in the practice of "diversity hiring." Such hiring practices are not only legally questionable, but they also go against everything a half-century of antiracist educational activism has taught us about the meaninglessness of visible racial characteristics. Despite diversity advocates' insistence that color matters, the meaninglessness of physical racial characteristics continues to be a key theme of antiracist education. Moreover, that presumption — the meaninglessness of racial characteristics — underlies current antidiscrimination laws as well as the rules of social etiquette. To infer anything about a person's interests, character, or sensibility on the basis of physical racial characteristics is legally suspect and socially déclassé. Yet that is what "diversity hiring" practices require us to do.

Try pursuing a career in academia, especially in a field like economics that is already overcrowded. If you are a white man, like me, the diversity/multicultural zealots will make it clear that you are not welcome.

Irish Terrorist/ Illegal Alien Seeks Sanctuary in the USA

Here is terrorist Malachy McAllister posing with our favorite feminazi. McAllister spent three years in prison for his role in attacking a policeman in Northern Ireland. He fled Ireland in 1988 after masked gunmen fired 26 shots into his Belfast home. (What goes around comes around, doesn't it Malachy?) He came to the USA in 1996 and has been living here illegally ever since. Don't believe the crap that he is living here peacefully. Last year he attended a 25th anniversary celebration that honored other IRA murderers.

He is currently campaigning to be allowed sanctuary in the USA. Is this who we want in our country? I don't.

Please write your U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask them NOT to give this scumbag asylum. Boot his murdering ass out of here.

Man jailed in Denver made boots for Bush

Rocky Horror! Sara Burnett of the Rocky Mountain News reports that a bootmaker who once made a pair of boots that were given as a gift to President Bush has been arrested!

One of the men arrested in Denver this month for trading in protected animal skins, conspiracy and money laundering was a bootmaker to world leaders, including President Bush and former Mexican President -Vicente Fox.

The left, and their lackeys in the lamestream media, are so desperate to find anything, ANYTHING, to smear Bush. I can just picture the next headline "Woman Arrested for Shoplifting Has Third Cousin Once-Removed Who Served in the Marine Corps Under Bush Administration"

Why Do the Left Favor Mass Immigration?

To their credit, some of them don't. They understand the problems that can result from excessive immigration, especially illegal immigration. But many do, such as Ted Kennedy. Hibernia Girl, a new blog from an Irish Lass, quotes Fredo Arias - King on why mass immigration is favored:

Here's Fredo Arias-King on why the Left favors mass immigration (Arias-King heard first-hand from many U.S. Congressmen and officials why they favor mass immigration while handling foreign relations during Mexico's Vicente Fox 1999-2000 presidential campaign):
The American Left, as the Left everywhere, also has a penchant for social experimentation, even social engineering. Many leftist intellectuals and scholars often devise schemes and solutions to society’s problems, with a certain contempt for traditional ways of life. Immigration is also favorably seen by them as a way of “redistributing the world’s income” or “increasing understanding with other societies” [15] or “addressing previous injustices” or “creating better people,” etc. Some of the arguments of this group of congressmen were not too different from the logic behind the homo sovieticus, the “new Soviet man” that the communists believed they were constructing in the 1920s and 30s. Some of these congressmen used adjectives such as “happier,” “healthier,” and “harder working” to describe what their vision of the new American will be. They felt comfortable in the role of potential providers to needy groups in exchange for acquiescence in the expansion of government programs and power. They would talk to us about their plans to “guarantee health care” or “fund more services” or “give more scholarships” to the immigrants. One former U.S. cabinet member present in one of the party conventions mentioned approvingly, “What do Hispanics want? Fully-funded government programs!”Citing the negative consequences of immigration to this group is likely to backfire, as the evidence that new waves of immigrants do not perform the same as previous waves is relative good news to them. Immigration is a source of power for the étatist Left not so much because immigrants tend to vote for the party most associated with them, but because the consequences of immigration from poor countries fundamentally reinforces their argument for state intervention.I think there's also an element of divide et impera [divide and conquer] to all of this -- both in Europe and the U.S. I mean, what better way to maintain one's power than to keep the masses busy battling each other for resources and rights?

Not surprising, given the left's penchant for social engineering. With the inevitable disastrous consequences.

A Difficult Choice to Make


Do we want our women to look like this:
















Or like this?

















What amazes me is that we even have to ask. Why do the islamofascists think we would even consider adopting their religion?

Arlington County Board Supports Illegal Aliens

In the city and county where I was born, the elected officials are openly supporting those who break our laws and violate the sovereignty of the USA:

The Arlington County Board yesterday strongly rebuked elected officials elsewhere in Northern Virginia who are clamping down on illegal immigrants, saying such efforts are "politically inspired," "irresponsible" and "punitive."
The five board members, all Democrats, unanimously backed a resolution calling on elected officials elsewhere to "promote the integration of immigrants" instead of enacting rules they said would be divisive.

And from them we get the ultimate in leftist arrogance. Forcing law-abiding taxpayers to pay for education, health-care, and job placement for people who have entered the USA illegally:

They also said the county will not cut public health services for immigrants, which officials said could cause disease to spread. They said they will not restrict education programs because children of illegal immigrants are likely to remain in the United States and it therefore makes better sense to help them be able to earn a good living.

The regionwide debate over illegal immigration came to Arlington early this month. At a Saturday board meeting, local Republican officials posed pointed questions to the board about the extent of crime being committed by illegal immigrants and whether officials were requiring the police to report such crime to federal immigration officials. They also questioned whether it is appropriate for Arlington's day-laborer center to serve workers who are in the country illegally.

Federal Reserve Open Market Committee Cuts Target Fed Funds Rate to 4.75%

As you have undoubtedly heard by now, the Open Market Committee cut their target Fed Funds rate from 5.25% to 4.75%. This is a wise move, given the recent troubles in the credit markets.

But I am concerned that the Fed governors have lost sight of their goal of transparency. They had effectively abandoned their former 5.25% target some weeks ago, as can be seen from the effective Fed Funds rates that banks have been charging each other for the last few weeks (source: Board of Governors website):

08/07/2007, 5.26

08/08/2007, 5.27

08/09/2007, 5.41

08/10/2007, 4.68

08/13/2007, 4.81

08/14/2007, 4.54

08/15/2007, 4.71

08/16/2007, 4.97

08/17/2007, 4.91

08/20/2007, 5.03

08/21/2007, 4.89

08/22/2007, 4.77

08/23/2007, 4.88

08/24/2007, 5.11

08/27/2007, 5.27

08/28/2007, 5.30

08/29/2007, 5.00

08/30/2007, 5.00

08/31/2007, 4.96

09/03/2007, ND

09/04/2007, 5.22

09/05/2007, 5.18

09/06/2007, 4.98

09/07/2007, 4.86

09/10/2007, 5.07

09/11/2007, 5.06

09/12/2007, 5.18

09/13/2007, 5.09

09/14/2007, 5.25

Banks have been borrowing and lending to each other at much lower rates than the target for most of the last five weeks. It wasn't until last friday, September 14 that they got back to the target.

Separated at Birth?

What do Osama bin Laden and Gerry Adams have in common? Ruth Edwards has some ideas:

apart from their beards and their involvement in terrorism, what Osama and Gerry have in common is that they're obsessed with self-justification, they're losers who have to rewrite the past to fit in with present fantasies, they struggle to be thought modish and neither has the gift of the gab.
Of the two, Bin Laden was more interesting. First, there's the matter of his beard, which has gone from grey to black, thus causing the international intelligence community to indulge in orgies of speculation. Is it dyed? Is it false? Is it Bin Laden at all, at all? Personally, I go with the proponents of the Grecian 2000 view. Look, the guy was 50 six months ago, he's hiding in a cave Allah knows where and apart from the London bom bings in 2005, his operatives are failing to deliver spectaculars in Europe. How could he not be having a bit of a mid-life crisis?
It's similar for Adams. Since his humiliation in the Irish General Election, the invitations to exciting places have dried up. It's Martin McGuinness that gets to go to the sexy spots like Finland: Adams is reduced to hanging around with his dwindling band of admirers in West Belfast.

But each of them have memories to dwell on:

Still, there's some pleasure to be had for him on Memory Lane. Like Bin Laden, who did some predictable gloating about the great achievements of the 19 young murderers of 9/11, Gerry had a nostalgic moment about some of his, though because of his present peace-loving persona, he had to do a lot of equivocating.
The IRA (with which, it was implied, he had nothing to do) were justified in their campaign -- even if he completely failed to explain what they had achieved -- but he couldn't agree with some of their more embarrassing actions. Asked why he had described the Balcolmbe Street bombers as "our Nelson Mandelas", he explained that it was because they spent 24 years in jail. He admired them "as freedom fighters", while having a bit of awkwardness about their having murdered 16 people in London and Guildford with guns and bombs.

A terrorist is a terrorist.

Consensus or Hoax?

How many times have you heard that there is some sort of 'Scientific Consensus' in favor of the nonsense that human CO2 emissions are causing global warming? Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute has done a survey of research of 500 scientists:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.
Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly; 4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings; 5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat; and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate.

And were the warm periods really so bad?

"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people," says Avery. "It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine and plagues of disease." "There may have been a consensus of guesses among climate model-builders," says Singer. "However, the models only reflect the warming, not its cause." He noted that about 70 percent of the earth's post-1850 warming came before 1940, and thus was probably not caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The net post-1940 warming totals only a tiny 0.2 degrees C.

What really tips me off is how the global warming zealots are really the same gullible group who so eagerly believed the lies of Mike Nifong.

Hillary Can't Explain?

According to Clinton campaign advisor Harold Wolfson, they have no explanation why warnings about fugitive felon Norman Hsu were ignored

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton's campaign couldn't explain yesterday why it blew off warnings about felon-turned-fund-raiser Norman Hsu - and the Daily News learned FBI agents are collecting e-mail evidence in the widening scandal.
Clinton was forced Monday to give back a whopping $850,000 raised by convicted scam artist Hsu after learning his investment ventures were being probed by the FBI as a potential Ponzi scheme.

They were warned by California businessman Jack Cassidy that Hsu was up to no good, and how did they respond?

Cassidy raised a red flag after a friend came to him with a tale of being offered 64% annual returns by Hsu.
"It was either predatory lending or a Ponzi scheme," the source said, adding that the FBI had interviewed Cassidy and took as evidence numerous e-mails he sent to political officials about Hsu.
Camp Clinton never responded to Cassidy, but dealt with the worried California party members. According to the Los Angeles Times, Clinton's Western finance director, Samantha Wolf, e-mailed, "I can tell you with 100% certainty that Norman Hsu is NOT involved in a Ponzi scheme," adding, "He is COMPLETELY legit."

They still can't explain why they ignored the warnings? I can. They wanted more money from Hsu. Hillary and her husband would sell the USA down the river for a campaign contribution.

EU Throws a Bone to the Brits

I can't believe this. No, actually I am shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you. The compassion and forgiveness of the divine angels who run the European Union knows no limits. They are actually going to allow the Brits and Irish to keep units like the pint and miles.

Brussels - In what was portrayed in Brussels as a victory for British Isles traditionalists, the European Union on Tuesday dropped its plans to force Britain and Ireland to go metric by 2009.
'The United Kingdom and Ireland will be allowed to keep units like the pint of beer and milk - and miles, yard and feet and inches on roads,' a European Commission (EC) statement said.
While the EC had wanted to standardize measurement systems across the bloc as a way of eliminating barriers to trade within the internal market, it had granted Britain and Ireland an exception and allowed the two countries to stick to the imperial system until 2009 at the latest.

So what's next? Will the EU allow Brits to go to the toilet without written permission from an EU official?

Smith and Wesson Posts a Healthy Profit

I just read that Smith and Wesson's profits have increased. This is good to hear, because just a few years ago the gun haters were trying to sue the gun manufacturing industry out of existence.

On a day when most stocks nose-dived, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson (nasdaq: SWHC - news - people ) shot up 5.09%, or $1.02, to $21.06 on Friday.
On Thursday, the company reported record earnings of $74.4 million for the quarter ending July 31, and raised its guidance for the remainder of the 2007 fiscal year. Analysts attributed the gun maker's recent success to its product line expansion.
“Smith & Wesson has done a phenomenal job moving beyond the handgun market to include long guns like rifles,” said Eric Wold of Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
It gained traction in the market through its January purchase of Thomson/Center Arms, a New Hampshire-based hunting rifle company. According to James Maher of ThinkEquity Partners, sales of Thompson/Center products have increased 22% in each of the two quarters since the acquisition was completed. Prior to its purchase by Smith & Wesson, Thomson/Center Arms’ sales were rising quarterly in the single digit percentages. “The union of Smith & Wesson and Thomson/Center Arms was mutually beneficial,” said Maher. “The company is performing extremely well with both revenue and earnings exceeding expectations.”

I didn't know that S&W had purchased Thompson/Center. That was definitely a smart move. I have been wanting to purchase one of TC's .410 handguns.

Stamp of the Week

Separated at Birth?

Hillary and one of her faithfull supporters. Are you sure you got rid of ALL the money he gave you, Ms. PIAPS?

Isn't Socialism Great?

We are constantly hearing Her Thighness and Her sycophants on the left tell us about how we need "universal" health care, by which they mean some national socialist system run by the federal government. From Canada, we read an example of what to expect when the PIAPS gets Her way:

Two Ontario patients who had brain tumours removed in the United States because they say they couldn't get quick treatment here are suing the provincial government over what they claim are unjustly long wait times for medical care.
Lindsay McCreith, 66, of Newmarket and Shona Holmes, 43, of Waterdown filed a joint statement of claim yesterday against the province of Ontario. Both say their health suffered because they are denied the right to access care outside of Ontario's "government-run monopolistic" health-care system. They want to be able to buy private health insurance.

Not only were they unable to get proper treatment, they found it necessary to be diagnosed here in the cold-hearted US capitalist system:

Holmes began losing her vision in March 2005, she told a press conference at Queen's Park yesterday. An MRI in May 2005 revealed a tumour in her brain. Her family doctor couldn't expedite appointments booked with specialists for July 19 and Sept. 19, 2005. As the tumour pressed on her optic nerves, her vision deteriorated. Afraid to wait any longer, she went to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Within a week she met three specialists and was told she had a fluid-filled sac growing near her pituitary gland at the base of her brain. They urged her to have it taken out immediately. She went home with the hopes of quickly removing what is known as a Rathke's cleft cyst.
Unable to get surgery fast, she returned to Arizona and had the mass removed on Aug. 1, 2005. Her vision was restored in 10 days. The Holmes family is now in debt $95,000 because of medical costs.

And now get a load of what Lindsay McCreith, also of Ontario, had to go through:

Holmes' experience was similar to that of Lindsay McCreith, a retired auto collision repair shop owner. According to the statement of claim, McCreith suddenly experienced seizures on Jan. 2, 2006. After waiting seven hours in a Newmarket emergency ward, he was examined by an internist. A computed tomography or CT scan showed a large wedge-shaped brain tumour. He was discharged from hospital four days later with a diagnosis of stroke and a prescription for anti-seizure medication.
Worried the tumour might be cancerous, McCreith and his family wanted an MRI. He was given an appointment date four months later. McCreith went to the U.S. and paid $494.67 (U.S.) for an MRI. Armed with the scan, he saw his Ontario family doctor, who referred McCreith to a neurologist. He was examined on Feb. 8, 2006. He was referred to a neurosurgeon but would have to wait three months.
Unhappy with this, he returned to Buffalo. In early March, during a biopsy, the tumour was found to be malignant and surgically removed. He paid $27,650 for his consultation, biopsy and surgery in Buffalo and OHIP has refused to reimburse him because he failed to seek pre-approval for the expense, the claim notes.

If the Oinkubus gets Her way, things will be much, much worse here in the USA. We won't have a next door neighbor to go to for help. And those with political connections will have priority in the socialist system, that much we know for sure from past experience with the Clintons.

Yet Another Climatologist Speaks Out Against the 'Global Warming' Hoax

Here is what Fred Singer, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia has to say:

In identifying the burning of fossil fuels as the chief cause of warming today, many politicians and environmental activists simply appeal to a so-called “scientific consensus.” There are two things wrong with this. First, there is no such consensus: An increasing number of climate scientists are raising serious questions about the political rush to judgment on this issue. For example, the widely touted “consensus” of 2,500 scientists on the United Nations Intergov-ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an illusion: Most of the panelists have no scien-tific qualifications, and many of the others object to some part of the IPCC’s report. The As-sociated Press reported recently that only 52 climate scientists contributed to the report’s “Summary for Policymakers.”
Likewise, only about a dozen members of the governing board voted on the “consensus statement” on climate change by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Rank and file AMS scientists never had a say, which is why so many of them are now openly rebelling. Estimates of skepticism within the AMS regarding man-made global warming are well over 50 percent.

So much for the 'scientific consensus' we are constantly hearing about from the yardapes on the left.

Mountain of the Week: Cobb Peak in Idaho