Amnesty for Illegal Aliens? What a Stupid Idea!

After reading the blogosphere this morning, I can't help but be encouraged by the indignation coming from both the left and the right concerning the proposed blanket amnesty of illegal aliens. Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO has some good quotes:

Mark Levin, on Wednesday night, implored: “Do these Republicans ever learn? . . . Do they understand that a majority of the American people, whether they’re Democrats, Republicans, or nothing, have had it up to here with illegal immigration and they don’t want to subsidize it?”

And furthermore, I want to know if the advocates of amnesty will continue to support the racist, so-called 'affirmative action' preferences for Latinos? If the USA is such a bad place for them, why do so many of them continue to flood into this country, sometimes even risking a long trek through the desert with inadequate water?

If Bush and his fellow idiots in Washington give amnesty to illegal aliens, it will cause millions more to pour into the country. And since they are given preferences over whites for college admissions, hiring, promotions, and government contracts, then whites will be pushed further and further back to the end of a longer and longer line.

I am sick and tired of hearing the lame argument that the illegals are only taking jobs that American citizens will not take. One of the main reasons why Americans don't want those jobs is because the wages are so low. And why are the wages low? Because there is an unending supply of unskilled labor coming across the border from Mexico.

The U.S. Senate is About to Throw Away Our Sovereignty

The bill currently being formulated in the Senate would grant blanket amnesty to all illegal aliens with its absurd Z-visa. See Michelle Malkin for details.

If you care about the USA, write your senator and ask him or her to vote against the bill.

Stamp of the Week: Cape of Good Hope Triangle

Anybody ready for the Boer War?

Volcano of the Week: Ojos del Salado

Tallest active volcano in the world. On the Chile/Argentina border.

Blog of the Week: Gateway Pundit

I strongly recommend reading Gateway Pundit. He has an excellent posat on the Bush-Blair meeting:

And, years from now, the world will look back and two giants will stand out.- Two men who were unfaltering in purpose and mission.- Two men and their allies who took out two of the most evil regimes in history.- Two men who, under incredible duress and constant abuse, freed 50,000,000 million suffering people, built democracies, and made the world more safe.

The sign of greatness is to stand up for what you believe, even when others are calling you a stupid, warmongering pawn of Halliburton who can't pronounce 'nukylar'.

Some of Blair's words at the conference:

Well, thank you very much, Mr. President, and thank you, as ever, for the kindness and graciousness of your welcome to me here at the White House. And thank you also for the strength of your leadership over the past few years. You have been a strong leader at a time when the world needed strong leadership. You've been unyielding and unflinching, and determined in the fight that we face together. And I thank you for that. And I also would take this opportunity of saying that I believe that the relationship between the United States of America and Britain is a relationship that is in the interests of our two countries and in the interests of the peace and stability of the wider world. And sometimes it's a controversial relationship -- at least over in my country. But I've never doubted its importance. I've never doubted that it's based on principle, on shared values, and on a shared purpose, which is to make our world a better, more free, more just place in which people of all nations and all faiths can live. So I would like to thank you for the strength also of that relationship over these past few years.

Washington State Climatologist Fired For Exposing False Claims of Shrinking Glaciers

The global warming cadre remind me a lot of islam. Anyone who dares question their orthodoxy is in trouble:

University of Washington climate scientist Mark Albright was dismissed on March 12 from his position as associate state climatologist, just weeks after exposing false claims of shrinking glaciers in the Cascade Mountains.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (D) had asserted in a February 7 Seattle Times editorial, "the average snow pack in the Cascades has declined 50 percent since 1950 and will be cut in half again in 30 years if we don't start addressing the problems of climate change now."
Albright knew from his research that the Cascade Mountains snow pack had not declined anywhere near what Nickels asserted, and that the snow pack has actually been growing in recent years.
Embarrassing Data
Albright sent emails to his colleagues informing them of the factual data.
At most, according to reliable datasets, the Cascade Mountains snow pack declined by 35 percent between 1950 and 2000. Moreover, even that number is misleading. Nickels and other global warming alarmists deliberately choose 1950 as the "baseline" for Cascade Mountains snow pack because 1950 was a year of abnormally heavy snowfall resulting in an uncharacteristically extensive snow pack.
Albright noted in his emails the current snow pack is only marginally lower than the long-term average since 1943. Moreover, the Cascade Mountains snow pack has been growing since the late 1970s.

I am an economist, not a climatologist. But I note some important facts about the climate change debate that lead me to believe, as does the Anchoress that the global warming zealots are not being sincere. First is the fact that Al Gore has two big houses that use an exorbitant amount of energy and that he jets around the world while expecting the little people to walk or ride bicycles. If he is not taking the matter seriously, as shown by his actions rather than by his words, then why should I? Second is the fact that much of the arguments made by the global warming advocates consist of outright lies, half-truths, and data-mining as done by Mayor Nickles in this example. Wasn't that 'clever' of him to choose 1950 as his base year, knowing that that was a year of exceptionally large snowfall?

SDA Has a Great Idea!

Why didn't I think of this?

Want to do your part?
Send a package of Kool Aid (unopened) to:

ROSIE O’DONNELL

The View

320 West 66th Street

New York NY 10023

Paybacks Are Hell

In an earlier post, I talked about how Rijkman Groenink, Chief Executive of ABN Amro bank in the Netherlands, has accepted the lower of two offers made for the bank. Now we hear that the chickens are coming home to roost for Groenink:

Separately, Rijkman Groenink, ABN chief executive, on Monday withdrew as a candidate for nomination to the supervisory board of Royal Dutch Shell.
Mr Groenink, who faces calls to resign from ABN, said he wanted to “fully dedicate” his attention to the bank. ABP, the giant European pension fund, indicated last week it was considering voting against his appointment to the Shell board at the energy giant's annual meeting on Tuesday.

Given two offers, one of which is substantially higher than the other, why would anyone in his right mind take the lower of the two? Clearly, the lower offer from Barclays has something in it for Groenink. Perhaps something we don't know about.

This is a problem in the USA as well as in Europe. Often the management of a company will make decisions in their own personal interest, rather than the best interest of the company. In such a situation, it is the right of the stockholders to throw out the management. The stockholders of Shell are wise to keep this self-serving jackass off their board.

Ottawa to Acquire 6 Arctic Patrol Ships

Sources say that the Canadians will undergo a drastic acquisition programme:

OTTAWA – A key federal cabinet committee has given the go-ahead for a plan to construct six corvette-sized Arctic patrol vessels, The Canadian Press has learned.
The cabinet priorities and planning committee approved the program to build the 100-metre-long, 6,000-tonne warships within the last 10 days, according to defence and political sources.
The patrol vessels, which are almost as large as the navy's frigates, are a step down from the armed Arctic icebreakers that the Conservatives promised in the last election campaign and will likely not be in service before 2015.
Nevertheless, said one political source "it'll be good for the military, good for Canadian industry and the Arctic is critical to our national interest."
Cabinet is said to have authorized a two-year definition phase in which the scope of the shipbuilding project will be laid out. Much of the cost of the new vessels – about $300 million apiece – is being put off until later years.
The vessels, which will be capable of smashing through "fresh ice," are expected to be based on the Royal Norwegian Navy's Svalbard class design, said a military source. That particular type vessel is armed with a 57-millimetre deck gun, missile-launching tubes and also has a helicopter pad.

How are those poor Canadians going to afford this? Won't they quadruple their defense budget?

Hatemonger Scores Another Hit

As I have posted before, Hatemonger's Quarterly is one of my favorite blogs. He has a great post today, that echoes my own experiences in academia:

Imagine you’re a miserable academic (pardon the redundancy) who works on such important topics as greengrocers in the medieval world or Hungarian breast-feeding. As you have yet to score tenure, you work plenty of hours on all sorts of professorial tasks: organizing lectures; grading papers; researching for unreadable articles; sitting on useless and thankless committees; &c.
As you might well have guessed, you’re not too keen on some of your students—most of them, actually. Despite the purportedly rigorous standards of your purportedly competitive home institution, the average undergraduate at your college is about as motivated as a corpse. And a lazy corpse at that.
Too busy working on making their livers resemble brown bananas, these students simply can’t trouble themselves to do the sorts of things one expects of average undergrads. You know, like attend class, stay awake, make a dent on your homework, study, and not rape anyone.

I can relate to all that. I have had students who would come to class only once per week, or even less. And they didn't see anything wrong with that. The only time they saw a red light was when they got their grades.

Ah, but these kids sure can complain. They spend about five minutes composing their five-page papers the night before they’re due, and thus they read like the work of an illiterate immigrant. But this doesn’t stop them from bitching about their ineluctably lousy grade. If these lowlifes spent half as much time on their work as they did on their kvetching, they might actually earn decent scores. But, of course, they don’t care that much.

How many times have I experienced this!? Students who would have aced the course if they had put as much effort into studying as they did into bitching. I recall one student who got a low grade on a writing assignment because he didn't follow my instructions at all. He emailed me and told me that it was necessary to have at least a 3.0 GPA to become an army officer. He wantedme to "understand that". I emailed him back and asked him if his superiors in the army would want him to follow instructions?

Hatemonger has a great idea:

And this, dear reader, is where our fantastic potential product comes in. We call it the Professor’s Revenge Service, and we’re sure it’ll be bigger in academic circles than Foucault was in the 1980s.
So, what’s the Professor’s Revenge Service, and how does it work? Well, if a particular student drives you bonkers, all you must do is call up the Professor’s Revenge Service and pay our flat-rate fee. We at the service do all the rest.
That is to say, we agree to videotape your horrid student on his first post-graduation day at his first post-graduation job. We’ll send you a high-quality DVD of your former student in action at his new miserable occupation. You’ll take great pleasure as you watch him, in the inimitable words of Tom Lehrer, slide down the razor blade of life.

Suppression of Civil Liberties in Academia


Now, from Hamline University in Minnesota, we learn of how student Troy Scheffler has been suspended because he complained about Hamline's ban on concealed weapons and also about the university's racist 'affirmative action' program:

Troy fired off his response: Counseling wouldn't make students feel safer, he argued. They needed protection. And the best way to provide it would be for the university to lift its recently implemented prohibition against concealed weapons.
"Ironically, according to a few VA Tech forums, there are plenty of students complaining that this wouldn't have happened if the school wouldn't have banned their permits a few months ago," Scheffler wrote. "I just don't understand why leftists don't understand that criminals don't care about laws; that is why they're criminals. Maybe this school will reconsider its repression of law-abiding citizens' rights."
After stewing over the issue for two days, Scheffler sent a second email to University President Linda Hanson, reiterating his condemnation of the concealed carry ban and launching into a flood of complaints about campus diversity initiatives, which he considered reverse discrimination.
"In fact, three out of three students just in my class that are 'minorities' are planning on returning to Africa and all three are getting a free education on my dollar," Scheffler wrote with thinly veiled ire. "Please stop alienating the students who are working hard every day to pay their tuition. Maybe you can instruct your staff on sensitivity towards us 'privileged white folk.'"

As is well known, leftists can't stand it when someone challenges their dogma. They returned fire at Troy in no small way:

On April 23, Scheffler received a letter informing him he'd been placed on interim suspension. To be considered for readmittance, he'd have to pay for a psychological evaluation and undergo any treatment deemed necessary, then meet with the dean of students, who would ultimately decide whether Scheffler was fit to return to the university.
The consequences were severe. Scheffler wasn't allowed to participate in a final group project in his course on Human Resources Management, which will have a big impact on his final grade. Even if he's reinstated, the suspension will go on his permanent record, which could hurt the aspiring law student.
"'Oh, he's the crazy guy that they called the cops on.' How am I supposed to explain that to the Bar Association?" Scheffler asks.
He has also suffered embarrassment. Scheffler obeyed the campus ban and didn't go to class, but his classmate, Kenny Bucholz, told him a police officer was stationed outside the classroom. "He had a gun and everything," Bucholz says. Dean Julian Schuster appeared at the beginning of class to explain the presence of the cop, citing discipline problems with a student. Although Schuster never mentioned Scheffler by name, it didn't take a scholar to see whose desk was empty.

If this country were run by the likes of Linda Hanson or Kristen Murtaugh, it would be a totalitarian dictatorship with no civil liberties whatsoever.

I tried calling Linda Hanson, to get her thoughts on the matter. Her secretary said that she was in a meeting all day. Her phone number is 651-523-2022.

Hat tip to Protein Wisdom.

Vegan Parents Sentenced to Life in Prison for Starving Their Baby

Animal-rights 'activists' are some of the most messed-up people in the world. And now we hear of the ultimate depravity:

ATLANTA (AP) - A vegan couple were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.
Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell imposed the mandatory sentences on Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31. Their son, Crown Shakur, weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation on April 25, 2004.
The couple were found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.
Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.
But prosecutors said the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as the baby's body wasted away.

I hope no one is fooled for one second that these 'activists' are nice people. They are nothing but scum.

Yet Another Socialist Brainfart

Jonathan Freedland, writing in the Guardian, laments the recent defeat of Segolene Royal in the French elections. I was also sad to see her lose, although for different reasons. But Mr. Freedland sees a silver lining in this cloud:

Yet there are some signs, tentative for now but noticeable all the same, that movement is under way even in the US, inside the belly of the capitalist beast. They come partly in reaction to the ever worsening state of inequality in that country. You can pick your stat, ranging from the claim that just two men - Bill Gates and Warren Buffett - have as much money between them as 30% of the entire American people......

America's politicians have begun to notice. The Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards speaks of the "two Americas". Barack Obama tells audiences that not only is caring for the poor an American tradition, but that "those with money, those with influence, those with control over how resources are allocated in our society, are very protective of their interests, and they can rationalise infinitely the reasons why they should have more money and power than anyone else".

Mr. Freedland mentions the great wealth of Messrs Gates and Buffett, but fails to note that these 'awakened' politicians: Edwards and Obama, are also very wealthy. Although not in the Gates/Buffett class, they are both certainly wealthier than 99.9% of all Americans.

There is a big difference in the manner in which these two pairs of men acquired their wealth. Bill Gates was a pioneer in the microcomputer revolution, building the world's most successful software company from scratch. He earned his wealth by offering people value for their money. Moreover, he has compensated his employees quite well, thousands of current and former Microsoft employees are millionaires.

Warren Buffett built his wealth through savvy investing. Using the vehicle of Berkshire Hathaway, which is essentially a closed-end mutual fund, Buffett repeatedly selected companies with winning strategies. By doing so he provided a valuable service to the US economy. His stock picks ensured that capital flowed to some of the most efficient and productive companies.

I cannot heap such praise on Edwards nor Obama. Both men earned their fortunes by acting as parasites on the US economy, not by providing value as Gates and Buffett did. Edwards earned his fortune as a trial attorney, winning huge legal fees through medical malpractice suits, thereby driving up the cost of health care for people who are not wealthy.

Obama became wealthy by trading political favors for money, often through complicated schemes like the Clintons did. In a previous post to this blog, I linked to the story of how Barack made money from Chicago slumlords who were supposed to provide housing for the poor, but actually ended up cheating people.

Thus, there are two types of wealthy people. Those who provide value to their customers and those who act as parasites. In the parasite group we can include Bill and Hillary Clinton, who traded political favors for money, sending their daughter to elite private schools like Sidwell Friends and Stanford, while the children of the poor are confined to ineffective and unsafe public schools.

Unfortunately, I must include President Bush in the parasite class too. He had little success as a businessman but then traded on his father's status as vice-president and then president to become wealthy. Fortunately he put a stop to it when he became governor of Texas and has also refrained from graft and corruption as president.

The problem is that simpletons like Freedland can't understand the difference between a Gates and an Obama. If the USA were run like the former Soviet Union, people like Obama and Edwards would be members of the 'nomenklatura', the privileged class, whereas people like Gates and Buffett would be imprisoned or executed as dissidents.

Stamp of the Week: Swedish Three Skilling Banco Orange Error

It's supposed to be blue-green

Mountain of the Week: Mt. Logan

Tallest mountain in Canada

Yet Another Nail in the Coffin of the Global Warming Fraud

Get a load of this:

Reid A. Bryson holds the 30th PhD in Meteorology granted in the history of American education. Emeritus Professor and founding chairman of the University of Wisconsin Department of Meteorology—now the Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences—in the 1970s he became the first director of what’s now the UW’s Gaylord Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies. He’s a member of the United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honor—created, the U.N. says, to recognize “outstanding achievements in the protection and improvement of the environment.” He has authored five books and more than 230 other publications and was identified by the British Institute of Geographers as the most frequently cited climatologist in the world.

And what does he have to say about the theory that human-induced CO2 emissions are causing global warming?

Q: Could you rank the things that have the most significant impact and where would you put carbon dioxide on the list?
A: Well let me give you one fact first. In the first 30 feet of the atmosphere, on the average, outward radiation from the Earth, which is what CO2 is supposed to affect, how much [of the reflected energy] is absorbed by water vapor? In the first 30 feet, 80 percent, okay?
Q: Eighty percent of the heat radiated back from the surface is absorbed in the first 30 feet by water vapor…
A: And how much is absorbed by carbon dioxide? Eight hundredths of one percent. One one-thousandth as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.

Shhhhhh.... don't tell the lefties.... they'll probably try to outlaw spitting.

Hat tip to small dead animals.

What Causes Bush Derangement Syndrome?

The Belmont Club has an interesting analysis of the reason for the rabid hatred of President Bush:

This secret guilt may stand at the center of the inexplicable hysteria with which the Left regard the neocons and President Bush in particular. Recently a Ramussen poll showed that "only four in ten Democrats will commit to the idea that George Bush did not know of the 9/11 attack in advance. Sixty-one percent of them either believe he did or are unsure." What could account for such a widespread belief in a bizarre conspiracy theory? Why do otherwise intelligent people insist, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that "fire does not melt steel" and embrace all kinds of ridiculous fantasies? I think the extreme demonization of George W. Bush and the neocons is psychologically necessary in order to restore a feeling of moral superiority to the Leftist universe. They would be guilt stricken without it. The more intelligent Leftists must be subconsciously aware of how monstrous the enemy is and secretly cognizant of how great is the betrayal of their own ideals. They can't confront this fact; cannot accept that they are delivering children, as Caroline Glick's example above shows, to cruel murderers. And in order to obtain some kind of solace and to have the effrontery to march in support of "freedom fighters" who are nothing but sadistic thugs, it is necessary for them to invent something worse; to make a caricature devil of GWB to place them once again, if not upon the side of angels, at least in the camp of the lesser evil. George Bush must be made nothing less than the moral equivalent of Hitler or else their ethical universe would collapse.

Hat tip to Uncorrelated.

Mourning for Greensburg

By now, most have heard of the tornado that leveled Greensburg, Kansas on Friday. I feel a special connection to the town, because I often hunt pheasant in the area and have stayed in the town many times. The people there were always very hospitable and welcomed hunters.

Anyone who wants to help may send a contribution to Red Cross disaster relief fund, Midway-Kansas Chapter, PO Box 3726, Wichita, KS 67201, or see their website.

Segolene 'dares' France to elect a woman

Our sultry candidate for the privilege of being the first female de Gaulle has 'dared' her people to elect a woman

BUOYED by last-minute endorsements from popular centrist Francois Bayrou and the mouthpiece of the French elite, Le Monde newspaper, a confident Segolene Royal exhorted voters to "dare" to elect their first woman president in tomorrow's run-off battle for the Elysee Palace.

Hey Segolene, I dare you to wear a thong bikini to the beach.

Next President of France?

Sacre Bleu!