The News 10/26

OK. yesterday it was CNN. Today, it's mostly MSNBC. (…although there will probably be someone else before I get done with this…) Amzingly enough, I also got this out on the right day!

The first thing I noticed this article out of Australia explaining that rape is the woman’s fault for not dressing modestly. I guess it is a consistent Islamic view. After all, the Iranians stone rapoe victims. I honestly don’t see how anyone can stand in support of such drivel! This is disgusting. All it does is set men free from responsibility for heinous acts. (...after all it isn't just rape...how about the slaughter of innocent civilians--Muslim, Israeli, Argentinean, Indonesian, whoever--by means of suicide bombings...) Why isn’t there a greater outcry from the various feminist groups, specifically, and groups on the left in general?

It seems President Bush will sign the border fence legislation into law. Given the latest problems with illegal immigrants and Hezbollah/Venezuela (from CBS) which I wrote about a couple days ago, I’m glad to see it happen. It’s too bad Congress only allocated half the money—so we’ll only get about 350 miles of it..if homeland security doesn't find another use for it first (which the legislation allows them to do).

I was knocking around political links on the left, when I came across the title “NOTED WITHOUT FURTHER COMMENT” (…it’s the October 23 post at Legal Fiction…). That lead me to this NY Post article. The point of the article was the only way the Republicans can win is to scare the base back into line with honest talk about where things are and where they are going. I really liked this quote, though:

Republicans are doomed unless they can get their base back. But the GOP base is the best informed group of voters in the nation, with educational levels consistently higher than their Democratic counterparts'. They follow politics closely and are the easiest voters to reach via the news media, cable TV and talk radio.

Now, there is some food for thought. If this is so, how can we be such a deceived bunch as so many “leftists” claim? (…before you answer that, I’m working on a post about just that issue…at least partly…so stay tuned…)

On the subject of elections, here is a report from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram on the impact Bloggers are having on election fund raising in Texas. No big surprise, the Democrats have a huge lead. A week or so ago, I found this article byRobert Cox at The Examiner. Among other things, he noted (speaking of those on the left):

Their common refrain: “We need to own the Internet the way the right owns talk radio.”

With Google (owner of Blogger, among others), Technorati, YouTube, RSS and Podcasting all in the hands of the Left—by ownership and political view—it would be hard to imagine otherwise. Read the article. It isn’t a very pretty picture for the Right, let me tell you.

Meanwhile, over at The Jarheads Firing Range, John has a pretty good post that sums up the feelings regarding the public announcements by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after the raid on a Shiite stronghold. For the record, I don’t believe the Iraqi PM didn’t know what was going on. Mostly because his own troops were involved. But, I think Jarhead John has missed an important point in this. The Iraqis are setting up their own political boundaries (…remember, Muqtada al-Sadr is one of Maliki’s supporters…). It is also solidifying the religious base to the government. Both of these are a bad sign for US forces (…in my humble opinion…). This same sort of political thing caused all kinds of problems back in the days of Vietnam. And, fundamental religious control of government was one of the things no one wanted in Iraq.

By the way, I think I just heard the sound of the real estate bubble going “POP”! (…you know…the one all the realtors and banks and such said didn’t really exist…it was just worry worts trying to spoil a good market…) I think last month's record price drop makes two or three months in a row of falling prices. It has been over 8 months of falling unit sales. There have been a couple regions of the US feeling this for an even longer period. But, it’s got to be pretty bad to affect the national averages. And, of course, the realtors are saying “It’s just a market correction, and we believe it has hit bottom.”
(…and I hear the Pope is giving up Catholocism…)

But, this has got to be the strangest reason I’ve ever heard of for weight loss. Someone figured out that our expanding waist lines are actually causing us to (…yes…pun intended…) waste gasoline.

Then (…We return you now to those thrilling days of old…) this came out on the 23rd. A Dutch mayor has proposed having prostitutes go with Dutch soldiers on foreign missions. What a grand idea...back to the days of the Roman Legions and camp followers. Only this time, we’ll make it legal—and pay for it!

And, in a final quote, I give you this post from The Woodshed. I have to admit, I liked this Clinton joke. What about you?