Monday, December 31, 2007

Moroccan Music



Good stuff. Note how it is so much complex and the craft so much more refined than the rap/crap beings spewed out by multibillion dolllar entertainment conglomerates. Industrial music, like industrial food, is mostly garbage.

No Thought For The Future

Obviously, this is not sustainable...but unfortunately we've built an economy on suburbanizing land and immigration. Clueless economists, who probably have never seen a farm, don't care. Water running out, who cares? We can't feed ourselves, who cares? Population growth is good for the economy.

Census Bureau Projects Population of 303.1 Million

As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2008, population will be 303,146,284 -- up 2,842,103 or 0.9 percent from New Year’s Day 2007.

In January, the United States is expected to register one birth every eight seconds and one death every 11 seconds.

Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person every 30 seconds. The result is an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 13 seconds.

Wow, wow wow...


I haven't listened or found interesting sacred/choral music in awhile, and I stumbled on this via Taki's Blog. A Lebonese nun who sings arabic, melonite, byzantine and maronite chants, I normally prefer Anglican hymns and such but this is something else... though I have to admit the techno website brings a chuckle to my face, while the imagery (above) somewhat startled my Protestant sensiblities.
Sister Keyrouz

Sunday, December 30, 2007

You'll Never Read It In The New York Times

Somalians In Shelbyville–All Refugee Politics Is Local

The mainstream media’s willful mis-reporting on many aspects of the immigration issue brings to mind Stalin’s rhetorical Q and A:

“How do we manage the ideological and political work of a party as large as ours? Only through the press.”

Luckily for the public, there is the internet and a handful of local papers which are willing to…well, report on the issue.

This from an eleven-part series on a recent refugee influx in Shelbyville, Tennessee [Somalians respond poorly to local hospitality, By Brian Mosely, Shelbyville Times-Gazette, December 29, 2007 ]

”Over the past few years, this community has given a helping hand and opened their arms to the new arrivals from Somalia.

In return, many of these refugees have given Shelbyville the finger.

When I began researching this story about the Somalis, I knew it would be controversial. We were aware that many in Shelbyville were having serious concerns about hundreds of Sunni Muslims moving here.

But as I began to talk with officials and others about our new neighbors, I was stunned by the reaction. Practically every person I spoke with locally said they had done everything possible to help out the refugees in adjusting to their new home and were treated very badly in return.

On the other hand, some I contacted for background on this story seemed to be so blinded by political correctness that they would excuse any behavior, no matter how upsetting or disruptive, as “part of their culture.”

Did anyone involved in integrating these folks into American society stop to think that many in the heartland of America might not share this overly optimistic and myopic view of cultural diversity?

There are also the stories that come from other communities that have many locals nervous. For example, in October of last year, Said Biyad, a Bantu refugee from Somalia, killed his four children in Louisville, Ky., and attacked his estranged wife with a blunt object, turning himself into police afterward. He slashed the throats of the children, aged 2 to 8, because his wife “disrespected” him, he said.

A difference in culture, no doubt.

If Shelbyville’s Somali community really wishes to “integrate into different societies to live together and to make our future here,” as Imam Haji Yousuf told me, that process must work both ways. The arrogant sense of entitlement demonstrated by these new additions to Shelbyville must stop.

One can not expect a community to keep bending over backwards to help folks, only to treated with rudeness, disrespect and hostility. At some point, our welcoming attitude and southern hospitality will turn into resentment and distrust.

And as the comments posted on our website demonstrates, that is already occurring, in far greater numbers than we ever imagined.”

Housing Prices Fall At Faster Rate Then Depression

By John H. Makin
Word Count: 1,251

Over the past half century, every U.S. housing downturn as sharp as the current one has translated into a U.S. recession. U.S. house prices are falling at an annual rate of nearly 4% -- an event not seen since the Great Depression -- and the downward trend is accelerating.





And Spitzer and the other morons still want to dump a few billion on Ratner's luxury condo project?

Keep a Wheelbarrow handy....

You might need it to carry bundles of hundred dollar bills to the supermarket to buy a loaf of bread:

Fed Increases Lending to Banks

United States banks on average borrowed $4.83 billion a day directly from the Federal Reserve in the week ended Dec. 26, up from $4.62 billion a day the previous week, Fed data released Thursday showed.

Discount window borrowing totaled $4.54 billion on Wednesday, compared with $4.77 billion a week earlier, according to the Fed.

Fox News: We Report, We Decide.

I usually take Sundays off, but this has got my goat:
Press Releases › Has Fox News Excluded Ron Paul?

December 28, 2007 10:39 pm EST

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – According to the New Hampshire State Republican Party and an Associated Press report, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul will be excluded from an upcoming forum of Republican candidates to be broadcast by Fox News on January 6, 2008.

“Given Ron Paul’s support in New Hampshire and his recent historic fundraising success, it is outrageous that Dr. Paul would be excluded,” said Ron Paul 2008 campaign chairman Kent Snyder. “Dr. Paul has consistently polled higher in New Hampshire than some of the other candidates who have been invited.”

Snyder continued, “Paul supporters should know that we are continuing to make inquiries with Fox News as to why they have apparently excluded Dr. Paul from this event.”




Its not secret in the 'blogsphere' that the 'establishment' media is openly colluding to downplay and smear Ron Paul. He wins a poll, the poll is not published, he places forth and the top three candidates, and the 5th and 6th finishers are shown. He is always 'introduced' as a crank, extremist, or unelectable. But funny thing...he is almost entirely funded by small, individual contributions while 'big' candidates like McCain, Hillary, ect are funded by large corporations and backed by powerful PACs.

The other day, Blitzer interviewed Paul on CNN and was visibly disgusted by Paul's suggestion that our policies in Pakistan are wrong and we should just get out. The 'establishment' right and left can't even comphrehend the wisdom of doing so, and the last thing they want is for Americans to get that crazy notion in their head that maybe, just maybe our policies are not working and, as Paul alluded to, we can't even pay for them.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Vdare War on Christmas

Wishing Merry Christmas, literally is against the law. At least those are the wishes of the some leftists:

The group they're criticizing, Liberty Counsel, has written two memos, Legal Memo About Public Christmas Celebrations, [PDF] and Legal Memo About Celebrating Christmas in the Workplace,[PDF] the bottom line of which is that if your employer forbids you from wishing people "Merry Christmas", they may be violating your rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights act of 1964.

Of course, that's just what the law says—the bureaucrats may find that Title VII has been violated by your habit of viciously, and with malice aforethought, saying "Merry Christmas,!" or wearing something red and green in a manner calculated to cause emotional pain. However, it would be nice to see Title VII doing some actual good.

In 2005, David Brock's Media Matters proclaimed that there was no War On Christmas, pointing to the fact that the majority of Mainstream Media writers said so, so there must be no War On Christmas. [Newspapers, commentators agree: Virginia, there is no War On Christmas, December 23, 2005] Patrick Cleburne replied with this: If there’s no War On Christmas, how come they deployed an Army?.

That is to say, why is it that so many Mainstream Media types see the need to deny what we can see with our own eyes?

Well, because they're starting to lose this war, because ordinary people are fighting back. The War On Christmas didn't start when Bill O'Reilly noticed it in 2005, we've been noting it here since 1999, and Tom Piatak pointed out that in its modern form, the War On Christmas goes back to at least 1906.

Benazir Bhutto's Assassination.

Well since every one else is commenting...first it does not come a shock - there were three or four attempts in the past few weeks - and not lone nutjob John Hinkley type but coordinated well backed efforts. She certainly was a brave woman for even attempting it.

Is democracy really a good idea in such an unstable country at this point? Bush seemed to press the issue - which exacerbated things. As Ann Coulter pointed out, our stability is unique - as is our government, and our form of government can only function in certain cultures, and it appears, Paksitan is not one of them. Wouldn't they be better off under an Abullah like King, who could gradually modernize the country working WITH religious leaders? THEN try to 'experiment' in democracy?

People tend to forget that we had a form of democracy (we as in Anglo-Saxons) going back to the days when we were roaming Germanic tribes and the king was 'first among equals'

My 2007 List

Here is an unordered, rambling mess of observations from my personal experiences this year. So for example, saying I thought "once" was the best film of the year is doesn't imply I have seen all. Suggestions and comments welcome!

Best Song: Leja Leja
Shreya Ghoshal (or is it Goshal? It's often spelled both ways) ...what is it about her voice? I don't know, in some ways both her and the best Bollywood songs remind me of old Motown - not literal copies but having the same 'sweetness' to them that you just don't find in Western pop anymore - too much cynicism, I guess.


Best New Artist: Katie Melua
Yeah she's been around for four years, but I only discovered this year.

Best Film: Once
Shot for 160,000 US, everything film making should be and in America, often is not. A simple story about about a busker (street musician) that meets a young woman who, like and guardian angel, is the force to take his life from mediocrity and avoidance to life again. Told largely through music.

Most Disappointing Film: Salaam E Isque. So much talent, a big production, but largely a waste of time. My favorite living actress gave a great performance, but wasn't given a good story or lines to work with.

Best Book (that I read this year) White Gold
Over a million Europeans - as far away as Iceland, Ireland and England - were captured and made slaves by Barbary pirates. And forced to build palaces for Molay Ismail and other despotic rulers. Most died from the brutal conditions. MSM mostly on the liberal side, tries to ignore this now forgotten episode in history - and the contorted Washington Post review in the link above is a perfect example. Why would they do this? Well, all the sudden beating us over the head with various guilt trips becomes decidedly less effective.

Best Non Fiction Business Book: Getting Things Done
Yeah, a lot of it was common sense, but it wasn't common with me.

Books and writers which everyone can ignore at their peril:
Death of the West, Day of Reckoning , The Long Emergency, anything by Peter Hitchens (the smart one of the Hitchens family) - Pat Buchanan - like him or not everything he has predicted has come true, while none of the rosy predication from the necons have materialized, and James Kunslter - a little curmudgeonly and perhaps over the top, but his analysis of the vapidness of American society is spot on. As his assessment of suburbanization to drive the economy 'the biggest misallocation of resources in the history of the world". If only 10% of what he says comes true, it is still cause for grave concern.

Buchanan's sobering critique of our failed, fake free trade/open borders + democracy crusade is a wake up call none of our elite or heeding but as Ben Franklin said, if you don't listen to reason she'll soon rap your knuckles.

Best Museum No One's Heard of: Sorolla Museum, Madrid, Spain.

Writers and Artists Due for A Revival:
Washington Irving, Sargent, Sorolla


Artists and Writers That Should be downgraded to garbage status:
Picasso, Pollack, Frank Gehry, and just about every living "starchitect' and the whole concept of starchitect, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens.

Enough of these irrational hypocritical ranting idiots whose own ideologies make them blind to reality- literally resulting in buildings that fall apart in the case of Gehry and in the case of Dawkins firmly believing that poof, if religion just went away there'd be no wars!.

Most Loathsome: A three way tie between:
George Bush:
The man who ran on a 'humble foreign policy' in 1999 has done more in two destructive terms, to damage America's credibility, moral capital and good will. He has launched an unnecessary war that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and has no end in sight.

He has done nothing remotely conservative, except paying lip service to naive voters (shamefully I count myself as one of them, but only because Gore would have been no better).

Bush long ago crossed the line into treason when he embraced Neoconservative ideology. Nowhere in the constitution does it allow or desire the president to go on idealogical crusades in other nations, yet Bush has done just this while intentionally ignoring his constitutional obligation to protect our borders. This is paramount treason.

Because of his focus on this crusade and the embrace of idiotic unilateral free trade, our country has seen a rapid decline in the dollar and standard of living. I would not blame Bush altogether - liberals conveniently forget that Clinton initiated many of these policies - including making changes in our policy towards China and essentially handing over the State department to AIPAC. But George Bush may be remembered as the fool who pushed our Republic to attempt Empire and in doing so, permanently damaged our position in the world and eroded any capital both real and abstract.

Abe Foxman:
This grossly hypocritical bigot spearheads one of the most destructive, divisive organizations in America, - the misnamed "Anti Defamation League" whose sole purpose these days, other than lobbying for legislation to stifle free speech, is to slander and 'defame' anyone who does not agree with their Pro-Israel/Likkud, anti-Christian, anti-Western party line.

Because of friends in high places this fat ass has been remarkably successful. Some people still fall for his BS, but most are intimidated by the ADLs creepy influence on law enforcement agencies and government.

Foxman reached new levels of hypocrisy this year, by first lobbying Congress to not recognize the Armenian genocide piously calling for historians to sort out the matter- something he won't allow for his "aren't we special" genocide. Why? well recognizing the Armenian genocide was bad in two ways - first it detract from the special status Foxman demands for specifically Jewish victims of Nazi brutality during WWII, he feels their lives or their tragedies are somehow more worthy of consideration than the millions of Christians killed by Bolsheviks, the non-Jewish victims of Nazi mass murder, and the millions of others innocents killed by communists in China, Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam and so on. Secondly, Turkey is an ally with Israel and that trumps any consideration of Armenian feelings. Personally I think congress should get out of this 'business' altogether - - and it is just that - and historians should decide -but that Foxman would constantly plug his own 'road show' and try to stifle another is beyond deplorable.

Foxman constantly leverages the Holocaust as moral sledge hammer to stifle criticism of Israel, and his own corrupt organization which has ties to organized crime, pornography mogals and scumbags like Marc Rich.

That this man would misuse one tragedy to allow Israel to continue another - a 50 + year program of slow but steady ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, just illustrates what a hypocritical bigot this man is.


Bruce Ratner
Greedy corrupt, land grabbing, incompetent developer who is propped up by public subsidies. His projects have mostly been financial, aesthetic and design failures and have steered Brooklyn from a city of small neighborhoods, middle class businesses to globalist corporations. He is a pathological liar, or as he says 'I have a memory problem'.

He has intentionally tried to exacerbate racial tensions and use the poor for his own financial gain. He has robbed the public coffers for his ill conceived projects putting the tax burden on the productive businesses and people that actually took the risks and revived Brooklyn without help from and often in spite of, the government.


Least Loathsome:


Daniel Goldstien & the property owners/renters whatevers in the footprint for standing up and spearheading the fight to keep Bruce Ratner from screwing up Brooklyn more than the bastard already has. It's one thing to bitch about it, or just cut a check and show up at some volunteer meetings, as I have done, its a quite another to put your livelihood, your home, ect on the line for principle.

Our national security agents: who took the bold step forward and went public with the information that Iran was not pursuing nuclear capability - derailing, if only temporarily (because the Neocons are thinking up new lies as we speak) the Neoconservative/AIPAC drive to attack Iran. I suspect they took this unusual step because Bush, Cheny & the Neocons have crossed the line into outright treason.

Ron Paul for taking a principled stand against the globalists/neocon/liberal alliance that is hell bent on ending our status as a nation. I used to think this was nutty conspiracy theory but as Sam Huntington has documented, it is not: Transnational elite are pursuing world government and see nationhood as archaic and in the way of their agenda. Literally, Americans who care need to excercise their right to be bear arms and be prepared, because as the Neocons have shown they care little for the lives of the people who get in the way of their grand schemes.


Producers and male lead of Bella,



The lead actor gave up a career as the most popular soap star in the Spanish speaking world, because he realized his roles were negative stereotypes and were 'hurting people' in his own words. After a reconversion to Catholicism (a faith in which he was raised but had largely ignored) he set out to make films that would inspire people.

Liberal/lefty critics sneered as producer Sean Worthington put it:

'....., yet some elitist critics are attacking' Bella' for its positive portrayal of life, family, and friendship - calling it 'un-realistic and cliche.'
There is another film being released today that critics are raving about - 'Before the devil knows your dead.'

This movie is about two men who kill their parents and critics are praising this film as:

------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
'a realistic portrayal of the human condition'.

'Family, and the core ideals that hold them in place, are blown to
smithereens by the ravaged heart of Sidney Lumet's scalding new thriller.' -Newsday




nuff said.

What do these unloathsome people have in common? They were willing to sacrifice for ideals, for what is right, willing to take risks, and forgone easy gain for long term good which we all benefit by. It is this long term sense of Noblesse oblige is why we have Prospect Park instead of a 19th century version of Atlantic Yards - why Santa Cruz Island out in California is a National Park instead of a resort/Casino (no doubt what Ratner would do with it). In the post sixties America such ideals are largely forgotten - even most so called philanthropy is really a veil for self interested agendas.

Sometimes I think we become oblivious to these stories since we largely connect to the world through the filter and unreality of mass media, but if you look at your own live (unless your Daniel Goldstien or one of the above) you probably realize that most of it is quiet desperation compared to living 'truthfully' as G- well not Gandhi but Gandhi's character in Lage Laho Munnmabi put it.

The Story that's FINALLY being discussed that should have been talked about a long time ago:
The Israeli Lobby and its undue influence on our foreign policy. It's a moral crisis and damaging situation that US, and US citizens cannot continue to ignore, nor can they still buy the bellyaching and lies of the Israeli Lobby .


Things have gotten so absurd that few remember, but I recall the Howard Dean had to 'recant' his statement during the 2004 campaigns that he wanted a balanced middle east policy. That little freudian slip on the part of the lobby says it all.

Still under-reported but increasing, is the dark underbelly of globalization: the sex slave trade, drugs, pirate products, sky rocketing violent crime- that now account for about 1/4 of global trade - that's enough to bribe and/or violently intimate enough officials for the problem to get worse.

Most Undiscussed Story of 2007 (and 2006, 2005)
...and one I have some personal interest in.... will be discussed tomorrow.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Olmert Drops the Mask

Olmert Drops the Mask

Posted by Taki Theodoracopulos on December 25, 2007

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently rejected overtures by Hamas for discussions about a temporary cease-fire. So what else is new? Israel’s ruling coalition wants peace as much as the neocons want it back in Washington. What I find surprising is that the Likudniks no longer care to even make a pretense towards peace. Take, for example, Annapolis and the US sponsored peace conference. In olden days the Israelis would go though the motions of peaceful intentions while peace initiative after peace initiative unraveled. No longer. Even before negotiations have begun, the Israeli government has announced more illegal housing to be built in the occupied territories. Maale Adumim, with an illegal Israeli population of 30,000, is to have 240 more apartments, and to hell with what the rest of the world thinks. Thanks to the neocons and the Cheneys—I no longer call them Bushies because the name is inappropriate—this, too, shall pass, and to hell with Annapolis and the American taxpayer who is picking up the bill.




...Hmm Maybe this is why Neocons are soft on illegal immigration in the US too.

The Cradel's Revenge...

From in inestimable Brussels Journal (which the government is threatening to shut down)::

The Cradle’s Revenge

A quote from John Zmirak at Takimag.com, 23 December 2007

[T]he pansexual hedonists of the Netherlands are now in a panic over their nation’s Islamic future. Even the blasé Parisians have begun to wonder whether their nation’s bureaucratically atheist state is acid enough to dissolve the faith of burgeoning immigrants – before the Arabs outbreed, outvote, and expel the residual Frenchmen. The Germans who a generation ago worshiped their race as a pagan god now look on lackadaisically, and welcome the Turk into Europe. To read their children’s future, they may look to the fate of the Christians in Lebanon, or Kosovo – two other lands where the cradle has had its revenge.

Any healthy creature or culture shows two signs of life: It reproduces itself, and it fights off intruders. The West, for the past generation, has lacked the vigor to undertake either task

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Wow The New York Times' Actually Had An Interesting Article

I was reading Phillip Weiss's great new blog and came across this:

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star

Smearing Ron Paul, Again.

As predicted, first the Republican and Media establishment would ignore him, then brush him off, then smear him. A friend of mine emailed me the other day asking me what I thought about the fact Ron Paul refused to return a $500.00donation from a "white supremacist" . First thing, why is the media making such a big deal over a $500.00 donation. First thing Bruce Ratner will tell you is that takes a hell of a lot more money than that to buy a politician. Secondly, all candidates get money from all sorts of people - I am a hell of a lot more worried about the millions pouring into Hillary's and Huckabee's war chests from people calling for us to bomb Iran and (literally) start WWIII with the Muslim world. Why not dozens of articles about this in main stream media? Well, because many of those same media owners and corporations hold the same views.

Think about it. The one candidate calling for withdrawl from Iraq and an end to our bellicose foreign policy, the one guy against the patriot act and for individual liberty is being pegged as a 'nazi'. Such is the mind-set of our elite today.


For a more detailed explanation of why the charge against Paul is ridiculous see Juston Ramando's column:
This has all the marks of a coordinated hit job, and although I wouldn't venture to guess who's doing the coordinating, it seems clear to me that the Republican Establishment is frightened to death of an independent run by Paul in the general election – a possibility Paul hasn't completely ruled out. By marginalizing him now before he cuts into the GOP base, they can save themselves a lot of trouble – and if they have to get in bed with a lot of truly sleazy types, such as Messrs. White and Black, well, then, that's why they call them "dirty tricks."

No bag of tricks, no matter how dirty, is going to be enough to stop the Ron Paul Revolution: his appeal is only increasing, along with his visibility, and smear campaigns like the one exposed above are only going to cause thinking people to wonder what the smear-mongers are so afraid of.


Of course they probably know the charges are ridiculous - but they also know the power of a big lie.

Globalisation is an anomaly and its time is running out

From James Kunslter:
Globalisation is an anomaly and its time is running out

Cheap energy and relative peace helped create a false doctrine
James Howard Kunstler
Thursday August 4, 2005

The big yammer these days in the United States is to the effect that globalisation is here to stay: it's wonderful, get used to it. The chief cheerleader for this point of view is Thomas Friedman, columnist for the New York Times and author of The World Is Flat. The seemingly unanimous embrace of this idea in the power circles of America is a marvellous illustration of the madness of crowds, for nothing could be further from the truth than the idea that globalisation is now a permanent fixture of the human condition.

.........
The economic distortions and perversities that have built up in the current era are not hard to see, though our leaders dread to acknowledge them. The dirty secret of the US economy for at least a decade now is that it has come to be based on the ceaseless elaboration of a car-dependent suburban infrastructure - McHousing estates, eight-lane highways, big-box chain stores, hamburger stands - that has no future as a living arrangement in an oil-short future.

The American suburban juggernaut can be described succinctly as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. The mortgages, bonds, real estate investment trusts and derivative financial instruments associated with this tragic enterprise must make the judicious goggle with wonder and nausea.

Add to this grim economic picture a far-flung military contest, already under way, really, for control of the world's remaining oil, and the scene grows darker. Two-thirds of that oil is in the possession of people who resent the west (America in particular), many of whom have vowed to destroy it. Both America and Britain have felt the sting of freelance asymmetrical war-makers not associated with a particular state but with a transnational religious cause that uses potent small arms and explosives to unravel western societies and confound their defences.

China, a supposed beneficiary of globalisation, will be as desperate for oil as all the other players, and perhaps more ruthless in seeking control of the supplies, some of which they can walk to. Of course, it is hard to imagine the continuation of American chain stores' manufacturing supply lines with China, given the potential for friction. Even on its own terms, China faces issues of environmental havoc, population overshoot, and political turmoil - orders of magnitude greater than anything known in Europe or America.

Viewed through this lens, the sunset of the current phase of globalisation seems dreadfully close to the horizon. The American public has enjoyed the fiesta, but the blue-light special orgy of easy motoring, limitless air-conditioning, and super-cheap products made by factory slaves far far away is about to close down. Globalisation is finished. The world is about to become a larger place again.

· James Howard Kunstler is the author of The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

Not All Fanatics Are Religious...in Fact, Most Are Atheists.

One curious thing has always struck me about atheists - despite claiming to embrace reason, they are often the most irrational and emotionally unstable - let's just say high strung- people I have ever met; and the things they believe? Let's just say 'religious' people don't have to feel ashamed about those who 'believe' statues of the Virgin Mary cry when atheists:

a. If all religion just went away problems would vanish. Many actually 'quote' the famous (and bad) John Lennon song 'imagine' Richard Dawkins did this in an recent article, and claimed that there were no religion there would be no Northern Ireland, Israeli-Palestinian, Indo-Pakistan conflict. As mentioned earlier, this is remarkable in the breadth and scope of its ignorance.

b. They believe that religion should be 'oppressed' or made illegal or banished from all public spaces. Sam Harris even says that certain people should be killed for their beliefs. Of course this is not unusual for atheists. Atheistic communists killed hundreds of thousands of East European clergy for just that - refusing to renounce religion.

Atheists have always been fanatic about imposing their ideology on people -forcing them if necessary- while being equally fanatic about banning public display of religion. When confronted with this obvious double standard they will mutter something about separation of church and state. Oh, I see, it's OK to force feed ideology to, say, school children, as long as it's not labeled 'religion'. That's convenient, isn't it? One of the few intelligent things so called Christian fundamentalists have done in recent years to actually try to expand the definition of religion to include ideologies like secular humanism - that would be a coup d'etat, wouldn't it, getting 'separation of church and state' applied to all secular humanists ideas.

A Christmas Message From the Anglican Bishop In Jerusalem


No Anglicans aren't just Anglo-Saxons like me....the 9000 + strong congregation in Jerusalem are almost entirely Palestinian:

Christmas Message from Bishop Suheil

To all our friends across the world,



I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Soon, we shall be celebrating the Feast of Christmas and whilst we must never forget the suffering of many in this Holy Land and in countless other places across the world, we must not neglect the importance of remembering that God gave us the most precious gift possible when He gave us Jesus. The very name, foretold by the Prophet Isaiah alerts us to this:

“The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us).” (Isaiah ch.7 v.14)

Before the birth, many godly people had tried to convey information about God, but through Jesus we are informed directly of God’s love and care for His people together with the response He would have us give to Him.

When the angel spoke to the shepherds guarding their sheep during the night of Jesus’ birth, he told them not to be afraid because he brought them “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke ch.2 v.10). I hope that the angel’s words will convince each of us to respond with joy as we celebrate Christ’s birth and to explain to those around us the reason for our joy. The knowledge that God gave us this most precious gift is not to be kept as a secret but shared widely.

We know very well from St. Luke’s Gospel that the angel was soon joined by a “multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying – Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke ch.2 v.14) Therefore, we must work for peace to show our appreciation for God’s gift. It will begin first in our own hearts and homes, but it must not stop there. We need to work for peace across the world – God’s peace with God’s justice.

Naturally, we would very much appreciate your help to find true peace here in the Holy Land, so that Palestinian and Israeli, Christian, Moslem, and Jew can live side by side – with security and good will.

Your prayers and your action in reminding your governments of their involvement are most needed! We must keep the message of Christmas constantly before us rather than putting it away for another year. Again, if we return to St. Luke’s Gospel, we are reminded that the shepherds did not keep the message of their personal experience of seeing the Holy Child to themselves. Rather, “they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.” (Luke ch.2 v.17)

Here and now is the opportunity for each of us to share more widely our Christian faith and thus prove that we allow God’s most precious gift to work within us to the full.

Let me take the opportunity to wish you peace and joy in your hearts and homes this Advent and Christmas, and every blessing for the New Year.

Naturally, if you feel able to visit with us in the near future, please know that your presence will be a real encouragement to all our people. You can be sure of a warm welcome here at St. George’s Cathedral, the mother church of our diocese. You can also follow in the footsteps of the shepherds and visit Bethlehem!


God bless you all!


Yours in His love,

+ Suheil Dawani
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem

Some Hate Crimes Are More Equal Than Others

Why is every time a swastika, and now, a noose, appears, the media and FBI spent countless hours in pursuit of the culprits, yet:::


Manger Scenes Vandalized
[James Fulford] @ 12:39 am [Email author] [Email This Article] [Print This Article]

This is a list of some of the vandalism cited by the Catholic League–they don’t provide details for most of the occurrences, but see below:

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights
MANGER SCENES VANDALIZED

December 19, 2007

Today, the Catholic League erected a nativity scene in Central Park. Unfortunately, vandals have destroyed or stolen manger scenes nationwide. Here are some of the locales:

· Foreman, Arkansas
· Rogers, Arkansas
· Antioch, California
· Glastonbury, Connecticut
· Arredondo Farms, Florida (three instances)
· Bal Harbour, Florida
· Fort Walton Beach, Florida
· Panama City, Florida (more than a dozen incidences)
· Tampa, Florida
· Bainbridge, Georgia
· Schaumberg, Illinois (two instances)
· Kearney, Missouri (two instances)
· Kirkwood, Missouri
· Bozeman, Montana
· Lattimore, North Carolina
· Westbury, New York (the homeowner was assaulted)
· Elyria, Ohio
· Sylvania Township, Ohio
· Greensboro, North Carolina
· Leesburg, Virginia
· Marlow, West Virginia

In perhaps the sickest incident, an elementary public school coach in Marietta, Georgia drove students around the area in his pickup truck instructing them to thrash Christmas displays after dark; they also created obscene displays with some of the adorning statues.

There’s also this, from Eugene, Oregon: Nativity vandalism probed as hate crime,December 24, 2007:

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Two separate Eugene families whose nativity scenes were desecrated this week when a vandal replaced the baby Jesus figure with severed pigs’ heads say they were targeted because of their religious faith.

The culprits left other, more secular decorations untouched and focused only on the families’ religious displays.

“To me, they definitely wanted to make a religious statement,” said David Stahl of Eugene, who discovered a pig head in his front yard Thursday. “This takes definite thought and too much anger.”

Christians worldwide have so far failed to respond by rioting, killing innocent bystanders or each other, or burning the Oregon State Flag. Maybe Christians actually are a religion of peace?

The Knickerblogger Advent - The Feast Of Stephen


We're old school here - the 12 days of Christmas - interesting enough, the biggest celebration in Elizabethan times was not Christmas day, but "Twelfth Night" on Epiphany. (Thus the Shakespeare play title).

Anyway, today is the Feast of Stephen, immortalized in the non-Christmas Christmas song (for it takes place the day after) "Good King Wenceslas":

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather. (or "...winter weather.")

"Sire, the night is darker now, and the winds blow stronger; (or "...wind blows...")
Fails my heart, I know not how, I can go no longer." (or "...can not go longer.")
"Mark my footsteps, my good page. Treadst thou in them boldly: (or "Tread now...")
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly." (or "Thou should find...")

In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.



In Ireland the day is one of nine official public holidays [3].

In Irish it is called Lá Fhéile Stiofán or Lá an Dreoilín — the latter translates literally as another English name used, the Day of the Wren or Wren's Day. When used in this context, 'wren' is often pronounced 'ran'. This name alludes to several legends, including those found in Ireland linking episodes in the life of Jesus to the wren. In parts of Ireland persons carrying either an effigy of a wren, or an actual caged wren, travel from house to house playing music, singing and dancing. Depending on which region of the country, they are called Wrenboys, Mummers or Strawboys. A Mummer's Festival is held at this time every year in the village of New Inn, Co. Galway. St Stephen's Day is also a popular day for visiting family members. A popular rhyme, known to many Irish children and sung at each house visited by the mummers goes as follows:

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
On St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,
Up with the kettle and down with the pan,
Give us some money to bury the wren.

Deep Recession?

Over Christmas port, that was the sobering word from a non-alarmist friend of mine who works...'on the street'. While I got a bit confused about some of the reasons/numbers the gist is it don't look pretty - and the financial mess created by irresponsible lending and falsely rated financial products is going to take a long, long time to dig out of. Massive losses on Wall Street might cause the city and state to perhaps cut back and reconsider massive wastes of money like subsidizing fat cat Bruce Rat?

I can only hope, but I do not expect it. If the financial industry has been this imprudent, one can only imagine the games the state is playing - and expecting politicians to have foresight? You may as well wait for a Christmas card from Abe Foxman.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Knickerblogger Advent Christmas Day

Monday, December 24, 2007

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.


And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 1But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

The Christmas Truce, 1914


It's one of those hard to believe it really happened incidents: The truces occurred on several places along the Western front, I will recount one of the more famous occurrences. On Christmas Eve, after six months of heavy fighting and causalities, the Germans and English regiments were separated by trenches. The English, were cold, hungry, and forgotten by their high command.

At midnight, on Christmas eve, suddenly the German trenches lit up. Nervous English soldiers peered over the trenches- was it another assault? They were stunned by the site - in a desolate, crater filled midnight landscape - the German trenches were lit up with Christmas trees and the soldiers began to sing in "Silent Night" in German. The English joined in, singing in English and soon they were exchanging carols.

After this, The officers started to talk and eventually met in the "no man's land" and agreed to a Christmas Truce. The English, as mentioned, were not supplied with anything beyond normal rations, and the Germans shared their food and drink with the English. In our 24 hour convenience store society its difficult to imagine what a Christmas ham, warm rum punch, and sweets must of tasted like to a hungry, cold solider who had been living in water logged trenches for months. We are bewildered that just a few generations ago, tangerines and oranges were Christmas treats.

The men went on to spend Christmas day together and have a feast. Certainly many must have considered the senselessness of this war. Informal truces broke out all along the front....The men were reluctant to return to fighting the next day and the high command on both sides reprimanded their officers and shipped off the men to different parts of the front. Just one example of all to many of how the power elite failed the people.

Pessimists sneer at this episode "ugg they went back to killing a week later", but to me it shows there is hope for mankind, and it was one of the few sensible moments in an otherwise senseless war.

ps: The picture above is from the movie Joyeux Noel, which covers some of the events. Recommend viewing.

Christmas Eve






Band Aid, Band Aid 20...the Devolution of Music.

Am I just being a curmudgeon or does the 'new improved' Band Aid pale in comparison to the gritty, spontaneous original?





Trying to be too polished yet emotional, and there is a noticeble decline in the quality of the melody, song, singers, and of course they had to add a 'rapper'

Friday, December 21, 2007

Idiocracy, The Trial Scene, Plant Scene




How far is this from reality?

The Shape Of Things To Come?

Free Speech Is Not A Human Right In Canada

Rather like those polygamous Mormon separatists who live right on the Utah-Arizona border and build their houses on skids so they can drag them just across the dividing line when the state police are coming to arrest them, Voltaire spent his last two decades on the French-Swiss border in the village of Ferney, near Geneva, just in case.

Canadian native Mark Steyn lives in a small American town, not far from the Canadian border. The wisdom of residing in a country with a constitutional protection for free speech (or should I say, the country?) was pointed out by his being called before Canada’s Human Rights Commission to account for the crime of publishing an excerpt from his bestseller America Alone in Maclean’s, Canada’s leading newsmagazine. Apparently, freedom of speech is not a human right in Canada.

The Canadian Islamic Council that filed the nuisance suit may not win against somebody as globally-connected as Steyn, but the lesson for anybody actually living in Canada is clear.

This abuse isn’t as severe as what psychologist J.P. Rushton had to put up with a decade and a half ago in Canada–he was under police investigation for over half a year. But, it is indicative of how diversity and civil liberties are increasingly in collision.

The future of the world may well look like the old Ottoman Empire writ large: multiculturalism on a remarkable scale, but public liberty close to non-existent — it was simply too dangerous in such a diverse community.

In the short run, we may be able to slow down the arrival of the long run by organizing boycotts of tourism and conferences in countries, such as Canada, that abuse the right to free speech.


best comment on Steve's blog:

We have a little more protection here because free speech is spelled out so clearly and there's vestiges of a tradition of protecting unpopular speech, but it's already in the process of being removed via hate crimes legislation. (Any bets on how long until VDARE is sued out of existence?) The ultimate irony is that the free speech clause was originally conceived only to apply to political speech - the thought of protecting, say, pornography would have been inconceivable to the framers. As it's evolving between hate crime and campaign finance laws, pornography will be the only thing considered to be under first amendment protection in another generation...

Advent, December 21

Steyn On The Christmas Wars.

THE CHRISTMAS WARS Print E-mail
Seasons of Steyn
Friday, 21 December 2007

"The Christmas wars" is a Christmas tradition all of its own these days. This column appeared in The Daily Telegraph on December 21st 2004, but the final paragraph's musings on "the right not to be offended" appear very pertinent to certain proceedings coming soon to a Canadian Human Rights Commission near you:

One December a few years back, I was in Santa Claus, Indiana, and went to the Post Office - a popular destination thanks to its seasonal postmark.

"Merry Christmas!" I said provocatively.

But Postmistress Sandy Colyon was ready for me. "A week ago," she said, "I'd have had to say 'Happy Holidays', but we've been given a special dispensation from the Postmaster-General allowing us to say 'Merry Christmas'. So Merry Christmas!"

That's "Christmas" at the dawn of the third millennium - a word you have to get a special memo from head office authorising the use thereof. In America, most executive honchos would rather not take the risk, instructing the staff to eschew any mention of the C-word in favour of "Happy Holidays!" - the all-purpose inoffensive greeting that covers Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Eid, the Third Wednesday after Ramadan, hippy-dippy solstice worship, West Bank Suicide Bomber Appreciation Day and any other festive occasion you've lined up for the general vicinity of late 2004/early 2005.

For US columnists, the end-of-year column bemoaning the fanatical efforts to expunge all Christmas traditions from public life has become an annual Christmas tradition in itself. This year, there's no shortage of contenders for silliest Santa suit. In one New Jersey school district, the annual trip to see Dickens's A Christmas Carol has been cancelled after threats of legal action. At another New Jersey school, the policy on not singing any songs mentioning God, Christ, angels, etc, has been expanded to prohibit instrumental performances of music that would mention God if any singers were around to sing the words. So you can't do Silent Night as a piano solo or Handel's Messiah even if you junk the hallelujahs.

But let's not obsess on New Jersey's litigious secularists. In Plano, Texas, in the heart of God-fearin' Bush country, parents were instructed not to bring red and green plates and napkins for the school's "winter" parties, as red and green are colours with strong Christmas connotations and thus culturally oppressive. In Massachusetts, in the heart of Bush-fearin' country, the mayor of Somerville issued an apology for accidentally referring to the town "holiday party" as a C-------- party.....

more.

DDDB/NY Daily News on Pilots

My note: Who pays for this shit? You and me. The justification is 'it brings jobs' well, when I get my food at the Korean deli (nice guy on Lafayyette) I bring jobs. I don't get tax breaks. Who then, bears the burden of paying for the infrastructure? Middle class tax payers while super wealthy big corporations get tax breaks - and small and medium size business and manufacturers -who haven't had the wisdom to bribe contribute to politicians pick up the tab for billionaires like Bruce Ratner and the New York "we should raises taxes, except for us" Times.

Yes the system is broke, and that won't be just a metaphor when our long ignored infrastructure starts to break down or fuel prices jack up the price of a loaf of bread - oh that's already happening.

It's Auto-PILOT for Forest City Ratner

The Daily News's Juan Gonzalez takes a much needed look at the City's use of PILOTS (Payments in Lieu of Taxes). These PILOTS enable large corporations to avoid paying their property taxes. Of course PILOTS are a huge part of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. These payments they'll make in lieu of property taxes, instead of going into city coffers for the common treasury, will go to paying off the construction bond debt for their Barclays Center arena and to the State of New York. One year to the day since the poiltical approval of Atlantic Yards by the Public Authorities Control Board and still nobody has any idea what the amount of Atlantic Yards PILOTs will be. Nobody.

Gonzalez highlights the Ratner PILOT history and plan for Atlantic Yards, placed alongside some of the the biggest corporation's in the city. Why might you not have heard much about this issue before? One reason, Gonzalez explains, is that Forest City Ratner's business partner and parent of the Paper of Record, the New York Times Company, "feeds at the same trough."

The Gonzalez column:

Deals that lead to lost property taxes

New York City lost more than $100 million in property taxes last year because of privately negotiated deals with some of the world's richest companies.

The companies - including behemoths like JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer and NBC - have paid a fraction of their normal property tax bill for years through these little-known deals, commonly called PILOTs (Payments in Lieu of Taxes).

An internal Bloomberg administration report obtained by the Daily News shows:
  • The giant American International Group paid nothing in PILOTs for fiscal 2007, saving $4.1 million on its annual property tax bill.
  • The American Stock Exchange, that symbol of the free market, paid a mere $1,070 in PILOTs - far less than a South Bronx homeowner would pay in taxes. The exchange's tax break from City Hall saved it nearly $1.5 million.
  • JPMorgan Chase paid just $1.9million in PILOTs, 20% of the $9.6 million in property taxes it normally would be assessed.
Most New Yorkers are aware of the outrageous $10 million property tax exemption Madison Square Garden has enjoyed for decades, courtesy of the state Legislature.

So why haven't we heard much about these other tax giveaways in, say, the liberal New York Times? Maybe because the newspaper of record is feeding at the same trough.

The Times paid $219,000 in PILOTs last year for its new printing plant in College Point, Queens, the report said. That's a paltry 13% of the $1.7 million assessed tax on the Times plant.

The undisputed king of PILOTs is real estate developer Bruce Ratner. His Forest City/Ratner firm paid the city $9.7 million last year for half a dozen commercial buildings the company owns in downtown Brooklyn. That sounds like a lot of money - until you realize it's only one-third of the company's actual $26.3 million property tax bill.

Congress Betrays Voters...Again

Congress was elected and the Republicans thrown out, on two issues - the Iraq war and illegal immigration. Pre election democrats promised to be tough on immigration and end the Iraq war, once in they ignore their constiutents and caved in to their lobbies -that is, if they ever had any thought of enforcing it at all!

Congress Delivers Coal to America’s Christmas Stocking

How evil is Washington?

Evil enough to destroy the border fence in the dark of night right before Christmas, when people are busy shopping and not watching Congress carefully. Legislators know full welll that Americans want their border enforced, as required by the Constitution (Article 4, Section 4).

According to Rep Brian Bilbray (interviewed on the John and Ken radio show on Tuesday 12/18), the omnibus spending bill is even worse than how it’s been described in many reports.

It’s bad enough that the legislation reduces the fence from a substantial double structure with a road in the middle to an easily scalable single wall. But in addition, the Congressional leadership cut out the provision that required federal contractors to use the e-verify system to make sure workers were legal; Congress doesn’t even want to prevent hiring illegals with federal funds. (Listen here to what Rep Bilbray has to say.)

And the malevolence doesn’t stop there. Any fencing is now discretionary and subject to the desires of local Indian tribes, community groups and property owners. Since when did imaginary property rights trump the ability of the government to enforce the nation’s borders and sovereignty?

Thursday, December 20, 2007

NY's Thriving Eminent Domain Industry

NY's Threatening Eminent Domain Industry

As few have noted in the mainstream press, New York City has a thriving eminent domain industry. Attorney and urban planner, Michael White, has an OpEd in today's NY Sun examining the current captains of that industry - Forest City Ratner, Columbia University and the Empire State Development Corporation. White discusses how the threat of eminent domain is as powerful a tool as eminent domain itself.

We believe strongly that a private institution or corporation -- Columbia University or Forest City Ratner -- must not be allowed to threaten a governmental, constitutional power they have no legal right to use, years before government even begins discussions on approving fifth amendment condemnation. And any government body that allows such threatening, extra-legal behavior is an accomplice.

From the NY Sun OpEd, we quote at length:

Columbia Pulls a Kelo
By Michael White

In a City Council hearing this week I pointed out something our politicians already know: New York has an eminent domain industry and it's thriving.

The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects private property from being taken by eminent domain, says that property can only be taken for "public use." And while the language of the constitution remains the same, the interpretation has changed.

Once upon a time, "eminent domain" meant private property could only be taken for public use, for things such as roads or public parks. Now, it is possible to take property from one private owner and give it to another -- if public officials endorse that the shift will be for the "public good." Needless to say, the condemnation industry is busy
Most don't know that a private owner who covets the property of another can, outside the scrutiny of the public eye, start the condemnation process by writing a check to the self-funding government agency ? to finance costs, including government staff salaries ? so that agency will put together materials advancing the condemnation. In that vein, Columbia University, interested in acquiring a swath of West Harlem, wrote a $300,000 starter check to ESDC in 2004, years before any public hearings.




Public use can now mean increasing tax revenue (look out tax exempt churches - and if think I am joking, its already happened in Bridgeport, Conn), look out historic properties, look out wildlife refuges - none you see, generate as much tax revenue as a corporate headquarters or shopping mall.

Just keep letting them America! Keep eroding the middle class, keep driving small and medium sized companies out of business by handing over their land to Forest City and their ilk. Pass on the problems to the next generation, flip on the playoffs and crack a cold one.

This is system is corrupt beyond belief and the worse it gets, the more it seems, Americans become oblivious to it. We have slept while a pack of jackals have hijacked the republic, provoking us into war, ignoring our borders, intentionally destroying the middle class, twisting laws and concepts to favor big business and political insiders. I am pessemistic about it ever stopping. Politicians, funded by PACs make promises, then break them and buy enough time for the public to forget or to literally import a new people. At this point, I don't know what's to be done.

Is there an honest judge out there? A whistle blower at the ESDC? An insider willing to come forward?

Vdare War On Christmas IV

And it’s a worthy battle—Christmas is a part of American culture and Western Civilization, and there are valid reasons—religious, cultural and nationalistic—to defend it.

Christmas inspires great art and literature. Think, for example, of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, which I have assigned as reading material to high school students here in Mexico.

Those of us who are parents and teachers should bear in mind that our children’s Christmas experiences—if they’re allowed to have them—make a deep imprint and will be remembered the rest of their lives.

I was raised in rural Oklahoma. We would go out each year and chop down a cedar tree, bring it to the house, and hear my mother say "That’s the prettiest Christmas tree we’ve ever had." Christmas caroling, church pageants and the arrival of Santa Claus in a fire truck downtown are among my vivid Christmas memories.
......

Navidad in Mexico is a great time of the year. If you like, click here and listen to the 1970 bilingual hit song by blind Puerto Rican singer Jose Feliciano entitled Feliz Navidad.

This was back in 1970, remember, when the Spanish language was just a novelty for most Americans, and wasn’t being forced down their throats through mass immigration and multiculturalism. This was before Univision was hosting presidential debates in Spanish, before widespread bilingual education in schools, and before you had to press "1" on the phone for English.

In other words, it was back in the days when our cultures maintained a healthier distance, so it was easier to appreciate each other. True respect for another culture recognizes that another culture is, after all, another culture.

Questions Main Stream Media Doesn't Want You To Ask

Christmas Forecast: Sunny And 67 Degrees–So Why Are Americans Leaving California?

The weather forecast for December 25, 2007 in LA is typical for this time of year: sunny and 67 degrees (19 degrees Centigrade). (The mild winter temperatures are not purchased at the expense of cruel summers, either: the average high on the Fourth of July in downtown LA, 18 miles from the beach, is only 83 degrees.)

But fewer and fewer Americans are enjoying Los Angeles’s routinely amazing weather. The LA Times reports:

More flee state than move in

Population is up thanks to births and foreign immigrants, but rest of U.S. isn’t California dreamin’ like it was.

… In Los Angeles County alone [in fiscal 2007], nearly 115,000 fewer residents came from other states and California counties than moved to other states and counties. The county ended up with a total increase in population thanks to 91,000 births and an influx of 70,000 residents from foreign countries. (The county now has roughly 10,294,000 residents).

Since 2000, about 500,000 more people have left Los Angeles County than have moved here from other parts of the U.S. and California, the figures show.

Of course, a huge fraction of the births are to immigrants.

Why exactly is America following a policy of driving American citizens out of mainland America’s most pleasant climatic zone?

By the way, have the strategic business geniuses at the LA Times ever noticed that their plummeting sales figures are linked to the replacement of English-literate Angelenos by foreigners who can’t read English, and often can read at all? (According to a recent United Way study, 53% of adults in LA are functionally illiterate.)




I know Sailer asks it rhetorically - the answer is, they don't just want to drive us out of where the weather is pleasant, they want to see us marginalized and stripped of power.

Its only a matter of time now before all this hubris and misguided policy brews into the 'perfect storm'

Day...Err Dec 19th of The Knickerblogger Advent Calender.


Christmas In the Holy Land & Palestinian Christians:





If there are any peoples that have been so shamelessly forgotten that need to be remembered this Christmas season, it is the Christians of Palestine. Since 1948, their numbers have been reduced from 35% of cities like Jerusalem, and near 100% in cities like Ramallah, to less that 5%. Much to our shame, most American Christians, especially the Baptist/Zionist ilk, ignores or even more disgustingly, are indifferent to their plight.