April 8, 2004
From time to time, a story comes across the wire that makes one wonder if humans can survive without cerebrums. By all evidence, it's not only theoretically possible, but occasionally can be verified. For instance, the people in charge of the Easter celebration at Glassport Assembly of God in Glassport, PA, either provide living proof of this theory or try very hard to avoid thinking things all the way through: A church trying to teach about the crucifixion of Jesus performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs, upsetting several parents and young children. People who attended Saturday's performance at Glassport's memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, "There is no Easter bunny," and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified. I don't know to which orientation or denomination the Glassport church belongs; some fundamentalist churches feel strongly about traditions such...
April 9, 2004
Have you ever had a feeling that you forgot something? Did you ever leave the house and suddenly remember that your wallet was on the dresser instead in your pants pocket? Surely most of us have walked away from our desks at the office and left the report we were supposed to bring to the meeting. If so, then this may sound familiar, even if the stakes are somewhat higher: A federal air marshal accidentally left her gun in a restroom at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, an airport spokeswoman said Friday. A passenger found the semiautomatic handgun Thursday and notified an airport employee. The employee then told airport police, who secured the weapon, said the spokeswoman, Pat Smith. "They later found it belonged to a federal air marshal who apparently was using the restroom and put it up on the shelf while she was washing her hands and forgot about...
April 23, 2004
A Seattle company has surreptitiously added a message, in French, to labels on its laptop bags and backpacks apologizing for "our President" and claiming that they didn't vote for him (via Wonkette): Bihn's sales have doubled since a French-language presidential insult mysteriously made its way onto the bilingual washing instructions for hundreds of his laptop bags and backpacks. The labels read: "Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui." Translated into English: "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him." It's been a while since my high-school French classes, but I don't believe that the correct French idiom for voting is 'We don't have vote for him', which is how Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui literally translates. (It's the wrong tense, for one thing.) Nor is his wiggling about the meaning of the label convincing or...
April 25, 2004
Via Power Line, Portland IndyMedia provides a great example of the moral decay evident amongst the anarcho-socialist leftists (not the mainstream left -- there is a huge difference between the two). The headline on IndyMedia's post about the death of Pat Tillman? Dumb Jock Killed in Afghanistan Here's a few of the sentiments you can find among the International ANSWER crowd: maybe he should have intervened when the CIA was training, funding and equiping bin Laden and Al Qaeda during the 80s. that might have actually accomplished something. ... "Cottled [sic] sports star allows nationalism to foster jingoistic irresponsibility resulting in his death", or how about "Citizen of empire allows ignorance to cause him to die for imperialism", or maybe "Capitalist chooses to kill innocents instead of cashing check" ... Tillman chose to go to Afghanistan. He's partially reponsible for the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of Afghan civilians. No...
May 6, 2004
One of the first qualifications for teaching or coaching children should be that you have a higher level of maturity than those you would lead. Unfortunately, at Pleasantville Middle School in Pleasantville, NJ, no such standards applied at the time these idiots were hired: The 13-year-old boy's coach called him just before last month's team banquet and told him to make sure he attended because he was getting a special trophy, the boy's father said. At the event, the boy watched as all of his Pleasantville Middle School teammates received trophies or certificates. He was then called up to receive his award, and a coach told the crowd that the boy was being honored because "he begged to get in the game, and all he did was whine." The trophy had a silver figure of a baby atop a pedestal engraved with the boy's name, which was spelled incorrectly. Family...
May 22, 2004
The European Union's new member, Estonia, has just handed them their first major cultural challenge. Estonian veterans of World War II, which consist of men who fought for Nazi Germany's notorious SS, plan on building a memorial to Estonian SS soldiers who fought the Russians: The Society of Fighters for Estonia's Freedom, which includes, among others, veterans of the Estonian 20th SS division, has initiated the opening of a monument to Estonian SS fighters who fought for Nazi Germany during WWII, Russia's Interfax quoted the Postimees newspaper as reporting on Saturday. The initiators plan to install the monument in Tallinn's district of Maarjamae, about fifty meters away from a memorial in honor of the Soviet forces who fought in Estonia, in July this year, Interfax said. Three large crosses are already installed at the site. The new monument is intended to include plaques bearing the names of 16 Estonian units...
May 24, 2004
Sooner or later, it is said, everyone gets embarrassed by their friends or family. While it seems like it happens more frequently to our colleagues on the rational Left, we have our own lunatic fringe on the right, and when they get out of the box they can be just as, ah ... entertaining as anything the Left can provide. Today's lesson in right-wing/Christian idiocy comes to us from WorldNet Daily, via Memeorandum, in which a Texas group of Christians propose mass Christian migration to South Carolina and a subsequent secession as a cure for all evil in America: Calling the approval of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts "the straw that broke the camel's back," a group of Christian activists is in the beginning stages of an effort to have one state secede from the United States to become its own sovereign nation. "Our Christian republic has declined into a pagan...
June 15, 2004
Over the past few days, I've had the distinct displeasure of getting buried under a swarm of virus-laden spam. Somehow I ended up on someone's broadcast list and whoever built the list has been infected by an e-mail virus. Fortunately, Hosting Matters has a built-in virus detection program that strips infected attachments before I download the mail, and changes the subject line to alert me. However, the source has been nothing if not persistent, and I have received at least a dozen such e-mails. However, that's nothing compared to the other members of the list. I have been inundated with reply-alls from the mouthbreathers on the distribution, asking the source to quit sending the e-mails, as if they've never heard of address spoofing before. Once the first round of reply-alls went out asking for people to stop, another round of reply-alls quickly followed telling the first-rounders that they weren't sending...
June 17, 2004
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports this morning on a St. Paul kiss that went way, way out of control: Passion turned to agony early Wednesday morning when a 43-year-old St. Paul woman locked in a kiss with her boyfriend bit off an inch and a half of the man's tongue, according to police. The woman, who told police that she has been victimized by men in the past, said she became frightened when her 47-year-old boyfriend squeezed her too tightly as they were kissing at her home in St. Paul. "I guess I bit down too hard," police said the woman told them after the incident. The boyfriend told police that the couple had been arguing and were making up when he was bitten. The Strib declined to identify the assailant, even though they routinely identify male assault suspects. I assume the reluctance springs from the woman's apparent defense strategy of...
PETA has escalated its war on the Ringling Brothers circus, using the death of a high-wire artist to attack it even though the fall had nothing to do with the use of animals: The animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has asked the city of St. Paul to take legal action against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the case of an acrobat who fell to her death during a performance last month at Xcel Energy Center. Dessi Espana, 32, was performing an aerial ballet move near the top of a 30-foot-long piece of silk chiffon hanging from a frame when the equipment securing the top of the fabric failed. She landed head first on the arena's concrete floor and later died. Lisa Wathne, PETA's captive exotic specialist, sent a letter to City Attorney Manuel Cervantes on Wednesday, calling on him to investigate the...
June 20, 2004
As a resident of the Twin Cities, I have flown Northwest Airlines for many years. While I don't necessarily agree with the local nickname for the pride of Eagan -- Northworst -- after hearing about their navigational talent, I'm not so sure: Robert Morrell wondered what was up after his Northwest Airlines flight touched down. Nobody from the flight crew got on the intercom to welcome passengers to Rapid City, S.D. He looked out the window and saw barracks-like structures and military officials. And then the crew told passengers to pull down their window shades. Turns out it wasn't Rapid City Regional Airport. It was Ellsworth Air Force Base. The Northwest pilots landed at the wrong airport! Ellsworth is a few miles short of the Rapid City Regional Airport, and apparently the crew mistook one for the other. Passengers who expected to disembark on landing were instead told to shut...
July 2, 2004
Houston may have some problems filling a jury pool, but I didn't think that they were this desperate. Harris County has served a jury summons to Nathan Dale Campbell, who may be less than an ideal candidate for most courts: Nathan Dale Campbell was first summoned to report for Harris County jury service Monday, but the date was then rescheduled to Aug. 30, said a staffer in the district clerk's office. Campbell, 30, was acquitted in 1997 after a jury found he was legally insane when he attacked girlfriend Kristen West the previous year, blinding her in one eye and permanently damaging her sight in the other. Campbell received treatment as an inpatient at the Kerrville State Hospital. The attack followed West's refusal of Campbell's marriage proposal. He said he thought her eyes were demons. ... [L]awyers say it's doubtful he'll be picked for a panel. Houston residents will be...
July 28, 2004
Yesterday a United Airlines flight out of Sydney, Australia returned to the airport in mid-flight because of a bomb threat. The AP reports this morning that the problem may have been more that a bombshell was on board: A note indicating the most attractive person on board may have triggered an aviation alert that forced a Los Angeles-bound flight to turn back to Sydney, Australia on Tuesday. United Airlines Flight 840, carrying 246 passengers including a senior U.S. diplomat was turned around 90 minutes after takeoff Tuesday and returned to Sydney after a flight attendant found the letters "B O B" written on an air sickness bag in one of the Boeing 747's toilets. Flight crews commonly use the letters as an abbreviation for "Bomb On Board," and the captain decided to go back after learning of the find. However, police who searched the plane found no bomb and flight...
August 7, 2004
The AP reports on a piece of human effluvia that produced a video of himself being beheaded in order to deliberately hoax the world into thinking that Islamofascists has brutally murdered another hostage. Why? To protest Islamofascism? No. To protest the war? No. Surely it couldn't be just to get himself some world attention? BINGO! And guess where he lives: The American, Benjamin Vanderford, reached by The Associated Press in San Francisco, said he videotaped the staged beheading at his friend's house using fake blood. Vanderford, 22, said he began distributing the video on the Internet months ago in hopes of drawing attention to his one-time campaign for city supervisor. When his political aspirations waned, he thought the video would serve as social commentary. "It was part of a stunt, but no one noticed it up until now," Vanderford said. "I did this for a couple of reasons. One is...
August 11, 2004
The Elder at Fraters Libertas has been on assignment overseas this past week or so, which appears to consist of touring Dutch museums and eating at fashionable cafes. However, he took time out from his grueling schedule to address a serious issue -- the continuing insistence among the lunatic Left in equating Bush with Naziism. And this time, they have absolutely no excuse: There's somethin' happenin' here. What it is became a bit clearer to me Sunday in Amsterdam. I toured a museum dedicated to the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation. As I made my way through the exhibits, I noticed a few other Americans taking it in as well. I overheard one of them, a woman, make the comment "Now doesn't that sound familiar?" For a moment I paused, but then decided that her remark couldn't be about what I thought. It just could not be. But it...
September 9, 2004
Much has been made by George Bush's political opponents about his rejection of the Kyoto accord, limiting the US in greenhouse-gas production, even though the Senate rejected the treaty unanimously during Clinton's term. John Kerry claims it to be one of the primary reasons his favorite country, France, refused to support the US when it came to toppling Saddam Hussein. It's instructive, then, to see how France's Jacques Chirac demonstrates his personal support for global-warming activism in his daily routine. Is France really committed to implementing controls on the unecessary emissions of greenhouse gases? Perhaps the French people are, but Chirac's support only extends to the limits of his beauty sleep: The most direct route from Paris to Moscow by aircraft is to fly due east. Unless you are President Chirac, that is. The French premier likes his sleep so much that, en route to a Black Sea summit with...
September 27, 2004
It's bad enough that the world is in the midst of the Third Jihad against the West, fought by lunatic-fringe Muslims against what they see as a Judeo-Christian conspiracy to keep them poor and ignorant. (They should really look into the various kleptocracies and mullahcracies that supposedly lead them instead.) But now we have the spectacle of internecine Christian riots at one of Christendom's holiest sites, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, reflecting shame and immaturity on all involved: Greek Orthodox and Franciscan priests got into a fist fight Monday at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christianity's holiest shrine, after arguing over whether a door in the basilica should be closed during a procession. Dozens of people, including several Israeli police officers, were slightly hurt in the brawl at the shrine, built over the spot where tradition says Jesus was crucified and buried. Four priests were detained, police spokesman...
October 2, 2004
The Washington Post has an unusual editorial in today's edition pointing out the efforts of DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe to hijack their Letters section for unpaid advertising. You have to read this to believe it, but apparently some of the mindless sheep he's driving can't tell time: WE RECEIVED THE following letter from a woman in Yonkers, N.Y.: "Dear editor: This debate made it clear: John Kerry is a leader we can trust to tell us the truth when it comes to our nation's security. George Bush has had his chance; I'm ready for a new direction." Cogent, succinct, personal -- everything we look for in a letter. So why are we writing about it here, instead of publishing it in the columns to the right? Unfortunately, the letter, perfect in every other way, arrived in our electronic in-box Thursday afternoon, four hours and 14 minutes before debate moderator Jim...
October 4, 2004
An Australian who redefined the notion of a quick airpport layover managed to shut down an airport when their mechanical paramour decided it still had a bit more life left after being thoughtlessly tossed aside: Hundreds of airline passengers suffered disruption to their travel plans when a major regional airport was shut down for an hour after a humming and vibrating adult sex toy was mistaken for a bomb. The vibrator was discovered at 9:15 am (2315 GMT Sunday) by a security officer who checked out a suspicious package inside a rubbish bin at the terminal cafeteria of Mackay Airport in the northeastern state of Queensland, a police spokeswoman said. The terminal was evacuated immediately while passengers who had just arrived from a flight, check-in staff, cafeteria employees and hire car personnel were all forced to leave. Of course, the first question one asks is why anyone would throw away...
October 14, 2004
The rank-and-file of Swedish labor will not be pleased to learn where their dues money went in Trollhattan, in every sense of the word: Union leaders in the Swedish industrial town of Trollhattan, which is threatened by huge job losses, have quit after allegations they used membership dues to buy liquor, porn and sex toys, the union says. An internal audit by Sweden's second-largest union, Metall, unearthed expense abuses by branch 112 in Trollhattan, where about 6,000 workers at a Saab car factory fear they might be hit by European job cutbacks by Saab owner General Motors. As if that wasn't bad enough, listen to the description of the malfeasance reported by a former union branch employee about the disposition of the items in question: A former cashier at the branch told public radio Ekot of drinking bouts and sex shop sprees during official visits to Denmark and Belgium, using...
October 16, 2004
The French president, Jacques Chirac, has a museum showcasing all of the gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries, an odd form of official showiness that usually is associated with dictators and other narcissists. Having his own museum seems like a perfect reflection of the man who has decided to make himself and France the center of anti-American global expression. Unfortunately for Chirac, his museum also perfectly reflects French economics: A state-funded museum built to display gifts showered on President Jacques Chirac by foreign dignitaries has gone almost three times over budget and is steadily losing money as admission figures slump. Inspectors from the regional audit office in the Corrèze, south-western France, found that the museum, opened in 2000, cost almost £5 million to build and lost more than £400,000 in a single year. Most Western heads of state wait until their retirement to open their libraries; countries usually wait...
October 21, 2004
In a comment to the post I wrote last night regarding the serial defacement of Bush/Cheney signs in Minnesota, CQ reader Smacky linked to an interesting story from Hawaii, where the same phenomenon has cropped up. In this case, political signs have disappeared, primarily those for Republican candidates -- and the culprit turned out to be the son of a Democrat running for office: This election season, thousands of dollars worth of political signs have been stolen, defaced or otherwise trashed at an alarming rate from people's homes and private property. ... But recently, on Primary Election day in late September, an amazing thing happened. One of the "criminals" was caught in the act -- and caught on film. Most interestingly, the culprit, Mike Golojuch Jr., is a frequent letter writer and spokesperson for his version of civil rights and free speech. He was caught stealing the signs of Rep....
October 24, 2004
For an example of why the French have made themselves irrelevant in the modern world, the London Telegraph reports on what the French see as their highest national priority -- forcing everyone in Europe to speak French: A campaign to make French the official language of European law has been launched in an attempt to show the world that France will not bow to the ascendancy of English without a fight. ... Teaching unions and politicians have reacted with indignation to a report calling for English to be obligatory in the school curriculum, while one of President Jacques Chirac's objections to Peter Mandelson as an EU commissioner was that his French was not up to scratch. The foreign ministry has called for a spirited campaign for the language in Brussels while the Académie Française, which campaigns relentlessly for pure French, says defence of the language should be "the major national...
November 4, 2004
Reason's science editor Ronald Bailey bought his mother a pair of tickets to a Joan Baez concert as a birthday gift. Baez performed last night and, as one might expect, had quite a bit to say about the outcome. What Bailey didn't expect was the bizarre minstrel show that recalls Ted Danson's Friars Club debacle: However, the most remarkable and disturbing episode occurred halfway through the concert when Joan stopped singing and announced that she had "multiple personalities." One of her multiple personalities is that of a fifteen year old poor black girl named Alice from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. Baez decided to share with us Alice's views on the election. Amazed and horrified I watched a rich, famous, extremely white folksinger perform what can only be described as bit of minstrelsy—only the painted on blackface was missing. Alice, the black teenager from Arkansas Baez was pretending to be, spoke in...
November 6, 2004
While I was in flight, Michael Moore apparently issued his long-awaited response to the election results, having watched his efforts to smear George Bush and run him out of office come to naught. He exhorts his fans to keep from slitting their wrists by giving them 17 reasons to live on. This, of course, matches the hysterical tone of the rest of the Left today, who have either decided to kill themselves or move to Canada, when they're not busy claiming that vast conspiracies have stolen the election from them. Memo to Democrats: in order to support democracy, you have to accept its results, even when your side loses. If you can't do that without threatening to move away, kill yourselves, or commit violence, then you don't believe in democracy at all. You only want democracy as a cover to impose your beliefs on others, even when the majority disagree...
November 15, 2004
James Carville, one of the leading voices for Democrats over the past 12 years, displayed the kind of class and inclusiveness that Democrats accuse Republicans of lacking on yesterday's Meet the Press. Bill at INDC Journal points out this exchange with Tim Russert on air: MR. RUSSERT: George Bush have a mandate? MR. CARVILLE: The only politician in America I know with a mandate is Jim McGreevey, Tim. MS. MATALIN: Oh, gee. MR. CARVILLE: No, of course he does. I mean, he's going to... MR. RUSSERT: Who's running this guy's material, Mary? This... MS. MATALIN: Oh, I'm not. I'm not getting up anymore. Can you imagine the outcry if Karl Rove -- or hell, even Mary Matalin -- had made fun of James McGreevy's sexual orientation on national TV? ACT-UP would already have pickets outside Capitol Hill demanding someone get fired, and the New York Times would be clucking its...
November 17, 2004
PETA has launched a new campaign that threatens to reveal the organization as a union of performance artists instead of animal-rights activists. Their latest crusade is to convince the world that fish are intelligent individuals with hopes and dreams that should be spared from the dinner table: Touting tofu chowder and vegetarian sushi as alternatives, animal-rights activists have launched a novel campaign arguing that fish — contrary to stereotype — are intelligent, sensitive animals no more deserving of being eaten than a pet dog or cat. Called the Fish Empathy Project, the campaign reflects a strategy shift by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as it challenges a diet component widely viewed as nutritious and uncontroversial. "No one would ever put a hook through a dog's or cat's mouth," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of vegan outreach. "Once people start to understand that fish, although they come in different...
November 18, 2004
You can file this story under criminal stupidity -- on the part of a Twin Cities judge. The Pioneer Press reports that a convicted sex offender has molested again, this time raping his girlfriend's daughter after Judge Joseph T. Carter gave him custody despite his criminal record: Even though Justin Paul Farnsworth was a convicted sex offender, a Dakota County judge agreed to give the Hastings man primary custody of his girlfriend's daughter and the couple's two other children. The judge said it was in the "best interest" of the children. On Wednesday, Farnsworth, 31, was charged with sexually molesting the girlfriend's daughter — just three weeks after gaining permanent custody of the girl, who is younger than 10. The little girl cried to neighbors about the sexual abuse and Farnsworth admitted molesting the girl for months, telling police that "whatever she said, I did," according to the criminal complaint....
Tomorrow's Star Tribune carries a defense for Judge Jospeh T. Carter, who granted permanent custody of three little girls to a known registered sex offender, one of which wasn't even related to him. As I wrote earlier and as anyone with a working cerebrum could guess, the sex offender wound up raping the unrelated young girl for months before she finally sought help from a neighbor. The Strib reports on the response from Minnesota Bar Association president David Stowman. Stowman spoke on behalf of Judge Carter, who has declined to comment on the case. Carter's decision was based on "numerous factors", according to Stowman: • Farnsworth's prior sexual assault was 10 years ago, and the Dakota County Community Corrections Department has since described him as a "success story." • The court-appointed evaluator conducted a custody study that recommended that Farnsworth be awarded custody of the 9-year-old girl. • The girl's...
November 19, 2004
When Robin Williams taught his students the principle of carpe diem in The Dead Poets Society, he did so through impassioned speeches about truth and beauty, as well as an unhealthy dose of rebellion. When an unnamed teacher at a Manchester high school tried inspiring her students to seize the day, she evoked Bruce Willis' Armageddon instead of anything inspirational, and wound up scaring the hell out of a bunch of teenagers: A schoolteacher, attempting to motivate her pupils into making the most of each day, told them a meteorite was about to smash into the Earth and that they should all return home to say goodbye to their families. ... The unnamed female teacher made the announcement to around 250 pupils at St Matthew's Roman Catholic High School during their regular morning assembly. Saying she had bad news, the teacher announced that a meteor would strike the Earth in...
In a follow-up to yesterday's story on Judge Joseph T. Carter's decision to give permanent custody of an unrelated 9-year-old girl to a registered sex offender, the Pioneer Press reports today that Carter broke the rules by not appointing a child advocate in the process: A court-appointed evaluator who recommended earlier this year that convicted sex offender Justin Farnsworth get custody of his girlfriend's daughter said Thursday he now wishes a Dakota County judge had appointed a child advocate to speak on the child's behalf. Evaluator David Jaehne, a West St. Paul attorney, said he spoke with the girl and visited the Hastings home before recommending she permanently live with Farnsworth, 31. "I always talk to the kids. I always go to the home. I interview neighbors," Jaehne said. But Jaehne said he didn't appear in court. He filed his report to Judge Joseph T. Carter, who last month awarded...
November 20, 2004
As part of my focus on the case of Justin Farnsworth, a convicted sex offender given custody by Dakota County Judge Jospeh T. Carter of an unrelated 9-year-old girl Farnsworth raped for months, I have sent letters to my representatives at the Minnesota Legislature urging them to impeach the judge. To the honorable Senator Mike McGinn and Representative Tim Wilkin, As one of your constituents, I must express to you my profound disappointment and dismay with the performance of Judge Joseph T. Carter in Dakota County. In a decision earlier this year, Judge Carter granted custody of three little girls to Justin Paul Farnsworth, who lived with the girls' mother. At the time, both Judge Carter and the court-appointed investigator, David Jaehne, knew that Farnsworth was a registered sex offender who had raped a 13-year-old girl ten years earlier. Despite this information, Judge Carter granted custody to Farnsworth of not...
November 21, 2004
The Grotmonster alerts us to an essay written last Friday by a student at St. Olaf College, an hour south of the Twin Cities and about two light years from reality. In an effort to make us all question the value of a Minnesota education, English and history major Megan Sutherland informs her fellow Olafians that between Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft, she fears the one that hasn't murdered 3,000 people: As I write this article I can only hope that John Ashcroft doesn't show up at my door. This is not to say that Osama Bin Laden is a cuddly teddy bear. Rather, I aim to point out that Bin Laden has motives for his actions. Motives which have been bypassed, simplified and just plain misconstrued by the current administration. Further, just because Bin Laden attempts to highlight his objections through violent means does not mean his underlying...
November 23, 2004
Americans left miserable by watching their Presidential candidate lose set up a website titled Sorry Everybody!, in which various pictures have been posted with apologies for George Bush's re-election. As my good friend and colleage Rocket Man notes at Power Line, SE! has to be one of the silliest excuses for Internet traffic in recent memory. Or at least it was, until someone set up Apologies Accepted, where people around the world posted pictures of themselves accepting the regrets of sore losers in the US. Rocket Man posted a picture of a young woman from Red China professing her love of Blue America, a revealing insight into the kind of people to whom these apologies appeal. (Her smirk certainly must have helped the entry get past the Chinese Internet censors.) Apologies Accepted does provide a service for Americans who want to see the quality of the opposition we face to...
December 16, 2004
Richard Leiby reports in today's Washington Post on an appearance by actor/comedian Chevy Chase at the Lincoln Center Tuesday night that was so embarrassing that even People For The American Way felt it necessary to scold Chase for his tasteless remarks against George Bush. Chase launched a profanity-laced tirade from which even Norman Lear disassociated himself: After actors Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon delivered speeches accepting their Defender of Democracy awards, Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a "dumb [expletive]." He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, "I'm no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad." Chase also said: "This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck...
January 1, 2005
A Washington judge has denied a woman a divorce from the husband who beat her after she disclosed her pregnancy to the court. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the AP report that Judge Paul Bastine took the unusual step in order to, er, preserve the family unit for the unborn child: A Spokane woman trying to divorce her estranged husband two years after he was jailed for beating her has been told by a judge she can't get out of the marriage while she's pregnant. The case pits a first-year attorney who argues that state law allows any couple to divorce if neither spouse challenges it against a longtime family law judge who asserts that the rights of the unborn child in this type of case trump a woman's right to divorce. "There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children not be illegitamized,"...
January 2, 2005
Sometimes Western journalists really make us all look so callous that Third World resentment becomes much more understandable. Case in point: London Times columnist Matthew Parris, who asks us to enjoy the tsunami and its aftermath, as natural disasters keep the world from being too boring. No, I'm not kidding: If it were our choice to trigger this seizure, our hand upon the lever of human fortune, would we have pulled the lever? Of course not. So why the thrill? I have hesitated before using that word “thrill”. It is easily misunderstood. It might seem to make light of the blackest few days ever experienced in the lives of millions. But all the reciting in the world of the scale of these miseries, all the acknowledgement we can make of the sympathy which they evoke, cannot hide a small, uncomfortable thought which (I am pretty confident) has occurred to you...
January 4, 2005
Power goes to a person's head, sometimes more quickly than others. The new sheriff of Clayton County, Georgia seems to be one of the former. Victor Hill celebrated his first day in office by firing 27 people, stationing snipers around the office and driving the fired officers home in prisoner transports: The sheriff, Victor Hill, 39, defended the firings and said he had the right to shake up the department in whatever way he felt necessary. Sheriff Hill also said it was necessary to fire the workers the way he did, including taking some deputies home in vans normally used to transport prisoners because the deputies were barred from using county cars. A Georgia judge disagreed with Sheriff Hill, ordering the 27 officers to be reinstated. Hill tried to use the murder of Derwin Brown in nearby DeKalb County as an excuse to not just fire the 27 officers but...
January 8, 2005
In a shocking development that may put a quick end to Hollywood's infatuation with their latest spiritual fad, a leader of the modern Kabbalah discipline blamed Jews for the Nazi Holocaust, claiming that they disdained the "Light" and brought the genocide onto themselves: Eliyahu Yardeni, of the London Kabbalah Centre, made the astonishing claim to an undercover reporter investigating