The entire world has stumbled and fallen down a rabbit hole

Years ago I read a book called Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, which details the lives of three Chinese women: author, her mother and her grandmother. It has always stayed on my mind because, to start with, I was so amazed how people could turn against each other as they did during the Cultural Revolution. Peasant worship was in full force and while people were supposed to bow to the “wisdom” of peasants, they also destroyed the lives of educated and other citizens. You know, not unlike what Obama refers to as “robust debate.”

In one part of the book–and pardon me here as I am retrieving this as best I can from memory–Mao had declared some animal or insect a pest that must be destroyed, so the people, bowing to his cult of personality, follow through en masse on his request, until the country’s population of this creature is nearly obliterated. Unfortunately, whatever this animal was, it also happened to prey on a lesser creature who acted as pest to farmers, leaving the intellectually superior peasants in a jam because now their crops were being destroyed by vermin who no longer were kept in check by a larger predator. I don’t recall if this in turn was blamed on the intellectuals, but knowing Mao it probably was. China had fallen down a rabbit hole and all the world for them was turned upside down as chaos became the norm.

So it seems a similar effect is going on in all manner of events today. Global warming–oh sorry, climate change, is not debated today. The proponents of this religious ideology simply shout down the rest of the population. (Never mind they demand you radically alter your lifestyle while they charter planes and use up more fuel in a week than you could in a year.) A growing number of scientists are speaking against its validity, but still people are forced by laws to pay for a service to haul away their separated trash, at least some of which ends up in the local dump anyway. And then the U.S. Congress passes an asinine bill–without reading it– that Laura Ingraham refers to as Kneecap our Trade.

Before that we saw someone who mouths the words about how his primary job is to protect the country but then does his level best day in and day out to destroy it.

A soldier is shot at a recruiting station and gets mention when Obama is pretty much forced to, and even then I think the strongest word was…”dissapointed”? But Obama was outraged, I tell you, outraged when an abortion doctor died under similar circumstances. Oh wait–the barbarian in that case was a “Christian fanatic” (I know I saw those words in print) but the soldier killer was a mere jihadist.

If someone’s feelings get hurt because a special and exclusive prayer room is not set aside for members of his religion (just like one is not set aside for anyone else’s); if the smell of pork can be detected from the local factory; if Constitutionally protected words are uttered in criticism of, oh, say, a woman being slaughtered for wearing make-up; if this and many more things occur there is collective and manufactured outrage across the country (or world in some cases) and there is talk about the widespread need for “tolerance education.”

Christians are murdered and harassed in Egypt and elsewhere but nobody on any kind of platform seems to find this disturbing. Saudi Arabia certainly doesn’t provide prayer space–even shared–for any religion not Islam. Pork is routinely removed from Western menus because a lot of Muslims find it “offensive.”

A Dutch politician is harassed and prosecuted, has to maintain a schedule to see his wife, is denied entry to Britain and lives under protection from death threats because he has called on people to recognise the need for foreigners to respect his culture as much as they demand for their own–their own that they import and attempt to impose on native Dutch. Jordan has filed charges against him for a violating a regulation that as neither Jordanian nor Muslim is he subject to–and they are praised for doing it.

A firefighter who studied months for a promotion exam and passes with very good marks is denied his upgrade because he is white, a decision that comes from people who have made a career of screaming bloody murder over hiring, firing and promoting based on skin color.

If you are perturbed at my lack of linearity here, suck it up. That’s postmodernism and besides, the world is upside down. Why should anything be in order anymore? Nevertheless, I’ll bring you back to the present. Or at least to yesterday. We’ve heard much about people in Iran who simply want the right to choose their own leaders being slaughtered in the most horrific of ways. They are now being hunted down and just this morning I saw that the body of one had been located. Neda, perhaps the most famous because her death was the first to be caught on video and widely circulated (read: went viral), left behind parents who were kicked from their house, invoiced for the bullet that killed her and now her father is being made to go on state television to condemn protesters for her death, as opposed to the Basiji bastards who actually did it.

This is all “robust debate.” Didn’t you know this? *Smack* Get with the program! Don’t you know that in ObamaWorld “what is isn’t, and what isn’t, is”? And why are you reading this anyway? Not looking for news on Iran, are you? You have a dead pop star to worship and a place in line to wait for Obama’s next Maoist, asinine order. Don’t talk, please, there’s a moment of silence to observe.

PDS going strong–is it fatal?

Wow. I knew there are a few rather liberal people here in Alaska, but I really had no idea until now the true extent of the vile nature of some.

Via Gateway Pundit I got to know more than I really wanted to about Linda Biegel, one of the real haters whose presence tarnishes my beautiful state. She seems to think posting shopped pictures of Trig Palin–conveniently “excused” by claiming they actually represent local talk-show host Eddie Burke–is somehow something more than sniggering jabs at people her little clique doesn’t approve of. Take a look at her pathetic comment section to the post linked above.

If she has any shame at all she may change the pictures, and for now I haven’t decided whether or not to post the screenshots I made. Or I should say that now I am reluctant, because I’m not really interested in spreading around her juvenile ass hattery. On the other hand, people may need to see what a non-intellectual she really is, although she and others claim to be so much above it all as they trade insults about Sarah Palin and her supporters. Does she actually believe resorting to snide comments does anything for her position? Or that even her ridiculous picture is meant to be Eddie, that this is any better? What exactly is there to admire in anyone whose “debate” has to rest on insults, whether of a helpless infant or any adult?

What drives someone to be so bitter? Doesn’t Linda Biegel have a life? Look, I’m no fan of Barack Obama–in fact I downright dislike the creature, but I don’t waste any time attacking his children by creating (or having someone else create) distorted pictures of them. They have nothing to do with their father’s choices and it would be a mark of disrespect to all children in the world to act that way to any youngster. Does Linda Biegel have that much disrespect for children, or does she save such bile only for certain people with different opinions?

And, wow, the DNC actually used her blog as the official DNC Alaska blog? How sad is that? They must have been hurting for an Alaska liberal. Sorry, I thought their standards demanded some thought process and logic to govern their positions, but I guess they had to set the bar really low. Or maybe it was their idea for Biegel and others to file frivolous complaints against Palin in an attempt to make the governor’s legal debts soar beyond control. Whose idea was it to file one under the name of a soap star?

At the end of the day I feel really sorry for Linda Biegel, because she obviously is missing something in her life. I don’t have a dazzling social life, either, since I’m a student, but at least I periodically go to the cinema, spend family time, read books…you know, like a person with better things to do.

By the way, although it seems off topic, it’s actually related to mention that while Obama eats ice cream and talks about how outraged he is, Governor Palin spoke out months ago on the monster instrumental in the current acts of barbarism against innocent Iranians who want to have the same freedom to speak out as Biegel enjoys. What a tragedy she squanders her liberty so shamelessly whilst Iranians last night were thrown over a bridge and beaten to death for having an opinion.

It makes me wonder how far Biegel and others like her would take their anger and hatred for Palin and supporters if there were no limits imposed. We saw last winter a sampling of obscenity from that party, such as tolerance for “mock” abuse against women, heckling from a so-called comedian for Palin to be gang-raped, a pop star bragging on stage how she would kick Palin up–it goes on. I’m sorry to say this but when people give them permission to do this sort of thing and tolerate it from others, then it is questionable whether they actually have limits at all.

Update: The shopped picture has been removed–whether it’s because Biegel has any shame is unknown. Meanwhile, she stays classy along with her sycophants and a GB full of complaints about an echo chamber and personal insults, posted by an echo chamber full of people who seem to be in competition over who can come up with the most “witty” jib at Palin and Burke.

We get that you don’t like them, Biegel, and no one is trying to deny your right to talk about that. We’re just wondering why you have to resort to cheap shots that involve her child (special needs or not) and then slam people who question you with comments such as, “YOU FAIL AT LIFE!” Is that really all you have? What was that you wrote about other sites that slammed you? “Not very nice”? I did happen to see one with some shopped pictures that in my opinion were unnecessary to make a point about your classless “joke,” but for you to condemn that kind of thing is really rich, coming from someone who is what she condemns.

By the way, are you ever going to offer a response with some substance, or are you just going to continually yammer about how stupid and pathetic we are?

One of many whom I owe

Oh dear, dear Neda, I am so sorry. I’m am sorry for your terrible suffering and that you had to lose your life, be separated from your family, friends, your piano, your travel. I am sorry that my words lack the dignity you deserve when being remembered, because they come from a soul filled with resentment, a person perhaps too small to rise above the anger at silence that nourished evil, and continues to do. I pray that soon I can find a better way to think about your life, and I can only hope my contemplations will be half as beautiful as you.

In the end it may turn out that you died for us as well as your own country, and one day perhaps I will shed tears of joy at the mention of your name. You did so much with what you were given; indeed, you reached out for more, with a fullness of life many people only dream of or imagine. Would that the inspiration to utilise the gifts we all are given be as strong in each of us. You are a martyr, a flower, an angel, a giant, a lifting of burdens that each one of us seeks out in the darkness of this long night. The sky is blue for you now, but one day may its sun shine down on gardens splendid with the brilliance you bring to our hearts.

When morning comes, I'll look for you, one of many whom I owe.

“It’s wonderful to be back”

This isn’t new news, but it just doesn’t seem right to pass over it when it has been something I–and many people around the world–have followed since before it broke as a larger story.

As we know, Roxana Saberi has been released from Iran’s notorious Evin prison; upon her release she spent a few days in Iran and then proceeded to Vienna to relax. While there she declined to speak at length to the press. Understandably, she wanted to be alone with her family.

More recently Saberi has returned to her native United States and made a few remarks in the presence of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She thanked the American people and others around the world for their support, and noted how she gained strength when she learned of all those who spoke for her.

Click here to see Saberi giving her thanks.

WELCOME HOME, ROXANA!!!!!!

Not until Roxana Saberi is home

Roxana Saberi, of course, is the American journalist who was arrested in Iran, ostensibly because she had purchased a bottle of wine and was reported by the very person who sold it to her. Perhaps under duress, she had phoned her family and asked them not to contact news agencies, as she would be released in a couple of days.

On Thursday, February 26, nearly a month after the actual event, we learned that Roxana was detained by Iranian authorities in late January. Since then she has been denied contact with family, friends and associates. On February 10, briefly and under apparent duress, she contacted her family to inform them of her arrest and detention and requested their silence. On Sunday, March 1, her family revealed the story to their home town press in Fargo, ND, and to NPR, given their growing concern over the lack of contact from Roxana.

Iran could do itself a world of good by ceasing this business of arresting journalists, intellectuals and others on unspecified charges followed by imprisonment and punishment disproportionate to the “crimes” they commit.

If Iran is serious about wanting to raise their image in the eyes of the world, they will start respecting people’s efforts to report and write on aspects of the country that would prove to be of great interest to many people across the world. Iran has, for example, a rich culture to draw from, but the mullahs insist on stepping all over it in what is perhaps some misguided belief that people will respect their commitment to religious “ideals.”

Roxana Saberi could have been an ally in showing the world what there is to admire about Iran. Instead, she languishes in the notorious Evin Prison, although at least she has “she will be released soon” to hang onto. Then again, is she even aware of this statement released by Iranian authorities? They had previously cut her off from contact with her family and when her attorney finally met with her, she had no idea about the worldwide support she had. After similar repeated patterns of behavior from the Islamic Republic, it is not unreasonable to wonder if they have continued in their cruel and unusual treatment of the young journalist by depriving her of even this tiny light.

What I am also continually amazed at is the ongoing ability of some people to dig into ways they can find fault with people like me for talking about this issue; they excuse the Iranian authorities who hold someone for an unspecified time and deny her due process, but attack us as if we supported genocidal criminals. If someone actually did something wrong, then what is so unjustifiable about asking for charges to be formally brought or her to be released? But reason does not seem to be the forte of people whose only aim is to deny Americans and others any kind of support. The unexamined matters not to them; all they care about is determining where the American stands and then doing the opposite, no matter that it places them squarely in the shards of their own demented looking glass.

I won't stop speaking out for Roxana Saberi's freedom--not until she is home.

Update: I’ve come across a blog, Free Roxana Saberi, that appears to be keeping timely track of Roxana’s case and events as they unfold.

John Ziegler takes my breath away

Well, there also might be the recent asthmatic bronchospasms to account for. It’s a bit cold in here and some virus apparently has gotten its claws wrapped around me. I’ve got my voice back—sort of—and my energy level has come up from the basement. Oh yeah, and I’m concerned about the math class I missed yesterday.

But I got some entertainment in the form of watching John Ziegler, documentary filmmaker and graduate of the Melvin Udall School of Dating, get dumped after drinks.

I wonder if Ziegler is any good at math? He doesn’t seem so skilled at addition, for example. “Someone who is informed and rational, which I realize is kind of an oxymoron for women” + “Ideally you find someone with a manageable degree of irrationality” = misogynistic, despite his claim to the contrary. And he actually appeared surprised that “she didn’t seem to like where I was coming from.”

Hey Ziegler, ya think?

And, like a predictable misogynist, it’s all about her. “I don’t know maybe she was threatened…” How about putting the mea culpa squarely where it belongs by just admitting he ought to stick to documentaries? The producer–provided it’s someone else–will tweak his bad math and if Ziegler ever feels like fast forwarding to the 21st century, maybe he can figure out how to multiply.

The real men of the future are in kindergarten about now learning things like disjoint sets and one-to-one correspondence. They’ll later know how to take a woman’s breath away without having to rely on some sort of viral attack.

Update: The link above quotes a HotAir commenter’s take:

It could be that Ziegler caught something – now edited out – that made him want to end this quickly. No sane guy – on a date with a chick who is pretty cute – is going into this unless his goal is to get out of the date. I’ve done something similar to this in the past, a bit more tactfully, but what guy (or girl) hasn’t pissed off the date on purpose, just to end it.

(Operative word: No sane guy.)

The update also says Ziegler, who hadn’t yet seen the video, suggested via e-mail something may have been edited out to misrepresent him.

I’m quite sure lots has been edited out, including what the girl might have said or done to make her date dislike her, or for her to come off as unsympathetic to us audience members. But apparently Ziegler dislikes us as well, enough to hint anything the show’s producer’s wiped could whitewash that crap.

I never would have thought the guy who interviewed Sarah Palin could be such a hypocrite.

In a New York minute

Hurrah!

A few days back I happened upon an online conversation about the most popular man in America. One poster argued that Sully was not a hero, as his actions did not go above and beyond the call of duty. “He was trained to do what he did.” Or something like that. (I’m paraphrasing here as even I don’t remember which forum I saw it in.)

U.S. News and World Report lays out a few reasons Flight 1549 landed as it did, not least of all being rational decision making in a cockpit buzzing with alerts and visuals that would have made my forehead sweat even just watching it in a movie. Which I’m pretty sure it will be.

Check out some of these details:

Thorough training. Sullenberger may be a model aviator, but it wasn’t heroism that brought Flight 1549 down safely. It was rigorous training that’s inbred in the U.S. aviation system. Pilots have to fly for years before they can command an airliner, and even experienced pilots must routinely train in simulators and pass “check rides” at least once a year under the supervision of Federal Aviation Administration inspectors. Pilots sometimes gripe about overzealous FAA inspectors, but the oversight contributes to a culture of accountability and fastidious attention to detail in the cockpit.

The emphasis within the paragraph is mine, and I highlighted it because I also want to have a word about the ferries. They wasted no time getting to the passengers and crew, actions and attitude I have come to consider as very New York. Before anybody gets their hackles raised about how good people exist elsewhere, I’ll say it first. Good people exist elsewhere. But say what you will about New Yorkers, their speed in talking, typing and multi-tasking is matched by the efficiency with which they set to the task in times of crisis. We’ve all heard the stories about how calmly and in an orderly fashion they exited the World Trade Center, even as they turned to see the horror behind them. How people stopped, wordlessly, to pick up someone who couldn’t make their own way and did without verbal collaboration. They just did it.

That’s what the ferries did. They just did it. Yes, this of course could happen elsewhere. Perhaps it might be better said as, “They might not come off as ‘Minnesota Nice’ but they won’t let you get hurt without putting up a fight against the crisis.” It seems to me a culture of accountability in which, no matter who you are, if you are in danger, they summon what they have and make their way to you. When the matter involves cöoperation with other agencies, even out-of-towners, they don’t seem afraid to act jointly.

Speaking of which:

A clear division of labor in the cockpit. From the time the engines stopped producing thrust – presumably because they ingested birds – Sullenberger and Skiles had about three minutes before the powerless plane glided back to earth. And the cockpit would suddenly have become an intense environment to work in. Other airplane systems would have been failing, since they’re powered by the engines….Once the pilots chose their course, they would have started to prepare for a water landing. All in three minutes.

Three minutes!

The water landing was obviously shocking to those on board – yet mild compared to what could have happened. “I believed the impact would be violent but survivable,” wrote one passenger, who happened to be a pilot for another airline. “It was much milder than I had anticipated. If the jolt had been turbulence, I would have described it as moderate.”

Wow. Just…wow.

OK, so maybe he is not a hero. But there is, as has been said, “reason enough to lionize.” The pilot, the co-pilot, flight attendants, ferries, the heavy-equipment operators who hauled that big bird from the water later. Even the passengers. I’ve heard no reports of fights breaking out or even frightened acts of spite. I even read about passengers who gave the clothes off their backs to a fellow passenger (who later was near-interrogated by reporters in warm coats). These passengers seemed to have themselves made a great team, and every single one of them survived.

Pigs airborne? EU chief declares Hamas to blame for the war

Yesterday I was discussing the never-ending wails over Israel’s use of white phosphorus, while those same people ignored how Israel used it.

From a longtime favorite Hamasi concubine:

Controversial as it is, white phosphorus is not illegal, at least in an open battlefield setting, where it is used to mask troop movements, or set on fire areas of high brush that need clearing.

But the international convention on the use of incendiary weapons says it should not be used where there is a possibility of hitting civilians.

It’s interesting to note how selectively they cite International Humanitarian Law when it assumes the shape of a square peg in their round hole. Courtesy Jawa Report, what the BBC left out:

The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations.

So imagine my surprise when I read this from the same BBC:

Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel’s offensive “abominable”, but said Hamas bore “overwhelming responsibility“.

He said there would be no dialogue with with the “terrorist” movement until it gave up violence and recognised Israel.

“It is abominable, indescribable,” Mr Michel told reporters after touring some of the worst-hit places of Israel’s 22-day assault which killed about 1,300 Palestinians, including 400 children. Thirteen Israelis were also killed in the conflict.

“At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas,” he said.

“I intentionally say this here – Hamas is a terrorist movement and it has to be denounced as such.”

The former Belgian foreign minister insisted there would be no dialogue with Hamas, and its use of terrorism against Israeli civilians meant it was not a legitimate resistance movement.

I wonder how long until Michel gets reassigned?

Winter power outage

Just when I was contemplating the undesirable need to wake up my small son for school–I had a late education class last night and we practically dove into bed right after we came home–I got a phone call reporting slick roads and school closures. I was kind of glad because it allowed me to escape having to wake up a tired boy who tends to need a lot of sleep…but I also felt a strange sense of awe. As in, “How odd.”

Alaska doesn’t seem to get many “snow days.” I know Washington, D.C. shuts down if there’s more than an inch of snow on the ground, but in here if we shut down schools or operations for bad weather we’d lose a functioning city. That said, “bad weather” is relative. To us, it just doesn’t happen all that often. Recently it was “quite cold” (we had minus 20 for an extended period of time) and as soon as it warmed up (true to Alaska fashion shooting up to the other end of the extreme as opposed to day by day warming) the first thing everybody knew to expect was a bunch of snow. I guess we didn’t expect it to be rainy, at least not yet, rainy enough to make driving conditions quite dangerous.

Well, the rest of the nation must expect it of us as well, as I never hear on the news of “mounds of snow in Alaska,” as opposed to places like Minnesota, where it somehow qualifies as news.

As I was musing the odds of this situation, the power went out. My newfangled phone, the cordless type with the digital answering machine attached to the main base (with two other smaller base locations around the house), went dead. After the initial, “Whoa,” I admit I got a bit serious because I thought about the woman whose story made the news recently. She had shot a would-be repeat rapist who returned to her home, this time cutting the power in her house. Between the pitch dark of winter mornings in Alaska and the loss of even the light from my laptop, it struck me how dark it really is with absolutely no light. And then I realised how handicapped I was because even though I’m equipped with plenty of candles and a couple of flashlights, the candles and matches are in my kitchen, flashlight in my laundry room.

Eventually I turned the laptop back on, since only the Internet was out, and used the light from it to make my way to the kitchen for candles to find my flashlight. (I couldn’t see what I was doing in the laundry room.) Once I had myself set up back in my room, little Walkman radio plugged into my ears, I thought, “What now?” I listened for awhile to news of brownouts through the city and thinning traffic slowed to a crawl.

About ten minutes later the power returned; my son had slept through all the “excitement.” Pity, I had been hoping to occupy some of our time with a few rounds of “Trouble,” a game he got for Christmas and one which even I find slightly addicting.

So what to do with our day? Well, I’ll probably do much of the same I had planned for myself: lots of classwork and a bit of cleaning up around the house–with slight alterations to account for the presence of my boy. As for the little guy, well, he sleeps still as I type this. But, given how cold it was over Christmas vacation (even too cold for us, who kept our children indoors much of the time) and how warm it is now, I hear the snowpants crinkling already.

Finally: IDF launches own blog

Hopefully the Israel Defense Forces won’t have to deal with anything that seeks to shut this down. They still maintain a YouTube account, and provide a link to it in their “About” section; it can also be accessed via a short pathway from the top of the page. A day or so ago word was making the rounds that YouTube had deleted at least one of their videos, citing its graphic content as a poor excuse. Perhaps the negative publicity has made YouTube more wary of their blatant discriminatory practices?