From ABCWould-be suicide bombers could be using explosives “underwear briefs” rather than explosives jackets to evade “conservative” body searches, sources said on Wednesday.So, like we've seen around the world, the determined terrorist can adapt to achieve his objective. Even if the TSA would scrap its much-criticized political correctness in their prevention methods, would they still be able to nab the terrorist dressed up as a woman? I have to take back my post two years ago giving the TSA a hard time for searching military personnel coming home for R&R, in light of the Fort Hood shootings. But will our politicians cease the partisan ugliness to set forth security policies that reflect the current threat level? I have my doubts...
Sihala Police College forensic lab sources told Daily Times that the study of recent suicide attacks showed that suicide bombers used “explosives-laden” under-garments, briefs in particular, to carry out the attacks.
The sources said that the explosives could weigh between five kilogrammes to seven kilogrammes, made deadly by adding glass splinters, metal ball bearings and bullets.
That means respecting the power of the police to break up a snowball fight at a busy intersection (and detain those, like myself, who they have reason to believe are subverting that authority).But, unsurprisingly, he makes it clear that he and his group of peers are better than everyone else:
I suspect that many of the snowballers were, like me, young, well educated and politically active. Demographics suggest that a strong majority of them support new laws on climate change and health care.Yeah well, I suspect that many of the snowballers think they're doing God's work in DC, have never worked an honest day in their lives, voted for Obama, and don't see any problem with humiliating a regular guy just doing his job such as the detective.
I'm not saying that you can't make a good argument for our continued War on Drugs, but this article by Mary Grabar has got to be a freaking joke. In a no-good, terrible waste of internet space, she first asserts: "In abandoning the duty to enforce social order, today’s libertarians have made a devil’s pact with the pro-drug forces of George Soros and company". Then says something about marijuana wasn't in the bible, so it's counter-cultural and should be illegal. I thought setting policy on whether or not something was in the bible went out of vogue during the Renaissance, but perhaps I'm mistaken. She also talks about how smoking weed will eventually turn you into a gay porn star. No...really, it's on the bottom of page 1 near the fistgate reference.
Pajamas Media takes a trip through the city of Detroit with complete footage of abandoned buildings doubling as heroin galleries (not hard to find in Motown). He doesn't examine the riots and turbulent race relations causing problems for the city over the last 40 years, but I think he hits on the other points rather well (greedy unions, monstrous entitlement programs, etc.)
The results were striking. Many respondents said that field commanders relied too much on methods that worked in another place at another time but often did not work well now. Officers at higher levels are stifling the initiative of junior officers through micromanagement and policies to reduce risk. Onerous requirements for armored vehicles on patrols, for instance, are preventing the quick action needed for effective counterinsurgency. Of the Army veterans I surveyed, only 28 percent said that their service encouraged them to take risks, while a shocking 41 percent said that the Army discouraged it.I suppose Mr. Moyar is think about things like "How to Win a War" instead of creating US-based manufacturing jobs for the ever-prevalent reflective belt. Shows what he knows!
We must champion an aggressive reform agenda to tackle our outdated financial regulatory structure, the convoluted and anti-competitive tax code, and the looming entitlement crisis, and to fix what's broken in health care, energy, and more. We should focus on removing the hurdles the government has erected, rather than further centralizing power in Washington. The legislative reform must focus on empowering individuals instead of bureaucrats.Even if the bailout saga wasn't an incredible drain on our nation's treasury (which it was), it was a tremendously dangerous precedent since it empowered moneyed interests with gangs of lobbyists and left the average small business owner out to dry. It's refreshing that a true conservative in Washington actually realizes this instead of kissing asses for campaign contributions. Paul Ryan for emperor!
We cannot lose our commitment to individual liberty--a commitment we've shed blood to defend in generations past. The American idea cannot be defeated.
Chris Dodd: Not an adequate substitute for hope in AmericaThe original measure, drafted by chairman Christopher Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee, is surprisingly tough on Wall Street — a fact that almost everyone in town chalks up to Dodd's desperation to shake the bad publicity he incurred by accepting a sweetheart mortgage from the notorious lender Countrywide. "He's got to do the shake-his-fist-at-Wall Street thing because of his, you know, problems," says a Democratic Senate aide. "So that's why the bill is starting out kind of tough."It's sort of like he's upset that a bunch of Wall Street people are in charge of the country instead of his progressive buddies being in charge of the country. I suggest that no group of men or women should have so much command and control of the economy, because I believe that "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" and sort of extrapolate all my political beliefs from there.
Criticizing Ahmadinejad is about as intellectually taxing as calling Tiger Woods a lousy husband, but this statement needs to be repeated to permanently assure his mentally deranged status. From Fox News:“We have documented proof that they believe that a descendant of the prophet of Islam will raise in these parts and he will dry the roots of all injustice in the world,” Ahmadinejad said during a speech on Monday, according to Al Arabiya.Supposedly, the 12th Imam (Mahdi) will rid the world of injustice alongside Jesus and Xenu, but I'm not a religious scholar or anything. However, it is painfully obvious that Ahmadinejad is dishing out another ridiculous statement to distract the public from the regime's domestic woes. Previous whoppers Ahmadinejad has told the public include holocaust denial and an assassination plot against him involving X-Rays at the airport.
"They have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the grounds for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
Well, this is where the conservative movement is at. Sarah Palin, who has strong approval amongst the right, has descended into the incredibly ridiculous. She has suggested that the Obama Birth certificate is fair game. No need to comment on the birth certificate issue for the same reason there is no need to comment on President Obama being from the Klendathu galaxy: there's zero evidence of either. Hot Air is definitely feeling a bit squeamish about the whole affair, and you know David Weigel (best political journalist out there, I just wish he was on our side) is going to have a field day when he wakes up.
Opening Night for "Brothers"More likely, I think, is the possibility that this is just another Big Hollywood movie that stereotypes soldiers or Marines as angry (because the military is where people go when they can't get into prison!), humorless men (which is why they don't go to college!) who scream a lot, beat up on family members, hate hippies (because they hate their own latent homosexuality!), throw dishes for no good reason at all, and beat up on women and little brothers.It's not that all of the good coming home movies were "pro-war", but rather the characters in them seemed a lot less phony in movies like The Best Years of Our Lives and Born on the 4th of July. I mean, seriously, Tobey Maguire's character is looking like he's auditioning to be the third Bushwhacker in Wrestlemania V.
The most obvious pattern, however, is the media's tendency to get overwrought about almost anything. Why, for example, is the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall demolition so crucial that it requires a President's presence?So that's sort of the level of cognitive dissonance we're at in the media and how far they are willing to revise history: Berlin wall coming down - not a big deal, but the President pardoning a turkey - that's huge!
Can't imagine why two derelicts breaking into an event with the President of the free world and the Prime Minister of the world's largest democracy would be such a big whoop. From NY Times:In fact, the couple — Michaele Salahi and her husband, Tareq — are Virginians who have been auditioning for a possible role in a different housewives TV franchise: “The Real Housewives of Washington.”This type of nonsense might be common in LA, but in DC these theatrics threaten national security and cost the taxpayers money. It goes to show that DC is becoming the new home of the glamorous and self-indulgent as they mooch off the wealth of the rest of the country. What a shame.
They swept past the camera crews and followed the trail of other bigwigs attending the dinner.
But neither Mr. nor Mrs. Salahi, best known in the Washington area for promoting wine and polo in Virginia, were on the guest list for the event, a fact first reported Wednesday morning on the Washington Post Web site.
A White House official confirmed Wednesday that the Salahis had not been invited nor seated for dinner.
It was not clear Wednesday night how close the Salahis got to Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, or to the guests of honor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, and his wife, Gursharan Kaur.
Ouch! You know your foreign policy strategy is in dire straits when the Europeans accuse you of being too much of wimp. First it was the French President Sarkozy saying Obama was being soft on Iran, now the Germans are saying Obama is Jimmy Carter II. From Der Spiegel:The mood in Obama's foreign policy team is tense following an extended Asia trip that produced no palpable results. The "first Pacific president," as Obama called himself, came as a friend and returned as a stranger. The Asians smiled but made no concessions.No word yet on whether or not MSNBC is going to condescendingly criticize our German allies like they usually do for Obama's detractors. But, in defense of President Obama, there's really not much he could do to influence the Chinese on anything, since they are effectively financing our over-consumption and we the people will not elect politicians who will get our fiscal house in order. Perhaps Der Spiegel is just saying welcome to the club of nation-states that are burdened with a massive entitlement complex and a geezerly population. At least we'll ride out the Decline of Western Civilization in solidarity.
Someone needs to contact Gibbs about the whole bow to the Japanese Emperor row. Because in the Hot Air comments, someone has come up with an excellent excuse that any guy can sympathize with. If Obama was sporting a major boner, then it would be acceptable to hunch over at that ridiculous an angle.
Generally, Christopher Hitchens has some pretty interesting things to say, but I thought this dull criticism of Sarah Palin was a bit routine with the same tired attempts to summarize the "teabaggers" as imbeciles who can't think for themselves. And I'm not Pro-Palin either. From Newsweek:The United States has to stand or fall by being the preeminent nation of science, modernity, technology, and higher education. Some of these needful phenomena, for historical reasons, will just happen to concentrate in big cities and in secular institutions and even—yes—on the dreaded East Coast. Modernity can be wrenching, as indeed can capitalism, and there will always be "out" groups who feel themselves disrespected or left behind. The task and duty of a serious politician, as Edmund Burke emphasized so well, is to reason with such people and not to act as their megaphone or ventriloquist.It's not a bad thing that there are well-educated people on the East Coast. What's a bad thing is the same boneheads that fucked up the economy are the ones trying to establish new policies that will benefit a group of our "betters" in Wall Street and Washington. That and a dollar falling into post-Soviet Union ruble status is enough to create a large group of pissed-off Americans.
