The Press at War

Why do they hate us?

No, not the terrorists. We know why they hate us. (It's because we have freedom, liberty, and don't grovel to their prophet.)

The question is, why does the press hate us?

Focusing ever more sharply on the mostly bicoastal, mostly liberal elites, and with their more conservative audience lost to Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, mainstream outlets like the New York Times have become more nakedly partisan. And in the Iraq War, they have kept up a drumbeat of negativity that has had a big effect on elite and public opinion alike. Thanks to the power of these media organs, reduced but still enormous, many Americans are coming to see the Iraq War as Vietnam redux.

Very long, but good article from City Journal and the WSJ's Opinion Journal.

Saddam to Hang

<-- Insert Saddam Here.


Former brutal dictator and oppressor of the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and generally being a pain in the ass on Sunday. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but any death penalty verdict is automatically appealed to a nine judge panel with no time limit.

Personally, I think they need to kill him as fast as possible to eliminate any shadow of hope that the Saddam-loyal Sunnis might still hold for his return to power.

Obviously, there has been a difference in reactions between the different factions of the Iraqi populous. Here is my summary:

Kurds - "Hang the bastard, he killed my people!"
Shiites - "Hang the bastard, he killed my people!"
Sunnis - "What crimes? He only killed Kurds and Shiites."

Here's how a more respectable news-source summed it up:

Sunnis are likely to remain unhappy even if Saddam were to live. It is their diminished role in the post-Saddam Iraq that distresses them.

Saddam matters, without question, to the Shi'ites. The violence has reinforced the determination of the Shi'ites and Kurds, who suffered immensely under Saddam's rule, to put an end to any chance the former regime might make a comeback.

Bad Economy?

Okay, what the heck…  I just need to stop listening to NPR at all.  There are no redeeming qualities that they posses, especially in their election coverage.  I have no illusions that the republicans have drifted way too far to the evangelical camp and will probably loose the House or Representatives.  But when they talk about the economy, I can’t take it any more.  

We are currently living under some of the best economic conditions that we have had in the past twenty years.  National unemployment is at 4.4%.  The economy is growing at a sustainable rate.  Taxes are low.  The government’s tax receipts are up (because of the low taxes.)  And mortgage rates are still well within reach of a great many homebuyers.  

When these east-coast elitists go and talk to unemployed, uneducated, unskilled factory workers in the upper Midwest and then blame the Bush administration for our “failing economy” and the worker’s unemployment.  The reason these workers are unemployed is because the company they (used to) work for could no longer afford to pay them the wage than they demanded.  There is no logical reason that some guy who puts lugnuts on wheels should make $45,000 a year, have free health care, and 4 weeks of paid vacation.  

But somehow, starting in the late 1940’s, labor unions beat up their employers for more and more pay.  

Well, the labor union’s habit of wanting more, no matter what the cost, has finally backfired on them.  The company’s they harassed and blackmailed into submission have finally had more than they can take and are starting to go under.  They can no longer afford to pay these exorbitant wages to unskilled workers.  

So what happens?  The high paid workers get laid off.  (Since you can’t fire a union worker.)  Their jobs get outsourced to lower cost factories on another continent.  They get replaced with robots.  Etcetera, etcetera.  It’s not that hard to fathom that when a company cannot remain competitive, they will do something to fix it.  

But they often can’t just stop paying their union workers.  They have to pay benefits; pensions; health care.  So they end up paying money for zero productivity.  And this opens the door for Japanese auto makers, who do not hire union workers and therefore have substantially lower overheads, to step in, make their cars in America, and gain market share.  This further hurts the big, union auto makers, and the cycle continues.  

Conclusion: Don’t blame GM and Ford for 100% of your unemployed whining.  Blame Big Labor and their Leftist allies in Washington.  

Dinosaurs 'lived for 300,000 years after Mexican meteor strike'

But I thought we knew everything there was to know about the dinosaurs and their extinction!?

;)

                   boing         boing         boing
       e-e           . - .         . - .         . - .
      (\_/)\       '       `.   ,'       `.   ,'       .
       `-'\ `--.___,         . .           . .          .
          '\( ,_.-'
             \\               "             "            a:f
             ^'

Carve Your Own Pumpkin!

Check out my cool pumpkin!


I know it's a little bit late now, since its the 1st of November today (can you believe that?!), but I thought that this was pretty neat. It's just another random java app, but (until yesterday) was quite appropriate.

Still fun though!

(As usual, click on the title.)