ETHICS & HUMANITY

 

 

The Life and Times of Europe: Barbarians at the Gate and Babies in the Gutter…Still

Netherlands hospital policy to euthanize imperfect babies

 

 

 

Today it was not a very great shock to learn of the Dutch hospital which announced it has begun to follow a policy of terminating the lives of newborn babies deemed too sick to live 

(also read similar unrelated story).

 

As many might know, there are several countries in Europe which already practice some form of euthanasia on the elderly, the sick and infirm. Some blame this on the cold cost-cutting bureaucratic machine of socialized medicine, others believe both the lack of solemn respect for intrinsic human worth and a government healthcare machine sans conscience are symptoms of a bigger problem. Yet others say there is simply nothing wrong here at all. They argue, we are simply offering a way out for those too weak or sick to make the choice themselves. I suppose we should concede in the end that it is a good thing since no one has ever recovered from being “too sick to live” and become anything of consequence throughout the history of mankind. In fact, saving lives of little apparent social value is often far too much trouble and hardly worth the investment, so the thinking goes.

 

This could arguably be the most traumatic fruit of a Europe once lightly salted with Judeo-Christian-influence, now fully unseasoned by anything but the rancid putrification of the human spirit at the hands of relativism. Though this scene is not altogether unheard of on the Continent throughout all of its history, those truly devout of the transcendent moral Ideal certainly made some headway against such barbarism. Nevertheless barbarism in the world and in Europe in particular has been to one degree or another the rule of social constructs rather than the exception. And this, not because most people aren’t basically kind, docile creatures, rather it occurs when there is no moral basis under which their leaders and other sociopaths in society can justifiably be kept in check.

 

Hitler’s Germany was a prime example of this. In an embittered secularized country where the final decree of society rules as conscience, that “conscience” decided it was no longer acceptable to be a Jew, to hide a Jew, to oppose policies or devoutly practice one’s faith. The social “conscience” had chosen Hitler as chancellor based on its arbitrary sense of right and wrong- a sense which history has proven to be nothing short of fluid, to say the least! The German plunge into darkness was further exacerbated by a large revival of pagan rituals, customs and thought.

 

If you will go with me for a moment however, I’d like to take you to a time before this where the value of animal-rule was the world’s only belief system. In such a time, nobody could justifiably oppose a Hitler, a Stalin or a Mau because there was no law higher than any of them. A time where the weak, slow and difficult to understand were thoughtlessly retired from their existence by the knife, the rock or poison. Where persona non grata applied to everyone who was not strong and with sword. In such a time babies were routinely sacrificed to idols, along with the aged and others, cast from great heights, having their throats slit, tossed alive into bogs or burned alive. This is the heritage of pagan barbarity at its finest, where men decide all of the rules to their own advantage. In such a place, if a wife displeased her husband he may just divorce her – or he may prefer instead to kill her in any way that pleased him. If he possessed sufficient power, he was free to rape, steal from and abuse anyone of any age or sex. These are the traditions of most of our forefathers. So it is not surprising they continue unimpeded in many sectors by a better way even until today. The pagan tradition is certainly far older than any law of reason. In Europe, pockets of civility have existed only fleetingly over the millennia, often superficially. The Continent often ranged from wild bestial rampages, to quieter, government-sponsored ones, depending on whether the king was the one deposing or being deposed.    

 

In a world of pagan influence where no justification for human rights transcended the reach of arbitrary men, people easily lost protection and those seen as a possible burden were without a thought eliminated or “sacrificed”. The agreed-upon sensibility was simple: it would be instead unkind to society, yea even the individual in question to permit his or her continuance among us. This ideal was held by small tribes and great empires alike until the first major assault on its core philosophy long before modern Europe. This happening in a remote, modest place called Mt. Sinai, where a code of conduct greater than our corrupt, self-interested and self-devised ones (obviously, since all of us fail in some way to keep every part of it) was passed to a stuttering and quirksome leader – Moses, as if to punctuate the frailty of man and the faux authority which his laws alone, even if principally correct bring.

 

On that day it truly became a world of two paradigms, one pressing against the other, the adherents of one greatly outnumbering the other. Yet the latter has survived the ages against raids, scourges, pogroms, persecutions, inquisitions and famines determined to be a conscience of compassion, unalienable divinely-appointed rights and hope for those who joined that new paradigm.

 

It has been a continuous and difficult battle to say the least. Sadly, even some who have claimed throughout the ages to follow a Mosaic conscience have instead been borne out to be liars by their pagan fruits of corruption, cruelty and so forth. Yet they have not invalidated the Ideal, rather proven both its need and its worth to mankind, despite one of the biggest coupes in history in which those very pagan acts known throughout history were ascribed to those professing not to be pagan though not holding to their profession in any way by their actions, as we saw with the Crusades.

 

And so we begin the modern era, but the tenants are still there for men to see and follow: justice, kindness, compassion, life and liberty. These, the very reasons pilgrims fled to the New World not so long ago, the reason for the popular resistance against the Nazis and the Soviets, against evil men like Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu and the leaders in Beijing. Such tenants, unprecedented prior to their arrival also brought to mankind a passion for building and staffing hospitals, schools for pupils of both sexes, women’s and racial suffrage, a loathing of any bondage or slavery for any and even kindness to animals and the proper caretaking of nature (A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, but even the compassion of the wicked is cruel - Proverbs 12:10). Though corrupt men may not fully keep them, these ideals live outside the mortal realm of influence. They are transcendently correct and right and available to all who will have them. And it is a foolish man who thinks himself stronger or greater than these, though in the end he will learn in a most difficult way of their wisdom.

 

The question is whether in the strong winds of justice we will bend like the grass or be broken like a tree. In the Netherlands today sick newborns are being put down like the mules of yore with broken legs. But even mules today are afforded veterinary care to mend their broken bones. And children or any other weak or infirm person, like all men are far greater than the sum of their fleshy parts. It is from such among the weak, infirm and abused, abandoned and neglected we have seen the likes of these, some of our greatest leaders, artisans, philosophers and scientists:

 

Albert Einstein

Abraham Lincoln

Teddy Roosevelt

Stephen Hawking

Isaac Newton

Leonardo Da Vinci

Dr Temple Grandin

Henry Ford

Thomas Alva Edison

Alexander Graham Bell

Julius Caesar

Winston Churchill

Peter the Great

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harriett Tubman (leading 19th Century American Abolitionist)

George Washington

H.G. Wells

Charles Dickens

Isaac Asimov

Hans Christian Andersen

General George Patton

Ludwig von Beethoven

Glenn Gould

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Itzhak Perlman

Helen Keller

Lord Byron

Woodrow Wilson

 

 

In American Pop Culture:

 

Richard Burton

Tom Cruise

Lou Ferrigno

Danny Glover

Bob Hope

Robin Williams

Walt Disney

Marilyn Monroe

Paul Newman

Christopher Reeve

Sylvester Stallone

Elizabeth Taylor

Bruce Willis

Stevie Wonder

Kenny G

Meatloaf

Alice Cooper

Elton John

Elvis Presley

Michael Bolton

Cher

Carly Simon

Ray Charles

B.B. King

 

Perhaps such a list as this might help those in the Netherlands who are unable to appreciate transcendent morality think better about the merits and wisdom of a value system which places at the top innocent human life as the greatest and unalterable right, at least from the perspective of their own long-term interests. As they say, what one does to his neighbor, he does to himself.

 

 

A man wrote a song about 20 years ago that I think shares poetically but still very succinctly the short-sighted dilemma of pagan moral relativism. In the song “Baby Doe,” Steve Taylor tells the story of a couple who gives birth to a disabled child in a time when the final arbiter of right and wrong is the currently perceived pressures of a fallible society:

 

 

Baby Doe

Unfolding today
a miracle play
this Indiana morn
the father–he sighs
she opens her eyes
their baby boy is born

“We don’t understand
he’s not like we planned”
the doctor shakes his head
“abnormal” they cry
and so they decide
this child is better dead

I bear the blame
believers are few
and what am I to do?
I share the shame
the cradle’s below
and where is Baby Doe?

A hearing is sought
the lawyers are bought
the court won’t let him eat
the papers applaud
when judges play God
this child is getting weak

They’re drawing a bead
reciting their creed
“Respect A Woman’s Choice”
I’ve heard that before
how can you ignore
this baby has a voice

I bear the blame…
it’s over and done
the presses have run
some call the parents brave
behind your disguise your rhetoric lies
you watched a baby starve

 

 

 

 

 

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ETHICS & HUMANITY

 

 

 

 

BLOGBAT TRAVELBLOG: MEMPHIS, KIEV

 

 

 

World’s Best Bar-B-Que (Outside of Texas)

 

 

Well, my thanksgiving was a good one since once again it was spent in Memphis where I make the yearly pilgrimage to one of my favorite BBQ spots on the planet: Rendezvous. If you ever have the chance to eat at this restaurant and want the world’s best waiter, ask for Percy. He’s the best of the best – and has been for many, many years now. But if you plan to visit around the holidays, you’d better make your reservation a bit in advance. Think months. The line outside the restaurant the day after Thanksgiving (the day we chose to venture for our annual BBQ) was long and wound up the stairs and outside and across the street- the wait was two hours for these noble and tortured souls who could only smell what awaited them. I thought about that as we passed them all and took our appointed seats and had the sausage, ham and cheese appetizer set before us. Fortunately for us, the Memphis clan of my family is as close as teeth and gums with the owner of Rendezvous and is known there (along with most of Memphis) so we were able to walk in and be seated unannounced. And while I can sympathize with those waiting in line (and would do the same, for just a bite) I was certainly glad to get my ribs in better fashion.

 

We also had the pleasure of running into a recent West Point grad while we were there. The former cadet spotted the WP ’64 logo on my father’s shirt. I don’t think I’ve heard him being addressed as “sir” so much since he coached my soccer team many, many moons ago. The grad was a sharp fellow and inspired nothing but the greatest hopes and expectations for our military’s future – I think we can all rest just a little bit easier knowing that the more things change the more they stay the same, as they say, and our country is definately in good hands.

 

Rendezvous is by far one of the world’s finest and, were it not for Texas Bar-B-Que, would in fact be the world’s finest, even though some say the comparison isn’t quite fair since the taste buds of the two regions are really about as similar as apples and oranges. Or pigs and cows. At any rate, I have another reason to be a Texas Bovine holdout: My grandparents (from Pennsylvania, no less!) own a BBQ restaurant in Dallas which Texas Monthly dubbed one of Texas’ (ergo, the world’s) best. Cow about that?

 

 

Harold Ford Jr. for President?

 

Word is among those who know him some considered his work for the Kerry camp as possible grooming for a 2012(?) presidential bid. The Ford and Kerry families go back a little bit, so this was also a bit of a favor, as I understand it. Of course Harold seems to play quite a bit more the centrist than the man he was shortly ago working for and the big question is if Hillary fails in ’08, will he be poised for a shot at 1600 Penn. And then there’s Barach Obama, the popular freshman senator from Illinois, who won handily in that practically non-contested race and about whom many Democrats are quietly whispering not-so-hushed things about their promised Elisha. Certainly Either Ford or Obama have a better chance than Hitlery Clinton unless of course she henceforth plays the middle. And in fact the Dems are already trying to play the “we’re religious too” card that worked so convincingly well for Carter in 1980…

 

Whether Ford, Obama or Clinton become the champion candidate in ’08 or ’12, he or she will need to learn that cynically mimicking the values of the heartland (or condescendingly twisting those values to use against heartlanders) will be spotted by all but the most chemically dependent. The only way to win is to shoot straight. Well that and actually believe what the American people believe. For all of that, I believe Ford Jr. is sincere and genuine both poltically and personally, and have along with quite a few others for quite some time. But still, on many the key issues de politique he is nevertheless wrong.

 

 

Blogbat Blog Migration Update

 

While I did finish up my new start page for the new blog this weekend, not a lot of progress was able to be made on the actual blog because my aunt had some serious issues with her wireless router, which prevented me from getting out there.

 

Dial-up? Only if it’s life & death, my friend.

 

There is also apparently a technical issue with my host server at Hosting Matters, which appears to be eating some files and refusing to delete others, so we have an open ticket on that, but be ye patient: the new blog cometh.

 

 

Kiev – A Personal Perspective

 

 

As if to punctuate the technical isolation while in Memphis, my cell phone’s battery died shortly after I realized I left the charger on my desk at home. Believe it or not, life still continued without it— and the isolation from everything outside of Memphis was actually nice. But not before I was able to send best wishes to a good friend (and semi-twin by virtue of sharing the same birthday) in Nashville and discuss the current election controversy in Ukraine. Nate and his family are from Kiev and he had a lot to say about the current angst in his former homeland. He recently returned there (a few years ago) and keeps up with friends and family he has known long before he, his brother and both parents fled Soviet rule (in large part thanks to pressure from the Reagan administration on the Soviets to allow Jews to emigrate), originally fleeing to Israel by way of Germany and eventually coming to the United States. Nate says he believes the current Prime Minister and presidential hopeful Viktor Yanukovych to be a complete scoundrel – and implied such would be the case with anybody Moscow anoints. Many Ukrainians, he said, want nothing more than to finally be free of Russian influence after so many decades of often ruthless domination, where, in Soviet mode, the local population was forced to endure the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl (just outside of Kiev), not to mention being forced to learn a foreign custom and language, while forsaking their own in order to simply be the worker bees of the Kremlin elite. Indeed, the death toll among Ukrainians from both Soviet socialist occupation and German socialist (Nazi) occupation in the 20^th century is one of the most tragic on record. When my good friend Nate was growing up, he would pass by a concentration camp on his way to school. A camp used first by Soviet Stalinists, then by Nazi invaders and then once again by the Stalinists to punish political and ethnic dissidents. The childhood city of Kiev, bombed out during World War II remained much in ruins (as did East Berlin) for decades after the War, as he relates, the grey rubble mingling with snow and the lost dreams of so many.

 

Kiev today, many say, is hardly recognizable. Nate spoke of the transformation he saw on his last visit: a city full of color, music and hope. It had appeared until recently that a solid and confident national identity was re-emerging from the old rubble, along with what some were saying was one of Europe’s most promising new economies. Now some doomsayers are saying that the Ukrainian economy is likely doomed by the election uncertainties.  

 

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department and international observers have come out and condemned the election results as fraudulent or “severely flawed”, the U.S. siding with pro-West candidate Viktor Yushchenko and most agreeing on the need for new elections.

 

The question Nate is concerned about is whether this new national tension (which we in the States all remember too well from 2000) will rock the country into instability.

 

The question I am also concerned with is whether that will be Putin’s excuse to directly interfere, shocking many of us, to be sure. 

 

My hopes, and those of Nate and his family are definitely with those in Ukraine who cherish and seek to preserve their new freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

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SITE BLUPDATE

 

Happy Thanksgiving! This of course the American Holiday where we give thanks and eat turkey. The reason this is not celebrated in England is because in World War I Turkey gave thanks and ate the brits.

 

 

- Which segues nicely into a peculiar experience I had recently where I overheard a disturbingly strange conversation at an internet café. Naturally, I couldn’t understand a word of anything either of the two said and was amazed they could understand each other – but when I heard my name mentioned, I perked up and began to furiously scribble down every word.

 

Here’s what they said:

 

La Frogette: Hélas! Une bonne nouvelle de Blogbat…

 

Der Kerl: Wie…? NA! Der Blogbat…so klug und lustig, frisch, leicht und bequem wie immer! Sag mal, was sonst hat der Blogbat neulich getan?  

 

La Frogette: Je n’en sais rien. Mais il est un chacal astucieux, n’est ce pas?

 

Der Kerl: Ach was – soweit ich weiss ist er eigentlich ein Wombat – so hat er uns schon vielmal diese Forderung gemacht…

 

La Frogette: Pas du tout!

   

Then some sort of scuffle ensued. Der Kerl obviously forgetting that though France is known for its historic surrenders, their women are still prima feisty.

 

 

So moving on, it’s time for a Blogbatory update:

 

 

Turkey Week

I will be AFB this week as I busy myself with holiday faire and dedicate my free time to preparing my new blog for publication. I have been spending a lot of time recently working on that – from finding the best host and format, to making a decision about its visuals, as I mentioned a time or two earlier. Since the need for a proper place to opine won’t go away, I’ve decided to focus all of my energies on going live at the new spot as soon as humanely possible. No really, humanely. Hopefully you’ll find post-xanga Blogbat mucho better in not a few respects.  

 

Make My Day

Go ahead and bookmark the new address: www.blogbat.us. Once everything is ready to go the teaser page presently up will be replaced with a start page linking to the blog(s) along with other offerings to come later, some with perhaps a bit of input from Dogbat…

 

It has after all been a slow news week so far, right? Aside from the threat of riots in Kiev (apparently they have their own Al Gore copycat criminals in Ukraine) and aircraft of ex-presidents coming down just a stone’s throw from some Houston horses I used to lease.

 

And I suppose we also found out this week as well that the great CBS Newsnazi, the grand pooba of catty good-ol’ boy-ism is calling it quits. Most of us could fairly see that on the horizon as a post-election mortem. What more can we say? Rather’s Bushed.

 

And may Charlie Brown top the headlines until I return…

 

 

 

 

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Blogbat: ein Fahrgeschäft durch die Weltnachrichten … bald unterwegs

 

Blue-State Philosophy Rears Its Ugly Head in Sports

 

 

UPDATE – 03:26:

 

The French Sensibility

And the Chinese Sensibility, and the North Korean Sensibility etc…

 

In a shocking video at Little Green Footballs, France opens fire on a crowd of unarmed and calm Ivory Coast civilians – men, women, possibly children, with a likely wink and nod from the UN. Watch the video at the link above (warning, strongly graphic).

 

After watching the video of Tiananmen II, read below exactly why we never want to lose the values which have built us and other historically safe and prosperous societies which value human life and preserve the innocent, and how we can stop the slide towards the ideas which give rise to the insanity seen in the video above.

 

 

 

Of course one of the events about which I’m writing today occurred in a red state, that is, the South Carolina and Clemson football game this afternoon where a fight broke out on the field twice. Before that was the now-infamous NBA game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons where players charged the stands, making children cry, women scream and causing one elderly person to be trampled in the mêlée. That game had to finally be called off. Before that we saw last season’s Texas Rangers baseball game where disgruntled players charged the stands and one tossed a metal chair into the crowd, severely lacerating one woman’s face and breaking her nose. But what I’m referring to here in the header above is a way of looking at things, a philosophy, which has its roots in the values taught and dearly held on to more so by those same people who dominated the counties and the states we call “blue”, though also held elsewhere. It is that “blue” ideology which elicits and really in the end permits social breakdown. And it is that same way of seeing things which has been the cornerstone of the American public education system, dominated by the values of Liberalism for quite some time. So it should be no surprise when the ideas tought the young should be carried out by those children once they reach adulthood. That same Liberalism now controls many boardrooms of companies too corrupted to offer their part in maintaining the social moral guidence of years past. This creates yet another hole in the net of civility upon which we all depend for security and growth. And we have seen the fruits of such corruption in an ever-enlarging circle of misbehaviors and things which would have been unthinkable a generation before. All warning signs of more to come if we do not change our course. There is no doubt civil behavior has changed in the past few decades to provide all of us these provocative symptoms. That “change” as always, is ultimately in how people think.

 

The blue-state philosophy, or more exactly the philosophy of Liberalism is a permissive belief system geared toward accepting the rule of the tyrannical and arbitrary among fellow materialists, with a strong sense of human devaluation and almost a fatalistic hunger for wealth and power as the only things one can truly hold on to in one’s short and futile existence – before he returns to the earth to await discovery perhaps one day by the archeologist’s spade.

 

In a generation of relativistic thinkers, or better put in most cases, reactioneers, truly all is vanity.

 

If our core philosophies and the core philosophies we allow our teachers to teach our children don’t change we will soon find ourselves without the faintest vestige of civility and the protections it has hitherto afforded.

 

Peace, goodwill toward men. It is a heritage for those who humbly respect that which is higher than them, their Creator, and therefore the rules which govern how one man should behave towards another. When we run to this truth, we glean peace for our posterity. And having peace, they will have prosperity, but truly no just or lasting prosperity will ever come where there is not first peace, as history has been our guide.

 

Such travesties in the sports arena are nothing new in most parts of the world however. That same world which also would still be plowing with oxen and sending couriers instead of e-mails, were it not for the great foundation of opportunities the American tradition has created, has its own traditions of tyranny, violence and poverty. And sports riots. When the rest of the world calls on the United States to be “more like them”, we should take pause this week and think about just what that really means.

 

 

Soccer Riots in a Big Blue World – normalcy abroad: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004532921,00.html

 

 

Watch NBA Video from Yesterday:

 

http://jrofosho.com/exclusives/video/nbafight.html

 

Thanks to Wes Roth at http://www.wesroth.com/mt_archives/000225.html who was the original link for this video.

 

 

 

 

 

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Building Trailer Parks to the 21^st Century…

 

 

This time they have outdone themselves. It will take a mighty big tornado to tear up this

affront to the environment…

 

Of course the former President’s First Trailer is supposed to be a symbolic bridge to the 21^st Century, they say. And just like everything else from the Clinton years the symbolism doesn’t actually lead anywhere, if you’re talking about the world of substance.

 

Bill Clinton’s legacy, far from a library full of revisionist history and unusually clean carpet in the simulated Oval Office may well be the ensuing national catastrophe and the deaths of thousands of American civilians and military personnel which followed the momentum of progressive and unchallenged terrorist attacks throughout the 1990′s. As Ann Coulter points out in her book, “How to Talk to a Liberal (if You Must)” Osama Bin Laden got the message loud and clear, in his own words, “that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat”. Paper of course until William Jefferson Clinton’s next sex scandal. The army, as history points out was literally reduced by 50% in size during the Clinton administration. If army morale is lower because of fewer rotations now, that would be another Clinton legacy.

 

The library is expected to be a boon for the homeless however. Homeless pets, that is. After the festivities this week stray dogs from all over Arkansas will be moving to Little Rock to claim a spot where they can curl up under their new home. 

 

 

 

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BIG

 

They Might Be Giants, But…

 

…even giants can’t get away with this: Microsoft Red-Handed Using Pirated Software: software giant may be guilty of intellectual property theft, says German computer publication PCWelt.

 

Thanks to Wizbang who discovered this article yesterday, this PCWelt.de gem won’t go unnoticed. According to the German article, Microsoft used illegal copies of Sound Forge software to create .wav files used in their Windows Media Player help documentation.

 

PCWelt has offered a translated copy of their article in English, for those of you faint at heart with reading anything, dass ins Deutsch geschrieben steht. 

 

The article explains,

 

 

Has it ever crossed your mind to use the (note pad) editor to open a WAV file installed with Windows XP? Nobody will do that – that’s what Microsoft probably thought. After all, countless WAV files are stored on a computer, and they are to be heard, not to be watched, right? (This is an english translation of the article “ Erwischt: Hat Microsoft für Windows XP Warez genutzt?“)

 

No, not exactly. Our colleagues over at Macwelt gave us the idea. We tried it and examined some WAV files that are stored on a drive with a newly installed Windows XP. And we made a stunning discovery.

 

In fact, we didn’t even have to search for very long, as coincidence lent us a helping hand. In the Windows system directory, we had our first find, in the directory

 

“WindowsHelpToursWindowsMediaPlayerAudioWav”.

 

Located there are exactly nine WAV files, with a size between 80 and 360 Kilobytes. They serve as background sound during the Windows Media Player Tour. When you open one of these files with the notepad, you at first only see scrambled letters. Of course, you think, it’s a sound file, after all.

 

But things become interesting when you scroll down to the very bottom in notepad. Located there is a type of watermarking, which records the software that the Microsoft musician used to create the WAV files

 

We found the following text there:

 

LISTB INFOICRD 2000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5

 

 

The article goes on to explain that this particular copy of Sound Forge was tied to a software cracker by the name of Deepz0ne and explains just who he is:

 

 

DeepzOne is (or at least was) member of the Warez group Radium that had specialized on cracking music software. Along with a person using the alias “Sandor,” he was also co-founder of this group, which was established in 1997( see in this interview ). In addition, it was DeepzOne who started circulating the cracked 4.5 version of Sound Forge a few years ago.

 

 

While most users (including me) found the Deepz0ne reference in the file code, some XP users haven’t, which may be due to either Service Pack, Media Player version or other version variances.

 

A Spooky thought though that one can easily derive from all of this is the long-pondered (and previously matter-of-factly debunked) theory out there that if Microsoft is cutting some corners, what if employees knowingly have also left backdoors for themselves or other hackers, or malware in the OS code…

 

 

There indeed seems from this to be some sort of gap between delegation and oversight at Microsoft, or in the very least weak hiring standards.  

 

 

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Alas, today’s picks for the top headlines that didn’t exactly make the news…

 

Life’s a Fitch and then You Dye

 

Abercrombie & Fitch today settled a suit for $40 million that alleged inadequate ethnic minority representation within their company. Now only if someone will sue them for inadequate clothing representation…

 

 

European Intervention

 

Chirac and Schroeder have taken to rehabilitating British Prime Minister Tony Blair of late from all of his talk of freedom, democracy and stoping islamofascist rape and murder.  Chirac: “I am not sure, with America as it is these days, that it would be easy for someone, even the British, to be an honest broker. Perhaps that will change, but that is the current state of things”. C’est les kooks

 

 

Russia is Sitting on a Black Gold Mine

Something Blogbat has been pointing out all along. Interesting timing as American oil companies have just rediscovered the profitability of Stateside exploration and recovery, among other things

 

 

Israel May Join NATO Exercises

France upset first exercise isn’t going to be renewed bombing of innocent Israelis on busses

 

 

UN Plans Sanctions on Ivory Coast

Bribery program soon to follow

 

 

 

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Condi Rice Heir-Apparent New Secretary of State…or NFL Commissioner?

 

Weird official announcement of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s resignation and the anticipated promotion of much-respected National Security Advisor Condi Rice comes the morning after I had a weird dream about the matter. In it, Condi was selected to replace Secretary Powell but it was a disaster, Condi herself also dissatisfied, she quit! Of course, my pick is for Secretary of Defense, but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards for her. Here’s wishing her the best in State or in the real world…

 

 

Don’t Bring the Kids: Tom Brokaw Booed at Oklahoma State Game

 

A listener calling in to the Michael Savage radio show today claimed that NBC spokeshole Tom Brokaw was booed by all of those evil Red Staters when he was introduced by the university’s president during half time. When will the liberal elite media figure out they are even more offensive in Red States than those phallic advertisements for Levitra now so popular family faire during Dallas Cowboys pre-game shows at Texas Stadium – where the team, amidst fireworks and dry ice runs out of a “male dysfunction tablet” ad emblazoned tunnel and a Dallas Cowboys helmet emerging to then part two rows of cheerleaders…

 

…See video one, video two… (I thought it was just me, but folks around me were mumbling about this too). Even compared to Jerry Jones’ idea of family entertainment, Brokaw and NBC News are nasty, nasty, nasty. But it will be many moons before they get it.

 

 

New Blogbat Site Nearing Completion

 

Despite the delays of an insufferable “day job“, out of control social life and hazardous pre-Christmas home electronics sales, I am nearing ready to begin posting at my new spot the web. My canine friend, Dogbat is equally excited. The new blog is being built around Movable Type, so any experienced soul should know that offering tidbits of wisdom is always heartily welcomed. Of course, this past weekend didn’t present itself for much, but the wrap-up is an historic inevitability, Comrades.

 

 

More entertaining behavior: 

 

 

Elites are Socialists and Socialists are Elites: Garrison Keillor believes Christians Should be denied the right to vote (translation: Keillor wants a communist dictatorship)

 

Weird: Scientists say hoarding Pets is Mental Illness

As if this needed a million dollar federally-funded study…

 

 

 

 

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Chopping Down the Yassir Tree

 

 

Arafat’s Trail of Terror

 

Weeping for Willow: One BBC Reporter’s Idea of “Fair & Balanced”

 

A Biography of Links from Honest Reporting

 

We can all now hope this terrorist will be replaced with someone who can accept mutual coexistence and not destroy his own people because of his own hatred.

 

 

 

 

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Bush Floats Major Pb Balloon

Will Middle-America see alien amnesty as a betrayal?

 

Courtesy Wall Street Journal

 

 

The question has appeared again. Whether we should declare everyone who has leapfrogged into the country illegally (without waiting their turn) as citizens without regard if they happen to want it or not, or we abide by the one thing that brings them here to begin with: a stable democracy built on the rule of law.

 

The argument for allowing more illegal aliens (reminiscent of that made by proponents of slavery in the 19^th century) has been that their cheap labor is good for the economy.

 

However the very notion of amnesty and legalization will remove the very cheap-labor base the proponents claim will be permanently created. (Nevermind the cruelty of any scheme that wishes to create a pernanent group of people present soley for near-slave status, where it will be contrary to the very interests of the powers that brought them in to encourage upward movement.)

 

So the question on the table that Bush and Secretary of State Powell are now floating, along with Mexican President Vicente Fox is the official resettlement of people Fox for possibly a host of reasons no longer wishes to care for in his own country. This is of course not a new idea. And most recently back in August the Liberal New York Times called on the GOP to embrace amnesty.

 

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this since I happen to live in Texas, a state which had to shed blood with Fox’s predecessors just to remain autonomous, which was something that history points out left some bitter feelings on the losing side even until today. But I’ve come to a conclusion about our happy newcomers that even surprised myself.

 

This scheme of Mr. Bush and Señor Fox is actually perfectly fine, so long as the following minimal prerequisites are met by prospective citizens:

 

Uno: That they be taught how to behave like civilized first-worlders and attentive citizens. No more permissive attitudes toward drinking and driving, littering and loitering.

 

Dos: They must learn to use the language of commerce spoken all across the world in its home country: English. Perhaps if many of these new citizens realized that Spanish was the language forced on their Indian forefathers who were forced to speak that language as well as convert to Catholicism, they might have a slightly different attitude about it. English is the language of freedom and also importantly, the language of our laws and Bill or Rights, both of which they need to know for their own protection.

 

In other words, President Bush and those in big business have been feeding a stray puppy behind the house for a really long time and now they want to keep it. I admit that in some respects it is a cute puppy, but if we’re going to keep that puppy, he has got to learn not to pee in the house.

 

 

Currently, many working illegals earn no more than $6000 a year. Since one of their strengths is their large, cohesive families, it doesn’t begin to cover the cost of living or healthcare for family members not generating income, such as grandma and grandpa, the kiddies or momma. So add about $15 billion a year in social services for the lot.

 

Add to that the cost of unemployment, healthcare and other social services for the 1,880,000 American workers who are displaced from their jobs every year by immigration, according to research done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

 

The National Academe of Sciences has found that illegal immigration costs the taxpayer between $166 and $226 annually. That comes to 15 to 20 billion dollars a year, outweighing the benefits which are somewhere between one to ten billion annually and which overwhelmingly benefit larger corporate interests – and even that only in the short term.

 

Benefiting businesses that is, unless you are in the medical profession: Hospitals across the Southwest have been forced to close their doors forever because they cannot afford the costs of treating so many uninsured patients with last-minute crisis conditions, which the institutions are compelled to accept by federal mandate.

 

Another cost: 30% of our federal prison population are illegal aliens. Illegal aliens only make up less than 10% of people in the United States, but make up three times as many federal felons. They are costing the U.S. criminal justice system over 500 million dollars per year. Better that they should rot in Mexican jails, n’est ce pas?

 

We are generally not getting Mexico‘s best and brightest, we are not getting their college graduates, their IT specialists or their scientists. We are nearly always getting the people even Mexico, a third-world country, doesn’t want, a vast number of whom wind up in prison. A percentage among their numbers which would be staggering if equal among other groups. And because they come in illegally we don’t know what their background is, if they are wanted by the law in Mexico, if they are deadbeat dads, gang members, drug dealers, murderers or sex offenders. But we do know they are all willing to break the law.

 

The standard argument by proponents of open borders is that these are by and large good, “family-values” people. But even the “good” ones are causing an environmental disaster, leaving a trail of non-biodegradable bottles, jugs, bags, boxes and other trash along their way, and more once they get here. Oddly enough also somehow getting a pass from the liberal elite environmental activists who show again how selective they are in applying their purported beliefs.

 

  

 

  

Courtesy DesertInvasion.us

 

Teddy Roosevelt would be rolling over in his grave.

 

Another alarming trend: Many of those who do not have a criminal past in Mexico become part of the crime problem once they sneak in. Perhaps that is just because the very act of crossing illegally without consequence teaches a certain number among them they can act with impunity and that we’ll have them no matter what because our greedy corporations want to enslave them. It also teaches them to hold contempt for our country- not exactly a model candidate for citizenship. They often act out by drinking and driving, driving without a license, committing child neglect, littering, loitering and disturbing the peace.

 

The cost from 911 responses due to this alone should nearly outweigh any profits their enslavers keep for themselves. The cost from jailing and hospital time is also a big factor, as I’ve already mentioned.

 

Many ask how we will be able to afford deporting these illegal aliens and forcing them to follow the law in applying for citizenship or guest-worker status. I ask, how can we afford not to?

 

Vicente Fox argues the Bush administration must act now with amnesty because next year will provide, “a window of opportunity, given that neither of our countries will be in elections.” A statement that in itself shows a less-than honorable desire to circumvent the will of not only the American people, but apparently the Mexican people as well.

 

But an opportunity for what in Fox’s mind is the question. The past five years have seen well over 115 documented border incursions by the Mexican army, many of them were violent and used deadly force against our border agents. Now whether these militias are acting on an official basis or are acting on bribes from drug lords and snake heads, that, along with the 50-80% of illegal drugs coming across the border carried by Mexican nationals should be reason enough to not only enforce the border, but to know whom exactly we are dealing with individually when talking amnesty.

 

America is in danger of losing the poverty war for the first time in over a century, not to mention losing the drug war and possibly even the war on Terrorism. But worse yet, unrestrained, uncontrolled immigration without assimilation threatens those very immigrants with the very real possibility that in the end of the day they will only move from poverty in one country to poverty in another, providing no greater hope for their children. I say this as one who has Mexican blood in his own family.

 

Truly this corporate-alien arrangement is a most sick and dysfunctional one - and needs to be stopped at any cost.

 

Many in Congress oppose any amnesty program, but we need to let them know that we do too- and that we feel strongly about it. We also need to let President Bush know our position on this, those of us who live on the front lines as it were, and are bearing the brunt of an unregulated and unmitigated human influx.

 

The White House:

 

Mailing Address

 

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

 

Phone Numbers

 

Comments:   202-456-1111

Switchboard: 202-456-1414

FAX:             202-456-2461

 

            TTY/TDD

 

Comments:      202-456-6213

Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

E-Mail

 

President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov

Vice President Richard Cheney: vice.president@whitehouse.gov

 

 

 

The House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

 

The Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

 

 

Related resources:

 

Project USA: http://projectusa.org

 

The Federation for American Immigration Reform: http://www.fairus.org/

 

 

Related News:

 

Mexico Seeks U.S. Immigration Changes – CNN

Secretary of State Colin Powell, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and several other U.S. Cabinet members began a two-day visit to Mexico City Monday

 

Bush Revives Bid to Legalize Illegal Aliens – Washington Times

President Bush yesterday moved aggressively to resurrect his plan to relax rules against illegal immigration, a move bound to anger conservatives just days after they helped re-elect him

 

 

Related blogs:

 

Michelle Malkin: http://www.michellemalkin.com

 

 

Blogbat archives:

 

The Saga of Asa and Issa

Border Guard to Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchison during town hall meeting: “why don’t you let us do our job?”

 

‘Sanctuary’ Practice in Houston Draws Fire

And militant acts along the border

 

 

 

 

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