Books & Globull Warming

So I have been reading a lot lately, I read "The Political Zoo" by Michael Savage last month around Thanksgiving. It was a good book. Along with the comedy of the illustrations Savage give a no holds bar view on a wide band of people from politicians (left and right) to celebrities who won't shut up. Over all it was a fun read around 300 pages, that goes nice and quick. One day I will post a book list of what I have read and it's rating according to me.

Speaking of me, I have been telling people for a long time there is no such thing as a consensus in science and whoever tells you otherwise is a idiot. Algore has been spewing his man made global warming IS happening and IS irreversible and WE have to pay for it. Now a an official U.S. Senate report written by over 400 scientist who debunk Algore's stupid myth.

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.SenateReport#report

Now I have heard the argument "But isn't cleaning up the planet a good idea anyway?". It sounds alright except globull warming legislation has cost taxpayers MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of dollars. Just think about the ethanol push alone that was mandated by the POTUS, since then the cost of corn has gone through the roof. This caused riots in Mexico where a corn tortilla is their wonder bread. Also the prices of beef, milk, chicken, eggs and cheese have shot up due to the fact that they all require corn. I could go on and on... Light bulbs, cars, electricity and of course gasoline itself.

Read the senate report I know it's long but if you sat through "An Inconvenient Truth" you owe it to yourself to be informed on both sides.

Me and Fred

So I googled myself today and I came up first. That freaks me out. There was a time when I was 4th but to be first is kinda weird and cool. What I hope is that it means more people were reading this blog than I thought. If so sorry about the absence. I am willing to put my differences with google aside to satisfy my legions of fans. In case I didn't mention I have very different political views than google and I am unhappy with their censoring of, well, anything. Anyway to all my fans I will be posting here again till I find some thing better.

Just in case you didn't see my "myspace" I am endorsing Fred Thompson for POTUS. http://www.fred08.com don't take my word on it read his positions on his page they speak for themselves. i know you are saying he doesn't campaign enough or he is "lazy" but I will tell you different. The MSM (mainstream media) does not want to see the likes of Fred in the White House. So they pick the candidate they think will be the biggest pushover for Clinton and play him up, Huckabee is that sucker. He is a RINO that can only be compared to Jimmy Carter. Of course there is the mayor, the mormon and the veteran but they all stand for the same thing. I know that we will NEVER have another Ronald Reagan to unite the country but Fred Thompson is the closest we are gonna get.

Deathly Hallows

So I finished the latest and hopefully last Harry Potter book yesterday, it was pretty good. Like the the previous one I am not sure how the would make it into a movie, but after seeing Order of the Phoenix I hope they don't go chop crazy.

Let me tell you at the end Harry finds out his father is Darth Vader! No spoilers here, being I am a big reading advocate I say go read the book. It took me 9 hours over 3 days. It looks huge (760+- pages) but the action keeps the flow pretty quick. Plus once your into the story you don't want to put the book down (though it can get heavy after a couple of hours, its like a brick). It is a classic good verses evil story where the hero struggles with his purpose. I know the hardcore Bible thumpers are whiny about the whole witchcraft thing but it's a fictional book! Much like T.V. and movies if you can't teach your kid about fantasy vs. reality maybe you should give the thing child to your parents and tell them to try again!

I think she ended it well, but I would have liked the epilogue to be a little different. I know she wanted to wrap up but so many characters were left out I thought a few more key details would have been nice. What happens with who and so on.
The book does contain a lot of death and blood spilling, so I would say pg-13 is right on for future readers.

It's not to late

http://www.twintowersalliance.com/

We can fill the gap! Go to he link and sign the petition. We can rebuild them!

Movies: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I have seen a lot of movies in my life, but lately things have been well, lousy.

Let's go back a few weeks to the well anticipated "Spiderman 3". This would fall under the BAD category. I saw it twice to make sure. Dancing emo spiderboy ruined it FOREVER. Even the great special fx couldn't save this movie from the horrible acting of Toby M. and Kirsten D. I wanted to like it, I am a nerd after all and comic books are a staple of nerddom.



Pirates 3, doesn't bode much better. It was more fun than "S3" but in the long run it "P3" sits well flat of the first. Poor acting isn't the problem here. It's poor plot, story and directing. With the open ending and talk of "P4" haven't we beat this dead horse enough.



"Knocked Up" was almost a knock out. It's great for a couple of adults who want to see a funny movie. I laughed a lot watching this one. But the overkill of grossout humor and stupid jr. high mentality kind of jokes go a little to far leaving you wanting a little more from less.



"Hostel 2" was just crap. Even if you like horror movies this movie was UGLY. Long drawn out story for mediocre violence, arrghh it just frustrates me how bad it was. Crap crap crap that's it I'm moving on... man it sucked!

I mentioned a Good movie and will make due by giving you "Evan Almighty". In some ways Evan is better than Bruce, though it really cannot be compared with Bruce because it's not so much a sequel but a spin-off. Evan is masterfully played by Steve Carrell, who I think has a bright future in hollywood. The cast is well chosen and fits perfectly in their respective places. It's a movie I'd bring the family to (if I wanted or had one) but maybe 10 and up age wise. 4 out of 5 stars for Evan. Go see it, see it again, then let me know what you think.

Chinese SPY unloading our secrets

So I first heard of this on the radio, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The Chicoms now have our next generation stealth submarine tech. He also gave them the next gen of AEGIS: The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is a US Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency program developed to provide a last line of defense against ballistic missiles. Which the chicoms have already integrated onto two of their naval vessels. We have to watch them. They instigate problems between the US and others (Iraq, Iran, Russia, N. Korea) to keep us from looking at the BIG picture of what they are doing. I stand by my previous statements that we will go to war with China in the next 50 years! The question is; Will we have let our defences down and not be able to stop the chicoms from taking over the world, or will we grow a pair and stop pretending our enemies don't exist? Chinese, Muslim or whoever intends to ruin the Greatest Nation on God's green Earth.

Engineer guilty in military secrets case
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press WriterThu May 10, 4:29 PM ET

Jurors convicted a Chinese-born engineer Thursday of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, including data on an electronic propulsion system that could make submarines virtually undetectable.
Chi Mak also was found guilty of being an unregistered foreign agent. Prosecutors had dropped a charge of actually exporting defense articles.
When the verdict was read, Mak at first showed no emotion but then appeared to hold back tears as defense attorney Marilyn Bednarsky teared up and rubbed his back. Defense attorney Ron Kaye's face was flush.
Mak faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 10.
Mak, 66, acknowledged during the trial that he copied classified documents from his employer, a defense contractor, and kept copies in his office. He maintained he didn't realize at the time that making the copies was illegal.
Kaye said the defense team still believes Mak is innocent.
"We believe the facts of the case have been manipulated, and we believe Mr. Mak didn't necessarily get a fair trial," Kaye said.
In many instances, the government was allowed to present classified information to U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in his chambers, and the defense team did not receive some classified information about a request by the FBI to bug Chi Mak's house, Kaye said.
"We were confident from the start and we're very happy with the verdict," Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said.
Authorities believe Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, took thousands of pages of documents from his employer, Power Paragon of Anaheim, and gave them to his brother, who prosecutors say passed them along to Chinese authorities for years.
Mak was arrested in 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong. Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage containing sensitive military documents.
Staples said the government may use the verdict to try to negotiate plea bargains with members of his family who are awaiting trial this month. Mak's wife, brother and other relatives have pleaded not guilty.
The six-week trial featured testimony from a parade of FBI agents, U.S. Navy officials and encryption and espionage experts.
Key to the case was the government's allegation that Mak confessed to the conspiracy — and even identified his Chinese government handler and specific restricted documents — during an untaped jailhouse interview two days after his arrest.
Mak testified he never confessed during that interview, but admitted that he lied repeatedly in an earlier taped interview about the number of times he had visited China and when he told authorities he didn't have friends or relatives there. He said he felt intimidated during the interrogation.
"This is why I lied," he said. "They were pushing me that night."
Mak's attorneys had focused on the propulsion system documents found in his brother's luggage at Los Angeles International Airport.
Mak said he believed he was doing nothing wrong by giving the documents to his brother to take out of the country because they were papers that had been presented previously at international conferences.

Women & Mooselimbs part II

I found this article in WaPo (Washington Post). Read it all, it's coming to a home near you. Sure middle eastern guys can be swarthy and seem really nice but after you say "I Do".
You won't!

For Some Muslim Wives, Abuse Knows No Borders Traditional Pressures Can Persist in U.S.
By Pamela ConstableWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, May 8, 2007; A01
One was a shy, slender young woman who spoke no English when she was brought from Pakistan to enter an arranged marriage with a stranger in Virginia. The other was a self-confident professional, born in Turkey but raised in the United States, who thought she knew what she was doing when she married an educated Muslim man in Maryland.
Yet both women fell under the sway of the same powerful pressures that sometimes reach around the globe to keep Muslim wives in the Washington region imprisoned in abusive marriages, unable to fight the gossip and shame that come with defying their culture and religion, isolated from help that is just a three-digit phone number away.
"My husband beat. He show knife. I am scared for him, for all family," said Shamim, 21, the Pakistani bride, who was rescued by police. She is being sheltered and tutored in English at a private home. "They say no money, no call mother at home. I cook for all, I not eat. I not know 911 what is. I think I go crazy."
Shireen, the woman in Maryland, speaks with articulate chagrin about how the crushing weight of social expectation kept her in a relationship that soon turned violent. Both women's last names are being withheld at their request.
"I was perfectly happy living alone, but the family kept pushing me to marry. I wanted to show them I was a good Muslim girl," said Shireen, now 37 and divorced. When her husband became abusive, she said, relatives told her to be a better wife. When she took him to court, she said, "everyone abandoned me. I was the one who had done something wrong."
Domestic abuse is hardly unique to Muslim immigrant communities; it is a sad fact of life in families of all backgrounds and origins. Yet, according to social workers, Islamic clerics and women's advocates, women from Muslim-majority cultures face extra pressure to submit to violent husbands and intense social ostracism if they muster the courage to file charges or flee.
A major obstacle to recognizing and fighting abuse, experts said, can be Islam itself. The religion prizes female modesty and fidelity while allowing men to divorce at will and have several wives at once. Many Muslims also believe that men have the right to beat their wives. An often-quoted verse in the Koran says a husband may chastise a disobedient wife, but the phrasing in Arabic is open to several interpretations.
"Many batterers manipulate Islamic law or use its perceived authority to control their wives. A man who has the power to divorce can really twist the knife," said Mazna Hussain, an attorney for abused women at the Tahirih Justice Center in Falls Church. "Muslim women want to be faithful to their religion, and the idea that you cannot disobey the word of God is very compelling, even if you are in an abusive relationship."
Mosques are a central focus of community life for Muslim immigrants, and the influence of their male clerics is enormous. Only a handful of these imams have spoken out on the problem of abuse, a source of shame and denial among their flocks.
In Sterling, Imam Mohamed Magid at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society offers counseling to engaged couples, ensuring they understand their mutual rights and duties. In Silver Spring, Imam Faizul Khan at the Islamic Society of the Washington Area holds weekly counseling sessions for troubled couples.
"For many years, our community did not face these issues. Women suffered in silence and fear. Even today, many imams think it could never happen in their mosque," Khan said. "Islam gives equal rights to men and women, but there are myths in Muslim society that men are superior and violence is permitted. This is wrong, and it needs to be said."
Khan and others are also trying to bring men into the debate by forming a group called Muslim Men Against Domestic Violence. But they said recruiting participants is not easy. Even when taken to court on charges of abuse, several experts said, many Muslim men will argue that they were within their rights or are being victimized by vindictive spouses.
Another powerful barrier to change can be the grip of Muslim culture, with its gossip among extended families and its tradition of arranged marriages, in which brides often are sent to live with their in-laws. Immigrant brides are frequently cut off from their families and isolated in new households, where they occupy the lowest social rung and might be forced to act as servants.
Social workers and government officials said there are numerous programs in the area to help Muslim women who are abused, such as hotlines with links to Arabic and Urdu speakers and shelters that serve meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual. But if a young woman is brought to the United States, speaking no English and surrounded by in-laws, she might be as far from help as if she were living in a Pakistani or Moroccan village.
"Many women are kept inside, with no one to turn to," said Catherine Juhel, a counselor at the Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help (FAITH), an assistance program for Muslim women in Herndon. "They don't know the language or the laws here, only what their husband tells them. Often they come from a society where if you go to the police, they will bring you right back home. How can they be sure it would be any different here?"
A cudgel often wielded by abusive Muslim husbands in the United States is their power over the legal immigration status of their wives. Many brides arrive with temporary "marriage" visas obtained through husbands who are U.S. residents or citizens. Lawyers and social workers say an angry or demanding husband might threaten to "call immigration" and have the wife deported, raising the horrifying specter of her returning home in shame.
Many imported Muslim wives do not know that there are U.S. laws allowing them to seek residency alone if they can prove they have been abused by their spouses. Several legal-aid organizations in the region handle these petitions free of charge, and they help women seek protective orders and child custody.
A closely related problem is nervousness about the prospect of leaving home. In many Muslim societies, women are protected and housed by their fathers and then by their husbands; if they date or live alone, they risk being tarred as prostitutes. To seek shelter from strangers in an alien country might seem a worse fate than enduring abuse in familiar surroundings.
"Sometimes women do not want to go to shelters. Even if the man is beating her and the children, she may feel it is their Islamic duty to remain home and respect him," said Ambreen Ahmad, director of FAITH. "We try to show them that in Islam, their rights are protected and their duty is only to God. When they finally understand, they are so relieved they cry and cry. It is like breaking shackles."
In the case of Shamim, it took a series of contacts with sympathetic relatives and women's rights activists for her to summon the nerve to call 911. When she finally did, the police came in a patrol car, helped her pack while her husband and in-laws watched in astonishment, and escorted her to a friend's home.
"Now I am freedom," Shamim said, grinning broadly as she took a tea break recently from her English studies. "I stay America. Not go home. In home, everyone blame woman, it is my culture. Everyone blame me."
Yet even U.S.-educated women can be browbeaten into enduring abuse for fear of shaming their families or facing cruel gossip at the mosque. Organizations that help them escape are viewed by some conservative Muslims here as dangerous saboteurs of Muslim values and family.
In Shireen's case, even a college degree and a good job could not fend off the demands of family and community bent on fitting her into a traditional Muslim mold. Now that she finally has freed herself from an unhappy match, she said, she has become a pariah to the family that once hovered around her.
"I know I was stupid to give in, but you get overwhelmed by all the pressure," she said. "Now I have been totally shunned. I embarrassed my husband in the eyes of the community. It doesn't matter why I left him or what he did to me. Even in America, you can't always get away from home."