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Mark's Song of the Week columns are always diverting and informative, but sometimes just a bit depressing. The great Johnny Mercer was a mean drunk. Frank Loesser smoked his way to a premature death. Sadder still is the story of the lonely life of Lorenz Hart, who considered himself unlovable:
By 1937, he’d written a hundred love songs for everyone else, and “Funny Valentine” was one for himself, the one he’d like to have had someone sing to him:
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
But don't change a hair for me...
No one ever did sing it to him.
But this week's column on George Shearing is the opposite of sad, in spite of what one might consider some pretty hardcore early impediments to happiness:
Sir George (as Her Majesty, cutting it exceeding fine, dubbed him a couple of years back) died two weeks ago at the age of 91. Born blind (the result, he believed, of a botched attempt at abortion), he grew up to become one of the greatest pianists of our time.
Think about that for a minute.
Wouldn't you know it -- Shearing wrote Lullaby of Birdland in ten minutes:
That evening, in the middle of eating his char-broiled steak at their home in Old Tappan, New Jersey, he suddenly jumped up from the table. "What's wrong now?" said the missus. Shearing had been known to leap from his chair when presented with a meal not to his taste. This time, though, he ran to the piano, sat down, began to play, and ten minutes later had the whole of "Lullaby Of Birdland" mapped out. At the end, he turned to Trixie: "What do you think of that?" "I've been back to that butcher many times," he told me, "but I never got a steak that did the trick again."
Mark has often noted how great songs get away from their creators and take on lives of their own. Case in point:
If you care about the Oscars then you probably already know who won what. I don't care much. If I did I'd check out DavidKahane on the the Corner. In other news:
The police didn't clear the squatters out of the Wisconsin statehouse yesterday afternoon as planned. Michelle Malkin calls it mob rule:
In Madison, Wisconsin — the Berkeley of the Midwest — deadlines don’t mean diddly-squat. Rules don’t apply. And the People’s House belongs not to hard-working taxpayers, but to Big Labor squatters who have grimed and slimed up the Capitol for almost two weeks.
The Capitol police had set a deadline this afternoon for the grievance mob to clear out their sleeping bags, crock pots, and other makeshift camp paraphernalia. The occupiers ignored them. The Capitol police then promptly…capitulated. Rest assured, rewarding the breakdown of civil order will lead to more civil disorder. Way to go, Madison:
Protesters were limited to the ground floor while crews gave the building an “extensive cleaning.” No bedrolls or backpacks will be allowed if protesters come back into the Capitol when the building reopens at 8 a.m. today, [Capitol Police Chief Charles] Tubbs said.
No doubt many protesters were hoping to star as victims in a clear-the-building drama. We'll never know what that footage would have been like, but thus far the unionists haven't been very smart about their own PR. They've gone so far as to strike Fox Reporter Mike Tobin, with one teacher telling him she hates him "because it makes her feel good". (Parents, think about that one for a minute.) In another report Tobin talks about the "hate in their eyes":
On Saturday night’s broadcast of “Geraldo at Large,” Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin took some critical shots at protesters attempting to shout down and disrupt his broadcast. He told host Geraldo Rivera he has observed hate and an effort to shut out other viewpoints.
“One thing I think should make clear – the people coming after us from every live shot here, these people hate,” Tobin said. “These are people who don’t respect diverse viewpoints. In fact, they’re so afraid I’ll present a diverse viewpoint, that’s why they try to heckle me and shut down every live shot. They’ve made it clear, that what they want to make it harder for me to do my job. They are proud of that when they disrupt a live shot, when they really trample over the First Amendment rights or the First Amendment’s obligations of a reporter. Now, I am not saying that’s all of the people. Those are the people that come here and heckle and try to disrupt things. I look in their eyes – there is hate in their eyes. They don’t want to hear any kind of viewpoint that is different from their own. That’s why they do what they do.”
Rivera explained Tobin’s report was troubling, especially since Madison is the home of the University of Wisconsin, where one might think that in a university setting people would be more receptive to other points of view.
Cue laugh track on that one. Here are Tobin's two reports in one video:
Politico today looks at the possibility that federal District Judge Roger Vinson, who struck down Obamacare as unconstitutional, could give the 26 states in the lawsuit a free pass to stop implementing Obamacare.
The smart money says Vinson will halt implementation, and legal observers are wondering why Justice would take that risk.
“Having lost one game of chicken when it came to the severability of the mandate, the government is now challenging the same judge to back down on whether his decision is binding. Seems like a risky move,” said Randy Barnett, a law professor at Georgetown University.
Professor Stuart Campbell, who took the picture at his London clinic with 3-D and 4-D scanning equipment, said it did not necessarily show the unborn child had feelings – but it was certainly displaying human behavior.
They were expecting some other kind of behavior? The species has never been in question. That a human behaves humanly isn't much of a revelation. Why is it so hard to stipulate that the "feelings" that normally and naturally accompany the "behavior" are occurring, also? Baby feels good, baby smiles.
The scan implies that a baby can experience feelings such as happiness and pain much earlier in its development than previously thought. It will prompt further calls from doctors and campaigners to lower the upper abortion limit from 24 weeks.
I don't think this will make a lot of difference. We've known for decades that a fetus feels pain. Abortion is about despair, exploitation, profit, and power. Perhaps when an ultrasound shows a fetus performing Bach's Goldberg Variations while standing on his head and drinking a glass of water, they'll all be convinced. Or not.
That's what "collective bargaining" is about: It enables unions rather than citizens to set the price of government. It is, thus, a direct assault on republican democracy, and it needs to be destroyed. Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters and the snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government.
“[I]f American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself — I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America.”
I'd love to see him do it. Maybe he could carry one of those Walker-as-Hitler signs.
From Madison, utter cluelessness and/or disrespect for veterans on display in the statehouse. Very sad, but I'm not surprised that these young adults are blind to what our military has done for them. They're perfectly predictable products of our public schools and colleges.
Speaking of respect, here's a very interesting story from Brent Bozell about a male high school wrestler who opted to forfeit rather than wrestle a girl:
Joel didn't say anything about discomfort over wrestling a girl because it was personally embarrassing, or sexual in any way. It wasn't about the bad publicity that would result if he gave her a broken forearm or a concussion. It was about elevating the woman: shoving a woman's face into the mat is undignified. He told CBS it gets “violent at times...I just don't feel it's right that a boy should engage a girl like this.”
Only in our stupid popular culture is such a position considered controversial. CBS put this question on screen: “Chivalry or Chauvinism?” But these aren't really opposites. For many years, the feminists have waged war on the idea that men would “stoop” to chivalry, like opening doors for women or giving up a seat on a subway train for them. Being a “gentleman” was another word for being a patronizer – a chauvinist.
The backlash from the intolerant left is what you'd expect -- no respect for the young man's values. RTR.
While anti-Koch and anti-Walker activists cheered the prank, there is a serious argument to be made that the "prank" was a crime under Wisconsin law. [. . .]
The misappropriation of such "personal identifying information" is a felony if done for purposes listed in the statute, including obtaining anything of value or benefit, or to harm the reputation of the person whose name was misappropriated.
The Obama administration also behaves as if the weight of the United States in world affairs is approximately the same as that of Switzerland. We await developments. We urge caution, even restraint. We hope for the formation of an international consensus. And, just as there is something despicable about the way in which Swiss bankers change horses, so there is something contemptible about the way in which Washington has been affecting—and perhaps helping to bring about—American impotence. Except that, whereas at least the Swiss have the excuse of cynicism, American policy manages to be both cynical and naive.
Every day the news is worse (for proud Americans). Obama is this recurring nightmare that Americans cannot wake from. Despite Obama's strange friendship with Qaddafi, Americans were the last to escape the nightmare in Libya in a rickety "ferry." Worse, it sat for three days waiting to depart, while other nations whisked their people out.
Obama's America.
In the UK, PM David Cameron took control of the evacuation of British nationals from Libya and sent the navy frigate, the HMS Cumberland, to rescue Brit nationals, in addition to upwards of six special flights.
Germany has sent three warships with 600 soldiers on board to the sea area between Malta and Libya, reports the German magazine Spiegel.
China dispatched a navy ship to support the evacuation of its citizens.
The Italian military ship San Giorgio left the Libyan coast Friday with about 245 people, half of them Italians, said the ship's captain Enrico Giurelli. More than 1,000 Italians have been airlifted and shipped back from Libya over the last two days, and Italy hopes to bring back a further 200 Friday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Friday, according to ANSA news agency. Italy has two ships off Misrata to evacuate 150 Italians, although heavy seas are reported to be hampering the ships' entry to port.
Sorry, kids. Mommy has more important things to do. JWF:
It's clear where Lassa's loyalties lie.
"I am teaching my daughters who are 6 and 3 that it is very important to do what you can to help your neighbors when people need help," Lassa told a reporter recently.
Must be some comfort when the kids go to bed at night and wake up every morning wondering where mommy is. But hey, they'll cherish this moment when they grow up, I'm sure.
Sen. Lassa may think she's teaching her little girls about "helping their neighbors." But the girls may be getting another message altogether.
Time (again) for a favorite quote from a favorite parenting book:
We cannot assume that children will know what our priorities our: we must live our priorities. Many a child for whom the parents feel unconditional love receives the message that this love is very conditional indeed. [p. 196]
White House officials said the review that led to the decision was managed by White House counsel Bob Bauer, with input from senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who oversees the office that conducts outreach to the gay community. Those officials were the subject of intense lobbying by gay rights groups who had opposed the administration's defense of the law, according to activists familiar with the White House's thinking.
There is a reason why our state capitols are not usually flooded by cash-strapped farmers on tractors ditching their work when the price of wheat crashes. During a power outage, electric-company linemen do not often call in sick. Those who walk nimbly between IEDs in the Hindu Kush or who braved RPGs in Fallujah did not in mediis rebus pause to suggest that they had gotten a raw deal on their far too frequent deployments. Very few corporals and privates ask medics to write false medical excuses.
Read the whole thing. Prof. Hanson knows whereof he speaks. He's being more than fair, entirely omitting the unpleasant facts about Wisconsin student literacy.
Meanwhile, legislation in Wisconsin has moved forward:
Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.
The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the Assembly. But the political standoff over the bill — and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it — appear far from over.
The Assembly‘s vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing.
AWOL without consequences, just like the teachers.
It's not about the money, it's about . . . the Viagra?
And in New York, it's also about the free food, drink, parties, and perks. The United Federation of Teachers bosses live pretty large off those dues:
As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned.
Free-spending United Federation of Teachers brass last year spent nearly $1.4 million for the UFT's 50th anniversary gala at the Hilton - complete with a movie, a book and a paperweight.
Records show they:
* Ponied up $514,000 to 16 separate caterers.
* Dropped $278,417 on the annual Teachers Union Day ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria.
* Bought $6,100 in gift baskets from a lower East Side candy store - and plowed $179,000 into training retreats at a Connecticut resort boasting golf, scuba diving and aqua aerobics.
In one amazing feat of spending, they shelled out $114,870 for annual "coffee supplies" at their five offices across the city - paying the Coffee Distributing Corp. on Long Island $324,000 over three years, records show.
And while most New Yorkers spend hours trying to find a parking space, the UFT rents 25 slots in Brooklyn's Renaissance Plaza Garage for members at an average annual cost of $75,000 over three years.
"I'm not going to apologize for spending money to service our members," said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
"These people are heroes dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our children. They never get the respect they deserve. A cup of coffee, a bottle of water and a few parking spots is the least we can do for them."
The $284,078-a-year union boss got a little more than coffee when he took the reins in August 2009: The UFT feted him with a $6,400 "Welcome, Michael" party at a Brazilian steakhouse.
Read on. Pure arrogance. Do they get free Viagra, too?
That "heroes" narrative is getting harder and harder to swallow.
***
The UFT story above references this recent incident, in which a teachers union yahoo throws a fit in a restaurant because his quail was too small.
Experience suggests Obama has his own definition. He seems to understand the word in some of its usages, such as leading us off a cliff, leading man, or leading on the dance floor. But leader as in leader of the free world isn't a concept he has embraced. I don't think he gets it. His modus operandi in a crisis is to play rope-a-dope. He did it again yesterday.
J. E. Dyer before Obama's statement on Libya yesterday:
This administration enjoys breathtaking latitude to respond to foreign-policy issues with defensive triangulation. One of its principal allies is the modern public’s unfamiliarity with history; another is the sense of the post-post-colonial era that, while everything may still be the West’s fault, nothing is now its problem. Opinion media and the public know instinctively that something is missing, but they can’t quite name what they expect to be different.
What’s missing is leadership. Having a plausible explanation for everything is the opposite of leadership; it’s defensive navigation through situations shaped by others.
After days of silence, the president of the United States took to the microphone and, in a statement of almost unbelievable pointlessness, said as little as he could. He condemned the violence, said he was sending Hillary Clinton to Europe, said he had instructed his team to look at all options, and said that the “most basic aspiration” of people was (and here he quoted a Libyan) “to be able to live like human beings.” Crises either elevate leaders or make them look shrunken and unequal to the task history has assigned them. I think there’s little question which of these two categories describes Barack Obama right now.
Speaking of leadership, as per usual, you're not going to find any if you're looking to the White House. After dragging his feet, Obama finally got around to spewing out a pile of nearly meaningless mush yesterday. [. . .] With such big events afoot in the Middle East right now, it's tragic that we have such a small man in the White House to deal with what's happening.
Tragic, indeed. But that's the man American voters elected. Living in the DC area, I see Obama-Biden bumper stickers every day and marvel at the bubble these people must live in.
Obama's budget proves he's no leader domestically, either. Victor Davis Hanson looks ahead to the post-Obama, "post deluge" era, after "a perfect storm of rising international interest rates, an anemic dollar, and panic on the part of foreign lenders may force an end to this unhinged American rush to borrow and blow what it has not earned":
In these lean times of nearly 10 percent unemployment and rapid hikes in gas and food prices, the president has chastised “fat cat” Wall Street bankers, the wealthy who jet to the Super Bowl, and those who junket to Las Vegas, and in general suggested that strapped American families might wish to “sacrifice” and “put off a vacation.” But in “let them eat cake” style, the first family seems tone-deaf to the potential symbolism of postponing its own exclusive vacations. Michelle Obama just returned from skiing at an elite Vail, Colo., resort. Last summer, in Marie Antoinette fashion, she jetted to Costa del Sol in Spain for a costly Mediterranean vacation. The rich playground at Martha’s Vineyard, not Camp David, seems now to be the favorite presidential recession-era getaway spot.
Shortly after Barack Obama leaves office, we are all going to have to eat cake. Then a less eloquent president will have to balance budgets, pay off trillions in new debt, develop more energy, come up with a sane health-care policy, and in symbolic fashion have the first family share the sacrifice of a more mundane lifestyle.
Read the whole thing.
Obama's idea of leadership: holding ineffectual "break-out sessions," delivering yet another campaign speech, and hosting one more celebrity soiree at the taxpayers' expense. Yes, it's true. Jammie Wearing Fool:
Need another sign sign this White House is completely tone deaf? After ignoring the Libya crisis for a week until yesterday, and then merely offering a perfunctory statement, it's back to party time in DC. Let's just hope Michelle has jetted back from her lavish ski vacation in Vail so she doesn't miss anything. Can't wait to see what's on the menu.
President Barack Obama is celebrating classic rhythm and blues on Thursday, spotlighting the music of Motown in a White House concert.
Stars invited to tonight's event include Motown icon Smokey Robinson as well as contemporary singers Sheryl Crow and John Legend, who will perform Motown hits. It's the latest musical tribute hosted by the president and first lady, and will be broadcast March 1 on PBS.
It wouldn't surprise me if he went golfing beforehand.
The blood is flowing, with at least 1000 people feared dead:
Colonel Gaddafi's grip on Libya loosened dramatically today as the full horror of his brutal attempts to cling to power emerged for the first time.
The coastal cities of Benghazi, Tobruk and Misrata have all fallen before the unstoppable wrath of the rebels with Gaddafi only retaining a real power base around the capital Tripoli.
But the price anti-government protesters have paid for their freedom is woefully apparent in a slew of appalling videos and pictures which have defied a media blackout to leak online.
Most too graphic to show, the images are filmed in hospitals and morgues and on the bloodstrewn streets of Libya's cities and towns.
The images are terrible.
Thousands of people, including Americans, are desperately fleeing the country by any means available, including a ferry to Malta:
In a notice sent to U.S. citizens in Libya, the department said Americans wishing to leave Libya should report to the As-shahab port in the capital of Tripoli with their passports starting at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday. The ferry will depart for the Mediterranean island of Malta no later than 3 p.m. local time.
It said boarding the vessel would be on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to those with medical emergencies or severe medical conditions. Travelers will be allowed one suitcase and one small carry-on item, the notice said, adding that pets would be allowed on the ferry but that they must meet European Union requirements.
Those who want be evacuated should be prepared to wait several hours and bring food, water and other necessities to the pier, which is on the sea road across from the Radisson Blu Mahari Hotel in Tripoli.
President Obama hasn't had time to speak on what's happening in Libya due to "scheduling issues." (Urgent world affairs can't compete with his WTF campaign tour.)
Just learned that I retain the ability to be shocked:
A Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts is raising the stakes in the nation’s fight over the future of public employee unions, saying emails aren’t enough to show support and that it is time to “get a little bloody.”
“I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going. Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary,” Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Ma.) told a crowd in Boston on Tuesday rallying in solidarity for Wisconsin union members.
Head-busting union goons — like the SEIU thugs who recently roughed up a Tea Party supporter in Denver — are surely grateful to know they have Capuano’s enthusiastic support. Because of the decline of union membership, most young people today know little of the coercion, intimidation and outright terrorism by which Big Labor has always operated, and it still goes on to this day. As Karen Kerrigan noted in a 2002 article, “According to the National Institute of Labor Relations Research, there have been over 9,000 reported acts of union violence since 1975. These incidents have included intimidation, sexual and racial harassment, physical violence, vandalism and even death.”
Read the rest and see DaTechGuy's interview of a somewhat intimidating union iron worker. DTG has lots more where that came from.
He makes a campaign stop in Cleveland to pay lip service to entrepreneurship and feign interest in job creation. Aside from fawning and ego-massaging it's hard to say what was accomplished:
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT ENTREPRENEUR BREAKOUT SESSION
OF WINNING THE FUTURE FORUM ON SMALL BUSINESS
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, Ohio
MS. MILLS: So, Mr. President, we were just talking about you and how much you love doing this and how much you enjoy hearing from the small businesses. And raise your hand who is a small business in here.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
MS. MILLS: Okay, there you go. And I thought you might want to meet Al, from Bubba's BBQ.
THE PRESIDENT: I just gave you a plug. (Laughter.)
MS. MILLS: He says he's still shaking, you know.
THE PRESIDENT: Where are the samples? (Laughter.)
MR. BAKER: Well, I brought pictures, but --
THE PRESIDENT: Pictures? (Laughter.)
MR. BAKER: Mr. President, I spent 13 years in the NFL, and I've never been shaken until today. (Laughter.)
MS. MILLS: There you go.
Rush played a clip (which I haven't been able to find) of the President of the United States declaring his break-out sessions were "so much fun" he couldn't wait to get together and do it again. There you go: Leadership, Obama-style.
The forum lasted three hours and I'm betting the cliches-to-hour ratio was pulling somewhere north of 60: 1. Just to make sure Obama isn't the only person talking exclusively in useless aphorisms, The Plain Dealer ends its account with a participant gushing that the 'Bama admin "gets it. They actually get it. The question now is: How do we leverage this to benefit Cleveland?"
Wasn't that supposed to be the freaking point of the forum? If you're walking out of an hours-long meeting and the big insight is that people in Washington understand that Cleveland is a dying city, well, it was nice knowing you.
Meanwhile, the country of Libya is holding its own break-out session as Americans and thousands of other foreigners desperately try to escape. A horrifying possibility from Ed Morrissey:
The White House has a worst-of-all-possible-worlds scenario unfolding in Libya as it concerns Americans trapped in the country. Until the US can safely get Americans to Malta or anywhere else — even Egypt and Tunisia don’t look bad at the moment — Obama can’t afford to provoke either side into attacking Americans, at least not if Obama thinks he will get blamed for any violence done to them. The last thing Obama needs is yet another evocation of the Carter presidency with a long, drawn-out hostage crisis in a radical Islamist state.
So it’s understandable that Obama has tempered his reaction in this case with that context in mind. But even so, here’s a better question — why didn’t the White House start evacuating Americans from Libya when Egypt erupted into political chaos? Did no one think that the uprisings just might spark a rebellion against one of the more brutal dictators in the region?
Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. officials had been assured by Libyan authorities that embassy workers and families will be able to leave safely. He said the United States expected those pledges to be honored.
"They've pledged to support us in our evacuation, and we hope that cooperation will be forthcoming," he said.
Crowley said the department was trying to get 35 nonessential staff and family members of personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Libya out of the country. The State Department ordered them to leave Monday but they have not yet been able to depart, he said without elaborating on the reason.
The department also believes there are several thousand dual U.S.-Libyan nationals and about 600 private U.S. citizens in Libya. Crowley said the U.S. was working with other countries and airlines to increase the capacity of commercial flights and was also prepared to charter planes if necessary. But he noted that would require Libyan consent.
Good grief: The president hasn't spoken on Libya thus far because of "scheduling issues." His WTF campaign stop yesterday apparently took precedence over the meltdown in Libya.
Things are back to normal in Wisconsin public schools: liberal teachers are back in the liberal government school classrooms promoting the liberal agenda to their students:
Civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson will greet East High School students over the loudspeaker in the morning. Students have made posters in support of their teachers. And classrooms are likely to be buzzing with discussion over the four-day teacher sick-out prompted by Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective bargaining.
With that backdrop, district officials have been preparing principals and staff for what could be a dramatic day.
"We know that there's a lot of emotion here and we need to recognize that there's a lot of upset (among teachers) and upset in the parent community as well," Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad said.
Just before classes start at East High School, Jackson plans to march from the corner of First and East Mifflin streets to the school parking lot for a rally.
Then Jackson, who spoke at the Capitol on Friday, will speak to East students over the public address system after the school bell rings. The idea is to both inspire students and welcome them back, principal Mary Kelley said.
An address from Jesse Jackson? I know the teachers are angry but must they take it out on the children?
"We could have done a big rally in the gym, but we've got to get kids in the classroom," Kelley said.
Riiiiiight.
With so many students attending the protest rallies on their own or with their parents, and after four missed school days, officials say the issue is certain to be on students' minds.
But district policy says teachers can't use their positions to "promote candidates or parties or activities," including protests. Nerad said principals will determine to what degree teachers will be allowed to discuss the matter in the classroom.
Peggy Coyne, a Black Hawk Middle School reading specialist and president-elect of Madison Teachers Inc., said she plans to ask students to write journal entries Tuesday about what they did while classes were canceled the last four days.
"me and my freinds we like went 2 the mall and then we like went 2 the rally and it was like realy cool cuz our teachers were thier like playing bongos and like holding up signes with like realy funny pictures of like this guy with a realy funny little mustash"
Coyne said teachers might also incorporate recent events into lessons about Wisconsin labor history. Some elementary school teachers have been told not to discuss the political events with younger children, she added.
"What teachers are good at is keeping it consistent and normal for children," she said.
Yup. The past week has really borne that out.
Linda Kostelyna, a stay-at-home mom with two children at Memorial High School, said she is concerned about whether teachers will discuss both sides of the budget debate if it's brought up in class, and that those discussions take place in the appropriate classes.
Note to Linda: If you want your kids to hear "both sides" of anything, pull them out of school and teach them yourself. I can already tell you'd do a better job.
Don Johnson, superintendent of the Middleton-Cross Plains School District, said students and teachers were "exceptionally excited" to be back Monday.
"They felt torn being out of the school and away from their kids," he said of the teachers. "They're a little tired but happy to be back."
Wasn't fatigue one of the maladies covered by those fraudulent doctors' notes?
Johnson said he expects conversations about the protests to continue, inside and outside of classrooms.
"If (teachers are) going to be speaking about the rally and the protest, it really needs to be a planned lesson and it really needs to look at both sides," Johnson said.
Walker has attempted to change that framework, allowing government workers to opt out of paying union dues — which, he has said, he thinks may offset the increased health and pension contributions he’s asking of employees.
And it is this provision that has the unions most up in arms. They know that, given the option, many of their members would choose not to write out a check for union dues. This, in turn, would strangle their election spending, leaving them scrambling for funds and, consequently, influence. [. . .]
Collective bargaining and money are nearly synonyms. Union negotiating devoid of financial consideration would be akin to non-alcoholic whiskey: all the bitterness without the desired effect. In the end, 70,000 protesters didn’t show up on the Wisconsin Capitol grounds on Saturday to demand their right to use colored chalk in their classrooms.
Read the rest on why that emboldened sentence is true.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 21% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trend).
That’s the lowest level of Strong Approval yet recorded for President Obama and the lowest Approval Index rating since November.
No time this morning but here's a must-read* column from Mark Steyn:
In the first hour or two on Friday, I was just about the only guy on air pouring cold water on the approved hopeychangey narrative about young "freedom-loving" "democrats", and was rebuked by "progressives" for pointing out correctly that there were very few women and even fewer uncovered women protesting on the streets of Cairo - even as the most famous uncovered woman in Tahrir Square was being set upon by a pack of savages. No such complicating factors were allowed to intrude on the delirious narcissism of the AP headline "Egypt Coverage Creates Unforgettable Daytime TV". But how can you keep shoveling that stuff out when your own reporter is a bruised, battered, bedbound rebuke to it? Even as America's laughably parochial media tried to make the story all about them or all about Obama (which boils down to the same thing), the one part of the story that actually was about one of them got buried. Would it have been different if it had been the A-list anchorettes - Katie Couric or Diane Sawyer? Or would even they have been subordinated to the politically correct narrative?
At the heart of the Lara Logan story is a basic question: Is this a one-off crime? Or a cultural faultline? Look at the picture of her in the moments before the attack: blonde, bare-headed, hint of cleavage. I would send no western woman looking like that out into the streets of Cairo or any other Arab capital. In the hierarchy of infidel whores, blondes have a special cachet.
Walker's nearly nine-year record in the Wisconsin Assembly, the legislature's lower house, reads like a pro-life handbook, an all-out assault on abortion rights.
Day Gardner replies to Rep. Gwen "Not Ramen noodles again!" Moore:
Let me get this straight; Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) says if the federal government stops funding Planned Parenthood, hungry, crying children will need to eat the Ramen noodles and mayonnaise sandwiches to fill their little bellies.
So, Gwen, what you are implying is–it’s better to fund and organization whose core business includes killing off our children by abortion rather than allowing the children to ‘suffer’ through the enjoyment of eating Ramen noodles?
Gwen, I am grew up one of seven children. My mother talks about how when we were little, she had to really stretch meals when times were tough for her and my dad. The funny thing is we all remember Mother as a greatest cook ever!
And just FYI: I helped raise my sister’s three children on a very mediocre salary. For three years our family of six included my son, two nephews, a niece and my husband and me. We all ate quite well on 70 dollars a week–that’s $10 a day. Gwen, I know 50 ways to cook pasta. Our meals were filling, cheap and very, very tasty.
I crossed paths with Dr. Nathanson twice at events in which we were both speaking. I found him very cordial and, I must say, sad. In one talk, he spoke about aborting his own son, and the abject horror he felt about that when he came to change his views about abortion. I never saw such haunted eyes.
Whatever comes next, may he find rest, peace, and forgiveness.
Frances Kissling (so-called Catholic for so-called Choice) lives, and advises fellow pro-aborts to moderate their position on post-viability abortions or risk losing even more ground to those who prefer their babies alive and kicking. That's not exactly how she phrased it but I think that's what she meant.
Detroit is going ahead with a plan to close half its schools and pack 60 students into high school classrooms. That's not a typo: 60 students per class. Of course, they weren't learning much in herds of 30 so they don't have much to lose. Very sad. What Mark Steyn said a couple of weeks ago:
As I said on Rush, unlike European cities, no bombs fell on Detroit. They did this to themselves. And the real rubble is not the ruined buildings, but the ruined people. This is an American city at the dawn of the 21st century, and one in two of its citizens are illiterate. That’s about the same rate as the Ivory Coast, or the Central African Republic, under its aforementioned cannibal emperor. Whereas in the Seventies and Eighties Detroit was ruled by a Democrat mayor, a bureaucracy-for-life, and an ever more featherbedded union army, all of whom cannibalized the city.
Public schools in Madison will close on Monday for the fourth straight day as teachers are expected to continue protesting a bill that would strip their collective bargaining rights.
. . . labor activists from around the country continue to flock to Madison to join the protest of the legislation which would increase state workers’ contributions to their retirement and health benefits and make future pay raises beyond standard cost-of-living increases subject to a public vote.
In other words, the people who actually pay the salaries -- the taxpayers -- would be the ones to decide on pay raises beyond cost of living increases.
What else the bill would do (in addition to requiring higher contributions toward pensions and health insurance, which teachers say is not the sticking point):
- End forced union dues, collected by the state. Union dues would become voluntary.
- Union members get to vote yearly on whether to keep their union.
That's why the unions are going bananas. Jennifer Rubin:
When the political system can no longer endure the burdens of a ravenous government and citizens reassert control over their government, those who have gorged at the government trough recoil, become desperate and resort to anti-democratic means.
President Obama, by aligning himself with those forces, has taken off his chief executive hat and donned the robes of a community activist. It is unseemly and inappropriate. The country is watching. Voters are not blind to the sight of their elected president and his political organization throwing their lot in with the mob.
Today many, if not all of these rules, sound a little fussy if not downright silly. It would be easy to dismiss them as outdated and appropriate to a time of powdered wigs and quills, but they reflect a focus that is increasingly difficult to find. They all have in common a focus on other people rather than the narrow focus of our own self-interests that we find so prevalent today. Fussy or not, they represent more than just manners. They are the small sacrifices that we should all be willing to make for the good of all and the sake of living together.
These rules proclaim our respect for others and in turn give us the gift of self-respect and heightened self-esteem.
Some of the rules are complete anachronisms or based on rigid class divisions. And several will inspire laughter:
Kill no Vermin as Fleas, lice ticks &c in the Sight of Others, if you See any filth or thick Spittle put your foot Dexterously upon it if it be upon the Cloths of your Companions, Put it off privately, and if it be upon your own Cloths return Thanks to him who puts it off.
But many are subtle prescriptions for behavior that bear consideration in this age of incivility, including:
How not to annoy or offend others
How to show them respect
How to behave with humility
How not to call attention to yourself
How not to be a bore
How to be a loyal friend
How to behave with charity toward others
The Rules forbid close-talking, chewing with your mouth open, neglecting guests, rushing to judgment, cursing, showing off, giving medical advice, exulting in another's misfortune, and making a spectacle of yourself.
Some homeschooling parents have their children emulate George by copying a rule each day as handwriting practice. The Rules can make for some interesting conversation at the family table:
Put not another bit into your mouth till the former be swallowed. Let not your morsels be too big for the jowls.
Drink not nor talk with your mouth full; neither gaze about you while you are drinking.
Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hastily. Before and after drinking, wipe your lips; breath not then or ever with too great a noise, for its uncivil.
Cleanse not your teeth with the table cloth napkin, fork, or knife; but if others do it, let it be done without a peep to them.
My favorites come at the end of the list:
Let your recreations be manful not sinful.
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
Mr. Mulvey's sign inaccurately implies that more money for teachers makes education better and less makes it worse. What about Catholic school teachers who work for a fraction of what public school teachers make? Or homeschoolers, who teach their kids for nothing? I'd wager that, on average, my homeschooled children have read more books in their young lives and can do more math than the average public school teacher, let alone the average student. Maybe I'm wrong. But if I am I'm not wrong by much.
Without the benefit of educational training or credentials, I taught my son Algebra at our kitchen table. Actually, he learned it himself, with help from the late John Saxon. Now he's tutoring community college students who didn't learn enough math from their credentialed, highly-paid public school teachers to pass Algebra in the placement exam. More than a few of my son's college classmates, public high school graduates in one of the wealthiest counties in America, have shockingly poor reading and writing skills. Whatever is wrong here can't be solved by money.
If our family could put the tax dollars our wealthy county spends per student toward our own kids' education we could take history field trips to the Tower of London and learn about the pyramids while floating down the Nile aboard a dahabiya. But education isn't about money, which is routinely poured by the truckload into failedsystems all over the country. As homeschooling parents we've taught our kids to read with a $15 book and twenty minutes of focused attention a day.
Please stop pretending this fight is about educating the children of Wisconsin. We all know better.
In all seriousness, one hopes that conservatives remember to be both steadfast in opposing the Left’s attempts to debase the meaning of the 2010 elections, as well as forgiving of these benighted fools who seem to think that it’s OK to like about being sick to protest, and have doctors pile lies upon lies to justify their falsehoods.
The sun is setting on the Progressive Era (or however the Left would label the last century of the E PLURIBUS collapsing into the UNUM). The Left is reacting with all the grace of an alcoholic denied the bottle. But financial sobriety is coming, oh yes. And, as the redeemable Lefties you know get past their delirious tremors, don’t forget that even Ronald Reagan was once a Lefty.
God bless the United States of America.
Yes indeed. But the SEIU won't let the binge come to an end without a desperate fight. A nationwide tantrum is planned for the coming week:
Attention, taxpayers and Tea Party activists. The Purple Army is coming to your town. Don’t let these Big Labor goons monopolize the protest square like they monopolize government workers.
Michelle Malkin has the schedule. And she updates her photo gallery of credentialed-educator vulgarity. This was especially disturbing:
Update: Another lovely photo and observations from reader Mary Thompson — who e-mails: “My thirteen year-old had a large male scream “f*ck you!” several times and then say he was a teacher. This was because he was holding a Walker sign. I had a teacher hit me with her sign for taking a picture of it. I was not holding any signs or wearing anything that would identify my position.”
Feel the classiness!
Parents who think homeschooling is somehow beyond them should think again. Merely removing children from this environment will be a step up.
More evidence of lefty civility from Hot Air (language warning). I just have to say it: These people are morons. That's not civil, either, I guess. But as I said yesterday, they aren't helping themselves. No wonder SEIU usually makes sure their purple people all carry the same manufactured signs. When they're allowed to speak for themselves the message is too ugly.
Don't they care at all about the image they're presenting to the nation? The signs posted by Michelle Malkin and others are all appalling. But the guy proudly holding the "gangbang" sign in the second photo here is my choice for sickest creep. So far. If he's really a school teacher he's proven his unfitness by parading around with that sign.
Some Wisconsin parents must be frantically trying to figure out what their options are after seeing the nasty underbelly of their state's "educational system" this week. It's going to be hard for some of them to hand their children over when the teachers decide to get back to work. I couldn't do it.
Update: Wow. This woman's sign and her lame defense of it show egregiously bad judgment. I guess she's a teacher? Lovely.
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Just as these teachers are shaming their profession, so are the physicians who are handing out fraudulent sick notes. I linked to the video above, but in case you missed it, see these physicians providing fraudulent excuses to "sick" teachers. The way the first one makes a mockery of the sacred doctor-patient relationship by using it, and a bit of intimidation, to defend his own misdeeds is disgraceful.
Being sick of the Wisconsin Governor is not billable code as far as Medicare is concerned and daring an interviewer to get in the middle of a private consultation between a patient and caregiver in the middle of thousands of people is not what is meant by bedside manner. What a joke. All this professionalism is making me sick!
Don't get me wrong, I have written my fair share of sick notes, but these were for people who were, you know, sick. As a Hospitalist (if you want to know, ask Happy), I only treat patients that have been admitted to the hospital, so I shouldn't question the integrity of the Family Practice Docs who are supremely capable of making such judgements on the fly. You see, I actually see my patients, objectively evaluate their medical situation and make a decision. Of course, I take my job very seriously and wouldn't presume that "stress" is a reasonable diagnosis. Unless, of course it was manifested by pseudoseizure or conversion disorder in which case it is serious business.
This brings me to Dr. Lou Sanner. He is a family practitioner whose ego, no doubt, precedes his intellect. I have seen his type before as I meandered through medical school and residency. He is the doc who looks down his nose at you as you struggle for the esoteric answer to some zebra diagnosis, all the while pretending to know the answer himself. Well, I am not a resident anymore and what this fellow has done is professionally obscene. He has abrogated his professional responsibility for political expediency.
The women I know who have given birth, whether pro-life or pro-choice, do not romanticize it. They speak, of course, of the miracle that it is. But they also speak, often rather too frankly, of how difficult and often disgusting the process is. If a substantial number of pro-lifers are women who have given birth--and they are--then we pro-choicers can't simply tell ourselves that it's because they haven't really thought about what birth entails.
Response from husband Pundit, who had an up-close-and-personal view of the births of our seven children and was never disgusted:
So this is what is at the bottom of the pro-choice argument --- they are "disgusted" by pregnancy and birth? I thought it was supposed to be the crazy fundamentalists that hated the human body and feared sex. How sick do you have to be to be revolted by the process that brings new life, that brought your life, into being?
Enter Rep. Gwen Moore. She isn't a big fan of life either, including her own, it seems. Because you never know when you might have to eat Ramen noodles:
I just want to tell you what it’s like not to have Planned Parenthood. You have to give your kids ramen noodles at the end of the month to fill up their little bellies so they won’t cry. You have to give them mayonnaise sandwiches. They get very few fresh fruits and vegetables because they’re expensive. It subjects children to low educational attainment because of the ravages of poverty.
What’s shocking about this argument is not merely the astonishing assertion that poverty is worse than death — for that is the essence of Rep. Moore’s argument — nor is it her assertion that “low educational attainment” is a necessary corollary of “the ravages of poverty” (as if no poor child ever succeeded in school).
Rather, what is so shocking is that this argument is being made by Gwen Moore, who is herself the eighth of her parents’ nine children. If Rep. Moore believes that her own life has been of some benefit to humanity, shouldn’t that give her pause before making an argument on behalf of Planned Parenthood?
Support for abortion is a form of self-loathing. The life pro-choicers hate may be their own.
Revulsion toward the thought of childbearing – an averse response to giving birth as “difficult and often disgusting” — is exactly what we would expect such indoctrination to produce. One need not “romanticize” childbirth to see that those in whom an anti-natalist attitude has been carefully inculcated would dwell on the messy, painful and sometimes hazardous aspects of the process.
Why? Because childbirth is now viewed as a choice, merely one optional outcome of sexual activity, rather than as a routine and natural consequence. (Childbirth is almost certainly more “difficult” in Mali, yet the average woman in Mali will give birth to 7.34 children in her lifetime.)
What bothers me most about unthinking acceptance of the Contraceptive Culture is that it reflects a failure of imagination, and a death of hope. When I tell people that my wife and I have six children, the reaction is often disbelief: “How can you possibly cope? I can’t imagine it!” And yet we do, somehow.
We have never been rich and have often been quite poor, but we have hope, a hope informed by the knowledge that other people have overcome hardships far more difficult than our own, by a sense of duty to fulfill the obligations entrusted to us, and by the belief that God will give us no burden that we are incapable of carrying.
You may believe otherwise. But you ought to ask yourself why you believe what you believe.
I was worried about violence yesterday -- thank God it didn't happen -- and I'm still worried today as Wisconsinites and others plan to rally in support of Gov. Walker's efforts. Andrew Brietbart will be there:
Breitbart told The Daily Caller he’s not sure what he’ll see when he arrives in Wisconsin, but expects it will be “the same familiar faces” that back other left-wing movements.
“I’m expecting hostility because dissent is no longer patriotic in Obama’s America,” Breitbart said.
Breitbart said this weekend’s rally will be important — a historic battleground of sorts — because it will show the Tea Party movement is alive and kicking despite a decrease in activity following the midterm elections. He said it’s time for the press to stop defending the Obama administration and start pointing out the “illogical rhetoric” of the union bosses and so-called civil rights leaders.
“This is an important stance for the Tea Party,” Breitbart said. “The Tea Party is perpetuating safe, clean, wholesome rhetoric and activity versus the violent, racial, hateful and revolutionary rhetoric coming from the organized left.”
While I stand in support of the anti-public union folks of Wisconsin, I'm not sure that people from outside the state should be showing up to have their own rally. The Obama organization has bussed in thousands of union thugs who's sole goal will be to cause trouble.
I understand the importance of winning this battle against public union members continuing their rape of this country, but I fear for the safety of all involved.
Your thoughts?
What a perfect opportunity for the Left to stir up some violence and make all their wildest Tea Party dreams come true.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin legislature had to basically evacuate the statehouse last night due to threats of violence. Ed Morrissey calls it a surreal moment in modern U.S. political history:
Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he decided to adjourn the Assembly this evening because Gov. Scott Walker called minutes before lawmakers took the floor to tell him to get his caucus members and staff out of the building because their safety could no longer be assured…
The GOP Assembly leadership — Speaker Fitzgerald, Majority Leader Scott Suder and JFC Co-chair Robin Vos — have issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to pass the bill next week.
On the lighter side, here's an awesome tweet that lays bare the idiocy of the Walker-as-Hitler meme that has infected the mindless of Madison.
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Excerpts from a few posts by Jay Nordlinger, whose commentary on this situation has been excellent:
Idaho has a “superintendent of public instruction,” and his name is Tom Luna. He has proposed some measures that the teachers’ union doesn’t like, at all. And his opponents have made sure that he feels good and threatened.
Someone went to his mother’s house — his mother’s. Someone slashed his tires and spray-painted a threat onto the door. As reported in this article, Luna has said, “Family and personal property are off-limits. You don’t cross that line.”
Oh, yes, you do. At least some do. I will repeat what I have already said this morning: I don’t want to hear from the Left about “civility” for the rest of my life.
Someone wrote me that the “public employees” in Wisconsin reminded her of Chávez and his goons in Venezuela. Actually, they remind me of Cuba. There, the dictatorship sends its loyalists to the homes of those suspected of not being loyalists. They scream, beat on things, denounce, and threaten. The idea is, the “disloyal” Cubans are supposed to quake in their homes, and they do. These tactics are called actos de repudio — “acts of repudiation.” They are a mainstay of the regime.
We also read, “Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber, beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill.”
“Beating on drums”? Beating on drums? These were public-school teachers, right? In any case, they were public employees. Beating on things is what little kids do when they’re not getting their way, or demanding something. Of course, the beating of drums is meant to menace and intimidate too.
America’s liberals must be very proud. Mobbing the legislature and beating on drums! Bear in mind that the Left is the thinking, sophisticated, and humane party in America.
LifeNews reports on the Obama administration's Friday afternoon announcement:
Today, the administration rescinded part of the protections today with the Health and Human Services Department scrapping a portion of the rule, which it called “unclear and potentially overbroad in scope.” Obama officials put a new rule in place that leaves in place protections on abortion but offers no protection for medical workers who have moral or religious objections to dispensing or giving to women the Plan B drug or other emergency contraception that could act in some cases as an abortion drug.
According to Dr. J. Scott Ries of the Christian Medical Association, the administration presented no evidence that conscience protections had limited access to any kind of patient care and ignored a critical issue:
The administration, for example, contends that a rule change is necessary to protect access to contraception, but absolutely no evidence is presented to justify any such concern. In the process, the administration blatantly ignores the scientific evidence that certain controversial prescriptions that abortion advocates promote as contraception are actually potential abortifacients, ending the life of a living, developing human embryo. This is a critical concern for pro-life patients, healthcare professionals and institutions.
Dr. Ries warns of doctors leaving the profession, medical students avoiding obstetrics and gynecology, and a resultant loss of access to care in areas already hard up for doctors.
The administration says, that despite peeling back the rule it still respected the rights of conscience. I’ll have to see what the rule actually states, which may take a few days, before I’ll believe that. But conscience is about more than abortion. And this administration has shown a propensity to come down with an iron fist.
My advice: Don't get sick. Or old. The weeding out of medical professionals who cling to the notion that life is sacred -- your life included -- is the worst possible news for patients.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka — refresh your memories of his violent rise to power here — announced that he’ll be storming Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow to join all the Hitler/Mubarak-sign toters and teachers ditching their jobs.
The showdown is scheduled for high noon.
You see, this brewing class war needs to be ramped up. Am I the only one who fears, with the addition of Trumka and more union thugs, that this could end very badly?
The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to mobilize thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.
Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights.
By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were working to organize additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, where an effort is underway to trim benefits for public workers. Some union activists predicted similar protests in Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. [. . .]
The White House political operation, Organizing for America, got involved Monday, after Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy M. Kaine, a former Virginia governor, spoke to union leaders in Madison, a party official said.
The group made phone calls, distributed messages via Twitter and Facebook, and sent e-mails to its state and national lists to try to build crowds for rallies Wednesday and Thursday, a party official said.
How twisted are the minds of abortion proponents? This twisted:
Most macabre abortion defense of the night so far: Just a little while ago on the floor (at approx. 9:05pm Eastern), Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Gwen Moore argued that abortion was better for unplanned babies than a life “eating Ramen noodles” or “mayonnaise sandwiches.”
Life without fresh produce is not worth living.
I guess we can't just be philosophical about things and say, "Into every life a little Ramen must fall," "Ramen happens," or "When Cheap Instant Noodles Happen to Good People"?
Read the rest, including Rep. Mike Pence's statement on Planned Parenthood.
Rather, what is so shocking is that this argument is being made by Gwen Moore, who is herself the eighth of her parents’ nine children. If Rep. Moore believes that her own life has been of some benefit to humanity, shouldn’t that give her pause before making an argument on behalf of Planned Parenthood?
I've heard this kind of thing before and it never fails to astound me. Read the rest of McCain's post. He's also got the video of Moore making her anti-life statement.
A terrible drama is unfolding in Afghanistan: There are reports that Said Musa, whose situation I described at Christmas, will soon be executed for the ‘crime’ of choosing to become a Christian. (For background, see here.)
Musa was one of about 25 Christians arrested on May 31, 2010, after a May 27 Noorin TV program showed video of a worship service held by indigenous Afghan Christians; he was arrested as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy. He converted to Christianity eight years ago, is the father of six young children, had a leg amputated after he stepped on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army, and now has a prosthetic leg. His oldest child is eight and one is disabled (she cannot speak). He worked for the Red Cross/Red Crescent as an adviser to other amputees. [. . .]
He has been beaten, mocked, and subjected to sleep deprivation and sexual abuse while in prison. No Afghan lawyer will defend him and authorities denied him access to a foreign lawyer.
Any and every human being who is imprisoned, abused, or tortured for the free and peaceful expression of their faith deserves our support, but Musa is also a remarkable person and Christian. In a letter smuggled to the West, he says, “The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behaviour with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head.”
He added a thing much more important to him, that they “mocked me ‘he’s Jesus Christ,’ spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day. . . . Please, please, for the sake of Lord Jesus Christ help me.” (View the full letter here) [. . .]
“Please, please you should transfer me from this jail to a jail that supervises the believers. . . . I also agree . . . to sacrifice my life in public [where] I will tell [about my] faith in Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, [so] other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith.”
The U.S. government — reportedly including Secretary of State Clinton — and other governments have pushed for his release, but to no avail.
But the president has been silent, even as we fight a war that has among its goals the creation of a government that conforms to international human-rights standards.
I've chopped this up pretty badly so please read the rest, along with Musa's letter, and pass it on.
I have call to action for you all today. This weekend, a Marine with 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines returned home to Camp Lejeune from Afghanistan. Two days later, on Valentine’s Day, his house burned down. He was able to get himself, his wife, and his 20-month-old daughter out of the home safely. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the house burned to the ground, and the family lost everything.
I just can’t imagine what they must be going through right now. My husband is due back from Afghanistan relatively soon. To lose our home and everything we owned immediately afterwards would be devastating. I don’t know where this family is staying, but they are in desperate need of any and all household items. Furniture, appliances, clothes, everything they owned is gone. If any of you can find the generosity to donate any household goods or money to this family, it would be so appreciated. I just would hate to think that a Marine could come home from fighting for his country in Afghanistan to a disaster like this, only to have his country fail to support him when he needed it most. Please help get the word out. It would mean a lot to not only the family, but to me and the Camp Lejeune community in general.
You can mail checks and/or goods to the following address. If you have any questions, or if you are local and would like to know where to drop off goods, feel free to e-mail me at cassy@cassyfiano.com.
1st Sgt Daniel Mangrum
H&S Company
1st Battalion 2nd Marines
2nd Marine Division
PSC Box 20094
Camp Lejeune, NC 28542
Thank you in advance for all of your generosity and support.
The Regressives want us to think there’s a “war on women” going on, but the fact is, there’s a war on children — which means there’s a war on the future, and the future is losing. What World War II could not accomplish — the complete eradication of whole populations — western-style feminism just might. You’ve come a long way, baby. Michael Walsh
The central fact of our age is the unprecedented, voluntary self-extinction of the developed world. Mark Steyn
