Explain to me why this film was not nominated for an Academy Award. This is Sean Penn's finest role.

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The Goomba Invitational

This is where GNN tried to schedule the 2010 Goomba Invitational. This resort has a beautful hotel, professional golf course, casino and cheap cigarettes.

Unfortunately the address could not fit on any envelope smaller than a mini-van and the project was scrapped.

Al Gore's Revenge

From the SF Gate:

San Francisco's big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.

Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite - better known as bleach - to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city's treated water before it's dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.

In 1994 a federal law was passed mandating low flow toilets that could use no more than 1.6 gallons (6 liters) per flush. Prior to this, toilets would use as much as three and a half to seven gallons per flush. But at least you were sure that whatever was flushed, stayed flushed. No more.

This is Al Gore's legacy. Cities that reek of feculence.
Here, want a whiff of San Fran?



Some environmentalists proclaim that through the use of low-flow toilets the city saves 20 million gallons of water per year. Water in SF costs about a half cent per gallon. The benefit of saving 20 million gallons per year yields about $100,000 in cost avoidance.

Over the past five years the city has spent $100 million to upgrade its sewer system to get rid of the stench and now will spend another $14 million over three years to purchase over 25 million pounds of bleach to further these efforts. At this rate it will take 1,000 years to recoup just the cost of the new sewers. And let's not even begin to think about how much it cost for the new water saving toilets to be purchased and installed.

And if you think that's intense, look at Atlanta where some city residents are getting billed $1,800 per month for water. Apparently the new wireless "drive by" water meters are not working out too well.

UPDATE:
The politically correct folks at You Tube disabled the embedding for the famous Blazing Saddles campfire scene. So here for your listening pleasure is a non-You Tube rendition of Mel Brooks' tribute to the fair winds of the great City of San Francisco.

Our Lady Of The Veil

Islam is a religion of submissive ghosts. Their women are downright spooky when dressed in Sharia-compliant fashion. And they want to bring it to America.

This coming Fourth of July, Muslims are planning a “Million Muslim March” in D.C. to “re-establish the feelings of brother and sisterhood among Muslim Americans“ and start the ”healing” process after 9/11. And while there is no indication that rally will dabble in Sharia law, a different D.C. march scheduled for Thursday boldly declares its goal of bringing Sharia law “directly to the doorsteps of the United States of America.”

The rally is being spearheaded by radical UK Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary, who recently told Sean Hannity Americans are “the biggest criminals in the world today,“ and in October announced ”the flag of Islam will one day fly over the White House.” His group, Islam4UK, has been outlawed in Britain.

“We hereby call upon the Muslims in the US, particularly in New York, Michigan, Chicago and Washington DC to take lessons from their Muslim brothers and sisters in North Africa and the Middle East and rise to implement the Shari’ah in America,” the group Shariah4America, seemingly modeled after Choudary’s UK organization, says on its website.

Over. My. Dead. Body.

They want to destroy the Statue of Liberty and replace it with a caterwauling Tower of Babel.

More here.

Our Man Ted

Recipient of the Prestigious Goomba Fashionista Award

Judicial Watch has battled with the FBI for several years in order to obtain a heavily redacted report on Sen. Ted Kennedy's activities as reported in official government files. Among the goodies, it was reported that while he was on a 1961 tour of Latin America, Ted arranged to rent an entire brothel in Chile. From the UK Mail:

The statements previously withheld include accusations that during a tour of several Latin American countries he 'made arrangements to "rent" a brothel for an entire night, allegedly inviting one of the Embassy's chauffeurs to participate in the night's activities'.

In each country he visited he was also said to have 'insisted on interviewing "the angry young men" of the country as well as Communists who had extreme left-wing views'.

When he was in Mexico, it is said that his request to have certain left-wingers - one of whom was later linked with a Soviet spy ring - was refused as he was warned not to associate himself with such people.

This was a man who seriously thought he should and could be President until A Bridge Too Far in July of 1969 unraveled his aspirations to higher office. Imagine, going to other nations and surrounding himself with hookers and subversives while he was a Massachusetts Assistant District Attorney. He was twenty-nine years old at the time. Then eight years later - abandoning a woman to drown in his car. Mix with this a sordid life history of cheating, boozing and adultery. Let's face it, if a man refuses to keep an oath he swore to his own wife, what's the chance he will keep another oath he takes as Senator?

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Ted was the ideal Democrat, a Hero of the Party.

Don't Let Them Do This To You Mk II

Is there nothing these grubby little bureaucrats won't meddle in? Last week they claimed 'The King's Speech' as a success for the European film industry despite the fact that it was wholly British made and funded, this week we learn that they're pouring money into America's anti-death penalty groups.

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that they're spending Brtish taxpayers' money to support a view that the majority of British people do not (latest poll showed 51% support the re-introduction of the death penalty here), what gives them the right to interfere in this way with the internal affairs of an independent sovereign nation?

Here's where the money went in 2009:

American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education: EU grant: €708,162 ($983, 277)
Project: The Death Penalty Assessments Project: Toward a Nationwide Moratorium on Executions

Death Penalty Information Center: EU grant: €193,443 ($268,585) Project: Changing the Course of the Death Penalty Debate. A proposal for public opinion research, message development, and communications of capital punishment in the US.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: EU grant: €305,974 ($424,829) Project: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Intensive Assistance Program

Reprieve LBG: EU grant: €526,816 ($731,591) (some of these funds also went to “European countries”) Project: Engaging Europe in the fight for US abolition

Murder Victim’s Families for Human Rights Non-Profit Corporation: EU grant: €495,000 ($686,608) (some of these funds also went to other countries, including Japan and Taiwan). Project: Voices of Victims Against the Death Penalty

Witness to Innocence Protection: EU grant: €395,000 ($548,538) Project: American DREAM Campaign

"This could be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of EU money flowing to US organisations on any number of causes."

Don't let them do this to you

A warning from England. In a time when councils are cutting services and the police are in line for a 20% cut too it's mind-boggling to see that they can still connive to come up with schemes like this:

Police roadblocks to catch smokers in company cars.

"We will be looking for ashtrays and whether the vehicle smells of smoke... We will use the month of March to carry out inspections, offer advice and generally try and make sure people are aware of and compliant with the legislation."

Yes, that's it - we must be compliant little sheeple. The Freedom Bill means nothing.

Huh? What Iceberg??

It may be a wee too optimistic for my taste, but the author of this Washington Examiner article makes the point that the leaders of Europe are perhaps rousing themselves now that the deck chairs and musicians are sliding ever faster on their way to the bow and America is finally coming to its senses.

This may seem an odd time to bring it up, what with America looking increasingly irrelevant abroad and doomed to fiscal calamity at home by endless government deficits and debt, but prospects for this country are actually looking up. In fact, events here and across the pond in Europe suggest that America is on the cusp of a new era of prosperity at home and influence abroad. Before you conclude The Examiner's editors have completely lost their bearings, consider the following, beginning with Europe.

Just before the Middle East erupted, European leaders made headlines by repudiating the pernicious gaggle of nostrums collectively known as multiculturalism. British Prime Minister David Cameron put it best: "Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries. ... We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. ... We've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them." Along with this long-overdue recognition, the major powers of Europe are also coming to grips with the reality that they can no longer afford the welfare states they established a century ago. Britain, France and Germany struggle with declining birthrates, high unemployment and stagnant economies, even as Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Greece stagger under the weight of insolvency.

Can Europe overcome decades of socialist tendencies? Are their politicians able to form a consensus? Will their dependant constituencies allow them to make the necessary changes? Can Lady Emma ever forgive Lord Chauncey for sleeping with her invalid second cousin? Come'on Europe, forget the soaps and the royals and wake the hell up.

Change in America tends to come from the bottom up, and it clearly is gaining momentum across the country. Even in Washington, political momentum is behind the Republican House that is leading the way in reducing federal spending and debt. America is still and will continue to be the best place for smart money and smart people. If you doubt it, just think of the alternatives.

Liberal powers are deeply entrenched in America and like to use unions as muscle. They have already manifested their propensity to use violence while protecting their interests. So once again - tighten yer lugnuts mateys, we may be in for a bumpy ride on our way to November 2012.

What A Difference A River Makes!

Just across the river from El Paso, TX, is one of the most violent cities in the world. Just how bad is it in Ciudad-Juarez, Mexico?

There were 3,111 civilians murdered in the city of Juarez in 2010 and 2,421 in the entire country of Afghanistan.


On a per capita basis, a civilian was 30 times more likely to be murdered last year in Juarez, where there are 1,328,017 inhabitants according to Mexico’s 2010 census, than in Afghanistan, where there are 29,121,286 people according to the CIA World Factbook.

The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan was compiled by the Congressional Research Service and published in a CRS report released on Feb. 3. The number of civilians killed in Juarez was compiled by Molly Molloy, a research librarian at New Mexico State University who maintains a count of murders Juarez and published it on the Frontera List Web site.

Another CRS report details the research on the number of murders in Juarez.


In 2009 there were 15,241 murders (and non-negligent manslaughter) in the US with a projected population of 307 million for a murder rate of 5 per 100,000 population. In Juarez the murder rate is 234 per 100,000. That's 47 times greater.

In war torn Afghanistan there were 2,241 murders in a population of 29,121,286 for a murder rate of 8.3 per 100,000. The murder rate in Juarez is 28 times higher.

While the 2010 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) has not been released by the FBI, the 2009 UCR can give us an idea of just how bad it is just across the border by comparing US city crime rates with those of Juarez. So let's look at America's largest cities and compare their 2009 UCR murders.

It is interesting to note that the murder rate in Afghanistan is lower than half of America's sixteen largest cities. And let's not forget the jewels in America's premier Democrat controlled American cities -Detroit, St. Louis and Washington, DC. Detroit as noted above has a murder rate of 40.2, St, Louis is just a wee bit higher at 40.3 and DC is still up there at 23.8 per 100,000.

This is not to be confused with the annual report on America's most dangerous cities published by CQ Press. That is another matter completely as it combines UCR Violent Index Crimes (Murder, Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault) whereas I am merely taking America's sixteen largest cities and their murder rates. But it is interesting to note that top four most violent cities in 2010 were St. Louis, MO, Detroit, MI, Camden, NJ, and Flint, MI, as per the 2009 UCR.

I am not gloating over the misfortune of thousands of slain Americans. As a former LEO that just ain't in the picture. I spent many hours with bruised, battered and bloody dead bodies processing crime scenes and there is nothing to be happy about. But there are ways to control crime if the will to do so exists. Mexico is a hopelessly corrupt third world nation, we are not. It is a shame that we have cities with these kind of crime rates.

And as final parting thoughts, while Ciudad-Juarez is out of control, the America city on the other side of the Rio Grande, El Paso, has one of the lowest murder rates in the US. With a population of 618,812 and 12 homicides in 2009, El Paso's murder rate is only 1.9 per 100,000. Also, look again at San Diego's numbers. It is right across the border from Tijuana, only 17 miles away. Tijuana has a 2009 murder rate (657 murders) very similar to Camden and Detroit and a population of 1,559,714.

A WMD Of A Different Sort

Some things have been disappearing recently in the wake of the Libya crisis but thanks to the little miracle that is the internet, they're still with us, floating around in the ether.

This photo was hastily removed last week from the walls of the EC's  Justus Lipsius* building; it shows Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs before Ashton, with Gaddafi when he was feted by the EU in 2004.

Something else to disappear last week was from the FCO website, no doubt now hidden deep in the vaults awaiting FoI requests.   It's the joint communique issued and signed personally by Blair and Gaddafi in 2007.  The DT has the details, including the fact that Blair was willing to hand over NATO secrets.  Here's an extract:

Under the terms of the deal, Britain was committed to “exchanges of information and views on defence structures, military and security organisations; exchanges of visits by experts and exchange of printed materials in the field of military education and science; exchanges of information on current and developing military concepts, principles and best practice, and the conduct of joint exercises’’.

The two countries also agreed to co-operate in “training in operational planning processes, staff training, and command and control; training of personnel in peace support operations; training co-operation relating to software, communications security, technology and the function of equipment and systems; exchanges of information and experience in the laws of armed conflict; and the acquisition of equipment and defence systems’’.

In case anyone thinks Britain acted alone, here's a quick rundown on EU arms deals to Libya.

The double-dealings with Libya exposes the gulf between what the people are told and what is true.  Before the birth of the internet there would be no real mechanism to challenge their re-writing of history so long may our political 'elite' keep their grubby mitts off it and may all their attempts at censorship continue to fail.

*  Justus Lipsius is the Latinized name of Joest Lips, a 16thC Flemish philosopher & humanist, credited with the revival of Stoicism.

"...he argued that no State should permit more than one religion within its borders and that all dissent should be punished without mercy. Experience had taught him that civil conflict enflamed by religious intolerance was far more dangerous and destructive than despotism. "

Also:

"The central theme of the work is clear from the outset. Lipsius – pre-empting Hobbes – places order and peace far above civil liberties and personal freedom. Individual political rights are little consolation when surrounded by violent anarchy. The first task for politics is to secure peace for all and this can only be done if power is concentrated in one individual. It can also only be achieved if only one religion is allowed in any particular State."

IEP

I wonder what part of Lipsius' philosophy was so admired by the movers & shakers of the EU that they were moved to name a building in his honour.

Calling England

Father forced to beg squatters to get out of his new £1m home through the LETTERBOX... while they were given legal aid to fight to stay

The Daily Mail brings us this Horror Story...

Squatters discussing which empty properties to target online.

An Englishman's home is his castle, so the saying goes. After squatters moved into John Hamilton-Brown's new £1million five bedroom home he has been forced to beg them to get out through his letterbox.

The group of foreigners were granted legal aid to fight to stay - while he was forced to represent himself.


(More...)

The Union Way

From the NY Post:

In the city's funny math, you get only one teacher for the price of two.

The Department of Education pays about 1,500 teachers for time they spend on union activities -- and pays other teachers to replace them in the classroom.

It's a sweetheart deal that costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to pay fill-ins for instructors who are sprung -- at full pay -- to carry out responsibilities for the United Federation of Teachers.

With Mayor Bloomberg calling for thousands of teacher layoffs to balance the 2012 budget, critics say it's time to halt the extravagant benefit.

"In these tight fiscal times, it defies common sense to pay two different people to do one job," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government watchdog. "It's a waste of money."

That $9 million would cover the salaries of 198 new teachers at the current annual $45,530 starting pay

The DOE lets 40 experienced teachers collect top pay and fringe benefits, but work just one class period a day.

Isn't this what the commies used to do? To ensure full employment they would hire far more people than were needed at their inefficient and dysfunctional industrial complexes. Apparently the United Federation of teachers managed to upgrade the pay ($100,000) and keep the level of non-work and dysfunction the same. NYC schools are a disaster and the UFT is only one of the reasons why.


As public service unions come under greater scrutiny, expect more revelations to be made public. This is just the beginning.

Bloody Mexico: a novel of Cartel Wars

Our good friend and blogging buddy, LL, has popped out another novel. His first one was good, but he promises that this one will have many fewer cotillions and angst-filled Victorian matrons. Here's the Amazon blurb:

In dystopian México, the absence of a just and moral government has led to a vacuum where evil runs virtually unchecked. Society festers where an underground empire rules a land in self-destruct mode. Rampant corruption at all levels thrives in an environment where many compromise their principles and their virtue for narco-money.

- Retired CIA Case Officer Gary Granger is headed back to Bloody México, where he will find improbable love and will risk everything.-Santiago Iglesias-Aznar is planning to take the narco war to the United States to suit his own ends and he doesn't care how many people will die in the process.

-Lance Parkyn left the US Marine Corps and now he teaches people to hit the targets they're aiming at. The law of unintended consequences is about to take over his life.

Now, go out and buy this artist's books or he's gonna have to go out and get a normal 9-5 job.

Click HERE to purchase LL's first bodice-ripper.