Bedrock Guy

The Daily Telegraph in Britain published this story a few weeks ago concerning the overwhelming left wing bias of the BBC. Blithering Bunny ran it the story this week.

Not exactly a man bites dog story is it? I mean, the Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation. Al Jazeera, Britainnia chapter?

Notice that Robert Aitken waited until AFTER he had a retirement package to BLOW THE LID OFF THE STINKING LEFT WING BIAS of the BBC. What a guy.

“There is a centre-Left consensus within the BBC which colours its entire output and undermines its solemn pact with the public to present the news impartially,” says Aitken.

Wow, the next thing he’ll tell us is that Hillary is going to run for President!

Why did BBC journalists feel so strongly about Iraq? “They cannot bear President Bush because he’s a Republican and an evangelical Christian. The sight of a Labour Prime Minister going into battle alongside such a man was more than many BBC people could stomach.”

Dislike of Republicans is close to being a BBC article of faith, say Aitken. “I remember being in the Washington office during the Lewinsky affair and saying that I rather sympathised with the Republicans. I think it would have gone down better if I’d confessed to being a paedophile.”

Another article of faith is belief in the moral authority of the United Nations. “That is something that the BBC holds very dear. I long for the day when I hear a reporter say something sceptical about the UN.”

UPDATE: Scott at http://www.blitheringbunny.com/ took issue with my comments above. I've responded in the comments section. Please check out Scott's blog, as it's pretty good and an informative look at events in Britain.

If you do it incorrectly at Brooklyn College School of Education, you'll probably be purged from the ranks of aspiring teachers.

Typical left wing approach to life. Math? English? History? Geography? Problem solving skills?

No - let's focus on social justice.

If one would focus on what I listed above, the social justice would follow. Work with me here. If you do not have educated teachers, you will not have educated students who have the time and energy to work for social justice, because...wait for it...the students end up saying, "you want fries with that."

From the NY Sun.

"Brooklyn College's School of Education has begun to base evaluations of aspiring teachers in part on their commitment to social justice, raising fears that the college is screening students for their political views.
The School of Education at the CUNY campus initiated last fall a new method of judging teacher candidates based on their "dispositions," a vogue in teacher training across the country that focuses on evaluating teachers' values, apart from their classroom performance.

Critics of the assessment policy warned that aspiring teachers are being judged on how closely their political views are aligned with their instructor's. Ultimately, they said, teacher candidates could be ousted from the School of Education if they are found to have the wrong dispositions."

Sounds a bit like grading people on their political beliefs. Again, a fundamental illustration of the left wing approach to life. Think like we do, or be purged. Then again, these type folks just love to wear Che t-shirts.

I think Cox and Forkum illustrate that hysteria, and Democratic standards, very nicely here.

...regardless of what Koppel and ABC do on Memorial Day. It’s a political stunt on Koppel’s part, just as it was the first time he did this.

Painting this on the bore evacuator of your tank in a predominately Muslim country, or...

...releasing the darn photo on an official USMC website so that it can reach an even broader audience?

Have the Marine Public Affairs types lost their minds?

Of course, this left wing web site was more than happy to highlight a problem with the U.S. military, but in this case, I think anyone is correct to highlight this problem.

Yes, I did think about the fact that, by linking to it, I have further contributed to spreading this improper image of the U.S. military. We need to be really cognizant of the images we present overseas during this war. The Marines in this tank, and their leadership, have failed to represent America properly in this fight. This fight will be won not only with the business end of that 120 mm cannon and 7.62 mm coax machine gun, but also with the messages we send to the greater Muslim world.

This congressman from Alabama obviously did not like it.

Gut Rumbles has the correct answer on how to handle Maher.

Bottom line, let Maher keep talking and spewing his garbage. It’s interesting, it generates debate, and it proves, frequently, what Hollywood and the left wingers really think about America. A win-win situation.

And yes, I admit that I've enjoyed the heck out of this SPD/Green loss.

From medienkritik:

"Historic Election Defeat for the SPD in Germany's Most Populous State
Not even hard-core anti-capitalism could help them this time: Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) decisively lost state elections in North-Rhine/Westphalia, Germany's most populous state and a long-standing Social Democratic stronghold. The election defeat marked the first time in thirty-nine years that the SPD will not be governing the state and represents the worst election result for the Chancellor's party there in fifty years. Foreign Secretary Joschka Fischer's Green party went down in defeat as well. Voters were particularly unhappy about the state's economic situation, with unemployment levels recently surpassing the one-million mark for a dismal post-war record high.

The clear winner was the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). The CDU, which performed above expectations under the leadership of North-Rhine/Westphalia party chief Juergen Ruettgers, will likely form a coalition government with the Free Democrats (FDP), a party that favors lower taxes and smaller government and held on to finish a distant third despite taking some losses."

The Wall Street Journal has more:

"Yesterday's election results are "a devastating defeat for Schroeder," political scientist Uwe Andersen told a German TV station. "It's as if they've been thrown out of their own living room."

Bad news for Mr. Schroeder is also good news for America. The Christian Democrats have announced that Angela Merkel, their pro-U.S. party chairman, will be their candidate for chancellor in the fall elections.
Ms. Merkel is a physicist who lived in East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. While cautious, she is the closest thing German politics has to a Margaret Thatcher. When asked earlier this year if she detected any similarities between her ideas and the reforms that Britain's Iron Lady carried out in the 1980s, she told the Independent, a British newspaper, "My whole life was changed by reunification. I have experienced change as something good, not something to be avoided."

If German voters, tired of 12% unemployment and of being portrayed as the "sick man of Europe," have had enough this fall and throw out Mr. Schroeder, she may well get a chance to prove how much change the notoriously risk-averse German electorate can tolerate."

The latest news here indicates that Schroeder will call for new elections to be held on 18 September. I look forward to helping the Germans with their elections, in terms of commentary and opinion, as much as they wanted to help with ours.

I wonder if Democrats Abroad will sponsor a hate fest like they did in Heidelberg on the night of the election last November?

Boston Globe. Left wing babbling. James Taranto covered it.

"86 Senators Hate America! A Boston Globe editorial endorsing the filibuster compromise begins: "Fourteen senators proved late Monday that they love their country and their institution more than they love the ideological extremists who increasingly drive the national debate."

Now, we've also written favorably of the deal. But how dare the Boston Globe question the patriotism of the 86 senators who weren't a part of it?"

Boston Globe, is it at all possible that the other 86 senators may love their country as well but just feel like whatever they did is the right thing to do?

One of the things I complain about in reference to the left wing main stream media, of which the Globe is part, is its continuing inability to believe anything good about someone or some organization with which it disagrees. This demonization by the left wing takes many forms, one of which you see above.

...you guessed it, how the public views the judiciary because of that term, "judical activism."

Marshall stated that "I worry when people of influence use vague, loaded terms like 'judicial activism' to skew public debate or to intimidate judges," Marshall said. ''I worry when judicial independence is seen as a problem to be solved and not a value to be cherished."

James Taranto highlights the reason people complain about judges like Margaret H. Marshall, particularly when they are partisan and try to legislate instead of interpret.

"Gee, what about vague terms like "extremist" or "out of the mainstream"? Has Marshall forgotten the vituperative attack liberals waged on Judge Robert Bork 18 years ago--an attack in which her husband, Anthony Lewis, played a prominent role as a New York Times columnist? Is she unaware that Senate Democrats are similarly attacking a raft of Bush judicial appointees?"

I want judges who are smart, fair, impartial, and reasonably non-partisan. I want legislators who feel the same. I have no issues with judges who differ with me on various issues or political philosphophy or social issues, as long as they rule based on the laws passed by legislatures. One other thing, I have no use for judges who make decisions citing foreign laws and culture as precedents. This is America, not the rest of the world.

Semi-nice weekend around here. Favorite Wife and I had a nice time, mixing some sun with rain. The local BMW military sales displayed the new 3-series BMW, so Favorite Wife and I stopped by to take a look.

Depressing. If I wanted a tank, I'd well, go back to tanking.

I should have expected it after reading a few luke warm reviews, but I'd heard it was sportier, sleeker, and roomier than the 5 and 7 series, which I believe BMW has completely ruined.

The good news is, I'm saving a bundle, because any thoughts I had of replacing my 5 have vanished. If you just can't get excited every time you look at your car, you might as well drive a Focus (which I like incidentally).

Yet another gaffe by Howard Dean. Is anyone keeping score?

I still think he's a Hillary and Bill plot to ensure that the Dems are so forlorn by early 2007 (despite Hillary's reelection) that they will come screaming to the Clintons to rescue the Democratic Party.

As Instapundit wrote: "UPDATE: Yeah, it's a minor slip -- but if Bush had made it, it would be a bigger slip than most of what makes Slate's "Bushism of the Day" feature. I mean, come on: This is, basically, the only talking point he's got on the war, and he blows it completely.

Now this is rich. Time is criticizing Newsweek (and rightfully so) for how it "botched" the story of alleged U.S. military treatment of detainees.

I love it when the main stream media turns on each other, but I'll bet that Time has about 4 million reporters out there, right now, looking for evidence of maltreatment and misconduct.

I'll leave the motivations as to why for your personal speculation.

Since I returned from Normandy it's been difficult to jumpstart the old blogging engine. I'll do better, I promise. It's just that the weather has been great and the outdoor cafes and restaurants so enticing that I have failed to maintain my blog.

I’m sure we’ll hear from the left wing extremists and their supporters about censorship. Actually, this is a good illustration of market forces at work. This owner does not wish to sell this product, and chooses not to. Good for him.

I’ve boycotted anything with Jane Fonda for years. It killed me when she married Ted Turner a few years ago, because she started appearing at Atlanta Braves games. I truly enjoyed, however, her obvious discomfort when the crowd started doing the “tomahawk chop” because her left wing buddies raised such a ruckus about the inappropriateness and insensitivity of such an act.

About 24 years ago, I was flying back from Japan and the movie on board featured, you guessed it, Jane Fonda. My buddy laughed a lot at my obvious reaction to that news, because he knew I couldn’t escape. Hey, it was “On Golden Pond” with Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Enjoyed it. Haven’t seen it twice however.

Medienkritik highlights an essay by Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Aspen Institute in Berlin, which features some good ideas about how German opinion is shaped and how the left wing Schroeder regime unwisely has chosen the path of anti-American and anti-business messages to prop up its own faltering programs and political support.

About 10 days ago, I had an interesting and long conversation with a German college student. After listening to her polite comments about ignorant and arrogant Americans (and discovering that she'd never been to America nor knew the location of West Virginia), we engaged in polite discussion about her theories of equality among nations and the rights of nations to engage in dictatorial activities. She felt that no nation had the right to dictate to another nation about its form of government. Oh yes, and, coming from the former East Germany, she did not think democracy and capitalism were better than communism, because, since she was not old enough to have experienced communism, she could not compare them.

Well, she's never experienced America either, but that didn't hold her back in the comment section.

A friend of mine reviews how the socialist government in Germany manipulates the press and the problems of government funded German media. Monopoly? Fox Germany and more German bloggers anyone?

I’m beginning to think NOT.

If the Border Patrol is being ordered not to arrest border jumpers, as this article alleges, then someone needs to be fired, and Congress needs to investigate same. Who gave this order and which presidential appointees supported it?

Nor apparently do his left wing media buddies, given the award which they presented Rather the other day.

"NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - With thanks to two former colleagues who left CBS in the wake of a scandal, CBS News' Dan Rather accepted broadcast journalism's most prestigious honor on Monday for the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story that exposed the shocking conditions inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

In one of his first public appearances since leaving the network's anchor chair in March, Rather and Mary Mapes received the Peabody Award at a luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria in Midtown Manhattan.

Rather took pains to acknowledge Mapes and former CBS News senior vp Betsy West (who also attended the ceremony), among others. Mapes was fired by CBS News, and West was forced to resign in the wake of another "60 Minutes Wednesday" report, which aired in September and used questionable documents as part of the sourcing for a highly critical report on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.

"They did most of the work, bore the heaviest burdens and took most of the criticism," Rather said of Mapes and the other producers who did the front-line reporting on the Abu Ghraib story. "It took guts, and they had them."

Rather received extended applause after telling the crowd, "Never give up, never back up, never give in while pursuing the dream of integrity filled journalism that matters."

Glad to see that CBS announced the cancellation of 60 Minutes II. One less forum from which Rather can spew his left wing opinions.

He’s obviously learned nothing. Look at his comments to Newsday.

"We are continuing to investigate what remains a very murky situation," the prize-winning journalist told Newsday. "It's not like us or them [the Pentagon] have gotten to the bottom of this."

Isikoff and Newsweek have been pilloried in the past few days by the Bush administration for allegedly endangering U.S. troops abroad and helping fan anti-U.S. riots that left at least 15 people dead.The article in the May 9 edition included a charge that U.S. personnel flushed a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy text, down a toilet at the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."Things turned out horribly, but it was unforeseen," Isikoff said, referring to the protests. "A very strange set of circumstances led to a very horrible chain of events. And we all feel terrible about it."

But then again, if it’s a European opinion, should we care?

Now, let’s do a little exercise. Take the article, and replace French with American. Then think about how the American media and their left wing allies would trumpet these results as irrefutable truth of the failures of the Bush Administration, the war against Terror, SUVs, Medicare, Social Security, etc, etc, etc.

You know I’m right on this one.

Yes, that old evil, creeping fascism. Coming soon to an America near you. Jeez. Do they talk like this so they can keep hanging out with the other Hollywood types? Do they really believe this stuff?

A very disappointing post from a blogger and writer whose work I’ve read much of since the 2000 election.

What is motivating him here? Does he really want the press to report everything ugly it can find out about Gitmo, POWs, and the war effort?

He says he wants to win this war against tyranny and religious fascists. Sure seems to be a funny way to do so.

The left wing American press, Chapter 32, 455

From Instapundit.

“Today's expansive press freedom, which I support wholeheartedly, is of recent origin (essentially, it's a post-World War II phenomenon) and not to be taken for granted. Remember all the talk about the Enron scandal, and how free enterprise was at risk if greedy corporations didn't clean up their acts? Well, I'm afraid that press freedom is at risk if it's seen as a vehicle for out-of-touch corporations to peddle defective products without fear of consequences. (Ironically, the rise of blogs and other people-based media -- "we-dia" as Jim Treacher calls them -- may be the best defense against that).

Both Jay and I rated this scandal an 8 on a scale where RatherGate was a 10. While there will be specific consequences, for Newsweek and its staff, the bigger damage will be yet another incremental loss of press credibility. I'd rather have a press that was trusted, and trustworthy. We're still some distance from that, I'm afraid.”

Interesting exchange between the White House Press Secretary and someone named Elizabeth in the White House Press Corps.

She seems to be outraged that the White House has asked the press to consider the type of stories they print during time of war.


Belmont Club has more commentary on this shameful White House Press Corps moment.

“The resentment is palpable. Not the resentment of the spokesman of a Commander in Chief of a military vilified in an article that has already been retracted, but the resentment of reporters whose prerogatives have been questioned. "With respect, who made you the editor of Newsweek?", one asks. McClellan actually cannot finish a sentence in answer, because one of the prerogatives of this particular reporter is to ask the questions. "You've already said what you're -- I know what -- how it ends." And the question, although put in different words each time, is monomanaically the same: when did you stop beating your wife? "As far as the Newsweek article is concerned, first, how and where the story came from? And do you think somebody can investigate if it really happened at the base, and who told Newsweek? Because somebody wrote a story." And because "somebody wrote a story" the presumption was that the story had to be true, the retraction notwithstanding, as if it never existed, as if the retraction were completely irrelevant from the discussion. In a sense it is, because there was never a retraction. There may have been words which resembled a retraction, but it was never, ever really made because it is absolutely impossible to ever make it.”

Chrenkoff asks the media – who made you king?

"Well, with respects, the media, who made you the elected politicians and military leaders to tell them how they should run a country and conduct a war? It seems another great case of a glass jaw - the media likes to dish it out but can't take it."

As usual, Ms. Coulter takes no prisoners. She highlights the difference in editorial judgment shown by Newsweek in their rush to print the false stories about alleged abuse of religious articles with its extreme hesitancy to run the breaking stories about Clinton and Lewinsky.

She takes them to task on their willingness to run any story which casts the military in a bad light as well as their unwillingness to run stories discussing the lack of religious tolerance in Arab nations.

Interesting contrast, don’t you think?

The real question: Will the Browns take punitive action, as they should, against Kellen Winslow Jr., who, after signing a $40 million contract, endangered his life and the Browns' financial status.

Can the Browns say, "we'll be taking back about 15-20 million?"

Is this guy Winslow smart enough to play pro football? Wow, endangering his talent and his contract to ride a darn motorcycle. AFTER missing most of his first year to injury. Can you say, "poor judgement?"

Perhaps he's just too delicate to play pro ball.

Even Favorite Wife heard about this bonehead move.

"Browns tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. will be charged with disregarding safety in the motorcycle crash that put his 2005 season in jeopardy, police said. Police in suburban Westlake will issue a citation Friday afternoon, Lt. Ray Arcuri said. The charge carries a maximum fine of $150 with no jail time. Winslow tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee when he crashed, two sources within the league told The Associated Press."

I'm really confused here. Apparently El Presidente Fox of Mexico, who wants the U.S. to quit defending its southern borders, allegedly made racist remarks the other day about the differences in work practices of African-American blacks and Mexican citizens.

He's caught quite a bit of flak for his remarks. But, he's not apologizing, despite intense counseling from Jesse Jackson.

"MEXICO CITY (AP) - President Vicente Fox refused to apologize Monday for saying Mexicans in the United States do the work that blacks won't - a comment widely viewed as acceptable in a country where blackface comedy is still considered funny and nicknames often reflect skin color.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Mexican and foreign news media have misinterpreted the remark as a racial slur. He said the president was speaking in defense of Mexican migrants as they come under attack by the new U.S. immigration measures that include a wall along the U.S.-California border."

One thing that confuses me however, concerns my graduate liberal education at Duke University. There, I was pointedly informed, numerous times, by those who were so much more educated than I in matters of racial and sexual equality, that minorities could not be considered prejudiced or discriminatory because to do so would imply a position of power and influence, which no minority in America possessed.

So...how could El Presidente Fox have made a racist and discriminatory statement?

Well, he did, and he and his supporters know he did, but I just wanted to review left wing ideas on race in America.

Fox is a loose cannon. He wants the U.S. to open its borders because he does not have the political will or courage to fix the many long standing structural, political, economic and cultural defects of his country. The U.S. is supposed to be the Mexican relief valve. Maybe it's time to direct some pressure towards Mexico.

Hateful people in London calling for the bombing of New York.

"Led by a man on a megaphone, they chanted, "USA watch your back, Osama is coming back" and "Kill, kill USA, kill, kill George Bush". A small detail of police watched as they shouted: "Bomb, bomb New York" and "George Bush, you will pay, with your blood, with your head."

So, how do you work with people like this?

"The protest was organised by groups including the Muslim Council for Britain and the Muslim Parliamentary Association of the UK."

Peaceful and tolerant types, aren't they?

Not soon, if Victor Davis Hansen is correct. I’ve quoted below from his essay. Unfortunately, he fails to take the Hillary factor into account.

"When will Democrats return to power? Three of the most influential legislators in the Democrat party — Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Nancy Pelosi — reside in and came out of the San Francisco Bay area, which for all its undeniable beauty has created a culture still at odds with most of America. John and Teresa Kerry would have been the nation's first billionaire presidential couple. The head of the Democratic party is a New England condescending liberal, with a vicious tongue, who ran and lost on a platform far to the left of an unsuccessful liberal.

In contrast the only two men elected president from the Democratic party in 30 years were southerners, hammed up their rural and common-man roots — the son of a single mother in Arkansas and a peanut farmer in Plains, Georgia — and were narrowly elected largely due to national scandals like Watergate or third-party conservative populists like Ross Perot. The aristocratic media — CBS News, the New York Times, NPR — is often liberal and yet talks of its degrees and pedigree; the firebrand populist bloggers, cable news pros, and talk-radio pundits are mostly conservative and survive on proven merit rather than image.

When we see Democrats speaking and living like normal folks — expressing worry that the United States must return to basic education and values to ensure its shaky preeminence in a cutthroat world, talking of one multiracial society united by a rare exceptional culture of the West rather than a salad bowl of competing races and tribes, and apprising the world that we are principled abroad in our support of democratic nations and quite dangerous when attacked — they will be competitive again.

Since they will not do that, they will keep losing — no matter how much the economy worries, the war frightens, and the elite media scares the American people."

Interesting article about the growing number of moderate and conservative book publishing lines. Apparently, the publishing houses are willing to support these type books because, well, gosh, red staters can read and discuss really, really big issues.

But of course, the left wing has problems with this trend.

"Some liberals grouse that all these right-wing books are a menace. Ellen Heltzel, one of the "Book Babes" whose column runs on the Poynter website, laments that "the strident voices" of the right now have "a larger platform from which to spiel their predictable line."

Sour grapes, I'd say. Too many on the left yearn for a world when there weren't many conservative books — and, for that matter, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, National Review Online and vocal conservatives, period. Those days are thankfully gone for good."

President Fox of Mexico continues his attempt to weaken American immigration policy, only this time, he’s been called out. Jesse Jackson generally has little use in any rational debate on race in America, but this time, he’s performed a public service.

Fox has been trying to make Americans feel bad for wanting to protect their borders.

El Presidente Fox, how about using some of your energy to clean up Mexican corruption, fix social and economic policies, and create a country of which you and your fellow citizens can be proud, as opposed to one that everyone is trying to escape.

Why is the University of Oregon discriminating against white students who want to take higher math classes?

According to this article in the college newspaper, the University will allow only 8 of the 18 course slots to be filled by non-minority students. Quotas anyone?

“Linda Liu, advising coordinator and academic adviser for OMAS, said the classes are meant to offer a safe haven for minority students and give struggling students a chance to work more closely with professors.

But Edward Blum -- senior fellow at the conservative Virginia-based Center for Equal Opportunity, which monitors education policy and has filed complaints with the federal government about race-exclusive programs at universities across the nation -- said the policy is illegal.

"I can say it 10 different ways, but it's illegal, and the Department of Education will shut this down if it's brought to their attention," Blum said.
Blum said the policy amounts to a "very fast, hard quota system that will never stand up in court" and is similar to the University of Michigan undergraduate racial quota system struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003. “

Fox News also reports on this discriminatory practice of OU. Read thru the article, then see the section about the proposed speech codes in San Francisco.

I hope Fox follows this OU story to conclusion and in December 2005, can answer the following questions:

How many of those 10 slots were filled by students with the proper (from the school catalog) prerequisites?

What was the demographic breakdown of the 10 students filling the minority quota slots?

How many of the students filling those 10 slots passed the course?

How many of the students filling the other 8 slots passed the course?

Now, onto the speech codes in San Francisco.

The most ironic part of the second article on proposed speech codes in San Francisco? Left wingers and blue states types will not be able to engage in any type of discussion about why people vote Republican, because left wingers and their Blue State allies absolutely cannot talk about Republicans or red state voters without making disparaging, condescending, or insulting comments. Now, if they do, they'll be breaking the law in San Francisco. So, go ahead, San Francisco, pass the ordinance and silence yourself.

I blogged about this a few weeks ago. Now, the Minnesota Public Library, which sponsored ads for its service using the mass murderer, Mao Tse-tung, in its ads, thinks its being unfairly maligned. When Jim Lileks rightly pointed out that the MPL was using a communist mass murderer to garner support, the left wingers at the ad agency and the supporters at the MPL cried foul.

Of course they did. And of course anyone who would be offended at using a communist dictator’s likeness to encourage America’s use of its library is well, gasp, probably a Nazi, or some hide bound anti-communist.

Lileks reviews the entire issue and then destroys the babbling justification of the MPL and its supporters. Being very creative, he also suggests an alternative ad the MPL might use since it is so fond of mass murderers who view themselves as social engineers.

You can’t make this stuff up. Please, someone, explain to me this continued left wing fascination with communist dictators and their mass murdering brethren.

I've posted a few pictures from my recent trip below. When I visited Arromanches, a group of British WWII veterans was there as well. They were a distinguished group, with sport coats and ties and rows and rows of medals on their chests.

As I walked out to the beach to take some photos, one veteran and his wife stood nearby, quietly waiting for the time to board their bus. After I took my pictures, I introduced myself and asked him what unit he had served in during the war.

He told me that he was a member of the 7th Armoured Division, but that I would probably know it as the "Desert Rats." As he told me this, he asked his wife to show her pin. And there it was, the little red desert rat, the Jerboa, proudly worn.

I told him why I was in Normandy, and he quickly transitioned and gave me his condolences for all those brave American lads buried at Colleville sur Mer, in the American Cemetery. He then proceeded to thank me, and America, for coming to Britain's aid during those dark days of the Second World War, when Britain and the Commonwealth stood alone in the west against the Nazis.

No, I said, thank you, for standing up to the Nazis and fighting alone after the defeat of France and before Russia entered the war.

He pointed out where his unit had come ashore, at Arromanches, about 100 meters from where we stood.

Here I was, on a chilly but sunny Norman beach, being thanked by a man who had fought the Hun across North Africa for 2+ years, redeployed to England and then invaded Normandy and fought in France and Germany. A humbling and inspiring experience.

From Churchill's speech to the Division's "Other Ranks" in Berlin, after V-E day:

Dear Desert Rats! May your glory ever shine! May your laurels never fade! May the memory of this glorious pilgrimage of war which you have made from Alamein, via the Baltic to Berlin never die!

It is a march unsurpassed through all the story of war so as my reading of history leads to believe. May the fathers long tell the children about this tale. May you all feel that in following your great ancestors you have accomplished something which has done good to the whole world; which has raised the honour of your country and which every man has the right to feel proud of".

Point du Hoc. Rangers. Scaling cliffs under fire. Incredible heroism.  

The monument to the 29th Infantry Division. It's 116th Infantry landed just below this monument astride the Vierville Draw.  

The remnants of the Mulberry at Arromanches. Pieces of the Phoenix caissons and flotation devices for the Whale movable roadways.  

Omaha Beach from the German Bunker at WN62. The section of the beach is just below the American Cemetery.  

Hi. Back home after another long trip. A great trip to Normandy and the D-Day battlefields. The weather was perfect. If I return there a thousand times I doubt it will ever be as nice as it was the last 6 days.

We visited some beautiful sites that totally belied the violence and chaos of that day in June 1944. I can't visit there, much less read about Omaha Beach without asking, could I have done this? Could I have gotten off that beach and moved inland? Hopefully it would not have taken leaders like Cota and Taylor to get my troops and I moving from the safety of the sea wall and the berm.

We found where Dick Winters and his men of E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division captured the German artillery battery on D-Day. It's not far from Utah Beach, just off the road from Beach/Causeway Exit Two. We were pretty excited when we found the location.

Missed a lot of news items while in France. No web access but I was too interested in important things to worry about left wing looniness. Good to be home, but I learned a great deal last week, most of which I hope to be able to pass on in various forums.

I guess some congressmen were upset about evacuating the Capital the other day. Apparently they did not like the process and the hasty nature of the evacuation.

Neil Cavuto on Fox absolutely calls the whiners. Please watch the video clip provided by Trey Jackson.

A great article on the horrible state of the schools in New York City. The left wing teacher unions and their supporters must be so proud.

I know, I know...it's President Bush's fault.

The "New" Europe.

Andrew Sullivan received an email which reflects on Europe's future and where it's going in a very public, and very ignored, fashion.

Holland is going under fast. France is enroute. What will it take for Europe to wake up and stop the appeasement?

So, let me make sure I have this straight. This team decided to dissect a living creature in front of students.

A live dog. Dissected.

Take a look at this photo of the teacher. I’ll leave it at that.

Remember all the professors rallying to defend that dirtbag, Ward Churchill, at the University of Colorado?

Now there seems to be another situation involving the right of a professor to discuss controversial subjects. Only this time, this professor is attacking left wing policies.

Wonder how many of Ward Churchill’s academic teammates will rally to defend Professor Bean at Southern Illinois?

The U.S. has set 26 October as the deadline for this new requirement which mandates that all visitors possess biometric passports.

European governments have concerns about the requirement and are threatening to make U.S. visitors to Europe acquire visas.

This might get interesting. Who will blink first?

A Canadian study revealed that parents pay more attention to attractive children than to less attractive children.

I suppose the corollary of this must be previous studies which have shown that people pay more attention to, and are more pleasant with, attractive people vice less attractive people.

Yes, I think I did. How about friend of dictators?

Never heard of this guy? Neither had I until I read the Post article about his suicide in Rome. I suppose that indicates my lack of connections to the rich and famous within political circles, but I still slept pretty well last night despite that void in my life.


So he Edward von Kloberg III was a well known and well connected PR guy - he was still a dirtball

"A legend of sorts in public relations circles, he counted as clients Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Samuel K. Doe of Liberia; Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania; the military regime in Burma; Guatemalan businessmen who supported the country's murderous, military-backed government; Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire; and, in a figurative coup of his own, the man who overthrew Mobutu and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo."


I’m not sure what’s worse: The fact that he worked to provide positive media coverage for scum like Hussein and his like OR that so many people in Washington socialized with him.

"Von Kloberg expressed no ethical concerns about his work, saying people such as Hussein were U.S. allies at the time. He said he was "utterly fascinated" by the Iraqi leader and returned to the District to "propagandize why they were gassing the Kurds." The reason given, he said, was to prevent Arab fundamentalism from spreading in the Persian Gulf.
"That's pretty awful, isn't it?" he said in an interview. "That's what you had to do for the overall point.""

Ah, yes, it is “pretty awful.”

There I go, being judgmental again. Sorry. I’m in a 12 step program to stop

As New Sisyphus writes, this ain’t Europe. We fight back. Claims of discrimination and intolerance can only provide minimal cover when one advocates the destruction of America and the death of its citizens.

I’ve been saying this for several years. Now it appear Qatar has been paying tribute to the enemies of democracy to preclude being attacked.

Sick, weak puppies. The leadership of any country which prostrates itself before terrorist should be ashamed.

History question. To what war and to what circumstances does the phrase "to the shores of Tripoli" refer?

Qatar and the other countries who may be doing something like this, take a lesson from Thomas Jefferson.

Lileks seems to think so. In my opinion, any organization using a communist mass murderer as an advertising model seems to be advocating policies and politics unworthy of our tax dollars.

I’ve talked about this phenomenon before, that of the left wing love of communism while simultaneously calling everyone who disagrees fascist or Nazi.

I expressed my concern in this blog when the President insulted the patriots watching our borders, calling them “vigilantes.”

The Governor has properly given these citizens, rightly concerned about the security of our borders, a bit more respect than President Bush.

The President should take a note here.

I realize that the words "Democratic" and "hypocrisy" frequently can be used in regards to any number positions currently espoused by the Democratic Party and it's politicians.

My friend Vic highlights how a number of current Democratic Senators now spewing outrage over Republican attempts to halt their obstructionist antics concerning judges were once, shockingly, in favor of eliminating filibusters.

Wow, their shame knows absolutely no bounds.

Vic also discusses Democratic and left wing bias against Christians, as they believe Christians should not band together politically or express that their faith influences their politics. In other words, Democrats and their fellow left wingers want to restrict anyone of strong religious faith from being involved in politics.

I'll stand by to see when a Democrat or a left winger expresses that about groups of the Islamic faith.

Anyway, take a look at Vic's blog on these issues. I think you'll enjoy it.