Bill’s Blog

“Not for the politically correct.”

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 Rumsfeld Considers Leaving South Korea | Republicans Blast Clueless Kaptur 
 Touching Smallpox Vaccination Spot Unhealthy | Taliban Prisoners Die In American Custody  
 Media Put Cameras On Marines Helmets | Panama City, Fla Mayor Threatens ‘Girls Gone Wild’

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A sensible move. If South Korea thinks having American troops to protect them is provocative to the North Koreans then we should abide by their wishes and let them fend for themselves.

An American withdrawal would be much like Dean Acheson’s ill-considered remark about South Korea being outside our “defensive perimeter.” This emboldened Stalin and Kim Il Sung to start the Korean War.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday the stationing of U.S. troops near the border with North Korea has become intrusive to South Korea, and said forces could be moved southward or out of South Korea altogether.

Rumsfeld said Army Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, and others are considering ways to realign American forces on the Korea Peninsula. This comes as the United States is engaged in an increasingly tense crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The United States has about 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea near the Demilitarized Zone separating that democracy from communist North Korea.

Thomas M. Reynolds describes Marcy Kaptur as one one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress.

Kaptur is clueless. The repressive Middle Eastern regimes will be replaced by even more repressive Islamist regimes. She hasn’t learned anything from the Iranian Revolution.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) faced a barrage of criticism yesterday from Republicans angered by her comparison of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists to fighters in the American Revolution.

"If you think back to our founding as a country, we are a country of revolution," Kaptur told the Toledo Blade. "One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown."

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.) said it is "outrageous that one of the most prominent members of the Democrat Party in Congress is equating Osama bin Laden with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and our other founding fathers. And it is a disturbing commentary on the state of the Democratic Party that not one member of its leadership and not one Democratic candidate for president has the fortitude to step forward and repudiate her."

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"My comments were intended to point out that what faces us is a rising revolution being felt across repressive regimes of the Arab and Islamic world," she said. "The American people understand the power of revolution. It is in that context that I referred to the American Revolution."

WASHINGTON (AP) Two women developed infections after touching soldiers who had been vaccinated against smallpox and then touching their eyes.

Both illnesses were preventable. Health authorities are reminding people who get the shot to keep the spot where they were inoculated covered and to avoid touching the skin and the bandages that cover it.

Even people who have not been vaccinated can become ill if they touch the inoculation site of someone who was.

Both women are recovering and not expected to have permanent scars.

American military officials acknowledged yesterday that two prisoners captured in Afghanistan in December had been killed while under interrogation at Bagram air base north of Kabul – reviving concerns that the US is resorting to torture in its treatment of Taliban fighters and suspected al-Qa'ida operatives.

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US officials previously admitted using "stress and duress" on prisoners including sleep deprivation, denial of medication for battle injuries, forcing them to stand or kneel for hours on end with hoods on, subjecting them to loud noises and sudden flashes of light and engaging in culturally humiliating practices such as having them kicked by female officers.

The lipstick cam is so small that it can be attached to a Marine helmet and feed back live pictures from the battlefield.

War coverage, it seems, will always reflect the media fad of the age: if Gulf War I was a video game, Gulf War II will be a reality TV show.

If this keeps up Panama City may cease being the capital of the “redneck riviera.” Will Desdin or Fort Walton Beach steal their thunder?

Panama City Beach, Florida-AP -- The mayor of America's spring break capital wants nothing to do with wild girls.

The creators of the "Girls Gone Wild" videos are planning a live pay-per-view broadcast next Thursday from an undisclosed spring break destination. In the videos, college-age women bare their breasts while partying.

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 OpinionJournal.com

Vatican Subordinates Pedophile Priests to Supporting Saddam 
  World’s Lack of Appreciation for America | Mel Gibson Passion of Christ Movie

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One wonders if the Vatican is attacking America to distract attention from the pedophile priest scandals. The Vatican’s resistance to the Iraq operation could be considered a form of the denial of the evil of terrorism.

Link to my response

And why do these bishops still serve, despite their damnable failures and despite the damage they have done to the church's moral credibility? Because the Holy See allows them to. Accountability is virtually nonexistent. Defenders of Rome have said it is arrogant of Americans to expect a bureaucracy that oversees a billion Catholics world-wide to pay much attention to the mess in the American church. That excuse is no longer valid. We now see that when they want to, the pope and his men can drop everything and focus relentlessly on a single issue they deem gravely important. Plainly, Rome does not see the sex-abuse crisis as a priority.

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To be sure, an Iraq war threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, hence Rome's understandable level of concern. That said, it is instructive to note that on a matter in which it has no direct ability to affect events, the Vatican is consumed by two-fisted activism. But on the priesthood crisis, where Rome's direct intervention could do a world of practical good, the Holy See operates largely hands-off. The scope of the scandal has been known at the church's highest levels since at least 1985, but you can count on one hand the number of times John Paul has addressed it in public.

It is in the nature of institutions to resist self-criticism and self-reform. But the Catholic Church isn't just any institution. It was founded by a man who commanded his followers to remove the plank from their own eye before removing the speck from their neighbor's. In that spirit, it is appalling to watch President Bush, who has responsibility for safeguarding 280 million of us from terrorists and terror states, being lectured on his duties in that regard by a church that would not even protect children from its own rogue priests and the bishops who enabled them.

We're hearing so much these days about anti-Americanism. Let's start a movement of our own: anti anti-Americanism.

An anti anti-American movement would speak out against the current compulsion among intellectuals, here and abroad, to paint the United States as a lonely, lumbering and stupid interloper in the ever-so-complex affairs of a sophisticated world.

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I believe most Americans couldn't care less how Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, Mexico or anywhere else chooses to organize itself, were it not for the fact that U.S. citizens inevitably have to die or pay to clean up the mess their dysfunctional economics and politics so often create. Europeans elites don't like having World War II or the cemetery at Normandy thrown back in their faces, but why not? Hitler didn't rise to power on America's watch. The Serbs by now would have slaughtered every non-Serb in the Balkans if the Americans hadn't gone over. The men of France didn't volunteer to die so that South Korea could thrive free of the crazy North. And most of the billions of dollars that the IMF poured into helping Russia stagger through its post-Soviet corruption came out of the pockets of American taxpayers.

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Hard as it is to get through the media filters, Europe's public and private leaders who agree with M. Barrot better start speaking up. If through constant cable-news coverage the American public has to consume enough of this guff, the next iteration of U.S. foreign policy may indeed not be close to the willing-coalition internationalism of Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. The next time the "global community" gets itself caught in the wringer and cries Uncle, the U.S. public may decide to let their critics swim to shore on their own.

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Here's a very American thought for our critics. A few weeks ago, the great country-and-western singer Johnny Paycheck died. Johnny Paycheck's most famous song was "Take This Job and Shove It." After sacrificing more men and women to rid the world of Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons industry, the people of the United States may well decide that constantly bailing out an ungrateful world is a job they too can shove. If that ever happens, the world that results may not be so pretty. Tony Blair and José María Aznar aren't the only serious people in Europe who know this. There are others, and in the interest of multilateralism, they should let America see that they know it too.

"The Passion" is being shot in Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew with no subtitles--a point of honor for Mr. Gibson. "There is power and mystery in these dead languages, and this is what was spoken at the time," he says. The movie will rely on its visuals to tell the tale.

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FrontPageMag.com

• Can There Be A Decent Peace Marcher?

• Leftist Hollywood Hates Bruce Willis

• New Political Correctness on African Slavery

• Radical Feminists and Pornography

• Peace Protestors Want to Destroy Jews

• French Sell Aircraft Parts to Iraq

• Bush Says Force an Option for North Korea

• Iraqis to Commit Atrocities in American Uniforms

• Dominos May Fall for Democracy

• Canada Condones Evil for ‘Independence’

• Radical Feminists Give Hillary the ‘Pink Slip’

• John Kerry Defended FARC Colombian Terrorist Group

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The short answer is this: If you are marching with fascists and communists you are serving their agendas. If you support Israel and are marching with people who want to destroy Israel your presence strengthens them and undermines your cause. Organize your own demonstration.

The reason you are not able to do this is that most people who have honest doubts about the war understand that 1) Saddam is a menace and has not complied with the UN resolutions; 2) if he isn't disarmed he will use the weapons that he has spent so much time and money assembling; 3) if we withdraw our 250,000 troops now and thus fail to disarm him (once the summer comes we can't), this will be a traumatic defeat for us and a victory for him, thus increasing terror worldwide and 4) in a war where we have been attacked we have to defend ourselves and 5) once the flag is committed in such a war people who love this country and its citizens will support the flag and the troops who are risking their lives to defend it.

This strongly insinuates that those who demonstrated “against” the Vietnam war were serving the agenda of the Left-wing extremists who organized and led them.

Uh-oh, the Republican actor is pissing in the pool of the Left again. The progressive elite in Hollywood still hasn’t forgiven Willis for his heresy mouthed before the 2000 election:

"If you guys vote for Al Gore, you're out of your minds… Gore's a knucklehead… just the lying and mendacity of the last eight years of the regime that Al Gore was a part and parcel of… I mean, there is only so much lying the American people will take before they go, 'Uh, this doesn't seem like a good idea.' You have to look at what he does and what he stands for."

Now you know why the Left hates Bruce Willis?

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Indeed, shooting a gun, let alone having one, and possessing muscles is definitely not the definition of a man. And using your gun and your muscles to defend America absolutely violates the leftist definition of manhood. Manhood, for the left, is represented more by the likes of a Michael Moore – an obese slob who doesn’t look like he could run more than 10 metres without collapsing into exhaustion or maintain the sexual interest of a woman who looked anything close to Demi Moore for more than 3 ½ seconds. Moore is the definition of man, you see, because he violates the patriarchy’s social construction of the definition of masculinity; better yet, if Saddam Hussein led a massive invasion of America with the whole Arab world’s might behind him, Moore would immediately don Arab-style clothing, start taking lessons in Arabic, and walk around sporting a Koran for everyone to see.

WASHINGTON – The Smithsonian's African American history museum states that although instances of slavery can be found throughout human history, the practice did not become "dehumanizing" until white Europeans came along and took slaves to the Americas. 

The museum's West Africa exhibit, which opened Feb. 3 and continues through the end of August, includes the following statement at the entrance of the exhibit:

"Slavery had existed in Africa as it had in other parts of the world, for centuries, but it was not based on race and it did not result in dehumanization and death, as did transatlantic slavery."

Just what we need, more political correctness at the Smithsonian.

This lets the slave-owning free blacks of the antebellum South off the hook.

After years of solidarity on such issues as abortion, sexual harassment law, lesbianism, and the war on men, Cornell feminists have found two issues that irrevocably divide them—bondage fantasies and snuff films.

On February 26, the student-funded feminist student group Students Acting for Gender Equality (SAGE) distributed an advertisement for their special gathering:

PORN: Are We F^^^ed?

Wednesday, February 26th, 7pm, Rockefeller 102

Students Acting for Gender Equality hosts a discussion on smut, sex, and masturbation. Is porn anti-feminist? Is it degrading to women or an expression of sexual empowerment? Should it be made illegal? What does porn do for you? Come share your views in an open forum with SAGE!

The meeting opened with club moderator Courtney Ritter passing around Playboys from 1972 through 2002 and asking audience members to compare and contrast how women were portrayed. Then Ritter announced that she had downloaded porn from the web and proceeded to show several hardcore scenes to the assembled crowd via her laptop. In response to an oral sex scene, one of the feminists remarked:

"I am angry—look at that woman. She is doing all the work. The man’s face isn’t even shown."

After one feminist linked the watching of porn to violence against women, male feminist Jacob Hoffman-Andrews disagreed, saying:

"I think [porn] is just a reasonable expression. It provides a release. People can compartmentalize."

Mr. Schulman doesn’t mention the controversial theory that Stalin deliberately fomented unrest in Europe before World War II to lead to a war that would destroy capitalism. Authors Robert C. Tucker, Richard Pipes, and Norman Friedman support this thoery.

If so, the “progressive” types, i.e., the socialist extremists and Communism, were promoting World War II.

The big question is whether Stalin knew that Britain and France would declare war on Germany if Germany invaded France when he signed the nonaggression pact with Hitler on August 23, 1939.

An excellent Orwell quote.

Our grandparents' anti-war allies enabled the Holocaust --- by accident. Your present day anti-war allies wish quite deliberately to destroy "Jewish interests" --- and the lives of many, many Jews in the process. And this is not an unintentional byproduct of good intentions --- but for many leaders of the peace movement, a precious goal.

It was not quite thus in the 1930s. Like today, the very nicest people, the most thoughtful people, the most progressive people, the people with the highest degree of social and moral conscience, people, in short, like you and me - all aligned themselves with Hitler's interests and brought about the totally unnecessary second World War - which was very nearly lost, even after the death of 50 million people. Even though it was won in the end, it was not won soon enough to prevent making the unthinkable - the Holocaust - inevitable.

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The Popes of the 1930s did - like the Pope of today would, alas, do - far more harm to the Jews because they wanted and wished for "Peace" than because of any anti-Semitic feelings they may have harbored.

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As Orwell pointed out long ago, pacifism in the face of armed evil is equivalent to a blind worship of force. For those of our race - the historic victims of so many causes - it would be disastrous to make the same mistake twice, and entrust our children's fate to the hands of these sad and complicitous pacifists.

A French company has been selling spare parts to Iraq for its fighter jets and military helicopters during the past several months, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The spare parts included goods for Iraq's French-made Mirage F-1 jets and Gazelle attack helicopters.

An intelligence official said the illegal spare-parts pipeline was discovered in the past two weeks and that sensitive intelligence about the transfers indicates that the parts were smuggled to Iraq as recently as January.

Other intelligence reports indicate that Iraq had succeeded in acquiring French weaponry illegally for years, the official said.

The parts appear to be included in an effort by the Iraqi military to build up materiel for its air forces before any U.S. military action, which could occur before the end of the month.

There is a UN trade embargo on Iraq, but France doesn’t abide by it. The fact that UN members are selling arms to Iraq impeaches the idea that Saddam can be “contained.”

WASHINGTON - President Bush explicitly raised yesterday for the first time the possibility of using military force against North Korea, calling it "our last choice" if diplomatic moves fail to halt Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons program.

Speaking of efforts to prevent North Korea from building a nuclear arsenal, Bush said, "If they don't work diplomatically, they'll have to work militarily."

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He also said he hoped to persuade China, Russia, South Korea and Japan "to join us in convincing North Korea that it is not in their nation's interest to be threatening the United States, or anybody else for that matter, with a nuclear weapon."

Iraq is acquiring military uniforms "identical down to the last detail" to those worn by American and British forces and plans to use them to shift blame for atrocities, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communication at Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said Saddam Hussein had ordered procurement of the uniforms, but he would not say how this was known.

"Saddam intends to issue these uniforms to Fedayeen Saddam troops who would wear them when conducting reprisals against the Iraqi people so that they could pass the atrocities off as the work of the United States and the United Kingdom," Wilkinson said.

The Fedayeen Saddam is a paramilitary force of more than 15,000 founded by Saddam's son Odai in 1994, Wilkinson said. The unit's members are recruited from areas noted for loyalty to Saddam.

Our troops should snag these guys wearing our uniforms. Wearing the other side’s uniform is a violation of the rules of war that can be punished by death, as were the German troops disguised as Americans in the Battle of the Bulge.

Remember the domino theory? First explained by President Eisenhower, it posited that if Vietnam fell, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore would be next. Then the Philippines and Indonesia. Soon we'd be fighting in San Francisco. It was wrong. Vietnam fell…and nothing happened.

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The domino theory didn't work in Southeast Asia because each nation was different, with varying levels of internal ballast. It failed, also, because the communists in North Vietnam were a nationalist challenge before they were an ideological one.

But in the Middle East, all regimes are subject to the same forces. They are all unpopular, lack a mandate from their people, and depend on arms to stay in power. A robust American military presence sends them a message: You could be next. The next domino.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was handed a "pink slip" — a frilly piece of lingerie — yesterday from an enraged group of female war protesters who told her to quit her job because she was not doing enough to oppose military action against Iraq.

"Hillary is getting the pink slip," said Medea Benjamin, an organizer from New York, "because she is not representing her constituents. She should get another job."

The New York Democrat spoke calmly during a 10-minute repartee she had with about 50 women from Code Pink, a feminist anti-war group planning demonstrations this weekend in Washington.

Dressed in all manner of pink berets, boats, shawls, scarves, coats and even a bathrobe, the group members roamed the halls of Congress all afternoon, giving out pink slips to various legislators and hoisting banners such as "Real Democrats Listen to Peoples' Calls for Peace."

The pink lingerie, which demonstrators obtained at thrift shops, were decorated with anti-war slogans and inked-on pleas such as "Hillary, do the right thing."

Code Pink Women’s Pre-Emptive Strike for Peace Web site

Women’s Enews® article

When your own words come back and leave you with egg on your face, it is called blowback. Senator John Kerry's recent defense of Columbia's FARC terrorists, and their "legitimate complaints" should elicit significant political blowback from the American people.

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