Because everyone else already saw this, right?
The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression.
This can only be a bunch of right-wing misrepresentation, right? I mean that’s just silly. No American presidential administration would send lackeys to the UNITED FREAKING NATIONS and start talking about putting limits on the First Amendment, right?
The Obama administration decided that a revamped freedom of expression resolution, extracted from Canadian hands, would be an ideal emblem for its new engagement policy. So it cosponsored a resolution on the subject with none other than Egypt--a country characterized by an absence of freedom of expression.
Privately, other Western governments were taken aback and watched the weeks of negotiations with dismay as it became clear that American negotiators wanted consensus at all costs. In introducing the resolution on Thursday, October 1--adopted by consensus the following day--the ranking U.S. diplomat, Chargé d’Affaires Douglas Griffiths, crowed:
“The United States is very pleased to present this joint project with Egypt. This initiative is a manifestation of the Obama administration’s commitment to multilateral engagement throughout the United Nations and of our genuine desire to seek and build cooperation based upon mutual interest and mutual respect in pursuit of our shared common principles of tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”
His Egyptian counterpart, Ambassador Hisham Badr, was equally pleased--for all the wrong reasons. He praised the development by telling the Council that ”freedom of expression . . . has been sometimes misused,” insisting on limits consistent with the “true nature of this right” and demanding that the ”the media must . . . conduct . . . itself in a professional and ethical manner.”
[all bolding mine.]
I know that’s a long excerpt, but you really should go read the rest of it.
Then someone please come back here and give me some plausible reassurance that it’s not as horrible as it looks.
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Sounds dreadful, right? But have no fear...these schemers are making their plans around a fundamentally flawed premise:
Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy
Boy, are YOU GUYS misinformed!
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.
[...]
Bloggers have long praised or panned products and services online. But what some consumers might not know is that many companies pay reviewers for their write-ups or give them free products such as toys or computers or trips to Disneyland.
In the interest of keeping this blog in full compliance with this law, I think I should point out that the negative reviews the current administration has received are a result of what it’s been giving us since the day it assumed power.
But you knew that.
Funny ... like a tomato sammich. Subtle ... like a shovel
Nuanced ... like a turd in da punchbowl
And yet . . . it’s a change.
OR *clicky*clicky*
[that’s an “impression”??
by a “professional comedian”?!?]
10/05 at 06:57 PM •
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darker ‘n’ darker
Iran’s supreme leader has replaced the head of [The Basij militia] ...with a senior military officer under U.N. sanctions for links to the country’s ballistic missile program, state media reported Monday.
Could it get any clearer, R∅∅b?!?
Let me put an even finer point on it for ya:
The Basij (pronounced Baseej), is an Islamic paramilitary force that was founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to provide volunteers for “human wave” attacks in the Iran-Iraq War.
...a new concept was created, the Basij, a special group of martyrs to be that would sacrifice their bodies by walking through the mine field, sparing the army from damage.
...Teenage boys as young as 12 were conscripted to serve as martyrs. They were trained to march straight into the enemy fire or through the enemy mine fields which they did wave after wave.
10/05 at 02:30 PM •
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Here’s another summary of the world’s biggest UNtruth.
Yeah, I’ve posted stuff like this before, but it needs to be put out there as much as possible.
I get a *bang* outta this
6.1 million background checks for gun sales were issued from January to May [2009]
...Americans usually buy about 7 billion rounds of ammunition a year, according to the National Rifle Association. In the past year, that figure has jumped to about 9 billion rounds
..."Used to be gold, but now lead is the most expensive metal,”
You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.
– Admiral Yamamoto
(Advising Japan’s military leaders of the futility of an invasion of the mainland United States...)
10/05 at 01:10 PM •
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Teh Come to Jebus Mess-iah Moment?
∏eh R∅∅kie [who w∅n] is the CinC - whether he likes it nor not. And whether or not it pleases those who believed that Hiz Hopeyness would Chaaange the very essence of Human Nature. [As yet] Majikkal Unicorns have not descended from Teh Hopey Clouds to decree All War is at An End, All Conflict Shall be Resolvable via Conflict Resolution and Those Who Want to “Wipe Other Nations Off The Face of the Earth” have Just had A Change of Heart.
*taps toe waiting*
Nope. Not yet.
Diplomacy’s three slipperiest words are “agreement in principle.” Iran’s Ambassador to Britain exclaimed after the talks in Geneva, “No, no!” when asked if his country had agreed to ship LEU to Russia; it had “not been discussed yet.” An unnamed Iranian official said that the Geneva deal “is just based on principles. We have not agreed on any amount or any numbers.” Bargaining over the deal’s specifics could stretch out indefinitely.
...In fact, the agreement constitutes another in the long string of Iranian negotiating victories over the West.
...An unnamed Iranian official said that the Geneva deal “is just based on principles. We have not agreed on any amount or any numbers.” Bargaining over the deal’s specifics could stretch out indefinitely.
...The “agreement” undercuts Security Council resolutions forbidding Iranian uranium enrichment.
...Raising Iran’s LEU to higher enrichment levels is a step backwards.
...no “hard and fast deadline,” and “we don’t have like a drop-dead date.”
[emph mine - e~C]
Like rly, Duu-uude?!?
Meanwhile the me-dia play poli-ticks with the personalities and McCrystal is summoned to a tarmac meeting—and called “naive” or “an upstart” [read: uppity].
*facepalm*
10/05 at 12:07 PM •
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It speaks to me on a number of levels:
• Yeah, it’s just plain funny. It’s a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that thing.
• It’s inspirational. I gotta try this. I expect thousands of ‘barrow-pushers are gonna try this, now, too.
• It’s humbling. There are probably a gazillion guys who’ve been doin’ this for centuries, and I didn’t know about it.
• It illustrates of how humans think. You can use things for other than the obvious, often at a moment of need.
• It illustrates how civilization works. All of these guys didn’t come up with this idea independently. It was adopted by individuals who recognized another guy’s good idea when they saw it, and cultural or ethnic background just won’t limit progress without interference.
• It illustrates that not all all good ideas come from government.
• It illustrates that not all useful behavior requires compulsion or monetary reward.
• It illustrates the inevitability of previously unknown power-grab opportunities. Some union guy will soon demand better break seating, and some bureaucrat will try to regulate it.
• It illustrates one reason you can’t predict evolutionary paths in biology. An adaptation for one use may have another, serendipitous use, as well; and that may result in a dramatically different adaptive result.
Any other thoughts?
Yep—that’s us… and more
10/05 at 10:22 AM •
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Some people get it, and they aren’t afraid to say so. Is the tide starting to turn?
H/T Weasel Zippers
The hits just keep on comin’!
H/T PW
So I was looking through David Thompson’s list of Friday stuff and found this. And it got me wondering...if that was shown as-is in a modern-day theater, which part would make lefty heads asplode in a shower of pink rage the hardest?
This gratuitous display of meat?
...probably not. There’s plenty of meat in theaters already. Speaking of which…
How about this gem, then? The PDA warning?
How come you never see THAT injunction in the twenty minutes of previews and commercials you pay for every time you visit the cinema? They’ll tell you to turn off your cellphone but they won’t tell you to turn off your DATE.
I hate to sound like an old fogey, but theater “fooling around” has progressed a LONG way since my younger days. This here’s a family site so I’ll spare you the details, but for pete’s sake, there’s a reason why you pay for two tickets...you’re expected to use two seats. At least take it to the back row.
Anyway, most people would laugh that off or ignore it. Or both. No, to REALLY make lefty heads pop you need something outlandish, something so heinous, so inexcusably offensive that it curdles the tender soul of the poet. Something that would make baby Obama cry.
When SondraK asked me if I’d pick up some slack around here for a few days, I warned her about my penchant for long, sorta rambling BS posts, which don’t seem to fit the KisP style guide. She didn’t object, but I’ll put the rest of it below the fold to spare you iff’n you’re not interested.
Well.
PHOENIX (CN) - A homeowner says a Phoenix police officer shot him six times in the back during a 911 home-invasion call, and the 911 tape recorded the officer’s partner saying, “That’s all right. Don’t worry about it. I got your back. ... We clear?” The family says the officers were not aware that the 911 call was still recording as they spoke about covering up the shooting.
One salient point among many: Phoenix AZ police officers can shoot a stationary target six times in the back without a kill shot.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has thanked Iran for providing the agency with information about the construction of its new pilot enrichment plant.
“With reference to the letter of 21 September 2009… from HE Ambassador Soltanieh to the Director General of the Agency Dr ElBaradei, I wish to thank the Islamic Republic of Iran for providing the Agency with information about Iran’s activities related to the construction of a new pilot enrichment plant,” read a letter by the IAEA to Iran, a copy of which was obtained by Press TV.
While Missy’s away, I’ll regale y’all with a few short video clips from a few days on the ol’ Harley up on the Blue Ridge Parkway last week.
Southbound (7 min)
Northbound (8 min)
At the southern end of the Parkway is the Great Smokies National Park, and south of that is one of motorcycling’s Meccas (can I say that?), the Tail of the Dragon. I started at the dam overlook in TN and finished at Deal’s Gap, NC, an eastbound trip of about 11 miles.
Some’a y’all might wanna have a barf bag handy. Just sayin’.
Part 1 (10 min)
Part 2 (10 min)
