Logic & Sanity

Amnesty

I haven't commented on the proposed amnesty, yet, but I'll keep it brief. I have donated quite a chunk of money to my party over the course of the past few years, but I'll not donate another cent to any politician or a party that will support this bill. The fact that this travesty is even being floated around in Washington is making me want to register as an independent.

This post, by Mark R. Levin, sums it up just right:

Ok, we don't have to call it amnesty. We can call it Christmas, since the beneficiaries will receive all kinds of presents from the American taxpayer, including legalized status, entitlement benefits, and so forth.

Chutzpah

An Egyptian man charged with spying for Israel stunned the court Tuesday by praising Israel for its advanced technology and claiming the documents he had passed on were so outdated they posed no threat to Egyptian security.

Mohammed Sayed Saber, 35, a nuclear engineer with Egypt's atomic agency, has been charged with stealing secret documents and giving them to the Mossad in exchange for $17,000 and with the aim of harming Egyptian national security, the prosecutor said.

An upbeat Saber appeared before the judge in a white prison jumpsuit at the start of his trial Tuesday, smiling and flashing a victory sign to media crammed into a dusty Cairo courtroom.

"I don't hide my admiration of Israel ... It has reached a very high technological and scientific level," Saber said in court. "To seek to benefit from Israel scientific expertise, is not shameful or wrong ... They are a very organized and pragmatic society with definite goals, unlike chaotic societies."

"I don't have animosity toward the Israeli people. Why should I? The fact that we had wars against Israel doesn't mean that we remain enemies forever," added Saber, who has never visited the Jewish state.

Saber's pro-Israeli speech was so unusual that Judge Mohammed Reda Shwakat, presiding over the three-judge panel at south Cairo state security court, called him from the defendant's box to the bench, where he then questioned him for almost four hours in the presence of three defense lawyers.

Hope for for France?

Sarkozy debated Royal today and here's what he had to say:

"I want to re-launch growth," she said, adding that she would rather give a job to a young person than give a gift to business in the form of exoneration from payroll taxes on overtime work beyond the 35-hour week.

"I am in favor of a 35-hour week," Sarkozy insisted. But he said people should have the right to work more if they wanted, especially people with low salaries. "What good is extra time off if at the end of the month there's no money left?" he asked. "Let people make more money if they agree to work more."

In one of the more heated exchanges of the evening, Sarkozy accused Royal of having no credible economic program.

"It seems to me that when it comes to debt," he said, "you given no indication how to reduce it. That's your right. When it comes to growth, you have given no means of reviving growth. I have: because you're right we need more growth. The problem of France is that there is about 1 percentage point of growth less than in other big democracies and economies in the world. Why: For a simple reason, Madame Royal: Because we work less than the others.

"It may surprise you," he said, that none of the 10 countries in Europe that have fuller employment have the 35-hour week.

Bingo! Let's see how he does. If the french people choose Royal then they will truly be screwed for a long, long time.

Marker control

An adjunct professor was fired after leading a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings in which he pointed a marker at some students and said "pow." The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas Winset. During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed. "

A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset, who taught financial accounting, told the Boston Herald. He said administrators had asked the faculty to engage students on the issue. But on Friday, he got a letter saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus. Winset, 37, argued that the Catholic liberal arts school was stifling free discussion by firing him, and he said the move would have a "chilling effect" on open debate. He posted an 18-minute video on the online site YouTube defending his action. The college issued a statement saying: "Emmanuel College has clear standards of classroom and campus conduct, and does not in any way condone the use of discriminatory or obscene language."

Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students didn't appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive.

So what if he was making a valid point and the students weren't offended. The real questions here are - did he have a permit to carry that marker? Was he in a marker free zone? Those students sure feel safer now that he's gone...

Massacre at Virginia Tech

Over thirty people are dead, because a nut with a gun flipped out over his girflriend and went on a rampage at the Virginia Tech's campus. I am not going to rehash the details, you can follow the link or go to you favorite news site - there's no shortage of coverage. What I will comment on, however, is the instant knee jerk reaction by many on variuos forums and blogs calling for tougher gun control and other nonsense of that sort.

To think that changing a law would've stopped this nut is naive to say the least. This article comes off as a bad joke, untill you see that its from January :

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The mind boggles.  Guns are outlawed on campuses. How the hell did this nut show up with a gun? Simply does not make sense! Maybe someone forgot to tell him about the law, though I am pretty sure he had to know that murder was illegal as well.

And while we are walking down that road, let's revoke all car thiefs' licenses to drive. Think about it - if they don't have a a driving license - they can't drive. If they can't drive - they can't steal cars!

Bingo! That's how good I am. Problem solved.

On a serious note, the following paragraph, from that very same article, made me shudder:

Last spring a Virginia Tech student was disciplined for bringing a handgun to class, despite having a concealed handgun permit. Some gun owners questioned the university's authority, while the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police came out against the presence of guns on campus.

That's what happens when you put these feel good measures in place where even law obiding citizens are not allowed to carry weapons. You give criminals the monopoly on firepower.

I'll leave you with this:

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

 

Back from the hiatus

This post is definately way over due! Back in september the plan was to take a week or two off from blogging, but as the old yiddish proverb goes - Mann traoch, Gott luch (Man plans, God laughs).  Anyways, those of you who know me personally, most likely have a rough idea of what I've been up to. Those of you who don't ... Well, there has been a lot of late nights  at work, a lot of drinking, undersleeping, and a fair amount of head scratching at what's going on in this country and the world.

So, before I scratch through my skull and start tickling my brain, I am reviving my blog.Timberlake can bring the sexy back all he wants - I'll take care of the logic and sanity. The format of the blog stays the same. I will ramble and carry on about whatever's on my mind. It could be anything from discussing  and reviewing  gadgets, to exposing ex CIA officers' lies , breaking news , and let's not forget about the breathtaking bar photos  and edgy citizen journalism!

I've migrated to typepad, so a few photos might be missing - i'll be working on fixing that in the next few days. I'll also be doing some heavy redesigning in the next few days, so bear with me.

Ukraine: 4, Saudi Arabia: 0

Got tired of refreshing Google's World Cup page as the game started, so I grabbed a coworker and we headed down to the Manchester Pub. The place was surprisingly emptiesh, so we got the best seats at the bar - right under the wide screen, and ordered our burgers and Guinesses.

Ukraine wooped dat ass, and I would've given my right arm if they took a cue from Ghana and waved the Israeli flag after each goal. That would've demoralized Saudis like nothing else!

Hooray for improved nutrition!

Bra producers have been forced to offer bigger cup sizes in China because improved nutrition means women are busting previous chest measurements.

The Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology said the average chest size of Chinese women had increased by nearly 1cm in the past decade.

Measurements were taken from nearly 3,000 women over six years.

In response, some underwear companies have created sub-brands specialising in larger bra sizes.

"It is so different from the past when most young women would wear A- or B-cup bras," Triumph brand saleswoman Zhang Jing told the Shanghai Daily.

That's right, girls. Eat your broccoli!

Vicente Fox is mui loco

Mexican President Vicente Fox denounced as "disgraceful and shameful" on Wednesday a proposal to build a high-tech wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants.

Yea disgraceful and shameful for Mexico, cause they can't keep their border and economy in check, but do check out the full quote:

"The disgraceful and shameful construction of walls, the increasing enforcement of security systems and increasing violation of human rights and labor rights will not protect the economy of the United States,"
Ah, yes... Because sneaking over our border is a human and labor right.

Ungrateful SOB's

An earthquake takes tens of thousands of lives in Pakistan. We rush in to help, as always, and where's the thanks?

The United States, which was under pressure to increase a pledge of $500,000 (£280,000) considered almost derisory by many Pakistanis when it was made over the weekend, announced it intended to give $50m in emergency aid.

Derisory? This is the money that americans have earned and are giving away and they can't even thank us? Shit, it's not like we are running a surplus, and even if we were there's plenty of ways to spend that money right here. Don't get me wrong, I am all for helping out those who need it, but when people can't even thank us and start acting like this aid is owed to them I feel like we need to put things in perspective.

We are not giving them an emergency loan or even an interest free loan. We are giving money out. We say, here, take it, get back up on your feet, and don't bother paying us back. Let's stop calling this "aid", let's start calling it what it really is - a hand out. Then I want to see these ungrateful bastards complaining that the hand out is not big or prompt enough.