Riehl World View

Newsmakers Wife Dies In Tragic Accident

h/t C: It's shocking when life is taken away in a flash through what amounts to nothing more than perhaps some carelessness, or just an accident of life ... and now death, though their poverty is thought to have played a role.

They'd only been married a year.

Charles Tombe shot to fame last year when he tied the knot with Rose.

Mr Tombe and Rose are believed to have lived happily ever after until her life was cruelly cut short.

The story, which became one of the world's best read tales, began in Juba, southern Sudan, in February last year when ....

Poor dear choked ... on a plastic bag.

RIP Rose

the BBC reported that the then owner of the goat, Mr Alifi, was awoken in the night by a strange noise.

Walking out of his traditional hut, he was confronted by the sight of Mr Tombe and Rose in a passionate embrace.

Today the Times reported that Mr Alifi said: 'When I asked him "What are you doing there?" he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."

When Mr Tombe was brought before a council of elders he claimed he was drunk when Rose caught his eye.

He was ordered to pay Mr Alifi a "dowry" of 15,000 Sudanese dinars - about £25 - since he was considered to have used the goat "as his wife."

In the same way a man is expected to marry a woman if he has sex with her in southern Sudan, Mr Tombe was deemed to have married Rose.

However, despite a happy marriage money was tight and Rose died after swallowing a plastic bag as she scavenged for food on the streets of Juba.

Ace Reveals Himself

As if being attacked by teh Gay journalist wasn't enough, Ace piles on:

Dan Riehl Is A Lunatic

Maybe so, ... okay, probably so. So what? lol

When I was a kid I loved the library. No, really. And that was even before 7th grade when I was standing in the book check out line and this other kid told me to drop my library card on the floor and take a look up and to the front, which was, well, candidly, right up Donna xxxxx's skirt. It was sort of like seeing (fill in your own analogy, I can't think of one) for the first time. I didn't quite what know what to make of it, but I somehow sensed it would change my life.

It didn't - immediately. Except, well, maybe the librarians started looking a little hot. But, honestly, I always enjoyed hitting the library, even before that - for the books.

Anyway, when I first discovered the Internet, my first thought was: this is like a huge library, wow! And despite all the Internet porn out there, I didn't run right out and start looking up women's skirts. So, when a name or a place pops up in a story, I often toss it into Google, just to see what I can bring up with an advanced search. And for that I'm a lunatic?

Sorry, Ace ... all it confirms is that when I was running around in the stacks, you were scoping out the gals not wearing slacks. Pervert.

Not porn related at all - Ace posted something I turned up.

Updated: Is Fred Thompson A Neo-Nazi?

See Ace and also Patterico for more on the LA Times silliness on Fred Thompson.

Unfortunately, I've found another role of Thompson's from as recently as 2005 which clearly paints him as a racist, bad parent and possibly weak on terror, as well.

In Frederik Du Chau's Racing Stripes (official site) Thompson was the, and I quote, "real bad guy in the film".

The "star" of the film, Stripes (Frankie Muniz) sought to rise above his roots as an abandoned zebra adopted into a farm setting. He possessed the crazy idea that he could one day run in the Kentucky Derby just like a white male Thoroughbred.

Tag-line: His stripes made him an outcast. His heart made him a hero.

True to his conservative (read racist and class-based) agenda that sought to promote Thoroughbred hegemony within the animal community, Thompson as Sir Trenton oppressed Stripes while displaying parenting skills on a par with those of Alec Baldwin and proved ineffective in fighting terrorism.

Sir Trenton was unsuccessful in his bid to suppress the biting violence of cartoon horseflies Buzz (Steve Harvey) and Scuzz (David Spade) throughout the film, which, pundits suggest, may cast doubt on Thompson's terror fighting cred in the eyes of some conservatives.

Sir Trenton is the real bad guy of the movie. He is an arrogant Thoroughbred horse. Trenton sees his son, Pride, as having no purpose other than to carry on the Trenton legacy. He was trained by Nolan Walsh and Tucker, but shows no gratitude.

Thompson is also obviously incapable of delivering the kind of parenting skills Global Warming activist Laurie David expressed when she said she wanted to be adopted by Al Gore after working with him on An Inconvenient Spoof.

I hate to say it, but maybe it is time we give Thompson a good hard look of reconsideration. The horse fly issue really concerns me. How is this guy going to fight Islamo-fascists as President, if he can't swat a couple of flies from Hollywood?

Remember to see Ace and also Patterico for more on the LA Times silliness on Fred Thompson.

Good grief, they don't realize conservatives can distinguish between a role and a man, and that we laugh at the agenda politics behind their pathetic films and we're the rubes?

Morons!

Army Times

Updates on what's what with the Army - links at Instapundit.

IMO we need to up our military spending by perhaps at least as much as 2 percent of GDP.

Confession: I've Been Gay Bashed

If being attacked by Sullivan friend and Gay journalist Chris Crain on his blog for being a Christian-ist (FYI - I don't even attend church) is being Gay bashed, then I guess that's what I've been. But what Crain actually demonstrates is how instep is the Left with Rosie (fear the Christians) O'Donnell and how little the Left and even now Sullivan truly still appreciate the secular conservative view at all. As far as "hate," who hates whom in this debate is what I'm left to ponder. Not a dog in the fight, but the Gay community sure seems to hate organized religion more than it allegedly "hates" them.

Riehl World needs to step in to the real world.  First of all, it's silly to suggest hate crime laws are useless because we were gay bashed.  So I guess that means murder laws are useless, since homicides are a daily occurrence?  What's more, Andrew's comparison works because "Christianists" pose an indirect threat to gay Americans in a way very similar to "Islamists" in Europe. 

The seven Moroccan 20-somethings who spat on us and beat us up for holding hands weren't "radical Islamists."  They weren't hanging out on the streets of Amsterdam at 2 a.m. on Queen's Day because they were headed to the mosque for prayer.  They were the Islamic equivalent of our own rednecks: macho thugs who have absorbed the prejudices of their culture, which persist in large part because their own conservative religious leaders dress up the bigotry and legitimize it.

I'm not surprised to see conservative Christians freak out at the comparison with their hated Islamic foes. But when they regularly advocate the imposition of their own religious views in the law, the connection is more than well deserved.

I'd wager I've probably had as about as much "indoctrination," snark to any formalized religion as Crain himself, very little, I assume; though I have come to a personal comfort level with my own interpretation and relationship with a higher power I choose to call God through my life experience. Hell, there was a time when, in America, it could well have been me and some friends who kicked some guy's ass at 2 AM, not because he was or wasn't Gay, but because we were wasted and it was something to do.

I wasn't saved! I grew up! I came to appreciate that there is decency in having a broad appreciation for morals and values, family or otherwise, which, I'm sorry, America just happens to have plagiarized mostly from Judeo-Christian doctrine. THAT isn't anyone's fault. And it is the unending attempt by the Left to strip away morality, values, and a healthy respect for life as upheld in classic Judeo-Christian belief, that is running this country into the ground.

I didn't require a preacher, priest, or rabbi, or have to go to a church to figure that out - I figured it out from watching the evening news.

Hate Crimes laws are useless, as they are nothing more than proof that your society is not adequately addressing the actual physical assault (crime) which is taking place, whether one hates someone else, or not. They are the adding of purely cosmetic band aides, which do nothing to truly address the wound, with the added benefit, for the Left, of elevating some newly discovered, or now more vocal minority group to the growing list of endangered now sub-species, the conservative prefers to view as one: mankind. Crain has his hate crimes legislation in the Netherlands. It did him no good, as the underlying society is so increasingly morally corrupt. That's what beat you up, Crain - the very thing for which you campaign, you dope.

Crain, and the Left, cite thug-ism and waywardness as one root of evil, blame that on Religion - WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF AT ALL - because they either fear or detest religion, it's as simple as that. Yet, a not formally religious-ized conservative like myself sees the very values religion engenders as the only effective way to combat thug-ish-ness and waywardness in modern man, because I have observed it happen, time after time.

I have seen drunks plucked up from the street and criminals pulled out of prison and lifted up, not by social welfare programs, but with a spiritual growth-spurt encouraging them to come to some sense of themselves through an understanding of their own God. But the Left would prefer to take any sense of that value, that belief out of society, most directly through our schools, and replace it with metal detectors instead.

Apparently Crain, as Sullivan has become, is a one trick pony unable to view the world through anything but their special prism, commonly called being Gay, because they have embraced a fundamental tenet of neo-liberalism ... our group's so special, look at us! In that sense, those individuals really care only about themselves. I care about our society itself.

I could care less if Sullivan and Crain want to bugger about. But from their own fear and loathing they have come to view Christianity (really Judeo-Christian faith) as the single most powerful force in the world telling them they shouldn't be doing what they do. Deal with it, fellows. I, regrettably, still smoke. There are people who tell me I shouldn't. I don't really go on and on trying to paint them as fascists, religious or otherwise, with a broad brush.

The only explanation for their view on this issue is some personal psychological or family issue through which they came to resent religion. Too damned bad. Buck up. It provides a moral foundation we very much need in America. Stop trying to kill it off because you hurt.

Stop thinking you are so damned special and realize you are just one of us!

Stop trying to strip away every moral compunction, or life celebrating value in this world because it just happens to be rooted in Judeo-Christian thought, which, for personal reasons of which I care not, you obviously have come to detest.

Were the Left and its now affiliated minority groups to expend half the energy it does in shouting Look at me, I'm a fag, or a Black, or I'm fat! and direct that energy into constructive dialog around how to foster and retain the morals and values we require as a society to survive, I suspect, given time, the assorted members of your too many to here name special interest groups wouldn't find themselves being beat up on the streets at night.

And I doubt very much that's it's really happening at the hands of genuine church goin' folk now, Crain. It was 2 AM. I suspect for the most part, they were home in bed. Just curious, were you by any chance out catting about in what some might call a decadent slice of Netherlands night life you no doubt rejoiced in helping to bring about? Perhaps not, and I'm not suggesting it excuses the crime, though it might help to explain it.

Be careful what you wish for, Crain. One tremendous irony I have discovered in life, is that, when you get it, it can come back to kick your ass.

And, finally, I am not whatever it is you and Andy call a Christian-ist - just an average guy who sleeps too late for church, but at least possesses a modicum of common sense and concern for all aspects of the world outside, not just some self-identified make me special group. It's called political conservatism and has nothing directly to do with religion - read up on it if you are going to continue to call yourself one. The religionists are a lobby, just like you. How quaint and utterly ironic, don't you think?

Yglesias, Ackerman: Romney Versus The Muslim Brotherhood

Updated to clarify Y's link to Hot For TNR - my bad.

Let's remain objective here and only use mainstream sources, not Right-side blogs on the Muslim Brotherhood. Romney said this below at last night's debate:

We’ll move everything to get him. But I don’t want to buy into the Democratic pitch, that this is all about one person, Osama bin Laden. Because after we get him, there’s going to be another and another. This is about Shi’a and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate.

Matthew Yglesias attacks Romney and Republicans who allowed the comment to go unchallenged. He also responds with a defense of the Muslim Brotherhood and links to THFTNR calling Romney the Real Child of Hell:

To put it bluntly, the trouble here is that the Muslim Brotherhood just isn't a violent terrorist organization, and certainly doesn't commit acts of violence against the United States. It's an extremely traditionalist multinational civil society organization. It's true that a lot of violent types used to be in the Brotherhood and now they're in terrorist groups, but used to be is the key phrase here, they left the Brotherhood because the Brotherhood wouldn't sign on for their agenda. In one clause, Romney's just gone and broadened the war to include a huge new category of people who have no intention of waging war against the United States or even against Israel.

via the Washington Post:

The Brotherhood -- or al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, as it is known in Arabic -- is a sprawling and secretive society with followers in more than 70 countries. It is dedicated to creating an Islamic civilization that harks back to the caliphates of the 7th and 8th centuries, one that would segregate women from public life and scorn nonbelievers.

In some nations -- Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Sudan -- the Brotherhood has fomented Islamic revolution. In the Palestinian territories, the Brotherhood created the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which has become known for its suicide bombings of Israelis. Yet it is also a sophisticated and diverse organization that appeals to many Muslims worldwide and sometimes advocates peaceful persuasion, not violent revolt. Some of its supporters went on to help found al Qaeda, while others launched one of the largest college student groups in the United States.

Or read this take by an informed American Muslim:

The case for choosing from the lesser of two evils as the authors note in their reckless comparison of Qaradawi’s Islamism to Zawahri’s radical jihadism is certainly easy to make but sure folly.  Zawahiri and Al Qaeda are a military threat with a militant Islamist ideology which speaks to only the fringe and most radical Islamists in the Muslim community.  Qaradawi and the Brotherhood are actually far more dangerous ideologically to the West.  Their similarly Islamist message may, in fact, resonate with a far greater number of Muslims in the West and the East as evidenced by the millions of western Muslims engaged almost daily by satellite watching al-Qaradawi.  He and the Brotherhood at times speak of “justice”, “a middle ground” (wasatiya), democratic principles (voting and parliaments), and of women’s rights, among other attractive principles.

Qaradawi, is moreover for the record, clearly no moderate. He has defended the barbarity of female circumcision and terrorism in Israel and Iraq.  His duplicity on such issues demonstrates the inherent pathology of political Islam which will often even among supposed moderates sacrifice principle for the ends of Islamism.  Yet, the attraction of Qaradawi and his so-called ‘moderate Islamism’, is built upon a societal and governmental formula which is incompatible with American governance and Jeffersonian democracy as we know it. 

The Muslim Brotherhood is based upon a strictly Islamist approach to governance and law.  At the very core of their approach to the branches of government is a toxic mixture of politics and theology.  The toxicity of this mixture was foreseen by our forefathers who escaped religious persecution by the Church of England and sought to prevent it after 1789 years of the absence of liberty in the West.  No matter how “moderate” or “democratic” Islamists report their processes to be, it is still under the mandate and intellectual control of Islamic scholars of sharia law also known as the ulemaa.

In light of the, many would argue, more than fair WaPo analysis of the MB, re-visit what Romney said:

This is about Shi’a and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate.

Romney isn't advocating killing all Shi'a and Sunni simply because he mentioned them and his mention of a worldwide movement to undermine moderate governments is spot on. One's left to ponder, who better to protect America, with her laws, traditions and values, Romney and like-minded others, who seem to have a reasonable appreciation for the threat posed by radical Islam and are willing to speak out against it, or Liberal Democrats so obsessed with the fear of throwing the baby out with the bath water, we'd all be washing our feet before we pray in fifty years?

The liberals and Democrat's inability to comprehend the threat to American culture from even only a truly political form of radical Islam is the best reason there is to not trust them with the Executive Branch. Political power is the very tool radicals with no regard for Western values seek to exploit to bring our American form of republic down.

Blog Number 3537 At TTLB

There are about 5,000 blogs listed at TTLB If you click on 4501 - 5000 on the right sidebar, you'll be looking at blogs with fewer than 100 readers a day - many of them good - though many suck, I'm sure.

At 3000, you're looking at 154 hits a day. I can remember looking at my sitemeter - still not "huge" but good enough for me, and being miffed as I knew a majority of the visits that day were from me. It only takes a second to click and, trust me, it'll most likely be seriously appreciated by any blog you might hit.

I found one I appreciated at 3537 - a book review, burger and fries, some photos of old toys, a group of bloggers writing on what blogging means to them ... which, no offense or judgment, I stopped doing once I started to feel as though I were actually blogging things worthwhile to people other than myself and a small group of other bloggers. But that's a personal choice, not a judgment, as I said.

Start from the bottom up at the ecosystem sometime when you have a moment, click on a different or interesting sounding name ... you might like what you read.

I didn't read her profile, don't care to - but she has an interesting, well-written main page: Wifely Steps and appears to have been blogging for three years.

A Few Links

Did the media downplay the fact that al qaeda planned an assasination on the Veep? Didn't see much about it in he news.

Rules and discretion at the World Bank. Reports I've seen suggest something of a witch hunt on Wolfowitz.

Is the mask coming off China as a developing nation?

Lenin blinks ... from the great beyond.

Rice Meets With Syria

Condi met with the Syrian foreign minister and discussed the issue of border control between Syria and Iraq.

The NY Sun labeled the talks constructive, Iraq was said to be pressing for the talks, the Brits also met with the Iranian foreign minister. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Syria appears to be taking steps to slow the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq.

BUT ... while praising the meeting, the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister pointed out that intel suggests Syria is arming intensely.

Finally, one previously unknown member of the Syrian delegation, Sheik ALi-bash Bush Tancredi said he was genuinely interested in any helpful suggestions an American President might have to offer as regards serious border control.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - In a diplomatic turning point for the Bush administration, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Thursday with Syria's foreign minister and expressed U.S. concerns about the country's porous border with Iraq.

``I didn't lecture him and he didn't lecture me,'' Rice said after the first Cabinet-level talks in years between the countries.

Prospects dimmed for a more dramatic face-to-face discussion between Rice and Iran's foreign minister. ``We haven't planned and have not asked for a bilateral meeting, nor have they asked us,'' she said.

The administration has resisted talks with Syria and Iran despite the recommendations of allies, the Iraq Study Group and U.S. lawmakers from both parties.

``It's a start,'' Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said after the 30-minute session.

Should Paroled Pedophiles Be Paid To Watch Kiddie Porn?

A frightening thought for any parent, no doubt.

CALGARY (CP) - Carrie Kohan has experienced the dread of knowing a convicted pedophile was stalking her two-year-old daughter. It’s been nearly 10 years since an aggressive neighbour entered her home with the intention of grabbing her little girl.

Police warned her to keep her doors and windows locked and to watch her daughter carefully. Fear eventually drove her to move away and into hiding for five years to get away from the man who already had three convictions for sexually assaulting children.

"Even now everything’s unlisted. I have to stay totally under the radar, and it’s something I have to stay conscious of every single day," Kohan, the founder of Mad Mothers Against Pedophiles, said Thursday.

So, given that child predators are often re-offenders, is it really a smart idea to take some number of them and pay them to look at kiddie porn, in some cases, when they are on parole, in the name of research?

Nearly 300 sex offenders, including some pedophiles on parole, will be paid to study computer images of children and discuss their sexual and emotional reactions, as part of a joint university study.

The joint project, by professors at the universities of Lethbridge and Toronto, has outraged a victims' rights group, which say taking part in research that might prevent future victims should be an obligation of sex offenders, "not a job."

At least 250 subjects will be recruited in Ontario, through corrections officials, parole officers, hospitals, clinics and provincial police to participate in the study, which begins this month.

The men will be paid $60 for two to three hours' work. During that time, their sexual and emotional reactions to photos and video images of children and adults will be assessed by a team of researchers in a lab.