Praise Allah

Allah Pundit, I mean. He's guest blogging at Michelle Malkin's.

How To Win Friends and Influence People (Not)

Michelle Malkin has all the gory details.

Flight 93 Film to Open

United 93, opens April 28. Trailer and an interview with the director here (under video). It looks good. On one hand, I want to see it. On the other hand...Is it something I really want to relive? And relive way more intensely than the first time? I got a little choked up just watching the trailer. (via Libertas)

"Blasphemy is a Victimless Crime"

My favorite slogan from the London Freedom of Speech rally. Perry de Havilland has a report and pictures.

Pachyderms in the Mist

I just discovered the Washington Post's new conservative blog, Red America. It was just launched yesterday, but it looks pretty good. The best part is the hysterical comments from the lefties. Yes, shouting down a one-day-old blog is obviously the best way to demonstrate your commitment to tolerance. You'd think they'd want to keep an eye on what we're up to out here in Red America, but apparently not.

And I love the way they're all after the blogger for being young. Because it is a well-known axiom of liberal thought that with age come wisdom and the young should respect the hard-earned knowledge of their elders.

Fun For The Kids

Zombie's latest photo-essay just gave me a great idea for Mia's next birthday party. We've done Winnie-the-Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine. Next year maybe we'll try an Anarchist-themed party.

There'll be fun hats:
Games:

Party favors:

Oh yeah. We're going to fit in great on the cul-de-sac.

(Via Ace of Spades)

More Silly Educrats

Here's a story about a six-year-old girl who was given a two-day in-school detention for, well, nothing as far as I can tell. At recess, she collected a bunch of clover, rocks and dirt in a plastic bag and her teacher thought it was a bag of weed. Of course, it wasn't, but if she hadn't been given the detention, the teacher would have had to admit she was mistaken and we can't have that.

The worst part is that the kid probably learned this dirt collecting behavior at school. Last fall, Mia came home from preschool with a bag full of leaves and acorns she picked up on a "Nature Walk." I believe this is a fairly common project for little kids.

Update: It gets worse:

Police and school leaders in Sikeston say the case involving a 6-year-old girl and a bag of dirt needs to be taken seriously.

"If she would have been 14, we would have been arrested her and taken her to jail.” Sgt. Shirley Porter said.

Well, 14-year-olds don't typically collect sticks and dirt in plastic bags. Six-year-olds do. Do these people have no concept of context?

The reason she could have been arrested: "passing even a fake drug is illegal." So I can be busted for borrowing a cup of sugar from the neighbor, if someone else mistakes it for cocaine? That what they're saying. Hopefully, that's not what they mean.

Some more wisdom from Officer Porter: “Education starts at home. As parents they need to teach your child about drugs. Teach them about everyday things of life."

And if drugs aren't part of your everyday life?

Officer Porter on small children: "They are smarter than you think, we don't give them never as much credit as we need give them because they are really smart individuals."

Well, she may have a point here. They may very well be smarter than Officer Porter.

Accused Terrorist?

Just heard on Weekend Edition: "Accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui..." What do you have to do to be considered an actual terrorist? Apparently pleading guilty to "conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, to commit aircraft piracy, to destroy aircraft, to use weapons of mass destruction, to murder U.S. employees and to destroy property" isn't quite enough.

Shouldn't he be"confessed terrorist?" Or even "aspiring terrorist?" "Failed terrorist?" "Terrorist hopeful?"

Not A History Teacher, I Hope

A teacher protesting John Stossel's Stupid in America special informs us:

"Public schools are what distinguish democracies from every other system in the world," and a country without strong public schools "lends itself to authoritarian thinking."

Tell it to the Germans. That free, compulsory education the Prussians introduced in the 18th century really produced a lot of independent, free-thinkers, didn't it?

(Via Spunky Homeschool)

Hollywood's Number 1 Neo-Con

Did you see this Max Boot op-ed:

Congratulations on that best supporting actor Oscar you picked up last week. I couldn't be happier for you. Not only because I admire your Cary Grant-esque panache but because I admire your politics. As an advocate of a hawkish but high-minded foreign policy, I can't find much to cheer about in Hollywood, but you, my friend, consistently deliver. Dare I say it — you're the No. 1 neocon in Never Never Land.

Fun piece and it illustrates why so many (former) liberals were able to vote for Bush in '04. (via Libertas)

New Villain On the Scene

Looks like television writers have finally realized that neo-nazi's aren't the scariest bad guys out there. They are finally turning their attention to a truly heinous group that actually strikes fear in the hearts of all Americans. Yes, that's right... the civilian border patrol.

Fictional border patrol groups were the decoy villain on Numbers last week and the actual villain on Law and Order last night. Shouldn't the Minute Men have to commit a crime before they replace skinheads as the villain of choice?

Obsession

This documentary looks interesting: Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West. There's a trailer, interviews and whatnot on the website.

From Emmett Tyrrell's review:

"Obsession,” is one of the most riveting films I have seen about the roots of the struggle the civilized world now faces. The film establishes that those roots are in fundamentalist readings of the Koran, but it adds another seedbed, Nazism. In the 1930s, though Osama bin Laden’s forbearers were not Aryans they were welcomed to Germany by the Fuhrer. His agents visited them in the Middle East. Both proclaimed the same goal, the elimination of the democratic West and the Jews.

Hope I get to see it before it's banned in the name of "responsible" free speech. (Via Libertas)

Is It Possible To Have To Many Books?

If you're moving the answer is "Hell, yes." The scary thing is that, recently, I've really tried to restrain myself from buying books for Mia. Yet I don't know how many boxes of kids books I've toted out of here. Brian tried to get annoyed with me, but when I pointed out the milk crates full of all of his lecture notes from college, he shut up.

Pack rats should either live in the same house until they die, or move every two years to prompt a general decluttering.

New House, New Ways To Die

So we were taking a few boxes over to the new house tonight and Mia was having a blast running around the still unfurnished family room. The stairs to the basement are in the family room. From the kitchen I hear "I jump down now," then THUD, then crying. Yes, my child tried to jump down the stairs.

Perhaps this is what comes from growing up in a ranch-style house. Perhaps it's time to break out the Ritalin.

Anyway, she was fine. Luckily she went feet first and landed on her bottom about 5 (carpeted) steps from the top. But it could have been ugly. I pleaded with her to never do that again. The DCFS people would never believe she intentionally jumped down the stairs.

The Individual vs. The Collective

Paul Belien says the Anti-Jihad Manifesto misses the mark when it pits democrats against theocrats. He says:

The battle that is being waged today is a battle between those who defend the right of individuals against the right of collectivities.

The Islamists and the secularists (including the priests and bishops among them) have more in common than the Islamists and the Christians (including the agnostics among them), because the latter acknowledge that at the heart of Christianity is the individual with his individual responsibility before God. Without Christianity, individual responsibility would not have become the centre of European civilization.

This is an excellent point and goes a long way towards explaining how the Left can find common cause with the Islamists.