Kerfuffles

Well for one reason - we may just save the Easter Bunny this year from being gunned down.

Have you read the Congressional Record for September 20, 1961? The whole thing? Well, if you have not and are unaware of what was happening on that particular day of the long and threatening Cold War, when America and the free world were fighting godless communism, you can find an eye-opening synopsis at Stop The ACLU. You will learn that the two co-founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Roger Baldwin and Crystal Eastwood, were both confessed socialists. Dr. Harry Ward, the first chairman of the ACLU, had links to more than 200 Communist Party affiliations. As Kerfuffles has learned after many, many decades of living in these United States of America, whenever an organization has the word “American” in their official name - WATCH OUT! It very often means the group is anything but. It merely forgets to place that “UN” before the word in the hope that it can appear to be something other than what it truly is - UN-American!

The Pope Was Out to Get Him …

Even if it were true, who could blame the pontif as Michael Schiavo was one mean man. That same man remains full of venom as his new book reveals. Mean man Michael Schiavo now wants America to listen to his side of the story. Trouble is, he told his story one year ago with his shabby treatment of the mother and family members of his handicapped wife, culminating with his final act of disrespect and revenge with disposal of the sacred remains of their dead daughter.

Mr Schiavo’s account says:“A religious zealot offered $250,000 to anyone who would kill me. My two babies were threatened with death. I was condemned by the president, the majority leaders of the House and Senate, the governor of Florida, the Pope, and the rightwing media, all because I was doing what Terri - the woman I loved - wanted.”

I blogged about this extensively one year ago, in hope of preserving the sanctity of human life for our nation. Although the life of Terri was not valued by the state of Florida, I still stand by my writings for life, which you may still read. Michael Schiavo remains one mean man!

Terri Schiavo Remembered

"When is this war going to end? Is this a civil war? Do you have a timetable? Are the British winning?"
George Washington and the Patriots have been there and done that. Unfortunately they are no longer with us. The cartoon is by Michael Ramirez, "Investor’s Business Daily", www.investors.com/cartoons (Thanks Laurie!) Linked at "The Fix Talks Back".

“Conversion a thorny issue in Muslim world” By Rachel Morarjee and Dan Murphy

That headline from “The Christian Science Monitor” wins as today’s most "understated" reporting from the Mainstream Media. Just imagine for one moment that Christians were tracking down baptised and christened self-proclaimed atheists and beheading them in the town square, or that Christian converts to Islam were being hanged upon the gallows, or that Christians were executing their own family members for being apostates. Does anyone with a brain think that American newspapers would be referring to those happenings as “Conversion a thorny issue in Christian world?”

Come on now Kerfuffles, it could have been worse you say. Look on the bright side. At least they did NOT write: "Conversion a ’sticky wicket’ in Muslim world". TGFSF At least "The Christian Science Monitor" tells up upfront about the so-called mainstream Muslims:

Most mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence call for converts to be executed. Though the Koran promises only hellfire for apostates and also says "there should be no compunction in religion,'’ Islamic jurists have typically argued that execution is mandated, citing stories of comments made by the prophet Muhammad. "The prophet Muhammad said that anyone who rejects Islam for another religion should be executed," said Mr. Mawlavezada, the judge.

As they say, "fair is fair" And "just" too, I might add. Non-Muslims should TGFSF.

Linked at Wizbang’s "Abdul Rahman Seeks Asylum" and Mudville Gazette’s Open Post.

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah is wondering where Abdul Rahman is, now that he has been spared the executioner’s axe for converting to Christianity. 

Eat your heart out Larry Summers. You should have hired this guy as your media consultant and you could still be working at Harvard. In 2001, Laurence H. Summers was working at Harvard University and Rehmatullah Hashmi was working for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Fast forward to 2006 and Larry Summers is out of a job because of his so-called insensitivity to women and Rehmatullah Hashmi is at Yale University. (“An Aspirin for Larry Summers”)

Life in Afghanistan 2001 | A Taliban official
Taliban official Rehmatullah Hashmi, from the Taliban’s foreign ministry, shows a book conficsated from the International Assistance Mission, IAM. Eight foreign aid workers have been arrested and are on trial on charges of preaching Christianity.

New York Times. September 7, 2001. p. A1.

Afghans Present Aid Team’s Sins, Complete With Theology Lesson By BARRY BEARAK, ABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 6

The news conference came on the third day of closed-door court proceedings for eight foreign aid workers accused of preaching Christianity, a crime that the Taliban have suggested may bring them the death penalty. Mr. Muttawakil used the news conference to display what he called more evidence of Christian evangelism: confiscated Bibles in local languages, audio tapes and videos.

“O.K., turn it on,” said Rehmatullah Hashmi, a foreign ministry official. A television set — itself a forbidden thing — brightened into life. A movie called “Jesus” appeared, its narrator extolling “the good news of the Virgin Mother and the Savior’s birth.” Soon, a young Jesus was on screen asking precocious questions of startled rabbis.

“That’s enough,” said Mr. Hashmi, who tried some levity to accompany the grave accusations. “We have to put it off. Otherwise, we will also be proselytizing.”

He then held up various items, including a children’s book with Bible lessons on flash cards. “These books say Jesus Christ was the son of God,” Mr. Hashmi patiently explained. “We don’t believe this. We believe Jesus was a prophet but not the son of God.”

(Part 1)
Where, Oh Where Is Stefan Erikssen? - With no car registration, no driver’s license and no red Enzo, can he still be in “California Dreaming”?

If you be a-wondering whatever happened to that California Swedish ex-convict, Stefan Erikssen, the last I read is that he was cruising around Mexico on the missing yacht and that no one, including the police, was particularly concerned with his whereabouts, saying that his normal habitat ranges from Sweden to the UK to California, according to Pepperdine University’s “Graphic”. Erikssen is the fabulously rich playboy whose red Enzo sports car spectacularly split in two on the Coastal Highway near Malibu. The driver and suspected Ferrari Enzo murderer, mysteriously ran off into the Malibu hills, leaving Erikssen, the owner of the car who just so happened to be a “passenger”, virtually uninjured.

Enzo Ferrari Mystery

No one has been charged with any law violations in the accident, as the Ferrari was airborne at the time it came in for a landing on the famous highway. Tragically for the flying car, it “undershot” the roadway and returned to earth in front of a utility pole which split the car in half. Miraculously, passenger/owner Erikssen walked away with only a scratch on his mouth. Law enforcement continues to search the Malibu bush for the “runaway” driver, while at the same time researching California law to find if any charges can be brought when a $1 million sports car turns into an airplane. To date, police officials have found no laws that were violated, proclaiming that California highways were originally designed for the more mundane vehicles that stay earthbound, such as Fords and Chevys.

The dedicated playboy car, the Ferrari Enzo, is a limited-edition vehicle, designed by its manufacturer with 650 horsepower, reaching cruising speeds up to 225 mph. The company owners have been terribly embarrassed that their flagship sportscar became an airborne spaceship at the relatively poky speed of 163 mph. Their chagrin has been heightened by the fact that the Italian engineered vehicle came apart like a sack of potatoes. Yet, they have found cause for optimism, bragging that “the passenger-safety system alone is worth $1 million, for it most obviously performed well”

Supposed owner Stefan Erikssen was not at all concerned about losing his red Enzo Ferrari because he has another, a black Enzo. However he was quite concerned about becoming Ferrari’s poster boy and living testament to Ferrari automobile safety innovations, as Mr. Erikssen prefers to live his life in the shadows, rather than the glint and gleam of infamy.

When the Enzo first came upon the market the list price was more than $650,000, however a super-rich playboy could not just walk into a showroom and plunk down the cash. No, this car was so special, that if one were not a really important VIP, such as a Pope, one was required to already own a Ferrari. Now that the car is no longer being made, it has become a collectors’ item, usually fetching over $1 million on the used car market. The Malibu loss sadly leaves the Southern California community of Enzos with but fifteen remaining in the entire region.

The Twists and Turns of Stefan Erikssen and his Ferraris

(Part 2)

Enzo aficionados and dealers grouse privately that Erikssen was an serial abuser of such Ferraris. Because the automobiles are such rare jewels, they should not be driven on the roadways where they come into contact with the riff-raff vehicles of working men and women. An Enzo Ferrari should not be driven at all, as it exists for the prestige of ownership not for transportation. The sports car should not even be raced, as everyone already knows how fast it can go. One buys this car for its status. One owns an Enzo to show the world that one can afford the latest thing, or that one has an ‘in’ with a Ferrari dealer, or that one is a mobster.

Of course, everyone knows that in Erikssen’s case, he did not really own the Ferrari as it was in the process of being repossessed, but that is neither here nor there. The super-rich are different, as any taxpaying Honda driver can tell you. Enzo Ferrari owners can tool about Beverly Hills in their unregistered and unrepossessed vehicles and no police officer would dare be so brazen as to ask for proof of anything upon noticing the lack of California tags. They drive without California drivers’ licenses, and when they are finally found out, the police release them so they can take their yachts out on cruises. When the breathalyzer registers their alcohol level as intoxicated, as it did with Erikssen, they can claim, without raising an eyebrow, to not be the driver, even when their own blood is found upon the deployed driver’s side airbag. This is because they have access to the scores of Beverly Hills attorneys who specialize in “DWI Not by Alcohol” cases. “DWINBA” lawyers are skilled in proving beyond a reasonable doubt that merely sitting behind the wheel of such an awesome vehicle, just knowing that you control the power to go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, that you can take off from standing still to 100 mph and come to a full stop in just 10 seconds, causes immediate intoxication in anyone, even teetotalers and, most importantly, even jurors and judges.

Although the crashed Enzo that Stefan Erikssen does “not” own looks destroyed, the Ferrari factory says that it can rebuild the vehicle to its former splendor for a mere $200,000 to $300,000. Since that would put the repaired car into the buying range of the non-super-rich, Erikssen does not want it back. A Bugatti dealer, Ehren Bragg, has revealed that the Californian-Swede has a Veyron on order. Veyron, the car world’s new top dog, arrives this year from France, claiming 1,001 horsepower from 16 cylinders, a top speed over 250 mph and a sticker-shocker price of $1.2 million. Erikssen claims that he is just doing his part to save the environment. By exporting the vehicle from France, there will be one less car available for the Paris youths to burn and explode for fireworks, he explains.

USATODAY.com - Super-rich driving ’supercar’ market

French is Not the “Lingua Franca”. English Is!

The French had their opportunity for greatness, but blew it. Instead of building on the original language of business, the ancient Lingua Franca, they destroyed it so that their beloved French would, they hoped, conquer all tongues and the world become one great Francophony.

Lingua Franca came into being during the middle ages as a trade language used by traders, crusaders and various communities around the Mediterranean to negotiate and communicate with each other while conducting business. Sometime in the nineteenth century the language completely disappeared with nary a trace, at the exact same time that the French language ascended as the preferred tongue of the erudite. Speakers of French sneered at Lingua Franca for being too easy - a language of simpletons, much as they treat the English language of today. Until the French stealthily massacred Lingua Franca, it served as a highly efficient means of communication, a kind of pidgin language with a limited vocabulary and simple grammar. It lacked endless verb tenses and inflected case endings, which left the French speakers in a highly distressed state of anxiety when they were forced to listen its spoken words. It never evolved into a written language, mainly so as not to enflame French sensibilities even more. Nevertheless, Lingua Franca was just too easy to learn and to understand, so it had to be destroyed to make way for the much more evolved, yet barely comprehensible French language.

Now that English has become the Lingua Franca of the world’s business community, the French, under the glorious leadership of Jacques Chirac, have once again engaged themselves in the Battle of the Linguas. Although they are doomed to lose, they fight on, for as the world knows well, the French never give up the fight when it is civilized and bloodless.

Chirac vows to fight growing use of English:
Jacques Chirac pledged yesterday to fight the spread of the English language across the world as he defended his decision to walk out of an EU summit after a French business leader abandoned his mother tongue.

“We fight for our language,” President Chirac said of the French walkout on Thursday when Ernest-Antoine Seillière, the French head of the European employers’ group Unice, addressed the summit in “the language of business”.

Mr Chirac added: “I was profoundly shocked to see a Frenchman express himself in English at the table.”

Francophones forever - fight on, fight on for the “égalité, complémentarité, and solidarité”. Man the barricades for La Francophony and all the glory be to the great leader, Jacques Chirac.

He was so SHOCKED, SHOCKED to hear another Frenchman speaking the disgusting foreign tongue of English, that he had to leave the room. If only President Jacques Chirac could be as shocked to hear himself use his own forked French tongue to lash out at leaders of non-Francophone lands, perhaps he would leave the world stage - for once and for all!

“The Hindu”, Brussels: French President Jacques Chirac led a French walkout from the opening session of the E.U.’s annual spring summit on Thursday night when a fellow Frenchman committed the grave offence of speaking English.

Highlighting France’s acute sensitivity towards the decline of the language which once dominated the E.U., Mr. Chirac led three Senior Ministers out of the talks when Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, French head of the European employers’ group Unice, abandoned his mother tongue on the ground that English is “the language of business.'’

Mr. Chirac quickly packed up his paper airplanes and spitballs and ceremoniously fled the chamber, dragging both his Foreign Minister and Finance Minister by the scruffs of their still intact necks. Gallic pride was soon restored when the Chiracistas finally found a French businessman who had never learned English, nor any other foul and foreign tongue, and they commanded this particular ignoramus to address the meeting in pure and unadulterated French or face the guillotine. At the restoration of his most favored lingo, Mr. Chirac haughtily returned, accompanied by his lackey Ministers.

The meeting had been between France and Germany who are at loggerheads over the economic future of Europe, and no English speaking states were present. Besides, the British who do not consider themselves to be European, could not care less about the economic future of Europe. Recollecting that the Germans and French used to constantly fight, with the Germans always victorious, it was believed that English would be a more neutral and less offensive language in which to communicate. Everyone would be able to understand each other, because, after all, everyone understands English. However, the French saw communication as a one way street - if one is not a Francophone, one has nothing of value to communicate. It came to pass, because few other than the French could really understand what was being said, that the infamous French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, pledged to support “economic patriotism” and named eleven French business sectors which would henceforth and forevermore be protected from any foreign bidders who speak with foreign tongues.

French is NOT the Lingua Franca - English is!

Dymphna at “Gates of Vienna” reports that in response to Chirac, other European leaders shrugged off his attempt to defend French pride. Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, a staunch Francophile, said “Europe has other worries and it’s a waste of time to have responded to such questions“.

The Battle of El Alamein: 23 October - 5 November, 1942
‘’Before Alemein we never had a victory. After Alemein we never had a defeat.” ~~Winston Churchill

As I was reading about Prince Charles and Camilla’s emotional visit to an Egyptian cemetery as reported in the BBC NEWS | UK | Camilla in emotional WWII tribute, I was struck at the bravery of the generation of my parents, and most people’s grandparents and great grandparents. Wonderment it is that their bravery and courage genes did not pass down to the generations of today’s British diaspora.

After the Duchess of Cornwall laid flowers at the graves of her father’s comrades in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery on Egyptian soil, she said “I’ve got a huge lump in my throat.” Her own father, still living, Major Bruce Shand, had been wounded and captured in the aftermath of that 1942 battle.

I got a huge lump in my own throat when I read further of the 7,367 tombstones and a memorial bearing the names of 11,874 soldiers and airmen whose remains were never found. The twelve day battle that ensued around the desert village of El Alamein claimed 23,500 UK and Commonwealth soldiers’ lives (*note), according to the BBC.

One twelve day battle and 23,500 men killed defending their free lands. No free land would allow that to happen today. No free land values freedom as much as did their forebears. Wonderment it is that desire to preserve freedom has so waned in the passing of the sixty-four years since 1942.

*(note) I noted that the 23,500 number given by the BBC varies with numbers given by other sites. Sad it is that after sixty-four years, history has forgotten the real cost in lives of the battle. Another British Site gives the number of British and Commonwealth casualties as 13,500, and states that during the El Alamein campaign half of the enemy’s 100,000 man army was killed, wounded or taken prisoner. An Australian Military Site gives the 13,500 number as killed, wounded or missing from the 8th Army and it adds that the 9th Australian Division casualties totaled 2,694, including 620 dead, 1944 wounded and 130 taken prisoner. Yet if the graves in the El Alamein cemetery number more than 20,000, as stated in the BBC article, perhaps the BBC figures are closer to the correct number of the slain. Whatever the true number be, Freedom is one precious commodity.

Linked at Don Surber’s “Best of Sunday” and Mudville Gazette’s Open Post.

Conservatives have come to love the White House Press Corps’ Helen Thomas ever since she was inducted into “The Crazy Aunts in the Attic Society”. (Illustration of the Induction Ceremony) On July 28th, 2005, she was awarded membership in the infamous organization after her interview appearing in “The Hill”, a newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress. Helen Thomas told the newspaper that she would promptly kill herself if Vice President Dick Cheney were to ever even run for the office of President. Although some Americans have threatened to leave for Canada or Europe at the elections of certain political figures, never before in American history has anyone been so politically passionate as to kill one’s self because of an unelected candidate. Ms. Thomas revealed herself to The Hill News saying: “The day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I’ll kill myself. All we need is one more liar.” Needless to say, many conservatives responded “why wait until then?” However, everyone knew that those partisans were merely concerned with the speculation that Mr. Cheney will never be a candidate.

It was about this point in time that the White House removed the “so-called” reporter to the back row of the press briefing room and no longer called upon her for questions. It was believed that move was a consequence of the veteran journalist’s constant criticism of President Bush, such as calling him a “Texas cowboy”. That “Texas cowboy” phrase should have given her away, as everyone knows that you don’t mess with Texas and live to tell any tales. Even though journalists know that Americans love and admire cowboys, most of the MSM swallowed hook, line and sinker, the bait of evil genius Karl Rove. Few realized that Helen Thomas was in fact working hand in glove with Mr. Rove and President Bush in exchange for the privilege of living in the White House attic, rent-free, with all the honorifics accruing to such a prestigious address. Helen Thomas, in recognition of her White House Attic residency status, was awarded the title of “Grand Auntie Kleagle” by the “National Crazy Aunts in the Attic Society”.

Grand Auntie Kleagle Helen Thomas was able to reward her beloved President George W. Bush and evil genius Karl Rove, when on 21 March 2006, she took the President’s lead when he called upon her, and demonstrated to the world the partisanship of almost the entire White House Press Corps, and the American MSM took the bait and revealed themselves as the jackasses they are - Democrats.

Linked at Scrapple Face.