Kerfuffles

There is one good thing to say about the Westboro Baptist Church. It is that this wicked and despicable organization spews its creed of hatred in public where all can see it as the den of evil that it is. Another quasi-good thing to say is that the church is not affiliated with any larger respectable denomination and has been able to attract as members only the children, grandchildren and in-laws of its founder, Fred Phelps. Phelps flagrantly appends the honorific “Reverend” to his name, which demonstrates the definition of oxymoron. And speaking of “moron”, everyone in this church is one. Not only that, they are all seriously mentally ill. Only the truly sick would protest at soldiers’ funerals (Sky News Video). Westboro Baptist Church is proof that Satan exists and that he is always abroad trying to destroy Christ’s Church by infesting the hearts and minds of moral weaklings.

“Stop the ACLU” has posted about some new federal legislation in the works to bring some relief to grieving families of fallen soldiers in the Midwest who are targeted by this hateful group. Of course, the ACLU will be their legal defenders. Nothing new in that.

Place de la Nation, Paris, France, March 18, 2006 - 18:41
The photographer describes this photograph as “due to outside provocators, the anti-CPE demonstration turned violent and a car has just been burnt (right of the frame). In addition, protesters have just thrown some kind of “bombs” (not sure how to call them), giving that pink glow to the smoke.”

UPDATE: “Girl With a Movie Camera” who has left a comment here filmed the Paris demonstration: The Video Until the youths began torching vehicles, they looked like a civilized and lovely bunch; the antithesis of the “Moonbats on Parade” that we see here during U.S. demonstrations. (Both “Expose the Left” and “JunkYardBlog” have video of the American Moonbats.) The stunning photograph above is from -

DEMONSTRATIONS is a photo story of the March 18th, 2006 demonstration in Paris against a new labour law passed by the government despite a majority of the French population being against it.

This law, backed by French PM Dominique de Villepin, will create a new form of two-year contract (the infamous CPE, First Employment Contract) for under-26-year-olds which employers can break off at any time without explanation.

Half of France’s universities are now under some form of strike or occupation. The protests of March 18th, all across the country, were joined not only by students but by their families.

Unfortunately, as is too often the case, the end of the day was spoiled by 100 to 150 “casseurs” (lit. “breakers”) who provoked the riot police throwing bottles, stones and finally burning down a car.

After the unrest and riots in the suburbs last year, this is reflecting the growing uneasiness and despair of the youth about the lack of opportunities, and their desillusion towards the politicians.

More than 20% of 18 to 25-year-olds are unemployed (double the national average) and among the poorest communities, it reaches 40%.

The image, March 18, 2006 - 18:41, was originally uploaded by Hugo (looking for his pink elephant). It is posted here from

Linked at Don Surber’s “France Hates Capitalism”.

Perhaps hearing the news or reading the blogs, such as “Wizbang”, you just may be thinking that our own United States Navy fighting pirates upon today’s high seas is a new twist. Think again. President TJ - Thomas Jefferson had his own “War on Terror” and he birthed the American Navy for just such a mission - swashbuckling the Barbary Pirates. There’s really nothing new - it has been a long, long sludge of a war, and the days of America’s Naval forces swashbuckling the evil buccaneers has not yet ended. Go Navy!

Happy Birthday Marines: “The Marines performed with honor at the first war proclaimed by our new nation. In 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president, he refused to accede to the Barbary pirates of Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. This refusal brought about the first ‘war’ the U.S. would fight as a country. The first line of the Marine hymn, ‘from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli’, references the 600-mile march across the Libyan Desert of a group of Navy men and others to capture the port city of Derna, Tripoli. It took a concerted effort by England, France, Spain, and the United States to end over 400 years of Muslim piracy on the Barbary Coast.”

“Arrrhhh and Avast!” The blogging pirate at “Pirate’s Cove” longing for the bygone days of the now beloved Carolina pirates, is bemoaning that the Somalian johnny-come-lately horde of black-hearts is diluting the pirate gene pool with stupidity DNA. Consider this from “The Virginian Pilot”:

The incident occurred in international waters, about 25 nautical miles off the central eastern coast of the troubled east African nation. Why the men opened fire is unclear, but their decision to take on Navy ships in a 30-foot fishing boat was “not too smart at all,” said Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, a Fifth Fleet spokesman in Bahrain. “If somebody shoots at us, they can pretty much expect to die because we will return fire,” Breslau said by telephone. Breslau could recall no other instance in which pirates had fired on Navy ships in that area.