Crazy Headline

Is this bias? Or stupidity?

The headline referring to Bush's speech on Iraq strategy, carps in the most ridiculous way possible:

Bush offers no date for Iraq victory
ANNAPOLIS, United States (AFP) - President George W. Bush sought to overcome mounting worries about his Iraq war strategy, but would not set a date for a US pullout, warning that victory requires "time and patience."

This is almost too boggling even to analyze.

Note the petulance, and ironic lack of patience, in childishly demanding a date for victory, as if that were ever possible.

Note also the equating of victory with pullout, which is either naive, or a deliberate attempt to create a meme that conflates the two in an Orwellian sense, as a declared pullout date is really a defeat.

It's beyond parody.

Giving Thanks

Let us be thankful for all that is Good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wages of Illegals

Interesting post at Bernoulli Effect that looks at just how much those so-called "indispensible" low-wage illegal workers are to the farming economy:

Defenders of archaic work methods are just defending their comfortable niche; they never look at the big picture. Would produce cost more if there were no illegals to harvest it? Maybe or maybe not--newer, more efficient methods of getting the crop in might well be used; and think of the offsetting savings to be gained by eliminating the drain on our public school and public health systems.
...
So as Mark points out, raising the wages of the harvesters by 40 percent would result in only an eight dollar a year increase in the grocery bill of an average family. And it could quite possibly be less than that if productivity improvements are made.

It always amazed me how the left would essentially support exploitation of the workers at sub-par wages. Artificially low wages are not cost-free, and, as the above apparently demonstrates, not all that advantageous even in the short run.

We need a fence!

We Need A Fence

This organization states the obvious.

We need a fence!

Excerpts from a recent USA Today article:

Even at the Homeland Security Department, which opposes building a border-long fence, Secretary Michael Chertoff this fall waived environmental laws so that construction can continue on a 14-mile section of fence near San Diego that has helped border agents stem the flow of illegal migrants and drug runners.

"You have to be able to enforce your borders," says California Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He's proposing a fence from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. "It's no longer just an immigration issue. It's now a national security issue."

Colin Hanna of weneedafence.com says "there is incredible momentum on this issue," fueled by the specter of another Sept. 11. His group aired TV ads in Washington, D.C., this fall and plans more next year.

Depp

I was going to post this Friday, but now it's at LGF, so many of you have probably already seen it, but it's just so delicious I'm still going to post it here anyway.

Remember how two years ago, Johnny Depp decided he couldn't bear to live in American anymore?

"America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive," he said.

"My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy."

So, he moved to France.

How's that working out for you, Johnny?

D'oh!

DEPP: 'I CAN'T STAY IN RIOT-RAVAGED FRANCE'
JOHNNY DEPP is so shocked by the riots raging through France, he's considering abandoning his home in the country.
...
"I went there (to France) to live because it seemed so simple.

"Now it's anything but. I don't know how they'll recover from this."

Where ya gonna go, Johnny?

How about Sweden?

Few areas in Sweden are worse hit by the current troubles than Malmö, the nation's third largest city. According to some estimates, the rapidly growing Muslim immigrant population may turn Malmö into a Muslim majority city within about ten years. It will be the first major Scandinavian city to enjoy this honor, although perhaps not the last. Native Swedes are leaving the city in droves, as crime is rampant and the police publicly admit they don't control all parts of the city. There are now gangs in Malmö specialized in assaulting old people visiting the graves of relatives. Robberies have increased with 50 % in Malmö only during the fall of 2004. The city is descending into general chaos. Fights in the city's movie theatres have become a recurrent problem. Numbers released in January 2005 indicate a sharp rise in the number of rape charges in Malmö. Thomas Anderberg, responsible for statistics at the Malmö Police, says there was a doubling of the number of reported rapes by ambush in 2004, following what was already a decade of steadily increasing numbers of sexual crimes.

...

Starting from the fall of 2005, the district of Hyllie will begin education in Arabic only for groups of immigrant preschool children. The idea is that once the children learn the language of their parents, it will become easier for them to learn Swedish as well. So the Swedish state paying for educating Swedish citizens on Swedish ground in Arabic is somehow supposed to increase integration. On the other hand, perhaps being good dhimmis and teaching in Arabic can stop one of the latest fads in Sweden: Burning schools. At least 139 schools in Sweden suffered arson attacks during 2002 alone. Such as a recent incident in Malmö, where three schools were put on fire during one night.

Norway?

Two out of three charged with rape in Norway's capital are immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. The number of rape cases is also rising steadily.
...
While 65 percent of those charged with rape are classed as coming from a non-western background, this segment makes up only 14.3 percent of Oslo's population. Norwegian women were the victims in 80 percent of the cases, with 20 percent being women of foreign background.

Gee, I wonder who those "immigrants" could be.