Out on a limb at Mike Lief.com

Mexico is well on its way to becoming a failed state, thanks in small measure to its hostility to free-market capitalism, but mostly because of the corrosive and corrupting impact of the billions of dollars in drug money, cash that buys off privates and generals, beat cops and police chiefs -- and funds the assassins that murder public servants and journalists who refuse to sell their souls to the cartels.

It's nice to know that U.S. law enforcement agencies are sharing intel with the Mexican authorities -- as well as their paymasters, too.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 14, 2009

Good dog

National Review's Jonah Goldberg called this "your pick-me-up for the day."

He wasn't kidding; it's a nice antidote for the deeply depressing video below.

Posted by Mike Lief at 01:16 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 13, 2009

This is how the West dies

I linked to this video in this morning's post about Mark Steyn, but you really need to see it for yourself. It made my blood boil.

I can't decide who makes me more furious: the Muslims who chase the police, yelling, "Allahu Akhbar!" and "Run, you f#*king cowards!", or the police, who allow the mob to hurl traffic cones at them and don't even stop their headlong flight to administer a well-deserved beating to these thugs.

The streets of London bear witness to Britain's shame. There is a war being fought on the streets of Western cities; this video is proof that England has already lost.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

What happens when a victim is too believable?

At the conclusion of an American jury trial, the judge reads the instructions -- CALCRIMS in California -- spelling out the elements of the crime, the rules governing the deliberations process, and how the jurors should approach their task.

Several instructions deal with witness credibility. One tells jurors that they are the only judges of the credibility of witnesses; it is up to them to decide how much credence -- if any -- to give to the testimony of any witness.

It's a point that attorneys hammer home during closing arguments, highlighting moments in the trial where a witness was caught in a lie, then reminding jurors that a witness who has been untruthful in one portion of her testimony may be deemed by the jury to have been untruthful in all areas, her testimony discounted as unreliable -- and tossed out in its entirety.

Thus, a defendant may be convicted, or acquitted, based upon the evidence and testimony, the jurors deciding which witnesses to believe, and which ones to reject, their testimony deemed tainted, biased and untrustworthy.

There's no jury instruction to help the jurors deal with a witness who's too credible; the concept of a witness being "too credible" doesn't even make sense in American jurisprudence.

But not to our English cousins.

A yob accused of robbing a driving instructor walked free from court - after a judge ruled that the victim was too believable as a witness.

Judge Jamie Tabor praised Denise Dawson as 'honest, utterly decent and brave' when she identified a man as her alleged attacker and gave evidence against him.

But moments later he halted the trial and ordered a not guilty verdict on Liam Perks, 20.

Judge Jamie Tabor, elitist moron.

The judge said Mrs Dawson's good character and compelling evidence could sway the jury, even though she had had only a fleeting glimpse of her attacker.

He said: 'Denise Dawson was a particularly impressive witness because she showed courage, clarity of thought and was undoubtedly honest. The jury may lend more weight to her evidence than the facts allow. You cannot be sure she got it right.'

The judge said that her evidence was not enough for a conviction.

Mother-of-two Mrs Dawson, 36, called the decision 'a kick in the teeth'.

She said: 'I was absolutely terrified after I heard he had pleaded not guilty and I would have to go to court to testify. I felt sick when the trial collapsed.

'What more can I do? I positively identified someone from a video ID parade and was prepared to risk everything going to court, but it's still not enough.'

Mrs Dawson, who was offered a £250 bravery award by the judge, said the robbery had left her so terrified she had considered giving up her job.

The instructor was attacked in Southmead, Bristol, in December 2007. She told Bristol Crown Court a gang of yobs surrounded her car and one smashed a window and stole her laptop.

She chased him unsuccessfully, then returned to her car to find another youth rifling through the glove box.

Mrs Dawson, from Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, said she grabbed him and was face-to-face with him for about three seconds before another member of the gang punched her twice, breaking her nose.

Police later organised an identity parade and she picked out Perks. But he denied her claim.

The court heard that Perks, of Henbury, Bristol, had admitted a separate charge of conspiracy to burgle, for his involvement in a gang which stole motorcycles and prestige cars. He is awaiting sentence for that offence.

Yes, we can't allow jurors to be swayed by the apparent honesty, courage and believability of a witness. And so, because the prosecution's witness was so credible -- too credible-- the criminal walks free.

Rue Brittania.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:16 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Take that, Katie Couric!

In a passage addressing Dick Cavett's attack on Sarah Palin's speaking ability, leftist iconoclast Camille Paglia offered this take down of Palin's cattiest critic who's not a Dick. Cavett, that is.

And let me take this opportunity to say that of all the innumerable print and broadcast journalists who have interviewed me in the U.S. and abroad since I arrived on the scene nearly 20 years ago, Katie Couric was definitively the stupidest. As a guest on NBC's "Today" show during my 1992 book tour, I was astounded by Couric's small, humorless, agenda-ridden mind, still registered in that pinched, tinny monotone that makes me rush across the room to change stations whenever her banal mini-editorials blare out at 5 p.m. on the CBS radio network. And of course I would never spoil my dinner by tuning into Couric's TV evening news show. That sallow, wizened, drum-tight, cosmetic mummification look is not an appetite enhancer outside of Manhattan or L.A. There's many a moose in Alaska with greater charm and pizazz.

It's a two-fer! A Cavett-Couric craptacular, courtesy of Camille's caustic keyboard. Well done.

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"This isn't about Jews. It's about you."

Have you been paying attention to the protests -- many of them in enlightened, liberal, Western democracies -- that feature enraged mobs spewing threats against Jews that are more explicit than anything Hitler himself said?

Mark Steyn posts in National Review's The Corner about who these Third Reich redux rallies are really targeting.

"Les Juifs sont nos chiens" or "The Jews are our dogs": The enthusiastic chant on the streets of Montreal, along with cries of "Hezbollah! Nasrallah!"

It's easy to think all this stuff is just about the Jew troublemakers, and who cares about them, right? But the thuggery on display in western cities is meant to intimidate not the despised Jew dogs but a more general audience - and it seems to be doing the job. Powerline notes the bizarre response from the French government to a Molotov cocktail attack on a synagogue in St-Denis:

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France has faced a "very clear increase" in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks since Israel started an offensive against the militant group Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27.

Would it be too much for a French reporter to ask Mme Alliot-Marie to provide an example of an "anti-Muslim attack" since December 27th? None seems to have been reported in the French press, unlike the daily attacks on synagogues, kosher butchers, schools and individual Jews in Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, etc. So the Interior Minister would appear to be promoting a wholly false equivalence. Why would she do this?

Well, halfway through the Montreal video, you'll briefly see the demonstrators taunt the police, daring them to enforce their authority. For a clearer picture, look at this "pro-Palestinian" protest in London and the Metropolitan Police retreating in the face of a crowd jeering, "Run, run, you cowards!" and "Fatwa!"

The west's deluded multiculti progressives should understand: In the end, this isn't about Gaza, this isn't about Jews. It's about you.

It really is about the multiculti libs, their inability to suss out who bears responsibility for the death and destruction in Gaza. The so-called progressives like to accuse conservatives of being simpletons, unable to grasp the subtleties and distinctions of foreign policy and international affairs, but it seems to me that it requires a special kind of moral and intellectual retardation to blame the victims -- the Israelis -- for the simple act of saying, "Enough! No more missiles. No more children cowering in shelters. 6,000 missiles fired into our nation ; no more."

There's nothing to be gleaned about the character of the players in the latest flare up in the Middle East: Hamas and its supporters go out of their way to target innocents on both sides, with missiles aimed at civilians, and missile launchers set up near Arab schools, hospitals and markets. Dead Israelis are a bonus, really, for the larger goal, the juiciest reward is more dead Arabs for Hamas to put on display for the Western media.

Israel, on the other hand, continues to use 21st-century technology to limit civilian casualties, calling ahead to warn civilians to get out of the area before the rockets arrive.

Remember the distinction: Israel does everything it can to limit the number of civilians killed and wounded; its Arab enemies do everything in their power to kill and maim civilians.

Steyn's ultimate point about the protests is one that continues to resonate, hours after I first read it:

"The west's deluded multiculti progressives should understand: In the end, this isn't about Gaza, this isn't about Jews. It's about you."

The response -- or lack thereof -- from the liberal left is as revealing as the threats themselves.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2009

Revenge of the humungous, sweaty, phlegm-spewing sick chick

I spent the weekend in my bathrobe, trying to beat my viral friend into submission, but the beastie -- a present from the plague carrier I encountered in CVS -- was resilient. I made it through the morning session in the master calendar court before throwing in the sodden handkerchief.

T

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:22 PM

January 11, 2009

Scenes from the backyard

The weekend began with glistening dewdrops scattered across the backyard like thousands of brilliant, ephemeral gems, transforming humble, mundane objects into things of beauty. A spider's meandering path around withered Crepe Myrtle blooms becomes an arachnoid chandelier. (Click on image for larger version)

Golden Raintree leaf and seedpods, against a warm, late afternoon January sky. (Click on image for larger version)

One of the crimson visitors makes use of the birdbath, preening and cleaning to keep himself looking fine for the birds he keeps running into at the feeder.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dog doings

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching. Mean Kitty -- or should I say, Mean Kitties -- leave Bogie with a sense of impending doom.

Can you blame him? If these two cold-blooded killers were fixing me with their gimlet-eyed, blank, soulless stares, the hair -- or fur -- would be standing up on the back of my neck, too.

Escaping from the implacable hostility of the felines, Bogie sat down in the backyard and fixed me with his distinctive, intent gaze. Take a close look at his eye.

I noticed that Bogie's eye reflected everything in the scene; the sun above the chimney, the faint outline of me with camera on the left, against the house, and Bogie's own tail, on the right.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 09, 2009

Mutating flu kicks drug's butt

The International Herald Tribune has some disturbing news, coming on the heels of reports out of China that Bird Flu is claiming more victims.

Virtually all the flu in the United States this season is resistant to the leading antiviral drug Tamiflu, and scientists and health officials are trying to figure out why.

[...]

Last winter, about 11 percent of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99 percent do.

"It's quite shocking," said Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, director of infection control at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "We've never lost an antimicrobial this fast. It blew me away."

[...]

In response, the CDC issued new guidelines two weeks ago. They urged doctors to test suspected flu cases as quickly as possible to see if they are influenza A or influenza B, and if they are A, whether they are H1 or H3 viruses.

The only Tamiflu-resistant strain is an H1N1. Its resistance mutation could fade out, a CDC scientist said, or a different flu strain could overtake H1N1 in importance, but right now it causes almost all flu cases in the country, except in a few mountain states, where H3N2 is prevalent.

Complicating the problem, antiviral drugs work only if they are taken within the first 48 hours. A patient with severe flu could be given the wrong drug and die of pneumonia before test results come in. So the new guidelines suggest that doctors check with their state health departments to see which strains are most common locally and treat for them.

"We're a fancy hospital, and we can't even do the A versus B test in a timely fashion," Sepkowitz said. "I have no idea what a doctor in an unfancy office without that lab backup can do."

If a Tamiflu-resistant strain is suspected, the disease control agency suggests using a similar drug, Relenza. But Relenza is harder to take — it is a powder that must be inhaled and can cause lung spasms, and it is not recommended for children under 7.

[...]

Alternatively, patients who have trouble inhaling Relenza can take a mixture of Tamiflu and rimantadine, an older generic drug that the agency stopped recommending two years ago because so many flu strains were resistant to it. By chance, the new Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 strain is not.

[...]

Dr. Henry Niman, a biochemist in Pittsburgh who runs recombinomics.com, a Web site that tracks the genetics of flu cases around the world, has been warning for months that Tamiflu resistance in H1N1 was spreading.

He argues that it started in China, where Tamiflu use is rare, was seen last year in Norway, France and Russia, then moved to South Africa (where winter is June to September), and back to the northern hemisphere in November.

The mutation conferring resistance to Tamiflu, known in the shorthand of genetics as H274Y on the N gene, was actually, he said "just a passenger, totally unrelated to Tamiflu usage, but hitchhiking on another change."

The other mutation, he said, known as A193T on the H gene, made the virus better at infecting people.

Furthermore, he blamed mismatched flu vaccines for helping the A193T mutation spread. Flu vaccines typically protect against three flu strains, but none have contained protections against the A193T mutation.

Here's the killer 'graf, as it were, buried at the very end of the story:

[W]hile seasonal flu is relatively mild, the Tamiflu resistance could transfer onto the H5N1 bird flu circulating in Asia and Egypt, which has killed millions of birds and about 250 people since 2003. Although H5N1 has not turned into a pandemic strain, as many experts recently feared it would, it still could — and Tamiflu resistance in that case would be a disaster.

A further worry -- as I noted below -- is the reluctance of most Americans to voluntarily quarantine themselves when they feel ill, making the spread of these would-be pandemics disturbingly likely.

Anyone who works in the courthouse is exposed to every conceivable strain of illness known to humanity; attorneys have been known to mysteriously come down with hepatitis after spending time with their incarcerated clients in face-to-face whispered conferences during trials and hearings.

I've never passed up a chance to get my annual flu vaccination since I started practicing law; it's sobering to think that there may be no protection available from the new breed of rapidly mutating superbugs.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sick? Stay the hell away from the rest of us!

I went to CVS (aka the late, lamented SavOn Drug Store) the other day to see if my doctor had called in a prescription. As I walked toward the pharmacy, located in the back of the store, I heard wet, wracking coughs, punctuated by hiccups and moaning. Bear in mind that I must have been 50 yards away from the sputum-spewing sickie when I first heard her near-death rattles.

As I got closer to the in-take window at the pharmacy counter my normally brisk pace slowed, while my fear of contagion rose. Standing at the counter next to where I was heading was an enormous, sweat-soaked woman, taking deep, wheezing, shuddering, phlegmy breaths, crying in distress as her tattooed and pierced boyfriend spoke with the pharmacy tech.

The woman reared back and started coughing again, gut-wrenching paroxysms, so intense they triggered more hiccups and snorts.

I swear, as God is my witness, there was a fine mist of saliva and aerosolized snot hanging in the air, like a pestilential fog bank.

I felt bad for the woman, who was clearly sick as a dog, but my sympathy was overwhelmed by my rage at her monumental stupidity and selfishness, as she exposed everyone in the store to the bug that was clearly wreaking havoc on her respiratory tract.

There was no reason why she couldn't have waited in the car while her boyfriend picked up the meds, reducing the risk of contagion to the children and elderly people waiting in line, as well as cranky, middle-aged attorneys.

I grimly spoke with the pharmacy tech, trying to breath as little as possible and moving away from the counter -- and the human petri dish to my right -- whenever possible. Concluding my business as soon as I could, I practically flew out of the store.

When I was in Japan in the early 1980s, I was surprised to see people wearing surgical masks out in public. I subsequently learned that it was common, when ill, to wear them as a means of protecting the healthy from whatever bugs might be lurking in Typhoid Tojo's vicinity.

Americans, on the other hand, seem to have an aversion to keeping their contagious diseases to themselves, ranging from refusing to stay home when ill, to preventing their children from being vaccinated.

Today I awoke with a sore throat and a cough.

What a surprise.

I hate that woman.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 08, 2009

Killer cubes for the killer drink

Drinking whiskey or scotch with an ice cube to open it up is the quintessential manly drink (although my wife has developed a fondness for single malt whiskey, too), and these ice cubes are just the thing to send more sensitive types into a tizzy.

The most surprising thing about the AK-47 ice cube trays is that they're sold in the gun-phobic (formerly) Great Britain, which means we won't have to wait long before reading about someone getting nicked by the cops for brandishing illegal ammo at a pub.

Via Brass Casing.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 07, 2009

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking

Shooters love to, well, shoot the breeze about their favorite guns, and one topic that seems to pop up over and over again is: Which pistol is the most reliable, no matter how badly neglected, misused and abused.

This fellow has gone to absurd lengths -- stupendously insane lengths -- to try and answer that question.

Mud? Check.

Salt water? Check.

Talcum powder? Check.

Dropped out of a plane? Check.

Shot at with another gun? Check.

Honestly, I'd never do any of this to one of my own guns, but it's good to know I could, if I lost my marbles and wanted to, and it'd still reliably feed, fire and eject.

"Glock perfection" is the company's catchphrase, but "When it's your life on the line, Glock" seems apropos, too.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pining for Jews in ovens

A (rancid) taste of the rhetoric overheard at an anti-Israel rally:

[S]ome protesters ... took their rhetoric a step further, calling for the extermination of Israel — and of Jews.

[A]s the protest continued and crowds grew, one woman in a hijab began to shout curses and slurs.

"Go back to the oven," she shouted, calling for the counter-protesters to die in the manner that the Nazis used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.

"You need a big oven, that's what you need," she yelled.

Millions of Jews were gassed and burned in crematoria throughout Europe during Adolf Hitler's rule of Germany. The protest organizers, asked to comment on the woman's overt call for Jewish extermination, said she was "insensitive" but refused to condemn her statement.

The unidentified woman, who protest organizers said was a Muslim, wasn't the only protester who raised hackles that day. Other demonstrators held signs that said "Nuke Israel," and a number made comparisons to the Holocaust, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

These protesters were spewing their hatred in some Godforsaken, third-world hell hole, some Jew hating suburb of Tehran, right.

Actually, no.

Try Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on for size.

This is America?

Posted by Mike Lief at 08:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A solution to Gaza?

As the world studiously ignores the thousands of missiles fired into Israel by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, pays no attention to the rage-filled demonstrations in Western cities lamenting the failure of Hitler to finish the Holocaust, and the media allows terrorist shills to spew their propaganda uninterrupted, I find myself glumly contemplating the future of Israel, and the future of Jews the world over.

Critics -- Lord knows, they're everywhere! -- claim that the Israeli operations in Gaza are "counterproductive," a criticism I find risible. At a minimum, the Israelis are finally letting the Arabs know that the days of tolerating missile attacks on cities without any penalty are over.

But what of an actual solution to Gaza (and the West Bank)? Daniel Pipes has an answer, one that looks to the past.

[There is] only one practical approach, which worked tolerably well in the period 1948-67: Shared Jordanian-Egyptian rule, with Amman ruling the West Bank and Cairo running Gaza.

The failures of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and the "peace process," has prompted rethinking in Amman and Jerusalem. Indeed, the Christian Science Monitor's Ilene Prusher found already in 2007 that the idea of a West Bank-Jordan confederation "seems to be gaining traction on both sides of the Jordan River." The Jordanian government, which enthusiastically annexed the West Bank in 1950 and abandoned its claims only under duress in 1988, shows signs of wanting to return. Dan Diker and Pinhas Inbari documented for Middle East Quarterly in 2006 how the PA's "failure to assert control and become a politically viable entity has caused Amman to reconsider whether a hands-off strategy toward the West Bank is in its best interests."

Israeli officialdom has also shown itself open to this idea, occasionally calling for Jordanian troops to enter the West Bank.

Despairing of self-rule, some Palestinians welcome the Jordanian option. An unnamed senior PA official told Diker and Inbari that a form of federation or confederation with Jordan offers "the only reasonable, stable, long-term solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

Hanna Seniora opined that "the current weakened prospects for a two-state solution forces us to revisit the possibility of a confederation with Jordan." The New York Times's Hassan Fattah quotes a Palestinian in Jordan: "Everything has been ruined for us - we've been fighting for 60 years and nothing is left. It would be better if Jordan ran things in Palestine, if King Abdullah could take control of the West Bank."

NOR IS this just talk: Diker and Inbari report that back-channel PA-Jordan negotiations in 2003-04 "resulted in an agreement in principle to send 30,000 Badr Force members," to the West Bank.

And while Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak announced a year ago that "Gaza is not part of Egypt, nor will it ever be," his is hardly the last word. First, Mubarak notwithstanding, Egyptians overwhelmingly want a strong tie to Gaza; Hamas concurs; and Israeli leaders sometimes agree. So the basis for an overhaul in policy exists.

Secondly, Gaza is arguably more a part of Egypt than of "Palestine." During most of the Islamic period, it was either controlled by Cairo or part of Egypt administratively. Gazan colloquial Arabic is identical to what Egyptians living in Sinai speak. Economically, Gaza has most connections to Egypt. Hamas itself derives from the Muslim Brethren, an Egyptian organization.

Is it time to think of Gazans as Egyptians?

Thirdly, Jerusalem could out-maneuver Mubarak. Were it to announce a date when it ends the provisioning of all water, electricity, food, medicine and other trade, and accepts enhanced Egyptian security in Gaza, Cairo would have to take responsibility for Gaza. Among other advantages, this would make it accountable for Gazan security, finally putting an end to the thousands of Hamas rocket and mortar assaults.

The Jordan-Egypt option quickens no pulses, but that may be its value. It offers a uniquely sober way to solve the "Palestinian problem."

There was precious little outrage during the three-decade Egyptian control of Gaza, and similarly no demand for independence from Jordan in the West Bank from '48 through '67; as a matter of fact, the idea of an Arab Palestinian national identity never really gained currency until the Egyptians and the Jordanians lost control of Gaza and the West Bank in the aftermath of the Six Day War.

I think Pipes is right: let Egypt and Jordan free their Arab cousins from the burden of Hamas and Fatah, and welcome them into their respective societies -- as they did from 1948 until 1967.

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 04, 2009

This weekend in the backyard

Although I'd always heard that hummingbirds ate small insects and drank nectar, it sure looked like this guy was eating the petals of the white flowers to his right. (Click on image for larger version.)

A couple of hours later, I spotted the hummingbird flitting about above the Golden Rain Tree, pausing occasionally to perch for a few moments before zooming out of sight. (Click on image for larger version.)

One corner of the backyard featured a riot of fall colors -- but Saturday's windstorm removed most of the leaves from their branches. One bird was barely noticeable, at least until he hopped along the fence, the motion drawing my eye to the bottom left of the frame. (Click on image for larger version.)

This web is near the egg sack of an Orb Weaver spider, which it seems to spend 20 hours a day guarding. If you take a close look, you'll see tiny drops of dew along the silken strands, as well as a prismatic effect, the morning sun passing through and breaking down into the colors of the visible spectrum. (Click on image for larger version.)

Here's something I've never seen before: a garden snail suspended in mid-air, caught in one of the webs strung between the trees.

This brightly colored fellow is a recent arrival; I'm adding some Nyjer seed to the backyard to encourage him to stick around.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

I can't believe I actually voted for this guy

From this morning's interview with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) on Meet the Press:

SEN. REID: John McCain--a day or two after the election, I called John ... He said, "Harry, I, I want to come back to the Senate. We want to do some good things. I want to work with you."

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

SEN. REID: "We need comprehensive immigration reform." ... I have, I have John McCain's word that he's going to work real, real hard on immigration reform.

It gives me a warm, happy feeling to know McCain's going to work real, real hard on adding millions of new Democrats to the voting rolls, putting party -- the Democratic Party -- above country and petty, partisan politics.

McCain's not the North Vietnamese Manchurian Candidate; he's the guy pushing the Democratic Party's Trojan Horse through the gates.

Posted by Mike Lief at 08:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ventura's economic woes

We ran our errands today and, as is often the case, found ourselves crossing the Santa Clara River as we left Ventura and headed one town over to Oxnard, where Costco, Best Buy, Walmart, Sam's Club, Fry's, Home Depot and the soon-to-open Whole Foods lure like-minded Venturans to the 'Nard.

You see, Ventura's city council is implacably hostile to business, especially the dreaded big-box retailer. As a result, when companies looking to open their doors in the Ventura area find a less-than warm welcome in my fair burg, they need only look to nearby, blue-collar, not-nearly-so-snooty Oxnard.

Consequently, Oxnard is raking in the sales tax revenue, and, perhaps coincidentally, enjoys a $15 million surplus and a balanced budget.

Ventura, on the other hand, has a $4 million deficit, ballooning to $10 million in 2010, according to the local fish wrap.

Now, I realize that Ventura fancies itself Santa Barbara South, and Oxnard has a little problem with shaven-headed thugs living La Vida Loca, but still, it's interesting that the fancypants city with taxpayer-funded artworks (like the bus shelter that provides no shelter from the elements) and the allergy to hosting successful retailers can't make ends meet.

Yeah, Oxnard may have a crime problem, but they don't have a budget problem, thanks to the business-friendly attitude of their city council, and the fiscally responsible policies of their mayor.

Too bad the stupes in charge down at Ventura's city hall can't be bothered to reconsider their anti-growth, budget-busting ways.

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

On ABC's This Week

From the roundtable, leftist whacko Katrina vanden Heuvel, who moonlights from her day job of hating conservatives, capitalists and Pres. Bush by serving as the publisher and part-owner of The Nation, offering this observation on the move to block embattled Illinois Gov. Blago's pick for the U.S. Senate:

This is a sideshow; Congress needs to put people back to work and get started on a "Green Economy..."

That's right, Katrina, everyone knows it's Congress -- feckless crapweasels in the pocket of unions and other assorted special interests -- who create jobs. Not businesses, owned and operated by those despicable, profit-seeking capitalists, who hire workers, but politicians.

Vanden Heuvel, whose voice drips condecension and contempt whenever commenting on anyone -- or anything -- to the right of Mao, Fidel and Lenin -- thinks the answer to whatever ails the U.S. lies within the massive minds of congressmen and senators, who have done such a wonderful job running Congress.

Egad. What an idiot.

Posted by Mike Lief at 08:53 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 03, 2009

BUFF on patrol

B-52 flying high over the Pacific. Click on the picture for a larger image, or click here for a huge, high-resolution version.

Posted by Mike Lief at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lunacy in the U.K.

If you think American liberals are soft on crime, wait until you see what happens when the self-esteem movement joins forces with politically correct moonbats to prove that you ain't seen nothing yet.

Check out the latest madness from what once was Great Britain, courtesy of The Telegraph.

Prisons minister David Hanson revealed the Ministry of Justice stance in a letter to an inmate in HMP Wakefield, in which he said: "Prison staff are expected to treat prisoners with dignity and respect and for this reason the term 'prisoner' should be used in preference to the term 'inmate'."

He went on to say the term "offender" was not inappropriate.

[...]

A Prison Service spokesman said: "The term prisoner, rather than inmate, has been preferred for a number of years as it is more accurate and specific to those held in prison. The term 'inmate' can refer to anyone held in any type of institution."

Earlier this year prison inspectors at Bullingdon jail in Oxfordshire, said prisoners should be addressed by their first names, given free condoms and be served evening meals later time to stop them feeling hungry in the night.

In 2006, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, criticised jail staff for calling prisoners "cons".

All this is happening, mind you, in a nation where self-defense is not a right, but a guarantee of a quick trip to prison if you happen to injure your attacker.

On the bright side, when you get there, at least you'll have free condoms, late meals, and a first-name relationship with your jailer.

Posted by Mike Lief at 12:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Defying expectations

Pepsi's "not that there's anything wrong with that" commercial, airing in Australia (I think).

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 01, 2009

The idiocy of moral equivalence

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School. His latest book is "The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1231/p09s02-coop.html

Israel's decision to take military action against Hamas rocket attacks targeting its civilian population has been long in coming. I vividly recall a visit my wife and I took to the Israeli city of Sderot on March 20 of this year. Over the past four years, Palestinian terrorists – in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have fired more than 2,000 rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people.

The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others hit their targets, killing more than a dozen civilians since 2001, including in February 2008 a father of four who had been studying at the local university. These anticivilian rockets have also injured and traumatized countless children.

The residents of Sderot were demanding that their nation take action to protect them. But Israel's postoccupation military options were limited, since Hamas deliberately fires its deadly rockets from densely populated urban areas, and the Israeli army has a strict policy of trying to avoid civilian casualties.

The firing of rockets at civilians from densely populated civilian areas is the newest tactic in the war between terrorists who love death and democracies that love life. The terrorists have learned how to exploit the morality of democracies against those who do not want to kill civilians, even enemy civilians.

The attacks on Israeli citizens have little to do with what Israel does or does not do. They have everything to do with an ideology that despises – and openly seeks to destroy – the Jewish state. Consider that rocket attacks increased substantially after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, and they accelerated further after Hamas seized control last year.

In the past months, a shaky cease-fire, organized by Egypt, was in effect. Hamas agreed to stop the rockets and Israel agreed to stop taking military action against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The cease-fire itself was morally dubious and legally asymmetrical.

Israel, in effect, was saying to Hamas: If you stop engaging in the war crime of targeting our innocent civilians, we will stop engaging in the entirely lawful military acts of targeting your terrorists. Under the cease-fire, Israel reserved the right to engage in self-defense actions such as attacking terrorists who were in the course of firing rockets at its civilians.

Just before the hostilities began, Israel reopened a checkpoint to allow humanitarian aid to reenter Gaza. It had closed the point of entry after it had been targeted by Gazan rockets. Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, also issued a stern, final warning to Hamas that unless it stopped the rockets, there would be a full-scale military response. The Hamas rockets continued and Israel kept its word, implementing a carefully prepared targeted air attack against Hamas targets.

On Sunday, I spoke to the air force general, now retired, who worked on the planning of the attack. He told me of the intelligence and planning that had gone into preparing for the contingency that the military option might become necessary. The Israeli air force had pinpointed with precision the exact locations of Hamas structures in an effort to minimize civilian casualties.

Even Hamas sources have acknowledged that the vast majority of those killed have been Hamas terrorists, though some civilian casualties are inevitable when, as BBC's Rushdi Abou Alouf – who is certainly not pro-Israel – reported, "The Hamas security compounds are in the middle of the city." Indeed, his home balcony was just 20 meters away from a compound he saw bombed.

There have been three types of international response to the Israeli military actions against the Hamas rockets. Not surprisingly, Iran, Hamas, and other knee-jerk Israeli-bashers have argued that the Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians are entirely legitimate and that the Israeli counterattacks are war crimes.

Equally unsurprising is the response of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, and others who, at least when it comes to Israel, see a moral and legal equivalence between terrorists who target civilians and a democracy that responds by targeting the terrorists.

And finally, there is the United States and a few other nations that place the blame squarely on Hamas for its unlawful and immoral policy of using its own civilians as human shields, behind whom they fire rockets at Israeli civilians.

The most dangerous of the three responses is not the Iranian-Hamas absurdity, which is largely ignored by thinking and moral people, but the United Nations and European Union response, which equates the willful murder of civilians with legitimate self-defense pursuant to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

This false moral equivalence only encourages terrorists to persist in their unlawful actions against civilians. The US has it exactly right by placing the blame on Hamas, while urging Israel to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualties.

Posted by Mike Lief at 01:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One year in 40 seconds

It took Eirik Solheim more than a year to make this 40 second video -- which manages to show you what a year in Norway looks like ... in less than a minute.

For a detailed look at how he created this, check out his blog.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

"Best of" lists for film fans

Den of Geek takes an opinionated look at the Top 50 Movie Special Effects Shots, many of his picks featuring clips of the shots for your review.

Once you're done with that, you'll want to check out The Top 24 Worst Special Effects of All Time, followed by The Most Depressing Movie Endings, Top Mindf@#k Movies, and Top 10 Exploding People.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fun with interdimensional geometry

Don't tell me you've never seen the transformation of two stellated rhombic dodecahedrons from a cube. This fellow illustrates the process with the eponymous "Yoshimoto Cube," named for the Japanese scientist who disappeared into a wormhole created when he tore a hole in the time-space continuum while demonstrating an earlier version of the device.

Ow, my brain hurts.

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack