Minnesota Update: Poor Stuart Smalley

Washington Post columnist Michael Kinsley feels the need to defend Al Franken's boorish behavior, all the while failing to point a finger at the real culprit.

In case you're unaware of the Minnesota senate race, Democratic challenger Franken is attempting to usurp Republican Senator Norm Coleman.

According to Kinsley, we've all become a little too sensitive to jokes about raping women and three-way sex with women (the latter, I could care less). Really, fella? I wonder why that is? I wonder why we've become so "sensitive?"

Let me proffer a guess: you and your fellow liberals have empowered everyone to be "sensitive;" of course everyone to you and your fellow elitist liberals, consists of every minority and alternative lifestyle group.

The notable exception: Christian American, which is not protected from the politically correct police.

And now you actually have the gumption to blame someone other than the "cultured sophisticates" in your party; those who look down at their noses at humor itself. With that said, attacks against President Bush for being a Christian redneck is perfectly acceptable within the confines of your narrow world.

Personally, when I was in junior high/high school, I found his Stuart Smalley skits on SNL mildly humorous. But what I find more comical is the notion that he would contemplate running for office; "Senator" Smalley, now THAT is high comedy.

World Net Daily: Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah

Have you heard this story?

According to WorldNetDaily.com, "Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class."

The school in which the boys attended wasn't in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, but rather in jolly old England.

This is dhimmitude at its finest. Countries like England, France, and Belgium have pandered to Islamic immigrants for decades, to the point that these immigrants are demanding that the their host countries bow to their wishes.

One of the seventh-grader's parents sums it up perfectly:

"I am not racist, I've been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I've also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that. But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war."

Here's the complete story:

Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah
'If Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war'

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Posted: July 04, 2008
6:15 pm Eastern

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WorldNetDaily

Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.

Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights.

"This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail.

"I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that, but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer. Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.

"I don't want this to look as if I have a problem with the school because I am generally very happy with it."

Last month, WND reported Principal Robin Lowe was reassigned after staging a mandatory lesson in Islamic religious beliefs for nearly 900 students at her Houston-area school.

The controversy erupted at Friendswood Junior High when students were diverted from a scheduled physical education class and taken to a special assembly.

In the 40-minute session, representatives of the Houston office of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization critics link to terrorist groups, presented a lesson in the religious beliefs and requirements of Islam.

The CAIR representatives instructed students that Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets; announced "there is one god, his name is Allah"; taught the five pillars of Islam; told students how to pray five times a day; and gave instruction on Islamic religious requirements for dress.

The assembly had not been authorized by the district, officials confirmed.

In May, officials at a Minnesota charter school, housed in the same building as a mosque, attacked a television news crew investigating whether the publicly funded institution had complied with a state order to stop accommodating Islamic prayers and religious programs.

The investigation followed revelations by a substitute teacher who observed children being forced to participate in Islamic prayers.

In the Alsager School incident, the religion teacher, who was not named, made the class wear Muslim headgear and watch a short film. Afterward, she took prayer mats from her cupboard and said, "we are now going out to pray to Allah," parents claimed.

"I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don't find it acceptable," said parent Karen Williams.

"Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. They'd never done it before and they were supposed to do it in another language."

"My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson," the grandfather of one of the students said. "It's absolutely disgusting, there's no other way of putting it. My daughter and a lot of other mothers are furious about their children being made to kneel on the floor and pray to Islam. If they didn't do it they were given detention.

"I am not racist, I've been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I've also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that. But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war."

Keith Plant, Alsager's deputy headmaster, said with summer break, many of the staff was unavailable and he could not comment fully.

"I think that it is a shame that so many parents have got in touch with the press before coming to me. I have spoken to the teacher and she has articulately given me her version of events, but that is all I can give you at the moment."

Cheshire County Council issued a statement telling parents "inquiries are being made into the circumstances as a matter of urgency.

"Educating children in the beliefs of different faith is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding. We accept that such teaching is to be conducted with some sense of sensitivity."

Revelation of the incident follows this week's pronouncement by the UK's top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, that Islamic sharia law should be used in the UK.

In a speech to an East London mosque, Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'

"Those who are in dispute are free to subject it to mediation or to agree that it shall be resolved by a chosen arbitrator. There is no reason why principles of sharia law or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of dispute resolution."

Phillips signaled approval of sharia principles as long as punishments – and divorce rulings – complied with the law of the land.

In February, WND reported Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chief of the 70-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, advocated the establishment of Islamic law in Britain.

Star Tribune: $4 gas has drivers eyeing pump's accuracy

I just don't get people sometimes. While I understand how the insane gas prices have made us all a little testy, isn't time we blamed the right people? Rather than blame the oil companies, who make their prices based on supply and demand (Economics 101), it's time to cast aspersions at the real source of the problem: the environmentalists and their Democratic handlers.

According to the Star Tribune, drivers "are calling Minnesota's Department of Commerce to report suspicions that they're not getting as much gas as they're paying for."

You're right, fellow Minnesota drivers. We're not getting as much as we paid for. Thanks to the environmental movement and lie known as global warming, we're forbidden to cultivate our own resources, whether it's oil in Alaska, our vast coal supply, or nuclear power. Rather, the Left would rather us practice conservation, depriving us of the happiness of road trips, boating on the lake, or RV trips.

For those of you planning on voting Democrat in this election, does your beloved party represent you or groups like the environmental lobby, which doesn't give a rat's ass about working class folk like you or me?

Here's the complete story:

$4 gas has drivers eyeing pump's accuracy

Associated Press

July 7, 2008

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - There's nothing like $4 gas to make drivers pay attention to the numbers on the pump. And more of those eagle-eyed drivers are calling Minnesota's Department of Commerce to report suspicions that they're not getting as much gas as they're paying for.

A year ago, drivers called investigator Jeff Anderson maybe once a month to report suspicions that a pump was faulty. Now he gets about two to three calls a week.

The state said most pumps are within its standards for accuracy. The St. Cloud Times found that during the year leading up to April 1, 2008, about 6 percent of gas pumps failed inspections in Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne counties. That works out to about a dozen pumps each month during that year.

"What we want is a gallon (of gas) to be a gallon everywhere," said Julie Quinn, assistant director of the Weights and Measures division of the state's commerce department.

Pumps are tested with a margin of error of 6 cubic inches, or about a quarter of a can of soda. For a regular pump at $4 a gallon, that's a margin of error of about 10 cents. New pumps or those that have been worked on in the past 30 days are allowed half of that margin of error.

Anderson tests the pumps by filling two five-gallon stainless steel containers to measure the gasoline. (He pours the gas back into the station's underground tank afterward.)

Pumps fail inspections for many reasons. Sometimes pumps give too much gas. Sometimes hoses leak. Sometimes the meter is broken.

The problems usually occur because of normal wear and tear, Quinn said. She said she's surprised more pumps don't fail, considering all the wear and tear they endure.

Anderson slaps problem pumps with a yellow tag or a red tag, depending on the severity. The red tag means it can't be used until it's fixed. The yellow tag means it can be used but must be fixed within 30 days. The gas station must pay for the repair. The owner does not receive a reprimand, no matter how many yellow or red tags the station gets.

"The station owner generally doesn't have the tools to know whether he is shorting people or giving gas away," Quinn said.

Anderson inspects about 30 to 40 pumps a day, or two to three gas stations. Most of the time, drivers get what they pay for, he said.

"Ninety-nine percent of times, the pump is right," he said. "I wish I'd find something that's off."

Sometimes a consumer's complaint is valid. A gas station in Waite Park, for example, last year had an inspection that was off by 130 cubic inches — meaning customers got about 4 1/2 gallons of gas for every 5 gallons they paid for. An inspector flagged the pump for repair. The station did not respond to a St. Cloud Times request for an interview.

That was the only pump off by that much in the three-county area, according to the data.

Sometimes the pumps give some gas away for free. At Rooney's Texaco in Belgrade, one test showed a pump was giving away as much as a quarter-gallon of gas for every five gallons pumped. It was immediately flagged and fixed.

It was normal wear and tear, said owner Russ Rooney.

"Once a year they come on in and test our pumps for accuracy," he said. "There's times it floats the other way. You just shrug and say, 'Shucks.'"

Barry Obama: "A Significant Realignment"

Those words were uttered in a recent speech by Democratic presidential candidate Barry Obama regarding the election prospects for his party this coming fall.

What exactly does "Significant Realignment" mean? Well, let us hypothesize for a minute: assume Obama wins the presidency; couple that with more gains in Congress for the Democrats, and we're looking at an obscene policy shift to the left.

In other words, socialism.

The Democrats have on record, stated that we should mold our lifestyles, our government, and our morals to resemble that of Europe, whose countries are mostly socialist.

So here's what a Democratic president and Democratically-controlled Congress will do, as public servants:

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Public health care/socialized medicine, governmental oversight on restoring Social Security, more entitlements, reducing our energy output by 25% to reduce carbon emissions and comply with the Kyoto Treaty.

So how will this be accomplished? Well, the government needs to get the money somewhere...and guess what, it's coming out of our paychecks to the tune of at least 50% taxation. We're either in a recession or the cusp of a recession; experts on fiscal policy all concur that you don't tax your way out of a recession. Rather, it would sound fiscal policy to ensure the Bush tax cuts remain, while reducing taxes on small businesses.

Moreover, one way to fight a recession would be to produce cheap energy. In other words, develop our OWN resources, be it oil off our coasts or in Alaska, oil shale, or not to mention our near-endless supply of oil. But thanks to the environmental lobby, we're forbidden to cultivate our resources, thanks to the lie of global warming.

What else will a Democratic president and legislature accomplish? Continued appeasement of terrorists, "dialog" with maniacal despots like Iranian "president" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or North Korean dictator Kim Jung Il, or further pandering to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, those groups opposed to the legal state of Israel. Finally, we'll see the Democrats unequivocally withdraw our troops from Iraq, ensuring that, just as the Iraqi government can sustain itself, sectarian violence is renewed as well as the return of extremist elements (e.g. Al Qaeda).

Are you ready?

"This (establishment-insert name of business here) bans handguns unless...

you're black, asian, native american, muslim, buddhist, hindu, etc. If you're a white Christian, you are expressly forbidden to carry a firearm on your possession, even if you have a conceal-and-carry license and have never committed a crime."

Doesn't it feel like the liberal, political correct, madness essentially is stating that?

It's been a few days since the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Washington DC law banning handgun and obviously the Liberal Demogogue is in an uproar.

GUNS KILL PEOPLE, they cry!!! Banning guns reduces crime!!! Sure it does, idiots.

It's high time this country woke up to the lies liberals are spouting, whether it pertains to the myth of global warming, the claims of the Iraq War as "an illegal war," or that the United States is the cause of terrorism.

Thank you Supreme Court for restoring a semblance of common sense to our lives by overruling this gun ban; it's high time we stop emasculating the good citizens of this country while arming the criminals. Naturally, liberals hector those of us that truly understand the Constitution that the 2nd amendment only safeguarded the rights of a well-armed militia.

Hopefully this will shut them up. For the "intellegensia" that the liberals represent, they're not really quite short on common sense. In their perverse world, persons of all shapes, colors, and beliefs cohabitate peacefully; in said world, we negotiate; we engage in dialog. There are no need for wars, for guns, for bombs. In said perverse world, we rehabilitate criminals, we trust them to not make the same mistakes made in the past, to not prey on children, elderly, women, or the weak.

But this is the real world.

Attacking McCain's "Patriotism"

Is it any wonder that the Liberal smear machine, led by Democratic presidential candidate Barry Obama, is attacking the credibility and patriotism of rival John McCain?

In the age of Defeatism, when a liberal (Obama) has to perversely explain how his patriotism is a different brand of patriotism, it all oddly makes sense. Recently, we've had conservative-turned-liberal, General Wesley Clark, explain how McCain is NOT a war hero, or isn't patriotic.

Just because McCain's fighter jet was shot down during the Vietnam War, just because he was held captive in the Hanoi Hilton, just because he SERVED HIS COUNTRY, does not a war hero make, according to Clark. This coming from a man who's tenure as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO was cut short due to integrity and character issues.

" He continued, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

Now of all times, with the flood of defeatist, godless liberal pummeling the very foundations of this country, we need a hero, someone with a vision to assume the mantle of leadership carried by President George W. Bush, someone NOT worried about "inflaming" the sensitivities of islamo-fascism, someone not afraid to tap into our vast energy resources, someone who return the great Republican party back to FISCAL CONSERVATISM.

As for Obama, he's imploring voters to take his word that despite refusing to wear an American flag pin, calling for a speedy withdrawal of troops from Iraq, pandering to Islamic terrorists, etc, that he IS patriotic (don't forget his wife's run of denigrating remarks of the United States as well):

"Barack Obama yesterday sought to portray himself as a mainstream American patriot and put his Republican opponents on notice that he would "not stand idly by" when others questioned his support for the US flag."

McCain might not be the most idyllic Republican nominee. Often he has not ingratiated himself to fellow Republicans with his proclivity to stepping across the proverbial aisle and working with Democrats on a compromise legislation. But with all the bluster Obama has raised regarding "change" and "unification," it's in fact McCain that has demonstrated unity and compromise.

The Coming Economic Night

Is there any hope for the American economy? The news is in...and it is all bad, every single piece of it. Bad news from the people, bad news from the banks, bad news from the government, and bad news from the corporations. We're broke. No one is saying America is broke, but it is. The shoes haven't all dropped, there are still mountains of untold debt hidden, almost ready to burst through the door, the keepers of the secrets sweating and groaning to keep it back. They are almost exhausted and the night is about to splash forth.

The secrets are already slipping out on the people side: foreclosures are up, inflation is up, bills are up, and credit is down. Job cuts have started, tent cities are growing, and families across America toss and turn more each night, wondering how to pay the bills, wondering what will happen if that unexpected medical expense happens, wondering if they'll be living out of their car soon.

Now the news on the government side is carefully massaged and managed. Millions in taxpayer money goes into the statisticians payrolls to crunch the numbers and tell us that core inflation is low, that life in America is better than it was a generation ago, that our future is on track. The data is carefully rolled out and the government spokesmen are well rehearsed, comfortable in the lime light, glib with the half-truths their mathematicians have spun. The people are lulled asleep by these monotonous, soothing voices, not realizing they are listening to sirens luring them onto the rocks.

The banks have the strongest game in town. Surrounded by the creme de la creme of Wall Street marketing, they can sell fire to a demon burning in the pits of Hell. Money, investments, dividends, astronomical returns, all of these are the tricks of their trade. They live by selling financial products, charging fees and interest. Whether the product actually benefits the customers, well, buyer beware. Who could not love the opaque financial instruments they've created: the derivatives, the CDS's, the CDO's, and the multiple tranches of the subprime MBS's? Such terms sound imposing so they must be worth millions and you know your future is secure because your portfolio is stuffed with these exotic financial instruments. But hidden in the small print, on page 87 at the bottom, in 6-point font, it reads that returns promised will only happen if a secondary market forms for these instruments. So look around you: are people actively trading this alphabet soup? Only kind of and certainly not for a profit? These instruments are in every drawer and every vault of every pension plan, municipality, bank, credit union, in every country of the world. Surely this would mean that people would be buying and selling, cranking the value of the alphabets upward to the stratosphere. You could retire early, if they were being traded at their market value, but they're not. Instead, they're being hidden down on Level 3 and not counted toward the bottom line. Marked to market, its called, and everyone says it has value. But you know, and everyone else that bought into this scam knows -- the paper declines in value every day and is headed for worthlessness. When everyone finds out how worthless it is, when the instruments are brought from Level 3 into the light of day, a great wailing, a great keening cry will cross our land. The instruments will dissolve when examined and be shown for what they really are: nothing, things with no value. Everyone spent billions, maybe trillions, they gambled on a new money and found only the old confidence game. So you really believe you have any money left in your bank? It's gone, now and forever, eaten alive by alphabet soup.

The corporations will keep America together. They will be there as a foundation for a new future and a new wealth. Our corporate might brought us through 2 world wars and a depression. It is unequaled in the world and it will keep us great. Except, it is gone, a hollow echo of its former glory. Plants are closed, natural resources are locked behind laws, corporations are about servicing other companies or about compliance with government law. How exactly does this build wealth? Most real manufacturing has been outsourced overseas, leaving Americans with fewer opportunities to earn a decent wage. Wages stagnate, our economy stagnates, our government and taxes grow, and the American dream is squeezed out because multi-national corporations followed the profit principle, greed comes before all else.

So here we sit with a government that lies to her people while gorging on whatever wealth remains, a banking system that hides toxic financial secrets in the dark, a citizenry growing poorer every day, and corporations that are treating their employees not that differently than Pharaoh treated his slaves. There is gloom growing across our land. I for one am glad for the darkness because it helps me to hide my shame. Our ancestors, our mothers and fathers, our grandparents, gave us an inheritance, and we spent it on geegaws from China, on pointless foreign wars, and on worthless, shiny financial instruments. We are fools here in America, all of us. We have lost our way, we have forgotten the freedom and liberty that was given to us. We did not respect our heritage, we have sold it for a bowl of stew, and like Esau, we have lost our birthright too.

The coming economic night is spreading thickly over our land and no morning will dawn from it. It will stay until our shame and foolishness is squeezed from inside all of us, until our common sense returns, until we remember who we are, what we value, and the great land that is America. This long night will cost lives, maybe millions of them. It will cost misery unlike anything that our country has experienced before. It will be a refining fire. We have worshipped the false god of mammon and received darkness in return.

Now while there is still time, learn how to bring light into your soul. Remember all that is good and right. Know what is true and honest and value it, no matter the cost. Only by holding on to the values that made us great, can we be great again. Not great as a conqueror but great in character, great in honor, great in mercy, and great in our humility. Against such, no military can stand, no disaster can have power. America can be reborn after the coming economic night but only if something bright burns in the bosom of each of us. Build and stoke that fire now. There is no stopping the coming night, but we can endure it. Make a pact with yourself that you will endure it. The America on the other side of this night will indeed be a country of legend and a country where another economic night can never happen again.

Take your medicine. It's good for you.

CodLiverOilGuy