Rest In Peace Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks died this evening in Detroit. She was 92 years old. Cassandra Spratling from the Detroit Free Press starts her story this way:

When Rosa Parks refused to get up, an entire race of people began to stand up for their rights as human beings.

May The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Now It's Piggy Banks

From DhimmiWatch via Lone Star Times comes this story about banks in England banning piggy banks given to customers as a promotional item (AAP):

British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims. Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here.... Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move. "This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers," he said. However, the move brought accusations of political correctness gone mad from critics. "The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs and the logical result of that process is a bland uniformity," the Dean of Blackburn, Reverend Christopher Armstrong, said. "We should learn to celebrate our difference, not be fearful of them." Khalid Mahmoud, the Labour MP for a Birmingham seat and one of four Muslim MPs in Britain, also criticised the piggy-bank ban. "We live in a multicultural society and the traditions and symbols of one community should not be obliterated just to accommodate another," Mr Mahmoud said. "I doubt many Muslims would be seriously offended by piggy banks."

Muslims are not supposed to eat pork and consider pigs unclean, but these banks are porcelain or plastic pigs. As with the situation in Dudley, West Midlands, UK a live pig in the office, or giving away a side of bacon or pork chops could, maybe, be construed as "insensitive". Forcing actual, live pigs or pork on people, any people, would be unacceptable, but this just takes the cake. Repeat after me: There. Is. No. Right. To. Not. Be. Offended. Many different groups have food prohibitions. With Hindus it's beef. We should close all the McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Ruth's Chris steakhouses. Jews can not eat pork or shellfish. Close all the Red Lobsters and Joe's Crab Shacks. Everything on this planet is bound to offend someone, somewhere. Also covering this: Little Green Footballs, The Jawa Report, OpiniPundit, Say Anything, Gates of Vienna, Gut Rumbles, Momentary Lapses of Insanity, Daimnation, Hyscience, The American Princess, Civitatensis, Lost Budgie Blog, Welcome Anchoress readers! Welcome Junk Yard Blog readers! More: And Now The Three Little Pigs Too

Delay's Statement

I have committed no wrong doing. I know that, and more importantly, Ronnie Earle knows that. You may be surprised to hear this from me today, but I find this is a very good day. For the first time in over three years, I was provided the opportunity to go before a court and refute these baseless charges that are the result of a political vendetta being acted out by Ronnie Earle. Now, unfortunately for Ronnie Earle, the facts and the law are on my side. The only reason I had to be in that courtroom today was because Ronnie Earle has abused his prosecutorial power and he's pursued these contrived and baseless charges. Because of actions that I took through the democratic process to rid this very legislature of years of unfair gerrymandering by Texas democrats, I became a target for Ronnie Earle. Because I was successful in exercising my right to be involved in a political process that elected more republicans, I became a target of Ronnie Earle. And because Ronnie Earle and the democrat party could not beat me at the ballot box, and could not beat me on the floor of the House of Representatives, they are now desperately trying to challenge me in a courtroom. In short, I have been charged for defeating democrats. I have been charged for advocating constitutional representation. And I have been charged for advancing the republican agenda. Ronnie Earle and the democrat campaign behind will be unsuccessful. I will fight this prosecutor's abuse of the legal system and I will be absolutely exonerated. I will not, I will not let a prosecutor who pursues his political enemies by abusing the law and manufacturing baseless charges wreck our justice system. Grand Jury shopping and "make the law up as you go" injustice by the district attorney will not rule the day. The facts and the law will rule the day. A fair trial, with an impartial jury, will look at the facts and they will understand that without a doubt, I committed no wrongdoing whatsoever. I look forward to presenting those facts and putting my faith in the law and order to welcome my inevitable exoneration. Thank you once again for this opportunity to talk to y'all. Have a nice day.

What A Mug Shot

Found at The Smoking Gun Via Lorie at PoliPundit: Very nice picture Mr. Delay.

Prayer Request

Jeanette received a phone call that she's been dreading. Please lift her, her cousin and his daughter up in your prayers.

ACLU Sign Meme

I've been tagged by Lady Jane at A Lady's Ruminations who was tagged by William Teach at Pirates Cove who was tagged by THM's Bacon Bits who was tagged by Third World County who started it off: If you could hang a sign on the ACLU building to draw attention to it, what would you put on your sign?

ALL CRIMINAL LIBERTIES UNION We Believe in Rights for Criminals - Not for Victims!

I'm going to tag Christopher K. Leavitt at Leavworld and Real Teen at Right on the Right

The Carnival of True Civil Liberties III

is up at Stop The ACLU.

Getting Your Christmas Cactus To Bloom

It's October 15th and time to ready your Christmas Cactus for Christmas blooms. A Christmas Cactus needs 12-14 hours of darkness each night in order to form blooms. You can put it in a closet every night, or just leave it there for about two weeks until the small buds form.

That's what I will be doing. I'm putting the Christmas Cactus on the top shelf of the linen closet until Halloween.

Watch for small buds on the top edges of the leaves. When you see a few about the size of a beaded pin head on the leaves, it's time to put the plant back where you had it. At Christmas your cactus will be full of beautiful blooms. A Christmas Cactus is a tropical succulent, not a desert one. Water when the top inch or so of soil is dry to the touch.

Free Piglet

You may have noticed the Free Piglet graphic at the top of the sidebar. Others have written about this before, now it's my turn. Pigs of any kind have been banned from the Dudley Council office in the West Midlands in England. This includes ceramic pigs, pigs on calendars and even cartoon pigs such as Porky Pig and Pooh's best friend Piglet. The pigs have been banned because they might offend Muslims, who do not eat pork and consider pigs unclean. Piglet's crime is his presence on a tissue box at one woman's desk.

Councillor Mahbubur Rahman, a practising Muslim, backed the ban. He said: "It's a tolerance of people'’s beliefs."

This isn't tolerance of people's beliefs, this is subjucation. Where did this "right to not be offended" come from? I'm offended by a lot of things. Since I am offended by rap music, let's ban it. I'm offended. I'm offended by the gratuitous use of foul language that I can be subject to when out at the mall. By all means, let's ban the use of any foul language. I'm offended by Cindy Sheehan, let's ban her. I'm offended by the liberal slant of the old media. Ban them! Ban them now! The ACLU most especially offends me. They offend me by insisting that the non-existent "right to not be offended" be enforced for one person, totally trumping everyone else. Zion, IL was incorporated in 1902 as a Christian Utopia.

Named after the mountain upon which Jerusalem was built, Zion City was to be communitarian and theocratic, a place of Christian cooperation, racial harmony, and strict fundamentalist morals.

In 1987, a man decided that he was offended by the city sticker that he was required to place on the windshield of his vehicle. The city sticker had the seal of the city printed on it. The seal contained a cross. The cross was part of the seal for 85 years before [the ACLU and]

the Illinois chapter of American Atheists filed suit against Zion City, citing that its city seal, which contained a cross, a dove, and the phrase "“God Reigns,"” was unconstitutional. In 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that the city seal violated the principle of separation of church and state and that the Christian symbolism must be removed. Ironically, Zion City officials succeeded in incorporating the words "“In God We Trust"” on the new city seal, because the phrase was deemed acceptable religious language in the public arena.

The Supreme Court was wrong on this. Congress made no law. It offends me that the ACLU defends groups such as NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association). It offends me that the ACLU defends live sex shows in Oregon. It offends me that the word God seems to be unacceptable anywhere in public. I remember a story where someone was offended that a CHURCH had "God Bless You" on their sign. It offends me that I may not see a Navity scene in any public space at Christmas. He is the reason for the season. I can choose not to listen to a radio station that plays rap music. I can walk away from foul mouthed teenagers in a mall. I can choose not to watch or read old media. If something offends me, I can avert my eyes or ears. So can you. If we continue on this track, no one will be able to anything, anywhere, anytime. Welcome Carnival of True Civil Liberties readers! Please look around... Jeff has a story on how The MSM Was/Is Wrong about Iraq I have a story on how to get your Christmas Cactus to Bloom The Anchoress has a post at CBS' Public Eye and Jeff talks about Knowing the Other Side's Offence

The Anchoress at Public Eye

The Anchoress was asked by CBS's Public Eye Outside Voices

to comment on CBS News, or the media in general. Previous contributors include The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last, PressThink’s Jay Rosen, Tom Rosenstiel and author Craig Crawford, so when the crew over there extended an invitation to me I was appropriately flattered to included be in such good company, and quickly agreed because - as you know - I can never write enough.

Their intro** is as follows:

Outside Voices – The Anchoress Speaks Each week we invite someone from the outside to weigh in with their thoughts about CBS News and the media at large. This week, we invited The Anchoress, one of the blogosphere's most mysterious and interesting voices who this week turned on her TV once again to check in on the CBS "Evening News." As always, the opinions expressed in “Outside Voices” are those of the author, not ours and we seek a wide variety of voices. Now, The Anchoress:

Go read both. BTW - Who has the time to watch the network evening news anymore? With commutes taking so long, is anyone even home from work by the time the network news comes on? Here in the central time zone, the network news is on at 5:30 pm. With work hours of 8-5 and average commutes of 45 minutes to an hour who's home? **Fixed permalink to Anchoress' post at Public Eye (2:33 pm)

Paul Mirengoff on The O'Reilly Factor

Here's the transcript: O'Reilly: In the Impact segment tonight, as you know Dan Rather left the CBS evening news over a story that questioned President Bush's National Guard Service. The source of that story proved to be bogus and the producer, Mary Mapes, now says a right wing conspiracy caused the entire fracas which Mapes has written a book about. It'll be out in November. Joining us now from Washington is Paul Mirengoff, a member of Powerline.com which was involved in this situation. To be fair to Mary Mapes, we would like get on and interview when the book comes out. I think this is a very small part of her book, but she does believe that an organized conservative cabal zeroed in on her story and tore it to pieces and she resents it. What say you sir? Mirengoff: Well I just think it's unfortunate that she can't admit that the story was a mistake and move on. This matter should have been put to rest months ago when the Thornburg panel issued it's findings. The Thornburg panel was commissioned by CBS, Miss Mapes' employer, to try to figure out what had happened. It was headed by Richard Thornburgh, the former Attorney General of the United States. He's hardly a member of some right wing conspiracy. He found that the story was indefensible. He said that they, uh, quoted, they used selective quotes from interviews, to distort the picture. He said they misrepresented findings of their own document examiner to their viewers and that really should have been the end of it. To blame this on the right wing conspiracy is ludicrous and pretty sad. O'Reilly: OK, but both Rather, Dan Rather and Mapes are still saying the story was correct, even though we got hoodwinked by our primary source which turned out to be bogus. And I don't think you're going to blow them out of that. But as you say, I mean, the internal investigation at CBS said, look this isn't up to our standards, we don't put this on the air. Now, Powerline, do you go after everybody, or do you just look at liberals, or are you trying to promote a conservative agenda? What exactly are you trying to do? Mirengoff: Well, we're conservative, and most, we do a lot of opining - hopefully opining, not bloviating - O'Reilly: Umhmm. Mirengoff: Along conservative lines. And when we report facts, we link to our facts, so the reader can go and check our sources and see whether we've gotten it right. And if we make a mistake, and it does happen, blogs do operate very fast, we make a mistake we get the correction... O'Reilly: But say you got a tip that said Tom Delay was doing something wrong or a conservative politician, anybody. Would you pursue that, or would you just dump it in the wastebasket? Mirengoff: No, if we had solid information we would go with that. We were highly, no one read us, it was years ago and no one was reading us at the time, but we were highly critical of Trent Lott, when that story broke with respect to Senator Thurmond and his comment. So, you know, we are conservative, but we don't shield anybody. O'Reilly: OK. Alright. So you say that you're in business to get the truth out to the folks. That's what your businesses do. Mirengoff: Yes, and to present conservative opinions. O'Reilly: Opinion. Alright. Now some of these other smear websites on the left, I mean all they do is follow people around and tape them and try to, you know, get little things that they say and take them out of context. So if you say a joke they present it as serious. Do you do that as well? Do you try to denigrate the other side? Mirengoff: No. We try to treat the other side with respect. O'Reilly: Nothing more to say on that? You don't use defamatory tactics, you don't go after anybody and try to destroy them because you disagree with them? Mirengoff: No. I mean on the Rather story for instance, if you look at our lengthy posts on that, you won't even find the name Dan Rather. We were focused on the story trying to determine whether it was true or false, not on the individual. O'Reilly: Alright. So you didn't bad mouth Rather, you didn't a history of his "Ratherisms" or try to make him look like some kind of ideological fool? Mirengoff: No, not at, later on, we linked to some, his history became relevant when he continued denying, denying the story, we linked to some people who did that. But the far focus was on the story not on Dan Rather. O'Reilly: OK. Now Powerline has become very successful and it's you and a couple of other lawyers running it. Correct? Mirengoff: Correct. O'Reilly: Now George Soros on the left, has bought his way into a number of these websites and uses them to obviously try to hurt people with whom he disagrees. You have silent funding from right wingers? Mirengoff: No. We don't get a penny from anybody. We, our goal is to say what we think and we don't want to be constrained, we don't want to bought and paid for, or doing anyone's bidding. O'Reilly: So no, no Melanskafe[sp?] or any of these guys kick you money and... Mirengoff: No, no absolutely not. Not a penny. We have a little advertising revenue now, but that's it. O'Reilly: So you're basically above-board? Conservative, but not looking to destroy anybody. Mirengoff: No. We're not out to destroy anybody. We try to be about ideas and we call them as we see them and because we're not funded we have the freedom to that. O'Reilly: Alright Mr. Mirengoff. And Mary Mapes is absolutely welcome anytime to come on this program to say whatever she wants to say. We appreciate your taking your time. Mirengoff: Thank you. Welcome Powerline readers! Please look around.

Very Interesting...

Earlier someone googled aclu "las cruces" weinbaum and this post was at the top of page 2 (of 4 pages). The interesting thing was in positions 2 and 3 on that google result page: a book review by a Lisa M. Weinbaum of Las Cruces, NM (scroll down a few). The Book is Why the Religious Right Is Wrong: About Separation of Church & State (Paperback) by Rob Boston The review reads:

The Battle Handbook for the Defense of the First Amendment, April 10, 2003 Reviewer: Lisa M. Weinbaum (Las Cruces, New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews This contents of this book helps prepare the citizen-soldier for the defense of every citizens' religious rights from the fanatical fundamentalist religious groups in America who want total control. If one can read this book without getting sick themselves, they will see how repulsive the individuals and groups are that proclaim their religious beliefs to be the only true religious beliefs; how the reader should obey their teachings; how the U. S. Government should be based on their religious beliefs. When religious groups want to control the government and the people from inside the womb to after the grave a serious battle must occur, not just light skirmishes. This book helps the citizen-soldier get through the light skirmishes while girding themselves for the inevitable battle for personal religious rights, free from government, of all Americans.

Very interesting. The date of the review is April 10, 2003. Looks like a lot of time went by before the citizen-soldiers of Las Cruces filed their lawsuit... Linked to Stop the ACLU Open Trackback

Coalition of the Chillin'

I have taken my time yesterday and today and have read a whole lot on the Miers nomination. I have decided that I have to join the Coalition of the Chillin'. The voices on all sides are deafening. Differing voices: Thomas Lifson Hugh Hewitt Beldar Michelle Malkin Patterico PoliPundit Blogs For Bush The Anchoress Stop the ACLU OpiniPundit and many, many more - links to some of those others can be found at some of the links above. I think that quite a few people were looking for a fillibuster battle and they are more disappointed that they don't think they'll get one than they are with the actual nomination. Ted Frank at Point Of Law had an interesting post Some wishful Miers thinking:

Here's the sinister conspiracy theory behind the Miers nomination: 1. Bush nominates Miers. 2. Conservatives howl with outrage. 3. Democrats, sensing an opportunity to deal a defeat to Bush, decide to oppose the nomination. 4. The Democrats seize the best reed available to them: Miers is under-experienced, doesn't have an intellectual background, and is a Bush crony. 5. Brownback and a number of Republicans express their opposition. 6. With the nomination looking doomed, Miers withdraws her name. 7. Bush now nominates Michael McConnell—and the Democrats can't possibly filibuster, because they just demanded Bush nominate based on quality rather than on political considerations.

It's time to chill out and see what happens.

Today's Presidential Press Conference

The transcript is here.

Paul Mirengoff of Powerline on O'Reilly Tonight

John at Powerline reports that Paul will be a guest on The O'Reilly Factor tonight. I'll have a transcript as soon as I can post interview. UPDATE: from the Powerline post referenced above:

UPDATE by PAUL: I won't be appearing on the Factor after all. They've decided to take the segment in a different direction.

Cats in Sinks

What is it with kittens and sinks? This is Duncan, he's almost 7 months old.

The Carnival of True Civil Liberties Volume 1

Visit the premiere Carnival of True Civil Liberties at Stop the ACLU. Jay will be hosting this month and then the Carnival of True Civil Liberties will start traveling... Ground rules are here. Our contribution is here.

Phone Solicitors

I had two calls today asking me to give money to one of those police organizations. I told them I am not currently working and can't give anything right now. The first one said, "Well, thank you anyway." and politely ended the call. The second (for a different organization) said, "Well, we're not asking for a lot. $25 could make a big difference for our cause." I told him that $25 makes a big difference in my grocery budget too. Then I thanked him and hung up. Don't know why I thanked him. By the way, if you want to give a donation that you can guarantee will be 100% used by your local police or fire department, give it directly to your local police or fire department. Mail it or bring it in.

Speaking English

Yesterday afternoon I took my almost five-year-old son in for preschool screening. It was set up in the gym at a local elementary school. Near the door was the check-in table, then there were several stations set up for testing communication skills, cognitive skills and motor skills. Each child was sent through with an aide. Mom or Dad just waited. My area has a large Hispanic population and bilingual classes, so there were plenty of bilingual aides available. There were three parents and children ahead of me in line. The first needed a bilingual aide. The second was asked if she needed a bilingual aide. She said that they spoke English, but her child also spoke Spanish at home. She was given a bilingual aide anyway (I don't think she was really happy with that, but accepted it). This is where the story gets good: The lady at the desk, hearing an accent from mother number 3, asked if she needed a bilingual aide. Mom said, "We speak English. We are from Romania." Our area also has a good sized population of Former Soviet Bloc and Indian immigrants too. There aren't any bilingual aides for those immigrants. I just think it's telling. Oh, by the way, the little guy did extremely well with his testing. The expected scores were 10, 12 and 12. I'm not sure which score went with each test though. His scores were 18, 23 and 22. They told me that he's "more than ready" for school. He's gifted and there's no gifted programs in the district. The cut-off date for kindergarden is September 1st (you have to be five by that date). His birthday is in November. He can't go to kindergarden until next school year. Now what do I do?

The WTC

I posted this late last night and I have some more thoughts about it now. Right after 9/11, shots of the World Trade Center, shot before the attacks, were deleted from many movies. The one that comes to mind immediately was a scene, shown in the original trailer, from Spiderman. The scene showed a helicopter caught in a giant web strung between the Towers. This scene was deleted from the movie. I thought, perhaps, they'd include it as a deleted scene on the DVD, but they didn't. Wikipedia has a list of movies and and some TV shows that were affected by 9/11 here. In some movies the Towers were digitally removed from scenes. This has always bothered me. Why remove them? The Towers stood until a group of religious zealots, out to take over the world, destroyed them and thousands of people inside. Removing the Towers from the films made it seem as if they had never existed. That just wasn't right. That was why I was so glad to see the Towers in the Lost Episode. How do you feel about this? Please leave comments, I'm really very interested in other's opinions on this subject.