Snapped Shot

The Palestinians prove their "peaceful" intentions yet again:



The usual crocodile tears follow, of course. After all, it's not like these men's deaths are their own fault or anything... right? Continue reading »

The missus informs me that there is something of a controversy surrounding French President Nikolas Sarkozy's recent vacation photographs:—Namely, that they've been somewhat retouched:

French fauxtography?

A magazine owned by a millionaire friend of Nicolas Sarkozy doctored a photograph of the French president to remove his "love handles", it has been claimed.

Paris Match, the celebrity weekly owned by the media mogul Arnaud Lagardere, was said to have applied a computer air brush to the image of Mr Sarkozy to get rid of the unsightly bulges of fat around his waist, which are known as poignées d'amour in French.

It was only last year that Mr Sarkozy was accused of being responsible for the sacking of the magazine's former editor Alain Genestar after he published a front page picture of Mr Sarkozy's wife Cécilia and an alleged lover.

Such revelations highlight claims that the president has enjoyed favourable treatment from some parts of the media because of his ties to wealthy and influential businessmen.

Believe me, I have seen much worse. Or better, as the case may be.

The rumours have been flying for about a week now, but Val is starting to get concrete info. Stay tuned over at Babalu Blog for the latest updates—I'll definitely be breaking out the ol' Bubbly the second I hear confirmation!



Update: He may live on yet, even if only in the spirit of Weekend at Bernie's Fidel's.

Thanks to The All-New CQ for this little slice of joy!

Not everything is as rosy as the Cuban government would have us believe. Duh!

This is just bound to increase the quality of incoming students. Oh, how I pine for the days when a University education actually meant something:

If there's a sign of the times in college admissions, it may be this: Steven Roy Goodman, an independent college counselor, tells clients to make a small mistake somewhere in their application — on purpose.

"Sometimes it's a typo," he says. "I don't want my students to sound like robots. It's pretty easy to fall into that trap of trying to do everything perfectly and there's no spark left."

What Goodman is going for is "authenticity" — an increasingly hot selling point in college admissions as a new year rolls around.

If our schools spent as much time "educating" as they do dreaming up ways of making more money—err, make that "increasing enrollment," we wouldn't have to worry so much about attracting educated professionals from other countries.

Not that we do that all too well.

These two would have made rather fitting honourees on the annual Darwin Awards list. As it is, they'll have to settle for a Runner's Up:

Two Swiss students on holiday played frisbee with an object they found on a beach unaware it was a live land mine.

Lukas Aider, 20, and Christoph Kurz, 19, took a plunge in the Danube river in Budapest when they found the mine and began their potentially lethal game.

A lifeguard watching stopped them and immediately called the police.

A bomb squad then arrived to make safe what turned out to be an old Soviet 6 kilogrammes anti-tank mine.

Our Español lesson for today: "Tener cuidado con ésos cercan las podadoras alrededor del jardín."

It seems that the radical lawbreakers lobby—err, make that the League of United Latin American "Undocumented" American Citizens—is upset at Clear Channel's VLW radio station for an on-air gag pulled by one of the programs on that station. LULAC is going so far to threaten a boycott of Clear Channel's top Hispanic stations in response.

Personally, I don't see many negatives to this—Clear Channel has been "hispandering" to the non-English speaking, non-assimilated masses for about 10 years now, so as far as I can tell, their chickens are merely coming home to roost. LULAC's take on the matter?

"WLW has a track record of offending all minorities. Who's the next target? This is a real problem that needs to be fixed," Riveiro said.

Once again, the imaginary "right" to not be offended trumps the right of Americans to live amongst people who actually want to be Americans...

There is no house in all of Virginia that symbolizes the dramatic shifts of technology as does Abingdon Plantation, which was located along the banks of the Potomac River north of Alexandria, where Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport sits today.

The house was originally built in 1748 by the Alexander family, for whom the city of Alexandria is reported to be named. It passed through the hands of John Parke Custis, stepson of George Washington, back to the Alexanders, and through a handful of other families (the Wises and the Hunters) between 1778 and 1930, when it was destroyed by fire. The events which the property was witness to is what makes it of particular interest.

Abingdon played silent witness to the effects of the Revolutionary War, in which Custis gave his life in 1781 [Ed.:—Thanks, King James!]. Properties in the same general area—most notably, Lord Fairfax's Belvoir estate—went empty as English supporters fled the country. The Wise family, who lived there during the War of 1812, were reported to have witnessed the burning of Washington, D.C. by British forces. And, during the Civil War, a New Jersey regiment of the Union army seized and occupied the land, calling it "Camp Princeton." Continue reading »

I respect this guy's intentions, but considering what's happened to certain other donations made to the Palestinians, I don't expect anything better to become of this one—If the Palestinians truly wanted peace, they would spend something less than 100% of their national product on weaponry.

Continue reading »

Courtesy the Brussels Journal:

"Discrimination!!!"

“Women are simply not accepted by the Muslim community,” says Mohammed. “So women had also better not do this work.” Mohammed is my colleague social worker [integration civil servant] in Antwerp’s immigrant quarters. He looks at me gravely. “That is just the way it is, and that is why I prefer not to work with a woman, that simply doesn’t work.” He is complaining about another colleague, a Flemish woman who is his superior.

Mohammed does not think that this mentality about women and work is wrong. In fact, whoever questions this attitude is wrong because it is his culture and belief, which is why he accepts it, he “understands” it and we, Flemings, do not. Consequently we must accept it, until we “understand” as well.

...

She did not want to discuss the complete lack of fellowship, the negative attitude of the Moroccan colleagues. Her problem was Mohammed. He didn’t want to work together with her. He walked away during a conversation with her and went to pray in the meeting room, calling on Allah to stand by him in the discussion with a woman! Perplexity on the part of his female colleague.

Naturally she submitted her conflict with Mohammed, and his praying in the meeting room, to the management. Yes, it’s annoying, but now what? The problem was bought before the staff manager. Who, strangely enough, made a completely absurd accusation. Not Mohammed, but rather the female co-worker, had overstepped her bounds. She had threatened Mohammed and provoked aggression.

Be sure to read the full article, as there are other incidents worth hearing about that I left out. This scenario is the end result of what "Diversity" is all about: Tiny groups of "oppressed" people trying to out-oppress each other, with nothing but chaos resulting from the exchange.

Is that the America you want to live in?

I don't really have anything to add to this one...

Morning, all! Apparently, Hugo "Cindy's Friend" Chavez is upset that we're still circulating rumours of Castro's death.

Now where have we seen that before?

Tell you what, Thuggo: We'll believe you are telling the truth if and when you trot ol' Fidel out in front of the masses and have him give one of his legendary speeches.

After all, if he's still "Writing and productive," then he shouldn't have a problem giving one of his traditional rants against capitalism, even if it's from a wheelchair.

Until such time, we can only continue to assume that he's el muerto, and his collection of cronies are still trying to figure out a way to break it to the masses.

Thanks to Sebastian Scheiner of the Associated Press for making this an extremely wonderful birthday.



Clowns and tear gas—A good gift for any occasion! Continue reading »