text:
The really pernicious thing about political correctness is that often completely fake. It was recently reported that the FBI was building crime maps based on the distribution of Muslims because they found the correlations useful to detect certain kinds of crimes. Now it turns out that the NYPD has been tracking Muslims who change their names on the not entirely fanciful idea that they are up to no good.
Since August, an Associated Press investigation has revealed a vast NYPD intelligence-collecting effort targeting Muslims following the terror attacks of September 2001. Police have conducted surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling daily life including where people eat, pray and get their hair cut. Police infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds more.
Monitoring name changes illustrates how the threat of terrorism now casts suspicion over what historically has been part of America's story. For centuries, foreigners have changed their names in New York, often to lose any stigma attached with their surname.
The Roosevelts were once the van Rosenvelts. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz. Donald Trump's grandfather changed the family name from Drumpf.
We all remember the touching scenes from the 1940s movies when someone called Antonio turns to his buddies in the landing craft before the hitting the beach and says "if I get it, remember to bury as me as Tony, I'm an American now!" But today when Daood Gilani becomes David Coleman Headley the NYPD have been apt to take a different view. "David" isn't fixing to become American. He's a-fixing on killing some. Not that there isn't something in this, though it is complicated: the NYPD has apparently gotten Muslims ex-militants to admit that they've changed their names to "lay low" or to increase their chances of getting a job.
Given this background it was ironical that an administration appointee, Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary, may have tried to infer a pattern of Islamophobia in Texas in order to provide a source for a left-wing magazine hit piece on Rick Perry. Patrick Poole of PJMedia reported that Elibiary went on a fishing expedition, came up with nothing and had his article rejected by the left-wing outlet into the bargain.
Texas Department of Public Safety officials are asking questions following a report that Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary may have been given access to a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet. He allegedly used the documents to claim the department was promoting "Islamophobia" — claims that the media outlet ultimately rejected. They declined to do the story.
Now Perry must be a bigot because he's from Texas. But the FBI and the NYPD are only doing their job. Why? Because that's how Central Casting has decreed it works. Given the real behavior of the NYPD and the FBI, one might be forgiven for thinking that the way the game is actually played is that any agency can be as "Islamophobic" as necessary as long as it doesn't look that way.
It is the non-PC appearance of an act, not the act in itself, that is the crime. Guantanamo, bad but extraordinary rendition, good. Handling Korans without gloves, bad but zapping people dead in countries in which no state of war exists by drone, good. War, bad but kinetic military action, good. A world without nuclear weapons, bad but an Iran with nukes … well let's talk about it. And so forth and so on. Our cultural has performed the ultimate trick: it has created stereotypes about stereotypes.
The importance given to spin was underscored by secret government meetings that were held to convey the impression of transparency. "The meeting's purpose was to train Freedom of Information Act officers from federal agencies how to respond to FOIA requests, including tips on resolving disputes over what government documents can be made public." One bright idea was to create a two-track government, one meeting for the record and another one for keeps. The other brainwave was to create a license to lie.
A longtime internal policy that allowed Justice Department officials to deny the existence of sensitive information could become the law of the land — in effect a license to lie — if a newly proposed rule becomes federal regulation in the coming weeks.
The proposed rule directs federal law enforcement agencies, after personnel have determined that documents are too delicate to be released, to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests "as if the excluded records did not exist."
The whole point is not to be transparent but to make the rubes think that government is transparent. One might wonder what other lies are in the works, but if the public simply wanted the truth, shouldn't they just ask the President? After all he wouldn't lie to the American people, now would he?
When I wrote the Three Conjectures years ago, it was premised on the argument that a politically correct system would simply paper over problems until things got out of hand and then it would act with extreme prejudice overnight. Like the Soviet Union, a politically correct polity would announce things were getting much better each year until it collapsed. Multiculturalism will be working just great right up to the eve of the day when they announce the wholesale destruction of the Muslim world or the mass deportation of immigrants back to their home countries.
That is of course, an extreme example, but it is characteristic of how systems in denial work. Such systems have two tracks: the one for public consumption and the one for internal consumption. The version for public consumption is based on the "noble lie" and the version for internal guidance is based on secret and classified memoranda. It is an extremely dangerous method of governance which assumes that the Guardians, or the Philosopher-Kings — someone at any rate — will eventually be reasonable, even in a system where reason is secret. Ayn Rand once likened the method of the "noble lie" to "the theory of the Nazi ruling elite".
The better approach would be to let it all hang out and let the sunlight of fact disinfect the debate. Western societies should frankly admit that Islam poses a problem and engage the public in open discussion over what should be done. Maybe the idea will be openly refuted and we shall all, by exposure to the evidence, admit to error where it exists; maybe we will all realize that things are worse than we thought. However that may be, the results are likely to be far more rational and humane than a politically correct approach which denies all difficulty up until the moment when the whole thing blows up.
The first step would be to demolish all unnecessary hate speech codes; the second to identify radical and violent doctrines (and not the inoffensive ones) as an ideological enemy and see where that goes. Those who are afraid of an open process should ask themselves why the alternative is better. If they believe a system of dual-track government and sanctioned lying is superior because our sensitive souls are spared the sight of the truth, then what is the reason? But we may need a disaster to convince ourselves that the truth after all, will set us free.
In fairness to the bureaucracy, many of these "noble lies" were crafted to facilitate the conduct of diplomacy or adopted as realpolitik expedients. How could one do business with the Saudis unless one were prepared to put the best construction on their national ideology? But now the reverse problem emerges. The Arab Spring is bringing down all the "partners for peace" and the challenge is now how to represent Islamic thugs in the "freedom fighting" ranks as true democrats. Perhaps this calls for yet another "noble lie". And then why not another, and another?
But sooner or later the truth has an uncomfortable way of wriggling free. Like a spring, the more you push it down the harder it will recoil on the day it escapes. And while policy may survive the odd tactical falsehood, it can never be fundamentally based on a baldfaced lie. While we may withstand the odd carnivorous bloom in the garden, letting a forests of fibs spread wildly through the landscape is probably a bad idea. There is a public policy benefit to conforming plans with some semblance of reality. Too far into the depths of darkness and one can never find one's way back.
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50 Comments, 50 Threads
1. Morton Doodslag
"The better approach would be to let it all hang out and let the sunlight of fact disinfect the debate. Western societies should frankly admit that Islam poses a problem and engage the public in open discussion over what should be done."
Agreed 100%. So may we start with PJM itself? I've been banned by Totten, and some PJM editor, possibly Brian Preston, regularly spikes my comments at this site as well, which are almost always severely critical of Islam. I may sometimes use charged language about what I honestly see as heinousness of Islam, and it's utter unsuitability in the West. I believe its anti-freedom, anti-human, violence loving, "infidel" hating, is a cancerous ideology which guarantees horrendous consequences if we suffer it to persist. I try to support my position with facts, reasonable analysis, and common sense. I see what I see, learn what I learn, and make the inferences that make sense to me. Yet somehow this falls so far beyond the pale that my opinions cannot be published snider increasing numbers of writers at this sight.
Those are the same people who held out hope or even cheered when the Arab Spring began, while I predicted exactly what we see: the complete takeover by Islamic Fascists. These banners are the same people who compare The Jihad mini state to "the Israel of the Balkans", a comparison so lewd in its ignorance, that I cannot comprehend how such obscenity is allowed while opinions such as mine are banned.
I believe Islam, and the society of Muslims poses a mortal threat to my civilization, but that heresy cannot even be entertained by many, even at this site. Instead, the pious will take great pains to seek out ephemeral examples of Muslim so-called "moderation", and excoriate anyone who says otherwise.
Early on, in a cowardly act, PJM expelled Baron Bodissey and the site Gates of Vienna, because of its associations with the English Defense League. Since then, GoV and Jihadwatch have waged a very lonely vigil, a rear-guard defense really, against the steady onslaught of wide and deep Islamic Jihad. And pious hypocrites still retail their inane tomfoolery about Islam at this site, and poisonously pronounce the Nazi-like nature of anyone who pronounces anathema on the Religion of Peace.
Ezra Levant gets sued, Geert Wilders gets threatened, cartoonists get threatened into silence, and Fjordman, a magnificent and brilliant writer, gets slandered by the Muslims and their multicultural abettors, and smeared with the violence of the mass murderer of Norway.
I'm still waiting for this site to even mention the attempted annihilation of Fjordman, who has been driven underground, and his life destroyed… All I hear at PJM is crickets.
October 28, 2011 - 1:41 pm Link to this Comment -
2. Don Rodrigo
I remember Fjordman, and remain baffled as to why his writing was considered "hateful." But then, being direct, clear-eyed and uncompromising in one's writing is considered "hateful" by both the objects of that writing and those cowards who are afraid to have said "objects" get all riled up.
Remember that Wretchard himself was attacked here at BC by a troll after the Norway massacre. The imbecile who trolled implied that W. was one of those responsible for that violence.
October 28, 2011 - 1:49 pm Link to this Comment -
3. wretchard
Well I can only answer for myself. Whiskey and I disagree for example, but his link is visible in the sidebar.
October 28, 2011 - 1:51 pm Link to this Comment -
4. michael hoskins
W. New ground broken? This is the first time, IIRC, that you have offered an actual course of action….as you know I tend to focus on solutions more than bloviation. Good on ya.
Morty. I disagree. I have on this very site offered a course of action IRT Islam. I haven't ranted and raved…that is preaching to the choir…but I have offered options.
Humorous Anecdote. Ex used to say "First know thyself, then trick thyself" Her way of ignoring harsh reality…wonder if she still thinks that a way?
October 28, 2011 - 1:57 pm Link to this Comment -
5. Baobo
1 mort, What do you propose when 4.8 billion people aren't someone else's religion (perhaps even yours), and most of the 2 billion people who are that religion don't practice it *just right* as the one true God commanded so clearly and everyone knows…?
October 28, 2011 - 2:00 pm Link to this Comment -
6. Morton Doodslag
I should add that the incomparable writing of Wretchard is the main reason I still come to this site. I almost always agree with what he writes, and often learn tremendously from his insight and analysis. It is also a delight to follow the vibrant dialogue always in his comments section. Unlike those I criticize above, whose comments threads are dominated by a wildenprness of fawning admirers,and yes-men, (similar to the execrable Charles Johnson), theres always something witty and enlightening to read under the BC banner. Even when I rarely disagree with the proprietor, I have never found Wretchard to be the kind of brittle egoist that bans commenters and suppresses differing arguments. BC towers above this site in every regard.
October 28, 2011 - 2:01 pm Link to this Comment -
7. Gaffe Prices
Oh great… the verbosity and grandiosity of hammering the meme of "Transparency" was just a ruse to do and operate by the exact opposite system, with built in deception as the bedrock of it's foundation. To create a happy horse manure narrative while conspiring to keep whatever the real truth, not to mention what actions and directions are taken, secreet from the public. Sounds like the veritable Sorcerers Apprentice, or a Frankenstein's monster. the evil twin, the Bad Seed.
The real premise, is that these Oli'garks of the ruling class will tell you that "a government that rules by consent of the governed" ended long ago, more than a century ago, how? Nobody really knows anymore. My head is still spinning from the conspiracy thread, but "a government ruled by the consent of the governed" can be undermined by any un-checked (governmental) abuse(s), however small, until you reach the point where everyone wants to get in on the act, and there's no need to show anymore how the end justifies the means (the end of "rule by consent of the governed), it just is, so get used to it. No more means, no more ends, no more history. We're in charge and you are not. History is what we say it is, how it serves our purposes.
"The government does not rule "by the consent of the governed", so why would you or do you persist in demanding it?" …they would tell you, off the record.
That's exactly where pragmatism will land you.
A volatile combination of Murphy's Law, The Peter Principle, temptation, no ethical standards nor the study of them anymore, and shear incompetence.
October 28, 2011 - 2:16 pm Link to this Comment -
8. Baobo
7. gaffe, You can often trust first generation conspirators and revolutionaries. It's their replacements who are more troublesome. Take 1776 for example….
October 28, 2011 - 2:28 pm Link to this Comment -
9. Tcobb
If they believe a system of dual-track government and sanctioned lying is any superior because our sensitive souls are spared the sight of the truth, then what is the reason?
Why, to avoid accountability and to provide plausible deniability when the rulers need to do so to save their precious hides and reputations. Most modern politicians have to indulge in Orwellian doublethink to get and stay where they are. Its a sad commentary on our modern world but its true. All but the most sociopathic of them understand at some level that they are not truly gods walking upon the planet but frauds whose incompetence may one day shine forth for all to see. That is their ultimate terror: the consequences of having everyone see what they really are with all the veils of illusion ripped away. The consequences.
I hate to violate Godwin's law here but the current ruling class does indeed share Hitler's attitude: if the common people are unable to live up to the aspirations that the ruling class expects of them and that will keep the ruling class in power and status they deserve no mercy whatsoever and are therefore worthy of extermination.
Failing to meet the expectations of the Ruling Class is the ultimate sin for which there is and can never be any forgiveness.
It is a sad and dangerous thing when having narcissistic and/or sociopathic tendencies seems to be a prerequisite for obtaining public office.
How did we get here? Is there some way back home?
October 28, 2011 - 2:31 pm Link to this Comment -
10. Talnik
Are they monitoring Arab or Persian Muslims who Americanize their names or American Muslims who Islamisize their names?
October 28, 2011 - 2:36 pm Link to this Comment -
11. Roughcoat
Re: "While we may withstand the odd carnivorous bloom in the garden, letting a forests of fibs wildly through the landscape is probably a bad idea. There is a public policy benefit to conforming plans with some semblance of reality. Too far into the depths of darkness and one can never find one's way back."
This statement dovetails nicely with the preceding thread. Conspiricism and the depths of darkness are closely related. The former can lead to the latter; the latter can contain the former. Of course every now and then a conspiracy really does occur; just as a stopped clock is right twice daily and just as, sooner or later, someone predicting the end of the world will be right.
October 28, 2011 - 2:41 pm Link to this Comment -
12. blert
It surely must be both.
They are also monitoring social media — which is all for the good.
October 28, 2011 - 2:41 pm Link to this Comment -
13. Gaffe Prices
Roger Kimball makes no bones whereas the threat posed by islam itself is concerned. He doesn't curb his language, doesn't minimize it, doesn't soften it to make it more palatable to the faint hearted, the weak of knee.
It's a dangerous murderous tribal political operating system, and he treats it as such.
October 28, 2011 - 2:51 pm Link to this Comment -
14. Roughcoat
13. Gaffe Prices / Roger Kimball makes no bones whereas the threat posed by islam itself is concerned.
Indeed. See also the Canadian columnist David Warren (at David Warren online).
October 28, 2011 - 2:56 pm Link to this Comment -
15. Josh
I hope they monitor guys born in Hawaii who later adopt Muslim names.
I have to say, that Dubya took some emergency measures, including Gitmo, which were easy to forgive under the circumstances, even praiseworthy, but which do tend to linger on without resolution. Ongoing national security measures now point back to Dubya for justification. This is seldom valid, probably never valid. One should be very, very skeptical about government claims of urgent, overriding needs for secrecy. Even though they are, occassionally, true, and then can be of overwhelming importance. Nobody said it was easy.
Still, the villification by the left of any and all acts of the right, is truly disgusting. There is, of course, some echoes of that going the other way. But it seems really more a practice, if not a dogma, by the left, to fail to extend the benefit of the doubt to the opposition.
And so much for their "liberal" self-image.
We know the archetype, the high-pitched, fast-talking (nearly hysterical) voice, usually with large vocabulary and long sentence length, yet also spittle-flying, ad-hominem, and paranoid projection about any opposition being extreme, right-wing, ill-informed and ill-intentioned. It is a type. No doubt some people *aspire* to it, and one could extend the description and define sub-types to three decimal places of diagnostic categories. If one had the stomach for it. But that very objectification of the opposition is part of the syndrome, and personally I don't care for it.
October 28, 2011 - 3:08 pm Link to this Comment -
16. dlsada
If you want to see one brave woman who sticks it to radical Islam, check out Ann Barnhardt's videos on Youtube.
October 28, 2011 - 3:15 pm Link to this Comment -
17. Annoy Mouse
Totten visits all sorts of garden spots in the Middle East so I don't blame him for tip-toeing around. If he doesn't toe the line one of the members of the religion of peace are likely to saw off his head with a rusty butcher knife.
This from Drudge –
"One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy," Finney said. "I think he giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he's a black man who knows his place. I know that's harsh, but that's how it sure seems to me."If you are for anything that the DemZi Party is against you are labeled a racist. That is par for the course for the party of former slave owners. Calling someone a racist is how Democrats voice their urge of calling someone a n!ggar. It means the same thing, it is, ironically, just as racist.
Secrets while in a state of war are the norm. Lies during peace time have become the norm, just ask Eric Holder.
October 28, 2011 - 3:20 pm Link to this Comment -
18. wretchard
I do not think it is right to say that "all Muslims are bad" or even that "all of Islam is bad". Anyone who has lived among Muslims has found there are good and bad among them just like anywhere else, and that while some cultures are better than others, there is some wisdom to be found everywhere.
But that is not to say that Islam is "the religion of peace". And since many Muslims are themselves aware of where the difficulties lie, the PC approach which sees Islam not even as it views itself, but through some kind of academic, PC prism will come across as hokey. Michael Totten tells the story of how in Bosnia, where Muslim women routinely wear shorts and bikinis at the beach, a UN team managed to appear with an interpreter recruited in London, completely covered in a burka. The locals gazed at this idealized Muslim like she was a visitor from another planet. She was not a Muslim woman, at least as they knew it, but rather some UN bureaucrat's idea of a Muslim woman. It reminds me of a scene where Chris Tucker offers Jackie Chan some of his cup-of-noodles to make him feel like he was right at home.
When we buy into Islam's "noble lies" even when the Muslims themselves don't believe it, it does no credit to us. How did Ayn Rand put it in the 50s? Those who went along with the Soviet lie that it was the "worker's paradise" would only convince the Soviets that we either pulling their leg or that they were dealing with fools.
Civility can be manifested by two people on different sides of an argument, but never between a liar and his mark. It is often better to frankly differ than hypocritically agree. More respect is preserved in the former than in the latter.
Political correctness will have the eventual effect of convincing all Muslims that Westerners are perfidious liars. And we see this effect already. The more political correctness is shown the more sullen and resentful Muslim militants become. As Emerson put it, "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons." The more PC the elites sound, the less it is believed.
But it would be a mistake to think all non-Muslims are liars. That charge only applies to the fraudulent elites, in whose defense one can say that they've been doing it for so long that they've forgotten how not to; and have reached the point where the ability to lie convincingly — to spin with facility — is confused with moral uprightness.
October 28, 2011 - 3:29 pm Link to this Comment -
19. Charles
Multiculturalism will be working just great right up to the eve of the night when they announce the wholesale destruction of the Muslim world or the mass deportation of immigrants back to their home countries.
I have long said on this site that when the european abandoned christianity they abandoned their memory. When they rechristianize their memory will come back and they will kick out the Moslems.I'm reading in Christian circles that in the big cities in Europe — there is a resurgence of eveangelical christianity.
The actual expulsion of Moslems from Europe is still decades away.
Martin Luther posted his points on the Church in Worms in about 1518. The furthest advance north of the the turks came in 1532 when they arrived at the Gates of Vienna.
Is this a tragedy or comedy? 20 years from now the push of cheap fresh water into the deserts of the world including the deserts of North Africa–will be well under way. Those countries will need people to fill the newly green spaces. They will come from Moslem enclaves of Europe.
October 28, 2011 - 3:55 pm Link to this Comment -
20. Gaffe Prices
To those born and forced into the exclusive political culture of islam, they have my sympathies, but only up to a point. At some point, we are responsible for what we hold most dear, and more importantly, what we choose to do, and how we do it. This is where the political left and the (political) islamists have everything in common,and their political objectives pool- they don't want the responsibility (of a system such as ours that was created to have checks (to power) and balances, they don't want the consequences (of a system such as ours which would hold them to a equal application of the law toward all, nor any checks and balances). If we can be forced (by political correctness) or coerced into passive dhmmitude, then they will lay off us, but for how long? What have we given up, in the process?
October 28, 2011 - 4:01 pm Link to this Comment -
21. Mr. X
I do think PJM still has a soft spot for the neocons with their 'Kosovo — our good Islamic state (Orthodox Slavs, or hell, Orthodox Greeks = always bad or in the wrong), bombing Iran is always the solution to bloody, long costly unpopular nation building in Iraq/Afghanistan' biases. There's a tendency to avoid unpleasant topics like Ron Paul or the Fed, though in Wretchard's defense he's the most open minded when it comes to the comments that I've seen.
The 08/08/08 war when all too many PJMers joined by the likes of Frank Gaffney (whom I've had the mispleasure of meeting), Hugh Hewitt and Max Boot were calling for Russian blood was an excellent example — the minority POV, that Misha the Tie Eater was a lousy 'ally' and Soros protege, started to gain traction over several days during that conflict while the initial neocon-whipped hysteria died down.
Ultimately, 99% of hardcore Ron Paul supporters DO NOT want to see the U.S. retreat from the world in humiliation. The point is sooner or later our completely unsustainable fiscal/monetary situation is going to crash headlong into the fixation of a considerable part of the conservative coalition on maintaining the Military Industrial Complex at all costs (i.e. as in Rush's flippant 'the MIC keeps me free' comments) and maintaining 'allies' whom we pay to defend who're perfectly capable of defending themselves. I for one would love to see a true throwdown smackdown where the Pauls confront the RINO Grahams and McCains who never saw a war they didn't like at least since the late 1990s, but the MIC whores among the Rs always manage to slither away from such a fight and Fox will never televise it.
October 28, 2011 - 4:05 pm Link to this Comment -
22. winslow
How did we get here?
It is human nature to keep on producing wealth (through work and free trade) until the next generation feels guilty and builds a post-modern edifice of lies and wishful thinking (Social justice and Keynesianism.) For a while, the excess wealth (by the way, I am in favor of excess wealth) protects the liberals from their self-deception.
Eventually, they kill the goose and some amount of economic ruin follows. Until the reality of the difficulty of survival once again rears its head.
This will also turn out to be true for Muslims, who are temporarily insulated from reality by petro dollars.
+1 for Josh on Hawaiians
October 28, 2011 - 4:10 pm Link to this Comment -
The article I saw said that the NYPD monitors ALL people who change their names, not just Muslims. But a girl who changes her name from say, Barbara Kline to Barbi Benton, may simply have a career change in mind, rather than mayhem, to use a purely hypothetical example.
However, if keeping watch on name changers also disadvantages Muslims who want to fly under the radar or newly converted Muslims who used to be named John Smith or Fred Jones and have extreme views, why then, it becomes un-PC simply because it does exactly what such surveillance is supposed to do. Just as the 2nd Amendment disadvantages both criminals and people living in certain cultural circumstances, it becomes un-PC as well because a high percentage of those so disadvantaged are of a certain race.
"It is the non-PC appearance of an act, not the act in itself, that is the crime."
"The other brainwave was to create a license to lie."
Today as I sat waiting in a restaurant I read some of the NY Times. And there was an interesting little item relative to Obama's "We will never take a dime from a lobbyist." It turns out that most of Obama's top bundlers of campaign donations work for lobbying firms. In some cases they are even the chief of the DC office for their lobbying firm. But NONE of them have registered as lobbyists with the government and thus, officially, they are NOT lobbyists. This is like saying a guy is not a bank robber because he only hits credit unions.
October 28, 2011 - 4:27 pm Link to this Comment -
24. Victor
The idiotic attempt to demonize ALL Muslims is stuck on stupid, hacks like the bigot Robert Spencer are just out to make money and spread hate.
America has productive defense and commercial relationships with many millions of Muslims in Turkey–a loyal NATO member, as well as Indonesia, India, UAE, KSA, Jordan, Morocco, Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar etc, etc.
Those who flip burghers for a living may not understand this
–but the American Military, Intelligence, Commerce and Trade do understand the value of these relationships and General Petraeus D/CIA very much understands this reality.
The crazy nonsense promoted by bigots — genocide etc is not just stupid — it creates blow back.
Look at history
–the publicity of the Morgenthau Plan at the end of WW2
–a plan to starve, kill and enslave the post war German population
–actually prolonged the war and caused a great many Allied deaths.
Fortunately Churchill and Truman both told Morgenthau that he was crazy and stupid–fired him and then implemented the Marshal Plan instead.
Stalin was very enthusiastic about the Morgenthau Plan
Revenge and hatred is a pagan value–not a Christian value or practice.
October 28, 2011 - 5:12 pm Link to this Comment -
Bao@5: …the 2 billion people who are that religion [Muslim]…
The number I had in mind was 1.2 billion, and that was a high-end estimate, so I looked and found this summary. Estimates range from just under 1 billion to 1.2 billion (CAIR) to a high of 1.57 billion (Pew.)
Also this, which puts some numbers to a commonly acknowledged trend line:
Islam is growing about 2.9% per year. This is faster than the total world population which increases about 2.3% annually. It is thus attracting a progressively larger percentage of the world's population.
And this:
Number of Muslims in the U.S.
Nobody knows.
October 28, 2011 - 5:14 pm Link to this Comment -
26. Morton Doodslag
#21 Mr. X – indeed. The PJM catechism, just like the MSM catechism, goes "Iran is the world's foremost sponsor of terror", and Saudi Arabia inexplicably gets a pass. Is that "Neocon"? I'm not sure, but Ledeen, Rubin, and others here at PJM endlessly parrot that propaganda. Of course Iran is a global menace, but so is Saudi Arabia, along with all the other Sunni Arab hatred factories. Which is worse? Like Wretchard says, let's have a debate. This isnt settled science, though the PJM team would like to say it is.
An argument can certainly be made that the Sunnis, who already have the "Islamic Bomb", or more accurately, the Sunni Islamic Bomb via Pakistan, and who are responsible for most of the sedition being conducted by Mosques in America, and who sponsor everything from Al Qaida to Al Jazeera, are the more grievous threat to America. Sunni Pakistan, proliferated the nukes to Iran we're so worried about now (and rightly). But why does the Islam which proliferated nukes to Libya, NoKo, and Iran not far worse than the Shiites who are playing catchup?
And as I said, Al Qaida is still sponsored by Sunnis in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, etc. What gives? We are also imperilled by Sunni Muslim ownership of Western media, media willing and eager to whitewash Islam probably because of this, is a Sunni Arab affair. On our own soil, 99% of the Mosques preaching and recruiting for terror, and 99% of the imams employed in them are payed for by the Saudis. Prison Da'wa (Muslim proselytizing) and College Da'wa is all Sunni, conducted by Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as C.A.I.R., Organization of Islamic Students, etc. I believe every single "homegraown" terror attack (and foailed attack) on US soil since 9/11 was conducted by Sunni Muslims, often Arab, but all Sunni. Those treacherous moles and agents "supervising" our government are mostly Arab, Arabist, Sunni Muslims waging effective Jihad from within.
Certainly Iran is a more vocal enemy of Israel, but Hamas is a Sunni Jihad group, funded by Arabs, not Persian Shiites. But it is true, that most Western analysts seem to buy hook line and sinker the notion that Iran poses the higher threat. Any fair discussion of this topic would inevitably require examination of a possible correlation between the nostrum that "Iran is the foremost sponsor of global terror" and Iran's direct threat to Israel. The threat is genuine, but the pious poseurs who pretend to speak for American interests while repeating that may or may not be honest brokers. And at PJM, that is exactly the kind of unmentionable linkage which will definitely get you banned. PJM is free to do as it wishes, but it deserves to be challenged when it acts hypocritically in this and other matters regarding the threat we all face from the cancer of Islam.
October 28, 2011 - 5:17 pm Link to this Comment -
27. Blast From the Past
We return to the Ethics Question. Do you tell your partner? Any garment manufacturer knows that a good accountant is one who can keep three sets of books: one for you, one for your partner, and one for the government.
Is there a logical contradiction in wretchard's last paragraph?
But sooner or later the truth has an uncomfortable way of wriggling free. Like a spring, the more you push it down the harder it will recoil on the day it escapes. And while policy may survive the odd tactical falsehood, it can never be fundamentally based on a baldfaced lie. While we may withstand the odd carnivorous bloom in the garden, letting a forests of fibs spread wildly through the landscape is probably a bad idea. There is a public policy benefit to conforming plans with some semblance of reality. Too far into the depths of darkness and one can never find one's way back.
If "the more you push it down the harder it will recoil on the day it escapes" is true then can Too far into the depths of darkness and one can never find one's way back" also be true? The idea behind the Roussean project is that human nature, and therefore the reality that humans perceive and change by their actions, is malleable. Apply the right external pressure and the spring will bend so as to never go flying off in the wrong direction again. Robespierre called the new direction Virtue and the scientific application of pressure to mold human nature he called Terror. The lies, like the deaths, are tactical necessities undertaken for the best and most dispassionate of reasons. As I noted on an earlier thread we tell the puppy that it is really for his own good.
October 28, 2011 - 5:30 pm Link to this Comment -
28. 49erDweet
God bless the NYPD for keeping lists. They should keep all they want. Keep 'em, sort 'em, analyze 'em, do whatever it is with them they think they need to do. Those that don't like the practice should prepare the groundwork for their own law enforcement administration career and change things from within. That way they can respond to the public when their own idiotic weak-kneed policies grandly fail.
We are talking about "public" information here. What is it about "public" that's so hard to understand? It's not a secret. It's not private. It's public.
October 28, 2011 - 5:43 pm Link to this Comment -
29. An Préachán
Never discuss religion, politics, and line fences, says the old advice.
Well, sometimes we have to. Right now, our culture is so confused about what we can, and cannot, say about religion, sexual preference, and a host of other things, (politics not the least) that I am not surprised communication seems to be truly breaking down.
As for religion: Mormons believe some pretty–shall we say–different things than other "Christians" believe, but it is not PC to question whether Mormons are Christian. Look at the preacher who introduced Perry, and who later said he thought Mormonism is a cult.
Not to compare Mormons to Muslims, of course, but if we can't all (in a totally friendly and neighborly way) say Mormons are usually fine folks and honest and hardworking, and all that, and their religion is born and bred in the good ol' US or A, and is as American as pecan pie, but they aren't Christians in any traditional definition of the term–and have the Mormons say, "Quite right, quite true, that." –If we can't be up front about something simple as that, how in all get-out can we expect our elites to be honest about Islam?
As for how dangerous Islam is, how indoctrinated its people are, and so on–remember old Abu Nuwas–a famous Baghdad poet from Islam's glory days. He is still published, read, and praised–but he was a total pederast, and quite iconoclastic too, re: Islam. Islam, indeed, has more homosexuality pound for pound than ANY other human culture. Yet it is officially a death sentence to practice it.
Islam has been lots of things in lots of regions over the centuries, since the lads in the Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad created it in the 8th century. Yet it has a few never-ending programs that have been running from its beginning to today. War against the non-Muslims is the CENTRAL program. And now the oil money has given the Wahhabis, those die-hard programmers who keep that program running–the upper hand. We must discriminate between the different Muslim types and regions and so on, if we are to be fair. Yet we must be honest about Islam's central program–which is to force the world to submit to it.
Nothing, nothing at all ever about dealing with Islam will be easy, simple, or quickly dealt with.
An Préachán
October 28, 2011 - 5:50 pm Link to this Comment -
30. CharlesWhite
*OMG! Wretchard (#18) Islam is ALL BAD! Islam preaches Death there is NO LIFE taught in Islam, You have Fanatical Death Cult and Luke warm followers, Fanatical are the ones Murdering everyone else and Luke Warm are the ones that only participate when it is happening around them, they're the ones that you see standing in the crowds throwing the second, third, fourth, etc. stone after the Fanatical throws the first, the Luke warm followers are the ones that Murder they're daughters after the fanatical tells them that is the only way to recover their honor, the Luke warm ones are the ones that leave the land of ummah to get away from the Fanatical ones but will in a group act and do as the fanatical ones command them too, while yelling "Allah Akbar"! There is also the disadvantaged Fanatical luke warm follower, their the handi capped (Mental, physical, etc.) that are used as Homicide Bombers by the fanatical followers.
* OMG stands for "Obama Must Go" and not the vain use of God's name…
October 28, 2011 - 6:42 pm Link to this Comment -
31. Random Blowhard
The adage "Perception is 110% of reality" taken to it's logical conclusion. Remember boys and girls, spinning lies and bullshit is the fastest and easiest way to get ahead.
The United States of Argentina – Winning
October 28, 2011 - 6:54 pm Link to this Comment -
32. Random Blowhard
CharlesWhite – Islam itself is not bad it just produces failed states and poverty, like communism but you bow down to Allah instead of Dear Leader. The end result is the same however, oppression, injustice and a destitute starving population like Libya and Egypt.
October 28, 2011 - 7:00 pm Link to this Comment -
33. Victor
The burger flippers seem to dominate this site.
The D/CIA has implemented American policy re the Muslim World–Trade and Commerce.
Those who flip burgers may not understand our Military, Commercial, Trade relationships with nations that happen to be Muslim profit America.
October 28, 2011 - 7:43 pm Link to this Comment -
34. ScenarioA
W, I read your essay today as an expansion of yesterday's essay about dealing with real or imagined conspiracies into the realm of dealing with government secrecy in a functioning democracy.
With regard to the FOIA issue, you said "The whole point is not to be transparent but to make the rubes think that government is transparent."
And, if we recall John Kennedy's words — "The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we as a people are inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings" — then you are exactly right on target.
But there is another side to the issue, illustrated by Gandalf's order to Frodo at the start of their quest – "Keep it secret. Keep it safe."
From the perspective of this other side, the national security side, the proposed FOIA "license to lie" might be justified — in some cases — as simply a transfer of critical information to a deeper level of secrecy. The transfer completely removes the information from an adversary's "known unknown" domain. It becomes an "unknown unknown" to them. Gandalf would approve.
The balance between the requirement for the populace be fully informed in a functioning democracy and the requirements for secrecy in defense and diplomacy is an ongoing issue which has been debated since our nation's founding.
As a society, we have traditionally tolerated secrets in two categories — an individual's private matters and national security. The loss of government transparency due to defense requirements during the long cold war and now to the continuing threat from Jihadist terrorism has, however, grown to such a level as to be a serious concern, which you highlighted very effectively.
It seems to me that, since maintaining a balance between transparency and security depends most of all on the basic character of those we entrust with our secrets, then the most immediate thing that we can do as citizens is to remind ourselves to look very carefully at the character of those campaigning for public office in this political season, not just at their stands on issues.
October 28, 2011 - 7:46 pm Link to this Comment -
35. Baobo
34. ScenA, Locking up secrets is no longer reliable due to technology. You can drown out the truth with noise, but for a website like Wikileaks… one of its many goals was to moderate the inevitable – ie. total openness. If Assange didn't do it first, then a more hostile entity would have.
October 28, 2011 - 8:13 pm Link to this Comment -
36. Dave
Wretchard @ #18: Part of our problem is that we tend to say "Muslim" when we should be saying "Arab", or "Persian" or "Pakistani". While Islam is a common thread among these, they are rather seperate cultural matrixes.
While Iran is a problem, rmember that Islam was introduced there by Arab conquest. That is the Iranian paradox. There is more pro-American support there among the general populace than in any mideast country besides Israel. Yet, it is the Iranian government that has the most serious anti-American capabilities. This is part of their desire to get back at those Arab so and so who overran them so long ago.
Pakistani Muslims resent the fact that they used to rule the Indian sub-sontinent, then got put in their place and lost some territory to boot. Vengeful envy is what motivates them.
Arabia remains the heartland of Islam because that is where it started. A lot of Arab tribes preferred banditry, piracy and slave-trading to earning a living. Islam gave them theological license to continue. That is why Arabia remains the theo-cultural key terrain of the war.
So forth and so on. What we are up against is NOT monolithic but there remains a common thread. We gotta figure out how to proceed accordingly.
October 28, 2011 - 9:25 pm Link to this Comment -
37. Mad Fiddler
The film industry that became Hollywood – as a completely random example of a template – was established early on by people who wanted to make movies. They may have been many of them rascals, with morals more in tune with the stereotypical theatrical types than with the bedrock culture of mainstream America. But they damn well wanted to tell stories, and wanted those stories to resonate with the mainstream culture, even though they themselves may have been closer to outlaw than stolid citizens. They aspired to creating culture, even if they came from backgrounds considered "nyekulturny" – uncouth and disreputable.
The companies they established, which I late in life learned were mostly owned by East Coast theater chains, grew quickly and produced in the first generation an amazing body of films that will stand up to the scrutiny and judgment of history. But to keep going, they needed to hire lawyers, accountants, administrators and such who were trained and constitutionally habituated to caution, self-preservation, and extreme circumspection RATHER than the brash, exuberant risk taking that made for good theater and story. More to the point, they were hired away from the more conservative industries, and otherwise mostly lacked any particular interest in motion pictures, except possibly for the dark side of celebrity.
So the industry became increasingly populated, then ultimately dominated by folks who were there looking for the security of a protected, salaried job, where they collected a paycheck and benefits, regardless of the fortunes of the enterpreneurs who'd risked everything to establish the industry.
That seems to describe pretty much every damned industry in this country.
Am I being too cynical?
(I acknowledge of course that this is a drastic simplification…)
October 28, 2011 - 9:34 pm Link to this Comment -
38. ScenarioA
35 B. The leaks so far seem to be at a fairly low security level, which has not been well protected in my opinion. You simply cannot extrapolate from what we have seen so far to such a broad claim.
In my experience, important national security stuff is well guarded. Has been and continues to be. Plus I note that one of the more effective ways to guard the really good stuff is to simply remove it entirely from view, as the proposed FOIA law would do. Secrets are targets. But "unknown unknowns" are mysteries
October 28, 2011 - 9:41 pm Link to this Comment -
39. Tee
I was in a discussion with a British person once who refused to believe, knowing my background and location, that my family was not active in supporting the IRA. Nothing would convince him otherwise, and he remained convinced of my personal connection to the Troubles, while I dismissed anything he had to say thereafter as the ravings of a provincial twit.
It gave me a bit of insight into the plight of moderate Muslims. I am secure enough to denounce any and all of my dumbass brethren who blow things up, but I am not convinced that just anyone, anywhere, can do that. And so I think we, this country, should be a divisive force in the matter, not by opposing the people, or the religion, but the exposed underbelly of cultural Islam that competes with American law and customs. In other words, not who they are, but what they do. Yes, historically, immigrants have changed their names to a version less ethnic and more suited to America. But changing from John Lake to Muhammed Al-Qaadawi is something relatively new, and I suspect that many Muslims would understand if not prefer that we at least keep an eye on that when it happens.
October 28, 2011 - 10:00 pm Link to this Comment -
40. Fletcher Christian
Victor – "our Military, Commercial, Trade relationships with nations that happen to be Muslim profit America."
Tell that to anyone who was working on the upper floors of the WTC on 9/11/2001. Oh wait… you can't.
We need Arab oil. We don't need Arabs, nor do we need the other followers of the filthy, perverted, misogynist death cult they follow, nor do we need the cult itself. And the sooner the decision makers in the West realise that, the less likely we are to have to bring the Third Conjecture into play.
And, Victor, regarding Israel which you hate so much – well, today's Israel is a powerhouse of innovation and technological advance punching well above its weight. Jews hold more Nobel Prizes than the whole of the Ummah. Granted, that isn't difficult; the only one I can think of right now is the ridiculous Peace Prize given to Arafat.
October 28, 2011 - 11:01 pm Link to this Comment -
41. Gary Rosen
Thanks, Fletcher. Victor is a lying tool. He claims to be an American and prattles cynically on about "Christian" values but in fact is a paid shill for Turkish Islamists, of which he is one.
October 29, 2011 - 12:21 am Link to this Comment -
42. hdgreene
Each person on the "useful idiot" left tell lies to themselves to rationalize their ideology. They've made the political personal, the economic personal, and now even the scientific personal. Their ideology is part of their identity. Information either feeds their prejudices or fires their anger and their is an extreme "selection bias" in the information they will pay attention to. PC is what happens in their own heads before they impose it on the world.
This is only true of the idealists in the movement, not the sociopaths. Still, it is hard to tell which is more dangerous.
October 29, 2011 - 3:43 am Link to this Comment -
43. Gaffe Prices
Oh well, whatever, I'm sure we can extract all the wisdom to be found from islam, and forgo what doesn't amount to wisdom, if we want to, in a free society. I do know this. St Thomas Aquinas became familiar with both Aristotle and the Spanish muslim philosoph Averroes in the thirteenth century. The then recent re-discovery of Aristotle's writings (in the west), previously lost to the west, had been translated back into latin from arabic texts, and informed many of Averroes writings, and Aquinas was well read in both.
This, the thirteenth century, was a period in Spanish history when muslim conquest was over, and muslims, christians and Jews in Spain coexisted and collaborated in thought. But a resurgent extemist fanatical puritan movement swept islam again, and all, I repeat ALL of Averroes writings were consigned to the flames by these muslim fanatics. I sometimes wonder if the vatican still has copies of all the original Averroes writings in their possession, but have still pretended that these writings are long gone, given that these writings would be considered to be of a pagan source, and given what Aquinas has accomplished vis a vis his work on Aristotle's texts. What a world of good they would do right now, if the writings of Averroes could be brought to light again, in the current context of the present day.
October 29, 2011 - 3:50 am Link to this Comment -
44. Blast From the Past
Victor swings between rants telling people how to be Christian and raving about "burger flippers."
His credibility is shot. Wish that our host could restore Tocque and the Ignore feature.
October 29, 2011 - 4:41 am Link to this Comment -
By the way, when I was at the Pentagon I got a FOIA request that I had to lie to respond to.
Someone wanted to know if, as rumor had it, on a certain Shuttle mission the astronauts floting outside the Shuttle used handheld cameras to photograph Chelyabinsk, a Soviet industrial complex in the Ural Mountains.
The reason they gave for this request was they were "investigating NASA's support of military intelligence efforts."
The first thing I had to do was find out what a Chelyabinsk was. The second thing was to find out what the open literature said about that Shuttle mission. A trip to the Pentagon library solved those problems.
The third problem was how to lie.
Well, any idiot could realize that when the Shuttle became the only launch vehicle the US would use in the future that NASA would be supporting national intelligence efforts. Aside from that, anyone who had any brains at all would recognize that we had better ways of getting imagery of the USSR than a guy hanging out the back door of a Shuttle with a Brownie Hawkeye camera. So the people who filed the FOIA lost all credibility with me from step 1; I had no respect for them. (Note: first thing and most important to do when filing a FOIA is to not look stupid.)
But at that point the National Reconnaissance Office officially Did Not Exist. I called them up and told them about the FOIA; they said Okay and I never heard from them on the subject again. And then I wrote a response to the FOIA saying we had no information on the subject, which was quite true.
Note that there is in reality No Such Thing as a FOIA request. You CANNOT request "information" from the Federal Government. You can only request documents, and you have to describe what documents you want and then figure out who has them.
We also got a FOIA from someone wanting "all the plans for the Space Shuttle." Well, in the first place it's a NASA vehicle so he looked very stupid by asking the wrong agency. And in the second place, yagottabekiddinme!
October 29, 2011 - 5:40 am Link to this Comment -
46. Hangtown Bob
GP #7 says ""a government ruled by the consent of the governed" can be undermined by any un-checked (governmental) abuse(s), however small, until you reach the point where everyone wants to get in on the act, and there's no need to show anymore how the end justifies the means (the end of "rule by consent of the governed), it just is, so get used to it. "
This possibility underscores the absolute need for a transparent "rule of law" in a democracy. Recently, government (and this administration, in particular) has taken to ignoring or twisting the law to suit its own purposes. We all know of many blatant examples of this and have discussed them on this forum. The big question is, how do we force the all-powerful government to act within the rule of law itself?
October 29, 2011 - 6:45 am Link to this Comment -
47. michael hoskins
Got bored.
Jumped to bottom.
I Repeat. Islam needs a new narrative, (no, not subjugation, not genocide, simply a new narrative)
Re-repeat Islam needs a new narrative.duh
October 29, 2011 - 8:21 am Link to this Comment -
48. Charles
You only have to go to another thread of PJ Media to see what the Grand Mufti of Egypt is now saying about Christians — and what effect his words are having on the Coptic Christians.
Top Muslim Declares All Christians 'Infidels'
Quoting the Quran (correctly) may be fueling the recent slaughter of Christians in Egypt.
http://pjmedia.com/blog/top-muslim-declares-all-christians-%e2%80%98infidels%e2%80%99/October 29, 2011 - 8:53 am Link to this Comment -
For what it's worth:
Walid al-Kubaisi, an Iraqi-born Norwegian journalist, produced and hosted the documentary for Norway television. It has never been shown on American TV.
World Domination
Al-Kubaisi said Brotherhood leaders told him they have a plan to take over Norway and the rest of Europe as a part of bringing the whole world under Islam.
The other thorny issue in re Muslim-inspired terrorist threats is isolating the rhetoric from the reality. The public voice of radical Muslims is reminiscent of old time bullies; in this country mafioso from the 1920′s. Some cultural maturation is in order and I have to believe there exists Muslim leaders/scholars/theologians somewhere who understand that the modern world is not going to be ruled by a single "anything." That kind of Big Man rhetorical bombast is like a cultural appendix – should have withered away years ago. No, I don't take "the loud voices" seriously. They are obviously unaware at whose discretion they are given access to a microphone.
Also agree with Dave upthread that the more compelling divisors are ethnic and cultural and historical rather than religious.
October 29, 2011 - 11:06 am Link to this Comment -
50. Gaffe Prices
@ #46, Hangtown Bob, I should have written- "…that it reaches the point where almost everyone wants to get in on the act".
There's an old saying, "You can elect an honest man to office, you just can't keep him there."
When accountability is restored, and the national government in D.C. concerns itself with the only government action mandated by the constitution, namely, defense of the republic, therefore re-federalizing that government in D.C.- it is going to be difficult.
October 30, 2011 - 11:51 am Link to this Comment
Comments are closed.


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Top 25 Hotels | T+L 500 2009
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For more details on this hotel, please visit T+L's hotel guide
Top 25 Hotels | T+L 500 2009

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Lighter Side Of Taxes
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Why can't big-time musicians just pay their taxes? They have the money. Check out the top-5 tax protest (and repayment) songs.
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Hollywood has its own views on life… including taxes. Before filing, see when Hollywood thinks you should pay your taxes.
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"The only two certainties in life are death and taxes." What else have history's most-quoted people had to say about taxes?
Tax Rackets – Common Scams Against Honest Taxpayers
Tax day is fast approaching. Review some of the more common tax scams, so that you can avoid them.
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Hundreds of cars flooded the Main Post Office just west of the Loop, as last minute tax filers tried to beat the midnight deadline.
Taxpayers Flood Post Office On Tax Day
Twice as many people will visit the Main Post Office in Downtown Chicago on Monday to file their tax returns at the last minute, even though filers had an extra weekend to finish.
Oak Park Restaurant Lets Customers Name Own Prices
Although Uncle Sam decides how much you owe this Tax Day, a restaurant in Oak Park is allowing customers to "pay what is fair."


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Ubisoft will release the PS3-exclusive Far Cry 3 'High Tides' download content for free next week.
The free DLC, coming as part of the next PlayStation Store update on January 15, will be titled 'High Tides' and will add two new co-op missions, 'Jailbreak' and 'Redemption'.
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Get it free in US from January 15. A UK release went unmentioned but we expect it'll also arrive in next week's UK PS Store update on Wednesday, January 16.


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Posts Tagged «wii u»
PS4 and Xbox One are coming in hot: Expect lots of issues on release day November 1, 2013 at 8:49 am
We're staring down the barrel of a next-gen launch, and these machines are coming in extremely hot. We're already seeing a number of delays, mandatory patches, and rumors popping up everywhere that the core operating systems aren't ready for prime time. If you're buying into these new platforms on day-one, you can certainly expect to run into a few problems.
PS4 will ship without many core features, requires 300MB day-one patch October 25, 2013 at 2:45 pm
Sony has promised a number of outstanding features for its new game console, but today we learned of a substantial catch for early adopters. While features like Remote Play, game broadcast, and play-as-you-download are still slated for the PS4's launch, they will not ship on the first production run. Instead, you'll need to download a 300MB patch on launch day to gain access to a laundry list of promised PS4 features.
The PS4 DualShock 4 controller almost looked like the Xbox 360 gamepad, says Sony October 23, 2013 at 3:13 pm
The DualShock 4 and Xbox One gamepad have seen a largely positive response from the gaming industry. The issues from the previous generation have been fixed, and it seems we've reached the pinnacle of traditional console-style controllers. It wasn't an easy task, though. Controllers have been evolving over the last thirty-some years, and these latest models required substantial engineering prowess to outshine everything that came before. I'm excited to hold them both in my hands, but I'm left wondering where we can go from here.
PS4 and Xbox One won't support external hard drives for now September 3, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Both the Xbox One and PS4 sport USB 3.0 ports, so expanding the storage should be simple, right? Sadly, that's not the case. At least at launch, neither the PS4 or Xbox One will have full support for external hard drives.
The Nintendo 2DS hints at a major revision for the Wii U August 30, 2013 at 9:31 am
It's no secret that the Wii U isn't performing well, and with the release of the Nintendo 2DS, Nintendo finally proved that it's willing to give up on a major feature if it means boosting the performance of a product. Perhaps, then, Nintendo relenting on the 3DS' 3D capabilities means that the Wii U could be in store for a major revision sometime soon?
Nintendo announces the 2DS, a slate-like 3DS without 3D August 28, 2013 at 1:42 pm
Nintendo shocked the world today by unveiling its next iteration of the 3DS line: the 2DS. That's right, Nintendo is launching a new model of its flagship product on October 12th without any 3D support. Even more bizarre, it isn't even in the traditional clamshell design of other DS-branded devices.
Xbox One may not be a hit like the Xbox 360, despite impressive features July 17, 2013 at 3:51 pm
As the launch of the next-gen consoles nears, Microsoft is starting to speak more specifically about some of the impressive features that the Xbox One will support. Kinect-based player tracking and other novel additions like cloud gaming are quite compelling, but that won't be enough to make the Xbox One a success. In fact, a recent report estimates that the total sales of next-gen consoles will fail to match the sales numbers of the previous generation.
Shoulder buttons of giants: The evolution of controllers leading up to PS4 and Xbox One May 27, 2013 at 10:00 am
The PS4 and Xbox One controllers have finally been revealed to the public. They're both sharp-looking and well designed, but they weren't made in a vacuum. Video game controllers have been evolving for well over 30 years, and these new controllers are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Six months in, is the Wii U dead in the water? May 8, 2013 at 2:51 pm
After the surprising mainstream success with the Wii, Nintendo has faltered a bit. Now that it's been nearly six months since the Wii U launched, let's take a moment to see how the console has been doing. Nintendo launched the 3DS at a high price in February 2011, and then slashed the price by $80 only six months later. Will its other console suffer the same fate?
PC games are growing, but will that continue after the PS4 and Xbox 720 launch? March 29, 2013 at 7:15 am
As we near the end of this console generation, the PC has been picking up the slack. Not only are games looking and playing extraordinarily better on the PC these days, but data is showing that the market is growing as well. With 8% growth in 2012, PC games made an astonishing $20 billion worldwide. It's heartening to see the uptick, but what will happen when the PS4 and Xbox 720 launch?


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Mon, May 28, 12 at 2:56
My little potted baby appears to finally set fruit, with abandon. It's only about 5 feet tall, and it has over 3 dozen blossoms that appear to have set and are beginning to grow.
Should I just leave them all, or remove some? And, if I need to thin, when? Kaki is completely new to me in this regard. TIA! |
Follow-Up Postings:
My experience has been that the first time that these fruit most if not all of the fruit will be aborted by the tree. So I would say just leave them on and let the tree decide what to keep. |
Thanks. This is the third spring it has bloomed, but they always fell off very quickly after the flower died. This year seems different, as only a couple of flowers did that, and most fruits appear to be growing. |
- Posted by alexander3 6 (My Page) on Mon, May 28, 12 at 7:19
I have a Tam Kam in the ground, currently about 8 feet tall. It has had crops of 2, 4, 7, and 35 fruits. Each year it has dropped developing fruit until they were an inch or so in size. This year it has more flowers than ever and put on several inches of shoot growth, so as far as I can tell, this variety does not tend to overbear, which would put it into a biennial bearing pattern. Alex |
Well, I guess I won't know for a while. I'll just have to watch it, and keep my fingers crossed that at least some go all the way. |
how is it with Tam Kam hardiness? Do you make winter protection for tree? I would like to grow this variety, but I am wondering if it is enough hardy for my climate with temperatures down to 0 F. i have read positive info about this new korean variety, should be non-astringent and good producer. |
- Posted by alexander3 6 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 21, 12 at 22:45
indicente, my Tam Kam has taken 0 F with no damage. |
alexander3 thank you for your reply. so Tam Kam is pretty cold hardy and I am going to buy this variety next year. Please, post picture of Tam Kam ripe fruits in the autumn. Just to see size and shape. |
- Posted by alexander3 6 (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 10:32
I posted some pics a couple seasons ago |
Here is a link that might be useful: pics of Tam Kam persimmons
Amazing pics.And what about taste of fruits,it s the same as by Fuyu PCNA types?Look very attractive and productive...I hope,that plants will be available next spring here..And I want to test cold hardiness later. |
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DHS News August 2011
August 2011 DHS Newsletter
AIMS staff honored with Dignity and Respect Champion Award
Deb Slocum, Personnel Analyst for DHS Administrative and Information Management Services, was honored with UPMC's Dignity and Respect Campaign's Champion Award for the month of August. This honor is awarded to one individual each month of the year, recognizing people who have made a difference in promoting inclusion, dignity and respect in communities. "It is truly an honor to be nominated and to be chosen as a Champion," said Slocum. "It is really gratifying." Honorees for the award are selected via an online nomination process where individuals can nominate someone they know and provide a brief description as to why he or she deserves the accolade. Although Slocum is appreciative of all she has achieved in promoting inclusion, dignity and respect, she knows her work is not yet done. "I'm honored to be the August champion and in the wise words of Mahatma Gandhi, I'll continue to try to 'be the change you want to see in the world'."
More information about the Dignity and Respect Campaign
Two OBH staff recognized for 'positive impact'
On the first Friday of every month, the Allegheny County Children's Court recognizes a different group of employees for their positive impact on the Court's work. For the month of August, the Court is recognizing Barbara Hill, DHS Justice Related Services Assessor and Tiffanie Anderson, DHS Justice Related Services Specialist from the Intensive Mental Health/Drug & Alcohol Program for Assessment, Coordinated Services and Treatment Referral (IMPACT). Both Hill and Anderson are recognized as being "professional, enthusiastic and invaluable" members of IMPACT. IMPACT, a collaborative program between DHS Office of Behavioral Health and the Children's Court, serves as an onsite resource for Children's Court judges, hearing officers and professional court staff who encounter clients involved in dependency or custody proceedings who may be in need of mental health and/or drug and alcohol treatment. DHS News Newsletter DHS News Archive


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Below is a complete list of all My Phone Philippines being sold in the Metro Manila including their respective suggested retail prices. These prices are based on the ones provided by My Phone Philippines on August 2010. Prices are subject to change.
Tag Archives: myphone
MyPhone Price List Philippines
MyPhone B71 Duo Dual SIM – Php2,890
MyPhone T13 Duo Dual SIM, Touchscreen – Php3,890
MyPhone MS28 Duo Dual SIM – Php3,800
MyPhone Q21 Duo Dual SIM – Php4,680
MyPhone TV22 Duo Dual SIM – Php5,550
MyPhone TV21 Duo Dual SIM – Php7,290


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Wed, May 23, 12 at 13:26
Planted June bearing (Jewel) plants last fall & the plants look very nice but they've produced very few blooms. I've always had good luck with these plants in the past & don't know what might be wrong. Could excessive heat (ie 97 in March) and/or fertilizer be a factor? |
Follow-Up Postings:
- Posted by Handsome54 6a (My Page) on Thu, May 24, 12 at 20:07
Mmmm Kaaay............. Research indicates excess fertilizer..... Thanks for the input...... |
Excess nitrogen. Strawberries are heavy feeders, but the fruit-making needs more P, less N, which will give you lots of nice dark green leaves but not fruit. I've seen 10-10-10 recommended for strawberries. |
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Discontinued Product
Simply Stunning
60" Class Full HD 1080P Plasma TV (59.8" diagonally)
- Full HD 1080p Resolution
- 600Hz Max Sub Field Driving
- Picture Wizard II
60" Class Full HD 1080P Plasma TV (59.8" diagonally)
- Screen Size
- Screen Size Diagonal
- Resolution
- Display Type
- Contrast Ratio (DCR)
- Protective Skin Glass
- 600Hz Sub Field Driving
- 60"
- 59.8"
- 1920 x 1080p
- Plasma
- 3,000,000:1
- Yes
- Yes
- TV without Stand (WxHxD)
- TV with Stand (WxHxD)
- TV without Stand weight
- TV with Stand weight
- TV Shipping Dimensions (WxHxD)
- Shipping Weight
- 54.6" x 32.4" x 2.2"
- 54.6" x 34.5" x 13.5"
- 76.1 lbs
- 83.1 lbs
- 54.6" x 34.5" x 13.5"
- 99.4 lbs
- Triple XD™ Engine
- Picture Mode
- Picture Wizard II
- Just Scan (1:1 Pixel Matching)
- Noise Reduction (3D/MPEG)
- Real Cinema 24p (3:3 pull down)
- AV Mode II (Picture & Sound)
- Yes
- 8 Modes (Vivid/Standard/APS/Cinema/Game/ Photo/ISF Expert 1/ISF Expert 2)
- Yes
- HDMI 1080p/1080i/720p, Component 1080p/1080i/720p, RF 1080p/1080i/720p
- Yes
- Yes
- 3 Modes (Cinema/Game/Off )
- Speaker System
- Dolby® Digital Decoder
- Audio Output (Watts - THD 10%)
- 3D Sound Zooming
- Virtual Surround
- Sound Mode
- Clear Voice II
- 1 Way, 2 Speakers
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- 5 Modes (Standard/Music/Cinema/Sport/Game)
- Yes
- Yes
- RF In (Antenna/Cable)
- AV In
- Component Video In(Y, Pb, Pr + Audio)
- HDMI™/HDCP Input
- Digital Audio Out (Optical)
- 1 (Rear)
- 1 (Rear)
- 1 (Rear)
- 2 (1 Side, 1 Rear)
- 1 (Rear)
- 1 (Side)
- Swivel (Left/Right)
- VESA Standard
- 20º/20º
- 400mm x 400mm
- Standby Mode
Back to Top
- Limited Warranty
- 2 Year Panel/1 Year Parts & Labor
- 719192588721
Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 84
Rated 1 out of 5 by very disappointed dane Television went out before two years
I loved this TV and the picture is excellent. About six months ago the hdmi port 1 stopped working and now my whole tv went out. I would not recommend because paying for a television and only lasting two years is not a bargain to me.
November 3, 2014
Rated 4 out of 5 by jesse22 Great quality tv
Our family watches tv several hours a day, this is the best quality we've ever owned by far, the picture and features are perfect, the look is sleek...Life's Good...
November 21, 2014
Rated 3 out of 5 by whitespiral Basic TV for people with basic needs
Great screen size and image quality for the money. Construction seems solid and looks good. Easy initial setup. It's heavy, but that also means sturdy, I have no fear of my 1 year old child stumbling on it and moving it.
Sound could be better. Just 2 HMDI and 1 USB connector. If HDMI1 connector is used, plugging and unplugging the USB is a pain to do, so small available space for the fingers. Video playback on USB port is impossible due to firmare, and you can't change the firmware. The infrared detector for the remote is located in the lower left corner, and you have to aim the remote control carefully or it won't work. Screen is too reflective during daylight. I know it's not a smart TV, but I would expect at least an ethernet port. Remote control looks and feels cheap.
June 19, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by mundy507 outstanding picture quality at a bargain price
Easy to set up & fine tune for best picture & sound. Simple easy to use remote. only shortcoming is that it should have one more HDMI port.
August 2, 2014
Rated 4 out of 5 by Nascartrekkie3 Awesome Picture!
I had heard that plasmas were not as bright as the led's but after having this TV I know that is simply not true. Bright screen, vivid colors, rich deep black levels, and absolutely no blur, no matter what I am watching. I absolutely LOVE this TV.
June 11, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by Disker3721 Great picture with great contrast and refresh rate
Great picture with great contrast and refresh rate
June 5, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by Patrick H. Excellent picture
We found this TV shopping online at a reasonable price then saw it at an even better price at a black Friday. We immediately rushed out and bought it because we were afraid it would sell out. After getting it home at setting it up we realized what a great product this was. After configuring signal in HD mode we were even more pleased. This is an excellent TV - All of our friend have given us positive feedback (even the ones who cautioned us about the perceived drawbacks of plasma).
April 13, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by cableman GREAT PICTURE
Very sleek tv with a great picture.LG has hit the mark when it come to plasma tvs. Refresh rate is awsome and color is great with the smart wizard. would buy again.
April 12, 2014
If you want entertainment so lifelike you feel like you can reach out and touch it, or a picture so vibrant and clear that you'll forget you're watching TV, then you want the PN6500 1080p Plasma TV from LG.
Design, features and specifications subject to change without notice. Screen images simulated and/or dramatized. Some features in videos may not be available on all models. Please refer to the TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS tab for a complete list of features by model.
Design, features and specifications subject to change without notice.


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6-Pack Hanes Big and Tall Ankle 145/6
SKU#/Style#: 145/6
Brand: Hanes
Description: Hanes Socks 145/6Nobody likes a quitter, so each sock is enforced with toe seams, snug ankle and leg bands, and cushioned support. Because your day should run out before your socks do.Fabric: 79% Cotton 18% Polyester 2% Natural Latex Rubber 1% NylonUnits Per Package: 6
E-mail a friend about this item.
Return to Catalog
Copyright © 2015 Lingerie-Sportswear. All Rights Reserved.


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Deep Soap: James Franco Update & Epic Friday Cliffhangers
When is James Franco Returning to General Hospital? Early last week TVGuide published a story stating that James Franco would be reprising his role as serial killer Franco on "General… More
When is James Franco Returning to General Hospital? Early last week TVGuide published a story stating that James Franco would be reprising his role as serial killer Franco on "General… More
Sarah Brown Joins The Cast of Days of Our Lives The new and improved "Days of Our Lives" will include three time Daytime Emmy winner Sarah Brown. Soap Opera Digest… More
Alexa Havins and Justin Breuning are the latest "All My Children" alumni returning to the show prior to its ABC finale in September. Havins created the role of Babe Carey…. More
Three More Actresses Return to All My Children The "All My Children" farewell reunion tour is bringing back three more fan favorites. TV Guide reports that Jennifer Bassey (Marian), Melissa… More
One Life To Live Headwriter Joins General Hospital Writing Staff "One Life to Live" headwriter Ron Carlivati will join the writing staff of "General Hospital" after OLTL wraps.OLTL star Robin… More
Dr. Maria Santos is returning to "All My Children" to tend to the sick in her push-up bra. "CSI:Miami" star Eva LaRue will reprise her role as the beautiful neurosurgeon… More
"Desperate Housewives" Star Casts Doubt on Rumor That Susan Lucci is Joining the Show There is a widespread rumor that "All My Children" star Susan Lucci will be joining "Desperate… More
Your hub for all the personal finance news that affects you and your family.
A blog about health, food, beauty, fitness, fashion, parenting and travel focused on how we, as individuals and as a society live our lives.
A blog keeping you up to date on the most popular news across the web.
An up-to-the-minute blog covering celebrities, gossip and entertainment news.
Covering the latest news, opinions and analysis across the world of sports.
A blog about television, characters, programming, actors, and the business of the small screen.
A blog about movie news, movie stars, movie premieres and the business of the big screen.
About music, artists and the news that envelops the industry.


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The CSAP isn't the only place where cyber-education has struggled. Some online schools boast only a 60 percent course-passing rate. Monte Vista's McFadden recalls one high school senior who took six years to complete her studies. Littleton Schools superintended Stan Scheer, whose district offers online classes, notes that about half of his students taking such courses never finish them.
Even with the brightest students, figuring out how, exactly, to best transfer material from a computer into a child's mind remains a huge question mark. Online learning is so new that discovering what works and what doesn't is a trip into the unknown. While parents and educators may argue strenuously over how well public schools are doing their jobs, at least students know what to expect: a teacher and a pile of textbooks. With computers, 2,000 years of educational tradition are being thrown out the window.
"When we started, we had a terrible program," admits Jerri Stucky, principal of Alamosa High School and director of its 34-student cyber-school. "There is a wide range of quality out there. At first we thought, 'Well, the computer does it all!' But that's a misnomer. What doesn't work is sitting a kid in front of a computer and not interacting with anyone. And there are still lots of programs that just copy textbooks onto a computer."
"Five years ago, there was very little curriculum that you could buy that was worth using," adds Vilas's Hines. "We wrote our own the first year. The second year, we canned it and started over. It's real easy to bore kids to death." Add to that the difficulty of finding an electronic learning system that works for students with diverse needs. As is the case with most online schools, many of Vilas's students are public-school dropouts. About a quarter are girls with babies; 10 percent have to work while they attend school.
"Generally speaking," Hines says, "online curriculum isn't interactive enough; there's too much reading. And if our students didn't do it before they came to us, why would they do it now?"
The fact that online schools are still learning how to make their programs work can be seen in the vast differences in the operation of those schools. Branson says its 24-to-one student-to-teacher ratio works best, while the state's largest cyber-school, Colorado Virtual Academy (COVA), a K-8 charter school in Adams County, claims that its computer curriculum is so good that its student-teacher ratio, fifty to one, is sufficient.
"We're more high-tech; they're more high-touch," says COVA principal Kin Griffith, by way of explaining his less teacher-intensive approach. COVA also requires that its teachers contact students a minimum of once every other week; at Branson, it's once a week. "The COVA teacher is really a coach or supervisor for the student's parent," notes one administrator.
Monte Vista, meanwhile, the grandfather of Colorado's online schools, has decided to keep more of the traditional school in its online program. "We still use teachers; we don't use software to educate our children," says program director Alan McFadden. While other cyber-schools use teachers working out of their homes, for instance, Monte Vista's online teachers remain on site: "Our teachers come into this building every day with a tie on. We're a community, not just a service."
"In some ways, [the variety of approaches] raises concerns about quality assurance," concedes Stevan Kalmon, a senior planning consultant for the Colorado Department of Education's Educational Technology Center. As a state, he says, "we're subsidizing this learning experience without really knowing if it's a quality one."
Even though cyber-schools are a new breed of educational animal, they have been, by necessity, forced to work within an already firmly established educational system. The clash between the two learning methods has ripped plenty of fault lines. One topic that has generated a huge amount of discussion recently, for example, is special education.
In many important ways, online schools are the perfect forum for handicapped students, who represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the online student body. Learning out of the home can make life easier for handicapped pupils unable to navigate the physical challenges and social perils of regular schools. Yet many such students also require plenty of one-on-one attention from educational specialists, such as speech and hearing pathologists, which can't be delivered over a computer.
The issue is how to pay for these services. So far, most cyber-schools have billed the school districts where the students live -- a system permitted by state law. The costs can easily rise to thousands of dollars per student, though. As a result, many "old school"administrators are becoming more and more unhappy with the arrangement.
"What we're doing is applying old ideas to new concepts, and they just don't work," argues Littleton's Scheer, who has fought against the payments. He argues that cyber-schools should have to educate all of their students, including special-ed students, using the $5,511 per pupil they collect from the state -- just as other public schools do. Billing extra for services like special education, he says, is double dipping.
Yet the whole idea of what it costs to educate a student over the Internet is a bit of a mystery. Stucky, of Alamosa, says her figures show it costs about $7,200 per student per year to educate a child electronically. Tim Snyder, of Colorado Online Learning, counters that his research shows the figure is less than $5,000.


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Eight weeks into the biggest oil spill disaster in American history and beset by criticism of the federal reaction to the fiasco, President Barack Obama used his very first Oval Office address last night to discuss a plan for the spill beyond an immediate fix — and the reaction was instant.
The New York Times's news analysis column by Peter Baker, printed side by side on the front page with the paper's straight news story on the president's long-awaited public address on the Gulf Coast oil spill, started out with an impatient, arms folded, toe-tapping tone, and a critical view of Obama's martial language that cast the spill cleanup as "the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens." The lede:
Fifty-six days, millions of gallons of oil and countless hours of cable television second-guessing later, President Obama finally addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night to declare war.
Baker's analysis, like much coverage of the speech, also focused on Obama's Rumpelstiltskin opportunity to spin hay into gold with his speech on the BP oil spill or, as the Times put it, to convert "political burden into a political weapon" by channeling public outrage into public support for clean energy policy. But as Baker pointed out:
The connection to the spill, of course, goes only so far. While he called for more wind turbines and solar panels, for instance, neither fills gasoline tanks in cars and trucks, and so their expansion would not particularly reduce the need for the sort of deepwater drilling that resulted in the spill.
Linda Feldmann for the The Christian Science Monitor also questioned how Obama's push for clean energy would prevent future oil spills, calling the speech "long on big picture and short on detail."
Feldmann opened with an epigraph, quoting Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, in the days shortly after Obama's election, saying, "Rule No. 1: "Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things."
Obama interpreted that rule, Feldmann wrote, to make the argument for a "national mission" to "create a clean energy future." But it's not clear what that means.
With nearly one-third of Obama's 17-minute speech devoted to long-term energy reform, critics complained that the president gave the immediate crisis short shrift and provided no new details.
Obama did not reveal whether he would push for the kind of "cap and trade" provision the House has already passed, which would limit carbon emissions – and which opponents call a tax. He mentioned the word "climate" only once in the speech, when referring to the House bill.
Weighing the political landscape, Feldmann wrote that with Republicans sensing an opportunity for "major gains in the fall midterm election and with Democrats fearful of taking risky votes," now would not appear to be the right moment to push for clean energy reform, a centerpiece of Obama's campaign that ended up taking a backseat to healthcare reform.
But enough with the wishy-washy, superficial analysis of Obama's political strategy, word choice and television presence. Kevin Drum at Mother Jones (which did some of the earliest and best work in exposing BP's restrictions on journalistic access to the spill) did not mince words, writing simply, "What a terrible speech." He continued:
The whole point of a prime time Oval Office speech is that it announces something big. On that score, Obama failed right from the start. He told us that lots of people are already working the cleanup. Yawn.
…This speech felt entirely by-the-numbers to me. He told us about the spill. He told us the best minds in the country were working on it. He told us BP would pay for it. He told us he was setting up some commissions. He said he wanted an energy bill of some kind. Then he told us all to pray. It felt like he was reading off a PowerPoint deck.
So what should Obama have said?


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Sights & Attractions
- Art, Culture & Heritage
- Educational places
- Nature & Wildlife
- » Islands
- » Dam,Reservoir, Lake
- » National Parks & Marine Reserves
- » River, Canal
- » Flower Field
- » Hot Spring
- » Caves
- » Waterfalls
- » Beaches & Bay
- » Diving site
- » Mountain (Doi)
- » Other nature sites
- » Green Travel
- Places of Worship
- Recreational & Entertainment
- Royal Project, Research and Development
- Shopping
- Spas & Wellness
- Suburban Living
- Wineries & Breweries
Operating day:Daily
Operating time: 06.00 - 18.00Contact Details
Sai Yok National Park
Category : National Parks & Marine Reserves
Attraction Details :
This 300-square-kilometer national park is best known for the family of SaiYok Waterfalls (NamtokSaiYok); three picturesque waterfalls located in the park. NamtokSaiyok was first widely known among Thais when King Rama V visited them in 1888 during his reign that inspired Prince Naris, his brother, to compose a song named KamenSaiYok that narrates the beauty of this waterfall. Apart from being a home to numerous wild animals, such as squirrels, bats, deer, and birds, it is also home to the world's smallest mammal, the two-grammedKittis Hog-nosed Bat, which was first discovered in 1973. The park is very popular during the weekends. Bungalow accommodations, river rafts, camping facilities, and a daytime food market are available. Other attractions include Lawa and Daowadung caves that feature beautiful stalactites and stalactites as well as the nearby Tham Wang Badan or ThamSawan Wang Badan. The park and its waterfalls is popular among weekenders as it is close to the Nam Tok Railway station you can easily access by train and continue on foot.
The closest destination to this result :
See & Do in Kanchanaburi :


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From Mark Birnbaum's partner, Eugene Remm (rumored to have been there): "EM Group is focused on building and keeping their nightlife and hospitality business open and don't need to focus on things that are overly exaggerated and lacking fact."
From Michael Satsky: "I am too busy working on our Sundance Film Festival events, and this nonsense is last on my agenda."
Not as salacious, but just as intriguing, the ubiquitous Abbe Diaz left a comment on the DBTH post saying EM Group is telling people they've bought Lotus (there have been rumors). The truth is opaque, but if Birnbaum did get the smackdown, we have just the song for him.
Royal Rumble: Tenjune vs. Stereo [Down by the Hipster]
You Just Got Slapped [YouTube]
Related: Nightlife Gurus Eugene Remm and Mark Birnbaum Like Working Underground
Meatpacking Rent Party: Lotus and Pizza Bar for Sale
Meatpacking Moguls Remm, Birnbaum, and Rabin on How to Be Cool


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Select () or exclude () categories to narrow your recipe search.
As you select categories, the number of matching recipes will update.
Find exactly what you're looking for with the web's most powerful recipe filtering tool.
I am a SAHM mom with two small children. DS has peanut and treenut allergies so I find myself making more things from scratch. I am always looking for healthier recipes and ways to use whole grains.
I love using Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine, Cooking Light, Giada de Laurentiis, greenlitebites.com
I love watching Ace of Cakes, Good Eats, Paula Deen, and Iron Chef on the Food Network.
All the things that I am currently trying not to eat, pasta, pizza, mexican, bread, cake, cookies...
Salmon, fresh berries, cantaloupe, anything with pumpkin, pomegranetes, black beans, homemade soup, anything cooked on the grill.


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Vote Fact or Fake? Revolutionary Sports Gear
Anyone involved with extreme sports knows that with the adrenaline rush also comes a serious risk of injury. For this reason these sports also feature some of the most durable protective clothing. Unfortunately, most of the protective gear features rigid elements, reducing both the flexibility and comfort of the wearer.
In a breakthrough involving the usage of a new synthetic material known as d3o, a company called d3o™ lab has partnered with a wide range of athletic gear providers to produce clothing that insures the wearers safety without compromising flexibility.
At the root of these innovative new products is d3o a "specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules. They flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb the impact energy." This allows the creation of safety pads that are flexible when not under duress, while still retaining the safety of normal rigid pads.
The featured image is of a motorcycle race suit made by Japanese Motorcycle Racing brand HYOD using d3o. It was worn by the winner of last summer's Suzuka 8 hour race, Ryuichi Kyonari from the DREAM Honda Racing team.
If you are interested in the various companies that have begun to incorporate d3o, the d3o lab's site can be found here.
Fact or Fake: d3o lab
Alex Eremenko
Featured Blogger
by Anonymous
this shit is totally real they already have some mountain bike stuff made out of this... although its HELLA expensive i totally want a full suit so i can throw myself off wayyyy higher jumps without risk of death!
by Anonymous
Hi Alex,
I have been reading some of your posts and I would like to run something by you, regarding www.planeteureka.com, but unfortunately I can not find any contact info on you. Could you contact me at mhorta[at]pandemiclabs[dot]com
Marco Horta