Whither The Fool?

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” - Henry VI, Part 2

Meanwhile, this from Howell Raines, former Executive Editor of the vaunted New York Times, firm friend of jihadists the world over (h/t Michelle Malkin):

One audience member asked about the role of media leaks. Raines opted not to go in-depth since he no longer is a working journalist, but offered a bit of a leak of his own:

“Almost all leakers are lawyers. That’s the bottom line.”

If we don’t quickly heed Shakespeare’s council, it may well be too late.

OTB reports that the Swedes were first to have their folks out of Lebanon, thanks to their use of text messaging on cellular phones. Not sure how they had the numbers of all their citizens, but still…

I do wonder if these might not have been actual blue-eyed, blonde Swedes in that case, however. My understanding is that a large part of the overwhelming number of U.S. expatriates that required evacuation consisted of Lebanese-born who held a U.S. as well as a Lebanese passport. This segment of the rescued were not vacationers, but permanent residents of Lebanon - many of them Hezbollah sympathizers, in fact.

If we’d had only 8,000 or so to evacuate rather than the 25,000 or so including these “sunshine jihadis,” perhaps our effort would have been equally as efficient.

Still, I don’t believe there were that many complaints.

Captain’s Quarters reports that Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is behind his Democrat Party primary challenger in his bid for reelection.

What I wonder is this: If Lieberman loses, and becomes a “sore loserman” once again by running as an independent - and winning reelection - will he feel free to align himself with the Republicans on some vital issues such as national defense and foreign policy?

When Senator Jeffords of VT left the Republican ranks to become an “independent,” (and effectively join the Democrats) he had just been reelected as a ‘Pub. However, Lieberman will have actually run as an independent - a vastly more honest position than the traitorous Jeffords’.

I would welcome Mr. Lieberman’s reelection as an independent for just that reason. But I’m “on record” as opposing partisan politics, along with Mr. Washington.

Go ahead, JUMP!

Mark Steyn on why everything everyone knows about the Middle East is wrong.

We don’t have any of these, as far as I know. (h/t A Bama Blog)

I used to be a land-surveyor in Alabama, and I got stung so many times by Yellow Jackets over time that I developed a “sensitivity” to ‘em. That is, getting stung just once swelled me up, and it was time for a trip to the E.R. for an adrenalin injection.

I’m afraid I wouldn’t survive a close encounter with one of these super-nests!

A Bama Blog has a “skeery” follow-up, too.

(N.B. If Georgia Tech was still in the SEC, I’d say this was an invasion!)

The talk-show airwaves this morning, at least here in H-Town, were ablaze with excoriating commentary regarding the supposed “latest blunder” of the GOP-led Senate (from the Washington Times).

I have an alternate take on this thing. I think these measures are intended as a “poison pill” to destroy the only REAL impetus for aliens to come here illegally: ready access to jobs. And possibly, it’s meant to destroy any chance of passage of the legislation itself, while providing bullet-proof cover for the Republican legislators that can’t be penetrated by Democrat pea-shooters.

Now think about this for a minute: The biggest draw for illegals is jobs. They don’t come here for any other reason. They’re not “yearning to breathe free,” or any of the other stuff that influenced generations of legal immigrants in times past. They just want jobs.

Why are they able to come here and obtain them, even though they don’t know the language and hardly any have skills beyond manual labor? Because they’re willing to take low-paying jobs at an even lower rate of pay than Americans. Hence the “jobs Americans won’t do” mantra.

What would happen if, all of a sudden, you could not come here as a “guest worker” and take these jobs at low rates of pay that make you attractive as a worker to an employer? What if the employer was required by federal law only to pay you much more than a native American citizen could be paid?

This is, in effect, a TARIFF on alien “guest” workers! Just as we might put a tariff on steel from Japan, or produce from Cuba, or lumber from Canada, we’re putting a tariff on these formerly low-wage workers. It’s brilliant! My hat’s actually off to Mr. Frist.

Think of this: The Dems can’t complain, because after all, they’re always for “living wages for the oppressed workers,” right? They don’t want to alienate this mythical Hispanic base, so they have to go along with it.

Suppose the bill passes. From now on, if you’re a “guest worker,” you’ve got to be paid “Davis-Bacon” wages. You’re now priced out of the market! Now, Americans may well begin doing those jobs that they formally wouldn’t do because they can expect to be paid to do them - but aren’t hampered by the artificially high wage that must be paid to the illegal guest worker.

So what’s wrong with my theory?

Anybody?

You know that kindly old aunt, who got her first computer back a few years ago and discoverd the Internet and email shortly thereafter? The one who constantly forwards you those round-robin email “jokes” and anecdotes, almost all of which are debunked on Snopes.Com, because it would never occur to her that (a) you’ve seen the joke at least once a week ever since your email account was first set up in 1994, and (b) just because you read it in an email doesn’t make it true?

Now what if your aunt had a blog?

Of course, even your aunt couldn’t be as humiliated as this Chinese newspaper a couple of years back.

Penraker pontificates on the politically-correct - and historically-incorrect - myth of the “peaceful” American Indian.

Read all of this, and prepare to discuss with your friendly neighborhood historian. See how friendly s/he is afterward.

Italy 5 3 France

OTHERS OPINE

Redstate

Balloon Juice (Includes video of the infamous Zenidine Zidane “head butt to the chest” foul).

Daisy Cutter

Free Thoughts (an Italian blog, so there’s a lot going on over there).

Lone Star Times 

Outside The Beltway

Power Line

Wizbang