:: MAX BLACK ::

"Under the new "comprehensive immigration reform" bill (Posse Como Estas?), a posse of National Guardsmen will be stationed in the Arizona desert but only as Wal-Mart greeters to escort members of the Illegal-American community to the nearest Social Security office to register for benefits backdated to 1973."

--Mark Steyn

:: Max 12:24 PM [+] ::
...

---

Call me a racist but...

...I've stopped doing business with Arabs; my flooring contractor, the local tapas restaurant, my wife's Gynocologist - I won't deal with Arabs anymore because I don't trust them. Why should I?

[If there were a concerted and highly publicized effort on the part of moderate Muslims to denounce terrorism and nutcases like Amedinejad I'd reconsider my position - until then, nada.]

Update: Well, what more can I say...

:: Max 10:02 AM [+] ::
...

---

It's back with a vengeance: miya-hee, miya-hoo, miya-haa miya-UH OH...

:: Max 10:32 AM [+] ::
...

---

Have an MBNA credit card? If so, you might want to take a look at this. [via Brian Maloney]

:: Max 12:25 AM [+] ::
...

---

"For those around the world who would want to see a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some quiet advice. That is, be careful of what you wish for. Because a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world."

--Australian PM John Howard

H/T Kate McMillan

:: Max 9:08 PM [+] ::
...

---

More hack journalism at the LA Times. One would think they'd get tired of being outed - daily - by bloggers but they're shameless propagandists.

:: Max 11:29 AM [+] ::
...

---

USA Today NSA story imploding?

"I mentioned in the last piece the big telcos were likely to be sued over this and that was one of the reasons for the strong denial. That turned out to be dead on.

"It will be interesting to watch how USA Today responds. When the media goes after Bush with a concocted story, there is no artificial deadline to retract it. In the Rathergate case, CBS never would have retracted the story without the continued blogosphere pressure. This case is different in that it could possibly cost Bellsouth a quarter of a trillion dollars and unlike Bush, they can take action against the paper.

"If the paper stands by the story, they themselves stand to be sued for billions by the telcos or by the shareholders who have seen their share value decrease. If they retract the story they join CBS in being sucked by a bad source.

"The pressure for USA Today to either back up the story or retract it is going to be quite strong. I don't think this one will drag on for weeks like Rathergate. When Bellsouth takes off the gloves, something is going to happen quickly.

"And unless Bellsouth is bluffing, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes may soon have company on the wall of shame."

:: Max 8:13 AM [+] ::
...

---

"It seems that the civil war has begun," said one medic, who did not want to give his name...

No, it's not Iraq.

:: Max 7:59 AM [+] ::
...

---

Good Hugh Hewitt interview with WH Press Secretary Tony Snow via RadioBlogger.

:: Max 7:55 AM [+] ::
...

---

So I drop in on Lou Minatti for an update on the housing bubble and get a blast from the past instead:

"I rode the Derby Racer at Playland once when I was about 12 or so and it scared the crap out of me. It scared me in a way I've never experienced on an amusement park ride since. It took all of my 12-year-old strength just to hold on to the ancient hand-carved wooden horse while I screamed in genuine fear. In a world filled with 0-90 mph looping roller coasters that drop 300 feet, why is this 90-year-old ride scary? I think it's due of the knowledge that if you let go there is a very good chance you will wake up in the hospital. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a thrill ride."

:: Max 3:49 PM [+] ::
...

---

Looks like Germany has a little border problem of their own. I guess they'll let anybody in; even "refugee Minister for Refugees kind of refugee types"

:: Max 3:40 PM [+] ::
...

---

Roger Simon on the Phonies of the Los Angeles Times:

"All this "Ohmygod, whatistheNSAdoing?" nonsense is so much propgandistic crap. Anyone paying the slightest attention has known for years what the NSA's brief was. What are all those satellites supposed to be for, anyway? The level of hypcorisy in all this is staggering. If you don't want an NSA, say so. But the obvious question is - where have you been for the llast several decades?"

Maybe the intrepid LAT editorial board was too lazy to read the book but you might have thought a 20 second Google search would have been in order before they started banging on their keyboards.

:: Max 3:05 PM [+] ::
...

---

Cox and Forkum just keep getting better.

Hirsi Ali Update From Peaktalk Via Small Dead Animals [emphasis mine]:

"The emergency debate turned into a marathon session of the Dutch lower house and early in the morning an apparently emotional Immigration Minster Verdonk accepted two separate motions to reconsider revoking Hirsi Ali's Dutch nationality. She will now have six weeks to see if there are mitigating circumstances that will allow Hirsi Ali to remain a Dutch citizen.

What to say? It is a moral victory for our embattled heroine that much is certain, but at this point it is of course of little help to her. As she mentioned during her press conference yesterday, it was the court ruling that led to the eviction from her apartment a few weeks back that forced her decision to resign from parliament and leave the lowlands in search for greener pastures overseas. Upon joining AEI she will most likely be in a position to apply for US citizenship and consider her Dutch passport as a tainted relic that will forever remind her of her dreadful last few months in The Netherlands."

:: Max 2:50 PM [+] ::
...

---

The Religious Policeman takes a humorous look at Google and the sexually frustrated Arabs.

Update: On a less humorous note, Hammorabi posts a sad report on the recent activities of the "real" religious policemen.

:: Max 3:39 PM [+] ::
...

---

Zacht Ei has an update on the Dutch Citizenship status of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

:: Max 2:33 PM [+] ::
...

---

Now Playing: NP interview with the last French intellectual - Bertrand Latour - via Hot Air.

Most interesting revelation? French unemployment really 15-20%?! Unfortunatley the "worker's Party" never really produced many workers.

:: Max 11:55 AM [+] ::
...

---

Here's a link to the NRO Symposium on Bush's speech last night. The reaction from these conservative reviewers is simply: Bush proposed amnesty.

:: Max 7:37 AM [+] ::
...

---

This is extraordinary: Hirsi Ali booted from the Netherlands. Welcome to the States Ms Ali. It will be interesting to see if the "liberals" in the US will tolerate your voice.

Update: Here's more from Christopher Hitchens

[Maybe she could get a teaching gig at Yale although I rather doubt it. They seem to be more interested in hyper-paternalistic, mysogynistic, religious zealots.]

:: Max 3:38 PM [+] ::
...

---

Grab a free glass of box-wine and peruse the razor-sharp, cutting edge of contemporary art at the Whitney Biennal with your intrepid reviewer, Scott Burgess.

:: Max 10:30 AM [+] ::
...

---

Another story you're unlikely to see in the New York Times: Iran supplying al Quaeda insurgents in Iraq with advanced weaponry including shoulder-fired Sam 7 (Strella) missles via Iraq the Model.

:: Max 5:34 PM [+] ::
...

---

Question:

"What do you get when you take two world wars, add the two most malign ideologies of the century, throw in genocide, the collapse of religious institutions, radical secularism, a political elite sealed off from opinions it finds distasteful, spiraling social costs, deathbed demographics and growing numbers of an unassimilated immigrant population?

Answer: Another terrific Mark Steyn column

:: Max 9:47 AM [+] ::
...

---

Def.: pollaganda: outcome-based opinion samples (polling instruments designed to generate a preferential outcome) based on prior-opinion indoctrination or cultivation by the media, the results of which are then used to manipulate public opinion further by advancing the perception that a particular opinion on an issue has majority support, and then presenting this "data" as if it were "news."

"We say "outcome-based" because most polls reflect intentional propagation of a particular bias by Leftmedia television and print outlets to manipulate public opinion. They accomplish this by first saturating viewers with "reporting" that reflects a particular bias. After a thorough indoctrination, the media outlets then conduct "opinion polls" which, of course, reflect that indoctrination. Then they use the poll results to further proselytize by treating the results as "news." This in turn induces "bandwagon psychology" -- the human tendency of those who do not have a strong ideological foundation to aspire to the side perceived to be in the majority -- and thus further drives public opinion toward the original media bias, ad infinitum.

Pollaganda, then, is self-perpetuating."

Eric has more over at No Pasaran!

:: Max 4:48 PM [+] ::
...

---

Ya know, if you're still using the print-press for your primary source of information you're woefully uninformed. This phenomenon is well understood by those who have abandoned MSM [main stream media] for the web. The examples are legion and, frankly, shocking, but do yourself a favor and check this out. This book's been around for a long while but its message still rings true; don't ever - ever - believe what you read in the newspaper; they're either a) lying or b) pathetically uninformed. [I choose to believe they're willfully lying; there's no other plausible explanation].

:: Max 11:37 PM [+] ::
...

---

Don't miss...

...this fascinating graphic over at LGF.

:: Max 9:31 PM [+] ::
...

---

Gateway Pundit has link-filled post on the Saudi couple who enslaved and sexually assaulted an Indonesian woman. IMHO, the story here is not that the Saudis enslaved a human being - that is hardly newsworthy or surprising. The real story is that Saudi nationals - and other wealthy, "connected" criminals receive special treatment from the American legal system. The Rocky Mountain News treats the story in an off-handed and superficial way, and doesn't burden it's readers with background information on why this phenomenon is happening. I mean, it's not like it's all that uncommon.

:: Max 11:42 PM [+] ::
...

---

A message the "feminist" left is loath to hear:

"If a feminist dares raise the specter of Jew-hatred and the demonization of the Jewish state among leftists and feminists, she will quickly discover that she has become unwelcome in the mainstream media and among leftists (who actually think of themselves as liberals), and among feminists. Palestinianized Western feminists are more concerned with the so-called occupation of a country that does not exist (Palestine), than with the occupation of women's bodies worldwide under Islam. The fact that feminists and leftists still continue to call for boycotts of Israel and to actively demonstrate against a war-time president even after 9/11, 3/11, and 7/7 tells me that they have literally been brainwashed and that reality has no defining role in determining their thoughts or their actions."

--Phyllis Chesler

Much, much more via No Pasaran

Like spoilt children, the western feminist clamps her hands over her ears, stamps her feet and screams "Nooooo!" when presented with these uncomfortable realities. In fact, today's "liberal" feminist is simply a coward, knowing that if she ever ventured into the heart of the Middle East to protest the barbaric "honor killings" or forced clitorectomies she would be summarily shot by the Muslim Brotherhood. When the rare courageous voice finally speaks out, like Hirsi Ali, or Phyllis Chesler, they are booted from the women's-club and silenced. It's utterly bizzare but such is the mind of the contemporary "feminist".

Update: LGF has just posted a must-see interview with Hirsi Ali. This woman is tremendously courageous; they'll kill her someday. They will.

:: Max 2:15 PM [+] ::
...

---

"The death penalty is a barbaric institution that has no place in a civilized society. Only pathetic Americans would be so reactionary and retarded as to resort to something outdated like that."

--Eric Svane [yuk yuk]

:: Max 2:06 PM [+] ::
...

---

RIP

"What difference in practice is there between those irresponsible "socialists" who, as soon as they come to power, impose their untested ideological principles on the management of the nation, with the result that production drops by one half - and, on the other hand, those irresponsible capitalists who permit an economic crisis in which a fall in production is accompanied by inflation and unemployment?

There is in fact no difference, except that the damage done by the capitalists is often less extensive and less permanent, and that they spare us the sanctimonious sermons of the 'socialists'. At least capitalism is not satisfied with itself except in good times when it is performing sucessfully, whereas socialist boasting need not be based on any performance at all.

Failure raises the socialist morale - luckily, since if its self-esteem had to be based on success, socialism would live in a state of constant humilation."

--Jean Francois Revel

:: Max 9:21 PM [+] ::
...

---

Screaming Dean Update

"I was recently asked about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties," Dean said. "When it comes right down to it, the essential difference is that the Democrats fundamentally believe it is important to make sure that American Jews feel comfortable being American Jews."

-Howard Dean

Thanks Howard, I've really been wondering lately about the essential and fundamental difference between the Republican and the Democrat parties. Your statement is extremely enlightening.

:: Max 7:07 AM [+] ::
...

---

Michael Totten is continuing his compelling reportage from the middle east, supported entirely by your generous Paypal donations. Check in frequently and don't forget to hit the tip jar on your way out.

:: Max 9:32 PM [+] ::
...

---

Must read: [if you have the stomach for it] Europe's Two Culture Wars

:: Max 9:19 PM [+] ::
...

---

In honor of May Day, Lou Minatti peruses the "The Peoples Weekly World" and concludes: Communists suck.

:: Max 3:35 PM [+] ::
...

---

Hermann the German comments on the increase in the "Reichensteuer" or rich tax leveled on wealthy Germans. Yes, it's 45% now. Taxing their way to prosperity, what a novel idea.

:: Max 3:28 PM [+] ::
...

---

James Taranto wonders why liberals are so humorless. It's truly one of the greatest alltime mysteries of the political blogosphere. If you can find a witty leftoid blog, Tim Blair would like to know about it.

:: Max 3:12 PM [+] ::
...

---

Now Playing: This is just unreal...

:: Max 1:06 PM [+] ::
...

---

Now Playing: The Greatest Art Masterpiece of All Times!

:: Max 11:24 AM [+] ::
...

---