Politics As Usual

[Hank Chinaski]

or the French Learn to fight



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...semitic_attack

Teenager Stabbed in Anti-Semitic Attack

Sat Jun 5, 8:43 AM ET

By PIERRE-YVES ROGER, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - A Jewish teenager was stabbed in the chest by a man crying "God is great," officials said. It was the second attack in a week on a young Jewish man.

The 17-year-old victim, who was not identified, was attacked Friday afternoon as he left a Jewish school in Epinay-sur-Seine, north of Paris in the rough Seine-Saint-Denis district, said local officials on condition of anonymity.

The victim was taken to a hospital in serious condition, and the attacker fled. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin visited the site where the attack occurred.

Witnesses said a man shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) then plunged a knife into the young man before fleeing.

The victim's injuries were not life-threatening, said Gilles Taieb, a spokesman for the Jewish Consistoire, which directs Jewish religious life.

Last Sunday, the 17-year-old son of a rabbi was attacked by a group of young men as he was about to enter his home in suburban Paris.

France, for all its pontification of knowing what to do in the world, is headed for some big internal strife. there is a huge islamic population, and these attacks are getting more and more frequent.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
or the French Learn to fight
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...semitic_attack


France, for all its pontification of knowing what to do in the world, is headed for some big internal strife. there is a huge islamic population, and these attacks are getting more and more frequent.

As long as the muslims only attack jews, I doubt the majority of French are going to care. France, like much of Europe, is filled with anti-semites, and not just muslim anti-semites. The european Christians are quite anti-semitic.

[Say_hello_for_me]

I'll be wearing a black armband this week. Look at me funny and you'll be eating freedom fists.

Looking forward to Noonan's words of comfort.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
I'll be wearing a black armband this week. Look at me funny and you'll be eating freedom fists.

Looking forward to Noonan's words of comfort.

RR made the word conservative a compliment and the word liberal a slur. May the Great Communicator rest in peace, indeed.

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me

Looking forward to Noonan's words of comfort.

Agreed. I could use them. Been a long time since I shed tears like this.

[bilmore]

""They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right." -- Ronald Reagan

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by bilmore
""They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right." -- Ronald Reagan

An excellent quote. I think he was the best President I've heard at the inspriational/uplifting speech.

Now if we could only find some agreement on what is morally right . . .

S_A_M

[Gin Rummy]

"We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right"

Amen, Bilmo, amen. But we must remember morality is not relative, there is a RIGHT and a WRONG, and the shades of grey that the weak-minded amongst us use to justify their immorality most not be allowed to colour our behavior.

Through the gut wrenching agony and tears of this sad day, we must also focus on tomorrow and the future beyond and our duty to President Reagan's legacy.

As Peggy Noonan once wrote so eloquently (unlike that whore Maureen Dowd):

Those of us who lived in and feel we understood the age of Ronald Reagan have a great responsibility: to explain and tell and communicate who he was and what he did and how he did it and why. Where he came from and what it meant that he came from there. What it meant, for instance, that he came from the political left, was trained in it, and then left it -- for serious reasons, reasons as serious as life gets. And: what it cost him to stand where he stood. That is always one of the great questions of history, of the story of a political or cultural figure -- "What did it cost him to stand where he stood?" You learn a lot when you learn the cost.

If we don't tell the young they'll never know.

Amen Peggy, amen.

And as part of Peggy's charge, we must recall the last words of the Gipper himself to the America he so loved and remember that his vision will not remain true unless we are vigilant to the cause and willing to take a stand against those who would destroy America and the freedoms we have:

I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.

[Gin Rummy]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
Now if we could only find some agreement on what is morally right . . .

S_A_M

And Reagan wept along with Jesus.


Faith in God, patriotism, freedom, the love of freedom, family, work, neighborhood -- the heart and soul of America's past and the promise of her future. If we stand together and live up to these principles, we will not fail. - Ronald Reagan, Address Before a Joint Session of the Alabama State Legislature in Montgomery, March 15, 1982.

[Not Me]

U.S. addiction to oil puts it at mercy of risky characters

• David Lazarus
  Sunday, June 6, 2004
  
  Our pals in OPEC announced the other day that they're boosting daily oil-production targets by 2 million barrels to bring down soaring gas prices.
  
  It was a hollow gesture.
  
  "Most of these guys are already producing near capacity," said Severin Borenstein, director of the UC Energy Institute in Berkeley. "The only ones who really have capacity to spare are the Saudis, and they'd already begun ramping up production.
  
  "So all that's really happened is the Saudis received OPEC's blessing for something they were already doing."
  
  Will that be enough to bring down prices at the pump, which last week were running just over $2 on average nationwide for a gallon of regular unleaded and about $2.30 in California? Probably not. At least not by much.
  
  Kuwait's oil minister, Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, told reporters at the OPEC meeting in Beirut that the new production quotas would in reality add only about 800,000 barrels a day to the global oil market.
  
  That's just a drop in the bucket -- literally -- when you consider that 80 million barrels of oil are consumed daily worldwide.
  
  "We saw this coming years ago," UC's Borenstein said. "Demand keeps growing in this country but supply doesn't. We have no one to blame but ourselves."
  
  It's a valid point. No matter where you stand on the thorny question of whether more refineries should be built (and in whose back yard), there's no denying that the United States has a petroleum crack habit that puts us at the mercy of drug dealers like the OPEC gang.
  
  The United States accounts for about a quarter of all oil consumed daily. Of this amount, about two-thirds goes to transportation.
  
  Meanwhile, average fuel economy in this country has been steadily slipping from a high of 22.1 miles per gallon in the late 1980s. Last year, the average vehicle on U.S. roads was getting 20.7 miles per gallon.
  
  The reason is that, like junkies perpetually seeking a better high, U.S. consumers keep buying bigger and fatter rides, as evidenced by the unceasing popularity of sport utility vehicles.
  
  The average car or light-duty truck sold in the United States last year weighed a staggering 4,021 pounds, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This is the first time in almost three decades that average vehicle weights have surpassed 2 tons.
  
  "The 17 million vehicles that Americans are buying every year are vehicles that guzzle gas and increase our reliance on OPEC," said Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's energy program.
  
  The Department of Energy estimates that about 45 percent of the price of gas at the pump reflects the cost of crude oil. About 23 percent covers state and federal taxes, and the rest pays for refining, distribution, marketing and industry profits.
  
  The American Petroleum Institute says that profit margins for oil and natural gas companies averaged 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2004, compared with an average of 7.5 percent for all U.S. industry.
  
  "Many claim that the oil industry is making excessive profit," said Dave Fogarty, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, a trade group. "It's actually at or slightly below the national average."
  
  Even so, ChevronTexaco saw its profit soar 37 percent to $2.6 billion in the first quarter. ExxonMobil saw its quarterly profit climb about 12 percent from a year earlier to $5.4 billion.
  
  Ultimately, it's up to U.S. consumers to wean themselves from their costly addiction to oil, which increasingly is coming from less-than-stable parts of the world. And this will require some tough love.
  
  In other words, higher gas taxes.
  
  The average American now pays about 42 cents a gallon in gas taxes. The average Californian, who pumps a cleaner-burning brew, pays about 52 cents in taxes. These amounts, however, are not enough to deter people from using their cars.
  
  They also don't factor in the risk of importing oil from relatively scary places, which occasionally requires us to send in troops to keep pipelines flowing. Nor do they contribute in any significant way to creation and maintenance of a mass-transit network similar to those in Europe or Japan.
  
  To accomplish these goals, experts say, the United States would need to impose a tax of between $1 and $3 per gallon. And this simply isn't going to happen.
  
  "Name me one leader who's willing to say he's for a $2 to $3 gas tax," said the Sierra Club's Becker.
  
  You can't, because there isn't one.
  
  In 1980, independent candidate John Anderson made a 50-cent-a-gallon gas tax one of the centerpieces of his presidential campaign. He garnered only 6.6 percent of the vote on election day.
  
  In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton proposed a sweeping tax on all fuels as a way to slash the federal deficit and protect the environment. He was forced to settle for a 4.3 cent increase in pump prices.
  
  "My suggestion," said UC's Borenstein, "is for gas prices to go up 10 cents a year for 10 years until they're a dollar higher. Even something as modest as that, though, probably wouldn't pass."
  
  So here we are, married to our SUVs, beholden to OPEC, hungry for our next fix.
  
  It's a bad situation. And it will only get worse.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&type=business

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by Not Me
U.S. addiction to oil puts it at mercy of risky characters
...there's no denying that the United States has a petroleum crack habit that puts us at the mercy of drug dealers like the OPEC gang...

Further evidence to support Club's theory that someone reads this board.

But let me get this straight. If its not taxed, prices might rise anyway? Uhm, ok. Supply and demand baby. People who have to drive far for work are going to get rap..., er, murdered by gas prices in the future. Gas prices will be the ultimate revitalization for cities in the U.S. And people wonder why the slums in old world countries aren't in downtown public housing! (Note, I'm being serious here).

In other news, SA today announced that chicks can work (more or less). All to help us in the war on terror.

Please, please, please, somebody get a graphic of Rafah the Riveter maybe making a muscle that can't be seen through a burqa.

Hello

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
Further evidence to support Club's theory that someone reads this board.

But let me get this straight. If its not taxed, prices might rise anyway? Uhm, ok. Supply and demand baby. People who have to drive far for work are going to get rap..., er, murdered by gas prices in the future. Gas prices will be the ultimate revitalization for cities in the U.S.

I agree that supply and demand will ultimately work and if terrorism funded by middle east oil revenues weren't an issue and if pollution of our environment weren't an issue, I would say let the market work. We don't have that luxury because of the war islam is waging against the US and because of the damage to the environment. The market doesn't take into account those factors.

[sgtclub]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040606/D831KL2O0.html

Political motives aside, this is a classy move.

[sgtclub]

"Inflation is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job."

[Gin Rummy]

Originally posted by sgtclub

Gentlemen, I hate inflation, I hate taxes and I hate the Soviets. Do something about it. - President Ronald Reagan, addressing his staff at the end of the first Cabinet meeting of his presidency in February 1981.

Timeless. Replace "inflation" with "falsely inflated gas prices" and "the Soviets" with the "Radical Islamics" and the words ring just as poignant today.