I agree, posting the word unbiased in quotes was a goad, and I do apologize for the outright pushing of your buttons. I was annoyed at SFMike and not you. I read his posting (and his prior rants) and when I viewed the other blogs you highlighted I viewed them through a different lens than perhaps you do. Either way I shouldn't have pushed and I apologize and will do my best to avoid it in the future.

It's probably not even you, or your choices. It's probably me and my perception of your choices, or maybe it's just the general attitude of the San Francisco Bay Area and I just don't get it.

Am I really that out of step with the rest of the Bay? Don't others not see the hypocrisy and idiocy that runs wild in the Bay Area:

The people driving $100,000 automobiles decrying the "war for oil" with their smarmy little bumper stickers (but if you even so much as scratch that car of theirs...); Protestors in the streets waving their huge signs decrying the supposed limitation of their civil liberties (while they calmly call for the "ousting" of a legally elected government...); People complaining about the "bad" Bush economy as they sell their $900,000+ homes. People screaming about how President Bush is a "murderer" and equating him with Hitler. Hitler...my god, have these people no freaking clue as to how absolutely idiotic and disgusting they are being? Or is it just me?

Am I so wrong to think that the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein in charge of anything (except maybe whether or not Tiger Claw beats paper)? Yes, it's bad that people died. But what if we hadn't done anything? As the phrase goes "Hindisight is twenty / twenty", but don't be fooled. Iraq wasn't the paradise that Micheal Moore and his ilk would have you believe. Oh sure, if you were one of Saddam's cronies you might have it better than everyone else, but heaven help you if you crossed him or his evil sons. He and his bloody regime killed hundreds of thousands of his own people, but I guess the people of Iraq were happy under that kind of totalitarian regime right? I mean, they didn't rise up or anything. And if they did...well, they didn't win so that must mean something right? "But what about the WMD's! Bush lied! People died!" Clue: More politicians than President Bush said that Saddam had WMD's and that he was a threat. You can't revise history or un-ring a bell.

Am I so wrong to think that Osama bin Laden, his ilk and their insane idiology shouldn't be "understood" or "related-to" except in so much as it takes to find them, task a missile or drop a stick and file a BDA?

Am I so wrong to think that Yassar Arafat was just a thug in a suit who somehow was able to morph from a sleazy terrorist into a Noble prize winning "head of state" who double dealt at every opportunity, stole billions from the Palestinians while they live in "slums", and is far more responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people than Israel is or ever was?

Am I so wrong for not believing BIRFEB?

Am I so wrong for having honest, scientific questions about Global Warming?

Am I so wrong for believing that all of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights should apply and not just the one's that the hippies like (for now...just wait till they get a Cuban style government in control).

Am I so wrong to believe that guns don't kill people, but that people kill people (an object at rest tends to remain at rest...)

I am tired of arguing against idiocy. I am tired of being equated with Nazi's. I am tired of being told that my viewpoint doesn't matter. I am tired of being called / considered a "right-winger", a "Zionist", a "Christian fundamentalist" (ticket for the clue bus for you folks: I don't even go to church, and haven't been to one in decades). In any other part of the country I would be considerate extermely moderate to liberal even, but here I am the fucking devil and that warrants people feeling free to belittle me, my viewpoints and hurl derogatory insults at me.

I support a womans right to an abortion (I just think that women should be better educated to the risks and that abortion shouldn't be used as birth control (and don't freaking tell me that they aren't)) .

I support gay rights (I don't give a shit what two consenting adults do in the bedroom.). But I do believe that with rights comes responsiblity (unlike the domestic partners law in California) and I would also request that the gay community respect the religious peoples viewpoint while they are demanding that the religious people respect gay culture. It's a two-way fucking street.

I believe in peace, goodwill towards men and everything else that the "peaceniks" in the Bay Area say they believe in (except for the communism crap, Castro is just another thug and Che Guevera was his bully boy). I just don't want to get stabbed in the fucking back while singing Kumbyah. No matter how many times some peacenik says "I love you, I understand you and I respect you" to a terrorist, it's not going to stop that terrorist from killing him. The same thing goes for dictators. Fuck 'em. Kill 'em all. Yep, I believe in freedom...for EVERYONE. Totalitarian dictatorships are an affront to all that the peaceniks say they believe in, but the hippies just don't get it. They can't believe that they really honestly and truely do live in the most free country on the planet and that those people in third-world dictatorships don't like being oppressed and shit on. Castro's Cuba is NOT the heaven on earth that they would have you believe. If it were, then why do people build boats out of trucks to try and leave?

De Oppresso Liber, "To Free the Oppressed" is a motto that I like and strongly support and believe in*

Maybe that's why I have been so strongly considering leaving the City I grew up in and heading for greener pastures, to liberate myself from the idiocy and hypocrisy, to free myself from the need to tilt at windmills.

I don't like being Don Quixote.

*Note: I am not claiming to be nor have I ever been in or associated with the U.S. Army Special Forces. I just really like the phrase, the ideology it represents and support and respect the "quiet professionals" who have it as their motto.

As presented by another "unbiased" linking by The Bay Area is Talking:

Local blogger "SFMike" claims to want to "politely disinvite" the Blue Angels from performing in the annual Fleet Week airshow. SFMike claims to want to be polite, but a careful (or hell, not so careful) read of his words and prior posts shows his true feelings.

It's sad that a city with such a HUGE Navy history is just pissing it away with attitudes like the above blogger. Ya know what sunshine? The frigging HIGHLIGHT of the year in San Francisco is now limited to the Blue Angels.

SFMike's other posts read like a litany of moonbat talking points, just one example should be enough for you:

"They have been carrying out this vigil since October 2001 when the insane people in the federal government and in the mainstream press decided it was a good idea to bomb the hell out of Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 disaster." [emphasis added]

Can't even call it a terrorist attack can you Mike? Let me guess, those people in New York probably deserved it in your mind didn't they?

HEADQUARTERS MARINE CORPS, Washington - On Nov. 10, Marines will celebrate the 230th birthday of the Marine Corps. It is a time of reflection to honor the Marines that have served, fought in every clime and place and the Marines today that carry on the tradition of the Corps.Photo by: Sgt. Leo A. Salinas

Semper Fi

GoDaddy.com 2005 Birthday Message

Well done San Francisco! You've passed Proposition H. Never mind that there are no statistics to back up the claims that it will lower crime (in fact, Washington D.C. and Chicago, the only other cities with handgun bans have some of the highest murder rates in the country!), nor will it stop criminals from getting guns (how many of you honestly think criminals go buy legal guns, wait for a background check and waiting period and only then go out and commit crimes?) but as the piece de resistance, you don't even know what the penalty will be in April when handguns become illegal!

That's right folks, currently the law says that the Board of Supervisors will come up with a penalty at some point. So it could be a slap on the wrist (no, wait, this isn't prostitution, drug crime or you know a real crime) but will more than likely be massive fines and possible jail time.
Hell, they charge you $250 to smoke a cigarette in the park for goodness sake. Using your Second Amendment rights has gotta be worth at least a couple of grand and six months in the pokey right?

I like the selective enforcement and belief in the Constitution as well. Decry your civil liberties being impugned (although there is no evidence of it) but take away another Constitutional right and claim it's for "safety."

I am going to have to move out of the City. I fear that its stupidity is contagious.

Think someone should tell MSNBC that holding onto two states that were already run by Democrats hardly counts as a "romp?"

From today's SFGate.com





Is Warren Beatty practicing for his possible future career?

"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."
-Cardinal Paul Poupard
Pontifical Council for Culture

A truly fascinating (albeit short) report from the Science, Theology and Ontological Quest 2005 Conference on Yahoo news delivered that little gem above along with:

"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."
-Monsignor Gianfranco Basti
Director, STOQ

I think I might register to receive the conference proceedings as the speakers and lecture subjects look very interesting:

Infinity in Science and Faith.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Israel Institute for Talmudic Pubblications Israel.

Infinity as Simplification
Juan Maldacena , IAS- Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA.

The Measurements of the Universe Age and their Significance
George V. Coyne, Director of the Vatican Observatory, Vatican.

Infinity, Contingency, and God: Between Cosmology and Theology.
Bishop Józef M. Zycinski, Arcibishop of Lublin, Poland.

There's been a rising tide of piracy off Somalia recently, but this has got to be a new one:

Pirates attack cruise ship

Over at Joi Ito's blog, Thomas Crampton (a supposed news professional with the International Herald Tribune) has posted a link to an Afrik.com story. The posting reads:

"Here's a home video clip a friend sent that claims to show Paris police shooting in the suburbs. Fairly strong stuff.
Disclaimer: I do not know anything further about the site or the clip."

Well, maybe you should have actually done some research on the site / clip before just blindly passing it on eh?

If one actually takes the time to read the article and translates it to English (or reads it in French, your choice) one finds that the video showing "...Paris police shooting in the suburbs" is video of the police shooting rubber bullets at protestors in the suburbs: [poorly translated text via Altavista, but the words "flash ball" are in English in the original article]

"One sees a stopped police car there open door. One believes to guess qu’un police receives a projectile. The response is immediate. One clearly sees there policemen in plain clothes drawing on several occasions, of which twice almost with bearing end, with their flash ball. One sees them running after the young people while shouting 'Return band of bastard ! '"

"Some of the rubber balls are even signed, explains Kader. There is a guy who in recovered one which carried l’inscription : ’Boum, boom in your buttocks, with soon, Luc’."

A small, but critical piece of information. Why is it critical? Because unless you tell the truth and point out that they are rubber bullets people will assume that they are shooting live ammunition at protestors. Specifically the article says "flash ball" which is the weapon that French police use most often seeing as how actual gun usage is severly restricted in France. Here's information about the "Flash-Ball".

"Oh, you're being facetious! No one would think that!" Really? Look at a site that links to Joi Ito's site and their commentary:

"Just above that post, Thomas Crampton, joi’s guest blogger, links a website where there s show a video of Paris Police shooting on protesters"

Lulop.org

Notice how the story, like in a game of Telephone, has morphed from "claims to show Paris police shooting in the suburbs" to "a video of Paris police shooting on protestors" a small change typographically, but a massive change in meaning. This posting implies that the Paris police were shooting live ammunition at protestors. Considering the current situation in Paris, this kind of disinformation, if picked up, amplified and rebroadcast, could have the same effect as throwing gasoline on a fire.

These sorts of dis-information "mistakes" occur daily. How many people out there for example have heard the oft repeated tale of President Bush and the "plastic turkey?" Odd thing is that it was an erroneous report from the New York Times that was retracted the next day. However, like all dis-information, it gets stuck in certain areas and repeated over and over again until it is considered "fact." Then, since momentum has been built on this "fact", no matter how hard one argues against it, the story is glued to the societal concious. Since your average person is no longer taught to view items critically (nor really taught the scientific method, thanks liberal education!) they are easily persuaded that white is black because enough websites and blogs say so. They aren't trained to seek the source of information and verify it.

While this case is probably just one of journalistic oversight (notice, I am being very forgiving), one would hope that people would do more research on such items in the future.

Trodwell, that outstandingly intelligent and funny fellow North of the Border has posted details about BIRFEB

Bush
Is
Responsible
For
Everything
Bad

Gotta love it.

"Peace" activists protested today in the latest communist backed "protest" against President Bush. The "peace" protestors then turned violent (sur-freaking-prise) and threw Molotov cocktails in San Francisco.

Ya know, the supposed "peace" movement is one of the more violent groups I have seen in this country. Personally I think the hypocrisy that these groups show is so astoundingly obvious that I seriously wonder about the intelligence level of their average member.



So Supervisors Ammiano, Daly, Speaker Yee, Assemblyman Leno you're all "Endorsers" of this march, right? So, you endorse firebombs, violence and assaults on police officers?


It's good to see our elected officials backing the call from the Revolutionary Communist Party isn't it? The RCP is such an open, peace loving, accepting, wholesome group who would never commit a crime or advocate violence right? The fact that their leaders are hiding out in France, fleeing a federal warrant I'm sure is just oppression from the "capitalist pigs" right?

From World Can't Wait's "FAQ"

"...there are people in "World Can't Wait" who are working for everything from
impeachment to communist revolution"

Q: But aren't there communists in World Can't Wait?
A: Yeah, there are. Supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party helped initiate it.

Yeah, don't worry about those communists kid, they're really just cool slackers like you. Ok Joe? What? Communism and communist "revolutions" account for millions of deaths, the oppression of liberty and the subjegation of millions? Naw bro, that's just lies "the man" told you

And the quote of the day:

Q: But it's not fascism yet, is it?
A: No it's not. But what's your point?

We'll tell you what to believe and when to believe it kid. Get used to it, it's the communist way.