Category: Strange people

OU suicide bomber

This past Saturday a student at University of Oklahoma died when a bomb he was carrying on his body blew up about 100 yards away from the crowded OU football stadium.

Michelle Malkin has been following the story. The national media is strangely silent on this. The student carrying the bomb was known to frequent a mosque. He wore a muslim style beard. He had tried to purchase a large amount of ammonium nitrate (the same compound used in the bombing of Okalahoma City federal building). Being unable to purchase that, the bomber used another explosive – but very unstable chemical – TATP that can be created out of household cleaners.

OK. So a muslim decides to commit suicide by detonating a bomb near a crowded stadium but has no terroristic motive? Or is it more likely that a wannabe martyr was waiting for a crowded stadium to begin emptying where he could get access to a crowd of people but his homemade unstable bomb exploded prematurely.

Yes, I’m speculating but the story that a depressed muslim decides to commit suicide by blowing himself up in public where no one else gets hurt is not a convincing story. That may be because of all the other muslims who have blown themselves up in the world, most recently in Bali, where they were seeking out crowded places. Muslim bombers don’t have a history of seeking out isolated public places. They want crowds and a stadium of tens of thousands of people were just a few hundred feet away?

Thank God he didn’t get to buy a ticket to the football game that day.

Idiot protesters

Wackos from both the extreme left and right are competing to demonstrate who are the bigger idiots.

This past week Code Pink has been criticized for harrassing war wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Now the Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church is protesting at soldiers’ funerals in Tennessee. They claim that God punished the soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays.

I’m curious where this story about the Baptist Church will go. The news article so far is short on background. The Westboro group is the same people that protested at the Matthew Shepard funeral. They do not represent a mainstream Christian view and are frequently criticized for their tactics. Their lack of influence is apparent as well. They only had 10 people at this latest “protest”. That isn’t a movement. It is a group of morons with nothing better to do.

Code Pink and Westboro Baptists. Who knew opposites could have so much stupidity in common?

How to marginalize yourself – 101

On Monday, Pat Robertson suggested the U.S. should assasinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Of course his remarks have started a controversy.

Pat Robertson was right about one thing. Chavez is not a good man. Chavez is showing all the signs of being a totalitarian.

Robertson’s suggestion of assasination is just foolish. He has done the opposite of his intention. Instead of drawing attention to the problems of Venezuela, he has given Chavez a diverision. Even worse, Robertson is now denying he suggested assasination. Don’t try to cover yourself with such an obvious lie.

If there weren’t enough misconceptions of the so-called religious right, now we have to deal with this. Thanks Pat. As Shrek once said, “That is the opposite of help.”

Exploiting a mother’s grief

The sad story of Cindy Sheehan continues to get headlines. For those who don’t know, Ms. Sheehan’s son Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed while serving in Iraq. Ms. Sheehan has decided to stage a protest in front of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas to demand an audience with him in order to berate him with her anti-war talking points.

You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don’t tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.

Bored reporters at the ranch are giving her air time since they have nothing else to report on. Even Fox News is asking if the President should grant her an audience.

Here’s what you haven’t heard. Cindy Sheehan did get an audience with the President in June of 2004 (hat tip James Taranto).

After that meeting she told a reporter:

“I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,” Cindy said after their meeting. “I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith.”

Quite different from what she is saying a year later while acting as if the meeting never occured.

So President Bush isn’t ducking grieving parents. Let’s acknowledge the real story. An anti-war activist is using her son’s memory for her political agenda. She had her meeting with President Bush and now wants another chance to say what she choose not to say before.

Hey! You don’t sell Amway!

The couple wanted for killing a prison guard during a jail break was arrested early this moring. Jennifer Hyatte ambushed two guards as they were leading her husband out of a court hearing in Kingston, Tennessee. One of the guards died during the escape.

The couple was arrested after cab driver Mike Wagers told police where they were staying. He had driven them from Kentucky to a hotel in Ohio not realizing they were wanted. But something about their story made him suspicious.

As they were driving, the fugitves told him they were going to an Amway convention. That was the give away. When asked about what raised his suspicion Wagers said, “they didn’t strike me as the Amway type because to be honest they weren’t very pushy about their product and I’ve dealt with them before so — that was my only real suspicion.”

What gave them away is that they weren’t obnoxious enough about selling Amway. The lesson here is that if you are trying to blend in, don’t pose as an Amway salesman.

Idiot of the day

A rapper is complaining about get firing as an airport screener for recording songs that talk about commiting terrorism.

In an interview on Fox News, the rapper said, “It’s just entertainment.”

The good news is that the Transportation Security Administration didn’t get cowed by claims of free speech. Common sense finally prevailed.

Would you want this guy screening bags at the airport you were traveling through?

Homeless update

The Denver Commission to End Homelessness has set a lofty goal. They are going to end homelessness in Denver within 10 years through an approach that is popular with other cities. The focus of their plan is “Housing First”. They believe that homelessness is caused by poverty. Therefore, if you give people a home, they will be able to solve their poverty.

A Rocky Mountain News editorial points out the problem with the program:

In Housing First, surprisingly, the homeless are not required to get treatment as a condition for housing, although the expectation is that they will once they are in a stable environment.

The housing first approach assumes that poverty leads to addiction. The Denver commision has it exactly backwards. The Rocky cites a well known Denver columnist’s who investigated the homeless issue. He concluded that although problems like batterings, unemployment, and medical issues were listed as the official cause of homelessness there was a common element behind these problems – substance abuse.

This is why government is not the solution to these problems. Giving people a place to live rent free without requiring them to seek treatment for their substance abuse will do nothing to solve the homeless problem. It was not poverty that lead to homelessness and substance abuse. It was substance abuse that led to poverty and homelessness. Housing First only perpetuates the problem by enabling people to sustain their substance abuse inside government housing. We are going to end up with a government program that uses tax dollars to sustain poverty rather than solve it.

This is why I am for more private and faith based intervention programs like Step 13 in Denver. They don’t take government money because the government will prevent them from requiring people to receive substance abuse treatment in their program.

Any program that hopes to be rehabilitate the homeless must first address substance abuse (or mental health) before it will be successful.

DNC and rational thought

Last year, Republicans and most Democrats figured out that Howard Dean lost any sense of rational thought. He was considered the front runner to be the Democratic nominee for the presidential election when the wheels fell off his campaign and he let loose with the infamous “I have a scream�.

Apparently this made him ultimately qualified for his current position as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee where he continues to use the same rationality he had during his scream.

Dean doesn’t like Republicans. He has said he thinks they are evil. Of course evil people should be punished. Right now he has Republican House majority leader Tom Delay at the top of his list. Last week Howard Dean said, “I think Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence.â€? The remark was made about an investigation by the House ethics committee.

Since Delay has not been charged with a crime, it seems Delay’s biggest offense must be that he is a Republican. When it comes to people who have committed terrorism against our country, Dean is much more thoughtful. During his run for President he was asked about Osama bin Laden. Dean said, “I’ve resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama . . . we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.”

So Dean is convinced that a man who has not been charged with a crime should be in jail while we must not prejudge a terrorist who laughs about killing our citizens. It’s a sad day when Democrats think the Republican House majority leader is more evil than Osama bin Laden.

Remember, Dean is now the leader of the Democratic Party. His statements reflect the official party line. When did Democrats lose their ability to reason?