The future of women in a Muslim world… October 23, 2008

The future of women in a Muslim world.

The woman above was begging beside the

highway. And she was not the only one.  I (Michael

Yon) was a passenger driving through Taliban country

in a pickup truck when I took her photo.  Car bombs

detonate on that road all the time.

Americans and others die there. And this woman,

covered as most women in Afghanistan whom I see

are, probably a widow, was begging just beside a

police checkpoint, which, sooner or later, likely will get

attacked. She might get blown to pieces by a car

bomb. She apparently has no money,probably no

family, nowhere else to go, and no other

way to live. Still, she endures.

Photo by Michael Yon

Technorati Tags: Taliban, Afghanistan

Pause a moment and reflect before you vote … October 23, 2008

Pause a moment and reflect before you vote …

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality

 that they imagine that America can suffer defeat

without any inconvenience or costs to themselves.

Pause a moment, reflect back.

These events are actual events from history..

They really happened!!!

Do you remember?

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male extremist.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim male extremists.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim male extremists.

4. During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim male extremists.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim male extremists.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists. ( remember the pilot of this flight was from Richmond , MO )

8. In 1988 , Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male extremists.

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim male extremists.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim male extremists.
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male extremists.

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim male extremists.

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Muslim male extremists.

Now, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?  We are at war, but we must assure that we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people… Absolutely No Profiling!

Screeners must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males alone lest they be guilty of profiling or offending a Muslim.


And Now:   The People of America are about to elect a person to the most powerful position  on the face of the Planet — The Presidency of the United states of America.  Who will best lead in this time of war?   A man who writes in his book Audacity of Hope,  “I will stand with them (Muslims, pg. 261) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction”  or a man with an unquestioned record of devotion and loyalty to the United States of America.

Pause a moment and reflect on this war before you vote …

Technorati Tags: muslin male, Pan Am Flight 103, Daniel Pearl,

Deregulation Didn’t Do It October 23, 2008

THE MORNING BELL
THURSDAY, OCT. 23, 2008

Deregulation Didn’t Do It

Listening to politicians on the left speak about the current financial turmoil, one gets the impression that when President Bush took office in 2001 there was a perfect financial regulatory system in place. Only since then, they claim, has it been systemically destroyed by the Bush administration. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says, “the Bush Administration’s eight long years of failed deregulation policies have resulted in our nation’s largest bailout ever, leaving the American taxpayers on the hook potentially for billions of dollars .” Barack Obama echoed this sentiment in the final presidential debate when he said, “the biggest problem in this whole process was the deregulation of the financial system.” There’s just one problem with this analysis. There has been no deregulation of the financial sector during the Bush administration.

Recent Entries

• Heritage Debuts on Pajamas TV
• ACORN Received $31 Million in Government Funding Since 1998
• Bolton Questions Obama’s Plan for Negotiating With Iran
• Changing Everybody’s Mind…Except for Greenpeace
• The End of Social Security As We Know It?

In fact, the largest legislative action in financial services during the Bush years was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which increased regulation and drove capital markets overseas . Furthermore, according to data from the Government Accountability Office, of the 23 major regulatory actions (defined as an economic effect of $100 million or more) taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission since Bush took office, only eight lessened regulatory burdens. Compare that to President Bill Clinton’s second term, which lessened burdens in almost half of rulemaking proceedings. But maybe the problem wasn’t bad regulations, but bad regulators. Maybe the Bush administration weakened financial regulators? This isn’t true either. The SEC’s budget jumped from $357 million in 2000 to a whopping $629 million in 2008.

Another favorite target of the left has been the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which ended the Depression-era prohibition on banks engaging in the securities business. Clinton was the one who signed this law, so we will let him defend it:

I don’t see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn’t signed that bill.

All of this is not to say our current regulatory framework is perfect. Far from it. There are far too many different regulatory agencies trying to regulate the same activities. We need regulatory cuts and consolidation. Unfortunately, Congress cannot be trusted to come up with solutions. Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) is the biggest recipient of campaign cash from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. House Banking Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) said this about Fannie and Freddie in 2003: “These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis .” These two men epitomize why only 12% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. The American people deserve an independent commission to explain what caused the financial meltdown and recommend reforms to keep it from happening again. Heritage president Ed Feulner writes:

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59 percent of Americans agree with Ronald Reagan’s statement that “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” A fair and complete investigation seems likely to confirm that wisdom by revealing that many of today’s problems were triggered by our elected officials — not by a failure of the free market. It’s time for some real oversight of our congressional overseers.

Technorati Tags: deregulation, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae