Could It Happen Today?

 

The flip side of my earlier post about honor killings is this lovely and inspiring video about the North Platte Canteen, back in the early ’40s, courtesy of the Patriot Room.

Could the same thing happen today? Is it happening and not being reported? What do you think?

Stoutcat

Burris: “Oh Wait, I Forgot…”

 

Newly-appointed IL Senator Roland Burris is now admitting that he actually agreed to a “request” from then-Governor Blagojevich’s brother to raise funds for the governor, as Burris was seeking appointment to the Senate seat.

Let’s recap, shall we?

Story #1: I didn’t do anything wrong, and I most certainly didn’t speak to anyone, including the Gov’s brother, so help me God.

Story #2: I didn’t do anything, but I might have spoken to some people–but not the Gov’s brother. And I still didn’t do anything wrong, so help me God.

Story#3: Oh yeah, I forgot–I spoke to the Gov’s brother. And he asked me to raise some funds for the Gov, but I said no. And I still didn’t do anything wrong, so help me God.

Story #4: Well, I actually told the Gov’s brother I would raise funds for the Gov. And I still didn’t do anything wrong, so help me God.

 Hypothetical Story #5, sure to come sooner or later:  Perjury? No, I don’t know what that is. But I I still didn’t do anything wrong. So help me God.

Question: Is Harry Reid kicking himself now for caving in to Burris so quickly?

Question 2: How long will it be before the good citizens of Illinois get tired of being a political joke and elect some decent people to represent them?

H/T: HotAir

Stoutcat

Can’t Happen Here? Think Again

 

UPDATE: Scoffrey links to an interesting report on the difference between honor killings and domestic violence.

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Honor killings in America. The very idea sends a chill down my spine, and I want to think that it can’t happen here. And yet it does happen here. And it’s just happened again.

Last week in New York, Muzzammil Hassan, a “moderate” Muslim, was accused of beheading his wife, apparently because she wanted a divorce. Aasiya Hassan had taken out an order of protection, but it did her little good. Sadly, the local news is not looking very deep for the root cause:

“He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead,” Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.

Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.

Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light.

The killing apparently occurred some time late Thursday afternoon. Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon.

“Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible,” Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said today. [emphasis mine]

It’s more than domestic violence. And it’s not being reported. Mark Steyn hit the mark when he wrote:

“Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don’t remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response…

But, when Muzzammil Hassan kills his wife and “the face of Muslim news” is unveiled rather more literally, detached from her corpse at his TV studios, it’s all he can do to make the local press — page 26 of Newsday, plus The Buffalo News, and a very oddly angled piece in the usually gung-ho New York Post, “Buffalo Beheading: Money Woe Spurred Slay“.

Oh, really? He beheaded her for some goofy clause in the insurance policy?”

No, he didn’t. Read the whole thing. And then remember that this is not the first instance of honor killing in the US”

Georgia, 2008: Pakistani immigrant Chaudhry Rashid allegedly confessed to cops, “I strangled my daughter.”

 Texas, 2008: an Egyptian Muslim in Dallas shot his two teen-aged daughters for being too Americanized.

Fox even produced a FoxNews Special, entitled, “Murder in the Family: Honor Killing in America” which ran last summer. You can watch it here for a grim reminder of what was once unthinkable in this country.

Unthinkable at one time, but no more.

Stoutcat

IL State Rep Says Burris Lied

2/17/09 – 12:58 PM – FoxNews

IL State Rep Jack Franks stated that Burris lied under oath.

Deep sigh.

Alan Speakman

We DO Care, Chucky! UPDATE

Last week, several bloggers, including me, suggested that our readers send Sen. Chuck Schumer a bag of pork rinds in response to his assertion that Americans don’t care about pork:

Well, I’m pleased to report that we proved to Sen. Schumer that we do care; Michelle Malkin is reporting that more than 1,500 bags of tasty pork snacks were sent to the organizer to ship to Sen. Schumer in DC.

If Schumer were smart, he’d thank the donors and give the pork rinds to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, along with a matching monetary donation of his own. I have a feeling he’s not that bright.

What do you think Chucky should do with his generous gift from the American public?

Stoutcat

Burrris: A Measure of America’s Intelligence and Character

It’s pretty cut and dried. What follows are the words of Burris under oath…

Jan. 8/09

Durkin: “At any time were you directly or indirectly aware of a quid pro quo with the governor for the appointment of this vacant Senate seat?

Burris: No sir.”

Now it comes out that Burris admitted that Blago’s brother Rob asked him for help for “fundraising” back in October and November.

If you or I were to testify as such under oath, we’d be heading for the “gray bar hotel” for perjury. Period.

Look, Burris is no big deal. No doubt, compared with some of the Washington weasels he’s probably “Mr. Goody Two-Shoes”. But the question really isn’t whether Burris is guilty or not, but whether America has the smarts, character, and objectivity to admit that Burris perjured himself.

After Wright, Ayers, ACORN, Rezko, ad nauseum… I ain’t gonna hold my breath.

Alan Speakman

Pat Condell on Geert Wilders

Pat Condell is at it again, this time with a hearty condemnation of the British government, which refused to allow Dutch MP Geert Wilders into the country to view a showing of his film, Fitna. Mr. Wilders had been invited to the showing at the House of Lords Lord Pearson, but was instead deported back to the Netherlands.

And all because of a little 17-minute video, which you can watch here. I urge you to do so.

Stoutcat

Laugh of the Day

Newsbusters is reporting on a hugely entertaining article in The Guardian written by Yale professor Bruce Ackerman, who is suggesting begging us to start funding a National Endowment for the Investigative Arts. Because, you see, all the big newspapers are going under, and if that happens the world will suddenly lack serious journalists who can investigate, do research, and, well, stuff like that. And that’s bad, of course. And priceless, in a maudlin sort of way:

The traditional newspaper is dying. The Evening Standard has been sold off for a pound to a former KGB agent, the Los Angeles Times is bankrupt and even the New York Times is in trouble. Mexican plutocrat Carlos Slim may become its largest shareholder in return for financing the paper’s billion-dollar debt. Except for the financial press, newspapers have failed to convince readers to pay for online access – and there is no reason to think that readers will suddenly succumb to the charms of PayPal.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Ahem. Sorry, that just slipped out.

What Professor Ackerman is proposing is this:

“We urge democracies throughout the world to consider the creation of national endowments for journalism that are carefully designed to confront the impending collapse of investigative reporting….

But there are huge costs to losing a vibrant core of investigative reporters covering local, national and international stories. The internet is well suited to detect scandals that require lots of bloggers to spend a little bit of time searching for bits of incriminating evidence. But it’s no substitute for serious investigative reporting that requires weeks of intelligent inquiry to get to the heart of the problem... “[Emphasis mine]

O RLY? How’s that working out for you these days, MSM? Ackerman goes on to suggest:

Here is where our system of national endowments enters the argument. In contrast to current proposals, we do not rely on public or private do-gooders to dole out money to their favourite journalists. Each national endowment would subsidisze investigations on a strict mathematical formula based on the number of citizens who actually read their reports on news sites.

Actually, Mr. Ackerman, I think that’s what’s happening now: the number of citizens who actually read what reporters write is plummeting. It’s not because those reporters are or are not writing in print or online. It is because the vast majority of “reporters” and “journalists” have lost all credibilty with the thinking public. And the thinking public is refusing to shell out good money for distorted or just plain dishonest “news”.

Doling out endowments to reporters whose readership is near zero and likely to remain so simply creates a vast bureauocracy to pay miserable pennies to poor benighted readerless reporters (which would at least create some meaningless but well-paying jobs, so perhaps Prof. Ackerman has a hidden agenda here).

But he may just as well have suggested a “Feed the Reporters” program or a “Save the Journalists” initiative. It probably would at least get donations from a few chumps.

Stoutcat

You Can’t Get There from Here

President Obama would very much like to hear your comments on the recently-passed Stimulus bill, laughingly known as the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. He wants your feedback so badly that he’s set up a section of the White House website just so that you can read the text and comment on it.

I’m starting out at the White House website, www.whitehouse.org, and am going to see if I can find my way around and read the bill online. Watch the video and see what happens!

I know there are other places online where I can read this bill, but I was expecting some tranparency from this new hopeful White House administration. At this rate, it’ll take me five days just to find the bill online, much less read and comment on it. Thanks, Mr. President.

Stoutcat

Obama Administration: Pack of Lies and Power Grabs

Oh, where to begin? Well, it didn’t take long…

Obama’s pledge to give Americans five days to review bills on the Web first shrank to 48 hours, which then shrank to 10 hours. Yup. If there’s anyone who has read the entire thing, it’s probably the lobbyists who wrote it.

No lobbyists offering undue influence? Not now.

The constitutionally-questionable move by the Executive Branch to oversee the census is nothing short of scary.

Big Obama Gov tax cheats? Naw!

This is ridiculous. Obama and his team make Nixon look like a rookie.

Alan Speakman