Do You Want A Soda With That Protest?

I will be on strike in honor of the national protest in support of illegal immigration. I will boycott any business that closes today because their staff fails to show up for work. It is somewhat logical to conclude that any such business should be visited tomorrow by the INS to make sure all their workers are properly documented. I suspect, however, that in my heavily Latino neighborhood, few businesses will be closed.

That having been said (not entirely seriously), it should be a great embarrassment to Mexico - a terminal third-world country - that so many of its citizen's flee to "El Norte" in order to have a future. Perhaps closing the border will encourage Mexico to get its own house in order - and maybe pigs will sprout wings and fly. Few things would make me happier than to be proved wrong on that last point.

A Question For The Impatient

If you are faced with an opponent who views the conflict in terms of centuries, shouldn't one be prepared for a war that may last decades? If you leave the battlefield, would you be surprised to find your opponent following you home.

Keeping An Eye On Belarus

This English language blog tracks developments in Belarus. Look for br23 under "THINGS TO DO, PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO SEE (A Link List)" in the sidebar. The Brussels Journal has a nice article introducing this blog.

Land Reform - ChiCom Style

(Hat tip to Barcepundit.)

The Long Winter Of Their Discontent

Russia is failing the most basic Darwinian test. There evidently was much learned under scientific socialism. Some highlights:

Russia's population fell by more than half a million, or 0.3%, in the first eight months of the year, new statistics show.

Figures from the State Statistics Committee predict a further population decline of 11 million, to about 134 million, in the world's largest country by 2015.
. . . . .
Drug use, alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are leading reasons for the decline, said Murray Feshbach, a senior scholar at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson Center.
. . . . .
"Most people are very pessimistic. They don't believe children will have a future", he said.

While there was a slight increase in the birth rate this year as compared to last year, the death rate increased markedly.

The Russian death rate is now 1.7 times higher than the birth rate.

Male life expectancy in Russia is 59 years,considerably lower than it was in the Soviet Union.

For women, it is 72 years.

An interesting aside: My son is off to Japan in a few days to explore the possibility of a relationship with a Russian woman he became acquainted with on the internet. She left Russia to work for a high tech firm in Japan. Much of what she has told my son about Russian life in general, and Russian men in particular, mirrors information in this article. She is highly educated (speaks Russian, Japanese and English) and very attractive. She also does not see much of a future in Russia. (Hat tip to Orthodoxy Today.)

Catching Up With Muzzy

I am catching up on my blog reading after my absence (about which, more anon) and found this little gem at Blogizdat. Muzzy has captured another one of those magic moments in life. This type of article is just one of the reasons why I am proud to call this man "friend".

Murder Reigns In Venezuela

Venezuelans try to get their government's attention by "die-in".
El Presidente Chavez has other things to do. Besides, law enforcement is so tedious when compared to saber-rattling against the Great Demon Of The North and playing "Kissy-face" with Castro. (Hat tip to Dust My Broom.)

The Irony And The Romance

This struck me as I read The Playboy Legacy

Lest we forget that there was actually a "Playboy Philosophy" to go with the pictures, Mr. Hefner has also reissued, online, all 250,000 words of his early-1960s disquisition on the good life and the evils of sexual inhibition. Still endlessly indulged by reporters, he has slipped into his best bathrobe for another round of clubby interviews in which to showcase his three salaried "girlfriends" and to reminisce about the original Playboy "dream." (emphasis added - ed.)

Always a "dreamer" and "romantic at heart," in Hef's telling of the story, he dared to challenge the repressive attitudes of his day and left America a freer, happier place. He is guilty only of living out "every man's dream," and if anyone thinks otherwise it must be envy. "I consider myself the luckiest cat on the planet," he often says--a sort of graying libertine's version of the Lou Gehrig line. Hef is also devoted these days to various charitable causes and, he eagerly notes, was recently voted American Charity Events Man of the Year.
. . . . .

Looking to the day when Shangri-La falls silent and dust returns to dust, he has even made arrangements for a final resting place, with that exquisite Hefner touch. It turns out that there is a tomb in Los Angeles's Westwood Memorial Park directly adjacent to that of Marilyn Monroe--the first "girl next door" to appear nude in Playboy--and no one had yet claimed it. "When I found the vault next door to Marilyn was available," he explained to the Daily Telegraph, "it seemed natural." So there, next-door to Marilyn, his permanently pajamaed remains will lie, and all who come to remember her can cast a glance at his name, too.

They say "Old age is hell" and there is a special hell for those who live out their old age without love. Hugh Hefner seems oblivious to the irony that his relationships are reduced to the type of transaction that, in my inner city neighborhood, is consummated between johns and hookers. On the other hand, none of those people will be buried next to Marilyn Monroe. I wonder if that will make them "more dead" than Mr. Hefner - as he lies resplendent in his finest pajamas. (Hat tip to Orthodoxy Today.)

How Did I Miss This?

Dust My Broom sponsors the 39th edition of the Red Ensign Standard. Normally, I would find out about the publication of the Red Ensign Standard from Dust My Broom, but this time my notice is courtesy of BumfOnline - another fine Canadian blog worth reading.

Paglia Piles On

Chief covers one of my favorite sex symbols.

Crunchy Con Blog Has Moved

The Crunchy Con Blog has a new home. (Hat tip to a relapsed catholic.)Here are a couple of interesting articles on Crunchy Con-victions from Winds of Change.Net:

• Granola Conservatism: Ripping the Crunchy Cons


• Crunchy Cons: The Growth of Granola Conservatism

Monday MacLaurin Lectures

My wife forced me to buy an Ipod. Now I can occasionally listen at work.

• March 8th, 2002 - Ravi Zacharias: Christian Apologetics in the 21st Century


• October 11th, 2002 - Dr. David Aikman: US-Chinese Relations in the Global Setting


• December 6th, 2002 - Dr. Alvin Plantinga: Against Materialism

mp3 format. The Maclaurin Institute

Updating The Robert McCartney Murder Case

The Brainster updates us here. If you are not familiar with this murder, The Brainster has a link to a Wikipedia article which gives background.

Sunday MacLaurin Lectures

Todays' listening schedule:

• April 4th, 2002 - Vishal Mangalwadi: Two Enlightenments and One Light


• March 9th, 2004 - Jean Bethke Elshtain: Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World


• February 12th, 2002 - Jean Bethke Elshtain: Who Are We?: Human Prospects in an Age of Terror
  

mp3 format - enjoy!

The Truth About The Religious Right

Barcepundit points us to Isreallycool quoting from Hamas leader: Jews control U.S. Christianity:

United States churches are secretly run by Jews who converted to Christianity with the intention of controlling religious Americans including President Bush, a top Hamas member claims.

"Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jews who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling
the Americans," Mohammad Abu Tir, the number two Hamas terrorist in the newly formed Palestinian Authority government said during an exclusive interview from his home yesterday with top radio host Rusty Humphries and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

"I made a study and I know very well that all this radicalism in some parts of the Christianity, (including) the Anglicans who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of Zionists," said Abu Tir.

I guess that might explain the preoccupation with that "Jewish Messiah" thingy. Perhaps one will find more evidence for their argument here. It gives one pause when one considers that this man is taken seriously by many among the western intelligencia.

The Polish - Northern Irish Nexus

From the Beatroot:

• 'Anti-social' Poles and 'racist' Northern Irish

  A 51 year old Polish bricklayer gets beaten in Belfast and a crowd of thugs go nuts. Poles think they are being targeted because they are Catholics. But it's not religion that's the problem.

• Global Voices not being heard properly

Perhaps this analysis is also relevant: Re-visiting Bombings In Baghdad And Beatings In Belfast.

Today's Lectures

I had the rare opportunity today to listen to a couple of online lectures while at work. This was courtesy of some staff members who were absent, thus requiring me to do their work. The beauty of this is that it allowed me to stay in one place long enough to actually listen to these lectures with fewer interruptions than I normally encounter. I remained happily tethered to my laptop by a pair of earbuds. The following were much enjoyed:

• October 8th, 2004 - Don Kistler: Have the Puritans Gotten a Bad Rap?
• October 28th, 2005 - Father Richard John Neuhaus: Culture Wars and Public Philosophy - Lecture
• October 28th, 2005 - Father Richard John Neuhaus: Culture Wars and Public Philosophy - Q and A

These are from a lecture series sponsored by the MacLaurin Institute. They are in the mp3 format and a comprehensive listing of available lectures can be found here.

(Hat tip to The Impudent One who kept reminding me that these lectures are available.)

Ukraine Has Election - Ms Tymoshenko Equally Stunning As A Brunette

Yushchenko Calls For 'Orange Coalition' In Kiev

President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine came out at the weekend in favour of a pro-western "Orange" coalition with his former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, breaking a week of silence on the issue since his centre-right Our Ukraine movement suffered a humiliating defeat in March 26 parliamentary elections.

Mr Yushchenko stopped short of endorsing Ms Tymoshenko's bid to be prime minister, saying the prospective coalition members should first agree on the outlines of a joint programme before discussing the division of seats.

He said the programme should be based on the 10-point platform adopted by Ms Tymoshenko's previous cabinet last year - a suggestion her campaign team welcomed.

Read all the news of the election at the Kiev Ukraine News Blog.

All this "forming a government" stuff is interesting, but now we must ask the most important question: Do you prefer Yulia Tymoshenko as a blond (here and here) or as a brunette (here and here)?

African Agricultural Apocalypse

Two articles that give perspective on Africa's inability to feed itself.

• 'Barren future' for Africa's soil
• Mugabe to ask whites back in land grab U-turn

Saturday Night Movies

• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• The Pirates of Penzance