What We Have Come to

What a tragedy. The words escape me as to the casual way we destroy children for our selfish convenience.

May God forgive our country and people for stooping to such depths.

Yoda's New Groove

LOL! Check out Yoda... The only thing missing is the bling bling on the troopers...

Many thanks to Impacted Wisdom Truth for a good laugh on a fine Wednesday morning.

How Far Does the Rabbit Hole Go?

Claudia Rosett does a great job in her investigations of the United Nations and the scandals that continue to grow and expand like a tentacled virus. Go read her current column at the Opinion Journal at the Wall Street Journal. It is wrong to think that the UN oil for $$$ scandal was the extent of the corruption and thievery going on there. Here's an excerpt from her column:

That was far from the end of the IHC trail. Last month, we obtained IHC corporate documents showing that one of the U.N.'s most prominent personalities, Giandomenico Picco--currently a special adviser to Mr. Annan--had served as a director of IHC in 1997 and then as chairman of the IHC board from 1998 until at least February 2000. Mr. Picco's initial career with the U.N. had spanned from 1973 to 1992, and at the time he joined IHC he was in private business, running a consulting firm, GDP Associates, in New York. But during his tenure as IHC chairman, he accepted an appointment from Kofi Annan in August 1999, to serve as a U.N. under-secretary and personal representative of the secretary-general for a globetrotting project called the Dialogue of Civilizations.

During the interval in which Mr. Picco was both an official U.N. representative for Mr. Annan and chairman of the IHC board--i.e., from August 1999 to February 2000--IHC signed one multimillion dollar deal to sell portable generators to the U.N. and brokered another to supply a hostel ship for peacekeeping troops in East Timor. Mr. Picco has said he resigned as IHC chairman before that, but IHC board minutes show him as chairing the company's annual meeting on Feb. 17, 2000.

It then came to light that IHC's CEO, Ezio Testa, had sent an email providing an inside tip on confidential U.N. bidding information to a corporate officer at another company, Cyprus-based Eurest Support Services (ESS). ESS was then bidding on the aforementioned contract--which it won--to supply $62 million worth of rations to U.N. peacekeepers. Altogether, ESS, which in 2004 announced a formal partnership with IHC, has in recent years won U.N. contracts that, with add-ons and options, total $351 million. ESS has now been suspended by the U.N., which is investigating the matter.

There's more. Corporate documents show that in June, just before the first wave of this scandal went public, IHC was quietly sold--in a move that raises questions about who really owned it. The buyer was a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, whose sole representative was listed in sale documents as Peter Harris--apparently an officer with ESS's parent company, the U.K.-based Compass Group, one of the world's largest catering companies. (Compass has announced it is suspending Mr. Harris and is investigating the matter.)

Go read the rest of Claudia's column. It is sickening to think at how the left thinks we should give even more authority, power and money to the United Nations. How far down will this rabbit hole go? Err... I mean how far up to the top at the UN will all this corruption go? As far as UN Secretariat Annan? The UN oil for $$$ scandal is probably the tip of the proverbial iceberg, or a never ending rabbit hole.

Religion of Peace?

Islam. It's an enigma to me why the left continues to give the atrocities of Islam a pass. Go here to see what happens to children that steal bread when they are hungry. It's not gory but very disturbing.

UPDATE: I guess we should be thankful they did not cut his hand off. How merciful...

UPDATE #2: LGF reader Baikal emailed about these upsetting pictures posted by Bareknucklepolitics.com with the title: 8 Year Old Iranian Boy Caught Stealing Bread. Those readers who were skeptical of the title, it turns out, were correct; Baikal contacted the publisher, Peykeiran, and after a confusing exchange received the following reply:

Hi!
It seems you have not read the text that came with the pictures.
In irna
there some who earn their bread by Maareke giry. In our case one
of these
maarke gir _ha had hired a kid to do those unhuman show.
You read the text that came with photos.
bye

While I applaud the correction put out by Charles at LGF, it doesn't ease or change my opinion about the so-called religion of peace.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Ah, Mary, we knew you too well. Go here to see what Mary Mapes is now saying as her soon to be released book spells out her aingst for being turned out by CBS. She still doesn't get it. People, like myself, who had been in typesetting for many years, instantly saw the forged and fake documents that she and Blather tried to say proved Bush skip his guard service and was shown favortism by superiors. Mary...typewriters could not do in the late 60's and early 70's what Word does so eloquently now in a default mode. It's a shame that someone of her credentials and experience refuses to see what so many of us instantly saw. It demonstrates very painfully how a person's ideology can blind them to the truth. Mary at one time strove to report the truth but is now part of the crash and burn of main stream media, driven by the failed ideology of the left.

SCOTUS and the Constitution

The nomination and debate of Samuel Alito to SCOTUS has shown the importance that is attached to this particular nominated seat. If a conservative is installed it finally turns the balance of perceived ideology on SCOTUS to the conservative. The truth is that I want someone on the Supreme Court that will decide the case based on the interpretation of the law as each case comes to it based on the merits of the case itself, not the political make-up of the bench or the political mood of the country. I also do not want the SCOTUS to CREATE and enforce law. I want the court to interpret the Constitution and compare the cases that come before it against the Constitution. The Constitution is NOT a living document. If liberals want to to change the Constitution then do so by the method that the framers and founders intended, through amendments. I am no scholar on the Constitution. I know, however, that the decisions by the justices that sit on the Supreme Court affect me and my family in profound ways at times. That is why this particular nomination is so important.

For a great discussion on the nomination of Alito and how it affects SCOTUS and how the Constitution is viewed, go here. Radioblogger has compiled a discussion between Erwin Chemerinsky, law professor at Duke Law School, and John Eastman, law professor at Chapman University School of Law, moderated by Hugh Hewitt. It's a long read but a good one to understand the different viewpoints of liberals and conservatives and the importance both put on the nomination of Alito.