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et’s get right to the point:  California will soon be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas and a cluster of nearby states will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York may soon join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states.  Hawaii will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

And when is all that going to happen?  Oh, around 2010 or so.  I just ordered Mandarin Chinese from Rosetta Stone.

The projected imminent fall of the U.S., a theory of Igor Panarin, a former KGB analyst and current dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats, is getting a ton of play in Putin’s captive national media – and increasingly, here.  There was a spurt of Drudge-driven posts back in November, and now the WSJ has picked up the story:

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

“There’s a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur,” he says. “One could rejoice in that process,” he adds, poker-faced. “But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario — for Russia.” Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

Panarin’s theory dates back to 1998, and was pretty far-fetched in those robust times.  The current economy makes you tug your collar a bit – but it’s also taken the “mass” out of our immigration problem.  Moral degredation could well do us in – but that’s in God’s hands, and if moral degredation is a nation-ender, the Russians better look in the mirror.

In a recent article in Isvestia, Panarin laid out his theory yet again and summarily dismissed Obama’s ability to deal with it:

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama “can work miracles,” he wrote. “But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”

Well, I can agree with Panarin’s assessment of Obama as no miracle-worker.  White House spokesperson Dana Perino was more subdued; she declined to comment when asked about Panarin’s theories.  But that’s just fodder for the anti-Bush conspiratists.

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South Ossentia: It’s Just More Russia

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t’s been six months since Russia pried South Ossentia out of Georgia’s hands, supposedly out of grave concern for the well-being of the South Ossentians. So, as Dr. Phil would say, how’s that workin’ for ya?

Not too good, according to Spiegel.

Besides Russia, so far only Nicaragua has recognized the separatist republic. Foreign journalists are only permitted to travel in the tiny country when accompanied by officials from the foreign ministry in Moscow. Even the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union, which brokered the cease-fire between Russia and Georgia, are being denied entry by the South Ossetians and their protective power, Russia. For this reason, very little reliable information makes it out of the region.

This makes what recently appeared in Russian newspapers all the more surprising: that the republic is on the brink of social unrest, just as winter is beginning, because the government has allegedly embezzled Russian reconstruction aid funds, as the former South Ossetian defense minister and head of the security council, a Russian lieutenant general, explained; or that South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity fled spinelessly during the war; and that millions of rubles deposited in the safes at the national bank in Tskhinvali had gone missing and that Russian businesspeople are refusing to invest in South Ossetia while its brawny separatist leader remains in power.

In South Ossentia, any controversy is squelched by “state secrets.”  Any homes that are rebuilt are rebuilt through EU or American efforts, not Russian.  Money disappears.  Leaders flake.

In other words, Russia happens. Continue Reading »

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ou decide – were the failed terrorists who planted dynamite in a Parisian department store followers of the Religion of Peace … or followers of the professor of education?  Here’s the news, from the Int’l Herald Trib:

French police found a package of explosives at the Printemps department store complex in central Paris on Tuesday, a spokeswoman at Paris police headquarters said. …

The French news channel LCI reported that the explosives, planted at the height of the Christmas shopping season, had been discovered in a rest room on the third floor of the Printemps men’s store, one of three Printemps buildings in the complex. All three stores were evacuated by the police and the area around them, on the elegant Boulevard Haussmann, was cordoned off.

LCI said a group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front claimed in a statement to AFP that it had planted the explosives. The statement said the group was demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, LCI said. France has about 3,000 troops deployed with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. French news reports said that the French intelligence services had no previous knowledge of the group.

AP reported that “sticks of ‘relatively old’ dynamite tied together but without a detonator” were found in the store.

Let’s analyze.  The target was at least somewhat symbolic of the Christian faith, as the target was Christmas shoppers.  Score one for the Islamists.

But the bombers were inept, not good at making bombs, had lousy equipment and called themselves revolutionaries, not mujahedin.  Score four for the Weather Underground.

So all in all, I’d say these weren’t Islamists, but rather spoiled white kids who don’t have a clue how valuable a society that honors freedom is, and are stupid enough to kill to make their pathetic point.  Ayresians.

But there’s this:  They called first.  That makes them moderately less disgusting than either the jihadists or Bill Ayres … at least for now … and opens the door to the possibility that they’re homegrown jihadists not schooled in the element of blood and gore surprise.  Let’s pray they get caught before taking it to the next level.

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he Bear is back.  The Georgian village of Perevi on the western border of South Ossetia was for one brief day once again under Georgian control – as it should be – until earlier today, when hundreds of Russian soldiers occupied it.  Says AFP:

Interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said from 500 to 600 Russian soldiers moved into Perevi early Saturday in what he described as a “military operation” involving paratroopers, helicopters and armoured vehicles.

Georgia and EU monitors had announced Friday that Russian forces were withdrawing from Perevi, a mainly ethnic Georgian village of about 1,100 people on the western border of South Ossetia, which had been under Russian control since a five-day war in August.

Georgian police had moved into the village on Friday after Russian forces withdrew. About 20 Russian soldiers returned late Friday and Georgian police were forced out when the large contingent of troops arrived, Utiashvili said.

“They presented Georgian police with an ultimatum: get out or we will shoot,” he said.

The Russians have refused the requests of EU ambassadors in the region to visit Perevi, and the EU has called the Russians provocation a breech of the EU-negotiated ceasefire and demanded called on the Russians to pull back to the South Ossetia border.

Interesting confrontation, eh?  The EU – which as you recall is also negotiating with the even more trouble-making Iranian regime – has made a major commitment here, brokering a cease-fire, monitoring it, and calling on Russia to pay attention to their calls to play by the rules, saying the old Bear’s actions are “unacceptable under all relevant instruments of international law.”

So far, no word from Moscow.  It’s winter and their gas pipeline is keeping Europe toasty, so they’ll take their time deciding what to do about the self-emasculated pipsqueaksfrom Western Europe.

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egalize prostitution! Legalize drugs! Government has no place interfering with the acts of consenting adults!” On its face, it’s a conservative argument, and the liberals should be arguing for a heightened government role in prostitution and the drug trade, with “tolerance” the creed and new sources of taxes and regulatory government jobs the goal.

But it’s the conservatives that wage this battle. Why? Because we think things through, passing beyond “if it feels good, do it.” While we would rather live in a world where government has no need to meddle in such personal things – a world in which decent society, not government, would prevent such things from occurring – we have the pragmatic honesty to realize that we live in a very different world, as this news story from the prostitution and drug haven of Amsterdam proves:

Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven.

The city is targeting businesses that “generate criminality,” including gambling parlors, and the so-called “coffee shops” where marijuana is sold openly. Also targeted are peep shows, massage parlors and souvenir shops used by drug dealers for money-laundering.

How many times have you heard conservatives take the stand that these now-criminal activities must be controlled because they generate criminality that will invade our community? How many times have you heard liberals pooh-pooh our criticisms?

There’s one particularly unsettling criminal element we should not be afraid to address, and it doesn’t come up in the AP story: human trafficking. Look at the two whores in the accompanying picture. Now they certainly could be native-born black Dutch women who voluntarily decided the best thing to do with their life was to sit in windows in their undies until some guy comes along to trade sex for money. Or, more likely, they were trafficked out of Africa or the Caribbean, and now find themselves stuck in a window, forced to stay there by their pimp.

Heightened awareness of trafficking, acknowledgment that undesired criminal elements have taken root in their city, and growing distaste with what’s become of their city has had expected results:  Newsweek reports that a recent poll finds 67 percent of Amsterdam residents support efforts to clean up their city, and adds:

The crackdown fits into a nationwide backlash against the excesses of 1960s “happy-clappy” liberalism, as a conservative Dutch member of parliament recently put it. Over the last few years the Netherlands has adopted a stricter policy on selling marijuana, and a ban on hallucinogenic mushrooms is slated to go into effect later this year. “People in Amsterdam and the rest of the country are starting to discern real tolerance from bogus tolerance,” says Asscher.

Out of the crucible of “happy-clappy” Amsterdam, which attracts the stoned, the abused, the losers and the criminals, finally comes the realization that all the West needs: There is real tolerance and there is bogus tolerance, to which we have two things to say: “Duh!” and “Thank God you’re getting it, finally.”

One of my core beliefs that keeps me from becoming a ranting fool is that every social phenomenon is anchored not to solid earth, but to a pendulum. Amsterdam’s liberal attitudes towards drugs and prostitution – itself a pendulum swing away from the Puritanical strictures of a few centuries back – can only go so far before society shouts in loud unison, “Enough!”

The colleges that ban Christmas trees and the schools that refuse to give F’s are here for the moment – too long a moment – but they will go, and the pendulum will swing away from bogus tolerance and back toward the more rational, practical and positive center.

A pendulum nudge is all that’s happening in Amsterdam. The city isn’t giving up on prostitution and drugs. About 20 percent of the marijuana cafes will be closed and prostitution will still be allowed in parts of the city. Electeds are taking action against crime and the social destruction of a valued commodity – the interesting old parts of the city, which they hope will soon be the host of boutiques and bistros. They have decided that the city, and society, will have more to show for its past if the old city is used for something more positive and productive than getting stoned and getting laid.

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nward through Larry Schweikart’s 48 Liberal Lies about American History (That You Probably Learned in School) we go,with two more lies from this solid review of what liberal history profs are doing to revise the past and pollute the minds of the next generation.

Lie #9 – Michael Gorbachev, Not Ronald Reagan, Was Responsible for Ending the Cold War

Gorbachev’s revorm policies led not only to the collapse of the Soviet empire but also to the breakup of the Soviet Union itself. – James West Davidson et al., Nation of Nations

This is one of the lies that appals me the most, since I remember the incidents in such detail, it having been one of the most riveting times of my life – but living memories or not, liberal profs hate Reagan for his successes and his enduring popularity and are doing all they can to strip away his greatness.

First, let’s dispense with the notion that Gorbachev willingly put a stop to Russian imperialism, which is a part of this myth. Schweikart reminds us that Gorby kept Soviet forces in Afghanistan until their losses were no longer supportable, then unhappily pulled them out. He also tried to pull off Cuba II, the Soviet-supported Cuban take-over of Grenada, which Reagan put a quick end to.

This chapter is the most fascinating so far, describing the National Security Decision Directives issued by the Reagan administration starting in 1982 that spelled out how the US would bankrupt the USSR: attacking Soviet expansionism in Afghanistan and elsewhere, limiting sources of cash (like delaying the gas and oil pipeline to W. Europe), and limiting high-tech exports the Soviets desperately needed because they couldn’t come close to matching our technology.

“You have declared war on us, economic war,” said Gorby’s precessor, Leonid Brezhnev. Part of that war was NSA’s “Farewell Dossier,” a collection of punches using the Soviet’s never-ending efforts to steal our technology by sending fake technologies their way – including one that trashed their pipeline for a time.

Schweikart concludes:

As president, the Gipper played the [arms race] card. Across the board, using American banks and bullets, money and missiles, tehcnology and diplomacy, the United States put a full-court press on the Soviet Union. The best tha tcan be said for Garbachev was that he was open to defeat.

Lie #10 – September 11 Was Not the Work of Terrorists: It Was a Government Conspiracy

Don’t ask me to tell you want happened on 9/11. All I know is that the official account of the buildings’ collapse is improbable. – Paul Craig Roberts, Gullible Americans

This is another pre-emptive chapter in the book. Schweikart was unable to find a quote from an existing textbook for the beginning of the chapter, but as I said earlier, profs do allow and encourage outside reading – often from a prof-chosen list – so he feels compelled to attack these lunatic conspiracies as well.

C-SM readers don’t need a rehash of the disgusting and fantabulous arguments proffered by the 9/11 Truthers Dingbats, but like me, they might need a reminder of what our Sec of State-apparent did on the floor of the Senate:

In May 2002, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton waved a copy of that day’s edition of the New York Post with the headline, BUSH KNEW.  The story claimed the president had been given a briefing warning of impending terrorist attacks.  “The presidnet knew what?” she asked. “My constituents would like to know the answer to that and many other questions.

Questions like what, Hillary?  That steel doesn’t melt at those temperatures? (It loses tensile strength and bends.) That thousands of pounds of explosives were packed into the building by the CIA or Mosad?  That the missing passengers of the four planes have all been quietly, willingly secreted away to some unfindable destination, where they’ve stayed mum for seven years out of fervid love of George W. Bush?

Hillary just might look good in a tinfoil hat.

The Lies They Teach – #8
The Lies They Teach: #6 And #7
The Lies They Teach: #4 And #5
The Lies They Teach: #1 – #3

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“Thousands” of Jihadists Ready to Attack UK

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he (UK) Telegraph is heralding a leaked government report today that says thousands of jihadists – many of them converts to Islam or native-born Muslims – are poised and ready to carry out terror attacks in London, Birmingham and elsewhere in the UK. Says the leaked report:

Since 2001, over 1,200 terrorist suspect have been arrested, over 140 have been charged and more than 45 have been convicted of terrorism offences, according to Home Office figures. It is also estimated that there are some 200 terrorist networks functioning in Britain today who are involved in at least 30 plots.

But this latest security assessment appears to suggest that the number of individuals who now pose a threat to the UK is even higher.

The report continues: “The majority of extremists are British nationals of south Asian, mainly Pakistani origin but there are also extremists from north and east Africa, Iraq and the Middle East, and a number of converts. The overwhelming majority of extremists are male, typically in the 18-30 age range.

Many of them have visited Pakistan (remember Obama’s covered up trip to Pakistan?) and other locations for crash courses in jihad terrorism.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the bodies of the three jihadists executed yesterday for planning the Bali nightclub bombings were flown home and greeted with the sort of celebrations we’ve come to expect from the religion of death:

The crowd shouted “Allahu Akbar!” (God is greater) as the helicopter bearing their bodies landed in a nearby field.

“God is great, God is great! God is showing his greatness. I’m so happy,” shouted one supporter.

“This is God’s grace. The mujahedeen (holy warriors) will fight on!” shouted someone else in the crowd. (source)

That’s not my God, Bub. That’s not the one God who abounds with lovingkindness. Continue Reading »

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ou can’t make this stuff up. In a less secular day, what happened in Parliament yesterday would have been likened to lightening snuffing out a false prophet. From the UK Register:

Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday – the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922. The Mother of Parliaments was discussing the Mother of All Bills for the last time, in a marathon six hour session.

Despite the snow, despite 2008 being a year without a summer in England, despite the fact that polling conducted even before the current economic crisis and the non-summer shows 60 per cent of Brits now doubt the influence of humans on climate change, and more than half think Global Warming won’t be as bad “as people say,” despite the fact that it’s gotten steadily cooler for 11 years now, Parliament pushed on, its upper lift stiffened in Churchillian resolve:

In order to combat a projected two degree centigrade rise in global temperature, the Climate Change Bill pledges the UK to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The bill was receiving a third reading, which means both the last chance for both democratic scrutiny and consent.

The bill creates an enormous bureaucratic apparatus for monitoring and reporting, which was expanded at the last minute. Amendments by the Government threw emissions from shipping and aviation into the monitoring program, and also included a revision of the Companies Act (c. 46) “requiring the directors’ report of a company to contain such information as may be specified in the regulations about emissions of greenhouse gases from activities for which the company is responsible” by 2012.

Folks, greenie dreamies aside, you can’t reduce carbon emissions by 85% in 42 years without (1) spending hundreds of billions – you choose, pounds or dollars, it won’t matter, it’ll still be hundreds of billions and (2) savaging what’s left of the British economy. But who cares, chaps? Push on!

The US Senate has Senator James Inhofe, but in the Commons, there wasn’t an out-and-out sceptic to be found. It was 90 minutes before anyone broke the liturgy of virtue. When Peter Lilley, in amazement, asked why there hadn’t been a cost/benefit analysis made of such a major change in policy, he was told to shut up by the Deputy Speaker.

Will America be next? Both candidates profess their allegiance to the global warming god. But McCain’s reversal on offshore drilling during the energy crisis and his selection of Sarah Palin as running mate, hints that he will show more flexibility than the doctrinaire Mr. O.

hat-tip: Jim

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Mysteries Of Evolution

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ere’s a story that might give Darwin pause:

Amoebas glide toward their prey with the help of a protein switch that controls a molecular compass, biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered.

Their finding, recently detailed in the journal Current Biology, is important because the same molecular switch is shared by humans and other vertebrates to help immune cells locate the sites of infections.

The amoeba Dictyostelium finds bacteria by scent and moves toward its meal by assembling a molecular motor on its leading edge. The active form of a protein called Ras sets off a cascade of signals to start up that motor, but what controlled Ras was unknown.

Amoeba have a sense of smell? They know how to build a molecular motor? Darwin certainly never suspected a single-cell critter could have all that!

It requires more faith to believe such a complex system can evolve out of the primordial mud than it takes to believe the amoeba is part of God’s design. Continue Reading »

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Sunday Scan items are published as each is completed; most recent at the top, so be sure to click through if you see the “continue reading” note at the bottom of the post. This note will be removed after the last item is posted, so if you’re reading this, please come back for more.

Palin Packs ‘Em In

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ere’s the report from Shawn Steele (fomrer Cal. GOP chair) from last night’s Sarah Palin event in SoCal:

Not since Ronald Reagan’s final campaign rally at Orange County’s Mile Square Park on the eve of the 1984 election, have thousands of Californian Republicans gathered. Neither Bush could do it. None of last year’s Republican presidential candidates could fill the Home Depot Tennis Center.

The Center has 13,000 court side seats. All those seats plus the suites were filled to capacity. Still thousands more were slowly streaming into the stadium quickly filled up the court yard. Thousands more found standing room around the rim of the stadium. Over 20,000 people were there to celebrate, shout and scream.

SNL can continue to poke fun at Palin, but real people get her and want to get close to her. If you have any doubts what she’s done to the ticket, check out who introduced her:

Shelly Mandell, the current President of Los Angeles National Organization for Women [NOW] — in the Republican OC suite several of us were scratching our heads— introduced Sarah Palin. It was an awkward introduction. . Mandell, stated she didn’t agree with Sarah on everything, that she is a democrat, that she Mandell supported the failed Equal Rights Amendment campaign but the crowd exercised tolerance. Ms. Mandell will get a lot of angry calls from the hard left, but she embraced the moment and stood with Sarah Palin.

The OC Register also covered the event:

“Electrifying,” “genuine” and “inspiring” were a few of the adjectives that Orange County voters used to describe Sarah Palin after her rally at the Home Depot Center in Carson on Saturday.

The lead of the LA Times story was a bit different:

You can’t say she didn’t warn them.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced herself to the nation with a now-famous joke about lipstick being the only difference between a certain dog breed and a hockey mom. On Saturday, the Republican vice presidential nominee unleashed her inner pit bull, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of being someone who would “pal around with terrorists.”

The reporter let us know that in her opinion (yes, yes, it was a news story, I know) Palin’s new tone was “abrasive.” That’s a fine alternative for “truthful,” isn’t it? Continue Reading »

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