Archives for March 2006

Yesterday Shrinkwrapped looked at Neo-neocon‘s assertion that profound cultural change is ordinarily not a fast process, and posted that “Ultimately, immigration is About the children“:

Here we begin to see how the pernicious ideology of multi-culturism and political correctness has been slowly disarming our population of their intellectual weapons. Neo mentions the “melting pot”; yet our elites, even more so in Europe than here, have actively striven to destroy the concept of the “melting pot” in favor of such ideas as “a mosaic” or a “quilt.” If America remains a “melting pot”, the immigration question devolves to how best to ensure that the children of the current generation of immigrants can make the transition from being Mexicans to being Americans. If we are living in a mosaic, then the question is an entirely different and more dangerous one.
. . .
I believe that much of the discomfort about immigration relates to this sense that we are allowing non-Americans who do not share our values to gain a toe hold in our country and have no confidence that our leaders will do what they should or could to encourage these people to become Americans.

Just a year ago I was pointing out that

Prior generations of immigrants, once they arrived in the USA were taught, by the public schools and by other civic organizations, traditional American values; more specifically, middle-class, Protestant values, within a Judeo-Christian tradition. People learned to read English by reading the King James Bible. The Protestant work ethic was promoted through Horatio Alger stories, and the value of delayed gratification was spoken of. School curricula stressed discipline and the “three R’s”, and included famous sermons, such as Governor John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity. People were taught and encouraged to serve their communities through volunteering, a most American trait. In short, immigrants were directed towards what it meant to live in an American culture; no one assumed that simply knowing the language meant one was acculturated.

If the mosaicists would wake from their non-judgmental multi-culti PC slumber, they’d learn that most Latin American immigrants share these traditional American values:

• loyalty to one’s family as demonstrated by the large portion of earnings sent to their native countries as remissions
• the desire to improve oneself socially and financially by leaving their poor situations for the expectation of a better condition
• faith, as shown in the much-touted Dia de los Muertos, Dia de los Reyes and other celebrations that otherwise-unchristian public schools hype in the name of diversity
• a strong work ethic, with many illegal aliens working 12-14 hr days
• patriotism and loyalty to one’s country, including the fact that Hispanics comprise the largest ethnic group represented in the Marines

Directing these children towards what it means to be American would not deny them their heritage, but instead strengthen their values and their own selves, while opening their futures to the myriad opportunities that attract immigrants to our country.

Shrinkwrapped concludes (emphasis mine),

Any politicians and/or political party that can find a way to re-frame this debate as about assimilation and Americanization, rather than illegal immigration, without a knee jerk reaction from the MSM condemning them as racist, will have a powerful message indeed. Once again, our elites will attempt to polarize the discussion but there is hope; their power to determine the parameters of discourse are failing (too slowly for my taste, but failing surely). We need this debate to be about creating more Americans and not about empowering illegal immigrants.

And the sooner, the better.

(technorati tags Immigration)

Yesterday’s blogburst has been a huge success. Thousand more have read about Guillermo Fariñas, thanks to the many blogs who participated.

Elephants in Academia writes In support of Dr. Guillermo Farinas Hernandez

This might, on the surface, seem a cause hardly worth dying for. After all, as recently as ten years ago I functioned pretty well without internet access. So why all the fuss? Shouldn’t Dr. Farinas get over himself, have a good meal and learn to enjoy the island workers’ paradise? In the silence of our mainstream media over his plight you can almost hear the jaded sighs of “I wish I could throw out my blackberry/cellphone/laptop and not be so constantly bothered with this flood of information.”

As Betsy says,

Think of how access to the Internet provides a a window on to the world and how such access can challenge tyranny. You can go here to sign a petition in support of Fariñas.

And then ponder why the American media isn’t covering a fellow journalist who is willing to die to protest for the freedom to communicate on the Internet.

At least the Canadian radio interviewed Val last night.

More at Not Exactly Rocket Science

I hope Mr. Fariñas will hear that people around the world know of his plight.

(technorati tag Guillermo Fariñas, Internet)

At Forbes, an article, Cardiac Critic, about cardiologist Steven E. Nissen.

On Wednesday, a panel of pediatricians will consider the safety of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall that are commonly used to treat attention deficit disorder. In a perspective published online Monday night in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nissen lays out his case that drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta and Adderall may cause potential risks to the heart that many patients don’t appreciate–and that these risks should be spelled out in a clear, black-box warning for consumers.
. . .
In the NEJM editorial, Nissen spins what he sees as the worrisome story of these drugs. Methamphetamine was originally developed in 1891 and was first widely used in World War II to help Luftwaffe pilots stay alert. Newer versions (including one of the active ingredients in Adderall) were introduced as appetite suppressants in the 1950s and were soon being used to treat ADHD, then a rarely diagnosed disorder that made it hard for kids to function in school.

No evidence of torture flights
A couple of months ago the BBC newscasts made a big to-do of “torture flights”, where the US allegedly flew foreign terrorists to countries where they could be tortured.

Well (via Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred), buried somewhere in the BBC News site, prominently absent from its TV newscast, and couched in scare quotes, ‘No evidence’ of torture flights

There is no evidence the US has used UK airspace for flights transferring terror suspects to countries where they could be tortured, the government says.

At the blogs
Smadanek takes a close look at NJ Budget – Expanding Health Insurance for Children. It comes to this:

Our state plan currently provides insurance for more than 3 times the estimated number of children living in poverty.

Or, in plain English, your taxes will go up.

Betsy has a post about George Mason. This George Mason, not 24’s George Mason.

Also at Betsy’s, Dr. Kauthammer takes on Fukuyama’s fabrication. Fukuyama — the “end of history” guy — has a new book to peddle and claims to have had an epiphany from hearing a speech by Dr. K, where supposedly Dr. K declared the Iraq war “a virtually unqualified success.”
Well, Fukuyama lied:

A convenient fabrication — it gives him a foil and the story drama — but a foolish one because it can be checked. The speech was given at the Washington Hilton before a full house, carried live on C-SPAN and then published by the American Enterprise Institute under its title “Democratic Realism: An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World.” (It can be read here.)

As indicated by the title, the speech was not about Iraq. It was a fairly theoretical critique of the four schools of American foreign policy: isolationism, liberal internationalism, realism and neoconservatism. The only successes I attributed to the Iraq War were two, and both self-evident: (1) that it had deposed Saddam Hussein and (2) that this had made other dictators think twice about the price of acquiring nuclear weapons, as evidenced by the fact that Gaddafi had turned over his secret nuclear program for dismantlement just months after Saddam’s fall (in fact, on the very week of Saddam’s capture).

In that entire 6,000-word lecture, I said not a single word about the course or conduct of the Iraq War. My only reference to the outcome of the war came toward the end of the lecture. Far from calling it an unqualified success, virtual or otherwise, I said quite bluntly that “it may be a bridge too far. Realists have been warning against the hubris of thinking we can transform an alien culture because of some postulated natural and universal human will to freedom. And they may yet be right.”

Louisiana Conservative takes on the food police, among others, in this Monday Night Bible Study.

Today’s articles from Maria
The UK Times wants to you to know that Pet meat has less fat than Big Mac. If you want fat, follow Steve‘s advice: Eat What You Want and Die Like a Man

Tired of tofu? Sick of salad? REVOLT! Eat What You Want and Die Like a Man will put you back in touch with your Inner Hog.

Paris Burning, Once Again, and today there’s a general strike. Small wonder Dutch NRC Handelsblad doesn’t like what it sees. Dave Cloud looks at the Hell no, we won’t work attitude, which makes Larry Kudlow want to Paddle the French Fanny in a g-rated sort of way. Update Watch today’s France2 Newscast and weep. More at Gateway Pundit.

Muslims mix religion, politics

Airbus Evacuates 873 People From A380 in 80 Seconds in Test. Now the question is, how many hours will it take for 873 people to get through customs?
Speaking of airplanes, Screeners at 21 airports failed to detect bomb components every time government investigators smuggled them through the checkpoints

Nano circuit offers big promise

Basic Instinct 2‘s just around the corner. I’d rather see Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector: “Git R Done.”

Today’s video, sent by Maria, of course, the cutest, most annoying three year old to ever play the xylophone.

(technorati tags ADHD, terrorism, New Jersey, Charles Krauthammer, George Mason, Food, France)

Today, bloggers across the world honor a brave man, Guillermo Fariñas.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES)

Start by reading Val Prieto’s post, Let me be buried on this spot!

Many bloggers are participating on this blogburst:
Fariñas is an outlaw, and a hero

In Cuba, freedom is against the law. And anyone who resists the exercise of Fidel Castro’s tyranny is an outlaw, whether they do so silently, like a majority of Cubans, or whether they step up — like independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas — and put at risk their life and what little liberty they might have and go public with their opposition to the regime.

At Critical Miami

We are blogging about this because we agree that it is an injustice

Would you starve yourself just to do the simple things?

Call your Senators, Congressmen, local news stations and the news networks and tell them what this man is doing and why he is doing it.

Blogging for Coco

If you’re a blogger, a quick post would be great.

From Italy, Stefania posts about another dissident, Martha Beatriz Roque, and 14 more refugees.

Cubanet posts a Miami Herald article on Fariñas: Dissident ready to be ‘martyr for freedom of information’

From Valencia, Spain, La batalla de Fidel Castro contra Internet

Havana-May 1958-Nov 1960 A brief digression to honor a VBM – Very Brave Man

the subject of this post will digress from the continuing story of the Havana that was, in order to publicize the valiant fight – and the plight – of a Very Brave Man who is fighting for the very things we of the blogger brotherhood and sisterhood take for granted, too often.

Dean’s World says

They don’t even deny people this freedom in China–they try to censor it, but they don’t deny people access to it. In China they have it better! Is it even thinkable?

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Free people universally and regularly express outrage at Chinese censorship of the internet (and especially Google’s complicity). We write about and sign petitions for bloggers arrested for expressing their views. Meanwhile, Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez is dying just 90 miles from the United States for the right to have open access to the internet. Spread the word.

Beth has more.

At Wall Street Cafe: The Value of Freedom, The Silence Is Deafening. Read both posts for a complete overview of Fariñas’s plight.

Shhh…Don’t Mention the Gulag: Liberal Blogger Silence on the Third Anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring

Starving for Access

CUBA – help Farinas! CHALLENGE THE NCC!

The light that blinds the tyrant

There’s a man in this world that is dying, but his light is not to be extinguished, far from that, his light shines bright, brighter that any other star surrounded by the dark sky of what is communist Cuba.

Guillermo Farinas is Cuba

Contrary to Hollywood depictions, communism isn’t sexy. It’s an ugly stark non-fertile existence in which the human spirit is crushed and the soul is repeatedly raped. Humans were never meant to live in captivity and that is exactly what Communism is, a large state run prison in which parole is never an option. One is born into this prison and one eventually dies in this prison. Save for those few with the courage to break their shackles and attempt escape.

Guillermo Fariñas: Victorious Unknown

What I know of Guillermo Fariñas is that he is a trained psychologist who turned his attention to journalism. He did so with the hope that as the outside world learned more of what was really going on in Cuba, something could be done about the human rights abuses that were rampant there. Mr. Fariñas was jailed, beat up by thugs on the street, and most recently had his access to the internet taken away. He decided to take a final stand with a hunger strike.

Also at Texidor Blog, He Is Dying

Dying for Freedom

Choice, the choice to die for freedom is a solitary decision.

THOUGHT CONTROL, TOTALITARIAN IDEOLOGIES, & GUILLERMO FARIÑAS

I have spent much of my working life trying to free my patients from the constrictions their inner, unconscious conflicts impose upon their own minds. I have struggled to help free my sickest patients from the chains their illness imposes upon their minds. The evil that the Castro regime continues to perpetuate is a crime against humanity.

at Pajamas Media:
Hunger Strike for Internet Freedom – In Cuba
Cuba’s Black Spring, 3 years
Fariñas blogburst

CNN Video
CNN
(Alternate link for the video via Beth)

Newspaper articles
WebProNews Cuban Man Hunger Strikes For Internet Access

Reuters: Cuban On Hunger Strike For Internet Access

Human rights worsening in Cuba, analysts says

Committee to Protect Journalists CUBA: CPJ concerned about health of two journalists on hunger strike

NY Sun After Three Years, Cuban Free Press Lives On

Inquirer Cuban hungers for Internet access — Dying for it

BosNewsLife, Hungary Cuban Activists Pray for Political Prisoners

(click on photo)

SAVE
Guillermo Farinas


Babalu has a list of people and organizations you can contact on Mr. Fariñas’s behalf.

If you’re a blogger and want to link to this post, or join the blogburst, please let me know at faustaw-at-yahoo-dot-com, and remember to use the technorati tags below.

UPDATES:
Save Guillermo Fariñas

TODAY, now, take two minutes and sign a petition. It costs you nothing, you won’t get spammed, and you’ll be doing something that people in Cuba can’t do at all.

Other bloggers participating
Atlas Shrugs, which lists other jailed journalists.
Publius Pundit
Latino Issues

Freedom of religion, economic prosperity, and social justice CANNOT happen without the freedom of information for which he now gives his life.

The Cotillion

Castro doesn’t want us to know about Fariñas or about his country. I won’t help Castro hide. Not today. ¡Ya no mas!

More bloggers
Striving for average
Cake Eater chronicles
Instapundit & Michelle Malkin (how about a little credit, guys?)
RightWingSparkle
The Truth Laid Bear
MacStanbury

Even more bloggers
All Things Beautiful
Riehl World View
The Dumb Ox

Will Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, Steven Spielberg, Barbara Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Oliver Stone or just about anyone in Hollywood or the mainstream media protest Castro’s barabarism? European and American leftists outraged over Gitmo when the rest of Cuba is a concentration camp? Journalists regularly land in jail to be beaten and abused in Castro’s commie paradise, why is our fetid left completely indifferent to their plight?

Love America First

(technorati tag Guillermo Fariñas, Internet, )

Front-page article in today’s NYT: Meals That Moms Can Almost Call Their Own, talks about the latest fad, meal assembly centers, where

families like the Robbinses prepare two weeks’ worth of dinners they can call their own with little more effort than it takes to buy a rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad.

While I certainly applaud the entrepreneurial inventiveness of the people who came up with the meal assembly center concept (and of course, there’s the socializing factor of cooking with several other families) here’s my take: you can do this yourself in less time.

Due to sugar intolerance and soy and MSG allergies, I can’t eat most “prepared” meals. By prepared I mean anything with added sugar, MSG, or with soy in its many forms (soy sauce, tofu, miso, etc.). Pick up a can of Campbell’s Soup, read the ingredients, and you’ll see why I have to prepare my own. Aside from that, we’re not talking rocket science. A simple meal takes, at the most, 20 minutes to prepare.

In addition to a salad, think of dinner as three things: a protein, a starch and a vegetable; Ideally, two vegetables (one starchy, one not starchy) and a protein.

Here’s the shopping list: By all means buy a bag of salad. It saves you shopping, washing, and cutting time.
Also buy a bag of frozen vegetables for each day of the week, with a different vegetable for each day.
For starches, any kind of potato, acorn squash, rice, whole-grain pasta, noodles.
For a protein, boned chicken breasts, meat, pork chops, fish, lamb. You can broil any of these, or pan-fry on canola oil (which has no cholesterol and doesn’t burn easily).
If you’re having fish, buy it and cook it immediately. Don’t keep fish overnight.
A jar of prepared pasta sauce (in my case, making sure it has no sugar or soy)
A jar of gravy. Franco-American makes a turkey gravy with no soy, MSG, or sugar.
Canola oil, butter, salt, pepper.
A steamer that you can use for cooking rice or pasta in the bottom section while steaming vegetables on top.
A tenderizing mallet.
A cast-iron frying pan. If you prefer non-stick stainless, fine.
A broiler pan.
Aluminum foil

Like I said, think of dinner as three things: a protein, a starch and a vegetable; Ideally, two vegetables (one starchy, one not starchy) and a protein.

Here’s a simple meal in twenty minutes:
Fill the bottom of the steamer with water, and add 1/2 cup of frozen vegetables per person to the top section. Place on a high flame. As soon as the water boils, add 1/4 cup of rice per person to the boiling water. Make sure you have 3 x the amount of water for the amount of rice. Bring down the flame so the water doesn’t spill over.
If you have no allergies, you may add two bullion cubes to the water. (However, all bullion cubes have at least one of my three no-nos, i.e., sugar, MSG, or soy, so I’d have to buy organic broth, which gets pricey and is much better used for soup.)
Add 2 tbs canola oil to a hot cast-iron frying pan (heating the pan before you add the oil prevents the food from sticking). Take 1/2 boneless chicken breast per serving, pound with a mallet, add salt and pepper, and place in oil, on a medium flame. Cover. Set kitchen timer on 10 minutes
After 10 minutes, turn the chicken over. Cover again. Set timer on 10 minutes again.
Distribute salad on salad plates.
When the timer rings, the vegetables and the chicken will be done. I have everybody serve themselves in the kitchen, straight from the cooking pans, but it you want to have serving plates, by all means, place the chicken and the vegetables each on their serving plate. Drain the rice, add butter. If you haven’t set the table, have each person pick up their utensils and napkins right next to the dinner plates.
Dinner’s ready.
NOTE: If you have teens in the house, DOUBLE THE AMOUNTS. Trust me on this.

If, instead of frying, you’re broiling, always place aluminum foil on the bottom part of the broiling pan so it’s easier to clean.

If you want to have even more veg, buy a bag of coleslaw (cabbage, broccoli, or red cabbage), and a jar of Lemonnaise. Mix and serve.

The following day, follow the same procedure, but make sure you have a different vegetable, a different starch and a different protein. To avoid repetition, keep track by making a list of what you have prepared each day by date. Keep the list on the refrigerator door.
For instance, cook some noodles (read the cooking time so you don’t overcook them and they turn into laundry starch), warm up the gravy, and serve together, along with steamed green beans and pork chops.

If you have more time, oven-bake the potatoes, or cut the acorn squash in half, add a pat of butter, and bake for an hour (half a squash per person).
If you’re feeling fancy, sautee mushrooms and onions before you add the meat.

Like I said, it isn’t rocket science.

The hard part is coming home from work exhausted and having to start dinner, which is hard enough. What I’m saying is that simplifying the menu and making sure you have the ingredients in advance will save you an even more exhausting, and more time-consuming last-minute trip to the supermarket right after you get off from work.

For “guidelines on choosing a dinner menu” see page 57 of the housekeeping bible:

Classy Economist
Thomas Sowell is a lifetime student of the market force
(emphasis mine)
On free-market economics:

Free-market economics, a legacy of the classical school, is thought of as an old conservative doctrine. But Mr. Sowell explains that it was in fact one of the most revolutionary concepts to emerge in the history of ideas. Moreover, “the thinking of the classical economist was not only a radical break from landmark intellectual figures like Plato and Machiavelli but also from mainstream thinking to this day.” The notion of a self-equilibrating system–the market economy–meant a reduced role for intellectuals and politicians, he says. “And even today many still haven’t accepted that their superior wisdom might be superfluous, if not damaging.”

On teaching:

“My job was to teach them economics, not teach them what I happen to believe,” says Mr. Sowell, who adds that efforts by some today to counterbalance the prevailing liberalism in academia with more right-wing instructors is not only an exercise in futility but a disservice to students. “Even if you succeed in propagandizing the students while they’re students, it doesn’t tell you much [about how they’ll turn out]. I suspect that over half [of the conservatives at the Hoover Institution] were on the left in their 20s. More important, though, let’s assume for the sake of argument that, whatever you’re propagandizing them with on the left or right, every conclusion you teach them is correct. It’s only a matter of time before all those conclusions are obsolete because entirely different issues are going to arise over the lifetimes of these students. And so, if you haven’t taught them how to weigh one argument against another, you haven’t taught them anything“.

On outdated economic notions that don’t expire:

“Has [John Kenneth] Galbraith lost any credibility? I remember ‘The New Industrial State'”–the 1967 book in which Mr. Galbraith famously argued that large corporations were immune to marketplace forces–“but since then, Eastern Airlines has gone out of business. The Graflex Corporation has gone out of business. Similarly with all kinds of big businesses. This hasn’t made the slightest dent in Galbraith’s reputation. We have Paul Ehrlich, who has told us there would be mass starvation in the world in the ’80s, and now we find our two biggest problems are obesity and how to get rid of agricultural surpluses.” Mr. Sowell’s conclusion is a cynical one. “I have a book called ‘The Vision of the Anointed,’ and there’s a chapter in there called ‘The Irrelevance of Evidence.’

Here’s a Thomas Sowell bookshelf:

PS, while you’re at it, you’ll probably enjoy Money, Money, Money: The Grand Illusion. I don’t agree to all of Fran’s points, but it’s a fascinating read.
(technorati tags Thomas Sowell)

(click on photo)

SAVE
Guillermo Farinas

Read This Now

Spread the Word

The blogburst is on Monday; You still have time to participate!

Chirac’s snit
One dies as huge blast rocks French university

One person was killed in a huge explosion that destroyed a research building at a French university in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Friday, the fire brigade said.
. . .
The reason for the blast, which was heard across much of the city close to the Swiss and German borders, was not immediately known. The institute has some 650 students and staff.

The UNEF student union said the complex was not occupied by students as part of protests against a youth jobs law that have hit universities around France.

So, what provokes a snit from the Président de la République? (via Judith)Chirac flees summit in a fury over use of English

PRESIDENT CHIRAC stormed out of the first session of a European Union summit dominated by a row over French nationalism because a fellow Frenchman insisted on speaking English.

Sad.

That WaPo vacancy
Dan posts that Conservative Blogger Wanted – Contact The WaPo.com
I’d nominate Dan, and La Shawn, both, for the job.

Also at the blogs,
an Interview With Congressman Robert B. Aderholt

Today’s articles
Via Art, Madeline Albright, who was favorably impressed by Kim Jong Il’s party planning, and chased after Arafat to prevent him from walking out of an October 2000 emergency meeting in Paris, sees no irony in her choice of title: Good versus evil isn’t a strategy: Bush’s worldview fails to see that in the Middle East, power politics is the key
Like the power of chasing after Yasser?

From Maria
Ralph Peters says that journalists are NOT EVEN CLOSE on Iraq.

Right invasion, wrong explanation.

Amir Taheri looks at ISRAEL & THE AYATOLLAHS

If Israel had never appeared on the map, the energy of pan-Arab nationalism movement, which dominated Arab politics in the post-war era, would have been directed against two other neighbors: Turkey and Iran. To a certain extent, it was anyway. Even today, the Arab League claims that the Turkish province of Iskanderun is “usurped Arab territory” and regards the Iranian province of Khuzestan as “occupied Arab land.”

Read the rest.

A former aide spills the dirt on Fidel Castro

Adopted as children, Chinese in America

Hitler’s evolutionists

Piano-playing policy wonks. As Maria points out, “BTW, now we have to add one more “genius” and political “analyst” — Charlie SHEEN!”

Fed-up patriots unite against Jimmy Carter.

In a lighter mode, if you think the dog’s talking
you’re probably right!

Last evening I was watching France2 news as usual, when they reported on an astonishing story.

A group of French policemen busted a large container ship in the high seas, seizing the ship and 18 tons of cocaine. The policemen arrived at the ship by means of inflatable motor boats and a helicopter, and took charge of the ship and its crew shortly after. I was impressed. It takes good planning, and above all, guts, for a mission like that to succeed. Jack Bauer would have been proud.

The ship, which had left Havana and was loaded in Caracas, was on its way to the EU. As I posted on May 15, 2005 Venezuela and Cuba signed maritime cooperation agreement, while both countries have strong ties to the international drug trade.

The French agents then turned the ship around and arrived in Martinique, where they interrogated (France2’s words, not mine) the crew. The captain finally admitted that he knew about the cargo but was under duress, since his family was being threatened. The report stated that France is operating a Caribbean anti-drug squad in cooperation with several other countries (the report didn’t specify which other countries) aimed at curtailing the drug traffic headed to the EU.

The France2 report showed the agents approaching the ship, questioning the crew both on board and on land, and, later, the drugs being cremated.

Then this morning I did a search in the news (including French newspapers) and, aside from yesterday’s France2 broadcast, which disappears after 2PM, I’ve found nothing.

Not a word.

What is going on?

(technorati tags France, News, cocaine)