Where would you rather be

Philadelphia or Iraq?

Apparently if you're a African American male between the ages of 20 and 34 the answer is suprisingly Iraq. Personally, I blame the cheesesteaks.

This may be nothing more than a simple statistical exercise but it does help put the loss of life of American military personnel into a different context. Iraq is not Vietnam, and while the loss of even one man and woman in uniform is a tragedy, let alone over 2300, isn't the very real possibility of revitalizing an entire region of the earth and the freeing of hundreds of millions of people from tyrannical rule worth the same level of risk that a young African American man faces everyday in the City of Brotherly Love?

Breaking News? Hardly.

Somehow I fail to see the NDP leaders calls for Canadian troops to withdraw from Afghanistan a "Breaking News" type event. I know it's just the way the Ottawa Sun web site happens to place new stories but to me it's akin to every morning at around 6:40 having a "Breaking News: Sun rises in the East" announcement.

Sure they should be free to voice their opinions but it's hard to take them serious when, like the French, they will only agree to commit troops when they have guarantees that they will not be placed in harms way.

At least they have their hearts in the right place, their just extremely naive and heaven help us if they ever get in control at a national level.

Any guesses ..

.. as to who just completed one of the last major parts of their current work assignment?

Removing all doubt

Today's Hot Air is possibly the most straightforward video I've seen explaining the use of ambulances by Hamas and Hezbollah to aid in their attacks on Israelis, both on the physical and propaganda fronts. Even the most dedicated ostrich must admit that things are not as the international news agencies make them appear.

It's a sad comment on what passes for journalism today when such obvious things as extreme rust on supposedly newly damaged vehicles doesn't even get mentioned once until some part time 'citizen journalists' make the effort to actually look at the photos.

This is truly Must See TV.

Addendum:

I didn't link to this story about the Australian Foreign Ministers condemnation of the media earlier (using Zombie's excellent ambulance debunking piece for his basis) but now that the Red Cross has come out to attack the Minister (while at the same time removing a high-res photo of the ambulance from their site) it's becoming a little more interesting.

Notice that the Lebanese Red Cross rep doesn't even try and counter any of the photographic evidence Zombie uses to prove his case, just merely repeats the original claims over again. No explanation of the rust, no explanation for the lack of fire damage and no explanation for the remarkable healing abilities of the ambulance driver after the western journalists had left.

I just hope the opposition members demand for the FM's sources is an honest request for information (although it's a sign of poor research as Zombie is linked to directly in online article) and not an attempt to politicize this story. This is something people of all political stripes should be able to get behind. Ensuring the media gets the story right the first time, every time should be everyones goal.

I'm guessing that Zombie and Hot Air may be getting more than a few hits from .AU domains over the next few days.

WWJD

An interesting discussion about the 'convert or die' question courtesy of La Shawn Barber.

Interesting points concerning the differences of views between Christians/non-Christians and singles/marrieds.

They just can't help themselves

Another pointless photoshopping incident.

At least this one only involves a news personality and not the news itself but you still have to ask yourself, "what was wrong with the before picture?".

h/t Geepers in the LGF comment section

Another week ...

... another highly questionable Reuters report from the Middle East.

Michelle, and others (links available from Michelle's post), have been doing a good job of covering the latest "Israel attacks unarmed ..." story.

Once again, a simple cursory glance at the photos raise a lot more questions than the 'official' story answers.

And as Charles was so quick to point out, the fact Reuters initially left out interesting details with regards to the journalists work history does lead one to believe that even they had some suspicions as to the veracity of the story and wanted to make sure it got out before people (and by people I mean bloggers as no one in the MSM seems to feel even the slightest urge to investigate these claims) had a chance to do a little research of their own.

This is looking an awful lot like the Red Cross Ambulance, Part 2.

Human Rights Watch: See No Evil

Alan Dershowitz thoroughly debunks HRW's defense of Hezbollah in this great collection of published first hand accounts of exactly how Hezbollah operates.

If there was ever a doubt that HRW is a politically driven far left organization and not a true defender of fundamental rights this removes it.

(h/t Bubbaman at LGF)

Huffpo hits bottom, keeps on digging

I've read this cartoon a couple times looking for the satire but if it's there it's beyond my ability to see. Besides the message, wouldn't you expect a little better drawing out of a "successful portrait artist"?

If these are the best the far left has to off I'd say the future of conservative cartooning is looking bright indeed. I'd put Cox and Forkum and Chris Muir up against Aaron Freeman and Sharon Rosenzweig and Ted Rall anyday.

This Week in the MSM

Tundra Tabloids finds the mysterious Lebanese Santa Clause who has been leaving all those toys around.

Poynter Online gives us another example of how the "when in doubt, blame the Jews
" policy of the BBC is alive and well in addition to giving yet another example of staged photo ops.

EU Referendum takes another look at Qana.

LGF takes on the Israel's use of chemical weapons with the help of German TV.

Zombie utterly destroys the ambulance attacked story. His debunking even made Fox News.

Jawa sums up everything pretty well in this video.

Even closer to home our own little CBC mini-scandal culminated in a rare on-air apology.

Overall, not a very good week to call yourself a professional journalist.

At least they did manage to catch this one themselves before it made the NYT front page, though the lack of publicity this obvious fake received this side of the pond is just as telling.

And just because I haven't made a dig at the 'progressives' yet, here's a fun reminder of what it looks like when a liberal tries to debunk a story.

Amnesty International Speaks out

against the illegal actions and war crimes of ... wait for it, wait for it ... Israel.

Was there ever any doubt?

Snapped Shot has a great fisking of the AI report.

The most telling statement from the report:

"The briefing does not cover in any detail the broader implications of the bombing campaign. ... Nor does it address the attacks by Hezbollah into Israel and their impact on civilians – these are being addressed elsewhere."

Cuz' honestly, why would you ever want to discuss the fact that the basis for the attacks your are condemning was that a sovereign nation was attacked by a recognized terrorist organization which operates quite openly, in direct violation of UN sanctions, and with a great deal of support from the local population. I guess in AI world they figured that would just cloud the issue of just how bad the Israelis were.

Guess we'll just have to chalk this one up to yet another 'human rights' organization that makes the attempt to convict Israel of imagined war crimes (based almost entirely upon emotional appeals) while effectively giving the perpetrators of actual demonstratable war crimes (that would be Hezbollah with their ball bearing laden rockets and use of human shields for those not paying attention) a walk.

August 22nd, 2006: The End Has Come

After 10 years and 215 episodes, Stargate SG-1 has come to an end.

But a reminder to fans of the show, this is not the first time that the SG-1 universe has been put in real world peril. Until Sci-Fi took it over in season 7, there was a very real possibility of season 6 being it's last. Even now the producers are not giving up hope and are shopping around to try and find another outlet to take over the show from Sci-Fi.

This season marked a milestone as SG-1 captured the title of longest running sci-fi show on American television (beating out the X-Files 9 seasons) and unlike the X-Files, SG-1 is still running strong. Just last week the most recent SG-1 episode was pointed out by Entertainment Weekly as that weeks show to watch.

Even if this truly is the end of an era sci-fi fans can take some solace in the fact Atlantis shall live on. In the same announcement signaling their end of involvement in the SG-1 show, Sci-Fi announced they were renewing Stargate: Atlantis for a fourth season.

Keep your eyes on Gateworld and the Stargate Information Archive for more up to date news.

WWW

The internet truly is a world wide web. I started this morning looking up Criss Angel sites (I just finished watching a Mindfreak episode) and ended up looking at a video of a German Kid with anger management issues.

Well, just to bring everything full circle, here are two Criss Angel videos that helped lead me to Filecabi.net in the first place:

- Spoiler Alert - Criss's instructional video on how o perform his levitation trick.

- A scene from the show where he climbs out of a sewer. An interesting idea but very poorly planned out, IMHO. The fact that the ground has a very clear light and dark zone makes distances to easy to judge for this particular trick.

Some more assorted video clips

Courtesy of Filecabi.net:

• She puts a whole new twist on the disappearing trick
• Some Pride Fight highlights
• Music for the Deaf
• A great optical illusion
• French Kissing: A tutorial
  

The beauty of nature

- A day on the African plains (includes one of my all time favourite National Geographic scenes)

- The reason you don't go swimming after eating

- This may sting a little

Another ad not coming to a TV near you

Following in the footsteps of Puma comes this Nintendo Wii ad.

Snakes on a muthaf#$%*n' Plane: the trilogy

Thanks to Dorkafork for capturing the first pics of the SoaP trilogy posters.

And whatever you do, don't miss the Prequel.

From the makers of Eurotrip ...

... comes Pumas next ad campaign.




No one seems to know who really made them, but you have to admit they are effective.

(h/t Caption This)

Caption This!

This link has been sitting in my draft pile for a while now and I figured it was time to share it.

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!

Kill the Messenger

So even a week after video has come out showing Green Helmet Guy doing exactly what he was accused of doing by LGF and others, the progressives over at HuffPo are still trying to defend his, and the photo journalists actions. They general gist is that because LGF is a rightwing blog, even though their accusations are backed up by fact, it must be ignored at all costs.

Here's just two of the threads I've been following over there but there are several others.

And just to make things complete, you have the raving anti-semites making their appearance with nary a peep out of their fellow progressives. My favorite conspiracy theory so far, the Jooos doctored the photos to try and discredit poor Adnan Hajj. Once again, the fact Hajj has admitted to the alterations doesn't even see to rate a mention on their Zionist-behind-every-tree minds.

On an entirely different matter, what's with their comment system over there. I've left several comments, under my alternate screen name, Straif, and while so far they all seem to show up in time, some have taken over 8 hours to appear. I'm assuming their is an approval system but I've seen several instance where while mine are sitting in limbo, other people seem to be able to post in almost real time. I still have one outstanding from when I left work today 6 and a half hours ago.

Best line of the day

Provided by Steve Mukherjee, spokesman for the Washington chapter of the Association of Indians in America, with regards to Sen. George Allen's reference to a volunteer for his rival as "Macaca":

"What it means, I don't know. But it's going to cause him some grief."

All you need to know about the overly PC world we no live in is contained in that simple sentence.

For the record, the Senator, who doesn't even really know the man in question, explained the name as being a misinterpretation of the word 'Mohawk', which is the nickname his staff had given him, due to his haircut. So his use of the name 'Macaca' is right up there with a very casual acquaintance calling you Larry when your name is actually Harry; hardly and example of earth shattering racism.

Read the full story at the Washington Post for even more false PC outrage.

(h/t MichelleMalkin.com)

Making the time..

Just to get it out of the way; The Cease Fire agreement - bad deal for Israel, great for Hezbollah. With the UN on the case I'm sure they can restock their spent warheads in no time; maybe even upgrade a few.

But onto the more important matter, and the reason for this post, osteoporosis. Or more specifically osteoporosis and Sally Field.

I don't know if you've seen her new commercial for some once-a-month pill to prevent osteo, but I couldn't help thinking that will all the billions spent in Iraq, couldn't the U.S. have found a way to make a bi-monthly pill, or even better and semi-annual pill.

I can only assume this pill is very hard to swallow, and causes great discomfort or pain and I can't stand to think of poor Sally going through all that. You can just hear it in her voice when she tells of her poor friend who has to 'make the time' once a week to take her osteo prevention pill. The way she makes it sound like such a inconvenience makes me believe there has to be something especially bad about this type of medication.

Then again I may be mistaken and perhaps her friend is just on some new fangled Hollywood I.V. diet and doesn't actually partake of orally administered liquids, thereby having to change her entire days plans to actually take a pill. In which case, maybe the money could be better spent developing a liquid form of the pill which could be added to her I.V. drip.

Something has to be done people! We can't have poor Gidget choking down some hockey puck sized pill every 30 days or so.

Pallywood

Just an amazing example of the type of manufactured news from the Middle East that is only now having a proper light shed on it. It's a bit long but worth the watch.



(h/t LGF)

And check out Ms Underestimated for a link to the second part of the video. If anything the "Al Durah" video goes even further in showing just how complicit Western media is in creating these false news stories.

For anything besides a supposed Israeli atrocity even Mary Mapes and Dan Rather would have a hard time airing of these stories. A complete lack of verifiable physical evidence, contradictory video evidence and an odd self imposed restriction on the release of additional footage from that time; any one of which would normally have legitimate journalists screaming cover-up, but for Palestinian propaganda pieces it's all seen as par for the course and sent straight to your evening news.

The Left Strikes Back

As seems to the natural order of things in the political blogosphere, whenever one side manages to achieve some amount of success the other side turns on the jets to play catch-up.

When the Right brought down veteran CBS news anchor Dan Rather for his use of poorly forged TANG memos to attempt to affect the outcome of the Presidential election (even their own document examiners called their veracity into question prior to airing) the left responded by bringing down Jeff Gannon (yes the Jeff Gannon of Talon News fame and now of JeffGannon.com) for daring to be a conservative who may or may not have also been gay.

When the Left manage to pull it's forces together to finally win an election (well a Primary anyways) and get Ned Lamont nominated as the Democratic Candidate for the Senate from Connecticut
the Right responded by pointing out that even running as an Independent, Joe Lieberman is polling at a significant lead (as high as 51%) and as a result all their politicking is most likely to end up losing the Democrats one of the safest seats they had in the Senate (the Republican candidate polls somewhere in the single digits).

So after a week of the Right side of the blogospheres unprecedented exposure of the MSMs highly bias reporting on all things Israeli, leading to several major publications having to print retractions or corrections to pictures that just a few weeks ago were accepted as gospel, and at least one often used photographer losing his job and all of his photos being removed from Reuters database, the Left responds with this, a small shadow on Howard Deans face, that if viewed from a particular angle on a photo reduced to a particular size may or may not appear as a moustache on a GOP web ad which they claim is a blatant Hitlerization of their esteemed Democratic chairman by evil Republicans.

Not that their beliefs should be dismissed out of hand, but since the same photo, with and without the slight shadow, has been featured on the internet for over a year (it seems to depend on contrast and brightness levels of the particular version of the photo being used), with no prior claims of doctoring a reasonable person would have to believe that no actual photoshopping occurred. Even now the GOP ad features a clearly shadowless Dean meaning either the picture as shown at Kos in it's altered form (it was definitely resized if nothing else) actually created the appearance of the 'mustach' or after learning that some far left extremist were seeing things, someone at GOP headquarters took it upon themselves to brighten the photo to remove any hint of subliminal wrongdoing.

Personally I have a hard time seeing Hitler in even the 'altered' photo. I guess if you have Hitler firmly planted in the front of your mind (and just search Kos to see how many times Republicans are called Fascist and the term 'Bushitler' is used to see how much they love using Nazi references) you might see something there but even then it would be a stretch. But just read the comments and try to keep a straight face. And feel free to browse other far left sites to get their take. In at least two seperate discussions I've seen people both comment on how good the photos of Kos and Moore look while just a few comments down their are people discussing about how the evil GOP intentially choose the most evil of photos of the two to make them look bad. There is just no rhyme or reason to their complaints. You'd be hard pressed to find more hate filled group of people who at the same time profess tolerance and respect for everybody.

To summarize the far lefts political views: Conservative: Bad - everyone else (including self professed terror organizations and dictators): Good.

See LGF for more.

House of Cards

The best way I've found to tell how far any major blogosphere story has penetrated the real world is to ask MacDaddy if he's heard anything about it. He's what I'd consider an average Canadian news watcher (meaning pretty light), and while about as far left as you can get on most social issues, he's still what I'd consider a pretty impartial observer. So when I asked him if he had heard anything about recent issues with Reuters problems with their photographers I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he had. Of course he was only aware of the big one that blew the cover off this whole mess, but hey it's a start.

Just for those not keeping score at home here is a brief rundown on just a few of the Reuters/AP/MSM photo scandals from the last week or two.

1) Originally there was the Qana photo story. While not doctored as some other photos have been, this was one of the first big stories to imply a strong likelihood of photo staging. Pay special attention to the man in the helmet, or Green Helmet Guy, as he is now affectionately know through out the blogosphere; he has a habit of showing up to parade around bodies at the sites of 'Israeli atrocities' throughout Southern Lebanon.

2) This can be considered part 1.b as it is a video, captured from German TV, actually showing GHG doing exactly what he was being accused of in point 1, staging the corpses of victims for better photo ops.

3)Ever have that feeling of deja vu? Try these AFP/Reuters shots on for size then. You may wonder, like the rest of us, what the IDF has against the owner of this particular house as according to the captions they reduced it to rubble not once, not twice but three separate times from July 18th to August 5th.

4)Not to be outdone, the New York Times decided to send their own photographers out into the field to create fake news. You'd think the fact the 'bombing victim' is relatively dust free, holding his hat and walking around in the other photos in the series would have been a bit of a hint for a savvy editor of one of the worlds largest newspapers. Apparently not. You know how newspapers just love to have exclusives and when it comes to fake news no one has a better track record than the New York Times.

5)At least U.S. News and Time magazine didn't use the pictures of any fake victims opting instead to do their best to fabricate a fake Hezbollah victory (scroll down). As it turns out, the 'downed Israeli fighter' (as claimed by TIME) burning Beirut to the ground in the background is actually a tire fire at a dump believed to have been started by a Hezbollah rocket accident. "No Israeli Planes were Injured in the Making of this Photo Op".

6)The AP then jumps into the fray with this photo series showing another child who was killed at the hands of the IDF. Once again, the only problem was that the child had actually been killed earlier in a playground accident and not by any Israeli attack. It's one more sad example of just how willing people are to use dead children as propoganda props.

7) And of course, the one that started it all, the 'Beirut Burning' photoshop deal. Oddly enough, this is probably the most accurate photo of the bunch. While the only one confirmed to have been altered, at least it is a picture of an actual event taken on the day it says. I have no idea why Adnan Hajj (the photographer) felt the need to embellish the photo, as it is powerful enough in the original form, but I'm sure there are a lot of editors at Reuters, the AP and newspapers around the globe wish he had just left well enough alone.

This has all led to unprecedented moves. First Reuters killed the photoshopped picture of Beirut after admitting it was altered. Then after at first refusing to review any of Mr. Hajj's other photos they buckled and pulled all 900+ of his credited photos from their library. If you've been paying attention you will also notice that several of the controversial photos listed above are credited to Mr. Hajj. Apparently he's as willing to use a word processor to alter his photos as Photoshop.

While pictures have been questioned in the past, it wasn't until this obvious fraud made its way into the media stream unchecked that the facade of unbiased photojournalism was destroyed. In only a week more examples of blatantly false, misleading or staged photos have popped up than I could ever list here. All this while the supposed impartial journalists looked the other way. Even now most mainstream media outlets pay little more than lip service to a story that should be shaking their industry to the ground. If you can't trust the photographs that are so often used to show the story, what else can't you trust.

Check out Michelle's Vent on the matter.

Update:
Zombie has a great breakdown of some more Reuters specific frauds. Once again Mr. Hajj features prominantly.

Foremost among Zombies examples, this Jawa Report post on how, once again, Adnan Hajj, with his trusty word processor and Photoshop program, turns a single IDF fighter defensive flare into a barrage of missles being launched onto Lebonese targets.

Update II:
Another great video on the subject over at Aish.com (h/t JeffGannon.com)

Back to work

After 3800 kms and countless dollars spent on gas (although I'm sure MasterCard will manage to make an accurate accounting) I'm back to my office in Ottawa. And despite the 200 kms of the most crooked road known to man that I've had to travel twice in the last week and a half (for anyone who has driven to or from Labrador City you'll know exactly where I'm talking about) everything went pretty well.

I've even picked up a few travel tips. If you are ever have to go a long distance with a 12 year old in the car, DVDs and headphones are a God send. Or if you don't want to go the high tech root, allow them to have an all nighter the night before leaving; 11 hours in the car that first day and the only sound was that of a head occasionally knocking against the passenger door window. Although in all fairness, I must say that both my nieces are pretty easy to travel with (the same cannot be said for my brother in law but that's a different story).

One other good thing came from all the time spent in the car; Foster finally learned how to behave like a dog. For the first time in forever, he got up off of the floor and began looking out the window. Now he hasn't perfected the process yet, if you let him he'll try to step right out onto the hood while you're driving at 120 km/h, but he's getting there.

It's kind of good to be back home but this whole work thing, I could definately do without.

In defense of 'blackface'

This has got to be one of the oddest stories current going around on the political blogosphere.

Ned Lamont, darling of the progressive bloggers, has finally pulled into a strong lead over democratic incumbent, Joe Lieberman.

So what do they do to celebrate, put up a photoshopped portrait of Joe in blackface (picture via Michelle Malkin since the original has been removed from the HuffPo post, sans apology). Now to be fair, even in the original post several of the commentors, though many were conservatives from what I could see, we're disgusted at the image. Hamsher, has still not really offered any explanation as to her choice of picture.

Ned Lamont then feigned ignorance as to the work of the bloggers who just happen to be central to his campaign; the great Kos himself appeared prominently in his first campaign ad, and Hamsher has been traveling with Lamont all over the place as part advisor and part blog videographer.

So in response to all this controversy over the use of a blatant racist image, how do the progressive respond? By portraying Lieberman as gay and willing to 'service' the President instead.

As has been said many time and many ways, I stand (well at the moment sit actually) totally amazed at how quick the 'tolerant' left is in using race and sexual orientation as means of attacking their opponents.

Ned might be a good guy, I have no idea and I don't really care, but if these are the type of people he chooses to associate himself with in his race to Washington I don't believe he should be there. It's not like this is new to them. This is standard fair from the far left crowd.

They may not have as much money as the evil corporations they oppose, and they've had about as much success getting people elected as my dog, Foster, but he choose to tie his campaign to them and now he has to live with the consequences.

Or he can just come right on out and admit that he simply used them for their pull amongst far left voters and really had no intention of listening to them once elected. Admitting openly that he has little or no knowledge of the activities of some of his primary consultants, which he has already been forced to do, is usually reserved for a Congressman/Senators speech on announcing his resignation, not during their campaign for the Democratic primaries.

I just want to see the results after the primary when Lamont wins, becomes the Democratic candidate and then loses in the general to the now independent Lieberman. Current polls put Lieberman at just over 50% if this were to become a three way race. An almost insurmountable lead.

I'm not a big fan of his politics, but like Jack Layton up here in Canada, I at least respect Lieberman's belief in his positions. The fact he will not change his beliefs for political advantage, as so many of his fellow Democrats have done, is exactly why he is in the predicament he's in now. He's the type of elected official we need more of on both sides of the isle.

Decisions, decisions

Do I start my return trip to Ottawa tomorrow so that I can get back to work on Tuesday or do I call in and tell them I won't be in till Thursday and take the weekend to relax?

Is 5 days of actual vacation really worth the 4 days spent on the road?

I think not. =)

Guess I better call my sister and try and make arrangements to drop off my niece a few days later.

"A Message to the MSM"

Val Prieto has a few, not so subtle, words to share with the MSMs reporting on the current Castro goings on and how Cuban-Americans are handling them.

I just don't know what to say

Hot Air has the YouTube video of various interviews with the creator of "Loose Change", the go to documentary for 9/11 conspirarists.

You have to hear it to believe it.

And yet, there are still enough people dedicated to the idea that all wrongs in the world are American government creations to give these people some level of supposed credibility.