Ethnic Cleansing in L.A.

According to CNN.com, Latin gangs in L.A. are "cleansing" their neighborhoods by killing any black person they see. African-American gangs are doing the reverse. Although only a small portion of overall gang violence, this is still seriously disturbing.

Merkdorp Psuchix: Hanukkah Hate Crime

J. J. Ramsey has an interesting post on an anti-semitic attack on a New York subway that began when a Jewish man said "Happy Hanukkah." No, really, that's it. He said "Happy Hanukkah" and the thugs went on the attack. My favorite line is this:
"Oh, Hanukkah. That's the day that the Jews killed Jesus."

Remembering the Shoa

Bora's mom guest-blogs at A Blog Around the Clock on her trip to Israel to attend a conference for Holocaust Child Survivors.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

The Year In Review

For this one, you're supposed to post the first line of the first post of each month. I thought that was an interesting idea, so here we go.

January: It really is unbecoming to present oneself (even implicitly) as the defender of reason and science while spewing irrational and unscientific nonsense.

February: How do you pay tribute to the woman who determined your destiny?

March: Five lesbians having an orgy in a cage.

April: Terry Jones takes on the disparities between the treatment of British sailors in Iranian control and the treatment of suspects at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

May: Nightline apparently thinks it appropriate to air a challenge between Christians and Atheists, which could be a potentially enlightening debate IF the representatives from each side were even remotely representative of most Christians or most Atheists OR if each side was represented by competent experts.

June: A Blog Around the Clock has linked to my criticism of Bloom and Weisberg's "Why Do Some People Resist Science?"

July: I know how exciting you find the tax codes, so today, boys and girls, we're going to learn about 501(c)3 and its many applications.

August: My last Shmulevich post was reasonable.

September: Can you figure out who said the following things?

October: Posting has been very difficult as of late due to a.) extreme busy-ness on my part, b.) lots of houseguests and c.) the hate-hate relationship between my ISP and my laptop’s software environment.

November: This is one of those questionable interpretations that I was writing about yesterday.

December: My apologies to my libertarian friends, but this is too funny to pass up.

After doing this and reviewing some of my posts, I've realized that (on my blog, at least) I use a lot of sentence fragments, usually for effect or for short-hand labeling of links. That's a potentially bad habit that I think I'll be keeping an eye on in the coming year.

RIP: Benazir Bhutto 1953-2007

Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is dead. So many often ask "Where are the moderate Muslims? Why aren't they standing up to the extremists?" Bhutto and her millions of followers stood up to extremists and dictators every day. Even in the face of death threats, house arrests, and assassination attempts, they continued to stand. Thursday in Pakistan, Bhutto and at least 20 of her followers died the death of martyrs, murdered by a man who fancied himself a blessed martyr but went to Allah the cursed killer of martyrs. Those who loved and respected her fight on even now. Salam Alekem, Prime Minister, and thank you.

Who knew libertarians were so funny? (Sorry, Drew.)

My apologies to my libertarian friends, but this is too funny to pass up. I found this page on the libertarian positions on education. Note that the first position claims sympathy for poor children being stuck in poor schools. Then, note the second and third positions advocating the elimination of public schools and compulsory education, which means that (just as they did prior to the establishment of public schooling and compulsory education) most poor kids will go to no schools. Yeah, that's a solution. Better no school than a poor school. Better complete illiteracy than a "bad" education. Let's take your education out of the hands of credentialled experts and put them into the hands of your overworked and potentially uneducated parents. I mean, come on, kids, if you'd had the good sense to choose better parents and a better socioeconomic environment for yourself, you wouldn't have to worry about not learning how to read. HIGH-larious. Let's just hope they plan on eliminating child labor laws too so that those lazy ragamuffins who aren't getting an education can at least find a job in the mines!

UPDATE:

So, they do support the elimination of child labor laws:

We support repeal of laws that impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws, so-called “protective” labor legislation for women and children…

Fear not! Those lazy bastards who decided to be born into poverty won't be getting health care either. Eliminate poverty by killing off poor children! Maybe if these mattress-back poor people had to bury enough children, they'd get the hint and stop having them. Interesting solution, some would say a "final" solution.

We support an end to government-provided health insurance and health care.

BEFORE ANYONE ASKS, THE PRECEDING HAS BEEN AN EXAMPLE OF SARCASM! THE WORD "LIBERALS" IS IN THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG FOR A REASON!