Driving w/ Cell Phone Condemns Elderly

I know the article and study was intended to demonstrate there should be tougher laws regarding driving while on a cell phone... First, I would like to say I am against any such laws -- all states already have laws that cover this (i.e. careless driving, inattentive driving, reckless driving, etc.) and in many cases can't enforce these, why would we want more laws? I believe it comes down to city and state revenue, while appeasing the "hot issue" people.

Back to my point -- pay close attention to the wording in the article.

"If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, his reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver," said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study. "It's like instant aging."

If you are advocating restricting younger drivers from cell phones using this study would you not have to investigate restricting driving by the elderly -- after all elderly drivers is the comparison made and if that is so bad to criminalize younger drivers with cell phones does it not by default criminalize the average "elderly driver". What will the AARP have to say about this? Will they defend their members? We will see!

Read the article here

Groundhog Day -- Long Winter

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - Punxsutawney Phil has spoken, and the news isn’t good. Video here.

Social Security a Diversion?

Now the Democrats are accusing President Bush of creating a diversion with Social Security - can they be serious? Of course, Democrats are experts on distracting attention form issues they wish to avoid, but accusing President Bush of acting the way they do is out of left field - or maybe they are just trying to justify their tactics, who knows.

Here are some reasons this accusation is untrue.

1. President Bush cannot be reelected - what would motivate him?


2. President Bush talked of this in his first campaign - seems he was a little slow it bringing it up


3. The Democrats actually want to avoid the Social Security issues - therefore they wish to distract by accusing President Bush of "diversion tactics"…

Story here. (Hat tip: David Limbaugh)

Will Not Fillabuster Gonzales

After threatening to filibuster the Gonzales' nomination, implying they had enough support to do so -- Democrat Leader Harry Reid said "there will be an up-or-down vote". Now does this indicate they did not have enough votes, changed their mind, or simply can't agree on a course of action?

WASHINGTON - Democrats won’t try to filibuster Alberto Gonzales’ nomination to be attorney general but will hold extensive debates in the Senate over his role in developing the Bush administration’s policies on treating foreign detainees, the Senate’s top Democrat said Tuesday.

Iraqi Election Must Have Meant Something

Besides already blogging the positive remarks from Around the World I wanted to provide more evidence that the Iraqi election actually meant something to the dismay of many "far left" liberals… The evidence is that the some are attempting to spin the successful election as a negative for President Bush - seriously!

The view that the elections are both the cause and effect of waning American influence in Iraq almost certainly contributed to the upbeat response in France and Iran, two of the countries where the U.S.-led invasion was deeply unpopular.

French president Jacques Chirac who led international opposition to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, told Bush on Monday that the elections constituted "a significant stage in the political rebuilding" of the country and a "partial defeat" for terrorists, according to the center-right daily Nouvel Observateur in Paris. The antiwar editors of Le Monde praised the courage of Iraqi voters and said it would be "indecent to reproach Bush for having offered free elections to the Iraqis. "

In Iran, the country that Bush has described as part of the "axis of evil," the headlines about the voting were almost unanimously positive, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. " Ballots defy bullets in Iraq," declared the Tehran daily Hashahri; "Terrorists fail," said Mardomsalari, a reformist newspaper. The vote "helps open a new chapter for Iraq," declared S. Sadeghi in a front-page commentary for the Iran Daily.

No, Bush's adversaries have not suddenly seen the neoconservative light. Rather, they believe that Iraqi voters have seized the elections as the best means of thwarting U.S. domination of the country. In the words of al Watan, a Saudi daily, cited in a BBC press survey, the hope is that the results, "will give the Iraqi authority a semblance of legitimacy and pave way for the withdrawal of the occupation."

Not to worry, so far the majority of the people I hear, some begrudged, know where the credit goes. Read the article here.

Is it a Toy?

There are suspensions that the solider the insurgents claim capturing is actually a toy solider - - It appears to me this suspension is correct and I pray it is. Have a look:
The below picture is what the insurgents posted

Here is a picture of the toy

What do you think? Notice that the "insurgents" photograph shows the solider wearing knee pads which are in the bottom left of the toy package and the vest looks identical - - of course, the head does look "weird" on the alleged solider; so what do you think?

If this is a hoax - - what does it tell us about the "terrorist"? Would you believe they are getting desperate to demonstrate they are not beaten, which by default indicates they actually believe they are beaten themselves. I am not sure, but if this is indeed a hoax, which I believe and hope it is, it does make you think!

Insurgents Claim Capturing a US Solider

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners.

The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants' statements, included a photo of what appeared to be an American soldier in desert fatigues seated with his hands tied behind his back. A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and he is seated in front of a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is His prophet."

UPDATE: (15:33) Appears the story and the picture maybe a hoax - - those dastardly terrorist, if this proves true they are now committing terror by fiction. See the update at Drudge.

Surprise - NY Times Misleads

Larry Kudlow points out how Louis Uchitelle writing for the New York Times misleads his readers about gross domestic product.

It’s not even remotely as important as the Iraqi election, but the New York Times’s impoverished coverage of the latest reading on U.S. gross domestic product deserves a mention. Both the headline and the thrust of the story by Times writer Louis Uchitelle suggest a big slowdown in economic growth. While this is statistically correct, it is analytically wrong. The main thought behind the story -- that the economy has registered its “weakest quarterly pace in nearly two years, held down by a surge in imports” -- is completely misleading.

Underneath the headline number of 3.1 percent real GDP was a huge 5.5 percent increase in private-sector output (less government spending and trade). Private consumption and business investment comprises 80 percent of GDP -- a factoid the Times never relates. In fact, the tell-tale number in this latest GDP report is the outsized 15 percent gain in business investment -- the single most important swing factor in economic activity.
[...]
Not for the Times. The left-leaning Uchitelle worked hard to make the worst out of a good story. He obsessively emphasized the trade-deficit drag on output, a factor that statistically reduced overall GDP by 1.73 percentage points. This Alice-in-Wonderland arithmetic is totally misleading. To back up his pessimistic overreach, Uchitelle found a Wall Street economist from Goldman Sachs named Edward McKelvey who said, “foreigners are continuing to eat our lunch.”

Read it completely here.

Good - No President Kerry

Daivid Limbaugh take a hard and enlighten look at John Kerry who seems unwilling to give up the fact his ideas were defeated in November...

Kerry said, "This election is a sort of demarcation point, and what really counts now is the effort to have a legitimate political reconciliation, and it's going to take a massive diplomatic effort and a much more significant outreach to the international community than this administration has been willing to engage in. Absent that, we will not be successful in Iraq."
This nonsense was bad enough during the election, but we can't let Kerry get away with this kind of inane, destructive rhetoric now. What in the world does he mean by a legitimate political reconciliation, a massive diplomatic effort, a significant outreach to the international community?
[...]
Kerry's gratuitous invocation of "multilateralism" yet again is only noteworthy because it is a classic example of the utter inability of this exemplar of nuance to cut through to the heart of an issue. It might be the most egregious non sequitur uttered by a public official in recent memory.
The only thing useful about Kerry's analysis is that it can serve as a sobering reminder of how fortunate the United States, the Iraqi people and all freedom-loving peoples of the world are that Kerry lost Ohio.

Read the entire column here.

Hillary Reinvented

Suzanne Fields gives her take on the Hillary "Extreme Makeover".

Hillary Clinton changes images with the quickness of Madonna. Like the Queen of Pop, she provokes and reacts, rethinks and reforms, pushes at hot buttons and then cools off with a dip in the mainstream.
[...]
Madonna continues to surprise us, but Hillary's reinventions shouldn't surprise us at all. She's on a trip, guided by the road map first used by her husband. She's working at looking "moderate," and learning to feel the pain of others.
When she spoke to the Family Planning Advocates of New York last week, she actually expressed empathy -- if not necessarily sympathy -- with the fiercest opponents of abortion. "I, for one, respect those who believe with all their heart and conscience that there are no circumstances under which abortion should be available," she said. This from one of the fiercest defenders of uncompromising feminist voices in the cause of abortion rights; she voted against the ban of partial-birth abortion.

Read the entire column here.

Iraq Election from Around the World

French President Jacques Chirac spoke with President Bush by telephone, saying he was satisfied by the "participation rate and the good technical organization."
"These elections mark an important step in the political reconstruction of Iraq. The strategy of terrorist groups has partly failed," Chirac said, according to a French presidential spokesman.
[...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin also praised the elections, calling them "a step in the right direction and a positive event," according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
"The conditions for holding the elections were quite difficult, to put it mildly," Putin said after meeting in the Kremlin with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. "At the same time, I must say that the very fact of it is an important event, maybe a historic event, for the Iraqi people because it is undoubtedly a step toward democratization of the country."
[...]
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the successful election was a psychological blow to insurgents because it demonstrated that Iraqis were committed to democracy. Britain has been Washington's chief ally in the Iraq war.
"Yesterday's elections represent a real blow to this disgusting campaign of violence and intimidation," said Straw, who also recognized Iraqi security forces for helping police the election.
[...]
In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief said Iraq's move toward democracy would pay off in the provision of more aid.
"They are going to find the support of the European Union, no doubt about that, in order to see this process move on in the right direction," Javier Solana told The Associated Press.
[...]
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer praised Iraqis "for the will they have shown to shape the future of their country peacefully and democratically, despite massive intimidation."
But, he added, "it is of decisive importance in this to integrate all political, ethnic and religious groups in Iraq ... no part of the population must be excluded from shaping the common fate of all Iraqis."

Read about these and other comments here.

Notice the comments from Russia, Germany, and France - amazingly these there major opponents to US actions in Iraq show optimism about the election, maybe Kennedy, Kerry, and other democrats will come around some day... Oh yeh, I forgot, Kerry is "in touch with the feelings of foreign governments" - maybe he should have called them before going on Meet the Press and saying, "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election", and don't get me started tonight on Ted Kennedy.

Granddaddy Knew Best

Smoking Harms Women More Than Men, my Granddaddy always said, "Women should smoke"

Hillary Collapses - Video

Senator Hillary Clinton collapses - video here. Disagreements aside, I do wish her well!

UPDATE: Appears to have been a stomach virus all is OK - story here. Quote of the Day: "Probably dizzy from the 180 degree turn she took on abortion last week" - Rush Limbaugh

Is North Korea Dissolving?

Michael Sheridan of Times On Line, has an interesting report from Rajin, North Korea. The article is long, about five pages, but has very interesting information. Mr. Sheridan, discusses how Christians are involved in helping North Koreans escape, about assassination attempts, how the Bush re-election dealt a blow to Kim, Jong-il, and other things. I would suggest reading this article if simply for the information it provides. Some highlights:

“It’s just like the Berlin Wall,” Pastor Douglas Shin, a Christian activist, said by telephone from Seoul. “The slow-motion exodus is the beginning of the end.”

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.
[...]
The Japanese intelligence agency, in an unclassified report issued on December 24, referred to “signs of instability” inside the political establishment and predicted a feud among the elite as they strive to seize power from Kim.
[...]
Yet North Koreans confirmed that they knew that escapers to China should look for buildings displaying a Christian cross and should ask among Korean speakers for people who knew the word of Jesus.

“The information blockade is like a dam and when it bursts there will be a great wave,” said Shin, the crusading pastor.
[...]
Bush’s re-election dealt a blow to Kim, 62, who had gambled on a win by John Kerry, the Democratic candidate. Kim used a strategy of divide and delay to drag out nuclear talks with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea through 2004.

Kim lost his bet and now faces four more years of Bush, who says that he “loathes” the North Korean leader and has vowed to strip him of atomic weapons.
[...]
Paranoia and brainwashing remain the regime’s most effective tools. Yet even as it tries to fight off God it has made its peace with Mammon.

You can read the entire article here.

And for the Insurgents Today

(Hat tip: InstaPundit)

Woman "V" for Freedom

How can anyone say this is not big? This is big for the Iraqi people, big for the country of Iraq, big for the region, big for our military, and yes big our the United States too! However, we have already heard John Kerry say "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election". Give me a break! Play it down Mr. Kerry but freedom will ring loud and clear! Tell the woman below she is "overhyping" her ability to vote.

The new or on going media attack is that this is "forced democracy" - come on, what idiot would believe that? These people, Iraqi people, free people, when of their own free will and cast their vote while facing the real threat of loss of life, forced, forced, you have to be kidding!

Picture of Freedom

For those who of you who maybe living in a vacuum; each person that votes, in Iraq, must dip their finger in ink… Could you imagine what the turn out in America would if possible death came with your right to vote? Now as the numbers come in, I have heard 60% voter turnout, I want to see how the naysayers will spin this into bad news, and I am sure they will!


(Hat tip: GOP Bloggers)

Black & White

This Story just hit me the wrong way - Social Security Racial Equity Debate.

Does Social Security (news - web sites) cheat black Americans? Yes, President Bush (news - web sites) insisted last week. But some Social Security experts say the answer is clearly "no."

No wonder racism is and issue everywhere you turn and will continue to be an issue - if it isn't Denny's or Wal-Mart, it is Social Security. The bad thing, there are things that are actually more important for the President and these economist to be doing then worrying about when the average black male dies or who has the "lower" average income therefore dictating who gets a larger return on their FICA; give me a break. Does anyone else believe, as I do, that this junk perpetuates racism?

There can't be a tragedy without the News telling us how many blacks or whites are involved in the death toll. Apply for a job online and your asked to voluntarily answer questions, one question is race; now why would that be? Although it is suppose to be illegal, some companies that need to keep their government contracts, have to hire based on race or sex - isn't that a hoot - require companies to break your own law all in the name of "fair". I understand there are some true racist of all colors in the world - they are simply ignorant and in most cases cannot be helped, but should we feed their hate with junk like this?

By the way; who, besides communist and maybe far left liberals, actually believes life is fair or will ever be fair? Fair is a relative term and what constitutes fair is defined by the user of the word "fair". If we devise a plan to make sure everything is "fair", "fair" will be defined by a select few not you or me, would that be "fair"? Hence, the world is not and will not be fair, believe it, know it, love it, and get on with life. This country was based on equality, which is vastly different then fair - we all are allowed equal opportunity to seek, not guaranteed, the American dream.

Read the Social Security's Racial Equity Debated here.

Working Together

Mark Goldblatt attempts to find examples of Congressional Democrats willingness to "work together" - as you might imagine "you can look but you want find"... I have provided some examples of Democrats unwillingness to unite the country here and here, but I did hope Mr. Galdblatt could prove me wrong - but unfortunately, he could not! Some highlights:

Now let me see if I've got this straight. Congressional Democrats insist they're ready to work with President Bush as long as he meets them half way. "I hope that in this term, President Bush will fulfill his promise to be a uniter not a divider," House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi says. "A new term is, indeed, a new opportunity to bring America together."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid concurs: "There are bipartisan opportunities for us; I speak on behalf of 45 Democrats. We are here with our arms open to work with the administration … to accomplish things for this country."

Which explains why House Democrats three weeks ago contested the Ohio electoral vote count -- even though, as they themselves conceded, they had no chance whatsoever to affect the outcome of the election.

Which explains why Senate Democrats two weeks ago forced a delay in the confirmation vote of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General -- even though, as they themselves conceded, Gonzales was certain to be confirmed.

Read more here. (Hat tip: Betsy's Page)

Embassy Hit in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A rocket or mortar hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad late Saturday on the eve of Iraq's landmark elections, killing two people and wounding four, a U.S. Embassy official said.

UPDATE: Reuters