An Open Letter to The New York Times

How could you?
Any lingering bastion of Liberalism left from my youth and still feebly clinging to my cold Conservative heart was utterly and finally broken recently by your most selfish of actions. Any hope of a return in my post productive years to a more compassionate, interdependent, pacifist, Marxist existence lies, I am sad to say, in the wreckage you’ve wrought as well. This hit me that hard...

The New York Times Co. yesterday announced plans to cut 500 jobs from its payroll, with the deepest cuts occurring at its namesake newspaper and The Boston Globe, as advertising revenue remains in a slump.

The reduction, which represents about 4 percent of the company's workforce, comes on the heels of a 2 percent cut in May that saw 200 employees leave.
Officials said they hoped to achieve the reductions through a voluntary buyout program, but didn't rule out layoffs.

The Times' announcement occurred hours after The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News said they would eliminate 100 jobs between their newsrooms, a cut of 16 percent. The papers are owned by Knight Ridder.

Earlier this month, Newsday decided to scale back its New York City edition, leading to the elimination of 45 newsroom positions. And last month, the San Francisco Chronicle announced plans to cut 120 jobs.

At the Times Co., about half of the proposed cuts will be at the flagship paper, although the newsroom staff of 1,200 will be reduced by only 45 jobs.

How this can be?
Isn’t 'The Times’ a supposed Liberal paper? With Liberal ideals of the American worker? A worker based on the European model?
So I should believe that these unemployed workers will still be earning a ‘living wage’.
That there won’t be any sacred union jobs cut.
My God, please, at least let them not be the jobs of ‘minorities’ or women that are to be slashed.
Ah, but no matter how hard I try not to accept the truth, it becomes painfully obvious to me. You, The New York Times, while socially Liberal are, in the end, business-wise Conservative.
Your paper would seem to run on, and I say this with the deepest of trepidation, profit. Yes, alas, it has come to this...Capitalism and the profit motive. Oh, be still my breaking heart. That greatest of all evils. That dark tempting path to social inequity. That most vile of objectives of those ‘big evil corporations’. What has Bush done to you?
And what of the self esteem of your discarded comrades? How are they to recover from this? Can they? Will they? Oh, how can you sleep at night with the knowledge that you will be dooming these poor souls to an unbreakable cycle of poverty? Their children to inner city schools? Their very lives to the whims of a Republican led congress?
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. How you've lost your way. Lost your soul. And you have, I must sadly admit, brought me down right with you. Whatever faith I had in Liberal institutions has at last been thrown to the wolves. Devoured by reality and your lust for the profit motive.
Where is this poor sad soul to turn?
What is left for a disappointed future Liberal wannabe to do?
Oh, I’ve got it...it’s on channel 54 on my Comcast feed, I think it's called Fox News.

Crossposted @ The Wide Awakes

Progressive Thinking

Logic from the reality based community...

-Raising the minimum wage helps poor people. It does not in fact cause business owners to lay workers off. Or result in those owners raising their prices, thus causing inflation, and making the whole process mute.
-Capitalism causes inequality. Forget the fact the justice demands inequality. There is absolutely no reason that a man who works hard should ever benefit more than one who never puts down his PlayStation 2.
-War is never the answer. No, not to rid the world of evil. No, not to stop killing and suffering. No, not in retaliation. And no, not even, “What does ‘W’ ‘A’ ‘R’ spell?”
-Socialism is the answer. Don’t care if it has never worked, it just has never been done right. And don’t even start about how it kills innovation and hard work, we’re not listening. And forget the whole ‘it leads to shortages and rationing’ crap...just look at the USSR...hold on, that’s not a very good example. Well, it just works, that’s all.
-Liberals are more compassionate. We care for the poor and underprivileged. It isn’t disrespect that makes us believe they cannot do anything for themselves. No, we do not see them as subhuman and unable survive without mother government. We just want to give them stuff, because that will solve all their problems. Is it their fault they didn’t finish high school? Of course not. Is it their fault they have out of wedlock children? Not after our beloved Roe vs. Wade. Is it their fault they are addicted or criminal? No, it is Bush’s fault.
-God is dangerous to our children. Just His name, muttered in the public sphere will destroy whole portions of our children’s minds. Hell, He doesn’t even exist. It’s like instilling the idea that Santa Clause is real in their minds. And look at all the evil that fat elf has done...damn it, another bad example...oh, just nevermind.
-There is no moral absolute. Oh, except for the Kyoto treaty. The evils of big business. The machiavellian iniquity of Karl Rove. The rightness of abortion on demand. OK, so that one we give you...there are some absolutes.
-It’s all Bush’s fault. Yes, all of it. Katrina. Terrorism. The national debt. Poverty. Cancer. Gout. Syphilis. Killer monkees. Mosquitoes. Bad breath. That not so fresh feeling. Waterworld. Joan River’s face lift. Yes, all of it.

My Apology

You might want to sit down for this one, I’m going to give you Libs some credit. I hope you will take it in the spirit in which it is offered.
OK, Left you win. With all your programs to fight it, programs that have stolen honestly earned money out of my wallet as well as food out of the mouths of my children, you have finally done it. After years and years of redistribution of wealth and cow-toeing to the lowest common denominator, we are finally free. Ignoring the reality of the situation and merely throwing money at it has, and I would never have believed it, actually worked. Tossing the idea of any individual’s personal responsibly in his life situation, in retrospect, seems to finally have been the solution. Sending free, unearned checks monthly to people who care little from whence it came is truly the appropriate method to a fairer America.
Yes, Lefties I have finally come to my senses. The obviousness of it is stunning, how could I have missed it? FDR’s programs have reached fruition. LBJ’s Great Society exists at last. And all that time, and all that money funneled from the producers to the leeches was the only true and proper path to solution.
Alright, Progressives, I admit defeat. Hard work is meaningless, I see that now. With the fairness you have established in my beloved country I would have to be blind or intellectually dishonest not to see it. Equality has a price, after all. Surely a price we have so dearly paid, but just look at the resulting utopia. I submissively bow to your intellectual might.
In three generations, a mere sixty odd years, you have changed our country...nay, the world. Yes, you have beaten it. Smashed it. Shredded it. It is dead and with it a shameful part of American history. No more will we have to try to explain to our children why that poor man is ranting to himself and living in a shopping cart. No more will we need to feel the guilt of knowing that somewhere some poor heroin shooting young lady will not be able to feed her five children. No more will America be viewed by the rest of the world as the country who demands the lazy must work. No more. No more. No more.
I thank you, and I hope other Conservatives will see the error of their ways and join me as well.
So here it is, the only way I can think to apologize for not seeing in your ideology the perfection that it so undeniably inherent...
You win. You have done it. You have cured the disease. I admit it, the evil that is poverty...it is finally and utterly dead. You have, despite all facts to the contrary, in fact beaten it. And I humbly grovel at your feet.

Crossposted @ The Wide Awakes

Caring

A caller to the Michael Medved radio show today said something along the lines of, “I don’t want the government to care more about me, I want it to care less.”
Amen and well said.
But I would take it one step further. My enlightened self interest tells me it should care less about you, as well.
This is an idea I believe most Liberals just can not get their minds around. I can hear their words now, ‘Less government? Who would take care of us then? When we’re old, when we’re sick, when we’re down and out. You don’t really mean that...if you were in real dire straits, you wouldn’t say that.’
Oh, but yes I would.
You see, I believe too many of what I would call ‘city folk’ seem to forget that humankind did not simply appear on Earth in this generation. When left to his own powers, man is an amazingly adaptive, cunning, and ingenious creature. The fact that you and I exist at all proves this beyond any reasonable doubt. The dangers faced and overcome by our ancestors should not be forgotten or simply dismissed by we humans who exist today. We can not risk losing that part of ourselves that is self-sufficient, that is ever resilient, that begs to fight on. We do so at our own peril.
But there is another part of the human character. A more dangerous part. Nature has in humans, as with most animals, instilled in our psyches the need to get as much as we can with as little effort as possible. When humans lived just to survive this was not a problem. It has become one now.
Politicians play to this weakness. And many willingly accept the game. We see its outcome in the horrors witnessed in New Orleans.
What was it that caused perfectly healthy Americans to sit, starve, and complain when they could simply have walked North? Why, when it was obvious government was not riding in on a white horse, did many continue to wait and suffer? What made these people keep believing that help was on the way?
Conservatives see the answer clear. Too much government. No self-reliance. An entitlement mentality.
Liberals see it differently. They say the disaster just proves we need more government. They see a need for even more reliance.
The government was a failure on all levels after Katrina. Why should that surprise any of us? Other than the military, what has government ever done efficiently? Anything?
Yet the politicians continue to promise us they will take care of us no matter what. And many continue to believe it. Why?
I couldn’t care less what some vote begging windsock tells me he will do for me. I will plan for myself. I don’t believe the pols when they promise me riches. I will do for myself. I don’t want the nanny state to save my life. I’ll protect myself. I don’t want the government to care about me, I want it to care less.

The Attack on The World Trade Centers

I remember the day it happened like it was yesterday. I will never forget, nor can I, the emptiness in the pit of my gut when I heard. I still recall the chill in the air that day. A cold wind blew from East to West and brought with it death and blood and fear.
America had been attacked. On its own soil. In the most symbolic city of the New World. At the very heart of our capitalist soul.
The Trade Centers had been the target, and I thought at the time, ‘This will change the world.”
Little did I know at that moment just how wrong I was.
I had known the moment it happened that I was different. That my thoughts, feelings, and ideals would change. And they did. I became an adult that day. I began to watch and read and listen. I wanted to know how. Wanted to know why. Wanted to know what our leaders reactions would be.
At first I was assured that I was not alone. That many felt as I did. Cared as I did. Wanted justice. Wanted answers.
But it was not long before I sensed this simply wasn’t to be the case. That our leaders didn’t have the heart for a fight. That many of the American people, while at first shocked, were more than happy to resume their pre-attack lives as if nothing had happened. And that the world simply didn’t care.
As time went on and my government’s limited reaction to the attack became obvious, I was incensed. Many of my more hawkish friends felt the same. It had been an attack on U.S. soil for Gods sakes, any limit to the retaliation could not stand. But my more liberal associates assured me that justice would be done. It would just take time.
When our reply finally came, I was disappointed and angry. It seemed to be more a show for the cameras, than any real reprisal. In fact, I felt at the time and still do, that our limited response would not end the danger posed by our new enemy, but only make it worse. Many felt I was overreacting, that justice had indeed prevailed. That we had done enough.
Years have passed now, and when I think back I wonder. I wonder if our leadership had been stronger then, maybe our world today would be less perilous. I wonder if our vengeance had been more pure, more substantive; maybe terrorism would be a word taught in History. I wonder if the American people could have pulled themselves out of their cultural stupor long enough to feel true indignation, what the world would be today.
But none of that happened. And if I learned anything from the attack, it is that one must live in the real world. My life changed on that cold clear day, but little else did.
Until eight years later on the morning of September 11, 2001.


***I have often wondered what would have transpired had the first attack on the World Trade Centers gone as planned. By that I mean for the 1100 lbs. of explosives to ignite, disbursing cyanide gas and causing such damage to the structure of the taller tower that it would fall into its twin, destroying both. Obviously, it did not happen this way, but that was the scheme. That was the aim.
What would the reigning president at the time have done? Anything different than he actually, in fact, did? Would he have then treated it as the military attack on his homeland that it so obviously was? I wonder...
You see, our country was attacked on February 26, 1993. Does the mere fact that the attack was not a success(if one can claim the 6 dead, 1000 injured, and $300 million dollars worth of damage unsuccessful), change what should have been our response.
In fact, did our soft ‘criminal justice’ response open us to further attack, ending in the eventual falling of the towers? Hard to say, but history shows that moderate replies to terrorism seem to have little affect.
And why, I wonder, has so little been made of the many connections of the 1993 bombers with Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s government?
And why do the words, ‘It’s the economy, stupid’, keep echoing in my head whenever I consider these events.

Crossposted @ The Wide Awakes

Carnival of the Insanities

Once in a while when I need a good adrenalin rush, I’ll spin the radio dial and tune in to ‘Bush Causes Cancer Radio’(Air America for those untrained in sarcasm). I can barely survive the day without my fix of such Stuart Smalley classics as ‘Oy. Oy,’ or ‘Looter or Finder’.
But there is one show in particular I find most interesting. It is, of course, The Jerry Springer Radio Show. He just sounds so smart, so moderate, so caring. He warms the frozen cockles of my icy heart. With a searing hot auger.
He was droning on recently about how we as America care so little about the impoverished. About how badly this country treats the underclass. How can we call ourselves compassionate when there is so much suffering, he wondered.
Then he opened his show to a caller who basically stated how right he was and how very caring.
I had heard enough.
Does he even realize who he is? Does the caller?
He is Jerry Springer, for Gods sakes! You know the Jerry Springer, of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’?
The man who parades loser after loser across his television stage, smirking while they shriek their sad pathetic stories. The same man who uses the woes of the impoverished merely to sell a few feminine hygiene commercials. The man who subtly insults any ‘guest’ who appears on his show by the mere fact they are there at all. The man who’s television show is so out of control that he actually needs a security force...to protect those poor underprivileged saps from themselves and each other. Counting his bling bling all the way to the bank. He is a truly caring man. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
He is an ass. A pompous patronizing ass.
But, I must admit, he has inspired me. Inspired me to come up with a few radio show ideas of my own...
1) The Attila the Hun Show. Today everyone’s favorite barbarian will be discussing the plight and peril of the Roman centurion.
2) The John Wayne Gacy Show. On today’s show, John will be asking for donations from his audience for the ‘Chicago Young Orphaned Boys Club’. A group, he feels, does such great work.
3) The Mullah Mohammad Omar Hour. Gloria Steinem will appear on Monday’s show to discuss the unfairness of the glass ceiling with everyone’s favorite supreme Taliban leader.
4) The Bill Cody Factor. Buffalo Bill will be speaking to ELF spokesman Elmer Okehugger on the horror of drilling in ANWR.
5) The Heinrich Himmler Report. Heiney debates Hamas leader June O’Good, who claims there is in fact a Zionist world banking conspiracy.
6) The Quinten Tarantino Show. Director extra ordinaire Quinten will be arguing against the Second Amendment with gun nut Ted Nuggent in an upcoming episode.
Any radio producers looking to fill some time are welcome to use any of the above ideas. Hell, none are nearly so inane as Mr. Springer’s loser lovefest.

Intention vs. Consequence

I was talking to Cracker a while back about the idea of ‘Intention vs. Consequence'. It really got me thinking. About where we’re at as a society, about how we got here, and who did the getting.
Anyone that’s been within 100 yards of my blog knows which side I butter my bread on. So I will start by stating, the Left has good Intentions. I believe this. They want a better, fairer world. They want the best for their children, for their loved ones. Again, this I believe.
The trouble begins, it would seem, when they start to think of ways to build their better, fairer world. And the problems then mount when they actually implement these plans. But the true horrorfest comes, at last, in the form of the ultimate consequences.
I am a pragmatist. And I tend to believe progressives are utopian idealists. I see them as somewhat naive to the ways of the world. I see it in the urbanites Disney-like view of nature. I see it in the way they worship government as a healing power. I see it in the way they praise the feminine as the more evolved. I see it in the way they dismiss much antisocial behavior as slightly humorous, but mostly harmless. I sense it when I hear them demand tolerance without requiring personal responsibility.
But the point here is that often they do not view the world around them in realistic terms. Possibly this is due to fear, but I’m no psychologist. Or it may be intellectual elitism, but neither am I a professor.
Let us look at the poverty stricken in New Orleans and the dire straits in which we find them as an example.
Ending poverty is a noble cause. It is a noble Intention.
The Left has for years thrown government program after program at what they view as the singular problem of poverty. Poverty, they feel, is simply a lack of funds. That is all. And as such, it can be cured simply through redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have nots.
They do not see, or if they do they deny, that it is much more a problem of chaos. Chaos of mind, of self-control, of relationships, and of personal ethos. But this is neither here nor there. The point is, the Left feels all poverty can be cured by feeding it money. And if poverty still exists it is merely because enough money has not been spent. And yet poverty still exists. Well, more money then. An endless cycle.
But what of the psyche of the poverty stricken.
How are they to react to money unearned, yet available? Possibly as an entitlement?
And how are they to live when everything is simply given to them? Possibly as a child?
How are they to feel about themselves as a valuable part of society? I don’t believe they do.
The Consequence of the welfare state, of the Intention to end poverty through money alone, is to build a human who is needy and reliant. Who has little true self-esteem as he has no real accomplishments. Who becomes lazy and begins to hate a world that has so little respect for him that it expects nothing from him. Who feels entitled to another man’s property...what really is looting after all, but redistribution of wealth?
This is the product of the welfare state. A looter, too reliant on mother government that he cannot even get up and walk out of a sinking city. The Left sees this man and wonders how he got to this point. The Right would smile if it weren’t so sad.
Well ladies and gentlemen, here it is...Intention vs. Consequence.

Last Saturday

I bought a gun last Saturday. It’s my first one. It’s a chrome colored .357 Smith and Wesson revolver.
And though many may not believe it, I actually passed the background check. It took one quick call to Karl Rove and I was all good.
I had been mulling over the idea for some time, but it was the unrest after the hurricane and levee breach that sealed it for me.
You see, I do not want to have to rely on the government for anything. One must be blind not to see that government can do very little well. My safety and that of my loved ones is something I want done well.
So I bought a gun last Saturday. It won’t be my last. It’s a six shooter with a four inch barrel.
I will not abide lawlessness. I hope I am not alone.
Theft of another’s property is lawlessness. Rape of women is lawlessness. Murder and mayhem are lawlessness. There is no excuse to act like an animal. None. People have been poor since people have been around. There is no excuse to act like an animal. Hear that Celine Dion, Michael Moore, Harry Connick Jr., all of the rest of you rationalizers of human evil?
When you justify evil it does not die, it thrives.
So I bought a gun last Saturday. It’s used, but it looks just like new.
There is a rift in our country. It is huge already and only getting larger. Its cause is the mindless, almost psychotic hatred of George W. Bush.
The Left would have us believe that one man is to blame for every evil known to man. That this man, voted into office by over half of the American voters, is more malevolent then Satan himself.
And the Right is tired of hearing it. We’ve heard it for five years now and it’s getting old. OK, so Bush causes cancer, we get it. Grow up.
But I am painfully aware that logic and a call for sanity can not penetrate the shell of hatred you’ve built for yourselves. I just wonder how far your hatred will take you.
So I bought a gun last Saturday. I pick it up tomorrow. I’m not sure how I really feel about that.

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor

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Get out and loot early, beat the long lines.
-For any of you NAMBLA members, Abercrombie and Fitch is offering young boy’s jeans half off.
-“Southeastern Wal-Marts will not be having any Fall sales this year,” Wal-Mart spokesman Ray Panpillage states. “What’s the point, apparently everything is free.”
-K-Mart will be offering free family portraits for any looters who can prove their New Orleans residency with an appropriate ID card. A $75.00 value.
-Craftsman bolt cutters will be 50% off this holiday weekend at all area Sears and Roebuck stores. Call ahead for availability.
-Marshall Fields is offering $25.00 gift cards with all their moisturizing products. Cosmetician Lou Katme states, “I don’t know why, but we just can’t seem to give this stuff away right now.”
-Toys ‘R’ Us is offering a free ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card with the purchase of any Milton Bradley board game.
-The Mall Hallmark store has just received a double order of ‘Thank You’ cards. Store owner June Evercall is sure they will be flying off the shelves at her discounted price of $9.11 a box.
-Bass Pro Shops will be donating $50.00 to the hurricane Katrina relief fund with the purchase of any of its FUBU Mossy Oak Kevlar turkey hunting outerwear.

*The food court will remain closed for the holiday weekend and the near future. But we here at The Robert E. Lee Mall feel it will be reopening soon, now that the Halliburton Co. has acquired a no bid contract for repairs.

Wow

If this is true, it is huge...

SCIENTISTS have created "miracle mice" that can regenerate amputated limbs or damaged vital organs, making them able to recover from injuries that would kill or permanently disable normal animals.

The experimental animals are unique among mammals in their ability to regrow their heart, toes, joints and tail.

And when cells from the test mouse are injected into ordinary mice, they too acquire the ability to regenerate, the US-based researchers say.

Their discoveries raise the prospect that humans could one day be given the ability to regenerate lost or damaged organs, opening up a new era in medicine...

The research leader, Ellen Heber-Katz, professor of immunology at the Wistar Institute, a US biomedical research centre, said the ability of the mice at her laboratory to regenerate organs appeared to be controlled by about a dozen genes.

Professor Heber-Katz says she is still researching the genes' exact functions, but it seems almost certain humans have comparable genes.

"We have experimented with amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart, toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow," she said.

"It is quite remarkable. The only organ that did not grow back was the brain.

"When we injected fetal liver cells taken from those animals into ordinary mice, they too gained the power of regeneration. We found this persisted even six months after the injection."

Professor Heber-Katz made her discovery when she noticed the identification holes that scientists punch in the ears of experimental mice healed without any signs of scarring in the animals at her laboratory.

The self-healing mice, from a strain known as MRL, were then subjected to a series of surgical procedures. In one case the mice had their toes amputated -- but the digits grew back, complete with joints.

In another test some of the tail was cut off, and this also regenerated. Then the researchers used a cryoprobe to freeze parts of the animals' hearts, and watched them grow back again. A similar phenomenon was observed when the optic nerve was severed and the liver partially destroyed.

The researchers believe the same genes could confer greater longevity and are measuring their animals' survival rate. However, the mice are only 18 months old, and the normal lifespan is two years so it is too early to reach firm conclusions.

Scientists have long known that less complex creatures have an impressive ability to regenerate. Many fish and amphibians can regrow internal organs or even whole limbs.

The Blame Game

There is a sickness of discourse sweeping the political landscape of late.
It is more than just a little to blame for the chasm that has developed between the Right and the Left today in America. Neither side is immune from its use or its effects.

It is a failure of logic that in the past would have been dismissed as most probably coming from a lazy, but more likely, a dishonest intellect. But not in today’s climate. In modern, sound bite politics, it thrives.

What is it, you ask...

Well, let us look at the recipe.

First, we begin with an accusation or conspiratorial theory. But this is old hat. So what here is new? Wait, there is more to the equation. The first part of which is the accusation or theory must evoke an instant emotional response. Second, and this is the most important, it must neither be provable or unprovable. And that is it what makes it so perfect for the pundits and political attack dogs. It is then, less of an accusation based on any provable fact, but simply an opinion wrapped in emotion and released into the political arena to infer guilt.

It releases the accuser of any responsibility as the accusation is ephemeral and can never actually be shown to be true or false. Yet it does put a pall of guilt over the head of the accused, who in the same light, can neither prove or disprove his guilt.

Here are a few recent examples in order to clarify the point:

-“The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies."-Jürgen Trittin, Germany's Environmental Minister.

-"We must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long... May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits."-Repent America director Michael Marcavage

-"As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2...Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged...Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast."-Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

-“It's not your fault that 30 per cent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing - NOTHING - to do with this!”-sarcasm provided by the pea sized brain of Michael Moore.

-“The hurricane that struck Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.”-Ross Gelbspan of The Boston Globe.

- “...it is no a coincidence that it is exactly 50 years from the time of ...lynching and murder. That it is not a coincidence that the storm’s name is a sister. Katrina. For she represents the collective cries of mothers who have lost their sons to the brutality and the murderous grip of this racist white supremacist American culture.”-Reverend Lewis E. Logan II, senior pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

-“Are People Dying Over Here Because We're Fighting Them Over There? Is the aftermath of Katrina part of the price we are paying for Iraq? To the growing list of collateral damage caused by the Iraq war and Bush's stunningly inept leadership, we can now add the city of New Orleans.”-Arianna Huffington.

Any facts here, anywhere? No. Just accusations. Some subtle, some less so, but all eliciting emotion. And here is the kicker, here is what makes these accusers such mental pansies, not a single claim can ever be substantiated. They can never be proved wrong. And worse, if you are the accused, you are now compelled to try to prove a negative.