A Most Curious Terrorist Incident in Mumbai (Bombay), India

We here at "Bloodthirsty Warmonger" have been waiting for some of the dust to settle before writing about this latest terrorist strike in India. It appears that most of the people involved in this operation were home-grown insurgents (they were overheard speaking Hindi), but one participant who was captured alive, Azam Amir Kasav, hails from Pakistan. At least seven of the gunmen held British passports. The well-planned, coordinated nature of the attack is an al-Qaeda signature, while the fact that these terrorists were well-armed indicates that they had access to a generous supply of money, possibly from Iran or one of the oil-rich Arab states. It is most noteworthy that they should have targeted Jews in this operation.

Our hats go off to the plucky inhabitants of Mumbai, who are trying to restore normal activity, even before all the terrorists had been killed or captured, and to the "Black Cat" commandos, who came to the rescue of 200 hostages at the Taj Mahal hotel.

Mark Steyn, once again, has this insightful take on the incident:

But we're in danger of missing the forest for the trees. The forest is the ideology. It's the ideology that determines whether you can find enough young hotshot guys in the neighborhood willing to strap on a suicide belt or (rather more promising as a long-term career) at least grab an AK-47 and shoot up a hotel lobby. Or, if active terrorists are a bit thin on the ground, whether you can count at least on some degree of broader support on the ground. You're sitting in some distant foreign capital but you're of a mind to pull off a Mumbai-style operation in, say, Amsterdam or Manchester or Toronto. Where would you start? Easy. You know the radical mosques, and the other ideological front organizations. You've already made landfall.

It's missing the point to get into debates about whether this is the "Deccan Mujahideen" or the ISI or al-Qaida or Lashkar-e-Taiba. That's a reductive argument. It could be all or none of them. The ideology has been so successfully seeded around the world that nobody needs a memo from corporate HQ to act: There are so many of these subgroups and individuals that they intersect across the planet in a million different ways. It's not the Cold War, with a small network of deep sleepers being directly controlled by Moscow. There are no membership cards, only an ideology. That's what has radicalized hitherto moderate Muslim communities from Indonesia to the central Asian 'stans to Yorkshire, and co-opted what started out as more or less conventional nationalist struggles in the Caucasus and the Balkans into mere tentacles of the global jihad.

No Mercy for Sports Teams That Occupy the Cellar

Wow! Looks Almost Good Enough to Eat!!

The Daily Mail (U.K.) has a luscious set of landscapes by Carl Warner, of which I give just 2 examples.


Field of dreams: The countryside landscape has broccoli for trees, potatoes for rocks and basil and herbs for the grass. The path is made from nuts, while the basket is bread with a mushroom wheel. The balloons were crafted out of apple, mango, a strawberry, bananas, garlic, lemons and a lime.



Secret cave: Cauliflowers, spiky kiwano fruits, broccoli and snails can all be seen underwater, while rice and truffle pasta form the reeds. In the cave, carrots stand in for stalactites hanging off a bread rock.

Obama Singlehandedly Boosts Gun Sales

While other industries have been worrying about declining sales, makers of guns & ammunition don't have that problem at this time - all reports indicate that business is booming.

News You Can Use: 25 Best Cities to Find a Job

This CNN-CareerBuilder listing uses statistics provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

1. Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Unemployment rate: 2.4 percent

Last year: 2.3 percent

Job growth: 2.1 percent

2. Rapid City, South Dakota

Unemployment rate: 2.5 percent

Last year: 2.6 percent

Job growth: 1 percent

3. Idaho Falls, Idaho

Unemployment rate: 2.5 percent

Last year: 1.6 percent

Job growth: N/A

4. Bismarck, North Dakota

Unemployment rate: 2.6 percent

Last year: 2.5 percent

Job growth: 2.2 percent

5. Houma, Louisiana

Unemployment rate: 2.7 percent

Last year: 2.9 percent

Job growth: 1.1 percent

6. Morgantown, West Virginia

Unemployment rate: 2.8 percent

Last year: 3.4 percent

Job growth: 1.8 percent

7. Logan, Utah

Unemployment rate: 2.8 percent

Last year: 2.3 percent

Job growth: N/A

8. Fargo, North Dakota

Unemployment rate: 2.9 percent

Last year: 2.6 percent

Job growth: 1.6 percent

9. Casper, Wyoming

Unemployment rate: 2.9 percent

Last year: 2.7 percent

Job growth: N/A

10. Billings, Montana

Unemployment rate: 3.0 percent

Last year: 2.3 percent

Job growth: 2.9 percent

11. Ames, Iowa

Unemployment rate: 3.1 percent

Last year: 2.8 percent

Job growth: N/A

12. Lafayette, Louisiana

Unemployment rate: 3.1 percent

Last year: 3.1 percent

Job growth: 2.8 percent

13. Midland, Texas

Unemployment rate: 3.1 percent

Last year: 3.2 percent

Job growth: 2.4 percent

14. Iowa City, Iowa

Unemployment rate: 3.2 percent

Last year: 2.8 percent

Job growth: 0.7 percent

15. Lincoln, Nebraska

Unemployment rate: 3.3 percent

Last year: 3.2 percent

Job growth: 1.4 percent

16. Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Unemployment rate: 3.3 percent

Last year: 3.1 percent

Job growth: 2.8 percent

17. Great Falls, Montana

Unemployment rate: 3.4 percent

Last year: 2.7 percent

Job growth: N/A

18. Charlestown, West Virginia

Unemployment rate: 3.4 percent

Last year: 4.1 percent

Job growth: 1 percent

19. Des Moines, Iowa

Unemployment rate: 3.5 percent

Last year: 3.1 percent

Job growth: 1.2 percent

20. Missoula, Montana

Unemployment rate: 3.5 percent

Last year: 2.6 percent

Job growth: -0.3 percent

21. Salt Lake City, Utah

Unemployment rate: 3.5 percent

Last year: 2.7 percent

Job growth: 2.2 percent

22. Provo, Utah

Unemployment rate: 3.6 percent

Last year: 2.8 percent

Job growth: 1.2 percent

23. Odessa, Texas

Unemployment rate: 3.7 percent

Last year: 3.8 percent

Job growth: 4.4 percent

24. Pocatello, Idaho

Unemployment rate: 3.7 percent

Last year: 2.4 percent

Job growth: N/A

25. Sioux City, Iowa

Unemployment rate: 3.7 percent

Last year: 3.6 percent

Job growth: -1.9 percent

*Preliminary unemployment rate for July 2008, according to the BLS.
** Unemployment rate for July 2007, according to the BLS.
*** Job growth based on numbers from April 2008.

Billboard Provides Food for Thought

As a courtesy to fellow blogger Col. Riley of Independent Patriots for America, we are running a picture of this billboard, which is making the rounds of the Internet.

12-Year-Old Arrested for Passing Gas!

Another sign that the end of the world is near: "A 12-year-old Florida student was arrested earlier this month after he 'deliberately passed gas to disrupt the class,' according to police. The child, who was also accused of shutting off the computers of classmates at Stuart's Spectrum Jr./Sr. High School [in Martin County], was busted November 4 for disruption of a school function." The Smoking Gun has the perp's mugshot.

19 November Is World Toilet Day

Best. Toilet. Ever.

Did you know there's such a thing as a World Toilet Summit? At its most recent meeting in Macau, World Toilet Organisation founder Jack Sims said the concept of the flushing toilet was unsustainable.

Mr Sims said a culture where people flushed their loos but disregarded the thousands of litres of wasted drinking water each year was one of sanitation's greatest challenges.

"This 'flush and forget' attitude creates a new problem which we have to revisit," he said.

Toilet facts:

The average person spends three years of their life on the “john”.
The average person flushes a toilet about 2500 times a year, while using about eight sheets of toilet paper per day.
An estimated 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to proper toilet facilities, particularly in rural areas of China and India.
Lack of suitable toilets and sanitation kills approximately 1.8 million people a year, many of them children.
According to Jack Sims, a further 500 million toilets are needed to bridge the gap in sanitation.
The first flushing toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington, a British noble and godson to Queen Elizabeth I. He only invented one, as he was ridiculed by his peers, but he still used it for himself.
Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.
On average, a person will use 22 litres of drinkable water every day flushing a toilet.

Source: News.com.au [Australia]

Visual Commentary: The Direction of the Republican Party

An Opportunity and a Challenge

The biggest challenge facing the incoming administration is making a radical shift from sabotage mode to reconstruction. So far, the Democrats have done everything in their power to destroy the Republicans, regardless of cost - it will be much more difficult to repair the damage to the nation, and there is no guarantee that they can make the change from being part of the problem to part of the solution.

That being said, what kind of public face should the Republicans present in the years to come? John Hawkins of Right Wing News wrote "Fifteen Questions For People Who Say the GOP Should Become More Moderate," cautioning the party to avoid making the same mistakes that caused us to lose both houses of Congress and the presidency. The bottom line is, there is simply not enough popular support for these failed policies, and really no justification, since why should the public vote for a wannabe Democrat when they can vote for the real thing? We are anxious to revive the once-great Republican Party, rather than watch helplessly as it joins the bleached bones of the Whig, Know-Nothing, and other dead parties. Whether they agree or not, the Democrats need the competition, since the prospects of preserving democracy in a one-party state are slim to none.

Former Radio News Director Speaks Out Against Conservative Talk Show Hosts - After He's a Safe Distance Away!

Mark my words, this article by Dan Shelley, published in Milwaukee Magazine, could influence the Obama Administration's policy on conservative talk radio:

"...talk show hosts such as Charlie Sykes – one of the best in the business – are popular and powerful because they appeal to a segment of the population that feels disenfranchised and even victimized by the media. These people believe the media are predominantly staffed by and consistently reflect the views of social liberals. This view is by now so long-held and deep-rooted, it has evolved into part of virtually every conservative’s DNA.

"To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners."

Following these criticisms is this insight into the foundation of a talk show host's power and influence:

"The stereotyped liberal view of the talk radio audience is that it’s a lot of angry, uneducated white men. In fact, the audience is far more diverse. Many are businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, academics, clergy, or soccer moms and dads. Talk show fans are not stupid. They will detect an obvious phony. The best hosts sincerely believe everything they say. Their passion is real. Their arguments have been carefully crafted in a manner they know will be meaningful to the audience, and that validates the views these folks were already thinking."

UPDATE: McCain Lifts a Finger for Sarah Palin

Townhall.com reports that John McCain issued the following statement on Jay Leno's "Tonight" show:

"I'm so proud of her and I'm very grateful she agreed to run with me. She inspired people, she still does," McCain told Jay Leno during a "Tonight Show" interview taped for broadcast Tuesday night. "I couldn't be happier with Sarah Palin."

What Did Sarah Palin Do to Be Awarded the Order of the Purple Shaft?

Dr. Melissa Clouthier wonders out loud about the way the loser of the 2008 presidential campaign has not helped out his running mate, who is under attack by his own staffers. Here's an excerpt:

"The silence from John McCain regarding his own campaign members savaging Sarah Palin deafens. What rock is Senator McCain hiding under and why can’t he extricate himself for a moment to defend his running-mate?

"Welcome to being a friend of John McCain, Sarah. Don’t worry, the stab wounds will heal....

"And his latest mountain of contempt is heaped upon Sarah Palin, but this one is going to bite him in the rear. Sarah Palin did everything in her power to get John McCain elected. That the election was even close was a testament to her connection with the voters despite the press treatment...."

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Bill Whittle, Once Again, Says It Eloquently

The closer [Gen. Philip] Sheridan came to the battle [Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864], the more cheerful and animated his defeated men became. Encountering a small group of them, Little Phil would stand in the saddle, and give a jaunty salute — as if to congratulate them on a great victory, rather than another humiliating defeat.

The result was electric, if not universal. Amid the cheering, one infantry colonel — whose descendants perhaps would go on to become campaign advisors — stood in Sheridan’s path and begged him not to go on.

“The army’s whipped!” he cried.

“You are, but the army isn’t,” growled Sheridan, who then put the spurs to a horse who’s back was taller than he was and rode to the scene of the disaster, shouting, “About face, boys! We are going back to our camps! We are going to lick them out of their boots!”

His men were not beaten. They just needed leadership.

“We are going to get a twist on those fellows, men!” he shouted, pounding down the pike. “We are going to lick them out of their boots!”

And that’s what he did, too. He and his routed army went back to that field and licked those Rebels right out of their boots.

Rank-and-file Republicans can ponder the rest of Bill Whittle's article here, as they lick their wounds in the aftermath of this week's election.

Cartoonists Recognize Obama Victory

Now It's Our Turn to Cry

It's no secret that we have mixed feelings about the outcome of yesterday's election. On the one hand, I can tell my multi-racial relations that for them the sky's the limit. On the other hand, I feel compassion for my brothers and sisters who are currently in the military, since an Obama administration will be sure to put them on short rations, just as Carter and Clinton did before him. But I don't want for our first African-American President to fail, because if that happens, we all fail.

Republicans, we can rationalize all day about how the Democrats have been running against a Bush administration that will soon be history, but we have to take responsibility for putting up with uninspired leadership, for not being more inclusive, and for the hypocrisy of Republican politicians who allowed themselves to be corrupted when they had the power. Such evil seeds always yield bitter fruit, and we have no choice but to eat our mistakes until we plant something better.

Going Beyond Hate Speech - Now the Libtards Want Blood!

This just in from NewsBusters.com:

Lib Radio Host Karel Calls For Joe Wurzelbacher's Death In On-Air Obscenity Laced Tirade
By Kerry Picket
November 2, 2008 - 19:53 ET

H/T [hat tip] to Radio Equalizer’s Brian Maloney who picked up this on-air obscenity laced diatribe from San Francisco KGO radio host Karel, who called for the “death” of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, AKA “Joe the Plumber.”
“F__G__D__Joe the G__D__M__F__plumber! I want M__F Joe the plumber dead.”

Maloney notes some interesting background information on the San Francisco radio host:

Karel, also known as Charles Karel Bouley, is an evening and weekend host at KGO radio in San Francisco.

Based in Los Angeles, Karel is a gay activist who also writes for the Huffington Post website.

This latest incident caps a weekend of unhinged behavior by Obama's supporters, including a call for the death of Mormons campaigning on behalf of Proposition 8 in California and the push for an investigation into the "leak" that Obama's aunt was an illegal alien facing deportation.

Don’t expect the mainstream media to tell Barack Obama to rein in his supporters, as they still are still looking for the imaginary McCain supporter who yelled out “terrorist” to Obama’s name at a McCain rally.

Anonymous Pre-Election Poem Spreads Like Wildfire

'Twas the night before the election
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the political stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi,
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note –
If you don't want socialism,
GET OUT AND VOTE!!