The Corner's Stephen Spruiell:

Your World Today is covering Pat Robertson's comment that the U.S. should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as if Dick Cheney had said it. CNN just aired a segment live from Havana and is promising more to come this hour. ... I'm not trying to defend Pat Robertson, but there's a totally different standard for conservatives who say crazy things than liberals -- especially anti-war liberals -- who do.

True.

And to be honest, this just feels like ginned-up slow-news-month August outrage to me-- and conservative bloggers, trying to show they're respectable, are falling over themselves to condemn Robertson.

I have no use for Robertson myself. But last time I checked, asssassination was something we as a country were not necessarily adverse to in an extreme situation. We certainly wouldn't shy away from knocking off Kim Jong Il if we had a shot (and thought it was likely to produce a change in that regime's behavior, for the better).

Hugo Chavez is an anti-American, terrorist-supporting thug who continues to rule against the public's wishes, but intimidating the opposition and engaging in wholesale election fraud. He is a tyrant who cannot simply be voted out of office; he will not permit that.

I think Robertson was engaging a little too freely in irresponsible tough-guy talk which ultimately gives this paranoid princeling more reason to be paranoid, but there's few Americans, even in the State Department, who would weep if the Venezuelans themselves took this bastard out of office forcibly, or even lethally.

Should we be involved? Almost certainly not. He's not that much of a threat to us that we should take the great risk of engaging in or assisting in the assassination of the "leader" of a South American state, especially with our history of meddling their (and South Americans understandable suspicious about our use of power).

But the media and the left are trumping this fairly minor off-the-cuff bit of James Bond fantasization into some major story exposing the right as crackpots.

Meanwhile, Saint Cindy, Our Lady of Perpetual Publicity, speaks at a Lynne Stewart rally which asks the question "Should we support the Iraqi resistance?" and that information is virtually embargoed.

Posted by: Ace at 06:45 AM | Comments (22)
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In case it's needed.

Posted by: Ace at 06:34 AM | Comments (15)
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As Chickpea would say, tough but fair:

The Australian government has stepped up a campaign against radical Muslims, saying those wanting to live under Islamic law or refusing to accept "Australian values" should leave. At the same time, it plans to monitor mosques to ensure that radical messages are not being taught.

Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday the government wanted "to penetrate the Islamic community and to try and get to the people who are preaching support for terrorism" to ensure that youngsters in particular were not being influenced.

He said he was not perturbed by competing religious claims -- people saying their religion was superior and labeling others infidels -- "but when it comes to praising people who are clearly terrorists ... that is not okay."

In an earlier radio interview, Howard said the government realized it could not change the minds of "hardened fanatics." They had to be identified and acted against. The main aim was to prevent those extremists from influencing young and impressionable Muslims.

Asked whether the authorities would keep a watch on mosques and Islamic schools, Howard replied: "Yes, to the extent necessary."

The government had no desire or intention to interfere with the practice of religion, "but we have a right to know whether there is, within any section of the Islamic community, a preaching of the virtues of terrorism, whether any comfort or harbor is given to terrorism within that community."

Members of Howard's cabinet also weighed in against those in the Muslim community holding radical views.

"If you want to be in Australia, if you want to raise your children in Australia, we fully expect those children to be taught and to accept Australian values and beliefs," Education Minister Brendan Nelson told reporters Wednesday.

Those who did not want to live by Australian values "can clear off," he said.

Posted by: Ace at 06:33 AM | Comments (7)
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Once again, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but this sounds an awful lot like a threat:

Charles Clarke has been warned that moves to expel radical preachers, which could begin by the weekend, could backfire by turning extremists into martyrs and increasing prejudice against law-abiding Muslims.

The Home Secretary set out a series of "unacceptable behaviours" yesterday that would be used to exclude foreign extremists from Britain and remove those already in the country. They include "fomenting, justifying or glorifying" terrorism, although he has dropped an earlier proposal to outlaw views "the Government considers to be extreme and that conflict with the UK's culture of tolerance".

The list of criteria foreshadows a new wave of expulsions from Britain under powers announced by Mr Clarke last month. He said yesterday: "The terrorist threat facing the UK remains real and significant and it is right the Government and law enforcement agencies do everything possible to counter it."

He won backing from the main opposition parties, but provoked alarm among Muslim leaders. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Sending [extremists] out may turn them into unwanted heroes who may then be free to export their vile thoughts, if such be the case, from exile." The Islamic Human Rights Commission said the plans were a "criminalisation of thought", adding: "The proposals do nothing but unleash further Islamophobia in British society."

Criminalization of thought, huh?

Did thoughts kill 40+ on the London subways?

Deportation isn't the answer. A long incarceration in one of England's more primative prisons, surrounded by IRA thugs, just might be.

Posted by: Ace at 07:04 PM | Comments (5)
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Beat them unconscious, then began stomping their out-cold heads into the pavement.

Oh, and they groped a couple of women just before that, too.

Let's John Walsh 'em.

Posted by: Ace at 06:53 PM | Comments (70)
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I just can't remember which one.

Posted by: Tanker at 06:19 PM | Comments (7)
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At Timken High School in Canton, Ohio, 65 of 490 females are pregnant.

The school mascot? The Trojans.

Let me just suggest a new mascot. The Timken Spray and Prays.

Posted by: Ace at 02:35 PM | Comments (38)
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The politics of personal enhancement:

A Thai Rak Thai Party MP plans to ask ministers of the party whether any of them have received a silicone injection to enlarge his penis.

Surachart Chamnarnsilp from Udon Thani said the issue had tarnished the party's reputation so he would ask Thai Rak Thai ministers during a party meeting today whether any of them had used such surgery service.

Surachart was commenting on a claim by a woman, Raweewan Satakrak, that a member of the current Cabinet had received a silicone injection on his penis from the same cosmetic clinic which treated her.

Raweewan last week called on the minister to come forward and testify in a defamation case in which the woman was named a defendant.

"If a Thai Rak Thai minister used such service, the party's image would be badly damaged. The one who did it should take responsibility and resign now," Surachart said.

Memo to self: Cancel plans on running for the Thai Parliament.

Thanks to OgreGunner.

And... Not sure how long this site will stay up. It continues to be glitchy. I will post on old blogspot site if one goes down again.

Linked Fixed: Pardon me. It's been a while since I clicked on that site. Completely forgot the URL.

No idea what the password could possibly be.

Posted by: Ace at 01:31 PM | Comments (9)
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Well, the whole mu.nu domain was down today. Sorry about that. Also bad that I couldn't promote the show, which I think went okay.

The outage was someone else's fault, I swear. It's always someone else's fault.

Posted by: Ace at 12:40 PM | Comments (75)
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This keeps coming up in posts, so I figure there are enough people interested to have a discussion about it.

Recommendations, slams, etc. Books, movies, fully-posable action-figures. Sci-fi writers BBeck has gone to second base with. Whatever.

Full-on geek shit.

Note that anything you say can and will be used against you in the next flame war thread.

Posted by: Ace at 02:51 PM | Comments (160)
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