Global warming pisses me off.
Current mood: aggravated
I live in an area known world-wide for its ski resorts, it's December 1st, and I just had to mow my god-damned lawn today! There is no way it should be 55 degrees here, and I also had to dodge a mosquito that for all I know could have been carrying a nasty case of west nile virus. What happened to the good old days when I was a kid, and all the bugs would be dead by November?
I just got the last of the holiday lights up on my house today. I won't be turning them on until thanksgiving night, but I wanted to get everything out before this week's major snowstorm hits. I've spent about twenty or so hours of labor getting everything together, including going through one string bulb by bulb after I had put it up on a tree to find out why it wouldn't light up, and a few other moments of "Why the hell are they blinking?"
So yah, my neighbors hate me. LED's are brighter, you can string more of them together, and they use pennys of electricity per the hour, meaning I can leave them on 24/7 during occasional fits of obnoxiousness. Now, about that "Rudolph and Friend's" inflateable snowglobe they have down at Lowes. . .
Trafficking Women: The High-Stakes World of Sex for Sale
by John W. Whitehead 9/23/2002
The war drums continue to bang. Americans want to vanquish evil, especially if it appears in the form of Saddam Hussein—and if doing so means going to war, then so be it.
Yet there are wars and then there are wars. The key is understanding the difference between them. For example, some wars are fought for the sake of freedom, while others are fought for the sake of security. And then there are wars that must be fought for the sake of our souls because it is imperative that evil not triumph over good.
Unfortunately for the four million women and children sold into sexual slavery every year, evil is triumphing. It is winning even though international laws have been enacted prohibiting the sale of persons for services such as forced prostitution.
Yet trafficking in human cargo has become a lucrative business for small-time operators, organized crime syndicates and the tourism industries of various countries. In fact, the buying and selling of women and children for prostitution and forced labor is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity, second only to drugs and guns. One source estimates that profits from trafficking in sexual slavery alone exceed between 7 and 12 billion dollars annually—and that's just based on the figures that are reported.
According to the 2002 State Department Report on Trafficking, somewhere between 700,000 and four million men, women and children were bought, sold, transported and held against their wills in slave-like conditions this past year alone. In some countries, women are actually sold in markets in the streets for $400-$800.
The largest number of victims are from Asia, with over 225,000 each year from Southeast Asia and over 150,000 from South Asia. Over 100,000 women and children are trafficked each year from the former Soviet Union. An additional 75,000 or more are imported from Eastern Europe, over 100,000 come from Latin America and the Caribbean and more than 50,000 victims are from Africa. They are shipped all over the world, wherever there is a demand for human flesh. And the demand comes from every corner of the globe: from businessmen, tourists, soldiers, religious clerics and politicians alike.
Rarely will these captives benefit in any way from the money their sponsors or pimps receive for their services. Most will be raped a minimum of ten times a day and forced to service the most sado-masochistic desires. Resistance or attempts to escape are met with increased brutality, even the mutilation of body parts.
These victims are condemned to a horrible life. Once they are sold into sexual slavery, they can expect to be held captive, undernourished and denied access to medical care. In one incident in Thailand, five young girls who had been imprisoned in a brothel burned to death in a fire. It was later discovered that they had been chained to their beds.
Incredibly, many women's groups in the U.S. have, for the most part, ignored the issue of sexual slavery. Instead, groups like the National Organization for Women have chosen to wage political battles over issues such as abortion. Marie-Jose Ragab, president of the dissident chapter of the National Organization for Women located in Northern Virginia, is one of the few women I know who has dedicated much of her efforts to sounding the alarm on this issue. Even so, few seem to be listening—not the public, not the media and not our government leaders.
Yet someone needs to pay closer attention because this evil is in our own backyard and has been for some time. The recent bust of a West Coast prostitution ring underscores the fact that the high-stakes world of sex for sale isn't limited to developing countries. According to a study by DePaul University, about 50,000 Asian, Latin American and Eastern European women and children are trafficked into the U.S. for sexual exploitation each year at a purchase price between $12,000 and $18,000 each. That doesn't account for the number of American women and children abducted and sold into the slave trade overseas.
That so many women and children continue to be victimized, brutalized and treated like human cargo is due to three things: one, a consumer demand that is increasingly lucrative for everyone involved—except the victims; two, a level of corruption so invasive on both a local and international scale that there is little hope of working through established channels for change; and three, an eerie silence from individuals who usually speak out against such atrocities, yet are unwilling to rock the boat.
But the truth is that we are all guilty of contributing to this human suffering. The traffickers are guilty. The consumers are guilty. The corrupt law enforcement officials are guilty. The women's groups who do nothing are guilty. The foreign peacekeepers and aid workers who contribute to the demand for sex slaves are guilty. Most of all, every individual who does not raise a hue and cry over the atrocities being committed against women and children in almost every nation around the globe is guilty.
The war drums are still sounding. The politicians and media are crying that danger is on the horizon. And although it is unclear how Americans should react to the proposed war on Iraq, I do know that if there is one war that must be waged, it is the one against those who continue to prey on women and children.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
With approximately 2.5 million Muslims in the United States, Americans find themselves gasping as to why their leaders imported such an antagonistic and anachronistic religious group into their country. Over 1,000 arrive monthly from war torn Iraq. More from legal immigration channels.
Islam's prime directive found in the Koran orders followers to: Sura 9 verse 5--"Seek out, find and kill all non-believers."
A quick look at Muslims overtaking and destroying their host countries can be found in France, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
In the past few weeks, parliamentary law in London sucked up to and now allows certain vestiges of Sharia Law to manifest in UK.
Unfortunately, Sharia Law dictates beheadings, female genital mutilation, stoning of women for adultery, honor killings, forced and arranged marriages, women cannot leave their house without a family male escort, separated swim times at pools for males and females and complete subjugation of women by men. A more chauvinistic religion cannot be found on the planet-yet, it's growing like wildfire.
Understanding our dire situation, "Tancredo Proposes Anti-Sharia Measure in Wake of U.K. Certification of Islamic Courts. "Jihad Prevention Act" would deny U.S. visas to advocates of 'Sharia' law, expel Islamists already here.""
In a press release, "Amid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in civil cases in the United Kingdom, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) moved quickly today to introduce legislation designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.
"According to recent news reports, a new network of Sharia courts in a half-dozen major cities in the U.K. have been empowered under British law to adjudicate a wide variety of legal cases ranging from divorces and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence."
"This is a case where truth is truly stranger than fiction," said Tancredo. "Today the British people are learning a hard lesson about the consequences of massive, unrestricted immigration."
"Sharia law, favored by Muslim extremists around the world, often calls for brutal punishment such as the stoning of women who are accused of adultery or have children out of wedlock, cutting off the hands of petty thieves and lashings for the casual consumption of alcohol. Under Sharia law, a woman is often required to provide numerous witnesses to prove rape allegations against an assailant a near impossible task."
"When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims, you are also importing their radical ideology an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of western democracy such as gender equality, pluralism, and individual liberty," said Tancredo. "The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place."
Tancredo's bill, dubbed the "Jihad Prevention Act," would bar the entry of foreign nationals who advocate Sharia law. In addition, the legislation would make the advocacy of Sharia law by radical Muslims already in the United States a deportable offense.
"Tancredo pointed to the results of a recent poll conducted by the Centre for Social Cohesion as evidence that the U.S. should act to prevent the situation in Great Britain from replicating itself here in the United States. The poll found that some 40 percent of Muslim students in the United Kingdom support the introduction of Sharia law there, and 33 percent support the imposition of an Islamic Sharia-based government worldwide," the release reported.
"We need to send a clear message that the only law we recognize here in America is the U.S. Constitution and the laws passed by our democratically elected representatives," concluded Tancredo. "If you aren't comfortable with that concept, you aren't welcome in the United States."
With the incredible Muslim violence now manifesting in Norway, Sweden, France and the UK, the United States must move save itself. Two weeks ago, Ann Curry at NBC presented a special report, "Honor Killings in America." We now suffer honor killings in America by our Muslim immigrants. As reported on FOX News, 7/25/08 in Garret, Texas. A 911 call recorded a 12 year old girl, "My dad shot me, I am dying." The father didn't like the child wearing jeans and 'sexy' blouses. So, he shot her. In Clayton, Georgia, 7/10/08, a Pakistani father, Chaudry Rashid strangled his daughter for not accepting his choice of a husband. Never mind the man was 20 years older than the girl!
In Colorado, (my state) we passed a law to stop female genital mutilation because so many female Muslim children checked into our emergency wards with horrific vaginal infections from the brutal procedure. Muslims use glass or razor blades with no anesthetic or sterile room technique.
America doesn't have a clue as to its future shock when 2.5 million Muslims become 10.5 million Muslims. They will use the U.S. Constitution to vote their Sharia Law into law within our country.
Over 35 years ago, a Frenchman, Jean Raspail, who understood the consequences of immigrating millions of third world people from the Middle East wrote a book: "Camp of the Saints"
A fleet of ships carried hundreds of thousands of refugees who left their country because they couldn't change it. They sailed toward France. "You don't know my people-the squalor, superstitions, the fatalistic sloth that they've wallowed in for generations. You don't know what you're in for if that fleet of brutes ever lands in your lap. Everything will change in this country of yours. They will swallow you up."
As witnessed today, that "fleet of brutes" swallowed Great Britain this month and France will not survive its own immigration invasion much longer. Will we?
So, about last weekend--yes, I bought the jeep, just haven't had time to write about it till today. I made my decision a week ago Thursday, called the dealership, haggled the price down to finality, then put down my deposit. Friday was spent navigating my job while getting the financing done and my plane ticket reserved. Then it was a dose of NyQuil and an early night so I could get up at 4am then make my 6:40 flight Saturday morning.
The plane ticket was cheap, a little under 150 all things included--one way straight into Denver--and it was perfect. No turbulence, great visibility and views the whole way, and a smooth landing. I was beyond impressed with southwest, they may be budget but they do the job and apparently didn't get the memo that all airlines have to operate in the red. That said, if the plane ticket was good, I got hosed on the rental car. Turns out I was flying in the weekend running up to the Denver Democratic National Convention. I paid out the nose for the car, but there were plenty of democrats in cowboy hats giving directions, I found my rental car Kiosk pretty quick.
I've read a lot about how Denver is being groomed to replace Washington DC as the new capitol of the United States, since DC is not a defensible position at all. There is also a lot of conspiracy chat about the creepy mural in the airport and it's new world order undertones. I took a couple pics:
All the hippy bull-shit aside, apparently no one ever told this guy the following: "Those who beat all their swords into plow-shares, end up plowing for those that don't." This lesson has been learned time and time again by various oppressed groups throughout history. You don't rely on someone else to respect, or grant you, rights. You make the other party have to respect your rights from a position of Strength. (Hence why Sweden was never invaded by Hitler nor was the west coast of the United States invaded by Japan, you can't lead a campaign against a nation when there is a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
After snapping a couple pics, I got my rental and made the 72 mile trip to colorado springs. The drive is beautiful, I'd almost say that some of the rock formations look volcanic, but I haven't had time to read up on the geological history of the area:
I passed the air force academy campus on my way to the dealership. I was trying to make decent time, so I didn't snap alot of pics. Actually, I didn't get the rental car dropped off and the purchase done until about 2pm, but it was all worth it.
The jeep came loaded, had only one owner, an elderly couple that had never taken it off road, and had only put 6,600 miles on it the entire time they had owned it. It's hard to find a 2006 rubicon in that condition with no stupid, dangerous add ons placed by the first owner. What amazed me is that they had put on the very after-market rock rails I was planning to install, and mud flaps, so there were no infamous rock gouges running up the side doors of the jeep.
By the time I made it back on the road, a storm system had moved in, a rather violent, ominous looking one, but it was alot of fun to drive the back highways in such a capable vehicle.
I wanted get a mini-vacation out of this on the way back, so I took the back highways through central colorado, winding through numerous small, quaint, mountain villages and old mining towns, eventually going through the Eisenhower memorial tunnel before arriving in SilverThorne, where I decided to spend the night. I could easily see myself living in such a place, lots of trees (though the bark beetles are killing most of them now,) an elevation of 11,000 feet,plenty of ski resorts, and oh yes, a starbucks!
It was off season, so I got a nice room on the third floor with a private balcony. The place also had an indoor pool, spa, and most importantly, free cable.
I started out again around 10 am the next morning, spending the day passing through numerous national parks and state forests.
(No, that's not an atomic blast or anything, just me unable to disable the camera flash while driving down the road one-handed.)
Next, Steamboat springs. A place I am going to have to visit again.
Sadly, there always comes a point where beauty must come to an end, and coincidently this happened on the western edge of Colorado, getting uglier the closer I got to Utah. With so many nice areas to live only thirty miles behind me, it amazed me that people would try to make a life anywhere else, but they do:
And of course, then there was Utah. My sister has made this drive on her harley numerous times, and she states that it's not uncommon for her to push 105 mph the whole way through it to get it over with as soon as possible. I wasn't going to push much past 75 in a jeep, so I had to endure the nothing:
And more nothing:
Still more nothing:
Another hill, another stretch of nothing:
And let me tell you, after nearly two hours of that. . .
--Vernal's famous pink dinosaur was looking pretty damned good. I feel kind of bad for people living in Roosevelt, it looks very much like a community struck by a dying economy. The drive became nice again once I got a little closer to Heber, but I didn't get any pictures. I was running behind all day and didn't make it home till 7:30 that evening. It was all worth it though, I can keep my GT pristine during the winter, and have a decent vehicle to get my butt up the slopes or handle particularly snowy days.
I'll start doing some modifications next week. I can't wait till may, when I get the thing decked out in preperation of taking the top and the doors off. I'll post more pics later. I will definately, in the future, make another flight out to colorado, and take a week to make the same drive back in a rental. I was really impressed with everything I saw.
Just what it says folks. My trusty cellphone of nearly 3 years died today during a tragic accident while I was giving my cat a bath. There are some odd sixty of you who's numbers I have lost. If I should have your number, either text it to me or email it to me, with your name, and I'll get you back in. I hope to see a good number of you at the MKIO show tonight!
aggravated
amused
happy
