Ding, Dong, the Bastard's dead!

Justice is done with the death of Saddam.

Despite the fact he was tried, condemned and excuted by Iraqis, the international Left will forever see him as a martyr who was killed by BusHitler and his Eeeeevil NeoCons. Look for news stories in the near future revealing just how wonderful this misunderstood man was and how well he led Iraq. And of course, how his death made the violence in Iraq worse.

Disgusting. But hey, the Left has always had a soft-spot for anti-American tyrants. Saddam was no different.

Sic Semper Tyrannis!

Sic Semper Tyrannis! Saddam Hussein is dead and the world is better off without him. Too bad I'm not in Iraq since I could have started the New Year festivities early. Can you say all-night pizza party?

If you are looking for something a bit less celebratory, here is my earlier post about Saddam and his future date with the hangman's noose.

President Gerald Ford RIP

President Gerald Ford has died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 93. He will be best remembered for taking over from Richard Nixon when he resigned over the Watergate coverup and for pardoning Richard Nixon.

The Great El-ahrairah can still remember how President Ford was widely criticized when he pardoned Richard Nixon, which mostly came from the left since it effectly killed all their planned televised congressional hearings into Watergate. Unfortunately, the left got back at him and as a result, the country got screwed by electing the worse president in the history of the United States, Jimmy Cah-tah. It would not be that hard to imagine that President Ford would have made a much better president than some idiot peanut farmer from Georgia. But, I digress.....

What I find interesting is that now that President Ford has died, everyone is coming out of the woodwork to sing his praises, when they were probably the same ones who roundly criticized his decision to pardon Richard Nixon. In other words, they knew what he did was best for the country, but they put partisan politics ahead of the good of the country. How many of the people who criticize President Bush will sing a different tune in the future? It will be interesting to see, especially after President Klinton forces a quick retreat from Iraq and Iran turns off the world's oil supply. Not plausible? Remember, everyone knows that Klintons are lightweights when it comes to foreign policy, so don't be so sure.

They didn't even wait a femto-second.

The Great El-ahrairah just came back from his "vacation" to an undisclosed middle-eastern country and other than being "entertained" on one of my flights by a couple who decided that the on-board entertainment wasn't to their liking so they decided to create their own, it was a pretty "uneventful" flight if uneventful means lost luggage, flight delays and coming down with the flu. But, I digress.

Anyway, I see that Saddam will swing from the gallows in 30 days and of course, all the assorted "human rights" organizations are coming out of the woodwork to criticize the verdict. The Great El-ahrairah always finds it interesting in a hypocritical way when human rights organizations want to protect the rights of despots like Saddam but are no where to be found when Saddam killed so many of his country men. As far as the Great El-ahrairah is concerned, human rights organizations are like the UN, the world would be better off without both of them since all they do is create an environment where despots like Saddam can thrive.

Anyway, if we are lucky, the hanging will be televised so that we can all see Saddam swing. It will really be a TiVo "popcorn" event.

P.S. If any of the readers of the Warren are of the "I'm against capital punishment" persuasion, you can save your comments. I'm in no mood to waste my time explaining to someone who has no concept of the value of human life why someone like Saddam should die for his actions.

Merry Christmas from The Warren!

Have a nice holiday season with your friends and family. We're going to be taking a break for a while.

Not that you could tell the difference; we've been on a semi-break for the past six months. But at least now we have a good excuse.

Photo-ice-fishing-blogging: Mantua Reservoir

Went out for my customary Christmas holiday ice fishing trip.

Normally, I go to Causey Reservoir because it's usually the one of the first to freeze at this time of year. However, due to the recent cold snap I went to Mantua reservoir to check out the fishing there.

It was quite cold, with a biting wind coming from the north (Note to self: Time to buy a portable shelter). I wasn't that cold, but it did make things a bit uncomfortable, since I couldn't take off my gloves or face mask for very long. And the wind makes it hard to see if you've got a bite or not. But I did have some luck.

I hooked this nice rainbow trout. I kept fishing to see if I could bring home another one for dinner, but all I caught the rest of the day were little yellow perch. So overall, not a bad day, but it could have been much better.

I guess we can forget about all the 12th Article of Faith, then

That spinning sound you hear coming from the Avenues in Salt Lake City is Brigham Young, rolling in his grave. Two BYU students just won an "ethics" contest by arguing that it's perfectly fine and even desirable for banks to offer mortgages to illegal immigrants.

This from a school that requires its students to sign a personal "honor code" certifying that they will uphold the standards of the church, which standards include the admonition of "obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law".

I might be wrong, but isn't a social security number required to get a mortgage nowadays? And don't most illegal immigrants use either fake -- or worse -- stolen SSNs? So how is it "ethical" and "good business sense" to help someone commit identity theft? How is ruining an innocent person's credit rating a good thing?

I got an idea for a contest. Let's have the students at BYU's J. Rueben Clark School of Law answer this question: Are banks that knowingly lend money to someone who uses a stolen social security number liable for any damages to the owner's credit rating, reputation, and pocketbook?

Because I know if an illegal immigrant gets a mortgage from a bank by using the SSNs of myself or anyone in my family, I'm going to hire a good lawyer and answer that question in court.

If any bankers are reading this, consider yourself warned.

BYU Football has officially returned from the dead

BYU football is back. Fear the Cougars!

It was a great game for us fans. We've waited a long time to see the Cougs trounce an arrogant BCS school. The score wouldn't have been so lopsided if Oregon had decided to show up for the game, but given their coach's attitude towards BYU and the Mountain West Conference, it's not surprising they overlooked the Cougars.

Oh, and a note to Coach Belotti: I can agree that teams like USC are a cut above anyone else in the country, and I can even accept the fact that in general the PAC-10 has more talented players and a higher level of competition than the Mountain West.

But you know, if you're going to bad mouth your opponent, it's generally considered bad form to do so after you have received a 38-8 nuclear wedgie from them in front of a national TV audience. It's true that this BYU team would have a hard time going undefeated in your conference. But it's also quite true that based on the final score of this game, they'd finish alot higher than you would.

Also, congrats to the Utes on their victory. Too bad New Mexico didn't hold up their end of the bargain, but the MWC still had three solid victories this bowl season.

Oh, the Poor Dears!

There was a big raid on various meat-packing plants last Tuesday, including one here in Utah.

This, of course, has set off a round of hand-wringing in the usual quarters. Those Big Meanies at ICE, how could they!? There are some in this country whose disdain for American culture and laws is so strong they automatically take the side any person who is guilty of serious crimes.

Look, I'm no fan of our current immigration system. I've had a glimpse of the legal immigration process, and I can understand why many people would throw their hands up in the air and just get a job anyway. And indeed, most of these people are here because they want to work and make a better life for themselves and their families. I tend to be quite forgiving of those illegal workers who are "illegal" simply because they didn't properly dot the "i" or cross the "t" on their Form ICE#32249-2003B.

But I have NO sympathy for identity thieves. Each of those fraudulently-obtained social security numbers represent someone's tattered credit rating. If my SSN, or more likely, one of my children's SSN had been used by an illegal immigrant, I'd be pretty damn mad. I'm not willing to risk ruining my credit rating and my good name in order to cut some impatient immigrant some slack.

This gives me an idea: How about we set up a national registry, kind of like the Do Not Call list, that lists the social security numbers of those bleeding-hearts who see nothing wrong with immigrants using fraudulent identification to get a job? It would be a type of consent form, stating that the person is cool with the idea of some Poor Oppressed Prole using his SSN to live the American Dream. Everyone would benefit: The immigrants could legally get their jobs, the companies could get their workers, and the Bleeding Hearts could get their smug sense of moral superiority. Yeah, they'd have to eventually clear up their credit rating, but hey, it's all for a good cause, right?

El-ahrairah's Undisclosed Middle Eastern Country Blogging, Part 2

(Posted from an e-mail at his request, with the usual editing -- CH)

Let the Retreat Commence!

The Iraq study group has issued it's report (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq) and it came out with what everyone thought it would, declaring victory a la Vietnam and getting the *blank* out of Dodge. Although it was touted as "bi-partisan" because of the five Republicans and five Democrats on the panel, in reality, "bi-partisan" really means that there was five Democrats, 3 to 4 liberal-to-moderate Republicans and maybe one true Republican.

What I thought was interesting was that it recommended a troup pull-out date of 2008, which, miracle-of-miracles, means that future President Harpy won't have to worry about this when she becomes president since we all know what light-weights the Klintons are when it comes to foreign policy. Or maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions.

Anyway, the liberals have always said that Iraq was another Vietnam and now we have a "do-it-yourself" guide on how to accomplish that. The more things change, the more things stay the same.....

El-ahrairah: Blogging from somewhere in the Middle East

(Posted at his request, grammar and spelling corrected -- natch. CH)

For the last month, the Great El-ahrairah has been "standing by to stand by" as the powers that be took their time deciding when to send me back to Arablandia. They finally decided and about a week ago, I got sent back here, which means that I can't access The Warren or even post, ergo, I asked the Cap'n to post this.

I'm not in Iraq, but another flat, desert country with lots o' oil and not much population. For those who are keeping track (probably no one), this is my sixth time since 1999 that I've visited Arablandia for my work, which is six more times than Brother Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha or any of the other "cut and run" Defeat-o-crats in Congress who are suddenly experts on what the US should do in the region (at least the Junior Senator from New York, Senator "Harpy" Klinton, took the time to visit some troops in Afghanistan at Thanksgiving a few years back). At least the Donks are constant. They never make any informed decisions.

Speaking of Senator Harpy, I see that she is starting to ramp up her presidential election campaign (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_el_pr/clinton2008). Some may think that this is bad for the GOP, but I think it's probably good for the GOP because going into an election, 40% of all voters have said that they would rather have barium enemas than vote for Senator Klinton. It's also probably good because it will enable the GOP to very easily hang what her husband did fighting terrorists (which was nothing) around her neck. As long as the GOP doesn't nominate anyone associated with the Bush administration, the Donks are going to have a hard time linking the GOP candidate with anything in Iraq. It's probably also good that many voters see this as just a way for her husband to get around the 22nd Amendment (no one can be elected president more than twice) since as they famously said during the 1992 elections, "you vote for one and you get two".It will be interesting to see if she will actually criticize anything that her husband did.

I can see this shaping up the same way that the election of 1968 did. LBJ's vice-president, Hubert Humphrey was forced to carry LBJ's failed Vietnam policy around his neck until late in the election, which contributed to his defeat. Senator Harpy will probably start out defending her husband, but I predict that she will be forced to admit that he actually did nothing during the 90's to stop the terrorists and only contributed to the attacks on 9/11. This could be her way of getting back at her husband for all the "bimbo eruptions" that she has had to support during the years. Boy, what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall in their house the day that happens.