They're Here

The long wait for the arrival of my in-laws is over. Sandra and Evert Heskes arrived from Toronto today. Everyone is so happy to see them and they are very pleased to be here. I'm excited about our planned trip to Las Vegas with them and the Harrisons this weekend. Other than hanging out with the family, the highlight of the weekend for me will be attending the Cirque du' Soleil presentation "Love".

I can't wait.

Regurgitating The Apple

Evan Sayet gives a cogent explanation of the corrosive affect that 40 years of leftist indoctrination has had on the ability of many in our society to form basic judgments about right and wrong.

DiFi In Trouble

In my work as a commercial real estate appraiser, I am often in contact with the biggest commercial brokerage firm in the world--CB Richard Ellis. In fact, a friend of mine works for the company, and I called another one of their other brokers today. That's why I was surprised to see that CB Richard Ellis is part of a war-profiteering scandal surrounding one of the U.S. Senators representing my home state of California.

Reportedly, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, for which she was chairperson and ranking member for 6 years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein. Apparently, Feinstein's husband, Richard C. Blum, has a controlling interest in CBRE, which "holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector. In 2005, CB Richard Ellis made $100 million in federal contracts, only half of which had been part of full and open competitive bidding."

I'm kind of bummed because, even though I mostly disagree with her politically, I actually like Senator Feinstein. She's typically fair-minded and reasonable--and a helluva lot better than our other Senator.

But, Captain Ed makes the salient point:

During the 2006 election, Feinstein's party made a lot of hay out of non-competitve contracting by the government. Democrats railed especially about Halliburton, even though Halliburton won 95% of its contract dollars by full and open competition. Now we see that Feinstein herself had no problem with non-competitive practices, as long as it meant stuffing her own pockets with taxpayer money.

Michelle Malkin reports:

The NYTimes is demanding an investigation. Arianna Huffington has launched ads lambasting Feinstein. The left-wing blogosphere is an uproar over Feinstein's war profiteering.

Kidding.

Republican Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham is serving jail time for taking bribes in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in government contracts. While there is no evidence that Feinstein accepted bribes--and therefore no laws appear to have been broken--it was certainly unethical to award multi-million-dollar no-bid contracts to her husband's companies. It will be interesting to see if this gets much play in the MSM.

"We've Come Here to the Viper's Nest of Anti-Semitism"

The amount of anti-Semitism on some of today's university campuses is almost unbelievable. I say almost because it is not entirely surprising, considering the intellectual corruption of our universities by faculty activists who have turned their classrooms into platforms for radical political causes.

Needless to say, the perniciuos indoctrination taking place on many university campuses has had a deleterious impact on our schools. Powerline links to a YouTube video, which is a recently-released documentary of violent demonstrations that took place at Concordia University in Montreal in 2002. The documentary shows the rabid anti-semitism directed at students trying to attend a speech by former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. After the riot, only two students were suspended and none arrested. How were the victims treated? Well, the Israeli student group, Hillel, is banned from the student union and receives no share of the student council budget, while the Palestinian organization receives full benefits and access. Hmm. Seems fair.

Unfortunately, this venemous hatred has not abated. Pro-Palestinian students directing violence and intimidatation against others is indicative of the anti-semitism that has been allowed to flourish on many university campuses--where educators (AKA thought reformers) inculcate students with criticism of "Zionism," as an insidious cover for their Jew-hatred.

It's sad when a peaceful anti-Israel protest at Berkeley comes as shocking news.

Caption Contest Anyone?

Hillary Pilloried

The left is not going to let Hillary Clinton off the hook for her vote to authorize the Iraq War. A former UN weapons inspector claims Hillary knew during her husband's administration that Iraq had disarmed, but she voted for the resolution anyway.

In a speech delivered at the time of the vote, Hillary spoke of her "conviction" that the resolution was "in the best interests of the nation." While I do believe Hillary is a dishonest, vindictive person, I have no idea whether her vote that day was predicated on a sincere belief in the faulty intelligence that was available at the time or not.

The inspector has no such reservation:

Hillary can try to twist and turn the facts as she defends the words she spoke when casting her fateful vote in favor of a war with Iraq. But no amount of rewriting history can shield her from the failed policies of her very own husband, policies she embraced willingly and wholeheartedly when endorsing war.

Run, Hillary, run. But your race towards the White House will never outpace the hypocrisy and duplicity inherent in your decision to vote for war in Iraq.

This Discussion Needs To Happen

The Free Muslims Coalition was recently contacted by Pastor Howard Gardner, a minister with the Assemblies of God, who wrote a letter that he and numerous other Christian leaders want delivered to prominent Muslim religious leaders. The Pastor made it clear that the Christian leaders are only interested in a serious dialogue rather than a superficial, politically correct, discussion. The Free Muslims Coalition have agreed to a arrange meetings between Christian and Muslim leaders and to secure a response to the “Christian letter.”

Read the letter here. Hopefully, the Free Muslims Coalition will respond and begin the process of a constructive dialogue.

On a related note: The recently-concluded Secular Islam Summit 2007 featured a collection of moderate Muslims speaking out for freedom. This link leads to a video interview of some of the featured speakers, which is well worth watching.