Quotable Quotes: On Self-Defense

"If someone is coming to kill you, kill him first." The Talmud.

This may be more of a paraphrase than an exact quote, but the point is nonetheless well made.

Check Out My Guest Post

Hey friends! Guess what? I made a guest appearance on another blog! If you look in my link field you'll see a link called elwoodin. That's the link to the blog Tired of All the Liberal Rhetoric Out There (TALROT), written my friend Robert. If you go there you'll see a guest post written by none other than yours truly! The post is titled "Welcome to America. Now Speak English!". I was honored to make a guest appearance on Robert's blog. Please stop by and have a look see. Even if you don't like my post--I can't imagine how you couldn't--I'm sure you'll find TALROT quite interesting and informative. Hope you drop by, and please leave a comment if you do!

Thanks,

PoorGrrl

PS

My post is written in red just in case you have trouble finding it.

It Snowed!!!

Guess what? It snowed! That's right. In a VERY surprising change of weather big white flakes fell from the sky for about 30 minutes. It was awesome! I'm sure people up north will think, "So what" but here in this part of Texas the white stuff is always greeted with childlike glee. We get so little of it here and hardly ever before January. And what's really weird is that the high was 80 just this past Tuesday. That old saying is true: if you don't like the weather in Texas wait a few minutes. Well, it took 48 hours for a change but it was worth the wait. It SNOWED!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish all my readers and blogging friends a most blessed Thanksgiving tomorrow. Remember all you have to be thankful for as you gather with friends and family to enjoy good food, good fun, and good company. And remember the ones who are with us only in spirit*. Have a blessed day!

Sincerely,

Poorgrrl

*Happy Thanksgiving, Daddy! I can't believe this is my third holiday without you. I'd give anything to have you here. I love you and miss you so much. Rest in peace, my father and friend.

Your daughter,

Shun

Hate Crimes Rise By Nearly 8%. Eek!

I saw the headline in my local newspaper this morning. The FBI has revealed that hate crimes rose by almost 8% in 2006, with nearly 8000 bias motivated crimes occurring that year. In response the usual suspects whined their usual tune about America's poor, victimized minorities. But considering there are 300 million people of every race in this country, having less than 8000 bigotry based assaults on either people or property is shining proof of America's great progress toward equality for all. Don't expect the race hustlers to admit that, though.

I oppose the very notion of "hate crimes". Hate crime laws are an attempt to punish people for what they (alledgely) think, not for what they do. They're Orwellian to the core. How do you know what someone was thinking at the moment of the crime? If perp and victim are of different races you could assume racism. But the victim could've just been the easiest target at the moment. And even if a perp deliberately targets a particular group of people it doesn't automatically mean he's acting out of hate. The group might just pose less of a threat to him. He might target illegal aliens, for instance, because they're less likely to call the police and NOT because they're illegal aliens. He might target the elderly because they can offer less physical resistance, NOT because he's got it in for old folks. We need to be VERY careful when we start criminalizing people's thoughts.

Another big problem with hate crime laws is the tougher sentences mandated for hate crimes. I've never understood how being mugged, raped, or murdered is worse when the criminal is a different race, gender, or sexual orientation from the victim. Even if a perp acts out of hate the victim is traumatized by the crime itself, not the thoughts behind it. A rape victim isn't comforted by knowing that she wasn't attacked because she was Black. However, a rape victim might be further traumatized by knowing that her attacker received a lesser sentence because he was an "ordinary" rapist rather than a hate rapist. And then there's murder.

Proponents of hate crime laws and the tougher sentences mandated by them are often the same people who oppose the death penalty. This is highly problematic. How can they insist that hate crimes be punished more severly than "ordinary" crimes yet oppose the severest punishment possible for hate murders? After all, the only way to punish hate murders more severly than "ordinary" murders is to give the death penalty for one and life without parole for the other. Death penalty opponents, naturally, won't support that. The only alternative is to give hate murderers life without parole but "ordinary" murderers less than that. The families of "ordinary" murder victims would NEVER stand for such a diminishing of their loved ones' lives. Life without parole is the lightest sentence for murder, any murder, that most people will accept. So the end result will be that hate murderers and "ordinary" murderers receive the same sentence. How illogical is that?

But hate crimes laws are inherently illogical. I believe they were never meant to protect minorities. Rather, their purpose is to make guilt ridden, self-hating, left-wing Whites feel good about themselves. By championing these laws (and a lot of other things) such Whites seek to separate themselves from and atone for what they see as the entirely criminal nature of their race's interaction with non-Whites. They're trying to tell the non-White world, "Whites have horribly oppressed you but I'm a different kind of White person. I'm really good. Look at what I'm doing for you." If liberal Whites want to assuage their unearned guilt then they should do so, but not at the expense of justice and common sense. A criminal act should get the same punishment regardless of the motive for it. No victim is worth more than another. Isn't that what equality really means?

Correction

I have a correction to make. In my post "Apostles of Anti-Americanism" I wrote that Brian de Palma's movie "Redacted" had already been released. That wasn't the case. I thought that some early screenings I'd heard about were the film's actual showing. In fact, "Redacted" opened nationwide only yesterday, Friday, November 16. Sorry for the mistake.

Apostles of Anti-Americanism

Well, another "anti-war" movie has bombed. "Lions for Lambs", Hollywood's latest offering in the hate America category, flopped big at the box office last weekend. This follows the lackluster performance of earlier America-the-bad films such as "Rendition", "In the Valley of Elah", and Brian de Palma's "Redacted", which many movie theaters won't even show, I hear. More "anti-war" movies are due out next year and Hollywood will lose even more money. But Hollywood is supposed to love money. What's going on here?

Americans won't spend their hard earned dollars to be told they, their country and their military are evil. I believe Hollywood knew that from the beginning. I believe that Americans were never the intended audience for movies like "Lions for Lambs" and the others. No, Hollywood made these films for a GLOBAL audience. Tinsel Town's liberals want to support the rest of the world's anti-US animosity . They want the America haters to be strengthened in they're conviction. They are apostles of anti-Americanism. And they're proud of it.

Of course, if you confronted the Hollywood Left about this they'd deny it. They'd act--act is the operative word--indignant at the very suggestion that they were deliberately helping America's enemies. They're just dissenting, they'd say. They're just asking thoughtful questions, they'd say. Yes, extremely negative images of America are being broadcasted all over the world. Yes, every jihadi will use those images to recruit more fanatics. But that was never they're intention, they'd insist. They love America; really, truly, you gotta believe they do.

Yeah, right. The only thing more insulting than the anti-American movies liberals make is their belief that the rest of Americans are dumb enough to believe their profession of patriotic love. Hey Hollywood, if you're so patriotic why not make a movie about Scott Southworth, an American soldier who adopted a handicapped Iraqi child? Or a movie about baby Mariam who received life saving surgery in the US thanks to our fighting men? Or a film about the Anbar Salvation Front, an Iraqi militia that allied itself with us to destroy Al Queda in Anbar province? Why not make any of those films, Hollywood? I mean, since you love America so much.

Nothing pro-American will ever be made by the Hollywood Left. They are on the side of our enemies. It's like George Orwell said, you can't hamper one side in a war without automatically helping the other side. Brian de Palma, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, and the rest of the Tinsel Town traitors know that perfectly well. They take their job of aiding their side very seriously. They're playing hardball. It's time for the good guys to play hardball, too.

Tributes to Our Troops, God Bless Them!!!

Question On My Mind

This one is for liberals. If poverty causes terrorism, as many libs assert, then please tell me where are all the Haitian suicide bombers?

Running With The Big Dogs

We all know about the pummeling Hillary Clinton got at the latest Democratic presidential debate. We also know that Hill has tried to bounce back from this debacle by playing the gender card. She was ganged up on by mean ol' men who dared to question her because she's a woman. We can't let that stand, ladies! Defend poor Hillary!! This makes me want to puke. It's a shameless but all too typical example of liberal hypocrisy.

C'mon Hill! You claim to be a strong woman. You insist that women receive equal rights and equal treatment. Apparently, though, you don't know what that means. Well, let me tell you. It means that if you dodge straightforward questions; if you have murky positions on important issues; if you choose to put yourself in the meat grinder that is presidential politics you have to take the hard blows that go with that. Do you think that the territory of politics should change because you're a woman? Isn't that the antithesis to the equality that feminism is supposed to be about?

I cannot imagine Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir whining about some boys' club ganging up on them. They were too busy acutally running their countries and winning wars. Margaret Thatcher took what was meant as an insult and turned it into a distinguished moniker, becoming known worldwide as The Iron Lady. If this latest episode is any indication you, Hillary, are no Iron Lady. So please, either shut up and play the game as is or take the advice of an old saying: if you can't run with the big dogs stay under the porch.

Say It Ain't So, Dog!

Dwayne Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, has gotten himself into BIG trouble by saying nigger while on the phone with his son. Apparently, the son in question is dating a Black woman and Dog didn't want the family's occasional use of the slur to be used against them. A recording of the conversation was leaked to the National Enquirer, which led to the story airing tonight on both The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes. A&E is suspending it's production of Dog's show "Dog the Bounty Hunter" because of the controversy.

I want to say that as a Black woman I think this incident is being blown out of proportion. Yes, Dog Chapman was full of anger when he said nigger on that phone call. He also used profanity. Why isn't he being raked over the coals for that?

Let's get something straight. Using a racial slur doesn't automatically make you a racist. I've used racial slurs myself, usually when someone of another race pisses me off. If a Hispanic driver grabs the parking space I was waiting for I've been known to say, "Damn wetback!" Does that mean I hate Hispanics? When I watched the movie "Jackass" I thought to myself, "Only white guys could be that stupid." Does that mean I hate Whites? No and no. Using racial slurs is often a crime of passion. No one should be instantly and permanently defined by that.

We live in a time when liberals are keen to prove their belief that America is irredeemably racist and that racism is peculiar to Whites. Dog's unfortunate utterance has given them ammunition to push that belief. The truth, though, is that Blacks say nigger way more than Whites and paid millions to do it. You can't buy a rap album that's not full of nigger this and nigger that. Blacks and liberal Whites are being profoundly hypocritical when they have a meltdown over a White guy saying nigger but give Blacks a pass for saying it.

If we really want nigger to be an unsayable word we've got to stop rewarding Blacks who use it in their "art". Millions of Whites listen to rap music. If they hear their favorite rap singers throwing nigger around like it was a compliment, what are they going to think? Certainly not that nigger is a bad word. It's like a parent telling his kids not to curse while constantly saying the "f" word in front of them. Talk about double messages!

I think Dog Chapman was just angry, like I was when that Hispanic guy stole my parking space. I'm open to the possibility that I could be wrong. Maybe Dog really is a virulent racist and just hid it really well all these years. Maybe having a Black pastor was just a dishonest show. Maybe accepting his brother's Asian wife was just for the cameras. And maybe Dog just lied about his mother being Native American. Maybe, but I don't think so. You're still a good egg in my book, Dog.