Breaking News: Jerry Falwell Is Dead

Jerry Falwell has died.

I will not mince words here, I wasn't his biggest fan. I didn't agree with much of his political ideology and did not see eye-to-eye with him in the theological realm, either. But with that said, I feel sorry for those that were closest to him and understand the grief they must now bear, with his loss.

I never wish death on anyone, no matter how I feel about their politics. I never see anyone's death as a cause for celebration. Even when Saddam was hung, I didn't feel a bit good about it, despite the fact that he was a horrible monster that slaughtered innocent blood, on a whim.

But as sure as I am about today being Tuesday, there will be those that celebrate it. Despicable, they are.

News In Brief (And The Usual Opinionated Commentary)

From the PYY news desk:


Early Minn. Senate Polls Show Coleman With Wide Margin Over Franken

Despite Norm Coleman's drop in popularity, Al Franken is way behind. Important to note is the fact that Franken still has to win his primary. But early polls show that if he were matched up with Coleman, the incumbent would win hands down with a 52% to 32% margin. That leaves 16% of the vote up for grabs. Even if Franken were to take all of the 16% (which is very unlikely), he would still lose. I sense a Stuart Smalley skit here.


Secularists In Turkey Flex Political Muscle

By now, you have all no doubt heard of the rallies that drew what some claim to be about 1.5 million people to protest what they see as the Islamization of their government. Turks have grown accustomed to separation of church and state, in the years since Ataturk. And even though Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim, there are many that would prefer religion to be a matter of conscience (to be adhered to willingly, and not legislated).

I say, bully for them. In my opinion, religion has no business in any form of government, because there are no two religions alike. And although I am Christian, I do not want a Christian government here either. There too many denominations to accommodate all and besides, this aspect of life is best left up to the individual to believe a certain way, or not.


Putin Compares America To Third Reich

This happened a few days ago, but let's look at it a little closer.

Putin has problems with his own opposition and has dealt with protests in a pretty rough way. Both the EU and US are distancing themselves from the bold moves that he has made of late, most of which involve the loss of freedoms for Russians and the increasingly hostile rhetoric coming out of Moscow. Opponents of his policies have a way of getting dead. The people are getting restless.

But one thing will fix all of that in Putin's eyes: A new Cold War. The old principle of inventing an enemy to unite the people is being used here. It appears this is a gamble he's willing to take.

Anti-Semitism In Europe: Myth Or Reality?

If you ask Europeans about anti-semitism or anti-Jewish sentiment, there are those that will downplay it as though it is something of a myth or is simply over-exaggerated. They may cite some polls here and there like one in this report, showing favorability ratings of French views on Jews as being:

Very Favorable 28%

Somewhat Favorable 53%

Unfavorable 11%

Now, at a glance it doesn't look so bad in France, does it? But if we take a glance at this article, we see quite a different picture from the French, themselves.

Two thirds of French people think that anti-semitism is on the rise in France, despite recently released government statistics illustrating a downturn.

Among the 1,005 people polled for the weekly magazine Paris Match on 2 and 3 March, 64 percent said they think the problem has increased, with more marginally women than men recognising the recent upsurge in anti-Jewish hatred.

To France's credit, they have tried to fight anti-semitism. But despite it's best efforts, it's very difficult to reverse attitudinal trends simply by enacting laws forbidding them.

Currently, in most of Europe, it is against the law to deny the Holocaust. Here is one case from last year, worthy of some consideration.

An Austrian court has sentenced the British historian David Irving to three years in prison for denying the Holocaust while in Austria in 1989, dismissing his argument that he had changed his views.

While I think this law goes way too far, I think it is somewhat of a sign there is a consensus among those in power; they do not want to go back down the road taken by Germany in the early part of last century (one that led to the systematic slaughter of people, simply for being Jewish). The reason I say this is because you cannot legislate attitudes or morality. And if someone has an offensive attitude, I feel it's best to allow them the right to express it, so that the rest of us can see who it is and use it as a teaching tool for others that are forming their opinions (especially young people, in the formative years of their lives).

But this attitude is certainly not limited to France. In this article published today in the Jerusalem Post, we see there is cause for concern in other countries in Europe, as well.

Thirty-nine percent of Europeans believe Jews have too much power in the business world, while 44% think Jews have too much power in international financial markets, according to the results of a survey published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday.

The survey of five European countries - France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland - showed that a large number of Europeans continued to harbor anti-Jewish attitudes, holding on to the classical anti-Semitic canards and conspiracy theories that have haunted Jews through the centuries.

If this poll has any measure of accuracy at all, 44% is a rather large number. Another interesting thing to note is, four of the countries surveyed are predominantly Catholic.

But, if that is not enough, here's another fly in the ointment from the same article:

The survey also showed that large portions of the European public continue to believe that Jews still dwell too much on the Holocaust. Overall, 47% of those surveyed thought the statement was "probably true."

On one hand we have the "powers that be" prosecuting those that deny the Holocaust and on the other, we have people that think Jews ruminate too much on the subject. One must pose the question: How much of this is due to the ridiculous law or more plainly, is this a backlash of that law?

But back to the Catholic issue.

Historically, Jews in Europe have suffered persecution and discrimination, because of early church views that Jews were guilty of crucifying Christ. It matters not that the church teaches that Christ willingly laid down his life for all of us, they still bore then and still bear today, the brunt of that event:

In addition, 51% said they believed Jews were more loyal to Israel than to their country and 20% of those surveyed continue to blame Jews for the death of Jesus.

And if that is not enough, there's this little issue of Israel's existence and its resolve to defend itself, from those that seek to destroy it:

Meanwhile, 25% said that their opinion of Jews was influenced by Israel's actions and of those, 52% said their opinion of Jews was worse as a result of the actions taken by Israel.

How many times have we all heard that being anti-Israel is not the same as being anti-semitic? I know that I have personally read and heard this argument before. And while this may be the case in some people's view, this point bears out that it is not necessarily true in all cases.

Here's the point, I want to make in all of this.

Being something is never a cause to hate. And while some people's attitudes are offensive, they should have the right to express them. But equally, those that are the targets of such hate speech certainly have the right to form their own opinions and express them, as well. In the grander scheme of things, words of hate are bad enough (this much is true), but they are preferable to acts of hate. It is there, where we must concentrate our efforts.

If someone is found guilty of an act of violence against someone merely because they are who they are, then the penalty should be severe enough to discourage others from doing the same thing. Everyone has the right to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they do not infringe on others' rights. But even more importantly, we have to recognize the problem, before we can fix it. And clearly from all of the data I have seen, there is a problem in Europe that many Europeans either refuse to accept, or try to explain away with some feeble reasonings, by using obscure polls that are not necessarily reflective of the real situation.

Hypocrisy Reigns Supreme

The Guardian is reporting that an AP-Ipsos poll shows that the numbers for Congress have just caught the President's. As you might guess, they are both on the way to the tank.

People think the Democratic-led Congress is doing just as dreary a job as President Bush, following four months of bitter political standoffs that have seen little progress on Iraq and a host of domestic issues.

As time wears on, people have been seeing that the Democratic-led Congress is not getting the job done. But really now, what else did we expect? After all, they are politicians. They say anything to get elected and then they dodge the bullet by blaming the President. They said they would clean up corruption, they would work a longer week, and would force George Bush to pull the troops out of Iraq. They claimed they wanted healthcare for everyone and wouldn't use earmarks.

Well? So far, all we have seen is a power struggle. We've seen calls for the resignations of administration officials. We've seen a bill sent to the President that they knew he wouldn't sign and they could not override. But in all of that, we haven't seen any willingness to get things done, like they claimed last fall when they were making their sales pitches to the American people.

Way to go Democrats. That's showing us.

And while we are at it, what the hell is getting into Republicans these days? Have you read this one from WND?

While some evangelical Christians are defending the presidential candidacy of Mormon Mitt Romney from an attack by Al Sharpton, another prominent pastor is going further in his condemnation – saying a vote for the former Massachusetts governor is a vote for Satan.


That's the word from Bill Keller, host of the Florida-based Live Prayer TV program as well as LivePrayer.com.

Add this to the other idiotic statements made by the "so-called" Christian leadership.

First, we had James Dobson saying Fred Thompson is not a "Christian. We have everyone asking Rudy about his stand on abortion. (The MSM does it primarily to throw controversy into the GOP race, but the evangelical right does it as a litmus test.) And now we have this moment of judgmental haughtiness.

Have you forgotten there is a war on here? Have you all forgotten there is a porous border and a flow of illegal immigrants that will eventually crash our healthcare system and possibly a few that want to harm us? That's what we have to be concerned with here, not whether someone is the specific kind of Christian each of us feels ought to be in charge (or not).

We do not need to be worrying about abortion either. We all know the GOP candidates are forever promising the world when it comes to repealing Roe V. Wade, yet they never do.

What's wrong with focusing on the important issues of the day?

Besides that, what difference does it make who is what? I am not Mormon, I do not agree with the Mormon doctrine. But, I do not care about a candidate's specific denomination. I only care about what he is going to do to make this a better country. I am not hiring him to be my spiritual leader.

Way to go Republicans. That's showing us.

Happy Mother's Day

To all readers of PYY that are mothers, I want to take a moment and wish all of you a Happy Mother's Day. Good mothers are special people that give their heart and soul for their children. They deserve this special day to be honored, mainly because many have given the best years of their life to ensure that their children are clothed, fed, safe, and warm. Every time a mother gets up in the middle of the night to comfort a sick or scared child, every time she wipes a snotty nose, she gives of herself and sacrifices something she would otherwise be doing at that moment.

To all the moms, I hope your special day is a great one.

Another Blast From The Past

There was a uniqueness about Roy Orbison that is difficult to describe. He had this sort of esoteric mystique about him. He was definitely ahead of his time when he debuted in the 60s. He came and went, waited, and then came back again. But that's not the crazy part. He did it with the same style and magic that he did, the first time around.

Here is one of those comeback hits. It's a remake of Diana Ross's "You Got It", with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne (from ELO):



Of course no tribute to Roy would be complete without his all time biggest hit, "Oh,Pretty Woman" (long version for all of you aficionados):



In 1982, Van Halen did a remake of it (and did it quite well, I might add):



Roy inspired many artists that followed him. But of all of the artists I have heard, Chris Isaak is the one that comes immediately to mind. Here is a an Orbisonesque kind of tune that just happens to be one of my all-time favorite songs, "Wicked Game" (WARNING: Video is a bit risque):



Enjoy.


Correction:

PYY makes all corrections as soon as a mistake is brought to the attention of yours truly. As snarky as it was, one commenter has pointed out that Diana Ross's "You Got It" and Roy Orbison's, was not the same song. My apologies for any confusion.

Does Milestone In Belfast Bring Cause For Optimism In Middle East?

I ran across an interesting editorial in the IHT (originally published in the Boston Globe), entitled Old Foes, All Smiles In Belfast.

Milestones toward peace in Northern Ireland seem to arrive every six months, but until now they have not produced the breakthrough that would bring tranquility. This time, however, the amity between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party seemed genuine as they restarted the provincial government Tuesday. If these old adversaries can get along with no more than the usual friction among coalition partners, the conflict really is over.

There was a time when one would have never believed that peaceful co-existence was even possible between these two sides, much less form a government. If you are old enough, you know that peace in Northern Ireland had as much chance of happening, as Germany being reunited. Regular reports of bombings and other attacks were commonplace and there was a sense of hopelessness that permeated the entire process, for years. One way to understand it is, it had gone on for so long, you forgot who started it.

Although I understood it in an intellectual sense, in a functional sense, I couldn't understand how Christians could hate each other so much. Seeing Catholics and Protestants live and play together here in America, it just wouldn't register as a worthy cause, in my book. As I spent my two years in what was then West Germany, I saw Catholics and Protestants doing much the same.

But as I grew older and read more about it, it became clearer that this was one of the last battles between the Roman Catholic Church and the "heretics" that split the Church. The struggle began with the Reformation. But if this holds (like it looks like it's going to), this will mark the end of that struggle and will demonstrate that the Roman Church has completely accepted the division of Christendom in the western world.

From the beginning of time, religious differences have caused great political gulfs between people that are not much different otherwise. This country is but one example, but the implications here are more enormous than the peace itself. And while I am sure there are many old-timers that have have not (and will not) put aside their animosities toward each other, there is a new generation that has not adopted the tone that would have made this remarkable event impossible, in years past.

Today, in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, a new generation of Protestants and Catholics live, work, and play with another without the stigmas that were once attached to associating with one another. They even marry.

With this seemingly hopeless situation becoming hopeful, it gives us all a glimmer or faint ray of hope (if you will) that someday we could theoretically see peace in the Middle East. The situations are very different in a lot ways, but in one sense they are aren't. Semitic people with differing theological beliefs are at war for a strip of land in which they must both live. Yet, like the situation in Northern Ireland a couple of decades ago, they find it impossible to do so.

But somewhere along the line, something will have to give. Someone will have to reach out and make a concerted effort, the other will have to accept it. The military wing of the Palestinians will have to give way to a political process, similar to the one that NI had to endure to get to this point. But more than anything, someone will have to be so sick of the violence and not be willing to glorify it any longer. They will have to work out differences with dialogue, not bullets, bombs, or rockets.

But rest assured, the ME will be a much tougher sell. For one thing, the gulf between the two religions is far greater. If you have ever been to both a Catholic and Anglican mass, you will not notice much difference in either. Same God, same Christ, different political structure. One runs from the Vatican and one runs from London. The ceremonies are very comparable too.

In Judaism and Islam, the theological focus of the two religions is very different. Islam has it's messiah (or prophet), Judaism still awaits theirs.The religions are both monotheistic and claim their roots from Abraham. But where it really separates is in the cultural realm. Israel is far more westernized and secular. That, within itself, is cause for condemnation from a large percentage of Palestinians.

Today in Palestine, there is a Mickey Mouse character that teaches bigotry, hatred, and war to a new generation of children. (Check out Fore Left for details and the video.) At some point, for peace to have any spark of a chance, this kind of activity must be stopped and respect must be substituted for calls for to annihilate Jews (and Americans). At some point, for an opportunity to arise, there must be a willingness to stop demanding all or nothing.

I realize there are those that will think I am being naive about this whole thing. And frankly, I really can't say that I blame you (for I am the chiefest of skeptics, myself). But to those that may think that I am (and are old enough to remember), tell the truth now. Did you ever think that Germany would be reunited and the Berlin Wall come crumbling down the way it did? Did you ever think Northern Ireland would see peaceful days such as the ones they see today?

I didn't.

A Standard Of Incompetence

Rarely do I post about local stories unless they have national or international importance. But, I cannot let this one go untouched.

Meet Dr. Peggy Hinkley, Superintendent of Warren Township Schools in Indianapolis. The school district does not have much information about her on their web site like other districts. Except for her educational background, it's pretty much lacking in information. Maybe that's because she has this knack for seeing her district in the news, mostly in a negative light.

Back in March, it was revealed that two sixth graders had sex in a shop class with the teacher present. (You may note that the incident occurred in November, but it wasn't brought to light until March.) This incident hit the local and national news with a fury, with a lot of attention coming from Bill O'Reilly.

Today, we see Dr. Hinkley's MSD Warren Township back in the news, with this article from the Indy Star.

On the day a Warren Central High School senior was formally charged with raping another student, Superintendent Peggy Hinkley vowed to do everything possible to ensure student safety.

This is easy for her to say now. But where I come from, reactive is never preferable to proactive. This incident, coupled with the sixth grade sex in shop class scandal, is giving the distinct impression that Dr. Hinkley is an extremely ineffective leader and would do better to sit somewhere on an advisory board, one that meets once a fiscal quarter and has no authority to make policy.

But that's not the half of it. A local attorney and radio talk-show host Abdul Hakim-Shabazz has a list of things that should be considered in making the determination of incompetence of not only Dr. Hinkley, but the entire Warren Township School Board.

Here is his interview with Bill O'Reilly back during the Raymond Park Middle School incident:



PYY is highly appalled that this current leadership is still in place after this incident alone. But if that's not enough, we now have the rape allegation to add to a long list of incidents that would (or at least should) require some kind of intervention to spark some directional change. And it must start at the top. By that I mean, Dr. Hinkley needs be fired. If not, the School Board must be put on notice by the citizens of Warren Township that they will not have a job very long, if she is allowed to continue as chief administrator of that district.

We ask our students to strive to maintain high standards of academic excellence. How can we expect them to do this, when all they can see is the low standard of incompetence from those that are charged with teaching them?

So, do you think that will solve the problem alone? If you do, think again.

If you looked at that list of incidents from Abdul's website, you will remember reading about the janitor that molested the 7 year old. Well, he had his sentencing yesterday. Here is what the Indy Star reports, on this:

Aaron K. Giroud had faced up to eight years in prison, but Marion Superior Court Judge Robert Altice instead gave him a two-year sentence, plus two years on probation. Altice said his clean criminal history and extensive medical problems justified the more lenient sentence.

If idiot judges do not want to protect our children (as evidenced by this light sentence) while in school, then it is imperative that school administration officials do so before they get to the judiciary system.

A Quote To Ponder

I am back in a busy stretch again, so posting is light today.

I have posted this quote a couple of times in the past. But I have to say, I rarely tire of it because there is much truth to it.

There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Here at PYY we have had all three at one time or another. But I have to say, the overwhelming majority have been in the first two classes. Those in the third class have been so very rare and they rarely return. So I want it to be known, I do appreciate all of you that grace this site on a regular basis.

Thanks for reading.

Some French Election Stats

Here are some early demographics from the French election held Sunday:

Women voters.

Sarkozy 52%

Royal 48%

According to this article, Royal miscalculated the gender issue. Instead of focusing on specific programs and ideas, more voters felt she used her gender as bait. Knowing that I lack a deep in-depth knowledge of the French electorate, I cannot say much more than that. But to bring this home, I would caution the American electorate against using the gender issue as the sole reasoning for supporting Hillary. I think it's shallow and if the French election is any kind of indication, it's not particularly a successful strategy.

French Ex-patriot voters.

Sarkozy 53.99%

Royal 46.01%

Link to numbers. (HT: SuperFrenchie)

This was pretty fairly predictable. Many (but not all) have left France for more economic and business freedom and Sarko was their man, pretty much from the beginning. It wasn't an extremely wide margin, but if Royal were to have won this particular vote, I think she would have won. (I don't base this on numbers, just political intuition.)

Some post-election statistics.

Arrests for rioting 592

Vehicles burned 730

Police officers injured 28

For complete analysis from someone more in the know than me, give a look at Amerloque's post-election analysis. In the time I have come to know him in the blogosphere, he has proven time and again, he is a good and trusted source of information.

Update:

Read The Right Revolution For France by Dominique Moisi,
Sarkozy's Dangerous Strengths by Jim Hoagland,
Sarkozy Must Ring The Changes by Anthony Daniels,
and this editorial from the Telegraph for more perspective.