Random-American will be out of the loop for a few days on business, but rest assured I’ll be back soon.  In the meantime, please feel free to peruse the other blogs listed to the right. 

Radical practitioners of the wonderful, serene, tolerant Religion of Peace™ and Perpetual Outrage are…outraged.  I know.  Shocker, huh?  And what are they outraged about this time?… a teddy bear.  Yep, you read that correctly.  A friggin teddy bear.  And, naturally, the teddy bear outrage is not to be confused with the Flying Imam outrage, the Pope’s comments outrage, the Danish Mohammad cartoon outrage, veil outrage, the beauty pageant outrage, the false story of the flushing of a Qu’ran outrage, or any of the other myriad list of things that offennnnd and outrage Muslims.

A British teacher in the Sudan allowed her 7-year-old students choose the name of a teddy bear, and the name chosen by 20 of the 23 students was Muhammad.  As a result, the teacher has been charged with blasphemy and faces 40 lashes.  (hat tip: LGF)

From Fox News:

A British primary school teacher arrested in Sudan faces up to 40 lashes for blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested at at Khartoum’s Unity High School yesterday, and accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam.

Her colleagues said that they feared for her safety after reports that groups of young men had gathered outside the Khartoum police station where she was taken and were shouting death threats.

So, naming a stuffed animal Muhammad is blasphemous and subject to being lashed.  I can’t help but wonder though, how many kids in that class and how many men calling for her to be lashed are named Muhammad?  Ah yeah, but that’s ok, right? 

Just to be clear, naming a teddy bear Muhammad is an insult to Islam.  But, a suicide bomber named Muhammad who straps on a vest of explosives and murders innocent people in the name of Islam isn’t?  Where’s the worldwide outrage when that happens?  Whoops, better not ask logical questions like that, wouldn’t want to offennnnd anyone. 

Sheer 7th Century idiocy.

I know, I know…just here to work…yadda, yadda…

From The Billings Gazette:

An El Salvadoran who was in the United States illegally has been sentenced to eight years in prison for using a false identity to receive government benefits.

Tomas D. Ramirez, 44, was ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution for federal and state student aid and food stamps he received illegally.

He was told he would be deported again upon completion of his sentence.

Ramirez has a criminal record in the United States dating back 20 years, with convictions for burglary and theft in Napa County, Calif., in 1987.

He was deported, but re-entered the United States using a different name and was later convicted of drug trafficking in Portland, Ore.

Between August 2000 and March 2006, Ramirez was arrested on 10 different occasions, with charges including three DUIs, drug possession and eluding a police officer.

Ramirez was found to be using a false identity when the man whose identity he had stolen applied for college financial aid and learned there were already some loans and grants in his name.

This kind of crap goes on every single day, all over the country, yet we’re constantly told that all illegal aliens are just here to work.  However, anyone with more than two functioning brain cells and can read the paper knows that’s bovine excrement.  When will the madness end and our spineless politicos finally secure the border and enforce the law? 

Practitioners of the open-minded, tolerant, inclusive, Religion of Peace™ have sentenced a woman to three years in jail because she claimed she was Christian while she was “officially” a Muslim.  Yep, sure sounds peaceful and tolerant to me.

From News24.com:

An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for three years because her father’s brief conversion to Islam 45 years ago made her legally a Muslim while her official papers said she was Christian, her lawyer said on Thursday.

Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was charged with fraud for stating Christianity as her religion on her marriage certificate, unaware that her father’s conversion to Islam in 1962 had made her officially a Muslim…

…

Under Egyptian law it is also illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man.

She was charged with “providing false information on official documents” for stating she was Christian on her marriage certificate in 1982.

Apparently, “public hearings” are being held on the topic of whether to ban fireplaces in San Francisco.  The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will hold public hearings to determine whether or not the use of fireplaces will be banned.  Call me crazy, but I think the massive forest fires in California put eleventy-jillion times more crap into the air than fireplaces ever will.  This is nothing more than do-gooder nanny-staters trying to impose their global warming alarmism into the choices average people make how to live.  Ridiculous. 

Read more here…Should Fireplaces Be Banned?

Mysterious “youth” have begun rioting and burning stuff in France again, after two “youth” were riding an allegedly stolen motorcycle and were killed when they crashed into a police car. 

From Reuters via Yahoo!News:

Dozens of youths clashed with police and set fire to buildings in a Paris suburb on Sunday after two teenagers were killed in a crash with a police car.

The pair were riding on a stolen motorcycle when the accident happened on Sunday in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, a police union source said. 

France’s worst urban unrest in 40 years broke out in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois in November 2005, after two teenagers died electrocuted in an electricity sub-station after apparently fleeing police.

The circumstances in this case, however, were different.

“It was not a chase but apparently a traffic accident,” a police source said.

The town’s police station caught fire and that of the neighbouring town, Arnouville-les-Gonesse, was ransacked, the local authority said.

A Villiers garage was set ablaze and fires were put out before they could spread in a neighbouring garage and a petrol station in the same town.

Hmm, I wonder if the “youth” that are rioting have anything in common with the “youth” who rioted in France before or the “youth” who rioted earlier this year in Amsterdam?  Yep, probably just poor innocent downtrodden disenfranchised misunderstood generic ”youth,” eh?

From Pajamas Media (hat tip: MM):

Fires are raging in the banlieue tonight. Two boys aged 15 and 16 riding on a mini-motorcycle (prohibited on the road) hit a police car this afternoon in Villiers-le-Bel. The boys, who weren’t wearing helmets, were killed. Hundreds of enraged men and boys are tearing up the neighborhood.

Le Parisien reports that they burned down a Peugeot dealership, sacked a train station and shops, tore up a McDonald’s, stole the day’s receipts and attacked customers, smashed and burned cars, and are still going strong. A police commissioner who tried to talk to the mob was attacked with iron rods; his face and skull are fractured. A police station was burned down, seven policemen were injured.

This is one of the key aspects in dealing with the massive problem of illegal immigration.  They must go after and punish employers who knowingly and willingly hire illegal aliens.  Secure the border and enforce the law.  It’s good to see that  US District Judge David Bunning “gets it.”

From The Cincinnati Post:

A contractor who admitted supplying illegal immigrant workers to the Northern Kentucky home building industry was sentenced Thursday to serve 18 months in federal prison.

After he was sentenced on the federal charges, Robert Pratt was immediately arrested by Boone County authorities on charges of fraud, saying he had underpaid unemployment taxes.

Pratt, who lives in Franklin, Tenn., was one of seven people sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Covington for knowingly hiring illegal workers. The other six - all of whom worked with or for Pratt, several of whom are family members - drew sentences ranging from probation and house arrest to 12 months and a day in prison.

Pratt, called the ringleader and mastermind of the ring, received the stiffest sentence. Still, his penalty was cut in half from what it could have been, because he has cooperated with authorities who continue to investigate what companies knew about the illegal immigrants working for them.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning told Pratt during the hearing that his role in organizing, paying, housing and transporting the illegal workers to their jobs called for a substantial sentence. Pratt not only used his cultural connections to Mexican workers to take advantage of them - he is bilingual and of Mexican descent - but he used his own children to set up and run some of his companies, Bunning said.

Pratt also betrayed his fellow countrymen in the United States by using the illegal immigrants, a cheap source of labor that denies better paying jobs to those here legally and puts honest businesses at a competitive disadvantage, said Bunning.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) essentially admits they’re worthless and have no clue what Iran is doing.  Shocker.  In other Earth-shattering news, the sky is blue and water is wet. (hat tip: LGF)

From AFP via Google News:

The UN atomic watchdog said Thursday it was in the dark about Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, as its 35-member board seemed divided on how to get Tehran to shed more light on its activities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “has so far not been able to verify some important aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme,” its director general Mohamed ElBaradei told a board meeting here.

He specifically cited key questions related to the scope and nature of Iran’s centrifuge enrichment activities, “as well as those relevant to alleged studies and other activities that could have military applications”.

As a result, the UN watchdog was “unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities,” ElBaradei complained.

Radical pratitioners of the Religion of Peace™ strike again.  And what was the great “crime” committed by the people that were beheaded?  Wearing “western-style” pants and not praying.  Unbelievable depravity.

From Reuters:

Three suspected al Qaeda militants, including two sisters, beheaded their uncle and his wife, forcing the couple’s children to watch, Iraqi police said on Friday.

The militants considered that school guard Youssef al-Hayali was an infidel because he did not pray and wore western-style trousers, they told police interrogators after being arrested in Diyala province northwest of Baghdad.

While the hardline secularists, atheists, and all those who believe that there should be a total removal of God as pertains to our government and country, I feel it is important to remember the true purpose of Thanksgiving.  Our Founders recognized the significance of God in our society and government, no matter what the ACLU says.  As proven by the following declarations made by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, there was a time when the idiocy of political correctness didn’t exist.  And I thank God for that.

General Thanksgiving

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Proclamation of Thanksgiving 

 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

A PROCLAMATION.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed,

Done at the city of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

While the open-borders apologists, pro-illegal alien supporters and Mexican authorities tell us it’s “racist” if we don’t grant drivers licenses to those who are illegally in our country, it remains completely illegal in all 31 states of Mexico to grant a drivers license to a non-citizen.  Gotta love hypocrisy.

From USA Today:

The question of whether to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants has ignited a national debate in the United States.

Yet in Mexico, the biggest source of immigrants to the USA, there’s no debate: If you’re not in the country legally, you can’t get a driver’s license.

All of Mexico’s 31 states, along with the federal district of Mexico City, require foreigners to present a valid visa if they want a driver’s license, according to a survey of states by USA TODAY.

“When it comes to foreigners, we’re a little more strict here,” said Alejandro Ruíz, director of education at the Mexican Automobile Association.

…

“The fact that all 31 states in Mexico would have such a common-sense position … shows to me a certain hypocrisy on the part of the Mexican government, because they are constantly criticizing those of us in Congress who want immigration laws to be tougher up here,” [NY Rep. Peter] King said.

Licensing offices in all of Mexico’s 31 states, along with the Federal District, where Mexico City lies, said they require applicants to prove their citizenship, preferably by showing a voter registration card issued by the Federal Elections Institute.

…

Mexican officials said rules are strictly enforced, especially in southern states that have a problem with illegal immigrants from Central America.

The audacity and hypocrisy know no bounds.

Radical practitioners of the Religion of Peace™ strike again, intentionally targeting children. 

From AP via Yahoo!News:

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least three children and three of the troopers, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.

Seven children were wounded in the attack in Baqouba, where U.S. soldiers wrested control from al-Qaida in Iraq last summer.

The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as the American military said overall violence is down 55 percent since a troop buildup began this year.

Police said the attack occurred as U.S. soldiers were handing out toys, sports equipment and other treats in a playground near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

But that attack, as heinous as it was, has nothing on the attack carried out by radical practitioners of the Religion of Peace™ in Afghanistan earlier this month.

From AP via Military.com:

A suicide attack in northern Afghanistan earlier this week killed 59 schoolchildren and wounded 96 others, the Education Ministry said Friday.

The schoolchildren were lined up to greet a group of lawmakers visiting a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives. In total, at least 75 people were killed, including several parliamentarians.

Fifty-nine schoolchildren aged 8 to 18 and five teachers were among those killed in the attack, said Zahoor Afghan, an Education Ministry spokesman.

The utter depravity and heinousness of these beetles is simply mindboggling.

Although I applaud most legitimate attempts to secure the border, I can’t help but wonder…what good will cameras do if there’s not enough people to actually go apprehend the folks seen on the cameras?  Can a camera prevent a crime? Or just show visual evidence of a crime occurring?  Cameras are all fine and dandy, but there needs to be additional boots on the ground as well.  Anything less is just a dog and pony show.

From Houston Chronicle:

Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to broadcast live video footage from the border over the Internet should be up and running again by January now that new funding has been secured, a spokesman said.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor has found $3 million in federal grants to install about 200 mobile cameras along the Texas-Mexico border.

Is it tragic when any member of the military dies?  As a veteran and proud American, I say…absolutely.  However, we must also try to keep things in perspective. 

From FoxNews:

More active members of the military died during two years of peacetime in the early 1980s than died during a two-year period of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a government report.

The Congressional Research Service, which compiled war casualty statistics from the Revolutionary War to present day conflicts, reported that 4,699 members of the U.S. military died in 1981 and ‘82 — a period when the U.S. had only limited troop deployments to conflicts in the Mideast. That number of deaths is nearly 900 more than the 3,800 deaths during 2005 and ‘06, when the U.S. was fully committed to large-scale military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Haven’t seen much mention of this on most mainstream media sources, have you?

Well isn’t this interesting?

From NASA:

A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming.

…

“Our study confirms many changes seen in upper Arctic Ocean circulation in the 1990s were mostly decadal in nature, rather than trends caused by global warming,” said Morison.

What?  NASA has the audacity to imply that changes in climate might actually be natural and not the result of the evils of man?  But, but, but…OwlGore said the debate is over.  Ah well, sorry Al.  Perhaps you should also talk to the people in South America and see how they feel about “global warming.”

From The Telegraph:

…residents in Argentina and Brazil are wondering if this winter will ever end. Buenos Aires recorded this Thursday (November 15th) the lowest  November temperature in 90 years. Temperature in the Downtown weather station reached 2.5C. Since records began more than a century ago, only two days had colder lows in November.

…

The culprit is a developing la Nina , a cooling of the water in the eastern Pacific along the South American coast,  that some climatologists believe could indicate a  return to the la Nina dominated situation  that dominated from1947 to 1977.   El Ninos, a warming of East Pacific waters. have been more common since then.  Some climatologists believe the el Ninos  may have caused what the IPCC calls  “global warming”.

La Nina?  Hmm, you mean it’s natural?  Wow, imagine that.  I can’t help but wonder what alarmist bandwagon the global warming religionists will jump on when it becomes abundantly clear to most sane people that global warming is basically just alarmist hype?

All it takes is a little common sense to see that the myth of global warming is nothing but a money grab aimed at getting grant money for “research” and to redistribute wealth to “the poor.”  That’s pretty obvious if you sit back and look at it, as evidenced by a recent quote from the Director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change:

“Everyone will feel its effects, but global warming will hit the poorest countries hardest and will ‘threaten the very survival’ of some people … Failing to recognize the urgency of this message and act on it would be nothing less than criminally irresponsible’ and a direct attack on the world’s poorest people.”

Follow the money.