Sophie's Choice

Michelle Malkin points us to this article that will surely bring tears to your eyes:

Guerrillas armed with automatic rifles and explosive belts who are holding hundreds of hostages at the small provincial school in southern Russia allowed 26 women and children to leave. About a dozen mothers, like Dzandarova, were allowed to take only one child, forced to leave another behind.

"I didn't want to make this choice," a stunned-looking Dzandarova, 27, said in the reception room of her father-in-law's house a few miles from the school. "People say they are happy that my son and I are saved. But how can I be happy if my daughter's still inside there?"

Violence often selects its victims randomly, but seldom is a mother asked to make a Sophie's choice: Save one child and leave behind another, possibly to face death....

..."They said, 'Pack your things quickly, and take your babies with you,' " Dzandarova said.

Shortly after, she learned that she would have to choose between taking her son or her daughter.

Dzandarova had both Alan and Alana with her and made a snap decision to pass Alana to her 16-year-old sister-in-law. But the guerrillas saw through the ruse and refused to allow her to take the older child.

"Alana was clinging to me and holding my hand firmly. But they separated us, and said: 'You go with the boy. Your sister can stay here with her.' I cried. I begged them. Alana cried. The women around us wept. One of the Chechens said: 'If you don't go now, you don't go at all. You stay here with your children … and we will shoot all of you.' "

She couldn't save both of them. She could only die with both of them — or save one of them and herself.

"I didn't have time to think what I was doing," she said. "I pressed Alan even stronger to myself, and I went out, and I heard all the time how my daughter was crying and calling for me behind my back. I thought my heart would break into pieces there and then."

Not once in the article do they call the murderers terrorists. Please pray that this woman's daughter is still alive.

UPDATE: SHE GOT HER DAUGHTER BACK! That is a reason to celebrate.

Why Europe (except Italy, Poland and England) Doesn't Get It!

Little Green Footballs points us to the Russian disgust at an EU statement regarding the massacre in Belsan:

Russia has described as "blasphemous" a request by the European Union for an explanation to the bloody end to a mass hostage seizure at a school by Chechen gunmen.

More than 320 people, almost half of them children were found dead after troops stormed a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where the separatists held more than 1,000 hostages for 53 hours.

In a statement in the name of the presidency of the 25-nation EU, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said on Friday that all countries should work together to stop such tragedies.

"But we also would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened," he added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted with outrage on Saturday.

"Mr. Bot's elaborations are an absolute contrast with the wide international support and solidarity with Russia in these tragic days," the ministry statement said.

"Inappropriate statements by the Dutch minister look odious ... and blasphemous," it added. "We expect explanations from the Dutch side."

Interfax news agency later said that the Dutch ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign ministry over Bot's statement.

Remember, Russia is one of those nations who are not involved in Iraq. So why are they being attacked? Because terrorists DON'T CARE! All these statements by the Democrats saying that the Iraq war created more terrorists is stupid, they are everywhere! And they don't care at all about Iraq.

Mark Steyn

Pat at Kerry Haters introduced me to Mark Steyn (I don't know why I'd never heard of him before). He is an excellent writer and I want to share him with you like Pat did with me:

I remember a couple of days after Sept. 11 writing that weepy candlelight vigils were a cop-out: the issue wasn't whether you were sad about the dead people but whether you wanted to do something about it. Three years on, the two conventions drew the same distinction. If you want passivity and wallowing in victim culture, the Dems will do. If you want to win this thing, Bush is the only guy running.

Read the whole column here.

Muslim Self-Criticism

Boots & Sabers--after their chicken sex story--point us to a great column (the first of its kind?) that demonstrates that some muslims are getting it.

“Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture,” Abdulrahman al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya television wrote in his daily column published in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. It ran under the headline, “The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!”

Al-Rashed ran through a list of recent attacks by Islamic extremist groups — in Russia, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen — many of which are influenced by the ideology of Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi-born leader of the al-Qaida terror network.

“Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around the world for the past 10 years have been Muslims,” he wrote. Muslims will be unable to cleanse their image unless “we admit the scandalous facts,” rather than offer condemnations or justifications.

“The picture is humiliating, painful and harsh for all of us,” al-Rashed wrote.

Terrorists Kill over 350 Women and Children

Please pray for our friends in Russia who are facing horrible grief. Also, please pray for Vladimir Putin who will need guidance in his (hopefully forceful) response to the six acts of terrorism in the last two weeks (more than 500 dead).

President Clinton Will Have Heart Surgery

Please keep our former president in your prayers this weekend. Pray for his recovery and for Hillary and for Chelsea.

You can post well wishes, encouragement and prayers at the Clinton Foundation.

Christmas in Austria

After a completely successful RNC in New York City the media is gearing up to run John Kerry's campaign for him. Proof? CNN interviews obscure Austrian historians that are now questioning the memory of an 8 year old boy here.

AIDS in AFRICA

Bono is on O'Reilly and is totally respectable. He is completely bipartisan and making the issue of saving Africans from the scourge of AIDS. Bono gets a gold star (like Ben Affleck) for not being a bomb-thrower.

South Park Republicans in the Opinion Journal

Bridget Johnson discusses the Screen Righters:

Forget about pricey summer blockbusters. Forget the films vying for Oscar that are all crunched into December releases. This year, it's all about pre-election films. Not the incendiary "Fahrenheit 9/11," not the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" that mysteriously erased Red China as the villain, replacing it with an American corporation, but a film that promises to strike even more anger into the hearts of angry liberals everywhere.

When the buzz first started for "Team America: World Police," bloggers theorized what the Trey Parker/Matt Stone send-up of action movies would entail--these are, after all, the gents who gave the world Comedy Central's "South Park." Then juicy tidbits started dribbling into the Internet Movie Database, like the plot outline: "Marionette superheroes fight to end terrorism and put tired celebrities out of their misery." Who could oppose that?

Naked Cowboys

Love Bush!

WOOF!

DNC Chairman Somewhat Honest

I am sorry, but I saw Terry last night being interviewed during the RNC and I think he is dumbfounded and overwhelmed. His talking points started to decay and he just started answering questions about John Kerry. Check out the exlusive interview at Hugh Hewitt's Blog.

More Terrorist Leaders for John Kerry

Michael Freund in the Jerusalem Post writes:

The excitement is palpable. You can almost feel it in the air. The dictators of the Arab world just can't wait for George W. Bush to lose the US presidential election in November.

Gripped with fear as they watch Bush's democratic experiment in Iraq take shape, the tyrants and despots of the Middle East are pinning their hopes on Democratic challenger John Kerry to prevail.

After all, the last thing they want to see is a second-term Bush determined to reform the region, a development that would threaten their grip on power and stymie their efforts to obtain more lethal types of weaponry.

And so the rhetoric in the Arab world is heating up, pointing to a real desire to see the US president go down in defeat.

Thanks, Alpha Patriot.

Ahhhnold!

He was a Man on Fire last night! Distinctly partisan and outlined the secular core values that will woo swing voters.

The Bush twins were duds though...

The Dems Pray for the Odometer Effect

Personal Analysis:

The dems are praying--I mean doing yoga hoping that enough soldiers die in Iraq so all the newspapers can put on their front page:

1000 DEAD!

Disgusting.

Main Stream Media: Crybabies

Instapundit points to a great article about the Media moaning:

I've been listening to mainstream-media types talk about the terrible threat posed to the news business by one new phenomenon or other since I began my career 22 years ago. The complaint is invariably, and drearily, the same: Whatever is new is bad because it supposedly lowers the historically high standards of the mainstream media.

The last two years in particular have seen the explosion of a new medium — the personal Internet newspaper, or blog — that has already and will forever change the way people get their information.

This is a thrilling development — unless you are a mainstream-media Big Fish.

The success of the Swift-boat vets' ads is the tale of the triumph of the nation's alternative media. The mainstreamers didn't want to touch the story with a 10-foot pole, and they didn't. But the alternative media did. Amateur reporters and fact-gatherers offered independent substantiation for some of the charges. It turned out the criticisms of the Swifties weren't quite so easily dismissed.

Because there was new information coming out every day, there was more and more to discuss on talk radio and cable news channels. And the story just wouldn't go away, because millions of people were interested in it.

Iatrogenic

Jonah Goldberg asks:

What do fat people, MoveOn.org and the Swift Boat Vets for Truth have in common? They are also the products of "iatrogenic government."

In medicine an iatrogenic condition or ailment is one that is caused by the physician, either deliberately or by accident. Give too much medicine, or the wrong kind, and the negative consequences are iatrogenic.

The late Sen. Pat Moynihan coined the phrase "iatrogenic government" to describe problems that were created by the intent to cure. What he had in mind was the tendency of the drug war to create more problems than it solves. But the same thing goes on all the time.

Read more.

Election Watch 2004

Hugh Hewitt points us to the Election Watch 2004 that's a great round-up of all things Bush-Kerry.

Is Simplicity Best or Simply the Easiest?

That's the first line of one of Depeche Mode's greatest songs, "Judas," off the album, Songs of Faith and Devotion.

Newsweek publishes a decently fair article outlining Bush's leadership style. The positives are found futher into the article (of course), but it's intelligently written and I think--in total--very fair.One thing is clear:

This is not a president who is inclined to second-guess himself. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice described Bush as the anchor of the White House team, a man who recognizes that big, strategic decisions will bring with them good times and bad times and who is not distracted by news coverage that can fluctuate by the day or even by the hour. "If you had a president who was doing that" — watching the polls and the daily headlines — "the country would be in a deep trouble," she said.

Unfunded Mandates

Jed at Boots & Sabers dug up an old 8th grade test; go to his site to check the answers...I'd love to have all the demonstrators in NYC take this test and see what the average score is. Tell me your score in the comments section.

Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $.20 per inch?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?

Orthography (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u’.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e’. Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of N.A.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

Health (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Where are the saliva, gastric juice, and bile secreted? What is the use of each in digestion?
2. How does nutrition reach the circulation?
3. What is the function of the liver? Of the kidneys?
4. How would you stop the flow of blood from an artery in the case of laceration?
5. Give some general directions that you think would be beneficial to preserve the human body in a state of health.

Kerry: Let Iran Have Yellow Cake!

A John F. Kerry administration would propose to Iran that the Islamic state be allowed to keep its nuclear power plants in exchange for giving up the right to retain the nuclear fuel that could be used for bomb-making, Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards said in an interview yesterday. Read more.

UPDATE: Analysis from the folks at CrushKerry.com:

We are rapidly losing our ability to discuss John Kerry and his campaign for president with any measure of dispassion or objectivity. His latest harebrained scheme with regard to Iran's nuclear program is so cataclysmically stupid, so geopolitically naïve, so monumentally arrogant there are not words in all the known human languages – living or dead – to describe it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but John Kerry’s plan to confront Iran’s weapons program will lead to the nuclear destruction of Israel.

Articles on Protests

Here are three great articles on the protests:

Thousands March and Ask, "Where's John?"

More than 57 Varieties of Bush Hatred

The DNC Hits NYC

Supply & Demand

I think these toys were demanded from some islamo-fascist country, North Korea or Cuba--but accidently wound up in a grab bag of toys sent to the US.