Hank Hill's 'The View From Arlen' Blog.  

Wednesday, May 31, 2006


WE'RE MOVING

For the forseeable future I will be blogging with the fellas over at http://www.federalreview.com/

Please bookmark the site.


Monday, May 22, 2006


NY, SPITZER, ADD INSULT TO INJURY

GENEVA, NY--The State of New York is threatening to take a local business owner to court after its own alleged negligence closed her business.

The Finger Lakes Times reports that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer "sent 'a final notice' to concessionaire Darlene DiFederico of Geneva, notifying her that she needed to settle a $2,058.28 debt or a lawsuit would be initiated against her."

According to the paper, DiFrederico ran the concession stand at Cayuga Lake State Park. The stand was forced to close, the paper reports, after the state shut down its "sprayground" attraction at the site.

The sprayground was closed last year, the Times noted, "after about 40 people complained of a gastrointestinal illness. In subsequent weeks, reports of the outbreak grew to more than 3,869 people in 35 counties — with 612 cases confirmed. The state Health Department determined the illness was cryptosporidiosis, caused by a microscopic parasite."

“I closed because there was no business down there,” DiFederico said, adding she ultimately lost $12,000 following the sprayground’s closing Aug. 16. “Everybody bailed out. It was like we had the plague.”

Several lawsuits and claims have been filed against the state, alleging that the state's negligence caused the outbreak. After the outbreak, the state Health Department decided to rewrite regulations governing water quality at all sprayparks.

Spitzer's office said last week it hopes that it and DiFederico "can resolve the dispute before it gets to court."

New York State is often viewed as unfriendly to business. Despite this lawsuit, Spitzer, a candidate for governor this year, has claimed he will turn that unfriendly climate around.


Sunday, May 21, 2006


AMERICANS: HEALTHIER THAN YOU THINK?
An article in today's New York Times sheds doubt on the theory that Americans are less healthy than their European counterparts.

According to the article, Americans may simply be perceived as sicker because our medical system does more tests, and is quicker to label a patient as "sick":

The question of which country is healthier...turns out to be a perfect illustration of an issue that has plagued American medicine: the more health problems you look for, the more you find. And Americans, medical researchers say, are avid about looking.

The article goes on to note:

Some people call it disease-mongering, says Dr. Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical School. She once calculated that if everyone had the recommended tests for blood cholesterol, blood sugar, body mass index and diabetes, 75 percent of adults in the United States would be labeled as diseased. And new diseases arise by the minute, she says

In other words, it may be that the United States is actually more diligent about diagnosis, treatment and reporting illness. This, in turn, skews the statistics to make our nation look less healthy than it is.

Though unspoken in the article (it is the Times, after all), this also sheds doubt on the theory that socialized medicine in Europe keeps their citizens healthier. If anything, it's possible that they are missing diseases that American medicine catches and treats.

Its something worth looking into.


Saturday, May 20, 2006


ITHACA'S GAS PRICE GOUGE



ITHACA, NY--Despite a state law allowing them to do so, Ithaca area politicians have said they have no intention of cutting the local sales tax on gasoline.



Speaking to the Ithaca Journal, Tim Joseph (D-Ithaca), Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature, said that area officials were “not interested” in following the state’s lead in capping the sales tax, despite skyrocketing prices, claiming “the proposal offers miniscule relief.”

Joseph's comments came despite studies that show taxes, including local taxes, up to one third of the cost of gas.

Many experts consider the gas tax a “regressive” tax, meaning it disproportionately affects the poor and middle class.

Joseph did not offer any proposals for cutting the local cost of gas. He did, however, volunteer his belief that “oil companies continue to drive up the cost of gasoline.”

The average price for gasoline in Ithaca is currently over $3.02 per gallon, approximately ten cents a gallon higher than the national average.


Sunday, May 07, 2006


WAS PLAME OUTED BY HUSBAND?


A blogger at American Thinker speculates that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson himself might have been the one who "outed" his wife, Valerie Plame.

In my opinion, that's a long shot. However, given how willing Wilson is to trade on his wife's alleged "covert" status even to this day, it's not completely impossible.


Monday, May 01, 2006


COMING SOON: JAMES BOND VS RACHEL CORRIE?



Reuters reports that "[i]n the opening scene of 'Casino Royale,' the 21st installment of the popular movie franchise, Bond will pursue his latest enemy in a four-wheel W190 bulldozer supplied by Fiat, the Italian industrial group."

This proves that the Bond movies are fiction. In real life, if you run over a terrorist with a bulldozer, their family sues the manufacturer.


Thursday, April 20, 2006


ITHACA PROFESSOR BLASTS AMERICAN FLAG



ITHACA, NY—A professor at Ithaca College is attacking that school’s use of the American flag on its athletic uniforms.

Writing in the Ithacan, Stephen D. Mosher, a Professor in the Department of Sports Management and Media, claims the use of the flag on sports uniforms violates athletes’ right to free speech:

Many non-citizen athletes are expected to wear the national flag of the country where they play, yet cannot participate in its democracy. Most importantly, the process attaching the flag to uniforms during the buildup to the first Iraq War, in 1990, was almost always done without the participation of the players who wear the uniforms, thus denying them their free speech rights.

The professor also mocked the people who choose to wear the flag:

It is laughable to hear this action is an expression of patriotism when it is so closely associated with supporting war.

This is not the first time employees at Ithaca College have attacked the flag and what it represents. In 2001, shortly after September 11, a faculty member reported being accused of “jingoism” by other employees for “simply flying the American flag.”


Friday, April 07, 2006


COURT: NOISE LAW USED TO VIOLATE CHRISTIAN SPEECH


ITHACA, NEW YORK-The free speech and religious rights of an Evangelical Christian were violated when the City of Ithaca selectively enforced its noise ordinance.

According to the Ithaca Journal, a federal appeals court ruled that the city unfairly singled out preacher Kevin Deegan with its noise law in October, 1999, and threatened him with arrest if he continued to preach in public:

The appeals court noted that Deegan said he had heard a singing group 200 feet away and people talking more than 25 feet from him but they were left undisturbed.

It also said the decibel level of speech that would comply with the 25-foot rule was often lower than the decibel level generated by the steps of a person in high-heeled boots, conversation among several people, the opening and closing of a door, the sounds of a small child on a playground or the ring of a cell phone.

Ithaca, a small college town in upstate New York, often boasts that its far-left politics make it "the most enlightened city in America."

Conservatives, meanwhile, often refer to it as "the City of Evil."


Monday, April 03, 2006


WILL HE NEXT BAN "FRUIT OF THE LOOM"?


GENEVA NY--From the Finger Lakes News Network:

Hobart and William Smith Colleges President Mark Gearan has sent a letter to faculty and staff decrying the use of the word "fruit" on t-shirts worn by Hobart lacrosse fans to the game against Syracuse last week at the Carrier Dome.

The shirts read "at least our mascot isn't a fruit."

Syracuse teams are called the Orangemen, frequently shortened to Orange.

Gearan points out that the term fruit is used as a derogatory term for gays.

Gearan calls the use of the word, "especially painful to many because of our commitment to diversity, equity and social justice."

It would be easy to laugh at Gearan's fear of offending produce. However, maybe there is something to to this. In 2002, the Associated Press reported that Syracuse U banned the Boy Scouts from the Carrier Dome for excluding gays. So maybe the "Orangeman" actually is a little bit of a "rainbow warrior."

And, damn, if that mascot doesn't look a little light in the loafers.


Saturday, March 04, 2006


ROAD RAGE OR MUSLIM TERROR?

Has the "cartoon controversy" come to America?

ABC News is reporting that an Iranian former student at University of North Carolina is in police custody "after he allegedly drove a sport utility vehicle through a popular gathering spot on campus Friday, clipping and scattering startled bystanders."

Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22... was in the custody of campus police. They intended to charge him with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

Taherir-azar's nationality would probably be irrelevant, except, as ABC also notes:

Taheri-azar...allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims.

ABC's local affiliate had additional information:

Taheri-azar apparently told police he tried to rent the biggest SUV he could find to use in the attack. A law enforcement source tells Eyewitness News that Taheri-azar had been plotting the attack for some time and was prepared to die.

The scene of the alleged attack, UNC, was recently the site of protests by Muslim students, after the school paper published a Muhammad cartoon:

The student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been labeled bigoted and racist for daring to publish an image of Muhamed. The Muslim Students Association at UNC is demanding an apology from the staff of the Daily Tar Heel for the transgression.


The cartoon...shows Muhammad appearing to decry both Denmark's role in the controversy and the violence that has erupted since.

Because the attack may have been religiously or politically motivated, the F.B.I. has been called in the case, ABC notes.

The local Muslim student group has condemned the attack, and insisted that Taheri-azar is not a member.


Wednesday, February 22, 2006


PUBLIC SCHOOL CAVES TO RELIGIOUS FANATICS

ST. PAUL, MINN--A publicly funded charter school is changing its art curriculum to avoid offending the religious sensibilities of its Muslim students.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that "ArtStart," a St. Paul-based nonprofit organization that provides art classes to the school changed its classes because of Muslim law:

[S]ome Muslims ...refrain from producing images of ordinary human beings and animals, citing Islamic teaching.

[As a result] parents were...upset that their children were drawing figures [and] some pulled their children out of art class altogether.

[Executive Director Bill Wilson] then sat down with teacher and parent liaison Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmad, who also is the imam at an Islamic center in Minneapolis, to work with ArtStart in determining how to meet state standards without running afoul of Muslim doctrine.

As a result of those meetings, the paper reports, the curriculum was revamped:

Out the window right away went masks, puppets and that classic of elementary school art class, the self-portrait, said Sara Langworthy, an artist with ArtStart. Revamping the curriculum "definitely requires stepping outside of the normal instincts that you fall back on," she said.

In their place came nature scenes and geometric forms and patterns..... This week, the class was cutting out shapes to make into cardboard pouches. Another project involved taking photographs and mapping the neighborhood around the school.


The conversation about what is appropriate is still open.

Langworthy said she and fellow teacher Katie Tuma don't police what the students draw, but they do have conversations with students who are drawing figures to make sure it's really OK.

Second-grader Hawi Muhammed said her parents don't mind if she draws people once in a while, but "God doesn't like people to draw a lot," she said.

The curriculum applies to all elementary students regardless of religion.

It is unclear at this time whether the American Civil Liberties Union, which normally opposes the mixing of "church and state," will weigh in on the matter. However, in regard to schools teaching Judeo-Christian religionn, the ACLU has previously stated:

While people have a right to teach their religious beliefs to others in churches, mosques, synagogues and private schools, public schools should not be used by people to teach their personal religious beliefs to other people's children.

One art teacher at the school called the new curriculum "narrowing."

"But then within that, you can find the depth," she added.


CAMPUS LIBERAL COMMITS A "HATE CRIME"?

ITHACA—A contributor to Cornell University’s “premier liberal voice” has been charged with stabbing a black student on the university’s campus after using “racial epithets” in front of his victim.

According to the Cornell Daily Sun, Nathan Poffenbarger, Class of '08, a regular contributor to the campus magazine, “Turn Left” was charged with second-degree assault, a class "D" felony, after allegedly stabbing a visiting student on West Campus during an altercation on Saturday (February 18).

Police said the attack stemmed from a racial incident.

“Witnesses told police Poffenbarger was yelling racial remarks at someone else, when the victim, a black male student, stepped in to stop him. The victim's name has not been released,” News10 reported.

According to the Ithaca Journal, Poffenbarger is white.

Capt. Kathy Zoner of the Cornell Police Department, told the Sun that the current charges could be elevated to class "C" under hate-crime statutes "if racial motivations are proven."

Wayne Huang , the former editor-in-chief of "Turn Left," confirmed that Poffenbarger was a regular contributor to the magazine. Huang and "Turn Left" staff member Josh Perlman both said they were “shocked” to learn Poffenbarger had been arrested in this matter:

"He had written a lot of good news pieces for us," said [Perlman]. "I had spoken to him earlier that day about a new article he was going to be doing. He didn't seem weird or anything when I spoke to him, just enthusiastic to be writing as he usually was. I was extremely shocked to hear about all this. This seems really out of character."

According to "Turn Left’s" website, its mission statement is to “uphold and maintain tolerant and respectful political dialogue on the campus, promote and practice an ideology rooted in the belief of equality and freedom."

Emergency workers took the victim to Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira where he is in stable condition, the Sun reported.


Wednesday, February 15, 2006


HILLARY, KENNEDY LAUGH OVER CHENEY SHOOTING

WASHINGTON--Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ted Kennedy publicly mocked Vice President Cheney's hunting accident, the same day that the shooting victim suffered a mild heart attack brought on by the incident.

According to New York Newsday:

Clinton stopped by the Senate Armed Services Committee ...to listen to ...Kennedy...ask questions about Humvee safety. During the session, both shared a public chuckle at Cheney's expense.


When one general used the expression "shooting ourselves in the gut," Kennedy interrupted to say, "I'm not sure that's a good analogy today."

Clinton threw back her head and laughed so heartily it echoed through the cavernous committee room.

Kennedy and Clinton's comments came the same day that Cheney's friend and hunting partner, Harry M. Whittington, age 78, suffered a minor heart attack caused by birdshot lodged in his heart. According to the the New York Times:

Whittington, was moved back into the intensive care unit at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Tex., to be monitored for up to a week in case the birdshot shifted or additional pellets in his body moved into other organs

Neither Clinton nor Kennedy are strangers to gun-related tragedies.

Kennedy's brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s.


And Clinton's good friend and co-worker Vince Foster allegedly took his own life while working for the Clinton White House.

The press reports today that Cheney's friend is expected to make a full recovery.


Monday, February 13, 2006


AL "GORES" THE U.S.


With Muslims rioting throughout the world over a cartoon, insurgents still attacking us in Iraq, and Iran getting ever closer to having nuclear weapons, you would think the last thing any sane American would want to do would be to go to the Middle East and stir up more anti-American sentiment.

Unfortunately, the man who claims to have invented the internet has probably not been sane since at least the 2000 elections.

As a result, we have former Vice President Al Gore over in Saudi Arabia, making trouble:

Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience yesterday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after 9/11....


Gore also accused the Bush administration of playing into al Qaeda's hands by "thoughtlessly" blocking visas for Saudis.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis who got visas under a visa "express" program. It was ended after 9/11, and Saudis are now subject to tougher scrutiny.

So, apparently, Gore thinks that, post-9/11, we do not have enough potential terrorists entering the United States?

It would be easy to dismiss Gore's comments as the ravings of a "sore loser."

Unfortunately, the former Vice President is still a figure of prominence in the Democratic Party. In fact, an unscientific "presidential primary poll" at Democrats.com has him the party's frontrunner for 2008. Therefore, his comments both reflect his party and send a message to our enemies, and our allies, that terror against the U.S. is justified.

Once again, the leadership of the Democratic party is putting its politics ahead of the American people


Saturday, February 11, 2006


THE DEMOCRATS' "WAR"


The Los Angeles Times reports on the predictable Democratic reaction to President Bush's speech this week, in which he described how the government foiled an al Qaeda plot to fly hijacked planes into L.A.'s Library Tower

The details did little to counter skepticism from Democrats and some law enforcement officials who have questioned whether the reported scheme had ever been put into operation before it was thwarted.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) described Bush's speech as a political stunt...Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he "didn't find [Bush's comments] very helpful . . . from a professional point of view."

Let's look at what, basically, these democrats are saying.

The same Democratic leadership that constantly whine that the President should have somehow "prevented" 9/11 are downplaying the fact he did, in fact, prevent a similar event. In fact, they almost act as if it would have been better, or at least more believable, for the President to have waited for the terror plot to progress further before stopping it.

Similarly, the same Democratic leadership that constantly demands public hearings about our intelligence programs and defends leaking top secret information about the programs is now taking umbrage that the President, after the fact, revealed an incident where those intelligence programs worked, on the premise that information about the programs "isn't helpful."

It seems as if, to the Democratic leadership, information about the programs is only helpful when it makes the President look bad.

This is just one more example of how the Democratic leadership isn't fighting the war on terror. They're fighting a war on the President.


Sunday, January 29, 2006


SHEEHANSTEIN: THE DEMOCRATS’ “MONSTER” RETURNS



BERKELEY, CA--Last summer, the controversial “peace activist” Cindy Sheehan was the toast of the Democratic party when she camped outside of the President’s ranch and all but accused him of murdering her son.

Since then, however, Sheehan has become a growing thorn in the Democrats’ side, as her extremist views and bizarre behavior are increasingly targeted at democrats who, in Sheehan’s opinion, are not sufficiently “anti-war” for the “peace mom.”

First, Sheehan publicly attacked Hillary Clinton for her vote in support of the Iraq war. Since then, Clinton, crisscrossing the country in support of her 2008 presidential ambitions, has faced regular protests and even heckling from her own anti-war “base.”

Now, Sheehan is actually considering a primary run for the Senate against California Senator Diane Feinstein, “to protest what she called the California lawmaker's support for the war in Iraq.”


"She voted for the war. She continues to vote for the funding. She won't call for an immediate withdrawal of the troops…I think our senator needs to be held accountable for her support of George Bush and his war policies.”


During, and after, her protests against the President, Sheehan’s behavior and words became more extreme. And, as long as she was directed such bizarre statements as “my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana,” "This country is not worth dying for,” and “the biggest terrorist is [the President]" against George W. Bush, she was treated respectfully, as a “grieving mother” who was above criticism, by democrats and their allies in the media.

That respect is creating the impression, in the minds of both Sheehan and her supporters, that she is a figure of stature and a serious voice in the national debate on the war in Iraq.

Now, however that stature is being used against the very people who created it.

As such, it will be interesting to see whether her mainstream supporters can escape this “peace monster” of their own creation.


Monday, January 09, 2006


FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE WORLD OF LIBERALS

Liberals fear and hate conservative thought and red state values. That’s the message to be gleaned from two guest editorials with opposing political viewpoints.

The Ithaca Journal recently printed a “guest editorial” from Janis Kelly, who complained that “liberal” Ithaca, which claims to celebrate diversity, did not extend that diversity to political or cultural thought:

All around me in Ithaca I see fairly bright people talking and listening only to each other, confident of the superiority of their own ideas, openly contemptuous of those who might not agree.

This provincial, almost tribal, insularity deprives us of a certain social richness, as well as of opportunities to hone our political thinking. As Ann Althouse noted, to many of the true-blue, “(A)dmitting that I don't share every one of their views ... would be tantamount to admitting that I am no longer a good person or a potential friend. ... Deep down, I don't think most of them believe that it is possible for anyone to be a worthwhile person who holds political views different from their own.”

Kelly urged the liberal, or “blue” residents of Ithaca to try and see the “other side” of the political divide, the “red” areas and suggested, somewhat tongue in cheek:

Listen to your local country music station for 20 minutes a day. Watch Brit Hume's nightly “Special Report” on Fox News. Read a Louis L'Amour novel, preferably “Comstock Lode.” Watch a NASCAR race on television. Eat out at one of the all-you-can-eat steak places and think about the feast the average American can buy for the equivalent of two hours work at minimum wage. Once you have prepped, you might actually visit someplace that voted red.

This, Kelly suggested, might help the Democratic party understand the rural areas of the country and bring them greater success at the polls:

I suspect that learning to know and even appreciate the people in the red areas of that shelter will be essential if Democrats are ever to arrest the party's slide into irrelevance. As Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana noticed after the 2004 election, the Democratic Party “need(s) to be a party that stands for more than the sum of our resentments” rather than a “cultural elite that is condescending at best and contemptuous at worst of the values that Americans hold in their daily lives.”

Kelly’s suggestion, however, did not sit well with at least one Ithaca
resident.

Writing a response in the Journal, Jud Kilgore stated:

I am not Blue because I prefer Mozart and Debussy to Johnny Cash, but because I hate the pig-pen of Tom DeLay's corruption. I am not Blue because I read Shakespeare instead of L'Amour, but because we have the most secretive administration in our national history.

I am proud to be Blue for whatever reason…than to be Red and all that label implies: deception in the highest offices, government sold to the highest corporate bidders; a war on science… economic insanity that allows an Everest of deficit in pursuit of tax relief for the fortunate at the expense of health care and education for the less fortunate…. My fear is of our elected leaders.

Perhaps without realizing it, Kilgore proved Kelly correct. No where in his editorial did he say what he, and his fellow liberals, were for, only what he, and they, “hate” and “fear.” Furthermore, instead attempting to find common ground with his conservative neighbors, even on something as potentially non-controversial as the great Johnny Cash, he belittled them, proving himself every bit as “condescending… and contemptuous” as Kelly worried liberals could be seen as.

As Kelly noted in her original editorial, many Democrats have been trying to find a way to bridge, or at least pay lip service to, the gap between themselves and “red state” America. Fortunately for Republicans, however, if Kilgore, and the rest of Ithaca, speak for the Democrats and liberals of America, that gap will be there for quite some time.