The Shagged Sheep — One party PC journalism is here. Watch the attack on Mark Steyn

THE SHAGGED SHEEP

This is a long piece but it does have underage sex and bestiality in it. So enjoy! — Mark Steyn The other day I had an e-mail from M J Murphy, who blogs as Big City Lib, saying only this: I think you owe Dr. Miller an apology. There followed a link to a post called Steyn Gets Punked By 28-Year Old Literary Hoax: Remember the kerfuffle between Mark Steyn and journalism professor Dr. John Miller from a few weeks back? Dr. Miller accused Steyn of taking material for “America Alone” from illegitimate sources like the infamous Little Green Book: Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini.* [*UPDATE: M J Murphy has quietly revised this paragraph, and so the airbrushing begins]  Actually, I don’t think Dr Miller has accused me of any such thing, though I admit, given his shifting accusations, that I’m no longer quite sure what he’s accusing me of. Just to recap, said “kerfuffle” arises from this passage in a review I wrote for Maclean’s of Oriana Fallaci’s final book The Force Of Reason: Signora Fallaci then moves on to the livelier examples of contemporary Islam — for example, Ayatollah Khomeini’s “Blue Book” and its helpful advice on romantic matters: “If a man marries a minor who has reached the age of nine and if during the defloration he immediately breaks the hymen, he cannot enjoy her any longer.” I’ll say. I know it always ruins my evening. Also: “A man who has had sexual relations with an animal, such as a sheep, may not eat its meat. He would commit sin.” Indeed. A quiet cigarette afterwards as you listen to your favourite Johnny Mathis LP and then a promise to call her next week and swing by the pasture is by far the best way. It may also be a sin to roast your nine-year-old wife, but the Ayatollah’s not clear on that. A cheap joke en passant. Indeed, insofar as I dwelt on the ovine fornication, it was to suggest to La Fallaci that, even for us flagrant Islamophobes, it was not perhaps the most useful avenue of attack: I enjoy the don’t-eat-your-sexual-partner stuff as much as the next infidel, but the challenge presented by Islam is not that the cities of the Western world will be filling up with sheep-shaggers. If I had to choose, I’d rather Mohammed Atta was downriver in Egypt hitting on the livestock than flying through the windows of Manhattan skyscrapers. But he’s not. And that’s it. That’s all I said. And no one would remember had not El Mo’s sock puppets included the sheep-shagging line in the dossier they submitted to the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission. Whereupon Dr Miller …actually, I’m not sure he is a doctor: He calls himself “The Journalism Doctor”, but the  title seems to be entirely self-conferred. Anyway, at this point, Doc Miller, Prof Miller, Herr Baron von Miller or whatever he is got interested in the case and asked the British Columbia “Human Rights” Tribunal if he could intervene. Silly ol’ me assumed that he wished to intervene to argue the cause of free speech. But no: he wanted to intervene to argue that I was not a “responsible journalist”, and so it was entirely appropriate for the state to censor me. As Rory Leishman notes, since this thought-police racket got going, “Most journalists have either condoned censorship or cowered in silence.” Canadians who still value liberty should know that, if they rely on anemic PC flunkeys like Professor Miller, they’ll lose their country. At any rate, the BCHRT gave him the bum’s rush, so Prof Miller surfaced a few weeks ago and kept returning to the subject of the sheep-shaggers line. His complaint is in an apparently endless process of evolution. But let’s go through the story so far: 1) First, insofar as I understand his initial argument, he advanced the curious line that the ruling from the Ayatollah was not widely cited, and therefore it was improper of me to use it. After it was pointed out that in fact Khomeini’s views on the post-bestiality buffet, child sex and other arcane points of Islamic law are known to many (especially those  on the receiving end), a couple of weeks later he revised his line of attack: 2) Now his argument was that I’d concocted it out of whole cloth. The J-Doc declared boldly that Steyn “gave no citation for the quote, and I suspect it was made up.” In fact, as anyone who reads the passage above can see, I attributed it to Oriana Fallaci’s book. The disinterested observer might conclude that Professor Ethics-Bore had never so much as glanced at the offending article but had simply taken the Sock Puppets’ word for it. So the E-Bore was obliged to revise his argument yet again – and decided to accuse me of what he appeared to have done himself: 3) Now my sin was that I “clearly accepted someone else’s word for it”. Evidently, it wasn’t all that “clear” when he was accusing me of making it up, but a drowning ethics prof can be forgiven for clutching at straw men. At any rate, that makes three different complaints. As I wrote: That’s the great thing about the self-appointed “Journalism Doctor”: When he diagnoses you, he provides his own second opinion. Now, on Prof Miller’s behalf, M J Murphy has revised my crime yet again: Dr. Miller accused Steyn of taking material for “America Alone” from illegitimate sources like the infamous Little Green Book: Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini. As I said, the sheep-shagging passage is from a review of La Fallaci’s book in Maclean’s. It’s nothing to do with America Alone. There is no mention of sheep shagging in America Alone. There is no mention of any Little Green Book in America Alone. There is, indeed, no mention of Ayatollah Khomeini in America Alone. Prof Miller and Mr Murphy and their enthusiastic chorus boys at Law Is Cool are welcome to check for themselves. But, leaving that aside and forgiving M J Murphy for confusing America Alone with a book review in Maclean’s, if you return to the passage up above, you’ll see that neither Oriana nor I refer to any Little Green Book. We cite a “Blue Book” – or “Libro Azzurro”, in La Fallaci’s original Italian. That’s the color we’re nailing to our mast. We’re singing the blues, and it’s you fellers who are smelling the green. Indeed, the guy who brought up the Little Green Book is Prof Miller in his response to me. I never mentioned any green book. Like I said, I’d rather be blue. So, if M J Murphy and the excitable schoolgirls at Law R Cool have proved The Little Green Book is a “hoax”, the person who’s been “punked” is Professor Miller. Incidentally, I wouldn’t describe The Little Green Book as a “hoax”. It would be truer to say that it is a somewhat lurid and condensed version of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s work. Nevertheless, if you read M J Murphy’s post, you’ll find that Marvin Zonis of the University of Chicago declined to provide an introduction for it. Professor Zonis is evidently regarded by M J Murphy as a greater authority in these matters than I am, so please keep his name in mind. However, as it happens, I didn’t take “someone else’s word” for anything, whether it was the word of Oriana Fallaci or the compiler of The Little Green Book. When it comes to the Ayatollah Khomeini’s views on sheep shagging, my gu ide for many years has been a book called Resaleh Towzih al-Masael. The author is a chap called …Ayatollah Khomeini. Let’s go back to the original offending quotation from my Maclean’s book review: Signora Fallaci then moves on to the livelier examples of contemporary Islam — for example, Ayatollah Khomeini’s “Blue Book” and its helpful advice on romantic matters. Well, here’s a clue: Hmm. Here’s another clue: But how can that be? We all know: “There is no Blue Book.” The Lord High Checker of Facts has pronounced. As it happens, Resaleh Towzih al-Masael has been published in Iran in several editions. But the most popular was the paperback edition published by Nashr I Sharia’t of Tehran. It sold for 120 rials. It had some 350 pages, approx 5×7 inches, with a blue cover, featuring a picture of its ever more famous author. A souvenir hardback edition marketed as the perfect New Year gift was subsequently published by Rashidi with a plain blue cover… almost every year this book is published in a different color. But many versions of the “Blue Book” are still out there:     In the relevant passage in her book, Oriana recalls first seeing excerpts from the “Blue Book” in 1979. That’s what it was back then: A blue book. The blue book in revolutionary Iran. It certainly wasn’t a “little green book” as that wasn’t published till 1980. So when she and I refer to the Ayatollah’s “Blue Book” we’re referring to that Nashr I Sharia’t edition of the Resaleh. It was translated into English, unabridged, by J Borujerdi and published in 1984 by Westview in London and Boulder, Colorado under the title A Clarification Of Questions. I was given it a couple of decades ago by the Iranian gal I was then dating. She had a copy of the pocket paperback with the Ayatollah on the cover, and once, when she read out a bit to me, I expressed skepticism that it could really be that wacky.  So a few weeks later she presented me with the English edition. As she explained, these were not just some personal musings from the Ayatollah but a kind of moral compass for the Islamic state. So I didn’t need to “accept someone else’s word for it” on having sex with nine-year-old girls, because, like anyone else who’s taken even a cursory interest in the subject, I’ve known for a long time that, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, girls could be legally married at the age of nine. Article 1041 of the Civil Code states: Marriage before puberty by the permission of the Guardian and on condition of taking into interest the ward’s interest is proper. “Puberty” is defined as “nine full lunar years” – although, in practice, girls as young as seven can be married on the say-so of a doctor. The justification for all this is in the highly elaborate rules of Islamic life. They may sound unlikely to M J Murphy or Prof Miller but the Ayatollah’s “clarification of questions” doesn’t strike most devout Iranian Shi’ites that way. Mr Borujerdi, the English translator, was an Iranian émigré living in Cleveland, and he gave an interview about the book to David Remnick (now the editor of The New Yorker) in The Washington Post in 1985. It’s not available online but M J Murphy and Prof Miller and the Law R Cool nellies are welcome to go to their local reference library and check it out. It’s the Aug 21 issue, page B1: “I did the translation because it gives a very close understanding of the Shiite view of the world,” he said. “The Bantam Press published a very slight version five years ago called The Little Green Book’-just 6 percent of the original-but that was really a joke book, to poke fun at Khomeini and debunk Islam at the beginning of the hostage crisis. In Iran, this book is mandatory for every literate person, a kind of guide to living.” So this is the real deal, not the sensationalist précis but a serious, scholarly  “unabridged translation” designed to provide “a unique picture of the belief structure of Shi’ism“. Mr Borujerdi had no difficulty finding eminent academics to provide an introduction – namely, Professors Mehdi Abedi and Michael Fischer of Rice University in Houston. But he also consulted on the translation and interpretation with many other scholars, among them Professor Wilfred Madelung of the Oriental Institute at Oxford University, Professor Wheeler Thackston of Harvard’s Near Eastern Languages department, Professor William Darrow of Williams College, Professor Vincent McHale of Case Western, Professor Merlin Swartz of Boston University …oh, and Professor Marvin Zonis of the University of Chicago. That would be the same Prof Zonis who was unhappy with The Little Green Book, and thus made M J Murphy unhappy, too. But Prof Zonis is cool with A Clarification Of Questions, so presumably M J Murphy will also be satisfied? Resaleh Towzih al-Masael/A Clarification Of Questions consists of almost 3,000 “problems” for which Ayatollah Khomeini provides answers, plus a few follow-ups he dealt with in subsequent editions. So, just to bring the deplorably unicultural Prof Miller up to speed, the easiest way to get a flavor of the Ayatollah’s book is simply to  sample the contents pages: THE UNCLEANS 1&2. Urine and stool 3. Semen 4. Corpse 5. Blood 6&7. Dog and pig 8. Infidel 9. Wine 10. Beer 11. Sweat of an unlawful ejaculation 12. The sweat of a camel that eats uncleans Hey, Multiculti Man, that would be you at big hit sound number 8: “Infidel” – right behind “Dog and pig” but, if it’s any consolation, ahead of “Sweat of an unlawful ejaculation”. But hang on: ejaculate-wise, the Ayatollah’s just getting cranked up: PRECEPTS OF EJACULATION Things that are unlawful for an ejaculator Things that are loathesome for an ejaculator The bath of ejaculation… So just to reprise: Did I cite Oriana Fallaci accurately? Yes. Did she cite Ayatollah Khomeini accurately? Yes. Is there a volume by the Ayatollah commonly known as the “Blue Book”? Yes  Does it include rulings on sex with nine-year olds and what to do with a shagged sheep? Yes. Did either of us mention a Little Green Book? No. In fact, the translation Oriana cites pre-dates The Little Green Book by a year. I think Professor Waggy-Finger is doing what they call “projecting”. He’s accusing me of everything he’s been doing himself. I took “somebody else’s word for it”. Er, no. That would be you, taking the Sock Puppets’ word for it on my book review. I didn’t check the “primary source”. Er, no. That would be you, cavalierly announcing there’s no such thing as a “Blue Book”. To be more charitable to you than you deserve, you assume that Oriana Fallaci and I so want to think the worst of Islam that we’ll fall for any old hooey. Actually not. On the other hand, you so want to think the worst of us blowhard provocateurs that you assume we’re as ignorant of Islam as you evidently are.  Please follow this on SteynOnline.com

Will terrorists strike again? Why is the U.S. pouring 20,000 troops into cities? There must be some ‘chatter’

UPDATE:

The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon has issued the marching orders to mobilize 20,000 millitary troops to secure unspecified cities within the U.S.

Homeland Securtiy issued warnings of a terror attack on New York City’s mass transit system from Nov. 28 through the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah) the mainstream media doesn’t even have the intellectual honesty to report which holidays. Commuters and vacationing shoppers are supposed to be uneasy and many may even put off their trips to buy gifts. This, as we watch to bloodbath from Nov. 26-28, in Mumbi, India where the death toll has reached 200 from a group of 10 terrorists.

Who did it? We know the terrorists hate Jews. That narrows it down. 

What do the learders of Iran, Palistine and Syria have to say about the bombings? 

A Brooklyn rabbi and his wife were found among the dead in a series of terrorist attacks in India that have claimed more than 150 lives. In response to the attacks, the NYPD beefed up patrols around large hotels and Jewish centers, including the Lubavitcher headquarters, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The department already was on alert because of a warning earlier this week of a possible al-Qaida plot to strike the city’s rail systems over the holidays.

“The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible,” said Congressman Peter King, R-Long Island, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who ran the Chabad-Lubavitch local headquarters in Mumbai were killed during a hostage standoff at the center, said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for the movement. 

On Wednesday, federal authorities warned New York police of an unsubstantiated (but reliable) report that al-Qaida operatives discussed an attack on New York’s subway system or rail lines like Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had no plans to comment. (Keep shopping sheelple). 

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said additional resources were being deployed in the mass transit system in an “abundance of caution,” a common response when police receive new information about a threat.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s 468 stations and 6,480 subway cars, released a statement saying there was “no reason to be alarmed.”

The terrorists have been weakend from eight years of George W. Bush as Commander and Chief. 

We can be thankful for that time.

Threat Unveiled. Islamic Front Group Trying to Shut Down Michael Savage

Mick Gregory

CAIR — An Islamic PR Group with ties to terrorisim is trying to crush free speech in the U.S. CAIR has a compaign calling on radio listeners “of all faiths” to contact companies that advertise on Michael Savage’s nationally-syndicated radio program to express their concerns about the host’s recent anti-Muslim tirade.

Savage, whose “The Savage Nation” airs on more than 300 radio stations nationwide, and is often in the top three most listened to, often reads about political crimes by Muslims that are seldom reported in the PC, mainstream media.

Dr. Savage, who is a best-selling author and holds several academic degrees reads about Muslim vs. Muslim killings, speeches by Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Al-Qaeda and Muslim terror front groups, and especially atrocities toward women. He has plenty of material to work with so his reports are on a frequent basis.

To fully grasp the dangers of Islamo fascists, we have to examine the Muslim’s hatred of women, their own daughters.

A blogger named Grizzly Momma received an action alert from CAIR-PA. She reports they are asking advertisers to pull their spots from his politcal talk radio program.

Savage will not go down without a fight. He said tonight, Nov. 6, that he will announce advertisers who side with Islamic CAIR. He will show his large national audience which companies are not for reporting terrorisim and for shutting down free speech.

Next, he vows to announce advertisers on the air who have increased their advertising since the CAIR threats have become public. This is a scary time in America.

Who cares about CAIR?
Many of us do. You will hear us now.

The Ramadan fires: 10 wildfires threaten the most expensive neighborhoods from Malibu to San Diego

Mick Gregory

Could terrorists have started the fires? Please don’t ask. In liberal circles you are racisit if you even think Islamic terrorists would do this.

Update: News is coming out that several of the fires are looking like arson according to officials of Orange County. For continuous updates, see my other story “Coverup: Were Wildfires Set by Terrorists?”

ALERT: “Officials” blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.
The boy admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

“He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire,” Hecht said in a statement.

OK, that makes me feel safe. Officials know best.

Police did not release the boy’s name. Los Angeles County fire Capt. Michael Brown only would say Wednesday that he was younger than 13.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney’s office, Hecht said. It was not clear if he had been arrested or cited by detectives.

U.S. Capitol Police today (Nov. 2) were investigating the latest in a series of seven suspicious fires occurring in Senate office buildings.

A police spokesman said a small fire was discovered about 8:00 a.m. EDT in a 2nd floor woman’s restroom of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The police said it was at least the 7th confirmed fire in the office buildings since late September. The fires are all suspicious in nature and Capitol Police are exploring the possibility that they are linked. You think? Nah, it was probably and act of nature, or a 12-year-old with matches.

Don’t speculate on siloed Islamic terrorists. Don’t scare the American people.

Fire Storms in California, Georgia and Florida. Highways collapsed or heavily damaged in California, Florida and Texas due to huge tanker fires

Mick Gregory

Wake up and smell the smoke.

California — More than 4,000 acres have been destroyed since starting Thursday afternoon.

In the dark of Friday morning, flames crept over the west side of the sweeping hills surrounding the horseshoe-shaped town of Avalon California. The 76-square-mile island is home to about 3,200 people, although that swells to as many as 10,000 people during the summer vacation season.

People evacuated the island by ferry as ash from the fire rained down on the island. Some 1,200 homes are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders. About 3,800 people had been evacuated Friday.

The Santa Catalina Island fire is the second major blaze to force evacuations in Southern California this week. An earlier fire in the heart of Los Angeles burned hundreds of acres in the city’s sprawling Griffith Park.

Fire season for the region doesn’t officially start until next month in the California hills.

There is no official fire season in Georgia and Florida.

What’s going on with the arson investigations?

Gas tanker collapses the 80/580 in Oakland
Gas tanker severely damages the Interstate 375 overpass in Tampa/St. Petersburg
Gas tanker destroys Interstate 10 and 59 in Houston, Texas
Golden Gate Bridge attack avoided after the tanker’s wheels flew off just after crossing the bridge

Here is a new Web site that is connecting the dots, as well:
http://www.429truth.com/archives/date/2007/05/

Tanker Explosions on Major Highways in Houston and San Francisco Within Days of Each other

Mick Gregory

The nation’s fourth largest city, Houston, and fifth largest metro area, San Francisco/Oakland, had fiery tanker explosions at the areas’ major highway intersections within days of each other this weekend. Both “accidents” occured at intersections that average 280,000 and 200,000 cars a day.

There won’t be a connection made in the media or by the government. The Democrat-controlled media doesn’t want the public to realize the extent of the war on terror. It will be up to citizen journalists to expose the facts and connect the dots.

UPDATE: The driver who crashed a tanker loaded with gasoline and brought down a heavily trafficked highway overpass was given a commercial trucker’s license despite a history of criminal convictions, including drug and burglary arrests.
Mr. Mosqueda, 51, also got a special hazardous materials endorsement last year from the federal Transportation Security Administration despite regulations that can disqualify applicants with multiple convictions. To get it, he had to undergo an FBI criminal history check and an intelligence background check.

If gas tankers are not potential targets? Why the FBI background checks?
OK, what did the background check reveal? First of all, isn’t the name Mosqueda a little weird?

Here is a report on the Houston fire bomb.

Police said Luis Perez took a ramp at the interchange too quickly and lost control just after midnight Friday.

“It appears the vehicle may have been traveling fast enough to cause it to roll over,” Capt. M.W. Martin said. “When it burst into flames its cargo also ignited, causing an explosion.”
Massive flames extended about three stories high.
Perez, 39, was killed instantly, police said.

“There is fire and heat damage to the overpass,” Martin said.
The intense heat caused parts of the concrete overpasses to crumble and turn into gravel.

What a coincidence. Could there have been remote-controlled bombs placed on the highways? Is Al-Qaeda behind these “accidents?” Why isn’t the mainstream media reporting the possible connection? How would you like to be a BART commuter this morning?

Less than 48 hours later this tanker exploded in Oakland.

A tanker truck crashed and burst into flames near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Sunday, creating such intense heat that a stretch of highway melted and collapsed. Officials predicted a traffic nightmare for Bay Area commuters for weeks or months to come.

Flames shot 200 feet in the air, but the truck’s driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported in the 3:45 a.m. crash, which officials said could have been deadly had it occurred at a busier time.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said of the crumpled interchange. “I’m looking at this thinking, ‘Wow, no one died’ – that’s amazing. It’s just very fortunate.”

Authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself.

UPDATE: Evidence disposed of in China
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
If the collapse was just a freak accident, why won’t the government let forensic engineers examine the site? Caltrans is preventing leading civil engineers from examining the wreckage. Instead, the debris is being shipped to China for “recycling” without being examined, even though steel is worth a mere 15 cents/pound, hardly enough to cover the shipping costs.

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What the Government Knew
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Records have surfaced showing the exploding tanker truck carried extra gasoline — more than is legal — on past delivery missions on four separate occassions. This new information adds a new wrinkle to our understanding of 4/29. It’s very possible that when it crashed, the tanker truck had been illegally overloaded with yet-another cargo of dangerous, freeway-destroying gasoline.

But why? Who would want the highways to be travelled by a flammable truck stuffed with extra gasoline — and driven in a truck with a history of brake problems?

Look at the facts. Government agents had already spotted the truck and the extra gasoline it carried. But the California Highway Patrol had also once identified the exploding tanker truck’s brakes as so dangerously faulty, they’d immediately ordered it not to return to the highway.

But then new brakes were mysteriously delivered and installed at the inspection site — and the doomed tanker continued on towards its catastrophic destiny.

The driver, a repeat felon, would be an easier target for pressuring from a rogue official or agencies intent on coercing cooperation. But even if they’d found their man, who would pull the strings to waive the obvious safety regulations to put this plan into action?

These are questions that won’t be asked by people blinded by the “official” story — but there’s a pattern here, and it can’t be wished away. The highway re-opens, the sun shines, and Californians blindly continue on with their lives, imagining a public safety which may no longer exist.

Because the accident occurred where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause commuting problems for hundreds of thousands of people.

Transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the bridge into San Francisco each day.
On Sunday the collapse doubled the half-hour trip drivers normally face getting to and from San Francisco and the eastern suburbs – even though many didn’t even attempt the trip because of the crash. Traffic appeared light on the bridge itself, but motorists looking to get on and off were backed up on both sides.

Transportation officials said they already had added trains to the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system that takes commuters across San Francisco Bay, and were urging people to telecommute if possible. In preparation for rush hour, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized funding so that ferries, buses and the rail system could carry commuters free of charge during Monday’s commute.

The tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline ignited after crashing into a pylon on the interchange.
The driver, J. Mosqueda, 51, was headed from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station near the Oakland Airport when the accident occurred, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A preliminary investigation indicated he may have been speeding on the curving road, Cross said. Mosqueda (unusual name) was being treated in a hospital for burns Sunday; the hospital would not transfer media calls to his room.

Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.
The charred section of collapsed freeway was draped at a sharp angle onto the highway beneath, exposing a web of twisted metal beneath the concrete. Officials said that altogether a 250-yard portion of the upper roadway was damaged.

Fatal fiery blast closes I-10, U.S. 59 ramps in Houston, kills tanker driver.
Fiery explosion kills tanker driver, will lead to repairs of marred freeway

The fiery and fatal explosion of a tanker truck just north of downtown is expected to shut down one ramp of a heavily used interchange for at least a week and create a bottleneck on another for possibly two months.

The driver, tentatively identified as Luis Perez, 39, of Houston, died in flames that reduced the truck to rubble. Dental records will confirm his identity, investigators said, and they added that the family has been notified.

Police did not identify the owner of the truck, the cargo it was carrying, or its origin and destination.

A Houston ordinance generally bars vehicles carrying hazardous materials from entering areas inside Loop 610 unless they are delivering or picking up cargo.

Both diesel fuel, which some reports said the truck was carrying, and gasoline, which is more likely to cause a series of explosions like those some people heard, are considered hazardous materials under the ordinance, said Police Lt. Gary Scheibe.

The accident occurred about midnight Frida on a ground-level ramp that takes traffic from southbound U.S. 59, the Eastex Freeway, to eastbound I-10, the East Freeway.

Police said the load “apparently shifted” as the tanker went east, causing the truck to roll and hit the barrier wall, spilling fuel on the freeway.

Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Norm Wigington said the heat caused severe damage to the concrete pavement, which will have to be fixed. The ramp will probably be closed one or two weeks.

During that time, southbound traffic on U.S. 59 can detour to exit onto I-10 west and U-turn at San Jacinto to double back eastward.

The towering flames and intense heat also blackened and damaged a ramp that passes over the accident site and takes traffic from eastbound I-10 to northbound U.S. 59.

Inspection showed four steel box beams on that ramp were damaged enough to need replacing, Wigington said.

“It will take about two months to have them rebuilt off-site, and then we’ll probably shut down the ramp for a weekend and install them,” he said.

During the wait, he said, one lane of the two-lane ramp will remain closed. The other, which was reopened about noon Friday, is expected to remain in use, although the narrowing could cause rush-hour backups.

Although TxDOT does not normally make traffic counts for ramps, the agency estimates that the main lanes of U.S. 59 at the busy interchange carry more than 200,000 vehicles a day, and those of I-10 at the interchange carry about 160,000.

Authorities said the crash sparked a four-part explosion that shook the surrounding area. Heat from the flames was so intense, they said, that it caused parts of the concrete to turn back into gravel.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in about two hours, authorities said. The accident is under investigation.
The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said. Schwarzenegger late Sunday issued an emergency declaration to allow repairs to happen faster, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor’s spokesman.
The Bay Bridge consists of two heavily traveled, double-decked bridges about two miles long straddling San Francisco Bay.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the accident showed how fragile the Bay area’s transportation network is, whether to an earthquake or terrorist attack, and has the potential to have a major economic effect on the city.
“It’s another giant wakeup call,” Newsom told reporters at the California Democratic Party convention in San Diego.

Yes, Mr. Newsom, it woke some of us up to the knowledge that we may be under attack.

300 Is the perfect drama for red state vs. blue state, George Bush vs. Harry Reid

By Mick Gregory

Update: “300” comes out on DVD on July 31.

This year’s No. 1 movie, “300” has a strong “free people vs. tyrannical evil,” “Red State vs. Blue State” message. The Spartans even wear red. The Persians are a decadent society of perversion run by a “kind,” homosexual, god-like king, Xerxes, with plans to impose his ways on the world. His followers are from the lands that are now Iran, Iraq, and Egypt; the Persian army wears Muslim garb, and treat women as second class citizens. Xerxes crushed every city-state his massive army of slaves faced and had the Greek lands next on the plan before invading Europa.

Sparta’s congress was divided with the corrupt, pacifist, traitors in control. I see some direct parallels. The pacifists are refusing to defend Sparta or Athens and back their brave king and his 300. Aren’t there about 300 Republicans in Congress? The similarities with today’s Democrat-controlled congress are astounding.

The queen Sparta is strong, outspoken and beautiful, much like Ann Coulter. The movie is a must-see for Americans. You know that liberals do not want “300’s” message to become “popular” — the need to take a stand and fight your enemies before they are at your gate, no matter what the odds.

Ted Kennedy is shoe-in for the fat lobster claw monster. Oboma could get the part of the messenger asking for “earth and water” and submission, who gets kicked into a bottomless pit by Unites (United States, of course) as he yells “This is Sparta!” I can imagine red staters shouting “This is America!”

A Hillary look-alike plays the part of a fat, disfigured lesbian in the court of Xerxes.

There are powerful, old corrupt puppet masters who look a lot like George Soros, Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, Robert Byrd and Bill Clinton. The king has to go to them for advice. You can guess, they are paid off.

Frank Miller wrote and illustrated this story years ago. It’s shocking how accurate it is to today’s political actions with the Democrats trying to strand America and submit to the massive Islamic blood thristy slaves.

In historic writings, the Persians had expanded from modern Iran, Iraq, conquering Babylon and Egypt, at this time set its sights on the West, seeing in the Greeks an easy conquest. But their gamble, like that of Saddam’s kingdom, ended with a ruined state and failed leader. While the Persian emperor Xerxes watched from his throne atop the hill of Egaleo, the Greek general Themistocles shattered the Persian fleet while the 300 killed an estimated 100,000 — 200,000 Persians before they entered Greece.

Greater battles, have been fought; but the battles against the Persians live immortal not in the historical records of nations only, but also of science and of art, and of the noble and the moral. For these are world-historical victories; they were the salvation of culture and spiritual vigor, and they rendered the Asiatic principle powerless. …

The interest of the World’s History hung trembling in the balance. Asian-Arab despotism — a world united under one lord and sovereign — on the one side, and separate free states — insignificant in extent and resources, but animated by freedom and individuality — on the other side, stood front to front in array of battle. Never in History has the superiority of spiritual power over material bulk — and that of no contemptible amount — been made so gloriously manifest.

Aeschylus’ “The Persians” shows Xerxes returned to Persia, wrestling with the consequences of his failure, lamenting that “I was born / To crush, to desolate my ruined country.”
—Dr. Hegel

So what the progressive bible, “Slate” contributor Dana Stevens think?

Here are just a few of the categories that are not-so-vaguely conflated with the “bad” (i.e., Persian) side in the movie: black people. Brown people. Disfigured people. Gay men (not gay in the buff, homoerotic Spartan fashion, but in the effeminate Persian style). Lesbians. Disfigured lesbians. Ten-foot-tall giants with filed teeth and lobster claws. Elephants and rhinos (filthy creatures both). The Persian commander, the god-king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) is a towering, bald club fag with facial piercings, kohl-rimmed eyes, and a disturbing predilection for making people kneel before him.

Thanks again Slate. I’ve learned that when a book or movie is panned by Slate, it must break away from the progressive liberal mind-numbing PC claptrap, i.e., Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear,” Mel Gibson’s “Apocolypto,” and now “300.”

Quote of the Week — By Tucker Carlson

“We ruined their country? It was kind of a crappy country to begin with.”

—Tucker Carlson, on America now being blamed for ruining Iraq, Tucker’s show, January 2, 2007

Blog of the Week — http://jamilhussein.com

Jamilhussein.com is a blog “Borat” — It’s a hit!

Jan0414:11
Media Opportunities
By: Capt. Jamil Hussein
I am very interested in developing new relationships with media representatives in Baghdad. I would especially be interested in on-air opportunities with Western broadcast media. I have fluency in English and can also converse in German.

As an Iraqi police captain I see many, many bad things. Just this morning I saw a Sadr City street brawl erupt into gunfire over a discussion about whether Cheetos Lip Balm is haram. Yesterday I witnessed a dog having sex with a sheep. Truly Iraq is descending into madness. I have many compelling stories to tell.

Please contact me through this website.