Planck's Constant

Springer Link, Ritual Female Genital Surgery Among Ethiopian Jews
Ethiopian Jewish women immigrants to Israel report that ritual female genital surgery was normative in their culture in Ethiopia, but expressed no desire to continue the custom in Israel. This contrasts with Israeli Bedouin Muslims, who were reported to regard ritual female genital surgery as an important part of their identity.

Coward, Defeatist and Traitor John Murtha Dies

2010-02-09T02:12:14Z

Useful Idiot John Murtha died today. Not soon enough.

A Muslim in Plain Sight

2010-02-09T01:10:52Z

I ask that you carefully read the following two stories. The first one is a joke often received in emails and is a complete fiction; the second one is no joke, but was recently reported in the news. See if you can spot how these two stories are related.

First Story: The Rancher's Widow

A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted wife.
She was a very good-looking woman and determined to keep the ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she decided to advertise for a ranch hand.

Two cowboys applied for the job. One was gay and the other a drunk.

She thought hard about it, and when no one else applied, she decided on the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around the house than the drunk.

He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about ranching.

For weeks, the two of them worked and the ranch was doing very well. Then one day, the rancher's widow said to the hired hand, "You've done a really good job and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and kick up your heels."

The hired hand readily agreed and went into town one Saturday night. One o'clock came, however, and he
didn't return. Two o'clock and no hired hand. Finally he returned around two-thirty, and upon entering the room, he found the rancher's widow sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine, waiting for him.

She quietly called him over to her. "Unbutton my blouse and take it off," she said. Trembling, he did as she directed. "Now take off my boots." He did as she asked, ever so slowly.

"Now take off my socks." He removed each sock gently and placed them neatly by her boots. "Now take off my skirt." He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the fire light.

"Now take off my bra." Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor. Then she looked at him and said, "If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you're fired."

Second Story: Major Nidal Hasan

Nidal Malik Hasan is an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent. As a U.S. Army major serving as a psychiatrist, he often expressed radical Islamic beliefs. In 2008, U.S. intelligence intercepted email communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki. In one of these Hasan wrote: "I can't wait to join you [in the afterlife]." These were forwarded to FBI terrorism task forces which determined Hasan was not a threat.
[Anwar al-Awlaki is a Muslim lecturer and former imam believed to be a senior talent recruiter and motivator "for al-Qaeda and all of its franchises and investigated a number of times by terrorism investigators. In 2009, he reportedly was promoted to the rank of regional commander within al-Qaeda.]

Hasan was reported to have had difficulties relating to patients which required that he be supervised. Similar problems occurred during his residency.

Reviews showed Hasan to be a loner who was passed along despite professional failings that included missed or failed exams and physical fitness requirements.

His commanders were seriously concerned about his actions and the role his Muslim faith played in interactions with his patients.

On Nov 5 2009 at Fort Hood (the most populous US military base in the world) Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 30 others.

Here is how they are related: In the first story, if you are like most people, the ending should have surprised you; if you were like me, you didn't see it coming.

In the second story, if you are like most people, the ending should not have surprised you; any idiot should have seen it coming. Almost four years ago I warned that Muslims cannot be good citizens of their own countries.

To be fair to our men in uniform, I do not believe it is possible that every single military person who came in contact with Hasan missed the signs that he was a threat to our forces. Sadly, there was no mechanism then nor is there one now to report Muslims who, well, act like Muslims. The fear of being called an Islamophobe, while not a career killer for bloggers like me, certainly is not something a military officer is willing to face.

If one reads the Pentagon’s 84-page report reviewing the Ft Hood massacre [PDF], we still see this country's fear of calling a Muslim a terrorist. So this will happen again.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, is an unusual Muslim (if all Muslims were like him there would be no Islamic threat) who believes that every Muslim military member must be counseled by his imam that "not only does his oath to this country and the military take precedence over any other oath, but the concept of the ummah (as Islamic nation) is dead and no longer relevant or competing for his allegiance from a spiritual perspective."

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser believes that political correctness led to this tragedy:

The Daily Caller, Failing at force protection: The misguided Pentagon report on the Ft. Hood massacre
How can we hold these soldiers responsible for not preventing Hasan’s actions if we aren’t giving them the environment and the tools they need to confront Islamist radicalization? The military cannot allow the mantra of victimization of Muslims to dominate how it handles force protection. Islamist radicalization is real and it cannot be confronted unless we are honest about the threat it represents. Hasan is not the first soldier to be radicalized and he won’t be the last if we do not address the real issues.

...

When we are unable to discuss complex issues like this and Hasan without the fear of reprisal or labels, we create a vacuum where no discourse is taking place. In that vacuum, we allow the seeds of discontent to grow. For Nidal Hasan that culminated in his superiors ignoring his behaviors and eventually sending him to Fort Hood, where his fate was sealed.

The Pentagon’s review should be revised to look at the broader picture of Hasan’s path to radicalization through political Islam. They should analyze the warning signs that were visible and determine how the military could have better protected its soldiers. They should look at the threat that political Islam and its forms of radicalization have upon American Muslims and contractors that we employ abroad, like the informant who killed seven CIA officers last December.

The protection of our forces requires a better understanding of the enemy we face.

Actually, the protection of all Americans, military and civilian, requires not only a better understanding of the enemy we face, but we must not allow the phrase Islamophobia to be used as a weapon against identifying that enemy. As we did in WWII in alerting our citizens to the Nazi threat,

So too should Government posters be alerting our citizens to the Muslim threat and put on every federal government wall:

The Islam is the Enemy poster was composed in part from a photo used without permission from Flickr user muha.

Fatties or Addicts Should Not have Babies

2010-02-08T16:42:39Z

Photo Credit: Rue Saint Michel

I am morally opposed to abortion (but the decision should be a medical one, not a legal one) except in the case of the health of the mother or child. Therefore, if you are obese or addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs do not get pregnant. If you get pregnant, (as much as it hurts me to say it) get an abortion.

Obese

If you are fat and want to have a baby, get to a healthy weight through diet and exercise before doing the boom-chiga-boom thing. Otherwise you will just be filling the Earth with more unwanted and unneeded babies with birth defects ¹ who only strain our medical and social facilities.

In a previous article I reported the fact that putting your infant in a crib rather than in bed with you is 50 times more likely to result in death for the child. I should have added the caveat that if you are obese then no one else including your husband should be in bed with you for fear of death by smothering.

As for smokers, drunks, and drug addicts: quit if you plan on getting pregnant.

Smokers

Children of pregnant smokers are especially likely to have learning disorders, behavioral problems, and relatively low IQs ². Just what we need: more morons and criminals filling our streets.

Drinkers

If you drink and want to get pregnant, stop drinking before conception. Why gamble with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome ³? As for drinking and sleeping with your child, if you cannot stop drinking then it is probably safer to have your child in a crib, although if you cannot stop drinking during the first few years of your child's life, it would be better if your infant was taken into foster care. After all, you shouldn't be drinking and breast feeding and a drunk is unlikely to be able to know when her infant is in danger. An alcoholic should not have had a baby in the first place and when you got pregnant you should have done the right thing.

Drug Addicts

Whatever drug you're on, your fetus is on. If you won't go to rehab and the only way you can score drugs is to spread your legs, then do the world a favor and get sterilized. As for crack-whores, the birth defects they saddle their children with are so numerous, horrible and outrageous that they should be sterilized by law.

What business is it of mine what you do during pregnancy? Hey, if you are a pregnant whiskey-swilling. drug-addled, cigar-smoking fat pig in the wilderness of British Columbia and your disease-ridden child makes it past stillbirth and will never come to America and drain our resources and fill our prisons, then I say, go at it, have a dozen little retarded social misfits, I don't care. But if I'm payin' I got the right to sayin'.

Notes

Prenatal-Health Suite101, Health Concerns for Obese and Pregnant Women
There are many studies that have looked at the connections between maternal obesity or overweight and prenatal or postnatal health. Many of these studies have identified increased risks to both the mother's health and that of the baby.
...

Obese women are also more likely to have stillborn babies or babies with birth defects, such as spina bifida, cardiovascular defects, hydrocephaly, and limb abnormalities.

Baby Center, How smoking during pregnancy affects you and your baby
"Smoking cigarettes is probably the No. 1 cause of adverse outcomes for babies," says Welch, who's the chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. He's seen the complications far too many times: babies born prematurely, babies born too small, babies who die before they can be born at all. In his view, pregnancies would be safer and babies would be healthier if pregnant smokers could somehow swap their habit for a serious disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
"I can control those conditions with medications," Welch says. But when a pregnant woman smokes, he says, nothing can protect her baby from danger.

...

On average, smoking during pregnancy doubles the chances that a baby will be born too early or weigh less than 5 1/2 pounds at birth. Smoking also more than doubles the risk of stillbirth.

...

Smoking during pregnancy can have lifelong effects on your baby's brain. Children of pregnant smokers are especially likely to have learning disorders, behavioral problems, and relatively low IQs.

About.com, Alcohol and Pregnancy
For those who might think drinking during pregnancy is no big deal, here is a list of the potential problems their newborns could be facing as a result, according to Missouri Department of Mental Health, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse:
* Small body size and weight
* Slower than normal development and failure to "catch up."
* Deformed ribs and sternum
* Curved spine and hip dislocations
* Bent, fused, webbed, or missing fingers or toes
* Limited movement of joints
* Small head
* Facial abnormalities
* Small eye openings
* Skin webbing between eyes and base of nose
* Drooping eyelids
* Nearsightedness
* Failure of eyes to move in same direction
* Short upturned nose
* Sunken nasal bridge
* Flat or absent groove between nose and upper lip
* Thin upper lip
* Opening in roof of mouth
* Small jaw
* Low-set or poorly formed ears
* Organ deformities
* Heart defects or heart murmurs
* Genital malformations
* Kidney and urinary defects
* Central nervous system handicaps
* Small brain
* Faulty arrangement of brain cells and connective tissue
* Mental retardation -- occasionally severe
* Learning disabilities
* Short attention span
* Irritability in infancy
* Hyperactivity in childhood
* Poor body, hand, and finger coordination

Taxes and Unions Killing New Jersey

2010-02-07T22:51:48Z

Tea Party on Tax Day
Photo by: lamin8

I reported in a previous article [The Laffer Curve or Who is Laughing Now?] that one-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls because that state was stupid enough to overtax the rich.

Now we read what most of us who live in New Jersey have known for quite some time. Taxes have become unbearable and those who can easily go elsewhere do just that.

The Star Ledger, N.J. loses $70B in wealth during five years as residents depart
More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest.
...

The exodus of wealth, then, local experts and economists concluded, was a reaction to a series of changes in the state’s tax structure — including increases in the income, sales, property and “millionaire” taxes.

“This study makes it crystal clear that New Jersey’s tax policies are resulting in a significant decline in the state’s wealth,” said Dennis Bone, chairman of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and president of Verizon New Jersey.

But it's not just the wealthy that are leaving the sinking ship, it's also disproportionately young employees and entrepreneurs who cannot stand unions:

National Right to Work Newsletter, Launch of Right to Work Repeal Tips Big Labor's Hand For 2009
... from 2000 to 2007, a net total of 4.19 million Americans moved from forced-unionism states to Right to Work states. That's on top of a net population transfer of nearly five million Americans to Right to Work states during the 1990's.

It's not just New Jersey. California for the 2010 Census will have the slowest growth since 1850 [Wiki]. Because of Unions alone, it is very likely that in the coming decade we will see California lose population for the first time in its history.

I expect it to get so bad in New Jersey that the state legislators may have to pass laws requiring people to actually work and pay taxes no matter the income. The requirement to do actual work may force members of unions to leave, and the requirement to pay taxes may force the freeloaders in New Jersey to move to another state.

Unless they make such drastic changes, New Jersey will soon be like Michigan. And who would want to live there? I mean, other than Union leeches and welfare freeloaders?

The Coming Downfall of Russia

2010-02-06T21:31:30Z

I was 11 years old (November 18, 1956) when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the US with "We will bury you!" I remember my father laughing at the absurdity by saying, "I've lived in Russia - they don't have enough shovels."

In 1998 Russian academic Igor Panarin made an equally outlandish prediction that the US would collapse and disintegrate into petty states by the summer of 2009.

By Christmas 2008, he revised his prognostication to a new date: the summer of 2010 ¹.

And what will trigger this collapse? Mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation.

Silly, clueless little man. Let's take his points one by one.

Mass Immigration

It is in fact mass immigration that has been the engine of American success in the past few decades while the economies of Europe and Russia stagnated. We are in an economic crisis right now because the mortgage loan market collapsed. And that was triggered by anti-immigration hysteria. Don't misunderstand, the Liberal lend-money-to-the-poor policies would have eventually come to a boil. We started attacking employers who hired illegals and began a crackdown on illegal immigrants without having a documentation process in place to allow them to come and work legally, thus chasing out a million or more illegals out of this country.

As I wrote in Getting Rid of Immigrants Caused our Financial Crises:

My personal experience is that hundreds of thousands of my customers fled back to Mexico while the illegal immigrant pogrom was in motion. I have no doubt that there were more than a million immigrants who suddenly were not there to continue to pay their mortgages or pay rent on their apartments (and therefore their landlords could not continue to pay their mortgages).

Those immigrants were not there to buy groceries, clothing, cars, or TVs. The housing crisis could have been delayed for a few more years and who knows, perhaps enough of the mortgages would have been paid down so as to avoid being classified as toxic if we had simply started to document those aliens instead of deporting them or forcing them to leave.

I suggest Comrade Panarin look at what ails Russia: a declining population with a collapsing economy. Russia has fewer people now than she had in 1986. During the same time period in the US, our population increased by 70 million souls almost entirely due to immigration. Proof of this is the US fertility rate of 2.05 children per woman, barely the replacement level. Because of mass immigration, U.S. population growth is among the highest in industrialized countries [Wiki].

Because of mass immigration we have been on a tear economically since 1986. We didn't start to have problems until we started going crazy over immigration.

Economic Decline

You can cut America's production of goods and services ($14.2 trillion) in half and we would still be half a dozen times larger than Russia (GDP $1.2 trillion).

Moral Degradation

Beer, Boobs, and BBQs. Does it get any better than this? Our morally corrupt football game tailgater can out-produce any Russian.

Reader Alex P. sent me the following email, although I have seen it before on a number of websites, it seems apropos.

The commanding officer at a Russian military academy gave a lecture on Potential Problems and Military Strategy. At the end of the lecture, he asked if there were any questions.

An officer stood up and asked, "Will there be a third world war? And will Russia take part in it?"

The general answered both questions in the affirmative.

Another officer asked, "Who will be the enemy?"

The general replied, "All indications point to China ."

Everyone in the audience was shocked. A third officer remarked, "General, we are nation of only 150 million, compared to the 1.5 billion Chinese. Can we win at all, or even survive?"

The general answered, "Just think about this for a moment: In modern warfare, it is not the quantity of soldiers that matters but the quality of an army’s capabilities. For example, in the Middle East there have been a few wars there where 5 million Jews fought against 150 million Arabs, and Israel was always victorious."

After a small pause, yet another officer - from the back of the auditorium asked, "Do we have enough Jews???"

At one time the Russian Empire hosted the largest Jewish population in the world. Now there are more Jews in Miami (535,000) than in the whole of Russia (500,000) [Wiki].

When Russia had plenty of Jews, it had plenty of Nobel Prizes (out of 16 Russian Nobel Science Prize Winners, 10 are Jews, see Russian Nobel Prize Laureates).

What Russia needs more of is Jews and non-Muslim immigrants - you know, mass immigration.

It is not America that is heading for collapse, but Russia.

Notes

WSJ, As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

Reading My Blog Saves Lives

2010-02-05T23:27:18Z

Sleeping Baby
Photo by: armonroe

Back in August of 2007 I warned my readers that a child is 50 to 60 times more likely to die in a crib than in a bed with its parents; see my article Because that is how my parents did it.

So I was not surprised last November when The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc., of British Columbia, Canada, announced the voluntary recall of more than 2.1 million Stork Craft drop-side cribs ¹.

Then in January, the CPSC announced another massive recall of cribs in cooperation with Dorel Asia SRL, of Barbados ².

As I pointed out in my article, in most countries around the world sleeping with your baby is the norm, not the exception. As a consequence, the incidence of SIDS in these countries is only a tiny fraction of what it is in the US where about 50% of parents do not sleep with their children.

Some callous parents may think, "So What?" these are just two crib recalls.

Actually, sadly, there are many, many, many others ³.

This is really a simple choice. This year more than 2,000 babies will die in cribs while less than 40 will die who sleep with their parents. Why take the risk?

In addition, if you let your baby sleep on its stomach in the crib it is more likely to die of SIDS than if it sleeps on its back. The only problem with infants sleeping on their backs during the first few years of life is that they grow up stupider and with less motor skills than kids who sleep on their stomachs ⁴.

This is the problem with cribs: to lower the incidence of SIDS, you must keep your child on its back. But stomach sleeping infants had higher gross motor scores, social skills scores, and total development skills scores than the back sleeping infants. Sleeping with your child can solve the problem. When your child is in bed, you can keep it on its stomach while you read or watch TV. When you are ready for sleep, you can then place the infant on its back. Having your child in a crib while you are doing this is dangerous since you are likely to forget that your child is on its stomach and so you'll be asleep while your child is choking.

When your baby is sleeping next to you, it is almost impossible to forget about him or her.

But I know some of you are just too stubborn to change your mind, so if you are absolutely determined to keep your child in a crib, at least keep it in the same room where you sleep. This has been linked with a lower risk of SIDS because the closer the infant is to you, the more likely you will be to hear it gasping for breath.

A word to the wise: those readers who read my post from 2007 and followed my advice are 50 to 60 times less likely to have had their child die from SIDS.

But let me give you the whole disclaimer: Research has shown that the best way to prevent SIDS is by putting your baby to sleep face up. Don't smoke anywhere in the house, or light candles, or use room air fresheners. Don't let your baby get too hot (how can you do that if you are sleeping 20 feet from your baby?) . Breastfeed if you can. Don't bother with home monitors to reduce SIDS (they just give a false sense of security), and when not feeding, give your baby a pacifier when sleeping.

[Update added Feb 8 2010 with thanks to reader Mark.V.: If you are obese, an alcoholic, a smoker, or a drug addict read this before putting a baby in bed with you or before even getting pregnant.]

The information here is intended as a public service to my readers. I have made every effort to provide accurate data according to the resources available. While I believes the information to be reliable, error remains a possibility. As of this writing, at least 50 times more children will die in cribs than in beds with their parents, but this does not mean your child cannot die in bed with you. Therefore, I shall not be held responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the use or results obtained from the use of this information. I would appreciate it if you do find an error or omission, outdated material, or other problem, to bring it to my attention so I can update this article.

Notes

US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nov 23 2009, Infant Entrapment and Suffocation Prompts Stork Craft to Recall More Than 2.1 Million Drop-Side Cribs
The cribs’ drop-side plastic hardware can break, deform, or parts can become missing. In addition, the drop-side can be installed upside-down, which can result in broken or disengaged plastic parts. All of these problems can cause the drop-side to detach in one or more corners. When the drop-side detaches, it creates space between the drop-side and the crib mattress. The bodies of infants and toddlers can become entrapped in the space which can lead to suffocation. Complete detachment of drop-sides can lead to falls from the crib.
CPSC, Health Canada, and Stork Craft are aware of 110 incidents of drop-side detachment; 67 incidents occurred in the United States and 43 in Canada. The incidents include 15 entrapments; 12 in the U.S. and three in Canada. Four of the entrapments resulted in suffocation: a 7-month-old in Gouverneur, N.Y.; a 7-month-old in New Iberia, La.; a 6-month-old in Summersville, W.Va.; and a 9-month-old in Bronx, N.Y. Included in these incidents are 20 falls from cribs; 12 in the U.S. and eight in Canada. Fall injuries ranged from concussion to bumps and bruises. The cribs involved in these incidents had plastic drop-side hardware that had broken, missing, or deformed claws, connectors, tracks, or flexible tab stops; loose or missing metal spring clips; stripped screws; and/or drop-sides installed upside-down.

Injury Board NYC, Attention Parents: Another Massive Recall of Cribs
Dorel Asia SRL, of Barbados, in cooperation with the CPSC is recalling about 635,000 drop side and non-drop side cribs because they pose suffocation and strangulation hazards to infants and toddlers. The drop side hardware can fail and cause the drop side to detach from the crib, creating a space in which an infant or toddler can become entrapped and suffocate or strangle. The recall also warns that if crib slats become damaged in storage, assembly, disassembly, or during shipping and handling, they may pose a serious entrapment and strangulation hazard.

Injury Board NYC, Attention Parents: Another Massive Recall of Cribs
2010 Recalls
· Dorel Asia Recalls To Replace Cribs; Pose Strangulation and Suffocation Hazards (January 19, 2010)

· Drop Side Cribs Recalled by Caramia Furniture Due to Fall and Entrapment Hazards (January 14, 2010)

2009 Recalls

· CPSC, LaJobi Reannounce 2001 Recall of Cribs Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazards (December 2, 2009)

· Infant Entrapment and Suffocation Prompts Stork Craft to Recall More Than 2.1 Million Drop-Side Cribs (November 23, 2009)

· Simplicity Drop Side Cribs Recalled by Retailers Due to Risk of Death from Suffocation (July 2, 2009)

· LaJobi Recalls Babi Italia Pinehurst and Bonavita Hudson Drop Side Cribs; Risk of Entrapment and Suffocation (June 9, 2009)

· LaJobi Recalls Bonavita 'Cabana' Drop Side Cribs Due To Entrapment and Strangulation Hazards (June 9, 2009)

· Jardine Announces Second Recall Expansion of Cribs Sold by Babies'R'Us; Cribs Pose Entrapment and Strangulation Hazards (April 30, 2009)

· SunKids Convertible Cribs Recalled by Suntech Enterprises Due to Entrapment and Suffocation Hazards (April 2, 2009)

· Stork Craft Recalls More Than 500,000 Cribs; Mattress Support Bracket Failures Create Risk of Entrapment and Suffocation (January 13, 2009)

· Jardine Expands Recall of Cribs Sold by Babies"R"Us; Cribs Pose Entrapment and Strangulation Hazards (January 6, 2009)

2008 Recalls

· Munire Recalls "Newport Rubbed Black" Cribs and Matching Furniture Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard (December 23, 2008)

· Infant Death Prompts Recall to Repair 985,000 Delta Enterprise Drop Side Cribs; Missing Safety Pegs Can Cause Entrapment and Suffocation Hazards (October 21, 2008)

· Infant Death Prompts Recall To Repair 600,000 Drop Side Cribs By Delta Enterprise; Spring Peg Failure Can Cause Entrapment and Suffocation Hazards (October 21, 2008)

· Infant Death Prompts Recall of Convertible Cribs by Playkids USA; Crib Poses Entrapment and Suffocation Hazards (October 16, 2008)

· Simplicity Brand Drop Side Cribs Recalled By Various Retailers Due To Serious Entrapment And Suffocation Hazard To Infants and Toddlers (September 17, 2008)

· Baby Appleseed Recalls Cribs Due to Fall Hazard (August 5, 2008)

· Mother Hubbard's Cupboards Recalls Cribs Due to Fall Hazard (August 5, 2008)

· Stanley Furniture Recalls Cribs Due to Entrapment Hazard (June 26, 2008)

· Jardine Cribs Sold by Babies"R"Us Recalled Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazard (June 24, 2008)

· Bassettbaby Cribs Recalled Due to Entrapment Hazard; Sold Exclusively at Babies "R" Us (June 5, 2008)

· Munire Furniture Recalls Cribs Due to Fall Hazard (February 28, 2008)

· Bassettbaby Drop-Side Cribs Recalled Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazard (February 14, 2008)

2007 Recalls

· Cribs Sold By Bassettbaby Recalled Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazard: Sold Exclusively at Babies R Us (November 8, 2007)

· About 1 Million Simplicity Cribs Recalled Due To Failures Resulting in Infant Deaths (September 21, 2007)

· NettoCollection Recalls Cribs Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazard (September 4, 2007)

· CPSC, Stokke Announce Recall of Sleepi Crib Foam Mattresses Due to Entrapment Hazard (August 23, 2007)

· Simplicity Recalls Cribs Due to Fall, Entrapment and Choking Hazards (June 6, 2007)

· Song Lin Industrial Inc. Recalls Cribs Due to Fall Hazard (May 31, 2007)

(4):

Interscience, Influence of supine sleep positioning on early motor milestone acquisition
Only 22% of 6-month-olds could sit without arm support versus 50% expected in a normative sample. Remarkably, 22% of our sample exhibited gross motor delays (quotient<78). Tummy time (awake) was significantly associated with the AIMS (r=0.64) and PDMS GMQ (r=0.55) and FMQ (r=0.33) quotients, even after adjusting for confounders. Typically developing infants who were sleep-positioned in supine [sleeping face up] had delayed motor development by age 6 months, and this was significantly associated with limited exposure to awake prone positioning.

Why Compare Jewish and Muslim Achievements?

2010-02-05T18:38:50Z

Museum of the History of Islam,
Science and Technology
Credit: WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS

Reader Eli in a comment to my article An Excuse Why Muslims Cannot Win Nobel Prizes writes, "I've seen this list before and still find it disturbing. What is the purpose of a comparison like this?"

Fair question. The simple answer is that in order to persuade my readers to push for laws banning Muslims entry into our country, I need to show that Muslims are a danger to our security, inimical to our way of life, and have nothing to offer in the way of innovation and creativity.

Although I am an immigrant myself, I am opposed to immigrants coming into America at all if they present a danger to our way of life and cannot contribute positively to our society. But since it was in fact immigrants who made the most contributions to our country, I favor unrestricted, documented immigration (except for Muslims, criminals, Communists, etc).

Even though Europe has always been antisemitic, the increase in Muslim populations in Europe has sparked an equal increase in Antisemitism and is only going to get worse ¹. Since I am Jewish, it would be safer for me to have fewer Muslims, not more, in America.

Nazi efforts in the last century to make Muslim Arabs more antisemitic have been very successful, one only has to google Mufti of Jerusalem or Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt to understand why modern day Muslims hate Jews. Yes, I ignore the Israeli question since the whole problem of the State of Israel is directly tied to the efforts of the Mufti to poison the feelings between Arab and Jew.

An enemy of any Muslim country is the enemy of all Muslim countries. And since Arab Muslims hate Jews, even non-Arab Muslims now hate Jews: take for example Pakistan, a country with barely 200 Jews [Wiki] has widespread anti-Semitic articles in their press ².

But aren't there other antisemitic immigrant groups I could pick on other than Muslims? I suppose instead of comparing Muslim and Jewish Nobel winners, one can ask why I don't compare Polish and Jewish Nobel Prize winners, after all, Poles are just as anti-Jewish as any group. Actually, I have already compared Polish and Jewish Nobel Prize Winners here and also Russian and Jewish Nobel Prize winners here (of course, Russians are just as antisemitic as Poles).

So you see, dear Eli, I have not singled out only Muslims in comparison to Jewish Nobel Prize winners. I will admit however, that I have not asked to ban Polish or Russian immigrants. That is because despite their antisemitism, they eventually assimilate and in due time forget the prejudices of the old country. Not so with Muslims. Of all peoples, they not only refuse to assimilate, they want Americans to accommodate to their way of life. I have an entire category (Dhimmitude) devoted to that concept.

I live in Bayonne, a town with more than ten thousand Polacks. We have Polish delis, Polish Bars, Polish Churches (I even attended Mount Carmel Catholic School, see article) and a Pulaski Day Parade. But there is no threat of Bayonne losing its American way of life; we do not have Poles demanding the local government to accommodate their culture. Despite Polish presence in the city for more than a century, no public school is required to serve pierogi or kielbasa in the cafeteria. No Polish grocery clerk refuses to handle Kosher foods. No Polish taxi driver refuses to carry un-Polish items in his cab [see When In Rome do as Muslims Do].

But let one Muslim complain about something that offends him and millions are spent accommodating him ³.

I have made many Nobel Prize comparisons between Jews and other cultures and ethnic groups, and while those comparisons per se indicate nothing sinister against Muslims, it is true that I use the fact that Muslims do not contribute very much at all to modern society as one of many, many reasons not to allow them to come into our country.

Regarding the photo: In May of 2008 the Museum of the History of Islam, Science and Technology opened in Istanbul, Turkey. The museum has replicas of inventions by Arabs from the 8th through the 16th centuries in astronomy, geography, chemistry, surveying, optics, medicine, architecture, physics and warfare. But slowly, as Shariah laws came to dominate Arab life, there came to be fewer and fewer non-Muslim Arabs (because Shariah demands: once a Muslim always a Muslim, Muslims cannot marry non-Muslims, heavy taxes, forced conversions and killings of non-Muslims, etc.) and eventually Islam overpowered the spirit of ingenuity and creativy that the Arabs previously had. Sadly, many Muslims today are still stuck in the 7th century A.D. Many of these want to come to America and turn our clock back as well.

I do not write that Muslims are uneducated and backward because it makes me feel good, it does not. My articles inform Arabs, Persians, Punjabis and others of the Muslim faith that they can be just as successful, smart and happy as the Jews are; they merely have to discard the faith that holds them back. Is that such a bad thing?

Notes

US Department of State, Report on Global Anti-Semitism
In Western Europe, traditional far-right groups still account for a significant proportion of the attacks against Jews and Jewish properties; disadvantaged and disaffected Muslim youths increasingly were responsible for most of the other incidents. This trend appears likely to persist as the number of Muslims in Europe continues to grow while their level of education and economic prospects remain limited.

Associated Press, Anti-Semitism rising, State Dept. says
In Pakistan, where there is no Jewish community, anti-Semitic sentiment fanned by anti-Semitic press articles, is widespread, the report said. Anti-Semitism where there are virtually no Jews is a recent phenomenon, the State Department told Congress.

Planck's Constant, Sony Corporation Caves After one Muslim Complaint
A few days ago a single Muslim in a forum complained that a couple of Quranic verses appeared in their game LittleBigPlanet. Now Sony will spend millions recalling the disc in order to avoid making any Muslims feel offended.

13 Violations of Public Etiquette

2010-02-04T20:34:53Z

Photo: Hot Chicks with Douchebags

When the human species lived in caves there were very few rules of etiquette. You could let loose a flaming fart, sneeze directly into your cavemate's face, pick cooties out of your hair, or even extricate a large booger from your nose and pop it into your mouth; no one would complain.

Certainly most humans in those days stank of body odor since bathing and the luxurious waste of water was not available to everyone.

Although perfumes were used thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt, it wasn't until the Renaissance period that perfume use dramatically expanded; Royalty at the French Court used perfumes to mask body odors from infrequent bathing and pissing in public.

I was in Paris in 1967 when ads for underarm deodorants first came to be shown in local theaters [see my article Women who smell bad] and the audience response was, "Who needs such things?"

Blog writer Waiter at Waiter Rant complained that New Yorkers were rude in chastising him for smoking a cigar in public ¹.

I responded:

I believe smoking in public is just like pissing in public. If you’re not splashing on anyone, then no one should bother you. However, you should at least try to hide the disgusting behavior.

While I agree you have the right to pee or smoke, you should be more discreet about it. Children and others should not see you doing it.

The last thing you should be doing is displaying to others that what you are doing is somehow OK. People should be making fun of smokers, else how are young children to be discouraged in its use?

So I say, smoke all you want, go up in flames, I don’t care; just have the decency not to let others see you doing it for the same reasons you should not shake your wanker in front of young kids: there are certain things they should not see.

Although smoking in public is just like farting or sneezing in someone's face and not illegal, certainly it is disgusting behavior. Here are 13 things one can do in public that are not illegal but are violations of Public Etiquette.

Cursing in Public or at someone ².

Farting in an elevator, subway, medical office. Flatulence is a natural bodily function; however one should be careful where one cuts the cheese ³.

Nose Picking. It's actually a disease, rhinotillexomania, if compulsive. The companion to nose-picking is: Eating Boogers. It's a mystery why anyone would do this given that scientists have not found any significant nutritional content in dried nasal mucus ⁴.

Douchebags who wear their caps sideways and their pants halfway down their butt. The caption for the photo above is, "When the only item of clothing on your upper body is a levitating pink mesh cap at 52 degree tilt, you're a huge sack of existential douchebaggery."

Not Washing Frequently enough. Body Odor. Yes, not keeping yourself washed is offensive behavior. I recall entering a subway a few years ago and the door closing on me before I realized that a really rancid homeless man was sleeping in a corner. The odor was so bad that 28 of the passengers had huddled themselves in the far corner away from the stench. Interestingly, the passengers in the next car were laughing at our plight, as if they knew how badly the man reeked of putrid compost and manure. When the doors opened at the next stop we all escaped to the next subway car as new victims entered in our place. Then it was our turn to laugh at the poor, miserable shlubs on the other side of the glass, laughing at them as if we knew how badly it really smelled in there. Ah, it's always funny when you are on the other side.

Sneezing (or coughing) without covering your mouth. Now this is not only just plain rude, but a health hazard as well. A study found that one sneeze can infect up to 150 other people ⁵.

Cell phones in theaters. Is there anything more rude?

Earphones in theaters. I have witnessed this a number of times. To use the term usually applied to liberals, some retard will be listening to an iPod or other music player while he or she is watching a movie. I don't get it. Normally, I wouldn't care except the volume is usually so high that I can hear the buzzing five rows away. It seems that the audio from the movie interferes with this moron's listening pleasure so the volume on the earphone speakers is turned up to compensate. In addition to banning cellphone use, this is another rude behavior theater owners should prohibit.

Women (and men) who wear Too Much Perfume. I get punched in the nose with this crime all the time. At lines at banks, or in theaters, or even at the deli counter, some broad (and I dislike using this derogatory term for woman) has immersed herself in a cloying wrapping of stink, all the while thinking to herself how lovely she smells. I usually wave my hand in front of my nose so as to signal to this person that what is emanating from her person is not pleasant or enjoyable. See my article on The Correct Way to Apply Perfume.

Talking Loudly in movie theaters, in retail shops, on the street. You know who they are.

Slow People. People who take forever to order food at a fast food joint. Or to pay for their order quickly. Or who do not bag their groceries but instead wait for the cashier to do it after ringing up the groceries. Or pedestrians who start walking when the Stop Walking Sign is flashing and then walking ever so slowly just to infuriate those waiting in cars.

Litterbugs. You know who they are.

Smokers. It's a disgusting habit that envelopes everyone else around. It should be done in private for the same reasons that we pee in private.

This has been a Thursday 13 post [# 49] and is updated on some Thursdays.

Notes

Waiter Rant, The Privacy of Smoke
It’s a crisp winter’s night and I’m strolling though Union Square in Lower Manhattan. I’m supposed to be meeting a friend for dinner but when she texts to say she’s running late I suddenly discover I’ve got forty-five minutes to kill. So I duck into a cigar shop, select a Punch Maduro Rothschild from the humidor, snip off the end and walk back into the park. Finding a quiet corner I get the stogie going with a wooden match and settle back to enjoy my favorite pastime – people watching. Unfortunately, people are also watching me.
“That’s disgusting,” a smartly dressed young woman says as she walks past me.

“I beg your pardon?” I reply.

“You look obnoxious smoking that cigar,” she says.

Advice Goddess Blog, Do You See Rude People?
I was walking down Hollywood Blvd. one afternoon and arrived at Highland; the light was red. Two motorcycle cops were in front of the vehicles facing me. Shockingly, there was no traffic on Highland. While I'm waiting for the light to change, some punk kid (death metal T-shirt, ripped jeans, lotsa tats and piercings; you know, a walking cliche) comes up, looks, then steps off the curb and starts to jaywalk. Being a Good Samaritan, I pointed to the officers and said, "Dude, there're cops there." (I don't normally call people "Dude," but I felt it was necessary to speak his lingo.) To my utter amazement, he spat back, "Go fuck yourself," and proceeded to cross.

Yesbutnobutyes, Farting Etiquette
It's okay to fart...

Crowded Subway train: Go ahead, commute suicide. Who will know? Nobody, as long as you keep a straight face.

Walking down the street: Sure. As long as you're in motion no one will know.

Dance Floor: Generally okay. You might want to move or electric slide off the dance floor though, to avoid complete detection.

In Bed:
Single: Fart all you want.
Couple/Married: If your mate is game, fan the flames.
Just dating: Hold it in.

Playing Sports: You exert a lot of energy playing sports. And when there are others around and you're in constant motion, you might be able to get away with ripping one while you play. Or run a mile around the track. Doing it on the bench might earn you respect with your teammates too.

Watching sports: This one is a little dicey. If you're in open stadiums or larger crowds {football, baseball, hockey, NASCAR} you can probably get away with it. And if you're with friends you may have a contest to who can fart the loudest.
Go Team!
Then again, if you're on the sidelines at your kids game or more civil sports like Tennis or Golf, you may want to hold it in.

In your car: See bed.

Around Babies/Kids/Old People:
Babies have no clue.
Kids think farting is funny.
And seniors can't hear very well so they might say, "excuse me" for you.

Sky Diving: If you can let one rip at terminal velocity, go for it.

Swimming:
In the ocean: By all means.
In a pool: With caution. Depends on the size of the pool and your proximity with other people. Watch the bubbles kiddo.
Hot Tub: Ewww! Just don't.

(4):

New Scientist, 10 Mysteries of you: Nose-picking
"There isn't any significant nutritional content in nasal mucus," says Andrade. Moreover, he and Srihari found nothing to distinguish the bogey-eaters from the others, and they neglected to ask them why they did it. It is possible that ingesting nasal detritus might help build a healthy immune response - after all, researchers investigating the hygiene hypothesis have built a large body of evidence indicating that lack of exposure to infectious agents can increase one's susceptibility to allergic diseases.

(5):

Inventor Spot, Cover Your Mouth! Study Finds One Sneeze Can Give Cold to 150 People
The researchers surveyed 1,300 working people who suffered at least one cold last winter. They say that one sneeze expels 100,000 droplets into the air at 90 mph, and those stray droplets are easily transferred to railings, handles and other places constantly touched by people.
The results of their study say that up to ten percent of all commuters will come into contact with an infected area by a person that just sneezed. During rush hour, this equals roughly about 150 people.

Researchers also found that 20 percent of regular commuters are irritated by people sneezing without using a tissue, and 33 percent get angry by those that don’t cover their mouth while coughing. Constant sniffling annoys 12 percent of the people, while throat clearing only bothers about 3 percent. Men are also more likely to be at fault than women because while 81 percent of women carry a tissue with them, one in three men don’t carry anything at all.

Hirsi Ali Fights for Rights of Muslim Women

2010-02-04T04:13:44Z

We read it all the time; someone criticizes Islam and the Muslim apologist offers the usual hackney that if only that person studied Islam or knew Islam as Muslims do, then they would not make that criticism.

Well then, what do Muslims say when it's a former Muslim doing the criticizing? One who studied Islam, knows Islam, was raised a Muslim in a Muslim country?

Former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last night ¹ calling the treatment of Muslim women "one of the world’s great inequalities."

So what can Muslim men say in counter-argument? Will they offer proof that she is wrong? Nope, all they can offer is the argument that such truths only make people distrust and hate Muslims ².

I understand - it's the same argument Nazis would use if people brought up the Holocaust - they wouldn't be able to deny it, they would simply point out that such truths only make people distrust and hate Nazis.

That's an interesting counter-argument; they can't fault her on her Islamic knowledge or on the truth of her statements, so they attack her for fostering Islamophobia.

Don't you find it odd, that in all non-Muslim countries where women are free to wear whatever they want and free from compulsion or force that none of the non-Muslim women choose to cover themselves head-to-toe? If women truly, truly wanted to wear those stifling items of clothing, then why aren't even a tiny, teensy-weensy slim minority of infidel women wearing burqas and niqabs? One could take a wild guess: because they are not compelled to do so.

If Muslim women really, truly, in their hearts desire hijabs and such, as they often claim, then why do Muslim countries need morality police to force them to do so?

For example, in the United States, there is no law requiring all women to eat bitter herbs. If you do find such an odd person, it is likely because she wants to. Now imagine a culture where every single woman without exception eats bitter herbs and that those who do not are ritually maimed, tortured, or slaughtered by their husbands or other male members of her family or neighborhood. Would any sane person actually believe that 100% of such women in that culture truly "choose" to eat bitter herbs? And if many of these females told you that they love bitter herbs, wouldn't you rightly suspect that they are deluded, in denial, or compelled to say so?

Notes

The Daily Cardinal, Controversial feminist speaks as part of DLS
Former Muslim and feminist speaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali gave a controversial lecture at the Memorial Union Tuesday night as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series.
Over a thousand people endured hour-long lines and airport levels of security to attend the highly-anticipated event in which she delivered a message critical of Muslim society and called for increased freedom for Muslim women all over the world.

Hirsi Ali said she uses her personal experiences as a former Muslim to form her views on the treatment of Muslim women. Originally from Somalia, she fled to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage, and began to question much of what she had been taught.

“I had wholeheartedly embraced Islam,” Hirsi Ali says of her teenage years. “And yet, there was this deep part of me that rebelled, and I had questions about things that I had no right to ask questions about.”

She said those questions included the topics of modest dress for women and the view of women as the property of their husbands. She cited cases in the Arab world and in the U.S. where violence against women was justified through the Qur’an and Islamic teachings in illustrating her argument.

Journal Sentinel, UW-Madison speaker critical of Islam, draws Muslims' criticism
Photo: Police lead Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s lecture attendees through metal detectors at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Tuesday.
...

The decision to invite Hirsi Ali and pay her $10,000 speaking fee drew criticism from both Muslim student organizations and other groups.

"I see this as people slowly becoming suspicious of Islam, and suspicion leads to hatred and much worse things," said Rashid Dar, president of UW-Madison's Muslim Student Association.

A tip of the turban to blog Winds of Jihad

Profiting From Evil

2010-02-03T18:32:16Z

Hitler's Mercedes
Photo by: Fotopath

Blogger Jack over at Random Thoughts - Do They Have Meaning? has this complaint to share with us:

Random Thoughts- Do They Have Meaning?, Ghouls Who Profit From Blood Money
There are limits to free speech. There are limits to decency and this seems to be testing all of them.Who are these Nazi memorabilia collectors that the article refers to. Are we to believe that they are good people that are just interested in WWII gear. I find it hard to believe that the collectors are not part of modern hate groups.

The cause of his distress? The announcement that Nazi doctor Josef Mengele's diary is up for auction ¹.

As someone who lost 98% of all of his relatives to Nazi extermination, my first reaction is that all Nazi memorabilia should be destroyed. But history, even the most disgusting and vile history, should be preserved. Book burning is not something anyone should ever see again.

To be clear, Jack is not asking for Mengele's diary to be destroyed; what gets his blood boiling is the notion that someone is profiting from blood money.

While I agree that no one should profit from the misery of others, I realize that it is impossible to stop such activities. Certainly it would be nice, although in violation of the First Amendment, to force all those in the US who sell Nazi memorabilia to send a portion of the sales to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Perhaps the only thing we can do is what Jack has decided to do: "contact the auction house and ask them if they enjoy profiting from blood money."

I would prefer to see Nazi artifacts, like Hitler's Mercedes, in museums, not in the hands of private collectors.

Notes