It's for the children
Little Green Footballs always has a generous measure of the good stuff. Yesterday in addition to the "Christian riot", they had Hanoi Jane getting heckled, the US ambassador to the UK having a tea party for terrorists, and Palestinian thugs dressed up as Santa. But I really like the item from Sunday, Whitewashing Jihad:

Reader davesax forwarded this NY Daily News Special Report on New York’s public school textbooks, in which kids are encouraged to ask, "Why do they hate us?"

At least three schools have bought copies of "The American Vision," a 2003 high school history textbook, published by Glencoe McGraw-Hill, that was one of the first to write about the terror attacks. In a seven-page lesson on the massacre of 3,000 innocents, students are asked:

"What are the three main reasons certain Muslims became angry with the United States?"

"Why does American foreign policy anger Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East?"

"The events of 9/11 were unjustified and inexcusable, but they didn't take place in a historical vacuum," said April Hattori, a McGraw-Hill spokeswoman. "It's important to explain what caused Muslim extremists to want to attack America."

Even worse, one textbook promotes a false, whitewashed definition of jihad stripped of any menacing qualities and reduced to a sort of PC version of the Young Achievers Club.

Well if the tykes won't drink this Kool Aid, they can always bring in Professor Patty Murray to set them straight.

Some of the other propaganda, er, reading matter was rather odd too. From the Daily News article:

On the shelves of school libraries is a biography for young readers of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is said to hail from the "long tradition of activist ministers like Martin Luther King Jr."

But the book might offend some with its own stereotypes, like this line in a chapter on Crown Heights: "Poor blacks in the cities often found themselves at the mercy of Jewish shopkeepers and landlords, who decided when and when not to advance credit to their customers."

There is also a whitewash of Louis Farrakhan, described as a "black American of achievement" who bears a "message no American can ignore." The Nation of Islam leader also shows a "willingness to forgive," the book claims.

No word on whether they covered Rev. Al and Tawanna Brawley or Farrakhan's UFO.

Rowdy Christians Alert!
At Little Green Footballs:

Following the broadcast of a BBC documentary suggesting that Jesus may have been conceived as the result of an illicit affair or of Mary's rape by a Roman soldier, enraged British Catholics poured out of churches after evening mass, smashing store windows, overturning cars, and attacking anyone of Middle Eastern appearance. Electronics stores were particularly hard hit, as rampaging mobs vented their anger on the television sets and radios that broadcast the hated words of the BBC. Witnesses reported hearing a group of priests and nuns chanting, "The BBC must die! Down with their confused and unfounded guesswork!" as they decapitated a Pakistani BBC stringer with a rusty crucifix.

British police used tear gas and rubber bullets to subdue the rioters, arresting thousands of Catholics and a few opportunistic soccer hooligans. Local Christian leaders, however, are calling for the deaths of all BBC reporters involved in the documentary, and the Bishop of Portsmouth has promised that unless their demands are met, "This is going to be a red Christmas." The producers have gone into hiding, reportedly in Canada.

And in Australia (via Tim Blair), Peter Howson: Christians, rise up and defend realm:

For too long bishops and archbishops in Australia have been preaching against Western triumphalism and Christian arrogance. Yet today one would be surprised to find triumphalism and arrogance within the church. Bin Laden and Bashir have thrown down their challenge. We must fight across all fronts ? religious, cultural and economic. But, regrettable as it may seem to some in the church, the exercise of military power is also essential. This battle will not be quickly or easily won. But if we are to win it, the Christian church must join in the militant defence of our common Christian heritage.

White Christmas Alert!
Well, there's a big snowstorm in the midwest, but out in Utah they have a different problem - White stuff might not be snow:

OGDEN - After five years and innumerable unsuccessful attempts at controlling the pigeons and their accompanying waste products on the 2nd District Courthouse, building operations manager George Berkley posted the following sign on the front door:

"Holiday tip #37 - In Ogden, never try to catch snowflakes with your tongue. The pigeons don't go south for the winter."

Peace Prize Shocker!
Aftenposten (Norway) stuns with Willie Nelson robbed while in Oslo:

A 20-year-old man broke into the hotel room of American country music legend Willie Nelson when Nelson was in Oslo this month to sing at the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert. Nelson's family lost passports, cash and a bottle of red wine.

The robbery was kept under wraps for more than a week, but newspaper VG found out about it and broke the story, much to the embarrassment of the Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel.

Nelson and his family were staying in a large suite at the hotel and were reportedly sleeping when the bold 20-year-old made his way in the night before the December 11 concert.

The thief may have been bold, but he wasn't necessarily smart. After emptying a bottle of red wine, he sprayed a so-called "tag" on a sign outside the suite. Police called in their tagging experts at the Stovner police station, who quickly recognized the tag as that of a 20-year-old man from Romsaas, on Oslo's north side.

The culprit was soon caught, driving a used car he'd bought with the cash he stole from Nelson's suite and later converted to several thousand Norwegian kroner.

Well, he did better than he would have in Jimmy's room. Follow the link for a picture of "Jimmy and Willie".

Useful Idiots Alert!
The SF Chronicle reports Activists planning mass civil disobedience if U.S. attacks Iraq:

While the Pentagon has spent the past year training troops, building facilities and stockpiling weapons to launch a war against Iraq, the peace movement has been using the buildup time to coordinate "emergency response plans" to disrupt domestic military activity, tie up commerce and get out their anti-war message.

Rally meeting places are posted, march routes set, protest signs painted, acts of nonviolent civil disobedience choreographed.

Activists in more than a dozen cities have announced where and when to meet on the first day of war -- what they call "The Day Of." In Dallas, they plan speeches at City Hall; in San Francisco, they plan to block traffic in the business district; in St. Louis they will hold a candlelight vigil downtown; in Seattle they plan to march at the federal building. In New York City, organizers hope to crowd Times Square with protesters.

I'm so surprised. I recall news footage from the first Gulf War of male protestors roughing up a female secretary coming out of an office building in San Francisco. Better order extra doses of rabies vaccine.

More on Professor Patty Murray
WorldNetDaily has the latest:

Meanwhile, teachers from around Washington state have informed a Seattle talk radio host that Murray had made the same comments about bin Laden to their students. But despite comparisons by many of her constituents to Sen. Trent Lott's recent controversial remarks, Murray's statements appear to be generating minimal response from her Senate colleagues.

And here's is CNN's coverage of Murray's ravings. No left wing bias here, nosiree!

Complaint Department Alert!
Arabs threaten to bomb plane over in-flight food

You can't make this stuff up
The Telegraph (UK) has the latest in the Tony Martin case:

The burglar injured by Tony Martin after he broke into the farmer's home is suing him for £15,000 compensation for loss of earnings.

Brendon Fearon, 32, wants the compensation because he has supposedly been unable to find a job since suffering the gunshot injuries in the raid on Martin's Norfolk home, according to the Daily Mail.

I wonder how he is going to document his earnings history for the court? "Yer honor, my average take of swag, minus expenses, for the 3 years prior to the shooting ...".

Oh and here are more details on his "claim":

The writ gives a number of reasons for Fearon's claim, including his leg injuries, which prevent him finding work, concern about his "long-term sexual functioning" and becoming "very tearful" when watching a film in which someone dies.

Cry me a river.

And how about an inordinate fear of breaking into other people's houses?

Let no voice be unheard
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Frank Main and Carlos Sadovi enlighten with Candidates lean on gang members to get out the vote:

Come Election Day, gang members across the city will likely trade their baseball caps and street colors for white shirts and ties.

On Feb. 25, they'll take a holiday from the round-the-clock drug dealing that fuels Chicago's billion-dollar narcotics trade. Instead, they'll be selling candidates.

Fanning out into the neighborhoods, they'll hand out palm cards, shuttle elderly voters to the polls, tally the votes and--on the less admirable side--tear down opponents' signs, intimidate opponents' supporters and maybe pick a few fights.

And then, when their candidates win, the gang-bangers will step up and ask, "Where's mine?" In at least 10 of Chicago's 50 wards, a Sun-Times investigation has found, gang members are expected to work in next February's elections as political foot soldiers, a practice loaded with dangerous ethical conflicts for the candidates.

Thuggery in Chicago elections? I'm shocked!

On Nov. 5 in Humboldt Park, a gang leader halted drug sales and ordered gang members to get out the vote for the Democrats, said a police investigator who asked not to be identified.

"These guys passed out palm cards for $5 an hour when they could have made $40 an hour selling dope," he said.

Some candidates say they are simply reluctant to turn away enthusiastic volunteers, gang members or not. Other candidates openly court gang members.

"I try to use them in every election," said Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th), who estimated a fourth of her workers in the November election were gang members. She paid 40 to 50 gang members $25 each to get out the vote, she said, and plans to recruit gang members for the Feb. 25 aldermanic election.

It's great of the boyz to take a one day paycut.

To be fair, some of the politicos say they're against it, including Mayor Junior Daley. But it's hard to figure out how seriously to take it.

The electoral clout of Chicago street gangs peaked in the early 1990s with 21st Century V.O.T.E., a political action committee tied to the Gangster Disciples. The group launched voter registration drives and unsuccessfully ran two candidates for alderman. One, Wallace "Gator" Bradley, a former enforcer for the GDs, was photographed in the White House with President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.

Wooeee! It wouldn't be much of a challenge to pick out a perp in that line-up!

It's Patty Murray Time
The always enjoyable American Prowler selects the obvious candidate for Enemy of the Week. But first an appetizer:

Billy Clinton, the little great one, or great little one, whichever you prefer, continued his newest comeback by pronouncing the Republican Party fundamentally racist. There he went again, projecting like someone still deeply troubled for going ahead with the execution of a lobotomized black prisoner on the eve of a critical Democratic presidential primary in early 1992. In happier news, Clinton is back to competing with Jimmy Carter overseas, writing for the International Herald-Tribune that America must not "dominate" but rather focus on supporting such institutions of "global community" as the United Nations. Well, at least the Clinton-Carter competition isn't over a woman.

Ah, Bubba and Jimmy, there's a dynamic duo! But they don't quite have what it takes this week:

In more normal times we'd do our hiding behind the skirts of a maternal figure like Sen. Patty Murray, famous for winning her Senate seat as a "mom in tennis shoes." What we didn't know is that instead of letting the family dog chew on those shoes she decided to do so herself, and now their rubber and plastic residue has entered her brainstream, leading to hallucinatory pronouncements about all that the popular Osama bin Laden has done to build roads, health-care facilities and day-care centers around the world. Could she be confusing Osama with Jimmy Carter and his many good works? Or is Jimmy not violent enough for the little mom? Not since Squeaky Fromme and Patty Hearst have we heard such an eruption from a seething cauldron of suburban angst.

Spoiler alert - Patty wins it in a walk. Must be those darn right-wing haters again!