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DECEMBER 24, 2010

MEDICAL ADVICE – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  Finally, the truth is out.  Read it and weep, or at least stand up.  From London's Telegraph:

Yoga may be good for your karma, but is terrible for your knees, an Indian orthopaedic surgeon has warned.

I'd heard whispers about this.

Dr Ashok Rajgopal says he has performed knee replacement surgery on a number of leading yoga gurus.
His warnings are a serious challenge to those who say yoga, which is now a multi-billion pound global industry, can ward off the effects of ageing and leave devotees feeling fitter, stronger and at peace with the world.

Some of its most charismatic teachers, like India's Baba Ramdev, who has built a worldwide empire through television appearances, believe its breathing exercises can even cure diseases like HIV Aids and cancer. In the United States alone, more than £4 billion a year is spent on yoga equipment and 15 million people are regular practitioners.

But according to Dr Rajgopal, the extreme stretching exercises at the heart of the discipline cause severe stress on joints, leading to arthritis.

He has seen a higher incidence of joint and bone ailments among yoga followers.

It's about time the first lady got on this.  Forget that childhood obesity stuff.  This is BIG.

We're happy to give you this medical alert.  Sit properly at holiday dinners.  If you see a relative meditating, stop him before he goes too far.  The threat of yoga is everywhere.

December 24, 2010       Permalink

HUMAN RIGHTS PHONIES – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Urgent Agenda's intelligent, informed readership knows that "human rights" is one of the most twisted, misused phrases around.  "Human rights advocates" too often turn out to be old leftists spouting the "human rights" mantra from one side of their mouths, while defending the world's worst dictatorships from the other. 

Nowhere is the problem worse than in Hollywood, where phoniness is a way of life.  Believe me.  I've worked there.  You would sometimes yearn for someone who would just tell the truth about what he had for lunch. 

Andrew Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" has the story of the movie industry's latest flirtation with utter hypocrisy and fraudulent concern for "human rights."  It involves one of their own:

Afshan Azad, 22, who plays Padma Patil in the “Harry Potter” film series remains in hiding. She refused to appear in a London court and press charges, no doubt because she knows there’s no way the British police can protect her. It is open Islamic season on Ms. Azad.

What has she done to bring down the wrath of Allah? Ms. Azad’s boyfriend is Hindi, a non-Muslim...

...Just so we understand what’s going on: this is the norm in the Muslim world. Women who dare enter a relationship with non-Muslims are fair game for an honor killing, usually proceeded by various forms of unspeakable torture.

Hollywood reacts to the horror.  Not:

You would think that Ms. Azad’s case would sweep through Hollywood like a prairie fire, with celebrities stepping forward to condemn Islam’s war against women and offer support to this unfortunate young actress and the millions of Muslim women who live in perpetual fear of their lives. And hey, Hollywood is stuffed with card carrying feminists. So doesn’t it make sense that western women—specifically liberals who are always lecturing cave dwelling conservatives about social justice and human rights—would surge forward like an angry wave in support of their sister?

But gee willikers, listen to the silence...

...talk to film people about the oppression of women in the Muslim world, specifically honor killings, and you’ll be met with either blank stares or a stumbling explanation about the moral complexities of judging third world cultures.

In short, western liberals in Hollywood and elsewhere, most notably so-called feminists, have abandoned the human rights of Muslim women in the name of multicultural gibberish. It’s okay to let women be slaughtered by their fanatic families because we, as depraved western oppressors, have no right to tell the natives how to live.

Finally...

And now that one of Hollywood’s own, Afshan Azad, 22, a fine young actress, is in hiding because her father and brother are determined to murder her, well, I’m sure Hollywood will sigh with compassion, and then move on because the part can always be recast.

This moral nothingness perfectly compliments the barbarism of the Islamist world. One cannot survive without the other. They are, in clinical terms, enablers.

COMMENT:  Another term would be "collaborators."  The phoniness, of course, extends well beyond Hollywood, and into the academic world, also silent about the horrors experienced by Muslim women.  It isn't part of the script, not part of the party line. 

I actually heard, with my own ears, people in Hollywood say about five years ago that they wouldn't take a stand against Muslim oppression because that would "help Bush."  I kid you not.  With my own ears.

Those are the people who are feeding "entertainment" to our kids.

December 24, 2010      Permalink

A PASSING – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  We note the passing, at Christmas time, of Fred Foy, a man with a special relationship to kids.  Never heard of him?  Think maybe he was a member of the Foy vaudeville family?  No, no, he wasn't.  Fred Foy, who died this week, at 89, was a radio announcer.

But what he announced was listened to, intently, by a generation of kids:

"A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo, Silver! ..."

Fred Foy announced "The Lone Ranger," one of the greatest, and longest-running, radio adventure shows ever. My, how we would sit at those old Emerson and Philco radios and wait for Fred to tell us that the Ranger, and his trusty native-American sidekick, Tonto, were galloping our way.

These days, the show would be considered politically incorrect.  But to us, the Lone Ranger and Tonto were heroes, moral and otherwise.

The wonderful thing about radio is that it stimulated a child's imagination.  We had to imagine what people looked like, what things looked like.  The sound effects people provided the clapping of a horse's hoofs, but we had to imagine the horse.  That ended with television, and I guess it was inevitable.  But I remember my Radio Workshop teacher in junior high school, Vera Larner, telling us how sad it was. 

So, adios Fred.  We'll never forget that voice, or one of the best-written introductions to a radio show...ever.

The obit is here.

December 24, 2010      Permalink

CHRISTMAS EVE – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  I have seen many Christmases and Christmas eves.  You don't have to be a religious Christian to appreciate and honor the spiritual meaning of the day.

I recall, as a child, when a perfectly appropriate Christmas gift was a five-dollar snow shovel, and recipients were appreciative.  Today we see television ads for Mercedes automobiles, a difficult item to put under a tree.

It is a commonplace to bemoan the "commercialism" of Christmas, but I must make this observation:  I have never seen a Christmas season as devoid of religious meaning, as cold (in attitude) and as strictly commercial as this one.  We are, as a society, heading in the wrong direction.  Oh yes, I know, I know, the secularists argue that we're just more "inclusive," and less "offensive" these days.  Are we really?

I didn't see much offense, as a little boy, when Perry Como would devote his weekly television show to Christmas music.  The Constitution survived and there were no riots in the streets.  Yes, some religious leaders would occasionally make foolish or insensitive statements, but name an age when some religious leaders haven't acted badly.  The great majority of leaders and people acted well.  In fact, it is the ones who didn't act well who got singled out.

Some argue that we should de-emphasize religious observance because religion celebrates events that cannot be "proved."  But true religion is never about "what."  It's about "who and "why."  Religious stories are stories of faith, from which we can take lessons of morality and behavior.  Please remember that the concept of "peace on Earth and good will toward men" did not begin in a "peace studies" class at Northwestern.  It began as a religious concept.

I hope we can, in the future, do better.  That doesn't mean following, or respecting, the religious bomb throwers.  It does mean that religious holidays should be honored, and celebrated, not because they can be misused, but because they contain within them the bedrock of our civilization.  And that civilization is worth defending.

December 24, 2010     Permalink 

DECEMBER 23, 2010

THE POTENTIAL ISSUE – AT 9:57 P.M. ET:  This has been sneaking up on us, but its potential as a 2012 issue should not be underestimated.  Inflation is one of the things that destroyed Jimmah Carter, an entirely delightful destruction.  It can happen again if energy prices continue to rise.  From AP:

NEW YORK — The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline topped $3 on Thursday.

It's the first time that the average retail price has been above $3 a gallon at Christmas. The average pump price rose about a cent and a half a gallon overnight, to $3.01, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's 14 cents more than a month ago and 43 cents higher than a year ago.

Pump prices have traditionally dropped after the peak summer driving season and into the winter, because fewer people are on the road. This year, however, gasoline prices rose as oil prices climbed from about $80 a barrel in August to more than $91 on Thursday. That's the highest it's been in more than two years.

Analysts think oil and gas prices will rise as the economy gets stronger and demand picks up. But some economists worry that high energy prices could slow the nation's economic recovery. A study by business management firm PortiaGroup says gas pump prices are already taking a bigger bite out of household spending: an average 7.4 percent of median household income this month compared with 6.5 percent in December of last year and 4.2 percent in 2008.

If higher oil prices persist, the average share of income spent on gasoline could rise to almost 10 percent by spring, with pump prices around $3.75 or more a gallon.

Most analysts say oil prices have been rising not because of strong demand and dwindling supplies, but on hopes that an improving economy usually means more demand for oil and gas.

COMMENT:  This can really bite Obama, especially as his administration is seen as hostile to oil exploration.  The Environmental Protection Administration, just this week, announced plans for very aggressive regulations of carbon emissions.  That may, theoretically, be good for us in the long term, but in the short term it can devastate us economically, not a concern for environmental religionists. 

And if Obama persists in his war on offshore drilling, that could raise fuel prices even more.  This is one of those issues that rises up and bites a president.  It does not go away easily, and it affects every family every day.  When people see $4.16 on the pump, and they may see it by 2012, their next thought may well be of Barack Obama and his policies.

And they don't even give away mugs anymore.

December 23, 2010       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 7:39 P.M. ET:  Britain is already having a ferocious winter.  But it wasn't predicted.  In fact, none of the cold winters of recent years was predicted.  Why?  The probable answer is chilling (pun), but a stark lesson for the U.S.  From the Washington Times:

It's the coldest winter on record in Great Britain. Great Britain also has experienced its heaviest snowfalls since the 1920s. The mayor of London, who last year was subjected to a grilling in Parliament over the inability to keep the capital's roads clear, has asked why the government's Meteorological Office ("Met Office") didn't see this coming. The answer is almost certainly an institutional faith in global-warming models that is starting to conflict with reality. The United States needs to make sure it does not go down Great Britain's unplowed road.

Almost 10 years ago, the Independent, a leading national newspaper in the United Kingdom, ran a story that has become a joke, circulated by e-mail and on Facebook even among left-wingers. "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past," was the headline, and some of the quotes will raise wry smiles among Brits shivering and slipping their way to work. "[T]he warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr. David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years, winter snowfall will become 'a very rare and exciting event. ... Children just aren't going to know what snow is,' he said." This is, of course, the same CRU that became infamous last year as the source of the "Climategate" e-mails.

This snow blindness manifested itself in the Met Office's predictions for the past three years. In 2008, it predicted a milder-than-normal winter. That winter was the coldest in a decade.

COMMENT:  That is a warning for America.  Writers like Tom Friedman of The New York Times denounce those who question global warming as "anti-science," when in fact they're pro-science.  They demand the highest standards of scientific analysis, and they don't think real science should be mixed with political science. 

There is no such thing as "settled science," although some of the global warming religious community claim that there is.  Science is constantly evolving, and examining its own "truths."  Recently, a physicist at the new superconducting supercollider in Switzerland said that, because of the machine's capability, scientists will be able to learn whether the physics they've been teaching for the last generation is nonsense.

We hope 2011 will see some kind of mechanism set up in this country, perhaps a Challenger-type commission, that will finally examine "climate change" and determine what we actually know, and what we don't know.  Don't hold your breath.  There are too many interests involved, and too much money involved, to let that happen.  But maybe there'll be a very unscientific miracle and we'll get at the truth.

December 23, 2010      Permalink

OBAMA IS BACK, OR IS HE? – AT 9:26 A.M. ET:  I find amusing – well, actually revolting – the sudden political resurrection of Barack Obama, courtesy of the mainstream media.

Suddenly, we are told, the president is back on track, as if the election of just last month never happened.  Why, Obama has won great "victories" from the lame-duck session of Congress.  He's on a roll.  He's Batman, Superman, even Superwoman, all rolled into one. 

So let's see:  A lame-duck session of Congress, with the heavy Democratic majorities elected two years ago, slams through major legislation that hasn't even been fully debated, showing utter contempt for the will of the people, as expressed last month.  And this is considered a great victory for the president.

Not so fast, Barack.  The new club comes in on January 5th, and you won't be doin' much slammin'. 

Personally, I think we've lost something in the last few weeks, no matter how you feel about individual pieces of legislation that got rocketed through.  We've lost a bit of democracy.  By tradition, lame-duck sessions handle only routine matters, deferring to the newly elected Congress to take up major legislation.  But the current incarnation of the Democratic Party doesn't think much of this democracy stuff.  Democracy, to this largely coastal, largely leftist crowd, is what exists when their side wins.  When it doesn't win, "we don't need no rotten democracy."

So we've had a runaway Congress, getting it its pet legislation enacted before the new Congress takes over.  And the sad fact is that the Republican establishment, true to form, went right along with it, as Lindsey Graham pointed out with disgust.

It will now be up to Republicans to pull themselves together, come up with a positive agenda, and make it clear that the days of gimmicks and fast-talk operations are over.  Or are they?

December 23, 2010      Permalink

WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  While our lame-duck session of Congress has indulged itself these last weeks, foreign enemies are at work.  And they're not building rowboats.  From Britain's Telegraph:

Iran is operating a worldwide recruitment network for nuclear scientists to lure them to the country to work on its nuclear weapons programme, officials have told the Daily Telegraph.

They claim that the country is particularly reliant on North Korean scientists but also recruits people with expertise from African countries to work on developing missiles and nuclear production activities.

North Korea relies on an lucrative financing agreement with Iran to fund its expanding nuclear activities. In return for Iranian money and testing facilities, North Korea sends technology and scientists.

Mohamed Reza Heydari, a former Iranian consul in Oslo, told The Daily Telegraph, that he had personally helped scores of North Koreans enter the country while working for the foreign ministry's office in Tehran's Imam Khomenei airport.

"Our mission was to coordinate with a team from the Ministry of Intelligence in checking the visas of the foreign diplomatic and trade delegates who visited Iran, with special attention to VIPs," he said.

"We had the instructions to forego any visa and passport inspections for Palestinians belonging to Hamas and North Korean military and engineering staff who visit Iran on regular basis.

COMMENT:  We have developed a curious lack of urgency about this.  But the fact remains that Iran, unless it is stopped, will eventually get the bomb, changing the entire power relationship in west Asia and the Middle East.

The pathetic European Union, waving its 1930s mentality for all to see, is about to begin new "talks" with the Iranians, as if seven or eight years of talks have had any meaning.  We are heading for serious trouble with Iran, but the mainstream media, following the trendies on the left, shows very little interest.  We will be awakened.

December 23, 2010       Permalink

YOU REALLY CAN'T MAKE THIS UP – AT 8:40 A.M. ET:  Look, it's Massachusetts, and eastern Massachusetts at that.  So who's surprised?  From Fox:

The principal of a public school in Brookline, Mass., is asking parents to fill out permission slips before their children can participate in a weekly recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Gerardo Martinez, the principal of The Devotion School, informed parents that the school would begin reciting the pledge in January over the public address system.

The Devotion School?  I wonder what they're devoted to.

Attached to the letter was a form that asked parents to check either: "Yes, my child will participate in the weekly Pledge of Allegiance" or "No, my child will not participate in the weekly Pledge of Allegiance."

"I urge you to have a conversation as a family to help your children understand why I will be reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and to support them in feeling comfortable and confident in the decision on whether or not to participate," Martinez wrote in the letter.

The school also sent parents a copy of the Pledge of Allegiance along with a note that defined the words "under God" as meaning "there is one Supreme entity for every citizen."

Wha..?  The school defines what "under God" means?  And it means that "there is one Supreme entity for every citizen"?  Really?  Is that like "one God, one vote"?

School officials told Fox News Radio they are in the process of offering some sort of clarification about the school’s policy as well as the definition of the words "under God."

COMMENT:  Guys, I strongly suggest that you cool it.  We don't need the truancy officer to define "under God."  Most people get it, and, being Americans, they define it their own way. 

Maybe teach a little English.  Some math, if you get the chance.

December 23, 2010       Permalink

GRACIAS – AT 8:32 A.M. ET:  I want to thank the many Urgent Agenda (and Power Line) readers for their e-mails in response to my piece currently up at Power Line.

If truth be told, the largest response I get on the internet is to my articles on popular culture.  There's an old saying that Americans have two businesses, their own business and show business.  I think it's true.  I also think it's true that there's a strong appreciation for, and yearning for, the great performances of the past.

We're planning the future of Urgent Agenda, and thinking of expanding our horizons, both on the free site and our subscription site, dealing more and more with popular culture and American society generally.  What do you think?

December 23, 2010     Permalink