Archive » 2004 » August

Anne Arundel Police Investigating Sleepy 911 Operator Excerpt: Associated Press Thursday, August 5, 2004; 9:21 AM After 10 years on the job at Anne Arundel County’s 911 call center, Louis Gerber’s alleged two-minute snooze may get him a written reprimand or fired. On June 29, Patricia Berg phoned Anne Arundel County Police to report a [...]

Martin at nationalterroralert.com passes on new info about another arrest of a South African (or at least someone traveling with a South African passport) with suspected terrorist ties knocking at our Southern border: A South African citizen has been arrested in Mexico for alleged involvement in al-Qaeda-linked terrorist activities, South African media reported on Thursday, [...]

Today’s lead homeland security news is the story of an Albany, N.Y., mosque raid that uncovered a shoulder-fired missile purchase plot. Before the Deaniacs and Ashcroft-bashers start foaming again about the suspicious timing of the arrests, remember this: Similar plots have been uncovered before. In the late 1980s, thug leader Jeff Fort of El Rukn, [...]

A plague of persistent P.C. follies in America’s airports… The invaluable Heather Mac Donald weighs in on the sacrifice of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or Capps II, at the hands of the civil liberties brigade. Annie Jacobsen and Clint Taylor follow-up on Flight 327. Time magazine talks to a federal air marshal who [...]

Hey, kids. Been up all night (nothing unusual there) at the hospital with my 4-year-old daughter, who hasn’t been able to hold anything down for the past 24 hours (water, Coke, jello, Cheezits, pedialyte popsicles…all of which ended up on the family room couch). Seems there’s a nasty stomach bug going around. After some IV [...]

I’ve been interested in vaccine policy ever since my husband and I were pressured to vaccinate our three-day old son for Hepatitis B–a virus that is almost impossible for him to contract except through intravenous drug use or sexual contact. The usual argument for giving a low-risk newborn the Hep B vaccine is that a [...]

If you thought the idea of driving while eating corn on the cob was dangerous, get a load of John Kerry campaigning while packing corn. To be fair, Bush doesn’t look any better. Update: W. ate it raw.

Blogger Tim Worstall posts an interesting update to the Amy “Hold the Mayo, Abort Two Triplets” Richards story. In a response to a letter-writer, Richards gives further reasons for “selectively reducing” two of her unborn children rather than putting them up for adoption: …it wasn’t a decision that I made solely to preserve my lifestyle, [...]

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders is right on in this column on the Lori Hacking/Laci Peterson/hyped-murder-of-the-day cable news phenomenon: Here we go again. Another beautiful young white woman missing and another hinky husband — add them together, and you get another murder-trial media circus… The trial has become a spectator sport. Analysts talk about [...]

I agree with this op-ed in today’s Washington Post by David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, which questions the conventional wisdom that the Supreme Court slapped down the Bush Administration in the “war on terrorism” cases. An excerpt: [W]hen all these cases are read together — the Guantanamo Bay case, along with the [...]

In the New York Post, I describe four things our government can do to improve homeland security in light of the recent terror alert elevations. Included: An endorsement of legislative proposals by Charles Schumer. Yes, Charles Schumer.

My new column is up. It’s on the “UNITY Journalists of Color” convention being held this week in Washington, D.C. Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry plan to make appearances, where they will try to out-P.C. each other in gag-worthy fashion. I cooked up a little quiz for all these skin-deep diversity types and [...]

A few weeks after I started the blog, Pollyana that I was, I opted to throw open the comments section against the recommendation of several savvy blogfriends. Initially, the quality of comments was uniformly high. Readers stopped by to share their favorite war movies, for example, and posted their keen insights into the costs and [...]

The Associated Press reports on the rise of homeschooling: Almost 1.1 million students were home-schooled last year, their numbers pushed higher by parents frustrated over school conditions and wanting to include morality and religion with the English and math. The estimated figure of students taught at home has grown 29 percent since 1999, according to [...]

Jeff Quinton is on top of the latest anti-terrorism raid around London. 13 arrests so far of individuals “on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.” Update: Citizen Smash has the latest and also offers these cogent thoughts and a challenge: COUNTER-TERRORISM is a very serious business. We [...]

Congratulations to Blackfive and his wife, who welcomed a baby girl into the world today!

The airing of Fahrenheit 9/11 on Cuban state-run TV is apparently a violation of Oscar Awards rules. Property rights, schmoperty rights, right, Michael? Via Wizbang.

The word is out about my new book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling” in World War II and the War on Terror. I’ve been keeping it under wraps over the past year as I quietly toiled away in the wee hours of the morning, but since Instapundit kindly mentioned receiving the [...]

Newsflash: The Wall Street Journal is finally worried about terrorists crossing the border. Whoops, wrong border.

I’m scheduled to appear on Fox and Friends between 8:30 am and 9:00 am (eastern time) this morning to discuss terrorism and immigration.

So, the big Drudge headline of the night reveals that the New York Times is running with this story: QAIDA DOCUMENTS YEARS OLD, BUT OFFICIALS SEE A REAL THREAT Much of the information that led authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the NY and D.C. areas was 3 or [...]

Colin McNickle, the man to whom Teresa Heinz Kerry hissed “Shove it,” writes about the death threats he has received. Also, he is still waiting for the o-pin-KNEE-o-nay-ted Teresa to answer his original question. Maybe he’d have better luck if he asked her in Portuguese, French, Italian, or Spanish.

The American Enterprise online has a delicious interview. It begins: TAE: You started as a Marxist. Sowell: Yes. The first time I read anything really serious about him was when I was about 19. I remember buying an old, secondhand set of encyclopedias for a dollar and 19 cents. (Amazing how you remember details from [...]

D.W.E.C.O.T.C. = Driving While Eating Corn on the Cob Better not let the folks in Washington, D.C. hear about this.

The Blue Angels are headed to Seattle this week for their annual show. Good time to brush up on what your preschool teacher might be telling your kids about our brave Navy pilots.

The lefty mayor of St. Paul endorses W. (Hat tip: Captain’s Quarters.)

James Robbins at NRO responds to Howard Dean and the doubters. Update: E-mail of the morning from someone who works in one of the targeted buildings: My co-worker here at one of the buildings on highest alert for the current warnings of truck bombs in northern NJ just came in and stated matter of factly [...]

Chief Wiggles, who initiated the Operation Give toy drive for Iraqi children, needs your assistance in dealing with the Scrooges at Atlas Line. Please click on over and give a hand if you have a chance today.

(Make sure to scroll down for updates on the latest press conferences, etc.) ABC News first reported last night on an al Qaeda threat to New York City corporations. This is the key: Intelligence sources say al Qaeda plans to move non-Arab terrorists across the border with Mexico. The warning is related to the arrest [...]