Being my loveable self, I've engaged in quite a few internet political flame wars over the past couple of years.  One of the things lefties were always especially touchy about was anything that implied that their opposition to regime change in Iraq meant that they loved or supported Saddam.

Well, on the day of the Saddam verdict (DEATH! - yes) here is what the lefties at the Huffington Post REALLY think:

(courtesy of Little Green Footballs)

* * *

Saddam is a far better man than George W. Bush ever thought about being.

By: shrike on November 05, 2006 at 07:58am

[...]

wow are bush, cheney, rumsfield and rice next?seems to me the killed about as many innocent iraqis as saddam did, and about as many innocent , trusting troops as civilians we lost on 9/11

By: stamper on November 05, 2006 at 07:35am

[...]

Now how about going after George Bush.

By: waxxx on November 05, 2006 at 07:36am

[...]

The number of innocents massacred by the neo-con zionist regime directing the Bush administration dwarfs those attributed to Saddam

By: FUBush on November 05, 2006 at 07:41am

[...]

I don’t know of anyone who thinks this was a “fair trial”.

By: Dillon on November 05, 2006 at 07:58am

[...]

If Bush was hung side by side with Saddam it would certainly help the cause of a better Iraq. Add Cheney and Rumsfeld and that would placate everyone.

By: BushCoSatanIncarnate on November 05, 2006 at 08:44am

* * *

And (also via LGF) is what they thought of a group of families of fallen Iraq war GIs going on a fairly secret (for security reasons) visit to Iraq itself:

* * *

“psst...it ain’t a secret anymore. i’m posting this article on every islamist and anti-coalition message board i can find.”

-> Posted by jar jar / Nov 04, 2006

“it would be such an ironic tragedy if these hacks died on their trip...hahaa”

-> Posted by jar jar / Nov 04, 2006

* * *

But, oh yes, they "support the troops"...

As I've pointed out before, today's left has become so intellectually moribund and morally corrupt that they will support anyone, literally ANYONE who hates and wants to destroy this country, and will attack anyone who tries to suppor or defend it.  There are a very few exceptions... old-style FDR liberals like Joe Lieberman... but most of the left have become traitors at heart, and gone completely bonkers as well.

Remember the Thai Coup?  A few perceptive commentators noted that it was lead by Thailand's first Muslim army chief, and wondered whether that fact would prove significant.

Well, now it has:

PATTANI, Thailand - Thailand's interim prime minister publicly apologized Thursday for the former government's hard-line policies against an Islamic insurgency, promising an investigation into allegations of human rights abuses by the administration deposed in a recent coup.

In an unexpected initiative, Chulanont Surayud also said he would urge the limited use of Islamic law in Thailand's Muslim-majority south to settle some disputes, especially over inheritance and family affairs, he said.

Surayud was accompanied by army chief Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, a practicing Muslim who led the Sept. 19 coup. Previous governments have shown little acceptance of Muslim culture.

In other words, after overthrowing the democratically elected government of Thailand, the new government, overshadowed by a Muslim general, is going to apologize to the murderous Muslim insurgency in the South, punish those who resisted it, and give in to some of the demands of the insurgents.

There is a warning for the rest of us in these events.

Another claim of a methodology to rank the states by intelligence has appeared on the scene.  I quote the following bubbly little Foxnews article in its entirety:

The fine folks at Morgan Quitno Press are out to prove what many of us have suspected for a long, long time: some of this country's great states are just a few sandwiches short of an intellectual picnic basket.

According to the private research and publishing company's new survey, when they were handing out smarts, Arizona (dead last for the second year in a row, no less) was hanging out with California, Mississippi and Nevada at the back of the line, Central Florida's Local 6 reports.

Beg to differ?

The folks in Vermont probably don't. The Green Mountain State was ranked the smartest of them all, followed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maine.

The survey has Texas as the Lone Star of mediocrity at No. 25, New York making an appearance at No. 16 and Florida chilling with the other underachievers at No. 29.

The annual rankings are based on 21 elementary and secondary education indicators, ranging from test scores and graduation rates to class size and teacher's salaries.

Want to see where your state ranks?

Click here for the complete list.

As one would, cynically, expect, some of the deepest blue states rank near the top.  Though not as blatant, this is similar to the state IQ hoax that appeared shortly after the 2004 elections. 

However, note that two of the "indicators" are class size and teacher's salaries.

Teachers SALARIES?

As if the relative success of a state teacher's mafia, er...  union had anything to do with how intelligent the inhabitants are.

In fact, even graduation rates are useless as an "indicator" since administrators can increase them simply by diluting standards.  Only test scores might partially approximate a measurement of intelligence.  In the end, however, only a nationally administered IQ test with large, representative, and proportional (to overall state population) sample sizes could come close to measuring the relative "smarts" of the states.

However, IQ tests are quite politically incorrect and have long been out of favor as a tool of research or public policy.

So, those who want to claim that their favorite parts of the nation are "smarter" than those they dislike will continue to have to rely on bullshit.

Yipee.

As evidence begins to mount that the North Korean nuclear test was a tad bit... er, smaller... than initially thought, let us consider the dear leader, the great one, the man behind the magic himself...  KIM JONG-IL!!!

Although his official biography official biography claims that he was born in 1941, the son of North Korean dictator Kim il-Sung, we know better.  After all, his official biography also claims that "his birth at Mount Paektu was foretold by a swallow, and that his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens."

The crack investigative team at the Raging Capitalist has discovered that Kim Jong-il is in fact the result of experimental genetic splicing between Henry "Eraserhead" Spencer and Leisure Suit Larry.

Given his obvious superb qualifications as the boss's son, Kim was rapidly promoted through the ranks of the North Korean communist party.   By the 1970s (see above) he was a powerful official second only to his father, and had, as befits a holder of absolute power, acquired a number of concubines.  We can be sure they were attracted to his stunning good looks and charm.  These rakish qualities were put to good use after the death of his father and his own ascension to power... as even former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright was unable to resist him.

He, being a man of honor, gave her his word that he wouldn't continue to pursue nuclear weapons... in return for a few concessions from America of course.  Secretary Albright and her boss (rumored to be quite a ladies man himself) were impressed.  After all, if you can't trust the word of an isolationist communist dictator, who can you trust?

In addition to ensuring that his socialist worker's paradise is prosperous and well fed, Kim has also found time to become the world's greatest military strategist and it's most prolific author.  He rides a noble white stallion wherever he goes and the heavens shake when he shouts!  If you doubt his achievements, just ask brilliant, well-informed western progressives.

Let us congratulate glorious comrade Kim Jong-il, hero of all socialist revolutions everywhere!

The Democratic party, these days devoid of any ideas other than the lust for power, chimes in on the Nork Nukes.   I think you can guess what they have to say...

All too predictable.

So now we know what for a long time we merely suspected... that the paranoid and utterly evil Communist regime in North Korea has nukes.  The lefties, I'd imagine right now, are sorting themselves out between the majority who are going to blame Bush for this, and a minority that think the Norks ought to have nukes because... well, because the Norks are anti-American.

In truth, part of the blame CAN be placed on Bush's head.  He has continued the same feckless policies regarding North Korea as his worthless predecessor Clinton.  Indeed, no American administration in decades has really taken the North Korean threat seriously.  Yet - now the bastards are proven to have nuclear weapons.  Had Bush continued to expand the ass-kicking, head-cracking foreign policy he followed in the first couple of years after September 11th, we wouldn't have this problem now.  There WAS a period where the evil troglodytes of the world were actually nervous - witness Khaddafi's (may numerous spellings be upon him) sudden conversion to the anti-WMD camp.  However, after nearly four years of self-hating, defeatist, yet vehement and relentless, propaganda by the left, Bush, and the Republicans generally, seem to be cowed at last.

Well, lefty traitor slime, you've gotten your wish.  America is weaker and its enemies are becoming stronger.  For the first time since the cold war, an open enemy of the United States indisputably has nukes.  You may be sure that the Iranians are watching and learning the appropriate lessons.

Well, at least we are pushing for "strong sanctions" at the UN.  I'm sure that'll show 'em!

Now that Foley himself has faded into the ignominy he so richly deserves, I can't help but notice that the Dems and their liberal-left base are trying to turn this into an auto-de-fe of the Republican leadership.

It shows, yet again, what complete and utter hypocritical double-standard slime the Democratic party (and many of its supporters) have become.  Liberals today, with a straight face and no visible hint of guilty conscience, claim that...

sexual relations with underage pages are wrong when they involve a Republican congressman, but just fine when they involve a Democrat

sex scandals generally are private matters that should be off limits to public discussion when they involve Democrats, but are public and justifiably political when they involve Republicans

when the perpetrator of a sex scandal is a Democrat, only he/she/it is guilty of any misconduct, but when it is a Republican, his or her bosses and indeed entire party are indirectly guilty and it is a cause for national outrage

wiretapping and other forms of data collection are morally wrong and a violation of the constitution when the targets are terrorists, but necessary and seemingly mandatory when the targets are Republican congressman

scoutmasters can be gay, and parents who dissaprove of them being in close proximity to their underage male children are bigots, but congressmen (provided they are Republican) who are gay should be held in suspicion if they work around underage male pages

***

Update: Also, evidence is surfacing that the page, may have, in fact, been of age. 

What was that about girlymen?...

It seems that co-ed bathrooms are in use in the Norwegian school system, and due to the resulting conflicts over the delicate art of toilet seat management (as will be familiar to any married couple), at least one school has been mandating that boys sit down to pee.

While perhaps not significant in the bigger picture, this is WONDERFULLY symbolic of today's Europe.

Though I realize I am revealing myself as bourgeois, un-chic and dreadfully old-fashioned, might I suggest separate bathrooms?

Come to think of it, this is one problem the muslims would actually fix.