The first thing most men - and many women - noticed about Bhutto was her striking beauty. At 54, her skin was flawless, and those dark eyes characteristic of people from her part of the world drew in all upon whom her gaze fell. The white head scarf added to her allure. In some ways, she reminded one of a younger Elizabeth Taylor. She could stop conversation and activity by entering a room. Like Taylor, Bhutto had more than political celebrity. She had star power.

The second of her many noble qualities, like beauty that truly matters, was more than skin deep. She had a way of moving between two worlds - East and West; Muslim and Christian - that also threatened fanatics whose mission in life was to kill, not build; and oppress, not liberate. She represented hope and a future separated from a culture that wants to drown people in the past, and this, too, was a threat to men with medieval minds. She was educated at Harvard and Oxford. To those indoctrinated in hate and fundamentalist religion, Bhutto was a threat to their ignorance, a pin light in a cave of intellectual darkness.

At the end of September she was in Washington for meetings with supporters and a few journalists. Sipping tea with her was an experience I shall never forget. She knew the risks of returning to Pakistan, but accepted them because, "I love my country and my people." That's something else we don't see much of today: patriots. There are many politicians who, for reasons of ego and a need to satisfy their own narcissism, seek power, but hide their hunger with bows toward more noble objectives. Like all politicians, indeed like all humanity, Bhutto was flawed, but she was less flawed and more principled than many others in her country. Women with a husband and children don't jeopardize comfortable and relatively safe lifestyles for what awaited her in Pakistan. True heroism is to know the risks and to take them in spite of danger.

Colunist Debbie Schlussel compares Jamie-Lynn Spears to '80 TV star Donna Plato (Diff'rent Strokes).

He's only 28 years old. He has a five-year NFL contract worth $25 million, including $12 million in guaranteed bonuses. And yet, he doesn't have enough money to support his kids. Why?

Well, it might have something to do with the fact that Denver Broncos Running Back Travis Henry fathered at least NINE children with NINE different women. I nominate him for "BabyDaddy of the Year." Or perhaps, Sperm Donor of the Year.

Henry has child support orders against him in four different states for at least seven of the kids. And yet, he can't afford to pay and has no money. Why? Well, when you drop $100,000 on a car and $146,000 on jewelry on a whim, it's not exactly conducive to saving . . . even when you're a multi-millionaire.

Henry previously had to borrow $9,800 from the Tennessee Titans to pay one of his child support bills.

But Henry says we are not in a position to judge him. He told The Denver Post:

People can judge me all they want. But only God can judge me. . . . The important thing is I want to take care of my kids really and truly. It's all good.

Um, not sure about it being "all good" or him wanting to take care of his kids (unless by kids, he means his bling), but he's definitely right about following G-d's commandment: Be fruitful and multiply.

If you're like I am, you've heard scores of media reports about the 2006 Duke University rape case, in which three white lacrosse players were falsely accused of raping a black stripper at a wild party at the home of one of the team members. These guys, convicted by the news media and Duke faculty, were later found innocent. It turned out that Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was running for re-election. In seeking the black vote, he concealed DNA evidence that would have exonerated the lacrosse players.

You might remember hearing scores of stories about the 1998 murder of James Byrd, a black man who was stripped, chained to a pickup truck and dragged through the streets until he was decapitated in Jasper, Texas. The incident provided fodder for the NAACP and others to attack then-Texas Gov. George Bush, during his 2000 election campaign, for not supporting hate crime legislation. It turned out that two of Byrd's murderers were sentenced to death, and the other, life in prison.

I don't know about you, but it was just recently that I heard about a gruesome murder in Knoxville, Tenn., that is far worse than the false charges in the Duke rape case and is at least as horrible, if not more so, than the dragging death of James Byrd. Unlike the Duke rape case and the Jasper lynching, the national news media's coverage of the interracial Knoxville murders paled in comparison. On Jan. 6, 2007, University of Tennessee student Channon Christian and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, were carjacked and kidnapped in Knoxville. Both of them were later murdered.

According to a 46-count indictment, suspects Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, all blacks, are charged with committing rape, including sodomy against Christian and Newsom, both of whom are white. After being raped, Newsom was shot several times and his body was found burned along nearby railroad tracks. Christian was forced to witness her boyfriend's rape, torture and subsequent murder before she was ultimately raped, tortured and murdered. The police discovered her body inside a large trash can in the kitchen of the home where the murders took place. Before disposing of her body, the murderers poured bleach or some other cleaning agent down her throat in an effort to destroy DNA evidence. Trial dates have been set for next May.

What have we heard from the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and others who rushed to judgment and outrage as they condemned whites in the cases of the "Jena 6" and Don Imus when he referred to the Rutgers ladies basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's"? Where were the national news media and public officials? You can bet the rent money that were the victims black and the perpetrators white, Knoxville would have been inundated with TV crews, with Jackson, Sharpton and other civil rights spokesmen and politicians from both parties condemning racism, possibly blaming it all on George Bush.

According to the 2004 FBI National Crime Victimization Survey, in most instances of interracial crimes, the victim is white and the perpetrator is black. In the case of interracial murder for 2004, where the race of victim and perpetrator is known, more than twice as many whites were murdered by a black than cases of a white murdering a black. The failure of civil rights leaders, people like Jackson and Sharpton, as well as politicians to vocally condemn black-on-white crime -- and the relative silence of the news media in reporting it -- is not simply a matter of double standards. It's dangerous, for it contributes to a pile of racial kindling awaiting a racial arsonist to set it ablaze. I can't think of better recruitment gifts for America's racists, either white or black.

Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

Sometime next year, La Crosse County might let all its female prisoners out of jail.

Instead of sitting behind bars, the women will be in a new community-based program the La Crosse County Board unanimously approved Thursday night.
The board awarded a $250,000 contract to the YWCA to run the program, starting in February.

About 20 to 25 women are in the jail at any one time, supervised 24/7 by two jailers at a cost of $420,000 a year, plus other operating expenses.

About 15 of those women would go on electronic home monitoring through Justice Sanctions, and into job counseling, literacy training and other programs through the YWCA, said Supervisor Jill Billings. “It’s a better way than locking them up.”

Later next year, the county will lease or buy a “halfway house” facility in La Crosse where up to 10 women will live. The board has budgeted up to $250,000 for the facility. Those women also would be on electronic home monitoring and in YWCA programming, though they will not be supervised around the clock.

With the women’s jail empty, some male prisoners could temporarily be moved there while cell blocks in the men’s jail are remodeled for the few women who need to be jailed, said County Administrator Steve O’Malley.

Supervisor Jim Berns questioned whether the county would have a spike in spending to have the women’s program and women’s jail at the same time.

“It’s at least half the cost to have a woman in the community with this intensive level of service as it is to lock them up and get nothing and not change behavior,” O’Malley said.

Now, on its face, I wouldn't have a problem with this - that is, until I read this doozy:

Belzer said women are almost always in the system “because of some kind of relationship with a man.”

Aaaaah, now I see what's going on!  By saying that most of the female inmates in this particular jail are there "because of some kind of relationship with a man," the implication, of course, is that it's the man's fault that said women are behind bars!

GOD FORBID A WOMAN WOULD EVER HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HER OWN ACTIONS!!!  PARRISH THE THOUGHT!!!

As Glenn Sacks put it, "Wow."

Congress last night passed a giant new spending bill that undermines current plans for a U.S.-Mexico border fence, allowing the Homeland Security Department to build a single-tier barrier rather than the two-tier version that has worked in California.

The spending bill, written by Democrats and passed 253-154 with mostly their votes, surrenders to President Bush's budget demands, meeting his spending limit with a $515 billion bill to fund most of the federal government and setting up votes to pay for the Iraq war. But Democrats reached his goal in part by slashing his defense and foreign-aid priorities to pay for added domestic spending.

The concessions promise to end a months-long budget standoff before Congress adjourns for the year and takes a Christmas break scheduled to start by Friday. In a rare two-step maneuver, the House first voted 253-154 to approve the bill to fund most of the civilian Cabinet agencies, and then voted 206-201 to add about $30 billion for Afghanistan war-spending to the measure.

But the measures did not pass before House Republicans blasted the changes to the border fence.

"The fact that this was buried in a bloated, 3,500-page omnibus speaks volumes about the Democrats' unserious approach on border security and illegal immigration," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. "Gutting the Secure Fence Act will make our borders less secure, but it's consistent with the pattern of behavior we've seen all year from this majority."

The 2006 Secure Fence Act specifically called for "two layers of reinforced fencing" and listed five specific sections of border where it should be installed. The new spending bill removes the two-tier requirement and the list of locations.

House Democrats said they were just adopting the Senate version, which was backed by a bipartisan group of border-state senators and passed the Senate several times this year.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas Republican who has led the charge to change the 2006 law, said she wants to give Homeland Security more flexibility and wants local officials and landowners to be consulted. "Senator Hutchison believes that Customs and Border Protection can better decide how to utilize limited resources to secure the border than a congressman from Maine," said Matt Mackowiak, Mrs. Hutchison's spokesman. He said double-tier fencing has worked in San Diego, but it might not be the right solution for the entire fence.

But Rep. Peter T. King, who sponsored the Secure Fence Act, said if the goal was to give DHS flexibility, the senators have failed.

"This is either a blatant oversight or a deliberate attempt to disregard the border security of our country," the New York Republican said. "As it's currently written, the omnibus language guts the Secure Fence Act almost entirely. Quite simply, it is unacceptable."

The spending bill must pass the House and Senate this week, and the Senate is expected to take up the House bill today.

On her wedding night, Aisha Salim will hand her blooded sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity, according to a story in The Daily Telegraph of Australia.

But there’s one problem. Being a modern English university graduate, she is far from the traditional untouched Muslim bride.

Like most woman her age, Salim has smoked, drank, had sex and even lived with one of her past boyfriends.

However, if the devout Muslim family of her soon-to-be husband – or even her own family – knew this, she could be murdered.

Aisha has opted to have her virginity surgically restored in a delicate but painful surgery called hymenoplasties -- where the hymen is re-created from the already torn tissue, or a new membrane is inserted.

"If my husband cannot prove to his family that I am a virgin, I would be hounded, ostracised and sent home in disgrace,” Salim told England’s Daily Mail.

“My father, who is a devout Muslim, would regard it as the ultimate shame. The entire family could be cast out from the friends and society they hold dear, and I honestly believe that one of my fanatically religious cousins or uncles might kill me in revenge, to purge them of my sins. Incredible as it may seem, honour killings are still accepted within our religion.

"Ever since my family arranged this marriage for me, I've been terrified that, on my wedding night, my secret would come out. It has only been since my surgery last week that I've actually been able to sleep properly. Now, I can look forward to my marriage."

Salim is far from alone in seeking such drastic -- and almost barbaric -- surgery.

The rise in Islamic fundamentalism has seen 24 women in the U.K. have the procedure between 2005 and 2006.

"I've always adored my parents,” Salim said.

“My father, now 62, is a retired accountant and my mother raised a family of seven sisters in a five-bedroom house in Birmingham.

"I attended the local Catholic secondary school and although I wore a scarf on my head, I refused to wear a veil, telling my parents that it would make me stand out too much.

"I was one of the girls, totally accepted by my white, English friends whose lives revolved around shopping and fancying boys.

"But the moment I stepped over the doorstep, normal teenage life would cease and it was like entering an entirely different world. At home, we had to pray together five times a day.

"We weren't allowed to watch television. My parents were so worried that Western influences might take our minds off the most important things -- education and religion -- that we were never allowed to bring any schoolfriends home.

"But it made all the things my friends did more attractive to me. I would sneak out on Saturday afternoons and join them in town, hanging around, shopping and chatting to boys," Salim added.

See my previous blog on this situation.

Report: Saudi king pardons rape victim 

Living a comfortable life on the third rail

By Brian DeBose and Jen Haberkorn




Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was in a happy mood, talking about stereotypes — racial or religious — and how he enjoys defying them in the pursuit of impartiality.

"You know what?" he asked editors and reporters at a luncheon yesterday at The Washington Times. "I love walking on the third rail because I am a free man. It's more important to me to be free than to be popular."

In a wide-ranging interview, Justice Thomas discussed the popularity of his recently published memoir, his judicial philosophy, his dirt-poor upbringing in rural Georgia and his views about affirmative action.

Displaying an easygoing joviality, he punctuated his remarks with dashes of humor and a hearty laugh.

He addressed criticism that he isn't "black enough" because of his belief in personal responsibility and his opposition to affirmative action, noting similar criticism of Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama. "It's ridiculous," he said.

"Years ago, people started to say 'black is a state of mind.' So a Klansman is going to come up to me now and ask, 'what is your state of mind?' I don't need anybody to define me. That means nothing to me. Look at me. I don't argue about things like that. That's too low in the weeds for me to argue about."

His memoir, "My Grandfather's Son," published in October, has been well received nearly everywhere. He said he wrote it, in part, to dispel misconceptions that justices "came from Mount Olympus," and to erase misapprehensions held of him.

His only concern in every case he hears, he said, is "what is my role as a judge?" Other considerations would taint the impartiality of the judicial process.

"Some people would be concerned that I might show that I'm a Catholic in judgments ... but those very same people ... are also upset that I am not a 'black' judge. They want me to put my 'blackness' in it and would be upset if my 'blackness,' whatever that is, is not reflected in the way I make decisions. You can't have it both ways.

"What is really discouraging to me is when I go on the road, I think it is a waste of time on the affirmative-action thing. I don't know what that is all about and there is nothing you can say, so you just let it go and move on to something else."

The key problem with affirmative action, in his view, is that it only deals with getting into a school or creating diversity, but does not deal with the performance, as if racial diversity or admissions based on race automatically guarantees that the child will learn better.

Being the high court's only black justice doesn't bother him. He notes that critics who scrutinize his "blackness" do not similarly scrutinize the ethnicity of his Jewish or Italian-American colleagues. "People shortchange themselves when they limit their discussion to race when talking about the court, because the court so rarely hears race cases."

The job of justice of the Supreme Court is not one that he would seek.

"Why would you want to do this job? You give me three good reasons. ... Make decisions about other peoples' lives? There isn't any money in it. You want to lose your anonymity, cease to be a private person? Be the recipient of endless criticism? I don't see what it is, there's nothing in it that entices my ego."

So why did he accept President George H.W. Bush's nomination in 1991? "I think you're supposed to do it. I really believe that when you're called, you're supposed to respond 'yes.' "He noted the sacrifices that soldiers are routinely called to make, and do so without hesitation. "How can you face them if you're unwilling to sacrifice yourself?"

At 59 years old with 16 years on the court, Justice Thomas has reached the age at which most justices join the court, and he already has served the tenure most justices complete, he said.

Growing up without a father is an experience Justice Thomas knows well, having seen his father only twice in his life, and talking about it is the first thing he does when speaking to black children, two-thirds of whom share his kind of upbringing.

He recalled that he got into a controversy in 1982 for saying that the black community must address out-of-wedlock births and fatherless homes, noting that critics said he was "blaming the victims."

Twenty-five years later, he is still talking about it, recently to a group of young people at the Greater Washington Urban League with its director and his friend, Maudine Cooper. He is still taking heat for it but said the results of not dealing with it then are very clear now.

A self-described libertarian, Justice Thomas said he doesn't mind people calling him conservative because that was certainly what his grandparents were and how they raised him.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said early in his term that he was hoping for more unanimous opinions from the court this term, in an attempt to provide more clarity to the lower courts and the public.

Justice Thomas hailed this as a noble goal but "people don't suddenly change their minds. We can disagree but not act so nasty about it. He compared the court's collegiality with the lack of courtesy in political debate. "You respect other people's ideas. If you notice in every dissent, less one or two, I always start with, 'I respectfully disagree.' "

Last May, firefighters at a Baltimore, Md., fire station came under scrutiny for displaying a deer with an afro wig, gold tooth, gold chain and a cigarette hanging from its mouth.

Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, went ballistic, charging, "There is now and has been a culture of racism and white supremacy within the Baltimore City Fire Department."

As it turns out, it was a black fireman who dressed up the critter. Cheatham refused to apologize for his accusations of fire department racism, maintaining "there is now and has been a culture of racism and white supremacy within the Baltimore City Fire Department."

On Nov. 21, a hangman's noose was found at the fire station with a note, "We can't hang the cheaters, but we can hang the failures. No EMT-1, NO JOB." The noose and note turned up on the heels of an investigation into allegations of cheating on the test that emergency medical technicians must take for certification.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a black, in a written statement said, "I am outraged by this deplorable act of hatred and intimidation. Threats and racial attacks are unacceptable anywhere, especially in a firehouse." Doc Cheatham said, "We're going to demand that this be handled as a hate crime. This thing really needs to end here in Baltimore city." The incident prompted a federal investigation.

Last week, Donald Maynard, a black firefighter-paramedic, confessed to having placed the noose, note and drawing depicting a lynching on a bunk in the firehouse. City officials said Maynard was recently suspended, prior to his confession, from the department Friday for failing to meet requirements for advanced life-saving training. A spokesman for Mayor Dixon said there would be no criminal charges filed.

In response to Maynard's confession, NAACP President Cheatham still blamed white racism, saying, "It really saddens us to hear that evidently things have reached a stage that even an African-American does an injustice to himself and his own people as a result of a negative culture in that department."

Doc Cheatham is a poster boy for demonstrating a much larger problem, namely that the once proud and useful NAACP has outlived that usefulness and has in some instances become an impediment to black progress. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black liberal-to-moderate Washington-based think-tank, reported that 88 percent of blacks favored educational choice plans. A Gallup Poll found 72 percent of blacks support school choice. The NAACP, acting as handmaidens for the teachers' unions, is solidly against school vouchers. A Gallup Poll shows 44 percent of blacks are for the death penalty and 49 percent against it, but the NAACP is solidly against it.

The major problems confronting a large segment of the black community have little or nothing to do with racism -- problems such as unprecedented illegitimacy, family breakdown, fraudulent education, crime and rampant social pathology. If white people became angels tomorrow, it would do nothing to solve problems that can only be solved by blacks.

But I'm somewhat optimistic. More and more blacks are seeing through race hustlers such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Doc Cheatham. An even more optimistic note is the financial decline of the NAACP. Declining black support is good evidence that the civil rights struggle is over and won. That's not to say there are not major problems but they are not civil rights problems.

Today, most civil rights organizations get their financial support from white businesses and foundations caving in to intimidation or seeking to sooth feelings of guilt. For them, I have a cheaper alternative, "Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to All Persons of European Descent," available at walterewilliams.com.