Blogworthy items: Nobel peace prize, NOLA police, Netherlands euthanasia, Nipsey Russell and Don Adams

via Michelle Malkin we read:

Officer Ronald Mitchell shot and killed Danny Brumfield, 45, outside the convention center, the New Orleans Police Department confirmed Friday. Police said it happened about 2 a.m. Sept. 3, in the darkness before the National Guard arrived and began evacuating the convention center.

A police statement released after the Associated Press asked about the shooting said that moments after Mitchell and his partner heard what appeared to be a gunshot, a man jumped onto the hood of their patrol car swinging something shiny. It was attempted murder of a police officer, a four-paragraph news release said.

That wasn't what happened, say Brumfield's daughter, Shantan Brumfield, and his niece Africa Brumfield, both of whom were there and both of whom the Associated Press interviewed by phone.

They say the officer who shot Brumfield had hit him twice with a squad car before doing so — a nudge the first time, a heavier bump the second. That was when he leaped onto the hood and was shot, they said. Afterward, they said, the car ran over him, and other officers didn't come to investigate for several hours.

And there was a beating this weekend, videotaped by a television crew, of a 64-year-old black man outside a Bourbon Street bar.  The victim now says that he was not intoxicated at the time.  Curiously, the Rodney King crowd seems to be absent from the scene.  Anyone know why?

Of course all of this comes on top of continuing allegations of looting and lawlessness  by police officers themselves, not to mention the fact that somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the NOLA police force simply disappeared after Katrina struck the city.  At least Police Superintendent Eddie Compass had the courage to resign.  Maybe Mayor Nagin should take a few cues from him.

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The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has announced that the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to Mohamed El Baradei and the Uniten Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, for "their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way."

With regard to the first effort mentioned, the prevention of nuclear energy from being used for military purposes, the IAEA has  -- well, let's just say that they have done a less than stellar job.  During the last 20 years, virtually every nation that wished to acquire nuclear weapons or embark on a nuclear weapons development program has done so, with only the threat of "stern warnings" from the IAEA. 

Pakistan and India both developed their nuclear programs while the IAEA looked the other way.  So did North Korea.  Pakistani officials willfully sold nuclear technology behind the IAEA's back.  And Libya, Iraq, and Iran worked steadily toward building their own bombs while the IAEA did nothing.  Only US intervention in Iraq (which also scared the stuffing out of Libya) prevented both nations from developing bombs.  And of course Israel bombed Iraq's premier nuclear facility in 1981, just before it went online.

So far, the IAEA has done nothing to stop Iran's nuclear development program, which is moving ahead at full steam.

I know, I know -- the UN is an intellectual organization; as such they are not result oriented.  They are idea oriented.  So those who have the right ideas, and who struggle to accomplish intellectually-approved courses of action, will be rewarded.  The men who fight and die to protect liberty and freedom get nothing. 

If you are curious, you can view all the Nobel Peace Prize award winners here.

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The Anchoress blogged an interesting item that should receive more scrutiny from Christians:

The death eaters in Holland are expanding their euthanasia guidelines.  Infanticide is just the thing.  Kathryn Jean Lopez has the must-read column on this story.  More and more it seems Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae seems all too prophetic, to me.

From the above-linked Breitbart.com story:

The governing conservative Christian Democrat party _ which fought legalization when it was in the opposition _ will embrace the guidelines, known as the Groningen Protocol, drawn up last year by doctors at the Groningen University Medical Center.

Under the protocol, euthanasia would be permissible when a child is terminally ill with no prospect of recovery and suffering great pain, when two sets of doctors agree the situation is hopeless and when parents give their consent.

The Dutch Health Ministry has postponed this decision several times and wishes to control the release of information around the policy change, which is still being finalized.

Of course we all know that doctors and courts would never pressure a grieving, emotionally-vulnerable parent into signing a euthanasia order ... right?

Also, don't miss The Achoress' selected quotations from the great English Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton.

This beautiful piece is worth reading, too. 

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We recently lost two of the best funny men around, comedian Nipsey Russell, and comic actor Don Adams.

Nipsey Russell was best known for his appearances on TV game shows like "Hollywood Squares" and "The $20,000 Pyramid."  His quick wit and talent for writing short, humorous poems also made him a favorite guest during Dean Martin's long run of celebrity roasts.

Don Adams was, of course, agent Maxwell Smart in the hit comedy TV series "Get Smart."  He was also the voice of cartoon penguin Tennessee Tuxedo and cartoon detective Inspector Gadget.

Adams' character Maxwell Smart made "Would you believe ..." and "Missed it by that much!" into household phrases in the 1960's. 

Both men will be sorely missed.