"All I wanted to do was make a meal that everyone would enjoy - and that I eat myself." …

"The next thing you know, people were taking pictures of the sign and asking all the other black people in the cafeteria if this was racist. They said that it wasn't." …

Asked if she understood why some people might find her menu concept offensive, Calhoun said, "I don't understand it at all. It's what I eat."

So if the NBC cafeteria serves corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread on St. Patrick’s Day is that racist? What about tacos and quesadillas on Cinco de Mayo?

† Obama’s Family Values: Part V (second item): President Barack Hussein Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango, a Kenyan citizen, arrived at U.S. Immigration Court for a closed- door hearing before Judge Leonard Shapiro in a wheelchair with a cane across her lap. She testified on her own behalf, as did two doctors – who presumably testified about her recovery from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralyzing autoimmune disorder. The 2½-hour proceeding ended without a decision.

† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, Take The Veil Off, Or Go Home): French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has refused to grant citizenship to a Muslim man from Morocco whose treatment of his French-born wife failed to respect the “values of the [French] republic,” reports The Christian Science Monitor:

“He has no place in our country,” … Fillon told Europe 1 radio, in a decision that comes a week after a French parliamentary commission recommended a partial ban on any veils that cover the face. The ban still needs to be voted on, but it would apply in hospitals and on public transport. France already has bans for wearing headscarves in state schools. …

“This case is about a religious radical: he imposes the burqa, he imposes the separation of men and women in his own home, and he refuses to shake the hands of women,” Fillon said. …

Writing for Forbes, columnist Emre Deliveli says the burqa ban will backfire.

“According to Interior Ministry figures and expert testimonies to the parliamentary commission, 1,900, or fewer than one in a thousand, Muslim women in France wear a burqa," Deliveli writes.

So because “fewer than one in a thousand” Muslim women are being subjugated and treated like chattel in a Western democracy, it’s OK? Even one is too many.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, The Keystone Kops Are Enforcing U.S. Immigration Laws): Remember that high-tech “virtual fence” that was supposed to keep illegal aliens on their side of the border? Well $672 million later, President Barack Hussein Obama is considering cutting back, if not scrapping, the glitch-plagued $6.7 billion project, reports The Washington Times:

Among other things, the radar system had trouble distinguishing between vegetation and people when it was windy. Also, the satellite communication system took too long to relay information in the field to a command center. By the time an operator moved a camera to take a closer look at a spot, whatever had raised suspicion was gone.

The Homeland Security Department and Boeing said the early problems were fixed, but other glitches keep popping up. The latest: A software bug that causes video recording devices to lock on to the wrong cameras, hindering agents trying to collect evidence against illegal border crossers. …

Both Boeing and the government officials said the technical problems stemmed from an erroneous belief that the first-of-its-kind virtual fence could be put together relatively quickly by tying together off-the-shelf components that weren't designed to be linked.

† Updates To Previous Posts  (ninth item Mortgage Loan Modification Less Than Advertised): The New York Times reports that millions of homeowners are doing the math and figuring out that they’d be better off walking away from their homes than to continue make monthly payments on a home that’s worth less than 75 percent of what the owe the bank:

In 2006, Benjamin Koellmann bought a condominium in Miami Beach. By his calculation, it will be about the year 2025 before he can sell his modest home for what he paid. Or maybe 2040.

“People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?”

After three years of plunging real estate values, after the bailouts of the bankers and the revival of their million-dollar bonuses, after the Obama administration’s loan modification plan raised the expectations of many but satisfied only a few, a large group of distressed homeowners is wondering the same thing. …

In a situation without precedent in the modern era, millions of Americans are in this bleak position. Whether, or how, to help them is one of the biggest questions the Obama administration confronts as it seeks a housing policy that would contribute to the economic recovery.  …

The number of Americans who owed more than their homes were worth was virtually nil when the real estate collapse began in mid-2006, but by the third quarter of 2009, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners had reached the critical threshold, with their home’s value dropping below 75 percent of the mortgage balance. …

Suggestions that people would be wise to renege on their home loans are at least a couple of years old, but they are turning into a full-throated barrage. Bloggers were quick to note recently that landlords of an 11,000-unit residential complex in Manhattan showed no hesitation, or shame, in walking away from their deeply underwater investment.  

† Updates To Previous Posts (Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?): President Barack Hussein Obama tries to get populist cred with his campaign against “Washington” and “Wall Street,” but members of his own party who are nervous about their prospects in November are trying to get their populist cred by campaigning against him reports The Baltimore Sun:

A Democratic Senate candidate in Missouri denounced the budget's sky-high deficit. A Florida Democrat whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center hit the roof over NASA budget cuts. And an endangered Senate Democrat denounced proposed cuts in farm subsidies.

A headline on the 2010 campaign website of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), blares her opposition to Obama's farm budget: “Blanche stands up for Arkansas farm families,” it says.

Heading into an election season in which Republicans are trying to tie Democrats to Obama's unpopular policies, Obama's budget gives his fellow Democrats an unlikely campaign tool - a catalogue of ways to establish their distance from controversial aspects of his administration.

It is a time-tested campaign tactic for politicians to declare their independence of party leaders. But the tactic is particularly important for Democrats this year, because their party dominates Washington, and being an insider is a political liability in an anti-incumbent climate.

Underscoring that dynamic, Obama held a question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats on Wednesday, drawing polite challenges from a procession of incumbents up for reelection. [Contextual video link added by The Stiletto.]

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), a recent party-switcher, questioned trade policies battering the steel industry. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) asked about health care for first responders involved in the Sept. 11attack. The message from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.): “California is hurting.”

Few, if any, of these Dems will invite Obama to go on the stump with them (you know, the kiss of death).

† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, GOP Hoping To Find A Chair That’s “Just Right”): The Washington Times reports that high-profile Repub wins in VA,NJ and MA have, for the moment at least, tamped down criticism of Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele:

A feared open revolt against the former Maryland lieutenant governor fizzled at the 168-member RNC's winter gathering in Honolulu over the weekend, despite lingering questions about the party's finances and the chairman's side business dealings.

"The party came away from its winter meeting fired up and unified," said North Dakota GOP Chairman Gary Emineth, a Steele supporter on the RNC. Mr. Steele "had the benefit of New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts to build on, because the RNC invested significant financial resources and time, which paid off."

"If there is any concern, it is the limited amount of cash on hand with a huge opportunity before us in 2010," Mr. Emineth added.

In the view of RNC General Counsel Reince Priebus, who is also Wisconsin GOP state chairman, the "embattled" label on Mr. Steele "is nothing but fiction."

Mr. Steele is "popular with the members of the RNC, and he is doing a fantastic job in raising money, winning elections and keeping members happy," Mr. Priebus said.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth, Pierced Pussies For Sale On eBay): A Luzerne County, PA, jury convicted 35-year-old dog groomer Holly Crawford on two counts of animal cruelty for selling black "gothic kittens" with ear and neck piercings on eBay.

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on 7-year-old Tristan Lavin, who saved his 10-year-old brother’s life when the older boy fell through the ice and into frigid water. The Press of Atlantic City reports:

From a floating dock, Tristan held onto his brother. …

About 120 yards away - in a home across the water on North Rumson Avenue - Scott and Joanne Abbott’s dog, Kano, started to bark uncharacteristically. …

Joanne Abbott looked outside her window. It was 5:15 p.m. and starting to get dark. …

“I can’t see distance that well, but finally I saw a red hat,” she said. “And I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I went out back and said, ‘Are you OK?’ And there was no response. I yelled, ‘Are you OK?’ and I heard ‘No!’” …

Margate police responded quickly, Joanne Abbott said. Officer [John] Oakes lifted the child from the water and into an ambulance.

Madonna Wulf describes her son Tristan as having “a lot of common sense,” “a strong little fellow” and “very calm.” She said that he told her, “I couldn’t let go because I knew if I let go that would be it.”