Hollywood women vs. Afghan women.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Kerry's Legacy
The subtitle to this editorial in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, written by a former POW, reads "No One Who Has Aided the Enemy Deserves to Become President". It concludes with this:
Kerry's legacy isn't that he has the same initials as John Fitzgerald Kennedy or that he motored around the rivers of South Vietnam in a small boat for four months before asking to leave the war early. His legacy is more along the lines of Benedict Arnold's. The only difference is that Benedict Arnold was a successful soldier before he committed treason. I doubt Benedict Arnold would have much success running for President today. Are we to believe that someone who aided the enemy in time of war is worthy of becoming President? I don't think so, and neither do many people I know. We have a war to fight. It's going to take a long time. Kerry is not the one to take us through it.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Kerry summary
Captains Quarters summarizes this year's DNC candidate, concluding with this:
Kerry has been one of the most incompetent major-party candidates in decades, perhaps ever. People point to George McGovern, Walter Mondale, and Kerry's former boss Michael Dukakis as similar or potentially worse candidates, but all three of those men stood for their beliefs and values. Kerry stands for himself and nothing else. The only thing keeping Kerry afloat is the high tide of Bush hatred among the Left and an increasingly desperate mainstream media that will do almost anything, including sacrificing their credibility, to keep Bush from being re-elected.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Weird convergence
The 'referring webpage' feature on the right produces odd results sometimes. Today there was a link to Some Dude's Only Refuge. That link appeared directly under a link to Rightwing Duck (who had just had a contest where I got an honorable mention).
So I check out the Refuge - it's just a personal blog of somebody in Sioux City, who happens to like a few movies that I don't. No telling why it linked to my page. But the top article on that page was titled "Ducks and Gutbusters".
Also, the next post on the Refuge showed a graphic of "Grand Thef Auto: San Andreas". I processed that logo this morning at work, but had never seen it before then.
Earlier today, I had also had two other dejavus, and that's been rare for me lately.
(Okay, maybe convergence isn't the right term, but it was weird. Maybe I'm just sleepy - stupid graveyard shift sleep deprivation...)
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Probability factor approaching one to one. We will be restoring normality as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway."
So I check out the Refuge - it's just a personal blog of somebody in Sioux City, who happens to like a few movies that I don't. No telling why it linked to my page. But the top article on that page was titled "Ducks and Gutbusters".
Also, the next post on the Refuge showed a graphic of "Grand Thef Auto: San Andreas". I processed that logo this morning at work, but had never seen it before then.
Earlier today, I had also had two other dejavus, and that's been rare for me lately.
(Okay, maybe convergence isn't the right term, but it was weird. Maybe I'm just sleepy - stupid graveyard shift sleep deprivation...)
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Probability factor approaching one to one. We will be restoring normality as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway."
Political Expression
I assume by now you've heard the story about Barry M. Seltzer. "Charged with assault for allegedly aiming his car at Rep. Katherine Harris and supporters", he claimed that it was not a crime since he was "exercising political expression". By that logic, some other crimes might also have to be reclassified as "political expression", like:
Seltzer better not get away with it...
- Boothe's "political expression" against Lincoln
- Harris and Klebold's "political expressions" at Columbine
- Three thugs' "political expression" against James Byrd Jr
- Terrorists' 9/11 "political expression"
- The "political expression" against the Jews during Kristallnacht
Seltzer better not get away with it...
Fw: different terminology
today's forwarded humor
---
People in New England and Texas have different words for certain things. Here are some examples:
New England 'February' = Texas 'winter'
New England 'cooling trend' = Texas 'blizzard'
New England 'summer' = Texas 'August'
New England 'heat wave' = Texas 'slightly below average'
New England 'route' = Texas 'highway'
New England 'journey' = Texas 'commute'
New England 'township' = Texas 'subdivision'
New England 'state' = Texas 'county'
---
:)
---
People in New England and Texas have different words for certain things. Here are some examples:
New England 'February' = Texas 'winter'
New England 'cooling trend' = Texas 'blizzard'
New England 'summer' = Texas 'August'
New England 'heat wave' = Texas 'slightly below average'
New England 'route' = Texas 'highway'
New England 'journey' = Texas 'commute'
New England 'township' = Texas 'subdivision'
New England 'state' = Texas 'county'
---
:)
IRS tramples free speech
This is outrageous.
Acts 5:28-29 (the high priest said) "Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name?"... Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men."
These two links (mentioned in the first story) point to other groups that seems to be behind these antics. If they are soooo interested in keeping the government out, why would they use the government to censor churches?
p.s. This is yet another reason to eliminate the hyper-complicated tax bureaucracy.
UPDATE: ...or maybe not. (just kidding)
In a letter of clarification requested by a traveling minister, the Internal Revenue Service has declared people gathered in tax-exempt churches can't pray for President Bush to win the election on Tuesday.
Acts 5:28-29 (the high priest said) "Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name?"... Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men."
These two links (mentioned in the first story) point to other groups that seems to be behind these antics. If they are soooo interested in keeping the government out, why would they use the government to censor churches?
p.s. This is yet another reason to eliminate the hyper-complicated tax bureaucracy.
UPDATE: ...or maybe not. (just kidding)
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Hanoi John
If this story is true, it should (at a bare minimum) immediately disqualify Kerry for public office in America.
-------------
(I copied the main story here so it doesn't "get disappeared")
-------------
The first documentary evidence that Vietnamese communists were directly steering John Kerry's antiwar group Vietnam Veterans Against the War has been discovered in a U.S. archive, according to a researcher who spoke with WorldNetDaily.
One freshly unearthed document, captured by the U.S. from Vietnamese communists in 1971 and later translated, indicates the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese delegations to the Paris peace talks that year were used as the communications link to direct the activities of Kerry and other antiwar activists who attended.
Kerry insists he attended the talks only because he happened to be in France on his honeymoon and maintains he met with both sides. But previously revealed records indicate the future senator made two, and possibly three, trips to Paris to meet with Viet Cong leader Madame Nguyen Thi Binh then promote her plan's demand for U.S. surrender.
Jerome Corsi, a specialist on the Vietnam era, told WND the new discoveries are the "most remarkable documents I've seen in the entire history of the antiwar movement."
"We're not going to say he's an agent for Vietnamese communists, but it's the next thing to it," he said. "Whether he was consciously carrying out their direction or naively doing what they wanted, it amounted to the same thing; he advanced their cause."
Corsi, co-author of the Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth best-seller "Unfit for Command," and Scott Swett, who maintains the group's website, have posted a summary of the discovery on the website of Wintersoldier.com.
Corsi says the documents show how the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Communist Party of the USA and Kerry's VVAW worked closely together to achieve the Vietnamese communists' primary objective; the defeat of the U.S. in Vietnam.
"I think what we've discovered is a smoking gun," Corsi said. "We knew when we wrote 'Unfit for Command' that Kerry had met with Madame Binh and then promoted her peace plan.
"This document enables us to connect the dots," he emphasized. "We now have evidence Madame Binh was directing the antiwar movement ... and the person who implemented her strategy was John Kerry."
July 22, 1971, Kerry called on President Nixon to accept the plan at a press conference in which he surrounded himself with the families of POWs, a strategy outlined in the first document.
The two documents also connect the dots between the Vietnamese communists and the radical U.S. group People's Coalition for Peace and Justice through the person of Al Hubbard, a coordinating member of PCPJ and the executive director of VVAW while Kerry was its national spokesman.
"Al Hubbard and John Kerry were carrying out the predetermined agenda of the enemy in a coordinated fashion," Corsi said. "It's a level of collaboration that exceeded anything we had imagined."
The second document, captured by U.S. military forces in South Vietnam May 12, 1972, urges Vietnamese officials to promote the antiwar activities in the United States.
Significantly, the fifth paragraph makes it clear the Vietnamese communists were using, for propaganda purposes, a protest described as taking place April 19-22, 1971.
This coincides with the well-known "Dewey Canyon III" protest in Washington, D.C., highlighted by Kerry's Senate Foreign Relations testimony charging American soldiers with war crimes.
The document's description of the protest includes the "return the medals" event in which Kerry and other VVAW members threw their war decorations toward the steps of the Capitol.
Corsi told WND the documents have been authenticated with "100 percent certainty."
But why were they unearthed now, just one week before the Nov. 2 election?
Corsi insisted the timing was unintentional.
"It's truly one of those accidents of how things develop in research," he said. "We did not spring any surprise, we just found these documents, and even the archivist didn't know they were there."
Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth dispatched two researchers to Texas Tech University's Vietnam-era archive in Lubbock, which has more than 2 million documents, to "see if there was anything there," Corsi said.
Many of the documents are in Vietnamese and have not been translated yet.
The two documents were found in boxes containing papers from antiwar activities during 1971-72, but they also turned out to be posted in an Internet database, which enabled further verification, Corsi said.
First document
The first document is a "circular" outlining the Vietnamese regime's strategies to coordinate its propaganda effort with its orchestration of U.S. antiwar group activities.
The phrases in double parentheses were added by U.S. translators for clarification. "VC" refers to the Viet Cong, while "NVN" is the North Vietnamese government.
Corsi and Swett point out that FBI files show Kerry returned to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese delegation in August 1971 and planned a third trip in November.
Corsi emphasizes that before the discovery of this document, he and other researchers had no direct evidence that Hanoi actually was directing the antiwar movement to implement the regime's goals, although they assumed it to be the case based on other indications.
In her meeting with Kerry in Paris, Madame Binh instructed him on how he and the VVAW could "serve as Hanoi's surrogates in the United States," Corsi and Swett say. This included advancement of her seven-point peace plan forcing President Nixon to set a date to end the war and withdraw troops.
Hanoi cleverly constructed the plan so that the only barrier to release of American POWs was Nixon's unwillingness to set a withdrawal date.
But as Corsi and Swett emphasize, the plan amounted to a virtual surrender that included payment of reparations and an admission the U.S. was the aggressor in an immoral war against the communists.
The circular underscores the impact of the peace plan on U.S. activists, stating:
Another section of the circular, again highlighting the interconnectedness of the Vietnamese communists, the U.S. antiwar movement and politics in the U.S. and South Vietnam, says Nixon and South Vietnamese leader Thieu are "very embarrassed because the seven-point peace proposal is supported by the [South Vietnamese] people's ((political struggle)) movement and the antiwar movements in the US. "
Therefore, the circular says, "all local areas, units, and branches must widely disseminate the seven-point peace proposal, step up the people's ((political struggle)) movements both in cities and rural areas, taking advantage of disturbances and dissensions in the enemy's forthcoming (RVN) Congressional and Presidential elections. They must coordinate more successfully with the antiwar movements in the US so as to isolate the Nixon-Thieu clique."
Second document
In addition to tying activities surrounding Kerry's 1971 protest to the direction of Vietnamese communists, the second document reveals the degree to which Hanoi worked with and through the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Corsi and Swett note the House Internal Securities Committee in its 1971 Annual Report described the PCPJ as an organization strongly controlled by U.S. communists.
Corsi cites recently released FBI surveillance reports that establish a strong link between Kerry, Hubbard, the VVAW, the PCPJ and their trips to Paris to meet with Madame Binh.
Kerry shared the stage with Hubbard - who recruited Kerry into the group - during the Dewey Canyon III protest, and they appeared together on NBC's Meet the Press April 18, 1971. Hubbard's claimed to have been a transport pilot wounded in combat, but the Department of Defense released documents showing he was neither a pilot nor an officer and had never served in Vietnam.
An FBI field surveillance report stamped Nov. 11, 1971, showed Kerry and Hubbard were planning to travel to Paris later that month to engage in talks with Vietnamese communist delegations. Other FBI reports clearly show the Communist Party of the USA was paying for Hubbard's trips to Paris, Corsi notes.
Another FBI report, dated Nov. 24, 1971, gives details of Hubbard's presentation to a VVAW meeting of the Executive and Steering committees in Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 12-15, 1971.
At that meeting, the VVAW considered and then rejected a plan to assassinate several pro-war U.S. Senators. Kerry is listed as present.
The FBI document shows communist coordination in Hubbard's trip to Paris.
Corsi and Swett cite an appeal letter written by Hubbard April 20, 1971, demonstrating the strong coordination between Vietnam Veterans Against the War and People's Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Addressed from the offices of the VVAW in Washington, D.C., the letter asks VVAW members to provide assistance to the PCPJ. It discusses several ways in which the two organizations have worked closely together:
Two days after Hubbard's letter was written, Kerry told Sen. William Fulbright's Foreign Relations Committee that American military in Vietnam were committing war crimes in the manner of Genghis Khan.
The event mentioned in the letter was PCPJ's massive April 24 demonstration in Washington that followed the VVAW's Dewey Canyon III protest.
-------------
(I copied the main story here so it doesn't "get disappeared")
-------------
The first documentary evidence that Vietnamese communists were directly steering John Kerry's antiwar group Vietnam Veterans Against the War has been discovered in a U.S. archive, according to a researcher who spoke with WorldNetDaily.
One freshly unearthed document, captured by the U.S. from Vietnamese communists in 1971 and later translated, indicates the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese delegations to the Paris peace talks that year were used as the communications link to direct the activities of Kerry and other antiwar activists who attended.
Kerry insists he attended the talks only because he happened to be in France on his honeymoon and maintains he met with both sides. But previously revealed records indicate the future senator made two, and possibly three, trips to Paris to meet with Viet Cong leader Madame Nguyen Thi Binh then promote her plan's demand for U.S. surrender.
Jerome Corsi, a specialist on the Vietnam era, told WND the new discoveries are the "most remarkable documents I've seen in the entire history of the antiwar movement."
"We're not going to say he's an agent for Vietnamese communists, but it's the next thing to it," he said. "Whether he was consciously carrying out their direction or naively doing what they wanted, it amounted to the same thing; he advanced their cause."
Corsi, co-author of the Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth best-seller "Unfit for Command," and Scott Swett, who maintains the group's website, have posted a summary of the discovery on the website of Wintersoldier.com.
Corsi says the documents show how the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Communist Party of the USA and Kerry's VVAW worked closely together to achieve the Vietnamese communists' primary objective; the defeat of the U.S. in Vietnam.
"I think what we've discovered is a smoking gun," Corsi said. "We knew when we wrote 'Unfit for Command' that Kerry had met with Madame Binh and then promoted her peace plan.
"This document enables us to connect the dots," he emphasized. "We now have evidence Madame Binh was directing the antiwar movement ... and the person who implemented her strategy was John Kerry."
July 22, 1971, Kerry called on President Nixon to accept the plan at a press conference in which he surrounded himself with the families of POWs, a strategy outlined in the first document.
The two documents also connect the dots between the Vietnamese communists and the radical U.S. group People's Coalition for Peace and Justice through the person of Al Hubbard, a coordinating member of PCPJ and the executive director of VVAW while Kerry was its national spokesman.
"Al Hubbard and John Kerry were carrying out the predetermined agenda of the enemy in a coordinated fashion," Corsi said. "It's a level of collaboration that exceeded anything we had imagined."
The second document, captured by U.S. military forces in South Vietnam May 12, 1972, urges Vietnamese officials to promote the antiwar activities in the United States.
Significantly, the fifth paragraph makes it clear the Vietnamese communists were using, for propaganda purposes, a protest described as taking place April 19-22, 1971.
This coincides with the well-known "Dewey Canyon III" protest in Washington, D.C., highlighted by Kerry's Senate Foreign Relations testimony charging American soldiers with war crimes.
The document's description of the protest includes the "return the medals" event in which Kerry and other VVAW members threw their war decorations toward the steps of the Capitol.
Corsi told WND the documents have been authenticated with "100 percent certainty."
But why were they unearthed now, just one week before the Nov. 2 election?
Corsi insisted the timing was unintentional.
"It's truly one of those accidents of how things develop in research," he said. "We did not spring any surprise, we just found these documents, and even the archivist didn't know they were there."
Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth dispatched two researchers to Texas Tech University's Vietnam-era archive in Lubbock, which has more than 2 million documents, to "see if there was anything there," Corsi said.
Many of the documents are in Vietnamese and have not been translated yet.
The two documents were found in boxes containing papers from antiwar activities during 1971-72, but they also turned out to be posted in an Internet database, which enabled further verification, Corsi said.
First document
The first document is a "circular" outlining the Vietnamese regime's strategies to coordinate its propaganda effort with its orchestration of U.S. antiwar group activities.
The spontaneous antiwar movements in the US have received assistance and guidance from the friendly ((VC/NVN)) delegations at the Paris Peace Talks.
The phrases in double parentheses were added by U.S. translators for clarification. "VC" refers to the Viet Cong, while "NVN" is the North Vietnamese government.
Corsi and Swett point out that FBI files show Kerry returned to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese delegation in August 1971 and planned a third trip in November.
Corsi emphasizes that before the discovery of this document, he and other researchers had no direct evidence that Hanoi actually was directing the antiwar movement to implement the regime's goals, although they assumed it to be the case based on other indications.
In her meeting with Kerry in Paris, Madame Binh instructed him on how he and the VVAW could "serve as Hanoi's surrogates in the United States," Corsi and Swett say. This included advancement of her seven-point peace plan forcing President Nixon to set a date to end the war and withdraw troops.
Hanoi cleverly constructed the plan so that the only barrier to release of American POWs was Nixon's unwillingness to set a withdrawal date.
But as Corsi and Swett emphasize, the plan amounted to a virtual surrender that included payment of reparations and an admission the U.S. was the aggressor in an immoral war against the communists.
The circular underscores the impact of the peace plan on U.S. activists, stating:
"The seven-point peace proposal ((of the SVN Provisional Revolutionary Government)) not only solved problems concerning the release of US prisoners but also motivated the people of all walks of life and even relatives of US pilots detained in NVN to participate in the antiwar movement.
Another section of the circular, again highlighting the interconnectedness of the Vietnamese communists, the U.S. antiwar movement and politics in the U.S. and South Vietnam, says Nixon and South Vietnamese leader Thieu are "very embarrassed because the seven-point peace proposal is supported by the [South Vietnamese] people's ((political struggle)) movement and the antiwar movements in the US. "
Therefore, the circular says, "all local areas, units, and branches must widely disseminate the seven-point peace proposal, step up the people's ((political struggle)) movements both in cities and rural areas, taking advantage of disturbances and dissensions in the enemy's forthcoming (RVN) Congressional and Presidential elections. They must coordinate more successfully with the antiwar movements in the US so as to isolate the Nixon-Thieu clique."
Second document
In addition to tying activities surrounding Kerry's 1971 protest to the direction of Vietnamese communists, the second document reveals the degree to which Hanoi worked with and through the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Of the U.S. antiwar movements, the two most important ones are: The PCPJ ((the People's Committee for Peace and Justice)) and the NPAC ((National Peace Action Committee)). These two movements have gathered much strength and staged many demonstrations. The PCPJ is the most important. It maintains relations with us.
Corsi and Swett note the House Internal Securities Committee in its 1971 Annual Report described the PCPJ as an organization strongly controlled by U.S. communists.
"There is no question but what members of the Communist Party have provided a very strong degree of influence, even a guiding influence, in the evolution and formation of policies of the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice."
Corsi cites recently released FBI surveillance reports that establish a strong link between Kerry, Hubbard, the VVAW, the PCPJ and their trips to Paris to meet with Madame Binh.
Kerry shared the stage with Hubbard - who recruited Kerry into the group - during the Dewey Canyon III protest, and they appeared together on NBC's Meet the Press April 18, 1971. Hubbard's claimed to have been a transport pilot wounded in combat, but the Department of Defense released documents showing he was neither a pilot nor an officer and had never served in Vietnam.
An FBI field surveillance report stamped Nov. 11, 1971, showed Kerry and Hubbard were planning to travel to Paris later that month to engage in talks with Vietnamese communist delegations. Other FBI reports clearly show the Communist Party of the USA was paying for Hubbard's trips to Paris, Corsi notes.
Another FBI report, dated Nov. 24, 1971, gives details of Hubbard's presentation to a VVAW meeting of the Executive and Steering committees in Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 12-15, 1971.
At that meeting, the VVAW considered and then rejected a plan to assassinate several pro-war U.S. Senators. Kerry is listed as present.
The FBI document shows communist coordination in Hubbard's trip to Paris.
[BLACK OUT] advised that Hubbard gave the following information regarding his Paris trip:
Two foreign groups, which are Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and Peoples Republic Government (PRG) (phonetic), invited representatives of the VVAW, Communist Party USA (CP USA), and a Left Wing group in Paris, to attend meeting of the above inviting groups in Paris. Hubbard advised he was elected to represent the VVAW. An unknown male was invited to represent the CP USA and an unknown individual was elected to represent the Left Wing group from Paris. He advised at the meeting that his trip was financed by CP USA.
Corsi and Swett cite an appeal letter written by Hubbard April 20, 1971, demonstrating the strong coordination between Vietnam Veterans Against the War and People's Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Addressed from the offices of the VVAW in Washington, D.C., the letter asks VVAW members to provide assistance to the PCPJ. It discusses several ways in which the two organizations have worked closely together:
This is an appeal for help for the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. Over the past months the Peoples Coalition has supported the Vietnam Vets Against the War in many ways. The Coalition has made office space available at no charge, and permitted the use of all necessary office equipment such as mimeograph machines, stencil-making machines, folders and typewriters. They have loaned us cars, bullhorns, and public address equipment. Their staff has taken messages for us and joined fraternally in building our progress. Now we can return this support.
Saturday, April 24, the Coalition needs help collecting money and selling buttons at the great march and rally. Collectors and sellers must be energetic and determined. There will be security problems in taking large amounts of money to banks. The Coalition needs people power, hundreds of workers.
I earnestly hope that you will come forward to support our friends in this emergency.
Two days after Hubbard's letter was written, Kerry told Sen. William Fulbright's Foreign Relations Committee that American military in Vietnam were committing war crimes in the manner of Genghis Khan.
The event mentioned in the letter was PCPJ's massive April 24 demonstration in Washington that followed the VVAW's Dewey Canyon III protest.
Yet another MSM-DNC lie
How many of these lying scams will they try to pull before Americans say "I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU ANY MORE!!!"
Reagan had it right
Of course he got a lot of things right, but this particular speech he gave 40 years ago still rings true.
This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down - [up is man's oldest] dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, - or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Wacky World Series Prediction...
Random thought:
The Boston Red Sox will trade in their old curse for a new one this year. They have won the first games and are looking forward to winning their first series in 86 years, but the lunar eclipse will become the sign of their new curse when they choke and lose the next four.
What are the odds?
UPDATE: Well, that prediction didn't happen, but here's another. The Red Sox win will usher in an era of their fans ceasing to continuously whine about the curse, and becoming more considerate of the fans of other teams when visiting other stadiums.
Odds are even lower...
(I'm sure there are plenty of Red Sox fans who are not loud and obnoxious about it - but all of them I have personally encountered were.)
The Boston Red Sox will trade in their old curse for a new one this year. They have won the first games and are looking forward to winning their first series in 86 years, but the lunar eclipse will become the sign of their new curse when they choke and lose the next four.
What are the odds?
UPDATE: Well, that prediction didn't happen, but here's another. The Red Sox win will usher in an era of their fans ceasing to continuously whine about the curse, and becoming more considerate of the fans of other teams when visiting other stadiums.
Odds are even lower...
(I'm sure there are plenty of Red Sox fans who are not loud and obnoxious about it - but all of them I have personally encountered were.)
Monday, October 25, 2004
Clinton Endorses Bush!
At a recent Kerry rally, former President Clinton is quoted as saying "One candidate is playing to your hopes, and one is playing to your fears. One is inspiring you to think, and one endorses intimidation. If there's one candidate that makes you hope and think, you should vote for him."
In light of the recent wave of democratic party violence against republicans, the medicare and draft hoaxes, the threats against all who speak against democratic demagoguery, and the continuous barrage of uncivil behavior against the United States by Kerry and his supporters, Mr. Clinton, in his own inimitable way, is obviously endorsing President Bush.
In light of the recent wave of democratic party violence against republicans, the medicare and draft hoaxes, the threats against all who speak against democratic demagoguery, and the continuous barrage of uncivil behavior against the United States by Kerry and his supporters, Mr. Clinton, in his own inimitable way, is obviously endorsing President Bush.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Blog-related Dream 3
This one is kind of like that "slacker" movie, pointless and taking random turns along the way. The only background information you need is the various blog names used (which are linked). Edited for clarity, but not content.
In the dream, a female friend (nobody I know in real life, I'll call her Jenny) and I were leaving from another friend's house in a northwest suburb of Houston. She was planning to drop me off at my house a couple of hours north, then go home, somewhere near Dallas. Unfortunately, just a couple of miles down the road, her Saturn sedan started having problems.
We coasted in to a (national chain) repair shop, which was getting ready to close for the Saturday evening. The salesman was professional and didn't make an issue of it, but it was clear that the shop workers did not want to delay their weekend plans for one last repair. However, they went ahead and pulled the car into a repair bay and plugged it into their diagnostic computers. About five minutes later, the computer printed its report, and a mechanic brought it up to the sales counter. The salesman pressed a few buttons at the register, then told Jenny what the problem was and how much it would cost.
A brake job, with replacement front rotors. FORTY-EIGHT HUNDRED dollars, using generic parts. Over SEVENTY-TWO HUNDRED dollars, using factory original parts.
Jenny wasn't fazed by that number, and pulled out her checkbook. I stopped her, and whispered to her that the price was "just a little bit steep". Then I made some excuses to the salesman, and got her out of the shop.
As I was explaining to her just how much brake jobs should cost, and trying to figure out how we could get her car to another less expensive shop, we started walking towards a Chinese restaurant in a small, less than half occupied, shopping center across the street. It smelled really good, and we were getting hungry, but as soon as I opened the door for her, I saw a shop next door with several people I thought I recognized, but couldn't quite place the faces. Jenny was too hungry, so she went on in to get us a table. I went in to the other shop which had no signs, except for some small white vinyl letters on the door showing a phone number under the name "I Love Jet Noise".
There were five people in the front room, sitting around a glass dining room table, having a friendly discussion over several small piles of official-looking papers. I also heard a couple of other voices in a back room. They were all twenty-something guys, all with short dark hair, and dressed very casually. Without introducing myself, I asked what they were doing. They began talking about the band they had formed while in college, and were excited about the prospect of a big tour they were going to start, opening for Flying Space Monkey.
I asked what style of music they played, and they all looked at each other for a second, started laughing, and said "well, it's difficult to describe". Two of them began listing the bands that influenced them, including Scrappleface, Blue Goldfish, and A Little Aardvark.
As I noticed that many of the other (non-blog named) bands were the same ones that influenced me, it occured to me that they might have heard my music, so I finally introduced myself by saying "Hi, I'm Hatless". They all looked at each other in surprise, and stood up to shake my hand. One of them had my first CD, and asked if I had any others. I told them I had a couple in my car, and got up to get them, but once I saw the parking lot I remembered that my car was not there. The guys also got up to leave, turned off the lights and locked the doors to their place. Standing in the parking lot, we discussed the possibility of recording together, and exchanged email addresses. Looking at the address, it slowly dawned on me that they had just stolen their names from other blogs, and I made a mental note to mention it to the respective blog owners that someone else was using their blog names.
Remember, I did say it was pointless...
In the dream, a female friend (nobody I know in real life, I'll call her Jenny) and I were leaving from another friend's house in a northwest suburb of Houston. She was planning to drop me off at my house a couple of hours north, then go home, somewhere near Dallas. Unfortunately, just a couple of miles down the road, her Saturn sedan started having problems.
We coasted in to a (national chain) repair shop, which was getting ready to close for the Saturday evening. The salesman was professional and didn't make an issue of it, but it was clear that the shop workers did not want to delay their weekend plans for one last repair. However, they went ahead and pulled the car into a repair bay and plugged it into their diagnostic computers. About five minutes later, the computer printed its report, and a mechanic brought it up to the sales counter. The salesman pressed a few buttons at the register, then told Jenny what the problem was and how much it would cost.
A brake job, with replacement front rotors. FORTY-EIGHT HUNDRED dollars, using generic parts. Over SEVENTY-TWO HUNDRED dollars, using factory original parts.
Jenny wasn't fazed by that number, and pulled out her checkbook. I stopped her, and whispered to her that the price was "just a little bit steep". Then I made some excuses to the salesman, and got her out of the shop.
As I was explaining to her just how much brake jobs should cost, and trying to figure out how we could get her car to another less expensive shop, we started walking towards a Chinese restaurant in a small, less than half occupied, shopping center across the street. It smelled really good, and we were getting hungry, but as soon as I opened the door for her, I saw a shop next door with several people I thought I recognized, but couldn't quite place the faces. Jenny was too hungry, so she went on in to get us a table. I went in to the other shop which had no signs, except for some small white vinyl letters on the door showing a phone number under the name "I Love Jet Noise".
There were five people in the front room, sitting around a glass dining room table, having a friendly discussion over several small piles of official-looking papers. I also heard a couple of other voices in a back room. They were all twenty-something guys, all with short dark hair, and dressed very casually. Without introducing myself, I asked what they were doing. They began talking about the band they had formed while in college, and were excited about the prospect of a big tour they were going to start, opening for Flying Space Monkey.
I asked what style of music they played, and they all looked at each other for a second, started laughing, and said "well, it's difficult to describe". Two of them began listing the bands that influenced them, including Scrappleface, Blue Goldfish, and A Little Aardvark.
As I noticed that many of the other (non-blog named) bands were the same ones that influenced me, it occured to me that they might have heard my music, so I finally introduced myself by saying "Hi, I'm Hatless". They all looked at each other in surprise, and stood up to shake my hand. One of them had my first CD, and asked if I had any others. I told them I had a couple in my car, and got up to get them, but once I saw the parking lot I remembered that my car was not there. The guys also got up to leave, turned off the lights and locked the doors to their place. Standing in the parking lot, we discussed the possibility of recording together, and exchanged email addresses. Looking at the address, it slowly dawned on me that they had just stolen their names from other blogs, and I made a mental note to mention it to the respective blog owners that someone else was using their blog names.
Remember, I did say it was pointless...
Campaign Merchandise
There's a lot of campaign merchandise available online and elsewhere. T-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, etc., (even ketchup), either for or against both candidates seem to be more popular than ever this year.
I had a thought... how likely is it that a group would produce and sell merchandise supporting the opposite candidate, just to make a profit from the opposition to send to their favored candidiate? If so, what percent of merchandise would be produced that way?
Please comment...
I had a thought... how likely is it that a group would produce and sell merchandise supporting the opposite candidate, just to make a profit from the opposition to send to their favored candidiate? If so, what percent of merchandise would be produced that way?
Please comment...
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Fraters gets one wrong?!?
At least it's not about anything serious...
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
YANKEES LOSE!!!
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Parrot Sketch Redo
To paraphrase Monty Python's "parrot sketch" to fit the premise of this article about UBL's demise:
Bin Ladin's not pinin'! He's passed on! This terrorist is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet the devil! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he burns in eternal torment! If he hadn't been turned into a red mist at the bottom of a cave he'd be poisoning the worms right now! His diabolic processes are now history! He's off the goat! He's kicked the bucket, unwrapped his filthy turban, shaved his mangy beard and joined the screaming cacophony of Hades!! THIS IS AN EX-TERRORIST!!
UPDATE: or maybe not...
Bin Ladin's not pinin'! He's passed on! This terrorist is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet the devil! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he burns in eternal torment! If he hadn't been turned into a red mist at the bottom of a cave he'd be poisoning the worms right now! His diabolic processes are now history! He's off the goat! He's kicked the bucket, unwrapped his filthy turban, shaved his mangy beard and joined the screaming cacophony of Hades!! THIS IS AN EX-TERRORIST!!
UPDATE: or maybe not...
Friday, October 15, 2004
Blog-related Dream 2
This one isn't nearly as long as the others. The only background info you need to know is about IMAO (Frank J) and the T-shirt babe (Sarah K).
In the dream, Frank J invited me to have supper one night with him and Sarah K at her apartment in Amarillo. It was a nice place, tastefully decorated, cozy but not frilly. Typical apartment layout - large living room turning into a dining area in the back, with a small kitchen next to it.
For some unknown reason, I showed up rather late, and the meal was almost ready when I arrived. Frank greeted me at the door, followed shortly by Sarah's greeting from the kitchen. After brief pleasantries (with no mention of monkeys, ninjas, or space lasers), he shows me to the table. As soon as we are seated, Sarah comes out of the kitchen with a large silver platter with a pile of crispy, fresh, home-cooked...
Chicken-fried alligator strips.
I kid you not. Somehow none of us was surprised by this, and we all thought they were quite good, as were the green beans and mashed potatoes.
Halfway through the supper, I began to notice the two of them exchanging glances and trying not to laugh, like they knew something but weren't supposed to tell me. Somehow I already knew what their secret was - they had invited me to supper to let some people do an 'extreme makeover' on my house.
I didn't have the heart to tell them that I already knew about the plan.
I also didn't have the heart to tell them that my house was rented...
In the dream, Frank J invited me to have supper one night with him and Sarah K at her apartment in Amarillo. It was a nice place, tastefully decorated, cozy but not frilly. Typical apartment layout - large living room turning into a dining area in the back, with a small kitchen next to it.
For some unknown reason, I showed up rather late, and the meal was almost ready when I arrived. Frank greeted me at the door, followed shortly by Sarah's greeting from the kitchen. After brief pleasantries (with no mention of monkeys, ninjas, or space lasers), he shows me to the table. As soon as we are seated, Sarah comes out of the kitchen with a large silver platter with a pile of crispy, fresh, home-cooked...
Chicken-fried alligator strips.
I kid you not. Somehow none of us was surprised by this, and we all thought they were quite good, as were the green beans and mashed potatoes.
Halfway through the supper, I began to notice the two of them exchanging glances and trying not to laugh, like they knew something but weren't supposed to tell me. Somehow I already knew what their secret was - they had invited me to supper to let some people do an 'extreme makeover' on my house.
I didn't have the heart to tell them that I already knew about the plan.
I also didn't have the heart to tell them that my house was rented...
And now for something completely different...
One of my interests has always been airplanes. I've been drawing them since before grade school, read lots of books about them, and built lots of plastic models of them.
At a relatively young age, I was introduced to the textbook explanation for how a wing develops lift, which is called the 'Bernoulli principle', named after the scientist who discovered it. A simplistic summary of it is that air must flow faster over the curved top surface of a wing than under the flat bottom surface of a wing, and the faster air on top creates lower pressure, which creates lift.
As I read more about airplanes, there were pictures of many airfoils (wing cross sections) that, according to the 'Bernoulli principle', should not create lift. Flattened and/or symmetrical airfoils do not have those characteristics, but there are many examples of actual aircraft that use them. Dad, who worked in an aircraft factory for several years, explained to me that the 'angle of attack' of the wing is much more important than the 'Bernoulli principle' in the creation of lift on a wing. More advanced books explain this, and how it ties in to Newton's laws of action and reaction, but the primary explanation continues to be Bernoulli's in most books.
Just a couple of years ago, I saw a display in an aviation museum of a very small wind tunnel. Less than a foot square, and maybe four feet long, it had a small fan which pulled air over a small balsa model wing section allowed to move up and down on metal posts. There were two inlets for the air - one on the opposite end from the fan, and a smaller one on the bottom of the box just in front of the wing. The intended use of the diplay was to just press the button to turn on the fan and watch the demonstration of the 'Bernoulli principle' in action. However, it was easy to demonstrate that that force does not provide enough lift to raise the wing. Simply covering the bottom air inlet reduced the wing's effective 'angle of attack' with the oncoming air, causing the wing to drop.
This is probably the most innocuous bit of disinformation I've seen in a museum, but what possible purpose could be served by perpetuating this myth?
Nasa has a page about this issue, and here is another page, or you can just google bernoulli lift fraud and get quite a few others.
At a relatively young age, I was introduced to the textbook explanation for how a wing develops lift, which is called the 'Bernoulli principle', named after the scientist who discovered it. A simplistic summary of it is that air must flow faster over the curved top surface of a wing than under the flat bottom surface of a wing, and the faster air on top creates lower pressure, which creates lift.
As I read more about airplanes, there were pictures of many airfoils (wing cross sections) that, according to the 'Bernoulli principle', should not create lift. Flattened and/or symmetrical airfoils do not have those characteristics, but there are many examples of actual aircraft that use them. Dad, who worked in an aircraft factory for several years, explained to me that the 'angle of attack' of the wing is much more important than the 'Bernoulli principle' in the creation of lift on a wing. More advanced books explain this, and how it ties in to Newton's laws of action and reaction, but the primary explanation continues to be Bernoulli's in most books.
Just a couple of years ago, I saw a display in an aviation museum of a very small wind tunnel. Less than a foot square, and maybe four feet long, it had a small fan which pulled air over a small balsa model wing section allowed to move up and down on metal posts. There were two inlets for the air - one on the opposite end from the fan, and a smaller one on the bottom of the box just in front of the wing. The intended use of the diplay was to just press the button to turn on the fan and watch the demonstration of the 'Bernoulli principle' in action. However, it was easy to demonstrate that that force does not provide enough lift to raise the wing. Simply covering the bottom air inlet reduced the wing's effective 'angle of attack' with the oncoming air, causing the wing to drop.
This is probably the most innocuous bit of disinformation I've seen in a museum, but what possible purpose could be served by perpetuating this myth?
Nasa has a page about this issue, and here is another page, or you can just google bernoulli lift fraud and get quite a few others.
It's How You Play the Game
Vodkapundit (do you have to be over 21 to view his site?) reminds everyone involved in this election that "It's How You Play the Game".
See also this, this, and this one I've linked to before.
See also this, this, and this one I've linked to before.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
A Must Read
Whether or not you have ever followed any links from here before, please follow this one.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Love this list
Hugh Hewitt is compiling a list of the choices for this election. Read it, and check back for updates.
Blog-related Dream 1
This dream might actually be the most interesting of the three blog-related dreams I plan to post, but they will be posted in chronological order. I dreamed this one over a year ago. It's edited for clarity, but I am not making up any additions after the fact.
First, two bits of background info:
1) On I-40 between Amarillo and Albuquerque is the town of Tucumcari, New Mexico. My family used to travel through there fairly often, never stopping for much more than a quick meal or a tank of gas. Historic Route 66 branches off of the Interstate, so there is a little bit of that particular sort of retro-tourist-y stuff in town.
2) James Lileks has many photos of retro 50's, 60's & 70's buildings, like motels and restaurants. If you haven't seen those photos, or don't remember the style, go take a quick look at the links.
So...
In the dream, my family had decided to meet and have supper at this (in reality, nonexistent) tourist-trap-restaurant on the west side of Tucumcari. Several aunts, uncles, cousins, plus my immediate family and grandmother were all going to converge on this place from various directions in various vehicles (not an uncommon occurence for our family). I arrived shortly after my parents, and we all wandered around the place while waiting for everyone to arrive so we could all eat together. I wasn't too sure about eating there, but apparently "this was where everyone decided to meet..." before I was invited.
This place epitomized the retro look shown in the aforementioned Lileks' photos, in the tackiest possible way. In the restaurant, orange laminate tables and shag carpet under an angled ceiling with fake exposed beams holding up acoustical tile. Cheap paneled wainscoting below velvet paintings of tigers, bullfighters, and sailing ships. Geometric wood and brass light fixtures. A skinny woven basket full of two-packs of Captain's Wafers, next to textured red plastic water glasses with faded white logos.
The bar looked something like this, only darker.
Other rooms were divided with fake paneled half-walls with lathed posts on top. All the woodwork had the darkest wood stain available, possibly applied with a mop. Some places had indirect lighting with cheap buzzing flourescent bulbs, including the restrooms which had burgundy velvet wallpaper with a floral pattern only visible by its glossiness. The gift shop had the typical tourist trap variety of toys and souvenirs for sale, like state emblazoned ashtrays and $1.69 rubber tomahawks with fluorescent feathers. The bric-a-brac was displayed on racks in several stages of disrepair, which stood on gold-flecked linoleum tiles underneath giant gray concentric-circular air conditioning vents. Near the entry was a gold spray-painted concrete fountain with water-spouting cherubs and fish.
Past the gift shop, there was another room, which was relatively empty. It had some sort of fake reddish stone flooring, with a matching circular fireplace in the middle, with a black conical hood suspended from the ceiling above it. A small cash register (mechanical, but not antique) stood in the corner near an alcove for the pay phone and restrooms, next to a set of large windows to the west. The windows looked out over the huge but almost empty gravel parking lot, with its one-skinny-letter-per-pastel-colored-rhombus sign, across a scrub prairie with a couple of old trailers, up to Tucumcari Mesa. The windows probably hadn't been cleaned that year, and there were dead flies in the windowsill.
Get the picture?
My thought was exactly that - I wanted to get some pictures, thinking of how much Lileks would get a kick out of seeing this place. Then I realize I didn't bring my camera. The gift shop (oddly) didn't sell any kind of cheap or disposable camera . So I start asking family members if they have brought theirs. Mom had hers, but it was without film, and she had already found that the gift shop didn't sell that kind of film either. My aunt was carrying my grandmother's polaroid camera, but we discovered it was broken, as was my cousin's small digital camera. Finally, everyone arrived, and we took our seats in the restaurant, but I woke up before we even got to order.
When I awoke, my first thought was one of disappointment that I didn't get any photos of the place for Lileks...
First, two bits of background info:
1) On I-40 between Amarillo and Albuquerque is the town of Tucumcari, New Mexico. My family used to travel through there fairly often, never stopping for much more than a quick meal or a tank of gas. Historic Route 66 branches off of the Interstate, so there is a little bit of that particular sort of retro-tourist-y stuff in town.
2) James Lileks has many photos of retro 50's, 60's & 70's buildings, like motels and restaurants. If you haven't seen those photos, or don't remember the style, go take a quick look at the links.
So...
In the dream, my family had decided to meet and have supper at this (in reality, nonexistent) tourist-trap-restaurant on the west side of Tucumcari. Several aunts, uncles, cousins, plus my immediate family and grandmother were all going to converge on this place from various directions in various vehicles (not an uncommon occurence for our family). I arrived shortly after my parents, and we all wandered around the place while waiting for everyone to arrive so we could all eat together. I wasn't too sure about eating there, but apparently "this was where everyone decided to meet..." before I was invited.
This place epitomized the retro look shown in the aforementioned Lileks' photos, in the tackiest possible way. In the restaurant, orange laminate tables and shag carpet under an angled ceiling with fake exposed beams holding up acoustical tile. Cheap paneled wainscoting below velvet paintings of tigers, bullfighters, and sailing ships. Geometric wood and brass light fixtures. A skinny woven basket full of two-packs of Captain's Wafers, next to textured red plastic water glasses with faded white logos.
The bar looked something like this, only darker.
Other rooms were divided with fake paneled half-walls with lathed posts on top. All the woodwork had the darkest wood stain available, possibly applied with a mop. Some places had indirect lighting with cheap buzzing flourescent bulbs, including the restrooms which had burgundy velvet wallpaper with a floral pattern only visible by its glossiness. The gift shop had the typical tourist trap variety of toys and souvenirs for sale, like state emblazoned ashtrays and $1.69 rubber tomahawks with fluorescent feathers. The bric-a-brac was displayed on racks in several stages of disrepair, which stood on gold-flecked linoleum tiles underneath giant gray concentric-circular air conditioning vents. Near the entry was a gold spray-painted concrete fountain with water-spouting cherubs and fish.
Past the gift shop, there was another room, which was relatively empty. It had some sort of fake reddish stone flooring, with a matching circular fireplace in the middle, with a black conical hood suspended from the ceiling above it. A small cash register (mechanical, but not antique) stood in the corner near an alcove for the pay phone and restrooms, next to a set of large windows to the west. The windows looked out over the huge but almost empty gravel parking lot, with its one-skinny-letter-per-pastel-colored-rhombus sign, across a scrub prairie with a couple of old trailers, up to Tucumcari Mesa. The windows probably hadn't been cleaned that year, and there were dead flies in the windowsill.
Get the picture?
My thought was exactly that - I wanted to get some pictures, thinking of how much Lileks would get a kick out of seeing this place. Then I realize I didn't bring my camera. The gift shop (oddly) didn't sell any kind of cheap or disposable camera . So I start asking family members if they have brought theirs. Mom had hers, but it was without film, and she had already found that the gift shop didn't sell that kind of film either. My aunt was carrying my grandmother's polaroid camera, but we discovered it was broken, as was my cousin's small digital camera. Finally, everyone arrived, and we took our seats in the restaurant, but I woke up before we even got to order.
When I awoke, my first thought was one of disappointment that I didn't get any photos of the place for Lileks...
Zell again
I've seen a couple of "reports" like this. Here's Zell Miller's version of Modern day Iwo Jima coverage.
Next on the Hatless Channel:
I will be posting a couple of my blog-related dreams in the near future. (Trust me, they're all clean.) Guest stars include Lileks, Sarahk and Frankj. Stay tuned.
Two Blue
Here's two articles worth reading, even though they countain some foul language:
Muledriver's Interview with Hitler
P.J.O'Rourke's Points for the Debate
Muledriver's Interview with Hitler
P.J.O'Rourke's Points for the Debate
Saturday, October 09, 2004
"Management" Question
Has anyone out there ever worked under a manager who actually knew what was going on? Or is the whole world run by clones of Dilbert's boss?
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Brownshirts, anyone?
True Blue Gal is keeping a list of election-related terrorist attacks. As much as I hope there are no additions forthcoming, I'm afraid there will be...
UPDATE: It looks like the link changed...?
UPDATE: It looks like the link changed...?
Friday, October 01, 2004
Here's a thought...
A lot of people have been making an issue of legalizing same-sex marriages, so why don't we go ahead and legalize same-person marriages? Why should anyone have to actually go find someone else to marry? Single people should have rights to the same benefits as any married people! Also, divorce is much less common among single people, except in the case of multiple personality disorder.
End the discrimination now!
;)
End the discrimination now!
;)
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