better late than never

John Mark Reynolds has many reasons that this is both a Happy Holiday and a Merry Christmas season. (and if you're offended by them, maybe you should ask yourself why you are offended by them.)

great quote

Peggy Noonan via Power Line:

"In a time of endless opinion, fact is king. Fact is rarer, harder to come by, more valuable. If only the MSM understood what money and power there are to be had from being famously nonideological, from being a famously reliable pursuer and presenter of fact. Wouldn't it be great if that were the next new thing?"

i almost missed it during my holiday travels.

(update: fixed appearance)

offensive offensive on offensiveness

To honor the secular spirit of the season, I propose to ban the term "Have a Happy New Year" for the following reasons:

1) The word "have" fosters a sense of greed, and is offensive to communists and hippies.
2) The word "a" is singular and exclusionary, and is offensive to multiculturalists and pantheists.
3) The word "happy" is offensive to those people who choose to be unhappy, or are otherwise happiness-impaired.
4) The word "new" is discriminatory against anything old, and is therefore offensive to baby-boomers.
5) The word "year" is discriminatory against other periods of time such as eons, centuries, weeks, and nanoseconds.

:)

update: iowahawk has related stories.

cool pic

fake but accurate photo op.

Not exactly the "Darwin Awards"

Evolution is a Trojan Horse for atheism more than Intelligent Design is a Trojan Horse for religion.

via MoltenThought

maybe february

...will be the interesting month.

from DefenseNews:

”Iran has bought 18 disassembled BM-25 missiles from North Korea with a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles),” Bild newspaper said, citing a report from the German secret services.

It added that Iran’s ultra conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to have the range of the missiles “extended to 3,500 kilometers”.

It further cited the secret service report as warning that “with a longer range, and the probability that (Tehran) would try to equip the missiles with nuclear warheads, there is the risk that Iran could strike at Israel and parts of central Europe.”

It added that according to the German intelligence services, Iranian experts were already working on fitting the missiles with nuclear warheads.

or maybe sooner - march might be too late.

giftgiving for guys & gals

MishMash has aaalllllll the answers :)

Big Brother Sony

Forget the NSA/Patriot Act, Sony's spies are real and pervasive:

It seems that the State of Texas is all upset that Sony was sticking rootkits onto people’s computers without their expressed consent. The stated goal was to make sure the copy protection was working, but it made the user’s computers ridiculously insecure.

That, and the new suit says that Sony was using the MediaMax software to track what people where doing with their data files. That wouldn’t be so bad, but it is installed whether you agree to the EULA or not.

First step: Boycott Sony.

update: Spies!! Spies everywhere!!!

define "dictator"...

MacStansbury has a working definition of the word.

what the dickens?

Lileks shows us the real meaning of romanticizing the Victorian yuletide.

Oh for the old days, when a man could walk down the snow-choked alleys on Christmas Eve, taking care not to make eye contact with his betters, pushing aside the ragged beggars with their oozing carbuncles and the haggard gin-blasted pox-ridden doxies... Oh for the honest Christmases, when you’d buy a goose and take it home and spend your week’s salary getting the stove hot enough to cook the thing. Remember the year little Tim pitched in his crutch so we could have enough heat to crisp the duck? Merry times, merry times. Now let us sing a carol and thank our stars we do not have to drive self-propelled machines - complete with auto-heat and magical devices that pluck music and voices from the very either - to great broad sheds filled with goods unimaginable. It seems like a wonderland, children, but every Eden has its snake; there are other people there, and they oft do not comport themselves as we would wish. And the songs from unseen minstrels, while short and endlessly variable, are often contrary to our aesthetic preferences. No, be happy we are here together in our perfect Victorian times. Now throw another volume of Dickens on the fire; it grows cold, and Father cannot lose but two more toes.

Digital TV Transition

According to the Washington Post, Feb. 17, 2009 will be the last day analog television signals will be broadcast.:

That means that millions of people will either have to buy new digital TV sets or get their hands on a set-top converter box that allows the digital channels to be viewed over an old analog television.

They fail to mention the option of just not watching it any more, which I plan to do.

what's the frequency?

I am shocked - shocked - to find that media bias is going on in here!

meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Despite his claims to the contrary, I suspect Bolivia's new president's leftist programs won't actually do much for the poor.

Five centuries of white rule in Bolivia have ended with the election of the country’s first indigenous head of state.

Evo Morales, of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), won more than 50 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s election, far outstripping all predictions. In his unprecedented first-round victory he left his nearest rival for the presidency, the pro-US Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, more than 20 percentage points behind...

Señor Morales built his campaign on a promise to break the power of the European elite that has run Bolivia since independence from Spain in 1825 and which is seen by many as having ransacked the country’s vast mineral wealth and left its people impoverished.

Señor Morales has pledged to nationalise the country’s huge gas reserves and call a constituent assembly to write a new constitution that will reflect the indigenous majority. Ethnic Aymara and Quechua people make up a majority of the 9.3 million population.

He has also promised to ally Bolivia with other regional left-wing leaders such as Presidents Chávez of Venezuela and Castro of Cuba...

Señor Morales, who used to lead a coca-growers’ union, has promised to legalise the cultivation of coca, the primary ingredient in cocaine...

In La Paz’s middle-class neighbourhood of Sopocachi, many white voters said that they were voting for Señor Morales for the first time after losing faith in the traditional political class. “For 180 years since independence we have been governed by ‘the gentlemen’ and what did we get? Nothing!” said Gabriella Sánchez.

...and nothing is what they'll get from the communists as well.

endangered species

hooray! environmental changes do cause extinction!

when they are saying "peace and safety"...

Fraters Libertas on Iraqi freedom:

To back up the notion that the Iraqis were better off living in a Baathist tyranny, statistics are usually cited on the number of Iraqis killed in the war, the economic conditions in Iraq, how many hours a day the power is on in Baghdad, the number of children in school, the literacy rate, etc. They're often same sort of "standard of living" stats that these folks love to reference when talking about how Sweden is superior to the United States or how Cuba is a really swell place to live despite the bad rap that Fidel's regime has gotten.

The problem with using such measuring sticks is that without freedom they're meaningless. What good does is it to be literate if you don't have the freedom to choose what to read? What's the value of health and longevity if you don't have the freedom to decide what you want to do with your life? What's the value of having a job if that job is a life-long occupation chosen for you by the government?

Freedom is messy, complicated, unruly, loud, and sometimes chaotic, violent, and dangerous. Tyranny is often organized, simple, orderly, quiet, and safe (at least for those who keep their head in the yoke). There isn't a lot of complaining, protesting, or political bickering. The leaders don't have to concern themselves with approval ratings. The prisons, torture chambers, and mass graves are kept out of sight. The courts run smoothly and efficiently (The People's Revolutionary Court finds you guilty. Next!). The government statistics on unemployment, child care, women's rights, infant mortality, literacy, poverty, housing, and universal health care make the Noam Chomsky crowd drool with envy.

But without freedom, none of it means a d***. I would choose dangerous freedom over safe tyranny any day. And most of the Iraqi people appear to feel the same way.

today's adventure

i was going to upgrade my computer, but i forgot the memory.

then while driving west, i became disoriented and nearly had an occident.

so i stopped in a restaurant and ordered the chaos.

then i went home again to watch baseball reruns.

:)

can any good thing come from boston?

today is the 232nd anniversary of the boston tea party.

update: Miss O'Hara has a bigger celebration planned.

blogdreams

i'm not the only one.

to those against freedom,

take that!

and that!

odd ad

found on an online classified ad section:

hi we are looking for a home to rent in the area and jobs. and i would also like to find a ferret with cage.

at least their priorities are straight...

red alert!

atheist insecurity warning system!

fish, bicycles, etc.

IntolerantElle understands feminism.

canadian election quotes

Your Moosey Fate found these quotes from conservative Canadian politicians running for re-election:

"Last night there was a feeling of Christmas in the air ... so much so that we saw a red streak rocketing through the sky," he said. "It was a Challenger jet with the Liberal logo of entitlement on the side, and St. Nick Paul Martin was dropping bags of money across the country."

"They're, (the Liberals), like a hundred monkeys on drugs, writing cheques."

got ladin?

Possumblog ponders:

(Bin Ladin) does seem to have been neutralized as far as everyday control of things, but people like Zarqawi and al-Zawahri and various Democratic party functionaries still seem to think it's good to keep mentioning him, Boogie Man-like, so the true believers will continue to fight the good fight.

it's early, but...

here's a review of the events of 2005. some highlights:

It certainly didn’t feel like a golden age. It’s difficult to believe you live in the best of times when Hollywood recreates The Dukes of Hazzard and the producers are not stoned in the public square on general principle.

Gitmo torture tales surface again in May, as Newsweek claims that a Koran was flushed down a toilet. The story is later retracted. Did no one at Newsweek consider the difficulty of flushing a book down a commode? Probably its elitist reporters and editors have Mexican housekeepers who do all their flushing for them.

Rumors persist in the media that there is a new left-wing radio network called “Air America.”

...Syria pulling out of Lebanon. You must understand that the Cedar Revolution, after years of Syrian domination, has nothing to do with the American presence in Iraq, you jingoist. It’s just one of those international coincidences like the moon being where it was when Apollo 11 flew past.

Cindy Sheehan’s application for a mortgage on a small piece of a Texas driveway is approved. Most of the major networks are listed as co-signers.

Iran announces it will no longer allow inspectors into the Khomeini Memorial Peaceful Nuclear Research Facility for Hastening the Destruction of Israel. European diplomats threaten to take the matter to the U.N. Subcommittee of the Task Force for Occasionally Threatening to Issue a Strongly-Worded Report. But the group’s next meeting isn’t until 2007, and it must first take up the horror of Israel’s security fence. Iran promises to allow inspections in exchange for 500 million Euros, payable in coins of enriched uranium. The E.U. agrees, with the condition that the interest rate on the loan will be adjusted upward if Iran makes nuclear bombs. If they actually detonate a bomb there would be an immediate balloon payment, make no mistake about it.

next march

...could be an interesting month.

loony-toon science

"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"

day by cox and day by forkum?!?

i'm...

so...

confused...

they're digging the hole...

let's get the other 70% to fill it in.

stupor heroes

Mish Mash gives us The Adventures of Seemingly-Innocuous Man

first jet

Care to guess what the first jet-powered aircraft was, and when it first flew?

Was it the Gloster Meteor in ww2? Or maybe the Heinkel 178 in 1939?

Try the Coanda - in 1910!

i'm not holding my breath

Powerline ponders President's popularity polls:

It will be interesting to see whether all those articles we've been reading for the last four months about the President's plummeting poll numbers will be equalled by coverage of his recovery."

in case you haven't heard

tax cuts increase federal income. now imagine how much money they could make if they repealed income tax altogether.

Shaq's a cop?

Please, no jokes about "the long arm of the law"...

babs on crack?

alternate title: "that schnozz was made for huffing".

approval ratings

imagine what the president's approval rating would be if the reporting weren't biased...

two pair

Two posts at Varifrank:

Propaganda
and Poetry.

---

Two things I discovered this weekend:

It is possible to drive from Brownwood to north Fort Worth (Texas) without ever getting on an interstate highway.

I then realized that inside Tarrant County, that's not necessarily a good idea.

Projection

these are just a few examples. can you think of others?

UN-Controlled Internet, pt.2

It may be a prolonged fight to keep the tentacles of the UN off of the internet, but it is a necessary fight.

post shortage

it's been a busy week, and will probably be a busy weekend. i hope to post more next week...

Wendell Berry

Unlike the "cult of gaia", this kind of environmentalism I can understand.

happy non-euclidean holidays!

Lileks' geometric analysis of Christmas music where:

"...the various members of the family gather to rock around the Christmas tree. How this rocking is done I am unsure, since the tree is usually in the corner; thus it would be difficult to rock around the Christmas tree. You would have to rock in a semi-circular pattern. The people on the end would either have to circle around the others, which would mean they were rocking around the persons rocking, or the entire line would have to shift back and forth, permitting the occupant of the center position no more than a few feet of rocking. It is also unclear what sort of rocking we are talking about here; most rocking doesn’t take you around anything. From the Bruce Springsteen grin-and-thrust-and-pump-hip dance to the Foghat-stoner stand-in-place-and-bob-head style, most rocking is done in place. So the whole song falls apart under analysis. Note: it is possible to rock around the clock, this being an expression of rocking performed in time, not space."

Rush & Max

I have two reasons to like this video of the song "YYZ" by Rush:

I was a long-time Rush fan, seeing them in concert five times (twice on the Presto tour), and I work with 3D Studio Max, the software used to make this video.

stifling of dissent, pt. 4

UPDATE: Professor Daly has resigned! One down, several thousand to go...

"Freedom of Speech" and "Freedom of Ideas" are unwelcome in Professor Daly's classroom in Warren County Community College in Washington, N.J.. Read the article, then read my parallel response:

Dear Professor Daly,

I am asking everyone to boycott your school. Your poorly-written message is fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive. Your assertion that "Capitalism killed over 100,000,000" is not only untrue, but ignores the fact that COMMUNISM has killed many more and the evidence for that can be seen in accurate history books, such as those in most libraries. (This may not apply to your local libraries, as you seem like the book-burning type.)

The ACLU can sue to silence anyone in America in 12 hours, yet they have not fought for real liberty for Americans in decades. Racism and profits are key to their priorities. Hollywood, by the way, made billions of dollars in profits this last quarter, thanks to the idiots who are brainwashed to whine and lie for MoveOn.org and other shady organizations who raise illegal contributions for their communist puppet candidates. If you want to count the number of deaths based on political systems, you can begin with the Kurds who have died in Iraq from Saddam's use of WMD, or the millions of African people who died from communist and Islamic regimes.

I will continue to expose your left-wing, anti-reality politics until tenured idiots like you won't dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when students in college classrooms across America turn their arguments on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people's needs--such freedom fighters can be counted throughout American history and they certainly will be counted again.

Hatless in Hattiesburg

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving thoughts from:
Mish Mash,
Molten Thought,
A Little Aardvark,
via Powerline via Claremont Institute, George Washington & Abraham Lincoln,
Dustbury,
GM's Corner,
Varifrank, and
Cheat Seeking Missiles.

---

And my favorite passage for this season, Psalm 107, this year from the NASB (via Bible Gateway):

1 O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
      For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
      Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
3 And gathered from the lands,
      From the east and from the west,
      From the north and from the south.

4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region;
      They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty;
      Their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
      He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 He led them also by a straight way,
      To go to an inhabited city.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
9 For He has satisfied the thirsty soul,
      And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.

10 There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death,
      Prisoners in misery and chains,
11 Because they had rebelled against the words of God
      And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
      They stumbled and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
      He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
      And broke their bands apart.
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
16 For He has shattered gates of bronze
      And cut bars of iron asunder.

17 Fools, because of their rebellious way,
      And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all kinds of food,
      And they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
      He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
      And delivered them from their destructions.
21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
22 Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
      And tell of His works with joyful singing.

23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
      Who do business on great waters;
24 They have seen the works of the LORD,
      And His wonders in the deep.
25 For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
      Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
      Their soul melted away in their misery.
27 They reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
      And were at their wits' end.
28 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
      And He brought them out of their distresses.
29 He caused the storm to be still,
      So that the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad because they were quiet,
      So He guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
32 Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people,
      And praise Him at the seat of the elders.


33 He changes rivers into a wilderness
      And springs of water into a thirsty ground;
34 A fruitful land into a salt waste,
      Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He changes a wilderness into a pool of water
      And a dry land into springs of water;
36 And there He makes the hungry to dwell,
      So that they may establish an inhabited city,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
      And gather a fruitful harvest.
38 Also He blesses them and they multiply greatly,
      And He does not let their cattle decrease.

39 When they are diminished and bowed down
      Through oppression, misery and sorrow,
40 He pours contempt upon princes
      And makes them wander in a pathless waste.
41 But He sets the needy securely on high away from affliction,
      And makes his families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and are glad;
      But all unrighteousness shuts its mouth.

43 Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things,
      And consider the lovingkindnesses of the LORD.

---

And I wish everyone a Blessed, Safe, and Happy Thanksgiving.

The Democrats want America to lose

Molten Thought has several good quotes about the reprehensible gutless cowards who want to destroy America, and summarizes with another good quote:

The Democrats want America to lose the war in Iraq.

How do we know this?

It's quite simple. They call for an unconditional surrender to al Zarqawi and al Qaeda. What else does "immediate withdrawal" mean? There is no victory plan, no plan of any sort for how to open another front in the War on Terror. There is only surrender and disgrace.

This should sound very familiar.

It was the Democratic plan for ending the Vietnam War. We all know how that turned out---it took 16 years to wipe away the stain on our military prowess and our sacred honor, if such a stain can ever be wiped out.

In fact, the number one fear of our soldiers fighting in Iraq is not the IED. It is the stab-in-the-back, delivered by Democrats and weak-sister Republicans in Congress, who profess to "support the troops" while undermining their mission.

I'll consider a plan for withdrawal from the War on Terror when the Democrats propose a plan for withdrawal from the War on Poverty.

update 1: related story

update 2: Ann Coulter comes to the same conclusion.

problem thinking

i'm going to join a square-root-of-144 step program tomorrow.

new post

i guess i should post something today...

and now i have.

ongoing jihad

what was that saying?... err... "those who forget... uh, something... doomed to... uhh..."

UN-Controlled Internet

Bad Juju shows us a likely scenario. (via dustbury)

Texas Press

James Bernsen via Voice in the Wilderness notices the "great chasm between the people of Texas and the newspapers that report to them", and asks:

How often have the editorial pages (of Texas newspapers) called for political representation that “looks like Texas.” How often have they demanded that businesses hire more minorities? How often have they called for more diversity?

Perhaps they could illustrate this sacred principle by taking the lead themselves…

When was the last time a paper hired a white male from Abilene? A suburban woman from The Woodlands?”

"Clinton Lied!! People Died!!"

CrosSwords fetched something from the memory hole. You can read the edited version, but I'm copying the CNN source article unedited here, in case it gets disappeared (bold text is original, italics are mine):

Clinton: Iraq has abused its last chance

December 16, 1998
Web posted at: 8:51 p.m. EST (0151 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From the Oval Office, President Clinton told the nation Wednesday evening why he ordered new military strikes against Iraq.

The president said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world.

"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons," Clinton said.

Operation Desert Fox, a strong, sustained series of attacks, will be carried out over several days by U.S. and British forces, Clinton said.

"Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces," Clinton said.

"Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors," said Clinton.

Clinton also stated that, while other countries also had weapons of mass destruction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons against his own people and against his neighbors.

'Without delay, diplomacy or warning'

The Iraqi leader was given a final warning six weeks ago, Clinton said, when Baghdad promised to cooperate with U.N. inspectors at the last minute just as U.S. warplanes were headed its way.

"Along with Prime Minister (Tony) Blair of Great Britain, I made it equally clear that if Saddam failed to cooperate fully we would be prepared to act without delay, diplomacy or warning," Clinton said.

The president said the report handed in Tuesday by Richard Butler, head of the United Nations Special Commission in charge of finding and destroying Iraqi weapons, was stark and sobering.

Iraq failed to cooperate with the inspectors and placed new restrictions on them, Clinton said. He said Iraqi officials also destroyed records and moved everything, even the furniture, out of suspected sites before inspectors were allowed in.

"Instead of inspectors disarming Saddam, Saddam has disarmed the inspectors," Clinton said.

"In halting our airstrikes in November, I gave Saddam a chance -- not a license. If we turn our backs on his defiance, the credibility of U.S. power as a check against Saddam will be destroyed," the president explained.

Strikes necessary to stunt weapons programs

Clinton said he made the decision to strike Wednesday with the unanimous agreement of his security advisors.

Timing was important, said the president, because without a strong inspection system in place, Iraq could rebuild its chemical, biological and nuclear programs in a matter of months, not years.

"If Saddam can cripple the weapons inspections system and get away with it, he would conclude the international community, led by the United States, has simply lost its will," said Clinton. "He would surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction."

Clinton also called Hussein a threat to his people and to the security of the world.

"The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government -- a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people," Clinton said.

Such a change in Baghdad would take time and effort, Clinton said, adding that his administration would work with Iraqi opposition forces.

Clinton also addressed the ongoing impeachment crisis in the White House.

"Saddam Hussein and the other enemies of peace may have thought that the serious debate currently before the House of Representatives would distract Americans or weaken our resolve to face him down," he said.

"But once more, the United States has proven that although we are never eager to use force, when we must act in America's vital interests, we will do so."

Feel free to print out this article and shove it in any moonbat's face when they say "Bush Lied, People Died".

update: similar forgotten fragments

Islam

Somehow I keep forgetting how Islam is "the religion of peace".

• More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined.
• Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years.
• More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.
• 19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals put to death in the last 65 years.

Hmmm, the phrase "peace of the grave" seems to help me remember...

read the screed

Lileks on the French riots:

"(Europe's) vision – a post-national multiethnic welfare state linked by nothing but the language in which people curse one another – is fatally flawed. The rioters can’t be dispelled with Brussels-based regulations specifying the number of cars one can burn per night."

1.7 tons is nothing...

...when reporting on WMD in Iraq.

white-collar crime

Sony is aspiring to be as reviled as Microsoft.

laun------dry

Though they're not adjacent, at least my washer & dryer are in the same room.

disaster averted!

As much as I generally dislike Micro$oft (and Bill GatesOfSheol), tonight I have learned to greatly appreciate their "System Restore" utility.

I have also learned to distrust "Spybot Search And Destroy", because it flagged my ENTIRE MUSIC SOFTWARE FOLDER for deletion.

on revisionism

Cox & Forkum quotes Podhoretz:

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike.

what's the deal?

Power Line wants to know what's wrong with the Republican side of the aisle.:

Almost exactly one year ago, President Bush was re-elected with more votes than had ever been cast for a Presidential candidate, breaking Ronald Reagan's 1984 record. Not only did Bush sweep to victory by a three million vote margin, the Republicans increased their majorities in both the House and the Senate, the first time this trifecta had been accomplished since 1964.

Since that triumphant moment, what has sent the party into a tailspin? Has the economy collapsed? Not at all; it is humming along as strongly as ever, steadily putting more distance between America's prosperity and that of Europe and Japan. Have the terrorists attacked successfully, exposing a weakness in our domestic security? No. Astonishingly, we have now gone more than four years without a successful attack on American soil, even though newspaper headlines reveal, on an almost daily basis, how bloodthirsty our enemies are. This is an extraordinary record, of which all Republicans should be proud. Have there been setbacks in foreign policy that could explain how a party that was triumphant just twelve months ago should now be in full retreat? Not at all. We continue to make excellent progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan. On a number of fronts, liberty has made progress in the vital Middle East. And no foreign power even imagines that it could rival the United States in influence.

So what has happened in the past twelve months to terrify so many of our Republican office-holders? Two hurricanes struck, and some observers accused a federal agency of responding too slowly to one of them. Tom DeLay was indicted, in what was basically a bad joke, by an absurdly partisan and utterly discredited Texas Democrat DA. An aide to the Vice President has been accused of lying to a grand jury about telling the truth to the press about a mountebank Democrat's lies about the administration. And the President's poll ratings--more or less irrelevant, given that he can't run for office again--have dropped into a range occupied, at one time or another, by every President from Lyndon Johnson to the present.

These are pathetic reasons for our representatives in Congress to be in a Chicken Little mode. The Republicans are rapidly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and it's hard to say who is more to blame--the Congressional Republicans, some of whom are afraid of their own shadows, or the White House, which, in studiously refraining from responding to the most outrageously unfair and blatantly partisan attacks launched against an American administration in 145 years, seems intent on a weird kind of martyrdom.

It's no wonder that Republicans across the country increasingly regard their elected representatives as gutless wonders. There is no objective reason why 2006 should be a disaster for the party, but it will be if our representative don't stick together and show the voters that the Republican party still stands for security, common sense and limited government. That's still a winning combination, but only if our representatives vote for it.

France Riot Update 3

24 hours, 2 weeks, what's the difference?

Does anyone remember the outcry that occurred when George Bush didn't get on TV in the 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina and make a personal expression of sorrow? That outcry resulted from a natural disaster, not a threat to the authority of the government. Chirac has yet to make any significant speech to his country as head of state in the face of a direct challenge to French sovereignty. It's as if the entire French command structure has forgotten why it exists. Instead of standing for French law and order and defense of French interests -- the natural role of the executive in any form of government -- Chirac has gone into hiding and his staff has prepared a slate of bribes.

Profits of Doom

This place will also need a video section, including "Red Dawn", "Chicken Little", and "Day After Tomorrow"

secret weapon!

They could actually be serious about "The Military Applications of Silly String".

p.s. you (especially ryan/mish mash) can also see some other projects this guy made.

France Riot Update 2

with picture and commentary.

Introverts

This info could come in handy for people around me.

War on Terror

Go read this piece at Vodkapundit about the War on Terror. One key quote:

"The MSM needs to relearn constructive criticism, and they need to remember which country defends their rights, and which group of people would gleefully slit their throats."

France Riot Update

According to Yahoo News:

Asked on TF1 television whether the army should be brought in, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said, "We are not at that point."

For once, de Villepin is right. This is no time to surrender....

The Lit-Up City

NOFP has a must-read report on the Paris riots.

spam poetry 5

Alexander's interesting information
was comb, as talent
downstate. Attache
with see to name negotiation.

Is type it mercy
I overheard that
on? Eat the tomato,
or learn my villainies
in Forget or Southwest
Siberia. Lace,
achromatism, affluently, adevism
valium, pilgrim,
see? Impersonate a cerulean
kaiser!
Look sharp at all times
by reply at mystique.

So finish by appliance
which ask on Afrikaans'
Ambien shakedown.
Benevolent footprint
of spend a stood ideology.

marriage amendment

What these tactics prove is that the liberal left cannot win based on truth.

"Stability" in Middle East

Dustbury argues that "the only thing wrong with the war in Iraq was that we didn’t do it sooner."

Discerning Texan has three related posts.

plame again

i didn't want to post any more on the whole plame game, but this is just too good...

"Give peace a chance, or we'll kill you!"

Looks like the phrase "peace protest" has a whole new meaning.

Halloween Continues...

the horror! the horror! at chartwells.

Cyprus

Lileks linked to a site that has stories and pictures of a modern ghost town and a divided capitol on Cyprus.

with science like that, who needs mythology?

According to this Yahoo Science News story,

"The most explosive star in our corner of the solar system has a companion."

Wow! I didn't know our solar system had another star?!?

:P

lileks is linking

Techno pioneer Kraftwerk is still around.

Watch Yoda Rap.

two stories in one

Here's a sad story about a pastor who was electrocuted during a baptism service. The story covers the details, but goes on to give a less-than-flattering editorial description of Waco, the town where it occurred.

But you must understand, the story is on a London website. With a population of 7,619,000, that town has also made more headlines than would be expected for a town of its size.

In the late 19th century it became infamous for several murders committed there by Jack the Ripper. During a earlier period, many people were imprisoned and beheaded in the Tower of London (an actual stone tower, not a record store). London is also noted for being the home of the bubonic plague and the Spice Girls.

(...and the reporter is from Los Angeles, the shake-and-bake with all the flakes.)

verrry scarrry

for your halloween viewing horror...

zapped

Been there, done that.

rational rationale

MacStansbury tells us why he votes Republican.

Revenge Of The SOTH

Flying Space Monkey found that Speaker Of The House Dennis Hastert has a new blog.

10-30

Don't forget! Benjamin Franklin's Worst Joke occurs again this Sunday .

gaaah!

I could deal with the Sox winning the series, but not with the Astros not even winning one game...

:P

SCAM WARNING

NOT SATIRE

Watch out for this new credit card scam!

"nintendo mall"

On my way to work today, I heard a pickup blaring some tejano music, but I couldn't quite understand the words. The singer seemed to be most concerned with "a key" and "sue's cortizone"...?

:)

compare and contrast, pt. 2

this time, it's two sides of the same coin.

compare and contrast, pt. 1

noah compares true vs false, and has more evidence against the false.

UN-tied Nations

CSM shows us how to celebrate UN Day.

Liberal Hivemind

naaman says, "If it is sexist to assume that all women are like June Cleaver, then it is equally sexist to assume that all women are like Gloria Steinem. Why don't so-called feminists understand that simple point?"

che's killer says, "Difference of opinion is healthy and to be expected in a republican democracy. Liberals however seem moved to violence when confronted with opinions that significantly differ from their own."

also, a little gun control and a little gratuitous advice.

small rays of hope

The subhead of this article should be edited to say "School's suppression of kindergartner's artwork violated constitutional rights"

Found at Evangelical Ecologist, who also notes that the Church of Gaia is now selling indulgences.

bumpersticker

and remember: when cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars.

Ghouls

To spare you the trouble of going through bugmenot.com to access this NYPost article by Ralph Peters, I'll post the highlights here:

We'll soon reach a total of 2,000 dead American troops in Iraq. You won't miss the day it happens. The media will pound it into you. But no one will tell you what that number really means — and what it doesn't.

Unable to convince the Bush administration or our troops to cut and run, the American left is waging its campaign of support for Islamist terror through our all-too-cooperative media. And you're the duck in the anti-war movement's shooting gallery.

Breathless anchors and voice-of-God columnists will suggest that 2,000 dead is an exorbitant price to pay in wartime, that reaching such a threshold means we've failed and that it's time to "support our troops and bring them home."

All lies. Certainly, the life of every American service member matters to us. But the left's attempt to exploit dead soldiers and Marines for partisan purposes is worse than grave-robbing: Ghouls only take gold rings and decaying flesh; the left wants to rob our war dead of their sacrifices and their achievements, their honor and their pride.

Those who died in Iraq have not died in vain. Even should Iraq fail itself in the end, our courageous effort to give one Middle-Eastern Muslim population a chance to create a rule-of-law democracy has been worth the cost — for their sake, but also for ours. Without a transformation of the Middle East, we shall see no end of terror.

As a former soldier whose friends still serve under our flag, I'm especially disgusted by the pretense on the part of those who never served and who wouldn't dream of letting their own children serve that they speak for the men and women in uniform.

Our troops speak for themselves. By re-enlisting. And returning to Iraq, to complete the mission for which their comrades gave their lives or suffered life-altering wounds.

Two generations of politicians and pundits suffer from their avoidance of military service. They speak of war in ignorance and view our troops — whom they quietly despise — as nothing more than tools of their own ambitions. After deploring body counts during their Vietnam-era protest years, today our leftists revel in the American body count in Iraq.

The left has been infuriated by its inability to incite an anti-war movement in our military — forgetting that this is an all-volunteer force whose members believe in service to our country. The best the Democrats can do is to trot out poor Wes Clark, an ethically challenged retired general who will say anything, anywhere, anytime in return for five more seconds in the spotlight.

As for that "unacceptable" number of casualties, let's put it in perspective:

Our current loss rate in Iraq from combat and non-combat deaths is 765 per year. That's painful for individual families, but we would have to remain in Iraq, taking casualties at the same rate, for 76 years to rival our loss of more than 58,000 Americans in Indochina.

And Vietnam wasn't remotely as important to our national security. The terrorists we face today are more implacable than any of the enemies from our past. Even the Germans didn't dream of eradicating our entire population. The Japanese hoped to master Asia, not to massacre every man, woman and child in America.

We would need to continue our efforts in Iraq and the greater War on Terror for 532 years to suffer the 407,000 dead we lost in less than four years in World War II.

And what about our greatest struggle, the American Civil War? We would have to maintain the status quo in Iraq for 470 years just to rival the number of Union dead and for 729 years to equal our total losses, North and South.

Even our Revolutionary War, in which fewer than 5,000 Americans died in combat (many more, unrecorded, fell to disease) has to be judged in terms of the population at the time — just over 2 million. Equivalent losses today would be over 500,000 dead Americans.

The point isn't to play hocus-pocus with statistics. That's what the pro-terrorist left is trying to do — betting that you know nothing of military history. Two thousand dead isn't a magic number. Our first loss was as important as the last. We must not make a mockery of our fallen by treating them as political rag-dolls to be tossed around the media playroom. Great causes incur great costs.

In historical terms, our losses in Iraq have been remarkably light, given the magnitude of what we seek to achieve. The low casualty rate is a tribute to the skill and professionalism of our troops and their battlefield leaders. None of us should breathe a word that undercuts them while they're fighting our war.

If the American left and its media sympathizers want someone to blame for our combat losses, they should begin with themselves. Their irresponsible demands for troop withdrawals provide powerful encouragement to Muslim fanatics to keep on killing as many American service members as possible. On the worst days the terrorists suffer in Iraq, our "anti-war" fellow citizens keep the cause of Islamist fascism alive. Their support is worth far more to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi than any amount of Saudi money.

It would be wonderful to live in a world in which war was never necessary. But we don't live in such a world. And there are no bloodless wars. We should honor every fallen American. But we also must recognize that, on this maddened earth, only the blood of patriots shed abroad allows us to live in safety here at home.

Found via Cold Fury, who also has this related post.

Scotty's gift keeps on giving...

The story I found earlier about a NASCAR-designed military vehicle didn't mention the cool bulletproof windows made from transparent aluminum.

keywords

This entry on my blog is listed at #7 on AltaVista for the search term "hee haw gloom despair".

This disturbs me greatly...

:O

spam poetry 4

Fink Algiers,
dreams come true with this prospect:
"abolish everything you owe without paying another dime".

Make all the stress go away,
Bentley -
go use my ulna sandglass,
which tell is duologue wound.

a little good news?

CSM sees a larger picture in the style and substance of Bush's conservatism.

go astros!

The Astros are going to the World Series!

Glad they get to go while Biggio & Bagwell are still there.

go mish-mash!

Ryan doesn't like "reality tv" any more than I do. Make sure to read his alternative version of "Hamlet" too.

go scrappleface!

Scott Ott is on a roll. (four links)

oh my

GT, FJ, or GT?

Arrr, shiver me timbers!

Experts have finally determined the actual cause of global warming.

UPDATE: A new hope?

;)

assisted suicide?

try not to make any jokes about "shooting his mouth off"...

The Right Brothers

No, it's not a typo, it's a band (which has been added to the appropriate blogroll category).

not the baseball team

The Texas Rangers were formally created on this day 170 years ago.

spam poetry 3

(this one even rhymes)

Eminem got one
To sign, by odyssey dismay,
The first time
Here,
And hurt of summertime.


previous spam poetry: #1 & #2

10-15

Hey, it's Sweet Onion Day! Aren't you excited?

Yeah, me neither...

that's a riot

with enemies like that, who needs frien... uhh... er...

PETABOA

End Cruelty To Animals!

10-13

Hey, it's X-Files Day! Aren't you excited?

Yeah, me neither...

The Turtle Calling The Rabbit Slow

But what about Iran's response? or Red China's? or Zimbabwe's, for that matter?...

woohoo!

No Yankees? No Braves? No Red Sox? This is already a great World Series!

Allah's Wrath

Seems that the quake in Pakistan destroyed several jihadi military bases. And in other news...

Surviving militants, who had previously claimed that Hurricane Katrina was Allah's wrath against America, have renounced their claim to the Kashmir region, deeming it to have been the cause of the disaster. Further, some clerics are even beginning to question the entire premise of jihad. "It is possible that our barbaric, militant, and misogynistic ways are the reason Allah has kept Islamic countries in such a backward state." says Mullah Mustarrah al'Sens Ibbl., "Perhaps these signs are Allah's way of moving us into the modern era."

(update: forgot to mention that cheat seeking missiles inspired this one.)

bumpersnickers

All the "NPR minds" around me (and there are several) are some of the most petty, small-minded and loud-mouthed bigots I've ever had the misfortune of meeting.

That said, I'm not really a Fox fan either.

Fires

First the "Wayne Manor", now this...

"Did I Do ThaaAAaat?"

Official Motto of The Party of Urkels.

number eight, number eight, number eight...

congratulations are in order, i guess?

spam poetry 2

The play, so reunite
Lowest rate approved,
And sleep on porcelain telephony
As travel or loan jester.

(see also spam poetry 1)

Whaddya Know!

Yahoo News reports that the House of Representatives passed a bill to boost refineries. The bill would (among other things):

"streamline government permits for refineries, open federal lands including closed military bases for future refinery construction and limit the number of gasoline blends refiners have to produce, eliminating many blends now designed to reduce air pollution."

Hmm, where have I heard that idea before...?

My only post on the Miers nomination

(Not being a real writer, I couldn't get all my thoughts on the topic into a coherent paragraph, so I'll present them as a list.)

1. Opinions abhor a vacuum.
2. Rational discussion is appropriate, but intra-party acrimony only encourages the other side.
   
3. Despite the bickering about her qualifications, I remain unconvinced whether or not Harriet Miers will turn out to be a good Supreme Court judge. Even though I'm still 'on the fence' about this, both my feet are on Hugh Hewitt's side.
4. On the surface, it appears that our President has not learned that appeasement of the enemies of America does not work any better on the domestic front than it does on the international front.
   
5. To paraphrase an old proverb, "Hope for a Rehnquist, prepare for a Warren."

to boldly draw where no man has drawn before

This Yahoo science report links to an image of the world's smallest fountain pen. Even though I had never heard of such an invention, which can draw lines "as thin as 40 nanometers (with) various types of inks, including pigments for painting patterns and organic materials for designing sensors", I had seen it before.

(I almost titled this post "I'm a calligrapher, Jim, not a doctor!")

unreasonable search and seizure

As much harm as the ACLU has done to the foundations of this country, they do occasionally get something right.

DNA from tens of thousands of suspected illegal immigrants, captives in the war on terrorism and others who have been arrested but not convicted of federal crimes could be added to a national database of convicts' DNA under a proposal the Senate is likely to vote on soon...

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a sponsor of the bill, says collecting DNA from arrestees would help authorities catch rapists and killers who have arrest records but who go undetected by the DNA system because they have no serious convictions. Barry Steinhardt, who specializes in privacy law for the American Civil Liberties Union, says taking DNA from people who “haven't been found guilty of anything” is wrong. “We've got to ask ourselves whether this is a line we want to cross.”

2NOfP

No Oil for Pacifists has two good bits of reality which the "reality-based" community is likely to ignore.

O'Hair

Molten Thought found this chilling post by Madalyn Murray O'Hair's son.

Remarks on Bill Bennett

Miss O'Hara says it well:

I was listening to Bill Bennett last week when he made the remark that started this ridiculous brouhaha. There's no point in qualifying the asinine charges of racism by defending Bennett, because any halfwit gerbil knows the man isn't a racist. He was making a point, using a noxious example, to prove that the ends don't always justify the means. Nothing wrong or untoward was said.

It's kind of funny - but more sad, really - that the people screaming at Bennett are pro-abortion types who would be happy to see every woman's child aborted, black, white, Asian, or otherwise, if it were the woman's choice.

It's also funny that his accusers are the ones who are always telling us about free speech. Yet here they are, telling us what we can and cannot say, because they are offended. God forbid!

Well...turn off the radio. No one is making you listen, after all.

Most obviously, though, is that we have yet another opportunity (albeit yet another manufactured one) to have that 'discussion on race' the left is always whining about. We had an opportunity last month, too, with the aftermath of Katrina. But instead of a legitimate discussion, we had Oprah pointing her finger at America and telling us we were racist monsters (I suppose that's why waitresses, teachers, truck drivers, nurses, and salesmen dug into their pockets and sent millions to help those people we saw on our television screens every night).

Of course, we all know why that 'discusson' will never take place: the left would lose embarassingly. Tragically, in the meantime, things for the black community aren't getting better. They're practically being held for ransom by the left. Regardless, it's sad beyond words.

There are so many things wrong with the reaction to Bennett's comments - not the least of which is that those accusing him are the real abusers of black Americans.

(emphases mine)

Yach! pt.3

due to a wave of comment spam, i'm enabling word verification for comments. apologies to my good readers out there.

Gasoline's Too High

With an insincere apology to the Starland Vocal Band, here's some alternate lyrics to "Afternoon Delight".

---

Gonna buy unleaded, gonna fill my tank,
When I saw them numbers, well my heart just sank.
Only got a twenty for the whole dang week -
Wouldn't move my Suburban seven hundred feet.

Skyrocketing price,
Gasoline's too high.
Ga-aaa-soline's too high.

Thinking that I can't afford to fill 'er up.
Dollar got a couple gallons, now, just half a cup.
If the war was about oil, wouldn't you just think
That the pricing of the petrol might begin to sink?

Skyrocketing price,
Gasoline's too high.
Ga-aaa-soline's too high.

When the metal numbers move a dozen times a day,
You just know big oil company's gonna make you pay.

Skyrocketing price,
Gasoline's too high.
Ga-aaa-soline's too high.

---

Bill of Rights may have settled during shipment, at participating dealers, except where prohibited.

Dustbury found the "truth in advertising" version of the Bill of Rights.

Machisma Machinations

LA Times makes a good point for once (before the part that says Senator Feinstein is "a sensible person who usually says sensible things."):

"Macha" characters delight in emotional disembowelment; in ordering their victims to let it all hang out. But lots of people have no desire for heart-to-hearts with strangers in public, much less on national TV. Macha is just as toxic as macho, or more so, because it's harder to laugh off."How do you feel?" has become a standard media question, a substitute for eliciting actual information. Oprah and her imitators use it; news reporters covering hurricanes use it. Macha helps demolish the emotional walls that protect people, just as hurricanes demolish their physical walls.

trendsetter, moi?

A few days ago Lileks' Joe Ohio went hatless, now there's one in Seattle, who may have written a very geeky poem...

Movie Night

Echo Zoe found a new reason to go to McDonalds: cheap movie rentals.

At $1/movie, I can see why Hollywood is crying about decreased theater ticket sales. I’d much rather sit in the privacy and relative quiet of my own home than go to a theater that charges $8 with a tall guy sitting in front of me and a kid kicking my seat behind me, along with cell phones ringing and sticky floors, while being charges $4 for a Coke and $3 for a box of Dots.

And as good as the facilities and employees at our local Rave theaters are, they still can't curtail the rude behavior of some of their customers.

I'm Offended!

...but they are more so.

your money or your...

I think we've been mugged.

Revelation: Symbology

See also Introduction and Revelation: Chronology

3) To what extent should the descriptions of events, persons, and creatures be taken literally, symbolically, or figuratively? It's obvious the Persons of the Trinity are literal, with some occasional figurative images of the slain Lamb and later with the sword coming from His mouth. The image of the dragon is most likely Satan himself. The image of the beasts in Revelation 13 could be symbolic, similar to the images of the "horns" in Daniel 7 which represent kings. The image of Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 seems to simultaneously represent a person, a city or two, and a country? And what of the four creatures with six wings and covered with eyes?

4) Is there any proof for the popular idea that current world powers are represented in Revelation? During the Cold War, I heard some say that Gog and Magog (which occur after the thousand years) mentioned in Revelation 20:7-9 were obviously the East/Communists and West/Capitalists, which now is probably not the case. ;) But I still hear some say that the King of the North (not in Revelation - in Daniel 11) must be referring to Moscow in Russia.

Revelation: Chronology

See also Introduction and Revelation: Symbology

1) Is there proof that Chapters 4-19 of Revelation are strictly chronological? The scene in Revelation 12:1-6 which shows the lady giving birth seems to depict the birth of Christ. But the next three verses seem to tell of the war in heaven where the devil was cast out, and that event is usually thought to have occured before the fall of Adam, if not before Creation altogether. And both of those scenes are described after five of the seals have been broken, including the scene in Revelation 6:12-17 of the kings hiding in the mountains, which seems not to have happened yet.

2) Which parts, if any, of Chapters 4-19 of Revelation have already occured? There is quite a wide range of opinion on this. Some say that most or all of it had occured by the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. Some say that none of it has occured, and all of the events of the Book will take place during the last 1007 (or so) years before the end of time.

i may be opening a can of wormwood here...

(I was going to make a single post with several questions, but I decided to make two posts with related questions. Here is the preface for those questions.)

Here are the two background items that brought about the questions to follow:

• I recently bought a parallel Bible, which has four translations in a side-by-side format. It includes the (traditional) KJV, the (modern, more idea-for-idea) NIV, the (modern, more word-for-word) NASB, and the (paraphrased, which i don't like as much) NLT.
• I've seen several sites which seem to discuss the Book of Revelation, but in fact are discussing instead the "schools of thought", "traditions", and "-isms" about the Book, rarely even mentioning the Scriptures themselves.

Reading the four translations of the Book of Revelation without commentary, it seems that many of the "schools of thought" and "traditions" are not really in sync with the actual Scriptures. And the popular ideas about "Armageddon" (especially the movie of the same name...) seem to bear little resemblance to them at all. SO, in that light, I have some questions in the next two posts.

Revelation: Chronology

Revelation: Symbology

Everybody Singe!

Mad Ol Mullah
had some nukes.
IAEA-Oh!

The Colors of Money

Or: Why Johnny Can't Make Change

Revised Joe Ohio

I wonder if he's headed to Mississippi without it...

13 out of 101 isn't bad

...which is the number of trivia bits I knew out of "101 Things You Didn't Know About Rock N' Roll" (profanity warning)

supreme arrogance

Pompous idiots.

Read the comments. I bet the French aristocracy was surprised at all the hostility in 1789 too.

Jared's safe...

Power Line headline: Would-Be Subway Bombers Arrested In France

Creation

Here's a slightly quirky comparison between various creation stories. It includes these quotes:

Some people might say that there are many other claimants of the universe and therefore God's claim of authorship can be doubted.

Well, let us look at the other claimants shall we?

Allah was first heard from in the 7th century. The God of the Old Testament documented his authorship of the universe at least 3000 years before Allah. Allah might have known that it would be necessary to wake up early to get to the registrar's office to stake a claim. He was too late...

In most instances, creation stories seem to begin in a world that was already made. That is kind of like claiming to be the inventor of the automobile you just bought off the dealer's lot.

Freedom's NOT another word for nothin' left to lose

Check out this "freedom index"

Freedom is instead a confluence of two conditions:

a) The condition of sole responsibility for one's self.
b) The condition of voluntary interactions with others.

When freedom prevails in a country, it's people chart their own paths and enjoy (or suffer) the consequences thereof. In a free country, people are only compelled to do what they have voluntarily agreed to.

morality

The Clintons are in dire need of a dictionary. Slick Willy didn't know the meaning of the word "is", and neither one of them know the meaning of the word "morality".

Ground Zero Memorial

Where there are bodies, the vultures will gather.

China Tech

Many are bemoaning that some American technology companies are helping China in that country's supression of free speech.

But wouldn't it be cool if the whole thing was a massive Trojan Horse operation?

Fry Spam

I Love Jet Noise is locked onto the spammers, and should be impacting them soon.

CNN Lied! The Elderly Died!

From Point Five - Media Lied About “Storm of Massive Destruction”:

After a long runup to the arrival of Hurricane Rita, which breathless media commentators from all major networks promised was an imminent threat to the American people, the storm made landfall without causing the damage discussed for almost a week.

Now, with millions evacuated and the threat rapidly evaporating, critics are making accusations that the media lied in ginning up support for mandatory evacuations and pre-storm hysteria.

Read the rest.

---

UPDATE: Power Line, via Cheat Seeking Missiles, has more questions.

spam poetry

i got four spam messages today that were probably generated by the same random-word program. with some punctuation, they sorta go together to make a poem:

royal trade name, but economical
by turnoff. be fondue. strikebound
is fill, an broadsword scaly
as. count it evanescent.

(see also spam poetry 2)

Surprising USA Today Headline

I was surprised to find this USA Today headline:

Bush deserves better than these low ratings

Could it be that America's most colorful free hotel doormat has come to its senses? Nah. The story goes on to slam him with backhanded compliments:

Most of you across the USA are turning thumbs down on President Bush. Your reasoning is right, but your timing is wrong...

Those of you who are regular readers of this column know that I strongly criticized Bush's "pre-emptive strike" in Iraq before we invaded and have long urged that we "support our troops" there by bringing them home. But ...

In my book, Iraq aside, Bush has made some of his best decisions in recent weeks. His ratings should be going up rather than down...

Iraq, of course, remains Bush's biggest blunder. It will haunt him forever unless he fires Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and brings our troops home.

If Bush "stays the course" in Iraq, his ratings will hit bottom. If he fesses up that he was wrong and gets us out, he still can salvage some of his presidency.

I'd entitle the article "Bush deserves better respect than these low-life reporters give him."

Oh Ruth

How we wish the Aardvark's first reaction comes true!

pay no attention to the anarchist behind the curtain!

Blue Goldfish has the sordid story of a radical strategist who is using Cindy Sheehan for her own sinister purposes:

(slightly edited, bolding mine)

To anyone familiar with the world of professional protesting — protests against globalism, capitalism, war, police tactics, and dozens of other causes — the presence of Fithian is a sign of how far Cindy Sheehan has strayed from the roots of her "one mom" crusade against George W. Bush. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is a sign that the "one mom" crusade was never just one mom. Fithian is a legendary organizer who operates in the world of anti-globalism anarchists, antiwar protesters, and union activists; an advocate of aggressive "direct action" demonstrations...

Although she has received virtually no attention from reporters covering Sheehan, Fithian has been part of the Crawford protest from the very beginning...

Fithian demurred when asked if she was a leader of the demonstrations — she claimed that the movement was "nonauthoritarian" and "nonhierarchical" and had no leaders at all — but the Times was not convinced. "To say that Fithian is not a leader is an admirable political idea, but it's not entirely honest," the paper reported.

And she was a tough-minded leader, not at all a peace-and-love type. Her specialty was action; she wanted to break in, cut through fences, and shut things down. "You don't go to Fithian when you want to carry a placard," the Times profile said. "You go to her when you want to make sure there are enough bolt cutters to go around." Asked for a fuller explanation of her role in the protests, Fithian said, "When people ask me, 'What do you do?' I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible."...

Her inspiration, she explained, was not so much those (nonviolent) leaders as the anarchist movement in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th century. And that meant different ways of doing things. "Nonviolence is a strategy. Civil disobedience is a tactic," Fithian said. "Direct action is a strategy. Throwing rocks is a tactic."

"I just fundamentally don't believe (the establishment) will ever serve our interests as it's currently constructed."

These days, Fithian's tactic for dismantling the old order — at least her tactic for the moment — is Cindy Sheehan.

I bet if somebody threw rocks at her, she would try to "stifle their dissent" pretty quick too...

---

update: "you spin me left round, WaPo, left round like a commie, baby..."

Art Commentary

Lileks compares the classics to the moderns:

As for art, I am always amused by those who say that this is the absolute unqualified equal of this. I’m not saying the former is bad; it’s different, it has different objectives, describes a different culture, but the latter is art, and the former is merely the something done by an artist.

I’m not sure what that means, but it would sound great in a lecture if I had a nice posh turtleneck and was tall and handsome. In any case, Raphael could do Albers, but I am quite certain Albers could not do Raphael, anymore than John Lennon could score a symphony. Complexity and sophistication count for something; if they didn’t, you’d hired the man who designed the Port-A-Potty to design your dream house. Hey, it has walls and a hole.

Never mind the sheer talent required - there's the matter of intent, the pedagogical purpose of Raphael’s painting. It's a history of History, a summation of how we think about thinking, AND if you act now he'll throw in a little shot at Michelangelo, down at the bottom. The fellow writing on a square block of marble, looking away. Raphael added that portrait, scholars believe, after Raphael saw the first half of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Now look at it again: you can tell it was added later, can’t you? But it wasn’t entirely an act of admiration; Raphael – a young good-looking guy popular with everyone, including the ladies – painted Michelangelo as Heraclitus, a philosopher known for his bad moods and universal scorn. Which was pretty much Mike’s deal, to use Hovingspeak. (Michelangelo was also disinclined to bathe or change clothes.) So it’s a nod to the Master and a taunt and an homage and an insult to smelly old grumpy ugly-face and a floor polish and a dessert topping. So the painting isn’t just a compendium of Western philosophy up to the time of the Renaissance; it’s full of sly gossip and office politics.

Do you get that from this?

Has the race card been trumped?

I was forwarded an email about a recent Jesse Jackson appearance in Louisiana. I don't know whether it actually happened, but if not, it probably should have. According to the email,:

Yesterday the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up in Baton Rouge, I wished he would have showed up in Sheriff Harry Lee's office as we would have NEVER heard from him again. He said, "Bush has NOT appointed a Single Black to head up this Katrina Relief, the Black Caucus and Black Leaders all over America are upset with him putting the Black Folks on the side and it is OUR people who are sitting on their roof tops waiting for Rescue, OUR people who are standing in line at the Superdome waiting on food, water and a ride to a safe place, OUR people who have been locked down in poverty..." and so on.

George Sell the Anchorman for TV 9 news responded to Jesse, "Rev. Jackson, the Mayors of New Orleans and Baton Rouge are Black, the Police Chief's of New Orleans and Baton Rouge are Black, the Head of the LA State Police is Black, the Head of the Army conducting the Army's operation on the Ground in New Orleans is Black, the Congressman from New Orleans is Black and for the last 40 years, the leaders of LA have been members of the Democratic Party, YOUR Party, don't blame us like you are doing, look in the mirror, you pull the Race Card any time you don't get your way, we are in a terrible crisis and right now we need to come together and here you come to Louisiana and holler Racism, just like you do, it is NEVER EVER your fault, ALWAYS someone else, but here you are sitting high and dry. Why don't you go out in to the waters where they are shooting at the rescue personnel and help in the rescue?"

don't shoot!

Mark Steyn says he would "have been quite content for the John Roberts confirmation hearings to go on for another six months, couple of years, half a decade, until the last registered Democrat on the planet expired in embarrassment at the sheer maudlin drivel of it all. It was obvious on the first day about 20 minutes in -- i.e., about halfway through Joe Biden's first question -- that the Democrats had nothing on Roberts. But they're game guys and, like the fellow in a tight spot in a caper movie, they stuck their right hands in their pockets, pointed them through the material and pretended they had a real gun in there. By the second day, their pants had fallen down, but they bravely stood there waggling their fingers at the nominee and insisting they had enough firepower to blow his head off."

Air Amerikkka Sickos

If that were true, then Franken = Goebbels...

alternative MIDI

Just imagine if Alvin and the Chipmunks had one of these, or if Scott Joplin worked with one of these. But this is much cooler.

Gun-Totin' Sean

Not only was Spicoli trying to flood New Orleans, it now looks like he might have been shooting at some helicopters too, just like he did back in '85.

...or maybe this is just a sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High: "All I need are some smelly waves, a shotgun, and I'm fine."

been there, done that, pt.2

My post - Awareness - dated 4/17/05 - 2 comments

Greg Gutfield's post - Raising Awareness - dated 9/19/05 - 51 comments

I wonder if Greg is aware that I'm aware of his post...

newspaper cutbacks

Power Line notes:

The New York Times Company announced today that it is cutting 500 jobs, on top of 200 cut earlier this year. Also today, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, both of which are owned by Knight Rider, announced cuts totaling 100 jobs because of lower circulation and revenue.

I didn't realize that a customized 80's Trans-Am was even capable of owning a corporation! It must have made a lot of money during the height of its popularity...

update: I guess that was a typo. The company name is Knight Ridder. So never mind.

;)

Class, and the lack thereof, pt.3

slick willy is no longer president, but his stain continues.

Class, and the lack thereof, pt.2

Tonight I overheard a new dialect of the Spanish language. Although the dialect sounded to me as if it included profanity, the two young couples were speaking in this dialect in the presence of their four preschoolers, and I'm sure the parents were intent on setting the best example for their children.

The peculiarity of the dialect is this: Although punctuation is not usually vocalized, it seems as if punctuation in this dialect has been replaced with the word "unchit".

Example: The sentence

"Me and my cousin Doris went to the mall, and she was talking about her boyfriend, then we bought some clothes, and saw a movie."

would translate to

"Me and my cousin Doris went to the mall unchit and she was talking about her boyfriend unchit then we bought some clothes unchit and saw a movie unchit"

in the new dialect.

That was simply an example, practically every sentence uttered by the adults followed this pattern of punctuation replacement.

What class...

(On further reflection, it's possible this phenomenon is related to the trend for britons and east coast urbanites to replace all adjectives with a single two-syllable adjective that begins with "f".)

mugged by reality

read this former liberal's account of his ideological change. two interesting quotes:

(no one) was ever as young or angry as me. I marched, I chanted and I rioted; I ‘rejected’ this, I ‘resisted’ that and I ‘reclaimed’ the other; I would protest at the drop of a hat, at each and every opportunity and regardless of whether I understood – or cared about - the issues; I talked loudly about Karl Marx in bus queues; I used phrases like ‘capitalistic patriarchal hegemonic discourse’ and urged people to ‘subvert the dominant paradigm’ - all with an entirely straight face and only the vaguest idea of what it actually meant ... I regarded anyone who had the gall to disagree with my political opinions as either mentally ill or irredeemably evil; I honestly thought that Noam ‘the discredited linguist’ Chomsky possessed one of the keenest analytical minds of all time and if The Guardian had run an article claiming that the moon was made of green cheese I’d doubtless have believed that as well.

---

Something I often think about when looking back is that my periods of radicalism always seemed to occur alongside my periods of excessive drug use. I certainly don’t think that was a coincidence; you needed to chug down some seriously primo **** to believe the nonsense that I did.

undocumented

a criminal by any other name...

media avoidance

Andrea Harris gives some reasons not to watch tv or movies - here's the introduction:

Even those films that purport to be full of ironic, postmodern “questioning of our assumptions” have a base of smug surety in the rightness of the filmmakers’ viewpoints, and leave unexamined several current notions that are as sacred today as the dreaded triumvirate of mother-country-God supposedly was in the past.

been there, done that

Inquisition I

Inquisition II

you be the judge

Class, and the lack thereof

I've said it before and I'll say it again - If I were to live and work in another state, I would make it a point not to ridicule the natives of that state.

Certain co-workers, with more strength in their vocal cords than their intellect, clearly do not share that opinion. They are more than willing, however, to loudly share the rest of their opinions, whether or not anyone else is interested.

It's a good thing headphones are available at work...

New Military Vehicle

Yahoo Headline: NASCAR Engineers Help Design New Combat Vehicle

The U.S. military unveiled this week a concept combat vehicle that combines new blast-deflection technology with the safety features of a commercially available truck and NASCAR engineering...

Here's a picture of it.

I've got just one question - what good is a tank that can only turn left?