on the way home today

...I saw a couple of fighters flying low out to the west over the NAS JRB, which used to be Carswell Air Force Base. They were doing tight turns and maneuvers, which is a little unusual to be happening right over a city. Since I didn't have to be anywhere in particular, I drove in that general direction, and eventually found a high clear spot (south of the field) to stop and watch the planes.

I watched from there for a few minutes, then drove around to the west end of the field, which turned out to be the perfect spot. Just as I stepped out of the car, they flew directly overhead in the diamond formation, low enough where I could read the letters on their wings! It was the Navy's Blue Angels practicing for their show this weekend.

Guess where I'll be Saturday. :) :)

(p.s. I remember going to the nearby Ridgmar Mall as a kid and staying out in the parking lot to watch the B52s take off overhead. I also have some relatives who have worked at the aircraft company nearby, now known as Lockheed Martin. One of them worked there from the B36 through the F16 programs.)

oh no!

I told mom not to let him watch too many Pinky and the Brain cartoons, but she didn't listen, and now look at what's happened...

Terri Schiavo Update

I'll take a short time out from projectile vomiting to offer "congratulations" to Michael and the "justices" on their "success" on the murder of Terri Schiavo. (edit).

update 1: i edited out the language of my earlier outburst, but i don't apologize for the sentiment.

update 2: duckwriter has a more rational summary.

see also...

(This kind of post usually has the title "go read", but I promised to have no more posts that start with the letter "g" this month.)

The Patriette has posted two reasons she misses living in Texas. (Also, she's another in the list of engaged bloggers.)

Captain's Quarters on secular mullahs in the star chamber.

I resisted the obvious pun about Bhutan, but Bloggledygook and InstaPUNdit couldn't.

Existential superhero!

Hog eating spam!

Is it real, or is it Scrappleface?

Test

This is a test of the Emergency Blogcast System.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

This has been a test of the Emergency Blogcast System. In the event of an actual emergency, you should consult Drudge or Instapundit, where you would receive more timely information.

We now join our regularly scheduled blogging in progress.

Fantastic Four

My question remains "how many comic book movies can they make?!?", and the answer remains "one more."

I never really got into the whole comic-book-super-hero thing like many of my friends did. No big deal, it's just not my cup of tea. But I do have one question about the soon-to-be-released "Fantastic Four" movie:

The Invisible Woman will be played by Jessica Alba. Why bother casting such a pretty actress into a character no one will be able to see? Anybody could play the character, from Roseanne to Shaq...

or even nobody! Think of the cost savings on makeup and costume when nobody has to even show up for filming. Hey, Hollywood, next time you need an invisible character, CALL ME, I can not show up for half the cost.

I Predict

In the future, everyone will be Instalanched for 15 milliseconds.

Hmmm

So FrankJ & SarahK are engaged, Wordgirl at Molten Thought is engaged, JoyfulChristian is engaged, (I'm sure there are some others out there), plus two couples at work are engaged. So it's engagement season again, and I forgot my license... ;)

The odds of a T-shirt-babe contest resulting in an engagement twice are almost nil. So, does anybody have any suggestions for a guy like me, who could pass for the comic book guy but lacks his social grace and fashion sense? (I've been told it's important to be yourself...)

---

"I'm kidding of course" - Robert Segner

Thanks!

I tried to leave a comment at Molten Thought thanking them for the kind recommendation and the link, but Blogger was uncooperative, so I'll say it here...

Thanks!

Gifted Children

This hit me on several levels. If there are any gifted children in your life, it's a must-read.

UPDATE: The NFGCC site, which is linked to from that post, has a suprising mix of good and bad advice. View it with a critical eye.

what breakup, pt.2

Here are two related opinions by Dignan about a move back to smaller government.

Bloggers to Wed

Congratulations to FrankJ & SarahK on their engagement, and best wishes for a long and happy life together.

Now I wonder what they'll serve at the rehearsal dinner - gator & DP maybe? Maybe not...

He Has Risen!

LaShawn Barber's post about the Resurrection is much better than anything I could write.

ok, no more posts that start with the letter "g"... this month

Mish Mash has some funny stuff you should read:

Aliens: Friend or Foe?

The latest episode of "Osama bin Pappy". (UPDATE: links for previous episodes.)

Good Friday

TruePravda comments on the meaning of Good Friday more eloquently than I ever could. Of course, the quote he refers to is even more excellent.

go read 4

Michelle Malkin clearly explains why P2P (Peer-to-Peer filesharing) is so dangerous.

Vodkapundit found these WWI color photos, and a co-worker found these color photos of Imperial Russia.

what breakup?

(This post has been edited and expanded from a previous version.)

Powerline and Hugh Hewitt have been discussing the possibility of a breakup of the conservative coalition, where the religious right and the non-religious right (and possibly libertarians and other groups) would each go their separate ways. Instapundit seems to think this a likely scenario, while Hugh Hewitt seems to think such a split unlikely.

(As an aside, I'm sure that many of Moore's moonbats would like to part ways with the less radical democrats like Lieberman, and vice versa.)

I would suggest that if such a schism does come about, it would not really be about the Republican party, but in fact be a harbinger of the breakup of the two-party system - or at least a definite weakening of their stranglehold on the issues.

Not to be a blog triumphalist, but I think the blogging phenomenon will be a major factor in such a shakeup, since it allows a completely open forum of discussion (and argument, yelling, histrionic name-calling...) with the entire spectrum of voters. That would be a welcome alternative to the polarizing effect that the two party system has, and the old guard of beltway punditry yelling 'talking points' past each other.

What say ye?

and now for something completely different...

The Soviet aircraft industry has come up with some unusual designs over the years...

seven-engine giant

prop salesman's dream

twin body amphibian

twin engine amphibian

delta - a 19th century concept for a pulsejet !?!

five-plane

telescoping wing fighter

rutan's inspiration?

Judges Err on the Side of Death in the Schiavo Case

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Terri Schiavo's parents Thursday, declining to intervene to keep the brain-damaged woman alive. Justices did not officially explain their decision, but did reveal some of their motivations as they left the courthouse today.

One judge, who wishes to remain anonymous, said "Look, we are so busy listening to interminable appeals by death row inmates, plus the numerous animal abuse cases filling our docket, we simply cannot hear a woman who won't testify on her own behalf." He also mentioned his colleagues' complaints about the large number of wetlands protection act violators and abortion protestors being prosecuted in their courtrooms.

Just before he sped away in his Fiat, a second judge was heard to say "We'll throw the book at Jeb if he tries to 'pull a Reno' to feed Terri, just like we threw the book at that kid who tried to do an end-run around our authority."

The ACLU, which was outraged that Terri's parents had the audacity to mention religious reasons for protecting their daughter, applauded the Ito-like wisdom of the court's decision. No members of the US Congress were available for comment, due to the lengthy hearings on the baseball steroid crisis.

---

See also:

Scrappleface has a much better series of these.

MamaMontezz sees the future if the death-to-innocents cult continues.

Terri Schiavo notes

Rightwingsparkle

Molten Thought

Hugh Hewitt

Evangelical Outpost

Blue Goldfish

---

...and the leftist "death-for-innocents" faction should agree totally with this screwtapian post.

funny ER dream

ER was a mainstay of the latter days of my TV addiction. At that time the local station was rerunning episodes from the first three or four seasons, at 10:30 every night of the week. It was rare for me to miss an episode, and after a while the show worked its way into a dream.

(Like all the other dreams, this is edited for clarity, but not for content.)


The dream starts like a typical episode of ER - without the opening credits. It's a slow afternoon, not too crowded, and most of the characters from the earliest seasons are there: Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle), Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards), Nurse Hathaway (Julianna Margulies), Nurse Adams (Yvette Freeman), but not Doug Ross (George Clooney). However, I also work in the ER. I'm not a doctor, nurse, janitor, clerk, or receptionist; apparently I'm some sort of equipment technician or repairman, because I'm never directly involved in actually helping patients. Whenever an emergency comes in, I stay out of the way, except to move a piece of equipment in or out of a room.

After several hours of this, as I'm replacing a bulb in an X-ray lightbox, I begin to have chest pains and tingling in my left arm. I start to slump backwards off of a stepladder, but fortunately Nurse Adams is there to catch me. She and some other nurses pull me up onto a table and call doctors Carter and Greene, who begin to ask questions about my symptoms. Everyone around me seems pretty worried as they're hooking up the equipment, giving shots, etc. Eventually it gets fuzzy and dark...

...and then I'm watching my own open heart surgery from above. It's not a near-death thing, I'm just seeing what the TV camera sees, which surprisingly doesn't look very gory...

...and then I wake up back in the ER. There's an IV in my arm, and other monitors, but no oxygen mask or nose tubes. There's not much pain at all, but I feel a little groggy. Someone wheels me from the ICU to a different room, where I eat a couple of meals, watch TV for a bit, and generally make an extremely rapid recovery.

That evening, Dr. Greene comes in and tells me I'm okay to leave, but I should stay home and rest for a week or so. After he leaves, I get dressed and start walking down the hallway to the big sliding doors. But before I pass the desk, Nurse Hathaway walks up and sits me down in one of those double chairs along the wall. She compassionately takes both my hands in hers, and says, "We're all relieved that you're okay, and we are so glad that we could help you. But if you happen to get sick again, you should go see a real doctor at a real hospital. We're just actors and don't have any medical training. Okay?"

hmm

This looks like a premise for a cyberpunk novel. You don't suppose there's any side effects, do you?

HHGG

Re: the upcoming Hitchhiker's Guide movie - Some changes are bound to be made in any movie adaptations of a book, but where in the galaxy is Zaphod's other head?

go read 3

Molten Thought on the Schiavo case.

Won't someone pleeease think of the mudskippers!!

Charles Krauthammer points out that "The left's patronizing, quasi-colonialist view of the benighted Arabs was not just analytically incorrect. It was morally bankrupt, too."

Won't someone pleeease think of the tadpoles!!

Poll: Politicians and car salespeople still struggling with honesty.

Won't someone pleeease think of the cobras!!

13 things that do not make sense

New Scientist magazine has a list of "13 things that do not make sense". Their titles include:

The placebo effect, Belfast homeopathy results, The horizon problem, Ultra-energetic cosmic rays, Not-so-constant constants, The Wow signal, The Kuiper cliff, The Pioneer anomaly, Viking's methane, Dark matter, Dark energy, Cold fusion, Tetraneutrons

As you read the article, notice how often words that indicate an expectation are used, such as:

should be, there must be, theory predicts, theoretical limit, not what we expected, etc.

There is an answer for all these mysteries, but it's probably not something the scientists want to hear...

Inane-Findgold pt.2

Patterico and many other bloggers aren't giving up the fight for free speech (despite the lame bureaucratic "reassurances" that blogs won't be targeted by the campaign finance reform laws...).

minutae

i try not to post about minor daily incidents, but...

i just got bait-and-switched at the wienerschnitzel.

i've only been to the location by my house maybe twice since i moved here, but as i was driving home saturday, i saw they had a sign for 59-cent chili dogs. i thought "hey, that sounds good, it's been a long time since i had a chili dog", and pulled in. i got out of the car, and just before i walked in the door, i saw the fine print on the sign that said the deal was only valid on tuesdays after 4pm. annoying, but it was too late - i was already out of the car and hungry for them, so i went ahead and got the chili dog combo, which was tasty, but a little overpriced for the amount of food provided.

considering the state of the world these days, if that's the worst thing that happens to me this week, it's been a really good week.

The Right Stuff

Burt Rutan has it, in his own way. I remember first hearing of him in an article (forgot if it was in Popular Mechanics, Private Pilot, or another aviation magazine) in the 70's which had a first look at the VariViggen, ancestor of the VariEze. This article says he should go down in the history books, and I tend to agree.

heavier, yet lighter

Forget the llamas, here come the camels!

As Urkel would say, "Did I do thaaat?"

go read 2

A Goldfish torpedoes a Fox.

Deep, but interesting ID debate.

More detail than I had ever heard about the Council at Nicaea.

Barbara Boxer accidentally tells the truth about Democratic obstructionism.

Yes Virginia, Islam should apologize.

go read...

The beginning of the end for judicial activism?

Compare and contrast. Also, read the comments for new democratic party slogans, and this related post.

If everybody says you're drunk, you ought to sit down. Also read this related post.

Hail Paykan, blocker of the sun!

Most Livable State

Livability is in the eye of the beholder, and Morgan Quitno is functionally blind.

Crushing of Dissent!

S1NSE CHIMPY MCHITLER STOLED THA LECTION, AMERKKKAN NAZI THUG$ R TRAMPLING THA 1ST M1NDMANT!!!

WAIT!!! ITZ THA MAFIA, N THEY HATE SHRUB 2, SO S'AIGHT!!!

(try as i might, i can't quite capture the 'flava' of a typical moveon moonbat rant. it takes a special kind of stupid to write that poorly.)

go read...

A personal take on the abortion issue.

An update on Boston's Big Dig Boondoggle.

For those who are not hyper-race-sensitive, a cautionary reading from tomorrow's NIV. (p.s. If there's such an uproar about the TNIV, why hasn't more been said about "The Message"? Check out the Ten Commandments in that version.)

he's baaack!

Mish Mash returns to give us a bewilderingly accurate news summary:

Islamist militants killed more people, courts made more stupid rulings, scientists discovered that some random thing may increase your lifespan, while some other random thing may decrease it, etc., etc...

He also reminds us that today is Badly Rounded Pi Day, so I'll add to the festivities by reminding everyone that "Pie Are Square"!

Castro's Paradise

Marvel at the technology and cleanliness of Fidel's vaunted public hospitals! (You may need El Bismol Pepito afterwards...)

Reminds me of a quote, "I've experienced public transportation and public housing, so I'm not interested in public health care."

euroweenies

Fabio has a new show. And in other news:

Jake Jackson, an American-born cowboy, hosts the new reality series "Mr. Man," debuting Monday on the Fox Network.

"We took about 12 wusses from the European Union and we taught them how to be real men, It was a huge challenge." Jackson told Fox News recently. "So, we teach them how to fix cars, how to shoot guns and drive tanks and eat salsa. And, at the same time be a real gentleman with women, which is what women really want."

According to Jackson, one important thing a man can give a woman is his sense of honor. So to that end, "Mr. Man" dispenses with the petty backstabbing so typical of other reality shows. "We had a lot of editing to do, because when you put 12 guys without any testosterone in one room, trust me, real people don't want to see that," Jackson said.

"We get working out with tools and driving and a real job," Jake said. "When you're doing real work, you don't have time to be self-absorbed and vain about your appearance." All that sweat could be worth it. The top prize is $100,000 and the opportunity to train as a SWAT Team member or Navy Seal.

Jackson's basic philosophy in life is, "Never take those euroweenies too seriously. Life is too short."

El filete es muy sabroso!

Yourish.com reminds us that March 15th is The Third Annual International Eat an Animal for PETA Day!

In a completely related question, which is your favorite between Hoffbrau, Outback, Texas Roadhouse, Texas Land & Cattle, and Logan's Roadhouse?

go read...

Bruce S. Thornton's realistic view of the progress of freedom.

V.D. Hanson's look back at the post 9/11 years.

Landmines

Charles Stanley has a good series of studies called "Landmines in the Path of the Believer". Topics include:

Pride
Jealousy
Insecurity
Sexual Sins
Compromise
Unforgiveness
Slothfulness
Discouragement
Covetousness
Fear

go read...

creation

I pity da foo' who pretends to know how creation happened better than the Creator...

new to me...

New link addition: Molten Thought.

last laugh

Click here to see a funny coincidental (?) ad placement that happened when I read a Reuters article about Dan Rather's departure...

(no photoshop was used, except for cropping and removing the row of tabs.)

CBS Apology

Powerline on Rather's retirement:

Our conclusion was that CBS owes President Bush an apology for the thorough-going falsity of its report attacking President Bush's Air National Guard service. In his eight-page statement responding to the report, the closest CBS President Les Moonves came to an apology was his statement that CBS "deeply regrets the disservice that this flawed 60 Minutes Wednesday report did to the American public..." Will CBS ever find the heart to say it's sorry to President Bush? Courage!

Good Idea in Spain

via Instapundit, Fatwa Issued Against Bin Laden.

Car Crazy

Have you seen any of the behind-the-scenes shows about hot rod car and bike builders on the TLC, Discovery, and Speed channels? I saw a couple of episodes with Boyd Coddington, and some with a couple of chopper builders.

It's really interesting to see the work and artistry that goes into those machines, but unfortunately there's very little actual work being shown. Each and every episode I've seen wastes most of the time showing juvenile bickering, drama-queen posturing, and petty office-politic backstabbing.

I can't stand that stuff in real life, and can't stand watching it on tv either. Those shows (and football) are best viewed with the audio muted.

P.C.W.E.I.

Go read Captain's Quarters' article about IKEA.

UPDATE: in reference to this news item, Lileks says "In the future, they will airbrush the cheeseburger from Elvis’ hand."

(a virtual gold star goes to the first commentor to correctly guess the acronym title of this post)

Blogrolling?

Has anybody else had problems with displays generated by Blogrolling.com? I see huge lags on all sites that have a list from them.

UPDATE: It seems to have improved since yesterday.

TV & Movie Reality

old posts are better than no posts...

1. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of french bread.
2. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war, unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.
3. If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition, even if you haven't been carrying any before then. If you find any ammunition lying around, it will be of the proper type and caliber for your weapon.
   
4. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.
5. Mountains are visible on the horizon from any location in North America.
6. It rains most nights in every city in the world. It rains every night in New York City.
   
7. The deadliest time to be a policeman is one week before retirement.
   
8. If your town is threatened by any disaster, the mayor's first concern will be the tourist trade or a forthcoming art exhibition.
9. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
10. The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. You can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty, because all ducts are larger than a crouching human body. But beware - there is usually a giant fan at one end with razor sharp blades, no grate, and enough horsepower to shred a person without slowing down.
11. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.
12. Most dogs are immortal.
13. All cats are evil.
14. All telephone numbers in America begin with the digits 555.
15. If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade - no matter what time of year it is.
16. Kitchens don't have light switches. When entering a kitchen at night, you should open the refrigerator door and use that light instead.
    
17. Warehouses rarely have electricity. Factories only have power if there is dangerous machinery inside.
    
18. Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their family every morning even though their husband and children never have time to eat it.
19. After midnight, parents are easily awakened by the sound of their visiting children pouring milk into a cereal bowl.
    
20. Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.
21. Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.
22. Even when driving down a perfectly straight road it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few seconds.
23. It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.
24. All neighbors are either wacky and never knock before entering a room, or homicidal sociopaths who never go outside during daylight hours.
    
25. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.
26. It does not matter how heavily outnumbered you are in a fight involving martial arts - your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
27. Bad guys begin laughing strictly according to the hierarchy of their organization, and typically die in the reverse of that order.
28. Since the sixties, only dysfunctional families are allowed to celebrate holidays.
    
29. When a person is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head, they will never suffer a concussion or brain damage - except on Perry Mason where they almost always die.
30. When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.
31. Space aliens typically differ from humans only by the shape of their forehead and ears - but should they become ill, medical technology will be unable to even recognize their internal organs.
    
32. Any lock can be picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds - unless it's the door to a burning building with someone trapped inside.
33. News bulletins that affect you personally are broadcast at the exact second you turn on the TV or radio.
34. Good guys have over 90% shooting accuracy, no matter the degree of difficulty. Bad guys have less than 5% shooting accuracy, no matter their technology level.
    
35. Cars can jump over any object in their path. Most will explode shortly after any collision because their entire structure is filled with gasoline.
    
36. Police Departments make sure all their officers are assigned a partner who is their total opposite. This may be because all police chiefs are perpetually angry caffeine junkies.
    
37. Car tires always squeal during acceleration, braking, or turning corners - even on snow, sand, or wet roads.
    
38. Even in the distant future and other galaxies, all bombs are fitted with large red LED readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off. It is impossible to defuse any bomb with more than three seconds on that readout.
39. When paying for a taxi, don't look at your wallet as you take out a bill - just grab one at random and hand it over. It will always be the exact fare.
40. Only one person, if any, will be able to see that the girl with glasses is really beautiful.
    

Another 9/11 Reaction

This story of a 9/11 Republican is a must-read:

Growing up, I bought into the prevailing liberal wisdom of my surroundings because I didn't know anything else. I wrote off all Republicans as ignorant, intolerant yahoos. It didn't matter that I knew none personally; it was simply de rigueur to look down on such people. The fact that I was being a bigot never occurred to me...

Like many a political convert, I took it on myself to openly oppose the politics of those with which I once shared world views. Beyond writing, I put myself on the front lines of this ideological battle by taking part in counterprotests at the antiwar rallies leading up to the war in Iraq. This turned out to be a further wake-up call, because it was there that I encountered more intolerance than ever before in my life. Holding pro-Iraq-liberation signs and American flags, I was spat on, called names, intimidated, threatened, attacked, cursed and, on a good day, simply argued with. It was clear that any deviation from the prevailing leftist groupthink of the Bay Area was considered a threat to be eliminated as quickly as possible. It was at such protests that I also had my first real brushes with anti-Semitism...

9/11 prevented?

Political Correctness kills:

Michael Tuohey of Scarborough said he was suspicious of Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari when they rushed through the Portland International Jetport to make their flight to Boston that day.

Atta’s demeanor and the pair’s first-class, one-way tickets to Los Angeles made Tuohey think twice about them.

“I said to myself, ’If this guy doesn’t look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does.’ Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, it’s not nice to say things like this,” Tuohey told the Maine Sunday Telegram. “You’ve checked in hundreds of Arabs and Hindus and Sikhs, and you’ve never done that. I felt kind of embarrassed." (emphasis mine)

In Boston, Atta and Alomari joined three other hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11, which they crashed into one of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York. Five other hijackers left Boston on another flight, which they crashed into the other tower.

Better a little embarrasment now than the blood of thousands on your hands for the rest of your life.

Inane/Findgold

Some bureaucratic idiots are forgetting the First Amendment - but Captain's Quarters isn't:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

new diseases?

Blue Goldfish has a new word for a malady, "blogache":

The feeling a blogger gets when he or she has blogged too much and needs a rest, yet still feels the urge to update his or her weblog.

Might I also suggest...

Blogosis: A reduction of the amount of actual writing content in a blog, where new posts are simply links. (ex: Hatless in Hattiesburg has frequent bouts of blogosis.)

Blogitis: An inflammation of the blog with ads, scripts, blogrolls, etc., resulting in load times of several minutes.

Blogectomy: The removal of a blog from its host. See USS Clueless, Rachel Lucas, etc.

and in other news

The Supreme Court has declared all surveillance cameras, including red-light traffic cameras, unconstitutional because they violate the right to privacy, which is the foundation of their argument in Roe v. Wade.

(let's hope...)

go read...

Some Gratuitous Advice about indecency control. Azure 1, Glenn 0.

Besides the Aqueduct?

What have the Americans ever done for us?

What If?

Vodkapundit (bring your i.d.) found this at some lefty site:

What do we do if President Bush was right? What do we do if the Mideastern dominoes start falling and President Bush goes down in history as Winston Churchill, while we go down as Neville Chamberlain, howling weakly that diplomacy works and military force is no longer necessary? What if our most conservative President goes down in history as a great contributor to the liberal ideals of freedom and tolerance, while we Democrats -- we liberals -- go down as cold-hearted and fearful, unconcerned about the suffering of our fellows while we sit contentedly in our affluence?

That ship has already sailed, Neville.

the glass is not half empty

So all the blogs are (rightly) abuzz about this blatantly wrong-headed, unconstitutional, proposed limitation on free speech.

How can the government place a value on a blog that praises some politician?
How do we measure that? Design fees, that sort of thing? The FEC did an advisory opinion in the late 1990s (in the Leo Smith case) that I don't think we'd hold to today, saying that if you owned a computer, you'd have to calculate what percentage of the computer cost and electricity went to political advocacy.

How about a hyperlink? Is it worth a penny, or a dollar, to a campaign?
I don't know. But I'll tell you this. One thing the commission has argued over, debated, wrestled with, is how to value assistance to a campaign.

Corporations aren't allowed to donate to campaigns. Suppose a corporation devotes 20 minutes of a secretary's time and $30 in postage to sending out letters for an executive. As a result, the campaign raises $35,000. Do we value the violation on the amount of corporate resources actually spent, maybe $40, or the $35,000 actually raised? The commission has usually taken the view that we value it by the amount raised. It's still going to be difficult to value the link, but the value of the link will go up very quickly.

But I see a loophole...

If we only say bad things about a candidate, we should receive money out of the deal, right?

his first thought was correct...

Mish Mash was under the impression that I made up the name "Hattiesburg" just for this blog, but then found out it is a real town. What he didn't know was that I actually did make up the name, started the blog, traveled back in time, founded the town, and came back to the present, simply to have a moderately absurd name for a blog.

It may be a temporal glitch that causes Mr. Mash includes an extra "h" at the end of the word. Perhaps I spelled it differently in the timestream he operates in. I have founded so many towns in so many alternate realities, sometimes I make a typo.

8^)>

p.s. Someday I'll write about how, during the Second Age of Middle Earth, I lost a battle with Saruman for the name "Instapundit"...

for a transcript, send an sase to wuzzadem

Hardball with Jed Clampett

O'Reilly Factor with Yoda

Forget all that, I wanna see a show called "Softball" with Tommy Chong. "Newt's not here, maaaan..."

big numbers

although correct, duotrigintillion probably wouldn't have caught on as a search engine name...

related: units of measurement page

international law

Iowahawk on international law (edited):

WASHINGTON, DC - In a far-reaching decision that will likely create complicated consequences for the American livestock and wedding-planning industries, the Supreme Court this morning ruled 5-4 that all US marriage dowries "must include three non-diseased oxen."...

Besides expanding the rights of male clanspeople in dowry disputes, the sweeping 600 page Supreme Court opinion clarified U.S. law across a broad spectrum of civil, economic and traffic codes. Among the highlights:

Citing EU and Belgian case law, the Court declared that signage on U.S. Interstate Highways must be translated to both French and Flemish by 2007.

The Court also reconciled a number of conflicting Japanese/US traffic standards, ruling that starting Friday, motorists may drive on either side of American roads.

In another civil finding, the Court noted prevailing Nepalese-Canadian-Yemeni standards in opening the way for legalized stonings at arranged gay marriages...

In a surprise finding, the Court ruled itself unconstitional; but, citing the tradition of international courts ignoring US court rulings, said that this ruling itself was unconstitutional.

In a related case, the Court is expected to rule sometime in late March whether Ashley Helverson and fiance Jason Garcia can be extradited to Saudi Arabia to face the death penalty for fornication.

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See also CadetHappy's photo of the story at IMAO.

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Happy Birthday Sam Houston!

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Party of Racism

Berlin Wall II Falls

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Christian Blogosphere Convention has moved to California - October 13-15

UPDATE: Mark Steyn, as usual