overdue bills

Found at Dustbury - South Carolina State Rep. John Graham Altman has suggested charging Mexico $1 million for each illegal alien it allows over the border.

"...but the message has got to be clear. If you want to come to this country legally, we want you. But if you're trying get in here illegally, you're just another criminal," he said.

Altman's bill creates a felony trespass law, punishable by up to five years in prison, that authorizes the state to seize vehicles, property and assets of illegal immigrants.

"I'm trying to reach out. It would be nice if we could get cooperation from the Hispanic community. Those who come here legally don't need to be cut in line by those who are here illegally," he said.

Wonder if it would garner bipartisan support if we called it "reparations"?

Hamas victory

Jeff Jacoby via Little Green Footballs thinks it's good news:

I think the sweeping Hamas victory is by far the best result that could have been hoped for.

I say that not because Hamas is anything other than a blood-drenched terrorist group, but because its lopsided win is an unambiguous reality check into the nature of Palestinian society. And if there is one thing that the West badly needs, it is more realism and less delusion about the Palestinians...

Palestinians are not stupid, and it insults their intelligence to pretend that when they vote to empower a genocidal organization with a platform straight out of ”Mein Kampf,” what they’re really after is better healthcare. Islamist extremism isn’t needed to fix Palestinian hospitals any more than fascism was needed to make Italian trains run on time in the 1920s. If Palestinians turned out en masse to elect a party that unapologetically stands for hatred and mass murder, it’s a safe bet that hatred and mass murder had something to do with the turnout. (emphases mine)

more on iran

cheat seeking missiles says to brace yourself:

We shouldn't have pursued appeasement over the last two years, letting (Iran) get the bomb.

If Iran gets safely and unmolested to nuclear status, it will be a threshold moment in the history of the world, up there with the Bolshevik Revolution and the coming of Hitler.

read this one too.

whittle away?

nope, he's just been working on a movie script.

i'm getting in line now.

Big Oil

Remind me to stay on Ben Stein's good side...

Women & Men

Miss O'Hara has a very well written commentary about what the "Battle of the Sexes" has done to society.

cleaning

lileks on cleaning the fridge:

My wife bought a pear a year or so ago, and it had devolved into grotesque mush. So I had to clean the drawer and clean everything in the drawer. But! All the items in the drawer were pre-bagged in Ziplocs, so it was a matter of dumping them in the sink, hosing them down, and scoffing at the pear’s presumptions. You’ll have to get up early in the morning to defeat my food-sealant paradigm, Mr. Pear. But you can’t do one drawer; you have to do them all, plus the shelves. And you have to toss expired items, even though you know you could add a month to the expiration dates and be safe. A year, in the case of bologna. When it was done I had a sparkling fridge . . . which led to working on the freezer, the shelves, the drawers, and finally the floors, which needed mopping.

All because of a pear. See also, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

WB-UPN Merger

Not only are the WB and UPN networks merging, some of their shows are merging as well. The new lineup is rumored to include:

• Veronica Mars Hates Chris
• Gilmore Girlfriends
• Eversmall Woodville
• Reba And The Geek

The new CW Network also succeeded in a hostile takeover bid of a Fox show. The merged youth-oriented soap will be titled:

• One Orange Tree County Hill

:)

Undo the Undo

or: A Cost/Benefit Analysis of the Judeo-Christian Tradition.

(This was originally posted 1/9/06. Now NOfP expands on the concept.)

Nuclear Iran

"King of the North, meet King of the East."

Google

Google's new slogan: "Don't Be Evil, Be An Accessory To Evil."

(wonder if they'll delete this post?)

jan 24

January 24 is the date of birth of Hadrian and the Apple Macintosh, and the date of death of Caligula and Ted Bundy.


Coincidence?


Absolutely.

varifrank fisks osama

one of many choice quotes:

(Osama) Days and nights will not go by until we take revenge as we did on 11 September, God willing, and until your minds are exhausted and your lives become miserable and things turn [for the worse], which you detest.

(Varifrank) News Flash Osama: 5 years into the war - Dow at 11,000. GDP 3.5% Sales of SUVs at all time high. Wealth of Americans at its all time highest levels in history. Biggest American complaint so far is the lack of content for HDTV and a discernable plot of ABC's "Lost".

read the rest, and while you're there, go ahead and read the previous half-dozen posts too.

the great right north

MacStansbury asks:

From all accounts, it looks like Canada is going to be voting in a Conservative government today... I only have one question: What about all the poor liberals who moved there after Bush got reelected? They can’t get a break, can they?

ford closings

i like ford. i own a ford, and will continue to buy fords, as my family did in the two previous generations.

but i hate corporate welfare.

lileks on iran

via his screedblog page:

The Iranian situation has the creepy eerie overtones of the Iraq debate – the gathering threat, the nuclear ambitions, the frowny faces of UN diplomats preparing the thirteenth Strongly Worded Document, complete with threatened revocation of parking garage privileges. But things are different now.

The American left believed in Iraq’s WMDs and terrorist links in the 90s because it gave them much-needed hawk cred; it was Viagra for their dovish side. Also, it was true. But they've spent the last two electoral cycles preaching defeat, insisting that the Administration says something’s a threat, it’s a lie, a diversion tactic, an election ploy, a floorwax AND a dessert topping.

read the rest.

oops, i forgot to send a card...

happy 3rd birthday trogdor!

frog watch

What's the French term for "unilateralist cowboy"?

now THAT i would watch

When "Survivor" was new, I could tell from the previews that I wouldn't like it. So I never watched it, until it was on at someone else's house. There, I discovered it was far worse than I had anticipated, and vowed never to watch it again.

But now, Mish Mash has great ideas for making the show watchable.

good question & good point

Monday Evening asks:

"My clothes dryer has a setting called “optimal.” Why does it have any other settings?"

and says:

Meaning well is not enough. Outrage proves nothing. Feeling strongly does not tell me anything. Weeping just tells me you are sad. In a policy discussion I do not care what you feel. Tell me what you think, and why.

Are we now to decide questions of public policy by who is angrier? Sadder? Better able to feign rightous indignation? Guess what; I do not care how strongly you feel, or what you feel...

So, you politicians and newsmen: Stop weeping, choking, hollering and wagging your finger. Get a hold of yourself and act like men, whether you are speaking on the floor of the United States Senate or on a talk show.

Same here.

light or dark chocolate?

was nagin holding up a paper bag when he said that new orleans should be a chocolate city? maybe bourbon street is supposed to be french vanilla?

if all he's got is the race card, no wonder he plays it over and over... pathetic

today's coincidence

On this day in 1966:

• Simon & Garfunkel released the 'Sounds of Silence' album.
• In Spain, a B-52 accidentally dropped 4 hydrogen bombs, which did not explode, preserving the silence.

Also, my #1017 post is on 1-17, and I do need to pick up some papers... :)

more unhappy thoughts

...by V.D.Hanson about a nuclear Iran. Two key quotes:

If Iran can play brinkmanship now on just the promise of nuclear weapons, imagine its roguery to come when it is replete with them.

Finally, the public must be warned that dealing with a nuclear Iran is not a matter of a good versus a bad choice, but between a very bad one now and something far, far worse to come.

Read the whole thing, and have some Rolaids handy.

church architecture

Blue Goldfish has several posts about the architecture of churches. I don't agree with every single point, but they are all very interesting.

Party Party

Ann Coulter sums up the DNC:

According to Dianne Feinstein, Roe vs. Wade is critically important because "women all over America have come to depend on it." At its most majestic, this precious right that women "have come to depend on" is the right to have sex with men they don't want to have children with...

(Republicans are) the Blacks-Aren't-Property/Don't-Kill-Babies party. They're the Hook-Up party.

Satire (?)

The Right Place has a top 5 list of follow-up questions Sen. Schumer will ask Judge Alito. Also, Pop Quiz, Hot Shot!

Today's Birthdays

Jan. 12th is the shared birthday of several "odd couples":

John Hancock and Hermann Goering

Sheila Jackson Lee and Rush Limbaugh

Jeff Bezos and Rob Zombie

It's also the birthday of Mikhail Gurevich and HAL.

Stop Hating Wallpapers!

That's not a command - you are welcome to hate wallpapers if you like - but this blog is the #1 Yahoo search result out of 39,200 for the phrase "Stop Hating Wallpapers".

Weird.

influence pedaling

(pun intended)

This is a nice motivation to keep blogging:

If you have a blog that is read by more than a few dozen readers, then you are making a bigger impact than you probably realize. If you have 50 people reading your blog, then you have more people in your classroom than most professors at Harvard. If you have 90 readers, then you have more people in your 'pews' than most pastors have in their churches every Sunday. And if you have more than 1,000 readers a month, you have a larger 'circulation' than most poetry and short story magazines.

My depressive side would have me think I had less influence than an ESL class in Casper Wyoming...

Rogue History

Once upon a time, long before Warcraft and Doom, there was a game called Rogue. I wasted many hours during college playing it. But I had never heard the story of how it was created. Until now.

Anti-Clutter Bias

Miss O'Hara gets a lot of things right, but I don't agree with this anti-clutter rant.

There is a lot to be said for not just regularly de-cluttering, but for being neat in general. "Out of sight, out of mind" isn't necessarily true... And it is an irritant, however minor - but it's one that needn't be.

I read somewhere this week that when we have clutter in our lives physically, it's cluttering up our minds as well; it might sound New-Agey to some, and it would have to me as well if I weren't so aware of clutter's effect on me personally... if ridding my home of unnecessary things will not only make my home look more fabulous but help my brain function better as well, I'm all for it!

It's possible the opposite is true - One's brain may become more cluttered from having to remember where all those various items are hidden away, especially after repeated re- and re-re- organizing. It's much easier just to not let clutter bother you.

Next, true but misleading:

This makes sense from a spiritual perspective as well. It is undeniable to anyone with even a slight knowledge of science that God is a god of orderliness, of precise systems (thankfully, He goes far easier on us).

Oh yes, while walking through a forest, it is obvious how the leaves rake themselves, the trees grow in straight lines, and the roots contain themselves to neat little squares... Not.

Keeping our homes organized on the surface is all well and good, but if opening closets and drawers reveals an absolute disaster, what does that reveal about our hearts, our minds, our spirits?

And what does it reveal if someone judges others on the contents of their closets and drawers?

In the end, I think getting rid of clutter and surrounding ourselves with orderliness is a wonderful step not only to better mental health, but emotional and spiritual health as well. Keeping in mind that God crafted the world around us in such a beautifully ordered cycle, doesn't it make sense that if we do the same with the physical things around us, our relationship with God - and with others as well, by default - will improve as well?

It won't if you make an idol of orderliness.

2006 Predictions

How accurate do you suppose this list is?

New Party?

Sean Gleeson says:

The GOP needs to be checked by an opposition party, they might say, to keep them from complacency. It’s a fair argument.

I might be inclined to agree, if the prospective opposition in question weren’t the modern-day Democratic Party. The “Tax-And-Surrender” party is not out of power because of some quirk of fate, but because their principles, such as they are, are odious. I would no sooner vote for a Democrat than for a Baathist. No, not even a “good” Democrat, like Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman...

America would be better served without the slander, and without the Democratic Party.

Oh the ... irony?

Ted "Chappaquiddick" Kennedy's dog is named "Splash".

Found in a story that the perpetually-inebriated obstructionist is writing a book for kids:

"I am very excited about the opportunity to create a book for young readers and their families that will deepen their understanding of how our American government works," Kennedy said in a statement Monday issued by Scholastic.

According to Scholastic, Kennedy's book "not only takes readers through a full day in the Senator's life, but also explains how a bill becomes a law." Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, was inspired to write the book from his work with a Washington-based reading program, "Everybody Wins!"

This book will be the first in his "Profiles in Cowardice" series.

Fashion (Non)Sense

Lileks on fashion trends:

Keep this in mind: Nearly every single piece of "Style" advice tendered in this section over the next year will be laughable by 2007. Has anyone apologized for the Great Poncho Revival? Guys in your 40s: Anyone get a message in 1985 saying "gentlemen, turn down your Izod collars; it is done."? Nah. They just moved along. We ached for closure, but no! That's why guys turned their baseball caps backward; it was our way of dealing with unresolved collar-positioning anxiety.

THEY NEVER APOLOGIZE. Right now, for example, flat-front pants are "in" for men, because three fashion editors in New York got together last summer over mangosteen-infused martinis in a SoHo bar made entirely of zinc, and realized that they were so over pleats. Hence, all American men must burn their wardrobe and buy confining flat-fronts that make them feel as though they are carrying an Etch-A-Sketch in the rear of their trousers.

My advice: Take no advice from someone who employs the word "bling." Even ironically.

He also has two good screeds here.

dude, that's warped!

Scientists are working on a hyperspace engine. Now.

Here are four other links about the same story.

open letter to europe

from vodkapundit:

Dear Old Europe,

We'd like a little help with one tiny thing, please. In case you hadn't noticed, Iran is trying to get nukes. You remember Iran, don't you? But before we get to all that, let's clear the air about some things.

I understand you and I don't always see eye to eye – and not just on foreign policy. So let's forget Iraq for a few minutes, because that's an entirely different kettle of gefilte fish...

But when push doesn't come to shove, we really want the same thing: to get about the business of enjoying our lives and our families. Now, you think you can get there by playing nice, while we think we have to play nasty from time to time. For all the friction of our different means, you and I still desire the same ends...

Ahmadinejad says he wants to wipe Israel off the map. How's that for nuts? He's not making any idle threat, either, like launching "a thousand-year Reich" or promising "liberty, equality, fraternity." Iran wants nukes. Iran has an advanced nuclear program. We'd like to stop them, without using military means.

And we'd sure like some help, fellas.

read the rest.

post 1000

...from someone who doesn't like to write. who'da thunk it?

Strategy Page

...has wars and rumors of wars.

Unhappy Thoughts

Steyn quotes Toynbee: "Civilizations die from suicide, not murder."

There are many trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in "Palestine," Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali. Like the environmentalists, these guys think globally but act locally. Yet while Islamism is the enemy, it's not what this thing's about. Radical Islam is an opportunistic infection, like AIDS: It's not the HIV that kills you, it's the pneumonia you get when your body's too weak to fight it off. When the jihadists engage with the U.S. military, they lose--as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. If this were like World War I with those fellows in one trench and us in ours facing them over some boggy piece of terrain, it would be over very quickly. Which the smarter Islamists have figured out. They know they can never win on the battlefield, but they figure there's an excellent chance they can drag things out until Western civilization collapses in on itself and Islam inherits by default.

Read the whole thing.

Happy 2006!

my new year's resolution is 300dpi.