fatback fatwa

Islamofascists vow to destroy the universe for the impure images it portrays! :)

(definitely a work-safe page, unless you work in a mosque)

---

update: On a more serious note, read this great bit at GM's Corner, which includes these lines:

"Drawings of Mohammad have been made for hundreds of years, commissioned usually by other Muslims. However, that seems to be a moot point. Instead, we are treated to video of death and destruction, the burning of the Danish Embassy, Denmark advising its people to flee the Middle East in general, and Pakistan in particular and even plastic statues of good old Ronald McDonald being torched. This is a culture I'm supposed to respect?

The mentality of those in the mob is not questionable! It is, actually, bizarre. What other culture would brandish signs saying "Behead the cartoonists," or offer million dollar bounties for the death of a cartoonist (apparently too ignorant to understand that there were a dozen different artists involved)? And yet, and yet, we are being asked to "understand" that they have been insulted, that they have had their sacred religion mocked, and that our inability to "understand" is akin to another holocaust. It strains the fabric of rationality."

"Much has been written regarding the failure of European countries to allow assimilation of Muslims into their society and in part, that may be true. But I think another part of this equation needs to be an honest acknowledgement that Muslims (many? most?) do not want to integrate into the society into which they have moved."

"Tolerance is a two way street. Those who do not grant it, have no right to demand it."

Read the whole thing.

archimedes does it again!

Wikipedia's pic of the day is pretty cool. The Falkirk Wheel is a huge rotating boat lift in Scotland. Not living within 500 miles of a canal, I never knew such things existed.

30 silver euros

Lileks wonders about those leftards who trash America on foreign soil:

Why do American politicians of the Democratic flavor take such solemn pleasure in trashing their country before foreign audiences? Is there some upcoming election for Global Emperor, with all the primaries in Arab nations?

Never mind Jimmy Carter, who can be counted on to bad-mouth the United States regardless of the venue. No, it's guys like Bill Clinton and Al Gore who truly mystify. The speaker's fees can't be that great...

It takes a cotton-candy-headed progressive who believes that a weak America will be more loved than a strong one, and hence more successful...

Clinton was in full weather-vane mode in Qatar last month, denouncing the infamous Danish cartoons. "So now what are we going to do?" he asked. "Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?" Well, if history is a guide, the Europeans can probably multitask and handle both...

Still, that was nothing compared to the utterances at the Jeddah Economic Forum of Clinton's former No. 2, Gore. Whatever wax they use on the Saudis' marble floors, Gore's forehead was shiny with it by the time he was finished.

As an Associated Press account of the speech put it, Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. Yes, indeed: The infamous internment of September 2001, when the government indiscriminately shoveled millions into camps ringed with flaming trenches. Or "FDR-villes," as they were known, in deference to the strategy's founding father...

It would be wrong, of course, to suggest that they're just fond of the 30 pieces of silver they get for showing up. They're probably paid in euros.

or oil vouchers...

thanks michelle!

i had no intention of stealing michelle malkin's thunder, but this blog is the number one sbc/yahoo search result for "i'd rather go hunting with dick than driving with ted"!

slander, libel, or treason?

Muhammad "I invented dhimmitude" alGore needs to shut up or be shut up, along with the rest of the DNCowardly traitors.

Now.

By any means necessary.

--

UPDATE: define 'news':

A former Vice-President and Presidential candidate is paid by Osama bin Laden’s family to make an anti-American speech, in Saudi Arabia.

The current Vice-President injures a friend in a hunting accident.

1) Guess which story is still at the top of Google news today?

2) Which story has almost 3 times as many Google hits as the other?

3) Which story got at least 6 articles in the NY Times, versus none?

4) Which got at least 4 mentions fron CNN, and which was totally ignored?

poor little ol' helen

Helen Thomas has grilled Republican presidents for decades, but she sure can't take any uncomfortable questions herself.

Don't ya just love the smell of grilled hypocrite?

it's ipod time for me

nothing brightens my day more than being subjected to hearing today's episode of my coworkers' ongoing saga of ridding their houses of cat urine stains. gaaahh :P

strong constitution

Via MacStansbury, Judge Scalia rips 'living constitution' apologists:

"That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break."

"But you would have to be an idiot to believe that," Scalia said. "The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn't say other things."

Proponents of the living constitution want matters to be decided "not by the people, but by the justices of the Supreme Court."

"They are not looking for legal flexibility, they are looking for rigidity, whether it's the right to abortion or the right to homosexual activity, they want that right to be embedded from coast to coast and to be unchangeable," he said.

Jack Lewis goes on to comment:

A document that "bends" with the culture does little good when that elasticity is completely controlled by judges who live and work in a completely different culture than the people their decision affect...

But the philosophy of a "living document" becomes an open door to a power grab by a despotic oligarchy of judges. And we have seen that happen right before our eyes.

As an aside, why am I suddenly remembering the name "Living Bible"?

no way, ted!

yes way, bill!

check out this hands-on interface.

um, wow!

about 40

random thoughts over the last few weeks surrounding my 40th birthday:

i really appreciate that my friends and family did not subject me to the public humiliation of having waitstaff sing at me in a restaurant.

i am glad that my co-workers did not festoon me with black armbands and balloons, etc.

i wonder whether anyone else has made it to this age without ever deliberately ingesting tobacco or alcohol (except nyquil).

i wonder whether the phrase "you're as young as you feel" has any meaning. i feel 70 intellectually, 17 emotionally, and 170 when trying to wake up or exercise.

i would like to celebrate my 42nd birthday with an evening of 42.

more dubai than baghdad

now that's what i call a developing country!

"Religion Of Peace" Checklist

(the first section was forwarded and edited. the second section was written by me.)

1) Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. 3000 innocent women, men and children die. No Muslim outrage.

2) Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. Many die. No Muslim outrage.

3) Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to a Christian school in Indonesia. No Muslim outrage.

4) Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.

5) Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.

6) A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.

7) Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.

8) In 1972, Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.

9) Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.

10) Muslims attack London subways and busses, murdering 50 commuters and injuring over. No Muslim outrage.

11) Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.

12) Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.

13) Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage.

15) Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.

16) Muslim papers depict Jesus carrying the cross as "working out" for exercise. No Muslim outrage.

17) Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Now Muslims are outraged.

---

...and in related news:

1) Arch-Democrat Ted Kennedy kills Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick, runs away, and his cronies conspire to cover up the incident. No Democratic outrage.

2) Dozens of people, including Vince Foster, who are involved with the Clinton administration die due to 'unexplained circumstances'. Bill and Hillary are 'less than forthcoming' with information on the many incidents. No Democratic outrage.

3) Democratic operatives forge documents to discredit our President during wartime. No Democratic outrage.

4) Democratic operatives leak sensitive national security documents during wartime. No Democratic outrage.

5) Democratic media operatives actively report all setbacks in the war on terror, and only grudgingly report any successes, thereby giving aid and comfort to the enemy during wartime. No Democratic outrage.

6) Vice President Cheney accidentally shoots a friend during a hunting trip, and does not immediately announce his resignation. Now Democrats are outraged.

fakir mohammed

Noahware found this explanation of the fanaticism that surrounds the also-ran non-prophet that has caused civilization so much trouble for so many centuries.

And on a lighter note: Fatwa this! (excessive rudeness, typical of fark.com)

Good News in South Dakota

SD House Approves Abortion Ban

practical valentine

update 1: Mish Mash has better (?) ideas of how to celebrate the day.

update 2: ...and a poem.

---

For the guys and gals out there who need giftgiving tips for their sweetie this upcoming Valentine's Day, here's a . . . novel . . . idea.

(expanded upon an idea in a forwarded email) :

Here's a helpful hint for this Valentine's Day: Give your significant other potatoes instead of roses.

Think about roses - they only last about a week, maybe two weeks max if you leave them in water. Their only purpose is to be pretty, so that's like saying "My love for you is fleeting, and based solely on your appearance". Roses twist in the wind, which implies fickleness. Roses also have thorns, and you probably do not want your significant other associating you with "pain" any more than he/she already does.

Now think about potatoes - they last for much much longer, and not only will they not rot, they will actually sprout and grow, even without any attention. That part alone makes it a good symbol, but there's more! Potatoes are actually useful. There are many ways to enjoy potatoes:

• you can peel them
• you can boil them, bake them, fry them, and mash them
• you can julienne them
• you can make chips from them
• you can plant them and grow more
• you can let them grow in a cup of water in your windowsill
• you can use them to copy simple graphics
• you can play games with them (okay, just two games, "mr potato head" and "toss")
• you can even make a battery with them!

That's like saying "I have many ways in which I show my love for you". You just can't do any of those things with roses (except for perhaps tossing them). Potatoes are roots, which reminds your significant other of the deep-rooted-ness of your love. And although potatoes may be ugly, they're still wonderful, so that's like telling your significant other "It doesn't matter at all what you look like, I'll still love you".

good news in china

Chinese net users are circumventing the Google-enabled web content filters.

i'm sure they'll deny that too

Islam's Role in the Holocaust

letter to the editor

The Therapist, on artistic responsibility. The key concept:

I’ve repeatedly seen my God put to the rack in the artistic arena. I’ve seen Him smeared with human feces for artistic effect. I’ve seen Him dropped in a vat of the artist’s urine and photographed with a backlit aura—only to receive increased federal funding from the NEA. I’ve seen Him portrayed in cinema as a hapless, Hollywood-caliber nitwit without resurrective power. I’ve seen Him crucified as an incoherent hippie—complete with a Superman sweatshirt.

I’ve also seen the same, high-profile defenders of such rubbish do their dead-level best to throw a two-by-four into the spokes of Mel Gibson’s private life, merely because he dared to portray the crucifixion for what it was—a brutal setup by politicians and weak leaders not unlike those who’ve funded the heretofore listed pieces of garbage. Yet, somehow, those of us who have been offended by such things appear to have overcome the base desire to torch Martin Scorcese’s house, or run Andre Serrano through a textile shredder.

But let some marginally-creative hack stick a finger in Mohammed’s eye, and I’m supposed to now start drawing an exclamatory chalk line around the edges of artistic propriety? I think not. In order for me to join such a malignant cadre, I’d have to trip over the mountain of DaVinci Code books between me and the brain-dead queue ready to take up the gun and ride against a couple of Danish cartoonists. It just isn’t worth my time and effort to think that tolerant artwork begins at the house of Allah.

oldie but goodie

How To Shoot Youreslf In The Foot With Various Programming Languages.

One of many pages of computer humor in German and English. (with only an occasional rude word or two)

This will be the last Olympics...

...because Yoko broke them up!

:)

cold calculations

Interesting: Cold War Calculators.

via Monday Evening

religion of peace, cont.

Ann Coulter pegs the snark-per-sentence meter while commenting on the mohammed cartoon outrage:

As my regular readers know, I've long been skeptical of the "Religion of Peace" moniker for Muslims — for at least 3,000 reasons right off the top of my head. I think the evidence is going my way this week...

One (cartoon) showed Muhammad turning away suicide bombers from the gates of heaven, saying "Stop, stop — we ran out of virgins!" — which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. Another was a cartoon of Muhammad with horns, which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. The third showed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb, which I believe was an expression of post-industrial ennui in a secular — oops, no, wait: It was more of a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.

In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.

The little darlings brandish placards with typical Religion of Peace slogans, such as: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam." They warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come" — which is ironic, because they almost had me convinced the Jews were behind the 9/11 attack.

The rioting Muslims claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad — though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers...

Catholics aren't short on rules, but they couldn't care less if non-Catholics use birth control. Conservative Jews have no interest in forbidding other people from mixing meat and dairy...

But Muslims think they can issue decrees about what images can appear in newspaper cartoons. Who do they think they are, liberals?

boxes

When a customer, manager, or anyone tells you to "think outside the box", you must realize one thing: the last thing they want you to do is actually think outside the box.

The actual meaning of the phrase "think outside the box" is much more complex, and should be understood to mean this:

"I have two boxes in my imagination. I am incapable of describing either one adequately.

The first box contains the elements of the status quo which I dislike, and my inscrutable rationale for disliking them. The second box contains an idealistic but even more nebulous concept of how I want things to be. My concept of that ideal is not now, nor can it be, influenced in any way by reality.

I want you to guess what's in the second box, with no useful input or feedback from me."

Four Points

Varifrank has four points to ponder:

1) ...I'd like to point out something about the Danish flag that the Islamic world has suddenly found so popular to burn.

That white thing in the middle is a cross, the emblem and representation of a major religion in the world, that being Christianity. Yet, within Islamic countries those who practice this religion are routinely subject to persecution by the state and the religion therein. Churches and other places of Christian worship are forbidden within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and those who preach Christianty in Saudi Arabia are subject to summary execution. Those who are not Muslim are not allowed into the City of Mecca, and if they are discovered illegally entering into the city, they are executed for this crime. Anyone of any religion who is found by the religious leaders of Saudi Arabia to have taken part in any act remotely similar to burning a flag with an islamic symbol on it will also be executed for the crime.

Yet when you burn the symbol of their country that contains an emblem of their religion, The Danes will simply ask you to not litter and to get a permit for your protests.

Who is the 'Religion of Peace' again?

---

In short, I like being free and intend to stay that way. It's taken us in the west 2000 years to get this particular mix of cultural flavors cooking in the crock pot that is the modern world. Its taken a lot of sacrifice, a lot of loss, and a lot of work to get it this way. It didnt happen by accident. It would be a shame to give it all up because of the death threats and extortion-like actions of a small group of illiterate inbred hillbilly thugs who havent picked up a desk calendar, a bar of soap or a new idea since 900 AD.

I'm not willing to give any that stuff of up just because some jacka** gets a few of his pals together and decides to torch my countries embassy, boycott my countries goods and services, turns off the oil or burns my countries flag or its leaders in effigy. They may even goes so far as to try to kill me or anyone else they can (including themselves) to get us all to change our minds and see their side of things. But even if we were to decide that the "cartoon blasphemy" must stop, we also know it wont end there. This is not about cartoons, its about control. If we give Fascist Islam the right to tell us what we can or cannot do in our countries, then how far will it eventually go?

pirates

Arrrr!

ArrrRIAA!!

i like random

Google used to have a random page link, but it's long gone. Now Wikipedia has one, which tends to have more informative results - like these:

List of Puerto Rico state forests
Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown
Vetchinkin
Aeacides of Epirus

1st Annual Muslim Image Awards

Little Green Footballs has ongoing coverage of the Islamic cartoon brouhahaha, summarized best here by Cox & Forkum.

...and in related news, several other defamation lawsuits have been filed:

• The family of Jeffrey Dahmer is suing the producers of "Silence of the Lambs" over their anti-cannibalist propaganda.
  
• The descendants of Ghengis Khan are suing the producers of "Star Trek II" for demeaning the family's surname.
  
• The estate of Adolf Hitler is suing the History Channel, Mel Brooks, and Warner Brothers, for the many unflattering portrayals of their beloved fuhrer.

:)

design quote

While complaining about the design of Google's homepage, Andy Rutledge says:

In design, if you don't know why you're putting something somewhere you're likely making a mistake.

That probably applies to cooking, engineering, and other fields too.

No Blood For Ratings

Varifrank calls for a unilateral pullout from a real quagmire.

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.

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