"Idiots" Archives
Sometime in the past couple of days this site got hacked. My archives are a bit hosed, with spam hyperlinks installed on the pages. It looks llike it happened sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon.
I'm working on cleaning it up.
More to the point, I've finally been spending time working on the MT4 upgrade, and I think I finally have a grip on the templating issues. I may, however, make the switch first, then worry about templates, styles, and designs.
So don't be surprised if the look here changes suddenly, without (further) warning.
UPDATE: what do you think of this as a general look? I'm kind of liking where it's heading. It does pretty much require a screen width of 1024 or more... is there anyone still using 800x600 or smaller?
Channelling Reynolds: "They said that if Bush were reelected, political speech that might tarnish the leader's image would be squelched, even outlawed — and they were right!"
Hence the effort to shout down noted writer Stanley Kurtz, who's been doing some research.
One female caller, when pressed about what precisely she objected to, simply replied, "We just want it to stop!"If that's what passes for political discourse, then we have either very little or a whole lot to worry about.
Of course, the efforts of the Obama camp are not meant to pass for discourse — they're merely pulling every lever they can to silence opposing voices.
They know that the Messiah's ties to unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, if widely publicized, would be a deal-breaker for the majority of the voting public.
And that simply cannot be allowed to happen.
Taliban suicide troops attack US forces in Afghanistan, with predictable results.
Perhaps they should have watched a training video or two:
I know, it's late, but I finished work late, just had dinner, and now I've got the itch.
Via Instapundit, a bit on the U.S.News & World Report website:
One Nation, Under a New Obama SaluteBecause the Obamessiah veneration wasn't already creepy enough.
George Bush had his three-fingered W salute that supporters flashed when greeting him at presidential campaign events in 2000. And now, if a Los Angeles creative agency gets its way, Sen. Barack Obama will see fans meet him with his own salute like the one above.
"Our goal is to see a crowd of 75,000 people at Obama's nomination speech holding their hands above their heads, fingers laced together in support of a new direction for this country, a renewed hope, and acceptance of responsibility for our future," says Rick Husong, owner of The Loyalty Inc.A new direction? What, in a circle?
I can tell you one thing that goes in a circle, millions of times daily. Accompanied by a flushing sound.
On the plus side, as long as people are making that symbol, you know their fingers aren't in your wallet.
Husong tells me that he got the idea after seeing the famous Obama-Progress poster by artist Shepherd Fairey.Yeah, you know which poster — the one that looks like it came from a socialist agit-prop specialist.
OK, OK, the one that did come from a socialist agit-prop specialist.
I swear, the more I see of Obama the more I think he should have bypassed Berlin, saved a few steps and a lot of time, and given that "citizen of the world" speech at Nuremberg.
Coming soon: natty little armbands with the Obama logo.
Update: Michelle has more ideas for appropriate symbolism. And she beat me to the story, too. Dang.
Q: What's black and brown and looks good on a hippie?
A: A rottweiler.
(Brought to mind by this: 5 "Rainbows" arrested in clash with officers.)
I try to keep this blog to a "PG" rating. I really do.
Today, I'm close to failing.
“Illegal immigrants face threat of no college.”Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students.
In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents but grew up and went to school in the state. That represents a reversal from earlier this decade, when 10 states passed laws allowing in-state rates for such students.
This summer, South Carolina became the first state to bar undocumented students from all public colleges and universities.
North Carolina's community colleges in May ordered its 58 campuses to stop enrolling undocumented students after the state attorney general said admitting them may violate federal law.
All I can say is "tough sh*t."
(via Malkin)
John Hinderaker, at Powerline:
There's a sucker born every minute...... but a sucker like Jimmy Carter comes along only once or twice in a century.
If he'd stuck to building houses for the poor, he might have been forgiven for being the worst President we've ever had. Until a few years ago, I was certainly prepared to let him off with a wrist-slapping. Now? Not only is he the worst President we've ever had, he's the worst ex-President, too. Quite an accomplishment.
Best ex-President ever? I'm undecided, but I'd consider Herbert Hoover, if for no other reason than his creation of the Hoover Institution.
Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, and Gateway Pundit (and undoubtedly scores of others) are all over the story of Nancy Pelosi's made-up Bible verses, which she trots out when she's trying to convince us clingy rubes that Earth Day is a biblical imperative. To wit:
The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’
This, from a woman whose main base of support consists of people who are extremely unlikely to read, much less obey, God's word.
Query: what other verses has she made up to support her stands on:
- Abortion
- Tax Increases
- Gun Control
- Tort Reform
"Blessed are those who visualize world peace, for it is better to visualize peace than to actually go and make the peace."
Meh.
Please make suggestions in the comments.
Update: This story got me thinking; I knew there was an appropriate real passage from the Bible that might address this topic. It took a while, but I found it, in Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verse 25:
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
That sounds precisely like what Pelosi is doing.
So... ELF doesn't like fancy houses. I think that today, in their honor, I'll go pour a can of motor oil into the local lake.
Those ELF tools are the people for whom the expression "DIAF" was coined.
Well, here's a shocker: Anti-Military Lawyer Damages Marine's Car on Eve of Deployment.
A paternity lawyer... which is ironic, really, as his own parentage might be considered an issue.
Felony? Disbar. Hit him where it hurts.
Tanker at Mostly Cajun, in the latest installment of "The Name Game," notes:
No, people, exactly what are you supposed to do when you come to an apostrophe in a name? Stop and hiccup? Stomp your foot for emphasis? Ring a tiny little bell?Me, I'm going to start carrying one of those D-Day paratrooper "crickets" with me for just such a contingency.
The late great Victor Borge would have instinctively known what to do.
If anyone else were to talk like this, family members would be shaking their heads and muttering about how maybe it was time to put grand-dad in a home.
But it's just a ranting loon Democrat congressman, so I guess it's par for the course.
Via Stop the ACLU, we find that Thomas Friedman today writes in the New York Times:
You may think Guantánamo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for Al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration.Well now, Tom, whose fault might it be that "a lot of the world" thinks this is the truth about Gitmo? Might it perhaps be due to the slanted reportage of your own paper and it's anti-American fellow travellers?
Doing your utmost to convince the world we're eeeeee-vil and then afterwards complaining that they think so calls to mind the story of the convicted parricide who pleads to the judge for leniency because he is an orphan.
My original assessment of Friedman stands.
Within minutes of reading this from Kevin at Wizbang!, I got one of the scam/spam (hereafter to be abbreviated "s[c|p]am") emails referred to.
Quechup: evil — read the above link for an explanation.
A modicum of sanity in Oregon, where charges of felonious butt-swatting against two 13-year-old boys have been dropped. I don't care who you are, butt-swatting when a 13-year-old should in no way mark you as a sex offender for life. Indeed, I can't think of too many things a 13-year-old can do that ought to label them for life. Are you the same person now that you were when you were 13?
Steve H. prognosticates. He may be on to something there. Me, I think we're looking at a major redefinition of the term "boob-tube."
Garofalo to join cast of "24." Fonzie to jump shark.
Louisiana Democrats attack Bobby Jindal's religion. (Isn't Louisiana a heavily Catholic state?) They once tried a whisper campaign about his ethnicity, so this really comes as no surprise. That they have to take his words out of context is not only unsurprising, it's pretty much the standard modus operandi for Democrats these days.
John Edwards: not so bright. Less bright: the people who ever voted for him for anything.
Breaking and entering? Illegal. Squatting? Not so much.
LOL, cat.
A news clipping from my hometown newspaper from a few months ago:
Scooter hits 2 vehicles
3 drivers get citations
Right away we know we have a winner of an article, here.
Santa Barbara - A 27-year-old Santa Barbara man riding on a homemade scooter — a lawnmower engine attached to a skateboard deck — hit two vehicles Tuesday afternoon at rush hour after his brakes failed.
Homemade scooter... in traffic... at rush hour. Bong hits required: seven, minimum.
The man was approaching the intersection of Old Coast Road and Hot Springs Road
One of the busiest intersections in town, I might mention. A nearly perfect place to audition for the next "Faces of Death" video.
and "clipped" one vehicle in the rear while "slaloming" between cars in an attempt to slow down, said Santa Barbara police Lt. Paul McCaffrey. He then rear-ended a stopped vehicle and was ejected from the seat of his unlicensed, unregistered scooter, which flew backward and struck the vehicle behind.
Inspector Clouseau could hardly have done better. But here's the punchline:
The operator of the scooter possessed a suspended license, the driver of the rear vehicle was unlicensed, and the driver of the front vehicle possessed an expired licence — all received citations. The drivers of the vehicles were uninjured, and the scooter operator was taken to Cottage Hospital for minor injuries. [emphasis mine - R.]
The traffic trifecta!
Based on the content of the article, and knowing my hometown as I do, I would bet money that:
- the scooter driver (suspended license) would fall into the category of "burnt-out druggie surfer,"
- the rear vehicle driver (no license) was an illegal alien, and
- the front vehicle driver (expired licence) was a citizen of extremely advanced years.
All three categories of which, I might add, Santa Barbara has in abundance.
There's no place like home, indeed.
Once again, Hollywood provides ample evidence that while beauty is only skin deep, ugly goes clean through to the bone.
I am sick and bloody tired of everything having to be dumbed-down so that the idiots among us can keep up. Case in point: today I opened up a new pack of cotton swabs, no problem there. As I was putting the package away, however, I noticed the information printed on the back.
CAUTION: Do not enter ear canal. Use only as directed. Entering the ear canal could cause injury. Keep out of reach of children.
Every pack of swabs you can buy in this country will have a similar warning. Yet, is there anyone using these things for anything other than plumbing the depths of auditory regions into which a pinkie finger cannot fit?
To clean ears, stroke swab gently around the outer surface of the ear.
Look, I could do that with a washcloth. I do do that with a washcloth. More to the point, though... who actually needs instructions for operating a cotton swab? How utterly stupid do you have to be to... to...
[Count to ten....]
I almost burst a blood vessel there.
To Open
Press in bottom center and pull up along perforation.
To Reclose
Return cover to original position, pressing in corners (1) to lock.
(Remember that "(1)" — we'll come back to it in a second.)
Now, maybe it's just me, but I figure that if people can't puzzle out how to open a package of swabs, perhaps they deserve to have dirty ears. For the riders of the short bus, however, our swab manufacturer has decided not only to tell us how to open the package, but also precisely what and where the bottom center is.
Oh, and how thoughtful it was of them to mark the corners (1).
If closing a pack of swabs is just too damn difficult to muddle through without directions — or without a hint of what is meant by "corners" — then perhaps spending one's free time every day playing "pick all the swabs up off the floor" is the right way for idiots to keep themselves out of the public arena, or to prevent them doing themselves (or more importantly, me) any harm.
Actually, I kind of wish people that amazingly stupid would take themselves out of the gene pool, but unfortunately when idiots go out in a blaze of ignorance, they tend to take innocent bystanders with them.
I swear, I want to pull out what's left of my hair.
Part 1 of ABC's docudrama The Path to 9/11 airs tonight and, as Tigerhawk points out (h/t: Prof R) due to the Democrats' incessant blathering in every available media outlet about the unfairness of it all, it'll likely have a significantly larger audience than it would have, had the community of Clinton defenders simply pretended the miniseries didn't exist.
No one I know of is claiming that the miniseries is completely accurate, any more than The Longest Day was a 100% completely faithful account of the D-Day landings — but that movie is still a good way to learn about the Normandy invasion.
Perhaps this can be an object lesson for the Left on the difference between "reality" and "reality-based."
Jeff Goldstein and his family are under attack again. Known nutcase Deb Frisch is the presumptive malefactor.
The far fringes of the Left cannot out-argue Jeff on the points, so instead they try to silence him in other ways. One has, for the moment, succeeded... I hope it's only for the very short term.
Warning: there may be some extremely vile language in some of these links. Deb is not a rational person, and tends to inspire, shall we say, strong feelings in the comments of people who disagree with her.
I did a traceroute based on the IP address Ace posted - see a similar result at DNSstuff.com.
Hop number 14 in the traceroute linked above is at a device called eugn-dsl-gw01-97.eugn.qwest.net, which to those of us in the networking business shows that the destination address connects to a DSL gateway router in Eugene, Oregon. Surprise, surprise... this is the area of the country in which the ex-professor Frisch has said she resides.
Coincidentally, this is the same gateway that Deb was connected to the last time she pulled this crap, immediately before her departure from the University of Arizona. [I helped Jeff with the IP, DNS and other lookups at that time.]
It's time for Deb Frisch to disappear into the confines of a cell, padded or otherwise, and down the memory hole as well.
Internet verb, indeed.
Update(s) below the fold...
Interestingly, as of 4:30am EDT (hey, I work nights, so sue me) references to professor Deb have disappeared from Technorati, at least for the moment.
Update, 1:50pm: it's working now.
Update, 2am Saturday: It's been a busy day at the office (BGP can be such a pain) but allow me to note some of the other folks posting about this dust-up.
- Hot Air
Patterico, here and here
Emperor Misha
Llamabutchers
It Comes In Pints?
Overtaken By Events
Also worth noting: Dr. Demented Deb hasn't succeeded in driving Jeff away from the 'net, as the non-dancing armadillo will attest.
Finally (?), my brief thoughts about a lesson to be learned from this episode.
The tv guide's description for tonight's episode of "Digging for the Truth" on the History Channel:
Homer's "Iliad" may be fact or fiction.
You don't say?
Following columnist Robert Novak's revelation earlier this week that the source for the "outing" of Valerie Plame was not in fact Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, or any of the usual people lefties wish to see in handcuffs and shackles, Plame and her husband "Lying Joe" Wilson have filed a civil suit against those same people.
It seems that the very people who are not being prosecuted by the government for leaking are being sued for the damage their not-leaking may have done.
Suing people for damaging your reputation would be a legitimate thing to do, but in Joe Wilson's case, perhaps it might be best to disappear off the radar of publicity. The idea of such a suit is to gain back your reputation, but this case will almost certainly destroy Wilson's. If this suit ever goes to trial, old Joe is going to have his ass handed to him. There will undoubtedly be uncomfortable questions a-plenty.
Personally, I'd rather like to hear his explanation of how he could report one set of Niger facts to congress, and then publicly use a contradictory set of facts (read: "lie") in the NY Times in an attempt to damage the President. Now that is something that ought to be lawsuit-worthy....
Joe Wilson seems determined to go down in history as the man who put the "ass" in "ambassador."
If you're going to have a group called "Iraq Veterans Against the War" you might consider having actual veterans going public.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion; no one is entitled to lie.
Almost three years ago, I suggested that the Racketeering, Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes be used against the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, who line their pockets at our expense, for very little actual return.
Today at Captain's Quarters, Ed has some related news.
Ted Rall is a scumbag. Other people agree.
But of course, you'd already know what I thought of him if you'd been reading this site in June of last year.
Yes, I was pissed off. Seriously so.
O.J. Simpson — signing autographs for a fee?
I guess Charles Manson was unavailable.
Space shuttle Columbia . . . check.
Gas prices . . . check.
And now New Orleans flooding . . . check.
What's next?
I can see it now...
Bush Administration Ignoring Clean Air Standards
Scientists Predict Spike in Air Pollution LevelsThe destructive power of hurricane Katrina was seemingly diminished by comparison today when EPA Administrator and Bush crony Stephen L. Johnson unleashed his full fury on the environment.
Using the pretense of weather-induced shortages of oil and gas, Johnson – known to be in the pocket of Big Oil – today suspended critical life-saving standards for sulphur and volatility in diesel fuel and gasoline. The suspension is allegedly scheduled to last through the 15th of September, though trusted sources say the "temporary" suspension is an obvious prelude to the permanent dismantling of clean air standards.
In a response, the Center for Science in the Public Interest announced their prediction that air pollution levels would skyrocket, soaring by an estimated 0.0004 percent.
"The none-too-subtle machinations of the Halliburton-Enron-Cheney axis are finally bearing their poisoned fruit," said one scientist, who explained the tie-dyed ski-mask he wore by suggesting he might otherwise meet with an untimely accident. "This hurricane is clearly the biggest put-up job in all of recorded history."
"Come the revolution," noted another scientist, boldly clad in an coordinated ensemble of "No Nukes" apparel, "the clean air standards will be returned to their pre-Bush levels, then we will continue to extend them. CO2 must be reduced, and if millions, or perhaps billions of people have to stop breathing in order to meet our clean air goals, well, that's a small price to pay for saving Mother Gaia."
"What about Kyoto?" added a third scientist, delicately emphasizing the point by pounding one of her Birkenstocks on the table. "We must end the national and global obsession with this 'liquid crack,' and if we have to force people to do without, it's only because we know best."
Bush administration officials declined to comment.
In related news, the sky is falling.
There's one particular thing that strikes me about the entire Cindy Sheehan to-do: the invasion of Iraq began over two years ago, and it's taken this long for the hardcore moonbat Left to find a Gold Star mother who would front for them in a very public way.
There are approximately 1,800 mothers who have lost a son or daughter* in Iraq, and Michael Moore's Marching Moonbat Mob has been able to find one mother willing to seek such notoriety.†
I'll be generous and allow that the Left might have 100 or more such parents to trot out on demand. The numbers nevertheless speak for themselves.
More (and more ably done) commentary here, here, here, here, and here. Particularly noteworthy is the post at Iraq the Model.
* They are sons and daughters, but most assuredly not children. The loaded question "would you send your child to die?" is disingenuous on every level. They are neither children nor chattel, and they are not sent in order to die. Every person serving in the military is a volunteer, and though we know some will inevitably die in service to their country — in combat, in accidents — "we purpose not their deaths when we purpose their services."
If I had a son of military age, I would be proud beyond my ability to describe, if he were to choose to serve his country in the military.
† At last count there were approximately 60 families involved with Gold Star Families for Peace, but none who have allowed themselves to be used by the anti-American Left to quite the extent Cindy Sheehan has.
Chris Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal links to a must-read column by conservative filmmaker Jason Apuzzo.
Hollywood has chosen sides in the war against islamofascism. It's not our side.
"American Dreamz." This ’satire’ from Universal Pictures deals with Pakistani suicide bombers out to kill the US president. The film stars Hugh Grant, Richard Dreyfuss, Willem Dafoe and Mandy Moore. According to writer-director Paul Weitz ("American Pie"), "The film is a comic examination of ... cultural obsessions" like the War on Terror "and how they can anaesthetise us to the actual issues of our day."
"The actual issues of our day" according to Weitz [a name the islamonazis would surely take note of] do not, apparently, include the concern that there are people out there who would just as soon decapitate everyone in Hollywood as look at them.
And that's just one of many like-minded movies in the production sewer pipe pipeline. The movie studios have apparently decided to disregard their customers' sensibilities (and that whole "profit" thing) for the sake of better reviews from the likes of Roger Ebert and the accolades of Eurotrash nancy-boys at Cannes (and the Eurotrash-wannabee nancy-boys at Sundance.) They prefer to make anti-American propaganda than to risk the chance that a pro-American film might be seen as supporting President Bush. One wonders what they would be doing if Kerry had been elected.
Either way, John Wayne wouldn't have put up with crap like that.
To take the late Douglas Adams slightly out of context, people like those who green-lighted these projects are "a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes." And they'll have no idea why anyone should be so upset.
Russell Wardlow has more commentary.
[Updated]
When Columbia was lost 2½ years ago, one of the first reactions of the insane far left was "MIHOP," the idea being that President Bush had conspired towards the destruction of the shuttle (possibly with the intent of blaming sabotage for the tragedy) in order to raise the general patriotism and Israel-friendliness (due to the loss of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon) of the country in the run-up preceeding Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Now that we are sufficiently distracted by the shuttle disaster....What's bush up to?
I am not afraid to say this -
Heavens, why not? Don't you know we're coming to get you?†
I guess bush's SOTU speech went over so poorly, he needed a disaster to distract us from his horrible actions and lies.I am getting sick of this bull. How many more Americans must die for bush to look legit? How often will he need to kill to keep up his legitimacy?
How convenient that the first Israeli citizen was on the shuttle, too. Everybody rally behind Sharon and don't question or speak against him, either.
Sick, utterly sick. And monstrous... and demented, in the most etymologically literal sense of the word.
Today, at least, the worst that can be said of them so far is that they're joking about a woman driver missing the mark by 3000 miles.
So far – the day is young.
Update, 6:50pm: The infighting there is mostly about what might be broadly described as "women's accomplishments" it's a hoot. But I honestly expected there to be some sort of Bush/Rove-oriented conspiracy-mongering, along the lines of "well, they didn't need dead astronauts this month for their political ends, but it's lucky for the Discovery crew that they flew now instead of before [political event X]."
The DUmmies really are insane.
* "Made it happen on purpose."
† The brave souls at DU repeatedly advertise their lack of fear, as if some sort of Rove-controlled hit squad was out there "disappearing" people who speak their minds. That's how completely insane some of them are over there.
Today would be a good day to re-read Bill Whittle's Courage.
One of my pet "netiquette" peeves is hotlinking. I have a few images on this site that are regularly hotlinked (this post is popular... people use the Berkeley whacko image as an avatar in forums), and so every once in a while I rename the image file and put in a substitute that briefly makes my opinion on the matter fairly clear:
Someone over at the epicenter of left-wing stupidity*, the Daily Kos, hotlinked an image from Joe Sherlock – a distinctly unwise thing to do, given Joe's ability to drop a new image in the old one's place.
Just in case it drops into the memory hole over there, I saved a snapshot:
Couldn't have said it better myself.
(Seen at Michelle Malkin and LGF)
* The center of left-wing insanity, on the other hand, is Democratic Underground, into which fever swamp I am extraordinarily reluctant to tread, even under the best of circumstances. I always feel like I need to be disinfected when I go there. John Hawkins provides a sample. Those people are certifiable.
What a prize to show for her life of toil,
A bus that runs on vegetable oil;
To keep it running will prove no strain,
Run a fuel line from her peanut brain.
As once again she shows us all
How wrong we are and how we'll fall.
She'll grant no quarter, cut no slack,
Get her picture taken on a camel's back.
Jihad Jane will show us once again,
She's smarter than all the President's men;
I doubt Sun Tzu could tell us more
Than Jihad Jane when it comes to war;
She'll save the world, bold Barbarella,
More wily and wise than any Army fella.
While she fancies herself truly Machiavellian
A more apt description is piggy Orwellian.
It's true Jane could write an encyclopedia
On fooling the drooling mainstream media.
Princes of primetime breathlessly follow;
Sputum she spouts they eagerly swallow.
Trumpet her tripe as trustworthy truth,
Pushing her pap down the throats of our youth.
Reporters will climb right on down in that sewer,
Covering every mile of Jane's veggie-fueled tour.
While wiser minds wait, holding their breath,
Warily wondering just how much death
All her agitprop antics will incite this time,
And whose lives will be forfeit for one fool's crime.
In most scripts of life, we become wiser with age;
But this airhead actress cannot get to that page.
So she'll be well remembered, as well she should,
As the dumbest damned broad in Hollywood.
Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Infantry
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
(Via e-mail from the author, with a hat tip to Ollie North for the title.)
Cox & Forkum present a sort of moonbat identification visual aid.
Be sure to check out the hat.
Not all fifth columnists can be found in parades on the streets of Berkeley.
I am reminded today of Conquest's Second Law:
Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.
It's not hard to find real-world instances of the Second Law in action. I always think of the World Council of Churches and the Nobel Foundation as prime examples.
Amnesty International has always been somewhat lefty, but their recent slide into the furthest reaches of leftist ass-hattery is surely confirmation of some sort.
See Captain's Quarters for coverage of an interesting tidbit: AI called for nations to violate diplomatic immunity and arrest American leaders and diplomats overseas.
I'd noticed this at the onset of the recent "gulag" flap, but it didn't stick in my mind. Thanks to Captain Ed for the reminder.
Update, 13Jun05: Interesting... see Ed's followup on the details of what constitutes diplomatic immunity.
I have been completely and deliberately ignorant of the news coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. I simply don't care about the day-to-day coverage of the trial. I figure if he isn't found guilty, he's still screwy enough to be institutionalized. The word "whacko" might well have been created specifically to be applied to him.
What has irked me about the little coverage I have been unable to avoid is the constant presence of shrilly screaming fans every time Jackson makes a court appearance. Do any of them understand the seriousness of what Jackson is on trial for? He [allegedly] molested little boys.
Do these people have nothing better to do than to wait outside the building, behind a cordon, at a considerable distance from where the principal players in this melodrama make their transition from limo to courthouse door, hoping for a fleeting glimpse of the pervert they idolize?
I guess that question pretty much answers itself, no?
What exactly is this mob of latter-day teeny-boppers going to do if/when Jackson is found guilty? Riot?
Now there's a thought that gives me chills. Rampaging mobs of tearful teenage girls, wailing, pulling out their hair, pounding their little fists ineffectually against whatever solid object is nearest to hand. I do not envision overturned and burning police cars. Rather, the mental image I get is more on the order of the brawling dancers towards the end of Blazing Saddles....
Throw out your hands
Stick out your tush
Hands on your hips
Give 'em a push
You'll be surprised
You're doing the French Mistake!
Voila!
Followed shortly thereafter by "They hurt Buddy! Let's get 'em, girls!"
I figure a pack of Cub Scouts could handle the Jackson-fan riot-control duties... though it might be exceptionally unwise to have a pack of Cub Scouts anywhere within several miles of Michael Jackson, if you know what I mean.
Stupid fans.
[Update, 13 Jun 05: Yo, OTB. OK, OK, so this isn't a new post, but it's on topic for today.]
To: Senator McCain
From: a GOP voter
I don't care how long you spent shackled in a cell in a Vietnamese prison camp. You have now burned up every bit of goodwill your wartime sacrifices might have engendered, and are now operating on a "GOP-karma" deficit.
If this nation should ever be so unfortunate as to have you on the presidential ticket, I will almost certainly vote against you.
No one who spends as much time aggrandizing himself and preening for the media at the expense of the party and principles which got him into office as you do deserves the support of the party or the people who adhere to those principles. No one who so obviously craves attention and acclaim deserves either.
Do your party and its voters a favor, and retire from public life.
Update: Patterico is on the same track. Ace, too.
Stephen Green at VodkaPundit reviews the post-WW2 historical record and uses it to demolish Pat Buchanan, who is alleged to be smart enough to have a syndicated column, and further alleged to be a conservative. I think neither allegation could be proven in a court of law. With Stephen, I would agree that PB has gone right round the bend. Or rather, I would say that his train has jumped completely off the track.
To reiterate what I said in his comments, I note that Stephen used the expression "the slippery slope from Young Turk conservative columnist to Nazi Apologist troglodyte" which, to me, seems to imply that both states can be found on the same political continuum.
I think that one would have to leave that continuum (I'd label it "Rationality") entirely to become a Jew-hating Nazi apologist, as Buchanan apparently has become, just as one would have to do in order to turn from, say, a "Scoop Jackson" Democrat into a Stalin apologist.
That minor gripe notwithstanding, I agree with Stephen. It is a wish-fulfillment fantasy of the most deluded kind to believe that in the Summer of 1945 the western Allies could have prevented the Soviets from doing exactly however they pleased in the Eastern European nations they had "liberated" from the Nazis. Yes, it would have been technically possible, particularly given America's soon-to-be-revealed atomic weapon capability, but the price would have been far too high to pay.
It's long past time that serious people at any place on the aforementioned Rationality spectrum listened with anything other than revulsion (or at least, disgusted curiosity) to what Buchanan says.
From today's on-screen TV guide, we have the following program description for a program on the History Channel, Cannibals:
The topic of human cannibalism causes revulsion in many people.
I do believe that this would qualify for the understatement of the day.
Today is, of course, Earth Day.
It's also Lenin's birthday, but really, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the birthday of the man who spawned tyrannies over half the globe, regimes which caused millions upon millions of deaths, just happened to be chosen by the environmentalist "watermelons" for their big shin-dig.
A coincidence, I tell you. Just ignore the man behind the curtain....
Um...
But hey! It's Earth Day!
In that spirit, then, I would like to offer the following:
Go Earth! Beat Mars!
That is all.
Break out the nano-violin:
Authorities in Phoenix marched more than 2,000 maximum security inmates to a new facility in their pink boxer shorts and pink flip-flops, according to a Local 6 News report.
Naturally, "activists" complained about the inhuman treatment.
Cry me a river.
When you need to define the expression "police state" by using a real-world example, you could do a lot worse than to cite this story from Canada.
(Via Captain Ed)
Perhaps it's been difficult for Senator Ted Kennedy, living all these years in the shadows of his late brothers. Said the Senator:
We have reached the point that a prolonged American military presence in Iraq is no longer productive for either Iraq or the United States. The US military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Lovely, just lovely. Such fine words. Note to the Senator: our troops eliminated the problem. His name is Saddam, and he sits in a jail cell awaiting justice.
At least 12,000 American troops -- probably more -- should leave at once, to send a strong signal about our intentions and to ease the pervasive sense of occupation.
[Quotes via Rush.]
Compare those gems to JFK's words:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Living in JFK's and RFK's shadows is no excuse for such cowardice from Ted Kennedy.
Perhaps someone ought to send the Senator a case of scotch, with the proviso that he use it for the sole purpose of drinking himself into a coma.
Once in a while, you stumble across a previously unseen gem.
Howard Zinn's and Noam Chomsky's post-modernism takes one on the chin, in a long but thoroughly enjoyable parody from 2003, "The Real Atrocity in Tolkien's Middle Earth."
Zinn: Here, very significantly, we have the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm. You will notice that what is destroyed is a bridge — another potential connector.Chomsky: On a symbolic level, that is a very good point.
Zinn: All the borders in this film are constantly being destroyed, or overrun, or eliminated, or sealed. It's all about fear - fearing the other. Notice, too, that the Elf Legolas jumps across the ruined bridge first.
Chomsky: They'll cross this bridge and the bridge will collapse, and they'll never be able to communicate with the Balrog again, or with the Orcs inside. In fact, they're sealing off the Orcs from ever escaping. They're leaving the Orcs in the cave with this big Balrog. Now, again, surely, among these Moria Orcs were some Orc radicals — aggressive, angry, militant radicals. We shouldn't understate that.
Zinn: Well, look how the Orcs grow up. What do you expect?
Chomsky: I mean, what other options have they?
Zinn: I dare say that, were I an Orc, I might possibly be one of those terrorist Orcs, shooting arrows at the Fellowship myself.
Chomsky: Here comes the Balrog. Notice Gandalf's unilateral action. "Quick, get away, I have to fight this thing alone!"
Zinn: Once again you see a creature that's on fire being demonized in this movie: the flaming eye, the flaming Balrog. As though being on fire is this terrible affliction to have.
Chomsky: As though they can help it if they're on fire.
I wasn't expecting a good chuckle today, but I sure got one.
[The piece was written by Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell of McSweeny's Internet Tendency, and can also be found on their site.]
Here's someone who's going to get coal in his stocking:
A 17-year-old is accused of firing a pellet gun from a second-story window, hitting a man dressed as Santa Claus on Monday night. Police said the boy confessed.
Maybe the ACLU will defend the poor oppressed-by-Judeo-Christian-symbology kid in Santa Court. He may be an insufferable jerk, but doesn't he have a right to get a stocking full of goodies?
There appears to be a verdict in the Peterson murder trial. They're announcing the verdict in less than an hour.
In the words of Kyle Broflavski, "Don't care, don't care, don't care."
I wonder what's on the History Channel?
Update: "Battlefield Detectives: Agincourt's Dark Secrets" — if there's anything that'll suck my attention away from what I'm supposed to be doing, that's it.
As a native-born Californian, now over four years on the lam since I departed, I see things like this and think how glad I am to have gotten out, how glad I am not to have to put up with all the idiots who thought California would be a good place to settle down.
I have long had a mental image of the Great Moonbat Migration of the latter half of the 20th century. It is as if the Atlantic coast of the country had been grasped by a giant hand, lifted, and shaken like a rug. All the human debris and detritus then slid down to the west coast and stopped when it hit the coast.
"Go west, young man," used to be the catchphrase for those who sought opportunity in a young and vital country; now it's just directions on where to go to get high.
My advice to the hippies, druggies, socialists, and other assorted idiots who came from around the country and ruined California: don't stop at the coast, just keep going west. About 500 miles further west.
Y'all could use a bath.
Eric Alterman, who leans so far to the left he requires a complex system of bracing to keep himself from falling over, attempts psychoanalysis to explain Kerry's loss:
Let's face it. It's not Kerry's fault. It's not Nader's fault (this time). It's not the media's fault (though they do bear a heavy responsibility for much of what ails our political system). It's not "our" fault either. The problem is just this: Slightly more than half of the citizens of this country simply do not care about what those of us in the "reality-based community" say or believe about anything.
Short form: "The people have spoken — the bastards."
(Via Best of the Web)
Via INDC Journal, a bit from the UK Guardian newspaper:
On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?
[Emphasis mine.]
[The Guardian has evidently pulled the item from their website.]
[OK, now it's back.]
Really. This must be an example of that stereotypical British habit of understatement.
So, where is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh you now that we need him? And can we get him to wherever Charlie Brooker hangs his hat?
Outrageous? Damn right it is.
During this election cycle, I've heard and read of peoples' concern about their property being vandalized because of their support for Bush, usually in the context of cars being "keyed" because of a bumper sticker, but also the hacking of websites, and the theft or destruction of yard signs (or even a little girl's sign.)
In this context, talk show host Larry Elder publishes a letter from one of his fans.
Last Thursday I put out one of my Bush/Cheney signs in my front yard. Between midnight and 3:00 a.m. someone stole it. On Friday night I put out sign No. 2. Since I didn't have to get up early, I thought my dog and I would "stake out" our sign. This time I put the sign a little closer to the gate leading to my backyard. With my dog on an extra long leash, I planted myself on a lawn chair and read "Unfit for Command" by flashlight until about 1:00 a.m. Here comes the fun part . . .
Go read the rest of it (scroll to the last half of the article) and have a good laugh.
Well, this was inevitable.
I have a suggestion for all those parents pushing their kids into show business: drop dead.
OK, if you won't do that, at least do your kid a favor: ship them off to a good military school between gigs.
While driving home from the grocery store, I heard on the radio a mated pair of the shrieking yellowbellied variety of barking moonbat. They were going on and on about how awful Bush is, how awful Republicans are, war-for-oil, Halliburton! Halliburton! Halliburton!, and then proceeded to misquote the entirety of the First Amendment. A less-educated pair of self-important blowhards I have not heard since, well, ever.
[This was on my prime VRWC talk-radio station, not the local NPR. I don't know how they managed to get on the air, unless it was to remind us that such people really do exist.]
Then they said that this Thursday they and their kind will be protesting outside the Republican headquarters in Raleigh.
"Hmm," I thought. "That's only about 20 miles from here."
"Now," I said to myself, "might be the time to join Protest Warrior."
So I did.
Via Ith of Absinthe & Cookies, we find a website that should be mandatory reading for all parents-to-be: bad baby names.
I don't care what you want to name your baby, a name is not a status symbol. [Any status attached to a baby's name is pretty much limited to your surname, and the reputation — good or bad — you give it.] He or she is the one who will be saddled with a life-long object of ridicule. Have a little consideration, people. Use a spell-checker, I beg of you.
If you're not Welsh and you name your child "Aelwen" I am going to find you and slap the taste out of your mouth.
And don't get me started on apostrophes.
It was only a matter of time, I suppose:
Hackers unleash mobile phones virus
I see no fundamental difference between this behavior, and that of terrorists who blow up oil pipelines.
There's a great deal of irony in the fact that the people who take the most delight in technological vandalism and destruction are themselves most dependent on the various technologies they attack. [Can you picture those losers earning a living by the sweat of their brows? No, neither can I.]
It's as if they are engaging in endless nihilistic bouts of "suicide by proxy."
Let's remove that "by proxy" from the equation. "Shoot on sight" would seem to be the most reasonable policy for dealing with these vermin. It seems to be what they want.
Ted:
I saw what you had to say about Pat Tillman. I have read what you wrote with regard to the late President.
I have seen entirely too much of you. I suspect I am not alone in this assessment.
You should consider yourself fortunate in two respects you may not have previously been aware of:
- As I live nowhere near any place you might frequent, the odds of me encountering you in the street are vanishingly small.
- I have no idea what you look like.
I would cheerfully snap your twig-like neck, and spit in your face as you struggle and fail to draw your last breath while the world goes forever dark before your eyes.
If you were to show up at my front door with an angry mob at your heels, I would let you in - so that I could do the mob's work for them.
But I don't hate you Ted.
That may be a difficult concept for you to grasp. As full of hate as you are, you probably cannot imagine that other people don't perpetually seethe. You drown in your own bile every day and you don't even know that, inside, you are as dead as the last Dodo.
I hold you in contempt. I despise your works. I revile your beliefs and until my dying day will work to defeat them.
But I don't hate you. No.
I pity you.
I pity you as I would pity any poor, dumb animal that were sick or injured, mindlessly hurting itself and all others around it.
As with a rabid dog that simultaneously suffers, and endangers others, I would be inclined to put you down with hardly a second thought.
And if it were ever to happen thus, and I were called to account for it, I would suffer my punishment gladly, knowing I had put a pathetic, wretched creature out of its — and our — misery.
But it'll never happen - see items 1 and 2 above.
Get some psychiatric help, Ted. It can't hurt, it might do some good, and if nothing else, the hours you spend with a competent psychiatric professional will be hours in which you do no harm.
I think this is what is meant by a "Red Curtain of Blood" moment. I'd be tempted, but no, I wouldn't actually harm Ted. Not permanently, anyway. But the rest of what I say stands.
As an exercise in catharsis, this has been quite ameliorative. I'm feeling much better now.
I've often said that official policies are intended to substitute for rational thought. This is not to say that leader-generated policies are necessarily ridiculous, but when you let bureaucratic hacks and lawyers into the policy-making process, there is little or no check on their pettifogging micromanagement of the lives, behaviors and activities of the people subject to their dictates.
Am I wrong? Consider some of the policies that have issued forth from the HR department at your place of employment.
Consider also the ridiculous "zero-tolerance" policies so prevalent in public schools today. Were it not for an "official policy," perhaps the people in charge in the following situations might have acted differently:
A sixth-grader gets suspended because of a science project. The project involved cutting an onion. He brought a kitchen knife to school. Bad sixth-grader.or:
A third-grader has a brother serving in the Army in Afghanistan. The proud third-grader draws a picture of his brother. The drawing shows his brother with a gun. Suspended.(Examples lifted from today's Neil Boortz column.)
These policies are ridiculous in the most literal sense of the word.
In certain cases, "well-meaning" bureaucrats came up with these policies after a few highly-publicized school shootings, as if laws against murder didn't already exist. As if a law is going to stop someone intent on doing mischief or harm. As if a "policy" is going to scare miscreants into behaving.
Boortz approaches the problem from a different angle than I do - his concern is with the effect of these policies. He didn't intend to address the root cause of the problem.
So why these policies? One word: lawsuits.
The Law used to be a (mostly) noble profession. In many respects, it remains so. I could point you to lawyers I know who maintain the highest ethical standards, and who provide valuable service, whether it is negotiating a contract or drawing up a will.
Sadly, too many lawyers these days look at the "Esquire" after their names as licenses to print money. Something should be done.
I burned my hand pretty badly the other day, but one thought never crossed my mind: who can I sue, and how much can I get?
Perhaps I need to have a zero-tolerance policy for charcoal and bourbon.
... and it's neither a Kerry nor a Kennedy.
Beaker is back blogging after a brief hiatus, and wastes no time setting his sights on a particularly heinous example of Leftist Ass-hattery.
Figures it'd be a grad student. In Massachussetts, of course.
OK, now can we call Michael Moore a traitor?
I, for one, do not consider a conviction on the criminal charge of Treason to be necessary before calling someone a traitor.
[And am I wrong, or does that swollen mass of festering, putrescent protoplasm leave a trail of slime wherever he manages to heave his repellent bulk?]
If a Republican organization had run an advertisement recommending that Vietnam veterans correct a lapse on their part by "fragging" John Kerry this year, the outrage and uproar in the press and elsewhere would be justifiably intense.
But when a Democrat organization runs an ad suggesting that Donald Rumsfeld be put up against a wall and shot....
Virtually nothing.
Huh? What liberal media?
[Update: 20 minutes after I posted this, Brit Hume covered it on Fox News. Well, Mr. Hume is no Democrat apologist. Let's see if CNNABCMSNBCCBS cover it.]
As the Romans used to say,
Gens Gallorum inerudita servilis agrestis est, in turguriis foetidis habitans.
In English:
"The French are an ignorant bunch of servile peasants living in smelly huts."
(Courtesy of Henry Beard's new book, X-Treme Latin: Unleash Your Inner Gladiator.)
I didn't know that France was experiencing some sort of electricity shortage.
They seem, however, to have hit upon a solution:
China and France will hold rare joint naval exercises off the mainland's eastern coast on Tuesday, just four days before Beijing's rival, Taiwan, holds presidential elections.All they'll need to do is attach a generator to the spinning corpse of the late Charles de Gaulle.China's official Xinhua news agency made no link between the exercises off Qingdao -- about 780 miles from Taiwan's northernmost point -- and the election.
But the show of military strength and solidarity signaled China's desire to isolate the self-governing island before the vote and its first-ever referendum, which Beijing views as a provocative step toward independence.
Even for France, this is reprehensible.
(via the Puppy Blender)
Ann Coulter:
Everything you do -- from driving to earning a living to making a cup of coffee to owning a home to getting medical care -- is more expensive and difficult simply because of trial lawyers, who, at the same time, contribute absolutely nothing of any value to society. You can't buy as simple a device as a telephone without having to wade through a 50-page manual to locate information you actually need, like what your new security code is. (How about adding a one-page short list of instructions for consumers who already know not to place their phones in a microwave oven?) But other than the fact that trial lawyers have made every single facet of life worse, I can't think of a single good reason to dislike them.In an interview by FrontPage Magazine
The narcotics-impaired [or just plain stupid] elements of the Left in this country need to take their history lessons over again. It's clear they didn't learn anything the first time around.
"Bush is Hitler," we hear them wail. Apparently, they haven't the slightest idea what evil Hitler wrought.
James, on the other hand, explains in a manner that ought to make some impression on idiotarian skulls.
[In my perfect world, the best thing to make such an impression would be generally categorized as a "blunt object."]
[And in an even more perfect world, there'd be no idiotarians at all.]
There has to be a way the Donks can blame this on Bush:
Woman Knocked Unconscious By Wal-Mart ShoppersWell, obviously this never would have happened if the President hadn't cut taxes. If people would just let the government have more of their paychecks, they wouldn't have as much to spend for the holidays, and we'd never have to see this sort of tragedy again.
Witnesses: Shoppers Stepped Over Woman Having SeizureORANGE CITY, Fla. -- A 41-year-old woman was knocked unconscious and then trampled by a mob of shoppers who continued to step over her as she suffered a seizure during a Friday sale at Wal-Mart in Orange City, Fla., according to Local 6 News.
Now that the Bush tax cuts are setting the economy back on track after the recent slump (which I might remind you, gentle reader, began before he took office), and now that the general public recognizes that things are getting better, and now that people are actually going out to spend their own money, we can undoubtedly see more such frenzied shopping-induded tramplings, right? Right?
The part of my brain responsible for rhyming can't come up with any catchy slogan for the moonbats to shriek about this....
"Bush cut tax rates -- people in dire straits!"
Wow, that's incredibly -- even amazingly -- weak.
I'm open to suggestions. In the meantime, I'm going to go have more coffee.
(link via James at VRWC)
George Soros is a barking moonbat. An extraordinarily wealthy barking moonbat, but a barking moonbat nonetheless.
"America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," Soros said."No, not the world, you knothead - only to our enemies," Russ said.
Then he smiled: "And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is."Well, it's his money - he can throw it down a rat-hole if he wants.
[That, by the way, is one of the main differences between Left and Right in this country - the Left would rather see that people didn't have the choice to financially support rat-holes - other than their own campaigns, of course.]
Soros believes that a "supremacist ideology" guides this White House. He hears echoes in its rhetoric of his childhood in occupied Hungary. "When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans."Ah, how clever. A none-too-subtle "Bush==Hitler" reference. Never heard that one before.
[Student of history that I am, I could have sworn the Nazis were more likely to use slogans like "You're either with us, or you're dead."]
It conjures up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit ("The enemy is listening"). "My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me," he said in a soft Hungarian accent.Allow me to call you an idiot, Soros, in my soft unaccented English: Idiot.
(Hat tip: Pardon My English)
Frank J., in today's Bite-Sized Wisdom, makes a rather serious point.
There are those in this country who proclaim their concern and support for "the troops," but who in fact delight at each casualty report for base, partisan political reasons.
After all, they themselves have never served in uniform. They know no one in the service. And they would certainly never encourage their own children to enlist.
Each death in Iraq is an opportunity for them to publicly proclaim their hatred of the President... but they care not one whit for the soldiers in the field, and would be just as happy to see a hundred casualties if it gives them an opportunity to bash the President.
... this has gone from political discourse to just being plain evil - a very mild but growing evil that show a real disconnect from one's fellow man.I think it's more than a mild-but-growing evil - I think it is profoundly evil - but I think what Frank is saying is that there are only a few such people - so far.There are our men and women fighting and dying out there. They are fighting for us and they are fighting for a people yearning to live free from tyranny.
The heart of the matter:
I just can't understand how the phrase "We are losing a soldier a day," can be followed by anything other than, "so let's get those [expletive] bastards."Bingo.
The anti-American peace creeps are at it again.
They call themselves "anti-war." Nothing could be further from the truth.
It cannot be said loudly enough or often enough:
they are not against the war - they are on the other side.
Go see the commentary from:
David Frum of NRO has more on the impending CA drivers license fiasco. His objections come from a different and scarier perspective than mine.
California legislators apparently have nothing better to do.
California Senate scolds Boy ScoutsAlternate headline: "Fiddling While Rome Burns."
Passes resolution slamming group for not accepting 'gays,' atheists
The California state Senate has passed a resolution criticizing the Boy Scouts of America for its policy of excluding homosexuals and atheists.Because that's a far more important task than extracting California from it's actual problems. The lesson here: when your plans and policies bring about disaster, the magnitude of which begins to disaffect elements of your political base, find a convenient innocuous target for a gesture behind which your die-hards can rally.
Sure, why not? It's worked for every despot in history... ought to work this time.
The legislation, which passed last week on a 22-15 vote, begins by praising the group for the work it does in the community, but in the end demands the organization accept applicants "without discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or religious belief," reported the Roseville Press-Tribune."Keep doing your charitable work - but on our terms, not yours." Memo to the state Senate: get bent. Not everyone is such a coward as to accede to your demands.
The Boy Scouts has come under increasing pressure to change its policy, which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, and has lost countless dollars in donations due to its stand.In other words, the Scouts' principles are more important to them than the donations are. Bravo for them, I say. Most politicians, parties, or advocacy groups have never met a principle they wouldn't compromise for a buck. It's actually rather refreshing to see people who won't compromise.
The legislation was sponsored by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, herself a lesbian.No surprise there. I'd be more interested in who the co-sponsors were.
"I think it's important for the state of California to speak up and not be silent, and to say to the Scouts, if you have a religious belief, that's your belief. But keep it separate from a youth-serving agency that serves kids in all neighborhoods," Goldberg told the paper.... conveniently ignoring the fact that the way the Scouts serve youths is dependant on their moral standards.
The Scouts exist, essentially, to equip boys to be good men. Men who have standards of Right and of Wrong, men who adhere to Principle - these are things the Democrats controlling the state Senate seem to not want. I wonder why...?
"I hope we put pressure on them to make this open to all kids. Anybody who knows me and my family knows we love scouting. This is out of concern for (Scouts)."Sure it is. Apparently we're dealing with a whole new variety of "scouting" in which an Oath and adherence to standards is optional.
Goldberg's bill passed the state Assembly by a vote of 43-2. Nearly half the 80 members did not vote or abstained on the resolution.Can't you just feel the moral authority radiating from Sacramento?
Opponents of the bill see it as government intrusion into the policies of a private organization.Well, nothing really new there... this is a world, and California in particular is a state, in which the term "civil servant" has been twisted to mean "civil master."
"Our moral values in Boy Scouts are being treated as if they were inferior values," Republican state Sen. Rico Oller told the Press-Tribune. "Gay and lesbian groups are saying that we with traditional Christian values have to accept people who are avowedly opposed to those views. The Boy Scouts should be able to be the Boy Scouts, an organization based on faith, God and duty. You can't have it both ways."Exactly.
Continued Oller, "This is about hate on the part of the radical gay and lesbian community, on organizations that are founded on more traditional values."Couldn't have said it better myself. Well, maybe a little better... but I don't have to run for office.
It's not just the "radical gay and lesbian" communities - it is the environmentalists, the peaceniks, the trial lawyers... in short, any of the core constituencies of the Democrat party. They cannot abide private groups that teach moral standards, ethical behavior, and a respect for God, because these things are antithetical to the accumulation of power in the hands of those who would sell their own mothers for it. Their opponents must be destroyed, or must be rendered ineffective - a "mission kill," to use the military term.
And besides, it's not like the Senate has anything better to do, right? Like, oh I don't know, ensure the doom of the state or anything?
Seattle moonbats want to impose a ten-cent tax on espresso-type beverages, a sort of luxury tax. For the childrenTM, of course.
Serenity is clearly not happy about it...
I mean, if I can afford a $3 drink, then I guess it must be my duty to pay for their children's education....after all, I've got all this money just lying around and no place to spend it.... and she isn't even going to be there long enough to pay the tax.
Open Range, starring (among others) Kevin Costner, opens in about two weeks, on the 15th.
I'm going to make a prediction here. I predict that it will receive bad reviews. I'll see it anyway.
Will it really be bad? I doubt it. It's just that Hollywood hates any conservative, and Costner, though not exactly a member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, has been noted for his occasional non-leftist sentiments. I suspect that the anti-conservative bias in Hollywood has played a role in some of the reviews he's received.
Remember the reviews for The Postman? Waterworld? These are not terrible movies - perhaps not blockbuster successes, but certainly not as bad as the critics said they were. (The Postman is actually pretty decent, as post-Apocalypse movies go.) Heck, the Robin Hood movie wasn't awful, though Costner's accent could have used a little work. OK, OK, maybe a lot of work.
Movie critics, of course, are creatures of the Hollywood system - their livelihood often depends on their ability to "go along to get along" with the people they are paid to critique. Indeed, if such goings-on were common on Wall Street, half of America's financial community would be vacationing at Stony Lonesome.
In Hollywood, it means the actors, directors, producers and critics are almost universally swinging on the left side of the tree. Going along, getting along. No surprise there, of course.
I recently read that Roger Ebert is one such player - not just one of the crowd, though, but significantly more "progressive" (read, a bigger idiotarian) than the usual. Once a respectable critic, he's decided that the fame he earned as a critic means he should be taken seriously when he comments in arenas outside his realm of experience. That's OK, it's a free country. But considering all the times I took his reviews as near-gospel, without knowing his political leanings, how can I be expected to take him seriously? I mean, fer cryin' out loud, he liked the fraudulent Bowling for Columbine.
How do you suppose he might review a flattering biography of Ronald Reagan...? I don't have to suppose - he'd pan it, and take shots at Reagan all the while.
What was that recent movie about the unibrow communist trollop, down Mexico way? Frida? I'll bet he loved that one. Oh, ya, what do you know - he did.
Having political opinions isn't a bad thing. Injecting them into your work and claiming anything like objectivity is. (Ya, I'm looking at you, Peter Jennings.)
So, to make a long story short [Too late! - Ed.], I'll just ignore the critics and see what audiences have to say about Open Range. I dig a good western - and I'll be happy if my prediction is wrong.
Finally! There's now proof the Loch Ness monster really exists.
What proof, you may ask? How do we know Nessie exists?
Because the BBC says otherwise.
Having seen this, I think it's no wonder Hercule Poirot moved to London.
One aspect of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") statutes that is not widely known is that private citizens, not just government prosecutors, may bring charges under the statutes.
This legal ability was recently misused by the National Organization of (Leftist) Women in an attempt to stifle the speech of a group called the Pro-Life Action Network and to monetarily penalize the group for their protests. (In an 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court took a rather dim view of NOW's attempt at suppressing speech.)
On the other hand, if the statute is designed to prevent corrupt organizations from threatening damage to another party with the express goal of extracting cash from the threatened party (which to me seems a reasonable definition of "extortion") there is one particular organization that must be reined in -- the sooner the better. They enrich themselves at the expense of businesses, inflict economic damage that we all end up paying for, and they buy politicians to protect their nefarious schemes.
Never in the history of this country (or, indeed, the world) has a non-governmental organization profited so much by use of the bludgeon. The Mafia must be wishing they'd thought this one up; these vermin make the bull-necked men of la Cosa Nostra look like a bunch of 90-year-old blue-haired ladies by comparison.
I refer, of course, to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
The ATLA (or more specifically, its minions) wreak havoc on our nation - frivolous and nuisance lawsuits, skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates, stupid disclaimers and warning labels on products... they line their own pockets at the expense of all of the rest of us.
- $65 million Texas verdict: driver at twice the legal blood limit
- Warning on fireplace log: 'risk of fire'
- Suicide- Attempt Survivor Sues
- Pitcher hit by line drive sues maker of baseball bat
(Links found at overlawyered.com)
Buying politicians... can anyone reasonably deny that the Democrat party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ATLA? They routinely kill tort-reform legislation, and this time around one of their own - Edwards, who made his money suing doctors - is running for President. G-d help us all if someone like him is ever President.
Because of what these litigious brigands do and how they do it, I can read stories like this and feel little pity.
I say it's time to shut down the ATLA under the provisions of RICO. While lining their pockets, they make the goods and services I buy more expensive, they restrict my freedom to choose what to eat or drink, smoke, wear, shoot, or even how to entertain myself. They must be stopped, and the irony of doing so in a court of law makes the potential for justice so much sweeter.
There's just one problem...
Where am I going to find a lawyer?
Update, 19May2006: Almost three years later, Captain Ed has some good news.
No, they aren't talking about how-to lessons, but...
Sex lessons for five-year-olds 'should be compulsory'Compulsory? Compulsory?
Sorry, this is just plain wrong. Yes, there are things kids need to know, but... shouldn't parents have a say in such matters? Not just a say, but the final word?
I swear, if I ever have kids [which would mainly entail finding the perfect woman, e.g., one who will go out with me], I'm putting them in private schools.
Clue-by-four.
Why do I say "clue-by-four"?
Clue-by-four.
I know for fact that the term "clue-by-four" pre-dates the trademark in question. Being in the tech-support business, I have used the term "clue-by-four" regularly since at least 1997.
Clue-by-four.
This reminds me of the time some yahoo tried to trademark the term "Linux" out from under Linus Torvalds and then blackmailextract payment from all varieties of Linux vendors.
Joel McClung needs a clue-by-four to the side of the head.
Clue-by-four.
(Links found in various places, but thanks to His Imperial Majesty for the heads-up.)
... but I couldn't pass this up.
Today's Best of the Web references this story from Reuters, the "news" service. Commenting, BOTW editor James Taranto says
Reuters won't call Osama bin Laden a terrorist, but it will use the phrase many Iraqis, with no scare quotes, to describe 0.00002% of the population.
Rather than castigated, Reuters should be congratulated. They have, after all, advanced the mathematical sciences to the aboriginal level, wherein counting often consists of "one, two, many."
I know Rachel will like this....
You could call it an unintended consequence. The sad state of the treatment of the mentally ill in this country (largely due to the meddling of the ACLU and the politically-motivated brainless positions of organizations like the APA) leads to events like this one happening every day. Of course, it's only considered newsworthy when the irony is overwhelming.
Members of the nation's largest psychiatric association discovered San Francisco's mentally ill homeless problem up close this week, as they stepped out of their annual convention and were surprised -- some say shocked -- by the legions of people living on the street.
I'm shocked - shocked! - to hear of mental patients on the streets! I wonder who put them there?
The worst, however, came when an official of the American Psychiatric Association, a Baltimore doctor known for being an advocate for the indigent mentally ill, was assaulted by an apparently homeless man with a history of psychiatric problems.
Thus enters the irony. "Advocate for the indigent mentally ill"? What exactly does this doctor advocate? I'll wager that the short list of causes she advocates would include free needle exchanges, bigger cash welfare payouts, and taxpayer-funded "halfway" housing.
I'll further wager that her list doesn't include what would actually be best for some of these unfortunate people: institutionalization.
Knocked unconscious by the seemingly random attack near Union Square on Sunday morning, the doctor spent the week recovering at San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Geetha Jayaram, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the scientific program committee chairwoman of the psychiatric association, is expected to be released soon.
Released soon....
Police arrested Aaron Matthew Hull, 32, who has no local address and has a history of being detained for psychiatric evaluations, according to law enforcement sources. He was being held in the county jail on two felony counts of assault and battery and is scheduled to appear in court today to determine if he is competent to face charges.
Mr. Hull won't be released soon. Nor will he receive the help he really needs.
The irony of the attack was not lost on the association's members and other convention goers, many of whom said that they'd been noting the large numbers of homeless people on the streets ever since they arrived Saturday.
Read, "we know this sort of thing happens all the time, but it's not supposed to happen to us!"
"It's kind of shocking," said James McNulty, head of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. "I've been walking around the hotels and up the hill to Fisherman's Wharf. It was very disheartening."
The shocking thing is the limited way we as a society are permitted to handle the seriously mentally ill. Again, thanks mainly to the ACLU and the APA.
Long before the attack happened, the APA had planned a news conference Wednesday to publicize past and future threatened cuts to what the group's leaders called the nation's "crumbling mental health system." More than 27 million people with mental health problems are facing "personal health care disasters," they said, because of Medicaid and state funding cuts to mental health programs.
Said mental health programs often being little more than outpatient clinics for people who need more intense care.
"Imagine what it would be like to have heart disease and be told, 'Sorry, there is a budget crisis, we can't afford your beta blockers,' " McNulty said at the news conference. "Can you imagine the outcry?"
Well, most folks have this thing called "insurance."
McNulty, who lives in Omaha, said that he had "never seen greater contrast between degradation and great wealth. If you think things are bad in San Francisco now, wait until the cuts happen. And I'm not just talking like Chicken Little."
San Francisco's problems are many and have various causes. But the problem they have with homeless mentally ill people are of their own making. When you subsidize homelessness, you get more homeless people. Duh.
Jayaram had come to the convention, which drew about 19,000 participants, to speak, among other topics, about outreach to indigent mentally ill people in India.
At this point I have to wonder how much this conference cost everyone involved. I also have to wonder a) were the attendees talking about more taxpayer funding, and b) how much the attendees donate to charity every year?
Her husband, Jay Kumar, said his wife is "doing better but not 100 percent right yet."
If there's any one thing we can surmise from this tale, it is that Mr. Hull will likely never be "100 percent right." He certainly will not receive the care he needs by being paid by the city of San Francisco to live on the streets.
....
I am a "government minimalist" sort of almost-libertarian. I really don't see the compelling interest the government has in taking my dollars to distribute in the form of what are euphemistically referred to as "transfer payments" - i.e., social programs.
There is one set of cases, though, in which social spending is not only in our best interest, but is the right thing to do: programs to care for those who are unable to care for themselves.
Not unwilling. Unable.
Unable doesn't mean "well, I didn't bother to save for my retirement," it doesn't mean "I'm 16 and having my second baby so pay me," it most certainly and emphatically does not mean "buy me medical care even though I can afford a big-screen TVs and cable in my house."
Unable means mentally or physically incapable of providing for one's self. That really leaves only a few general categories of people: orphaned children, disabled veterans, and the seriously mentally ill, for instance.
Time doesn't allow for me to go into the role I think families should be playing in any of these types of situations, but suffice it to say that there are some few circumstances wherein a family is not an answer - the danger-to-themselves-and-others mentally ill, orphans with no family whatsoever, and so on. But all in all, the numbers of such situations are not huge.
I really don't have it in me to comment on the rest of the article. It's too sad.
I swear, just when I thought I'd made my case, more evidence appears.
In my last two posts, I explained some of the reasons I left California, despite being that rarity, a native Californian descended from a generation or two of native Californians.
Yes, the state has gone to eternal perdition in some sort of woven container. Yes, the gun laws are unreasonably severe for law-abiding folks like me - and the proposed ones are even worse.
But just when I thought I wouldn't need to explain further, this little tidbit popped up in the Washington Post on Wednesday:
California Gov. Gray Davis unveiled an overhauled $96-billion budget on Wednesday that relies heavily on more borrowing paired with tax increases and spending cuts aimed at closing a record shortfall projected at $38 billion.
Un... bloody... believeable.
A $96-billion budget.
Say it again - a 96 billion dollar budget. $96,000,000,000.00 - just look at all those zeros. By comparison, Russia's 2002 budget was a paltry $43-billion - with a $2-billion surplus (numbers courtesy of the CIA 2002 World Factbook.)
$38 billion "shortfall".
None dare call it "deficit." None, at least, at the WaPo... not while a Socialist Democrat is governor of California.
More borrowing.
Way to go, guys - mortgage the future to pay for the excesses of today. I'll bet Grey "Red" Davis never expected the business cycle to kick in quite so hard when he was jacking up the social spending (read, "vote buying"). Kiss the White House goodbye, you poltroon.
Tax increases.
Ah, yes - the Democrat solution to every problem. What Red fails to understand is that higher taxes are an incentive for the people paying the most to leave the state. He must have skipped the Economics courses at college....
Hey, Red, get this: I left and took my moderately well-paid job out of the state with me. Tax this, you idiot.
According to some self-appointed damned silly poltroons environmentalist-type people, if everyone were like me, with my environmental footprint, it would take 12.8 Earths to support the human race.
I imagine that most of it comes down to the fact that I drive a big gas-sucking SUV - always alone. And I eat a lot of meat. And I am the sole occupant of my house. And I am an American.
I had no idea I was such a greedy bastard. Therefore, I shall adopt a new slogan, a new way of life - a new way of looking at environmentalism:
Earth First! - We'll get around to raping the other planets later.
I'll be burning down the house (with the SUV in the garage), moving to Haiti and converting to veganism... uh... soon. Ya, soon....
Don't hold your breath, unless you're an eco-nazi, in which case, please hold your breath - forever.
(Thanks to Acidman for the pointer.)
UPDATE: Steve at Little Tiny Lies helpfully points out that I left out any mention of guns. While I don't really think they impact the world as much as my SUV does (until I flip out and start shooting the bunnies in my backyard, etc.), they do make me more evil merely by the fact that I own them. Yes, them. Rifles. Shotguns. Pistols. Note that all are mentioned in the plural.
How evil am I now?
(Also, Steve, please note that "TacJammer" might be defined as "one who operates a TacJam.")
One of my regular reads Trevalyan posts a Most Righteous Fisking of that Iraq Minister of Information wannabee himself, Robert "25 loo roll" Fisk.
"BBC Style" can only be used in the same oxymoron competition as "French hygiene" or "Jean Chretien's Clarity Bill" but I'll bite. It's because more than 40 countries are gunning for America to win this war, and Poland, Australia, Britain, Spain, and CANADA (in the strangest military policy in human history, we have more Allied military assets in theatre than anyone but the USA or UK, yet can't even support the American action. Go figure.) are all helping bring down the den of evil. How many countries are actively hoping Saddam will win?Not even their idiot governments have that large a death wish. I assure you, however, the free peoples are taking notes.
Read the whole thing. (Harsh language warning....)
UPDATE: see this post for a partial retraction. But go ahead and read this one. It is substantially valid.
Thomas Friedman drools all over the pages of the International Herald Tribune today. His article is too long to duplicate here, but let me summarize his main points:
- Bush is a cowboy without a posse
- Iraq cannot be liberated and turned into a democracy without the UN
- Bush's limited diplomatic efforts were a failure
- so we go to war alone
- The Bush administration needs an "attitude lobotomy" [his words] and should immediately prostrate itself before the world
- [Spurious comparison with Israel's Six Day War]
- America must repeat the success of the Marshall Plan
Point by point,
1) Bush is a cowboy without a posse.Tommy boy, let me introduce you to the posse.
2) Iraq cannot be liberated and turned into a democracy without the UN.The examples of history (Germany and Japan, to name the most prominent two) would seem to pretty thoroughly refute this proposition.
3) Bush's limited diplomatic efforts were a failure...Failure? Bush walked away from the diplomatic process with his principles uncompromised and no one able to stop him doing exactly what he wanted to do. I'd call that a diplomatic victory. A diplomatic trumph (getting the UN to come along on the mission) would have been nice, but it really isn't going to be necessary.
4) so we go to war alone.See point 1) above. How many effing times does it have to be said? I know, I know, the Left really really really wants the "unilateralism" meme to spread... but it's utterly false, and must be combatted at every turn.
5) The Bush administration needs an "attitude lobotomy" [his words] and should immediately prostrate itself before the world.A lobotomy might be necessary, but it's not the Bush administration that needs it. Yes Tom, I'm looking at you.
6) [Comparison with aftermath of Israel's Six Day War]I'm not sure what point he is trying to make here. The US is not in quite the same situation Israel was in back in 1967. Israel was not trying to remake any of its enemies into democracies, it was trying to make its enemies into corpses - that's what hapens when your back is up against the metaphorical wall.
7) America must repeat the success of the Marshall PlanGood lord... Tommy gets something right! Of course, he is merely belaboring the obvious... but he makes it sound as though without his advise the US might instead topple the Hussein regime and immediately walk away from Iraq. Golly, Tommy, thanks for the help!
Imperial Department of Hegemony By Force
