Saddam on trial

Omar over at Iraq the Model gives a uniquely Iraqi view on Saddam's trail today.

If anyone still doubts this monster needed to be removed, read Omar's words.

Another Voice on the port deal

Odysseus is the nom de blog of someone I first met over on Cathy Seipp's blog. He's got a pretty darn sharp entry on the port deal that's generating so much smoke in the blogosphere right now.

I enjoy Odysseus' milblog and am blogrolling him over on the sidebar.

We have a trifecta

First there was the story about stolen beer, then the truck full of whiskey that burned.

Finally, here's a story about a small distillery that is planning to produce 184 proof whiskey. That's 92% pure alcohol. The whiskey will be distilled four times, and they plan on producing about 5,000 bottles of the stuff.

If all 5,000 bottles of that stuff caught fire, the small distillery will beat the NASA probe to Pluto......


Why is it these weird stories tend to run in groups of three?

The world of Art

Is rather completely divorced from the world of sanity these days....

A Dutch "artist" has put hairstyles on cars. That's right, he put hairdos on cars and is displaying them as art. One of the cars sports a mullet. A bright orange mullet.

Now, I can't under any circumstances think of the words mullet and art coexisting in the same context. But maybe that's just me.

And this is even worse

It must be booze related news day today.

A shipment of Scotch whiskey burned up, causing a loss of $240,000. That's a lot of whiskey....

Apparently, a tire on the truck burst, causing the resulting damage.

Having been behind 18-wheelers when one of the tires caught fire and burst, it's a wonder there aren't more stories like this.

Now THIS is serious

Someone made off with $26,000 worth of beer. A semi-trailer load of the stuff was stolen from a trucking company. This could be a crisis! Prices could skyrocket as the shortage is felt!

Be on the lookout for the thieves, who will likely be making frequent stops to use the rest room.....

Those who forget history

I read an article like this and I frankly wonder what in heck they are teaching in schools these days. It certainly isn't history.

The article implies that it is some kind of revelation that gladiators had a strict code of conduct. Although the forensic proof is interesting, it only confirms what was already well known and documented. But one would have to have actually read and understood some history to be aware of facts, I guess.

The real tour-de-force of ignorance in this article is the caption of the picture. It describes the individuals shown as being dressed as gladiators.

They are dressed as Roman Legionaries.

When Political Correctness takes over...

Newspapers call a terrorist a "radical environmental activist".

A man who bills himself as a member of the Earth Liberation Front has been indicted for demonstrating how to build a firebomb. The speech he was giving occurred only a short time after an apartment complex under construction was firebombed. This guy is also an ex-con who spent four years in prison for firebombing an animal testing facility.

It is only a matter of time until the Earth Liberation Front kills people. Terrorists always escalate things.

The media has got to start calling people like this for what they really are and stop legitimizing them as "activists".

Voodoo

This is a perfect example with what's wrong with academia today.

A college president in Canada has banned WiFi from the campus because he's afraid of the effects of electromagnetic radiation.

"Some studies have indicated that there are links to carcinogenetic
occurrences in animals, including humans, that are related to energy fields
associated with wireless hotspots, whether those hotspots are transmissions
lines, whether they're outlets, plasma screens, or microwave ovens that
leak."

Those "studies" were widely discredited. They were exceptionally badly done epidemiological studies and results could not be replicated. Doesn't matter to this guy though. Because it's all voodoo science, all the time. (One wonders from this guy's resume if he was involved in the discredited research).

For those who bother to remember such things, the electromagnetic radiation hype was the big scare tactic before the recent global warming meme. But it was too easily debunked.

I spent my entire career around extremely high EMF and suffered no ill effects. Other than the need to blog.

Oh, and I don't need a nightlight anymore......

Update: Well, it seems that some people are still actively flogging this horse (or were a few years ago), which I didn't realize. I found this link on the EPA website. If you can wade through it, you have a very strong case of masochism. The highlight, a slight majority of the participants voted that there was some very limited support for the idea that EMF might, possibly, maybe could cause a slight increase in cancers in children. All of the other findings were rejected.

Dubai port deal

I try not to jump right away on a lot of stories. Partially, this is mistrust of a lot of the sources these days, partly it's some kind of sixth sense that something is wrong with the story I'm hearing. I can't really explain what triggers this, but it does happen.

So, that's the long version on why I haven't posted on the takeover of the P&O company by a company based in Dubai.

Rather than rehash what a lot of other people have started to realize - that this may very well be a political spin meme - I send anyone interested over to Mike's America for his take on it.

I'm not really happy with the way the Administration handled this one, they could have really stuffed Schumer and company if they had done this right.

Nigeria update

Well, this is not a good sign of things to come. The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria has issued a pretty strongly worded warning to the Muslim extremists that violence is not the exclusively reserved for their use alone.

There may be a full blown religious war brewing. The West must start paying attention to this situation.

Meanwhile, our MSM boldly hides.

Batcave discovered!!

Batman's secret lair, the Batcave has been discovered!

Ok, not really, but they have found a cavern large enough for two helicopters to fly into. They can land next to the massive waterfall.

Be careful though. They also discovered poison frogs there.

Today's Criminal Mastermind

A guy gets himself pulled over by the police for driving erratically. He identifies himself as Robert Carmer.

The police were somewhat suspicious, though, It seems he had the name "Cecil" tattooed on the back of his neck.

Cecil was booked on several charges including having a methamphetamine lab in his car.....

Note to would be criminals. Police pay attention to identifying marks like tattoos. It is particularly dumb to tattoo your name on the back of your neck. Besides, it looks like your Mom put a label on you like she did on your underwear before you went to camp.

And on a related note

Somehow, this sort of thing keeps happening. Weird stories seem to come in groups.

Close on the heels of the previous post about San Francisco experimenting with turning dog feces into electricity comes this item:

A 7-year old girl in India has ritually married a stray dog in a ceremony designed to ward off the evil eye. They say she will be able to marry a man in the normal fashion later on.

Frankly, I don't believe the "evil eye" story. I think they heard about the San Francisco program and decided to begin cornering the Indian Market in dog feces futures. There will likely be a brisk trade in those in coming years as the program takes off. They are positioning the family to be the Standard Oil of dog poo.

Go ahead, poo-poo my theory.

Novel recycling program

San Francisco is planning to begin testing a program to turn animal waste into electricity. Apparently, they determined that 4% of all waste going to landfills were animal feces. (Did someone count? Man, who drew that short straw?) So they will be collecting the waste and diverting it to a methane digester. The methane will be used to generate electricity.

Personally, I want full credit for coming up with the perfect name for this program:

Crap for Kilowatts!

Saudi Arabia, eat your heart out!

Talk about having a bad day

Guy plays air guitar. Guy falls out window to his death.

A man in Singapore got a bit overexuberant while imitating a rock star. He was bouncing on a bed and bounced the wrong way. He went out the window and fell three stories.

The incident has been classified as death by misadventure.

Who says rock and roll will never die?

A word of advice

The Netherlands have seen an increase in dart-related accidents since a Dutchman won the World Darts Tournament.

Blue Crab Boulevard is here to help with Gaius' handy dart tips (pun intended).

1. Sharp end goes AWAY from the player. Those little thingies on the back of the darts, called flights, should help you locate the correct end.

2. If you cannot locate the sharp end, you should consider taking up another sport. At once.

3. Allow other players to retrieve their darts and return to a safe location before you throw your darts. Unless the other player was a jerk and didn't buy a round of drinks.

4. There are NO goalies in darts. Don't fall for that one, newbies.

5. Darts are quite light. One does not need a major league baseball wind-up to throw. If the dart rebounds and the sharp end gets you, you threw too hard.

6. If the sharp end is coming towards you, duck.

7. It is considered bad manners to stick other players with the sharp ends. See exception in number 3 (above).

8. Remember to buy the requisite number of drinks. Or expect the exception noted in number 3 (above) will likely happen to you.

9. If a player has an entourage, a huge dart case and a world dart championship jacket, do not play for money.

10. If another player hits you with the sharp end, consider the appropriate response. About .45 caliber is right.

Everyone be safe out there!

Events in Nigeria

Judith Apter Klinghoffer has a post up on HNN about Nigeria. It is not very encouraging. Appeasement of Muslim extremists has been interpreted as weakness on the Christian's part. This has, in turn, escalated violence and murder.

Appeasement has never worked against violent extremists. Our media should be aware of this by now. But they are either blind or outright deluding themselves. Or both.

H/T LGF for the link

She's HOW old?

A 62 year old great-grandmother has just given birth to her 12th child.

She's three years away from retirement age and just gave birth? Good Lord. She's a glutton for punishment.

This is creative

The little town of Marne, Iowa has come up with a novel plan to increase it's population from 149 to 200.

Give away free land.

It appears that they have been swamped with applications since the program was announced. They will allow modular homes, but no trailers.

Here's the application.

This is interesting

A former stripper turned evangelical Christian reaches out to sex industry workers. She goes into strip clubs and pays for lap dances so she can talk to the dancers about her faith. She and her fellows are attending adult industry events to hand out bibles wrapped in T-Shirts that say "Holy Hottie" on them. She's running a website to reach out as well. These are three very attractive young women, incidentally. (I don't recall ever seeing church ladies that looked like this in any congregation I attended!)


Here's the JC's Girls website.

I used to work with a guy who's wife went bananas if he went into a strip club. He should read this article, it will help him out.

"That wasn't a lap dance, dear. It was a theological discussion!"

Anger management

Is not this guy's strong suit. A Florida man has been charged with killing his roommate. Well, more than just killing him actually. He beat the other man to death using a sledgehammer and a claw hammer. The victim had to be identified by his fingerprints.

The two men were arguing over toilet paper. I'd call this a bit of an over-reaction.....

This sounds fun

You're out for a nice cruise on the lake. You motor along enjoying the fine weather. Suddenly you are struck in the head by 100 pounds of frightened carp.

Kind of spoils the day, doesn't it? Well, it may happen to the Great Lakes. Non-native carp species are moving up the Mississippi River toward the Great Lakes.

Apparently, the fish were being farmed in Arkansas and escaped when flooding occurred. What in the world would anybody farm carp for?

Those wacky Brits

I've heard of turning the other cheek before, but this is a new twist.

"A man attempting to walk the length of Britain wearing nothing but a hat,
boots and a rucksack completed his marathon trek and celebrated by putting his
clothes back."

"Gough and his partner, 34-year-old hairdresser Melanie Roberts, completed the
last 20 miles of their 874-mile (1,363-kilometre) walk from Land's End,
southwest England in temperatures of about five degrees celsius (41 degrees
Fahrenheit)."

That's kind of chilly to be walking around in your birthday suit. This is his second naked ramble, by the way. He's been arrested several times.

The Stones play Rio

Something about this is just wrong.

Forget the fact that Mick Jagger is 62.

Forget the fact that the police had to occupy several poor areas near the concert to prevent violence.

Forget the fact that the band was separated from fans by a VIP area.

Let's focus on the city of Rio paying $750,000 to host the concert. Which is about 16% of the cost of putting the show on. $750,00 is to 16% as X is to 100%.

It cost around $4.7 MILLION to have the Stones play?

What is wrong with this picture?

Exporting Criminal Masterminds...

Actually, we don't have to export them. They turn up all over.


Like the German man who didn't like the quality of the pot he had bought. After trying to get a refund fro the dealer, he turned to the police for satisfaction.


No word on when he will be released.....

A million a day

For a whole year!

Someone (sadly, not me) won a record 365 million dollars in the latest Powerball drawing.

Wow - I literally have no idea what I could possibly do with that much money.....



Not that I wouldn't like to try, mind you......

Open house

The famous (Infamous?) red light district in Amsterdam has been beset recently by some image problems. Some officials have been moving to shut down or increase regulation of the area. To help persuade the public of their good intentions, the district had an open house, inviting people to come see what the district was like. They offered reduced or even free admissions to the - er - establishments, tours and some bars offered a free drink.

Below is a picture of some of the festivities. This just goes to show the sheer depravity of the area in general. This blight upon western civilization should be removed immediately. I mean, really, this is obscene.

That man is playing an ACCORDION for heaven's sake. Have you no shame?

Some interesting Statistics

A pretty thorough round-up of gun statistics can be found here. There is a lot of detail.


H/T Tom's Common Sense for the link

Yet another controversy

It appears that the design of the 2006 Olympic medals are generating some jeers, with some athletes likening them to CD's. According to the designer, the hole in the middle "reveals the area of the chest under which the heart and life beat". The Olympic organizers are denying the medals look like CD's. Now this is an absurd comparison to make, as the medals obviously do not look like CD's, as you can readily see below:




They look like 45's. No word on whether they will actually play on your old turntable, though.

Criminal Mastermind Department

This is unusual. A guy tries to hold up a drugstore and a gas station using an odd choice for a weapon. The criminal was wielding a blowtorch. (He tried to rob a GAS STATION with a blowtorch? ) He failed in both attempts.

The man escaped after a fight with the gas station attendant. He was described as 5' - 2" in height, weighing 220 pounds and wearing a tan fishing hat. Hmmm.


Too short to be this guy:






(Besides, Earl Hindman is, sadly, dead. I think I miss Wilson the most from that show)

But she knew how the trial would turn out

A self-proclaimed psychic and fortune teller pleaded guilty to taking more than two million dollars from elderly clients over an eight year period. The cop who was supposed to be investigating her also pleaded guilty to taking money from her to block the investigation.

Two million dollars over 8 years. That's a quarter of a million dollars a year.


And I'm BLOGGING?


Wait, I see a great future..........

This is bizarre

A young woman has had her prosthetic leg(s) stolen.

Again.

This is the second time in just three months. The second time. The mind boggles. Actually, I suspect someone has been watch A Christmas Story too much. They just wanted one of these:

I'm guessing here

Ok, if this guy is a heterosexual, my guess is he will never get another date in his home country of Russia. He announced that Russian women are too big to figure skate and were better suited to working on railroads in Siberia.

For his sake, I kind of hope he's gay. Otherwise, he's going to be very lonely.

Give me a "J"

Give me an "A", give me an "I", give me an "L". What's that spell? JAIL.

The North Korean Government has apparently sent 21 cheerleaders to prison. Their crime? Telling others what they saw on a trip to South Korea. In other words, telling the truth go them jailed. Lovely country.

Anyone care to guess why? Maybe because it's much nicer in South Korea than in the North. And Kim doesn't want that known.

The REAL story

Well, the newest completely fact-free meme running around on the left is that Cheney was drinking before his hunting accident. I really can't state it better than Cathy Seipp did, so I won't try.

But we now know where the real cover-up is! At Stanford University on the Left Coast, that's where. Drunken trees, not drunken veeps!

Winter weather

It started this morning with freezing rain. A hard, almost metallic sounding tick, tick, ticking as the drops hit. Part of it was wet and froze on contact with the ground and covered the cars in ice; part of it was hard little pellets that stung when it hit exposed skin. The kids listened hopefully to the television, watching the scrolling list of delays and cancellations. Schools all around us were starting two hours late. The next district over from us closed completely. Their hopes diminished as it came closer and closer to time for the bus to arrive. But they held on until it was time to go out. Hope dies slowly when praying for a snow day.

Snow day, that magical phrase from childhood. A day to sit around, watch television, read, goof off or just pick on your siblings until you drive your parents out of their minds. Snow days were different when I was a kid. There weren’t as many as there are today. Of course, we also didn’t have busing in the city I grew up in. Television during the day was just a few network affiliates showing daytime soap operas, so that wasn’t much fun. But there was always the get on your siblings’ last nerve to fall back on. We did that a lot in our house anyway, didn’t really need a snow day.

Today we have busing, with long rural routes out where we live. The roads are often unpaved and can be treacherous when the ice forms. So they cancel school pretty regularly. The kids have satellite television now, so there’s usually something they can watch. And there are always video games to play; sometimes board games come out of the closets, too. Yet they still excel at picking on each other. They find a chink in one another’s armor and dig mercilessly at it until everyone is unhappy. By the next day, everyone is ready to go back to school.

Well, we finally got a bit of snow. It’s really been a mild winter here so far.

Cartoon Jihad

Our lovely Mainstream Media and their fellow travelers on the hard left have more in common with the Islamofascists every day.

The Islamofascists whip up a frenzy by getting Mullahs and Imams to scream about the offense against Islam given by a few relatively mild cartoons published in a small Danish newspaper. They provide rent-a-mobs to riot and burn embassies and KFC restaurants.

The American media attempts to whip up a frenzy over the Vice President's shooting accident over the weekend. They are screaming and carrying on because the "White House waited almost 24 hours" before telling them about the incident. They continue to flog this, feigning outrage that the White House press secretary attempted to make a small joke about the incident while gleefully publishing every joke they could find made by late night talk show hosts.

The American media, with only a few exceptions, have refused to print the Muslim-offending cartoons "out of respect" for Islam. No such respect is shown to fellow Americans. The ghouls in the press corps surround the hospital the shooting victim is in. You can tell from the commentary that they really don't want the man to recover. The Koz Kidz are openly speculating on what to do when the man dies, making unfounded accusations that alcohol was involved and in general acting like the Jihadi rent-a-mobs. Without the rioting. But I'm sure someone over there will be calling for that soon, too.

All this serves to take the media focus off real problems that should be getting coverage. There were riots in Pakistan that reportedly had 70,000 people involved. The Iranians have restarted uranium enrichment. Ah well, much easier to whip up a frothing rage over an accident.

Couple to wed

At the funeral home where they met.......

Well, it's not the strangest place ever picked for a wedding. This guy once performed a marriage ceremony for a couple. They were in a whirlpool tub filled with orange Jello.......He's got some other ones that are funny, too.

What concerns me about this story is that the bride and groom, Daisy Judy and John Franko, have FOUR first names between them. That's the real problem here!

Michigan - where men are men

And sheep are nervous!

A Michigan man who pleaded no contest to charges of sodomizing a sheep will have to register as a sex offender. He was apparently caught red - er - handed by the sheep's owner, but they still matched "genetic material" found in the sheep to the offender.

They ran a rape kit on a sheep? Even though he was caught in the act?

Things must be pretty slow for the sheriff's office in Calhoun County.....

But registering as a sheep molester serves no good purpose. Sheep can't read.......

It's funny how it all works

I give the tagline I used below, then I find this on FARK.

Democratic Party Strategy

The Democrats have a huge image problem. Many people have noticed they are simply not credible on National Defense. There are many, many people out there who have made comments like "I voted for Bush only because he was strong on defense".

So, the Democrats need to get credible. One way to do that is to run candidates who happen to be veterans of the Iraq war and dislike the administration's policies. The Senate race in Ohio was a case in point. The Democrats recruited Paul Hackett, a war veteran, to run there.

Then they decided to go with a different candidate who happens to already be in Congress. They went so far as to call Mr. Hackett's contributors and ask them not to give any more money to him.

Mr. Hackett dropped out of the race today. He's also likely dropping out of politics altogether.

Who the hell is doing their strategy? Alfred E. Newman?

Valentine’s Day

My wife is my best friend. She is the mother of my children, even to the older two who are not really hers. She is the best fan I have ever had. She encourages me, stands by me and loves me, even though I am far from perfect. She puts up with my moods and my hobbies.

On this Valentine’s Day, I bought her flowers and a card. That’s all she will want and she’ll likely be somewhat miffed that I even bought those for her. She’s funny like that. But still, I had to do something to show her I love her.

I am also in charge of getting flowers to my son’s fiancé today. He’s at Fort Riley preparing to deploy to Iraq and asked me to help him out. So I had the florist deliver two bouquets today. I think he feels the same way about his intended as I feel about my wife.

I hope he does. There is no better feeling than being loved.

Well, the MSM is up to their usual high standards

Today we have reporters and editors all over the MSM carrying on about Cheney and his hunting accident. Reporters are whining that they weren't told about the accident soon enough. Editors are whining about the dark conspiracies. The NYT really steps in it be declaring:

"The vice president appears to have behaved like a teenager who thinks that
if he keeps quiet about the wreck, no one will notice that the family car is
missing its right door."

To which one has to answer: Chappaquidick

I swear these clowns would be pathetic if they weren't so potentially dangerous.

By the way, the local sheriff's office cleared Cheney of any wrongdoing in the accident.

Update: And a lot of these jokes from TV "comedians" are frankly not very good. They really blew it by trying to get too political. They don't need to be ham handed to be funny. (And I thought my joke was 'way better, too!)

Good for him

The spokesman for the new Ex-Dictator Diet!

So Saddam isn't eating. Good for him. Maybe he'll understand what it was like for many of his victims then.

I have to get one of these!

Just the thing to get rid of pesky varmints and take over the neighborhood!


A real .22 caliber Gatling Gun! How cool is this?

Well, this seems useless

A Japanese company is selling a one meter long robot fishing boat.

This seems like a really silly waste of money. If the boat hooks onto a big fish, it better be submarine capable!

Every time he opens his mouth...

... He provides more evidence that he was never fit to be the President.

Al Gore is completely deranged. Both he and former President Clinton have recently made anti-US statements to the Arabs. This is beyond the bounds of proper behavior.

Keep talking guys - you're painting a wonderful picture of the Democratic party for the moderates.

I see there's no ego in this guy's family

.. Because he has all of it!

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Belusconi compares himself to Jesus. That's after last week's claim that he was like Napoleon. Modest sort of fellow isn't he. How far we've come, though. Comments like this get a tiny mention in the news nowadays. Not so long ago, John Lennon's similar comment made headlines around the world.

Pheasant? I thought you said PEASANT...

Dick Cheney accidentally shoots a fellow hunter.

Some of the comment boards have people posting idiocy about this incident. It was an accident, pure and simple.

Talk about a housing bubble

When a small ranch house in Valparaiso, Indiana is assessed at 400 million dollars, things have gotten totally out of hand.....

Apparently, someone accidentally accessed the computer system and changed the value. Local officials didn't notice, though and badly overspent tax revenues as a result. Now the local government is saying there may be layoffs as a result...

I hope I never open a tax bill like that poor guy got. Apparently, they asked him for $8 million!

Something sounds fishy

A conservation group says it has found a Japanese website that advertises whale meat for use as dog food.

While I'm not a big fan of whaling in general and don't for one minute believe the Japanese "scientific research" explanation for their activities, this sounds, well, fishy. I find it a bit hard to believe single issue advocates in general, but this is too convenient. It sounds like something specifically produced to raise outrage.

I wonder if it gives the dogs a shiny coat, though.......

Do you have that in a size 11?

Residents of the Dutch island of Terschelling found a container of athletic shoes washed up on the beach. Apparently, several containers were lost from a cargo ship passing nearby. Police were guarding the containers but allowed locals to get a few pairs of shoes.

No word on how many wooden shoe industry workers have lost jobs.....

Heads up!

So a woman returns from a trip to Haiti. Custom officials check her luggage and find a package containing a human head. Apparently the head was needed to protect her from evil spirits. She is arrested and charged with a variety of offenses. This line caught my eye:

It was unclear who Severe's attorney was, but the prosecutor's office said bail
was set at $100,000 during an initial appearance

So far the head isn't talking.......

Say, pardner.....

We hang rustlers in these parts....

Even mushroom rustlers! These guys were caught with detailed records of how many mushrooms they had rustled over a period of time.

Memo to self: do not keep detailed records of crimes laying about for the police to find....

This is appalling

Ok, I think it's official. Death penalty opponents are completely out of touch with reality. Being opposed to it is fine, they have that right. What they do not have the right to do is produce faked letters asking for clemency.

Lawyers for a convicted rapist/murderer sent falsified letters supposedly from jurors in the original trial.

Being a zealous advocate does not include lying or forging documents. The lawyers should be disbarred.

This is neat

The first undisturbed tomb found in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt since King Tut.

I guess I didn't realize it had been that long since one was discovered.

Woman cuts in line...

...guard shoots woman.


Why am I reminded of Blazing Saddles?


"Man, is he strict."

Wow, better make sure you have the correct fare

This is one cranky bus driver. But it does kind of demonstrate something I've said before on other blogs. Sometimes behaving badly in public can get you hurt.... (No, I am not defending the bus driver, but yelling at people generally isn't a real good way to go, either.)

Greek follies

Must be the day for odd Greek news....

First we have a drive-in bank robbery. No, they really drove into the bank and robbed it.

Then we have a big drug bust. The cops busted, well, the cops.

There's a CIRCUIT for this?

Well, learn at least one thing new every day. They have an annual tower run at the Empire State Building.

There are people who enter tower runs every year. As in race-to-the-top in the stairwells. There is actually a racing circuit for this. Who knew?

Sadly, they lost their long time last place finisher this year. He died at age 93 after 15 appearances.

This is odd

There seem to have been a lot of criminal cases in the news lately featuring church pastors. All of them from California. Now comes what may be the strangest one yet.

A pastor was just indicted for smuggling sharks. That's right, sharks. I would never have guessed that their was a black market for sharks, but this guy sold a bunch of them......

What the heck is going on out in California?

Speaking of criminal masterminds

Things in the Palestinian territories are not going too well. There's a lot of unrest, violence and severe money shortages. So, what's a terrorist to do?

Simple, kidnap one of your only friends at gunpoint.

Wonderful

I got into comments on some blogs recently over the Alito confirmation. One of the memes that some of the commenters were leaving were snarky things like "Glad you're ok with strip searching children". That was in reference to a case Alito had ruled on.

Well, I guess maybe it is ok to search children....

Omaha police have arrested an 11-year-old boy as a robbery suspect. The boy,
already sought on suspicion of burglary, and a 15-year-old companion were armed
with BB guns.

Lovely.

Wow. This is harsh.

Poor lad is just trying to use the restroom on the bus. The bus swerves and he is thrown out the window, landing on the New York State Thruway. Fortunately, he will be ok.



Man, I hope he had time to zip. Otherwise we might have to call him "Bob".

How not to blog

Ok, generally posting pictures of yourself or your friends doing something illegal is somewhat less than smart.....

Welcome to the internet age.....

A very unusual mail bomb

I can't say as I have ever heard of using condoms as explosive devices.


It does add a whole new dimension to the term blow job, though.....

(Couldn't help myself. It was too good to pass up.)

Save the planet! Squash a pedestrian!

This is rather funny, in a dead serious kind of way. Silent hybrid cars are a menace to pedestrians. The funniest lines in this story:

Some suggest hybrid manufacturers add a beep that would go off when backing
up. "Maybe we need music or a bell, like an ice-cream truck," said Prius owner
Kristen Carlisle of San Jose.
"At first glance it seems like an interesting idea," said Jim Thomas, the
California representative for the National Motorists Association. "But perhaps
not. I can imagine a crowded parking lot with all those hybrids coming and
going, and the annoying sounds would create a major noise-pollution problem.
Think road rage."

This is a prime example of the law of unintended consequences.

Yeah but was it an accident?

So, they find this chicken lying face down in the pond.

They do the Heimlich maneuver. They say a few words over the bird. Finally, a retired nurse gives the bird mouth-to-mouth - er - beak - resuscitation. The chicken makes it.

No word on how the chicken ended up in the pond in the first place.

I'd suspect fowl play.

Well, I didn't know this

I didn't realize that many of the magnificent churches in Italy actually belong to the Italian Government. I never really thought about it, but would have guessed they belonged to the Roman Catholic church.

For a thumbnail description of how that all happened, see this brief history of the reunification of Italy.

It's interesting that the history doesn't actually note the seizure of Papal lands and churches.

This is kind of neat

A very rare coin discovered in Britain. Someone got pretty darn rich from it, too....

Here's some good background on the coin, as well as pictures of it. I have coins minted this year that don't look this good!

Coenwulf ruled Mercia from 796 to 821 AD.

Throw the flag

The bullshit flag.


This is not trimming survivor benefits. This is closing a few loopholes and killing a frankly stupid and useless "benefit". A payment of $255 to cover funeral expenses is a joke. Especially since it probably costs damn near that much to administer. Requiring kids to stay in school to continue to receive death benefits is smart, not a "Republican agenda of cutting guaranteed Social Security benefits" as Pelosi put it.

Could we get some freaking perspective? Is this the "better way" the Dems propose? Continue a joke payment and give handouts to dropouts?

Oh hell

This is really, really bad news.

The Brits found NBC suits during a raid on a Mosque.

Those only have one purpose folks.

H/T LGF

Why am I not surprised.....

The Democrats did this once before at the funeral for Paul Wellstone.

The death of the widow on Martin Luther King. They could not even have the class to refrain from attacking on politics.

I honestly think they have completely lost their collective minds. They do not see that this kind of trash does not play well with the majority of Americans in the middle.


I know it's not possible, but they should be ashamed.

Holy smoke

The Brazilian Government is distributing free condoms during Carnival.


25 MILLION condoms.


According to this website, the population of the entire country is 186 million.


Sounds like much partying is expected......

Somehow, this should get tied into this article....

Disappeared posts

I originally had a post up that addressed this article. It's about a guy who threw a message in a bottle into the Atlantic, only to get back an angry letter from England that accused him of littering.

Cute story, right?

Except the letter was signed by a Henry Bigglesworth. Recognize the name? Mr. Bigglesworth is the name of Dr. Evil's cat in the Austin Powers movies. Odd, isn't it?

Well, I came across this while checking up on the story. I had the idea of searching records myself but didn't find any easy way to do so. It looks like someone did, though.

So, another hoax, probably not perpetrated by the man in the original story.

Read everything with a skeptical eye.

Well, someone else has noticed

The "Scandal of the Day" club is getting old. And it's not working.

Maybe it's time to actually address issues instead of trying to drum up scandals.

Europe awakes?

Well, this is an interesting comment:

"We're facing a growing global crisis that has the potential to escalate
beyond the control of governments and other authorities," Prime Minister Anders
Fogh Rasmussen said.....

I think that's about right.

This is escalating and may very well spin out of control. I think many in the West are now reaching the end of patience with this behavior. I see more and more commentary that indicates bloggers, politicians and just plain folks are getting really angry about this. That everyone knows darn well at this point that this is not, and never has been, spontaneous is not helping calm the situation.

There are some moderate voices. Interestingly, Iraq is behaving in a fairly subdued fashion since Sistani came out for moderation. Maybe it just goes to show that democracies don't behave the same way as authoritarian theocracies....

More about myths

Here's an interesting article. It describes a study of Civil War veteran's health records.

What is the myth here? This line:

"Civil War battles frequently culminated in hand-to-hand combat..." (emphasis added)

I know it makes for great Hollywood and many of the paintings and illustrations made at the time show gallant hand-to-hand battles, but it just ain't so. [I'll try to find specific references in Catton.]

The Civil War had the typical problem that the tactics were from the last war while the weapons had changed. Many authors note this fact. The use of rifled .58 caliber Minnie ball ammunition against essentially Napoleonic troop concentrations meant that hand-to-hand combat actually occurred very seldom. Especially by the end of the war, trench warfare was the norm. The defense had an enormous advantage over the attackers. Most troops never used their bayonets for anything more aggressive than picking weevils out of hardtack.

That is not to say that hand-to-hand combat never occurred - it did. But it happened very infrequently indeed. You can read about the battles of the war yourself and see how seldom it actually occurred.

Offensive behavior and how to deal with it

Close on the heels of the Cartoon Wars, we find this article.

Here we have a really twisted group of "Christians" who think that they should picket the funerals of fallen soldiers. Some states want to restrict that.

As much as I think their behavior is wrong, I disagree with restricting them. I will not riot, burn their church or shoot people with no connection to them, though. Is their behavior offensive? Absolutely. Are they causing unnecessary pain to innocent people who are already suffering enough. Yes. Should they be silenced? No. Should their behavior be held up to public ridicule? Hell yes.

The correct response to this outrage is to either counter-demonstrate, picket their churches or even their homes or to try to reason with them.

Now, we all know reasoning will not work.

But somehow they must learn that their behavior is shameful. I suggest a silent vigil. No signs, no shouting, no talking. Just stand. Let the physical, silent presence of reasonable people rebuke them.

If that doesn't work, pickets outside their church and/or homes. Will any of this work? Hell, I don't know if any technique can penetrate the incredible ignorance and complete lack of human empathy these people display. But it is their right to express even the worst opinions. As it is our right to show them we don't approve of their twisted hate.

Myths, frauds and reporters.....

I just love this stuff.

Today we have another fine example of stupid, lazy or deliberately lying journalism.

This quote from a story on recycling nuclear fuel:

Other experts worry the proposal may simply be using heightened concerns
over nuclear security and weapons of mass destruction as a way to get the US
back into uranium-processing research - research the US gave up decades ago as
uneconomical and dangerous.

Pretty well wraps it up. The United States did not give recycling up because it was either uneconomical or dangerous. We gave it up because Jimmy Carter believed the extraction of Plutonium was a potential proliferation issue. Period. You can look it up yourself on the internet in about two minutes with Google.

Both Japan and France can and do recycle fuel in a closed loop system. The US uses an open loop system for one reason - politics. Recycled fuel components can be used to take up to 30% of the new fuel fabrication.

I hate this

More of my posts have been "disappeared" by Blogger... It's definitely time to get a real domain......

The Cartoon War

I’ve posted earlier about my belief that the “spontaneous” demonstrations occurring all over the Muslim world right now are a bit too conveniently timed to be believable. I think the seemingly endless supply of burnable Danish flags – in places where basic human necessities can be hard to obtain – proves the point. That the worst violence is occurring in Syria and Lebanon – one an ally of Iran and the other arguably under the control of Iranian backed terrorists also points to the originator of this particular uproar. This is a manufactured uproar meant to distract from Iran’s nuclear weapon program.

That said, many of the people leaving comments in the blogospere seem to be missing one of the main problems with all this. The Islamists are demanding submission of the West. They are not demanding equal rights, they are demanding the official suppression of any speech they deem offensive. They are demanding the West completely respect all of their teachings – or what at least some of them interpret their teachings to be.

Are their “moderate” Muslims? Yes, there likely are quite a few. Does it matter to this discussion? Not in the least. This is not about moderate anything, this is about extremes. The extremist, radical view of some Muslims has taken over the discussion completely. We see marchers holding signs calling for death and destruction in London. We see rioters burning diplomatic buildings. We see innocents who had nothing whatsoever to do with the publication of these cartoons being killed. There is no moderation there.

It is a credit to Western beliefs that some people are grappling so hard with trying to understand why this is happening and how to deal with it. It is a discredit to others that they decline to renounce the extremists out of “respect” for their Muslim religion. That their “respect” really is fear of retaliation is pretty widely recognized. When we of the West react to intolerable violence with appeasement, we give the extremists a positive feedback that such tactics work. Engineers know pretty well that positive feedback loops are inherently unstable. Unless positive feedback is controlled, it inevitably leads to system failure. Have you ever seen the famous movies of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure? That is an example of unchecked positive feedback.

Should the publication of a few not so very good cartoons have led to this level of violence? We of the Western world must recognize this thuggish behavior for what it is; unacceptable among civilized nations or people. Should we give in to this blackmail? No, we must not. Even if the cartoons were offensive, they should be discussed openly. I personally didn’t see what was so bad about them, but I am also not a Muslim. I do know I see things published routinely that offend me. At most I respond by writing a letter. I do not storm the offices of the local paper. Or attack someone that had nothing to do with the publication.

Update: Well, signs that some at least are trying to break out of the feedback loop. H/T Instapundit for the link.

On Collectivism

Here's an interesting article that ties in to the piece I wrote on Collectivism. Note the "Communist Utopia" and where it leads.

There’s something about a still February morning.

Overhead, the sky is still black, but only the brightest stars are still visible. The lesser stars have already become invisible, while the strongest ones are only pale imitations of their nighttime brightness. To the East, the sky is becoming a pale blue, while the few clouds have become a glorious rose gold color. It seems that these colors, in these combinations, are only seen around this time of year.

Leafless trees stand in stark, black relief against the brightening horizon. Their branches form an intricate, natural lace, revealing their complex arrangement. But they are one dimensional in this light; delicately beautiful, but seemingly draw by some unseen hand to highlight the beauty in the sky. No depth to them, only contrast.

The quiet of the still air is broken occasionally by the call of unseen birds. All these years and I have never bothered to find out what birds make what calls. Yet another thing left undone in my life. Mornings like this are even more beautiful when there is snow blanketing the world. Alas, there is no snow this morning. Maybe tomorrow there will be snow.

test post

OK, it looks like whatever was fouled up all day yesterday is better today. I hope.

Left Versus Right?

We live in a time when the world is (as usual) in a state of upheaval. More and more we read of unrest in the world. The latest example is the ongoing uproar over cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. Although the cartoons were published in September of last year, there is now a concerted effort across the Muslim world to violently demonstrate against them and to demand apologies. Ironically, one of the cartoons being protested shows Mohammed with a turban in the shape of a bomb.

The latest news includes a mob burning a Danish Embassy in Syria, riots in Gaza, calls for the murder of people who insult Islam and protest marches by Danish leftists. The left, in Europe and here in America are decrying the “offensive” nature of the cartoons and demanding apologies. So they are making common cause with the Muslim protesters.

Why would Western leftists make common cause with fundamentalist Muslims? After all, many on the left stand for things that are banned in Muslim culture. Many on the left would not long survive in a Muslim country. Yet, the left routinely dismisses – or never even sees – these problems and takes the side of the extremist Muslims.

There appear to be two basic world views at odds here. Often expressed as left/right or liberal/conservative in this country, maybe the proper way to express these world views is as Collectivist versus Individualist.

Individualists believe in the rights of the individual and do not believe that the State, in and of itself, has rights. Certain individual freedoms are consciously surrendered by the individual to the State for the common good. Therefore, the right of the individual to seek redress for a wrong is given by the individual to the State. Hence, we have courts and laws rather than vigilante justice. The individual allows the State to serve the common good for certain things but does not surrender all rights to the State. Therefore, despite the existence of courts and laws, the individual retains the right to self defense when necessary.

Collectivists believe in the State as the means to provide society’s needs. The State becomes the engine to redistribute wealth so that nobody becomes too rich or powerful. The State decides what constitutes proper conduct and behavior and regulates society to ensure compliance. If there is an injustice, the State steps in and addresses the issue by controlling behavior. Therefore, the State decides what rights the individual has. To the Collectivist, rights derive from the State. In this respect, the Collectivists are much more closely aligned with Muslim thought than with classic Western ideals of liberty.

So maybe the answer is not that the leftists are “useful idiots” as much as they are fellow travelers. Individualists see this whole cartoon issue as a basic free speech issue even if they dislike the cartoons content. The right of the individual to speak must be defended. Collectivists see the issue as a right of a given society to not be offended. The right of free speech is surrendered to the State, which protects the people from becoming upset.

(Note: Due to some problem with Blogger this is the 3rd time I have published this post. And a bunch of other posts have disappeared. I really will have to get a domain elsewhere...)

I am extremely pissed about this

I am so angry, I have just finished sending a letter to the President and the Vice President.

The United States just slapped our friends and gave in to Muslim hate and violence.

I am very, very angry about this.


But note, I didn't riot or shoot innocents.

I wrote a letter.

Ok, the ACLU is totally over the edge

A 7-the grade student in Rhode Island wrote and essay in which he mentioned wishing to do harm to the President. (Note that there are already several versions of what the student actually wrote, descriptions vary from "unspecified violence" to "destruction" - and yesterday the AP story specifically said the essay was a "death threat"- but that article has been amended). Local police were informed, they in turn notified the Secret Service. The student has not been arrested.

Threatening (even in vague terms) the President is a felony. Period. The Secret Service ALWAYS investigates threats to the President.

The ACLU has started blustering about the young lad's First Amendment Rights. The Reuters folks really went to town quoting those folks. But the local paper has a little better grip on reality than Reuters or the ACLU. Local reaction here.

Excuse me, freedom of speech does not equal freedom from responsibility. Nor does it give one a right to make a death threat. This is the basic "right to swing your fist" argument.

It is also a very, very well known fact that making any threat against the President WILL get you at minimum investigated, and quite often arrested.

You do not have a first amendment right to threaten anyone with death or even bodily harm. Don't believe it? Try making such a threat in public in front of a cop.

Incidently, Reuters is portraying this poor youngster as only a child, around 12-13 years old. The implication, of course, is that a child is harmless.

My 13 year old daughter can shoot a 3-inch group into the 10 ring at 25 yards using a 9mm pistol. Child does not equal harmless. (And would be daters of my daughter, please take note of that fact).......

Ok, now I don't want to go on vacation

Last month it was a bedbug infestation in New York City.

Now it turns out it's happening in Australia and WORLDWIDE.

I'm thinking it's starting to be time to rethink the use of DDT........

Now here's a taste treat for you

Aged Irish beef. Really well aged. Really, really, really well aged.

One just has to ask: Where in the heck was this stuff all this time? I mean, why would you keep it?

Boy, this guy can write...

...so much better than I do.

As he points out, we either stand for free speech or we lose it.



Note that I took offense to a cartoon (below) and took immediate action.



I wrote a letter.

H/T Tim Blair for the link

Hold the presses - this just in!

Canadian rodents DON'T see shadows, predict winter will only last another month and a half, versus the six weeks the Pennsylvania rat predicted!

I detect some cross-border hostility here.

Yet another Sheehan update

Charges dropped, apology issued.


She was still rude.

Well, it's official

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, meaning six more weeks of winter.

This is unfortunate. If he hadn't seen his shadow, of course, it would have meant that winter would only last another month and a half.....

Life imitates the movies

Well, the Anglicans have (unintentionally, I hope) reached the point of imitating the movies....

They are reaching out to skateboarders and rappers.

But it has already been done:



Although the Archbishop of Canterbury does look an awful lot like George Carlin in that photo...



Oh, incidentally, you can get a dashboard ornament of Buddy Jesus as well.

Where the heck does she put it?

She's 5'-5" tall and weighs 100 pounds. She's known as the Black Widow.

And she kicks butt on the eating contest circuit!

Here's her website, complete with photos. I have no idea where she puts all that food..... She's TINY.....

Friends don't let friends...

...drink and fly.

A phony concern

Well, the manipulation of the Western media continues. With the media's willing participation again.

Some fairly small newspaper publishes some cartoons (noted below).

Muslims protest at the time.

Issue seems to be winding down.

Iranians resume nuclear weapons program.

Hamas wins Palestinian elections.

Western media actually begins to publish mildly critical reports about the above two events.

Western countries begin to threaten to back off aid to Palestinians.

Issue heats back up, this time led by armed Palestinian gunmen. "Spontaneous" demonstrations break out all over the Muslim world.

Western media begins self-flagellation over "disrespect" for Muslim religion.

Soon Western countries will cave in and send huge aid increases to Hamas. Western press will fearlessly censor any criticism of anything remotely connected to Muslims. France will surrender and send all their nuclear weapons to the Mullahs for safe-keeping.

Did I miss anything?

How about this - the world will begin to worry about offending the Muslim religion when and if they begin to show the same degree of respect for other cultures and religions. Does that sound reasonable?

How about this - the world will withdraw all aid workers and all financial aid unless and until Hamas renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist. Does that sound reasonable?

How about this- the world will finally come to it's senses and stop enabling this despicable behavior of forcing acquiescence through threats of violence. Does that sound reasonable?

How about this - the Western media will stop complying with and cooperating with the spread of Muslim propaganda. They also should grow up enough to see that they are allowing the Muslims to distract attention from terrorism and the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Does that sound reasonable?

How about any of those things?

*crickets*

What are the admission requirements?

I thought they were kind of steep at Caltech....

Guess not.

We'll send Mongo

Man punches horse. Man goes to jail.


"Mongo only pawn in game of life".

Funny Blazing Saddles stuff here.

Just one question about Curling

Why?

This is a sport I just do not understand. On the other hand, it apparently originated in Scotland.

Now since all Scottish cuisine originated from a dare, it's possible Curling is just a huge practical joke!

Cartoons, taste and how to deal with problems

Obviously, I am against what is happening in the Muslim world over the issue of some cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. I'm happy to see that some other Newspapers have had the courage to reprint them.

For rather obvious reasons, I think the "political" cartoon shown here is vulgar, tasteless, anti-American, anti-troops and just plain beneath contempt. But please note the correct response the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued to the Washington Post for running this piece of garbage. It's called a letter to the editor. Despite the Joint Chiefs having more than enough assets to accomplish it, the WaPo is not a smoking crater. Nor did they threaten to make it so. But they did tell them exactly what they thought of Mr. Toles and the rag that printed this travesty.

If I ever run into Mr. Toles, I would cheerfully tell him what I think of him and his crappy work.

Meanwhile, I'm off to compose a letter to the WaPo.

What a relief

The twins from Zimbabwe who were arrested for wearing goatskin loincloths have been released after promising to dress properly.

No word on if the ACLU has agreed to represent them and get them the right to wear these.

Blogs for EVERYONE!

Forget all those big name blogs! This one will be the mother of all blogs:


The Pigeon Blog!

No, really. Real pigeons blogging real-time.....

(Read a description of everything the birds will be carrying. Why do I have this mental image of this character?)

Thweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Thump.

The end of an era

Western Union no longer sends telegraphs.

Kind of a shame, really. I lived in Rochester, New York, the birthplace of the Western Union company and home to it's founder, Hiram Sibley.

Sadly, Rochester has had its share of past fame and recent business declines. Kodak and Xerox were both founded there. They have had some difficult times lately as technology has evolved.

This is not something to be proud of

Last year, Congress failed to reform Social Security.

The Democrats are proud of that.

They are proud of obstructing a needed reform? Yeesh.

H/T Instapundit for the link

Sheehan update

Apparently she was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan about the number of US dead in Iraq, not trying to unfurl a banner. She entered with the shirt hidden under a jacket, then removed the jacket to show it. She was asked to cover up the shirt, refused and was arrested on the charge of Unlawful Conduct. People in the gallery are expected to follow House rules. Failure to do so is grounds for arrest and removal. Note that she was arrested by the Capitol Police.

No, this is not a Gestapo tactic or suppression of her right to free speech. It is part of the House rules regarding decorum and dignified behavior.

She was a guest and could not follow simple rules.

UPDATE:

The rule was applied evenhandedly. A Congressman's wife was also ejected for wearing a T-shirt that supported the troops.

Two lines that say it all

From the State of the Union address:

"Hindsight alone is not wisdom"

"Second-guessing is not a strategy."

The Democratic Party response to the SOTU address, delivered by the Governor of Virginia, Timothy M. Kaine, contained the phrase "There is a better way". This phrase was repeated over and over. But no details of the better way were forthcoming. As usual. But quite a lot of hindsight was applied. As usual.

Look, this is simply a bad strategy. The Democrats keep harping and criticizing but offer no substantive "better way". In other words, their strategy boils down to blame Bush for everything and obstruct any thing they can.

They need to HAVE that "better way" and be able to articulate it. Saying there is a better way, without giving details begins to sound like whistling in the dark....