A Must Click link...

...from lgf.

Are you reading DANEgerus every day?

You should. Otherwise you'll miss posts like this:

Environmental groups the reason shuttles are grounded. Gotta read to believe!

Nancy Pelosi's meltdown. The socialists bint goes hot.

Just go there and start scrolling.

Run Dick Run!

REPORTER VOWS TO 'KILL SELF' IF CHENEY RUNS FOR PRESIDENT

But, but.... it's fer the CHIIILLLLLLLLDREN!

Air America. The Left's **snort**snicker**snort** answer to conservative talk radio in this country, has been in the dumps in regards to it's ratings ever since it hit the air. I guess nobody wanted to listen to a bunch of washed-up non-funny comedians ranting and foaming at the mouth. As much as frothing hatred, vile bitterness and howling insanity may fly over at Dumbocratic Underpants, Mainstream America isn't buying. So how is this great bastion of liberal thought being kept afloat, then? Radio stations have to be competitive, and Err America couldn't win a first-grade talent contest.

Well, they're using your tax dollars. And not just ANY tax dollars, oh no. They used tax dollars that were supposed to fund programs for inner city youth.

Yes, only because of a New York Daily News tidbit do we know that Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club nearly shut down major programs recently, because almost $500,000 in governmental grant money was instead diverted to Air America's liberal radio network.

It's taken a mad scramble by area politicians, including Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Bronx) to find a way to keep several programs for disadvantaged children and seniors from disappearing.

Read the entire thing, folks. I'm so damn astounded at this that I can't even manage to mumble "fucking liberals" under my breath. I'm actually so surprised at the foulness and putridness of the Air America crowd that I'm speechless.

Way to go, liberals. Thanks for proving every stereotype of liberals correct. You make my job much easier.

Found via Analog Kid's place.

It's Open Season on van Goghs

In November, 2004 Theo van Gogh, great-grandson of the brother of Vincent van Gogh, was murdered in broad daylight and used as a human sticky-note in exceedingly gruesome fashion,

"I cannot feel for you ... because I believe you are an infidel."

and now his 14-year old son, Lieuwe, gets to be repeatedly beaten up and taunted in Holland's tolerant public schools.

There is no justice.

Vincent van Gogh, arguably the greatest artist who ever lived, died in 1890 two days after shooting himself in the chest. His last words according to his brother and closest friend, Theo, were: "La tristesse durera toujours." This is French for: "The sadness will last forever."

"...as Islam requires."

Classic stuff from the AP: Power Line: Progress in Britain

Also, spot on re: Judge Roberts: Power Line: Charles Schumer and Lizzie Borden

They said we should get our own network.

I grow weary of FoxNews, like all televised news, really, but here's this past Tuesday's numbers:

FOXNEWS GRETA 2,997,000 || FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,705,000 || FOXNEWS HANNITY/COMES 2,415,000

CNN LARRY KING 765,000 || CNNHN NANCY GRACE 752,000 || CNN PAULA ZAHN 623,000 || CNN AARON BROWN 577,000

MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 462,000 || MSNBC OLBERMANN 318,000 || MSNBC HARDBALL 192,000 || TUCKER 178,000


Ouch.

DRUDGE REPORT 2005

Very Interesting

"Turns out - in the only case in U.S. history of a person successfully prosecuted for leaking classified information to the press - Hillary's husband pardoned the guilty party."

I love a good Study

Unfortunately, this ain't one.



U.S. Immigrants' Health Costs Far Below Native-Born - Yahoo! News

Excerpting:

Countering the belief that immigrants to the United States use more than their share of health-care resources, a new study finds that just the opposite is true.

Strangely, I've never heard that "belief" articulated. Concerns I have heard raised are about the costs of illegal immigrants.

So what about illegals?

The surveys didn't ask questions about immigration status, however, and Mohanty said it's possible they may have missed some undocumented immigrants who were too afraid to answer questions.

Oh.

Also, when I have heard folks speak to this problem, I have never heard it stated in terms of services used. I've heard it stated in terms of who's paying.

Mohanty's team found that immigrants accounted for an average of $1,582 in health costs per year, compared to $2,005 for the native-born. When the researchers adjusted their figures to take into account possible differences between the two groups due to factors such as age and health status, that gap widened to $1,139 for immigrants and $2,546 for the U.S.-born.

Yes, but who's paying?

The "study" doesn't say.

And what was the purpose of this "study"?

According to Mohanty, the research team launched the study to combat the belief that immigrants take advantage of the American health-care system. "We thought there were a lot of popular misconceptions," she said.

Again: oh.

The study findings seem reasonable, said Dr. Mita Sanghavi Goel, an instructor in medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago who studies immigrant health. However, "there is much more research that needs to be done to understand in more detail where the higher costs for U.S.-born people and lower costs for foreign-born people come from," she said. "We need to look at this data with a finer-toothed comb before the debate is settled."

Well, yeah.

Sexy Vegetarians

PETA have announced the winners. I love this part:

[Coldplay frontman] Chris Martin, 28, and his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, made headlines when they gave their 1-year-old daughter, Apple, a vegan birthday cake.

"Apple"

How'd that happen?

"Say, darling, how about we call her 'Belinda'? I do so adore that name."

"Too retro, diddums. Let's celebrate the permeating love of Gaia. Let us call her 'Apple'."

"Oh! I LOVE it! Ooo and love you too!"

"Love you, too!!"

Frank Zappa (daughter Moon Unit, son Dweezil) was just plain weird.

"Apple" is the work of Narcissistic clods.

Is the Media supposed to be telling us the truth or lying to us?

Would it kill the media to do a story or two, like this one, about the actual heros that we have serving in our military? Continuing to not cover these stories is killing any trust ordinary people may have once had in the media. Many, probably a majority of us have family members "over there" fighting for our future. Is the press collectively insane?

Because they earned it

A total of 147 foreign-born US military personnel serving in Iraq gathered inside a former Saddam Hussein palace to be granted US citizenship.

Oriana Fallaci

If you want to truly understand this little war we're engaged in, the stakes, the strategy of the enemy, our strengths and weaknesses, then heed Oriana Fallaci. She is a voice in the wilderness. She has been screaming, "Wake up!" ever since 9-11. For expressing her opinions she is being prosecuted in Europe. Those tolerant Europeans are trying to put an old woman with cancer in jail for the rest of her life for having the temerity to tell the unadulterated truth.

A Carnival of Carnivals

Yippee!

Carnival of Revolutions
"There is no other place I want to be.
Right here, right now.
Watching the world wake up from history."
-- Jesus Jones - 1991

Carnival of Comedy
"I wish my pants would get back from the cleaners. I forgot to wear underwear today."

Carnival of the Capitalists
"This week's edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists is presented using dynamic tables. You may click upon any of the column headings below to sort this week's contributions according to blog name, post title, category and description. If you're using a modern web browser, the table will automatically rearrange itself according to the heading you selected!"

Carnival of Liberty
"Stating one's opinion is, or should be, protected under the First Amendment (or at least it was until McCain-Feingold)"

Carnival of Recipes
"Some of the best recipes are born from desperation"

Carnival of Personal Finance
"The next black Tuesday will happen, just like the next earthquake, the question is when. It's worth it every once and a while to pretend it is tomorrow and see what kind of shape you'd be in."

Carnival of Cars
"Trying to explain blogging to my non-blogger friends is hard; trying to explain blogging the Carnival of Cars is nigh on impossible. That said, who cares if they don't get it? We do, and since we're the ones reading and writing its substance, that's all that matters."

Carnival of Stories
"The Americans had bombed a university building in Tehran. It was quite unexpected. It was later announced by the U.S. Secretary of State that the Pentagon had intelligence showing the facility was being used to conduct secret nuclear development which was about to give Iran their first nuclear weapon. Certainly, the fact that much of downtown Tehran was now polluted with a fine layer of dust that made Geiger counters squeal excitedly seemed to bear out the American line. Others had their doubts. Al Jazeera showed much of the Middle East erupting in riots. The Arab Street was said to believe that the US had nuked Iran. The Ayatollahs raged against the Great Satan."

Carnival of Tiny Stories
"Anitra searched for an immortal man who shared her ability to transform into a beast. News reports about brutal Portland murders attracted her and, disguised as a private eye, she interviewed the suspect. But he was a poser, lying for attention. The lies hurt more than loneliness, and Anitra ripped his heart out in frustration. - the end"

Carnival of Tomorrow
"Of course, a system that's easy on mutations across the board may allow many more bad mutations into the genome than good ones. Could we be looking at the beginning of de-evolution?"

No blogging from me for a while

My damn back has gone out on me again. I'm going to be doping myself up and doing as little as possible until I heal up.

Getting old sucks.

Just for Gits and Shiggles...

Drumwaster always has a quiz or two on his blog.

First up:

I am 14% Hippie.

What? Am I a Republican? Why did I even bother taken this test?! I guess I’ll back to my George W. Bush fan club and tell them I just wasted 10 minutes of my life. At least I don’t stink, man.

Take the
Hippie Test
@ FualiDotCom

Ha! That THAT Drum, ya friggin' HIPPY!

And then:

I am 36% White Trash.

The white trash in my blood will not keep me from becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but it will keep me from a good haircut and any sort of fashion sense.

Take the
White Trash Test
@ FualiDotCom

I admit to wearing a mullet when I was 12. After that, I came to my senses. I will admit to nothing else. And who wants to be a lawyer anyways? Some people look down at white trash. EVERYBODY looks down at lawyers. What's that say, hmmmmmmmm?

And last but not least:

I am 56% Asshole/Bitch.

I am abrasive, some people really hate me, but there may be a group of other tight knit assholes and bitches that I can hang out with and get me. Everybody else? Fuck ‘em.

Take the
Asshole/Bitch Test
@ FualiDotCom

And I took this test on a good day!

And since I was already there,

Rob has a series of questions for anyone who wants to answer.

1) How many of you people know how to drive a vehicle with MANUAL TRANSMISSION?

A: I do. I learned on a manual, in the middle of winter, on a damn sheet of ice. I had to take off without spinning the tires, and if I messed up I started all over again. My parents thought it would make me a better driver, and it did. It sucked while I was learning, though.

2) How many of you people can make popcorn on the STOVE, in a POT, the old-fashioned way?

A: Yup. Kettle Corn as well.

3) How many of you people ever saw a drive-in movie?

A: Yep, until they tore down the only drive-in theater where I lived.

4) How many of you people know how to bake a potato without using a microwave oven?

A: Yep, and I prefer doing it in a regular oven. A microwave makes the potato too spongy. I don't like the texture of a microwaved potato.

5) How many of you people can build a fire, first time every time, in the woods? Even when it's raining?

A: First time every time? No, I'm not that good, but I'll get it going eventually.

6) How many of you people know how to skip a rock?

A: Hell, that's one of the first things I can remember my older brother teaching me!

7) How many people know the way to tell when a watermelon is ripe without touching it in the field?

A: This is one that I can't do. Despite living everywhere, I'm a northern boy (NOT a yankee). Ask me a question about the mountains.

8) How many of you people ever handled a firearm and hit what you shot at, without being "afraid" of the gun?

A: Um... do I even need to say?

9) How many of you people take care of yourselves without relying on government to do that job for you?

A: I haven't taken a single freebie from the government. I wish I could say the same in reverse.

10) How many people ever stood up to a bully and never had to fight him again? Even when you lost the fight. How many people have balls enough to do that today?

A: That's where I learned to rage. I found out real quick that bullies, no matter how big and mean they think they are, will never screw with a guy who jumps in their face when provoked. I wasn't the biggest kid is school, but when some dumbass jock thought that pushing me around would be fun, I literally grabbed his shirt and began screaming in his face. I can't remember what I said, but it was along the lines of "I don't care if I end up in the hospital, I'm going to make sure you'll never be able to see again." At different times I remember promising to bite off noses, gouge out eyes, break knees, or any other damage that would drive people off and allow me to continue my day.

I never got into a single fight in highschool, either. Those worthless fucks knew that I was serious.

I stole this picture

Because it was too good not to share.



Found via This Cranky Bastard. I've met Rob in person, and I don't care if anyone has a problem with him, he'd a good guy. And he doesn't lay a line of bullshit on you. You either take him or leave him as he is.

That's a rare quality these days.

Ummmm.....

...ouch.

American Chelsea Davis hit her face on the diving board during the 3-meter springboard preliminaries Friday at the World Swimming Championships.

Davis was attempting an inward 2 1/2 somersault in the tuck position when her face struck the board. Blood poured out of her nose, stunning spectators, some of whom covered their faces.

Helpers jumped into the pool and pulled a crying Davis to the side. She was put on a floating stretcher and taken to the hospital, where her parents and boyfriend joined her.

American Diver Injured at Championships - Yahoo! News

Here it is, your moment of Zen

From Ben Stein:

"Loneliness hurts like the cut of a knife. Mine is only the smallest pinprick. I'll see my wife again soon, if all's well. But what about the Army and Marine wives who go to sleep in their king-sized beds alone for a year? What about the Navy Seal's wife who just heard that her husband will not be coming home from Afghanistan? Or the man who never learned to make a bed and now his wife is gone forever and he's eating out of a can watching a TV show he can't even hear? Or the child whose father will never teach him how to bat a ball or parallel park because he's in a military cemetery?

Our lives are measured by what we do for others, not by how much money we make. Spending time with lonely people, military families, widows, widowers, this is a pretty easy way to make a huge difference in a suffering human life. So when you think of your uncle who just lost his aunt, when you think of the woman down the street whose husband was just called up by the Guard and sent to Iraq, don't just think about them: ask them out to dinner. Invite them to a barbecue. Just call them up to gossip.

People are always asking me for stock tips because they think I know something about the market. Usually, I don't. But I do know this. Sharing company with a lonely man or woman or child is about as good an investment in your own net worth as a human being as you can make."

How low can the Left sink?

Lowah! LOWAH!

Wonkette operatives have alerted us to some details in John G. Roberts background. We're not making any conclusions here -- we wouldn't want to comment on an ongoing investigation -- we're just laying out the facts: He is a graduate of an all-boys Catholic school where, as a member of the wrestling team, he regularly grappled with other sweaty, repressed boys. That is when he wasn't the drama club playing Peppermint Patty, for God's sake. He was also an editor of the school newspaper, "The Torch."

And yet the Right still asserts that "he's no flame-thrower."

We like him more and more.

Court Nominee's Life Is Rooted in Faith and Respect for Law [NYT]
RELATED: How gay is this guy? [Manhattan Offender]
.
.
.
So what's Roberts been up today, anyway?: "[I]f you are interested in a little NSA sex in the Capitol building with a good looking white male, drop me a line...." [Craigslist]
.
.
.
But we liked it better when he was gay.

-- Ann Marie Cox ("Wonkette")

Charmaine Yoest

Wait a tic....

SecState Rice's entourage gets manhandled, and nobody on the Left seems to give a shit?

After protests, the officials were eventually allowed in. But guards repeatedly pushed and pulled Rice senior adviser Jim Wilkinson, and at one point he was shoved into a wall.

“Diplomacy 101 says you don’t rough your guests up,” Wilkinson said later.

Once Rice’s traveling group was inside, the guards tried to keep reporters out of a planned photo shoot of Rice’s meeting.

When reporters were finally allowed in, they were elbowed and guards repeatedly tried to rip a microphone away from a U.S. reporter. They were ordered not to ask questions, over State Department objections.

When NBC diplomatic reporter Andrea Mitchell tried to ask el-Bashir a question about his involvement with alleged atrocities, a scuffle broke out.

Guards grabbed the reporter and muscled her toward the rear of the room as State Department officials shouted at the guards to leave her alone. “Get your hands off her!” Wilkinson demanded. But all the reporters and a camera crew were physically forced out.

That's Sudan, where genocide is still going on under the nose of the UN. That's Sudan, where oil fields are protected by Chinese troops. That's Sudan, who regularly practices enslavement of blacks and christians. That's Sudan, who despite the genocide, the slavery, and the inhumane treatment of it's citizens, still got a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, forever cementing just how useless and worthless the UN is. That's Sudan, a backwards country that should have been erased from the map along with it's thugocracy of leadership, and yet the Left just blithely cruises along without noticing, because the US doesn't have troops there. And yet if we DID have troops there, we would see protests all over again, and listen to the Leftist whine of "It's all about OOOOOOIIIIIIILLLL!"

Phah. That's one country I see no redeeming qualities of. We should have pulled our people out right then and there, and told Sudan to screw itself.

Why Australia rocks

Well, there are actually plenty of reasons, even though they're almost as anti-gun as England. But still.....

PRIME MIN. HOWARD: Could I start by saying the prime minister and I were having a discussion when we heard about it. My first reaction was to get some more information. And I really don't want to add to what the prime minister has said. It's a matter for the police and a matter for the British authorities to talk in detail about what has happened here.

Can I just say very directly, Paul, on the issue of the policies of my government and indeed the policies of the British and American governments on Iraq, that the first point of reference is that once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it's given the game away, to use the vernacular. And no Australian government that I lead will ever have policies determined by terrorism or terrorist threats, and no self-respecting government of any political stripe in Australia would allow that to happen.

Can I remind you that the murder of 88 Australians in Bali took place before the operation in Iraq.

And I remind you that the 11th of September occurred before the operation in Iraq.

Can I also remind you that the very first occasion that bin Laden specifically referred to Australia was in the context of Australia's involvement in liberating the people of East Timor. Are people by implication suggesting we shouldn't have done that?

When a group claimed responsibility on the website for the attacks on the 7th of July, they talked about British policy not just in Iraq, but in Afghanistan. Are people suggesting we shouldn't be in Afghanistan?

When Sergio de Mello was murdered in Iraq -- a brave man, a distinguished international diplomat, a person immensely respected for his work in the United Nations -- when al Qaeda gloated about that, they referred specifically to the role that de Mello had carried out in East Timor because he was the United Nations administrator in East Timor.

Now I don't know the mind of the terrorists. By definition, you can't put yourself in the mind of a successful suicide bomber. I can only look at objective facts, and the objective facts are as I've cited. The objective evidence is that Australia was a terrorist target long before the operation in Iraq. And indeed, all the evidence, as distinct from the suppositions, suggests to me that this is about hatred of a way of life, this is about the perverted use of principles of the great world religion that, at its root, preaches peace and cooperation. And I think we lose sight of the challenge we have if we allow ourselves to see these attacks in the context of particular circumstances rather than the abuse through a perverted ideology of people and their murder.

That's Australian Prime Minister Howard's response to an obnoxious leftist journalist (but I repeat myself) who implied that the July 7th attacks in Britain were in response to Britain's involvment in Iraq. And I'm betting ten dollars that his statement won't make it to the nightly news unaltered.

Via Instapundit.

You knew it was going to happen

And the Smear & Fear tactics begin. No one nominated by President Bush is going to get a fair confirmation hearing from the Leftists. It's just not going to happen. I hope Judge Roberts has a strong stomach.

Trucker's Strike

The truckers are on strike down here in Puerto Rico. One of the things that I currently cannot purchase because of the strike is gas.

I'm currently sitting at a quarter of a tank, with a few gallons in a container out back (for the lawnmower, but now for emergency truck fuel). In the states, there would be people driving across state lines to drive trucks, but since we're on an island and the truckers are SHOOTING AT OTHER TRUCKS, the place is pretty much shut down.

1) Gee, this is the gun free island of Puerto Rico! Getting a gun here practically takes an act of god, and yet we have people shooting at trucks with guns. Hmmmmmm.... I guess we can call that another gun control success story, right?

2) The truckers get paid damn near nothing, and cost of living in Puerto Rico is sky high. Honestly, I can understand why the truckers are pissed off. The tolls have been raised, (and there are toll booths everywhere), the price of gas has gone up, making it harder to do business, and the roads suck. But guess what folks - the people of Puerto Rico have put themselves into this situation. They have elected a socialist type of government not once, but for a generation. This island could be one of the most advanced in the world, and yet in some instances it seems like they're barely clinging on to first-world status.

Honestly, I think it's time for Puerto Rico to shit or get off the pot: Become a soverigne country, or become the 51st state. If I recall correctly, that was put to a vote in Puerto Rico, and the people voted for the status quo. I think there needs to be a new vote, with only two choices. State, or Country?

I don't think it'll happen anytime soon, but that's what should happen.

John Conyers, Jr. is having a House Party !!!

No no no! Not that kind of house party! This kind:

The house parties I have organized for July 23rd provide a platform for people to come together and express their strong opposition to the Bush Administration’s conduct of war. Please join us at a house party near you. If you can host a party, click here to sign up. We will provide media kits and other materials to assist with the event. If you would rather attend an event, click here.

I will be conducting a conference call for house party hosts featuring Ambassador Joe Wilson and Randi Rhodes as my special guests.

Oy!

John Conyers, Jr. -- July 23rd House Parties featuring Amb. Joe Wilson and Randi Rhodes

Those Krazy Kos Kidz

This is from a DailyKos thread of comments about John Roberts:



Those crazy Lefties. They're so wacky!

Jack Roberts is 4.

On Judge Roberts

Given that the Democrats had made plain that they were going to go after ANYONE Bush nominated, the nominee could have been the head of NAMBLA and the Donks were going to go into hysterics, just because Bush nominated him. That's a given. Other than that, I can't find anything to really give the guy a yay or nay. So why are the Donks screaming like somebody just cut off their welfare checks?

Meh. A pox on that whole side of politics. They're diseased parasites.

Instapundit has a roundup, as does Captain Ed.

Tanks to Mr Bush....

...the US is in the toilet. California --- even their Attornies General are wacky!

Never seen this blog before

I like it.

Wing Nut Echo Chamber

I am not surprised

What else can you expect from a land where morals are disparaged and the unnatural is celebrated?

King County sheriff's detectives are investigating the owners of an Enumclaw-area farm after a Seattle man died from injuries sustained while having sex with a horse boarded on the property.

Yeah. Um....... I got nuthin'.

Via Rodger

Another quick question:

In all the hysteria about RovePlameMaybeSortaGate, has anyone in the so called Mainstream Media ever ONCE mentioned that Matt Cooper, the "journalist" who's pointing fingers at Karl Rove, is married to a frigging Democrat mover and shaker?

I mean, perhaps the fact that he's married to a Democrat operative might just make him a little, yaknow, BIASED? Of course, we already knew he was biased, but at least now we know why.

It's an anniversary of sorts

Witnesseth:

John Farrar observed that a large amout of air was released from the car when it was righted in the water, he also noted that the trunk when opened was remarkably dry. These observations and others lead many to believe that Mary Jo Kopechne had not drowned but suffocated in an air pocket within the Delmont 88.

During a party on Chappaquiddick Island...

More about PlameGate from Power Line

Including this classic regarding "Truthless Joe". Oy! Also Power Line exposes some Journalistic Malpractice. Again.

Still no word on the total cost of the investigation thus far.

And from Steyn, via DANEgerus:

In fact, the only lying sonafabitch turned out to be Yellowcake Joe. Just about everybody on the face of the earth except Wilson, the White House press corps and the moveon.org crowd accepts that Saddam was indeed trying to acquire uranium from Africa. Don't take my word for it; it's the conclusion of the Senate intelligence report, Lord Butler's report in the United Kingdom, MI6, French intelligence, other European services -- and, come to that, the original CIA report based on Joe Wilson's own briefing to them. Why Yellowcake Joe then wrote an article for the New York Times misrepresenting what he'd been told by senior figures from Major Wanke's regime in Niger is known only to him.

There's more here.

Just a quick thought

How many of the Lefties currently screaming for Karl Rove's head said a single damn thing when Sandy Burger was caught stuffing Code Word clearance documents down his pants and then shredding them?



Yeah, that's what I thought.

No Child Left Behind paying dividends ???

Debatable, to be sure, but if test scores were flat, we'd sure would have heard about it. But the scores aren't flat, which is why one must rely upon bloggers to hear about them.

Mission Accomplished

The train bombings in Madrid were specifically intended to impact the Spanish election.

How does one say "quel suprise" en espanol?

The PETA People...

...have prioritization issues, in my opinion, but doggone if they don't put together an imaginitive protest from time to time.

Yeah, I'm busy.

But you already knew that. Although the past two days were pretty much a waste of time, they were an Army mandated waste of time, so I had to go.

Although there was some benefit to it. I had to go down to Camp Santiago today, and on the way down I saw some of the prettiest sights I've ever seen in Puerto Rico. On the way over the mountains the sun was just rising, and there were clouds of fog in the valleys down below.

It was like looking over a series of lake, broken by almost sheer walls of green. It was mystical.

I won't bore you with details about Camp Santiago, suffice to say that the Army must have looked for the most miserable, bug-ridden plot of land in Puerto Rico and then built a camp on it.

I'm catching up on the news, so I'll be back tomorrow with more opinion.

Maybe it's just me

But I think Analog Kid wants to play.....

Please give me a Fatwa, please! Once you declare a Fatwa on me I can legally, oh yes, quite legally, begin hunting you right back, you shit stains in Allah’s cotton briefs! And boy, what an easy hunt that would be, what with you stinking worse than any bear I’ve ever bagged and tagged and the fact that most bear are smarter than you.

You’d be fucking lucky if I just behead you and stick your bacon wrapped cranium on top of a chunk of re-bar stuck in my front yard for my neighbors to see. Especially the one with the ignorant ‘No Blood for Oil’ bumper sticker on the back of her “Dodge Caravan of Many Colors”.

Sounds like it would work for me. But seeing as how I'm in the running for a trip over to the Sandbox to begin hunting said terrorists already, I can do it WITHOUT a fatwa! NEENER NEENER!

More Proof that the MSM is the Enemy

Just click it and listen. It will only take a minute. Not only is it proof that the mainstream media is dishonest and actively burying information that is of vital importance, but it also proves that the democrats in Washington have been lying to us for years, sacrificing national security for political gain. (Via Roger L. Simon.)

UPDATE: Here's the original ABC News video of interest.

Was Valerie Plame a covert agent?

Power Line concludes: ixnay. Gotta give props to the Left for their consistency in choosing loser issues.

Funny too, I was thinking today, how we used to get monthly tallies on the "witch hunt" Ken Starr conducted against President Clinton and Company.

Anyone heard how much PlameGate has cost the taxpayers yet?



Someone get Perky Katie a calculator!

UPDATE: Power Line

"boy, it's friggin' bright out here."

Truly laughing my ass off.

Follow the links!

"America is not the America it once was"

So sayeth Andrew Sullivan, after reading that Americans really aren't all that upset about "torture" at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The Volokh Conspiracy comments. The Comments are worth a read, but I dare say that the best rebuttal of Sullivan's assertion that Americans 50 years ago would not have stood for forcing POWs to wear bras comes from one of his readers:

At the beginning of WWII, Roosevelt and Churchill were outraged and disgusted at the way the Nazis bombed civilian populations. Bomber Command made a few attempts at low-level daytime raids but the cost in men and planes was horrific, and so they too soon switched to "area bombing," at night and from high altitude. By 1943 we were launching "Operation Gomorrah" which killed perhaps 50,000 in Hamburg, almost entirely civilians. Nearly 100,000 would die similarly in Tokyo, and then of course there were Fat Man and Little Boy, which were in a practical sense "terror" weapons designed to frighten the Japanese out of fighting to the bitter end.

The use of these weapons did not turn us into the Soviet Union which would in coming years use tanks to crush democratic revolutions, or for that matter the Russia which in the last decade used a WWI-style artillery barrage to suppress the Chechens in Grozny. Indeed, our bombs are now the most discriminating in the world. There is no morality or ethics within the casing of an artillery shell, but only within the hand that directs its course.

Well, yeah.

Maybe it's because it's not my ox being gored or maybe decades of video games and cable TV have hardened me to violence, or maybe I'm just one black-hearted sonufagun, but I must say: I haven't heard a single story or seen a single picture out of Gitmo or Abu Ghraib that has horrified me, or caused me to even stop for a minute and think about what my country has become, how low we've sunk, how when we do this stuff, "the terrorists have won".

Color me unmoved.

The Phillipines, Bali, Indonesia, Chechnya, Russia, Morocco, Israel, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Spain, The United States, Kenya, Tanzania, and now England: battlegrounds all in what cannot possibly at this point be termed anything other than a "World War".

Ugly stuff has, is, and will continue to happen.

Call me whatever disparaging name you please, I can only respond to the "news" than men are doing nasty things to each other with an underwhelmed: "Duh".

How do I differ today from what I would have been, say, sixty years ago? Unknown, but my guess is that I, having not been immersed in Late Twentieth Century New Age Political Correctness, would have been cheering this stuff.

PlameGate

Been keeping up on TV? Try some facts on for size.

Do you suppose it's contagious?

An interesting phenomenon:

"The Imam of al-Jabiriyah preached against the Americans and the Worshippers shouted 'O' Allah, make America stronger!"

I hope it catches on.

The BBC...

...is taking one shit heap of guff for its coverage of the London Bombings.

ALSO: Faces of the dead and missing.

Children in the War Against Radical Islam

Child bombers

Bombing children

WorldCom's Ebbers Gets 25 Years in Prison

Back to your regularly-scheduled programming...

Bernard Ebbers, who as CEO of WorldCom oversaw the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison

The fraud for which Ebbers was charged began in mid-2000. Sadly, WorldCom's behaviour was not uncommon during the Eight Great Clinton Years of Peace and Prosperity, when crooked execs and stockbrokers bilked investors and employees out of billions in their rush toward affluence.

Janet Reno was busy with Big Tobacco.

WorldCom's Ebbers Gets 25 Years in Prison - Yahoo! News

Waiting Completed

My Grandmom has passed on, as they say.

Rest in Peace, Louise Josephine
31 Jan 1915 - 13 July 2005

Your Attention Please!

Analog Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes, in cooperation with Mr. Completely, is running a Postal Match. For those unfamiliar with the term, a Postal Match is where you compete in a shooting competition, and mail your targets to an agreed upon person to be judged and scored.

In this day and age, the ability to handle firearms proficiently is more important than ever, for a multitude of reasons. Although the Gun-Free Paradise of Puerto Rico will not currently allow me to own a firearm, I am strongly urging each and every one of you who owns firearms to participate in this Match. All it takes is a little extra time to scan your target and email it to AK. Because you should already be going to the range once a month, correct? So download the target he provides and use that.

The introduction to this postal match is here, and once you're finished reading the intro, you can get the rules, instructions, and download the target here.

Once I fill out the bajillion forms for a rifle permit in PR, I'm going to be joining up on each and every postal match that comes out. If participation is large enough, there will be prizes for the winner of each match, but for now let's jump on this and give it our best.

I'm serious about this folks.

"Get it on the table, Mabel."

That's what my Grandfather ("Pop-pop", pronounced, by my sister at least, "PAHpup") used to say to my Grandmother ("Grandmom"). We'd go over to their house, my Mom and Dad and my sister, for whatever occasion, and we'd sit and watch football or boxing (this was when good boxing was on network TV) or baseball and my Poppop would sit in his chair and we'd all sit around in front of the TV. Me and my sister would drink the 7-Up my grandparents always had in the fridge, drink it like the proverbial fish, since we never had soda at home. My sister and I would monitor my grandfather's highball, hoping to mix the next one, so we could slip a measure of Rock 'n Rye into our sodas if the opportunity presented itself.

Grandmom would be in the kitchen, cooking. Her maiden name was Mignona (MIN-yo-nah), and it showed.

Halftime of the game would come around and my grandpop would rise from his chair and call out: "Get it on the table, Mabel."

Can you imagine? They were from a different era, my grandparents -- he worked for thirty years machining power train parts for Westinghouse, and she did the wash and cleaned the house and cooked the meals. He took care of the money, she took care of him. That was the deal they struck up.

I think she has never driven a car.

Anyway, on those occasions when we'd be at their house for dinner, when it was time to eat, my grandpop would take his seat at the head of the table in the dining room, and my grandmom would adjust a closet door at the other end of the room so he could watch the game (on the TV in the living room) in the mirror on the door. He'd crack open a cold can of beer -- Schmidts, if memory serves -- we'd all sit down, too, excepting grandmom, and she'd start bringing the food.

Spaghetti (my grandmom never made pasta), meatballs, bread, salad, applesauce, and the specialty: sausage in tomato sauce. And we'd dig in.

The food never ran out -- it was as if my grandmom had one of those devices like on Star Trek, like she could just press a button and out would pop more spaghetti and more meatballs. Sweet Holy Moses - a feast, every time, head-shakingly unforgettable meals.

Memories.

---

My Grandmom had a brain hemorrhage two weeks ago. She was in Intensive Care for ten days, then tonight was moved to a private room. At her written request and with the consent of her two daughters (one of whom is my Mom) and her only son, the ventilator and feeding tubes that have been keeping her alive since her surgery have been removed.

Grandmom is going to die, at age 90, in that private room, and probably soon now.

---

It's amazing, the memories that come flooding back. I visited her in her ICU room on Saturday and remembered. My sister was there when I arrived, then left soon after, and it was just me and Grandmom for an hour and fifteen minutes.

I cried the whole time.

People grieve mortal illness in loved ones in different ways, and for different reasons. I find myself crying because I am helpless to turn back time so I can tell her "I love you, Grandmom" all of the times that I should have, powerless to rewind and spend more time with her at recent family gatherings when she couldn't get around so well, lamentably unable to go back and visit her all of the times I should have stopped by, just because, just to talk. I think it unlikely that a day will come when I will remember her and not regret not having done those things.

We all live with those kind of regrets though, don't we?

---

They say that smell is the sense most tied to memory. I can confirm the notion. As I sat at her bedside, the smells came back more than anything else. The smell of her basement (she called it a "cellar"), a smell I know well despite not having been in her cellar in decades, a dark and damp smell, the smell of wet eighty year old concrete.

The smell of her rug, an old rug (they were, as most people who lived through the Great Depression were, very thrifty - my Grandmom and Grandpop). Not dirty, not soiled by pets, not unpleasant, but not a fresh clean odor either. I can't explain it. But I can smell it.

The smell of the powder she used -- they had no air conditioning -- and she was from the time when women used powder to keep cool.

And, of course, the food.

I remember how I'd go over there for dinner, and she'd be cooking, always cooking. My Uncle Tommy and my Grandpop and I would sit at the kitchen table, and she'd deliver the goods. We'd watch TV and mange. We'd watch Hee Haw and professional wrestling, which my uncle and grandpop called "wrassling". This was good professional wrestling -- Chief Jay Strongbow and Billy Whitewolf, George the Animal Steele, Gorilla Monsoon, Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant -- the Golden Era. We'd watch Hee Haw and wrassling and howl with laughter, the three of us.

God only knows what my Grandmom was thinking -- looking at three generations of men reveling in the absurdity of ludicrous Americana.

She used to make this pot roast -- oh she'd cook it early in the day and then it would just stew in its juices for hours. A finer roast has never graced this Earth, I assure you. My uncle would put ketchup on it, and offense that would have me shaking my head for days and days. I am still amazed that she never cuffed him upside the head on that account.

What a pot roast.

Dear me, the memories - the old ones, numerous but faded, the recent ones, too few, too fleeting.

---

For the past ten days my Grandmom was hooked into all manner of tubes and IVs and wires and stuff. It was atrocious, how uncomfortable she looked. I am in no hurry to see her go, but to keep her alive in that way would have been an abomination.

She's resting easy now, and soon, I suspect, will go to her Husband (departed over a decade ago) and her God -- she attended Catholic Mass every Sunday. He will welcome her, I am certain.

A finer soul He has never created, after all.

Her family will be left, after the grief passes, with the sure knowledge that we were blessed to have loved her, and blessed to be loved by her.

Live Free or Die

A commenter (Claudia) in the last post drew my attention to an interesting characteristic shared by many criminals, terrorists, and liberals. These people believe that if they do something bad, or good for that matter, it is not their fault. It is society's fault that the pedophile raped that little girl and her brother and killed her entire family. It is America's fault that islamofascist hijackers flew planes into skyscrapers and killed 3000 people. They had grievances. It wasn't their fault, it was the world they live in. To a liberal, it’s never the case that the criminal should “take responsibility” for his crime, but rather, “What made him do what he did?” I don't think that liberals believe that human beings are in control of their own lives. They must think that we are preprogrammed automatons. If you are successful, then they want to take your wealth and give it to those “less fortunate,” as if success is all about luck. This lack of belief in self-determination would also explain why liberals fight any notion of there being a moral right and wrong on any given issue. Of course, when one follows their arguments to their logical conclusions, you find a contradiction every time. For example, if you insist that having moral convictions about what is right and what is wrong is itself wrong, you are displaying a moral conviction. If you assert that people are not in control of their own lives, then what would be the point in arguing about it? For that matter, why not just slit your wrists right now? Without self-determination, what would be the point in trying to achieve a better life? You can't!

About those grievances...

...I think Lileks (i think it was Lileks) stated it best: "The West [at war] kills people as a means to an end. For terrorists, killing people is the end."

As for being afraid, check it out: We're not Afraid!

Fury

"How in the world can the dangerous turns of a convicted child molester cross your desk—high risk mind you—and yet you find more benevolence toward the violator than you do towards the violated? He's now killed a little boy that he molested, all in the wake of your legal blessing—in retroactive thanksgiving towards you and your judicial liberalism, Judge. And for good measure, he beat the rest of that little boy's family to death, and abused his sister just for kicks. All because you let him go—judge."

Read it all. Our "judges" must STOP putting the rights of pedophiles above those of our children.

The situation with many of our judges is bad, but not only due to their negligence in protecting our children. I can't help but notice the similarity in how the rights of terrorists are protected by judges both here and in Europe, even as the blood of their victims is splashed on the walls of London. And unless the attack is on the scale of 9-11, our governments refuse to punish those states which actively support terrorism. Now everyone has their own theory as to why people want to blow us up.

"We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are.
The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism."

I had, in an earlier post, suggested half jokingly that the reason for Islamic terrorism has to do with impotence. I am more inclined to believe, seriously, that their religion is indeed a death cult - they worship death. (To be honest, I don't care why they want to kill us. Trying to reason with your own executioner is an act of insanity if you ask me.) Our enemies are not afraid of death. Therefore, we must determine what it is that they are afraid of and use that to our advantage. Giving captured terrorists blood transfusions of pig's blood might help... kinda twisted though.

Also, and this is essential, we must hold someone responsible for these acts of terrorism. Iran is only the most likely candidate/target. Syria is also a sponsor of terrorism. But would invading Iran or Syria actually make a difference? Could it actually make things worse? I'm just asking. Eventually, things may become more urgent. An example may need to be made. If it comes down to it, if we have to decide between freedom and survival, the enemy needs to understand that the U.S. is not Europe. "Give me liberty or give me death" are not just words to an American. I think that nuking Mecca and Medina would very much be considered a rational response in this country, and would be demanded if, say for example, the water supply near Lodi, California were poisoned causing mass death (millions).

It is true, we are not afraid, but could you imagine what it would be like if we as a nation really were afraid?

Rage

For four years the MSM have done nothing but attack President Bush, and the democrats in congress have gone against him at every turn even on things like CAFTA which they know is a win-win deal. NAFTA was fine and dandy, but free-trade is too good for the poor people of Costa Rica and Honduras. Hypocrites. They, the democrats, will not allow any kind of victory for Bush no matter what. That is why they undermine the war effort and compare our military to Nazis. They have become the party of NO. Do you think for a second that the democrats would be demanding an exit strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan if AlGore or JFKerry were in office? How about an exit strategy for Kosovo already? It's a freakin' quagmire! And why did we bomb Kosovo, anyway? What did it have to do with national security? Not a thing, but so long as a democrat is president, whether it's Kosovo or Somalia or Vietnam or Hiroshima, it's all good. The second we have a Republican president, it's an unethical war and extremist judges and class warfare, elitist media squawks about "courage" and "speaking truth to power," and everybody's rights are being trampled, etc.

Well, they've thrown everything in their arsenal at this President yet the established media and the DNC, the legions of the left including ABCNBCCBSCNNMSNBCNYTLATPBSBBCNPR, and let's not forget Hollywood which has produced nothing but anti-conservative propaganda (with the notable exceptions of the Passion, the Incredibles, and maybe Team America) since 9-11, have all failed. In entertainment/media circles, and academe as well, open hatred for Bush is a prerequisite for promotion and has become so transparent as to be implicit in nearly everything we see in the newspaper, on tv, and not just the news shows, on the big screen, and in the classroom. But Bush has not broken any law. Even if "there were no WMDs," saying something that isn't true but that you believe to be true is not lying, otherwise we would all be liars. Bush did not lie, and you cannot point to a case where he did lie. It's all huff and puff. Like Jayson Blair, established professionals in the media, journalists, politicians have and continue to make stuff up in the hopes that something, anything, will stick. They all have fallen for fictional reports backed by anonymous sources. They bought into lie after lie after lie after lie, willingly, eagerly, hungrily. They need to believe those lies. They need to believe that Bush is evil to support their world view, because to believe otherwise would mean that they are insane and/or stupid.

The Left and the Damage they cause

Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the past few years, you know about the Joe "Frogmarch" Wilson/Valerie Plame case, and how the liberals were howling for Karl Rove's head. Wilson talked about how he wanted Rove frogmarched out of the White House in handcuffs, and the Left what whipping itself into a masturbatory frenzy trying to get whoever "leaked" Plame's name to Robert Novak arrested and sent to court. On what charges, I'm not sure. Hell, I'm not even sure if the Left knew what charges they wanted to press, but that didn't stop them from frothing at the mouth and imitating feces-flinging monkeys in their shrieking hysterics to do something to somebody.

Well, the leaks came out, it wasn't Karl Rove, one of them is in jail, and now we're reaping the whirlwind.

"As I write this, two stories of profound importance languish in our hands," Clifton wrote. "The public would be well served to know them, but both are based on documents leaked to us by people who would face deep trouble for having leaked them. Publishing the stories would almost certainly lead to a leak investigation and the ultimate choice: talk or go to jail. Because talking isn't an option and jail is too high a price to pay, these two stories will go untold for now. How many more are out there?"

While the Right was patiently trying to explain that there wasn't a crime committed by whoever "leaked" Plame's name, the Left was doing everything and anything it could to try and pin the leak on nefarious VRWC plots. And now that the Left has gotten it's way, and people are in jail, it has effected people the country over. Congradulations, Liberals! You have officially screwed not only yourselves, but the rest of the country! I hope you're happy!

I swear, Liberalism is a mental disorder. A disease. A condition of the brain that removes all logic and reason. And as if the above didn't make you angry enough, check out part two of the linked blog post!

Talk-radio hosts regularly discuss candidates and ballot issues, often with a particular point of view in favor of one or opposed to another.

Do those comments constitute a financial contribution to a campaign?

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham thinks they do. In a ruling issued Friday, Wickham said the comments and activities by KVI-AM (570) hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson on behalf of the Initiative 912 campaign are in-kind contributions that must be reported to the Public Disclosure Commission.

That's right folks, political speech by a radio host is now considered "contributions" and is subject to campaign finance rules! Thank you McCain-Fiengold, you worthless bastards! And guess what else might fall under that logic?

Brian Maloney, a former Seattle-area talk-show host who now runs a national blog on talk-radio issues, raises this question: If talk-radio comments count as political contributions, why not newspaper editorials? Or Web sites?

NannyState is here, and it's looking for things to control. Where's the reset button?

Miscellaneous Linkage

If the talking heads on tv could just get off their DNC talking points for five minutes and start looking at reality we'd all be a lot safer, and better off in general, but 99% of the time it has to be us vs. them, and modern liberals don't let silly things like facts get in their way. So it's interesting to see the reaction when one of their own dares to bring facts into a tv newsroom, in an interview about the US invasion of Iraq no less. This was supposed to be a friendly interview. Christopher Hitchens is a Democrat but apparently didn't drink enough cool-aid to roll over for the loony left-wingers on the boob-tube; apparently he has had enough and is, finally, standing up and throwing the truth back in the faces of some tv libs. In this interview he exposes Ron Reagan for the idiot tool that he is. (The only reason Ron is even on tv is so the man recently voted Greatest American in History can be dragged through the mud.) More of Christopher Hitchens being interviewed by liberals here. I feel sorry for people like Hitchens. Their party has been hijacked and is being driven straight into the ground.

Here's an amusing item: U.N. Condemns London Terror Strikes. What's the UN gonna do? Rien. Nichts. Niente. Nada. The UN has become a joke.

I don't like it when one group of people in this country claims to have rights, protections and freedoms that other groups of individuals do not have. It is particularly annoying when those in the press assert that they can, in effect, abet criminals with impunity in the name of "freedom of the press." In a free society, the press is not above the law.

Other good reads:

INFORMATION WARFARE: Selling Appeasement to Europeans
Another Episode in the War between Christiandom and Islam
Fixed Bayonets
Whenever an American Soldier Loses His Life a Liberal Gets His Wings
Mercenaries, Not Musicians, for Africa
Unocal 101
In My World: Supreme Anger

UPDATE: I've been corrected. Christopher Hitchens is not a Democrat since he's not a US Citizen but he used to be a Communist. Oh well. He seems to have recovered nicely. I guess the least I could do is link to a most excellent Christopher Hitchens piece. Here's another neat thing to read if you like 007, and don't miss Where is the Gandhi of Islam?

Speak Up, Muslims

We need more Muslims like this man to speak up. Islamic people should rise up and speak with one voice damning the terrorists to hell and they should act as one to hunt them down. If they cannot do this, then they should collectively hang their heads in shame, shut their mouths and get out of our way. As it is, and to put it nicely, most of us in the West both on the left and the right have lost respect for Islamic culture and religion. The terrorists will be wiped out. That is certain. The only question is whether Islam will survive?

For our part, we need to stop being nice to terrorists. When captured, terrorists should get blood transfusions rather than Korans - replace their blood with pig's blood. Film the process and send it to al Jizzeera. It has been made clear that Zarqawi, bin Laden and the rest of these retards watch the media as it has become their primary weapon. Why not fight fire with fire - use the media to scare the living shit out of them. Or we could just go on al Jizzeera and say Usama bin Laden likes little boys and has a tiny penis, and that al Qaeda members are impotent. No joke - we need to get "our" journalists to start making fun of the terrorists instead of giving them so much credibility and respect - that would make a difference. What's that you say? It'll never happen because the mainstream media is on the side of the enemy? Ack! You're right! And Chris Mathews isn't afraid of pig's blood - he only fears 95-pound Filipino women.

Gee, no response from the Left?

I wonder where all the people are who call the Bush economy a failure.... because I don't think Clinton ever got unemployment this low. Can you say 5%? I can.

FIVE PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT!

Liberals, with their tax hungry social programs and ever-growing lust for governmental control, have always ignored one of the most basic concepts in macroeconomics: When people keep their money instead of shoveling it down the maw of the State, that money goes back into the economy, either when they spend it or when they invest it. Sure, the government can spend your money, but it never invests it, and THAT is how the economy grows. It's a very simple concept, yet the Left ignores it, just like they ignore anything else that disagrees with their ideologic views.

The Left can't be trusted with the economy, they can't be trusted with national security, they can't be trusted with government power....

The Left just can't be trusted.

LGF down for a while

Charles emailed Glenn to let people know: Server hard drive bit the dust today. Don't know when he'll be back up.

Via DANEgerus

Are You Conservative has some nice grafics of flags for websites or personal use.

My browser isn't working for me, so I can't post it from my computer. It's a British flag blended with an American flag, done up rather nicely.

Click on the link to see it.

Profiles in Moonbattery

Amazing. Just plain amazing.

Here's a guy...

...with balls as big as church bells.

World War

The Sun of UK has done a better job than I of recalling Islamic Terror across the globe.

A Measured Response

I propose we respond to this latest atrocity, this attack on our staunchest ally, with overwhelming force. My proposal has the advantage of giving the Demonrats and the Chinese what they have been clamoring for - a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's withdraw right now. There is only one thing the terrorists and those who support them understand, and I suggest we give it to them. We will not cower from cowards. What am I talking about? A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words:

Why

While I would agree with the Mayor of London that those behind the London bombings are nothing but mass-murderers, and that indiscriminate killing is not an ideology or even a perverted religion (though I suppose you could call it a death-cult), I disagree with the politicians and pundits as to the supposed motivation behind the bombings. I don't think these scumbags care about "dividing London" or hating "freedom and democracy" or even their stated cause of driving Britain out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I think these shit-eating camel-fuckers are screaming to the world, "We are not impotent!" Well, they are. They can blow up a train but they can't build a toaster. Even a monkey can kill.

Daily reading

Not to make light of the events in Britain, Here's a question: What blog do you make a daily visit to? I'm simply curious to see how our blogroll compares to the various like-minded blogs. My list?

DANEgerus. First stop, bar none. Dane has more information than almost any blog out there. With the lack of comments that I see sometimes, I wonder if he's the most underappreciated blog out there. It's a wealth of information and well thought out reasoning.

Random Nuclear Strikes. Daily. It's on our blogroll. I don't comment, because I don't have a TypeKey registration (I know, I gotta get that fixed) but I'm there as often as possible.

Kim du Toit. Straight talk and no bullshit. Plus, gun blogging!

Those are my big three. If I don't have much time (which is often) those are the blogs I make sure I check out before moving on to any other reading. Does anyone else have a "must read" blog that you visit?

A message to our British Friends

I think I can speak for every member of this blog when I say that we all stand with you on this day of suffering.

Americans have been accused of many things, but the one thing that no one can deny is that we, as a whole, are uncomparable friends. We can offer shoulders to cry on, hands to comfort you, resourses to aid you, and food to feed you. We can give you what help you may ask for.

But the one thing our enemies forgot is that when you attack an ally of America, you attack America. And when the time comes, we will face our enemies together, with steel bared and firearms blazing, as we have ever since World War One.

We understand that you do not capitulate to terrorists, you hunt them down and exterminate them. And we will aid you in this if you so desire. The full might of the United States stands ready to demolish these terrorists who have killed your friends and your family.

No better friend, no worse enemy. It's the unofficial motto of the US Marines, and might as well me the country's motto as well. We stand ready to help if you should need it.

Just give us a call. We'll be there.

London Linkdump

Best place to keep up to the minute: The Corner on National Review Online

Great stuff from Andrew Sullivan.

Democratic Underpants sez the Bush Administration may have arranged it all.

Ready in New York City:



PowerLine recalls the words of Winston Churchill.

Greyhawk asks: "Who's next?" And also: "A carefully considered reply delivered soon would be appropriate." Damascus, perhaps.

"Four possible responses to terrorism"

George Galloway is subhuman.

Whaddya think?

Tanzania and Kenya 1998 -- United States 2001 -- India 2001 -- Bali 2002 -- Pakistan 2002 -- Turkey 2003 -- Saudi Arabia 2003 -- Russia 2004 -- Spain 2004 -- Jordan 2004 (foiled)

And now: England 2005

Can we call it a "World War" yet?

UPDATE: Was the attack "homegrown"?

May God Bless Britain

But it's for your own good!

Beware the jackbooted nags!

It's the ultimtae in liberal lawmaking, folks. They'll ban anything they don't like, and say it's for your own good.

This can't be good

Explosions blamed on power surge in London.

My question is this: If the explosions were caused by a power surge, why did several buses blow up? They're not on the power grid.

What's the easiest way to get 400 new visitors to one's site in six hours?

Post a comment with a link at LGF.




That readership will click on anything =wink=.

LGF is one of six or seven sites I visit several times a day. Most 4RWWs readers probably visit it often as well. It's solid, and the Kos Kidz LOATHE it, which is always a bonus...

The comments here illustrate the kind of people who read Little Green Footballs.

Mystery Solved!

The Bushies Dunnit

Obituaries called to mind

Remembering the above, I feel compelled to take a swag at a couple obits:

-----

SAN DIEGO (Al-Reuters) - Retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, who ran for vice president as Ross Perot's running mate in 1992, died Tuesday at his home in Coronado at the age of 81. Stockdale was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during America's immoral war against Vietnamese peasants, and spent 7 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison after being convicted of offenses against indigenous peoples whose only crime was fighting for the freedom of their country.

-----

EDISON (Al-Reuters) - Grammy award winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as "Here and Now" and "Any Love" sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday at age 54. Vandross overcame the odds inherent in being born black in America to achieve fame, wealth, and stardom in a country that had enslaved African people for four hundred years. The United States to this day practices both overt and subtle oppressive acts against people of color, said Vandross fans gathered outside his Watchung home.

-----

MIAMI (Al-Reuters) - L. Patrick Gray, whose yearlong stint as acting FBI director was marked by the Watergate break-in and the ensuing scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation, died Wednesday. Gray was often hailed as noble and principled after resisting illegal pressure from a Nixon White House desperate to continue its deceptive cover-up of its unlawful and unconstitutional acts committed to steal the 1972 Presidential Election from George McGovern. Historians recently have begun drawing parallels between the Nixon Administration's handling of Watergate and the current Administration's attempts to suppress the Downing Street Memo and other evidence that suggests unsavory manipulation of intelligence in the rush to war with Iraq.

Gray was 88.

Sometimes it's okay to long for the good old days

These fellas should have cross-ventilated craniums by now. Ah, well. The ACLU will ensure that they get their proper defense.

All Chicken And No Hawk

Blackfive gives the ole brickbat to the loathesome Duncan Black, with links galore.

Rest in Peace, James Stockdale

Admiral Stockdale has passed on. May God hold you close, Admiral, and make more of ye.

Following up re: DW and the Kos Kidz

Do the Left really want America to lose in Iraq? An admission, rare as they are.

So Funny it Hurts

Zarqawi takes offense to being compared to American liberals (via Iowahawk):

"Cripes, you should have seen the collection of numbnuts and droolers on the short bus from Saudi yesterday. Good Allah, I swear the only way we’re ever gonna turn these morons into martyrs is to plant detonation buttons inside their nostrils."

Advice for the raving moonbats at Kos: Just keep doing what you're doing. You're cracking me up.

How can more than half a Trillion Dollars in Humanitarian Aid make Africa Worse-off?

Despite having more natural resources than the rest of the world put together: Corruption.

"The failure of democracy and economic development in Africa are due to a large part to the scramble for wealth by predator elites who have dominated African politics..."

It seems to me that the question here is not how to provide more aid to poor nations, but rather how can we make it easier for poor people to climb out of poverty? Would any amount of financial aid actually eliminate poverty permanently? Haven’t we learned yet that just throwing money at a problem doesn’t make it go away? Aid can feed the starving for a period of time, but the problem will return unless people are able and willing to support themselves. Moreover, providing aid to poor nations frequently causes dependencies to develop, causing increasing demand for handouts. Free trade agreements worked extremely well in reducing poverty by more than 50% in places like Chile, while fifty years and half a trillion dollars of aid has done nothing for Africa but add to their misery. They say that a sign of insanity is when people keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. Well, we as a global community must be completely out of our collective gourd then. What makes the whole poverty issue seem truly evil to me is the fact that we already know what works, yet the politicians insist on rejecting win-win deals like CAFTA and just keep on doing the same thing, fostering dependencies, killing off any hope for self-sufficiency for the African farmer by dumping food through their corrupt governments, and on top of that giving billions of dollars to corrupt thug-politicians like Mugabe thereby aiding and abetting genocide. Whoever wrote up Live 8's web page (which I will not link to) is a disingenuous communist and needs to be straightened out. And before you America-bashers start lecturing us Americans about how we're not paying our fair share in aid, try adding in the private donations and you'll find that we give more than any European country per capita. According to the Scotsman, US donations to Africa outstrip Europe by 15 to 1. These are the facts, people. No matter how you cut it, the United States is by far the world’s largest source of humanitarian aid. I am sick and tired of being lectured to by millionaire movie stars and rock stars about not being generous enough.

The one who really pisses me off the most in all of this is Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who recently stated:

"I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the Third World. It's crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the starving nations."

His statement is just plain ignorant for the reasons stated above. Also, this man's view of the role of government is an anathema to me - appealing to half a dozen or so diplomats to take from the taxpayer and give more money that isn't theirs to give. Insisting that it is the government's function to fix all the problems in the world, while ignoring all the good that individuals do. Insisting that the capitalist system that made him a gazillionaire is the source of all that is wrong in Africa where most people are not even allowed to own property, legally. But what infuriates me is that this is David Gilmour, the soul of Pink Floyd. It hurts me to even say this: I've listened to Pink Floyd since the mid-1970s; I've probably listened to Pink Floyd more than all other music combined over my lifetime. Turns out, he's just another America-bashing socialist dog, biting the hand that has fed him so well and for so long. Just another useful idiot. Just another tool. All in all he's just another brick in the wall.

OK guys, knock it off!

It seems that this Fourth of July, we have several bloggers down in the dumps and pessimistic over the future of this country.

Stop it. Now.

Kim du Toit has a list of everything going wrong in the country today, and I can't disagree with him on any of his points. But both bloggers linked to above fail to remember the one important fact that has been made time and time again.

This country is still the best hope for freedom and prosperity.

Or to put it in another light: Where else are you going to go? Despite the government attempting to take our rights away, we as Americans have more rights today than citizens of ANY OTHER COUNTRY. So where else are you going to go? To some socialist shithole where your guns are confiscated, your taxes raise to astronomical levels, and your privacy violated daily at the whim of the State?

Nope. Not me. THIS is my country, and THIS is where I'm staying. If there is to be a war for our rights, let it be here, not some country where the population is ambivalent to the extreme.

This is the country who's Constitution I've sworn to protect from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And if that means that I take the battle to the bureaucrats and parasites on Capitol Hill, then that's what I do. If that means that we hit the reset button, that's what we do. WE HAVE THAT OPTION. Other countries do not.

Perhaps instead of mourning, as Kim du Toit would do, we should get off our asses and remember just what made this country great, and work to move it back in that direction. And if you find that the task is impossible, then we do what the Constitution allows us to do and throw off the shackles of the government that oppresses us. If the State of Texas finally decided that it had had enough, and severed all ties to the United States, what do you think would happen?

Not bloody much. With the surrender monkeys fully in charge of the Democrat Party, and most of the Republican Party wondering where the conservatives are in their elected representatives, there would be hand-wringing, wailing, and name calling, but I guaran-damn-TEE that you wouldn't see American troops marching into Austin. And if they WERE ordered to march, you wouldn't have a damn shot fired. You think we enjoy being bossed around by a group of communist shit-suckers? Hell no. Take back Texas? Yeah right, Hillary. Kiss my freedom loving ass while I relocate to Texas, and then YOU come try to take it back FROM me.

The bottom line in all of this is that we can't afford to have people like Kim and Ogre crying into their cups. We need them proud, pissed off, and still fighting for the American dream that they love. Because if the patriots among us lose heart, then we lose the battle. And it IS a battle, people. It's a battle for a way of life that may slip out of our grasp if we let it.

I'm damn sure not going to let it slip away from me. I'm an American who knows just what that title means, and so is Kim, and Ogre, when they're finished moping around. So the both of you: Take a cold shower, have your wives slap your faces a bit, go burn off some ammo, do whatever you need to do in order to get your mind on the right track.

The battle isn't lost until you give up. I'm not giving up, and I hope that my allies in this fight don't give up either. So, damnitall...

SNAP OUT OF IT!

The Fourth of July

When I was a kid, I used to think of the 4th as just another reason to stay up late with my parents. It wasn’t anything REALLY special, although the parades were cool and we got to play with fireworks. I burned myself on a sparkler when I was five and left fireworks alone for about six years anyways. But although my parents treated it as a special holiday, I really didn’t get it.

Later on, when I found a fireworks stand in Idaho that sold bottle rockets, my friends and I would buy about six or seven gross of bottle rockets and have bottle rocket wars with each other. I came close to blowing myself up once or twice, but the 4th STILL wasn’t as special as Christmas or Easter. At least on those two holidays, we were allowed to get out of school for a day or two (or in the case of Easter, it fell on Spring Break).

Then, I started learning history. World History, American History, all the classes in school and other books that I picked up on my own. And THAT is when the 4th of July became special. Because the chances of this country doing what it did when it did were slim to none. And yet it still happened.

The best men that this fledgling country had to offer volunteered to be it’s leaders. I recently finished reading a book on George Washington, and the sense you get is that here was an above ordinary man who became extraordinary, all in the name of something greater than himself, that he himself might never enjoy the fruits thereof. When General Washington won the Revolutionary War, we was offered the crown of America. The CROWN. And he turned it down. He turned it down because he refused to see the dream he worked, sacrificed and suffered for rendered all for naught. ALL the leaders of the Revolution, facing trials that modern Americans cannot begin to imagine, worked to create something larger than any of them could dream. And it WORKED. This novel, unheard of system of government, based on a system two millennia old, instituted in a land still unexplored, paid for by the blood of common men and women, and it WORKED. We won this nation from the mightiest country in the world at that time. “The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire”. Remember that phrase? It was true. From India to America, Britain controlled more land and more people than any country in the world at any time, and yet the American Colonials, aided by the French, managed to win not only military victory but a new nation.

So much rested on so few, and yet they managed to succeed. And the results of their dream, which they could only imagine at the time, have risen to levels never before seen in the world.

Americans brought forth electric light, the steam engine, and powered flight. Americans have brought forth so many inventions that what was astounding now seems modern. Peanut Butter. Unheard of until a man named George Washington Carver, a black inventor looking for ways to utilize peanuts ground up several nuts for an experiment and decided they tasted pretty good that way. The Personal Computer, the very machine that I’m using to type this little piece, came about because of American ingenuity and know-how. While we might have Dell, or Intel, or Gateway, or any of the other makers of computers and computer components these days, I can remember when the letters “PC” were ALWAYS preceded by “IBM”. Radios, televisions, telephones, telegraphs, all the products of American invention or innovation. Even what we didn’t invent, we improved, and passed that knowledge onto the rest of the world. It can be reasonably argued that Americans have done more to help the world in the past two centuries than any other country.

America has welcomed people from the world over. From the first immigrants from Europe, to immigrants from Asia. They have all come because they understood what America stands for. And they still come to this very day, clamoring to be American.

We, in partnership with Great Britain, the country we once fought against, ended slavery in the Anglosphere. I can’t say that we ended it altogether, since slavery still exists in Africa and the Middle East, but we paid for the freedom of all men and women in this country with our blood. We helped save the world from itself not once but TWICE in the 20th Century. And if you count the money and blood used to fight the USSR, we would increase that number to three. And today, Americans are fighting and dying to bring freedom into a section of the world that hasn’t seen freedom in thousands of years. We are doing it for a number of reasons; to prevent state sponsored terrorism, to eliminate dangers to our country, to rid the world of parasites who do nothing but destroy everything around them. But the one reason that has always been stated, the one reason that President Bush has mentioned time and time again, no matter what the Left tries to say or do, has been freedom.

Freedom. There is so much meaning captured by that one word, and yet so many people cannot conceive in their mind exactly what it means in any way. We in this country have been blessed to grow up in a country who’s basic reason for it’s creation was FREEDOM. But that blessing is a double edged sword, because people who have never had to fight for freedom, people who have never been challenged in a real and meaningful way sometimes do not understand exactly what freedom is, or why it is so important. Just observe how many people willingly give away their freedoms to the state, either out of apathy or carelessness. We are now in a position where so many people have given away bits of their freedom to the state that the state is now demanding that we give up other freedoms as well. The list is too long to mention, but a few salient points can be made – the 2nd Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, is all but ignored in several states of the union. The 5th Amendment, which safeguards the freedom that we have to our private property, was violated by the Supreme Court in ways that would make the Founding Fathers take up arms yet again. Our freedom of speech is infringed upon on a daily basis. How many times have you heard “You can’t say that!” in today’s politically correct culture? Saying certain things can now get you tossed in jail!

The same people who give their freedoms away sneer when we mention freedom in other parts of the world, by the way. It is as if they hold freedom in contempt. Perhaps they do. Having never had their freedoms challenged, they by their actions are not free at all.

But despite the problems that face this country, we are still the best hope for freedom in the world. After observing the actions of other countries, perhaps we are the ONLY hope for freedom in this world. While other countries willingly give rights and freedoms away for a false sense of security, Americans still fight, on the battlefield and in the political chambers, to preserve the freedoms that we hold dear. We do it because of the country that we believe in, the country that embodies the freedoms that we have sacrificed for. We do it for THIS COUNTRY, born out of turmoil and bloodshed, an experiment still in the making, that was created on the Fourth of July.

The Fourth of July, in a way, embodies all the beliefs we hold. Duty. Doing what is right, because it is right. Loyalty to the things that support and protect us, instead of misplaced servitude to that which would destroy us. And most of all, Freedom. The freedom that has allowed us to do great things, and that allows us to be who we are. The freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, the freedom to assemble and the freedom to petition. The freedom that has created a country unlike any other in the world. It is THAT which is celebrated on the Fourth of July, as well as all the accomplishments of a country that almost didn’t exist.

I want all of you to think about the gifts that you have, all the freedoms you enjoy, and think about whether or not you would have them if you lived anywhere else in the world.

And then celebrate the Fourth of July with me.