Passing it on

A history lesson, seen at BabyTrollBlog, from Mostly Cajun. History is to be learned from, otherwise we keep making the same mistakes over and over. So let's learn a little something and see if we can't make the same mistakes twice.

SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II. MOST OF YOU DON’T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2008.

Sixty-four years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.

At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.

Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing; we had few allies.

France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers, Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia.

Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.

America’s only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.

The US was certainly not prepared for war. The U.S. had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WWI because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WWII, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn’t have guns, and cars with “tank” painted on the doors because they didn’t have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor. Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).

Actually, Belgium surrendered after one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could. Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler first turned his attention to Russia in the late summer of 1940, at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.

Ironically, Russia saved American’s butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.

Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Leningrad alone . . . 99% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than 1,000,000 soldiers.

Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could have won the war.

All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.

There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.

The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in kaffiyehs - they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. All who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra and their goal. There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East - for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, - the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.

If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies.

The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC - not an OPEC dominated by the educated, more rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.

If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can’t do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . in Iraq, not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we have done two important things:

First we deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades. Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than 1,000,000 Iraqis and
2,000,000 Iranians.

Second we created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won’t have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.

WWII, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a “whimper” in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for 14 years before the U.S. joined it. It officially ended in 1945 - a 17-year war - and was followed by another decade of U.S. occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . . a
27-year war.

WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year’s GDP - adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.

The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.

The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

This is not a 60 Minutes TV show, or a two-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.

The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.

If the U.S. can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.

The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never-ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons . . . unless somebody prevents them from getting them.

We have four options:

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.

2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran’s progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).

3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now, in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.

4. Or, we can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.

If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.

The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilizations should be like, and the most determined always win.

Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-peace militants kill them.

Remember, perspective is everything, and America’s schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.

The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; 42 years!

Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!

World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten- year occupation, and the U.S. still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than
100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.

The U.S. has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The U.S. took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.

In WWII the U.S. averaged 2,000 KIA a week - for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.

The stakes are at least as high. . . a world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).

It’s difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.

“Peace activists” always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it’s safe. Why don’t we see peace activists demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I’ll tell you why! They would be killed!

The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity.

Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!

Please consider passing along copies of this to students in high school, college and university as it contains information about the American past that is very meaningful TODAY — history about America that very likely is completely unknown by them (and their instructors, too). By being denied the facts and truth of our history, they are at a decided disadvantage when it comes to reasoning and thinking through the issues of today. They are prime targets for misinformation campaigns beamed at enlisting them in causes and beliefs that are special-interest agenda driven.

Raymond S. Kraft is a writer and lawyer living in Northern California.

Orange Ribbons for Al-Qaeda

Remember the Hollywood smear:

Hollywood smears the troops again

First clip is the troops, second clip is from five minutes later, in which the winner of Best Documentary — a film about American soldiers beating a man to death in Afghanistan, natch — pays his own little tribute. -- AllahPundit

Well now it turns out

Hollywood And The Trendy New “Terrorist” Ribbon

The hot fashion accessory [at Sunday’s Oscar ceremony] was apparently orange ribbons and bracelets in solidarity with terrorist suspects in Guantanamo...
...
The Hollywood Liberal wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a red, white, and blue ribbon, which makes one wonder why they had our troops in Iraq present an Oscar the other night when their hearts are really with those poor sexist, racist, homophobic, theocrats who wear orange jumpsuits.

See Dubya notes

Record, film industry still backing antiwar horse (or, maybe just beating its corpse)

Nope... they are not kidding...
Gateway Pundit notes

ACLU Behind Orange Gitmo Lapel Ribbons At Oscars

Allison Walker, the entertainment industry liaison for the ACLU, which sponsors the Close Guantanamo campaign and distributes the ribbons. Walker is a former talent agent who once worked at William Morris.

I read about a bunch of gay activists that gleefully went to New York to march in solidarity with their oppressed Palestinian-Arab "brothers" and got the sh*t beat out of them when those same "brothers" realized they were a bunch of "gay activists". I am reminded of that because it illustrates why I despise the LibRules. They're hypocritical advocacy for preferential treatment for their special victim classes boils down to anyone who isn't a straight white-male is "oppressed" and deserving of tax-payer subsidies.

Well... Males are less then 1/2 the population, Whites are about 3/4, and straights are about 98-99%... so do the math. Straight White Males are only 1/3 of the population and that makes us a true minority.

If we oppressed straight white males own everything maybe we're just better then you?

Now... consider what happens if Islam wins out and the USA converts to Sha'aria law tomorrow? For a member of the "establishment" like myself I just put a bag over the wife's head, maybe pick up 2-3 additional underage "wives", go through the motions at the local Mosque with my fellow misogynists and studiously look the other way as all the Gay men, Lesbian women, academics, artists and rape victims are rounded up and stoned to death.

The Quran doesn't have a "useful idiot" exception for orange ribbons.

You can play this game at home... simply compare the "special victim classes" demand to the actual consequences of that Leftist's successful indulgent support of the Jihadists, either by active support, selective outrage or apathetic acceptance.

Lets start with "Gay Marriage", that statistics demonstrate homosexuals don't even want, which would result in death by hanging.

Or how about abortion? Oops... sorry... you'll be buried up to your neck and stoned until you bleed to death out your eyes.

Universal Health Care? Nope... sorry... if you examine the economically self-crippled Islamic economies you'll notice they can't steal from the tax-payers for any social services at all.

That's because all of the state's funds, however little that is, will be dedicated to expansion of the military.

Expect to see drilling anywhere the state cares to throw up a drilling rig too...

Freedom of Speech goes out the window along with academic freedom as every school is converted to study of the only book not worth burning, the Quran.

How much "Separation of Church and State" is there in an Islamic theocracy? Ah... not so much.

But don't complain to me... unless you want to be denounced as an apostate and hanged... with an orange rope.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

WFB Jr., 1925-2008

William F. Buckley Jr. has passed on.

I can't say that I agree with the direction NR has taken lately, WFB had an effect on American politics that the most people can only dream of. It's safe to say that much of the modern conservative movement owes it's existence to WFB.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Buckley.

And by the way

The snowfall at my parents' house reached record levels in January. They started keeping records in Cd'A around1885 or so. That means that ever since they started keeping records, they've NEVER had as much snow on the ground as they did this winter.

Now, to keep things in perspective, back in 1993 we had so much snow that we had to shovel it off the roof to keep the house from collapsing. We used a ladder to get onto the roof. But by the time we were done, we walked off the roof, onto the piled snow, walked down the staircase we cut into that piled snow, and through the tunnel we had to dig to get to the front door.

They have more snow than that this year.

Seems like quite a bit of the globe is experiencing the same thing. But I've got $10 riding on the fact that someone will blame it on global warming.

DANE, you should have cross-posted this one

Bashing Manliness - anti-Heinlein writers. People know that I'm a big fan of Heinlein, especially his early works. As he got older, his science-fiction drifted more into "fiction" than "science", but still, he's a good writer. My signature line from my email is a Heinlein quote:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Notice that nowhere in that quote does he say that a man should whine, cry, bitch and moan until the government comes to pay money out to some jack-ass who couldn't take care of himself if he wanted to. Now, I'm not going to insist that everyone be able to conn a ship, but the spirit of the quote is that you should be able to handle things YOURSELF, whether it's clearing a clogged drain or dealing with any of the various hardships that always crop up in life. There are two kinds of people in life - those who see the hardship and deal with it in some form or another, and those who see the hardship and bitch until someone else takes care of it for them. The former are conservatives. The latter are "liberals". The former either deal with the problem, or in the case of the clogged drain they call a plumber, pay the guy, and go on with their lives. The latter demand that someone else deal with their problems because they're either too damn lazy, too damn pathetic, and too damn chickenshit to deal with it themselves.

Think I'm kidding? Then why do so many liberals demand that the government, i.e. SOMEONE ELSE, take care of their responsibilities?

Oh, and just because the DANE cross-posts here every now and then is no excuse for you not to visit his website daily. I do. Bookmark that sucker.

Math? We don't need no steenkeen Math!

But if you're a math type person, I suggest you check this out.

I must admit - I did OK in algebra. Loved Geometry. Got to advanced algebra and my eyes started crossing. Maybe it was the fact that I couldn't see any real-world applications for it that I would use. I mean, geometry, yeah, I use that all the time, even today. But you got into some of the more abstract rules and formulas, and unless I could see a way to use it my my life, my brain just didn't accept it. Maybe it was the teacher, maybe it was just the way my brain works.

I'll still give it a whirl. What the hell, let's see if I can still remember half the crap I've learned from decades ago.

Oh, Kee-RIST!

Folks, it can be boiled down into one sentence:

It's not how much money you have, it's what you do with the money you have. Compare and contrast:

A photo gallery of American Vagabonds. Notice the tattoos. Notice the piercings. I can tell you from experience that both can be expensive to get done. A decent sized tattoo can cost upwards of $200 or more. Hell, just getting the color done on my wife's armband was $250. And that was JUST TO PUT COLOR INTO AN OUTLINE!

My tattoos cost quite a bit as well. It was money that I chose to spend, but it was rather expensive. When you pick and choose a tattoo artist, you tend to put out a large amount of cash. Why? Well, because I didn't want any back-ally jackass fucking up something that was going to be in my skin for the rest of my life. I wanted to make damn sure that when it was done, it was done right. You only get one chance at it. So I found the best damn artist that I could. But the best artists cost money. But even a back-ally jackass costs money. So a vagabond wandering around with large tattoos on their arms are not going to get much sympathy from me. Piercings can be more expensive, depending on what you get pierced.

There's at least one picture of a guy toking pot out of a soda can. At least, I think it's pot, but it could be just about anything. Hmmmmmmm..... illegal drugs aren't exactly the cheapest thing around, are they?

Look at all the people smoking cigarettes. Even the el cheapo crap sticks are running at around $2 a pack depending on what state you live in. But still... suppose you never left a state where the smokes are cheap. Say, $1 a pack for the cheap ones. That's still $30 a month.

There's one picture of bottles of booze. Now, let's say that they're making their own booze. You still have to buy the grain, you still have to have a still, you still need to buy supplies. That's money, folks.

They want me to feel sorry for them? Hell no.

Now the contrast. You've probably seen this already, but if you haven't, let me quote a bit for you:

Alone on a dark gritty street, Adam Shepard searched for a homeless shelter. He had a gym bag, $25, and little else. A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Now he was an outsider on the wrong side of the tracks in Charles­ton, S.C.

But Shepard's descent into poverty in the summer of 2006 was no accident. Shortly after graduating from Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., he intentionally left his parents' home to test the vivacity of the American Dream. His goal: to have a furnished apartment, a car, and $2,500 in savings within a year.

To make his quest even more challenging, he decided not to use any of his previous contacts or mention his education.

During his first 70 days in Charleston, Shepard lived in a shelter and received food stamps. He also made new friends, finding work as a day laborer, which led to a steady job with a moving company.

Ten months into the experiment, he decided to quit after learning of an illness in his family. But by then he had moved into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had saved close to $5,000.

It ain't what you have, it's how you use it. A bunch of drugged out vagabonds with tats, piercings, and cabinet full of booze just makes me scoff. Folks, THEY CHOOSE TO LIVE THAT WAY. I've been flat ass broke before. You look at what you're bringing in. And you look at the bills you have to pay. You then pay the bills with what you have. Does it suck? Yeah, it does, but I made it work, on a MINIMUM WAGE JOB. So what does this mean?

Well, you don't go out and buy drugs. Drugs just eat up your money and your brain.

You don't go out and buy a new car. I've never owned a new car. And guess what? I haven't had to pay $20,000+ to drive around either.

You don't go out and buy the biggest damn TV you can find. Until we found a kick ass deal on a 27" TV, we just grabbed what we could from thrift shops and garage sales. So we don't have the newest TV. So what? We don't have thousands in debt!

If you're struggling to pay the bills, you do NOT go out and get tattoos, piercings, or other body modifications that eat up cash. I got my tats when I could afford them. As in, I had disposable income. NOT when I was deciding what bargain meat to buy for dinner.

If you're struggling to pay the bills, you don't get a bottle of booze.

You make your choices, and you live with them. Period, end of story. The people in those pictures choose to live the way they do. And I bet if you tried to get them to get a real job and pay real bills, they'd bitch and complain to beat the band. They don't want the responsibility. Well, fine and dandy, but that is THEIR CHOICE. And I do not have ANY RESPONSIBILITY to support them in their choice of lifestyle.

They could improve their life if they wanted to. But they don't.

It's rather hard to type right now

There's a flag football league on post that I'm a part of. I play center on offense and linebacker on defense. The league was put on hold for a bit because of a contract dispute between the post and the refs. Basically, the refs weren't getting paid at all, so they had a pretty damn good reason to be upset.

Anyways, the contract got taken care of, and we're playing catch-up games so that we can get into the playoffs. So my team had a double-header last night.

I told you all that so I can tell you this:

Sometime during the first game, I jammed my thumb blocking a defender. Sometime during the second game I did it again, only harder. I woke up this morning, tried to grab a cup of water, and damn near cried. My thumb hurts like a bastard. It's not broken. I did a check on it, moved it, felt the joint, and it's just jammed real bad. But guess what finger I use to hit the spacebar?

Yep. My right thumb. So it hurts to type right now. But don't worry, I'll still try to post for my ten regular readers. Hell, after taking a weekend off, I can work through the pain for y'all! Heh. In the meantime, I'll going to get caught up on everything I missed this weekend. When your only connection to the world is through your modem, it sucks to have it go out suddenly. Since I don't have cable or a dish, my only way to get news is online. So gimme a while to see what I missed.

Oh, and we won both games, by the skin of our teeth, and we're now in the playoffs. But if we play that shitty against the other teams, we're going to lose our asses.

Two things fixed

As you can see, I got my modem fixed. So I'm back on the intarwebs.

I also got the motorcycle running. I'm stoked. Took it for a ride last night when I got home from work. Damn, I missed riding. I'll be doing a lot more of it in the future.

Newsweek Jumps The Shark for Good

Has Newsweek given up all pretense of objectivity whatsoever? Guess who is getting loving, front-page caresses from Newsweak?

None other than Michelle "I can finally be proud of my country" Obama. The last female/politician to get such the dedicated front page spotlight? Hillary Clinton. Her tag line? "I Finally Found My Voice."

So what is Michelle's trademark? "Barak's Rock" and "I Can Only Be Who I Can Be." {{The preceeding must be stated while looking off-camera, upwards at a roughly 30 degree angle, a wistfully far way, yet confident and noble look in your eyes.}}

Here's a juicy quote:

If his {Barak's} loftiness can set him apart from the crowd, her bluntness draws them in. Standing up before large audiences wasn't easy at first. "I've never participated at this level in any of his campaigns," she told NEWSWEEK last week. "I have usually chosen to just appear when necessary."

Let there be no doubt. She is not campaigning FOR Barak, she's campaigning WITH him. And apparently, her "bluntness" is what "draws people in." This only solidifies the growing perception that, even moreso than will Billary, Michelle and Barak will be a package deal, as she works to "keep him real" and "not forget what we are fighting for." Without her around, it's beginning to sound like ol' Barry would be prone to drift into indirection, suffer numerous gaffes or get too full of himself. What a gal!

It's almost as if Michelle Obama is being billed as Barak's keeper. His handler. She keeps him centered and on track. {{sniff, dab}} Or, translated another way: she's running the show. I almost have to ask who exactly we'll be voting for on election day if "he" get's the nomination?

We haven't seen such a kid-gloves, soft-coated approach to "journalism" since...since...well, since Bill Clinton was in office.

Michelle Obama makes endearingly "blunt" comments, manages to piss-off or otherwise alienate a large chunk of the American voting populace...and she gets the front page of Newsweek. Nice.

Oh, and check the header graphic at the top: "The End of The Conservative Age."

Newsweak has clearly decided who is going to win the culture war, and thrown its unabashed support in that direction.

Internet out

My modem bit the big one late Friday night. I'm writing this from a friend's house right now. I should have the new modem up and running by tomorrow night, but that's not a guarantee. So, if I don't post, you know why.

See you when I'm back online.

Details, details

Way back when, many moons ago, in a galaxy far, far away.... back when I was an MP, one of the many things drilled into my head by my NCO's was a simple, yet true statement: "If you're going to enforce the law, you had better damned well follow the law!" Simple, yet true. If I pulled you over for speeding, yet I sped in my own car, I was a hypocrite, wasn't I? If I arrested you for driving drunk, yet I got tanked up and drove home, wasn't I breaking the very same law?

In order to enforce the law, you have to follow the law. Doing otherwise makes you a hypocrite, a coward, enforcing a double-standard. One law for me, and one law for thee. It's rotten, foul, and there's not enough horrible things that I can say about someone who does that.

Much like the BATFU.

Just to be clear - the BATF is flat out hammering people for minor paperwork errors. Things just as putting a "Y" into a spot instead of the word "yes". THAT minor. And yet these fucktards are labeling a Glock as a "revolver", or a revolver as a Glock, even though Glock does not make a revolver at all.

Compared to shortening the word "yes" to the letter "Y", what the BATFU has done is a major fuck-up. That's akin to labeling the Grand Canyon as a minor mountain range in Arizona. Huge fuck-up. Massive fuck-up. You're supposed to be enforcing firearms laws, and yet you can't even properly tell what a firearm IS?

I'm reminded of that South Park episode where Cartman becomes a police officer....

CARTMAN: Do you know how fast you were going sir?

DRIVER: Uh... 35?

CARTMAN: Do you know what the speed limit is here sir?

DRIVER: Isn't it 35 miles per hour?

CARTMAN: ......... Step out of the car please sir.

Again, if you're going to enforce the law, you had damned well better follow the law. Since the BATFU has shown that it couldn't even find it's own ass with both hands, a map and a guide dog, the fact that it doesn't even know the difference between a semi-auto and a revolver should come as no surprise. The surprise is the fact that the BATFU is still allowed to enforce the law.

Yet another government agency that should be collectively tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail.

By the way, Red's Trading Post, a good Idaho company, can be found on the blogroll under "The Second Amendment".

Quote of the Day

Lifted in it's entirety from BabyTrollBlog.

"By the mid-1930's, thanks to the New Deal, all that self-reliance had changed, prompting Mencken to declare: 'There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them.' Despite the billions spent on an individual, 'he can be lifted transiently but always slips back again.' Thus, the New Deal had been 'the most stupendous digenetic enterprise ever undertaken by man.... We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time. The effects of that doctrine are bound to be disastrous soon or late.'

When someone asked, "And what, Mr. Mencken, would you do about the unemployed?" He looked up with a bland expression. "We could start by taking away their vote," he said, deadpan. Mencken was not surprised when the majority disagreed. "There can be nothing even remotely approaching a rational solution of the fundamental national problems until we face them in a realistic spirit," he later reflected, and that was impossible so long as educated Americans remained responsive "to the Roosevelt buncombe."

I once said, many moons ago, that if you're not reading Mr. Alger, you're doing yourself a dis-service. I stand by that. Even if we do disagree on a few points, Mark Alger is always able to make me think about my convictions, either good or bad.

Plus, he seems like the kind of guy I'd love to have a drink and a cigar with. That's just a bonus.

By the way...

If you've ever wanted proof that truth and facts don't matter to CNN, here's yet another bit of evidence to add to your files.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Maybe one day the MSM in this country will stop being partisan pieces of shit and actually report the news. But I'm not holding my breath.

I keep hearing that old saying - "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance." OK, that's all cute and stuff. But what about when the same people have been making the same mistakes for years. The same biases. The same problems with their unobjective reporting, despite literally thousands of people willing, able, and desperately trying to correct them?

Ignorance can no longer be used as an excuse. Which leaves malice. Which means that CNN has allied themselves to the side of government control, less freedom, and socialist tyranny.

Which makes them the enemy.

Adding to the DANEgerus post below

So, Obama is crying about a Captain who says he didn't have adequate troops or equipment.

Jake Tapper, a MSM shitheel reporter, says he spoke to the Captain, and says the story is legit.

First of all, let's state one fact: This action allegedly occurred in 2003. But it was presented as recent news. Nah, no media bias there, eh?

Second of all, if Obama wants to whine about the lack of funding, troops and equipment, well.....

He can go play hide and go fuck himself.

Despite what Jake fucking Tapper and the collective fucking pusswads want to say, it is CONGRESS who appropriates the military budget. It is CONGRESS who decides how much money the military gets. It is CONGRESS who provides the money to recruit, train, and equip soldiers. The president gets to sign the budget. CONGRESS determines how much money is in that budget.

THE VERY SAME CONGRESS THAT OBAMA WAS A PART OF!

So fuck you, Jake Tapper. You're a brainless piece of shit so far out of your depth it's not even funny.

Fuck you, Barak Obama. You're using five year old news to try to be elected to an office you don't even deserve to sniff at.

It's Congress who has failed in their duty to adequately supply the troops. The very same Congress that Barak Hussien Obama was a part of. And Hillary Clinton. And John Fucking McCain. All of them worthless fucking pissants, corrupt parasites, filthy pieces of dog shit who shouldn't be allowed any office higher than FUCKING DOG CATCHER! There's not a single person still running who should be allowed within 50 yards of the Oval Office!

Nobody in Congress has the right to complain about the lack of military funding. They destroyed the military in the 90's, and refused to adequately fund it ever since. Maybe instead of carrying on like fucking sissies, like whiny ass pansy cock-biters, like bitchy pathetic fucksticks, they could have actually funded the military. But they didn't. They refused to do so. They should be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail. They're not worth two squirts of piss in the wind.

And Jake Tapper is just another partisan piece of crap, guzzling kool-aid and carrying water like a good little bitch for his masters. So fuck him too.

We are so screwed this election. I truly hope this country can survive, but I have my doubts.

Obama smears the troops...

OBAMA: You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.

And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.

Ace responds

Really, Jesus 2.0?

Really?

You really going with that, buddy?

You sure of that?

Really?
...
Below, captured footage of US soldiers forced to fight hand to hand against a Taliban Warlord/dragon-man for lack of ammo. Winess the plight of the undersupplied Captain that Obama was speaking of.

Jake Tapper of ABC tried to excuse this... he contacted the same anonymous party and claims the story "checks out"...

So he wasn't a Captain, who didn't run out of ammunition in theater so he wasn't forced to use captured weapons, whose platoon may have been understrength because of normal turnover but certainly wasn't because platoons are 'split' against Army policy, so... even though the circumstances were misrepresented, and even though the anecdote was not representative of any actual circumstances reported by any other units... yeah... it "checks out".

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Not That I'd Ever Encourage Such Irresponsible Behavior

Utah students hide guns, head to class

Nick says his gun doesn't make him feel immune from attack. "But I feel that I will be able to protect myself, and I'm confident in my training and my ability," he said.

Or....

His confidence is not shared by fellow student Griselda Espinoza, who recently transferred to the university. Some 28,000 students attend the school, as of the latest enrollment figures.

"I feel less safe knowing that a stranger sitting beside me in class may have a gun in his or her backpack," she said.

"The only people that should carry guns are trained officials."

Uhmmm, yeah. Those highly trained campus police. In a car, on the other side of campus. Who will be there in under five minutes.

A lot can happen in five minutes.

I'm just sayin'.

Under a Blood Red Moon

Here's a shot from last night's lunar eclipse. I managed to get the moon and one solitary star into the shot. Living in the middle of the city like I do, there's not a whole bunch more I could do. I can just imagine what it looked like out in the country, where there's no ambient light to ruin the shot.

Anyways, click click for a bigger version. It's only about 70 KB or so.

Yeah, I do

I still read his website. It's not like he doesn't have a flaming assload of archives to keep me busy. Besides, a lot of what he said then still applies today.

Them Democrats is gonna save mah SOUL!

I have heard sound-bites from both Obama and Shrillery about how they are going to "reclaim the soul of America" or "save the soul of America."

Hey, isn't that a violation of the separation of church and state? [/sarcasm]

Is it really the job of the President to save souls? Isn't that a tad more messianic than presidential?

When your candidates for President talk more about saving a soul than governing a people, you know you've got problems. They want us to see them as standing in white robes, arms outstretched with a staff and flowing silver hair, bathed in light as they lead us forward, out of darkness and into the light of a Grand Progressive Future^tm.

Pastors and politicians serve separate and disinct roles, and they need to stay that way. I'm looking for another Ronald Reagan, not another Jim Jones. A Gipper, not a Ghandi.

How much CO2 is enough?

So, a while back I admitted that there were some questions I had about the whole globule warning thing, and vowed to do some research to rectumify the situation.

In the comments, Mike W made a comment that mirrored something that I had already sort of intuitively guessed at. Essentially, that if the sun creates heat by warming the surface, at some point you will reach an equilibrium state where there isn't enough energy left to heat anything else, so adding more CO2 is essentially irrelevant.

You see, a great deal of the chest-clutching, hair-fire, screaming-in-the-streets catastrophizing about global warming seems to be centered around the idea that all this industrial pollution from capitalist factories and irresponsible SUV owners is CREATING the greenhouse efffect.

'Cept dat, the greenhouse effect was already there. It HAS to be, or life on this planet ceases to exist. There needs to be a certain amount of CO2 "blanket" to prevent radiant heat from escaping too quickly, thus moderating temp extremes, and enabling the kind of warm, humid environment on which so much of life as we know it depends.

So, the question becomes not IF there is a greenhouse effect, but, can we have too much of a good thing?

If the sun creates radiant heat through the absorption of UV and Visible light by "dark" surfaces on the Earth, followed by the "reflection" of this energy as infra-red, it would seem to me to be intuitively obvious that the RATE at which this energy/light strikes the Earth would be the determining factor in how much heat is generated.

Because, as stated by Mike W, if only X amount of energy is created, then only X amount is available to "excite" CO2 molecule to a higher energy state (called "heating" in layman's terms). So, while I can certainly see how you could ultimately have too LITTLE CO2, and thus be unable to retain sufficient heat, I begin to question if you can really have too much? Once you reach a certain threshold amount, or a "point of equilibrium," there will simply not be enough energy left to charge up any more CO2 molecules!

Air is heated by the "blackbody radiation" from the ground. This energy is then transfered via convection to other molecules in the atmosphere: H2O and CO2 being the most popular. As these molecules transfer their heat energy to the other molecules around them, they lose energy by exactly the same amount (conservation of energy), thus cooling down. Since one molecule can transfer energy to several others, and so on in a geometric progression, each successive "bump" transfers less and less energy, until the medium again reaches its thermal equilibrium state (the Zeroth law of thermodynamics). At some point, all of this radiant energy will have convected/dissapated through the atmosphere. The farther away from the stove you get, the less heat you feel, right?

Once the threshold (equilibrium) point has been reached, double or tripling the concentration of CO2 will have no effect. There simply isn't enough energy left to heat the rest of the molecules past their equilibrium state.

The only problem I could see is that as the CO2 heats, it expands, thus taking up more volume, and so the heating could potentially happen closer to the surface, thus increasing the "felt effects." Yet, I just can't get past the idea that radiant heat, behaving as a wave, will propogate through the atmospheric medium at a fairly fixed rate.

Again, I'm still reading stuff, so please point out if my logic here is flawed. But until I'm convinced otherwise, I'm going to lean towards the rate of heating by the sun as a far greater determinent of global temp than the concentration of "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere.

Gas tank getting cleaned

Remember my gas tank? We put some rust removing stuff into it this weekend. Sloshed it around, let it sit and work.

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooo boy. It works. And we're getting crap out of the tank that should never exist inside a vehicle component.

Ug.

What's that saying?

It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

If you ever wanted to see a case study in projection, self-delusion, and self-induced ignorance, you can do no better than to observe the tool currently attempting to bite the ankles of Kim du Toit.

Whadda maroon!

Barack's Appease-Mint flavor

Michelle Malkin is using Ben & Jerry's own propaganda generator against them:Name that flavor: Make your own Ben and Jerry’s Obama ice cream

Can you do better?...
Head on over to the flavor generator!

My effort is above... it features a Vanilla & Chocolate swirl with marshmallow & Oreo Cookies tossed in... yet some substance is missing...

Head on over and generate a flavor Mrs O can be proud of... so no Red-White & Blue.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

I'll give it a go

Since everyone seems to be playing, I'll give it a whirl even if I haven't been tagged with the meme yet.

Which [type of] book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

--Romance novels and anything in a college required reading list.

If you could bring three [fictional] characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

--Lazarus Long, Honor Harrington and Fiver from Watership Down. It would be a poker game and BBQ. Heheheheheheh.

You are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

--Flowers for Algernon. Quite possibly the most overused book for high-school drama EVAH! Can't stand it.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

Haven't done that. My normal question, if I haven't read the book, is "Can I borrow it?"

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realize when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

--I'm sure there has, but I can't remember it. Wait - maybe "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. Hell, I don't know. I read books like other people watch TV.

You’ve been appointed Book Adviser to a VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalize the VIP).

--You mean, other than being the book adviser to the Ragin' Mrs? She's a VIP, after all! OK, OK.... I suppose "Founding Father", which is a biography of George Washington, who I consider to be one of the most, if not THE most important man in American history.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

--Korean. I can probably learn any western language if I have enough time, but if you don't start learning Korean from day one in your life, you're screwed. And I'd love to finally figure out what the hell all those signs were saying in Munsan.

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

--Parliament of Whores, by P.J. O'Rourke, just to remind myself how worthless and corrupt politicians are.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

--for the Ragin' Mrs., it would be tailoring. For me, it would be a new appreciation for other Founding Fathers.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favorite authors have inscribed their works?

It's not just a library, it's a study. Good solid wooden bookshelves from floor to ceiling, with glass doors to protect the books if I wanted to smoke a cigar at night. How to manuals over there, fiction and fantasy over there, historical to the right, philosophy to the left, and general manuals all the way in the back. The walls would literally be covered in books. I'd have tables, chairs, sofas and ottomans in the middle of the room. A big mahogany computer desk for me, with a mini bar (big enough for a couple of bottles, some glasses, and a humidor). The fastest internet connection possible. It wouldn't just be a place to sit and read, although you could certainly do that if you wished, but it would be a place to study. And I'd have as many leather-bound books as I could fit in there. Because I like leather bound hardback books. They just have a feel to them.

OK, that's it. Anyone else want to give it a try?

Better late than never

Been a while since they did this, but....


Islamo-fascist pricks can kiss my ass.

Refusing to learn

Whenever somebody starts talking about how "universal" (i.e. Socialist) health care would be so great, I'm amazed that these people refuse to see just what happens to a country's health care when the government takes it over.

Case in point: Britain.

Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets.

Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour pledge.

The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 999 calls.

You do NOT want the government running your health care. Period, end of story. Just think of how much the bean-counters have already screwed up this country. You want to put THEM in charge?

Or to put it another way: Do you want your health care provider to look at you as a patient and source of revenue, or do you want them to look at you as just another cost to be dealt with?

Found via Sondra K's place.

Why I don't follow the NBA

Went to a friend's house last night to watch the NBA All-Star game. The Ragin' Mrs. made some of her hot wings, we got some beer, and settled down to see the game.

Yawn.

The "Understatement of the Night" goes to Marv Albert, who quipped sometime through the 2nd quarter, "Not much defense being played here tonight!"

No shit, Sherlock.

This is why super-teams of NBA starts are getting their asses handed to them on any international stage. The whole team concept has gone out the window. It's a bunch of people running around, trying to impress everyone else on the floor, damn near screaming "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT HOW "REAL" I AM! I'M A STAR, DAMMIT!" Hell, with a few exceptions, we shouldn't even call them basketball "teams" anymore, as most of them aren't a team in anything but name. Call 'em corporations. Call 'em money-making ventures. Call 'em anything else. The only actual "team" that I've seen lately is the San Antonio Spurs, which might explain why they've hoisted hardware on a regular basis this past decade.

SOMEBODY has to play defense. SOMEBODY has to get the ball into the right hands at the right time. And most of those somebodies are outside the USA. Since I brought the Spurs up, let's look at their big three: Tony Parker - France. Manu Ginobli - Argentina (IIRC, I could be wrong on that, but he's from South America). Tim Duncan - US Virgin Islands.

Nope, Duncan ain't from the States. And it shows, in the fact that he's a team-member before he's a superstar.

Bah. Anyways, it's not like I have TV in my house to begin with. I just wanted to comment a bit. Now it's back to my chores that I've been ignoring all weekend. Oh, and eating half a batch of my wife's hot wings? I'm about to start taking ice-cubes into the bathroom with me. Ouch. It warms ya up when you eat them, and it warms ya up when they come out the other end.

I bet you all were just dying to know that, weren't you?

Quote(s) of the Day

Both of them from Egregious Charles, posting at Geek with a .45.

First quote:

A note to people who drive SUVs with big rims and low-aspect street tires. It's not an SUV anymore. It's a stylized mini-van with a gas-guzzling engine. It will no longer handle snow well at all (let alone off-road use).

That had me cracking up, since I've seen a whole HELL of a lot of SUV's decked out as Charles describes down here in Puerto Rico. I'm talking pimped out, low-riding, chrome everywhere, ganga-smoke coming out the windows decked out.

The funny part? For me, at least; thanks to the absolute crappy roads down here, they're the ones paying flaming assloads of cash to fix up their wheels, rims, ground effects and mufflers when their pimped out bitchmobile hits a pothole.

Second quote:

UPDATE: There's probably a connection through sadism between the violent nature of anti-gunners and their bizarre fixation on guns as phallic symbols ("compensating for something"). If you think a gun is a substitute penis, you have a very twisted notion of the role of a penis.

I've always wondered about that. I mean, when I got accused of wanting guns to compensate for my dick, just what the hell did you think I used my dick for? I'm not saying I'm a small guy, but even I know that it's not large enough to use in hand-to-hand (so to speak) combat. Do people think I can detach it, aim it, and take people out at 300 yards with it? Is that what they use their penis for?

Now my balls on the other hand....

My only thoughts on the latest school shooting

Police and related law enforcement personnel do not prevent crimes. They either deter, or respond and investigate.

If a criminal is not deterred, then there is usually only one person left to actually prevent the crime.

The victim.

If that victim is unable to prevent the crime from occurring, the police will soon thereafter respond and investigate. All too often bringing a coroner with them.

As I've said before, playing nice only works if you are playing with nice people. When dealing with crazies or desperate criminals, speed, shock, and firepower are better bets.

Unfortunately, in todays increasingly liberal education institutions, too many young men and women who have been brought up to hate and/or fear guns are uniquely unsuited to defend themselves.

Me? If I went back to school, I'd carry regardless of the "gun-free zone" signs. You know, just like the bad guys do. Does that make me like the criminal? Well yes, but only in respect that we are now equally matched, instead of me being the lamb, and him being the wolf.

I guess I figure it's better to be a target in a gunfight than a target in a shooting gallery.

Sadly, the people that need to hear this the most, are the least likely to listen. I can only hope that, instead of call for even more gun control, these incidents will reveal what a failure "gun-free zones" are.

When terrorists were acknowledged as an ongoing threat to our airliners, the pilots were finally allowed to carry guns.

If our schools are being targeted, why not permit teachers to carry guns?

Damn damn damn damn DAMN!

Been slowly getting the motorcycle up and running. Went out today and bought a battery, since the last one's been dead for a while. So it's good. Checked the spark plugs. They're good. Checked the carb. It's good. Tires need to be replaced, but they're not going to die right now.

Opened the gas tank. HOLY FUCK ME GENTLY WITH A CHAINSAW THAT'S A SHITLOAD OF RUST!!!!!

Apparently letting a motorcycle sit for a good while in a tropical climate will cause rust to form inside the gas tank even if there's gas in the tank. Who knew? I thought if you kept gas in it, you could prevent the rust. I was wrong. Whoooo boy was I ever wrong.

The tank is currently sitting on my back table with rust remover in it, and it'll take a few days to see if it works. But from where I see it, I'm going to need a new gas tank. Dammit. Just.... dammit.

So, if there are any motorcycle people out there, I'm looking for a gas tank for a Honda Shadow 600 VLX Deluxe. I don't care if the paint job sucks. I don't care if it's scratched. I just care if it holds gas and isn't all..... rusty... inside. Preferably for $100 or less.

Anyone?

Template changes

Since the guestbook wasn't working, I figured I'd put up something else. I put up a link to the American Conservative Party. But then I realized that the other writers on this blog might not agree with me on it, or at least not to the extent that I do, so I put a link to the ACP down on the sidebar that states that I'm the member. Clarifying the position, as it were. As such, that leaves a spot up on the upper-right hand corner of the blog where I can link to a group, organization, cause, or what have you.

That's valuable space right there. Yep. Mmmm-hm.

So here's what I'm asking from my readers. I want a good, solid conservative cause to link to. I have a few ideas of what I can put up, such as the Fisher House or Soldier's Angels, but I figured that with ten or twelve people commenting and giving suggestions, we can find something to put up that I may not have thought of in the first place. Causes, charities, websites, anything that you think deserves a link. Let me know, and I'll check it out.

I figure that by sometime next week I should have the template changed. So that gives you all a few days to throw suggestions at me. Lemmee have 'em!

Another school shooting.

Kevin Baker says it all.

So let me get this straight

The Democrat American Communist Party is playing games with procedural votes, blocking bills from Sen. DeMint regarding the city of Bezerkely and their traitorous actions, and trying to push a contempt vote against two White House staff members. But somehow they don't have any time to actually do their jobs.

I think term limits for presidents has been a great idea. Now it's time to apply that idea to Congress, because I'm sick of every last Democrat American Communist Party member and Republican Stupid Party member who's been there longer than a decade. In fact, I'm so sick of politicians right now that should Washington DC go up in flames, I'd mourn the historical articles lost, I'd mourn the memorials that were burned down, but I wouldn't shed one damn tear for any prick in that city.

I remember going for a walk one time out near my parent's house, and coming across the body of a squirrel. The thing that I remember was that the squirrel was moving. I looked closer, and the squirrel was quite dead. In fact, the movement was the maggots, bugs and other vermin inside the dead squirrel, eating and shitting and eating and shitting. The only thing really left of the squirrel was skin and bones. The rest was maggots and worms, moving underneath the skin.

That, to me, is the picture perfect definition of Washington DC. Oh, there's skin and bones there, but everything else in the city is just another worm.

This just in: Invisible Gas Acts Like Aluminum Foil

Is it Getting Too Warm for Penguins?

But if we fail to slow down the rate of warming, the polar regions as we know them will no longer exist — and possibly, neither will many of the species who live there now.

The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!

Count up the number of "woulds," "coulds," "mays," and "mights," "predicts" and "possiblies" in this article. Clearly some rock hard science behind this one. Real hard-nosed reporting. I sounds like someone was using a Magic 8-Ball as a thesaurus. "The outlook is troubling." "My sources say no."

I need to get smarter on this whole global warming thing, because I simply don't understand how an invisible gas can reflect radiant heat rather than conduct it, and "trap" it in instead of allowing the heat to convect and radiate off into space. Don't thermal pane windows have a vacuum inside, because air would just conduct the heat through the intervening space?

And, if CO2 is so all-fired effective at locking in heat, would it not also be equally effective in blocking it out? If it reflects all this heat back to earth from the surface, wouldn't it also then reflect thermal energy from the sun back into space? So the greater the heat trap, the better the heat reflector, right? So, at some point, wouldn't it be reflecting more heat away than it allowed in, and we would head for an ice age?

Like, you know, exactly what they were predicting would happen in the 70s?

Now, I consider myself a worldly fellow. I've been around a bit, seen a lot of greenhouses in my day. Most have an opaque barrier, panes of glass or plastic, something to physically lock the heat and moisture in. As a matter of fact, that's WHY we have greenhouses, right? Because if I just leave the plants out in the open, I lose the comfy, humid environment. I've got to "trap" it in with something. You know, like maybe a bunch of carbon dioxide?

Yeah, I'm pretty confused by the whole thing. I don't know why we call them "greenhouse gases," but none of the greenhouses I've ever seen use them. Guess I need to brush up. I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE:

Well, I guess all I had to do is ask these guys.

Toledo, Ohio does the right thing....

But their mayor is STILL a retarded piece of shit.

Without discussion, the 12-member council approved a resolution apologizing to Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the mayor’s action Friday afternoon.

Mr. Finkbeiner, who has refused to apologize and has defended his decision, yesterday declined to say whether he would sign the resolution or if he believed the controversy would hinder the city’s attempt to renew the 0.75 percent income tax on the March 4 ballot.

Oh. Right. It's not about how the Marines got jerked around by some idiot with a power fetish, it's about how the resolution will effect an initiative on INCOME TAX. Right. What a fucking crapweasel.

The city council did the right thing. The mayor still needs to be spanked out of office as soon as possible.

Say WHAT?

So SondraK has a link to a Southern Baptist preacher who's being investigated by the IRS for "mixing politics and religion".

A Southern Baptist preacher who endorsed GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on church letterhead said Wednesday he was being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for mixing religion with politics.

Rev. Wiley Drake, a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, said he received a 14-page letter from the IRS on Feb. 7.

Now, I'm not saying if this guy was right to do what he did. Myself personally, I would keep my church out of my politics, because I don't want to sully my church in that fashion by mucking around with the lowest of the low. And I consider Mike Huckabee to be less electable than John McCain. But still....

If this guy is getting investigated by the IRS for mixing religion with politics, I gotta know.... and to make it really simple for any liberals who happen by, all you have to do is look at the pictures....

Will this church get investigated?

Will the church featured in THIS picture get investigated?

Will this church get investigated?

How about THIS church?

Or this one?

Or even THIS one?

Obama and Hillary have been fucking CAMPAIGNING IN CHURCHES NATIONWIDE! But the IRS wants to keelhaul some Southern Baptist because he endorsed Mike Huckabee with "official church letterhead"? Well, at the very least we know who the IRS is endorsing, don't we? Actions speak louder than words, donchaknow.

Gah. Just keep your guns in good working order.

So...

If you want to know why anyone from the Democrat American Communist Party is unfit to hold power, you simply have to look at the areas where they already ARE in power.

Berkeley, for example. Take San Francisco for another example. In fact, can anyone show me an area that's been under Democrat American Communist Party control that isn't a festering shithole of crime? You show me an area where the Democrat American Communist Party has been in control for a while, and I'll show you an area where taxes are sky-high, crime is high, personal freedoms are restricted (in comparison to a non-Donk controlled area), corruption runs rampant, and governmental abuses occur regularly.

And when I think that no matter who wins the November election, we're going to have a Nanny-statist Donk running the country, I just want to vomit.

Oh, come off it. McCain is a Leftist. If it weren't for his support of the War against Terrorist Fuckheads, he'd be a card-carrying member of the Democrat American Communist Party. At the very least he'd be a left-leaning independent.

Kim du Toit is on a roll.

Start here, and just continue reading. Me, I'm still sick, so I'm not going to be writing any massive posts for a while. Went to sick call this morning and got it confirmed. Yep. I'm sick.

I hate being sick. I really do. I'm stuck at home with no energy, sitting on the couch, wanting to get up and do something but not really having the energy to do it. I'm running a fever, tired and bored at the same time, and wishing that I could torture every individual little virus in my body one at a time. Seriously - I want to waterboard the little bastards, and then slowly dip them in boiling oil. "Oh, you want to make me sick? How does THIS FEEL, you one-celled fuckstuck?"

Gah. I think I'm a bit delusional too. Caused by the fever, no doubt.

I'm sick again

Especially after seeing this:



Great Googly Moogly, I knew Obama was a communist, but this just shouts it out for the whole world to see, doesn't it. I mean, nothing quite advertises how you would govern like prominently displaying the flag of a brutal communist dictatorship, with the picture of a murdering thug on it no less.

Yeah, I know it's a campaign HQ, and Obama prolly didn't pick the flag himself. But his supporters did. And they are backing him because he's the most in line with their viewpoints. "The friends you keep" and all that.

Bleagh.....

I feel like crap

I'm running a 100.1 degree fever, and I feel like an Alien is trying to crawl out of my stomach.

Good night.

Toledo's Mayor Carty Finkbeiner(D)

...proves that his family was cruel for naming him Carty and living up to their own family namesake back in Germany, where Finkbeiner translates to "I am a Fink". You only get one guess as to which political party he belongs to because the news Media won't tell you.

Mayor to Marines: Leave downtown

Toledo police knew days in advance about their plans for a three-day exercise.

Now, to which political party does Toledo's Mayor Carty Finkbeiner belong? You only get one try! If you said dictator sucking (D)emocrat, you were right!
BlackFive isn't pleased...

Yet Another Mayor Tells Marines to Get Out!

...not just ordering Marines out of town, but setting up a police roadblock to enforce same.

Roger Kimball : Toledo to Marines: Drop dead

I hope part of the adaptation will be to present the City of Toledo—or maybe Carty Finkbeiner himself—with the $10,000 tab that the aborted exercise cost the Marines....
Mayor Finkbeiner can boast on his official website that Tony Packos Restaurant in Toledo was “made famous on the television show M*A*S*H.” But when he has an opportunity to help the men and women who in real life protect this country, including the City of Toledo, he refuses to grant them the sort of permit he would routinely give to a bunch of anti-American activists who wanted to organize a protest march down Main Street.

Stephen Bainbridge on Democrats and Marines

If they need access to a downtown urban environment to train, they ought to have it. If a Marine from this unit dies because he wasn’t able to adequately train for the urban combat the Marines face in parts of Iraq, the blood will be on Finkbeiner’s hands.

Carty is "Known as much for his temper as his work ethic". It should be no surprise that Toledo's Mayor Carty "The Fink" Finkbeiner(D) really is an ASS

* Toledo restaurateur John Skiadas filed a law-suit alleging that Finkbeiner physically and verbally assaulted him at the Erie Street Market in 2000. The lawsuit was dismissed by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Charles Wittenberg in 2004.[1][2]...
* Finkbeiner was the focus of a segment on the Daily Show poking fun at statements he made suggesting that Toledo could be the next Hollywood. During the interview, Carty expressed his ideas while the camera fixated on Toledo's most rundown neighborhoods, contrasting them with the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. The segment aired during the 1997-98 season....
* On July 1, 1998, Carty was fined $400 and court costs after pleading guilty to ethics charges when he was Mayor, realized a $10,000 profit from Owens Corning's purchase of his condo, and his failure to publicly report the gain.[citation needed]...
* Finkbeiner suggested relieving the problem of noise complaints from neighbors of Toledo Express Airport by selling homes nearby at low cost to deaf people.[4]...
* In early 2006, political adversaries scoffed over the Mayor spending $9,996 of city money to complete the installation of shower facilities in his City Government building office. The project was considered "controversial" in part because the shower quote was originally $10,006, six dollars over a threshold that requires approval from City Council. The contractor was able to shave $10 from the project, thus avoiding a Council vote on the proposal. [5]...
* In May 2006, he called Toledo's African-American Fire Chief Michael Bell “King Kong” at a staff meeting. Finkbeiner later clarified his remarks as relating to the Chiefs physical stature, and Chief Bell has acknowledged in public that he took no offense to the remarks.[7]...
* In June 2006, Jack Smith resigned from his brief tenure as Chief of Police after what he described as a near-physical confrontation with the mayor after they exchanged words.[8]...
* In January 2007, Finkbeiner claimed that both he and wife Amy were treated unprofessionally by Ottawa County sheriff's deputies when they tried to visit Amy's son, an inmate, on separate occasions. Amy Finkbeiner claimed she was not allowed to use a ladies' room at the jail, while Finkbeiner said he was denied a chance to visit after visiting hours had concluded. Sheriff Bob Bratton said the deputies were only doing their jobs. [9]...
* Also, in Jaunary 2007 Finkbeiner and his press secretary were sued by radio station WSPD, claiming that First Amendment provisions regarding freedom of the press were violated when the press secretary forcibly kept a station employee out of a public press conference. Finkbeiner's objection to the employee is that he produces opinions and editorials, and is not in fact a reporter on behalf of WSPD. On January 31, a federal judge granted the station a permanent injunction requiring Finkbeiner and his staff to admit station personnel.[10]...
* FinkBeiner has also suggested a cafe be built on the Martin Luther King bridge so city employees could eat there while the bridge was undergoing construction. [11]...
* In August 2007, Finkbeiner was confronted on two occasions by reporters because he parked in a handicapped spot and left his dog in the car during a hot spell. Finkbeiner was ticketed and fined, but denied mistreating the animal.[12]...
* In February 2008, Finkbeiner refused to let a company of Marine Corps Reservists engage in urban patrol exercises on the streets of downtown as well as inside the mostly vacant Madison Building, 607 Madison Ave. Toledo police knew about the event three days in advance, but it wasn't until the Marines arrived that "the mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people," said Brian Schwartz, the mayor's spokesman.[13]

He is physically violent, his son is in a Canadian jail and he mistreats animals... you'd think some enterprising journalist might note some of those characteristics, or even his political party, when reporting on this most recent abuse of his authority.
Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Berzerkely Mayor Tom Bates(D)

I tried to be quiet... even though it involved preferential treatment for the military wing of the (D)emocrat party, Code Pink, who everyone should know maintains a 24x7, 365 day a year "protest" across the street from Walter Reed military hospital to taunt the wounded's families.

Nice Deb has : (Video) Code Stink And The Berkeley City Council

“Hey Code Pink, KISS MY ASS!”

Bryan at Hotair has Video: Code Stink and Berkeley vs the USMC

If you have any doubts about Sen. Jim DeMint’s hippie punching bona fides, wonder no more. His office produced this great video about the Berkeley insurgency against the Marines.

Berkeley mayor apologizes if you were offended by his city’s insult to the Marines

No Democrats in either house object to insulting the Marines as “unwelcome invaders” and a seditious attempt to keep them from recruiting in a US city? Good to know....
I hate “we apologize for any offense” and “we apologize if you were offended” apologies.

If you thought the apology was anything except a pandering lie... Van Helsing has the video: Code Pinkos at the Berkeley Battlefront

Here's Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, participating in the siege...

That's Master-Bates to you and I.
Cross Posted at DANEgerus

A note to Toledo, Ohio:

Fire this bastard as soon as possible. Although it seems to just be the mayor who's infected with this stupidity, not the entire city. So it's not Berkeley.

But still. Fire his ass.

The American Conservative Party

Yeah, I'll be doing damage control in November, but I'm up for this. I think that if we can avoid the extremes of the Libertarians and Constitutionalists, we might be able pull folks who, while upset with the GOP, avoid both those parties because of said extremes.

In any case, I'm done with the GOP.

I know how she feels

Oh yes indeedy I do.....

These fuckwads sit in their little rainforest hamlet receiving many federal dollars so they can go out at commit treason against the very institution that supports theirs and then bitch because there are criteria that allow them to study the sex habits of ants on my dime. Then they get their hemp panties all in a wad because someone calls them up to offer them an option....a CHOICE.... of actually making something worthwhile of themselves to which they could simply respond not interested in the same manner that we respond to completely unsolicited telemarketing calls from businesses and political campaigns to which we’re not even beholden to.

I do find it somewhat snickerable that the military would even want to enlist anyone from this institution and maybe they’re just poking them with a pointy stick.

Craft Day

Our house is craft room central right now. I've got chain mail, leather and other craft things scattered all over the house. I've been making leather nameplates for my co-workers. I've been making a suit of armor; a breast-plate and back -plate. And of course, that means all the buckles and straps and everything that goes with it. The Mrs. is getting set up to sew once she's back in civilization. It's almost like we're finally waking up and realizing that we're not stuck here forever. We'll be leaving soon. And we're getting back to doing all the things we used to do.

So yeah, I've been busy today. And I have a roll of leather sitting in my dining room looking at me. So I've been ignoring politics for a while. It's good for my mental health.

Damage Control

I would just point out that McAmnesty's poll numbers were about the same as Ron Paul's were until the media, including and especially FoxNews, started telling us that in nationwide polls matching up Republican candidates against Democrat candidates, McAmnesty was "the only one who could beat Hillary." That is when his numbers started going up and that is, I believe, the primary reason why people voted for him. That is also why Coulter came out and said she would vote for Billary if it was between McAmnesty and Queen LardAss - as a counterweight to the "beat Clinton at any cost" faction. The other thing was that, even among voters who were informed about the candidates' positions, including McAmnesty's repeated back-stabbing and liberal positions, many people just view Mormonism as a cult. Hence the big returns for Fuckabee. The other thing about Romney is that he was governor of Massachusetts, i.e., from Massachusetts, like John Fucking Kerry. Most of us are sick of politicians from Massachusetts, and we're sick of Florida deciding elections for us. (Iowa and New Hampshire can suck it, too.)

Of the final three, Romney easily wins on the issues, and is clearly more intelligent than any candidate on either side, but he just got caught up in this cross-fire between media/poll-driven side-shows and anti-Mormon sentiment.

So we're stuck with McCain. I can't believe I just typed that! It's him or back to the USSR. Or civil war. Personally, I'd rather view it as the second American Revolution but that's for another post. In this one, I'm just thinking, "Now what?"

So, moving on... McCain has to be careful in selecting a VP. Not only does he need social conservatives to win, he needs a majority of actual Republicans to vote for him - something that hasn't actually happened yet. At this point it isn't clear that he can count on even that much. Here in California, a majority of registered Republicans voted for Romney, but the thing is you don't have to state your party affiliation to vote the Republican ticket in CA. (UPDATE: I may have been in error here about decline-to-state voters in CA, so scratch that last sentence. See the comments section for explanation.) Moreover, only 75% of the voters in the Republican primaries nationwide were registered Republicans. So, not only do we not get to ask our candidates questions at the "debates" (remember CNN's YouTube debate, with Hillary plants and Obambi fans asking all the questions, except maybe that one about the Confederate Flag or the "Do you believe every single word in this book?" question - the redneck stereotypes that are all that the MSM will let us see of the Republican base) but on top of that, if a Demonrat is indifferent between Queen Billary and Messiah Obambi (their policy statements are the same anyway, and for a liberal choosing between the two would require a ranking of minority/victim groups, which is painful) they, Demonrats and "moderates," got to choose the Republican candidate to a larger degree than normal. I've talked to some of these people (did I mention that I live in California?), and though they may have voted for McCain in the primary, no way will they vote for any Republican in the general election. If they say they might, they're lying. My own mother lies to me when it comes to shit like this Don't believe it.

So McVain needs Republicans to vote for him. To get Republicans to vote for McNYT, he needs a very conservative running mate, (or possibly a star with major experience like Condi Rice to keep the establishment republicans on board while taking away the minority/victim group factor). If he picks another pro-amnesty establishment republican, like Lindsay Graham, it's over. The GOP that is.

But the real reason that McCain has to be careful with his VP pick is the Cheney factor. In the current administration, Cheney more or less prevents the Demonrats from launching impeachment proceedings. That is why Kucinich filed papers to impeach Cheney instead of Bush. If they impeach Bush, then Cheney becomes president, at which point all the lefty loonatics' heads would immediately implode. That would be suicide for the dems. Cheney turned out to be Bush's insurance policy.

The loony leftists (i.e., the Democrat Party Base) still haven't gotten revenge for Clintoon's impeachment (only second president to ever be impeached) legacy, and if a Republican is elected, he'd better have a VP who scares the shit out of people like Harry Reid, because the calls for impeachment would not stop. I would suggest Fred Thompson - that would also serve as a guarantee that conservative judges would be nominated to the Supreme Court - but there are other great picks out there.

And by the way, to whoever thought up this primary election system where just a few states get to pick the presidential candidate and half the states don't get to vote at all prior to a candidate's selection, eat shit. Seriously.

Ladies and Gentlemen.....

We are so truly fucked.

Mr. Baker provides commentary that ought to make you vomit. The only reason McCain even has a shot at this election is because the people running against him are absolute communists. But could you imagine Joe Lieberman as his opponent? McCain would lose. Hell, if Zell Miller came out of retirement and ran against McCain, then McCain would lose. He is the second least electable Republican out there, with Mike Huckster being the first.

To the Republican Party: Fuck you. Go to hell. Why don't you go outside and play hide and go fuck yourself? Because I'm never doing a damn thing for you ever again. I'm finished with you. Done. I wash my hands of you. My only goal in this country at this point is damage control. Damage control from the damage that THE G.O.P. IS PART OF!

I wonder if Bill Quick is still floating that third party idea around......

A quote

The Ragin' Mrs. and I were talking last night, discussing the nation, and who the nominee is going to be for the Republican party, and she pops out with "Well, if we're going to have a Democrat in the President's office, it might as well be McCain."

Let me make this prediction right here and now - if McCain gets the nomination, it will fundamentally change the Republican party as we all think we know it. Even if conservatives hold their nose and vote for McCain over Hillary Rotten Anti-christ, the moment they walk out of the voting booth they will then walk away from the GOP forever.

It'll be a shitty couple of years after that.

In agreement

With Mr. Alger here. The short short version - we conservatives want the government to do what the rules and laws of this country says it should do. AND NOTHING ELSE.

For this, we get called plenty of names. Feh. All I know is that once I'm back in civilization, I'm stocking up on weapons and ammo, because sure a shit this country is headed for a rough ride.

A little something about that "stimulus" package...

You know, that big check we're all supposed to get as part of the "stimulus" package? Uh, yeah. I don't know how to break this to you, but IT'S YOUR OWN MONEY!!

The government is giving you some of your own money and calling it a "benefit." Or a "bonus."

But know what? Come tax time next year, your rebate check will be less by exactly the same amount. You aren't getting any MORE money, your just getting the same money at a different time. Your money. It's like transfering money from savings to checking and thinking you made something on the deal.

Or like using a credit card to buy something because you can't afford to pay cash.

I call this "moving the holes." You never actually fill it, you just move it to a different spot in the yard.

I am continually amazed at how stupid politicians think we are. And I'm even more amazed when people fall for it. Guess I should know better by now.

You are judged by the company you keep

McCain just took California, perhaps the most liberal state in the country.

Also:
New York
Illinois
New Jersey
New Hampshire
Delaware
Conneticut

All "Blue States" during the 2004 Presidential election.

Now, does this mean that he's a good candidate for "across the aisle" dialogue because of his universal appeal, or does it show the appeal this "conservative" candidate has in traditionally liberal states? Given how well he did in the "Red" states, me I'm thinking the latter.

Because it seems to fit

Given the fact that no matter who we elect to the Presidency this year, we will be electing someone who will grant the government more and more power over the citizens of this country, it seems rather appropriate to post the ten stages of a civilization. If you haven't seen this yet, write it down and look it over. I present to you, without comment (yet):

The first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith.

The second from spiritual faith to great courage.

The third stage moves from great courage to liberty.

The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance.

The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness.

The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency.

The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy.

The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay.

The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence.

And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage.

Now, the length of time for each stage isn't set in stone. But I'd say we're well into stage seven or eight based on the general actions of the American populace. It may be possible to pull ourselves back from going any farther. Hell, it may be possible to reverse the trend for a little bit.

But none of the current crop of candidates are going to pull it back one iota. Every last one of the worthless bastards still running is a full-fledged, big-government nanny-statist who are pushing us closer to stages nine and ten as fast as they possibly can.

Yeah, I'm a little gloomy today. Why do you ask?

Adding on to Steve B's post below -

Kevin from Drumwaster's Rants has a post up about Nanny State government in Mississippi.

It has actually happened. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that forbids restaurants and food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese (as defined by the State). Under this bill, food establishments are to be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators will have their business permits revoked.

The report admits that this bill is dead on arrival in the Mississippi state government, but the plain fact is that IT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN WRITTEN.

IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S JOB TO TELL YOU WHAT TO EAT! DEAR FUCKING CHRIST ON A CRUTCH!

Hillary and the rest of the communist swine need to be removed from power. Period, end of story. Do it as quickly as possible. Because the consequences for us would make 1984 look like a utopia.

Big Brother? No, not just Big Brother alone. It would be Big Brother, Mommy, and Nurse Ratched all blended into one.

Elect Hillary - It's for your own good, really. I mean it.

Stolen from Kim Du Toit:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC’s “This Week,” she said: “I think there are a number of mechanisms” that are possible, including “going after people’s wages, automatic enrollment.”

Clinton said such measures would apply only to workers who can afford health coverage but refuse to buy it, which puts undue pressure on hospitals and emergency rooms.

She will not just provide an opportunity for health care for the po' people, she will REQUIRE that EVERYONE particpate, or pay the penalty for non-compliance.

I'm really not all that sure how that's not a border-line dictatorship. The Rabid Left makes all these gasping, chest-clutching doom-and-gloom predictions about how Bush will declare martial law come election time, or how there is some Christian "Dominionist" conspiracy to force everyone to live under a Christian form of Sharia law. Jack-booted thugs kicking in your door if you are gay or an atheist. Which, you know, happens everyday.

Now, please. Tell me. How is using the IRS as your enforcer any different? Ah, but THIS is okay, cuz it's for the _______ (poor, children, environment, fill in the blank).

When a credit card signs me up for services I don't want, without my permission, I can call the BBB or the Attorney General and report them. They have to pay back anything they charged me. If a mechanic performs services I didn't want or authorize, I don't have to pay. If a company has an exclusive market on something, and I've got no choice but to pay for their product whether I want it or not, it's called a "monopoly" and violates anti-trust laws.

But if the Government^tm does it, I guess it's okay. Thus you see the difference between free-market capitalism and a socialist autocracy.

If this happens, and "they" make it law, it will be declared of form of child abuse or neglect if you don't buy into the gubmints Health Care plan. And they will threaten you will having your children taken away if you don't get on board. It already happens all the time. Don't do things the way the "government" says you should, you lose your kids. And good luck getting them back.

Elect Shrillary! For the Children! (The rest of us can just fry, right?)

UPDATE:
Here's a quick lesson in the Constitution, there Hill'. "To promote the general welfare" doesn't mean that everyone should be ON welfare.

Giants win the Super Bowl

The Noo Yawk Fookin' GIANTS!

Who the hell saw that happening, eh? C'mon, raise your hand if you thought little Manning could win more than a high school bake sale lottery. I thought he was going to get steamrolled flat. But when the G-men's defensive line started turning the Patsie's O-line into their personal bitches during the second quarter, I knew it was going to be a good game. Still.... THE FOOKIN' GIANTS! Weren't they about a gazillion point underdogs or something like that?

Damn. I have a co-worker who's going to be unbearable for the next year or so.

Random Thought - how much money do you think was lost by people betting on the Patriots as a "sure thing"?