Ipso Facto Comic

Zero Income Tax and Zero Payroll Tax

Opera: simply the best internet experience

Download Opera

Just Google It

victory

porkbustersNo More Jean Fraud sKerry Bullshit

Open Trackback Alliance

Get the code for this blogroll


Add to My Yahoo!


Free John Kerry's SF-180 Blogroll

twalogo

The Community for Life, Liberty, Property

Guard the Borders

My Photo
Name:
Location: America's Third World County™, http://thirdworldcounty.us, United States

http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/?page_id=1723

Email Me

If you're using Internet Exploder to view this blog, tough. Get a real browser. :-)

Ignore the Blogspot "profile"—here's the real scoop

What's this blog about, anyway?

Comment-Trackback Policy

Stop the ACLU Blogburst Blogroll

Powered by Blogger

Anti-PC League

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Stick a fork in me. I may be done.

OK, this is so good, I may not have to blog the rest of this week. Heck, it's so very nearly perfect, I may have to hang up my keyboard permanently...

Recieved from Hugh H. (No, not that one; an entirely different one.) via email:

The Drugs I Need

Take one (and one ONLY) and call me in the morning. If you can. (You might just laugh your head off and so not be able to call. Better have the EMTs ready to resucitate you before viewing.)

The Silver Lining...

OK, this is a wee tad convoluted to follow closely, 'K?

Rightwing Nuthouse posted on this WAPO article about the devastating potential of an "Asian bird flu" pandemic. Then he posted here (on The Wide Awakes) about his original original post at Rightwing Nuthouse and asked TMH Bacon Bits' The MaryHunter for his "mad scientist" response.

(With me so far? 'K)

Well, The MaryHunter hasn't responded, yet, as far as I can tell, but here's my take: every cloud has a silver lining. This sounds like a made-for-mad-scientist opportunity to address the global threat of Islamic jihadists.

Mad Scientist Mode: ON

I'm thinking... a new charity.

Contaminated Quail for al Qaeda?

Tainted Turtle Doves for Terrorists?

Scummy Sandpipers for Saudis?

Wicked Woodcocks for Wacko Wahabbists?

Yeh, so an Asian bird flu pandemic could be catestrophic. With a little planning, there could be a silver lining...

The possibilities seem absolutely endless...

Mad Scientist Mode: OFF



(With a nod to Jonathan Swift for his inspiring work in A Modest Proposal... )

*LOL* "McCain Wants Fred Thompson for Supreme Court"

This Newsmax headline outlines McCain's (justified) fear that Fred Thompson would make a better presidential candidate than he. (Of course Thompson would make a better president than that snake McCain)

Well, duh. BTW, Anyone who respects McCain after McCain-Feingold limitations on free political speech is a communist or a "useful idiot".

N.B. "useful idiot: This is a term coined by Vladimir Lenin to describe Western liberals who defended and apologized for communism. These are people whose blind, self-effacing hatred of their own free society serves as a handy device for totalitarian ideology as a means of deflecting the criticism which comes from the rest of us who are sane and unwilling to compromise morality for the sake of multiculturalism*, or political correctness*. They are useful to these calculating ideologues, even though they are idiots. These days, more and more, the useful idiots are quasi-dhimmis*, shilling for Islam." _1_ See also _2_


imbibo capulus ergo sum

It shouldn't take a Latin scholar to translate "imbibo capulus ergo sum"

This is another one of those days when "I drink coffee, therefore I am" is my byword du jour.

Need. More. Coffee.

Wonder Woman knew this instinctively and brewed a pot immediately upon rising. Bless her!

Love is caffeinated bliss.


What is LPD?

How can one describe the Liberalist Personality Disorder?

Click on over to Cao's Blog to check out her post featuring the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade displaying classic signs of Liberalist Personality Disorder.

LPD is a complex array of co-morbidity. The seductively simple thing to do would be to simply label it as a subset of narcissism, but that's not a sufficient description.

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

  • has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
  • is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
  • believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
  • requires excessive admiration
  • has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
  • is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
  • lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
  • is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
  • shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes_1_


Still, it’s a good place to start exploring the “Liberalist Personality Disorder.”

But LPD (Liberalist Personality Disorder) seems to encompass much more than Narcissistic Personality Disorder. There are many in the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade who also exhibit signs of Histrionic Personality Disorder.

See:


A pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

  • is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention
  • interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
  • displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
  • consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self has a style of speech that is
  • excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
  • shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion
  • is suggestible, i.e., easily influenced by others or circumstances
  • considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are _2_


But wait! There's more! (Too much more, as it turns out... ) Yeh, I guess LPD is a complex of co-morbidity issues. Once one starts to dig into the snakepit that is LPD, signs of so many disorders become plain that it’s impossible to separate one out as dominant in the groupthink.


Regardless, I think good public health policy would be to treat this disorder similarly to TB: isolation from the population at large. heh


Of course, those who advocate
that soldiers shoot their officers ought to be given the opportunity to do so in person, don’t you think? That is, ship them to Iraq and let 'em tell it to the guys in Deuce-Four (I-24th) in Mosul… it’d probably result in some VERY effective psychological “reality therapy”.

(Note: it's easy to distinguish between "Liberalists" and "Liberals". Liberals—genuine Liberals—listen to opposing views, engage in reasoned discourse, argue fairly and can "agree to disagree" amicably. Liberals also believe in free Speech and Press, Free Assembly (to petition for redress of grievances) and Freedom OF (not FROM) religion. The Liberalists who have hijacked the Democratic Party, for example, have none of those characteristics. Upcoming: a brief description of CPD: Conservatist Personality Disorder, or "me-too-ism in denial". heh)


Saturday, July 30, 2005

A Reason to Run?

Finally, someone has given Vice President Dick Cheney a potentially compelling reason to run for president.

“The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I’ll kill myself,” [Helen Thomas] told the HILL. “All we need is one more liar.”

Thomas made the remarks to the newspaper Thursday, July 28, 2005, according to Drudge.

Of course, the statement by Thomas will only become falsifiable (testable) if Cheney were to announce he were running. But then, he could always announce and then withdraw if Thomas became that rare mass media personality to actually say what they mean and mean what they say…

At least then we might be able to test what kind of liar Helen Thomas might (or might not) be.

heh

(Crossposted from a Friday post at Balanced News Blog--yeh, I'm that far behind here... )

Short Shrift Day

Light—very light—posting today. In fact, until later this may be all there is... In fact, try checking out my sidebar and blogroll for reading material today. Anywhere But Here, Cathouse Chat, Cao's Blog, Keep the Coffee Coming, BTW—oh, darn it, they're all worth reading or I wouldn't have blogrolled 'em. I souldn't even have started a list; should just have inserted my bloogroll here and said, "Read these today, 'K?" :-) L8R...

Friday, July 29, 2005

Carnival of the Recipes Time!

CLICK on over to Feisty Repartee for all he caloric goodness you can handle.

I wanna sing new lyrics to the "Mazda Song" after just glancing through this week's offerings: Yum, Yum. Yum!

Does this bother anyone else?

Find English usage errors (in writing and speech) a pain in the keister? Have fun with Common Errors in English
Rant: ON
Chapter II of an ongoing gripe... Yeh, I know, I know. Communication sometimes happens even with usage errors in common speech. But mass media (including print media) is so darned full of the subliterate that I sometimes get a tad steamed. No, subliterate writing and speech isn't all the fault of Mass Media Podpeople (and their brethren in advertising and entertainment and "the (mostly phony) arts". No, a lot of the fault can be traced to bad, really bad public schooling. Oh, and lazy people who just don't give a flip about learning their own language well or who just don't care to read much. (And even there, I find myself correcting grammar, usage and spelling in books I own—print and ebook—in narrative or descriptive passages. I pretty much leave dialog alone. What the heck do editors and proofreaders get paid for?) And yeh, I know I use colloquialisms loosely on this blog, and I even have numerous typos and the occassional misspelling (like "occassional" which should be "occasional" See? Sometimes I catch myself and make corrections. :-). But really, ought we not to be a tad more literate as a society than we are? Or mabe just a wee tad less subliterate? Especially those who make a living with the printed and parrotted-from-a-teleprompter word? Just read the list of errors at Common Errors in English. I've seen or heard darned near all of them—some of them frequently—from mass media (print, audio and video/tv/etc.) since I last ranted about this topic. And people listen to these subliterate morons! Oh, and one other thing: If I hear one more person say, "To err is human; to forgive, divine" and mispronounce "err" as "air" I swear I'll scream bloody murder! It's "ûr" or "er" (as in dumbER than rocks). Learn the language! *grumble, grumble, gripe, complain* OK, OK, I know most darned near all of the folks who read this blog do NOT fall into the subliterate category, in general. And here, note: I once again do NOT classify myself as being "literate" in to the same order of literacy as my grandparents, for example. I'd need a much better grasp of history, for one thing, to meet that standard. Still, wouldn't it be lovely *heh* if more folks actually knew how to speak and write English—especially in Mass Media? Rant: OFF. There. I feel muuuuuch better, now...

UN-run internet?

This week's PGHA asks the question, What would the internet be like if it were run by the UN?

Normally, I'd not stoop to answer a question with such obvious answers, but seeing as how it was asked by one of the Great Minds of the blogosphere (and derived from a comment by another such Great Mind), I'll go ahead and give the obvious answers, even though they are all common knowledge.

What would the internet be like if it were run by the UN?

1.) Bloggers would no longer be allowed to wear pajamas. Female bloggers would be required to wear hijabs; male bloggers would be required to wear sheets on their heads, like so many of the sheetheads at the UN like to do.

2.) All blogposts would be submitted to the UN for redaction and censorship. Bloggers would be required to submit posts six months in advance of posting date to assure enough time for UN blogocrats to have them translated into pidgin barbarian speak, read (and explained) to them before being trashed.

3.) All sites critical of the UN will be assigned high-priority 404 status, so that they will load muuuuuch faster. Owners of such sites will be turned over to UN Peacekeeping forces, raped and flayed. All such high-priority 404 status sites will return the same message: "You have attempted to access material that is deleterious to Kofi's malfeasance in office. The UN Internet Police have been dispatched to your location and will be there as soon as they have stopped to rape a few children. Resistance is futile."

4.) All site owners praising the UN and calling for world government by the UN will recieve stipends of $50,000 per anum and up, awarded Land Rover SUVs, sent on all-expense-paid trips to "disaster" sites to sip tea and go to cocktail parties with UN "observers". Additional benefits will be based on content, traffic and payment of excessive dues by the U.S. to the UN slush fund.


More? Of course there's more. But I'll leave the rest as an exercise for the students...



Another one I missed...

The Precision Guided Humor Assignment roundup was posted Weddnesday. Good stuff, Maynard.

"By their fruits you shall know them."–Matthew 7:20

Thanks, R'Cat, for reminding me to get this up

Was so drained when I finally sat down at the comp last night I didn't even comment on THE news of the day. Well, here's my comment: American Muslims missed the "civilized response" boat five years ago and have refused to book passage since. What's changed, now?

Reuters (of course) puts a positive spin on it:



"Top U.S. Muslim scholars issued a "fatwa," or religious edict, against terrorism on Thursday and called on Muslims to help authorities fight the scourge of militant violence.

"The fatwa was part of efforts by U.S. Muslims to counter perceived links between Islam and terrorism and avert any negative backlash after this month's bombings by suspected Islamic extremists in London and Egypt."


Of course Reuters (almost "al Jazeera West") presents this as a genuine proclaimation, but since it's taken four years of bloody, brutal, vicious attacks by their co-religionists since 2001 (let alone the previous 20 years! ) I hope you'll pardon me for casting a jaundiced eye at this as being too little, too late. It's as though Georgy Malenkov were to step up and say, "I never really agreed with Stalin's policies of killing millions of our countrymen while I was his Deputy Secretary. I was just along for the ride," and expect folks to believe him.

No, these Muslims have aided and abetted in the brutal attacks for all this time by being silent when they could have spoken. Speaking out now seems disingenuous. Worse, it echoes the Koran's encouragement of Muslims to lie to unbelievers whenever they feel it would advance the purposes of Islam. (See also here and here.)


"Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah unless it is done to guard (Takeyya) yourselves against them, guarding carefully. And Allah cautions you against His retribution. And to Allah is the eventual coming." (Koran 3:27)

The principle of Al Takeyya is precisely what makes negotiations with Islamic statesmen such a frustrating endeavor for the naïve diplomats of Christianized nations. It is imperative that diplomatic envoys learn that when dealing with Muslims, what Muslim statesmen say is not the issue. The real issue is, what do they mean and actually intend to do in their hearts._*_


I'd rather let them be tested by scriptures other than their own:


"By their fruits you shall know them."–Matthew 7:20


If this fatwa results in Muslims informing on jihadist terrorists (thus twarting plans to attack noncombatant men, women and children); if this fatwa results in sutting off the flow of money and matériel serving jihadist terrorism; if this fatwa results in Muslims who actively oppose their co-religionist jihadist terrorists in genuinely substantive ways, then this proclaimation will be believable.

Until then, I'll view it with great distrust. Words are easy. How about some moral, civilized action, sheetheads?

Update:
Looks like lgf was on top of this all along. Could saved my fingers some typin' had I checked them out earlier, but was just too pooped last night to click on over there. Over 600 comments... *sheesh* Some-a those folks oughta get their own blogs... heh

ACLU CAIR package

Build your own ACLU-CAIR package.

Established fact: CAIR has known ties to jihadist terrorism. And LOTS of support from the ACLU. Just a few links to make up your own ACLU CAIR package...

Jihad Watch: CAIR, ACLU Sue Gov't over Border Scrutiny

FL bus company employees sued by CAIR/ ACLU

CAIR, ACLU To Announce Action Against DHS Over NY Detentions

ACLU and CAIR demand apology

ACLU, CAIR decry anti-terror efforts

Oh, why go on. CAIR fronts for terrorists; the ACLU is in aliance with them and defends terrorists. Both should be sent on a long walk off a short pier carrying the weight of their sins with them to the bottom of the deep blue sea.

Oh, crap. That'd just give the EPA an excuse to get involved...

*sigh*

This has been a (day late) post for the Stop the ACLU Blogburst

21st Century
Paladin

A Lady's Ruminations
A Tic In The Mind's Eye
American Dinosaur
American Warmonger
An American Housewife
And Rightly So
Angry Republican Mom
Birth of a Neo-Con
Blog Talker
California Conservatives 4 Truth
Cao's Blog
Christmas Ghost
Common Sense Runs Wild
Conservative Angst
Conservative Dialysis
Conservative Rant
Craig's Reflections
Crosses aCross America
Daily Inklings
Def Conservative
**
Euphoric Reality
Evil Conservative Blog
Freedom Of Thought
Freedom-Of
Fundamentally Right
GM's Corner
Gribbit's Word
Is It Just Me?
Is This Life?
It Is What It Is
JackLewis.net
Jo's Cafe
Kender's Musings
KiddSafe Blog
Kill Righty
Lady
Madonna- Headlines

Life Trek
Mad tech
Making Tomorrow's Military
Today

**
Mean Ol' Meany
Meeyotch's so called
"life"

Merri Musings
Miss Patriot
More Sense Than Money
**
Mr Minority
Musing Minds
My Political Soapbox
**
MyView
**
NIF
**
Obiter Dictum Blog
**
Ogre's View
Parrot Check
Patriots For Bush
PBS Watch
**
Pirate's Cove
RAGE
Rancher Blog
Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek
Red State Rant
Regular Ron
Respublica
Right On! A Conservative Opinion
Smithereen's Files
**
Steve's Blog
Stop The ACLU
Stop The ACLU AZ
**
Stop The ACLU Illinois
Stop The ACLU Kansas
Stop The ACLU Nevada
Stop The ACLU Ohio
Stop The ACLU Oklahoma
Stuff You Should Know
**
Swap Blog
Sweet Spirits of Ammonia
The American Patriots
**
The Conservative
UAW Guy

The Kevin Show
The Lesser of Two Evils
The Life And Times
The Nose On Your Face
The Uncooperative Blogger
The View From Firehouse
**
The Wide Awakes
third world county
This Space For Rent
Thoughts from the Right
Time Hath Found Us
TMH's Bacon Bits
Undiscovered
Country

Vista On Current Events
What Attitude Problem?
White Lightning Axiom:
Redux

Xtreme Right Wing
Zipcard2's Blog


Thursday, July 28, 2005

Eaten by locusts

Today was, that is...

For Stop the ACLU and other Thursday staples (if other there be), see other posts earlier this week. No time or energy, right now. Even short on coffee.

Day eaten by locusts. S'way it goes, sometimes.


Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Chill out with Chicken Chili

Well, in honor of the cool wave that just swept through, tonight's menu is

"White" Chicken Chili


This is another sorta, kinda, not quite a recipe recipe. (Cos I refuse to measure amounts of spices.)


  • 1Lb boneless chicken breasts, cut in either 1/2' strips or in chunks
  • 1 can (or a coupla cups freshly cooked) navy beans
  • 1 can hominy
  • about a cup (more or less to your taste) of green chiles: the canned diced ones are just fine.
  • 1 cup chicken stock (your own or canned)
  • up to one tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • a couple of fresh, ripe (none of those sorta red cueballs sold at the grocery) tomatoes, diced. Or a (15oz?) can of diced tomatoes.
  • one medium onion, chopped
  • a coupla cloves of garlic, minced
  • ground red pepper (I'd use at least a teaspoonful—actually, I would use more :-)
  • ground cumin—minimum one tablespoonful. Best if ground fresh.

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium heat. When hot, add about a TBS of oil to coat the pan and then add the chicken strips/cubes. Cook until white, then add the onion, garlic, cumin and red pepper powder and continue cooking until the chicken is golden. Meanwhile, combine the chicken broth and corn starch, dice tomatoes, etc.


When the chicken's a golden brown, add the tomatoes, hominy, beans, green chiles and mixture of chicken stock and cornstarch. Bring to a boil for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and then, then simmer for at least 30 minutes. I prefer an hour or more, adding more chicken stock or water as needed.


Serve in bowls or on corn chips and topped with salsa or whatever works for you.


UPDATE: Lovely Daughter suggested mushrooms and bell peppers as an addition to this, and I don't see any reason why they would not work... it'd just taste different than I'd expect any kinda chili to taste. Maybe better than this "white" chili does. Gonna try that next time. If you try it that way before I do, drop me a line and let me know how ya liked it.


While you're at it, may I recommend this post from Blog and Mablog? For an upcoming Christ Church cookbook, Doug Wilson makes "...the culinary argument for God's existence, which Thomas Acquinas somehow overlooked."


"Think for a moment what God could have done with food. He could have designed a universe in which some sort of fuel was necessary, but where the (entirely superfluous) function of taste was missing. He could have provided us with abundant sources of nutrition, but which had the ethos of cold, shapeless oatmeal. No taste anywhere. Bleh.

"He could have given us food that had slight variations or degrees of refinement, like gasoline. We could have had super premium oatmeal, which was more gruel-like, and then premium, like cream of wheat, and then regular, which would be like oatmeal, with the texture and everything. But still, nothing that had taste. No brown sugar.

"What kind of God created taste? Not just the function of taste—because He could have done that and only provided one or two tastes—but the riot of tastes, the pandemonium of tastes, the bedlam of tastes that we actually have."


Interesting stuff. But then, folks who are familiar with Doug's work in Credenda Agenda won't be surprised... (Check out the latest Credenda issue: The Art of Pettiness for a taste..)


PGHA: How will the Left attack Judge Roberts?

I guess nothing's too ridiculous to propose, is it?

So, how will the left attack Supreme Court nominee John Roberts?


1.) Put an emetic in his water at the confirmation hearings


2.) Put a "shocker" in his chair and whenever he starts to answer a questioner, give him a "buzz". (No, I'm not going to link to a site where you can buy one. Just in case a reader happens along who's an LLM.)


3.) Go all snarky over his (and his family's) wardrobe. Now that's completely ridiculous! No One would do that!!! (Oops. Too late for this to be a prediction. Robin Givhan beat me to this one. I guess No One would do that... )


4.) A corollary to #3: every time he answers a question, remind him, "Yeh, and yo momma wears army boots."


5.) Secretly, under cover of darkness, the Loony Left Moonbat brigade and Mass Media Podpeople's Army will send their best Ninjas of Personal Destruction to poop in Robert's children's fishbowl, then send in PETA (no, not People Eating Tasty Animals, the other PETA: the one with whacko nutjobs who "rescue" animals and then kill them for fun) to claim he abuses fish and would threaten the Constitutional rights of fish across America.


6.) The ACLU will join with PETA to bring suit against Roberts because of the clear and present danger he poses to the civil rights of American fish.


7.) Douglas Adams' body will be exhumed and used as a sock puppet by Teddy Kennedy to claim that the Earth will be destroyed by aliens because Roberts threatens the civil rights of American fish (right after Teddy "Swimmer" Kennedy asserts that Mary Jo Kopeckne's death was all Roberts' fault—for making the fish angry, thus forcing Teddy "Swimmer" Kennedy to swim for his life, fleeing angry rights-threatened-by-Roberts fish... Hey, it's Teddy Kennedy, here: anything could come from his mouth.)


8.) Rabid Loony Left Moonbats will seek to suck Roberts' blood.


9.) Meanwhile, back in the Senate, the Evil Triumvirate du Jour (who knows? Maybe Pelosi, Durbin and Schumer) will fall on the floor of the Senate, kicking and screaming in a typical LLM misapprehension that this comprises an actual attack on anything.


10.) Jean Fraud sKerry will wet his pants when he realizes that he misspoke and demanded his own records be released instead of John Roberts'. Oops, Jean Fraud... sKerry will then claim that he wet himself because Roberts stole the "lucky pants" he got off Valerie Plame when he dropped her off one Christmas in Cambodia. (Yeh, I'll bet that one's "seared, seared" into his memory... )

*sigh* Forgot some earlier:


+1: Place whoopee cushions on Judiciary Committee seats. Blame Roberts.

+2: Claim Roberts created Ebola. Ditto smallpox, AIDS and acne. Dare him to prove he did not.

+3: Ask Roberts when he stoped beating his wife. (I know, a hoary chestnut, but since the Dems in the Judiciary committee are all fond of hoary chests and are nuts to boot, it only stands to reason.)

+4: Insert unimaginably idiotic action here. See? I just knew you could imagine things that are unimaginable to the ordinary person!

+5: Claim Roberts will submit his decisions to the Pope, and when he denies it, claim that's evidence of mendacity and something for which he should be impeached from his present judgeship (then, of course, keelhauled and burned at the stake).

Now, once the "moderates" have finished with the above attacks, Roberts will be turned over to the gentle ministrations of moveon.org NARAL and the "beyond the orbit of Pluto" whacko wing of the (UN)Democratic party...



Put one in the "Loss" column for the ACLU

Finally, some legislators grow some stones...

(A post on point and a rabbit trail... )


It was ACLU action that imperiled Boy Scout events on bases. Now, the Senate is (finally!) realizing they have a responsibility to limit federal court behavior.

On another, not-so-encouraging, note, this from the same article:

"The vote came one day after four adult Scout leaders from an Alaska troop were killed on the opening day of the National Scout Jamboree at the Army's Fort A.P. Hill in Bowling Green, Va., when a tent pole apparently struck a power line."

*sigh* It seem stupidity can still be a capital offense against nature. At least it was stupid Boy Scout leaders. Maybe their replacements will be smart enough to be better role models. Ah, well. At least the boys under their leadership may benefit from some excellent BAD examples.

(Sad memory: I knew a guy once who killed his wife via almost the exact same stupid act. Had her hold a—metal!—ladder for him while he was working near a power line. Leaned over too far. Saved himself on the roof ledge, but she, trying to save him, held onto the ladder too long. She paid the price for his stupidity... and he had to live with the results.)

Wednesday's child is full of woe...

What?!?!?

For the cultural illiterati (none of the regular readers of thos blog fit that description) I'd have to cite (and explain) the old Mother Goose rhyme...

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child born on the Sabbath Day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.


But I'll just cite it, instead, as a memory exercise (something I can use more and more as brain cells die off wholesale with age. :-). Oh, and for those born after 1960 or so, "gay" is used there in its non-pejorated, pre-homosexual "pride" meaning of " having or showing a merry, lively mood" (which is still the preferred meaning in most dictionaries).


But enough of the completely irrelevant-to-this-post rabbit trail. "Wednesday's child is full of woe... "—eh? What?


Well, I've decided to dedicate the next few (maybe just a couple) of Wednesdays to the bane of honest citizens of the U.S., the IRS and income tax.


Tell you what, just go get this book and we'll have more to talk about:


The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz.







And how about this book, as well?

The Americans for Fair Taxation Bill involves three specific actions:

1) Passage of legislation that repeals the income tax, the payroll tax in its entirety, the estate tax, the gift tax, the capital gains tax, the self-employment tax, and the corporate tax.

2) Passage of legislation that installs a single-rate, national sales tax on all new goods and services at the point of final purchase for consumption; and that provides a universal rebate in an amount equal to the sales tax on essential goods and services.

3) Adoption of a constitutional amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment.

If any of these items are altered the bill will lose all grassroots support!

Americans for Fair Taxation has over 500,000 members.

What does the FairTax do for you?
1. You take home your gross pay minus state income taxes.
2. You receive a check on the first of every month (amounts shown below).
3. You will have no tax forms and no IRS to report to.


U. S. House Bill H. R. 25 Sponsors

(The FairTax Bill)

We'll talk more later, OK?




Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Quote for the day

Mike Adams: Kinda like Ann Coulter; a calmer, meaner, kick-em-when-they're-down version without the long hair and high voice (sorry Mike).

Witness the expansion of point two in his article "Life and How to Live It"—

It should be noted that people who claim to believe in moral relativism are just lying in order to make themselves appear to be morally superior to others. Their actual belief in moral absolutism is revealed when, at some point, they openly proclaim that there are no absolutes. If everything is relative, the philosophy of moral relativism can’t be absolutely true.

heh

Just go read the whole thing. It's one of his kinder, gentler pieces.

Debris detected on Discovery launch

Let's hope this turns out to be nothing:

Space Shuttle Discovery's launch:

...Two chase planes and more than 100 cameras documented the ascent from every possible angle to capture any sign of flying debris of the sort that doomed the last flight.

Some two hours later, after Discovery had settled into orbit, Discovery commander Eileen Collins radioed back: "We know that the folks back on the planet Earth are just feeling great right now, and our thanks to everybody for all the super work that's been done over the past 2 1/2 years to get us flying again."


Mission Control replied by promising to bring the astronauts home safely.


Video showed what appeared to be a large piece of debris flying off the external fuel tank two minutes into the flight. The object did not seem to hit the orbiter. Footage also showed what might have been at least two light-colored objects flying off Discovery as the shuttle cleared the launch pad.


Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale raised the possibility that the light-colored objects were harmless pieces of paper that protect Discovery's thrusters before launch. But he insisted it was too soon to say what the cameras may have picked up, and he gave assurances the multitude of images will be examined frame by frame in the coming hours and days... Yahoo News


Let's hope Hale's "harmless pieces of paper" were indeed all the "debris" was. No one wants another Columbia.

Crossposted at Balanced News Blog and Cathouse Chat

Dog bites man! (No news here... )

Shocker? heh Anyone who's heard Jennifer Lopez "sing" is shocked that she even has a recording contract. That Sony would go all payola to get her recordings some spin is shocking only in how stupid Sony is to keep promoting this no-talent.

The Native-Born

Kipling, 1894


We've drunk to the Queen -- God bless her! --
We've drunk to our mothers' land;
We've drunk to our English brother,
(But he does not understand);
We've drunk to the wide creation,
And the Cross swings low for the mom,
Last toast, and of Obligation,
A health to the Native-born!


They change their skies above them,
But not their hearts that roam!
We learned from our wistful mothers
To call old England "home";
We read of the English skylark,
Of the spring in the English lanes,
But we screamed with the painted lories
As we rode on the dusty plains!


They passed with their old-world legends --
Their tales of wrong and dearth --
Our fathers held by purchase,
But we by the right of birth;
Our heart's where they rocked our cradle,
Our love where we spent our toil,
And our faith and our hope and our honour
We pledge to our native soil!


I charge you charge your glasses --
I charge you drink with me
To the men of the Four New Nations,
And the Islands of the Sea --
To the last least lump of coral
That none may stand outside,
And our own good pride shall teach us
To praise our comrade's pride,


To the hush of the breathless morning
On the thin, tin, crackling roofs,
To the haze of the burned back-ranges
And the dust of the shoeless hoofs --
To the risk of a death by drowning,
To the risk of a death by drouth --
To the men ef a million acres,
To the Sons of the Golden South!


To the Sons of the Golden South (Stand up!),
And the life we live and know,
Let a felow sing o' the little things he cares about,
If a fellow fights for the little things he cares about
With the weight o a single blow!


To the smoke of a hundred coasters,
To the sheep on a thousand hills,
To the sun that never blisters,
To the rain that never chills --
To the land of the waiting springtime,
To our five-meal, meat-fed men,
To the tall, deep-bosomed women,
And the children nine and ten!


And the children nine and ten (Stand up!),
And the life we live and know,
Let a fellow sing o' the little things he cares about,
If a fellow fights for the little things he cares about
With the weight of a two-fold blow!


To the far-flung, fenceless prairie
Where the quick cloud-shadows trail,
To our neighbours' barn in the offing
And the line of the new-cut rail;
To the plough in her league-long furrow
With the grey Lake' gulls behind --
To the weight of a half-year's winter
And the warm wet western wind!


To the home of the floods and thunder,
To her pale dry healing blue --
To the lift of the great Cape combers,
And the smell of the baked Karroo.
To the growl of the sluicing stamp-head --
To the reef and the water-gold,
To the last and the largest Empire,
To the map that is half unrolled!


To our dear dark foster-mothers,
To the heathen songs they sung --
To the heathen speech we babbled
Ere we came to the white man's tongue.
To the cool of our deep verandah --
To the blaze of our jewelled main,
To the night, to the palms in the moonlight,
And the fire-fly in the cane!


To the hearth of Our People's People --
To her well-ploughed windy sea,
To the hush of our dread high-altar
Where The Abbey makes us We.
To the grist of the slow-ground ages,
To the gain that is yours and mine --
To the Bank of the Open Credit,
To the Power-house of the Line!


We've drunk to the Queen -- God bless her!
We've drunk to our mothers'land;
We've drunk to our English brother
(And we hope he'll understand).
We've drunk as much as we're able,
And the Cross swings low for the morn;
Last toast-and your foot on the table! --
A health to the Native-born!


A health to the Nativeborn (Stand up!),
We're six white men arow,
All bound to sing o' the Little things we care about,
All bound to fight for the Little things we care about
With the weight of a six-fold blow!
By the might of our Cable-tow (Take hands!),
From the Orkneys to the Horn
All round the world (and a Little loop to pull it by),
All round the world (and a Little strap to buckle it).
A health to the Native-born!



Street Scenes

You may have seen some of these in emails that've been making the rounds.

Not one of the bombers--Update & BUMP

He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, looked like one of the "bad guys"... and he ran. According to a NYTimes report, Scotland Yard says the man shot Friday "...had nothing to do with the investigation into the bombing attacks..." there. And they say more such shootings could occur. Note to folks who look like the London bombers: when armed police tell you to stop and surrender, don't run. crossposted at Balanaced New Blog UPDATE: According to a poster here, the Brazillian who was shot by the London police did originally enter the country legally (on a student visa), but overstayed his visa and had been working for several years as an electrician. So, as Jerry Pournelle put it in response,
"... it is Niven's Law. If you are illegally entered in a country that is under terror attack, especially one run by Anglo-Normans who have historically been among the most warlike people ever known, be very careful to comply with instructions from the police."
Yep. He knew he was an illegal alien. He had guilt written all over him as he ran. Summary: Capital punishment for stupidity.

The Junior Senator from Taxachussetts Won't Sing This Song

One song Jean Fraud sKerry (AKA John F Kerry) won't be singing...

Remember Blazing Saddles... Madeline Kahn singing "I'm Tired with that slightly off-key Sprechstimme style"? The lyrics include a refrain I wish Jean Fraud sKerry could learn to sing...

I'm tired,
Tired of playing the game
Ain't it a crying shame
I'm so tired
God dammit I'm exhausted


Tired, tired of playing the game
Ain't it a crying shame
I'm so tired

Well, lying through his teeth, stalling, backtracking, flip-flopping and playing the double- triple- quadruple-standards game is just not something this poltroon seems to tire of.



Where's the beef, Johnnie? You've still not released your records to the public, and you're asking for the White House to release ALL of Roberts' records? Just shut up, Jean. Until you're willing to keep your word and release the records you have promised to release, just crawl back into the hole you came from, pull the rock in over yourself and shut up!

See MaryHunter's better post on this at TMH's Bacon Bits, Cao's take at Cao's Blog, and these other fine blogs' notes about Jean Fraud sKerry's disgusting cowardice, lies and deceits:

Aaron's cc
And Rightly So!
Atlas Shrugs
Balance Sheet
Cao's Blog
Cathouse Chat
Christmas Ghost
Civil Issues
Conservative Friends
doubleplusgood infotainment
Doughnut Holes
Euphoric Reality
Flight Pundit
Fundamentally Right
Furry Press
GM's Corner
Gribbit's Word
House Of Wheels
i-imagery.com
Infinite Universe
International House of Conservatism
Jackson's Junction
Jay Howard Smith
Kender's Musings
Lifetrek
Moonbattery.com
My Vast Rightwing Conspiracy
NIF
PBSWatcher
Pirate's Cove
Pooklekufr: The Kafir Constitutionalist
Power and Control
Private Radio
Progressive Conservatism
Ravings Of A Mad Tech
Republican Vet
Right in Philly
Rottweiler Puppy
Shades of Gray
Something...and Half of Something
Stop the ACLU
Tall Glass of Milk
The Babaganoosh
The Creative Conservative
The Dark Citadel
The Paragraph Farmer
The Pulpit Pounder
The Sunnyeside Of Life
Think About It
Third World County
TMH's Bacon Bits
Uncle Jack
Villainous Company
Web-Nuts
What Attitude Problem?
Where's Your Brain?
Word Park Blog






Monday, July 25, 2005

"Separation of Church and State"


2_seals
Originally uploaded by mnmus.
The two city seals depicted here are (L) Los Angeles before ACLU sticking its nose into Angelenos' business and (R) after. The city caved rather than face long, drawn-out legal action and now is saddled with American Indian religious symbols (New Mexican, at that) and the deletion of the crosses that symbolized the missions that founded the city (I'm surprised the ACLU let Los Angeles, "the angels," keep its name, since they were on a roll... Maybe next time)

"In Missouri, when fourth-grader Raymond Raines bowed his head in prayer before his lunch in the cafeteria of Waring Elementary School in St. Louis, his teacher allegedly ordered him out of his seat, in full view of other students present, and sent him to the principal’s office. After his third such prayer "offense," little Raymond was segregated from his classmates, ridiculed for his religious beliefs, and given one week's detention."WND, December 4, 2003


Not surprising to anyone who's actually read the Constitution and the Federalist papers, but "separation of church and state" not only do not appear in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, the Founders and Framers were in substantial agreement that the religious life of citizens could NOT be separated from their political and social life. Indeed, even modern Constitutional scholars with any integrity agree:


"There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the Framers intended to build the 'wall of separation' [between church and state]."—U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist


But the ACLU doesn't want all religion removed from the public arena. The ACLU would be satisfied to eliminate Christianity, as its precepts form the strongest bulwark against the ACLU's anti-western civilization agenda.

ACLU: Anti-Christian Licentiousness Union.

Join the Stop the ACLU Blogburst at: Stop the ACLU/Gribbit Online, and check out also the Stop the ACLU state by state sites beginning with Stop the ACLU Oklahoma (R'Vet's doing yeoman's work ramrodding that effort).

Update: fixed the typo in the title. Left all other errors untouched, of course. :-)

How to spot an Islamic terrorist--update

A late submission for a recent Precision Guided Humor Assignment

Over at Sir Peter Maxwell.com, find this gem as a part of his "Sir Peter Maxwell's Terrorist Test":
I have done my bit to honour England and Saint George and it seems the Metropolitan Police are doing so too. On Friday they shot dead a brown chap on the underground. The police have now foolishly apologised for shooting the chap (who turned out to be a Brazilian peasant). What nonsense. He was wearing suspicious clothing; he looked brown and was running away from the police. He fits all of the criteria to be killed. What more do the terrorist loving left-wing scoundrels want? A bloody T-Shirt saying “I’m a Terrorist Please Kill Me”.
Don't give the Loony Left Moonbats and Mass Media Podpeople any ideas, buddy...
heh

One of the most under-read blogs around

I don't know why Carol Platt Liebau's blog isn't somewhere in the stratosphere--"Mortal Human" or at least "Playful Promate" range in the blogosphere...

No matter how well-trafficked her blog is, it's under-read. Here's a sample post from yesterday evening. Read it and then check out her front page.

This morning, on Meet the Press, Tim Russert noted as he interviewed Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL):

It's interesting, because in your own political past, when you were a congressman in the House of Representatives in 1983, you believed that Roe vs. Wade was incorrectly decided. You filled out a questionnaire calling for a constitutional limit to ban all abortions. You wrote a constitute [sic] saying that "The right to an abortion is not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution."

Of course, this will make life very interesting if Dick Durbin tries to characterize any postulated pro-life views of John Roberts as "out of the mainstream" -- because when Durbin was pro-life, that view was less mainstream than it is today.

In any case, anyone who slanders American soldiers the way Dick Durbin did has no business even pretending to know anything about "mainstream thought" in America. _*_

Other posts that follow include, "She's Not A Moderate!" and "It's Not About Being 'Offended'"—the first about Diane Feinstein and the second about the "nuke Mecca" flap.

Concise, clear, insightful. Go listen.

"Get back on your own side of the fence!"

"What's mine is mine" is a basic human right...

...and the SCOTUS (Supreme Communists of the United States) stirred a tiny (wee, bitsy, teen-eintsy) spark of the Founders fire in June when they said it was hunky-dory in their books for governments to take private property with just about any lame excuse they could dream up.

Alarmed by the prospect of local governments seizing homes and turning the property over to developers, lawmakers in at least half the states are rushing to blunt last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding the power of eminent domain.

In Texas and California, legislators have proposed constitutional amendments to bar government from taking private property for economic development. Politicians in Alabama, South Dakota and Virginia likewise hope to curtail government's ability to condemn land.

Even in states like Illinois — one of at least eight that already forbid eminent domain for economic development unless the purpose is to eliminate blight — lawmakers are proposing to make it even tougher to use the procedure. (See story here)

And see The Open Source Amendment Project's Restoring The Right To Ownership of Property Petition.

Hit 'em high and low... and let your state legislators and congresscritters know you'll for for anyone else if they don't put a cork in the land grab schemes of their fellow politicians. Gripe longly, loudly and often to as many people as you can about the ____ (fill in your own descriptive) politicians grabbing private property with the lamest of excuses.

And let said pols know you're doing it.

Crossposted at Cathouse Chat.





Sunday, July 24, 2005

The Suicide of the West?

A month ago, the Washington Post featured an article by Robert J. Samuelson, "The End of Europe" (yeh, well, you missed it too :-)

I don't think it unfair to subtitle Samuelson's piece, "The Suicide of the West"—not unfair at all... Here's a sample, but be sure to read the whole thing. There will be a test (in fact, the test is ongoing and you're in the smack dab middle of it every day).

Europe as we know it is slowly going out of business. Since French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed constitution of the European Union, we've heard countless theories as to why: the unreality of trying to forge 25 E.U. countries into a United States of Europe; fear of ceding excessive power to Brussels, the E.U. capital; and an irrational backlash against globalization. Whatever their truth, these theories miss a larger reality: Unless Europe reverses two trends -- low birthrates and meager economic growth -- it faces a bleak future of rising domestic discontent and falling global power. Actually, that future has already arrived.

The big question is how quickly will the U.S. follow Europe's lead? (If the majority of the SCOTUS, the Mass Media Podpeople and the Loony Left Moonbats get their way while the Stupid Party congresscritters worry about not hurting any feelings among the MMPs and LLMs and continues to let the SCOTUS illegitimately legislate from the bench, the answer could turn out to be all too darned quickly... )

Get the rest at the link, and then contemplate just how quickly the Left's attacks on our society (and the Stupid Party's lethargic "go along to get along" responses) could take us there (is taking us there!).

h.t. to an alert commenter at Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor Mail. There's a lot more there @Chaos Manor, including some trenchant observations by Dr. Pournelle. Must read.

N.B. I use "the Stupid Party" to refer primarily to the Republican pols who always seem like high school boys playing football against an NFL team. Even if their heart's in the right place, they just ain't got the plays, the endurance, the strength or the fortitude to win except by just plain dumb luck.

Purgatory: Day 2

Yesterday and today: broadband access dead. Limited to a 28.8 dialup, now *sigh* No blogging today (except for this "poor me" post :-) This makes the second period within the last month my cable internet access has been down. Last time, I was able to get a nominal 56K connection with my backup dialup connection. Not so today. Ah, well... Another day.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Calling All Harry Potter Fans

Cornelia Funke's a better juvie writer than J.K Rowling

OK, so last year, at Lovely Daughter's insistence recommendation, I read Cornelia Funke's Thief Lord. It was not half bad, and in fact it was quite a bit more than half good. And, as is becoming more and more common, it included a teaser: the first chapter of Inkheart, the book Lovely Daughter handed me to read today.


(Now that I'm considering Cornelia Funke books, I recall I was pleasantly disposed toward her insistence suggestion I read Thief Lord because I has earlier yielded to her when she touted Dragon Rider, also by Funke.)
The gimmick in Inkheart is that much of it is "about" a book by the same name, "Inkheart," though I'll not say more, cos I'm already edging into "spoiler" territory.
If I were a parent of gradeschool or junior high students, or an elementary/jr. hi teacher, I'd certainly put this on reading lists for "my" kids. And, ya know, I don't think adults would be harmed by reading it, either.
:-)
I'm near the end, just taking a break to brew some joe and write this. Unless Funke goes seriously awry, this is a good book. Of course, marketing and other pressures: it's the first of a trilogy... (Gee: can't folks just tell a story and move on to another any more? *VBG*) Still, the way it's reading, I'll probably buy a copy of my own and get the other two.