They Know Better Than You Because That's What That Election Thing Was All About
Now Playing: i think i need an ice cold coca-cola
The guys at the Power Line have a link to a new ad from the GOP in which they make sure the public gets to hear Harry Reid say:

We killed the Patriot Act.

You better get to it quick because it looks like one of them URLs that aren't meant to last.

Oh, and don't be offended by the subliminal trick they do with the dates. It doesn't mean any of my Leftist friends are un-American or anything.

Peace Be upon Him
Now Playing: multiple intelligences
I don't know why, but this guy's comment over at Charles Johnson's place has just left me in stitches:

Muslims, heed the words of John Kerry (peace be upon him) from the Mount of Switzerland. Do not accede to the prevarications of Bushitler. John Kerry (peace be upon him) will save you from the evil Bushither. Acknowledge him, John Kerry (peace be upon him) as your imam. He will lead you to the virgins. That is all you need to know. Do not seek any additional enlightenment regarding this issue. Or you will be slimed.

That's a funny damned cartoon he put in my head.

Thanks, jumpininhere.

A Comment I Left at The Left Coaster
As I told my friend Steve Soto over at his crizzib.

Steve, you may have to learn to look at Justice Alito as Israelis do the reality of Hamas being in power in the Palestinian areas: it's a development that may very well lead to the worst thing a lot of people can imagine (i.e., the loss of reproductive rights for American families), but one that might also make the choices between right and wrong very clear.

Of course, for my own part, I hope that the conservative Justices of the SCOTUS know better than to utterly ruin their party for the next generation by throwing out Roe. I suspect that they are politically aware enough to not do that to the GOP.

Kooximity
Now Playing: and a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous! now you get the hell out of here!
Y'know, I'm half-way to believing that John Kerry is a GOP plant hired to make liberalism look ridiculous.

The notoriously French-looking and decadent Europhile Senator is calling for a filibuster of a Supreme Court Justice while lounging around Davos, Switzerland? Jesus Christ. I've seen more plausible portrayals of clueless degeneracy among the villains in James Bond movies.

The only sport in this is to see which Leftist sites I visit will have the intellectual honesty to call Kerry what he is, which is the kept bitch of a very crazy widow-woman.

One of the Gifts of Growing Old
Now Playing: memory is the mother of the muses
I remember exactly where I was tomorrow morning twenty years ago.

I was a junior at John H. Reagan High School in Austin, Texas. And I was at school that day, just leaving the library there in the Old Mall, when I heard a bunch of kids laughing and joking about how the shuttle had exploded.

I was bewildered at their disrespect and it pissed me off deeply. In fact, not long after, I had occasion to write a column for my school's newspaper ---the Reagan Radar--- in which I criticized those fellow students' inexcusable behavior.

But I also recall that our librarian, a good and interesting man named Jordan Grams, told me after my little outburst that those kids were dealing with the news in the only way they knew; that they weren't as insensitive to what had happened as I believed, but were only showing their emotional immaturity.

Mr. Grams was probably right, but the disintegration of the Challenger was one of those events in my very early manhood that made me consciously value being an American and bolstered my great love of History. It was a terrible slap in the face from which the only healthy response was to insist that we recover. And I think we have.

But I also worry that we are not taking seriously enough our obligation to History and Humanity when we do not do more to make our way to the Moon and Mars and into the greater solar system. That is our final destiny and I fear that we are looking away from it again.

I will die on Earth, but Man must live everywhere.

After all, we can't allow the Quadrengians of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb to have the whole place to themselves, can we?

CORRECTION: I don't know why I thought yesterday was the anniversary. I am embarrassed. Today, 28 January 2006, is the 20th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster, so I changed a word in the opening graf to reflect that.

I stand by the rest of the post, though.

This Is Not a Joke
Now Playing: that damned "Leyenda" from Albeniz
I had occasion this afternoon to spend some time with an Irishman from Limerick. We got to talking about our various travels and he mentioned that he had spent a year in Russia back around '93. We talked about the mobocracy that had taken over there with the usual small expressions of regret.

But then the Irishman made the remark ---with absolute innocence--- that "in theory, Communism is the perfect system, but not in practice." I laughed at the first part of his remark and basically recited the second right along with him.

I kid you not: I could not have been any older than 10 by the time I had disabsued myself of the idea that Communism would be a preferable system to ours. And I can't even say that I knew ---or know--- what ours is!

I mean, this was a business guy about my age. Where is he ideologically to think that Communism is the theoretical limit of human government?

It's a little-appreciated fact about 30-somethings ---and, I guess, it really is particular to Americans of that age--- but many of us were taught about Communism. Knowing about it was a part of our lives. We knew that there was something else out there that sought to control as many people as possible. People that were being made into something we were not.

That's a powerful thing to believe. And I also believe in the power of believing in things that are powerful to believe.

Dissent into Madness
Tigerhawk points us to this recent interview at the ultra-Leftist site CounterPunch.org with Mother Sheehan in which she holds forth on Bill Clinton:

You know, I really think he should have been impeached, but not for a blow job. His policies are responsible for killing more Iraqis that [sic] George Bush. I don't understand why to rise to the level of being president of my country one has to be a monster. I used to say that George Bush was defiling the Oval Office, but it's been held by a long line of monsters. We don't have to support our administrations to love our country. True patriots of my country dissent when our country's doing something so wrong.

Uh, oh. I'm starting to notice a pattern here. First, Mother Sheehan says she won't support the pro-war Hillary Clinton and now she says that President Clinton should have been impeached for policies that have killed more Iraqis than even the Chimperor has killed! Wow.

Oh, and read Tigerhawk's rant on this, too. It's a thorough ass-kicking.

Gog and Magog
Now Playing: "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon
I just saw on C-SPAN that the President has come out and given his endorsement of the Russian plan to process the Iranians' uranium. It was just a bulletin item, so I don't know all the particulars, but I would guess that Bush is calling both their bluffs. Y'all want to take that on? Okay. You can both go down the toilet together.

I wonder if John Kerry will try to take credit for this plan. Maybe he'll spend a few hours on it next week while he's filibustering Sam Alito and making his party look like the goddamned idiots they are.

Can you imagine how boring Kerry is going to be? It ought to be the most mind-numbing shit ever seen on American television.

Derbyshire: "The Clarifying Effect of Hamas"
Now Playing: "The Air That I Breathe" by the Hollies
John Derbyshire writes at The Corner:

"But now, splendidly, everything had become clear. The enemy at last was plain in view, huge and hateful, all disguise cast off."---Evelyn Waugh's character Guy Crouchback in Men at War, speaking of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Before these network news-clowns can deny it or soften it up or euphemize it again, remember: Hamas are mass murderers. The Palestinian people have given their consent to be openly led by mass murderers.

Will the anti-Bush Left deny that, being the moral cowards they are?

Freak Not
Now Playing: all facts verified by the rhodesian police
History will note that when the Palestinian people made their first legitimate foray into democratic elections ---and it was legitimate because Jimmy Carter was on hand to verify it--- they overwhelmingly chose a party of mass murdering Jew-haters.

Hamas are the fucking Nazis, see.

I do wish people wouldn't freak out about all of this, though. The Car Swarm People have very generously shown us their very asses with this election. They have, as fools do, opened their mouths to remove all doubt of their [wisdom].

You murderous idiots will get nothing from us. No more bribes: if you savages want to be represented by a party of child-killers and wife-beaters, then you can be so without a single sou from me. I might actually write my Senators to make my feelings on that subject known.

This is what needed to happen to begin the legitimization of Israel's eventual military response to these knuckle-draggers, so don't sweat it.

Seventy Million "Kick Me" Signs
Now Playing: iranian uranium
I don't know why the bombings in southern Iran aren't getting more attention, but they should be:

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected Iranian claims that British soldiers were involved in two bombings that killed at least nine people in the city of Ahvaz, describing the accusation as "ludicrous."

"The Iranian government's suggestion that we somehow had a hand in yesterday's bomb explosions in southern Iran is obviously ludicrous and deserves to be treated with scorn by the international community," Blair's office said today in a statement read over the telephone.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said British soldiers equipped and directed the perpetrators of the two bombings, according to a report by the IRNA news agency. He said British forces had provided "safe haven" and `"practical and extensive facilities" for the attacks.

You know, that's a mighty big accusation to make. Roger L. Simon wonders aloud:

What's interesting is why the Iranians would want to up the ante with the British in this way. The mullahs seem to be pushing, pushing, pushing for some reason.

I'm not sure what Simon's alluding to. The Iranians do have a habit of trying to stir up Prime Minister Blair, but this may be just as simple as picking a fight with our junior partner to see what it does to the E3 power arrangement (and the Sino-Russian responses).

But if Ahmadinejad and the other nutbags are trying to lay a pretext for hostilities of some kind against Great Britain (and its thousands of armed soldiers next door in southern Iraq), then they are stupider than I feared to guess. Do these rug salesmen realize ---if even Chiraq is making nuclear threats--- how certainly their own fates are sealed if they mix it up with Tommy?

Like I've been hearing all month: 2006 is the Year of Iran.

Taliban Bananas
Now Playing: "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" by the Beatles
Sorry I can't remember where I stole this from. Maybe Slate? Anyhow, enjoy this picture of Alexander the Great's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great- great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson (and guest).

Snuff
Have a look at this story over at Theodore's World. There's video and stills and everything from Sky News:

Video footage has emerged showing George Galloway shaking hands with Saddam Hussein's son Uday - a rapist, torturer and convicted murderer.

The video, obtained by The Sun, shows the Respect MP having a 20-minute meeting with Saddam's eldest son in an Iraqi palace in 1999.

In the video, Mr Galloway is seen to greet Uday, shaking his hand twice and calling him "Excellency".

He jokes about losing weight, going bald and failing to give up smoking cigars.

Mr Galloway also orders watching journalists not to publish parts of their conversation.

Finally, according to the paper, he taunts the United States and vows to stick with Uday "until the end".

Jeeze. I ain't seen a feller take it on the chin like this since that one week Rush Limbaugh got shitcanned for slagging on Donovan McNabb and then got exposed as a degenerate pill-popper.

Like I always say, you know Galloway's got to be dirty just from the company he keeps: mass murdering psychopaths, brutal rapists, Kerry supporters, et al.

Stop Being Mindless
Mike Warren, the co-anchor on the KTBC early evening news, just got through [rhetorically clarifying] his goofy weatherman's forecast for rain come Saturday by asking whether it would still be possible to "salvage" this weekend if there were to be no rain on Sunday.

What the fuck are you talking about, Warren?!

A couple of days ago, I saw a farmer in Parker County, Texas trying to keep from weeping to the Weather Channel reporter who was at his home to ask if he was happy that we finally got some rain.

Yeah, rain is important, Mike. We need it to make our grass grow and to recharge our aquifers. We need it ---what the fuck this. I ain't gonna explain it to you!

"Salvage" the weekend! Jesus H. Christ! Who knew I still had that much small town left in me?

"God Is Love"
Now Playing: and now down that gloomy hallway away from my brothers and even further from my mother
I heared earlier today that Benedict has issued his first encyclical and that it is called, in English, God Is Love.

I know a few people who will be pleased to hear that.

Testing
At some point, I really am going to have to find a more operator-friendly host for this blog. I just can't understand how to get certain things (like a Technorati Profile) to link here.

Testing, one, two...

Character Assasshole
Now Playing: i am rubber, you are glue...
I'd like to tie a wet burlap sack of dog shit around Keith Olbermann's head and then groinpunt him off a bridge.

I mean, what else can one say? The guy is a propagandite, pseudointellectual moron.

Pollwatchers of the World, Unite!
Now Playing: to say nothing of the anti-american rhetoric
Another way that Duncan Black is like Osama bin Laden is that they both think opinion polls are worth discussing.

Typecast
Now Playing: "Tom Violence" by the Sonic Youth
You'll be amazed to learn this, but Tom? He ain't dead yet.

I know it's unbelievable, but it's really the only explanation I can think of.

After all this time, you know? Whole centuries. But it still breaks down that way.

Amazing.

Slaves to Fashion
Now Playing: and you're defending psychopaths because the president doesn't talk like you?
Can you imagine what a sick and sad existence this must be?

IRAQ’S most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, goes to sleep every night wearing a suicide belt packed with explosives, according to a leading insurgent who met him two weeks ago.

“He never takes it off,” said Sheikh Abu Omar al-Ansari, leader of a Sunni resistance group called Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura (Army of the Victorious Sect).

“He told me: ‘I would rather blow myself up and die as a martyr — and kill a few Americans along the way — than be arrested and humiliated by them’.”

His account, passed to The Sunday Times by a reliable intermediary, is the first description of Zarqawi in Iraq since Washington slapped a $25m bounty on his head, the same as the reward for the killing or capture of Osama Bin Laden.

What is this Michael Moore-styled "Minuteman" defending with such zeal? Islam? Islam is doing okay, isn't it? It's even started to take on some democratic traits in some places. Like Iraq. Oh? But that's the problem, isn't it? Zarqawi and his nutjob followers know that a self-determined and pro-American Iraq is a huge pain in the ass right there in the middle of the Muslim Middle East. And they don't want it. But they are going to get it.

In the meantime, they live with explosives wired to their bodies. What a miserable and fucked up life that must be!