Kerry on "Meet the Press."

Yesterday morning, my wife and I watched "Meet the Press" through tears of laughter. Kerry was so predictable, ponderous and pompous, we couldn't believe that he seems to have learned absolutely nothing from his defeat. After it was over, my wife asked if I would write a blog post, and I said assuredly that someone out there would have a better take on it than I. It seems that someone is Ann Althouse:

Remember when we had to listen to Kerry's tiresome explanations every day? What's the point of listening to him now? It's oh so dreary, and on a day when we should be feeling very happy about the Iraqi elections. I guess "Meet the Press" is a nice haven for anyone who doesn't want to have to see positive Bush-related news. Come on over here and wallow in despair. Gaze upon the haggard, hang-dog face that represents your dashed hopes!

But the great Tim Russert is making things hard to enjoy. Getting all Russert-y now, Russert shows Kerry the clip of Swift Boat Vet Steve Gardner in the Christmas in Cambodia -- "categorically a lie" -- commercial and then reads quotes from a lot of newspaper pieces. I lose count of the number of times Russert says the word "seared." The big question: "Were you in Cambodia, Christmas eve, 1968?" Kerry: "We were right on the border, Tim." And he's explained this already, "any number of times." Haven't you learned yet that if you think there's some question that Kerry hasn't already answered, it's always your problem -- you just haven't been listening properly?

My wife and I got a big kick out of that "right on the border" line, trying to imagine a big sign by a river in the middle of the jungle reading "Welcome To Cambodia. Happy Boating!" And there, RIGHT THERE, is John Kerry in his lucky hat, bobbing up and down in his Swift Boat with his band of brothers, memory searing away.

Read it all.

Meanwhile over at Ace of Spades HQ, John from WuzzaDem speculates on the chatter during commercial breaks:

FIRST BREAK
Russert: So, do you really think there could be some doubt about the legitimacy of the election in Iraq?
Kerry: Absolutely not, Tim.
Russert: But you just said there was right before the break.
Kerry: I did? Wow, I must have been on autopilot.

SECOND BREAK
Russert: So...nice tie.
Kerry: Oh, thanks. Picked it up at Barney's
Russert: Uh-huh...so what's a tie like that run you?
Kerry: I don't know; buck and a quarter. Maybe buck and a half.

THIRD BREAK
Russert:
Kerry:
Russert:
Kerry:
Producer: Ten seconds!
Russert: Thank God.
Kerry: What?
Russert: Nothing.

Late Night Games

I went to Longwood University on Friday to interview for a renovation project, and wasn't near a computer on Saturday or Sunday, so I haven't seen the blog since Thursday evening.

Obviously, Don needs something to help him while away the whee hours (although one could argue that Campbell Brown and Laurie Dhue adequately fill that role).

With that in mind, though, here's a fun little diversion to keep you going when you get tired of television and "Minesweeper" just doesn't cut it anymore. Play Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character!

72 Percent

Iraq Electoral Commission saying turnout is 72%. Wow...

Looks like they hired the same overcounting pollsters that had Kerry way ahead by 4:00PM back in November....

John "why wasn't I born a Kennedy" Kerry will be on Meet the press today.

Disclosure

For disclosure purposes, I fixed the order of the posts from last night so some of the time stamps are guesstimates.

I also fixed a few typos.

And I was not paid in anyway by Sam Adams or the Scissor Sisters for last nights posts. But if the Sisters want to send me a case or two of Sam Adams. Go right ahead.

Bedtime...

I'M GOING TO SLEEP....

Geraldo saying hes hasn't always had a pleasant time in Iraq... Cut off commercial for tempur pedic....

That seems fitting good night, Guten Nacht, Buenos Noches....

Blogger time messed up posts out of order

Blogger has some how screwed up my time sequence of posts....

So this may seem out of sync...

The voting places look like there are people but it's not teeming... Hard to tell if they're limiting the number of people inside at one time.

MSNBC.... Supposedly long lines in Sadr city. Cashmere scarf dude is back.

Palm tree shot of Iraq, makes me wonder, will Bush and Arhnold have to send the military into Hollywood to control the riots of the glitteratti after this. Babs is crying soemwhere, "Papa can you hear, me? Papa?"

"Yeah, Honey Babs, I was willing to pay for a nose job when you were sixteen, if you hadn't been such a stuck up bee-atch."

Next...

The ballot lists 18,900 candidates....

That's more people than go to NETS games in NJ.

More Sisters...

Scissor Sisters back on NBC.

The lead singer gay dude ripped off Faith Hill's wardrobe for this outfit. WTF?
I still think the girl's a guy.

Man, I bet Kurt's skin is crawling just reading my descriptions of the Scissor Sisters. Tolerance, cous', it's all tolerance these days....

Now voters in Southgate Michigan. Supposedly there are over 350,000 eligible Iraqi voters in the USA. That's like one out of every thousand people in this country. I wonder how many of them are here legally. Now a Mula in the USA is quoting MLK, where's Jesse when you need him.

There's a guy who was tortured by Saddam on Fox. He's psyched for this all. Another guy who looks like a funeral director is on and it's all great. Geraldo on next. Commercial for a drug company......

Two explosions

It's the sixth stooge Shep Smith on Fox News now....

Suicide bomber at polling place 3003.

No civilian casulaties. Bomber stopped outside

At polling site 3001, an IED.

Shots fired at another polling station.

Talil Square hit by a rocket and somebody hit the Tigres river with a rocket. Splish, splash I was taking a bath.

Iraqis will have their thumbs marked with ink to prevent multiple voting since you know no one has alcohol, turpentine, or acetone in Iraq.

OH NO IT"S MISTER GERALDO....

Geraldo is on now and the voters look like "Rocky," in his opinion, and there are women voting. Now there is a shot of two women voting. The ballots are the size of some of the baby blankets lying around my house. I guess that's what happens when you have 111 parties.

Geraldo says people are turning out in droves.

Man we should have known we never would find WMD's when Geraldo was assigned to the war. It's just like Al Capone's vault.

Geraldo's interviewing some guy, he seemingly just found walking by. I don't by it. Now he's got Mr. Chalabi on the telephone. Isn't Chalabi in Jail yet? Now Geraldo's saying Chalabi's going to be part of the legislative body of Iraq. WTF, again?

What is this a different Chalabi? Nope, it is Ahmad Chalabi, the infamous.

I have some inside info about Ahamad Chalabi from sources in military intelligence, and he's a scumbag liar, responsible more than anyone for getting us into this mess.

Geraldo asks Ahmad if he's going to cast his ballot, and calls Ahmad buddy. Yeah, Geraldo, get jiggy wit' it.

Tommy boy

Thomas Hamil, former Iraq hostage, is on now. For God's sake somebody buy this guy a tie.

Jesse Jackson is now on Fox News somehow taking credit for Hamil's survival?

He's calling it "gunpoint democracy" and saying we need a "global exit strategy", and now Jesse calls it occupation. Jesse is now comparing it with the blacks gaining the right to vote in America and South Africa, saying it's not the same b/c the celebration is only in the USA. Well I'm drinking a Sam Adams, Jesse. Is that a celebration?

Nope, I'm just a tired new dad who fell asleep on the couch and woke up in time to catch the end of the Gatti fight. Now I can't sleep.

Joe Scar-dude

Joe Scarborough is now reporting the US forces wished to keep the explosions to a bare minimum. David Schuster is his man in Iraq, and he's wearing a grey cashmere scarf and leather coat with a black t-shirt, very metro-sexual to keep the "Queer Eye" theme going here.

They have that Colonel (Ret.) on Fox news who sounds like he's been yelling his whole life over M-16 fire. By the way, all the news agencies, we know all these military commentators are retired because:

a. They're wearing suits and bad ties.
b. They're not in Iraq which is where Rummy would have them by now.

A suicide bomber hit a checkpoint and killed one soldier and some civilians. Zogby better adjust those polling percentages. In this election the dead may actually vote before they're dead, unlike in Chicago and Philadelphia where the dead rise from the cemetaries on election day. Little boys and girls that's why election day is so close to Halloween.

There's a shot of Lori Dhue in profile. She's got a very odd profile.

Now long distance shots of minarets into a commercial. Very phallic fade out-- Fox News.

More Elections, be happy and gay....

Meanwhile on Saturday Night Live, they are re-running Colin Farrel with the Scissor Sisters. The Scissor Sisters are the nought's, or double o's or whatever you want to call this decade's, version of the Village People. I think one of them is a tranvestite but I'm not sure.

Welcome to democracy Iraq, you can never tell what you might find under a bhurka

I just googled bhurka (to figure out how to spell it) and you can find a bhurka with mermaids. Who knew?

Welcome to voting Iraq....

The election in Iraq is over an hour old now and it looks like the USA brass has resurrected the grainy black and white target scope images so familiar from the first Iraq War during the first Bush administration. I can almost hear Darth Vader going "This is CNN!"

But times change and I'm watching Fox News and MSNBC and deperately trying to figure out why Joe Scarborough has a job. He's like Al Gore's doppelganger.

So far things are calm and the polling place seem deserted but it's only 8:20 AM there, and I'm sure most people are busy putting their bhurkas on over full body armor.

Also, of note, is the fact the US Army seems to have been watching the CSI re-runs on Spike TV because they are busy checking people for explosive residue.

Reuters is now reporting their may have been an explosion outside a polling place.

There was a thud but not as strong as the thuds yesterday.

Campbell Brown not on flames

This morning on NBC's Weekend Today show, Campbell Brown was standing in a blue flak jacket surrounded by Iraqi children saying how she was surprised that Baghdad was not in flames everywhere.

Now in the evening we have Brian Williams reporting from Baghdad doubting that he and an American General could really have visited an open air market. Richard Engel is reporting from Iraq how truly dangerous it is.

It almost seems as though they are trying to dispel any notions Americans may have gotten from Campbell Brown's earlier report that not every street in Baghdad is burning.

Queer Eyes for Bill Cosby

Now I was channel flipping last night as my wife was dozing off and I caught some of the new show on Bravo "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl." This show is a spin-off of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," but instead of remaking a straight slobbish guy this crew of several homosexual guys and one homosexual gal remake a straight slobbish woman.

Both shows are out to change how we think about the old saying, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck than it must be a duck," into "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck in very expensive clothing bought in the Village or on Rodeo Drive."

But at one point in the show, the homosexual woman is helping the slobbish lady apply facial products. This is taking a long time, and one homosexual man playfully falls in mock exahustion onto another homosexual man screaming something like, "What is that Lesbo doing in there? Discussing vaginas? Is it the Vagina Monologues?"

Now this prompted me to wonder this morning why terms that are derogatory for a minority group are only derogatory when said by somebody not a part of that minority group. It seems that there's some kind of pass given to people picking on their own kind.

This may explain my fondness for Polish jokes since my grandmother's maiden name was Wisniewski.

But, seriously, now when Bill Cosby recently criticized some black people for not putting enough emphasis on education, there was a tremendous backlash. Why doesn't Bill get a free pass to criticize his own kind?

Now Bill is in trouble with the NAACP and the Chris Carter X-files fan in me wants to believe there's a conspiracy afoot here. Because suddenly Bill starts pissing off some very connected people and all of the sudden an allegation comes out against him. It seems all very, very Paula Jones-ish?

Destabilizing Iran

If anyone has any doubt that a destabilizing Iran is a good thing, as Don speculates in his recent post check out this essay:

Given Iran’s incessant foreign policy saber-rattling—including its continued development of nuclear weapons, support for Islamist terrorist groups, and facilitation of the terrorism in Iraq—it’s easy to lose sight of the horrifying domestic situation within the Islamic Republic. The mullahs have not only destroyed the lives of countless foreigners through their worldwide export of Islamic terror and extremism; they’ve also plunged the Iranian people into a violent, hellish abyss of torture, repression, hopelessness, drug addiction and despair.

Conservative estimates by Iranian opposition movements and various human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, put the number of women stoned to death in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in the neighborhood of fifty. One can only imagine the cases that have gone undetected -- as many Islamic "punishments" are carried out in small and remote villages.

Clearly, the status quo ain't too good. If we can encourage them to bring those barbarians to their knees on their own, so much the better. Interestingly, the author goes on to point out that at the behest of the mad mullahs, Iran's population has doubled since the overthrow of the Shah. All those new Iranians, intended to better spread Shi'ite fundamentalism, are turning against the theocrats and towards the west. To whatever extent we can reach out to them, we should.

UPDATE: Apparently, the Iranians were inspired by Bush's inauguration speech:

Millions of Iranians, glued to their TV sets to watch President Bush's inaugural address, warmly embraced his declaration to help spread liberty to nations ruled by tyranny, according to a leading pro-democracy movement.

[...]

Iranian opposition groups looking to the world's superpower for moral support and financial aid "are now becoming sure that Mr. Bush's agenda is indeed to help them to gain freedom, secularity and democracy," the students' statement said.

"They do believe correctly that such way will avoid an unnecessary U.S. invasion or military strike against Iranian facilities which will help the Mullahcracy to consolidate its illegitimate and unpopular power, while causing heavy financial damages and human causalities."

If President Bush manages to inspire these people to create a secular democracy, he will have democratized three of the most repressive regimes in the world today. That can only be a good thing.

Seymour Hersch

My wife and I typically watch the NBC news followed by the 7:00PM rerun of the Daily Show from the previous night.

Although Jon Stewart mainly skewers Bush and the Bushies, he also does spread the insults around a bit. Tonight he had Seymour Hersch on, and they were talking about Seymour's recent article in the New Yorker, "The Coming Wars."

It seems the Bushies have plans to go after Iran. Now, at first, Seymour sounds like we are going to invade Iran, but further questioning suggests that we may be just trying to destabilize the current Islamic regime. Both Jon Stewart and Seymour Hersch are very upset that we might try to do this.

Now since this regime has seemingly backed away from reform, and is known to be working on enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb, I'm desperately trying to understand how this is a bad thing.

In addition, an Iranian leader is quoted as saying something along the lines of America will experience a "rain of fire and death" if we try anything.

Well, dem are fightin' words.

Now in Iraq, whether or not we had reasonable cause to go in is debatable. In my opinion. I believe once Sadaam was captured and once the WMD search was over (which was months before the search was declared over), we should have gotten out.

I do not believe that we have a moral obligation to rebuild any country we destroy prior to a negotiated Marshall type plan with the destroyed party. And we definitely should not be using soldiers to rebuild, the Marine Corps are not the Peace Corps.

Definition:
Marine Corps - Highly skilled American fighting force.

Definition:
Peace Corps - Idealistic people dressed in hemp trying to help people learn to farm b/c those people haven't been farming correctly in their own country for over 200 years. (OK, that was harsh, the peace corps does do some good stuff especially good weed.)

Let us recall, the 1970's, when I was a wee lad, we had a certain peace loving President named Jimmy Carter. He chose to do little or nothing to rescue American Hostages in Iran, unless you count rubber bullets and broken copters as something.

As a current co-worker of mine has said many times in the past few months, if Jimmy Carter had been a decent Commander in Chief, would we be having the problems we have now?

Progressive Reactionaries Part Deux

Last month in this post I pointed to a Rich Lowry article describing how so-called "progressives" are actually reactionary. Now Pete DuPont has chimed in on Social Security reform and why the Dems are opposed:

Of course the liberal left hates the idea. Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect says that "Social Security is not facing a financial crisis at all"; it just needs "to increase its revenue and diminish its benefits." So higher taxes and lower benefits are superior to personal ownership of retirement assets? And a government promise to pay you with money it doesn't have is better than allowing you to have assets under your own control? Neither makes any sense.

More likely their worry is political, that as columnist Robert Novak says: "The Democratic establishment is appalled at the thought of private Social Security accounts turning ordinary Americans into owners of stocks and bonds and, therefore, potential Republicans."

A Snowy Tribute

Calvin and Hobbes fans should check this out. Some truly inspiring snowmen. Hat Tip to Cassandra

She-Males

Not the cross-dressing kind. The political kind. My wife calls female politicians that attack like men, but faint in a vapor when similarly challenged, "she-male politicians." And she finds them utterly contemptible

A ready example of this phenomenon came in the 2000 New York senate race between alpha she-male Hillary Clinton and Little Ricky Lazio. In their first debate, Hillary attacked Lazio relentlessly:

Well, in fact he was a deputy whip to Newt Gingrich. He voted to shut the government down. He voted to cut $270 billion from Medicare. He voted for the biggest education cuts in our history

Lazio, looking like a high school debate captain, walked over to Hillary's podium in his khakis and suede bucks to ask Queenie to sign a no soft-money pledge.

Well. You'd have thought Lazio had marched across the stage in chain mail carrying a mace, or wearing leather chaps and nothing else. "He invaded her personal space!" "He physically intimidated poor sweet Hillary!" Here's what Slate said at the time (emphasis mine):

Hillary's popularity with women voters soared for the first time in this election when, in their first televised debate, Rick Lazio rushed her lectern, brandishing a proposed soft-money agreement, and gave her no choice but to look terrified. That one act may have tipped the scales in this election.

Pundit Joseph Mercurio said this:

It was a well-executed debate tactic. But it also was a risky gambit against a female candidate -- he invaded her space. As sexist as it sounds, no one would have questioned the move against a male candidate.

Now we have Barbara Boxer challenging Hillary for the alpha slot. She interrogates Condi Rice calling her a liar:

"I personally believe - this is my personal view - that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth," Mrs. Boxer told Miss Rice, who has been President Bush's national security adviser since 2001.
Miss Rice responded that she "never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything. It is not my nature. It is not my character."
"And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity," Miss Rice said.

Now Boxer comes back with this little gem:

Sen. Barbara Boxer says she is the real victim of last week's confirmation hearing for Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, yet continued yesterday to question the national security adviser's honesty.
"She turned and attacked me," the California Democrat told CNN's "Late Edition" in describing the confrontation during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Oh, please. Take your sensitive, weepy, vote-challenging self back to California.

P.S. - Blogger's spell check routine wants to replace "Hillary" with "Hilarious." Now that's artificial intelligence!

Democrats and Image

I guess the Democrats just do not care about image.

Perhaps they really feel principle trumps image, even if your principles have been shown in both, the 2002 midterm elections and 2004 Presidential election, to be out of step with the majority of the "States" in this United States of America.

Notice, I did not say majority of the population because the USA is a Republic of United States founded upon the principles of Democracy, and not a simple Democracy. Each State is represented in the Senate by two Senators. So power is divided among states not population.

Today, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia (D), a reported former Klansman and infamous for his "white niggers" remark in 2001, is planning to lecture us for four hours today about why a black woman should not be appointed Secretary of State. Of course, his reasons have nothing to do with the color of her skin, but when there is a racial undertone to an issue in this country, it is rare that substance triumphs image.

Democrats wake up if you want to have a single seat in the House or Senate after the 2006 midterm elections.

Or better yet, don't bother waking up and perhaps we can truly have a new political party which stands for something and has more John Kennedy than Teddy Kennedy in it. Because at least John Kennedy understood "Image matters."

Update From Kurt: Ace of Spades puts it this way:
Dem. Strategists Slate 88 Year-Old Kleagle to Harangue Well-Loved Black Lady From Birmingham

It seems from this post (and those that follow) that my cousin spent his wintry Sunday relaxing at home and taking pictures of dogs, cars, and rulers with his cell phone (apparently he only wanted to take one hand out of his Goretex lined pocket).

Don's wife, meanwhile, dubbed the "Snowflake Princess" by her devoted hubby, and who recently gave birth to a future linebacker, did the shoveling. Way to go there, Chivalry Prince.

Then Don had the audacity to declare those of us devoted enough to walk eight miles at night on ice solely to protect our woman from the dangers of treacherous, slick roads "worthless and weak." Oh, the humanity!

T-Shirt Slogan of the Month

It's Only Funny Until Someone Gets Hurt . . .

Then It's Freaking Hilarious!

Somehow I knew I would find a healthy taunting about our little snowstorm from my cousin. I am glad Don keeps a couple SUVs, as they clearly need 'em. We have a couple Jeeps here in Virginia as well. And this is why we have them.

Depth Really Matters....

The Jeep

All shoveling courtesy of my wife, the Snowflake Princess...
And why we need SUV's sorry global warming buffs...

DogGone Cold Bum

Iskra our Amstaff/Beagle/Lab? mix
Iskra means "spark" in Russian

SNOW 

More Snow...
That's 24" on the back deck for the curious and it's still snowing....

DEPTH MATTERS

Snow

As for that 1 inch down south.....

"You're all worthless and weak!"

This is a REAL Snowstorm.

Anybody wanna guess how many inches are on the middle of my back deck? Use the comments section.

By the way, that's an outdoor patio table with umbrella that's mostly buried.

(Picture taken with a TREO 600 camera phone)

Bush steals from Gibson

I was looking all over the inauguration stage waiting to see Mel Gibson come out dressed in furs and a kilt with blue face paint screaming "Freedom!!!!!"

Oh well, no doubt most of Europe wants to eviscerate Bush after that speech....

Maureen Dowd's a physicist????

In the NY Times yesterday was an article by Maureen Dowd (registration required). In the article she uses one Clinton Cabinet member's stupid comments, Lawrence Summers, to disparage Condoleeza Rice. She suggests that Condi may be suffering from a lack of ability to do mathematics and physics just like Larry suggested in his asinine speech. If Larry was a Bush Cabinet member Gloria Steinem and Patty Ireland would have hung him by his testicles by now.

However Larry gets the Marc Rich Clinton Pardon, after all, all liberals deserve a second chance just ask Marion Barry.

Maureen says:

Was Condi out doing figure eights at the ice skating rink when she should
have been home learning her figures? She couldn't have spent much time studying
classic word problems: If two trains leave Chicago at noon, one going south at
20 miles an hour and one going north at 30 miles an hour, how far will each have
gotten by midnight?

No, Maureen. In fact, I believe one day Condi was sitting at home having her parents tell her that she wouldn't be seeing one of her 11 year old friends anymore because some small minded white guys blew up a Church in Birmingham. I'm quite sure she knows her figures.

Our new top diplomat has obviously not mastered fractions. When she
asserted during her confirmation hearing that 120,000 Iraqi troops had been
trained, Senator Joe Biden corrected her, saying she was off by a bit. His
calculation of trained Iraqi troops was actually 4,000 - hers was 30 times that.
Maybe she's confusing hyperbole and hypotenuse.

No, Maureen. Joe Biden was quoting figures given to him by troops on the ground so you're talking maybe a Lt. Colonel most likely an NCO. I mean who are these mysterious "men on the ground" you're quoting Joe. You are starting to sound a bit like Fox Mulder in the X-files, Senator Biden. Condeleeza's number come from reports that are given to her by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Generals in Iraq. So basically, Mr. Biden you have all of the sudden become a General in our military and know more than the Generals running the war over there.

Ms. Rice and her fellow imperialists know so little about physics that they
arrogantly jumped into "spooky action at a distance," turning the country they
had hoped to make into a model democracy into a training ground for
international terrorists, a nucleus for a new generation of radioactively
dangerous fanatics.

How could they forget Newton's third law: for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction?

The administration needs a lesson in subtraction. How do we subtract our troops and replace them with Iraqi troops while the terrorists keep subtracting Iraqi troops with car bombs and
rocket-propelled grenades?

Condi may not know Einstein's theory of relativity, but she has a fine grasp of Cheney's theory of moral relativity.

Because they're the good guys, they can do anything: dissembling to get into
war; flattening Iraqi cities to save them; replacing the Geneva Conventions with
unconventional ways of making prisoners talk. The only equation the Bushies know
is this one: Might = Right.

Actually Maureen, "spooky action at a distance" has nothing to do with radioactivity. It is the ability to take the quantum numbers of one object and duplicate them in another location using a process which destroys the original object. Many people call this "teleportation," but I'll leave this for the theologians to figure out. Personally, I like my "man parts" where they are so I'm not letting anyone teleport me.

Congratulations for getting Newton's third law correct!!!

But you forgot Newton's first law:

I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

Maureen, this is why your brains are continuing to leak out of your formerly intelligent mind, which has been clouded by such hatred for Bush that you are actually bashing the first black woman nominated to secretary of State.

Einstein's standard theory of relativity depends on the position of the observer. Let's see Condi is observing from the White House Situation room. You are observing from some "beautiful people" club in midtown Manhattan while drinking vodka tonics.

The general theory of relativity has to do with the curvature of space time do to the presence of massive objects. So space-time is more curved around Hillary's butt than yours. (Since, writing this blog I have noticed I have an unhealthy infatuation with Mrs. Clinton's behind.)

Might equals right may not always be true but Energy does equal mass times the speed of light squared. Now this equation does have to do with nuclear bombs. And Maureen just remember we still have the big bombs.

Icy Gridlock

No, not in the US Senate. The greater Norfolk region received about half an inch of snow yesterday afternoon. No big deal, right? Wrong!

Although Wednesday’s forecast flurries lasted only about two hours, ending by dusk, the timing could not have been worse.

Snow quickly melted under the warm tires of passing cars, only to swiftly turn to ice, owing to the already frozen roadways and temperatures well below freezing.

[...]

Downtown Norfolk was near gridlock by 4:30 p.m. and stayed that way for more than three hours, with traffic stalled on St. Paul’s Boulevard, Brambleton Avenue, Hampton Boulevard, Colley Avenue and Olney Road, among others.

My office is in downtown Norfolk, and when I left at 5:30, it was pretty clear that:

My wife wasn't going to make it downtown to pick me up

The bus wasn't going to get out of downtown to take me home.

So I started walking. With cars sliding all over the road (when they were moving at all), I walked on. Through the snow. Determined. Must. Get. Home. For. Gin. &. Tonic.

Two hours and 8 miles later, I trudged up the front steps. The bus from downtown had still not arrived at the stop near my house. In fact, it was nowhere in sight.

More flurries are predicted for tonight and this weekend. Last week temps were in the 70s most days (that's the 20s to the pocket protector crowd).

Demure Thinking About the Inauguration

Over at the temple of Jennifer is a hilarious round up of what a John Kerry inauguration would have looked like. My favorite is her list of balls:

The We’re Queer and We’re Here Ball hosted by Margaret Cho and Whoopi Goldberg. Live entertainment guaranteed to make you feel like you need to take a shower after you listen.

The Life Begins When We Say So Ball hosted by Planned Parenthood and NARAL where the guests will each receive a free “I had an Abortion” t-shirt and a 25% discount coupon on their next three terminations (fully transferable to friends if not used.)

The No Peasants Allowed Ball hosted by Teresa Heinz Kerry at a place far too exclusive to even print on the invitations. Rumored to be in attendance, Jacques Chirac, Suha Arafat, and that guy who dresses like Peter Pan from Florida.

It's worth following the link to find Jennifer's "most sought after ticket of the week."

Gun Control, Virginia Style

Here's an interesting story from Richmond:

In the past, rules about firearms in the Capitol and adjoining legislative office building were virtually non-existent. People with concealed weapons were required to show their permits, but those who openly carried pistols walked past Capitol Police officers, no questions asked.
This year, new rules ban any public display of firearms, effectively barring anyone who has not been approved for a concealed weapon permit. The restrictions have angered gun-rights groups and even some lawmakers, who are trying to rescind the regulations.

Let me state at the outset that I am a gun guy. I like guns. I own guns. But there is something surreal about the thought of unholstering my weapon, walking through a metal detector, and having it handed back to me. "See that feller yonder with the .45 ACP? I had to take a knife off him before we could let him in." Governments are strange beasts.

Blogroll Update

Two blogs have been added to the sidebar, and long overdue additions they are. Asymmetrical Information, from which Megan McArdle blogs as "Jane Galt" with the anonymous "Mindles H. Dreck."

Over 6,500 readers visit each day to read our mix of finance, economics, and public policy blogging

Also added was Ann Althouse, whose eponymous blog is described thusly:

Politics and the aversion to politics, law and law school, high and low culture, and the way things look from Madison, Wisconsin.

Happy Reading!

Color-Blind Affirmative Action

I'm watching Fox and Friends first while feeding Kurt's brand new cousin here, and I can't believe what I am seeing. Dr. Julianne Malveaux is debating some "conservative" woman about the Condaleeza Rice confirmation. Dr. Malveaux reports that Barbara Boxer is going to stand up and say something like, "Condi you're qualified but I believe your zeal and mission blinded you from hearing the truth."

So, basically, Babs "Sore loser" Boxer and Dr. Malveaux believe in affirmative action based upon the color of your skin for everyone but Condi?

Oh, yeah, I forgot Condi is actually qualified for the job, but still why doesn't that allow her to get a smooth confirmation hearing?

Why? Is it because she's conservative?

Do you think you'd see a bunch of Republican Senators beating up a black woman during a confirmation hearing for Secretary of State?

Oh yeah, wait a sec, they never nominated a black woman for secretary of State. As a matter of fact, come to think of it, has anyone checked under Madeline Albright's skirt? 'Cause God knows (and I mean this as a compliment, sort of), she's got bigger balls than I do.

Why not make affirmative action means based and end it after people graduate from college?

If you try to tell me it doesn't exist beyond college that's B.S. I've worked for big companies and within government labs and universities and trust me it may not be "official" policy, but when you are hiring you are told to give special consideration to certain individuals because we need to make our numbers look better.

Make affirmative action based upon where you went to school. If you went to a crappy school in Camden NJ or a crappy school in the "Dub T" (that's white trash for those not hip with the lingo)section of rural West Virginia you should get affirmative action. Now that would truly help the people the system failed.

"That's the Second Biggest Burger I've Ever Seen"

Via Wizbang comes this story about a 100-pound, 19-year-old New Jersey college girl who ate an 11 pound hamburger in under three hours, the first person to meet the challenge since it introduction.

(N)nobody had finished the big burger in the three-hour time limit since it was introduced on Super Bowl Sunday 1998. In addition to the meat, contestants much eat one large onion, two whole tomatoes, one half head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese, two buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, banana peppers and some pickles.

(Kate) Stelnick did it all in two hours, 54 minutes.

One can only wonder what the five hour drive home must have been like. Kevin has photo of the winsome Ms. Stelnik chowing down here.

Dispatch from the Religion of Peace

From the New York Post comes this story about an Egyptian Christian living in New Jersey. It seems this man posted some, shall we say, less than positive thoughts about Islam on an internet bulletin board. He was warned, "You'd better stop this bull---- or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you."

Well, it looks like the peaceful Muslims made good on their threat:

Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday.

[...]

A family member who viewed photos of the bloodbath said Sylvia seemed to have taken the most savage punishment.

"When we saw the pictures, you could tell that they were hurt really, really bad in the face; especially Sylvia," said Milad Garas, the high-school sophomore's great-uncle.

The heartless killer not only slit Sylvia's throat, but also sliced a huge gash in her chest and stabbed her in the wrist, where she had a tattoo of a Coptic cross.

Also found murdered were the wife, Amal Garas, and the parents' other daughter, Monica.

So, let's summarize how Muslims react to adversity:

Salmon Rushdie writes a The Satanic Verses, book about Islam, and he is threatened with death by Muslims and forced into virtual isolation.

A dutch filmmaker makes a movie about Islam, and he is murdered, shot six times by a Muslim.

A man in Jersey City makes disparaging remarks about Islam, and he and his entire family are threatened by a Muslim and later butchered.

Iraqis who want nothing more than to vote on their future are subject to an array of gruesome violence.

Until Islam finds a way to its own Reformation, it continue to be a source of violence and bloodshed.

Patriotic Immigration

Cousin Don has an interesting post concerning Pat Buchanan's speculation of a Republican implosion over illegal immigration.

Certainly, we have to do something to garner some control over who comes into the country. But I can say from personal observation that we couldn't get a masonry building constructed or a tomato picked in these parts if it wasn't for Mexican workers, be they legal or illegal. Thanks to the welfare state, we have made it just as productive for our poor people to relax as to work, so like it or not, we have an unskilled labor shortage. What to do?

Not surprisingly, Newt Gingrich has an answer:

Establish patriotic education for our children and patriotic immigration for new Americans. To achieve this, we will renew our commitment to education about American citizenship based on American history and an understanding of the Founding Fathers and the core values of American civilization. We will insist that both our children and immigrants learn the key values and key facts of American history as the foundation of their growth as citizens.

No Dual Citizens.

Make English The Primary Language.

We must make learning profitable for the young by offering direct rewards for poor children who buckle down, do their homework, and learn.

Newt has a new book out which some are speculating is a stepping stone to a 2008 Presidential run. For his part, Newt says he wishes the country would take a break from Presidential campaigns and talk about substance. He believes it is just laziness on the part of the media that is generating this hype, explaining that is much easier for reporters to discuss personal ambition than to foster a debate of ideas.

Still, a Hillary vs. Newt campaign would be something to behold.

Sugar and Spice

Ann Althouse has been writing alot about the recent study and Maureen Dowd column concerning the fact that men supposedly prefer to marry dumb women.

Well, in my humble opinion these are dumb men.

My wife has a doctorate in Immunology and she's just as intelligent or more so then I am; although, I'll argue about who's the better guitar player. (For those who don't know already I somehow got out of Cornell alive with a Post-hole Digger degree in Plasma Physics from the Electrical Engineering School.)

I also know many dual Ph.D. couples b/c by the time you're in graduate school the only people that can relate to your stunted social development are other graduate students. I often find that the men Ph.D.'s tend to be physicists or Engineers and the women tend to be biologists or organic chemists. Makes me wonder why guys like working with machines and women like working with the stuff of life....

With me my stepdad always wanted me to be an MD but I get queasy around anyone's blood but my own. As a matter of fact I've gotten dizzy at a Red Cross Blood donation in the past. My wife likes horses, and did her Ph.D. in Reproductive Immunology and worked with horses and donkeys and mules.

It's an interesting question and perhaps goes back to "sugar and spice and everything nice." Although after the birth of my son, and watching the OB/GYN and my wife discuss and examine my wife's placenta, "sugar and spice" of life ain't very pretty.

The Republican Party Civil War?!?

Surprise!!! This is not a post about Iraq or about Lincoln sexuality.....

On a recent McLaughlin "Blowhards" Group, Pat Buchanan made a prediction for 2005 and here it is borrowed from their website:

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Macro prediction, Pat.

MR. BUCHANAN: John, I believe that by the end of 2005, George
Bush will be in the low 40s. I think his administration will be afflicted with
scandals. I think their deep divisions inside the Republican Party will have
surfaced. And I think we will have ourselves a hellish situation that will
divide the country on Iraq. It's not good news, but I sense it is
coming.

So what exactly is Pat talking about.

The scandal is obvious...

LAURA BUSH IS A STEPFORD WIFE!!!

Yes, the current first lady will be asked how she feels about a People magazine cover story claiming her daughter is a Dippy Dopey Drunky Blondie. This will cause Laura's eyes to bulge so far out of their sockets that one will pop out revealing what Austin Powers has know all along, "Yeah Baby! She's a femmebot!"

But seriously folks....

I think the deep division in the GOP that Patrick "4 time presidential loser" Buchanan is talking about is one of his favorite topics: Illegal Immigration.

The Bush administration desperately desires to bring the Hispanic Vote into the Republican fold, and, so far, Karl Rove and his ilk have been tremendously successful at this. But there is a deep divide on drivers licenses for illegal immigrants or just kicking them out of the country and tightening up the borders. Bush is now talking about tightening up the borders, but still wants legitimacy for the illegals that are already here.

Now these people are breaking the law plain and simple by being here. And when they're caught they don't even get punished see for example this story from nearby New Hampshire. By the way, the new NH state motto is "Live free and we wanna die b/c 3,000 UNH students and Jon Bon Jovi caused John Kerry to win our state." The one blue state that's blue about being blue. Smurfo-licious!!!

Will this issue along with soaring budget deficits pull the Republican party apart at the seams? Enquiring minds wanna know.

Take the Nerd Test!

Grading Bush

George Lakoff's theory is interesting.

I'm going to use it to grade George W. Bush's Presidency:

Strong Defense-- B

There was a big movement to a smaller more flexible military, "the Rumsfled way." The jury is out on the effectiveness of this strategy. But give Bush's predecessor, we're giving a Harvard B here for just showing up and supporting the military.

Free Markets -- D

Steel Tarrifs nuf said

Lower Taxes -- A

Tax cuts have been enacted and the economy is out of the recession.

Smaller Government-- F

We now have an entire new government Agency (Homeland Security) which does nothing that couldn't have been done with the previous infrastructure. A good post 9-11 housecleaning and realignment of the CIA, FBI, NSA, FAA, and DOD would have been a better although politically unpopular move. In addition, the number of people on the government payroll has gone up thanks to the TSA (Ten people Standing Around).

Family Values -- A

If anything, the Bush administration has brought family values front and center with his overt display of the importance of religion. Laura and Barbara Bush's strong solid non-glory seeking first lady actions. In addition, his daughter's and niece's misadventures have let everyone know raising kids is no picnic even for the President. George and Laura, much like George and Barbara, lead by example in a way that prove that being a strong effective first lady doesn't mean you need a pseudo-cabinet post. It would have been much better if Hilary had chosen to be a strong woman during her husband's adminstration by continuing to work as an attorney.

Anybody else want to issue a report card.... Please do so in the comments section...

The Man Who Framed Himself

There is an interesting profile of Democrat linguist George Lakoff at Reason magazine online. The author discusses Lakoff's political worldview and his ideas about the differences between Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians. In the last paragraph, Lakoff is quoted from his book:

(Conservatives) have figured out their own values, principles, and directions, and have gotten them out in the public mind so effectively over the past thirty years that they can evoke them all in a ten-word philosophy: Strong Defense, Free Markets, Lower Taxes, Smaller Government, Family Values.

With the exception of "Family Values," each of these items means something concrete and identifiable. Strong Defense implies a military with all the resources it requests, Free Markets means capitalism without tariffs, price controls, or excessive government requlation of business, and Lower Taxes and Smaller Government are self evident. These are all testable goals.

Lakoff proposes that Liberals develop their own ten-word philosophy, to wit:

Stronger America, Broad Prosperity, Better Future, Effective Government, Mutual Responsibility.

Notice that none of these are actually achievable goals.

A stronger America? stronger than what? And what wields this strength? The military? The state department? The EPA?

What is "broad prosperity?" Is it equal incomes? Free food? How will we know when prosperity is broad enough? And if we want to empower the Liberals to broaden prosperity, why not empower the Communists to broaden it even further?

As for a better future, how will anyone ever know in the future if the present is "better" than it would have been if the Conservative path had been followed? The idea of a "better future" is entirely undefinable and untestable. As for the lifestyle we lead in the present and how we achieved, I would sooner trust the people that gave us much of what we enjoy today - our fellow citizens and capitalists, not politicians.

An effective government is and oxymoron along the lines of jumbo shrimp. Want proof? Read the U.S. Tax Code or the ADA Accessibility Guidelines someday.

Finally, we have mutual responsibility. Responsibility for what, we don't know. I can only say that being responsible for myself is challenging enough, without the burden of carrying some societal shared responsibility.

As the author concludes, the Liberal agenda "sure sounds like mush to me."

The Borowitz Report

This from satirist Andy Borowitz:

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean today announced his candidacy for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, proclaiming, “It is time for the Democrats to pass the torch to a new generation of losers.”

Mr. Dean made his announcement in Burlington, Vermont to a crowd of supporters and well-wishers, many of whom were instrumental in helping him lose in 2004.

“As Democrats, we cannot afford to continue with our old ways of losing,” he said. “We must find new ways of losing.”

Promising “a fresh approach to defeat,” Mr. Dean told his audience, “In the past, we have lost by being boring and uncharismatic, but I believe we must lose by being crazy and wild-eyed.”

A Word of Thanks

Kudos to my cousin for keeping the old blog moving forward over the weekend. Before Don came along, this place pretty much went blank between 5 PM Friday and 8 AM Monday.

Smirk of the Day

Today's adolescent giggle comes from this New York Times article concerning a small Massachusetts town's attempt to solve a three year old murder.

It seems a woman was stabbed to death, and police found traces of semen on the body. Naturally, the police would like to speak to the original owner of said semen, and have proposed collecting DNA samples from each of the town's 790 men.

"The person we're looking for is the one who deposited the DNA" by having sex with Ms. Worthington before she died, Sergeant Perry said. "We're not saying that this is the killer. What we're saying is we need to talk to this person, who may be just the last person to see her alive."

Naturally, not all the Truroians are happy with this but I am still cleaning coffee spray off my monitor after reading this:

"I think it's outrageous," said Dick Seed, 44, a Truro sign painter who called the American Civil Liberties Union to complain.

MANNING OR BRADY

Now I'm somewhat biased here due to my residence in Massachusetts. But I remember when Bray first started playing for the Patriots, I told my roommates at that time that I thought he reminded me of Joe Montana. He had a certain something whether it be luck, talent, good karma or whatever that gave him the ability to pull games out his butt.

If you ever see him in practice, he rallies his teammates like every drive is critical. He high fives and gets in players faces and gets them psyched up. His teammates would walk into hell for him.

Manning has yet to win the big one. And in this he reminds me of John Elway. When times get tough he falls apart and his teammates do not go that extra yard for him. Now Elway became a better quaterback when he got a new coach and learned to defer some of the game winning plays to his teammates. Much like Michael Jordan's return to the Bulls, Elway began to make the players around him better. Is this the year for Manning to do this?

I hope so, because it will produce a great rivalry much like the Dallas vs. Pittsburgh years of my childhood with Roger Staubach and Terry Bradshaw.

Of course, having grown up outside Philly, I'm a diehard Eagles fan. But I'm afraid I'm doomed to see my Iggles lose a fourth straight NFC Championship.

Looking forward to an exciting NFL playoffs.....

More Alberto

There is a very good defense of Alberto Gonzales posted at Powerline. Powerline also looks into the media's slanted reporting on the vetting testimony.

Thanks to the all-encompassing Instapundit for the Powerline heads-up. Althoough, I'm sure most people who read this silly blog are aware of Powerline and Instapundit. If not check them out regularly, they are the real deal in the blog world.

Scott Peterson

....scumbag

Amber Frye- gullible

nuff said...

My Sole Post Re: Scott Peterson. Promise

Last night I watched Sean Hannity interview author (!) Amber Frey, and let me just say this about that: they've got half a brain between the two of them. Of course the fact that I sat and watched these two clowns doesn't say much about my intellectual firepower either. I won't make that mistake tonight with part two.

Still, you've got to give ol' Amber props for having the guts to take down the sociopathic bastard.

What are the Dems thinking?

The past two days have made the Democratic party look even more pathetic since the November elections. First, Harry Reid, the new Senate minority leader of the United "Smurfy Blue" States, gives his first speech where he tries to sound homespun and all Lake Woebegoneish, but instead Harry comes across as the second coming of the automaton Al Gore sans Naomi Wolfe makeover.

Next a small portion of the Democratic Senate and House led by Barbara Boxer (What was this normally intelligent woman thinking?) stages a protest of the Electoral College results. This is accompanied by a lengthy editorial in the Boston Globe by Cameron Kerry, Johnny "Big Hair Herman Munster" Kerry's brother. In the editorial, Cameron laments how America's elections aren't fair. Meanwhile, on a distant desert planet called Iraq, our fearless Imperial Senator John Kerry pretends that he's not behind any of this.

Then yesterday brought forth Karl Rove's wet dream. It's rumored that Karl never came out from behind his desk yesterday due to the need to hide his extreme excitement.

Yes, the Democrats actually had a bunch of white senators led by Ted "I can't drive over bridges" Kennedy castigate the first Hispanic to be appointed for Attorney General of the United States. And this time they weren't upset with a minority male over a pubic hair on a coke can.

Nope, they were upset because Alberto Gonzales did his job as counsel to the President of the United States. The president asked Mr. Gonzales to look into the legal rights of terrorist detainees. Mr. Gonzales did this and wrote down what the law said and his interpretation of it. Now if the liberals want to pick on "interpretation" they need only to take a look at many of their over zealous judges to see that all laws are interpreted. He did not authorize torture, he gave legal advice on whether or not the protections of the Geneva convention applied to Al Quaeda and the Taliban. Here's a strong argument that his reasoning was faulty.

But whether it was faulty reasoning or not, politically it's a disaster for Democrats because the Hispanic vote is already moving towards the Republican side due to abortion and other Catholic faith issues. And now, the Democrats are bashing on live TV the first Hispanic being appointed Attorney General, even though it is commonly believed it will be impossible to stop the appointment. So the question is why are they doing it?

Are their convictions so strong that they are willing to scuttle the proverbial ship for the sake of their values. This is perhaps noble, but in the end, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, Geroge W. Bush, and my cousin Kurt are surely loving every minute of their suicidal behavior.

Conservatives are not Fascists

While Cousin Don does a pretty thorough job of dismantling John Ray for failing to address Lew Rockwell's essay in its entirety (and by extension me for failing to check Ray), I would like to challenge one of Rockwell's assertions: that fascism is a form of right-wing extremism. This fallacy is regularly trotted out to discredit those on the right, and it needs to be put in its place.

To be sure, fascist dictators like Hitler and Mussolini were fiercely nationalistic, but that doesn't make patriotic Americans fascists. Many on the left tend to equate (or even define) fascism as nothing more than an arrogant (and militaristic) love of country and hence associate it with any American who professes to love this country more than they. As for so-called "government intrusion," the left's faux-concern about spying librarians is laughable, concerning the type of power they cheerfully delegate to the Department of Social Services.

Nevermind also that most on the right advocate free-marker capitalism (or at least pay it lip service), which is the antithesis of fascism. While Rockwell appears to have joined in the misconception of fascism as a right-wing ideology, consider this from an essay by philosopher Edward Feser:

The tendency of Nation-magazine style Leftists reliably to lapse into the fascist/right-winger comparison is in part a holdover from this hoary Communist tactic, a nervous tic that an old fellow-traveler can find it hard to lose even fifteen years after the collapse of the Evil Empire. What the comparison conveniently forgets is the alliance that existed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union before Hitler decided to betray Stalin, the Leftist dictator whose example had taught him so much about concentration camps and secret police. It forgets too the actual history of the development of fascist and National Socialist ideology, which had everything to do with developments in the socialist tradition in political thought, and absolutely nothing to do with the intellectual currents that gave rise to contemporary conservatism. But then, from Lenin and Stalin onward, the Left has been very good at airbrushing over any evidence of its true history, intellectual and otherwise.

It is a scandal that one has constantly to remind people of a fact that should be common knowledge: that Mussolini was for years a prominent socialist intellectual and publicist, as much a man of the Left as Noam Chomsky. His conversion to fascism was not a renunciation of this legacy, but a modification of it: he came to see solidarity with one's Nation rather than with one's Class as the key to breaking the hold of "liberal capitalism" over the modern world.
[...]

Contemporary Anglo-American conservatism, by contrast, has roots in three intellectual sources that have no connection to socialism, and indeed have always been hostile to it: the traditionalist "Throne and Altar" continental European conservatism of thinkers like Joseph de Maistre; the British classical liberalism or libertarianism of John Locke and Adam Smith; and the moderate British conservatism of Edmund Burke which represents something of a middle ground between the first two trends of thought. Hitler, Mussolini, and other fascists and Nazis had nothing but contempt for these intellectual traditions; and the difference between the characteristic themes of contemporary conservatism -- the free market, limited government, traditional religious belief -- are so obviously and radically different from, and opposed to, the tenets of fascism and National Socialism that it is difficult to understand how any intellectually honest person could see any similarity whatsoever.

So, when I see Rockwell claiming to be rejecting "socialism of the left and the fascism of the right," it starts my blood boiling. He could probably argue effectively that many conservatives have abandoned the core traditions outlined above, but he instead takes the intellectual shortcut of simply calling them Nazis, thereby burdening them with all the weight history has attached to that word without ever attempting to demonstrate its appropriateness.

From the same essay comes this short biography:

He had been something of a bohemian in his youth, and always regarded young people and their idealism as the key to progress and the overcoming of outmoded prejudices. And he was widely admired by the young people of his country, many of whom belonged to organizations devoted to practicing and propagating his teachings. He had a lifelong passion for music, art, and architecture, and was even something of a painter. He rejected what he regarded as petty bourgeois moral hang-ups, and he and his girlfriend "lived together" for years. He counted a number of homosexuals as friends and collaborators, and took the view that a man's personal morals were none of his business; some scholars of his life believe that he himself may have been homosexual or bisexual. He was ahead of his time where a number of contemporary progressive causes are concerned: he disliked smoking, regarding it as a serious danger to public health, and took steps to combat it; he was a vegetarian and animal lover; he enacted tough gun control laws; and he advocated euthanasia for the incurably ill.
He championed the rights of workers, regarded capitalist society as brutal and unjust, and sought a third way between communism and the free market.

One could easily attribute large portions of that profile of Adolph Hitler to a host of leftist politicians, but to few on the right. So when I hear a lefty accuse those on the right of being "fascists" or "Nazis," the first thing that occurs to me is "projection.".

Finally, as for Don's rhetorical tolerance of Margaret Cho, that one crosses the line. (and might I add that when I started this blog I never thought things would get this deep!)

Are you down with OPW?

My cousin’s post quotes John Ray as saying Lew Rockwell suggests that the libertarians cozy up to the liberals. Shame on my cousin for not checking John Ray’s sources, but I’ll only pick on Kurt a little.

Now in Lew Rockwell’s own words, this is what he says:

“What this implies for libertarians is a crying need to draw a
clear separation between what we believe and what conservatives believe. It also
requires that we face the reality of the current threat forthrightly by
extending more rhetorical tolerance leftward and less rightward.” – Lew H.
Rockwell, Jr. 12-31-04

Now I don’t think rhetorical tolerance and cozy up to are the same thing at least not in the American version of the English or should I say Spanglish language nowadays. Let me demonstrate in the form of a sentence.

“ I have Rhetorical tolerance for Ellen Degerneres, Rosanne Barr, and Margaret
Cho but I would much prefer to cozy up to Eliza Dushku, Lucy Liu, or even
Ellen’s current honey Portia Di Rossi.” – Cousin Don 1-5-05

Get it? I hope so because, for my dedication to this blog and the sake of that example, I will be sharing the dog crate with my mutt for the next week. No come to think of it, I will probably have the dog crate to myself while the cat, dog, and baby fight over my half of the queen size mattress.

I also think John John Ray (Do you mind if I call you John John?), anyway John John while being exceptionally loquacious and erudite sounding on his blog (by the way, I needed spell check to help me with those multi-syllable words) appear to have little patience for “Other-People’s-Writings” before leaping to impossibly silly conclusions.

“Are you down with OPW? Yeah, you know me!” Now just what the hell am I talking about. HMMMMM…..

Oh, yeah! John John and his inability to read to the end of an article. For if he had read the Lew H. Rockwell, Jr. article in its entirety, he surely would have read the quote at the end from Murray N. Rothbard, which says:

The doctrine of liberty contains elements corresponding with both contemporary
left and right. This means in no sense that we are middle-of-the-roaders,
eclectically trying to combine, or step between, both poles; but rather that a
consistent view of liberty includes concepts that have also become part of the
rhetoric or program of right and of left. Hence a creative approach to liberty
must transcend the confines of contemporary political
shibboleths.

There has never in my lifetime been a more urgent need
for the party of liberty to completely secede from conventional thought and
established institutions, especially those associated with all aspects of
government, and undertake radical intellectual action on behalf of a third way
that rejects the socialism of the left and the fascism of the right.

Indeed, the current times can be seen as a training period for all
true friends of liberty. We need to learn to recognize the many different guises
in which tyranny appears. Power is protean because it must suppress that impulse
toward liberty that exists in the hearts of all people. The impulse is there,
tacitly waiting for the consciousness to dawn. When it does, power doesn’t stand
a chance.

I must admit I have no idea what shibboleths are, but it surely doesn’t sound to me like Murry and Lew are suggesting Libertarians start kissing the rather ample derriere of one Mrs. (Or is it actually Ms., nowadays? I guess probably depends if you’re wearing a stained dark blue Gap skirt or not.) Hillary Rodham-Clinton. BTW free unused cigar with “It’s a boy” on the wrapper to any ex-frat brother of mine, who can tell me what the hell a shibboleth is?

Why I Prowl the Blogosphere

It's for gems like this:

Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro colleagues tossed this little (nugget) out to no one in particular:

"See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..."

After which he and many of my Euro colleagues laughed out loud.

and then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster.

I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose -

"Hmmm, let's see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want?

Something with its own inexhuastible power supply?

Something that can produce 900,000 gallons of fresh water a day from sea water?

Something with its own airfield? So that after producing the fresh water, it could help distribute it?

Something with 4 hospitals and lots of open space for emergency supplies?

Something with a global communications facility to make the coordination of disaster relief in the region easier?

Well "Franz", us peasants in America call that kind of ship an "Aircraft Carrier". We have 12 of them. How many do you have? Oh that's right, NONE. Lucky for you and the rest of the world, we are the kind of people who share. Even with people we dont like. In fact, if memory serves,once upon a time we peasants spent a ton of money and lives rescuing people who we had once tried to kill and who tried to kill us.

Do you know who those people were? that's right Franz, Europeans.

Theres is a French Aircraft carrier? where is it? Right where it belongs! In France of course! Oh why should the French Navy dirty their uniforms helping people on the other side of the globe. How Simplesse...

Mark Steyn, who has been on hiatus, was stirred by the tsunami to write this column, which concludes:

So American personnel in American planes and American ships will deliver American food and American medicine and implement an American relief plan, but it's still a "UN-led effort". That seems to be enough for Kofi. His "moral authority" is intact, and Guardian columnists and Telegraph readers can still bash the Yanks for their stinginess. Everybody's happy.

Read the whole thing.

Via Cold Fury

On Libertarians and Government

John Ray has an interesting post discussing Lew Rockwell's call for libertarians to align themselves with the left:

So what is a libertarian to do? It depends on your priorities. Libertarians have always opposed conservatives on issues of sexual morality and Leftists on issues of economic regulation so libertarians have always had to make a choice if they wish to do more than spend all their time talking to one-another. As I see it, however, the battle against restrictive sexual morality has been won long ago. Many good Christian people still advocate it but the percentage of the population who still practice (say) pre-marital chastity would have to be tiny. And among young Republicans in particular sexual freedom is simply modern -- not something particularly Rightist or Leftist. So issues of sexual morality ought not to decide anybody's allegiances these days.

Which leaves issues of economic management and foreign policy. Hard-line libertarians like Rockwell are furiously anti-war on ideological grounds -- because they believe that only governments can make war and they are against governments. What individuals by themselves could do about it if the Islamic nutjobs were to get hold of a few nukes and detonate them in America's big cities they do not say. GWB's strategy may not be perfect but knocking over a couple of Islamic regimes that were pillars of support for Islamic terrorism certainly seems better to me than sitting at home and hoping for the best. The Left are advocating that but Leftist interest in reality has always been small. For them too ideology is all that matters. So it seems to me that any libertarians living in the real world would be doing what they can to help the GOP -- and one way of doing that effectively would be to get inside the GOP and nudge it more and more in the direction of the free-market thinking that has long been its greatest strength.

Compassionate Liberals Ignore Suffering

I've been reluctant to post anything on the tsunami catastrophe in southeast Asia. How does one get his arms around a tragedy of this scale? The human loss is beyond comprehension. Now, having finally made as large a contribution as I can for now, I would like to call out a few people.

Where is multi-billionaire George Soros, who famously dedicated his fortune to defeating George Bush? While Bush sends carrier battle groups and $350 million in aid, Soros is AWOL.

Where are Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and Barbra Streisand? These people were all over the media during "the most important election of out lifetime." Why do they have nothing to contribute during the most devastating natural tragedy in human freaking history??

Will Democrats like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry vote for a supplemental spending measure to send the Marines to Thailand and Sri Lanka, while they voted against funding the Marines in Iraq? If so, do they consider the military to be a fighting force or some sort of armed social service organization?

Update: Apparently, this tragedy, while horrific, is not the worst history. Not even close. From this site comes a list of natural disasters surpassing the tsunami, including a typhoon in Calcutta that killed 300,000, and an earthquake in China that some say killed 830,000.

North versus South

The January New Jersey Monthly Magazine is dedicated to the differences between North Jersey and South Jersey. Of note to me is an article outlining the "culture shock" of Northerners in the South and vice-versa.

We're talking heavy stuff, here. It seems, according to an article titled "The Transplant Diaries," in North Jersey, they have subs, in South Jersey, hoagies. Italian ice versus water ice; sprinkles on your ice cream, not jimmies. Finally, NJ Monthly delivers this stunner: The Newark Star Ledger is unavailable at the Wawa store in the south. Horrors!

These people have no clue what a real "transplant" is. Try Northern NJ to Clemson, SC. If a different name for the same product constitutes material for a full page of copy, what would they do with stuff like this:

Plug chewing tobacco in the urinal at 8 AM

Chicken-fried steak

Pimiento cheese sandwiches

Barbecue. Not as a cooking methodology, but as in pork pulled off the carcas and mixed with a vinegar sauce.

Biscuits and brown gravy.

Fried steak biscuits. For breakfast.

Civilians with loaded revolvers on their hip. At the grocery store. Buying tampons.

The replacement of the word "everybody" with "all y'all"

Country, folk, and bluegrass are actually considered three different music styles.

Big time college football. Not Harvard-Yale or Princeton-Penn. We're talking crowds bigger than most pro football games see.

Kudzu. Unless you've seen that stuff grow, don't ask, and don't leave your windows open at night.

Watermelons as they relate to Everclear. Don't ask, cause I don't remember.

If people from Hackensack think that they have nothing in common with people from Tom's River, they really need to travel a little.

Lamenting Nostalgia for the old bowl game day

Some of my fondest childhood memories are my step-father and I sitting in the family room with three TV's on trying to watch all the bowl games on Jan 1. We had no remote controls or Picture in Picture back then. These days the games have become an even bigger business then they were in the 1980's, and are now spread out over several days.

I miss the sheer gluttony of the old New Year's day where football was truly served up in excess. I also miss the ability to see a player develop over time. Most players are gone by the time they finish their sophomore season. This causes me to argue for the NFL to start a developmental league and let college football return to true student athletes.

Anyway, the New Year's week games are The Capitol One Bowl featuring Iowa vs. LSU. I'm gonna have to cheer for Iowa here for no other reason then I like the Hawkeye uniforms.
Just what is a Capitol One bowl? This must be the circular file (trash can) where all those junk credit card mailings Capitol One sends me wind up shredded.

In the Outback Bowl, where rumor has it, they will substitute a blooming onion for the pigskin. Wisconsin is playing Georgia. I have to go with the Wisconsin Badger's in this one since I went to the Rose bowl a few years ago, 1999, and cheered my heart out while watching Ron Dayne run all over the Pasedena Hometown faves UCLA. I also enjoy reading Ann Althouse's blog especially during the election season or during any interesting judicial development. Not that my home state of Taxssachusetts doesn't have it's share of controversial SJC decisions.

I'm looking forward to the Rose Bowl which will pit Michigan against Texas, and I'll be cheering for the boys from Ann Arbor, MI b/c my high school football team on which I played Offensive Guard in a Delaware Wing-T and was a back-up Defensive End in a 5-2 had helmets with the Michigan style design on them. The Bishop Eustace Crusaders no longer use this style helmet, but we were a damn good team when we did. The University of Delaware still uses this style helmet.

The Fiesta bowl features Utah vs. Pittsburgh. I'll side with the coal town on this one. Especially since Utah creeps me out ever since being subjected to a tour of the Mormons tabernacle site in Salt Lake City which contains a scary light show with animitronics that freaked the hell out of me as a young teenager. I've always found most Mormon missionaries I've met to be very nice people, but I tell you that tour is just one step shy of attempted brain-washing. I know Utah isn't BYU but it's close enough for government work.

The Sugar Bowl is Virginia Tech vs. Auburn on Monday January 3rd. I'm going to side with Auburn on this one since I had an old friend and former boss who was a player and coach for them many years ago.

The big game this year is the Orange bowl and I guess this is fitting since it may be the only decent Orange we get this year after all those hurricanes in Florida. This game features two great QB's going head to head from USC and Oklahoma on Tuesday January 4th. I'm gonna side with Oklahoma here b/c I'm cheering for the underdog and with all my condom purchases in college I've done enough for Trojans. But seriously this should be a good game, I won't get to see b/c having a 6 week old at home causes me to fall down exhausted around 9PM ET.

I'm sure I missed some other games but in this day and age that's to be expected. I'm still patiently waiting for the Tidy Bowl Man Bowl Game which may be the only way my alma mater Cornell University ever gets to play in another Bowl Game.

Good luck to all the players and may they all play safe but hard hitting football and may no one suffer a career ending injury.