Tinfoil Keffiyah Brigade

Michelle Malkin quotes a Muslim Imam who was, for a short time, hired as a chaplain for the New York Fire Department:

I've heard professionals say that nowhere ever in history did a steel building come down with fire alone," he said. "It takes two or three weeks to demolish a building like that. But it was pulled down in a couple of hours. Was it 19 hijackers who brought it down, or was it a conspiracy?

I sent a note about that notion to Michelle, which I reproduce here:

If that Imam has heard a "professional" say that a steel building has never been brought down by fire alone, he must have been talking to a doctor or lawyer, because a professional engineer or architect would never say such an absurdity. Fire is THE single greatest threat to steel structures, which will fail spectacularly when overheated (I could go on about the modulus of elasticity and plastic deflection, but that is beyond necessary). That is why steel is often sprayed with expensive fireproofing combounds and encased in multiple layers of gypsum board. Concrete and masonry aren't much affected by fire, but steel is - and famously.

They Shoot Teachers, Don't They?

Clifford May is fed up with the press. And justifiably so.

To The Washington Post they were simply “gunmen.” The New York Times non-judgmentally called them “armed men.”
The elite media fastidiously avoid such harsh words as "terrorist" – even to describe those who, last week, rounded up five Iraqi teachers from outside their school, dragged them into a classroom, lined them up against a wall and shot them to death.

The Post was quick to inform readers that “no children were hurt in the attack.” Are we to regard that as restraint on the part of these “gunmen”?

The Times noted that “the killings appeared to have been motivated more by sectarian hatred than any animosity toward the [teaching] profession.” Is that meant to be reassuring?

In a bygone era, reporters would have let readers know in no uncertain terms how thoroughly they despise and condemn those who massacre teachers in a schoolroom. Nor would they have minced words in regard to those who blow up civilians or ritually decapitate “infidels.”

The end line says it all: "This isn't neutrality. It's moral vacuity."

True Red Sox Fans

True BO SOX fans know that they will always have it over the Yankee fans because for the Yankees to improve themselves, they need to win more than 26 titles in the next 80 years.

But Sox fans take heart, we just have to win two World Series to improve on our performance over the last 80+ years. I like our odds....

PS I am actually a bandwagon jumping Phillies fan stranded in Massachusetts. You gotta believe 1980 baby.....

Desparation in Red Sox Nation

Here is evidence of how bad things have gotten in the Boston Red Sox bullpen:

The Red Sox acquired left-hander Mike Stanton from the Washington Nationals on Thursday for right-handers Rhys Taylor and Yader Peralta.
[...]

If the Red Sox advance to the playoffs, Stanton would not be eligible for the postseason roster.

The Sox have given up two young arms from their farm system in order to acquire a 38-year-old reliever for four games.

What Would Mammals Do Without Studies?

Oxygen Helped Mammals Grow, Study Finds

This is not going to be pretty.

NEW YORK - Pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released despite government claims that they could damage America's image, a judge ruled Thursday.

We can all look forward to 87 more photographs and four videotapes. Thank you, ACLU.

Update: Hold on there, Bobbalouie! This report says it's not a done deal yet: An appeal of Hellerstein's ruling is expected, which could delay release of the pictures for months.

And here's why releasing these images is a bad idea: "When we continue to pick at the wound and show the pictures over and over again it just creates the image — a false image — like this is the sort of stuff that is happening anew, and it's not."

Hoorah! How long should this nationwide masochism be dragged out? We know what happened. We punished the guilty. We had our nationwide shame. Can't we just "MoveOn?"

Here's a story that could have turned out a lot worse than it did:

Before the glass broke, the couple heard Anderson painstakingly try each of three downstairs doors, rattling the knobs. He disarmed the house’s automatic sprinkler system. Taylor said he might have thought it was the alarm.

Sitting on the landing, five steps above the dining room, Taylor saw Anderson’s hand, wrapped in a rag, reach through the broken window glass. He heard him ease the window up.

The darkness inside the house was dotted with several night lights Taylor liked to leave on. Anderson , who according to police had a string of convictions in the Macon area, stepped through the window and looked up the stairs, where his eyes met Taylor’s.

Taylor remembers thinking that there would be no negotiations.

Taylor fired his gun once, striking Anderson in the upper torso.

The result? One dead bad guy, and two live innocents. I live in a somewhat sketchy part of town, and if that had been me and my gun in between a burglar and my wife, I'd have done the same thing.

Showdown Looms

It looks like the next Supreme Court nomination is likely to cause an explosion in the Senate.

The roster of those threatening a filibuster includes liberal and moderate Democrats, supporters and opponents of John G. Roberts Jr., Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and at least one of the seven Democratic senators who were part of the bipartisan "Gang of 14."

And who are the likely targets of such a filibuster? Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, who were cleared for appellate court positions only months ago. Howard Dean: "Those people are clearly not qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure they don't."

It will be fun to watch the Democrats turn themselves inside out trying to smear a woman. It will be even more fun if she turns out to be a black woman.

That 70's show

I woke up this morning and looked around desperately for my Six Million Dollar man doll (oops I mean ACTION FIGURE).

This morning I honestly though I was having a flashback to 1978 as I heard the words of one Jimmy Carter coming out of the mouth of George W. Bush. George W. Bush, midland oil baron, Texas Ranger owner and Texas governor, was asking us to drive less!

Lord knows, Satan was turning down his thermostat.

If you remember the Presidential debate of 1980, then you'll remember Ronald Reagan slamming Jimmy Carter to the proverbial Presidential carpet with the following:

"Since then, he has blamed the people for inflation, OPEC, he has blamed the Federal Reserve system, he has blamed the lack of productivity of the American people, he has then accused the people of living too well and that we must share in scarcity, we must sacrifice and get used to doing with less. We don't have inflation because the people are living too well. We have inflation because the Government is living too well. And the last statement, just a few days ago, was a speech to the effect that we have inflation because Government revenues have not kept pace with Government spending."


Now a man who supposedly idolizes Reagan is asking Americans not too live well, not to live how we want to, not to drive where we want to? Is George insane?

My god, is somebody going to come out with a Neil Bush Beer next?

Hospital bans 'cooing' over baby

I had to look twice to make sure this wasn't an Onion article. But it's not.

A hospital has banned visitors from "cooing" over newborn babies to protect their dignity

Debbie Lawson, the neo-natal manager at the special care baby unit, said: "We know people have good intentions but we need to respect the child.

"Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me."

Sure, it's England, but c'mon, people. Exercise the sense you were born with.

Matt Taibbi, who joined Commodore Penn on his "rescue mission" has written a Rolling Stone article describing the mission. Of interest to me is this paragraph describing a pre-planning meeting:

(H)here we are, a bunch of half-drunk, affluent white people quaffing eleven-dollar foreign beers and planning what appears to be a paramilitary mission to rescue two cats and a maid in the wreckage of New Orleans.

I'm in the lounge of the Four Seasons with Sean Penn and other assorted media creatures, debating the merits of rescuing animals instead of humans in a disaster area. To my left is the eminent historian Douglas Brinkley, a friendly academic whose careful diction reminds me of Bob Woodward's. Brinkley is my contact in Houston. He's friends with Penn, and when he evacuated his home in New Orleans earlier in the week, he left his cats and his maid behind in the flood zone. Now he and Penn are talking about commandeering private jets, helicopters and weapons for a grand mission into hell that begins tomorrow.

Did you catch it? The absurdity so rich it is hard to fathom? Look again. It's in there. See it now?

He's friends with Penn, and when he evacuated his home in New Orleans earlier in the week, he left his cats and his maid behind in the flood zone.

Oh. My. Goodness. I guess bringing your maid along with you when you evacuate doesn't generate enough publicity. Better to leave her there, gather up some celebrities and then go back and get her.

Hat Tip: Tim Blair

Here in America, we have The Weekly World News, which brings us this animal story:

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Steroids have reared their ugly head in the unlikeliest of places: The hallowed benching areas of the dog show circuit.

The showplace of the world's toniest canines is embroiled in a steroid controversy brought to light by these exclusive photos taken by Weekly World News. The shocking series was snapped outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York.

The photos show Mr. Parsley, a 4-year old German shepherd, being fed dog biscuits in the shape of barbells by his owner, veterinarian Mary Jane Snow.

But wait! The scandal gets better! Or worse! Or funnier! It seems Mr. Parsley is juiced!

Judges initially became suspicious of something amiss when the triumphant Mr. Parsley stood on his hind legs and ran up the stairs of Madison Square Garden, Rocky-style. They put a 'temporary leash' on the German shepherd's victory until an investigation could be conducted. Weekly World News turned over the findings of its own independent inquiry. The judges ordered a urine test.

Why even bother remarking on this nonsense, you ask? Because Drudge has linked to the British version of the same thing, The Observer,which reports this similarly bizarre animal tale:

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

[...]

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.

Wouldn't it be a hoot to sit in on the "editorial" meetings at these papers where they come up with this stuff?

DC Protest Thoughts

The Washington Times covers Saturday's anti-American rallies in Washington, DC. Some highlights:

Speakers at a rally on the Ellipse repeatedly called the president a criminal, a liar and a killer.

Nothing like random ad hominem attacks to win a high school debate.

 The Metropolitan Police Department made several arrests for destruction of property but reported few other problems despite some angry exchanges. Marchers scrawled graffiti along Connecticut Avenue Northwest and spray-painted an emergency vehicle.

And we are supposed to engage in an intellectual policy debate with these people? "Hey, Mr. Moonbat! Could you put down the spray paint long enough to explain your proposed foreign policy intiatives so we could together explore their implications across the geopolitical world?" Yeah, right.

"We're just trying to show our support for the anti-war movement and trying to get a message across," said Robert Fox, 40, a computer engineer from Miami. "Whether [Mr. Bush] listens or not, it doesn't really matter. We just need to show all of America that there's a very large group of people that don't agree with his policies."

There you have it in a nutshell. The whole point of this exercise is not to actually accomplish anything. It's to BE NOTICED! As at all these affairs, the moonbats channeled the 60s Vietnam protesters:

Some shouted into megaphones, while others chanted, danced and banged drums.

Yeah, that shouting, chanting dancing, and banging is really convincing political debate. It sounds to me like a group of children pitching a tantrum. Two of their favorite chants were virtually Socratic in there brilliance, originality, and pursuasiveness. "Bush lied, thousands died" was a helpful debating tool. And "Hey, Bush, we know you, your daddy was a killer, too" had 'em dancing in the streets. I guess none of these intellectual giants could come up with a "Hay Hay Ho Ho" rhyme for this one.

In the end, there was always room left for a little good old fashioned Jew-hating.

At about 1:50 p.m., a group of black-clad protesters briefly set a small Israeli flag on fire in Lafayette Square.

As a right-wing leaning independent, I would like nothing more that to engage in a meaningful debate with the opposition. How does one meaningfully debate this nonsense?

Unisex v. Single Sex v. Multisex

Megan McArdle wants to know "Why don't we have single sex bathrooms?" Of course, we do, since all public toilets are single sex. But I suspect Megan is really referring to unisex bathrooms, known in the architecture business by the high-brow term "one-holers." Answer: We're working on it.

The new International Building Code has this provision:

The International Building Code establishes where and when unisex toilet facilities are required. The 2000 and 2003 editions of the IBC require unisex toilet facilities in assembly and mercantile occupancies that are required by the plumbing code to have an aggregate of six or more water closets in male and female toilet rooms.

Of course, it is possible that Megan is wondering why we don't have multi-sex toilet rooms, as opposed to unisex or single sex. The answer to that question is, I believe, we used to. New York aficionados will remember that when, McSorley's was compelled to admit women in 1970, there was but one rest room, and it was fully shared. As I recall (it's a foggy memory I admit), we got on fine.

In this post, I pointed out that the press refuses to accurately describe the movers and shakers behind the "anti-war" movement. Here is how the New York Times describes them:

The protests here and elsewhere were largely sponsored by two groups, the Answer Coalition, which embodies a wide range of progressive political objectives, and United for Peace and Justice, which has a more narrow, antiwar focus.

And the Washington Post:

In Washington, the events were sponsored by groups including the ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice and focused on a succinct theme: "End the War in Iraq and Bring the Troops Home Now."

REMINDER! This is the ANSWER Coalition:

International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is a front group for the communist Workers World Party. The Workers World Party is, literally, a Stalinist organization.
[...]

International ANSWER today unquestioningly supports any despotic regime that lays any claim to socialism, or simply to anti-Americanism.

That's right, these protests have been largely sponsored by Communists. If it is the mission of the press to report the truth, the two most influential newspapers in this country are, to use trendy term, criminally negligent.

So Israel unilaterally withdraws from Gaza, displacing its own citizens, digging up graves, abandoning entire towns. The Palestinians move in. They hold a celebration. And as in all Palestinian "celebrations," something explodes.

The escalation was set off by an explosion Friday at a Hamas rally in the crowded Jebaliya refugee camp that killed at least 15 Palestinians. Witnesses said the blast went off near a pickup truck carryin Hamas militants and homemade rockets.
[...]

(T)he Palestinian Authority described the explosion as an accident that happened when Islamic militants mishandled explosives.

So there you have it. The Palestinians accidently blew up themselves. And they admit it. Then we discover why peace in the middle east depends more upon the Palestinians then upon the Israelis.

Hamas blamed Israel and said it fired rockets on Israeli border towns in retaliation.

Until the Palestinians get a leash on the barbarous thugs in their midst, they have nobody to blame but themselves.

Moonbat Alert

From
The Democratc Underground we learn that the liberals are worried that death and destruction among their fellow Americans will distract the media from their political rallies. Check it out.

This is just bad timing! Just look here on DU. Their [sic] are more threads about Rita than the war protest. If we cant [sic] stay focused then I can't believe the rest of the country will be. Rita is doing damage to our countries [sic] politics as well. Rita sucks in every way! Well actually Rita BLOWS!!!!

Oh. My. Lord.

As a surfer, I sympathize with
this dude:

A surfer off the shore of Galveston, Texas, was arrested Friday for not adhering to evacuation orders and surfing the large waves created by an approaching Hurricane Rita, according to a Local 6 News report. The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody by police after coming out of the surf.

Why in the world were the local authorities worried about the surfing activities of this yo-yo? If he wants to surf, tell him he's on his own, write down his name to notify next of kin, and bid him aloha.

Anti-war protest sponsors

PostWatch notes that The Washington Post never reports on the origins of International ANSWER, the group sponsoring this weekend's "anti-war" rally. This PowerLine post links to this Michael Kelly column from January, 2003:

International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is a front group for the communist Workers World Party. The Workers World Party is, literally, a Stalinist organization. It rose out of a split within the old Socialist Workers Party over the Soviet Union's 1956 invasion of Hungary -- the breakaway Workers World Party was all for the invasion. International ANSWER today unquestioningly supports any despotic regime that lays any claim to socialism, or simply to anti-Americanism. It supported the butchers of Beijing after the slaughter of Tiananmen Square. It supports Saddam Hussein and his Baathist torture-state. It supports the last official Stalinist state, North Korea, in the mass starvation of its citizens. It supported Slobodan Milosevic after the massacre at Srebrenica. It supports the mullahs of Iran, and the narco-gangsters of Colombia and the bus-bombers of Hamas.

This is whom the left now marches with. The left marches with the Stalinists. The left marches with those who would maintain in power the leading oppressors of humanity in the world. It marches with, stands with and cheers on people like the speaker at the Washington rally who declared that "the real terrorists have always been the United Snakes of America." It marches with people like the former Black Panther Charles Baron, who said in Washington, "if you're looking for an axis of evil then look in the belly of this beast."

Keep that in mind when some reporter calls these moonbats "activists" or "protestors" or "demonstrators." They are anti-Americans.

Via NRO Media BlogMedia Blog on National Review Online

Louisiana Corruption

Here's an unbelievable example of just how corrupt some government officials have become:

BATON ROUGE, La. - Police found cases of food, clothing and tools intended for hurricane victims at the home of the chief administrative officer for a New Orleans suburb, authorities said Wednesday.
[...]

Police plan to seek a charge of committing an illegal act as a public official against Floyd, and more charges against other city workers are possible, police Capt. Steve Caraway said.

The left makes it plain that they think cutting taxes for "the wealthy" somehow steals from "the poor." Finally, here's a guy literally stealing from the poor. Anyone want to take odds that Mr. Floyd is a Democrat?

Boston Herald Asks Is Kenny Gay?

Yup, the rumors are swirling, and my cousin is about ready to burn his CD collection, but people (including the Boston Herald) are wondering if the "fraud" in the divorce papers has anything to do with Kenny Chesney's sexual orientation.


But Kenny take heart, no matter which way you swing or strum you can get married again in Massachusetts, thanks to our very liberal State Supreme Court.

Well, Verizon has dropped the price of its DSL service to $14.95 a month, so I am now again online at home. The likely result? Less lunch time posting, and more happy hour posting. Let's hope that represents an improvement.

Moonbat Alert

The Virginian-Pilot website was promising a visit from Cindy "End the Occupation - of New Orleans" Sheehan here in Norfolk this evening. The report has since been pulled from their website, but I may wander over there with a camera and see if I can capture some images of Moonbatus Liberalus in the wild.

Update: About 4:45 I walked over to the corner where Cindy was scheduled to give her 5:00 press conference, and there was a lone guy with a bullhorn, shouting "Bush - wanted for murder! Over 1900 dead," repeatedly at the unfortunate motorists waiting at the light. I was unwilling to devote another minute of my life to that spectacle, so I went home.

Kedwards Redux

John Kerry is continuing his visionary campaign, offering this positive message of how to better handle disaster relief:

"Katrina is a symbol of all this administration does and doesn't do," he added. "Michael Brown -- or Brownie as the president so famously thanked him for 'doing a heck of a job' - Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq; what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence; what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad; what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy; what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning; what Tom Delay is to ethics; and what George Bush is to 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive.'

Boy, that Kerry is a master of rhetoric. Nothing like stringing together a bunch of SAT-style negative similes to inspire the people in the wake of a disaster. Typically, Kerry plans to address these issues with - wait for it - A PLAN!

Kerry said he plans to address some of those challenges in detail over the next few weeks.

Oh, sorry. He has a plan for a plan, which was partially what got him unelected last November. Meanwhile, Kerry's erstwhile running mate, the also obscenely wealthy trial lawyer John Edwards, said Americans aren't interested in wealth, not when they can work.

During his speech, Edwards claimed the president is wrong to believe Americans seek a "wealth society," but instead want a "working society."

Interestingly enough, in Edwards home of North Carolina, workers recently instituted a first-ever state lottery, presumably in an effort to create a little wealth for themselves without work.

The New York Times, opining on why "tax cuts for the wealthy" must be repealed:

(T)ax cuts for people who make more than $200,000 a year, the top 3 percent of the income ladder, have accounted for nearly 20 percent - or about $330 billion.

Forgetting for a minute that The Times never bothers to distinguish between income (which is taxed) and wealth (which isn't, at least until you die), if 20% of the tax cuts benefitted the top 3% of income earners, what percentage of taxes were paid by those 3%?

A little interpolation of the numbers cited at this page reveals that although those top 3% of wage earners received 20% of the tax cuts, they paid in the neighborhood of 40 percent of the taxes.

The Times finishes in a flourish with this howler:

(L)etting temporary tax cuts expire on schedule is not a tax increase. It's the law of the land, which Congress wants to change.

To The Times, raising taxes is not a really tax increase when it is required by law. Try telling that to the guy whose pocket is getting picked.

Air Show

Scenes from yesterday's NAS Oceana Air Show
F/A 18 Hornet

F-14 Tomcat

Navy Blue Angel Hornet static display

A good time was had by all.

Shamelessly ripped off from here.

New New Deal, Who Knew?

Paul Krugman at the NY Times wrote today about how Bush's speech was "Not the New Deal." (registration required for the NY Times link)

Mr. Krugman says, "that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast."

Somehow I think random unfocused attacks against a controlling force and writing your own Constitution like they are doing in Iraq are more liberal policies than conservative.

And I forget when did sending billions of dollars on nation building make sound conservative fiscal sense? I think even Ronald Reagan would admit that spending billions on the "Star Wars" program of the 1980's wasn't sound conservative fiscal policy but a necessary evil for national defense. And although I'm not so sure Iraq is in the best interests of our national defense, I'll have to wait for time to tell to make that decision.

Krugman also claims that, "President Bush subscribes to a political philosophy that opposes government activism - that's why he has tried to downsize and privatize programs wherever he can."

Well, let us see, President Bush just signed one of the biggest highway bills ever, and remember his "idol" President Ronald Reagan was credited with being very wise by vetoing a massive highway bill during his presidency.

Bush also created tons of new government employees with the TSA and an entire new department called "Homeland Security." Which makes me feel as safe as security guards at a shopping mall in Newark.

Not a whole lot of downsizing government going on here.

So I'm afraid Mr. Krugman is slamming Bush for all the wrong reasons.

The other night on American Chopper, the Teutals built two custom motorcyles, to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to injured military troops.

It was easy to dismiss as reality TV theater until the OCC crew ran up the bids and bought both bikes back. The result: Orange County Choppers spent (probably) in the neighborhood of $50,000 to build two motorcycles, and another $350,000 to buy them back, all to benefit our wounded soldiers.

Kudos to the Teutals and OCC.

The next great Civil Right

Howard Dean was interviewed by Alan Colmes last night. He trotted out the usual Democrat boilerplate, implying that repealing the death tax is somehow "immoral," and labeling President Bush "devisive" because, well, anyone who doesn't agree with Dean is devisive. Buried in the middle of the interview was this little gem:

There are a lot of women, for example, who couldn't participate in sports. My wife didn't have equal access to sports. My daughter did.

Judge Roberts wants to undo that, according to his writings.

There you have it. Judge Roberts wants to undo the greatest civil liberty of all, equal access to sports.

Dean is, of course, referring to Title IX, which states "that a school is in compliance with gender equity laws only if the percentage of women participating in athletics is equal [within 5%] to the percentage of women making up the student body."

Here's what Dean's "equal access to sports" really means:

Presently there are about 190,000 male athletes and 110,000 female athletes, participating on a nevertheless equal quantity of teams. In the wake of budget cuts, proportionality with the 14 female sports (and their corresponding 110,000 participants) would essentially have to be obtained by completely eliminating nearly a dozen MALE programs on the national level. Those programs include: Wrestling (6,500 participants), Swimming (7,500), Soccer (15,000), Track (16,000), Track I (18,000), Gymnastics (500 participants), Fencing (800), Lacrosse (5,000), Ice Hockey (3,500) and Volleyball (1,000). Eliminating these men's programs would leave five male sports (Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Basketball and Football) along with a little over 100,000 male participants. Then there would finally be the so-called "equity" between men's programs and the comparable quantity of females who opted to go out for a sports team.

So, to Howard Dean, equal access to sports is so important that 80,000 men shoud be denied any access to sports because fewer women are interested.

Full transcript here.

Go Heels!

From the Raleigh News & Observer comes this story from one of America's premiere universities:

Police say they found Spencer Michael Killette, 21, of 132 S. Columbia St., urinating Friday night in the town parking deck at 150 E. Rosemary St. That was at 11:50 p.m.

So how did future Rhodes scholar S.M. Killette celebrate his apprehension?

"After being cited and released for urinating in public, Mr. Killette walked approximately 50 feet and urinated inside the town parking deck again," according to the second arrest warrant.

I'm glad I never had to make that phone call to my Dad!

Class Act

Judge Roberts is a class act, through and through.

I can't wait for Kenndey and Schumer to make fools of themselves trying to beat this guy up. Whoops, they've already started.

I wonder if Roberts is related to the Dread Pirate Roberts.

September 11, 2001

THEY BEGAN JUMPING NOT LONG after the first plane hit the North Tower, not long after the fire started. They kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died. They jumped continually, from all four sides of the building, and from all floors above and around the building's fatal wound. They jumped from the offices of Marsh & McLennan, the insurance company; from the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading company; from Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors—the top. For more than an hour and a half, they streamed from the building, one after another, consecutively rather than en masse, as if each individual required the sight of another individual jumping before mustering the courage to jump himself or herself. One photograph, taken at a distance, shows people jumping in perfect sequence, like parachutists, forming an arc composed of three plummeting people, evenly spaced. Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands. They were all, obviously, very much alive on their way down, and their way down lasted an approximate count of ten seconds. They were all, obviously, not just killed when they landed but destroyed, in body though not, one prays, in soul. One hit a fireman on the ground and killed him; the fireman's body was anointed by Father Mychal Judge, whose own death, shortly thereafter, was embraced as an example of martyrdom after the photograph—the redemptive tableau—of firefighters carrying his body from the rubble made its way around the world.

Source

"But Sean Penn can take himself, an entourage and a personal photographer - that's three or four people in a four-person boat - and show us all how incredibly big and down-home he is by sailing off a few feet to rescue people, before the boat sinks from the incompetence of failing to put in the drainage plug. He wore a very nice white flak vest, instead of the passe orange life preserver, because getting shot at is a lot more macho looking, if a million or so times less likely, than drowning because you went out into the water with a lead vest rather than a life vest."

Hat-tip photo: Jennifer
Hat-tip caption: Bill

The Washington Post reports that Clinton Administration National Security Advisor Sandy Berger has been fined $50,000 for stealing and destroying classified documents.

The sentencing capped a bizarre sequence of events in which Berger admitted to sneaking classified documents out of the Archives in his suit, later destroying some of them in his office and then lying about it.

Calling this behavior an "honest mistake," Berger then went on to claim that he's not really a criminal at heart.

"I let considerations of personal convenience override clear rules of handling classified material," Berger said. "I believe this lapse, serious as it is, does not reflect the character of myself."

Um, Sandy? The very fact that this "lapse" occurred at all is, by definition, reflective of your character.

With the endless carping from the Democrats ringing in our ears, this article offers a sobering perspective from a former leftist.

However, there was one troubling, recurring weakness about the Left that kept reappearing like termites, eating away at my wooden edifice of arguments and premises: The Left offered no solutions. The Leftist critics of America and the West sit in the most comfortable seat known to all – the seat of the critical critic, the cynic who destroys all but from the rubble offers no constructive alternatives. The Left tears but never builds.

Update: This from Cam Edwards:

The Left have become the backseat drivers of American politics. No longer in charge, they're left to complain about everything the Right does. But what do you do with a backseat driver (assuming you can't kick them out of the car)? You might try and engage them, but eventually you ignore them. You turn up the radio louder and keep driving. Meanwhile, the other people in the car start to ignore them as well. [...]

The meme of "blame Bush" has failed. From Oliver Willis to Daily Kos, to the rantings of the Democratic Underground, the shrieking moonbats have been brushed aside, at least for now.

Bob Denver and Elvis

My mother-in-law says "Good stuff, Maynard!"

This and the death of Bob Denver, made me curious about the origins of this saying.

Bob played a character on Dobie Gillis called Maynard G. Krebs, but it doesn't seem like this is the start of the saying.

Most people associate the saying with a 1980s TV commercial for Malt-O-Meal cereal.

But it seems that the line was used in an Elvis Presley film from the 1960s called Kid Galahad.

So, I guess even Bob Denver had some Elvis in him, unlike Michael J. Fox.

bob denver
maynard

Football

Here we are again and the New England Patriots are defending yet another Superbowl title.

Tom Brady is the 21st century's Joe Montana, somehow he just wins the big game again and again and again.

Is there one more left in this team without their Offensive and Defensive Coordinators who have moved on to other coaching jobs, and with a big void in the linebacking corps?

Oh, well I guess we'll all find out in February.

Until then, "Are you ready for some Football?"

Macabre

The New York Times has a lengthy article on how surreal the streets of New Orleans have become. Some highlights lowlights:

Scraggly residents emerge from waterlogged wood to say strange things, and then return into the rot. Cars drive the wrong way on the Interstate and no one cares. Fires burn, dogs scavenge, and old signs from les bons temps have been replaced with hand-scrawled threats that looters will be shot dead.

Perhaps even more surreal, some residents even like it.

On Clouet Street, where a days-old fire continues to burn where a warehouse once stood, a man on a bicycle wheels up through the smoke to introduce himself as Strangebone. The nights without power or water have been tough, especially since the police took away the gun he was carrying - "They beat me and threatened to kill me," he says - but there are benefits to this new world.

"You're able to see the stars," he says. "It's wonderful."

From The American Spectator

Comes a nice piece by Ben Stein. Among the questions Ben asks:

Is there any problem in the world that is not Mr. Bush's fault, or have we reverted to a belief in a sort of witchcraft where we credit a mortal man with the ability to create terrifying storms and every other kind of ill wind?

Where did the idea come from that salvation comes from hatred and criticism and mockery instead of love and co-operation?

More is here.

The Katrina Works Project Administration

The United States finally has an opportunity to turn its back on the welfare state and return to the true ideals of the "New Deal," and away from the corruption and general malaise that the majority of "The Great Society Programs" brought upon this country.

Hurricane Katrina has laid bare the fact that so many are living on the government dole and expect the government to bail them out of every crisis.

Well, I suggest that a program like FDR's WPA start immediately to repair New Orleans and the surrounding Katrina destroyed areas.

You might ask, "How do we pay for it?" Simply, halve all the welfare benefits. If you want to earn a true living- guess what - mother nature just gave a ton of people a big clean-up job, so let's take the people who claim that can't find work and get them to work by helping rebuild. Now that's the American way of FDR, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington.

Author and New Orleans resident Anne Rice occused the rest of America of failing her and her fellow citizens:

"To my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.”

Jim Geraghty turns on that hanging curveball and knocks it out of the park:

Look, Rudy Giuliani might have run around with Judith Nathan before his divorce, but he was a hell of a leader in our darkest hours. You know the National Review crowd isn’t a fan of Pataki, but the man was a rock after 9/11 compared to Governor Weepy I’ll-Evacuate-Eventually and Mayor It’s-Everybody’s-Fault-Except-Mine. Nobody’s throwing around the adjective “Churchillian” about any of your officials these days. We didn’t pick your local officials; you guys did. [...]

And if you’re going to come to the rest of us hat in hand, demanding the rest of us clean up after your poor judgment, I’d appreciate a little less “you failed us” and a little more “we’ve learned our lesson.”

Well done. The rest is here

The Associated Press is reporting that hurricane evacuees will be handed $2000 by the Federal Government.

The unprecedented cash card program initially will benefit stranded people who have been moved to major rescue centers such as the Houston Astrodome.

"They are going to start issuing debit cards, $2,000 per adult, today at the Astrodome," said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The cards could be used to buy food, transportation, gas and other essentials the displaced people need, according to a state official who was on the call and requested anonymity because the program has not been publicly announced.

Elsewhere, we learn that these "essentials" need not include birth control or abortion, because that stuff is already free:

A link on Planned Parenthood’s Web site that says "Help with Hurricane Effort” takes visitors to a page that states: "You can help. 100% of your tax-deductible contributions will go directly to supporting our continued efforts to provide health services,” including contraceptives and an "emergency contraception kit.”

Why would anyone make a charitable contribution dedicated to helping people lacking food, clothing, housing, and transportation have sex?

If you don't think New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is utterly incompetent and clueless, you weren't watching Fox News last night. Here's what the "mayor" had to say when questioned upon the wisdom of sending his police and firemen on all-expenses-paid Las Vegas vacations:

The mayor also blasted critics who suggested granting such vacations in a time of crisis constitutes a dereliction of duty, and a call to party, saying, "New Orleans is a party city. Get over it."

Try to imagine that kind of buffoonery from Rudy Giuliani in the aftermath of 9/11.

Because it was a "boondoggle?"

"Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?"

New York Times Editorial, September 1, 2005.

"The bill would shovel $17 billion at the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and other water-related projects. [...] Among these projects is a $2.7 billion boondoggle on the Mississippi River . . . "

New York Times editorial, April 13, 2005, opposing funding for a New Orleans levee project.

Dems to further politicize hurricane

The Democrats are preparing to use the New Orleans catastrophe as a political hatchet, reports The Boston Globe. More Bush-bashing, you ask? Nah, that would be too obvious.

Senate Democrats said yesterday that they will invoke the vast disparities in income and living conditions laid bare by the Hurricane Katrina disaster to sharpen their questioning of Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. at his confirmation hearings next week.

Oh. My. God. Have they no shame? Well, no they don't.

The scenes of devastation featuring primarily poor African-American residents in New Orleans have highlighted the widening gap between rich and poor, said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

When asked about the widening gap in legal representation between rich and poor people driving young women off bridges and walking away, Kennedy had no comment.

Blog Holiday

Unless Cousin Don picks up the slack, blogging will be extremely light, if at all, until Wednesday. Have a nice weekend, and say a prayer for the poor people of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Waiting for a Writer

The New York Times published one of the worst editorials in its history today.

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom.

In what seems to be a ritual in this newspaper, the piece was filled with snarky little jabs and little useful opinion.

In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast.

The paper goes on to recite a laundry list of things Bush needs to accomplish.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. [Telling, isn't it, that the Times places "concern" above "rescue" and "health" in its little list - Ed] Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control

I guess the President needs to get back to the Oval Office and pull that "control profiteering" lever behind his desk. The Times then drags out the old chestnut they used to bludgeon his father with: Bush is somehow "out of touch" with the reality of the situation.

And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.

The Times finishes off with a flurry of unfounded accusations and a dire, if unsupported warning: the levees were inadequate (only the equivalent of the Hoover Dam would have been adequate for this storm), the developers were permitted to develop (that would be for affordable housing, another Times cause celebre, though apparently not in this instance), Congress didn't fund corrections for gaping holes (I thought it flooded because the levees failed), and if Bush doesn't come around on this global warming thing, be ready for high-intensity hurricanes as far as the eye can see.

The Times calls that an editorial. I call it a mean-spirited political hatchet job.

Matt Towery thinks that the major media outlets ignorance about the south caused them to drop the ball.

So why on Tuesday night was network television airing shows like "Tommy Lee Goes to College," instead of providing wall-to-wall live coverage of this historic, catastrophic event?

[...]

I'll tell you why. It's because the know-it-alls in New York and Washington don't have a clue about the American South. They don't comprehend its political might and economic muscle, and thus the ultimately crippling impact Katrina is going to have on them, too. It's that simple.

[...]

The South has been hit with the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. And too much of America didn't want to notice until it had to.

That should be enough of an excerpt to pique your interest.

A little less perspective

With an entire city struggling to survive, what's the biggest problem on the plate of NYU graduate students? The University has stopped recognizing their union. And like good little leftists, they are protesting.

The protesters linked arms and sat down in front of the university's Bobst Library, despite warnings from the police that they would be charged with disorderly conduct.

These are freaking college students shaking down their school with collective bargaining.

"We are here today to express our anger and our disgust. Union busting is for corporate criminals who have no values, not for an educational institution."

Well, unions are for oppressed unskilled workers, not pampered Ph.D. candidates. And the reason NYU has stopped recognizing this "union?" Because the inmates tried to take control of the asylum.

(T)he university had decided not to continue to recognize the union because it had not abided by an agreement not to interfere with academic decision-making.

Yup, there you have it. It's not about money, or "rights" or even really collective bargaining. The graduate students were using their union as a power grab over academics. A little retrospection is in order. These are the students for pete's sake. For what it's worth they've got their organized-labor-speak down pat, though.

"A lot of graduate unions are rallying around our N.Y.U. brothers and sisters because of concerns about what the university's decision may portend," said Jeremy Wolf, a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who was among the protesters.

To which my response is: "Oh, grow up, Jeremy."

A little perspective

On the way to work yesterday morning, I passed a gas station advertising $2.59 for a gallon of regular. On the way home that night, it was $2.99.

That said, watching the nightly news from New Orleans is like watching September 11th unfold in slow motion. If your biggest problem is high gas prices, count your blessings.

I spent a lot of energy worrying about my lot in life after hurricane Isabelle, and for that I am now officially ashamed. My wife and I, and most of our region came through Isabelle with our lives, homes, and jobs intact. It is now painfully clear how lucky we were.