Separated at Birth

We've been speculating about family trees given the identical interests shared by Sarah Palin's and many of the Shallow End of the Gene Pool's family members.

Anybody know if she Scuba dives and Geocaches?

But my wife and this post on Digg.com both think:

Sarah is a sober Karen Walker!

Woo Hoo

I can't speak for Cousin Don, but here in Norfolk, Laurel and I are thrilled to find Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket.

Link Problems

I have been having some problems in my posts with links to other sites. I have finally figured it out.

It seems there are two types of quotation marks, and Blogger HTML doesn't properly recognize the "open" and "close" quote marks used by some word processing programs. I have been writing posts in a word processing program, and cutting and pasting them into Blogger. So the link code looks correct when I post it, but doesn't work after publication.

Now that I am aware of the problem, I should be able to reduce the instance of its occurrence, but my apologies in advance for any bad links that slip through.

Check out the news from Iraq. It seems the Marines are pulling back in Anbar:

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Marine commandant said Wednesday that his forces in Iraq's once-volatile western Anbar province can be reduced, as the military moves to hand over control of the region to the Iraqis next week. […]

Conway said Marines serving in Anbar told him, "There aren't a whole heck of a lot of bad guys there left to fight." Driving through the once-dangerous cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, he said, "Our vehicles seemed to go largely unnoticed as there was much construction and rebuilding taking place."

Meanwhile, in Najaf business is booming:

NAJAF, Iraq - The city's first airport is weeks away from opening, but already a bigger one is talked about. Land prices are soaring. Merchants say they don't remember business ever being so good. […]

The locals are happy to see foreign visitors returning, particularly big-spending Arabs from the Persian Gulf.
"Everyone is doing good business," gold jeweler Aitan Abdul-Hussein said after he served two Iraqi women in black flowing abaya robes in his tiny shop. "I sell a kilogram of gold every day. That used to be my monthly average a year ago."

Wow, that’s great! Way to go, America! After reading those articles, I went over to the New York Times website to see what “all the news that’s fit to print” was saying. Predictably, this was the only article on the current page, detailing an incident from April of last year.That’s right, The Times, determined to report nothing but bad news for America, digs back 16 months to report an incident of misconduct.

Liberal Tolerance

From Merriam Webster online:

Argument: a reason given in proof or rebuttal; discourse intended to persuade

Fight: to contend against in or as if in battle or physical combat

Now I love a good argument. Argument implies give and take, and a respectful response. Unfortunately, the left doesn’t like to argue. They much prefer a good fight, the nastier and more petulant the better.

Example One: You may remember I suggested that maybe lifeguards might not need professional counseling in the wake of a drowning. The response? I was deemed “sub-human.”

Example Two: A thread on a widow’s bulletin board was going on and on about how great Ted Kennedy is. I pointed out that he isn’t that great, remembering Mary Jo Kopechne. The response?

Kurt- as a cancer widow-I don't find that comment necessary. […]

a comment like that has no place on this board.

The thread then goes on to celebrate Michelle Obama and her girls, which is all fine. But when I pointed out that my post was at least as relevant, I was greeted by this:

And Kurt? No wonder you cannot relate to Obama. He was actually married to his wife when she got pregnant with their beautiful daughters.

Now, Laurel and I have made no secret that we were pregnant when we married, so this is nothing more than a mean spirited, snarky put-down. I am sure the poster considers herself quite clever, but she is simply being nasty for the sake of it. I am sure if you asked her, she would profess to being a “tolerant,” “non judgmental” person.

Needless to say, Laurel is less than thrilled and has asked for an apology. We shall see what happens.

Sarah Palin for Veep

Blogger Noel, posting at Cold Fury, makes the argument for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate:

If John McCain wants to win in November, he should consider Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate.

She would attract women voters, yes. But beyond that, she represents the future of the Republican Party and would attract young conservative men and women to our cause.

Gov. Palin is a lifetime NRA member. In violation of feminist dogma, she has five children, including a son whom she refused to abort even though she knew of his disabilities. She has another son in the Army and her husband is a commercial fisherman. She’s for drilling responsibly in ANWR, and could help bring McCain around on the issue.

Impressively, she stood up against shifty politicians in her own party who were involved in dubious oil dealings. She did this at risk to her own career, and in the end, she triumphed. Compare this to Obama who has never stood up to the crooks in his party, whether in Chicago or Washington. Indeed, he’s helped funnel money to his pals.

This kind of integrity tells me she’s in it for public service.

A Palin nomination would also reaffirm the Republican Party’s historical commitment to the rights and duties of women in our polity, before the issue was hijacked by radical man-haters on the Left. Women can, should, are and must be a part of the conservative movement.

I have been rooting for Sarah Palin myself. I find her a compelling figure indeed. More on her here.

It's a Good Question

I overheard this on the Laura Ingraham radio program, and it’s a good question: If trampoline is an Olympic sport, why not Slip n Slide?

Frozen Bigfoot is real! A real rubber costume, anyway!

Well here’s a big surprise. It seems that the frozen bigfoot was . . . wait for it . . . a hoax!

ATLANTA (AP) - Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice - handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it - was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.

The astounding thing to me is that two “researchers” paid and “undisclosed sum” for this nonsense.

Free Hugs

Hat Tip: Paul

There is especially compelling reading today on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page.

First, a look at Barack Obama's contention that Clarence Thomas doesn't have the chops to be on the Supreme Court:

Even more troubling is what the Illinois Democrat's answer betrays about his political habits of mind. Asked a question he didn't expect at a rare unscripted event, the rookie candidate didn't merely say he disagreed with Justice Thomas. Instead, he instinctively reverted to the leftwing cliché that the Court's black conservative isn't up to the job while his white conservative colleagues are.

Then there's a piece illustrating the mendacity and obstuctionism of the renewable "green energy" movement. It seems they are opposed to any measures that might actually connect their precious wind farms to an electrical grid:

To wit, the greens are blocking the very transmission network needed for renewable electricity to move throughout the economy. The best sites for wind and solar energy happen to be in the sticks -- in the desert Southwest where sunlight is most intense for longest, or the plains where the wind blows most often. To exploit this energy, utilities need to build transmission lines to connect their electricity to the places where consumers actually live. […]

Wind power has also become contentious in oh-so-green Oregon, once people realized that transmission lines would cut through forests. Transmissions lines from a wind project on the Nevada-Idaho border are clogged because of possible effects on the greater sage grouse. Similar melodramas are playing out in Arizona, the Dakotas, the Carolinas, Tennessee, West Virginia, northern Maine, upstate New York, and elsewhere.

Finally, props to Kobe Bryant, a true patriot:

In an interview Friday on NBC, the world's most famous basketball player told Chris Collinsworth how he got "goosebumps" when he received his Olympics uniform. "I actually just looked at it for a while. I just held it there and I laid it across my bed and I just stared at it for a few minutes; just because as a kid growing up this is the ultimate, ultimate in basketball." The Los Angeles Laker went on to call the U.S. "the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it's just a sense of pride that you have; that you say, 'You know what? Our country is the best.'"

No Mas

If I see another episode of "Olympic Beach Volleyball" on television, I am going to scream.

On John Edwards

I truly hope I can keep this to one post. I truly hope the Edwards go away and heal as a family. But here is my obligatory blog post on the news of the day.

The man presented his devotion to his wife as a testimony to why he should be given the keys to the country. And she campaigned with him on that platform. If we believe his own statement, they were both lying. It amazes me what people will do in the quest for power.

I was startled by his statement that he didn't love his paramour, his wife was in remission at the time, and the baby isn't his anyway, as if these are all mitigating factors.

"Sure I boinked her, but I didn't love her. And then my staffer knocked her up after I was done with her." Attaboy, John. Nice way to treat the women in your life. And on national television to boot. Jerk.

Here's Ann Althouse's take:

Imagine if he'd gotten the nomination. What a selfish bastard — to run for the nomination while parading his cancerous wife about and knowing that if he won this story could have come out at any time — maybe in October — screwing up his party's chances!

NY Times is at it again

The New York Times "reports" that jellyfish are increasing, and it's our fault:

From Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and more widespread, and they are showing up in places where they have rarely been seen before, scientists say. The faceless marauders are stinging children blithely bathing on summer vacations, forcing beaches to close and clogging fishing nets.

But while jellyfish invasions are a nuisance to tourists and a hardship to fishermen, for scientists they are a source of more profound alarm, a signal of the declining health of the world’s oceans. […]

Within the past year, there have been beach closings because of jellyfish swarms on the Côte d’Azur in France, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and at Waikiki and Virginia Beach in the United States.

The Times, however, isn't quite the authority on such things it pretends to be, as the local Virginian-Pilot reports:

Virginia Beach officials could not recall a time when the beach had been closed due to jellyfish.

Capt. Tom Gill, head of Virginia Beach lifeguards, saw the story and said everyone at the lifesaving service was puzzled. “It’s been about average,” he said of the summer’s jellyfish reports. “We get days when we get more. We haven’t seen any days this year that have been worse than any days in the past. It's been a nice summer.”

Jellyfish are a common occurrence that swimmers and lifeguards expect, he said. “It’s just one of those things. We hear it, we see it. It happens during the summer.”

According to David Malmquist, director of communications at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, there’s just not enough data locally to determine if jellyfish numbers are rising.

How can you trust The Times to report anything accurately, when they are so easily caught simply making stuff up?

Who Reads What

With a hat tip to my mother-in-law Sheri:

The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.

The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.

The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it, thank you very much.

The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

The New York Post is read by people who don't care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

The Miami Herald is read by people who are running (from) another country but need the baseball scores.

The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist gay dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.

The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.