annika's journal
annika's journal
...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
From the Telegraph, via Aaron's cc:
The gulf between British and French treatment of preachers of hatred and violence was thrown sharply into focus yesterday when France announced the summary expulsion of a dozen Islamists between now and the end of August.The doctrine of pre-emption at work in France? Interesting.A tough new anti-terrorism package was unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and a popular centre-Right politician.
His proposals reflect French determination to act swiftly against extremists in defiance of the human rights lobby, which is noticeably less vocal in France than in Britain.
Imams and their followers who fuel anti-western feeling among impressionable young French Muslims will be rounded up and returned to their countries of origin, most commonly in France's case to its former north African colonies.
Mr Sarkozy also revealed that as many as 12 French mosques associated with provocative anti-western preaching were under surveillance. Imams indulging in inflammatory rhetoric will be expelled even if their religious status is recognised by mainstream Muslim bodies.
Those who have assumed French citizenship will not be protected from deportation. Mr Sarkozy said he will reactivate measures, 'already available in our penal code but simply not used', to strip undesirables of their adopted nationality. 'We have to act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded,' Mr Sarkozy told the French daily Le Parisien.
More: Here's another foreign terrorism related story from the BBC:
Russia's defence chief has barred the ministry from contact with ABC TV after the US network's interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.Beautiful.Sergei Ivanov said the ministry considered ABC 'persona non grata' following Thursday's broadcast.
The warlord has claimed the 2004 raid on a school in Beslan. In the interview he admitted he was a terrorist, but said the Russians were terrorists too.
Russia's most wanted man also said he was plotting more attacks.
'Today I have given the order to the head of the press service that not one serviceman of the defence ministry should have contact with the American television channel ABC,' Mr Ivanov said in televised comments.
'We will continue to act openly with the press, but this channel will not be invited to the defence ministry and no interviews will ever be given to it,' he said.
'This channel is now persona non grata for the defence ministry and is an outcast.'
The interview conducted by Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky was recorded at the warlord's hideout in Chechnya.Actually, i think "journalists" should be encouraged to interview terrorists, but only if they swallow a satellite tracking device first. Then if some bombs happen to fall during the interview, oh well, no big loss.Russia is offering $10m (£6m) for the capture of the warlord, whom it accuses of several major attacks.
More than 320 people - around half of them children - were killed at the school in Beslan last September.
i've posted some photos from last weekend's visit to USS Midway. You can find them here. It was interesting walking around a carrier with my dad, who served on one back in the day (not the Midway). We really got the inside story.
According the the Midway's website, it was the longest serving carrier in the U.S. Navy.
The USS Midway set new standards of naval aviation in the latter half of the 20th century. A captured German V-2 rocket was launched off the USS Midway in 1946—the dawn of naval missile warfare. The USS Midway blazed new trails of sub-Arctic air operations off the coast of Greenland. It was the first carrier homeported in a foreign country, calling Yokosuka, Japan home for 18 years. When others came home, the USS Midway remained at the “tip of the sword” on an odyssey shared by 200,000 Americans that spanned the surrender of Japan in WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam, the era of détente and Desert Storm.It's worth a look if you're ever in San Diego.
Today is the 141st anniversary of the Battle of the Crater. If you don't know what that is, i suggest renting Cold Mountain tonight. i love that movie.
Anyways, the Battle of the Crater was one of the craziest episodes of the Civil War. It was an idea that should have worked in theory, but in execution was fucked up from start to finish. If you think of all the Federal blunders committed during the Civil War, it's a wonder we're not two countries today. But we stuck it out, thanks to a man named Abraham Lincoln, whose resolve did not waver despite innumerable setbacks and intense opposition to the war.
Speaking of Civil War films, one movie that i saw recently, which doesn't get enough credit as a fabulous CW movie, is The Horse Soldiers from 1959. It was directed by John Ford, and starred John Wayne and Bill Holden. i think that's all you'd need to know in order to go rent it ASAP.
The category is "Profanity," for $200. Victor is in the lead with $1100, Casca has $900, Phil has $500, Skippy has $400, Jasen has $300, D-Rod has $200, and Ken has $200. Neither of the two Daily Doubles has been found yet.
Remember especially for this answer, in Jeopardy the judges can get quite picky about the exactitude of the correct response.
The category is "Military History," for $200. Victor is in the lead with $1100, Casca has $900, Phil has $500, Skippy has $400, Jasen has $300, and D-Rod has $200.
You will note that since i am so nice, i haven't been penalizing anybody for wrong guesses as they do in the real Jeopardy. There are also two hidden Daily Doubles left, so get in the game if you haven't already.
Check this out. lol!
a natural reaction to the self induced and largely imaginary pressures of blogging . . . an undertaking which was totally voluntary and which does not directly contribute to his or her continued survival, on this, our planet earth.Via Dawn.
The category is "Military History," for $300. It's another video clue, and i hope it's difficulty will make up for the other relatively easy clues in this category. Can i help it if you people are so smart?
Update: Now that there has been a correct response, i can show you the front of the mug. Click here.
If you, like me, were impressed by tonight's premier of FX's Over There, there's one thing we should both remember. Forty Americans died and 426 were wounded, most of them seriously, in the real life "over there" this month. Actors get paid big bucks and go on talk shows when their work day is through. While those who have volunteered to protect you and me in Iraq and Afghanistan don't get that kind of fame or money, but their sacrifices are real.
i hope the show stays centered on the American experience. i was happy to see that they did not try, at least in tonight's episode, to put a human face on the enemy or tell "their side." Let Ted Koppel and his buddies at Al Jazeera do that; there's enough relativism in the media as it is. i also did not detect any overt political messages, either right or left.
i imagine some observers might be upset that not every character was Tom Hanks. i don't mind that kind of realism in war movies. As a war movie fan, i like the Adam Baldwins and Nick Noltes the best. These are the complex characters who may seem like assholes with less than honorable motivations, but they get shit done. i bet there are lots of them in real life and thank God for it.
i'm also not bothered by Over There's portrayal of soldiers complaining about the Army. i'm not a veteran -- and i know that many of my visitors are, so correct me if i'm wrong -- but soldiers always gripe about the military. And there's always some incompetence and poor decision-making in any organization. Hell, does everything run smoothly at your job? It doesn't at my job, that's for sure. People who point to mistakes made in wartime as a reason to surrender are simply people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about.
So overall, i thought tonight's episode was pretty good, and i would say that if the rest of the series follows the same tone it should help our war effort. Which is more than i can say about anything else i see on tv that's war related.
[cross-posted at A Western Heart]
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* If you're interested, you can read about the latest disgusting media attempt to demonize an American soldier here. Also, you might be interested to know that a soldier who used a dog to frighten some detainees might spend more time in jail than the convicted LAX Millenium bomber.
Well, i'm back from San Diego. i ate too much food and got too much sun, but it was beautiful. My dad served on a carrier years ago, and we took a tour of the new USS Midway museum, which was fascinating. Lots to see for fans of Naval aviation, especially Vietnam era stuff. i'll post some pictures later. During the tour, i found this painting on a bulkhead in the forecastle.
Here's a submarine poem by the 20th Century New Zealand poet Will Lawson.
The SubmarineThe grey of Ocean’s denseness
Surrounds her like a veil;
In silent deeps’ immenseness
No laughing seas give hail;
But round her, rudely riven,
The sullen waters feel
Her stout hull, engine-driven,
A thrilling thing of steel
That cleaves a pathway under
The breakers’ snarling lips—
That mocks the big guns’ thunder
And scorns the battle-ships.
She goes by deeps and shallows
’Neath blue Australian seas,
Where never sun enhaloes
A wandering ocean breeze;
Yet, at her steersman’s willing,
She lifts her stalk-like eye
To see the sunlight spilling
Its gold on sea and sky;
And, mirrored in fair colour,
The picture true is thrown
Where, in the sea-light duller,
Her spinning engines drone.
When, with her bearings taken,
She plunges deep again,
She is as one forsaken,
Beyond the world of men.
Yet living men tend truly
Her tanks’ and air-valves’ flow,
And oil her engines duly,
For it was ordered so—
Aye, tho’ beyond the borders
Of human worlds they be,
Their orders still are orders,
And what avails the sea?
’Neath bright electrics glowing
They reck not that outside,
In age-long course, is flowing
The grey-green under-tide.
By periscope and needle
And pressure gauge they steer;
For who with steel can wheedle
As does the engineer,
In whose quick brain is hidden
The secrets of the stars—
Who on the storms has ridden,
And hurled the thunder-cars?
He hears the steady murmur
Of engines in the gloom.
Could deck or floor be firmer
Than his deep engine-room?
And he whose touch the rudders
Respond to like a child,
Calm, when she turns and shudders,
With silent mien and mild—
He makes new pathways under
The breakers’ snarling lips;
He mocks the big guns’ thunder
And scorns the battle-ships.
i'm taking a short mid-summer vacation with my family, into the land of all-you-can-eat buffets. i'll be back Tuesday night!
i have a minor pet peeve. Ever since this War on Terror started, i've heard the same stupid phrase over and over:
"If we _______, the terrorists have won."
When the terrorists win, they will pack up their suicide belts and their scimitars and stop killing people. Until then, they will not have won.
My point is that if we were to "give in to fear," for instance, the terrorists wouldn't consider it a victory because, contrary to what the government and the media want us to believe, they don't give a crap if we're afraid or not. They want us all to either convert, redraw every map to 14th Century borders, or die. So unless you fill in the blank with one of those three things, the statement will invariably be incorrect.
Casca has $900 so far. Victor has $800 and Skippystalin has $400. The category is "Places That Suck," for 200.
Hugo Schwyzer, who was once involved in Feminists for Life, has some interesting thoughts on Judge Roberts and his wife.
While my pro-choice friends might be discomfited by Sullivan Roberts' close ties to a pro-life advocacy group, I'm heartened by it. It's not just that I am (prayerfully and awkwardly) pro-life; it's also that as a pro-feminist man, I know full well that Feminists for Life is a long way away from more traditional anti-abortion outfits like National Right to Life. Though I've criticised FFL in the past for being insufficiently concerned with issues other than abortion, there's no question that they've historically taken a more progressive stance than their conservative sisters on a variety of issues. FFL has historically been strongly anti-death penalty, for example. FFL is also listed as a member organization of the Consistent-Life Movement, which has as its mission statement:We are committed to the protection of life, which is threatened in today's world by war, the arms race, abortion, poverty, racism, capital punishment, and euthanasia. We believe that these issues are linked under a consistent ethic of life.If Jane Sullivan Roberts is a card-carrying member of FFL, that means there's a better-than-sporting chance that she holds the Consistent Life Ethic position (an ethic rejected by most traditional conservatives, who don't see poverty and the arms race and the death penalty as being nearly as egregious as abortion). After all, if she didn't hold the Consistent Life Ethic, there are plenty of more conservative pro-life outfits out there to which she could lend her time and name and money! And if she held or still holds the Consistent Life Ethic position, is there not some hope that her husband shares her views?
A man who marries a brilliant woman who is his intellectual equal when both are in their forties, and happily adopts children with her, is no troglodyte. And a man married to a woman who is a proud member of a group that has 'Feminist' in its title may not be the disaster for women's rights that some liberals are predicting, nor the champion for the right that some conservatives are hoping.Ann Coulter doesn't like Judge Roberts. Hugh Hewitt, Joe Liberman and Hugo Schwyzer do.
To paraphrase Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Who is this guy?
The category is "Profanity," but it could also be called "dumb-ass actresses in dumb-ass movies." This one is for 500!
i doubt there's any visitor to this blog who needs to be reminded of the importance of this day in human history. So i don't have to tell you why i chose this poem. (It has nothing to do with Jackie Gleason.)
To The MoonWanderer! that stoop'st so low, and com'st so near
To human life's unsettled atmosphere;
Who lov'st with Night and Silence to partake,
So might it seem, the cares of them that wake;
And, through the cottage-lattice softly peeping,
Dost shield from harm the humblest of the sleeping;
What pleasure once encompassed those sweet names
Which yet in thy behalf the Poet claims,
An idolizing dreamer as of yore!--
I slight them all; and, on this sea-beat shore
Sole-sitting, only can to thoughts attend
That bid me hail thee as the SAILOR'S FRIEND;
So call thee for heaven's grace through thee made known
By confidence supplied and mercy shown,
When not a twinkling star or beacon's light
Abates the perils of a stormy night;
And for less obvious benefits, that find
Their way, with thy pure help, to heart and mind;
Both for the adventurer starting in life's prime;
And veteran ranging round from clime to clime,
Long-baffled hope's slow fever in his veins,
And wounds and weakness oft his labour's sole remains.The aspiring Mountains and the winding Streams,
Empress of Night! are gladdened by thy beams;
A look of thine the wilderness pervades,
And penetrates the forest's inmost shades;
Thou, chequering peaceably the minster's gloom,
Guid'st the pale Mourner to the lost one's tomb;
Canst reach the Prisoner--to his grated cell
Welcome, though silent and intangible!--
And lives there one, of all that come and go
On the great waters toiling to and fro,
One, who has watched thee at some quiet hour
Enthroned aloft in undisputed power,
Or crossed by vapoury streaks and clouds that move
Catching the lustre they in part reprove--
Nor sometimes felt a fitness in thy sway
To call up thoughts that shun the glare of day,
And make the serious happier than the gay?Yes, lovely Moon! if thou so mildly bright
Dost rouse, yet surely in thy own despite,
To fiercer mood the phrenzy-stricken brain,
Let me a compensating faith maintain;
That there's a sensitive, a tender, part
Which thou canst touch in every human heart,
For healing and composure.--But, as least
And mightiest billows ever have confessed
Thy domination; as the whole vast Sea
Feels through her lowest depths thy sovereignty;
So shines that countenance with especial grace
On them who urge the keel her 'plains' to trace
Furrowing its way right onward. The most rude,
Cut off from home and country, may have stood--
Even till long gazing hath bedimmed his eye,
Or the mute rapture ended in a sigh--
Touched by accordance of thy placid cheer,
With some internal lights to memory dear,
Or fancies stealing forth to soothe the breast
Tired with its daily share of earth's unrest,--
Gentle awakenings, visitations meek;
A kindly influence whereof few will speak,
Though it can wet with tears the hardiest cheek.And when thy beauty in the shadowy cave
Is hidden, buried in its monthly grave;
Then, while the Sailor, 'mid an open sea
Swept by a favouring wind that leaves thought free,
Paces the deck--no star perhaps in sight,
And nothing save the moving ship's own light
To cheer the long dark hours of vacant night--
Oft with his musings does thy image blend,
In his mind's eye thy crescent horns ascend,
And thou art still, O Moon, that SAILOR'S FRIEND!
In the "How the Leftist Fringe Has Infiltrated Your Government" department, we have this latest outrage from the office of California Attorney General, Bill Lockyer.
From Sacramento radio host Eric Hogue's blog:
California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer has invited 'political artist', Steven Pearcy, to hang his creations in the lobby of the Attorney General's Office at the Department of Justice, 1300 I Street, in Sacramento.You might remember Steven Pearcy and his ugly wife Virginia, both Bay Area lawyers who hate America.Today we dispatched our crack crew to the office complex to see for ourselves the 'artwork' hanging in the lobby - sure thing, it is in full view. Friday there was a reception, and a ceremony honoring Pearcy and his piece of 'art' as it was placed on the wall.
When Michael Moore was seated next to Jimmy Carter at the Democratic Convention, the party signaled its lack of concern for the half of this country that thinks Michael Moore is a liar and a charlatan.
While that was bad enough, it wasn't out of place at a party convention. But Bill Lockyer's office? Sure he's a Democrat, but he represents all Californians as Attorney General. By proudly displaying Pearcy's artwork, Lockyer is announcing his contempt for a good portion of the electorate that put him where he is.
i'm not saying he shouldn't have freedom of speech. But that type of inappropriate display in a state government office doesn't instill a lot of confidence that the Attorney General cares much about people like me.
So Ann Coulter's not happy about the John Roberts nomination? i don't believe her. i hate to let the cat out of the bag, but i'm convinced her column today is all part of the game plan. It smells like something Karl Rove would have cooked up.
It's no secret that presidents throughout history have used friendly and willing columnists to their own advantage. This president has been caught doing it a couple of times, to great controversy. i read Coulter's piece and her objections seem half-hearted. Hey, i agree with her on strategy. i think Bush should have named an in-your-face conservative, and i said so a few weeks ago. But on substance, the worst she can say about Roberts is "we don't know much about" him.
This is great strategy. When people who don't follow politics that much hear Ann Coulter's name, they often think of her as a right wing extremist. She is not that. Michael Savage is a right wing extremist. Coulter is just very funny, often sarcastic, blonde and female. Therefore, the left hates her more than Savage, who's appeal is narrower and thus less dangerous from their point of view. No one has to be told that Savage is a nut. But since Ann Coulter makes sense so much of the time, demonizing her is the only weapon the left has against her.
So when the politically apathetic hear that Coulter is against Roberts, they're not going to know the specifics of her lackluster objections, they're just going to think "he must be okay." It's just my theory, and of course what do i know, but this kind of reverse psychological tactic seems like trademark Rove to me.
Link thanks to Captain Ed.
[That's a Cole Porter reference, by the way.]
i'll be busy again today, so look for poetry tonight.
In the meantime, read this fantastic post from Baron Bodissey at Gates of Vienna.
Hey the announcement is only a half hour old and Schumer and Durbin have already told me everything i need to know about the Democrats' obstruction strategy!
On CNN, Durbin told Larry King that they intend to be deliberate and they need to ask a bunch of questions, and that they're entitled to ask Roberts' opinion on past cases like Roe. At an earlier press conference Schumer said that he voted against Roberts before* because Roberts would not answer certain questions.
So the strategy is to ask questions that the Democrats know a judicial nominee cannot answer according to the rules of judicial ethics, then claim that he's hiding something. They also plan to drag out the hearings, to enable their operatives to manufacture a "scandal," their allies in the media to publicize the "scandal," and the lefty blogs to whip up outrage over the "scandal."
Just watch.
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* Which is misleading, since Roberts was confirmed unanimously. Shumer voted no in committee.
Despite early reports today, speculation that right hander Matt Clement was picked to be the ninth man in the Supreme Court rotation are apparently untrue.
Sources within the administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, told annika's journal that Matt Clement was never under serious consideration.
However, some experts say Clement would have been an awesome choice, despite his 4.21 ERA and mediocre WHIP. Said annika: "Heck, he's been on my fantasy team three years in a row. i don't know what kind of justice he'd make, but he's got ten wins and 101 K's this year. And the way my team's been doing, i've needed every damn one of 'em."
Developing . . .
Update: Speculation continues to circulate around Gonzalez as a possible nominee. Some pundits say President Bush is under pressure to nominate another Arizonan to replace Justice O'Connor, who grew up in Duncan, Arizona. However, some conservative activists are wary of the veteran outfielder for the Diamondbacks.
Said prominent right wing blogger annika: "Sure Luis throws right handed, but he bats lefty. And everytime i've seen him, he's way out in left field. Can we really trust him?"
Developing . . .
Update 2: The news is out! It's Roberts! i'm ecstatic. His stats aren't outrageous, but he's got good speed and was a quality guy when he played for the Dodgers. This year Dave's been a solid contributor to the first place Padre team. Democrats who wanted a center fielder should be happy with this lefty batter.
Developing . . .
[If there's a rule about beating a joke to death, you might want to invoke it now.]
Update 3: Preston wanted a justice with strings attached. Or someone who can pull all the right strings. Or something like that.
What an honor it is to host this week's Cotillion Ball, along with Dr. Sanity, RightGirl, and Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Week in and week out, i am amazed at the talent to be found in the links of the Cotillion Ball, and this week is no different.
At my corner of the Ball, a costume theme in honor of our friends and allies, the people of Great Britain. And in honor of these grand ladies of the blogosphere, enjoy a little bit of British fashion history while you peruse the links.
While we're talking fashion, Holly of Soldiers' Angel is providing cute barefoot sandals and her original artwork out of the generosity of her heart to members of the military. She's given away over 200 miniature paintings so far, and has received many gracious thank-yous from servicewomen who appreciate a gift of somthing girlie.
In the "great minds think alike department," i was happy to find a kindred spirit in Jody of Steal the Bandwagon on the subject of the death penalty. Jody explains her change of heart regarding that touchy subject thusly:
At first it sounds great. Sure, you have so little regard to human life to take someone else’s life? Fine. Say hello to Mr. Sparky. And for most of my life this is how I have regarded the death penalty.Like Jody, it was also the Groningen Protocol story, along with Terri Schiavo's death that made me seriously question my support for the death penalty. i just don't know anymore if human beings and human institutions can be trusted with the power to decide who lives and who should die.But I am beginning to wonder if putting to death anyone can fit into my personal ideology. I am adamantly against abortion and euthanasia. The act of willfully taking another’s life devalues human life. The story last [year] regarding the newborns being euthanized in a Dutch hospital made me shudder. Imagine where life is so unvalued that a doctor is allowed to take it?
Zendo Deb of TFS Magnum found a site that has some very interesting and provocative information about self-defense, along with some cool graphics. Check out "Two ways to shield yourself from a violent attack." It's an effective way to get across a very simple yet important message. Go visit Deb and follow her link to A-Human-Right.com. Ladies especially should pay close attention to the page entitled "Stay Safe."
Michigander E. M. Zanotti of The American Princess thinks a man named Ted might be a good choice to replace governor Jennifer Granholm. No, not Kennedy... Ted Nugent.
No. I am not kidding.And let's not forget how he warned America about the dangers of Cat Scratch Fever, so many years ago. i'd vote for him.Yes, sir. The Nuge, the Motor City Madman, may be throwing his camouflage cowboy hat with the real 'coon tail into the ring to take on the Moled Wonder.
. . .Not that the Nuge isn't qualified, he's written for more than 40 publications and is author of 'God, Guns and Rock n’ Roll,' 'Kill It and Grill It' and the newly released 'BloodTrails II.' He’s serving his fourth term on the National Rifle Association’s board of directors, and is president of the Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America. And if that wasn’t enough, his No. 1 voted hunting show 'Spirit of the Wild' on the Outdoor Channel. He's the national spokesman for D.A.R.E. and he's got a solid political outlook . . .
i already alerted you to The Anchoress's blog post about the 1999 ABC News report that, quite beyond belief, completely contradicts the standard MSM line about any pre-war connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq. This post is the type of stuff that makes The Anchoress one of those blogs you should check daily as you're taking that first sip of coffee.
The same is true for Fausta's Bad Hair Blog. She implores us to focus like a laser beam on the real scandal confronting us all:
There is ONE, and I repeat, ONE pressing issue of our times: we are at war. Not a 'little' war in a far-away place, but an assault on all civilisation The Democrats simply don't have a clue as to what to do about that.Absolutely. Fausta also forsees a change in France. Who is this man Nicholas Sarkozy, and can he save the Republic?And that's the real scandal.
Denita of Who Tends The Fires describes what it's like to live along the Gulf Coast during hurricane season.
All along the Coast a person can see the legacy of numberless hurricanes. No structure is without its scars and replaced siding, with holes pocking the window frames where plywood was hastily thrown up to protect the glass. Only those houses that were built during the more peaceable Winter are pristine and untouched--and it's a sure bet that they'll no longer be virginal within a couple years.Also (if we can talk fashion again for a moment) do go over to Denita's friend Sandra's eBay shop. Mention Denita and get a $3 discount!
Children are not luggage. That may seem like an obvious point, but some folks apparently need to be reminded of the child/luggage dichotomy. Beth at Yeah, Right, Whatever has the details.
Imagine for a moment that you're a mom with a dilemma. You have to get your kids to their dad's home several states away. Your car will not fit them all. What do you do?Amazing what some people think is proper parenting these days.Here's a hint- you DON'T put your kids in the frickin' trunk!
2004 Weblog Award winner and Cotillion blogger Kate of Small Dead Animals is a great place to get a conservative's perspective on Canadian politics. Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall.com shares a great bit of family history involving the mighty 8th AAF. And pretty much everything at Villainous Company is always worth linking to; here she exhorts WaPo columnist Richard Cohen to stop lying.
i hope you enjoyed the Ball. Please go check out the rest of the links at Dr. Sanity's, RightGirl's, and Beth's
The category was made up by Victor so don't blame me. It's "People annika Would Like To Meet," for 100.
Let's make this one a little more google proof though, with a video clue.
From The Sacramento Bee:
Woodland police have arrested a man discovered skinning a pit bull, his hands drenched in blood, law enforcement officials said.i'm no fan of pit bulls, but that's just freaky. There's some real weirdos in this part of California. i wonder if he was going to make himself a coat?Officers called to the scene Saturday found transient John Hummer, 47, alongside a Woodland gas station skinning the dog with a knife, said Sgt. Davis of the Woodland Police Department.
. . .
The dog was dead at the scene and already partially skinned, he added.
Animal control officers collected the body and determined that the dog had several puncture wounds and had died within the previous hour, said Davis.
The dog had no collar and the owners are unknown, according to Davis.
Hummer was charged with maliciously and intentionally killing a dog, a felony, and booked into the Yolo County Jail, Davis said.
The category is "Fuckin' Lawyers," for 100. i name the lawyer, you tell me who was fucking 'em.
Don't forget to use the signaling device, and phrase it in the form of a question.
i'm hosting part of the Cotillion Ball this week, and i was going to save this link from The Anchoress for Tuesday. But i'm so pissed off that i had to post about it right now. i haven't been this outraged since Rathergate.
i mean, i shouldn't be surprised, i knew the media are a bunch of fucking liars who hate Republicans and will sell their country down the river, just to embarass Bush. But their unprincipled treason -- yes i am literally calling ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN and NBC traitors -- their clumsy treason is lengthening this war, encouraging the enemy, and costing American lives. The bastards.
What the fuck am i talking about? Look at this video clip.
Back in 1999 when Clinton was president, ABC News did a news report, which stated in unequivocal language that Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were in contact and actively planning an alliance. ABC News actually said that Saddam's envoy told OBL "he would be welcome in Baghdad," and that Iraq was willing to help OBL get weapons of mass destruction!
This is incredible. It's positively Orwellian. It's the smoking gun for the media's hypocrisy. As far as i'm concerned there is no reason for me to trust anything they say, ever. As if i needed a reason after Jason Blairgate, Rathergate, Easongate I, Easongate II, etc. etc.
Please watch this video and pass it on whenever you hear any liberal say that there were no links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. They bought that line because their media told them so. Upon hearing the same media tell them the exact opposite, i imagine some of them will self destruct like the computer Landrew in that old Star Trek episode.
Audio and story is at Roger Simon. Video via a comment from Bill at INDC Journal to Roger's post.
Remember the following when the Senate Democrats cry "extreme circumstances."
Bush . . . stated that Americans 'expect a Senate confirmation process that rises above partisanship.' Indeed... we expect and desrve a quick confirmation. Bush did right by establishing what the precedent of fair treatment is. The 1993 confirmation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal who replaced a retiring conservative, was voted on an confirmed with 96 votes a mere 42 days after her nomination was submitted by President Clinton in 1993. Some liberal pundits have suggested that Bush's victory in November doesn't give him a 'mandate' to replace O'Connor with a conservative. However, Clinton, in his first year of office after winning without a majority of the vote had a near painless confirmation process for his nominee, who, as I previously mentioned, replaced a retiring conservative.From Blogs For Bush.
Want a laugh? Go check out the comments to what has become my most popular post ever: "My E-Mail To L!nds@y Loh@n."
Lately, every couple of days someone has been commenting to that post. i guess google searches for L!nds@y have increased since the Herbie movie came out, and my site pops up as the number seven result in a search for the sudden waif's e-mail address.
Most of the people who arrive and comment do not seem to have a clue, and think that i am either L!inds@y herself, or a close friend of hers. It's funny. For instance, this chick thinks L!nds@y is in the habit of giving her phone number out to random strangers:
Dear Lindsay or whoever is reading,Strange.
Hey, what's up? I would like to know more about Lindsay Lohan. If anyone know her phone no & e-mail or one of them pls give it to me.If this e-mail reads it lindsasy lohan ,can u give me your phone no & e-mail pls. Thanks . Bye
Here's someone who took my satirical post way too seriously.
u honestly think Lindsay would respond to that.. and wat makes u think tht by telling her u noe a cool guy shes gonna care.Well, my post may have been satire, but i wasn't lying when i said that L!nds@y would totally dig on Ken Wheaton, if she only met him.
My post has become a discussion board of sorts for a totally different audience, most likely international, and very obviously young. i am beginning to worry about the state of English language education in the world, now that i've seen a sampling of what passes for spelling and grammar.
well i thing lindsay is the best actris in the world .and herbie fully loaded is the greatest movoe i ever saw. all the movies of linsay i h ave saw but i just want to know if anybody has her email adress i will be great to have it thanks byeCrikey! i have to admire anyone with the intestinal fortitude to sit through the entire L!nds@y oeuvre. What fascinating conversations one might have. i imagine they might go like this, for instance:
"i love how the auteur combines editing and cinematography in idiosyncratic ways as a commentary on outmoded concepts of "reality" [here make the "quote" gesture with fingers] utilizing both the explicit and implicit narrative meanings in the film Freaky Friday."
"Oh yes, but the subtlety of The Parent Trap is at once delicious and painful as an expression of ambivalent attitudes toward the ideological issue of violence, drawing upon conventions of cinematic realism to characterize the plot structure and mise-en-scene exposition of theme and characters."
"Exactly. I wept."
But most of the comments contain the same question: "How can i get in touch with L!nds@y?" Since i have been silent on the matter, as i can't answer that question, other commenters have offered their advice.
I have several adresses thay all clame to be lindsays I emailed her about amillion times I have mary kate and ashleys but who knows if they are real.Now there's a question i can answer. They are not real. All four are fake. And spectacular, from what i hear.
What kind of Drugs are you? and how that reflect your personality?
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Yesterday, Captains Quarters linked to the results of an independent investigation that found only three violations of Army Regulations and the Geneva Conventions* at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
The chief investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, described the interrogation techniques used on Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.Looking at the list of "violations," i realize that most, if not all of these things have happened to me at various times in my life. i bet most of you could say the same thing.. . .
Schmidt said that to get him to talk, interrogators told him his mother and sisters were whores, forced him to wear a bra, forced him to wear a thong on his head, told him he was homosexual and said that other prisoners knew it. They also forced him to dance with a male interrogator, Schmidt added, and subjected him to strip searches with no security value, threatened him with dogs, forced him to stand naked in front of women and forced him onto a leash, to act like a dog.
Someone has insulted my mother.
i've worn a bra. In fact, i'm wearing one right now, against my will.
i've worn a thong, though not on my head.
i've been told that i like men and that other people knew it.
i've danced with men.
i've had my clothes removed from my body for no apparent security purpose.
i've been frightened by a dog.
i've stood naked around women.
i've barked like a dog. uhhh, but i was drunk at the time.
No comment on the leashy thing.
Where's my ACLU lawyer?
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* Why we're even talking about the Geneva Conventions is a mystery to me. Until Al Qaeda becomes a signatory to that agreement, it is irrelevant.
So say Michelle Malkin, Gaypatriot and Gryphmon, who is all over this story.
Today the SF Board of Supervisors engaged in an offensive display of prejudice, stupidity and a lack of respect for history, both of the military and of the gay community.Even my best liberal friend in San Francisco, Franci, is outraged at this. What the hell is going on over there? Are they going to get rid of the U.S.S. Pampanito next?'The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today voted 3-8 against a resolution urging the San Francisco Congressional Delegation to support the permanent berthing of the USS Iowa as a museum at the Port of San Francisco.'I'm sorry, but I will not ever visit a place where the US military is not welcome.
Breaking news here in Sacramento. A County Sheriff's helicopter crashed near Lake Natoma in Folsom. Channel 13 reports that the media has been excluded from the scene and that it is being considered a "crime scene."
According to Channel 10:
Multiple witnesses say the copter was flying low over the Lake Natoma area when popping sounds were heard and flames were spotted shooting from the craft's engines. The copter's tail appeared to break up in mid-air before the craft hit a hillside on the north side of Lake Natoma and rolled down the hill.Weird.
War poetry this week.
In his travels, the knight errant Don Quixote de La Mancha met a man known as "the captive," who fought against the Turks. The captive was taken prisoner by a fierce pirate and made a slave oarman on a Turkish galley. The captive related the story of another slave who rowed next to him on the galley, a nobleman named Don Pedro de Aguilar, who had a gift for poetry. Here is one of his sonnets, about the bravery of the Spanish soldiers who in 1574 died defending the Goletta, a citadel near Tunis, the infamous home of the Barbary pirates.
O blissful souls, who from the mortal veil
freed and unconfined, flew from this low earth,
borne on the wings of brave and virtuous deeds
to the highest, holiest spheres of glorious heav'n,
ablaze with fury and with righteous zeal,
and summoning all your honor and your strength,
you colored the ocean and the sandy ground
with your own blood, and with the enemy's;
you lost your lives before you lost the valor
of your weary, battling arms; in death,
though you are vanquished, victory is yours.
Your mortal, melancholy fall, between
the ramparts and the attacking horde, brings you
fame in this world, blessed glory in the next.
The category is "profanity."
Don't forget to use your signaling device.
If not for Michele's A Small Victory, i might never have heard about this horrible crime, which happened yesterday.
At least 22 schoolchildren have reportedly been shot dead in a brutal raid on a remote village in northeastern Kenya.i don't get it. Do the elites care about Africa or don't they. Why wasn't this the lead on every newscast? Twenty-two schoolkids still wearing their uniforms?A total of 66 were killed in what is believed to be the country's worst-ever single episode of inter-clan violence, a local politician said.
Bonaya Godana, the member of parliament for North Horr district in which the attack took place, said that 56 villagers, most of them young children and their mothers, had been killed in yesterday's raid on Turbi village.
Police said earlier that 10 of the attackers had also been killed.
Mr Godana, a former Kenyan foreign minister who was touring the scene of the brutal attack, said many of the victims had been shot dead while preparing to go to school.
'As of this morning, 56 of our people have been confirmed dead and of them are 22 schoolchildren, and most of them died in their school uniforms,' he said, adding that 10 schoolchildren were among those seriously wounded in the attack.
'The majority of the dead are mothers and their children,' Mr Godana said. 'Three other people are still missing and we suspect that they are dead.'
i will be pretty busy today, so Poetry Wednesday will be posted later today.
Meanwhile, check out some of the great blogs on my sidebar. Like Little Miss Attila, who wrote something recently that i can totally relate to:
as I tick down the list of things I'm interested in: cars, trains, guns, military strategy. Motorcycles.i hear ya, girl. My list includes airplanes, military history, sports, action movies, and science fiction. i should have been a boy.I'm clearly not a middle-aged woman, but rather a 16-year-old boy trapped in a middle-aged female body.
Count me among the list of conservative bloggers who say Karl Rove must go.
Dr. Rusty doesn't want the distraction of a scandal.
The Maximum Leader wants to see the administration maintian a higher standard.
i'm in agreement with many of the points made by the above two esteemed gentlemen. It is not clear that Rove violated any laws. As i understand it, the statute in question has an intent element, and as any former 1st year law student will tell you, proving intent is the tough part.
But to me, the main issue is this: President Bush said that any administration official found to have been involved in leaking the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer would be fired.
The fact that Valerie Plame was not really undercover seems irrelevant now, and that is as it should be, in my opinion. We are in the middle of a Global War on Terror, and we should not be playing semantics when it comes to perhaps the most important weapon in that war: our intelligence services. There should be a bright line standard that protects all members of the C.I.A. They need to have the confidence that they can do their job without risk that the Administration might rat them out for political reasons. i'm not saying that was what was done here, but that's the perception, like it or not.
So, Bush promised to fire anyone involved and now we find out that at least one of the persons who leaked the info was "the architect" himself. Maybe it was stupid for the President to say he'd fire anyone, but he said it. It was also stupid for the President to back off on the yellow cake assertion too, when the British were sticking by the report. What the hell, this administration has never been one that places a high value on articulatication, unfortunately.
But i didn't vote for Bush twice because i thought he was articulate. i voted for him because i trust him on key issues. Not all issues mind you, but key issues like whether i'm going to get blowed up sometime in the future or not. i need to trust him on certain things. i need to know that his commitment to this Nation is greater than his commitment to his friends. Even to friends like Karl Rove, a man to whom the President, this country, and by extension myself, owe a great deal.
Yes, i am incredibly grateful to Karl Rove for everything he did to prevent the unbelievable disaster that a Gore presidency would have been for this country, in this time. And for preventing a Kerry presidency, which would have also been disastrous, though less so than Gore, who i believe is mentally unstable. But all gratitude aside, Karl Rove is expendable. Especially so, now that Bush has been elected to his final term.
On January 26, 1998, President Clinton looked me (and all Americans) in the eye and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."* It was that statement, which wasn't even under oath, that bothered me more than anything else he did. It bothered me even more than his lying to the Grand Jury. When a president speaks to the American people like that, in those kind of absolute terms, he is calling on an automatic reservoir of trust we give to our leaders. Maybe it's foolish to grant any politician that kind of trust, but i think most rational Americans do. So when it turned out that Clinton looked me in the eye and lied, well, i couldn't forgive him for that.
Now, Bush didn't look into any cameras when he promised to fire anyone who leaked the Plame info, or if he did it's not something i've seen. But that doesn't matter. Bush made a promise in absolute terms about something very simple. i want him to keep that promise.
_______________
* This is the full Clinton quote, in all its infamous glory:
"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time – never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people."
This week's Cotillion Ball, highlighting the best women bloggers around (minus one), is being hosted at the following wonderful sites:
Feisty Repartee
Sisu
Villianous Company
Sissy Willis describes the Cotillion like this:
Then there are the Ladies of the Cotillion. Hold the door for one of them as a courtesy, and she'll flash you a dazzling smile. But sign her dance card, and you'd better have your wits about you. She adores a rousing debate at least as much as a fling around the dance floor and does not suffer fools gladly. The blogosphere is littered with the corpses of lesser word warriors' debating points.Get in on the Instalanche.
And speaking of -lanches, Hello to all Rodger fans!
On this off day for the Tour, i thought you all might enjoy this bit of Tour de France historical trivia.
Question: What dinosaur was also an excellent biker in the time trial events?
Answer in the extended entry.
Answer: Parasaurolophus, of course. Due to its advanced skull design.
Old media cartoonists should know better than to talk smack about the blogosphere. The consistently readable Varifrank delivers a well-deserved bitchslap to Gary Trudeau and a whole demographic.
that’s ok Gary. My generation will be here after yours is soon gone to write the legacy of your lives. That is our revenge. We get to be the ones to tell your tale. And I do admit your generation did do one thing right, it created the internet.i know a lot of people who stopped reading Doonesbury back in the eighties. i'm proud to say i never read that shit.Thanks man! You just gave the power of the press, once just reserved for people like yourself, to average wingnuts like me. "Power to the people" isn’t that how the song used to go? Well here it is baby!, only it seems that your generation really didn’t mean "power to the people" it really meant "power only to people who think just like us". Whoopsie Daisy! I guess that didn’t work out quite like you planned either. Is there anything your generation worked on that did work out? Well, yeah, The Internet. Now chock full of those people you and your cartoon now decry as 'unemployed losers'. Its funny the way you say it just like your parents called the people in your generation "in need of a haircut and a bath".
And my generation is now exploiting the internet. Did I say "Exploit"? Shall we call it what it is? Let's call it a revolution!( quick, get that Beatles record, where’s that "you say you want a revolution"- I so want to rip that to an MP3 and provide a link right here.) And since were throwing metaphors around, Those "barbarians at the gates" that you are hearing? Those "barbarians" are people like me, who can reach more people in an afternoon than you could do in the first 10 years of your underground 'fighting against the man' career. Only we aren’t underground, were that 'evil middle class' America you railed so much about when you still had hair on your head and not in your ears. Thanks to your generation, we don’t have to go through people you to talk to each other any more. We control the means of production comrade.
The 'silent majority' just got High Speed Wireless Broadband baby, and if you were part of my generation, you’d know what that meant.
Varifrank, on a roll now, continues:
We don’t think America is a bad place. We think its a pretty damn nice place. We cant help but notice the people that risk their lives to come here are all smiling when the arrive, almost as if they were happy to be here. Imagine that! Perhaps they haven’t been reading your cartoon or listening to Air America. Maybe if we put Al Franken on the Air in Tijuana, that might stop the illegal immigration problem( oh if only we could warn them Gary, if only...) We don’t need to translate Air America to Spanish, the language of the upper class yellow coward is universal around the world. The only people we see in this country who stagger around unhappily are ones with the Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers on their cars. Maybe the new car smell in Volvos isn’t quite as country fresh as it is in our hummers...Insert "not all baby-boomers are leftists" disclaimer here. Of course, the generation that gave us the "make love not war" slogan does have an unfortunate reputation to live down.We don’t think the military are baby killers. We honor our troops, We honor the past, We honor the dead. We respect the living. My generation didn’t need a draft, it volunteered! 'Greatest Generation'? Well, we think that gene skipped a generation. Your generation wants to lay prostrate at the feet of those who killed innocent people in Manhattan, wants to equate Mohammed Attas soldiers in Guantanmo to the likes of Martin Luther King in a Birmingham jail. This generation has given its life to go kill those who killed us and to help spread the liberty of democracy, yes - I said it, liberty , Democracy AND YES, FREEDOM to those who are enslaved. Your generation sneers at the very idea of such a thing. Your generation thinks the only thing the world needs to be liberated from is us. You think that because some of us don’t want to have our tax money go to 'piss christ' that we don’t have freedom, while women who were shot in the back of the head for kite flying in Afghanistan wonder just what the hell your generation is talking about.
i really believe that a lot of liberal mischief is the result of an ill-conceived nostalgia for the sixties. The press believes that their high water mark was toppling Nixon. When in fact, Nixon toppled himself. But they desparately want to do it again. And to the old media, if truth gets in the way, fuck the truth. They want another Nixon.
The anti-war left is the same way. Young activists, trained in the crucible of our universities by former hippies who think they "stopped the war, man," want nothing more than to do it again. Never mind that Nixon stopped the war, not the activists. (As Michael Medved is fond of pointing out, the giant anti-war demonstrations all but evaporated after Nixon ended the draft. Even as the war continued.)
Listen, i went to Berkeley. If there's one drumbeat that you hear all through undergrad there, it is this: Make a difference. Sounds great, but the thrust of that imperative is limited and obvious once you spend a few semesters there. "Making a difference" is narrowly defined not as "having a family," "raising good children," or "contributing to society in a constructive way." It's defined as a blind opposition to anything traditional. "Tear it all down, man."
Trouble is, that sentiment is in itself traditional. Yes, traditionally Marxist.
Link via Dymphna at Gates of Vienna.
From Moonbat Central:
Incredibly, the British press is actually using the 'T' word. Yes, they are referring to the London Underground perps as terrorists. Why is this so unusual? Because the British media have been religiously scrupulous in referring to all terrorists and mass murderers who attack Jews as 'activists' and 'militants'.Read the rest. Link thanks to Lonely Thinker.. . .
It was suddenly not a legitimate form of protest against occupation to mass-murder civilians. The British newspapers did not not issue special editions documenting the abuses of human rights by Britain, nor bemoan the 'grievances' of those angry at the UK. Not a single Euro-politician made a speech denouncing the illegal British occupations of the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.
. . .
And the BBC has not demanded that the Brits re-examine their own behavior, to discover which manifestation of their arrogance provoked the Al-Qaida savages.
. . .
There were no protests against British plans to implement 'profiling' at its airports and train stations. . . . Human rights groups did not demand that any captured subway terrorists be treated as prisoners of war with full Geneva Convention privileges and good lawyers.
With 99 votes in, i'm calling round two of the Kick-Ass Movie Assassins Runoff for Beatrix Kiddo. As you recall, i asked you to vote on the following question:
If Lara Croft and Beatrix Kiddo were each given orders to kill each other, who would win?For those not dialed in to the popular culture, Lara Croft is the kick-ass girl archaeologist/secret agent played by Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movies based on the popular videogame. Beatrix Kiddo is the master assassin from Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2, also known as the Bride, or Black Mamba.
The early voting was very close with Lara Croft and Beatrix running neck and neck until about fifty votes were in. Then Beatrix pulled away and kept a substantial lead until the end. As of this writing Lara Croft had 37% to Beatrix Kiddo's 63%.
For me, the choice was easy, and not just because Kill Bill vol. 2 is perhaps the best movie i've seen since L.A. Confidential. Beatrix Kiddo was totally fearless. She survived getting shot in the head and being buried alive. Only a couple months after waking up from a four year coma, she defeated the entire Crazy 88's bodyguard with just a samurai sword, then dispatched a well rested O-Ren Ishii. She may be the only person in the world who knows the secret five-point exploding heart technique.
By contrast, the only thing Lara Croft could make explode was a pair of nipples through a quarter inch of neoprene. There's a scene in The Cradle Of Life where she's pointing a big gun at the bad guy and her hand was shaking! Some bad-ass. Black Mamba wouldn't give her a second thought.
Next up, for Round Three i've chosen an obvious match-up: Maggie from Point Of No Return vs. Nikita from La Femme Nikita (The Luc Besson film, not the tv show). This should be a good fight. So scroll down and vote!
And while you're at it, do check out my friend Matt's Baddest-Ass Post-Apocalyptic Movie Hero Tournament. Round One is Max from the Mad Max series vs. Reese from The Terminator.
P.S. Click here to see my Round One results: Jason Bourne vs. Jack Bauer.
As predicted and long feared, a spider bit annika on the ass.
. . .
Meanwhile, in Florida, it's windy.
Developing...
Hey, i just heard that Bono is planning to have a big concert to end world poverty. i think that's a great idea. All these bands are going to participate. i hope they can do it, becuz poverty is a bad thing. Lots of money should do the trick. Yay Bono.
They're going to call it Live-8. It's kind of a reference to Live-Aid, which was the name of that concert that ended world hunger back in the eighties.
Anybody know when this big concert is going to happen? i don't want to miss it.
i got tagged on this meme by Ginger, so here goes.
[Warning: i have a very boring life.]
10 years ago: i had just graduated. It was summer and i was spending most of the time with my biker boyfriend
5 years ago: i was temping at Brobeck in San Francisco. And no, i don't remember ever having met Jennifer the Apprentice runner-up, although she worked there too. Betty and i went dancing at the same club every Saturday, where we got in free and got free drinks the whole time. Dating Colby the first time-around.
1 year ago: Just moved to Sacramento. Sleeping on a futon on the floor.
Yesterday: Took the afternoon off to visit with my friend's family in Dixon. Her mom was sick and i brought some flowers. Afterwards, watched X-Men 2 on DVD.
Today: Made coffee. Watched Forbes on tv. Plan to buy a vacuum and/or play tennis with Megan. BBQ tonight at a cute boy's house.
Tomorrow: Nada. Sleep in. Church.
5 snacks I enjoy: Doritos spicy nachos. Sun-dried tomato Wheat-Thins with lite garden veggie cream cheese. Tillamook mint chocolate chip ice cream. A haas avocado salad. Chewy granola bars.
5 bands that I know the lyrics of MOST of their songs: i can't think of five. i can sing along to almost any AC/DC or Frank Sinatra tune, though.
5 things I would do with $100,000,000: Get out of debt. Buy a sweet car, like a convertible Benz. My mom, dad and brother would get a bunch of money, and i'd donate a lot to my High School too. I'd travel to all the places i want to see, like Japan, South America and back to Europe.
5 locations I’d like to run away to: Portugal, Prague, the South Pacific, New Zealand, Amsterdam.
5 bad habits I have: The first four are the usual bad habits. i also sometimes say "what" when someone's talking, even though i heard them perfectly well. i have no idea why i do this; it's like an involuntary thing.
5 things I like doing: blogging, dancing, tennis, painting, reading.
5 things I would never wear: animal print, a headband, jewelled sandals, a tubetop (agreeing with Lorie) or Muumuu (agreeing with Ginger)
5 TV shows I like: Any sporting event, Conan O'Brien, 24, most anything on the History Channel, Cops. i used to love The Apprentice, but last season was kind of sucky.
5 movies I like: The Wizard of Oz, Arthur, It's A Wonderful Life, All About Eve, Groundhog Day
5 famous people I’d like to meet: Most of them are dead, like Abe Lincoln, FDR, Sinatra, Shakespeare, Reagan
5 biggest joys at the moment: looking forward to tonight, writing a really good motion for work, kicking back with my roomies and Bay Area friends, visiting my parents and hanging out with my bro and my L.A. friends.
5 favorite toys: Legos, Barbie, koosh ball, G.I. Joe, videogames
5 people to tag: Nobody ever does this when i tag them, so i'm going to tag no one and everyone.
i wonder, where is the Britain celebrated in this poem by James Thomson and set to music in 1740 by Thomas Augustine Arne?
Rule Britannia!When Britain first at Heav'n's command, Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land, And guardian angels sang this strain;Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never never never shall be slaves!
The nations not so blest as thee, Shall in their turns to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free, The dread and envy of them all.Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never never never shall be slaves!
Still more majestic shalt thou rise, More dreadful from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies, Serves but to root thy native oak.Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never never never shall be slaves!
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame, All their attempts to bend thee down;
Will but arouse thy generous flame, But work their woe, and thy renown.Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never never never shall be slaves!
To thee belongs the rural reign, Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main, And every shore it circles thine.Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never never never shall be slaves!
The Muses, still with freedom found, Shall to thy happy coast repair;
Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crowned, And manly hearts to guide the fair.Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never never never shall be slaves!
i hate to rain on everybody's parade, but i don't see that kind of fighting spirit when i look at today's Britain. What i see is a bunch of effete multiculturalist apologists. And a "blame Bush and Blair before the terrorists" attitude that will only get more people killed.
This We're not Afraid! site, which everybody's linking to, is great but you know... so what? i think the problem with Europe in general is that they haven't developed a healthy enough fear of the enemy in their very midst. And courage without action is not courage at all. Britain, i fear, is paralyzed by their own liberalism. They don't get it.
Check this firsthand report of Londoners' opinions by Charmaine Yoest at Reasoned Audacity.
'It's Tony Blair's fault! They've killed 100,000 people [repeating the now discredited Lancet statistic] it's like a boomerang.' Later she repeated this, talking about 'killing innocent people' and 'invading other peoples' country . . .'9/11 was silly? What can i say? i know that was one ignorant person's reaction, but it's so typical of what i hear all the time from people. Invading other people's countries is the cause of terrorism? That idea has been debunked so many times that it's almost useless to keep trying. People have a choice about where they get their information and whom they can choose to believe. It seems that in England, and in Europe in general, they consistently choose wrong.When we asked her the question about the calm, she shrugged too. 'We're used to it,' she replied. 'Americans get patriotic over anything silly.'
So to my original question. What happened to that Britain that will never never never be enslaved? Maybe it's still there, below the BBC-ified surface. i knew a Brit in undergrad, a huge Celtic fan, who loved to sing the chorus of Rule Britannia at the top of his lungs when he got a few Guinesses in him. i don't know whatever happened to that guy, but i'd bet he be as pro-kicking ass as Christopher Hitchens was on tv today.
A poster at the We're not Afraid! site quoted a recent movie with its own anti-Bush/Blair undertones:
The irony is too obvious to pass up. As most of you remember, in The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda also said
"You will be..."
You will be afraid, Britain, if you don't stop working against this "War On Terror." If you don't stop blaming Bush and Blair for the actions of murdering criminals. If you don't demand truth from the BBC. If you decide to emulate the Spanish, who by the way, will be attacked again. (OBL himself has said that he wants Andalusia back. Don't think he's forgotten about Spain.)
And look, memo to the rest of Europe: You're all targets. If you don't like the way we're doing things, if you think we've been sidetracked by Iraq and we should be concentrating on Afghanistan, nobody is stopping you from going over there and taking care of the problem yourself. You all got armies don't you? Go get OBL. He's your problem too. Or is it all you can do to criticize Bush and Blair, who at least are trying to do something?
Why should we care about what happened in London? Or in Madrid, for that matter? Those terrorists had nothing to do with 9/11. And remember, Great Britain was at one time very bad bad bad, back when they were an empire. A Brit invented the internal combustion engine, remember? Okay, so it was a Swiss guy, but still, they drive on the wrong side of the road. And they have -- gasp -- a national religion! And it's a Christian religion too! Bad bad bad people. Which reminds me, the English were big in the Crusades, weren't they? Okay so there. They deserved it. Plus, Halliburton sounds like an English name to me. Richard Burton was English wasn't he? Welsh? Really? Whatever.
Plus, assuming that the bomb making materials were purchased in British shops, then we should always remember that the British armed those terrorists! And of course, capturing the terrorists who are responsible and putting them in jail might be used as a recruiting tool by other terrorists. Therefore if we go after them, we could end up creating more terrorists!
Anyways, why should we care? The U.N. is on the case now and they will take care of everything. Don't worry. The all-powerful U.N. and their fearless leader Kofi Annan, is on the case! Three cheers for the U.N.!
Just hours after a series of explosions in London, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to condemn the terrorist attacks and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.Hold on just a second. "Without reservation." "Without reservation?" "WITHOUT reservation!" i feel so much better now that the U.N. has decided to withhold reservation from their condemnation. That was a close one. i can't imagine what kind of trouble we'd be in if they had condemned the bombings with reservation. Whew!Secretary-General Kofi Annan echoed that sentiment.
'These vicious acts have cut us all to the core, for they are an attack on humanity itself,' Annan said in a statement. 'Today, the world stands shoulder to shoulder with the British people.'
A resolution approved by the council condemned 'without reservation the terrorist attacks in London . . .
. . . and regards any act of terrorism as a threat to peace and security.' It urged all states to cooperate in finding and bringing to justice the perpetrators and expressed the council's 'utmost determination to combat terrorism.'Heh... they said the word combat. i wonder what "combat" means when the U.N. says it. Might it mean "hope the U.S. does something, so we can go on counting our money in peace?"
[Oops, sorry, i guess my liberal hat fell off there for a second.]
Yay U.N.!
i am also pleased to hear that the great and powerful U.N. has also condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the assassination of the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq. Wow, those boys over at the U.N. have been keeping busy. But that's what they're there for, and i for one am so glad that we can look to the U.N. for this sort of protection whenever terrorists strike.
England will save herself by her exertions, and Europe by her example.i am well familiar with two of the tube stops that were blown up today. When i studied in London i often did research at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, located at Russell Square. Some good friends of mine rented a flat only a block or two from the Edgeware Road station. When my parents came to visit me for a week, they stayed in a hotel by the Edgeware Road stop.―William Pitt
When i lived in London, i used the tube so much that i was unable to get around on the surface. i knew directions only by looking at the tube map. i lived in the West End (this was my flat) and took either the District Line or the Picadilly Line twice a day. Although there was still some residual danger of IRA terrorism, i never encountered any problems. i think there was only one bombing while i was there, and i doubt anyone was killed. Interestingly enough, if i'm not mistaken, i think it occurred up by Edgware Road, too.
During the first London Blitz of August 1940 to May 1941 over 43,000 civilians died and 139,000 were injured. The picture below was taken on December 29, 1940, at the height of the blitz. During the V-weapon blitzes of 1944, about 8800 civilians died. One might think that the British people will be strong now, as they were during WWII. But they were united then, and now i'm not so sure. They have a sense that this is America's war, and seem to forget that we once thought of WWII was their war. Until we fought side-by-side with them to victory.
Almost sixty-five years ago to the day, Winston Churchill said these words:
We await undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will never come. We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden violent shock or what is perhaps a harder task, a prolonged vigil. But be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley, we may show mercy--we ask none.Britain stopped Hitler's invasion, Operation Sea Lion. That fight was comparatively easy, when you consider that today's invaders are already inside Britain and there are no uniforms to know them by. They got there through the EC's open borders. And their presence is protected by political correctness.
Much as i love Tony Blair, i wonder if he could ever show the same toughness as Churchill. The terrorists are calling this World War III. When will we? When our president said "Bring 'em on," he was pilloried. Yet he spoke the only language tyrants and would-be tyrants understand.
Britain was once a great empire. They bowed to no one. (Except when they fought us.) Now what are they? Half the country embraces moral relativism, but in the pubs, you still can hear the voice of the working class. They're anti-Europe, proud of their heritage as well as their football teams, and i'll bet they're pissed tonight. (In the American sense of the word, if not the British.) Britain's soul is in a state of flux, and i hope the side that understands the epigram i chose for this post will win out. Perhaps today's attack will wake them up.
i woke up to the news of the bombings on the radio, and immediately switched on CNN, who i believe is still the best at covering breaking news, especially international. However, after i criticized Fox News only a few days ago, i have to say that Fox's coverage was superior, at least this morning. That's probably because they relied on a feed from Sky News.
i'm so exasperated by the left that i don't even have the stomach to read about their predictably defeatist attitude toward these attacks. i don't have the energy to rant about them right now. It should suffice to say that the only acceptable reaction to the bombings is, i believe, anger. The only acceptable response is to seek vengeance on those responsible and their sympathizers. i believe the time for a measured and proportionate response is long past, if it ever existed.
Michael Savage, whom i dislike by the way, did have an interesting opening to his show today. He played audio from a jihadist "rally" that took place in London only two months ago. The crowd was led in various chants that were chillingly prescient. "Death to America." "Death to Tony Blair." "George Bush you will die." etc. etc. etc. This was another unheeded warning. Unheeded because of political correctness.
It seems to me that if our enemy is bold enough to profess their wish to kill us openly, and we do nothing about it, we should not be surprised when they do kill large numbers of us. Savage is an extremist and he gives conservatives a bad name, but when he predicts that the day is coming when all European Muslims will be rounded up and interned, i wonder if he's right. Or, if he's not right, i wonder if he should be right.
And how could such a disturbing pogrom be averted? Not by pulling troops out of the Middle East. Not by abandoning Israel to the wolves. No, not even by signing the Kyoto treaty. It can only be averted by creating Democracy in the center of the storm. A stable and democratic Iraq is the best hope for the survival of Western Civilization.
One other London observation just came to mind. When i was there, i never understood the romantic fascination a lot of people had with "arab men." Especially the British women. They talked about them like we sometimes do about latin men over here, like they were these incredible lovers. More than once in a pub, i heard stories about rich arab men who came in and offered women like a million dollars to go back to Saudi Arabia to be one of their wives. i didn't get it. Chicks talked about it like they almost wished it would happen to them. The thought disgusts me.
UporDownVote.com predicts a ten step plan for Democratic opposition to whomever is announced as President Bush's choice to replace Justice O'Connor.
1. Before a vacancy is announced – whip your membership into a frenzy with overblown rhetoric...i would add that in general, the left's strategy will be to buy time by attacking the nominee's ideology and philosophy until they can uncover something more base to accuse him or her with. Some gossipy scandal that appeals to least common denominator. This is what happened with Clarence Thomas, remember? It's what they tried with Arnold Schwarzenegger,* and what they're trying to do with John Bolton.** And let's be fair, it's what Ken Starr did to Bill Clinton.2. …while preparing for battle.
3. Once a nominee is named, immediately announce that the nominee’s record “raises more questions than it answers.” (Note: there will never be enough documents released, proof provided, or enough questions answered in order to satisfy the Left.)
4. Plead for a slower pace.
5. If the nominee is rated highly qualified by the ABA, dismiss this as a prerequisite for the job. If the nominee receives anything less than the highest qualifications, express outrage.
6. Force the nominee to pledge allegiance to a liberal ideology.
7. Ah-HAAAA!!! – The Left’s research will reveal a few “alarming” findings or “smoking guns.”
8. Previously released findings re-released as “research” and distributed by the media.
9. Liberal Hollywood Celebrities make an 11th hour appearance.
10. FINALLY, official opposition is coordinated and announced in a drip-drip fashion.
Since we all know that the liberals will vehemently oppose anybody Bush picks (Why wouldn't they? Today's liberal leadership haven't an ounce of principle.) Bush has an incredible opportunity that he should not pass up. He should appoint an in-your-face conservative to replace the moderate O'Connor.
Loyalty and friendship should not factor into Bush's decision. He should absolutely not nominate Alberto Gonzalez, for instance. Now, i don't know whether the rap on Berto is true or false. But i do know that he is perceived as squishy, and that is enough. Nominating Gonzalez would be a signal of capitulation and would squander the great opportunity i mentioned above.
Since everybody expects the liberals to dump on the nominee, if Bush appoints a true ideological conservative, people may be naturally skeptical of any attacks against the nominee. This is the same effect we saw in the recent presidential election, when the outrageous slanders against Bush from Hollywood et al. reached a critical mass. Middle America rejected the slurs, and the polls reflected their rejection.
Senators read polls too, even lilly-livered Republican Senators. What i'd like to see is Bush appoint a staunch conservative with a well documented paper trail to prove it. Then i'd like to see Dr. Frist grow a fucking spine and do his job. i know Bush will back his nominee to the bitter end, he's proven that. If the nominee is willing to absorb the baseless, hypocritical attacks (like Thomas did) and stick it out, i think we might have a good chance to restore some sanity to the Supreme Court.
_______________
* And never forget who the chief accomplice was in the effort to assassinate Schwarzenegger's character during the recall election: The Los Angeles Times. Now that the election is over, one wonders why the Times has completely abandoned pursuit of all those groping accusations that once warranted front page coverage.
** If you really think that the Democrats' opposition to Bolton is based on principle, ask yourself whether they would have given two shits about Bolton's personality if he had been appointed by a Democratic president. Then you might want to talk to a few ex DiFi staffers, and see how they liked working for her. Not to mention Hillary staffers.
Check out what the girls of the Cotillion are doing at this week's Ball.
Dance over to the following sites:
The Anchoress
Little Miss Attila
Charmaine at Reasoned Audacity
Jody at Steal The Bandwagon
DMC at Ridgecrest Blog has a couple of really good Tour de France updates.
The first is something Tour fans already know. Lance Armstrong is a class act.
Today Lance Armstrong showed up for the big roll out wearing his normal Discovery Channel jersey, not the yellow jersey of the race leader that he was entitiled to wear.The second update concerns a questionable judgment call on the part of David Zabriskie's team leader, Bjarni Riis.. . .
After the rollout the race referees told Lance that he would have to wear the yellow or risk being disqualified from the race. So Armstong is racing with the yellow jersey pulled on over his discovery jerset. Let's hope it doesn't get hot today.
So there you go, in a day of overpaid, over egoed proffesional athletes we have one here that tries to take the high road and do the right thing and the race officials have to get involved and drag him back into the muck.
To Bjarne Riis, you made a tough call ordering the team to ride on withour Zabriskie. But was it the right call? YOu should have left a rider behind to help him. To bad you don't respect the yellow jersey as much as the guy who was wearing it and the man today who is reluctantly wearing it today.Go check out Ridgecrest Blog. It's good stuff.
In honor of Independence Day, here's Robert Frost's famous history lesson. This is a long poem, but i found that by following the iambic pentameter, it's easier to read. In general, that means that every other syllable is emphasized, starting with the second syllable of each line.
For John F. Kennedy His InaugurationGift outright of "The Gift Outright"
(With some preliminary history in rhyme)
Summoning artists to participate
In the august occasions of the state
Seems something artists ought to celebrate.
Today is for my cause a day of days.
And his be poetry's old-fashioned praise
Who was the first to think of such a thing.
This verse that in acknowledgement I bring
Goes back to the beginning of the end
Of what had been for centuries the trend;
A turning point in modern history.
Colonial had been the thing to be
As long as the great issue was to see
What country'd be the one to dominate
By character, by tongue, by native trait,
The new world Christopher Columbus found.
The French, the Spanish, and the Dutch were downed
And counted out. Heroic deeds were done.
Elizabeth the First and England won.
Now came on a new order of the ages
That in the Latin of our founding sages
(Is it not written on the dollar bill
We carry in our purse and pocket still?)
God nodded his approval of as good.
So much those heroes knew and understood,
I mean the great four, Washington,
John Adams, Jefferson, and Madison
So much they saw as consecrated seers
They must have seen ahead what not appears,
They would bring empires down about our ears
And by the example of our Declaration
Make everybody want to be a nation.
And this is no aristocratic joke
At the expense of negligible folk.
We see how seriously the races swarm
In their attempts at sovereignty and form.
They are our wards we think to some extent
For the time being and with their consent,
To teach them how Democracy is meant.
"New order of the ages" did they say?
If it looks none too orderly today,
'Tis a confusion it was ours to start
So in it have to take courageous part.
No one of honest feeling would approve
A ruler who pretended not to love
A turbulence he had the better of.
Everyone knows the glory of the twain
Who gave America the aeroplane
To ride the whirlwind and the hurricane.
Some poor fool has been saying in his heart
Glory is out of date in life and art.
Our venture in revolution and outlawry
Has justified itself in freedom's story
Right down to now in glory upon glory.
Come fresh from an election like the last,
The greatest vote a people ever cast,
So close yet sure to be abided by,
It is no miracle our mood is high.
Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
Better than all the stalemate an's and ifs.
There was the book of profile tales declaring
For the emboldened politicians daring
To break with followers when in the wrong,
A healthy independence of the throng,
A democratic form of right devine
To rule first answerable to high design.
There is a call to life a little sterner,
And braver for the earner, learner, yearner.
Less criticism of the field and court
And more preoccupation with the sport.
It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young amibition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday's the beginning hour.
To me, the last few lines seem especially relevant to today's overly partisan atmosphere.
There is a call to life a little sterner,It reminds me of JFK's famous "ask not..." line.
And braver for the earner, learner, yearner.
Less criticism of the field and court
And more preoccupation with the sport.
The following lines are the best, and worth reading again slowly.
It makes the prophet in us all presageHow optimistic, and yes, arrogant. Of course this was 1961, a more innocent age. But yet, Frost was right when he saw it as the beginning of some really great things. And if i may be allowed one partisan comment here, i think the only party left that still understands and embraces America's "power leading from its strength and pride" is not the party of John F. Kennedy.
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young amibition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
Thanks again to the scary-smart Matt for the source material.
i did my own Consumer Confidence Survey last month, and then promptly forgot about it. i asked you to describe the American economy in one word. Sixteen people participated. Here's the results.
StupendusThat's a wide range of answers. i count ten positive responses, four neutral, and two negative.
Fine
Jake
robust
healthy
Healthy
Better than Europe's
in transition
Good
growing steadily
boring
duct-taped
Fine
strong
OK
pretty fucked
That means that readers of annika's journal are mostly optimistic about the economy.
i should note that the Conference Board's most recent Consumer Confidence Survey of 5000 U.S. households showed a rise in the index last month. In fact the index is at a three year high.
i know next to nothing about economics. i took one class in it and got a B. But i do know my visitors, and the Conference Board Survey simply proves once again that i have the smartest visitors in the blogosphere.
We're a week away from the All-Star break, and i'm sure everybody's wondering how annika's A's are doing in annika's own fantasy baseball league, MLBloggers.
i suck.
Every other owner has been in first at least once. i've set a record for being in last place the most consecutive weeks.
Yep, pretty much all of them.
i drafted poorly. i built my team around Eric Gagné, who went on the DL almost immediately, came back briefly, and is out again. i got no runners except for Podsednik, with his sub-par offensive stats.
But that's only for starters.
i'm in the bottom three in the following stats: runs, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, wins, saves, strikeouts, earned run average and walk+hit ratio.
Yep, pretty much all of them.
i'm even behind Ted, who doesn't even like baseball. i'm way behind gcotharn, and he's never played fantasy baseball before. (In fact, gcotharn is in first place!)
Victor and Matt tried to help me out with some very generous trades, and yet i still suck. While Dawn and The Maximum Leader never make a roster change and they're beating me.
i'm losing to Paul, who apparently gave up his blog so he could devote more time to kicking my ass!
Even a Geek knows more about baseball than i do.
It's hard to believe, but i'm even losing to a bunch of Zombies and Rats.
Yes, as Charlie Brown said: Rats.
first of all if i get called a hipster again im going to move out of los feliz. i dont drink coffee i dont wear man purses, yes im intentionally bald but only because the girls love it. i dont wear white belts. ive worn the same pair of shoes every day for three years. i dont listen to my bloody valentine radiohead coldplay or sleater kinney outside of bars talking about new order. fuck mac fuck jamba juice fuck coffee bean and fuck the nu art. fuck cinespace fuck silverlake fuck vice fuck piercings fuck the return of cocaine and fuck vinyl.Whowa.so definately fuck jack fucking kerouac
the pretty facade of the beats. who didnt have the genius of ginsberg, the creativity of ferlinghetti, or the muscle of burroughs.
simply put keourac is the simple plan of pop, hes the costas of broadcasting, hes the jay leno of late night. popular but empty. soft and spineless.
every time that someone compares on the road to huck finn mark twain gets to travel to hell and poke jack kerouac in the fucking eye.
his stories arent sexy theyre not funny theyre not enlightening theyre not innovative and history has not been kind to him.
howl alone dwarfs the entire kerouac catalogue, justly, and hollywood has yet to fully exploit burroughs, so wheres that leave your boy? in history books solely. one hit wonder. lucky to be there. neal cassadys buddy. period.
charles bukowski singlehandedly could take on a army of jack kerouacs, and he provided likeable characters. when you put all your eggs in one basket, that of making yourself the main character, you better hope that people will like you and will be rooting for you. sal paradise? give me henry chinaski and an ugly girl.
i read On The Road years ago and for a few weeks it almost changed my life. Almost. i love Bukowski, but he never had that effect on me. Still, Kerouac never made me laugh like Buk can. i didn't know which side to take in this controversy until i read this:
on the road makes me so happy that i was not on the road with jack kerouac. i first read it when i was riding couchettes through europe as i was turning 21. it was a gift because thats what people give twenty year olds as they head across the pond for the first time. alone.Holy crap, Tony. That was so funny, i think you convinced me.the second time i read it aloud to prisoners at gitmo who then flushed themselves down the toilet.
people read jack keroac because theyve never read william carlos williams's white mule or hems garden of eden.
its the same reason they listened to pearl jam.
For what it's worth, here is the text of an e-mail i got from Harold Ickes today.
Dear annika;Any thoughts?By now you've probably received at least five or six emails urging you help protect the Supreme Court. I know my inbox is still overflowing.
It's a difficult time for those of us who have spent our lives working to promote causes of social justice. It hurts to see so much of what we've accomplished over the last 50 years -- choice, equality, privacy -- threatened by an extremist Republican agenda orchestrated directly from the White House.
And while I'm heartened by the energy, dedication and passion of progressives everywhere -- with instant petitions, calls to action and urgent pleas for support -- I can't help but wonder what impact we're having on the real fight ahead.
Today, as Americans return to work after the long holiday weekend, are they hearing us?
The single mother of two in Columbus, Ohio who voted for George Bush last year because she thought he was best able to protect her family -- is she hearing us today?
Is the middleclass Latino family in Jacksonville, Florida who voted Republican last year because of their perceived "moral values" listening?
Or are we speaking to ourselves?
The reality of 2004 is clear. Non-stop Republican organizing -- their messages echoed in churches, on talk radio and Fox News -- led to the defeat of John Kerry in 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties in America. And while ACT's unprecedented field campaign across the battleground states kept Democrats close, it wasn't enough.
So ACT is still at work. We're on the ground in the battleground states refining methods of voter contact in traditional Democratic areas and launching an aggressive series of tests into moderate and conservative-leaning areas -- the so-called "exurbs".
We now know that voters who were part of ACT's program in 2004 turned out for Democrats in remarkably high numbers. In Clark County (Las Vegas) the difference was 13%, in Cleveland it was 11%. These are real results that will lead to real victories.
With over $1 billion dollars having been spent by both sides in 2004, with more to come, ACT's ongoing work is critically important and is not being done anywhere else. But it can't be done without your support.
So, as you're signing petitions and getting your friends and family involved in the upcoming fight over the Supreme Court, I urge you to keep a few dates in mind:
November 8, 2005
November 7, 2006
November 6, 2007
November 4, 2008
As always, our future will be determined on Election Day. Will we be ready?
* Invite 5 friends to join and support ACT's work today.
* Make a one-time pledge of $100 to support ACT's voter contact tests.
* Become an ACT Sustainer by pledging $25 per month.Thanks for all you do, and will do.
Harold Ickes
PresidentP.S.� On behalf of everyone at ACT, I applaud the efforts of our progressive partners and encourage you to get involved in their upcoming activities.� Here are just a few that hit my inbox this weekend:
People For the American Way
Democracy For America
MoveOn PAC
Here's a quote from Steve Jobs' speech at this year's Stanford commencement ceremony.
[Y]ou can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.There's something missing. What is it?
i'd like to take this opportunity to thank Fox News for their 72 hour round-the-clock coverage of the Aruba and Montana abduction stories. i wonder when they will change their name to the "Freako Crime News Network?"
i don't know what is more scintillating television, the panel discussions where "journalists" psychoanalyze the freako perpetrators ad nauseam, or the remote updates from the van der Sloot compound every fifteen minutes.
It's not like there might be some other things going on in the world right now. i mean, come on. i had to watch CNN! i will watch CNN if i have to, but i never feel good about doing it.
MSNBC is out of the question. But Atlas is right. Fox News is becoming unwatchable.
A salute to Milbloggers.
Throughout our nation's great history, patriotic ladies on the homefront have always stood behind our fighting men (and now women) 110%. From Betsy Ross and Clara Barton to Rosie the Riveter and the Gold Star Moms, American women have felt pride in each victory and grieved each tragic loss as our nation's military stood guard over our freedoms.
Here on the blogosphere, the ladies of The Cotillion are no different. For this year's July 4th celebration, we are highlighting some of the great Milbloggers, current and former military men and women, who have kept us all so well informed in this age of media bias.
euphoricReality
euphoricReality’s tagline is “Because truth is more important than popularity,” which is a fitting motto for any milblogger.
The four bloggers who run this site are Kit Jarrell, an Air Force veteran who served in Bosnia; Kit’s husband Corey "The Marine," who served three years in the USMC’s elite Marine Security Guard Battalion; former Army Airborne veteran and history buff Heidi Theiss; and finally guest writer Andi (who has her own blog), a veteran of the storied 2nd Armored Division.
euphoricReality does a great service by regularly highlighting some of our American Heroes like Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch, for whom we should all give thanks.
Today, Heidi has posted a 4th of July Tribute featuring some beautiful songs of patriotism that mean a lot to her. They may bring a tear to your eye. And so may Kit Jarrell's update on the missing Recon team in Afghanistan. The media has reported their loss so matter-of-factly, that we tend to forget how much we owe to men like these. Kit names them, and reminds us not to forget them:
As you enjoy your holiday today, take a moment to remember these men and their sacrifice. Don’t just say you will and forget as soon as you get out to your patio. Really stop. Think about what they gave so you can throw some fat steaks on your grill, hoist a beer, and spend time with family and friends.When you’re done doing that, say a prayer for the families of these men. Their barbecues and family reunions will never be complete again.
Stryker Brigade News
The Stryker Brigade News blog is a site run by a group of volunteers, all of whom have friends or family serving in the Army's Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. As you all know, the Stryker is a wheeled armored combat vehicle, and this blog contains a great many Stryker related photographs, some very artistic.
Last October, one of Stryker Brigade News' contributors became personally acquainted with the price of war. Mike Oreskovic's son Michael was severely injured in a car bomb attack only a week before he was scheduled to come home. The blog has continued to update regularly on Mike's recovery since then. Most recently Mike was featured in a Washington Post article as one of several veterans who attended this weekend's reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. The full article is very much worth reading.
Brain Shavings
Representing the United States Coast Guard in the ranks of Milbloggers is Puddle Pirate of Brain Shavings. The Pirate has a novel idea on how property owners can insulate themselves from eminent domain seizures in the post-Kelo era.
Let's say that you own some attractive real estate that your local government wants to take from you through eminent domain. To foil their plans you enter into a contract with the state government, where in exchange for a fee, the state automatically takes title to your property if your municipal or county government ever attempts to condemn it, and you get to live on the land. Perhaps it could be set up as a trust with the state as trustee.Interesting idea. Brain Shavings has been all over the Kelo story with insight and good humor.Anyway, since a local government doesn't have the authority to condemn state property, they lose all incentive to condemn your property once you tell them about your new arrangement. If the condemnation would be for a true public use (as we used to understand it) like building a highway or a bridge, you can always put a clause in the contract that exempts such true public uses from triggering the passage of title to the state.
doubleplusgood infotainment
doubleplusgood infotainment has been a long time fixture on my own blogroll. Its proprietor, JCrue, is a retired Marine who blogs from Reno, Nevada. i like his tagline: "Freedom of speech makes it much easier to spot the idiots."
Being from Nevada and all, JCrue has a special incentive to keep an eye on the disgrace that is our Senate Minority leader. He pulls no punches either.
Screw you, Harry. I saw what Carter did to our nation and I saw what Clinton refused to do for our country and I have to say, you and your fellow party members are at least dedicated to the same cowardice those two were.Also, JCrue reminds us to continue sending messages of thanks and support to our troops by clicking here.When the troops begin to believe the (D) party supports them and no longer hears your party's words on al-Jazerra as evidence of dissent and used as anti-American propaganda, then maybe, just maybe, I will start to believe what you have to say. But only when the men and women serving overseas believe without reservation and are confident in their daily tasks that you, the (D) party, and the entire nation stands behind them, your words sound hollow.
ARMOR GEDDON
ARMOR GEDDON is a fabulous blog, run by Neil Prakash who is currently stationed in Germany after a tour in Iraq commanding an M1 Abrams tank. It's a relatively new blog, which he started at the urging of his friend Sarah of Trying to Grok. (Sarah's husband served alongside Neil in Iraq.)
Neil's blog contains some of the best war writing of any Milblogger around. Seriously. He's funny, he explains things well, and he has a great eye for the details of a tanker's life. You really get an insight into both day-to-day life and the exhilaration of combat. Neil's posts about the battles of Fallujah and Baqubah are worth reading from beginning to end. He should think about contacting a literary agent someday.
Not to be missed are ARMOR GEDDON's collection of video clips from Iraq. His latest is a montage of footage related to a few IEDs his platoon found on Election Day in Iraq. It's a mini-movie, complete with explanatory footnotes in this post. Great stuff, if you have broadband. Even if you don't, it's totally worth waiting for on dial-up. Trust me. Turn up the volume and enjoy the fun.
So, from annika's journal a very special Thank You goes out to all Milbloggers and every member and veteran of our armed services: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Thank you for watching our backs on this Fourth of July and on every day of the year. We owe you a great debt, and we'll keep you all in our prayers.
Please also go check out the other Milblogger tributes filed by the wonderful ladies of the Cotillion.
Happy Fourth!
You ever listen to those early morning CSPAN call-in shows? What a bunch of freaking idiots.
It's like this:
Hello? Is this CSPAN?Or the angry idiots:Well, I liked that Sander Day O'Conner 'cuz she seemed like she was fair and all. And I think Bush needs to pick someone who's not all for the corporate America with all the Halliburton things and stuff.
She was just another right wing fascist who selected Bush and wants to roll back Medicare and Social Security with all his fascist crony corporate America and Halliburton things and stuff.etc.
The right wing callers are no better:
Bush needs to pick somebody who's a mainstream American, like someone who hates them despicable homosexual things and stuff.i often wonder why so many neanderthals are watching CSPAN instead of, say, Jerry Springer re-runs or those used car dealer infomercials they show on like eight stations every Saturday morning? i think it's because they have trouble figuring out the remote control and just get stuck on the channel.
In my attempt to remedy the ignorance of these people, i've prepared a pocket guide to the Supreme Court for any such CSPAN watchers who may have made it over to my blog and read this far down the page.
My handy pocket guide contains a picture of each Supreme Court justice, their name, and then a short bio. You can print it out if you'd like and refer to it whenever you want to express an opinion out loud about the Supreme Court.
Here it is. You can trust me on this stuff, i'm a law student.
Don't forget, it's also suitable for laminating, or pasting onto the dasboard of your VW Beetle.
Glad to be of help.
Another "journalist" proves that journalists are freaking idiots.
Thank you Brian Williams, for showing how ignorant you are.
What did you get in American History 101? Or did you have a Ward Churchill type professor, whose twisted version of history you accepted hook, line and sinker.
What would make you say something so completely indefesible as a supposedly educated person? As an American?
Via Michelle Malkin.
And i don't mean idiot in the sense of a person with whom i have a disagreement.
i mean literally, an idiot, a person of subnormal intelligence, slow-witted, an imbecile, a moron, a cretin, affected by a profound mental retardation.
Stupid.
i want to post in full this exchange between Nancy Pulaski and a reporter, reprinted by The Corner, so i can refer back to it whenever i need a good laugh.
Reporter: Later this morning, many Members of the House Republican leadership, along with John Cornyn from the Senate, are holding a news conference on eminent domain, the decision of the Supreme Court the other day, and they are going to offer legislation that would restrict it, prohibiting federal funds from being used in such a manner.She totally misunderstood the question, even after the reporter explained it to her again in an extremely polite way. It's obvious that the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives had no clue about a recent, highly publicized and important Supreme Court decision. Or what her fellow legislators were trying to do about it. No fucking clue.Two questions. What was your reaction to the Supreme Court decision on this topic, and what do you think about legislation to, in the minds of opponents at least, remedy or changing it?
Ms. Pelosi: As a Member of Congress, and actually all of us and anyone who holds a public office in our country, we take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Very central to that in that Constitution is the separation of powers. I believe that whatever you think about a particular decision of the Supreme Court, and I certainly have been in disagreement with them on many occasions, it is not appropriate for the Congress to say we're going to withhold funds for the Court because we don't like a decision.
Reporter: Not on the Court, withhold funds from the eminent domain purchases that wouldn't involve public use. I apologize if I framed the question poorly. It wouldn't be withholding federal funds from the Court, but withhold Federal funds from eminent domain type purchases that are not just involved in public good.
Ms. Pelosi: Again, without focusing on the actual decision, just to say that when you withhold funds from enforcing a decision of the Supreme Court you are, in fact, nullifying a decision of the Supreme Court. This is in violation of the respect for separation of church -- powers in our Constitution, church and state as well. Sometimes the Republicans have a problem with that as well. But forgive my digression.
So the answer to your question is, I would oppose any legislation that says we would withhold funds for the enforcement of any decision of the Supreme Court no matter how opposed I am to that decision. And I'm not saying that I'm opposed to this decision, I'm just saying in general.
Reporter: Could you talk about this decision? What you think of it?
Ms. Pelosi: It is a decision of the Supreme Court. If Congress wants to change it, it will require legislation of a level of a constitutional amendment. So this is almost as if God has spoken. It's an elementary discussion now. They have made the decision.
Reporter: Do you think it is appropriate for municipalities to be able to use eminent domain to take land for economic development?
Ms. Pelosi: The Supreme Court has decided, knowing the particulars of this case, that that was appropriate, and so I would support that.
If i wasn't so disgusted by Pelosi, and the fact that the House Democrats consider her fit to be their leader, i would almost feel sorry for her. She's so completely in over her head, it's a joke.
The Maximum Leader has written off Scarborough Country for good, vowing never to watch the show again. That apparently leaves Joe Scarborough's mom as the only viewer left.
The reason cited by the Maximum Leader was an eyebrow raising statement by the former congressman, or mayor, or whatever, regarding the recent spate of shark attacks in Florida. He apparently implied that the source of these shark attacks was the difference between human and shark "cultures."
Perhaps he might consider interviewing Greg Norman for more insight into this theory, i don't know. Maybe Jerry Tarkanian is available for a remote, it's worth a try.
Freaking idiot.
Anyways, Maximum Leader had this to say in response:
Great jeezey chreezey. Somehow it is comforting to know that if only we would bother to translate the literature of the shark, we could avoid sharks attacking humans. We should feel guilty for not knowing the intricacies of shark interpretive dance. There would never be another shark on human attack if we could marvel at the splendor of the great underwater shark cities and grow to know their ancient history. Shark feeding frenzies off the beaches would be harmful only to baitfish if we could read the poetry of the shark Maya Angelou or ponder the profundity of the shark Plato.Thanks for the laugh, ML, i've never seen you so worked up, LOL.Of course, it is partially the fault of the sharks. Have they bothered to understand our culture? Have they read Faulkner, Tolstoy, or Hardy? Do they know the tales of Hemmingway? (Okay, scratch Hemmingway...) Have they seen the pyramids?
. . .
Understand shark culture.... What a friggin' idiot.
[Oh btw, ML, i like how you've taken to using my subtle misspelling trick on Ernest Hemingway's name. Or perhaps you meant to type Herringway. ba-dum-bump.]
Cal's football team again starts the season highly ranked at number 15 in the Sporting News Poll. But while the Golden Bears' finish last season was less than heroic, their freshman offensive lineman Mike Tepper should be a hero in anyone's book.
Thank God chivalry is not dead. i sure hope Mike Tepper gets to play again, he's a real hero.A University of California, Berkeley, football player was seriously injured when authorities say he was allegedly intentionally struck by a car driven by a group of men leering at a female friend.
Mike Tepper, 19, was walking with the woman near campus during the weekend. The men began taunting the woman, a Cal volleyball player, and eventually cut the pair off with their car, police said.
When the men refused to leave the woman alone, the 6-foot-6, 312-pound lineman jumped between the car and the woman. The men allegedly then ran over Tepper twice, breaking his leg.
'My season's toast,' Tepper said Wednesday as he recuperated from surgery to repair a broken fibula and torn ankle ligaments. He had nine screws and one plate put in his leg and can't walk on it for eight weeks.
Police have arrested Johnny Ray Smith, 33, and Calvin Joe Kelley, 29, for violating terms of their probation or parole, authorities said. Officers also arrested a third man, but prosecutors declined to file charges against him because of scant evidence.
Police are investigating the incident as an assault with a deadly weapon.
Cal football coach Jeff Tedford said he was 'proud of the courage Mike showed Saturday night.'
Update: Mike's dad describes the incident here.
Mike was walking on Telegraph Saturday night. A good looking girl was on her way home just ahead of him and was trying to cross the street (I think at Dwight) and a car pulled up with 4 or 5 men in it. They started taunting the girl, making unwanted propositions. She said she wasn't interested and was trying to get by. As she started to walk ahead of the car to pass in front of it, they sped up and blocked her.Good news indeed. Get well soon, dude.By this time, Mike caught up with the girl and told the guys she wasnt interested and together they walked behind the car to get by.
As they were crossing the street behind the car, the driver put the car into reverse and punched it, intentionally attempting to hit them. Mike immediately pushed the girl out of the way, but could not get out of the way himself. She landed across the street with scraped knees and a scraped up face.
Mike wasnt as lucky, the car hit him, he fell, then the car ran over mike's leg. Then, the idiots put the car in Drive and ran over him again (over the ankle again).
A police lieutenant witnessed the whole thing from about a block away. He was at Mike's side within seconds and called an ambulance. He took statements from 5 witnesses at the scene. The lieutenant put a turniquette on Mike's leg (he has a very deep gash), because it was bleeding fairly severely. The lieutenant also said that it was intentional.
At the hospital, they x-rayed Mike, and found he had a broken Fibula, and ligament damage. He also has a dislocated Tibia. They had to spend a little time trying to stop the bleeding.
He had an operation this morning, where they put a plate and two screws into the broken bones, and will repair the ligament damage. He will be in a cast for 6-8 weeks before they take the plate off. After that he will be able to jog lightly on it, but will not be in any condition to "play hard" at least until November at the earliest.
The lieutenant called for backup and had the guys arrested within 5 blocks of the incident as he came to Mike's aid. The driver was on parole, and another passenger was on probation.
The driver is going to be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and both of those guys had had their paroles/probation revoked that night. They will both finish their earlier convictions behind bars, and are behind bars now.
. . .
Personally, I think Mike saved a life that night. Had he not been there, who knows what those scumbags would have done to that girl, the least of being run over by a car. I think he deserves a medal for what he did. I am proud of his behavior.... He is a great kid, and an outstanding citizen, and I am constantly reminding him of that.
In his meeting with the surgeon yesterday, he was told that he would heel 100%, and that 4 or 5 CAL players have had similar surgeries and have gone on to play in the "pros." That was great news, and we are looking to a speedy recovery and a fantastic year, next year. He will be working out with the team, but staying off the foot until such time he can play again.
The Anchoress linked to this interesting NRO column by Mark Goldblatt. In it, he describes what happens when a writer reveals he supports Bush in a room full of poets.
But the most interesting part for me was Goldblatt's theory on why poets are so homogenously left wing. i find his reasoning persuasive:
How could a room full of published poets, wannabe poets, and poetry fans — in other words, people of average to slightly-below-average intelligence — turn out to be of a single mind on the subject of politics? Even in Manhattan, the mathematical odds against such a gathering would seem astronomical.The answer, I suspect, has to do with groupthink and with the state of poetry in the United States. It is an absolute rule of aesthetics that as the formal constraints of a genre are cast aside, judgment within the genre becomes more and more subjective. Think of it this way: If I set out to write a Petrarchian sonnet and mess up the rhyme scheme, you can point out the error. But how can you tell if I’ve screwed up free verse? As judgment becomes more and more subjective, recognition depends less and less on inspiration and technique. Brownnosing, rather than craft, becomes the poet’s stock and trade. What is the common characteristic of the dozen most notable American poets today?
Their ability to work a room.
If you’re a struggling poet, therefore, right-of-center politics is not an intellectual option; it’s bad manners, a social faux pas. The propositions that George W. Bush is a miserable excuse for a president, that Republicans are evil money-grubbing bastards, that religious conservatives are actively seeking to establish a legislative theocracy . . . these function as conversational currency. If you cannot agree to them, you cannot shmooze; and if you cannot shmooze, you cannot gain entry into the brownnosing, pal-publishing, blurb-spewing universe of American poetry.
Fox News is reporting that Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement is imminent. The announcement is expected Friday.
Although Justice O'Connor was on the right side in Kelo v. City of New London, she has been the swing voter in so many crappy Supreme Court opinions, i am glad to be rid of her.
In fact, she was my submission to this poll for that reason.
i hope that a solid conservative is nominated to replace her, although i guess the conventional wisdom would be that the Senate would only support a moderate to replace a moderate. And with the minority party feeling its oats lately, who knows what "moderate" means. They'll bend Frist over and have their way with him no matter who is nominated.
Correction, Frist will grab his own ankles willingly and invite the Democrats and RINOs to bang away to their heart's content.
This should be ugly.
