Gone Fishin'

The management and staff of Glib & Superficial are taking an entirely unearned vacation until August 7, when we shall return with more penetratingly glib and breathtakingly superficial observations concerning life, politics, culture, the universe, and all that.

The 83rd Psalm

Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;

Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;

Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.

Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:

Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.

As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;

So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

LINK

First Principles

As we are bombarded with more and more information about vital world events -- often confusing or confused by fools or knaves, it is important periodically to pause and concentrate on where we are, why we are here, what we are doing, and why we are doing it.

On February 5, 1938, before World War II had started (with the joint Soviet/German invasion of Poland), George Orwell, reviewing Arthur Koestler's Spanish Testament for the magazine Time and Tide, wrote:

You cannot be objective about an aerial torpedo. And the horror we feel of these things has led to this conclusion: if someone drops a bomb on your mother, go and drop two bombs on his mother. The only apparent alternatives are to smash dwelling houses to powder, blow out human entrails and burn holes in children with thermite, or to be enslaved by people who are more ready to do these things than you are yourself; as yet no one has suggested a practicable way out.

Via NRO.

And when the bear fell out of the tree . . . .

This story is now a couple of years old but, hey, it's new to us:

Hat Tip to RatBoy.

Disarming

The touching simplicity of European diplomats -- and American Democrats -- with respect to the Middle East is charming. All that's really necessary is for President Bush to diplomatically engage with the situation, and all will be well. Get them talking! Make them understand. Maybe pretend you're negotiating with the United Auto Workers, and throw in an extra sick day.

James Lileks has some thoughts:

[T]hey don’t understand that the Hezbollah definition of “Disarm” is blowing off the limbs of Israelis. Imagine a typical negotiation:

Fierce-eyed Hezbollah representative: Thank you for the invitation; lovely office. Death to Israel.

Gullible American: Well, that’s just rhetoric; we understand.

Hezbollah: It is not rhetoric. It is truth. The Zionist entity is a festering infected splinter in the lip of the Caliphate.

(pause)

GA: So you’re saying you want some antibiotics as well? We can do that. But you have to show us you’re ready to coexist with Israel.

Hezbollah: We recognize the right of Israel to exist, but only as a footnote in history books.

GA: So we agree on principle, and the rest is just a matter of details. Great! We’ll draw up the treaty for the signing ceremony. You’re going to love the pens. They’re Cross. Smoothest pen you’ve ever used.

Hezbollah: I will save it to plunge into the heart of the last Jew to crawl towards the sea.

GA: Do you need your parking validated?

What's a Nice Girl Like YouDoing With a Putz Like Me?

Dawn Eden is a nice Jewish girl from New York who has latterly become a Roman Catholic, and enlisted with the Loyalist troops fighting bravely against the debilitating excesses of feminism, post-modernism, and the sexual revolution. I first encountered her through her blog, The Dawn Patrol, and cannot say that I was at first a fan.

Clearly she and I agree on virtually every important social and moral issue. But where she is clever, witty, angry and (this most of all) unrelentingly hard, my approach has generally been (less) clever, (far less) witty, (not nearly so) angry but, most of all, ironic and amused.

Dawn Eden is not amused.

But while she didn't have me from hello, she in fact made of me a devoted follower with a post titled "Cosmo Takes a Stand—for One Night":

Society pretends to frown upon one-night stands — out of concern over AIDS if nothing else — but sex within an unmarried relationship is considered acceptable because of the atmosphere of mutual "respect."

The truth is that no woman can truly be respected by a man who is perfectly willing to make full use of her body and perfectly unwilling to give her a full commitment. That's not respect. It's a transaction: "You give me sex and I will 'respect' you until we get bored of one another." Behind that "ideal" lies a deep cynicism. Whores have a point when they say that the difference between them and other women having nonmarital sex is that they get paid.

I'm not saying this to judge women, but to suggest that any hope of future love is worth forgoing present "respect." It's a subject on which I feel qualified to write with authority — as I've written before, I've had more "respect" than you've had hot dinners.

Later this year her first book will be published: The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On. I have no doubt who wrote the jacket copy (or at least the first draft):

She tells women who have been around the block how to find their way home.

Among inspirational books for single women, The Thrill of the Chaste is a pair of hip Ray-Bans in a field of rose-colored glasses. This isn't a book for dainty damsels in lacy white dresses patiently awaiting their handsome prince. This is for real women who need strong, motivational, and deeply moral messages to counter the ones they receive from a superficial, sex-obsessed world.

Today The National Catholic Register has posted an interview with her. Excerpts:

I was brought up Reform Jewish, which means that I led a highly secular lifestyle with a minimum level of Jewish observance. While people from each branch of Judaism have obstacles to accepting Christ, it seems to me that it’s hardest for Reform Jews, because, unlike the Orthodox and the more Orthodox-leaning Conservatives, they lack understanding of a personal God. The nature of Reform Judaism is that God is out there, but he is hazy and unfathomable, and we can’t make presumptions that he cares about every aspect of our lives.

[snip]

My emotional pain had no purpose that I could see, because no healing came from it — it was always just more of the same. Without faith in an afterlife, I could not see the point of living.

[snip]

I began to pick up everything by [G.K.] Chesterton that I could get my hands on, starting with Orthodoxy. For the first time, it struck me that there was something exciting about Christianity. Up until then, I had been politically liberal and thought that Christians apart from my mom were a faceless mass of white-bread Moral Majority types who controlled the world. I wanted to be a rebel, and part of defining myself that way was to not be a Christian. Chesterton suggested to me that it was the other way around: Christians were the true rebels.

Read the rest of the interview, pre-order the book, and by all means screw up your courage and stop by at The Dawn Patrol, where today's post is quintessential Dawn, from title to subject matter: Planned Parenthood on Crack.

She Forgot Homer Simpson

Peggy Noonan:

The other day ABC News's Internet political report, The Note, argued that President Bush, in his then-upcoming veto statement and other presentations, had better be at the top of his game if he wants his party to hold on to Congress in 2006. "[Mr. Bush] is going to need to be focused and impressive, not easy pickings for the Rich-Krugman-Dowd-Stewart axis."

As I read I nodded: That's exactly true. What was significant is that The Note did not designate as Mr. Bush's main and most effective foes Pelosi, Dodd, Reid, Biden, et al. Mr. Bush's mightiest competitors are columnists and a comedian with a fake-news show.

Approval Dips to 46%

For Angelina Jolie, that is.

No, really: Rasmussen reports that about 46% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the actress, while 30% have a "somewhat" or "very" unfavorable view.

To help our readers, herewith a favorable view of Ms. Jolie:



The President of the United States, meanwhile, whose job would seem to entail doing far more things likely to meet with disapproval, most recently had a 43% favorable rating, again according to Rasmussen.

Science thus tells us that the President is only slightly less popular than Angelina Jolie. What a country!

Via NRO.

Our Correspondent from the Hurtling Moons of Barsoom Reports

Can't we all just get along? If we each made the effort to communicate, and tried to connect with each other with respect, compassion and love, wouldn't all of the problems of the world be exposed as trifling misunderstandings?

No so much.

David Thompson addresses a community access forum of the Charlotte, NC city council. Fortunately, the event was taped while being broadcast live via the local community access channel. His topics include "ice in the arena," rogue helicopter pilots, and more.

Hat Tip to Blognostic.

Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"

THE groom’s mother wore a peach silk suit and an expression of mingled happiness, anxiety and bemusement. The other groom’s mother wore a peacock-blue dress and a similar expression, one that seemed to combine “I can’t believe this is happening” with “What a beautiful day, what a lovely chapel, what nice well-dressed people — just like a real wedding.”

One groom’s father needed to step outside and smoke a lot. The other groom’s father was dead. Nieces were in abundance, though — a bouquet of skinny adorable girls, dressed in hot pink and giggling with excitement.

But I didn’t have a lot of time to gawk at the family members because I was a huppah holder at this gay Christian wedding, and our routine was intricately choreographed.

The huppah, in the Jewish tradition, is a canopy, often made from a prayer shawl, whose corners are held up on poles by four people close to the wedding couple. But these grooms, Randy and Michael, were Catholic — super Catholic in fact. Michael had been a seminarian, preparing for the Jesuit priesthood in a former life, and Randy a Benedictine monk, deeply steeped in prayer, contemplation and service.

Thus begins a quite long quotation which wanders about this gayCatholicJewish "wedding" before detouring into an outing to see a documentary film about the Winter Soldier "hearings" in 1972. What could the two possibly have in common? That both are utter lies comes first to mind.

I had never taken communion, out of respect and also out of a vague fear that, as a Jew, I would be struck with thunderbolts if I did. But the minister and Michael and Randy said this communion was for everyone, that it could mean whatever we wanted it to, and after all it was challah. So I stood in line, dunked my bread in the cider, and was generously showered with a Jesus-free blessing by a minister friend.

I found this nonsense posted by a silly person, an Episcopal priest, who herself explains:

I've had the honor and privilege of presiding at a few of these kinds of services - probably the most notable of which was the "Mickenburg-Fitzgerald" Blessing Ceremony - a delightfully rich blend of Jewish, Irish-Roman Catholic, Feminist Ritual, "in the Episcopal tradition."

[I consign to the category "questions best not asked" any inquiry into exactly what "feminist ritual" might possibly be.]

But what is the harm? The harm lies in teaching that which is not the truth, and in degrading our own notions of what is right, and what is important.

Marriage may be an institution ordained by the Creator and Judge of the Universe, or it may be no big deal. If the latter, what shall I tell my son when he explains that he has tired of his bride, the kids keep him awake at night, and life just isn't fun anymore? I cannot remind him of promises made to God, his wife, his family, and his friends, since all of those things are no big deal.

Communion may be a ceremony the Lord commanded his followers to observe, or it may be a trivial nothing. What shall we tell unbelievers it ought to focus their minds upon? And if it is a nothing, then what power can it have to save us? One may wonder both by what authority a "minister" offered a "Jesus-free" blessing, and of what such a "blessing" might consist. Perhaps the Jesus-free minister also fills the gas tank of his car with water, in order to experience that special "fuel free" surge of power.

It is common for the ignorant and the malicious to sneer that anything and everything can be proved from Scripture. But the Lord minced no words concerning false teachers:

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

World War III

Newt Gingrich expands his comments on yesterday's Meet the Press in his column at Human Events:

I am now firmly convinced that the world confronts a situation that is frighteningly similar to a Third World War, one every bit as serious and dangerous as the two great conflicts of the 20th Century.

The recent attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel -- with the active political, financial and military support of Iran and Syria -- are just the latest acts in this war. It is a war that pits civilization and the rule of law against the dictatorships of Iran and Syria and the terrorist groups of Hezbollah and Hamas that they support. It is also a war that pits civilized nations against Islamic terrorist groups around the world, including, most significantly (but not exclusively), the al Qaeda network.

In the United States, we refer to this struggle as the "Global War on Terror". Yet, I believe this label fails to capture the nature and scale of the threat faced by civilization.

The nature of the threat -- with Iran at the epicenter -- is at its core ideological. The threat to the United States is an ideological wing of Islam that is irreconcilable to modern civilization as we know it throughout most of the world. The United States and her allies face a long war with this irreconcilable wing of Islam.

[snip]

Some actions are clarifying because they force people -- and nations -- to choose sides. The increasing number of attacks, provocations, and plots of this Third World War similarly force us to make a decision. We must have a national debate -- indeed, a worldwide debate -- between those of us who believe we're in a war to defend civilization (and therefore must defeat terrorists and their state sponsors) and those who are made uncomfortable by the price of defeating terrorists and their state sponsors.

World War II

On March 24, 1944, upon taking command of the Third Army, General George S. Patton, Jr. addressed his new headquarters staff:

I am here because of the confidence of two men: The President of the United States and the theater commander. They have confidence in me because they don't believe a lot of goddamned lies that have been printed about me and also because they know I mean business when I fight. I don't fight for fun and I won't tolerate anyone on my staff who does.

You are here to fight. This is an active theater of war. Ahead of you lies battle. That means just one thing. You can't afford to be a goddamned fool, because, in battle, fools mean dead men. It is inevitable for men to be killed and wounded in battle. But there is no reason why such losses should be increased because of the incompetence and carelessness of some stupid son-of-a-bitch. I don't tolerate such men on my staff.

There are three reasons why we are fighting this war. The first is because we are determined to preserve our traditional liberties. Some crazy German bastards decided they were supermen and that it was their holy mission to rule the world. They've been pushing people around all over the world, looting, killing, and abusing millions of innocent men, women, and children. They were getting set to do the same thing to us. We had to fight to prevent being subjugated.

The second reason we are fighting is to defeat and wipe out the Nazis who started all this goddamned son-of-bitchery. They didn't think we could or would fight, and they weren't the only ones who thought that, either. There are certain people back home who had the same idea. Both were wrong.

The third reason we are fighting is because men like to fight. They always have and they always will. Some sophists and other crackpots deny that. They don't know what they're talking about. They are either goddamned fools or cowards, or both. Men like to fight, and if they don't they're not real men.

If you don't like to fight, I don't want you around. You'd better get out before I kick you out. But there is one thing to remember. In war, it takes more than the desire to fight to win. You've got to have more than guts to lick the enemy. You must also have brains. It takes brains and guts to win wars. A man with guts but no brains is only half a soldier. We licked the Germans in Africa and Sicily because we had brains as well as guts. We're going to lick them in Europe for the same reason.

That's all and good luck.

Next Year in Tehran

Mark Steyn:

Israel withdrew from Gaza and, instead of getting on with a prototypical Palestinian state, Hamas turned the territory into an Islamist camp. Israel withdrew from Lebanon entirely in 2000, yet Hezbollah is now lobbing rockets at Haifa.

Why? Because in both cases these territories are now in effect Iran's land borders with the Zionist Entity. They're "occupied territories" but it's not the Jews doing the occupying. So you've got a choice between talking with proxies or going to the source: Tehran. And, as the unending talks with the EU have demonstrated, the ayatollahs use negotiations with the civilized world as comedy relief. They don't get Larry King's salutes to Red Buttons and Don Knotts on Iranian TV, so entering into talks with the French foreign minister is as near to big-time laughs as the mullahs get.

Our Editorial Position

There's Ignorance, and then There's . . . .

From a protest last Saturday (7/15) in Melbourne. What's wrong with this picture:

Well, I guess nothing, if the young woman in the center is promoting the new Islamic-Benz.

Via the ever observant Tim Blair.

It's Never Too Early To Start Thinking About My Birthday, Or "UMMMMM, BACON! Part II"

(it's in about 75 days, FYI.)

The Bacon of the Month Club. Now there's a club I wouldn't mind having me as a member.

"Attention, passengers of Kurdistani Airlines Flight N247-5

. . . your departure from Beirut may be delayed until we can re-pave the runway, and we put out the burning fuel tankers at the end of the tarmac. We appreciate your patience, and thank you for flying Kurdistani Airlines."

From Jim Geraghty.

Advice Requested

THIS is a joke, right?

Type Title Here

Remember the Saturday Night Live skit involving the Gay Communist Gun Club:

Bob: You're on the air.

Caller #6: Why shouldn't I just join the National Rifle Association, or the National Gay Alliance?

John: Well.. the NRA has certainly supported pro-gun legislation, but if you look at their record at promoting Communism or gayness, it's actually not that good.

Bob: And, I could be wrong on this - the National Gay Alliance has yet to sponsor one bare butt safari.

Caller #7: Yes, I'm gay, I'm Communist, I love guns, and I'm a staunch feminist,. Could I join?

John: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Lady, you're all over the place! I think you should focus in on what you believe in, and then call us back.

Well, for a more inclusive age, there's now the more inclusive Gay Black Jewish Klansmen for Tolerance and Understanding.

We're pleased that someone makes this stuff up.

Major General Michael R. Lehnert, USMC

"When we sent my son to Stanford four years ago, we filled out a form asking for demographic information. One of the questions for the parents said, what is your profession? After it was a list of about thirty professions including doctor, lawyer, congressman, educator, architect. Military was not listed so I filled in 'other.'"

You should read the remainder of General Lehnert's speech, HERE.

Do I Hear $10,000?

Apparently, Keven Federline (yes, that Keven Federline) will show up at your party if you pay him $20,000. The published story doesn't indicate how much you have to pay to make him stay away.

Tell you what: for a mere $15,000, you can have the real, live, original Gentleman Farmer come to your party, thus saving you $5,000 over other, competing brands.

For an additional $2,000, you can have a live performance of your choice of stories:

The time he stole the baskets from CVS story;

the time the guy died on the witness stand;

the time my buddy pitched at a kids baseball game wearing a tuxedo but barefoot; or

the time I got mad at #1 Son for warning me that I'd left #2 Son in the shopping cart in the Supermarket.

I'm waiting by the phone. No serious offer refused.

This Just In From The "Holy Crap!" Department

From today's NYT:

A paralyzed man with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to control a computer, a television and a robot using only his thoughts, scientists reported today.

Ho-ly crap. Dr. Hawking, eat your heart out.

The choicest sentence in the article, though, has to be:

Also, ideally, the implant would transmit signals out of the brain wirelessly, doing away with the permanent hole in the head and the accompanying risk of infection.

Popular Culture

We have previously had occasion to refer to the polymath David Hasselhoff. (Well, all right, also HERE and HERE.) Now our correspondent The Summer Intern points out a somehow even more disturbing new video:

We're interpreting this correctly, are we not? This is an elderly fellow requesting the assistance of young passers-by to prevent him from running down unwary pedestrians while knocking over random fruit venders?

DON'T DO IT!

You'll live to regret it if you click HERE. (Manic Mode is best.)

It's good to see that others are no less glib and superficial.

Academic Freedom

We've been here before: University professor says some wacko thing, tenured drones from sea to shining sea line up to defend academic freedom. Oddly, such controversies don't ordinarily seem to center around "controversial" comments regarding creationism, who won the 2000 election, or the gospel of global warming.

Comes now the Provost of the University of Wisconsin - Madison:

The university provost, Patrick Farrell, said in a statement late on Monday: "We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas.

"To the extent that his views are discussed, Mr Barrett has assured me that students will be free and encouraged to challenge his viewpoint."

Your assignment is to guess what "unpopular ideas" Mr. Barrett holds, which the Provost assures us his students will be free to "challenge."

Give up?

How about a HINT?

Story HERE.

While We Were Gone

Vacationing in the Fields of Low Band Width these last two weeks, we missed:

Lileks:

Nancy Pelosi announced that should the Democrats retake the House, item #1 will be Bold and Sweeping: they will “give America a raise by increasing the minimum wage."

Apparently she believes that America makes the minimum wage. The population consists of industrial workers who get a dime each day for the number of fingers they haven’t lost to the machinery, a few million skinny Bob Cratchits shivering in underheated counting houses, and six plutocrats whose tight control over Consolidated Spats, Amalgamated Whalebone and other nefarious trusts keeps everyone poor and shoeless.

The minimum wage was indeed a New Direction – last century, anyway. Compared to the unofficial GOP slogan – “Fight and win the War on Terror by blowing up more bad guys real good” – it’s like running against FDR in ’42 with a pledge to reduce postal rates.

Scott Ott:

(2006-07-06) — In another sign of lukewarm support from his own party for Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s reelection campaign, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy today branded the Connecticut incumbent as “a J.F.K. conservative, a relic of another era.”

“I’m not sure we need someone in the Senate who’s still mired in the provincial, hawkish John F. Kennedy ideas about U.S. military power,” said Sen. Kennedy. “But if he wins the primary, I’ll show my party loyalty by refraining from campaigning against him openly.”

Mark Steyn:

Personally, if celebrities have to "put their bodies on the line for peace," I'd much rather see them bulk up. How about if Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow promise to put on 20 pounds for every month Bush refuses to end his illegal war?

Such a cutie-pie huggy bear snookums!

Is he the best ickle widdle wuv baby ever was? Yes he is! Such a sweetykins.

Ned Lamont is the candidate fielded by the wacko wing of the Democratic Party to unseat Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's upcoming senatorial primary. Oddly enough, had BushHitler not stolen the 2000 election, Vice President Lieberman would today be the favorite to win his party's presidential nod in 2008. And a formidable candidate he would be: a serious, intelligent, experienced person who actually believes there is such a thing as the truth.

While civilians are murdered and our soldiers are kidnaped, tortured and their bodies mutilated, Neddikins decided to release this cute-as-can-be foolishness, thought by Kool Aid Master Mixer Duncan Black to be a "funny new ad":

Remember: All right-thinking people pray daily for Ned Lamont to win the Democratic primary, and then be trounced in the general election by Lieberman, running as an independent. The first (alas!) seems unlikely, as Senator Lieberman appears to be leading, although by shrinking margins among the criminally insane likely Democratic primary voters.

[Are we the only folks old enough to recall formation of the Committee to Horsewhip Lowell Weicker? We thought so.]

UMMMMMM! BACON!

The gourmet responsible for the artistic simplicity of the Ultimate Bacon Sandwich (a pound of bacon between two slices of white bread):


has unveiled his latest creation -- Bacon Cereal (a pound of home-made bacon bits, floating in blue cheese dressing):



Many years from how, we'll look back on these halcyon days . . . .

Paris Hilton Naked & The World Cup

The World Cup reminds us of Paris Hilton.

Everything is tediously on repetitious display, having become boring for all that. And we've seen better before this. What little needs saying is quickly said.

Yet at the same time, billions of people are obsessed with the slightest detail, and hunger for more, despite seeming already to know far more than can possibly be healthy.

Play the Zidane Game!

See how many Italian players you can head-butt before getting your red card.

H/T Popoholic.

Rolling BlogFast for Peace

"Reader Matt Reilly promised not to eat any celebrities between now and the day BushHitler is brought to justice. A noble sacrifice, but perhaps an unrealistic one. You never know when you might be snowbound in the Himalayas with the cast of The West Wing. Trapped for months without any food, a voluntary fast for peace would become a promise you'd live to regret. In time, you'd forget you made it at all. Then one day, as the snow begins to melt from Mt. Kilamanjaro (thanks to Bush's refusal to ratify Kyoto) a rescue team would find you alone amongst a pile of half-eaten celebrities, gnawing the last vestiges of gristle off of Martin Sheen's Emmy-winning femur. So much for World Peace then, eh Matt?"

More HERE and HERE.

Mystery Explained

Remember the famous bulge under the President's suit jacket during one of the debates with whathisname from Massachusetts? Explanations ranged from some sort of radio feeding him answers to mere bad tailoring (a gaucherie that would have been unbearable for his opponent). Well, now we know:



Was? Sie sprechen nicht Deutsches? Gehen Sie HIER.

Butterstick Birthday Bash

"The birthday boy did not seem too impressed by all the attention, but by now, Tai Shan is used to the cameras, the faces, the "oohs" and "ahs." At his first birthday party yesterday, the celebrity panda cub was more interested in his presents -- a pool filled with ice water and a fruitsicle shaped like a giant cake -- than in the thousands of people who came to tell him how cute he is and how much he means to the National Zoo."

"'He's a rock star,' Chevy Chase lawyer Roger Goldman said after the cub's big photo op, when he wrestled his mother for part of the giant frozen treat. "He's like Mick Jagger or somebody.'"

From The Washington Post.

Another Rove Conspiracy?

Jim Geraghty observes:

What periodically baffles me is the fact that an increasingly influential, vocal-as-all-hell faction of the Democratic Party has looked at their current circumstances – minority in the House, minority in the Senate, shut out of the White House until Jan. 20, 2009, 31 red states, etc. – and decided that their biggest problem… the figure who is most deserving of their ire, whose defeat is the highest priority is… Joe Lieberman.

Flat Earth Society

Based upon a study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Daniel Pipes reports:

In not one Muslim population polled does a majority believe that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The proportions range from a mere 15 percent in Pakistan holding Arabs responsible, to 48 percent among French Muslims. Confirming recent negative trends in Turkey, the number of Turks who point the finger at Arabs has declined from 46 percent in 2002 to 16 percent today. In other words, in every one of these ten Muslim communities, a majority views 9/11 as a hoax perpetrated by the U.S. government, Israel, or some other agency.

It's difficult to have a rational discussion of birth control with someone who thinks the stork brings babies. More HERE.

Political Science

The picture above has been swiped from "Democratic Underground," one of several websites and blogs dedicated to purging the Democratic Party of all individuals not plainly described in the DSM-IV.

Before clicking through the link below, ponder for a moment what political significance this picture could possibly have. Think "fire." Think "steel." Think "mentally disburbed."

Taken from what has been rightly called "The Greatest Post Ever In The History Of The Democratic Underground," (which is saying a lot) RIGHT HERE.

Via Right Wing News, by way of relapsed catholic.

Pets In Uniform.

Enough said. H/T to The Installer.

South Beach Fast

Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Cindy Sheehan and others suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome (and we thought Dick Gregory was already dead), have announced a "hunger strike." But wait -- just as we prepared to shout, "Lord, hear our prayer," we learned that just as the lives and the politics of these folks are mostly made up, so their "hunger strike" is mostly made up.

The point of a "hunger strike," as most effectively practiced by Mohandas Gandhi, is to refuse to eat until one's political demands are met. The tactic has the great advantages of being gradual (giving the other side a chance to react, act, or negotiate) while attesting to your (increasing) seriousness. Being willing to starve to death for a cause is an excellent demonstration that you're not kidding. Both his followers, and the British authorities, knew that Gandhi might very well go through with his threat, with potentially catastrophic political consequences.

See if you think that this is the mark of serious people:

The hunger strike will see at least four activists, Sheehan, veteran comedian and peace campaigner Dick Gregory, former army colonel Ann Wright and environmental campaigner Diane Wilson launch serious, long-term fasts.

"I don't know how long I can fast, but I am making this open-ended," said Wilson.

Other supporters, including Penn, Sarandon, novelist Alice Walker and actor Danny Glover will join a 'rolling" fast, a relay in which 2,700 activists pledge to refuse food for at least 24 hours, and then hand over to a comrade.

Starving to death just ain't what it used to be.

Agence France-Presse story HERE.

New Administration Scandal

Via PowerLine.

When is a List Not a List?

Senator Joseph McCarthy famously and recklessly trumpeted:

I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.

Of course, if Senator McCarthy actually knew such a thing to have been true, his patriotic responsibility was to turn over that information to the proper authorities for investigation and prosecution. But Tailgunner Joe had no such list, and his wild accusations did much to discredit anti-Communism, and gave considerable aid and comfort to actual Soviet spies, such as Alger Hiss.

Our betters at the New York Times and elsewhere were more recently convulsed by the revelation that the Government of the United States (normally referred to in such circles as "The Bush Administration" or simply "This Administration," (as if there were some other real Government somewhere suspended in liquid hydrogen)) had collected another list: Millions and millions of phone records of ordinary Americans had been turned over by Verizon and BellSouth and goodness knows who else. USA Today, it seemed, had in its hands a far more alarming list.

Not so much, it turns out.

In a "Note to Our Readers" and an accompanying article (cravenly printed on the Friday before the Independence Day Weekend), USA Today allows as how the Government has no names, has no addresses, and didn't get what it's got (lists of numbers and numbers called) from the sources USA Today swore it had.

Never mind.

Velveteria

Our friend PantherGirl commends to our attention "Velveteria," which trumpets:

Poodletopia is here! We will be displaying our poodle collection on velvet from May 25th and run till July. Don't miss this! Coming soon will be an area devoted to black light paintings. You will never be the same after a visit to the Velveteria.

That surely seems right. We don't know whether we're more disturbed by "Velveteria" itself or by the fact that our correspondent explodes,

"OMG!!!! Why didn't I think of this?"

[p.s. Posting has been light due to the fact that all three of us are presently sequestered in a location where bandwidth is, as the saying goes, like sucking slugs through a soda straw. We'll try to do better.]