November, 2008

Yum!

Uh Oh

If you're a Democrat, and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post starts to (metaphorically) smack you around and make fun of you, then you know you're in trouble. From today's paper, a column titled "President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour":

As he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama's biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris.

Some say the supremely confident Obama -- nearly 100 days from the election, he pronounces that "the odds of us winning are very good" -- has become a president-in-waiting. But in truth, he doesn't need to wait: He has already amassed the trappings of the office, without those pesky decisions.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reported last week that Obama has directed his staff to begin planning for his transition to the White House, causing Republicans to howl about premature drape measuring. Obama was even feeling confident enough to give British Prime Minister Gordon Brown some management advice over the weekend. "If what you're trying to do is micromanage and solve everything, then you end up being a dilettante," he advised the prime minister, portraying his relative inexperience much as President Bush did in 2000.

On his presidential-style visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem last week, Obama left a written prayer, intercepted by an Israeli newspaper, asking God to "help me guard against pride and despair." He seems to have the despair part under control, but the pride could be a problem.

Ouch. Read the whole thing.

You Think?

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette advises:

. . . the Worcester district attorney’s office is warning residents not to eat any seafood they may have purchased from the back of a truck Sunday night or yesterday morning.

Words to live by.

Let the Good Times Roll!

In economic news:

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe's bank chief plans new currency reforms - removing "more zeros" from the plummeting Zimbabwe dollar and raising the limit on cash withdrawals - to tackle the country's runaway inflation and cash shortages, state media reported Sunday.

Previous currency reforms have failed to tame Zimbabwe's inflation - officially pegged at 2.2 million percent a year but estimated by independent analysts to be closer to 12.5 million percent. It also has become virtually impossible to get access to cash as the country's economic collapse worsens.

Authorities last week released a new 100 billion dollar bank note. By Sunday it was not enough even to buy a scarce loaf of bread in what has become one of the world's most expensive - and impoverished - countries.

Pancakes for Breakfast?

Apparently a real product. And it's organic! More HERE and HERE.

WTF?

Happy Caturday!

Don't Bother Calling . . .

. . . we're at the Mall practicing:

Cute Blonde Escalator Spin Trick - Watch more free videos

And it Came to Pass in Those Days

"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

"The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

"When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

"In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites."

Read the whole thing.

Religion News

"It wasn't the first time I performed the ritual, but it was the first time I put a sword through my foot," she said.

We certainly hope so. More HERE.

Today's Quiz: Who Said . . . .

Your assignment is to guess which major American media outlet printed an editorial this morning that begins:

The initial media coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable. So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama's own account, neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq's principal political leaders actually support his strategy.

Answer HERE.

Times Reports Good News From Iraq

Talk about your classic "man bites dog" story. But, alas, as you suspected, it's not that Times, but the real Times of London with the story:

There is an interesting piece of graffiti on a bridge near Basra. A fleeing militiaman has scrawled “We'll be back”; underneath an Iraqi soldier has scribbled in reply “And we'll be waiting for you”.

John McCain is Mean

And don't miss: Photo Ops and ‘Fake Interviews’: Obama’s Excellent Overseas Adventure

I Want One

You may purchase it HERE. Once you've received it, send me your address so I can come by and pick it up.

Al Gore: The Gift That Keeps on Talking

As Professor Reynolds observes: "Al Gore is looking (and sounding) more and more like a Baptist televangelist all the time." Of course, one distinction is that at least some televangelists actually believe something, while al Gore worships only, well, al Gore. But he does it with such passion, fervor, and righteousness that it's hard not to be impressed.

Caturday

Our friend the Old Timer commends to our attention the newest episode of "Simon's Cat":

Terminator Salvation Teaser

And She's Cute, Too

Clarity is important in writing. Here's Kate's take on Islamist terrorists, over at Small Dead Animals:

"Kill every last one of the wretched vermin and do it before they breed."

Islam: Religion of Peace

And also of forced marriage, child-rape, and other multi-cultural practices that help make up the wondrous rainbow that is humanity:

SANAA, Yemen (CNN) -- Nujood Ali is 10 years old, but she already has been married and divorced. It was an arranged marriage in which she said a husband three times her age routinely beat and raped her.

"When I got married, I was afraid. I didn't want to leave home. I wanted to stay with my brothers and sisters and my mom and dad," she said, speaking to CNN with the permission of her parents.

"I didn't want to sleep with him, but he forced me to. He hit me, insulted me." [...]

Nujood's parents married her off in February to a man in his 30s whom she describes as old and ugly.

[snip]

"There is always a fear that the girl will do something to dishonor the family: She will run away with a guy, she will have relations with a boy. So this is always the phobia that the families have," said Suha Bashren of Oxfam International. [...]

The Yemeni government is holding legal and religious workshops to try to deal with the issue of early marriage. But experts say marrying off a young daughter is generally still seen as the right thing to do.

"A lot of people in the public don't think that this is wrong or that what happened to her was abuse," Bashren said.

In Yemen, there is nothing new or extraordinary about Nujood's story because children have been married off for generations. The country's legal minimum age for marriage was 15 till a decade ago, when the law was changed to allow for children even younger to be wed. [...]

Nujood got her divorce, but based on the principles of Islamic Sharia law, her husband was compensated, not prosecuted. Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200. The human rights lawyer who represented her donated the money.

More HERE.

Forward Into the Past

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Under an experiment announced Wednesday, the Chicago Transit Authority plans to remove all the seats on some cars of rush-hour trains to jam in more riders who otherwise would be left behind on crowded rail platforms.

It's surprising that no one has previously thought of this extremely efficient way of moving large herds crowds from place to place.

Here Now the News

Cops: Woman Battered Beau With Toilet Seat

Global Warming May Increase Kidney Stones

Sydney Overturns Pope Protest Law

Mormons Make Missionary Position Clear

Hit Men Classifieds Draw Police, Media Scrutiny

Bastille Day, 2008

Well, Hell, if He Can't Take a Joke . . . .

More HERE.

Rainbow Holes?

The Dallas City Hall Blog of the Dallas Morning News reports:

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster's, is perhaps "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."

Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track. TV news cameras were rolling, after all.

We guess we'd best be careful next time we're in Dallas when we order coffee. Cream & sugar for us from now on.

[UPDATE] The moron is serious, film at 11. Back in the day, we called this "being mau maued."

"Select Terrorist Group to Finance"

NozzleRage!

Jessie!

We're pretty confident the following clip requires no contextualizing [we know it's not, but it darned well should be]:

More HERE.

Mickey Kaus thinks Jesse has a point.

So does Investor's Business Daily, which notes that Barry scolds Americans for not speaking Spanish, which he himself cannot speak. It's nothing new for radical leftists to instruct the proles while they themselves do as they please. Remember al Gore's electric bill? We thought you did.

Captain! We're Trapped in the Tholian Web!

This is so not cool.

The culturally impaired may wish to look HERE.

Anti-Missile System

Maybe THIS would provide an opportunity for a good real-world test.

Double Dog Dare?

Maybe so.

Withdrawal Method

Professor Reynolds observes: "Of course, ideally we'd leave via Tehran and Riyadh . . . . "

Questions

This, for example, is an excellent one:

"I keep thinking how could I have not known it was there?" Miss Hawkins said. "I will certainly be checking my bras every morning from now on."

The answer, alas, is not to be found. More HERE.

MMMMmmmmm . . . . . Barbeque Sauce!

The Appleton, Wisconsin Post-Crescent reports:

An Appleton couple was awakened in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday to the sound of a burglar whistling in their basement.

Then events really got strange: The man was discovered wearing the couple's clothes and covered with barbecue sauce.

The homeowner grabbed an unloaded shotgun, confronted the intruder and ordered him upstairs, where he held him at gunpoint until police arrived, according to the criminal complaint.

Aaron M. Maurice, 35, 300 E. Fremont St., was wearing the woman's jacket and the man's hat and explained "he was in the military and that someone had tipped off the FBI that (he) was providing secrets to the terrorists."

He told the police that the barbecue sauce, taken from the couple's refrigerator, was "an urban disguise, if you will."

Independence Day, 2008

WTF?

Eh?

Luther Burgers

"Luther Burgers?" What on God's green earth could "Luther Burgers" possibly be?

Please send the children out of the room. We'll wait.

Now please distract uncle Fred, and anyone else with coronary artery disease. OK? Just us?

A "Luther Burger" is a bacon cheeseburger around which is wrapped a Krispy Kreme donut instead of a bun. No really! I saw it on the internet, HERE and HERE.

Christopher Hitchens

If you don't know who Hitchens is, it's time you learned.

In the August issue of Vanity Fair, he writes:

Here is the most chilling way I can find of stating the matter. Until recently, “waterboarding” was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions. But it was something that Americans were being trained to resist, not to inflict.

Exploring this narrow but deep distinction, on a gorgeous day last May I found myself deep in the hill country of western North Carolina, preparing to be surprised by a team of extremely hardened veterans who had confronted their country’s enemies in highly arduous terrain all over the world. They knew about everything from unarmed combat to enhanced interrogation and, in exchange for anonymity, were going to show me as nearly as possible what real waterboarding might be like.

It goes without saying that I knew I could stop the process at any time, and that when it was all over I would be released into happy daylight rather than returned to a darkened cell. But it’s been well said that cowards die many times before their deaths, and it was difficult for me to completely forget the clause in the contract of indemnification that I had signed. This document (written by one who knew) stated revealingly:

“Water boarding” is a potentially dangerous activity in which the participant can receive serious and permanent (physical, emotional and psychological) injuries and even death, including injuries and death due to the respiratory and neurological systems of the body.

Dig It!

It certainly makes one wonder what the campaign will be like when it gets nasty.

In the interest of full disclosure, your humble proprietor has always thought Bernardine Dohrn was hot. Just sayin'.

Democratic Party Official Charged With Satanic Ritual Sex Crimes

Do we know how to get your attention? Yes, we do.




The "Durham People's Alliance" was a player in the absurd rape accusations made by former Durham D.A. Mike Nifong against the Duke lacrosse players.

Via PowerLine.

Who Knew?

That Iran's First Lady, Ms. Ahmadinejad, was such a babe? Story HERE, complete with photo. Don't lie, you'd totally hit that.

Science Marches On

The Sunday Times reports:

A woman has conceived Britain’s first baby guaranteed to be free from hereditary breast cancer.

Doctors screened out from the woman’s embryos an inherited gene that would have left the baby with a greater than 50% chance of developing the cancer.

The woman decided to have her embryos screened because her husband had tested positive for the gene and his sister, mother, grandmother and cousin have all had the cancer.

The couple produced 11 embryos, of which five were found to be free from the gene. Two of these were implanted in the woman’s womb and she is now 14 weeks pregnant.

By screening out embryos carrying the gene, called BRCA-1, the couple, from London, will eliminate the hereditary disease from their lineage.

Via our friend Dawn Eden, who observes: "The media portrays embryo selection as though it were a "cure" for breast cancer. It is not. It is an end to human beings who may develop breast cancer."

Supreme Court Supermajorities?

Ross Douthat suggests that to declare a law unconstitutional should require a majority of 6 or even 7 justices, in order to avoid the present situation in which "many significant controversies in American life have come down to the question of what Sandra Day O'Connor (and now Anthony Kennedy, of course) thinks about the matter."

Read the whole thing.

We Scour the Internet

So you don't have to. Real headline:

Naked Women's Wrestling League
Bests Carmen Electra in Court Ruling

All you really need to know: "Electra also alleges NWWL released DVDs that use her image, including "Twin Peaks," "Operation Naked Storm," "Tag Team Dream" and "Bush vs. Hussein," without payment."

The story line of the others is reasonably clear, but we're a little hazy on what "Bush vs. Hussein" could be about.