Media's Worst of 2005

Stephen Spruiell reports. To me, the worst Media Moment of 2005 was the horrendous coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Even conservatives prone to emotionalism (like Michelle Malkin can sometimes be) laid it on thick on FEMA's response to this particular hurricane, and yet the countless hurricanes before and even Rita and Wilma afterward brought nary a peep. To paraphrase Sowell - agencies like FEMA only serve to use our taxpayer funds to subsidize people's decisions to live in hurricane prone areas. Plus, it's a government agency, so why should we, as conservatives, be indignant when it fails? Better to just be rid of it and let the insurance companies do what they are supposed to.

After seeing the ridiculous Katrina coverage, I can't stand Shep "Little Demon" Smith and Geraldo anymore. I REALLY can't stand Anderson "Premature Ejaculation" Cooper. They reported a bunch of sensationalist rumors that caused resources to be diverted that were needed elsewhere. The MSM is populated by a bunch of self-important jackasses who will take any opportunity to engage in moral preening, and I'm happy to say adios and get my news from the new media.

Bush Didn't Lie!

Via the Instapundit, got this great editorial from the Chicago Tribune:

After reassessing the administration's nine arguments for war, we do not see the conspiracy to mislead that many critics allege. Example: The accusation that Bush lied about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs overlooks years of global intelligence warnings that, by February 2003, had convinced even French President Jacques Chirac of "the probable possession of weapons of mass destruction by an uncontrollable country, Iraq." We also know that, as early as 1997, U.S. intel agencies began repeatedly warning the Clinton White House that Iraq, with fissile material from a foreign source, could have a crude nuclear bomb within a year.

And follows it up with this:

Many people of patriotism and integrity disagreed with us and still do. But the totality of what we know now--what this matrix chronicles-- affirms for us our verdict of March 2, 2003. We hope these editorials help Tribune readers assess theirs.

Read it all. Indeed, a cogent "post-game" analysis of the adminstration's case is what we need right now, and this is it. They do a good job in pointing out that Bush probably overplayed the whole WMD point because of its sexiness, which is probably true. I felt Bush's biggest problem in advancing the case for war was that he didn't illustrate well enough (unlike Tony Blair, who was spectacular and vigorous on this point) that the convergence of WMD producing nations and terrorist organizations willing to be the delivery vehicles were what we were trying to prevent.

Of Democracy And Men

David Hanson, posting on NRO, provides one of the best explanations I've yet to come across regarding the Mid-East, advancing my theory that our only shot for winning the GWOT comes from a free Muslim populace.

Couldn't Predict This One...

Europeans missing their CO2 emissions targets from the Save the Icebergs Treaty:

Although the US is portrayed as the ecological villain for refusing to sign up to the agreement, 10 out of the 15 European Union signatories - including Ireland, Italy and Spain - will miss their targets without urgent action, the Institute for Public Policy Research found.

Imagine that. Along this vein, I'm in the midst of reading The Satanic Gases to be better informed on this subject, as well as the global warming chapter in The Skeptical Environmentalist. If I ever get around to it, I might read the actual published papers in Science or Nature just to see what the current research is. It seems Crichton's critique is pretty accurate so far though - predictive alarmist studies usually rely on models, and models always rest on some assumptions. If those assumptions are geared toward producing a particular result, then it should surprise noone that you get that result. I've seen it with molecular dynamics simulations - you can make MD do anything you want.

¡Lo Hizo!

He made it! Wifedido and I went to the re-enactment of Washington's Christmas day crossing, just a few miles up the road here. For the past three years, too much precipitation has raised the river level and increased the current, making it unsafe so the intrepid Founding Father has been stuck in Pennsylvania - leaving the survival of our fledgling democratic experiment in limbo - but he made it across this year to press our cause forward. It was a lot of fun - especially listening to the "real" story of the Betsy Ross flag from the NJ reenactors - and this event is a neat little Christmas tradition if you're stuck here for a long time.

For a good account of Washington's Crossing, read David Hackett Fischer's book. (Aside: Fischer also wrote another of my favorite books, Albion's Seed).

He Won't Be Too Happy About This

if he's still alive that is. And she actually looks pretty good...

Why I Love Ann Coulter Also

I beat Muztan to the punch in posting this gem of a column:

Among the things that war entails are: killing people (sometimes innocent), destroying buildings (sometimes innocent) and spying on people (sometimes innocent).

That is why war is a bad thing. But once a war starts, it is going to be finished one way or another, and I have a preference for it coming out one way rather than the other.

The whole column details how the NY Times did not heed "privacy rights" as it busted up a child porn ring, and relates it to the lame "spying" accusations on the Pres.

Well Said, Mr. Robbins.

Of the NSA wiretap leak...

"So New York Times writer James Risen will sell his book, the Times will increase circulation, politicians will beat their breasts and send out fundraising letters, and who will pay in the end?
You can answer that one."

The TRUTH(.com) About Civil Liberties

You know, it's interesting what targets are picked by folks who claim they fight to protect civil liberties. They want to ban smoking, guns, and arguably any public religious reference across the country, but are hell up in arms when they find out the NSA's been eavesdropping on International conversations of suspicious terrorist activity without warrants. Am I alone in saying that the liberal mindset really wants to create Utopia without acknowledging we have a "human nature" problem?

UPDATE: Hah! The guy who leaked this news (which the NYT delayed publishing for a year - supposedly requested by the White House) forgot to tell everyone he's just releasing a book. Via who else, Drudge.

While We're on the Subject of Race...

Morgan Freeman is on the same page as me:

Freeman notes there is no "white history month," and says the only way to get rid of racism is to "stop talking about it."

Damn straight.

Why I Love Ann Coulter

You know, it's posts like this that make me happy she's on our side...

To Libs & Modern Racial Aggravators, Majority Only Counts When #s Work For Them

Also through Drudge, startling news to the left shows the majority of folks who died in and after Katrina were..., no, can't be,...white?
This is a big piece of news! Course to find it, you have to go to Drudge and other more obscure sites. Perhaps we should email this to Kanye...

Is King Kong Racist?

Drudge has a story up about a column asking the question. Here's the column.
Here's a quote:

Movie reviewer David Edelstein, writing in Slate.com, notes the "implicit racism of 'King Kong' - the implication that Kong stands for the black man brought in chains from a dark island (full of murderous primitive pagans) and with a penchant for skinny white blondes." Indeed, a Google search using the words "King Kong racism" yielded 490,000 hits.

Riiiiight. I see King Kong and I see a big ape. He sees King Kong and he sees a black dude. Who's the racist? See Jonah Goldberg's column for a relevant analysis on criticism of racism in the Lord of the Rings.

Geez, it seems you're supposed to find racial undertones in anything nowadays. I used to find it irritating because the implication was that these elitists thought everybody else was a racist and they were the only ones who could see this undercurrent. Now I find it unsettling because I think the real problem is that these elitists are the racists. They are the ones who ascribe qualities to people based on race so they feel the need to jump through hoops to prove that they don't translate that into action. I've seen it all too much in academia now to think it's just a fluke of one or two people. I'd give examples, but I don't know who would stumble across this blog, as humble as it may be.

To prove this - look no further than multiculturalism. They cannot separate "culture" from "ethnicity". Therefore, they are loathe to criticize cultural traits of different groups (no matter how wrong they may be, such as, I don't know, female genital mutilation) because they believe that it would be tantamount to racism. Gimme a friggin' break.

It's About Time...

..they get one to launch. Verifying with an ex-coworker, the SN# they used for the flight is one I helped build and test. The rest are already installed in silos in Alaska and Vandenburg.

Who says you can't work on anything cool anymore?...

World Ends: Women, Minorities Hit Hardest

See here.

Virgin Galactic

This is pretty durn cool. In our own backyard no less. I'm actually suprised I didn't see any mention of Richardson in the article. Seems like pretty good publicity for his run at president. The governor who helped America get back in the space race.

Great Story

OK, I haven't really been doing too many political posts lately, even though this is a politics-centric blog, but this was too good to pass up. Another sports post, but this one is a good one.

I first took note of this story on a Monday Night game between the Packers and the Eagles. The current Packers running back is a kid named Sam Gado. He's the son of Nigerian immigrants to the United States, who was brought to the US as a result of an evangelical church's desire to reunite a family. He played college ball at Liberty University (for those who don't know, Liberty is Jerry Falwell's university, so to your lib friends it should be the focus of all evil) as a third-string running back, but somehow, through a series of events, ended up on the playing field for the Packers. The rest is history. Read the whole thing here. Here too.

It isn't all roses though - like most rookies, he has a fumbling problem. Most everyone is rooting for him though, so I hope he solves it. I love it whenever a class act like this guy shows up in the NFL. Cheers the spirit.

I should forward this story to libs who think that Christians are the focus of all evil.

WHY????????????

Is there so much buzz over Barack Obama???? My goodness, so WHAT if he's eloquent? Bill Clinton was too and look what happened to this country (if you look past the media prism that is). I swear I am so freakin sick of people that think "youth and eloquence" are the solutions for this country. I'm speaking to people that I know are Republicans yet disenfranchised with Bush and I keep getting the "well, I'll vote Democrat....if that one guy runs....that eloquent gentleman from Illinois...." WHY do people thinks he's a "centrist?" The guy is another flaming left-wing liberal PEOPLE! Just look at the FACTS: he supports a woman's right to choose, supports affirmative action, favors gay rights, is against voluntary prayer in schools, believes government should take over health care, social security, and education; STRONGLY opposes the death penalty (and I'm SURE he thinks Tookie should walk free on the street because he wrote some lousy books saying kids are great while in jail); ban 2nd amendment; opposes tax cuts; worships the UN; wants Kyoto to take over the world for the environment. Granted, he DOES support the military, but blah...so did Clinton in 92 and look what the **** happened. Now tell me how all this is CENTRIST? Whether one agrees or not, these are factually LEFT WING points of view. I am still waiting for morons to tell me HOW this guy is a damn Centrist!

On top of all that, he thinks we live in a Darwinistic socialist state of affairs. Great Obama, since you think the government should track how many times we breath during the day, the last thing I need is having your eye on my life.

I'm so sick of the "he's so young and photogenic" philosophy leading to perhaps maybe an euphoric explosion in harmonious politics. F*** JFK, Clinton, and Obama. Why do we need Obama 08 so bad? Oh that's right, we need a black President...

No Clemency for "Tookie"

Good. I've gone a little soft on the death penalty in the past couple of years (read Mark Fuhrman's book to see why) but justice must be served in this case. "Tookie" may have done much to combat gang violence, but he isn't on death row for being a Crip founding member. He's on death row for the execution-style murder of 4 innocents. He has maintained his innocence all along for this crime - a crime a jury of his peers convicted him of. I don't care what Snoop Dogg or these other 2-bit celebrities think - remorse for the crime you are convicted of should be a necessary (but not sufficient) condition of clemency.

Read here about his crimes. He's scheduled to die tomorrow - may God have mercy on his soul.

Right on the Money

A pretty high profile scolding. Hope US carmakers listen to this. They'll probably just retarget the paradigm of the holistic marketing segment to better uninhibit the synergistic realities of the unpredictable consumers who should be told what they want and like it.
Wonder if Rooney planned this cooincidence?

Bush Approval Ratings

are higher than ever! Ok, it's Reggie, but still...

I'm excited because the Houston Texans are the worst team in the NFL, which means they'll get him in the draft (should he declare himself eligible, which he might). He's the kind of player you want to build a franchise around. Start with drafting him, then some offensive linemen.

Speaking of Soccer

UNM plays Maryland tomorrow for the national title. 12:00 on ESPN2. It would be the Lobos' second championship ever in a team sport. So long as you count skiing as a team sport... Just a little bias in the ESPN article, it starts off talking about how the Terrapins ended three years of frustration with this berth in the final. Then finally mentions the Lobos lack of national titles in anything on the second to last paragraph. I think my favorite thing about this article is that second to last paragraph. Check it out. It's a one sentence paragraph and the sentence is about two totally seperate topics. It looks kinda like Clemson's coach told the reporter about UNM's only other championship in skiing then started badmouthing the Lobos about the semifinal game. The the reporter seems to have misunderstood and written that UNM caused Clemson to loose the 2004 skiing championship by playing dirty.

We're Screwed!

The U.S. draws into a Group of Death - Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana. Ouch. Most everyone agrees this is one of the top 2 toughest groups (with Argentina, Holland, Serbia, and Ivory Coast being the other). Our prospects for repeating the performance of '02 are pretty grim. Here's Grant Wahl's analysis.

Here's what I think, at first glance:

-We have a very good chance of beating Italy. They're a flagging old soccer power, and I think we've got a knack for playing well against teams that have that historical arrogance. We performed quite well against the Germans in '02 and I think they're a better team than the Italians. Of course, I haven't seen the Italians play in a long time so we'll have to see...
-The Czechs scare me the most. They have been playing extreeeemely well lately. The proximity to the Czech Republic means that they may have a pseudo home-field advantage too. I think we'll be lucky if we tie them.
-Ghana have superb talent in Essien but I think we'll be able to take them out relatively easily if Arena can make sure the guys don't take them too lightly. These uber-athletic African teams always manage to surprise in the big dance.

The most difficult thing in replicating our success of the past Cup, beyond merely advancing, is that we'll play the winner of the Brazil group (assuming we come in 2nd) - so we'll be playing Brazil if we advance. My money's on Brazil to win, so we're pretty much screwed.

Here's hoping we get lucky...

Good stuff

For X-Men 3, I check out this webcomic and I was like no way but then I check IMDB and you know what, it's true.

Yuk Yuk

Pat Oliphant's latest. Isn't the whole Bush=Hitler meme kinda played out and, well, stupid? I mean, is he evil or is he stupid? Wasn't Hitler an evil genius, or was he a likeable dunce?

I swear, liberals are like children sometimes.

Maybe It Is Vietnam 2..

..at least to the extent of news bias. Townhall's take on the AP here. AIM's brevity on Wilkerson's "Cabal," and TCV's note with Murtha and Chris Matthews...

Our tax dollars at work

On a new entitlement, explained by George Will,

``No Couch Potato Left Behind''

I just love this paragraph...

It just seems right to me, especially that last part, from SI.com in regards to the recent publication of the USA Today NCAA football coaches poll:

Ladies and gentlemen, as if you needed proof, the fortunes of the nation's college football teams -- not to mention tens of millions of dollars -- are being determined by the equivalent of a high school student-council election.

I knew that the rep was hard earned...

Looking good, that's all I can say;

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Highland High School principal is in jail after police say they caught him trying to swallow a small bag of cocaine.

Did you ever

hear the Dane Cook comic routine? The one where he refers to the DMV as "Satan's a**h***"? Yeah, well today I finished a month-long odyssey getting my vehicles registered here in the great state of New Mexico. Not having the title (almost done with that first auto loan) for one and having past documentation for the state I started by calling to figure out what to do. After all the mis-information I finally knew what I needed and took the first last week. It was amazing because it was almost painless, could it be, had the DMV changed?

Of course not, that's what this week was for. So, yesterday I went to get my other truck done and they were closed due to computer failure. Ugh. So today I go and because I need a VIN check the receptionist won't give me a number. I finally convince her that I think I'll still be in line when I get back from pointing at the numbers on my truck. She's still skeptical but gives in. My number: 165, current number: 131, estimated wait on ticket: 41 minutes, number of tellers working: 2 (out of TEN stations). Yeah, I wouldn't miss anything.

When I got back from the VIN check they were on 133, I was on my way. I went to the theatre next Door to see what was playing and to kill some time, 134. Next I decided to be brave, walking to the shopping center next door in search of some type of under-motorcycle-helmet head covering for the frigid weather. I thought I was getting close and taking my time. Nope, 138.

So I decide to wait. And wait. Finally, 1 hour, 12 minutes and 43 seconds after getting my ticket (and 22 minutes after my ticket estimate) 164 is called and is a no show. It is my time! So I get to the window and find a mistake in the VIN check paperwork. The woman called my truck a Chevrolet (it's a GMC), I tell the teller this and he informs me that it must be changed. Well, can he do it? I had brought the Arizona title (I gave it to the VIN checker too, but I guess it was too late in the afternoon to read). He told me that no, he couldn't because he wasn't certified to read a VIN number from a windshield and verify the badge on the front (oh wait, that obviously isn't a qualification, my mistake).

The teller then tells me I have to get back in line to get it filled out again. A little close to livid, I cut in line and the receptionist sends the paper back to the VIN inspector who walks back to my truck to verify that it's a GMC. While waiting, the receptionist walks me back to the teller and lets him know it's ok to start on my paperwork. Twenty more minutes later and the title and registration is in my hand. A hard earned victory.

Let's just say I'm about as enamored with the DMV as I am with man-hating faux feminists.

Hah! - Inuit Reparations

From Monsieur Breitbart. Spokesmen like Tuuluuwaq Ukluk Jackson and Ek Chua Sharpton are taking up the cause.

For eskimo name decoding, check here...

Basic Economics

via Walter Williams. Of course we are all well immersed in such thinking, but it's always good to have a refresher. Good line:

Zero-sum games are transactions mostly initiated by thieves and governments.

Heh.

The American Soldier Unmasked...

If John Kerry would have said this during the election cycle, maybe his base would have been more fired up...

What an a**hole... At least Dean's just a mental case.

Somebody Call Al Gore

Earth in the Balance! Record lows in the US. Must be that there Global Warming.

Link for the day

From Jonah Goldberg's latest at NRO:

Unfortunately, liberals define diversity by skin color and sex, not by ideas, which makes it difficult to have really good arguments.

Soooooo Close!

We missed a top seeding by one miserable point! We ended up right behind Italy, and a few points ahead of the Dutch. This is quite a change from being the whipping boys for North America just 15 years ago. I'm quite impressed with the job Bruce Arena has done, we're up there with pretty elite company. A top seeding may have placed undue stress on them, however, and lately they've been playing pretty terribly (granted, Arena's been playing reserves). Here's hoping they get an easy draw.

In other sporting news, I'm pretty stoked for Torino '06 - in particular I'll be watching the qualifying proceedings for the snowboard events pretty closely, especially the Chevrolet Grand Prix. I'd like to see Shaun White win something in the pipe but he sometimes crumples under pressure. Usually, somebody who either doesn't give a crap about anything (Danny Kass) or has little pressure from being unknown (Steve Fisher) steps it up and wins. I hope Kass takes a gold since he cut his snowboarding teeth at the Creek in Jersey and has such sweet style.

This is the first year they are including snowboardcross - for the uninitiated this is basically a free for all race of 4 snowboarders navigating an obstacle course at high speed. This begs the question: when are they going to add slopestyle to the Olympics? I love that event. That's where you really get to see a snowboarder's style. Pipe's good, but so restricted. Nothing like a terrain park run to see the creativity and technical prowess of a rider.

Couldn't even make this up...

The spokesman for a feminist-based environmental group accused men of being the biggest contributors to human-caused "global warming" and lamented that women are bearing the brunt of the negative climate consequences created by men.

The spokesman continues by demanding

"climate gender justice,"

Sure feels nice to be the root of all evil.

Imagine

If I were to say the following...

We parents of boys have meekly allowed gender warriors ... to treat our sons like unindicted coconspirators in history's gender crimes, while parents of girls permit their daughters to be patronized as helpless victims of a phantom, crippling sex bias in America's schools.

No doubt I would be treated as some type of savage. Without contemplating the words written I would be treated automatically as a monster, as a backward Neanderthal, oblivious to the plight of brave feminists simply because I am male. Thankfully, those words were written by a woman, Kate O'Beirne in NRO.

Reading the article it brings to mind something which troubles me. These days it seems as if there are certain people who can be criticised without question. Treated like garbage and made to feel ashamed of their existence without any reason. If it sounds personal to me, it is because it is. I have been made to feel ashamed of being male in the name of feminism and it was not fair and it's not fair that others have to deal with the same thing.

Feminism is a good thing and women are equal and should be proud of who they are. It is another thing though to hate men and treat them as inconsequential in the name of feminism, that is not true and the true description is not a feminist but sexism and intolerance, the antithesis of what those who act this way preach against. It is sickening and it is nice to read someone who agrees that our society is headed backwards in many regards, led in that direction by false prophets of progress.

Yet another post with no intellectual content

But who cares. Cruise control skiing. It's what all the cool kids are doing.
In the interest of advancing a cool word, I should note that this sort of tomfoolary is known as hoonage. This one was the Hoon of the Day at Jalopnik.

Some truth about oil

Courtesy of George Will...

ExxonMobil, which has more than $50 billion of past profits invested in energy development, made 9.8 cents per dollar of sales, much less than the 21.2 cents made by a company selling another fluid that lubricates American life -- Coca-Cola.

Go on hippies, I dare you to talk some more about evil oil companies. Of course they will, rational thought and reality never deter the mind numb.

Worst...President...Ever

This snide column by Richard Reeves "answers" that question. Keep in mind, they were probably saying the same things about Abraham Lincoln (who was vastly unpopular with the intelligentsia, no doubt, as he led us through the Civil War) during his presidency.

This column made me more disgusted than the first half performance of the Cowboys' offensive line.

They oughta try this in Jersey

FBI plants fake candidate in WV race in vote-buying sting operation. Democrat, of course.

Squirrel Eats Dog

No, really.

Anyone else find this silly?

Ah, the good 'ol AP, always good for added fluff... Anyway I was reading this release about President Bush being summoned for jury duty in Texas and how he was unlikely to serve, hard hitting stuff there. But that's not what I refer to. The last paragraph is as follows:

Although Bush won't serve this time, his Democratic rival in the 2004 election served on a Massachusetts jury last month. Kerry not only served, but was elected foreman of the Suffolk Superior Court jury, which rejected a claim by two men who sued the city of Boston for injuries suffered in a car accident involving a school principal.

Wow, John Kerry won an election in November! I know, silly of me even to bring it up but I can't help but imagine the writer glancing devotingly at a picture of Kerry lit by candlelight next to their desk...

Deion

On defending Terrell Owens;

I feel bad for T.O. It's not right. Just because a guy won't say he's sorry, he's out of the game of football for the season...It's like someone working a job 9 to 5 and they don't apologize to their boss, they're fired.

Uhhhh, yeah, that's exactly what it's like, people that are jerks sometimes get fired. Anyway what this reminded me of are hippy apologists who say stupid things like "yeah, he deserved to get fired but shouldn't have because now he's unemployed". In revealing my political ambitions to someone I mentioned my intention to rid whatever part of the government I was in charge of of excess, of waste and to rid it of people who did nothing and deserved to be dropped. I was refuted, "but then they won't have jobs and their families won't vote for you." Ugh, hippies.

Finally

After first airing the ad, completely and utterly ignorantly, then changing an image on the freaking ad on their website to counter criticism, despite the fact that the changes were completely arrogant and changed nothing, MoveOn has finally pulled their ad misidentifying British soldiers as American. My ugh for the day.

A little bit

Of the obvious here but Malkin's a good writer and as this type of thing almost always goes unnoticed.

Besides that, it reminds me of a couple stories of my own.

Recently I was dumped, being told "I can't be in a relationship with someone who is a Republican, who believes what you do. I am a feminist." Total conversations at that point about ideals: 0. Ugh.

Another recent incident. A former roomate was an assistant to the Lt. Governor, a Dem and was quite active in local liberal politics. We never talked about anything but I didn't talk to them much about anything. One day we all went to a bar and I met some of their friends. I talked to a group for more than an hour about a lot of things. Much of the conversation was politically and current issue driven, no problem, there were agreements and disagreements. After a while one of them said some non-too-kind comments about those "evil republicans" and after rolling my eyes, I mentioned that I am one of them. In a snicker I was told "We thought you were cool", and then they ignored me for the rest of the evening. Ugh, again.

That's what I call a headline

A few days ago I read that someone paid more than $2000 for a used urinal from currntly-being-demolished Busch baseball stadium in St. Louis.

This seems to have started a trend as I read today:

Your chance to own Jerry Garcia’s toilet

Sowell's random thoughts

I have long suspected that there is a part of the male brain -- perhaps most of it -- which automatically shuts off at the sight of a good-looking woman.

Way to go, jerks

Merck is announcing huge layoffs. Thanks, trial lawyers! You manage to take out companies that develop life saving drugs so you can line your pockets.

In a Broader Perspective, We're Winning...

I know I've been pessimistic in the past about the whole GWOT situation, however I do agree with this article that we have a fighting chance long-term, as long as the Muslim populace is gradually convinced about the fruits of democracy. That seems to be happening in a few places thought lost a few years ago. Maybe humans are wiser than I had hoped.

Hey, looks like at least one smart Prof. over at the UofA escaped from the dungeon...

Brother Bear

Jersey is so worthless. Look at the knots they are tying themselves into over a stupid bear hunt. Bears are running into people more often; last year there was a bear attack on a camp at High Point just a few days before wife and I went there. If you read the linked NJ.com (AP) story, here's the part I find hilarious:

Besides the hunt, the plan calls for educating campers and residents across the state about how to deal with bears, and investigating the use of bear contraceptives. Campbell said the state is looking into bear birth control but so far has had "significant challenges." Two studies being done in New Jersey on captive bears in Jackson are in the very early stages.

Yep, they're looking at catching bears and injecting them with birth control. No kidding. The morons in Princeton are already trying it for deer control - the deer problem is so bad here that I've heard them called "rats on stilts". Deer were the #1 reason for car accidents a few years ago and the morons come up with this plan - catching deer, injecting them with birth control (what about deer "choice"?) even though people are willing to pay to shoot them. These are the nightmares spawned when liberals run things.

For reasons like this, we're tired of the east coast now. Can we go home?

New Jersey & You: Perfect Together

That was the extremely lame slogan to gin up tourism a few years ago, made famous by former Gov. Tom Kean, who when he said it in commercials sounded like this: "peeeeehhhhhhfect together". Right now Gov. Codey is trying to come up with a new slogan, and the consulting firm he hired came up with crap. He says that their slogan ("New Jersey: We'll win you over") implied Jersey sucks to begin with, which we ALL know isn't true.

So the Gov. opened up suggestions from the public. Of course it turned into an insult fest. My personal favorite is: "Why should death end your voting rights?"

Albuquerque Engineers Still Working...

Today's news seems a bit boring, but here's some good stuff coming out of good old Albuquerque...

It's our fault

I'm sure I can't be the first to say this but let's not forget that the riots in France are America's fault. I'm sure that in the weeks to come we'll start to hear this more and more. It could be because of Iraq. It could be because the rioters are actually motivated by solidarity with oppressed American minorities. Whatever the reason, it's our fault.

On a related note, I was unaware of a decidedly un-PC stance by the French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy, who has called the troublemakers scum and riffraff and promised to clean out the suburbs with a power hose. It should probably be noted that this isn't a direct quote but rather NPR's paraphrasing of Sarkozy's remarks. The validity of NPR's representation appears to be supported by this BBC piece. We also see here that the usual French outlook still has the upper hand in the government. There must be 'Mutual respect' with the people who are trying their best to destroy the country.

Arnold Kling for President!

I have renewed faith in Libertarianism...

No, They're Not Staring at the Louvre..

Linked by the Rott, a nice collection of "conférences" to the U.S., making you wonder if the French can see anything ground level (like cars on fire) with their noses so high in the air...

What this headline means

Today's election could reflect GOP's struggles.

Focusing on the two governor's races, let me spin this ahead of time for the media:

-If GOP loses both governor's races, then this reflects the public's rabid hatred of George Bush and he should be impeached.

-If the GOP wins both governor's races, then the voters of the respective states were discontent with the troubled Democrat party, or something to that effect.

-If the GOP wins NJ but not VA, then this reflects trouble ahead for George Bush because VA is a red state, so George Bush should be impeached - Jerseyans were just discontent with the corrupt Dem establishment.

-If the GOP wins VA but not NJ, then Bush should be impeached because Jersey voters picked a corrupt establishment over the GOP. VA is an aberration due to stupid conservative Christians who believe the world is 6000 years old, and show just how loyal the base is to a party with a President who should be impeached.

Update: I fixed my bad spinning. Evidently, only getting 3 hours of sleep because of generals is bad for all coherent thought. No wonder so many PhDs are so stupid.

He should move to Mass. and run for Senate

and maybe someday, he too can be a Democratic Presidential nominee. Michelle Malkin's got the goods.

Did they cut off heads in a fashion reminiscent of "Jin-Jis Khaaaan"?

Garden State Guv

The race is turning ugly. There's a debate on now, but for some reason college football is more interesting to me...

Seriously, I think I'm going to be a good boy by holding my nose and voting for Forrester. He's pretty worthless, but Corzine is even more worthless. The WifeDido is probably going to vote for the Libertarian in protest, and I've been tempted myself. I don't like the LP stance on certain issues I deem important, like GWOT (although at the state level this guy will have little to do with that) but overall they're a pretty good alternative.

Things that should be supreme

Yep. But Bush missed his chance to nominate the first Mexican!

First Graders in NM Say War is Bad...

Especially when presented with factual evidence by their teacher...

Insurgency enters its eighth day

How long do you think until they surrender?

Update: Now a stern warning. I bet thoses insurgents are quaking in their boots!

This is not good to hear if you're French: "It's Baghdad here". So much for being anti-war.

People in PJs Can Make a Difference

Hey, good job bloggers! With more Americans than ever skeptical of the nightly news, it's no surprise that people really on top of things are folks kinda like us...

Down, but Certainly Not Out

To Left: El Presidente says "you missed."

Long live the Gipper...

Had to post this today...

Boy we sure could use a legacy in his mold. However, as the Gip would say, let's keep our heads up so we can see opportunity coming.

has anyone else noticed............

there have been VERY little mention of the whole Tom DeLay "scandal?" Maybe the nation is realizing what a moron Earle is? Perhaps?

Time to Buy a House in Baghdad

"When people fear for their future, they invest in gold; jewelry and coins can be sewn into clothes and smuggled out of the country. When people feel confident about the future, they buy real estate. Property prices have skyrocketed across Iraq. Decrepit houses in Sadr City, a Shiite slum on the outskirts of Baghdad, can easily cost $45,000. Houses in upper-middle-class districts of Mansour and Karrada can cost more than 20 times that. Restaurant owners spend $50,000 on top- of-the-line generators to keep open despite the frequent blackouts. In September 2005, there were 40 buildings nine stories or higher under construction in the Kurdish city of Sulaymani. Five years ago, there were none. Iraqis would not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate if they weren't confident that the law would protect their investment."

From the WSJ Opine.

You've got to be kidding me

Fake "live presidential debate". Thank God for TV, without which the liberals wouldn't be able to indulge their fantasies. Hopefully, they *do* realize that they are just fantasies.

Wanna Know What It's Like Being Around Liberals?

This guy (found via Instapundit) hits the nail on the head for me:

I am utterly exhausted with having to, at least once a month or so, go back and rehash the same arguments because some people are not honest enough, diligent enough, or caring enough to go back and look at the historical record and just be honest about it.

I don't even argue with people around here anymore. I just think happy thoughts whenever I hear unhinged-ness round these parts, because to some people evidence and logical thought can occupy no real estate in their emotion-addled minds.

YES!

Bush nominates Alito. My personal favorite would have been Janice Rogers Brown, but Alito is a good solid pick at first glance. Via Hewitt, here's some of his opinions.

Thank you, Mr. President. Now, if you could just whip out that veto pen for some of Congress' little pork projects...I guess it's just wishful thinking to expect that from a 'compassionate' conservative.

Update: Michelle Malkin, as usual, has the best roundup of reactions.

Here's a really good profile in (yep) the NY Times. Alito is all Jersey style, from Hamilton, which is close to our place of residence. More here.

Alito: "Judges should be judges. They shouldn't be legislators, they shouldn't be adminstrators." I'm doing a jig now.

No Rock for You

With the departure of Howard Stern to satellite radio, K-ROCK in NYC is moving to an all-talk format (with David Lee Roth being their headliner?). This means that the biggest radio market in the US is not going to have a single - not one - station playing new rock (there is one classic rock station).

I don't really care, everybody knows the best rock radio around these parts is WMMR in Philly.

The Libby Indictment

Some perspective from Wizbang. I like how he says Libby is being indicted for lying about how he told the truth about a liar.

I tell you what, if I ever have to testify before a grand jury, I'm not saying a word. If you don't say anything, you can't be accused of lying.

Misplaced Priorities

Sen. Coburn of OK wanted to transfer funding for a Japanese garden at the CDC ($60 million) over to providing drugs for folks with HIV. Here's the story.

Basically, Senators look stupid. Good move by Coburn. Sad to say, both NM senators (and one NJ, Corzine is here running for gov.) voted against Coburn.

Via Instapundit.

Sulu

is gay. Unsurprisingly, he is also into theater.

Wasn't he always flirting with Uhura? Or maybe they were just being girls...

Stu Pidassle

Maybe we're taking this a little too far...

From the great FARKster...

Didn't you guys solve this on a cabin trip?

Maybe that was a ladder...

Bridge to Nowhere

Bush Admin vs. CIA (Round 2)

Who do you think will win? If the last paragraph of this article rings true, it should be one helluva fight. One thing that gets me... why did Libby choose someone from the Times? Why not someone from the W-Post or WSJ?... Why not Novak himself? Just because Miller had published stories about WMD in the past, it made her a loyalist?...

Good

Withdrawn.

Brown, Luttig, McConnell, Alito, etc. please. Don't screw it up again.

Racist Astros

No wonder the Astros are losing - they're racist pigs! According to Joe Morgan, they have no blacks on the team!

My eyes are lying to me, or I guess this doesn't count. Or this. Or this. Apparently, "black" means "African American". The Astros are so racist that they single out blacks of American ancestry!

But wouldn't that then make them some other "ist"? Like "culture-ist"?

Man, I bet I'm so many "ists" that I don't even know about. Good thing I have liberals to tell me what I am.

World Cup next year!

I can't remember correctly but I think Tim and I of all the people on this list are the only soccer fans I believe. Maybe Erick too. In that note, what do you think of next year? Who'll take it all, etc. I'm surprised 4 out of the 5 African teams are brand new this year, could produce another Cameroon 90 or Senegal 02 (underdawgs going far).....It's the usual crowd from North America as well as South (unless if Australia beats Uruguay which I think they can and should). Usual crowd from Asia as well except for Iran instead of China this year - like a rehash of 98.

Most people will predict the usual Brazil to take it all, but I just can't see it. I can't see a team being in the finals 3 consecutive World Cups.....teams I can really see take it all would be either France, England (although they tend to choke in Playoff stages), Holland, or perhaps Argentina. But I'd solely say a tossup of either France or Holland. I don't think Japan or South Korea will go far as they did in 2002. Homefield goes a long way, and now they're in Europe. I'd be surprised if they can make it to the Rd of 16 (but really, it'll all depend on the group drawing).

United States should do well IAOI (if and only if) they get a good draw. If they get stuck with a group that has 2 exceptional teams, I can't see them advancing. Personally, United States got lucky in 2002. If Portugal had only tied South Korea (they had so many shots "called back" and 2 hit the crossbar), the US would've never advanced....then they played Mexico instead of Italy in the Rd of 16. Don't get me wrong, I think the US has VASTLY improved since the 90s, but until they beat a "big" team this coming World Cup (any of these would do for me: Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, England, Holland, Germany), they're still just that "good team." I admit, I was stunned when they beat Portugal and tying South Korea (IN Korea) in 2002.....but they went on to lose to....Poland?

I'm paying attention to other sports as well (particularly football and basketball), but usually around fall of a year before the World Cup is when I become soccer attentive. That being....now.

Oh, is it true Gov Richardson is refunding NM residents for gas prices? I heard about that.

A Preview of the Miers Hearings

I saw this last week, but it's so funny I needed to link to it.

A Must Read..

Marvin Laird's take on the lessons we must apply to keep this war from being "another Vietnam."

It's a long article, but probably one of the most important statements we as Americans should review and be mindful of as it comes down to 'crunch time' in Iraq...

TPTC Biblioteca?

What do y'all think of starting an internet library? I'll make a list of my books at home and post them as a comment, then others can do the same. If someone wants to read a book, either e-mail or post a request here and the owner will send it by mail. Postage should balance itself out if we're all borrowing.

Just a thought. I've seen several books I'd like to read lately, but didn't want to buy them or wait for weeks for the library to call me.

Affirmative Action Time

for boys. I can't wait to take advantage of my new "oppressed group" status.

I wonder why the 43-57 gender gap on college campi wasn't evident at Tech? Heh, don't answer that.

Ah, so there's a term for it now

A while back our little blog here was inundated with a spam like substance, what a mess. I felt like throwing up and then punching the screen. Fortunately, Muztan noticed a procedure to verify comments and we've been golden since. I recently learned that this albatross, even worse than spam now has a name itself, splog...

Bono: "I'm representing the poorest and the most vulnerable people"

Via Drudge...I guess the AP writer left out the rest of his comment: "I'm actively campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize to help convince myself of my own moral superiority"...what a jackass.

Reverse Psychology

I knew it! I knew if I remained pessimistic about the Astros winning the NLCS that they would actually win it! See, I let my guard down in Game 5, thinking Lidge had the game sealed up with one strike to go and began celebrating - and then Pujols (IMO the best hitter in the game right now) dashed it all to bits. Last night I remained pessimistic until the final fly ball. So finally after so many agonizing years of watching Rangers and Astros baseball, the World Series is coming to Texas. Eeeeeeexcelent.

Hero of the series: Phil Garner - he outmaneuvered one of the best in baseball (La Russa). Or maybe Chad Qualls, who pitched I don't know how many innings of perfect setup relief.

Now I get ready to watch them lose the World Series (wink, wink....)

Chumpsky's Trust Fund...

See!

Everyone's a capitalist... Though he really is a capitalist pig.

Timdido?

You going? If so, I'm jealous. Saw Coulter earlier this year but me thinks this would be more informative, although not as entertaining.

Teachers make $250,000/yr in 2025...

...according to US economic productivity trends. How come we don't hear about this from our economists? Instead all we get is ramble about the deficit.

Slick Dick?

Hmm... I always wondered what caused Mr. Morris' estrangement with the Clinton's. Here is an interesting possibility.

Breaking News: Man Insignificant

Heh.

This is terrible news!

We're going to have all these half-breed race mongrels running around the country! Wait, what? Are you pointing at me?

The well-played violin

A most compelling article from Accuracy in Media of the roots of Islamic radicalism and their common bond with the MSM of hatred of Judeo-Christianity. I believe we should all examine the Qur'an and decide for ourselves such a heavily consequential issue. Our (global) attitude towards it may decide the fate of humanity.

The article is followed by a rare examination of the brainwashers of Cindy Sheehan and their ties to violence in communist countries.

I don't know about this...

vote-by-phone? Seems like it's open to fraud.

This can't be good

Filipino spy in the White House. He was on the Bice Fresident's stapp.
Fellow FilAm Michelle Malkin has a lot more.

I second that...

emotion on the new nomination of Harriet Miers to SCOTUS. I'll wait for the legal minds to pronounce judgment before really deciding how I feel, but right now it kinda seems like an "affirmative action" pick, if you know what I mean - a real weaselly way of avoiding his chance to shape the Supreme Court.

Update: Yep, disappointment reigns in the conservative blogosphere, especially at Powerline, where Paul writes:

I was hoping that, because this is Bush's second term, he would thumb his nose at the diversity-mongers and appoint the best candidate. He thumbed his nose all right, but at conservatives.

They rightly agree that she might have an originalist judicial philosophy, but we don't know that. Right now, it seems she was picked because a) she's a woman and b) she is a Bush insider. Hugely disappointing - I find it harder to defend this President with every new decision.

It's not all long faces though - Hugh Hewitt sees a silver lining, but I think it's pretty thin. He says that Bush's pick was primarily about the GWOT and the current political climate - I think that's a ridiculous criteria for selecting SCOTUS justices. You should never nominate someone to a position like that based on a single issue. He also says:

As I wrote last night, Judges Luttig and McConnell are the most qualified nominees out there, but I think from the start that the president must have decided that this seat would be given to a woman, and it is very hard to argue that she is not the most qualified woman to be on the SCOTUS for the simple reason that she has been in the White House for many years.

I think that's BS. You should nominate the most qualified person regardless - that's what a conservative would do. And why does "being in the White House for many years" qualify anybody for the SCOTUS? Does that mean Hillary's eight years as a de facto White House counsel qualify her for the SCOTUS more than, say, Janice Rogers Brown, who has none?

Lt. Gen. Patraeus at Princeton

Tigerhawk reports. I missed it (and also Secretary Chertoff's talk) because, well, I'm a grad student. Those experiments won't run themselves! Needless to say, it's good reading, primarily because it gets into all the details that the MSM should be reporting but doesn't - either because it's boring or because it could be seen as positive coverage of the war.
Best part was that Gen. Patraeus quoted TE Lawrence - just because Lawrence of Arabia is one of my favorite movies. It's relevant, so I'll post it also:

We believed what TE Lawrence said: “Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them."

Yep.

Why isn't this getting attention?

Suicide bombing in Oklahoma. Via LGF.
Update: Turns out he was really only a suicide bomber - some guy with mental problems.
More Update: A lot of unanswered questions, including ties to an Islamic center in Norman, so who knows at this point. Hopefully we find out.

Repubs: Power or Principle?

I missed this great editorial from the WSJ yesterday, which really gets to the heart of what has got me depressed about the GOP of late. The Dems seem to think now (given their recent actions towards DeLay) that it was the ethics problems of Rosty and Wright that swept Repubs to power, when in fact it was really the new ideas that Repubs were espousing. However, Repubs seem to be more interested now in just holding power:

The path back to public approval, and re-election next year, is to return to their principles ... It's not as if the agenda that Republicans ran on in 2004, or for that matter 1994, has been fulfilled. The question is whether Republicans still believe in that agenda, or whether their main ambition now is simply to stay in power. If a year from now voters continue to believe the answer is the latter, no amount of money or muscle will save Republicans at the polls.

My depressions stems from, for the lack of a better comparison, what I see as the conflict between the Fascists and the Commies during the '30s - two groups that stand for basically the same thing but are merely jockeying for power. It's not a perfect comparison because the GOP does still have core principles that are diametrically opposed to the Dems, but they certainly haven't been acting according to those principles. If it weren't for the Democrats terrible stance on the GWOT and interest in legislating power thru the judiciary (I give Bush much credit for the Roberts nomination, and he'll go up many points if he nominates a Luttig or McConnel or Brown), I'd probably withdraw from politics altogether.

Judith Miller Freed

Powerline asks all the right questions regarding why she wasn't freed earlier - everyone suspected she was protecting another source but who was it? Some thought another reporter, or maybe Joe Wilson himself. But the interesting bit is at the bottom of the post - she could have been doing it to ward off negative publicity surrounding a case in which she screwed up by "warning" a Muslim charity about an impending search warrant's enforcement.

If you weren't a news junkie dork over the summer, you should read Tom Maguire, since he's done a lot of writing and speculation on this matter. I like Mark Steyn for the Cliffs Notes version since he's such a great writer.

More re: Condi Speaks

Well, the transcript's up, and here's the Princeton article about the speech. If you really want to, check out the AP's editorial, I mean article, on it. (Compare what I wrote to what the AP says about Anne-Marie Slaughter - I guess Anne-Marie was just so blown away by Condi! Heh.) Tigerhawk's got the better goods on this so you should check out what he wrote. I just want to point out the passages that really stuck with me.

Here's the part about what 9/11 hath wrought:

The ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union initiated a new moment of transformation. This was a glorious revolution, a cause for celebration throughout Russia and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact countries became the new heart of NATO, and we transformed that alliance into one that Truman and Acheson would never have recognized, but would certainly have applauded. Some even thought that the engine of globalization might just make the possibility of conflict remote.

But lurking below the surface, old hatreds were gaining new power. And on a warm September morning, America encountered the darker demons of our new world.

People still differ about what the September 11th calls us to do. And in a democratic society, that debate is healthy and just and right. If you focus only on the attacks themselves and believe they were caused by 19 hijackers, supported by a network called al-Qaida, and operating from a failed state -- Afghanistan -- then our response can be limited. The course of action presumes that we are still living in an ordinary time.

But if you believe, as I do and as President Bush does, that the root cause of September 11th was the violent expression of a global extremist ideology, an ideology rooted in the oppression and despair of the modern Middle East, then we must speak to remove the source of this terror by transforming that troubled region. If you believe as we do, then it cannot be denied that we are standing at an extraordinary moment in history.

And here's the part about "exporting democracy":

There are those who falsely characterize the support of democracy as "exporting" democracy, as if democracy were somehow a product that only America manufactures. These critics say that we are arrogantly imposing our principles on an unwilling people. But it is the very height of arrogance to believe that political liberty and democratic aspirations and freedom of speech and rights for women somehow belong only to us. All people deserve these rights and they choose them freely. It is not liberty and democracy that must be imposed. It is tyranny and silence that are forced upon people at gunpoint.

She ended her speech on an awesome note:

I know that this vision can seem very distant at times, especially when we see so many tragic images of death, of innocent Iraqis and Afghans, and of course, Americans dying overseas. There are legitimate differences about the war we are now fighting in Iraq and in a great democracy like ours, everyone has the right to express those views freely.

But I hope that we can all step back and look at other extraordinary times and though they are not perfectly parallel, they can help us to gain a perspective on the challenges we face.

In 1989, I was lucky enough to be the White House Soviet specialist at the end of the Cold War. It doesn't get any better than that. I was there for the liberation of Eastern Europe; the unification of Germany; and for the beginnings of the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union itself. I saw things that I never thought possible. And one day, they seemed impossible; and several days later, they seemed inevitable. That is the nature of extraordinary times.

But as I look back now on those times, I realized that I was only harvesting the good decisions that had been taken in 1947, in 1948, and in 1949. And sometimes, I wonder how in the course of events, the course of the moment, people like Acheson and Truman and Marshall and Vandenberg saw a path ahead. After all, in 1946, the Germany Reconstruction was still failing and Germans were still starving. Japan lay prostrate. In 1947, there was a civil war in Greece. In 1948, Germany was permanently divided by the Berlin Crisis; Czechoslovakia was lost to a communist coup. And in 1949, the Soviet Union exploded a nuclear weapon five years ahead of schedule; and the Chinese communists won their war. In 1950, a brutal war broke on the Korean Peninsula.

These were not just tactical setbacks for the forward march of democracy. Indeed, it must have seemed quite impossible, that we would one day, stand at a juncture where Eastern Europe would be liberated, Russia would emerge, and Europe would be whole and free and at peace. If we think back on those days, we recognize that extraordinary times are turbulent and they are hard. And it is very often hard to see a clear path. But if you are -- as those great architects of the post-Cold War victory were -- if you are true to your values, if you are certain of your values, and if you act upon them with confidence and with strength, it is possible to have an outcome where democracy spreads and peace and liberty reign.

Because of the work that they did, it is hard to imagine war in Europe again. So it shall be also for the Middle East.

An extremely well spoken and lucid vision for the Middle East - man, I wish President Bush could talk like this, but he's just our modern day Moses. I say again: Condi in '08!

I only have one quibble though: Condi speaks very favorably of Dean Acheson - granted I'm no Cold War scholar (and, well, she is) - but didn't he "lose China"? And wasn't he tied to Alger Hiss? Just asking.....

Update: One correction - below I said that Dean Slaughter spoke glowingly of Condi before Condi's talk, and after seeing it on C-Span, I realized it was actually after the QnA session at the very end.

Nuther Update: Fausta of the Bad Hair Blog was there also, and actually has a picture (from the Daily Princetonian) of the protestors. She's right, they were few in number but extremely loud - I could hear them even almost to the EQuad (an entire football stadium, two parking lots, and several eating clubs away) but I definitely did not see more than maybe 20 or 30, although I didn't really stick around to count, just walked right past. Fausta also proposes a funny new disorder called Associated Press Deficit Disorder (APDD) based on the AP's crappy editorial, I mean news article, on this talk.

Condi Speaks at Princeton

I had the privilege of listening to Sec. of State Condi Rice speak today. I managed to get a ticket in the lottery so I was sitting about six rows from the front, on the left side (facing the stage, so to Condi's right). She is a very charismatic and eloquent speaker, and extremely intelligent - can I also mention very beautiful? Yes, I reaaaallly want her to run for President.

When I arrived, I had to wait for 2 hours in order to get through security and get a good seat. I ended up sitting by myself (the wife is out with her lab on their annual retreat) right in front of some old liberal dude who made it his mission to pontificate tirelessly to the Republican girl behind me. He kept carping on about the war in Iraq and how we didn't plan to 'win the peace', and then went into a tirade about Hurricane Katrina. After I gave a few displeased looks behind me he realized he was really loud and shut up.

When Condi came in, she was well received. It was a very good atmosphere, she received lots of polite applause. The Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, Anne-Marie Slaughter, gave her rave reviews and mentioned many times how there would always be a spot for her at Princeton should she return to academia. Condi, at the end of her talk, received a long round of polite applause and a standing ovation from maybe 10% of the crowd - me included (look for the skater-looking guy with the black hat and Blacklabel shirt if this gets broadcast on C-Span). The lack of boos and hisses kind of surprised me - but the long applauses really shocked me. I found that level of politeness very unexpected, but, then again, we're in Princeton, not Brown. They train them to be very polite, condescending a--holes here.

Unfortunately, there were no recording devices allowed, so I have no pictures. I'm waiting for a transcript so I can further expound. Let me just say that there were two points to her talk that really stuck out to me. The biggest one was how she kept reminding everyone that 9/11 changed everything. We live in extraordinary times that require lots of risk and foresight, much like the times that Truman and his advisers had to navigate during the post WWII years, with the specter of the Soviets hanging overhead. She contrasted the 'ordinary' response to terror during the '90s with the 'extraordinary' response that 9/11 demanded. This means actively changing the middle east to expand freedom - I didn't realize until now just how much I've let go of my former foreign policy prescription of 'screw the world and save America'. Her other point that stuck with me was a criticism of those who believe that 'exporting democracy' is doomed to failure, which is a criticism encountered from both right and left. She said it is an awful thing to think that the desire for freedom and liberty is something that is unique to Americans.

She took a few questions at the end, and one I found very surprising coming from a Princetonian - it was basically critical of the administration for taking a somewhat softer stance towards the Palestinians. She vigorously proclaimed that the administration will not allow groups like Hamas a future in that part of the globe.

The final thing I saw was while I was leaving - the barricades were set up and holy crap, the drum-beaters were going nuts. These were the patchouli-stinking locoweeds that you see pictures of on LGF, and they were right here in Princeton! It was amazing, I wish I had my camera.

Again, I'll post a transcript later and more comments. For another firsthand account, check Tigerhawk, since he actually took notes and has more comments.

Qoute of the day

Something relevant to a point I made in response to a response to an earlier post, from Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online...

Corporations meddle in Washington because Washington meddles with them.

It is simply naive to believe that a businessman will have no interest in politics when politicians have taken a great interest in him. And it is grotesquely unfair to assume that businesspeople are corrupt simply because they want to support politicians less inclined to hurt them.

Operation Rhma: Close to Home

Read about Rhma in today's Michael Yon.

Eat your heart out, Michael Moore.

Meanwhile....

Ed Morissey and Michelle Malkin have details on the unlawful behavior of Chucky's minions - basically, identity theft of the GOP's best shot at taking a senatorial seat in Maryland (oh, and he's black also, does that make this crime a hate crime?). They also ask the question - why isn't the MSM covering this? I haven't seen it yet on the local news here. My guess is that it has something to do with that (D) that follows his name. Anyway, termed the hilarious "Chuckaquiddick" by Hugh Hewitt.

Ah yes....

The Canadians, that's who I think of to tell me about political ramifications. From the canadian press:

Indictment of Republican Tom DeLay a serious blow for Bush agenda

Obviously this subject is a sore one for me, but I can't help myself. The gleeful tone of this article and it's source only make me roll my eyes, and ever confident that this garbage (the wishes of all those who wish for our President's political demise) will never come to realization.

RE: Let me be the first...

As the indictment became official I've had a chance to read a lot about the details (including the three page indictment itself), adding to what I knew beforehand when charges were still being contemplated. All indications from early on were that this was a political witch hunt by a partisan and opportunistic prosecutor in Texas, a gross misuse of power. In the indictment itself there is not one word specifically charging Tom Delay of any wrongdoing and it is a conspiracy indictment, which I've read are usually thrown out. From what I've read from the beginning to now, I believe that this is simply a sign of dem desperation, plain and simple. A saying that dems will no doubt use is the old, "where there's smoke, there's fire", and to that I say sometimes there's a blind, deaf and dumb partisan hack crying smoke. This is going to be ugly and Representative Delay needs support, not piling on to go along with the nonsense that will soon come from the dems.

Governor may actually conserve, too!

You know, I kind of like politicians that practice what they preach...
Read here.

Let me be the first to say,

What is it with politicians' inability to stay out of trouble? DeLay has waaayy too much at stake to be included in the same sentence as "redistricting" or "campain finance abuse." Even if the charges are bogus, it really shakes my confidence in our leaders.

This is why I am a registered independent...

It's all Bush's fault

Bush's regime as struck again, this time in UK elementary schools.

"Forty-five per cent of children did not have access to paper at all times."

It's the sun, stupid.

Found through the EIB network. Click here.

Again, I don't suppose you'll hear this on CNN...

Couldn't resist posting this pic...

Oh, btw, did you see how AP is running with the 100,000 number for Sheehanapalooza?
More like 15% of that in the ellipse...

After seeing the pic of Sheehan happily (no, ecstatically) being arrested, it should be more than clear to every American she doesn't give a second thought about her son's death. It's all about attention..

Dan Rather sighting

http://newsbusters.org/node/1455

Wow, so instead of blaming Bush as usual, Dan Rather blames it all on his own company and.....bloggers!

why Dan Rather is so “respected” is beyond me

I guess if you're black........

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1

shockingly ABC is reporting this…..but this really isn't a travesty to Stephanopoulos & co's eyes......it's still Bush's fault.

Louisiana's fault I tell ya - it all dim fault

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170514,00.html

I could’ve told you this…………(Louisiana is dysfunctional)

Although I think Michael Brown went on a rampage blaming basically everything from Louisiana to Lance Armstrong

another overlooked news item

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5305579,00.html

We just killed Iraq Al-Qaeda’s #2 man and the news is near-hush about this. This is big news. Oh well, media is still trying to blame Bush for everything.

Wanna read something depressing?

Read this column by Brendan Miniter. Looks like Nancy Pelosi is trying to reshape the Democratic party as the party of fiscal responsibility - and she can pull this charade off because the Republicans are most assuredly not - see here.

I think fiscal conservatives like us are just doomed to be stood up by every single candidate we get - it's so depressing. If McCain runs hard on the platform of fiscal responsibility, I just might vote for him. You Arizonans have the best candidates anyway, that's the state that brought us Barry Goldwater.

A deeper look into "Anti-war" activits

The origins of the "Anti-war" party are somewhat frightening, and not really anti-war at all. Big surprise...

Test

Burque on a brisk winter morning
Originally uploaded by twangler79.

Nuther test. Just a pic of the Sandias on a nice winter morning.

Superdome behavior GREATLY exaggerated

From the LA Times of all places. You don't suppose the MSM will apologize, do you? The Economist should re-print September 8th's issue with "The shaming of the MSM" instead of "The shaming of America."

Best idea since Texas Toast..

Who would have thought we could have legislation in this day and age encouraging families to raise their own kids? From townhall.

Test

Foto-test. Just a pic of Dirty Jerzey from the Empire State Building. That pink light in the lower left is Madison Square Garden.

Who got the babes?

Take a look: contrast anti-war with pro-war. I'm glad we're on the side with all the babes.

(Warning: very disturbing photos of guess which side, and they are probably NSFW.)

Condi Baby

Condi Rice will be speaking at Princeton on Friday - I pick up my ticket today. I'll report out afterward, even try to include some pics (I think I might have to hook up with some picture-hosting site first, like Flickr). This being Princeton, I expect some moonbat protestors to be around. Although, it being Princeton, they'll at least look and smell ok, as opposed to, say, Brown.

Hopefully you'll see some pics of our next President!

saw a billboard.....

that was all in Spanish and at the very bottom it said "48% of New Mexicans know Spanish, shouldn't you?"

And then it stated something like empowering New Mexico through Spanish something.....

tempted to create a billboard that says: "52% of New Mexicans don't know Spanish - and they voted for Bush :-)"

remember kids, it's always America's fault

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b//hotzone/blogs999

Skinnies are directly responsible for killing her kid yet it's America's fault. This is one of the many reasons why I'm proud to be an American and I puke whenever I hear a foreigner's opinion.

So here she is, married with multiple kids and says she has no hope for Somalia - Of course it's America's fault for the fact they've always had at least 3 tribal groups that battle each other for necessities. Maybe open your eyes or take off your hejab scarf and realize it's your own people that's taking your life away!

But whatever, that's your problem. You hate us...... *flies away*

it just doesn't end.......

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=ID%20Weatherman%20Departs

Frankly, I have to side with this reasoning more than the Racist Rove Weather Machine. Sorry Tim....

Hybrid power is expensive..Hmm...

I was surprised to see this article on CNN. Who would have thought that simple math would tell you to buy diesel instead of electric? I guess people are listening to Leo DiCapprio instead of using their calculators.
I'm not surprised.

One man's account of our allies:

26 nations still with us.

I share the same honor as one of the commenters, that God has blessed us for being part of a country that has never been under the foot of a brutal dictator, but still fights for the freedom of others.

Confusion reigns..

..at moonbat central.
This was one of my favorite images from Sheehanapalooza.

Global Warming produces...

Fewer Hurricanes?...

Stephanopoulos, strangely, is not convinced.

Bomb Bat Bombs

This story is from a few months ago (info about WWII), but I just came across it. Follow the links for iceberg aircraft carriers and paper bombs also.

Heh

Well, I'm glad this guy lives in New Hampshire, the only New England state (well, maybe Maine too) that isn't completely insane. Found via Wizbang. I especially like the bit about the bumper sticker: "Gun Control Means Using Both Hands".

last post of the night....

I will not join blog-spam block list.....it violates civil liberties *rolls eyes*

now if the world would just hear this.....

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/22/231913.shtml

It's good Bush is being Reagan-esque and citing the source of the problems.

as I predicted, AP ALREADY claiming Texas plans are failing

This is just becoming unforgivable. As I predicted, the Associated Press ALREADY states Texas is failing - and of course I predict next week it'll all tie to Bush. Republican-dominated area, so of course they ignore Louisiana's lack of leadership in Blanco/Nagin:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_re_us/rita_texas_exodus_hk1

So they interview the ultra left-wing Sheila Jackson Lee and ONLY her to get opinions. Way to be fair and balanced AP. Let's just solely rely on HER expert analysis. It's simply IMPOSSIBLE to evacuate 2 million people all going in the same direction with today's interstate system.

Now that Rita and Katrina are the new age of terror, I can see nuts like Rangel in Congress demanding Bush to start a war........with..............um

predictions (i.e. just having fun)

Well, this is my first post. I think I have a question that's brewing...I know Bush is still President, but who would you like to see on the Republican ticket for 2008? Here are a few choices that popped into my head. Some won't run of course, but there's always the wish:

Dick Cheney (even at his age, he's still more competent than most Democrats out there)
Howard Phillips, Chuck Baldwin, or Michael Peroutka (although they're not Republican, these are great conservatives I'd support if there aren't any good Republicans there - but this is a last minute resort and realistically speaking I won't vote for them. Constitutionalists have a real low chance of winning since the most popular "alternatives" out there are Greenies and Libertarians)
Alan Keyes or Pat Buchanan (I know both Keyes and Buchanan are extremists in several points of view.....)
Dan Quayle (the press really beats on this guy.....but he's right 95% of the time!)Bill Frist
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Mitch McConnell
Pete Domenici :-)
George Allen
Donald Rumsfeld :-)
Condi Rice
Karl Rove (well gee, why not the brain of Bush just run eh? :-)
Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, John McCain, Colin Powell, or Mitt Romney (these are a stretch personally for me because they really to me fit in the mold of the Schwarzenegger Republican *liberal in social issues and lots others actually - you know, the ones that always coddle to Kennedy, Feingold, etc* - but they ARE pretty popular - would choose them over most Democrats)
Jeb Bush

Of course, I really wouldn't mind having Howard Dean and Al Gore in there.....just so that gives the Republicans a better chance to win

We have a LONG time to predict the future, but these honestly are the likely/realistic scenarios I see happening in 2008 if there are no "surprises" that happen between now to then:

John McCain def Hillary Clinton
Rudy Giuliani def Hillary Clinton
Jeb Bush def Hillary Clinton (remember, Bill Clinton said he wasn't gonna run in late 1991)
John McCain def John Kerry
John McCain def DA RETURN OF AL GORE!!! (I can seriously see Gore trying to pull a Nixon)
Condi Rice def Hillary Clinton (what a concept: the first black AND woman to win........on the REPUBLICAN ticket!)
Rudy Giuliani def John Kerry
John McCain def John Edwards

too many John's :-)

Qoute of the day

"San Diego makes Switzerland look like Compton" - Bill Simmons, ESPN Page 2

(Seriously, I'm still laughing about this)

Speaking of SPAM...

You might have heard the recent rant about telemarketers calling cell phones. Here's another side:
Don't be alarmed...

Still, it's a good idea to place your cell #s on the list for good measure, in my opinion...

I can't hide!

This morning I blogged for the first time in a while and about two things that I wanted to write about much more but just didn't. Later in the day I checked the site again, just to see if anyone had responded or posted something new. What did I find? This:

Ton OF eBooks said...
A super Blog!
I have a ebook resell right blog and a website about ebook resell right if your interested or need content.

Come and check it out if you get a chance (:-)

Yes, what you're thinking is correct, there now exists freaking blog spam! Ugh, I couldn't be more annoyed. How silly and pathetic, but at least it wasn't an ad for... hmm I'll hold that thought as I don't want to curse the site.

To whom they are beholden...

Interesting article today by Byron York in NRO about democrat plans for the supreme court. A lot of points about strategy, current and future. Now, these points were not at all what I found to be interesting, standard blah from the left, but from WHOM these points were being relayed. Take for instance, asked about the possibility for filibuster on the next nominee the source "told reporters it was too early to think about that". And another, when pressed about obstruction efforts for the next justice the source responds,

I think there will be even more of an effort if there is someone in the mold of Thomas and Scalia in the next vacancy, and of course in the next vacancy you're talking about a swing justice.

So, who is this phantom source? Harry Reid, or perhaps some other senator, you know someone who actually is part of that advise and consent thing? Not at all, the source for this entire article was Ralph Neas, head of "People for the American Way", a liberal lobbyist group. It's good to know that Neas didn't hide from the fact that the dem senators get their marching orders from the lobbyists as opposed to you know, the folks whom they represent.

Formerly known as

Simpleton. Updated to Muztan, as it should be...
It's been a while, but I'm glad to see the blog faithful have
kept a watch on the mental disorder known as liberalism in my
absence. To start off again, here's an eloquent article on the
myth of price gouging.

Must Read

Iraqi President on the current mission:

Without American forces, the vision of American leadership and the quiet fortitude of the American people, Iraqis would be almost alone in the world. With its allies, the United States has provided Iraqis with an unprecedented opportunity. Iraqis have responded by enthusiastically embracing democracy and volunteering to fight for their country. By giving us the tools, your troops help us to defend Iraqi democracy and to finish the job of uprooting Baathist fascism.

Read the whole thing.

Cats vs. Dogs: Dog score big

Car runs on dead cats. Or maybe just _could_ run on dead cats if you want to believe the backtracking...

Uh, I Think it Never Left

Drudge has the headline: "Katrina Ushers in Return of Big Governmentt".

Maybe someone should tell Tom Delay.

Fed Katrina Response

How bad was it? Compared to recent hurricanes, it appears to have been pretty swift, as this column by Jack Kelly points out. The best part is the criticism of journalists by this former Air Force logistics officer:

"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.

Boo Yah! I hate journalists. Their self-centered reporting and pomposity disgust me.

One thing that I think got lost in all the fog of calling for FEMA head Michael Brown's head, was the lack of criticism of his department's response to the four hurricanes that hit Florida in 60 days last year, and also his departments response to the near obliteration of the Mississippi Gulf Coast as well as Mobile Bay in Alabama. What's different about about Louisiana? (Hint: it has to do with the letter following the name of the governor.)