No Wonder

The people of Michigan have spoken, "no more racism". Sadly, "virtually every major GOP official and organization, including the gubernatorial candidate, opposed the measure..." Is it any wonder that the RNC lost big? Using this issue as an example, there is no need to wonder. A clear moral decision and Michigan state Republicans were on the wrong side. Happily, the people were on the right side. In another example of ineptitude, Senate GOP leadership had to be thwarted by a vocal minority. Take it upon themselves to cut the pork? Nah, let's see what the Democrats do with it. Has the federal budget really increased by 50 percent over the last six years?
Finally, on a positive note,
here are some Republicans doing something useful. Maybe we could replace the guys on Capitol Hill with College Republicans?

It begins?

Are they already trying to pull out enough rope to hang themselves in '08?

What's Really Important

I've often considered the priorities of Gov Richardson to be smoke and mirrors, mostly image and not all that much concerned with issues in the state. From the braggadocious commercials detailing the recent film exploits of New Mexico (without mentioning the huge tax breaks for filmmakers or the fact the state has to pose as some other locale) to his enormous entourage at public events and insistence on being treated as a kind of royalty (Yes, the Governor of New Mexico has a list of demands when he graciously makes an appearance much like Brittany Spears or Madonna).

I've always considered Richardson to be nothing more than a politician, a very good one, but nothing more. Harsh, perhaps but the evidence is there and always has been. Now that the governor's race is over, many expect Richardson to focus on an 08 Presidential run and his statements on a recent poll give me no reason to think any different about his priorities...

Richardson said he's honored that a majority of voters consider him good presidential material. He said New Mexicans are proud when a local leader gets national attention and brings more visibility to the state.

Because apparently, what's important is New Mexico's visibility. Maybe Richardson's networking skills and visibility will get New Mexico a date with California. Now that's hot.

A Silver Lining?

A little fun from National Review this morning...

I always vote for people who do the least amount of damage on the populace — which normally would be a Republican. (I call this my “Run from Godzilla” Theory.) But now I’m inclined to believe it’s a Democrat who will do the least harm. Having no apparent belief system or coherent set of ideas, they can’t possibly do anything. And that’s the kind of government I can get behind.

Christmas at Rockefeller

So last night I'm ready for some prime time TV with the only goal in mind to avoid election coverage. It's not that I was nervous or anything, just can't stand the way it's covered as if it were a sporting event.

Thanks to my handy Dish network guide I see that NBC will be showing an actual program at 7, so I navigate there only to be bombarded by a "brief" interruption. At first it was the mostly harmless local stooges but then there were a few minutes for the NBC news team.

You would have thought it was Christmas for Brian Williams and Tim Russert. The glee in the pair's eyes as they projected the Honorable (and I mean that, I've met him and I've followed his votes and speeches and writings) Sen. Santorum's loss in Pennsylvania was just shameful. Donkey cheerleaders, that's all they are.

The rest of the night followed suit, from the local broadcast projecting Richardson with ZERO percent reporting to the obligatory use of the word democrat every sentence.

The question now becomes, since they got what they wanted, what next? Speaker Pelosi chills my veins but the potential for unintentional comedy intrigues me.

On the Verge...

As I stood in line this morning, eighth in line for precinct 355, I thought back over the past several weeks when my decision to vote was in question.

For whatever reason I seemed to have forgotten why I should vote. Be it my love of campaign ads, my current workload or just plain laziness I didn't even plan to.

But then a certain commercial caught my attention. Perhaps you've seen it. Sponsored by some PAC calling themselves the "September" fund, it is an ad promising the societal riches granted by the democrat fairy. Ugh. democrats, a better plan my butt.

I must admit that I am ashamed a commercial was the primary reason I got myself out to the polls this morning. Only partly really because that commercial got me to remember why I vote, why I believe the things I do and that became the real reason.

Earlier I was fine with believing that if this state was willing to elect Patricia Madrid, they deserved it and the connotation of having the dumbest congressperson which would inevitably come with it. But not anymore.

Happy election day everyone.

Bono: Hollywood Hypocrite

Nothing new.

Daily Nazi Comparison

So, here's today's comparison of conservatives to Nazis:

Global Warming Skeptics Should Have Nuremburg Style Trials

Actually, I don't even know if global warming skeptics are conservatives, but it certainly is more likely. I think it's just plain good science to be skeptical. One of the first things you are taught as an engineer is the danger of extrapolation. Heck, you can extrapolate anything and make it look bad, or good.

I'm sick of hearing people around me talk about Algore's "An Inconvenient Truth" as if it were gospel. Is it an "inconvenient truth" that this year's hurricane season is decidedly less damaging and lethal as last year's, in spite of the fact that more and more CO2 is pumped into the atmosphere? Well, they've still got a month left in hurricane season, so I bet they've got their fingers crossed, hoping a big one hits Manhattan...

Homer: It's pronounced 'nucular'. Nucular.

North Korea is now nuclear. Indeed, why wouldn't they be? Whatever slap on the wrist they recieve won't hardly affect the North Korean leadership. After all, it's a "worker's party," the leadership could care less about the peasants. One bit of news that might play in to this is that a South Korean is to be the next secretary general of the UN. Speaking of South Korea, maybe a temporary solution would be to arm them. A MAD scenerio to keep North Korea in check. Probably should arm Taiwan and Japan too. In this context, armed means nuclear missles hardwired to targets in North Korea. The missles could be tied into a sensor network which would only allow their launch upon detection of a nuclear blast in the host country.

Why would anyone think Islam is evil?

The Pope tried to soften his quotation that Islam is evil so that Muslims will stop vowing war, burning churches and killing nuns.

Crocodile Hunter

It really sucks that the Crocodile Hunter is dead. You've got to wonder about the revenge on the stingrays thing though. If one of you guys after being killed by a random animal would like other members of that species killed on sight, you should probably let me know those sentiments ahead of time otherwise I might not think to do it.

Zombies

Very short video link.

Security

A selection of entries from the Crypto-Gram (a "security guru"'s newsleter)

Hours-long waits in the security line. Ridiculous prohibitions on what you can carry on board. Last week's foiling of a major terrorist plot and the subsequent airport security changes graphically illustrates the difference between effective security and security theater.
[...] Instead, the arrests are a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and investigation.

Getting inside the terrorists' heads (funny cartoon):
http://www.wondermark.com/d/220.html

By January 1st, 2007, everyone crossing the border between the U.S. and Canada is supposed to have a passport. This is because of terrorism, of course. But now we learn that ferries and private watercraft will be exempt. One of two things is true. Either passports are required for security, in which case we should interfere with ferries. Or they're for show, in which case we can just do what's convenient. Or maybe we just know that terrorists never take ferries. I get that security is a trade-off, but this is kind of silly.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/07/18/chertoff-edmonton.html

Here's a collection of 11 prison shivs confiscated over 20 years ago in New Jersey. Think about these, and the adverse conditions they were made under, the next time you see someone's pocket knife being taken away from him at airport security.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/016492.html

Israeli Pres. Accused of Rape

See here.

However, we've already beat them to this ...he should take heart, because nothing happened to Slick Willie!

Got all bases covered

What, exactly, is this guy protesting?

Old Hat

To me, the Reuters photo scandal just proves what we've known all along about these wire services. It's almost expected, so I'm not terribly outraged (as I should be), just exasperated.

Personally, I think they're on the button at Powerline by saying that a faked photo is much less serious than a staged one. Also bad are the "stories" that go out on the wire that are pretty much editorials, and crappy ones at that. I'd like to see a crackdown on these wire services. Of course, not a government one, but a market-based one. Problem is, of the majors (AP, UPI, Reuters), I've seen these problems in all of them.

They Can Have Him

Pat Robertson joins the environmentalist wackos on "global warming".

Must be Global Warming

Revised Atlantic hurricane forecast.

One Winged Landing

This is pretty amazing. An Israeli pilot lands an F15 after one wing is destroyed in flight.

More AP idiocy

Well, this time it's apolitical, but it's still utter incompetence and just plain bad journalism.

The AP headline says Ken Jennings "blasts" the show that made him. However, read his blog entry that was the source of the story. The AP has fallen for a humor piece. Every day, I hate the AP more and more....

Another AP "story"

The AP writes a love letter about Castro's "impossible mission" during the '50s. No mention of the prison camps, and the only time the word "dictator" is used is to describe Batista, not Castro.

Makes me wanna throw up.

age-old cliche....

As predicted, the media is gonna shower our senses with images of helpless victims of countries that harbor terrorists *sighs*. Yet not one showing of all the Israeli victims of Hamas, PLO, Al-Aqsa, Hezbollah attacks over the decades. A big *middle finger* for NYC (where ABC, CBS, etc are). Stop bombing Lebanon? How about stop voting for killers to your government. Then we'll leave you alone. Morons.

Has anyone ever listened to Stephanie Miller? She's this liberal skidmark that's now on the drive home for me on the radio...It's the F-U Bush Praise Clinton hour with her. Seriously, I swear, I think she has staged "conservatives" call her because EVERY conservative that called on her show sound like stereotypical dumb hicks. I'm not kidding. Nobody combats her logically on that show in turn Miller & co mocks the guest and further spews liberal "facts" vs Bush......I actually tried calling several times but the lines were always "busy." I think she's a crock.

Coulter

This is hillarious. I never considered the politics of Google page ranking before. I even think now that this is probably just coincidence. Right now, 6 out of the top 7 Google hits for "ann coulter donny deutsch" are in the vein, "Donny Deutsch Shatters the Coulter Myth." The funny thing is that I downloaded and watched the segment and he did no such thing. He does a pretty good job repeating himself about how there is no liberal bogeyman. Coulter then has to repeat herself about how there is and it runs the DNC. The digg link above has some all over the place comments. If you follow through to the crooksandliars story you can see the dementia begin. I mean it's not like Coulter demolished him or anything, but neither did he "tear her apart." There really wasn't an overwhelming sense of confrontation in the piece at all. Some, but that wasn't the overall tone.

Panhandler

I don't claim to be the world expert on panhandling signs or anything. Still, I thought it to be fairly well understood that the sign should refer to to holder. For instance, if the sign says, "will work for food," it means that the guy holding the sign is offering to work for food. Likewise if the sign says, "Vietnam vet," the holder is indicating that he served in Vietnam during the war. So imagine my confusion when I saw a guy, on the side of the offramp, holding a sign which included, "POW MIA VA Hospital." Now if I'm wrong about him and he was actually telling his life story, e.g. a POW, then declared MIA, assumedly released, spent some time in the VA hospital, now wants your money, I hope someone buys him dinner then a house. The customary procedure though is to list _current_ descriptors on the sign. Therefore he is claiming to be a POW and MIA. Is he then a foreign soilder invading the US? Call the Army someone please. Or is he a US soldier claiming to be a POW and MIA on US soil? Sounds more like AWOL to me. Call the MPs.

it's just not surprising...

If Americans think WW III did not start on 9/11, then this should wake them up. The time for "dialogue" is over.....it should've been over a long time ago.

Israel vs the world

Someone didn't get enough attention from their mother

Are you freakin' kidding me?

The Happy Planet

Liberal environmentalist wacko group, The New Economic Foundation, has a study out being touted by the AFP in a recent story that comes to the conclusion that the Vanuatu is the happiest country on earth. Second? Get this: Colombia. Sixth, of course, is Cuba. Where does the US fall in this? Why, 150th, naturally.

(I'd link to the NEF's website, but, it seems, this great think tank has a pretty shabby website. I wonder if the AFP would write a story about the Heritage Foundation's index with the same sort of enthusiasm?)

Anyway, this index from the NEF is a liberal douchebag's fantasy-land index - it factors in "Ecological Footprint" and the nebulous "Life Satisfaction". Sounds like all they want to do is wag their finger in the face of industrialized Western nations in order to preach the happy, primitive, back-to-Gaia-mother-earth way of life that the noble savages exemplify. Somebody should tell these morons about how it was the industrialized nations that came up with the methods of controlling hunger, disease, and injury.

But what do I know? Of course, the proof is in the pudding, as we witness all those unhappy American refugees fleeing on boats to Cuba and across the border into Mexico on a daily basis.

Back to politics, holmes

Well, now that the World Cup is over, I can return to thinking about politics.

For starters, I'd been glued to the Mexican election results when there wasn't a game on. PAN candidate Felipe Calderon (successor to the current Pres., Vicente Fox) eked out an apparent victory by half a percentage point - this is after the obligatory recount following a narrow victory in the preliminary results. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-leaning candidate (and former mayor of Mexico City) has vowed to dispute the results, Algore-style, even though the non-partisan election commission has stated the results are irreversible. We'll see what happens, but I hope AMLO's beef peters away and Mexico proves that they can join the rest of the developed world in peaceful democracy by holding a fair election that all parties can recognize.

What does this mean for the US, provided the results hold up? Well, Calderon is a free-trader (well, more of a free-trader than AMLO), which is the best news for us unless you are one of those protectionist psychos who says Mexicans are stealing all our jobs, in which case I recommend you get a little refresher in economics. In fact, the red/blue (well, blue/yellow) map of Mexico shows that border states favor Calderon, as they are the ones that benefit most from free trade. (I'm also happy to say that all Mexican states to which the wife has relations - Baja, Jalisco, and Chihuahua - all favored Calderon). So, it can only mean good news because 1) it demonstrates our influence on our southern neighbor that they can now hold a peaceful and fair election, and 2) free trade is good for both countries. In terms of the border, however, both candidates were not seeing eye-to-eye with US. Well, you can't have everything, I guess. The best thing to do is to just let free-trade raise the level of both countries to the point that they stop exporting their poor to us. In the meantime, we'll guard our border and say, "sorry, Felipe, but we gotta do what we gotta do."

French World Image

Don't worry, this is a foreign policy post... sort of. Zidane might well have cost France the World Cup by getting himself redcarded and not being there for the PKs. In doing so, though, he has done more than anyone in memory to reduce France's surrender monkey image.

nice threat LOL

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5752440

Even soccer has their fair share of threats. Rooney will "split Ronaldo in 2." Gotta love the English...

yes, another World Cup posting

Being on vacation for the last week allowed me to catch up on games. Thank you TiVo. As for the KO stage,

bracket 1: I said Argentina will come out of this one and I'm sticking with it. Although Germany will give them a tough test. This can really go either way....

bracket 2: I'm personally glad Italy eliminated Australia, but you know why because of my bias ;-) - Shockingly, I think the Ukraine-Switzerland game was one of the better games of the Cup, but Ukraine pulls it off by PK. Italy should win this group

bracket 3: Again, as much as I like England, they're basically riding on Beckham's foot. I think their run ends vs Portugal a few days from now. But man, what a carded game that was between Portugal-Holland. The story of this Cup, unfortunately, will be the refs. Warn them, THEN card them! An instant red card is simply unheard of unless if it was something blatantly obvious (de Rossi's elbow on McBride causing blood)

bracket 4: Starts today, but I think Brazil will win this group. I'm sure everyone's inspired by Ghana....what's ironic is you have the most carded team (Ghana) playing the least carded (Brazil). That MAY go against Brazil but for the life of me, I can't see Ghana beating them. And then.....I don't think Spain nor France has a chance vs Brazil. Possibly Spain but their ghosts will come back.

Yep, I'm plaing it safe and I see Argentina vs Italy and Portugal vs Brazil. Although this ain't scientific....predicting soccer games is almost guessing.

As for the US: keep Eddie Johnson, Bobby Convey, DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Pablo Mastroeni, Tim Howard and build them. The rest of the roster? We'll find out for the next 4 years. There are plenty of players in Europe (EPL) that should be noticed as well as Adu and Twellman. I know their magical #5 ranking is probably gonna tank after this World Cup.

what a sad day for US soccer....

Well, the US proves their inconsistencies once again by losing to Ghana. Actually, that PK should've never happened. What Onyewu did was something I see high schoolers do often. This World Cup has been chokeful of yellow cards. Many can blame the US and rightfully so but they were robbed in many ways throughout the World Cup. They should bounce back in 2010. After all, it's being played outside of Europe. There should be young stars that can shine in 2010 as we're hearing swan songs from Reyna, Keller, Pope, etc.

As for Japan, once again they strike first.......and then get obliterated as the game goes by. As for favorites and looking at how the brackets are set up, I see Argentina, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil in the semis.......

Summer '06 - Light Reading Suggestions

Since today marks the beginning of the hot season, I thought I'd post a reading list of some of NRO's contributing staff and affiliates.

From one of the columnists:

"Another enjoyable summer pastime is reading The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War at your nearest soy-swilling, peacenik-chic coffeehouse, nodding and murmuring approvingly as you sip a non-organic corporate beverage."

Enough is Enough

From a heartfelt post on Human Events - rarely does my blood boil about politics, but Moore has said enough to earn himself no.1 on my Piece of S**t list...

"A guilt-stricken JFK finally ransomed back the Bay of Pigs prisoners. Hundreds of these promptly joined the U.S. Army and many volunteered for action in Vietnam. One of these was named Felix Sosa-Camejo.

By the day Mr. Sosa-Camejo died while rescuing a wounded comrade, he’d already been awarded 12 medals, including the Bronze Star, three Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts. I’ll quote from his official citation:

“On February 13, 1968, the lead platoon was hit by an enemy bunker complex manned by approximately forty North Vietnamese Regulars. Upon initial contact the point man was wounded and lay approximately 10 meters in front of the center bunker. The platoon was unable to move forward and extract the wounded man due to the heavy volume of fire being laid down from the enemy bunker complex.

“Captain Sosa-Camejo immediately moved into the firing line and directed the fire against the enemy bunker. With disregard for his safety, Captain Sosa-Camejo ran through the intense enemy fire and pulled the wounded point man to safety. After ensuring that the wounded man was receiving medical treatment, Captain Sosa-Camejo returned to the fire fight and again exposed himself to the intense enemy fire by single handedly assaulting the center bunker with grenades killing the two NVA soldiers manning the bunker. As he turned to assault the next bunker an NVA machine gun opened up and he was mortally wounded. Captain Sosa-Camejo’s valorous action and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.”

From his limousine Michael Moore sneers at this Cuban-American and his Band of Brothers as “wimps and crybabies with yellow lines down their back.”

Maybe I’m biased, but nothing—absolutely nothing—Ann Coulter has said about John Murtha or John Kerry or the Jersey Girls strikes me as remotely comparable in vileness, cowardice and rank stupidity as Michael Moore’s blanket calumny against some of the bravest men of the 20th Century."

UNITED STATES SHOULD'VE WON 2-1!!!!!!!!

Okay, unless if there's a rule I don't know about, tell me how DaMarcus Beasley's goal was considered an offsides? What? Brian McBride just STANDING there is considered offsides? McBride did not touch the ball as it went into the net. I've seen COUNTLESS goals in the past where it went past their own team's player into the goal....and it counted! What the hell kinda call was that? Seriously!!!

This was one of the worst referees (Uruguayan) I've seen EVER for a soccer game. I've seen bad refs but this legitimately topped it. He called EVERY foul in the first 30 minutes of the game to the point where I think both teams racked fouls in the 20+....followed by yellow cards left and right. I mean, there were fouls for simply putting your hand on the back of an opponent. Of course, we come to find out the ref was banned back in 2002 for irregularities. Irregularities for sure....red card on the Italian elbowing McBride to a bloody oblivion is understandable (pretty much the only good call he made in the entire game)....but red card for a Mastroeni slide tackle? Red card on Pope? Historically, the people would get warnings before getting an yellow card! And then if you watched the last 20 minutes of the game, there were ZERO calls? ZERO calls in the last 20. Why not? The bastard did enough damage already. Shit, how did this guy ref again??????

America was robbed. Plain and simple. What a tremendous effort for having only NINE players on the field. At least Ghana beat the overrated Czechs. 2-0. I cheered my head off for the goal after the FIRST MINUTE. Good job Czechs for overlooking your opponents...maybe that #2 ranking is getting to your heads after all. All that's left is Italy to whomp on your asses and US to beat Ghana. Hopefully US has their head into the game vs Ghana. We'll see. After today's effort, I seriously think US can pull it off vs Ghana. Let's hope Italy destroys Czech Rep.

An Inconvenient Dataset

Bob Carter, a Professor at James Cook University in Austrailia, says this of Al Gore and his new film:

"The man is an embarrassment to US science and its many fine practitioners, a lot of whom know (but feel unable to state publicly) that his propaganda crusade is mostly based on junk science."

Professor Carter has just earned the lastest MSM bull's-eye...

World Cup - Days 2,3,4,5

Well, I've had a chance to watch most of the games so far, so I'll comment on them, going in order of interest:

USA-CR: Completely flat and uninspired performance by our boys. The worst performing side of the tourney by far. A national embarrassment. Only plus was EJ, some of Reyna's play, and Convey's aggressiveness. For the next match - replace Lewis with Boca (whose mother, BTW, used to clean houses with Wifey's aunt in Alta Loma) and Beasley with Dempsey. Move Donovan to attacking mid (replacing Mastroeni) and put EJ up with McBride. Or just bench Lando and put JOB in his place at mid. Anyway, as for the Czechs - pure class. They were awesome. They schooled us. Whether they really are that good or we were just playing so bad it made them look good will be answered when they play Ghana. Regardless, if they play the way they did against us for the rest of the Cup, they will probably reach the quarters at least, and deserve the semis.

Holland-S&M: My Oranje looked beautiful on the pitch, although I think they should have put more away - S&M's back four were very solid however. Man of the Match Arjen Robben looked good but was very selfish in several instances, taking extra dribbles to create a shot for himself when he could have easily chipped into the 6 or laid one off for an onrushing teammate. Regardless, his and van Persie's play were very inspired. S&M played very hard, but very ugly - they had chances, but couldn't convert. They will finish last in the real Group of Death.

Mexico-Iran: El Tri did not look that good in this game. Sanchez' mistake of failing to punch away a ball almost cost them dearly. Fortunately, Mirzapour made a big mistake and Mexico capitalized, and added a beautiful insurance goal with the new rush of confidence. I think the crowd really helped the Mexicans on this one, as you could hear the crowd was obviously partisan to them. Disappointing performance from Borgetti, who needs to pick it up by their 3rd match (Portugal). I think Mexico will beat Portugal and advance first in the group - then lose to either Holland or Argentina. Iran looked ok, but I think they will probably not even beat Angola. By that time they will have lost to Portugal and they will be too demoralized to play well. Too bad!

T&T-Sweden: Must suck to be a Swedish fan. They had tons of chances and failed to convert. God was on the Soca side that day - great performance by Hislop. Almost with the upset, if only Glen's shot had been slightly lower! However, England will not tolerate a draw with T&T. The Soca Warriors will be thrashed soundly, although I still believe a miracle is possible. Go Soca! Sweden will not advance now.

Japan-Aus: One of the best games of the tourney yet. Japan played well in spurts, but overall were outplayed by the Aussies, who were well-deserved in their dramatic victory after a cheap goal from Japan. I think the Aussies have a chance against Brazil. They are very physical - it ain't pretty, but it's effective, and Brazil may not be able to deal with it. Japan is set for an early exit - I don't even think they can beat Croatia, since Croatia has such a 12th man advantage in the crowd.

Argentina-Ivory Coast: Argentina did not look that sharp, but good enough to win. They will lose to Holland and advance second in the group. I'm a bit worried about Drogba when he plays the Oranje. He's an awesome force, a one-man team, and he might pull off the upset. He very nearly managed to level with the Argies on several occasions.

England-Paraguay: Snoozefest. Lucky goal for England means they get the points, but overall a very ugly game that I wish I hadn't recorded.

Brazil-Croatia: Brazil looked very much unlike the superpower we were expecting, and yet they were still awesome. Best player was Kaka, who scored and controlled the midfield with his hustle, also making some key defensive stops. Other bright spots were Roberto Carlos and Cafu. Dida wasn't really tested but was solid. Ronaldinho, although he tried to force the ball many times, was at least creative and pretty solid at helping to control the pace of the game. Low points for Brazil? No doubt - Ronaldo and Adriano. The game changed considerably when Robinho came in for the fat one. As for Croatia - they played very well and with a lot of heart. They deserved a draw in this game. I really liked Prso's hustle. The Croatians also have a significant 12th man advantage - the Croatian fans were rabid and inspiring, even up to the final whistle. I look forward to seeing the Croatia-Aus game.

Italy-Ghana: Didn't see the game, so can't really comment on it. It seems that the Italians are playing like, well, Italians during the World Cup. That is to say, very well. Italy seems to always do this - they rarely underachieve on this stage. I expect them to lose to CR (then get thumped by Brazil in the 2nd round), but it will be a good game. Ghana - still haven't seen them play, so can't comment. But they have a proven finisher in Essien, who I think will provide the final nail in the USA's embarrassment of a World Cup.

France-Switzerland: Another snoozefest. France deserved to lose this game, so are lucky to have a tie. They squandered so many chances - how do you justify not shooting the ball at the edge of the 6 with the keeper on his line? Swiss looked ok and I think could win the group.

Korea-Togo: Wow, was Togo surprising. Beautiful goal. However, the discipline of Korea was evident and they deserved the victory. I think the Koreans could well win the group, depending on if they can get over playing a European team in Europe.

Portugal-Angola: Snoozefest. Portugal looked like they would run away with it, but couldn't convert on key opportunities. Angola will be obliterated by Mexico, but might pull of a win against Iran. Figo shined for Portugal, so he needs to lead that team against Iran - I don't think they will beat the Mexicans.

Good times! Now I have two games I'm salivating over: Holland/Argentina and now CR/Italy. I still have the same cheering hierarchy: USA, Holland, Mexico, Costa Rica, and T&T, but I think that only Holland and Mexico will do anything now. Ticos have a chance, but Ecuador seems to be playing very well. My hope for the USA now is just not to get too embarrassed. Score at least once against Italy, or get a draw. Get a draw against Ghana. The US tactic needs now to change to play defensively and counterattack. It worked well against Brazil in '94 and it at least keeps the score respectable.

Latest Sowell...

The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society except their constant criticisms can feel both intellectually and morally superior.

Oy Oy Oy

Hello Australia! So I switch over to the Tivo to check out the Japan Australia game. It's just ended... ok, I'll rewind a little into stoppage time to see if anything interesting happened. Cool, I got to see Australia put the nail in the Japanese coffin (3-1). Must have been an interesting game. Wait a minute, what did the announcer just say, something about the last ten minutes? I rewind to the game to the 83rd minute and it's 0-1 Japan! You bet this was an interesting game (at least the last part). Cahill knocks one in (off a throw in) to tie the game. Then in the 88th minute Cahill drills one off the post into the net, beautiful. Just under two minutes into stoppage, Aloisi gets that third point. I believe this is Australia's first World Cup game in 32 years.

World Cup - Day One

So, the first day is in the bag and we've had at least one thrilling game - Germany taking Los Ticos 4-2. Some offensive fireworks from the Germans, but nagging questions remain on their back line. I think the defense may not have adjusted to this new style of play - they looked like my old high school team trying to pull an offside trap. In my opinion, they will be shredded by a quality opponent, especially one with a speedy striker. The highlight of the game was Frings' rocket from 35 yards - I was out of my seat and yelling at the t0p of my lungs, it was so good (and I hate Germany).

Other thoughts:
-With Wanchope putting away both chances he was given, I still like the Ticos' chances, although they still played too defensively. If they win (not draw) their next match, they deserve to advance.
-The Poles looked terrible, although they had some bad luck too. They don't deserve to advance if that was the best they could muster in front of a (practically) home crowd.
-Ecuador looked good defensively, but I hate their keeper. He seemed too young and prone to mistakes, although he wasn't really tested. Germany will eat him alive.
-I loved Marcelo Balboa as a player (still remember that bicycle kick against Colombia), but listening to his commentary and his whiny frickin' voice makes me want to put a bullet in my head. He should be crowned "King of Obvious" for his commentary, which is also often meandering and directionless. I do like Tommy Smyth though, just because he has that Irish brogue. 'Celo should try to make a funny accent so we all don't want to kill him.

Looking forward to today. Go Soca Warriors! Go Guaranis! Go Elephants!

Awesome News

Abu Musab al Zarqawi is dead. What great news just a mere day before the World Cup! I first saw it on The Sun's website as I was cruising around looking for news of the Cup (around 5:15 EDT) before getting ready for work and thought "just another British tabloid reporting rumors" because it had not been reported by Drudge. Then I went to Fox News, then CNN, and indeed, I guess the news cycle was not started by Matt Drudge this time. That's what happens when you run a small operation, sometimes you have to sleep.

Again, what great news! Now, if the great news were to continue, Costa Rica would defeat Germany tomorrow, then Trinidad would defeat Sweden Saturday, then Mexico would defeat Iran Sunday, culminating in a US victory over the Czechs on Monday!

If The Red Primary Winner is McCain, I'm Staying Home in Nov '08...

From Sowell today:

"If an American citizen forges a Social Security card in order to get a job, he can be arrested. Under a provision recently passed by the Senate, illegal aliens who forged Social Security cards not only get a pass, they get to collect Social Security benefits.

The great majority of Senators who voted for that provision were Democrats, and they prevailed because they were joined by a small minority of Republicans, led by -- surprise! -- Senator John McCain. After similar defections on judges and free speech, Senator McCain may give opportunism a bad name."

Did I Mention I Like Dennis?

This one's too good to not post:

"Every car that has a bumper sticker declaring "War is not the answer" powerfully testifies to the intellectual decline of the well educated and to the devolution of "liberal thought" into an oxymoron."

Is it history...

repeating itself? The most important bit from this piece in my opinion;

today’s Democrats seek to criminalize what are essentially policy differences, particularly over conduct of the war on terrorism

Commie Propaganda

It never ends. Or is it just more leftist optimism in their doomed cause, like the kind that made the moron Dems in the Senate write the "Dear Commandante" letter?

Taking Hits - But Quietly, Slowly, Winning...

Probably one of the most comprehensive articles on Iraq I've seen since the beginning of Op. Iraqi Freedom. He doesn't shy away from the beatings we've taken, but gives a great picture of what's really taking shape...

Hey, What About "Powder?"

"...There are no realistic, sympathetic or heroic characters with albinism that you can find in movies or popular culture."

How Easily the Masses are Swayed... Like Sheep Herded By Dogs Into the Shearer's Pen...

"...readers were asked if Opus Dei had ever carried out a murder. Seventeen percent of readers believe it had, compared with just four percent of non-readers."

What a disappointing survey...

I don't think it's even necessary to address all the dishonesty surrounding the "Code," but in difference to the standard boycott theme, I personally recommend everyone read the book (Hey, it's a good read!), watch the movie, and take a deep retrospective look at understanding your faith. Learning the real facts of biblical history is just the first step. Bearing faith to the witness of the writers of ancient past in honoring the Christian legacy is much more difficult, else we wouldn't be running into these kinds of issues...

38% of New Mexicans will pay $0 or -$ in Taxes in 2006

As is the startling trend in the American tax system today.

So this fall I have to listen to Patricia Madrid mouth-off about how Heather Wilson voted for tax cuts for the rich...what a crock of s**t...

Sad State of Affairs

From the AIM, a report on our failing school system:

"...the aggregate number of college graduates who take up teaching represent the bottom third of scores on the ACT and the SAT."

If we're going to raise teachers' salaries to professional levels (which I think we should), then we also need to require the education level of professionals, for both economic balance and probability of success in the classroom.

Can I get a hooah?!

Tell Your Sister.., You Were Right...

I find the current Iraq case similar to McCarthy's plight - history will prove both were correct...

World Cup Epiphany

I can only see really Tim responding to this one, but oh well :-)

I'm gonna start off by skipping to the US group. I'm gonna flat out predict Czech Republic and United States are gonna advance out of this group. I'm only picking Czechs because frankly Italy has sunk. But otherwise, Czech Republic is the most overrated team in the world. With their rank, you mean to tell me only Brazil can beat them? Bullshit! Germany, Holland, even France I think can beat them. Throw Argentina in the mix too. How the hell does FIFA come up with the Czechs as #2 in the world (and it's been that way for couple of months now)?????? With that? If Czech Republic comes out less than 3-0 in their group, they don't deserve that rank. Period.

Group A: I'm saying Germany and Poland is gonna advance here. Poland by default as the other teams are Ecuador and Costa Rica

Group B: I see Sweden and England. Even with Rooney potentially out, I still think England can at least pull off 2nd place here. Paraguay is lethal and have proven to be lethal since 98 (they have always made it to the Round of 16), but I think the 2 Euro teams, playing on Euro soil, will advance.

Group C: I'm gonna stay safe and pick Argentina and Holland. There's always gonna be the token 1 African team that does well. I would say Drogba and his Ivory Coast but they're in this group (i.e. tough). Although I'd also say Ghana (in the US group) has a good chance too.

Group D: Another "stay safe" one as I'll pick Portugal and Mexico. It'll be interesting to see Angola (Portuguese-descent players) play Portugal. I doubt politics will come into play here as Iran is in this group. Euros are against America, not the Middle East

Group F: Brazil and I'm gonna go wild and say Japan, instead of Croatia. Since 98, Croatia proved nothing to me. Every World Cup has that lucky 3rd or 4th placed team that does well (a "non-powerhouse) and they were that in 98. Since then....*shrugs* what? Nothing. It'll be interesting to see Japan (coached by Brazilian Zico) plays Brazil.

Group G: France....and again, another wild one in South Korea, instead of Switzerland. This would all depend on how the Asian teams are coached and prepared. If they make 0 mistakes, they have a good chance.

Group H: Spain and Ukraine.....

I won't go any further than that, since anything can happen after this stage, but with the way the brackets are, I envision Round of 16 to be (it's fantasy mock time):

Germany vs England (good bye England unfortunately)
Argentina vs Mexico
Sweden vs Poland
Holland vs Portugal
France vs Ukraine
United States vs Japan (yes, don't laugh. I sincerely think the US can pull off 1st in their group. I'm sorry, I really think the Czechs and Italians are overrated. If the US happened to be grouped with say England and France or....Holland then I can't see them doing well)
Brazil vs Czech Republic (ooo wee, #1 vs #2 in the world *rolls eyes*)
Spain vs South Korea (I think the Spaniards will get their revenge here from 2002)

Qtr:
Germany vs Argentina (I can see Germans advancing here, but probably by PK)
Holland vs Sweden
France vs United States (I think US will again be eliminated from qtrfinals this year, thanks to the Frenchies)
Brazil vs Spain (for the millionth time, Spain will get eliminated in the qtrfinals)

Semi:
Germany vs France (like above, I see Germans squeaking by here by PK. This'll be like France in 98 where they barely won all their games, but they pulled it off because of homefield advantage)
Brazil vs Holland

Finals:
yes, I see a 2002 World Cup finals rematch between Brazil and Germany. I can't really pick this one

Growing Disgust Over The "Energy Crisis"

"No doubt we can soon expect a major investigation into the disturbing reports that bears are using our woodlands as a toilet."

"If this is what we can expect from congressional Republicans during a booming economy, heaven help us when the next recession comes."

Amen, Jonah...

Way to go, guys

Man, you'd think that with the perception (in certain corners of the country) of soccer being a fairy/sissy sport, these members of the US Men's National Team wouldn't have agreed to this.

Thanks a lot, guys. FYI, this was before WC '02.

Pro-War Clooney...

..and an interesting comparison between Sudan and Iraq...

Interesting

Democrats suck at sports. Nyaaaaaaah! I really liked having John Kerry trying to look "average" by sucking at sports - football, soccer, and windsurfing (?).

Seriously, maybe this has something to do with the fact that Republicans are typically conservatives, and rewarding achievement is an important part of conservative philosophy - in a nutshell, conservatives want the game to be played correctly (fidelity to systems, my friend), so there must be a winner and a loser. Democrats are liberals who seek to have everybody as equal as possible, so penalizing achievement is an important part of that.

There is no other arena where achievement is so clearly defined as that of the sports world.

Profound Is The Word..

..to describe this article about America's guilty conscience.

Remind Me Never To Become Famous, Let Alone a Famous Conservative

Rush's ordeal is done, at least for the most part. What worries me is how bad our legal system has become...

Self-Servy Jersey

I will never be a big fan of Jon Corzine - he's a typical Democrat - but this is increasing his stock with me by a couple points.

The populace of this state is incredibly stupid for not realizing just how expensively stupid it was to be forced into full service. I remember my abortive attempt at getting something done by emailing my state legislator - I'd like to think that my little tirade helped push this idea into the governor's office just a little bit.

Update: Wussy! Fun side story: I actually met the Guv last Saturday during the Shadfest in Lambertville. I noticed his security detail first, and told Wifedido to take a picture of me with the Guv. I shook his hand and told him of my support of the plan, and he told me that actually it was 2 to 1 against so far with all the people he'd talked to. I guess that's why he caved...oh well, what else would you expect? Anyway, I'll post the picture later.

Imagine if Oil Was As Expensive as Watching a Movie

I don't know about y'all, but my patience is running thin with all the "exhorbitant price" rhetoric going on. Why can't people accept that our lifestyle isn't free (or even inherently cheap) and that oil companies should be able to charge whatever they want as long as we'll pay!

Sowell calls out the "bipartisan demagoguery."

Sock Puppets

Scandal at the LA Times. Summary here.

Reagan Reincarnated?

..Or is Pelosi pulling a Hillary? Cuz this sure isn't Nancy's real thoughts on the matter...

A shining example

of why some people should just keep their mouths shut.

Zach Randolph and Darius Miles said Tuesday what many fans and teammates already had surmised: The two highly paid players no longer know if they want to be part of the Trail Blazers

The gist of Miles' and Randolph's complaints are twofold: They don't like playing on what has turned out to be the NBA's worst team; and they don't care for the discipline meted out by first-year coach Nate McMillan.

Oh, ok, so they're tired of losing, which is partly to blame on themselves and they don't care for discipline. Really? And some wonder why there is no sympathy for millionaire athletes.

A follow-up of sorts

In line with my thoughts on why Grey's Anatomy exists on Sunday, why is Phantom of the Opera one of the first HD-DVD's?

Off With His Head!

A WSJ Op-Ed on Rummy's critics is dead-on, in my humble civilian opinion...

Update: In similar fashion, what would the 6/thousands of generals do? Some think Rummy leaving would bring a meltdown in Iraq. I tentatively agree.

Back when men were Men.

There existed a little company named Turbonique. Courtesy of Jalopnik.

Loss of Liberty in NJ

Yep, the nanny state is going to take a "Great Leap Forward" in a day when the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants goes into effect here - and it even bans smoking outside (within 25 ft.). Funny thing is - they won't ban it in the casinos of Atlantic City. I guess they really need those tax revenues, whereas they could give a rat's a** about the small business owners.

I fear that one of the icons of Jersey, the crappy diner, is on its way out.

The more you know...

So this morning I'm driving into work and as I turn into the parking lot of my building I notice the license plate in front of me is from Washington D.C., of particular interest was the motto. You know like "land of enchantment" here in New Mexico. I had thought that the motto was "celebrate & discover" (actually I didn't know that but I read it somewhere as I was writing this) but on that plate read "taxation without representation", presumptively to note the district's lack of congressional representation.

At first I thought it was fake. It had to be. Everyone in D.C., exspecially in D.C. must know why that is and what the District of Columbia is, right? Well, I was wrong. The voters there actually approved this motto. I will now light myself on fire. Maybe tea party on the mall (national monument mall that is) is next?

Lions and Tigers and Global Warming, OH MY!

Albuquerque joins the GW bandwagon. Don't expect balanced coverage, though...

Hey, Wait!

Aren't republicans supposed to be the only party in the culture of corruption? Katie or Meredith, please help me out with this!

Another Iraq Highlight

Y'all know I like to link Iraq's rather unreported news, so here's another piece from the venerable Strategy Page...

Update: And another from AIM.

Not to Upstage Ms. Couric's Irrelevance, But,...

some scientist thinks Jesus walked on ice.

Hey, it was a slow news day...

...And the Country Yawns

Katie Couric is going to CBS. Maybe she will lower the average age of the CBS Evening News' audience to the low 50s. Me, I'm still going to get my news from the internet.

Oh, and this isn't related, but it's still a little bit cool.

The south

So this week I'm visiting Huntsville (apparently pronounced hnnnnntsvuuuulllll), Alabama for work. Every time I visit somewhere I think of it as a residence in that when I'm there I think of what it would be like to live there. Last year I visited Corvallis, Oregon and the Oregon coast. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I would like living anywhere in Oregon. Too many hippies for my tastes but enough bike trails to hide from them all. Well I wrote that to lead to this, I will never, ever, ever live in Alabama. How can I include all of Alabama. Well, I learned that Huntsville is considered the "sophisticated" part of Alabama. Whoa. Not that it's all bad or anything but it's just more different than I expected. Before coming I joked around that no one would know what I was (ethnically speaking) but I never believed that would be true. But here I am and everyone acts as though it's the first time that anyone's ever seen my last name. You should have seen the puzzled look on the cop looking at my driver's license after stopping me as I was walking into a convenience store, he asked if I had any warrants out and what I was doing before frisking me and pulling out my wallet. True story, Kim was on the phone with me at the time and heard the whole thing, she was all ready to call the ACLU (of all things for me). Just kind of a strange place. Anyway, some random observations on my trip so far...

Whitesburg, AL. Quite fitting...

You know you're having a bad day when the traffic is to long at the ATM machine so you skip, being late to the airport, then the ATM at the airport is out of order as you're about to fly to a state without the bank you use. Seriously, no Wells Fargo.

What's this weird wetness? No rain but in the afternoon it feels as though there's a drop of rain hitting my forehead every once in a while.

There are a lot of poor speakers out there, this is supposed to be a modeling and simulation conference yet often I'm embarrassed by how people are supposed to be professionals present themselves.

Most popular restaurant types in Huntsville, pizza followed by taco places. Weird, there's even a place called "The Latino Quarter", stopped by and everything was three pesos (ba da dum!). Not brave enough to try tacos at a place called Humpfries's though.

No bus routes in the city apparently, only downtown. I walked about two miles to a grocery store to grab some things and get some cash.

Next time, get a rental car. My company only allows one for the trip and the older co-worker I'm with got it first and you know about the hell involved in adding a second driver.

New rule should be separate rental cars if the two people are 20 years apart.

When visiting a city without your home bank, remember to take more than fourteen dollars.

Well, back home Friday.

Green or Red (not Chile...)

You know, these two journalists should get together and swap coverage areas.

Something tells me the negative guy isn't leaving his hotel much, except maybe for an espresso.

If They're Going to Wave Flags, Couldn't The Flags at Least be American?

"If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about "taking jobs that Americans don't want" is such nonsense."

Sowell's take on immigration politics.


Update:

"There are over 300 million resident Americans, and the vast majority of them are citizens. Had the demonstrators marched chanting "God Bless America," confined their flag waving to Old Glory, and expressed thanks to a magnanimous United States that gave them a second chance when a corrupt Mexico has precluded their first, then they would have won public support."

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way...

I didn't really want to link to this

but this line was too good to pass up:

Actor Charlie Sheen has joined a growing army of other highly credible public figures in questioning the official story of 9/11 and calling for a new independent investigation of the attack and the circumstances surrounding it.

Emphasis added.

Good Idea to Allow Thought Patents?

Michael Crichton has a NYT Op-Ed on the rise of overly broad patents. In particular, patents on thoughts and strategies may proove problematic if the trend isn't stopped. I was unaware that for a period of time, up until 1996, doctors were sueing each other for using patented surgical techniques. Currently, the gene for diabetes is patented (according to the Crichton article). The patent holder thereby controls _any_ genetic based tests or treatments.

Another Reason Why Every Dallas Fan Hates Jerry Jones

See here. Well, he also fired the legendary Tom Landry.

Dan Rather in Jersey

A reporter from a South Jersey paper gets boo'd for doing what a journalist should do: ask the tough questions. Via BOTW.

V for Vendetta

I'm sure most of you have noticed the eyebrow raising undertones of the previews of V for Vendetta. I mean, obviously they are trying to target John Kerry. They had the movie's producer on Fox News this morning. Turns out that the movie's universe is drawn from a 1980s graphic novel portraying Margaret Thatcher's "arch-conservitive regime." I put that in quotes because it's exactly what the producer said.

Just More Propaganda...

TigerHawk dissembles a story on the "big oil spill" in Alaska.

So long to a genuine class act

Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett has died. He was one of my idols as I came of age playing baseball as a kid.There are some players that you can tell just relish every second they are out playing ball, and he was one of them.

We could use a few more like him in the world.

Update: Meanwhile, this not-so-surprising bombshell story just sickens me. Especially since it not only implicates Bonds, but other athletes such as Marion Jones. Say it ain't so.

It's About Time

Bush seeks line-item veto power. Since he hasn't vetoed anything for the last, oh, say several years (relatively speaking...), I think it's long overdue.

SCOTUS in Action..

Chalk up another one for Roberts... I know the decision for this is pretty straightforward, but it's too important to overlook. Even if the Pres' poll numbers dropped to 5%, I'd have voted for him just to get the right Justices in place...

Pathetic

AP "news service" tries to revive Cindy Sheehan. Shameless water-carrying for libs - what else is new?

Enviro-Wackos Busted

Good.

No Way, Dude

Well, I guess Wife and I won't be getting a surfboard this summer. It seems the price is going to spike now that the plant that manufactures 90% of the foam blanks is being shut down. Who do the surfers have to thank for this? The EPA.

Gordon Clark ends his letter with this:

When Clark Foam was started it was a far different California. Businesses like Clark Foam were very welcome and considered the leading edge of innovation and technology. Somewhere along the way things have changed.

So it seems.

This is what I like to hear

sounding more like a free trader every day. I think it's really good he's making nice with India. I think they've got more potential than the Chi-Coms, because they are at least more of a democracy and they've got the legacy of British common law.

Wow

Jonah Goldberg is back! There are too many good points in this column that I can't post excerpts, just read it yourself. I hadn't read Jonah in a while since it seems he had been slipping - he's been working on a book. I guess he felt compelled to respond to Dreher's "attack".

I'm with Jonah 100% on this. I haven't read Rod's book, but I certainly wouldn't consider myself "crunchy". I do "crunchy" things, like enjoy shopping at Whole Foods and enjoy nature, but Jonah hits the nail when he describes crunchy cons as conservatives who are essentially Christian Marxists - they see the world in purely economic terms - or, the way I prefer to put it is that they fall into the trap of politicizing everything. These are the ones who are signing on to the whole environmental evangelical movement.

Whatever your take is - we can certainly say that the conservative movement is full of dissent and argument still, which I think is much healthier than what the other side's got.

Will Fox Be Outfoxed By The Public?

Maybe... More and more folks seem to be catching on to the transformation.

Speaking of The USAF..

If the space port deal actually goes through, Alamogordo will be in good standing come the Raptors...

Attn Bush: Look for Choking Political Opponents

Here's a great strategy: Follow your opponent around until he finds his life in danger and save him!

God Bless the USAF...

I know.......nice topic from a fellow butterbar and this is basically just a rant on my part. You'd think after 14 weeks back in 2004 of constantly being ridiculed by Colonels, Generals, etc. I'd be used to it. But recently I participated in a mock awards board. Basically what people have to go through to earn a Officer of the Quarter/Year at least at base-level....well, they ask 3-4 questions and of course I'm SURE it's their job to critique my answers but this is just ridiculous and it's basically always will be catch-22.

1) What will you do to improve readiness level of the USAF?
my answer was "vague" according to them. Well...perhaps you asked a fucking vague question maybe???????????? At least IMO. On a side note, that Major had no right to critique my uniform. His looked like he just woke up in them and his boots were dirtier than Yokozuna's underwear. But again, this is their "job" I'm sure.

2) What is your opinion on the whole UAE potentially taking over ports ordeal?
my answer is that security is a big deal here (OTS taught me to be neutral) and I just explained the facts behind it and then my opinion. Of course their critique was I didn't choose a side. Thus proving everybody above the butterbar has their own damn opinion and I frankly will follow MY model.

3) What is your role in the USAF?
Geez, another stupid vague question. I had to be cocky here because, well, this is what they want. I explained without me and other satellite operators, soldiers would not be able to tell what's on the ground. I'm being professional but instead this Major said "if anyone here works with this kid, I would take him to the back now and kick his ass for basically lowering the entire space community." I was like "WTF?" Then he went on saying "you should've said *without me, Major, your ass would be dead* Have some *** damned PRIDE in what you do! You ARE right in that I needed GPS in order to kill Iraqis."

Um Major, I think saving your life is enough and that's honorable enough that I don't need to be showing pride. Next thing you know you'd think I'm an @$$hole for showing pride and saving your life.

I swear, USAF isn't about how talented and intelligent you are. It's all about rank. I knew this all along but this is simply the zenith for me.

Deal with the Devil?

Via Mark Levin, it seems the UAE company is not exactly a pristine one, at least when it comes to anti-Semitism.

How can it not fail?

Canada's national health care system that is. In the NY Times:

Accepting money from patients for operations they would otherwise receive free of charge in a public hospital is technically prohibited in this country, even in cases where patients would wait months or even years before receiving treatment

That bit of information, that it is illegal to provide healthcare outside the system, startled me. Even more startling;

Private clinics are opening around the country by an estimated one a week, and private insurance companies are about to find a gold mine.

So now, Canada's healthcare will truly embody what so many say is wrong with the US system, that only those who can afford it (not true here) recieve care, and further prove that a completely government run and operated system fails.

The kind of thing

I like to read...

But so long as you think you are getting something for nothing, the politicians' shell game has worked and the welfare state can continue to expand.

Intellectual Gathering...

Our Governor apparently had dinner with Jessica Simpson last week during her visit of Santa Fe to film a Wal-Mart parody. Topics of discussion included her recent split with "that 98 degree guy" and a symposium on what's actually in those Chicken of the Sea cans. It was unanimously decided that it's NOT green chile...

How About TSA?

It's become somewhat a ritual for me to hit Peggy's Column every Thursday. This week she brings up a good point. Not to distract from seaport security, but what about our airports?

Profiling A La Carte...

Interesting to see who's on which side of the Dubai deal...
Not sure how I feel about it yet... But is it ever good to have the UAE controlling more than they "need" to? "Need" is relative in that statement...

Income Tax, SSec Tax, Death Tax, Medicare Tax, Breathing Tax, Thumb Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax!

A tediously boring but comprehensive review from the Heritage Foundation of some of the myths of tax policy propagated in the last 30 years.

A Well Known Tidbit..

..about hiking minimum wages. Too bad it's coming here...

The definition of irrelevant

Please allow me to indulge in nonsense for a moment, back to politics later I promise.

The day following the super bowl I read something surprisingly relevant by espn.com’s Sports Guy:

I think God created "Grey's Anatomy" as a way to stick it to guys who watch football all day, then have to deal with girlfriends or wives who play the "Screw you, you're watching this with me, you spent all day watching football!" card on Sunday night. There's really no way out unless you're giving up any and all hope for sex later that night. This is why the ratings are so high, I'm convinced. Wait, am I sharing too much here?

Reading that I could only hang my head in shame as I remembered what I was doing right after the game, rushing home to watch “Grey’s Anatomy” at the behest of my accompaniment for the afternoon.

Later in the evening, after reading that fateful article, I shared the above snippet with her and she laughed then became serious and told me that she knows plenty of men who enjoy the show and that she didn’t think it was a “girly” show at all.

After my head stopped spinning I came to my senses and knew it was up to me to explain to her why. My first question was important, if she knew plenty (?) of men who liked the show, why watch it with me? She did notice my eyes rolling into the back of my head ever two minutes throughout the episode, right? Besides, even if she knew plenty (!) of men who watched it, and (pretend to) enjoy it, that’s all explained above in the third to last sentence of the Sports Guy’s prose.

Now it came time to think. I had laid out a framework and learned that the woman I was seeing knew plenty (?!) of men. I needed an argument and one that was creative, one that held water. She’s a law student so I couldn’t give her any opening.

Like an epiphany it came to me, a tangible way to determine if a television show, movie or any of a number of things could be considered conceived for a female audience and I’m proud of this theory enough to share. I call it “The Mangina Scale.”

It’s a simple theory really. If, on the show, none of the main male characters are cool enough to hang out with say Jack Bauer or Michael Knight. If there are a disproportionate number of male character “nice guys” who have zero chance of landing the conflicted, hard-working, intelligent female lead whom they covet. If the male characters on the show make you ashamed as a man for any number of reasons, the show has a high score on “The Mangina Scale”.

So, what is the antithesis of “Grey’s Anatomy”? What kind of show earns a solid zero on the scale? Easy, I used Jack Bauer and Michael Knight previously for a reason. 24, Knight Rider, the A-Team, Miami Vice, The Fall Guy, The Shield, MacGyver all zeros. Jack Bauer scores in the negative as a matter of fact.

Sharing my theory for the first time, she laughed a little and proceeded to jab me in the ribs then told me I was mean. Perhaps, but it sounded to me as though I had made a point. A night to savor indeed…

Good to be back

What was that? Oh yeah, my laziness has finally been snapped and I decided to finally get back to the blog. It's been since December, but sometimes there's just something you have to link to, courtesy of Jonah Goldberg at NRO...

If you recall, the "living Constitution" is the notion that the meaning of the Constitution changes over time. One day nine justices simply wake up, and when they arrive at work that day, they discover that the words in the document they studied their entire adult lives suddenly mean something new and fresh. It's a bit like a science experiment where you try to grow mold in a petri dish. A dead (or "enduring") Constitution is simply one that means what it says and says what it means. Obviously, this is a gross generalization, but you get the point.

More Evidence...

From a NewsMax interview with former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw.

"Shaw suggested that the answer of why the Bush administration had systematically "ignored Russia's involvement" in evacuating Saddam's WMD stockpiles "could be much bigger than anyone has thought," but declined to speculate what exactly was involved.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney was less reticent. He thought the reason was Iran.

"With Iran moving faster than anyone thought in its nuclear programs," he told NewsMax, "the administration needed the Russians, the Chinese and the French, and was not interested in information that would make them look bad.""

At least in my opinion, everyone who has an inkling of the powerful eyes of the US intelligence community knows the government is well aware of the movements of Saddam prior to his removal in Iraq. I find the most likely reason why the Administration has been tursely quiet about this story is in fact a more important decision to not bring another era of Soviet "complications." The world of the politics of defense is not a pretty one...

AP Mistakes

Well, at least you can't chalk this one up to bias. This AP reporter called the move Lindsay Jacobellis executed before she crashed and lost the boardercross gold a "backside method grab" - even though 1) there is no such thing as a frontside method grab, and 2) judging from the replay, she did a "Palmer" air, or a method tweaked out by pulling the bottom of the board up to face the direction of travel.

In her defense, snowboarding IS fun, and is a sport defined by individual style. Leave her alone! She'll pick up the gold in Whistler.

Open Letter to Ann Coulter

Courtesy of John Hawkins (via Tigerhawk). Definitely needed. Ann made me cringe for the first time with her post 9/11 column, which got her fired from NR. She's an incredibly gifted and witty writer, so I hate to have her talent go to waste - but she is guilty of impeding the effort in the Middle East if she resorts to slandering an entire group of people and needs to be called on it. It would be a shame to have her excellent work regarding Joe McCarthy to be dismissed because she keeps sticking her foot in her mouth.

For the record, I went to an Ann Coulter talk in Abq with the wife a couple years back, and Ann was as civil as could be. It was an enjoyable experience - but probably because there were no vocal and rowdy protestors. I think what happens is her incisive wit causes people to become irrational and she descends to their level. Overemotionalism in debate is a big problem and if you can't control it you shouldn't debate (I've been guilty many times). Anyway, I hope that's what happens, because I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here.

How Many Engineers Does It Take to Move WMDs?

An interesting piece linked from NewsMax, take from it what you will...

"A Liberal's Ode to Regime Change"

by Dan Calabrese:

Murder, mayhem, torture
Unfortunate these acts
Would that we had a perfect world
We'd surely turn them back

But from my purview on the left
I've an enlightened view
No regime's a perfect one
We must accept it's true

So while Saddam is clearly bad
We all agree, oh yes
We mustn't lose our focus
On whom we do detest

He's the one who terrorizes
All that we hold dear
By cutting taxes for the rich
He makes it oh so clear

He wants to drill in ANWR
His lawman's known to pray
He doesn't bow at Kofi's feet
He needs to go--today!

We lefties want regime change
Oh let there be no doubt
We must depose this daunting threat
We have to throw him out!

Saddam may be an awful thug
Killing near and far
But he does not cut finding
Of our precious NPR

So let Hussein play torture games
It's no skin off our back
But for the tyrant cretin Bush
A pre-emptive attack!

From a WSJ Opine Collection... There's some pretty good ones. Check 'em out.

FYI

Ran across this today on Opinionjournal - it looks like they are forming a new website called the Opinionjournal Federation, which will be a page with links to various political and commentary blogs. It's probably going to be very similar to PowerLineNews, but the various players are more "meaty", it seems, with participants like City Journal, the Claremont Institute, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.

Snicker

I guess when it came to Vote or Die, Rock the Vote is dying.

The Anglosphere

Mark Steyn discusses the global benefits of imperial power:

Those American conservatives -- the realpolitik crowd -- who disdain "nation-building" ought to consider what the Indian sub-continent would look like if the British had been similarly skeptical: today, it might well be another Araby -- a crazy quilt of authoritarian sultanates and psychotic dictatorships.

Pax Britannia lives on!

Who Would Aid America?

Always the shining edge of moral clarity, Dennis Prager reviews the situation of growing hatred...

Finally, A Social Program Worthy of Conservative Merit...

Michael Yon is usually enjoyable reading, moreover this time I had to link his dispatch about Operation Iraqi Children. Yon is actually requesting all readers to visit the site, donate if possible, and spread the word. It's quite encouraging to see that enough people, through private, corporate, and organized means, still care to help when the opportunity is there. Bravo OIC!!

Preparation M...

Had to post this from the Rott. This guy's a riot!

Bush to Nuke New Guinea...

In the Bush Administration's continuing war on science, plans are in place to nuke the area where hundreds of new animal species have been discovered. A White House spokesperson said this morning that "The world simply cannot afford to have any new species. Global warming is leading us to utter destruction, and these new species will only accelerate us on that path. They must be destroyed." This to happen in conjunction with the conversion of NASA, the EPA, DEA, DOE, DOD, CIA, NSA, NEA, ADA, NRA, FDA, and ACLU to Evangelical Christianity.

Politically wrong

okay, this is gonna be brief (I know, me brief, what a shock) and may not make sense to some, but I'm just gonna say it. If those Muslims get annoyed by an effortless interpretation of the murderer Muhammad, then why don't we drop from the sky a TRILLION different offensive odious representations of this and maybe these obtuse morons will disintegrate into oblivion since they enjoy the exceptional art of rioting and disturbance. I mean, if that's ALL it takes, geez, we got the answer people!

I'm sure Quran is a household item, but so is garbage and it stinks when it gets old too.

Steyn's Latest

On the riots over the Danish cartoons:

Denmark! Even if you were overcome with a sudden urge to burn the Danish flag, where do you get one in a hurry in Gaza?

Dude, it's not that hard. We produced a burnable US flag at the cabin in just a couple hours, stars and all. Although we didn't burn it, we raised it with a chopped-tree flagpole. The Danish flag looks like it could be produced easily with a little white canvas and red paint.

Speaking of cartoons, Mark Levin asks, where were the riots for these ones?

An Interesting Piece

Something I wondered about briefly at some point last year, probably while driving home or better yet, while sitting in my reading room (a.k.a. the bathroom), how much does war cost - relative to the economy?

Roberts and Alito Too New, MSM Crosshairs Now on Scalia

When I first read Brian Ross's Report on Scalia, I must admit I had a few threads of angst among the vast weave in my head (though some argue it's mostly air). For at least a couple seconds, I thought that Scalia might have gone up a bar or two in my "unethical meter."

Then I did a little research on Gillers. Here's a decent summary of "Scaliagate."

Excerpt:

"The group [Federalist Society] said that "Rather than taking a recreational trip with hours of tennis and going fly-fishing, as ABC would have its viewers believe, Justice Scalia was honoring an agreement made nearly a year in advance with the Federalist Society to teach a serious scholarly program to more than 100 lawyers from 38 states that required considerable work and advance preparation. Prior to the course, Justice Scalia produced a 481-page course book that attendees were expected to review in advance. The course was approved by at least 30 state bars for most of the attending lawyers' continuing education requirements. Justice Scalia was there to share his knowledge and experience and received only reimbursement for travel and lodging.""

He's In

58-42. Thank you, President Bush - this is the other big reason I voted for you and you almost failed us with Harriet Miers. Good save with Alito.

Now, let's begin by reversing Kelo v. New London...

Oh, and for extra entertainment, check out the Swimmer's meltdown. Hilarious. It reminds me of that video of a campaign stop where Teddy was the epitome of a blustering red-faced politician.

Civil War NOT Present on the Ground

An excerpt from Brigadier General Daniel P. Bolger on Iraqi state of affairs. For the full article, see here.

"If we define a ‘civil war’ as Iraqis killing Iraqis, then we have that. We have had that here since before Saddam.

Saddam took killing his fellow Iraqis to a horrific level, which is a big reason why our operations in 2003 were so important to the Iraqi people. During his tyrannical rule, Saddam gassed and slaughtered Kurds, killed many Shiite Arabs, and executed plenty of Sunni Arabs as well. Naturally, many of these groups resisted. So there is a strong, living tradition of fighting the central government here. That was true under the Ottomans and under the British mandate, too.

But if we use a more conventional understanding of the term, ‘civil war,’ of a break-away or rebellious part of the country fighting the rest for political control or independence, that gives much more dignity to our enemies than they give to themselves. The vast majority of Iraqis, including the majority of Sunni Arabs, are not fighting the elected Iraqi government. Those who are fighting us call themselves ‘the resistance’ and though they claim to be against the Americans and other coalition forces: mostly they kill innocent Iraqi civilians. That's nihilistic terrorism, and not civil war."

Yep, We All Hate Blacks

You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say all the people doing this research were left-wing. If I didn't know better, I'd also say the author's brain's "reward center" was activated when he read this "research" and published this article.

What a more disingenuous way to disguise the disgust of the welfare state than to claim research has found racial bias. Haven't we heard this before???

Yep this photo says it all

Courtesy of Michelle Malkin.

Hamas Wins Palestinian Election

I guess things are so boring in the Middle East that the Palestinians decided to elect a terrorist organization to majority power. That ought to liven things up. The Palestinians should find life especially interesting in the short term since Hamas has never actually been in charge of stuff like ensuring that the faucets keep supplying drinkable water. "What's that Junior, you're dying of thirst? Well have a nice cup of Hatred of the Jews and shut up..."

Jesusland North

Here's the map of Canada following the recent Tory victory. Interestingly, the map is mostly red (the Liberal Party's color) because the Liberals carried the large northern territories (I presume they are populated by primarily Indian populations, which follow the same voting patterns as here).

Jesusland North consists of the middle swathe from western BC to southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Jesusland also seems to include a few pockets in southern Ontario and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. So, Jesusland is a pretty contiguous land across middle North America save for those small islands. I wish I knew more about Canadian politics - I wonder what the political leanings of the Bloc Quebecois are - my initial guess is that they are socially conservative but basically socialist in outlook (like the French parts of Maine).

Personally, I'd like to welcome the Canadians into the political mainstream of the Anglosphere. At least the Canadians should be on our side now in the war on terror.

An Interesting Proposition..

Should NATO draft Israel? Is this one last shot at preventing a nuclear Iran?

Mayhap he is correct...

The Real Story

is not that a student was humiliated in Pitt for supporting the Steelers' opponent - there are enough Steelers fans around me to know that's not really news - but that a high school student was in an ethnicity class. No wonder American kids are morons - they take ethnicity classes in high school.

25 Years Old, and Still Huffing

Carps' email this morning left me a little bemused, wondering if the country could really "turn left" under the MSM onslaught after 25 years of high conservative tide. Then I read Peggy's opine today and her prose once again gives me a calm feeling I don't get in many OpEds. Here's an excerpt:

"We are in a time when the very diminution of the importance of network news leaves some old news hands to drop their guard and announce what they are: liberal Democrats. Nothing wrong with that, but they might have told us when they were in power. The very existence of conservative media--of Rush Limbaugh, of Fox, of the Internet sites--has become an excuse by previously "I call 'em as I see 'em/I try to be impartial" journalists to advance their biases. Actually, it's more Fox than anything. The existence of a respected cable network that is nonliberal and non-Democratic (or that is conservative, or Republican, or neoconservative--people on the right have polite disagreements about this) is more and more freeing news outlets, encouraging them actually, as a potential business model, to be more and more what they are. Is this good? Well, it's clearer."

Following the body of her column, I agree that most folks in middle America today dismiss a Kronkite, Rather, or a Clooney with a brush of their hand. However, I suppose if Carps writes another email, then I'll again face a mental juxtaposition. Oh well. Time for a nap...

World Ends, Minorities Hit Hardest

Literally. You can't make this crap up.

Relatively, Blacks are environmental Good Samaritans. Per capita, we emit approximately 20 percent less carbon dioxide than Whites – well below 2020 targets set by the U.S. Climate Stewardship Act.

Is this why they're so much better at basketball? Because they require less oxygen to perform the same task?

Hillary Now Officially Right-Wing...

Did you go, Timdido?


Update: Ironically, some EUites finding praise for Bush's renewed efforts to "bring harmony" back to US foreign relations... I find myself trying not to swallow my middle finger.

Update 1/20: Once again, internet trumps MSM: Hillary accepted contributions from pro-Iranian organizations.

Culture of Corruption

Indeed.

Can't Let This Go...

I know it's not very interesting to tunnel into the midst of election or lobbying scandals, but since the MSM is hell bent on inculcating America with the idea that the "corruption" applies to Red and only Red, I find it necessary to keep the pressure on both sides, with an emphasis on the Blue, to help balance the coverage.

While I believe both sides deserve what they get, and am glad to see Delay and others voluntarily step down from their respective positions, the need is there to expose what's well known among insider circles about the elitist left, starting with Mr. Soros.

The AIM does a great job staying on the Soros point. What this guy has done in terms of pure capitalism is pretty amazing, but of course ridden with, well, really a steady hand of greed - enough to influence entire economic systems. As a result, millions of folks in England and other developing countries have suffered economically, while he has become one of the elite mega-rich, only to then become a "global socialist" and decry the actions of capitalists everywhere.
This article from frontpage mag is a decent historical outline.

In summary, here's a link to the complaint filed by the NLPC to the FEC regarding the unrecorded financial contributions to the Kerry campaign.

Defeat the Spanish!

Your cellphone bill helps defeat the Spanish. That good old Federal Excise Tax and the Spanish-American War. More evidence that we should enact my plan to roll all laws back to the founding of the Union.

Racial Demagoguery At Its Finest

Courtesy of Senator Hillary Clinton. She's coming to the Uni to give a little speech tomorrow; I have a ticket. Seein' how I just made it through generals, I don't know if I need any more stomach-clenching moments, so I may not go. But I should, and I probably will.

Will the Lefties Mock this Religious Nut?

Mayor Nagin says "God is mad at America". Sounds a bit like Pat Robertson to me.
Update: Holy crap, I did not realize just how loopy and ridiculous this speech was until I heard it in its entirety on Glenn Beck this morning. Here's video. He actually says that God is smiting us for being in Iraq, and he smote the black folks of New Orleans for having so many one-parent families. He also says something that I think would be called racist were a person of any other color to say it: that God wants New Orleans to be a majority black city. How can a mayor of a major American completely lose control of rationality like this?

Does Anybody Else...

find the recent leftward shift in Latin America troubling? I'm hoping our the recent signing of CAFTA helps central America become (or remain, if it already is) right leaning and our allies. NAFTA certainly has helped out a lot - I can't begin to tell you how cool it is to see so many things "Hecho en Mexico" - and Vicente Fox is a Bush ally, or at least seems to be a leftist enemy.
Update: Now, this is even more frightening: a Venezuela-Iran alliance? Yikes. I think it's almost time for a 'regime change' in Tehran, get the bombers ready...

Hypocrisy

Not that any of us think Kennedy could actually care less what clubs Alito was is, but this is fun.

Gotta check this week's...

Coulter post. God she's good...

Lame

New Jersey: Come See For Yourself. I like how in the dispatch they include a picture of smokestacks and power lines off the turnpike.