I did not know this

I used to think that the term "Xmas" was a secular way to acknowledge Christmas but I was wrong, it turns out that the X stands for Christ, but in Greek;

"Xristos is a transliteration of the New Testament Greek word for Christ "criston." The Greek letter Chi 'c' was retained to insure a connection to the roots and original texts, as well as visually represent the centrality of the cross in all. The visual symbol Chi-ro is also employed at various places by Xristos, recalling one of the earliest practices of the Christian community."

Dan Rathers, Peter Jennings, and a U.S. Marine

Found at brain-terminal.com via Instapundit.

Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, along with a U.S. Marine assigned to protect them, were hiking through the Iraqi desert one day when they were captured by terrorists. They were tied up, led to a village, and brought before the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq.

Zarqawi said, "I am familiar with your western custom of granting the condemned a last wish; so, before we kill and dismember you, do you have any last requests?"

Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowlful of hot spicy chili." Zarqawi nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."

Peter Jennings said, "I am Canadian, so I'd like to hear the song 'O Canada' one last time." Zarqawi nodded to a terrorist who had studied the Western world and knew the music. He returned with some rag-tag musicians and played the anthem. Jennings sighed and declared he could now die peacefully.

Zarqawi turned and said, "And now, Mr. U.S. Marine, what is your final wish?"

"Kick me in the ass," said the Marine.

"What?" asked Zarqawi. "Will you mock us in your last hour?"

"No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Marine. So the leader shoved him into the open, and kicked him in the ass.

The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled out a 9mm pistol hidden in his cammies, and shot Zarqawi dead.

In the resulting confusion, he leapt to his knapsack, pulled out his M4 carbine, and sprayed the remaining terrorists with gunfire. In a flash, they were either dead or fleeing for their lives.

As the Marine was untying Rather and Jennings, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass?"

"What," replied the Marine, "and have you assholes call me the aggressor?"

Libruls n Jesus

Rush brought up a few days ago how the Revuhruhnd Jacksnnnnn was using Jesus' birth as a way to criticize Bush. This is a common tactic of the liberals around Christmas, since we all know they love the homeless...especially when they stay homeless so they can show us how morally superior they are to us by "caring" for them. Anyway, Mark Steyn wrote this in NRODT a couple weeks ago:

For Pete's sake, they weren't homeless - they couldn't get a hotel room. They had to sleep in a stable only because Dad had to schlep halfway across the country to pay his taxes in the town of his birth, which sounds like the kind of cockamamie bureaucratic nightmare only a blue state could dream up. Except that in Massachusetts, it's no doubt illegal to rent out your stable without applying for a Livestock Shelter Maternity Ward for Non-Insured Transients License, so Mary would have been giving birth under a bridge on I-95.

Heh heh, good rebuttal. And one rarely mentioned, even by conservatives.

Crichton rocks

It seems that Michael Crichton's newest book is about a group of "scientists" and activists who stage climate shift type events to falsely support global warming. Cool.
I found the info via this article which gives the "that isn't cool" side of the argument.
I just saw that movie, The Day After Tomorrow over the holiday. Kind of an interesting movie. The basic premise of the movie, that we are on the verge of the occurance of an instant ice age, is almost certainly completely scientifically insane. Yet the movie goes into a fair amount of detail of how an instant freeze could happen. Like if I claimed that the moon is made of cheese then provided a detailed documentation of how the moon reflects the same spectra as a specific kind of cheese.

Happy Festivus!

I would like to wish everyone a happy Festivus, and hope that you win your challenges in the feats of strength. A Festivus for the rest of us!

The real McCain

Recently there have been several (here, here, here and here) articles speculating on the future presidential aspirations of the mainstream media's and the democrat's favorite Republican, John McCain. During his first run he was not a difficult candidate to support but I believe that his outwardly obvious political posturing of late doing everything he can to show himself against the Bush administration is going too far.

Although McCain considers himself a "straight talker", I believe that his opposition is purely a political consideration. This consideration is that after two terms the public will grow weary of the Republican party and be looking towards that mythical 'moderation'. McCain has played the media like a maestro, obviously knowing that a 'Rebublican' who always opposes Republicans will be portrayed as a hero in the press. He has played this line and now everything said by him is quoted in any newspaper as being beyond reproach.

The simple truth is that before everything, McCain is a politician first. Certainly he has his own political leanings and a right to those but he seems to be more reactionary and more than willing to play to the media and Republican hostile crowds. I bring this all up because of a part of an article that I read this morning with the following line, "...said Marshall Wittmann, who served as McCain's spokesman until last month, when he joined the Democratic Leadership Council."

The reason this line piqued my interest is that I remember in May, at the Arizona Republican Party convention, how lonely the volunteer collecting signatures for Senator McCain's reelection was. He has alienated a lot of Republicans in his quest for media legitimacy and his former spokesman now taking post at a democrat think tank just shows another reason why. Obviously this spokesman has had either democrat leanings or has always been a democrat. McCain's choice is his but it's of questionable judgment to assign such a prestigious post to someone of the opposing party if you want to be taken seriously as a Republican by Republicans.

This is why I think that the Senator's presidential aspirations will once again not likely make it past the primaries. While basking in the bright lights of political celebrity he has simply forgotten the party of which he proclaims himself a member and will pay for that oversight when that party votes for it's candidate.

Flag Ranking

Stumbled on this story about how NJ flags (state and also Newark, Trenton, and Jersey City) suck, and remembered that NM's flag was ranked first a couple years ago in the state flag ranking. Now there is a city flag ranking out. The "greatest city on earth" got 25th. Well, the greatest city to me, at least. I rather like NM's flag, makes me miss home....I still haven't changed my license plates.

Jersey Bashing

There are plenty of things to hate about New Jersey, but one of the biggest is the fact that it is illegal to pump your own gas. Jersey's only one of two states (OR being the other) to not allow this. The law against pumping your own gas was passed in 1949 to keep drivers safe by allowing only "professionals" to do this activity deemed to hazardous for normal folks. I just spent 30 minutes at a gas station off of Route 1 filling up. Here's how it went:

Pull into gas station. There is a backup of about 3 cars on the left side stations, and one on each right side station. Of course, there is a left side car at the right side stations (mine being one of them) unable to pump because a right side car is filling up and no room to get our tanks close enough to the pump. Waste 5 minutes waiting.

Right side car leaves, and I am able to pull forward to the pump he just left. I pull up, pop the tank door, and wait a couple minutes for the attendant to get to the car.

Attendant runs over, and I voice my standard request: "fillup on 93 octane". This "professional" gives me a blank stare and asks me "re-goo-lar?" in a foreign accent. I say, "93 octane". He points to the pump and gives me a quizzical look. He then asks, "soo-per?" I point at the 93 octane button. The "professional" then points at the 93 octane button and in a lecturing tone says "soo-per". Whatever man, just fill it up, so I nod. "Cash or credit card?" I give him my Visa, and he asks "fill?". YES, you !@%$!@!!! By this time, another 3 or 4 minutes have been wasted. He goes through the rigmarole and gas begins flowing into my car. He conveniently places my Visa in the pump card slot for everyone to see and leaves.

Waiting....waiting.....after 5 minutes elapse, I look at the pump display. The gas is pumping at an extremely slow rate, I'm only at 5 gallons. In the meantime, my window is open and rain is coming in, so I close it and wait some more.

Check again 3 minutes later, and the pump has stopped! At only 5.5 gallons! "Professional" runs over and pulls the lever to get gas flowing again. It flows at the same slow rate.

5 more minutes pass, I'm at 11 gallons. I glance over and a New Yorker gets out of his car and begins pumping his own gas. The "professional" runs over and tells him he's not allowed. New Yorker gives look of unbelief.

"Professional" then runs over and discovers something when I'm at 15 gallons. The pump dispenser was not in the tank all the way. Hmmmm, as an experienced self-server, I figured out that this would decrease pumping rate in high school. I'm paying higher prices for this crap service?

In the meantime, a backlog has piled up in front of me as more frustrated drivers wait their turn to get gas pumped on the left side station. After the "professional" gives me my credit card back and tells me "thank yoo" I wait another 2-3 minutes for an opening in this line so I can get out of the gas station. The ordeal is over.

This is a perfect example of how idiot FDR type liberalism makes things worse. A similar tirade was published on NRO a year ago. Wanna show a liberal why their economic views are stupid? Make them take a trip down the Turnpike and see government regulation at its finest.

Europeans

This story is amazing - this Italian chick invents a story that she has herpes to cover up that she has had plastic surgery! I would imagine it would be the other way around. Also, it seems strange she would be ashamed of having plastic surgery in a nation where it is celebrated. Maybe there's some other angle to the story that they didn't put in or I missed.

Job hunting

Reently I've been looking for new employment as I've decided that it would be nice to let someone new have a chance to suck my soul and rob my late twenties as my early twenties are now gone and in a certain major corporation's lockbox. As everyone knows, it's just not an easy task, looking through page after page of unappealing want ads or finding something interesting that requires relocation to Antarctica. Anyway, today I think I may have found a direction; "A federal judge agreed to let an engineer testify in the case of an allegedly flaming toaster snack, concluding that Michael Wald has studied frosted Pop-Tarts". I read that and realized:

1. I'm an engineer
2. I too have studied frosted pop tarts

This must have been like the day that Mozart first stepped to the Piano!

While.....

We're on geography.

Sick.....

Eddie would go. I'm not much of a surfer (only the once in Kauai) but I've often gazed longingly at the coastal states, and now I have my chance to do it and get better in Jersey. To me, surfing is the grandfather of all boardsports, where the 'soul' is. Not to knock the young punk nephew, snowboarding (my true love). Congrats to Bruce, whose home island is where Nic and I spent our honeymoon getting reef rash on foam boards in Poipu - and where we intend on returning one day.

Shopping guide

This is cool, my favorite is the Hummer slot car.

Another Diversion

like Engicon's states challenge. I've been doing this on and off for the past couple of weeks trying to raise New Jersey above West Virginia. I have problems with kerplakistans and small west African countries.

Something to do on an ariplane

Finally, "Federal regulators voted Wednesday to give airline passengers high-speed Internet connections while they fly." A good idea, I think. Let's just hope that the airlines make it reasonable, if they charge at all. Albuquerque International AIRPORT (That's right damnit, "sunport" is a stupid name and I will never never use it) already has FREE wireless access in the terminal. In the same article the possibility of cell phone usage on planes was also discussed, I'm for this also. The only argument listed is the aversion to being amongst a sea of conversations mid-flight. Personally, I don't think that this will be a big deal but I do see the point, mostly regarding the folks who need to learn to dial it down a few in the volume dial when talking on a cell phone.

Perhaps

it was a butterfly ballot? Why can't Democrats figure out the process from which they derive their name?

Super Size Me

nuther movie I watched. Fairly entertaining - it has its moments (like when he ralphs up his first super sized meal). Sometimes he tries a little too hard to be Michael Moore-ish, and I don't mean by stuffing his schnoz with fries. One key plot line was that his body pretty much completely rejected his diet - the doctors were very concerned with his liver 2 weeks into his experiment. This was a beating stick he used against fast food. But what do you expect when you suddenly change your diet? Of course it will take some time for your body to adjust, and in the interim would appear like it was poisoning your body. Kinda like binge drinking isn't exactly the healthiest lifestyle choice.

Moonbat alert

found via LGF, this priceless piece of prose from the Pasadena Weekly.

Place the states

Is it a red state or a blue state? Do you even know where it is?

Cold War Memories

So nobody forgets the attitude of Western liberals during the Cold War: remember how they believed that the big "H" History of Marx was on the march and we, the democratic capitalist nations of the world, were going to be mowed over. They believed it was our fate: how could anybody stand up to the might of the Red Army and this ideology that fueled them? And with nations falling like dominoes, how long would it be before our turn came up? Besides, their system is more fair anyway. "To each according to his need, from each according to his ability." (I'm paraphrasing)
I comment on this because I started reading a book about the history of Fluid Mechanics and in the beginning, the author is explaining the importance of water as a fluid. He is describing a Soviet plan to use solar energy to distill water when he says:

Even in the USSR, which has a planned economy and therefore cannot be regarded as the most wasteful country in the world, each year some 3,000,000 tons of acids, 2,000,000 tons of oil products, 1,000,000 tons of fats, and hundreds of thousands of tons of salt, fibres and metal are dumped into rivers.
In the United States (undoubtedly the most wasteful country) whole rivers and lakes are being polluted to such an extent that they can no longer be used for drinking or swimming purposes.

Those parenthesis are not my editorial comments. Those were his thoughts. He clearly believed that Communism was superior. This book was published in 1971, when this sort of thought reached a fever pitch (culminating in sissy boy Jimmah!'s stern rebuke of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the Olympics). This was a typical attitude among academics and the left in general during this time period. Never forget that. Whenever you argue with a liberal about the Cold War, never cease to remind them of this.

Eeeeexcellent

done with all midterms and now wait for finals - but Mr. Fourier and Mr. Laplace, as well as singular perturbations, can wait for I have a Caribbean to conquer. I don't know why, but it is satisfying to see a Dutch flag flying above Cartagena. Well, I have to rescue the governor of Curacao's hot daughter so I can marry her. Interesting how they "attractiveness" of the women in this game scales directly with the volume of their chests. They sure have the key demographic for this game nailed.

Good news

for one of our better allies in recent times.

Moveon to Dems: We own you

as they state in this story. In the story, Moveon says they raised money through "grassroots contributors". Riiiiiight....call me crazy, but I think George Soros doesn't really count as "grassroots".

How appropriate

Some choice words this morning from a Slate piece that I think aptly describes a certain liberal group. "MoveOn, however, isn't an organization so much as an outlet. It's a network of aggrieved liberals, connected by the central nervous system of the Internet, and it enables its members to convince themselves they're "doing something" when they're really not." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Different

A news item from Boston; "To help boost donations to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign, city officials are allowing motorists to pay their fines with toys equal in value to the amount owed." Unfortunately, only citations "issued Dec. 1, 2 or 3 are eligible for the program".

Poll madness

This is something that I just couldn't let go without saying something. At the end of the election I was tired. I was sick of hearing about it. I was sick of people talking about it. It seemed as though every talking head on the news thought they were exclusively tuned into the public psyche. The most obnoxious of the offenders were the pollsters. I couldn't go twenty minutes in September and October without hearing about how Zogby was the closest in 2000. His interviews were swallowed by the interviewer as if his words were gospel. This was in spite of the fact that what he said seemed to change daily.

Anyway, to make an actual point, I was an annoyed Steve by the time the election finally came to. And I was more than relieved, and of course happy, when it was over. A big cause of my headache were the endless polls. That's why I had to bring up the complete waste that I linked above. The beginning tells the reader all that they need to know; "It seems that even Republican respondents to a Zogby poll understood that being Republican is not the same as being kind". Ugh. "plurality of likely voters say that longtime Christmas fixture Santa Claus is a Democrat" and "Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch are likely Republicans".

The only thing that I get from this poll is something that I've known for ever anyway . That democrats have been very good, for a very long time, at demonizing Republicans. If Santa Claus were really a democrat, he would take half the toys of the kids who have them and then keep most of them for himself, leaving a single plastic soldier for the needy children while exploiting them and presuming their allegiance.

A tad bit oveboard you say. That's probably right, but you know what? Stupid polls like this really put me in a sour mood. Ugh.

Again....

the Democrats try to make their message sound better, linked to and commented on by Best of the Web (first item). Rush has commented on this before. The Democrats say, "If only we had someone like Rush to make our ideas sound good!" To which Rush replies, "well, the reason my ideas sound good is, well, they're good." Guys like Lakoff are supposed "experts" and they don't even understand their own countrymen.

One more reason

I have no respect for the French.

General fights back

against the media, saying they are trying to tarnish the military with these new pictures. Well, more specifically, the Arab media. But I say what's the dif?

Another good movie

Go out and rent Luther. About Martin Luther. I found it inspirational and uplifting, although my ignorance of this period of history has me curious as to how historically accurate the movie is - from what little I know of Luther I think it is pretty true to the story. What I found myself pondering was the similarity between the justification for the Roman Catholic tyranny of that time and the justification for liberal policy today. The idea that the people should not be trusted with the scriptures because the "elite" had a better understanding of them directly parallels liberal orthodoxy - that the masses cannot be trusted to make their own decisions and must rely on a wiser third party to make the decision.

Sweeeet

EEs rock. Maybe you guys could do this in your spare time for cabin trips...

A Sign of the Apocalypse?

"Sports cable channel ESPN will launch its own branded wireless phone service next year"

Socialism

comes up with some greeeeat ideas.

Government Efficiency

The state has been proven to be one fiftieth as efficient as the free market. Proven in the case of the English state at any rate. Given that the English are generally considered to be an efficitent people, we can reasonably take this lesson to heart in the general case.

One more thing

Go rent the movie Shattered Glass. True story of a TNR journalist who made stuff up and got caught. I was absolutely riveted because I read a lot of the people who were in that movie. Here's a good index of the whole saga.

One thing that I thought was telling was how his stories (at least the ones I saw on the movie and the ones I could get to online) had a huge left wing slant and yet they still didn't raise any questions amongst the fact-checkers. In particular, one about a bunch of Young Republicans who committed felonies during a convention. Bias, anyone? Of course TNR isn't exactly WaPo, but hey, Charles Lane works at WaPo now....

Garden State Roundup

I still have very little affection for my current state of residence, but that doesn't mean there isn't interesting news around here.

Looks like Bret Schundler is running for Gov. again - I've been a fan of Bret since the last NJ election. He's a true Reagan Democrat (now Republican) who's proven he can pick up Dem votes, since he managed to get reelected by landslide margins in Jersey City as mayor - not exactly a Republican stronghold. I've heard commercials for the others but right now Bret's got the name recognition so I think he's got the best shot. More'n likely he'll face Jon Corzine.

Nasty oil spill wreaking havoc on the lower Delaware. Environmentalist wackos will have a field day, I'm sure. Accidents happen....

This article on Oppenheimer seems a bit harsh towards him. He was a good guy but I think he got a little squishy with the rest of them scientists once the Cold War started heating up.

One thing I noticed about this place is how many freakin' deer I see. I see at least 2 or 3 a week running across the road in front of me. And I always see a dead one by the side of the road every week. From what I hear, it's the number one cause of accidents here. So, what do the luminaries in Princeton do? Call for more hunting? No...they come up with a plan to catch does with nets and shoot them full of birth control. People around here have lost their minds.

I probably shouldn't do this...

I probably shouldn't post this as it is somewhat counterproductive to my wish that the Dems will fall in a ditch. None the less, I am offering liberals a clue. This is from a 1996 speach by Rev. Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives:
"Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good." But that's what we've done.

We've lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We've exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen."

If you liberals really want to be able to communicate with "red America" then you need to be able to understand this speech. You don't have to agree with everything, but if you read any of this and beleive it to be uterly incomprehensible that a person would think this way, you don't stand a chance. I don't really believe that you want to have true morals, but since you are beginning to say that you do have them and/or do want them, herein lies some guidance. If you continue in any way to espouse "liberal values" and try to equate them to conservative morals but don't deal with the issues above, you're still headed for the ditch.

On Meet the Press

watched bits and pieces of a "Reverend Round Table". Includes liberal and conservative pastors. Overheard Sharpton say Jesus "would not use the power of the state" to further a political agenda. I need to get the transcript to be sure he said this, but it strikes me as pretty hypocritical, considering he tried to gain the highest power the state could offer. My feeling is these guys (including the conservatives) need to focus on their flock and get out of politics - if anything, they're turning people off from Christianity.

Are we better off?

Is this opinion wrong just because Maureen Dowd wrote it? Maybe, but it's worth thinking about. At what cost are we destroying American productivity in the form of extra line waiting? Security doors to the cockpit make 9/11 almost impossible to duplicate (I don't know whether these were ever implimented, probably not as they make too much sense). Allowing pilots to carry pistols will probably be enough to stop 90% of cockpit takeovers. That leaves us with shoe bombers and other want-a-be mass murderers. Of course, I would like to round up all these guys and wrap them in bacon. None the less, having every fourth passenger take off their shoes because of a shoe bomber isn't necessarily sensible. What if the next terrorist has a prosthetic bomb hand, will the TSA proceed with requiring all passengers to sumbit to having blood drawn from their thumb? We're not being smart about this problem. We are Americans, we are supposed to be smart and innovative. I'm sure any one of us could come up with a half dozen better ways to handle airport security. Why do we proceed with much stupidity? Hopefully this issue will stay in the public discourse until it gets better.

Evangelical Outpost

has opened a thread on talk radio - my nerve was one of the many he hit with this post. I'll clarify here that the post below had two main points - first, that talk radio is relevant because it serves as a news outlet to balance the leftward leaning big media, and second, that his post smacked of the sort of intellectual vanity I feel like I'm funding with my tax dollars that go to NPR. To boil it all down, it's really a difference in tastes, and the free market will dictate if your tastes deserve to exist on the radio. It's a mechanism designed for precisely this sort of a problem, so one group of people doesn't grow to resent another.