Cebollinos Machismos

This video is an interview of 3 former radical Islamist Arabs by News Anchor Greg Coy on CN8. I am surprised these three have survived. There was no mention of a fatwa ordering their deaths, but...

(H.T. Dr. Sanity.)

(It's 17MB, so my apologies to those of you with a dial-up service.)

This is the four aces post on Grandpa John's. (I just realized that the name of this blog was not Grandpa's John!)

Perfection- The Enemy of the Good

"There is a powerful strain of Moral Perfectionism on the Left. The necessity of self-criticism for any society to improve gets taken to pathological heights by those who find any imperfection reason enough to damn the entire enterprise."1.

(H.T. What if? and Dr. Sanity.)

So-Well

Thomas Sowell:

"...Is it rocket science that, when oil prices hit new highs, gasoline prices also hit new highs? Do you think the price of wheat could double without the price of bread going up? Would we have politicians running around spouting off about "gouging" by Big Wheat?"...

..."Ironically, the people who are making the most noise about the high price of gasoline are the very people who have for years blocked every attempt to increase our own oil supply. They have opposed drilling for oil off the Atlantic coast, off the Pacific coast, or in Alaska. They have prevented the building of any new oil refineries anywhere for decades."

"They have fought against the building of hydroelectric dams or nuclear power plants to generate electricity without the use of oil. They love to talk about their own pet "alternative energy sources," without the slightest attention to what these would cost in terms of money, jobs, or our national standard of living."

"Even when one of their pet "alternative energy sources" -- windmills -- is proposed to be built near them, suddenly it is not right to spoil their view."

"Politicians have indulged these spoiled brats for generations. Now, when the chickens come home to roost, they are screaming about high prices and Big Oil. That is world class chutzpa."

"Liberal politicians have played this game for years. With the help of the liberal media, they have so demonized oil producers and so replaced economics with demagoguery that now Republicans are running scared, which seems to be their favorite exercise." (Emphasis mine)

Tolja!

According to Science/AAAS:

"Variability in mitochondrial (mt)DNA is often used to infer population size, history, and diversity on the assumption that mtDNA is essentially evolutionary neutral. Bazin et al. (p. 570; see the Perspective by Eyre-Walker) compared a wide range of animal species for polymorphisms in allozymes, nuclear DNA, and mtDNA. Within-species allozyme and nuclear DNA variability correlated with expected species abundance and ecological variables, whereas essentially no difference was observed between a broad range of taxa in terms of mtDNA variability. Instead, mtDNA seem to have undergone recurrent fixation of beneficial mutations and loss of variability at linked loci. Thus, mtDNA is far from a neutral marker; its diversity is essentially unpredictable and may not reflect population history and demography." (Emphasis mine)

That's what I've been saying for years.

So whaddayagotta say now, hotshot?

Our Bridge to the 21st Century

Lance, here's a response to your post provided by Peg Kaplan.

Sudan Notes

Motto: Al-Nasr Lana (Arabic: Victory is Ours)
Anthem: نحن جند للہ جند الوطن Nahnu Jund Allah Jund Al-watan
("We Are the Army of God and of Our Land")
"In 1991, Osama Bin Laden moved to Sudan. His stated objective was to use his money, power and expertise in construction to help Sudan. He was attracted to Sudan because it claimed to be a purely Islamic state."1.


Kevin Carter's 1994 Pulitzer Prize Winning Photograph


If this is Your Victory, I'd hate to see Your Defeat.

Not the Same Thing!

I thought this cartoon by Chris Muir was extra good.

Lance,

I heard Frank Lasee on Vicki McKenna today. Part of his speaking was done while he thought they were still off the air. He stopped just short of saying, "We start bombing in 5 minutes," before he realized they were live. Perhaps needless to say, but he was not complimentary of John Gard.

Why is your blog not on his roll of Wisconsin blogs? I somehow feel insulted.

Escaping the Routine

The movie 'United Flight 93' opens soon in a theater near you. It is a documentary of the rural crash of the airliner, hastened by its passengers to avert further destruction intended for the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, or the White House on 9/11, 2001. All previews that I have seen or heard claim that this film is a stunning dose of reality.

There seems to me a great irony here. Historically, movies have been attended for the purpose of momentarily escaping the harsh realities of life. 'United Flight 93' has reversed these roles, however. Viewers will be watching this to experience heroism within life to death terror, momentarily escaping the harsh fantasy worldview of the mainstream press' propaganda, the harsh rhetorical ideology of the Bush Derangement Syndromers, and the harsh 'we have a plan and we can do it better' ersatz wisdom of the well documented talking heads. (I am reminded of a blog called 'The Nose on Your Face'; news so fake you'll swear it was from the mainstream media.)

Perhaps we are undergoing a new 'Copernican Revolution'. Our culture may be understanding to a greater degree that the universe does not revolve around or acquiesce to our individually created cosmos.

April 28

A while back the brothers and I were talking about a recent picture of Saddam Hussein. He looked just like our dad.

Many years ago I assembled a group of pictures of our grandfather. He greatly resembled Adolph Hitler.

A few years before that, Nikita Khruschev pounded his shoe on a table and proclaimed, "We will Burri you!"

We all somehow survived the trials and tribulations of our upbringing. My brothers are all a little touched, but I turned out OK.

Soon it will be April 28. Back in 1948, John Burri, Sr's wife, Julia gave birth to their third child, Jerry Lee. Happy Birthday, Jerry!

(Oh, yeah... It's also Saddam Hussein's 69th birthday.)

Some Birthday Advice

Yeah, Jerry, you are a very old 58, but don't take it too seriously.




Try to age a little more gracefully, but be careful not to fall.



Take the day off and just hang out.


Or hang out with a friend.



Pull a prank on someone.


Watch a Michael Moore video.


Don't overeat.



And never, ever do drugs.

Happy Birthday, Chady!

Gagdad Bob Hits the Big Time

I regularly quote and link to 'One Cosmos' writer Gagdad Bob (Godwin). Apparently, he has just been discovered by the Kos Kids.

"This was actually on Dailykos last week."

The Most Obnoxious Man in America???

"No, it's not Bush and it's not Cheney. It's Robert Godwin. Not heard of him? Well, this man, a clinical psychologist, continually attacks the left and liberals as mentally ill, as having pathologies, of being sick in their soul. He does this in a beautiful way, as he is undoubtedly intelligent, just severely severely skewed."

Bob: ""Leftism continues to be a children's crusade against the adult world,...""

Comments about Gagdad Bob:

"by gad
what a pompous twit.

by bumblebums
some people should never be educated
they just spew nonsense with fancy words and that fools the REALLY dumb people

by RumsfeldResign
how much does he get paid to say that filth? And by whom?
Follow the money!

by Tamifah
i think he does it from a sense of duty which is perhaps more worrying than doing it for $$$. it is a disorder.

by kingfelix
Are you sure it's not a sense of "doody"? He's a mean, mean, doody-head. Doody, doody, DOODY!!!

Seriously, even if he's sincere, the party of the rich always has enough money to see to it that their mouthy little spokesturds like him never have to eat ramen or worry about the rent. Follow the money, indeed. There's always enough to keep scumbags like him and Tucker Carlson in clean bowties.

by drewfromct
Thanks for highlighting the circus sideshow named Godwin.
Gads these guys are scary.

by Cool Blue
A sophmoric twit for sure, but the most obnoxious man in America, for the 18th consecutive year, is Pat Robertson.

by Olds88
what i find interesting about Godwin is his repeated assertions that his political opponents are infantile, mentally ill, etc. to my mind, potentially, and given his professional capacity and his erudition, it makes him more a full blown obnoxious fascists than robertson , limbaugh, o'reilly, and falwell.

by kingfelix
This shrink guy is just an embarrassment to his profession.

by Olds88
yeah, but if the caysh was'nt there he'd be sellin some other snakeoil, or some line of bs. Ain't none of these guys doin any of that stuff for nothin'. I bet you he's into porno and hookers.....and wears women's lingerie when he's psychologizin'.

by Manix
We could temporarily revoke, uh, Godwin's Law, and compare this guy Godwin with members of a certain German political party.

by Manix
whenever I think about this guy, I can't help but do a Nazi salute.

by lazybum
This guy's bad. And Pat Robertson and his ilk are bad too, but I wouldn't say obnoxious. Awful pieces of dog shit who are dangerous to America, yes. But obnoxious implies that certain nails-on-the-blackboard kind off effect when you hear their voice and their comments.

by GUGA
That post has its historical basis in the way white southern men viewed themselves as Cavaliers, noble and pure in soul, as opposed to the debased and wretched northern Puritans. Opposition to slavery was the prime example of Puritan soullessness.

by YellowDogBlue
his hatred is obviously self-hatred directed outward at those he secretly admires.
Conservatives are mentally ill. He is a classic example.

by theyrereal
An egregiously bad writer.
Stick to your day job, Robert, whatever it is. And the next time you feel the compulsion to write, lie down until the feeling goes away."

I knew there was something I liked about Gagdad Bob.

Onions

The following is the text of the Feb. 28 e-mail Michigan State University professor Indrek Wichman sent to an Islamic student group.

The message is printed as Wichman wrote it. Paragraph breaks were added.

"Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest.
I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called “whores” in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.
This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile “protests.”
If you do not like the values of the West — see the 1st Ammendment — you are free to leave. I hope for God’s sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering"

Reprinted from a post by Jerry on Commonsense and Wonder.

"Thou caluminous onion-eyed joithead!"

The Great Danger of Joining the Gospel and Politics

Anno Domini has what I think is a thoughtful and important post regarding the relationship between religion and politics.

I hesitate to do my usual excerpt and comment job, since the whole post is worth reading and considering as a whole. But, when did better judgment ever stop me from doing anything?

We begin:

First, as evangelical scholar and thinker John Armstrong notes, our churches have come to see a specific set of conservative social issues as synonymous or necessary for anyone who truly believes.

...when our hearts start believing that Christ's salvation by faith through grace is somehow dependent on a certain political perspective or certain views on social issues, we blaspheme the name of Christ and pervert his holy gospel! This should not be among the people of God.

I'm not sure that "our churches have come to see..." is entirely accurate - as an Episcopalian, I can tell you there are most certainly churches that have not done that.

But this is an important point: we mustn't begin to believe that salvation comes through the Republican Party.

A second great danger is that Christians start believing culture will be renewed through political action.

...Right now, I suspect many will not go to church because they associate the evangelical church with the Republican Party. This ought not be so among the people of God.

I suspect he's right, which is why his earlier points are so important.

With that said, let me add a few disclaimers.

First, Christianity is a not a private thing that should be divorced from politics. It is a worldview that, if taken seriously, must impact all of life, including one's political perspective.

We are supposed to set examples for our fellow Christians and those we hope to bring to Christianity.

Second, while our churches should be welcoming to all people, they should not compromise the specific teachings of the Bible...True love means speaking the truth (though true love also means speaking the truth in compassion and humility).

Kinda defeats the purpose, otherwise.

And now for the understatment of the morning (at least):

This balance is a difficult one to sustain.

A lot of this could be controversial, even among Christians, but it was this line that struck me as most likely to be so:

For readers who are not Christians, if you have been turned off from Christianity because you are a liberal, I apologize on behalf of the church.

There's a real tendency (I know I have it) to respond: why should I apologize when I haven't done anything wrong?

However, I think this is an important thing for us to say. If swallowing a little pride, and making a sincere apology for words and actions (even if they weren't ours) helps bring somebody into the church who would not have come, otherwise, then we should be falling all over ourselves to make that apology.

I may not have done a good job of commenting, here. This topic deserves a lot more thought and consideration than I've given it so far (I smell a column coming!). Read the whole thing, and see what you think.

There's a moderately vulgar-yet-funny website I enjoy called Fark.com. Sometimes, they have photoshop challenges - they offer a picture and challenge readers to photoshop it into something unique.

The other day they had a Star Wars vs. Star Trek photoshopping challenge. Here are a few of the results (click for a bigger version):





I like the tie-in in this next one:




Bonus points if you can spot the third movie reference in this one:

(no link, because that one was already small)

Caution: the following image could be disturbing to some individuals:

Erratum

For some unknown reason the printing company mistakenly sent a Badger Blog Alliance publication to my house. It is the 1st printing of 'Jib's Rules of Order for the Conduct of BBA Meetings'. Since I don't have Jib's address, I will publish the tract here for all BBA members to download.

Troubleshooting the BBA Meeting

I am glad to do my part, ladies and gentlemen.

Jane Galt calls it Blogger Zen.

I call it The Everyblog.

Words so true they might have been aimed right at me:

Sometimes Murphy wields his Law like the Robert De Niro version of Al Capone - with a baseball bat, whacking you over the head with it, again and again, until your data is spreading in a crimson stain across the starched white tablecloth of your life. The second half of that first sentence proves that it's equally true that a good metaphor can be stretched only so far, until it screams and breaks on the rack like a...

Oh, never mind.

Don't Bogart That Hookah, My Friend

One evening while Linda and I were enjoying the daily coffee and hookah special down at our favorite Persian restaurant & used camel brokerage, we overheard a conversation between several Iranians from a nearby table. It was a very enthusiastic and giddy dialogue. Their hookah had apparently consumed a different substrate than ours. We soon found out that one of the conversants was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (actually pronounced a-mad-DEAN-jihad) He was the most giggly among the caravan.

I had been under the impression that Iranian Grand Poobah was simply a suicidal megalomaniac so I was reluctant to join them upon their aggressively cordial invitation. He Benihana-ed a brick with his scimitar, so join we did and soon discovered that Mahmoud and his cadre were much, much more than just haters of all things Western and Jewish. They were also very adept at discerning trends of the West.

"Yes, yes!" laughed 'Moudy' at my concerned, yet puzzled countenance. "We are developing nuclear weapons and do plan on frying Israel as the 12th Imam is instructing me. But he is also active in the Europe and the United States. He is infusing the Iranian people with strength and courage while turning Westerners into women ala Carter and Clinton. We are willing to die for our cause, and you are willing only to whine and complain like children-- but not all. While we develop our arsenal, we will threaten, posture, and patiently wait. But like your president Reagan, Bush will not feminize. We will wait until he is gone. In the meantime, we will also watch as your Democrats and RINO Republicans complain and pout. The American people will soon begin to close their ears as though fingernails are screeching on a blackboard. We in Iran have an old saying, 'It is better to have your head stuck up a camel's behind than to sit and listen to a constantly bitching woman.' Hee, hee... The European and American Liberals make the even crabbiest Iranian women appear thoroughly tamed by comparison. I can barely stand listening to your statesmen for two minutes on Al Jazeera. I must cover my head with pillows from the incessant whining and yet wet myself from laughing so hard. It is quite fun watching Western testicles shrink. Bush will be gone soon and we will be ready. Death to Whimpering America!"

As we left the restaurant, Linda quickly checked for the Taurus in her purse, while I checked the clip in my Ruger.

"Are there any candidates out there with any courage?" Linda asked me.

I could only shrug my shoulders.

Quotables

Some writers can really turn a phrase.

"Just 3 weeks till Cinco de Mayo, the day schools in California take time out from itemizing the horrors of American history to celebrate the Mexican 'victory' at the Battle of Puebla. Please. They defeated a French regiment; that's not a battle, that's dodge ball."1

"It's the same way with the education establishment, and they know it. If vouchers were available, there would be such a mass exodus from the public education system that it would actually be dangerous, like opening the Walmart door on the day after Thanksgiving."2

"Anything about anyone who was different seemed possible. Heck, we believed that people from Massachusetts were capable of strange things, and it turned out we were right."3

Aim High, Sheriff, He's aRidin' My Horse

Have a stranger in your bathroom, Lance?
Nichole with Smith & Wesson .38 Special
With Ruger P89, 9mm, semi-automatic; Kimberly waits on deck

Well, sometimes we do, too, but they always flush and put the toilet seat back down!

The Process of Crisis

I caught a tad of Fox News Sunday this morning. At the end of whatever discussion they were having, Chris Wallace asked Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd about his possible bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and whether there would be any chance to beat Hillary Clinton. Dodd was noncommittal. Within his statement he also said, "We are a long way from the nomination crisis, er, process."

An innocent slip of the tongue, but a dandy. I really think he was more informative the first time.

Envirothinker

"In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace,... "1

Interesting.

Freedom of Speech in the Bible Belt

""I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said."1. (emphasis mine)

The display was nuked.

Sally Jacobsen is a professor in Northern Kentucky's literature and language department. She was objecting to an on-campus display of 400 crosses that represented a cemetery of aborted fetuses. The display, set up by a student Right to Life group had received permission to set up the crosses by NKU officals.

Professor Jacobsen is now up for promotion to Grand Ayatollah and 12th Caliph of the Despotic Literature and Autocratic Language Department.

Eat your heart out, Ahmadinejad!

Baby Blogging

"Cole, don't you lithen to Grandpa Teve???"
"The U.Eth. Conthituthon ith NOT a 'living' document!!!"

American Demonstration

Spot on Ott:

"(2006-04-11) — In a grassroots counterprotest against yesterday’s nationwide rallies by illegal aliens, today millions of documented U.S. citizens took to their desks, factories, shops and other job sites to demonstrate their commitment to U.S. law and the American work ethic.

Police estimated that the crowds exceeded 220 million people, but they reported no incidents of violence.

Many workplaces flew the American flag, as usual, to express their ongoing devotion to the values and freedoms for which generations of U.S. troops have fought and died."

It's a Proven Fact

Pop science is a wonderful thing. Begin with a hypothesis, construct an experiment, throw some selected data in a pot, mix in a pinch of socio-political artifact, and voila-- truth: Global warming, global cooling, Lance's global moderation, macro-evolution, death by butter, oat bran causing cancer and then curing it, overpopulation, labor shortage, fish fatty acids are healthy, fish mercury is deadly, ginko biloba improves memory if you ever remember where you put it,...

Recently science from a Berkley study over 40 years proved than whiny kids grew up to be conservatives. --Dr. Spock, er... Stock.

Microbiologists Brack and Zhang proved Liberals in general were 43% more likely to report general anxiety disorder than Conservatives, 115% more likely to report panic disorders, 119% more likely to report agoraphobic symptoms, 118% more likely to report OCD symptoms. and 54% more likely to report social anxiety disorder. (My addition of socio-political artifactual seasoning also concluded that Liberals are 173% more likely to be mendaxophiles and factophobes.)

In digesting all of this proof, I am not sure that the earth isn't flat.

The Pierre Principle

Princeton English Professor John V. Fleming offers advice to prospective graduates. Here's a portion of an example not to follow:

"French protestors carried a huge banner: "We Will Never Surrender" (in English, especially for CNN). Bracket the fact that surrender has been France's national outdoor sport for two centuries. What are they refusing to surrender to — apart from common sense, I mean?"

(H.T. Tigerhawk.)

Oh, No! Mr. Bill!!

Dr. Vallicella pussyfootin' around again.

"It is a strange world isn't it? Hordes of rioting illegal aliens bear the flag of a country they have no intention of living in while demanding rights they are not entitled to from a country of which they are not citizens. And stupid liberals see nothing wrong with it. We are well on the way to the BSA: The Balkanized States of America."

Kid Gloves

Dr. William Vallicella tiptoes around how he really thinks.

"Blacks need to learn from Jews, Italians, the Irish, and others who have faced abuse. Don't whine, don't complain, don't seek a government program. Don't try to cash in on your 'victim' status, when the truth is that you are a 'victim' of liberal victimology.

If you want me to judge you as an individual, by the content of your character and not by the color of your skin, then behave like an individual: don't try to secure advantages from membership in a group.

Take a leaf out of Condi Rice's book. She's black, she's female, and she's Secretary of State. And her predecessor in the job was a black man, Colin Powell. It sure is a racist society we have here in the USA. And that Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court -- isn't he a black dude?

Get the needle out of your arm, and that soul-killing rap noise out of your ears. Listen to the late Beethoven piano sonatas. May I recommend Opus #s 109, 110, and 111? Mozart is also supposed to be good for improving your mental capacity. We honkies want you to be successful. And we don't care what color you are. It's not about color anyway. It's about behavior. Work hard, practice the ancient virtues, and be successful. If you can't make it here, you can't make it anywhere. Don't let Brother Jesse or Brother Al tell you otherwise."

Irony

One option considered in tackling illegal immigration is the building of a fence along our border with Mexico. Although this may seem like an impossibly expansive undertaking, one thing is for sure... there is plenty of low cost labor available to complete such a task.

National Champs!

The Wisconsin Badger hockey team beats Boston College 2-1 to take the national title.

B.C.'s last shot hit the post with less than 2 seconds remaining. Great game.

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that both Badger goals were scored by Badger Women hockey N.C.A.A. Champion players subbing for the men.

Synchro-Vox

THE Quantum Leap
Clutch, Paddlefoot, Spinner, & Swampy
Clutch defends truth, justice, and the American way against the dreaded Alaskan Totem God. (Alaska had just been admitted to the Union earlier that year as the 49th state, but Clutch eased its adjustment into its new circumstances.)

Drama, excitment, and real moving lips! What more could one ask for in 1959?

Here's what other die-hard Clutch fans had to say:

"This, by far, was the most disturbing cartoon ever made."

"I can't get those accursed bongos out of my head from the opening theme!!"

"When did this show jump the shark? It's impossible to tell. We may have encountered a breed of shark never seen before."

"It jumped when Clutch was reincarnated as Greta Van Susteran--head and jaw stay rigid while talking, lips move slightly."

"But nobody who saw it will ever forget the bizarre juxtaposition of still drawings with real, moving human lips."

Such accolades could go on page after page. What a valuable contribution bequeathed by 'the greatest generation' to nurture the baby boomers.

Apparently, I was a high-tech nerd before being a high-tech nerd was cool!

Side note:

That Alaskan Totem god appears to have been in the news again lately, albeit under a new/old name, Caballero Aguila.

Clutch Cargo, please contact the I.N.S.

On the other hand, perhaps Mexico could become the 51st state.

Real & Imagined

"The case for capitalism doesn’t require the belief that it is the best set of arrangements imaginable – just the best available."1

Viva Franxico!

Los Angeles/Paris-- A major agreement has been made via teleconference between the leaders of the French protesters and the undocumented Mexicans in the United States. They have hammered out a coalition to oppose all oppressive actions by the governments of France and the U.S. that would be deleterious to their constitutional right to pursue happiness. Major protests will be simultaneous in both countries.

These two disparate groups, now melded into one formidable force, brainstormed some hard hitting slogans to caricature their protests and demonstrate their seriousness worldwide:

"Your laws have no status,
Just give us stuff; gratis."

"Si, Si-- Oui, Oui,
Your laws be pee-pee."

"We spit on YOUR Constitution,
It is not OUR utopian solution."

One protester in Los Angeles was asked if, instead of 'illegal aliens' or 'undocumented workers', they would prefer being called 'nomads'. He responded, "Nomads? No way, Jose. Ay caramba, we mucho angrys!"

The protesters also showed their disdain for the host nations by flooding the streets with French wine and Miller Lite. (After renal filtering, of course!)

The negotiations suffered one temporary disagreement, however. This was overcome when it was decided that Mexicans-in-America (M-I-A's) would work and pay a large tax to support their leisure prone French brothers. In return, the M-I-A's would not be required to live in France or learn to speak French.

The powerful voices of the new revolution chose to name their intercontinental union, Franxico, and designed a new flag to symbolize their movement:

All agreed that these actions were as American as chimichangas and escargot.

Oh, so you want to be a writer, do you?

Read Lileks, and Despair:

As for Katie Couric taking over the CBS news: if you spot me a whoop, I could probably muster a de-do, but I'd have to borrow the de, and I'm not putting down a deposit.

He was on today.

Time Traveler; Where Newsweek Fears to Tread

Todd, was this you?

Dan Simmons, New Year's Eve, 2005:

"Great, I was thinking. Of all the time travelers in all the gin joints in all the world, I get this racist, xenophobic, right-wing asshole."

This short story by Dan Simmons is a sobering read in spite of the copious consumption of single malt Scotch.

(H.T. Dr. Sanity.)

Twink Tank

(H.T. John Ray.)

An Oldie, But a Goodie

"At the box office this weekend, Ice Age 2 clobbered Basic Instinct 2 hauling in $70 million dollars, compared with less than $3 million for the Sharon Stone movie. One film is about a prehistoric creature’s struggle to survive and find love, the other is the animated sequel to the movie Ice Age."1

Dopey Question

I understand that WEAC and the NEA would freak, but for simpleton plebes like me... Why don't we push vouchers and virtual schools instead of hitting tax payers for more and more money to build new schools and buy multi-cultural paper clips imported from Sri Lanka?

The ice age is coming! The ice age is coming! We're all going to die under a glacier!

At least, that's what George Will says all the scientists used to say:

While worrying about Montana's receding glaciers, (Montana Governor Brian) Schweitzer, who is 50, should also worry about the fact that when he was 20 he was told to be worried, very worried, about global cooling:

Science magazine (Dec. 10, 1976) warned of 'extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation.''

Science Digest (February 1973) reported that 'the world's climatologists are agreed'' that we must 'prepare for the next ice age.''

The Christian Science Monitor ('Warning: Earth's Climate is Changing Faster than Even Experts Expect,'' Aug. 27, 1974) reported that glaciers 'have begun to advance,'' 'growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter'' and 'the North Atlantic is cooling down about as fast as an ocean can cool.''

Newsweek agreed ('The Cooling World,'' April 28, 1975) that meteorologists 'are almost unanimous'' that catastrophic famines might result from the global cooling that The New York Times (Sept. 14, 1975) said 'may mark the return to another ice age.''

The Times (May 21, 1975) also said 'a major cooling of the climate is widely considered inevitable'' now that it is 'well established'' that the Northern Hemisphere's climate 'has been getting cooler since about 1950.''

Then it was global cooling, now it's global warming...what, I wonder, will it be 30 years from now?

Too much moderation, I bet.

Are You Like Your Nephews?

NO!

I scored a 21 on the Are You Like Todd & Lance? test.

I am stuck in the last century.

The Bemis Comfy, As American as Apple Pie

Imagine you are having a conversation and the other people begin abasing your spouse, children, or anyone else among your circle of loved ones. Every denigrating statement they make has some basis in fact, however tenuous. As you know better than most, your loved ones have failed miserably all too often. But, because you are aware of the whole story and the broader circumstances, and because of the love that you have for those under attack, you can respond with aggressive confidence. You, in some way, shape, or form, call the offending turds... 'Turds'.

Such is the present circumstance concerning our nation. There are many, within and without, abasing and denigrating the United States in every conceivable way. Turds, be thou flushed!

Mark Steyn terms it, 'cultural confidence'. We are an imperfect nation, especially according to utopian (derived from Greek, meaning 'no place') visions. But, we can still confidently call specious denigration a turd.

Peggy Noonan quotes Congressional Medal of Honor winner, James Livingston, "The medal didn't prove courage, he said. "It's not bravery, it's taking responsibility."" He may as well have added, "It's not whining, it's not criticism, it's taking responsibility."

Ms. Noonan compares this with our immigrant assimilation problems, "Because we do not communicate to our immigrants, legal and illegal, that they have joined something special, some of them, understandably, get the impression they've joined not a great enterprise but a big box store. A big box store on the highway where you can get anything cheap. It's a good place. But it has no legends, no meaning, and it imparts no spirit."

As Americans, we have plenty of reasons to think, speak, and live with cultural confidence as we continue to improve our land. A good first step would be to flush the unhygienic, offending turds.