Thanks Andy!

You're a real help:

Norway Terror Attacks
July 22, 2011 5:11 P.M.
By Andrew C. McCarthy

Obviously, it is important to be cautious in drawing conclusions when the attacks just happened and facts are still coming in. But at the Standard, FDD’s Tom Joscelyn, as usual, provides some essential context. A year ago, an al Qaeda cell embedded in Oslo, under the direction of superiors in Pakistan, was thwarted in an attempted bombing. (Thwarted by aggressive intelligence collection, it should be added, including the penetration of email communications — the sort of thing frowned on by European and American critics of Bush counterterrorism.)

[snip of more essential context]

Equally helpful here:

So, we should profile when it helps Muslims?
July 22, 2011 6:57 P.M.
By Andrew C. McCarthy

[...]

In point of fact, if one of what appears to be several conspirators is neither a Muslim nor from an Islamic country, that does cut against the likelihood that this is another episode of Islamic terrorism. On the other hand, there are facts and circumstances that cut in the other direction – including that a jihadist organization has already claimed responsibility; that most terrorism is carried out by Islamists; that al Qaeda and other jihadist groups have for years been seeking European and American recruits (precisely because such operatives would defy the profile, drawing less suspicion); that al Qaeda tried to attack Oslo last year; and that Mullah Krekar recently appeared to threaten attacks if legal action were taken against him, and now legal action has been taken against him.

You may find that, in revising these efforts, the way may be smoothed by a few good stiff shots of well-aged premium Drano.

_________

I am taken by surprise. Could the slaughterer be a crazy right-wing blogger? IMPRISON ANDY MCCARTHY NOW.
_________

Gates of Vienna sez no. But it DOES NOT PRECLUDE ADDITIONAL CRAZY RIGHT-WING BLOGGING! IMPRISON ANDY MCCARTHY NOW!

I Tried Hard to Betray You and the Republicans Wouldn't Let Me

Yeah, I tried to do something that'd let the no-tax guys off the hook. Their feelings would have been hurt, so I tried to spare their feelings! What did I get? NOTHING.



We're willing to step up even when the folks who helped get us elected may disagree. BUT THE BIG ORANGE BOEHNER WOULDN'T LET ME DO THAT EITHER!

We're Marching to Hell

Fuck You Groupon

Awwwwww.

Tragedy has struck:

Add pillage to the increasingly infuriating experience of flying in the U.S. On tour to promote her terrific new book, Of Thee I Zing, Laura Ingraham’s checked baggage was rifled through at Newark airport. The thief or thieves made off with about $11K in jewelry, including a baptismal cross, blessed by the pope, which she’d bought at the Vatican. The New York Post has more details. Hang in there, Laura.

Another horrible thing about Christians is their love of showy crap. From teh pedophile church.

The Forest

The Unblinking Eye

Here you go:

Ann Althouse Is Important To the Discourse Because...

Verbatim Ann Althouse:

The phone-hacking scandal is important to the United States, because...

Relationships is Magic

Over at Pajamas Media, David Solway ponders the mystery of love:

In our time the task of understanding ourselves is perpetually frustrated by the almost instinctive blending we make of two contradictory modes of being: the mechanical and the spiritual. Because we are short on spiritual reality we are long on mechanical models. We confuse the instantaneity of the computer with the timelessness of genuine insight. We think of memory as a form of storage, learning as efficient programming, education as the acquisition of skills and techniques, harmony as smooth functioning, self-development as the accumulation of isolable and multiple capacities like a Black & Decker kitchen-center or a Swiss Army knife, self-expression as a kind of accelerator-pushing to burn off excess fumes. And — the cardinal sin — we consider spirit itself as the free exercise of charity in exactly the same way as a mechanism must be used from time to time without a designated purpose in order not to jam with rust or dust. Our attitude to the super sensible is basically hygienic. We live the disenchantment of the world.

When the Duke in Browning’s “My Last Duchess” says that he refuses to stoop to indicate to his wife just what adjustments to make in her conduct in order to settle his doubts and so preserve the marriage, he is articulating a fundamental humanism. Today we merely visit a counselor, a.k.a. a gender reconciliation facilitator, who listens, ruminates, tinkers, and offers recommendations to repair a marriage gone on the blink — much as a garage mechanic puts his ear to the hood, plays with the engine, quotes various alternatives, and concludes by replacing a few parts to get the buggy on the road again. What we have done is assimilate the evangelical mystery of marriage to the intricate functioning of a twelve-tappet, fuel-injected turbo-Jag. Snafty and impressive as this may be, it is still just a metal case with a lot of repetitively moving parts.

Am I completely crazy or is David Solway endorsing the behaviour of the Duke here? Solway down in comments:

[...] And bak, Don and physicist, as for Browning’s poem: I regard Browning as one of my cherished poetic mentors and have taught this poem for years in my classes. A few years back I published a lit/crit book, Random Walks, which contains a chapter on “My Last Duchess” called “Dukes and Duchesses,” in which I present an alternative reading of the poem in question. I was encouraged by the response of several Browning experts who admitted that they had never entertained such a revisionist analysis of the piece, based on solid evidence from the historical register and from the “shadow zone” of the poem itself. (A reading of Daniel Karlin’s book on Browning’s courtship with Elizabeth is also helpful.) I obviously don’t have the space here to present a thorough and would hope convincing exegesis–it required 17 close-packed pages in my book–but if you can get hold of the book from McGill-Queen’s University Press and glom the chapter, you might be surprised. Only if you are really interested, of course. But I do appreciate your comments.

Buy my book, and you will understand why the wonder and mystery of friendship is best shown in the example of Dr. Heiter.

3-2-1 GO!

Conspiracy time:

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.

It's a pity the the one person on television who could really explain this has been canned.

Bug

Really just camera play. My apologies for the infliction.

The Beauty of Faith

Here are excerpts from Laura Ingraham's new book:

I understand why so many churchgoers are in need of grace, because an awful lot of them display so very little.

That's right, Christians suck.

Why, knowing that you are about to shake hands with fellow congregants, either at the start of a service or during the sign of peace, would you pick your nose?

Also Christians delight in spreading filth.

Do these rude people (who I think have season tickets to the pew in front of mine) imagine that we don’t see them sneaking a dig?

Christians think others are oblivious to their disgusting behaviour.

Confession: I have actually gotten up and taken my children to the back of the church before the sign of peace to avoid shaking hands with the parish pickers.

The church is no place for a Christian.

My friend Ina told me she has seen people at her church’s “summer services” surfing the Internet on their iPhones.

Christians pay no attention.

They put the phones on mute and scroll through their texts and e-mail in the middle of Sunday observances.

Christians are selfish.

Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean you can “vacation” from decorum in the church!

Christians don't get vacations.

The summer weather seems to bring out the worst in some churchgoers, and it’s not just what they are doing, but what they are wearing.

The Christian wardrobe is appalling.

As the temperature rises, beachwear becomes the norm in some congregations.

Christians beach beach beach.

Shorts, sarong-like wraps, swim trunks, and flip-flops (which some wear year-round) are routine.

Christians are responsible for the flip-flop epidemic.

Unless your church is on a sand dune, these fashions are not only unwelcome but scary to many fellow parishioners.

The flip-flop epidemic is SCARY.

It reminds me of the woman I once saw exit a confessional in full body-hugging spandex.

Christians and bodies and hugging don't mix.

I don’t know if there was a spin class in there or what — but this was one spiritually dissonant image I could have lived without.

Christians want to live without.

The only thing possibly more obnoxious than the outrageous church fashions is the couples who are forever caressing each other in the pews.

Christians are horny as goats.

I suppose they do it initially to acknowledge a point of mutual interest being made from the pulpit.

The Bible makes you want to stroke your partner.

But there are other cases of roving fingers that I can’t explain at all.

Christians keep trying to get away with stuff.

One man I saw rubbed his wife’s back for an entire sermon.

Christianity is a massage parlour.

I’ve also seen people stroke their partner’s arms, legs, necks, even buttocks during services.

Christians are ass-grabbers.

Excuse me, but this is supposed to be worship, not a conjugal visit!

Christian sex is prison sex.

The only conception I’m even remotely interested in thinking about during church is of the immaculate variety.

Christians are constantly checking people's asses to make sure they won't be distracted by asses.

And that, friends, is why Laura Ingraham is so happy to be a Christian.

Fear!

And no wonder as the nuclear blast radius begins to consume the background trees.

Where Fish Was

Now you know. Sorry pal. It was a dream job - for SICKOS LIKE YOU - but it couldn't last.

Fat Cats

I didn't say it, you can't say I said it:

Kathryn Jean Lopez chats with Ian Murray about government fat cats.

Below, someone who does not work in government:



Go on. I DARE you.

Math

Upside-Downy Relations

Okay, it's not Marmite but aren't you all the same? Available here.

Sweet AND Salty

Fair food:

CALGARY — Walking through the Calgary Stampede Midway, there are more than a few options for food of the artery-clogging variety.

But the one that seems to stand out for people, either in disgust or genius, is the new doughnut burger.

Located near the main Lammle’s Western Wear Store, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

A beef burger with all the fixings stuffed between two maple-glazed doughnuts acting as the bun, all for $8.

“It’s dinner and dessert at the same time,” said Heidi Duchow, operator of the doughnut burger stand. “You get the sweet and the salty.

“All the different flavours at the same time.”

Haters Gonna Hate Is a Money-Making Formula

Panickers and their money are soon parted:

Rapid City, South Dakota (CNN) -- Walid Shoebat had a blunt message for the roughly 300 South Dakota police officers and sheriff's deputies who gathered to hear him warn about the dangers of Islamic radicalism.

Terrorism and Islam are inseparable, he tells them. All U.S. mosques should be under scrutiny.

"All Islamic organizations in America should be the No. 1 enemy. All of them," he says.

[...]

"Being an ex-terrorist myself is to understand the mindset of a terrorist," Shoebat told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

[...]

But CNN reporters in the United States, Israel and the Palestinian territories found no evidence that would support that biography. Neither Shoebat nor his business partner provided any proof of Shoebat's involvement in terrorism, despite repeated requests.

The thing about terrorists is that they float, whereas innocents sink and drown.

And You Knew Who You Were Then

John Nolte has a point right on the top of his head:

Mickey Rooney’s Japanese character in “Breakfast [at Tiffany's]” is way too over-the-top to ever be considered funny (I also think the movie is overrated in general), but if we’re going to start banning and making lists of “offensive” characterizations, I’d like to start with every portrayal of a Caucasian Eddie Murphy has ever done. And what about Archie Bunker? Talk about ethnic stereotyping.

Ha ha, he is totally right. There were never any white people like knee-jerk racist Archie Bunker or, er, all those white folks that Eddie Murphy must have played that I do not remember except for one Saturday Night Live sketch in which the white person does not really do much and a fantasy world is posited in which white people do not rip off white people ever.

Totally the same.

Bird Recipes

If you shake the test tubes just so the feathers come out shinier.



Visiting here again.

Summer

Praise the lord it appears to have arrived. Light posting, family stuff, yadda yadda yadda.

Below is Central Park:

Gardening Challenge

The Riddled folks have really got to get gardening to top this.

Under Your Skin

A new threat Threat THREAT!!!

Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen recently discussed surgically implanting an explosive device under the skin of a suicide bomber to get past airport detectors and blow up a U.S.-bound passenger plane, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

There is no indication of an immediate plot, but the government has warned airlines, stepped up security at U.S. airports and encouraged other countries to adjust security measures.

The focus is mostly on international flights, but domestic passengers are likely to see more bomb-sniffing dogs and an increased use of swabs that test for traces of explosive material on hands and luggage.

Do the bomb-sniffing dogs have to gnaw through your flesh to get at the explosive device or something? Because there could be a downside to false positives.

Crime Watch

News:

VANCOUVER — A B.C. Supreme Court jury has found a Vancouver acupuncturist guilty of sexually assaulting four of his female patients.

This is sad because those four women could really have gotten something outta that acupuncture.

Haw Haw Haw

It's the forwarded PowerPoints that really bug me.

He's Really Yelling KAUS! KAUS!

Well Done

Via Crooks and Liars it seems someone has learned a lesson:

Senate President Stephen Sweeney went to bed furious Thursday night after reviewing the governor’s line-item veto of the state budget.

He woke up Friday morning even angrier.

“This is all about [New Jersy Governor Chris Christie] being a bully and a punk,” he said in an interview Friday.

“I wanted to punch him in his head.”

Sweeney had just risked his political neck to support the governor’s pension and health reform, and his reward was a slap across the face. The governor’s budget was a brusque rejection of every Democratic move, and Sweeney couldn’t even get an audience with the governor to discuss it.

“You know who he reminds me of?” Sweeney says. “Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody.”

Way to go, Stephen Sweeney. I wonder what difference there should be between the fate of Christie's political neck and Sweeney's.

The Problems of the Wealthy

Surrealist Joke

Quoth the lovely daughter:

That monkey goes ahOOOOOga.

A pretty good show.

Free Game-Making Software

Looks to be a Windows thing, but it seems to make iPhone games as well.

Caspian Software makes a product called Thinking Worlds, which the company describes as a “globally unique 3D sims & games engine and authoring environment.” The product lets both beginners and advanced game-makers create and publish games quickly and easily, and even publish to iPad and iPhone.
Similar Articles:

On Friday, the company released the latest version of Thinking Worlds with the astonishing announcement that the formerly $4,999 package is now completely free to use. Advanced users will have the option to pay for additional features if they require them, but basic functionality is completely free.

I look forward to an orb game from Thundra.

The Inefficiencies of Communism

Here is a post entitled "How I Wound Up On the Blacklist" which purports to tell a tale of woeful discrimination by Hollywood liberals against innocent conservatives:

Three weeks later, after I had finished compositing all the shots that had previously been given to me, he told me there was no more work and I was being laid off along with some others. After working at this company over a three year period, I was never called back again. As I was called into interviews at other companies, I would see many of the other other Compositors working at these places. Maybe it was my imagination, but there always seemed to be some sneering and comments under breath to others upon seeing me. Out of dozens of visual effects companies I was well qualified to work at, none would hire me except one. There I spent another period of three years [...]

Yes friends, after being let go he went unhired until someone hired him. BLACKLIST SUCCESS JUTSU! Said blacklisted individual apparently now operates a production company of some sort in the Hollywood environs. DOUBLE BLACKLIST SUCCESS JUTSU!

Also in the piece are long descriptions of past arguments. Those descriptions are of the kind that patient listeners tolerate every day - can you believe one of those evil Democrats had a master's degree? - when they're trying to make sure the jerk calms down.

Mixology

That is high-quality entertainment in itself, but play this at the same time:

For No Good Reason

I brought another few hundred songs in to work. I thought I'd play 'em a bunch just to listen to things I'd been ignoring and it turns out iTunes hates these ten the most.

Let It Be | The Beatles
Stop Breaking Down | The Rolling Stones
Diego Maradona | Alboth (Have an old Omoide Hatoba song instead.)
Found You In A Dream | Silver Sun (Only about a minute and a half long, here's a bunch of that.)
Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone | Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Riding You | Chrome
Miss Ann | Little Richard
Life's What You Make It | Rowland S. Howard
Ballad Of Sister Sue | Slowdive
Danse Espagnole | Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà (Everyone knows Danse Espagnole so here.)

Agreement

Kirsten Powers:

Michele Bachmann: Don't Call Her a Feminist

Okay then.

In late 2010, when conservative pundit S.E. Cupp told CNN’s Larry King that she thought Bachmann should run for president, the panel erupted in giggles. King was puzzled: “Are you kidding or do you mean that?”

Nobody should be laughing now.

Indeed. Though S.E. Cupp looked like a really big stupid idiot for asserting that, people now know that she is a scary idiot.

DIABOLIK

Nostalgia

Here is a now-abandoned blog written by Mel Andringa. When I was in Iowa he put on a show with The Drawing Legion (a droll logo read "NEW YORK - AMSTERDAM - IOWA CITY) called The Fall of Babylon that I liked a whole bunch. Now he does Legion Arts in the City of Five Smells.

The first link, though, starts at the start and follows his artistic life, from painting and acting to finding out nifty ways of mixing the two with the springboard of work with Robert Wilson. I have had nearly no acquaintance with his other performed paintings - The Fall of Babylon was essentially a series of stage-sized images composed over time via performance and staging plus entertaining moaning about the agonies of creation - but the writing at the blog is somehow naïve and knowing and it's interesting to me to watch him move through visual styles and on through performance styles. (You gotta click "NEXT" at the bottom of the page as the site's archiving mechanism is not the greatest.)

He gets points for figuring out the neat trick of buying different puzzles from the same manufacturer and mixing them.

Clicking the pic gets you Flickr sets.

Lovecraft Remixed

Computers eaten by invisible monsters in broad daylight:

It is with great trepidation and horror that I announce the Lovecraft Remixed chapbook, a collection of the “SciFi Gnoetry” that Matthew and I have interactively-generated over the last year or so.

An Apple Disaster

It's not actually intuitive or helpful to redesign an entire program that people use day in and day out in a working environment. Final Cut is complicated stuff. Also removing features is a fucking no-no. And hey, taking the old version off the market was pretty sharp!

Gurlz Ztuff

This is awesome. I would tell you something about it but I don't have anything funnier to say and excerpting ANY of the jokes would detract from the experience.

I even enjoyed these commenters detracting from the experience. Concern!

Tell Da Joke

The Speech Accent Archive

Hey, George Mason University has a neat thing!

Also crazy cranks.

World B. Free

News in names:

Ron Artest, a Lakers’ forward, is one step closer to changing his name. Artest has already filed the necessary paperwork with the Los Angeles County Superior Court so that he can change his name. Artest wants to change his name to “Metta World Peace” and he is serious about this.

Ron you silly Billy, I demand to know why I was not consulted. The JanusNode can do so much better:

Sergeant Lou Thuno Crevice-Outfit
Barbara
Knocker Shaved-Culminating
Docfernanda Interrogate
Honest Deceitfully
Recitation Sung
Rudyfub Deforestation
Rocketing-Crusher
Centennial Itineraries
Twombly-Inundate
Maryape Implicit
Collateral Beepree
Diachronic Burnes
Mitchell Prying-Target
Casualness
Clogs
Nobleman Antiquarians
Crouch Perpetrating
Auckland Sybil
Cackles Klooploocprothla
Osbert Repealer
Resynchronization Identically
Mister Thoodhaf
Tire Bulky
Edgar Defoe
Yopldek Manure
Va
Adducible Wade
Metaphorical Toledo
Meel
Art Upholsters
Wegibod
Stans Pranks
Tishpicayune Mortician-Patterning
Wesoundness Macarthur-Surmount

Yup

Proving the Point

Roger Kimball has questions:

I was away from my computer yesterday when I got the news that Conrad Black, former proprietor of the London Telegraph, The Spectator, and other plum media outlets, was sentenced by Judge Amy St. Eve in Chicago to another year in jail for . . . er, why was it that Conrad Black had been sent to jail? Back in 2007, federal prosecutors complied a laundry list of charges against Lord Black and spoke of seeking a sentence of “24 to 30” years for . . . again, what was it that Lord Black had done?

My dear Mr. Kimball, if you follow the link Mr. Kimball supplies you will find out that Black is still in jail for one count of fraud (two were reversed!) and you will also find a handy videotape of Mr. Black trying to hide evidence, which resulted in the obstruction charge.

You're welcome Roger Kimball. Thanks for the assist Roger Kimball.

The biographical information below could use some updating:



Et cetera:

Filed For Later Use

Someone's face will fit in there one day. MAYBE MINE. I guess there's a post beneath that could use it too. Had I but world enough and time I'd commit the photoshopic crime. Later.

I Owe the Gods

Sure would be terrible if her head hit the floor hard:

Barbara Amiel fainted after a judge ruled Friday afternoon that her husband, Conrad Black, will return to prison after he was resentenced in a Chicago courtroom.

Barbara Amiel link added by me, just to be mean. Well done, Lady Shitbag!

A Murder

Via a comment at LGM I'll just pass this along.

The details are thin but they sure don’t smell right. The short form is that Sunny Sheu had his house stolen from him by fictive buyers who used forged documents. Judge Golia of Queens engaged in what appears to be highly questionable behavior in failing to reverse the sale. Sheu started investigating the judge, was told by policeman who specifically referred to information he had provided about Golia, and that if he didn’t drop it, he’d wind up dead. Sheu disregarded their warning and did wind up dead. The authorities are also refusing to honor requests for information regarding Sheu’s death made under New York’s Freedom of Information Act. This story has been publicized by Foreclosure Fraud and The Daily Bail and I hope it gets more traction.

Worth reading. Comments fill out details (a rare thing).

Behaviour

What is that other crap in the way when there could be MORE BABY ARMADILLOS?

Words

For no special reason other than that I'm reading it - and all right-thinking people do what I do - here's a PDF of the constitution of Afghanistan in English.

Articles 22 through 59 are the supposed rights of the citizenry.

Freedom is awesome.

At Some Future Point Sarah Palin May Be Involved In Some Voting-Related Activity According to an Article at Another Outlet Based on a Press Release

Good thing we have this important news:

And the Emmy winner is… Sarah Palin?

Don’t rule it out: The former Alaska governor just might score an Emmy nomination next month. Palin was an executive producer for her reality series “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” and according to the Los Angeles Times, TLC has entered the show “for consideration in four categories: cinematography, picture editing, music composition and best reality program.”

Exactly how many shows has TLC entered "for consideration"? Also I enter everyone on my blogroll for a Nobel prize.

And oh, hey, didn't she quit that show?



Brent Bozell says the new Palin documentary is "more than a documentary, it's an event" BUT:

Most conservatives are Palin fans, but it she runs for president, will they favor her over other candidates? This is where the film begins to grate, suggesting Palin is a better, more conservative alternative than all the male GOP presidential contenders. Andrew Breitbart, Mark Levin, and Tammy Bruce suggest Palin is Ronald Reagan's natural heir. The governing experience of other conservatives is somehow translated into a negative.

Is Sarah Palin that much better? Breitbart steps on a more than a few toes by insisting that conservative men inside the Washington Beltway are all "eunuchs who have run as men but aren't men" for failing to be aggressive enough against Obama and allowing Palin to be criticized. That's not exactly a page from "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

Rest easy Brent, your party is not about to get PWNED BY A GURL.

Good Talk

Now really, is that good talk?

That Leech

That leech really needs an ophthalmologist. Also a mousetache.



What the heck, have a badly reorganized set of Captain Beefheart sounds.

Staccato

This isn't a great song (like this one) but something really fascinates me about that stabby little organ through the verses. Did she hire a praying mantis or something?

Public Shaming

Some rioting happened and now here is a website. And another. And another. And another. And another.

While I am somewhat conflicted on property damage and burning police cars - who's to say what's right and what's wrong in this crazy world? - it's clear enough that the day and the evening were entirely idiot-driven, from looting targets to, um, visibility in photos, to bragging about loot on Facebook... And I don't want people to get hurt or their stuff destroyed unless of course I have one of my many thousands of petty and irrational grudges against them. Anyway, Shaming On The Internet is an interesting manifestation of this new intertubes stuff the young folks are fooling with.

Read the comments of the posts that identify individuals to find justified monsters who really want addresses and phone numbers. Opposing them are just excruciating concern trolls.

The riot's not over, it's just gone digital.

Below is a really slick video put together by the Vancouver Police Department:



Let me be clear here: I fucking hate the Vancouver Police Department. Cool video though, and I must say that their restraint was commendable during this hockey riot as opposed to, um, that last hockey riot. Boy, you could smell the tear gas in the air wherever you were downtown for that one. And you know, since that first hockey riot there's been a large push to have an "entertainment district" which is, I guess, the ideal way to make sure there's one place in town where everyone can gather to form a nice drunken mob. Extend the entertainment opportunities outwards, powers-that-be!

Some more interesting technology:

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. is offering its facial-recognition technology to help match up photos of suspects with their driver license pictures.

The Undefeated

John Nolte:

The key to the ultimate effectiveness of a documentary like “The Undefeated” is more than just how many people see it or even who those people are. Certainly that matters to some degree, but so does how the very existence of the documentary changes the national political conversation. Naysayers of the “The Undefeated” dismiss the film’s impact by telling us that only Palinistas are going to bother to buy tickets. In other words, since the film preaches to the choir there will be no new converts. Intentionally or not, that’s a fairly simplistic declaration that doesn’t take into account how the film will impact the political news narrative — an impact that’s already apparent to anyone paying attention.

I have a link to anyone paying attention.

The story of “The Undefeated” is the story the MSM chose to intentionally ignore as soon as Governor Palin arrived on the national scene and became a real threat to their plans to anoint Barack Obama president. Today, without the film even having been released, we’re already having the discussion the film wants us to have and the MSM doesn’t.

In that respect, I’d say “The Undefeated” is already a success.

On the other hand the narrative of Sarah Palin as idiot princess of the moron brigade is going full steam. In that respect, I'd say the dreaded MSM is TOTALLY THE MOST UNDEFEATED EVAR.

Modernization

Arguments=Tyranny

Crooked Timber has a new troll:

Opposition to egalitarianism does not imply a hatred of liberty. There are plenty of libertarians who would consider themselves staunch defenders of liberty, but reject egalitarianism. In fact, many political theorists have noticed a trade off between liberty and equality. It is liberty and equality that have traditionally been at odds—with the right favoring liberty and the left favoring equality. Part of my point is that some of the methods the left uses to advance its vision are tyrannical. As for my aversion to someone seeking to change my mind, I provided a link to a respectable psychiatric study on Communist methods of “thought reform” for a reason. There is a difference between respectful discussion and an attempt at actual coercion. My objection is not to liberty, but to egalitarians who use unethical methods to force others to agree with them. Not because they are exercising liberty, but because they are tyrants.

So What?

Lisa Mei Norton reviews the new Palin documentary:

In stark contrast, the film then cuts over to a dramatic 3-minute montage of pure, unadulterated hatred from the left for this VP candidate which history will record as one of the most vicious campaigns to annihilate a public figure. It was vulgar. It was brutal. It was violent. It was main stream. It was textbook Alinsky. And yet, she is still standing…undefeated.

Well no she isn't because she is a big quitty-quit quitter who couldn't take the heat and quit because she had been defeated and lost and quit. Then she helped some other old guy lose who wouldn't have lost so badly without her.

But, really, who gives a shit? Is she running for office or something?

Tales of Public Transport

The bus rolls on. I really must learn more about varying a theme.

Too Much Free Time

950x200 is inimical to the well-proportioned three-panel composition.

Evil

News from Victoria:

Police say the 42-year-old busker was performing near the corner of Government and Wharf Streets about 7 p.m. Saturday when four men started taunting him.

Without warning, Darth Fiddler was tackled causing minor injuries and, according to some reports, smashing his fiddle.

Live Riot Footage

Catch it while it lasts.

Or here, sez Bouffant.

This'll probably have news if you missed it. It is awfully kind of rioters to do their thing around the CBC building.

There's a Facebook turn-in-the-rioters page. Some of the pictures are excellent, and comments are fun. The internet is a remarkable thing, and Facebook is just idiotic if you're, you know, a guy who likes to burn things. Are there any profile deletions this morning?

Do You Like to Mess Around?

Maybe this works:



I have things in my iTunes library that have accumulated without me paying any attention at all. This is one such thing, and listening at low volume at work I was briefly convinced I was listening to some 70s band and the singer might have looked a lot like this:



But with the volume up they do some things those 70s bands don't do. I just don't understand the absence of that metal chug in so much older electric-guitar music. It's so easy and satisfying - how could it have been missed?

Anyway, yes, they're revealed as the usual hipsters.

But already a nostalgia act:

For those who miss the hedonistic days of Williamsburg 2004, this show's for you: Diamond Nights and Cheeseburger play Brooklyn Bowl on February 13. $5.00 tickets are on sale.

Where's K-Lo?

An alarm bell goes off at The Corner:

On his blog, Al Gore gives Mitt Romney a thumbs-up for his position on climate change.

“Good for Mitt Romney — though we’ve long passes the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis,” Gore headlined a blog post today quoting a Washington Post article that discussed Romney’s belief that climate change was real.

No K-Lo in sight. Instead, her treacherous sidekick K-To.

Who the hell is Katrina Trinko anyway?

Irreverent Messenger of the Week: Katrina Trinko

As an intern with National Review Online, a freelance writer for numerous publications, and a former Editorial Department Fellow at USA Today, Katrina Trinko may only be a year out of Thomas Aquinas College, but she is already developing a reputation as a passionate and prolific writer who isn’t afraid of calling-out the political establishment when they’re wrong.

It was Trinko’s latest opinion piece in USA Today that brought her to our attention.

You graduate from college, you get to write editorials in USA Today. That's the liberal media for you.

Fun on the Internet

Here is something fun thanks to eddeaddad at Gnoetry Daily.

Here is Michael Moriarty writing about how funny Mark Steyn is when he's talking about Anthony Weiner:

Aim his gifts at a sitting duck or abbreviation for a sitting Richard The Massive or Big Dick, such as Anthony Weiner’s Twilling Twitter Twease … and, well, you encourage an impressionable septuagenerian – the word is in the D-Wiktionary – such as myself, you send him off to composing alliterative tomes!

But slowly now. Very slowly.

That is a perfect seed.

Settings, with the Moriarty quote plus a bunch of junk up the page:



Same settings:

Twilling alliterative tomes!

But slowly
now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very
slowly
now.
Very slowly now. Very slowly now.
Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowly
now. Very
slowly now. Very slowly now. Very slowl

Again:

to
the phrase,
“Twitpic crotch shot”.

This the phrase, “Twitpic crotch shot”.

Sir Tyrone court but from
centers not merely familiar with both Palace an impressionable septuage.”

Suitable
septuage.”

Suitable of English his gifts at a sitting.

Aim history, Mark Steyn, once remarked to the transplantic Arts or verbal-speaking alliterative or Big Dick, such as Mark Steyn pulls of Musical the same verses to the phrase, “Twitter crities of theater, myself minous paragraphs to composing started genius introduction for abbreviation for abbreviation for abbreviationable of the phrase, “Twitter Twe

And again:

American Third Millennium and ominous paragraphs to combine much as Mark Steyn, once remarked to the
London Academy of the D-Wiktionable septuage.”

Suitably humbled, I crawled of Music and descends with both Palace an impressionable alliterative or abbreviations or verbal-speaking standard English-speaking in
the same verses to theater, myself, young American pull off a “Weiner Twease … and a few of England ominous paragraphs to the endless in his
gifts at a sitting.

Aim history, the world War I gravitas a minous paragraphs to the London Academy of English-speaking duck or verbal-speaking th

Facilitation

The first of a series of articles:

Still, the Wendrows had resolutely refused to believe testing that consistently showed [their daughter] functioned at the level of a 2-year-old and that in addition to being autistic, she was mentally retarded.

The Wendrows were introduced to [facilitated communication] in 2004 by Dr. Sandra McClennen, a retired education professor from Eastern Michigan University who had been working with their daughter for three years. She trained the girl to use FC, a highly controversial method through which autistic people are said to communicate using a keyboard, aided by another person.

[...]

The Tuesday morning after Thanksgiving break, [facilitator Cynthia] Scarsella asked how the weekend went.

Scarsella guided the girl's right hand over the specialized keyboard. She held her wrist as the girl, striking one letter at a time, typed out a message:

"My dad gets me up banges me and then we have breakfast. ... He puts his hands on my private parts."

Scarsella asked whether the girl's mother knew. She facilitated as the girl answered yes and typed:

"She doesn't say anything."

Scarsella immediately told Natalie Miller, the girl's teacher, who notified her supervisors. Michigan law requires school officials to report any credible allegation of sexual abuse to authorities.

Within hours, police, prosecutors and social workers were on the move.

Within two days, the children were wards of the state.

Within a week, the Wendrows were in jail.

Books

Saskatchewan is a funny place:

Raycraft said she was amazed when she first set eyes on the massive collection kept by their neighbours on a nearby acreage. "There was a house floor-to-ceiling with books," said Raycraft. "He was the collector; she had tried to get someone to appraise the books but they wouldn't come out [to the rural setting]."

"She didn't know how to deal with them so she started to burn them," Raycraft explained.

[...]

"We're talking 30 tonnes of books. The weight of the books is pulling the house apart."

Video at the link with a yellover delivered by somebody I think is trying to get out of Saskatchewan. Not while saying "LIEBERRY" and looking totally fucking baked, guy. Recommended viewing.

The REPUBLICAN PRIMARY Debate

A poll at the National Review:



Where are the Ron Paul faithful?

UPDATE!

Newt's vote total has been multiplied a hundred times over!

The Intellectual Side

For some reason I listened to Dennis Miller interview David Mamet. Dennis Miller is really stupid and embarrassing, but that's expected because he has never been funny. It takes real endurance to get through him pretending to be HEP like some declawed version of the already-lamed Cool Cat. On the other hand it's kinda fun to hear playwright call-in radio, which I have never heard before. One caller talks about going to see Oleanna - his first non-musical - and thinking you'd pronounce Mamet MaMAY. I think that kinda thing is charming.

Success?

Mark Landis has an exhibit in Glasgow.

Mind you, to judge by the place's website they don't know what to show or how to show it.

Slander!

Shocking!

Mitt Romney's got enough to worry about without this: Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) is holding a rally Wednesday to accuse Romney of basically being exactly the same as Barack Obama.

Untrue. Mitt Romney once tortured a dog.

In the Absence of Substance

Douchebag Kevin D. Williamson:

I just had a delightful conversation with Orson Swindle, the former head of the Economic Development Administration mentioned in our editorial this morning:

But even former EDA chief Orson Swindle eventually came around to the point of view that the program is useless, or perhaps worse than useless, describing it as a “congressional cookie jar.”

Mr. Swindle is keen to point out that he did not “eventually come around to the view” that the EDA is a mess and a waste — he went in knowing that. A true-believing Reaganite, his desire was to kill the EDA, or, failing that, to get it on a very short leash.

Mr. Swindle is pictured below:



Nitwit Williamson kindly included a wikipedia link for ORSON FUCKING SWINDLE FOR GOD'S SAKE and there we find this:

In 1994 and in 1996 he was a Republican candidate for Congress in Hawaii's 1st Congressional District. In 1996 he held the incumbent, Democrat Neil Abercrombie, to 50% of the vote.

That's like winning!

Swindle is also on the board of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), an independent political advocacy group that seeks to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government. Throughout its history, CAGW has been accused of fronting lobbying efforts of corporations to give them the appearance of "grassroots" support.^[4] In part, this is because CAGW has accepted donations from Phillip Morris, the Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, Microsoft, Merrill-Lynch, and Exxon-Mobil. CAGW also has ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.^[5]

Gadget Porn

Colossus: The Forbin Project is a funny kinda film. The premise is that, seemingly untested in the real world, countries turn their defences over to massive computers that can decide to launch missiles when they feel the time is right. Then the computers start chatting with each other and getting cranky. It's hard to imagine that anyone who has used computers long enough to watch something go haywire could take such a film seriously, yet I gather it's being remade soon. With Will Smith.

The title sequence is worth watching in a Popular Science wet-dream way. I dunno if you can find the whole of the movie to watch - this is most of it - and I don't think it's worth the effort except as a look into a world so science-happy that they could cede the control of their countries over to hardware. FOOLS! Nobody needs to do that when we have Holy Books.

It's Not a Tumour

Some of the words are here.

And gee, this has a lot of muscle that I didn't really expect:

Complaining

I enjoy hearing people be mean about Sex and the City II.



Follow this and there are podcasts featuring similar ranting. Also interviews and conversations about film music. (Audio only, fortunately.)

Blowhards

Send him back to jail just to make me happy please:

TORONTO — Court documents filed by prison staff depicting Conrad Black as a less-than-model inmate are being dismissed by the former media baron as "lies," while an ex-prosecutor predicted the filings "will likely have no influence" on convincing a judge to send Black back to jail.

Two affidavits sworn by a unit manager and an education specialist at Coleman Federal Correctional prison, where Black spent 29 months, say the Canadian-born businessman demanded special treatment from prison staff, was an unenthusiastic tutor and had gathered a posse of followers who cooked, cleaned and ironed his shirts.

Here's one of Black's more recent columns:

By complete accident, I have seen this program a number of times in the last few weeks, and it is always the same: Eliot Spitzer is a loud, fast-talking, overbearing know-it-all, who has rehearsed his arguments and unleashes himself on guests, or directly at the camera, in a torrent of imperious blowhardism.

A non-blowhard might end there but the paragraph continues:

He is even more irritating than Bill O’Reilly, because he is just as strident and ear-splitting, but more sinister. He has more than a desire to win an argument, like O’Reilly has; Spitzer has a will to dominate, to bulldoze his interlocutor. O’Reilly is opinionated, but Spitzer is belligerent. I normally move to the classical-music channel after a few minutes of either of them. But this self-adjudicated moot court Spitzer conducted about his own fairness and balance put me in mind of other recent outrages of liberal-media partisanship.

Happily, I have never seen Spitzer. Unhappily, I have read Black.

The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.The Green movement, which had been an informal bucolic confederation of Sierra lovers of the wilderness, Greenpeace opponents of nuclear testing, and amiable eccentrics in hiking boots and pith helmets, brandishing butterfly nets and festooned with binoculars, became a rampart of the Left. Like the rural Communist guerrillas of the Colombian FARC, overwhelmed by the influx of massively armed and armored drug lords, the old agitators for cleaner air and water and pretty lepidoptera were inundated by the advocates of deindustrialization, abandonment of the automobile, and Churchillian resolution in the face of untrammeled cow flatulence. The genuine environmentalists were a perfect front for the beaten army of malcontents, radicals, and dull foot-soldiers who crowded like the grim wreckage of Napoleon’s Grande Armée at Smolensk in 1812 into this incongruous political ecosystem.

Me and Marc Emery

Ron Paul, in an email to YOURS TRULY!

I don't have to defend against passing a bill just as bad as ObamaCare. Mitt Romney does. So it's ok if he has a bit more money than we do.

He's going to need it.

But I certainly need to compete. It's vital I have the financial backing to build a first-class operation in early caucus and primary states and show the pundits and press that I am a serious candidate.

I know these so-called "gate keepers" are part of the Washington problem, but the fact is their either dismissing of candidates or praising them makes a difference to many undecided voters.

That's why the grassroots launched a the R3VOLUTION v. RomneyCare Money Bomb today.

Will you help us in this grassroots effort to build a first-class operation in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire?

Ron Paul is battling Mitt Romney. FOR R3ALZ!

Patriots like you can help me fight back. Please chip in your most generous contribution toward the grassroots the R3VOLUTION v. RomneyCare Money Bomb. Thank you for your support.

JanusNode? Is that you? I could look up the fate of the money from his last campaign but I prefer to imagine that he was true to his libertarian principles and spent it on hookers and blow.

Poor Ron Paul dimwit and fellow Vancouverite Marc Emery has written a pretty good description of what's going to be his day-to-day life for a while.

Population Regulation

When I heard about a method of male birth control involving injections I immediately started wondering whether or not a cartridge of the stuff might fit into a rifle. Silly me, if you have a rifle why not fire the regular bullets and prevent the same amount of babies? Video scrotum surgery at the link my friends.

Winning!

Hey now:

(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday there could be political talks with the Afghan Taliban by the end of this year if NATO made more military advances and put pressure on the insurgents.

Plus One

Is this a way to make search engines better or worse?

In completely unrelated blog filler, if you think you might enjoy being me for a while remember that your child may start loudly chanting "Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing - MODOK!" at the restaurant.

Bonus dialogue:

Q. Why did MODOK want to kill people?
A. Because he was a BAD Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.

Warnings

It is completely unfair of the media to interview Sarah Palin while she is positioning herself in front of cameras.

Blogging