So Iran's newly "elected" president is allegedly one of the captors who held American hostages for 444 days from 1979 until 1981?
This would mean that a man elected president by an Islamic-run country that has preached American hatred for more than 25 years actually elected one of the men who led the hostage-taking operation.
What are the odds?
A break from “news” with a focus on music, art, photos, history, and sports. Occasional glimpses into my life.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Supreme Court Decides to Use Polling to Decide Constitutional Questions
This is how ridiculous our Supreme Court has become. Power Line says:
So, according to Breyer, the Supreme Court is now justified in gauging public opinion on a purely Constitutional question.
In fact, rumor has it that they intend to setup a series of Supreme Court 1-800 numbers to assist them in the future, with opposing viewpoints, like 1-888-RELIGIONISEVIL vs. 1-888-WECANNOTREADPLAINENGLISH, 1-888-DIEBITCH vs. 1-888-LETTHEVEGETABLELIVE, 1-888-BUSHLIED vs. 1-888-BUSHJUSTPLAINSUCKS, and 1-888-WEHATETHEMILITARY vs. 1-888-NOTORTUREATGITMO.
To comment, call 1-888-WERULEANDDON'TYOUEVERFORGET IT.
This morning, after learning that the Supreme Court had deemed unconstitutional the display of the Ten Commandments inside two Kentucky courthouses but had upheld a similar display on the state capitol grounds in Texas, I surmised that some absurd hair-splitting had occurred. It turns to be worse than I thought.
As one might expect, eight of the nine Justices thought that the outcome in the two cases should be the same. Because one Justice disagreed, the cases had different outcomes. In this instance, the one Justice was Breyer. That's a bit of a surprise; usually it's O'Connor or Kennedy. It's refreshing to see both of them see marginalized for a change.
So what made the difference for Breyer? As Ed Whelan noted earlier today, it was the fact that no one had complained about the Texas display for 40 years, whereas the Kentucky displays had caused agitation from the beginning. Breyer finds this fact "determinative" (see pages 5-6 of his concurring opinion, which I'm not able to link to, but can be accessed through Whelan's post at NRO's Bench Memos).
So, according to Breyer, the Supreme Court is now justified in gauging public opinion on a purely Constitutional question.
In fact, rumor has it that they intend to setup a series of Supreme Court 1-800 numbers to assist them in the future, with opposing viewpoints, like 1-888-RELIGIONISEVIL vs. 1-888-WECANNOTREADPLAINENGLISH, 1-888-DIEBITCH vs. 1-888-LETTHEVEGETABLELIVE, 1-888-BUSHLIED vs. 1-888-BUSHJUSTPLAINSUCKS, and 1-888-WEHATETHEMILITARY vs. 1-888-NOTORTUREATGITMO.
To comment, call 1-888-WERULEANDDON'TYOUEVERFORGET IT.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Senator Apologizes For What He Might Have Done
'Cuz, Like, He's Really Not Sure
"I'm sorry if ..." ? What the hell does that mean? If your teenager came home drunk and threw up on the living room rug, would "I'm sorry if you thought I was drunk" really do the trick?
No, because he was drunk, and he did throw up on the rug. "If" has no place in the discussion.
Sorry, not buying any of this act.
Apologies aren't conditional. They aren't offered to you only "if" you, as the listener, had some set of emotions and feelings wash over you.
The problem here is that this is not about how he makes us "feel"; it's about what he himself said, because of what he believes. Or does he actually want to claim now that he said all that even though he didn't believe it, just to score political points? Which is it? With inflammatory rhetoric like that, either you believe what you say to your core, or you don't.
So if he still holds such beliefs, is any of this really all better now? And if he doesn't hold such beliefs, where is the apology for cynically playing us for fools?
Our focus on "feelings" in today's world just drives me nuts. "Feelings" can vary from one person to another. They are too subjective. They must be purged from the national dialogue.
Apologies are about contrition and forgiveness. "If" won't cut it.
Our entire system of government is based on liberty. That's why the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower, remember? Durbin slandered all of that, including our Constitution, by comparing our conduct at Guantanamo with the worst regimes to ever inhabit the planet. He provided the enemy with propaganda during wartime. And he did it for political gain.
Those things are bad enough. But worst of all, he said it on the floor of the United States Senate because he actually believes it. He, along with many other prominent Democrats in Congress, actually believes that turning up the A/C and letting prisoners soil themselves equates us with Joseph Stalin. That is an insult of immeasurable proportions, and it is patently ridiculous, and anybody who has ever spent an hour reading any type of history about Stalin knows it.
That is what he needs to apologize for. And you don't need the word "if", or "feelings", to express that.
Durbin finally says he's sorry
By James G. Lakelyand Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Sen. Richard J. Durbin yesterday said he was "sorry" after parsing words for a week about his remarks comparing U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazi and Soviet regimes. He apologized on the Senate floor.
"I'm sorry if anything that I said caused any offense or pain to those who have such bitter memories of the Holocaust, the greatest moral tragedy of our time," said Mr. Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
"I'm also sorry if anything I said in any way cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military. I went to Iraq just a few months ago," he said, pausing and appearing to tear up at one point during the five-minute speech. "When you look at the eyes of the soldiers you see your son and daughter. They are the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them. Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies."
"I'm sorry if ..." ? What the hell does that mean? If your teenager came home drunk and threw up on the living room rug, would "I'm sorry if you thought I was drunk" really do the trick?
No, because he was drunk, and he did throw up on the rug. "If" has no place in the discussion.
Sorry, not buying any of this act.
Apologies aren't conditional. They aren't offered to you only "if" you, as the listener, had some set of emotions and feelings wash over you.
The problem here is that this is not about how he makes us "feel"; it's about what he himself said, because of what he believes. Or does he actually want to claim now that he said all that even though he didn't believe it, just to score political points? Which is it? With inflammatory rhetoric like that, either you believe what you say to your core, or you don't.
So if he still holds such beliefs, is any of this really all better now? And if he doesn't hold such beliefs, where is the apology for cynically playing us for fools?
Our focus on "feelings" in today's world just drives me nuts. "Feelings" can vary from one person to another. They are too subjective. They must be purged from the national dialogue.
Apologies are about contrition and forgiveness. "If" won't cut it.
Our entire system of government is based on liberty. That's why the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower, remember? Durbin slandered all of that, including our Constitution, by comparing our conduct at Guantanamo with the worst regimes to ever inhabit the planet. He provided the enemy with propaganda during wartime. And he did it for political gain.
Those things are bad enough. But worst of all, he said it on the floor of the United States Senate because he actually believes it. He, along with many other prominent Democrats in Congress, actually believes that turning up the A/C and letting prisoners soil themselves equates us with Joseph Stalin. That is an insult of immeasurable proportions, and it is patently ridiculous, and anybody who has ever spent an hour reading any type of history about Stalin knows it.
That is what he needs to apologize for. And you don't need the word "if", or "feelings", to express that.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Finally, It Tumbles Forth
I've been steaming mad ever since I read about the comments of Dick Durbin, wherein he compared interrogation techniques at Gitmo to the tactics of Stalin, the Nazis, and Pol Pot. Really, really angry. So angry that it was hard to write anything on it.
This excellent post by Baseball Crank, and particularly this point within it, got me to thinking:
They believe they are rewarded in heaven for sawing through the neck of any non-Muslim, and watching the blood spurt all over the room and themselves, and then triumphantly holding up the head of the still-alive-but-not-for-long victim.
Durbin thinks we should go easy on these people, that turning the air conditioning up way high is too harsh for them.
If he isn't a shill for the jihadis, he sure talks like one.
We don't really need U.S. Senators providing propaganda for Islamic terrorists; call me crazy.
Durbin, like so many others these days, has missed the clue train. So I'll point it out to them:
The only thing stopping further mass murder of Americans is our national will to prevent it. OK, two things. National will, and the current lack of ability to deliver nukes upon our shores. Which the Iranians and North Koreans are working on.
Durbin and his cohorts are doing their best to kill that national will. Which makes him, and here I'm paraphrasing Orwell, "objectively pro-jihadi".
Is that inflammatory? Oops. Tough shit. It's what he is. Prove me wrong.
So I'd go much further on this point: those who focus on any of these alleged mistreatments need a Big Frosty Glass of Perspective. War creates conditions that lead to occasional lapses. Focusing on those lapses, during the war, rather than on shoring up national will to win the war, is suicide.
And yes, this war may last decades. Too bad. It ain't 1978 any more, and we can't engulf ourselves in self-loathing from the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam eras, and have a pity party, about how mean we are, and how we screw up the lives of all the little brown people. To quote the Dems: Move on!
Self-loathing is for losers.
Cowboy up. We still have a debt to pay for 243 dead Marines in Beirut in 1983, for God's sake.
Islam, and the Arab world in general, understand one thing really well: power. Those who have it, use it, and those who use it, gain respect.
They have two things that help them: religious zealotry, and a nihilistic death cult, shown as a willingness to both kill innocents and die themselves. They are lacking only the means to commit mass murder of Americans. Oh, wait, they already did! Multiple times. And they would do so again, forever, and ever, because it's how they think. Our increased sense of national will to prevent attacks on our shores has stopped multiple attempts already. This is a good thing, no?
The terrorists and unlawful combatants captured and imprisosed at Gitmo are quite simply not like Americans. They don't value freedom, or Western liberal traditions. They will do anything in their power to kill any American they can.
As "unlawful combatants", they could have been shot when they were taken into custody; they are entitled to no Geneva Convention protections. There is well-established precedent for such things. I would like to think the only reason they were imprisoned, instead, is for the intel they could provide; this intel has been of great value, from what I've read.
You have to be ruthless against such people. If you're too wrapped up in hand-wringing and self-examination, you've lost the battle of wills already, and it's probably just a matter of time before you lose the big battles too. Self-loathing is not good for us as a country. Hence, we should stop doing it.
So, please shut the hell up, Dick Durbin. For the good of the country.
This excellent post by Baseball Crank, and particularly this point within it, got me to thinking:
Isn't it obviously the fact that the bulk of the American people don't much care to complain about a little rough treatment for actual, bona fide terrorists who would slit the throat of a young child if they could?Yes. These people saw off heads! They use a limb saw to cut through the neck of a living person, and they enjoy the victim's screaming. They, quite literally, live for it. They believe they are rewarded in heaven for it. Let's run through that again, out loud, real slow.
They believe they are rewarded in heaven for sawing through the neck of any non-Muslim, and watching the blood spurt all over the room and themselves, and then triumphantly holding up the head of the still-alive-but-not-for-long victim.
Durbin thinks we should go easy on these people, that turning the air conditioning up way high is too harsh for them.
If he isn't a shill for the jihadis, he sure talks like one.
We don't really need U.S. Senators providing propaganda for Islamic terrorists; call me crazy.
Durbin, like so many others these days, has missed the clue train. So I'll point it out to them:
The only thing stopping further mass murder of Americans is our national will to prevent it. OK, two things. National will, and the current lack of ability to deliver nukes upon our shores. Which the Iranians and North Koreans are working on.
Durbin and his cohorts are doing their best to kill that national will. Which makes him, and here I'm paraphrasing Orwell, "objectively pro-jihadi".
Is that inflammatory? Oops. Tough shit. It's what he is. Prove me wrong.
So I'd go much further on this point: those who focus on any of these alleged mistreatments need a Big Frosty Glass of Perspective. War creates conditions that lead to occasional lapses. Focusing on those lapses, during the war, rather than on shoring up national will to win the war, is suicide.
And yes, this war may last decades. Too bad. It ain't 1978 any more, and we can't engulf ourselves in self-loathing from the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam eras, and have a pity party, about how mean we are, and how we screw up the lives of all the little brown people. To quote the Dems: Move on!
Self-loathing is for losers.
Cowboy up. We still have a debt to pay for 243 dead Marines in Beirut in 1983, for God's sake.
Islam, and the Arab world in general, understand one thing really well: power. Those who have it, use it, and those who use it, gain respect.
They have two things that help them: religious zealotry, and a nihilistic death cult, shown as a willingness to both kill innocents and die themselves. They are lacking only the means to commit mass murder of Americans. Oh, wait, they already did! Multiple times. And they would do so again, forever, and ever, because it's how they think. Our increased sense of national will to prevent attacks on our shores has stopped multiple attempts already. This is a good thing, no?
The terrorists and unlawful combatants captured and imprisosed at Gitmo are quite simply not like Americans. They don't value freedom, or Western liberal traditions. They will do anything in their power to kill any American they can.
As "unlawful combatants", they could have been shot when they were taken into custody; they are entitled to no Geneva Convention protections. There is well-established precedent for such things. I would like to think the only reason they were imprisoned, instead, is for the intel they could provide; this intel has been of great value, from what I've read.
You have to be ruthless against such people. If you're too wrapped up in hand-wringing and self-examination, you've lost the battle of wills already, and it's probably just a matter of time before you lose the big battles too. Self-loathing is not good for us as a country. Hence, we should stop doing it.
So, please shut the hell up, Dick Durbin. For the good of the country.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Um, DUH!
Boys and girls have different brains!
Wait! Really! No shit. We are totally serious here.
Now, of course, we await the thunderous cascade of contrition and apologia directed towards Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, who said much the same thing earlier this year; he was nearly forced to resign, after the ensuing idiotic brouhaha by the supposed "intellectuals" inhabiting that institution.
What they actually are is "brainwashed".
Any parent, of course, could tell you that boys and girls are, generally speaking, just different. And have been different for oh, let's see, add the 4, carry the 1 ..... eternity. Freaking forever.
Proving, yet again, that some things are so stupid, only an intellectual would believe them.
Wait! Really! No shit. We are totally serious here.
Now, of course, we await the thunderous cascade of contrition and apologia directed towards Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, who said much the same thing earlier this year; he was nearly forced to resign, after the ensuing idiotic brouhaha by the supposed "intellectuals" inhabiting that institution.
What they actually are is "brainwashed".
Any parent, of course, could tell you that boys and girls are, generally speaking, just different. And have been different for oh, let's see, add the 4, carry the 1 ..... eternity. Freaking forever.
Proving, yet again, that some things are so stupid, only an intellectual would believe them.
Monday, June 13, 2005
How To Tell If A Neighbor Is Trailer Trash
A Handy Guide
Strong Clue: Immediately upon moving in, they dig up their entire front lawn AND front walk, and replace it with pallets of bricks and piles of dirt, and a gaping hole where the walk and front stoop used to be. As I write this, lawyers are probably out recruiting folks to fall into those holes.
Very strong clue: When they leave it that way -- for 8 months.
Another very strong clue: On a recent evening as I'm driving by, I spy the mom and the two kids attempting to "deal" ... the older boy is hacking at the weeds with an old-fashioned hedge-clipper ... the kind that nobody uses anymore, with the advent of electric hedge trimmers twenty years ago ... one at a time ... chop, chop, chop ... and some of the weeds are so tall the kid doesn't really have to bend over at all ... and then there's the whole "you have to pull up the roots or you're wasting your time" thing. The mom, in a scene straight from a slave labor camp, is using a pickaxe to make feeble scratches in the huge mounds of dirt ... I have no idea what the hell she is doing, and I'm quite sure, neither does she. Dad is nowhere in sight ... drunk on the couch, perhaps. At least the couch is inside the house. For now.
Strong Clue: Immediately upon moving in, they dig up their entire front lawn AND front walk, and replace it with pallets of bricks and piles of dirt, and a gaping hole where the walk and front stoop used to be. As I write this, lawyers are probably out recruiting folks to fall into those holes.
Very strong clue: When they leave it that way -- for 8 months.
Another very strong clue: On a recent evening as I'm driving by, I spy the mom and the two kids attempting to "deal" ... the older boy is hacking at the weeds with an old-fashioned hedge-clipper ... the kind that nobody uses anymore, with the advent of electric hedge trimmers twenty years ago ... one at a time ... chop, chop, chop ... and some of the weeds are so tall the kid doesn't really have to bend over at all ... and then there's the whole "you have to pull up the roots or you're wasting your time" thing. The mom, in a scene straight from a slave labor camp, is using a pickaxe to make feeble scratches in the huge mounds of dirt ... I have no idea what the hell she is doing, and I'm quite sure, neither does she. Dad is nowhere in sight ... drunk on the couch, perhaps. At least the couch is inside the house. For now.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Keep This In Mind Next Time You Read "Scientists say ..."
At the same time, these two articles appear on Yahoo News: Many Scientists Admit to Misconduct, and Stem Cell Advocates Meet, Plan Strategy.
From the strategy article:
OK, I'll ask ..... when is it, just, you know, science?
From the misconduct article:
The new survey also hints that much scientific misconduct is the result of frustrations and injustices built into the modern system of scientific rewards. [...]
"Science has changed a lot in terms of its competitiveness, the level of funding and the commercial pressures on scientists," Martinson said. "We've turned science into a big business but failed to note that some of the rules of science don't fit well with that model."
From the strategy article:
So science is big business, focused on raising money. And science is politics, focused on raising money. Hmmmmm..HOUSTON - Scientists gather routinely at the Texas Medical Center to share research. But they are meeting this weekend in enemy territory for a war-room session on political strategy.
Advocates of embryonic stem cell research from the fields of academia, politics, health care and medicine — including South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk — are plotting ways to quell opposition and get the research money flowing.
[...]
"This is a war on behalf of science," said Neal Lane, a senior research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, a co-sponsor of the meeting.
OK, I'll ask ..... when is it, just, you know, science?
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Fun With Old Michael Jackson Lyrics
Stop! The jizz you save
May be your own
Junior look both ways
Before you touch it
You're headed for a danger zone
How about:
I'll be therrrrre
I'll be therrrrre
Just call my name
And I'll be there
Giving you oral love in the shower but please please PLEASE don't tell anybody!
Monday, June 06, 2005
That Giant Sucking Sound
... Is the Sound of Media Removing Lips from Jackson's Ass
I'm literally COUNTING THE HOURS until this stupid Michael Jackson trial is over, so that the media will QUIT TALKING ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME.
Seriously, it's time to retire to the veranda, and have a tall frosty glass of Shut The Fuck Up.
I try to ignore this coverage at every pass. I don't even watch TV news, and I rarely choose to click on any such stories on the 'Net, and I STILL think its way overexposed. Though I wonder if maybe, just maybe, they painted him as a pervert who exploits children, instead of a Big Fluffy Entertainer of Indeterminate Gender and Color, I might have some mild level of interest in hearing what these media whores have to say about it. But they don't, and so, I don't. Big shocker there, I know.
Of course, once the trial IS over, we won't get to read gems like this opening paragraph from a Reuters story of last week:
Huh. The media really REALLY needs to extract its lips from Michael Jackson's hind end. Or wherever else those lips might be ...
Were I the editor of that story, I'd have amended it to read "... a nearly unbelievable array of lurid testimony, provided by multiple witnesses, describing various young victims who entrusted their innocence, and therefore their future, to a devious (alleged) pervert."
We've already had to read enough descriptions of fellatio performed by Jackson on his young and trusting victims; we don't need yet more examples of same performed by the media on him.
I'm literally COUNTING THE HOURS until this stupid Michael Jackson trial is over, so that the media will QUIT TALKING ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME.
Seriously, it's time to retire to the veranda, and have a tall frosty glass of Shut The Fuck Up.
I try to ignore this coverage at every pass. I don't even watch TV news, and I rarely choose to click on any such stories on the 'Net, and I STILL think its way overexposed. Though I wonder if maybe, just maybe, they painted him as a pervert who exploits children, instead of a Big Fluffy Entertainer of Indeterminate Gender and Color, I might have some mild level of interest in hearing what these media whores have to say about it. But they don't, and so, I don't. Big shocker there, I know.
Of course, once the trial IS over, we won't get to read gems like this opening paragraph from a Reuters story of last week:
Character assassination? So when a dangerous (alleged) perv, who has been manipulating and molesting children for years, finally goes to trial, and the prosecution makes closing arguments, and lists out all the disgusting details in one session, this is "character assassination" now?Prosecutors blast Jackson as pedophile, alcoholic
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - Michael Jackson was portrayed on Thursday as a serial pedophile, an alcoholic and a man obsessed with pornography as prosecutors summed up their child sex abuse case with a blistering character assassination of one of the world's best-known entertainers.
Huh. The media really REALLY needs to extract its lips from Michael Jackson's hind end. Or wherever else those lips might be ...
Were I the editor of that story, I'd have amended it to read "... a nearly unbelievable array of lurid testimony, provided by multiple witnesses, describing various young victims who entrusted their innocence, and therefore their future, to a devious (alleged) pervert."
We've already had to read enough descriptions of fellatio performed by Jackson on his young and trusting victims; we don't need yet more examples of same performed by the media on him.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Is Your Name "Ima Dumbass", By Chance?
There are few things in this world more frightening than an SUV-driving female yapping on a cell phone. Controlling 6500 lbs. of steel often takes up a bit of the driver's attention, and, let's be honest here, there are lots of women who shouldn't be driving anything more dangerous than a scooter, for all of our sakes.
One of the few things that is more frightening, though, is a punky lesbian driving a Honda with 20 nearly-incomprehensible bumper stickers attached. People who are so proud of their snarky ignorance of how the world works simply amaze me. Why would you think everybody in traffic is desperate to know your views of the military: "Join the Army: Travel to exotic, distant lands, meet exciting, unique people, and kill them" ?
OK, can you really be that stupid?
Oh, right, of course you're that stupid, you have TWENTY BUMPER STICKERS on a fairly new Honda Accord, which renders its nearly devoid of value as a trade-in. But you've got the snarky bumper stickers, so, you know, it's cool.
Fucking Moron.
One of the few things that is more frightening, though, is a punky lesbian driving a Honda with 20 nearly-incomprehensible bumper stickers attached. People who are so proud of their snarky ignorance of how the world works simply amaze me. Why would you think everybody in traffic is desperate to know your views of the military: "Join the Army: Travel to exotic, distant lands, meet exciting, unique people, and kill them" ?
OK, can you really be that stupid?
Oh, right, of course you're that stupid, you have TWENTY BUMPER STICKERS on a fairly new Honda Accord, which renders its nearly devoid of value as a trade-in. But you've got the snarky bumper stickers, so, you know, it's cool.
Fucking Moron.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Can't Undo the Past
Mark Steyn, EU just won't take 'no' for an answer -
European attitudes about governance are strange. They gave us Napoleon and King Leopold, and in their attempt to cast off the chains of the past, they would rather entrust decisions to an unelected, corrupt, and disdainful trans-national government, than to an unelected, corrupt, and disdainful king.
Good plan!
Following Sunday's vote in France, on Wednesday Dutch voters get to express their opinion on the proposed ''European Constitution.'' Heartening to see democracy in action, notwithstanding the European elite's hysterical warnings that, without the constitution, the continent will be set back on the path to Auschwitz. I haven't seen the official ballot, but the choice seems to be: "Check Box A to support the new constitution; check Box B for genocide and conflagration."
European attitudes about governance are strange. They gave us Napoleon and King Leopold, and in their attempt to cast off the chains of the past, they would rather entrust decisions to an unelected, corrupt, and disdainful trans-national government, than to an unelected, corrupt, and disdainful king.
Good plan!
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