Obama the Blond

Have you heard the wail about McCain's Paris Hilton ad? I mean, really, the Obama campaign is so disappointed in McCain. But meanwhile they give a pass to the guy who said this:

"Andy Warhol said we all get our 15 minutes of fame. Barack Obama has already had an hour and a half. I mean, he's so overexposed, he's making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."

Know why? Because it was Obama who said it. From the WaPo:

"Andy Warhol said we all get our 15 minutes of fame," says Barack Obama. "I've already had an hour and a half. I mean, I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."

Course, the McCain ad was making the point that Obama, like Paris, was mainly famous for being famous. If the bam meister wants to refute that point, he should point to his accomplishments.... we'll be waiting on that list.

Hey, there's a reason the Obama campaign logo is a zero.



h/t: J Taranto

Hope is Great

Michelle Malkin, who seems to find everything, finds this, about Obama promises from two years ago. At that time, visiting his ancestral village:

[Obama] told the assembled press, local politicians (who included current Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga), and students: “Hopefully I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be.” He then turned to the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and assured her and her teachers: “I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school and I will do so.”

"I will do so" sure. In other words, have hope. Have audacity. Um, expect change. However:

Granting us access to the school and its records, Principal Obiero, 48, tells us: “Senator Obama has not honoured the promises he gave me when we met in 2006 and in his earlier letter to the school. He has not given us even one shilling. But we still have hope."

Which points up the problem with "hope". Even when specific promises are made, "hope" is just a word. You can't deposit hope. It doesn't earn compound interest, it won't buy a water pump, a desk, or a chalk board. Hell, it won't buy chalk. Obama was happy to give the school hope. Why wouldn't he be? It cost him nothing.

His supporters might think that their "Hope" is different. And it is, but only in that it hasn't been dashed yet.



***Update: Or....



And this is the Move-On Weepy-liberal Ad:

Simons Cat

I'm a dog guy, but still... har.

I'm Shocked, Shocked!

How can people criticize the former candidate for these pictures? It looks like a chance encounter on a dock to me. Just a bunch of happy people celebrating the fact that the world has begun to heal. I imagine they were out there waiting for the sea level to drop. Nothing to see here folks, move along please; go back to your homes.

Reparations Again

Oh good:

"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."

Yes, because the Civil War was just a gesture; now it's time for action.

It's true that I look like the people who once owned other human beings. It was wrong. I denounce it. But I swear: I wasn't there, ok? None of my ancestors were involved either. They didn't get to this country until after it was over.

Did Obama's "typical white person" grandma descend from slave owners? I have no clue, but even if she did, I'm not tempted to transfer their debts to her. It's not possible to rectify a great injustice to one group of people by, centuries later, doing an injustice to a different group.

Kiss Me Quick

You might want to try out your mad skilz on Mentos Kissfight. No ducks are involved, that's me, playing with my new Photoshop.

(clickabiggen)

Please Don't Hurt Me

This is a bit hard to swallow:

LAWYERS for three Islamic militants on death row over the 2002 Bali bombings today flagged a new legal challenge to their impending executions.

Defence lawyer Mahendradatta foreshadowed a Constitutional Court challenge next week, arguing the convicted terrorists could suffer unnecessary pain if they do not die immediately when the lethal punishment is carried out.

It is seen as another attempt to delay the executions of Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who could be executed at any time over the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

The three will face an Indonesian firing squad, and would be shot a second time if the first bullet does not kill them instantly, Mahendradatta said.

"We are not closing our eyes to the possibility of Amrozi being executed,'' he told reporters.

''(But) there's time when the convicted will feel pain until he is shot a second time.

And here's where I'm not quite on the conservative reservation: I'm not a proponent of the death penalty. But where it is lawfully applied, well, you know, bon voyage boys. And it's especially hard to feel sorry for these particular bad guys. Did they offer to bomb the innocents again in case any of them were suffering and not quite killed by the first bombs? I'd be happy to see these guys locked in a box for the next hundred years, but I can't ever imagine being concerned that they're in pain.

Low Tech

Woost

Even a Stopped Clock...

What'd I say? Well, imply?:

What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign. Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.

Hey, this is an old-time Chicago corrupt machine politician. He can pretend to be helping the poor while advancing slum lords' fraud; why wouldn't he mock communication with God in order to gain the most powerful position in the world?

[Update as to Maariv's statement as published in Haaretz on July 28]: "Obama's note was published in Maariv and other international publications following his authorization to make the content of the note public. Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem."]

If correct, It appears that Obama made Maariv and other media an instrument of his will. The media, of course, was a most willing tool.

The campaign might be less pleased with another pronouncement by Maariv: "In any case," the spokesman said, "since Obama is not a Jew, publishing the note does not constitute an infringement on his right to privacy." Apparently, to the paper, Gentile prayer doesn't count.

No, it wasn't even a Gentile prayer; it was a sacrilege.

Cuil?

Cuil: It's a new search engine created by some ex-google engineers. I have to say I'm underwhelmed though - Cuiling "lumberjacks" doesn't seem to bring us up at all, and we're always on the first page of a lumberjacks-googling.

"we're always on the first page of a lumberjacks-googling": words that couldn't have been written 20 years ago, well, wouldn't have been written.

Least Competent Criminals

News of the Weird:

Failure to Communicate: The man who tried to rob the Cafe Treo in Salt Lake City in April likely told the employee to "fill" the bag, but when the employee reached over and earnestly started to "feel" the bag (according to police), the robber said, "You've gotta be kidding me" and ran out of the store. [KSL-TV (Salt Lake City), 4-11-08]

Another man who came away empty-handed had tried to rob a Walgreens in Port Richey, Fla., in July, handing a clerk what appeared to be a holdup note, except that nothing was written on it. The clerk, sensing the forgetful robber's cluelessness, boldly dialed 911 right in front of him, causing the man to flee. [St. Petersburg Times, 7-11-08]

Setting Up a Facebook Account in Iran

"No, you can't just say everyone is your
friend, you have to add them one at a time..."

The Pictures Have Changed

We've heard Obama on the surge:

Pressed once more on whether he gives the surge any credit for reducing violence in Iraq, Obama said he did, as one factor of many.

""No, no of course I have," he said. "There is no doubt that the extraordinary work of our U.S. forces has contributed to a lessening of the violence, just as making sure that the Sadr militia stood down or the fact that the Sunni tribes decided to flip and work with us instead of with al-Qaeda -- something that we hadn't anticipated happening. All those things have contributed to a reduction in violence."

Well, at least he praises, sincerely or insincerely, the "extraordinary (though unnecessary) work" of the troops. I disagree only with his parenthetical. He says, "yes, great work, but it was only a coincidence that success followed." He's wrong, he's lying, and I think he knows he's lying.

Sadr's army stood down because we made it clear that it was either stand down or die. The Sunnis decided turned on al Queda because it became clear that al Queda could be defeated.

Which brings me to the picture above. It is from the April 5th, 2008 edition of The Advisor, a publication of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq. A year earlier, April 2007, you could find this image:


Notice the difference? All the early issues of The Advisor showed Iraqis with blurred faces. And the reason was simple: they feared reprisals. And who could blame them? They were being asked to throw their lot in with a country that had politicians and moonbats screaming for us to abandon them. Get your picture in the paper and face death when the Americans pull out. After all, didn't even Harry Reed declare that the war was lost?

But the surge showed that George Bush wasn't listening, and would not listen, to the Harry Pelosis and the Nancy Reeds. We were going to win and it was safe to choose our side over the market bombers and the kidnappers. Because the market bombers and the kidnappers were going down.

Are the pictures proof? No. But the Sadr stand-down and the Sunni decision to fight weren't coincidences. It means something that there are no blurred faces in the latest Advisor. These things are the result of a country seeing that victory is possible, and in fact, victory is happening. And this situation came about thanks to the efforts of American soldiers, marines, and airmen; not in spite of them.

Nooooo!

People, Listen to me!


It's a Cook Boooooook!

Bama at the Wailing Wall

So they've published Obama's prayer note. And surprise, it's just the kind of prayer he would like published. Oh well, I was hoping he would slip up and address it to Allah, but I'm learning to live with disappointment.

Great News

Just saw:

PARIS - Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that Iran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which some nations see as a potential step toward obtaining nuclear weapons, and not wait for the next U.S. president.

Whew, I'm sure glad that problem is behind us, finally. Now if he would just will all people to be as one, and maybe throw in something about gas prices, we could all go home.

Pro America vs. Anti

Got the image from Drudge: In which we see one pro-American politician, and one guy who just got off a plane.

BTW, it seems the 200,000 figure for the German rally is gaining acceptance. Two things regarding that: 1) Like the big Obama rally in the northwest, there was a free concert before the rally. 2) Large German rallies don't always center around the best of leaders.

Last Lecture

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

Professor Pausch is seen here teaching his son, Dylan, how to hunt
down and kill dolphins with his bare hands.

What an extraordinary guy.

Oh Great

It's not bad enough that the Europeans have fallen in love with a con man. Now China has gone insane:

Tiergarten Love Parade

"Come down here Obama, We give you Change!"
"Ja, Obama, we give you Berlin airlift."

***Update: Der Spiegel says that Parisians are miffed that Obama spends all this time in Germany and will grace the French with just 5 hours of his time. Heh, heh, Doesn't Obama know if he wants to be the world president he'll need the French vote as well?



The we-are-the-world speech is off-putting in so many ways. And its premise, that an American presidential candidate needs to appeal to Germans, is just plain wrong. Not that the Germans aren't important allies, but first and foremost an American president needs to put the interests of America first. The Westfalia votes don't count.

***UpdateII: It seems Hillary is getting into the spirit of the thing:




"ich kann zuhören" = "I can listen"

Der Spiegel:

"I want to be here for our 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech," Julie Hagedorn, 38, a Canadian living with her German husband in Berlin told SPIEGEL ONLINE before the speech. "I want to hear it with my own ears when Obama says 'Ich bin ein Europäer (I am a European)."

Empty Suit Tour

Blackfive post an e-mail from Bagram:

Hello everyone,

As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to ' The War Zone ' . I wanted to share with you what happened.

He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram.

As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand, he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service.

So really he was just here to make a showing for the Americans back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you.

It's Not So Bad

Sure gas is a little expensive. The nation seems infatuated with an empty suit. The idiots in congress would rather fight the opposition than solve the nation's problems.

But somewhere in the world they're having races of women in high heels. Think of it. Yeah sure, it's in Russia, and yes, this should have been an American thing, but really, regardless of the country in which this is taking place, just the fact that it's happening embiggens us all.

Get Off Your Butt Nancy Pelosi

An IBD editorial nails it:

It's bad enough that Rep. Pelosi refuses to embrace reality, evaluate facts and oversee meaningful debate. But the hissy fits she throws against President Bush and the Republican minority are worse yet. This is a sad situation.

Pelosi's reaction to Bush's lifting of the ban on offshore drilling is a perfect example. She called the action a giveaway of "more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they've already leased."

The key phrase is "public" resources — not Democratic resources or Pelosi's resources — and polls clearly show Americans are behind coastal drilling. The speaker knows that.

Her demonizing of Big Oil doesn't make sense, either. The companies want to get oil out of the ground. Their exploratory technology is very effective, and they're drilling extensively. But not all lease properties have oil that's readily recoverable.

Pelosi says the president's action is a "gift of more profits for the oil companies." Does she prefer that foreign, and often hostile, nations make the profits? Well, they are. She knows that, too.

As for her allegation that drilling for domestic sources of oil are a "hoax", I have no idea what she means. I'm betting she doesn't know what she means either.

Thrill, Check - Leg, Check

h/t- Moonbattery

In the Middle East

He walks with confidence, fearing only crucifixion.

Batman

I'm sure this is somehow racist. Ah well.

The Bama Show continues, and I've been trying to get a message to the McCain campaign: If there is any bad news that they think may get out in the next couple of months, now would be a good time to just have a press conference and admit it. No press would show up, as they're all focused on the uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, other candidate.

I Request Protective Custody

William Torres is escorted by Allentown Police
from the police station to the jail on Saturday,
January 26, 2008. (Rob Kandel/The Morning Call)

So they come to arrest you at 6:00, Bam, the door gets kicked in, there are cops with flashlights and shotguns, maybe a flash-bang grenade. Pretty disorienting. Amazing it is then, that a guy could have the presence of mind to say, "Wait, can I get my slippers before we go - no, not the shag ones, the Lion King ones."

Course, he going in for a double homicide. Maybe he's the kind of guy who looks for trouble.

Survival of the Fittest

Time to scare more children.

Tigger Kills

Taking a break from the breathless Obama coverage for a bit, "Look there, Katie, he's walking over to the table and is patting one of the soldier people on the back." "Yes, he is Jim, I tell you, standing here watching this I don't know how anyone can say he doesn't support our troops."
OK, so he probably can't pick out our guys from the Canadians or the Brits, I've had enough anyway. All he really had to do was walk out onto the tarmac, put his hands on his hips, scan the horizon and nod, yup, pretty much how I thought it was going to be.

Anyway, real news, for the first time, a tigger has been caught killing a crocodile on film. Well, the story says "leopard", whatever that is. Is there really such a thing?

***Update: Pooh Helps.

SDS

Forgot to post this image from the Warped tour 08 in DC. I have to chuckle. Behind the folding card table were three of the most un-intimidating revolutionaries I've ever seen. They got fewer visitors than the Learn About Skin Cancer booth, and if I was forced to bet, I'd say the Save the Whales crew could kick the SDSer's butts.

This is a stark contrast to what the SDS, and their evil sub-group, the Weathermen, were in the sixties. The Weathermen were some seriously dangerous, and sick, people. That's why William Ayres is no joke. Domestic bombing is serious stuff. That Obama still looks on Ayers as a friend says a lot.

Chancellor Angela Merkel Meets the Obamanator

(clickbiginate)

Obamania

From what I have seen around these intertubes, the 'motivational poster' has evolved. Originally it was: an inspirational picture, with a one-word motivational concept, followed by its definition. Then, by degrees, it changed to: a funny picture, a pertinent one-word description, followed by a definition. And now we've got pretty much: any picture, any one-word description, followed by absolutely anything, including flan recipes.

It's in that spirit that thought I would point out that Chris Matthews touches himself unconsciously whenever he's around Barack Obama. That image, BTW, hasn't been photoshopped. (the second one has)

Mission Statement

Somewhere wandering loose around Mayberry is a loaded goat.

You Say Tomato

And I say, did you notice how they changed their mind on tomatoes? It went from "watch these" to "uh, and these too" to "never mind". Me, I'm just happy to get my 33% of a BLT back. Mmmm, status back to quo, marvelous quo. (BTW, Dr.H'sSAB, ROTFL)

Bad Bad People - Scientologists

You may have already seen this video of some jerk denying a disabled woman access to the sidewalk. I do a me-too post in order to vex the poor Scientoloschlub who has to sit in a back room somewhere cataloging slights to the faith. More about it here. Bad people - bad, bad.

Sure, It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Hurt

Everything looks easy before you try it.

That's why they call it experience.

Great Photos

Have you seen Boston.com's Big Picture? It's a great resource for high resolution news photos. For example, these, which show paramilitary policemen displaying their skills during an anti-terror drill themed "To Welcome Olympic Games,To Ensure the Security":

Here we see them performing "tactic to frighten
terrorists who are afraid of shadows".

And here: "tactic to isolate terrorists
who fear crossing large circles."

And finally: "tactic for terrorists who don't fear
shadows and are undeterred by large circles"

Not sure how well that last one will work in the large crowds expected for the Olympics.

(oh, and clickabbigen them for the hi-res versions)

Bud Nipping

So Nancy Pelosi thinks tapping the strategic reserve will help pop this oil bubble, but drilling for many more times that amount wouldn't affect prices. From the IHT:

"We learned the hard way that oil and water do not mix on our coast," Pelosi told a key committee in 1996 as she made her case for keeping the ban in place before a Congress then controlled by Republicans.

Now, with gas prices soaring, those drilling restrictions are facing their most severe test in years as calls intensify to more aggressively pursue domestic oil. Yet despite increasing pressure from President George W. Bush, a full-bore assault by congressional Republicans and some anxiety among her own rank-and-file Democrats,
"The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn't drill offshore," Pelosi said in an interview. "That is not the cause, and I am not going to let him get away with it."

Her voice carries considerable weight since, as speaker, Pelosi is in a position to prevent a vote on expanded drilling from reaching the floor

And she and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, appear intent on holding the line against calls to approve drilling in areas now off limits.

She hasn't brought it up yet, but before she invokes the Exxon Valdez, let me just nip this in the bud. According to NOAA:

Resiliency of the Sound

Recolonization at Herring Bay

What we have found is that, despite the gloomy outlook in 1989, the intertidal habitats of Prince William Sound have proved to be surprisingly resilient. Many shorelines that were heavily oiled and then intensively cleaned now appear much as they did before the spill. Most gravel beaches where the sediments were excavated and pushed into the surf zone for cleansing have returned to their normal shape and sediment distribution patterns. Beaches that had been denuded of plants and animals by the toxic effects of oil and by the intense cleanup efforts show extensive recolonization and are similar in appearance to areas that were unoiled.

As Barney said, "You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you'll find every one of them is in favor of bud-nipping."

Robert Redford, Activist

The inset is of Robert Redford testifying at a House Appropriations Committee Hearing. It's from an NPR piece on how Mr. Redford is now using poetry to help save the planet:

These days, he has a new venue for environmental activism: slam poetry. Sponsored by Redford's Sundance Preserve, in collaboration with Youth Speaks, a nonprofit that presents spoken-word performances, the Academy Award-winning actor is getting his message out in rhyme.

Huh? What place does poetry have in a scientific debate? Except to express emotion, well, ok maybe that is an important point: that what motivates Mr Redford is basically a feeling. "I'd like to testify that I really have no facts to present, but I have great conviction and concern." OK, Bob, we got that point long ago.

I'd like to announce that I will now be using Performance Art to promote my view that CO2 is an innocent gas essential for life: It will involve making crude jokes at the gas pump and kicking Robert Redford in the ass whenever he crosses my path.

Recycled Photoshop

"What do you mean,'what does it do'? Just look at it! It's magnificent! Why should it need to "do" anything?"

Vans Warped Tour

Good news/bad news for lumberkid. Good news: She gets to go to the Warped Tour today. Bad news: she has to take her dad.

Regular blogging ("regular blogging"? yeah, like that might happen around here) will resume barring any injuries in the mosh-pit. ("Father Puuu-leeease, your embarrassing me.")

Lethal Camel

I finished this too late to enter in Gizmodo's Iran Tech contest. Frankly, I can't see why Ahmadinejad hasn't already come up with this. If you're going to photoshop weapons in the Middle East, it seems like a chain-gun-camel would be a no-brainer. (that's why I thought of it)

Iran Pulls a Dan Rather

FARS News "refutes":

TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iranian analyst dismissed claims by certain western media that Iran has doctored still images of the missiles test fired during the naval maneuvers last week.

"The Islamic Republic did not publish any still images during the maneuvers, it officially and through its overseas media broadcasted these footages live contrary to the claims that have been made by the West," analyst Aabedini said.

I'm having trouble understanding how that second part refutes anything. They published the still images after the exercises. One of the images, at least, had been doctored.

But leaving that image aside, analysts are saying that the tests demonstrated no new Iranian capabilities.

Funny thing, though. I no longer see the original FARS version of the doctored photo in the FARS site.

Refutation: failed

***Update: I should have looked closer. There is still a link to the image on the news page, but the image is broken. (broken image: here news page here )

Mmmm, Bacon

The reception must have been wonderful.

New Yorker

I have to say I was shocked, shocked, that the New Yorker would publish the ¡Obama Revolution! cover. I find it in very poor taste which is why I'm reproducing it here. (click to embiggen) Now this is more like it:


OK, this one isn't quite real, but only in the sense that it's completely fake. I put it together in order to express my disappointment with the New Yorker.

Sad to think the New Yorker was once my favorite magazine. (or at least I assume it could possibly once have been my favorite magazine had I ever read an issue, or skimmed through an issue, or in fact even picked one up in the doctors office, even when the choices were: one six year-old copy of Car and Driver, or the New Yorker)

***Update:
We'll have to wait to see if this is the next cover of People. Possibly it's a parody of how conservatives would try to smear Michelle Obama were any of them competent with Photoshop.

Tony Snow RIP

May God bless his soul and comfort his family.

"America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character," President Bush said in a statement from Camp David, where he was spending the weekend. "It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work."

Get Your Missile News Here

Drudge is saying:

IRAN MISSILE TEST BLUFF: OLD ROCKETS, BOGUS VIDEO
Fri Jul 11 2008 15:18:02 ET

Many of Iran's claims related to missile tests during "Great Prophet III" war games -- appear to be smoke and mirrors!

The missiles tested DID NOT not have 2,000-kilometer range, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report on Saturday.

Iran DID NOT launch a Shahab-3 missile, able to reach Israel.

It was an older missile that was out of production, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

And a video showing what appeared to be many missiles being fired -- is actually one missile, filmed from different angles!

NYT's Bill Broad is planning to quote military insiders.

Developing...

Cool... they faked the test, then embellished the fake, then I faked the embellishment. I'm getting dizzy.

Missiles Missiles Everywhere

FARS doesn't mind photoshopping if the pictures "need help". That's not a criticism, just an observation. (don't want to harm my chances of maybe getting a job someday)

***Update: LOL Missile (Clickabiggen) May as well make yourself comfortable, this could go on awhile. (after work)

USABMS - Uncle Sam Anti-Ballistic Missile Shield


Maybe not quite 100%:

Can Possums Scream?

nearingzero

Bitter, Crude, and Pathetic Man

These guys, where do they come from?

Paul Zachary Myers, a professor at the University of Minnesota Morris, has pledged to desecrate the Eucharist. He is responding to what happened recently at the University of Central Florida when a student walked out of Mass with the Host, holding it hostage for several days. Myers was angry at the Catholic League for criticizing the student. His post can be accessed from his faculty page on the university’s website.

Here is an excerpt of his July 8 post, “It’s a Frackin’ Cracker!”:

“Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers?” Myers continued by saying, “if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I’ll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare....

I'm tempted to pull a DJ doughnut on him. Remember that? Two sets of morning DJ's were caught up in a long running feud. So one morning a girl in a bikini shows up at one of the stations with a dozen-doughnut "peace offering" from the feuding rivals. So they eat them on the air, cracking wise the whole time. But the next day a picture arrives showing the girl and the other two DJ's, naked, holding some of the doughnuts.... only not with their hands.

I say tempted, but I wouldn't want to be a part of his project, and, well also, he may not end up eating the (unconsecrated) cracker when he was done. I'm also tempted to photoshop him into a Koran desecration, to point out that he is only brave and bold in offending those who are instructed to forgive him.

It would be fun to send him a wafer though. They really are just crackers until they've been consecrated, and how would he know if it had been consecrated? He'd have to take it on faith.

Snip-Snip

Watch out, Jesse is proposing a significant change.

Cell Phones

Know how sometimes, when you're at a light, there will be people who want to make a right turn but they can't because you're going straight and you're stopped just a little too far back for them to get to the right-turn ramp? And we all try to pull up as much as possible so that those people don't have to wait through the light, right? It's the ethic of reciprocity, do unto others, and like that.

So today I'm sitting at a light when I notice the guy behind me has his blinker on and is just missing being able to turn by a foot. So I inch up but it's still not enough. Course, that's when I notice that the second car ahead of me has stopped a good two car-lengths behind the next car. And by the way, this light takes forever. You can eat an entire Big Mac and a Happy Meal waiting for this light to change.

So I do the little polite beep of the horn, neep-neep. But the lady is clueless, and I see why: she's talking on her cell phone. So it's a lost cause. She's vaguely aware that something made a little noise outside her car but really, this conversation is so riveting...

Anyway, I give up. Not my problem. I tried.... But wait, her phone call has ended. She wakes up, sees that a battle ship could turn around in the space in front of her, and pulls forward. Victory!

But wait again, the guy in front of me isn't pulling forward. Then I see it, now he's on the phone. It takes him 30 seconds or so but finally he notices and pulls up out of the way. OK, we're good now, I'm right behind him, the ramp is clear.

Well, it's clear, but the guy who wanted to make the turn isn't moving. Why? Come on, by now you know why: he's on the stinkin cell phone. And, he seems to be writing things down.

So, sorry for the long story, but it has a happy ending: It turns out that the vehicle behind the engrossed right-turner was a dump truck that also wanted to turn right, and he wasn't as gentle with his horn. BWAAAAA-BWAAAAAAAAAA! It made my face itch it was so loud. It made the mirrors shake. And with any luck the stopped driver peed himself a little.

I'm going to look into getting a set of those horns.

The Weather

Need an umbrella today? Check the stone.

Just Joking

I'm sure many brunettes have trouble parking too.

A Cautionary Tale

The Politico has an interesting story:

Shona Robertson-Holmes was a mess. She had crushing headaches, insomnia and adrenaline levels so high that she constantly felt as if she had just stepped in front of a speeding bus. And that’s not to mention her rapidly deteriorating eyesight.

She headed to her family doctor, who recommended that she see two specialists.

But Robertson-Holmes is Canadian, and her state-provided health care gave her a wait time of four months to see a neurologist and six months to see an endocrinologist.....

I don't even have to quote the rest, do I? (she crosses the border, gets proper, prompt, care, and is saved from blindness and death) She went to the Mayo, but most likely would have gotten proper treatment at any American hospital. The trick was getting to the problem before it got worse.

OK, so Michael Moore will not be interviewing her. He would point out, I'm sure, that it cost her $100,000 to get treated. Scandal! I would point out that when you're not dead, $100,000 is a doable number. (21.7 trips to the hooker if you're Eliot Spitzer)

(more stories like Shona's)
h/t: NRO

***Update: video!

Shona Holmes (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) from BigGovHealth on Vimeo.

Just Stop It

Imaginative Problem Solving

Melancholy

July, when the days of summer seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of winter.
-Shirley Jackson (almost)

Obama's Plane Has Controllability Issues

While flying from Chicago to Charlotte, the pilot's first officer announced that they were experiencing "controllability issues" ...

Give.... It..... Back!

Schoolboys disciplined for 'refusing to pray to Allah'

Just amazing:

[the boys] were given detention after refusing to take part in a practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

Yesterday parents accused the school of breaching their human rights by forcing them to take part in the exercise.

One, Sharon Luinen, said: "This isn't right, it's taking things too far. I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer.

"Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful."

OK, it's just another teacher zealot, move along, nothing to see here.... But I wonder if Muslim students were made to pray the Rosary or read from the Torah?

Of course not. There would be a different kind of protest if the religions were reversed.

"Educating children in the beliefs of different faiths is part of Cheshire's diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is, of course, is essential to understanding.

It's obvious that you can teach about a religion without having to practice it. And if you're concerned about intolerance towards Islam, you should also examine the intolerance of Islam.

Busted?

Media Matters is claiming that someone at Fox intentionally altered images of Jacques Steinberg and Steven Reddicliffe, of the NYT. I don't know, it's a close call:

OK, it's hard to tell on my monitor but I can see how some people could conclude that the images have been altered. I'm not all together sure that the changes aren't an improvement though.

Firepower

Well, the fireworks are winding down. We're down to the amateurs with their West Virginia bottle rockets and Pennsylvania mailbox erasers. Pffft! BOOM! and you don't notice that your mailbox is gone until Monday. There is still pop-pop-whistling from the house behind us and I think I saw an ignited cat running through the back yard, but mainly it's quieting down now. Another Fourth.

So anyway. Firepower. The Chinese preparing for any threat that may pop up at the Olympics:

July 4th

Wishing everyone a happy and proud Fourth of July.

New Threat

Warmons, ok, I like the term, have something new to worry about. It seems that NF3, nitrogen trifluoride, which is used in making flat screens TVs and monitors, is just horribly bad. OK, step one accomplished. Now we'll proceed to Step two: whipping up a frenzy. Step three: identifying Republican manufacturers of the offending flat screens, and throwing blood on their porches. Step four: Government regulation of flat screens, and Step five: Al Gore exempting himself, and selling indulgences, by establishing Ethiopian villages that are entirely flat screen free.

Course, the usual process might be short circuited if a study comes to light showing that NF3 pollution can be counteracted by incinerating vast amounts of corn or wheat.

And a side note: You've probably seen the articles on a World Bank study showing that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%. How did the poet, Gomer Pile, put it? "Surprise, surprise!"

Anyway, reading that this morning I was reminded of something I had read many years ago: A theory, maybe true, that Abraham Lincoln wouldn't necessarily have died from his wounds - that it was his overzealous doctors, who just had to do everything they could, that killed him. I mean, he was so important, what if they could probe, and remove the bullet? They just had to try. Getting shot was just the first injury.

So now we have climate "fixers" diverting food crops in order to make a fuel that still creates CO2, costs more in energy to produce than it gives back, and has the side effect of starving the most un-industrialized among us. Sounds like the overzealous doctors all over again, trying to fix a planet this time. Its only benefit is that it makes our "fixers", and their fools, feel good about themselves. Meanwhile the patient thrashes about on the table like an over-probed president from the 19th century.

Floods and Warming

Watts Up With That has a good post on the Warmists, and their media stooges, attempts to blame the recent flooding on AGW:

In the midst of this tragedy, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) tried to capitalize on heightened public interest with an attempt to gain headlines by tying these tragic events to “global warming.”

The EDF proclaimed: Did Humans Cause the Midwest Flooding? In the piece, EDF’s James Wang writes, “Another element [of the Midwest floods] may be global warming, which increases the probability of extreme weather events like torrential rain.” NCDC, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, headlined, Extreme Weather to Become More Common. The respective headlines can be found at http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/ and www.noaa.gov/ .

This is fear mongering, not the advancement of science. And, it detracts from NOAA as a whole because its National Weather Service performed heroically - with its field staff working long hours coping with the floods and accompanying tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.

It is unseemly to work to score public relations points when people are losing their homes, their crops, and their lives.

And, it leaves us to ponder a key question: Does the science justify tying the Midwest floods to Global Warming? My answer? An emphatic “no.”

The above is a chart of satellite-measured lower tropopsphere temperatures pretty much says it all: if warm temps are the problem, why did this flooding happen at a very definite low in surface temperature? (I've modified the graph somewhat to give Eliot Spitzer's hooker expenditures as a convenient reference point) The area highlighted in blue shows shows the 'Delta T' drop in temperature leading up to these floods. The shaded green box shows that, had he skipped a few appointments with the call girls, Eliot Spitzer could have bought himself a fairly nice minivan.

Oil

Being one of the few people on these internet tubes who can add, subtract, divide, and multiply, I thought I should use my superpowers to put gas prices in perspective. So I went looking for numbers to crunch and found that there were too many available. Yeah, it's not that information isn't available; it's too available. And the Wikipedia-effect taints most of them. Accuracy is guaranteed by SGOI, some guy on the internet.

But you can do the math yourself. The radio is talking about how families from the DC area want to go to the beach for the Fourth of July but can't because of gas prices. So check the numbers. The distance from DC to OC is 150 miles. Most family cars/mini-vans get 15 miles per gallon or better, so that's 10 gallons to get there, and 10 to get back. So how does an extra dollar per gallon kill the deal? "Twenty dollars extra is too much, dear, let the kids play in the backyard with the hose." Come on, the first game of miniature golf will cost you twice that.

I'm not saying that four dollar gas is insignificant, but neither is it disastrous. I drive many miles for work and get terrible gas mileage. Back of the napkin calculations show me paying maybe $1500 more for gas this year. That seems like a lot until you consider how much driving those miles will bring in. Spread it out over the year and only the pickiest customers would even notice if I raise my rates to compensate.

This feels like a case of the media whipping up a frenzy because:

• It's an election year and Republicans are evil/dumb/dangerous.
• Reporters and News Directors avoid math just as much as everyone else.
• Reporters and News Directors are as easily scared as everyone else.
• Scare stories are very easy to do.

The good news is that in uncertain times, one of the easiest things you can do to cut costs is to cancel the newspaper subscription.

***Update: visual aid -



Dilbert

Baseball Goes 2D

I knew this would be Youtubed early. Great play.

New Clothing Line

It's time to short stock in the Onion; their stock in trade, absurdity, has gone mainstream:

ELDORADO, Texas - A new clothing brand may be born out of the Texas raid on a polygamous sect.
FLDS women for the first time are offering their handmade, distinctive style of children's clothes to the public through the Web site fldsdress.com.
Launched initially to provide Texas authorities with clothing for FLDS children in custody, the online store now is aimed at helping their mothers earn a living.
The venture, which has already drawn queries from throughout the U.S., is banking on interest in modest clothes, curiosity and charity to be a success.

What's the pitch? Modest fashions for abused children? I'm boggled.

***Update: from the Onion:

Har! Pro hopes, supports dreams. Seems the Onion is branching out into serious reporting to make up for the loss of the absurdity franchise.

Comments

Comments are flaky today. Sorry, Haloscan seems to be having server trouble.

Benchmarks

AP reports, but grudgingly, that the latest report to congress identifies 15 of 18 benchmarks for Iraq as having been met. This is "achingly slow" progress apparently. Hey, we should be thankful they deemed it worth reporting on at all.

I have a theory. The AP, I think, is combating bloggers who would quote their content by cutting back on said content. "That's it," they said, "for starters, let's cut back on good news from Iraq."

Mort Kondracke has a thought though:

But I think that this provides a great opportunity for Barack Obama—when he goes to visit there, he can do the old George Aiken thing. Remember from 1966 during the Vietnam war, the Senator from Vermont said let's declare victory and pull out.

So he can declare victory, he can say has all this really has been done, the sacrifice of our brave troops have been rewarded, and now we're free to leave. We'll leave responsibly, but we're out.

Hmmm. Could be. The only problem will be in couching the "news" in a way that will admit progress has been made while denying credit to anyone involved. So, good news/bad news all over again. "Good news: You've made progress. Bad news: it wasn't you, oh, and we're going to cut and run."

Kaboom

It looks like Kaboom went kerblooie. No, not the guy, the blog has fallen victim to the kerpow. Lt. G is fine. The archives are still a good read. Wish there were more of them.

Though he was ordered to delete the blog, this is the internet - what gets published once is around forever.

Who knows? It might come back. But for now, Lt. G's been ordered to shut it down and, properly, he says, "I’m a soldier first, and orders are orders. So it is."

Almost Forgot

Happy Canada Day!

not so random Canadian fact: a study found that one in five Canadian men (17%) has played a computer game in the nude while a significantly smaller percentage of women (9%) have done the same.

Hypocrisy

Jim Webb*

Jim Webb:

"I think what we really need to work on over the next four, five months, and it goes back to the speech that Sen. Obama gave [Tuesday] and this little fight that I've been watching and that is, we need to make sure that we take politics out of service," Webb said. "People don't serve their country for political issues."

*a bit of explanation: Jim Webb made his son's combat boots (from Iraq) a sort of campaign trademark in his 06 run for the Senate. He wore them, and brandished them, everywhere. He never tired of bringing up his service in Vietnam, or his son's current military service. The boots are now in a glass display case in his Senate office.

***Update: With apologies to Vermin Supreme:

Good Strategy

Yeah, B, maybe patriotism isn't your strong suit.