Newest Bookmark

I'm off to the slopes for two days.... *Mainly* for the kid's sake
but I expect I'll get a shot at a debilitating injury as well.
Course I could brake a limb at home just as easily. Nah, then I'd
miss the chance to freeze my butt off at the same time.

We are a proud, ancient people...

..... an we put things on our heads.

Phone Cards

Want to help a wounded soldier this Christmas? Troops hospitalized
in Germany would greatly appreciate getting phone cards. The cards
can be sent to the marine liaison:

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center



NAVMED DT Landstuhl Ge



LRMC CMR 402 Box 4



APO AE 09180-3460

And also..... I got the following from an article in the Stars and Stripes.
Give a click:
http://www.soldiertomovies.org/

Seen on a T-shirt

What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about?

Wadja do in school today?

From ananova:

Teacher gets students to write epitaphs

A teacher in northwestern China is under investigation for getting his students write their own epitaphs

Geng Xiaohong who teaches at a secondary school in Xi'an believes epitaph writing helps develop students' values and encourages them to think about the meaning of life, reports crienglish.com quoting Xinmin Evening News.

However the practice has made some parents and experts uncomfortable because talking about death while still alive is considered taboo in China.

The paper reported Professor Hao Wenwu from Shaanxi Normal University said: "If this technique is used too often children might lose hope in their life.

Taboo in China? It seems a little creepy here too.

frankentoilet

frankentoilet, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

Googling images for 'toilet', 'urinal', and 'bidet' was terribly easy.Constructing an image of Al Franken out of them was, well, I guess that was also easy. In fact, I'm not altogether sure that a folder full of toilet images won't spontaneously form into an image of Al Franken on it's own.

Rainy

What a day to go driving. Drizzle, between periods of drizzle
and more drizzle. Almost makes you wish for a storm.
Or summer again.
Ah well.

Securing the Death Road

Well worth reading the whole thing from Iraq the Model:

Securing the death road.
Ten days ago, and just before I was heading to my work station in Samawa, I got a phone call from my colleagues warning me from tacking the road the passes through Latifriyah and at that time the news coming from that spot was indicating a close military operation to put an end for the domination of the criminals over that segment of the road to the south.

The significant piece of news at that day was blowing up a small bridge over a small canal near Latifiyah, the small town that turned into a junk yard for burnt vehicles and a slaughter house for Iraqis; officials, IP and ING members and even civilians. Not to mention that all governmental offices were destroyed there....

Puzzler

A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, "Please come over here
and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how
to get it started."


Her boyfriend asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's
finished?"


The blonde says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a
tiger." Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She
lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the
table.


He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then
turns to her and says, "First of all, no matter what we do, we're not
going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a
tiger."


He then takes her hand and says, "Second, I want you to relax.
Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then....." he sighed, "We'll put al these Frosted Flakes back in the box."

The Rev

Former Democratic presidential candidate the Rev. Al Sharpton explains
why he would have been a better candidate than John Kerry.

Cute

Bravo, a 7-month-old male cheetah cub, takes a break with CJ, a 5-month-old
Anatolian shepherd puppy, after clawing out the brain of their trainer.

The Real Struggle for Iraq

THE REAL STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ
by Amir Taheri
New York Post
September 29, 2004
excerpt, more at http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/7794:

Those who want Iraq to fail so that Bush and/or America will also fail are now focusing their energies towards a single goal: postponing elections in Iraq for as long as possible. To achieve that goal, they will stop at nothing.

It was on that basis that opponents of Iraqi elections have cooked up a story around the claim that Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the primus inter pares of the Shiite clerics in Najaf, wants the election postponed or may even boycott.

U.S. and European newspapers that had always dismissed Sistani as "a reactionary mullah" have recently put him in the headlines and devoted lengthy editorials and op-ed pieces to his supposed opposition to the holding of elections.

The initial story was built around the claim that Sistani is unhappy with the elections because the Shiite share is limited to 55 percent of the total rather than 60 percent.

This is an absurd claim for the simple reason that the planned elections treat all of Iraq as a single constituency in which every vote is equal to every other vote. And if several or even all of Iraq's political parties wish to enter the election with a single list of national unity, how could Sistani overrule them? The ayatollah has never claimed to be a dictator.

Nor is Iraq an Iranian-style "Islamic" state, where a single mullah can overrule everyone else and even suspend the basic tenets of the religion. Anyone who knows Sistani would know that he is the last person to play the deadly game of Shiite-Sunni rivalry.

Note also that the January election is to form a Constituent Assembly, a body that will write the nation's new constitution. It is therefore important that the assembly enjoy the widest possible support among all Iraqis.

Immediately after Saddam's fall, some of us had urged the Bush administration to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government and organize elections as quickly as possible. Sistani endorsed that view as early as August 2003, calling for a transfer of power to the Iraqis and the holding of elections.

His position has not changed. Sistani wants elections, and wants them as soon as possible. All he asks is that the international community, including the United Nations, play a role in organizing and supervising the series of elections planned for next year. His hope is that Iraq would not only have a new constitution, to be approved in a popular referendum, but also an elected parliament and a government with a clear electoral mandate before the end of 2006. That, he knows, is the fastest way for the Coalition forces to leave Iraq in peace and with dignity.

Sistani insists on international participation, beyond the U.S.-led Coalition, for two reasons. First, he knows that divisions among the big powers over Iraq are harmful for all concerned. He wants them to unite in helping the people of Iraq make their true feelings known through free elections. Second, he knows that the elections will enjoy greater legitimacy if the international community unanimously endorses the results.

Sistani's message is simple: Think of the future of Iraq, not the settling of past scores.

Driving tricks

I only post this because I'm pretty sure I was driving behind this guy on thursday:

Man drives 375 miles with no hands

An Indian man has driven 375 miles without using his hands in a bid to get into the record books.

It took 15 hours for R S Santhosh Kumar to drive from Parassala, near Thiruvanthapuram, to Kasargod with his hands tied to the driver's seat.

The jewellery shop owner controlled the steering wheel, brake and clutch with his legs alone, reports Vijay Times.

Kumar, from Neyyanttinkara in Kerala, said he had been training for the event for the past five years.

The event was monitored by officials of the Limca Book of Records, India's version of the Guinness Book of World Records

Having a Bad Day?

Not as bad as this guy I'd wager:
(scroll through the whole sequence)

French troops find terrorists

I got tired of looking at that sad picture so I scuttled it.
Say a prayer for the innocents caught up in Africa as well.

It's just that their "bad guys" don't carry guns or set up IED's.

Feeling Testy

I've had days like this:

Lumberjack's revenge

An angry Austrian lumberjack used his chainsaw to reduce his boss's furniture to matchsticks.

After the fight at work, the 37-year-old drove to his boss's flat in the town of St. Johann, reports Tiroler Krone.

After cutting a rectangle into the door with his chainsaw to get in, he then destroyed a table, armchair, corner seat, the complete kitchen furniture and the wardrobe.

Neighbours who heard the noise of the chainsaw called the police.

When they arrived, they found the man sitting peacefully amongst the remains of his boss's furniture.

Police say the man caused an estimated £3,500 of damage.

We Shall Whine Triumphant One Day

The Politics of Victimization

[Mel Gilles, who has worked for many years as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse, draws some parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to the election.-- Mathew Gross]

Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the new language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, “Why did they beat me?”

And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.

They will tell you, every single day.

The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.....

And it continues on in this vein. I mean sheesh. Dan Rather was humiliated because he tried to use forged documents to scuttle a presidential reelection. It wasn't because we red-statists, in our ripped white tank-t's, were drunkenly hurling abuse and stomping around the trailer park, looking to open a can of whup-ass on the man. (Well, OK, I was, I'll admit it, but I was in the minority) Most people were just wondering how a major news network could stick with such an obviously flawed and biased story for so long. Is that abuse? Were the blues off somewhere making a police report, pleading with their mascara-run eyes for the officer to protect them from that mean blogger who claimed Dan's documents were forgeries. "Oh, and then they, sniffle-sniffle, questioned Dan's motives, officer. They called him, sniffle-snorfel, a liberal too, I think. Oh it all becomes a blur. I just want to stay at my mother's tonight."

Great googily-moogily, the Islamist PR machine has talked my kid's school into
a mosque field trip. And her blue-state social studies teacher seems to
have taken the bait -- oh how the progressive-thinking points will go up in his
self image file. Here comes the broad minded educator, too sophisticated to
stereotype the poor misunderstood muslim. But there are questions
I'd like the kid to ask, such as, would we be called a religion of peace if
fr. David was able to issue fatwas calling for the murder of Catholic detractors?
What about if fr Dan decided that a Jihad against Canada was called for?

Course, I love the kid too much to suggest she challenge the teacher. Social studies
teachers are the only class of people more close-minded than the Imams.
He has warned them, "don't be surprised if they stare at anyone who takes off their
head scarf". He didn't mention that their catholic school uniforms would be
considered scandalous in Afghanistan, an invitation for a terrible beating.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another one is pardoned.

The Vet

I don't know why I do it. I could just carry the dog to the
car and go. But every time we go to the vet, I start off
by getting the dog all excited about a car ride. "Wanna go? Wanna go
ride in the car? Go get your leash, we'll ride in the car."
Dog excitement fills the air until we pull up to the
building and vet-realization takes hold. I'm lucky dogs are so
forgiving; I really deserve a good bite or two.

OK I'm off.

That Mosque shooting.

Kevin Sites talks about it.

Fashion

Good to see that Russians are designing clothes again.

TV

So the old TV starts sputtering and throwing
more sparks than usual, and I finally have an
excuse to get a bigger, better, more manly set.
And after getting it home, and getting the neighbor
to help carry it in, and getting enrolled in the
engineering course it will take to learn how to
work the remote control, I find that the only thing
on TV these days is reality shows and you-leave-the-
house-so-a-crew-of-strangers-can-speed-decorate-it
shows. (which is really just another reality show with
the end result being that someone has to live with
purple walls when it's over)

Well, at least I can watch Sponge Bob with the kid. The
Bob should be about a foot tall on this set, and he
should be a bright yellow, not the orange tint that
the old TV would render anything that wasn't blue.

Clay-

mation....

Galloway

Remember George Galloway?
He's still at it, although I would have expected him to have some shame at being caught with his hand in Saddam's cookie jar. Anyway, his libel trial is underway. Hope you're having a good day and he's not. From Annanova:

Galloway 'opposed Saddam's tyranny'

George Galloway is a "long-standing opponent of tyranny and oppression", the High Court heard at the start of the MP's long-awaited libel action against the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Galloway, dressed in a dark suit and patterned red tie, sat encircled by lawyers as his QC, Richard Rampton, opened his case over an April 2003 story about his alleged financial links to Saddam Hussein.

He told Mr Justice Eady, who is hearing the five-day case without a jury, that the 50-year-old MP for Glasgow Kelvin had an interest in the Middle East that went back to the 1970s.

He said: "One of his interests has been to champion what he sees as the need for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people in the Middle East.

"He has also been a long-standing opponent of tyranny and oppression. That has particular reference to this case because one of his targets dating from the Seventies was the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein and his cronies in Iraq.

"He has been entirely consistent about that ever since that date up until the fall of Saddam Hussein more recently.

"He has been the leader of a campaign against the regime and for the sake of the Iraqi people at a time, and through the whole of the period, when Western governments were in great good friendship with Saddam Hussein."

Mr Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party in October last year, is likely to face cross-examination by the newspaper's QC, James Price.

The case is expected to focus on detailed legal submissions on the so-called "Reynolds qualified privilege defence".

Named after the case in which it was first developed, involving former Irish premier Albert Reynolds, it involves considering whether it was responsible journalism and in the public interest for the newspaper to publish the contents of documents on which their story was based.

Yasser

So French doctors are going to try coffin therapy on the
ailing dead/alive/only-sleeping Palestinian leader. OK, but
there are reports that Yasser's doctor may want to try autopsy
therapy first. Hope they can coordinate.

Sarin?

Hmm, I'm finding no mention of this on a google news
search but an NPR reporter is claiming that US forces have
come across sarin nerve gas in Fallujah. Audio only:

NPR report

update:
Darn, now the same NPR-babe is saying they were only
sarin gas test kits.
Darn, now we'll be accused of planting test kits.
Can't win.

Weird Behavior

"It's weird behavior that hasn't been recognized before on Uranus,"

Just thought you'd want to know. Apparently there are
clouds on Uranus. Who knew?

From Ananova

Hoffman reveals his doggy plan for world peace

Dustin Hoffman says man could learn how to preserve world peace by the following the example of dogs.

Hoffman says there would be less conflict if, like dogs, humans first sniffed each other out before deciding whether or not to fight.

Writing in the December issue of Playboy, The Graduate star says, "If a lot of dogs are on the beach, the first thing they do is smell each other's a***.

"The information that's gotten somehow makes pacifists out of all of them. I've thought, 'If only we smelled each other's a**, there wouldn't be any war.'"

Hoffman's latest movie, Meet The Fockers co-starring Robert DeNiro, Barbra Streisand and Ben Stiller, is due for release on January 28 in the UK.

Fallujah

Enemy resistance in Fallujah is starting to collapse, with US forces deep inside the city and fighters pulling back to their ultimate stronghold in the Jolan district. There is no more room to retreat with the Euphrates to the west and American forces on every side.....

The best coverage I've found about the continuing battle is
at Belmont Club.
I probably share something with Michael Moore today. We're both
praying that the forces of good prevail. Only difference is that
he thinks the car-bombers are the good guys.

Now I'm Hungry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Red meats and processed meats such as
hot dogs appear to increase the risk of diabetes, as does a heavily
"Western" diet, according tonew research released Monday.

Run for your lives.
It's getting to where you can't eat anything without first doing a risk assessment.
The above article was a downer but less so now that I've googled "Teresa T Fung",
the author of the study. Seems her favorite area of study is red meat. (it will give
you heart disease/stroke, it will cause you to absorb a 'non-human protein', it will
make you fat, it causes corrosion on your barbeque grill, it's, even at this moment,
starting a fire in your refrigerator) Sheesh. Why don't they ever identify themselves
as don't-eat-the-animal fanatics at the beginning of the article? Well, Fung is
an easy name to remember. Next year, when she comes out with a definitive study
linking red meat and poor gas mileage, I'll take it with a grain of salt. (and pepper)

Uh, Bill?

For all the millions the Clinton Presidential Center
cost, don't you think you could have come up with
something that looked a little less like a house trailer?

Wake-up Call?

I know for sure that you, Oh America will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Europe will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Holland, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Hirsi Ali, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh unbelieving fundamentalist, will go under.

From the Economist:

The hard-hitting policies of the current immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, have been adjusted to respond to such fears. They include such measures as limiting the influx of immigrants by arranged marriages and making more effort to integrate newcomers into Dutch society, for example by compelling them to learn the Dutch language.

Many immigrants say the government's aim is full assimilation. They attack what they see as a lack of knowledge and respect for their own cultural and social norms....

Yeah, cultural norms like using brutal murder to silence critics. Wake-up wood-shoed people. You can't protest terrorists back into inactivity.

Despair

Yes, come closer John Kerry, and let me taste your salty tears of despair.

Seriously, I wish him well. I suspect his talk of reuniting the country is
just hot air but I suppose time will tell.

A New Day

And the closure thing seems no closer.
I guess it was to be expected that JFK's mighty intellect
would allow him to visualize the unlikely combination of
provisional ballots, electoral new math, and volcano eruptions
that could come together and produce a victory for him.
Can't blame the guy for hesitation when all he needs is a few
computer glitches and lightning strikes to come out on top.

I just hope that we can all work together after this is all
settled. It would be a shame if hard feelings prevented JFK
from sharing his secret plans for ending discord in Iraq,
balancing the budget, and getting us invited into the EU.

Whew...

Looks like the voters have made up their minds, correctly, I think.
Now the only question is how long Kerry wants to play out the
Black Knight scene from the Holy Grail. "No, no, it's
just a scratch. Have atcha then!" Let's hope the vote (re)counting
ends before Christmas.

Maybe Kerry and his bride will just show up at the White House one day
with a U-haul full of brie. "Geooorge, we're ready to be president now.
Come on, George, it's our turn."

Nope, John. It's just not your turn.

Not all the Democrat Lawyers are at the Polls

At least a few are out of the country:

300 children bitten by 'blood sucking' monkeys at famous Indian temple

Monkeys lurking at an ancient Hindu temple in India's northeast have attacked up to 300 children over three weeks, temple officials said Tuesday.

"They hide in trees and swoop on unsuspecting children loitering about in the temple premises or walking by, clawing them and even sucking a bit of blood," Bani Kumar Sharma, a priest at the Kamakhya temple in Assam state, told The Associated Press. The temple, one of the most famous in India, is located in Gauhati, Assam's capital.

On my way to vote..

I'm ready for the usually boring mechanics of casting my vote.
The whole thing should take ten minutes if it's anything
like last time. Who knows though? Democrat lawyers are supposed
to fill the polling places. I imagine those who aren't felons
will also take the opportunity to cast their votes. Good. Anything
that keeps them out of the courts is probably good for America.

One last thought from American Thinker:

The ritual of going to a polling place and entering the booth tends to invest a certain solemnity to the civic ritual of voting. If ever there were a moment to take a deep breath and let your heart (and gut) consider the action you are about to take, casting your vote today for president is it. Today’s decision matters for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

Call me a hopeless partisan, but I cannot imagine that the deep breath factor benefits John F. Kerry. There is nothing about him which inspires confidence or trust. Can anyone tell us what his plan is to win the War on Terror, other than to do a “better job” than Bush? Can anyone tell us where his deepest convictions lie? Aside from the importance of accumulating his own wealth and power, that is.

More

100_0509, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

Life is good.

My crew

100_0506, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

The neighbors didn't know what hit them.

Numbers Numbers Numbers

Here's a good site for tracking the electoral vote.
It's so very much beats crayons and the road atlas.
Paint um all red George.

Halloween Fun

Cute flash pumpkin carver. Happy pumpkin everyone.

Kerry Says Saddam 'Might Be Gone' Had He Been President
Fri Oct 29 2004 10:02:35 ET

NBCNEWS Brokaw interviewed John Kerry Thursday evening.

Brokaw: "If you had been President, Saddam Hussein would be in power."

Kerry: "Not necessarily."

Brokaw: "You said you wouldn't go to war against him."

Kerry: "That's not true. Because under the inspection process, Saddam Hussein was required to destroy those kinds of materials and weapons."

Brokaw: "But he wasn't destroying them."

Kerry: "That's what you have inspectors for. That's why I voted for the threat of force, because he only does things when you have a legitimate threat of force. It's irresponsible to suggest that if I were President, he wouldn't be gone. He might be gone, because if he hadn't complied, we might have had to go to war, but if we did, we would have gone with allies, so the American people weren't carrying the entire burden. And the entire world would understand why we did it."

So except for the magical thinking that he would somehow get the bribed French and Russians behind our effort, Kerry is saying he pretty much agrees with the President's actions.

All American Athlete

It looks like Kerry is determined to play catch
on the nation's tarmacs until someone takes
a picture of him that makes him look, well.... better
than this.

Iraqs_WMD_Vol2scaled

Iraqs_WMD_Vol2scaled, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

From the report from the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD:

Possible Connections to
Terrorist/Insurgent Groups
ISG uncovered evidence of a possible connection
between Al Quds program director 'Imad 'Abd-al-
Latif Al Rida and terrorist/insurgent organizations.
In December 2003 after Coalition forces captured
Saddam Husayn, a source who worked on Al Quds
claimed that Dr. 'Imad had told him that four Al Quds
UAVs were to be used as "flying bombs" to assassinate
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

According to the source, four UAVs were to be
given to a former Hamas member named "Abu
Radin" who was a friend of Saddam Husayn. Abu
Radin, who was no longer loyal to Hamas, would
take the UAVs to Jordan, install 5 kg of C4 explosive,
and use them to attack Sharon at the Wailing
Wall in Jerusalem.

Although uncorroborated, this story is similar
to the well-documented Iraqi plan to use the Al
Musayara-20 UAV as a "flying bomb."
Additionally, a document obtained by ISG reveals that
on 23 December 2000, Dr. 'Imad signed a memorandum
with the Air Force and senior members of
the Fedayeen Saddam agreeing to develop helicopter
UAVs for the Fedayeen Saddam. This memo stated
that the project had been coordinated with Huwaysh
and the work would be a cooperative effort of MIC,
the Air Force, and Fedayeen Saddam.

During initial testing, the UAV was diffi cult to control
and the test deemed a failure. As a result, all
work was suspended on the helicopter UAV project.
The prototype was destroyed by cruise missiles on
the third day of OIF.

The Internet Was Made for This Sort of Thing

From the internet, where it's not uncommon to find an open letter to the guy who stole your camera:

To The Person Who Found My Camera
Dear Sir/Madam:

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on the acquisition of a Casio Exilim S20 compact digital camera. No doubt it was an exciting find after your fine meal at Houston's on Park, where delicious spinach dip is the signature item.

As you may have noticed, the Casio Exilim is a 2.0 Megapixel beauty with a 4X digital zoom. At under a half-inch thick, it's the perfect camera to put in your pocket and lose while dining out.

No doubt, you're wondering why the memory card contains 17 close-ups of a cat's ass......

Forgive Ashlee Simpson

So what's a little lip-synching? I say we
forgive her. And if this keeps happening, then I
suggest we punish Cher.

Al Qaqaa Explosives

What are the chances that common sense will be used by any of the newspapers covering the missing Al Qaqaa explosives? Wouldn't you think that the average terrorist would feel pretty much stocked up after he stole his, oh, I don't know, first 20 tons of RDX? One pound of this stuff will bring down an airplane. Think you'd need 30 tons, you know, in case of a rainy day? And if the bad guys have this stuff, why are their roadside bombs still made from salvaged explosives from warheads? Why haven't the car bombs been bigger? Load a car to the gills with high explosives and you could have some pretty impressive body counts. Anyway, so now the report comes out for those who really can imagine terrorists making dozens of trips to the depot to get just the last scrap of high explosives:

(CNN) -- The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a network embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived.

NBC News reported that on April 10, 2003, its crew was embedded with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division when troops arrived at the Al Qaqaa storage facility south of Baghdad.

While the troops found large stockpiles of conventional explosives, they did not find HMX or RDX, the types of powerful explosives that reportedly went missing, according to NBC.

The International Atomic Energy revealed Monday that it had been told two weeks ago by the Iraqi government that 380 tons of HMX and RDX disappeared from Al Qaqaa after Saddam Hussein's government fell.

In a letter to the IAEA dated October 10, Iraq's director of planning, Mohammed Abbas, said the material disappeared sometime after Saddam's regime fell in April 2003, which he attributed to "the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."

Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003. According to NBC, troops from the 101st Airborne arrived the next day to find that the material was already gone.

Yikes

Liz Edwards says there will be no riots if they win.
Tell you what, if, no, when W wins this thing, I'm staying indoors.

Great Game

Even Castro was pumped up by the Red Sox win. He's shown
here demonstrating how Damon stole second in the 1st.


Slide Fidel, slide!

Carter at it Again

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about—this is going to cause some trouble with people—but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

What? The British were trying to rebuild our infrastructure and help us set up a democracy? The British wanted to leave? They had a massive aid effort?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we’ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial’s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

Of course Jimmy is thinking about the Civil war. The Revolutionary War was a conflict in which we lost under 5000 total. I admire the man's earnestness but he's looking further and further out of touch.

On to Game Seven

OK, so Alex Rodriguez tried to pull a fast one. Hey, it's baseball -- that stuff happens. But what is low rent is the fans throwing a hissy fit when the umps called it right.

Ah well, it ended right. And the Red Sox have come back from an 0-3 hole (against the Yankees no less) to force a game 7. What a great performance by Schilling. What a great game, regardless of how game 7 goes.

Har...

O’REILLY OUTSOURCES PHONE SEX TO INDIA

Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly announced today that he has outsourced all of his phone sex activities to India, citing “heavy call volume” as the reason behind the move.

Starting this week, all phone sex normally handled by Mr. O’Reilly will instead originate from a calling center in Bangalore, the television host confirmed.

“There’s a time and a place for everything, and when it comes to phone sex, the time is any time and the place is Bangalore,” Mr. O’Reilly told his television audience.

At the Bangalore calling center, Surjit Khera, 31, was one of many employees undergoing a three-week training program to help him approximate Mr. O’Reilly’s phone-sex technique: “It is very hard to be as sexy as Bill O’Reilly, but I am endeavoring to do so.........

More from Borowitz

I'm sooooo sorry

Blame Canada

This was an inevitability. Did anyone think the market wouldn't adapt if we suddenly started buying all our drugs through Canada? Never, ever, happen.

More than 30 Canadian internet pharmacies have decided not to accept bulk orders of prescription drugs from US states and municipalities.

The move delivers a potentially serious setback to US politicians most notably Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry campaigning to give Americans easier access to cheap drugs from Canada.

Mr Kerry has argued that opening the US to Canadian imports could help lower the costs of prescription drugs for elderly Americans. Such reimportation has become one of the points of difference between him and President George W. Bush during the election campaign.

But growing concern in Canada that growing exports to the US could lead to rising prices and shortages north of the border has prompted the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (Cipa), whose members include several of the biggest internet and mail-order drugstores, to act. “We don't want to give Americans the impression that we have unlimited supply for them to tap into on a commercial basis,” said David Mackay, the association's executive director. Americans, he added, “can't get everything from Canada. We can't be your complete drugstore”.

100_0490.JPG

100_0490.JPG, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

More posterboard fools can be seen at The FOR Iraq photo project.

Pure Fiction

Yeah, as if Michael Moore would ever pass the popcorn.

look familiar?

stan.JPG

stan.JPG, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

no worries

Ann

So John says:
"There are 60 countries who have members of al-Qaida in them. How many of those countries are we going to invade?"

And Ann notices:
Democrats are now on the record: Sixty countries harbor al-Qaida. But apparently the one nation that had managed to entirely purge itself of all al-Qaida members was Iraq -- under the great statesman Saddam Hussein! Iraq is the only country in the world liberals believe was hermetically sealed from al-Qaida.

Glad someone finally made that point.

ALLbetter

ALLbetter, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

Good as new, almost.

whoops

whoops, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

radial keratotomy

100_0484crop, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

Don't Try This at Home

Moved

I think we're moved now. No archives but I'm working on that.