What Planet Am I On Again?

Senator Barbara Boxer, a noted political hoplophobe, threatens to cut off funding for the Transportation Security Administration if they don't arm airline pilots sooner.

Huh?

Lileks says:

We stopped pretending we would ratify Kyoto. We only spent $15 billion on AIDS in Africa. We did not take dictation from Paris. If we had done these things, it would minimize the world’s anger.

Is the world angry at Russia, which spends nothing on AIDS and rebuffed Kyoto? Is the world angry at China, which got a pass on Kyoto and spends nothing on AIDS for other countries?

Is the world angry at North Korea for killings its people? Angry at Iran for smothering that vibrant nation with corrupt and thuggish mullocracy? Angry at Syria for occupying Lebanon? Angry at Saudi Arabia for its denial of women’s rights? Angry at Russia for corrupt elections? Is the world angry at China for threatening Taiwan, or angry at France for joining the Chinese in joint military exercises that threatened the island on the eve of an election? Is the world angry at Zimbabwe for stealing land and starving people? Is the world angry at Pakistan for selling nuclear secrets? Is the world angry at Libya for having an NBC program?

Is the world angry at the thugs of Fallujah?

Is the world angry at anyone besides America and Israel?

I Want To See This Cartoon

John, as you all know, is an excellent caricaturist. Occasionally, for a little extra money, John works caricature gigs at conventions, parties, Bar Mitzvahs, etc. Last night John was drawing at a birthday party for a local college student. Her parents were throwing the bash at their home in a wealthy area of Atlanta called Buckhead. Swimming pool. Live band. Catering. Open bar. Normally the latter is not a problem. John is a seasoned professional. But, for reasons that remain sketchy, John decided to cut loose.

The problem apparently started (I got all this second-hand) when John drew a caricature of a Russian foreign-exchange student who was wearing a shirt that said "Bush Lied, People Died." Now, John has been working these gigs for decades. He knows how to read a subject, how far to push exaggerations like big noses and pot bellies, and how to play on-lookers for laughs. But, for some reason, perhaps the Scotch, John went for the throat. Even the band stopped playing when John screamed "TAH-DAH!" and presented a cartoon of Stalin wearing a t-shirt that said "Socialist Lie, Millions Die."

-- Allen Forkum

So Anyway...

I bought a Krasnogorsk-3 movie camera from an auction on e-bay.

Dana the landlady thinks that I am insane for doing so. She has compared my objective of making a feature length Traveller movie on film to my declaring that I will make a transcontinental journey in a 1913 Hupmobile.

I was going to buy an external lightmeter anyway.

Did Someone say Boycott?

Associated Press reports:

PITTSBURGH - H.J. Heinz Co. has launched an election-year campaign of its own, this one to distance the ketchup maker from what is shaping up to be an acrimonious presidential race.

The company has sent nearly 50 letters to radio and television talk shows nationwide to tamp down chatter on the airwaves and Internet suggesting revenue from ketchup sales will benefit the campaign of pending Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites).

His wife is Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the $500 million family ketchup fortune.

The company has received about 150 calls this month from consumers vowing to boycott Heinz products, or in some instances to buy more, said company spokeswoman Debbie Foster.

I usually buy the store brand anyway.

A Random Thought From Thomas Sowell

The fraudulence of the left's concern about poverty is exposed by their utter lack of interest in ways of increasing the nation's wealth. Wealth is the only thing that can cure poverty. The reason there is less poverty today is not because the poor got a bigger slice of the pie but because the whole pie got a lot bigger -- no thanks to the left.

To put it another way: The Right believes in creating wealth, the Left believes in grabbing it.

Did I Say That I Hate Greenies

Robert James Bidinotto writes:

Their basic agenda, therefore, is to stop the "assault" and "onslaught" of human activity: to place every possible impediment to man's further development of the earth and its resources. They pursue this anti-human agenda tirelessly and consistently. Their fanatical activities have led not just to enormously increased financial burdens on us all, but--demonstrably--even to the deaths of thousands of men, women, and children worldwide.

And the ugliest aspect of all this is that while causing so much harm, environmentalists posture--and are generally accepted--as idealists.

I'm not just talking about so-called "extremists" within the movement: I'm talking about its mainstream organizations, leaders, and spokesmen. Their public faces of moderation mask private attitudes and goals that are radically, irreconcilably opposed to the requirements of human life on earth.

Check out the ecoNOT.com web site.

Why Do I Call This Blog "Living In The Surreal World"?

I reported a "Buddy Christ" sighting to the folks at View Askew.

The webmaster posted the sighting in their news section, but instead posting a correct link to the Sinfest site he posted a link to my personal home page, which I've had to alter for the time being.

(Does the Time Being appreciate this? NOOOOOO!)

The e-mail address of the View Askew webmaster is:

brad at newsaskew.com

Tell him Les says "Hi!" And please don't offer to introduce him to Ditzie. Ok?

And Then...

Comrade Chomski no longer permits readers to post comments on his blog.

Gosh, his feelings must be real hurt when he found out that the average citizen has more functioning neurons than he does.

Quote of the Day

Noam Chomski on his blog wrote:

People in the more civilized sectors of the world (what we call "the third world," or the "developing countries")...

Why does the Left insist on being anything but right?

To the rational mind opposites are not identical, war is not peace, freedom is not not slavery, and so on.

I should do a longer rant on the subject but I need to go back to bed.

BUSH BLAMED EVEN WHEN NOT PREZ.

My Horoscope from The Onion

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

You're tired of all these narrow escapes with your life, so next week's gas-truck accident will be sort of a relief.

Quotes of the Day

"Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1946.

Here's a case in point:

"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions."

Adolf Hitler, Leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party

Whenever I listen to a speech by or read the writings of a socialist, or whatever any other advocate of affirmative coercion chooses to call himself this week, it is with the reasonable expectation of being lied to.

The Kerry Pattern

And Now For Something Completely Different...

...it's Rocky Horror night at the Riverview Theater.

I spent a good part of the night doing callbacks in a British accent.

"Oh my Gawd! They've killed Columbia! You bastahds!"

One of the attempts to introduce a new callback failed when Dr. Scott was rolling around and kicking his legs around I yelled:

"Mein Fuherer! I can dance!"

This attempted callback fell limp.

I will attempt another new callback during the next showing. When the Lips fade into the cross at the beginning of the movie I will yell:

"It's The Passion of the Lips!"

If any of you try this during your local screening of the RHPS, let me know how it turned out.

Ok?

Thoughts For The Day

A pacifist is someone who doesn't see the difference between being at peace and being a slave.

A pacifist is someone who would rather see me, my family, or my nation die than to see me raise a hand in the defense of myself, my family, or my nation.

A pacifist is by any practical definition a mortal enemy of myself, my family, and my nation.

It would be nice if I could treat it as such.

Are You Sure It Was A French Restaurant?

The customers (outnumbered 2.5 to 1) fought back when an Islamist mob occupied the establishment.

MANAMA (Reuters) - Some 100 Bahraini Islamists shouting "God is Greatest" stormed a French restaurant serving alcohol in the pro-Western Gulf Arab state and threatened diners with knives, witnesses said on Thursday.

One diner managed to wrest a knife away from the Islamists and stabbed one with it, causing him severe injuries, a witness said.

Fire Dance With Me

Iranians are dancing in the dark for the first time in twenty-five years.

The mullahs should be dancing at the end of a rope, pretty soon.

We should hope.

Another Thought

There's a whiny liberal bumper sticker that reads, "Texas is missing a village idiot."

Oh really?

I would like to see one of the supposedly intelligent liberals drop in at a local flight school and take the introductory flight in a Cessna 152, which does Mach 0.1 on a really good day, without soiling themselves and then continue to say that President Bush, who flew the supersonic F-102 in the Texas Air National Guard, is in some way an idiot.

No one could honestly do that.

Thought For The Day

No barbarian in seeking to conquer or destroy a civilization had ever shown any form of restraint in their own use of force.

Why, in the defense of our own civilization, should we?

Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, summed it up very pithily: "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."

Thought For The Day

If John Kerry is elected this November I am dead certain that we will see, possibly before the end of his first term, a glowing mushroom cloud rising over the shattered ruins of either New York City or Los Angeles, or both. A crude Hiroshima-yield uranium bomb should cause about half a million dead and wounded with each detonation. Should any liberal that I have the misfortune to be aquainted with voice a complaint about this I will simply repeat the immortal words of Mr. Frank O'Connor*:

BROTHER, YOU ASKED FOR IT.

Assuming of course that the other insane policies of the Despocrats -- such as trying to eradicate poverty by forcibly impoverishing the productive citizens, fighting violent crime by assaulting innocent people, etcetera, etcetera -- haven't already touched off a civil war, a record breaking terror attack like this should do the trick.

I still have over four thousand rounds of .308 ammunition that I bought during the Clinton administration.

*Ayn Rand was a bit stumped when she had to come up with a final message to the world for one of her major characters, her husband came up with this line off the top of his head.

Some People Want To Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide

I really don't see what the problem with dihydrogen monoxide is, I consume dihydrogen monoxide every day and cannot in any way support a legal ban on it like some dumbassed California town almost did.

Really, it doesn't ... ACK ... COUGH ... ACK ... THUD!!

Run Away!!!!

And Now For Something Completely Different

John Belushi is still dead, which is really too bad.

And Now Some Words From The Guru

This is not the place to get personal, but I must admit to great pleasure at being singled out personally by some anonymous group of anti-gun activists as a bad guy. A man's worth is often determined by the stature of his enemies, and while these people do not seem to have much stature, they did go to a lot of trouble in fabricating a printed flier denouncing me and all my works. I am flattered. According to my old comrade Colonel Paul McNicol, USMC, "If you're not making anybody mad you're not getting anything done." If these people would come out from behind anonymity, I would be pleased to go to the mat with them. For the moment I must be content to reflect, though I have now "arrived" - according to my granddaughter.

We emphasize again that freedom and liberty are not interchangeable ideas. Freedom basically denotes the elimination of restraint - the breaking of shackles. It was used as a conspicuously successful morale builder for galley slaves, among others. It was promised to the slaves on the Christian side at the critical battle of Lapanto, 1574. They were told they would be freed if their side won. Since the existence of a galley slave is about the closest approximation of hell that humanity can devise, freedom from it was an unequaled objective. Liberty, on the other hand, is a political idea denoting the right of an individual to do whatever does not interfere with the activities of his neighbor. Men also fight very well for liberty, but that objective is less well understood and may not even be prized by persons lacking the spirit for it. Most of today's governments are socialist in which liberty is mostly lacking, and the people in those states do not seem to mind. Thus it is somewhat annoying to hear exhortations which do not differentiate between those two words.


--Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper, USMC, Retired.

Someone Else's Thought for The Day

"Send the terrorists to the firing squad!"

-- Anonymous Demonstrator in Madrid

Thought For The Day

When fighting for one's life, one NEVER uses the Queensberry rules.

Keep this in mind in the upcoming election and really, really, really keep this in mind in 2008.

Ahhh...the good works of the UN.

In the growing scandal over the United Nations Oil-for-Food program, which from 1996-2003 supervised relief to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his staff have excused themselves from any responsibility for the massive corruption involving billions in bribes and kickbacks that went on via more than $100 billion in U.N.-approved contracts for Saddam to sell oil and buy humanitarian supplies. U.N. officials have denied that this tidal wave of graft in any way seeped into their own shop, or that they even had time to notice it was out there. They were too busy making the world a better place.

That's fascinating, not least given the ties of Annan's own son, Kojo Annan, to the Switzerland-based firm, Cotecna, which from 1999 onward worked on contract for the U.N. monitoring the shipments of Oil-for-food supplies into Iraq. These were the same supplies sent in under terms of those tens of billions of dollars worth of U.N.-approved contracts in which the U.N. says it failed to notice Saddam Hussein's widespread arrangements to overpay contractors who then shipped overpriced goods to the impoverished people of Iraq and kicked back part of their profits to Saddam's regime. . . .

But what has to be clear by now is that the U.N. itself was either corrupt, or so stunningly incompetent as to require total overhaul. There are by now enough questions, there has been enough secrecy, stonewalling, and rising evidence of graft all around the U.N. program in Iraq, so that it is surely worth an independent investigation into the U.N. itself — and Annan's role in supervising this program. If Kofi Annan will not exercise his authority to set a truly independent inquiry in motion, it is way past time for the U.S., whose taxpayers supply about a quarter of the U.N. budget, to call the U.N. itself to account for Oil-for-Food — in dollar terms the biggest relief operation it has ever run, and by many signs, one of the dirtiest.

Found this tidbit over at instapundit. I'll take it a step further, I'll bet that the folks who are ranting and raving over possible problems with Halliburton, are going to completely ignore this festering pile of corruption.

[liberal democrat John Kerry] he relentlessly slams George Bush for not getting Europe on our side in the Iraq War-but in 1997 he expressed the completely opposite opinion about Clinton's preparations to attack Iraq, even deriding Russia and France: Kerry Praised Clinton for Snubbing Iraq War Allies.
Link via Little Green Footballs

But in 1997, Kerry praised President Clinton for preparing to attack Iraq by deploying ships, aircraft and troops over the objections of France and Russia.

In a November 1997 audiotape broadcast by WABC Radio's Monica Crowley on Monday, Kerry painted Clinton as resolute for putting U.S. war plans against Baghdad in motion.

"The president has, in effect, put military action on the table," he told CNN's "Crossfire."

“Where’s the backbone of Russia, where’s the backbone of France, where are they in expressing their condemnation of such clearly illegal activity?” he railed.

Kerry also praised the White House for giving the United Nations the brush-off.

“The [Clinton] administration is leading. The administration is making it clear that they don’t believe that they even need the U.N. Security Council to sign off on a material breach because the finding of material breach was made by [U.S. weapons inspector Richard] Butler.”

Kerry defended President Clinton’s go-it-alone war plan as the best way to protect U.S. national security, telling “Crossfire,” “I think the United States has always reserved the right and will reserve the right to act in its best interests.”

What's Wrong With This Statement?

From an interview with Comrade Kerry in Time magazine:

TIME: Obviously it's good that Saddam is out of power. Was bringing him down worth the cost?

KERRY: If there are no weapons of mass destruction— and we may yet find some—then this is a war that was fought on false pretenses, because that was the justification to the American people, to the Congress, to the world, and that was clearly the frame of my vote of consent. I said it as clearly as you can in my speech. I suggested that all the evils of Saddam Hussein alone were not a cause to go to war.

Ayn Rand once said that because dictatorships in general, and Soviet Union in particular, did not recognize and respect the rights of its subjects they could have no sovereign rights that would be recognized and respected by any free nation such as the United States. In her view, if I understood it correctly, the hunting season on dictatorships was always open.

But to those like John Kerry, who claim to be caring, compassionate, and progressive, it is somehow wrong to depose a despot who uses his political apparatus to subjugate, plunder, and murder his subjects. Kerry and his fellow party members claim to be “democrats” but are presently screaming bloody murder at the top of their lungs when a tyrant is toppled and replaced with a democratic government that answers to the citizen body of that nation.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

Even though they don’t care about the citizens of Iraq they do care about their own constituents, right?

Well I certainly don’t think so.

Remember the Strategic Defense Initiative? Kerry and his comrades in the Congress opposed it even though their party’s primary base of support lived in close proximity to the industrial, transportation and military sites that were targeted by the Strategic Rocket Forces of the Soviet Army. The logically and morally correct course of action for Kerry and his political comrades was to implement the full SDI program as soon as possible for the benefit of their constituents.

But they didn’t, did they?

In fact, not only did Kerry and fellow party members oppose SDI they also fought to stop other programs to upgrade the American armed forces. Many members of Kerry’s party, such as Ron Dellums of California, were also a party membership card short of being proper Communists and were reasonably expected to have welcomed the Soviet Army not as the band of barbarians that they historically were, but as “liberators of the proletariat,” etcetera, etcetera.

But at least Kerry and his party would put the money stripped from the defense budget to a compassionate use, right?

Oh really? Well I certainly don’t think so.

Establishing a common defense against barbarian states such as National Socialist Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as well as those despotic states that still exist, is a moral necessity. Anyone who refused to financially contribute to the common defense was a parasite and deserved to be dealt with as such. (As to active opponents of national defense, apart from those creatures who sexually molest children, I think there is no one more depraved or despicable than a politically active pacifist. But that’s a rant for another time.)

But Kerry and his political comrades not only attempted to loot the defense budget but they sought to levy progressively higher taxes on the more productive citizens in order to buy the votes of less productive and the outright non-producers. (I could go on about the ongoing corruption of the electorate but I want to keep this rant short.) Those, like Kerry and his political comrades, who rob Peter in order to pay off Paul, can usually count on the votes of Paul. However, this also has the effect of reducing Peter and his fellow productive citizens to the political status of cattle. Hominid livestock who are compelled to live in an enforced state of poverty but are expected to work as hard as before in order to support an ever growing class of parasites.

An example of the parasites that Kerry and his political comrades are funding with the tax monies taken from productive and rational citizens are the social agencies that actively and punitively interfere with the efforts of those citizens who try to raise their own children to be rational and productive adults. And if this wasn’t injury enough, at the same time tax monies are also being used to create the equivalent of an ecological niche for an irrational and destructive underclass that preys upon each other and on their social and moral betters.

Kerry and his political comrades call this compassion.

Well, if this is compassion, then I’d rather be an indifferent son-of-a-bitch.

But Kerry and his political comrades are using their legislative power to move society in a progressive direction, right?

No. Not only do I not think so, I truly believe that anyone who did think so would probably place a winning bid on a certain well-used suspension bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan Island on ebay.

An intelligent reader should have noticed by now that I do not use the term “democrat” to describe John Kerry and his political comrades. I do not believe that they deserve to be called such.

The Democratic Political Tradition in Western Civilization began in the ancient Polis of Athens. In Athens the citizen body, the adult male members of the founding tribes, not made the laws of the polis but were also armed and were expected to enforce the laws of the polis and defend it against external aggressors. In adopting a more inclusive definition of the concept of citizen we could say that the American Republic has made verifiable
progress.

But to John Kerry and his political comrades, progress consists of disarming the citizen body, of denying the rights of free citizens, and instead treating those rights as state granted privileges while imposing increasing restrictions on the acts of speech, peaceful assembly, association, commerce, and worship. The political state toward which Kerry and his political comrades, in both the Congress and the Courts, are propelling America is a form of despotism similar to that
found in Communist states such as Cuba, North Korea, China, and Vietnam.

(And if you really want to have fun, try comparing the platform of Kerry’s party to the twenty-five point program of the National Socialist German Workers Party sans the aggressive military and race planks.)

Instead of being the party of democracy, Kerry and his political comrades are in fact the party of despotism. When they object to the overthrow of a foreign dictatorship, such as that of Saddam Hussein’s, they are simply showing that they care for and have compassion for their ideological kindred. If anything, the foundation of their political philosophy has not progressed beyond the moment when for the first time a wandering band of nomads came upon a community of farmers, and instead of learning to farm and settling down themselves, chose to subjugate the farmers and live off their labors.

Although the methods of predatory subjugation have improved over the millennia, John Kerry and his political comrades are in my view no more than stone age savages. They are hazards to us, our families, and our nation. And it's about time that they are dealt with as such.

Another Classic Game Returns

PARANOIA is back! Run away!!!

The PARANOIA XP site is up and running.

You are in Error. No one is Screaming. Thank you for your Cooperation.

Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.

I Actually Did That

Furnulum pani nolo.
"I don't want a toaster."
Generally, things (like this quiz) tend to tick you
off. You have contemplated doing grievous
bodily harm to door-to-door salesmen.


Which Weird Latin Phrase Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Addition To My Primary Site

I once started writing Homecoming, a short story based on a passage in a Classic Traveller alien module:

Terran Naval officers were dispatched throughout the Vilani Empire. . . . more than 100,000 naval officers were dispatched to the worlds of the Vilani Empire, to take control of the reigns of government, to direct local bureaucracies, and to maintain peace and order. In some cases, Terran ensigns were faced with governing a whole world, and commanders previously entrusted with no more than a light cruiser were know administering subsectors.

-- Traveller Alien Module 6

However, about halfway through the creative process a discussion erupted on the Traveller Mailing List and the Citizens of the Imperium bulletin board about the validity of that particular passage.

I ended up not finishing Homecoming at that time.

So anyway I'm posting in here for the time being.

(I do a lot of things for the Time Being, does the Time Being appreciate this? NOOOOOOO!)

Good comment from Sgt. Stryker's Daily Briefing

Further Comment by Les:

I took a young lady from the gaming club I was a member of to see IRON EAGLE. I had an employee discount with the (now extinct) theater chain at the time.

She ended up marrying someone else.

My Landlady Talks To Ethically Challenged Merchants

My landlady, Dana Wolfe, has been acquainted with Puke and Snot (“two actors who came up from nothing, and brought it with them”) for over a decade. Which is say before her *AHEM* operation.

Dana recounted a recent conversation she had with one of them. (I’m typing this from memory so please bear with me.)

Puke: How have you been?

Dana: I’ve been a broad.*

Puke (looks at Dana again): That must hurt.

Dana: More than you will never know.

*This is a line from the Shakespearean Entrance sketch, I couldn’t possibly recount the sketch with anything resembling justice.

Female democrat Congress critter giving her support to the rapist, not the victim.

A book review.

Let's Have Violence That Makes Sense!

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/girlsinging.html

Some People Need To Get A Life Dept.

The Jesus Matrix 2

Blasphemy of the Day

Soylent Christ: IT'S JESUS!!!!

Update:

Perhaps we should call it the Soylent Host.

Blasphemy of the Day

Has the thought ever occurred to anyone that Jesus died for God's sins?

Catholic High School Kids Marched En Masse To See Snuff Film

Catholic brainwashers march their victims through the streets to the theatre under local police escort.

The film was a gut-wrenching experience, according to many of the 1,400 Kellenberg Memorial HS students who made the morning "pilgrimage."

"A lot of kids were upset, a bunch were in tears," said William Alexander, 15. "I was extremely moved."

Brother Ryan Sheehan said he got the idea for what he dubbed a "pilgrimage" during a journey he made to Ireland last week with 40 of his students.

And I used to complain about public schools.

No, I Wasn't Planning To See The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre


In order to accept the sacrifice of Jesus as depicted in The Passion Of The Christ, one has to accept the the following premises:

That the Universe is not inherently eternal in nature and thus requires a creator, a.k.a. God.

That God is incompetent and that actions God does not want to occur will happen anyway.

That God's desire for obedience and worship (first from angels and later from men) are not symptoms of a severe psychological disorder.

That guilt, and thus punishment, for the actions of one man (Adam) can be imputed or passed on to his alleged descendants.

Oh yeah. One has to believe that Jesus is the son of God.

No. I definitely don't think so.

It's Too Cold To Throw Frisbees For Peace Up Here

Inside a Conservative Teach-In By Scott W. Johnson

My presentation on Winston Churchill at St. Olaf College yesterday turned into an unexpectedly exhilarating experience. Rocket Man trekked down to Northfield with his son Eric to lend moral support. I'm grateful for Rocket Man's generous remarks below on the event and Eric's perceptive comments on it afterwards. Please indulge these additional notes.

I was originally invited to submit an application to lead one of 40 seminars to be given at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum hosted this year by St. Olaf College. The students inviting me to submit an application were looking for the expression of a point of view that they thought would be in short supply among the anticipated orgy of hate-America pacifism; Jimmy Carter was to be the keynote speaker and the theme of this year's Forum was announced as "Striving for Peace: Roots of Change." The seminars were to address "grassroots activism."

It occurred to me that Winston Churchill's comprehensive efforts to awaken his countrymen to the dangers posed by Hitler and Nazism while he was out of high office during the 1930's might work as a subject. It would respond to the assigned theme and provide an alternate view of how peace should be promoted. In part, I intended to discuss how Churchill had opposed the English peace movements that had helped bring on World War II.

If there is one thing I have certainly noticed, it is that pacifists in general have no objection to enjoying the benefits of civilization but are unwilling to take the measures necessary to defend it from foreign and domestic barbarians. Such as the National Socialists, the Soviet Socialists, and the home grown socialists of the Democratic Party.

Contrary to their general delusion of virtue, pacifists are in effect, moral and political parasites upon civilized society.

The day I received e-mail notice that the proposed seminar had been turned down I called to ask the program co-chair why it had been rejcted. He told me that the topic involved events so long ago that it would not be of interest to the students attending the Forum. It wasn't until later that I learned that several of the accepted seminars involved historical subjects, although in those cases the seminars rigorously hewed to an anti-American or pacifist line.

Among the seminars and programs scheduled for the weekend were the following:

"Being Peace," a dance seminar: "Understanding peacefulness requires, in part, having experienced it oneself. This session will explore a variety of body-mind activities geared toward generating an inner state of peace. We will work with the movement principle of 'yield,'… which propel adults toward physical, mental emotional and spiritual change."

Which raises the question: Yield to what or whom?

"Making Music, Making Peace: Common Purposes and Shared Skills," a choral workshop: "Many of the skills essential to peace-making are also essential to music-making: listening, envisioning, mutual trust, repair, cooperation, collaboration. People who build their capacities as music-makers are also building their capacities for grassroots peace-making."

Don't be good. Just feel good.

By the way, the term for one who performs an act of collaboration is still a perjorative.

"Peace and Change through Public Art": This project "imagines a fictitious and yet believable National Historic Site sparking both controversy and healing. Amid a massacre site it tells the 500-year story from the perspective of native peoples and culminates with an apology…."

What? Apologize for carrying out the lethal force actions necessary to protect our families and our society from a band of savages that were behaving like a pack of predatory animals?

No fucking way. That is simply insane.

Peace in the real world is simply the absence of those -- such as the socialists -- who seek to deprive you, I, and our fellow citizens of our own Life, Liberty, and Property. Real peace can only be achieved by the physical isolation or outright elimination of those who seek to subjugate, plunder and murder us. This can only be done through the use of physical force.

In short, true peace can only be achieved only through the possession of superior firepower and the moral will to use it.

What Is It With "Democrats" and Despots?

Michael Ledeen writes in the National Review Online:

Meanwhile, the only Western leader who consistently speaks the truth about Iran is President George W. Bush, and the phony intellectuals of the West continue to call him a fool and a fascist. Meanwhile, his most likely Democrat opponent, Senator John Kerry, sends an e-mail to Tehran Times, Iran's official English-language newspaper, promising that relations between the United States and Iran would improve enormously if Kerry were to be elected next November.

A Short Rant For Today

I just read about that insane situation in New York from a link on Mark's blog.

I personally believe that censors (in the context of civilian society) are vermin. That they constitute a toxic hazard to rational human life.

I also believe that those who petition for, enact, and enforce censorship legislation should be identified as enemies of the Republic and of Mankind in General and put to death.

"Mr. Libby, meet Mademoiselle Guillotine."

For those who don't think flying figher jets is dangerous even in non-combat, look here.

More Head Scratching

County tells bicyclist thanks, but stop plowing trail.

Scratching Head Department

Canadian Footbridge Temporarily Closed

Wishful Thinking...

...by Cox and Forkum

The Horror Continues

Communists since first obtaining power in 1917 have snuffed out on average over three thousand human lives a day.

Jeff Jacoby tells us how its being done in North Korea:

Soon Ok-lee, who spent seven years in another North Korean camp, described the use of prisoners as guinea pigs for biochemical weapons.

"An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners," she testified. "One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it, but to give it to the 50 women. I gave them out and heard a scream. . . . They were all screaming and vomiting blood. All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes, they were dead."

Gas chambers. Poisoned food. Torture. The murder of whole families. Massive death tolls. How much more do we need to know about North Korea's crimes before we act to stop them? How many more victims will be fed into the gas chambers before we cry out "never again!" -- and mean it?

Meanwhile, Across The Galax...Uh..Ocean

"IT’S a classroom, Jim — but not as we know it. "

Thought For The Day

Somewhere out there is about thirty feet of rope and a lampost with Charlie Shumer's name on them.

Wretchard at the Belmont club wrote:

Yesterday at Fallujah, Islamic terrorists "staged simultaneous morning assaults on three police stations, a civil defense base and the mayor's office". In the future many observations will be made of this battle: that the Al Qaeda timed their assaults to coincide with US unit rotations through Iraq; that they chose the moment when the baton is passing from US soldier to Iraqi policeman. But if the Iraqi nation goes on to live another hundred years, it will remember this:

Officers from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed a 10-minute drive away could hear the battle clearly. They offered help but the Hammad said it wasn't needed. The Americans did provide additional ammunition and weapons, including light machine guns. After the battle, soldiers at the civil defense base proudly displayed a light machine gun and a pair of rocket propelled grenade launchers they had captured from the attackers.

That when dying and bleeding, beset by the flower of terrorism, with pistol to set against automatic rifle and grenade, the Iraqi police did not ask for help from 82nd Airborne. They asked for ammunition.

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you build -- or in this case rebuild -- a nation.

Update at 1910 hours CST:

William Quick at the Daily Pundit remarks:

We've won in Iraq. The rest is just taking out the garbage - and shooting it.

A Word From The Guru.

Now here we have some fellow who joined the Army "to get an education." That is the wrong reason. You join the Army to enforce the will of the people of the United States of America, by force, against their enemies. An Army exists for two reasons: first, to kill people, and second, to be so good at it that any threatening group will be intimidated to the point of inactivity. You do not join the Army to get anything. You join the Army to give of yourself, terminally if called for. I am not sure what this fellow means by "an education," but his meaning and mine obviously do not coincide.

-- Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper, USMC, Retired

My Horoscope According To THE ONION

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

Remember that everyone has embarrassing moments, although it's true what you say: Theirs don't last for nine years.

Kristine from Chicago, Illinois writes:

"I still support the railing system!"

We now ruturn you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Save The Launch Umbilical Tower!

"Near the horizon, a gleaming silver tower bathed in floodlights, stood the last of the Saturn Vs, for almost twenty years a national monument and place of pilgrimage.”

-2001, A Space Odyssey -Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Enemies Of Mankind

Alex Epstein writes in Capitalism Magazine:

Thanks to intimidation by animal rights terrorists, Cambridge University has dropped plans to build a laboratory that would have conducted cutting-edge brain research on primates. According to The Times of London, animal-rights groups "had threatened to target the centre with violent protests ... and Cambridge decided that it could not afford the costs or danger to staff that this would involve."

The university had good reason to be afraid. At a nearby animal-testing company, Huntingdon Life Sciences, "protestors" have for several years attempted to shut down the company by threatening employees and associates, damaging their homes, firebombing their cars, even beating them severely.

Those who attack people and property for material gain are usually condemned by everyone as looters. (Except by Liberals.)

Why isn't a simular assault on persons and property for spiritual gain, such as feeling good about one's self, also grounds for comdemnation?

Sometimes I Miss the Seventies, Sometimes I Don't

Try to say this with a straight face:

Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking, conditions on the ground are partly cloudy, about 65 degrees, and the penis is evil.

-- Caption from a screen capture image from the Agony Booth review of ZARDOZ

One could have some fun doing ROCKY HORROR style callbacks with this film:

"The gun is good!"
Yay Guns!

"The penis is evil!"
Yay Penis!

Or something like that.

Some reviewers of this film have complained vigorously about the surfeit of flat-chested hippie chicks. Given the choice between entering a (*nudge-nudge*) mature relationship with an intelligent flat-chested hippie chick versus a surgically inflated overly made-up walking brain-death case such as Pamela Whatever Lee, I'd choose the former in a nanosecond.

Stupid and artificial is in my mind very repulsive.

"I thought Ronald Reagan was the best president of our lifetime." -- Johnny Ramone, guitarist for the Ramones, as quoted in Reason Magazine.

And Now For Something Completely Absurd

Fark.com has some interesting suggestions for dealing with the authors of computer viruses.

I rather like this rather *AHEM* pythonic one. I've already used the auditory torture concept in Friends In High Places.

Stephen posts a link to my HRC quotes over at Calpundit

I am suspicious of anyone who writes a law containing over 230 points at which my doctor can be sent to jail for treating me--as Hillary's nationalized healthcare law did.

I am wary of the idea of hey-presto I'm your "Co-president."

I worry about the mentality that hires a staffer who says, regarding the presidential executive order, "Stroke of the pen. law of the land...pretty cool." (Paul Begala)

And, yes, this attitude toward the power of government is the SAME one that thinks that the clearly unconstitutional parts of the Patriot act are just fine, and McCain-Feingold doesn't limit free speech.

Stop. Them. All.

Meanwhile...here's a very flavorful overview of quotes about Hillary. The one from Maureen Dowd is a peach.

http://www.urbin.net/EWW/sigs/HRCsigs.html

Thought for the Day

You have been up way too long when after doing a ten hour shift of delivering pizzas you start singing along with Frank at a Midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Off Key.

Quote of the Day

I can die a natural death or I can die a planned death. It really doesn't matter to me how I die, but I will surely die fighting.

-- Fidel Castro

How about you just dying you murderous motherfucker.

I Need to Move Around More

I've driven to these states. Often in a barely functional car.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Another Thought On Howard "Dead Meat" Dean's Asinine Comment

It is far better to live as a free man in poverty than as a terrified animal in a gilded cage.

And a reminder, Hillary Clinton is still a miserable failure.

Weirdness for Today

Last night, while driving back to the Pizza Hut after making a delivery I began to channel Jiminy Cricket.

As I was crossing an intersection I saw several block to my a mass of local fire and police vehicles with their lights flashing. I said to myself, "nope, not going that way."

And then I began to sing:

I'm no fool
No sirree!
I'm going to live to be forty-three
'cause I'm no fool.

The other thing is that I'm already 43.

And yes, I do talk to myself when I'm alone in my car.

USS Midway from 600 klicks

Courtesy of Strategy Page

Thought For The Day

Cato the Youngest sez:

Sharia is arguably the most fucked-up legal code in history. It is at the very heart of the Arab/Muslim world's inability to compete in any way (except in bigotry) with the civilized world. It mandates a gender apartheid that is, and should be, disgusting to any civilized person.

As far as I can tell the Hell's Angels (or "Bargerites" in Friends In High Places) could come up with a better legal code.

Another Thought For The Day

Too bad the concept of Hell can only be taken on faith.

I'm beginning to believe that people who don't tip pizza delivery drivers are should spend eternity delivering pizza without receiving any gratuities.

Of course prior to making the acquaintence of a pizza driver eighteen years ago I was one of those awful people, That's why I'm doing pennance in this lifetime.

Thought For The Day

I keep having this mental image of guys from an Australian unit that was sent to Vietnam comparing their L1A1 rifles (7.62 x 61 MM) to the M16 rifles (5.56 x 45 mm)of the Americans:

"You call that a rifle? THIS is a rifle."

Howard Dean (I almost typed "Dead") Declares That Iraqui Standard Of Living Has Declined

"You can say that it's great that Saddam is gone and I'm sure that a lot of Iraqis feel it is great that Saddam is gone," said the former Vermont governor, an unflinching critic of the war against Iraq. "But a lot of them gave their lives. And their living standard is a whole lot worse now than it was before."

-- Associated Press

Wow! I didn't know that tyranny and terror were an inherent part of a high standard of living.

Only a bunch of despot-huggers would believe that the common people are better off living in fear of being fed feet-first into a plastic shredder and having their daughters and wives raped by the son of the dictator. The leaders of the Democratic Party (or more accurately, the Despotic Party) whine about how conservatives lack compassion but are invariably unconcerned about the victims of Socialist despots like Saddam, Stalin, Mao, Fidel, Pol Pot, and the North Korean father-son team the Kims.

Our present struggle is called The War on Terror. But terrorism is means to an end, the end being despotism, the state of unrestrained dictatorship. If we are truly serious about bringing an end to terrorism we must ultimately treat dictators, those who seek dictatorial power, and their present supporters like the self-styled Democratic Party as nothing less than Enemies of Mankind. Vermin who have no place in Human society.

"I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon - if I can. I seek opportunity - not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done. All this is what it means to be an American." -- Dean Alfange

A Warning

Cato the Youngest has some advice for his fellow citizens

If President Bush is not re-elected, my advice to my fellow Americans is to move away from the largest cities ( > 1,000,000 population) and any dangerous chemical or nuclear facilities, avoid large gatherings of people, whenever possible, and lay in sufficient stocks of food, water, etc., to ride out a major man-made disaster. If we relax the pressure on the Islamonazis, they will regroup, rebuild, and strike us again and again, until we have no choice but to devastate the Arab/Muslim world in retaliation.

To put it another way, either President Bush can sort them out, or we can let God sort them out.

Thought for the Day

The present-day liberal, as with any other barbarian, does not care about the height of the pile of human skulls as long as he (or in the case of Hillary, she) is firmly seated upon it.

My Horoscope For This Week

From The Onion:

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

Experience is a great teacher. This week, it will teach you your Miranda rights, the difference between a polecat and a skunk, and what a sucker punch is.

And Hillary Clinton is still a miserable failure.

Nancy Pelosi (democrat-San Franscio) looks likes she has been frecking embalmed!
She's on TV giving the opposition response to the President's State of the Union address.

She's using all the standard code phrases, buzz words and lies. Not much of a surprise.
She doesn't have much else to use.

Space exploration is cool, and deficit moaners are nerds.

Those Fucking Europeans

GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT in the New York Times wrote:

A large part of the European left spent a large part of the 20th century hating the United States not because it had economic inequality or Jim Crow but because it did not have show trials, labor camps and the other appurtenances of "actually existing socialism."

We Americans (the neo-barbarians on the left excepted) prefer real courts and the other attributes of an actually existing civilization.

Mr. Wheatcroft also dug up an interesting statement by English author Evelyn Waugh:

Of course, the Americans are cowards ... They are almost all the descendants of wretches who deserted their legitimate monarchs for fear of military service.

Fuck you Mister Waugh.

I'm sure General Tojo, Il Duce, und Der Fuherer would be very happy to hear that Americans are cowards. Those bloody-handed power tripping motherfuckers had their destinies very thoroughly settled by those whom that fatuous English twit calls cowards.
The courage of Americans fighting for a just cause has never failed and anyone whose continued existence is (or was in the case of that fatuous English twit) dependent on the courage of American Citizens should properly acknowledge that fact or shut the fuck up.

AMERICANS ARE CITIZENS, not the chattel of some purfumed and over-dressed decendant of some barbarian chieftain (or a commisar or other such sub-human filth), we (and the rest of the human race in general) are not subjects or slaves who exist solely to expended at the whim of the ruler, anyone who cannot accept this as an unevadable fact of reality should have their head struck off and stuck on a pike.

(There, I feel a lot better now.)

Quick check of the purse this morning:
Gun.........................check
Ammo......................check
Make-up...................check
Thigh Holster.............check

Gotta love that Bitter Bitch!

Freedom of Speech? Only for the Lefties at a major Australian university.

Former President Carter (who gave us double digit unemployment & inflation) was on TV today with Howard Dean.
This endorsement (which Carter, in typical weasel fashion isn't calling an endorsement) is a good way to fire up the party faithful. Good in the early primaries. Down the road, not so good. Anybody who lived through the Carter years will not have a positive association.

Dick Gephart is obviously confused. He claims that President Bush has not gotten international support for the war in Iraq.
Hello? Earth to Gephart! Great Britain, Spain, Poland, and about a half dozen others.
Of course he had no problem when former President Clinton failed to gain UN support for his unilateral military actions in Yugoslavia and Serbia.

Abomination of the Day

North Korean communist regime kills babies of mixed parentage.

Communist regimes have since first obtaining power in 1917 murdered an average of over 3000 people a day. Point this out the next time someone whines about McCarthyism.

Isn't there a joke about how fascism always descends in America but lands in Europe?
Like a lot of old jokes, there is a lot of truth in this one.

Random Thoughts for January 2004

One of the strongest arguments for the death penalty is that it means what it says -- unlike "life" sentences that can mean that the criminal will be back on the streets after a few years behind bars. Even "life without the possibility of parole" does not mean life without the possibility of escaping or without the possibility of electing a liberal governor who will set murderers free.

--Thomas Sowell

My Current Horoscope from the Onion

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

You've never been afraid to make bold statements concerning what you're all about, which leaves a lot of people emotionally unsatisfied by your ending.

The Liberty Manifesto

Who Wants To Buy An Aircraft Carrier

The 60 year old and 16,000 ton Colossus class light fleet carrier HMS Vengeance is still up for sale.

Maybe it could be used as a location set for one or more SF movies the way Doug Trumbull used the USS Valley Forge for his film SILENT RUNNING.

Some of the Top Morons of 2003

Police in Oakland, California spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, "Please come out and give yourself up."

You don't suppose that the present mayor, Jerry "Governor Moonbeam" Brown had anything to do with the present state of the Oakland PD?

Oh, and Hillary Clinton is a miserable failure too.

I Prefer The Original Version, Of Course

What Classic Movie Are You?

Got Hired Today

I start work as a driver for Pizza Hut tomorrow at 1400 hours CST.

Oh, and Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure.

Last Chance To Post Something Today

Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure.

If the shoe fits...

First An Earthquake, Now This...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A meteorite has hit northern Iran causing minor damage to property but there were no immediate reports of casualties, state radio has said. It said the impact sent locals in panic onto the streets in the northern town of Babol in Mazandaran province.

"A meteorite which hit Babol on Friday morning caused only some minor damage to residential units," radio said, without giving further details or citing any source.

It said the impact was felt up to one kilometre away.

Iranians are currently mourning at least 30,000 people killed by an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale which struck southeastern Iran on December 26.

You don't suppose that God is trying to send a message here?

Oh, and Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure.

British Socialist Gets Bitch-slapped on BBC4

It was trailed as a "unique chance to rewrite the law of the land". Listeners to BBC Radio 4's Today programme were asked to suggest a piece of legislation to improve life in Britain, with the promise that an MP would then attempt to get it onto the statute books.

But yesterday, 26,000 votes later, the winning proposal was denounced as a "ludicrous, brutal, unworkable blood-stained piece of legislation" - by Stephen Pound, the very MP whose job it is to try to push it through Parliament.

Mr Pound's reaction was provoked by the news that the winner of Today's "Listeners' Law" poll was a plan to allow homeowners "to use any means to defend their home from intruders" - a prospect that could see householders free to kill burglars, without question.

"The people have spoken," the Labour MP replied to the programme, "... the bastards."

Robert A. Heinlein used to refer to common criminals as freelance socialists.

And speaking of socialists, Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure.

So anyway...

I don't know if I'm going to post anything today apart from:

Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure,

Some more on the Bush Economy:

According to CNN, it was a Big Year for Stocks.
It seems that the recovery from the Clinton recession inherited from Bill & Hillary Rodham Clinton is on the mend...