Thought for the Day

Who'd thought that being a conservative was so much fun?

For example:

This Is Sick

In Florida:

A registered sex offender admitted Friday that he kidnapped and killed a 9-year-old girl who disappeared from her bedroom more than three weeks ago and told police where they could find her body, authorities said.

Ok, here's Les' theory of Leftism in One Lesson:

In Leftism, human life is evil, anything that damages or destroys human life is good.

The ruling principle of Leftism applied to this situation: Innocent little girls and police officers who protect them are evil, repeat sexual predators and the lawyers who protect them from justice are good.

I know it's wrong, but in Leftism wrong is right.

Thought for the Day

In my view the basic function of liberal (specifically Marxist) doctrine is to deny reality.

The specific fact of reality that absolutely must be denied under all circumstances is that each of us as human beings has right to say no.

No to the demand for obedience.

No to the demand for material support.

No to the demand for power over our lives.

Liberals, and the left in general, are parasites on human society. Without the power to compel others to materially support them the members of the left would be compelled either to become rational and productive beings or literally die off.

And it is not enough for the Left, especially their leaders, to be materially supported. They must also feel secure in their status as the masters of the productive. They must stage spectacles of mass obedience to create and reinforce their feelings of security.

The parades on May Day and anniversary of the local party's ascent to power.

The hours-long speeches that must be listened to with total attention and applauded with the greatest of enthusiasm.

And don't be the first to stop applauding when the leader speaks, that's disloyal!

To the left, every word of dissent or refusal is a sentence of death. And every pistol and rifle in the hands of a private citizen is a weapon pointed straight at their heads.

Someday, we're going to have to pull the triggers.

This Qualifies As Surreal

William Shatner has a new album music CD.

This may be a sign of the end of the world.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

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Thought for the Day

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," sounds really, really, really great if one is one of the needy.

For example: Karl Marx. Karl Marx. And Karl Marx.

Living In Pizzaland

While driving today I saw a woman driving a Subaru with a Kerry sticker toss a cigarette out her window. One should think that she would show more respect for the environment.

Quote of the Day

Contrary to popular belief, we science fiction writers don’t predict the future -- we try to prevent undesirable futures.

-- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Groan!

I'm sorry to say that there is such a thing as a dumb Republican:

A new bill introduced in the Minnesota House last week would prohibit 21-year-olds from drinking at midnight on their birthdays. Individuals would have to wait until 8 a.m. instead.

The chief author of the bill, Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, said the purpose is to prevent deaths because of excessive drinking of alcohol by young adults.

This is the sort of dumb-shit nonsense that causes us to lose votes to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Demented-Fascist-Looter Party.

One of the fun things to watch in Minnesota politics is the spectacle of the reality-centered Republicans trying to rein in the excesses of the born-again bozoid wing of the party. It's bloody hard to explain why we're not heading into a theocracy when some bozoid comes up with this sort of legislative garbage.

Oh Really?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Thought for the Day

The instructors in our educational establishment, from kindergarten to the post-graduate level, should be both honest and sane.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

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It's Finished!

Friends In High Places, Part Twenty

or

Ramen And Whipsnade Are Feeling Better Now

By Leslie Bates



Whipsnade woke up in a slow and groggy manner. The universe
seemed to have gone dark on him until he brought his right hand
up to his head. Apparently some joker had laid his boater over
his own face.

Nice of him, her, or for he knew, it.

Whipsnade saw that he was in the lower bunk of what appeared to
be a crew cabin on an Imperial warship. In the workstation chair
opposite the bunks was his partner Fred Ramen.

"I thought we were dead" Said Fred.

"We were." Said Larsen.

"But now," said Fred. "Now, I'd say we were on one of the old
COBRA class escorts."

"Or a CARRONADE," replied Larsen. "By the non-regulation paint
job in this cabin it would have to be one in private hands."

Hopefully not in pirate hands, he thought. "Want to see what's
out there?" He said pointing to the door.

"Sure," said Fred. "What's the worst that can happen?"

Fred stood up and opened the door of the crew cabin only to find
himself staring at the muzzle of a Imperial 7-millimeter ACRS.

"Urk!" said Fred. It was his turn to say it this time.

Larsen saw that the ACRS was being held by woman with short brown
hair wearing an "I (HEART) H.E." tee-shirt along with a set of
Marine grey shipboard boots and trousers, she also had an 11.4
millimeter auto-pistol in a belt holster.

She didn't look a day over thirty in age.

"Good morning Lady Windhaven," said Larsen. "My goodness, you
look lovely today."

"Thank you, Mister Whipsnade," said Lisa. "Dennie would like to
have a word with both of you."

Dennis was sitting with hands folded at the table in the officers
wardroom. Laying on the table was an 11.4 millimeter auto-pistol
identical to the one in Lisa's holster.

He didn't look a day over thirty.

"Gentlemen," said Dennis, "we have a bit of a problem."

"We're on the CHAUCHAT, aren't we?" Asked Fred.

Dennis visibly suppressed a twitch of the right hand.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," said Dennis. "Now, If we may
return to the business at hand."

"Manner of speaking? Larsen piped up. "That should have been
simple 'yes' or 'no' answer."

Dennie's right hand twitched again. It was at this point that the
ship decided to jump into the conversation.

"Except for the original Imperial Standard transponder suite,
which Ditzie was supposed to have destroyed, this vessel is a
close copy of the original CHAUCHAT." said a French accented
feminine voice. "And in a manner of speaking, Dennis are Lisa are
also copies."

Dennis dropped his head into his hands and began to softly groan.

"I told you we didn't need that particular upgrade," Lisa once
again said to Dennis. "But did you listen...nooooo..."

"Miss...um...Mademoiselle CHAUCHAT?" Said Fred.

"I prefer to be called SOPHIE," said the ship. "There is
something fundamentally not nice about naming a ship after the
worst automatic firearm issued to an army in human history. Of
course that's my opinion. You should hear Woody go on about it,
he actually had to use one of the damned things."

"Woody?" Fred and Larsen asked simultaneously.

"Woodrow Wilson Smith." Said Dennis. "And that gentlemen, in a
manner of speaking, is the problem."

"Problems, plural." Said Lisa.

Fred and Larsen looked at each other and then turned back to
Dennis and Lisa. Larsen spoke first.

"So...how do these...problems involve us?"

Dennis answered.

"It's the fallout from your recent trip to the Hellbelt."

"During your romp through the fictional universe memes," said
Lisa, "you made a stop in what appeared to be Woody's universe."

"Um." Said Fred. "Ah. Yes."

"Well, the thing is," said Dennis, "in that universe, that
version of 'Woody' was running around and setting up
Spartan/Helot type colonies for the benefit of his fellow
Howards. While there would be some Howards who were dumb or
depraved enough to engage in such behavior, the real Woody would
never deliberately set up something with moral stench of a
Master/Slave society."

"He's funny that way." Said SOPHIE.

"But it was a fictional meme," said Larsen, "what could possibly
be the problem?"

"By the rules of the Woodyverse," said Dennis, "fictional
universes, including this one, become real universes."

Both Fred and Larsen both thought, oh bloody hell!

"So instead of one Long Family bouncing around the multiverse,"
said Lisa, "we now have a Long Family and an Anti-Long Family
shooting it out."

"And Woody's usual tactic of simply outliving the opposition
really, really, really isn't going to work in this situation."
Said Dennis.

That was a horrible thought. But then Larsen had another thought.

"Lord Windhaven," said Larsen, "It's been some time since..."

Dennis interrupted him.

"Of course," He said. "I have been remiss as a host, something
with an ethyl alcohol content, of course."

Under the circumstances, something with a methyl alcohol content
would be acceptable too.

Lisa slung her ACRS and then pulled two gray labeled bottles of
Old Bilandin from the wardroom fridge and handed them to Fred and
Larsen. Old Bilandin was the worst mass produced beer in the
known universe. Legend was that it brewed with well-used sweat
socks and day-old dog drool from a millennia old Vilani recipe.

Fred watched in horror as Larsen slammed down the entire contents
of his bottle in one sustained chug.

"Its really the only way to do it." Whipsnade gasped.

Ramen looked down at his bottle, closed his eyes, and gulped down
the contents as quickly as possible. Fred let out a belch and
then took a deep breath.

"God!" Said Fred. "That was..."

Fred was going to say dreadful, but then he saw that the 11.4
millimeter auto-pistol was still on the wardroom table and that
Dennis was visibly using his left hand to hold down his right
hand.

"That was very kind of you, my lord." Said Fred.

"Thank you," Said Dennis. He stopped twitching.

"So anyway," said Lisa.

"Three kilograms," Dennis replied. "Anyway, all other factors
being equal in an armed conflict, he who brings the most
firepower to the party usually wins."

Fred and Larsen both made an empty hands gesture. If there was a
way to make a fast credit on this situation either one would have
thought of it by now.

Damn. Perhaps they could make a not-so-fast credit or two.

"Granted," said Dennis, "you two really can't do anything to help
clean up the mess, but at least you can come along for the ride."

The image of both men in vacc-suits being hull-taped to the
exterior of the CHAUCHAT suddenly came to both their minds.

Before either Fred or Larsen could reply, a higher pitched female
voice cut into the conversation from the behind them.

"Are we there yet?" Said the voice.

Ramen and Whipsnade both turned to see a raven-haired and very
well constructed young woman in an "I (Heart) H.E." tee-shirt,
very short white shorts, and long and tight white leather boots.
She also wore a brushed stainless steel pistol of an
unidentifiable type in a white leather thigh holster.

She didn't look a day over thirty.

"No, not yet." Dennis said. "Gentlemen, I believe you've already
met my niece, Ditzie."

Ditzie did a cute little girl wave.

"Hi guys!" She said.

Fred and Larsen waved back. It seemed like a good idea.

"And yes," Dennis said, "there _are_ some things that should be
done to the human genome."

"Well, duhhhhh!" Ditzie replied in a mocking tone of voice.

Lisa crossed her arms and glared at Dennis.

"What?" Said Dennis.

"Oh, come on!" Ditzie said to Dennis. "Uncle Woody says that its
not really incest!"

"Not that it ever stopped him!" Lisa cut in.

"No." Dennis responded to Ditzie. "I won't, but you're welcome to
have a go at Woody."

Before anyone could say anything else an "ahem" emanated from the
aft entrance of the wardroom.

Standing at the hatch was a bald and overweight fellow in his
mid-forties, he had a mustache, wore an old grey tee-shirt,
camouflage trousers, and a pair of eyeglasses.

"Could you guys speed it up a bit?" He said. "I want to get back
to work on my screenplay."

"Les, you could work on your screenplay anytime you wish." Said
Lisa. "But, you don't have the rights to use the official
universe or the money to put your film into production."

"I'll deal with each of the problems one at a time, my lady."
Said the Author.

"Oh, really?" Dennis spoke up. "Deal with the problems? You
haven't even finished _Friends_In_High_Places_, you creep!"

"Yes," Said Fred. "I was wondering about that."

The Author sighed, and then replied.

"Lisa gets dumped by her first husband. Ditzie sets a distance
record for a ship kill with a spine-mount particle beam. Dennis
kills the rogue engineer, and his long lost brother Harry dies in
his arms, but not before he picks up a mental image of the
'Empress in Black.' Aramanx Jack then wears a feather boa to the
victory celebration. And in the epilogue, Strephon signs the
order for the construction of the Longbow-II array."

"Are you all happy now?" Said the Author.

Dennis sat on his own right hand.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Are you saying THAT I AM RESPONSIBLE
for the destruction of the Imperium?"

"What?" Said Larsen. "What happened?"

"Something you guys missed out on." Les replied to Larsen. "Don't
worry about it." He then turned to Dennis.

"No, it was the Archduke Dulinor." He said. "But you guys did
take care of that problem rather nicely."

"Really?" Said Fred. "They did? How?"

"Oh! That was lots of fun!" Said Ditzie. "We went back in time
and I dumped nine gigawatts of coherent light onto Dulinor's
landing boat before he could land and walk into the throne room
and shoot the Emperor!"

Ramen and Whipsnade looked at each other.

Time travel? If only they could...

"The real fun," said Lisa, "was presenting our bona-fides and our
history files to the Emperor. And the cover-up, of course. We
were a bit at loose ends until Woody contacted us."

The Author strolled over to the wardroom fridge, opened it, and
extracted a bottle of Old Bilandin.

"Dennie," the Author said, "how many times do I have to tell you
to stop hiding the good stuff?"

With a wave of his right hand the Author transformed the label on
the bottle from the dull gray of Old Bilandin to the blue with
white letters of something called Samuel Adams.

Dennis was now visibly twitching.

"You invented that swill for that screenplay of yours!" He said.

"Had to," said the Author, "an authority told me that Scout Brew
was no longer in the canon." He took a sip from his bottle. "If
I could think of something worse, I would have used it."

"What about a light beer?" Ditzie asked.

The Author stopped in his tracks. He looked at Ditzie.

"Thank you," he said, "I never thought of that."

Old Bilandin Light, what a truly evil idea. The Author started to
laugh.

Dennis stood up, picked up his 11.4 millimeter auto-pistol from
the table, and shot the Author in the chest.

The impact of the first round caused the Author to drop his beer.
His eyeglasses also flew off and hit the floor causing the right
lens to pop out of the frame.

Dennis fired again.

The second round deformed the Author's head and caused his brains
to be splattered on the wardroom wall.

The Author's body impacted on the deck with a loud thump.

When the ringing in Whipsnade's ears dropped to a tolerable level
he spoke up.

"That was your author?"

"Yes." Said Dennis.

"And were all still here?." Said Ramen.

"We've been, 'here', as you put it since Woody contacted us."
Said Lisa.

"But I thought you liked him." Ditzie said "He liked you."

"He didn't like me," Dennis said levelly, "he never liked me!"

"If he really liked us," said Lisa, "he would never have used us
as the butt of all those pathetic jokes."

"Captain," SOPHIE cut in, "we have returned to normal space."

"Can we have a visual please, SOPHIE?" Dennis replied.

"Oui, mon capitaine!"

Ramen and Whipsnade looked around for the wardroom's holotank.
Instead they saw the walls and ceiling of the room dissolve into
a field of stars. In the starscape above and forward of the ship
was a verdant earth-like world.

"Gentlemen," Dennis said to Fred and Larsen, "welcome to Tellus
Tertius, our new home."

A tall and statuesque brunette woman stepped into the wardroom
with a 7-millimeter ACRS. She almost tripped over the remains of
the Author.

She didn't look a day over thirty.

"I thought I heard gunfire." Dana said. She looked down at the
corpse of the Author and said. "It was about bloody time you did
something about him."

"Yes," said Dennis. "SOPHIE, would you please land the ship."

"Oui, mon capitaine!"

Dennis took one last look at the body on the deck, and then
spoke.

"And would someone please take that trash and stuff it into a
mass converter. And do not mention to me the name of Leslie
Bates ever again."

Ditzie softly spoke to Fred and Larsen.

"Could you guys help me with this?" She said as she pointed to
the late Author.

Sure, they thought, why not? It seemed like a good idea.


The End.

And Now...

Elena's Orange Revolution Page.

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Quote of the Day

"The Party of Lenin Will Lead Us To The Triumph Of Communism"

The whole site starts here.

Quote of the Day

"The notion of the world divided between Good and Evil is perceived with dread."

-- Patrice de Beer, Le Monde

Could it be the dread of being identified as being evil, followed by the dread of being dealt with as such?

Cause For Concern

Comrade Putin establishes Der Putinjugend.

Do we give the launch order now or wait until they invade Poland?

Busy

Writing short story.

Will return to blogging later.

Somebody Is Seeing The Fnords

Tim Blair exposes Karl Rove's evil plan...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Someone Else's Thought For The Day

LASunsett has an idea:

I move that we honor Bill Clinton.

How does the William Jefferson Clinton Wastewater and Sewage Treatment Plant, sound?

That's good, but how about "Big Bubba's Cigar and Knocking Shop"?

I love British euphemisms.

42, What's The Question?

I have to see this.

I must confess that I originally heard the BBC Radio series on National Public Radio.

Oh, the shame of it.

Meanwhile...Across The Ocean

Green goons attack commodity traders, commodity traders strike back causing green goons to cry like the spoiled babies that they are.

Here's my initial comment (posted at Emperor Misha's) on the whole thing:

Commerce has been part of human life since someone discovered that they could trade their better quality stone knives for some decently processed bear skins. Commerce is one of the things that separate us from the lower animals.

An attack on commerce by the green-creeps (or socialists in general) is an attack on human life in general.

Well, Isn't That Surreal?

Characters from my TRAVELLER fan fiction novel have shown up in someone else's online novel.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

So Anyway

I'm up to page 15 of the "damn the budget" version of my screenplay for a TRAVELLER movie.

This is about 1/6th the basic minimum length for a screenplay.

Well, Isn't That Surreal?

The United States Navy has placed into commission the nuclear powered attack submarine U.S.S. JIMMY CARTER.

To which I have to say, "HUH?"

And this is Chris Muir's take on this:



We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Thought for the Day

Ayn Rand used to mock the nature-worshipping greenies by suggesting that they turn to worshipping smokestacks.

Screw the smokestack, I'll take a Saturn-V any day.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Les On Blogging

Never apologise for being right, no matter who you offend.

Well, Isn't That Surreal?

It becomes increasingly apparent that the word "journalist" is now synonymous with the word liar.

For example:

European journalists tend to portray the Sunni Arab and al Qaeda terrorism as the brave efforts of a broad based Iraqi effort to free the country of hated American occupiers. These fantasies get more bizarre, with accusations that coalition forces are behind the kidnappings, or, at worst, it is common criminals looking to score a large ransom ... Reality is contorted in truly amazing ways by these writers, as they try to make Saddam's tyranny into the "good old days", and a better place than a democratic Iraq. The recent elections are portrayed as a clever fraud, and any Iraqi fighting against the terrorists are deemed traitorous collaborators.

Quote of the Day

Dr. John Ray dug up an interesting quote from Friedrich Engels:

"The Germans have long since shown that in all spheres of science they are equal, and in most of them superior, to other civilised nations. Only one branch of science, political economy, had no German name among its foremost scholars."

Do we have to wonder why?

In Other News

Al Franken will not run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mark Dayton Marshall-Fields.

Darn, that means that the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Demented-Fascist-Looter party will have to nominate a serious candidate for that seat.

Union Goonery In Action

An open letter from actor Jon Voight.

A Reminder

The Soviet Union built the first nuclear armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

My Horoscope

From The Onion, February 9, 2005:

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

You're fond of saying that there's more that unites people than divides them, a sentiment that is proven true when the Nepalese band together to destroy you.

And I used to worry about lefties.

Someone Else's Thought For The Day

A veteran of the Korean War has something to say about the folks in Hollyweird:

In contrast to the ideals, opinions and feelings of today's "Hollywonk" the real actors of yester-year loved the United States.

They had both class and integrity. With the advent of World War many of our actors went to fight rather than stand and rant against this country we all love.

They gave up their wealth, position and fame to become service men & women, many as enlisted.

This page lists but a few, but from this group of only 18 men came over 70 medals in honor of their valor, spanning from Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, Distinguish Service Cross', Purple Hearts and one Congressional Medal of Honor.

So remember; while the "Entertainers of 2005" have been in all of the news media lately I would like to remind the people of what the entertainers of 1943 were doing, (62 years ago).

Most of these brave men have since passed on.

You really should read the whole thing.

Today in Pizzaland

Made a delivery tonight to a local den of thieves union hall. In this temple of socialism there was am envelope stuffing party going on. A Wellstone yard sign had been framed and was hanging in a position of honor at the front of the hall.

I managed not to spit fire at anyone present.

So much for rational & reasoned debate from the left...

As the old saying goes, "It's hard to get a refund when the salesman is humping your leg and howling at the moon."
Here we have an example of a college student responding to an article on Leftist textbooks rewriting the Cold War with code to find the GCD.

Irony In Action

Mark Noonan at Blogs for Bush wrote:

It is absurd to think that the solutions to 70 year old problems are applicable in the world of today - we just aren't what we were back then. We need, as a society, to ever think anew and act anew. But what we're getting, in what is surely one of history's greatest ironies, is liberals demanding rigid adherence to the past while conservatives are pushing change for the future ... liberals seem determined to stand or fall upon a defense of things as they are - they have become reactionaries; disdaining change not because of what it might do, but because it is change. We've got a long fight on this Social Security issue, but I cannot imagine that a hidebound defense of a worn-out past will triumph.

Quote of the Day

Wretchard at The Belmont Club writes:

There is an implicit contract between the student and university that a reasonable education will be provided in exchange for the time, effort and money spent studying. It is hard to see how the University's end of the bargain will be kept if it allows it students to be instructed in ethnic studies by a fake Indian teaching fascism. One might be forgiven for wondering whether the students aren't being shortchanged.

We should wonder what kind of ride we are being taken on as a civilization when Marxism, the font of all the megahomicidal ideologies of the 20th Century, is still being treated and taught as a serious and valid political, economic, and moral doctrine.

The proper purpose of the process of education is to teach children to become functional, rational, and productive adults. There is absolutely no place in any educational establishment for indoctrination in Marxism, that is for teaching children to become mass-murdering enemies of mankind. And no taxpayer of any nation should be compelled to pay for indoctrination in such lethal nonsense.

So is anyone interested in doing a candlelight vigil for the victims of Marxism on this coming May 1st?

Stuff

Had a dream last night involving actress Michele Forbes and an industrial mishap at a ground facility of a Russian nuclear space propulsion project.

Started writing a screenplay for a Traveller movie. I am going to do a "damn the budget" version first and then rewrite to fit a budget later. I should have the first draft done by the first of May.

Speaking of Mayday, it would be a good idea if there is some form of memorial for the victims of communism.

Off to do a nine-hour shift driving for Pizza Hut. The way things are going it will likely go on to eleven hours again. They actually scheduled me for overtime this week. (Oh, boy!)

Rest In Peace

Actor John Vernon has died at the age of 72.

As to his most famous line in the film ANIMAL HOUSE:

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

Yes, I am fat. I don't drink, even when driving home is not an issue. And I take intellectual shortcuts like deleting any comment that cites Karl Marx as a valid authority.

Mr. Sowell calls it again.

Thomas Sowell on the Iraqi elections and the predictable response by Senator Kerry:

Senator John Kerry loudly proclaimed on "Meet the Press" that the Iraqi election represented President Bush's "last chance" to "get it right." Nothing is easier than to demand more from somebody else -- even when you yourself have been an obstacle to achieving what has already been achieved.

Senator Kerry has a long record as a defeatist and obstructionist. Back in 1971, he said, "we cannot fight communism all over the world" -- adding in the same arrogant tone he uses today, "I think we should have learned that lesson by now."

Ronald Reagan never learned that lesson -- and hundreds of millions of human beings are free of communist tyranny today as a result. But during all the years when President Reagan was building up our military forces and our intelligence agencies, Senator Kerry was consistently voting against the appropriations required to do so.

What both men were doing was consistent with their respective assumptions and goals. Senator Kerry was just one of the defeatist elitists who regarded the communist bloc as a "fact of life" which we could only accept and which it was futile to waste resources opposing.

They imagined themselves to be so much wiser than other people that condescension was only natural, as they brushed aside any other viewpoint with such dismissive words as "cowboy" or even "stupid." The fact that events proved the defeatist elitists dead wrong in the Cold War -- and now again in the Iraqi elections -- has not yet broken through their smugness.

Probably nothing ever will. But that does not mean that the rest of us need to keep taking their high opinion of themselves seriously.

Think Of It As Islam In Action

Old folks being dumped in Arabia:

JEDDAH, 3 February 2005 — Some elderly Saudis are being disposed of by their families who dump them off in front of area hospitals and speed away, leaving doctors furious and flabbergasted by this bizarre, cruel behavior.

Recently, three separate families abandoned their parents — and their responsibilities — at King Fahd Hospital.

I'm looking forward to the new action film: DEATHRACE SAUDI ARABIA.

This Was Not Unexpected

ST: Enterprise cancelled by Paramount/UPN.

The ghost of George Orwell complains about the title of this post.

(He had a problem with the "not un" formation.)

News of the Day

Iranian mullahcrats eagerly await martyrdom.


So what else is new?

Thoughts for the Day

A leader without followers is just another lunatic.

And Varifrank has something to say about the general election in Iraq:

Today, the slavemasters of the world lost. Today, those who look at the people in their country as their private property were told in no uncertain terms that given the chance to be free, all people will choose to be free. People will brave bullets to be free, people will lay down their lives for others to have just the chance be free.

So-called French Aide

Via Michelle Malkin:

The naval ship's pantry is stocked with wines, baguettes and pate, and its casual dress code is shorts and sandals. There's even an artist - a painter to keep an illustrated record of the trip.

With a panache all its own, France's military is delivering aid to tsunami-battered Indonesia - and showing how a small force can make a difference.

A month after killer waves struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the French are part of an international relief operation that includes forces from more than a dozen nations, including Japan, Russia and Switzerland.

The 1,000 or so French sailors and soldiers arrived in Aceh province on the island's northern tip two weeks ago...

A mere thousand out of the entire French military? Compared to a US Carrier Group, it seems kinda stingy...

Um...Okay...

NASA builds Starfleet rovers.

Also going to Mom's, back Tuesday.

Statement of Policy

In a free country one may eject a obnoxious lout from their own home or place of business.

And unlike Comrade Stalin, I don't have an army of trench-coated goons to send out and murder those I disagree with. There is a VERY DISTINCT difference between the power of the state and the rights of the private citizen. Learn to live with it.

Furthermore, comparing someone to the bloodiest murderer of the 20th Century and calling that person a traitor and an enemy of freedom are gross insults and I am under no moral obligation to tolerate such on my weblog. Anyone who doesn't like that is free to whine about it on their own weblog.

I stand for INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, which is the right of the individual person to control their own life and property, and as such this includes the right to refuse contact with those the individual disagrees with or otherwise finds obnoxious. Tyranny is when such refusals are answered with physical force.

I have said before and will continue to say that those have or who seek to establish tyranny are toxic to human life, and I have absolutely no ethical objections to dealing with them as such.

"Just Memories"

There was once a Saturday Night Live sketch where Eddie Murphy played a reggae performer playing at an American Legion Post whose lyrics included the phrase, "kill the white man." After Murphy's character is taken aside by the white guy in charge of the venue he changes the lyrics to, "kill the white man, but not until he buys all my records."

Dr. Ray has a bit on similar behavior on the part of Karl Marx.

Quote of the Day

"An anecdote is a data point that science wants to ignore. Remember
this useful phrase. You will find you need it again and again."

-- Jerry Pournelle

Ahem...

I have found it necessary to restrict access to the comments option.

This is my weblog and as long as my name is incorporated into the URL I will be the sole authority on what may or may not be posted on any part of it.

And if some Marxist piece of shit feels oppressed by this, well that is too fucking bad.

Quote of the Day

From Something Positive:

"'Asshole' is not an alternative lifestyle."

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Someone Else's Thought For The Day II

Robert Tracinski on the inauguration protests:

But the leftist protests take on an especially evil significance when they attempt to disrupt the presidential inauguration. Other protests could be interpreted as an attack on a specific party, politician, or policy, not as an attack on the American political system as such. But the inauguration by its nature *must* be a non-partisan event. Its purpose is for members of all political parties and allegiances to affirm the legitimacy of the election result and support the peaceful transition of power.

Remember, the Marxists believe in their own right to violently seize power and to kill those resist.

And we have no need to wonder about the ultimate political allegiances of the left. In foreign policy, they scream about the evils of the American system and consistently defend dictators and terrorists--especially when they are engaged in open warfare against the United States.

If a socialist economic dictatorship is their ideal, and if they regard Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat as the wronged victims of American foreign policy, then the left is right to protest the process of voting and the peaceful transition of power celebrated at today's inauguration--because they are enemies of a free society.

I will go as far to say that they are Enemies of Mankind in General, to be dealt with as wolves are.

Deep Thought

The thing that Karl Marx most deperately sought was freedom from having to work for a living.

Someone Else's Thought For The Day

David Horowitz on the Left's response to President Bush's second inaugural address:

The totalitarian Left -- the Left that calls itself progressive and identifies its totalitarian goals with the seductive phrase "social justice" -- hated the speech (naturally), along the man who gave it. "The worst president ever" was one of the milder slogans on a sign in the crowd that gathered along Pennsylvania Avenue to trumpet their hate towards the inaugural parade. But there was hardly a liberal organ in the nation -- from the New York Times to the Washington Post -- that did not find something to wring its hands about in the president's speech. It was a Rorschach moment. This was a self-revelation, a testament to the reactionary force that liberalism has become. The torch of freedom has passed, as President Kennedy said in his own summons to his countrymen to stand up for what is right. But it has passed not to a nation united, as Kennedy fervently wished, but to the conservative vanguard that still takes the Founding spirit of the nation seriously, still rings its Liberty Bell, and is prepared to stay the course of the mission that inspired its birth.

What would Orwell say?

Those who uphold, defend, and spread economic and political liberty are called Conservatives while those who seek to lock humanity down under their total control are called Progressives. In effect, in the political context, the practical meanings of the political labels are reversed.

The one of the functions of language is to serve as the operating system of human thought. But the function of Newspeak is to prevent correct identification of the facts of reality. Thus bloodsoaked tyrants such as Fidel Castro are called liberators and liberators such as President Bush are called oppressors. But since clarity of thought, the correct identification of the facts of reality, is necessary for humans to survive and prosper, a language form that obscures facts and disconnects thought from reality has the effect of being toxic to human life. Each subsequent revision of Newspeak, with its increasing disconnection from reality, is increasingly toxic to human life. An ultimate version of Newspeak, in which any thought is impossible, would be totally lethal.

Thus if we are to survive and prosper as individuals and as a society we must remove the newspeakers from our educational establishments and if necessary isolate them from society altogether.

Quote of the Day

"Well, I don't think that there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error."

-- HAL 9000

Data recovered from Huygens probe in spite of human error.

Define Art

Art is something that won't be identified as garbage and hauled away.

This definition by negative is brought to you by the city of Frankfurt, where trashmen hauled away an alledged sculpture for incineration. (The hat tip goes to Dr. John Ray.)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

That's It...I'm Moving!

The city of Mankato, Minnesota homepage.

Meanwhile...Across The Solar System...

Mars rover finds basketball sized meteorite.

"I didn't see this one coming," says NASA scientist.

(Insert Hardware Wars joke here.)

In Other News

Actress Gillian Anderson just got married again.

Um...okay...

I Have Been Remiss...

I haven't visited the Communists For Kerry site for a while and thus missed their election night report:

Lenin tells Rosa Luxemburg how he changed costumes so that within one hour he could cast nine votes for John Kerry - as Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Bukharin, Dzerzhinsky, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and twice as Laika the Space Dog!

Hey Rosa, can you purge me too?

The Left In Action

Tim Blair's weblog site has been hacked.

According to Mr. Blair:

Apparently my site has been hacked — all posts and archives removed, etc. Not sure yet if anything can be recovered.

Worse, I’m currently unable to post (password details have been corrupted) so would appreciate if any or all of you could alert readers.

All in favor of making censorship a capital offense please raise your hand...

(Les' hand is raised)

The Doctor Is In

Dr. John Ray has a few words about the self-styled American Progressives of a century ago:

Probably the major thing that holds the American Left from wider adoption of their alternative name however is the legacy of the last major American political movement to use that name -- the "Progressives" of around the beginning of the 20th century. Let me note what an embarrassment THEY are:

Like all Leftists, they were a fractious lot so there is no fixed list of what a Progressive believed but here are some of the notable features in Progressive doctrine: They were (of course) anti-business, pro-welfare and believers in central government management of the economy but as well as that they believed in eugenics, racial superiority, war as a purifying force, nationalism, imperialism, conformity, discipline, book-burning, loyalty oaths and straight-armed salutes. And they despised the Jews, of course.

Does all that somehow ring a bell? Where else have you heard of such a set of ideas? You've got it! All of those ideas were also Hitler's ideas. And THAT'S WHERE HITLER GOT A LOT OF IT FROM. The American Progressives were the first Fascists of the 20th century. In America they were mostly unable to put those ideas into full practice but Hitler showed what happens when you do.

Which in part explains why the present day "Progressives" are so desperate to hang on to control of the public schools. I mean gee, gosh, and wow. What would happen to the Left if the schools actually taught the real history of the last century?

A round in the back of the head in the old Soviet style?

Disclosure

I have never accepted a monetary donation is exchange for a political endorsement on this weblog.

If I did, I would not have to deliver pizza for a living.

Thought for the Day

One gets the impression that the bozoids at CBS, and the mainstream or legacy media in general, believe that the First Amendment is in effect a legalization of actions that in any other field of life would be properly identified as crimes, such as fraud and treason.

Something should be done about this.

Today in Pizzaland

If I were to start this blog today I would have been very tempted to call it "Adventures in Pizzaland."

It was a fairly slow day today, I only made fourteen deliveries in a bit over eight hours. This included a $48.00 run to South High School in Minneapolis where the glorious heroes of socialist indoctrination public education declined to offer a tip. It was the only stiffing I received for the day.

I also saw a neat bumper sticker on the return leg of a delivery run:

"IT TAKES A VIKING TO RAZE A VILLAGE."

I want one, dammit.

What liberals want all of America to be...

Leftists In Action

Glenn Reynolds wrote:

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Posted 1:18 AM by Glenn

INSTAPUNDIT is down, along with all of Hosting Matters, I believe. The HM people say it's a DDOS attack. I'm going to bed now anyway; if the site's still down tomorrow I'll post here, but that's unlikely.

Conservatives and other folks with a reality orientation will take "no" for an answer. Conservatives and civilized people in general prefer to deal with others on the basis of consent.

The Socialists, like any other practitioners of an "overlord" ideology, would rather deal with others through coercion. By fraud if possible, by force if necessary.

Where a conservative will ask for an agreement, the socialist will demand nothing less than total submission.

Where a conservative accepts the moral boundaries to his actions, to a socialist no act, be it cheating, be it censorship, or be it mass-murder, too depraved in the pursuit of power.

Conservatives stand for civilization. Socialists are just another bunch of f***ing savages.

You Too Can Be A Mass Murderer!

All you have to do is follow Marx and Engels:

"The proletarians, driven to despair, will seize the torch which Stephens has preached to them; the vengeance of the people will come down with a wrath of which the rage of 1795 gives no true idea. The war of the poor against the rich will be the bloodiest ever waged".

-- Friedrich Engels

So far it is no less than 110 million lives that have been snuffed out by the followers of Marx and Engels. The Left calls us morons when we refuse the poison that they offer us. And if anyone suggests that the socialists should killed before they have a chance to kill any more of us he is called "the embodiment of all evil on Earth."

Wow! They really hate it when we shoot back.

Dr. John Ray is posting some of the more interesting quotes from the works of Marx and his associates and followers. Check it out here.

And on May 1st we should do something to remember the victims of Marx and Engels.

Meanwhile...Across The Deranged Zone

North Korea Issues Wartime Guidelines For Attack By U.S.

South Korea -- North Korea has ordered its citizens to be ready for a protracted war against the United States, issuing guidelines on evacuating to underground bunkers with weapons, food and portraits of leader Kim Jong Il...When North Koreans evacuate to underground facilities, they should make sure that they take the portraits, plaster busts and bronze statues of Kim and his parents so that they can "protect" them in a special room, the guidelines say.

Does this really need a comment?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Arrrgh!

Got called in to work early today.

Sometimes I wonder why we're still in business.

Um...Okay...

In conversation on Saturday Night:

Me: What can we say about life?

Landlady: Kick it in the balls and steal its wallet.

We return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Announcement

Dr. John Ray has a new blog that features the depraved rantings of Marx and Engels in their own words.

Check it out.

Old Joke

Chaplain: ...and I can handle all denominations.

New CO: Can you do an Agnostic thing next Sunday?

Chaplain: Maybe.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Thought for the Day

The Left doesn't care how big a pile of human skulls is as long as they are firmly seated on top of it.

Victor Davis Hanson has some more to say on the subject.

In Other News

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark volunteers to defend Saddam Hussein.

Clark said in the Jordanian capital Amman that his principle concern was protecting the former president's rights, who only saw a lawyer for the first time this month - a year after his capture.

"In international law, anyone accused of crime has the right to be tried by a confident, independent and impartial court, and there can be no fair trial without those qualities," he said.

"The special court in Iraq was created by the Iraqi governing council, which is nothing more than a creation of the US military occupation and has no authority in law as a criminal court," he said.

So because the Nuremburg Tribunal was created by the "military occupation" of the victorious Allied Powers we should treat it decisions to hang and imprison the local mob of non-soviet socialists as illegitimate?

Clark also said the US itself must be tried for the November assault on Falluja, destruction of houses, torture in prisons and its role in the deaths of thousands of Iraqis in the war.

So no act -- such as the rape, robbery, and murder of the innocent residents of Falluja by the militants -- is not sufficiently vile enough to put down by force?

But then Ramsey Clark has a history of defending anything but Human Life and Human Civilization.

So what else is new?

Head Scratching Time

Overheard in San Francisco:

"We shouldn't think too badly of the Japanese. After all, they would not have attacked Pearl Harbor if we had not hit them first with the atom bomb."

If this were a Monty Python sketch a knight in full plate armor would walk into the scene and strike the speaker on the top of his/her head with a rubber chicken and then walk away.

On second thought, the twit in question may actually qualify for the full sixteen-ton weight treatment.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

The Doctor Is In

Dr. Thomas Sowell has an excellent idea:

Events of this past year have shown the need for a special award in journalism for those who think that the purpose of reporting news is to cause the public to adopt the political views of those who do the reporting. Therefore this column announces the first annual Joseph Goebbels award for that journalist who best exemplifies the spirit and the practice that Dr. Goebbels pioneered.

And the good doctor has also named the first recipient:

No need to prolong the suspense. This year's Joseph Goebbels award goes by a narrow but decisive margin to CBS News anchorman Dan Rather for his planned broadcast on "60 Minutes" -- just days before the election -- to discredit President Bush's National Guard service 30 years earlier. Leave aside for the moment the fact that discrepancies in the documents he relied on have convinced experts and many others that they were forgeries. Why was what George W. Bush did or didn't do 30 years earlier "news" in 2004?

It was news by Dr. Goebbels' standard -- something that could lead to desired political reactions by the audience. Waiting until it would have been virtually impossible for an effective answer to be made before election day was in the same Goebbels spirit. Had the documents been real, Dan Rather would still have been a strong contender for the award. The fact that virtually everyone, with the notable exception of Mr. Rather, now regards those documents as fake -- instead of simply "not authenticated" -- makes Dan Rather the clear winner of the Joseph Goebbels award for 2004.

My thought at the time when it became apparent that CBS had presented false documents in their effort to hurt President Bush was, "GAME F***ING OVER, MAN!"

I had to remind myself at the time to not be complacent that the President would be reelected. After all, to those value power above all, no act in the pursuit of power is too depraved.

Does Ann Coulter Know About This?

"Unfortunately, on average, everyday 50 Iranian girls and boys convert secretly to Christian denominations in our country."

-- Hasan Mohammadi, Employee of the Ministry of Education, Islamic Republic of Iran.

Unfortunate is the not the word that I would use. I would say that it is a definite step up.

(But Les, you're an atheist! Shhhhh!)

Read about how Christianity is spreading in Mullahland.



(HT: Dr. John Ray)

Finely Spun News

Ms. Anita Snow of the Associated Press wrote:

Cheered by hundreds of lawmakers, a smiling Fidel Castro walked in public Thursday for the first time since shattering his kneecap in a fall two months ago.

Legislators looked stunned, then smiled and applauded, when Cuba's 78-year-old president entered the main auditorium of the Convention Palace on the arm of a uniformed schoolgirl to attend a year-end National Assembly meeting.

The Associated Press as of late has shown a pronounced tendency to show the Enemies of Mankind in a favorable light. Particularly those presently operating in Iraq.

Also notable is their ongoing tendency to treat the reams of falsehoods emitted by such persons and states as if they were the truth. In this case the notion that the so-called national assembly is a legislative body that truly represents the will of people instead of in fact being a collection of party stooges who perform the political voodoo ceremonies that create the illusion of legitimacy for what is in fact the will of the dictator.

Of course on a certain level I will say that it is a good thing that Comrade Fidel is up and about. Of course when I say that, it is, like a wish that Bill and Hillary Clinton remain married, an act of pure malice on my part.

After all, it would look a lot better if, when Comrade Fidel is finally punished for his crimes against the people of Cuba, that he is standing before the firing squad instead of sitting in front of it.

Someone Else's Thought For The Day

Science Fiction intersects real world politics at National Review Online:

Simply put, UFO was too realistic. SHADO knew next to nothing about the enemy it was fighting. Who the aliens were, where they were from, and what they wanted remained matters for speculation. Almost every bit of information SHADO managed to acquire about them seemed to lead to more questions than answers. Many of the stories featured downbeat, ambiguous endings. And every now and then, the aliens would thwart SHADO. The series was, dramatically speaking, unsatisfying to a mass audience.

Then there was the problem of Straker himself. To put it mildly, he did not suffer fools gladly, which made him one of the most unusual lead characters in television history. While he was capable of kicking back in his office with his sidekick, Alec Freeman (George Sewall), and while he could (very occasionally) crack a smile, Ed Straker was most of the time a tightly wound spring. His job was to kill (or, if possible, capture) the aliens before they could do harm to any human, and that was that.

In short, Straker was no Captain James T. Kirk, a heroic figure who managed to answer all the audience’s questions and tie up all the loose ends with a witty quip before the final credits. Rather, Straker had a serious edge to him. Under the pressure of his job, we see his marriage collapse. Faced with a captured alien who refuses to talk, he doesn’t hesitate to order that a dangerous, experimental drug be used to break down his resistance, an effort that ends in the alien’s death. He even orders the destruction of an alien space ship he knows is carrying his friend, a top SHADO officer, back to the aliens’ home planet. To Straker, individuals mean nothing. All that matters is stopping the aliens.

Ed Straker certainly would have been a frightening man to work for, which is probably why the mass of TV viewers found him a frightening man to watch. His kind of single-minded determination was in short supply in the 1970s, which may explain why the series appealed to people of a conservative sensibility.

In real life, however, we sure could use someone like Ed Straker for the new post of national intelligence director. Fiction is now fact: We are up against a ruthless, determined foe bent on doing us harm and about whom we know rather little. Porter Goss seems to be making a good start at the CIA, lopping off a few heads and shaking things up a bit, but its not clear that he is in Straker territory yet.

If a real-life Ed Straker is out there, now is his time.

Fortunately, I'm A Non-Smoker

My horoscope from this week's Onion:

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

You'll wish you'd bought better shoes when your smelly, worn-out, charred sneakers are featured in a "Don't Smoke At The Pumps" PSA.

This Is Insane

City of Houston to be nuked on the Monday after Christmas:

From a former Bundesnachrichtendienst member-- Intel Expert

Paul Wofowitz will authorise the detonation of a nuclear payload in the Houston area on December 27, 2004. The Hidden Hand network (Mossad/al-Qaeda/SAS) of which he is the nominal controller has verified in advance every aspect of operational integrity - a failsafe job with zero chance of discovery.

And if you believe this you can also get a good deal on a bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan on eBay.

My lack of God, what some people will believe...

Someone Else's Thought For The Day

R.J. Rummel on the toxicity of Marxism:

There is a supremely important lesson for human life and welfare to be learned from this horrendous sacrifice to one ideology: No one can be trusted with unlimited power.

Professor Rummel presently puts the Marxist bodycount at 110 million. And he has a suggestion for us:

The next time you come across or are lectured by one of our indigenous Marxists, or almost the equivalent, leftist zealots, ask them how they can justify the murder of over a hundred million their absolutist faith has brought about, and the misery it has created for many hundreds of millions more.

(The hat tip goes to Dr. John Ray at Dissecting Leftism.)

Rant of the Day

I started out writing a rant about the apparent unfairness of comparing Michael Moore to the late Leni Riefenstahl, it went like this:

The millionaire Marxist propagandist Michael Moore is constantly being compared to or even called the successor to Leni Riefenstahl. I believe that these labels are grossly unfair to the late Frau Riefenstahl.

Comrade Moore has, over the course of career, emitted a pottage of distortions and outright lies whereas Frau Riefenstahl in her most infamous film, Triumph of the Will, provides an accurate view of what was at the time the embodiment of the socialist ideal, the mass of uniform drones robotically marching in blind obedience to a single will as embodied in the leader. As one of the unacknowledged predecessors of the Fuherer, Woodrow Wilson, put it: "Conformity will be the only virtue and any man who refuses to conform will have to pay the penalty."

It was in that film that Frau Liefenstahl gave us four hours, FOUR F***ING HOURS, of a boring but accurate display of souless conformity. That damned thing literally put me to sleep.

Needless to say after the fall of the NSDAP from power the present day left found it necessary to tone down the external indicators of ideological conformity. Even though the massive formations of well-bathed and smartly uniformed drones have been replaced by an undisciplined mob of hygenically-challenged and ragged savages, the ultimate goal remains the same, the destruction of a free civilization and erection of a collectivist hive state subject to a single will.

It was at this point that I realized that if I saw the issue in terms of their ultimate goal, the destruction of civilization, that I was in error in standing up for Frau Liefenstahl.

In the immortal words of Emily Littella: Never mind.

Thought for the Day

Daily Affirmations for the Inner Pirate

Sunday:

"If I must violently put down a mutiny today, it is not because I am a bad person or that I am not worthy of love; it is because my crew are a bunch of yellow-bellied, lily-livered sons-of-whores--and I am mean enough, ruthless enough, and dog gone it, people fear me."

Real Progress

From WFTV News:

MIAMI, Fla. -- Cuban President Fidel Castro's granddaughter, who fled to America in 1993, has become an U.S. citizen.

Alina Salgado, 26, is the daughter of Alina Fernandez, Castro's daughter living in exile in the United States.

Salgado was sworn in at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Wednesday, among 6,000 people who became Americans during two naturalization ceremonies. She refused to comment.

"I want to keep my life private and personal," Salgado said in a telephone interview.

Um, okay.

Um...

I keep thinking that the thirty year old movie ZARDOZ would be a neat metaphor for certain aspects of the present political and cultural situation. But I think I need to think about it some more before writing a rant on the subject.

I also saw this year's SOUTH PARK Christmas episode. (Episode 814: Woodland Critter Christmas)

If I wasn't an atheist I'd say that those guys (Parker and Stone) are going to burn for it. I'll have to tape it the next time it is shown. (Insert Evil Grin Here)

Just to fill in for my lack of activity on this blog I will now present a "Daily Affirmation for your Inner Pirate":

Thursday:

"I will express my feelings today. I will not hide them behind my eyepatch. My eyepatch is not a mask for my feelings, but rather a small swatch of leather that covers a hideous scar."

We now return you to your scheduled reality.

Quote of the Day

From Schlock Mercenary, December 15, 2004:

"Hey, with nano-spandex one size really does fit all."

-- Lieutenant Ellen Foxworthy.

My Horoscope

From The Onion, December 15, 2004:

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

It's often hard to say goodbye, but that doesn't excuse your practice of throwing down a smoke bomb and escaping in the confusion.

Quote of the Day

From the Schlock Mercenary strip of Sunday December 12, 2004:

Okay, you've crossed a line when I need a thesaurus to follow your flattery. OUT WITH IT.

-- Ob'enn Emperor

Howard didn't actually lay the label of Emperor on the character but he is sitting on a throne and is wearing a uniform in the imperial shade of purple.

Okay, I also had to look up "Rhadamanthine":

Rhad·a·man·thine: Strictly and uncompromisingly just.

"Shouldn't You Be Frying Something?"

I've come to the conclusion that apart from his species, the character of Invader Zim is essentially the idealized form of the complete modern utopian agitator.

Like the modern utopian agitator, Zim embodies supreme arrogance combined with supreme ignorance, a total dependence on the technology created by others, and a level of personal ability barely suitable for working in the fast food industry. As one the leaders of the Irkan Empire, Almighty Tallest Purple once asked Zim, "shouldn't you be frying something?"

And what can I say about the Irkans?

They not only militarised their society in the manner dreamed about by various utopians, but they have also gone beyond those archmilitarists, the ancient Spartans, in completely removing the family from the social structure altogether. Zim's first words upon being decanted from the womb-machine thingy were, "I love you cold robotic arm."

Of course having achieved the utopian dream of totally regimenting their own society, the Irkans then proceed to indulge in that other annoying habit of practicing utopians, the conquest and ruthless exploitation of their neighbors.

Invader Zim, having been sent to Earth so he wouldn't foul-up Operation Impending Doom II the way he wrecked Operation Impending Doom I, regards himself to be grossly superior to the inhabitants (that's us) even though every one of his schemes to effect a takedown of human society is thwarted by his next door neighbor, Dib, a boy who has seen too many episodes of The X-Files.

If it weren't for the well documented effects of various utopian schemes, the various efforts of our own home-grown utopians to impose their will upon us would be almost as funny.

Quote of the Day

"Conformity will be the only virtue and any man who refuses to conform will have to pay the penalty."

-- President Woodrow Wilson (HT: Dr. John Ray)

And some people wonder why I don't like Democrats.

The good doctor has more to say about the American Progressive influence on European National Socialism.

Another Opinion

A couple of weeks ago I wrote as a Thought of the Day:

The homeowner who shoots an violent intruder isn't only defending his own home and family but also the homes and families of what would have been the intruder's future victims.

In response to a call for the restoration of the right of self defence in the United Kingdom, Glenn Reynolds wrote:

I agree. In fact, as self-defense against burglars generates positive exernalities, by reducing the number of burglars, and their willingness to break into homes which might be occupied (thus reducing the risk that people will suffer Mr. Symonds' fate), there's a good economic argument that it ought to be not simply tolerated, but actively encouraged and even subsidized.

The individuals who perform home invasion robberies and other violent crimes have chosen to act as though they were predatory animals. In doing so they have deprived us of all other options but to identify and deal with them as such.

Quote of the Day

From Schlock Mercenary, December 5, 2004:

The grace of God knows no bounds, but my mercy has some practical limitations.

-- The Reverend.

Now What?

Oliver Stone is at it again:

OLIVER Stone plans to explore the possibility of an affair between former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan in his next movie.

Suggestion to Hollywood: Instead of blowing (so to speak) another hundred-plus million dollars on another cinematic clusterf**k by Oliver Stone, try investing in something that is actually entertaining.

For example: A darkly humorous tale set in an official science fiction role playing game universe.

(Yes, I'm still working on chapter twenty...)

Thought for the Day

A mere pacifist, one who distains violence without engaging in political action, is simply a moral parasite in a free nation. On the other hand a politically active pacifist, one who uses his vote or an elective office to interfere with the prosecution of violent criminals and the defense of a free nation, is a traitor who cloaks his actions in the shroud of righteousness.

Well Hello...Oh...Never Mind...

Film Threat has a go at Alexander:

The historical military epic genre has had its ups and downs in the last decade or so. Braveheart won Oscars out the yin yang, as did Gladiator, while Troy was somewhat less well-received. One thing you could say positively about all of these films, however, was the fact that they contained a hefty amount of combat. Not so “Alexander,” which features perhaps 25 minutes of actual battle footage in its 176 minute running time, and the bulk of that early on during the Battle of Gaugamela. What there is of it is well shot, but it doesn’t really amount to anything we haven’t seen before. The rest of the time, the film drones on and on as each character has to give voice to his long-winded feelings, punctuated by the doddering Ptolemy reminding us of what a Great Man Alexander was. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like a movie celebrating the life of the greatest military conqueror the world has ever known should feature a bit more conquering.

Could it that Mr. Stone has, you know, issues?

Wishful Thinking

There is a an apparently really, really, really neat 45 minute film of Mirage III fighters of the Swiss Air Force practicing low level flying and dogfights over the Alps titled Vols Blancs. (No, I don't read French.)

A short excerpt (36 MB) of it can be found here.

The problem is that it has only been recently released and is not available from Amazon .com and is only available in Europe.

This would make a really neat gift for Christmas or my non-birthday. Hint, Hint, Hint.

Aren't You Happy This Really Didn't Happen?

Whatever presents "The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time." (HT: Instapundit)

Here's one:

Ayn Rand's A Selfish Christmas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra to offer Santa cash for his services, acknowledging at last that his genius makes the gifts -- and therefore Christmas -- possible. Prior to broadcast, Mutual Broadcast System executives raised objections to the radio play, noting that 56 minutes of the hour-long broadcast went to a philosophical manifesto by the elf and of the four remaining minutes, three went to a love scene between Santa and the cold, practical Mrs. Claus that was rendered into radio through the use of grunts and the shattering of several dozen whiskey tumblers. In later letters, Rand sneeringly described these executives as "anti-life."

And then there's:

The Lost Star Trek Christmas Episode: "A Most Illogical Holiday" (1968)

Mr. Spock, with his pointy ears, is hailed as a messiah on a wintry world where elves toil for a mysterious master, revealed to be Santa just prior to the first commercial break. Santa, enraged, kills Ensign Jones and attacks the Enterprise in his sleigh. As Scotty works to keep the power flowing to the shields, Kirk and Bones infiltrate Santa's headquarters. With the help of the comely and lonely Mrs. Claus, Kirk is led to the heart of the workshop, where he learns the truth: Santa is himself a pawn to a master computer, whose initial program is based on an ancient book of children's Christmas tales. Kirk engages the master computer in a battle of wits, demanding the computer explain how it is physically possible for Santa to deliver gifts to all the children in the universe in a single night. The master computer, confronted with this computational anomaly, self-destructs; Santa, freed from mental enslavement, releases the elves and begins a new, democratic society. Back on the ship, Bones and Spock bicker about the meaning of Christmas, an argument which ends when Scotty appears on the bridge with egg nog made with Romulan Ale.

Filmed during the series' run, this episode was never shown on network television and was offered in syndication only once, in 1975. Star Trek fans hint the episode was later personally destroyed by Gene Roddenberry. Rumor suggests Harlan Ellison may have written the original script; asked about the episode at 1978's IgunaCon II science fiction convention, however, Ellison described the episode as "a quiescently glistening cherem of pus."

What can I say? I have a thing for in jokes.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

My Horoscope

From The Onion of December 1, 2004:

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22—Dec. 21)

You've long sought the solitary life of the lighthouse keeper, but it turns out that most of those things are built at the entrances to subdivisions these days.

Silly Thought

References to Alexander will probably start showing up as callbacks at future showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The next showing in the Twin Cities area will be at the Riverview Theatre this coming Saturday at Midnight.

And if you meet any of the local cast and support crew, do not mention that Les has a birthday next week.

Okay?