Bad News

Osama Bin Ladin is not dead.

The obvious reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail immediately comes to mind.

One day about a year ago I was driving over a section of highway that was laid over a swamp when I suddenly had the vision of Michael Palin as the Lord of Swamp Castle in command of space station Babylon Five:

"Everyone thought I was daft to build a space station in the Epsilon System..."

"Don't like her? She's got huge...Influence on the Gray Council!"

"You're marrying Satai Lucky, so you better get used to it!"

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
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Think Of It As Idiocy In Action

Moveon members demonstrate their superior knowledge of history and spelling at a protest in Minneapolis:


(Hat tip to the Minnesota Democrat Exposer and thanks to When Angry Democrats Attack.)

Thought for the Day

There is no shortage of assholes and idiots.

The good news is that there is some overlap.
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Why I Don't Live In Wisconsin

First Ed Gein, now this chap. What is it with momma's boys from Wisconsin?

TOWN OF CAMPBELL, Wis. - A loner who told authorities he kept his dead mother in a freezer for years played make-believe with her into junior high and endured teasing because she walked him to high school.

Philip Schuth and his mother, Edith, had only each other, neighbors and acquaintances said Tuesday as they tried to make sense of a police standoff at Schuth's home that ended with Schuth in jail and investigators carting a massive chest-freezer out of his basement. Inside was a body Schuth claims is his mother.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
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And Now For Something Completely Different

A message for gangbangers (and gangbanger wannabes) from Doc Russia:

Note to boyfriends: Do not think for a moment that your ghettolicious street fabulous bulllshit is going to get you anything besides snide derision from me. I will go over, I will look at your road pizza girlfriend. I will stand there and pick my nose for a loooong minute. Then say something along the lines of "yeah, she looks pretty fu*ked up, you better get someone to look at that" and stroll out. I am neither impressed nor intimidated by your bullshit gang sign throwing, psuedomasculine, pissant posing. If you want to impress me, put a damned shirt on, speak english, or better yet, pipe down and wait your freaking turn. This is not Burger King. We do not make it your way. This is an emergency center, and believe it or not, we are professional grade. Unless you have an MD, PA, or RN behind your name, I do not give a rat's ass what you think the course of treatment should be. I do not care how bad it looks; we are not going to stitch those pit bull bites. I don't care how uncomfortable you are, we are not going to take off that C-collar until we know that that 2mm C2 anterior displacement and subluxation is just positional artifact.

And no amount of trying to flex your muscles, or giving me the evil eye, or curling your lip is going to make me shudder. First off; I am a lot bigger than you. Second off, I have fought and won fights with Marines bigger than you. Third; that sheriff sitting over there is former army, carries a .44 magnum S&W, and owes me for spotting him for lunch.

Did I mention that gangbangers (and wannabes) tip like shit?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
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Um...Okay...

Ireland On-Line explains why the next Star Wars movie is going to suck:

Hollywood mogul George Lucas struggled so much with writing the screenplay for final Star Wars installment Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, he had to force himself to stick to a rigid working day as he sought inspiration.

The hugely successful movie-maker, 60, took on the persona of a normal office worker as he sat at his desk for nine hours a day, five days a week - and he still only managed to produce five pages everyday.

He says: "I am very diligent about writing. I go to work at 8.30am and leave at 6pm. I sit there with that page in front of me but I still can't write it.

"I do get it done, I actually write five pages a day. But I force myself - otherwise I would probably write a page a day."

I think I'm doing good if I get a page a day.

And I don't force myself, either.
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This Is Interesting

From the trailer for SERENITY:

"This is going to get pretty interesting."

"Define 'interesting'".

"Oh God! Oh God! We're all going to die!"

And:

"I want to resolve this like civilized men. I not treatening you. I'm unarmed..."

"Good!" BANG!

I still have to watch my copy of the collected episodes of FIREFLY on DVD.

(Les raps own knucles with his stainless steel ruler)

Ouch!
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I Didn't See This One Coming...

I am: Isaac Asimov One of the most prolific writers in history, on any imaginable subject. Cared little for art but created lasting and memorable tales.

Which science fiction writer are you?

This may explain my obsession with creating my own private Traveller universe.
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This Is Pathetic

Doc Russia had something to say about one of his patients:

Two patients I had to deal with today were real works of art.

Although one was male and one was female, they both were 14 years old and each of them weighed more than my 6"1' large-and-in-charge overweight ass.

Mostly it was the guy who bothered me. In certain cultures, no matter his age, boys are considered superior to girls. Even if a boy is 4 years old and hasn't quite mastered toilet training yet, without the dad around, he is the master of the house, lording over even his own mother.

What this means is that mom caters to his every desire, and about the time he turns 14, he has been enabled into helplessness. He has been getting along so long on the industry of others that he no longer knows how to do things without them. He ends up turning into a blubbering mass of chewed bubble gum every time someone puts any sort of tasks upon him. Tell him to sit in a chair as opposed to lying in bed, and he starts crying and screaming "I caaaaaaaan't."

When I was the same age as that grossly over-spoiled brat I was delivering the afternoon edition of the local socialist rag after school hours. And if I regret anything about my attendance at the Benning School for Boys it's that I didn't do it sooner.

While I'm in sympathy with the good doctor's concept of "Gunny Therapy" I would never physically bat anyone about the head, even though I have raised my voice to idiots in the manner of an army infantry drill sergeant. I was fired from a hospital security position for that once.

One of "interesting" parts of the job of pizza delivery driver is trying to not go off in the drill sergeant mode on every idiot who doesn't offer a tip. Especially when the outdoor environmental conditions are especially crappy. Apart from hardcore liberals, the worst offenders on average (there are exceptions) in this area appear to be "African-American" women. The personal check made out in the exact amount being the preferred weapon of choice in this reprehensible practice.

(HT: Heartless Libertarian)

Quote of the Day

From The Onion, April 27, 2005:

"Look, governments are supposed to kill people, not encourage them to be healthier."

-- Eduardo York, Broadcast Technician

I wasn't really thrilled with this week's horoscope. I mean its not like I actually went around tossing Molotov cocktails...
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Thought for the Day

Someone who is offended by a statement of truth may not actually be in the wrong, but that is certainly the way to bet.
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This Is Sick

I'm an atheist and I think this is sick.

SORE THUMBS on the new Pope.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
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An Addition, A Subtraction

LASunsett had something interresting to say about the situation in Iran:

Iran is struggling to come to a boil. This summer could prove to be a pivotal moment in the underground struggle to oust the mullahs.

When the Shah was ousted it simmered like this for a while, before coming into a full roiling boil. There is a whole generation of Iranians that do not remember the Shah. They only know the mullah's form of tyranny. Older adults have had a chance to see that they traded one form of tyranny for a worse one.

Despite his despotic characteristics, the Shah was able to westernize a major Islamic country. There are many today that long for that re-westernization, without the Shah, under a freely elected government. The vote in Iraq was highly instrumental, kind of like lighting the pilot light.

So I've added his blog to the roll of blogs.

The Baby Seal Seal Club has apparently been hacked and is no longer a source of insightful commentary. I've removed the link. (Dude, if you're still blogging elsewhere, let me know. Okay?)
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Meanwhile...Across The Ocean

Iran executes teenage demonstrators in Ahwaz:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards executed a number of teenage demonstrators in the streets of Ahwaz, southern Iran, according to eye-witnesses.

Residents reported that Revolutionary Guards arrested demonstrators in the city streets and gunned them down to terrorise the local people and end a weeklong anti-government uprising that has spread throughout the oil-rich Khuzestan Province.

Helicopters were also seen opening fire on demonstrators.

A 5-year-old boy was killed when he was run over by a Revolutionary Guards’ armoured personnel carrier, eye-witnesses said.

Expecting leftist demonstrations against the mullahcrats in five...four...three...
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(Dammit! Forgot to HT Dr. Ray!)

This Is Civilization In Action

A thought just occured to me regarding yesterday's post about the mass-murderer Che Guevara:

We accepted Fidel Castro's daughter and granddaughter as refugees from Cuban Socialism, and we didn't shoot them.

Think of it as civilization in action.
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This Is Socialism In Action

Dr. John Ray provided the link to this:

"One morning the horrible sound of that rusty steel door swinging open startled us awake and Che's guards shoved a new prisoner into our cell. His face was bruised and smeared with blood. We could only gape. He was a boy, couldn't have been much older than 12, maybe 14.

"'What did you do?' We asked horrified. 'I tried to defend my papa,' gasped the bloodied boy. 'I tried to keep these Communist sons of b**tches form murdering him! But they sent him to the firing squad.'"

Soon Che's goons came back, the rusty steel door opened and they yanked the valiant boy out of the cell. "We all rushed to the cell's window that faced the execution pit," recalls Mr. San Martin. "We simply couldn't believe they'd murder him! Then we spotted him, strutting around the blood-drenched execution yard with his hands on his waist and barking orders – the gallant Che Guevara."

Here Che was, finally in his element. In battle he was a sad joke, a bumbler of epic proportions (for details see "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant"), but up against disarmed and bloodied boys he was a snarling tiger.

Read the whole article and remember it the next time you see someone wearing a "Che" shirt.
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The Doctor Is In

Dr. Michael Hurd writes:

If you don't like the behavior you're seeing, then stop subsidizing it. Stop giving money to people who do things you dislike. Stop endorsing and praising them. Stop implying approval when you really disagree and disapprove of what they're doing. Stop smiling when you could frown instead, or merely remain blank.

When you subsidize something, you'll tend to get more of it. When you stop subsidizing, you’ll tend to get less of it. This applies to all kinds of relationships, including family and friends--especially family and friends. You have more influence than you think.

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Some Questions

Would you wear a Charlie Manson tee-shirt to the Tate Family reunion?

Would you wear a Adolf Hitler shirt in a synagague?

Keith Urbahn of the Yale Daily News thinks that communist-chic attire (the Che shirt, etc.) is defintely not cool (HT to Mark Urbin):

Marxism was a dark -- perhaps the darkest -- chapter in human history. Those who still admire the ideology are sullied by the black stain of 85 million deaths. Those who -- ignorant of the story behind their beloved leftist icons -- sport Che or vintage Communist Party shirts are likewise tainted by tacit approval of unprecedented crimes against humanity.

Displaying a swastika or a poster of the KKK's Grand Dragon on a dorm wall is considered unacceptable by the standards of modern society, yet somehow, symbols identified with communist mass murder pass the test of political correctness -- they're even "cute" or "kitschy." But "radical chic" isn't "cool"; it's a disgraceful endorsement of humanity's most appalling atrocities.

And we still have May Day coming up soon. Anyone in favor of candlelight vigil to remember the victims of Communism?
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This Week

This week is the aniversary of the Waco Massacre.

Tom Knapp writes:

The Israeli government took sixteen years to track down Adolph Eichman at the little house in Buenos Aires where he had retired from a long and productive career of burning, gassing and machine-gunning Jews. How long will it take us to put U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno behind bars where she belongs?

(Hat Tip to Dr. John Ray.)
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Quote of the Day

From Schlock Mercenary, April 20, 2005:

If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, I've got a room full of violence-prone semi-sociopaths who care.

-- Commander Kevyn Andreyasn