When I went to bed last night, unbeknownst to me, a small tangled capillary in my brain stem started bleeding.
As a result, the next six months will see me in the hospital, in Rehab, and trying to regain my memory and my abilities.
It will not be fun.
(Posted 8 August 2007)
30 November 2006
25 November 2006
Penny for the Guy
Guy Kawasaki is one of the biggest blowhards I ever met. (I worked at Apple Computer at the same time, and have first-hand experience.) He's also one of the smartest guys I've ever met. What can I say, the fucker's brilliant .If you're interested in starting a company (or anything much more complicated than a train set), get his book.
Photo for the day
I've touted this guy's site before, but it's worth another look, for his photography let alone his writing. His ladyfriend is certainly worth checking out (especially if you like them skinny)...
23 November 2006
Wanker's World
An absolutely hysterical piece of reality television from Down Under. Those who do not learn from history...
19 November 2006
Who knew?
Apparently someone named Hugo Bertini in Portugal thought enough of my blog to put me in his Interesses (interesting, in Portuguese) blog roll.
Amazing, where your stuff ends up...
Amazing, where your stuff ends up...
A job that must be done
From Beccy Cole, a songbird from Down Under
Why is it that there are now two great videos supporting the troops, and they're by a Canadian and an Australian?(And the lucky Aussie troopies got to see one hot sheila, at that...)
11 November 2006
A Pittance of Time
In honor of Remembrance Day, as Veteran's Day used to be called. (And still is in England and Canada, where they yet wear red Flemish poppies to remember their terrible losses in the First War.)
But if you still don't get it after watching this, you're fucking hopeless...
08 November 2006
Raj for meathead
It seems my boy Raj Bhakta engaged in a bit of Nixon-era 'dirty tricks' just before the election, and had an auto-dialer send messages to people in his district (and some not even in his district, as one gentleman explained to me at my polling place, which is not in Raj's district) that starts off with a woman crying and then goes on with some gibberish about how his opponent was connected with an abortion clinic (years ago, apparently) and why that was a bad thing.
Dirty tricks aside (and I think they're a stupid waste of time, let alone a perversion of the American Way), what the fuck is he doing dredging up ancient (and distorted) history about someone's stand on abortion as an election tactic?
Abortion, like it or not, is the law of the land.
In addition, no one likes it, but it sometimes beats the alternative.
Trying to make it go away won't solve any problems, but will just create more.
I was alive, and had women friends who had to deal with the problem, before Roe vs Wade.
It was not a pretty time.
Better that Raj had stuck to the Row vs Wade problem of immigration, and left abortion out of the race.
Dumb fuck lost anyway, so my opinion matters little, but officially here's the word: Raj is hereby unendorsed by this blog.
Maybe someday he'll grow up and get his thinking straight. Until then, the search for a good candidate continues.
Dirty tricks aside (and I think they're a stupid waste of time, let alone a perversion of the American Way), what the fuck is he doing dredging up ancient (and distorted) history about someone's stand on abortion as an election tactic?
Abortion, like it or not, is the law of the land.
In addition, no one likes it, but it sometimes beats the alternative.
Trying to make it go away won't solve any problems, but will just create more.
I was alive, and had women friends who had to deal with the problem, before Roe vs Wade.
It was not a pretty time.
Better that Raj had stuck to the Row vs Wade problem of immigration, and left abortion out of the race.
Dumb fuck lost anyway, so my opinion matters little, but officially here's the word: Raj is hereby unendorsed by this blog.
Maybe someday he'll grow up and get his thinking straight. Until then, the search for a good candidate continues.
01 November 2006
Quote for the day
The important thing about democracy – and this has always been the case – is that citizens a) believe the election result is based on the common sense and voting rights of the citizens, and b) have enough handguns to wax any politician who gets too seriously out of line (also known as “check and balance”).
Scott Adams, from his Dilbert blog
29 October 2006
Raj for anything!
I thought the guy was a good political choice, but after seeing this video he is definitely my choice for any public office in the land. Raj not only understands the problem, he's got a hell of a sense of humor about it.
(But where did he ever get that elephant in Texas?)
(But where did he ever get that elephant in Texas?)
22 October 2006
Seeing red
In case you haven't heard of these folks, they're trying to raise money in order to distribute anti-retroviral (AIDS, for those who've been living off-planet for the last decade or so) drugs in Africa.
While I suspect behavior modification, rather than ameliorative drugs, is the actual solution to the problem, at least these people are trying.
Besides, anyone who can get Apple to make an extremely cool red iPod Nano has got my backing...
Know your enemy
According to AP, there's now a 'worship hall' (more commonly called a mosque, though the PC police probably thought that might antagonize someone) in a building at West Point.
Why?
The Muslim cadets at the United States Military Academy now number 32, up from just two in 2001.
Good news and bad news, I guess.
The good news is we're going to have people who can understand the motives and the language of our enemies.
The bad news is that we're not going to know if they are our enemies until it's too late...
(For anyone thinking that wasn't very PC, please remember the fragging incident in Iraq last year.)
Why?
The Muslim cadets at the United States Military Academy now number 32, up from just two in 2001.
Good news and bad news, I guess.
The good news is we're going to have people who can understand the motives and the language of our enemies.
The bad news is that we're not going to know if they are our enemies until it's too late...
(For anyone thinking that wasn't very PC, please remember the fragging incident in Iraq last year.)
When even your friends think so
Time photo by Douglas Merriam
Time magazine quotes a 'Democratic activist' referring to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, bitch-on-wheels congressperson from the People's Republic of California, as "Teresa Heinz without the accent".Ouch.
I remember Ms Pelosi when she was just a local San Francisco moonbat (note false politician smile in photo). She'll be hell on gun owners and an advocate for open borders if she becomes Speaker of the House... (And it'll be your fault if you didn't vote.)
Say it isn't so, Charlie
In 1970, Charles Bronson did a commercial for a Japanese cologne called Mandom. How they could make a stud like him look gay, I don't know. (Though in Japan at the time, smitten with all things Playboy, this probably passed for very hetero behavior.)
Bronson was no Hollywood wimp, either.
A Lithuanian ex-coalminer (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky) from Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, he was drafted into the army in 1943. Assigned to the Army Air Corps and trained as a tail-gunner on B-29s, he flew 25 missions and received, among other decorations, a Purple Heart for wounds incurred in battle.
Director John Huston once summed him up as "a grenade with the pin pulled". Sergio Leone once called him "the greatest actor I ever worked with".
I always liked his stuff, even the terrible Death Wish movies...
Follow the money, they say
And when you follow the twenty billion dollars that Mexicans send home every year, you get to places you would not have thought of, according to this map from Investors.com. The obvious guess would be that Mexicans from the impoverished border states are coming across the line into the US, but this dollar-weighted map shows that, counter-intuitively, the most money is going to Mexican states in the middle of the country, where things must be even worse. Amazingly, "last year, northern states like Nuevo Leon and others created 1 million new jobs. In the north, there's no remittance dependency, no lack of jobs, no emigration problem and no prospect of revolts."
The Governor of Mexico's Central bank declared that "no nation can afford to lose its human capital indefinitely", but it looks like the country's President, who called Mexican emigrants "heroes", doesn't agree.
According to the International Labor Organization, Mexico is now the "world leader in export of its citizens".
Which would make us, of course, a "world leader" in imports of illegal immigrants.
However, the Inter-American Development Bank says that the "people most likely to emigrate illegally are neither the highest income people nor the lowest, but the highest tier of the poor", so we're hardly getting the best and the brightest.
And, just in case you thought it was getting crowded in your neighborhood, this statistic from the Population Reference Bureau: "55% of America's population growth is due to legal and illegal immigrants and their children"...
Again, I was wrong
Okay, okay, so it's today that my hit counter actually registered two grand. So sue me for excessive zeal...
21 October 2006
The Beeb fesses up
According to a post on the Michelle Malkin blog (via the British Daily Mail), the British Broadcasting Corporation recently held an 'impartiality summit', at which they acknowledged that "the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside, and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians".
The broadcaster's 'diversity tsar' even insisted that women newsreaders should be able to wear "whatever they wanted while on TV", including veils.
One threshold decision taken at the meeting was that Ali G could be allowed, on-air, to reject kosher food, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bible by throwing them into a garbage can, but not a Koran. Too much chance of offending a Muslim somewhere, you see...
If only the American media companies could admit to the same things.
It's not that bias itself is wrong (hell, I have a few biases myself, in case you hadn't noticed), merely the inability or unwillingness to admit it...
The broadcaster's 'diversity tsar' even insisted that women newsreaders should be able to wear "whatever they wanted while on TV", including veils.
One threshold decision taken at the meeting was that Ali G could be allowed, on-air, to reject kosher food, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bible by throwing them into a garbage can, but not a Koran. Too much chance of offending a Muslim somewhere, you see...
If only the American media companies could admit to the same things.
It's not that bias itself is wrong (hell, I have a few biases myself, in case you hadn't noticed), merely the inability or unwillingness to admit it...
It would be tragic if it weren't so funny
This is apparently the most-watched video on YouTube.
I'm not sure it's worth the 1.65 billion dollars that Google paid for them, but it's worth some significant fraction of it...
Grander
Back on 6 September, I posted that my rants had been seen by a thousand people. Today my counter hits two thousand.
While that's about every fourteen seconds for a blog like Michelle Malkin (who gets an unbelievable one hundred thousand hits a day), it's still a nice thing for those of us who putter about in the less-visited corners of the blogosphere.
My appreciation to each and every one of you for dropping by, from an amazing assortment of places. (See map below for where you are.)
Tell your friends.
While that's about every fourteen seconds for a blog like Michelle Malkin (who gets an unbelievable one hundred thousand hits a day), it's still a nice thing for those of us who putter about in the less-visited corners of the blogosphere.
My appreciation to each and every one of you for dropping by, from an amazing assortment of places. (See map below for where you are.)
Tell your friends.
Years of therapy in the making
The only comment I can make on the whole Madonna "African baby" thing is a quote from one of the Stolen Generation of Australian aborigines:
"I've got everything that could be reasonably expected: a good home environment, education, stuff like that, but that's all material stuff. It's all the non-material stuff that I didn't have, the lineage... You know, you've just come out of nowhere; there you are."
Another case of, as my mother would say, more money than brains...
"I've got everything that could be reasonably expected: a good home environment, education, stuff like that, but that's all material stuff. It's all the non-material stuff that I didn't have, the lineage... You know, you've just come out of nowhere; there you are."
Another case of, as my mother would say, more money than brains...
England expects
201 years ago this day, 21 October 1805 at 1630 hours (local time), Admiral Horatio Nelson died of his wounds aboard HMS Victory off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. The flags represent the first two of a twelve-hoist signal, perhaps the most famous in naval history:England expects that every man will do his duty
My history buff, Brown , reminds me: "An extraordinary man, of an extraordinary culture, in an extraordinary time… What might we, in our culture and time, learn from him? Much, I would reckon."18 October 2006
Because they help her float?
Why does the Little Mermaid have tits? No other marine mammal has external mammaries; it ruins the streamlining.Hell, even the manatees that inspired the whole mermaid myth don't have external tits. They do, however, have external genitalia. But that's one place Disney won't ever go...
Going to hell in high style
This cartoonist isn't willing to court disaster just from the Islamofascists, he's going after the Christofascist market as well, with a book of cartoons of both Jesus and Moe.That whistling sound is an incoming fatwa, along with Jerry Falwell grinding his teeth because he can't issue one...
En Oh El Ay, NOLA
In the "you are not going to believe this" category, this story has my embedded reporter in New Orleans shaking his head and noting that it definitely rates about a 9.0 on my weird-shit-o-meter.
The only thing weirder, he says, is that the Saints are 5-1...
Nola should have been a song by Weird Al Yankovic, but isn't thus far, so the original will have to do...
The only thing weirder, he says, is that the Saints are 5-1...
Nola should have been a song by Weird Al Yankovic, but isn't thus far, so the original will have to do...
Quote for the day
On a rainy day in Philly, Wyatt Earp has this gem:
“I sometimes think that if it rains hard enough, it will wash away all of the filth; but it never does.”
“I sometimes think that if it rains hard enough, it will wash away all of the filth; but it never does.”
the curmudgeonly delicious Edward Woodward as the Equalizer
12 October 2006
Quote for the day
"Were things better under Saddam? Before there were massacres, but they were secret. Now they take place openly."
Well, I certainly hope we can spring Saddam from jail before the end of his trial. I would hate for the Iraqis to live under a democratic state a day longer than necessary...
Well, I certainly hope we can spring Saddam from jail before the end of his trial. I would hate for the Iraqis to live under a democratic state a day longer than necessary...
05 October 2006
Off to do my part in the War
I'll be away through the weekend, refighting the Civil War in northern Virginia; my blogging will fall off sharply until I return. 3000 muskets, many cannon, lots of smoke, and bayonets.Plenty of Rebs there, but not much Allah Akbar!, I can assure you...
It would be funny if it weren't so tragic
In case you haven't watched CNN recently, there was yet another inexplicable school shooting in Pennsylvania.
A one-room school. Full of Amish children.
Five dead, so far, most young girls. Six others wounded.
According to Aaron Meyer, who owns a buggy company in the nearby village of Bird in Hand, "Many of these townships there have no police at all, because there's no crime."
That Amish drive-by shooting joke rings a little hollow just now.
As Captain Den put it best, it was the day the devil came to visit...
03 October 2006
Candidate interrogation
Based on perhaps one of the funniest lines in the movies, spoken by the ever-weird Johnny Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, I would ask this of any candidate running for an office higher than dog catcher:
Are you a Republican or a Republican't?
No funny question comes to mind for the Democrats, other than the on-going incredulity of "You're running Hillary for what?"See, diversity does work
This guy has set up throngs of campaign signs along the road I drive to work. Though I don't live in his district, I was compelled to visit his campaign site to check him out. He admits to being a poster child for the Melting Pot: "I am a first generation American. My father was born in India and my mother was born in Ireland. We would not be the country we are today had immigrants not paved the way."He also tells it like it is: "We do, however, need sensible immigration reform. I support additional funding for border enforcement as well as efforts to attract the best and the brightest from around the world. "
I like this guy. If you live in the 13th Congressional District (Northeast Philadelphia), vote for him. He is what America is all about...
02 October 2006
Quotes for the day
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
Two holy men and a founding father. Who am I to argue?
Mohandas K. Gandhi
"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"The Second Amendment shall never be construed by Congress as to deprive law abiding citizens of their arms."Thomas Jefferson
Two holy men and a founding father. Who am I to argue?
01 October 2006
Hanukkah & Christmas are coming, get one now
In the gotta have one category, this bobblehead Moe ranks right at the top.I mean, how else are we ever going to start having drive-by fatwa shootings if everyone doesn't have one of these bobbling away on the dashboard of their cars?
Buy one today and stick it on the dashboard of the next taxi you take driven by, you know, one of them...
A burning question
For once the Islamofascists have clarified something I've been wrestling with for awhile: why the whole Flag Burning Amendment to the Constitution is a bad idea. (This guy has a lawyerly dissertation on the subject, as do these people.)
The full text of the amendment reads: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
But what if it was the Islamic Congress, and it was the "physical desecration" of the Qur'an? Or "insulting the Prophet" (otherwise known as Moe)? Or even, as I posted earlier, "belittling Turkishness"?
I suspect the Religious Right (aka Christofascists), or the Obsessed Conservatives, or whoever is pushing this bogus trespass on the Bill of Rights, would not sign on to permit anyone to be prosecuted for burning a Qur'an, or especially this flag:
The notion that harming a symbol of anything (a nation, a religion, whatever) is somehow criminal is, in itself, criminal. And dangerously foolish...
(Besides, isn't the proper way to dispose of a worn-out American flag to burn it? So, if I burn a flag with anger that's a crime, but if I burn it with reverence that's a good thing? Can't these idiots make up their minds?)
The full text of the amendment reads: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
But what if it was the Islamic Congress, and it was the "physical desecration" of the Qur'an? Or "insulting the Prophet" (otherwise known as Moe)? Or even, as I posted earlier, "belittling Turkishness"?
I suspect the Religious Right (aka Christofascists), or the Obsessed Conservatives, or whoever is pushing this bogus trespass on the Bill of Rights, would not sign on to permit anyone to be prosecuted for burning a Qur'an, or especially this flag:
The notion that harming a symbol of anything (a nation, a religion, whatever) is somehow criminal is, in itself, criminal. And dangerously foolish...
(Besides, isn't the proper way to dispose of a worn-out American flag to burn it? So, if I burn a flag with anger that's a crime, but if I burn it with reverence that's a good thing? Can't these idiots make up their minds?)
Okay, it's not just the jihadis we have to worry about
Worry about this guy, too: Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda.Right on the home page for his Creciendo en Gracia (Growing in Grace) church, the guy (who bills himself as "the Man Jesus Christ") goes right off the deep end:
"As the last manifestation of God in flesh, He has established the Government of God on Earth as written in the Gospel... He has promised that every religion including Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, etc. will end, as all their leaders are corrupt." (Notice he doesn't mention Muslims, however. But even "the last manifestation of God in flesh" isn't looking for a fatwa, I guess...)
Miranda had a 'Worldwide Convention" in Miami last month. Having seen video of his 'church' festivities, I'm sure there were many juicy Cubanas jiggling to the band. And far too many deluded people (the church claims 1.4 million adherents worldwide) giving him envelopes full of cash to support his 'work'...
Is it just me or does that photo, with it's Dan-Rather-signing-off look, give you the willies?
And where are the likes of Nathuram Godse, Sirhan Sirhan, or Mehmet Ali Ağca when you need them...
(Can we get him and Sun Myung Moon together in a locked room, to see who comes out alive as the 'official' reincarnation of Jesus Christ? Then we can turn the jihadis loose on the winner...)
Dhimmitude
From Western Resistance, a full translation of a recent article by German historian Egon Flaig in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. It covers some of the long ugly history of the interaction between Islam and the West, and exposes the futility of passive resistance and the resulting life of a dhimmi:
"According to the shari'ah, the Muslims are the masters and the followers of other 'book religions' - Christians, Jews, Parsees, Buddhists - are subjugated dhimmi. The subjugated were not allowed to carry weapons; unarmed, they were not 'real men'. Christians and Jews had to wear special colours or pieces of clothing so as to be visibly dhimmi; they were not allowed to ride on horseback, only on mules, to remind them of their subjugation; they paid a special tribute (jizyah), that they had to pay personally while being given a slap on the head. They had to let themselves be beaten by any Muslim, without being allowed to defend themselves; if a dhimmi retaliated, his hand would be cut off, or he would be executed. A dhimmi's witness did not count against a Muslim, who only had to pay half the fine for any crime committed against a dhimmi, and could never ever get executed for any such crime. On the other side, the most cruel methods of execution were reserved for the dhimmi."
I don't think I'll let that dhimmi shit happen to me. For one thing, I don't respond well to a "slap on the head"...
"According to the shari'ah, the Muslims are the masters and the followers of other 'book religions' - Christians, Jews, Parsees, Buddhists - are subjugated dhimmi. The subjugated were not allowed to carry weapons; unarmed, they were not 'real men'. Christians and Jews had to wear special colours or pieces of clothing so as to be visibly dhimmi; they were not allowed to ride on horseback, only on mules, to remind them of their subjugation; they paid a special tribute (jizyah), that they had to pay personally while being given a slap on the head. They had to let themselves be beaten by any Muslim, without being allowed to defend themselves; if a dhimmi retaliated, his hand would be cut off, or he would be executed. A dhimmi's witness did not count against a Muslim, who only had to pay half the fine for any crime committed against a dhimmi, and could never ever get executed for any such crime. On the other side, the most cruel methods of execution were reserved for the dhimmi."
I don't think I'll let that dhimmi shit happen to me. For one thing, I don't respond well to a "slap on the head"...
Gates gets his come-uppance
| The voice is Bill Gates giving a feature presentation on Microsoft's new Vista OS. The video is some Mac freak showing all the same features already running in the Mac OS. | |
Quote for the day
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
George Washington
So much for those who insist the Second Amendment is about hunting and the National Guard...
30 September 2006
Dhimmi Of The Year candidate
Oh, now they've got the Queen being politically correct...
A mosque inside Windsor Castle? What's next, a Jagannath cart for the kiddies to ride in Hyde Park or a squad of whirling dervishes guarding Buckingham Palace? The Brits have long been devoured from within by the PC disease, but this is ridiculous. That whirring noise coming from St. George's Chapel in the Castle is Henry the VIII (that's the gate he built at Windsor in the photo below), spinning in his grave...
I can hardly wait for all President Bush's Islamic aides to demand that the basement pool at the White House must be reopened as a replica of the Well of Zamzam.
Assuming there are any...
A mosque inside Windsor Castle? What's next, a Jagannath cart for the kiddies to ride in Hyde Park or a squad of whirling dervishes guarding Buckingham Palace? The Brits have long been devoured from within by the PC disease, but this is ridiculous. That whirring noise coming from St. George's Chapel in the Castle is Henry the VIII (that's the gate he built at Windsor in the photo below), spinning in his grave...
I can hardly wait for all President Bush's Islamic aides to demand that the basement pool at the White House must be reopened as a replica of the Well of Zamzam.
Assuming there are any...
The Barbary Pirates weren't a baseball team
Whether Thomas Jefferson ever actually said "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute", he certainly acted on it. As this post notes, "Religion was a factor, just as it is now. The Barbary Pirates were Muslims. Those they preyed upon were exclusively Christians and, if not released through the payment of tribute, faced slavery or worse. Those few who converted to Islam escaped slavery, and were treated as equals. If any Christian dared to blaspheme Allah, he risked being impaled or roasted alive. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, serving at the time as European Ministers, asked the ambassador from Tripoli why his government sanctioned such savagery. He replied that the Qu'ran stated non-Muslims were 'sinners' and Muslims had a '...right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners'.George Washington himself said, in 1786: "Would to Heaven we had a navy to reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into non-existence." An American envoy of the time noted "there is but one language which can be held to these people, and this is terror."
Two hundred and twenty years into the Thousand Year War and not one damn thing has changed...
Biting themselves in the ass
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Company, a recent court ruling has forced school sports officials to admit girls to previously boys-only teams. (This being Canada, it's hockey that's at stake.) Now boys (typically those not skilled enough to make varsity-level boy's teams) applying for positions on girl's teams.
This, of course, has worrisome consequences, according to Morris Glimcher, executive director of the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association: "If we get four guys or five guys going out for the [girls'] basketball team, there's four or five females that won't make the team — and I dare say a bunch of other ones aren't going to compete — and we could end up with some female teams being made up of mostly men."
Bummer. Now we won't get to see calendar photos like hers...
This, of course, has worrisome consequences, according to Morris Glimcher, executive director of the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association: "If we get four guys or five guys going out for the [girls'] basketball team, there's four or five females that won't make the team — and I dare say a bunch of other ones aren't going to compete — and we could end up with some female teams being made up of mostly men."
Bummer. Now we won't get to see calendar photos like hers...
Quote for the day
“You will never feel secure on this earth. One billion, three hundred thousand Muslims are ready to kill you.”
from a post about French educator (and fatwa'd critic of Islam), Robert Redeker on Michelle Malkin's blog
If you don't like those admittedly long odds, move to a state where automatic weapons are legal...
29 September 2006
The other plane/skyscraper incident
When I first heard about an airplane flying into the World Trade Center, early on the morning of IX.XI, my initial thought was "hey, just like when that B-25 flew into the Empire State Building back in '45". Thus I wasn't expecting much more than the minimal damage that structure received.
This post, over on the new hot (because it's written by a captain in the PFD, right?) Philly blog First In, covers what happened.
When you next run across some braindead conspiracy nut who insists that UFOs piloted by Jewish firemen brought down the WTC, you can think of this as you pick up something solid and heavy to hit them with...
This post, over on the new hot (because it's written by a captain in the PFD, right?) Philly blog First In, covers what happened.
When you next run across some braindead conspiracy nut who insists that UFOs piloted by Jewish firemen brought down the WTC, you can think of this as you pick up something solid and heavy to hit them with...
Quel honneur!
I've been cross-posted by none other than The Dissident Frogman, one of my must-read blogs.
One of the few good things to come out of France since the 1945 vintage Château Lafite Rothschild, I read him almost every day...
One of the few good things to come out of France since the 1945 vintage Château Lafite Rothschild, I read him almost every day...
Quote for the day
"New York City is not a place where eighteen-year-old girls can walk around with impunity, at four-in-the-morning, wearing halter tops and miniskirts. My sister was aware of this fact and many others from a very young age, because we had parents with enough common sense to inform us that the world wasn't quite as enamored of us as we were with ourselves."
from Clublife
Cogent and right on target, our Doorman, as usual...
27 September 2006
Kurds & whey
I'd mentioned the whole Kurds-as-start-of-the-avalanche notion earlier. Courtesy of the DEBKAfile, there's now confirmation that the Kurds may just pull the pin on the whole situation.
Just to add fuel to the mix, the Kurds have apparently been using Israeli trainers to improve their troops. From the DEBKAfile, a report that "before Abu Musab al Zarqawi was taken out by American forces, his men sought high and low for Israeli instructors to abduct as hostages, but never found them".
In addition, and more worrisome, "Ankara is keen to get in its blow against Kurdistan before an American action against Iran. The Turks buy Russian and Iranian intelligence evaluations, according to which the US attack may take place at any time between the last week of September and the end of December, 2006. So they feel the ground is burning under their feet. Iran, for its part, is waiting for Turkey to make the first move in Iraqi Kurdistan. Its troops will go into action only after the first Turkish soldier and tank are on the move."
Anyone besides me remember the last quiet days of August, 1914...
Just to add fuel to the mix, the Kurds have apparently been using Israeli trainers to improve their troops. From the DEBKAfile, a report that "before Abu Musab al Zarqawi was taken out by American forces, his men sought high and low for Israeli instructors to abduct as hostages, but never found them".
In addition, and more worrisome, "Ankara is keen to get in its blow against Kurdistan before an American action against Iran. The Turks buy Russian and Iranian intelligence evaluations, according to which the US attack may take place at any time between the last week of September and the end of December, 2006. So they feel the ground is burning under their feet. Iran, for its part, is waiting for Turkey to make the first move in Iraqi Kurdistan. Its troops will go into action only after the first Turkish soldier and tank are on the move."
Anyone besides me remember the last quiet days of August, 1914...
26 September 2006
The Greatest Generation is now slightly smaller
Jeff Cooper, a true shooter, died recently. The world lost a unique character, the 'scout' rifle lost a devotee, and shooters everywhere lost an icon. His Commentaries were a must-read for gunners for decades. He was, to no one's surprise, a Marine, serving in the Pacific during WW2 and again in Korea. His development of shooting techniques at the Gunsite Academy in Arizona was the thing of legend; he brought the use of the Colt 1911 to an art form.His book To Ride, to Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth pretty much summed it all up.
An example of his writing: "Hiring other people, public or private, to protect yourself, is perhaps not totally futile, but it must never be considered more than marginally effective."
One of the Great Ones has passed. Stand and uncover...
25 September 2006
God-like behavior
Why do I create?
Why do I write this blog? Or my novels (as yet unpublished, alas)? Or make my movies?
Because, when I'm done, whatever it is exists, where nothing existed before.
That is, in a sense, god-like, and it feels like it sometimes, when it works. (Or the Muse intervenes, the Greeks would say.)
In addition, I started a new job today, after several months of being 'on the beach'.
Work, I find, is highly overrated.
One of the goals of all this creation is to make something (a novel, a screenplay) that people are willing to pay (and hopefully aplenty) for.
Or win the lottery. Either is fine. (The Pennsylvania lottery was over two hundred million last weekend, and the New Jersey lottery is over two hundred million right now.) Let us hope I get the right numbers this time...
Why do I write this blog? Or my novels (as yet unpublished, alas)? Or make my movies?
Because, when I'm done, whatever it is exists, where nothing existed before.
That is, in a sense, god-like, and it feels like it sometimes, when it works. (Or the Muse intervenes, the Greeks would say.)
In addition, I started a new job today, after several months of being 'on the beach'.
Work, I find, is highly overrated.
One of the goals of all this creation is to make something (a novel, a screenplay) that people are willing to pay (and hopefully aplenty) for.
Or win the lottery. Either is fine. (The Pennsylvania lottery was over two hundred million last weekend, and the New Jersey lottery is over two hundred million right now.) Let us hope I get the right numbers this time...
24 September 2006
That's why those of us who remember cry...
Bill Geist had a piece today on the CBS show Sunday Morning about a Hendersonville, North Carolina businessman who started a local campaign to send every WW2 vet in the county to see, before they died, the new World War Two memorial in Washington, DC.
Having an uncle and a stepfather who both served in that war, I was touched to see the aged veterans tottering through the memorial, honoring not only themselves, but their brothers who died before the memorial was completed, and the nearly half a million of their brothers who died before the war ended.
But it was Geist's summation that really brought tears to my eyes:
"...in appreciation, so long overdue, for the men, boys really, in their teens and twenties, who answered the call and saved the world."
When we wonder why our men, boys really, are fighting to save the world in Afghanistan and points east, remember these boys...
21 September 2006
Now those guys got balls
It's the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, doing their trademark haka (a Maori war chant) before the game. (Cool references to the national rugby logo, a silver fern, along with the team name, too: "Ponga ra! Silver fern! Kapa o Pango, aue hi! All Blacks! Ponga ra! Silver fern! Kapa o Pango, aue hi, ha! All Blacks!")
Click here to hear just how big
Nice to see a country where the oppressed native people (the Maori) get to be the poster children for an aggressive game that so perfectly fits their own tribal personality. Imagine if the NFL had a team out of the Dakotas called, conveniently enough, the Dakotas, with a big eagle-feather headdress on the quarterback (who'd have to be a Lakota Sioux, however) and some serious drums (and some half-naked Indian maidens, of course, this is the NFL after all) on the sidelines...Master's degree? That'll learn her
In August a Pakistani woman, Ghazala Shaheen Bathi, got her Master's degree in education from Bahauddin Zahariya University. It seems her achievement didn't sit well with the locals, who abducted her (and her mother) and gang-raped her for twelve days. Oh, yeah, and beat up her father as well.
The local police, pressed to act, aided the perpetrators in escaping.
These villagers are the enlightened, peaceful Muslims that everyone wants us to love and appreciate...
The local police, pressed to act, aided the perpetrators in escaping.
These villagers are the enlightened, peaceful Muslims that everyone wants us to love and appreciate...
On trial for what?
According to The Guardian, a prize-winning novelist, Elif Shafak, was accused of belittling Turkishness. Her novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, a portrait of the friendship between an Armenian-American girl and a Turkish girl, has been at the top of bestseller lists in Turkey since its publication.
"I oppose all violence," the lawyer who accused her said, "but if you call somebody's grandfather a butcher, there is no telling what reactions will be."
A Turkish court recently acquitted her, citing a lack of evidence.
As if belittling Turkishness was hard.
Hell, a child could do it: Hey, Turkey, you're the sick man of Europe. You're named after an ugly bird. You're cheap booze. You won't admit your own miserable history. You look bad in movies. Your women wear mustaches.
They can serve my indictment for belittling Turkishness on-line...
"I oppose all violence," the lawyer who accused her said, "but if you call somebody's grandfather a butcher, there is no telling what reactions will be."
A Turkish court recently acquitted her, citing a lack of evidence.
As if belittling Turkishness was hard.
Hell, a child could do it: Hey, Turkey, you're the sick man of Europe. You're named after an ugly bird. You're cheap booze. You won't admit your own miserable history. You look bad in movies. Your women wear mustaches.
They can serve my indictment for belittling Turkishness on-line...
Spymasters
Reuters and Time magazine employed the same double-agent as a reporter. Insisting that he "never reported any false information or propaganda while a journalist", he said he "always had warm feelings for his press colleagues and for the United States, where he attended college... but deep down he remained a true believer".Iraq?
No. Vietnam.
But, of course, none of the stringers that the news agencies (Reuters & AP) currently employ in the Middle East would ever do such a thing...
The Devil? He better hope not
Hugo Chavez, the über-loopy president of Venezuela, thumped the podium at the United Nations with all the vigor of the dearly-departed Nikita Khruschev, giving a speech whose wacky vitriol would have shocked even the bombastic Soviet leader.He called George Bush the Devil, stating that the podium "smells of sulphur today".
(Great line; too bad he's not a standup comedian. Oh, that's right, he is a standup comedian, one who gets ten minutes on the world stage at the United Nations.)
He also pitched for the UN to give Venezuela a seat on the Security Council. It's only for two years, and they don't get a veto, unlike the Big Boys who have the permanent seats (China, Russia, Britain, France and the US), but it would give them an irritant vote on upcoming UN resolutions. Given the situation in the Middle East, there are liable to be several of them in the near future.
He better hope he's wrong about Bush.
The Devil takes no prisoners.
But Chavez accused the US of plotting to overthrow him, saying that the UN is helpless to combat the threat posed by US power, and there he may be right...
He sounded almost presidential
Former president Bill Clinton was on Larry King Live last night.
They talked principally about the speeches at the UN, and the possible fallout for the Middle East if Iran continued their search for nuclear weapons. Bill sounded like a Democratic ex-president; not as loopy as Jimmy Carter, but still a placatory Democrat.
However, when asked what would be the result of Iran's use of a nuclear weapon, Bill sounded like an American president, rather than a Democratic president:
"Let there be no mistake. Their best day would be the day before they used it."
The threat was left implied.
Amazing. Me and Bill agreeing on foreign policy. That's my boy...
They talked principally about the speeches at the UN, and the possible fallout for the Middle East if Iran continued their search for nuclear weapons. Bill sounded like a Democratic ex-president; not as loopy as Jimmy Carter, but still a placatory Democrat.
However, when asked what would be the result of Iran's use of a nuclear weapon, Bill sounded like an American president, rather than a Democratic president:
"Let there be no mistake. Their best day would be the day before they used it."
The threat was left implied.
Amazing. Me and Bill agreeing on foreign policy. That's my boy...
Quote for the day
There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL.
Lynn Lavner
I'm not saying you have to be Jewish and a lesbian to be funny, but it helps...
20 September 2006
I see you out there
That little Geo Visitors button (in the sidebar under my hit counter) allows me to see where the last 24 hours worth of my readers (or their ISPs, at least) reside. The image above, taken but moments ago, shows a pretty good cross-section of the planet is perusing, if only for a moment, these words.
So how come, you gutless bastards, you're reading my stuff but you're not leaving any comments?
It's an easy click away, and provides some interesting and valuable counterweight to my rants. Take a minute. Piss down my leg and tell me it's raining. I don't care.
Well, actually, I do care. But almost any response is a good one...
(I've just learned that what I'm doing is properly referred to as a bleg, a portmanteau of "blog" and "beg".)
Putting your ass where your mouth is
A state legislator from Arizona (a Republican, what a surprise) is headed for Iraq and, no, he's not going on a 'fact-finding' junket.
Jonathan Paton is a member of an Army Reserve unit, the 5-104th Military Intelligence Battalion, based at Fort Huachuca, where he is "a 1st lieutenant and a qualified 35-Delta all-source intelligence officer".
Hooah.
Wonder how many Democrats are active members of the military, let alone doing a tour in the Sand Box?
This guy's in for a great shock
A prominent Palestinian sheik, Ismail al-Radouan, declared: "When the shahid (suicide terrorist) meets his maker, all his sins are forgiven from the first gush of blood. He is exempted from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in paradise, he is shielded from the great shock, and marries the 72 Dark Eyed (virgins)."
In an interview recently broadcast on Palestinian television, the mother of a real life suicide bomber explains how she had hoped her son would martyr himself: "My son would always dream of shahada (martyrdom), it was his first and last goal in life. I told him, 'Dear, we all want to be shahids.' He said, 'In this entire world, I can't think of anyone to marry. I want to marry the Dark Eyed [virgins of Paradise].' I said if these are his thoughts, I wish him shahada."
How does that make a nice young Palestinian woman feel, when all this guy wants is a dark-eyed virgin?
I can't wait to hear from the feminists on this one...
In an interview recently broadcast on Palestinian television, the mother of a real life suicide bomber explains how she had hoped her son would martyr himself: "My son would always dream of shahada (martyrdom), it was his first and last goal in life. I told him, 'Dear, we all want to be shahids.' He said, 'In this entire world, I can't think of anyone to marry. I want to marry the Dark Eyed [virgins of Paradise].' I said if these are his thoughts, I wish him shahada."
How does that make a nice young Palestinian woman feel, when all this guy wants is a dark-eyed virgin?
I can't wait to hear from the feminists on this one...
How did we miss this?
For a number of years, Six Flags has been hosting (for money, for money) a Muslim Youth Day event. Like other such sponsored Days, they close the park to unbelievers (sorry, other patrons), giving the attendees a day free of non-Islamic influence.Note the halal food and "dress modestly" admonitions; it wouldn't do to eat something unblessed (what is trayf in Arabic?) or see some skin; even going to Six Flags isn't worth going to hell...
This would've gotten me fired when I drove a taxi
Amazing news from (of all places) Minnesota, where the Somali taxi drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers on religious grounds:
"Islamic taxi drivers, primarily of Somali extraction. at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport are refusing to accept fares whom they suspect of possibly transporting alcohol."
Maybe they should try picking up fares at Mogadishu International for awhile...
"Islamic taxi drivers, primarily of Somali extraction. at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport are refusing to accept fares whom they suspect of possibly transporting alcohol."
Maybe they should try picking up fares at Mogadishu International for awhile...
No news is no news, even if you don't know it
It seems that CNN, among others, edited the news to protect themselves.
So much for the much-vaunted right to know, so often espoused by journalists...
So much for the much-vaunted right to know, so often espoused by journalists...
We've seen this movie
At the recent meeting of Non-Aligned Movement nations in Havana, Iranian president Ahmadinejad "talked persuasively to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez about making a show of deploying a few Iranian-made 2,000-km range Shahab-3 missiles, first in Venezuela then in Cuba, as a menace to the United States".
Okay, what are we going to have to do to make the other guy blink this time...
Okay, what are we going to have to do to make the other guy blink this time...
Finally, Commies to hate again
From India Uncut, this about irrational behavior:
"Just a few days ago I was at a book launch where Pankaj Mishra spoke about how women in Afghanistan had been better off under the Taliban, and then spoke with some sympathy about India's naxalites, and how one had to understand the reasons for the behaviour before condemning them. (As if any motive can legitimise the murder, rape and destruction of property that naxalites specialise in on a vast scale.)"
Who are these naxalite guys? Check out yet another Watch site, necessary because they need watching...
"Just a few days ago I was at a book launch where Pankaj Mishra spoke about how women in Afghanistan had been better off under the Taliban, and then spoke with some sympathy about India's naxalites, and how one had to understand the reasons for the behaviour before condemning them. (As if any motive can legitimise the murder, rape and destruction of property that naxalites specialise in on a vast scale.)"
Who are these naxalite guys? Check out yet another Watch site, necessary because they need watching...
But I deleted all those emails
Seems that at least one of those Nigerian stories was based on reality:
"The $55 million estate of Timothy Olufemi Akanni came to the attention of the authorities after his death in a plane crash last October. The forfeited assets include 23 bank accounts in various names; shares in leading Nigerian banks; houses and land in the most sought-after parts of Lagos and Abuja; schools in Abuja and a variety of motor vehicles."
Damn...
"The $55 million estate of Timothy Olufemi Akanni came to the attention of the authorities after his death in a plane crash last October. The forfeited assets include 23 bank accounts in various names; shares in leading Nigerian banks; houses and land in the most sought-after parts of Lagos and Abuja; schools in Abuja and a variety of motor vehicles."
Damn...
Avoiding terrorism through stealth technology
The tourist bureau in Jerusalem printed an English-language version of their sightseeing brochure, translating a Hebrew phrase this way:
Jerusalem. There is no such city!
Unconfirmed reports say the brochures were found at sites where apparently confused Islamic suicide bombers detonated harmlessly in open fields throughout Israel...Another man tool that women liked
Though disappearing at a great rate from its native land, the red pillar box was one of the best inventions of the British mind. Visible at a great distance, this elegant and distinctive portal to the vaunted services of HM Post Office (they used to deliver four times a day in Central London) is a magnificent design object, now lamentably replaced by humbler (and much uglier) postboxes...
A real 'man tool'
German archeologists discovered a 28,000-year-old "highly polished" rock that's either a) a tool for knapping flints, or b) a tool for frapping bints.At 20 cm (8 inches) long and 3 cm (1.25 inches) wide, the dingus is analogous to its modern counterparts, though there will be little need to knap flints until after the Thousand Year War ends civilization as we know it...
(Until then, check out this surprisingly explicit video of a new sex toy museum.)
Real women have curves, cabron
Seems the Spanish are getting serious about fighting anorexia:
"Five models hoping to be booked for Madrid's major fashion show were banned from participating because they are too thin. 68 international models stepped on the scales, like boxers, and five Spanish 'featherweights' failed. The girls had a body mass index, calculated on a height-weight ratio, of under 18 (56 kg for 1.75 metres or 123 lbs for 5'8"), the limit set by the regional government of Madrid."
Predictably, "anti-thin was criticised in Paris and New York"...
"Five models hoping to be booked for Madrid's major fashion show were banned from participating because they are too thin. 68 international models stepped on the scales, like boxers, and five Spanish 'featherweights' failed. The girls had a body mass index, calculated on a height-weight ratio, of under 18 (56 kg for 1.75 metres or 123 lbs for 5'8"), the limit set by the regional government of Madrid."
Predictably, "anti-thin was criticised in Paris and New York"...
Going medieval on your ass
The Indians are at it again:
"The leaders of a village in the Indian state of Rajasthan ordered 150 men to dip their hands into boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen from a local school. The 150 men from Ranpur and two neighbouring hamlets were told to pick a copper ring from a cauldron of boiling oil. The council elders then announced that the 50 who refused the order must be behind the crime. Many are now nursing their burns."
They say India is the oldest 'civilization' in the world. But is that civilized for thousands of years, or just civilized for one year several thousand times over...
"The leaders of a village in the Indian state of Rajasthan ordered 150 men to dip their hands into boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen from a local school. The 150 men from Ranpur and two neighbouring hamlets were told to pick a copper ring from a cauldron of boiling oil. The council elders then announced that the 50 who refused the order must be behind the crime. Many are now nursing their burns."
They say India is the oldest 'civilization' in the world. But is that civilized for thousands of years, or just civilized for one year several thousand times over...
New tricks from an old art
For those who have too much time on their hands (which would likely include nearly all bloggers), or those who need something to do with a hundred dollar bill (as shown above) while trying to pick up a hottie at a bar, try the Origami Underground site.
It has links to books and instructions on pornogami, also known as very naughty origami.
It also explains a new origami concept, useful when the hottie pours her beer on your hundred-dollar origami vagina: wetfolding...
Best headline ever
NZ finds Black Cocks hard to swallow
Leave it to the New Zealanders to pick a classic name for their national badminton team. But it appears that even they are having problems using it.Maybe they can sell it to an expansion team in the NBA...
Respect this, motherfucker
The Church of Superior Firepower has now accepted as its primary deity the Invisible Pink Unicorn. As she is an invisible god, any attempts to portray a likeness of this sacred being by other religionists (especially those who worship Moe) will be met with the most severe response.
As the sacraments of the Church say: Lock and load, hoochie coo...
As the sacraments of the Church say: Lock and load, hoochie coo...
Another flash point
According to the International Religious Freedom Report, submitted to Congress by the State Department, Muslim "terrorists attempted to provoke religious conflict by attacking Hindu temples in Ayodhya and Varanasi. The government reacted in a swift manner to rein in Hindu extremists, prevent revenge attacks and reprisal, and assure the Muslim community of its safety. The government also quelled religious violence in Vadodara in Gujarat, after protests over the demolition of a Muslim shrine threatened to spark Hindu-Muslim violence."
The subcontinent has engaged in cold, warm, and hot wars between Pakistan (and its Muslim brethren within India) and India ever since Partition in 1948. There are daily incidents of terrorism between the two communities in India, and periodic military confrontations across the disputed border in Kashmir.
This could be, even more than the ramblings of the Kraut Pope or our occupation of Iraq, a starting point for The Big One...
The subcontinent has engaged in cold, warm, and hot wars between Pakistan (and its Muslim brethren within India) and India ever since Partition in 1948. There are daily incidents of terrorism between the two communities in India, and periodic military confrontations across the disputed border in Kashmir.
This could be, even more than the ramblings of the Kraut Pope or our occupation of Iraq, a starting point for The Big One...
A fatwa in his future
A columnist at the India Times weighs in on the Pope's speech:
"The idea that everyone has to respect all religions is false, shallow, and pernicious. Belief is not a matter of will. It is possible, after the good faith exercise of reason, to dislike the historical record of this or that religion. Why impose a contorted hypocrisy by obliging everyone to say that all religions are nice? All organised historical religions have crosses to bear. The test of tolerance is when we can put up with things people say about us, even when we don’t agree with them or like them. A society where people, within limits, are free to express their views of other religions, is far safer and more conducive to liberty than a society that calls for suspending historical judgment or theological disputation under the pretext of expressing respect. The new clash of civilisations is being driven, partly, by a fragile state of mind among all religions in which everything is a pretext for religious groups to take offence."
I don't suspect he'll be echoed by any Islamic writers anytime soon...
"The idea that everyone has to respect all religions is false, shallow, and pernicious. Belief is not a matter of will. It is possible, after the good faith exercise of reason, to dislike the historical record of this or that religion. Why impose a contorted hypocrisy by obliging everyone to say that all religions are nice? All organised historical religions have crosses to bear. The test of tolerance is when we can put up with things people say about us, even when we don’t agree with them or like them. A society where people, within limits, are free to express their views of other religions, is far safer and more conducive to liberty than a society that calls for suspending historical judgment or theological disputation under the pretext of expressing respect. The new clash of civilisations is being driven, partly, by a fragile state of mind among all religions in which everything is a pretext for religious groups to take offence."
I don't suspect he'll be echoed by any Islamic writers anytime soon...
An R rating at worst
India Uncut also provides a link to a slideshow of Bollywood's steamiest moments.
In a perverse way, I'm a fan of Bollywood movies; I find their mass dancing scenes (reminiscent of an over-the-top Madonna or Michael Jackson music video) bizarrely fascinating. (And they come up with some seriously hot actresses.) But the inhibitions put on love scenes by Indian public prudery keep their movies (especially the musicals) from being taken seriously as cinema.
It would be tragic if it weren't so funny
Now the Hindus are at it...
From India Uncut, one of our linked blogs, this post about a priest who dared to dress an idol of Krishna in jeans, sunglasses, and a 'mobile' (British and Indian slang for a cell phone), apparently at the behest of a parishioner (sevait) who believed (there's that Belief thing again, getting people into trouble) doing so would help his ailing six-year-old son.
Apparently he commited this 'outrage' at the urging of the sevait, a wealthy businessman who had donated heavily to the temple; the premise was that the clothing, "hallowed by contact with the god", would cure his son.
Then someone started taking pictures...
For awhile, the priest insisted the new attire was "perfectly in keeping with Krishna’s image of a playful god with many faces and avatars, always game for a bit of leela (illusion or prank)". Even when criticized, however, the priest said "he was sure that God wouldn’t punish him".
Now the temple's chief priest has been forced into hiding because "the ruling Samajwadi Party took to the streets to protest the insult to Hindu sentiments.
Insult to Hindu sentiments? This from a religion whose practitioners can drink their own urine, cover themselves in excrement, stand on one leg long enough to cripple the other or stare into the sun long enough to blind themselves, and all of them considered holy?
A religion whose deities include a guy with the head of an elephant and a woman with four arms who wears a necklace of skulls?
Another win for the "excitable people"...
From India Uncut, one of our linked blogs, this post about a priest who dared to dress an idol of Krishna in jeans, sunglasses, and a 'mobile' (British and Indian slang for a cell phone), apparently at the behest of a parishioner (sevait) who believed (there's that Belief thing again, getting people into trouble) doing so would help his ailing six-year-old son.
Apparently he commited this 'outrage' at the urging of the sevait, a wealthy businessman who had donated heavily to the temple; the premise was that the clothing, "hallowed by contact with the god", would cure his son.
Then someone started taking pictures...
For awhile, the priest insisted the new attire was "perfectly in keeping with Krishna’s image of a playful god with many faces and avatars, always game for a bit of leela (illusion or prank)". Even when criticized, however, the priest said "he was sure that God wouldn’t punish him".
Now the temple's chief priest has been forced into hiding because "the ruling Samajwadi Party took to the streets to protest the insult to Hindu sentiments.
Insult to Hindu sentiments? This from a religion whose practitioners can drink their own urine, cover themselves in excrement, stand on one leg long enough to cripple the other or stare into the sun long enough to blind themselves, and all of them considered holy?
A religion whose deities include a guy with the head of an elephant and a woman with four arms who wears a necklace of skulls?
Another win for the "excitable people"...
Did he mean the Twentieth Century?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, while defending the Pope, said that "all the wars of the twentieth century were caused by European countries and the United States".
Really? All the wars of the Twentieth Century? That would be the period between 1900 and 1999, right?
Which would include, in roughly chronological order, the Moro Insurrection, the Ottoman Empire fighting on the German side during World War One, the Armenian genocide by the Turks, the slaughter of the Greeks in Smyrna, the Arabs fighting on the German side during World War Two, the continuing Pakistani-Indian wars, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the 1972 War, the Munich massacre, the Intifada, the Algerian civil war, Chechneya, ad infinitum.
Damn, I didn't know the Americans and the Europeans were responsible for all those wars, too...
Quote for the day
Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American… The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.
Tench Coxe
A good Philadelphia boy, our Tench. His rant about the value of the Second Amendment was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette. In 1788...
19 September 2006
A great top ten list
Wyatt Earp has a list of Top Ten Reasons the US is the Best Country Ever. They run from a very juicy Number Ten (country star Sara Evans) to a truly deserved Number One (Dana Delaney, shown here).While one might quibble with some of his choices (where's Salma Hayek? Jessica Alba? Halle Berry?) you can't fault him for putting together a pretty representative list of why the Islamofascists fear us so. (Especially the dreaded Number Two, the Olympic curling team.)
But where did those bodacious curves in Delaney's costume come from? (According to this site, in 1994 she measured 34C, which doesn't seem quite like what I'm seeing.) Dana Delaney was incredibly cute in her China Beach days, but they were not visible in the front of McMurphy's uniform. (And I looked, hard, every week...)
Temperature of Hell falls below 32 degrees
James McGreevey, former governor of New Jersey and self-proclaimed 'gay American', had this to say in his new autobiographical book The Confession: "Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today."
You think?
It seems his gay lover, an Israeli national trained as a poet and public relations specialist that McGreevey hired as New Jersey's homeland security adviser, has said, in a public spat over the book's publication, that there's a "special place reserved in Hell" for the ex-governor. The Christofascists would certainly agree with him...
You think?
It seems his gay lover, an Israeli national trained as a poet and public relations specialist that McGreevey hired as New Jersey's homeland security adviser, has said, in a public spat over the book's publication, that there's a "special place reserved in Hell" for the ex-governor. The Christofascists would certainly agree with him...
Nurse Diesel gets even
An AP story reports "an emergency room nurse in Portland, Oregon arrived home on the evening of September 6th to find a man coming at her with a claw hammer. Struck in the head, she wrestled the weapon away. The struggle continued and her attacker bit the nurse. A large woman, she was eventually able to get the slighter man into a chokehold and police later found him dead in a hallway."
Turns out he was a hitman hired by her husband, angry over their impending divorce...
Turns out he was a hitman hired by her husband, angry over their impending divorce...
Arr ee ess pee ee cee tee
According to Jihad Watch, Iraq's parliament has demanded that the Pope take "practical steps to restore respect to the Islamic world and its religion".
I finally got what their problem is, them Islamics. They think you can demand respect. (I've had bosses who labored under the same delusion.)
You can't demand respect. You can demand fear. You can demand submission. (Remember what the definition of the Arabic word Islam is; they practice it all the time.)
Respect has to be earned.
When the "Islamic world and its religion" start acting in a way that commands respect, we'll start respecting them.
Don't hold your breath, however. They don't begin to understand the problem...
I finally got what their problem is, them Islamics. They think you can demand respect. (I've had bosses who labored under the same delusion.)
You can't demand respect. You can demand fear. You can demand submission. (Remember what the definition of the Arabic word Islam is; they practice it all the time.)
Respect has to be earned.
When the "Islamic world and its religion" start acting in a way that commands respect, we'll start respecting them.
Don't hold your breath, however. They don't begin to understand the problem...
Overheard in Turtle Bay
At the UN today, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reconsidered his earlier decision and actually had lunch with President Bush. This is a portion of their attempt at casual conversation, as reported by the US translator:
Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, while there are many other matters upon which we disagree, I must admit that I am a fan of your movies and television of the science fiction."
Bush: "Really? I thought your religion forbade images of humans."
Ahmadinejad: "As many of the characters are not humans, the mullahs have allowed it."
Bush: "Which ones do you like in particular?"
Ahmadinejad: "Most especially your Star Trek. It is believed by many in my country that the woman who plays Counselor Troi is Iranian."
Bush: "I'll have to check." (Whispered aside with aide.) "No, I'm told her parents are Greek."
Ahmadinejad: "Well, then, a Muslim family, surely." (Bush, his mouth full, merely shrugged.) Which, Mr. President, brings up a question which has puzzled me for quite some time."
Bush: "What's that?"
Ahmadinejad: "In spite of there being so many Muslims alive on Earth today, in all the science fiction movies and television shows I have seen there are no Muslim characters portrayed. Why is this?"
Bush: "Because it's, uh, the future?"
Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, while there are many other matters upon which we disagree, I must admit that I am a fan of your movies and television of the science fiction."
Bush: "Really? I thought your religion forbade images of humans."
Ahmadinejad: "As many of the characters are not humans, the mullahs have allowed it."
Bush: "Which ones do you like in particular?"
Ahmadinejad: "Most especially your Star Trek. It is believed by many in my country that the woman who plays Counselor Troi is Iranian."
Bush: "I'll have to check." (Whispered aside with aide.) "No, I'm told her parents are Greek."
Ahmadinejad: "Well, then, a Muslim family, surely." (Bush, his mouth full, merely shrugged.) Which, Mr. President, brings up a question which has puzzled me for quite some time."
Bush: "What's that?"
Ahmadinejad: "In spite of there being so many Muslims alive on Earth today, in all the science fiction movies and television shows I have seen there are no Muslim characters portrayed. Why is this?"
Bush: "Because it's, uh, the future?"
Clop, clop, bang, bang, clop, clop...
...is the classic Amish drive-by shooting joke.
But with this suicide bombing in Afghanistan using a bicycle:
NATO troops were handing out pens and notebooks to a crowd of children in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar at around 0930 local time (0500 GMT) when an attacker on a bicycle detonated explosives strapped to his body.
Mohammed Karim, a bystander, said: "There was a crowd of kids laughing and shouting, ’Give me one, give me one’. At this time a man riding on a bicycle approached the crowd and detonated in the crowd.
"With the explosion, all the shouting of kids was ended and you could hear cries and people running to all sides. Some of the wounded were also running," he said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
...we're going to have to change the joke to:
Whir, whir, boom
A bicycle? Using a bicycle and wounding two dozen Afghani children just to get a few far-from-home Canadian soldiers?
Colonel Kurtz said, of a similar enemy:
"And then I realized, like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God, the genius of that, the genius, the will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. Then I realized. They were stronger than we, because they could stand it.
These were not monsters. They were men, trained cadres, these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who have children, who are filled with love. But they have the strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of such men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral, and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us."
When will we wake up and deal (without feeling, without passion, without judgment) with, as Kurtz also said, the horror, the horror...
But with this suicide bombing in Afghanistan using a bicycle:
NATO troops were handing out pens and notebooks to a crowd of children in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar at around 0930 local time (0500 GMT) when an attacker on a bicycle detonated explosives strapped to his body.
Mohammed Karim, a bystander, said: "There was a crowd of kids laughing and shouting, ’Give me one, give me one’. At this time a man riding on a bicycle approached the crowd and detonated in the crowd.
"With the explosion, all the shouting of kids was ended and you could hear cries and people running to all sides. Some of the wounded were also running," he said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
...we're going to have to change the joke to:
Whir, whir, boom
A bicycle? Using a bicycle and wounding two dozen Afghani children just to get a few far-from-home Canadian soldiers?
Colonel Kurtz said, of a similar enemy:
"And then I realized, like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God, the genius of that, the genius, the will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. Then I realized. They were stronger than we, because they could stand it.
These were not monsters. They were men, trained cadres, these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who have children, who are filled with love. But they have the strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of such men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral, and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us."
When will we wake up and deal (without feeling, without passion, without judgment) with, as Kurtz also said, the horror, the horror...
Tartarus isn't a city in Turkey
Martin Kelly, a British blogger, sums up the problem with the White Man's Burden in a post that starts out with a plea (and a quick response) to "Save Darfur! Why?":
"Hell is the eternal repetition of unachievable tasks."
Before we start on yet-another thankless attempt to save the poor bastards in Darfur, we might want to consider that, along with Kipling's admonitions about attempting "to veil the threat of terror" in the "savage wars of peace"...
"Hell is the eternal repetition of unachievable tasks."
Before we start on yet-another thankless attempt to save the poor bastards in Darfur, we might want to consider that, along with Kipling's admonitions about attempting "to veil the threat of terror" in the "savage wars of peace"...
An unequal equality
Seb is one of those bloggers who occasionally whacks out an incredible screed, which I then pass along to you, wishing all the while I'd written it myself:
I am, quite frankly, sick and tired of Islamic extremism and increasingly, I am saddened to say, of Islam itself. For too long now, like a spoilt child stamping its feet, Islam has been demanding that the rest of the world succumb to its every whim. Islam dominates the news agenda like no other issue or ideology. Its adherents revel in the abhorrent brutality and bloodshed which it both propagates and feeds upon. Islam is now viewed the world over as a religion of violence, of intolerance, of extremism, and of hatred. At present, my contempt for Islam is almost inexpressible.
When rightly and reasonably accused, in measured tones and from many quarters, of crimes against humanity, Islam screams Death to the Infidels! and promises, and then delivers, yet more bloodshed. While followers of other faiths take the indignity of satire in their stride, and laugh at their own oddness and idiosyncrasies, Islam demands, quite literally upon pain of death, to be respected and pussy-footed around, even beyond what is required by the law. Islam demands an extraordinary level of sensitivity on the part of the followers of other faiths, while brutalizing them both verbally and physically in return. Islam, extreme and unreasonable at every opportunity, demands an unequal equality.
Islam is a barbaric and murderous religion. When three thousand innocent office workers were murdered in New York, Islamists celebrated by singing and dancing in the streets. Ignoring their own brutal and evil dictatorships, they pour scorn on those who choose to follow a different path, insisting, in effect, that they change their 'unbelieving' ways, or be slaughtered. This is the threat we face today.
Islam is going about the task of ensuring its own survival in precisely the wrong way. Indeed, it could hardly have done more damage to its cause if it had tried: rather than rally converts to its cause as it purports, Islam is deliberately and knowingly creating a deep-seated and lasting resentment in the hearts and minds of men and women, of all faiths and none, right across the globe.
The predictably hysterical and histrionic reaction of Islamic people to the Pope's reasonable and anodyne remarks is, I believe, a warning. Tolerant, fair-minded, liberal people, both in this country, in Europe, and in the wider world, will not put up with this poison and hatred for much longer. There will come a time when these bloodthirsty, barbaric, wild-eyed warmongers will realise that they have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve.
If they truly believe that we are not prepared to fight for and, if necessary, to die for our beliefs, then I am afraid they are sorely, sorely mistaken.
I am, quite frankly, sick and tired of Islamic extremism and increasingly, I am saddened to say, of Islam itself. For too long now, like a spoilt child stamping its feet, Islam has been demanding that the rest of the world succumb to its every whim. Islam dominates the news agenda like no other issue or ideology. Its adherents revel in the abhorrent brutality and bloodshed which it both propagates and feeds upon. Islam is now viewed the world over as a religion of violence, of intolerance, of extremism, and of hatred. At present, my contempt for Islam is almost inexpressible.
When rightly and reasonably accused, in measured tones and from many quarters, of crimes against humanity, Islam screams Death to the Infidels! and promises, and then delivers, yet more bloodshed. While followers of other faiths take the indignity of satire in their stride, and laugh at their own oddness and idiosyncrasies, Islam demands, quite literally upon pain of death, to be respected and pussy-footed around, even beyond what is required by the law. Islam demands an extraordinary level of sensitivity on the part of the followers of other faiths, while brutalizing them both verbally and physically in return. Islam, extreme and unreasonable at every opportunity, demands an unequal equality.
Islam is a barbaric and murderous religion. When three thousand innocent office workers were murdered in New York, Islamists celebrated by singing and dancing in the streets. Ignoring their own brutal and evil dictatorships, they pour scorn on those who choose to follow a different path, insisting, in effect, that they change their 'unbelieving' ways, or be slaughtered. This is the threat we face today.
Islam is going about the task of ensuring its own survival in precisely the wrong way. Indeed, it could hardly have done more damage to its cause if it had tried: rather than rally converts to its cause as it purports, Islam is deliberately and knowingly creating a deep-seated and lasting resentment in the hearts and minds of men and women, of all faiths and none, right across the globe.
The predictably hysterical and histrionic reaction of Islamic people to the Pope's reasonable and anodyne remarks is, I believe, a warning. Tolerant, fair-minded, liberal people, both in this country, in Europe, and in the wider world, will not put up with this poison and hatred for much longer. There will come a time when these bloodthirsty, barbaric, wild-eyed warmongers will realise that they have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve.
If they truly believe that we are not prepared to fight for and, if necessary, to die for our beliefs, then I am afraid they are sorely, sorely mistaken.
Double your fun
In the twofer category, this headline on a flyer advertising a charity softball game:
Guns and Hoses
The teams? The local police department versus the local fire department.
I love it. Of course, that'll probably end up being the title of the first screwball comedy about 9/11...
Guns and Hoses
The teams? The local police department versus the local fire department.
I love it. Of course, that'll probably end up being the title of the first screwball comedy about 9/11...
Two for the price of one
I keep running across stores that sell, in the same establishment, two totally different lines of goods. It's an odd retail phenomenon, and I need to start taking photos of the storefronts.
Until then, here's the latest discovery, in a suburb of Philadelphia:
Pet goods and Auto repair
(Feel free to post your finds in the comments.)
Until then, here's the latest discovery, in a suburb of Philadelphia:
Pet goods and Auto repair
(Feel free to post your finds in the comments.)
Quote for the day
Jihad Watch has a Reuters article with the best doublespeak line yet about the Pope:
According to employees of the Turkish Directorate General for Religious Affairs, "the Pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by insulting Islam" and Moe.
Freedom of belief and thought? They wouldn't know freedom if it hit them in the face. Which, if they keep this up, it may well have to do...
According to employees of the Turkish Directorate General for Religious Affairs, "the Pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by insulting Islam" and Moe.
Freedom of belief and thought? They wouldn't know freedom if it hit them in the face. Which, if they keep this up, it may well have to do...
18 September 2006
Build it and they will come (and go boom)
In the oldies but goodies category, we need to dig out the tooling and restart the production line for the Skyraider. Sure, it's louder and bigger than a Predator drone (though it will take a lot more punishment when working close air support than those fiberglas and plastic birds), but I'd be willing to bet the pilot of one of these might just have 'forgotten' to mention that those 190 Taliban were standing in a cemetery when he asked permission to drop some ordnance on them...
Time travel
I don't know which is scarier, that they make this stuff so perfectly now, or that grown men play with them:
Actually, I just want to know why the hell they didn't make them this way when I was a kid...
Actually, I just want to know why the hell they didn't make them this way when I was a kid...
Joke for the day
A cowboy, a Native American, and a Muslim (or, more properly, an Islamic fundamentalist wacko) are sitting in the bus station.
The cowboy, being neighborly, says to the Native American: "You from around these parts?"
The Native American says: "Once we were many, and this land was ours. Now we are few and this land is yours."
The cowboy frowns and says to the Muslim: "How's about you, pardner? You from hereabouts?"
The Muslim says: "Once we were few and this land was yours. Now we are many and this land shall be ours."
The cowboy cocks an eyebrow and says: "Say, we never played cowboys and Muslims, did we?"
The cowboy, being neighborly, says to the Native American: "You from around these parts?"
The Native American says: "Once we were many, and this land was ours. Now we are few and this land is yours."
The cowboy frowns and says to the Muslim: "How's about you, pardner? You from hereabouts?"
The Muslim says: "Once we were few and this land was yours. Now we are many and this land shall be ours."
The cowboy cocks an eyebrow and says: "Say, we never played cowboys and Muslims, did we?"
from the Ride Fast & Shoot Straight blog
A joke on this blog that's not politically correct; what a surprise...
Mother Superior (Firepower)
Cowboy Blob has the solution for those intending to martyr any more nuns.Good trigger finger position, too, Sister...
Phillyisms
For out-of-range readers, there is a local chain of convenience stores (like 7-11) called Wawa. I've been told that the name comes from an Indian tribe (it's not a Native American nation once you've killed off all the Indians), but who knows.They're using local idioms on billboards advertising the local delicacy, the cheesesteak. (They're also making them with chicken, ugh, in a vain attempt to have them appear healthier than the original beef.)
The line is: Jeet yet? (Translation: "Did you eat yet?")
What's next? The local answer? (That would be: No, Jew?)
Storyville reborn
My embedded reporter in New Orleans has an idea for the Recovery Czar: open up an area near the French Quarter where prostitution is legal. (This bright idea may result from his time as a construction engineer at a small Russian shipyard in Astrakhan where the locals were running a brothel out of the living quarters, and his residing above a brothel while a student in Boston.)Storyville was a famous section of the city, long known for its varied houses of ill repute. (What did you think the House of the Rising Sun was all about?) Surely the Big Easy could find a few blocks (below sea level, so it gets washed clean every few years when the next hurricane hits) where the tourists could be separated from their priapism as well as their dollars...
Martyrdom is a bitch
The Associated Press is reporting more details on the execution of that Italian nun in Somalia: "Sister Leonella was shot in the back four times by pistol-wielding attackers as she left the hospital. Her bodyguard was also slain."
She sounds like an old-school nun: "Sister Leonella was aware of the dangers in Somalia, and used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it. "
Her last words? "Sister Leonella muttered the words I forgive, I forgive in Italian."
Islamofascist gunmen shoot a 65-year-old nun in the back and run away. (Tough guys. But there are quite a few Irish, Polish, and Italian neighborhoods in major American cities that I advise them to stay out of after this.)
And she forgave them.
It's okay, Sister, that's what you were taught to believe.
We, on the other hand, will not...
She sounds like an old-school nun: "Sister Leonella was aware of the dangers in Somalia, and used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it. "
Her last words? "Sister Leonella muttered the words I forgive, I forgive in Italian."
Islamofascist gunmen shoot a 65-year-old nun in the back and run away. (Tough guys. But there are quite a few Irish, Polish, and Italian neighborhoods in major American cities that I advise them to stay out of after this.)
And she forgave them.
It's okay, Sister, that's what you were taught to believe.
We, on the other hand, will not...
Bill gets a boat
The description of the USS William Jefferson Clinton had made the rounds as an email, but this is the first known photo of it:
The ship is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a legacy to President Bill Clinton “for his foresight in military budget cuts” and his conduct while president. The ship is constructed entirely from recycled aluminum and is completely solar powered, with a top speed of five knots. Its arsenal is comprised of one (unarmed) aircraft which, although it cannot be launched or captured on the 100-foot flight deck, displays a very menacing presence. As a standing order, there are no firearms allowed on board.
Of course, even with its poor armament, the USS Clinton is still more powerful than that resplendant flagship of the Islamofascists, the INB Moe, shown here being observed by a VBSS team from the US Navy:
The ship is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a legacy to President Bill Clinton “for his foresight in military budget cuts” and his conduct while president. The ship is constructed entirely from recycled aluminum and is completely solar powered, with a top speed of five knots. Its arsenal is comprised of one (unarmed) aircraft which, although it cannot be launched or captured on the 100-foot flight deck, displays a very menacing presence. As a standing order, there are no firearms allowed on board.
The 20 person crew is completely diversified, including all races, creeds, sexes, and sexual orientations. The crew, like the crew aboard the USS Jimmy Carter, is trained to avoid conflicts and appease enemies of the United States at all costs. An on-board Type One DNC Universal Translator can send out messages of apology in any language to anyone who finds America offensive.
The ship’s purpose is not defined as a unit of national defense; in times of conflict the USS Clinton has orders to seek refuge in Canada.
The ship was renamed and commissioned USS William J Clinton when someone realized that USS Blowfish was already taken.
author unknown
Of course, even with its poor armament, the USS Clinton is still more powerful than that resplendant flagship of the Islamofascists, the INB Moe, shown here being observed by a VBSS team from the US Navy:
More Moe
Planck's Constant has a series of images (some sacred, some quite profane) of Moe. But it seems even his followers have drawn cartoons of him...
Ain't the same, somehow
In the what sort of woman do you want to see when this is all over? category, is it Angelina Jolie in a burka (Is it her? Who can tell?) or these women of the IDF?(Women stripping down on the beach with beer and a Galil? My kind of gals, but sure as hell these aren't two of the seventy-two virgins of Moe...)
The University of Fatwa, surely
An institute of higher education where the faculty believes "it is time for Muslims to quit blaming others and examine their own responsibility for the troubles of Islamic civilization and, above all, time for women to have full equality with men in the Muslim world" and that the Islamic world is "still in the 12th century and does not have an open mind"?
Will wonders never cease?
Will wonders never cease?
Damn, almost forgot about the anthrax
Seems there are still some unanswered questions about the anthrax mailed to news organizations in New York and the Senate. Turns out there's evidence the IX.XI hijackers were connected. (Ahmed al-Haznawi, one of the hijackers, was treated in Florida for a lesion "consistent with cutaneous anthrax", and Mohammed Atta, who flew one of the planes into the World Trade Center, self-medicated for the same symptoms.) WMDs, anyone?Guess that Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great on the note wasn't a diversion after all...
Can't get 'em, can't get rid of 'em
From my embedded reporter in New Orleans, this report about now-dreaded FEMA trailers. Seems that empty and abandoned trailers are havens for (heavens, in New Orleans? Who'd have thought?) drug use and prostitution.The worst crime? They left the air conditioner running...
One dead demagogue to another
Another guy whose face we're not supposed to see, Darth Vader, would surely have this to say to Moe the Wonder Prophet about the on-going tizzy caused by the Pope's gaffe (let alone the tizzy over the infamous Danish cartoons): "Your power is weak, old man!"Any religion that takes constructive criticism (let alone a joke) this badly hasn't got much going for it. Look at the Jews; they tell the worst jokes on themselves, and yet they still kick the ass of their enemies...
Quote for the day
"We swear to God to send you people who adore death as much as you adore life."
A message posted on-line in the name of the Mujahedeen Army
You have been warned. If you hear bullets whistling or bombs exploding in this country, this is why...
17 September 2006
Another opportunity lost forever
The presidents of Zimbabwe (Robert Mugabe), Belarus (Aleksander Lukashenko), and Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) gesture during the 14th Nonaligned Summit in Havana, Cuba. 
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shakes hands with North Korea’s parliamentary leader Kim Yong Nam at the same event.
Where are Predator drones when you really need them...