No Grits No Glory

controversial dutch film posted online

2008-03-30T16:35:00.004-04:00

right-wing dutch lawmaker geert wilders probably won't be alive much longer, after resisting pressure to NOT release his film about islam & the koran, "Fitna"...

of course, the dutch government is gearing up to go into full apology mode...it looks like some dutch leftists are beating them to the punch...prepare yourself for the truly PATHETIC:

Mark Steyn NAILS IT...

2008-03-08T09:05:00.004-05:00

in a great piece today in the Orange County register, Steyn demonstrates how the Democratic race is shaping up as gargantuan death-match between two historical liberal guilts...with the voters left which one they think needs remedying the worst--racism or misogyny.

wow. you really should read the whole thing.

he describes the hillary vs. obama race as a new psycho version of "driving miss daisy"...guess which one is which? LOL.

his premise is that the "white boys" never had a chance, and neither did other possible peddlers of "identity politics". for example, his take on bill richardson:

Bill Richardson was the first Hispanic candidate but nobody needs a Hispanic called "Bill Richardson."

what an amazingly simple yet fascinatingly precise observation...i actually thought this myself a loooooooong time ago. i must be brilliant, too...

Gloria Steinem stumps for Hillary

2008-03-03T04:47:00.002-05:00

proving yet again that her campaign is completely out of touch with anything even REMOTELY in touch with reality, now she trots out lunatic feminist icon gloria steinem on the campaign trail...in TEXAS???

i wonder how that's working out for the her?

steinem managed to toss scorn at mccain's P.O.W. experience-

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.

“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.

McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.

“I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”

To the Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”

for good measure, she also got in some whining over how people view racism as a more serious problem than sexism.

... “a majority of Americans want redemption for racism, for our terrible destructive racist past and so see a vote for Obama as redemptive”...“I don’t think as many want redemption for the gynocide.”

the "gynocide"???

weekend update--Romney drops out, so do I...

2008-02-09T10:44:00.000-05:00

this blog has been seriously neglected, and i need to change that, but life's been throwing a bunch of curveballs at me lately, and my eyes aren't near as sharp as they once were.

well, so Romney dropped out the other day, 'for the sake of the party', or whatever. when i listened to the speech the other day, my heart just began to sink. i was originally behind him, then i flirted with Fred for the week or two he was officially in the running, then back to Mitt. i thought he was a real class act, and my heart and mind were moving towards becoming completely invested in his campaign. i never questioned his "conservative credentials", and his "flip-flops" on key issues were not a problem to me. hell, i've followed the same path. people grow. people change. he was moving in the right direction.

last night my band played a gig here in gainesville, FL. after a few beers, i needed some relief, so i strolled into the men's room. what i saw at the urinal made me laugh out loud....

i don't think "this picture sums it up" would be accurate...but, it sure was funny. kind of eerie, too...

wesley snipes and the IRS

2008-02-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

about a month ago, a friend of mine went into great detail telling me about some scheme he had become involved in which involved speculation into a certain precious metal...we'll just call it "silver" for short. for the sake of brevity, let's just say that the story covered about all the bases imaginable...our money is not really worth anything, the federal reserve is unconstitutional, the only thing worth owning is what ultimately backs all world currency (i.e. - gold), the rich of the world know the truth and just support the banking system because it keeps suckers like me in line, etc...

a big part of the scenario he laid out was how the IRS can't legally take our money, because it's not constitional. there was also some underlying notion that there is a difference between being an "AMERICAN" vs being a "U.S. CITIZEN", and, apparently, if you know this difference you'll never get convicted of crimes because the constitution is the ultimate protection, and, according to his "guru" who told him all of this, you just have to pose certain questions regarding constitutional authority to the judge, and if he answers "truthfully", he'll have to throw the case out of court. it seemed really far-fetched to these ears.

but, now i'm not so sure.

around the time he was telling me this, actor wesley snipes was being brought up in federal court on charges of tax evasion, a charge he freely admitted to, though his argument was that the constitution didn't require him to pay taxes on money made in this country. i asked my friend about it. he said, "you watch, he'll walk...". he said his guru knew the lawyers involved in the case. i was laughing...this was a SLAM DUNK.

i thought my gut was completely validated when snipes tried to get the case moved out of the federal court in ocala and moved to manhattan because ocala was too "racist" to give him a fair trial. that seemed like a desparation move to me. the judge nixed that request, and the trial was on!

after the government made their case, it was the defense's turn. they had warned that they had a huge list of celebrities to testify on snipe's behalf. but, surprisingly, they decided not to call any witnesses... they simply stated that the government had not proved it's case, and sent it to what was previously referred to as the "racist" jury...hmmm.

well, yesterday the verdict was announced: Snipes aquitted of tax fraud. they did find him guilty of failing to file a tax return, but not the failure to pay the taxes.

i need to meet this guru.

Chickens and Pigs--"Sunday Beer"

2008-01-25T01:49:00.000-05:00

my buddy jeff evans from atlanta/athens turned me onto this...a new video from his band Chickens and Pigs...GREAT band, btw...and this video is really off the chain.

Hugo Chavez admits he's a cokehead!

2008-01-23T14:30:00.000-05:00

it's cool...he gets some kind of ice cream from castro, and he gets his coca paste from Bolivian president Evo Morales, according to his own words in a speech he gave to his National Assembly.

"I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,'' he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience.

W could never get away with something like that...

UK judges to "Three Little Pigs"-- not so fast, swine...

2008-01-23T14:14:00.000-05:00

can you guess which religion they're trying to protect?

Fred is out of the race. Can i get my money back?

2008-01-23T13:34:00.001-05:00

i just donated money to his campaign last weekend. i've suffered with an inbox full of Fred requests for more money and help, but i put up with it because i really thought he would build up some momentum by just hanging around. bummer. bummer!

sunday afternoon link roundup

2008-01-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

over at the huffington post, ex-Georgia football star Herschel Walker reveals that he has "multiple personalities"...

actress Suzanne Pleshette has died. best known for her role on "the bob newhart show", she was also great in hitchcock's "the birds"...

Bill Clinton is claiming that the Nevada culinary workers union was suppressing the vote...the union has endorsed Obama. Hillary "won" the caucus, but Barack won more delegates. i don't understand these caucuses at all..

the Packers and the Giants are going to freeze their asses off tonight..

the JawaReport has the story of a newspaper editor in Belarus sentenced to three years in prison for publishing the mohammed cartoon....

"RONPAULAPALOOZA" scheduled for 4th of July...former Rep. Cynthia McKinney scheduled to speak, and one of the musical headliners is reportedly a jew-hating hardcore band--Poker Face. nice job, paulbots..

i've now joined hands with SATAN

2008-01-18T17:36:00.000-05:00

after resisting this for YEARS, i've finally decided to completely sell out...

...i've got a myspace account.

How a Ron Paul supporter 'learned to love Big Brother'

2008-01-14T05:07:00.000-05:00

Revolusion 2008 has the most amazing sequence of screenshots featuring one of RP's big supporters having an online meltdown over the release of old RP newsletters which have been been raising questions, at the very least, of whether RP is a racist and/or homophobic. examples (oh, and this is one guy over the course of a few hours):

"Need some come back lines real quick. They aren't buying the campaign's story after seeing these."

"My roomates just came in and looked at the solicitation letter, they are screaming. I am going to get some drinks..."

"I think what upsets me most is that the campaign ran with the line that they knew nothing about them when they were written and were denounced, now with the way they were written and the signatures...I feel like i do nothing but make excuses anymore.. DAMN!"

"OK, OK, I think I'm seeing clearly now...look who we are fighting. if these people can manufacture a war...."

"Quit fucking telling me to relax. it seems we are always being told "trust us". I need more right now."

"Let's just stick with the line that the signatures are fake. Anything else just confuses the situation."

"How do we get this out there?"

"...but the point is to repeat it over and over. we can make that thought reality."

just some excerpts, but, essentially, this guy could be told 2+2=5 at this point..

i've always heard that you can judge someone by the friends they keep...and here's Klansman David Duke offering Paul advice on how to cope, probably unsolicited, but online.

thanks to LGF.

i haven't thought about this lately...kinda gross!

2008-01-08T23:23:00.000-05:00

Do women prefer hairless or hirsute?

hillary--the new "comeback kid"!

2008-01-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

the pre-election polls showed her up to 12 points behind Barack...with around 47% of the votes in, she's ahead by 39%-37%...women are voting for her (according to MSNBC exit polls) 47%-30%, and women are making up 55+% of the vote.

this is a HUGE surprise to me. and to everyone else.

on the other side, McCain seems to be cruising...5% points over Romney with about half the votes counted...37%-32%...Rudy floundering, Fred floundering...

UPDATE: left-wingers already blaming Diebold for Hillary's mysterious comeback...

UPDATE #2: at 11 o'clock pm EST, MSNBC is reporting that Fred has 1% of the vote...i will have to find someone else to support...and i'm not so worried about the philosophy...no matter who the president is, i'll still be able to have an abortion no matter who wins, and i'll still pay almost no income tax..........

Hillary! to Obama--'No More False Hopes For My Victims'

2008-01-08T05:38:00.000-05:00

the Clinton campaign has been in full damage-control mode in New Hampshire to maintain the status quo and keep the poor minorities in line...at the debate saturday night the only real time she demonstrated she had a pulse was when she sensed that Barack was beginning to sound uplifting...and she scolded him for raising "false hope".

according to this piece in the New York Times, her "strategy" in response is edging closer and closer to overt racially-motivated fear-mongering:

Today, in Dover, Francine Torge, a former John Edwards supporter, said this while introducing Mrs. Clinton: “Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who actually” passed the civil rights legislation.
The comment, an apparent reference to Senator Barack Obama, is particularly striking given documented fears among blacks that Mr. Obama will be assassinated if elected.

the writer points out that some hack on the Clinton campaign tried to distance them from Torge's comments, but the candidate herself did not seem to flinch at all when the comment was made.

then, Saint Hillary demonstrated that she must not have gotten the talking points memo when she spoke to FOX News. responding to questions about Obama's comparing his message of hope to MLK, Jr., and JFK, Hillary chimed in:

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act...It took a president to get it done.”

SEE? it took the good white liberals to get this stuff done! she went on to sharpen her message later, at another campaign stop

“You know, today Senator Obama used President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to criticize me. He basically compared himself to our greatest heroes because they gave great speeches.
“President Kennedy was in Congress for 14 years. He was a war hero. He was a man of great accomplishments and readiness to be president. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement. He was gassed. He was beaten. He was jailed. And he gave a speech that was one of the most beautifully, profoundly important speeches ever written in America, the “I have a dream” speech.
“And then he worked with President Johnson to get the civil rights laws passed, because the dream couldn’t be realized until finally it was legally permissible for people of all colors and backgrounds and races and ethnicities to be accepted as citizens."

here she goofed. she forgot to mention that King was assassinated.

did DePalma's "Redacted" get two US soldiers killed in Iraq?

2008-01-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

this is the question posed by military blogger Pat Dollard...

he points out how bootleg DVDs are rampant in Iraq, from the general population to the US military. "Redacted" had recently been broadcast for free on HDNet, making it available for download to anybody in the world.

"Redacted", of course, is a fictional tale of the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by US troops.

Dollard points to Aswat Aliraq (an iraqi blog) for the details of the shooting deaths:

Ninewa, Jan 4, (VOI) – The Iraqi soldier who killed two U.S. soldiers in Mosul 10 days ago was a member of an armed group who infiltrated into a joint Iraqi-U.S. force, the commander of the Iraqi army's 2nd Division said.

"The soldier was part of a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol undertaking security duty in al-Haramat area, western Mosul, on December 26. When the patrol came under firing attack, the soldier opened fire at U.S. soldiers and killed two of them," Brig. Mutaa Habib al-Khazraji told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"The patrol soldiers managed to arrest him and he is now under the Iraqi side's investigative custody," Khazraji added.

The U.S. side denied that this Iraqi soldier opened fire at U.S. servicemen because they sexually harassed an Iraqi girl, affirming that the scene where the incident took place was void of any civilians.

On December 28, 2007 the U.S. army had announced that two of its soldiers died of wounds sustained when they came under light arms' fire during military operations in Mosul.

as Dollard pointed out in his post, by "The U.S. side denied...", this means that they had been asked. thanks, Mark Cuban. thanks, Brian DePalma. nice job. hope it was worth it.

note the message at the bottom of the movie poster...TRUTH IS THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR. yep, you said it...

take me out of the running--Erin Burnett a little too high maintenance for me...

2008-01-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

Erin Burnett, CNBC business anchor & the object of much piggish behavior on the part of several male media "personalities", i.e. Hardball's Chris Matthews (i saw this one live, and i couldn't believe my eyes or ears):

...AND, mr. "excellence-in-broadcasting" himself:

Scarborough: Let's talk about the Republican field...
Limbaugh: Wait a minute, Joe. Before you go there, I have to say something. I heard Erin Burnett sounding a little wifey, Erin, you said you're gonna be listening. I love listening to myself, but it's great to know you're listening to me too. Nobody can big foot you, Erin...
Burnett: I got bigfooted out, that's what happened Rush. Limbaugh: The truth is that anybody that follows you, Erin, can't match what you've done.
Burnett: Thank you, Rush....You made my day. I'm done now, I'm going home.

Limbaugh went to tell Scarborough, Burnett is "fabulous on economics. She understands it and she's not afraid to go against the conventional wisdom....fresh voice. I'm not sucking up here I'm giving you an honest professional assessment."

i guess all of this high-powered testosterone-laced attention have given the fair Ms. Burnett quite the big head...according to a NY Post gossip column today:

In her list of "Eight Things That Would Impress Me," in next month's Men's Health, the high-maintenance news hottie advises: "Any guy who can plan a trip to an exotic locale, such as Mongolia, Mozambique or Papua New Guinea, would impress me . . .You could unlock my heart by allowing me to dream up my next trip. I love to travel and hope to eventually set foot in 100 countries . . . Family is important to me, so round-trip business-class tickets to Australia and New Zealand for my parents would earn you big points in my book . . . I'd be impressed if you thought to send a yoga instructor to my apartment for private sessions . . . Hiring a personal chef to prepare meals for the few nights a week I am home would be unforgettable . . . A long weekend spa getaway for my sisters and me would be perfection."

like i said, i'm outta this dogfight...

It doesn't just happen in the middle east...

2008-01-04T18:06:00.000-05:00

The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2)

the two lovely young ladies to the right are Sarah Yaser Said and Amina Yaser Said, the daughters of Egyptian-born Texas cabdriver, Yaser Abdel Said. make that...WERE his daughters. they're now dead--multiple gunshot wounds.

Police provided no clues about the motive for the killings. "There are several things we're looking into," said Irving police Officer David Tull, noting that the suspect faces capital murder charges.

Officer Tull said there have been some "domestic issues" with the family, but he did not elaborate.

Police did say they are looking into the possibility that the father was upset with his daughters' dating activities.

sounds like an "honor killing" to me...i've never heard of this happening in the United States, but, the world is changing...

this tragic story comes on the heels of three other similar events which have happened recently, all of which involve the treatment of women under Islam, detailed here by Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

A 20-year-old woman from Qatif, Saudi Arabia, reported that she had been abducted by several men and repeatedly raped. But judges found the victim herself to be guilty. Her crime is called 'mingling': when she was abducted, she was in a car with a man not related to her by blood or marriage, and in Saudi Arabia, that is illegal. Last month, she was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes with a bamboo cane.
--
We also saw Islamic justice in action in Sudan, when a 54-year-old British teacher named Gillian Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in jail before the government pardoned her this week; she could have faced 40 lashes. When she began a reading project with her class involving a teddy bear, Ms. Gibbons suggested the children choose a name for it. They chose Muhammad; she let them do it. This was deemed to be blasphemy.
--
Then there's Taslima Nasreen, the 45-year-old Bangladeshi writer who bravely defends women's rights in the Muslim world. Forced to flee Bangladesh, she has been living in India. But Muslim groups there want her expelled, and one has offered 500,000 rupees for her head. In August she was assaulted by Muslim militants in Hyderabad, and in recent weeks she has had to leave Calcutta and then Rajasthan. Taslima Nasreen's visa expires next year, and she fears she will not be allowed to live in India again.

that islamic justice is rough stuff. in the case of the woman from Saudi Arabia, Ayaan writes:

...her life will certainly never return to normal: already there have been reports that her brother has tried to kill her because her 'crime' has tarnished her family's honor.

for "mingling", mind you...

back to the Said sisters, according to the Washington Times "Fishwrap" blog:

Friends of the girls say their father was Egyptian and critical of popular American lifestyles. "I'm definitely 100% sure that it was her dad that killed her," said Kathleen Wong, a friend of the dead teenagers.

Wong says the girl's father was verbally abusive and that Sarah, especially, lived in fear. "She's always told me that she was always so scared of her dad," says Wong. "Even at school if a teacher joked around like, 'I'm gonna tell your parents about this', she would like totally flip out and start crying like, 'please don't tell'."

Amina's myspace page..."Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive."

i'm still waiting for some reaction from feminists to ANY of this...i'm NOT holding my breath, though...

Air America host says he's glad the tiger killed the boy

2008-01-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

from Radio Equalizer:

LIONEL: Call me wacky, but hurray for the tiger that killed the kid who was... taunting him. Now, I know this is not right... but let's hear it for the wild... I loathe zoos.

nice, Lionel. they can never just leave it at "i hate zoos". it has to go straight to "i'm glad a human died at the hands of one of the oppressed animals". apparently, this blood-thirst extends itself beyond animals in captivity...

I'm still cheering the fact that some stingray whacked that Aussie pain in the ass Steve Irwin.

and to show it wasn't just a slip of the tongue, he repeats it on his own blog:

If you shoot a tiger with a sling-shot, you deserve to get mauled. That’s just how it works.

hmm...i wonder what his stance on capital punishment would be?

speaking of liberals making fun of people being killed by animals, check this out:
Bill Maher...Halloween 2006. Irwin died September 4, 2006.

a buddy of mine "came out" yesterday...sorta!

2008-01-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

it was on the way to the Capital One Bowl...we stopped to get something to drink since both of us were tired & hung over from too much partying NYE. on the way back to his truck, we found that someone had punk'd him, GOOD:

that was pretty much the highlight of the day...the Gators stunk up the house against Michigan, and i didn't get to eat here:

Shocker! even the New York Times is waking up to Global Warming hooey!

2008-01-02T07:04:00.000-05:00

This is pretty brutal...is the "consensus" falling apart?

this NYT piece came just a day after Investor's Business Daily predicted
that the consensus will fade in 2008:

If 2007 was the Year of Al Gore, with his movie, Academy Award and Nobel Prize, 2008 just might be the year the so-called scientific consensus that man is causing the Earth to warm begins to crack.

The fissures started to show in 2007: Prominent French physicist Claude Allegre called Gore a crook and equates Gore's French followers with religious zealots. Weather Channel founder and meteorologist John Coleman said global warming is "the greatest scam in history." Gore continued to duck open invitations to debate his theory. More than 400 scientists disputed the global warming claims.

Though they were shut out of the meeting, dissenting scientists were able to get a bit of media attention at the December climate conference in Bali.

Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told us that it will take several years for the climate change scare to finally die. But the death spiral will begin at some point, and it looks like the spinning will start in '08.

they forgot the scene from the Republican debate in Iowa:

the moderator's attempt to reduce the "debate" on climate change to a "show of hands" was telling.

more global warming hypocrisy...the case of Molten Metal Technologies and their ties to Algore

2007-12-31T03:23:00.000-05:00

just ran across this at The American Thinker...it's a blog post which goes back and digs up an old CNN story from 1997 which shows pretty strong evidence of a quid pro quo between Molten Metal Technologies receiving government subsidies (huge contracts from the DOE which were funded year after year over the objections of gov't scientists), and contributions from entrepreneur Bill Haney and the rest of the company's executives to Clinton-Gore and the Democratic Party. it's a finger-lickin' good account of good old-school Washington corruption...money, lobbyists, fancy dinners, buying influence, taking care of your cronies...you know, all the stuff that Democrats like Algore accuse their opponents of! from the CNN article:

The Haney-Gore Connection:

The Massachusetts businessman gave often to the Veep and his party and snagged a string of federal contracts from the Energy Department. Examples:

What he gave
$15,000 from his firm to the Democratic Party on March 24, 1994

What he got
A $9 million extension of his federal contract on March 24, 1994

What he gave
$10,000 from his executives to the Clinton-Gore team on June 14, 1995

What he got
A $10 million extension of his contract on June 14, 1995

What he gave
$10,000 from his firm to the Democratic Party on May 7, 1996

What he got
An $8 million extension of his contract on May 10, 1996

What he gave
Nothing directly, but partner Lockheed Martin donated $100,000 to the Democratic Party on June 27, 1996

What he got
A $27 million contract on Sept. 25, 1996, to the partnership he formed with Lockheed Martin to develop a cleanup plan for a site in Richland, Wash.

what does this have to do with global warming?

specifically speaking, the issues aren't related. or are they? it turns out Haney's chief lobbyist was a guy named Peter Knight, who, conveniently, had been in Algore's inner political circle from his days of being in the House and the Senate...which means he was there from the beginning of the insufferable windbag Algore's obsession with this global menace, and since politics and money tend to go hand-in-hand, isn't it possible that they could've dreamed up ways to make a quick buck over it?

fast forward to a few weeks back...a report was issued from the US Senate which provided a list of over 400 scientists who had spoken out in the year 2007 criticizing the "conventional wisdom" in regards to the so-called "scientific consensus" related to man-made global warming (which i blogged about here). the Gore gang responded...according to an article in the washington times:

After a quick review of the report, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said 25 or 30 of the scientists may have received funding from Exxon Mobil Corp.

"quick review"..."may have received funding"...this is so typical of the global-warming crowd--they won't debate...discrediting their critics is always good enough. not that it matters, but there was a response:

Exxon Mobil spokesman Gantt H. Walton dismissed the accusation, saying the company is concerned about climate-change issues and does not pay scientists to bash global-warming theories.

i'm not sure that's completely true, but i will trust a corporation's word at least equally to a politician or a government employee's word anyday. to me this is so obviously a power struggle between the government hacks of the world who tax their citizens in order to prop up their money-making machine, i.e. "government", and corporate interests who have to fight off these parasites.

it's hard to take the global-warming crowd seriously when they don't lead by example, for instance flying hundreds of private jets to the conference in Bali...couldn't they at least have attempted to do this via satellite or something?...show us how technology can be used to make us smarter guardians of our environment? i guess that misses the point. then there's the issue of Gore's huge Tennessee mansion whose energy usage is estimated at 20 times the national average...like they say, "do as i say, not as i do"...and then there's the ridiculous carbon credit scam, where heavy polluters can buy absolution by preventing others from polluting...and which Algore himself has a financial stake in, as he is the founder and chairman of the Generation Investment Management LLP, who he purchases his own carbon offset credits from!! genius!!

"Global Warming" ain't all THAT bad...

2007-12-30T18:40:00.001-05:00

because, according to writer Dave Lindorff, it "...will save America from the right....eventually"

apparently this stuff passes for intelligence at the Baltimore Chronicle. Lindorff's argument is that if you look at the map of the US, you'll see that the vast amount of the area which is low-lying (and, thus, will end up underwater) tends to be in the southern states, which tend to be the most conservative. anticipating anyone wondering about "liberal" areas that would be lost to the rising ocean, Lindorff simply waves off that silly question:

Sure, Boston, New York and Philadelphia will be threatened, but these are geographically confined areas that could lend themselves to protection by Dutch-style dikes.

whew! THAT problem solved. i guess the people in the south will be too stupid or blinded by their own conservatism to figure out how to build sea walls, canals, or any other way that humans will come up with to adapt to changing environments. they'll just drown like the pharaoh's army, while smug liberals will assume the gene hackman posture from "the Posiedon Adventure" and topple the christmas tree which was the only way out, according to "the believers", leaving the doubters to die, albeit with party favors...

the conservative midwest will also face the wrath of the angry global warming gods. the farmland will be worthless, the reservoirs will dry up. they, too, will apparently be too stupid to see this coming and will just die instead of moving. then, Lindorff theorizes that the stifling heat will spell doom for conservative-leaning retirement communities in the American Southwest! NO conservative will be spared! all will be smitten! "so let it be written, so let it be done"...

There is a poetic justice to this of course. It is conservatives who are giving us the candidates who steadfastly refuse to have the nation take steps that could slow the pace of climate change, so it is appropriate that they should bear the brunt of its impact.

The important thing is that we, on the higher ground both actually and figuratively, need to remember that, when they begin their historic migration from their doomed regions, we not give them the keys to the city. They certainly should be offered assistance in their time of need, but we need to keep a firm grip on our political systems, making sure that these guilty throngs who allowed the world to go to hell are gerrymandered into political impotence in their new homes.

hey, Lindorff, does your pea-brain ever consider the possibility that all of these transplants will no doubt just move into your "turf", and possibly change it's political character? without the farm belt, aren't millions going to starve, anyway? what if the conservatives, who, unlike the liberal "blue-staters" don't sit around and wait for the nanny state to come bail them out of any crisis, prove to be more hardy in this tougher world? how exactly do you plan to feed your new liberal majority? food for thought...

nice parenting, dumbass...

2007-12-30T17:48:00.000-05:00

"My daddy died this year in Iraq."

that was the first line of an essay written by a 6-year old texas girl which won her tickets to a Hannah Montana concert.

the problem is, it was a lie. according to the mother:

"We did the essay and that's what we did to win. We did whatever we could do to win."

i'll bet this lady pays big-time in the future for teaching her kid this. forget the moral quagmire of the completely tasteless and disgusting lie she & her kid perpetrated--SHE ENDED UP CAPITULATING TO SOME COMPANY SPOKESWOMAN who must've smelled a rat and asked her if the story was true...

bad morals + lost the tickets = you're daughter'ss gonna hate you forever...

Strip clubs in Texas hit with new $5 "Pole" Tax

2007-12-29T16:19:00.000-05:00

will hurt the poor more than the rich, per usual...

the tax is being collected to help rape victims. it will amount to $5 per customer. though most admit that it's a worthy cause,

Some customers and clubs say it is not the extra five bucks; they resent the implication that strip clubs lead men to commit sex crimes.

i couldn't agree more. some strippers have problems with it, too:

But Elle, a 28-year-old former Dallas dancer, said she worries the tax will hurt women like herself who work their way through college by stripping. She earned a degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and said she now runs a computer-servicing business with her husband.

Elle said she averaged $200 a day at the Lodge — "on good days, a hell of a lot more."

that's hot stuff.

this is just another example of government weilding their power to pick winners and losers, depending on which way the political wind blows. is there no respect for tradition any more?

Strip clubs occupy a mythic place in Texas lore as a spot where young women can work their way through college and small-town girls with dreams of Hollywood stardom get their start on the lowest rung of show biz.

for instance...

folks, we've got to stand up for AMERICA and SAVE these strip clubs.

Naomi Wolf comes clean

2007-12-29T15:34:00.000-05:00

over at the huffington post, they've apparently got this bi-weekly series called "My Favorite Mistake". the latest in the series featured writer Naomi Wolf, famous for her feminism, but probably MOST famous for being paid $15K/month during the 2000 presidential election to advise Algore on what to wear (earth-tones) and how to act--she advised him on how to become more ALPHA-male.

it doesn't matter, really. her "favorite mistake" was losing her independence as a writer and taking this job as a advisor, which disarmed her completely:

...I wasn't in a position, contractually, to hit back against the evil Republican National Committee when they started to circulate pernicious things about what I was doing on the campaign. The whole "Alpha Male" flap, the whole "earth tone" (wardrobe) flap was completely invented out of whole cloth - the stuff of urban legends, but they were such good urban legends they quickly got picked up by the mainstream media because no one was fact-checking it, and my hands were tied.

no, sweetie, they were checking it. since Algore's campaign was in disarray, and Bill Bradley was coming on strong, you were brought in to teach him how to fight back. this was reported ALL OVER the more "liberal" outlets in the media...why, exactly, would they succumb to a Republican dirty trick? to help George W. Bush win???

naomi, your biggest mistake WAS taking that job, but your bigger mistake was your advice...not the fact that you couldn't respond...
she IS a hottie, though...what a waste!

bullsh*t "sting" operation nabs "pervert" in Ohio...

2007-12-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

so, this FIREMAN in Columbus, OH, goes by a certain park every day and keeps noticing a female sunbathing topless (which is apparently legal there--cool). on his day off, he strolls by and strikes up a conversation with her. all the while she is writhing about on the ground and, at one point, even throws her leg over his shoulder. eventually, she asks him to show her his penis. he complies, and immediately, some overweight police officers wearing shorts come over and arrest him.

he's just been convicted of public indecency.

ABC did a story on it, and it's on their website under the title, "Topless Woman Lured Perverts in Police Sting". video of the entire incident is in the story, but, it's grainy and there's no sound. but, it seems clear to me that this guy was no "pervert", just a guy who did something stupid and got caught. if i was looking at a woman's breasts and she asked me to whip it out, i would have to say my, um,
defenses may be slightly impaired.

this angers me no end. i also believe that "johns" busted by undercover cops posing as streetwalkers are getting a raw deal. if the opportunity were not there, no crime would've been committed. aren't "real" crimes feeding our legal system enough? according to recent government reports,

By midyear 2002, America's jails held 1 in every 142 U.S. residents. Males were incarcerated at the rate of 1,309 inmates per 100,000 U.S. men, while the female incarceration rate was 113 per 100,000 women residents.

clearly, we're jailing plenty of people. and that's just the numbers who are actually in jail! what about all of the people who are arrested for misdemeanors and don't do jail time? we're really talking numbers, here...

isn't it weird...these guys can set up this sting and bust this unfortunate fireman. meanwhile, i'm sure there are illegal aliens abound in their neck of the woods...that are needed because we don't have enough "americans" who will do the jobs, y'know, like construction... well, why not just stop targeting people for doing stupid, but basically harmless things? let's focus this imaginative energy on stings for businesses that hire illegals! leave AMERICANS alone! whatever happened to our FREE country?

you would think that ACLU lawyers would put an end to this kind of crap, pronto. but, if you think about it, the ACLU is only a subset of a much greater set...THE LEGAL PROFESSION. you know, the ones who benefit from crime and the expansion of what is "criminal", from the writing of the laws to the interpretation of the laws to the enforcement of them...it's the power grab that never ends. and, to think, many americans want to give them the power over their health care...sheesh...

David Byrne explains the future of the music biz...

2007-12-23T23:06:00.000-05:00

tons of excellent points here. the basic premise is that the era of the "record label" is pretty much pushing up daisies. good riddance, i say...

couldn't have said it better than this!

2007-12-23T22:40:00.001-05:00

story here.

in 2007, over 400 Global Warming critics in the scientific community spoke out...new Senate report names names

2007-12-21T06:14:00.000-05:00

one interesting thing i found from reading this report is that several of them were co-recipients of the Nobel prize which Algore recently recieved.

and, they all seemed to be affiliated with governments and universities around the world, and not BP, ExxonMobil, etc...

from early on in the report:

Many of the scientists featured in this report consistently stated that numerous colleagues shared their views, but they will not speak out publicly for fear of retribution. Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of almost 70 peer-reviewed studies, explains how many of his fellow scientists have been intimidated.

“Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media,” Paldor wrote.

this is because of the "consensus" which has built up behind the politically correct Algore/UN IPCC view on the issue. scientists not toeing this "ideological" find themselves in danger of losing grant money, or in other words, being able to make a living, unless they sound the alarms.

most of them would not disagree with the notion that the planet is "warming" to whatever tiny degree, but they disagree in various degrees with the zeal in which the CO2-emissions theory is thrown out there, expected to be accepted by all without question (remember...there's a consensus). many point to other factors like variations in the sun's temperature, distribution of water, natural earth cycles, and many others. their consensus seems to be, let's not thrown the baby out with the bathwater, just yet...

John Edward's "love child" -- is there a Hillary! connection?

2007-12-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

the wild and wacky world of american presidential primary politics took another crazy turn when the NATIONAL ENQUIRER unleashed a "world exclusive" yesterday that Rielle Hunter, who formerly worked on the Edwards' campaign and had been romantically linked to Edwards just a few months back, is PREGNANT--and, according to what friends of hers have told the Enquirer, the baby is Edwards', regardless of the cover story that she has concocted. denials, denials all around.

but, who really cares about "the facts" about the baby? much more intriguing is the timing of this.

here we are a couple weeks from the Iowa caucus. Hillary's commanding lead has evaporated, and she's more or less in a dead heat with Obama and Edwards. from the past few weeks, we now know that Obama is a muslim, was a muslim, or for all we know might be some kind of muslim manchurian candidate--at least, according to former Sen. Bob Kerrey (as he announced his endorsement of Clinton..). and, let's not forget that Obama may have been a COKE dealer!

but, what about the "squeaky-clean" Edwards?

luckily for Hillary, a lot of people who might vote for her read the NATIONAL ENQUIRER...or at least i *suppose* they do. lucky for her, one of the key owners of the Enquirer is a guy by the name of Roger Altman, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Bill Clinton administration. interestingly, as this Business Week interview shows, Altman identifies himself as an advisor to Hillary's campaign, which makes the tabloid Enquirer's story that much more juicy and compelling. as the Politico article sez:

What the tabloid's readers, in politics and out, may not know is that a key owner of the Enquirer is a prominent New York investment banker and one of Hillary Clinton's key backers, Roger Altman. Altman was an official in the first Clinton administration, and his name is often mentioned as a possible Clinton Treasury Secretary.

"key backer"? possible Treasury Secretary?

to be this STUPID is a clear sign that all is not well in hillaryland...

Ken Burns endorses Obama

2007-12-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

he wanted to stay neutral through the primaries, but the nastiness of the Clinton campaign forced him to come out publicly for B. Hussein...

Hanoi Jane turns 70...still sucks.

2007-12-18T21:21:00.000-05:00

this past week saw Atlanta roll out the red carpet for a huge 70th birthday gala for Jane Fonda. in attendence were lovely people like Ted Turner, Eve Ensler, and Rosie O'Donnell (who dragged along that poor woman she's partnered up with...shudder...

among the adoring remarks made on Fonda's behalf were these by a drunk (as usual) Turner:

"One of the things that attracted Jane to me...[audience laughter]...Sorry, i didn't write anything down...I've had a glass of wine. What I meant was, what attracted me to her is her incredible courage. Jane has more courage than just about anybody i've ever met. During the Vietnam War, i kept my mouth shut. I learned early on that you don't get in trouble if you keep your mouth shut. Jane never learned that."

i'm sorry...but wasn't Turner formerly known as "THE MOUTH OF THE SOUTH"??

not everyone, of course, considered her actions during the Vietnam war "courageous". one vet took issue in a guest column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Media glow on Fonda ignores her treason"...

i like his take...he's more pissed at the media for fawning over Fonda all of these year than he his at Fonda herself. but, since he accuses the media of "looking the other way", he reminds the people of Fonda's stated embracing of the enemy through her speeches (she wasn't just an "anti-war" activist...she literally was pulling for the other side!) and the historical facts of her trip to Vietnam:

What she actually did matters far more, of course, than what she thought or said as a young woman long ago. When Fonda took a camera crew to North Vietnam late in the war, her actions easily crossed the line of "aid and comfort to the enemy."

While in Hanoi, Fonda delighted our enemy by cavorting for cameras on an anti-aircraft gun, pretending to shoot at U.S. aircraft. Under pressure in recent years, Fonda said that was bad judgment, but her other actions were far worse.

She made speeches and recorded propaganda radio broadcasts in Hanoi expressing solidarity against " . . . our common enemy - U.S. imperialism." She called our troops, our POWs and our president war criminals and begged U.S. troops to disobey orders from their officers.

Fonda returned to the U.S. and reported our POWs were well treated. When the POWs later came home to tell stories of their sustained starvation diet, maltreatment and torture - real torture, not the kindergarten variety we now debate - she called them liars.

this story would make one helluva movie.

clinton campaign pushing the "obama is a muslim" line...media matters ignores it...

2007-12-18T17:53:00.000-05:00

poor Barack Hussein Obama...he just can't catch a break from this "madrassa" thing. even after the Hillary! campaign fires one of it's county coordinators in Iowa for passing along an "obama is the muslim 'manchurian candidate'" email, which generated apologies from the Clinton campaign and insistence that this type of behavior would not be tolerated...only to have Clinton strategist Mark Penn repeat the "rumor" or whatever on Hardball (along with the cocaine rumors & Obama wanting to be prez since he was in kindergarten "slam"...):

the other day former Sen. Bob Kerrey endorsed Hillary!, and in an interview with the Washington Post complimented Obama using his entire name--Barack HUSSEIN Obama:

"It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal."

so, Sen. Kerrey, is he or isn't he??? c'mon, mr. "9/11 commission" dude!!

not just the right-wing blogs are hot on this Kerrey/Obama thing...the blog over at ABC News is wondering why Kerrey would use Obama's middle name, and points out the obvious:

A clear attempt to raise an issue while pretending not to raise it.

these Clintonistas are something else. of course, they've used their George Soros-funded, David Brock-run "media watchdog" website mediamatters.org keep tabs on all the
smears from the right on the Obama/madrassa rumor, but are strangely quiet when the source of the smear comes from Team Hillary...

then get a load of the "expose'" they've done over at the other Clinton-run media watchdog site Think Progress, where they really call Kerrey to the carpet:

This evening on CNN’s The Situation Room, former Sen. Bob Kerrey asserted that Barack Obama had spent time “in a secular madrassa” and argued this was a “tremendous strength” for Obama...

...Note to Kerrey: Barack Obama never attended a “secular madrassa” — an inherently contradictory term because a madrassa is, by definition, a religiously-based school.

i don't know any way you can interpret that last sentence besides to suggest that Obama must've received some hardcore Islamic schooling as a child...

Random Thoughts: could americans really be this shallow?

2007-12-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

i was listening to limbaugh today and he made the most astounding observation about the presidential campaign:

Does Our Looks-Obsessed Culture Want to Stare at an Aging Woman?

when i heard it, i was like "oh, man, this is sooooo wrong! but, it's really not...

"...but for the rest of you, I want you to understand that I am talking about the evolution of American culture here, and not so much Mrs. Clinton. It could be anybody, and it is really not very complicated. Americans are addicted to physical perfection, thanks to Hollywood and thanks to television. We know it because we see it. We see everybody and their uncle in gyms. We see people starving themselves. We see people taking every miracle fad drug there is to lose weight. We see guys trying to get six-pack abs. We have women starving themselves trying to get into size zero and size one clothes; makeovers, facials, plastic surgery, everybody in the world does Botox, and this affects men, too..."

i was thinking about this, and thinking about how pervasive the advertising is for stuff like viagra, and i think he may be onto something. Americans are becoming obsessed with physical appearance and sexual virility. obesity is being featured all the time on the network news/MSM as 'america's problem'...all the while being fully conscious of young girls looking like they are wasting away...

no surprise here--Dems accepted, even "encouraged" waterboarding in 2002...

2007-12-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

it's come to be known as an example of the "excesses of the Bush Administration", but, as this Washington Post story explains, there was nothing secret about waterboarding, or the rendition program either. the congress' intelligence committees were briefed on them by CIA officials, as per US law.

secrecy concerns, typical of intelligence dealing with national security, kept these briefings from being made public. among those that were present were now speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, ex-senator Bob Graham (D-FL), Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL, eventually CIA director for awhile). Harman is the only one to have raised objections. Graham insists he never heard of the procedure.

big "free speech" stinkies afloat here at the Univ. of Florida

2007-12-09T08:10:00.000-05:00

it all started with some groups on campus wanting to show the movie "Obsession--Radical Islam's War Against the West", back on November 13. Fliers were hung around campus, featuring the slogan "RADICAL ISLAM WANTS YOU DEAD". terror filled the hearts and minds of left-wing pantywaists...that's not very tolerant!

muslim students, and i'm sure some "thoughtful" professors and student activists at UF complained to the administration, so the following email was sent out to the entire student body:

November 26, 2007

To: All University Students
From: Dr. Patricia Telles-Irvin
Vice President for Student Affairs

Re: Official Response to a recent advertisement for the movie "Obsession"

Throughout our country, we have witnessed a rise in offensive behavior and actions taken against others, which has created greater divisiveness and misunderstandings among the various ethnic groups residing in our communities. One of these events occurred on our campus recently with the promotion of an event.

Advertisements for the movie "Obsession" sponsored by several student organizations appeared during the past several weeks on campus bulletin boards and they illustrate the importance of balancing freedom of speech with responsibility.

The ads, which promoted a showing of the movie on Nov. 13 and a panel discussion afterward, entitled "Radical Islam Wants You Dead," offended many Muslim students on campus. Regardless of its original intent, the language reinforced a negative stereotype, created unnecessary divisiveness and contributed to a generalization that only furthers the misunderstanding of the religion of Islam.

We cannot speak of rights without also addressing the responsibility associated with our actions or statements, including understanding the potential consequences. One of our roles as a learning institution is to teach our students to express themselves freely, and also in a fair and conscientious manner. In an academic setting, differences of opinions are strongly encouraged, yet such opinions must be based on accurate information when describing other members of the community.

Unfortunately, in the case of the "Obsession" ads, that did not happen. I believe the groups that posted them owe the campus, and particularly campus members of the Islamic faith, an apology and a clarification.

At the University of Florida we have embraced a set of values, one of which is diversity. Diversity is not just about having representation from various cultures on campus, it also is having each member contribute to an inclusive and safe environment and collectively enhancing our understanding and appreciation of the richness brought by such differences. The University of Florida is committed to being an institution of excellence, where all members are valued and feel safe on our campus. Our role as an institution is to create opportunities for students to learn in an open and accepting environment; one that emphasizes respect for all. Let's remember that part of our mission is to prepare each other to be effective members of a global community. With that in mind, I encourage each member of our campus community as a start to learn more about the religion of Islam and some of its tenets of peace, hard work, charity and compassion.

There is little room for divisiveness in our world if we are to find peace and understanding among us. We all can win if we focus on greater inclusion and understanding as well as the delicate balance between our rights and responsibilities.

in response to this email, UF junior Ashley Emans re-directs:

Now the university administration is demanding an apology from the five hosting student organizations: College Republicans, Law School Republicans, the Jewish Law Students Association, the Jewish Student Union, and Gators For Israel.

in response, UF's College Republicans and Law School Republicans answered publicly in the Alligator (more or less the "official" student paper...to paraphrase--"no apology will be forthcoming". good for them, high fives all around...

Florida's attorney general, Bill McCollum, jumped into the fray, with this letter to UF president Bernie Machen:

Dear Dr. Machen:

It has come to my attention that Dr. Patricia Telles-Irvin, the University of Florida Vice President for Student Affairs, sent a letter November 26 to all university students entitled “official response” highly critical of an ad for the showing of the movie “Obsession” which was posted around the campus. A copy of this letter is attached for your reference.

Dr. Telles-Irvin’s letter may have violated the free speech rights of the students and organizations who posted this ad and sponsored the movie. At the very least it has created a chilling effect on the free speech rights of students enrolled at the University of Florida. As the Attorney General of Florida, it is my duty to protect the constitutional rights of all Floridians including civil rights and free speech rights. Consequently, I have asked attorneys in my office to review this matter and advise me what if any action this office should pursue. I am writing to request that you review this matter with your staff, legal counsel and the University of Florida Board of Trustees and, if they concur with my concerns, formulate and take some appropriate remedial action.

No doubt Dr. Telles-Irvin was responding in her letter to the sensitivities of the Muslim students on campus. While the Muslin faith should be honored and respected and most practicing Muslims are not radical and not terrorists, the United States has been at war with radical Islamic terrorists since September 11, 2001. The movie “Obsession,” which I have seen, describes the nature of our enemy and this war. The headline on the ad for the movie reading “RADICAL ISLAM WANTS YOU DEAD” is one of the messages in this movie and is a true statement of the intent of these radical Islamic terrorists. In her letter Dr. Telles-Irvin says, “regardless of its original intent, the language reinforced a negative stereotype, created unnecessary divisiveness and contributed to a generalization that only furthers the misunderstanding of the religion of Islam.” This may be the view of Dr. Telles-Irvin, but a great many Americans would disagree and argue that it is essential to the discussion and understanding of this war that the terrorists be properly and correctly labeled as radical Islamists who by their very actions clearly want us dead. Students and student organizations who hold this latter view should not be stifled in their free expression of it.

By not only criticizing the ad, but also calling on the groups that posted the ad to apologize, Dr. Telles-Irvin, intentionally or not, has chilled free speech on the UF campus. It may be that her intent with this letter was simply to encourage students when speaking of radical Islamists to put them in context by also making a statement that most practitioners of the Islamic faith are not terrorists and not radical Islamists. But that is not the effect of her letter. And I would submit that when one posts an ad for a movie it isn’t practical to expect a “clarification,” as perhaps Dr. Telles-Irvin thinks is needed when speaking of radical Islamists.

It has also come to my attention that students and/or faculty tore down most of the posted flyers advertising this movie and that some of those doing so wore hoods. It seems to me that the university should investigate this behavior and prosecute or discipline those who engaged in such conduct. To permit this kind of conduct without an appropriate response has an even more chilling effect on free speech on the campus than Dr. Telles-Irvin’s letter.

Your early attention to this matter is most appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bill McCollum

Dr. Telles-Irvin must've realized she was in WAY over her head, because she sent out this email, "clarifying" the first one:

To: All UF students

From: Patricia Telles-Irvin, Vice President for Student Affairs
Subject: My e-mail last week

There has been much discussion about an e-mail I sent Nov. 26 regarding the posters advertising the movie "Obsession."

Since that time, some important dialogue has been exchanged between members of the student groups involved. But over the last week, there has been some misunderstanding on the university's position on certain points.

Please allow me to clarify.

* The university supports the rights of students to freely express themselves on any issue.

* The university condemns terrorists acts and those who perpetrate them, regardless of who they are. And we clearly recognize there are people who use Islam to support violence.

* The university has no intention of taking disciplinary action against anyone involved in creating or distributing the posters. That was never a consideration.

* The university has heard allegations that the posters were removed by people who opposed their message. Efforts by the University Police Department and Student Affairs to confirm this or identify offenders were unsuccessful. Removal of posters from proper venues is prohibited by the university's policies and will not be tolerated.

The original intent of my e-mail was to foster greater understanding and communication among groups. As we all surely know, free speech is a cherished right not only in this country but also on this campus. We
should always feel comfortable expressing our diverse opinions.

to sum up, i can't really express it better than Ashley Emams:

UF does so much hand-wringing over racial/ethnic/class/gender/religious diversity, yet it shuns the most important type of diversity a college could ever give: diversity of thought. Conservative impulses are swiftly suppressed, in and out of class, just as the Obsession kerfluffle has proved. Dr. Telles-Irvin and the rest of the administration apparently believe students who feel threatened by radical Islam have forfeited their rights of expression by not falling in line with what is the acceptable opinion according to them, namely that you are not allowed to fear radical Islam.

more from UF student's perspective at collegeotr.com. go gators!

my band's playing friday night!

2007-12-06T16:52:00.001-05:00

that's right--my band
BIG OIL is playing THIS friday night, DEC 7, 2007, at the ATLANTIC in gainesville, FL...the atlantic is located pretty much at the corner of University Ave and Main Street in beautiful downtown gainesville. also on the bill are killer rockers and good pals BLACKSNAKE!

THIS IS A SHOW NOT TO MISS.

aide to Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) busted for soliciting sex from 13 year old

2007-12-04T04:35:00.000-05:00

28-year old James McHaney was caught in a sting operation Friday where he tried to arrange a sexual encounter with a 13 year old boy while on his lunch break.

The CW (cooperating witness) and McHaney were conversing online Friday afternoon when the CW asked whether McHaney was interested in engaging in anal sex with a 13-year-old boy. "I'll be there," McHaney allegedly replied. He later asked for a photo of the child with whom he and the CW would have sex and whether the boy had "any pubes." When told no, McHaney allegedly replied, "That's hot."

yeah, it's no Larry Craig "gay sex" story by any stretch of the imagination, so this will get neatly swept under the rug by the MSM.

McHaney's an "ex"-aide now, btw...congratulations to Cantwell's office for doing the right thing and getting rid of somebody who has an unhealthy fixation on children. now, if only someone could reign in the hillary! campaign:

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.' "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]

Dutch authorities to conduct a study to find out "why" Morroccan men are beating up gays in Amsterdam

2007-12-02T10:31:00.000-05:00

UPI story here.

i can save them some money. these "morroccan men" are MUSLIM. homosexuality is AGAINST ISLAM. what's the mystery?

UPDATE: national review is reporting that one working theory is that these young men are struggling with their own sexual identity. yeah, way to throw gas on the fire!!

more lies from the anti-war press

2007-12-01T17:56:00.000-05:00

why is this family smiling and waving at the camera? um...could it be because they're not dead, after all?

iraqi journalist Dia al-Kawwaz claimed that they were murdered in a killing spree in his Baghdad home:

"Four gunmen entered my family house in Shab area. Two of my sisters, their husbands and seven children between five and 10 years old were killed yesterday (Sunday) morning," Kawwaz told AFP on Monday by telephone from Amman.

days later, after a little bit of scrutiny...Kawwaz changes his tune:

"I am sorry if this information was not true from the beginning, but I was misled by trustworthy sources from my family," Kawazz said in a phone interview. He published a new account of the story on his Web site that blames Sadiq for misleading him and alleges that Sadiq had a hand in his other brother-in-law's death. "I accuse the Maliki government of conspiracy for misleading me through members of my family," he said.

why would he lie about this?

Kawazz, who's lived outside Iraq for 20 years, runs a Web site that's critical of what he calls the Iranian and American "occupations"...

Reporters Without Borders initially condemned the killings, now they're "shocked" to learn the truth.

The New Republic throws "the Baghdad Diarist" under the bus

2007-12-01T16:29:00.000-05:00

14-page story starts here.

they never really call Scott Beauchamp an outright *liar*, but they do retract the story, on page 14:

In retrospect, we never should have put Beauchamp in this situation. He was a young soldier in a war zone, an untried writer without journalistic training. We published his accounts of sensitive events while granting him the shield of anonymity--which, in the wrong hands, can become license to exaggerate, if not fabricate.

When I last spoke with Beauchamp in early November, he continued to stand by his stories. Unfortunately, the standards of this magazine require more than that. And, in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.

well, they won't "stand by" them, whatever...the article strongly hints that the army is covering this up. TNR, in a classic leftist technique, throws a weird sexual curveball of an ad hominem attack:

On August 1, six days after the "skulls on their head in sector" meeting, the Army concluded its investigation. Two days later, a public affairs officer announced that Beauchamp's piece had been "refuted by members of his platoon and proven to be false." The Army didn't announce this to The New York Times or even The Weekly Standard, let alone in a public report. It first gave the story of Beauchamp's supposed fraudulence to a former porn actor turned blogger named Matt Sanchez. (emphasis mine, from page 10 of the TNR piece)

h/t to Reihl World View for pointing this out...i googled "matt sanchez iraq porn", and i see that somebody has set up a bio-page on Sanchez, pointing out that he's not only an ex-porn actor...he's also GAY. the old "hypocrisy card" strikes again...i guess the hope of TNR is that this revelation will make the bad conservatives go away...

MSNBC business reporter calls Bush a "monkey"...

2007-12-01T13:52:00.000-05:00

nah...no bias here...

five days later...

Harvard study finds Americans don't trust the MSM's campaign '08 coverage...

2007-11-29T19:13:00.000-05:00

i wonder why?...

Debate plants--ROLL CALL

2007-11-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr--works for hillary, worked with Kerry in '04. question--"I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians". here is a press release from the hillary campaign announcing the formation of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Americans for Hillary steering committee. Kerr's name is on the list, among others like Billie Jean King. gay moderator Anderson Cooper claimed he had no clue. right.

Adam Florzak--works for Sen. Dick Durbin. question, paraphrased--"what will you do to repay the money congress has stolen from the social security trust fund?" distrusts wall street and hates real work. is obsessed with the social security issue.

Mark Strauss--self-described Bill Richardson supporter, took part in the Democratic YouTube debate. asked the democrats what they were going to do about alzheimer's. for the republican debate, he begged Ron Paul to run as an independent.

Ted Faturos--asked the question about corn subsidies. former intern for congresswoman Jane Harman (D).

David McMillan--question, paraphrased--"blacks agree with the republicans on a lot of issues...why do you think they vote democratic?" lefty blogger, big edwards supporter.

David Cercone, from Pompano Beach. asked the candidates if they would accept the support of the Log Cabin Republicans, and why should the Log Cabin Republicans support them...so, he's a Log Cabin Republican? Nah...obama supporter.

LeeAnn Anderson--asked the question about lead-covered chinese toys. this is a subject she has been championing, using her position in the United Steelworkers Union, who are backing John Edwards...USW YouTube page, prominently features "Edwards '08" sign...

there are probably more...i'm ignoring stuff like "Journey from Texas"...

**UPDATE**"Yasmin from Huntsville" is a former intern for CAIR, and she wanted to know what the candidates would do to repair our image in the Muslim world.

CNN/YouTube Republican debate--nuts and plants

2007-11-29T12:24:00.000-05:00

CNN's agenda was on full display last night.

out of over 3000 videos submitted, CNN saw fit to pick videos like the kid in his bedroom with a confederate flag on his wall asking a question about the flag...some texas kook waving his bible to the camera and asking the candidates if they believed "EVERY SINGLE WORD"...a question about the trilateral commission...some guy with a shotgun in the desert threateningly asking the candidates about their thoughts on gun rights...etc, etc, etc....

basically, CNN picked videos which showed a bunch of weird, unhinged types who CNN then presented to the american people as "typical" republican voters. "typical" republican voters who asked questions which sounded suspiciously liberal in their orientation. hardly any questions at all reflecting the issues which concern most conservatives...no, CNN picked questions which reflected their own belief that conservatism is like some strange disease and is something to be quarantined.

oh yeah, and the democrats managed to crash the party...the hillary! camp sent in a gay general to ask the candidates about "don't ask, don't tell"...that topic was big like about 15 years ago or so, right??? anyway, this guy not only gets his video played, but he also was present in the audience! and, coincidentally, anderson cooper found him in the audience, where the gay general had conveniently remembered to wear his microphone, which made it easy to ask a follow-up question after anderson asked him if he felt the candidates had "answered" his question!

in a post-debate panel discussion, william bennett caused anderson to stammer and backpedal when he told cooper that he had been getting a ton of email about the gay general, who reportedly was on some sort of steering committee for the hillary! campaign...see video below...at the end anderson apologizes for CNN not identifying the gay general as a hillary! plant...

bennett was referring to this. the gay general is affiliated with hillary! and worked for Kerry in '04! surprise, surprise!

CNN video of hillary! plant Gen. Keith Kerr insisting that he's not a hillary! plant...Kerr tells FOX News that CNN paid for his trip from California to Florida...

michelle malkin's digging into the background of some of the other questioners, and she's coming up with some good stuff.

CNN debate chicanery from a few weeks ago...can we trust anything this network does???

more at the politico.

debate transcript pt. 1
debate transcript pt. 2

Hillary and Huma...?

2007-11-26T03:28:00.000-05:00

though it's been casually tossed around the underground, such as here in the Village Voice (courteousy of Michael Musto), i guess it's officially on, now...the Times of London has taken the much-whispered-about relationship between Hillary! and her beautiful assistant, Huma Abedin, out of the internet rumor mill and into the "old media"...

according to the Drudge Report..

The splash stunned British readers and angered campaign insiders.

"This does not even qualify as tabloid trash... it's ridiculous and reckless," a Hillary confidante explained over the weekend.

i'm not even really sure i buy into this at all...since it was reported a month ago or so that the hillary campaign was wooing the drudge report, to use what had formerly been an "enemy" and turn it into a campaign asset as place to float strategic "leaks"...drudge (who himself is rumored to be gay..."outed" by David Brock in "Blinded by the Right") seems to have been getting a lot of exclusives from there lately...

but, come on...the hillary camp was "angered" by this "latest" revelation? are you telling me that none of them read the Village Voice??? this is what Musto said in the piece i linked to above--

As I recently said on MONICA CROWLEY's radio show, whisper campaigns are claiming that HILLARY CLINTON is GAYLE KING–ing her aide de camp, the glamorous HUMA ABEDIN, an Indian/Pakistani goddess from Kalamazoo, Michigan. In other words, Hillary may be putting Huma out there in the press and purposely making her more visible as a pre-emptive strike that amounts to her hiding in plain sight. This way, no Republican can later say, "Who is this gorgeous babe who spends so much intimate time with Hillary that the Observer called her Hill's 'body person'? Was GENNIFER FLOWERS's book right about Hillary's sexual taste?" And does either of this couple have the balls to bottom?

Of course that whole scenario can't possibly be true, since Bill and Hill have been so lovey-dovey lately for the cameras, and besides, whenever he's been serviced by an intern—or by anyone—he's clearly been thinking of his wife. (They're that close.) But suddenly, Huma—a sort of Muslim SALMA HAYEK—has that spread in Vogue and the accompanying write-up notes that she "oversees every minute of Senator Clinton's day." Every single minute? Even Gayle King takes a break now and then! (PS: If I called for comment, Hillary's camp would surely say, "Just because two powerful women are closer than sardines doesn't make them dykes." And that's so true. Look at MATT and BEN. But now that Crowley has dubbed me the head of Huma Resources, I'm going to pursue this story with every cojone I've got.)

A straight Democrat—sorry, that's a segue—DNC head HOWARD DEAN, guest-starred at a "Democrats and Donuts with Dean" event in Fire Island, where there was no worry that he might outscream the screaming queens. But I was told that press attendees couldn't write up the event, so I'll shut up here and only say that at another point in the weekend, I told one Pines Democrat the Hillary/Huma scenario and he deadpanned, "That's a step up from DONNA SHALALA."
-by Michael Musto
August 7th, 2007 7:58 PM

hillary...you may not like her, but she sure makes politics fun!

"green" building at Emory University is bird slaughterhouse

2007-11-24T05:36:00.000-05:00

back in the 1970's my family had some good friends in Birmingham, AL, who we would usually get together with once or twice a year. they had a beautiful house on a forested mountainside, with a towering A-frame front entrance with 2 panes of triangular glass which stretched to the ceiling, and this A-frame extended to the back of the house, which was a complete glass wall. you could see all the way through this house, and the view was lovely...trees, rocks, leaves...

from time to time while visiting we would hear a massive "WHOOOOMP!", and we would walk out the front door to see what kind of bird had flown into the windows this time and killed itself. i would estimate that between 1972-1976 i must've witnessed this between 10-15 times (which includes one case where two popped the glass at the same time).

flash forward to today...

Emory University's Math & Science Center is a "green-friendly" building, with soaring glass panels which aid in lighting and whatever else the environmentalists get out of it. it's a hallmark of the Atlanta school's effort to "go green"...it's also the "wall of death", as Emory Professor of Environmental Studies John Wegner charmingly put it in an atlanta journal-constitution story. he estimates that the building, whose windows reflect the forest in front of them, killed at least 60 birds in it's first year (2002) alone. he made a stink about it from the beginning, but, according to the story, it wasn't until he rammed some dead birds into his pockets and whipped them out in a meeting with his boss that he finally got some attention.

it's interesting that "green buildings" all share this glassy template. this bird deal is not isolated to Emory. in addition to my anecdote above (from 30 years ago, mind you...), just a casual coupling of "birds + buildings" in Google found this letter to the editor in a University of Saskatchewan campus newspaper, admonishing the school administration to take care of the same problem.

in the AJC story, they interviewed ornithologist David Klem, a professor who has "studied the problem for decades", and says that between 100 million and 1 billion birds die every year in the US by flying into glass windows. he seems to blame ARCHITECTS for the problem, because of the glass which has become such an integral part of "green" construction. by the way, according to the story, "buildings that earn LEED certification, the brass ring of environmentally sustainable construction, are often largely made of glass". the "brass ring", huh? i was thinking that the LEED certification was mainly an industry thing, but apparently environmental organizations such as the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) have endorsed this certification.

this whole thing begs so many questions for me...this all has to do with universities and public buildings efforts at environmental "sustainability", which i just blogged about. universities are filled with professors and scientists, right? my roommate, who works in a chemistry lab at the University of Florida, constantly lectures me about the sanctity of research which comes out of universities (as opposed to business-sponsored, which is defiled by $money$) because it is subject to "peer review".

somewhere, when it comes to this "sustainability" movement, this "peer review" seems to overlook the most obvious things--birds run into glass...you might want to mention this to architects--that even a stupid kid from alabama that i was could see as plain as day...

algore celebrates a touchdown! UF/FSU game to go "green"...

2007-11-24T02:15:00.000-05:00

this is surreal.

they want to highlight the "fact" that football games produce a ton of greenhouse gasses. to help combat this problem,

...UF and its partners, the Florida Forestry Association and Environmental Defense, are arranging for approximately 18 acres of rural North Florida land to be set aside and managed as a pine plantation forest for 10 years. UF calculates that this is an acreage and period of time sufficient to absorb all the carbon emissions from the game.

according to Deedee Delongpre', director of UF's "Office of Sustainability",

At 18 acres for one game, some quick calculations reveal that we would need 126 acres to be managed for 10 years just to offset our football program for one year,” she said.

in a statement released from his office, Governor Crist approves, and will attend the game.

this is being hyped as the "first" carbon-neutral game ever. with 3 losses, i guess it's nice to be "first" in something...

go gators.

3 A.M. update--i can't sleep, this stuff is really bugging me. the more i read of this "office of sustainability" at UF, the more i want to puke. what a commie front. i'm going to this game tomorrow, and these whiners want to make me feel bad about it? i think a good old-fashioned protest could be in order...

now you see them, now you don't--tits disappearing...

2007-11-24T02:03:00.000-05:00

...because of climate change.

"Most may well be able to bounce back next year"--Mark Grantham

astronomers observe dark energy, move universe closer to death

2007-11-24T01:37:00.000-05:00

...so says a couple of american cosmologists. makes sense to me...you look at stuff, it changes. butterfly wings' flapping leads to tsunamis and yada yada...

stop looking at the sky, you morons!

somebody should just ask surfer dude--he's got the "theory of everything"...

"My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," he tells New Scientist. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

Ron Paul picks up endorsement from the owner of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch

2007-11-23T05:45:00.000-05:00

brothel owner Dennis Hof of Nevada has decided to endorse Ron Paul for president, after being pointed in his direction by friend and MSNBC host Tucker Carlson.

one of the elements of Hof's support is a vow to put up a collection box outside the door of the Bunny Ranch~

"I'll do it today," he said. "I'll get all the Bunnies together and we can raise him some money. I'll put up a collection box outside the door. They can drop in $1 dollar, $5 dollar contributions. What a great way for the working girls to support Ron Paul. It's just the right thing to do."

awesome.

...Hof said Paul's anti-establishment, libertarian platform of "live and let live" resonates in a state that permits legalized prostitution.

While Paul professes a limited-government philosophy, he's also hews to a deep Christian faith, is pro-life and reportedly is so traditional that he doesn't travel alone with women.

Campaign spokesman Jeff Greenspan said he doesn't think Paul will have any problem accepting the brothel's money.

"On a personal basis, he doesn't condone those things," Greenspan said. "At the same time, from his campaign perspective, it's not the role of federal government and it's not in the constitution for federal government to regulate these thing. The Nevada voters and Legislature have decided it is a legal activity in this state."

high fives all around!

hat tip to the huffington post.

superbly played by senate Democrats!

2007-11-20T23:48:00.000-05:00

in order to prevent Pres. Bush from making any recess appointments (judges, ambassadors, cabinet members, etc..) which would have to be approved if the senate were in session, Dingy Harry (i.e. Senate Majority Leader Reid) and the gang are engaged in a brilliant strategy of keeping the Senate officially "open for business", while most of the members (except for Sen. Jim Webb, apparently...) are at home enjoying the break.

video here. all 46 seconds.

anti-war mommy drops human shield, i mean "her baby" on sidewalk

2007-11-18T19:32:00.000-05:00

michelle's got the whole story, per usual.

it's all about how some loons were blocking a military convoy in Olympia, WA, and in order to prevent the cops from interfering, they were using their children as human shields...how brave.

there are several interesting pictures on her post.

an eyewitness account, from michelle's blog-

I work at the port, and have observed some truly mind boggling events unfold, but the most astonishing was the use of children as human shields. The attached pictures were taken on 11/9/07; the night military equipment was first blocked from leaving the port. The Olympia Police Department essentially abandoned any effort to remove the protesters out of fear that a child would be harmed in their efforts to enforce the law. The mother of these children apparently had no such concern.

After the military convoy was forced to retreat, a victory celebration ensued, with chanting dancing, etc. I was horrified to watch as the woman in the attached photograph, distracted by events, allowed her infant to fall from her lap and land, face first on the pavement. The second photo shows her retrieving the crying baby as her other two children, dressed as terrorists look on.

This situation, and another two days later, when dozens of college aged girls were arrayed in rows with arms linked to block the road, showed a deliberate effort to use the same tactics as the terrorist savages who manipulate us, knowing that decent people cannot abide putting innocents in harm’s way. And, while the police were dragging the females away, under the glare of the media’s cameras, the males were establishing rolling blockades; throwing rocks at police and military vehicles; breaking windows, etc.

another Democratic debate "average voter" plant?

2007-11-18T15:09:00.000-05:00

LaShannon Spencer, in a photo from 2003, identified in
this New York Times story as "director of political affairs for the Democratic Party of Arkansas".

LaShannon Spencer, "undecided voter" in Nevada who got to ask a question.

BLITZER: Welcome back to the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. We're at the Democratic presidential debate. Suzanne Malveaux's got another undecided voter with a question.

MALVEAUX: LaShannon Spencer, please stand up for a moment. What is your question?

LASHANNON SPENCER: We constantly hear health care questions and questions pertaining to the war. But we don't hear questions pertaining to the Supreme Court justice or education. (Applause.)

My question is, if you are elected president, what qualities must the appointee possess?

Malveaux redirects the question...

MALVEAUX: ...And in answering that question, also tell us whether or not you would require your nominees to support abortion rights.

(Laughter, cross talk.)

then all the candidates were given an opportunity to voice their support for the "right to privacy".

Ms. Spencer's connection to the state of Arkansas wouldn't be telling, would it?

previous post about debate plants

meet David Theiss, TOAD-LICKER

2007-11-18T12:09:00.000-05:00

according to KMBC news in Kansas City...

A 21-year-old man has been accused of using a toad to get high.

Clay County sheriff's deputies said David Theiss, of Kansas City, possessed a Colorado River toad with the intention of using it as a hallucinogenic.

Experts said it's possible to lick the toad's venom glands to achieve psychedelic effects.

there's video at the link. more details here...it looks like this toad-licker wasn't being singled out, he was caught up in a sting operation called "Operation Bad Candy"...it's just that most of the other people were just busted for regular stuff like weed or coke. (hat tip to some poster named "veggie" at shroomery.org)

i love the end of the KMBC story...

Theiss was released on bond.

The toad is in custody at a police crime lab.

did stone-age feminists cause the extinction of neanderthals?

2007-11-18T11:40:00.000-05:00

Catherine Price at Salon doesn't think so...

but, recent studies cited in this Boston Globe story say otherwise...

The Neanderthal extinction some 30,000 years ago remains one of the great riddles of evolution, with rival theories blaming everything from genocide committed by "real" humans to prehistoric climate change.

But a recent study introduces another explanation: Stone Age feminism. Among Neanderthals, hunting big beasts was women's work as well as men's, so it's a safe bet that female hunters got stomped, gored, and worse with appalling frequency. And a high casualty rate among fertile women - the vital "reproductive core" of a tiny population - could well have meant demographic disaster for a species already struggling to survive among monster bears, yellow-fanged hyenas, and cunning Homo sapien newcomers.

back in the kitchen, woman!

was last thursday's Democratic debate COMPLETELY phony?

2007-11-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

for reference, here is the CNN transcript.

a few weeks back, the Hillary campaign slammed Tim Russert of NBC for being too tough on Nurse Ratchet. then, last week rumor had it that Wolf Blitzer of CNN was warned by the Hillary camp to not repeat the Russert performance.

then you watch the debate last thursday and it was more or less a Hillary pep rally, with the audience cheering wildly for her and laughing at the answers given by her opponents, notably Obama's. was all of this staged?

i just read one of the most amazing pieces of investigative journalism i've ever seen..."CNN goes green, by watering plants", written by "Jenny Bea" over at the The War Against Political Correctness blog. she has taken the trouble to investigate the backgrounds of each and every "average voter" who got to ask questions of the candidates, and provides proof of their not-so-average backgrounds. she finds that these people were all political activists, congressional interns, the head of the Islamic Society of Nevada, etc, etc...

the fakeness of the whole thing, and the crushing blow to the notion that these questioners were anything but plants by the Democratic Party in concert with CNN was best illustrated in this exchange--

BLITZER: All right. Thank you, senator.

Let's go back to Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: We have Judy Bagley here with us. If you would stand for a moment.

You have been working in the casino business for some 27 years now, a cashier?

BAGLEY: That's right.

MALVEAUX: You've seen a lot of people come and go, obviously.

BAGLEY: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: What is your concern?

BAGLEY: I'm a booth cashier and we moved here over 30 years ago. And I have three children, and as of yesterday, 8 grandchildren.

(APPLAUSE)

MALVEAUX: And what is your -- congratulations. That's amazing.

BAGLEY: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: And what is your question to the candidates?

...

okay, so we've established that this woman, Judy Bagley, has worked in the casino business for 27 years, currently at a cashier position. okay. now--Obama responds to her question, which is basically about how will the candidates deal with the coming crisis in social security...

MALVEAUX: Thank you very much. Very important issue.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Obama? OBAMA: Well, first of all, Judy, thank you for the question, and thanks for the great work you do on behalf of the culinary workers, a great union here.

we have to assume now that Obama has previously met Ms. Bagley, the "cashier", or was at least provided this information. either way, it stinks of staging.

not to mention the girl that asked Hillary the really tough question which came near the end...

MARIA PARRA SANDOVAL (ph): Maria Parra Sandoval (ph), and I'm a UNLV student. And my question is for Senator Clinton.

This is a fun question for you. Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, I know I'm sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice. I want both.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

MALVEAUX: Do we get to ask any of the other candidates or I supposed just Senator Clinton?

BIDEN: I'm for diamonds. Diamonds.

SANDOVAL (ph): It's the only thing -- it's the only thing shiny up there.

MALVEAUX: OK. Thank you so much.

"Maria Parra Sandoval", the "UNLV student", was/is an intern for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as being an activist on many other fronts. Maria was miffed about being forced to ask such a frilly question by CNN, which she expressed on a blog at her myspace page. she wanted to ask about Yucca Mountain.

none of this is earth-shattering, because anyone with half a brain knows that politics is pure theater, but you would think that the Democratic party and their media accomplices at CNN would be a tad more careful about it.

UPDATE-
here's some wrestler dude covering the same ground here on YouTube...

the huffington post weighs in...
my live blog of the debate, volume 1
my live blog of the debate, volume 2

yesterday's live blog on heismanpundit.com...

2007-11-18T07:35:00.000-05:00

i was playing around on my blog yesterday hitting links to stories about tebow's heisman chances and i ran across a link to a site called heisman pundit, which, according to Sports Illustrated, is "the Heisman's foremost authority". intrigued, i read his blogs and read "The Ten Heismandents", and noticed that he was going to live blog a set of games which included UF/FAU.

him being the "foremost authority" and someone who has a set of actual heisman voters who conduct weekly straw polls, i decided that he needed influence beyond the "TEBOW ROX!! ALL THE REST SUX!!" variety...i plotted my entry into his live blog early, before he started...

my first question/comment was going to be about tebow becoming the first 20/20 college player EVER (20 rush TDs, 20 pass TDs)...

1:24 Do you guys know what Tebow was for Halloween?

1:24 [Comment From J.R. Deluxe]
doesn't this make tebow the first 20-20 player ever?
1:24 Clark Kent

1:25 Good question Deluxe

1:25 I think so

1:25 Amazing

okay, this guy is the "foremost authority" on the Heisman and i had to inform HIM of this fact? i detected a strong urge from "the establishment" to hurry up and find a frontrunner to replace the injured Dennis Dixon QUICK, with someone besides SuperTim...i wasn't having it.

so, i'm not going to take credit if Tebow eventually wins this thing, but i will say that i might have influenced an "influential player" in the game...

UPDATE--i don't mean to brag, but i think my pointing out the 20/20 angle seems to have become the talking point nationally. i think i re-framed this debate...

"i'm sorry i answered the question"...dem debate vol. 2

2007-11-15T20:43:00.000-05:00

...'because from what i've heard on this stage we're not supposed to'...this is paraphrasing Joe Biden, after he gave a detailed answer about his plan for Pakistan. interesting.

Richardson also gets detailed, kinda, and the he name-drops "Halliburton". pathetic. i take back anything nice i've said about him.

Edwards--will get rid of nukes world-wide. O-K.

Obama wants more international cooperation. O-K.

Dodd talks tough to Pakistan, Hillary agrees. both blame Bush for Pakistani problems. solution elusive.

IRAQ/SURGE/TROOP LEVELS

"One American death is too much"--Richardson. One. money should be used for programs in US.

TRADE

hillary got NAILED on NAFTA. NAILED. tried to joke her way out of it, in response to "was ross perot right?". criticizes bush on poison chinese products...

ENERGY

john roberts asks obama whose backyard nuclear waste should go. no answer given in a long monologue. "...we CAN do it", was his answer. "do WHAT?" is my question...

HILLARY--ARE THEY PICKING ON YOU?

hillary gives parts of her stump speech..."glass ceiling", etc... no answer to "who are the 'boy's club'".

"this pantsuit is asbestos tonight", dem debate vol. 1

2007-11-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

hillary did not shake hands or even acknowledge the other candidates during introductions. wow. is it HATE, ego, script, low self-esteem, gender????

it was weird...in the pre-debate, Wolf Blitzer made a comment to the effect of "hopefully the internet can inspire these young people to vote"...y'know, i always really thought the candidates should inspire them...

1st question--from campbell brown, about clinton "parsing" answers, generally, and specifically about her answer to illegal aliens getting drivers' licenses.

"this pantsuit is asbestos tonight"--hillary

obama reiterates "drivers licenses".

hillary changes topic to health care, slams obama.

it's obama vs. hillary, TOTALLY. they're waving Wolf off, hillary supporters are trying to shout down obama from the rafters...

wolf brings edwards into the debate, edwards opens with 'none of us is perfect, even me'...powerful stuff, senator....

YOU CAN'T HIT A GIRL...

hillary arguing that pointing out policy differences amounts to "mudslinging", singles out edwards. doesn't rebut the charges, just attacks the messenger...

biden up...sounded good for a second...

edwards makes an effective speech, pandering to the victims of society...dismisses the picking on hillary charge...

dodd...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

richardson--"give peace a chance"...my god. pathetic. i like the guy, but ugh.....

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

obama says he understands immigrants "frustration". that was his first point. he went on to sound "tough" on the subject, but... he says he supports licenses for illegals, for "public safety". hold on, he DOESN'T support it now, gets boos...

edwards doesn't support it without "comprehensive immigration reform"

dodd strongly supports "comprehensive immigration reform", no to licenses

obama says the american people "desperately" want "comprehensive immigration reform", licenses are "not the issue"

kucinich wants to be overrun.

biden--"no"

TEACHERS, SCHOOLS

"merit pay?"...*crickets* from every candidate.

TIM TEBOW FOR HEISMAN

2007-11-14T17:32:00.000-05:00

it looks like bias against underclassmen is going to rule the day, since Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon holds a commanding lead in first-place votes in all the sections of the country (even holding a sizeable advantage in the southern region). lame.

let's compare stats.

RUSHING...TEBOW 170-718 yds, 19 TDs, 4.22 avg, 71.80 ypg, ranked 71st in NCAA. let's not forget that on a lot of his TDs, he could've run a lot further... DIXON 103-549 yds, 8 TDs, 5.33 avg, 61 ypg. advantage--TEBOW.

PASSING EFFICIENCY...TEBOW is second in the NCAA with a 177.1 rating, with 23 TDs and 5 interceptions. DIXON is 4th in the NCAA with a 163.1 rating, with 20 TDs and 3 interceptions. TEBOW is averaging 1.5 yards more per attempt (9.93-8.43). advantage--EVEN (even if Tebow slightly leads).

so, it's either that UF's record is hurting Tebow (3 losses to 1 loss for Oregon), or Darren McFadden is siphoning off southern votes which would normally go to Tebow. by contrast, Dixon has virtually no competition in the west for votes, and there's probably a Florida Gator fatigue factor when it comes to the media types and whoever else votes for this thing, due to the incredible recent success of the UF football and basketball programs.

it looks like, per usual, the Heisman won't go to the best player. anybody that's seen Tebow play knows the real deal.

finally...a political ad worth watching....

2007-11-14T17:02:00.000-05:00

uber-anti-illegal alien crusader and republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo has just released a WHOPPER of an ad (probably the best since Goldwater's "daisy" ad in the '64 campaign), and the only way you'll probably ever see it is to click here, because they've yanked it off of YouTube for content...the same YouTube who routinely lets jihadi videos remain on their site no matter how much people complain.

his campaign will never make enough money to actually put this thing on TV anywhere.

i've heard comments to the effect of "it looks like he's claiming the Mexicans are terrorists", but i don't see it.

if you don't believe the islamo-fascists are infiltrating this country, due to our porous borders and weak enforcement, how about a story from YESTERDAY about how an illegal alien woman who worked for the CIA and the FBI pled guilty to conspiracy, unauthorized computer access, and naturalization fraud in a US district court. she had links to hezbollah. she's not allowed to leave the country now, due to the sensitivity of the information she accessed. and, of course, we can't forget the 9/11 hijackers, who all overstayed their visas.

another reason i'm endorsing hillary

2007-11-14T05:39:00.000-05:00

until i saw the preceding video, i had no idea that she was such a renaissance "person"...that aside from being a public policy genius and someone who could run our lives from cradle to grave exactly how we need them run...she's apparently also heavy into physics. just look at how quickly she measured the problem and provided the solution...get on it, boys...

my favorite lesbian feminist writer Camille Paglia is not as enthusiastic towards Hillary as I am. she thinks the media is not doing her a favor by allowing her to skip through life not having to answer tough questions. but...why should she? most of the time these stupid people on the campaign trail already KNOW the answer that THEY want to hear...they just want to see if Hillary agrees with THEM. keep playing it coy, girl! HILLARY! '08

my original endorsement of hillary here.

'Gays should be hanged', Iranian leader tells peace conference

2007-11-13T22:08:00.000-05:00

wait...i thought Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said there were no gays in Iran??

not so fast...OF COURSE THERE ARE, and they don't please allah...

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.

Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.

the story is extra notable for a Pet Shop Boys reference.

The Pet Shop Boys dedicated Fundamental, their Grammy-nominated album, to Mahmoud Asqari and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged in Justice Square in Mashhad in 2005. Graphic photographs of the execution of the youths, who were under 18 when arrested, were released by the Iranian Students News Agency.

i endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nominee

2007-11-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

first of all, for her campaign's iron-fisted control of media access, as reported in the liberal New Republic. good stuff...

Reporters' jabs and errors are long remembered, and no hour is too odd for an angry phone call. Clinton aides are especially swift to bypass reporters and complain to top editors. "They're frightening!" says one reporter who has covered Clinton. "They don't see [reporting] as a healthy part of the process. They view this as a ruthless kill-or-be-killed game."

ahh, yes, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" is alive and well, even in the left-leaning press.....

i also like the fact that even though she's counting on the support of working-class women, she can't be bothered to actually tip a waitress she spoke to and later used her story in stump speeches (reported by NPR).

Anita Esterday waited on the New York senator and her entourage at a Maid-Rite restaurant in Toledo, Iowa. Esterday posed for photos with Clinton and spoke of her plight as a single mother forced to work two jobs to make ends meet.

Clinton later incorporated Esterday's story into her campaign stump speech. Pictures of their meeting appeared in newspapers and on TV newscasts.

In the NPR interview, Esterday said that while she had enjoyed meeting Clinton, she hadn't gotten much out of her 15 minutes of fame.

"I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," Esterday said, adding, "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying."

then, Tim Russert committed the cardinal sin of actually asking her a yes/no question about whether she supports New York Gov. Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, she calls that a "gotcha" question...

When, in the waning moments of the debate's "lightning round," NBC's Tim Russert asked Clinton why she had told a New Hampshire editorial board that Spitzer's plan "makes a lot of sense," Clinton credited the governor with "filling the vacuum" in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform on the federal level.

Only after Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd came out against the license plan did Clinton attempt to clarify her position. "I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it," she said.

When Russert asked Clinton to pick a side, she accused him of playing "gotcha" - and her opponents were ready to join the game. "Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes," former North Carolina senator John Edwards said.

and then, of course, Slick Willy came to the rescue, accusing the other candidates of "piling on" against poor defenseless Hillary.

but i especially love the way she combats all of this unfair coverage by planting questions in the audience in "town-hall meeting" campaign stops...

you GO, girl!! HILLARY! '08

Radiohead update!

2007-11-06T20:45:00.000-05:00

oops!!

most fans paid zip, zero, nada for "In Rainbows". a survey by comScore Inc. shows that 62% of the people downloading the new radiohead masterpiece did it for free, and the remaining 38% averaged paying $6.

the silver lining, i guess, for america--

Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.

Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.

i guess we can gather from that that americans are not as big a freeloader as the rest of the world, or our economy's better and thus we can afford to pay more, or we're just suckers.

in this case, the answer IMHO would be "C".

Boofest 2007

2007-11-04T14:05:00.000-05:00

AP: Ralph Nader sues Democratic Party

2007-10-31T19:57:00.000-04:00

for conspiring to keep him off the ballot in several states in the 2004 election.

Sez Nader:

"The Democratic Party is going after anyone who presents a credible challenge to their monopoly over their perceived voters...This lawsuit was filed to help advance a free and open electoral process for all candidates and voters. Candidate rights and voter rights nourish each other for more voices, choices, and a more open and competitive democracy."

University of Delaware: PC Indoctrination program

2007-10-31T19:19:00.000-04:00

Dear dorm residents,
agree to this, or take a hike:

“[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”

thank you,
the administration

RELATED: NAME (National Association for Multicultural Education) national convention in Baltimore:

• "The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Dismantling White Privilege and Supporting Anti-Racist Education in Our Classrooms and Schools." Taught by a professor from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, this session "is designed to help educators identify and deconstruct their own white privilege and in so doing more deeply commit themselves to anti-racist teaching and critical multicultural teaching."

• "Talking About Religious Oppression and Unpacking Christian Privilege." This session, taught by a team of professors, "will examine the dynamics of Christian privilege and oppression of minority religious groups and nonbelievers as constructed and maintained on three distinct levels: individual, institutional and societal. A historical and legal lecturette will be presented and participants will engage in interactive learning modules."

• "Beyond Celebrating Diversity: Teaching Teachers How to be Critical Multicultural Educators." Taught by NAME regional director Paul Gorski, founder of the activist group EdChange, this session will start from the premise that multiculturalism's greatest danger "comes from educators who ostensibly support its goals, but whose work - cultural plunges, food fairs, etc. - reflects a compassionate conservative consciousness rather than social justice. This session focuses on preparing teachers, not for celebrating diversity, but for achieving justice in schools and society."

hat tip to Neal Boortz...

what in the world is going on??? PART 2

2007-10-31T18:32:00.000-04:00

the amazing thing to me about this video is that Gov. Richardson would allow himself to be videotaped seriously discussing this issue.

to make things weirder, let's go to last night's Democratic presidential debate, moderated by Tim "Meet the Press" Russert and Brian "NBC Nightly News" Williams...Rep. Dennis Kucinich was asked in a presidential debate if he had seen a UFO! his answer: yes. but he clarified that it was an "unidentified flying object", this being just days after he had questioned W's mental health regarding comments Bush has made about the prospect of WW3 in relation to Iran's nuclear arms program.

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health...There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

neither does Kucinich, apparently...

Russert points out in the video that 14% of Americans claim to either believe in UFOs or have seen one. Kucinich said that that is a higher percentage of people than those who approve of President Bush (wrong). Russert could've come back with "no, it's really closer to the approval ratings for the Democratic-led Congress", but, alas...he didn't. what a missed opportunity.

honestly, though, i don't even think it's crazy to claim to have seen a UFO or believe in extraterrestrial life. i've seen something i couldn't explain, myself. i just think it's bizarre that we've reached a point where Tim Russert will ask a presidential candidate about this in a public forum. unless, of course, it's all an effort by the Hillary! team to start knocking off the lower-tier candidates...

previously discussed here on NGNG...

what in the world is going on???

2007-10-28T00:28:00.000-04:00

in the past week or so i've blogged about the Kecksburg UFO investigation, AND how Shirley Maclaine sez in a book that Dennis Kucinich saw a UFO at her place.

coincidence?

not so fast...

Kucinich is running for president. the president is the commander-in-chief of the US military. the military is not being hounded by the journalist who's been filing FOIA requests for documents pertaining to Kecksburg. a civilian agency, NASA is catching the heat for the cover-up. Shirley Maclaine is a civilian. my sources tell me that Kucinich is, too.

...and NOW he wants to lead the military?

Kucinich has been fairly low-key since the Maclaine admission...what's HE hiding?

and now tonight i'm surfing the internet and i run across this story from the Houston Chronicle about how Bill Richardson told a crowd on the campaign trail that he, if elected president, would try to get to the bottom of the Roswell UFO mystery.

"When I was in Congress I said (to the) Department of Defense ... 'What is the data? What is the data you have?' "

He was told that the records were classified.

"That ticked me off," he said.

"What do you want me to do? You want me to open up all those files?...I'll work with you on that."

emphasis mine, but it was important to capture the essence...the GRAVITY of that statement. Kucinich has not gone that far. Richardson seems to really mean business. right now i'm going with Richardson.

God bless you and keep you safe, Governor...you're a brave, brave man...

Evolutionary theorist predicts our future: we'll split into two species

2007-10-27T20:55:00.000-04:00

...just like in H.G. Wells "The Time Machine".

one will be attractive and tall (average between 6-7 feet). and the men will have giant penises. the women: "...will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts". these will be the elite, btw...

the other species will be "an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures".

life won't be all rosy for the elite...an over-reliance on technology will mean that they'll be child-like, and medicine will weaken our immune systems.

fascinating stuff. and, by "fascinating" i mean that i've thought this same stuff a million times before.

that strange Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos deserves praise:

2007-10-27T20:22:00.000-04:00

he told some snotty Dutch politicians to go f*ck themselves.

well, not quite, but he did have a genius response to their sniveling about Gitmo:

“Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay”

what did i mean by "strange"? first, he looks like Hannibel Lecter:

and he sounds like Dracula. like i said--strange.

Air America host Randi Rhodes thinks Blackwater is behind SoCal fires...

2007-10-27T19:34:00.000-04:00

it's been a tough week for Randi (shown here with her teeth intact, btw...)--first, she was "attacked" by right-wingers who knocked her teeth out, then we later find out that no, she wasn't attacked...was it possible that she was just shit-faced coming out of an irish pub? it's all speculation, of course, but the story is typical of the crap that comes out of Air America.

like this latest gem from Rhodes:

I started just doing Google searches to try and figure out. You know, arson, arson, it was like crazy trying to figure out why is that being downplayed? Why is that, you know, just a small part of the story? And you know, every time I look for it what comes up, believe it or not, is that Blackwater wants to move to San Diego and build this giant complex in San Diego right where most of the evacuations are taking place and you know. You just know wherever there is fire, this administration will be out there doing what it does best and that is fanning the flames, you know. It just spooks me, I can’t explain to you how creepy this whole thing is that you know, you’ve got these fires. Some of them are thought to be the work of arsonists and in the same breath you’ve got a community that’s on fire that just recently protested Blackwater West. Just recently said no to Blackwater and apparently you don’t do that. I mean, I don’t even know what to think. You know, nobody is saying Blackwater set the fires, that is nobody that doesn’t want their house burned down. Nobody is saying that, but it is all so bizarre that this is America and you have to sort of sit there and wonder … arson, same place Blackwater West wants to be, people protesting. And then you find out that some of the guys that used to work for Blackwater are now in Schwarzenegger’s administration. It’s all so creepy.

the actual audio is at this link, if you missed it above.

Blackwater. Blackwater?

well, i guess she had to refocus, since others have been pointing at a possible al-queada/jihadist link...

Rhodes' speculation IS a lot more imaginative than other leftist voices which have been blaming it on traditional bogeymen such as global warming...like Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said in response to a question on an energy bill:

"As you know, one reason that we have the fires burning in Southern California is global warming. One reason the Colorado Basin is going dry is because of global warming."

and then, six questions later, Reid's previous statement had dropped down the memory hole:

Question: Senator, on the California fires, you said that the reason the fires are burning in California is global warming?

Reid: No. Here's what I - I didn't say the reason the fires were burning in Southern California was global warming...

except, i heard the audio and Reid completely garbled the end of the sentence to where it sounded more like "...southerncalfornglobewarming...", like he was trying to speak with something large in his mouth...like his foot...

oh yes, and the war in Iraq has diverted all of the National Guard so they can't help fight the fires. i almost forgot.

NASA promises comprehensive search for documents relating to Kecksburg UFO incident

2007-10-27T19:11:00.000-04:00

story here.

back in 1965, the Air Force called it a "meteor or meteors", but UFO investigators never bought the explanation of what streaked across the sky in Kecksburg, PA and crashed in the woods. journalist Leslie Kean decided to sue NASA for relevant documents and NASA complied, but a federal judge has ruled that the documents NASA provided were not sufficient, so NASA's got to go back and dig some more...

the latest from Ted Rall:

2007-10-26T06:28:00.001-04:00

i posted the comic so you wouldn't have to give him traffic, but if you really want to, click here.

this stuff offends me on so many levels, but i'm determined to have a good day today and i don't want to piss myself off commenting about it, so i'll just let IT speak for itself.

in search of...skunk ape

2007-10-26T06:16:00.000-04:00

i don't normally delve into stuff like this, but i have friends that do...

Hollywood's war on the "war on terror"

2007-10-25T19:51:00.000-04:00

independent reporter Michael Fumento has written an excellent piece demonstrating how Hollywood is covering up the islamic terrorist threat and is instead placing the blame on their versions of the "bad guys", i.e. the US gov't, the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, etc...

he compares this to, for example, the years during WW2:

In 1942, Hollywood went to war. It began pumping out countless movies designed both to entertain the public and bolster its will to fight. A lot of them were cheap, hokey, or both. But even in a nation that seemingly needed little reminder of the dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor or the evils of the Nazis, they kept drilling home the message that we must persevere no matter the costs or the duration.

Well that they did. President Franklin Roosevelt lived in constant fear that the public would turn against the war. Indeed a Gallup Poll taken just five months before Germany’s collapse and long after the American public began learning of the horrors of the Holocaust, showed about one-fourth did not want to drive on to unconditional surrender.

Fast forward that reel to the post-9/11 era. Just how many Hollywood movies (not documentaries) have been made in which the bad guys are Islamist terrorists that do not specifically concern the Sept. 11 attacks? If you have to guess, guess “none.”

so, we had "United 93", which was pretty damn good. ABC broadcast "The Path to 9/11", which was excellent, even though liberals and former Clintonites freaked out about it. but, beyond that--nothing.

Fumento left out of his article movies like "The Road to Guantanamo", which portrayed "innocent" British Muslims being swept up in Afghanistan..."The Good Shepherd", which was an excuse to portray waterboarding as a CIA torture technique which is such a horrifying experience that the "waterboardee" has to commit suicide..."Children of Men", which has British Muslims having been removed from the population and rounded up into refugee camps (but they still manage to create mayhem)...even go back to "The Siege"--people freaked out about this pre-9/11 portrayal of islamic terrorists, but by the end of the movie who's the bad guy? ...Bruce Willis of the U.S. Armed Forces, not to mention Annette Bening's morally challenged intelligence role.

Hat tip to former President Clinton

2007-10-25T19:34:00.000-04:00

that's one of the best reactions to the 9/11 "truther" kooks i've seen. nice job, Mr. President.

i should give Bill Maher props, too:

University of Florida police cleared in taser probe

2007-10-25T18:59:00.000-04:00

the internal investigation into the "taser" incident involving UF student Andrew Meyer (which i blogged about here, rather weakly i admit...) has been completed, and a report has been released which finds that the University Police Department officers "were justified in their actions", according to the Gainesville Sun.

it was discovered during the investigation that, just as i had always suspected, that this guy Meyer was just a clown looking to make an ass of himself:

Apart from detailing the events that led to Meyer's Tasering, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement suggests Meyer had planned to act out during the campus political event. Meyer told a friend a week before the event that he would put on a show when Kerry came to UF, according to a witness who says he overheard the conversation.

The conversation took place on Sept. 11, according to the report, on a day when Meyer approached a student group on campus that was supporting former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.

"Giuliani supporters had an interaction with (Meyer) in the Plaza of the Americas which resulted in (Meyer) allegedly kicking their candidate's signs. (Meyer's) behavior was characterized by witnesses as boisterous and provocative," the report says.

Meyer then proceeded to have a "heated exchange" with a female student who disagreed with Meyer's actions or views, the report says.

According to the report, Meyer then told an unnamed friend that, "If he liked what he had seen, referencing the verbal exchange/confrontation he had with the female student, that he should go to the Kerry speech and he would really see a show."

it wouldn't surprise me to find out that Meyer had come up with "don't tase me, bro!" beforehand.

a link to the actual report can be accessed here.

Conservative student with goofy hair hounds liberal professor who's running for congress

2007-10-25T18:32:00.000-04:00

story here, with links to youtube video.

basically, this guy Dennis Lennox, a student at Central Michigan University, thinks there's something wrong with a college professor, in this case, Gary Peters, running for congress. it's probably the ideological thing. no...make that DEFINITELY.

my thoughts:

a) the professor is within his rights. anybody can run for congress, and nobody has to step down from their current job to do so.

b) Lennox's tactics are bullshit, but in this new world of "macaca" what partisan can complain of videotapers trying to catch missteps or goading candidates into embarrassing statements?

c) it's just the way it is. Peters needs to deal with it.

this whole new direction is one that i feel we're eventually going to regret. we want our candidates for office to be forthright and spontaneous, but technology is going to force them into becoming hyper-managed and robotic.

technology-1
democracy-0

my phallic cacti

2007-10-25T18:19:00.000-04:00

the one on the left i've named "tommy lee". the one on the right: "kid rock".

Cat Stevens (Yusuf ISLAM) update:

2007-10-24T06:29:00.000-04:00

saw this this morning on Little Green Footballs...

apparently YouTube has caved to Cat's demands and has removed the highly incriminating video where Cat stated that he had no problem with Salman Rushdie being killed...and would do it himself if he had to. YouTube says it's a copyright issue. Charles at LGF rightly asks:

How can Cat Stevens claim the copyright on a British TV show from 1989?

i blogged about this video previously here.

"Not a terrorist": Miami public school teacher (muslim) attacks Homestead Air Reserve base

2007-10-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

he wanted to commit "suicide by cop", authorities say..

Halle Berry: anti-semitic?

2007-10-23T19:46:00.000-04:00

probably not, but the video shows that the audience was not amused by her "joke"...

liberal double standard:

Please also tell me: Where are all the Ann Coulter critics who are so concerned with Anti-Semitism? I guess a bigoted, liberal (half)Black actress gets a pass where a conservative, blonde, white commentator does not. What was that which George Orwell said about all the animals in the barnyard being equal, but some being more equall than others?

coulter was lambasted in the media recently for her comments that christians were "perfected" jews...

Shirley Maclaine claims Dennis Kucinich saw a UFO at her pad.....

2007-10-23T19:33:00.000-04:00

not surprising...

...explains a LOT...

Rubik's Cube solved in 10.56 seconds

2007-10-23T19:27:00.000-04:00

i'm not exactly buying this...he mixed the cube up from the "solved" position, put it down and then solved it. i think it's possible that he just reversed his moves, but i don't really care enough to investigate.......

Teachers molesting students: why do we let this go on?

2007-10-21T12:27:00.000-04:00

after other lame reasons are cited in this article as to why school administrators allow these incidents to be resolved quietly--"fear public embarrassment", "want to avoid the fallout from going up against a popular teacher", the article gets to what i think is the main reason: the teacher's union.

so, what happens?

Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.

"They might deal with it internally, suspending the person or having the person move on. So their license is never investigated," says Charol Shakeshaft, a leading expert in teacher sex abuse who heads the educational leadership department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

this line in the article really caught my eye:

It's a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames - "passing the trash" or the "mobile molester."

exactly who uses these phrases? teachers? administrators?

Kansas State University professor Robert Shoop refers to "passing the trash" here...

here's how a Hoover Institute study described the process:

Often, as a way to save time and money, an administrator will cut a deal with the union in which he agrees to give a bad teacher a satisfactory rating in return for union help in transferring the teacher to another district. The problem teacher gets quietly passed along to someone else. Administrators call it “the dance of the lemons” or “passing the trash.” Howard Fuller, the superintendent of Milwaukee public schools from 1991 to 1995, explains: “Administrators found they needed to trade bad teachers because it’s easier than getting rid of them. We had one teacher who put a student’s head down the toilet. He simply got moved to another school.”

Rep. Charley Rangel rips Giuliani: "cheating goddamn husband"

2007-10-21T12:17:00.000-04:00

make that, Rep. Charley Rangel, long-time Hillary! supporter...

did i miss something? pot? kettle?

end of UF/UK game leaves bettors scratching heads

2007-10-21T11:55:00.000-04:00

to set the stage, before gametime, most of the oddsmakers had the Gators a 7-point favorite over the Wildcats.

Florida led 45-31, when Kentucky quarterback Andre' Woodson rifled a touchdown pass into the end zone on the very last play, making the score 45-37. both teams strolled off of the field of play, without an attempted extra point, which, if successful, would've covered the spread if you had bet on UK. but, in 2006 the rules were changed:

The NCAA rule -- Rule 8, Section 3, Article 2, states:

"The ball shall be put in play by the team that scored a six-point touchdown. If a touchdown is scored during a down in which time in the fourth period expires, the try shall not be attempted unless the point(s) would affect the outcome of the game."

until news of the rule change began to circulate around the betting crowd in Vegas, those who had bet on Kentucky anticipated a "push" (in other words, the spread gets hit right on the number). oops!

"Priceless", commented Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay.

far-lefties at The Nation question Nobel Prize going to Algore

2007-10-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

This isn't the first time i've read Alexander Cockburn criticize the theory as Algore sees it. these are fighting words:

Already the hysteria about anthropogenic global warming stoked by Al Gore and the Big Lie gang writing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's press releases has done enormous damage to vital environmental cleanup, sidetracking attention and money from work on sewers, toxic waste sites, filthy smokestacks--not to mention the vast disaster of agricultural pollution. Two other consequences of the hysteria will be deadly. Biofuels will steal the meals of the Third World poor and put them in First World gas tanks. Nuclear power is the hysteria's prime beneficiary. As Peter Montague describes it in our current CounterPunch newsletter, "The long-awaited and much-advertised 'nuclear renaissance' actually got under way this fall." NRG Energy, a New Jersey company, applied for a license to build two nuclear power plants in Bay City, Texas--the first formal application for such a license in thirty years.

Cockburn demonstrably sees Gore's global warming/climate change histrionics as a "trojan horse" strategy on behalf of the nuclear power industry:

...As nuclear plants start to sprout like toadstools across the landscape, it is certainly appropriate to lay a large measure of the blame on Al Gore, who has been a shill for the nuclear industry ever since he came of age as a political harlot for the Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory in his home state of Tennessee.

Cockburn is pretty brutal on Gore the rest of the article, especially on his hawkish past, specifically on the iraq issue, which i've previously blogged about here on NGNG...

just to change the subject for a second, i read this article early this morning when it was called "Gore and the Big Lie Gang"...they've changed the title...i wonder who got to 'em?...hmmmmm...

here's a link to a previous article for The Nation by Cockburn on climate change fearmongering: "Who are the Merchants of Fear?"

also, from today's WSJ Opinion Journal, a measured piece of skepticism providing historical context from a guy who's been studying the phenomena since 1968.

will the MAINSTREAM media ever seriously cover Hillary's sketchy campaign contributions?

2007-10-21T08:59:00.000-04:00

as i predicted back in early september, the norman hsu controversy received the "ho-hum" treatment from the MSM...oh, sure they "covered" it, if you want to call it that, but where is the abrahamoff-style outrage and follow-up on the return of the hsu-bundled donations? are they really being returned?

now, we hear that hillary is raising tons of cash from impoverished dishwashers and the like in New York's Chinatown...predictably, the conservatives like michelle malkin are all over this, but, lo and behold, here's an article in The Nation, fer chrissakes, asking the SAME questions!

Instapundit sez: "It's interesting the way concerns about Hillary's fundraising seem to cross all partisan and ideological lines". ...which begs the question i pose in this post's title...

UPDATE: Winning Bid $2,100,100.00 for Harry Reid's "smear letter"

2007-10-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

first things first...before daily kos gets around to deleting this diary entry, some commie over there is calling this Rush apologizes for "phony soldiers" insult... this is one of the most astounding spin jobs i've ever heard.

oh wait--i forgot this...(video--Harry Reid goes to the senate floor today and attempts to take credit for how his letter is raising a ton of money for charity...the BALLS on this guy are ENORMOUS.

what Reid's speech today fails to capture is any sense at all of WHY this letter he wrote to the CEO of ClearChannel was able to command this kind of money. what Reid can't bring himself to wrap his mind around is that this was a public reaction to a clear effort to use the intimidating power of the Federal Government (in this case the Senate) to discredit/shut up a political voice in this country, using words taken out of context which he had to know were out of context. it was a smear, generated from mediamatters.org (who have no comment today on the end of the bidding), meant to be a warning shot across the bow at all conservative voices in the media...remember, the FCC holds great power over the broadcasters (like ClearChannel) of this country...and the Senate has a role in FCC funding...

Rush will be matching the winning bid of $2,100,100. no word yet on Rush's appeal to all 40 co-signers of Reid's smear letter to match it as well..

the e-bay winning bid page

the bidding history

pathetic attempt at the "democratic underground" urging readers to "report" the auction to ebay...

The auction's been running for 3 days now. Why ebay's allowing it is beyond my comprehension. But there is something we can do about it.

Every auction has a "report" button on the bottom of the page. Let's report the hell out of it!

...

Press the "report" button at the bottom.
Choose "Listing Policy Violations"
Choose "Other Listing Violations"
Choose "Hateful, Discriminatory or Racial Language in an item description"
VERY IMPORTANT: do not stop here!

previous related posts:
update on smear letter

original post

Obama is Cheney's cousin

2007-10-17T17:09:00.000-04:00

8th cousin, that is....

they both have ancestral ties to a french dude name Mareen Duvall, who ended up marrying the granddaughter of a Richard Cheney, who moved to Maryland in the 1600's.

reaction from the Obama camp:

A spokesman for Obama, who wants to be the first black U.S. president, offered a tongue-in-cheek response. "Every family has a black sheep," said spokesman Bill Burton.

not bad...

UPDATE: "Dingy" Harry's smear letter to Clear Channel

2007-10-17T17:01:00.000-04:00

i blogged about this over the weekend...

the e-bay bid, as of 5:00 PM EST today is over $100,000.

my prediction for when the bidding closes on Friday--$500,000.

a glimpse forward toward the brave new world of hillary-care...

2007-10-16T21:17:00.000-04:00

for some reason, Britain's fabled system of socialized medicine is causing a dearth in the amount of medical providers willing to work within the system...for example, dentists: many in Britain have taken to yanking out their own teeth.

Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday.

Others have used superglue to stick crowns back on, rather than stumping up for private treatment, said the study. One person spoke of carrying out 14 separate extractions on himself with pliers.

this comes right on the heels of news from last month, also from Great Britain, that the incidences of
stillborn babies is on the rise, mainly due to understaffing of NHS hospitals, and lack of experience which is being exacerbated by huge numbers of midwives who are set to retire soon. this problem did not just pop up yesterday, as this blog from 2005 illustrates. the problem is so pervasive that the NHS is encouraging women to go through labor in swimming pools, according to this BBC story from September...

Norwegian school encourages masturbation...but not while eating...

2007-10-16T19:16:00.000-04:00

Pia Friis, leader of the popular Bjerkealleen Barnehage ("barnehager" = "kindergarten") in Oslo, has some "interesting" ideas which are causing debate and uproar in this historically open-minded country:

Children, she said, should be able "to look at each other and examine each other's bodies. They can play doctor, play mother and father, dance naked and masturbate.

"But their sexuality must also be socialized, so they are not, for example, allowed to masturbate while sitting and eating. Nor can they be allowed to pressure other children into doing things they don't want to."

thankgod.
full story here...according to the story, children in Norway typically attend these kindergartens from the ages of 1 to 3...wow. i never masturbated until i was 15. of course, this probably explains a lot...

hat tip to weaselzippers

844 lb Mako caught off of Destin

2007-10-15T04:56:00.000-04:00

that's one big-ass fish!
story w/photos

Kid from North Carolina uses his blog to spread jihad

2007-10-15T04:48:00.000-04:00

interesting story in today's new york times.

neither the kid's parents nor the NYT writer can understand how such a nice middle-class boy could think this way...