Ahhh, and the opinion pieces about the new tax cut package start to flow. Eric Alter's latest offering has the central theme of "see, the Republicans hate poor people".

That�s not counting families earning $10,000 to $25,000 who don�t make enough to pay federal income taxes but are eligible for refundable tax credits. They and their 12 million children get nothing from this bill. While more comfortable middle-class Americans will find their child tax credits and marriage-penalty relief accelerated, these folks will not. The same conservative senators who talk, often persuasively, about the importance of marriage decided to leave the �marriage penalty� in place for those receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). In other words, the people who make under $27,000 a year, many of them just struggling to get off welfare, are now the only ones with no tax incentive to marry. �They had a chance to do something to bolster marriage and they chose not to,� says Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

I am especially intrigued by his argument that people who don't pay any federal taxes should still benefit from a tax cut by being eligible for refundable tax credits. This seems, to me, to be nothing other than an attempt to turn the tax rebates just another form of social program. And then there's this bit:

Why not? Because they�d show that the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans just don�t care a whole lot about helping waitresses and janitors. One of the reasons they feel that way is an assumption that low-income workers receive the EITC anyway, so why give them more? But only about three quarters of those eligible receive the EITC; you have to apply for it, and many lower-income workers fail to do so.

So, because many people fail to apply for the help that is already available to them, we should bolster the amount of tax break that we return to people who don't pay taxes.

I think everyone should pay their fair share in taxes. But I also think that those who pay the most in taxes should get the most relief when available. Is the current tax reform as good as the Republicans or as bad as the Democrats say it is? No way in hell. In fact, I was pretty ambivalent about the whole thing - but now that it is here, I think everyone should get rewarded proportional to the amount they put in.

Yes I am. I came home and settled down, turned on the tv only to find this:

I sat for over an hour, nearly breathless, watching qualifying for the Formula 1 Monaco Gran Prix. Ralph, not Michael, Schumacher got the pole for this one. I then got a 30 minute break to grab a bite to eat during interviews for NASTRUCK races at Dover International Speedway, and will now be watching the Formula 3000 race.

If you get a chance tune in. Picture a nearly mile long tunnel with a slight to moderate curve to the right and 30 guys trying to go through it at over 170mph with their asses three inches off the ground and surrounded up to the neck by hi-octane racing fuel.

Bungee jumpers are such pussies!

Hold onto your hats guys, feminists in Canada are on the war path. The Canadian government's department, "Status of Women, Canada" (no kidding) paid three women, a female professor and two female research assistants, $75,000 Canadian ($633 US) to research mens groups on the internet. And what Pierrette Bouchard found, alarmed her.

There actually are mens groups. She calls them "Masculinists" and recomends that the Canadian government create a watchdog group to track what goes on at these sites. She deems any speech detrimental to feminism as hate speech and thinks it should be tracked and prosecuted.

The professor herself. "At first, I thought, Well, these are just a few small fringe groups, it's not important. But eventually, I found that there were more of them than I thought and that they had a large network on the Internet, through which they are disseminating their views. That does bother me."

Why should it bother her? It is just a group of guys wondering why boys acedemic performance has gone down, why male suicide is up and why, unless the woman is an schizo-crackhead who practices human sacrifice, they never get fair custody or visitation after a divorce.

Mickey MacMillan, of Kamloops Parents of Broken Families, said he was angry at being put on the "hit list." "All I've ever done is advocate for equal parenting.
I have no agenda against women. I don't like feminists because I think they're radical and I think they're against men, but I don't think they should try to criminalize me. And my government paying for it, it is a disgrace."

Gosh, those silly Canadians are so polite.

Thanks to Tongue Tied for pointing this out.

With all the complaining I do about the Seattle area, some of you are proboably wondering why I stay here. This is why.

Yep, I live at the base of a 14,000 foot dormant volcano. And I like it. I can drive for less than 30 minutes and get on a boat and head for the Pacific Ocean and fish for Halibut. Or I can stop part way out and relax on a small, but uninhabited island in the San Juan chain.

My favorite spot though, is a smallish range of mountains called the Olympics, southwest of the San Juans.

From hiking to fishing to hunting to just sitting on your butt in a natural hotspring. This part of the state has it all. And to think we were once thinking of giving it to Canucks.

With the summer vacation season almost upon us folks, I can think of thousands of worse places to go. Oh that's right, I'm already here. Yay!

If you're in Michigan you've probably already heard about this. But here we go anyway. You may remember the name "Thayrone" (aka Terry Hughes). He hosted a show on a NPR station in Ypsilanti, Michigan until he repeatedly expressed his pro-Iraq war/pro-Bush views on the air. On April 2nd he was fired for those offenses and then refusing to run NPR news , stating "we know if you want a current assesment of what is going on, you're sure not listening to us".

He has been picked up by an Ann Arbor, Michigan station and given his own show starting this Sunday night from 7-11pm. He has been given complete creative control over his new program, won't be forced to run news, and even *gasp* has the freedom to speak in favor of GWB.

For all the bitching from the left about having their view points being shut down, quieted, censored, etc. which we have had to listen to for months now, none of them can point to an experience such as this being done to anyone on their side. NPR being a psuedo-government entity, I would be tempted to go legal on their ass if it had been me. I don't retain a lawyer for giggles you know.

But Mr. Hughes is much more "mellow" about this than I. "But don't look for any paybacks this Sunday. 'It's going to be a real strong energy show,' Hughes says, 'not a get-even show ever. I'm not looking back, this is the next evolutionary step.'

Expect the tin-foil hat crowd to go ballistic over this since the station that he know works for is a Clear Channel station.

What part of this sentence is wrong?

"The imperialist pillage and desecration of the heritage of Babylon and Mesopotamia has provoked a shudder throughout the civilzed world."

Correct! All of it.

This sentence is the first in an article of similar tripe, left at my local Indymedia from Lal Khan of the Asian Marxist Review. If you have a strong stomach or a good sense of humor read it.

For those of you who can't find this funny, look at it this way. When they say "imperialist", think about what Marxism stands for. World Socialism. Now, why do I find that funny? Because the type of people who would believe this drivel, believe that if they could just have the cooperation of all the countires on the planet, life would be perfect. A Utopia.

But unfortunately for them, most countries will not cooperate. So their "plan B" is ovetaking by force. Or Imperialism. But they don't see it that way. No matter how hard you kick them in the teeth, they still just feel that you're the stupid one and why can't you see that they are trying to help you. Oh well.

The other way to look at them and smile is this. One of the basic tenets of thought for them is athieism. If you read through their dogma, it says that the only reason they persecuted (read: murdered) the russian catholics was because the church was telling the priests to talk out against them and speak up for the csarists. And the synagogues and jews had too much money that they would not give to "the people".

But if you start up a conversation with one, guide it to the subject of religion, and get into it with them (this takes finesse, but it is possible), they will tell you that the people only need to believe in the workers and their needs, and all will be taken care of. Athieism, plain and simple.

Now don't get me wrong. I have no beef with anyone's religion or lack of one. I try to think of myself as a kind of Jeffersonian. I am generally taken aback when someone asks me about my religious beliefs. Like it is any of their business.

But if you want a good laugh, look at the support the socialists have given to the islamofascists. You have marxists who do not believe in any god and hate America, supporting fundamentalists who love their god so much that they also hate America. You basically have a marriage of convenience and hate. Sounds like a Kennedy marriage.

We all know that the islamofascists hate christians. And jews are even worse to them. They also have no reguard for hindus and buddhists. And how many zoroastrians do you run into these days? But athieists hold a special place in their hearts. If you believe in a god, no matter which one or how many, you are still allowed to to have a "good" muslim try to convert you. If you don't convert, then they kill you. But to them, the only good athieist is a dead athieist. When you support a group of people who don't even want you participate in their religion, upon punishment of death, and the one thing that ties you together with them is their religion. Using this logic it would seem that I support the islamofascists.

Now that is funny!

Remeber in this post when I quoted a guy visiting London saying that pepperspray was illegal? You possibly may have thought I was pulling your leg, huh? I wouldn't do that to you. See this.

A disabled man in a wheelchair was being mugged at knifepoint. He gets a break and is able to get to his can of mace and uses it. Attacker is diabled and the police arrived. Guess what the police do? Yep, they arrest both of them.

Nicolas Ashworth had gotten mugged 3 weeks previously. After the man took his money (approx. $150), he punched him in the face. Ashworth then went and bought his pepperspray. He knew that it was illegal, but was in fear for his life, and decided to carry it with him anyway.

I have no idea what the government over there is thinking. Violent crime is at an all time high, yet there are no firearms. How could this be?

Click on the link and look under "England and Wales". If you compare them and the US, yes our numbers are higher, but look at the trends. Ours are going down as record numbers of firearms are being sold. While theirs are going up with no firearms sold at all. Sooner than later, the two will meet. And who will be happier about it?

Check out Australia as well, if you have time.

Lock and load.

Why do I bring a quote from "The Duke"? Isn't that saved for something serious? Yes, it is saved for something serious, and I think this is serious.

"You've been marked. We've been watching you and (your husband), following your trip overseas last April 19th. We've been in your house while in San Francisco. We've "bumped" into you at Costco (retail store). You've given us the time while in line at Bank of America. We've been watching your house. We've been watching you and your family..."

"In consideration of (your husband) being out of town so often, think of your family's security as your windows could be put through tomorrow night."

Where is this from you ask? From this.

It seems that the animal rights freaks have given up on being half-assed civil. Throwing blood on women wearing fur coats, releasing diseased research animals and then burning down the facility, and scaring pre-school aged children in their classrooms isn't enough for them. They have now began threatening families with physical violence.

And what did the husband of the woman who got this do? He sold software to a reasearch lab in the UK. The same group wo sent this letter put her home phone number on the web and told their people to "call anytime" They also covered the families neighborhood in pictures of mutilated dogs and would drive through the neighborhood at 3am blaring recordings of sirens.

They are calling it their "Let Freedom Ring the Doorbell" campaign. In the wacked out little circle they crawl around in they call these, "home demonstrations".

The group calls themselves SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty). They have set a goal to close down the Huntingdon Life Sciences lab. A UK based testling lab that uses animals for testing. The well known PETA freaks here in the US has come out saying that even if the lab came out with a cure for cancer, if it was tested on animals, they would protest the cure's use.

From their site: "Manicured lawns, quiet streets, american flags and.... puppy killing scum. We paid a visit to a few Chiron employees last night to give them a well-deserved wake up call.

"We started out with one of our favorites Linda Short (her address was posted here - a.k.) plastering her neighborhood with flyers telling her neighbors how she made the money that bought her ostentatious home and fancy car. And as an insurance measure for those neighbors who might not have had a chance to see our flyers we stood in front of Linda's home screaming through bullhorns to drive home the point.

"We know who you are, we know what you look like, we know where you socialize and best of all we know where you live!"

I have a working relationship with four different labs is Seattle that use anamals for testing. Daddy wants to play, when will it be my turn?

Like I said before, Lock and load boys, lock and load!

And to any PETA/SHAC types who might be reading this, I'm waiting......

Forced to endure the delusional ramblings of a commencement address speaker.

Something strange and a little bit unnerving happened last night. We live in an antebellum home in rural Louisiana. The house, named Dogwood, was built in 1802 and was a working indigo plantation up until the civil war. In order for you to get the full effect of the story, we have to flash back a few months.

=======================================

Sometime in late February/early March, 2003. It is a Saturday, and I was at the school, working in my lab. The nuclear wife was at home, working in her rose garden. Sometime around the middle of the morning, an old car enters our driveway, and comes about half way down to the house (our home sits a few hundred feet off of the road). A youngish black male gets out of the car, and approaches the nuclear wife. She is a little bit bemused by this, because the guy is wearing orange fluffy bedroom slippers. As he gets closer, he asks her "Is your house haunted?". The nuclear wife, who has always wanted to live in a haunted house, tells the guy about a couple of incidents we have experienced - doors flying forcefully open, etc. The fluffy orange slipper guy then tells the NW that his mom used to work in the house, and often saw the spirit of what she presumed was a former slave on both the stairwell and the front porch of the house. He claimed he hadn't been to the house in a long time, and was just driving by and wanted to stop and ask about the spooks.

One of the side benefits/tribulations of being a veterinarian is that you end up with a ton of abandoned pets. About this time, all 6 of our adopted dogs come tearing around the house, see this guy, and go crazy. Even our black lab, who usually doesn't bother anyone, had her hackles up and was barking at the guy. Fuzzy orange slippers, clearly discomfited by the appearance of the pack of dogs, told my wife to have a good day, got in his car, and left. She recounted this story to me when I got home later that afternoon, actually more intrigued by the haunting information that anything else.

Fast forward to May 28th, 2003===========================

It is about 9pm. I am sitting on the couch in the sitting room, playing "Baldur's Gate" on Xbox. The NW is in the bedroom, watching one of the news channels. I hear her coming down the hall, and she enters the sitting room. I keep playing Baldur's Gate, until it dawns on me that she is just standing there. I look up, and see that she is visibly upset.

NW: "Remember that guy in fuzzy orange slippers, the one that asked if the house was haunted?"

NW: "Not 100%, but I really think it was him. I thought it looked like him in the still pictures. But watching the video coverage of him being returned to Baton Rouge makes me as certain as I can be that it was him."

RNS: $%%^%$#@#$#@%^$#@!

This whole thing is really pretty surreal. The nuclear wife is not one prone to hyperbole or an overactive imagination (those both fall under my jurisdiction). If she says she thinks it was him, then she really thinks it was him. I think I may need a few more dogs, and one or 2 of those .50 cals that AK was mentioning.

We would do well to remember that not all monsters are make believe.

Looks as if the Los Angeles police commision has completely lost their minds. Just yesterday they voted to ban any firearm manufactured in .50 cal. I found this article that quotes Police Commission President Rick Caruso saying this ban "will make .50 caliber weapons harder to find". What a dumbass.

I have never heard this phrase said "I see .50cal guns on every street corner." And if I did, I'd move to wherever that guy lives. That is one safe neighborhood.

Do they know how much the damn things cost to purchase, let alone shoot? Last I saw, you had to pay a minimum of $2500 for a rifle and $2 per round. And it is so portable, weighing only 30lbs and all.

This ban will also cover the new S&W; 500 Magnum pistol. You know, the one that costs over $1000 and isn't in stores yet. If I ever saw a bad guy with one of these, I'd find some cover and wait for him to light it off with that stupid side-ways grip that you see in the movies and watch his wrist bend into a funny shape. I'd then walk up and laugh at his ass while kicking him in the ribs. To make sure he forgets the pain in his wrist, of course. I care.

I will refrain from anymore name-calling here. I ask that you all take over from here while I wait to go to the pistol range later today. And if you have the means, go buy one. Even if you will never shoot it. Just to piss them off.

Looks like the anti-Bush forces are out of original ideas to badmouth and generally talk trash about him. They have to piggy-back a movie.

The Not In Our Name types were handing these out after the film, The Matrix - Reloaded let out

A guy from Salon was handed one after a show by a NION "Resistor". He said he thought it was "a clever attempt at a wake-up call for a very sleepy nation".

And if you haven't heard, there is a controversy surrounding a scene in the movie that has flashing pictures of famous evil folk. In true modern Hollywood fashion, first Hitler is shown, then George W Bush. Typical.

Warner Bros. has put out a release basically blowing the complaint of, saying that there were also pictures of Ghandi, MLK and other good guys in the montage. Never mind that those images appeared on single 13" screens and the Hitler/Bush images were displayed on a wall of those screens.

Did you know that car manufacturers try to sell you SUV's. Don't believe me, just ask Norman Baker. He is an MP from the Sussex area with the Liberal Democrat party over in the UK. So he knows. He also says that pedestrians and bicyclists are intimidated by the SUV. Well that is really too bad. They should buy their own SUV and quit being intimidated. Or stop being pedestrians and bicyclists, whichever is easier.

OK, enough with the jokes because this guy is serious about getting SUV's banned from urban environments. Citing the usual talking points about fossil fuel use, and them being big and umm, that is about all. He says that farmers can have SUV's, but if you have one and drive it to take your kids to school or go to the supermarket, you should be ticketed.

Being British, those who disagree with him give him more talking points. Namely the "only 4% of these vehicles actually go off-road" argument. They even admit they would advise motorists to consider the appropriateness of the vehicle they select. And they then add how rediculous a "ban" would be.

But I don't know. I'd watch for this one to get enacted and then get used against us here

I found this from someone on the blogroll, but I can't remember who.

I was running around Samizdata yesterday afternoon and I saw this. An ex-marxist named Andy Duncan clues us in on old Karl's "fallback idea" of creating a social demoratic utopia via the ballotbox instead of by force.

It is a very, very good read, listing things that believers in "the workers world" would do to quietly and calmly remake the world in their vision. If you notice any similarities to what we have in the US today, look over at the EU and see where there at. Then compare the similarities there.

#3 on the "list of things to do": I would gradually raise taxes, intervene, cause capitalist failure through regulation, thereby allowing myself the excuse to interfere even further, raise even more taxes, etc, etc, until at least half of the economy was in my hands (though 40% will do nicely).

Spooky, huh?

Oops. It seems Kim found this one too

Here in Washington we had a little problem with road rage. A couple of different sets of numbnuts got mad at each other a few years back and at some point in the argument got out and went at it. To try to curb this from becoming a regular occurance the legislature did the stupid thing and enacted an "Aggressive Driving" law. They could have made the crimes committed during a road rage incident carry a heavier sentence or they could have fixed some of the roads to better manage the traffic which helps create road rage (we're always in the top 5 cities in the country, by the way).

But nooooo, they enacted a law that is completely open to interpretation of what is aggessive. If you kill some one, that is murder. Punch someone in the nose, that is assault. But not this "vague" turd of a law. And the fines on this thing are nothing to sneeze at. Think "reckless driving" on your insurance bill.

The law was sold as a way to ticket those ding-dongs you see weaving in and out of lanes, cutting people off, and generally acting stupid. But today I got to see it used questionably.

A friend gives me a call one morning with a car question. I tell him to stop by later that afternoon and I'll take a look. His boost guage is stuttering but the power is smooth. Good guage, good sender, ghost in the machine, let's go for a drive. We get out onto I-5 in a stretch that isn't busy and give it run. We move into the far left general purpose lane as the haunting continues. We roll up behind someone going 50-55mph and decide to pass. Now there are 5 GP lanes and a carpool lane that needs 2 people in the car to be legal. So we can probably all agree that the guy ahead of us is a total asshat, right?

We signal to the left, switch lanes, go from about 55mph in 6th gear, down to 4th and up to around 85-90mph. We pass the slow guy and two others in front of him and then signal back to the right and into the left GP lane and back down to 60-65mph. All of this was done safely, without compromising anyone's following distance.

Well, about 4-5 miles down the road we notice an unmarked state patrol car has moved in behind us and we can tell he is running the plate. My friend has never gotten a ticket that I can remember, and did not profess to having any while we were waiting for the patrolman to remove himself from behind us. Cars like this one always get rolled up on by the police. They run the plate and then the driver. If you don't have an extraordinary amount of traffic violations and your car looks like it complies with the rules, they roll up, run your plate and move on.

Surprise! Blue lights. Move carefully, but quickly to the right, come to a complete stop, turn off the car and remain inside. The officer comes up and explains to us that he saw what we did when we passed the asshat. We kindly agree that we did make the pass and he tells us that he believes that what he saw was "aggressive driving". No bickering, the side of the road is not the place for adults to argue. The officer goes back to his car, writes the ticket. My friend signs the ticket, takes his green copy, and back to my place we go.

If it isn't obvious, here is my beef. If you are on a 2 lane highway and roll up behind someone going under the speed limit, you are going to wait for a safe place to pass and the do so as quickly and safely as possible, right? Why does this count as being "aggressive" when on the interstate?

Let me state that I have no ill feeling toward police officers. I often go on ride-a-longs with Seattle PD or the local county sheriff and generally believe that they are folks with a need to serve who just happen to have a job that sucks. They work long hours, get paid crap wages, and very few, if any, of the people they talk to want to talk to them. They get their hands tied by whatever agency they work for, but when the tied hands cannot fix something, they get kicked in the teeth. And those are just some of the reasons I never became one.

And I will give you that 80+mph doesn't sound safe. But if you knew this guy, knew the car, and had seen their race roster, you'd feel safe at 100+ with him. And I am picky as hell as to whom I ride with. The trooper said he was too far back that there was no way he could have gotten any idea about our actual speed. All he saw was a light blue metallic 1993 Toyota Supra pass three cars really quickly.

But, I'm not really worried about my friend getting stuck with this. Favors will be called up. My money is on 10 over with a $55 fine. And in case you're wondering, the guage works fine now.

In Custody.

Local coverage here and here.

Any sane man would have had enough sense to stay away from the Indymedia sites for more than a day after spending a week straight there. But I never said I was smart. Or sane. So here we go.

I'll admit to starting out light, with this little tidbit.

Someone reprinted a UNC-Wilmington professors letter to the Board of Trustees about a feminist being offended at a bumper on his office door that reads "So you're a feminist...isn't that cute." One of her parental units wrote a letter to the aforementioned trustees complaining about the sticker. But it wasn't mommy, it was dad. That is funny in and of itself. But I digress.

While I don't want to tell you the whole story, it seems that this guy has been using his office door as an experiment in tolerance. Which is against the rules, but his fellow professors from the other side of the political spectrum were doing so without any complaints, so he figured he would run the experiment. And in his words "some of you (his co-workers) have failed".

The door to his office has since turned into a free speech zone and is now festooned with stickers that, at first glance, would predict that a person with multiple personalities should be residing inside.

Go read now. Funny. Go read.

Checking in with the International Solidarity Movement.

It seems that they are now asking for donations for a legal fund. The Israeli government has started detaining and deporting the "internationals" and also flat out denying them entry to Israel. They want the money to "use it as a stage from which to expose aspects of the Israeli aparthied system". You know, putting people who want to blow up Israeli citizens in a certain area and check them going in and out of said area.

Oh yeah, and they are asking for money to ship one of their "martyrs" home to the UK. They want 20,000 UK pounds to ship home a guy with a headwound and his parents. Another reason we shouldn't use the 5.56 round. Shipping home a corpse is much cheaper. But oh well. Why did they fly all the way into the belly of their beast with out enough money to get themselves and him home? Sounds like what some of the Iraqi human shields did a few months back. What is it with peaceniks, did they fail basic math?

If these two begging cups don't tweak your nose quite enough, you can call your congressperson to tell them not to vote for a bill (no number given) that will "call on the US government to conduct a 'full, fair and expeditious investigation' into the death of Rachel Corrie (St Rachel of the Dozers).

The funniest part of this "call to action" is that they're accusing "pro-Israeli lobbyists" of "exerting extreme behind the scenes pressure" on representatives to vote against it. So if you can, call your reps and become part of the ZOG!

The Lincolnshire police must need money badly. It seems they are now ticketing ambulance drivers in service.

Mike Fergusen, an ambulance driver with a 30 year unblemished driving record, was ticketed by them for doing 104mph while transporting a liver for emergency surgury from a hospital in Leeds to one in Cambridgeshire. It was 0 dark 30 in the morning and he had his blue mirror-strobe lights and siren going on his vehicle when the patrol pulled him over and ticketed him.

Here in Seattle, our two large hospital communites reside in Seattle and a city called Tacoma. They are only about 40 minutes apart by vehicle. Yet we fly things like transplant organs by helicopter, day or night. I find it a bit odd that they don't.

Found at Right Thinking from the Left Coast.

Last week there were multiple reports, still unconfirmed as of yet, of Uday Hussein trying to contact US authorities. It was stated that he was hiding out in a Baghdad suburb and he was arfraid of what the population would do to him if they got their hands on him. While I do believe he would have a great amount of useful information for us on the subject of WMD's, POW's, and the Axis of Weasles (including Russia), I just cannot bring myself to care. We must remember that he put people into something like this:

Its teeth look like this:

And work like this:

He put them into it feet first, for a larger amount of suffering, according to reports. If you run into someone who really wants us to offer him shelter, and the rapes of 9 year old daughters of dissidents won't sway them, ask them about these. If they still want him squeezed for info ask them if we could at least cut him loose in a public square afterwards. We could pay for part of the war with the proceeds from the commercials.

Pics and animation courtesy of Tryco.

This story deals with a Muslim woman who refuses to be photographed without her veil, even for her driver's license. The Florida DMV has revoked her license, saying that a veiled photograph cannot offer proof of identity.

To me, it seems straight forward. Having a driver�s license is a privilege, not a right. If she doesn't want to follow the rules, that is fine. But she must choose between her religious convictions and her desire to have a valid Florida driver's license.

Ok, here you go folks. I told you I would swim in the cesspool of Portland Indymedia so that you wouldn�t have to. And I did. I�ve taken more showers this week than a Frenchman takes all year and I am now ready to report.

There is a lot of information in these links. I will be posting these one day per entry so as to keep them somewhat short. Take some time and read them all. I will be listing a number of the things I found funny, ridiculous or a good read, with a link for each, and then a winner for the day. If you enjoy this feature, please let me know. I would not mind turning it into something I do weekly if there is a demand.

And we�ll start with Sunday the 18th

Who shot Mohammed al-Dura by Jimmy Fallows - Mohammed al-Dura is a �palestinian� 12yr old who was brought to a hotspot of gunfire between �palestinian� militants and Israeli forces by his father. He was subsequently killed and his father wounded. Because they wanted the incident to go away quickly, the IDF just took the blame. This article, while not disclaiming their guilt, does give credence to a serious investigation of where the shots probably came from. It also has a blurb about the �faking� of injuries by militants that magically heal themselves within minutes.

In my opinion I would think that it was the father who killed his son. Giving him a front-row seat for a gunfight, and all. But that could just be me.

FEC form 1 and 2 - Presidential Candidate Mr. X wants to make sure everyone who wants to, gets their hands on the forms to file as a presidential candidate.

An Interesting Day - Allan Wood and Paul Thompson do their best to paint Bush as both a coward and a conspirator on the day of September 11th, 2001. They detail his movements as well as the known movements of the hijackers on and before the 11th.

Democracy is the Free World�s Whore � Arundhati Roy babbles on about the �evils� of both democracy and capitalism, but never comes to a point in this blather.

Oakland Protests Triggered Terrorism Alert � An unnamed author whines about his group of protestors being surveiled by authorities. During a protest where they tried to shut down the port there in April.

And for pointing out his drug habit while simultaneously revealing a conspiracy, our winner is:

Pot Shrinks Tumors � Raymond Cushing points out a study completed in Madrid on Feb 29, 2000, that reportedly either shrunk or destroyed brain tumors in lab rats. He then says he found a study done in 1974 at the Medical College of Virginia that came to the same result.

Monday, May 19th, 2003

This was a busy day at Indymedia.

Portland Police Pop Peace Encampment�Again � Bandalera tells us about the police cleaning up the litter left behind in a city park by hippies. Ooops, I mean, harassing the peace vigilers by raiding their encampment and confiscating their stuff.

They have been camped out since g*d knows when , to protest the war in Iraq and now the �colonial occupation�. They make one heck of a mess doing so and should feel lucky they don�t get ticketed for loitering and/or littering.

Healthy Forest Initiative � Sonking lets us know that the �Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003� (HR 1904) is just a ruse by the Bush Administration to make money for the logging companies. I always thought that wildfires in our national parks were bad. But he doesn�t like people enjoying the natural beauty of the outdoors. Unless those people are him and his friends.

US troops return to the jungles � Frank Huxley, with plenty of comparisons to Vietnam, whines about US soldiers going back to the Philippines to fight against Muslim extremists there.

Beyond Sex Work � Break the Chains Collective put together this advertisement for a film shorts and discussion workshop on patriarchy, gender, class and sex work on the 21st of May. Also known as teen welfare moms, street hookers, junkies, and of course �survivors�. If you don�t care about people whining about circumstances they could have corrected or changed on their own, don�t bother clicking the link.

GE Trees, call to action � NW RAGE wants to let us all know that the USDA has invited folks from 180 countries to a conference in Sacramento. And he wants as many protesters there as he can get. GE trees are genetically engineered to be resistant to disease so that the survival rate will be higher for the forestry industry. So they can, you know, make money.

How I spent my day on 9/11/01 by prezidint george w. bush � Werewolf puts together a comedic piece making GWB out to be a 5th grader with bad grammar. Funny how someone they think is so dumb keeps kicking their asses on the issues. I wonder if they know what that makes them look like?

KOIN on Kendra James; time to hit the streets? � Citizen of Little Beirut thinks that a murderous riot might help race relations in Portland. This is the back story. After seeing her friends get arrested for multiple warrants Kendra James decides she doesn�t want to go to jail again for the misdemeanor warrant she is wanted for. She waits until her friends are in the cruisers and the jumps over the front bench seat from the back seat, starts the car and tries to run down a Portland police officer to get away. One of his fellow officers puts a single bullet into the passenger cabin, hitting Jones. Of course, because she was black and the officers were white, it was a hate crime, right? Well, these folks are wetting themselves to get these officers put in jail.

Belgium Trial for Tommy Franks war crimes? � Author George Monboit from al-Guardian is mentally masturbating over the thought of Franks being put on trial for war crimes.

And today�s winner touches on a subject near and dear to me. SUV�s

Fighting the Axles of Evil � Cecil writes a treatise which could easily be retitled to �the little red book for transportation socialists�. This thing, along with most of the comments below it, show just how screwed up in these numbnuts are. You have to read this one. Just don�t have anything big and heavy nearby.

Tuesday the 20th. Are we having fun yet?

What a day. We start with this gem:

Buh Bye, Ari � Subtitled �Why Ari should have resigned in Protest�, Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman uncork the hate to tell us all why Bush�s cabinet and staff should all resign and plead guilty to all charges.

Military or Hollywood? It�s hard to tell the difference � Another screed about the PFC Lynch story that even the BBC won�t stand behind anymore.

Report from Gifford Pinchot forest defense action camp � Mother Nature�s Son went to a tree hugger circle-jerk and wants to tell you about it. Key phrase here: �Because it is a federally protected scenic area, dense and/or high development is forbidden, there is little between you and the natural beauty of the place. of course, the highway is itself ugly and obviously plays hell with the area around it, but the steep slopes and water are mostly untouched.� Yeah, let�s just never go into the wilderness. Right buddy? Ding dong!

Chant re: GWBush junta, US corporate media, Portland police � Glen learned how to rhyme. Yay for Glen!

Liberal NY Times reporter Chris Hedges Booed off stage at graduation for anti-war speech - Author Carrie Waters gives us the facts about this incident. Innocent enough, but in the comments the lefties get quizzed about how this is violating Hedges� freedom of speech. They fail the quiz.

Petition: Stop Censoring Indymedia from Google News � The Babylonian wants everyone to sign his petition to get anti-semetic editorials listed as news on Google again. Mr. Johnson over at Little Green Footballs started getting major attacks to his system after he pointed out what Indymedia promotes to the Google people and got them kicked off the �Google News� lists.

Solving the Tenacious Problem of Homelessness � Supposedly posted by the Libertarian Party, it lays down the poster's answers to solving the bum problem (and by bum, I don�t mean the thing you�re sitting on). Just like the socialist's answers to bums, the libertarian ones are wrong as well. They do come close to the answer in the story though. 98% of the vagrants are 1. Mentally unstable 2. Junkies of one kind or another, or 3. Lazy. But when they see that as the true answer, they sweep it under the rug and ignore it.

Take a minute for our media, for our democracy � An unknown reposted article asking people to write the FCC about the �Media Monopoly�. Take a look, but take a gift of cheese to go with their whine.

Which side are WE on? � G William Dornoff, Author of �Who Rules America? The Power Elite and the State.� And a sociology professor at one of the Universities of California. Oddly enough, this is a good read. It talks about class and perceived class. And also shows the political left that those who are running their show are the people they claim to be against.

Billionaire to Watchdog US use of Iraqi oil � �Net Surfer� tells us about investor/philanthropist, George Soros. He has told the UN he wants to sponsor people to monitor the US�s management of the Iraqi oil fields. Since the UN only made a few hundred million dollars off Saddam and probably couldn�t afford it and all.

And our winner today is,
Protesting the Puppet on the Right � Reposted from the Online Journal, Mickey Z. asks why there was such a big hissy fit before, during and after the Iraq war, but nothing during Clinton�s wagging of the dog in Yugoslavia during 78 days of bombing in 1999? It took less that an hour to get an Indymedia regular to come in and start insulting the person who posted it. Read it.

Wednesday, May 21st, 2003

Oh boy, another day at Indymedia. I think this day was the best of the week. Today we start with a stinky one.

Oregon Poetry Anthology Censored � Duane Poncy has collected the finest collection of anti-war poetry Oregon had to offer. Now he is at the stage of looking for a publisher for this steaming bucket of bile, and whenever he gets a rejection letter, he whips out the mainstay of the left. Censorship. Hilarity ensues.

The DLC Blasts Activists, Time to Fight Back � Voice for Change posts a supposed leaked internal memo from the Democratic Leadership Council which claims that the thought of activists as the heart and soul of the Democratic Party is a myth. And boy are they peeved about being treated like the children they are.

Brink of Radicalism � Sonking returns with one big ass paragraph to let us know he is unhappy with the crap that he and his friends pull being considered terrorism.

Arundhati Roy explains it all for you � Znet reposts a steamy pile from Roy called �Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy�. I�d tell you more, but I doubt I need to.

No more Clear Channels! � Global Exchange sent this to Portland IMC to let them know about a rally on May 29th in front of a Clear Channel station in town. The comments are the gem in this one.

Shopping, the End of the World and Bush � Saul Landau lays out an essay on why Bush is responsible for all the evils in the world. Yes, all of them.

International Squat Symbol � Immy J asks what the symbol for squatters looks like. He is told by a commenter, and then other commenter whips out his paranoia and it gets funny from there on.

This is how they spell democracy � No author listed. Probably because he realized he is an idiot. Do you remember the photo shopped pic with the words �Fuck Iraq� spelled out on the deck of an aircraft carrier? Well, these dingbats want to know how much the pic cost, believing the letters were actually formed by personnel on-board.

Today in India 40 million went on strike against privatization � George Lee lets us know how wise the Indian people are for going on strike to help their government keep control of state assets. Because socialism is such a good idea.

Fanatics in the White House � Arianna Huffington, coming in a close second for dipshit of the day, strikes out in vapid stupidity at the �fanatics� in the Bush cabinet. A must read. Bring the Pepto.

The Liar in Speech, the Bush Lesion begins to Pus � Lloyd Hart may just win the award for largest hemorrhoid of the week with this one. It starts out with the �stealing the election� crap that was discounted literally years ago. He then swings over to the �high crimes and misdemeanors� fantasies with out batting an eye. By the end you can almost picture him chewing his fingertips to the bone with the frothing mouth of a syphilitic.

Thursday, May 22nd, 2003

It�s Thursday, we�re over the hump now. Let�s dive right in.

It�s been a humiliating few weeks for the Anti-War Crowd � Ann, a woman who posts here whenever she gets an IP that isn�t banned yet, puts a few of the latest stories that the IMC'ers despise together and let�s fly. Of course the commentors discount her as just another dummy from the right.

Definition of Fascism � Dr. Lawrence Britt (doctor of what is not listed) uses his degrees to make up his own game of Jeopardy by listing 14 points of Fascism and then pinning them on the Bush Administration. Of course when you have the answers you want, you can make up all the questions.

St. Louis Activists come back to find house trashed by Kops � No author listed. Hippies trespass by living in an abandoned house, get kicked out by the police and proceed to bitch and moan about it. Holey moley, they would blame the cops for the sky being blue if it didn�t sound barely more stupid than the things they are already accusing them of.

OSU grad assistants need your help � Luke Ackerman wants you to send an e-mail to the OSU president telling him to pay the grad assistants more money. Of course, they didn�t know how little the job paid before they took it. Or how many hours they would spend doing the job. And of course, if and when they get their raise they�ll complain about the higher tuition costs needed to pay the higher wage. Young socialists in training folks.

Neighborhoods answer pole graffiti questions � A member of the group, Concerned Neighbors, writes to tell the cheese-heads why they don�t like the power poles in their neighborhoods covered in 4 to 6 inches to flyers stapled to the poles. The commentors try to bring up the 1st Amendment to tell the �concerned neighbors� they�re fascists for taking their posters down.

The Truth Will Emerge � Someone posted an essay by US Senator Robert Byrd. The funny part of this post is when the poster asks �Why are there not more like him?� Yes, I�ve wondered why the democrats don�t field more �former� Klan members?

Dancing with the Devil � Bob Herbert wants to know who is less patriotic, The Dixie Chicks or the Halliburton Company? If you want to know the answer without having read this waste of bits, Halliburton is called �Dick Cheney�s long-term meal ticket�. That should be enough.

Day 65, where are the WMD�s? � �Inquirer� decides his patience is stretched to the limit and demands to know where the WMD�s are. Of course if the UN inspectors were still the ones searching, this subject would be the farthest thing from his mind.

What I think �SUV� stands for � Mark, a supposed 1st grader, and makes up new meanings for the term SUV. The commenters then join in and prove that they never left 1st grade behind emotionally.

Tree Sits go up in wild Salmon River � Someone from the Klamath Salmon Action Network posts this tidbit of drivel about tree huggers who like to sit in trees to keep people from cutting down their own property. And of course it is all Bush�s fault.

Republicans will gut Endangered Species Act to Protect Pentagon � �Agencies� thinks that birds and tortoises are more important than our troops needs to train. He would rather tie the military up in court for years than to give soldiers the training they need to survive.

Activist beat up by police � Digicam boy tries to give a photo essay accusing the Portland police of beating up a young white male, you know, just because they felt like it. I thought that only happened to young black males? It is good to see the police become an equal opportunity agency. But if you ask me, it looks like the guy fell off his bike.

And our winner today is�.
George Bush, the CIA, Mind Control and Child Abuse � GDY writes a piece of comedy. At least I think it is supposed to be comedy. I know I was laughing. If you think you just don�t hate Republicans in general or George Bush enough, have a read of this. Since they can�t get everybody to hate him they try the old �young boy sex ring� angle. Funny as hell, except that they believe this crap.

Friday, May 23rd, 2003

TGIF, I guess.

London gets bike friendly � Zuki, one of the anti-car people who posts at Portland IMC, gives us more reasons why London is better than any city in America. If you haven�t heard, cars are charged $8 a day for driving in or through London�s city center. So bicycles and their side affects, impotency and constipation, have entered the city in droves. Oh wait, impotency was already there.

Blood on the Bridge � Is Michael Rasmussen writing about protesters being beat up by police on a bridge? Or maybe poor, little �palestinian� Molotov throwers being shot by IDF soldiers? Nope. Two bicyclists couldn�t seem to get around each other and collided, falling down and going boom. The comments turn into a facist demand for bike helmet laws.

Rachel Corrie nominated for Nobel Peace Prize � As we all know, St Rachel of the Dozers and her fellow terrorist enablers, ISM, got nominated for a Nobel. Kim lets everyone at the IMC know, and then points out a petition to get Bush and Blair taken off the nomination list.

US Hands Off North Korea � Steve Argue can�t stand up to his name and whines about his favorite place on earth possibly being next on the US�s hit list. Of course there is no mention of the International ANSWER group having ties to the Norks. But the left has always put their blinders on when it comes to that subject.

The Republican Matrix � Tom Tomorrow is trying to be like his idol, Ted Rall.

US might have used nukes in Afghanistan � Clabber Grrl tries to convince you that the American Special Forces used nuclear weapons in Afghanistan. Because mushroom clouds are so inconspicuous.

And our winner today is�
As you all know, our lovely waterfront park is being torn apart again � Revo is unhappy. Why is Revo unhappy? Because the annual summer festival is going to boot him and his vagrant friends out of the waterfront park. And (gasp) capitalism is going to take their place. The commenters mostly agree with him, which is what makes this funny.

Saturday, May 24th, 2003

The end. Almost. Only three decent entries today. Everyone must be out making their protest signs.

City Image XIV � The Redcoat takes a shot at haiku. You know haiku. The noble Japanese style of poetry, co-opted by hippies as a legitimate way to write poetry when you have no ability to rhyme because your vocabulary is so messed up from the drugs. And then his commentors give it their all. Why wasn�t all this put in their little book that keeps getting "censored"?

Liar, Liar, Bush on fire � Kelso enters an article originally from the Southridge High School paper. The second sentence asks that no critism be given that won�t be instructive or constructive. It basically follows the left�s talking points memos about all the �lies� Bush has told so far. You can tell what a mentally unstable child Kelso is. He thanks his sources CNN, Yahoo.com and The Sunshine Project.

And even with 15 more entries, this entry would have probably still won�.

Martin Sheen Pardons Irish Peace Activists � A representative from �Pit Stop Ploughshares� posts for all to see. Yes, the opening tag line is funny, but not this funny. �The Pit Stop Ploughshares Community in Ireland received a full pardon from �acting� president, Martin Sheen, just in case the Irish government does not grant the activists a fair trial�

It seems that 5 dippy hippies �non-violently disarmed� a US Navy warplane. In between the lines you can read that they trespassed on government property and vandalized US government property in protest of the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, they could only get up to 10 year sentences for their crime. But to Mr. Martin Estevez, they�re little angels.

And that is it folks. Thank you and goodnight.

Louisiana police have issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in the Baton Rouge (actually Southeast Lousiana) Serial Killer case. It turns out the guy was a serial rapist who left a couple of his victims alive - victims who could provide a detailed description of the suspect. When the various police entities involved in the case finally made a DNA connection between the rapes and the killings, they were able to generate a detailed sketch of the suspect, which quickly led to him being identified. Unfortunately, he is now on the run, whereabouts unknown, and considered armed and extremely dangerous.

The really scary thing? The guy lives in St. Francisville, which is the same small rural Louisiana community that Mrs. RNS and I call home. That is really a sobering thought - and makes the shotgun purchase and mandatory lessons for the Lady RNS seem all that more appropriate.

I have blogged about this guy before, most noteably when the first "person of interest" sketch was released. The FBI Profile at the time? Young, above average intelligence white guy who is a loner, doesn't connect well with people, but who is so disarming in his seeming incompetence that people just naturally trust him.

Here is the first "person of interest" sketch:

Here is a picture of the guy they issued the arrest warrant for:

So tell me - did the FBI profile HELP, or HURT, this investigation? Now Lee may not be the serial killer, but apparently there is 100% DNA match between genetic material recovered at the rape scenes and at 3 of the 5 murder sites (2 of the bodies were dumped in the bayou, so no DNA was recovered from them). So, unless the serial killer used to be a scrawny white guy who did some kind of reverse Michael Jackson metamorphosis, it seems like the FBI profile had us barking up the proverbial wrong tree.

I still can't believe this guy lives in St. Francisville. Just goes to show ya - you don't have to live in the big city to run into some really nasty characters.

Local reports can be found here and https://wafb.com/.

Ronald Reagan, Arlington National Cemetary, Virginia.
Memorial Day Ceremony.

Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It's a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It's a day to be with the family and remember.

I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they'll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that's good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.

Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and the Admirals Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI's general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.

Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper's son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, ``I know we'll win because we're on God's side.'' Audie Murphy is here, Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it singlehandedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, ``Wait a minute and I'll let you speak to them.'' [Laughter]

Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn't wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward -- in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They're only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on ``Holmes dissenting in a sordid age.'' Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: ``At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight.''

All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn't do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It's hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it's the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen -- the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you've seen it -- three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There's something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there's an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don't really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they're supporting each other, helping each other on.

I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they're still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam -- boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That's the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that's all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.

Ronald Reagan at Pointe de Hoc, Normandy.

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine-guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting only ninety could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your 'lives fought for life...and left the vivid air signed with your honor'...
Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.
The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

It's all about Karma.

On June 6th 1984, the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France.

We stand today at a place of battle, one that 40 years ago saw and felt the worst of war. Men bled and died here for a few feet of - or inches of sand, as bullets and shellfire cut through their ranks. About them, General Omar Bradley later said, "Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero."

Some who survived the battle of June 6, 1944, are here today. Others who hoped to return never did.

"Someday, Lis, I'll go back," said Private First Class Peter Robert Zannata, of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion, and first assault wave to hit Omaha Beach. "I'll go back, and I'll see it all again. I'll see the beach, the barricades, and the graves."

Those words of Private Zanatta come to us from his daughter, Lisa Zanatta Henn, in a heart-rending story about the event her father spoke of so often. "In his words, the Normandy invasion would change his life forever," she said. She tells some of his stories of World War II but says of her father, "the story to end all stories was D-Day."

"He made me feel the fear of being on the boat waiting to land. I can smell the ocean and feel the sea sickness. I can see the looks on his fellow soldiers' faces-the fear, the anguish, the uncertainty of what lay ahead. And when they landed, I can feel the strength and courage of the men who took those first steps through the tide to what must have surely looked like instant death."

Private Zannata's daughter wrote to me, "I don't know how or why I can feel this emptiness, this fear, or this determination, but I do. Maybe it's the bond I had with my father. All I know is that it brings tears to my eyes to think about my father as a 20-year old boy having to face that beach."

The anniversary of D-Day was always special to her family. And like all the families of those who went to war, she describes how she came to realize her own father's survival was a miracle: "So many men died. I know that my father watched many of his friends be killed. I know that he must have died inside a little each time. But his explanation to me was, `You did what you had to do, and you kept on going."

We stand today at a place of battle, one that 40 years ago saw and felt the worst of war. Men bled and died here for a few feet of - or inches of sand, as bullets and shellfire cut through their ranks. About them, General Omar Bradley later said, "Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero."

Some who survived the battle of June 6, 1944, are here today. Others who hoped to return never did.

"Someday, Lis, I'll go back," said Private First Class Peter Robert Zannata, of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion, and first assault wave to hit Omaha Beach. "I'll go back, and I'll see it all again. I'll see the beach, the barricades, and the graves."

Those words of Private Zanatta come to us from his daughter, Lisa Zanatta Henn, in a heart-rending story about the event her father spoke of so often. "In his words, the Normandy invasion would change his life forever," she said. She tells some of his stories of World War II but says of her father, "the story to end all stories was D-Day."

"He made me feel the fear of being on the boat waiting to land. I can smell the ocean and feel the sea sickness. I can see the looks on his fellow soldiers' faces-the fear, the anguish, the uncertainty of what lay ahead. And when they landed, I can feel the strength and courage of the men who took those first steps through the tide to what must have surely looked like instant death."

Private Zannata's daughter wrote to me, "I don't know how or why I can feel this emptiness, this fear, or this determination, but I do. Maybe it's the bond I had with my father. All I know is that it brings tears to my eyes to think about my father as a 20-year old boy having to face that beach."

The anniversary of D-Day was always special to her family. And like all the families of those who went to war, she describes how she came to realize her own father's survival was a miracle: "So many men died. I know that my father watched many of his friends be killed. I know that he must have died inside a little each time. But his explanation to me was, `You did what you had to do, and you kept on going."

With the holiday weekend here and all I think I'm going to suspend my normal business of pointing out insipid acts until Tuesday. At which time I'll return to writing about things that annoy me. Including, but limited to, all the brain-dead ramblings I found at Portland Indymedia last week. Until that time, I will be posting the words of folks whose names I know you'll recognize and whom most likely respect.

Because I got lazy on Saturday morning I didn't get around to posting this. I apologize. So today I give a two-fer. Please read and enjoy.

I now give you General Douglas MacArthur's farewell speech to Congress. April 20th, 1951.

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker and distinguished members of Congress:

I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and great pride--humility in the wake of those great architects of our history who have stood here before me, pride in the reflection that this home of legislative debate represents human liberty in the purest form yet devised.

Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of the entire human race.

I do not stand here as advocate for any partisan cause, for the issues are fundamental and reach quite beyond the realm of partisan considerations. They must be resolved on the highest plane of national interest, is our course if to prove sound and our future protected.

I trust, therefore, that you will do me the justice of receiving that which I have to say as solely expressing the considered viewpoint of a fellow American.

I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind: To serve my country.

The issues are global, and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one sector oblivious to those of another is to court disaster for the whole. While Asia is commonly referred to as the gateway to Europe, it is no less true that Europe is the gateway to Asia, and the broad influence of the one cannot fail to have its impact upon the other.

There are those who claim our strength is inadequate to protect on both fronts, that we cannot divide our effort. I can think of no greater expression of defeatism.

If a potential enemy can divide his strength on two fronts, it is for us to counter his efforts. The Communist threat is a global one. Its successful advance in one sector threatens the destruction of every other sector. You cannot appease or otherwise surrender to Communism in Asia without simultaneously undermining our efforts to halt its advance in Europe.

Beyond pointing out these general truisms, I shall confine my discussion to the general areas of Asia.

While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene in support of the Republic of Korea, that decision, from a military standpoint, proved a sound one. As I say, it proved a sound one, as we hurled back the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our objectives within reach, when Red China intervened with numerically superior ground forces.

--------------
Why, my soldiers asked of me,
surrender military advantages
to an enemy in the field?
I could not answer.
--------------

This created a new war and an entirely new situation, a situation not contemplated when our forces were committed against the North Korean invaders; a situation which called for new decisions in the diplomatic sphere to permit the realistic adjustment of military strategy. Such decisions have not been forthcoming. While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into continental China, and such was never given a thought, the new situation did urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning, if our political aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old.

Apart from the military need, as I saw it, to neutralize the sanctuary protection given the enemy north of the Yalu, I felt that military necessity in the conduct of the war made necessary:

* The intensification of our economic blockade against China.
* The imposition of a naval blockade against the China coast.
* Removal of restrictions on air reconnaissance of China's coastal area and of Manchuria.
* Removal of restrictions on the forces of the Republic of China on Formosa, with logistical support to contribute to their effective operations against the Chinese mainland.

For entertaining these views, all professionally designed to support our forces committed to Korea and to bring hostilities to an end with the least possible delay and at a saving of countless American and Allied lives, I have been severely criticized in lay circles, principally abroad, despite my understanding that, from a military standpoint, the above views have been fully shared in the past by practically every military leader concerned with the Korean campaign, including our own Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I called for reinforcements, but was informed that reinforcements were not available. I made clear that if not permitted to destroy the enemy built-up bases north of the Yalu, if not permitted to utilize the friendly Chinese force of some six hundred thousand men on Formosa, if not permitted to blockade the China coast to prevent the Chinese Reds from getting succor from without, and if there were to be no hope of major reinforcements, the position of the command from the military standpoint forbade victory.

We could hold in Korea by constant maneuver and at an approximate area where our supply-line advantages were in balance with the supply-line disadvantages of the enemy, but we could hope at best for only an indecisive campaign with its terrible and constant attrition upon our forces if the enemy utilized his full military potential.

I have constantly called for the new political decisions essential to a solution. Efforts have been made to distort my position. It has been said, in effect, that I was a warmonger. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting! I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.

Indeed, on the second day of September, 1945, just following the surrender of the Japanese nation on the battleship Missouri, I formally cautioned as follows:

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start, workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful.

Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war, there is no substitute for victory.

There are some who, for varying reasons, would appease Red China They. are blind to history's clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.

Why, my soldiers asked of me, surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field? I could not answer.

Some may say to avoid spread of the conflict into an all-out war with China. Others, to avoid Soviet intervention. Neither explanation seems valid, for China is already engaging with the maximum power it can commit, and the Soviet [Union] will not necessarily mesh its actions with our moves. Like a cobra, any new enemy will more likely strike whenever it feels that the relativity in military or other potential is in its favor on a world-wide basis.

The tragedy of Korea is further heightened by the fact that its military action is confined to its territorial limits. It condemns that nation, which it is our purpose to save, to suffer the devastating impact of full naval and air bombardment, while the enemy's sanctuaries are fully protected from such attack and devastation.

Of the nations of the world Korea alone, up to now, is the sole one which has risked its all against communism. The magnificence of the courage and fortitude of the Korean people defies description. They have chosen to risk death rather than slavery. Their last words to me were: "Don't scuttle the Pacific."

I have just left your fighting sons in Korea. They have met all tests there, and I can report to you without reservation that they are splendid in every way. It was my constant effort to preserve them and end this savage conflict honorably and with the least loss of time and a minimum sacrifice of life. Its growing bloodshed has caused me the deepest anguish and anxiety. Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.

I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams.

The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away." And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.

Good-bye.

OK, this is just fucking weird.

UPDATE:

Several people have e-mailed me (why are poeple afraid to use the comments section) to say that the word I am looking for is "insane" not "weird". Unfortunately, that is probably literally correct.

That's having problems with their writers.

But you don't have any standards - self. Oh, right, then I guess everything will be OK>

I caught this yesterday at Emperor Misha's and thought it went nicely with the story about what happened at the college republican's bake sale earlier this week and the doc's post about the Florida standardized tests.

The black students in Shaker Heights, an affluent subuerb of Cleveland, Ohio, were not doing as well as the white students in the same school district. And the parents of these students have been wondering why white students averaged a GPA 3.45, while the black students only earned an average of a 1.9GPA. Was it school funding, socioeconomics, racism or bad lunch food? They just couldn't figure out why the standardized test scores and enrollment in advanced placement classes, along with the GPA's, were lower with black students.

Then one of the concered partens called UC Berkley Anthropology Professor and Nigerian immigrant, John Ogbu. His specialty, it seems, is to study how "the members of different ethnic groups perform acedemically". Mr Ogbu agreed to move out to Shaker Heights for 9 months to do reasearch on the problem, provided that the district would put up the money. Which they did.

Well, the parents are not happy now with the results of the reasearch. He decided to put out his study in the form of a book. He gave school officials and parents a year to respond but none did. He then met with the school officials and parents to discuss the book. While the meetings went well they didn't like the answer.

"Ogbu concluded that the average black student in Shaker Heights put little effort into school work and was part of a peer culture that looked down on acedemic success as 'acting white'." He did not try to deny that there may be antiblack feelings in the Shaker Heights School District, but that that alone could not account for the gap."

Since then he has been called "the acedemic Clarence Thomas" by at least one of the parents. And Asa Hilliard, an education professor at Georgia State University and author of the book 'Young, Gifted and Black' has said "Ogbu is just flat-out wrong about the attitudes about learning by African Americans". She then goes on to blame the teachers in Shaker Heights for not "expecting enough" from the black students. Because "the achievement depends on what expectations the teacher has of the student".

What utter bullshit. When I was in school, I knew the rules. "Do good or you don't make honor role. Don't make honor role, mom and dad not happy". So guess what, I made honor role as often as humanly possible for a kid just discovering the magical combination of girls and cars.

I will have to agree with racial theroist and author of 'The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America', Shelby Steel when he says "to talk about black responsibility is 'racist' and 'blaming the victim'".

One of the points of the report that really put a bug in the blanket in Shaker Heights was that "the black parents feel that it is their role to move to Shaker Heights so their kids could graduate from Shaker High, and that is where their role stops". "They believe the school system should take care of the rest. They didn't supervise their children that much. They didn't make sure they did their homework.".

Darn tootin' Mr. Ogbu. At least in my case. I got so wrapped up in life outside of school for a quarter I almost didn't pass chemistry. It just didn't seem important at the time. Well, dad got the report card and made sure it was important to me. Very important. Any of you want to know the periodic table? Ok, it has been over 10 years and I probalby couldn't do it anymore, but you should have seen me in the first quarter of my sophomore year. You'd of thought I was out for a Nobel in chemistry.

Even a non university educated person such as myself knows these two things: acedemics is 1/3 the school, 1/3 the student and 1/3 the parents. And you birth 'em, you raise 'em.

Got a gun you really don't know much about? You're are able to swab the barrel and brush it out, but other than that you have to take it to the gunsmith? Well head on over to American Gunsmithing Institute.

Spending my teenage years growing up in a gunsmith's shop, I think I may have forgotten more about rifles, pistols, and shotguns than some gun owners learn in their lifetime about the guns they take hunting every year.

I recently purchased my first Winchester 94, a Trapper model in 357Mag. Now, even though I haven't done so in over 10 years I was able to tear it down and put it back together by memory. But my knowledge must be complete! So off I went to AGI's website found the appropriate video and slapped my money down (ok, I used the credit card).

When I first heard of the idea, I was all "yeah gunsmithing by video. Let's lose some fingers." But then one of my relatives bought me the Ruger MKII video for Christmas. It sat in the video cabinet until a bored summer day came around and I needed to clean the gun anyway, so I poped it in. Holy smokes, they ain't half bad. All the information was correct and presented in a way that if you could turn a wrench, you could probably get it taken apart and put back together. So I ordered the one for the Remington 870. Same thing.

Then came the final test. The 1911. Because of it's popularity, there are multiple videos for it. They vary from the basics to tuning for sport use. Also full of knowledge. They are kind of like cheat sheets because of all the information they give out. Of course, they don't give it all away. Gunsmiths are kind of like magicians in that regard.

When I build a 1911 for someone, if I can't have them do a full teardown in front of me, I loan them my copy of the first 1911 video. Sounds counter-productive to making more money from them, right? I have had these guys thank me a second time for having done so. That way, when their extractor starts to get tired, they can do the 30 second swap out themselves. I don't like making my friends feel too foolish when they see how it's done.

Now, I do not recommend these for everything. There are still many things you absolutly need a trained gunsmith to do. But if you want to be able to completely disassemble, troubleshoot, or just get to know your firearm better, there are many worse ways to start.

So, some 2,500 protestors shopwed up outside of Florida governor Bush's office to protest the FCAT - a standardized test that has the gall to try and assure minimal competency before students are allowed to enter the next grade.

Third graders are generally required to pass their reading test before advancing to fourth grade and, beginning this year, high school seniors must pass the 10th grade exam to receive their diplomas.

So, high school seniors must pass the 10th grade exam to graduate. Oh, the horror. What ever happened to expecting someone in the 12th grade to perform at a 12th grade level before they were allowed to graduate? But noooooooo - if students can't pass with stringent guidelines - then let's loosen the guidelines until they can. And people wonder why we have so many uneducated people running around trying to enter the workforce (or not) without being properly prepared. And look at this photo from the article:

See the sign that says "Look into the eyes of the children you are hurting"? Well, which hurts the children more - holding them back a year until they gain minimal proficiency, or giving them a free pass so that they graduate without basic reading comprehension, writing, and math skills? But heaven forbid that some child feel "demeaned" because they weren't given a free ride through the educational system.

Maybe the sign the person is holding should be changed to this:

Makes a disturbing amount of sense.

"All the news that's fit to retract"

Have you ever wanted to go to Mars? Did you ever wonder what Earth would like like from there? Well take a look.

While listening to the always entertaining, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, they said where to go to find the above picture taken by NASA's Global Mars Surveyor.

Michael Malin, president and chief scientst of Malin Space Science Systems "Taking this picture allowed us to look up from the work of exploring Mars...and gain a new perspective on the neighborhood.

The Earth and Moon shot was taken on May 8th and published yesterday at NASA's sight. The white that you can see on the bigger of the two is the west coast of South America.

They took another couple of pictures too, including Earth and Jupiter, and Callisto, Ganymede, Jupiter and Europa.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if there are any enviro-geeks who think we are littering the suface of mars with our stuff. I'll have to google that.

Some of you may remember the first Affirmative Action Bake Sale put on by UCLA Young Republicans last February. They sold baked goods to to their fellow students, with prices reflecting their race and sex, just as affirmantive action programs would have in their admissions. They did this as "a parody that would incite discussion". Now, I do not remember the prices of the items from that sale, but it broke down something like this. Black and latino females got the lowest prices and the white and asian males had to pay the highest prices. A bit belligerent, to be sure. But sometimes you have to whack people metaphorically across the skull to get your message across.

Well it seems they did it again this last Wednesday, only this time they were selling oreos, twinkies and crackers. But unfortunately it was turned into a "debacle" as an angry student grabbed the boxes of oreos and crackers and spilled them on the ground and tore down the republicans banner.

From the article, "Nashaua Neao, a 3rd year political science and African American studies student found the affirmative action bake sale 'blatantly offensive and ignorant' and said the comparison of people to oreos and twinkies perpetuates racism".

Unfortunately for Nashaua, it was the "african americans" that perpetuated the term "oreo" and use it to speak ill of any black person who is trying to get an education, or "act white". And we all also know where the term "cracker" originated. I'm not really sure if "twinkie" is referring to latinos or asians, but I seriously doubt if the white man laid that one on them either.

Also from the article "Chris Bailey, a 4th year political science student 'Frankly, I think it's cute. The minute you can laugh at all these labels, it's all good."

Some of the students and faculty were supportive of this action as an attempt to spark a debate about affirmative action in college admissions. Most were not. But nearly everyone found the violent outburst "inappropriate", though they didn't go so far as to condem the man's violent behavior.

Thanks to Tonuge Tied for pointing the way.

My good man, John Hawkins over at Right Wing News, decided that yesterday would be a good day for his favorite George S. Patton quotes.

Having read the books and seen the documentaries (and the movie), I truly believe he was a good man, if not a great one. He was just born in the wrong time. Agressive, brash and successful are all words which can be used to decribe "ol blood and guts". But soldier is the one he would probably want. Either that, or "son of a b*tch".

I will leave you with my favorite. Made so by the fact that it is still as true today as it was when he said it..

"Many of you have in your veins, German and Italian blood. But remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestors of the people we shall kill, lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and remained slaves." - George S. Patton

It is almost here folks. Summer travel season. Since part of Americana is the family summer vacation, I would like to give you a tip. Whether you plan on going by plane, train or automobile, if you own a firearm, you may want to take it with you. With the terror rainbow bouncing from yellow to orange to pink with purple polka dots, keeping yourself heavy is a must no matter where you are.

So today I will tell you about Packing.org. Cool name aside, this is your one stop shop for information about firearms rules and regulations from sea to shining sea. I concerns itself mostly with concealed pistol laws from state to state. Who will honor who's permit and which states will harass you for having an unloaded shotgun in the trunk.

This can be a very serious issue. Like when the wife wanted to go to San Francisco for a week. First I refused. The obvious reason being going into the belly of the socialist beast, teeming with the bottom of the barrel types, unarmed, did not strike me as a bright idea. So I went to Packing.org, got some contact numbers of who to talk to that might be able to get an exception for my Washington State permit. Long story short, I got a letter OKing my permit, and we had a wonderful week. Due, at least in my opinion, to the peace of mind I got from being able to defend myself if necessary. Calming of the nerves would be an understatement.

So head on over and take a look when you get some time. They update daily with changes, news stories, and events.

I went away from the computer for a while to clean out the turtle tank. About halfway through the scrubbing, the wife comes into the family room talking about private citizens in Linden, TX helping out a cop in trouble that was being shown on NBC's the Today Show (sorry, no link).

There was a priest named Brother Patrick and a woman who came to the officers aid. Sorry, I do not remember the womans name. But that infromation is not important, for it is Brother Patrick that is the focus of my tale.

First, the set up. The officer was trying to put a guy into custody when the criminal started to resist. Going so far as to grab for the officer's pistol. As the criminal grabbed the pistol in it's holster, the officer was doing her best to push it further into the holster to keep him from being able to remove it. Brother Patrick saw the scuffle and rushed over to give assistance. When he got to the two, he laid his hand on the gun and managed to get the criminal's hand off the gun and remove it from the officers holster. He then pointed the gun at the man and ordered him to the ground. The man didn't quite get all the way down. At that time, the woman came over and sat on him. Being a big girl, it worked effectivly.

Now to the punch line. When the lady on the Today Show asked Brother Patrick what was going through his mind when he had the gun in his hand, he answered with the best line I have heard in a while. In his Texas accent, he said "G*d spoke through me when I told him to freeze"

I have always wanted G*d to speak through me. And that would be the perfect scenario for him to do it.

Please, no debates about women being police officers. That is a debate for another time.

Ottawa's our friend again! Or at least they want to be sure that the US embargo of Canadian beef is as short lived as possible.

Pettigrew (Canadian trade representative - ed) said he had talked to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Tuesday.
�He (Zoellick) of course volunteered to do everything he could within his administration to make sure collaboration and cooperation between Canada and the United States prevailed in this case. So we will make sure the embargo is as limited as possible, as short-lived as possible,� Pettigrew said.

Silvan Shalom had halucinations and will hopefully come down from his bad trip soon.

Cruising by Samizdata I saw this gem sitting right on top with the headline "Israeli foreign minister considers EU membership". I immediately refreshed my screen to make sure I wasn't at the Onion. But alas it seems true. How sad.

Maybe Silvan Shalom saw the movie "Grease" too many times. No matter how hard Israel (John Travolta) tries, the jock group (Europeans) will never accept them as an independant state. But the EU (Olivia Newton-John) can always dress like a whore. And pull it off with the way they have acted this last year or so.

In case you haven't noticed yet, I think that this is the most "that boy ain't been right since the squirrel bit him" idea I have heard since Sharpton started campaigning for president. Shalom needs to beaten about the head with something heavy. And if he still has thoughts of EU membership after all that, he needs to be brought up on charges of treason to Israel. The EU would do nothing but treat Israel like a red-headed stepchild.

France and Germany combined cannot come up with enough respect for their fellow members. So why does Shalom think Israel will get any respect.

Unless he has ideas of an invasion of France immediately afterward. That would be so great to watch.

Seattle IMC did not fail to disappoint again today. A member of the terroist group ELF named "tp" posted this statement, titled "SUV's Suck" detailing how they covered 15 SUV's with bright orange paint way back on April 15th. He then goes on to give "Greener facts" (aka twisted bullshit facts) about why SUV's are eeevvviillll. And then some instructions on the best way for other spoiled upper-middle class children to go about this. Oh yeah, and song lyrics from Bad Religion.

I love the way ELF/ALF types go about trying to tell you what to drive. And then they go on and on with their Bush=Hitler chants. I think they forgot that it was Stalin who gave his subjects only one chice of vehicle. The Lada. Whereas capitalism gives them over 100 different choices. Oh, I forgot. Capitolism is eeevvviilll.They can't wait for it to be legislated. Nope, they have to attack the private property of hard working citizens. Did I mention these guys are terrorists?

I know what these guys weren't doing on April 15th. In case you didn't know, that day was "Buy a Gun for Michael Moore Day". And I did not let that holiday slip by. I purchased a Remington 870 at a garage sale for $155 on the 12th. I then did a quick barrel swap and added a tube magazine extension and sold it to my friend Jon on the 15th. Creating a new gun owner. And another possible ELF/ALF hunting partner.

I also made sure I had filed my federal income taxes previously. Yep, there's the 1040. With probably my last refund, if these tax cuts don't go through. 'Cause you know, I'm soooo rich.

I seriously doubt any of these enviro-whackos did either of these things earlier that day. Which is good, because it means if I catch them doing something against my truck (yes, if you go to certain neighborhoods in Seattle, you'll get your SUV/truck vandalized by these types) I won't have to worry about a firefight. Because terrorists season is currently open.

Get it? Colin Powell. Anyway, it seems that Colin Powell cannot keep a handle on his "lieutenants and foot soldiers" at the State Department (aka Foggy Bottom). According to this article in the Washington Times, editorial cartoons that paint Bush as a simpleton adorn the walls there.

And the folks there also seem to be making a habit of keeping pertinant information out of the hands of people who need it for our security. From the article "On March 31st, representatives of the N. Korean government told state department officials, for the first time, that they were reprocessing plutonium, a key step in developing nuclear weapons. The Pentagon and the White House did not learn of this stunning announcement until Pyongyang told them during previously scheduled talks with N. Korea in China on April 18th"

Well isn't that wonderful. Spiteful lefties withhold information vital to the defense of the US because they hate the president. And I thought the destroying of government property before Bush took office was as dumb as they would go. In the off chance that we were attacked during those 19 days, I wonder who would have gotten the finger pointed at them for not being on the ball? You got it, Bush.

Colin needs to go bye bye. Soon. Unless he locates his balls and fires those responsible. It shouldn't be difficult. He's got all those spy satellites.

And it seems about right:

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

It's all about racism.

It would be nice to see someone, just once, take responsibility for their misdeeds.

�I don�t understand why I am the bumbling affirmative action hire when Stephen Glass is this brilliant whiz kid, when from my perspective � and I know I shouldn�t be saying this � I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism,�

Explain to me again how affirmative action benefits anyone?

It seems they may have found a cure for Rectal-Cranial Impaction (aka Head in Ass Disease) in Beit Hanoun, on the Gaza Strip.

According to the AP, about 600 people (out of 35,000) demonstrated Tuesday against "palestinian" militants for inviting a 5 day Israeli incursion to destroy the cover from which rockets had been fired at the Israeli town of Sderot.

Mohammed Zaaneen, 30, a farmer, said to reporters as he carried rocks into the street "They (the militants) claim they are heros, but they brought us only destruction and made us homeless. They used our farms, our houses and our children to hide"

The article also points out that Israeli forces pulled back to the edge of town despite a wave of bombings that killed 12 people in Israel.

Medical experts hope this spontaneous cure will happen again, but they are not willing to speculate on its chances to do so. They do not believe the reversal is contagious and are waiting to see if being a palestinian and reversing the impaction leads to death by gunshot wounds from vengeful militants.

Thanks to LGF for initial report.

Well, well, well. It seems that the BBC reporter who came out with the story about the "faking" of the PFC Lynch rescue was questioned by none other than CNN. Gently, I'll add. Here, he backpeddles his way out of questions and blames his sources for any "inaccuracies" that may been taken from his report.

I have already shown the bottomless well of ignorance for both facts and open-mindedness in the reporter and his report. I pointed out things that were in the report for no other than to bias the reader. And in the link above you'll read of a man who is so afraid of being exposed for the crappy, self-centered prick journalist he is, that he would rather blame his sources directly, than take an ounce of it himself for only hearing what he wanted to hear.

He even goes so far as to shift some of the blame onto the US media for their "handling" of the Lynch coverage. Insert "pot calling kettle black" joke here. If I were a member of the US media, my immediate reply would have been "well excuse us, you bastard. Sorry if we are happy about one of our soldiers, a female one at that, being found alive. Dick!" But then again, that is probably why I'm not a member of the US media.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kirspy Kreme for making my state and federal policing officials look lazy. No, I'm not talking about them eating the doughnuts. According to this, it seems that an illegal immigrant called a press conference to talk about her sexual harassment lawsuit against the pastry maker to the press and no one showed up to arrest and deport her.

I'll say that again. An illegal immigrant called a press conference to talk about her sexual harassment lawsuit against Krispy Kreme and no policing agency arrived to arrest her.

I realize we went to "Code Orange" today and all, but damn. This person is in the country illegally, we are supposed to be tightening up our borders. She announces where she'd be and when, and they can't swing a car and a couple of guys in suits by to pick her up after she is done. And I don't want to hear anything about "it would look bad if we deported her during her lawsuit" crap. We don't have to deport her yet. We hold her in custody and request a quick trial date. When the court date comes around, you let her get dressed up in regular clothes so that the federal pen pajamas don't influence the jury. Have the trial, and ship her ass home! With whatever she wins. Minus the cost of her deportation expenses.

It is just that easy. She is a criminal. She goes to jail. Since the sentence for her crime is to be deported. Boom! She's gone baby. Why is this so difficult?

I know the news report said nothing about her being an illegal alien. They used the code words "undocmented worker". That is why she originally declined to join the lawsuit. Because she knows she is commiting an illegal act and didn't want to be noticed. I guess that won't be a big deterent now. Sorry to be so focused here, but Washington State has had a rash of crime committed by illegals. Just one example. Last summer, two nuns were raped at knife-point and one of them was strangled to death with her own rosary beads by an illegal who came to America to get away from Mexican authorities.

And why did she have kids at 13? And again at 17? Seems like a well adjusted individual we have here. And why didn't she bring them to America with her? Oh yeah, because she snuck up here illegally.

I have nothing against immigrants. Legal immigrants. That is how my grandfather and grandmother got here. It isn't hard to apply for. I work with probably 40+ legal immigrants. I have never complained about them "coming up here and taking all the jobs". They work just as hard as I do and contribute to the community. That is great. That is exactly what the American Experience is all about. More power to them.

But this woman gets to go home and sit around while waiting for her trial date. Claiming welfare if she wants. And that is not the right thing. A set of pajamas and flip flops and some roommates are.

Yesterday I posted an old pic of my carry piece. And my good man puggs expressed an interest in sharp things. So here comes another product placement. I began taking fencing lessons at the age of 12 and have been hooked on blades ever since.

I own blades from these makers and have been impressed with the quality of their craftsmanship. Starfire Swords have their own forge and have the ability to make custom orders (click on the button that says "steel"). Toledo Swords deal in quality made weapons and armor from Toledo, Spain. I also have a local blacksmith that made my hand and a half sword and an axe I take hunting with me.

The only advice I have in purchasing edged weapons is ask around. If you just Google "sword", you'll get a bunch of machine made wall hangers from swords-r-us. If that is all you're looking for, you're good to go. If you want something that will take an edge and keep it, you'll have to look deeper. Prepare to fill your wallet with cash and promptly have it emptied by a big guy who swings hammers.

My favorite is the rapier, espescially in combination with the gauche (pic above). It's flexability as a weapon is unbelievable. I have seen skilled broadsword swingers be shown up by rapier artists so many times, I think it is only the nostalgia and damage possibilities that keeps me owning them. I have also seen modern day katana experts get taken by them.

I still have no cord for the camera, so the pic above was borrowed from thepiratestreasure.com. I have never purchased anything from them. Looks like typical wall art.

Yep, sometime overnight RNS had its 20,000th visitor. Yeah, modest numbers this day and age of the megabloggers, but still OK by me. I mean, can commercial endorsements be far behind?

Outlaw stupidity.

on this study.

From the "well, duh" part of the "study"

...drugs and alcohol often lead to sex...

We heard tons of criticism from the left about how the US was "acting unilaterally" by defying the UN in pursuit of Saddam Hussein. Apparently, this was the most horrible thing imaginable to those opposing the war - that the US didn't listen to the sage advice of the UN security council, thereby defying that holiest of holies, "International Law".

Since the state of Israel was created in 1948 after the adoption of UN resolution 181, aren't the Palestinians guilty of the same horrible transgression? Resolution 181 called for the creation of 2 states - Israel and Palestine. If Palestine would have accepted UN resolution 181, they would already HAVE an independent state that would be about to celebrate it's 55th birthday. Instead, the Palestinian leadership rejected UN 181, and attacked Israel. They lost, and Israel and JORDAN claimed the land that had been set aside by the UN for the independent state of Palestine. How come there are no suicide bombers in Jordan, trying to reclaim the land of the Palestinians?

Palestine does not want an independent state with peaceful co-existance. They want to obliterate Israel. They rejected UN 181 (rather unilateral of them, wouldn't you say?), and missed their chance to have an autonomous state of their own. They lost more land in the 6 day war - a war waged with the sole purpose of destroying Israel.

If arab forces had overrun Israel in 1967, would people be talking about an Israeli "right of return"?

The Palestinian people have been betrayed, time and again, by their leadership. They can rage against Israel all they want, but the real culprit for their woes requires nothing more than a mirror for identification.

This is a fair, mostly apolitical, summary of the Israel/Palestinian conflict.

UPDATE:

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks to Instapundit for the pointer.

I was once again mucking through the wasteland that is Seattle Indymedia. And again I proved to myself that if you look hard enough, you'll find something good in anything. What I found today was this. It is originally from Frontpage Magazine.com but was reprinted on the IMC Seattle. The article is actually a symposium entitled "What Happened to the Left?"

Participants include Frank J. Gaffeny, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy. Paul Hollander, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst and author of "Political Pilgrims", "Anti-Americanism" and "Discontents : Postmodern and Postcommunist". Stanley Aronowitz, veteran political activist and professor of sociology at CUNY. And Ted Glick, national coordinator of Independant Progressive Politics Netwook and author of Future Hope : A Winning Stratagy for a Just Society.

It is definitely a good read if you have some time. Even if just for the parts where Aronowitz and Glick start reading off speaking points memos from the moonbat party. Later on Glick shows us how shiny his tinfoil hat is when Gaffney starts tearing down the wall between the protesters and their funding.

And yes, I'm going through the completely bonkers Portland IMC daily. Picking the most rotten fruit out of the 30 or so posts that show up there every day. On Saturday I'll present them to you with them with links

Do you like reading the editorial cartoons in the paper? Well head on over to Cox and Forkum. They are some of the best creators of topical drawings you'll ever see.

Don't like editorial cartoons. What are you, stuck up? Think cartoons are for kids? Too bad. Go now.

This one is especially prudent due to the murders of this weekend in Israel.

Make sure to check out them all by clicking here.

Ok, back to more RNS type subjects. It seems that caucasian students are not allowed in all the "Stop Hate on Campus" workshops at the University of Colorado. According to Tongue Tied, "persons of ambiguous color" were only allowed to attend a workshop focusing on white supremacy. The white students were told that their presence in the other workshops would make it difficult for the other students to speak openly.

I don't use the phrase "reverse-racism" because it doesn't exist. Racism is just racism. If the "non-abiguously colored" students don't feel comfortable crackin' on whitey to his face, that is a personal problem they need to work out with themselves. Maybe they need to go to a barbershop.

And I don't go for that "blacks can't be racists because they have no power" crap either. I have power over you, you have power over me. Stupid guilt ridden white folks have turned themselves into racists.

I have crafted an evil plan (for the rest of this post, evil is to mean my wife's definition of my sanity). I have been given a second chance by the go-fast gods this morning. One of their angels hath spoken to me and offered me a gift of a Toyota 2JZ-GTE motor, minus the turbos and their electronics. And with such a gift I shall create this!

Or at least something very close to it, in my old smoke grey metallic. With this gift I shall use my evil talents to create over 600 rear wheel horsepower. Mwaahahahahaha, hahahahaha.

I will actually have to pay for the engine, but nowhere near what it is worth. The "angel's" car was hit in the rear quarter hard enough to make it unrebuildable, and he is giving me first crack. Meanwhile, I shall take the remaining two years to pay off my truck and drop about $6000 of go-go into this mill and find a car to drop it's evil power into.

I seriously doubt y'all can understand how liitle sleep I'm going to get today making up parts lists. Let's see, who do I know still at Garrett turbos?......

Ok. I still can't find the cord to my camera. But, I found an old pic I took and I think sent to the doc. I didn't want to use it, but I'm running out of patience with said lost cord. I have made a few changes since this pic.

It started out as a refurbished frame and slide from Brazil. Filled with parts from Wilson, Kings, Ed Brown, and a few I actually found on eBay. I had it refinished from gray to black and carryied it around like that for awhile. Then a friend for whom I'd rebuilt his Springfield up, wanted an odd "ghost-ring" or "peep" style rear sight mounted onto his gun. Unfortunately, I had installed a set of Novak nite sights onto his SA and the new one's dovetail was too small to fit onto the slide.

Solution, we agreed to swap slides. I wanted to try out the night sights for a while and he was really sprung on "the ring". I gutted the slides and checked the clearances and away we went. It's been over a year now and I'll probably go back to my King's dual color three dots. 2 green and a red (Merry Christmas, dirtbag hehehehe). The glow-in-the-dark sights work great, but only in the right light. Too dark, you've got three glowing dots but no target. Too light, you can get along with your regular sights. Either way your blinded by your first shot. So save yourself the $120+ and don't bother (my opinion only). You should also be practicing enough that your sight picture comes up on a natural point.

Lately I've been doing my usual switching out of different parts to see how they work. It's a little expensive, but the knowledge is good. Right now I'm running a old Colt stock commander style spur hammer (not the one in the pic) and one of their old sears. It seems heavier than the standard hammer. At least it swings that way. Trigger pull is a crisp 3 3/4lbs.

I've also gotten over the recoil spring guide fad. In 15+ years I've never had a spring bind (it is called maintenace guys). That and I don't like my sidearm too much more accurate than myself. I can currently bullseye 6 out of 8 at 50ft (which is way too much distance for the policing agencies standards of self defense. Unless the other guy has a high powered rifle) so that is good enough for me.

Yes, that is a Wilson Combat 8rnd mag. I usually use the ones with the bigger bumper pad as my first mag, as it is virtually guaranteed to hit the ground. And the rounds you see there are 1-230gr Federal Hydra-Shock and 1-230gr Winchester Black Talon (I bought half a case right before the ban because criminals wear body armor too). Both fly at approx. 880fps and deliver 400 ftlbs.

I am currently gathering parts for a new one. It will probably get the green fininsh treatment with black fixtures. When it is done (are they ever) I'll post some pics. This one will probably get sold after that because I don't like the sqared slide holds anymore. Especially the front and back treatment. And then I'll build my 17th 1911. Yay!

Or I'll.........shake my fist at you and walk away!

I doubt I've told you this, but my wife works at one of the local policing agencies 911 call centers. Well today she got the call on this. It seems a 5ft 6in woman with a thin build walked on into the bank and without a gun or any other type of weapon (she didn't even imply that she was armed) asked for, and got, all the cash in the tellers drawer.

This is the sixth time she has been able to do this.

What a bunch of Mega-Weenies!

If I needed a loan, walked into the bank, walked up to the teller and said "I need some money", I think I might get charged with attempted bank robbery.

So, if you're in the Seattle area and see a white woman, 5ft 6in, with wavy brown hair, call the police. Lord knows that there aren't half a million women who match that description around here.

Exactly who is it trying to derail any chance of peace in the middle east?

5 attacks in 3 days. Yep, those Pa lestinians sure do want to work towards the middle and find a way to co-exist with Israel. This statement from Hamas should clarify for you what they really want:

�We will not stop our resistance as long as one Zionist continues to breathe our air,� Hamas, which has vowed to wreck a U.S. peace plan for the region, said in a statement.

So, these 2 students at UCSB are irritated that "Vanilla People" have been wandering around campus wearing sombreros. They feel that having Crackers wear sombreros is demeaning to the hispanic culture:

This ad, along with the mad sombrero-wearing, reiterates to us the cluelessness with which people around UCSB engage in activities involving exoticism, racism and cultural exploitation. More importantly, the ad identifies UCSB's explicit role in perpetuating cultural stereotypes.

OK, now I might be able to let this slide and say these brave college students are just trying to protect the hispanic culture from brutal and unjust destruction by white anglo saxon persons. Let it slide, that is, if I hadn't just spent 4 days on a cruise ship to Mexico. While I was actually on foreign soil, every REAL Mexican that I ran into tried to sell me a sombrero, a pancho, or a pinata shaped like a bull. Maybe the real Mexicans didn't get the memo that Honkey isn't supposed to be sold anything that he might actually wear, thereby demeaning the hispanic culture in the process. Explain to me why I am "bringing home a cultural souvenir" if I buy a sombrero in Mexico, but am engaged in "cultural stereotyping" if I wear a sombrero as a part of some stupid promotion in southern California? The authors of the letter to the editor actually sum it up the best:

Now some of you reading this might be immediately tempted to dismiss our commentary as some "PC" reaction to what you might perceive as a rather harmless appropriation of Mexican culture. For those of you who just don't get it, consider a modest proposal.

Those of us who "just don't get it" are apparently those who don't agree with the authors. The "modest proposal" entails changing the mascot of USCB into a white, puke stained surfer dude and calling him the hispanic equivalent of "honkey". Suits me fine. Anything to make them stop whining about the damn sombreros would be just peachy with me.

Hey, look what you get when you check the IP address of "arab make nukes faster":

inetnum: 195.229.0.0 - 195.229.255.255
netname: AE-EMIRNET-971125
descr: Emirates Telecommunications Corporation
descr: Internet Service provider
country: AE
admin-c: AH1223-RIPE
admin-c: SAS88-RIPE
tech-c: SMA3-RIPE
status: ALLOCATED PA
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-lower: ETISALAT-MNT
mnt-routes: ETISALAT-MNT
changed: hostmaster@ripe.net 19971125
changed: hostmaster@ripe.net 20021230
source: RIPE

person: Saleem Mohd Albalooshi
address: Emirates Telecommunications Corporation.
address: P.O. Box 1150, Dubai, UAE
phone: +971 4 2022959
fax-no: +971 4 2228884
e-mail: saleemmb@emirates.net.ae
nic-hdl: SMA3-RIPE
mnt-by: ETISALAT-MNT
changed: fareedak@emirates.net.ae 19981027
changed: sultan@uaenic.ae 20020714
source: RIPE

Hmmmmmm. I thought internet access was strictly controlled in Saudi Arabia. I guess RNS must still be on the "OK to read" list in Dubai. Or else our troll is someone that has access that the "average" UAE citizen doesn't.

So let's see, someone using an anonymous hotmail account, posting from an IP within Saudi Arabia, talking about Arabs making Nukes and threatening the US. Whatever can it all mean? I thought the House of Saud was our friend.........

CORRECTION:

A reader corrects my confusion by pointing out that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are not the same. For some reason I was trying to stick Dubai in Saudi Arabia. But, in the end, it's just a blown call by little ol' Nukevet. It did seem strange that a sight would be available in Saudi Arabia, however, as they have one of the most restrictive IP banning policies around.

I'm going on vacation more often. Analog Kid tells me he is already receiving hate mail, so I guess he's doing something right!

Many thanks to AK for holding down the bunker in my absence. I'll try and catch up tomorrow, after I dig myself out from under the flood of e-mails that appeared while I was away.

Internet access was 0.75$/MINUTE on the cruise ship, so I didn't even check work related e-mail.

I do love our new troll "arabs make nukes quickly". I wonder if that text is enough to get carnivore interested? I'll have to do a little traceroute on our friend, and see where he really comes from.

I said over the weekend that I had a link that would explain my distrust in government. I was hoping to get organized and write this out first, but of course that didn't happen and I'm typing on the fly again. So here ya go.

First a little diatribe. I think I can agree with the readers here that government is something not to be trusted. And neither is anyone involved in politics. I am going to carry that a little further and tell you all that I do not trust George W. Bush as a polititian.

I would walk a pheasant line with the guy and trust him to not accidently shoot me or my dogs. I'd let him borrow my vehicles (and if you knew me and my vehicles, you'd know what this means). Hell, I'd trust him alone in a room with my wife. And those three things, espescially the last one, I would never trust to any Democrat currently in power. Those are just a couple of the reasons I support Bush. I'll get to some of the the issues in moment.

Republicans know we don't trust them. They want us to. They really, really want us to. And they go so far as to speak of virtue and ideals and generally lay out plans that are something that any thinking individual could probably agree with. They may not be the best plans, but if you like one plan and then get involved in the system, you could possibly make the next one something even more agreeable. This is what I see in that party.

Yes, I also see religious extremists trying to make America into some sort of Christian theme park where movies fade to black at the start of a romantic kiss (no tongue) and the bottoms of women's shorts are two inches above the knee. Unfortuately for them, they've thumped that bible one to many times on their heads and now they're too blind to see that this is going on already in the Middle East. To everyone's great horror.

The Democrats on the other hand, almost demand we trust them. For example, look at one of the first big blunders of the Clinton presidency (the folks on the right will have already heard these arguments). He gets into office and one of the first things to come out is "National Heath Care" (aka Hillarycare). This is wrong on two points. Number one is that Americans do not need government issued medical insurance. If you aren't working, get a job. Can't work, there are hundreds of religious and non-religious based charities that would love to help you out. If only to show you off as a success story to get more donations. Got a job with no insurance? Find one that has one and then quit the one that doesn't. In that order. Even McDonalds offers medical/dental/vision.

Second is that he let his wife, an unelected civilian, write legislation for him. They then proceeded to get uppity when it got the same reception as a fart in an elevator. They blamed it on the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (thank you Hillary) for making the people not trust them.

What they failed to recognize is that they did not get automatic "trust of office" just by getting elected. And when they got snooty about it they made themselves look stupid. Because that is one of the founding principals of America. We'll elect you, but we still don't trust you.

Which is why, in my mind, Bush went to the American People, next to Congress, then to the U.N. and then again to the American People before the war in Iraq started. He knew we didn't trust him and he didn't want to be seen as just flying off the handle and putting our service men and women in danger. He wanted a chance to list out his reasons and win over as many people as he could. And what happened? He got a 75% approval rating in favor of the war. Which is basically us showing trust in him to send the military to do the right thing. He realizes that he needs to earn the trust of you and I before he does just about anything (not including using the bathroom).

In case you haven't noticed "Gun Control" is now "Gun Safety". Former proponents of gun control now talk on and on about "sensible gun laws". Why is that? Becuase "Gun Control" didn't fly. As much as the Democrats would like to deny it, the vast majority of the public do not trust the government to protect them. So they try to pass these so called "sensible" gun laws. Slipping them under the radar of the people who aren't watching for it because it sounds "sensible" on the surface. Heck it even has the word sensible in the title. Shortly thereafter though, you can't own a pump shotgun for hunting. But by then it's too late, and they've disarmed you. Now you have to trust them. Which is exactly what they want. Your trust without having to actually earn it.

Want to know what I find a little funny about the "Assault Weapons Ban". Bush said during his campaign that he would sign it if it hit his desk. And now people are up in arms over the fact that he said he still would. Helloooo, weren't you listening? Did you think he was joking? If you're that scared about it, hop on your phone, fax machine and computer and get as many people as you can to call their federal represenatives and tell them their political career is over if this thing makes it out of committee. That is the way the system works. Be a part of it. You don't trust these guys on crap like this. That is how it got passed in the first place.

Like I said, I don't trust Bush as a politician. He does stupid things for political reasons, like steel tariffs and saying he'll sign the weapons ban. Sorry George, but I'm tired of paying $50+ for a 30 round mag for my Ruger 10-22. That bill is going down. Because I used to pay $15 for the very same magazine. And I used to have 20 of them. Now I have 4 left that work and I'll wait until next year before I try to buy anymore. Just the boom of new gun and magazine purchases will give a boost to the economy. And I hope the rest of the serious gun owners get on Bush's ass and every other elected official's ass and remind them we're watching. Because they only do the stupid stuff when they think, or know, we're not watching.

But on most of the issues out there issues I see Bush going out of his way to try and earn my trust. Something I haven't seen since Reagan (thanks again, Dutch). He is giving me the information that he can to try to get me to see it his way. Intead of assuming I'll agree because it is in "my best interest" in his mind. I respect that and that is why I like him and support him as my President. And "liking and supporting" someone is not the same as "trusting" them.

Anyway, I promised you a link didn't I? Well here you go. And here is your 2 for the price of 1 link. Read both of them. You may learn something new. One of things you're probably going to learn is something you might not have known about Federal Court Judges. You will probably be scratching your head and wondering why there aren't a bunch of Gore supporters in jail indefinitly.

This is a story that started in the summer of 1989 with a search. I witnessed the effects of this search. Imagine 20+ BATF agents going through the house of someone you know looking for something smaller than a credit card. Tearing the hell out of an 8 year old girls bedroom. Tearing apart toys, a dollhouse, and her book shelves. The living room had all of its funiture and carpeting cut open, the electronic equipment disassembled and again books on the bookshelves flipped through and tossed into apile. I think that ransacked would be a good word to describe the mess. I believe Led Zepplin left hotel rooms cleaner than the feds left this house. I think this because I came over to help clean it up. Read it and see how this search was given its warrant. Then read on about the trial this guy went through.

Now this story is over 10 years old, so don't bother contibuting to the appeal fund. It has already been denied multiple times. Of course the shop itself is gone. But there is nothing to stop it from happening to another shop owner. Except "we the people" electing those who don't expect us to give them our trust.

Also in The Stranger, is this article about Democratic candidate Howard Dean. You may have already read about his Seattle meetings from the national news, but the article in the weekly paints a pretty rosy picture of this guy.

It talks about a pair of rallys held here in Seattle, involving folks who have figured out that the Democrats are squabbling amongst themselves, and in due course, have lost their backbone. A number of them see Dean as a solid contender for the nomination, and according to the article "are falling over themselves to volunteer for Dean". There are apparently even people in the campaign called "Greens for Dean"

One line from the artilce is from a previous meeting he had at a retirement home outside of Hanover, New Hampshire (acoording to the writer, a liberal enclave). He was shaking hands after his speech when one of the ladies who lived there said "you beat that g*ddamn Bush". I mean, c'mon grandma. Stop the hate.

The article really isn't that bad. It even talks a little bit about how he got out of going to Vietnam by claiming back problems. And how he was seen skiing shortly thereafterwards.

My take is that the Democrats are not goint to be supportive of him. Mostly because to some he is a "closet republican", due to his take on the subject of same sex marriages, among other things. But I'll keep an eye open for him, just in case.

I don't know if anyone else will get this, but if you look at the profile photo on top of the page, he kind of (except for the nose) looks like McGovern at the '72 DNC. Let's give Howard the same result George got.

If you can stand hardcore leftie comedy, The Stranger (weekly paper from Seattle) Is a decent read. The wife always grabs one at the store for reading at work, and then brings the damn things home. Well, after the laugh I got from the Portland Indymedia sites, I figured my immunity was still strong and took a dip.

Amy Jenniges puts in her two cents about the LEIU conference here. She talks to a local activist who says "no one knew what the WTO was back in 1999, and no one knows what the LEIU is now" Great, just what this city needs. Another bunch of dippy hippys and anarchists like at the "Battle of Seattle", coming up to loot and riot. I know the LEIU was kept under the radar for many years and only decided to make their confrerence location known for the first time this year. But I think these guys are getting way overworked about the "dues paid for membership by police agencies are being taken out of taxpayer dollars" crap they keep spraying. It's $495 freakin' dollars a year.

The comedic part of the article is the last two sentences. "Seattle City Council Member, Nick Licata, and King County Council Member Larry Gossett - sent letters to the conference organizers, requesting admission to the event so they could see for themselves what it's all about. So far, Licata's admission has been denied"

I magine the conversation went like this: Licata " I'm Councilperson Licata. Can I go to the conference?"
LEIU rep: "Are you a dues paying law enforcement official?"
Licata: "No."
LEIU rep: "No. Thank you. Goodbye." Click.

The funnty part is that Licata is a toe-tag socialist who is probably on the LEIU's list of people to watch. During the recent anti-war protests here in Seattle, Licata was able to push a resolution through the city council that limited the number of police officers on the street to keep order over the protesters. His friends the protesters had complained about "feeling" intimidated by the police and being arrested. Never mind that they were blocking traffic on THE main thoroughfare in front of the federal building in downtown Seattle. Keeping thousands of people who have jobs from getting to and from work and home. And never mind the objects that would be flung from out of the crowd at the police and counter-protesters.

And I'm not just talking smack about Licata being a socialist. He helped write and sponsor the legislation that made it illegal for a Seattle Police officer to ask someone their immigration status. I could list the rest of the crap Licata did to help make Seattle a "utopia" for illegals and the homeless. But I doubt you could stand it. Just think of Seattle as "San Francisco jr.". Why don't I leave. I like the scenery. And this is where the work is at.

I was going to show off a pic of my personal carry pistol that I have been talking about. But I can't seem to find the cord that downloads pics from my 2yr old camera to the back of my laptop. And now the replay of the Austrian F1 GP is on so I'm gonna stop looking. Yes, I know Schumacher walks away with it (brat), but I missed the two restarts.

So ,I'll give you a tip on leather goods for your firearms. Triple K Leather is by and far my favored gunleather maker/supplier. These guys kick ass. They have the quailty made gear you want a for a price you won't mind paying ($50+ for a double mag pouch? Yeah right Galco). They make good looking leather gear for police applications, personal concealed carry and Western style gear. Along with scabbards, slings, cartridge belts, sporting clays accessories, K-9 necessities, and CCW purses for the ladies.

My prefered carry holster is the Barrio (#660)

Simple yet effective. I don't like straps and snaps to hold my gun in, so the optional hammer thong stays home. If I'm going to have to do a somersault the gun will already be out, so neener. And since I live in Washington the gun has to covered at all times. That makes it near impossible for somone to come up and remove my pistol without my knowledge or consent. It holds the gun very close to the body and nice and high with a good forward cant (aka FBI cant). If you are a leftie you may have to wait to have a 660 custom made because of the design of the belt channel. They make this holster for just about every make and model out there.

I also have pics of their Channel Island Ranger belt that I like to use because of the snugness with which it holds accessories and their double magazine pouch.

Go on, take a look.

After reading a slavering fit of hate in the Arab News, Lawrence over at Amish Tech Support admits that the secret is out. Jews in America get "special" rights.

Sone of those rights include: never having to wait in line at the waterslide park and the right of free refills added to the first ammendment.

I'm sure there are more, but he is just trying to keep the rest secret.

When you go over to Saudi Arabia, who do you think is drivng the cabs?

Well it ain't Saudi's. At least not yet.

According to Arab News.com, it seems a recent decision came down from above that decided only Saudis are going to be allowed to drive taxis in in Saudi Arabia. And they're having a hard time finding recruits to do the job.

First off, can you imagine any western country trying to pull something like that off? "Only whites are allowed to have a taxi licence". No way, never in a million years. Even if we claimed it was for "security reasons" like the Saudis tried to, it'd fly like a lead sofa.

If you have trouble with the link, keep trying. I found it at Right Thinking from the Left Coast and it was working then. But when I previewed the post, the link went bye-bye.

He of the Iron Stomach, Ravenwood.com, went to the Brady Center's website and looked into their FAQ section. He then proceeds to give said section a Royal Fisking. It is a definite must read for those who get queasy whenever those folks start up with their rhetoic, blatant half-truths and outright lies.

Not only does he show more composure than I would after reading Brady's dreck, he doesn't convey feeling the need to rip off heads and steal souls through his sentences when he writes. At least not in this one.

Need a good laugh? Head over here to the Willamette Weekly. It seems that the folks who run the Portland, Oregon Indymedia site have started making threats to mainstream reporters and practicing censorship.

Oregon State is the home of the largest portion of the known "Black Bloc". Those anarchist, garbed in black, that show up at just about any rally they can make it to. They are the ones who start throwing newspaper boxes through storefronts and spraypainting illiterate slogans on buildings. They are also the first to scream "my first amandment rights are being violated" when they are arrested for doing so. Never mind that both those acts are illegal.

This article by Nick Budnick was prompted by threats posted on the Indymedia site after an article by him about a demostration. The statement was "We have turned against YOU. And I'll see you long before you ever see me". Not a particlarly volitile threat. If someone said it to me I wouldn't really worry about it because I already use precautions to cover those types of dingbats. But if someone said that to my wife, they'd disappear. So take what you will from it.

The article that got this reaction was about the Steel Bridge demonstration. Where protesters used objects to break through a police line and were then subdued with force by the police. The Indymedia site contends that it was the police who swung first, even though their own video shows otherwise. Of course, if you watch the video on their site, at the point the protesters start pushing, it breaks right to the part of the police subduing them.

Nevermind that because of previous acts of vandalism to newsmedia equipment committed by the protest groups and prior threats to news station reporters and cameramen, the newsstations had hired security to guard their people while at the demonstration. If you actually report that, along with an accurate description of events, you are going to get threats like those stated above.

Even they people who originally started up the site are complaining about how radical the site has become. Most aren't even visiting it any longer, afraid of what they may see. Portland Indymedia gets 9000 posts a month. In comparison, my local Indymedia site, the orginal Seattle Indymedia Center, has had 21,000 in its entire 3 year existence.

A quote from a random former IMC'er "They run anyone out who disaggrees with them through a barrage of insults and intimidation." Say what you will about any middle to right wing blog in the sphere, but I doubt that they will say that they were out to write a blog based on inclusiveness. Which was the founding principles of the Indymedia chain of sites.

Oh yeah, I promised you a laugh didn't I? Well here are two quotes from the Portland Indymedia sites that had me giggling.

"Corporate Media is the Disease, Indymedia is the Cure" (I always thought Robert Smith was The Cure, but oh well)

And

"Corporate Media =Lies, Indymedia = Truth"

I think that maybe next Saturday I'll do nothing but write about my favorite Portland Indymedia posts of the week. Hilarity shall ensue!

Thanks to LGF for the link to this article.

Say hello to Russell

AKA: Russ, The Mack, The Pimp, Little Big Man, Pardner, Bob Barker and Loaf.

We saw Russell about 3 years ago on Pet Finder.org when we were looking for a friend for our other dog, Ellie, whom you'll probably meet later on. He was at the King County Animal Shelter as a surrender. We aren't exactly sure what kind of mix he is, but with his 4 inch legs, it looks like he's a Corgi/Dachshund. Russ is the early warning system of the house as he has been known to bark at a field mouse fart. At 11 years old, he is getting on in years and I have had to built him a set of steps so he can be up on the bed. But let him out into the back yard and you'd never know.

I was cruising through the personal blogroll when I ran across this nugget at RightThoughs.

In response to Dave Kopel's article in NRO about British government hostility toward the right of self-defense, a reader writes to convey his experience with a police officer during orientation at Pepperdine University.

Excerpt: "If we were attacked, we were to assume a defensive posture, such as raising our hands to block an attack. The reason was (and she spelled it out in no uncertain terms) that if a witness saw the incident and we were to attempt to defend ourselves by fighting back, the witness would be unable to tell who the aggressor was"

And: "The feeling I got was, in London, it is not permissable to defend oneself"

He goes on to describe how it is illegal to carry a pocket knife or mace. Even for women.

I always did want to visit the relatives, but it looks as though they'll have to head west like Grandpa did. Oh well, at least the exchange rate will be in their favor.

I listen to a bunch of talk radio. I mean a bunch. If it doesn't involve racing, guns, histroy or video news footage, I am probably not watching TV. And since I live in Seattle I actually have a few successful lefties on the air. And I listen to them as much as I can stand. So after the BBC story about discrepancies in the PFC Jessica Lynch rescue story yesterday, I made sure I listened in. even though I consider most of it non-news because of it's bias. And believe me when I tell you, that is entertainment folks. Oooo doggie. There are some really happy folks on the left here in Seattle today. Why, you ask?

/sarcasm set to stun/ Well, it seems that since someone on the ground in Iraq or in the Pentagon decided to over-dramatize the story, we never needed to go to war with Iraq in the first place\ sarcasm off\.

Because of one positive story from the war that was over done and some of the facts were found out to be bent too much, a number of people on the left are declaring victory. At least that is how it sounds to them in Seattle. But more on that later.

Listen folks, if you had listened carefully you wouldn't have been suprised at this. First off, you don't storm a multi-level building with one to two dozen special forces troops and multiple helecoptors, with nobody except PFC Lynch needing to be carried out unless one of two things happen: no one is there to shoot at them, or they are bulletproof and invisible. That should have been your first clue. Plus if you actually watch the video, they don't have scared feet. What's are those? It's when you exit like hell, get your shit in gear and haul ass.

Houseclearing is a royal bitch, and there is no other way to put it. Everytime I get to do a houseclearing exercise at a firearms competition, I smile like an lunatic. Until I step up to the line, then I get gooseflesh and cold sweats. Shit pops out from around corners, up from the floor and down from the celing. And some of them aren't bad guys, so you can't shoot them or you'll have large amounts of points deducted from your score. And if the guy who set up the course has a thing for booby traps, you're screwed. Make it through "alive" and you'll be one of a very select few that day. I know the SpecFor guys train for this in groups, day in and day out, but that only really prepares you enough to get the sweats to stop. Ask them what part of training they like the least and they'll probably say that kicking down doors sucks ass. And if they don't you need to talk to their CO. Tell him to put some fear into his men.

The guys in charge only had rumors of the hospital being empty. They also had some that said that there were handfuls of troops there. Would you take a chance? And what knid of training does this doctor have in US military weaponry? Does he know that to fire a "blank" cartridge in an M-16 you need an adapter that affixes to the end of the barrel? Can he say that he saw them on these soldier's rifles? If not, then he's just talking out his ass. Taking a quote from an unknowlegeable source and presenting it as truth to help sensationalize your story, that's bias.

Second, the condition of Private Lynch's injuries was known once we got her to Germany back in April, so y'all can stuff that one. It is not like the US government kept insisting she was shot and stabbed after the doctors came out and said she wasn't. And about the torture, who says she wasn't before they dropped her off or left her for dead. Yeah, the doctor there says they all look like injuries from a traffic accident. But you've got to remember what kind of bastards we were dealing with over there.

Third, how were we supposed to know about a freakin' ambulance with her inside? There wasn't a guy with a cell phone walking around going "can you hear me now? Good, cause were bringing your POW to you in an ambulance". It was a damn war zone over there. Hospitals were being used by hostile forces to kill US servicemen. So now you got people shooting at you from under a red crescent and then a ambulance starts driving right at you. Think for a moment about what you are going to do. You will fire warning shots at it. Unless you're suicidal. And as long as their not suicidal they'll drive away. You've got to use your head when it's your ass on line. Trying to project that individual soldiers have magic crystal balls, that's bias.

My biggest problem with this whole story though, is the mention of the "influence" of Bruckheimer. Yes, the Pentagon consulted him in 2001 about a possible primetime television project they wanted to start. But this quote is over the line: "the American stategy was to ensure the right television footage by using embedded reporters and images from their own cameras, editing the film themselves."

I doubt many people caught this tidbit from before action even started in Iraq but there were no imbedded reporters with Special Forces troops. The footage was shot and edited by US Army personnel. Those jobs have their own Military Occupational Specialty number. If you are going into possible heavy combat, do you want a probably out of shape guy from MSNBC with 40+ pounds of equipment to tie you to a hot spot? No, ya dumbass.

So they shot footage. Big hairy deal. There is so much film and digital video shot of every aspect of this war, entirely by the US military, that the children of the guys who shot it may end up editing it.

But if you listen the leftie radio, Bruckheimer was in the editing room telling them where to cut. There was no reason that piece of information needed to be in this article as "news". That's bias.

You want to know what I heard twice on one program and once on another? That Bush should be impeached because they were sure that he was at the top telling the Pentagon to do this. Ya know what? We learned a good lesson in Vietnam. The President doesn't tell the Pentagon how to do shit. "How" is their job. Tell the where to do it and the they'll send the best.

You may have already heard about this, but since I don't travel in Glock circles anymore, I had to wait for my Shotgun News to be deilvered.

It seems Glock is stepping into the caliber creation game by coming out with a Model 37 in a new ".45 Glock" round.

And they have already come up with two introductory Gold Dot offerings: a 185gr that they say moves at 1100 fps and delivers 497 ft lbs of energy, and a 200gr with numbers of 984 fps and 431 ftlbs. What does this mean to all the non-gun geeks out there? Probably nothing much. Let's just say it moves a little faster and hits a little harder than you standard 45ACP.

They say the Model 37 will be very close to the Model 22 dimensionally. MSRP is around $640.

I'll never figure out why companies do this. I have never run into anything big enough that I thought couldn't be brought down with a good dose of 45ACP. But then again, even though I've lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, I've never run into fuckin' Bigfoot. But that is why I carry 25 rounds (3-8rnd mags +1) with me at all times. And my double-bladed axe as a last resort.

Oh yeah, one thing they forgot to include was how much this ammo is going to cost. I'm guessing $20+ for 50rnds of ball for target practice and $25+ for 20rnds of self-defense ammo.

Oh the joy!

As if we didn't need another reason to yank children out of public schools, I ran across this Washington Times article at Curmudgeonly and Skeptical.

David McCullough, writer of the best selling biography on second President John Adams, talks to George Archibald about "National Amnesia" and calls it "as great a threat to American freedoms as al Qaeda"

Some excellent quotes rom the article: Mr McCullogh said "elementary, middle and high school students are bored by dreadful history textbooks that embrace multiculturalism and cultural equivalence in order to be politically correct".

And "they're deadly. It is as if they are designed to kill anyone's interest in history, rather than encourage it."

The article also mentions a book that I read a while back by NYU professor Diane Ratvich called "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict what Children Learn". A damn fine read. If you need a reason to go to a library or bookstore, this would be it.

And come out with your cd's up!

OK, you've probably noticed that doc is gone. So were gonna crank up some tunes.

What the hell am I talking about you ask? I want music. Namely, I want your music.

I want to get everyone involved (that includes you lurkers too) in getting something together for a fantastic local talk radio host here is Seattle named Bryan Suits. You may remember him from an amazing audio clip from his show that was posted all over the blogosphere between an Iraqi immigrant named Mohammed and a spokeperson from United For Peace and Justice, Andrea Buffa. You can connect to this clip by clicking on his name. It is huge, but it is well worth listening to.

Bryan is currently a 2nd Lieutenant serving in the Oregon National Guard as a forward observer. Before that he was enlisted in the US Army for 14 years as a cavalry scout. He has served in Desert Storm, Kosovo, and Bosnia. He will be leaving in mid-June for his Officer's Basic Course and I would like to get this too him soon.

A short while back he would spend the last 5-10 minutes of his shows previewing new bumper music (music to come back from commercials with) for the audience to vote on. My goal is to gather up enough music to fill a CD and send it off to him from the readers of RNS.

To do this I will make you this deal. For every song you send me that I put on the CD, I will send you a song from something in from my collection. Don't worry, I have a wide variety, spanning many different genres. From Frank Sinatra to Glenn Danzig and OutKast to the Dell Vikings, so I'm sure I can find something you'll like.

These are the requirements for good bumper music. It has to have at least 15-20 seconds of intro so the host can say the stations call letters and bring the show back up to speed over it. Or something interesting in the opening lines that can possibly be tied to a subject. The song also needs to be "snappy". If you know what I mean.

I will post all the songs that make it onto the CD once it gets compiled. I would like to give credit to the person who sent it but if you don't want me to just let me know.

So, you all have your assignments. Now send me your tunes.
Just mail them to analogkid@nukevet.com.

It seems China is unable to keep their quarantines tight during the SARS situation they've got going on. So now, they are threatening to execute those who are inside the quarantines and try to get out. Possibly even the doctors. Even if they are not diagnosed as having SARS.

If people weren't actually dying in large numbers there, this would be hilarious. "You may have a disease that will slowly drown and suffocate you, and if you try to prove that you don't have it we will shoot you." That's no disincentive.

Well, with the mortality rate that SARS patients experience there, I guess maybe they will just be sending them to the hospital. Ahh, the wonders of socialized medicine.

In local news, a group of seniors from Sprague High School came to downtown Seattle on a school district sanctioned field trip to see the sights. Places like the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, the Waterfront District, etc.

And it seems that 9 of them, 6 boys and 3 girls, also wanted to see the inside of the strip club, Deja Vu. They were all over 18, so they were of age to do this. But still people from the small town of Sprague, Wa. are having kittens over this. The odd part to me is, they're not getting in trouble for separating from the group, just the fact that they went to a strip club.

Now just to let you know, I have lived in or near Seattle my entire life. And my brother used to work the door/bounce for the company that owns the Deja Vu chain of clubs. He worked at this location for about 5 months in 1999. Even though most Seattle locals would like to deny it, there are much more dangerous things on the couple of blocks surrounding this club. Even in the daylight, you get offers for just about anything you want to injest. You could probably even get a "private dance" from one of those ladies your mother told you not to mess with. And you don't even want to know about the crap that goes down after the sun does. So the club is kind of a safe haven.

I never did understand the draw of the strip club. It is kind of like going down to your friends place of work when somebody brings their Lamboghini Diablo in for service just to drool on it, even though you could probably never afford one. Oh wait, I do that. Oh well. At least I get to go along for the test drives.

It seems that somebody over at Toyota's advertising agency is in need of more "sensitivity training".

Once again, Toyota has had to pull an add because a group is complaining about them being insensitive. This time, to people who were adopted. According to this report over at Tongue Tied, the add is said to compare buying a used car to adopting a "problem child".

This follows a May 2001 complaint from the philanderer and poverty pimp, "Reverend" Jessie Jackson and his group Rainbow/PUSH, both of whom threatend boycotts on Toyota products because of an add depicting the RAV-4 compact SUV imprinted in minature, in gold on an upper front tooth inside the mouth of a black male. Toyota quickly pulled the add.

When I had to go through "senitivity training" at a job I worked before my current one, I was literally told "your laughter isn't funny". I then reminded the instructor that she wasn't being "sensitive" to my need for humor. That made the majority of the rest of the class start laughing, and things went downhill from there. I've actually gotten less rude as I've gotten older. Go figure.

I got one. And you probably do to. At least according to this WHO report I found at Right Thinking from the Left Coast.

It seems that #1 on the list of things that kill you is cars and traffic.

War and conflict came in at #6. Sounds like Frank J's Rumsfeld is going to be disappointed.

The report also notes that the suicide rate is double the murder rate in both Europe and Southeast Asia. I don't know about SE Asia, but if I was living in certain countries in Europe, I'd kill myself too.

One more sad bit of news before we get on to today's business.

June Carter-Cash passed away thursday afternoon in a Nashville hospital after being admitted for surgury to repair a heart valve over the weekend.

Again, prayers for the family if you do that.

And please stay strong Johnny.

On June 22nd, 2002 King County Sheriff Deputy Richard Herzog responded to a call of a naked man running in the street and blocking traffic in Newcastle, WA. When he arrived on the scene moments later he spotted the suspect, called for backup, and got out of his vehicle to approach the suspect. The suspect saw him get out of the cruiser and ran towards him screaming he was going to kill him. Upon seeing the suspect charge, Officer Herzog removed his pepperspray from it's holster and fired it at the suspect. It had no affect. The two made contact and began to struggle, with the suspect repeatedly reaching for Herzog's pistol. At some point in during the struggle the magazine was ejected from the 40 caliber Glock. The suspect was eventually able to remove Herzog's weapon from its holster and at that time Herzog disengaged from the struggle and turned away. At that time the suspect fired the single cartridge in the pistol and hit Herzog in the hip and he fell to the ground. The suspect then went and found the previously ejected magazine, returned it to the gun and cycled the slide, reloading the pistol. He then walked up to where Herzog lay wounded, stood above him, and shot him 4 times in the back of the head. He then ran from the scene and was apprehended later that day by King County Sherrifs Deputies.

This is a statement of what happened on that day in 2002. We here in the Seattle Metropolitan area are having a memorial for Deputy Herzog today.

Deputy Richard Herzog was a 20 year veteran in the U.S. Army and spent much of that time in the Special Forces before he retired to become a police officer. If you are one who prays, I ask that do so for him and his family. I do not want to turn this post into an editorial. All I can say is this shouldn't have happened. The were many factors in this situation. But the one that stands out the most was race. I did not mention it in the statement, because it shouldn't have mattered. There are editorials written on this subject here,here and here.

There are more news stories from last year here, here and here.

If you would like to leave a kind word for Officer Herzog's family and friends you can do so here.

The picture was borrowed from KCCU.com.

Well if the doc can bring you Jupiter, the least I can do is bring you the moon.

That's right folks, those of us on the North American continent will get a bit of a show tonight in the southern sky. So get you cameras, video recorders, telescopes and binoculars out at around 11:20pm EST (8:20pm PST) tonight, and if the skies are clear you should see this.

That's right, the blood red moon. It'll start on the east coast at around 10:30 their time, moving into full eclipse at about 11:20pm and stay that way for about 20 minutes.

Digital cameras will probably useless according to this guy, but you can try. He suggests a 35mm camera with high speed film and a long exposure. Or some formula like that. But he took the pic up there so I'd listen to him.

If you can't attend the show, we will have another chance in November, but how often is the sky clear in November? So put on your jackets, grab some snacks and let out a howl.

And I have it on good authority from my good friends at the ZOG that they have nothing to do with this.

Earlier today I was contacted by a representative of the ZOG telling me they appreciate the earlier posts I had up and that it is a good start in getting membership. But they also told this Anglo to turn it down a bit to lower my profile. So here you go, focus your attention on this. The ZOG command it.

From June 2nd to the 6th Seattle is going to host a conference of the LEIU (Law Enforcement Intlligence Unit). And the lefties are about to have a fit. In fact, as this conference gets closer, if you start going around to their websites you'll see they most moonbatted crap you've probably ever read. If you don't have the time/energy to do this, just keep stopping by. I'll be reporting as their tinfoil hats start humming. They have already started getting ready for demonstrations that will waste my tax dollars for policing and cleanup.

I have already Googled the initials and only got a few hits for articles on this. The first one is from Eat the State, by Geov Parrish. He also gets printed in two of the weeklies in town. The next two are on Indymedia, San Francisco and Portland, respectively.

I really cannot stand these paranoid super-weenies. Their beef with these guys is that they collect, store and share information on groups like, PETA, ALF, ELF, Not In Our Name, And International ANSWER, among others. These activists know that they're being watched, and that some of the things they do are illegal. But they do not want think that their actions may someday come back to bite them in the ass. So they bring up the old "COINTELPRO" accusations and call none other than the ACLU to come in and sue to get the records released and hopefully destroyed.

We had the WTO riots here in '99, and the "anniversary" demonstration in 2000. So this could be interesting since the same folks from those two will be here for this. I will try to get pictures for you and also try to not get arrested. You see, the back of the thigh is a very sensitive spot and I have this cattleprod you see and...oh wait. Never mind.

Nothing like getting the truly paranoid even more so. Hehehe

Just to let you know, I had an experience in my late teens that burned a deep distrust in government in me to this day. So I see groups like the LEIU and the Patriot Acts I & II as formality. And I'll have something written up with a pretty darn good link in it on Monday, hopefully. That is unless they come and get me.

I was over at Ravenwood's Universe and read about this.

It seems a badger got a bit saucy in Worcestershire. Evesham to be exact. He went on a 48 hour rampage chasing the (unarmed) police officers onto the hoods of their cars and biting 5 people, one man so badly he needed skin grafts.

The police eventually called in an animal expert to subdue the animal. He then determined that it needed to be put down.

I was telling this to the wife, and she relayed a story about a family member in Montana getting trapped in pickup by a badger over a decade ago (he forgot the keys outside the truck), so I know they're mean and all. But geez, after the first person was bitten, maybe even before then, myself and most other folks I know would have put the little bastard down by 7am and gone off the local eating establishment to get our "bangors and mash".

But then again, I'm a citizen and not a subject.

like her.

�For years, many governments played down the threats of Islamic revolution, turned a blind eye to international terrorism and accepted the development of weaponry of mass destruction. Indeed, some politicians were happy to go further, collaborating with the self-proclaimed enemies of the West for their own short-term gain � but enough about the French. So deep had the rot set in that the UN security council itself was paralysed.�

To borrow a phrase from Instapundit: Heh.

Oh, yeah, she also said this:

�We knew, too, what did not work, namely socialism in every shape or form. Nowadays socialism is more often dressed up as environmentalism, feminism, or international concern for human rights. All sound good in the abstract.

�But scratch the surface and you will as likely as not discover anti-capitalism, patronising and distorting quotas, and intrusions upon the sovereignty and democracy of nations.�

Need I say it? Heh.

But over 10,000 bodies.

Some Iraqis told Fox News reporters on the scene that they wanted to say "thank you" to U.S. and coalition forces for getting rid of Saddam -- "the worst man that ever lived on this earth."

Now I'm confused. I thought George Bush was the worst man who ever lived on this earth.

Take these along.

UPDATE:

Ahhhh, I see. The picture of Palestinians hiding behind their children and the Israelis protecting theirs is just propaganda. Well, that certainly wxplains things like this:

Or there's this photo of a 2001 suicide bombing attack against a nightclub in Tel Aviv:

From the article:

"I saw people lying on the floor. Some had no legs, no arms," Alex Brodsky, 19, said after the blast, the seventh bomb attack against Israelis since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a unilateral ceasefire almost three weeks ago.

Ambulance workers treated victims amid severed limbs and pools of blood, which covered the pavement. Around 90 people were wounded, some critically, from the blast, which occurred outside the Pacha nightclub, a popular haunt for Russian immigrants.

So, let's see. Seven attacks in 3 weeks since Israel UNILATERALLY issued a cease fire. Yep, the Pa lestinians sure do want peace, all right. They want peace right after Israel is completely obliterated from the face of the Earth.

Here's a little celestial photo to get you in the mood. It's a shot of Jupiter I took through my telescope using a cooled CCD camera.

You may have heard about this already, but for the past two days, here in Seattle, we have been having a "simulated terrorist attack". Basically, they spent somewhere between $2-3,000,000 to show themselves they weren't ready for a real one. Something we already knew.

It was called "TopOff" or some such BS, and included city employees making a big mess in the south end of town, pretending a dirty bomb had gone off and them running around like headless chickens trying to help the pseudo-wounded. Oh yeah, and they mayor ate a lot of doughnuts and drank a lot of lattes. I swear to g*d you couldn't turn on 3 out of the 4 local channels with seeing a "newsbreak" with live arial shots of the mayor snacking.

Now I don't want this to sound like I'm dogging on the emergency services folks here. They did a damn fine job with the equipment they had from what I've heard. It is just the senior officials who sat around and watched these folks work. All the time going on about how we weren't ready for this. I swear that is all I heard from about 3 hours after the operation began until it got over last night.

They're calling the whole thing a "success". And we'll get a report back from the Office of Homeland Security" some this fall. This fall! What? Whip out the tapes Tom, we can do a play-by-play on this baby. What good is a report this fall going to do in between now and then, ya nimrod.

Now you can look at this two ways. Terrorists are going to either scratch Seattle off their list, as our practice has lowered the possibility of mass casualties. Or they'll exclusively target us after everybody yakkin' about how we aren't ready. Take you pick.

Oh yeah, the other piece of drivel that probably shouldn't have gotten out was "Man, this would really mess up traffic!"

One of my favorite sites in the "Gun Debate" genre is "Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership".

The reason I like their place is that, in their early days they were able to have a very unique view on this debate. "What if the jews in 1930's Germany had been able to own firearms?"

They have a great deal of info on this topic at their site. But there are two items I would like to point you to.

One is called "Raging Against Self-Defense" an essay containing possible reasons for many of the anti-gun folks' fear of guns and gun owners.

The other is a bit more fun. It is the Bill of Rights, translated into 10 languages and put into a .pdf.

The languages available are: Spanish, German, French, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Armenian.

Download them all. Send them to friends. Send them to enemies. Hell, send them to Arafat and Ali Khomenni of Iran.

I go to Michele's place (asmallvictory.net) for a minute between posts, and what do I find?

The International Solidarity Movement has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Now they can be in the same league as Nelson Mandela, Jimmeh Cahtah, and their idol Yasser Arafat.

Bush and Blair were nominated too, but you probably never heard about that.

In the comments of an earlier post I believe I had a revelation. It won't help the situation over in Israel any, but it may in part, help explain part of the thought processes of young American adults who go over and aid the "palestinians" in killing Israelis.

My revelation was the "Who ever smelt it, dealt it" theory (aka: you did it to yourself and deserved it. Also used by abusive spouses).

It is a vicious circular game played by the "palestinians" that goes like this: A bomb goes off on a crowded Israeli bus, killing innocent people going to work and children going to school. The Israelis ask, "why did you do this?" And the "palestinians" say "because you are killers". Israel says "but we offered you a peace plan with everything you want". And the palis say "but the plan did not include you all killing yourselves, so we did not want it. You are killers, so we will kill you". And around and around we go. I'm sure that you see the circuitous nature of the problem here.

Oddly, as far apart as Israel and America are physically, the same theory that is taught in the madras' in which "palestinian" children are taught, is subconsciously taught to students here in the US.

Now, the way that this relates to young Americans going to aid terrorists is this: When young adults get out of high school, their brains are still forming. Depending on the person, they need a few more years real world experience to get the brain to full development. Some need more, some need less. Unfortunatly, a large number of them go directly to universities, colleges and the ever dreadfull "non-accredited schools of seconday education" (ie. Evergreen State College, Rachel Corrie's alma matter), and as we all know these places are not the real world.

While at those places, these still forming minds are bombarded by multiple forms of information that has the equivalent of junk food. No facts, all filler. Meant to gain nothing but an emotional response. Most young adults can throw off the vast majority of this. But those that cannot have their development thrown into limbo. As they intake this propaganda, they form opinions without the complete information. Utterly ignoring any word to the opposite. This explains why, when confronted with facts they either yell over the person they disagree with, call them various forms of the word "stupid", or break things.

These reactions are equivalent to the childhood responses of: Lalalala, I can't hear you, calling someone a "stupidhead", and the breaking of toys to gain attention. And since they are reverting to their childhood physical reactions, it is safe to assume their thoughts are reverting as well. Hence my theory.

Some of these unfortunate young adults have a need for "community service" deep in their souls. Sadly though, it is not their native community they feel the need to service, so they go off to foreign lands to help aid/defend the causes they "learned all about" in their secondary institutions. And they are filled to the brim with my theory. This can lead to mental and sometimes physical abuse by the causes they are aiding/defending. And can ultimately lead to martyrdom for said causes.

So there you have it folks. The "Whoever smelt it, dealt it" theory. Anyway you look at the situation, it stinks.

Doing a little lecturing on a CE cruise that sails from New Orleans to Cozumel. Not bad, getting four days of

in exchange for a couple of hours worth of lecture, don't ya think?

I wrote this piece a while back, but it meshes nicely with AK's post below.

Edition 2,341

I was planning on going on over to CNS News. com to get some info to write a rant about how the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is going to protest against Greenpeace at one of GP's rallys. It seems that they see the Green's stance against industrialization and the use of pesticides in the 3rd would is helping keep them there.

But instead, I got sidetracked by this article about some Stanford statistics geeks trying to poke holes in the research done by Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime. (www.cnsnews.com/viewculture.asp?page\culture\archive\200305\cul20030513b.html

First off, this is a subject near and dear to me. I have absolutly no time for people who believe the propaganda given out by Sarah Brady and her ilk. I don't really need Lott's stats. I have history. Hell, I have the present. Britain and Australia. No guns in the hands of the citizenry, crime goes up. Easy enough. A study sponsored by the UN itself says that I am 6 times more likely to be on the wrong side of a violent crime in London than in NYC. If it wasn't so tragic for Londoners, it would be funny.

The truly most tragic part of this whole debate though, is that the most vocal of the anti-gun rights advocates want average, everyday, hard-working men and women to live their lives unable to defend themselves. All while the advocates live in walled-off neighborhoods with private security patrols. And with supporters like Oprah and large numbers of the Hollywood crowd to spread the word, the gullible public eat it up. Why else would they believe that the "Assualt Weapon Ban Bill" is a good thing.

Anyway, back to the article.

The main cheesehead here seems to be John Donahue from Stanford University Law School. I knew him to be an idiot when I read this quote from him. "There seems to be almost no benefit from concealed handguns". In the article the author noted that he immediatly retracted that statement. At least he has a small semblance of honesty. But he then goes on to compare the ability to carry a gun for protection to some "cost". And then goes on to say that they may "offset" one another. And he never goes on to say what the word "almost" means to him.

If this guy is as big an idiot I think he is, the "cost" he is refering to is the cost of sewing up bad guys when private citizens put holes in them. People like him never take into account the cost of sewing up private citizens when bad guys put holes in them though. It would cancel out their numbers. And the public never thinks of that part of the equation themselves, becuase crime only happens to "other people". So they go on believing the bile that spills out from people like this psuedo-social engineering law researcher.

I could go on and on asking how does this prick get the balls to morally equate the safety of the citizenry with dollar signs. Or tell you that this c*cksmoker wants a national gun registry "so he can gather more statistics" (yeah right!). But I think I'll just point you in the direction of the article and have you read it.

Warning: If our opinoins are in anyway alike, you are hereby warned to remove heavy objects and breakables from the desk beforehand.

I love this story (www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/Topstory2/1906120) about the Democrats in the Texas Senate running and hiding because they were going to get their asses kicked in a redistricting vote.

It seems that since there was no way they were going to win this vote, so they conspired to leave the state and go into hiding until the session is over on Thursday. They even packed extra clothes. You see, if 1/3 of the house is not present, no vote can take place. But, if they are absent during session, the house majority leader can call the Texas Rangers out to arrest them. But only if they are within state lines.

So, being a map geek, I whipped out my atlas and took a peek. Oh my. Seems like the good doctor Nukevet could help out. He'd have to drive a little while, but still. My best guess is that they either took FM 79 to Hwy 20 to Shreveport. But more than likely though they took FM 280 to Hwy 10 and are hunkered down in Lafayette.

Good hunting doc. As long a neither of these towns have too many local sniveling bitches wandering around, you should have an easy go of it.

Just what does the New York Times think it is doing by letting this slip?

NYT May 11th, 2003 Judith Miller
(www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/international/worldspecial/11WEAP.html)

"A team of experts searching for evidence of biological and chemical weapons in Iraq has concluded that a trailer found near Mosul, in Northern Iraq in April, is a mobile biological weapons laboratory"

W-W-W-What?!
They're saying that the lab was cleaned with a "caustic agent".
What was Helen Thomas doing in Iraq?

Oh wait here we go. There is a dispute among some of the team members. Some of them are not convinced.

"The team leader said that the lab contained equipment that could be used to make vaccines, drug and other peaceful pathogens, as well as deadly germs for warfare. And that Iraq had therefore been obliged to disclose possession of such equipment to international inspectors before the war"

(puchline below)

The team leader is also quoted as saying "The failure to disclose such equipment is a clear violation of United Nations sanctions and an indication of ill intent".

Ill intent? Iraq? Noooo! (smirk)

Pic found during a Google search and was shamlessly borrowed from the
autofx.com site. It will be returned later.

And you know who you are, go read this little op-ed in rebuttal to the Drabble Babble of last week.

The best bit:

These are the arguments of idiots or scoundrels. The last thing America wants is to be alone in the world trying to uphold the values of liberal democracy. The problem is that it does find itself alone, forced into unilateralism by Dame Margaret's UN, which would not enforce any of its 17 resolutions on Iraq. But for her and her ilk, everything comes back to the fault of the US.

I have been stopping by the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) site (palsolidarity.org) every four or five days for the last couple of months. Whenever I get done with the random Indymedia sites and I do not find my stomach turned, this is where I go. Partly because I'm trying to lose my appetite (it is a weird kind of weight loss program I made up), and partly because I'm looking for where they planted Rachel Corrie. I have all these cool stickers from the dozer division of CAT. I've given some to my nephews, but I don't want to waste them all you see.

Well, I get there today and they have an official statement (palsolidarity.org/pressreleasebombers) up on the subject of those bombers from Britain. It is actually a number of statements from multiple members of the ISM. The majority of them proof of the propaganda spoon-fed to these people (mostly overly-idealistic, guilt-ridden white college students).

Needless to say, this sufficiently kept me from the waffle iron this morning. The first thing to strike me as odd is the way they seem to be spelling the words "palestinian" and "palestine". They seem to have taken up the habit of putting a space between the pa and the lestine.

Like this: Pa lestine.

I know I'm not hip anymore, but I never even got the FWD.FWD.FWD. email on this one.

Once I got over that I started reading the statement. They finally seem to have gotten their story straight about what Corrie was doing on the day she got runned over. "We left flowers at the spot where Rachel died while protecting the home of a Pa lestinian doctor. We had to leave earlier than we wanted to because of the arrival of Israeli tanks". Oddly, there was no word about the smuggling tunnel at the same location where she was killed. But, oh well.

Then, I was hit by a full frontal BS attack in the form of two sentences. "The ISM believes that in order to end the violence, the Israeli occupation - the root of the violence - must end. To that end, we are mobilizing non-violently". I guess if they believe it, there's really no BS. It's just the BS that is included in their beliefs that pegs the BS-o-meter. No words are included in the entire statement about the actual violence occurs berfore the IDF goes in looking for co-conspirators. No words condeming the killing of bouncers outside a club. I guess he must have deserved it in their little minds. But isn't that thought, in a situation like this one, equal to violence?

You know what is going on. You're right in the middle of it. You know that if one thing stops, the other side is willing to give you exactly what you need. And yet you support the one thing that keeps the process from ending peacefully. Yeah, I can see that as violent. Kind of like knowing you neighbor is a serial killer. You never know if, when or where he is going to strike, but you don't try to stop him yourself or report him to the authorities. I think they call a person like that an accessory here in America?

They actually never speak of the violence that the "palestinians" commit anywhere on their site. I've looked. No pics of the pieces of children left over from a suicide bombing. But plenty of pics of young terrorists killed by the IDF. Teenagers who "just happen" to get caught in the middle of a fire-fight between the "palis" and the IDF. Or pics of children who were in a bomb-making facility when it was Tomahawked.

They bitch and moan about getting harrased and turned away at the airport if the Israelis suspect they might be pro-palestinian. I thought that if you were Israel, you had a say as to who got into your country. Especially if they conspire to cause harm to your citizenry. Especially when they say that the ISM is "Palestinian led, but not pro-palestinian". That is an actual quote from this statement. I kid you not. They're damn lucky they all haven't been rounded up by the IDF and deported after a brain the size of a walnut comment like that.

Also in this statement they admit to meeting with the British bombers before one of them went boom. I cannot remember the timeline of events, so it could have been up to a week between the two events. But understand, they offered shelter and comfort to two people who admitted to them they were in Israel for some "Alternative Tourism". No joke. That is what they called it. I guess going to a foreign land and BLOWING YOURSELF UP could be considered an alternative. But don't invite me.

In conclusion, I guess I'm not surprised that I heard no condemnation of the "British Boomers" attack anywhere in this statement. Nor was there any condemnation of the "Israel: kill, destroy, hate" brainwashing the young "palestinian" children get on the road to earning their exploding vest. I guess if you are reinforcing those beliefs by your presence, you'd really hate to give evidence that prove you're stupid.

I was wading through the political sewer that is my local Indymedia site and found a gold ring and snatched it up.

It is a review of a book by Anne Applebaum called: Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps by Vladimir Bukovsky writing for the Sunday Times (UK).

The book seems to be a deep look into the camps and also a look into modern European politics. With frightening comparisons.

Here are the last couple of lines of the review:
"And what particular form the gulags might take, what new "crimes" our Utopians will crusade against, be they political correctness, or a new European crime of "Xenophobia" is not important. The ghost of the gulag is still wandering among us, and Applebaum's book is a first attempt to exorcise it."

Quick, go to www.seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=27280&group;=webcast
Before they take it off the site.

The good doctor Nukevet knows me to be a gun guy. I grew up in a gun shop, or as it was known to the officials and teachers in my various state education institutions, a sporting goods store (yes I got flak from them about this). I usually start from a receiver or frame and build up from there. I have also bought used guns, checked the safety and function of their existing parts, and rebuilt them from that point. Some of these projects were for myself, but most were for friends of mine.

So far I have built/rebuilt 15 1911's, 6 AR-15's, 3 FAL's, 3 Remington 700 HB's, 3 Remington 870's, 2 Browning Hi-Power's, 2 M-14's (M1A's actually), 2 M1 Garand's, a CETME, a Remington 1100, a S&W; M-37 revolver, and a Winchester 94.

I am currently working on my 16th 1911 project right now.

But the Nukevet probably doesn't know I am also a grade A car nut as well.

I started out by building a couple of Chev V-8's in highschool. After that I stopped playing with cars for a couple years. Then, through an odd circumstance in 1992, I got involved with a group of guys who played with import cars, namely Toyota's. I quickly got the fever for turning a wrench again and went at it with an obsession for almost 5 years, building cars for both the street and the track. Maybe one of these days I'll post some photos and stories of some of the stupid/amazing/superhuman things I did back then.

But this is not the time for that. Today I'm going to introduce you to a beautiful woman named Eleanor.

You will probably recognise her from the movie/s "Gone in 60 Seconds". Well, it seems that ol' Carroll Shelby has gotten so many questions about this car that he is building them at his own shop. Now, I have never been a big fan of the Mustang. Nor do I really enjoy the Camaro, Firebird, Corvette, or GTO. I do like muscle cars, but I'm more of a Mopar guy.

But how could any sane American male not want this car? Yeah, it may cost over $100,000, but a mans has to have dreams!

To keep you Ford guys happy I'll let you know that I am in the middle of a 1963 Falcon Wagon project for the wife. You GM guys will just have to be happy knowing the 350 wins the title of the most widely used V-8.

Eleanor has 3 engine options: a 325hp 302, a 430hp 390, and a supercharged 427 with output numbers that have been kept under wraps. But I don't have to imagine too hard to see numbers like 500+hp.

Go to either mustangmonthly.com/techarticles/173_0303_mach/
or
classicar.com/articles/carroll_shelby.asp
to read more about Eleanor. (sorry I haven't quite fiured out the process of linking)

Or go to customfastbackca.com (where I got these two pics) to see more of her.

Just be careful not to drool on the desk. Your significant other may not believe you were just looking at cars.

Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before.

Throughout the whole Iraq situation there have been many jokes. But I read this one somewhere a while back (I do not remember where) and it was a big hit with the folks at the Mom's Day party.

A Welshman, a frenchman, and an American were walking along a beach when they spotted an old oil lamp. The Welshman picked up the lamp, showed it to the other two and started to clean it. Moments later a genie appeared fromout of the lamp. He said "I am the magic genie of the lamp. To thank thee for releasing me from my prison, I will grant each of you one wish."

Flabbergasted, the three men looked at one another, until finally, the Welshman spoke. "I am a farmer. My father was a farmer, just like his father and his fathers father. My son too, will be a farmer. My wish is that the lands of Wales will always be fertile." "Done" said the genie.

Next the frenchman spoke. "I wish there to be a wall that surrounds france. We are sick and tired of our culture being diluted by others and jealous countries always invading us. I want nothing to be able to get through this wall." Again, the genie said "done".

Lastly the American spoke up. "Genie, tell me about this wall your wonderful powers built?" Surprised, the genie said "Well master, it is 300 feet tall and 300 feet thick. And it consists of a solid granite core with a surface of the most beautiful white marble."

"Excellent!", said the American. "Fill it with water!"

Well, then you better visit the Klingon Language Institute to work on your pronunciation.

Here's my idea of how things will go if they get a native speaker of the "warriors tongue" to work with some of their patients.

Apparently, there is some question about whether the jockey of the Kentucky Derby winner had something other than his whip in his hand during the race. Now, I am not a big racing fan, but the fact that the jockey and the stable have changed their story 3 times is not such a great thing. Their current story is that the reporters misunderstood what the jockey was saying (he speaks with a heavy accent), and that what the images show is a copper bracelet that he wears for arthritis. Look at the pictures below, and tell me what you think - is that a bracelet? Why is he holding it in his hand instead of wearing it on his wrist? And, as I read in one report, other photos of the jockey do show him wearing the bracelet, but it is always on the left wrist, and this is the right wrist in the photo. So, all in all, I am pretty skeptical of the "it's a bracelet" claim. Plus, the stable is denouncing the investigation with a verve and vigor that would make a French Diplomat to Syria proud - which makes me even more suspicious.

The thing that interested me enough about this to write a post on it was these 2 pictures, from the MSNBC website dealing with the story. They are supposed to be 2 different photos of the "hand in question", taken from slightly different angles. One of these photos shows the mystery object (right), and the other does not (left). But, doesn't it look like the photo on the left has been retouched? And not very well, either. It looks to me like someone took the color of the shirt from the jockey seen behind the hand, and colored out the suspicious object with it. Doesn't it appear as if the color of the shirt is somehow in exactly the same place, and actually covers the webbing between the fingers? I mean, come on, if you're gonna use photoshop, at least try and make it convincing. Or, am I completely wrong and misinterpreting what I see?

UPDATE:

This definitely looks like a bad photoshop job in this close-up of the Easley photo.

OK, I just got my copy of the tape of Mr. T's interview top senate leaders. As you probably know, he is a man of action, not words. But surprisingly he knows his politics and politicians. I was unable to get his web address from him, but for some reason I don't think this will be the last we hear from Mr. T.

So here you go. Read up while I replace the window that the brick attached to the cassette tape came through.

Mr. T here fool. I'm in Washington D.C. to interview some political honchos in our US Senate about the plan by the Republicans to put some hurt on the Democrat's filibuster of judicial nominees Miguel Estrada and Pricilla Owen.

Mr. T - Fool, I'm here with Bill Frist. He's the Republican Senate Majority leader. I'm gonna call you Billy. Got it Senator?
Frist - Whatever you say Mr. T.
T - Good answer. OK Billy, so whatchu think you're doing, bustin' up the Democrat's filibuster?
F - Well Mr. T, we believe that what the senate democrats are doing is illegal. The Constitution of the United States says that it is one of the President's duties to appoint judges to federal positions. And he has done that. The only part of the process that involves the senate is first the approval of a committie. And both of the nominees have done that. The only other function the senate has in this process is a thumbs up, thumbs down vote on the floor. They are not allowed to just hold them in limbo. And in turn voilating the Constitution.
T - I pity the fool who'd filibuster my nominees! So what do you plan on doin' 'bout these dummies?
F - We plan on using our "Nuclear Option" here.
T - Dummy, you gonna nuke your own capitol! At least let a man know when you're light that thing off so I can get out of town.
F - No, no Mr. T. The "Nuclear Option" is a legislative plan we can use to break up their filibuster. Actually, Joe Lieberman and Tom Harkin came up with this idea back in the mid 90's. Basically, in a filibuster we need 60 votes instead of the normal simple majority of 51. We already have 52 votes. So since we have the majority of the vote for these nominees, once we enact our option we will take the first vote needing 60 yea's. If we don't get the votes we need then, each subsequent vote needs 3 less yea votes to get them confirmed. Until we get all the way down to 51. At which time they'll be confirmed.
T - Sounds like some good voodoo to me. What is so bad about these nominees that the Democrats won't vote them onto the dang bench? Bad meaning bad, not bad meaning good.
F - That is a subject for another time Mr. T. I really don't want to comment on that right now.
T - Spit it out, fool!
F - I really can't say. But you could go ask Daschle. His office is right down the hall. Second door past the restrooms.
T - Thank you, Billy. I'm gonna go squeeze some answers from Tommy right now.
F - Good to talk with you Mr. T.
T - I know.

At this point the audio tape gets quite muffled, but I can hear footsteps. Then there is a loud crash that sounds like a station wagon hitting a house. But I suspect it is just Mr. T kicking in the first door to Daschle's office.

Receptionist - You can't go in there. I said you can't go in there. The senator is in a meeting.

Another large crashing sound is heard.

Daschle - Who, wha?
Mr. T - I'm Mr. T, you fool! I got questions and you better have answers. What are you doin', dummy?
D - Uh, nothing.
T - You're playing video games!
D - Maybe.
T - That's Civilization!
D - Yes. Yes it is.
T - All your people are suffering and dying!
D - I know, I know! I keep getting to this point and enacting a socialist parlimentary governmental system. Give it time. The people start to revolt.
T - I would too, fool! Stop playing with that! Why are you guys blocking Estrada and Owen?
D - I'm not going to tell you!

Here there are sounds of a struggle and then gurgling noises. My best guess is that a headlock is taking place.

D - Stop! Please! What city do you live in? I'll up the monthly welfare payments and make it easier to be brought into the system.! I promise!
T - You think Mr. T don't know that welfare is a socio-economic trap, fool! Turning people into slaves for the state and making them dependant on the whims and kindness of government bureaucrats. Is that what you think Tommy boy?
D - No T!
T - You can call me Mr. T!
D - Yes Mr. T!
T - That's better! So why the filibuster? Why don't you just knock off all the jibber-jabber?
D - Hillary said she'd beat me up if they go through.
T - Yeah, she is a little scary. Seems like a loose cannon to me.
D - Plus I lost a drinking contest with Kennedy.
T - You really are a dummy!
D - That's not even the worst part. Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein stole my blankey and they say they'll burn it if I don't block the approval. I don't know why they want them stopped. Everybody says they're very qualified.
T - You know the Republicans are going to use their "Nuclear Option" against you?
D - They're gonna nuke D.C.! I gotta get out of town.
T - That's what I said, fool! But it ain't a bomb, it's a new procedure.
D - Whew! I was pretty sure the whoppie cushions and fart in a can jokes of last fall were about as extreme as they'd go.
T - But this new procedure is going to squish your filibuster like a filibug.
D - No! Frist can't do that! My blankey!

Sobbing can be heard in the background.

T - You is a sad, sad man, Tommy.

At this point the tape ends.

Some of us believe the New York Times has been writing fiction for years. You know, things like "Iraqi National Museum Looted of over 170,000 Antiquities" and the like. That Times masterpiece missed the mark by fairly wide mark as well, didn't it?
�It�s a huge black eye,� Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Co. and publisher of the newspaper, said in the article. �It�s an abrogation of the trust between the newspaper and its readers.�

UPDATE:

Instapundit provides the "Heh"

Matthew Campbell, Baghdad
THE furore over the looting of Iraq�s national museum took an unexpected turn yesterday when workers accused their director of conniving in the theft of priceless antiquities during the chaotic collapse of the regime in Baghdad.

Unexpected by whom, exactly? The strategy of "Hey. let's do whatever we want and blame it on the Americans" has been in full swing since well before the war with Iraq even began.

Adding Analog Kid was a great strategy for RNS. But damn, I gotta get me some monkeys.

Oh, yeah, if you haven't read Scrappleface in a while, go do it now.

to the ridiculous.

Yep, your hard earned tax dollars at work.

is heading home.

I'm sure the howls of "this war was based on a lie" will increase several hundred fold from the left. But the fact that we are switching from a "rapid response team" that went in to look at several hundred suspected hot zones to a larger "find the needle in a haystack" team raises the sobering prospect that these weapons may already be in someone else's hands.

We know Saddam has/had these weapons, so where are they? Either buried deep in the Iraqi desert (nothing like an added 6 months to hide things when you know the bogeyman is coming - thank you, UN). Or, are we too late, and these agents are already somewhere else in the middle east. If you are going to take the tack that poor old Saddam was victimized by the US because he never had any of these WMDs or WMD programs - then explain to me why he didn't cooperate with investigators and help end sanctions against his country years ago.

Of course, the WaPo article completely ignores all of the documentation that has been found, and focuses just on the physical absence of WMDs in the hot zones where the 75th did all of their work. Like I said, it's amazing how well you can hide things when you have 6 months (or 12 years) to practice. Finding WMDs in Iraq would have been bad enough. Not finding them, but finding evidence of an extensive weapons development program, is far, far worse.

Who I met yesterday. Not in a hundred years. Nope.

Mr. T! He's a little shorter than I thought he would be, but the attitude can be intimidating. It seems he's starting his own weblog and was here to do an interview with top Senate officials. Which put me in an awkward position, because I had to inform him he came to the wrong Washington.

After he calmed down I asked if he would let me join him during the interviews. He said no, that he moves faster as a one man question wrecking machine. I scratched my head at that one but I then asked if I could get a copy of the interview tape. He said yes and I should be getting it sometime this morning.

Stay tuned.

It's Mother's Day once again. The day that those of us who aren't mothers get off our duffs and try to do the things we didn't do during our childhood. It's the day when we make sure mom knows we appreciate everything she has done and all the things she still does. When those of us who have grown up and moved out bring or send gifts, cheer and ourselves.

If you cannot be with mom today, call her and find a friend who is going to see their mom. If you don't have a friend who is going to mom's, or a friend, do an extra good deed for the day. My favorite pasttime when I cannot make it to mom's is to buy a dozen carnations or roses and head on down a local nursing home. I go in and talk to the staff to find out who doesn't get visits and proceed to pass along some joy.

Have a good day all.

P.S. Grandma would like a call too.

Louisiana has millions of small bodies of water that hold bass and panfish. If you are willing to do a little hiking, you can get to secluded ponds that have had minimal fishing pressure on the local inhabitants (read: the fish are neither too timid nor too bright). However, there are a few bad things that go along with these secluded ponds. Lots of biting bugs and, worse, biting snakes. My least favorite is this critter:

Water Moccasins (cottonmouths) are mean, ill-tempered, and aggressive. They will chase you around the pond, and I've even had a couple try to get into my boat if I annoyed them enough.

Fortunately, in Louisiana, they sell really effective snake repellant. Today, I just took my "small size" snake repellant with me.

an industrial strength paper shredder for Saddam.

While France adamantly denies dealing with Iraq after the start of the war, multiple intelligence reports indicate the French may have helped some Iraqi leaders escape. The Washington Times was the first to report Wednesday that France offered visas to Iraqi officials who had fled to Syria. France denied those charges as well.

For that "special occasion - you know, wedding, anniversary, first date with someone you REALLY like"?

I Love the smell of bacon, eggs and sausage in the morning.

Smells like...........breakfast!

Good Saturday to you all.

I'd like to thank Neal for the opportunity to borrow his real estate for a while. I hope to be entertaining, informative, and maybe just annoying enough that you feel the need to check in to find out what bee is in my bonnet. I am writing something up that should tweak just about everyone's ears, including my own. That is why I'm wanting to write about it. If it gets the response I want we may have a contest later on in the week.

Just to let y'all know, I work nights so my posts will either be late in the day or before the sun comes up.

P.S. I don't regularly wear bonnets, but it entertains the pets.

Don't forget Mom tommorrow.

Hey, faithful readers, admirers, bashers, and lurkers of RNS -

I'm happy to announce that I now have a wingman. The Analog Kid has graciously accepted an offer to be a "co-poster" to RNS. I think this is a great boon for RNS, and for me, personally. So, you'll notice post with a new "AnalogKid" by-line. Stop by and say howdy!

More accounts of the "looting" of the Iraqi National Museum.

And now it's gamblers vs. Casinos

Once again, we see the old "everyone is responsible for my actions but me" syndrome. The few "compulsive" gamblers I've known didn't need to be in a casino to find something to bet on. But of course, the casinos are the target because that is where the plaintiffs (and their attorneys) stand to make the most money.

So Harmonia offers us, again, a link to the satire site Whitehouse.org to bolster some point she is trying to make. I peruse this site from time to time, primarily to see how nasty the "enlightened" left is being. Well, today they're being pretty damn nasty. If you follow the link, you come to the "Civilian Warmonger Armchair Medal of Valor" awards. It's not surprising that Sean Hannity is in for some vitriol and nastiness, but what about Joe Lieberman? The text from Joe's "nomination":

Joe Lieberman: For being so pumped-up on laughable delusions that real Americans (not Connectazoids) would ever vote for a raisin-faced Jew dwarf who won't even eat bacon or drive a Ford F-150 on Saturdays, that you supported my little wargasm every step of the way. Hey Joe! What's it like looking in the mirror and seeing Mike Dukasis in a yarmulke?

Raisin-faced Jew Dwarf? Yep, the left - the side of compassion, goodness, and light. As long as your not a Jew Dwarf, that is.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Man, I got a lot of issues to deal with. Might even need an exorcism or 2........

Found via Doc Weevil's

Isn't this, you know, aiding and abetting terrorists?

Is anyone surprised that France helped senior Iraqi officials escape by issuing them EU passports? I wonder how the rest of the EU feels, knowing that France, acting in a very unilateral" fashion, has given EU passports to Ba'athist thugs - who can now move freely within and between the borders of most of the EU members. And make no mistake about it - this action was predicated purely by a desire to help keep France's dirty little secrets - secret.

What action has France taken in the last 2 years that makes us think of them, even remotely, as allies? This country is not our friend, and we need to accept that and move on.

From the article:

An unknown number of Iraqis who worked for Saddam Hussein's government were given passports by French officials in Syria, U.S. intelligence officials said.
The passports are regarded as documents of the European Union, because of France's membership in the union, and have helped the Iraqis avoid capture, said officials familiar with intelligence reports.

The French, of course, play the victim:

Asked about the passports, Nathalie Loiseau, a spokeswoman for the French Embassy, said French authorities have not issued any visas to officials of the former Iraqi regime since the beginning of the war in Iraq, either in Syria or elsewhere.
"France formally denies this type of allegation, which is not only contrary to reality but is intended to discredit our nation," she said. "It is certainly time for rumors of this type � totally unfounded and a dishonor to those who spread them � to stop."

Hold your friends close, hold your enemies even closer. I think it is time we hold France very, very close indeed.

The employer has the right to do what he wants if someone violates "company policy". But this seems to come a lot closer to a "chill wind" than anything Tim Robbins ever had blow up his skirt.

Merely to get my entry counter off of "666".

I watched Jason X last night. Michelle was right.

ERRATUM:

Yes, I put an extra "l" in Michele. I was in a hurry. It was the drugs. The pain of watching Jason X still hadn't worn off. Whatever the reason, it is an error I shall not make again.......

Understand that being called a Cowboy is not such a bad thing?

Careful, this link takes you to a "Peace Poster" contest, where you can see all kinds of interesting things. One of my favorites is the poster that features this headline from a South African newspaper - "Go to Hell, Mugabe tells Bush", with "and so say all of us" appended by the artist. And the anti-liberation group wonders why their message didn't play well in the US?

Found via Treacher's place.

and then there's REALLY, REALLY STUPID.

And challenges the "Bush as moron" mantra so common from the left these days (hell, since day 1, actually)

Which begs the question - if you call someone a moron, and that person repeatedly outmaneuvers and outflanks you, then that makes you .........what, exactly?

Hezbollah rejects the "Roadmap to Peace". It's never been about Peace. It's only about exterminating Israel.

�I rule out that the road map is an acceptable solution for the Palestinian people,� said Hussein Al-Khalil, Hezbollah�s political officer. He added he�s not optimistic about Powell�s visit to the region. �The U.S. State Department � America�s foreign policy � works on behalf of Israel. It�s not a State Department for the American people.�

Yep, the American State Department - just a shill for the Jews.

"I'm gonna sue if I don't get my way" mentality that permeates the US.

Speaking of asinine lawsuits: - How about what this girl is doing to undermine her father's lawsuit, allegedly filed in her name?

And moves to it's own domain name. Poliblogger has new digs, so stop over and say "howdy" (and adjust your bookmarks accordingly).

The general take seems to be that the speech was just about right for the occassion, and the aircraft carrier setting was perfect. Instapundit liked the speech, but didn't care for the "publicity stunt" landing. It seems most pundits disagree with the Instaman on that score. Bill Quick over at DailyPundit has a view opposite of GHR's, and his comments section provides some interesting fodder for thought as well.

Some of the interesting points brought up by Bill's commenters:

but the best one - that the event took place on May Day - the official "workers party day". Heh, nice little bit of upstaging.

And as for the cries of "political grandstanding" - so effin what? The Democrats started politicizing the war as soon as it started, so why shouldn't Bush get a little love now that the major combat ops have ended? Yeah, there's still a lot of work to do in both Afghanistan and Iraq - there will still be suicide bombings and attacks from Ba'ath party hardliners. But we will just have to deal with those things as they arise. I'm sure every attack on US forces will be pointed at as proof that certain elements of the "Arab street" still hates and resents us, which will undoubtedly contain a central core of truth. But if true, I would still prefer the "Arab street" to hate and FEAR us, rather than just hate us.

Dixie Chicks 1

Boycott Hollywood 0

Ahhhh, the horrors visited on the left by the current Administration. Crucifixion of those who disagree with the religious fanatics in the White House (at least according to some of our commentors), the unexplained disappearance of US citizens (according to the tinfoil hat crowd over at the DU-MB), the "chill wind" of McCarthyism, etc, etc, etc. And it's all just a bunch of shrill harping and caterwauling.

Here's a hint - if you say something that angers the "general public", maybe you aren't speaking FOR the general public. There's lots of angst over the fact that "conservative media" is taking over the US airways. Well, why the hell is that true? Maybe it's because that is what a majority of people listening to the airways want to hear. Rupert Murdoch is, first and foremost, a greedy capitalist. The only reason Fox and Clearchannel have the right wing focus that do is because it PAYS well for them to do so. Why does it pay well - because it's what people want. It's not my fault that O'Reilly plays better than NPR or PBS. And cries that Fox needs to be "reigned in" and that other perspectives need to be given "equal time" are just asinine. It irritates the hell out of me that my tax dollars ONLY support a broadcasting corporation that I think is very left leaning (although I do listen to NPR fairly regularly, just to get the "other perspective"). I'll be damned if I'll support the concept that right wing radio needs to be reigned in so NPR can better compete in the marketplace.

For the record - I have very little use for Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, or Mike Reagan, and I think Dr. Laura is an idiot. I do occassionally watch Bill O'Reilly, and find that I agree with him more often than not.

However, my stance on abortion and religion pretty much quarantee that I disagree with just about everything else these "VRWC" talking heads espouse.

UPDATE

Maybe a reprieve for Boycott-Hollywood.US? Who knows, maybe we will end up with a late inning comeback by the "free speech for me, too" crowd. What we need is a rally monkey of some type. I guess this will just have to do.....

Oh, yeah, and then there's this:

Will love this site, or hate it.

Found via the Volokh Conspiracy

Could you do THIS?

Has a "Socialist" perspective of May day, and a bit of weather prognostication to boot. Besides, anyone from Estonia that can reference Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel in my comments section is always welcome at RNS!

Apparently it's not just civilian body counts we have trouble with. The estimate of 170,000 looted items from the National Museum of Iraq has been revised ever so slightly downward. To 29. Not 29,000, just plain old 29.

Instapundit reports that the Boycott-Hollywood website is being shut down with threats of litigation.

Let's see now - Hollywood airheads regurgitate vapid anti-American sentiments, finds out the general public doesn't care for such, and starts the TV talk show rounds screaming about stifling of dissent.

Some American(s) start up a website to show how stupid and vacuous they feel the comments of these actors are, and pretty soon they are shut down by someone with money threatening them with litigation.

Which side, exactly, is trampling on the first amendment?

If you're so inclined, stop by the Boycott-Hollywood website and visit the tip jar. But hurry, they only have 24 hours before their website host shuts them down and trashes their domain name.

that this post on Woody Harrelson, from October 17th, 2002, had started getting comments again sometime in March (I would love to know where it is linked from, if anyone knows). I also stated that there were pro and con posts for Woody in the latest barrage. Well, that trend in continuing, but I noticed this morning that NONE of the commentors supporting Woody seem to actually live in the US. We've got Alex from the Netherlands, Anonymous Jimbo from Australia, etc.

It's irritating enough to have to listen to shrieks of "dissent quashing" from people who live here. But to have to listen to it from numbnuts who don't have any perspective on the situation or any personal experience with the shift in American psyche that occured on 9/11 is both tedious and odious.

I guess that's why these "I'm and actor and superior moral compass" types always make their comments overseas - they know they will get a better reception than they will from the people they are actually proselytizing.

coalition had actually been, you know, focused. I mean, you would have to have been focused at some point in time in order to be attempting to gain refocus, no?

The anti-war movement of the Vietnam Era was at least consistent in its message and goals. Todays group is driven primarily by Anti-Americanism ( and yes, that is considerably different than anti-war), anti-globos, NGOs, Marxists and other leftist utopians,and 1960's vintage hippies lookinjg for a return to their glory days.