I heard a few tales of unmitigated rudeness during yesterday morning's rush for bargains from my customers last night, but this, from Orange City, Florida, takes the cake.
A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
As my beloved granny would say, they Lord have mercy. Ain't you people had no better raisin'? Talk about your herd mentality. I've seen cows that had better manners.
Sheesh.
In stark contrast to the aforementioned asshattery, here is one Iraqi's opinion on our President's visit to Iraq. (Discovered via Charles)
The bones in the mass graves salute you, Avenger of the Bones.
Beautifully put.
There's more. Go read.
Tim Robbins has written a play about what really happened in the Iraq war.
Robbins, an ardent critic of President Bush, as well as the war, isn't a journalist, nor is he a soldier who has been to Iraq. In fact, he's never been embedded with the troops.
But his play, "Embedded," profiles the journalists who traveled with and reported on U.S. soldiers in Iraq and features the president's war cabinet. It was written in Los Angeles and produced in Hollywood.
ROTF. I can see where he would be eminently qualified. Not.
Robbins portrays journalists as Pentagon puppets, U.S. soldiers as thieves and killers of innocent women and children, and the Bush cabinet as war mongers willing to start a war to escape the negative publicity of the Enron scandal.
Does it make you feel safer to live in a such black & white world Timmy? False dichotomies never give one true security, IMHO...but that's just me.
In production less than a month, the play received not one, but two glowing reviews from the Los Angeles Times. Robbins' audience appears to accept his version of the war as the gospel truth.
"It is not propaganda. It is a voice of dissent, which is different than propaganda," said audience member Kadina Dayal-Halday.
When Laura Israel, another audience member, was asked if she thought the play was accurate, she replied: "Yes, not only on what is going on there, but it also showed how we are being lied to by all the networks."
Nope, no "systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause" here. It's just exposure of how it's all one big conspiracy. How brave of you to even attend. *snort*
There was at least one audience member who remained unconvinced.
[Marine Maj. Rich] Doherty, who has a Ph.D. from Berkeley, fought in Iraq and worked alongside several embedded journalists. After the show, which Fox News was not allowed to tape, Doherty discussed the performance with some of the audience and cast members.
"You're not on the ground, there is no historical, no empirical evidence to say...that what you're believing or saying politically (is true)," Doherty said.
Their response?
"With all due respect sir, a lot of people in this country feel this administration went to this war with an agenda of their own and this play resonates with a lot of people who come to see it," countered V.J. Foster, an actor who plays the character of Col. Hardchannel in the play.
Like Paul Simon said, "Man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
"That is your opinion based on what you saw in the newspaper," Doherty shot back. "I'm giving you an opinion based on what I saw with my boots on the ground and in the sand."
Tim Robbins, et al, are certainly entitled to their opinions, fact-based or not. Like my daddy always said, opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one.
And I'm fairly certain from which one this play came.
Nicholas Kristof has the most tacky, offensive column about the Iraq war I've seen this year.
In a column 10 days ago about Iraq, I expressed frustration at the absence of a good name for our war there. So I offered prizes (Iraqi 250-dinar notes with Saddam's picture) and invited readers to send in entries.
And here are his "winners".
The five winners, each of whom gets a 250-dinar note left over from my last Iraq trip, are: Brad Corsello of New York for "Dubya Dubya III"; Richard Sanders for "Rolling Blunder"; John Fell of California for "Desert Slog," Will Hutchinson of Vermont for "Mess in Potamia"; and Willard Oriol of New York for "Blood, Baath and Beyond."
How cute....and how easy it is for Mr. Kristof to sit in the safety of his office and trivialize the deaths, injuries and sacrifices of our military members. Whether you oppose the war or not, I think you'd agree it is an inappropriate subject for such mockery. At least I hope you would.
Mr. Kristof ends with this smarmy little paragraph.
More seriously, during this holiday weekend, I hope we'll think often and appreciatively of those Americans who are in Iraq right now. Humor cannot erase their fear and loneliness in the face of Washington's policy failures, or the heartbreak here in so many homes where bereaved parents, spouses and orphans are struggling in this season to remember why they should be giving thanks.
More likely they're struggling to remember why they should be reading the NYTimes....and finding there's no reason. No reason at all.
Shame on you, Mr. Kristof.
Hillary wants a "wider international role" in the rebuilding of Iraq.
Clinton said the United Nations-- which pulled all but a handful of foreign staff from Iraq after the August bombing of its Baghdad headquarters -- could still play a role in administering Iraq, easing the burden on the United States.
The UN can't seem to administer anything well except their retreats. Can you seriuosly name one country of which the UN successfully ran the reconstruction & rebuilding?
*crickets*
Neither can I.
But it makes such a lovely sound bite doesn't it?
...so few bullets. My God, Kohl's was crowded. We were going to go to a few more places but once we were able to escape with our goodies we decided the only place we were going was home. Every parking lot we saw was full; the streets were packed bumper-to-bumper with extremely bad drivers.
Bad economy my ass.
I'm starting to dread working tonight. I may call in dead.
Like that excuse would work.
Since I don't have to work until 5 this evening (how lucky is that!), we're thinking of starting our Christmas shopping today....though since I'm still battling the cold/flu/whateverthehellthisis and Mike's down with it too, I'm not sure how long we'll last in the crowded stores. Two cranky sick people who hate crowds trying to shop in overly crowded stores is prolly not a good combination.
I'm at a complete loss as to what to get my son this year....and his 25th birthday is before Christmas so I have that to shop for as well. It has to be something that I can mail overseas, since he won't be home for Christmas this year. Maybe a new Gameboy & some games? He likes sci-fi, so I'll be looking for books as well. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
And I really wish they'd stop playing that damn song "I'll Be Home For Christmas". It's really embarrassing to burst into tears at work.
A poultry scientist from Oregon State University is trying to convince people that turkeys aren't so dumb.
"I've always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings," Savage said. "The 'dumb' tag simply doesn't fit."
I don't know about domestic turkeys, but anyone who's hunted wild turkeys would agree they are definitely keenly aware of their surroundings....and smarter than they look.
Growing up, we often had an assortment of wild turkeys that my mother "rescued" and returned to the wild. I can tell you that not only are they fairly smart for birds, they're also mean as a red hog. At least the young males are. All they want to do is fight. Ever been flogged by a wild turkey? I have. It. Hurts. Think about it. Those large wings produce enough force to lift a 20+ lb. bird off the ground. And they also have spurs on their legs....about an inch long. A pissed off wild turkey is a formidible opponent.
Fortunately, they're afraid of fly swatters. We had this one old turkey once that had imprinted on my dad....followed my dad everywhere. And this old turkey would attack anyone who got around my dad. So to talk to my dad if he was outside, you had to carry a fly swatter around to smack the turkey with. If you didn't, he'd chase you until you ran back into the house.
That old turkey would come at you all fuzzed up on the attack and you'd have to smack him in the head with a fly swatter a couple of times. He'd turn and run then....straight to my dad's lap. He'd jump up in my dad's lap, hide his head under my dad's arm & wouldn't budge for the longest time. Pretty funny.
So they're not so dumb after all.
Happy 1st Blogiversary to one of my favorites....Jim of Parkway Reststop.
May there be many, many more.
Kevin has links to an important anti-spam modification for MT users.
Seems spammers are using the "Mail This Entry" feature in MT to send messages that look like they are coming from your server....dirty little bastards.
MT recommends that you delete the applicable file if you don't use this feature, or they have a fix that you should install if you do.
I hate spammers.
We had ours yesterday at my parents' since I have to work tonight. WildChild was so excited to have all his favorite people under the same roof that he was bouncing off the walls. He conked out about an hour after we ate. I finally got him to sit in my lap in one of the rocking chairs and he went fast asleep after about 4 rocks, while eating one of my mom's homemade cinnamon rolls....went to sleep mid-chew in fact....a very tired but very happy little boy.
We plan to spend today recovering from the trip, and replacing some of the Christmas lights that we discovered didn't work after we put them up. Yeah yeah I know, that's why you check them before you put them up. But that would take all the fun out of it.
Best wishes from us to you and yours, and let's all remember to give thanks today (and every day) for all we're blessed with.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I've found something odd in my activity log....3 separate searches for the term "search", apparently coming from an IP in Italy. Seems like I vaguely remember that being a way to hack a webpage, though I haven't been able to track that down so far.
Anyone have any ideas what might be going on?
Sen. Orrin Hatch's investigation of the source of the leaked Dems' memos about blocking judicial nominations may have found the culprits.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Tuesday he had put one of his staffers on administrative leave for improperly obtaining data from the secure computer networks of two Democratic senators.
Hatch, R-Utah, said preliminary interviews suggested that a former Republican member of the committee staff may have also been involved in penetrating the Democratic computers.
Ruh-roh Shaggy.
"I was shocked to learn that this may have occurred," Hatch said in a statement. "I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my watch."
Isn't this the same senator that Lawrence busted for using unlicensed software on his website? That's what I thought.
Extremely poor employee screening or plausible deniability?
What's your opinion?
After much wrangling & fussing, the petitions for a referendum on Fayetteville's anti-smoking ordinance have been certified. A city-wide election will now be set on the "the second Tuesday of a month within the next 120 days".
As it should be. My biggest problem with this whole debacle was that certain weasels in our city government tried to ban smoking through backdoor channels rather than letting the citizens vote.
I plan to vote early and vote often.
BitchKitty was just on the porch complaining loudly that she wanted inside. Mike went out to bring her in, but she ran away when he tried to pick her up....apparently preferring to stay out in the 28 degree weather than to let him touch her.
Yes, I went out to get her and she ran up to me squalling her stupid head off....and purred contently in my arms when I picked her up.
My status as the Supreme Kitty Taxi was reconfirmed.
A dubious honor at best.
If you're curious about the President's Iowa ad that has the Dems up in arms, you can view it here. If you don't use Real Player, you can read a transcript here.
I see now why the Dems got their panties all in a bunch.
Heh.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....well okay, no snow yet. But it was a brisk 17 degrees when I got up this morning, and the wind chill was down to too freaking cold to be outside. Or that's what Sollie said anyway.
It's warmed up to a balmy 30 degrees, wind chill 23 so I've been out finishing up our Christmas lights. Yeah, I know it's more PC to call them "holiday" lights. At our house, they're Christmas lights. And if our lighted Christmas disembodied snowman's head offends you, avert your eyes when you drive by our house. Better yet, don't even drive by our house. Ever.
Now if it'll just warm up a few more degrees, I can get up on the ladder & hang the icicle lights around the eve of the house....and we'll be all done.
Then tonight when I get home from work, we can turn them on & blind the neighbors. Chevy Chase in that National Lampoon movie is my hero.
Heh.
Ft. Smith, Arkansas, hasn't gotten that far away from its frontier past. Folks down there don't put up with much nonsense from anyone....like this kidnapped doctor. (Link via Fark)
The search for accused double murderer Scott Eizember is over. Police in Lufkin, Texas say Eizember is hospitalized in stable condition after being shot four times by a man he allegedly kidnapped Sunday.
Eizember allegedly shot & killed two people in Texas, shot a teenaged girl and beat up her grandmother. He then stole a vehicle from an elderly woman, drove to Ft. Smith, then kidnapped a doctor & his wife at gunpoint, forcing them to drive him back to Texas. Big mistake.
Eizember forced them to travel south, where, near Lufkin, Texas, Dr. Peebles was able to retrieve a handgun that he had concealed in the minivan and shot Eizember four times in the chest area.
The good doctor then drove Eizember to the hospital, where he underwent surgery and is expected to recover.....to face trial in Texas.
Too bad there's not more towns like Ft. Smith.
The Dems are upset about Pres. Bush's new ad.
The campaigns of Senator John Kerry and Howard Dean said on Sunday that they would begin showing television commercials in Iowa heavily criticizing a new Republican Party advertisement that portrays the Democratic presidential candidates as undermining President Bush while he fights terrorism.
Truth hurts, does it boys? From what I've heard about the ad, it's a fairly accurate representation of the candidates' position....except for Wesley Clark's. Wesley's position on the Iraq war is like the weather in Arkansas....if you don't like it, just wait a few minutes and it'll change.
At any rate, Kerry & Dean are coming out with ads of their own. Kerry's says nothing new.
In Mr. Kerry's advertisement, to appear on stations in Iowa on Monday, excerpts of the Republican spot are shown on the screen as an announcer says: "George Bush's ad says he's being attacked for attacking the terrorists. No, Mr. President, America's united against terror."
The announcer continues, "The problem is you declared `mission accomplished' when you had no plan to win the peace," as the screen flashes to the "Mission Accomplished" banner posted on the carrier Abraham Lincoln when the president stood on its flight deck and declared the end of major combat in Iraq.
The announcer also criticizes the administration for its handling of reconstruction contracting, saying that it "handed out billions in contracts to contributors like Halliburton." The administration has said its contracting process in Iraq has been proper and above board.
The spot ends with Mr. Kerry speaking to the camera, calling for the United States to get more allied help in Iraq and then saying, "We shouldn't be cutting education and closing firehouses in America while we're opening them in Iraq."
Neither does Dean's.
Dr. Dean's commercial also features an excerpt from the Republican advertisement, in which the president warns of the perils that unconventional weapons pose to the nation. An announcer then says of Mr. Bush, "He misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction, and we went to war when we shouldn't have. Howard Dean is committed to fighting terrorism and protecting our national security."
So Kerry & Dean respond to ads claiming they are undermining Bush's fight against terrorism by running ads that attempt to attack & undermine Bush's fight against terrorism.
Great strategy. [/sarcasm]
If an ice cube falls to the floor and there's no pug in the room to hear it, does it make a sound?
Apparently so, cuz Sollie just came running in to grab it before someone else did.
Like anyone but him wanted it.
You're going to see a whole lot more of this. (Link via Instapundit)
For better or worse, the days of the internet being the online equivalent of a wide-open Wild West cowtown are over.
The lawyers has done rode into town....black hats 'n all.
Compare and contrast Judge Griffen, who frequently lectures on ethics and the higher standard of civility that attorneys/judges should follow with this local judge.
A judge accused of infractions from the bench that included threatening to shoot a defendant resigned his position Wednesday.
Huntsville District Judge W.Q. Hall's resignation averts a hearing the that was set for Thursday. He was also accused of having an improper meeting with witnesses in the same case....Hall was accused of threatening Jack Gates of Rogers, who runs a septic-tank cleaning company and was charged with improperly dumping sewage in a meadow in Madison County.
The state panel that disciplines judges sanctioned Hall twice in 1999. Once was for refusing to step aside in a case against a man who had filed a complaint against him and once for conduct unbecoming a judge.
In the second situation, the commission found that the judge reviewed bank records relevant to a small claim case without the defendant present, and yelled and swore in court before finding in favor of the bank.
If I remember correctly, Judge Hall didn't exactly threaten the defendent....he told the defendent something like "If you dumped shit on my property, I'da shot you." Actually pretty mild for him from what I've heard.
Judge Hall and his antics are something of a local legend....so much that you can mention "W.Q" and everyone immediately knows to whom you're referring.
He's one of the reasons that area is known as "Booger Holler."
As in the Boogie Man will get ya if you don't watch out.
The Arkansas Supreme Court got one right yesterday.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of a Court of Appeals judge who says he shouldn't have been admonished for speaking out about race issues at the University of Arkansas.
The high court said a judicial-conduct standard on which the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission based the letter of admonishment to Judge Wendell L. Griffen "intrudes on legitimate free speech."
The letter of admonishment stemmed from a meeting at which Judge Griffen spoke about his opinions as a private citizen....not as a judge. While I think that judges should be held to a higher standard, and not allowed to speak on pending matters before their courts....they still should have the right to express their opinions on unrelated matters just like everyone else.
Otherwise, they run the risk of being disconnected from the real world and falling prey to the ivory tower syndrome.
Like a few US Supremes I could mention.
During a slow period at work last night, I was chatting with another cashier when she happened to notice this book lying around. "What's this?" she asked. "I don't recognize the author."
"Oh you know him," I replied. "He has that show on Fox."
"Oh, _him_" she sniffed disdainfully....tossing the book down as she walked away.
Heh.
Today is my first payday since starting my new part-time job. I was pretty excited about getting my first in what I hope is a long series of regular paychecks until I remembered something.
I once sat down and figured out my average per-hour payrate as a children's attorney. Because of the length of the average case, about 1 1/2 yrs., and the statutory limits on what I was paid per case, my average pay was a little less than minimum wage.
That's right.
I'm making more per hour as a cashier than I did as an attorney for abused children. A lot more.
There's something very wrong with that.
The next time some politician tells me that he or she is going to do something for The ChildrenTM.....buddy are they going to get an earful.
Or a smack upside the head.
--Da Goddess' site is back up. Hurray!
--Michele has a Benadryl hangover, but can still see that her son's student teacher can't spell.
--Steve thinks it's high time Michael Jackson was castrated. I vote for a pre-frontal lobotomy myself....the only sure cure for pedophilia.
--Craig has the second installment of his interview with Montana gubernatorial candidate Ken Miller.
--And Rodger has some pearls of Ozark wisdom....like "Never smack a man in the mouth who's got chewin' tobacco." Good advice.
Me, I've been doing Robitussin shooters most of the day (I've come down with a cold)....which hasn't been very conducive to studying for the Networking test I have in a couple of hours.
Speaking of which, I'd better get back at it while I'm semi-lucid.
PETA is launching what may be its tackiest ad campaign yet.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has delayed a new ad campaign with the slogan "Get Neutered, It Didn't Hurt Clay Aiken," while it waits to see if Aiken will apologize for negative comments he made about cats, PETA officials said Tuesday.
Aiken had the termerity to admit that he doesn't like cats.
BFD. I don't much like cats either....though they're kinda handy to have around to keep down the rodent population. And they make a right nice stir fry in a pinch.
[ducks and runs away laughing]
It's just a joke son, just a joke.
Sheesh.
This is simply outrageous....some local asshat(s) have stolen flags displayed by the VFW for Veterans Day.
"I can’t imagine why anyone would steal an American flag while it’s being displayed to observe Veterans Day," said Walters, who is commander of Veterans of Foreign War Post 6344 in Bentonville. "Four of the flags flying at Memorial Park last week were burial flags, the kind draped over the coffin at funeral services. They had been given to the VFW and American Legion groups by the families of veterans who died. I just don’t understand that at all."
I don't understand it either. I mean I've always thought people would steal just about anything, but this is just unbelievable.
What a world, what a world.
Here's more on the failed bank robbery in Ft. Smith I told y'all about yesterday.
After they filled a bag with cash, Farris tried to take one female teller hostage to give him a ride from the bank, according to reports. She told him she didn’t have a car. He tried to grab a second teller but she refused to go with him.
Farris told investigators after his arrest that he needed the ride because he’d pawned his 1996 Chevrolet pickup for $1,500 after losing money playing bingo. He then lost the money from selling the truck at the bingo parlor as well.
After failing to get a ride from the bank tellers, Farris tried to hijack a car in the parking lot, witnesses told police. The driver, warned by a bank customer, locked the doors so Farris couldn’t get in and dialed 911.
As he took off at a fast walk from the bank parking lot, a dye pack that had been slipped into the money bag exploded, staining both the money and Farris’s clothing red. He dropped the bag and fled.
And then the two customers jumped in a truck & chased him down, yelling at him to get a real job.
Man, some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed does it?
At least now he'll have a job....doing laundry or whatever it is one does in Federal prison.
Apparently the anti-Bush protestors are planning to come out in full force in London on Thursday.
"We haven't got started yet. You just wait 'til Thursday!" vowed protester Ann Butler, 63, who had taken the train into London from suburban Kent county in hopes of getting within shouting distance of Bush. "He thinks he's Wyatt Earp, but he's nothing but trouble for our country."
But as Charles notes, the protestors may be in for a rude awakening on Thursday. Muslims are being warned to stay away from the protests.
However, this time around many Islamic Movements will not be demonstrating due to the overriding grave and very real threat of an operation, similar to 9/11, against the US President in light of the various specific warnings and threats which have been made by Sheikh Usama Bin laden and Al-Qaa'eda in their press releases against the US and UK.
With this in mind we, Al-Muhajiroun, urge those within the Muslim community to be responsible and not to encourage Muslims to demonstrate on the 20th of November 2003, which might thereby make Muslims part of a target if any operation does take place.
I certainly hope an terrorist attack doesn't happen, but it might make the protestors realize that paper-mache puppets aren't going to protect them....they're targets just like the rest of us.
But I suspect even that would somehow be twisted into being Bush's fault.
A association of 7 Syrian groups are in D.C. this attempting to get support for their efforts to "transform Syria into a democracy".
"For the first time in the history of Syria, a coalition made of Arab parties, Kurdish parties, Christian parties and other minorities come together for one very simple goal — democracy for Syria," [Mr. Guadry] said.
"We are going to become the new force of Syria," he said.
Nice to see the ripples spreading.
A Terre Haute Holocaust musuem for the child survivors of Dr. Mengele has been burned to the ground by arsonists.
"The police said there was a brick that had broken the main glass door, and they threw something in there that was an accelerant," said Mary Wright, the museum's education director. "Even the display cases were practically burned down to the ground."
Someone also wrote "Remember Timmy McVeigh" on a wall. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was executed at a federal prison outside Terre Haute in 2001.
Yeah, I remember that little two-bit loser McVeigh. I thought he got a far easier death than he deserved. And it wasn't the "Jooos" who got him killed.
He did that his own dumbass self.
I hope the person(s) responsible for this gets exactly what they deserve too.
A Ft. Smith bank robber got a surprise Monday afternoon.
Customers say the robber tried to take two women hostage at knife-point, held a person in a headlock and tried to force people into driving a getaway car, but that was no hindrance to customers who wanted the man caught.
A couple of the customers, afraid to tackle him because he was armed with a knife, hopped in a pickup instead and chased him....yelling at the robber to "Get a job!" They eventually cornered the robber until police could arrive to arrest him.
One of the customers explained why.
Judon says he wanted Farris caught to demonstrate a lesson. "I work for a living. Like you guys -- You work for a living. We get a paycheck, and for somebody to say there's no jobs in Fort Smith... You want to work? There's a job."
Heh.
A potentially viable Republican candidate, State Sen. Jim Holt, has announced he will run against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) in the next election.
Sweet.
The U.N. wants control of the Internet.
I don't think so.
If their recent actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are any indication, their response to a DOS attack would be to shut down the Internet and run away.
N'est ce pas?
Our ISP took the network down last night for "enhancement", cheerfully predicting to have us back online by 5 a.m.
You guessed it.
It just now came back up.....right after I got tired of waiting & hooked up the dial-up account.
Never fails, just like lighting a cigarette in a restaurant makes your food magically appear.
As if listening to my mother bitch for 20 minutes (because she's too senile to correctly dial my number) while I was working on an outline for a 4-10 minute presentation I have to give tonight in a class that I loathe, for which I will have to miss work because the stupid instructor scheduled the presentations for 5 p.m. so "no one would have to miss work" wasn't fun enough.....
--blogrolling was hacked this morning & temporarily removing the script from both our sites made me late for class.
--I was in such a rush to leave after that, I forgot my driver's license & had to run back into the house.
--Then I realized I had forgotten my smokes, which meant another run back into the house....except the doorknob chose that moment to stop working.
--Now I'm running a little late again for my presentation....just got a breaking news update from our local station that one of the routes north is closed due to an automobile accident....but it wasn't clear from the update if they were talking about the route I use to get to school or not.
Guess I'll find out the hard way.
Blogrolling has been hacked....at least mine has, and all my links replaced with a link to a website I've never heard of. I've emailed Blogrolling to let them know, and have removed the script temporarily until the issue is resolved.
That really pisses me off.
A big hug & thanks to Keith for letting me know what happened!
Uh-oh. Just got another email from Keith saying his blogroll had been blogjacked too. Better go check yours if you haven't looked at it lately.
Excuse me while I check Mike's.
I am gonna be so late for class.
GRRRRR!
Australia responds to the latest threats from al Qaida.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was hard to know whether the al Qaeda statement was authentic but that Australia would not raise its counter-terrorism alert level, which has been on medium alert since the September 11 attacks.
"If it's authentic we treat it with scorn and contempt," Downer told reporters in Adelaide.
"I think these fanatical Islamic terrorists know only too well that there are some countries with the courage and determination to take them on and defeat them. Australia is one of those countries and Australia is a tough country."
That they are....and good blokes to have at your side for any fight.
Three cheers for our friends down under.
For a friend in need is a friend indeed.
WildChild has been wanting his own laptop. He's been pointing to Mike's and saying "Pa's 'puter." Then he points at mine and says "Ma's 'puter." Then he shakes his head sadly and says "WildChild no 'puter." Now we're planning to get him a Leap Frog thing (or something similar) for Christmas, but that's a long time for a little guy to wait.
So we found him this cheesy little toy laptop the other day....doesn't really do anything but play different sounds & music and lights flash.
He loved it, to put it mildly. Mike said last night while I was at work, WildChild was sitting at his desk, "typing" away on his laptop while watching cartoons and muttering to himself.
Prolly fisking Mickey Mouse.
A new anti-malarial drug is set for release in a few months that is claiming an almost 100% cure rate.
The brainchild of professor Li Guoqiao of the Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Artekin has been 30 years in the making. The drug's origins lie in Project 523 — a secret military outfit that was set up in 1967 to help Vietnamese communists defeat the United States.
"The biggest enemy for both the Americans and the Vietnamese was malaria. Project 523 was set up to help the Vietnamese military defeat malaria," said Mr. Li, who joined 523 at its inception. He spent the next seven years trying to find a cure. Then, on a trip to the mountainous Yunnan province in 1974, he came across a plant called qinghao — which was first mentioned as a cure for malaria in Chinese medicine books dating from 340 BC.
The plant extract is called artemisinin, and Mr. Li was astonished to see that it could even cure patients with advanced cases of complicated malaria, such as the cerebral version, which are usually fatal.
Projected cost is as little as $1.20 per dose.
Great news for all those countries whose populations have been decimated by malaria since the DDT ban began.
Continuing this morning's apparent memo theme, there's an interesting article about some leaked Democrats' memos about the reasons for blocking judicial appointments. Here's a sample.
In the Nov. 7, 2001, memo, the Durbin staffer was recounting a meeting his boss had missed with Mr. Kennedy and "representatives of various civil rights groups."
"[Y]esterday's meeting focused on identifying the most controversial and/or vulnerable judicial nominees, and a strategy for targeting them," the staffer wrote about the groups present. "They also identified Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment." [Emphasis mine]
Yep. One of the reasons for the Dems blocking Mr. Estrada's nomination was because of his ethnicity. Party for minorities my ass.
And what do the Dems have to say about this?
[Kennedy spokesman] Mr. Smith also said the leaked documents raised serious questions about Republican tactics.
"There's been this rash of stolen Democratic memos by Republicans recently," he said, citing the memo written by a staffer to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat, that strategized to make political hay out of the Iraq war.
"These are thefts of Democratic memos," Mr. Smith said.
Not much else you can say, I suppose, when you're hung with your own rope.
UN "experts" have reported that sanctions against 272 people linked to al-Qaida & the Taliban aren't working.
"The risk of al-Qaida acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction also continues to grow," the experts said. "Undoubtedly al-Qaida is still considering the use of chemical or bio-weapons to perpetrate its terrorist actions."
The only thing holding al-Qaida back from using chemical and biological weapons "is the technical complexity to operate them properly and effectively," the report said.
Well thank you Mr. Obvious.
The experts said the bans were failing to stop Osama bin Laden's supporters, primarily because governments weren't enforcing sanctions and al-Qaida and the Taliban had found ways to circumvent them.
Freaking duh. As if containment and appeasement has ever worked against fanatics determined to kill everyone who isn't a member of their special little group.
And just what does the august body intend to do about it?
The experts said they participated in a series of international and European discussions on efforts to curb trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.
That's what I thought.
Nothing.
An October 27th memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee sets out in detail the Saddam-Osama connection, which started in 1990.
Their deadly collaboration - which may have included the bombing of the USS Cole and the 9/11 attacks - is revealed in a 16-page memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee that cites reports from a variety of domestic and foreign spy agencies compiled by multiple sources, The Weekly Standard reports.
16 freaking pages of link after link after link. And the memo was sent to Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) of the Senate Intelligence Committee. You know Rockefeller, whose office lately produced that other little interesting memo.
Let's see 'em try to spin this one.
Jim's taken the makeup theme and ran with it.
Heh.
Or rather, nyuck nyuck nyuck.
With enough money and makeup, any woman can look good. (Link via Fark)
There's an outbreak of ring rot threatening the U.K.'s potato crops.
Quick! Throw the farmers off their lands, force them to emigrate to America and then build factories on their confiscated lands.
Whattya mean that's been done before?
Worked, didn't it?
Our local newspaper has more details about the death of the 10 yr. old in the house fire. (I apologize in advance for the crappy state of the newspaper's link)
[Prosecuting Attorney] Gibbons said he would likely charge the couple with manslaughter. He said it was no justification, but the girl "may have been mentally challenged to some degree and may have had some behavioral problems." He didn’t think the chaining was a recent development.
The coroner said the little girl "probably woke up and tried to crawl to the door but died of smoke inhalation. Very little of her body remained by the time he arrived, he said."
Sweet Mother of God.
I don't know whose actions are more sickening...the parents or the prosecutor's.
This is sure some future genealogist's nightmare.
In the latest departure from traditional marriage procedure, some American men are beginning to take their wives’ last names, either using the woman's name in addition to their own or nixing their given names completely.
Here's what one man who changed his name had to say.
“Initially I don’t think I would have accepted [taking my wife's name] as an idea, but I really thought if you wanted to be equitable, both names should have equal weight," he said. "We have all these friends who are complete equals in their marriages and lives, but when they get married the default is the husband’s name."
Gee, wonder what made him change his mind?
A 10 yr. old girl died in a house fire in Clarksville, Arkansas, Monday....because she was chained to her bed.
A couple was charged with manslaughter Wednesday in Clarksville, Arkansas, after their 10-year-old daughter died in a fire in their house. The girl was unable to escape because she was chained to her bed, authorities said.
Police are not disclosing any information gained from the parents as to why the child was chained to her bed, citing the on-going investigation. After reading this in our local news, I suspect there's even more to the story.
Investigators believe the fire started in the front of the house, where the girl's bedroom was located, but they hadn't determined by Wednesday what caused the fire.
It's a shame we no longer burn people at the stake, isn't it?
Last night being another one of those "52 channels and there's nothing on" kind of nights, we watched a DVD we'd borrowed from my daughter...."Matrix:Reloaded". I have to say it exceeded our expectations.
It was even worse than we thought.
You know a movie is rilly, rilly bad when you start making up your own dialogue halfway through the very first scene.
Sheesh.
The military mom who was forced to choose between her stepchildren and the military may have caught a break.
"She's been reassigned to Fort Carson for compassionate reasons and she's in the process of being demobilized from active-duty status to National Guard status," Col. Budzyna said late Monday.
Though there's still some confusion over whether her C.O. will pursue administrative punishment, the post spokesman said that her reassignment would be backdated so she couldn't be punished for being AWOL.
"Common sense is going to prevail in this matter. We are going to take care of the soldier," Col. Budzyna said.
The military apparently has more common sense & compassion than the family law judge.
Who knew?
A 7 pt. buck chased two women down an Ardmore, Oklahoma street into a pickup. It then attacked the truck repeatedly until a passing vehicle took care of the problem. It's rutting season, you see, which means that bucks become a bit....amorous.
Several people crowded around after the incident, some teasing one of the women, saying she should bottle the perfume she was wearing and sell it to hunters.
Boys, I think I know what perfume at least one of those women was likely wearing....and trust me, you prolly don't want it bottled.
How can I put this delicately?
A good deer hunting strategy is to take a woman hunting with you....but only at certain times of the month.
*ahem*
And 7 straight nights of working on top of my full class load has left me too tired to care. I see a long nap in my immediate future.
More later.
*yawn*
Maybe.
We bought a baking hen this weekend. Mike slow cooked it on the rotisserie Saturday night. It was so tough you could barely cut it with a knife. So he boiled it all Sunday afternoon in a stew....still absolutely inedible.
We decided it was an escapee from a secret government project that had genetically modified chicken genes with Kevlar to create a bulletproof chicken that could blow up terrorist cells with its egg bombs....a project that was hinted at in a coded message "Beware the hens from hell" found in Larry McMurty's Texasville.
Sssshh! I think I hear black helicopters.
Gotta go.
This makes no sense to me.
Pakistani-Americans are working to make sure that Bobby Jindal, an American of Indian descent running for Louisiana governor, is not elected to office, the head of a Pakistani group said yesterday....."When Jindal declared his candidacy, the first remark he made was derogatory to Muslims. He said, 'I am not a Muslim,' " said Mr. Abbasi, a Texas businessman originally from Pakistan. "He was saying that he qualified for the job because he's not a Muslim. He looked like the brown guy from the Indian subcontinent, so he wanted to tell his white club he's not a Muslim."
So they're backing his opponent, the presumably non-"brown guy", non-Muslim Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D).
Now I know people support & oppose political candidates for all kinds of nonsensical reasons. But if the reason for the opposition is that the candidate isn't Muslim, wouldn't it make more sense to support a candidate that is?
Unless the real reason they're opposing Mr. Jindal has little to do with his religion and more to do with the country he's from?
Paul has a hilarious post about Kucinich's search for a first lady.
Just don't read it on an empty stomach.
An Army medic has refused an order to return to Iraq...but there's a reason.
Mrs. Holcomb, an Army medic married to an Army sergeant, refused an order to return to duty in Iraq because it could have meant losing two of their seven children in a custody battle.
WTH?
Family members were taking care of their children, but the couple returned on emergency leave in September when Vaughn Holcomb's ex-wife went to court to get full custody of two of the children from their previous marriage.
A judge said one of the Holcombs had to remain home or they would lose custody.
Now there may be more to the story than reported, there most usually is, but on the face of it I can't understand the reasoning behind the judge's ruling. I don't know the law in Colorado, but here in Arkansas the standard for changing custody is that there's been a "material change" in circumstances since custody was originally granted AND that the change of custody is in the best interests of the child(ren).
And as long as the children in this case were being adequately cared for by family members, I would certainly question the suitability of a parent who tried to take advantage of this situation to gain custody. Plus, a member of the military should not be forced into a situation in which he or she must choose between obeying a state court order and a military deployment order.
Now that's being between the devil and the deep blue sea, isn't it? Lose custody or face charges of being AWOL during wartime. I can't say this lady made the wrong choice.
But the judge certainly seems to have.
This morning project is to make some pants suitable for work....nothing fancy. I don't sew much, so I only have the bare basics. I needed something to transfer some of the pattern markings to the material...finally found some tracing paper, but no tracing wheel.
But I do keep a spline tool in my trusty toolbox. Which worked just as well.
I'm such a domestic goddess.
I have to work tonight. And over the weekend. And Mike's on pager, so we can't keep WildChild this weekend like we planned. Grumble, grumble, bitch, bitch. *sigh*
But hey, it's time for another Friday Five!
1. What food do you like that most people hate? Fried Spam & scrambled eggs. And Vienna Sausages w/saltines...though those only taste good when you're deer hunting or camping. I know, gross.
2. What food do you hate that most people love? Cherry pie. Raisin pie. They're so slimy and....squishy. Yuck.
3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you? Geez, that's too long of a list to put here. Tom Cruise, George Clooney, David Schwimmer...I hate whiners. And Robert Redford. I didn't ever think he was all that attractive. And could he please face the fact that he's old so I won't think my contacts fell out while I was watching his movies? How _do_ they fit that thick filter on the camera lens?
4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive? Robert Duvall. Rrrrowr! I like men who look like....I dunno...men. And Rumsfeld is pretty hot too.
5. What popular trend baffles you? Dressing pre-teen girls like hookers. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to make little girls even more appealing to pedophiles should be shot. Repeatedly. As in start at the ankles and take your time working your way up.
I feel so much better now.
Da Goddess tells the real truth about kids' fundraisers.
I'm with her.
I tell ya, bloggers get no respect from the national media.
Meanwhile, a hoax news release credited to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) circulated at several news Web sites yesterday, calling for NPR to "turn away this blood money," and for "Americans to boycott NPR programs since they will be bought with the slaughtered carcasses of billions of sentient beings."
The satiric release stated, "Because the bequest amounts to about twice NPR's annual budget, public radio stations will cease fund raising during NPR programs and Congress will withdraw all taxpayer funding."
Since when does a national newspaper not cite its source for quotes? The "satiric release" was done by one of our own best satirists, Scott Ott of Scrappleface.....who even the WashTimes has to grudgingly admit, is good.
PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said his group did not issue the release. [Ed. Heh.]
Still, it articulates the qualms of those who believe NPR has a liberal slant and does not deserve federal money.
Yeah, and if some dickweed like Al Franken had said it, there would've been a entire column fulsomely praising his comedic genius. Instead, they heavily quoted from Scott's piece without citing its source.
Jerks.
Ok, enough serious stuff. I have to get to work shortly, so here's a funny story I received today from a friend of mine. Though I have to disagree with him....the best camo for this isn't mossy oak.
It's a 3 piece suit, either public defender black or prosecutor blue.
Lawyer Hunting Tips
Choose Your Caliber Carefully
DISCLAIMER FOR IDIOTS: This is a humor piece, and it is not intended to endorse violence against attorneys or anyone else, so get lives and leave me alone.
I guess by now everyone has seen the video of PRK nutjob William Strier attempting to kill his lawyer outside the Van Nuys courthouse. He drew what looks like a revolver and emptied it in the lawyer's general direction while the lawyer, a "wily and elusive prey" worthy of Dr. Evil, made excellent use of a tree as cover. He was struck five times, but as the video reveals, he escaped to sue another day. Looks like he'll be okay.
Strier was subsequently arrested and charged with hunting lawyers out of season, a misdemeanor punishable by a fifty-dollar fine which is usually waived.
As an attorney, I would like to proudly announce that I have never been shot by a client. I wasn't all that proud of it before last week, but now I'm thinking of putting it on my business card. "Steve H. / Attorney at Law / No Client has Ever Attempted to Murder me on National Television."
For the benefit of folks who are considering shooting their lawyers, I would like to offer some helpful advice.
1. Choose the right weapon and ammo. It is plain from the video that Mr. Strier, a novice, went with a small-bore revolver of questionable stopping power and limited capacity. Given the fact that the TV lawyer took five slugs and remained standing, I would also surmise that Strier made the mistake of using jacketed ammunition, which often exits the body without doing significant damage. A pistol is a poor choice; you're much better off with a high-powered hunting rifle such as a .30-06, which delivers several times the energy. Apart from that, it is effective from a range of hundreds of yards, and if you take advantage of that fact, it will be very hard for a pesky cameraman to include you in the shot with your victim.
Now, if marksmanship isn't your long suit, you might consider a 12-gauge shotgun in semiauto. These things are much more damaging than even hunting rifles, and if you use buckshot instead of rifled slugs, your projectiles will open up into a pattern that may improve your odds of hitting something. One problem: shotguns inflict serious cosmetic damage, so they're a poor choice if you plan to have your lawyer mounted.
2. Strier failed to utilize the element of surprise. He simply walked up to his attorney and started firing, giving him time to dodge and find cover. Clearly, Strier would have been much better off had he constructed and used a lawyer blind. You set up a vertical barrier designed to look harmless to lawyers, and you hide behind it until they appear. When designing your blind, consider the types of terrain in which lawyers are apt to be found. You might consider something decorated in faux turf that can be set up beside a green at a golf course. Or you could simply set up a wet bar or an inflatable stripper, although in some states this is illegal, as it violates the laws against shooting animals over bait.
Also, and I cannot say this enough, "Camo, camo, camo." Strier stuck out like a sore thumb in his slacks and white shirt. He would have been much better off in something with a nice "mossy oak" pattern. One caveat: when hunting lawyers, do not wear an orange vest. Lawyers have excellent color vision.
3. Disguise your scent. The last thing you want is to smell like a client. We know that smell, and we avoid it whenever possible. This is why it's so hard to meet with us personally once you've signed a fee agreement. On a calm day, I can actually smell a client as he or she opens the door to the reception area, giving me ample time to flee through a window or secrete myself in the kneehole of my desk.
Deer hunters commonly disguise their odor with flasks of deer urine. For lawyers, you will want a scent they find appealing. I suggest Scotch. Or you might rub yourself thoroughly with a handful of twenty-dollar bills. If you don't mind the expense, you can buy a vial of perspiration collected from the thighs of a female receptionist, but this may cause a stampede.
4. Finally, consider another means of retribution. Having no souls, lawyers do not fear death. What we do fear is other lawyers. Lawyers who may actually know what they're doing. In lieu of shooting your attorney, consider finding another lawyer and filing a lucrative malpractice suit. It may not be quite as satisfying on a gut level, but it's legal, and it will save you the messy task of field-dressing your kill.
I hope this has been helpful. And by the way, lawyers aren't really that bad. If you really want to rid the world of evil, consider hunting car salesmen and telemarketers.
Not that that's unusual. After reading Natalie's thoughtful & very well-written comment to my earlier post on the partial-abortion ban, I decided to go read the bill itself. Which you should also do, because it does in fact contain an exception to protect the life of the mother.
In the "findings" section, called the "blah-blah" part by us legal types, Congress does find that "a partial-birth abortion is never necessary to preserve the health of a woman, poses serious risks to a woman's health, and lies outside the standard of medical care, and should, therefore, be banned"....which is also the part that's making the news.
But by assidiuosly applying the RTWDS technique (Read The Whole Damn Statute), and finding what was actually amended in the relevant statute, I found this:
`(a) Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both. This subsection does not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself. This subsection takes effect 1 day after the enactment. [Emphasis mine]
AND a doctor, if charged, may have "a hearing before the State Medical Board on whether the physician's conduct was necessary to save the life of the mother whose life was endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself."
So, if this bill as written here was what was signed into law, what's all the hubbub about?
Check out this photo of Tuesday's solar eruption. Wow!
I think it's time we seriously considered sending George Clooney to the sun's rescue with the world's largest bottle of Bean-o.
As I'm sure you've heard, Pres. Bush signed the ban on partial-birth abortions into law yesterday....and there's already a lawsuit.
In a sign of the legal fight ahead, a federal judge in Nebraska yesterday blocked the new law from taking effect, but only as it applies to four doctors in Nebraska who brought the lawsuit he was hearing.
Judge Richard Kopf claimed the law is unconstitutional and vague because it doesn't contain an exception for the mother's health.
Can anyone explain to me the circumstances under which partially delivering a viable baby and scrambling its brains is necessary to save the life of its mother?
Cuz I really can't think of any.
A study showed that it doesn't take much to trigger an increase in males' sex hormones.
Now there's some surprising news, isn't it? What's next, a study to show the sun rises in the east?
Our friend the Sun sent out the largest solar flare ever recorded yesterday. We aren't in its direct path, but there may be some enhanced auroras from it.
Cool.
I know y'all are probably sick of my constant posting about Zell Miller's book, but I just keep running across things I wish I'd said. In our best Southern tradition, he tells a story to explain why we should've gone into Iraq....that I think equally applies to why we have to go after terrorists, wherever they are.
"A few weeks ago," I said, "we were doing some work on my back porch back home, tearing out a section of old stacked rocks, when all of a sudden I uncovered a nest of copperhead snakes.
"I know the difference between those snakes that are harmless and those that will kill you. A copperhead will kill you. It could kill one of my dogs. It could kill one of my grandchildren. It could kill any one of my four great-grandchildren.
"And you know, when I discovered these copperheads, I didn't call my wife Shirley for advice, like I do on most things. I didn't go before the city council. I didn't yell for help from my neighbors. I just took a hoe and knocked them in the head and killed them — dead as a doorknob.
"I guess you could call it a unilateral action," I said. "Or pre-emptive. Perhaps if you had been watching me, you could have even called it bellicose and reactive. I took their poisonous heads off because they were a threat to me. And they were a threat to my home and my family. They were a threat to all I hold dear. And isn't that what this is all about?"
He goes on to say that although war is a horrible thing, it is sometimes necessary to fight and die to protect freedom. I think he's right. War is not something anyone should enjoy or enter into lightly. But there are times when it is the right thing to do.
At least our Founding Fathers thought so.
Republican candidates won both governor's races in Kentucky and Mississippi. I love it when I'm right about politics.
Steve H's comment about "idiot Southerners who only think they're Democrats" to my previous post made me stop & think, though. It may be that Southern Democrats are just now discovering what most of us have suspected all along....they're really Republicans.
Food for thought.
The NY Post has a disturbing report that Iraq may have developed a new anti-tank weapon.
The Army is investigating whether pro-Saddam insurgents have a new mystery weapon that can disable the powerhouse M1AI Abrams tank - while leaving only a pencil-size hole in the hull.
We've reportedly had one M1A1 tank disabled by it back in August. I don't have enough technical background to even speculate as to what this new weapon could be....but it makes me wonder.
What else is out there that we haven't found yet?
Why do children put beans in their noses?
The NCAA will not pursue an investigation into allegations made by a former U of A player because they "fall outside the statute of limitations of four years". The allegations, made to Sports Illustrated by former player Gendon Alexander, included allegations that:
boosters gave him $10,000, that he didn't attend classes and that he sold his game tickets for a profit.
I doubt that the statute of limitations was the only consideration.
The NCAA can only investigate allegations of violations older than four years if a player involved is still on campus, if the violations are still occurring, or if the violations are a blatant disregard of the rules.
So they arguably could've investigated....but their star witness had a few problems. Glendon Alexander quit the Razorback basketball team in 1997 because he felt he wasn't getting enough playing time. Stirred up quite the little stink here if I remember correctly. So there might be a little bias there. And then there's his current situation.
He's currently in prison on fraud convictions.
Not the most credible witness.
Seems there may have been a hidden agenda in the Sean John sweatshop "scandal".
This tale, moreover, turns out to be about a lot more than one celebrity and his fashion line. It is the latest example of American union activists trying to shake down a celebrity to become a recruit for their anti-free trade agenda. The people who suffer as a result are the Hondurans for whom textile jobs are a rare opportunity up from poverty.
It seems that the factory isn't the sweatshop it was alleged to be. It's air conditioned for one thing.
Other accusations include forced overtime and "no health care." But the factory has a full-time nurse, a doctor who's there each afternoon and a pharmacy that gives medicines to workers for free. And Mr. Hawkins says he has the records to prove that the young lady in question never worked all the overtime she claims, based on a biometric hand-reader that workers use to punch in and out.
Sounds a helluva lot better than the factory in which I worked here in the States. Now we can cuss and discuss American companies moving overseas until the cows come home, but I haven't seen any evidence here so far of any actual exploitation of Honduran workers.
Coincidentally, there's currently "ongoing negotiations for a U.S. free trade agreement with Central American nations that would give a huge boost to the Honduran textile industry". I'm so sure these latest accusations by the executive director of the National Labor Committee have nothing to do with that.
Right.
The governor's elections in Mississippi and Kentucky today are being closely watched as a "bellweather for 2004". Both traditional Democratic states, polls are indicating leads for the Republican candidates in both states. If they win, it will be even more indications for some that the Democrats have lost the South.
I think they already have.
First you have Al Gore's dismal showing in 2000....couldn't even carry his own state. Next, there's been a steadily growing trend of ousting Democrats from state and federal offices. Then there's Zell Miller's public statement of his support for Pres. Bush and his stinging indictment of the Democratic party in his new book....in which he compares the current Democratic presidential candidates to "streetwalkers in skimpy halters and hot pants, plying their age-old trade for the fat wallets on K Street." Heh.
But the most telling indication, IMHO, can be seen in the current Mississippi governor's race.
The governor's own ads do not use the word Democrat. Instead, Musgrove is billed as "independent" and "conservative."
Hmmm. I've seen this before. The county in which I grew up was a Republican stronghold, to put it mildly, controlled for generations by a group of Republican "fat cats"....and I mean that in the worse possible sense of the word. It was damn near impossible to get elected to any city or county office as anything but a Republican. But one election year, the voters decided they'd had enough. Only one Republican retained his seat....and that was only because he was well-liked and also was the V.A. benefits coordinator for the county.
Next election, some of the old guard tried running as Independents. Southerners have long memories. It didn't work then, and I doubt it will work in Mississippi.
The South has the strongest economy of any area in the nation, but we're treated like the Democrat's red-headed stereotyped stepchild......like Dean's remark about the pickup truck & the Confederate flag. Sure, there's people like that in the South...but they're not the majority of voters.
And the Dems are making a costly mistake by ignoring them.
Remember how all those "studies" showed that bacon and other delicious cured meat was bad for you because they contained nitrites? Guess what? Studies bad, bacon good.
A common compound in the body previously believed to have no major function has been found to greatly increase blood flow, indicating it has potential as a treatment for illnesses like heart and blood vessel disease and sickle cell anemia, researchers reported on Sunday.
Work done by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and colleagues at the University of Alabama and Wake Forest University shows that nitrite, a common salt, can open blood vessels and improve flow in parts of the body.
That's right. Nitrite, contained in cured meat among other things, helps improve blood flow in the body. So you go right ahead and eat all the bacon, Sabino's hotdogs and Smithfield ham you want. Like my daddy always said, "It's good 'n good for you".
Mmmm....Smithfield ham.
The new and improved PHP to automatically close comments after x amount of time, courtesy of this intelligent gentleman, has been successfully installed by my equally intelligent and wonderful husband.
And we didn't even break the database.
There's much ado about this recent remark of Howard Dean's.
"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," the former Vermont governor said in a telephone interview published in yesterday's editions of the Des Moines Register.
The other Democratic candidates rushed to distance themselves from his remark, generally denouncing the statement as racist. Except Lieberman, who released a statement saying that Dean "ought to be more careful about what he says." They all missed the point Dean was trying to make....though I agree it could've been better worded....as in lot better worded.
The rest of Dean's remark, which puts it in better context, said that "We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats." I think he's right. No Democratic candidate will win the presidency without winning the South. (Though I seriously doubt the way to win their support is to refer to them as pickup truck driving Confederate flag wavers. Duh.)
For example, look at Georgia's Sen. Zell Miller (D), who has stirred up a fuss of his own with his new book (which I'm looking forward to reading) and public proclaimation that he will support Pres. Bush in the upcoming election. He certainly doesn't pull any punches about the cause of the current problems in the Democratic party.
"They have managed to take the main plank of the McGovern race, antiwar, and the main plank in the Mondale race, raising taxes, and put them together," Mr. Miller said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times to mark the book's release tomorrow. "How dumb can you get?"
How dumb indeed. Like Mr. Miller, I believe the Democratic party has consistently seriously misjudged the issues important to their base constituency since 9/11.
The 2002 elections persuaded him to write the book, Mr. Miller said, after voters judged "this dumb choice by the Democratic leadership of putting collective bargaining ahead of homeland security" and Democrats lost control of the Senate.
"I came up here expecting to be pretty much a traditional Democrat," he said. "But the traditional roots of the Democratic Party are not raising taxes, class warfare, extreme partisanship."
The Democratic party is making the fatal mistake of believing the vocal minority of the extreme left is the majority. They're not. And the Democrats will never carry the South by pandering to that vocal minority. Southern Democrats are typically conservative....and the fact that "conservative Democrat" now sounds like an oxymoron just proves how far to the left the Democratic party has slithered.
In fact, I used to be one myself until the Reagan years. Now I'm not sure in which category I fit. Unlike Mr. Miller, I chose to leave the Democratic party....but I understand completely his reasons to stay.
"I compare it to living in this old house, where I have lived all of my life," he said, "where it's drafty and hard to heat, the plumbing won't work, the commodes won't flush, and some strangers have moved in down there in my basement and I don't know who they are and I don't know how to get them out.
And I agree with his reasons for supporting Pres. Bush in the upcoming election.
"I've thought about this a lot. I think the next five years are going to be crucial in deciding what kind of world my grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in," Mr. Miller said. "I can't leave that crucial decision to any of these Democrats who are running."
Absolutely. I think Mr. Miller would agree when I say this crop of Democratic candidates ain't much punkins so far.
But at least Howard Dean has a clue what he needs to do....he's just going about it the wrong way.
To avoid confusion and/or hurt feelings, here's the new comment policy, which was put in place last week. Comments are closed on all posts that are more than 2 or 3 days old. Nothing personal, it helps prevent spam pron....and it stops that "beating a dead horse" problem that some of you seem to have.
Please continue behave yourselves like the ladies and gentlemen that you are.
--Editor
I just got a call from the company at which I applied last week.....my orientation starts Tuesday.
Woo-hoo!
I gots me a steady paying job!
Terry Wallis, an Arkansas man who awoke from a 19 yr. long coma, may have a movie made about his story. And his mother reports that he's progressed to starting conversations on his own.
His recovery makes you think twice about this, doesn't it?
It should.
There's a new e-mail worm....Mimail.C.
Mimail.C disguises its worm payload in a .zip file labeled as PHOTOS.ZIP and tries to trick users into opening the message and launching the file by spoofing the sender address as originating from the user's own domain and using a subject heading of "Re: our private photos."
It's a variant on some previous worms....the .zip attachment is designed to fool the filtering process many e-mail services have in place to block malicious attachments.
Like its predecessor, Mimail.C attempts to steal confidential information from compromised machines and send the harvested data to predetermined E-mail addresses. The actual Windows applications it pickpockets are still under investigation, says Craig Schmugar, a virus research engineer at Network Associates Inc.
It's also designed to launch DOS attacks against a couple of websites.
Another test run?
While catching up on my blog reading this morning, I found this "Swing Voter" site (Thanks Steve. I think.) that's, well.....uh, "interesting".
If _that's_ what the typical swing voter in this country is like, we're in deep shit.
It does explain all those votes for Al Gore though.
One of the first rules of lawyering that I learned after graduating law school was "Get your money up front." If you lose the case, the client won't pay you because he thinks you didn't do anything. If you win, the client will convince himself that it was because he was right, and you didn't do anything. Cynical? Yep. True? Usually. I had to get stiffed on my fees a few times before I learned. But I never had anything like this happen.
A man furious with losing money in a court battle yesterday sought Wild West justice outside a courthouse by going after a lawyer with a gun in a bizarre showdown that was caught on camera.
Attorney Jerry Curry frantically dropped to his knees and begged for his life as William Strier whipped out a revolver and fired bullets at him from just inches away.
"That's what you get for taking my money," Strier shouted as he emptied his revolver at Curry from point-blank range.
The attorney was shot several times, but is expect to recover.
Who knew taking a court appointment to manage a trust could be hazardous to your health?
Chris Kelly is blogging his way across America (what a cool idea!) and should be in Arkansas somewhere over the weekend. He's looking for Arkansas bloggers to meet & maybe go hiking or rock climbing with. He'll be coming through the state on I-40, so if that sounds like fun, drop him a line & meet him....somewhere 'round here maybe.
He's got some great photos on his site of the things he's seen so far, too. Go take a gander.