One Of My Most Endearing Qualities, As Far As My Bride Is Concerned…

Is my punctuality. Actually, if the truth be told, it drives her insane. You see, I really hate being late for anything. I mean really really hate it. If you tell me to be at your house at 7 I’m there at 6:45. If we have to be somewhere at a given time and it’s a 30 minute drive, I want to leave an hour early just, you know, in case there’s traffic or something. I showed up at her apartment 2 hours early for our first date, for gosh sakes. So I found it somewhat gratifying this morning when I encountered someone who is worse than me.

Read more »

Damn Straight

About time he said something on this issue I agree with:

When the president was asked at a Rose Garden question-and-answer session whether the anthem should be sung in Spanish, he replied: “I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.”
“I think people who want to be citizens of this country ought to learn English,” Bush said.

On It’s Face

…this…

Shell unveils plans for ‘biggest refinery in US
Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch Shell has announced plans to make its jointly owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the biggest in the United States.

…is great news. Then you think, “But isn’t that the same Port Arthur hidden by Hurricane Rita?”

Doesn’t help jack if it’s underwater or all blowed up.

Our Counter Slogan for National Illegal Monday?

Senator Martinez Replied to My Email

…bless his little, pointy head.

…In addition to tightening border security, we must obtain better information regarding the illegals living here because it is critical to our national security to know who is living within our borders. Our estimated illegal population is equivalent to the population of Ohio. If we hope to bring 11 million illegal immigrants out of hiding we must provide them with the proper incentive to come forward. We cannot offer amnesty; instead, I believe we must establish a way for those with jobs to gain interim legal status to work after paying stiff fines, back taxes, and clearing a background check.

Blahblahblah. Bring them out of hiding? Who cares about that? My opinion is leave them hiding ~ but when you FIND them, back to Mexico they go and make it IMPOSSIBLE for them to get back HERE. Plus a hefty body slam for their employer. “¡usted NO puede!“.
And it’s “The Star SPANGLED Banner“, a$$holes.
NOT the “Star SPANGLISH“.

Read more »

Damn Your Tax Cutting, Chimpy McEyes!!

GDP growth strongest in 2-1/2 years

Bastard!
(Scottie mug, anyone?)

May Day Follies

I have to say that this sort of thing may well backfire.

(AP) SACRAMENTO California’s state senators on Thursday endorsed Monday’s boycott of schools, jobs and stores by illegal immigrants and their allies as supporters equated the protest with great social movements in American history.
By a 24-13 vote that split along party lines, the California Senate approved a resolution that calls the one-day protest the Great American Boycott 2006 and describes it as an attempt to educate Americans “about the tremendous contribution immigrants make on a daily basis to our society and economy.”

Sorry, but if I see a mob of marching shouting folks talking about how we stole the land from them I can assure you that they are not going to get any sympathy from me to legalize their illegal activities. Nor, frankly, do I have tender feelings for the folks who hire them. If I have to cut my own grass or pay a little more for a sandwich to be delivered from the deli then I will.
We can not simply wave a wand and bless the continual breaking and flouting of laws and then expect that these very same people who are being rewarded for breaking our laws will suddenly morph into model citizens. It’s ludicrous, and we’ll have the exact same problem again in a few years. Clearly, however, deporting 11 million people is not possible, so we need to firstly stop anymore from coming via physical barrier and also by discouraging the incentive, i.e. prosecuting the people who hire them. Next we need to go through the illegals that are here and deport any with criminal records. The remainder then we come up with a program for so that they can work towards citizenship over a several year period, with any violations during that period resulting in deportation. I’m against any sort of ‘guest worker’ program because that creates a permanent, legalized sub-citizen in our society; I seem to recall we killed several hundred thousand of ourselves the last time we had to get rid of such a system.
Anyhow, let’s discuss.
Update: Michelle Malkin has the scoop on how the “Nation of Aztlan” charmers are getting involved. Nice.

The Dogg Collared

Rap superstar Snoop Dogg was in police custody on Thursday after being arrested with five other men following a disturbance at London’s Heathrow airport, a police source said.
The 34-year-old star, a former member of the notorious Los Angeles Crips gang, was held after a fight broke out when police were escorting him and his entourage out of the airport on Wednesday evening.
…Media reports said Dogg was waiting for a flight to Johannesburg in South Africa.
A British Airways spokesman told the Daily Mirror: “There was an incident involving a group of passengers at our lounge where some passengers were rude and abusive to our staff and that is something we do not tolerate.”

British homies don play dat minizzle schizzle.

Who is Radley Balko and Why

…is he channeling James Frey? Working subtitle:

How ‘Ha hah ~ Buy This Mug!’ became
“Bloggers who sell Scottie mugs HATE ANDREW SULLIVAN to a million little PIECES !!!“

Which we don’t, of course. Our scrupulously researched empirical data flow charts…

…overwhelmingly support this conclusion. (Science, my friends, is a great tool.)
My post of two o’ clock yesterday morning ~ admittedly a shameless attempt at mug promotion ~ has morphed into something unrecognizable through Mr. Balko’s fertile imagination and lackluster research. (He was kind enough to trackback.)
Now, “they need a mug” and “where to GET a mug” firmly in your upper register? Great. THIS is what Mr. Balko read and posted:

Blog chatter over the Tennessee torture case has taken an unfortunate turn into petty Red State-Blue State territory.
Andrew Sullivan picked up the story yesterday, and pondered a link between CIA torture and torture by drug cops, suggesting that when the federal government condones torture overseas, we probably shouldn’t be surprised when government agents at home are given light sentences for torturing drug suspects. He then suggested that the Bush administration’s rather callous approach to civil liberties on other fronts might play a role in this kind of behavior from law enforcement at the local level.
That caused Glenn Reynolds to approvingly link to two sites mocking Sullivan for, as they put it, “blaming Bush for police brutality.” That then degenerated into a childish “blame Bush for everything” caricature of Sullivan’s position.

Yup. That second dastardly link is to our scottie mug. But I must have missed all the Sullivan mockery implied in those two sentences of mine. And he takes a crack at you guys, too! (This from a guy who doesn’t allow comments on his site.)

Read more »

Oh Golly: Iran Now Has Nuke-Capable Missles…

…that can reach Europe:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Iran has received a first shipment of missiles from North Korea that are capable of reaching Europe, Israel’s military intelligence chief was quoted on Thursday as saying.
Known in the West as BM-25s, the Russian-designed missiles have a range of around 1,500 miles, giving them a longer reach than the Iranian-made Shihab-4 missiles which are capable of hitting Israel…
The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where it was known as the SSN6, a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, Haaretz reported.

But they just need them for peaceful purposes.

NIMBY Ted (Not “Nimble” Ted)

Ah yes, the Champion of the Poor is all for alternative energy (because BushyMcChimpler is in Oil’s pocket, natch)…just so long as it doesn’t affect the view by his multi-gazillion dollar vacation home:

WASHINGTON — As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project, potentially reviving efforts to construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket Sound…
…Environmental groups have launched an aggressive advertising and lobbying campaign to persuade Democrats to abandon Kennedy and back a promising source of renewable energy. If the wind farm becomes a reality, advocates say, it could provide three-fourths of the Cape and Islands’ energy needs and could set an example for the nation.
The maneuver to stop the wind farm ”is clearly a backroom deal, and they’re going to get called publicly on it,” said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. ”The Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore wind farm in the United States because of their relationship with Ted Kennedy.”

I’m agreeing with Greenpeace.
What have I become?

On the Morning of This Date in 1805

“…to the shores of Tripoli“

…hadn’t made it to the Marines’ Hymn…yet. Courtesy of Lt. Presley Neville O’ Bannon and his galiant company, it did so by mid-afternoon.

…At long last, on April 25, they arrived at Derna. Surely by then, many in this small army must have been happy at the prospect of battle, as opposed to dying a miserable death in the desert. A message was sent to the governor of Derna to surrender. His defiant reply was, “My head or yours.” Shortly after this, the attacking force was bolstered by the arrival of the USS Argus, USS Hornet, and USS Nautilus in the harbor.
It was decided that Hamet and his Mamelukes would attack the governor’s castle, while O’Bannon, with his Americans, along with the Greeks and Turks, would lead an assault on the harbor fort. The naval guns would assist by bombarding the objectives.
As the attack began, the firing from the governor’s castle proved too much for Hamet’s force, and they held back. With enemy reinforcements known to be on the way, the attackers were in dire need of a quick victory. Eaton ordered O’Bannon to lead his men in a frontal assault on the harbor fort. Two hours of desperate fighting ensued, but finally O’Bannon and his men drove the Tripolitans from the fort and captured the guns there before they could be spiked. This would prove to be important.
O’Bannon had carried a U.S. flag with him, and now, for the first time in history, the Stars and Stripes was raised over foreign soil.

It’s a great read.

Everything You Never Ever Wanted to Know

…about Cynthia “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” McKinney. Just like novel, it builds to a climax.

Buh-Bye Byers

Oh what are we to do? David Bernstein has a post up at Volokh about a poor harrassed ex-Duke law proffessor who has been hounded out of academe here in the eevull States and forced to return to the safety of Canada:

The moment was upon me. My heart bursting with pride, I looked the immigration officer in the eye and said, as simply and non-judgmentally as possible: “I have chosen to live permanently in Canada.”

That’s all fine and good; I’m glad he’s proud of his native land and wants to live there. But why did he feel forced to leave the US? Well, let’s see:

Six years ago, Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson estimated that 660,000 Canadians were living and working illegally in the United States. Most Canadians blend in easily. But after Sept. 11, 2001, fear replaced curiosity as the standard response to things unknown. Before 9/11, my wife’s English accent often generated a friendly response, including the comment “You sound just like Princess Diana.” After the attacks, the warm chatter gave way to a strained silence.

While surely some of my southern brethren rightly saw her offensive accent as a chance to exact some payback for the grievous wrongs the British have done to us over the years (I’m thinking especially of them making Dolly Madison have to move so quickly and also whoever that bastard was who chased Mel Gibson around in The Patriot) there’s just this small voice in me that says maybe, just maybe it wasn’t perhaps the accent that chilled those previously warm conversations but perhaps the content…

Read more »

“Now Where Did I Leave That Bio-Weapon…”

It really is amazing when you keep hearing stories like this:

NEWARK, N.J. – In the past year, two New Jersey laboratories have been unable to account for plague-infested mice and vials of deadly anthrax spores, and top state officials are scrambling to devise better ways to safeguard deadly material.
In both cases, authorities say they think the items in question weren’t actually lost, but were simply unaccounted for due to clerical errors.

“Clerical errors.” They think.
Great…
All this money being spent, and they can’t keep track of anthrax and plague samples?

My Indian (Sorry! “Native-American”) Name Is…

“Dances With Towels”

Oliver Has Spoken

Continuing our theme from yesterday, the ever-clear minded Oliver Stone has weighed in:

Movie-maker OLIVER STONE has blasted media groups who “slander” celebrities for their political comments – because intelligent stars have every right to question their leaders. The Vietnam veteran, who is a fierce opponent of the US leadership, is appalled every time a celebrity is rudely mocked for making his or her thoughts about PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH and the war in Iraq public, and he urges journalists to be more supportive. The NATURAL BORN KILLERS director says, “We’re Hollywood wackos and all that stuff, left-wing… (It’s) an easy and facile dismissal. “I’m still a citizen, I’ve served my country as a veteran, I’ve had many jobs before the film business. I know something of life, having lived to this age. “We have a right to speak and every time we speak: ‘You’re an actor, a showbusiness director,’ we’re making it up! “This is not a way of dealing with people. This is slander.”

And I for one am glad he has, as, moron that I am, I was not aware that the definition of “slander” is “to quote.”

Yankees

7-1 over Oakland in the 3d. I can’t stand the suspense. Kcruella’s right ~ I’m going to bed, leaving two words to linger on the midnight air…
A
Rod.

There is Mucho Joy in Casa de Major Dad Tonight

Our cardinals have returned. They finally came back post-Ivan for a brief few weeks last summer, only to be driven away by Dennis and Katrina. We’ve been faithfully keeping the feeder full this past 18 months hoping they’d find their way home.
This is the first chirp chirp in the backyard. (Integrity Alert ~ stolen picture…)

I will have a drink.

Downsizing is a Tough Pill to Swallow

Musab al-Zarqawi replaced
IRAQ’S resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden’s mentor said in Jordan.
“The Iraqi resistance’s high command asked Zarqawi to give up his political role and replaced him with an Iraqi, because of several mistakes he made,” said Hudayf Azzam, who claims close contacts with the rebels.
“Zarqawi’s role has been limited to military action,” said Azzam, whose late father Abdullah Azzam was the mentor of bin Laden, the al-Qaeda boss.
“Zarqawi bowed to the orders two weeks ago and was replaced by Iraqi national Abdullah bin Rashed al-Baghdadi,” Azzam said.

Saw this yesterday via The Counterterrorism Blog and wondered if it had any credence. Low and behold, it’s just showing up on MSNBCcom, so I figured it was safe to share.
I sure wish they’d whacked the little f*cker, instead of moving him down a notch. But hopefully now this means he’s vunerable and schmaybe a ‘patriot’ (or a pragmatic businessman…) will sell him out.

McCarthy! Puritans! Lions! Tigers! Bears!

I am so tired of hearing these Hollywood “artistes” talking about the pall of repression that they are tirelessly struggling under. Basic Instinct 2 had rather…limp box office receipts in its opening weekend. Do they blame the actors? Do they blame the directors? Do they blame the script? Hell, do they Blame Canada?
No! They blame Bush!

Paul Verhoeven, director of the first “Basic Instinct” (which scored $353 million worldwide) as well as the widely ridiculed “Showgirls” (now regarded as something of a camp classic), attributes the genre’s demise to the current American political climate.
“Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States,” said the Dutch native. “Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends.”
Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987’s seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale “Fatal Attraction,” agrees, noting that the genre’s downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.
“We’re in a big puritanical mode,” he said. “Now, it’s like the McCarthy era, except it’s not ‘Are you a communist?’ but ‘Have you ever put sex in a movie?'”

Oh puh-lease. Maybe it’s ‘cos, you know, the script and the direction…suck?
At least finally at the end of the article they find someone who isn’t a nut:

“For producer JC Spink, the genre’s demise has little to do with politics, scripts or willing talent and everything to do with the Internet, which became ubiquitous in American homes around the same time studio executives were suffering through such debacles as “Body of Evidence,” “Showgirls” and “Jade.”
“Why pay $10 to see something at the movies that you can see for free on the Internet?” Spink asked. “I think the genre is suffering because sex is more pervasive in our society now than it was 10 years ago, from Vanity Fair ads to reality TV. I mean, there’s porn stars on reality TV.”

And even Verhoeven grudgingly admits in the end that the scripts stink. Geesh. But I guess the scripts are poor because of the theocratic climate of fear, so the writers (those few who haven’t been dragged off to the Gulags yet, obviously) can’t think erotic thoughts.
Yeah, that’s it.

Rev. Jesse Stirring the Pot

…and not the way ~ or the reverend ~ you’d think.

…Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic performance by the black community in a time of crisis would have been inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of the community. Then local government would come in.

Wow.

Ah, the Smell of It!

“It” being the stench from New Jersey’s politicians.

DID New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez share a secret Hoboken love nest with a former aide with whom he was rumored to be having an affair?

Yeah, yeah, big deal, huh? But this gets downright confusing.

…That same Hoboken address also appeared on a search of Kay LiCausi, Menendez’s former chief of staff with whom staffers to former Gov. James McGreevey claimed he was having a long-term affair.

McGREEVEY?! I thought he was on the down low. And then THIS…

Menendez, 52, was found to have helped steer at least $200,000 worth of business to LiCausi after she left his employ to become a lobbyist and political consultant.

…sounds like John Corzine.
I can’t keep them all straight ~ they all sound so much alike. Print the sentence, but leave the name blank and insert as necessary. You could use the same paragraph for years.

“Slither” Might Well Be Worth Seeing

…if just for this reason alone.

…The first-time director, who wrote the screenplay for the 2004 remake “Dawn of the Dead,” also has assembled a far finer cast than the genre typically presents, led by Nathan Fillion of the cult TV series “Firefly” and its big-screen spinoff “Serenity.”
As Bill Pardy, the police chief in a hillbilly town overrun by killer slugs and flesh-munching zombies, Fillion expands on the droll flair he mastered as skipper of the rickety spaceship Serenity.
“Slither” also lets Fillion cut loose and get really goofy, all the while maintaining his boyish rogue’s charm. This guy deserves to be a major star.

Agree whole heartedly. The movie review’s pretty darn good, too. I don’t know that I could get over my inherent squeamishness about such things to watch it though, droll or not.
By the by, Major Dad and I just finished watching the “Firefly” boxed set ~ Ebola had a charitable moment and lent it to us ~ and we are completely hooked. It was dynamite viewing. We’re also pissed that it was so poorly marketed when it was on. Who had any idea a) what it was about and b) what a treasure it was ?

It’s Been Interesting

Very interesting seeing how the MSM has handled the Jill Carroll statements about how her captors were, in fact, scumbags. Is it me or does it seem rather, well, low key? When she was first released the video she made was trumpeted as much as her release

American journalist Jill Carroll, who was released this week after being held hostage in Iraq for almost three months, has slammed the United States and praised Iraqi insurgents in a video posted on an Islamist Web site.

And people rushed to judge her

Counterterrorism expert Laura Mansfield speculated that Carroll may have made the comments after being subjected to her captors’ thinking for 83 days. It would not be surprising for Carroll to come away with a “heightened affection” for the mujahedeen, she said.
“That’s what she’s been spoon-fed for nearly three months,” Mansfield said.

But it seems her father knew the real reason

Her father, however, told The Christian Science Monitor — the paper she was freelancing for when she was abducted — that she made the video to meet a final demand made by her captors, the newspaper reported Friday. The article’s headline was “Jill Carroll forced to make propaganda video as price of freedom.”

So now the MSM can’t resist tweaking things a little

CNN cannot authenticate the source of the video. It is not clear when or where it was taped…
“During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video,” she wrote. “They told me they would let me go if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. I agreed.
“Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not.”
She even lambasted her captors, who allegedly killed her interpreter, Alan Enwiya, when they abducted her in western Baghdad in January.

Allegedly? Allegedly??
Tell that to his alleged family who was allegedly given his allegedly bullet-riddled body.