The MOST Wonderful Time of the Year!

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so!

Word of the Day

amphibology \am-fuh-BAH-luh-jee\ noun
: a sentence or phrase that can be interpreted in more than one way
Example sentence:
Not wanting to voice what I really felt, I resorted to amphibology and said, “Indeed! Bingley IS a rare sort of fellow.”

You Rarely See The Ocean This Calm

It was like a quiet lake Thursday. Pretty neat.

Alpha, Baby

Just an mph or so away…

We are on the verge of the first ever named tropical storm “Alpha” in the Atlantic basin as tropical depression 25 has formed.

Happy Red Vs Blue Anniversary!

The Glorious 200th Anniversary of Red beating Blue (or was it Blue beating Red? Politically Correct History, “Years Without Tears”, is awfully tough to remember…) has finally arrived! Tim Worstall has a celebratory post up.
I think for dinner I’m going to marinade a Beef Tenderloin in Brandy.
I’ll call it a “Pickled Nelson.”

Oops, this one:

The Pig Got Popped

Did someone shoot the pig for lunch?
Bullet found in woman’s pork loin casserole
Was the pig a victim of a rural drive-by shooting?
That’s one theory a Publix spokesman offered to explain how a bullet wound up in an Ormond Beach woman’s pork loin.
Diane Johnson’s son-in-law found the bullet in a pork loin casserole she served Tuesday to her family. She said there was no mistaking the projectile’s distinct shape in the pork loin she bought at a local Publix grocery store.

It’s terrible, the violence against pigs these days.

Porcine Post of the Day

Since we missed “Talk Like a Pirate Day”, we’ll overcompensate.

Another Reason to Have That Cup O’ Joe

A would-be carjacker got a different kind of jolt from his intended victim’s morning cup of coffee, authorities said.
The suspect tapped the car window Wednesday morning with a gun and motioned the driver to get out, Chief Deputy Roy Hughes said.
But the driver — who had just bought a cup of hot coffee — slammed the car door into the carjacker’s legs, threw the coffee at his neck and face and wrestled him to the ground, Hughes said.

Bet the carjacker sues the coffee pot (ala MacDonalds) now. He’d have grounds for it…

How Come We Never Hear About This Guy?

The old “good news is NO news” MSM credo at work.

Uribe Wins Colombia Court Ruling, Allowing Him to Seek 2nd Term

Sounds like any South American “Presidente”, huh? That’s the amazing thing. He’s not.

…helping keep the South American country’s economy growing at its fastest pace in seven years…
…Foreign direct investment surged 52 percent in Colombia in the first half of the year to $2.3 billion, following a 66 percent increase in 2004, as companies looked to tap into growing consumer confidence that has followed the drop in crime.
…homicides have dropped 40 percent and kidnappings 70 percent, making Colombians feel safer in public…
…Colombian stocks gained 0.8 percent today ahead of the court ruling, leaving them up 67 percent this year.
…The peso has surged 22 percent since May 2004
…“Leadership like his is rare; he has put his neck on the line for Colombia,” John Ditierri, who helps manage about $14 billion in stocks at Emerging Markets Investor, including $90 million of Colombian shares…
…Colombia’s economy expanded 5.3 percent in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, its fastest pace of growth in seven years. The economy expanded 4.1 percent in each of the past two years, more than double the 2002 growth rate of 1.9 percent.

Viva Uribe! And how lovely for the Columbian people. I’d be watching that Chavez guy, though. This sort of thing runs counter to his ideas. Swill Salutes to SuperPundits Gateway and Publius

BREAKING NEWS

…and I’m shocked, SHOCKED!!

ABCNews is reporting that the U.N. has released a report on the assassination of the former Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri, stating it was planned by Syrian and Lebanese security forces. “Evidence of Syrian, Lebanese involvement.” We’ll link as soon as we get one. Bastards.
UPDATE:Got it.

A U.N. investigation concluded that high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese security officials were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, according to a report released Thursday.

Six Degrees of Lawyer Denny Crain

I was just talking badly about last night’s anti-Bush/Brady Bill lapse lamentation/screed episode at Boston Legal, which stars William Shatner as lawyer Denny Crain who believes in a person’s right to bear arms, and is shown on ABC, which also has John Stossel as one of their reporters, who just had an excellent opinion piece on Real Clear politics about the right to bear arms and the Brady Bill’s not making a damn bit of difference, the exact opposite of Boston Legal last night, but exactly on point with lawyer Denny Crain, which I found via LAW Professor Reynolds. (Weird how this happens, n’est pas?)
UPDATE:

Congress gives gun industry a lawsuit shield
President Bush expected to sign bill following approval by House

Just in time to put the clamp on more lunacy, like the settlements with the D.C. sniper victims’ families.

Opponents say the strength of the bill’s support is testament to the influence of the gun lobby. If the bill had been law when the relatives of six victims of convicted Washington-area snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo sued the gun dealer from which they obtained their rifle, the dealer would not have agreed to pay the families and victims $2.5 million, they said.

Read more »

Since We’re ON NOLA, Anyway

…file this note under “No Bad Deed Goes Unrewarded“.

The presidency of the Orleans Levee Board is an unpaid position, or at least it was until just before Hurricane Katrina struck. In August, board President Jim Huey concluded that he was entitled to $1,000 a month for his work at the agency, retroactive to when he took the post in 1996. He came to this decision after consulting with two of the board’s contract lawyers, one of whom was his wife’s cousin, but without seeking approval from the other board members or the agency’s staff attorney. The payment worked out to about $96,000.
This move was appalling but hardly surprising…

Big EASY, indeed.

The Best Thing That Could Happen to New Orleans

This man… no, THIS one…
is an egghead. A mayor of very little brain. Besides being a media whore. Mayor Noggin’s latest?

New Orleans mayor blasts Saints owner
Nagin accuses Benson of negotiating permanent move to San Antonio

There’s one paragraph in this chirpy little MSNBC article that mentions what the Saints cost the state…

During Benson’s ownership, the state of Louisiana has built him a new headquarters, including spending $6.75 million for an indoor practice field in 2003. The state also has paid for repeated improvements to the Louisiana Superdome at Benson’s insistence during the past two decades.

…but as Swillers know (thanks to our TPI© investigative reports), besides building maintenance costs, the state’s been RENTING the team the WHOLE TIME.

Under the current agreement, the state will pay the Saints $15 million this year and in 2006, $20 million in 2007 and 2008 and $23.5 million in 2009 and 2010. The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District refinanced bonds on the Superdome to cover this year’s payment.

When one refinances those bonds to pay the Saints’ extortion demands, one pays for those for years, whether you’ve got a team or not. Whether you’re awash in cash…or not. Last I heard, NOLA was awash, but it wasn’t in greenbacks. And the ‘we need a big team + big events = $$’s IMPACT‘ justification doesn’t pan out either.

…the 2003 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four, estimated at the time at around $150 million of impact. And separate from that list is the presence of the NFL’s Saints, the city’s first and favorite pro franchise, and the NBA’s Hornets, the newcomers.
It makes one wonder where all that money has gone since that first Super Bowl in the Superdome 27 years ago.
But don’t get mad about the billions that never trickled into the New Orleans beyond Bourbon Street, that appear at best misdirected, and at worst wasted.
Get mad about the fact that the money never existed in the first place

So. Who the hell has gotten the payola tickets that justified selling out your city and mortgaging the state to pay for a team that COSTS TENS of millions after millions, year after year, and never returns a dime? Who’s gonna pay for them to ‘come back’, huh? Haven’t you already laid off 3/4 of the city workers and there’s, like, 6 cops left? Where’s that money coming from? And EXACTLY WHAT of significance has the Saints organization contributed to rebuilding New Orleans?
Note to Mayor Noggin: STFU and LET THEM GO. Be a man, be a hero, oh bloviating one. Stand-up and say,

“We’ve got a city to rebuild and you choose not to be part of the solution. Fine. Don’t let them gilded turnstiles hit you in the a$$ on your way out.”

Spank

Google backs down over Gmail name
A tiny UK-based financial research company has forced Google, the internet search giant, to change the name of its popular e-mail service in the UK.
Google announced on Wednesday that its free web-based e-mail would be renamed GoogleMail after Independent International Investment Research claimed that the Gmail name infringed the trademark of its G-mail.

Heh.

What Is The Drinking Age For Crocs?

Australian study finds alcohol linked to croc attacks.

An Australian review of unprovoked crocodile attacks on humans between 1971 and 2004 found that 29 percent of the 62 attacks had involved some alcohol consumption by the victim.

I assume they correctly classify the croc as the victim here. It’s an absolute scandal that nefarious liqour sellers in the outback are not checking their IDs!

WTF? Wilma CAT 5!

South Floridians: Get Out NOW While there’s still gas.

DATA FROM A RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT HURRICANE WILMA
HAS BECOME AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE
SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. THE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE MEASURED
175 MPH WINDS AND ESTIMATED A MINIMUM PRESSURE OF 892 MB. THIS IS
THE LOWEST PRESSURE OBSERVED IN 2005 AND IS EQUIVALENT TO THE
MINIMUM PRESSURE OF THE 1935 LABOR DAY HURRICANE IN THE FLORIDA
KEYS.

HO
LY
SHIT

AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE REPORTED 884 MB…THE LOWEST
MINIMUM PRESSURE EVER MEASURED IN A HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC
BASIN…THIS VALUE SHOULD BE USED WITH CAUTION UNTIL CALIBRATED…

Update:

PRONOUNCED TROCHOIDAL OSCILLATIONS ARE BEING SUPERIMPOSED ON A MEAN
MOTION OF 300/6.

I have no idea what that means, but it can’t be good.
Updated Update: Gawddammit I hate when they say “however…”

HOWEVER…RECENT RUNS OF THE GFS AND
NOGAPS ARE SUGGESTING THE POSSIBILITY OF A THREAT TO NEW ENGLAND.
IN THIS SCENARIO…WILMA BECOMES CAPTURED BY A LARGE MID- TO
UPPER-LEVEL LOW FORECAST TO MOVE INTO THE GREAT LAKES REGION IN
FOUR DAYS. THE ECMWF AND IN PARTICULAR THE UKMET…BOTH OLDER
RUNS…DO NOT YET INDICATE THIS. THE FIVE-DAY OFFICIAL FORECAST
POINT HAS BEEN ADJUSTED TO THE LEFT AND FASTER THAN THE PREVIOUS
ADVISORY…BUT IS STILL MUCH FARTHER OFFSHORE OF NEW ENGLAND THAN
THE GFDL…GFS…AND NOGAPS GUIDANCE.

Word of the Day

Argus \AHR-gus\ noun \AHRRR-gah\ diminuitive*
1 : a hundred-eyed monster of Greek mythology
2 : a watchful guardian
3* : castle on an islet in Loch Linnhe at the mouth of Loch Laich near Portnacroish, Strathclyde, Scotland

And Another Thing

We’ve waited for months for Boston Legal to hit ABC’s schedule again. Missed it last week because of base-ah-baw-roo playoffs, but definately wanted to see it last night. They’d previewed scenes of Betty White on trial for head whackinging the frying pan murderer of the previous season. “Woo hoo!” we thought. What they didn’t show were previews of the hour’s other case with it’s excruciating “Bush let the automatic weapons ban die and Congress rolled over for him” stilted preachy counsel questioning during said case. We felt dirty and used. Oh my God, that’s the end of that. Tuesday night viewing now officially becomes a vacuum after My Name Is Earl. (Which, if you haven’t seen it, means you are being punished by bad Karma. Rage, RAGE against the dying of the light!)

Read more »

Buried in Yahoo News ‘Opinion’

…was this little gem:

The spoiling of war
War correspondents need not retire yet – peace isn’t blanketing the planet. But a number of scholarly thinkers who tally up wars find a sharp decline in armed conflicts over the past decade. And current wars are inflicting far fewer casualties

Needless to say, we won’t see these statistics anytime soon on the front page of Pravda, because counteraction is bad when you’ve an agenda.

These scholarly studies help counteract a media impression of rising and bloodier conflicts. They also help sift out the excuses for war from their underlying causes, which often lie in a long and historic battle over which ideas will keep uplifting all of humanity.

Willlllbur! I’m Pregggnannnttttt….

The names were changed to protect the horse’s identity:

An Enumclaw-area man who authorities say helped run a farm where people had sex with animals — and where a Seattle man died doing so with a horse — was charged with a misdemeanor yesterday….
…According to the King County Sheriff’s Office, which also investigated, the farm was known in Internet chat rooms as a destination for people who want to have sex with livestock. Authorities didn’t learn about the farm until July 2, when a man drove to Enumclaw Community Hospital seeking medical assistance for a companion. Medics wheeled the Seattle man into an examination room and realized he was dead. When hospital workers looked for the man who had dropped him off, he was gone, Enumclaw police said.

I’m thinking it was Seattle Slew…

French Pork Protest Post

I’m not sure exactly what it says, but it’s from a French website that seems to be leading the charge against industrial hog farming in the Midi-Pyrenees, keeping the French breed assignations for small, heirloom hog-farmers. It’s headlined:

Avalanche de lisier à l’horizon
or, loosely translated,
“a bucketload of liquid pig-poopie just waiting to flow downhill“

Which, as anyone who’s ever had the misfortune to live in present-day coastal to mid-state North Carolina knows, is a big, stinky, horrible-beyond-belief mess that kills everything in it’s path, not the least of which is your olfactory senses. I’m with these guys. Who could resist an awful Google translation like this?

there is extremely to bet that the industrial pigsties will hatch a little everywhere in our beautiful regions.
By all the lards! The war of the fat is thus indeed committed!!!

A rallying cry if EVER there was one.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Major Dad said “Come out here and see the moon!” It reminded me of one of my most favorite, romantic, melodramatic poems in the whole world.

Read more »

Dang, Did Wilma Change Her Mind

Helluva turn.
Look out Naples.

“You Da Man!” “No! YOU Da Man!”

Mugabe, Chavez slam U.S. at U.N. event
Zimbabwe leader compares Bush, Blair to Hitler, Mussolini
The leaders of Zimbabwe and Venezuela on Monday denounced President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as “unholy men,” and blamed the United States and other developed countries for world hunger, pollution and war.

I’m sure W and Tony are crushed.

Today’s ThisLifeAGram

MAY HAVE TO GANG BANG ENTIRE ASTROS TEAM BECAUSE THEY ARE SO AWESOME ESPECIALLY THAT AUSMUS DUDE WHO IS SMOKING HOT BUT NOT ROGER CLEMENS BECAUSE EW STOP
Hahahahahahahaha