When You See This Movie

…you’ll be very glad you weren’t born a penguin. What an amazing flick.

Nobel Laureate Says World Must Abandon Nuclear Weapons

Also:

“We are in a race against time,” the 63-year-old Egyptian chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei said about efforts to keep nuclear weapons away from terrorists. “Imagine that the only nuclear weapons remaining are the relics in our museums. Imagine the legacy we could leave to our children,” he said.
“It would also be nice if I could score some Yankees’ tickets. And a date with Anna Nicole Smith would be nice,” he added.
As ElBaradei received his peace award, Iran’s top nuclear official said his country would enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel, despite an international drive to curb such efforts. Enolagayzee Aghazadeh, head of the Happy Atomic Organization of Iran, did not say when the processes would begin. Enolagayzee denies Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, but rather devices he refered to as “Kool Kafir Kleaners,” adding that the cleaning would be “da bomb.”

My Latest Toy

I bought an Airport Express. What’s neat is, while it will serve as a wirelessnetwork point (and that’s mainly what it’s designed for), it will also allow you to stream music via iTunes from your computer to your stereo over your hardwired LAN if you don’t have or want a wireless network. And I don’t particularly want to go wireless at this point, as there are too many computer-saavy High Schoolers in my neighborhood who would love to infiltrate my bandwidth. Via the Airport Utility control panel you can turn down the signal strength to basically nothing, and then designate “Living Room” as one of the laces you want the music to play…

…through the stereo on the other side of the house! You can see in the top picture the CAT-5 cable coming out of the bottom of it, and that grey little glob at the front is the cable going from the jack into some spare RCA imputs on the receiver. The sound quality is much better than when I would connect the iPod to the receiver.
Yeah, I’m a goober.

Strike the Pose

Guys who were the bomb in college…and bombed out of it.

John William Heisman (1869-1936)

What’s With This Guy?

I mean, I’ve always liked him tremendously as a person but he’s starting to sound…well…like he doesn’t give a whooyah what the Deans of his party say.

Mr. Lieberman particularly infuriated his colleagues when he pointed out at a conference here that President Bush would be commander in chief for three more years and said that “it’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that.”
“We undermine the president’s credibility at our nation’s peril,”

Cool.

Just so you know….

Narnia is awesome. It was far better than I thought it would be. And don’t go in expecting LOTR, as they are equally well done, but different, aimed it different age groups. But I loved the movie, and the CAG and I both had tears in our eyes at times. *Yes, I’m a big softie when I am not shooting people.) And Aslan was just as I pictured him the first time I read thestory..

Oh, I Got An Answer for Them

APB FOR STOLEN FLAMINGOS

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Hey Bill, STFU

Did any former President ever do any such thing to him while he was in office? What a classless piece of crap attention whore this guy is:

MONTREAL – Former President Clinton told a global audience of diplomats, environmentalists and others Friday that the Bush administration is “flat wrong” in claiming that reducing greenhouse gas emissions to fight global warming would damage the U.S. economy…Canadian officials said the U.S. delegation was displeased with the last-minute scheduling of the Clinton speech.

Clinton, a champion of the Kyoto Protocol, the existing emissions- controls agreement opposed by the Bush administration, spoke in the final hours of a two-week U.N. climate conference at which Washington has come under heavy criticism for its stand.

Yes, the same Clinton who was in office when the US Senate voted 95-0 against the terms that were being proposed under what became known as Kyoto, the same Clinto who never submitted the Treaty to the Senate because he knew it would go down in well deserved (and hopefully extremely bloody polluting) flames, yes this is the same fellow who now trys to shift all the blame for the US not being a party to this ‘treaty’ to Bush. What an ass.
Memo to Willy: You ain’t an elected official no more. STFU.

Something Over the Top

…would be Tom Jones singing “The Tennesee Waltz”. Thank God they didn’t use Michael Bolton.

V-22: Flying Pork?

Here’s a troubling article on this expensive program:

In September 2005, the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor failed its second Operational Evaluation (OPEVAL); it failed its first one in 2000. However, a friend of the V-22 program wrote the OPEVAL report to hide these failures. The OPEVAL report was withheld from release until Sept. 27, 2005 when a Defense Department panel met and rubberstamped it for full production after no analysis of the OPEVAL report. This article shows how the V-22 failed OPEVAL the second time as well. Note that a KPP is a Key Performance Parameter. If an aircraft is unable to meet it’s KPPs, it is considered a failure. KPPs are not dreamed up by evil critics, but by Marine aviators who expect the aircraft to easily meet that minimal standard. The basic purpose of an OPEVAL is to verify that KPPs are demonstrated.

Not only is this troubling from a Porkbusting Budgeting standpoint, it is even more disturbing when one thinks of how many Marines are going to risk their lives in this thing.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

Consumer sentiment improves
U.S. consumer sentiment improved in early December more than economists had expected, helped by falling gasoline prices and continuing job growth, a report showed on Friday.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary December index of consumer sentiment rose to 88.7 from November’s final reading of 81.6…

And hopefully that cheerfulness will mean lots of beautiful, happy Christmas purchases at my show next weekend. (If I quit blogging and start painting something to peddle.)
As a public service, we have not mentioned that Bush/ee-ville/Hitler/Chimps/Rummy/Rove had anything to do with this.

Only Because Bingley Turned Him Down

…I’ll have you know. And his deal for Kcruella’s house fell through, so she said pi$$ on it, too. Third time’s a charm.

Aides: Menendez Accepts Corzine’s Seat

Me? I didn’t even know they were giving it away.

You’ve Got To Love Rummy

Via Tim, this interview is a thing of beauty:

JIM LEHRER: Also, you told reporters this morning that, assuming the Dec. 15 elections in Iraq go well, that the U.S. can start drawing down forces. Tell me what you mean and give us some numbers on this.
DONALD RUMSFELD: I think what you meant to say, Jim, was that you read reports that I said that to reporters, as opposed to what I actually said…
…JIM LEHRER: All right, now the figure that was mentioned in the story that I was reading from or quoting from said you used the figure, somebody used the figure in the discussion with you early today of 137,000 — I mean 130,000 maybe shortly after the 137,000 — no?
DONALD RUMSFELD: I said nothing like that.

Read it all. It’s a beautiful schmackdown after schmackdown.

I Saw This Headline

Performing Monkeys Could Spread

… and thought “Oh, God! Not more Congressmen!” But I realized ‘performing’ is generally not part of their job description and felt at peace.

Damnable Weather

Poor little puddin’.

A jetliner trying to land in heavy snow slid off a runway, crashed through a fence and slid into a busy street, hitting one vehicle and pinning another beneath it. A 6-year-old boy in one of the vehicles was killed, authorities said. He was among eight people hurt on the ground. Two passengers on the plane suffered minor injuries, Aviation Department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said

And DAMN!

The accident occurred 33 years to the day after a crash at Midway that killed 45 people, two of them on the ground.

Big red ‘X’ through 12/08 in my travel itinerary from now on. Not that I have one.
But if I did…

Ewwwww

How come Mr. Summers never makes these kind of lists? I mean, he’s all over lesbian gorillas, goats, Carol Kane ~ God knows what! And little old us…the strangest people come a callin’.

As Noted Thespian Keanu Reeves Would Say

…WHOA. The logic in this is just so whacked, even a blonde can’t make any sense of it.

The Liberals say the thinking behind this crime strategy is that if no one is allowed to have a handgun in Canada, policing authorities will be in a better position to act on anyone who has a handgun or attempts to transport or sell a handgun.

Swill Salute: Professor Volokh via The Blogfaddah.

One Face Springs Immediately to Mind

…no matter how many times I hear this.

Come ye cool cool conservative men
The likes of which may never be seen again
We have land, cash in hand
Self-command, future planned
Fortune flies, society survives
In neatly ordered lives with well-endowered wives
We sing hosanna, hosanna
To our breeding and our banner
We are cool

Sorry

He didn’t need to be on an airplane at ALL. His wife bears some responsibility for this, even as God awful difficult it is living with a bi-polar. She could have discretely warned the crew, if what this other passenger says is true.

Ellen Sutliff, who said she sat near Alpizar, described him as agitated, even before he boarded the plane. His wife kept coaxing him, “We just have to get through customs. Please, please help me get through this,” according to Sutliff.
“We’re going to be home soon, and everything will be all right,” Sutliff quoted the wife as saying

The Best Year For Music?

In comments below, Ken talks of how he basically listens to nothing released after 1975. That led me to think about what year I would say was the best ever for music, at least in my lifetime. I’ve thought on this before, and I keep returning to…

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A$$ of the Day

Words fail me.

Frankly

We were stunned when we watched this last night. Major Dad said “Wow. Not one bad thing or cheap slap.” It really was a miracle in broadcasting ~ from Bob Woodruff, to the reporters, to the folks they interviewed, to the wrap-up ~ as upbeat as you could get.

Boat People

Our family line has some who came over earlier than 1776 and some who rode the waves to America much, much later and in far worse circumstances. It also seems we have a lot in common with Peggy Noonan than just a good Irish background.

Doncha Feel Safer Now?

Officials say a 50-year-old Egyptian man was stopped six days ago at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Sources say he had a suspicious pair of shoes that tested positive five times for the explosive substance TATP on the interior of his shoes between the heel and sole.

There’s a ‘BUT‘ (head) attached to this one…

…Strangely, after holding him overnight, airport security in New York released him. The FBI was notified after he was released. Now the FBI has put out a nationwide alert.

Great to all be singing off the same sheet of music.

The man shot dead in Miami appears to have been deranged, but the missing Egyptian may help explain why air marshals acted as they did.

BREAKING NEWS

Shots fired on an American Airlines jet on the runway in Miami. CNN is saying it’s an Air Marshal.
Breitbart has it as a flight out of Columbia and one person wounded.
UPDATE: Fox News is reporting some knucklehead said he had a bomb and the Marshal shot him. Some reports are saying he’d tried to flee through the terminal. But nothing official’s out yet.
AP’s reporting someone was confirmed shot. Homeland Security confirms a person getting on the flight claimed they had a bomb in a carry-on bag, security tried to take the individual at gate, he ran off jetway, tackled by the Air Marshals and attempted to pull something from his bag, so they fired. Confusing stuff so far.
UPDATE: Hmmm, a local (Miami-Dade) news person (WFOR) reporting they killed him.
UPDATE: Homeland Sec. spokesman says the plane landed and parked at the gate. The passenger said he had a bomb in his carry-on, was confronted by an Air Marshal, then ran off the plane. A ‘team’ of Air Marshals pursued him, ordered him to get on the ground, which he did BUT then he reached into his carry-on and they shot him.
Amazingly enough, with all the loonies and drunks on every one of thousands of daily flights in the US, this is the FIRST time the Air Marshals have fired a weapon. That’s a testament to training.
UPDATE: He was a 44 yr old American citizen. He frantically rushed down the aisle, then out the door, starting the whole brouhaha, would not stop when the AirMarshals directed him to and actually turned back toward them. In the meantime, a witness on the plane says a woman with him was saying he suffer from bi-polarism and hadn’t taken his meds.
Oh, man, they lit him up. Five to six shots from multiple weapons.
UPDATE: AH, so. He was at the back of the plane, sitting with his wife, got into an argument with her and started on down the aisle, with her behind him shouting that he had mental problems.
Chris Matthews is a jacka$$. He basically just asked if Air Marshals weren’t trained to be able to take the guy down physically instead of having to shoot him. I knew he’d get around to police brutality questions eventually.