I Would Ask…

A key Renault executive indicated in quotes cited by newspapers on Tuesday that U.S. carmaker General Motors did not share the same sense of urgency as do Renault and Nissan to fight rival Toyota.

…”hasn’t that been GM’s problem all along?” If you’re looking for a ‘nimble responder’ to change, it ain’t them.

My Most Favoritest Teeth Gnash Causing Columnist

…is at it again. This time she’s, well, going on about the ‘rift’ her book (on life as a military wife) ‘created’.

It’s been nearly a year since my book, “Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife,” went on sale. Immediately upon its release, the book had critics, all of them military spouses. I’ve waited this long to respond for a reason.

And her response is right up her peculiarly mis-informed, self-absorbed alley.

It’s the “just make the casserole and smile” mentality, and it breeds two things — discontent and rebellion. As military spouses, we need to get with the times or be left in the dust with the 1950s housewives who smiled and nodded, then threw back the alcohol once the kids were in bed.

Oh, please. I’m sure she got most of those impressions and angry letters from long retired Navy wives, who were appalled by her comportment. If she’d actually bothered to speak to a ‘not-in-her-age-group-nor-hubby’s-chain-o’-command’ military wife from the past few decades, she’d lose that whole stupid ‘Angie Dickinson in Pearl Harbor‘ thread and then what would be left for her to write about? Um…pitiful, witless crap like this, I guess…

Military wives also took issue with my inability to cope on my own. I admit, at barely 25 years old (when the book took place), I was helpless. Haven’t we all been at one time or another? Maybe, maybe not. But here’s what I hope you will remember: there are still so many young military wives struggling the way I was. How can we turn our backs on them by criticizing someone for being honest and real? By being outspoken, I hope I’ve made other women feel free to ask for help, because no two people experience deployments and military life the same way. And no one’s experience should be discounted.

TWENTYFIVE YEARS OLD and HELPLESS??!! Oh, you are so right we took issue with that, since you’re a college educated ADMIRAL’s daughter who is also an OFFICER’S WIFE. “Helpless”, my feckless friend, is reserved for the UN-educated, eighteen year old Lance Corporal’s wife with TWO BABIES and he’s on a year deployment. The pity meter is pegged for you, Sarah. You have every support mechanism in the world to help you, while those poor kids don’t and NEVER have. Maybe if you’d spent less time whining about seemingly self-induced daycare problems and more time helping the younger enlisted spouses find that help, you’d have:
a) gotten answers you needed, too
b) actually done something of service to the military community (granted, you might not have had time for the NYT photo session)
c) have some street cred with ACTIVE DUTY wives like me ( with street cred of their own ) who just think you’re a spoiled dolt.

Perhaps what saddened me most about the reactions from fellow wives was the amount of hostility and close-mindedness. I had always thought military women were progressive and accepting. After all, we endure much and become family when our spouses are away. So it surprised me that compassion came not from the women who share my lifestyle, but from those who do not. And it worries me that, in the end, we are the hardest and least tolerant of our own.

Coincidentally enough, that’s why we also don’t write you letters or show up for book signings…why we roll our eyes when our military husbands mention “Sarah’s column…” (see “c” above) and cringe when we see those fawning presentations in our local fishwrap whence you got your start or, God forbid, on a national stage.
We are just so mean.

I’m Not So Sure This

…is a good idea. But since I wasn’t sure if you all knew about it, I thought I’d throw it out there.

S 3696 (PERA), sponsored by Sen. Brownback (R-Kan), a companion bill to H.R. 2679 (PERA), sponsored by Rep. Hostetter (R-Ind.), would amend all relevant federal laws to eliminate the authority of judges to award taxpayer-paid attorney fees to the ACLU, or anyone else, in lawsuits under the Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment against veterans memorials, the Boy Scouts, or the public display of the Ten Commandments of other symbols of America’s history with a religious aspect.

Your Dog’s Most Precious Dreams Realized! He Can FINALLY Be

…Princess Leia.

See what happens when you neuter and spay?
Obi-Wan Kenobi…there’s no hope.

Oh

…yeah.

No joke. Rutgers is ranked. The Scarlet Knights, long a college football laughingstock, moved Sunday into The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 30 years.

They’re #23.

Manly Taliban Religion of Pieces Types

…are up to their old tricks wimmens-wise.

Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead the head of a women’s department in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Monday, a security official and a relative said.
…Ama Jan was on her way to work, getting into a car outside her house, when the gunmen struck, said her nephew, who identified himself as Farhad.
“She died on the spot,” he told reporters.
…A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, said Ama Jan was killed because she worked for the government.
“We have told people time and time again that anyone working for the government — including women — will be killed,” Khan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Bless her brave heart. When the hell is someone gonna lay the hurt on the a$$holes that they deserve?
Or at the very LEAST (educated women of the LIBERAL LEFT, I’m talking to YOU here…) call them what they ARE?

People For The Ethical Treatment Of…

Roaches

GURNEE, Ill. (AP) – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Six Flags Great America to scrap its Halloween-themed cockroach-eating promotion.
A spokeswoman for the animal rights organization says the contest at the amusement park’s FrightFest is “gratuitously cruel.”
The park in Gurnee, Ill., is joining other Six Flags parks in offering unlimited line-jumping privileges to anyone who eats a live Madagascar hissing cockroach. The bugs are up to three inches long.

They are beyond parody.

Don’t Keep Your Mexican Lover In The Closet

This valuable life lesson is brought to us today by Martha Freeman of Nashville who found that, well it just makes things complicated:

(Court TV) — Almost 16 hours after Martha Freeman’s husband was strangled and beaten to death in the couple’s upscale south Nashville home, she finally reported his death to police.
If her decision to wait was puzzling, so was the explanation she gave police.
Freeman claimed her lover, an illegal Mexican immigrant who was living in her closet, killed her husband.
…Metro Nashville Police Department detectives also found the closet that Martha Freeman claimed her lover lived in for about a month before her husband’s death. The 2-by-8-foot storage space contained a foam pad, pillows, blankets, three loaves of bread, a Nintendo GameBoy, a radio, and several adult magazines. Investigators also found an “overnight bag,” which contained lingerie and pictures of Martha Freeman in various stages of undress.
Martha Freeman was seemingly forthcoming with authorities about her relationship with Perez, whom she referred to as “Christian,” and his alleged role in her husband’s death sometime after 9 p.m. that evening. Initially, only Perez was charged with Jeffrey Freeman’s murder. Martha Freeman was a witness at his preliminary hearing, providing detailed information about their relationship and the night her husband was killed.
Freeman said she met Perez at a July 4 celebration in 2004 during a rocky period in her marriage. The two went to a hotel in downtown Nashville with two of his friends, and she admitted to having “intimate” relations with the three men. From there, the lovers conducted an on-and-off relationship with the aid of an English-Spanish translator. Perez moved into a closet in the Freeman home in March 2005.

They “conducted an on-and-off relationship with the aid of an English-Spanish translator”? Was he one of the three from before? Blech!
Blech again!

A Crime That Staggers The Mind

You just have to wonder “why” after you recoil from the horror of this:

EAST ST. LOUIS, Illinois (AP) — A woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and her fetus told police she drowned the woman’s three young children and stuffed them into a washer and dryer at their apartment, an official said Sunday.

She was this woman’s best friend

By all accounts, Hall and Jimella Tunstall were like sisters, survivors in this place defined by crime, poverty, crumbling buildings and potholed roads.
The two were quiet loners who gravitated toward each other at school. They both became teenage mothers.

yet she ends up beating her unconcious, then cutting open her belly with a pair of scissors and removing her 7-month old baby, then she drowns the woman’s other 3 children.
WTF-itty-F-F??

Lights,Camera…Acting

Jake Tapper of ABC News follows up on dogs wagging.

…In the interview Clinton said that during the 1990s conservatives criticized him for “obsessing” over bin Laden and “they ridiculed me for trying” to kill bin Laden.
So let’s examine the record…
How many folks raised the “Wag the Dog” scenario? (The idea, nicknamed from the David Mamet movie, being that the attack was unnecessary and only to distract from the president’s troubles.)
…”I think the president did exactly the right thing,” said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said. “By doing this we’re sending the signal there are no sanctuaries for terrorists.” Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) called the attacks “appropriate and just,” and House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) said “the American people stand united in the face of terrorism.”
The AP says: “Gingrich dismissed any possibility that Clinton may have ordered the attacks to divert attention from the scandal. Instead, he said, there was an urgent need for a reprisal following the Aug. 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. ‘Anyone who watched the film of the bombings, anyone who saw the coffins come home knows better than to question this timing,’ Gingrich said. ‘It was done as early as possible to send a message to terrorists across the globe that killing Americans has a cost. It has no relationship with any other activity of any kind.’

It gets worse for President Clinton’s recollection of events.
But that’s neither here nor there. A large glass of my BV Cabernet will be lifted to Jake, who seems to always be on the side of “NOT so fast”, regardless of party or PC, making him a refreshing voice in the wilderness. He does ABC great credit.

In The Spirit Of World Peace

And understanding, I present some highlights from the following phrasebook guide so that we may build bridges of love and understanding to other cultures as we American tourists traverse the world:

General Expressions
How much is that in real money?
C’est combien en monnaie réelle ?
¿Cuánto es en moneda estable?
Wieviel ist das in richtigem Geld?
At the hotel
There’s a corpse on the bed. Please change the sheets.
Il y a un cadavre sur le lit. S’il vous plaît, faites changer les draps.
Hay un muerto en mi cama. Por favor, cambie las sábanas.
Da liegt eine Leiche auf dem Bett. Bitte wechseln sie die Laken.
Making friends
I understand your language perfectly.
Je parle français comme une vache espagnole.
Hablo español como un gringo borracho.
Ich sprechen deutsch wie italienisch Fußballtrainer.
Don’t “imperialist pig” me, my good man.
Fichez-moi la paix avec votre “cochon impérialiste”, mon petit bonhomme.
¡Váyase usted al cuerno con su “cerdo imperialista”, hombre!
Nenn du mich nicht “imperialistisches Schwein”, mein Lieber.
A little romance
Girls with big mazongas usually can’t rhumba so well.
Avec les roberts comme ça, ta rhumba est exceptionnelle.
Bailas muy bien, a despecho de tus enormes naranjas.
Mädchen mit viel Holz vor die Hütt sind meistens beim Rhumba nicht so gut.
You’re very pretty for a foreigner.
Vous êtes très jolie [joli], pour une étrangère [un étranger].
Usted es muy guapa [guapo] para ser extranjera [extranjero].
Du bist sehr schön für eine Ausländerin [einen Ausländer].
Sightseeing
Your country has such lovely dirt.
Votre pays a une saleté vraiment charmante.
¡La suciedad de su país es tan agradable!
Euer Land hat so reizenden Schmutz.
Travel
Make sure my seat isn’t next to any Frenchmen (Argentines, Austrians).
J’exige de ne pas être assis à côté d’un français.
No me siente al lado de ningún argentino, por favor.
Passen sie auf, dass ich nicht neben irgendwelchen Östereichern sitze.
Understanding directions
Where is the Cathedral?
Où est le bordel ?
¿Dónde se da masajes?
Wo geht’s ‘n hier zum Puff?
I know I’m naked, could you just tell me how to get back to the hotel?
Je le sais bien que je suis à poil; je veux simplement savoir comment rentrer à l’hôtel.
Ya se que estoy calato; sólo quiero saber cómo volver al hotel.
Ich weiß, dass ich nackt bin; könnten sie mir vielleicht einfach sagen, wie ich wieder zurück zum Hotel komme?
At the restaurant
Could I have some clean water?
Veuillez m’apporter de l’eau vraiment propre.
¿Podría darme un poco de su agua realmente potable?
Könnte ich etwas sauberes Wasser haben?
Intellectual exchanges
Impressed as I am with the New Wave in cinematography, I must say that this particular film seemed both pretentious and unsatisfying, and that the director’s imagery, though compelling, is no substitute for a true cinematic message.
Mais c’est de la merde, ce navet.
A esto le llamo yo estiércol cinematográfico.
Der Film ist Scheiße.

Please do go and read them all; it is out duty as World Citizens.

Searching for Answers Sunday

Are you as sick of these guys…

…as I am? Is this all they have in their day to do?
I’ve about had it with their ‘anger’ and ‘outrage’ and their ugly f*ckin’ mugs as big as a cowpaddie on my ‘puter screen every f*ckin’ day.

Ryder Cup?

Looks more like we’ve been hit by a Ryder Truck.
(Or team USA got confused and thought their shirts said “UVA”…)

The Rat Strikes Again?

Let’s see, first Armitage ends up as the one who gave Plame’s name to Novack.
Now he’s mentioned as the one behind the supposed Bush “bomb you back to the Stone Age” threat to Pakistan:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state at the time, had denied warning Musharraf that the United States would bomb his country if it did not cooperate with the U.S. campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Musharraf, in an interview with CBS News’ magazine show “60 Minutes,” to air on Sunday, said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, Armitage had told Pakistan’s intelligence director, “’Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.’”

What a weasel.

Do We Have a Mug

…for the great Americans quoted over at Brendan Loy’s.

A sample…

MrMichaelMT blames Bush: “While Chavez’ tone is undoubtably uncivilized, and his machinations are certainly detrimental to pan-American relations, it’s important to realize whose behavior enabled his tirade. Had Bush not lowered the level of discourse at the United Nations to the level of Kruschev’s shoe, Chavez would not have earned the applause he did.”

Another one to add to the list. Bad Bush!!!
Bad! Bad!! Bad!!!
(Get your own ‘mug of truth’….)

If Only Mr. Karr Would Do the Same Thing

…as his ‘puter.

Child porn case against Karr hits a snag
Prosecutors can’t find computer that allegedly contained illegal images
Efforts to prosecute one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr on child pornography charges should not be jeopardized even though his computer that allegedly contained the images was lost, Sonoma County authorities said Wednesday.
Authorities seized the computer from Karr’s home in 2001 and copied the entire hard drive onto paper, including the five illicit images, said Sheriff’s Department Lt. Dave Edmonds. He said authorities looked for the computer for the past two weeks, but have had no luck.

FIVE images? FIVE? Oh yeah, baby ~ he’s a criminal mastermind. And the sheriff’s department looks like bumbling, fumbling….astronauts or something. Get this guy WEASEL outta the news, for cryin’ out loud. There’s a war on! The Mets clinched the division! Natalee Holloway! The world’s full of disasters, so please…something, anything but this.

Run Away!

Drudge is reporting:

CHAVEZ FLEES NYC; CUTS TRIP SHORT AFTER ‘DEVIL’ SPEECH
Thu Sep 21 2006 08:21:15 ET
Fiery Venezuela President Hugo Chavez will ‘wrap up’ his controversial NYC visit early this morning to return home to Caracas, sources say.
The president cancelled several appointments previously scheduled in NYC today including a second news conference he was to hold at Venezuela’s United Nations mission.
On Wednesday, Chavez, in a controversial speech in the UN General Assembly, mocked President George Bush repeatedly calling him ‘The Devil’.

Maybe Bolton asked him if he liked Thai food…

I Doubt It’s Just Me But…

…I can’t recall seeing such dire headlines EVER during Easter or Christmas or Passover, for instance.

U.S. general: More violence during Ramadan
Military expects increased attacks in Iraq during Muslim holy month

Holey and in pieces. That’s one helluva religion.

For Kcruella

Go Mets.

Bolton On Chavez’s “Speech”

I heard him on WCBS on the way home. He said (and I paraphrase) that he didn’t mind him giving it, and that in fact he wished he had walked a few blocks over to Central Park, because he has the freedom to give that speech, saying what he did, there as well, and that he (Bolton) wondered what the result would be if one of Chavez’s citizens tried to give a speech like that in Venezuela. He also said that none of the US delegation were present for the speech, that they would not dignify him by attending, and that only a “junior note-taker” was present for the US.
“Snort-giggle” is all I have to say.

Dear Master TAMAKA ZEBUEBU

Thank you ever so much the kind offer in your email this afternoon. However tempting it might be to come to the aid of a good Zimbabwean friend of impeccable pedigree, I’m afraid I must regretfully and respectfully decline in this instance. To be frank, I have enough trouble keeping track of my own millions and, with the further addition of your 12 to my cache, wouldn’t be able to give any of them the oversight they deserve. Plus I blog continuously, as my brother’s a bit of a slacker. This requires all my attention and I’m sure you’ll understand. I wish you only the best of luck in your further solicitations, but a word of caution ~ I’m afraid the Nigerians may have snapped up all the helpful folks out there. Don’t get discouraged.
Yours in Mboutu,
th sister

And THIS Scathing Juicy Tidbit

…from as liberal a New Yawker as it gets.

SENATE Democratic leader Harry Reid’s party somehow changed this year’s calendar order of caucuses and put Nevada, his home state, after Iowa. ‘Twas never ever thus before. Always New Hampshire. Only problem with that being, Harry Reid ain’t from New Hampshire. But why should his state, home to gamblers, slots, transplanted rootless humans, supplant good old Amurrrrican Yankee New Hampshire stock? Because, says Harry Reid, my state shows diversity. Yeah, right. So power to choose the next president of the United States will come from croupiers and crapshooters. With every pol about to descend on Nevada, this is a big wet kiss to the hotel union and hospitality industry. I don’t know where’s the beef, but I do know where’s the pork. In Nevada.

Now THAT’S a HEFTY Bag

“While we have not definitively put this interesting little picture to bed, there is considerable thought that it is just a plastic bag that came from somewhere and got loose,” Hale said.

New Jersey finds a new dump for medical waste, cleverly timing it’s release to coincide with bits and pieces floating off the space shuttle. Director George Lucas is incensed and filing a lawsuit. Lucas is claiming the new disposal plan (devised during a clandestine ‘Space Slut Invaders’ party at a Garden State Parkway reststop during the previous administration) infringes on his copyright for “The Empire Strikes Back”, in which the Millenium Falcon drifts off with the Imperial trash.

Former N.J. Gov. McGreevey is on a torrid truck-stop trysts book tour and unavailable for comment.
– On Uranus, Space Cadet T.H. Sister reporting for TPI ©2006.

Yanqui Pig Dogs!

To great applause Chavez addressed the UN today:

‘THE DEVIL CAME TO THE UN YESTERDAY… It Still Smells of Sulphur here… Bush, I have the feeling you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare… We need a psychologist to analyze Bush… YANKEE IMPERIALISTS GO HOME… Maybe we need to move the United Nations out of USA’…

He is entertaining.
Update: An interesting tidbit in the NYT coverage:

”The devil came here yesterday,” Chavez said, referring to Bush’s address on Tuesday and making the sign of the cross. ”He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world.”

Making the sign of the cross? He’s a religious extremeist! I’m sure the Left will hate him now.

Orange County Is Home To Simpler Folks, I Guess

Of course, Option B is that the school officials are complete morons.
Blind morons, at that. That’s as charitable as I can be after reading this:

A veteran teacher used the font — depicting quasi-anatomically correct male and female stick figures contorting into letters of the alphabet — on the cover sheet of a spelling curriculum given to parents at a Pine Tree Elementary open house last week.
Think Kama Sutra meets Sesame Street.
But at first glance, it’s difficult to make out the salaciousness of the type font.
Sources said the teacher had no idea the alphabet was offensive when she downloaded the font from the Internet. It’s unclear if any disciplinary action has been or will be taken against the teacher, who sources said has been with the district for many years.
“I definitely believe it was a mistake,” said Kelly Stegmann, Pine Tree Parent Teacher Association president. Stegmann said she received very few calls from parents about it.
The design is so subtle that even school officials missed it. And many parents didn’t know what they were looking at until they received a letter of apology Friday from Pine Tree principal Jean Maxson.
“This packet was reviewed by a number of people, including myself,” Maxson wrote. “I take full responsibility for this inappropriate publication.”

Now, here is the cover page, the one that is so innocent at first glance. I’m sorry, even reduced to this size it, ahem, catches the eye shall we say:

Are you telling me that all these people saw this in its full 8 1/2″ by 11″ glory and didn’t notice?
(h/t to Michelle Malkin)