Let’s Call Them “Phone Homes” Instead

It seems that some people are upset by the term “illegal aliens”

TALLAHASSEE — A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term “illegal alien” from the state’s official documents.
“I personally find the word ‘alien’ offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children,” said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. “An alien to me is someone from out of space.”
She has introduced a bill providing that: “A state agency or official may not use the term ‘illegal alien’ in an official document of the state.” There would be no penalty for using the words.

It’s heartening to know that she abides by only her personal definitions of words, not on, say, something so arbitrary and racist as Websters

Main Entry: 1alien
Pronunciation: \??-l?-?n, ??l-y?n\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin alienus, from alius
Date: 14th century
1 a: belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing : strange b: relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government : foreign c: exotic 1
2: differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility

especially where 1:b, the “relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government” bit comes in. No, it wouldn’t do to mention that at all.
The best part part is this quote

“There are students in our schools whose parents are trying to become citizens and we shouldn’t label them,” she said. “They are immigrants, through no fault of their own, not aliens.”

Through no fault of their own? Did some tornado touch down and sweep them off to Oz? Did they pay thousands of dollars to some coyote in Chiapas, innocently thinking they were simply getting a ride to the local bodega when in fact the coyote was under orders from Darth Rove to transport them to Tucson?
I will give her credit for this, however

Wilson said the first word isn’t as bad as the second.
“‘Illegal,’ I can live with, but I like ‘undocumented’ better,” she said.

There may be some hope for her.

I Swear to God, When I Saw

…THIS…

…I thought it was Graceland.
And trust me ~ that’s NOT a good thing.

Ouch On The Dow

Down over 500 points…there won’t be many happy faces on the boat home tonight.

If He Could Talk To The Animals…

Or at least have a smoke afterwards…

A 24-year-old Melbourne man accused of having sex with dogs, goats and horses has failed to have details of the case suppressed.
Steven Whittam, of Langwarrin, faces 19 charges of bestiality over incidents which allegedly took place between January 2001 and June 2006 in suburbs across Melbourne’s south-east.
Mr Whittam’s lawyer Rod Willcox applied to suppress details of the case from the media in Frankston Magistrates’ Court today, arguing the defendant had a severe psychiatric disorder.

Gee, yuh think?

Whittam, who did not appear in court for today’s hearing, remains on bail.
He has not entered a plea.

Probably the only animal he missed.

I Know This Isn’t Funny

…but it is.

“Being known to the world as a male rape victim is not fun. It is hard for them to sit up straight. If they are concerned about their military careers, why say anything?” [military prosecutor Maj.] Reder said.

You’d never hear that in an episode of JAG.
UPDATE: Oy. Not funny at all anymore.

An Air Force officer was found guilty Tuesday of raping four men and attempting to rape two others.
A nine-member military jury deliberated for about seven hours in Capt. Devery L. Taylor’s court-martial. Taylor gave no reaction upon hearing the verdict.
Taylor, the former chief of patient administration at Eglin Regional Hospital, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Teach Your Children

I wonder how many more cases like this are out there

TACOMA, Washington (AP) — A woman admitted Monday that she coached her two children to fake retardation starting when they were 4 and 8 years old so she could collect Social Security benefits on their behalf.
Rosie Costello, 46, admitted in U.S. District Court that she collected more than $280,000 in benefits, beginning in the mid-1980s. Most was from Social Security, but the state social services agency paid $53,000.
Costello pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government and Social Security fraud. Her son, Pete, 26, pleaded guilty earlier this month. Federal prosecutors in Seattle said Monday authorities had not yet located her daughter, Marie.
According to the plea agreement, Costello began coaching her daughter at age 4, and later used the same ruse with her son. He feigned retardation into his mid-20s — picking at his face, slouching and appearing uncommunicative in meetings with Social Security officials.

That’s all it takes to be regarded as retarded?
Sounds like a lot of the government officials should be eligible for benefits then…

The 1993 Bombing

Lawhawk and Michelle Malkin remind us of a sad anniversary that has faded from the public memory: the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. 14 years, my God. I was 6 blocks or so away, and I remember hearing the explosion; not that we thought ‘BOMB!’ back in those innocent days, mind you. We thought that some construction crew had dropped one of those big honking steel plates that they use to cover up holes in the street. But then we got the phones calls from friends who worked in the Financial Center right across the street and who had a view into the parking lot entrance where the bastards had driven. While that was happening all the commodity markets in the WTC shut down and started evacuating folks…an awful prelude to that horrific day 8 years later.
Michelle also has a link which is hard for me to watch; it brings back such a flood of memories. It is the elevator ride up to the Observation Deck on the 107th floor of the South Tower.

For those of you who took that trip many times, as I did, it’s hard to watch.

For You Gals Looking For A Little Extra Income

Here’s a hot prospect from China

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese businessman has advertised on the Internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress, Chinese media reported on Monday.
“When the woman found out her husband had a mistress, she insisted on beating her up,” the Beijing Youth Daily said, citing the advertisement posted on a popular online jobs forum on sina.com.
More than 10 people had applied for the job, the newspaper said. The “successful” candidate would be 35 and originally from northeastern China and would be paid 3,000 yuan ($400) per 10 minutes, it said.

$400 bucks for 10 minutes?
That’s better pay than the real mistress gets, I reckon.

An Inconvenient Observation

This is your ocean:

This is your ocean on Al Gore:


Any questions?

YES!!!

Thanks to Dave E. and Sheila I just had to watch Miracle again tonight.

I’m blubbering like no kind a’nuthin’ all over again.
and loving every minute of it.

A Ballsy Plan In Indonesia

When they need to stop the mud flow they show they’ve got brass, er, concrete ones

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian official hit back at critics of a plan to control a gushing mud volcano by dropping concrete balls into its crater, saying something must be done to stop a nine-month-long eruption that has displaced 11,000 people.
A team of geologists and engineers hope the plan, believed to have never been tried before, will reduce the amount of mud flowing from the geyser at a gas exploration site on Java island by up to 70 percent. The mud is now surging out at a rate equivalent to about a million oil drums a day.

It seems to me that this might just build up the pressure for a big kaplooey later, but what do I know.

Critics have said they doubt the new attempt will work, and that it may be dangerous or cause the mud to flow out from different points.
“Those experts can say what they want, but we have to do something,” said Rudi Novrianto, a spokesman for a government task force handling the disaster. “There is no time to debate and sit around.”

That’s the spirit!

Costa Rican Muggers No Match For Gringo Retirees

Quien es mas macho now, hombre?

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A tour bus of U.S. senior citizens defended themselves against a group of alleged muggers, sending two of them fleeing and killing a third in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said on Thursday.
One of the tourists _ a retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70* _ put assailant Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus Wednesday, said Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose.
…The tourists left on their Carnival cruise after the incident and Hernandez said authorities do not plan to press any charges against them, saying they acted in self defense.
“They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up,” Hernandez said.

I like this police chief, too. We could use his type in some places here.
*No, it wasn’t Major Dad.

Any Bets On Who Did This?

And I bet we can guess who they voted for

SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) — Three CD players hidden under a cathedral’s pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices.
Authorities determined the music players were not dangerous and kept the third one to check it for clues, said police Capt. Gary Johnson.
The CD players, duct-taped to the bottoms of the pews, were set to turn on in the middle of noon Mass on Wednesday at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
The recordings, made on store-bought blank discs, featured people using foul language and “pornographic messages,” Johnson said. He would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.

How disgusting can you get? And I’m sure the people who did this will scream to high heaven about their right to free speech and demand ‘respect’ for their views, while at the same time trying to drown out and restrict the speech of others.

Ah, Those Wacky College Kids

Ooh, are the knickers all a-twisted at NYU today

A contest called “Find the Illegal Immigrant” – a mock hunt for a student posing as just that – is being met with widespread protest on campus and receiving local and national media coverage.
The event, sponsored by NYU’s College Republicans, is planned for today in Washington Square Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The student posing as the illegal immigrant will wear a name tag saying so. Other students will try to find him or her, playing the part of border patrol agents and wearing nametags that say “INS,” referring to the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.

If they are really playing their part, the ‘agents’ won’t try (or even be allowed to try) too hard to find the ‘illegal’.
Of course, Chuck Schumer’s panties are twisted

“What I really find obnoxious – and that’s how I’d describe what the College Republicans are doing – is it dehumanizes [illegal immigrants],” the senator told WSN during a question-and-answer session after his speech. “A person who’s making a dollar a day in Oaxaca, who risks their life to come and make two dollars an hour here in America, is not to be ridiculed. It’s not to be despised. So what I think they’re doing is obnoxious.”

I think having wide open borders is obnoxious. I think ignoring illegal acts is obnoxious. I think denying thousands of educated people who are playing by the rules and trying to emigrate legally but encouraging millions to come illegally so they’ll vote for your party is obnoxious.
But that’s why I’m not the Senior Senator from NY, I reckon.

CNN BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

“Lawyer nearly faints at the hearing on the fate of Anna Nicole Smith’s body. Witness offers protein bar. ”
This is CNN.
What a joke.

I Think We Need Some More Marinara…

Imagine getting some of this on your plate

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday.
If calamari rings were made from the squid they would be the size of tractor tires, one expert said.
The squid, weighing an estimated 990 pounds and about 39 feet long, took two hours to land in Antarctic waters, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said.

“The size of tractor tires”. I’ve had some calamari that was rubbery enough to be tractor tires, as well.

I Guess As Long As You Say “This is for your own good!”…

Than it doesn’t count as torture

DAXING, China – Sun Jiting spends his days locked behind metal bars in this military-run installation, put there by his parents. The 17-year-old high school student is not allowed to communicate with friends back home, and his only companions are psychologists, nurses and other patients. Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, “This is for your own good!”
Sun’s offense: Internet addiction.
…The clinic in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing, the capital, is the oldest and largest, with 60 patients on a normal day and as many as 280 during peak periods. Few of the patients, who range in age from 12 to 24, are here willingly. Most have been forced to come by their parents, who are paying upward of $1,300 a month — about 10 times the average salary in China — for the treatment.
Led by Tao Ran, a military researcher who built his career by treating heroin addicts, the clinic uses a tough-love approach that includes counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks.

As long as you charge the “patients” you can do whatever you want to them, evidently.

“Wish Island” Is Not Quite Fantasy Island

I wonder if the tvs there will get Oxygen?

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran plans a female-only island to boost tourism in a northwest province, the Tehran-e Emrouz newspaper on Wednesday quoted a local official as saying.
…”There will be no men on the Arezou (Wish) island. Public transport, restaurants and other facilities will be staffed only by women,” Aghai said.

I can’t imagine that the bars will be too hopping.

When the Students Get to Choose Everything From the University President

…to, probably, the color of the vegetables on their plastic tray ~ and then indulged during their predictable, juvenile histrionics when someone dares proffer a choice based on qualification without consulting said student body ~ what would you expect?

Commission: Gallaudet at risk of losing accreditation
The nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf could lose its accreditation unless it addresses concerns about weak academic standards, ineffective governance and a lack of tolerance for diverse views, an education oversight group warned.
Gallaudet University was rocked by student demonstrations last fall that shut down the university for several days and forced the board to revoke the appointment of a new president.
Afterward, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education said it was delaying a decision on whether to renew the school’s accreditation because of concerns raised during the protests and because of a 2005 federal report that rated Gallaudet “ineffective.” The federal Office of Management of Budget this month gave Gallaudet an improved evaluation, to “adequate.”
A letter from the commission, dated Jan. 13 and disclosed this week, summarized the issues the university must address to retain its accreditation. Commission Vice President Linda A. Suskie said the fall protests raise questions about the university’s governance and whether the board is out of touch.
University spokeswoman Mercy Coogan said interim president Robert Davila had shared the letter with campus leaders, who were addressing its concerns.

The campus ‘leaders’ were addressing the letter’s concerns? NOT the president? ‘Out of touch’ seems a kind way to phrase it.
I think the commission could have saved itself a stamp.

The Greatest Threat To World Peace Today

Is, of course Israel

…The aggressively photogenic John Edwards was cruising along, detailing his litany of liberal causes last week until, during question time, he invoked the “I” word — Israel. Perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace, Edwards remarked, was the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities…

Makes you think he really was involved in hiring those two charming lasses.

So I Baked A King Cake Today

…and somehow I ended up with the Easter Anus™

I’m a little hesitant to dive right in…

President’s Day, 2007

I love long weekends.

Nanny Rising

Anybody remember in the dim far distant past when a certain party bitterly attacked another certain party for its arrogance and presumption in interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, for its cultural insensitivity and lack of nuance in how it dealt with foreign leaders and peoples, for how its heavy-handed idealistically-driven actions that only created animosity towards our country and made other nations not like us (oh, the horror!)? And how certain folks pledged that once they got the reins of power they would show such suavity and sophistication of statecraft that they would rapidly return America to its warm and comfy spot in the bosom of humanity? Well, I guess they changed their minds

Japan has expressed its displeasure at a resolution before the US Congress calling on Tokyo to apologize for the country’s use of sex slaves in wartime.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the resolution was not based on facts.
Sponsored by several members of the US House of Representatives, the proposed text urges Tokyo to formally resolve the issue of so-called “comfort women”.

Hmm, seems quite cowboy-like to me to tell Japan this. And then there’s H. Res. 106

Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes.

“And for other purposes”…like, say, really pissing off Turkey?

The measure is likely to touch raw nerves in Turkey, which rejects the charge that genocide was at the root of the deaths. The Bush administration has warned that even congressional debate on the matter could damage relations with Turkey, a vital Muslim ally and member of NATO.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a co-sponsor, acknowledged that the resolution might harm U.S.-Turkish relations in the short term. Nevertheless, he said, “I’m optimistic that the relationship will go on. We will move beyond this.”
…Turkey has adamantly denied claims by scholars that its predecessor state, the Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a genocide. The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated, and Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the disarray surrounding the empire’s collapse.
After French lawmakers voted in October to make it a crime to deny that the killings were a genocide, Turkey said it would suspend military relations with France. Turkey provides vital support to U.S. military operations.

“We will move beyond this.” Oh puh-lease. Such a firm grasp of history and the region displayed there, as if all of these discussions and resolutions take place in the rarified atmosphere of a college classroom.
Lets keep passing resolutions condemning other nations for things done generations ago by completely different governments, and let’s see how well they “move beyond this.”
And let’s see the response in Congress when those other countries start, justifiably, passing resolutions condemning our slave trade and ‘genocide’ of the Indians.
Maybe we’ll get a national “Ward Churchill Day”; hell, I could use another day off.

So. Off He Went to Work in His Marine Corps Uniform Today

…for the last time. After 30 years, 5 months and fifteen or so days. He’s always been a Marine’s Marine, fiercely protective of his troops and his Corps, and so damn proud to wear that green. It’s like his second skin. From the time he was a young leatherneck ~ bluntly answering the CG’s innocent “How’s it going, Corporal?” with “It’s all fucked up, General” ~ to a mellow Captain assuring Bell V-22 Osprey mucky mucks that their vaunted program was “a train wreck”. And then he was the major ~ 2 weeks removed from massive shoulder reconstructive surgery ~ who wound up being the senior Marine on station when Ivan wiped out the command’s buildings. He’s always been the common sense, ‘take charge’, ‘straight scoop’ guy people turn to immediately. Ebola and I adore him beyond all reason.
And we’re so damn proud of him. We always have been.

OO-rah, love. And Semper Fi.

AP/CNN Reality Distortion Field

Global warmering has gotten so severe that it is directly affecting established scientific standards of measurement! It’s true! In a normal, idyllic, happy Gaia Pre-Bushitler world, a 3 degrees Fahrenheit change would be the equivalent of a roughly 1.7 degree Celcius change…but not now!

WASHINGTON (AP) — It may be cold comfort during a frigid February, but last month was by far the hottest January ever.
The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world, according to U.S. scientists who reported the data Thursday.
Records on the planet’s temperature have been kept since 1880.
Spurred on by unusually warm Siberia, Canada, northern Asia and Europe, the world’s land areas were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than a normal January, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

Bushcheneyhalliburton: Altering Laws of Nature since 1980.