It may seem like a small thing…..

but next time you contact you Congressman/Senators, tell them to vote yes on House Bill 4806, the Military Toy Replica Act, when it comes before them. I mostly build model cars these days, but do the occasional tank or aircraft. And the licensing has just about killed the model car hobby. Don’t let it kill the rest of the model hobby.

New type of shark found only in South Carolina waters?

The shark resembles a common species called the scalloped hammerhead but has not yet been classified or named.
US researchers say the animal appears to be rare, breeding only in waters off the South Carolina coast.

Lemme guess, they recognized it since it was missing teeth?

NOLA stuff….

with interesting graphics.

I’m not holding my breath…

but a good read.

The problem is not that the two parties are polarized. In many ways they’re closer than ever. The problem is that the parties in Washington, and the people on the ground in America, are polarized. There is an increasing and profound distance between the rulers of both parties and the people–between the elites and the grunts, between those in power and those who put them there.

I just fear that most voters are too lazy to even look at a third party.

The CAG’d kill me…

but I’d love to see them live. To bad ole Layne screwed his life away……
They were always my favs of the grunge bands.

Interesting report…..

from Gen Barry McCaffery. Good read on what is happening in Iraq.

The morale, fighting effectiveness, and confidence of U.S. combat forces continue to be simply awe-inspiring. In every sensing session and interaction – I probed for weakness and found courage, belief in the mission, enormous confidence in their sergeants and company grade officers, an understanding of the larger mission, a commitment to creating an effective Iraqi Army and Police, unabashed patriotism, and a sense of humor. All of these soldiers, NCOs and young officers were volunteers for combat. Many were on their second combat tour – several were on the third or fourth combat tour. Many had re-enlisted to stay with their unit on its return to a second Iraq deployment. Many planned to re-enlist regardless of how long the war went on.

He gives a pretty honest view from the ground.
Swill salute to QandO

Caspar Weinberger has died.

Godspeed, Cap!

“Death to Bush!” “Death to Christians!”

If this is what we can look forward to in the ‘Stan, why did we go in there again?

GREG GUTFELD’S 29 AMAZING REASONS WHY AMERICA SUCKS!

Heh.

28. Native Americans getting rich off casinos instead of staying dirt-poor does nothing to prove how bad colonialism was.

Why hold up traffic hunting…

like this person, when there are more fun ways to do away with the nasty creatures.

I found what Ken mentioned about the poor guy facing death for converting to Christianity…

here.

“For 30 years, we have fought religious wars in this country and there is no way we are going to allow an Afghan to insult us by becoming Christian,” said Mohammed Jan, 38, who lives opposite Rahman’s father, Abdul Manan, in Kabul. “This has brought so much shame.”
Rahman is believed to have converted from Islam to Christianity while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
He then moved to Germany for nine years before returning to Kabul in 2002, after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.
Police arrested him last month after discovering him in possession of a Bible during questioning over a dispute for custody of his two daughters. Prosecutors have offered to drop the charges if Rahman converts back to Islam, but he has refused.

This is unacceptable.

If it wasn’t bad enough that we were losing the F-14s….

as THS mentioned yesterday, the Fleet Air Arm is losing the last of its Sea Harriers. Truly a sad year.

Another idea to prevent a repeat of Katrina….

From Varifrank:

What I learned from Katrina and the half a dozen other Hurricanes last year is that there is nothing that FEMA can do that if FEMA’s funding and mission were given instead to the US Coast Guard, that the Coast Guard could instead deliver, faster, better, cheaper and with more accountability than FEMA ever hoped it could.
So in that spirit, let’s consider this idea.
Let’s give the US Coast Guard:
The USS Constellation,
The USS Kitty Hawk
and the USS John F. Kennedy
( all non nuclear Carriers, that are either mothballed or soon to be ) and create three maritime “Emergency Response Task Forces” with the current Navy hospital ships as their core. Place one task force on each coast – Pacific – Atlantic and Gulf.

Or maybe the Oriskany? Heh

If yesterday and today are what global warming looks like….

I say:
Bring.
It.
On.
12:30 this morning, I was sitting in my garage, working on a model car, in shorts and a t-shirt. After having played about 3 hours worth of Doom3 on the Xbox, with the window next to me open. Gotta love Norf Cackalackie.

Whoever Made These Maps

Can kiss my gringo ass en la ventana de Macys, mkay?

A CNN/SI Headline I Can Agree With

Gay, No. 1 UConn too much for St. John’s
Heheheh. I can’t stand UConn.

Here’s A Nice Family

I don’t know about this:

Deputies say a 16-year-old has been arrested for beating his grandmother with a two-by-four for refusing to give him $100 for beer.
…Authorities tell us today that Cass came from a troubled family. His mother is in prison on cocaine possession and sale charges, and his father is serving a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter after choking a prostitute to death in 2002.

What kid needs $100 for beer?

The True Agents Of The Zionist Conspiracy

Have been found by Tim:

UPDATE III. A helpful guide to Hamas, from Al Jazeera:
The Hamas Covenant cites the long-discredited anti-Semitic fraud, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, describing it as “the embodiment of the Zionist plan to usurp Palestine”. Hamas dismisses the Freemasons, Lions Club, and the Rotarians as organizations promoting “the interest of Zionism.” It accuses those organizations, and the “Zionist invasion” in general, of being “behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds.”

Behold the mark of Zion! Spreaders of booze!

How do I join?

What I’m Drinking Tonight

Gentlemen, fasten your seat belts. And ladies, make sure the young’ins are safely tucked in bed, ‘cos we ain’t kidding around no more. Tonight we’re drinking the baddest of them all, the manliest of manly whiskies

Laphroaig.
Look ma, no ice!
Ah, where to begin? The full peaty aroma, laced with some deliciously acrid oily bites, leaps out at you when the bottle is opened. The warm golden color as it sits in the glass creates a yearning for that first sip, a deep desperate yearning that can only be quenched by…ah hell, that first sip. Oh, the taste! An amazingly full bodied taste and honeyed mouth feel, that is no where as peaty as the nose would lead you to think. Make no mistake, “Laphroaig” is not gaelic for “subtle”, there’s a whole bog o’peat here, but it’s really not as…overpowering as you fear it might be.
So check your blended Blacks and Reds and Greens and Fuschias at the door; this is whisky.

What I’m Drinking Tonight

Our hero, having not learned his lesson, continues to search for a good Zin under $10. Tonight’s contestant comes from California, the 2003 Rock River. Price: $9.99.
It has a very nice, deep purpley-red color, which gives me hope. The first few sips were somewhat disappointing, however, as there was a harsh, acidic finish. However, as it sat and opened up in the glass, after some 20 minutes or so, that went away and was replaced by a much nicer, full soft finish with good fruit. There still was just a touch too much acidity for my taste, but this is a decent wine for $10. Sadly, it seems to be a little low on the alcohol content, as they don’t even bother to list it on the bottle (a good Zin should have around 15%). But let it breathe in the glass for a decent amount of time before quaffing!
It will probably rate another bottle or two for further testing here at Netherfield.

Damn You, You Dangerous Cowboy!

Man, what an ignorant sabre-rattler:

“The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part… This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind.”
…(the President), who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said all of (their) nuclear forces had been configured with the new strategy in mind and the number of nuclear warheads on (their) nuclear submarines had been reduced to allow targeted strikes.
It was the first time he had so clearly linked the threat of a nuclear response to a terrorist attack.

My god. What the hell is Bush thinking?
Oh wait…it wasn’t Bush.

Oh Ick!

Big jelly fish:

“It’s a terrible problem. They’re like aliens,” Noriyuki Kani of the fisheries federation in Toyama, northwest of Tokyo, told Reuters ahead of the conference.
One Echizen kurage can be up to 2 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) in diameter and weigh up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds).

Looks like a helluva lot of sushi, though. Heck, the Japanese seem to eat everything else they find swimming…

Damn You Chimpy For Using Diplomacy!!!!

How many different sides of her mouth can Hillary talk out of? For years she damns Chimpy for being the cowboy and not engaging our allies, yaddayaddayadda, and now

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton called for United Nations sanctions against Iran as it resumes its nuclear program and faulted the Bush administration for “downplaying” the threat.
In an address Wednesday evening at Princeton University, Clinton, D-N.Y., said it was a mistake for the United States to have Britain, France and Germany head up nuclear talks with Iran over the past 2 1/2 years. Last week, Iran resumed nuclear research in a move Tehran claims is for energy, not weapons.
“I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and chose to outsource the negotiations,” Clinton said.

So she would have attacked them long ago? Is that what she’s saying?

La La La La La Laaaaaa…

Last Night’s Grub

So to go with the Latour, as I said, I decided to splurgeulate a bit and cook a rib roast. I’d never made one before, but by following Sis’ Bingley-proof recipe it turned out trés yum:

For the side dish I decided to try out a recipe from a book that I’ve gotten a great bunch of steak side dish recipes from (written, oddly enough, by a fellow Virginia grad). The recipe is for Tuscan beans and potatos.

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