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Monday, March 31, 2003
Dodging A Bullet It's no surprise that my Bears aren't on the Top 5 off-season list, but thank God we didn't make the "Bottom" 5 list. Whew. Links via Inoperable Terran. Who's got the Sharp Knife? Kudos to this old lady. Oh, and read as much of the Knife as you can while you're there. It's incredible. China tells N. Korea To Behave China cut off N. Korea's oil supply for three straight days. Oops, technical problems guys. Oh, by the way, shape up or face the consequences. I know everyone has blogged this already, but it's an important development in the "N. Korea problem", especially considering the fact that the U.S. is involved in full scale war in the Middle East. I'm linking to the InstaMan's post on the event. "...nobody, but nobody wants a regime as kooky as North Korea's on their border, armed with nuclear weapons." Sunday, March 30, 2003
More on NOLA Misanthropic Sylvia has posted NOLA 1.5, details on some of our tamer exploits in the French Quarter. Saturday, March 29, 2003
Friday, March 28, 2003
Better than the Vic's Secret Catalog My Aerostitch RiderWearHouse catalog came in the mail the other day. It was a special surprise as the catalogs are published incredibly infrequently. You never know when a mailing from Aerostitch is going to show up in the mailbox. Needless to say, it got my blood pumping just like it used to. In the days of yore, before I owned my first motorcycle, I would go over to my moto-mentor's house and dig through all of his motorcycle books, magazines, newsletters, and of course, his tattered Aerostitch catalog. I've now been riding for about 3 years, I'm on bike number two, and the Aerostitch catalog still makes me salivate. Mmmmmm, Aerostitch. The list of things I want from the catalog this time is far too long to list here, and would probably bore you to death anyhow. I'll just stick to the one I can't resist, and will order as quickly as I can find out how many pennies I have to spare. It's a clear plastic map pocket that will velcro to the left upper thigh of the Roadcrafter suit. I can't tell you how many times I've needed to write some directions down and have them handy for me on the road. Going to the new girl's house, visiting my brother's new apartment, or heading over to somebody's place to fix a computer all require directions, at least the first time. There's no way I'm going to strap on the tank bag and use that map pocket for a quick trip across town, and I can't exactly throw the directions on the passenger seat for quick reference now can I? With this thigh map pocket, I can jot down some quick directions, pop them in the see-through sleeve, velcro it right to the suit, and I'm out. Beautiful. More on Media The InstaMan provides further commentary and linkage on the mediocre media coverage of GWII. Synopsis of TV War Coverage This is why I can't watch the War on TV anymore. Thanks to Emperor Misha I for the link. Support for the War Support for the War in Iraq is still at 70% here in the States (last paragraph), and Command Post is reporting that public opinion in support of the war in Britain is up to 59%. News Coverage The Atlanta correspondent emailed me this comment early this morning. Actually heard on my former favorite Atlanta radio station, News-Talk Thursday, March 27, 2003
Is Frank Writing for The Onion? This Onion article about the U.S.U.N. sounds suspiciously similar to some IMAO offerings. WASHINGTON, DC—Frustrated with the United Nations' "consistent, blatant regard for the will of its 188 member nations," the U.S. announced Monday the formation of its own international governing body, the U.S.U.N.Heh. Sounds good to me. Thanks to my hetero lifemate Misanthropic Sylvia for reminding me about The Onion in the midst of our shared frustration over the media coverage of GWII. My Feelings Exactly Wow. I love Rachel Lucas. She comes really close to summing up my frustration with the war in one of her posts from yesterday. It's fascinating to see so much happening in real time, and to have access to 24-hour-a-day updates, and to hear from all those embedded reporters, but the fact remains that you and I, here in our homes in America, don't know the half of it. We don't even know the tenth of it, I'd guess.No Rachel, you're not. I'm right there with you. Ho Hum Not much catching my attention today. You might check out CDI for some interesting "public consumption" Intelligence related reports. Their Eye on Iraq section is especially interesting. Link via The Agonist. Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Scattered Thoughts
More later... Happy 1,000th Hit To Me! That's not many, but it's huge for a little dog like me. Thanks to the ShinySideUp loyal, Clubbeaux, VodkaPundit, and Emperor Misha I. Disinfo Instapundit has a great post that points out that "there is so much disinformation about that it is impossible to assess the actual progress of the war." After watching the first night of war coverage on Fox News, I got this message loud and clear. As the week has progressed, it has become increasingly difficult to formulate a picture of exactly what is going on in the war, especially if TV is your main news source. To tell you the truth, the TV coverage is so frenetic that I can't even watch it anymore. Makes my brain hurt. Here's what I think is happening, and what I think is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. How it will happen and how it will be reported is anyone's guess.
For the sake of my sanity, I think I will forego almost all TV coverage, hit the Agonist and the Command Post for the war updates, and reinforce what I read there with mostly well reasoned commentary from the rest of the blogosphere (check out my blogroll to the left). We'll find out what really happened in this war, and the brilliance of the much maligned war plan, in a couple of years. I'll leave you with a sanity saving comment from Emperor Misha I, posted sometime yesterday. Every time you hear the statement "the war isn't proceeding according to plan" or some such variation of that, such as "the Administration's expectations have been thwarted", ask yourself this one simple question:Now go forth, be ye encouraged, and maintain thy sanity. Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Crazy Day Work has been really nuts today. I'm getting really tired of blogging on the war too. Command Post and Agonist have me beat on that anyhow. Check them out for breaking news, I'll be around with something new soon. Monday, March 24, 2003
Food Not Bombs I just got a Google referral for "food not bombs shirt". Here's the relevant post. Heh. New Roommate Looks like I'm getting a new roommate in the form of my sister's cat, Boo, A.K.A. "Gangsta Boo", "Boo Radley", and a bevy of nicknames I know I'll come up with for her. Boo is a badass, a good friend of mine, and needs a place to stay for a while. I'm glad she'll be keeping this young, available, moderately good looking bachelor company for a while (ladies?). Along with helping Boo settle in and softball practice tonight, I think I'll be taking a break from blogging until later this evening (if my cable modem service is running again). So is it a Chemical Plant or Not? We may not know for a while, according to some insight from Jonah Goldberg. Take That You French Assclowns! The Sun assaults a French military ship on the Thames. Via K-Lo of The Corner. Back to Work I'm up to my elbows in a malfunctioning NEC Versa 6060 (blech) and a fiber documentation project. My internet is on the fritz at home, and my TV started acting up again. Updates througout the day as I get an opportunity. Sunday, March 23, 2003
The Human Shields are Coming Around From the UK Telegraph: I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam. The Yankee Herald comments on the UPI story of human shields shocked back to reality. The 101st Tragedy Goldberg on Akbar in the Corner. It seems to me, if Akbar has confessed -- and it sounds like he has -- it's hard to see why he shouldn't have a field court-martial and be executed.Amen. MORE: The inimitable Derb chimes in with this link. EVEN MORE: Keep an eye on the Corner for updates on the Akbar issue. The gist of the posts is dissapointing. Looks like this'll go more like a civilian trial rather than a battlefield courtmartial. MORE: Why is Fox News reporting "resentment" as the motive of the attack? MORE: Imperial Researcher Oki reports on the A.I.R. that the spin has begun. Oscar Watch Who gives a rip about the Oscars? Well, maybe you do, but I sure don't. This year however, Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine is nominated in the Documentary Feature category. In a piece that I linked earlier (and many others have linked as well), David Hardy clearly shows that Bowling... is by no means a documentary, and violates the Academy's own rules for what constitues a documentary. ...the Academy Award rules here are specific. Rule 11 lays out "Special Rules for the Documentary Award." And it begins with the definition: "A documentary film is defined as a non-fiction motion picture . . . ." It goes on to say that a documentary doesn't always have to show the "actual occurrence": it can employ re-enactment, etc., "as long as the emphasis is on factual content and not on fiction."Of course, the Hollywood left has never cared about the truth before, and there's no reason to believe that they'll care tonight. I'm keeping my eye on IMDB's Live Oscar Results being posted on their home page. Of course, it won't be any shock at all if Bowling... wins. What it will be is empirical evidence of Hollywood's pervasive lean to the left and their utter disregard for anything that resembles the truth. UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long. IMDB just updated, and Bowling... is the winner in the documentary category. May I say it again? BULLSHIT. MORE: Well, this is encouraging. MooreWatch is reporting that Moore has been booed off the stage. Sure wish I had been watching. MOORE IN THE CORNER: Start here and see the next 2 posts as well. MORE: Yahoo is covering the "Booing of the Moore". HOW MUCH MORE? Via MooreWatch, another debunking of Bowling.... My favorite line? "Nothing was checking out. Emphasis original. My favorite twist? The author is, or was, a Moore believer. FINAL: Text of Moore's acceptance speech. Nice Break from the War "The New Adventures of Mr. T" on Saturday Night Live is playing on Comedy Central. Crazy gymnastics kid w/ Mr. T: I'm hungry Mr. T.Heh. F the Russians I wondered why the Russians were so oppossed to this war, especially considering the much touted "friendship" between Putin and Bush that we've been hearing about for the past couple of years. Now I know. The United States delivered a protest to the government of President Vladimir Putin yesterday for refusing to stop Russian arms dealers from providing illegal weapons and assistance to the Iraqi military.Wtf? Report from the Rally From the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The event, organized by American Legion Post 252, brought military family members, veterans of other wars and citizens together. It began more than 30 minutes after its scheduled noon start to allow the traffic jam of those still arriving to clear. Even after the speaking began, cars streamed into the stadium parking lot for 45 minutes.The rally in Millington yesterday was called "Rally for America", but that generic name belies the real purpose of the rally, to show support for our troops where ever they may be. I rode up with a couple of guys from Bikers Under the Son and a big group from Southern Cruisers. The hour long ride was absolutely beautiful, and the rally itself was incredible. The message of the rally was delivered by war veterans themselves. We got to hear from an 82 year old Navy retiree, a young Army Sergeant about to be deployed, and a corpsman who was paralyzed from the waist down during Gulf War I (to name a few). The message from all of the servicemen and women was the same, our troops need our support. We must not repeat the mistakes that we as a nation made when our troops returned from the Vietnam war. We can show our support by mail, email, telephone, giving aid to the military dependents who are here at home, eagerly awaiting the return of their loved ones. Let me paraphrase a couple of stories that I heard at the rally that demonstrate the impact that we can have on our troops in the field. The first comes from an Army Sergeant, a veteran of Gulf War I who is about to be deployed to Gulf War II. "When the first mail shipment showed up in the Gulf, it was lined up on the flightline in box after box. The majority of the mail was addressed to 'Any Soldier', 'Any Airman'. I took a handful of these letters back with me, read them, and answered every question in them.From USAF Major Tony Lopez (Ret.), an OV-10 Bronco pilot in Vietnam. "I was flying a mission and got a radio call telling me to return to base. When I returned to base, I was disarmed and then taxied over towards the hangars. When I got out of my plane, the company chaplain came over to me and told me that my mother had died, and that my family was holding the funeral until I got home. My company commander told me that my bags had already been packed, my uniform was waiting for me, and that his plane was waiting for me on the tarmac to take me to a military transport that was waiting on my arrival. I was going home to be with my family and to be at my mothers funeral.These two stories demonstrate clearly the importance of supporting our troops. Emails, letters, handshakes, cookies, Doritos, and demostrations are all ways we can show our troops how much we appreciate their sacrifice that we may be free. It's our responsibility, our duty, and we're honor bound to ensure that the tragic events that occurred upon our troops return from Vietnam never happen again. 101st Airborne Tragedy Fox News is reporting that the Muslim coward that attacked his commanding officers was disgruntled that he wasn't being sent to the front lines. Ahem. BULLSHIT. Saturday, March 22, 2003
It's Time for Bed I can't seem to recover from my NOLA Trip (Sylvia has Part 1.2 of our trip posted). I'm going to watch a movie with my neighbor and call it a night. Thanks to Emperor Misha I for the links. See you guys tomorrow. No, No, No 101st Airborne attacked from within? Dixie-Flatline has the first I've seen on it, Fox News is reporting on it RIGHT NOW. Fox News verifies that the attacker is a Muslim. MORE: You know, I couldn't figure out how an attacking force hit this 101st camp within Kuwait. This makes sense, but it is the most horrible answer to the question of how this happened. The terrorist infiltration of our armed forces is even more complete than we thought. God be with the wounded, and may the flaming piece of shit that attacked them be sent straight to hell so the Devil may give him his due. MORE: Fox News needs to quit calling this sorry piece of trash a "Muslim-American". MORE: Thank God none of our soldiers have died as a result of this attack. MORE: This from Command Post is chilling. NOTE: It is entirely possible that this is a criminal occurence and not a terrorist infiltration. I hope with all my heart that the former is the case, but I'm betting on the latter. MORE: InstaPundit has a lot of good linkage on the story. MORE: Analysis and rebuttal by Dixie-Flatline. Thanks to Dixie for his excellent and cogent coverage of this story. Back from the Rally, Going to Bed I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, rode a 100 mile day on the motorcycle, sat in the hot sun for 3 1/2 hours, all without any food or drink since dinner last night. The rally was incredible. I'll report when I wake up. Off to the Rally I'm off to the Millington Rally for America. Hope to see my fellow Memphians there. Full report upon my return. Friday, March 21, 2003
Rally for America Sister stations 600 WREC and 990 KWAM are hosting a Rally for America tomorrow at USA Stadium in Millington, TN. Full details here. Be there at noon! I'll be meeting a group of fellow patriotic bikers tomorrow at 9 AM (that's way early, but not too early to show support for our troops). We'll be riding out to Collierville and then on to Millington. Shoot me an email if you're in the Memphis area and would like to ride with us. See you tomorrow. Saddam is What? The debate rages on regarding whether or not Saddam is still alive. Fox News just reported that Iraqi TV says Saddam is coordinating the Iraqi defense. Is it true? Is he alive? Or is it just propaganda? Who knows. We'll find out soon enough. My question is why Iraqi TV (or Saddam, if he's alive) would broadcast that the reincarnation of Saladin is the one responsible for this piss poor excuse for a military response. Maybe I've missed the relevant report, but as far as I can tell the Iraqis aren't putting up much of a fight at all. If I were Saddam, and if I were alive, I'd blame this weak defense on traitorous General with a desire to buddy up to the Great Evil. Just a thought. Idiotarian Appeasnik Gets One in the Nose Let me set the scene. My friend, who shall go nameless, is a hot, tattooed chick with a high ranking father deployed in the field. An Idiotarian Appeasnik is wasting the thinking world's time and ruining a beautiful spring night by handing out flyers that say "No Blood for Oil!". Let's listen in. Idiotarian Appeasnik: Here you go (hands my friend a flyer).At this point, Hot Tattooed Chick turns to leave. As she's trying to walk off, this Appeasnik proves his complete and total ignorance by coming up behind her and grabbing her arm. Now, my friend is a tough girl, and she grew up in one of the toughest cities in the US. She's developed instictive reactions to men grabbing her from behind at night. I'll bet you can guess what happened next. WHAP! Down goes the Appeasnik, with what Hot Tattooed Chick reports must have been a broken nose. Of course, Hot Tattooed Chick didn't stick around to find out. Listen you little neo-hippie, Marxist assclowns, feel free to protest. Feel free to speak what little is on your minds. Feel free to regurgitate your asinine, Marxist/Socialist/Communist, pre-packaged, cliche talking points. But cross the line and assault those who don't want to waste their time on you and you may just end up with a broken nose and blood dripping all over your homemade "Food Not Bombs" shirt. Consider yourselves warned. More on Moore A great piece on the lies and distortions in Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. The article specifically addresses the supposition that Bowling is a documentary. Bowling fails the first requirement of a documentary: some foundation in the truth. In his earlier works, Moore shifted dates and sequences for the sake of drama, but at least the events depicted did occur. Most of the time. Bowling breaks that last link with factual reality. It makes its points by deceiving and by misleading the viewer. Statements are made which are false. The viewer is invited to draw inferences which the producer must have known were wrong. Dates are transposed and video carefully edited to create whatever effect is desired. Indeed, even speeches shown on screen are heavily edited, so that sentences are assembled in the speaker's voice, but which he never uttered.(Emphasis original) The essay is well worth a read. F Moore. The News Just Keeps Getting Better From the NYT. The commander of Iraq's 51st division and his top deputy surrendered to United States Marine forces today, according to American military officials.The rate of surrender should only accelerate from this point on. Tired of Reading About War? Then head over to Dixie-Flatline for a stunning series of pictures that will make you proud to be an American and proud as hell of our boys in the field. I'm not linking any one particular post as Dixie keeps adding pictures. The display currently starts with TRIUMPH. Prediction Well, give up warblogging for the next few days. Adela just posted her prediction for the next week or so of the war. Sounds about right to me. UPDATE: Blogspot archives hosed. Again. Check Adela's page for the post War News for the Next Few Days. /me Crossing My Fingers Did we get Saddam? Of course, even if we did, we probably won't really know for quite some time. More Analysis of the French Situation Single out West brings us this gem regarding the Similarly, I think that's why we see the French and Germans throwing every roadblock they can in front of the U.S's desire to invade Iraq. They're terrified that if we invade we'll find out that they've been touching Saddam's boobies.Heh. You know, this reminds me of the Mean Mr. Mustard post I linked the other day. May I Have Another Steak Please? Misanthropic Sylvia is doing her part to piss off PETA in her own inimitable style (as of this posting, her archives working properly, thank you blogspot, but the post won't be hard to find). Thursday, March 20, 2003
More Diversions From The War Our apartment complex is fielding a softball team this year, and I just got back from my first practice. I haven't played sports for years, and it was a lot of fun to get out and hit a couple balls and learn to catch and throw all over again. Good times. Good friends. Priceless. War Music Thanks to the Emperor for pointing me to the Confused Jew's Victory Playlist. I'm burning some CD's tonight. Top Notch Blog War Coverage It's VodkaPundit for my money. Go read his stuff. Blogroll him. Shoot him an email and say, "Damn, you're good." WHOA: Thanks guys. I'm honored. Greetings to the VodkaVisitors. Hope you enjoy the site. It's not hard liquor, but who doesn't enjoy a beer now and then? As for me, I'm stuck fighting a broken modem on a laptop at work right now, but I'll be back soon. MORE: I guess a lot of folks agree with me. VodkaPundit is currently winning a Forbes.com "Best Warblog" poll. Did We Get Uday Last Night? Check Rantburg for the story. MORE: Check out Suman Palit's take on the Uday question. World Reaction I don't give a hot damn what the Axis of Weasel's and company has to say about the "illegitimacy" of the war, but it makes for humorous reading. Neutral Finland weighed in, too, with President Tarja Halonen calling military force outside the U.N. Security Council "not acceptable."Um, a little late for that, Tarja. My favorite take on the subject so far is Mean Mr. Mustard's "coyote-ugly" post. Night is Coming It seems that the biggest news so far is the dawn strike agains "targets of military opportunity" in Iraq. Saddam's forces immediately responded with weapons they weren't suppossed to have, and even still denies having. I guess it could be true that Iraq doesn't have any scuds left if they've fired them all off by now. Anyhow, night is coming in Baghdad, and I imagine the full power of the United States and our multilateral coalition is coming with it. More soon. Won't Do That Again I slept on the couch last night so with the television on. The plan was to try and keep up with the war news. The end result is that I didn't sleep very well and I didn't keep up on any news. I actually ended up having a nightmare about a voodoo church (voodoo church?) kidnapping a hitchhiker that I picked up. As I was trying to escape the voodoo church, a possessed voodoo practitioner caught me and was holding me by the legs. She started saying a bunch of stuff to me that was decidedly "un-voodoo-like" in a decidedly british accent. I woke up to Fox News covering the House of Commons speeches. Don't think I'll be sleeping on the couch again tonight. Wednesday, March 19, 2003
The President Has Spoken Bush just finished his brief address to the nation on the war in Iraq. This is a real leader, with a real message to the world. But forget about what he has to say. We can judge his character by his actions. Time for me to glue myself to the television. I'll see you guys tomorrow. UPDATE: Here is the text of the President's speech, courtesy of The Corner. Our Message to the Fifth Column Misha sends a clear, concise message to the Fifth Column. If you get in my way, blocking the road and preventing me from performing my duty, I want you to know this one thing:I'm on a 2001 Kawasaki Concours with Amercian flags on both sides. I can't run you sorry sons of bitches over, but I'll deliver a mean side kick with some steel toed boots at about 50 mph. And I'm not honking. Here's the Emperor's original post on the Fifth Column, with a link to David Horowitz's piece fleshing out the Fifth Column's plans for illegal acts of domestic terrorism. Read it, and keep your eyes open. UPDATE: Mean Mr. Mustard comments on the planned civil disobedience. Sounds like it might be Mr. Mustard with the crowbar in the Bay Area. Right on. Per Fox News The White House confirms that as of 20:54 CST the war against Iraq has begun. May God be with our boys in the field and their families here at home. Now let's go get those bastards. MORE: Amen Jonah: "Prayers, crossed fingers and all good thoughts for the good guys and the innocents. The bad guys are on their own." MORE: Tomahawk Cruise missles have been fired against Iraq, purportedly against "leadership targets". No word on how many at this time. Rachel Brings It Home Rachel Lucas posts a powerful piece about the war on Iraq. Last week, I dug out a book I bought a while back, written by a British journalist who spent a few months in Iraq just after the liberation of Kuwait, which also talks in painful detail about the living conditions of the average Iraqi citizen. There's a story about a young woman who'd been gang raped four different times by various government men.It's a short piece. Tear yourself away from the TV for another 30 seconds and give it a read. Huh? US Soldiers have been told not to display the American flag. What? As for the ban on flags, its effect was apparent in this camp Wednesday, where no more than a handful of vehicles mustering for the invasion displayed any flags.OK, I just don't get this. The "Shock and Awe" campaign is cool, but the provocative act of displaying the American flag is not. That just seems ridiculous. Scattered Thoughts On NOLA
More on NOLA later... Now We Can Really Have Some Fun The Vodka Pundit points us lovingly towards the Gulf War II Drinking Game. Looks like tonight will be a late one for me... Blog Quality That Will Please You My sister's blog has quickly surpassed the quality of my own, especially in the humorous-take-on-current-events category. Do yourself a favor and check it out. So It Begins (Cue Mortal Kombat Music) The British Times Online reports that "the first shots of the war have been fired." Apparently the Kuwaitis got off the first couple of rounds. Saddam's 48 hours aren't quite up yet, so I'm guessing we won't get much more action until later tonight. UPDATE: Guess we're not going to wait the full 48. Also see this and this from the Instaman. I Love NOLA I'm back in Memphis safely, but just barely. NOLA was a blast, and St. Patty's in Memphis was a lot of fun. I'm so glad I took today off of work. After 5 straight days of "celebration", one needs to take some time to recover. You can check out Sylvia's take on the adventure in Part 1 of a series of 3 posts about our trip (fair warning: my parents might want to skip the series). I'm looking forward to Parts 2 and 3 as she's a much better writer than I am. Real blogging resumes Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Quick Update I finally ended up leaving work yesterday around 1pm and I haven't been back since. I've got a nice version of "the crud", whatever it is that's being passed around, and I'm currently heavily medicated. Let's just say that prescription cold medication and blogging don't mix. As a result, it'll probably be slow around here for the next couple of days. I've also got a vacation to New Orleans coming up this week and while I'd like to post from the road, I'm not sure I'll be able to. It may be next Tuesday before I'm really back at full force. Before I go I'd like to say thanks to David over at Clubbeaux for the kind words about ShinySideUp. Many thanks also go to the visitors from Clubbeaux. Hope you guys are enjoying the Pabst inspired, two wheeled commentary. Have a good week. Drink one for me on St. Paddy's. Monday, March 10, 2003
Sick Day I'm sick, I'm swamped at work, and I'm trying desperately to get to a stopping point so I can go home and go to bed. I'll update when I feel well enough. Sunday, March 09, 2003
British 1, Iraqis 0 War isn't funny, but this has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever read in my life. TERRIFIED Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border and tried to surrender to British forces - because they thought the war had already started.Thanks to the InstaMan for the link and the laughs. Saturday, March 08, 2003
Woohoo!!! I got my first Google referral today! Now I feel like I'm in the big time. Apparently I'm the 15th hit for "valkyrie rune updates honda." Schweeeeet. Guess I need to start writing more about motorcycles. And bombing France. Zero Tolerance Strikes, and Parents Strike Back This whole zero-tolerance-in-schools thing is getting really, really old. It's just more symbolism over substance. Zero tolerance policies are merely rules that make administrators feel good while doing absolutely nothing to solve the problems that these policies purportedly address. The fact that school shootings and school violence have continued while zero-tolerance policies get children suspended for playing war during recess make it abundantly clear that the policies are for shit. The most recent case that I know of comes from Youngstown, Ohio. Apparently, a 6 year-old has been suspended, and may face expulsion, for spiriting a plastic knife out of the cafeteria in his backpack. As usually happens, the parents are suing the school for suspending their child. Strike, counterstrike. This story is old, worn-out, depressing, and predictable, until the last paragraph. ...if the school insists on upholding the suspension, his parents reportedly will seek criminal charges against the school for supplying weapons to children.(Emphasis mine.) Go get 'em Mr. and Mrs. Long! Give these assclowns a taste of their own medicine. While the logic behind zero-tolerance policies is questionable at the very best, the logic behind suing the school for providing children with these "weapons" is perfectly sequitur, even genius. It certainly won't make these idiots rethink their asinine policies, but it sure will be fun to hear them attempt to rationalize their position. An Urban Legend Begins I got a good laugh this morning at work as I was walking back to my office from the vending machines (computer techs must drink Mt. Dew). Usually I'm all alone at work on Saturdays, but today there's some sort of meeting going on down the hall. They were all on break when I was heading back to my office, and I had to walk through the group to get where I was going. Now the breakroom with the vending machines sits right next to the front doors, and on Saturdays I always park my bike right near the doors. I had just gotten through the group of visitors when I heard someone say, "...that [motorcycle] belongs to that crazy guy. He rides everyday, in the cold, in the rain. I've even seen him ride in sleet!" Heh. So I'm the crazy guy, and I ride in sleet. I sure don't remember ever riding in sleet. At least I've finally lived up to my favorite Ride To Work cartoon. I Hate Hippies And my favorite song on the subject is MIA's little ditty "I Hate Hippies". The mp3 can be found on punkrockers.com on their MIA page. Below, for your edification, are the lyrics as posted on miaband.com: I hate hippies, Friday, March 07, 2003
Serves Her Right Cry me a river Helen! Syndicated columnist Helen Thomas, who has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, was relegated to the third row in last night's East Room event and -- if the memory of press corps veterans is accurate -- received her first presidential snub.That's what you get for not playing nice with others. Speaking of Hippies... You all probably already know about PETA's most recent outrage, the "Holocaust On Your Plate" ad campaign. What you may not know about is the counter-campaign getting underway over at Yourish.com. PETA is known for this kind of outrageous publicity stunt—and that's what it is, an outrageous publicity stunt—and while I am also offended and outraged, there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make PETA change their ad campaign. I'm sure they knew exactly what they were doing, have a plan in mind, and, if they withdraw the campaign, will do it according to their deadlines and their decisions.Meryl has posted a form letter to send to PETA in protest against the "Holocaust" campaign and has a lot of good contact info for PETA US and PETA UK. Considering that PETA is a bunch of burned out, stinky, loony, hippie assclowns, I don't think the letters will sway them much, but I'm getting involved in anything that might get under their skin a little. Plus I get a good steak dinner out of the deal. I'm down. The "South Park" Wing of the Republican Party Thanks to Grillmaster Celissa for the link to this TCS article about South Park Republicans. The name [South Park Republicans] stems from the primetime cartoon "South Park" that clearly demonstrates the contrast within the party. The show is widely condemned by some moralists, including members of the Christian right. Yet in spite of its coarse language and base humor, the show persuasively communicates the Republican position on many issues, including hate crime legislation ("a savage hypocrisy"), radical environmentalism, and rampant litigation by ambitious trial lawyers. In one episode, industrious gnomes pick apart myopic anti-corporate rhetoric and teach the main characters about the benefits of capitalism.I'm proud to call myself a South Park Republican. Now if I can only get my TV fixed and watch the friggin' show. Hippies are for Barbecuing? All I can say to that is, "More please!" Visit Grillmaster Celissa for some delicious, hippie hating goodness. Thursday, March 06, 2003
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
What Goes Around Comes Around Bad karma has finally caught up with the ACLU in a big way. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of The advocacy organization that crusades for the protection of privacy rights sent its online "Safe and Free Newsletter" out to about 860 people last week but mistakenly made every recipient’s e-mail address available to everyone else.The story goes on to say that the ACLU just got done paying fines and making concessions in the state of New York for a similar mistake. Apparently the ACLU "...agreed to pay $10,000, upgrade its Internet privacy and security systems and submit to audits." Guess it didn't work so well. The "Schadenfreude Rating" (tm) keeps going up the farther you read through the story. Apparently the ACLU tried to do some C.Y.A. work and ended up revealing the addresses a second time. Shane Ham, senior policy analyst at a technology think tank called the Progressive Policy Institute, said the organization tried to undo what it had done shortly after the first e-mail was sent out — but wound up revealing all the recipients’ addresses a second time.Not only that, but there is some speculation as to whether the ACLU is lying about where they got the email addresses that they inadvertently exposed. He thinks the ACLU dug an even deeper hole when it tried to explain what happened. The advocacy group said it had solicited the e-mail addresses on its own, rather than taking them out of the existing database. If true, the assertion would mean that their privacy policy doesn't apply.I really hope someone sticks it to the ACLU on this one. I won't be holding my breath though. Bush vs. Pretzels Frank's reference to the "pretzel incident" brought to mind a killer parody courtesy of SatireWire (R.I.P.) from early last year. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer today said a miscommunication with the President's medical staff inadvertently caused a report to circulate stating President Bush fainted after choking "on" a pretzel. The President, Fleischer said, actually fainted after choking "the" pretzel.Do yourself a favor and check this one out. It still makes me laugh 'till I cry. More of The World According to Frank "In our top story tonight, the cause of cancer has been discovered: listening to liberals. Experts have found that their ideas are actually so idiotic that they're carcinogenic."See the full report here. Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Misanthropes of the World... My good friend Sylvia has started a blog called Misanthropic Rant. A lot of people use the term "misanthropic" inappropriately nowadays, using it to imply simple, formulaic teen angst. Sylvia is not one of those people. Enjoy. Monday, March 03, 2003
Helen Thomas Tries To Dog Fleischer During Latest IMAO Press Conference "Is there any truth to the fact that you and President Bush secretly met with Jimmy Carter under the pretenses of asking him to negotiate with North Korea, but then proceeded to beat him up and steal his lunch money."Heh. All the cool politicians hate Jimmy. That crazy Frank. Full report here. Post Victory-in-Iraq Prediction Mean Mr. Mustard predicts the anti-war side's reaction to the intense ass-whooping we're about to give Saddam. Sure the war was won triumphantly in a quicker, more humane way than ever in the history of warfare since the one monkey next to the monolith got all uppity with that bone of his, but at what cost? We spent X billion dollars! Couldn't that money have been better used to fund day care centers and buy perscription drugs for seniors? Wouldn't it have been better spent in our public schools? How much did the war hurt our economy?(Emphasis his). Sigh. Some people just can't (or won't) be pleased. Saturday, March 01, 2003
Thank God This Week Is Over This week has sucked. It somehow ended up being composed of sporadic sleep, icy streets, motorcyclelessness (huh?), and a beer shortage. To top it all off, I locked myself out of my office tonight. From 12:30 until almost 2AM I was locked out of my own office by a cruel twist of fate (or stupidity, but I think I'll blame this one on fate). The electronic passkeys that we all wear behind our badges at work are the only way into the secure area I work in. When I went out for my first smoke, my prox card (don't ask, that's what we call them) somehow fell off of my badge holder and got locked inside the office. When I came back to the office and swiped my badge in front of the card reader, it didn't open. Only then did I realize my prox card was missing. I looked through the glass door and there it was, not 6 feet in front of me, completely out of reach, taunting me. I had to go get a security officer down the hall to call a "mobile unit" to come over with a master key and let me back into my suite. Of course it took the officer an hour to respond to the call, but I finally got back into the office, get back to work, and finish out this hellish week. Thank God it's over. |