A Question

Should sheep be allowed to shoot wolves on sight? Wolves prey upon sheep. Sheep do nothing to invite attack, other than being made out of meat. If a sheep sees a wolf does it have the moral right to shoot the wolf? Even if the wolf is not, at that moment, hunting? What if the wolf is drinking from the river, or sleeping, or nursing its pups? What about the pups? Does the fact that they will certainly grow up to be wolves and kill sheep justify the sheep killing them? Do sheep have the moral right to form hunting parties and seek out and kill wolves, knowing that every dead wolf will save many sheep's lives in the future?

A Correction to the TV List

I can't believe that I forgot to put 24 on my list of favorite shows. This show is unrealistic and what makes it great is the way in which it is unrealistic. The fact is that federal law enforcement/intelligence officers are bureaucrats, yeah they have badges and guns but they're still bureaucrats. That means that if they have to choose between the national interest and their own pension and benefit package it's no contest (the winner will not be the national interest). The only exception to this is the protective side of the Secret Service. Those guys are hard-case true believers who get wood thinking about eating a bullet for the president. Other federal agents think that the SS guys are wackjobs, BTY.

Jack Bauer is different. He will get on the small airplane and fly it into remote desert and ride it into the ground so that the atomic warhead that it is carrying will not destroy a population center. When he needed to prove to a terrorist that he could be trusted he murdered a witness in federal custody waiting to testify against the terrorist and cut his head off with a hacksaw. He gave the terrorist the head in a duffel bag. He lead a raid into the Chinese consulate to extract a Chinese national who had information needed to stop a WMD attack on LA. When the Chinese government figured out what happened Bauer volunteered to spend the rest of his life in a Chinese prison in order to spare the US government the consequences of international exposure.

On Joss Whedon's excellent show Angel the title vampire explained that "Champions live like the world was what it should be in order to show people what it could be". In a nation where one political party has dedicated itself to causing America to lose a war against pure evil to enhance its electorial prospects - where the mainstream media, the supposed independant watchdog looking out for the interests of the "little guy", has transformed itself into little more than a Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightment for the party of treason - Jack Bauer serves his country the way it should be served in order to remind us of the way it could be served.

2005's top TV

Proving that even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while Time Magazine has listed Battlestar Galactica as the top TV show of 2005. Of course the other 9 on their top ten list pretty much blow, but you have to crawl before you can walk.

Here are Hillbilly White Trash's top 10 TV shows of 2005:

1. Battlestar Galactica. Ron Moore's reimagining of the 1970's Sci-Fi show is well written and well acted. Next to Firefly it is the most realistic SF show ever. It could be better still if the network would get off Moore's back and let him tell the story the way he sees it in his head.

2. House MD. Hugh Laurie plays rude, drug-addicted politically incorrect, genius doctor Greg House masterfully.

3. Nip/Tuck. Two rich South Beach plastic surgeons who are going through personal upheavals that make a normal midlife crises look like a day at the spa.

4. Deadwood. 1876, the Black Hills of South Dakota. Historical persons like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane mix with fictional characters in a foul-mouthed, gritty realistic drama.

5. Rescue Me. Dennis Leary plays an alcoholic New York firefighter who is competent only in a burning building. Everything else in his life is melting down like a Soviet era nuclear reactor.

6. The Shield. Michael Chiklis plays Vic Mackey an evil corrupt cop who will murder a fellow officer to keep from being ratted out to IAD one minute then risk his life to rescue a twelve-year-old prostitute from her pimp the next.

7. Rome. The first season of this HBO original series saw Julius Cesar defeat the king of the Gauls, cross the Rubicon, have a son with Cleopatra, become dictator for life and be murdered on the floor of the senate.

8. Invasion. Aliens arrive under the cover of a hurricane and begin replacing the residents of a small town in Florida. The timing of this show is just about perfect with revelations coming just fast enough to keep the story moving.

9. South Park. Even in its ninth season this animated series is still funny enough to make you risk rupturing an internal organ from excessive laughing.

10. Stargate SG-1. This show is showing its age, but still keeps the viewer coming back. It had the guts to bring its grand story arc to a close and move off in a (sort of) new direction.

You may notice that only one show on the list is a network show. Also, there are other shows that are fun to watch, but don't rise to the level of "best". Among them are Bones, Numbers, Stargate: Atlantis and Criminal Minds. Come to think of it this isn't just the best stuff on TV these are the only shows on TV worth watching.

File under "W" is evil

Have you ever wondered where Howard Dean gets his inspiration? The Bush Conspiracy Generator makes everything clear.

Hat tip Appalachian Gun Trash.

Merry Christmas

It is after midnight on Dec. 26. That means that for one more year the ACLU couldn't kill the celebration of The Savior's birth. I leave you with a passage of scripture which explains the Christmas Story:

Have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5 - 11 NASB

Munich's Fatal Flaw

Roger Ebert loves Steven Spielberg's Munich and in his glowing review he, unintentionally, identifies the film's fatal flaw. Ebert says, "Spielberg's film has been called an attack on the Palestinians and he has been rebuked as "no friend of Israel." By not taking sides, he has taken both sides." It is in this that Spielberg reveals his fundamental misunderstanding of the Arab/Israel conflict. There is no moral equivalence between the two sides.

A brief history lesson is in order. In World War II the civilized nations of the world, along with the Soviet Union, had defeated one of the two greatest evils to arise in the 20th century (the other was the Soviet Union). In the closing days of the war the advancing allied armies discovered the Nazi death camps which were inhabited by the living skeletons of those Jews lucky enough to avoid death by disease, starvation, overwork and the gas chambers long enough to be liberated. The magnitude of the horror with which they were confronted caused the world to (briefly) shake off the reflexive anti-semitisim which is its normal position.

The United Kingdom gave up its control over the land which the Romans had called Palestine and allowed the newly created United Nations to assume control. The UN came up with a partition plan which gave most of the land to the Arabs in one contiguous land mass. The Jews received three plots of land, most of it located in the Negev desert. The Jews agreed to this, the Arabs did not. In 1948 the armies of six Arab nations invaded Israel with the full support of the Palestinian Arabs*. The outnumbered and outgunned Jews defeated the invading Arabs then and in two other invasions (1967 and 1973). As a result of the first invasion around 650,000 Arabs fled the area at the urging of the Arab governments with the promise that they could return when the Jews were exterminated or driven into the sea.

The failure of the invading Arabs to eradicate the nation of Israel left the Palestinians with a problem. The Jews were in possession of their land and the fact that they had sided with the invaders meant that they had renounced any moral right to return and reclaim their property. The moral duty to care for the displaced Arabs fell to the Arab nations which launched their
war(s) of aggression. It was their obligation to integrate the displaced into their populations (from whom the "Palestinians" had come and with whom most still identified). They did not do this.

Instead they isolated the Palestinians in squalid festering refugee camps. They gave them a minimal existence and fed them on hateful propaganda. The purpose of doing this was twofold. First, the refugees made ready recruits for terrorist organizations like the PLO. Second, the highly visible camps became an easy pretext for the world's Jew haters. The recruitment of terrorists was especially important because the Arab nations had finally internalized the fact that they could not defeat Israel in an open confrontation of arms (multiple humiliating defeats will do that for even the most dense). The war to end the Jewish homeland became an attempt to inflict a death of 1000 cuts as terrorist attack followed terrorist attack.

This brings us to the 1972 Munich Olympics where terrorists from the PLO kidnapped and murdered Israeli athletes. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Mier ordered the formation of an elite team of operatives to hunt down and execute those responsible (they eventually got 9 of the 11). In Spielberg mind the two events exist on the same moral plane. They are just part of a tit-for-tat "cycle of violence" which will continue to block peace in the Middle East until and unless men of courage on both sides rise above the violence and negotiate in good faith.

The problem with this approach should be obvious to anyone who isn't a moral leper. The Israeli and Palestinian sides are as "equivalent" as the allied and axis were in WWII. The land-for-peace scheme which is the centerpiece of all the attempts to reach an equitable settlement of the conflict is exactly the same as the plan that Rudolph Hess flew to the UK to lay before Churchill and Roosevelt. The Nazi government remains in power and Germany retains its territorial gains. In exchange Germany stops fighting.

There is an answer. As Rush Limbaugh has pointed out on any number of occasions wars end when one side or the other achieves victory. World War One ended with the German Army and most of the German people not feeling that they had truly been defeated. After all the German military was on foreign soil and seemed to be holding its own. This fact, as much as anything else, made World War Two inevitable. Israel must be set free to do what it must do to secure a true peace by defeating its enemy. They must start killing their enemies and keep killing them until they internalize their defeat. Until they come to the Jews not on their knees, but flat on their faces and beg to be spared. When they are ready to say and mean with absolute conviction "we will do anything you say, we renounce our claim to any land within Israel's borders; we will rewrite our religious doctrines any way you tell us to if you will just please stop killing us so that our race does not disappear from the face of the Earth".

You think that is too harsh? Japanese cites were made of wood and paper and we napalmed them in one massive nighttime air raid after another until we developed atomic bombs and started nuking them. We piled up hundreds of thousands of incinerated corpses to bring the Japanese to the point of surrender and when they came to the peace table we forced them to renounce a fundamental tenant of their religion, that the Emperor was a direct descendant of and living manifestation of the Divine Sun. And to this day Japan is not only peaceful and prosperous but was an ally in the Cold War.

An end to the fighting, the cycle-of-violence is possible but it will only come when one side gains an unambiguous victory and the other side admits its defeat to itself and the world.

*In Palestine before the formation of Israel in 1948 the Arab population did not call themselves "Palestinians". They referred to themselves as Arabs or by the nationality which they or their families originated from. The term "Palestinian" was a derogatory term applied to the Jewish population of the area. It was only when the need to find a single name for the displaced Arab population (for propaganda purposes) that the name was applied to Arabs.

Serenity DVD

I finally got a chance to watch the Serenity DVD. This is not a review of the movie. Anyone fit to read my blog has already seen it. I am going to talk about the special features.

First of all, the deleted scenes. Nothing earth shattering, just things that were cut for time. Inara having a conversation with another companion at the training school about how the girls that they were teaching weren't measuring up. A different take on the Serenity's arrival on Haven (shepherd Book's community). There were some additional details about how Mal and Inara made their escape from the academy and how they got past the guards that the Operative placed around their shuttle (a dummy hand grenade). There is also a scene between Simon and River after the bar fight that I think should have been left in.

Next were the outtakes. Mostly people blowing lines and swearing. There was one amusing bit on Haven after the crew finds everyone murdered by the Alliance. Nathan Fillion ad libs an alternative version of his lines.

Two mini documentaries, What's in a Firefly and Alternative History: The Story of Earth That Was, which are not what they are represented as being. What's in a Firefly is not a tour through a Firefly class transport ship. Instead it is a feature on how some of the special effects were done. The Story of Earth That Was is just the backstory on the War of Unification and Mal's place in it and how he came to be the person we see in the series and movie. Interesting enough, just not what they are labeled as being.

There was another short documentary called Re-Lighting The Firefly about how a canceled TV series became a major motion picture. This part is a tribute to Joss' persistence and the efforts of the fans. As Joss says, "We have done the impossible and that makes us mighty".

Finally, there was an introduction by Joss Whedon which was filmed for the unfinished version which was pre screened at theaters all around the country. Joss says that in Hollywood there are names for people who refuse to let go of a canceled series, who keep trying to bring it back. Obsessive, quixotic, unrealistic but in Joss' world they are called Browncoats.

Altogether the special features look as if they were put together in a hurry. This should not be surprising in that the movie made the transition from theater to DVD faster than any that I've ever seen. Clearly Universal figured that the future of the franchise is to be determined by DVD sales.

A Christmas Card for the Troops

Captain's Quarters has an excellent idea. Ed has a Christmas card for the troops that he is asking readers to sign. Head over and add your own message. The link is to the left.

Coming Tomorrow

A review of the Serenity DVD.
Two political/cultural posts: Oscar and his cousins and Munich's fatal flaw.

As for now I'm going to get nogged up and pass out.

O'Flaherty's RIP

Danny O'Flaherty has announced that O'Flaherty's Irish Channel Center and Pub is closing forever. Apparently the damage caused by hurricane Katrina was so severe that repairing and reopening is not feasible given his resources. O'Flaherty's was the center of Celtic culture in New Orleans and its loss will be mourned by patrons, performers and employees alike. Danny will continue touring and performing. Check out his website for his schedule.

The property on Toulouse St. will be put up for sale. Let's hope that the new owner will be able to make the necessary repairs and open a Celtic theme establishment that will keep the Celtic spirit alive on the Gulf Coast.

Maybe EJ Jones will be able to put together a consortium of investors. . .

Brokeback just wont stop

Of everything I've posted so far the largest response has been to my speculation that Brokeback Mountain will not live up to some people's expectations that it will "break out" and become a mainstream hit. The reason for this is a post on a homosexual oriented blog which said that I "dissed" the movie. If saying that "it might be a very good movie, well written and acted" is slamming it then I guess I'm guilty.

The point of my post (which I stand by) is that this movie, while well made, lacks a true broad based appeal. It will almost certainly turn a profit for its investors, but will not be a success if we judge it by the standards which other movies are judged. It will not provide the kind of box office numbers that Jarhead or A History of Violence did. It will not even make the kind of money that gold-plated flop Doom did.

I know that there are a lot of people in the gay community who are very invested in this picture. If it becomes a "hit" it means that society has moved from tolerance to approval. That they themselves have become mainstream. Sorry this isn't the movie that's going to do it for you. It will not crash and burn the way that Ellen did after she came out, but it isn't going to be the gay answer to Lord of the Rings (box office wise).

And before anyone starts in about how many awards it has been nominated for don't go there. In an environment where Michael Moore [spit] can win an Oscar for a "documentary" who's every claim had been documented to be false awards are less than meaningless.

With Friends Like These. . .

FrontPage Magazine's War Blog is reporting that Germany has released Mohammed Ali Hammadi from prison and allowed him to return to Lebanon. Mr Hammadi is a member of terrorist organization Hizbollah and was serving a life sentence for the murder of Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight to Beirut. Stethem was beaten and tortured so severely before being executed that the body had to be identified by fingerprints. Fellow passengers said that Petty Officer Stethem endured his ordeal with surpassing courage.

The reason that the Germans gave for releasing Hammadi is that he had served out his (life?) sentence. We get a clue to the real reason in that fact that Hammadi's release came just a few days before terrorists in Iraq released the German hostage they had held since November 25th.
It seems that the Germans have decided to join France and Spain in the axis of appeasement. I guess they remember how Chamberlain was able to contain Hitler and prevent another world war, oh wait that didn't work out so well did it.

Some have called for the US to pull its troops out of Germany and let them defend themselves. While this looks good at first glance I think it would be a bad idea. Given Germany's history I think that if we force them to build up a credible military force we'll be fighting them within two generations. Better to let them keep an army that is little more than a glorified palace guard and spend all their money on an ever more lavish dole.

On a positive note late reports are that Hammadi is "in custody" in Beirut. I don't know who is holding him, but we can hope that he will soon be in the US where he can stand trial. Of course we'll also be treated to the sight of legions of moonbats lining up to see that his rights are protected and that we understand the suffering of his people.

On another positive note the United States Navy had named a destroyer after PO Stethem. The USS Stethem, DDG-63, is an advanced and powerful warship. Let us hope that the Stethem is called upon to participate in operations against Hizbollah.


UPDATE

Lebanese authorities have released Hamadi from custody. US officials have promised to bring Hamadi to the United States and do not rule out the use of force. The whole article is in The Washington Times (free regrisration required).

Well, Mr. Sulu did come out.

Check this out.

I don't know where they found this or what purpose it is supposed to serve, but it looks like a page from the Firefly/Serenity universe's version of Dr. Ruth.

If anybody out there reads Chinese and can post a translation in the comments I'll find some way to reward you.

Nerve-Gas Attack?

From the Scotsman

AT LEAST 45 people, most of them children, have been hospitalised in the Russian region of Chechnya with an illness that doctors say might be nerve-gas poisoning. Pupils, teachers and workers began reporting breathing trouble and headaches on Friday at a school in the town of Starogladovskaya, emergency workers said.

If this is true, and it is a very large if (remember this part of the world has government news agency reports about the flying saucer that landed in the high school soccer field and the ramp was down and the children were entering and leaving the spaceship) it is very bad. If Islamic terrorists have gotten their hands on chemical weapons, whether from left over Soviet stockpiles or Iran or Saddam's supplies that were smuggled out of Iraq, we could very well be seeing them here.

Mardi Gras '06 Update

I checked the hotel finder at neworleans.com and found that prices are much lower than usual for the Mardi Gras period. You can find good rooms in or near the French Quarter for under $200.00 per night. This is based on double occupancy.

For people who have held off of going to Mardi Gras because of the crushing crowds and high expense this is the year to go.

Nip/Tuck

I just watched the Nip/Tuck season finale. It was as twisty and envelope pushing as we've come to expect from the diseased mind of Ryan Murphy. I wont spoil it for those who watch the second showing on Tuesday night, but let me just say that The Carver will be back.

Serenity DVD Out Today

Even more important than contributing to my camera/beer fund by buying your copy of the Serenity DVD from the amazon link to the left is going to Wal Mart and buying it. Most of the DVD's that are sold in the US are sold off the shelves at Wal Mart. How long a movie stays on the shelf there is determined by sales. I've heard that Wal Mart knows before the end of the first day how long a title will stay on display. The chances for a Serenity sequel, theatrical or subscription direct to DVD or as a series on Sci-Fi Channel depend on DVD sales.

Even if you've pre-ordered on amazon go to Wal Mart and buy one anyway. I'm sure that you know someone you can give it to as a stocking stuffer.

Feed Lemuel's Greed

If you're here and you're planning on buying something from Amazon.com anyway click on one of the links to the left. That way I'll make a little money on it. I hope to buy a digital camera so that I can post pictures to the blog. The mountains of Western North Carolina are very beautiful and I travel as much as I can. So help me camera up and I'll show you the view from the top of Mt. Mitchell or the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games or Manhattan as seen from the Circle Line tour boat or the French Quarter.

If I get more than I need to buy the camera and photo printer I'll use the surplus to buy beer at Jack of the Wood.

Hello Langley

I notice from Sitemeter that one of my readers is logging on from Langley. If you are sitting at a computer at CIA headquarters then you are most likely an intelligence analyst tasked with going through the mass of data obtained from electronic or human resources around the world. You could be trying to pinpoint the location of Osama Bin Ladden or looking at a doctor's report on Castro's health and trying to estimate the number of years/months the old murderer has to go before his appointment with Satan's toaster oven.

Or at least that is what you should be doing. Instead you are reading my flipping blog! Is there anything about soft-core lesbian porn or gay cowboys eating pudding or Surface or Mardi Gras that is more important than protecting our nation from its enemies? I don't think so! Have you forgotten about CHINA?!? They're there and they want to destroy us and you're reading about Serenity coming to DVD?

GET BACK TO WORK!

Unless you're one of the left-wing wack jobs who is leaking information designed to damage the Bush administration and cause us to lose the war. In that case hang around and I'll post something about Mexican donkey shows or midget porn.

Mardi Gras 2006

Last Friday Mike Church broadcast his radio show from the piano bar of Pat O'Briens in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He had a bunch of people from the French Quarter bars and restaurants talking about how little damage the Quarter sustained in the hurricane and flood and how much was open for business. The high point for me was when Arthur Hardy, the publisher of The Mardi Gras Guide say that Mardi Gras 2006 would go on as planned! He also dropped this bombshell, due to the fact that some krewes are short handed this year there is the possibility that some tourists can ride the floats in one of the Mardi Gras parades. People who live in New Orleans spend more than a decade on a waiting list for the chance to do that.

Upon hearing this I called a friend and tried to set up a trip this Feb. but it was not to be. Anyone else who wants the details respond in the comments and I'll let you know.

Scumbag of the year

Michelle Malkin has a post up about the identity of the dirtbag who sent the "I hope you die" card to the wounded soldier in Walter Reed. Go check it out. This of course closes the competition for the coveted "Scumbag of the Year" award.

Another "gay" movie that I liked

Or at least bisexual. I saw this on cable the other night. It was called Spiderbabe a touching story of an attractive young promiscuous bisexual woman who is bitten by a radioactive spider and develops super powers. She must learn to balance the responsibility her powers give her to fight crime and defend the helpless with her need to keep up her studies and service a wide range of male and female lovers.

Lemuel gives it 5 stars!

Bush's Speech

I'm listening to the president's speech (a Hillbilly White Trash live blogging event!) and I think he's doing a good job. The man is not a natural communicator, but he is making his case well. There's nothing in what he's saying that will be new to someone who reads blogs and/or listens to talk radio (unless the blog you are reading is dailykos and the talk radio is Air America) but most people are not reading blogs and listening to talk radio. This is sometimes hard to remember for those of us who are online and tuned in. People tell us about this new thing that they just heard about and we have known about it for the past three days.

Bush's main points seem to be:

1. The pre war intelligence on WMD was wrong, but the entire world believed it.
2. Even so the decision to invade Iraq was correct because Saddam was evil and supported terrorism and destabilized the region.
3. Even if you didn't agree with the decision to invade Iraq we are there now and it would be a disaster to leave before the job is finished.
4. We are winning.

Nothing there that a reasonable person can disagree with. This will not stop Democrats from disagreeing, however. As I noted in another post they have carved out a position for themselves in which an American victory is a defeat for them.

A "Gay" Movie I Would See

I have no objection to going to see a movie about homosexuals as long as it is entertaining. As I said before Brokeback Mountain is a chick flick, only without any chicks. This excludes most straight men from the audience; not because we hate gays, but because nothing about the concept interests us enough to go the the theater and plunk down our money. Now here is an idea for a movie about a gay man with broad appeal.

Mike is a former Special Forces assassin/torture expert who left the service after violating Don't Ask/Don't Tell and moved to San Francisco and became a PI. One night he and his transvestite lover, who we'll call Jack, are attacked by animal rights activists and Jack's fur coat is doused with red paint. Jack is so upset by this he overdoses on his antidepressant prescription and dies. Mike is driven over the edge by this and begins to hunt down and kill (in interesting and photogenic ways) members of wacko animal rights groups. One evening while "working on" a young actress who posed nude in an anti-fur ad she breaks and spills the beans. The whole animal rights movement, along with the environmental, anti-war and a host of other seemingly unrelated causes are really not about animals or war or pollution. They are actually about attacking the prosperity and freedom of the United States from a multitude of different directions. The ultimate goal is to convert America to Europe style socialism. This sets Mike off in a new direction as he starts "taking out" leading members of the liberal elite. The movie ends with Mike taking a leading liberal to his basement "workshop" and giving him a real reason to scream, and scream, and scream. . .

But do they eat pudding?

Brokeback Mountain is a western/love story set in 1961 Wyoming about two homosexual cowboys who fall in love. The movie spans 20 years and deals with the difficulties, including violence, that the lovers face. I have not seen this movie and I have no plans to. It might be a very good movie, well written and acted, but it just isn't my kind of flick. It is, in fact, a chick flick - only without a chick. This is why it will not be a commercial success.

Sure it opened well, making more money per screen at its debut than any other indie in history, but this is because it opened on only five screens three in New York City and one each in Los Angles and San Francisco (all three homosexual meccas - why didn't they also show it at the Fine Arts here in Asheville). It has now gone into wider release (69 screens) and some think it could make it into genuine hit status.

This aint going to happen. Think about it. The only parents who are going to take their kids to see this thing are Heather's two mommies. It will not be a date movie because guys only take their girlfriends/wives to chick flicks because they either get nagged into it or because they are hoping to get laid later that night. Guys are not going go to a movie about two other men who sleep together as a prelude to sex and women are not going to fight with their dates to see a love story that doesn't have a character that they can identify with. Guys will not go with other guys the way they do with action/adventure or porn and and girls wont go with other girls because, again, there's nobody that they can really identify with.

Also straight women are almost as turned off by the sight of two men making out as straight men are. It may be a well done movie, in fact is probably is, but it just doesn't have real appeal to anybody out of the homosexual community.

Out of the cold and dark

Lemuel spent yesterday sitting in the cold and dark. The ice storm that hit the southeast left me without power for most of the day. Also, my computer was online when the power went off and this fried my modem (I live out in country dial-up hell). I replaced the modem this morning after the power came back on and got back online

All I have to say is thank God for electric power and all the other blessings of modern technological society. We don't know how much we need and depend on them until they are taken away from us for a while. Get down on your knees and give thanks for the fact that you live in a country with political freedom and capitalist economics which allow us to provide so many good things to ourselves and the rest of the world. Things like satellite television and transplant surgery and flush toilets and clean drinking water piped right into our houses.

I'll stop now. If I go on I'll have written Ben Stein's next AmSpec column for him.

Yet Another Thing to Like About Narnia

The Last thing that we see the children, having grown to adulthood, do in Narnia is go hunting.

Tookie Dies

At around 12:35 AM (That's 3:35 AM in real time) Tookie Williams went before the Judge before whom we must all stand in our time. If Tookie was sincere in his Christian conversion then he is glad to be where he is and he is glad that the just sentence of the court was carried out. If (as everyone except Mike Farrell suspects) his "conversion" was nothing more than a cynical ploy to gain support for a commutation then he is even now paying for that sin along with all his others.

More Thoughts on Narnia - Spoilers

Disney deserves credit for not whimping out and making Narnia politically correct. When the children meet Father Christmas he gives them weapons and when the Lion does combat with the Witch he tears out her throat.

Narnia

I just got back from seeing Narnia. An excellent picture all around. It had the best CGI that I've ever seen. It took me some time to realise that the beavers weren't actually there.

Benedict Arnold and the Murtha Test

In 1775 when word of the Battle of Lexington reached New Haven Benedict Arnold, the captain of the governor's guards, assembled his men and offered to lead them to Boston. When the selectmen refused to supply ammunition Arnold threatened to break into the magazine. Thus began a military career in the service of the young American republic which saw Arnold participate in the capture of Ticonderoga, and the siege of Quebec. Perhaps the high point was his command of an American fleet in battle with the British near Valcour Island in Lake Champlain. American forces were seriously outnumbered and defeated by the British, but their fierce resistance stopped the advance of British Gen. Carleton, who withdrew to winter in Montreal. This freed up 3000 US troops to reinforce Gen. Washington who was them able to win victories at Trenton and Princeton. During the course of his service Gen. Arnold twice received serious wounds. During the years that the Revolutionary War dragged on Arnold became convinced that the Colonies could not win against the might of the British Empire. He conceived a plot to place the US in a position in which would be forced to realize that the war was lost and negotiate with the British. In his plan he would be the negotiator and restore America to the British Empire, with certain concessions from the British. To carry out his plan he sought the command of West Point from his friend Gen. Washington in order that he might surrender it to the British. His plot was exposed and he fled to the British where he received a commission as a brigadier general. To this day his very name is synonymous with the word traitor.

Like Benedict Arnold Jack Murtha has worn his country's uniform and served with heroism. Murtha left college to join the Korean War and later served in Viet Nam. He receive two Purple Hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a Bronze Star for valor. He now serves as a congressional representative from Pennsylvania. Also, like Arnold, Murtha believes that his nation is involved in a war which it cannot win and , like Arnold, Murtha is willing to commit an act of betrayal to do something about it.

The difference between the worlds of Benedict Arnold and Jack Murtha is that in Arnold's day no one attempted to defend Arnold by claiming that one had to have served in combat like Arnold did in order to earn the right to condemn his actions. Even the Tories, Americans who favored the British cause, did not indignantly attack the character of any non-veteran Patriot who called Arnold a traitor. The reason for this, in my view, is that the Tories honestly believed in their cause. Because their consciences were clear they had no psychological need to project unworthy motives onto those with whom they disagreed.

Modern liberals have placed themselves in a position in which they must hope for defeat in Iraq. They must hope that the robust housing market is in fact a "bubble" which will burst and ruin hundreds of thousands of their fellow Americans. In fact they must hope for a general economic downturn which will leave millions jobless, homeless and on the dole. They know, in their hearts of hearts, that they are wrong. They know, on some level, that they are a cancer eating at the vitals of the United States. In order for them to rise practically everything else must fall. In order for them to succeed America must be awash in racism, sexism, poverty and hopelessness. Iraq must descend into a bloody civil war that ends with a Taliban style theocracy or Baath Party fascist dictatorship. Therefore anything that indicates that the US is doing well economically or socially or winning the war must be attacked as some kind of enemy propaganda.

This is not a position that any sane political party should seek to find itself. Yet this is exactly the position in which the Democrat Party finds itself. This is a function of an unclear conscience. They are about power and power alone. The "Murtha Test" in which we are told that only decorated veterans have the right to tell the truth about "Cut'N'Run" Murtha's plan to surrender in Iraq is just the latest symptom. They are not right and they know that they are not right so they cannot afford to debate the merits of their position. They must instead attempt to disqualify their critics in a kind of preemptive strike so that they never have to deal with the substance of their arguments.

This should be reassuring to Americans who genuinely love their country and want the best for it. If we were not winning the war in Iraq the Left would not be so desperate to get us out. If things were really as bad there as the Democrat Party and its Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment (otherwise known as the mainstream media) want us to believe that they are they would be working to see that we stayed so that we could suffer the kind of crushing defeat that would kill Republican chances in ''06 and '08.

Still More Serenity News

There is an effort to bring back Firefly/Serenity as a direct to DVD series. The DVD's would be available by subscription. The episodes would possibably also air on Sci-Fi as well. Then about 3-4 months later they would go on sale to the general public. This sounds like a good idea to me. If you agree link to this site and sign up.

Also, I just got my Serenity soundtrack CD. Very good.

No Surface

Surface will be back in January so no review tonight.

Keep Jethro, Girl Genius and Opie in your thoughts, they need all the help they can get.

EUro Decay

I finally had the leisure to open the latest issue of City Journal today. As usual the first thing I sought out was Theodore Dalrymple's back page column, The London Diarist. Dr. Dalrymple is explaining to a correspondent of a liberal Dutch newspaper why he chose to move from England to France. His answer?

I said that I thought France was a decade or two behind Britain in cultural
decline. It had maintained certain standards a little better than Britain -
though, I added, I could see that it was heading in the same direction.

This is amusing because the lead time in magazine publishing means that Dr. Dalrymple's discussion with the Dutch reporter had to have happened before the recent, and still ongoing, French intafada. I wonder if the sight of Muslimm youth rampaging through the streets, burning cars (and elderly women on at least one occasion) has caused the good doctor to rethink his opinion.

More on the Serenity Sequel

News of the Serenity sequel continues to spread, ign.com is now reporting the possibility of a TV movie to be aired on the Sci-Fi channel. Firefly and Serenity News adds that the MOW would be in conjunction with the broadcast airing of Serenity in 2008.

I stress again how important DVD sales are to making this happen.

More on the Christmas Wars

Over at NRO Jonah Goldberg has a piece about the secular left's attempt to purge any trace of Christmas out of the public square and the religious right's reaction to it. He believes that:

". . .Conservatives should be wary of launching a backlash. Just as it is counterproductive for a secular liberal to take offense at a well-intentioned
"Merry Christmas," it doesn't help if a conservative says "Merry Christmas" when
he really means "Eat yuletide, you atheistic bastard!" If you're putting up a christmas tree in order to tick off the ACLU, you've really missed the point."

Mr. Goldberg makes a valid point. If the only thing that Christmas means to you is a chance to give the finger to the left then you have missed the point (of what Christmas means) and missed it badly. However there is another issue at stake. The principal that a very large majority of people should not have to do a cultural "cut and paste" job on their society just to please a tiny minority who are suffering no harm whatsoever. The only damage being done to the anti-Christmas fanatics is the brusing their egos get by having their complete irrevelance to the greater culture ground into their faces this time of year. Every carol and crèche only reinforce how badly out of step they are with the society in which they live. So, rather than doing the adult thing and coming to grips with the fact that most people think differently than them, they throw a tantrum and demand that everyone else conform to their idea of how things ought to be.

In this context doing something like saying "Merry Christmas" or putting up a Christmas tree to "tick off the ACLU" makes perfect sense. There is a legend that when the Germans occupied Denmark during WWII they ordered the Danish Jews to wear the yellow star. The story goes on to say that King Christian X then put on a yellow star and explained that since all Danes were equal what was done to one was done to all. Other gentile Danes were then said to have sewed the yellow star onto their cloths as well. So many that it became useless as a way of setting Jews apart. The Nazis were then said to have recended the order. In like manner we can say NO to the tyrants of our age. Say "Merry Christmas" and put up a tree. Buy your tree from a store which identifies them as "Christmas Trees" rather than "Holliday Trees". The Bible promises us that if we resist the Devil he will flee from us. I seriously doubt that the ACLU has more courage than Satan.

A Correction

When I quoted Mother Calhoon yesterday she wasn't too pleased with the way I phrased it. It seems that it was a bit too "past tense" for her tastes. So by way of clarification Mother Calhoon wants everyone to know that she still says that a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while and she intends to go on saying it for many years to come.

Also, I should have pointed out that Mr. Boyd was the 1000th execution since the Supreme Court pulled its head out of its neathers and admitted that it had royally screwed the pooch (that's technical legal jargon) by ruling that capital punishment was unconstitutional.

Serenity News!

In an interview with MoviesOnline Joss Whedon discuses Serenity and says that the DVD sales will play a big part in whether there is a future for the franchise.

And brollywood.net has a rumor, which they stress is a bit of industry gossip only, that there will be a Serenity MOW on the Sci-Fi channel. Apparently Universal doesn't think that Serenity's box office take was enough to justify another theatrical release, however it was good enough to make for a very successful cable MOW.

All this depends upon the DVD sales. They are moving along well, the pre-order is #30 on amazon.com's DVD chart right now, but the better it does the greater the chances of more Serenity. If you have any interest in seeing the franchise continue then click the box to the left and order a DVD or two or three. They will make great gifts.

NC Gets One Right

North Carolina's current state government is pretty vile, but like Mother Calhoon used to say, even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. Kenneth Lee Boyd was put to death in the North Carolina state prison this morning. Mr. Boyd Murdered his estranged wife and her father back in 1988. An article about the execution can be found at here. Here is an excerpt:

Boyd, 57, did not deny that he shot and killed Julie Curry Boyd, 36, and her father, 57-year-old Thomas Dillard Curry. Family members said Boyd stalked his estranged wife after they separated following 13 stormy years of marriage and once sent a son to her house with a bullet and a threatening note.

During the 1988 slayings, Boyd's son Christopher was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd unloaded a .357-caliber Magnum into her. The boy pushed his way under a bed to escape the barrage. Another son grabbed the pistol while Boyd tried to reload.

Kenneth Smith, Boyd's son from a previous marriage had this to say, "He made one mistake and now it's costing him his life". Would Mr. Smith feel the same way if he had been the son trapped under his dead mother's body?

The Finest Restaurants in the Nation

Are in New Orleans and most of them were hit hard by Katrina.

There's a piece in LA Times about how many of the restaurants in New Orleans are finding it hard to repair and reopen after Katrina. The article focuses on the restaurants of the Brennan family, especially Brennan's and Commander's Palace. The Brennan's definitely plan to reopen, but they suffered extensive damage. Coolers and freezers lost power and the food rotted in the gulf coast heat. In Brennan's their 36000 bottle wine cellar may be have to be completely written off.

There is good news, however. The Court of Two Sisters (one of my favorites) reopened on Nov. 29th. Pat O'Brien's is also open and Cafe du Monde's website says that they were opening again on Oct. 19th. Embers Steak House reports that they had little damage and reopened in Oct as well.

More on Tookie

Kim du Toit has a link to a post by from the grandstand on his new blog. He recommends it as the best essay he's ever read on the topic of the death penalty, redemption and reformation. Here is the link to the grandstand post. I tend to agree.

Tookie may be redeemed. He may have placed his trust in the Lord Jesus for forgiveness from his sins and a place in heaven may, in fact, be waiting for him. However, this is irrelevant to the issue of whether he should be put to death for his crimes. All that matters to the issue of his execution is his guilt and whether what he did merits death. He is guilty and if multiple cold blooded murders are not worthy of the death penalty then nothing is.

Kim du Toit

For those of you who may not know it yet veteran blogger, gun nut and all round voice of sanity Kim du Toit is back with a new blog. He says that he's going to be a kinder and gentler Kim this time around (good luck with that). Go over and check his new site out.

Ann's Latest

Ann Coulter's latest is up at her website. Go take a look. Here's a sample:

I don't know what Republicans imagine they're getting out of all this love they keep throwing at Democrats. I've never heard a single liberal preface attacks on Oliver North with a recitation of North's magnificent service as a Marine. And unlike Murtha, who refuses to release his medical records showing he was entitled to his two Purple Hearts, we know what North did. (These Democrat military veterans are hardly shrinking violets when it comes to citing their medals, but they get awfully squeamish when pressed for details.)

Tookie Williams RIP (we hope)

FrontPageMag has an excellent piece by Ben Johnson today called Let Tookie Williams Die. Here's the first paragraph:

TOOKIE WILLIAMS WROTE JUVENILE LITERATURE SO INSPIRING, IT’S A PITY HIS VICTIMS NEVER GOT TO READ IT TO THEIR CHILDREN. Last night, the California State Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution to convicted murderer and co-founder of the deadly street gang the Crips, Stanley “Tookie” Williams Sr. Short of a governor’s pardon, Tookie will (finally) die by lethal injection in San Quentin on December 13 for the brutal murder of four people in 1979. A group of Hollywood’s limousine “liberals,” radical leftists, and Farrakhanites now urge Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (whom they otherwise despise) to grant clemency – and he has granted them a private hearing next week to discuss the matter. We wish he’d instead offer them front row seats to the blessed event.

Arnold is a poor politician who has just had his head handed to him with the defeat of the four referenda which he was pushing (all of them good ideas, BTY). He likes being governor and wants to be reelected. He knows that caving in to the Hollywood Left [spit] would buy him a few days of good press. Readers in CA would do well to call the governor's mansion and remind Arnold that letting a vicious murdering scumbag savage like Tookie go on drawing breath while his victims lie in their graves and their families continue to grieve would not help him with the folks who's support he needs, the average voter.