Justice Samuel Alito

Sam Alito was confirmed in his appoint to the Supreme Court by a vote of the full Senate this morning.

To the moonbats of the left who opposed him I have this to say. Have the courage of your convictions. The ONLY way for you to properly show your rage at what has been done to you is to soak yourself with gasoline and strike a match. Do this in public and the whole world will know just what kind of person you are!

To the Republicans on the right who tried to have a cow over the principled opposition to Harriet Miers (a good person, but unqualified to be a SCOTUS justice) I have this to say. Aren't you ashamed of yourself now? To the guy at Little Green Lizards or Big Footballs or whatever it was who was predicting the end of the Republican Party if we all didn't get behind Miers and push don't you just want to withdraw from the public eye and hope nobody remembers what a fool you made of yourself? And the same goes for Hugh Hewitt and Instapunk and all the others. The next time Bush gets a Supreme Court pick don't shoot off your gob. You'll just look even more stupid.

24

Jack Bauer didn't kill anybody last night.

However he did threaten to cut the President's chief of staff's eyes out. That's something at least.

Oscars

I just heard the list of this year's Oscar nominations. As expected Ang Lee's valentine to the gay movement Brokeback Mountain has a basket full of nominations. Anti-Israel screed Munich edged out Walk The Line and Serenity, Nathion Fillion, Summer Glau and Joss Whedon were ignored. Narnia and the latest Harry Potter were also shut out (unless they got a nomination in a technical category).

Hollywood's love affair with movies which throw mud on things such as faith, family, patriotism and courage (unless it is the courage of some kind of left-wing activist) continues. It doesn't matter that the only real money which is coming into Hollywood is from the kind of movie which the academy routinely ignores. All that counts is that the Hollywood left gets to hold its party and pat itself on the back.

Keep it up guys. If box office receipts continue to fall pretty soon you'll be paying people to go the movies.

The Moonbat Reaction

Decision '08 lists the top five krazykoskids posts in response to the failure of the Democratic filibuster on the Alito confirmation vote. Number 2 is my favorite:

Number Two (this is a goodie): What do we do? How about taking a page from Ariel Sharon’s book and starting our OWN party….maybe we can recruit Howard Dean to be our leader. Clearly Dean is like a salmon swimming upstream with the likes of the corporate-owned DLC running smear campaigns against his efforts as DNC chair….maybe he’s just as sick of it…? I don’t know about you, but I’m crying in my beer right now….and I would love nothing more than to have a leader who listens to me. If Dean took the courageous step to start a legitimate 3rd party, I’d be there in a heartbeat…and I’d go pert-near bankrupt supporting him. Fu** the DLC and these DINOs. I’m tired of it. And I’m heartbroken. I worked so hard, and got so many friends and family to take a leap of faith and do what I’d asked, only to be SH*T on. Now all I’m getting from all of them is “Well, I told you so…” I AVE 2 DAUGHTERS UNDER 5 YEARS OLD. WHAT WILL BECOME OF THEIR FUTURE NOW???????

As to this moonbat's idea of all the fringe nut balls in the Democrat Party going the third party route all I have to say is. Please oh please do. Can I help? If not that do you need a few bucks to help you move to Canada?

Saturday Night

I got to Jack of the Wood at around 7:30, a full two hours before Enter the Haggis was to take the stage. I wanted to grab a small table and have one of Jack's excellent bacon cheeseburgers and hold on to the table for at least the band's first set.

I will pause here to let those of you who are familiar with how things are at Jack of the Wood on a weekend night when a good act is appearing to laugh yourselves sick.

Of course when I got there every flat surface which could receive a human ass was already occupied and groups of people circling like vultures around any table who's occupants looked like they might be finishing their dinner sometime in the next 20 minutes or so. Back in the reading room, you know the little alcove with the couches and newspapers from Ireland and England, a family was having dinner with the teenage kids sitting on the floor. People were even eating on the bench by the dart boards. Some people were even walking around with plates in their hands. So dinner at Jack's was out. Not a problem; beer is very nourishing.

I made my way to the bar and got a chocolate stout as they were out of the cask porter and went outside to drink it. On the benches out front there was a guy talking on his cell phone. His conversation went on the whole time I was out there drinking. I went back inside and used the men's room then watched some people throw darts. At about this time cell phone guy brushes past me and goes into the men's room, still talking on the phone. A few minutes later he comes out, still talking. It has now been about 35 minutes since I first saw him, already talking on that thing. He goes and sits down and talks for another 20 minutes or so. I guess he got his phone from the same place as Jack Bauer. I hope that the atomic battery wasn't leaking gamma radiation.

Since I wanted to put some food on my stomach so that I wouldn't get drunk I walked down the street to a restaurant and had some food. There are restaurants every few feet in downtown Asheville.

Back at Jack's it was finally time for the band to start. Enter the Haggis is very good. High energy Celtic/Rock fusion built around bagpipes (as all good music is). Two sets and I was ready for home and bed.

Bad News

I will not be live blogging the president's speech.

I will give you my opinion afterwards.

Tonight

I'm getting ready to head to Jack of the Wood to see Enter The Haggis. I'll let you know how it went tomorrow.

Not Surprised

I've been seeing newspaper headlines the past couple of days calling the results of the elections in Gaza things like "a political earthquake" and an "enormous surprise" which is "shaking the region". This is a load of crap. The results are not surprising and may be very good news. What happened was that murdering terrorist organization Hamas unseated murdering terrorist organization Fatah. The only difference between these murdering terrorist organizations is that Fatah was willing to lie in the English language press and pretend to be committed to the "peace process" with Israel.

Our own Dear Leader took time out from packing his rectum with Vaseline in preparation for his next date with Vicente Fox to reassure us that the Palestinian people want "peace". I agree with him. It's just that the Palestinian definition of "peace" is, "that condition which will come about after the last filthy Jew has been shot through the head and kicked into a mass grave".

The truth (and the reason why the Hamas victory may be good news) is that the Palestinian people do not want "peace". What they as a people want is the destruction of Israel and the murder of the Jewish people. They have gone to the polls and voted for this. No longer can the Palestinian leaders and their sycophants in the West (like al-Reuters, al-CNN, al-AP, al-BBC, al-CBS, the al-Democrat Party and so on) claim that the terrorism directed against Jews is the work of a group of fringe lunatics and not representative of the Palestinian people as a whole.

The Palestinian people have installed a government whose stated policy is the destruction of Israel through the tactic of violent terrorism. This should finally drive a stake through the heart of the sham "peace process" and free Israel up to do what must be done to secure real peace in the region. What "must be done"? Israel must recognize that it is in a war and act accordingly. The way you gain peace when you're involved in a war is to defeat the enemy. You fight them until they realize that they can't win and give up. It is just that simple.

The true nature of the Palestinian people was clear to anyone with an IQ in the double-digits when they took to the streets in mass to dance with glee after Sept. 11. Their decision to turn over their government to Hamas makes it that much harder to pretend otherwise.

Range Report

Today's trip to the range was mostly uneventful. I shot my Browning P-35 (Hi-Power). It will be ready to send to the gunsmith after just one or two more shooting sessions. My marksmanship continues to improve. It is surprising how much better I shoot at the end of a range session that at the beginning. Constant practice is the way to go. I continue to shoot bullseye targets at 20 to 25 yards and keep everything in the black. I also continue to be amazed at those people who shoot at full sized silhouette targets at seven yards and get groups that you couldn't cover with a serving platter.

What do people think that they're doing? Anything that you can hit at 25 yards you can hit at 7, but the reverse is not true. 7 yard shooting is valuable only for speed drills where you are drawing and scoring center mass hits against a clock.

Another thing I noticed on the range was an example of really stupid behavior. This group of people was shooting a few lanes down from me. One of their cell phones rings and this idiot takes his ear muffs off to answer it right on the firing line. I was the only person in the range other than this guy and his friends so I held my fire along with them. Because of my electronic ear protectors I was able to hear both sides of his conversation so I got to hear him tell his son what a moron he was because he washed the family pickup truck first (instead of the car). I started shooting again when he got off the phone, but I noticed that the whole group would take off their muffs and talk to each other. I just went on shooting. If they didn't care about their hearing why should I have?

Karen Matheson OBE

Karen Matheson has been awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire, a knighthood) for her service to Celtic music. Here is a portion of her statement.

"I felt so elated and proud. Proud for the band, for Donald, for gaelic culture, and for celtic music as a whole to be recognised in this way. To have been even a small part of this vibrant, exciting time in Celtic music, to have travelled the globe with it, to have met such wholly awesome musicians and to have had such a BALL! I feel lucky, priveledged and indeed humbled, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support, encouragement, enthusiasm and energy over the last 22 years. It is thanks to you all that we can continue our journey and honour what is the at the root of all this - A DAMN FINE TRADITION!!

God bless ya!

pogan mor, Karen"

This is especially interesting considering that in times past a Highlander like Karen who wrote and preformed a song like Waiting for the Wheel to Turn could have expected a trip to the Tower rather than a knighthood.

Congratulations Dame Karen it couldn’t have been given to a more deserving person.

Just call me Sisko

I guess I can live with this.

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 100% SG-1 (Stargate) 94% Serenity (Firefly) 88% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 81% Moya (Farscape) 75% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 75% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 69% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 69% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 63% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 56% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 50% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 38% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Invasion

No this isn't a post about tonight's episode of ABC's sci-fi drama. Rather it about this, via the Washington Times:

U.S. law-enforcement authorities confronted several men in Mexican military uniforms and a camouflaged Humvee with .50-caliber machine guns who had crossed into Texas with suspected drug smugglers 50 miles southeast of El Paso, forcing an armed standoff along the Rio Grande, says a Texas sheriff.

For one nation to send its military forces across the border into another nation without permission is an act of war. Even if no actual damage is done by the invading army it is still an act of war.

Hudspeth County, Texas, Sheriff Arvin West said the incident began at 2:19 p.m. Monday when his deputies -- working as part of an anti-drug smuggling enforcement initiative known as "Operation Linebacker" -- pursued three SUVs spotted driving north from a border area along the Rio Grande near Interstate 10. . . As the southbound chase continued for the other two SUVs, he said the deputies and at least two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who had joined in the pursuit encountered several men on the U.S. side of the border dressed in what he described as battle dress uniforms (BDUs). He said they "appeared to be soldiers, in a Humvee vehicle with what appeared to the officers as being .50-caliber machine guns."

Clearly our law enforcement personnel (state and federal) in the border regions are out gunned by regular army forces with heavy machine guns. What is needed is both a radical upgrading of our Border Patrol manpower and equipment and the stationing of US military forces in the areas which are likely to see this kind of Mexican army incursion. There are no legal issues here regarding the use of military assets. Protecting our home soil from foreign military invasion is the first duty of our armed forces.

What is the response of our government?

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff dismissed reports of possible Mexican military incursions into the United States as "overblown" and "scare tactics." He said those involved in the crossings may have been dressed in military uniforms, "but they are just criminals, they are not military but they are wearing camouflage so someone may assume they are military." Mr. Chertoff also said a significant number of 216 confirmed incursions since 1996 were "innocent," noting that police and military units in Mexico pursuing criminals "may step across the border because they do not know exactly where the line is."

Mr. Chertoff, the border is clearly defined. It is this thing called the Rio Grande. You know that big river that you have to wade across to get from Mexico to the USA.

When a foreign army invades US territory for the purpose of aiding smugglers of drugs or illegal aliens our own military must meet them and destroy them utterly. It must do this even if it means pursuing them back into Mexican territory and destroying them on Mexican soil.

Anheuser Busch

Check this out. Budweiser isn't much of a beer, taste wise, but Anheuser Busch is one of the best corporate citizens out there.

Reading that reminded me of something that happened in 1986. I was in Washington DC for the July 4th holiday. I stopped to watch one of the many parades moving down DC streets. As I watched the high school marching bands and other assorted groups march by each got polite applause from the crowd. Then I heard wild applause and cheering from down the street. As the clapping and cheering got closer I finally saw what people were reacting to. It was Vietnam veterans that people were cheering. I swear I almost lost it right there. It had taken over 10 years but they were finally getting what they deserved the day they got off the plane from that hell hole.

Thank God that the average American is giving the Iraq veterans the respect and gratitude that they deserve. All except for the lunatic fringe Michael Moore-Daily Kos-Howard Dean left (otherwise known as the Democrat Party base) that is.

And for you active duty and vets who may have your feelings hurt by being disrespected by this trash - don't let it get you down. You are simply being given the chance to serve your country again. This time by letting the Party of Treason prove just how out of the mainstream that they are. Every time they insult you they drive another nail into their own coffin.

Revel in their insults for they only damn themselves.

Surface

Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane, but not stupid) found out from DNA Mad Scientist that the sea monsters were manmade. They have dedicated themselves to finding out the identity of the mysterious corporation that is behind it all. The Operative found out the fact that DNA Mad Scientist broke security and closed out her health record. Jethro's wife is divorcing him.

In a moment of temporary sanity Opie realized that the creatures were dangerous and placed a radio tag on Nimrod so that he could lead the authorities to the school. This worked, but when the posse tried to shoot the little Nimrods they got a nasty surprise. It seems that it isn't a good idea to shoot at an animal that heals itself instantly. The Nimrods attacked the people and much carnage ensued. Opie sensed what was going on through his telepathic link with the creatures and went to the scene and stopped the bloodshed. He then led the Nimrods off into the water. So he seems to have become the Nimrod messiah.

Only two episodes left and we are promised that all the questions will be answered.

24

Jack Bauer didn't kill anyone with his cell phone tonight. He did kill someone with a small pair of scissors, or maybe they were forceps. It was hard to tell.

Battlestar Galactica

Apparently the Vipers are armed with .50 BMG.

Tomorrow

A trip to the indoor range followed by lunch at Jack Of The Wood. Lunch will be accompanied by one or two glasses of their excellent brown ale or chocolate stout.

Sometimes life is good.

Capercaillie

There are few pleasures greater than listening to Capercaillie. They are almost single handedly responsible for the renewed interest in Celtic music in the world today. It may be a stretch, but not that much of one, to say that they did the groundwork for Riverdance.

My three favorite CD's are Delrium, Beautiful Wasteland and Secret People. The last is a play on the fact that "celtoi" is the ancient Celtic word for the doctrine of secrecy which the Druids held. This led them to pass on all their knowledge orally rather than writing it down. This caused the Romans to refer to them as "Celts". The name of the sadly defunct Texas Celtic band Clandestine is also a reference to this.

BTY, if anyone is interested Clandestine CD's are still available from EJ Jones' website.

Oil

Rush Limbaugh is fond of saying that oil is the fuel which powers the engine of freedom. It would be more accurate to say that oil is that which powers the engine of global civilization. Like it or not it is a vital natural resource and there is not enough of it currently being pumped to go around. This is especially true with two billion Chinese and Indians clamoring for their share of the world supply.

However much anyone may not like to hear this oil is worth blood. It is worth both shedding and spilling blood for. Alternative fuels are a partial answer right now. We should not be using one ounce of petroleum to generate electricity when we have the technology to make nuclear and coal both clean and safe.

Motor fuel is another matter. I used to think that alcohol was the answer. After all it could power automobiles with more MPG and less pollution. Then I learned that there isn't enough farmland in North America to grow the corn needed to make the fuel to run America's cars. This does not even address the need for heating oil, natural gas and all the other things we use petrochemicals for.

Face it. For the forseeable future the world is going to be addicted to oil. It should be drilled for wherever it can be found. The technology exists to make this clean and safe, both off shore and on land.

Nature photo

I came home from chruch one Sunday morning about 5 years ago and found this rabid fox in my front yard.

Let them blow your mind.

The fruity oaty bar commercial from Serenity can be downloaded here.

Some more 24

Blogs For Bauer, check it out.

Jack Bauer vs. The Operative, part II

It occurs to me that the title of the previous "Jack Bauer vs The Operative" post could lead you to think that the post was about who would win in a fight. The answer is obvious, Jack Bauer. The Operative's weapon of choice is the sword. Jack Bauer's weapon of choice is the most lethal thing that he can get his hands on at the time. Usually that is the handgun he is carrying at the time. Yes The Operative wears "full body armor", but Jack has no problem with head shots.

Another thought on 24

Where is the disclaimer informing us that people from former Soviet republics attempting to break away from the new Russian federation by embracing the tactic of violent terrorism are not all terrorists? I mean last season we got a disclaimer telling us that not all Muslems in America were members of terrorists sleeper cells, didn't we?

I'm just asking.

What's a Hollywood moonbat to do?

Mat Drudge is reporting that Steven Spielberg is upset that executives at Universal are promoting Brokeback Mountain at the expense of Munich.

The enthusiastic backing of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN by UNIVERSAL chief Stacey Snider has come at the expense of MUNICH, a top source involved with the Steven Spielberg drama tells the DRUDGE REPORT. "Stacey and her team believe BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is their winner this year," claims a well-placed insider. "The movie has been spoiled, spoiled and spoiled again, with endless promotion and support. MUNICH, on the other hand, has been horribly neglected. Steven has been thrown in the backseat. It has been painful."

This must present a near fatal moral conflict for Hollywood elites. On the one hand Brokeback Mountain is a homosexual love story presented in such a way as to make it seem mainstream. The holy grail of the homosexual movement in this country has been to move from tolerance to acceptance and ultimately to endorsement by the greater culture. The hype surrounding the movie obscures the fact that the number of people who have actually bothered to go and see the picture in the entire time it has been in release is less than half the number that went to see Narnia on its opening weekend.

On the other hand Munich makes the case for moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists. An attack by the PLO and the response by the Mosad are simply two sides of the coin both equally damaging to any hope for peace in the region. This pleases the left on so many different levels. They get to have a politically correct cover for anti- Semitism. They get to bash the only Western style democracy in the Middle East. They get to make a veiled statement about America's own war against terror.

I suppose that in the end it comes down to two things. One, there are more homosexuals than Islamofascists working in Hollywood. Two, Munich has been a major money loser, so far bringing in less than half of what it cost to make, while Brokeback has so far made more than twice what it cost to produce. All else being equal always follow the money.

To end on a hopeful note we should remember that in spite of all the hype, all the media attention paid to both movies, all the hopes pinned on both of them by enemies (internal and external) of this nation, neither has managed to draw as many theatergoers as mega-flop Doom.

Jack Bauer vs. The Operative

I was going to put up a post asking this question. What, if any, is the difference between Jack Bauer and The Operative. Both of them believe utterly in what they are doing. Both of them are willing to commit murder in the furtherance of their goals. Both of them are willing to die in the service of their governments.

Then I watched tonight's block of episodes. The Operative wouldn't have given himself up to save his girlfriend's son. The Operative wouldn't have even have had a girlfriend. A girlfriend would be a distraction. Jack Bauer isn't trying to "build a world without sin", he is just trying to save lives. Jack wouldn't murder children, or anyone else, to cover up a government crime.

But, on the other hand, The Operative isn't a sociopath. When he saw the secret that he had been sent to protect and realized its implications he switched sides. This is something I'm going to have to chew on for a spell.

24

The season premier of 24 did not let me down. It takes courage for the producers of a popular series to kill off a popular character. They killed off three (well, two for sure and the third isn't looking too good).

President Logan, as we learned last season, is an idiot and weakling. His wife is insane and one of his closest aids is a traitor. Jack is on the run, having been set up to take the fall for murdering former president Palmer. Michelle is dead and Tony is likely dying. Terrorists are holding an airport full of people (including Jack's girlfriend's son) hostage in order to disrupt an arms control agreement between the USA and Russia. Chloe finally got laid (by a colleague at the CTU who may be a traitor) and she is under arrest for aiding Jack in getting away from the FBI.

In other words everything is pretty much normal in the universe of Jack Bauer.

Lemuel's pick of the day

Eye on the UN is a joint project of the Hudson Institute and the Touro Law Center. Editor Anne Bayefsky provides a one-stop for the latest information about the at best useless and at worst evil organization that sits like a cancerous tumor on Turtle Bay.

Sen. Rockefeller place your hand on the Bible and repeat after me. . .

Some Washington insiders believe that the source of the leak regarding NSA operations to the New York Times was Senator John D Rockefeller. Macsmind is calling on Sen. Rockefeller to testify under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee when they hold hearings on the subject in February.

More bigotry from the left

As a Hillbilly I resent this.

Flu Season?

The US government has a new website up dealing with a possible outbreak of pandemic flu and avian influenza. The site, called Pandemicflu.gov, is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, but I hear that it was designed by the Department of Homeland Security for them. There are several pages aimed at different kinds of users, Federal Government, State and Local Governments, Individuals and Families, Schools and so on. The page for individuals and families discusses several topics such as: Social Disruption May Be Widespread; Being Able to Work May Be Difficult or Impossible; Schools May Be Closed for an Extended Period of Time.

It is good that the government is making plans before an epidemic or pandemic breaks out, but given their usual policy of "talk much - do little or nothing until its too late - then go into CYA mode and blame everybody else" I have to wonder if they don't know something specific. I mean we keep hearing from all the "voices of reason" that another flu pandemic like the one in 1918 (that killed more people than WWI) can't happen again. Then Homeland Security puts up a website called "Pandemicflu" and gets HHS to front it.

You gotta wonder. . .

Quote of the day

Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters has the quote of the day. Commenting on the Alito hearings he says about Ted Kennedy, "Kennedy remains in his usual bloviating status, full of sound and fury signifying dementia."

Serenity News

I ran across some people saying good things about Serenity out in cyberspace. One in in the Billings Outpost here. Viewers of Britain's Channel 4 voted the BDM the 3rd best movie of 2005 here.

It is a great mystery to me why this film didn't do much better at the box office. Just about everybody that I know who actually watches the movie or the TV series loves it. It is just damn hard to get people to watch.

Is Joss Whedon cursed? Did he piss off some powerful witch or sorcerer?

Range Day

I went to Rex's Indoor Range in Hendersonville this morning. Shooting in an indoor range is good training for people who carry for self defense. The only way to become accustomed to keeping focused on your front sight while other people are shooting just a few feet from you (a situation that is common in gunfights) is to shoot while other people are shooting just a few feet from you. This morning's training session was very good for that. There was a man in the next lane shooting a Benelli 12 ga. and the next two lanes had women shooting AR-15's (few things are sexier than a woman with an assault rifle). There was even a guy teaching his wife to shoot a 9mm SMG (a full auto weapon, my liberal readers just pissed themselves).

I took my Glock 23 (.40 S&W) and my Colt Combat Commander (38 Super Auto) and my Browning Hi-Power (9mm). Since I hadn't been shooting since Nov. I was a bit rusty. I shot the .40 first because it has the heaviest recoil. After about half a box of ammo I was keeping everything in the black at 15 yards so I moved the target out to 20. I was still in the black although the shots tended to hit a little high and to the left. Next was the .38 Super. I didn't shoot this as well. The gun has a satin nickel finish and the microscopic front sight that used to be standard on all Colt autos except the Gold Cup. I just couldn't see the damn thing. When I put it on the target it would just disappear so I had to guess where it was. Still most of the shots went into the black at 15 yards. Finally the 9mm. I saved it for last because it has the lightest recoil. I shot at 15 and 20 yards and when I was finished with 50 rounds the X and 10 rings were gone.

That Hi-Power is my favorite pistol. The main reason that I don't carry it is because the safety on those old P-35's is very stiff and only held in position by friction. I've had them work off in the holster and that can be dangerous. When I send it out to the Cylinder and Slide Shop for a feedway job and new sights I'm going to have them put on one of their safeties. Another reason I don't carry the Hi-Power is that it will only feed ball ammo reliably. Ball ammo is not a good stopper even in .45; in 9mm it is delivers one shot stops only a little more than 50% of the time. To make it a viable defense pistol you must use hollow points.

I need to go to the range more often. Shooting is a discipline which must be reinforced by regular practice. It takes surprisingly little time for hard-learned skill to be lost. Having once learned to shoot you can recover skills after a little range time, but the armed home-invader or car jacker will not wait while you practice. If you carry a gun or keep one in your home or business get your buttocks to the range on a regular basis.

Your Papers Please. . .

I heard today that the Department of Homeland Security has hired the former director of the KGB to develop an internal passport system for the United States. I found a number of references to this on the web, however the websites that are discussing it are not ones that I would consider 100% reliable. I have a source who tells me that he read about this in an official government publication. I will run this down with him and try to post a link that I can be confidant wont take you to some kind of tinfoil hat website.

If this is true the American public will not accept it. At least not without another major terrorist attack on US soil. We will not voluntarily lay down for a system that requires us to show our "papers" before crossing a state (or even county) line.


UPDATE:
I spoke with the person who tipped me to this story. He read about it in a publication distributed in the Department of Homeland Security which summarizes news stories about DHS. It does not confirm or deny them. The original source was an opinion piece in the Burlington Free Press. I nosed around their website and didn't see any blueprints for constructing a tinfoil hat or ads for anal microchip detectors so I would say that they were as credible as any other mainstream daily newspaper.

China!

Red China has 700 billion dollars of US currency which it is sitting on. Libertarian economists tell us that this is no threat to the American economy because this currency reserve is an asset which is paying a good return for the Chinese. I think that this is BS. China has invested 7/10 of a trillion dollars in a weapon which could cripple the US economy if (and when) they decide to pull the trigger on it by dumping it on the world market.

This situation has been described as "China's foot on America's throat". Make no mistake about it when you couple China's US currency reserves with their military's focus on cyber warfare a very bleak picture emerges. China has co-opted Japan's dream of a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and is taking concrete steps to bring it about. A complete or even partial collapse of the US economy timed to coincide with an invasion of Taiwan looks more and more like a "when" scenario rather than an "if" scenario.

Surface!

Monday night saw the return of NBC's Surface and before I post my summary I want to address something that I'm getting a ton of email about. My ragging on Surface is not the reason that the show was canceled.

Instead of going scene by scene I'll summarize each of the major arcs separately. First Opie and Nim. When we left them last Opie had been healed by Nimrod's sea-monster healing powers and Nimrod had been gunned down by a cop and was being dissected by the marine biologist (known as "The Professor"). As the episode opens Opie is paying one last visit to Nimrod at the aquarium when Nimrod comes back to life (sea-monster healing powers). Opie wants to take Nim back to the ocean and let him go, but The Professor convinces him that Nim would be safer at the aquarium where he could be cared for and studied. Opie agrees but soon begins to regret his decision. The Professor keeps pushing Opie away and finally bars him from the room when Nimrod is being experimented upon. Opie wanders into the aquarium's gift shop and meets Slutty Surfer Chick (SSC) who recognizes Opie from the news and gets moist thinking about how he stole a car and all. Opie and SSC go for a walk down by the beach and she offers to teach him to surf. He says no. Later that night she drops by his house on her scooter and tells him that she swiped the keys to the aquarium and offers to take him to pay a visit to Nim. At the aquarium, while changing into her swim suit, she tries to get Opie to look at her naked, but he wont. They go into the big tank and swim with Nim but get busted by The Professor. The Professor tells the kids that the tank will have to be decontaminated because they were in it (BS, divers go into those big tanks every day) and that Opie is not to come back to the aquarium any more. SSC takes Opie home and he seems pissed at her for getting him in trouble, again, and banned from the aquarium. Now in the real world Nimrod is an animal who's species is not on any list of endangered or protected species. This makes him Opie's property and Opie's lawyer dad could get him returned to Opie's custody in about two seconds. This will not happen because it has been well established that both Opie's parents are clueless yuppie idiots.

Now for Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane). When we saw them last they were being pulled out of the water by a rescue helicopter. We first see them this episode being taken into the hospital where Girl Genius is very careful to hold onto the video tape of the creatures spawning. We next see The Operative being informed of their location and dispatching his agents to collect them. Girl Genius sees the agents and realizes that they have to run. She finds Jethro (who is insane) and they escape from the hospital in stolen scrubs with a stolen cell phone and a stolen ATM card. Girl Genius tries to call her son (who is with her ex husband) but Jethro stops her on the grounds that his phone is certainly being tapped (insane, but not stupid). While Jethro is using the stolen ATM card to get cash Girl Genius call her ex anyway and the call is intercepted by The Operative. Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane) go to a computer store and have their video transferred to a bunch of DVD's and have it uploaded onto the internet. Girl Genius then calls her friend who is a reporter for a local TV station and sets up an interview. At the interview Girl Genius tells Jethro (who is insane) that she wants to go on camera alone because Jethro, being insane, will hurt their credibility by talking about how his dead brother speaks to him and guides him and such. Jethro (who is insane) is hurt, but agrees. The interview seems to go well, but when it is aired she is made to look like a crackpot. As Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane) are back at the hotel raiding the mini-bar (the TV station is picking up the tab) and getting drunk Jethro (who is insane) notices that the video that they posted on the MSNBC website has been downloaded more than 60,000 times and counting. On this hopeful note we leave.

Another news failure

The miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine have been found. All but one of them is dead. Our hearts and prayers go out to the survivor and the families of the dead. As the causes of the disaster are investigated lessons will be learned which will help prevent another disaster like this from happening. Whether the explosion was caused by a failure of the mine operators to follow every safety regulation or a failure of the regulations to take into account every possible hazard will become clear and the necessary actions will be taken.

Let us take this opportunity to examine another failure brought to light by this incident. The failure of the news media. When the mistaken report that all the miners had been found alive was communicated to the families the media, rather than getting confirmation, instantly splashed it all over the television screens of the nation. Just in the case of hurricane Katrina where media reports of cannibalism and widespread murder and rape in the Superdome proved to be untrue the urge to get something "big" on the air ASAP trumped common sense. The false report of surviving miners and the fantasy reports of the horrors of the Superdome ultimately harm nothing other than the media's already low credibility. However the false reports from New Orleans that the rescue helicopters were being fired upon caused them to be grounded for a time and probably did cost lives.

A big name in the MSM called the reporting on Katrina "the media's finest hour". As it turned out just about everything that was said by the media beyond "there is a hurricane, it is called Katrina, New Orleans is flooding" was false. Is it possible that no matter how many times these people are made to look like fools that they will still refuse to learn from their mistakes?

Oscar and his cousins

Back during the small debate about Brokeback Mountain I said that in an environment in which Michael Moore could win an Oscar awards were worth less than nothing. I wanted to take a little time to explain what I meant. First of all, I did not mean that the Oscar is always awarded to the actor, screenplay, director and so on that is the most anti-American and pro-left. In that case the Academy Award would not be useless. It would, instead, be a valuable tool for identifying worthless trash. Instead, the Oscar is awarded sometimes for valid artistic reasons and sometimes for politically correct reasons. For example the Academy finally awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar to Elia Kazan (one of the greatest directors ever to live) even though he had "named names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Blacklist era. Then they turned around and gave an Oscar to Michael Moore for a "documentary" who's every major (and almost every minor) point was a documented lie. Moore won that Oscar for one reason and one reason only; Bowling for Columbine was seen as effective gun control propaganda.

Look at the movies that are being listed as "serious contenders" for the Oscar this year. First, Brokeback Mountain. If this picture wasn't a homosexual love story it would no more be Oscar material than a hundred other pleasant, well made (but forgettable) chick flicks like Under the Tuscan Sun or Maid in Manhattan. Next Syriana, I have heard that his film is so confusing (meaning poorly written) that the studio is sending reviewers a flow chart to help them keep track of the plot twists. In short the movie claims that America (who in real life is spending its blood and treasure to bring democracy to the Middle East) and the oil companies are murdering pro-democracy Middle Easterners in an effort to keep the region "stable". Then there's Munich (see my post below). The movie which tells us that on a moral level that there is no difference between the terrorists who murder innocent athletes and the government operatives who are sent to administer justice to them.

What about Oscar's "cousins"? I'm not just talking about the Golden Globes, which are awarded by the foreign press (the same foreign press that greeted George W Bush's reelection with headlines asking how America could be so stupid). I'm also talking about other awards like the Nobel Peace Prize which was once awarded to arch fool Jimmy Carter then to mass murderer Yasser Arrafat (do I really need to say more). Also, the Nobel Prize for literature which was given to a hack (Harold Pinter) who, because he is dying, took what may be his last chance to address his public to deliver a hateful, ignorant anti-American screed.

The world's self appointed cultural and intellectual elites have an agenda which is hostile to the United States, its Christian religious heritage and its capitalist economic system. They have demonstrated that whenever they can use the awards and honors that are theirs to pass out to advance that agenda they will do so. We need to take their pronouncements with not just a grain, but an entire shaker full of salt. To bring things back around to Brokeback Mountain, it might well be a great movie, but no amount of critical acclaim or awards will prove it. Its very subject matter, its message, require acceptance, praise and reward regardless of its true artistic value.

Happy New Year!

We lived through another one!