John McCain is evil, part IV

Over at Power Line Paul Mirengoff writes the following:

. . .while I have tremendous respect for McCain the chances that I would vote for him in a Republican primary are poor. However, I certainly would expect to vote for him if he were the Republican nominee.

Mr. Mirengoff is filled up to the nose holes with smarts, but I have to differ with him on this one. A McCain presidency would do enormous damage to the Republican Party. It would be every bit as disastrous, if in a slightly different way, as a Lincoln Chaffee administration.

McCain is a political coward. Back home he talks like a conservative and in Washington he has his lips firmly planted on the backside of the leftist mainstream media. He routinely tailors his message to his audience; taking whatever position he needs to at the moment to pander to whoever he is speaking to. In this respect he is EXACTLY like Bill Clinton.

McCain is a political whore. He routinely stabs his fellow Republicans in the back in order to garner favor with the left-wing press. There is no Republican core position that he will not sell out to get face time on NBC or CNN.

McCain is a blood enemy of fundamentally important American freedoms. His campaign finance law gutted the First Amendment and his "F" rating from Gun Owners of America proves his hostility to the Second. John McCain has done more to harm American liberty than Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Osama bin Laden combined.

McCain is mentally unstable. Apparently his experiences as a POW left him psychically damaged and prone to outbursts of uncontrollable rage. This is not a fatal flaw in a senator, but could be tragic in a president.

It would be deeply immoral to vote for a Democrat in 2008 . There are other choices, however. Either the Constitution Party or the Libertarians would be acceptable protest votes. I know that would hand the White House to the Party of Treason but that is preferable to seeing the Republican Party shatter itself irreparably on the alter of "Anybody But Hillary".

At least somebody takes their borders seriously

Iran Focus:

Baghdad, Feb. 12 – Some 25 Iranians have been arrested in Iraq’s Diyala Province for illegally entering the country, the Iraqi border police announced on Sunday.The arrests have been made over the past week, Colonel Muhammad Nasser, chief of the Diyala border police, said.The United States and Iraqi officials have accused Iran’s radical Islamic government of sending agents and arms into Iraq to assist the insurgency.

It would seem that Iraq has a more serious border control policy than the United States. We are in the process of rebuilding and training their military and civil law enforcement and security services. The students have surpassed the teachers.

Funny, I don't remember stepping through a looking glass.

From the Washington Times:

A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the September 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism. The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved tomorrow. The British company is the fourth-largest ports company in the world,
and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia.

I'd like to share my opinion of this with you, but right now I got nothing. This is right up there with Israel's "lets give Gaza to the terrorists so that they can more effectively kill us" move. Has life grown so boring in the years since 9/11 that we need to try to encourage another one?

The ultimate death match

What would the true Mother of All Battles look like?

Bun Bun
vs.

Jack Bauer

Two undefeatable opponents. Both unstoppable and willing to do whatever it takes to win. The results of such a battle could shatter the laws of physics and eradicate the universe.

For a sample of what Bun Bun can do go here. For a sample of what Jack Bauer can do watch 24 on Fox 9:00 PM on Monday night.

The first white flag in the Cartoon War.

Mark Steyn from the Chicago Sun-Times via Real Clear Politics:

The European Union's Justice and Security Commissioner, Franco Frattini, said on Thursday that the EU would set up a "media code" to encourage "prudence" in the way they cover, ah, certain sensitive subjects. As Signor Frattini explained it to the Daily Telegraph, "The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are ware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression. . . . We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."

"Prudence"? "Self-regulate our free expression"? No, I'm afraid that's just giving the Muslim world the message: You've won, I surrender, please stop kicking me.

But they never do. Because, to use the Arabic proverb with which Robert Ferrigno opens his new novel, Prayers for the Assassin, set in an Islamic Republic of America, "A falling camel attracts many knives." In Denmark and France and the Netherlands and Britain, Islam senses the camel is falling and this is no time to stop knifing him.

The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. British Muslims march through the streets waving placards reading "BEHEAD THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM." If they mean that, bring it on. As my columnar confrere John O'Sullivan argued, we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last.

Tyrants NEVER see appeasement as anything but weakness. Hitler should have taught us that. A fight is coming. Where and when the battle will be fought is a decision that can be taken by us or by the savages. If we are smart enough to deserve to survive we will pick the battlefield.

More about the border

Via the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 - Mexican criminal syndicates are stepping up their attacks on American agents patrolling the border as officials of the Homeland Security Department intensify efforts to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs into the United States, American officials said this week.

In recent months, scores of Border Patrol agents have been fired upon or pelted with large stones as well as with cloth-covered stones that have been doused with flammable liquid and set ablaze. Since October, agents have been attacked in more than 190 cases, officials said on Thursday.

One of the pillars of a nation's sovereignty is its right and ability to control its borders. The article blames "criminal syndicates" for the violence, but does anyone with an IQ in the double digits doubt that the corrupt Mexican government is in this up to its armpits? It has become the vigorously promoted, if unofficial, policy of the Mexican government to export its surplus population to the United States. This serves the twin purposes of pumping billions of dollars into the Mexican economy as the illegals send money to family back in Mexico and reducing the pressure for genuine reforms of the dysfunctional Mexican political system.

The prospects for real change in the United States' border control policy seem slim given the current congress and the current president. The two political parties are in a life-or-death contest to secure the votes of the large Hispanic minority and business is reaping enormous savings in the cost of labor as wages are driven down by millions of illegal aliens willing to work for much less than native Americans.

Some observers, notably those with a libertarian bent, see the labor cost savings as a bonus for the US economy. After all the price of goods and services is held down and the US has low unemployment so Americans obviously aren't being driven out of work. This reasoning ignores the high cost illegal immigration imposes on taxpayers. State and local governments tax citizens to pay the cost of educating the children of illegals. Illegals tend to use hospital emergency rooms for primary care leaving bills that are never paid. This drives up the cost of healthcare as hospitals must recoup the lost revenue by charging more to their paying customers. This results in higher insurance premiums and the sometimes draconian cost cutting measures that have made "HMO" a swear word in some quarters. Taxpayers at the county and city level are also saddled with a growing bill for law enforcement as illegals clog court calendars and fill jails to overflowing.

As for the issue of which political party will benefit from the powerful Hispanic vote the answer is obviously going to be Democrats. Republicans seem to think that because a large number of Mexicans are religious and devoted to family that they represent a natural constituency. This ignores the fact that most Black Americans live their private lives as conservatives. The Black community is centered on the church and the greatest desire of most Black parents is to see a voucher program which will allow them to get their children out of the failing and downright dangerous public schools. Yet they continue to vote Democrat in the 90% range. The fact is that Republicans can never match the Santa Claus generosity (in spending other people's money) of the Democrats. The Republican "base" will not allow it.

What both political parties are missing is that the majority of Americans are fed up with illegal immigration. We are fed up with everything from bags of potato chips to our ATMs being labeled in Spanish as well as English. We are fed up roll call in our kid's schools sounding like the Tijuana telephone directory. We are fed up with going to the courthouse to pay our property tax and feeling like we've wandered into a casting call for a Zorro movie. We are fed up with paying higher taxes and insurance premiums (health and auto) and enduring higher crime rates and being told that cheap lettuce makes it all worthwhile.

In 2008 if a candidate, of either party, makes ending our policy of open borders the centerpiece of his/her campaign they could very well win with a substantial majority; a majority that could have the kind of coattails that change the character of the legislature (like Reagan in 1980).

John McCain is evil, part III

The latest issue of City Journal arrived a week ago and I am just getting around to reading it. The very first article I turn to provides a good reminder of just why I, and any right thinking American, should hate evil lunatic John McCain.

The rise of alternative media - political talk radio in the eighties, cable news in the nineties, and the blogosphere in the new millennium - has broken the liberal monopoly over news and opinion outlets. The Left understands acutely the implications of this revolution, blaming much of the Democratic Party's current
electoral trouble on the influence of the new media's vigorous conservative voices. Instead of fighting back with ideas, however, today's liberals quietly, relentlessly, and illiberally are working to smother this flourishing universe of political discourse under a tangle of campaign-finance and media regulations. Their campaign represents the most sustained attack on free political speech in the United States since the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. Though Republicans have the most to lose in the short run, all Americans who care about our most fundamental rights and the civic health of our democracy need to understand what's going on - and resist it.

We should not rest until McCain is driven out of American politics. Let him put a diaper on his head and go to Iran with the other censors.

Victor Davis Hanson nails it again.

Over at NRO VDH again says what needs to be said about the Danish cartoon affair. He reminds us that regression can happen just as easily as advancement.

The great wealth and leisure created by modern technology have confused some in the modern age into thinking that history is linear. We expect that each generation will inevitably improve upon the last, as if we, the blessed of the 21st century, would never chase out Anaxagoras or execute Socrates - or allow others to do so - in our modern polis.

. . . civilization can regress. Indeed, it can be nearly lost in a generation, especially so now, with technology acting as an afterburner of sorts which warps the rate of change, both good and bad.

The latest Islamic outrage over the Danish cartoons represents an erosion in the very notion of Western tolerance. Years ago, the death sentence handed down to Salman Rushdie was the dead canary in the mine. It should have warned us that the Western idea of free and unbridled expression, so difficultly won, can be so easily lost.

He identifies the nature of the Islamofascist enemies of civilization.

The radical Islamists are our generation's book burners who search for secular Galileos and Newtons. They are the new Nazi censors who sniff out anything favorable to the Jews. These fundamentalists are akin to the Soviet commissars who once decreed all art must serve political struggle — or else.

The Islamists are also sad bullies, who hunt out causes for offense in the most obscure places, but would recoil at the first sign of Western defiance. Turkey may say little to the Islamists now, but they would say lots if the European Union decided to pass on its inclusion into the union. Local imams sound fiery, but if the West is too debauched a place for any pure Muslim to endure, why then do they not lead, Moses-like, an exodus of the devout away from the rising flood of decadence, and back to the paradise of a purer Syria or Algeria?

He also correctly describes the Western enablers whose reaction to these savages is to grovel and appease.

While listening to the obfuscations of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw about the Danish cartoons, I thought that next he was going to call for a bowdlerization of Dante's Inferno, where Dante and Virgil in the eighth rung of Hell gaze on the mutilated specters of Mahomet and his son Ali, along with the other Sowers of Discord. I grew up reading the text with the gruesome illustrations of Gustave Doré. Can Straw now damn that artist's judgment as well, when the next imam threatens global jihad, more terrorism, an oil cut-off, or to make things worse for Anglo-American troops who are trying to bring democracy to Iraq?

Since Bill Clinton mentioned nothing about free speech and expression or the rights of a newspaper to be offensive and tasteless, but lectured only about cultural insensitivity and the responsibility of the media not to be mean to Muslims, why did he stop with the Danish cartoonists? Surely someone who has apologized for everyone from General Sherman to the Shah could have lamented the work of every Western artist, from Rodin to Dali, who has rendered the Prophet in a bad light.

In the post-Osama bin Laden and suicide-belt world of our own, we shudder at these fanatical riots, convincing ourselves that perhaps the Salman Rushdies, Theo Van Goghs, and Danish cartoonists of the world had it coming. All the while, we think to ourselves about the fact that we do not threaten to kill Muslims when they promulgate daily streams of hate and racism in sermons and papers, and much less would we go about promising death to the creator of "Piss Christ" or the Da Vinci Code. How ironic that we now find politically-correct Westerners — those who formerly claimed they would defend to the last the right of an Andres Serrano or Dan Brown to offend Christians — turning on the far milder artists who rile Muslims.

We are in a war for the survival of civilization that is just as urgent as the one that was waged in the 1940's. Will anyone other than the Queen of Denmark, the conservative blogosphere and Ann Coulter wake up and start fighting it?

Introduce yourself

I see that several people are visiting regularly. Why don't you leave a note introducing yourselves. As guests of a hillbilly you'll get to drink your likker from the best mason jar in the house and we might go out back later and do some shooting.

Battlestar Galactica

Here are some thoughts on tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Adama's fascination with Boomer, both living Boomer 2.0 and dead Boomer 1.0 is not a good sign. She told him that she would NOT ID other Cylons in the Fleet, meaning that her ultimate loyalty is still with the Cylons. Helo will probably find this out when she puts a bullet through his head, while telling him how much she loves him. Adama needs to toss her out the nearest airlock ASAP, and Helo with her.

Two terrorist organizations, Cylon infiltrators and a black market organization with all the warmth and charm of the Russian Mafia are all good arguments for strict martial law.

Helen Tigh is an idiot of cosmic dimensions, in addition to being a slut and a drunk. If every great man has a good woman standing behind him then every broken down drunk must have a Helen Tigh standing behind him.

Apollo seems to have used up his lifetime supply of luck just surviving the Cylon surprise attack.

Starbuck is a loose cannon. How could she think that the best known viper pilot in the Fleet, except maybe Apollo, wouldn't be recognized.

Dee is going to have her heart broken by Apollo. It's just that he doesn't love her. He loves Starbuck who loves him when she isn't thinking about the pyramid player she left on Caprica and screwing anything with a penis.

Apparently the president's religious visions and burning fanaticism have been left by the wayside.

What the frack is a "dark matter blind spot"? Dark matter is just mass in the universe that we think ought to be there that we can't detect not some kind of cosmic pixie dust with magic powers scattered around space.

Is the Fleet heading toward that nebula that will supposedly point the way to Earth?

John McCain is evil, part II

I promised I'd get back to you about John McCain being evil.

This from Gun Owners of America:

Sen. John McCain is at it again.

The senior senator from Arizona has worked hard to earn an F-rating from Gun Owners of America. Once a presidential contender, Sen. McCain became the poster boy for the misnamed Americans for Gun Safety (AGS) several years ago and has sponsored several anti-gun bills and amendments.

With such a record lurking in his closet, do you think Sen. McCain likes it when groups like Gun Owners of America point out his anti-gun antics?

Of course not. So in 2002, Sen. McCain teamed up with anti-gun Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to squelch the First Amendment rights of gun owners and other Americans. These two men successfully pushed the Incumbent Protection Act into law -- an act that stifles the ability of organizations like GOA to criticize elected officials before an election.

This suits Sen. McCain just fine since he knows the media is going to give him a free ride in his upcoming bid for president in 2008. One can expect the mainstream media to ignore the big government tendencies of candidates like McCain, which is why it's imperative for watchdog organizations like Gun Owners of America to be able to freely communicate with the American people.

Not content with the limitations in the Incumbent Protection Act, Sen. McCain has struck again. In an effort to reap political advantage from the current controversies in Congress, McCain has now introduced S. 2128 -- the so-called Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act.

In this bill, McCain targets his wrath on groups like GOA -- requiring them to register their "grassroots" communications with their members and to file twice as many frivolous reports.
Sen. McCain would rather shine the spotlight on us and YOU, rather than shine the spotlight on himself -- remember, he was one of the original Keating Five senators and was the ONLY Republican in the Keating Five "team."

Sen. McCain might try to dismiss the actions he took on behalf of one of his biggest contributors, Charles Keating, but as author Mark Levin notes, "In John McCain's America, any politician who accepts a large contribution or gift from a donor, and then takes steps consistent with the donor's interests -- even though there is no legal quid pro quo -- is corrupt. Well, then, by his own standard, McCain is corrupt."

Once the Chief of Staff to the Attorney General in the Reagan administration, Mark Levin is now a contributing editor for National Review Online. He is also a talk show host and the head of the prestigious Landmark Legal Foundation in Washington, DC. Levin has never been accused of pulling punches, and his discussions over McCain's role in the Keating Five are no exception.

"McCain was the only Republican implicated in the Keating Five scandal," Levin points out, "yet today he lectures his party and his president about 'the corrupting influence' of money in politics. He rails against the so-called 'wealthy special interests' and their ability to buy access to elected officials, yet this is precisely what the Keating Five scandal was all about. And, of course, under McCain's current standard, a politician who takes a principled position that may benefit a donor is corrupt, even if no law has been violated.

"The John McCain of old should be thankful that his political fate wasn't determined by John McCain the reformer," Levin concludes.

Selling them the rope. . .

From Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 10 – Iran will buy several dozen surface-to-air missiles from Russia as part of its arsenal to protect its nuclear sites, government-run Persian language websites reported on Friday.

The reports quoted Mikhail Dmitriyev, director of Russia’s Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service, as saying that some 30 Russian-made Tor M-1 surface-to-air missiles will be bought by Iran for up to 700 million dollars.

The anti-aircraft missiles would protect Iran’s nuclear installations in Isfahan and Bushehr, the reports said, adding that there was also talk of Iran purchasing the more powerful S-300 missiles from Moscow as well.

France and Germany will go into full bore appeasement mode the minute that Iran goes operational with an intermediate range nuclear missile that can reach Europe. Since the technology that they can offer Iran is orders of magnitude better than any leftover Soviet era crap any “partnership” Russia is hoping to form with Iran will be strictly temporary.

In fact, any partnership that Iran forms with a non-Muslim state will be temporary. As the Byzantines discovered an Islamic empire will not settle for indirect rule forever. A confrontation is looming. Will the United States and the European Union have the courage and the good sense to do what they must do to survive?

Stargate: SG1

What the hell were those weapons the team was carrying? I thought that they might be native to the planet that they were on, but when they beamed over to Baal's ship they were still carrying them. The previews for next week seemed to show them again.

The Stargate producers have always used good sense when arming the actors. I hope that isn't coming to an end.

Spitting in the "prophet's" eye

The best part about this on is that it was drawn by Tatiana Soskin, a Jewish woman who lives in Israel.

More pictures here.

The picture could be a bit less. . . female

You scored as Demon. Demon: Darkness is your sanctuary. Demons are many and are all different in appearence and rank. The most common are the ones that feed off of human souls. They love to make someone fall into their inner darkness. Blood, wrath, murder... You name it they love it. These beings don't care who you are, if they set their sights on you, let's just hope you know a good excorist. They kill any love within you and pull you toward their side. By any means possible. You wish for chaos and hate, you are the Demon. Demon 100% Mermaid 75% WereWolf 67% Dragon 59% Angel 50% Faerie 33% What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!) created with QuizFarm.com

Fun with the 1911

I just installed a Wilson "drop-in" beavertail grip safety in my Colt Combat Commander. "Drop-in" means that you don't have to cut the frame, not that you don't have to fit the safety. A little stoning and it popped right in. Tomorrow we go to the indoor range for test firing.

Next a Wilson tactical extended thumb safety and a Cylinder & Slide Shop drop in action job. All that can be done without sending the pistol off to a gunsmith.

Wilson parts are about the best out there. Here is their website.

Today's insult to the false prophet

The "prohpet" and his favorite wife. He married her when she was six, but waited untill she was nine to sleep with her.

From DrawMohammed.com

An Elf Lord?

I'm fine with this, although I was hoping for Malcolm Renyolds.

Left is as left does

A couple of people have asked me if I'm going to write anything about the disgraceful performances at the Coretta King funeral. Other than echoing the sentiments of Charlotte talk-show host Jason Lewis that Jimmy Carter is the biggest sanctimonious buffoon on the planet I'm not.

I'm not surprised that the cream of the leftist elite would be so frack-all stupid as to have not learned one lesson from the Wellstone Memorial fiasco. The fact is that they can't help themselves.

One does not become upset with a dog when it relieves itself in the middle of the road. That is what dogs do. Likewise one does not become upset with a leftist when he/she shows absolutely no class, taste, decorum, grace, culture or one shred of good sense. That is what leftists do.

One more reason to hate Islam

Check this out:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

I especially liked the part about the "boyfriends" who were able to make their escape. There is a special level of hell for "men" who run away and abandon women to rapists. It is the same level of hell inhabited by false prophets who have sex with nine-year-old girls.

Is there a hatred too intense for this "culture" and the "religion" which spawned it, a contempt too bottomless? I don't think so.

This is from Iran Focus

Lunitic John McCain

In case you didn't know John McCain is evil. More later.

God bless Queen Margrethe

In an official biography published last year Denmark's Queen Margrethe II had some highly prescient things to say about her nation's (and by extension the entire civilized world's) relationship with Islam.

"We are being challenged by Islam these years - globally as well as locally. It is a challenge we have to take seriously. We have let this issue float about for too long because we are tolerant and lazy.

"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some things for which we should display no tolerance."

The "Cartoon Riots" burning their way across the Muslim world, the burning of Danish embassies and the assassination of a Roman Catholic priest in Turkey all underscore the urgency of the problem facing the sane nations of the world. The time is passed, long passed, when civilized people can look the other way when confronted with this sickness masquerading as a major religion.

An answer must be found soon. These lice-infested Neolithic savages are building nuclear weapons. Or rather it would be more accurate to say that they are hiring others to build the weapons for them. If it were not for their oil (which they did not create, could not discover for themselves, could not pump themselves and could not deliver to customers themselves) they would not have the ability to build so much as a bolt action rifle.

Where is he now?

Here is another from DrawMohammed.com

Worth 1000 Words

Via DrawMohammed.com

A new pistol for the boys

The military is getting a new handgun. Note that it is going to be a .45 ACP. Here is an overview of the requirements. See the whole thing here.

The USSOCOM intends to issue a solicitation to obtain commercially available non-developmental item (NDI) Joint Combat Pistol (JCP) system, Caliber .45 (ACP). The Program will use full and open competition to fulfill the JCP requirement. The JCP will be delivered in accordance with specification entitled "Performance Specification Joint Combat Pistol" to be provided with issuance of the solicitation. Two configurations of the pistol will be required. One configuration will have no external safety and the other configuration will have an external safety. The Combat Pistol System consists of: a Caliber .45 pistol and its ancillary equipment including: Magazines (standard and high-capacity); Suppressor Attachment Kit for operation of the pistol with and without sound suppressor; Holster; Magazine Holder (standard and high-capacity); Cleaning Kit; and Operator's Manual.

It's about time we went back to a .45 caliber handgun. However as I look at the specs on this thing it is hard to believe that it wont be too big and unwieldy. The military had the best vehicle of its kind in the Jeep and the best handgun in the 1911. They tossed both of them away for inferior replacements that they have never been satisfied with. I hope that when they are testing the submissions that they shoot them in IDPA matches.

Insulting the "prophet"

Here is what I had in mind in my contest. Now that you've seen an example get to work. I really want that fatwa.

Hat tip to sondrak.

Random thoughts on 24 - 2/6/06

Death toll for tonight's episode, 4. Only 2 killed by Jack.

The advertised reappearance of Kim was a tease, we have to wait for next week. This does not bother me. The actress is a hottie, the character is a waste of time.

Edger is obviously an autistic savant (like Rain Man). What's Chloe's excuse?

Jack carries a Heckler & Koch USP (Universal Service Pistol) probably in .40 S&W.

Why does every head of the CTU field office in LA have to have some kind of problem relative? That's really why they sent the young Sean Hannity looking dude to take over. Col. McQueen didn't have an estranged or addicted or criminal or mentally ill son/daughter/sibling/spouse.

What happened to Sidney (you know, he played the shrink on Pretender) is proof that you need torture in these kind of field situations. If they had let Jack keep torturing the SOB he would still be alive, the girl would not be facing a murder charge and they would have the information that they need. Remember if lunatic John McCain is against it it's probably good.

The Mullah's Revenge

This from News.com.au:

IRAN'S largest selling newspaper announced today it was holding a contest on cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European papers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. "It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust," said Farid Mortazavi, the graphics editor for Hamshahri newspaper - which is published by Teheran's conservative municipality.

Let me get this straight. Iran is offended that a private newspaper in Denmark published some cartoons depicting the “prophet” Mohammad. Iran is even more offended that some other newspapers in European countries reprinted the cartoons. So to pay back Denmark and the other European nations Iran is sponsoring a contest for cartoons mocking or denying the Holocaust. Europe, with its Christian heritage and its modern-day aggressive secularism is being punished by Iran mocking the Jewish Holocaust?

Pardon me. I have to clean my monitor off. My head just exploded.

What a bunch of fracking stuck-in-the-seventh-century morons these brain-dead towel heads are. They must really believe that the Evil Jews ™ are running the world. Some Danish cartoonists draw pictures of their “prophet” (who married his favorite wife when she was six-years-old, but waited a full three years to actually have sex with her) and they “get even” my mocking the Jews. Way to go guys! I’ll bet the French are cowering in a puddle of their own urine. Wait a minute the French are cowering in a puddle of their own urine. That's their normal posture. I have it on good authority that they've raised their alert status from RUN to HIDE, leaving only SURRENDER before reaching the highest level of COLLABORATE. OK, bad example, but enough about the Frogs.

Think about how these goat-humping idiots mind's work. Anybody anywhere in the world smacks them and they take it as an attack by the Jews. What the frack does this tell you about the prospects for any kind of “peace process” in the Middle East?

I hope that these cartoon riots continue. I hope that they escalate until even the dumbest Foggy Bottom mush head finally throws up his hands and says, “We can’t make peace with these people. We can only fight and kill them until they realize that they can never win. Until they come crawling to us on their hands and knees and beg us to please stop killing them while there are still some very few of them left alive”.

24 Approaches

Just 12 hours till tonight's episode of 24. Kim returns tonight so in addition to torturing and killing terrorists Jack can 'splain to his daughter how he really is alive.

Today we join the blogs4bauer blogring. Click on the banner to the left and check it out.

Fitzmas Fizzles?

Clarice Feldman has an article on American Thinker about the apparent implosion of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby. It seems that Mr. Fitzgerald has been less than truthful to the court and the press. Here is an excerpt:

Court documents were released yesterday which appear to sound the death knell for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s case against Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Leftists who once eagerly anticipated a “Merry Fitzmas” are likely to find a lump of coal in their stockings next December, before the trial, scheduled for early 2007, ever gets underway.

Discovery requests by Lewis Libby’s defense team and the Dow Jones lawsuit to unseal the redacted pages of the Judith Miller appeal are proceeding. It is growing exceedingly obvious that the Special Counsel made a number of misrepresentations to the press and the court.

The sum and substance of his case is now clearly seen to be the difference in the recollections of Libby and those of Matt Cooper of Time Magazine, Judith Miller, then of the New York Times, and NBC’s Tim Russert regarding certain conversations. But these conversations do not involve the deliberate “outing” of a covert agent, did not affect national security and at best involve differing recollections of insignificant matters which should never rise to the level of a criminal prosecution.

We heard a great deal about what a honorable "straight arrow" Fitzgerald was during the time he was conducting his investigation. If so he isn't the first, and will not be the last, person to be corrupted by the spotlight.

For a prosecutor making "misrepresentations" to the press gets you kicked around in the court of public opinion. Doing so to the court should get you disbarred and sent to jail.

Cartoon wars

Here is one of the 12 cartoons which are the Islamists latest excuse to riot and generally show the world what assholes that they are. This one is my favorite. My contest is still running. Send in cartoons that are insulting to Mohammad and the winner (judged by me) will get a Serenity DVD or the last Capercaillie CD, your choice. I really want to be the subject of a fatwa.

Also support the Buy Danish Campaign.

Fireworks expected

Macsmind has another post up about the leak of the NSA eavesdropping story to the Times.

The FBI has pretty much come to conclusion over who leaked the NSA story to the times. The problem is that when it's a US Senator, he has - well a lot of people (staff/clerks, etc), who well, talk. Especially when they've been "pressured" to do so.

It appears that the FBI is convinced that Senator Jay Rockefeller is the leaker. Go and read the whole post. The two questions this raises for me are, one what other treasonous actions have Rockefeller committed and, two does the administration have the guts to indict a sitting senator for espionage and/or treason?

A third question presents itself. If convicted will a jury give Rockefeller what he deserves for spying for the enemy during a time of war (a firing squad)?

The most satisfying sight in this whole mess (other than Rockefeller being given his last cigarette by a Marine gunnery sergeant before tying on his blindfold) will be the operatives of the Democrat Party's Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment (the mainstream media) going before the grand jury to testify. This is a door which they demanded be opened in their blind foaming zeal to see Karl Rove brought down in the Plame affair. I understand why the Left is so fanatically in favor of gun control. They are constantly shooting themselves in the foot.

Now go and read that post.

The gift that keeps on giving

I saw a reference to this from the New York Post on Power Line and just had to go and grab it for myself. It's just too good to ignore. I swear, with enemies like this you don't need friends.

. . .Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and Cynthia McKinney (D.-Ga.) got to the floor of the Capitol early and staked out seats reserved for Democratic senators. "Since none of these Democrats over there [in the Senate] filibustered Alito, why can't we have these seats?" Jackson argued. "That makes sense to me," McKinney replied, according to Roll Call columnist Mary Ann Akers. "Jackson went back to his office, leaving McKinney to protect the seats until showtime," the D.C. weekly reports. "Three hours after Jackson got back to his office, though, his cellphone rang." It was a "frantic" McKinney saying that sergeant-at-arms staffers were kicking her out of the seats. Jackson rushed to the floor and argued for "a few tense moments," but Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) prevailed. Jackson told Roll Call he needed his face on TV "to "show our constituents our proximity to the president . . .

It doesn't say if Reid "prevailed" over the sergeant-at-arms or the moonbat duo.

Lemuel's pick of the day

I just ran across a good blog, Shining plate and a good broadsword. If you want to read a talented writer open up on Islam with both barrels go give it a look.

He also tells the truth about Pat Buchanan.

One more for the good guys!

Just as I was getting ready to go to work Fox News showed a security camera video from Texas of a convenience store clerk fatally shooting a would-be robber. Police have said that the clerk acted within the law. This is how all such incidents should end.

There is no word on what kind of equipment the clerk used, but it obviously got the job done.

I would suspect that Cam & Company will have more information this afternoon. You can listen on the internet at NRANews.com or on Sirius satellite radio.

If anyone wants to post something about how this was a short-range gunfight go ahead. I will not budge off my position that improving your marksmenship skills will make you better able to survive any gunfight no matter the range.

Thousands Dead

There has been a disaster in the Red Sea. Whole article here.

An Egyptian ferry carrying about 1,300 people sank in the Red Sea overnight during bad weather, and rescue ships and helicopters pulled dozens of bodies from the water Friday, an official said. About 100 survivors in lifeboats were rescued.

Egypt has already refused Israel's offer of help in searching for and rescuing survivors. Apparently it is better to die than to owe your life to a Jew. How long will it be before the Arabic language press begins airing/printing conspiracy theories blaming Israel and/or President Bush for the disaster? And how long will it take after that for Michael Moore/Cindy Sheehan/Congressional Black Caucus/Anti-War.com/Hollywood/Howard Dean/dailykos/moveon.org/Minister Farrakan to pick up on it?

I'll bet that before the end of next week there will be at least one call to Rush, Laura, Sean, Tammy or the G Man seriously stating that the Jews or Bush sank the ferry to kill Muslims returning from the Hajj.

Too Good To Be True

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas in 2006 is for this movie to be widely distributed in the US right before the '06 congressional elections.

American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother. They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - here a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv. . .The movie's American stars are Billy Zane, who plays a self-professed "peacekeeper sent by God," and Gary Busey as the Jewish-American doctor.

I don't really blame Busey for this. He lost most of his brain in a motorcycle accident a few years ago.

UPDATE: Someone should have a talk with the producers of this movie. If it had been shown back in December for even one show in one theater in the US it would have been eligible for this years Academy Awards.

UPDATE II: A friend sent me a link to this film's website here. He notes the fact that this picture's popularity in Turkey must mean that the average "Turk in the street" must hate us even though we are supposed to be allies. Well, why should they be different from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and every other country in NATO (except the new members in Eastern Europe who still remember being under the heel of the USSR). As Teddy Roosevelt observed at the beginning of the last century other nations will hate us and may even fear us, but they will never like us.

A Fatwa for Lemuel

Any of you out there who can draw I have a new contest for you. Send me a cartoon which is utterly degrading and insulting to the Islamic faith that I can post on this blog. I want to be the subject of a fatwa. The winner will be rewarded with a Serenity DVD.

But remember it really has to drag Islam through the mud. I want something that will push Osama into heart failure. I want something that will cause the president of Iran to vow to send atomic warheads to Asheville. I want something that will send Muslim nutballs to my doorstep to punish me so that I can martyr them.

Handgunning

A reader points out the following: "You are 92% more likely to a handgun at someone that is between 7-10 yards than any other distance."

This is very true. However let me ask you a question. You are on an airplane with 99 other people and the captain makes the anouncement that anyone who wants to put on a parachute can, but that this is the one and only chance to do so. Furthermore at some point in the flight 8 of the passangers, chosen at random, will be thrown out of the plane. What would you do? 92% are pretty good odds, but are they that good?

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!