The decision by singing hypocrite Isaac Hayes to leave the television show South Park seems to have ignited a war between the show's creators and the "Church" of Scientology.
BREITBART.COM quotes an article by Erin Carlson of the Associated Press:
"South Park" has declared war on Scientology. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the animated satire, are digging in against the celebrity-endorsed religion after a controversial episode mocking outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise was yanked abruptly from the schedule Wednesday _ with an Internet report saying it was covert warfare by Cruise that led to its departure.
The South Park camp responded:
"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" the "South Park" creators said in a statement Friday in Daily Variety. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies... You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!"
It seems that Comedy Central decided to pull the offending episode, which mocked Tom Cruise’s ambiguous sexuality and his evil cult, which damns those stupid enough to place their faith in it to hell, from their schedule.
The reason?
The Internet blogger hollywoodinterrupted.com said Thursday that Cruise threatened to not promote "Mission: Impossible 3," a surefire summer blockbuster, if the offending episode ran. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, as is Paramount, which is putting out the film.
If true (Cruise denies it) this is very interesting. Tom Cruise financed MI3 largely with his own money. If the film tanks he will be all but broke. For him to actually fail to promote the picture would be to commit financial suicide. Apparently the hold that the evil cult of Scientology has over him is very powerful.
What did they do, put Isaac Hayes and Tom Cruise in a room and tell them that mercenaries were coming with flame throwers?
Hollywoodinterrupted goes on to note that the Series creators are angry, and will probably seek revenge in the episode which deals with Chef's (the character whose voice was supplied by Isaac Hayes) departure from the show. Hayes, Cruise and their Scientology slavemasters may come to regret the day that they tangled with a pair of creative geniuses who know how to make millions of people laugh.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Evil Scientology cult flexes muscles
Friday, March 17, 2006
The New Doctor Who
I just watched Sci-Fi’s new Doctor Who series. It is the Dr. Who with a bit of tinkering with the backstory. He is now the last Time Lord, the others having been killed in a war which also destroyed Gallefery (home world of the Time Lords).
I liked it. It keeps the storytelling style of the original Dr. Who but with a bigger budget and better special effects. The only thing missing is K-9 (and that’s a good thing).
Apparently Sci-Fi is going to run it until the new Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis episodes start in July.
It's St. Patrick's Day!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my loyal readers (and to you faithless bastards as well).
Interesting fact: Because this St. Patrick's Day falls on a Roman Catholic religious day requiring abstinence from meat, and the traditional St. Pat's day meal is corned beef, the High Pope on his throne in Rome has granted a dispensation. All you papists can eat meat today.
As you can see St. Patrick liked meat. The picture at the right is an early 4th century Byzantine fresco titled, "St. Patrick selects his dinner".
Another St. Patrick's day fact:
Uisce Beatha (ish keh ba ha)
is a Gaelic term. Transliterated, it means " Water of Life,"
but in usage it means a distilled liquor, indigenous to the 
Celtic nations of Ireland and Scotland. The English
mispronunciation, "whiskey" is more familiar to most.
I'll leave you with my favorite quote from St. Patrick.
"I drink to all who wish me well; may all my enemies go to hell."
(OK, he didn't really say that, but if he had known then what we know now, he would have.)
Range Report
I went to Rex's Indoor Range in Hendersonville, NC yesterday afternoon. I shot better then that I ever have in my life. This practice stuff really works!
If only I could have shot that well in the Glock match.
I was using NRA 50' slow fire pistol targets. The entire scoring area on one of those targets is only a little bigger than the 10 ring on the Glock targets. If I had shot as well in the match as I did yesterday I would have shot at least 480.
This is why participating in competition is important. It teaches you to function under stress. You may think that there is no comparison between a shooting contest where the only thing on the line is a plastic trophy or a plaque and a life-or-death gunfight. You are correct. In the real world there is no comparison, but to the body stress is stress.
Your body doesn't know why you suddenly have enough adrenalin in your system to power a medium sized rural farm for a month. It just reacts to it. The same auditory exclusion, tunnel vision and "hot dog finger" phenomena that you get in a real gunfight also plague you in competition.
Learn to deal with one and you will have a leg up on the other.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Why elections matter.
In February of this year Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg delivered a speech in South Africa entitled, "A decent Respect to the Opinions of [Human]kind". Here is an excerpt:South Africa’s 1996 Constitution famously provides in Section 39: “When interpreting the Bill of Rights, a court . . . must consider international law; and may consider foreign law.” Other modern Constitutions have similar provisions, India’s and Spain’s, for example. In the United States the question whether and when courts may seek enlightenment from the laws and decisions of other nations has provoked heated debate. I will speak of that controversy in these remarks. At the outset, I should disclose the view I have long held: If U.S. experience and decisions can be instructive to systems that have more recently instituted or invigorated judicial review for constitutionality, so we can learn from others including Canada, South Africa, and most recently the U. K. – now engaged in measuring ordinary laws and executive actions against charters securing basic rights.
[Snip]
Representative of the perspective I share with four of my current colleagues, Patricia M. Wald, once Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and former Judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, last year said with characteristic wisdom: "It's hard for me to see that the use of foreign decisional law is an up-or-down proposition. I see it rather as a pool of potential and useful information and thought that must be mined with caution and restraint."
[Snip]
To a large extent, I believe, the critics in Congress and in the media misperceive how and why U.S. courts refer to foreign and international court decisions. We refer to decisions rendered abroad, it bears repetition, not as controlling authorities, but for their indication, in Judge Wald's words, of "common denominators of basic fairness governing relationships between the governors and the governed."
It is clear from Justice Ginsberg’s remarks that she has little or no understanding of the Supreme Court’s proper role. It is the job of the court to interpret the constitution in the light of what those who wrote and ratified the document intended. If James Madison meant “X” then “X” is what it means today. If the American people wish the law to be other than “X” they must amend the constitution through the process set forth in the document.
If a Supreme Court Justice wishes the law to be other than “X” then she must take off her robe and run for elective office or become an activist and attempt to convince enough others to see things her way to bring about change.
It is appropriate for legislators to look anywhere they feel that they need to for inspiration. Their job is to craft legislation and they are accountable to the people for how well they do their jobs. An American judge, on the other hand, must look to the laws of the United States alone.
It is clear that Ms. Ginsberg wants to be a law maker not a judge. In that case she should retire from the bench and seek election to the Senate or House of Representatives. I doubt that will happen, however. In her view she is already a member of a panel of Exalted God Kings.
Do I sense a change in the weather?
From The Washington Times:
Majority Leader Bill Frist, frustrated by the sluggish debate over immigration reform at the committee level, plans to introduce a bill that deals solely with border security as early as today.
This pretty much clinches it. Frist wants to be president.
Mr. Frist's bill, according to aides on both sides of the aisle, does not include a guest-worker provision or a process for handling the 12 million illegal aliens already in the U.S., divisive topics that have stalled immigration legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
No guest-worker program – Good. No process for kicking out the illegals already here – Bad. This bill is a start. Not a terribly good start, but a start.
The bill would beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border, provide funding for thousands more Border Patrol agents and build short sections of fencing in key traffic areas.
This is good. We don’t need to build a barrier along the entire border. Most of the border is simply too far away from any human habitation to allow people to walk across and survive. This is why the Minutemen were successful. They denied an easy to cross section to the illegals, who knew that trying to bypass the Minutemen patrols would have forced them to walk too far through area that was too remote.
The real problem is the reluctance of politicians of both parties to do anything meaningful about illegal immigration. The Republicans like the cheap labor and the Democrats like the votes. This creates a bi-partisan do-nothing coalition on Capital Hill that is almost impossible to break. What’s needed is a politician who wants to be president who recognizes the power that this issue has with the American people.
Is Frist that politician? It’s too soon to tell. If he keeps up the pressure and continues to introduce meaningful legislation he could be.
The degradation of a once great people
From The Scotsman:
THE most widespread outbreak of industrial action since the 1926 General Strike is set to bring much of Scotland to a halt later this month, after local government workers voted to walk out in a bitter row with the government over pensions.
If your country can be brought to “a halt” by a walkout of government workers THAT’S YOUR PROBLEM!
The union might have a case here, but that's beside the point. How can a once proud nation let itself sink to the place where the citizens have to depend on the government for the simple necessities of life?
In heaven William Wallace is weeping.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Glock Match Update
I got an email with the results of the Glock Match that I shot in last Saturday. The high score was shot by Jennifer Solesby who shot a 498/44X.
This means that her score was 498 out of a possible 500 and she had 44 hits in the X-ring. X-ring hits earn 10 points just like 10-ring hits. The number of X hits only matters in the event of a tie. In this case the number 2 shooter scored 498/42X. So he lost by 2 X-ring hits.
My score was 404. Since I was the only one to get that exact score the X-ring hits didn't enter into it.
I clearly have some practicing to do.
Spring!
Since it looks like we are going to have an early spring I thought I'd post a picture of some flowers.
I took this a few years ago in the gardens of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.
2000
I had my 2000th visitor today a little before 4:00.
It took about three months to get to 1000 and only a bit over a month to get to 2000. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and especially to those of you who come by regularly.
With growth like this in just 10 or 12 decades I'll be right up there with blog giants like Michelle Malkin and Powerline.
The next milestone I'll note is 5000.
Three Cheers!
Congratulations to our friend The White Trash Republican. Her blog has raised in the TTLB Ecosystem rankings from Insignificant Microbe to slimy Mollusk. This well deserved rise in status, and biological complexity, is due to hard work, wise blog alliances and good old fashioned American pluck, grit, courage, spunk, and never-say-die spirit.
I know that in Missouri tonight it will be ground chuck on the K-Mart backyard grill and the Triple-Peach, Orange Driver and Thunderbird will be flowing like water.
CORRECTION:
White Trash Republican wants us to know that her backyard grill is from Wal Mart not K-Mart. This is something I should have known anyway. As a Republican she would have the good sense to seek out good quality as well as low price. Hillbilly White Trash apologizes to White Trash Republican's children for any teasing they may have taken at school because of this error.
This is why Clinton was wrong
From The Washington Times:Prosecutors seeking the death penalty against confessed terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui told a federal judge that it would be a waste of time to continue the trial after key government witnesses were barred from testifying.
The government is considering an appeal of U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema's decision yesterday that guts roughly half of the federal case against Moussaoui. Brinkema issued the sanctions because a government lawyer violated trial rules by coaching witnesses on their testimony and improperly giving them access to trial transcripts.
[Snip]
The judge penalized prosecutors after learning Transportation Security Administration lawyer Carla Martin had violated trial rules. Martin had improperly prepared seven witnesses from the Federal Aviation Administration for questions on cross-examination by sending them trial transcripts.
Federal rules of evidence prohibit witnesses from exposure to trial testimony because of the possibility they will alter their testimony based on what they learn. "I don't think in the annals of criminal law there has ever been a case with this many significant problems," Brinkema said after Tuesday's hearing uncovered even more government misconduct.
Two things. One, this is the problem with trying to deal with terrorists in a law enforcement framework. A violation of procedure on the part of the prosecution can throw a very large monkey wrench into the works. Moussaoui should have been taken to a military base outside the US and tried before a military tribunal. When found guilty he should have been offered his life if he would give up every last shred of information that he had (assuming that we thought he had anything of that much value to give). If he refused the deal then he should have been put before a firing squad within 90 days of the verdict.
The other thing is this. What the hell was the government lawyer thinking? Once you put someone in an American court under the rules by which American trials are conducted you are bound by them. In this setting what the government can do to Moussaoui it can do to any of the rest of us. In these circumstances the only thing to do is give the scumbag a new trial or give up on the death penalty. I just wish that we were enough like ancient Rome to give that idiot twit of a lawyer the lethal injection in Moussaoui’s place.
The Gathering of the Blogs
Now is the time for the annual Gathering of the Blogs. If you are of Scottish heritage or just wish you were (and be honest, who doesn't) you too can Join.
Go Here and sign up.
Port Deal Fallout
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
March 15, 2006
(CNSNews.com) -- The controversy over a proposal to allow Dubai Ports World to operate terminals at some major U.S. ports may have hurt President Bush's approval rating, but it could be helping some members of Congress move legislation they believe is needed to better protect U.S. seaports from terrorist threats.
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity, believes most Americans are now more aware of port security deficiencies than they were even a month ago.
"If there's anything we learned in the last couple of weeks with the Dubai incident, it was the importance of this issue," Lungren said. "There was a lot of give-and-take on that. There was a lot of political fallout from that but, if there was any silver lining, it was the focus that that incident placed on the need for security of our ports."
I predicted that the ultimate fallout from the Port Deal would benefit Republicans. Because of their control of both houses of congress any legislation that addresses the sieve-like quality of our port security will have to come from Republicans. In November voters will remember who fixed (or at least appeared to fix) the problem, not who yelled about it the loudest eight or nine months ago.
Iraq: Media vs Truth
Ralph Peters writes about the Myths of Iraq in RealClearPolitics. His central thesis is “. . .the foreign media have become a destructive factor, extrapolating daily crises from minor incidents. Part of this is ignorance. Some of it is willful. None of it is helpful”. He speculates that the reason for his is the over reliance by Western news outlets upon local stringers for information. Some of these stringers have their own agenda, but most have figured out what kind of news American and European editors want to hear.
Here are the myths which this bad reporting practice breeds.
Claims of civil war. In the wake of the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a flurry of sectarian attacks inspired wild media claims of a collapse into civil war. It didn't happen. Driving and walking the streets of Baghdad, I found children playing and, in most neighborhoods, business as usual. Iraq can be deadly, but, more often, it's just dreary.
Iraqi disunity. Factional differences are real, but overblown in the reporting. Few Iraqis support calls for religious violence. After the Samarra bombing, only rogue militias and criminals responded to the demagogues' calls for vengeance. Iraqis refused to play along, staging an unrecognized triumph of passive resistance.
Expanding terrorism. On the contrary, foreign terrorists, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have lost ground. They've alienated Iraqis of every stripe. Iraqis regard the foreigners as murderers, wreckers and blasphemers, and they want them gone. The Samarra attack may, indeed, have been a tipping point--against the terrorists.
Hatred of the U.S. military. If anything surprised me in the streets of Baghdad, it was the surge in the popularity of U.S. troops among both Shias and Sunnis. In one slum, amid friendly adult waves, children and teenagers cheered a U.S. Army patrol as we passed. Instead of being viewed as occupiers, we're increasingly seen as impartial and well-intentioned.
The appeal of the religious militias. They're viewed as mafias. Iraqis want them disarmed and disbanded. Just ask the average citizen.
The failure of the Iraqi army. Instead, the past month saw a major milestone in the maturation of Iraq's military. During the mini-crisis that followed the Samarra bombing, the Iraqi army put over 100,000 soldiers into the country's streets. They defused budding confrontations and calmed the situation without killing a single civilian. And Iraqis were proud to have their own army protecting them. The Iraqi army's morale soared as a result of its success.
Reconstruction efforts have failed. Just not true. The American goal was never to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure in its entirety. Iraqis have to do that. Meanwhile, slum-dwellers utterly neglected by Saddam Hussein's regime are getting running water and sewage systems for the first time. The Baathist regime left the country in a desolate state while Saddam built palaces. The squalor has to be seen to be believed. But the hopeless now have hope.
The electricity system is worse than before the war. Untrue again. The condition of the electric grid under the old regime was appalling. Yet, despite insurgent attacks, the newly revamped system produced 5,300 megawatts last summer--a full thousand megawatts more than the peak under Saddam Hussein. Shortages continue because demand soared--newly free Iraqis went on a buying spree, filling their homes with air conditioners, appliances and the new national symbol, the satellite dish. Nonetheless, satellite photos taken during the hours of darkness show Baghdad as bright as Damascus.
Quote of the day
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
Isaac the Hypocrite
From our fellow pirate captain The Filthy Report:
Soul singer Isaac Hayes has quit cartoon 'South Park' after an episodes lampooning religion.By religion, they mean Scientology which, is not a religion. It is a cult.
The star who has provided the voice for character Chef since the show's inception, has become upset at recent shows that have attacked spirituality. Meaning Scientology the cult.
"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," Hayes said in a statement after he announced he had been asked to be let out of his contract.
"Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honoured," he added. "As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."
It should be pointed out that South Park features as a regular character Jesus Christ, who is represented as a cable TV talk show host and a wimp. Other stories have shown the children at “Jew Camp” summoning up Moses who appeared looking like the Master Control Program from TRON. Muslims have been made fun of as well. Mr. Hayes worked on each of those episodes and raised no objection.
Isaac Hayes is a hypocrite and is beneath contempt. He left South Park because his masters in the cult hierarchy ordered him too.
Of all the false religions in the world none is more murderous and evil than fundamentalist Islam, but none is more flat out fraking ridiculous than Scientology. The only proper response to the doctrines of Scientology is hysterical laughter.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Just a suggestion
Here is a suggestion for the producers of Stargate SG-1.
The current stroyline of the series involves the threat to our galaxy from an army of fanatical theocrats who worship ascended beings called the Ori. The Ori rule their followers through a class of priests called Priors who have been given superhuman powers. The religion of Ori worship is called Origin and its tenants can be found in The Book of Origin.
The attitude and character of the Children of the Ori has been rather obviously based on the behavior of fundamentalist Muslims. Therefore I think it would be amusing for the producers to film a short video to be shown at Stargate and general sci-fi conventions that would go something like this.
Ben Browder (Col. Cameron Mitchell) in costume standing on the set of SG-1. "The producers and cast of Stargate SG-1 would like to take this opportunity to say that not all followers of the Ori are violent fanatics who want to conquer the galaxy. Most Children of the Ori are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. They are your neighbors, your children's school teacher or even the cop on the beat. Some are serving honorably in the United States Military and some hold elective office. The actions of a few should in no way tar the reputations of the many."
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