Esteemed former VP, or shameless huckster?

Apparently Al Gore's book sales are slipping so he sought out the only audience stupid enough to listen to his idiotic global warming bleatings...

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore warned hundreds of U.N. diplomats and staff on Thursday evening about the perils of climate change, claiming: Cigarette smoking is a "significant contributor to global warming!"

Gore, who was introduced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the world faces a "full-scale climate emergency that threatens the future of civilization on earth."

Gore showed computer-generated projections of ocean water rushing in to submerge the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, parts of China, India and other nations, should ice shelves in Antarctica or Greenland melt and slip into the sea.

Then, Gore had his staff open a stack of cardboard boxes to begin selling his new book, "An Inconvenient Truth, The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It," $19.95, to the U.N. diplomats.

First, forgive me if I'm wrong but Gore's dire, breathless warning about melting ice caps is crap! All the data I've seen lately show that the ice at the southern pole is actually thickening, and the oceans are in a slight cooling trend. As for the Arctic ice: it is frozen water, therefor, like ice in a glass of water, it is floating on the Arcitc ocean. Ice floating in water displaces an amount of water equal to it's own weight already, so if it melts, the overall level of the water remains the same.

Example: The USS Cole displaces 1,090 tons, the USS Nimitz displaces 104,000 tons, and judging from the size of Al's head alone, he displaces no less than 0.15 tons.

Second, shouldn't Gore be lecturing the Chinese and Europeans who both adore smoking, about its make-believe dangers to the environment?

Third, and I loved this part, Gore was just trying to scare everybody into buying his stupid, fictional book by telling them their cities were in peril. I wonder what the sales were for the evening.

Bush hits it out of the park.......'bout time

Finally George Bush stopped playing nice with the Democrats yesterday...

WASHINGTON — President Bush fired a shot across the bow of the Democratic Party Thursday, saying "the party of FDR... has become the party of cut and run."

In his most direct attack this election season, Bush flatly charged that Democrats are incapable of effectively fighting the War on Terror.

"The stakes in this war are high and so are the stakes this November. Americans face a choice between two parties with different attitudes on this War on Terror," he told an audience in Birmingham at a Republican fundraiser for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.

"Five years after 9/11, the worst attack on the American homeland in history, the Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing. The party of FDR, the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run," Bush said.

I applaud Bush for taking the gloves off with the Democrats regarding national security. He's absolutely right in couching the November elections in terms of terrorism and which Party can be trusted to keep Americans safe, and which one cannot. He unequivocally drew the electoral battle lines in black and white by naming the Democrats and saying exactly what's wrong with them on security. It is a master stroke to force the Democrats into arguing a case that they don't have...a national security plan. You may not agree with everything Bush has done since 9/11, I certainly do not, but at least he's taking decisive action. And...there hasn't been an attack, though several attempted, since.

So, as a Democrat, you don't like the Iraq invasion, you think that terrorism is a law-enforcement matter, you believe that dialogue, negotiation, and massive US aid will get the terrorists to like us, you believe Ahmadinejad when he says Jews are decended from pigs and monkeys, you support Iran and North Korea's pursuit of "peaceful" nuclear power, you believe the withholding of after-dinner lolli-pops from Gitmo detainees equals torture, and you have one of those blue-dot-in-a-red-state stickers on your VW Beetle....good for you!

Regardless of your blind, seething hatred of America and George Bush, what is the Democratic plan for dealing with terrorists who would kill us all if given half a chance?

mindnumbing idiocy

This is maybe the stupidest thing I've ever seen...

It's never too long before the latest craze to sweep America makes its way to the UK but most would wish this one really hadn't.
Celebrity wigs designed for babies up to nine months old and are set to hit the market, to the outrage of children's charities. There's a Bob Marley style dreadlock wig, a Samuel L Jackson afro as seen in movie Pulp Fiction and a Donald Trump comb-over - perhaps for that mature look.

For the girls there's flowing pink locks based on singer Lil' Kim.

But Michelle Elliott of Kidscape said as well as unnecessary the wigs could be dangerous.
"This is ridiculous. Any parent who buys one of these wigs for their child needs their head examined."

Maybe I can see it for Halloween, but seriously, what moron dresses up a 9 month old for Halloween? These kids will probably grow up to hate their parents for their endless stupidity.

When good animals go bad

OK, take the kid out of this story and it becomes the funniest thing I've read all week...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- An aggressive squirrel pounced on a 4-year-old boy in an attack last week in Cuesta Park in Mountain View, Calif.

The attack happened as the boy's mother unwrapped a muffin during a picnic.

The attack is not the first one reported at the park. Mountain View Community Services Director David Muela said that as many as six people have been bitten or scratched by squirrels since May, and that the attacks have become more ferocious in the last month.

In response to attacks, the city of Mountain View has announced it plans to start trapping and killing the aggressive tree squirrels, but in a humane way.

Let's see...
Dumb California animal rights activists playing in the park = good
Angry, wild squirrels attacking innocent children in the park = bad
Angry, wild squirrels attacking dumb California animal rights activists playing in the park = hilarious!

I think I'll pull for the squirrels here.

parent volunteerism...it comes with the territory

Well, I'm off to my kid's school to serve as a time-keeper at the finish line of his cross-country meet. Like most youth sports programs, the parents do most of the work so the coaches can coach. It's cool but cross-country is not exactly a spectator sport. They take off into the woods and neighborhoods and you don't see them for 15 minutes, then there's this rush of excitement as you wait to see your kid in the pack as they near the finish...then it's over. Oh well, he loves to run, so as long as they're still handing out track scholarships for college I'm down with it.

The Religion of Peace strikes.....again

Are you getting as tired of these hysterical Muslims rioting just for the sake of rioting, as I am?

Third Night of Ramadan Rioting in Capital of Europe
From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2006-09-27 11:32

It looks as if immigrants youths want to turn nightly rioting during the Islamic holy month of ramadan into an annual tradition. Around 8:30pm last night violence erupted again in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The riots centered on the Brussels Marollen quarter and the area near the Midi Train Station, where the international trains from London and Paris arrive. Youths threw stones at passing people and cars, windows of parked cars were smashed, bus shelters were demolished, cars were set ablaze, a youth club was arsoned and a shop was looted. Two molotov cocktails were thrown into St.Peter’s hospital, one of the main hospitals of central Brussels. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fires at the hospital, but youths managed to steal the keys of the fire engine.

Every night of violence and mayem that goes by unpunished emboldens these worthless thugs. The message is that rioting works...that they can get away with property destruction and personal attacks. You don't negotiate or try to reason with people like this...you crush them mercilessly and without remorse. Sadly, the Euro-weenies don't have the guts.

the right move for the right reason

7-Eleven just moved to the top of my convenience store must-visit list...

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.
The retailer said Wednesday it will purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.

A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven's 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.

Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7- Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez."

Good for 7-Eleven. I was a fan back when they sponsored American cycling, and now I'll even go out of my way to buy fountain Diet Cokes, Slim-Jims, and Gatorade there.

Dumb celebrity of the week

In terms of the economic impact alone, this may rank as one of the all-time stupidest statements from an entertainer...and there have been many...

Pop star Beyonce Knowles has sparked controversy by saying she only makes records for black people.

Since the Deja Vu singer made the astonishing statement sales of her new album, B'Day, have fallen by 70 per cent in the US.

Beyonce, 25, said in an interview with Blender magazine: "I make black records. I write records like I speak, and I don't try to change my songs so everyone else likes them."

Did she learn nothing from the Dixie Chicks, who since their idiotic remarks about George Bush, couldn't sell out a concert if they performed naked?

These entertainers crack me up thinking that they can say the stupidest things and the public will continue like lemmings over a cliff, buying their products.

Watch, now she'll come out with a whining statement about how fans refusing to buy her stupid CD's amounts to censorship, or something equally moronic about being taken out of context.

Trust me...it's not about public health

I'm getting sick and tired of government busy-bodies meddling in the free market under the guise of public health...especially when there's something much more sinister afoot...

NEW YORK - Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.
The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city’s 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.

Look, I'm all in favor of mandatory truth-in-labelling laws that apply to the food industry. Otherwise consumers cannot make informed decisions about what they are eating and feeding their families. But as long as the ingredients are clearly stated, shouldn't this be a personal choice issue rather than a public health issue? The free market can make the decision about trans fats very efficiently and quickly, much easier than the government can. If people don't want to eat food prepared with trans fats at a particular eatery, they will eat elsewhere. That economic pressure will compel that restaurant owner to offer foods not prepared with trans fats, or he will risk losing business. Seriously, it's that simple...as are most things that are subject to the pressures of the free market.

It's already happening as food providers sense a change in market pressures from consumers concerned about fat intake...

A few companies have moved to eliminate trans fats on their own.
Wendy’s announced in August that it had switched to a new cooking oil that contains no trans fatty acids. Crisco now sells a shortening that contains zero trans fats. Frito-Lay removed trans fats from its Doritos and Cheetos. Kraft’s took trans fats out of Oreos.
McDonald’s began using a trans fat-free cooking oil in Denmark after that country banned artificial trans fats in processed food, but it has yet to do so in the United States.

See? We don't need the government meddlers toying with the market. It's just another infuriating example of their intrusion into the lives of law-abiding Americans under the pretense of looking out for our health when it's really about something different entirely.

My prediction: There will not be a complete ban on trans fats. Instead there will be a government tax on the use of trans fats. The more trans fats you use at your restaurant, the higher tax you will owe to your benevolent, loving government. The lying, hand-wringing bureaucrats will assure us that the tax will punish the trans-fat abusers and help offset the cost of healthcare for heart patients. What they won't tell you is that the trans fat tax money, just like the tobacco settlement money, will go into the congressional general fund to be spent buying votes for incumbents. Not a penny will be spent on heart health any more than a penny of tobacco money was spent on prevention programs. WAKE UP ----IT'S JUST ANOTHER MONEY GRAB!!!

I saw this coming years ago. The government leeches got everything they could out of the tobacco companies, they have taxed the petroleum industry at criminal levels, and now they're wondering whose treasure they can raid now. WalMart is up next, but for now it's fast food.

Here's how it will go down...it's already started: They'll demonize the fast food industry as evil, profit-mongering, white men who got undeservedly rich by poisoning ordinary, working families with trans fats. Stupid, idiot Americans will dutifully nod like morons as the government seizes fast-food profits in the name of public health. What brain-dead, reality-TV-addicted, government school "educated" Americans don't realize is that their BigMac will cost an additional quarter from now on, and it's them who will be paying the fat tax...not McDonald's. The federal government regularly uses this lying scheme to take more and more of our money away from us and we stand there like total, stupid morons, nodding like bobble-head dolls, and then thank the government for taking care of us as we willingly hand over our wallets. WAKE UP!!!

I give because I'm a giver

I just got back from donating blood. Every time I go they give away more stuff. This time I got a cool T-shirt(they're not always cool), an ARC visor cd holder, and they let me keep the squishy ball you have to squeeze while they drain you. And that doesn't even include the killer selection of snacks and drinks available when you're done.

If you've gone through the process of donating blood lately you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that borrowing money for a house loan was less trouble. It occurred to me that the current shortage of blood in the U.S. is not because Amercans are self-centered and don't care about others until they need something themselves(that may very well be true, but not about blood donation), it's because the exclusion criteria are so sweeping that hardly anybody qualifies to donate. I realize that since AIDS, the ARC has to be very careful about what blood they send to hospitals. I remember donating blood prior to the 80's and they didn't screen for all this other stuff and there was plenty of blood. I understand about AIDS but why be so exclusionary about things that have always been around, even before AIDS? Were these risks worth taking back then but not now? Why? Could it be a combination of an ignorance-based, public, irrational fear of disease risk and a very rational fear of law suits by lawyers like John Edwards?

My wife and I were banished for a year from donating after our spring break trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, because there is a slight malaria risk there. I listened to the list of countries they ask you if you been to in the last 10 years and it's all the places Americans like to go. Seriously, the snacks and gifts are excellent, now if they would just relax the exclusion criteria, test the blood, and reform the tort laws, they would have lots more donors I would bet.

Dhimmitude

Frankly, I'm getting a bit tired of ranting about this. When are Western cultures going to stand up to the Islamic jihadists?

BERLIN - A leading opera house canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech.
In a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production of the 225-year-old opera after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" stemming from the scene.
After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha.

This opera has been around for 225 years and not a peep out of Muslims. Now, in another example of the civilized world caving in to the threat of a Muslim temper tantrum, the Germans reward the absurd threat by giving in...pathetic! You expect this nonsense from the French and the Spanish, but the Germans? Clearly all of Europe is about to be overrun by radical Islam if they don't stop the insane political correctness.

If the Muslims aren't rioting over some stupid cartoons, they're slaughtering nuns. If they aren't demanding personal apologies from the Pope, they're suicide bombing weddings. This is not how civilized human beings act. Cultures who want respect from other cultures do not demand it under the threat of violent punishment.

Despite their overwhelming majority, European societies have already accepted their dhimmi status, that is, their submissive role as a minority in a Muslim dominated society. Embarassingly France, Spain, and now Germany have all exhibited their pathetic unwillingness to stand up for their own cultures in the face of threats of violence from a minority of citizens, for fear that somebody might call them Islamophobic, or nativists, or too nationalistic, or intolerant.

I have nothing but disgust for this attitude of subservience to the playground bully which is Muslim jihadism.
My biggest fear is that if the liberals regain power, America will be next.

DUDE!!!

Perhaps accounting would be a healthier career choice for this young man...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -Chris Simms went to the ground on one knee and leaned over clutching his midsection.
The battered Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback later had his spleen removed Sunday night and is out indefinitely after absorbing several punishing hits during a 26-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Maybe I'm wrong but don't you pretty much need your spleen? I mean it's not useless is it, like an appendix, or a tonsil, or Ray Nagin? When you start losing major organs, maybe you should think about doing something else for a living, or at least ask management for a bigger offensive line.

The truth hurts

This has all gotten to be just a bit embarassing. The Pope doesn't need to grovel and appease these guys with apology after apology.

Pope Benedict XVI has expressed "total and profound respect" for the Muslim faith, as he attempts to defuse a row between Islam and the Catholic Church.
He made the remarks in a meeting with envoys from the Muslim world, weeks after a speech in Germany prompted an angry reaction by some Muslims.
Muslim leaders had been demanding an unequivocal apology from the Pope for his words.

When did the world's Muslims become so delicate and sensitive to the slightest hint of insult?

I'll tell you when. When the insults are founded in truth.

It's not Christians, or Buddhists, or Hindu's sawing off the heads of infidels. What other hijackers fly planes into buildings in the name of their religion? Of the thousands of murderous, suicide bombings that have occurred around the world, name one that wasn't in the name of Islam?

The fact is that there is a significant faction of Islam that believes the violent conversion or subjugation of infidels is commanded by the Qaran. Until these leaders of Islamic countries who're pretending to be offended, destroy those radicals in their midst, the world will continue to view Islam negatively as a result of the vocal, violent minority...and rightly so.

The Party of tolerance....heh heh!

Democrats like to brag that they belong to the party of tolerance and inclusion but their universal hostility toward Christianity (they embrace all aspects of Islam) belies their inner prejudice...

VeggieTales too Christian for NBC
Network demands edits, creator says it fears kids hearing 'God loves you'
By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

The wildly popular VeggieTales kids videos about vegetables who talk and sing and act out Bible stories are being edited for their run on NBC's Saturday morning educational program time, and the network says it's because of time limits.

But the creator says that's not exactly the case, and viewers will have to decide for themselves whether the result is good or bad.

NBC has been under pressure from several family groups and others because of a couple of recent decisions that appear to have a bias against Christianity.

Phil Vischer, the co-creator of the characters, said, "As a guy deeply involved with the project, I know that statement is false," Vischer wrote on his own weblog. "We sent them our first episode for TV, which was already edited to EXACTLY the right length, and they rejected it because, at the end, Bob the Tomato said, 'Remember kids, God made you special and he loves you very much.' They demanded we remove that line. The show wasn't too long, it was too religious."

He said the second also was sent edited for perfect timing. The response from NBC was an e-mail with a list of lines that needed to be removed, "each of them containing either the word 'God' or 'Bible,'" Vischer wrote.

"Last week it was announced that NBC would allow Madonna to perform, on the air, the song in her current tour (that) she sings while suspended from a mirrored crucifix," Vischer said on his weblog. "I know the audience and time of day is completely different, but it is a bit ironic that telling kids God loves them is 'not okay,' but singing a song while mocking the crucifixion is fine and dandy.

Joining the discussion was L. Brent Bozell, III, president of the Media Research Center in Washington, D.C., who said the network "has taken the very essence of 'VeggieTales' – and ripped it out."

"This is one of those moments where you understand networks like NBC are only talking an empty talk and walking an empty walk when it comes to the First Amendment, and 'creative integrity,' and so on," Bozell wrote. "They have told parents concerned about their smutty programs like 'Will and Grace' that if they're offended, they have a remote control as an option.

"But when it comes to religious programming – that doesn't even mention Jesus Christ – just watch the hypocrisy. Instead of telling viewers to just change the channel if they don't like it, or put in a V-chip for Bible verses, they demand to producers that all that outdated old-time religion be shredded before broadcast," he said.

"It's truly sad this anti-religious hypocrisy would emerge. Today, no one in network TV fears what the children are watching – unless it makes them think about God."

Certainly you can be a Christian and be a Democrat, but at some point don't you have to look around at your party and ask yourself, "Am I really welcome here? Why is my Party so hostile to my Christianity? Why do my Party leaders seem to embrace every wacky religion around the world, but when it comes to Christianity, they seem to want to imagine all references, all mentions, and all allusions to God in any form to be a violation of the Constitutional establishment clause? (There is no separation of church and state clause...that's a myth the Democrats use to rationalize their anti-God positions.)

As a Christian democrat, you have to ask yourself...
Why do liberals want to take God out of the Pledge?
Why do liberals want to take In God We Trust off our currency?
Why do liberals want to remove crosses from Arlington National Cemetery because the presence of a cross might offend a deceased atheist?
Why does the ACLU (a card carrying democrat organization) attack religion at every turn in an attempt to erase it entirely from American culture?
Why do grade-school textbooks (written by liberals no doubt) make no mention of God as a force behind the establishment of America as a country?
Why does the elitist, national media (94% liberal democrat) look down their collective nose at religion as silly voodoo practiced by uncultured, six-fingered zealots?
And finally...why do I continue to support a political party that is so openly hostile to my core beliefs?

So what?

The main-stream-media will ferret out, and breathlessly assign phony significance to, the most meaningless coincidences in every story if it will make the Iraq war look like a failure and Bush look bad, and by extension, republicans...

WASHINGTON--AP--Now the death toll is 9/11 times two.
U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next.
The latest milestone for a country at war came Friday without commemoration. It came without the precision of knowing who was the 2,974th to die in conflict. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

An Associated Press count of the U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 2,696. Combined with 278 U.S. deaths in and around Afghanistan, the 9/11 toll was reached, then topped, the same day. The Pentagon reported Friday the latest death from Iraq, an as-yet unidentified soldier killed a day earlier after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad.
Not for the first time, war that was started to answer death has resulted in at least as much death for the country that was first attacked, quite apart from the higher numbers of enemy and civilians killed, too.

What does the coincidence of the American death toll in Iraq surpassing the death toll of 9/11 have to do with anything, other than an opportunity to make the Iraq invasion look like a failure? Those are two arbitrary, unrelated numbers that have less to do with each other than Katrina refugees and the concept of personal responsibility. 9/11 may have sparked the Iraq invasion but it had little directly to do with it. It served as a wake-up call that the U.S. is under attack from radical Islamofascists and we had better snuff them out on their land rather than wait for them to come to ours, and at the time, Iraq was the single most identifiable promoter of terrorism(now it's Iran, which is the reason for our not letting them get nuclear weapons, unilaterally if we have to).

I'm not the biggest fan of Bush's prosecution of the war in Iraq, but it had to be done. That the media look for bad news out of Iraq, and that any bad news for the war is good news for Democrats, is telling. It's not news to anybody that a majority of the media get their daily agenda and news template from the Democrats' talking points e-mail every morning. Being mostly democrats, the media have a vested interest in America's failure, they gleefully report bad news from Iraq, and ignore good news, knowing they are helping to defeat republicans in November. No wonder the MSM is referred to as the 4th branch of government.

Bad animals and bad owners

Who in their right mind owns dogs that are statistically likely to, and physically capable of, killing something at some point in their lives?

WEXFORD, Pa. (AP) - Two dogs owned by Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter got off his fenced property and killed a miniature horse on a nearby farm, leading to citations that carry several hundred dollars in potential fines.
Porter's dogs, a pit bull and a mastiff, got loose Tuesday and killed the horse that was less than three feet tall. The dogs were still in the dead horse's corral when police and animal control officials arrived, Northern Regional Police Chief Bob Amann said.
Porter helped police get the dogs off the property and back to his home. Because Porter's yard is fully fenced, police did not know how the dogs got loose.

I'm sorry, but if you own dogs that are bred specifically to attack and kill, you are asking for trouble no matter how nicely you raise and train them.
I know, I know what you're thinking. "But Ed", you incorrectly point out with a tired cliche'", "there are no bad pets, only bad owners." That's not at all true. Pit bulls especially are bred for one reason, and that's to fight and kill. It's what they do.

A scorpion approached a frog at the edge of a stream and asked for a ride across. Of course the frog said "No way scorpion, you'll sting me." The scorpion replied, "no I won't. If I sting you, you'll die and we'll both drown." So the frog agreed and the scorpion climbed on the frogs back. Half way across the stream the scorpion stung the frog. The shocked and dismayed frog asked the scorpion, "Why did you sting me, now we'll both die?" The scorpion replied matter-of-factly, "It's what I do, I'm a scorpion."

Moral of the story: Pit bulls kill...they're pit bulls.

It seems like Joey Porter is genuinely upset by his dogs killing his neighbors horse, but what if it had been a child running around his neighbors yard? How many times have we heard about pit bulls especially, but other attack breeds as well, mauling and killing children? Don't give me this bad owner nonsense. These dogs are doing what they exist to do and the owners know it. There should be serious jail time and financial penalties for the owners when unprovoked pets attack humans.

I'll say it right now, if somebody's pit bull escaped and attacked my kid or my family, that dog would not live to see the sun set, and then I would turn my attention on the owner...there would be no end to my rage. Joey Porter should be thanking his lucky stars it was only a horse and not somebody's child.

Good for the Dem's

To their credit, Charlie Rangel and SanFranNan Pelosi had unequivocal words for Hugo Chavez after his comments regarding George Bush at the UN...

First, Chavez' remarks: "The devil himself is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Right here," Chavez said as he stood at the U.N. podium where Bush spoke the day before.
"It smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of," Chavez said.

Now, read how democrats Rangel and Pelosi, two of Bush's biggest critics, reacted to them:

RANGEL: AN ATTACK ON BUSH IS AN ATTACK ON ALL AMERICANS... 'You do not come into my country, my congressional district, and you do not condemn my president. If there is any criticism of President Bush, it should be restricted to Americans, whether they voted for him or not. I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president, do not come to the United States and think because we have problems with our president that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State'...

Now Nancy Pelosi:

"Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar but all he is an everyday thug,"
"Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations," said Pelosi, a frequent Bush critic. "He demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela."

Good for them. That's exactly how every American should feel when a two-bit, tyrant like Chavez comes into our country and speaks to the world in those terms, because his insults are not just directed at Bush personally, but at the U.S. Presidency and the U.S. in general. We should all feel insulted and outraged. Sure, Pelosi and Rangel probably saw a poll that showed how 90% of Americans would look favorably on a politician who defended the Presidency against an outsider like Chavez, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here and take their defense of Bush at face value.

Pure politics...nothing else

I don't know why, but I am constantly shocked by the ever-increasing depths liberals will plumb in order to curry political favor with mindless, liberal voters...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California is suing the auto industry over tailpipe emissions, marking the first time a state has sought monetary damages for the impact of global warming by vehicles.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Wednesday sued the six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers, claiming they have causing millions of dollars in damage by creating greenhouse gases.
Lockyer is suing on the theory that greenhouse gases are a "public nuisance" under both California and federal law, an argument similar to one being pursued in a case before the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals in New York.

This is so idiotic it almost defies comment. It's like suing bullet manufacturers for the costs associated with the local homocide rate, or suing syringe manufacturers to offset the health-care costs of heroin addiction.

Lockyer is pandering to the wacky, enviro-nutcases in that state because his tenure as AG is over and he needs votes in November so he can continue to suckle at the public teat as state treasurer.

What's in Ed's CD player this week?

I know you're out there in your office or riding around in your car thinking, "I wonder what Ed's listening to on his CD player this week."

Well it's not the most cutting edge music there is, but it is an eclectic collection if nothing else...some new stuff, some old stuff, and some obscure stuff.

Here it is, in no particular order,

Forever Blue -- Chris Isaak
One by One -- Foo Fighters
This is a Recording -- Flim and the BB's
Copy of a bootlegged Rush concert
Outlandos d'Amour -- Police
C'mon C'mon -- Sheryl Crow
White Ladder -- David Gray
Uh-Oh -- David Byrne
Morph the Cat -- Donald Fagan
Cascade -- Peter Murphy

Leave your list in the comment area for public consumption and ridicule. We're looking for the most recent 5-10 CD's only...not your fav's...be honest.

The mouth of the south

Dumbest moves, Ted?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. invasion of Iraq was among the "dumbest moves of all time" that ranks with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the German invasion of Russia, billionaire philanthropist Ted Turner said on Tuesday.

Judging by the paucity of cars in the parking lot at Ted's Montana Grill in my neighborhood, trying to convince Americans to consume buffalo burgers ranks among the dumbest moves ever in my opinion.

See, even I will give a liberal a fair shake

Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Monday suggested taxing carbon dioxide emissions instead of employees' pay in a bid to stem global warming.
"Penalizing pollution instead of penalizing employment will work to reduce that pollution," Gore said in a speech at New York University School of Law.
The pollution tax would replace all payroll taxes, including those for Social Security and unemployment compensation, Gore said. He said the overall level of taxation, would remain the same.
"Instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees it would discourage business from producing more pollution," Gore said.

OK, forget for a minute that man-made global warming is a myth and that taxing polluters will not stop the globe from cycling naturally in the warming direction. Is Al Gore, liberal Democrat, seriously suggesting the elimination of all federal payroll taxes? And then further suggesting that pollution taxes on business would replace all that loss of revenue?
The progressive income tax is the lifeblood of Democrats. It let's them punish achievment and reward loafing in return for votes. So when a liberal suggests eliminating all federal payroll taxes, then I cannot help but give a listen.

"But Ed", you accurately point out, "corporations don't pay taxes, only consumers pay taxes at the retail level. Corporations always pass on any taxes in the form of higher retail prices. They are called embedded taxes. So either you have more money to spend or you have higher retail prices. Isn't that a wash financially?"

Right you are. But I would still rather have no federal income tax burden and have a retail purchasing choice, than have low relative prices and the federal government continue to seize 30% of my income before it ever gets to me. Gore's idea sounds nice, but it will never fly because 1. companies can always relocate to avoid the pollution tax, 2. if companies successfully reduce emissions to the point that the government is no longer taking in enough revenue, what pays for the federal budget? and 3. seriously, when has a Democrat ever reduced, much less eliminated, any tax? Then, just when Gore seemed to be on a role, he just couldn't help himself from falling back in his tired, idiotic Kyoto disaster of an idea...

Gore, a longtime environmentalist, also proposed that the United States re-join any successor to the U.N. Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming beyond 2012.

Poor old Al, he tries so hard to remain relevant but he just can't manage to be taken seriously by anybody any more.

Fear is a powerful motivator

The Senate seems to have finally seen the light on what the American voters demand from them on immigration...and fear of losing their seats in 2 months has forced them to act...

Senate set to consider fence bill
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 19, 2006

The Senate, which has been the major obstacle to strict border-security legislation this year, will take up a bill this week that calls for constructing 700 more miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"It's time to secure the border with Mexico," Majority Leader Bill Frist said last night before filing the parliamentary motions to force the House-passed bill onto the Senate floor in a final effort to get a major immigration bill on the president's desk before the elections.

It's about time Senators, awash in the power of incumbency, realized that they derive power from voters and that it's not a birthright. Don't be fooled into thinking Bill Frist is doing the right thing for the right reasons...he's not. His constituents will unceremoniously toss the bum out of office if he doesn't close the border first. But at least he's doing the right thing.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid, said the move "smacks of desperation" and was a "clear repudiation of President Bush's call for comprehensive legislation." The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was easily approved by the House last week, contains none of the "comprehensive" measures that President Bush, Democrats and some Senate Republicans have demanded. Those include provisions to grant citizenship rights to about 10 million illegal aliens living in the country and a guest-worker program that would usher hundreds of thousands more foreign laborers into the U.S.

See, the Democrats want desperately to legalize 10 million aliens (i.e. ready-made Democratic voters) and invite in hundreds of thousands more who would not only demand social services courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, but also eventually demand citizenship as well. The more impoverished and destitute the voting base, the better it is for Democrats, because poor people like to be given other people's stuff they didn't earn. Democrats are only too happy to exploit this by raising taxes on the producers and achievers and redistributing it to the underclass of consumers who produce nothing, in return for votes.

"Border security is the essential first step of any effort to enact immigration reform," Mr. Frist said. "Only when we have convinced the American people of our commitment to securing our borders will we be able to reach a consensus on comprehensive immigration reform."

Let's get the fence done first and then tackle this disastrous amnesty program later. If the Senate passes this bill in the same form as the House version, without comprehensive reform attached, I predict the Republicans will reap the benefits in November and may even increase their majority. The added benefit is that it will force craven Democrats like Harry Reid, to show that they are in direct opposition to what a vast majority of Americans want in terms of national immigration policy.

Total insanity!

I saw something last week that totally blew me away.

I was in Jackson, TN doing some traffic engineering work for a friend which included recording the movement of vehicles through intersections. I was standing on the sidewalk, maybe 100 feet from a busy intersection doing my work. In the direction past my position the divided, four-lane road went slightly down hill and straight for 0.6 miles before turning gently left. There was very little development, if any, in that direction...clear road, no driveways as far as you could see.

The light controlling traffic coming toward my position turned red and a motorcycle stopped followed by maybe 10 cars, all going straight through the intersection. The motorcycle was one of those neon-colored, fast rockets with the super fat back tires. The cyclist was looking at me the whole time he waited...probably, like everybody who drove by that day, trying to figure out what I was doing. When the light changed, he accelerated like only those bikes can followed by the other vehicles. As he went by me, he looked directly at me, nodded, and then executed a standing wheelie for the next 0.3 miles(I went back and drove it to see how far he held the wheelie)...accelerating the whole time. I don't just mean the bike was on it's back tire, he was standing up on the foot posts while riding on the back tire for that distance. He had probably a quarter mile of separation from the pack before he finally put it back down and made the turn.

I was like, "That guy is totally out of control! Absolutely unbelievable!" I've never seen anything that crazy on city streets before.

I have to say though, that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen...incredibly dangerous and stupid...but cool!

Abdul has his shorts in a bunch

Hyper-sensitive Muslims around the world, enraged by the Pope's quotation which associated Islam with violence, reacted with, you guessed it........violence!

I paraphrased this account from Christopher Hitchens over at Slate...

Ratzinger quoted from the 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II. This potentate supposedly once engaged in debate—the precise time and place is unknown—with an unnamed Persian. The subject was Christianity and Islam. The Byzantine asks the Persian to "show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The Pope then editorialized thusly "to convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death."

So the purveyors of the religion of peace don't appreciate the insinuation by the Pope that Islam is a religion which, as practiced by millions of radicals around the world, advocates the violent conversion or subjugation of infidels. So to prove to the world that they are peace-loving, happy-go-lucky, pacifists, they murder a nun, and attack Christian churches in Gaza.

This is a repeat of the idiotic cartoon fiasco from a year ago. These radicals are peering in every nook and cranny for something to spark their rage. When will the world stop playing patty-cake with the terrorists and apologizing every time somebody says something that irritates them? Who cares what irritates them? They want to kill us whether or not they're irritated. Sadly, it's going to take another successful attack in this country to focus the minds of the appeasers on the Left, on the fact that this is a war between civilizations, and not a problem solved by throwing tax dollars, or dialogue, or appeasment, or diplomacy at it. This is a problem best solved by throwing ordinance, and lots of it.

business before blogging

I was out of town the last three days of last week without access to a computer and didn't get a chance to post this weekend (too many home projects) so as soon as I catch up with the news, I'll post my analysis and remind you how horrible the Democrats are and how soullessly craven liberals are in general.

Until then, consider this an open thread and comment on any topic you like.

Rage against the government machine!!!

Obviously, readers of TRR are highly intelligent, sophisticated, and educated, and don't need to be reminded about the absolute necessity of kids being educated. That being said...

Who doesn't know that you absolutely have to finish high school, at the very least, if you want to have any chance at all of providing for yourself and a family? Shockingly, there remain people in America who don't believe it. Here are some easy to understand statistics that illustrate 1. just why it is imperative that your child finish HS and 2. that the American public education system is atrocious...

WASHINGTON - Dropping out of high school has its costs around the globe, but nowhere steeper than in the United States.

Adults who don't finish high school in the U.S. earn 65 percent of what people who have high school degrees make, according to a new report comparing industrialized nations. No other country had such a severe income gap. 65%---that statistic alone should convince the unconvinced to make their kids finish school. But there's more...

Adults without a high school diploma typically make about 80 percent of the salaries earned by high school graduates in nations across Asia, Europe and elsewhere. Countries such as Finland, Belgium, Germany and Sweden have the smallest gaps in earnings between dropouts and graduates. That's because those listed are quasi-socialist, or outright socialist, countries. Socialism, as opposed to capitalism, doesn't reward hard work, achievement, determination, and self-motivation. Instead it rewards laziness, unproductivity, dependence, and loafing. Those countries punish the achievers through extremely high taxation and they give the money to the non-achievers because it makes them feel good about themselves to do so. Where's the motivation in Sweden to achieve and earn if the government is only going to take it away and give it to your degenerate, loafing neighbor and you both end up with the same lifestyles?

The new report says 44 percent of adults without high school degrees in the United States have low incomes that is, they make half of the country's median income or less.

The disparity is more pronounced in the United States, Ischinger said, partly because the U.S. labor market is more flexible. Other nations protect people with weak education qualifications through regulations or tax systems that favor the low skilled, she said.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, the United States more richly rewards those who go to college.
An adult with a university degree in the U.S. earns, on average, 72 percent more than someone with a high school degree. That's a much bigger difference than in most countries. That's because capitalism rewards achievement, hard work, and determination...as it should.

And here's the big stat that tells you the problem with American public education...
When it comes to money, the nation remains a big spender.
From elementary school through college, the United States spends an average of $12,023 per student. That's higher than in all countries in the comparison except for Switzerland.

We spend more than anybody, yet by the time our kids reach high school they are performing academically toward the bottom of the scale. What does that tell you? It tells you that spending money doesn't educate. Of course the teachers unions will whine that it's evidence that we're not spending enough, but look at every other country in the world. They have huge classes, fewer teachers, by far fewer administration personnel, and much smaller budgets.

They educate where we indoctrinate. They teach the fundamental subjects like hard math, classic language, and history while our kids are having their self-esteem massaged, are made to regurgitate wacky environmental dogma, and are being programmed to look to their loving, paternal government for the solutions to all of societies ills.

No wonder home schooling is so popular and why those kids perform above all but the smartest public school attendees. Parents have control over the curriculae whereas in government schools, insidious, overpaid bureaucrats can infuse useless, big-government, liberal dogma into your child's studies.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!!

It's simple economics, stupid!

I've said it before and I'll say it again now, the price of gas domestically is a simple function of global supply and demand economics.

Motorists are seeing the sharpest decline in gasoline prices in nearly a year.(CAMARILLO, Calif.-AP) August 28 -- According to the Lundberg Survey, prices dropped an average of 15 cents a gallon in the past two weeks. Analyst Trilby Lundberg credits the price drop to abundant gasoline supplies and lower demand.

Post Katrina, when gas prices were rising faster than hemlines in the 60's, democrats pretended to be indignantly cross with "big oil" for unfairly reaping record profits. Now that prices are falling, where are the hysterical democrats to praise oil companies for their willingness to lose money? Deceitful democrats knew perfectly well that oil companies didn't set the market price of gasoline, yet they relied on voter ignorance and apathy so they could demonize yet another successful American industry to try to convince gullible Americans that they[democrats] were trying to help out the little guy. Oil companies don't control the price of crude oil any more than chickens control the price of eggs. Democrats intentionally deceive Americans every day into believing that all corporations are inherently evil, despite the fact the each of them is heavily invested in corporations, and from whom they reap huge personal profits.

You see the whole goal for democrats is to use every opportunity, every issue, every one of life's problems you face to get you, the American voter, to mistrust business and industry and to rely instead on big government(ie, democrats) to solve all of life's problems. Who creates the most jobs, wealth, and prosperity in the world...governments? Of course not. Business and industry do those things amazingly well and efficiently. Contrary to Democrats' guileful, self-serving rants, government never created any wealth for anybody...it only gives them just enough of other people's money to keep them from relying on themselves, and therefore beholden to democrats come election time.

Democrats cannot be relied on for anything except to do that which serves their political interests that day. When gas prices are falling, the oil companies don't make good targets for self-righteous, finger-pointing democrats. If prices return to higher levels, look for the democrats to weep and wail about how regular Americans are getting shafted by Big Oil and how government should step in and regulate gas prices on behalf of the little guy. When that happens, think back to the 70's when the disastrous Jimmy Carter regulated prices and the country almost crumbled from the shortages it created. Democrats crave political power and they will employ any means to trick you into giving it to them. Don't let them get away with it.

Take me to your leader

Reports of UFO's crack me up...

SEATTLE – Around 7:30 p.m. Monday, KING 5 News' phones started to ring as viewers reported seeing a ball of flames shooting across the skies of Western Washington.

KING 5 News contacted the Air Force, FAA, National Weather Service and other local authorities, but could not immediately find an explanation for what streaked across the sky and what was caught on tape.

By process of elimination, this thing is probably not a meteor/comet or other re-entry object burning up as it enters Earth's atmosphere, since it made left turn (clearly visible in the picture). I haven't seen too many weather/observation balloons with fiery tails moving with high velocity so it's probably not that. We know that the space shuttle remains docked with the ISS and guys are EVAing so it's probably not another shuttle disaster. I keep an eye on Jane's Defense Weekly and they've said nothing about experimental Air Force craft being tested...besides, they test those things at night at Edwards AFB, not in the Pacific Northwest.

There remains only one explanation for the mysterious light streaking across the evening skies...the Mother Ship has come to take Cindy Sheehan home to whatever planet she's from.

Feckless dunderhead

Lincoln Chafee is dumber than a sack of doorknobs and he must go...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee scrubbed its planned vote on Thursday on keeping John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, as a key Republican remained undecided on the nomination by President George W. Bush.

Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the only Republican who has not publicly committed to supporting Bolton, sought more time, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said. Chafee, locked in a tough re-election bid, faces a Republican primary election on Tuesday.

Bolton's opponents also say his harsh criticisms of the United Nations make him unsuitable for the job.

Bolton's harsh criticism of the UN is precisely the reason he's perfect for the job. The treachery of Democrats(and RINO's) who worship at the global UN alter knows no bounds. I hope Chafee loses badly in his primary election tomorrow. America needs a bull-in-a-china-shop ambassador to the UN like John Bolton. He's our only means of protecting our interests from an extremely hostile and corrupt international body. That a Republican senator would delay Bolton's nomination to the Senate floor for a vote in order to curry favor with liberal hometown voters is traitorous and derelict in his duty. Liberals aren't going to vote for him on the basis of the Bolton issue, and conservatives who voted for him will be incensed that he abandoned the principles for which they cast votes for him.

What a faithless idiot!

Dick doesn't play that

As members of the media go, Tim Russert is less irritating than most, but this week on Meet the Press, even he tried to get the dasterdly Dick Cheney to admit to leftist criticisms of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, domestic anti-terror programs, and the GWOT as a whole by parroting the Democrats talking points concerning the Administration, but Cheney wasn't having any of it and clearly set Tim straight...

MR. RUSSERT: Three hundred billion dollars spent so far. The Congressional Budget Office says if we stay in Iraq through the end of 2009, it’ll be a half trillion dollars. Could that $300 billion have not been better spent securing our nation against terrorists rather than in Iraq?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, Tim, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of securing the nation against terrorists. You know, we’re here on the fifth anniversary, and there has not been another attack on the United States. And that’s not an accident, because we’ve done a hell of a job here at home, in terms of homeland security, in terms of the terrorist surveillance program we’ve put in place, in terms of the financial tracking program we put in place, and because of our detainee policy, where we, in fact, were able to interrogate captured terrorists to get the kind of intelligence that has allowed us to disrupt...

MR. RUSSERT: But could it have been better spent?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I’m not sure that it could have been. I don’t know how much better you can do than no, no attacks for the last five years.

He's exactly right Tim. How much better can you do than %100?

Not to be disuaded by the facts, Russert persists...

MR. RUSSERT: But the Commission on 9/11 says that we get D’s and F’s.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: We have spent billions on homeland security. I don’t know how you can explain five years of no attacks, five years of successful disruption of attacks, five years of, of defeating the efforts of al-Qaeda to come back and kill more Americans. You’ve got to give some credence to the notion that maybe somebody did something right.

I admire Cheney's no-nonsense, straight talk when it comes to dealing with members of the hostile media who relentlessly pursue a predetermined conclusion. Unlike most politicians, he couldn't care less whether they like him or not. To Cheney, the only person he has to please is George Bush.

Where were you?

There are a lot of historical world events regarding which people remember exactly where they were and what they were doing at that precise moment. I was a little young for the Kennedy and King assassinations, I was 7 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and there just haven't been any seminal news-moments since that are seared into my brain...until 9.11.2001.

I was taking a shortcut to work through a hospital lobby near my lab. There was a wall-mounted TV and maybe 10 people were gathered around watching something. I stopped just out of curiosity and watched the coverage of the first plane that had hit the WTC. We all chatted about what an incredible flying mistake it must have taken to mess up that badly...until the second plane hit. By then, there were 40 people standing around watching the coverage and there was an audible gasp at the realization that it was an attack and not an accident. I'll never forget the looks on 40 faces as we stared at each other, trying to wrap our brains around the possibility that multiple groups of hijackers had managed to fly commercial planes full of passengers into the tallest buildings in New York.

It's important to remember the seething rage we felt that day and to stay focused on the fight against the terrorists. To that end, please take a moment and think back to 9.11.01 and recount for us where you were, what you were doing and what you were thinking as events unfolded. I'll post all the stories in a new window so others can read them.

File under..."Lost Causes"

Who couldn't have predicted this outcome?

FRONTERA, Calif. (AP) - Leslie Van Houten, the former Charles Manson follower convicted of taking part in a murderous rampage that terrorized Los Angeles 37 years ago, was denied parole Thursday for a 16th time.

Well, when you accompany the single most famous mass murderer in American history on a killing spree that included a pregnant woman, chances are you won't see the light of day except on your one hour out of every 24 when they let you out of "the hole".

"But Ed", you whine, "where's the legal justice? People commit much worse crimes in this country, serve their time, and then are released back into society. Shouldn't we give her a chance to prove that she's rehabilitated and no longer a threat to her fellow citizens."

No argument here as to the unfair justice that our legal system occasionally doles out. That being said there are certain crimes so horrific and shocking that they transcend the commission of the crime itself, and take on a life of their own in the American psyche. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. The Manson murders fit that description perfectly and nobody remotely associated with the killings will ever step foot outside prison. There are plenty of Americans who've committed far worse crimes who will walk at some point but not this bunch.

John Hinkley, who shot an American President, has a better chance of getting out than do associates of Charles Manson.

It's Friday...shall we play a game?

If you're a fan of this actor, you'll get this one.

Luna: What do you believe in?
Miles: Sex and death. Two things that come once in my lifetime. But, at least after death you're not nauseous.

Probably not that hard, but I couldn't resist using it.

Guess away good readers....


UPDATE: Seriously? Nobody can get this one? Either you guys have become lame or I've lost all my readers. It's not that hard.

Nuttier than squirrel poop!

So, now we have Cindy Sheehan's admission that she is totally unhinged...

Cindy Sheehan: Confessions of a Dangerous Mom

The antiwar icon admits she has fantasized about going back in time and killing the infant George W. Bush, thereby preventing the Iraq War. In fact, she reveals, her son's death in that war almost drove her to take her own life: "Every night I had to restrain myself from taking my entire bottle of sleeping pills instead of just one."

The haircut alone is enough to warrant contemplating suicide.

What a raving moonbat and an abysmal, disaster of a life! She is a shameful representative of parents of fallen soldiers.

Words to describe Cindy Sheehan: lunatic, demented, dingy, ingrate, unhinged, unpatriotic, shameful anti-Americanism...you get the picture. Just when you thought a person couldn't get any kookier, add to that, illusions of time-travel and infanticide.

The sooner she falls off the radar screen and into obscurity, or a deep hole, the better. Although I have to admit, the material is priceless...you can't make this stuff up folks.

Dumb Hippies

I just love a good stupid hippie story...

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Police arrested three people in connection with drug-laced cookies that sent more than a dozen people to a hospital.

Up to 20 UC Berkley students reported experiencing severe medical symptoms after eating what were thought to be marijuana-laced cookies, Alameda County Fire Department Battalion Chief Dan O'Hara said.

It was unknown whether the marijuana was tainted, it was some other substance, or they simply ate too many of the laced cookies.

The students complained of symptoms such as anxiety, chest pains and shortness of breath.
Baking and eating marijuana-laced cookies after selecting rooms at the co-op is part of a tradition, according to assistant student housing manager Nathan Danielsen.

Seriously? People still live in co-ops? Oh well...I guess it wouldn't be Berkeley without smelly hippies making themselves sick from drug experimentation.

Preserving his legacy

It's about time somebody aired the truth about Bill Clinton in a way that removes all doubt as to his incompetence as President...

WASHINGTON - A furious Bill Clinton is warning ABC that its mini-series "The Path to 9/11" grossly misrepresents his pursuit of Osama bin Laden - and he is demanding the network "pull the drama" if changes aren't made.

Clinton pointedly refuted several fictionalized scenes that he claims insinuate he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to care about bin Laden and that a top adviser pulled the plug on CIA operatives who were just moments away from bagging the terror master, according to a letter to ABC boss Bob Iger obtained by The Post.

The former president also disputed the portrayal of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as having tipped off Pakistani officials that a strike was coming, giving bin Laden a chance to flee.

"The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has the duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely," the four-page letter said.

The movie is set to air on Sunday and Monday nights. Monday is the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Based on the 9/11 commission's report, the miniseries is also being provided to high schools as a teaching aid - although ABC admits key scenes are dramatizations.

The Clinton presidency can accurately be described as eight years of Bill Clinton in pursuit of exactly three things: 1--preserving the Clinton presidential legacy at all costs. 2--laying the groundwork for a Hillary presidency. And 3--broads!

This movie, based on the 9/11 Commission Report, which is absurdly friendly to the Clinton administration, apparently paints the Clintons in less than flattering colors. No wonder Bill is peeved. The movie might just clue some otherwise ignorant Americans into the truth, which is that the Clinton administration was the most currupt, distracted, and ineffectual presidency in history. That they could have had Bin Laden and chose not to because of the Monica issue and that it didn't poll well that day, is incredible, bordering on treacherous.

Bill Clinton should give up trying to repair his legacy. He will be remembered by historians as a do-nothing, skirt-chaser who embarassed himself, his Party, and his country. He lowered the dignity of the office of the President to gutter level and reduced the political discourse in Washington and partisan sniping to levels unheardof previously.

Next on Pay-per-View...

In a New York minute...I would pay cash money to watch this...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeating his previous remark that "those who reject debate fear their nation's intellect and rationalism", emphasized here on Wednesday, "We are ready for a debate with the Americans at UN General Assembly." According to the Presidential Office Media Department, Ahmadinejad made the comments at Wednesday session of his cabinet, further reiterating, "The American side can even take part in the debate side by side with his advisors, and as a full team, if they wish so." Referring to his upcoming US visit to take part at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, The IRI President considered that occasion as a good opportunity for holding a debate, with his US counterpart, so that "the entire world nations, particularly the Americans would, directly and without any censorship watch it."

Of course I know that this will never happen, nor should it. President Bush debating a raving, Islamofascist lunatic in front of the hostile UN would be a no-win, unmitigated disaster for Bush but what a spectacle it would be!

Debating terrorists is not much different than negotiating with them. It would give him legitimacy. Of course, the nuclear weapon they will soon have gives him a certain degree of legitimacy too, in the sense that he would then have to be taken much more seriously.

When Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad address the UN General Assembly, to huge applause no doubt, would somebody please convince me why we host this idiotic, utterly corrupt, and freedom-hating institution which has never accomplished one single thing of importance internationally.

I wish for just once an American politician would stand up and call a spade a spade when it comes to the useless UN. Sadly our politicians have bought into the whole PC, global community nonsense. For that reason we'll have to endure our main stream media fawning all over these two despots as if they were Hollywood celebrities. The liberal's embracing of foreign leaders who very publically hate America sickens me...and I will not watch or support it.

Newt's got a plan?

I know this is sort of a long article to read but it's well worth it. Newt Gingrich has a plan of 11 things Republicans should do to re-win the American people back to conservatism. Check it out...

http://www.humanevents.com/winningthefuture.php?id=16863

I know Newt is considering a run for President and whether you would vote for him or not, he's clearly one of the smartest men in Washington. He's got some personal baggage that would probably squelch a serious bid for the big house but then again, since when did we Americans care about honesty, integrity, morals, fidelity, or class in our national command authority...we voted for Bill Clinton....TWICE!!!

Seriously, this is a sure-fire plan to win back the confidence of the American people if only the Republicans in Washington had the guts to push for these things in an election year.

Cartoon-gate....again.

For how long do you suppose these nut-jobs will keep this up over those stupid cartoons?

Cleric calls for Danish newspaper’s closure
Sunni leader wants editor that published Mohammad cartoons jailed

COPENHAGEN - Egypt’s top Sunni Muslim cleric on Friday called for the editor of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish daily that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, to be imprisoned and for his newspaper to be closed down.
The cartoons were first published in Jyllands-Posten last September and then reprinted by other media in Europe and the United States after Muslim protests began early this year.

“The satirical drawings of the Prophet Mohammad are one of the most serious crimes ever committed. The editor should be imprisoned for one, two or three years,” Grand Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi told Danish newspaper Berlingske in an interview.

I think the crazy, whining sheikhs in Denmark have worn just about all the tread off this story that they can. Seriously, has the country of Denmark been so hospitable and welcoming to these wacky zealots that this 9 month old cartoon controversy still riles them up? You would think they could complain about not enough jobs for disenfranchized and unassimilated Muslim yutes, or improper Muslim dietary offerings in the public school system, or at least something new and ridicule-worthy like how the white, harlot women of Copenhagen tempt and taunt reverent Muslim men by not properly covering their exposed skin with appropriate Islamic attire.

My question is why would conservative Muslims immigrate to socially liberal scandinavian countries in the first place?

It's almost as if they are looking for ways to be offended by their non-Muslim hosts...Hmmmm.

I'm officially off the reservation...

If you ever needed a reason to be in favor of encumbency defeat this November, this is it...

G.O.P. Sets Aside Work on Immigration
By CARL HULSE and RACHEL L. SWARNS

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.

President Bush had made comprehensive changes in immigration laws a priority, even making the issue the subject of a prime-time address, but House Republicans have been determined not to move ahead with any legislation that could be construed as amnesty for anyone who entered the country illegally. They held hearings around the country in recent weeks to contrast their enforcement-only bill with a Senate measure that could lead to citizenship for some.
“I don’t see how you bridge that divide between us and the Senate,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. “I don’t see it happening. I really don’t.”

It is obvious from reading this article that Republicans are more concerned with preserving their seats in Congress by not doing anything that might endanger them electorally, than taking on the problem of illegal immigration head on and doing something positive regardless of how unpopular it might be with illegal aliens. Every day that goes by without closing the border to illegal immigration is another day when thousands sneak in to take advantage of liberal benefits we shower upon them. That U.S. legislators have sat on their hands for so long and done nothing is abhorent to me, and deserving of electoral defeat. Republicans can blame nobody but themselves for this inaction as they control all three bodies(legislative and executive) needed to accomplish serious, effective immigration reform.

A turn-over in legislative control of at least one house of Congress would serve three useful purposes: 1. It would seriously focus the minds of remaining conservatives in both houses. Afraid of voter ire come the next election cycle, they would hopefully accomplish something on immigration during the next session. 2. It would force the craven Democrats who do nothing but snipe at Republicans to offer solutions of their own. Everybody knows the Democrats have no solutions and the voters would see this. 3. With a divided legislative branch there would certainly be congressional gridlock in Washington. Every day gone by with Washington gridlock is another day gone by without our taxes raised or our freedoms restricted.

That's right folks. I just talked myself into embracing the idea of democratic victories in November. Something has got to shake these guys up and as long as Republicans remain in power, they will see no reason to do anything substantive which might make them electorally vulnerable.

$175 a ticket...for karaoke?

This is just laughably pathetic. These guys have become cliche's of themselves...

Sunday, Sept. 3, 2006 10:38 p.m. EDT
Mick Jagger Using Teleprompter

It's not easy being 63 -- just ask Mick Jagger.
The aging rocker is using a Teleprompter-type device called an Autocue in the battle against rock'n'roll amnesia, accoding to the Times of London newspaper.
The onstage monitors scrolls through the lyrics to the Rolling Stones' classic songs in time with Jagger's delivery. It even tells him the name of the city where he is performing, and cues his between-song ad-libs, the Times reported.

When you've done so much heroin and LSD that you can no longer remember the words to your own songs, your "ad libs", or even the city you're in...isn't it time to hang it up and stop embarassing yourselves?

Hillary lands the coveted air-head endorsement

Would somebody please tell me in whose sycophantic world does this rate as news?...


Janet Jackson backs Hillary Clinton for White HouseSep 04 10:39 AM US/Eastern

US pop superstar Janet Jackson hopes Hillary Clinton will become the first woman president of the United States.
"Hillary Clinton as president -- that would be great," Jackson said in an interview with German press agency DPA Monday. "Then she could show all those people who wouldn't trust a woman with such a job."

Jackson, who is currently promoting her new album "20 Y.O.", declined to criticise US President George W. Bush directly, saying only: "I am not satisfied with the situation in this world. I hate war!

What is she yammering about? Liberals aren't the only political group to be in favor of a female President. Every conservative I know would love to have a woman be the President. Where does she think all the support for a Condi Rice nomination come from? Blacks? Nope. The three members of NOW? Nope. It comes from conservatives from every walk of life. Nobody thinks a woman can't do the job...but it has to be the right woman. And the right woman certainly is not Hillary.

JJ is nothing if not a ditsy, vapid, irrelevant air-head. And to save my own life I cannot figure out why her endorsement of HRC counts as newsworthy. Now if she choreographed another wardrobe malfunction at the democratic convention(for which she is shamelessly lobbying here)...that would be worth a write-up.

Crikey!!!

Man, it was a drag to wake up to this news on Labor Day...

Television personality and environmentalist Steve Irwin has died from a stingray wound while filming off north Queensland.
Friends believe he may have died instantly when struck by a stingray as he filmed a sequence for his eight-year-old daughter Bindi's new TV series.

Irwin's friend of 20 years, Ferre De Deyne said Irwin had been struck by the stingray while filming. "The stingray just happened to be swimming around and out of the blue whacked his tail at him," he said.

Irwin had been filming a new documentary called Ocean's Deadliest with friend and manager John Stainton at Batt Reef, off Port Douglas about 11am.
"He came over the top of a stingray and the stingray's barb went up and went into his chest and put a hole into his heart," Mr Stainton said.

"It's likely that he possibly died instantly when the barb hit him, and I don't think that he ... felt any pain.
"He died doing what he loved best."

I used to watch Steve's show all the time with my son as he grew up. It was refreshing and fun to watch somebody be passionate about his job and love going to work every day doing something important.

I know what you're thinking. "But Ed, aren't you always the first one to callously ridicule people when they get killed or eaten by a wild animal?"

Why yes, I am, but this is different. If Joe Blow trudges carelessley through the bush and gets eaten by a crocodile, he deserves his fate and the ridicule heaped upon him by cynical people like me. Steve Irwin was a professional animal handler. He was knowledgable, careful and aware of potential danger, and, it's what he got paid to do. Steve Irwin getting killed by a sting ray is like a forest ranger getting killed fighting a forest fire. They both have a job to do and they both have to take calculated risks to do the job. Dying while performing one's job is not the same thing as an amateur stupidly and unnecessarily putting himself in danger and paying for it with his life.

Let me begin this post, on my wife's advice, with a disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been a communist sympathasizer. Having said that, considering the rampant liberal activism that infects many American courts, this story sort of caught my eye...

8 men fined after friend drinks himself to death
China court: Pals made man drink too much, must pay $25,000 to parents

BEIJING - A Chinese court has ordered a group of eight friends to pay compensation after a guest they made drink too much collapsed and died, state media said on Friday.
The 20-year-old man, Luo Xiaoming, drank too much brandy and spirits at a family banquet over Chinese New Year in the eastern province of Zhejiang, Xinhua news agency said.
“The court’s autopsy report showed that Luo, who was a company security guard, died of alcohol poisoning. Completely drunk, he vomited and then suffocated,” Xinhua said.
His parents sued the friends for 200,000 yuan ($25,140) compensation, “but the court considered the amount excessive, saying that adults must use common sense on festive occasions.”
The court ordered the friends to pay 35,192 yuan instead and found them to blame for making Luo drink too much, it said.

Well what do you know? The communists, citing "common sense", actually reduced the award amount to something reasonably in line with the offenders' actions. I hate to hold up the evil commies as a shining example of proper jurisprudence, but the U.S. courts should get a clue and use the "common sense" standard as a means of assigning liability and compensation in this country. The difference is that China doesn't have way out of control lawyers who game the system to squeeze every penny from every defendent regardless of liability.

In case, like me, you were looking for a reason to vote conservative in the upcoming elections('06 and '08), the need for a federally appointed, conservative judiciary should suffice. The neocons aren't doing much to advance the ideas of traditional conservatism these days to the point that it's difficult to distinguish between the two parties. The one thing I believe you can count on Republicans for however, is the appointment of good conservative judges.

Maybe this judge in China is a closet Republican...think we could get him to immigrate? We could use some common sense on the bench.

It's tough to be Al

Who did Al Gore have to bribe to get on the MTV-VMA's? It's not that videos are cool anymore or that anybody has watched them since the 80's. Why in the world would Al Gore pick this audience to bore with made-up, global warming gobbledegook, when he could bore any audience in the world with it?

Since the Atlantic cooling trend has diminished the forcast for the hurricane season this year, poor Al can't seem to find an audience who will listen to his anti-industrialization tirades without snickering.

Labor Day weekend blogging

There's a lot going on in the world so I'll be posting stuff over the long weekend. If you can drag yourself away from the grill long enough to check in from home occasionally, there should be new stuff to read.

Expensive but very cool...

This is going to be fun to watch...

Sep 1, 2:28 AM (ET)By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA on Thursday gave a multibillion-dollar contract to build a manned lunar spaceship to Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the aerospace leader that usually builds unmanned rockets.
The nation's space agency plans to use the Orion crew exploration vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet, take astronauts to the moon and perhaps to Mars. Unlike Apollo and earlier spacecraft perched atop rockets, it will be reusable. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019 for likely eight separate spaceships

My love of manned space travel is well documented here at TRR but 7.5Billion? They can't be serious. Is that just for the space vehicles? A program to ultimately send humans to Mars in 20-30 years will cost 100 times that.

As much as I love this stuff I have to question the usefullness of it. If they say that Mars will be terraformed, strip-mined of all it's useful ore and minerals, and that many corporations will get filthy rich, then I'm on board. Otherwise what's the point?