Better Posted Than Never...

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."

Warbloggers awards...

NYeT! Kofi must stay! He takes us out to lavish Saddam funded lunches! ... Mais non, says Jed ... But the DLC has not abandoned all logic quite yet...

A Eurabian update.

Did I mention that I'm a discardable Nazi object?

In a 1968 appearance at Harvard, Martin Luther King said, "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism." But Martin Luther King would not find a home at the United Nations or its allied nongovernmental human-rights organizations.

In sum, the divide is between the corrupt and the clean. And I know where Eurabia stands.

Some saying science: what you mean when you say I'm "mad as a hatter".

Today's MSM(idget) Watch

MSM rocket scientist at work here. And don't let my "From Dr. Newcomer's Evisceration of SeeBS" scroll away without reading it!

I found a great quote that pretty much nails my view of the situation: "Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for that rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge." -- Erwin Knoll

As an experienced computer scientist, I can assure you that Dr. Newcomer's evaluation is technically impressive.

Which leads me to that first-hand knowledge.

For instance, the "quotes" from me in the last half of this article were nearly made up from the whole cloth -- at least the quotes in paragraphs four and five were reasonably accurate (notice I didn't put scare quotes around the word quotes in the current sentence!).

And I have plenty of other instances of this in articles that thankfully aren't on the web any more.

But the most galling is when they just decide to throw every quote and idea out because it doesn't fit their pre-conceived story line. Sound familiar? You bet! And this is with "highly technical" journalists (scare quotes required) -- that is, journalists who write for publications sold to technologists and scientists.

And you know what? Before becoming initiated to the ways of "technical rags", I used to read them ra^ther quite a lot more too.

Which leads me to another quote: "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches becomes a journalist." -George Bernard Shaw (1856- 1950)

But of course that's different, somehow...

Nothing fails like failure...

Today's Polically Incorrect Recommendation

This morning Keith Wineman on KCOL pointed out that the word "Holiday" is derived from "Holy Days". Starting today, if I sense the need to proclaim a holiday it will be substantially "mispronounced" as well as filled with subversive thought.

And the book to go with it is Tammy Bruce's "The New Thought Police" which of course includes this 1984 quote: "The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about."

Give it to your favorite leftist relatives for a Holy Days gift ;)

Did I mention that Tammy's gay? But she'll have the leftists calling her a "queer" just like Clarence has them calling Blacks "stupid".

(Big) Bro^ther...

From Dr. Newcomer's Evisceration Of SeeBS

... defender David Hailey emerges the gem of the day:

A little-known feature of the U.S.S.R. under Communism was that when someone purchased a typewriter, it was delivered to the local police office. The people there took a razor blade and nicked various characters, then registered the owner, the serial number of the typewriter, and a complete sample of the typewritten output. Since the characters exhibited consistent errors, if a samizdat appeared, all that was necessary would be to compare the characters in the document in question with known samples from the registered typewriters, and the offending typewriter could be identified. This analysis required that the expected behavior, that characters always exhibited consistent defects, would be true. The government could at any time come in and type a new sample, and it was a crime to in any way have modified the type so that the type did not correspond to the "standard sample" for that typewriter. Since the government was not overly concerned with niceties of law we take for granted, anyone associated with, or who might have had access to, that typewriter could find themselves winning an all-expense-paid trip to the nearest gulag.

sa·miz·dat n. Literally, "self publishing" 1. a. The secret publication and distribution of government-banned literature in the former Soviet Union. b. The literature produced by this system. 2. An underground press.

Remember this?:

I can only repeat the painfully great Soviet dissident joke yet again: "The future is known, it's the past that keeps changing."

Did I mention that I do have an MSCS and I can vouch that Dr. Newcomer has this one signed, sealed and delivered? Sorry folks, but SeeBS' smelly little conspiracy is likely to come under withering fire again unless the "investigators" deliver a whole lot more than the portents currently indicate...

UPDATE: Gun shy????

UPDATED AGAIN: At half-time during the Super Bowl? ;)

Why Everything You Know About Social Security Reform

is wrong! Ain't none o' yew boys ... oh yeah, I mentioned that already ... NEVER MIND.

This makes my heart heavy too. Even though I have two boys -- who don't fully understand yet how lucky they are to live where they do...

Escape Innumeracy

and celebrate diversity!

Warning: Table 2 was missing when I read it but the text description of it seems sufficient to hold the argument...

"Ain't none o' yew boys got the sense to pee yer pants iff'n yer leg's on fire."

Eyeing the MSMemory Hole

Amazingly, Reuters actually carried ^this story about -- shall we say? -- potential problems in London though I'll bet dollars to donuts ^they ^thought hard about totally flushing it. It's down on ^their equivalent of ^the back page don't you know. Wouldn't want you to know we're actually at war or anything. Huh? What gap in lower Manhattan? Is ^there some problem?

And did I mention ^that we can now safely predict what a ridiculous whitewash ^the Eye's internal "investigation" of Ra^thergate will turn out to be? What? Talk to someone who actually knows something during an investigation? ^The ^throbbing returns.

And Hailey's comet comes up for air -- not smart enough to understand ^the ^thrashing he's been given by ^the good doc N. Who sums up ^the whole experience like ^this.

But of course, a farce must be met wi^th good humor...

SOME PERSPECTIVE on "going to war with the Army you have."

Deus ex machina in Iraq?

How You Can Really Help Wounded Troops

FROM HUGH'S BLOG:

Finally, from a naval officer I respect a great deal, an e-mail on how to aid wounded troops in the two weeks left before Christmas:

"Yellow ribbons tied around trees and red, white and blue stickers on the backs SUVs saying "Support our Troops" are things that make civilians feel good but do nothing for the men and women actually in uniform.

So please consider the following:

The number ONE request at Walter Reed hospital is phone cards. The government doesn't pay long distance phone charges and these wounded soldiers are rationing their calls home.

Many will be there throughout the holidays.

Really support our troops --Send phone cards of any amount to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

They say they need an "endless" supply of these -- any amount even $5 is greatly appreciated.

Walmart has good prices on AT&T cards, Sams Club is even better, if you are a member.

I am sure you would feel better about doing this, than to buy something for a third cousin, that would find it on the closet shelf six months later, and wonder where it came from.

Please pass this portion on, copy and paste it into your e-mail."

I'll be at Sam's this weekend with my wallet out -- please join me in doing so!

In The Big Picture

Thanks to "The Big Picture" for accepting my "Graphic Redux: The Local Root Cause" in this weeks Carnival of the Vanities. He even noticed the Last Jaw Dropper (over right) for extra credit so he's now over on the blogroll!

And thanks to Glenn for his constant support of COTV...

Natan On Democracy

An antidote to Victocrat negativity. But Ronald Reagan -- like most Conservatives -- knew nothing of course...

The Test

If you can read this post and not be absolutely shivering with rage at Eurabia then I would assert that you are a hateful misogynist pure and elemental.

Doesn't matter what you look like. Doesn't matter what you say otherwise. Doesn't matter how many buts you utter. You are a fully qualified cretin. PLEASE. LEAVE. NOW.

And if you're a female who doesn't pass this test then I'm just completely speechless. And that doesn't happen to me easily.

Did I mention that if you're going to probe me for hypocrisy on this one -- if you read a few entries down you may think up an indirect angle -- you will find yourself sorely disappointed and embarrassed.

Update on enlightened peas in a pod.

Scrappleface Homers On His MSM Watch Today

"And then American journalists can smugly celebrate the freedom of the press that Iraqi journalists will never know."

READ. AND. WEEP. (Hat tip Glenn)

Sadly, Mr. Bean proves libs don't know beans...

Da. It's The NYeT Victocrats Again...

You just gotta love the Victocrats. What else could good news about them be but a NEVER MIND.

UPDATED ALREADY: NYeT! NYeT! NYeT! Give us an order of 1968 weltanshauung!!!

In Memory Of Harry

In memory of my relative and friend Harry Ott -- a veteran of the Pacific Theatre. Thank God he survived and I was privileged to know him.

Today's Thoughts On Chomskyite Cluelessness Ruthlessness

Has it ever occurred to anyone that if the U.S. were as ruthless as we are accused of being by drooling Chomskyites that there'd be a whole lot more dead folks in Iraq and Afghanistan right now? Surely it can't be argued that we lack the firepower?

And did I forget to mention that there would be at least 6 million more of those world-dominating Jews still around to scheme with us nasty, ruthless Christians and fellow travelers?

And as further calibration, check out this little anecdote about David, my 7 year old:

Ruthlessly literate Dad that I am, I have a bad habit of letting David and Alex (age 6) pick out a reasonably-priced book for themselves on our frequent ruthless hot chocolate and pastry laden excursions to Barnes and Noble.

This time David picked out a book on FDR due to curiousity developed by various conversations we have had about WWII. It didn't take him long to come to Mom and point out that FDR had his picture taken with ruthless old Stalin and he couldn't believe that FDR would sit next to such a bad person.



She pointed out to him that good people often had to try to help bad people -- and upon a little further thought he put that together with my telling him many times that we nearly lost WWII by waiting so long to enter it and we had to ally with some ruthlessly bad people like Stalin to even keep our country given how bad things were.

Now if only Chomsky and his acolytes knew as much as my 7-year-old they'd turn into the pumpkins they ruthlessly deserve to be instead of spewing puerile drivel.

Did I mention that if we were actually ruthless we would have had multiple deep intelligence penetrations of Saddam's inner circle -- as opposed to the zero we had?

Oh -- and did I mention that the CIA still probably hasn't got enough ruthless Arabic speakers to fill a telephone booth?

Where's that ruthlessness again?

UPDATE: Here's a companion piece.

Did I forget to mention that French fiddling -- and more -- is all of a piece? Then I forgot to make sure you read this one by Wretchard...

Graphic Redux: The Local Root Cause

One of my favorite recent posts is "The Local Root Cause" and I have been remiss in showing you on how things ended up looking on my Outback:



Now you know you need to go read it don't you?

I haven't got the Greeley bumper sticker idea done yet though -- I feel it calling for more graphic creativity than I've been able to serve up. And no, it doesn't have to be based on cow graphics but thanks for the highly creative suggestion anyway :)

Oh yeah, and Bush actually came to visit Greeley near the end of the campaign so there. Put that in your stockyard and wade around in it.

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas...

Et voila...

A "Roe Effect" update.

Projection 301B: More Leftist Corruption -- And A Prescription

The Big Trunk sums up the sad state of attempting to engage the left in elections -- of ANY sort. He quotes Rocket Man thusly:

This is sickening, but typical. Kevin Aylward of Wizbang goes to a lot of trouble to set up a competition that is intended to recognize as many blogs as possible and introduce people to blogs they don't already know. It's done in a spirit of fun, and relies on a modicum of good faith among the participants. But liberals don't seem to be able to do anything honestly, to follow the most minimal standards of sportsmanship, or to do anything in a spirit of good will and good humor. Since Kevin hasn't designed the competition using national security-level safeguards against cheating, the liberals think it's OK to ruin the contest for everyone else by writing code that racks up thousands of fictitious votes for "their" blogs. Not only do they see nothing wrong with this, they brag about it openly.

I got to know Kevin during the Republican convention. He's a good guy and I know that he takes a lot of pride in the Weblog awards, and invests a lot of work in setting them up. Now he's been put in an impossible situation where he must either disqualify the liberal blogs en masse for cheating, or let them ruin the contest. Is this a big deal? No, but that's sort of the point. The liberals' instinct to cheat is so strong that they can't even participate in a fun little contest without trying to spoil it for everyone else. That's sad, but, as I said, it's also typical.

And then he closes with:

The impulse to cheat and destroy is natural -- we can of course observe it, for example, in the larger political picture to which Rocket Man alludes -- but it is ugly. In the rank ordering of human nature, it is low.

The existence or occurrence of wrongdoing does not prove that nature observes no moral distinctions. Rather, the distinction among the types of men and behavior is the impetus for our desire to learn the right, and to practice it. We must avail ourselves of education to learn that there is such a thing as good for man by nature, to learn what it is, to practice it, and to overcome the temptation to do wrong.

Otherwise we run the risk of ending up, morally speaking, shrivelled runts of men like the readers of Markos Moulitsas. (With apologies to Paul Simon for borrowing the heading above.)

This continuing lunatic drivel about how corrupt the Right is can only be understood as projection of the basest kind. This just disgusts me to no end.

I've been re-reading Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" -- what a classic book for improving your life both at work and at home as well as a surprising history lesson due to its original publication date (the current edition has been updated somewhat but retains much of the original flavor).

I have become convinced that no leftist has EVER read it. They would simply not behave so badly if they had -- it's that powerful of a book. The paperback edition is relatively cheap -- give one to every leftist loon you know for Christmas.

Another option I recommend strongly in this vein is Czeslaw Milosz' "The Captive Mind". While not a personal development book per se, it's one of the few winners of the Nobel Prize for literature that's really worth it's stuff as a damning and insightful indictment of the totalitarian mind. It's one of the few books with a rep for moderating leftists if not outright conversions.

And for the recalcitrant ones, give them BOTH. Even if their minds are unsalvageable due to years of Chomskyite puerility, you can rest with the knowledge that you gave it your best try.