Columbia's Newest (Honorary) Alumnus!

A Ship Of Fools

I present to you Mr. Christopher Hill, just back from the Six Party Talks....


And while I'm on the topic of appeasement, here's an old video originally targeted against the foreign policy of the Clinton administration. Now, it seems, the Bush administration has adopted those same policies (at least when it comes to North Korea).



Sad, but true. Kumbaya, indeed.

Sanctions And North Korea

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military and intelligence community have been tracking several shipments of material they believe have left North Korea and are destined for Syria or may have already landed there, a Pentagon official confirmed.

The monitoring has been taking place for the past several weeks, he said.

The official could not confirm several recent news reports that nuclear material from North Korea has arrived in Syria and was the potential target of a recent Israeli airstrike there.

In fact, he said none of the information he had reviewed as part of his job indicated any nuclear material was involved.

Some of the material is believed to have been high-grade metals that could be used in weapons such as missiles or solid-fuel rocket technology.

But "there is concern with shipments going into the region and with their eventual arrival in Syria," the official said.

The United States is also looking into the possibility material had been shipped from North Korea to Iran and traveled overland into Syria, he said, adding there were indications a ship had docked in Syria recently. [Emphasis added.]

Huh. So much for U.N. sanctions, then. As if sane minds didn't already understand the futility of the thing.

The thing that really strikes me about the CNN article is that boldface bit in the last paragraph. Take a look at this map of the Middle East:



So you tell me. How does something get from A) Iran to B) Syria overland?

Right. It would have to go through either Turkey or Iraq! (Actually, it could get there through Kuwait and Saudia Arabia, too, if it went through Basra.)

The point is, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are all ostensible allies....

And United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718 is supposed to prevent North Korea from trading in weapons and nuclear materials, isn't it?

What a freakin' joke.

So here's a nifty little German video about how North Korea handles pesky little inconveniences such as U.N. sanctions:



Yes, indeedy.

A Nation Of Morons And Fools

Someone voted this guy into office:


Twice.

And someone voted for people like this:


And half the country heaps disdain and suspicion on a person like this:


Meanwhile, a large segment of our population (read: skirts) is poised to adopt the voting (and reading) habits of shitheads like this:


And a significant portion of that same segment (read: skirts, again) thinks the term political expression refers to the act of donning pink tutus and screeching like a banshee:



And prefers to get their evening "news" from people such as this:


While shamelessly worshipping pieces of shit like this:


Ugh.

I don't agree with Bill O'Reilly about very many things at all, but this country is taking a serious nose dive, and it's taking its culture with it.

We're in trouble, Dudes.

And if you need further proof....



So there!

String Cheese Factory

Where Were You?

Where were you when the Scorpions' "The Winds Of Change" was released? What did you think? Did it make any difference to you?



I was in Songtan, South Korea...not terribly far south of Vladivostok, USSR. It was heady news for us in those days.

We thought maybe it was over....

Last post of the day.

The Swiss Reich?

Here's an eerie story from The Independent:

At first sight, the poster looks like an innocent children's cartoon. Three white sheep stand beside a black sheep. The drawing makes it looks as though the animals are smiling. But then you notice that the three white beasts are standing on the Swiss flag. One of the white sheep is kicking the black one off the flag, with a crafty flick of its back legs.

The poster is, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in the heart of one of the world's oldest independent democracies.

A worrying new extremism is on the rise. For the poster – which bears the slogan "For More Security" – is not the work of a fringe neo-Nazi group. It has been conceived – and plastered on to billboards, into newspapers and posted to every home in a direct mailshot – by the Swiss People's Party (the Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP) which has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country's coalition government.

With a general election due next month, it has launched a twofold campaign which has caused the UN's special rapporteur on racism to ask for an official explanation from the government. The party has launched a campaign to raise the 100,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence.

But far more dramatically, it has announced its intention to lay before parliament a law allowing the entire family of a criminal under the age of 18 to be deported as soon as sentence is passed.

It will be the first such law in Europe since the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft – kin liability – whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally.

The proposal will be a test case not just for Switzerland but for the whole of Europe, where a division between liberal multiculturalism and a conservative isolationism is opening up in political discourse in many countries, the UK included.

Oooooh. Words like sicherheits and Sippenhaft and Volkspartei have an ominous ring to them, especially if you're familiar with the history of Nazi Germany.

Here's the poster the article mentioned:


That's something that we Americans are going to have to watch carefully. And not only in Europe. We need to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen here at home, either.

Things like that can sneak up on a country without the people even realizing it's happening.

New Russkies -- Old Tricks

The Russians are back up to their old tricks, it seems. From Reuters:

Britain's air force scrambled four Tornado warplanes to intercept eight Russian long-range bombers, but the Russian planes did not enter British air space, the Ministry of Defence said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said 14 strategic bombers had been flying long-range patrol operations but none approached a foreign state and most were accompanied by fighter jets from NATO countries.

Relations between Britain and Russia are at their worst since the Cold War, but the Foreign Office said Britain did not see a recent Russian decision to resume of long-range patrols as a cause for alarm and that "normal preparedness" was in place.

[...]

The Tupolev Tu-95, code-named 'Bear' by NATO, is Russia's equivalent of the US B-52 bomber and is a Cold War icon.

Russia's Defence Ministry said 14 Russian strategic bombers had started long-range routine patrol operations on Wednesday evening over the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic.

"The planes flew only over neutral water and did not approach the air space of a foreign state," it said."

Practically all the planes were accompanied by fighters from NATO countries."

It is at least the second time in recent months Britain has scrambled jets to intercept Russian bombers.

The sorties by Russian bombers appeared to the latest of the regular long-range patrols that President Vladimir Putin announced last month would be resumed, after a gap following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Just the other day, my brother mentioned that he kind of missed the Cold War days.

Perhaps he has a point. The Russkies weren't going to launch nukes at us, any more than we were going to launch nukes at them. And Russians don't tend to strap on explosives and blow themselves up in crowded public places, either.

Sometimes it's a comfort to have an enemy that is somewhat civilized.

Here's a Cold War-era photo of an American F-4 shadowing a Tu-95 that's on a reconnaissance patrol.

O, How The Mighty Fall!

Yesssssssssssss. I love it when a plan comes together.

Okay, so after weeks of hearing fawning, putrid drivel about what a wonderful and wholesome thing this "High School Musical" thing is....

And after weeks and weeks of hearing lofty praise for that squeaky and wholesome Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron duo....

Really. All that sappy, gooey tripe was enough to make a feller lose his lunch.

Oh, yes. "High School Musical" is the shizzle, indeed. No drugs. No violence. No sex. Just kids having fun.

All in all, the critics have been saying, everything about the TV musical is good, good, good for teens, teens, teens.

But wait!

No sex....

No sex...?

Then what about this cute little photo 18-year-old Miss 'Nessa took for winsome Mr. Zac?

Give me a freakin' break!

Yeah, that's right. Her shit stinks!

Ain't she the role model for your teenage daughter?

Time For A Zappa Quote!

To wit:

"Some Scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."

Ecce Homo!

Osama Returns

Like Phoenix rising from the ashes, noted terrorist and raconteur Osama bin Laden has raised his ugly head to...to...

...preach at us?

I guess that's what you could call that ridiculous thing Osama was doing on the news yesterday. Anyway you look at is, however, he's back and he's better than ever. (And he's on video tape, as usual.)



As might have been expected, his latest video offering amounted to little more than a rambling lecture which held little of interest to those of us in the Western (read: "real") world.

He did, however, talk a little about the dating scene in Waziristan....


And the Fox News Channel managed to obtain a response from bin Laden's girlfriend (courtesy of Al Jazeera):


Ah, just think. If it weren't for video cameras, Osama wouldn't have any way to amuse himself at all....

Holy Crap!

You know that blue bar thingy that lives on top of Blogger blogs?


Yeah, that's the thing I'm talking about.

Well, have you ever clicked on the "Next Blog>" thing?

Ooof. That'll take you on an adventure. I went through blogs from the Philippines, Germany, the UK, and other exciting places like that. Too bad I don't speak Tagalog or German. The UK blog was about an outfit that installs generators for public events. My blood pressure peaked after about two paragraphs of the generator saga, and I had to move on to calmer pastures.

And then came the smut blogs....

Wow. If you ever get bored--and if you're brave enough--give it a try. Frankly, it was too much for my wimpy constitution.

Foster Care Pedophiles?

This is a disgusting story I found on Michelle Malkin. From the Daily Mail of Great Britain:

A homosexual foster couple were left free to sexually abuse vulnerable boys in their care because social workers feared being accused of discrimination if they investigated complaints, an inquiry concluded yesterday.

Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey were one of the first homosexual couples in the country to be officially approved as foster parents.

They looked after 18 children in only 15 months.

With no previous convictions, they came across as respectable men who simply wanted to help boys with a variety of problems.

In reality, they were paedophiles, who repeatedly abused the children in their care.

Even when the mother of two of the children reported her suspicions to the council, officials accepted the men's explanations and did nothing.

Instead of banning children from staying with Faunch and Wathey, they sent youngsters with more serious problems to them. Between them, the couple abused four boys aged between eight and 14.

In a scathing report published yesterday, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council was condemned for treating the men as "trophy carers".

The children's charity Kidscape said those in charge of overseeing the safety of children in the care of Faunch and Wathey had allowed political correctness to override common sense.

The report, following an independent review of the case, said: "One manager described the couple as 'trophy carers' which led to 'slack arrangements' over placement.

"Another said that by virtue of their sexuality they had a 'badge' which made things less questionable.

"The sexual orientation of the men was a significant cause of people not 'thinking the unthinkable'.

"It was clear that a number of staff were afraid of being thought homophobic.

"The fear of being discriminatory led them to fail to discriminate between the appropriate and the abusive." [Emphasis added.]

And since when is unreasonable for a heterosexual to feel uncomfortable around a poofter? Or a fag...?

Well, the scourge of political correctness extends beyond the borders of the U.S., it seems.

Back in the old days, it was considered a virtue for a man to speak his mind. (Please note that I didn't do the "man or woman" and "his or her" politically correct crap here.) And now, it seems, one automatically earns entrance into the ranks of the Chandala should she accidentally call a spade a spade.

Look at these two louts:

How much do you want to bet that someone in some gay rights organization somewhere is already crying about the media turning a "child care issue" into a "gay issue"?

Homosexuals should not be left in charge of little boys.

Let's Kill Birdies!

I was outside just now and I heard ominous popping sounds off in the distance toward the cotton fields.

Strange, I thought to myself. What could that be? And then I remembered....

From OutdoorNewsDaily.com:

Hurricane Dean didn’t hit Arizona last weekend as originally anticipated, and die-hard dove hunters breathed a sigh of relief. Storms can prompt a lot of white-winged doves to begin their annual migration south right before the opener.

The dove season opens on Labor Day weekend this year, running from Sept. 1-15. Biologists with the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the abundant summer rains throughout much of Arizona, and the associated green-up in the deserts, will likely result in the morning dove population being more dispersed this year. “On the plus side, it means you will have the opportunity to find doves away from the major concentrations of hunters,” said Mike Rabe, the department’s migratory bird biologist.

A big change this year is the newly-created year-round season (with no limits) on the Eurasian collared doves. The Eurasian collared doves are larger than both the white-winged and mourning doves. The year-round season commences with the opening of dove season on Sept. 1, 2007 and continues 365 days through Aug. 31 of 2008.

“The Eurasian collared doves are basically bonus birds for the bag and table. This species of dove provides great shooting and very good eating,” said Randy Babb, a department biologist in the Mesa Regional Office.

Yep, the popping sounds I heard were shotguns.

Once, when I worked as a bartender at the local country club, one of the regulars brought me a plastic bag filled with little blobs wrapped in aluminum foil.

"What's that?" I said as the man offered the bag to me.

"Some dove I killed this weekend," he said proudly.

"How do you cook it?" I asked. "With a Bic lighter and a thimble?"

"You cook it on a fry pan with some grease," he said while poking me in the ribs. "Quit joshing."

"Take them away," I said. "I'm not in the habit of eating flying rats."

On a final note for this pointless post, here's a fantastic photo of a bountiful dove harvest in Argentina. Mmmmmmmmm.

Boy, wouldn't it be just great to be a Eurasion collared dove?

Oh, and Rob at The 12 Volt Blog is all excited about the beginning of the flying rodent shoot. You can also find some philosophical ruminations about Karl Rove and dove hunting at The Fat Finch Bird Brain Blog....

And God She's Awful

In the disagreeable or objectionable sense, that is. And so E. D. Hill of Fox News is my moistened news bint of the week.

I watch Fox News more than any other news outlet, but I have to mute the TV when this creature comes on.

Speak of the devil--she's coming on right now. TIME TO MUTE!!!!!

Effluent's Cutie Of The Week

Maybe even of the year. It's Kari Byron of the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters.


She's cute, but she's also very smart and knows how to use tools!!!!

Today's School Lunch Menu

50 Cent's 2 Cent's Worth

MotherJones cites MTV News in announcing rapper 50 Cent's endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president in '08. Says the 32-year-old "artist" (a.k.a. Curtis James Jackson):

I'd like to see Hillary Clinton be president. It would be nice to see a woman be the actual president and...this is a way for us to have Bill Clinton be president again, and he did a great job during his term. [Emphasis added.]

Ooooof! I've been sitting on pins and needles waiting for Curtis' announcement all summer! And I'm glad he'd like to see Hillary as the "actual" president instead of as a "faux" president. Whew....


And that part about "this is a way for us to have Bill Clinton be president again" crap is about as scary as it gets. Isn't that why so many people hate Hillary in the first place?

As for President Bush, the Half-A-Dollar-Dude says:

[H]e has less compassion than a regular human being.

Boy, I'm glad he told me. I was confused on that point.

Bush Sneaks Into Iraq -- Again

From CNN.com:

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (CNN) -- President Bush made a surprise visit to an Iraqi air base Monday, saying fewer U.S. forces may be able to maintain security at its current level.

"Gen. [David] Petraeus and Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker tell me if the kind of success we're now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces," Bush said during remarks at Al Asad Air Base in Anbar province.

But Bush later warned Washington war critics who are pushing for quick troop withdrawals to temper their expectations.

During a rally for troops at the base, Bush said any pullout would be made from a position of "strength and success."

The White House is due to deliver to Congress next week an assessment on Bush's increase of 30,000 troops to Iraq this year.

"People shouldn't jump to conclusions until the general and the ambassador report," Bush said.

During a rally later for more than 600 American troops at the base, Bush warned members of Congress who might be anticipating quick reductions in U.S. forces.

"Those decisions will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground, not reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media," said Bush. "In other words, when we begin to draw down troops from Iraq, it will be from a position of strength and success, not from the position of fear and failure."

I dunno, but it seems that if we were doing really well over there, Mr. Bush wouldn't have to keep sneaking in and out of the country the way he's been doing.


And look, he's so brave he doesn't even need body armor!

Call me a cynic, but you'd think that he'd be able to do these things openly if there was any sort of stability over there. I'm all for victory in Iraq, and I'm definitely not part of the "cut and run" crowd.

It's just that George's handling of this doo-doo has been wrong from the get-go.

But just to be fair, here are some blogs that are all atwitter about the Bush Iraq visit:

Flopping Aces, StuckOnStupid, Hang Right Politics, and Captain's Quarters.

And On Another Immigration Front....

Word has it that no one--not anyone--knows who Elvira's baby-daddy is. Probably not even Elvira....

I really don't have much more to say about this cretin. The whole affair has made me sick to my stomach.

JammieWearingFool has some cogent thoughts about the Mexican Border Bint, as well.

Where There Is A Mexican, There Is Mexico

From a disturbing article by Traci Carl of the Associated Press (Calderon blasts U.S. immigration policies):

MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderon blasted U.S. immigration policies on Sunday and promised to fight harder to protect the rights of Mexicans in the U.S., saying "Mexico does not end at its borders."

The criticism earned Calderon a standing ovation during his first state-of-the nation address.

"We strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government that have only persecuted and exacerbated the mistreatment of Mexican undocumented workers," he said. "The insensitivity toward those who support the U.S. economy and society has only served as an impetus to reinforce the battle ... for their rights."

He also reached out to the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, many illegally, saying: "Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico." [Emphasis added.]

So what you're saying, Dickhead, is that America is now Mexico just because Mexicans sneak in here all the time? Well, to hell with you, Señor!


Yeah, yeah. If people like you and GEORGE BUSH had their way, THIS IS WHAT WE'D SEE WHEN WE TRAVEL TO WASHINGTON D.C.!


Forget about it, you pricks.

And as for that "we strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government" shit. What? Screw that! Are we supposed to consult with Mexico in the formulation of United States policy now?

Pendejo....

Dave Calder at UNCoRRELATED has some sentient comments about Calderon's buffoonery, also.

Not to be outdone, TexasFred has some well-chosen--and colorful--words for Mr. Calderon. Yee-hah, Tejas!

A Federal Holiday!!!!!

Happy Labor Day everyone!!!

The G.O.P.

The Gay Old Perverts.


For the sole reason that politicians and pundits nowdays are so fond of using the word hypocrisy, I usually try not to use it. But this case is an exception....



A stunning example.

The Human Being And Fish

I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.

An oldy but goody.

Preparing For The Great Satan's Aggression

The first line of defense.


The reserves.

Go visit The Digital Brownshirt for some more observations regarding Mr. Ahmadinejad's delusions of indestructibility.

A Record Summer For Phoenix, Arizona

From Amanda Lee Myers of the Associated Press:

PHOENIX, Ariz. — It ain't just hot in Phoenix these days. The heat is shoe-melting, spirit-crushing and now, record-breaking. Phoenix hit its 29th day of 110 degree-plus temperatures on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

The average number of days that top 110 degrees in a given year is 10. The record of 28 days of 110 degrees or above occurred in 1979 and was tied in 2002, according to the weather service.

With withering temperatures like these, all jokes about dry heat stop being funny.

Phoenix resident Ollie Lewis sure isn't laughing. "It's a dry heat because we're in a desert!'' she said as she walked to a bus stop in downtown Phoenix.

Austin Jamison, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, said an oven produces dry heat, too. "You can put your head in the oven, but that's not comfortable.''

Jamison said the temperature hit 113 degrees Wednesday afternoon and could climb higher. The hottest day of the year was July 4, when the mercury hit 116 degrees.

"We've never had this many days of 110 or better,'' he said. "So that right there should tell you it's pretty rare.''

The National Weather Service says urbanization and global climate change could be contributing factors to the heat.

Martin Milner, a construction worker who was taking a break from the scorching weather under a rare shade tree, said even though he's lived in Phoenix all his life, the heat never gets any easier to bear.

"People say you'll get used to it, but you never get used to it,'' said Milner, who wore a bandanna under his black hard hat to stop the sweat from running down his face. "Every year it gets harder and harder and harder. This year it's just skyrocketed.''

Marcia Reid, who moved to Phoenix from New York City five months ago, said the heat doesn't bother her.

"I lived in New York for so long, I got tired of the cold.'' she said. "I like it here. It's a dry heat.''

The weather service is forecasting temperatures of 105 degrees for the rest of the week.

I live about 60 miles south of Phoenix in the Sonora Desert. It has, indeed, been a long, hot summer.

And thank God for air conditioning. I don't know how people lived out here before it was introduced.

Is Hillary A Dyke?

So that's what this book--The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President--seems to imply. Here are some claims that are apparently made by the book's author, Edward Klein:

• The culture of lesbianism has influenced Hillary's political goals and personal life since she was a student at Wellesley, an elite college near Boston


• She 'embraced' revolutionary lesbianism when she was young and tolerated her husband's philandering because their marriage was a largely sexless political convenience


• She said she was passionately in love with her husband, but many of her closest friends and aides were lesbians. Everything was ambiguous


• Chelsea Clinton was conceived as a ploy to cover up Hillary's sexuality

Regardless of whether the rumors are true, they'll provide a lot of fodder for Republican strategists if--most likely when--it comes to a general election that includes Clinton.


So, is Hillary Clinton a lesbian? It wouldn't surprise me.

The idea of "revolutionary lesbianism" is somewhat frightening, however.

My Nephew Gus

Big dog! Gus is a 150 pound white on black harlequin Great Dane. He's a sweetheart.


By the way, have you ever smelled a Great Dane fart? It's not pretty. It's not even nice. And you can smell 'em a mile away....

Do You Find Me Repulsive?

Meanwhile, Denny Kucinich begs for votes in the village square....


And then begs for votes by showing off his little hottie of a wife:



Dennis Kucinich: the embodiment of creepy.

Yet More Hillary Hatred

Sunday Morning Hillary Hatred

She's a witch!


How do you know she is a witch?

Burn her!!!!!!

Three Senators Put Their Lives On The Line

Yesterday from the AP:

A military cargo plane carrying three senators and a House member was forced to take evasive maneuvers and dispatch flares to avoid ground fire after taking off from Baghdad on Thursday night.

The lawmakers said their plane, a C-130, was under fire from three rocket-propelled grenades over the course of several minutes as they left for Amman, Jordan.

“It was a scary moment,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who said he had just taken off his body armor when he saw a bright flash outside the window. “Our pilots were terrific. ... They banked in one direction and then banked the other direction, and they set off the flares.

”Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., as well as Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., were also on the plane.

Cramer and Martinez said they had just begun to relax about five or 10 minutes after the plane took off under darkness.

Crew members apparently communicated to the pilots as they saw the initial RPG fired from the ground, Cramer said. After the first burst, the pilots maneuvered aggressively and set off flares used for drawing incoming fire away from aircraft.

Once the flares lit up the sky, lawmakers said, two more RPGs were fired as the pilots continued maneuvering.

Martinez said he quickly put back on his body armor.

“We were jostled around pretty good,” said Cramer, who estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet. “There were a few minutes there where I wondered: 'Have we been hit? Are we OK?'”

Capt. Angel Wallace, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, said she was not aware of the incident, and military public affairs officials in Baghdad could not be reached immediately. [Emphasis added.]

Yeehah! Ride 'em Cowyboys!

But there are a couple of aspects to this story that have a fishy odor about them. All you have to do is sniff a little:

First, Bud Cramer "estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet."

Second, the Senators claim that their plane had been taken "under fire from three rocket-propelled grenades over the course of several minutes..."

Third, the Senators relate that "after the first burst, the pilots maneuvered aggressively and set off flares used for drawing incoming fire away from aircraft."

But if it was dark, how could these clowns 1) estimate that they were at 6,000 feet, and 2) determine that it was RPGs that were being fired at them?

The RPG is a dumb weapon. It has no guidance system. Therefore, had RPGs indeed been fired at them, the pilots would have had no need to employ countermeasures (the flares). If they did, indeed, employ the flares, it would have been because they suspected some sort of shoulder-fired surface-to-air weapon was being employed against them.

The absolute maximum horizontal range of the RPG-7 is 920 meters (3,018 feet). At that range, the weapon has practically no accuracy and would be used exclusively for harassment purposes against stationary targets. Trying to fire the weapon vertically at a fast-moving target 6,000 feet high would have been a fruitless endeavor. I'm quite sure no insurgent or al-Qaeda member would waste an RPG round in such silly way.

You would think that the media would stop interviewing these idiots and give us all a break.

Animals Were Killed In the Production Of This Film

From the Alaska Department of Fish and Game comes this article by Riley Woodford:

Lemmings do not commit mass suicide. It's a myth, but it's remarkable how many people believe it. Ask a few.

"It's a complete urban legend," said state wildlife biologist Thomas McDonough. "I think it blew out of proportion based on a Disney documentary in the '50s, and that brought it to the mainstream.

"Lemmings are a kind of short tailed vole, a mouse-like rodent that favors tundra and open grasslands. Three kinds are found in Alaska, including the collared lemming, the only rodent that turns white in winter.

In 1958 Walt Disney produced "White Wilderness," part of the studio's "True Life Adventure" series. "White Wilderness" featured a segment on lemmings, detailing their strange compulsion to commit mass suicide.

According to a 1983 investigation by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer Brian Vallee, the lemming scenes were faked. The lemmings supposedly committing mass suicide by leaping into the ocean were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers. The epic "lemming migration" was staged using careful editing, tight camera angles and a few dozen lemmings running on snow covered lazy-Susan style turntable.

"White Wilderness" was filmed in Alberta, Canada, a landlocked province, and not on location in lemmings' natural habitat. There are about 20 lemming species found in the circumpolar north - but evidently not in that area of Alberta. So the Disney people bought lemmings from Inuit children a couple provinces away in Manitoba and staged the whole sequence. [Emphasis added.]

THOSE HEARTLESS, CRUEL DISNEY BASTARDS!!!! The lemmings "were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers"?

And to think that I've believed that mass-suicide lemming crap my entire life.

Disney sucks.


Animals were, indeed, harmed in the making of that film.

More Whining About Profiling

From NEWS.com.au:

The largest civil rights organisation of American Sikhs has expressed outrage with a new US airport security policy that it says allows arbitrary searches of turbans, a sacred headdress for members of the religion.

The Sikh Coalition said it had been informed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that under its new guidelines, turbans could be subject to manual pat-downs even if their wearers had passed a metal detector test.

"Telling screeners to search people in turbans is the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims," Amardeep Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, said.

"The policy allows screeners to single out travelers on the basis of their religion."

TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding acknowledged that on August 4, the agency that oversees security at 450 US airports as well as railroads, ports and mass transit systems revised its screening procedures for head coverings.

But she denied the changes that would be carried out by all 43,000 US airport screeners had anything to do with religious beliefs espoused by travellers.

The turban is a sacred headdress in the Sikh religion given to its followers by the religion's founding gurus, or prophets.

Obligatory for men and optional for women, it is worn to underscore the distinct Sikh identity and full commitment to the faith, according to members of the religion. [Emphasis added.]

Well what the hell? Someone in the TSA should inform old Amardeep that telling screeners to search people in turbans is NOT the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims. It merely tells screeners to pat down igloo-sized cloth headdresses on people going through airport security. After all, who's to say that there isn't a hunk of Semtex or C-4 stuffed up under the igloo-hat? Or some sort of plastic or wooden weapon? Something that metal detectors would miss....

And who's to say that old al-Qaeda Abdul from Al Madinah or Damascus won't grow a curly beard and moustache, wrap an oversized paper towel around his head, and try to pass himself off as a Sikh? While carrying explosives onto a plane....

Try wearing a baseball cap, Amardeep. They're easier to take off.

Hypocrisy

But let's get serious. This is from Fox News:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says he wants people to give up their sport utility vehicles. Edwards told a labor group Tuesday that Americans should drive more fuel-efficient vehicles and called the U.S. "the worst polluter on the planet."

Edwards' campaign concedes he does own a hybrid Ford Escape SUV, along with a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica midsize SUV, but says he uses that less often now.

Edwards was also asked about the apparent contradiction of asking Americans to sacrifice while he lives in a 28,000 square foot mansion in North Carolina. He replied that he came from nothing and worked hard all his life — saying, "I have no apologies whatsoever for what I've done with my life."

Translation: Y'all shut up, you toothless unwashed bastards, and buy a Prius!

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Hair Boy getting ready to climb into a....

More Fresh Spinach Recalled

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - A California produce company recalled bagged fresh spinach Wednesday after it tested positive for salmonella.

There were no immediate reports of illness linked to the tainted spinach, distributed by Metz Fresh LLC of King City, Calif.

The recall comes nearly a year after an outbreak of another pathogen, E. coli, in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened another 200.

The recalled spinach was distributed throughout the 48 states and Canada and sold in both retail and food service packages. It covers 8,118 cases of spinach, although the company said more than 90 percent of that was on hold and would not be released.

While only a single sample from one of three packing lines tested positive for salmonella, the company said it moved to recall all the spinach packed that same day as a precaution.

If I remember right, the last spinach recall had something to do with animal feces getting into the spinach fields from adjacent pasturage.

Our Heroine

And it has absolutely nothing to do with shitty ratings.

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