Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

THIS IS THE WOMAN the New York Times just appointed to end their reporter's habit of lying about ideological foes (Conservatives).

BOOGERs® 

• Open Range  - even though I swore I would not get suckered into another Kevin Costner directed movie, this looks like my kind of deal.  Robert Duvall plays a character that reminds me of Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove, and that's good enough for me. - Trailer
• Secondhand Lions , also with Robert Duvall.  "A coming-of-age story about a shy, young boy sent by his irresponsible mother to spend the summer with his wealthy, eccentric uncles in Texas."  - Trailer
• Intolerable Cruelty - "A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce."  Just check out the cast!  Unfortunately, even though it looks very good, the star is George Clooney, and I vowed never to put another nickel in that piece of shit's pocket, and I won't.  There's a trailer, but you'll have to find it your self.

    Finally, Du Toit writes," Your movie list should provide fodder for at least three of four psychiatric conferences in the future..."  It's that fourth one I want.  I copied the list films I've rated at IMDB over the past 9-10 years.  Have at it.
 

    Submitting my list of  best movies for John Hawkins' "Bloggers Select The 15 Greatest Movies Of All-Time" poll was easy.  For almost ten years I've been rating movies on IMDB, and by golly they have kept my picks all that time.  Anyway, here were my submissions, in alpha order. Oh, one final note.  I see that Citizen Kane made John's list, and while I won't argue that Kane represented avant garde film making in 1941, so too did Birth of a Nation in 1915.  I've seen both, and have no desire to see either again.  Does that make me a bad person?

Gents, sooner or later you will need the late pass I've attached below.  Clip & Save.

You're welcome.

"Geppy condemned President Bush's foreign policy as "machismo" and "arrogant unilateralism."

"Foreign policy isn't a John Wayne movie, where we catch the bad guys, hoist a few cold ones, and then everything fades to black," the White House wannabe fumed in a speech to a receptive audience: San Francisco Bar Association.

"And why the slap at John Wayne? That prissy attempt at an insult might delight a bunch of leftist lawyers in San Francisco, but would Gephardt have the guts to say that to an audience of normal people in Omaha or Pittsburgh or Orlando? "

That's right, we came that close to World War III.

"British historian Michael Mann said: “Stalin saw him as a gigantic propaganda symbol against the Soviets."

"He said that two exiled Ukrainians living in America were given a contract to shoot the movie gunslinger, nicknamed The Duke.
"They broke into his changing room at Warner Brothers’ Hollywood studios in 1943 — but the FBI ambushed them."

    WE LEARN HERE  that Cape Cod officials are warning Russian tourists to quit doffing their clothes in public.

"Many Russian swimmers change into and out of their bathing suits, covered only by a towel - if anything - on the sand or in the parking lot of Glendon Beach in Dennis, police said. And other beach-goers have begun to complain.

``It's a cultural difference,'' said Dennis police Capt. William Monahan. ``They're not doing it to be titillating. They're just used to changing at the beach.''

MUSIC MATCH

THREE OR FOUR YEARS AGO I tried yet another music organizer (the 20th?) I had received from PC Magazine as a subscription premium.  I liked Music Match so much that I shelled out the $29.95 (now $19.95) for the full version and lifetime updates.  When I got my new HP MEDIA CENTER PC it had various native programs that purported to do the same thing, so I went with them in lieu of hauling Music Match off my old IBM.  It took maybe 10 minutes for me to realize all were inferior, but what the hell, I had other fish to fry.  What I really missed though was the editing features I used to compress .WAV files down to a reasonable size, which is why I haven't been updating Brian the Movie Guy.  Over the weekend I downloaded the latest version, using the original key I purchased years ago.  Voila!

Music Match does everything, and does most of it well. Here's something I've wanted for years, and this version has it - Volume Leveling.  My song library played at different decibel levels, which is a pain in the ass.  You know, adjust the volume up for this song and the next one blows your speakers out.  It took about 15 minutes for Music Match to level my 1300 song library so that there are no longer any annoying spikes.  Finding tags and album photos for a song is almost instantaneous.  I've always used the CD burner software to make CDs and labels.  You can download a free basic version here, and if you decide to spring for the whole load, it's a good deal IMO.

"I think the bar is set higher for liberals ... It’s easy to be Ann Coulter."

A chap named "governsleastgovernsbest," is on the ball over at Free Republic.  Read this fresh out of the oven report on a Today Show interview with Gray Davis:

"When a Democratic politician needs to "get healthy," Katie Couric is normally brought in to groove some pitches down the middle of the plate for him to hit out of the park.

"In his just-completed interview with embattled California Gov. Gray Davis, the Today Show's Matt Lauer demonstrated that he's no slouch when it comes to serving them up on a platter for liberals looking to raise their batting average. " [Continued]

"I found that out after a 47 minute long conversation with someone in tech support at Addr (who was apparently hired right off the street 5 minutes before I called)."

     Just yesterday I asked a reasonable question about global cooling/warming [what caused the Eocene period of global warming, and do wacko scientists think they could have reversed it?], and Sen. James Inhoff took note.  Actually, he attacked on Monday.

"This research begs an obvious question: If the Earth was warmer during the Middle Ages than the age of coal-fired power plants and SUVs, what role do man-made emissions play in influencing climate?"

Your PC may not be setup properly to take full advantage of broadband speeds. Modifying your configuration to maximise performance is known as tweaking. For many users, tweaking is a misnomer as it implies subtle improvements. Fixing huge problems is more accurate!
 

Of particular interest is Thomas Dworetzky's  "No Price Too High?"

    As fate would have it Brit Hume just lased in on the subject.  If there's any doubt that the idea has merit, the Senator from California (the dumb[er] one) dispels it. Sen. Boxer chastized Paul Wolfowitz after he announced it's cancellation.

"I don't think we can laugh off that darkl a program.  There is something very sick about it, and if it's going to end I think you end the careers of whoever it was that thought that up" -   Barbara Boxer

"It was the light that first caught Uday Hussein's attention. There were no light fixtures to be seen and yet the illumination in the opulently appointed office was bright and steady. He shifted in his chair and focused his eyes on the wiry man with dark, slicked-back hair sitting behind the blonde oak desk. The stranger was gingerly tapping an index finger on the keys of a laptop, his eyeglasses having slipped down on his nose to give him an aura of total concentration. His skin was a bright pink, like someone who'd fallen asleep in the sun but, of course, there was no sun down here.

"Well, at least you two don't seem surprised," the stranger said, speaking a bit too loudly and startling his guests. "I hate it when people who end up here act as if they're in shock about their destination. And after the lives they've led; boggles the mind. Don't get me wrong: being in denial is great, it's one of the ways I get so many souls, but leave it up in the world: I just don't have time for it."

"Neither of the Husseins looked the least bit surprised. Qusay, in fact, had no expression at all on his face. ... "

    The Kimster takes on a real Asshat today in fine fashion.  But I want to know this.  No establishment organ has done more to promote environmental wackism than PBS, beginning with Global cooling in the 70's, and through today's wackdujour, Global warming.  Here, however, we find the official PBS voice on all things science related, NOVA, discussing various warming and cooling periods over the last, oh, 600 million years or so¹.  It seems Asshat's theories are deemed irrelevant  ( which will not preclude PBS from showing any hour long film Asshat may present in the future).  Anyway, here's what I wonder.  Why hasn't anybody asked the Al Gore's of the world who they blame for -- I'll pick one here --  the Eocene period of global warming, about 100 million years ago?  And, better yet, do they think they could have prevented it? Hmmmm?

¹Note to Asshats, this was before hair spray and the V-8 engine.

"The Terrorist Information Awareness office will open the waging scheme Friday and begin signing up 1,000 traders to deposit funds for transactions. In a report to Congress, TIA said the program will provide the Defense Department "with market-based techniques for avoiding surprise and predicting future events."
    Online trading begins Oct. 1, and by Jan. 1, at least 10,000 traders will be able to participate in the Policy Analysis Market.  Investors who successfully predict, for example, a missile attack by North Korea, the assassination of Palestinian Authority chief Yasser Arafat or the overthrow of the king of Jordan would profit financially " - TIMES

   I was going to spotlight a story that Brit Hume covered on his "Grapevine" segment last night, but why?  You can read it here.  Whoops, no you can't.  I noticed last week that the "Grapevine" archives no longer reflect what was actually reported on a given date, and figured it was a glitch.  If it is, it's ongoing.  Last evening (July 28) for example, Hume used the segment to spotlight another instance of the New York Times fabricating news.  You can read about it here.  Anyway, is it news that the New York Times is a DNC organ [take your pick on which one]?  No.  Is it news that Democrats are liars?  No.  I'm not going to waste my time on these redundancies anymore.

    But, Rodge, you might ask.  If you're not going to rant about filthy lying Democrats, all that's left is your sophomoric postings of potty humor and tawdry pictures that tend to annoy people?  You're right.  Forget that last part.

"And they tell me I looked adorable getting off the boat . . . clutching my teddy bear and my deportation papers.
       I’m half British, half American. My passport has an eagle with a tea bag in its beak.
       I’ll never forget our first view of the Statue of Liberty carrying her flaming torch on high. Dad turned to me and said, “This is what I’ve dreamed of, son. A country where women carry their own matches.”  --  Bob Hope's Life in Jokes

  Finally, none of you heard of my Uncle Mike, but he was my dad's brother and a good man who told very corny jokes.  He and my dad were the Chicago tennis doubles champs once.  His passing marks the end of an era for me; I wish I'd stayed closer. 
 

      Are Iraqis worried we'll stay too long?  Hardly, they're worried we'll leave too soon.  Paul Gigot doesn't write much now that he's the Wall Street Journal's editorial page editor, but he pipes up today in 'This Was a Good Thing to Do'

"Just ask the 20-some members of the new city council in this holy city of Shiite Islam. Their chairs are arrayed in a circle to hear from Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, who invites questions. The first man to speak wants to know two things: There's a U.S. election next year, and if President Bush loses will the Americans go home? And second, are you secretly holding Saddam Hussein in custody as a way to intimidate us with the fear that he might return? Mr. Wolfowitz replies no to both points, with more conviction on the second than the first. But the question reveals the complicated anxiety of the post-Saddam Iraqi mind."

'This Was a Good Thing to Do'

By PAUL A. GIGOT

NAJAF, Iraq -- Toppling a statue is easier than killing a dictator. Not the man himself, but the idea of his despotism, the legacy of his torture and the fear of his return. This kind of reconstruction takes time.

Just ask the 20-some members of the new city council in this holy city of Shiite Islam. Their chairs are arrayed in a circle to hear from Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, who invites questions. The first man to speak wants to know two things: There's a U.S. election next year, and if President Bush loses will the Americans go home? And second, are you secretly holding Saddam Hussein in custody as a way to intimidate us with the fear that he might return? Mr. Wolfowitz replies no to both points, with more conviction on the second than the first. But the question reveals the complicated anxiety of the post-Saddam Iraqi mind.

* * *

Most reporting from Iraq suggests that the U.S. "occupation" isn't welcome here. But following Mr. Wolfowitz around the country I found precisely the opposite to be true. The majority aren't worried that we'll stay too long; they're petrified we'll leave too soon. Traumatized by 35 years of Saddam's terror, they fear we'll lose our nerve as casualties mount and leave them once again to the Baath Party's merciless revenge.

That is certainly true in Najaf, which the press predicted in April would be the center of a pro-Iranian Shiite revolt. Only a week ago Sunday, Washington Post reporter Pamela Constable made Section A with a story titled "Rumors Spark Iraqi Protests As Pentagon Official Stops By." Interesting, if true.

But Ms. Constable hung her tale on the rant of a single Shiite cleric who wasn't chosen for the Najaf city council. Even granting that her details were accurate -- there was a protest by this Shiite faction, though not when Mr. Wolfowitz was around -- the story still gave a false impression of overall life in Najaf. On the same day, I saw Mr. Wolfowitz's caravan welcomed here and in nearby Karbala with waves and shouts of "Thank you, Bush."

The new Najaf council represents the city's ethnic mosaic, and its chairman is a Shiite cleric. Things improved dramatically once the Marines deposed a corrupt mayor who'd been installed by the CIA. Those same Marines have rebuilt schools and fired 80% of the police force. The city is now largely attack-free and Marines patrol without heavy armor and often without flak jackets. The entire south-central region is calm enough that the Marines will be turning over duty to Polish and Italian troops.

This is the larger story I saw in Iraq, the slow rebuilding and political progress that is occurring even amid the daily guerrilla attacks in Baghdad and the Sunni north. Admittedly we were in, or near, the Wolfowitz bubble. But reporters elsewhere are also in a bubble, one created by the inevitable limits of travel, sourcing and access. In five days we visited eight cities, and I spoke to hundreds of soldiers and Iraqis.

The Bush administration has made mistakes here since Saddam's statue fell on April 9. President Bush declared the war over much too soon, leaving Americans unprepared for the Baathist guerrilla campaign. (The Pentagon had to fight to get the word "major" inserted before "combat operations in Iraq have ended" in that famous May 1 "Mission Accomplished" speech.) But U.S. leaders, civilian and military, are learning from mistakes and making tangible progress.

One error was underestimating Saddam's damage, both physical and psychic. The degradation of this oil-rich country is astonishing to behold. Like the Soviets, the dictator put more than a third of his GDP into his military -- and his own palaces. "The scale of military infrastructure here is staggering," says Maj. Gen. David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne. His troops found one new Iraqi base that is large enough to hold his entire 18,500-man division.

Everything else looks like it hasn't been replaced in at least 30 years. The General Electric turbine at one power plant hails from 1965, the boiler at one factory from 1952. Textile looms are vintage 1930s. Peter McPherson, the top U.S. economic adviser here, estimates that rebuilding infrastructure will cost $150 billion over 10 years.

All of this makes the reconstruction effort vulnerable to even small acts of sabotage. The night before we visited Basra, someone had blown up electrical transmission pylons, shutting down power to much of the city. That in turn triggered long gas lines on the mere rumor that the pumps wouldn't work. Rebuilding all of this will take longer than anyone thought.

Iraq's mental scars are even deeper. Nearly every Iraqi can tell a story about some Baath Party depredation. The dean of the new police academy in Baghdad spent a year in jail because his best friend turned him in when he'd said privately that "Saddam is no good." A "torture tree" behind that same academy contains the eerie indentations from rope marks where victims were tied. The new governor of Basra, a judge, was jailed for refusing to ignore corruption. Basra's white-and-blue secret police headquarters is called "the white lion," because Iraqis say it ate everyone who went inside.

"You have to understand it was a Stalinist state," says Iaian Pickard, one of the Brits helping to run Basra. "The structure of civic life has collapsed. It was run by the Baath Party and it simply went away. We're having to rebuild it from scratch."

This legacy is why the early U.S. failure to purge all ranking Baathists was a nearly fatal blunder. Officials at CIA and the State Department had advocated a strategy of political decapitation, purging only those closest to Saddam. State's Robin Raphel had even called de-Baathification "fascistic," a macabre irony to Iraqis who had to endure genuine fascism.

Muhyi AlKateeb is a slim, elegant Iraqi-American who fled the Iraqi foreign service in 1979 when Saddam took total control. (In the American way, he then bought a gas station in Northern Virginia.) But when he returned in May to rebuild the Foreign Ministry, "I saw all of the Baathists sitting in front of me. I couldn't stay if they did." He protested to U.S. officials, who only changed course after L. Paul Bremer arrived as the new administrator.

Mr. AlKateeb has since helped to purge the Foreign Ministry of 309 secret police members, and 151 Baathist diplomats. "It's an example of success," he says now, though he still believes "we are too nice. Iraqis have to see the agents of Saddam in handcuffs, on TV and humiliated, so people will know that Saddam really is gone." This is a theme one hears over and over: You Americans don't understand how ruthless the Baathists are. They'll fight to the death. You have to do the same, and let us help you do it.

Which brings up the other large American mistake: The failure to enlist Iraqi allies into the fight from the very start. Pentagon officials had wanted to do this for months, but they were trumped by the CIA, State and former Centcom chief Tommy Franks. The result has been too many GIs doing jobs they shouldn't have to do, such as guarding banks, and making easier targets for the Baathist-jihadi insurgency.

The new Centcom boss, Gen. John Abizaid, is now correcting that mistake by recruiting a 14,000-man Iraqi security force. He's helped by division commanders who are adapting their own tactics in order to win local support and eventually be able to turn power back over to Iraqis.

In Mosul in the north, Gen. Petraeus of the 101st Airborne runs the equivalent of a large Fortune 500 company. He's having to supply electricity, buy up the local wheat crop (everything here was bought by, or supplied by, Saddam's government), form a city council, as well as put down an insurgency. He's even run a Task Force Pothole to fix the local roads. It's no accident that an Iraqi turned the whereabouts of Uday and Qusay into the 101st Airborne. Like the Marines in Najaf, Gen. Petraeus's troops have made an effort to mingle with the population and develop intelligence sources.

In Kirkuk, Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno's 4th Infantry Division has had similar success tapping Iraqi informers to map what he calls the "network of mid-level Baathists" who are running the insurgency. Late last week they raided a house near Tikrit after an Iraqi tip and captured several Saddam loyalists, including at least five of his personal bodyguards. Some have been reluctant to talk, but Gen. Odierno observes that, "When you mention Guantanamo, they become a lot more compliant."

The U.S. media have focused on grumbling troops who want to go home, especially the 3rd Infantry Division near Baghdad. And having been in the region for some 260 days, the 3rd ID deserves a break. But among the troops I saw, morale remains remarkably high. To a soldier, they say the Iraqis want us here. They also explain their mission in a way that the American pundit class could stand to hear.

"I tell my troops every day that what we're doing is every bit as important as World War II," says one colonel, a brigade commander, in the 101st. "The chance to create a stable Iraq could help our security for the next 40 or 50 years." A one-star general in the same unit explains that his father served three tours in Vietnam and ultimately turned against that war. But what the 101st is doing "is a classic anti-insurgency campaign" to prevent something similar here.

These men are part of a younger Army officer corps that isn't traumatized by Vietnam or wedded to the Powell Doctrine. They understand what they are doing is vital to the success of the war on terror. They are candid in saying the hit-and-run attacks are likely to continue for months, but they are just as confident that they will inevitably break the Baathist network.

The struggle for Iraq will be difficult, but the coalition is winning. It has the support of most Iraqis, a creative, flexible military, and the resources to improve daily lives. The main question is whether America's politicians have the same patience and fortitude as its soldiers.

* * *

The one word I almost never heard in Iraq was "WMD." That isn't because the U.S. military doesn't want, or expect, to find it. The reason, I slowly began to understand, is that Iraqis and the Americans who are here don't think it matters all that much to their mission. The liberation of this country from Saddam's terror is justification enough for what they are doing, and the main chance now isn't refighting the case for war but making sure we win on the ground.

"So I see they're giving Bush a hard time about the WMD," volunteers a Marine colonel, at the breakfast mess in Hilla one morning. "They ought to come here and see what we do, and what Saddam did to these people. This was a good thing to do."

Mr. Gigot is the Journal's editorial page editor.

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105934815066613900,00.html

    It looks like Kodak may join AT&T as the next 21st century buggy whip company.

"Analysts believe struggling Eastman Kodak Co. has some two to three years to find a place in the world of digital photography." Or ta-ta .

"Only one US president has been the head of a trade union, according to a quiz in the Guardian. Ronald Reagan led the Screen Actors Guild at the height of the McCarthy reds-under-the-beds witch hunts - during which time "his political views shifted from liberal to conservative," says the White House website." - BBC

"I'm extwemewy pweased," Atkinson said. "I awways just hated the vewbaw anawogies. Oh, dat scwewy wabbit! Dewe was just a twickiness to them."

          RECTUM: POOPOO

A) envoy:embassy

B) martyr: massacre

C: filthy liberal: idea

D) referee: tournament

E) horse: stable

The answer was C.

"Dat's incwedibwy cuwtuwawwy centewed," Schaeffew said. "You don't see a fiwthy wibewaw in centew-city L.A., you don't see it in Appawachia, you don't see it in New Yowk City."

• Where's Jesse now?

As Clinton's point man in Africa, Jackson helped create Liberian crisis
• Salzburg statue not fit for a prince:

A giant statue of a naked man with a two-foot erection has caused a row in Salzburg after being exposed on the eve of a visit by Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne.
• Dicky Gephardt  does his country a favor and misses a vote

217-216 Republican victory on a bill that would overhaul the landmark Head Start education program
• The check's in the mail

The Treasury Department is mailing out checks worth up to $400 per child to more than 25 million middle-income households.  Donks holler foul; you will not qualify for the child tax cut if a) you did not pay taxes; b) you don't have kids.
• Judge for Yourself

Are filthy bastard Senate Democrats determined to keep believers off the bench?
• Diners face up to naked aggression

Caught between town centre boozeries, Halifax diners endure mooning from those crazy kids.
• Mobile County grand jury order loving couple  to divorce immediately

The problem?  Alice's son would also be her brother.

Cuzzin Ricky, who did time in Toronto, forwards this [first hand?] account [PG]

Bob, a middle-aged Canadian tourist on his first visit to Orlando, Florida, finds the red light district and enters a large brothel. The madam asks him to be seated and sends over a young lady to entertain him. They sit and talk, frolic a little, giggle a bit, drink a bit, and she sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear and she gasps and runs away!

The madam is surprised that this ordinary looking man has asked for something so outrageous that her two girls will have nothing to do with him. She decides that only her most experienced lady, Lola, will do. Lola has never said no, and it's not likely anything would surprise her. So the madam sends her over to Bob. The sit and talk, frolic a little, giggle a bit, drink a bit, and she sits on his lap. He whispers in her ear and she screams, "NO WAY, BUDDY!" and smacks him as hard as she can and leaves.

Madam is by now absolutely intrigued, having seen nothing like this in all her years of operating a brothel. She hasn't done the bedroom work herself for a long time, but she's sure she has said yes to everything a man could possibly ask for. She just has to find out what this man wants that has made her girls so angry. Besides she sees a chance to teach her employees a lesson.

So she goes over to Bob and says that she's the best in the house and is available. She sits and talks with him. They frolic, giggle, drink and then she sits in his lap.

Bob leans forwards and whispers in her ear, "Can I pay in Canadian currency?"

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq partly rebuilt the faces of two bodies shown to journalists on Friday in an effort to convince Iraqis that the battle-scarred corpses were those of Saddam Hussein's widely feared sons.

I was one of 15 journalists shown into an air-conditioned, khaki tent at Baghdad airport to view the corpses. They did look like brothers, unfortunatley not Hussein, but Marx.

"Oh crap," exclaimed Army mortuary science technician Candy Barr when we questioned her work. "You know, I must have been influenced by the film fesitval the battalion threw last weekend. I'll do them over. This one on the left is close though, doncha think?"

ANNAPOLIS, MD—Citing mounting debt and a decline in tourism dollars, the state of Maryland will shut down for good on August 31, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. told reporters Monday.

	Above: A Baltimore-area interstate.

"I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has ever lived in or visited the great state of Maryland," Ehrlich said at a press conference held on the steps of a boarded-up Capitol Building. "You are the people who have made this such a wonderful place. Maryland will live on in the fond memories of each of you, even as we liquidate the state's assets."

Ratified as the seventh state in 1788, Maryland has been a favorite haunt for a devoted group of fans. In addition to being the home of the Annapolis U.S. Naval Academy, Maryland is the birthplace of such notable Americans as surveyor Benjamin Banneker, singer Billie Holiday, baseball legend Babe Ruth, and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

In spite of its rich history, Maryland has struggled with mounting debt since the '90s, as tourism and tax revenues failed to keep pace with rising expenses. The state has for years fought what many insiders considered a losing battle.

"We had a good run, but we just can't do it anymore," Ehrlich said. "The bad economy, increased spending on homeland security, and an increasing Medicaid bill were the final nails in Maryland's coffin. We are simply losing too much money to keep the borders open."

Ehrlich promised that Maryland would not shut down operations until the last day of August, giving longtime fans of the Old Line State an opportunity to visit.

"We wanted to give people a chance to say goodbye," Ehrlich said. "Since the rumors of a state shutdown began, I have received thousands of letters and small donations from people all over the country. This means so much—more than you can ever know—but despite all the love and devotion, I'm afraid it's just not going to happen."

Ehrlich told the crowd that he did everything he could to keep Maryland open, but in the end no effort proved successful.

"I made across-the-board budget cuts, restructured all of our social services, effected hiring freezes, and emptied out the state's rainy-day fund," Ehrlich said. "The last decade has just been exhausting. As much as I love Maryland, I can't say that I'm going to miss the 18-hour days trying to keep this state afloat."

Ehrlich said he received offers to buy out Maryland, but the bids were rejected.

"We had a deal with New Mexico that could have saved us, but it fell through," Ehrlich said. "The things [New Mexico Gov.] Bill Richardson wanted to change when he took over went against everything Maryland is all about. Rather than severely compromise our state, we decided instead to pass."

On Sept. 1, the government of Maryland will disband and all state employees will be laid off, a situation Ehrlich calls "extremely regrettable."

"Many of these workers have been in Maryland all their lives," Ehrlich said. "These folks are like family to me. In fact, some actually are family. The people are why we held on to statehood as long as we did."

Although current residents of Maryland will be allowed to stay in the state until they can arrange to relocate, they must do so without government services. Experts predict the state will become a vast vacant lot within five years.

In order to offset some of the debt accrued over the last few decades, Maryland is selling its assets, announcing that "everything must go" before the state closes. The most sought-after items to be auctioned off include the original first draft of "The Star-Spangled Banner," written by Maryland native Francis Scott Key.

The rights to Maryland's state flag, bird, and motto are also being sold to the highest bidder.

"Secret [brand antiperspirant] has put in a substantial bid for our motto, Fatti maschii, parole femine, which means 'Manly Deeds, Womanly Words,'" Ehrlich said. "I also think that Nevada might buy the rights to our state sport, jousting. When we sell the rights to our state song, 'Maryland, My Maryland,' that's when it's going to hit me that it's finally over."

For many longtime fans of Maryland, the closing strikes a deep emotional chord.

"It's just a shame," said Gene Tupper, a resident of Maryland since 1955. "I don't think anyone will really understand what it was like to visit the historic Antietam National Battlefield or walk along beautiful Chesapeake Bay back in the prime years. I guess all great things have to end sometime."

Many fans of the state said they hope someone purchases and revitalizes Maryland before it falls into disrepair.

"I don't want what happened to Oregon to happen here," said Jane Renski, a Maryland resident. "We drove by the place a few years ago and it was totally abandoned— really eerie. The whole state was infested with raccoons."

Another Beauty from the ONION

 
    If you missed it yesterday, the "Who would you like to have sex with" poll results are interesting.  Only one Blogger, a female, was chosen - by a man I think.  I think that because only three of you girls responded, which triggered this hilarity:  "That does it -- it's nudies, farts and ass-scratching on this site from now on."
 

• College professors are farther to the left than their students and routinely state their political opinions in class
• Their  intolerance for diversity of thought leads many students to keep quiet when they hold a different viewpoint
• There's a growing divide between political viewpoints held by students and faculty members.
• Nearly three-quarters, 74 percent, of students surveyed said their professors "always," "frequently" or "sometimes" directly stated their political views while teaching.
• 51 percent of those students described their professors as "liberal," 28 percent said they were conservative, and 21 percent reported their teachers were independent. More than half the students said the eggheads were farther to the left than they themselves were.

"Once upon a troubled time, I lived with a fiery waitress who insisted a restaurant tip be based on the check's after-tax total. I argued that the gratuity should reflect the quality of food, drink and service, not what the state and/or city taxes a paying customer. Why tip on your own tax? The restaurant, after all, must give back to the government its sales tax revenue. Is a waiter somehow shortchanged if he's tipped on the before-tax total, as my former girlfriend claimed? I don't see how, and this is only one of one thousand reasons why we parted so acrimoniously. --Living happily ever after, M. Penn, Chicago The answer [Via Fark]

"Underlying psychological motivations that mark conservatives are "fear and aggression, dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity; uncertainty avoidance; need for cognitive closure; and terror management"

".. Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro "might be considered politically conservative in the context of the systems that they defended."

    "Trial lawyers and a consumer health group are teaming up to go after America's ice cream, sending out legal notices to six major chains this week as the group released a study criticizing ice cream's nutritional value." - TIMES     Plaintiff's lawyers rely on fat-kidneyed hedge-pigs disguised as  consumer advocates - usually a Ralph Nader enterprise , this time it's the "Center for Science in the Public Interest."  - to raise a health issue in preparation for a flurry of lawsuits designed to fatten their bank accounts.  The champion elf-skinned scut beating the garbage can this time around is John Banzhaf III.  In days of yore the citizenry, tired of Banzhaf's unscrupulous behavior, would wrap his corpulency in hot tar, add two pillows worth of chicken feathers and carry him out of town on a pole.  Ah, for the days of yore.

Tony & Tacky

"Til the Cows Come Home: You might think that, with Atlantic City and its racetracks, New Jersey's gambling officials have enough to worry about. But the Newark Star-Ledger reports that the state is looking into the integrity of a game popular as a fund-raiser for charities: cow-pie bingo. The game works by dividing a field into grids, and contestants bet on which grid a cow . . . uh . . . will do its business. "There's no way it could be rigged," one cow-pie operator assured the paper. "You have all these witnesses and believe me, they're watching. It's all up to the cow."

Home Sweet Home: Fans know Tiendra Demian as the star of a series of soft-porn Emmanuelle flicks. But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that police, acting on complaints about late-night visitors, have arrested the 33-year-old Ms. Demian on charges that she was working as a prostitute out of the basement of the Doraville home she shares with her teenage daughter. Some of the neighbors professed shock. "We thought they were a little different, but nothing you could put your finger on," Madeline Price told the paper. "They were from California. She sold vitamins."--WSJ

After years of defending Clinton, liberals love the piquant irony of calling Bush a liar.
This is virgin territory for Democrats – they never before viewed lying as a negative.

"(Note to the Democrats: Just because you defended Bill Clinton doesn't mean you have to defend every government official who is reliably reported to be a rapist.)"

    Frankly, after seeing the trailer for Legally Blonde2, and realizing it was written for the loons at PETA, I was surprized to hear positive sales projections for it.  Turns out I was right, and har-de-har-har.

    We can't show the dead bodies of two of the most vicious human animals  in history, nor can we legally bitch slap Howard Dean, but we will allow the music industry to demand the names of the parents, grandparents, and pets of kids who use Kaaza to download music, so they can sue their asses off or throw them in jail.  Yes I believe in copyright protection, but the greedy bastard music industry lost me when they rejected Napster's billion $ payment proposal.  This is way over the top.  When I think of today's music business, the word "Geffen" - with all the baggage that carries - comes to mind.  Too bad I hate most of today's music, or I'd buy, then plaster it all over the place.  What's that?  Why do I have Ted Kennedy pictured with David Geffen?  Because I don't like him, that's why.
 
 

"Imagine what would have happened to Winston Churchill, the greatest world leader of the 20th century, had he succeeded in persuading his government to go to war against the Third Reich before Hitler himself started the war Churchill had been warning about for years. According to the BBC's absurd current doctrine he would have been accused of exaggerating the dangers of the Nazi destruction machine in the absence of any discovery of the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz.

"Yet this would have been simply because Hitler and Eichmann had not had time to construct them. "Sexing-up the intelligence dossier" is how the BBC refers to it" - Jerusalem Post.

Tony & Tacky

Throwing the Book at Him: That's how the Philadelphia Inquirer describes Chester County Judge Juan R. Sanchez's ruling that William Fowlkes must read a copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird." The 46-year-old Mr. Fowlkes was accused of spitting at a police officer, and as part of his plea agreement he must not only read the book but submit a book report, largely because of a telling scene in which a white lawyer defending a black man unjustly accused of rape is spat upon by a disgraced character. The Inquirer quoted Assistant District Attorney Peter Hobart characterizing the sentence as a "novel approach."

Death Trap: "Chicago justice" has always enjoyed something of a rough reputation. But according to the administration of Mayor Richard Daley, that's just what's keeping the city's rat population at bay. In an all-out war on the critters, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, the Bureau of Rodent Control is using all means available to kill them -- everything from poison and shovels to nine irons. Alas, the rodents still find ready sources of nourishment. "Dog feces is the prime source of protein for rats," one city official told the paper. "To them, it's filet mignon."

Wall Street Journal

    Nothing shows the comic aspect of today's PC culture than the ridiculous debate over how to prove to the Iraqi people that the two Hussein snots are dead.  Are you shitting me?  Hang them from a rope suspended from the end of a tank gun barrel, and ride through Iraq until their bodies rot and their heads fall off.  And, as soon as I can find the AP reporter who wrote, "Too bad for Uday and Qusai Hussein that the United States broke the law and assassinated them," I will track him down and suspend him on that same gun barrel.  Sheesh.
 

Here then, the official Curmudgeonly & Skeptical list of the worst people in American history.

OKAY, BUT DO YOU THINK THE LA TIMES WOULD EVER HAVE PRINTED THIS TOON (ROLL]?

    Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., says the Secret Service used "profoundly bad judgment" in seeking to question a Los Angeles Times cartoonist over a political cartoon depicting a man pointing a gun at President Bush.  I concur.   The LA Times used "profoundly bad judgment" too. For their part, the Secret Service must still have some bad habits left over from a previous President's [ahem] habit of having his critics arrested.

If you could sleep with any FIVE famous people, who would they be -- in order?  There are rules (your Grammy is ineligible).  Enter HERE.

Last night Bill O'Reilly introduced Ann Coulter this way:

"Ideological Americans very seldom persuade anyone who thinks differently than they do... If you're not a left-wing loon, why would you ever read Robert Scheer, Paul Krugman or Frank Rich .. and the same can be said on the Right.  How can you persuade anyone if you always take the conservative position?"

	"I'm not going with that"
	"[protest stepped on by O'Reilly]
	"I'm going with a guy who used his power to do some good, but a lot of bad things.
	"Like what?"
	"Well, he demonized people who didn't deserve to be demonized."
	"That's not true.  Name one, there is not one  ... "
	"All right, Dalton Trumbo."
	" He had nothing to do with Dalton Trumbo .. "
	" Sure he did .. there was the House American Activities Committee [HUAC] ... "
	"stepped on"
	" ... and who was overseeing that?"
	"He was known as Senator McCarthy because he was in the Senate, not the House.  Everyone confused him with the House ..."
	"[wheels turning] and he was overseeing that.  Come on, you know the clubhouse rules (?) ...
	"He had nothing to do with HUAC.  See, this is part of the myth that I ...."
	"All right, I don't want to debate .... "

O'Reilly's ignorance about HUAC and Joe McCarthy underscores just how difficult it will be to reeducate millions of Americans who've been fed lies like this during their lifetimes. God bless Ann Coulter for trying.

"The volume of mail I received on this topic dwarfed any other, ever. In fact, I had to split the letters into two sections, just to fit them on the site -- "  - Kim duToit, National ID Cards -- The Response

"Hershey's Ordered to Pay Obese Americans $135 Billion," screamed the headline. As Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Kentucky) pointed out on the Senate floor last week, that headline dates from August 2000 and appeared as a spoof in the online publication The Onion. But what was obvious satire only three years ago has today morphed into all-too-real litigation, with a plaintiffs bar that succeeded against Big Tobacco now targeting everything from Oreos to Big Macs."

The excuse for this is obesity. Already we have articles claiming that fast food is as "addictive" as nicotine or heroin, and any number of lawsuits all angling to lay the blame for our expanding waistlines on America's food industry. As our Jason Riley pointed out on this page only a few weeks ago, in Boston the trial lawyers have even convened the "First Annual Conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic."

That's why Mr. McConnell introduced the Commonsense Consumption Act of 2003. Similar to legislation already introduced in the House by Ric Keller (R., Florida), Mr. McConnell's bill would still leave the food industry liable for any violation of state or federal health regulations, for injuries from the consumption of adulterated food, etc. But it does insulate the industry from claims of injury resulting from obesity or weight gain.

In explaining the basis for his measure the Senator even invoked an unusual authority: Richard Simmons, the ubiquitous TV weight-loss guru. "There is always going to be greasy, fried, salty, sugary food," the Senator quoted Mr. Simmons as saying. "It is up to the individual to walk in and say, 'I don't want those fries' ... anyone who's trying to sue the fast food places needs a therapist, not an attorney."

We're with the Senator and Mr. Simmons. Along with pushing away those fries, a healthy America would do well to start saying no to the increasingly jumbo helpings of trial lawyers.

 URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105891810995900200,00.html
 
 

Here's the beginning:

"... Last year the UC regents asked Californians to subsidize the tuition rates of illegal aliens. "Fairness" required that they pay the in-state rate, though this meant illegal aliens would get to pay roughly $10,000 less than out-of-state Americans. This year the UC regents are batting around another lunatic scheme, this one to charge students from so-called wealthy families a "surcharge," ... a $3,000 tax on students deemed rich."

    Bill Sammon writes - and I almost quote here, "President Bush's upcoming meeting with the Urban League, coupled with his snubbing of the filthy racist NAACP, mirrors his outreach to moderate Palestinians while ignoring Yasser Arafat.

    Spoon's  roundup of what a few mainstream lefty bloggers are saying about the deaths of Uday and Qusay shows what filthy basards we're dealing with.

    I hadn't checked my Amazon account recently (not the begging cup, the entrepreneur one).  Back in June I thought, "gee, people buy stuff from Amazon anyway, so why not become an associate?  That way, at no cost to themselves, people who like this blog can support my heady life style."  I kicked it off with the Father's Day Promotion, and the release of Ann Coulter's book.  I just received a note from Amazon with news that I have broken all records for an AMAZON Associate!  I owe them $12.15.  I am not making this up.

**Negative values are the result of returned items.

    Wait until Mother Superior sees this.  "Don't worry Hon, the new computer will pay for itself."  What's really amazing is, not one fucker bought Coulter's book from this site.  This is as bad as when I ran for president of my fraternity pledge class and was blackballed during the voting.  I'm going to have to do some serious marketing changes around here.  I mean, shit -- just yesterday I received double degrees (in Law and Medicine), only to get smacked with this [Item #2] news.  Georgia Ricky, are you there?  I need help setting up a Blog Casino here.  Sheesh.

Right Wing guy is catching all kinds of flak for his recent "Top Americans" poll.  He responds with "Top 25 American Athletes Of All-Time."  I prolly would have included Johnny Unitas and Cal Ripkin, but his list is pretty good.  Maybe I'll do my own survey. Send me your nominations for the "The 20 Worst Figures In American History."  Please write "Slimebags" in the subject line.  I'll post results tomorrow.

While I'm still parked at Maxim, here's a filthy joke.  At least I think it is.  I won't read it.
 

A man decides to have a party and invites lots of people, telling them to bring their friends. On the invitation he puts “Theme Party Come as a Human Emotion.”

On the night of the party, the first guest arrives and he opens the door to see a guy covered in green paint with the letters N and V painted on his chest. He says to this guy, “Wow, great outfit, what emotion have you come as?” and the guy says, “I’m green with envy.” The host replies, “Brilliant, come on in and have a drink.”

A few minutes later the next guest arrives and the host opens the door to see a woman covered in a pink body stocking with a feather boa wrapped around her most intimate parts. He says to this woman, “Wow, great outfit, what emotion have you come as?” And she replies, “I’m tickled pink.” The host says, “I love it, come on in and join the party.”

A couple of minutes later the doorbell goes for the third time, and the host opens the door to see two blokes from Jamaica, stark naked, one with his penis stuck in a bowl of custard and the other with his penis stuck in a pear.

The host is really shocked and says, “What the hell are you doing? You could get arrested for standing like that out here in the street. What emotion is this supposed to be?” The first guy replies, “Well, I’m fucking disgusted, and my friend here has come in despair.”
 

According to a MAXIM sex survey:

--  69 percent of ladies enjoy going to strip clubs and 60 percent of those surveyed have received lap dances from other women.

-- 75 percent of women like porn films; 69 percent use sex toys and 57 percent have french kissed another lady.

-- 64 percent of ladies wear thong bikinis seven days a week but 18 percent don't wear undies at all.

-- 47 percent say their favorite sex position is "woman on top" while 26 percent prefer doing it like doggies.

-- Finally, 62 percent of women admit that if they had to date a circus freak, they'd go for the tall man but 24 percent would take the midget. An additional two percent would have sex with the bearded lady.

The Shakedown State

By WALTER OLSON

From news reports of late, you might think California's legal establishment was working hard to prevent a repetition of the state's recent "shakedown-lawsuit" scandal. On July 10, following a massive state bar investigation, three principals of the Beverly Hills-based Trevor Law Group decided not to fight disbarment on charges they'd wrongfully sent demand letters to thousands of small businesses offering not to sue them in exchange for "settlements" amounting to thousands of dollars apiece. And two days earlier state attorney general Bill Lockyer filed charges against a second law firm engaged in what he called a "quick-buck racket": Brar & Gamulin had mass-mailed lawsuit threats to hundreds of ethnic grocery stores and nail salons. Mr. Lockyer's office is probing three other law firms as well for questionable suits under the state's sweeping consumer-rights law, also known as Business and Professions Code 17200.

* * *

So the system's finally working the way it ought to, right? If you think so, you may have missed the latest from the state legislature in Sacramento ...

... whose Democratic leadership is using the shakedown scandal as an excuse to rush to passage a bill devised by the state's trial lawyers' association which would actually expand the law in question so as to give lawyers more leverage to extract settlement money on dubious 17200 claims.

Shakedown suits are nothing new in the Golden State, but Damian Trevor and two colleagues effectively mechanized the process. They combed through state regulatory records for businesses that had been issued some kind of reprimand, often over trivial paperwork omissions or missed deadlines. They sent letters in the name of Consumer Enforcement Watch, a newly organized group whose mailing address was the same as theirs, offering not to sue the businesses if they came across with checks in the thousands of dollars. The firm's "red letter," named after the color of the paper on which it was printed, put matters bluntly: "Either pay even more money to fight in court or settle out of court and get on with business." Many did pay.

In part because of press sympathy for mom-and-pop immigrant defendants, a furor began to build. And while trial-lawyer spokesmen took a "few bad apples" line, business groups saw Mr. Trevor's treasure hunt as merely the latest logical extension of section 17200, a law so bizarrely pro-plaintiff as to be a major disincentive for many companies to do business in the state. Indeed, the chairman and CEO of mortgage giant Countrywide pointedly cited 17200 in a recent letter to Gov. Gray Davis explaining the company's decision to halt expansion in California.

How pro-plaintiff is section 17200? As in the case of Nike v. Kasky, recently looked at (but then passed over) by the Supreme Court, it lets lawyers run to court without any injured client at all to sue against business practices that are either "unfair" -- a peerlessly amorphous term -- or "illegal," a category that takes in countless technical violations that actual regulators and prosecutors have already settled or view as too trivial to pursue. Lawyers can file valid 17200 suits that piggyback on a business's claimed violation of entirely unrelated laws, even if those unrelated laws make clear that private parties can't sue to enforce their provisions. If the law were a prop in Alice in Wonderland, it would carry a little tag saying, "Abuse Me."

The Trevor lawyers went further than most of their brethren in some key respects, notably in pursuing claims without even cursory investigation and in misleading their targets during settlement discussions. Yet in other tactics that roused public ire, such as use of a bogus consumer group, they merely followed the crowd. John Sullivan of the pro-reform Civil Justice Association of California, who keeps a list of 17200 horror stories, says he's counted something like two dozen ad hoc consumer groups that exist as lawyer-controlled fronts. Identical practices are seen in the parallel bounty-hunting subculture spawned by the state's Proposition 65 law, under which lawyers have sued manufacturers for failing to warn of the claimed toxic emissions given off by brass darts, Christmas lights, hammers, mineral oil, billiard cue chalk, and picture frames, not to mention French fries and chocolate (which are among many foods in which traces of cancer-causing substances naturally occur). One lawyer filed 400 Prop. 65 claims against candle makers, on the grounds that their products emit toxic fumes when burned; the consumer group he represented turned out to have his mother as its only officer.

Robert Fellmeth, a University of San Diego law professor with strong liberal and consumerist credentials, supports 17200's broad objectives but has said that its current configuration "really creates an environment for extortion." This spring Mr. Fellmeth worked with Assemblyman Lou Correa (D., Anaheim) to craft a very modest measure that would have required court approval of settlements and provided public hearings to vent defendant objections. They might have saved themselves the effort: In May the Judiciary Democrats deep-sixed Mr. Correa's bill along with more far-reaching GOP alternatives that in one instance would even (of all things!) have required lawyers to line up actual injured clients before they sued.

But that was just a prelude to what happened next. On July 8 the respective Judiciary chairs stunned business observers by pulling from a hat and passing substitute bills devised by the state's trial lawyer group, which styles itself Consumer Attorneys of California. Section 122, sponsored by Sen. Martha Escutia (D., Whittier), with its companion Assembly bill, would impose essentially superficial curbs on abuse. Most significant, judges would for the first time review fees (as opposed to settlements in general) but would be instructed to approve any and all fees if "consistent with applicable law." Lawyers would have to send a copy of each lawsuit to the state bar, and would have to include new boilerplate in their demand letters advising defendants of their right to consult their own attorney and so forth.

After that begins a trial-lawyer wish list, starting with liberal rules for "joinder" of defendants, along with explicit authority for lawyers to sue multiple businesses without knowing which ones have actually committed a violation. Most ominous of all, the bill would overturn a March decision in which the state supreme court barred lawyers from demanding the "disgorgement" under 17200 of any and all revenue a business had earned while an infraction was in progress, as opposed to restitution for customers affected by a practice, which they are still free to seek. The difference between the two is dramatic: If you're a pizzeria owner and get sued for unfairly claiming that your pie is the best in town, restitution might consist of giving away consolatory baskets of garlic bread, but disgorgement could mean paying out all the revenue you've taken in while the slogan was printed on your boxes. It's a remedy so drastic that courts seldom impose it; its real function is usually to give lawyers the leverage to terrify defendants into settlement. To top it all, the Escutia bill would allow lawyers to steer settlement funds not paid to actual consumers to organizations that "promote justice," code for the consumer and pro-litigation groups with which the lawyers are allied.

The trial lawyers' bill has now passed both houses in different forms and could reach final-action votes any day now. Don't count on Democratic Gov. Gray Davis to exercise his veto: trial lawyers are likely to be major sources of the war chest he'll need for his forthcoming recall battle. Thus do the trial lawyers turn even their own scandals to tactical advantage. Is it any wonder they're the most successful special-interest lobby in the land?

Mr. Olson, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is the author of "The Rule of Lawyers" (St. Martin's, 2003). He edits Overlawyered.com.

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105883311812979900,00.html

    A recent headline in the Boston Globe — "Thirteen workers complain of CO2 poisoning" — is a perfect example of this country's "global-warming obsession," says a top official of the Cooler Heads Coalition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
    Actually, an Associated Press story beneath the erroneous headline said the seafood-company workers were recovering after being taken to Portland, Maine, hospitals for "carbon monoxide poisoning."
    "CO2 'poisoning,' " laughs CEI's Christopher C. Horner, referring to carbon dioxide. "No wonder these papers are so batty about global-warming alarmism. They've never even taken the time to pay the slightest bit of attention to distinguish between poison and human breath, the head on your beer, plant food necessary for photosynthesis, etc." - Inside the Beltway

   School president  Robert Agrella  referred to "a general outcry to fire the instructor" but suggested that college attorneys had ruled that out as an option. Instead, Agrella suggested that students could stone Ballou to death.

    Here's the French view on why tourism is down 20% this year.

"Experts blame variously September 11th, the Prestige oil spill, SARS, the war in Iraq and the economy for the downturn. All are agreed that the underlying factor is the economic recession. Everyone is also pretty much agreed that American resentment over the French position on intervention in Iraq has had very little effect.

"Many Americans oppose Bush’s policies and admire President Chirac’s stand for peace. Many of the rest are not going to let politics interfere with their holiday plans. In Iraq the embarrassing failure, so far, to find weapons of mass destruction and the mounting US casualty figures are playing into French hands."

 "Europeans hate President Bush more than any other president, with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan."

1) Go to www.google.com

2) Type in (but don't hit return): "weapons of mass destruction"

3) Hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button

I am so flummoxed over this Rachel Lucas catch that I'm actually dizzy.

    I was expelled from Lexington University for reasons I'd rather not discuss.  Not to worry, I've matriculated at Stanton U [accredited by HESA (Higher Education Services Association], and expect to graduate in ten to 30 minutes, depending on whether I go through fraternity rush or not.  I'm a double major at SU -- Law and Medicine (Medical school is brutal compared to Law so far).  That's my lab partner Kerry on the left.  She's nine.

    I've decided to get my law degree, so I won't be blogging for the next hour or so.  If I make the University of Lexington football team, I may be gone for two hours while I earn my letter. Plus, I want to kick Notre Dame's ass.  Thanks for your patience.

    The French have banned the use of the word "e-mail," demanding instead that the word "courriel" be substituted.   This is ironic since "courriel" was coined by a Canadian Frog.  So much for national purity, eh?  French Canadians in Quebec long ago made it illegal to even display english words in shop windows, let alone speak or teach English in schools.  Needless to say, Quebecian kids don't have much of a future once they leave the French ghetto.  Too bad if you're a parent with some sense, as you can see here  (sounds like California Liberals at work, don't it?). Just today I read that the disposition to handle stress badly is in your DNA.  I'm certain we'll soon learn that another DNA strand protects us from being chronic assholes, and the French lack all trace of it. Anyway, French Letter has so much more history attached, and should be adopted instead. That's what I think.

     The Baron, as he often does, takes me in a somewhat different direction than he intended.  His article about American leftists fleeing to Canada ("It's the most amazing opportunity I can imagine. To live in a society where there are different priorities in caring for your fellow citizens.") underscores an irony.  One of the joys of our Federal Republic is was that we used to be able to vote with our feet.  It is precisely because of upchucks like the one quoted above that we have lost that luxury to an oppressive PC cookie-cutter centralized government.  I will  be delighted if about 32 million of that particular ilk followed suit.  It makes target acquisition all the easier.

Also, and because Cracker's links are not working, I'll snatch this exchange he snagged at Slashdot, because you NEED to see it.

GFW: "I wish all you gun-toting fucktards would just go create your own nation."

Gun Nut: "We did. Who the hell let you in here?"

Today's WSJ concludes. "It looks like it was the BBC that "sexed up" its report."  Here's the opener:

"If history doesn't go your way, rewrite it. That's the way demagogues have operated through the ages and, while it seldom works in the long term, it can succeed in the short run, where elections are won and lost. This strategy is now being fully deployed on both sides of the Atlantic in an attempt to nullify the victory in Iraq.

"In Britain, the battle to erase the war's gains has so far succeeded better than in the U.S., where scandal-hungry media are obsessed with half-baked accusations on yellowcake. Tony Blair is more exposed than President Bush in large part because the British Prime Minister's foes have a powerful megaphone; it's called the British Broadcasting Corporation.

    I'm  beginning to appreciate the restraint found in diplomatic language.  After all, once you have labeled the likes of Bob Graham a FFL, how do you trump it?   Calls by leftist loons for Bush's impeachment began in December of 1999.  Hell, I called for his impeachment on June 2, 2001, making me the first conservative of no repute to do so [he listened, and changed course].  Graham is a United States Senator though, and a presidential candidate, so for him to use the "I" word is particularly inflammatory and irresponsible, not to mention void of any substance.  By contrast, the first mainstream call for Bill Clinton's impeachment did not come until the WSJ published Mark Helprin's "IMPEACH" on October 10, 1997 [see below], after four years of malfeasance and criminal activity documented through a zillion sources.  Bob Graham's self serving outrage, therefore, causes me to escalate the rhetoric,  and he will henceforth be known as a FFLCS!  The Donks almost [I said almost] make me want the fighting to begin while I'm still able to contribute.

"It is really sad. Why should you tear down one part of history, only to recreate something that is even older?" Fliegel says. "It is distressing because they will knock something down that we were all working for in the GDR (German Democratic Republic)," he said.

READER JAMES D submtted this crime story, perhaps prompted by the "Purring Kitty."

Stolen "Cellie" rings in vagina, by Vivian Tyson

"Pandemonium broke out at a shopping mall in Negril on Monday, when a cellular phone which was stolen from a female shopper was found after it rang from within another shopper's vagina. Some bystanders were amused over the happenings, but some chided the young woman for sinking so low that she even embarrassed other women. <snip>

"The phone was plucked from its hiding place by the irate owner, who told the crowd she was going to have it properly sanitized before using it again. According to one man however, "Mi nuh wan' dat deh phone fi use again, mi would dash it weh." [Full]

25. Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye. 

24. Her Teeth Was Stained, But Her Heart Were Pure. 

23. How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away? 

22. I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling. 

21. I Just Bought A Car From A Guy That Stole My Girl, But The Car Don't Run So I Figure We're Even. 

20. I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You. 

19. I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well. 

18. I Still Miss You, Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better. 

17. I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win. 

16. I'll Marry You Tomorrow But Let's Honeymoon Tonight. 

15. I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here. 

14. I've Got Tears In My Ears From Lyin' On My Back and Cryin' Over You. 

13. If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You. 

12. If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I'd Be Out By Now. 

11. Mama Get A Hammer (There's A Fly On Papa's Head). 

10. My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don't Love You. 

9. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend And I Sure Do Miss Him. 

8. Please Bypass This Heart. 

7. She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger. 

6. You Done Tore Out My Heart And Stomped That Sucker Flat. 

5. You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly. 

4. If the Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me. 

3. She's Actin' Single and I'm Drinkin' Doubles. 

2. She's Looking Better After Every Beer. 

And the Number 1 Country and Western song of all Time is... 

1. I Haven't Gone To Bed With Any Ugly Women But I've Sure Woke Up With A Few. 

   I'm somewhat taken aback by the furor over the murder of  Dr David Kelly - the weapons expert at the center of the Iraq dossier stink in Britain.  He's believed by some in the government to be the BBC's source for claims that Tony Blair "sexed up" the weapons dossier on Iraq in the pre-war period.  By all accounts Tony Blair is somehow in deep-political doo-doo because Kelly is killed.  Huh?  Let me offer an analogy.

    On June 25, 1975, a scant few hours before he was to have testified before the Select Subcommittee on Intelligence, about lots of things having to do with the Kennedy assassination and mafia ties, Chicago mafia boss Sam "Momo" Giancana  was murdered in his home. John Roselli, a Mafia lieutenant of Giancana's, was dismembered, stuffed into an oil drum and dropped into the ocean off Miami in July 1976, just before a scheduled second appearance before the committee. Who stood to lose if these wise guys revealed too much?  The dead Lee Oswald?  Members of the subcommittee?  Or, the mob?

     There have been a series of attempts to embarrass Blair and Bush over Iraq.  The French have been involved in one set of falsified documents, and there is speculation they are involved in the African nukes intel as well.  The BBC has been over the top in their hostility to both the United States and the Blair government.  Who stood to lose if there was a complete airing of what came from Kelly, and what did not?  My instincts say the French, and possibly the Germans, are involved in this deal.  What about the BBC muckamucks? They all would certainly benefit by cutting Kelly out of the audit trail.  Hmmmm?

    If you're afraid of dogs, okay.  But for chrisake, please don't take a job that guarantees you'll be faced with a family pet several times a day.  To wit:

• UPS, FED-EX driver, et al.
• Meter reader
• Mailman or mail manette
• Beggar

"Hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent have filed a mass claim demanding compensation for allegedly being forcibly deported from the United States during the Depression." - Full Monty

    And how come everyone but me is getting a chance at one of these reparation looteries?

    I hope you'll  read "Courting the judges" (via Inside Politics ) and recoil in horror, as I did, over what is surely a harbinger of things to come.  Maybe we need to bring the troops back from Afghanistan and Iraq to restore order and constitutional law in this country.

    Top California Democrats yesterday backed a plan to ask the courts to break a legislative logjam that has left the nation's most populous state without a budget weeks into the new fiscal year.
    The officials plan to ask the state's Supreme Court to suspend the requirement that two-thirds of legislators must approve the budget, the Associated Press reports.
    Such a move would allow Democrats, who dominate the California Legislature, to pass a budget without winning over votes from state Republicans, who have refused to back tax increases.
    California's planned lawsuit follows a similar move by neighboring Nevada, where the state Supreme Court last week ordered the Legislature to approve a budget with less than the two-thirds vote required by the state constitution.
    Following Republican complaints, a federal court on Monday blocked further action on a record tax-increase measure in Nevada by issuing a temporary restraining order as the legal battle in that state continues.
    An aide to California's Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell said he would file a legal appeal to the state Supreme Court next week.
    In a prepared statement, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis said he felt he had made "real progress" in talks with top legislators from both parties on Wednesday, but he still backed Mr. O'Connell's lawsuit.
    "I think it is perfectly appropriate for you as superintendent of public instruction to seek a Supreme Court order to protect our schoolchildren," he said. "Let me be clear: If a responsible budget is not on my desk in the near future, I will join you in that lawsuit."
 

I think you guys are confusing javascript advertising with Rodger's screen capture.

The screen capture is, as he said, from the Messenger service. If you don't use it, disable it. (Common use is for a print server to notify you that the print job is done, or using "net send" commands). If you *do* need the messenger service, block UDP port 1026 on your firewall to prevent these annoyances from getting into your network. The messenger service shouldn't be confused with MSN Messenger.

"Pop up" advertising (and sometimes "Pop under") is spiffy javascript code - if you enable javascript in *any* browser, it'll hit you. (If you don't, you'll miss half of this website's left-hand column).

Rodger, in your registry, look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - Software - Microsoft - Windows - CurrentVersion.

There are three "hives" (look like folders) that are discussed above - Run, RunOnce, and RunOnceEx.

"Run" has entries of all the programs that start up _every time_ Windows starts. Your antivirus program, personal firewall, and other such programs should be listed.

"RunOnce" has entries of all the program that will start _the next time_ Windows starts. It's usually empty, except after you install software that requires a reboot.

"RunOnceEx" is something else. Don't remember - something about error control, but that's what Google is for.

Rather than directly editing your registry, run "msconfig" from Start->Run. The right-most tab (Startup) has all of the entries that are in the registry. You can uncheck those that you're not sure you need (lots of the icons next to the system clock come from this area) and recheck them later if you later decide you really do want XYZprogram.exe to run.

Pogue.
MCSE way back in '99, moved on since then.

    The political left prefers the label "Progressive" because "Liberal," "Communist," and "Nazi" have a certain harshness.  Whatever they call themselves, they have a long history of inflicting stuff.  In "Sterilization Particulars," George Neumayr documents the work of some Progressive Californians.

The Blog Shall Make You Free

Technology has played a huge role in modern democracy movements, whether it was faxes during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising, or e-mail during the Russian overthrow of its dictators. Iran, for its part, has discovered blogs. In less than two years an estimated 10,000 blogs have popped up under the very noses of mullahs, mostly written in Persian, and all of them giving Iranians a new free-speech outlet.

Thanks to these blogs, Iranians are gabbing fairly freely about everything from entertainment and poetry to technology and personal diaries. Iranian women (who can take different names online) use blogs to talk about dating, sex and other taboo subjects. And, of course, the blogs are playing a real role in Iran's democracy movement. Bloggers provide firsthand accounts of student protests, political criticism and even attract politicians -- who comment on postings.

Iran's mullahs might be slow but they're catching on. They have started blocking sites they deem subversive (including Voice of America's Persian-language site) and have occasionally shut down student sites and blog-hosting services like persianblog.com. They also decided to make an example of Mr. Motallebi. A journalist for a paper that was shut down by the government, Mr. Motallebi began a blog. His site, while rarely political, was very popular. In April he was arrested on undisclosed charges, and is now awaiting trial.

That Westerners know about Mr. Motallebi is largely the result of another blogging phenomenon: Iranians who run English-language blogs outside of Iran. Pedram Moallemian, born in Iran but now living in California, runs a blog (www.eyeranian.net¹) and started an online petition to protest Mr. Motallebi's arrest. Hossein Derakhshan, who runs a Iran-focused blog (www.hoder.com²) in Canada, helped bring the story to the attention of well-known blogs like InstaPundit and Buzz Machine, which means a lot of Americans now know the story. Mr. Derakhshan has also provided Iranians back home with the technical information to set up blogs.

The Internet won't bring down Iran's dictators. But the blogging phenomenon shows that human freedom and expression will not be denied, and that technology will only continue to make the job of dictators that much harder.

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105848499831453000,00.html
	Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) http://www.eyeranian.net (2) http://www.hoder.com

1. We are involved in a world war.  (See General Sherman)
2. I could understand griping GIs in past wars, they were conscripts and had lives to return to (and griping is an American past time).  Every man Jack in today's military are volunteer professionals however, and ought to shut the hell up.
3. Today's politically active Liberals/Democrats/Communists  are the equivalent of Axis Sally and Lord Haw-Haw, and are undermining our national resolve to win this war and survive as a nation.
4. Forty years of Liberal stewardship over the nation's schools may have doomed the effort anyway.
5. Bourbon and Prozac is good; Scotch and Prozac has a bitter aftertaste, but I'm out of Bourbon.

    Without being conscious of  it we both knew, you and I,  that John Conyers' and Howard Berman's legislative initiative to jail us for copying music was a Quid Pro Cash, didn't we?.  Here's the money trail, thanks to Monsieur Hawkins.

    If  John Conyers can introduce legislation to put anybody who swaps a record into prison for five years, then surely there is hope that Ann Coulter can be issued a license to kill.  In the meanwhile, by the power vested in me as a blog minister, I grant Ms. Coulter a licence to punch all these people in the nose.

TOP 10 WAYS THAT HANDGUNS ARE BETTER THAN A WOMAN

#10 - You can trade an old .44 for two new .22s

#9 - You can keep one handgun at home and have another for when you're on the road.

#8 - If you admire a friend's handgun, and tell him so, he will probably let you try it out a few times.

#7 - Your primary handgun doesn't mind if you have a backup.

#6 - Your handgun will stay with you even if you're out of ammo.

#5 - A handgun doesn't take up a lot of closet space.

#4 - Handguns function normally every day of the month.

#3 - A handgun doesn't ask "Do these new grips make me look fat?"

#2 - A handgun doesn't mind if you go to sleep after you use it.

AND THE NUMBER ONE WAY THAT A HANDGUN IS BETTER THAN A WOMAN . . . You can buy a silencer for a handgun

"Lawyers for the family of Ben Martinez say they have filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe and one of its priests.

"Court papers filed last month say Rev Scott Mansfield said at Martinez's funeral last year that the deceased was "living in sin", "lukewarm in his faith" and that "the Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell". [Full]

Do the Democrats on the Hill know about this? Yes.  Do they care?  No.  Not when they can make political hay with deception.  That's why Ed Koch said," It's just not safe to vote Democratic."

One of the mysteries of the recent yellowcake uranium flap is why the White House has been so defensive about an intelligence judgment that we don't yet know is false, and that the British still insist is true. Our puzzlement is even greater now that we've learned what last October's national intelligence estimate really said.

We're reliably told that that now famous NIE, which is meant to be the best summary judgment of the intelligence community, isn't nearly as full of doubt about that yellowcake story as the critics assert or as even CIA director George Tenet has suggested. The section on Iraq's hunt for uranium, for example, asserts bluntly that "Iraq also began vigorously trying to procure uranium ore and yellowcake" and that "acquiring either would shorten the time Baghdad needs to produce nuclear weapons."

Regarding the supposedly discredited Niger story, the NIE says that "A foreign government service reported that as of early 2001 Niger planned to send several tons of 'pure uranium' (probably yellowcake) to Iraq. As of early 2001, Niger and Iraq reportedly were still working out arrangements for this deal, which could be for up to 500 tons of yellowcake. We do not know the status of this arrangement."

That foreign government service is of course the British, who still stand by their intelligence. In the next paragraph, the NIE goes on to say that "Reports indicate Iraq also has sought uranium ore from Somalia and possibly the Democratic Republic of the Congo." It then adds that "We cannot confirm whether Iraq has succeeded in acquiring uranium ore and/or yellowcake from these sources."

This information, by the way, does not come from the White House, which to our mind has handled this story in ham-handed fashion. But we are told that language identical to what was in the NIE is what the CIA presented to the White House last January 24 in preparation for President Bush's State of the Union address.

As we interpret that NIE language, the President was entirely accurate in what he said in that speech about Saddam pursuing uranium in Africa. Mr. Tenet's carefully calibrated statement and disclosure last Friday accepting responsibility for this "mistake" was more tortured than warranted by the assertions in the NIE.

Keep in mind that NIEs are consensus documents. They aren't the view of some Lone Ranger analyst or a policy cabal. Our late great friend, strategist Albert Wohlstetter, disliked NIEs because he felt they often quashed alternative ways of looking at evidence. But faced with an intelligence community judgment like the one last October, what is an American President to do? Is he supposed to wait until we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law that some Iraqi agent has actually purchased the stuff?

The larger truth is that it was a deeply held consensus of the U.S. intelligence community that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons program. Multiple U.N. resolutions asserted the same thing. We had proof that Saddam had used chemical weapons in the past. The decision to disarm the Iraqi dictator wasn't based on a single intelligence report but on a mountain of evidence compiled over a dozen years.

Mr. Tenet appeared yesterday in a closed meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has also had access to the complete NIE since last October. In our view, the Committee could do a public service by releasing the entire NIE section on Iraq's uranium hunt, and for that matter on its WMD program, consistent with not compromising sources and methods. Americans could then make their own judgments about whether Mr. Bush was properly looking out for their security.

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105841027512008900,00.html

    Louisiana, like most states, offers specialty licence plates that cost an extra $25.  You know, Vietnam Vet, Kiwanis, Girl Scouts, etc.  Last week U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval forbade Louisian from including this Choose Life plate.  His reasoning?  "Choose Life" is really saying "Choose Violation of First Amendment," because there are no plates available for the opposing view. Further, offering only one '"viewpoint" means the state is promoting an exclusive ideology."

   I have always felt that if the day came when we lost all faith in our justice system, the toilet had already been flushed and it was just a matter of how long before we disappeared into the vortex.  I think we're there.  And it's not just me, and other righteous folks, who feel that way.  Even our national assholes believe that without activist judges like Duval the world is lost.  I'l let Happy Feder sum up:

Duval's ruling has effectively disallowed all these specialty plates by declaring illegal the manner in which they are issued, i.e., selectively and exclusively by the state legislature. In order to keep the dangerous Girl Scout and Choose Life plates, Louisiana will likely follow other states in requiring a minimum number of people requesting a particular specialty plate.

Which opens a delightfully entertaining chapter of free speech that can only be fully appreciated by conservative connoisseurs of comedy.

I wonder what picture will accompany the "Right to Choose" plate? A scalpel?

And when will the first lawsuit be filed against Louisiana's state motto, Union, justice, and confidence? We know Duval wouldn't want the state to exclusively promote the ideas therein. An alternate motto will be necessary. Perhaps Diversity and Disarray?
 

    The Hawk pretty much speaks for me about the projected deficit, but I don't see a solution for the coming demagoguery.  Part of the problem is we, as a nation, don't have a clue about economics.  Even if it were part of high school curricula, students would be reading from Keynes and Marx, so let's let that dog sleep.  After Ross Perot did his William Jennings Bryant impersonation in 1992, turning the deficit into a "Cross of Gold," there is no hope that any president, for some time to come,  can convince the nation that a 4% deficit against GDP is no horror.  In case you think Hawk let Bush off the hook though, he didn't.

    This is a beauty.  Our Canuck friends seem to have accidentally freed 59 war criminals.  I think it's fair to say that Canada is pretty much a snapshot of the US, only slightly out of focus (except when it comes to electing socialist government where they excel). In this regard, however, their INS people seem to have set the standard for ours.  But wait.  Closer examination reveals Canada may have been reading from our handbook:

"[criminals] are frequently set free and told to show up for their own deportations."

    I can dispense gobbledygook as good as  Dr. Georgia Witkin's, and will work much cheaper.  I want her job.  Here's some audition analysis I'm sending to FOX.

"The solution can only be integrated organisational contingencies."

"At base level, this just comes down to knowledge-based asset processing on Bush's part.".

"The administration can't fail with global administrative matrix approaches."

    Excuse me, but I'll be gone for awhile.  I'm going to find out who owns, or even works for this PRIVACY SAVER company, and cut their livers out.  No jury in the world would convict me.  What utter, contemptible cyber pricks!  Anyway, there's only one way, as far as I know,  to stop jerks like this.  The virus type spam gains access to your screen via Microsoft "Messenger".  What's that?  You don't use that particular piece of shit?  Yes you do too, unless you have stopped and also disabled its automatic start up.  Here's how.

FLATULENCE is responsible for the death of hundreds of cattle exported to the Middle East each year.

Cows gas themselves to death by emitting fatally high levels of ammonia during the lengthy voyages, a University of New England conference has heard. [Ill wind blows for cattle export]