The Lasso of Truth

For the reader who begged for more Steyn...

MAGNIFICENT!  Worth my entire cup of coffee, and then some.

As an added bonus, a helpful costume suggestion for the good "doctor" to wear at the next BigCityLib Halloween bash...or just around the house as the mood may strike. 

He may want to trade the cowboy hat for a turban though.  For authenticity.

PLUS: Predictably snort-worthy snark from Kathy, on the leftist Canadian fart-o-sphere...

Take note, embittered unread failures of the leftoid blogosphere:

Do NOT tug on Superman's cape, or dare to insult Superman's Super Friends, especially Wonder Woman.

I'm pretty sure she didn't mean me, but rather the real Wonder Woman.  I am merely a reasonable hand-drawn facsimile.  But I couldn't agree more.

Cheap, fast and ugly wins again...

Much like pulling off the murder of almost 3,000 Americans, with 4 Airplanes and a hand full of boxcutters...

Perhaps it was not so difficult after all to plan and execute this attack: small arms and hand grenades are not hard to find, boats are scarcely specialised equipment, and Mumbai is a vast, open city with more than enough soft targets.

[..]

And perhaps so little is known of the terrorists' cause, because they simply did not feel the need to have one.

The attack in Mumbai was obviously planned - but "military-style planning" (whatever that means) is probably not necessary for the mass murder of unarmed and unsuspecting civilians going about their business in crowded railway stations and restaurants.

This could also have been a plan which had a large gap where mission, cause or vision statement ought to have been.

But no matter. The terrorists might have assumed, quite correctly as it happens, that the world's media and the terrorism analysis industry would very quickly fill in any gaps for them.

And in a disturbing combination of Eastern brute force meets Western technology, they were all watching our reaction, via their Blackberrys.

I am reminded of something Mark Steyn once said...the "head is the message..."  As are now the fresh pile of bodies and pools of blood in Mumbai.

Midweek - over the hump - Pinup

Heading into the big holiday, I would like to wish my American readers a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend.  To those of you serving overseas, much of the same with added hugs and kisses and my eternal gratitude.

~ That annoying idiot who feels compelled to text and talk obnoxiously on his Blackberry, every waking moment of his life...like that, only magnified by the power of the free world.

~ Hope springs eternal for the President elect!  A perfect opportunity to revive an old vessel and rename it Air Force One as a constant reminder of America's founding principles./SARC

~ How a belief in free will affects behavior and morality.  For real-world examples, see the effects of communist ideology (China, Russia, Cuba) and restrictive extreme religious adherence (Islam).

~ The cure for AIDS is to test and treat everyone?  And here I thought the winning strategy was to take adequate precautions for your own health and safety, and avoid things like intravenous drugs and high-risk ,enthusiastic, anonymous humping.  Sheesh!  I bin doin' it wrong...

~ Samsung introduces new silicone breast implants for 10-year-old Asian girls...no, wait!  Maybe that's a new touch-screen.  I can't tell.

Where you see a Muslim version of "Boy Scouts"

I see an entirely different comparison that can be made...

They are adolescents — 17 or 18 years old — but they have the stern faces of adult men, lightly bearded, some of them with dark spots in the center of their foreheads from bowing down in prayer. Each of them wears a tiny picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shiite cleric who led the Iranian revolution, on his chest.

“You are our leader!” the boys chant in unison, as a Hezbollah official walks to a podium and addresses them with a Koranic invocation. “We are your men!”

This is the vanguard of Hezbollah’s youth movement, the Mahdi Scouts. Some of the graduates gathered at this ceremony will go on to join Hezbollah’s guerrilla army, fighting Israel in the hills of southern Lebanon. Others will work in the party’s bureaucracy. The rest will probably join the fast-growing and passionately loyal base of support that has made Hezbollah the most powerful political, military and social force in Lebanon.

At a time of religious revival across the Islamic world, intense piety among the young is nothing unusual. But in Lebanon, Hezbollah — the name means the party of God — has marshaled these ambient energies for a highly political project: educating a younger generation to continue its military struggle against Israel. Hezbollah’s battlefield resilience has made it a model for other militant groups across the Middle East, including Hamas. And that success is due, in no small measure, to the party’s extraordinarily comprehensive array of religion-themed youth and recruitment programs.

There is a network of schools— some of them run by Hezbollah, others affiliated with or controlled by it — largely shielded from outsiders. There is a nationwide network of clerics who provide weekly religious lessons to young people on a neighborhood basis. There is a group for students at unaffiliated schools and colleges that presents Hezbollah to a wider audience. The party organizes non-Scout-related summer camps and field trips, and during Muslim religious holidays it arranges events to encourage young people to express their devotion in public and to perform charity work.

Not exactly knots and campfires.

Blech!

...something tells me Mikey will be looking for a few of these in his stocking this year.

And John Scalzi's cat is due to be photographed wearing one by New Year's, I'm sure.

Lunchtime Diversion

We watch next to no TV.  We actually kind of hate it and we certainly don't have a lot of time for it.  We do however find time on Monday nights to watch Heroes and Canada's Worst Driver.  And up until recently, when Sundays started getting really hectic, Mikey and I would always sit down for the latest Top Gear -- which is a fantastic show! 

Mikey and I both love cars -- especially cars that go fast -- and we both have a deep appreciation for the dry, sarcastic, British wit that is standard fare for every challenge.

Which is why I was thrilled to come across a collection of theTop 14 Top Gear Moments.  Those of you with YouTube access at work would do well to sit back with your box lunch and enjoy a few of the antics.  And I have to say, I absolutely agree with rating The American Road Trip at #1...

Enjoy!

The second-most populous country in the world

And they've got nukes, too...

Primary school children in India will learn about witchcraft in the classroom as part of an effort to dispell superstitions and stop deadly witch-hunts.

A breath of fresh air

The new face of the EU...

He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an "apostle of arrogance" for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.

[..]

While even many of the world's most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.

I like this guy already.

h/t

Marketing to the lowest common denominator

I have often been told that I am an unusual woman, not hung up on the weird and stupid things that other women tend to get bound up on.  I don’t make stupid, bitchy jokes about my husband and I don’t treat him like a child in front of other people.  I don’t complain that he doesn’t send me flowers enough and I don’t play stupid mind games whereby my words and intentions need to be deciphered with the help of the Rosetta stone and a professional with a doctorate in cryptology.

Above all else, I never ever…not EVER…complain about a gift that has been purchased or made for me by a loved one, just because it isn’t everything I could have ever wanted.  I have friends who do this and I honestly believe any woman (or man) who reacts to a gift with crass, graceless ingratitude should be banished from the gift list forever.

For example…my beloved Mikey once graced his previous wife with a weekend spa package for Christmas.  Suffice to say that this thoughtful piece of pampering was not well received because he purchased it online, which apparently is not an adequate amount of effort expended in the getting.

And girls wonder why men have so much trouble understanding them.  Who could comprehend such dizzying madness?

So I suppose the fact that I have little patience and less tolerance for this kind of useless, deranged haughtiness is what makes me an atypical woman.  Which is why the upcoming rash of badly stereotyped Christmas marketing will have absolutely no sway on me.  But it does make me want to shake my head some times.

One last word to my fellow Estrogen totes out there -- seriously ladies…I vacuum at least twice a week and my friggin’ vacuum cleaner weighs a bloody ton.  If my sweet betrothed would deign to spend the small fortune it takes, on a new device to make my regular chore easier, what the hell is wrong with that?

Sheesh!  Girls are dumb.

Blog Notes:

Christmas is coming up and as many of you can probably imagine, with a household of 6 kids, the run up to Christmas is a little hectic.

As a consequence, postings here may be light for the next month.  Those of you who have noticed my neglect of the last couple weeks, will know what to expect.  I've missed posting the pinup 2 weeks in a row, but I am planning to put a mid-week pinup out, to catch up on some of the things I've collected.

In the meantime, please be patient and take the time for your own Christmas prep while I leave you with this terrifying thought to ponder...

What crime would be so egregious as to lead to a sentence of having to listen to Barry Manilow for an hour???

It's a cruel world we live in.

Or you could honeymoon in the Love Canal

For the guilt-deficient adventurer...

Eco-tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry. What better way to bear witness for our planet than to travel to some of the atrocities we have visited upon it?

Imagine my surprise to find this wasn't an offer for tickets to Obama's inauguration ceremony.

Record attendance expected for next year's camel pageant

Preach a religion that views women as possessions, back it up with state-enforced misogyny and then react with shocked outrage at swarms of horny little perverts, roaming the streets in search of a substitute for goat-stroking...

Egyptian police rounded up hundreds of teenage boys in Cairo in a day-long crackdown on sexual harassment, a police official said on Thursday.

[..]

Women's rights groups in Egypt have long campaigned against sexual harassment and assault in Cairo, accusing police of ignoring the phenomenon.

On Monday, a Cairo court sentenced a teenager to one year in jail for sexually assaulting two women. Another teenager, a 17 year old, is facing trial on the same charge.

At least 34 men were arrested after they allegedly assaulted women in an affluent Cairo neighbourhood during a Muslim holiday in January.

Such convictions were relatively rare in Egypt, which does not have a law defining sexual harassment, but a court in October sentenced a man to three years in jail for groping a woman.

Now if only they could do something about all those self-detonating ones.

That abject economic failure of the 90's...fugeddaboudit!

Former NDP premier for Ontario, Bob Rae, announces his bid to run for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party, touting himself as "the right man" to wade through the current economic crisis.

For my American readers, unfamiliar with this old political dog...just imagine calling on Jimmy Carter as "the right man" to deal with the next hostage crisis.

Ya.  It's like that.

Queen's University to change it's name out of sensitivity to gays

Why do parents continue to pay thousands of dollars in University tuition fees?

Students at Queen's University who sprinkle their dialogue with an assortment of "homo" or "retarded" could find out the hard way that not everyone finds their remarks acceptable.

The Kingston university has hired student facilitators to step in when they overhear homophobic slurs, remarks bashing women or racially tinged insults, along with an array of other language that could be deemed offensive.

[..]

Under the new program, six student facilitators live and work within campus residences. Their mission is threefold: to engage students "spontaneously" by talking to them about an issue that has arisen, for instance, on campus or in the media; to hold movie nights, book readings or discussions on a range of social issues; and to step in when conflicts arise.

Is there any more doubt that Universities have become nothing more than institutions for inculcation?

My son is considering a law career but the list of schools where I would dare spend a veritable fortune on his education gets slimmer and slimmer, every day.

More on this from a profoundly insensitive candidate, clearly in need of re-education...

Oh sweet lord. Hand me the explosives.

[..]

On what basis do these “dialogue facilitators” presume they have any business policing the private discussions of others, even during lunch breaks, and steering students towards politically modish terminology and opinions? And however coy the language, that is what’s being attempted. Just pause to consider the monumental arrogance and vanity at work. Bask in its glow.

Sheesh!

State-enforced fatwas in Russia...

Moscow prosecutors say they have warned the Russian-language edition of the Newsweek magazine for allegedly insulting Muslims.

[..]

Under President Vladimir Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, Russian news organizations have come under increasing official pressure. If prosecutors' warnings are ignored, publications can be fined or threatened with closure.

With total disregard for the fact that it's far too easy to insult Muslims -- mostly because there is so much to criticize.

A 10 ton millstone

The short-sighted tend not to realize that, left to run amok, more often than not a parasite will end up killing its host...

Canadian Auto Workers union president Ken Lewenza yesterday rejected calls for his members to make concessions as part of any taxpayer-funded rescue of Detroit's car manufacturers, saying labour did not create the crisis now threatening General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC with collapse.

When even a 5-year-old, chewing on the corner of a Thomas Sowell book, gleans enough about economics to know that over-bloated wages, gold-plated benefits packages and a lazy, discontented workforce will be enough to sound the death knell for any industry -- especially one as poorly managed and prehistoric as the north American auto industry.

And now, after draining every last drop from their employers, they want to move their gaping maws over to the public teat?

What we need is a little Strychnine in that well.

Boobs and bondage in comic books

David Thompson goes into great length on the undertones of sexuality and homosexuality, prevalent in the graphic tales of our favorite Lycra-sheathed superheroes.

Frankly, I don't know what he's talking about ;)

"Urban" is the new black

I keep waiting for a headline that says "Gun-toting Country and Western stars erupt in firefight at awards gala"...but for some reason, it never happens.

"Arguably, that is why we’re here..."

"The vast majority are delighted that we’re here trying to protect their citizens themselves, if you would, from the type of foe who would throw acid on young girls trying to get an education."

Coming soon to a war memorial near you...

In the search for a suitable picture to put up for yesterday's Remembrance Day post, I came across something for which there are no words:

November the 20th will be the Transgender Day of Remembrance

To be commemorated by 2 minutes of stunned silence.  Perhaps the symbol of remembrance could be the Triffid.

Lest We Forget

The vapid, self-righteousness of blowhards who sit in a privileged cocoon of safety, while others do the heavy lifting...

The historians tell us that 9.7 million military personnel died in the First World War.

But if you look at the big pie chart o' dead from that awful enterprise, even more civilians died -- 10 million. And chances are good that all the military types running around had something to do with the dead civilians.

That's one of the conundrums about Remembrance Day now. It's no longer a time to consider the overall carnage of war.

Now it's a gathering to give a collective "good-for-you" to the First World War soldiers who died doing their duty while -- inadvertently or not -- causing the demise of an even greater number of civilians.

[..]

But I've come to see those lapel decorations, the choreographed Remembrance Day hoopla and all the grandiloquence about dead soldiers as mostly a marketing device for recruiting the next generation of dead soldiers. This year I won't be wearing the poppy.

True, it is important to remember the many casualties of war, civilian and military.  I'd even venture to say the families left behind by servicemen, an ocean away from the battlefield, should also be recognized for the sacrifices they made.

I do however, believe there should be a clear distinction made between those who cowered in corners and ran for the borders while bullets flew and bombs fell...and those many brave souls who took up the charge and headed toward the battle instead of away from it.

This is a distinction of character that is somehow lost on fools like Dan Murphy, who's forgotten that in 1940's Germany, many of those innocent civilians he mourns were ratting out their Jewish neighbours and padding their pockets with seized Jewish assets.

I'll be wearing my Poppy today, and remembering the ones who chose to end their lives fighting that kind of madness.

And then they came for family game night...

Because having a "social conscience" isn't supposed to be fun...silly.

Weekend Pinup

Regular readers will be familiar with my long-standing infatuation with the most plastic parts of Pamela Anderson, only to be competed with by the lovely and talented fetishist, Dita.  However, a chance discovery in the search for an appropriate spokesmodel to usher in my ascendance to the feminist blogosphere, and thanks to commenter Jean who named the luscious beast for me, I have an unhealthy new girl-crush on the one gal who manages to combine the porn star plastic of Pam with the raunchy sauciness of Dita...the terrifying and mesmerizing Bianca Beauchamp... 

  ~ Ave atque vale...Mark Steyn offers a fitting sendoff to the man who brought dinosaurs into the 20th century.

 ~ Women convicted of child abuse, will be forced to take birth control or have newborn infants seized by the state -- if The Netherlands gets it's way with a new draft bill.  No word on how they address the problem if the father is the abuser and no word on why the presumption toward rehabilitation -- granted to rapists and murderers under judicial law -- has been tossed to the wilds.  Not that I object in theory but I find it difficult to put faith in any system that allows the government, in all their perfect judgment, to deem who is "fit" and "unfit"

~ A question I never thought I'd hear..."Is Ahmadinejad's wife hotter than Palin?"

~ Scientific American on "What anObama win means for the environment"...and here I thought it would just mean a lot more hot air.

~ In what could be coined as the"Echo Chamber Effect", a look at how partisanship and patronage of like-minded information sources may have affected your ability to predict the election results.

~ And another milestone in China's long-standing campaign to poison the rest of the world.

It's all about "location, location, location!"

Now this is what I call chutzpah...

Religious leaders in Jerusalem are warning of dangerous consequences after a decision by Israel's Supreme Court to allow the destruction of part of an ancient Muslim cemetery.

The graveyard has not been used for more than 50 years, but contains the bodies of some important Islamic figures.

Many of those bodies will now be disturbed to make way for a new Jewish "Museum of Tolerance".

Well, now you're just picking a fight.

Hello pot...

meet kettle...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a top UN official urged industrialised nations Friday to alter their lifestyles and not let the global financial crisis hamper climate change efforts.

Industrialised nations should also help developing countries respond to climate change, Wen said at the opening of a two-day international meeting on global warming in Beijing.

"The developed countries have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to global climate change by altering their unsustainable way of life,"

I say we start by ending our over-bearing reliance on poisonous, defective Chinese products.

I have to say...

It's an honour just to be nominated.  No, really.  I've always thought that what the Canadian Feminist blogosphere really needed was a saucy gal or two.  The kind of gal who can reshingle the roof, rebuild a motor, cook a gourmet meal for 30, enjoy a rock-em sock'm action flick, and do it all in stiletto heels and a hip shake.

I am just one of those...and we are many.

In celebration of my elevation to the ranks of feminazitude, I believe a pinup is in order.  So, to lovely long-time reader OMMAG who nominated me and a few other worthy Tootsies, I dedicate this latex beauty.  I promise she doesn't bite.

Actually...maybe she does.  You never know with a gal like that.  I guess that's half the fun, right Mikey?

VOTE BABY, VOTE!

  Good luck today.  The world is watching.  

***Updated with post-election prediciton of the year from Rachel Lucas:

If Obama wins, I will give you one million dollars if the gloating from the lefty people like Kos and HuffPo and NBC and CNN does not make you throw up in your mouth. My dread of this gives me nightmares. As nasty as they’ve been during the campaign, can you imagine what they’ll be like in victory? OH. MY. GOD. The gloating might just stop time in a quantum vortex of hell.

An opportunist in drag (I hope)

Via Kathy, comes a story with a stench of bullshit so high, the flies are milling around my computer screen...

the 44-year-old adult dancer from Stouffville has filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, alleging the owner of a Mississauga strip club fired her because she was too old.

[..]

Ms Ouwroulis will seek close to $100,000 in her application.

She said she earned close to $8,000 a month while at Locomotion and was one of the hardest-working and most-liked employees.

“I was the older girl but the girl who looked great,” she said. “I was never in trouble at work. I’ve never been reprimanded. I don’t have a criminal record ... I am just a professional worker who takes dancing very seriously.”

Kathy has already fisked the clearly illegitimate nature of this kind of complaint being brought to the Human Rights racket.  I can't top that.  What tweaked me though, was the amount of the award she is seeking, based on what she claims would be lost wages (I guess).

Now, speaking from my, um, experience in this particular field, a gal doesn't make $8,000 a month just dancing -- unless she is a multiple title-holding centerfold, touted as a feature stage show (not likely in this case). 

And assuming the inconceivable, taking for granted that this woman was actually capable of consistently bilking a rabble of (clearly desperate) men out of this much money, for the privilege of gazing upon her visage from a legally permissible distance...I wonder what her tax returns would say about that?

Socialism: The only system where the rats pile on to the sinking ship...

Some things make cockroaches scatter to the corners, and some things bring them out in droves...

As an aside, I note that the two articulate chaps cited above are both from the UK. Britain’s finest, no doubt. In fact, the vast majority of the vulgar and vitriolic responses I saw to my Redux piece came from UK designers. As to whether or not this is indicative of what Socialism does to the populace, I’ll leave for others to determine. But what is certain is that all non-US citizens should stay the hell out of my country’s democratic processes. If nothing else, the fact that legions of Socialists and Communists around the world seem to simply adore Barack Obama is reason enough to doubt the quality of the man, and seems to provide philosophical counterpoint to the criticism offered me.

My Conservative friends will recognize this man's plight.  It's a long one but worth the whole read.

It all started with this.

h/t

Weekend Pinup

~Islam is a Religion of Peace, save for a few radicals who speak not for this noble belief system, right?  Then nevermind the dozen men who stoned a rape victim in a stadium in Somalia...oh, and the 1,000 or so spectators who watched it like some kind of sport.

~A Brighton man doesn't want to be labeled a "fag" by his co-workers and can't figure out why they got that impression -- just because he showed up at the Gay Pride parade wearing Spandex shorts...hmmm.  I wonder.

~On the campaign trail...Obama treats a Cheney endorsement of McCain like it should be a mark of shame.  Obamaof course, has the endorsement of foreign affairs giants like Vladimir Putin and Osama Bin Laden, et al.

~Tell me how many of you would have loved to hear him call Obama a "girlie man", while he was at it?

~More Obama-Bizzaro-land twisting of language and meaning on the term "selfishness" and it's virtues.  And if you haven't read The Virtue of Selfishness, you are missing out on a prime opportunity to undue a large portion of the socialistic indoctrination you were subjected to in public school.

~Extreme origami...The Heart, the Cube, and the Earth to be Destroyed.