The Lasso of Truth

Barack HUSSEIN Obama

Aside from the not surprising fact that a prominent Muslim is all too eager to call for the censorship of opinion with which he doesn't agree, I have to wonder why he doesn't recognize the inherent contradiction in his claim that referring to Barack HUSSEIN Obama as an Arab-American, is hateful and derogatory.

Not that I disagree.  I'd be insulted by such a reference too.

It's just a novel approach for a man who is trying to convince us all that there isn't anything wrong with that.

h/t to Kate who has a snazzy graphic going!

Bill Ayers: Beloved Martyr

The quiet and unassuming terrorist conspirator (the new "Tookie"?), fresh from being turned away at the Canadian border, catches a brief glimpse of the other side of the "free speech" and "protest" coin...

18 year old student Taylor Balian is so open minded that her brain is falling out. She correctly rejects the people who disrupted the event, but she mistakenly thinks that entertaining the machinations of a terrorist/simple teacher can be anything other than a forensic examination of the mental illness of a red collar psychopath.

(Video at the link)

Dispatch from Afghanistan

Damian checks in on the "thankless and rewarding" job of corrections...

When the average Canadian hears about our mission in Afghanistan on the television or radio, or reads about it in the newspaper, he likely learns of fighting. No, he likely learns of Canadians dying in an IED explosion, since that's really all that seems to attract the public's attention these days. With very few exceptions (and congrats to Darah Hansen, who was at Camp Nathan Smith at the same time I was for telling this story as well), the picture Canadians see of their nation's work in one of the poorest, neediest countries in the entire world is nothing but an incomplete sketch.

He needs your help to pay for this trip!  Please Chip In >>>

The Bitter Pill

I admit it is hard to swallow, but I agree that it was certainly the best choice of a handful of crappy choices...

Maybe I'm getting old. I'm having trouble working up the same chest-thumping outrage over the new federal budget that other conservative, libertarian and generally just plain crusty commentators have displayed. Could it be a sign of declining testosterone? A side-effect of medication? I share the canonical right-wing view that deficits are a bad thing, but I feel puzzled at the surprise so many are exhibiting over the discovery that we do not have a right-wing government -- that the Conservatives, in the House of Commons as it is currently constituted, must meet some other party's criteria to obtain support for a budget. Surely we all did the math the morning after the election?

And at least I'm not as bitter as Jack is...

Meanwhile, in the land of slobbery wet Liberal kisses, Peter C. Newman (he of the ridiculous captain's cap) flouts the laws of decency with this finely worded rim job...

Michael Ignatieff emerged out of the crucible of this week's historic budget debate with the lustre of having forced Stephen Harper to alter his swaying platform, yet maintaining the mutual dignity in which such power swaps ought to be conducted. His amendments improved the Tory package by strengthening and broadening its intent. In the process, the freshly minted Liberal Leader branded himself as a politician who treats his briefs like a slalom skier, skirting around the flagpoles with exquisite care but not allowing them to inhibit his speed.

I expected to read on about the sun glistening off his finely sculpted pectorals but alas, the world can only handle one Adonis at a time.

Opps!

The consensus is in...

The story begins with an Oceanographer named Roger Revelle. He served with the Navy in World War II. After the war he became the Director of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in La Jolla in San Diego, California. Revelle saw the opportunity to obtain major funding from the Navy for doing measurements and research on the ocean around the Pacific Atolls where the US military was conducting atomic bomb tests. He greatly expanded the Institute’s areas of interest and among others hired Hans Suess, a noted Chemist from the University of Chicago, who was very interested in the traces of carbon in the environment from the burning of fossil fuels. Revelle tagged on to Suess studies and co-authored a paper with him in 1957. The paper raises the possibility that the carbon dioxide might be creating a greenhouse effect and causing atmospheric warming. It seems to be a plea for funding for more studies. Funding, frankly, is where Revelle’s mind was most of the time.

This, not from the CEO of Exxon or George Bush, but from someone you might expect would know a few things about climate.

h/t

Challenger at 23

‘He may thwart our escape by land or sea but the sky is surely open to us: we will go that way: Minos rules everything but he does not rule the heavens’.  *

A fitting tribute at Hot Air, as well.

"It is something I have seen from coast to coast to coast..."

No word on where the 3rd coast of Canada is... but with much fanfare and in full bitchy-old-queen-fashion, and all the incumbent melodramatic hyperbole, the interim Opposition leader announces he will allow the Canadian federal budget to pass.

But he's not gonna like it!

Survival is apparently now just a spectator sport

Expect a meme of Chuck Norris style "facts" to emerge at any moment, about this guy...

A Greyhound bus driver piloting a bus from Detroit to Toronto is being hailed as a hero after subduing a passenger who grabbed the wheel of the vehicle as it travelled at top speed along one of the most dangerous stretches of Highway 401 yesterday.

The driver, Doug Leddy of Windsor, managed to simultaneously control the passenger and steer the bus to a safe stop on the highway shoulder as a handful of terrified passengers looked on.

What this tells me is that one fast-thinking bus driver learned a little something from the recent beheading incident -- also on a Greyhound bus.  As for the tender little snowflakes who cowered in the passenger seats while Mr. Leddy saved their sorry asses, single-handedly...sad.  SAD.  SAD.

The only good thing to come out of 9/11

...was 19 dead Muslims.

How do you say "go %@&^ yourself" in Arabic?

SHOCKA!

Hyper-medicating children for imaginary syndromes, at the behest of lazy school administrators and neurotic, Munchhausen-By-Proxy-stricken mothers, is not good for them...

Drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can cause children to have hallucinations even when taken as directed, U.S. government researchers said on Monday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers analyzed data from 49 clinical studies conducted by makers of the drugs and found they can cause psychosis and mania in some patients, including some with no obvious risk factors. In some cases, children hallucinated that worms, bugs or snakes were crawling on them.

[..]

In one account, they described a 7-year-old girl who took an 18 mg dose of Strattera or atomoxetine who started talking nonstop within hours of taking her first dose.

"Two hours after taking her second dose of atomoxetine, the patient started running very fast, stopped suddenly, and fell to the ground. The patient said she had 'run into a wall' (there was no wall there)," they wrote.

Mine is a generation of mothers who insist on having each of their children under the supervision of a certified specialist for something -- anything.  I've seen families with one kid going to the psychiatrist and another weighed down by an inhaler regimen that would cripple a pack mule.

Things which used to be considered normal childhood behavior, have been reclassified to ensure the need for a sweeping retinue of compassionate professionals who increasingly find new syndromes and learning disabilities to justify their continued indispensability.

All the while, our kids keep getting weirder and more erratic, and we can't manage to figure out why.

The rise of CYA science

Quite frankly, none of this would be a problem if people just, I dunno, kept it in the bed they're wed to...

concern is growing in the United Kingdom that the availability of prenatal paternity tests is encouraging women to terminate fetuses that are the result of extramarital affairs.

[..]

"It's fairly common to see women take this test after their husbands have found out about an affair and want to know if they have fathered the child their wife is carrying," Leigh said.

"But 75 percent of the cases involve women coming in of their own volition; they want to know whose child they are carrying," he said.

In this here Canada...

Apparently 20 centimeters of snow is enough to paralyze public resources and halt all life as we know it.  No school for them means no work for me.

SNOW DAY!

Vive la revolucion!

Benico del Toro channels a petulant, tantrum-wielding child when confronted by the grim reality that his romantic revolutionary hero was nothing more than a hate-filled, opportunistic, bloodthirsty murderer...

Guevara was instrumental in the creation of Cuba's forced labor camps, which were used to imprison and extract work from those who had committed no crimes but were thought to be insufficiently revolutionary.

The policy of extrajudicial imprisonment that Guevara favored would later expand to include political activists of all stripes, musicians, artists, homosexuals and others deemed to be dangerous to the maintenance of the Stalinist regime. (Librarians - WW.)

[..]

Critics of "Che" have suggested that the film whitewashes its protagonist's legacy and that it's impossible to understand the man by glorifying his more romantic aspects while ignoring his darker side.

"We can't cover it all," Mr. del Toro said. "You can make your own movie. You know? You can make your own movie. And let's see. Do the research."

Mr. Valladares is afraid that Mr. del Toro and Mr. Soderbergh's film will make people forget the reality that was Che Guevara's life.

"Benicio del Toro is just one of the many accomplices of the Cuban tyranny," he said. "All the murderers of people have had accomplices and people who made excuses for them. Stalin had them, Hitler had them, Pinochet had them, all the dictators have had apologists for them. Che Guevara and Fidel Castro also had them."

I guess that's the beauty of Hollywood, where everything has a do-over and life can be as good as the film editor cuts it -- you're not troubled by the grotesque details of reality and the most contemptible creatures catch the light of virtue, courtesy of selective willful ignorance and a key grip.

Patrol

The Afghans have the most fascinating faces. Old men, FAG's (Fighting Age Guys), and young children - all look directly into the camera in such a frank and disarming way. I could have photographed them all day.

Damian in Afghanistan.  Part 1 ans Part 2.  Don't forget to "Chip in" >>>

3 years ago today...

A small rabble of like-minded political junkies gathered to celebrate the election victory of a wishy-washy Conservative government.  In the mix, a saucy firecracker with pigtails and a sweet, unassuming gentleman sparked up what seemed to be a fast friendship, but which rapidly revealed itself to be the meeting of 2 souls that --unbeknownst to their unwitting bodies-- had been seeking each other out.

We met.  And everything that followed was a new and better life.

Thank you Mikey, for turning your life upside down to be with me.  Thank you for making my own upending so worthwhile.

The only good thing to come out of 9/11

...was 19 dead Muslims.

Doing it right, in Thailand...

Hundreds of Muslim refugees from Burma (Myanmar) are feared missing or dead after Thai troops forced them onto boats without engines and cut them adrift in international waters, according to human rights activists and authorities in India who rescued survivors. The revelations have shone a spotlight on the Thai military's expulsion policy toward Muslims it sees as a security threat.

Gee.  I wonder where they'd get that impression...

Asymmetrical Warfare

When one side uses elementary schools and ambulances for cover...

Mohammed Shriteh, 30, is an ambulance driver registered with and trained by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

His first day of work in the al-Quds neighbourhood was January 1, the sixth day of the war. "Mostly the war was not as fast or as chaotic as I expected," Mr Shriteh told the Herald. "We would co-ordinate with the Israelis before we pick up patients, because they have all our names, and our IDs, so they would not shoot at us."

Mr Shriteh said the more immediate threat was from Hamas, who would lure the ambulances into the heart of a battle to transport fighters to safety.

And the other side, the one that shows restraint, takes the brunt of the global outrage.

Weekend Pinup

The engagement photos are in!  And aren't we lovely?  Well, mostly Mikey.  Those of you who have been around for a while may recall the happy nuptuals are scheduled for September 12 this year, but for the sake of wedding invites and because I can simply NEVER have enough pictures of us, we stepped out on a frigid and windy October morning, to have a few shots taken.  I've posted a link to the album on the left under "Paradise Island", for those of you who yearn to gaze longingly into Mikey's eyes ;)

~ Subsidies of the horse and buggy industry to be expected next..."France will offer all 18-year-olds a free daily copy of the newspaper of their choice, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, announcing a package of measures to help the beleaguered press."  No word on when the populace will take a break from striking long enough to read the newspaper...

~ It's the end to divisiveness in America..!  The Neo-Nazi's are signing up for community beautification projects and a NYC baker launches the new "drunken negro head" cookie, in honour of the Inauguration -- and his hope that Obama follows in Lincoln's footsteps, right into Ford's Theatre.

~ No sooner does Obama announce the reinstatement of funding for worldwide abortions, than we hear that repeat abortions for teenage girls has risen 70% ..."fuelling fears that terminations are being carried out for lifestyle reasons."  You don't say.  But Mama Hillary said they should be safe and rare...I guess them kiddies just don't listen.

~ The itty-bitty hyper geek in me got a kick start this morning at the news that there is a remake of campy sci-fi classic, Logan's Run, in the works!  From the horrendous, cheesy acting, to the special effects that looked like they were filmed in my mom's basement with tinfoil and Pez dispensers, and a wardrobe expert who clearly needed to be shot, I cannot say enough how much I love this movie.  Don't judge me and Mikey, quit rolling your eyes at me!  I hate to tell you but when it comes out, we're lining up...on opening night...in costume if you give me a hard time!

Governing by seance

The BBC channels the dead...

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has urged his country's leadership not to be disturbed by his illness or his eventual death.

In his second online article in two days, Mr Castro again praised new US President Barack Obama.

But he added that he did not expect to be following world events by the end of Mr Obama's first term in four years.

There has been much speculation on the health of the 82-year-old, who had not written a column for five weeks.

And more every day, Castro begins to resemble Norman Bates' mother.

Just taking care of his peeps

With heartfelt thanks for a job well done...

I went to the show with a few friends who received excellent Purple tickets as a reward for untold hours volunteering as foreign policy advisers for the Obama campaign.  We got down to the security checkpoint for the Purple section bright and early (I left home at 4 AM), and were guided into a long tunnel which had been closed to traffic.  We waited in line for nearly four hours, in a claustrophobic tunnel with no porta-potties, no food or drink, and not a single official or volunteer in sight.  Finally, we got within sight of the Purple Gate -- only to find that it had been closed.  Thousands of people in front of us hadn't gotten in (not that anyone bothered to tell the people languishing in the tunnel that the gate had been closed, mind you). Thousands of purple ticket holders were behind us.  It's remarkable that there wasn't a riot.  I rode the metro home with a lot of people who had been turned away, including an elderly African-American woman muttering over and over to herself that it had been one of the worst experiences of her life.

The change they'd been waiting for.  Or perhaps this wasn't the change they had in mind.  That's the funny thing about wide-sweeping ambiguous platitudes...

The Mighty Orator

"Can he function without handlers and a script?"

There is a whole rabble of seedy dictators-in-waiting, licking their chops, hoping they already know the answer.

Schoolgirl Infatuation

From the only conservative national newspaper in Canada, via email alert..!

And a bargain at $19.99, for complimentary media coverage of the Inauguration...because it's so hard to come by...

Some of us already know the answer

In a world where Conrad Black, a vigorous intellectual and unrivaled corporate juggernaut, is jailed for the crime of being too successful in the wrong ideological sphere; where an entire culture begins to agitate to have frivolous luxuries, like access to cellphone service and steak dinners for convicted felons, classified under the heading of fundamental rights; where an entirely unqualified, ethically questionable empty shirt can get the keys to the highest office in the world based on the colour of his skin and his charisma...

Almost prideful, there is a thriving meme that has spread through parts of American culture which demeans intellectual endeavors and favors ignorance and superficiality. Evident in social networks, many popular television programs and in politics, people are 'choosing' to be ignorant.

[..]

Having never looked upon ignorance as a positive trait and always desiring to know more throughout my life, it is difficult for me to comprehend or even conceive exactly where the anti-intellectualism sentiment is sourced. Yet, there are individuals we encounter on a daily basis that ridicule lofty pursuits, science, research or just plain inquiry, instead returning a refrain I have heard echoed from many individuals, "Who cares, what does it matter".

Who is John Galt?

To the victors go the bills..?!

How do you say "pathetic" in Arabic..?

The task of rebuilding Gaza became clearer Tuesday as the Israeli military withdrew most of its troops from the impoverished strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinian and U.N. surveyors estimated that more than 4,000 buildings were demolished during the fighting and that it would cost upward of $2 billion to repair the damage.

[..]

Meanwhile, Hamas organized rallies to celebrate what it portrayed as a triumph over Israel, merely by surviving 22 days of pounding by its enemy's vastly superior military force. In Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, several hundred people marched behind Hamas flags and bullhorns.

"For us, this was a victory," Mohammed Abu Awad, 24, a university student, told the Associated Press.

No.  Not them.  Us..!

European countries, oil-rich Arab kingdoms and the United Nations have all pledged money or aid since Israel declared a cease-fire Sunday in the military offensive it launched Dec. 27.

No wonder they view it as a victory.

Petty

"A bunch of very small people on a very big stage"...

How petty do you have to be to denigrate and take pot shots at your predecessor right after you’ve being sworn in as president? You’re going to have the next four years as president, and one day you’re not going to be as popular as you are at this moment. I’m sure, whenever your successor is being sworn in and you’re sitting there powerless in front of millions, you’ll appreciate not having someone who has no conception of how hard the job is, but who is suddenly the most powerful man in the world, talk about you like you’re chopped liver. Campaign’s over, dillweed; try to act presidential.

And people wondered why I didn't bother watching.  But now I have to google Aretha Franklin's hat, just to see what all the fuss is about...

A related subject, from a little closer to home, can be found a little further down...

"What happened in Haiti, where in 1804 the country’s black African and creole population freed itself from slavery by overthrowing the colonial regime, was similar to Obama’s election experience, in that Haiti’s revolution was also “in the name of freedom, equality and fraternity,” she said.

I think there’s plenty of room so that, without wishing success to his liberal policies, I can hope the Obama administration turns out better than Haiti.

Michaelle Jean, lathering up the chapstick in preparation for the first state visit.

*SCOFF*

But enough with all this silly leader of the free world stuff...what did you think about the dress..?

Her matching yellow-gold dress and coat caused fashion magazine Grazia UK to wonder about "the heavy fabric, the dull colour and the frumpy silhouette".

"Is she walking around in inaugural upholstery?" asked a former editor of Glamour magazine, Bonnie Fuller.

Others preferred to praise her for picking a little-known designer.

Cuban-born designer Isabel Toledo said the colour yellow represented hope and freshness.

"I wanted to capture optimism, I wanted it to feel happy, I wanted it to feel inclusive,"

I'm not sure how a dress embodies hope and freshness, but I do know that the colour yellow is universally recognized as the colour of cowardice.  And I also know that if it was Laura Bush or Sarah Palin on the stage, looking like she'd mugged a White House sofa, the peals of outrage and derision from the catwalk crowd would have been loud enough and long enough to hail aliens in distant galaxies.

Dispatches from Afghanistan

Our friend Damianhas arrived in Afghanistan and has wasted no time giving us a lay of the land...

Welcome to the two-way range sets the stage and The winning percentage blows the lid off.

Well worth the read and don't forget, he's relying on donations to help cover the costs of his trip.  At last check, he was 68% toward his goal.  Please help him out!

Let the Hope 'n' Change begin!

With the advent of America's Great Leap Forward, and the unprecedented wave of messianicrapture descending upon Washington D.C. in what has been termed by some as "America's Defining Moment" -- notwithstanding minor events like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and that whole Emancipation Proclamation thing -- as I watch this unlikely, wooden, empty shirt make (and remake) history, and in light of our new outlook on world leadership through the prism of charismatic celebrity without substance I find myself wondering -- above all other considerations...

what does P. Diddy have to say about this?

Nothing yet, it seems.  But since he's "in tight" with "da man" now, perhaps he's busy planning for the anticipated offer of a position as Secretary of the Interior.

Or maybe trashing Sarah Palin again.

These are the voices now, guys.  Better get used to it.

Before Haliburton and Blackwater

They may not have really invented chess but the followers of the pedophile prophet have managed to prove themselves proficient in finding fiendishly creative ways to kill.  As it turns out, proof has surfaced that at least they come by this one honestly...

Ancient Persians were the first to use chemical warfare against their enemies, a study has suggested.

A UK researcher said he found evidence that the Persian Empire used poisonous gases on the Roman city of Dura, Eastern Syria, in the 3rd Century AD.

The theory is based on the discovery of remains of about 20 Roman soldiers found at the base of the city wall.

A tactic we're all familiar with.  But hey, I guess you go with what works, right?

"It is clear from the archaeological evidence at Dura that the Sasanian Persians were as knowledgeable in siege warfare as the Romans," said Dr James.

"They surely knew of this grim tactic."

That's Racist!

The hooligans at Cracked provide a helpful glossary of racist terms we use everyday, and their meanings...

#6.

Hip Hip Hooray!

 

How it's Used:

"We won the little league game! Hip hip hooray!"

What You're Actually Saying:

"We won the little league game! Let's go kill some Jews!"

Wait, What?

The first half of "hip hip hooray" is adapted from "hep hep," an old German shepherds' herding cry. That is, actual shepherds from Germany. Not the dogs.

Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Well, it was, up until around 1819, when the citizens of Germany and other neighboring countries began using it as their rallying cry while going Hebrew-hunting in the Jewish ghettos. So keep that in mind next time you're trying to come up with an appropriate cheer at your cousin's Bar Mitzvah.

~ Soon to be heard ringing forth from mosques and pro-Palestinian rallies all over the country!

My first husband (a Bulgarian) would probably not be surprised or flattered by #4...not that there's anything wrong with that ;)