I remember whose birthday it is. And don’t try to convince me it’s a coincidence, because it isn’t. It doesn’t have to stay on that date. Here’s an idea, for example.
20 April, 2008
Flunked, not Expelled
I used to love reading Ben Stein’s Journal in The American Spectator, back in the 90’s. His dry wit, earnestness, and humanity made for good reading. Sure, there was the time or two when he wrote admiringly of lunatics like PETA, but I chalked that up to good intentions on the part of a man who really, really loved his dog.
Then, recently, came the shameful trailer to Expelled, the dishonest anti-evolution “documentary”. There was loveable Ben engaging in ad hominem attacks on “big science”, using all the Left’s favorite tactics. Poor Ben. He’s really gone over the edge, and I have no idea who pushed him.
The National Center for Science Education has put up a site: Expelled Exposed where you can win prizes playing Set Ben Straight. Ironically, this will sell a few more tickets to the movie if it gets people like me to actually watch it.
Update:
Michael Shermer, one of the scientists ambushed interviewed by Stein has a nice, short article about it.
Endgame?
TigerHawk sees a possibility.
Even the New York Times, which has done its level best to promote the myth of Iraqi incompetence, acknowledges that the government has won the battle of Basra…
It’s an interesting take on the situation. At first blush it seems feasible. Take a look and see what you think.
Right in my Own Back Yard!
There was a Marine counter-protest against the Code Pinkos yesterday, and I didn’t hear about it before hand. And it happened only three blocks from my house! Zombie provides his usual good coverage.
I hate that their stupid, ugly truck defaces Solano Avenue.
Tell you what, though. I’ll remember the stupid mayor, decked out in the shirt of a local grade school, come next mayoral election. He’s lost my vote due to his wimpy stand.
18 April, 2008
Got One
Good news: The jihadist scum who shot down that helicopter full of SEALs in Afghanistan has been properly ventilated. It’s extra good news that Pakistan did it.
Patriots Day 2008
Snipped from the Patriot Post:
On 19 April 1775, the brave Patriots at Lexington and Concord fired the opening volley for American liberty. Today we honor them, as well as those Patriots who continue in that tradition, shouldering the burden of American liberty, particularly those on the warfront with Jihadistan.
By the spring of 1775, the Massachusetts Colony was preparing for conflict with the Royal authority over taxation without representation. The colonial authorities had become oppressive, and American Patriots were prepared to cast off their masters.
On the eve of 18 April 1775, General Thomas Gage, military governor of Massachusetts, dispatched a force from Boston to confiscate weapons stored in the village of Concord and to capture Patriot rebels Samuel Adams and John Hancock, reported to be in Lexington. But Patriots had anticipated this raid.
Paul Revere had arranged for advance warning, and though he was captured, Patriot allies William Dawes and Samuel Prescott continued their midnight ride for 22 miles from Boston’s Old North Church to Concord and warned militiamen along the way.
As dawn arrived on 19 April, between 50 and 70 militiamen came to the town green at Lexington to confront the British column. When a few links away from the militia column, the British officer swung his sword, and said, “Lay down your arms, you damned rebels, or you are all dead men. Fire!” Several Patriots were killed and wounded, but none had been ordered to return fire.
However, when the British arrived at Concord’s Old North Bridge, American “Minutemen” fired the “shot heard round the world.” That was the beginning of an eight-year struggle for American independence, a beginning we honor on Patriots Day.
More reading appropriate to the day here.
Update:
Jules Crittenden celebrates.
Patriots Day may be the least known American holiday, and the day most deserving of our recognition. Observed in Massachusetts and Maine only. Don’t know it? It marks the day, April 19, 1775, on which Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.
9/11 Data Dump
NORAD and U.S. Northern Command “have released a copy of their audio files, telephone conversations and situation room discussions, from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.”
If you want to see how futile it is to present facts and logical arguments to conspiracy theorists, just read the comments on that page.
17 April, 2008
President Daintyfingers and Princess Ticked-Off
Today’s therapeutic belly-laughs come curtesy of Robert Ferrigno.
16 April, 2008
Spot the Bogus Gun Rights Group
One good way is with their endorsements.
The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) is a trojan horse every bit as dishonest as CAIR, if not quite as dangerous.
Speaking of Presidents who aren’t exactly on our side
Bush is furiously trying to turn his legacy into a crater. Gee, thanks, George, for legitimizing the scare mongers.
I’m old enough to remember
- Overpopulation
- Nuclear Winter
- Global Cooling
- The Hole in the Ozone
- Vanishing Rainforests
- Aluminum Cookware Causing Alzheimer’s
- Cyclamates Causing Cancer
- DDT Killing Birds
So far the alarmists have been exactly wrong every single time. So pardon me if I’m one of many who don’t immediately buy into the anthropogenic global warming scare.
Nasty Little Man Too Nasty for Islamic Jihad
Oh, this is just so weird. Not content with wanting to meet with merely evil terrorists, the Nasty Little Man wanted to meet with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an even more violent and evil terrorist group. But they snubbed Mr. Peanut thinking, unbelievably, that he’s on our side and Israel’s.
In turning down the request, Shallah declared that Carter is “carrying an American-Israeli agenda,” while PIJ spokesman Daoud Shahab blasted Carter’s criticism of Palestinian rocket attacks during the former president’s visit to Sderot.
Note to PIJ: He only criticized the missile attack because his littlebrained notions of “can’t we all just get along” kicked in. You can relax. He really is on your side.
“When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people. But in a democracy like Israel, there is a wide range of opinions and that counterbalances the disappointment that I have in not meeting with the people shaping Israeli power now in the government.”
-Nasty Little Man
And you’re welcome to him.
Islamic Porn
Turns out it’s a lot like ours, but way lamer.
Update:
This post gets a regular trickle of viewers who are searching the web for “islamic porn”. What on earth are you people looking for? Naked women standing in a row while praying?
I’ve closed comments on this post because it’s now just a spammer honeypot.
The Torch
The Olympic torch being run past rallies, headed for the seat of a despotic regime. Ring a bell?
15 April, 2008
Go, Michael
Michael Yon’s book has hit #9 on Amazon.
If “the American people” have lost interest in the war, why is this book an instant best-seller? The more copies get out there and read, the harder it will be for the Democrat nominee to pretend the war is lost.
Glass Half Full Department
This is, at least, one area in which a McCain presidency will not be a train wreck.
End of an Era
Ollie Johnston, the last of the “Nine Old Men”, has passed away. I’ll always count as one of the best days of my life when he and Frank Thomas came up to give us a talk about animation. One doesn’t meet genuine pioneers every day (although I’m privileged to work for one).
They will be missed, and fondly remembered.
Update:
Brad Bird’s tribute to Ollie Johnston is here.
A Call to Censure
Here’s a suggestion that we call our senators and ask them to censure the Nasty Little Man. Seems like a fine idea, especially if you agree with Jerry Pournelle:
[Nasty Little Man] has been meeting with Hamas leaders for years. Where is the Logan Act now that we need it?
There is, on the other hand, a more direct approach.
Big News from Italy
Michael Ledeen reports that the communists are gone. Really gone.
Tomorrow’s papers will pretend that this didn’t happen, and warn that Berlusconi’s allies in the Northern League are mercurial and dangerous, and that his majority isn’t as stable as it looks. But it is. And there’s an even more annoying feature to these elections, as seen by the chattering classes: Berlusconi is an outspoken, even passionate admirer of George W. Bush and the United States of America. Reminds one of the elections that brought Sarkozy to the Elysee, doesn’t it? Best to keep that quiet, or somebody might notice that hatred of America doesn’t seem to affect the voters in Italy, France or Germany.
14 April, 2008
Science and the Left
A long and thought-provoking article by Yuval Levin on The New Atlantis – recommended if you have the time.
Good for Israel
They have declined to help the Nasty Little Man’s security detail. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Don’t you love the way he “thinks“?
[Nasty Little Man] said he hoped to help open talks between Hamas and U.S. leaders, saying Washington’s policy of not meeting with people it labeled terrorists was counterproductive.
Why does the moron think we “labeled” them terrorists?
The first time I heard his voice was on a radio broadcast in 1976. I was in Santiago, Chile, wondering “who’s this dummy?” until his name was back-announced.
I had no idea.
A Marine Reacts
There’s no way we’ll get a good president this year. But there are signs that we’ll get the least bad president. Especially if this Marine is right, and I suspect that he is.
Saudi Arabia, where men are men and women are cattle
Hard to disagree with any of this.
Get the Word Out
Michael Yon has prepared a flyer you can print and hand to your local book store managers and librarians.
Get a few friends to do it, too. For book stores, seeing two people is a lot more convincing than seeing one.
13 April, 2008
Treason is a Habit
The Nasty Little Man says he’s been meeting with terrorists “for years“. Even the State Department says our Worst Ex-President shouldn’t go.
I’ll grant him this: He’s consistent.
Buttle's World 