Two California Families

Two California Families

Fred Dominguez had moved from LA to Northern California to be near his kids, who lived with their mother, Lisa Sams.
He took the three older ones, 12 thru 18, out to cut a christmas tree Sunday, after church, and they had not been heard from since. The worst was feared as a storm had moved in on Sunday and now another was coming and there was little window for an air search.

Lisa Sams said she had faith in Fred as he was a good dad and wouldn't let anything happen to his kids. Her mother said the same about Fred, but said he had no experience in the wild while the kids did. Nonetheless she was sure they would stick together as a family. A ground search, headed by the local authorities and Fred's best friend who is also Lisa's fiance, had found nothing and the situation was grim

They were found just 24 hours ago (Wednesday afternoon) on the last pass of a CHP chopper as the snow began to fall again; they had taken refuge in a culvert and laid out help messages in the snow.

They were checked out and treated for hypothermia and frostbite, at the local clinic and released a few hours later. Alexis, 15, was treated again for frostbite this morning.

- - - - -- - - - -

Earlier, Wednesday, it broke that Jamie Lynn Spears, 16 year old sister of Brittany, and a role model for sub-teens, as a star on Nick's Zoey 101, is pregnant by her HS boyfriend. She has stated that she is moving back to Louisiana to 'raise her baby in a 'normal environment'.

In related news, it's rumored that a parenting book being authored by the girls' mother has been shelved by the publisher.


UPDATE: The Spears girls' mom wont miss the revenue from that 'parenting guide' as she seems to have sold the story rights on her daughter's underage pregnancy for $1 Million.

Isnt that interesting.

On the OTHER hand, look at the Dominguez story again, the divorced mother's faith in, and support of, the childrens' father. The fact that the divorced mother's fiance is also the divorced father's best friend.

You tell me which family is mature and sophisticated.

Gold Standard? Why not something we HAVE already.. Oil!

Gold Standard? Why not something we HAVE already.. Oil!

In a post on Megan McArdle's blog, Why is the Gold Standard Crazythere's plenty of dicussion on the dollar's woes in the international market and how that might have been addressed if we were on the Gold Standard, as Ron Paul proposes.
An interesting throwaway in the comments section got me steaming.
Gold is God's money, he created it and all can access it freely. And he is not making any more.
That's silly. If that's so, let's outlaw trading in gold and let God set his own price for it.
The same can, for practical purposes, be said for diamonds. I mean natural diamonds ARE being made, but no one is waiting around for them.
Anyone want to go on a diamond standard? And of course all gold is not yet found.

It seems to me that using any traded commodity as a backstop presents the same problems. Let's face it, the current PRACTICAL currency backstop is another commodity: OIL.
Everyone who thinks a barrel of oil costs $90 to produce and deliver raise hands. The REAL value is around $25-$30, if I'm not mistaken.

I have a serious question.. when gold and silver were used as currency, what was their actual practical value?
Please name a product that, of necessity, included gold or silver. And no, jewelry and coinage DOESNT COUNT!
I can only think of medical instruments, or containers which needed anticorrosion/antibacterial properties.

The use of those precious metals as actual currency declined at one and the same time as they became necessary in industrial products... in essence, electronics.

Which brings us back to diamonds, considering that world goods production wouldnt suffer a damn bit if all natural diamonds suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, we could simply fill the void where they were used in production with different processes or replacements that we have manufactured.
Considering DeBeers, Russia and the difficulty in establishing value, no one in their right mind wants to use diamonds as currency.

Yet we are, in effect, using oil as the standard, and letting trading cartels set the price.

Oil is tied to every indicator of productivity and we shun management of it; while, like Russia with its diamonds, we sit on vast reserves.

Or do we shun management of oil?

I sincerely doubt that we would be talking about the currency's financial distress if oil was trading at its true cost: $35. Which is a propitious number. Because, for the longest time, at the end of the Gold Standard, the set value per oz was.... $35.

But it was a false value. In other countries gold was on the commodities market and the price fluctuated accordingly; which made it REALLY difficult to have a real monetary policy when your currency was based on something with only a virtual value on the one hand but was affected by industrial needs {electronics}on the other.

We have the same problem today. The price of oil is a virtual value.

We could produce and deliver enough oil, from our known reserves, to replace our current imported crude at a cost of $35.

Sure, we ARE managing oil.. only in the wrong direction. The inflated price of oil is being addressed by the proponents of 'manmade global warming' theory.
The remedy there is, of course, to make the backstop commodity obsolete, thus reduce price, in favor of increasing "Human Productivity per bbl Used". Sounds sort of similar to the argument for replacing gold as the standard, doesnt it?

This is a strategy, though, that depends on the demonization of the commodity, sort of like saying "Gold is the instrument of the devil" or gold promotes a deadly disease.
In oil's case, that relies on the literal temperature of the globe and tying carbon to it. If we enter another tangible ice age or cooling, all is lost, and oil is still going to be artificially overpriced.

If we simply opened up all our oil ranges and started producing and setting the price at 'cost plus' in the free market, the price of oil would plummet back down to true value.
And VOILA!!! Suddenly the dollar would regain its 'health' and no one is going to be quibbling much about how much of the currency is held in foreign hands.

Sure there would ALWAYS be a hedge built into the value based on perceived future scarcity, but it would be more wisely addressed at maybe ten percent. And, just as in falling sky predictions of 90 years ago, that 'peak point' just keeps getting pushed out.

It wouldnt kill TRUE development of alternatives, either. There are technologies which can address replacing $35 oil. Of course grain ethanol isnt one of them. And it just might not be profitable to slash/burn eco-forest to grow ethanol beets, either.

And the KELO Keeps Rollin' Along...

And the KELO Keeps Rollin' Along...

via Instapundit:

Drew Carey, in Reason, on
Eminent Domain used against the poor

I guess you dont have to be all that old to recall being taught that Eminent Domain was for PUBLIC PROJECTS, for use by all the community, not to increase tax revenue.

While you're on Reason's Site, check the sidebar for their previous articles on KELO. Especially, read this one.
As suspected, the intellectual liberal elite see nothing wrong with it.

Comfy in My Neo-Con Skin

Comfy in My Neo-Con Skin

One good thing about the Ron Paul campaign is that I've faced up to my political niche.

I'm not just basing it on the fact his views are archaic and his remedies, like reverting to the 'Gold Standard', impossible to enact in the real world. Or that his support is drawn primarily from various fringe groups most of which seem to have anti-semitic ties. Or that Pat Buchanan, a 'classic, Big C' Conservative is less odious in his world and domestic views.

I guess it goes back decades to my reflections on how the US might have done better in Indo-China. I shocked a lot of people I know when I said, then, that I believed that emerging countries indeed would work better under socialist-style central planning, while encouraging private enterprise on the personal and local level. I would qualify that, of course, that this should be accomplished under the guidance and advice of some super-national body.

Like the UN.. Yeah, I know. The UN has devolved into the LAST international body you'd want supervising any nation. But it COULD have been an amalgam of the IMF and WTO, couldn't it? Unfortunately there's corruption problems within those groups as well.... but I digress.

At any rate, OTHER than how I feel about the above anomaly to anyone who considers himself basically conservative, I dont think it is me that has changed so much as the Republican Party and the libertarian and Conservative segments of the party.

I believe in social safety nets but not in entitlements.. like S-CHIP expansion.

I believe the US should avoid ANY international agreements that restrict its global influence, differing with SOME Neo-Cons on Law of the Sea Treaty.
But if we did what Ron Paul advocates, the result of that withdrawal to isolationism would only result in some other power, most likely China or Russia stepping in to fill the void. Does ANYONE want that?

And I believe in 'Nation-Building'. Which has been disparaged by the left as the US attempting to build hegemony by installing governments in its likeness. Of course they KNOW that's not the case from practical review of actual events.
Even the original vision of a 'new Iraq' built on their existing power bases.

REAL politics insists that we have to work closely with governments such as Saudi Arabia which has an absolutely odious human rights record.

REAL politics has us keeping former -and possibly future- enemies, like China, close with trade ties when possible.

And you know what? If our foreign interventions really resulted in hatred in those subject states, then the average guy in Viet Nam would hate us.

And, as many returning GI's and folks like Megan McArdle have found, that is simply not the case.

But the interesting conundrum on why it is the citizenry of our former and current allies seem to 'hate us' more than those of our former and current enemies is grist for a whole other post.

To Never be Spit on Again!

To Never be Spit on Again!

Via Instapundit:

Gifts of Thanks for the Troops

... the military is much smaller now than during World War II, leading some analysts to posit that a rift exists between soldiers and citizens and that those making sacrifices on the battle front are disconnected from the society whose freedoms they defend. The American people are oblivious to the war, they claim, as well as to the men and women who are fighting it. Some have even suggested that the only way to close the gap is to return to conscription.

But these observers of the social scene have never served in Iraq.

Those of us overseas know that "support the troops" is more than a slogan. Here we are besieged by what my master sergeant calls "paper love," the cards, letters, posters and other gestures of support sent by people across America. The paper love is often accompanied by packages of snacks and comfort items. Some mail comes from family members, but even more is sent by private citizens and troop support organizations. The war has inspired a remarkable level of civic involvement that goes largely unnoticed -- except by those of us in the field or recovering stateside.

Read the comments, though. Evidently because Major Elizabeth Robbins, US Army, wrote this and it was printed in the Washington Post, some could not resist applying their views as to the war.

I swear to you Elizabeth, that if ever again, our soldiers and sailors in uniform are accosted and spit upon as they were after Viet Nam, there will likely be some witness that will take umbrage at it and beat that sniveling bastard into the ground, at pain of arrest and conviction for assault.

We are proud of our military and the job they have done as their duty, whether or not they personally agreed on the justification for the war.

And they can be proud of their sacrifices, as we are of them.. and the families of the fallen who have sacrificed in their own right.

Moonbat Articulates DNC Plan

'ex-Liberal in Hollywood' is Back..

And with a vengeance!

Moonbat Articulates DNC Plan

I missed him.

Climate Change and the ‘Politics of Fear’

Climate Change and Terror - both 'spooks in the night'

Category:
Effete Intellectual Posturings on 'Politics of Fear'

Climate Change and the ‘Politics of Fear’

In The NY Times, by Sewell Chan:

Is the environmental movement, like the war on terror, premised on a “politics of fear”? In other words, does it try to unify people by scaring them with threats to their basic survival?

That was the provocative thesis advanced by Alex Gourevitch, a doctoral candidate in political theory at Columbia University, at a panel discussion on Tuesday evening at the New York Public Library. He was confronted by vigorous dissent from his fellow panelists and from some members of the audience.

The panel discussion was organized by n+1, a political and literary journal published twice a year, begun in 2004. A. O. Scott, a film critic for The Times, wrote in 2005 that the journal “is explicitly and without embarrassment devoted to the idea that thought can advance.”

Pretty much gives you the whole idea.

First, since the Terrorists we 'fear' have already demonstrated their intent and abilities, while we have yet to walk down Broadway with waves lapping at our ankles, they ARENT QUITE the same thing.

While the speaker on which the article is based is endeavoring to 'advance thought' those of us who ALREADY think without help from our better, more informed intellectuals have pretty much solved those problems.

I fear Islamo-terrorists about as much as I fear a mugger on the East Side of Columbus. In other words, I know he exists without someone explaining it but I will still go there if needed while remaining vigilant. If I warn someone else that they should be careful when in the same locale, am I then 'playing on their fears'?

If I am SEEN that way then am I advancing the politics of fear?

Duh.

What I ALSO dont 'fear' is global warming, whether or not it's man enhanced. For one thing, I have less hubris for my species than that. Dinosaurs did not contribute to species extinction when they ruled the earth... and we have far less influence on flora and fauna. Taking nothing away from those who are ever-vigilant.. they certainly DO point out the possibilities for the rest of us.

What MOST of us venal pedestrian types do, however, is try to make lemonade out of the possible deluge of lemons. While the wonks sit and talk and warn of impending doom, the engineers and marketers are out there warding it off. Already the reaction of the market .. based on corporate greed, dontcha know.. has resulted in advancing adoption of high efficiency transportion, heating and lighting.



Maybe THAT'S the answer to the crisis in the State Department... fire those sissies who wont go Danger Close in Iraq and get some risk takers in there.

But I guess the REAL Question is: Can thought advance without a Doctoral Dissertation?

Gen. Sanchez Apologizes to Media and Public

“I now regret that I devoted the first half of that speech to saying completely worthless things that didn’t merit a mention in the news reports. It’s a good thing that our wise media gatekeepers protected readers, listeners and viewers from my time-wasting remarks.”

- From Scrappleface

Heh!

Lib Derangement Syndrome

Yeah, I've got it and I'm gonna admit it. Right here.
The realization came to me when I was commenting, on a messageboard, on the 'Phony Needy Kid' that the Dems put up on Saturday to berate Dubya for his veto of the SCHIP bill.

Well, that freeper put up a lot of time on his research unearthing the true facts but they didnt sway my lib debate friends one little bit.

This was the response:

"There's lies, damned lies, and then there's RNC spin doctoring" -- with apologies to Mark Twain.

Hmmm.. Would fit right on the average bumpersticker wouldnt it? And suitably devoid of rebuttal on the ACTUAL VERIFIABLE facts put up by the freeper.

And you KNOW the juices flowed right then. This is what I wrote:

You know what, I dont know why I have to put up with this. Yeah, 'Joe'... you and I are buds, outside this forum and I really like everything you write.... outside this forum ...but when I cant tell whether or not you are trolling me, I have to assume after a while you are.

If other people feel comfortable with lobbing meme grenades, without support, without backing it up... without ANYTHING to substantiate their views other than 'Everyone Knows...'
Yet NEVER feel outraged enough at their OWN party to even hazard the LEAST criticism of it. Then I have to wonder.

When a political discussion cant be held with any response other than what fits on a bumper sticker, then I wonder.

When I sense a feeling of relief that I DONT bring up issues on which the Dem talking points are unbelievably STUPID.. then I wonder.

When the Dem Lie machine does something as stupid as accuse Limbaugh of disparaging REAL soldiers who disagree with the Iraq war! then I wonder. No one who listens to Rush could believe that. The Dems know that. They dont care that they are going to make conservatives ever MORE outraged with them.

They WANT this split. They WANT this political war because they are sure their political terror machine will wear down the average guy to the point he just throws up his hands and quits. Quits Listening.. thinking.. voting.

It is the Soros/Kennedy/Clinton lie machine that wants to widen the schism they started when they LIED to Bush 41 about the tax increases and how they wouldnt use it in the next presidential campaign.

And which they exploited with the Kennedy-Bush administration 'No Child left behind' act. Once passed, the bleating about 'unfunded mandate' began. There's no NEED to fund it if schools simply teach the basics that are tested on and try to make kids understand the basics rather than teaching them liberal politics.

Dems dont give a F00k about the two party system, either. or bi-Partisanship!
Complaints on how Republicans 'hinder' the business of the Congress dont hold up on close scrutiny. The ONLY 'compromise' that counts with them is the compromise of conservative principle. They've been successful at that.

Naw... the more dummy grenades you hurl at me, the stronger I am in my convictions. The more I see of Dems and their corruption, which EASILY leaks over into everyone else on the Hill, btw, I'll not excuse GOP on their Cocktail Party feel-good politics, either.

But you all ALREADY know that. And others of you know I use caps for emphasis, not to release my primal scream. but you know that too.

But now you know I have Lib Derangement Syndrome.. or at least I will admit it. When's the last time, or the first, you saw a Lib admit they had BDS?

I think that's significant, somehow, I feel better already.

What's the next eleven steps?

Yep. That's what I wrote. But I didnt publish them on that site. I did it here. He'll likely read it anyway... but it's NOT exactly the same as calling him out.

Like I say, I like him plenty otherwise. He's a great guy, a good writer, and a talented musician. I think the brain damage is localized.

Everyone Should watch the Dog Whisperer

It's on National Geographic Channel and it's more about people than animals.

Sex and the Mujahadeen: The ATM courier Assassin

You guys think I post random associations! Here's another guy who sees 'connections'.

In an article in the Philly Inquirer on how the couriers were 'assassinated', the author immediately associated to the terrorist's primary recruiting and motivational tool:

Among other quotes, Wiki has this Heinlein gem (which makes me want to shut down all distractions and seriously read the guy):

Take sex away from people. Make it forbidden, evil. Limit it to ritualistic breeding. Force it to back up into suppressed sadism. Then hand the people a scapegoat to hate. Let them kill a scapegoat occasionally for cathartic release. The mechanism is ages old. Tyrants used it centuries before the word 'psychology' was ever invented. It works, too.

It works, but why? Can't these people figure out that they're simply being had?

So, you say, what makes them any different from the bulk of Fundamental Christians?

From my view, plenty. I was raised Protestant, but even we had a form of personal confession.
For you that weren't raised in any church, the exhortations against lust are real, but so is the forgiveness for it. Imagine that there was NO assuaging of the earthly guilt... that ONLY in the afterlife could those urges be relieved.

For the Christian, the afterlife is taught as relieved of all lusts... in Islamism of the oppressed those lusts are fulfilled. Those who read Dante's Inferno must, like myself, think of those '72 virgins' as demons with second sets of teeth.

As a 13 year old taking catechism, I wondered about the true nature of 'Original Sin'. I thought it must be more than just sexual in nature.... and I wondered if that apple of knowledge was not lust but guilt and the subsequent rage and blame over those who shove immorality in our faces.

I think that even more in these times.

Andrea Canales, I'm Calling You Out

In our world of soccer fandom, I'm nobody, she's somebody; but she has a blog like many of us.

In blogs, you write down stuff that you normally might not post or issue else where... for instance scroll down and see how I felt about the Wynalda interview.

In this post, however, she takes us to task for publishing 'off the record' comments. Saying it was not something a professional would do.
- I'm hoping she will allow me to use her view in my rants on political figures and the media. For there's many instances of 'Pro's' doing just that.

She makes good points on what should be 'journalism 101'.. and she makes good points on how this hurt Wynalda.

I'm not going to address any of the issues on how the interview happened, but here is what frosts me;

She assumes, without attempting the least bit to follow up, that just juicy parts of the interview were simply transcribed and posted with no thought of consequences and no attempt to verify the veracity of the facts.

Thus she has NO idea what went on behind the scenes.. the presumption is that we didnt care.

She doesnt see my email inbox on it. She doesnt think about whether or not I attempted to email Wynalda to get his views.

I suggest anyone reading this just TRY to find a way to email Eric or anyone else who's on the announcing staff of ESPN.. if it's not a program email link, it's hard as hell to find it, and when you do, you see that it will pass through some intern's mailbox.

She evidently didnt bother to read the interview within context of the setting that was carefully crafted in the Head and lede, let alone the intro of the interview itself.

And she certainly must not have looked at the tone of the site, and the best way to do that - other than reading OTHER articles- is to look at the site forum. There's no real ranting and raving on there, if you discount the 'politics threads', that is. We have many Brit Fulham Fans commenting on that messageboard who say the others are too 'pedestrian' for them to frequent.

So just WHO is making comments on a 'soccer-blog' without addressing all the elements?

But the MAIN thing that frosts me is she was still commenting on it. If it was 'un-pro' then ignore it and let it die.

Or is the 'uncoolness' of the interview posting just too juicy to pass up?

She's not alone; witness Rome making sure that his fans could find the site by pronouncing it phonetically, note SportCenter listing the site address for more than enough time to make sure the viewers could memorize or jot it down.


I smell fish.

Beers with Jim Rome

This week I had a role in a minor sport brouhaha. I was the editor of an interview by a soccer fan with Eric Wynalda, a Hall of Fame soccer player and current ESPN Soccer Analyst, which was posted on a website I admin.

And, despite some misgivings, I left in a graphic reference by Wynalda to Jim Rome. One which, in context of the interview, was fueled by passions felt by all of us each time Rome makes a disparaging reference to our favorite sport. To wit, Wynalda spoke for all of us little guys.... and I felt it displayed the passion he had for the sport and how he felt about promoting it.

The references and threats, of course, were not literal. I'm sure that Wynalda wouldn't do physical harm to Rome any more than anyone else disagreeing with his views. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Wynalda would extend himself to prevent Rome from coming to harm.

But inactions ALSO have consequences. If I had removed that part, then the interview would have stood well enough on its own. We would have gotten a fair number of hits, though nothing like the huge number we got once word spread around the net and Rome mentioned it on his show.

The author, not a writer but a regular fan, would have objected and he would likely have posted it elsewhere, but I would have been off the hook as would the site owners.

That of course is no excuse. And I accept my responsibility for the guarded nature in which Wynalda will treat any ordinary guy wanting to talk to him in the future.
And the fact that he had to issue the boilerplate apology, not only on Rome's show but on Sportscenter.

The upshot of this, of course, is that Rome wasn't harmed in the least, only Wynalda was. Rome might even get his ratings hiked a fraction of a point And I can safely say, from the vantage point of years, that Rome might have spoken on a passionate subject in much the same way.

And that is what really bothers me; Wynalda's passion and rantings are real... and what he really think, while most viewers believe Rome's are just show biz.

Somehow, within this incident, that just doesnt seem right.

Waging war against war {and stuff}

..and those who make war and those who dont care much one way or the other and those who just want to get to work and those ipod wearers and cellphone talkers and meat eaters and everyone else who consumes anything without praying to it first.

Daily Ablution, always good for poking sticks at the lunatic left has a good one here:

Towards a Deep Green Stone Age - By Any Means Necessary

About a gathering of 'concerned citizens'...

"We will broadly outline our options for confronting and dismantling civilization, the pros, cons, and considerations of each,and a sharing of resources for people interested in considering different avenues of action."
.."Is a serious meeting to address the destruction of our planet and potential effective resistance. It will include theoretical discussions of serious and confrontational strategies and tactics."

Summary: Civilization offends us we will pluck it out.

For all their moronic blather about "creating a world based on mutual aid, love, justice, and connection to the living world", inspired by "environmentalism, feminism, deep ecology, spirituality, anarchy, indigenous lifeways, anti-oppression politics, peak oil and collapse theories, and past struggles for justice", a look just under the surface reveals their real aim - to bomb us back to the stone age. Literally.

While most of us following the links in that might dismiss these nutjobs, I'd advise against it. We did the same about Islamo-terrorists {some still do}. and the danger of these lunatics aligning with Al Quaeda, with whom they fully sympathise and admire, makes a pretty effective fringe group.

I think the real problem is that it's possible for someone who is certifiably insane to actually put together a program that sounds somewhat reasonable to those who worry constantly about the earth being destroyed by us.
And these people are well on the way to certifiable lunacy.. especially considering their implausible outcomes by method used.

The desire for humanity to revert to stone age 'hunter gatherer' status totally ignores that doing so will result in only the strongest and most wily surviving their blitzkrieg against any form of industrial process.

If you looked at the backgrounds of these people, it's highly likely they fall into the urban academic. In the society they advocate, they would be the first to wither away and die.
Because the same stone age 'da Vinci' they admire for his cave paintings probably did them right after bashing in the head of the cave-painter from the next clan over in a dispute over a possum. Or, if he was vegan, a cluster of berries.

So even Ward Churchill, who preaches regularly from the pulpit of academic idiotry, though he claimed to be indian, probably never learned to live off the land. One assumes he would survive by eating fawning graduate assistants.

To wit: Only NRA members, and Pro Bass fishermen have a good chance of making through their desired holocaust. And Ted Nugent will be their prophet.

And if wishing for your own type to become extinct in the name of saving the earth for those you despise isnt insane, what is.

An Old Fashioned Blog

One of the problems with being inspired to write by reading is once the habit is started, you cant get rid of it.

You change the choice of topics, but it's reading nonetheless. And it's worse when you're interested in EVERYTHING!

For example, I can give you detailed, flow sequenced, training in how auto fuel injection {almost all based on the Bosch Jetronic system, did'ja know!} works... and how to solve engine problems based on that. Of course that's one of the PRACTICAL things I have read.

But mainly I read on politics, which can drive you crazy when you pay too close attention.

So it's great and refreshingly distractive when I ran across a real old fashioned blog - two links away from Tim Worstall, of course.

Free Man in Preston is a GREAT read... the guy has everythingto appeal to a former corporate IT wonk like me. He doesnt go into the tech stuff, though... he just observes from that particular perch in what is essentially a witty diary.

Handle With Care Friday, Jan 19
“Tim, the reason you’re going nowhere,” said Stella, my eighties style yuppie witch of a team leader, blazing into the conversation like she’d been shot from a cannon, “is that you don’t have clearly defined goals. You don’t know where you want to be.”

What I was actually intending to say, before she’d interrupted, was that I was going nowhere until I’d finished my lunch, in response to an order from Death to fetch some stuff from the data centre. I tried explaining this to Stella but once she starts, she’s not easily stopped.

She was wearing a black trouser suit, expensive looking, finished off with orange trim. It said “I’m a not to be fucked with executive, with a hint of Hare Krishna to show my spiritual side.”
I meanwhile was wearing my new jumper, in black of course, woven from a supernaturally soft fabric, probably wool or something like it, which I was casually splattering with tomato soup. It said “Boyishly cute. Sloppy eater.”
We appeared disconcertingly colour co-ordinated.

“You want to do this and you want to do that, but all your projects end up lost in the fog. You spend your time floundering, blah, blah…”

Oh for goodness’ sake. I looked outside. Today the world through my window - streaked with a thick layer of grime following yesterday’s gales - had a soft focussed, Vaseline on the lens quality about it.
Rex the security guard was clearing up fallen debris - broken slates, the former contents of dustbins, a milk float down by the generators - striding along with slow, deliberate purposefulness. He looked like a character in a bizarre litter themed porn film. Don’t dwell too long on that.

Tabs walked by with an armful of reports and Terry said, “January’s such a miserable bloody month. Some people seem to shutdown through sheer misery.”
“Do you actually have any ambition, Tim? At all?” asked Stella.
“Yes,” I said. “For you to stop bugging me.”
“It’s beyond me,” Terry continued, lost in the dimly lit cubicle of his mind, “how anybody is ever born in September.”

Rex was fishing milk crates out of branches with a long pole. It reminded me of those hooked poles they had at school for opening windows with. Terry said that sometimes he knows how those Jehovah’s Witnesses must feel. They keep knocking on the door but they’ve long since given up hope of ever being invited in. Milk bottles were scattered on the grass like rotting apples.

Later on, after the going home bell had sounded, Stella told me how her friend Becky has been offered the chance to work in China for three months. It would be a great opportunity for her, career-wise and as “an enhancing, you know, life experience”. She’s an ambitious girl, and the bank she works for would look on it favourably if she were to go. Less favourably if she didn’t. I guess this is what today was all about.
“Just three months?” I asked.
“That’s what she said.”
“And when does she have to give her answer?”
“Possibly longer if it goes well. And if she wants to.”

Ivan the Terribly Thorough swept into the room, a one man flash-mob with a vacuum cleaner. He switched off to dust around the window sills and said that ambitions are all well and good, but handle with care.
“They’re like wishes. Allow them a little privacy,” he said, as dust spiralled skywards above the radiator.
“It’s bad luck to say them out loud,” and then he was gone.

Oh, to write like that!

The Great Global Warming Swindle

From UK channel 4 - 75 minutes: The thread is unraveling from Enviro-Emporer Gore's New Clothes "We've almost begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. But just as the environmental lobby think they've got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming. According to a group of scientists brought together by documentary-maker Martin Durkin, if the planet is heating up, it isn't your fault and there's nothing you can do about it." So there!

18 Doughty Street & : A new 'Appreciate America' movement!

The love between America and our Motherland, despite all efforts of the left in both countries, is not dead. 18 Doughty Street is a web streaming 'alternative political views source attempting to provide encouragement for those who don't buy the "Evil America" or the "BusHitler" meme.

The associated blog, BritainAmerica.com has already attracted the vultures.... who desperately attempt to keep the nonsensical Bush Bashing paradigm alive.

Comments

I am a Tory who loathes Bush.

I object to:
- misleading people over fsith-based welfare
- a scandalous fiscal record
- a remarkable disregard for the stature of the Supreme Court
- a terrible record on human rights

I would certainly have voted for Kerry.

Posted by: Mike A | March 06, 2007 at 03:09 PM

* * *

JF
Problem is most Americans have a super-individualistic mindset. Most decent Brits would regard the average American voter as selfish in the extreme. Most normal people over here would have happily voted Kerry.

Its time we decent Conservatives dissocitated ourselves from the loutish bible bashing Republicans accross the atlantic.

PS Theres a reason the Bush heartlands are referred to as the fly-over states!

Posted by: si | March 06, 2007 at 06:47 PM

* *


Scooter Libby - Don't drop the soap or you'll get what the American people have had since 2001.

Posted by: Volunteer | March 06, 2007 at 10:13 PM

* *
So if you don't love President Bush you have no 'recognizable Conservative values' according to JF. What a complete moron!

Posted by: malcolm | March 06, 2007 at 10:59 PM

Which comments of course encourage talking point circles, as we have to point out that Bush is only conservative on national security and tax-cut-fueled economic robustness. On spending initiatives, and illegal immigration, he is anything but conservative.

And of course, since I'm a fairly independent thinker, I'd like to point out a few 'simplistics' in this video ad, from 18 Doughty Street; A World without America.



In the height of the Cold War, it was common for the Soviets to claim that Russian Scientists had actually invented most everything credited to the west, including the Telephone and wireless communications {yes, I'm aware of Marconi}. As one who has read up on various technology historical claims, I'd have to say that it's indeed possible that they were correct.

Not 'probable' but possible. The difference in how those discoveries would have been handled, of course, makes the issue moot. In Czarist Russia, there would have been no appreciation of the value to the average person. In the Soviet, even more, the inventions would have been looked on with suspicion and distrust.

So what is really important is not that some technology was born or made practical in the US, but that there was a freedom to exploit it. And, unlike more restrictive societies, the products quickly trickled down to all of us.

And THAT is what makes the difference, in more ways than just market forces but political agendas as well.

Here's how the above video came about, what judges for the winning ad wanted to see:


To me, this video is more evocative than the result. Of course, we have no way of knowing that without the US, there wouldnt have been some other balancing force, perhaps Great Britain, as it is closest than any other country to our ideals... I cant even rule out Japan. But the point is that just like our humble hero in "It's a Wonderful Life" America HAS made a difference.

Death of a WebSite

Matchnight.com, which a few years ago was one of the influential soccer sites in the US is shutting down on March 31.

Not only was it the official host site for the Columbus Crew, before MLS consoplidated all club sites for marketing purposes, it continued to be host for the official Crew messageboard, as well as hosting numerous other 'unofficial' MLS and USL fan oriented forums and news sites. Most of those will find new hosting resources and continue on, but it wont be easy, anymore, for fans to just click a dropdown and see what fans of the 'other sides' were saying.

But it's the forums which were the 'canaries in the mine' on this. When you see partipation on a messageboard go from hundred of posts a day, and upwards of 20 or so members and lurkers, down to 1 or 2 at a time and maybe a couple posts a day, the writing is on the wall.
No matter there is a nice layout, and occasionally good articles, it's the daily conversation that makes a website, or a happy-hour bar, for that matter.

For such a sport site is a 'community' and when the residents drift away there is no more need for the structure where the community gathers. the reason for the vacancies are legion, perhaps, and never as easy as you might think. I used to argue my politics on there, against the typical 'lib-meme' advocates who never had an answer for any of the hard questions of history. there were one or two who saw things differently, they could post reasoned responses, but it was the 'role-playing' on there which caused me to throw up my hands and quit.
I left to argue my politics on Another soccer site. and found this time I was alone... this time I didnt have 'CrewArsenal' occasionally watching my back. But, while I had to argue against the dark side on my own, at least I dont have the tantrum-throwing infants responding with various cute 'smilies' dredged in from somewhere else.. where words and reason are discarded in favor of 'attitude'.

Sooner or later, though, 'attitude' wins out. All they need do is keep on throwing their tantrums and adults leave for more serene surroundings. Which is somewhat ironic, as the only choice left for the Crew fan seems to be 'BigSoccer' which is the archtype of the restrictive, market driven site. A case where there was a product before there was a site.

Such is life, though.. and something always comes up to replace that which you love. Just waiting.

Super Bowl Entertainment Committee for '08... Get Weird Al!

Like most occasional music fans, who NOW watch halftime mainly to see how bad the entertainment is.. no, not to see if someone's boob flops out.. I have to say that Prince's effort was among the recent best And I never much liked him. Ummm,never mind the 'Purple Rain' rendition; what a 'walk-through'!

But the PRODUCTION still sucks! The whole concept of 'filling the field with kids and air-pressure props and marching bands and light shows and smoke machines' has become a parody of itself.

And since that isnt likely to change much as the Half-Time committee seems to think any performance has to be dumbed down for us older/hick plebes, I have an great idea.

Let's go whole hog and embrace the nuttiness.

And there is no one better at that than Weird Al Yankovic. It would be a snap for him, he can take on elements of ALL the past mediocrity of the show and make us like it so much he'll get a standing ovation.

And it fits in well with the drift of the Super Bowl Commercials over the past ten years... gone are the 'break-through ads' like Apple's famous '1984'; now all the best are keyed on either irony or whimsy, or parodies of themselves.

What's even better is that Al has a great voice and an excellent music and production staff and those who didnt get the humor {or listen to the lyrics} would think they saw a really good musical performance.

And I guarantee that the day-after water cooler talk would be great.

Fulham faces West Ham; and Boa Morte, Who Has a New Shirt and Something to Prove

It's been just over a week since Fulham reached a deal with West Ham United transferring Luis Boa Morte, from his Craven Cottage home of five years, to Upton Park.

Saturday, West Ham host Fulham with Boa Morte and his team looking to get even for comments made by Fulham boss Coleman about his former skipper's play this season and predictions that West Ham is relegation fodder.

These two teams drew 0-0 at Craven Cottage just three weeks ago on December 23rd. In that match, West Ham left-back Paul Konchesky was shown a straight red card.

While newly appointed manager Alan Curbishley enjoyed a dream start to his managerial duties at ther East London club with a 1-0 win over Premiership leaders Manchester United on December 16th, things have gone south since then in league play. Over the busy holiday fixture period the Hammers lost to Portsmouth and Manchester City at home and also fell to Reading by a whopping score of 6-0 on New Years day.

Last weekend the Hammers did put things together in the 3rd round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win over strugglers League One strugglers Brighton. And Boa Morte, playing in the new shirt for the first time, figured mightily in that crucial win with an assist for the first, and a set-up for the second goal.

Fulham on the other hand comes into Saturday's match on a bit of a roll. While it is not a winning roll, it is not a losing roll either. Fulham has gone six matches in all competitions unbeaten with the last five being draws. Their last loss came at Liverpool on Saturday, December 9th.

Since the defeat at Liverpool, the Cottagers defeated Middlesbrough and drew with West Ham, Charlton, Chelsea, Watford and most recently Leicester City in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

One might look at the recent run of form by Fulham as the Cottagers missing opportunities to pick up six Premiership points against strugglers West Ham, Charlton and Watford, but a draw is always better than a loss.

Clint Dempsey, though signed wont be eligible to play for another week, while paerwork is processed. The other new acquisition, Montella, is expected to see action.

Prediction: West Ham 2-1 Fulham Reason, too much hot blood for Fulham to handle.

Blatantly cadged from Chicago Tom's match preview on FulhamUSA

Jimmy Carter: A retrospective.


Some years ago I watched Jimmy Carter on an interview on Charlie Rose. I was moved to gush on a forum I wrote on, then, that he probably was the finest human being ever to be President. With the publishing of his new book and reading some critique and news around it, I am tempted to repudiate that view.
But I wont.. though I now believe the man is unfit to ever hold public office; unfit then, unfit now!

If I had to write a one-line view of Jimmy Carter, it is:

Jimmy Carter: Always ready and willing to give away that which is not his.

Lamar Hunt: The Measure of a Man

This isnt going to be a lengthy thribute to Mr Hunt. There are, at the same time, many and not nearly enough personal testimonials available by Google.

All I can add is that all those players and reporters from Football, Soccer and Tennis realms are exactly right.

How do I know? Because I spoke to him for about thirty seconds, and that's all it took to find out about Lamar Hunt. When I spoke, he paid attention, shook my hand and focussed on me and what I had to say.

And imagine how many times that happened to him every day

'Breaking News:' Circumcision and STD's!

Forbes: Circumcision Reduces HIV Rates, U.S. Studies Confirm

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 13 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers in Africa said Wednesday that they found that circumcision is such a good defense against HIV infection that they shut down two studies early, and instead offered all participants a chance to be circumcised.

Altogether, now...

Duh!

Muslim speaks out! Here's what we need more of..

From a Muslim outlook, imams have missed the point on flight behavior

The first thing one must understand about this whole hullabaloo with the Muslim imams taken off a Phoenix-bound plane in Minneapolis is that it most definitely was not about the right to prayer or freedom of worship.
.... it is certainly not about victimization.

But let us look at the response of the imams since the incident.

They rushed toward the media never looking back. They have taken their story of victimization to every soft media they could find. They then stoked the same tired Muslim flames of victimization through their own political pulpits in mosques around the Valley.

Organizations like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and the Muslim American Society also immediately jumped on board, even before the imams' flight reached Phoenix the next day, and began whipping up the drums of victimization.
...
As a devout Muslim, I have watched this painfully protracted saga unravel, fearing what comes next. The media, especially print media, have bent over backward to hear minorities' fears.
Yet public opinion has not seemed to budge in favor of the imams. The lesson here lies in why. It has to do with credibility.

Yes... exactly, the good doctor sees what we all see. It's all about acting out, then crying victim!

Because these imams and their handlers just don't get it, it's time we Muslims found leadership and organizations that do.

Our predicament is unique, fragile and precarious. We Muslims are a relatively new minority in a nation that gives us freedoms that no other Muslim nation would allow.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, a radical subset of our faith community is seeking to destroy the basis for this liberty.

Either we predominantly direct our passions against these radicals or Americans will not count us as allies in this consuming struggle.

God bless and protect you, doc!

Keep trying to get that message out.

An easy path to a BCS playoff?

As things are turning out, it looks like the BCS National Championship game will pit the two concensus top teams.. as long as USC doesnt stumble under the hooves of a Trojan Horse.

But there will still be whining and moaning, particularly from SEC teams fans.

Can we all agree that any of the top 5 teams might deserve the crown?

Can we all agree that any SEC team (for example purposes) that cant make the top five rankings DOESNT deserve a shot?

Good.. most of you get it. For the rest of you, maybe it's the SEC that should adjust.

Now, can we agree that the BCS ranking processes legitimize in-season games and preclude both scheduling of outright patsies and looking too far forward to bigger games? By that statement I refer to computer rankings which have some pretty sophisticated algorithms to rank based on strength of schedule down three or four levels.

So..IF we must have a playoff, then I suggest we do it as a modification of the current system.

Top 5 BCS qualify for the national championship.

#1 automatically in the NC game. This is NOT a free pass! It's a reward for being top of national rankings.

Then:
2 plays 5
3 plays 4
ALL at neutral sites at least 100 miles from home stadium; winners play a semi-final in New Years Bowl Games (alloted as current system does)

NC game a week later, as it is now.

If BCS takes the end-of-season #1 as automatic qualifier, that means you cant just schedule patsies and go to the playoffs. And means the season will be played to win each and every game.

Some are, strangely, moaning that too much is made of computer rankings but they will also complain that the 'big schools' get too many votes.
I humbly remind them of the two 'humans' voting WVU as #1 for several weeks running.
We all knew, at least I did, that was idiocy. And it has proven to be idiocy. But I dont think the computers ranked them #1, did they!

I have gotten over the 'Hate Notre Dame' syndrome specifically because of introduction of computer rankings. It wasnt that I just hated them... I hated them because, watching their games, I felt they were highly overrated.

The reason I came up with that playoff scenario is that it would require the least reorganization of the bowl system and guarantee a clearly able top 5 contender a real shot at the national championship.

I dont see how anyone could mind doing away with conference championship games but I dont think my system would necessitate that; it's up to the schools, as it should be.

The gospel of Tony Hendra

How to become a serious HuffPost contributor:

Attend Cambridge to understand world and how it really works

Become intellectual by consorting with Cleese and other Monty Python originals

Somehow, while writing on the New York scene'; become 'saved'*

Write a book about it: Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

Have your daughter claim you sexually molested her as a child, and of course deny it. Of course that might be because, as you admitted, you ignored your family 'in order to screw as many hippie chicks as possible'.

*Or ... maybe you WEREN'T actually 'saved'....

A Christian might harbor dark thoughts about an 'enemy' .. might even wish him dead... surely, though, he wouldnt repeatedly invoke God in a prayer wishing him dead.

Any more than he would ask God to help him get in his neighbor's wife's pants. But, somehow, that wouldnt surprise me, either.

Ohio State - Michigan: No Rematch, Please!


It has turned out as I said.. or feared; Michigan a 3 point loser in Columbus, which may result in them ending up ranked as #2 at the end of the season.

Mike Hart of Michigan said after the game that he wanted a rematch and that it would turn out differently on 'neutral turf'.

It very well might... the problem with that idea, though, is that the National Championship game is being played in the home of the Fiesta Bowl. And if you think that is 'neutral ground' you havent been paying attention the last few years.
It might as well be Paul Brown Stadium. Guarantee Buckeye fans already have scooped up most of the hotel accomodations; and to locals who are interested, the Buckeyes are probably their second team.

There's lots of opinion in the press, including the Detroit papers, against a rematch, and I think they are right. It would cheapen the unique BCS process which I'm beginning to like more and more {obviously dont know if I'd feel the same if the Buck's lost, but I think I would}.

And if OSU plays someone else and beats them soundly, and Michigan trounces whoever they play in the Rose Bowl, that will do more to establish who is really king on the hill than if they played each other.

Unless you want to see the Buckeyes REALLY paste the Wolverines.. which I dont. One of the unique characteristics of college football fandom, which makes it fun is the illusion that 'your team' might have won the big National Championship game, "IF ONLY....".
Well, I'd like to bash the illusions out of the minds of some of them... and, for that, there's be nothing better than if OSU pounded Notre Dame into dust and Michigan pushed USC into the Pacific.

The "Godfather Dems" of our times..

Reading back-posts on Gateway Pundit on how we keep getting fooled it occurred to me that Jimmy Carter is a very dangerous man.

The mullahs have fooled Jimmy Carter and other democrats before and they are fooling them again now says Zucker. Hasn't Carter done enough in creating militant Islam? When is the left ever going to learn? Why do we have to pay for their ignorance and cluelessness?

Read it all... it also explains how Carter gummed the works with North Korea.

And it struck me...

If Al Gore invented the Internet, didnt Jimmy Carter 'invent' international terror by weapons of mass destruction and Islamic Terrorism?

Of course, Gore didnt REALLY invent websurfing and such, I doubt he even thought of it; he was pushing a national supercomputer consortium in which net connectivity was vital.. and Carter didnt intend for things to turn out as they have when he gave up tokens, as a gesture of good will, with both Iran and North Korea.

Nonetheless...

The 2007 US Congress.. what we can look for? More of the same!

Forget Pelosi's blathering on "Culture of Corruption" ... for House Majority Leader she's nominating John Murtha who has never passed up a piece of pork, and brags about it, or stopped looking for the big under-the-table payoff... so much so that he's under the constant eye of the fed's.
Looks like another issue where Progressives and Conservatives can be on the same page.
Ed Morrisey has more
Who, among the literally one or two readers here, thinks it's bad enough that Murtha will chair the Appropriations Committee?

But, - in some ways, even worse - Republicans in the House are installing the same old regime in Leadership positions... forgetting in record time WHY they were voted out of the Majority.
Not that Boehner, etc; are as corrupt as Murtha but conservative voters meant to send a message... they made it loud and clear... and the survivors seem to have learned nothing.

So the 'accomodations' between the Bush Administration who are NOT really looking to reduce government spending, and the 'old guard' who still think their constituents are just 'not well informed of Realpolitik will do nothing to satisfy the desires of the American People.

Dark -but fitting - Thoughts on Armistice Day.


I don't want to soil the memories, all too little celebrated these days, of the heros of WW I, which heros should be honored without rancor to anyone..

But this is also a good time to reflect on the far-reaching effects of selfish national interests on the world we live in.

My point is that France should forever be banished from any influence in international politics.

It was the terms of the Armistice, which were largely dictated by France, that led to WW II; France was mostly interested in making sure that Germany was destroyed economically and humbled to the point of a third world nation.

Unfortunately the allies went along with this. And that selfish, over-punitive effort gave rise to Hitler's Nazi's.

Later... it was France's bumbling, 19th century, short-sighted defense program that allowed Germany to practically walk into France and hand power to the Vichy government, which didnt resist sending Jews to the east in cattle cars.

Then there is France in Algeria..
Then there is France in Indo-China: when they got humilated at Dienbienphu, militarily and strategically, they came to the US with their hat in hand and asked us to take over for them in Viet Nam.
After which, they got chummy with their former enemy Ho Chi Minh.. and their intelligentsia did everything possible to see us defeated.
- why was that?
Because France HATES to see anyone succeed where they have failed, and that says it all!

And recently, of course..their underhanded ass-buddy relationship with Saddam and the Oil for Blood deals Chirac and his cronies made with him, under the auspices of the equally corrupt UN.

And now when France is failing in 'uniting Europe' in their mold. And has not a clue of how to fix their ridiculous situation in which they are not only fostering Youth/Muslim riots by their parochial and biased social/employment programs, but ALSO building resentment and breeding neo-nazi 'strike-back' feelings. I find they (as a country... I will never disparage the courage of individual French, which has been proven time and again) are showing their true grit... NONE!

No... I'm sorry, but once again the thoughts on Armistice Day, leave me wondering just how many times the English speaking countries will have to, AGAIN, shed their soldiers' blood to bail these idiots out.

Yes, unfortunately, French IS still the language of world diplomacy:

Je me rends. Queest-ce que je peux te donner?

Google translation for: I surrender! What can I give you?

Election 2006: A Conservative Loss/Win by Pettyfog the optimist

Here's what I see happening:

Dems gain control of the House, GOP hangs onto Senate by a pinky-nail.

Good thing: Dewine gets his just desserts, out of our lives forever.. and hopefully stays the hell away from 'K Street'.

Good Thing: Michael Steele, one of Esquire Magazine's 'GOP Lawnjockeys" gets elected in Maryland because Black Voters FINALLY get fed up with Dem Carpetbaggers.

Good thing: John Kasich comes out of hibernation in Ohio to lead a REAL Conservative GOP makeover instead of 'old line' RINO republicans like Taft.

Good thing: I THINK the Dems are gonna have to put their money where their mouth is... they will do exactly as they {and Republicans} have in the past, once they sober up.... and ignore those whose votes got them over the top. And even when they DONT act like they have some brains, I REALLY get to have some fun!
KosKidz will be furious and ranting at them for just about everything... but hey... I can live with that! More fun for me.

Even the bad things can be good... I REALLY WANT Rangel to bring Bush up for impeachment. Because, dear hearts, they aint gonna be able to prove he lied about ANYTHING, as long as his idiot staffers tell the TRUTH, even if the point seems damaging.

Because, by then... all the original points Bush made will be provable.

They already have been... but YOU GUYS havent read about it.. wonder why?!!

Hell, even the Libby case is gonna be dropped AFTER the election. I'm gonna have FUN with that, too... just as I am with the Texas case against Delay, hopefully Dumbass Tom Delay 'stays the course' and insists on going to trial against Ronnie Earle.

Heh.. like I say, I'm just a cockeyed optimist who likes to have fun.

NFL: When is the "Terrell Owens bye-week"?!!!!

I don't think any more need be said.

Update: Thank you, Tony Romo and 'football gods'!

Battle of Ohio; not much joy for real Bengals fans

Winning is one thing, proving superiority and getting bragging rights at the bar or water cooler for a few weeks is good. But, for us old time Bengals fans, beating the Browns just isnt what it used to be.

Not to mention the injuries some key players got in the game, the result is much like winning a fight with your brother or one of your buddies.

It's just not anywhere as good as beating 'Modell's Team' anymore. Because REAL Bengals fans consider themselves and the Bengals as Paul Brown's legacy to Ohio.
Browns fans for decades deluded themselves with their mighty legacy.. but it was only a matter of time until Art Modell did to them what he had done to Paul Brown in the early sixties. Some of them actually derided Brown as spiteful and trying to make a replica of the Browns.
For me it was HIGHLY satisfying when Modell scuttled off to Baltimore. While I commiserated with Browns fans who really understood the meaning of it, The emblems the name, the impact and identification is nothing without the WHOLE of the Browns Legacy and they were tainted as long as Modell had anything to do with the team.

Now that the Browns logo and mystique no longer has anything to do with Modell, the reason to despise Brown fans isnt there anymore; especially since they are suffering through what we did all those empty years that Mike Brown didnt understand what his Dad learned in the few years after he gave up the coaching role.
Which was you cant micromanage your team. See... you tout the accomplishments of the great man, but also see where he was lacking, and Mike didnt get it, until four years ago.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Browns dont have that problem with Lerner, but I think as a GM Randy is still learning. It'll come but they are going to have to get over the concept of bringing in 'local boys' as key team leaders.
I think Charlie Frye will be a good QB..but the Browns are going to have to learn to bring in people who dont know a damn thing about Cleveland and make them adopt the city, not the other way around.

Cincinnati, amazingly, has done that very well. All you have to do is look at the numbers of Bengals greats who'd never been there until they arrived at training camp, and live in and/or love the team and city long after they retire.
- - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - -
Which gets around to what it is to be a Bengals fan.... our pride of legacy is STILL centered around Paul Brown and the sense of community around the team. Which we old timers see as born in Cleveland.

Columbus @ Austin [R]

Ended up pretty much a Buckeye fan's dream..

Actually that subject title is an attempt at humor... but I think it points something out... that Columbus sure doesnt need the NFL, and .. probably.. despite some pride in past Cowboys' performances.. Austin -and more than half of Texas- doesnt either.

And.. though it is STILL early (these things take decades), the Buckeyes have illustrated that their new age has dawned. And the reason is Jim Tressel.

Despite Ol Woody's best attempts the Buckeyes never really made their rep past "Big Ten Powerhouse" category... yeah they won the odd 'Big Game' but in showcase national games' they were as likely to disappoint as to shine.

The Tressel Era is changing that. As a head coach, he seems to have a knack for getting in staff that knows how to build a team out of the best available resources, then get them prepared for the BIG GAME... something that Earle Bruce and John Cooper, looking back and thinking "What would Woody do?" could not.

Exammple: Tressel letting Troy Smith cut loose and continue to press on passing, while in the lead.
Woody, and Bruce/Cooper following him, would have gone to 'ball possession.. the old 'three yards and coud of dust'.

Here's something Ironic for you... I never liked Woody all that much.

Now those of you who KNOW Woody's mentality and his rep as a military historian might find that odd.. as I'm a balls-to-the-wall conservative.

Well, it aint so odd...
Tressel inspires and encourages each player to his best, Woody damn well ORDERED it. And took it personally when his player didnt live up to his standards. Yeah, Woody would have thundered "You let down the team, son!" but he REALLY meant, "You let ME down!"
Tressel's guys understand him to mean exactly that they're playing for the team.
Note Smith's aftergame comments; note the team singing in front of the band and fans' section after the game.

The ideal occurs when each person sees the benefit in going that extra bit to ensure success in his endeavors, but only those which benefit the group he's working with.

Now, ironically, it's my view that Woody would have known how to handle Maurice Clarett... while Tressel probably came back to Columbus from Tempe in '02 knowing that Clarett was going to be BIG trouble.

The difference; sometimes you have to cut them loose.

Something most who've followed Terrel Owen's career understand... unfortunately unlike Owens, we dont seem to be able to get the schmuck out of Columbus.

But he's reflecting less and less on Tressel and more and more on the likes of racist thug-apologists such as Jim Brown.

And such is the mentality, patience, and skill, of Jim Tressel.

Proportional Response and more drivel from the informed left

Listen to any Conservative talk show that lets Liberals on the air and lately you'll hear Israel blamed for not using 'Proportional Response' to Hezbollah's actual and remote control incursions into Israel.

I occasionally let myself get fooled into listening to Sean Hannity {no link because there's nothing of substance available on his site for free}, and there it is again:

"It's all Israel's fault!" "Israel is killing Innocent Civilians!" "Hezbollah isnt killing many with those rockets, Israel shouldnt be more precise."

Of course Hannity then launches into one of his core mantras... while ignoring a chance to actually make a point with the schmuck of the hour.

He might have asked why, every time Israel gives a concession, Hamas or the Islamo Fascist party in question uses that to gain ground for more attacks on 'Innocent Civilians' on the other side. He might have asked why the UN 'peacekeepers were unarmed in the first place.. since the area they were watching was once occupied by Israel and Christian Militias.

He might have asked why the left criticized Israel for the wall.. wasnt THAT a reasonable response? No, instead it was criticized by many of the same... for keeping Palestinians from their jobs on the Israeli side.
And the PA would get all huffy when Israel responded to some markey suicide bomber by blowing a PLO officer's car or HQ site into smithereens.

He might have asked why Hez set up rockets right at the UN sites... and why nothing was done about it.

Just more examples of the Liberal self-destructive mind... the Left is so bereft of ideas and lacking in understanding of a 'foreign culture' they will avoid criticizing it and focus on that they think they do understand. Thus, it's always OUR fault or Israel's fault.

Parse that out... and you see the true view: Elitist Bigotry of the type that studies primitive cultures like amoebae in a petri dish... detached and fascinated, while staying uninvolved in anything that might upset the show.

Since they dont actually recognize the existence of 'evil', they instead see it as an aberration that can be dealt with once we 'gain understanding' of it.

Sad

World Cup Football: USA Soccer job made to order for Klinsmann!!!

Even Deutsche-Welle thinks so:

There are plenty of reasons for Germany's Jürgen Klinsmann to head for the rumored coaching job waiting for him in the United States, and the coincidence that he lives there isn't the biggest one of them.

Congratulations to Jürgen Klinsmann, the man who literally brought a smile back to Germany, for taking a break to talk with his family before deciding on his next job.

He's earned the time with his wife and two children, and hopefully they'll be able to convince him to hand in his Lufthansa frequent flier card and stay at home in California after a grueling World Cup and two-year tug-of-war over everything from his coaching methods to the choice of the team's hotel.
....
Near anonymity for the whole family is a major drawing point for the soft-spoken coach. While Klinsmann would be under the critical eyes of Germany's 82 million remote control coaches, the US Soccer Federation would be hard pressed to find half that number of Americans who can name the current coach -- and he's been there for eight years.

It's hard for us to imagine the difference in profile Klinsmann and his family would carry into the public.
Everyone in 'football crazed' Europe knows Klinsmann by sight, and the sports reporters would be hanging on him and his family trying to dig out any bit of news positive or negative....while even coming across Tommy LaSorda in his high profile days with the Dodgers wouldnt necessarily raise much of a fuss.

So even if Klinsmann raised US soccer's profile ten-fold, the public and paparazzi nuisance would still be nothing compared to what he gets now in Germany.

So it's a win-win for both Klinsmann and US Soccer. He gets to stay and work around home, traveling the least of most any national team coach, and he gets to keep his private life relatively private while making over 1.5 million for his efforts... which work-hours are GENERALLY less intrusive than if he coached a club team.

We can hope.. and let's keep our fingers crossed that he does the right thing for the sport he loves.

Big Dig Boondoggle turns tragic..

Most of us midwesterners only know about the Boston Big Dig from the political related articles on it for the last ten years. There were huge cost overruns and charges of crony-ism and rumors of kickbacks.

Well, most of us old-timers know that where there's smoke there's fire.. and the 'Big Dog-gle' has bit everyone associated with it. And some who were just using it.

“The fact that this actually failed is extremely troubling,” said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, adding that federal guidelines require that such suspension systems be able to carry eight times the load being supported.
“ The collapse of the ceiling, which killed 38-year-old Milena Del Valle of Jamaica Plain, was caused when a 3-ton ceiling slab gave way and caused three adjacent slabs to buckle and crash to the roadway with it, officials said.

Obviously, there was a failure in either quality control, design or construction,” he added. “We cannot allow people to go back in these tunnels until we know they’re safe.”
Big Dig boss Matt Amorello said engineering consultants, along with state and federal inspectors, are reviewing the project’s entire infrastructure. He also said Massachusetts Turnpike officials are examining their own records to determine whether concrete ceiling panels and the steel tiebacks holding them in place were stress-tested before being installed.

Boston Herald.. more

It's all well and good to review the 'tieback' system, and whether they were adequately tested...but we can pretty well guess what the findings will be.

The tunnels will be either partially or completly shut down for another 18 months while 'corrections' are made.

But there's a bigger issue or question:
Who the hell designed this thing!!!! I'm not a structural engineer but to install what is essentially a suspended CONCRETE SLAB ceiling seems to me the height of stupidity.
Didnt these guys ever study Roman viaduct design... and wouldnt they understand the significance of the architectural ARCH?!!! Note, in fact, the root of the term 'architecture'!

Tiebacks as I understand them serve as a back-up to structural self-support, and would keep a primary structural failure limited in effect.
Depending on the location and purpose of this 'tieback' system, the early take seems to make them NOT tiebacks but 'anchor bolts', which is a whole different thing.

I'm betting that the BIG review of the project will point not only to substandard materials and construction methods but basic design flaws, as well.

Which, of course, is to be expected when those doing big public projects are too cozy with an entrenched political machine. Which is nothing new and it's certainly not the first time it's happened. But it will certainly end up being the most expensive corrupted public works project, ever.

On Olbermann, Seinfeld and Liberal humor..



Clark Baker has an excellent incisive piece on a recent minor brouhaha between the obtuse ex-sport analyst turned Lib Cynic-shill.

ex-Liberal in Hollywood: On Humor & Fascism

The incident is reported and drilled into and the telling point, regarding Olbermann and his fellow travelers, is this quote from George Orwell:

Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, ‘he that is not with me is against me’. The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security…

What I object to is the intellectual cowardice of people who are objectively and to some extent emotionally pro-Fascist, but who don’t care to say so and take refuge behind the formula ‘I am just as anti-fascist as anyone, but—’. The result of this is that so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda.

To which Baker adds:

Although Olbermann thinks he confronted hate, he actually attacked Americans who have good reason to question his patriotism. I wasn’t privy to the email exchange, but those who subordinate their country and servicemen for envy or greed (ratings) probably lacks spiritual values as well.

The other point leading to the topic of this post really made sense to me.

Seinfeld was watched and enjoyed by millions but you will all remember the dichotomy exposed on the LAST Episode.
Evidently most of his viewers were shocked at it... because they saw something that differed with their impression of the back-story of the entire series.

I was shocked, too.. but only in that all the self-absorbed numbnuts ditziness had come home to roost on the main characters. Which obviously you wouldnt expect from a n obstensible Liberal creative type.

But then Larry David, even in his most current effort is the world's best caricature of what most think a Lib is really all about.

US World Cup Team: Time to move on

I'm sure that most of us soccer fans were disappointed to see the US fail to make it out of their group in Germany; though most of us werent surprised at it. The US team drew into one of, if not the, most difficult groups in the opening round.

But the real disappointment comes at the rather unspectacular end to so many bright though not brilliant careers on the team.

Brian McBride wont be back, Claudio Reyna wont. Eddie Pope and anyone else selected for the 1998 team likewise. Surely after the 2002 performance we'd hoped to see the team improve on their steadying and gritty influence.

One we cannot say that about is Landon Donovan... though if his performance is any indicator of our future fortunes, we have cause for dismay.
Donovan easily took on the role of face of the US team from McBride since '02; yet it is now McBride, again, who personifies the team.

Bruce Arena has to share some of the blame for this, the US having only 4 shots on goal in three games being the result of his conservative tactics. But he had little to work with..only Eddie Johnson had any real goal-scoring success in the qualifying run-up.
Let's face it.. we dont have much to choose from and banking on Freddy Adu to pull us out of the swamp is a little much. But, right now he, along with Johnson, is all we have.

So, I'm thinking that the entire team needs to be scuttled and remade. Anyone who was on the 02 team needs to be told that they will have to actually work HARDER to make the team than a newcomer would.

If for no other reason than to send a message to Landon Donovan.

Al Quaeda in the West..

A collection of misfits, fascists, Religious nuts, sociopaths and self-disenfranchised:

There may be enough hate lying around in the West to forge committed Jihadis even in say, Marin County, feats which previously required training camps in places like Afghanistan. Gates of Vienna and the Politics of CP have reported on the possible presence of the Jamaat ul-Fuqra in rural Virginia. And as the Spectator notes "My, terrorists do seem to have a strong affinity for Western universities."
......
"The suspect is a 24-year-old man, a 2000 graduate of Mount Hebron High School in Howard County and a 2005 graduate of Loyola College, where he majored in biology. Mujtaba Rabbani Jabbar's family home is a house valued at more than $1 million in one of Baltimore County's most affluent neighborhoods. ... Jabbar's address is in Anton North, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Baltimore County, with million-dollar mansions hidden by trees and at the end of long, twisting driveways. A list of residents includes such Baltimore business names as Frankel and Luskin, and former Blue Cross/Blue Shield Chief Executive William L. Jews."

- The Belmont Club: Read it all, including comments


The perfect storm will succeed sooner or later, if they run out of Islamiscists they can always recruit from Kos commenters.

Falling on the tracks

For years I posted and argued on the politics forum of a soccer site. It was fun for a while, then became more and more tedious as I kept having to knock down strawmen in the form of what Limbaugh calls "Drive-by" cliches; those old saws like "Where are the WMD" and "Bush Lied, Children died."

And THEN I get treated to my own party preferring to preserve their power and seats rather than stand up for any principle of conservative thought. Especially guys like Ted Stevens and Dennis Hastert..meaning they will be conservative to get elected, then they will be 'quasi-Byrd-democrats'to KEEP getting elected.

Well, screw it! Arguing with other civilians doesnt work... and the reason it doesnt work is those guys USUALLY are trying to salvage their own belief systems and world view. It's called denial.. obviously.. and no amount of evidence or fact will deter them. Not until the obvious is surrounding and about to drown them.

So I think I'll just come back to this anonymous, unseen, unread, space to distill and write down what I think. I get about two hits a day and that's alright.

Since I read a lot of middle-right wing blogs, and sure cant beat them in either content or point of view. So I guess I'm going to have to find some way of sifting the odd nugget here and there.
Eh we'll see.

What the Hell.. Complete VA database in some guy's HOUSE?


In the biggest idiocy of many involving federal bureaucracy, some VA 'data analyst' took home a full copy of a Veteran database to work on a project. His house was burgled.. and, yep, one of the things burglars go for first is the computer.

This means ALL of some 26 million veterans are now in risk of identity theft.

This guy should not only be fired, he and his supervisor should be brought up on charges of criminal negligence.

For some of you who dont understand the seriousness of this, this is the largest personal information security breach.. EVER!! At least that we know of.

If the burglars were pro's and not just opportunists... then they will know what they have is worth close to a million bucks in value. And there will be few traces of their comings and goings... unlike a hacking-into situation.

If the burglars are stupid, they WONT ditch all the loot, they'll try to sell it and may be caught... but if the other stuff all lands in a river after they copy the info onto a DVD, lots of folks are in for a rough time with their finances for YEARS.

I worked with test databases that were lot less valuable, but I ALWAYS did something that made them inert, such as scrambling the related data... and that is relatively easy to do.

Sometimes I wish I had gone through a pre-frontal lobotomy and worked as a Guvmint Emplodee!

While Illegals take a dump on our porch..

..meantime, back home, Mexican police are shooting striking miners who occupied company offices to protest inaction to remedy unsafe mine conditions.
- link is to Boing Boing

Please bear in mind that many of the Mexicans marching today want to 'take back' the US southwest. That would be interesting... in little more than a few decades under Mexican 'rule' it would probably turn into the just the same kind of shithole they came here to ecscape from.

I admire the courage of the Mexicans who come here to work, but wouldnt it be better if they challenged their own corrupt third world government to improve conditions at home instead of begging and stealing from their neighbors?

New political semantics...

Given Bush clueless recent Dubai Ports fiasco... and the fact that the Dem's are still trying to work out a 'slogan' and cant get it right, let alone what it is they actually believe in...

Let's think about the fact that, if our local and state politicos are our 'elected officials'... then our national figures must be out Elected Super-ficials!

If Progressives like Darwinism as social theory..

.. Then why dont they believe it applies to humans?

Answer: They do, they just pretend it doesn't so as not to offend.

Just yer average 'Thought of the Day'.

Bush Lied, Bush Lied, Bush Lied, Bush Lied!!!!

Yet more 'Bash-bush' from the media, this time by releasing incomplete transcripts and video's on the Katrina response.. now that enough time has gone by, the left is even casting Michael Brown as the 'scapegoat'.
That they parse it down to the fine edge by using Bush's rather lame: "No one could have predicted the levees would be breached." statement shows how desperate the left is to gain some purchase and show themselves in a relatively good light.

And in the Lefty blogs, the shouting for "Impeach Bush" will continue from now till 2008... it doesnt matter what the issue is, "He lied! Impeach him!" will be shouted over and over.

But it wont happen.. not unless Bush does something incredibly more stupid than even the ports deal.

And we know why. Because any impeachment on any of the issues they have whined about to this day will backfire on them and open testimony, under oath, will show the Democrats and Left for what they are... and they will finally have cut their own throats.

If I HAVE to point it out for you, you wouldnt understand anyway.

As the Lights go out, slowly, in Europe...

We see that some there are beginning to wake up to the chaos they have created, by dint of their social activism, over the last generation.
We should fear Holland’s silence

Holland — with its disproportionately high Muslim population — is the canary in the mine. Its once open society is closing, and Europe is closing slowly behind it. It looks, from Holland, like the twilight of liberalism — not the “liberalism” that is actually libertarianism, but the liberalism that is freedom. Not least freedom of expression.

All across Europe, debate on Islam is being stopped. Italy’s greatest living writer, Oriana Fallaci, soon comes up for trial in her home country, and in Britain the government seems intent on pushing through laws that would make truths about Islam and the conduct of its followers impossible to voice.
....
Europe is shuffling into darkness. It is proving incapable of standing up to its enemies, and in an effort to accommodate the peripheral rights of a minority is failing to protect the most basic rights of its own people.

The governments of Europe have been tricked into believing that criticism of a belief is the same thing as criticism of a race. And so it is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous to criticise a growing and powerful ideology within our midst. It may soon, in addition, be made illegal.
...
As I left the Netherlands I once again felt terrible sorrow for a country that is slowly being lost. A society which should be carefree and inspiring has become dark and worried. The jihad in Europe is winning. And Holland, and our continent, takes one step further into a dark and menacing future.

It is the Liberals who have done this... and the Liberals who will cave in to self-muting, by way of fear. Sure, there are many in the 'progressive' camps who will finally stand up and fight the fascism of the Imams. But they will arrive at the party, late. Probably because they want to get all the use they can out of their "Hate-Speech" picket signs directed at their own governments.

How much blood will flow from their naive puristic idealism? We dont know.. but it definitely will be of 'biblical proportions'. And all we have to do is steel ourselves and read Revelations to see it coming.

Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Gore, Kerry and Dean..

Quick... what do they all have in common?

They all want the ear of Billy Joe Bob, the 'bubba'... Difference being the political ones only want him come election time. At which time they will talk down to him and think they're getting somewhere.

As in Kerry's "Kin I git me a huntin' License, here?" when he went photo-op hunting in Ohio in 2004.

They think the gum chewing, pick'em'up drivin', gun totin' yahoo's of the heartland dont understand nuance.
Well, they do... and the nuance they understand is "Someone wants to kill us..". And they ALSO understand when they are being made fun of.

Which they consider okay... if it's Larry or Jeff doing it... because they do it as one of them. But the hysterical Gore and Kerry and Kennedy bashing the guy they see as 'sorta one of us.. cuz he dont speak so good.." leaves 'em cold. And they might not even remember it until election time.

But then, when they try to figure out who to vote for and what matters most, that old common sense nuance is going to come back to them.

The latest histrionics on Cheney's hunting hilarity is gonna leave 'em cold, too. They'll laugh at Cheney and make fun of the incident but when it comes down to it, they've all been there, or close to it. And the more the beltway idjits harp on it, the better for Cheney.

And they'd vote for Larry or Foxworthy for Pres before they'd vote for those pitiful Eastern Dem elitists.

It would be even funnier if the Libs weren't so pathetic.