Sunday, February 28, 2010

Obama Faces His Fears, Others Fear His Face



"This is not a face that should play poker any time soon!" -Candy Crowley
Heh.

Folded arms, fingers across the lips, constantly shaking his head "no". These are all classic signs of someone who is not accepting what he's hearing.
You could not have illustrated someone with a closed, made up mind better than with these images. And we won't even get into all the times he stretched his middle finger across his face!

H/T Rob Port

"George Will 'Bitch Slaps' Paul Krugman"

According to Sammy Benoit over at Yid with Lid



NYT columnist and economist Paul Krugman does not fare well on the receiving end of Will's examination. Pertinent part about half way through the video.

One question: If the government came to you and said, "Professor Krugman, you have a car. We're going to compel you to buy a more expensive car, but it's not really more expensive because it's a better car." Wouldn't you tell them to get off your land?


Heh.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama Tries Not to Break "Bruised Reid"

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


(Extra points if you get the Messianic reference in the headline!)

Obama flew to Nevada (presumably not on a corporate jet) to attempt to bolster the sagging fortunes of Sen. Harry Reid.

WASHINGTON -- During his whirlwind visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago, President Barack Obama mentioned U.S. Sen. Harry Reid by name four dozen times, gave him a big hug and talked him up as if he was a long-lost brother. In remarks that could not have been more laudatory, Obama repeatedly characterized the veteran Democratic leader as a man "made of very strong stuff" who was making the right decisions for the state back in the nation's capital.


Strong stuff? Well, smell isn't everything!

Reid got no bounce from Obama's visit on Feb. 19, when the president spoke highly of him at Green Valley High School and to business leaders at CityCenter, polling indicates.

A larger percentage of voters surveyed (17 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for Reid following the president's visit than said they would be more likely to vote for him (7 percent). Seventy-five percent said Obama's visit would have no effect on how they vote.

"Reid was not helped, and Obama was not any more popular than he was before he came to the state," said Brad Coker, managing director at Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.


So, a less than popular president flies, at great expense, to Nevada to help a less than popular Senator get re-elected, and fails.

No word on whether Barama used his "Negro dialect" on any of Reid's supporters or not.

H/T Rob Port

Pardonnez-moi. Excusez mon français insuffiçant, s'il vous plaît.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
The very French looking John Kerry


Not high on the list of Important Stuff, but persistent, nonetheless, is the recurrence of French spam in my inbox. It appears to be a phishing scam, as the words "Pay Pal" figure prominently in every title, but other than forwarding them to the Proper Authorities, they keep showing up, day after day after day. So, just curious more than anything else...

Any activity from French weasels in your inbox?

Let me make it clear, to all my readers, particularly those in France, that I do not wish to imply that the French as a whole are weasels. But of all the multilingual pieces of junk mail that I have even a prayer of categorizing, that of this small band of Frenchmen (or faux Frenchmen) stands out as bogus. (I do receive junk mail in Hebrew, Arabic, and Japanese, among others, which I merely delete unopened.)
Merci.

Pocatar, or Avahontas

CFV 426 - Avatar/Pocahontas Mashup FINAL VERSION from Randy Szuch on Vimeo.



The comparison has been made before, but this is a very clever send up of Avatar, using video from Disney's Pocahontas and audio from Avatar.

H/T NewsReal Blog

Quote du jour

As Obama rightly noted: Terrorists abide by no rules. Therefore, they are not entitled to the protection of the rules. If we treat them humanely — as we do and as we should — that is our choice based on our values, our standards, and our humanity. It is not based on their rights. Rules that tie the hands of only one side in a conflict are neither moral nor useful.

-Cliff May

Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Little Saturday Night Music

Shawn Colvin "A Diamond in the Rough"

Don't Trust Obama to Buy Your Car Insurance



Is Obama playing dumb here, or does he really not know the difference between collision and comprehensive coverage, etc. Do you think that if "Professor" Obama had actually read the insurance document he signed, he might have had a little better understanding of it? What if the insurance policy had been 2000 pages long??? The mind reels!

Plus, if he was "rear ended", the onus to pay would have been on the party at fault and his insurance company. Did they laugh at him or was the other guy uninsured?

H/T The Blog Prof
Cross posted at Say Anything

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Another Satisfied Acme Customer

Quote du jour

“You can fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Friday, February 26, 2010

Democrats and Deceit

What is it with the Democrats and deceit? Just a couple days ago, we noted that Democrats in Nevada were fielding a faux "tea party" candidate to try to split the conservative vote. And it wasn't that long ago that the fictitious Ellie Light and "her" phony Astroturf letters were making news from coast to coast.

And now we have more Astroturf with the sanction and blessing of the Obama White House.

On Tom Sullivan's show yesterday, and again on Rush's today, there was mention of the Organizing for America's "seminar calling" website: Radio.BarackObama.com.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

When I first saw the microphone with the Obama logo on it on another web site, I thought it had been photoshopped to mock the administration. Apparently, though, these people are beyond parody.

The Obamanites are trying to generate the illusion of enthusiasm for Obamacare, even though a majority of Americans want to see the whole thing jettisoned and a fresh start begun.

In the words of Barack Obama: They're just trying to put lipstick on this pig!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Paul Ryan Gets the "Evil Eye" From President Obama


"Hiding spending does not reduce spending"
-Paul Ryan, R- Wisconsin

The look Obama gives him looks an awful lot like this one:

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


H/T Yid with Lid

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* is Brooklyn Decker!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic



Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Bonus added multimedia:

Gergen on Republicans- "The best Day They've Had in Years"



Rush calls him "David Rodham Gergen", former token PBS Conservative to balance Mark Shields, speaking out on Republicans at Obama's phony health "summit".

H/T The Blog Prof

Quote du jour

“The time for talk is over,”

-Barack Obama on "climate change"

...pretty funny coming from a guy whose main claim to fame is that he's got a teleprompter!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

"Photo Emerges Of Murderous Killer Whale At Tea Party Rally"

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Over at The Nose on Your Face. Too funny!
Everything bad, the Tea Partiers are responsible for, while everything good (Victory in Iraq, for example) comes from the Obama!

Quote du jour

I may confirm what has been written in other places: research in some areas of climate science has been and is full of machination, conspiracies, and collusion...

-Eduardo Zorita

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Andrew Breitbart Gets Death Threat

...for being a conservative and expressing himself vigorously!



And all this time the Left has been telling us what violent people exist on the right!
(Pertinent quote at 4:48)

H/T American Glob
Cross posted at Say Anything

Separated at Birth?

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Jimmy Carter is reportedly upset over being compared to Barack Obama.

In last month's issue of Foreign Policy magazine, leading analyst and Iraq War supporter Walter Russell Mead opined that President Obama's foreign policy agenda was turning into a duplicate of Jimmy Carter's.

...the Carter comparison was clearly meant as an insult. After all, the piece was titled "The Carter Syndrome."

It would seem natural for Obama and his allies to find the piece somewhat insulting -- but the one raising the most stink so far is Carter himself.


Surprise, surprise, surprise , Sergeant Carter! Who ever woulda thunk that anyone would ever compare the worst President in recent history to the worst President in recent memory?

H/T Rob Port

Obamanocchio: I am Not a Socialist!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


"Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free market..."
...unless you make too much money, or want to pay your employees bonuses, or reward them with trip to Las Vegas as a reward for a job well done, or you own a car company or a corporate jet, or want to make a student loan, or purchase insurance from a private provider across state lines...

Am I leaving anything out???

(This may just be a Clintonian "meaning of 'is' is" moment. It could be that Obama "believes" in the free market much the same way that the devil believes in God. Just because you "believe in" something doesn't necessarily mean you support it or want to have any part in it!)

The Medal of Honor

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Sergeant Allen James Lynch


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Lynch (then Sp4c.) distinguished himself while serving as a radio telephone operator with Company D. While serving in the forward element on an operation near the village of My An, his unit became heavily engaged with a numerically superior enemy force. Quickly and accurately assessing the situation, Sgt. Lynch provided his commander with information which subsequently proved essential to the unit's successful actions. Observing 3 wounded comrades Lying exposed to enemy fire, Sgt. Lynch dashed across 50 meters of open ground through a withering hail of enemy fire to administer aid. Reconnoitering a nearby trench for a covered position to protect the wounded from intense hostile fire, he killed 2 enemy soldiers at point blank range. With the trench cleared, he unhesitatingly returned to the fire-swept area 3 times to carry the wounded men to safety. When his company was forced to withdraw by the superior firepower of the enemy, Sgt. Lynch remained to aid his comrades at the risk of his life rather than abandon them. Alone, he defended his isolated position for 2 hours against the advancing enemy. Using only his rifle and a grenade, he stopped them just short of his trench, killing 5. Again, disregarding his safety in the face of withering hostile fire, he crossed 70 meters of exposed terrain 5 times to carry his wounded comrades to a more secure area. Once he had assured their comfort and safety, Sgt. Lynch located the counterattacking friendly company to assist in directing the attack and evacuating the 3 casualties. His gallantry at the risk of his life is in the highest traditions of the military service, Sgt. Lynch has reflected great credit on himself, the 12th Cavalry, and the U.S. Army.


Sgt. Lynch: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Hat tip Home of Heroes





There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

New Missile Defense Logo - Designed to Convey...What?

Over at the Washington Times, the similarity of the new Missile Defense logo to the Obama campaign logo has been noted. That would be bad enough! I think it could be something far worse.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Old logo.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
New logo (Complete with star).

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Islamic Crescent.


Add to this the "coincidence" of the design of the Flight 93 memorial:
Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Could we just keep crescents out of our national symbols and memorials until such time as we are no longer at war with Islamic terrorists? We don't seem to have that same problem with crosses or Stars of David!

Faux Tea Party Hopes to Split Conservative Vote in Nevada

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Lying, faux grassroots from the Democrats?
Let me show you my "shocked" face!


The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that the Tea Party of Nevada has qualified as a third party in Nevada and will field its own candidate in the Senate race for the seat currently held by Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader.


The Nevada News Bureau has done a little research on this new party:

I cannot find any evidence that any of these principals have ever been involved in any Tea Party activities, until now. I’ve emailed a number of Tea Party organizer-activists in the state and so far, nobody has ever heard of any of the principals – except for Barry Levinson because he is a Las Vegas attorney.

Here are some snippets from my research so far:

Barry Levinson was part of the “Bush Lied, People Died” cabal (very strange creds for a Tea Party guy).

Not really core to the story but one of the principals, Larry Lathum, appears to be a 9/11 Truther. A number of sane Tea Partiers emailed me to say they are concerned about credibility and perceptions and are not happy to see Levinson’s and Lathum’s names on that principals list.
The hope of Democracy lies in an informed electorate. So, why is deceit the Democrats' primary tool for staying in office?

H/T Doug Ross

A New Reason to Vote "Present" on the Census, Redux



We've addressed this before here:
A New Reason to Vote "Present" on the Census

H/T Move_Zig

Quote du jour

"Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion."

-Oscar Wilde

Quote du jour

"the carbon market is based on lack of delivery of an invisible substance to no-one."

That seems bound to work out well.

-Mark Steyn

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

This Last Week's Poll

This last week's poll: Joe Biden claimed that Obama's administration would be remembered for ending the war in Iraq. Was he:

Delusional? 77%
Counting on people's short memories? 50%
The only administration member who could say this with a straight face? 33%
The only administration member who could say this without a teleprompter? 33%


Multiple choices and Obama's crack budget office accountants may account for totals greater than 100%

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

Mission Accomplished! Obama Finally Makes a Campaign Promise Good!

Okay...not exactly! First the promise:

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


“I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow.”
- candidate Barack Obama, June 3, 2008.

Now the fulfillment:

Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels


Mirabile dictu! Without lifting a finger or purchasing a single carbon credit, the oceans' rise may not be slowing, but they may not be rising as precipitously as some had claimed. I think that any administration that would count Bush's victory in Iraq as their own can certainly claim that mistakes in calculating the oceans' rise are as good as making them fall! I mean, the results are the same...right?

Image via No He Can't.com

Killer Hot Dogs

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Killer hot dog captured in the wild.


John Lott has the straight scoop on the newest peril to "the children". Forget obesity! The kid will choke to death long before he gets fat!

"Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog"
Choking to death on food of any type is very rare. There are about 60 million kids under age 15 in the US. 61 choked to death on food. I don't know how many of those choked on hotdogs, but I assume that given everything that kids eat it couldn't have been that many.


Mr. Lott is an outstanding statistician. How would he rate the risk?

So how many hotdog were eaten each year? Apparently about 9 billion!

Suppose that children eat hotdogs in proportion to their share of the population. That would be about 1.8 billion hotdogs (that may be high or low, but take it as a rough guess). If all choking deaths from food were due to hotdogs, that is 61/1.8 billion, a 0.0000034 percent rate. You are probably at more risk crossing a street.


I'm thinking the government should mandate "Pâté dogs"!

(I realize that the death of children is a serious subject. I raised five children, and I was concerned with each and every one of them and the possibility that they might choke on their food. At no time, though, did it enter my head that the government had a responsibility to cut my children's meat for them.)

Demon Sheep II: "Dirty Deeds, Done With Sheep"

Via The Jawa Report, this bit of fluff. (I admit it. I laughed out loud!)

Quote du jour

The fact that people are attracted to Ron Paul because of his adherence to the Constitution, speaks well of our founding document.
The fact that people are attracted to Paul, even with his rabid isolationism and wackadoo foreign policies speaks ill of our ability to field good candidates who strongly uphold our Constitution.

-Proof

Monday, February 22, 2010

Quote du jour

Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.

-Mark Twain

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Glen Beck - CPAC Sunday Continues!



A reminder that Glen Beck was on CNN before he became vilified by the Left!

H/T The Other McCain

Ann Coulter- The Lighter Side of CPAC



"Why couldn't Barack Obama have picked someone respectable for his running mate? You know. Like John Kerry did!" Heh.

And a take off on Michelle: "Ironically, since Obama was first elected, for the first time in my life,I'm sometimes not proud of my country!"

H/T Gateway Pundit

Col. Allen West (Ret.) at CPAC



Funny he should have to mention that his pastor never cursed America? Oh, well!

Go West!

H/T Weasel Zippers

George Will at CPAC



This is the best I've heard from George Will in a long time. Give him thirty minutes...

H/T This Ain't Hell

RonPaulstiltskin to Spin "Straw" Into Gold?

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Ron Paul wins CPAC presidential straw poll

Talk about your political upsets.

Rep. Ron Paul, hero of a fervant (sic) band of libertarians, unexpectedly won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference today, claiming 31% of the votes cast.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has carried the survey for the past three years, was second at 22%.

The straw poll is unscientific but is sometimes seen as a show of organizational strength among presidential hopefuls. However, Paul, who made a longshot bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, has given no indication he plans to run again.


When I first heard that Ron Paul had placed first in a poll, I thought it must be another Internet poll, which the Paulbots have a track record in blitzing.

If Paul, at CPAC, stuck to talking about the Constitution and domestic policy, he probably wowed them. He is a strong advocate for the Constitution. It's his wackadoodle isolationism that makes him a scary presidential candidate.

Fortunately, spinning straw into gold is the stuff of fairy tales. Ron Paul in the White House would be positively Grimm!

The fact that people are attracted to Ron Paul because of his adherence to the Constitution, speaks well of our founding document.
The fact that people are attracted to Paul, even with his rabid isolationism and wackadoo foreign policies speaks ill of our ability to field good candidates who strongly uphold our Constitution.

Quote du jour

When President Obama was just Candidate Obama and tossing promises to us like Mardi Gras beads to shirtless women, he made a few that we all liked.

-Jeffrey Jena

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Just Desserts, or "I Wasn't Expecting to Meet my 72 Virgins Just Yet!"



Apparently, we have the technology to track incoming mortar rounds and zero in return fire in as little as two to three shots. From the time this guy fired his first shot, he had about twelve seconds to live.

He was praying to meet his God and the Marines were there to make the travel arrangements!

Update: There seems to be a large consensus that this is a video of incompetence rather than accuracy. It is true that if the mortar becomes too hot through rapid fire, a round can cook off in the tube. (Wasn't there a scene in We Were Soldiers, where Lt. Col Hal Moore had his men urinating on a mortar tube to cool it down?)
But, whether little Johnny Jihadist killed himself through his own carelessness or was a victim of return fire, there is one less jihadist in world, who was not expecting to meet his 72 virgins just yet!

H/T The Blog Prof
Cross posted at Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Music

Mac McAnally - It's My Job

Crusader Rabbit

And since we're on a nostalgia kick today, how many of you remember "Crusader Rabbit"?

This was "must see TV" when I was about eight years old.. Check out the state of the art animation!

"Morning in America"

A little nostalgia for those of us who have been mourning in America for the last twelve months...



Can you remember when things were as "bad" as they were under Reagan? Damn Republicans! /sarcasm

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Boob Watchers

In our never ending attempt to keep you abreast of the news...

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Melbourne, February 18: In a new survey, nearly half of British men confessed that they look at a woman’s breasts before they look at her face.British cosmetic surgery giants Transform interviewed 3000 women and 1000 men, and the results revealed a number of eye-opening truths about the UK’s attitudes to breasts in the 21st Century, reports the ‘Courier Mail’. Four in ten men quizzed admitted they looked at women’s breasts at least 10 times every day, while nine in 10 women admitted to checking out their rivals’ assets several times a day.


Eric over at Vocal Minority quipped that "The other half were either lying or gay."
Heh.

H/T Vocal Minority

Technicalities, technicalities!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


The suspension of disbelief is essential in the enjoyment of most fiction. You must be able to suspend your belief that the actor who played "Vinnie" in Welcome Back, Kotter could play a gigantic alien with dreadlocks. (Okay, poor example, no one could do that!)
You might be able to suspend your disbelief in magic and wizards and hobbits, but if Frodo finds a Ford Explorer parked in front of his house in the Shire, it could shatter the illusion and the compact made between the reader or the movie goer and the story teller.

A friend of mine, who once worked for the phone company, and I were both reading a sci-fi novel about some guy who invented or discovered a device (I forget which) which through some previously undiscovered high frequency sound, would give him hypnotic-like mind control over other individuals. My friend was okay with the book, until the character used the phone to remotely use his device a couple of times. At that point, he stopped reading the book. His knowledge of the exact frequencies that telephones were capable of transmitting, made it impossible for him to further suspend his disbelief.

Occasionally, I am jarred while reading of some "hard boiled" detective skulking down a darkened alley and clicking the "safety" off his revolver. Knowing there are no external "safeties" on revolvers, you start wondering what else they might have gotten wrong, too? And if I had a dime for every time I watched someone on TV or in the movies rack the slide of the shotgun they were carrying a second time, without ejecting a shell, then I could buy that new photoshop software I've been wanting to get!

Something similar happened this week, while I was watching the venerable "CSI":
One of the forensic lab guys was discussing the amount of corrosion on a weapon found at a crime scene. "It's a Ruger Mark III," he said. Then proceeded to expound on how it could have been there for "thirty years". Now I happened to have bought a Ruger Mark I about thirty years ago. I currently own a Mark II and know that Ruger didn't start production of the Mark III until about six or seven years ago.

At that point, I kind of lost the thread of the story, as I was asking myself: Who writes this stuff? Have they ever heard of "Google" ?? What else did they get wrong???

(As an aside, if you ever decide you need a small caliber gun that's fun to shoot that you don't plan on leaving at a crime scene, the Ruger .22 Mark series fills the bill! I used to line up soda cans, and after properly ventilating them, took them in to be recycled! )

Mighty Lies From Little ACORNs Grow

Yet another "I told you so" moment, compliments of the Prevaricator-in-Chief:



H/T Rob Port

Quote du jour

“Mid-day, mid-blizzard, 15 degrees, Crazy Raccoon chewing and clawing his way into my house. Desert Eagle 1, Crazy Raccoon zero.”

-Tweet from Congressman Steve King

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* was suggested by reader Mike F. ...Brooke Langton!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Quote du jour

“It is the conceit of liberals in power to imagine that the government not only should but can create jobs. Outside of world wars, it doesn’t. Generally it gets in the way.”

-Charles Krauthammer

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Quote du jour

“If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”

-Senator Evan Bayn, Democrat-Indiana

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The Medal of Honor

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Captain James E. Livingston


Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Commanding Officer, Company E, in action against enemy forces. Company E launched a determined assault on the heavily fortified village of Dai Do, which had been seized by the enemy on the preceding evening isolating a marine company from the remainder of the battalion. Skillfully employing screening agents, Capt. Livingston maneuvered his men to assault positions across 500 meters of dangerous open rice paddy while under intense enemy fire. Ignoring hostile rounds impacting near him, he fearlessly led his men in a savage assault against enemy emplacements within the village. While adjusting supporting arms fire, Capt. Livingston moved to the points of heaviest resistance, shouting words of encouragement to his marines, directing their fire, and spurring the dwindling momentum of the attack on repeated occasions. Although twice painfully wounded by grenade fragments, he refused medical treatment and courageously led his men in the destruction of over 100 mutually supporting bunkers, driving the remaining enemy from their positions, and relieving the pressure on the stranded marine company. As the 2 companies consolidated positions and evacuated casualties, a third company passed through the friendly lines launching an assault on the adjacent village of Dinh To, only to be halted by a furious counterattack of an enemy battalion. Swiftly assessing the situation and disregarding the heavy volume of enemy fire, Capt. Livingston boldly maneuvered the remaining effective men of his company forward, joined forces with the heavily engaged marines, and halted the enemy's counterattack Wounded a third time and unable to walk, he steadfastly remained in the dangerously exposed area, deploying his men to more tenable positions and supervising the evacuation of casualties. Only when assured of the safety of his men did he allow himself to be evacuated. Capt. Livingston's gallant actions uphold the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.


Capt. Livingston: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Hat tip Home of Heroes




http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/living/living_war_wwii.html

There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Quote du jour

May I channel Rahm Emanuel for a moment?
James Cameron is an Avatard.

-Proof

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tuesday Trivia Tournament

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Television as a transmitter of shared cultural values and memories has been with us for some time, being just now eclipsed by the Internet Age. But, for us Boomers who grew up with TV, from Howdy Doody Time, to the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald broadcast live, to the landing on the moon, and as such, for better or worse, TV has helped to shape our American culture.

If I ask, "who would you rather go out with, Ginger or Mary Ann?", most of you know immediately what I am talking about. If I type the words "a three hour tour", most of you will have the song running through your head before the end of this sentence. And you know all the words, don't you?

But, today, I want to test the "little grey cells", as Hercule Poirot would say. Everyone knew Gilligan and Mork and the Fonz...what do you recall that was not universally memorable? What shows did you enjoy or at least remember that did not make the cut? Shows that were perhaps too quirky to become a part of the general Zeitgeist? (Extra points if it didn't even last a whole season!)

For some reason, the show "Hooperman" popped into my head this AM. John Ritter's "Hooperman" did last a full two seasons, so it was not as awful as some. It may even be available on DVD for all you Hooperman junkies!

I see so many old TV shows popping up on DVD. Many shows not popular enough for a second broadcast run can be purchased in their entirety on DVD. Even great shows like Firefly can be doomed by poor scheduling or ratings.

But, nostalgia sells, and the costs in transferring many older shows to disc is relatively inexpensive. I was surprised to see that JAG had its 10th season out on DVD. The show NCIS, one of the most popular shows on broadcast TV, was spun off from JAG and is, I believe in its seventh season, for seventeen years of Naval courtroom and forensic drama. (See? It only seems like they've been around forever!) Heh.

What can you come up with? There were shows so bad they were pulled after their first season, others were so bad they were pulled after their first show! Wiki has a whole list of shows canceled after one airing. Does the name "Poochinski" ring a bell? Viva Laughlin?? Seems to me there was another highly hyped show just recently that was pulled after only one episode, but the name (perhaps thankfully) escapes me.

Even the execrable Cop Rock made one whole season! (#8 on TV Guide's List of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time, 2002)

It's a Man's World, which I liked pretty well at the time, lasted four months.

For a list of the more popular shows from the fifties, and a walk down memory lane, go here.

One thing I'd forgotten: Did you know there was a TV show featuring Confederate army Major John Singleton Mosby as its hero? (Can you imagine anyone trying to sell that series today?): Gray Ghost

So, what obscure bit of trivia do you have about some short lived attempt to catch the public's attention? There's the "Seinfeld curse", of course : Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Watching Ellie, Jason Alexander's Bob Patterson and Listen Up!, and Michael Richards' The Michael Richards Show.
There was AfterMASH (canceled nine episodes into its second season) and Hello Larry, which ran two full seasons, demonstrating that the public liked Lt. Colonel Henry Blake better than they did McLean Stevenson.

I'd be curious to know what you can come up with! And, there are prizes!

First place in today's trivia tournament will win you an adult beverage of your choice the first (next) time we meet!
Second place, I buy you dinner and a movie.
Third place is a weekend in Tijuana with copious amounts of alcohol, antibiotics and alibis, so try really hard to be first! Heh.


Bonus video: Gray Ghost

Quote du jour

At the beginning of "The Road to Serfdom," Hayek acknowledges that mere material wealth is not all that's at stake when the government controls our lives: "The most important change ... is a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people."

This shouldn't be controversial. If government relieves us of the responsibility of living by bailing us out, character will atrophy. The welfare state, however good its intentions of creating material equality, can't help but make us dependent. That changes the psychology of society.

-John Stossel

Monday, February 15, 2010

This Last Week's Poll

This last week's poll: Which was the funniest Super Bowl Commercial?

Betty White for Snickers 22%

Brett Favre for Hyundai 33%

Dog Shock Collar Doritos 44%

Bart Simpson for Coca Cola 0%
(Don't have a cow, man!)



Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.


Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

Happy President's Day!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


In the spirit of the holiday, we suggest you take the day off and buy a mattress! Or you could consider how great these two men were in the shaping of the best and brightest country on earth! Your choice!

Quote du jour

And if his campaign were a Broadway show, it'd be "Promises, Promises"!

-Ronald Reagan, strangely enough not speaking about Barack Obama!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Amy Bishop's "Accidental" shooting - Three Shots From a Pump Shotgun

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Holy Cow! Incompetence or political considerations had to be responsible for Amy Bishop not being charged in her brother's death.

Frazier, who was a Braintree officer in 1986, said Bishop fired three shots: one that hit a wall, one that killed her brother, and a third into the ceiling as she fled their Hollis Avenue home on foot. Bishop also pointed the pump-action gun at a passing vehicle in an apparent attempt to get the driver to stop before she was captured by police behind a business on nearby Washington Street, according to Frazier, who said his account came from one of the officers who responded


How in the world do you "accidentally" shoot someone three times with a pump shotgun? For the uninitiated, you must "pump" or rack the slide for every shot. No way this was "accidental".
Perhaps the next of kin of the UA victims would like to sue the former DA and the state of Massachusetts for their complicity in the wrongful deaths of their loved ones?
Sheesh!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Update: Also for the uninitiated: A twelve gauge shotgun produces quite a bit of recoil. If she were not bracing the gun, it likely would have flown out of her hands after the first shot. Plus, the noise is excessive.
Three twelve gauge rounds from a pump shotgun is no accident.

A Little Valentine's Day Music

A little Dean Martin for lovers: Sway

Bishop Preys Again

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


By now, you've probably heard about Amy Bishop, the Harvard trained professor* who shot and killed three people, because she was denied tenure at the University of Alabama where she taught. I wanted passions to cool on this a little before I commented, both the knee jerk "That's why we ought to ban guns" and the snarky "Guns don't kill people, liberals kill people!"

An added element to the story was added recently. In addition to anecdotal evidence of this person not being fully in touch with reality, is a report that she shot her own brother twenty years earlier! The shooting was suspicious, and had it been properly investigated and prosecuted, perhaps this latest shooting could have been avoided.

The Boston Globe had this:
According to the current Braintree police chief, Paul H. Frazier, Amy Bishop fatally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth, on Dec. 6, 1986, but was set free the same day by Braintree Police under orders from then-Police Chief John Polio. In news accounts at the time, Polio called the death an accident that happened when Bishop was learning how to unload a shotgun.

Frazier challenged that account today, saying instead that Bishop shot her brother during an argument and fled on foot with the 12-gauge shotgun before being captured by police, who handcuffed her and took her to the station. The case file, including the report of the incident, disappeared shortly thereafter, he said.

‘‘I don’t want to use the word ‘coverup,’’’ Frazier said. ‘‘I don’t know what the thought process was of the police chief at the time.’’



Hindsight is always 20/20. The presiding DA, William Delahunt, who neglected to charge her with the first shooting, is currently a Democrat Congresscritter, who recently decided that he hadn't a prayer would not run for re-election. The missing case file also suggests, if not a cover up, that at least there were irregularities in the investigation.

It sounds as if Ms. Bishop is in need of some long overdue psychiatric help. She needs to be taken off the streets and institutionalized, whether penal or mental will be determined by a jury of her peers.

One last bit of irony concerning Ms. Bishop's name:
According to wiki:
In some Slavic languages (e.g. Czech/Slovak) the bishop (in chess) is called "střelec/strelec", which directly translates to English as a "shooter" meaning an archer

Shooter. Sadly apropos.

H/T Gateway Pundit
Cross posted at Say Anything

*not a racial slur

Welcome, Ann Arbor!

I see a number of you dropping in from Craig's List, hardly the referral I'm used to getting! But, welcome, nonetheless! Fellow conservative Jay Nordlinger hails from there abouts I understand! Y'all have a happy Valentine's Day there in Ann Arbor! And a Happy Chinese New Year!
Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
When arrows are outlawed, only outlaws will have arrows!

Quote du jour

There were promises of transparency and of a new kind of collaborative politics where establishment figures listened to ordinary Americans. We were going to see net spending cuts, tax cuts for nearly all Americans, an end to earmarks, legislation posted online for the public to review before it is signed into law, and a line-by-line review of the federal budget to remove wasteful programs.

These weren't the tea-party platforms I heard discussed in Nashville last weekend. They were the campaign promises of Barack Obama in 2008

-Glenn Reynolds

Saturday, February 13, 2010

A Little Saturday Night Music

In honor of the upcoming holiday, here's Scott Kirby's
"Hard to Find a Hooker on Valentine's Day"



(This may be the first repeat encore in A Little Saturday Night Music!)

Di Fi Caught With Crib Notes on Hand

Remember that tempest in a teapot over Sarah Palin using a few notes written on her hand to give a speech? Here's Dianne Feinstein actually breaking the rules of a senate race debate with more of the same:



Listen for the deafening silence from the Left in 3-2-1...

H/T Legal Insurrection

The Decline and Fall of the Democratic Empire

Eye bleach alert! Atlas Shrugs provided a link to a sad but true look at the decadence of the Democrat party. A detail from the painting here:

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


But go to iMaksim.com and look at the whole thing (if you dare) and run your mouse across each face to see what they're thinking. (John Kerry's "date" was pretty funny!)

Quote du jour

...with 15 million Americans out of work and with the President’s recently submitted budget projecting trillion dollar annual deficits for the next ten years and a near tripling of the national debt by 2020, the President is throwing away a golden opportunity (new offshore drilling) over the next three decades to create millions of new jobs and generate more than $270 billion in annual economic growth from new oil and gas development, including $54 billion annually in federal tax receipts that could help lower the federal deficit and the national debt.

These extraordinary benefits of job creation and economic growth – all without requiring any federal spending – are, sadly, not on President Obama’s agenda, notwithstanding all the phony rhetoric to the contrary.

-Vince Haley

Friday, February 12, 2010

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* is Amber Heard!
(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Read My Lips: I'm 'Agnostic 'About Raising Your Taxes

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Separated at birth?


Will "Agnostic" be Barack Obama's "Read My Lips" moment? How many times during the campaign did Slick Barack stare at you through the transparent panes of his teleprompter and tell you emphatically that if you made less than $250,000 a year, he would not raise your taxes? "Not one thin dime", he said.
Now, just fifteen months after the campaign, he's singing a different tune.

President Obama says he will be "agnostic" about whatever his reduce-the-federal-debt commission recommends -- including the idea of higher taxes for households making less than $250,000 a year.

"What I want to do is to be completely agnostic in terms of solutions,"

"Completely agnostic"??? That's not what you said during the campaign, Mr. President! You said that you would not raise taxes on anyone who made less than $250,000. You said it over and over and over again. How can you now claim to be "agnostic" about whether taxes will be raised on the very people who elected you, thinking you were capable of keeping your word?

My own supposition is that a) you will blame the tax hikes on this commission while you pretend to have clean hands b) you will refuse to make any substantial cuts in federal spending and c) you are hoping that the people who voted for you are too stupid to know what "agnostic" means.

"Uh, Mabel? Why's he talking about religion?"

Sheesh!

Quote du jour

"The tests are not unfair. LIFE is unfair and the tests measure the results."

-David Riesman, quoted by Thomas Sowell

Thursday, February 11, 2010

When Only the Police Have Guns...

...someone will try to take them.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Not representative of the weapons stolen!
The flowers on the magazine are a nice touch, though!


Whenever someone proposes taking all guns out of the hands of individual citizens and just keeping them in the hands of police and the military, I think of stories like this one:

OAKLAND — A 21-year-old Montalvin Manor man dubbed a "potential domestic terrorist" by authorities after he stole numerous firearms from patrol cars in Contra Costa County last winter was sentenced Tuesday to 63 months in federal prison.

Daniel William Vess accepted at plea deal from federal prosecutors in an Oakland courtroom and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a stolen firearm. His sentence includes three years in a supervised release program after he is released from prison.

Sheriff's officials said Vess used pry bars and other tools from December 2008 through February 2009 to break into patrol cars and SWAT vans parked in secured lots at the offices of the California Highway Patrol in Martinez, and at Contra Costa County Sheriff's facilities in Martinez, Richmond and Clayton.


”Daniel Vess, 20, was in county jail on unrelated charges when sheriff’s investigators allegedly connected him to four weapons and equipment thefts in December and January from the sheriff’s office and the California Highway Patrol,"
-Capt. Daniel Terry, Contra Costa County Sheriff's office.

A thief in jail on other charges? Whodathunk it? Just what kind of weapons and equipment did he steal?

On April 14 investigators served a search warrant on Vess’ home at 1240 Karen Road in an unincorporated area of San Pablo, where they found about $10,000 to $15,000 of stolen weapons and equipment,including several assault rifles, a modified shotgun, ballistic vests and helmets, night vision equipment, military fatigues and about 5,000 rounds of ammunition, Terry said. Vess’ pickup truck was equipped with a siren and strobe light allegedly stolen from a police vehicle and bore a fictitious law enforcement emblem identifying him as a “Fugitive Recovery Agent,” according to Terry.


Mind you, these are not the "so called "assault" rifles that are merely semi-automatic weapons, these are the genuine article, select fire weapons. Stories of people stealing weapons from military armories and from police are not common, but they happen often enough to know that the anti-gunners plans to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals is doomed to failure.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Whether it is health care, education, employment or most other areas of our lives, I ask you: Who has the capacity to master all the complexity to make choices on behalf of others? Each of us possesses only a tiny percentage of the knowledge that would be necessary to make totally informed decisions in our own lives, much less the lives of others. There is only one reason for the forcible transference of decision-making authority over important areas of our private lives to elite decision-makers in Congress and government bureaucracies. Doing so confers control, power, wealth and revenue to society’s elite.

-Walter Williams

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The New McCarthyism

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Separated at birth?


Some of you are old enough to remember Joe McCarthy, or at least have heard of a time when he was accused of "seeing a Communist under every bed".

Well, the new McCarthyism sees a racist under every bed. For the last year, we have heard over and over again how any criticism against Obama is "because he's black". As if no one could oppose him because of his politics or his policies, no, it had to be racism.

This has now grown to ludicrous proportions. The latest inane and laughable charge of racism is charged against anyone who calls Obama "professor". I kid you not.

Barack Obama has been called a lot of things since he hit the national stage: Celebrity, elitist and even one who “pals around with terrorists.” But as his poll numbers come back down to earth, and an emboldened conservative movement sharpens its attacks, the label that seems to be sticking to Obama as much as any lately is that of “professor.”

Speaking to Tea Party activists in Nashville last week, Sarah Palin did her part to keep the “professor” dig in circulation.

"They know we're at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern,” the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee told a frenzied crowd.
"Frenzied crowd"? Gosh! No bias here! /sarcasm

Who in their right mind would hear the word "professor" and think "racial slur"? I'm not sure about the "right mind" part, but let us look at the hallowed halls of education and ivory towered academia that is exemplified by Harvard:

Charles J. Ogletree, a Harvard professor who has known Obama since he was a law student there... founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, says he sees the “professor” label as a thinly veiled attack on Obama’s race. Calling Obama “the professor” walks dangerously close to labeling him “uppity,” a term with racial overtones that has surfaced in the political arena before...


Note the language "walks dangerously close". It is not the same thing, it "walks close". Does that mean that Charles Ogletree, who happens to be a "professor" is "uppity" and "black"? Sure enough! I Googled Chuck and it turns out he's black! I wonder when he first discovered that everyone calling him by the honorific that he earned was a "racist" who was insulting him by "walking dangerously close" to calling him "uppity"? Or is this a new found discovery that just happened to coincide with the term being applied to Obama in a less than flattering fashion?

It seems to me that liberals are "walking dangerously close" to losing what little credibility they have with every cockamamie theory they have that every word used to criticize Barack Obama is a code word for racism.

I realize that calling liberals "cockamamie" could be considered a code word for the fact that they are lying SOBs. Not really. Words have meanings. If I wanted to disparage Obama or little Chuckie Ogletree because of their race, there are words that can do that. Liberals should work on choosing their own words more carefully. Trying to redefine what conservatives say with fictitious, libelous standards is merely another straw man argument.

Gee! You'd think a Harvard professor could do better than that!

One would think that after all the times we disparaged Obama, Pelosi and Reid in the same breath, they might notice that two and a half of them are white!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Mile High Punch Buggies

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


One of the small pleasures of frequent travel, is to be able to drive a wide variety of different cars courtesy of XYZ Rental Company (name changed to protect the innocent).

Today, I selected a new VW beetle, just because I'd never driven one and just felt like it. Not a bad little car. Plenty of get up and go. Plus, for those of you familiar with the game of "Slug Bug" (or more quaintly "Punch Buggies"), I had the perverse pleasure of being for once, the source of sore shoulders all around the greater Denver area! Heh.

The Medal of Honor

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Gary L. Litrell


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sfc. Littrell, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Advisory Team 21, distinguished himself while serving as a Light Weapons Infantry Advisor with the 23d Battalion, 2d Ranger Group, Republic of Vietnam Army, near Dak Seang. After establishing a defensive perimeter on a hill on April 4, the battalion was subjected to an intense enemy mortar attack which killed the Vietnamese commander, 1 advisor, and seriously wounded all the advisors except Sfc. Littrell. During the ensuing 4 days, Sfc Littrell exhibited near superhuman endurance as he single-handedly bolstered the besieged battalion. Repeatedly abandoning positions of relative safety, he directed artillery and air support by day and marked the unit's location by night, despite the heavy, concentrated enemy fire. His dauntless will instilled in the men of the 23d Battalion a deep desire to resist. Assault after assault was repulsed as the battalion responded to the extraordinary leadership and personal example exhibited by Sfc. Littrell as he continuously moved to those points most seriously threatened by the enemy, redistributed ammunition, strengthened faltering defenses, cared for the wounded and shouted encouragement to the Vietnamese in their own language. When the beleaguered battalion was finally ordered to withdraw, numerous ambushes were encountered. Sfc. Littrell repeatedly prevented widespread disorder by directing air strikes to within 50 meters of their position. Through his indomitable courage and complete disregard for his safety, he averted excessive loss of life and injury to the members of the battalion. The sustained extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Sfc. Littrell over an extended period of time were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him and the U.S. Army.


Sfc. Litrell: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Hat tip Home of Heroes




http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/living/living_war_wwii.html

There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Mile High

On a personal note, blogging might be light for the next couple days as I join the Mile High Club. No, scratch that, going to the Mile High City! (I always get the two of them confused!)
But there'll be quotes and an MoH honoree and a little more if I can find a connection for my ISP and actually something to say...

Quote du jour

The palpable whiff given off by the White House inner circle is that they’re the last people on the planet still besotted by Barack Obama, and that they’re having such a cool time starring in their own reality-show remake of The West Wing they can only conceive of the public — and, indeed, the world — as crowd-scene extras in The Barack Obama Show...

-Mark Steyn

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

"Every Morning He Wakes Up Serious...."

"...other days, he lets her sleep in!"


"my husband has done a phenomenal job" -Michelle
Ten thousand unemployed comedians and Michelle's cracking jokes!


I first heard this on the radio today, and except for the nasal laugh, when I closed my eyes I could almost picture this woman:

Quote du jour

“(Eric) Holder is increasingly looking like a buffoon. In his letter of self-defense, he says it is an open question whether terrorists arrested in the U.S. may legally be detained as enemy combatants, but he relies on a case overturned by the Supreme Court. Then he makes himself seem even more foolish by not mentioning that the court of appeals that ended up deciding that same case ruled that they could be held as enemy combatants. A first-year lawyer would get fired for a dumb error like that.”

-former Justice official

Monday, February 8, 2010

No Reflection on You, Mr. President

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Literally!


-Redstate

Lame Census Commercial Ran $2.5 Million



I don't know if you saw it or not. Maybe they showed it when you took a potty break and didn't get to see what your $2.5 Million bought you?
It was part and parcel of the same lame commercials they ran before the Super Bowl, so there was no real novelty involved, just Ed Begley Jr. and a variety of little known and unknown actors in a lame skit. I've seen high school pep rally skits that were better written.

The main advantage to buying time on the Super Bowl has to do with economies of scale. It doesn't make sense for your local laundromat to buy expensive national advertising, because most of the people the ad reaches would never utilize their product, so the ad would never pay for itself.

Since the census isn't selling anything at all, even if it had been effective, the ad would never pay for itself. Beer? Maybe. A good ad could increade sales. Pizza? A national chain, maybe. But, whenever McDonalds runs a new ad campaign, they can measure down to the nickel whether or not that ad produced any increase or decrease in sales of their product. How does the Federal government propose to determine whether or not this ad campaign increased participation in the census? Any at all? Will this be the same as "jobs created or saved", another meaningless metric that cannot be proved or disproved?

A screen capture of the ad can be seen below:


Do you think the people of the US got their $2.5 Million worth with that?
Me neither!

Quote du jour

Don’t be the last off a collapsing bandwagon. The scientific “consensus” is melting way faster than the glaciers.

-Mark Steyn on man made global warming

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Super Bowl XLIV

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


In case you've been living in a cave and haven't heard, there's going to be a football game on later today. I really don't have a dog in this fight. The Colts were my childhood team of long ago, back when Johnny Unitas was QB and they played in Baltimore.

The dead of night exit from there soured me (and not a few others) on the team, but Peyton Manning is certainly the most exciting QB to lead the Colts since Johnny U.

The Saints are having a fantastic year. This Super Bowl promises to be what it has seldom been: an exciting game and a real contest between two great teams.

So, I'll fire up the plasma with some of my kids and we'll watch the game. As to the six hours or so of pre-game hype? Nah. That's what DVDs are for!

Chips, dips, fumbles and slips... enjoy the game!