"The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved." -- Confucius

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Denial, Still Not a River in Egypt

Pro-Bush Booth Angers Many U.S. Muslims

Associated Press -- ROSEMONT, Ill. - At the largest annual convention of American Muslims, a pro-Bush booth has stirred anger among attendees who believe the president's actions since Sept. 11, 2001, have hurt more innocent Muslims than terrorists.



Shut.


The.


Fuck.


Up.


President Bush has done more to harm innocent Muslims? President Bush has? With all due respect...

Fuck you.

Islamofascists are the ones harming innocent Muslims, and everyone else that gets in their way, you collection of ungrateful, myopic, deluded, morons. If you would lift a fucking finger once in a while to clean up your own damn house (ie. by getting rid of the Islamofascists that are polluting your religion and killing anyone who doesn't subscribe to their perverted worldview) President Bush (or former President Clinton, or the stinking UN for that matter) wouldn't have to keep stepping in and bailing you "innocent Muslims" out.

Apologies for the language folks. This one really pissed me off.


What Media Bias?™

As I pointed out earlier the AP has corrected the photos of Senator Kerry and former President Clinton that accompanied their article about how the Kerry and Bush campaigns saw the resent economic reports. Noticeably absent was a photo of President Bush.

They've also finally gotten around to retracting their bogus story about how a crowd of Bush supporters booed former President Clinton when President Bush relayed the news about his predecessor being admited to a hospital.

Contrary to what the AP reporter "reported", the crowd applauded for former President Clinton.

Here's the audio clip (pilfered from SondraK) You can hear the crowd Oh'ing when President Bush broke the news, and applauding when he passed along everyone's best wishes.

On an aside: Forgive this humble blog-o-n00b, but man, this is impressive when you think about it. The original version of the AP article lauched a firestorm across the blogosphere. If the ensuing outrage of the bloggers had something to do with the AP getting around to fact-checking itself, this is truly a wonderful, marvelous thing.

Power to the people, baby.


This just in from the Department of Oh, Shaddup Ya Big Baby...

Kerry's showing he just can't take the heat

(Hat tip: Vodkapundit)

Mark Steyn -- Both candidates gave speeches late on Thursday night. George W. Bush was more or less expected to. John Kerry didn't have to, but reported for duty even though nobody wanted him to. Unnerved by sagging numbers, he decided to start the post-Labor Day phase of the campaign three days before Labor Day. The way things are going, Democrats seem likely to be launching the post-election catastrophic-defeat vicious-recriminations phase of the campaign round about Sept. 12."

Great piece. Read the rest

MoveOver MoveOn

New Group to Launch Anti-Kerry Ads

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Move over, MoveOn.org. The liberal-leaning group that has raised millions of dollars to run negative ads attacking President Bush now has a competitor on the right with a somewhat similar name.

Liberal-leaning? That's like saying the "somewhat husky Michael Moore".

The conservative MoveOnForAmerica.org plans to blast battleground states with anti-John Kerry ads until Election Day.

What's good for the goose, and all that.

One of the conservative group's ads criticizes Kerry for his actions when he was a private lawyer with a criminal defense practice.

Err... yeah... and how many months was he a lawyer? Moving on [no pun]...

He [Stephen Marks] said his group has already raised $200,000 and aims to surpass $1 million by the election.

They've raised 200k and hope to pull in a million by the election? Why the heck is this news? To groups like MoveOn.org (thanks to folks like George Soros and Peter Lewis et al) 200k-1mil is walking-around money. These guys are the tiniest of blips on the radar screen.

  • Joint Victory Campaign 2004 -- Receipts: $41,685,706 | Expenditures: $35,780,404

  • Media Fund -- Receipts: $28,127,488 | Expenditures: $27,208,905

  • America Coming Together -- Receipts: $26,905,450 | Expenditures: $24,196,532

  • MoveOn.org -- Receipts: $9,086,102 | Expenditures: $17,435,782


And MoveOnForAmerica.org's pulled down a whopping $200,000 and is hoping for $1,000,000 by the election.

Tell me again, the Republicans are the party of the rich fatcats who buy elections and own the government, right?

Speaking of MoveOn.org, anyone else find it odd that their total receipts are $9,086,102 while their total expenditures are $17,435,782?

Anyone else think that sounds fishy?

This just in from the Glass Three-Quarters Full / One-Quarter Empty Department...

Bush and Kerry Differ on State of Economy

Associated Press -- CLEVELAND - Good news, or bad? President Bush (news - web sites) and Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) have differing takes about the vitality of the nation's job market — a question that's heating up this year's race for the White House."


There's a shock. It's an election year. They'd disagree about the sky being blue. The economy was cycling down (It's the Economic Cycle, Stupid) before President Bush took office. The tech bubble burst sending the stock market into a tailspin. September 11th dealt a helluva blow.

The fact that the unemployment rate is lower now than the average during the 70's, the 80's and the Golden Era 90's, hell the fact that we're not all living in Hoover Cities is amazing. BTW, the number of Americans that not only are not living in Hoover Cities, but own their own homes, is at a record high.

Sigh. I guess the Kerry-Edwards ticket can start using a new slogan:

Kerry-Edwards: Denial Ain't a River in Egypt

On a What Media Bias?™ side note: Notice that the article is about how the Kerry and Bush teams differ on the economy.

The article has two pictures accompanying it. One is of Senator Kerry sticking out of his tour bus window. Fair enough, makes sense. The second one is of President Bush... whoops... that isn't President Bush. You know, the other Presidential candidate mentioned in the article with Senator Kerry. That's former President Clinton.

In fact, of the six people mentioned in the article (Bush, Kerry, Edwards, Cheney, Karl Rove and Jason Mauk) none happen to be former President Clinton. They don't even mention his upcoming heart bypass surgery.

Huh...



Update: The folks at AP must've heard me. The article now contains a picture of President Bush, with the First Lady, and Senator Kerry... with a shotgun!? Oh for crap's sake! Can we drop the "See, I've got a gun. I support the Second Amendment. Nevermind I've voted repeatedly to infringe upon your right to keep an bear arms." jazz. No one's buying it.

Friday, September 03, 2004

This... this is just so wrong, on so many levels

There was a time when I sympathized with the Chechen cause. "Hey, they want to be an independant nation." I'd say. "What's wrong with that?" I'd ask.

Then the events of this week that brought us this...



Reuters -- A woman grieves over the body of her child killed when Russian troops stormed a school seized by gunmen in the town of Beslan, in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, September 3, 2004. Russian soldiers battled Chechen separatists on Friday to end a two-day-old school siege and more than 150 people have probably died, Interfax quoted a presidential adviser as saying. Some children are still captive, but more than 400 hostages have been freed, it said.

(Via Allah)

Strapping on suicide belts and storming schools and taking innocent men, women and children hostage... that's bullshit. I don't care what your cause is. It's bullshit. If I woke up tomorrow and learned that Putin (to paraphrase Frank J) bombed Chechnya to ashes and then nuked the ashed, I'd have a hard time getting choked up about it.

Boing, Boing, Boing

Campaign 2004: Bush Opens Double-Digit Lead

New York: For the first time since the Presidential race became a two person contest last spring, there is a clear leader, the latest TIME poll shows. If the 2004 election for President were held today, 52% of likely voters surveyed would vote for President George W. Bush, 41% would vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry, and 3% would vote for Ralph Nader, according to a new TIME poll conducted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2...

Post-DNC Convention: Little or no bounce. (Some polls reported a negative bounce.)

Post-GOP Convention: An 11% positive bounce.

Even with the Nader-Effect, Kerry's still down 8%.

You can almost hear the good folks at TIME weep openly.


Swiss Gizmo (and no, it's not a knife)

Finally got myself a digital camera so let the gizmo-games begin!

First on the list is a nifty little number called a Swiss Ranger Volcano Stove Kit. Long name, I know. All buttoned up, it's a little under 12 inches long (or high in this case) and weighs in at around 15oz. Closed, it's kinda hard to tell what the heck it is, but it's an aluminum canteen, cup, and volcano stove all in one lightweight package.




First step in opening it up is to pull the wire handle down away from the cup. Note the little notch in the body of the stove. The swiveling support on the handle fits into that notch.





Then remove the cup and unfold the handle-halves on it.






Then you can pull out the cork-stoppered canteen. Here are all three components of the Kit.


Here's the stove ready to go. The swiveling support is inserted into the notch on the body of the stove. The cutout at the bottom and the ventilation holes create a stove known as a "volcano", "chimney", or "hobo" stove. You can use triox fuel tabs in it, or better yet, you can use sticks lying around to fuel it. The chimney effect makes fire quite well.


The cup fits nicely into the opening at the top of the stove and making water-boiling or soup making a snap.





Rolling up a gallon-sized ziplock bag and sticking it into the canteen makes water gathering in a SHtF situation doable. Gather water in the ziplock bag. Pour an amount of the water into the cup. Boil it, and transfer the purified water to the canteen. Repeat until canteen is filled.

BTW: You can fit all manner of stuff into the canteen to turn this stove into a survival kit, but more on that later.

The Swiss Ranger Volcano Stove Kit is available at Cheaper Than Dirt for less than three bucks! I've seen these for as much as fifteen bucks.


UPDATE (10/19/2008): To the folks who are coming here checking out the stove, especially those coming from the Bushcraft forum. The bad news is, I haven't seen these in the CTD catalogs, or anywhere else for that matter, for some time. I do have a "Pocket Cooker" that are still available and will been featured shortly.

This just in from the Department of Nothing's Ever Good Enough...

Kerry: Jobless Rate Points to Failures

Associated Press -- NEWARK, Ohio - Democrat John Kerry cited new government figures Friday showing fewer jobs created than expected as another example of what he called President Bush's "record of failure."
With all due respect Mr. Senator... are you on glue? At least the AP (surprisingly) goes on to shoot this bit of nitwittery down.
The Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate slipped to 5.4 percent last month, from 5.5 percent in July...

Let's see, the unemployment rate went from 5.5 to 5.4 and this is a bad thing? (BTW, the unemployment rate was 5.6 when President Clinton was running for reelection and he was lauded as the friggin' savior.)
... with the economy adding 144,000 jobs. Economists, however, had been expecting a net gain of 150,000 jobs.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. So, the actual number of jobs added didn't meet the guestimations of economists? Big friggin' deal. What kind of tolerances are they trying to hold? The actual was off from the nominal estimation by 6,000 (or 0.96%) jobs. Pretty damn close to deadnuts (industry term, sorry) if ya ask me. But since he thinks "This is your wake up call" is five words, I guess his idea of holding to a tolerance is pretty loose.

This report is certainly nothing to try to score points with... well, if you're the Kerry campaign anyway.


All Partisanship Aside

Bill Clinton to Undergo Bypass Surgery

Associated Press -- NEW YORK - Former President Bill Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath, his office said Friday.


The doc's up there at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia are supposed to be some squared-away cutters. Hopefully all goes well for him.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

This just in from the Department of Desperate Flailings...

Kerry Criticizes Cheney for Avoiding Vietnam War

NANTUCKET, Mass. (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) hit back at Dick Cheney on Thursday by raising the Republican's failure to serve in the Vietnam War and asking voters to weigh his two tours of duty against the vice president's five deferments.
*Yawn* So much for taking the week off while the other party has its convention. Question, since when does the Presidential candidate rip into the VP candidate? Better question... when did this stop applying?:
"I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning. We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?" -- John Kerry Jan 30, 1992
'Nother flip-flop, eh Senator Kerry? Oh wait, silly me. I keep forgetting that some things are okay and some things are wrong, depending on if you have a (D) or an (R) after your name. Congrats Senator Kerry, you've finally found something that you're 100% consistant on... liberal hypocrisy.

Looks like Senator Kerry's decision to make a certain four month chunk of his life the central pilar of his campaign...

... was about as smart as wearing acorn-filled Speedos to a squirrel party.

Navy Challenging Kerry's Medals

Newsmax.com -- The United States Navy is challenging the authenticity of Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War medals, in a development that could prove to be the most damaging yet to the embattled Democrat's presidential campaign.

A Navy spokesman is calling Kerry's Silver Star citation with Combat V "incorrect" as it appears on his campaign Web site, explaining in an interview with Chicago Sun-Times reporter Thomas Lipscomb that the Navy has never issued a Combat V at any time for the Silver Star.


Whoopsie. Why is that old saying about 'the captain going down with the sinking ship' running thru my head?

Read the rest of the article.

GOP: The Party of nothing but Ugly Old Angry White Guys (and other myths)

Saw this while wandering around the blogosphere (hat tip to Allah) and followed the link back to Yahoo!


Florida delegate Sheri Valera does an impromtu dance on the convention floor before the start of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004, at Madison Square Garden in New York.
...whoa...

Honoring Pat Tillman

I've been a Cardinals fan for as long as I can remember. No, I can't explain why. I was born and raised outside of Philly, so I should've been an Eagles fan. But I'm not. The Cards have... well, pretty much sucked my entire life. So I should've been a fan of any-team-other-than-the-Cardinals. But I'm not.

Pat Tillman was a talented professional athelete. He should've left the losing team he was on and signed with a winning team (for more money). But he didn't. He should've been more concerned with signing bonuses and other selfish crap (ala Terrell Owens) than defending his country. But he wasn't.

Long before Pat Tillman left with his baseball playing brother to join the Army, I was a fan. Playing your heart out on a winning team is one thing. One could say it's almost an 'easy' thing. But playing your heart out on a losing team, that's another thing. He played his heart out on the field. He wasn't the biggest guy on the field but you didn't want to get hit by him. More often than not, where ever the tackle was made, you could lay odds that you'd see the #40 coming away from it after the whistle blew. Pat Tillman was one of those guys that embodied the old saying "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog." He left it all on the field and was loyal to his team. Two things I really respect.

As most folks know, after the attacks of September 11th, he and his brother joined the Army to defend America, to take the fight to those who would kill their fellow Americans. He didn't make a big deal out of it. He refused repeated calls for interviews. He refused special treatment from the Army.

Unfortunately, as is often the case in this world where the good guys die young and the [pardon the language] assholes of the world (yes Terrell, I mean you) keep on keeping on, he was killed in Afghanistan.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association are selling jerseys and donating proceeds to the Pat Tillman Foundation. Jerseys can be purchased at Sun Devil Stadium, azcardinals.com, NFLShop.com, and on military bases around the world.


Man, you just got so Zelled.

Looks like there's going to be a new term entering our lexicon. Zelled now joins Borked and OJ'd among others. Those who caught Zell Miller's speech and/or his appearance on Hardball saw the Two-Johns (and their wing of the Democrat Party in general) as well as Chris Matthews getting, what can only be refered to as, Zelled.

Update your dictionaries now.

Miller vs. Kerry vs. Matthews

(Hat tip to LGF)

After Zell Miller polished off the Two Johns, he took on Chris Matthews (kinda makes me wish I still watched MSNBC... nah).

Wow, I've never heard someone take it to Matthews like this. Much less, a fella with a (D) after his name.

Matthews was being his usual annoying self and Zell wasn't standing for it. Repeatedly telling Matthews to "get out of his face" and allow him to answer the questions. He even at one point "wished we lived in the day when you could challenge a person to a duel". (Let's see... a Marine Corps vet vs. a Peace Corps 'vet'... Matthews better hope they use spitballs.)

And refused to be treated the way Matthews treated "that young lady [Michelle Malkin] when you had her there, browbeating her to death".

I'm tellin' ya, 'hot' or 'cold', baby. 'Hot' or 'cold'.


The Transcript of Zell Miller's Convention Speech

Since I last stood in this spot, a whole new generation of the Miller Family has been born: Four great grandchildren.

Along with all the other members of our close-knit family, they are my and Shirley's most precious possessions.

And I know that's how you feel about your family also. Like you, I think of their future, the promises and the perils they will face.

Like you, I believe that the next four years will determine what kind of world they will grow up in.

And like you, I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush.

In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could.

President Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."

In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee.

And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man. He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time.

And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue.

Shortly before Wilkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.

Where are such statesmen today?

Where is the bipartisanship in this country when we need it most?

Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander in Chief.

What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in?

I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny.

It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.

Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today.

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.

And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.

Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.

For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.

No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.

But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.

They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.

It is not their patriotism — it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking. They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace.

They were wrong.

They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war.

They were wrong.

And, no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that won the Cold War and that is now winning the War on Terror.

Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.

The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40 percent of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.

The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.

The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War. The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.

I could go on and on and on: against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel; against the Aegis air-defense cruiser; against the Strategic Defense Initiative; against the Trident missile; against, against, against.

This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?

U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?

Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric.

Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside.

Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations.

Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending.

I want Bush to decide.

John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security.

That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world.

Free for how long?

For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure.

As a war protester, Kerry blamed our military.

As a Senator, he voted to weaken our military. And nothing shows that more sadly and more clearly than his vote this year to deny protective armor for our troops in harms way, far away.

George Bush understands that we need new strategies to meet new threats.

John Kerry wants to re-fight yesterday's war. George Bush believes we have to fight today's war and be ready for tomorrow's challenges. George Bush is committed to providing the kind of forces it takes to root out terrorists.

No matter what spider hole they may hide in or what rock they crawl under.

George Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip.

From John Kerry, they get a "yes-no-maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies and confuse our friends.

I first got to know George Bush when we served as governors together. I admire this man. I am moved by the respect he shows the first lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters, and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America.

I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see," and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.

He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter and, where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.

I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel.

The man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.

This election will change forever the course of history, and that's not any history. It's our family's history.

The only question is how. The answer lies with each of us. And, like many generations before us, we've got some hard choosing to do.

Right now the world just cannot afford an indecisive America. Fainthearted self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world.

In this hour of danger our President has had the courage to stand up. And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him.

Thank you.

God Bless this great country and God Bless George W. Bush.

Revelations 3:15

I'm not big Bible person, always been more of a spiritual person than a religion-specific person, but Rev 3:15 was always one of my favorite passages.

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot."

Zell Miller is one of those guys that you know if he's 'hot' or if he's 'cold'. No question about it. When he's for you, he's for you all the way. When hes against you, he's against you all the way. Zell's my kinda guy. (John Kerry on the other hand, is "lukewarm" personified.)

His speech last night was outstanding.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

There is no friggin' justification for this...

Around 300 held in hostage drama at southern Russian school

BESLAN, Russia (AFP) - Hundreds of children, teachers and parents faced a harrowing night in captivity after being taken hostage by extremists wearing belts laden with explosives at a school near war-torn Chechnya
None. No justification whatsoever.


This just in from the Gee, No One Saw This Coming Department...

Case closed

Yeah... right.

(AP) -- Prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case said on Wednesday that they had no choice but to drop charges of sexual assault against the NBA star because the alleged victim could no longer participate. District Judge Terry Ruckriegle threw out the case under a deal that means charges won't be refiled.

Glad that's finally over with...

Bryant still faces a civil suit.

Whoops, spoke too soon. Glenn Beck summed this one up quite well a month or so ago. "She's not a whore. Whores get paid for sex and she didn't get paid for the sex... yet."

That's not to cast aspersions upon the former (future, whatever) claimant's purity. Heck, showing up for her rape test wearing panties that contained someone-other-than-Kobe's semen and pubic hair did that better than I ever could.

I have, and still think the sex was mutual.

I have, and still think the claimant was looking for a big payday.

I have, and still think Kobe is a moron.

'Nuf said.


Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Well, heck, if the Viet Cong are willing to vouch for him...

Ex-Viet Cong Soldier Recalls Swift Boats

Associated Press -- ON THE BAY HAP RIVER, Vietnam - The 50-foot Swift boats were easy targets as they plowed through the waterways of the Mekong Delta in packs of three or four, making big waves and thunderous noise when approaching. Former Viet Cong soldier Duong Hoang Sinh remembers them well — the one time he tangled with three Swift boats, the Americans killed all of the insurgents in his unit except for two.

"Kerry served in Vietnam and he was awarded the medal for his bravery," Sinh said. "He deserves the medal."


Let's see, [most] of the guys who served with John Kerry doubt his bravery and whether or not he deserves the medals he was awarded, but the Viet Cong are going to bat for him?

Why am I not surprised?

------------------------
P.S. You'll note that no where in the article is Charlie saying he tangled with the brave warrior that is John Kerry, although you're led to believe that the ferocity of the Swiftees (which I do not doubt) somehow means John Kerry was also equally as fearsome a warrior.

The media's getting pretty friggin' desperate aren't they?


This just in from the No Lighthearted Title Possible Department

Nepalese Hostages in Iraq Shown Killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A video purporting to show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted Tuesday on a Web site linked to a militant group operating in Iraq.


Once more with feeling... "It's not about what you did in Vietnam, John..."

... It's what you did when you got back.

To illustrate the point, here's a flyer that John Kerry's group passed out after he returned from Vietnam.

Monday, August 30, 2004

E-Ticket Rides at the GOP Convention

I caught the speeches my Sen. McCain and ex-Mayor Giuliani. Didn't plan on it, just sort of happened. Senator McCain's was pretty good. His mention of "disingenuous filmmakers" brought on a sustained chorus of boos without so much as mentioning who the "filmmarker" was (or by trotting out the Kerry daughters). Michael Moore, the "filmmaker" in question (and yes, the quotation marks are intentional) was even present in one of the press boxes. Not sure which one though. Al Jazeera's got a box at the convention don't they?

Anyway, like I was saying Senator McCain had a nice speech, but Rudy knocked it out of the park. He was serious. He was funny. He was positive. He was negative. He was bipartisan. He was partisan. (I'm pretty sure John Kerry's got the paperwork rolling on his fourth Purple Heart already.) He was even touching. Did I mention he was funny? His story about the construction worker bear-hugging President Bush (after recommending exactly how the President should deal with the terrorists in that oh so nuanced way big city construction workers are known for and the President aggreeing) at Ground Zero on Sept 14th [2001] was both touching and funny.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

I Mean, Sure I've Heard of Book-Burning But...

Thanks to the fine folks at FreeKerryBooks you too can get your very own copy of the book John Kerry and his supporters are trying their level best to keep you from reading.

And no, I'm not talking about Unfit For Command. Although, granted, it was written by a Swiftvet... John Kerry himself.

Get your copy of The New Soldier now.

And in this corner, in the 'Marine red' trunks...

Bring it on, John

Oliver North pens a letter to DNC Presidential candidate John Kerry... and kicks his butt. Figuratively speaking of course (nerts, better luck next time).


The Kerry Girls Get a Warm Reception at the MTV M/V Awards... Kinda

THE BOOS THAT ROCKED THE VOTE: KERRY DAUGHTERS RECEIVE RUDE AWAKENING AT MTV AWARDS

Drudge Report -- MTV, ROLLING STONE and the rock and roll establishment -- past and present -- have cast their vote, and their man is John Kerry.

So on Sunday night when John Kerry's daughters were announced to speak at the annual MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, the MTV youth were expected to welcome his daughter's as pop culture princesses.

Instead, in an era of the unexpected, the daughters of the Democratic candidate were met with cheers -- AND JEERS -- during the live broadcast in Miami.

From the moment Alexandra and Vanessa started speaking, the boos outweighed anything close to cheers, and the reaction turned worse when the daughters asked the VIACOM youth to vote for their father. So shocked by the reaction, the taller of the two daughters tried to 'shhhhhh' her peers to no avail.

First off, I don't support people giving Kerry's daughters a hard time any more than I support the smacked-asses who kept nigh-constant tabs [no pun] on the Bush twins' drinking habits. It's the candidate, not their kids that are running.

Secondly, and more to the point, WTF is going on when the daughters of some left-wing wonk, let alone one running for president in an election only a couple months away get boo'd at a MTV event, any MTV event?

Verrry interes'tink.


Sunday, August 29, 2004

The Mini Winnie Is Seeing 'Ghosts'

I received the ghost ring sights I ordered from XS Sight Systems Saturday.

Ghost rings get they're name from the rear sight aperture. It's essentionally a peep-sight with a thin rim and larger opening. When positioned relatively close to to the eye, the ring sort of disappears. Like a ghost. They provide for better and quicker target acquisition. Better than the old buckhorn setup. And are easier to adjust the windage and elevation, again better than the buckhorn setup.

Seeing as everyone from hunters to SWAT members use 'em and people like Jeff Cooper consider them a Good Thing, they're definately something to have on the SHtF gun that I'm looking for.

I installed the rear sight and removed the front blade today. This week I'll be heading to the range to do the job of mounting the front blade properly. Can't wait. All's left is to get the W&E squared away and I'll be set. At least as far as the sighting goes. Now I just need to find a blank for the empty dovetail left over from where I removed the rear buckhorn.

This just in from the Department of Blogroll Reciprocity

Forgive this blogon00b for doing a little n00bie happy dance, but I made it onto my first blogroll today. If you haven't checked out Tallglassofmilk's blog Drink This... (and you probably have already. Hey, I'm a n00b. Cut me some slack) you owe it to yourself to do so.

What? You're still here?

Go.

Now.

This just in from the Department of SondraK

SondraK's found a fellow... er... another blogger up there in the land of rain, coffee and left-wingnuts. And she's got a lovely tidbit all should see. But first... a quiz of sorts.

"52 year old [presidential candidate] supporter assaults 19 year old [presidential candidate] supporter" Got it? An old guy supporting one candidate assaults a 19 year old guy who supports the other guy. Now the quizzie bit...

Which side is the old guy on, and which side is the kid on?

Got your answer?

Okay, now watch the clip.