A note on a door - Bravo Zulu

I caught wind of this based on a tweet from Hugh Hewitt who posted a link to the original at Black Five.

Click the image to see the note:

Post Thanksgiving Stupid

Between the terror attacks in Mumbai and the Turkey hangover, I just don't have any motivation.

So I give you the worst speeding ticket video ever, courtesy of failblog:

Mumbai

The death toll in the Mumbai attacks may be 143. A NYT correspondent is 'live blogging' the retaking of Nariman House:

Keith Bradsher, a Times correspondent, is sending The Lede updates from his BlackBerry as he watches a commando operation taking place at the Nariman House, home to the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad Lubavitch, and around Mumbai.

Sample update:

Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:45
A flurry of shots has just sounded from inside Nariman House, to which I have just returned. A team of Israelis who specialize in searching and securing sites after terrorist attacks just arrived here from Israel and said that they had been told that they might be allowed to go into the building soon. There has still been no official word on the fate of the rabbi and his wife who were living at Nariman House at the time of the assault.

And the most recent posting, only about 15 minutes old as I post:

Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:00
The Indians are sending a fresh set of commandos in black uniforms and heavy body armor into the buildings around Nariman House and withdrawing commandos in blue or black uniforms who have been in action all day.

For the first time today, a van with six medics in surgical gowns and masks has just driven up close to Nariman House in a possible sign of casualties.

Three heavy blasts have just been heard in as many minutes.

This is excellent work by the Times reporter. I guess this is how an MSM outlet like the Times can stay relevant: combine new media and technology with old school field reporting. I hope this guy stays safe.

Another GWOT win

This is what true victories in the Global War on Terror look like. Nothing spectacular, not a strike mission by a B-2 or other head line grabbing event.

Just some female suicide bombers. Who turn themselves in after a Muslim cleric convinces them that conducting a bombing is un-Islamic. 18 of them.

I'm a little surprised that they surrendered to Americans rather than Iraqis. Perhaps they thought they would be treated better. But my take away on this is that this was an Iraqi win as much as anything. The cleric/imam/preacher and the families of the prospective bombers prevented hundreds of deaths.

And for that I am thankful this turkey-day.

CAIR - Sued under RICO

Who knows if this suit actually has any legs, but if it gets to the discovery stage, things could get very interesting.

November 24, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court DC, against the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] alleging, "violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO")1; the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act ("DCCPPA"); the Virginia Consumer Protection Act ("VCPA"); breach of fiduciary duty; conversion; unjust enrichment; and intentional infliction of emotional distress on behalf of plaintiffs who sought legal representation from defendant."

Here's the best part - Nihad Awad was served his summons while on stage at a CAIR dinner of some kind 14th Annual Banquet... "Alex, I'll have Process Servers FTW":

Terror in Mumbai

Crap. Terrorists have used small arms and grenades to attack a train station, hotels frequented by westerners. Hostages are being held at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels. At least 80 dead, 200 injured.

And Not a Sheep reports that the BBC are calling the murders radicals. Breath deep the nuance. CNN, MSNBC, CBS, etc. are at least calling them gunmen. Fox News is the only one I have found so far willing to state the obvious. These guys are terrorists.

Good lord on high, even Obama can say the "T" word. From The One's change.gov outpost:

"President-elect Obama strongly condemns today's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and his thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the people of India. These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism. The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks. We stand with the people of India, whose democracy will prove far more resilient than the hateful ideology that led to these attacks," said Brooke Anderson, Chief National Security Spokesperson.

Why are the sandal lickers in the media so loathe to call a terrorist a terrorist? I guess I may have answered my own question.

Update: Either I missed it, or CBS has updated their website. They still call them "gunmen", but call the events "Terror attacks". At least CBS has it half right.

Georgia, again

A couple of days ago shots were fired near, if not at, Georgia's president while driving near South Ossetia.

Now comes word that. the Russian mayor of a North Ossetian town has been murdered.

It may be a much warmer winter than the weatherman said.

Obama toons

Both stolen from Theo Spark:

Civics Quiz

Here's an on-line civics quiz at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute... They show some sad statistics. So I took the quiz while I waited for the coffee to brew. And I blew one question. Not bad for an over the hill pseudo blogger:



I should have waited until after I had coffee...

I won't tell your cardiologist

Who knew that there was a site on the web called ...Bacon Today?

And who knew that humanity was capable of taking several of God's creatures, wrapping them each in bacon, then eating it/them? Are you ready for Turbaconducken?

VI Day

Zombietime started this ball rolling.

A-10 versus Taliban dirt bikes

Spotted over at Theo Spark's place:

Android...

I ordered my G1 Android powered phone from T-Mobile on Monday morning, and it arrived Tuesday evening. First impression:WOW.

It's not the sea change that the iPhone was when it first came out. It is, however, a game changer. The iPhone represented a spectacular user interface change. Beautiful design and great engineering. But it didn't change the business. In fact, it reinforced Apple's control freak reputation. But the smart phone business was the same. You got your handset and all of the apps from one source. Android changes the landscape just a bit. Anyone can publish apps for the Android framework. This does mean there will be a lot of crap out there. But it also means there are a lot of choices. In less than 24 hours I've larded my phone with not one, but two bar-code reading shopping/price comparison apps (ShopSavvy and CompareEverywhere), a gas shopping/location app called GasBot (very good), a handful of games, a second media player (tunewiki), a settings manger that uses the phone's current location as a basis for changing settings (Locale), a picture editing/markup thingy called PicSay, and a unique, sort of weird but very cool navigation thingy called Breadcrumz. Breadcrumz allows you to use or create point of view 'directions'... One of the stock files shows the user how to get a great view of Jerusalem... by taking a few back alleys in the Old City.

Good Lord No...

Drudge is trumpeting that Hillary will be named Secretary of State. But the report originates at the Guardian...

Foggy Flabby Bottom...

I wonder if BO has something on the Senator that will get leaked during the confirmation hearings... Hillary gets a second humiliation and BO gets rid of a rival...


Nahh... Or...

Deadman Walking

Future dead guy

So you're a German professor of Theology. And after years of study, you come up with a theory that Jesus never existed. What happens? Do you get shunned by your employer? Do the police give you warnings about your safety?

Actually they do, if you're a German convert to Islam who has questioned the existence of Mohammad. EUroweenie irony alert:

When Prof. Kalisch took up his theology chair four years ago, he was seen as proof that modern Western scholarship and Islamic ways can mingle -- and counter the influence of radical preachers in Germany. He was put in charge of a new program at Münster, one of Germany's oldest and most respected universities, to train teachers in state schools to teach Muslim pupils about their faith.

Muslim leaders cheered and joined an advisory board at his Center for Religious Studies. Politicians hailed the appointment as a sign of Germany's readiness to absorb some three million Muslims into mainstream society. But, says Andreas Pinkwart, a minister responsible for higher education in this north German region, "the results are disappointing."

The results are disappointing? That a German professor engaged in academic pursuits? And earlier in the piece:

"We had no idea he would have ideas like this," says Thomas Bauer, a fellow academic at Münster University who sat on a committee that appointed Prof. Kalisch. "I'm a more orthodox Muslim than he is, and I'm not a Muslim."

I guess they would have been OK if he had ideas like stoning 13 year old rape victims to death while they plead for mercy. If only he had postulated that George Bush was responsible for 9-11, that Jesus was a Vegan or that Queen Victoria was a lesbian.

The stalwart Europeans rally to the man's defense. Well, one of them actually did. However apparently the professor enjoys the same protections as the Danish cartoonists. The craven sandal licking is in full-swing.

German academics split. Michael Marx, a Quran scholar at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, warned that Prof. Kalisch's views would discredit German scholarship and make it difficult for German scholars to work in Muslim lands. But Ursula Spuler-Stegemann, an Islamic studies scholar at the University of Marburg, set up a Web site called solidaritymuhammadkalisch.com and started an online petition of support.

Alarmed that a pioneering effort at Muslim outreach was only stoking antagonism, Münster University decided to douse the flames. Prof. Kalisch was told he could keep his professorship but must stop teaching Islam to future school teachers.

It's not important if the Quran really says he's an apostate. What is important is that a significant minority of Muslims believe this position makes him an apostate - a crime for which there can only be one punishment. This man can live the rest of his life as a Salman Rushdie-like exhile, or he can live freely, like Theo Van Gogh did. Until he was murdered by a Mohammad who really did exist.

This man is a year younger than me. I'll bet he's in far better shape than I am. But I'll bet there isn't an actuary on the planet who thinks he'll live longer than me.

Sign the petition... not that it matters to the jihadis... But maybe they will read it at his funeral and his university and government can be reminded how badly they handled this.

I hope I'm wrong, but experience indicates otherwise.

Toon time

Another fine post, stolen from Theo Spark's place.



Of course the real joke is that Bailout Mania has come with an erstwhile Republican in the White House.

No more wirehaired dogs, ever!

Apparently owners of dogs with wiry coats must "strip" their dogs' coats. It's a little scary to me that the best time to do this is when the coat is "blowing"... shedding to other dogs.

So here's a wirehaired wiener dog getting stripped... note the 'helpful' smooth haired wiener dog.

androidapps.com review of Parallel Kingdom

Now I'm seriously jonesing for a G1...

Take a look at: AppVee Android Apps - Daily Android app video reviews! - Parallel Kingdom Review

Maybe I should order a G1 now... then port my number later...

Android v. Apple

I'm nearing the end of my contract with my cell provider. I have been fighting the itch for a smart phone for quite some time... But now that itch must be scratched.

The three contenders:

Stay with Big Red and go with the BlackBerry Storm

AT&T and the iPhone.

T-Mobile and the first Android phone, the G1.

I don't have all of the info for pricing on the BB Storm yet, but it appears that VZW's data plan will be very expensive. Verizon has a separate tier for BlackBerry devices... But the deal breaker for the Storm - no Wi-Fi. Stupid decision by Verizon. I can't imagine a smart phone without it. I'll go look at one on launch day, but unless it is orgasmic, it's out of the running.

I don't think there is anything more I can add about the iPhone that hasn't already been blogged by others. But... the system is closed tighter than North Korea. Sure some defectors make it out of the hermit kingdom, but most of the peasants are doomed. Why, oh why, is the battery locked down?

That leaves the Android powered G1. Right now T-Mo's network in my area lacks 3G... but on the other hand Android is open and the data plans appear less expensive than Verizon or AT&T.

I'm spending waaaay tooooo much time thinking/obsessing about this.

UPDATE: I just downloaded the Android SDK... I actually started this update using the SDK phone emulator.

One word: hooked.

Michael Crichton, RIP

At 6 feet, 9 inches tall, Michael Crichton may have been a giant to some people. Even if future AmLit profs don't consider him a literary giant, they will be forced to admit that he was a commercial one. He died on November 4th, from cancer.

Most people know and remember that he was a physician as well as a writer. The long running ER on NBC was his creation. The list of his books and movies is long, may favorites being The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Disclosure and The Lost World.

Techdirt reminds us that he wrote for Wired magazine. In 1993 he wrote a column based on a speech he had given called Mediasaurus. As you might infer from the title, long before the blogosphere derided the MSM, Chrichton forecasted their demise.

Instead of me regurgitating Techdirt's precis of Chrichton's column, read the bit a Techdirt, than read the man's words from 1993.

But I will rip-off Techdirt's last two paragraphs:

He goes on to decry the way news becomes polarized -- he refers to it as the Crossfire Syndrome -- noting that it uses soundbites and extreme positions to ignore the real issues, and basically does the viewer or reader a disservice. And his premise is that the consumer of media recognizes this and would jump to alternatives. Ten years after he wrote this piece, Jack Shafer checked in with him to get his reaction to the fact that his prediction of the death of such media organizations appeared wrong. Crichton replied that: "I doubt I'm wrong, it's just too early."

And, indeed, earlier this year, Shafer checked back in with Crichton, admitting that many of his predictions did seem to now be on target. One of the statements Crichton made towards the end of that interview should be the mantra for the modern newsroom if it wants to be successful: "I want a news service that tells me what no one knows, but is true nonetheless. That's what I would value." He's not the only one.

More Change at change.gov

Vinnie at Ace of Spades points to another cleansing at change.gov... The Agenda.

Here's what it looks like now:



Here's a partial screenshot of what it looked like on Saturday:



And the google cache of the whole thing...

Astute readers will note that the first screen shot is for a generic "Agenda" section, while the second screenshot reflect the 'urbanpolicy' agenda. The generic agenda is all that's left. I tried to navigate directly to http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy, however all I got was a page not available

Why would they put something up, then take it down? Could it be that The One doesn't want the mask to slip before the Inauguration?

The Memory Hole. Not just internet slang anymore... now it's a component of Executive Privilege.

Kristallnact

70 years later, and the night of broken glass has not lost it's power to horrify.

Nearly a hundred people killed, and nearly 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps. In one night.

70 years, and the horror of the first Nazi pogrom against the Jews still makes news. Less than two weeks ago, loot was found. In a German dump:

KLANDORF, Germany – Yaron Svoray scrapes caked layers of dirt from a shard of glass, revealing a sunflower at the heart of a Star of David.
He carefully turns it, speculating it may have been a bowl used for Passover ceremonies in pre-World War II German Jewish homes.
The fragment is one of a handful of artifacts Svoray has pulled from mounds of debris in this former dump about an hour north of Berlin that locals say was used by the Nazis to deposit rejected loot from the 1938 pogrom known as Kristallnacht, or "The Night of Broken Glass."

The responsibility for Kristallnacht went all the way to the top:

It had never been in doubt that the Nazi propaganda machine fuelled the Night of Broken Glass but now a German scholar has uncovered strong evidence that on the night of Nov 9 the Fuhrer led Nazis to destroy an important synagogue, deliberately throwing a match into a tinderbox.
On November 7, 1938, Jewish teenager Herschel Grynszpan walked into Germany's embassy in Paris and shot dead diplomat Ernst vom Rath, sparking the Night of Broken Glass, the most ferocious single pogrom of the Nazi era.

....

Angela Hermann, an historian at Munich's Institute for Contemporary History, has decoded a mysterious passage in the diary of Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels that had stumped scholars ever since this section of Goebbels' diaries was retrieved from Moscow in 1992.
"We have real evidence now that Hitler pulled the strings, that he personally directed the Kristallnacht," Dr Herman said, using the German name for the notorious night.

....

Goebbels then wrote: "Hitler's Stosstrupp goes out immediately to clean up Munich ... and a synagogue is smashed."

This had historians puzzled, as there was no force known as ''Hitler's Stosstrupp'' in 1938. By digging through Munich archives, Dr Hermann found letters and documents to show that the term referred to the veterans of Hitler's failed attempt to seize power in 1923, known as the Beer Hall Putsch.

These old street fighters remained loyal to Hitler, taking orders from no one else. Dr Hermann found invitations and seating plans for the November 9 Town Hall rally that showed 39 of these old comrades sat at adjacent tables to Hitler. They included Hitler's chief adjutant Julius Schaub and chauffeur Emil Maurice. These were the same 39 men who later hit the streets and destroyed the Ohel Jacob synagogue that night, fanning the flames of an incendiary situation – on direct orders, Dr Hermann concludes, of Hitler himself.

There is a temptation to draw parallels to present times. And there are lessons to be learned as well. For now I'll just say this: never discount the efforts of domestic terrorists. Ever. And never believe them to be rehabilitated.

Change... at change.gov

So The One's pretentious, campaign-ish website change.gov has a section for "America Serves". His plan was originally listed as:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

It now reads:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

Emphasis mine, for the slow witted.

How's that for change? The college kids go from a hundred hours of no cost to the government indentured servitude to a $4,000 "refundable tax" credit? And when they use the phrase "refundable" in Washington, it means the "tax payer" gets it, even if they paid ZERO taxes. Yes, THAT kind of "refund".

A Brit explains himself

I saw this over at Not a sheep, and had to post it as well... It's not plagiarism if I say where I got it, is it?

So you're a young English reporter... from Birmingham...and you've come to the US to cover campaign for Obama. Where do you go? Well, a swing state like Florida... Miami, to be precise. And when The One wins, you go back to your room and write about it, right? No... you celebrate on the street, then plop down with your drink and start plagiarizing other people's work. Here's a compendium of some of his "work" at the Birmingham Mail. Something tells me we'll need to Wayback machine to read this pretty soon... Telling moments - he refers to the European volunteers as The International Brigade... And if only BO can do what JFK should have done (?) America will be the greatest country on earth...

Part 1:


Part 2:


Hmmm... no wonder why the media all sound the same. Apparently there is only one original writer, all others copy and paste...

Disillusionment... the beginning

So you were a temp. hired by the BO campaign to help GOTV... They said they'd pay you, but now the 'check's in the mail?'

The One thanks you for your service. You may return to your hovels while you await His beneficence...



Actually, I think the campaign, as sort of corporate entity, still legally exists in order to do things, like pay bills...

Heck, they can always apply for a job with BO's new posse... Funny how that change.gov website looks like official website of the Committee to Reelect The One, 2012...

E Unum Pluribus

That pretty much says it all...

President Obama

The One has been elected. Ironically, it appears Karl Rove has not lost his touch - he called the electoral vote total for BO on the button.

Get used to stuff like this:




Connecticut voters had two questions on the ballot. Question one on holding a constitutional convention appears to have been defeated. The 'no' camp outspent the 'yes' campaign by an 80 to 1 ratio. Question 2 asked if the state constitution should be amended to allow people who are 17 but will be 18 on election day to vote in primaries. Question 2 passed. What does this mean? Are primaries less important than elections, or that 17 year olds should be allowed to vote in the general election?

Finally, the last "Republican" in the House from New England, Christopher Shays, has been defeated. Sic Semper Rinos.

Now I have seen it all

Check out this rinoBamian... the picture is from Havana's International Trade Fair. Thanks to the good folks at Babalu Blog.

Good lord, I hope it's a photo-shopped pic... the angle of his right arm makes me think it MIGHT be a photoshop job.

Their man in Havana?

Traitorous creep. And just what 'good' could come from campaigning for BO in Havana? Ahh, yes, unverified credit card donations...

Rangel on BO

Perhaps one of the creepiest stump speeches this season... Guess who they love? And you'll never, ever, guess who is going to save the entire world...

Hint... they don't think it's John McCain... or Sarah`cuda.

Or Jesus.

Quote from ExurbanLeague

John at ExurbanLeague posted this as his thought of the day:

If someone would have told me on September 11, 2001, that our next president would be named Barack Hussein Obama, I would have assumed we had lost a war or something.

As a congenital Red Sox fan, I think I may actually retroactively remember this quote:

"The sun will rise, the sun will set, and I'll have lunch."
-Former BoSox GM Lou Gorman, on what to do if things don't work out the way you planned.

The truth, from across the sea

Obama in a Nutshell, from Theo Spark

You have to pinch yourself. A Marxist radical, who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power, anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it's considered impolite to say so.

Melanie Phillips Spectator, UK

Why does it take a foreigner to point out the obvious?

And some artwork from Theo's place:

One more day...

Tuesday is it. And I'm certain this graphic I just saw over at Theo Spark's will become popular a popular bumper sticker... It just might take a year or so:

Gonna party like it's 1984

I remember this commercial when it first came out. No, I didn't see it the one time it aired, but I saw the 'reporting' about the ground breaking commercial for weeks afterward. Advertising's first viral video.

Redone for the 2008 Election, it makes more sense than ever:



With thanks to RedState