The fatman chronicles--all hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here

Some Time Off

2006-10-04T17:32:00.000-04:00

As you few who wander these halls have surely noticed, I haven't been posting much lately. That, I'm afraid, isn't going to change until my health shows some noticeable improvement.

Until then, expect me when you see me.

A Call To Arms...

2006-09-21T20:41:00.000-04:00

...for the moonbats of the world. I ran across this over at Dummiecrat Underground

http://www.worldcantwait.org/nytlogo.jpg

YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing people, and justifying it.

YOUR GOVERNMENT puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.

YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

People look at all this and think of Hitler - and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come.

We must act now; the future is in the balance.

That, my friends, is part of the text of an ad that appeared in USA Today, Wednesday, 9/20/2006. (They've also got a neat graphic that I can't figure out how to display here.) An organization called The World Can't Wait is calling for a general strike by workers and students on October 5, 2006. Their aim apparently is to paralyze the country and drive George Bush and Dick Cheney out of office. In aid of this, they've linked to the Bush Crime Commission, based in Berkley, California, which (surprise, surprise!) found Bush guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Included in the ad is a list of supporters, or, as Claude Rains would put it, the usual suspects: Jane Fonda, cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, moonbat Hollywood types like Ed Asner, Ed Begley, Jr., Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon and religious hucksters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. And of course the lunatic fringe of the Democrat party is well represented by Maxine Waters, Bobby Rush, Cynthia McKinney and John Conyers.

And the best of part of it all is that with very little editing and no loss of truthfulness, those statements above would describe Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Hugo Chavez perfectly.

Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs are behind much of the insurgency in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Ahmadinejad is the hand-picked president of the mullahs and openly prayed, in his speech at the U.N., to Allah to send the Twelfth Imam to Earth, beginning what some Shi'ites believe will be the end of the world.

Chavez is setting up a cult of personality in Venezuela, jailing anyone who speaks ill of him.

And just where is all that oil money going, anyway?

I've got to admit, I don't understand it. Chavez is an unreconstructed fascist thug. Ahmadinejad is a religious fanatic and a raving loon. and yet the Left in America and elsewhere insist that George W. Bush is the war criminal and the greatest threat to world peace since Hitler.

I just don't get it.

Link Hopping...

2006-09-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

...is kind of like bar hopping, only you don't wake up hungover the next day.

Now I'm no Instapundit, but every now and then I'll click on a link that I haven't tried before and see where it takes me. Like this time...

I started out at Rightwingsparkle's place, checking out the latest in airport security measures. While I was in the comments for that post, I clicked on the homepage for Beth at Bluestar Chronicles, where I read through a number of her posts (including this one, about the commisioning of the USS Bill Clinton - heh) and reached this. Included in this post was Linkfest Haven, similar to Wizbang!'s late, lamented Carnival Of The Trackbacks. And there I found a couple of real gems.

The first was from Planck's Constant. "As a Muslim, I apologize" is just the sort of biting, sarcastic piece I wish I had the talent to write. An excerpt:

"In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

As A Muslim I apologize.

I am sorry that my religion, far from being a “religion of peace” is in fact a barbaric cult that has changed not one bit from its savage, warrior origins in the 7th Century. I am sorry that Islam is as extreme and as intolerant as when our most blessed Prophet Mohammed, Peace be upon Him, began to slaughter the unbelievers 1300 years ago.

I am sorry that our Holy Book, The Quran is not filled with instructions on how to live in Peace and Tolerance with our fellow man, but rather is a military code book filled with techniques in terror and a manual for the conquest of the world. I am sorry that if the faithful follow exactly these moral instructions the world will be but one khalif and there will only be one Law: Sharia.

Check out the rest.

Then, in the comments for that post, Tor provided a link to a Frontline interview with Khaled Abou el-Fadl, a writer and expert on Islamic law that is just the sort thing that we need to hear from all so-called mainsteam Muslims if we're to be expected to believe that Islam really is the Religion of Peace, not Pieces. An excerpt:

[How did you experience Sept. 11?]

... I was completely frozen for the first hour or so. It's as if I refused to believe it. I didn't know how to believe it. ... One day before, I was there [in New York]. In fact, I was in the Borders that was destroyed, and I stayed in a hotel right across the street from the World Trade Center. ... That thought went through my head: "We were just there."

The second thought was a prayer, a wish, a plea: "Please, God, not Muslims. [Do not let it be] Muslims who have done this, or anyone who is calling themselves a Muslim." ...

A fascinating read.

Time For John Murtha To MoveOn, The Sequel

2006-09-13T05:10:00.000-04:00

I wasn't going to post anything on the Murtha/Irey race in PA-12 until I had...you know...something new to post. But then along comes a fellow named Cliff Hancuff who starts posting comments on the "Time For Murtha To MoveOn" thread and before you know it, the game is afoot, as they say.

Here's Cliff:

"Swift Boat Veterans for Themselves" ignored a couple issues CRITICAL to our troops at war during the run-up to the 2004 election.

Oh, this ought to be good.

First they sat silent knowing full well that Bush NEVER USED the number of troops he incessantly claims his generals asked for. Turkey would not allow the 40,000 troops of the 4th to pass through and participate in Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Funny. I thought it was more like 18,00 troops. And that they did eventually get into the fight by sailing to Kuwait and entering Iraq there.

Second, These same Lookatme! Showboaters sat silent when this very same troop shortage resulted in America's greatest tragedy of the war in Iraq.

Which was?

EVERYONE who's ever gone through basic training knows that when you find your enemies weapons, you keep them secure.

Sounds reasonable.

Hundreds of tons of high explosives that our troops had captured at Al Qaqaa were abandoned specifically due to troops shortages, CREATED by Bush's incompetence in war.

One problem with that: according to NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, quoted here

http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerry200410252109.asp

the 380 tons of HMX and/or RDX that supposedly were at Al Qaqaa were already gone by the time he and the 101st Airborne got there.

These explosive stolen from Al Qaqaa are the weapons that have been used to blow our troops into too many parts to count each and every day of this war.

Piffle. Powerful though they may be, the 380 tons of HE missing from Al Qaqaa are a drop in the bucket compared to the 600,000 tons of munitions unaccounted for immediately after the war. Munitions that disappeared while we were trying to get the UN off its dead butt and do something.

When some pasty butt wimp, like Larry Bailey of bootmurtha.com, decides to pass his "gimme' some money" collection plate to support his concept of patriotism for a circus tent performance at The Cambria County War Memorial on October 1st of this year ...

Thanks! Pittsburgh to Johnstown is a nice drive at this time of year.

Some would say there's nothing more patriotic than putting a moron who's never given a hoot about our troops at war (or he would have spoke up about those 40k troops left behind and Al Qaqaa IN 2004) in his proper place ...he's a coward.

Admittedly, I don't know who Larry Bailey is. And I'm only vaguely acquainted with BootMurtha

http://www.bootmurtha.com/index.html

but given your plummetting credibility around here, I'm willing to bet he's a pretty good guy.

To make matters even MORE entertaining, Larry Bailey actually thinks having John O'Neill, the original Lookatme! Show Boater, as his surprise guest speaker is a feather in his cap.

And I agree with him.

You may not like the stand John Murtha has been making, but for anyone who supports our troops at war, there's no way to respond to these idiot Swiftboaters' Reunion in Murtha's home town of Johnstown, Pa, than a chorus of Bronx raspberries.

Actually, what I don't like is Murtha accepting awards from a group that stands outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center taunting the families of wounded troops as they come to visit their loved ones. What I don't like is Murtha posing for photos with the same group as they brag about raising $600,000 for supplies for "families" of the "insurgents" in Fallujah last year. And what I really don't like is ex-Marine Murtha convicting Marines allegedly involved in a "massacre" in Haditha before the investigation had been completed and before he had been briefed on it. All so he can be the next House majority leader if the the Democrats take back the House this fall.

I hope this clarifies.

Back atcha.

I Hope This Is Satire

2006-09-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

"This" being a comment left at James Joyner's post "The Left Remembers 9/11" at Outside The Beltway. Maybe I'm getting dense in my old age, but I'm really not sure. What do you think?

Time For John Murtha To MoveOn

2006-09-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

This post has been bumped to the top. Scroll down to read any new posts.

If I did it right, there should be two new additions to my blogroll.

The first is Murtha Must Go!, a blog started by Psycmeister, who currently has a son serving in Iraq. He started the blog on May 21, 2006, after Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) decided to act as prosecutor, judge and jury in the matter of the alleged massacre of innocent civilians by Marines in Haditha, Iraq. Now if these allegations of massacre are true, then heads should roll. Literally. But it would be nice if Murtha, a former Marine himself, would at least wait for the investigation to conclude before screaming murder, massacre and cover-up. But then Murtha wants to be the House majority leader if the Democrats take back the House and Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker. I guess that's more important than due process and a presumption of innocence.

The second isn't a blog. It's the website of Washington, PA. county commissioner Diana Irey, who is opposing Murtha in the general election in November. Now I don't know if Mrs. Irey has even a snowball's chance of beating Murtha; he's rarely had more than token opposition in the past and didn't have even that in 2004. Still, as Mrs. Irey points out, thirty-two years is a long time. Maybe too long. And after being the first female county commissioner in Washington county history, she's been re-elected twice. Which means that her constituents must be happy with her. I wish her luck. If you want to help her out with a campaign contribution or as a volunteer, you can reach her at:

DIANA IREY for CONGRESS
600 Park Avenue
Monongahela, PA 15063
http://www.irey.com/
Phone: 724-258-2300
Fax: 724-258-8600
Email: Diana@Irey.com

h/t to: Gateway Pundit via Brainster's Blog

Linked at: Protein Wisdom, Mudville Gazette, Decision '08, Rightwingsparkle, Wizbang, (in the comments),...(I expect to link to other blogs as well.)

Messages

2006-09-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

Peggy Noonan writes about the sounds of 9/11: The sounds of the planes hitting the buildings, the sounds of the Towers falling, and most importantly the sounds of the final messages from people who knew they were going to die and wanted to tell their husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and parents and children that they loved them one final time.

h/t to: Kim Priestap at Wizbang!

Learning From Hezbollah...

2006-08-28T06:59:00.000-04:00

...at least that's what realpolitik, posting this at Democrat(ic) Underground, thinks we should do.

In 2001, the Democratic Party was subjected to a terrorist attack by an as of yet uncaught terrorist, though evidence points to someone with access to military strains of Anthrax.

Assuming that no one in al Qaeda is working at fort dix, let us say that it is more likely that someone affiliated with the Neocons was responsible. If that can be proven true, it far outweighs the reichstag fire as an illegitamizing act of war on the part of the neocons, abrogating them to the status of a terrorist state...

There's a couple of flaws in the reasoning here. First, if the "neo-cons" (read Joooooos) had been attempting to set up the modern day equivalent of the Reichstag fire, they wouldn't have sent the anthrax to a liberal Democrat like Daschle. They would have sent it to a conservative, with the idea being to convince everyone that the terrorists were so afraid of the conservatives in our government that they'd try to assassinate them. Second, as realpolitik noted, no one has ever been arrested for the anthrax mailings. If this were a neo-con plot, you can bet your last dollar that some "progressive" scapegoat would have been found.

After some boiler plate about how Hezbollah came to dominate southern Lebanon, realpolitik gets to the meat of it:

...In light of the unilateral, extralegal, state terrorist actors in all three branches of government, what can we as Democrats do?We can learn from the sucessful insurgents.

So what can we learn from the Hezbullah.

Oh this oughta be good.

First-- We need to become direct actors among the people. We need to push for organized labor, universal health care and education. Like the Jackson County Democratic Party in the late 19th century, we need to be seen as being four-square for the interests of the working person, and we need to support their aspirations for their childern, and their hope for a secure later life. We need to fill the gaps left by the criminal Rethuglican mis-administration any way we can. And we need to stamp the powdered milk carton-- this life saving food is a gift of the Democratic Party. This bus pass so that you can get to work this week is provided by the Democratic Party of (insert state name here). And any business that contributes gets to stuff a flyer in the package, as it were.

Just who's going to pay for this? They can't rely on private donations to pay for everything and local Republicans sure aren't going to go along with this. And Jackson County, Missouri was home to the Pendergast Democratic Party machine, as crooked as anything you could find at Tammany Hall in New York City or in Cook County (Chicago), Illinois.

Sexond--Like the Hezbullah worked with Syria, we need to find our natural allies in the EU, Russia, China, and work multilaterally toward restoring human values and human dignity to government world wide. Canada would surely help us fight the good fight. And that brings us to the actual fight. I am not advocating assasination or terror, but I do think the time has come for individuals to defect from our corporatist terror state. You don't create Democracy at the point of a gun. You create democracies elsewhere by doing it right here. They don't hate us for our freedom, they hate us because we are free to prevent corporations from subverting their governments, and we do not. The Hezbullah shell the Israelis as a deliberate provocation. Then, when the Israelis roll accross the border again, they cannot repel them, but they can wear them down. And boy, Lebanon was the mother of all debacles, it may have even slowed the invasion of Iran by a week or two.

More importantly, they force the Israeli government to show itself for the terror state that the Hezbullah claims it to be.

So we just subvert our sovereignty to Canada, Europe, Russia and China. In exchange for foreign aid from them, they get to carve up the U.S. like a Christmas goose.

The non aligned world knows the difference between a truck full of Kate rockets, and the full force of the United States war machines in the hands of an amoral proxy. Was the Hezbullah right to attack Israel? No. Was the Hezbullah highly successful. Yes. Was doing the right thing better than winning? Here is the question. Who was the victim here in the eyes of the world? Our NeoCon oppressors know no restraint. They do not regard the nicities of legal institutions and they find the Constitution quaint. What, I ask is beyond the pale in stopping them? It is not up to the UN to stop the NeoCon/corporatism, it is up to us, the putative owner/operators of our government.

In other words, the ends justifies the means. And just what means does realpolitik have in mind?

The Rethuglikans will have to mount the GOTV effort of all time to get the election within stealing distance. They showed us how vulnerable these are last cycle. They need far fewer voting machines and much longer lines in republican districts. I predict a high failure rate in vehicles carrying red district voting machines. Many of these failures may result in spontainious combustion.

Mega-church busses will, in particular, experience multi systems failure, and lots of photo shopped photos of local pastors engaging in biblical behavior will show up around the web. A large number of jump drives with database tables will enter voting booths.

Vandalism, arson, extortion and vote fraud. Just what we need to bring the U.S. into the world of enlightenment and sweet reason.

Posters of Repug benefactors in bed with Jack Abramoff will appear in targeted districts.

Like Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Carl Levin, Debby Stabenow, Bob Casey, Jr...My bad. Those are all Democrats.

The jobless will be hired and fed to put them up on telephone poles all over. The Democratic Party Free Health Clinics will work they butts off. And voters will be registered, documented, and supported.

The unemployment rate, the last I heard, was 4.6%. Most of those currently unemployed are either unable to work (like me) or have done well enough in our capitalist economic system that they don't have to work, at least for the time being. The ones who don't fall into one of those two categories usually have serious mental health and/or drug problems, so getting a full days' work out of them may be problematic. Of course the real reason the Democrats keep losing elections may be because there simply aren't enough of them.

That my friends is what the Hezbullah knows that is really dangerous to the Barons of this new gilded age. They support the people, and they fight back. And guess what? They learned it from F.D.R., Harry Truman, and Tom Pendergast.

They support the people by usurping the powers of the Lebanese government and starting a war with Israel, then hiding among the civilians when Israel fights back, ensuring plenty of civilian casualties. But of course that's all the fault of the Joooooos, for fighting back when the Islamofascists start shooting rockets at them. How dare they!

It is time we do our part. Keep a wooden shoe packed in your backpack or briefcase, for an opportune moment.

What, so they can clunk a conservative over the head with it?

In fairness, there weren't very many comments and what few there were were mostly negative. Still, you've got to wonder if maybe there's something in the water over there in Blue America.

Stealing From The Best

2006-08-22T21:33:00.000-04:00

I'm starting something new. Whenever someone leaves a comment that I have to delete, I'm going to replace the text of the comment with

BLOOD FOR ODIN!!!

Why? Well, Jay Tea over at Wizbang! posted a link to this story at Clayton Cramer's BLOG. As Jay says, it's almost certainly Urban Legend, but ever since then, it's become the phrase of choice for anyone suggesting that a comment needs to be deleted or a commenter banned or for Jay when he takes such actions. And since I like it, I'm stealing it. Kind of like when I stole "Ted Kennedy (D-Chivas)" from him. Of course he stole that from Boston talk show host Howie Carr, but we won't talk about that. ;)

Update:Here's a link to the House Rules, including what I will and won't tolerate language - wise.

The Road To Hell...

2006-08-22T17:39:00.000-04:00

...is, as my grandpappy used to say, paved with good intentions.

Michelle Malkin has started a blogburst to counter what she thinks is a paucity of reporting on the kidnappings of Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig.

While I think Michelle's motives are laudable, I'm not sure it's such a good idea. Fox originally told its on-air people not to talk about the kidnappings. The idea presumably is that if the kidnappers don't get any publicity from this, they'll be more inclined to let Centanni and Wiig go. And not do it again to other journalists.

Now you may say that I'm a hypocrite for criticizing Michelle and the other bloggers who are participating. Maybe I am. But I can't not write about it. I am not, however, linking to Michelle's post about it, joining the blogburst or including Centanni's and/or Wiig's name in the title. I'm also not sinking as low as Bob Laurence, TV critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune, who's quoted at Poynter Online as follows:

...Fox has deliberately set itself apart from other news media. Starting at the top with Roger Ailes, the Fox sales pitch has been to deride other media, to declare itself the one source of the real truth, the sole source of 'fair and accurate' news reporting. As a result, there's not a reservoir of kinship or good will with Fox on the part of the rest of the news media. You can't keep insulting people and then expect friendship when you need it.They've made it a policy to keep a distance between themselves and the rest of the media, far beyond the usual competitive spirit, so that's where they are: at a distance.

Another reason that I'm glad that I don't live in San Diego.

h/t to: Lorie Byrd at Wizbang!

Another Vote For Giuliani

2006-08-22T09:55:00.000-04:00

The Anchoress, writing in response to Nate Nelson of the blog Catholic? Rudy Watch, defends her continued support of Rudy Giuliani for President, in spite of his continued support of abortion and civil unions. It's a very civil debate, and well written too, neither of which you see too often these days. Both debate from a Catholic point of view, which I can sort of understand, being a recovering Catholic (that's like being a recovering alcoholic, only we don't spend the next day trying to remember what we did the night before).

As for me, I'm undecided, but leaning towards the "Just say no to Rudy" camp. Now I don't care about Giuliani's support of civil unions. But abortion (particularly partial-birth abortions) and gun control are two of my hot buttons and Giuliani pushes them both. In fact, the only two things he's got going for him, other than his obvious leadership abilities (which I must admit count for a lot) is that he's not John McCain or Hillary Clinton.

Oh well. Ask me again in two years.

h/t to: Lorie Byrd at Wizbang!

The More Things Change...

2006-08-17T23:21:00.000-04:00

...the more they remain the same.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were serving as America’s ambassadors to France and Britain respectively, met with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, who was Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain. They were trying to negotiate a peace treaty with the Barbary states (modern day Morocco, Algiera, Tunisia and Libya) so as to end the attacks on US shipping by the pirates of the Barbary Coast.

During the negotiations Jefferson and Adams asked Adja why our shipping was coming under attack. His reply to them was

“… that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.” (Do I need to add that there wasn’t a Zionist in sight?)

That’s been the history of Islam ever since Muhammad founded it. First they conquer, either through military might, diplomatic chicanery or, as they’re doing in Europe now, by outbreeding the infidels. Then the conquered peoples have three choices: become a Muslim or become a dhimmi (and pay for the privilege of continuing to live) or become a corpse.

Cross-posted (as part of a comment) at Decision '08.

h/t to: Rightwingsparkle

A Question For Blake

2006-08-14T05:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, my guys did their part. What happened to your guys, hmmm?

Filed Under "Things I'd Love To See"

2006-08-07T06:09:00.000-04:00

An excerpt from a comment at Blame Bush. Originally posted at Barking Moonbat Early Warning System

"Perhaps Mel can be put into the same program asThe Tortured

In response to a letter to the White House complaining about the treatment of a captive taken during the Afghanistan war, the following response was sent:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20016

Dear Concerned Citizen:

Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees, currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. My administration takes these..."

Check it out. And while you're at it, you might want to check out other stuff as well. Blame Bush is pretty good and BMEWS looks promising.

Trade Winds

2006-08-02T07:55:00.000-04:00

Dave Littlefield was busy Monday. Let's see just how much damage he did this time.

1B Sean Casey to the Detroit Tigers for RHP Brian Rogers

Not a bad trade, considering Casey's age (32), contract (I figure he's owed roughly three million dollars for the balance of the season), the fact that he'll be a free agent after the season and his history of injuries. Rogers probably isn't a blue chip prospect (he just turned 24 and he's still at Double-A), but he has good numbers. Still, Littlefield dealt from a team weakness (LH hitting) to improve what was already a team strength (RH relief pitching prospects).

RHP Roberto Hernandez and LHP Oliver Perez to the New York Mets for OF Xavier Nady

The more I look at this one, the less I like it. True, Hernandez was a forty-one year old one year rental, brought in to mentor closer hopeful Mike Gonzalez. And while I hated to see Perez go, I can't blame Littlefield for giving up on him. But Nady is a mediocre right-handed hitter with limited experience at 1B, the position he's going to play here. And I can't help getting the feeling that Littlefield did the same thing with Nady, whom he tried to get in 2003, that he did with Jeremy Burnitz; he got it into his head that he wanted the guy no matter what and just kept pursuing him until he finally got him. Never mind whether it was a good move or not.

There is one bit of irony in this trade; When the Pirates acquired Perez from San Diego for Brian Giles in '03, they also wanted Nady. But he was regarded as the Padres' top prospect and they wouldn't part with him. So the Pirates had to "settle" for Jason Bay.

RHP Kip Wells to the Texas Rangers for RHP Jesse Chavez

Let's see now; The Bucs have several good young RH relief pitching prospects and just acquired another one. They don't have much RH starting pitching. And with Perez banished to the minors before he was traded and Victor Santos moved to the bullpen, Wells was the only starter the Pirates had who had pitched on the major league level before last year, unless you count the three games Ian Snell got into in 2004. And after getting hammered in his first few starts after coming off the DL (where he'd been all season), he had pitched much better in his last three starts. So Littlefield traded him for Chavez, another RH relief pitcher, who just got promoted to Triple-A. *Sigh*

OF-1B-C Craig Wilson to the New York Yankees for RHP Shawn Chacon

This one really chaps my...butt. The Pirates trade Craig Wilson, who could have played 1B at least as well as Xavier Nady, for Chacon because they needed a veteran RH starter to replace Wells, who was traded for a RH relief pitcher, which gives the Bucs no less than four RH relief pitching prospects aged twenty-six years or younger. Not including twenty-three year old rookie Matt Capps, who's having a very good year. And Chacon's got an ERA of 7.00 after spending some time on the DL himself. *SIGH*

Anybody want to join me in starting a movement to bring major league baseball back to Pittsburgh?

Someone Stopped Taking Their Happy Pills, Updated

2006-07-30T22:03:00.000-04:00

She's at it again.

The vile former adjunct psych professor Deborah Frisch has been leaving more of her sick thoughts in the comment sections at Ace of SpadesHQ, Patterico's Pontifications, and of course at Protein Wisdom. Patterico has screen shots of the comments below the fold in his post about it. And no, I'm not linking to it. If you really need to read them, find your own way.

As it stands, Jeff is shutting down PW until he's dealt with this. He's also having to shelve at least one paying gig. So, if you've got a few extra bucks, why don't you head over to Protein Wisdom and hit the tip jar? It's for a good cause, don'tcha think?

Update: I forgot to mention that Jeff is looking for IP addresses for any comments she may have left at other blogs. If you have a blog and she's commented at it, he'd really appreciate it if you'd send him her IP address. If you don't have a blog, but know of one where she's commented, how about asking that blog's administrator to pass along her IP address(es)?

Goodbye Cruel World...

2006-07-29T09:33:00.000-04:00

...At least that seems to be what Paul at Wizbang! is saying. A little background:

About a week ago, Ace at Ace of SpadesHQ and Patrick Frey at Patterico's Pontifications accused Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory of engaging in sock puppetry i.e. commenting under aliases at other blogs that criticized him. Kevin Aylward of Wizbang! weighed in with his doubts a) here and c) here, as did Paul b) here and d) here . Paul, as he is wont to do, rather snidely. (Best to read those posts in this order - a, b, c, and d - as they make more sense that way.) Heck, even I posted on it. Anyway, a kerfuffle between Paul and Ace ensued, with Ace promising Paul that he (Paul) was going to get smoked.

As it turned out, Ace was right.

Patrick Frey sat down and constructed a complete start-to-finish timeline for the Greenwald/notGreenwald comments and posts. It's longish but worth the read if you're into this sort of thing. That, however, didn't end it.

In conceding that Ace and Patterico were right and he was wrong, Paul couldn't resist the urge to get in a couple of digs, and that set Ace off. Again.

Now Paul says that the flame war with Ace was just the last straw. That there were other things. And considering what he's been through in the last year (he lives in New Orleans), I don't doubt it. And no question Ace was being a jerk. Which is probably why Ace isn't in my blogroll and isn't likely to get there anytime soon.

But Paul brings a lot of it on himself. He absolutely cannot handle disagreement or criticism of any kind. If he's in a good mood, he'll condescend to correct you. If you offend him, he'll insult you. If you really offend him, he'll delete your comment(s) or edit them to make you look like a fool. And he's been known to ban people. Some of whom may have actually deserved it.

Now I go to Wizbang! every day. I like Jay Tea's essays and Kevin's T&A pictures. I read everything that's posted there, including stuff by Paul. I've even linked to Wizbang! posts, including some of Paul's. And I occasionally comment. But not on Paul's threads. It just isn't worth the agravation of tip-toeing around on egg shells to make sure I don't say something to p*** him off.

Will I miss him if he actually does leave? (Somewhere in that linkfest a few paragraphs back is a comment offering the over and under on when he'll be back.) Not really. As I said, he's not the reason I go there. And while I'll readily admit that he's a thousand times the writer I am, he can be replaced. Everyone can.

Linked to: Wizbang!'s Carnival of the Trackbacks, The Bullwinkle Blog's Moosetracks Open Trackbacks and Rightwingsparkle.

Something I Learned While Looking Up Something Else

2006-07-26T20:28:00.000-04:00

Earlier today, while I was writing the "Middle Of The Night Thoughts" post, I had cause to look up Winona Ryder , mostly to make sure I spelled her name right. And I discovered something odd.

Winona Ryder dyes her hair. Which admittedly isn't all that unusual. But how many natural blondes do you know who dye their hair black?

Puts a whole new perspective on that shoplifting episode, doesn't it?

If she'd said to the judge "Your Honor, I was just having a blonde moment", the judge probably would have tossed the charges. They understand these things in La-La Land.

Middle Of The Night Thoughts

2006-07-26T07:20:00.000-04:00

For some reason I got to thinking about Andy Warhol.

You remember him.

The guy who coined the phrase "famous for fifteen minutes".

The artist who is best remembered for a lithograph of a Campbell soup can.

The film maker best remembered for a bunch of soft-core porn films.

The social doyen best remembered for drug-fueled, sex-drenched parties with a guest list that included both the cream of the crop of the Beautiful People and the dregs of society, one of the latter of whom shot him.

The flamboyant gadfly who, to my knowledge, never returned to Pittsburgh from the time he moved to New York City to the day he was buried in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park.

And yet there is, just across the Seventh Street Bridge from Downtown Pittsburgh, a publicly-funded museum dedicated to the life and works of Andy Warhol.

I once heard a line in a movie trailer (I think it was Winona Ryder in Slackers) that went something like this:

"I may not be able to define irony, but I know it when I see it."

If Baseball Stadiums Could Talk...

2006-07-23T18:49:00.000-04:00

...PNC Park would probably be saying this.

From the Onion.

What To Do If Your Boyfriend Is A Sockpuppet

2006-07-23T07:18:00.000-04:00

What is a sockpuppet? I'm glad you asked. I'm not an authority, but as near as I can tell, sock puppets come in two types.

Type #1 is someone who writes a post on his/her blog, then makes comments about the post under different names and/or handles, to make it seem as if a lot of people agree with him/her. And, secondarily, to make it seem that there's more traffic on the blog than there actually is.

Type #2 is someone who goes to somebody else's blog and leaves a comment, perhaps under his/her own name or handle, then later returns and leaves more comments under different names and/or handles, all supporting his/her original comment. So why does this matter enough for me to post about it? Enter Glenn Greenwald, alleged moderate activist.

Greenwald operates a blog called Unclaimed Territory, an example of why paying writers by the word is a really bad idea. He's also written a book called How Would A Patriot Act?, which, according to the New York Times is selling quite briskly. Never mind the fact that Greenwald these days is more an expatriate than patriot, spending much of his time with his boyfriend living in Brazil.

A number of conservative bloggers, most notably Ace at Ace of Spades HQ and Patterico have accused Greenwald of Type #2 sock puppetry, based on the fact that a number of comments were left at their blogs, both by Greenwald and by commenters using other names, that defended Greenwald from attacks by Ace and Patterico, with all of the comments coming from the same IP address - Greenwald's - in Brazil.

Now Greenwald doesn't deny that the comments were made from his IP address. He does deny making any comments that weren't posted under his name, saying that they must have been posted without his knowledge or approval by his boyfriend or a visitor to his house. Interestingly enough, two of bloggerdom's brighter and more conservative lights, Kevin Aylward and Paul, both at Wizbang!, have bought, or at least not discounted this explanation, saying it's impossible to prove or disprove. This is probably true, but it hasn't prevented a rather nasty kerfuffle between Ace and Paul. What I'd like to know is why.

So Greenwald is probably lying. Well, duh! Liberals lie all the time, to themselves if no one else. They have to. It's the only way they can buy the "progressive" line on such things as capitalism being the root of all evil, that it's better to negotiate with rather than defend yourself from fanatics who refuse to acknowledge your right to exist , and quasi-socialist government being the savior of the species. If they didn't lie, the cognitive dissonance would drive them insane. And that 's why I can't understand why everybody's getting so worked up about it.

Just report it and move on. Save your outrage and flame wars for when you catch him and the rest of the progessive movement in important lies. Believe me, it'll save you a lot of heartburn. And Tagamet isn't cheap.

Update: I edited the fifth paragraph to make it clearer that I was talking about Greenwald's IP address in that paragraph. I also added the phrase "rather than defend yourself from" to the seventh paragraph after the word "negotiate" to better explain what I think is the logical alternative. All changes are in bold script. Changes made @ 5:03 PM, 7-23-2006

Update #2: This is at Wuzzadem. h/t to: Patterico, via Ace.

Trackbacked at: Wizbang! and Decision '08.

A Piece Of Advice...

2006-07-21T15:43:00.000-04:00

...for those times when you discover, whilst in the midst of a passionate encounter with the partner of your choice, that you don't have a condom handy.

Don't try substituting Saran Wrap. It doesn't work. Don't ask how I know. Just trust me on this.

"Rules" Of War

2006-07-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

Update: I just thought of something that should have been included in the original post. So, like George Lucas, I'm going to go back and add it. The additions will be in italics.

A great many on the left complain that we aren't treating the prisoners that we're holding at Guantanomo Bay and elsewhere fairly or humanely. That we should abide by the Geneva Conventions in our treatment of them . Okay, let's look at that:

The "insurgents" frequentlly target civilians with their weapons (car bombs and the like), use civilians as human shields , and try to hide among civilians when they're not attacking Coalition troops (and civilians). In violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The "insurgents" torture, mutilate and murder most of those that they take prisoner, soldier and civilian alike. In violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The "insurgents" use schools, hospitals, mosques and private homes as hiding places, weapons and ammo storage depots and fire bases from which to attack Coalition troops and civilians. In violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The "insurgents" wear no uniforms which would identify them as combatants and belong to no standing army. In violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Thus, under the terms of the Geneva Conventions, Coalition troops would be perfectly within their rights to execute these "insurgents" whenever and wherever they capture them. Or simply not bother trying to take them prisoner in the first place.

Works for me.

There. All done!

Trackbacked to: Decision '08 and Wizbang!

The Difference Between A Diet And A Hunger Strike

2006-07-09T20:55:00.000-04:00

AcademicElephant details the difference here. And reminds me, once again, of why I envy people who actually have writing talent.

h/t to: Mark at Decision '08.

Someone Stopped Taking Their Happy Pills

2006-07-09T03:25:00.000-04:00

Updated and bumped to the top.

So I was surfing various blogs and came across this in a thread at Protein Wisdom:

"...The USA is a sick, diseased, cancer, blight on the earth. This is a fact. You guys are in denial about it and hate the fact that I’ve got the chutzpah to hang here and tell it like it is..."

The woman who left this comment uses the handle southwestpaw and has a blog of the same name. Her real name is Deborah (or Debra) Frisch, I believe she has a PhD (in what I neither know nor care), she writes really bad poetry such as can be found here and here and in her spare time she likes to fisk the Declaration of Independence. She also apparently believes that the death of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone (D) in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 mid-term elections was an assasination (linked to in this post; scroll down and click on "Rethuglicans"). And that there's something fishy about the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on 9/11. In fact the only redeeming quality that she has (that I can find) is that she likes dogs.

Now I've got to admit, I'm not sure why I've written this post about her, or provided so many links to her blog. Nothing better to do maybe. A desire, perhaps, to see if exposure to sunlight will destroy her, like a vampire in a Hollywood flick. Or it could just be what I call Rubbernecker's Syndrome; the irresistible urge to slow down and look for blood and dead bodies as you're driving past a really bad automobile accident.

Maybe I'll go to her blog and ask her, if she truly believes the United States is "blight on the earth", why does she stay here? If I believed that, you couldn't get me to stay for love nor money. So why does she stay here? I'd really like to know.

Or not. Netflix just delivered Star Wars III.

Update: In the comments, Blake linked me to this at protein wisdom and the ensuing comments. This woman seriously needs help.

Update #2: Protein Wisdom is down because of a Denial of Service attack and has been for a couple of days. I doubt that "Dr." Frisch could do something like that herself. However one of her "admirers" might have (not necessarily at her request). We'll just have to wait and see.

Update #3: I still can't access Protein Wisdom with either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other people say they can. Any suggestions? And don't bother telling me to clear my cache. That was one of the first things I tried.

Anybody Got A Rope?

2006-07-07T23:30:00.000-04:00

From RealClearPolitics comes this by Ralph Peters, whose book "Never Quit the Fight" is due out July 10:

"Let's just hang those Marines accused in the Haditha incident. Get it over with. They don't need a court martial. They're guilty. The media already decided the case.

A few other Marines and soldiers are also accused of murder in Iraq. Save our tax dollars. Just hang them, too.

Forget the stresses of combat. Forget that war really is hell. Whatever you do, don't mention the atrocities committed by the terrorists or insurgents."

Read the rest of it.

h/t to: Right Equals Might, a far more prolific blogger, and a better man than I, who also posted this.

Update and another h/t to: Rightwingsparkle, one of my favorite bloggers, who started me on the link-fest that led me to Right Equals Might.

Fore!

2006-07-01T00:24:00.000-04:00

(Best to imagine the following being spoken in a thick, Irish brogue.)

Casey steps into the confessional, kneels, and says to Father Murphy "Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have taken the Lord's name in vain while playing golf."

Father Murphy: "I understand, me boy. I play a little meself, so I know how frustrating it can be. Tell me what happened."

Casey: "On the very first hole, I hit my tee shot 300 yards straight down the fairway, pretty as you please. But when it landed, it hit a sprinkler head and ricocheted into the rough."

Father Murphy: "A true pity, me boy. Tell me, is that when you took the Lord's name in vain?"

Casey: "No, Father. On me second shot, I hit a 2 iron that was a thing of beauty. It was headed straight for the green when it struck a bird flying overhead and caromed into a bunker."

Father Murphy: "Terrible luck, me boy, just terrible. Was that when you took the Lord's name in vain?"

Casey: "No, Father. I took me sand wedge and I blasted that ball out of that bunker and onto the green and it rolled straight towards the hole and stopped two inches short of the cup."

Father Murphy: "I don't understand, Casey. It looks like your luck was turning for the better there. Was that when you took the Lord's name in vain?'

Casey: "No, Father. I_

Father Murphy: J**** H. C*****! Don't tell me you missed a G** D*** two inch putt!!!

John McCain Joins The Blogosphere

2006-06-29T02:47:00.000-04:00

Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) has (alledgedly) written a post for the blog Porkbusters. (The link takes you to the first comment. Scroll up to read McCain's post.) The following is a comment I left there.

First of all, thank you for your service during the Vietnam War. You are, in that respect, a far better man than I ever was or ever will be.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about your service in the Senate. Whether it's earning a 100% rating on gun control from the left-wing site "Progressive Punch", caving into Vicente Fox and George Bush on the "guest-worker" (read "amnesty/open borders") policy or trashing the First Amendment just because you're too thin-skinned to handle criticism, you've managed to convince me that I wouldn't vote for you for dog catcher, let alone President of the United States.

I later went back and added a second comment.

Sorry, but I forgot to mention that I find your attempts to wrap yourself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan particularly repugnant.

That pretty much says it all as far as I'm concerned.

h/t to: Rightwingsparkle

Opposing Abortion: Not A Matter Of Faith (For Me)

2006-06-28T03:30:00.000-04:00

I recently got into a discussion over Rightwingsparkle's blog on the subject of abortion with a commenter named "andy", who also has his own blog here.

andy stated (paraphrasing here) that he thinks that abortion at seven months is wrong but not at one month (a moot point, I believe; I understand abortionists won't perform them any earlier then six weeks). He has also stated (in response to another commenter)

It's not a question of "is this alive?" but one of "do rights exist?"...

And just when does andy think a fetus acquires those rights?

As I've said here numerous times before, I would draw the line somewhere around 23-24 weeks, if specificity were possible, but to err on the side of safety probably closer to 20 weeks.

I base it on when the brain begins to exhibit those features and constructs that will give it distinctly human capabilities (although with the most recent research into primate brains, that "distinctly" may need to be revisited); in other words, when something beyond the "lizard brain" is formed.

Then, after andy had a go-round with another commenter (admittedly, a certifiable loon), I joined in:

"What I'm having trouble understanding is how you can say

No one says the embryo or the fetus is not human. The question is one of rights...

Then, in the very next sentence, say

Every skin cell you shed is human. A single liver cell of yours is human. The intestinal tissue you slough off with each crap is human by virtue of its DNA.

No, they aren't. They are the waste products of humans, incapable of thought, consciousness or reproduction once they've left the human body. Later (in another comment) you said

...I don't know of anyone, even the most staunch abortion supporters, that would argue that the embryo or fetus is not alive.

Okay, so we're in agreement; the zygot, embryo, fetus, whatchamacallit is alive and it's human. I think we can agree that if left in the mother's womb, it will usually develop into a baby, capable when it matures of conscious thought and self-awareness.

What I can't understand is how you can then say that the fetus has to wait 20 to 24 weeks from the time of conception to have the same rights as a fully developed human being. Why should its state of development determine whether or not the mother can decide that having a baby is too inconvenient for whatever reason and abort it? I just don't get it."

andy replied that the cells and tissue that I described as waste products (^^) are "...by virtue of their DNA, identifiably human". He then added

Further, an embryo is "incapable of thought, consciousness, (and) reproduction." A fetus (in support of my position) at some stage becomes capable of at least one, if not two, of them.

And what I'm saying is that a single human skin cell or liver cell or piece ..."of intestinal tissue you slough off with each crap..." is not capable of developing into a thinking, self-aware human being. An embryo, on the other hand, is. Unless it's aborted.

Then, in response to my question about the fetus' state of development determining whether it had any rights (^^), he replied

Because we need a rational way to decide when something is a human being with rights.

And when I asked why, he got flippant

You'd prefer an irrational way? I suppose that religious belief fits it perfectly then. (he and I are both atheists, something I reminded him of earlier.)

My point was (and he knew it; he's not as dense as he sometimes acts) that if an embryo or a fetus is both alive and human, then denying it the rights of a living human because it hasn't reached a certain level of development (particularly brain development) is both illogical and, to me at least, repugnant. And before anybody makes the analogy that an embryo and/or a first to late second trimester fetus has no more higher brain function then, say, Terri Schiavo, I'll say this: Terri Schiavo would not have developed higher brain function had she been allowed to live. An embryo or fetus will.

Some Things You Just Can't Make Up II...

2006-06-25T23:36:00.000-04:00

...like this. From somewhere in France (my guess would be Paris; they don't call it "Gay Paree" (sic) for nothing). And this is supposed to convince heterosexuals that homosexuals are just like everyone else except that they run on Direct Current instead of Alternating Current.

Now I don't really care who you make nice to. Heck, my life's ambition is for a certain redheaded cutie and her titian (sometimes) haired friend to make a fatman sandwich out of me. Which I guess makes me a dirty old man as well as a sexist pig. But not under Kaufmann's clock at high noon. (An obscure [for non - yinzers] reference to a very famous Pittsburgh landmark where people used to meet because everybody knew where it was. Back when people still went downtown. *sigh*)

This isn't "gay pride". It isn't about demanding fair and equal treatment for homosexuals. It's (mostly) not even about partying hearty and having a good time. It's about seeing just how revolting and obnoxious you (the militant homosexual community) can get before us (fairly) straight types start complaining so you can accuse us of being homophobes and of repressing you and demanding the courts do something about it. Don't believe me? Let me ask you, would you want your son, daughter, niece, nephew, whatever to get anywhere near that? Would you want to live next door to that?

h/t to: Ace of Spades via Rightwingsparkle.

Some Things You Just Can't Make Up...

2006-06-14T23:34:00.000-04:00

...like this:

X-Ray Of Duck Shows Image Of Alien In Stomach

h/t to Paul at Wizbang!

If Thine Eye Offend Thee...

2006-06-11T15:40:00.000-04:00

...find a new ophthalmologist.

I've been going to the same ophthalmologist for about five years now. She is, from a technical standpoint, very good. She did a excellent job of removing a cataract from my right eye back in 2001, so when the same problem cropped up in my left eye I eventually (after dealing with some other, more life-threatening problems) went back to her. And was reminded why I didn't see her more often.

The wait. Every time I've ever gone to her office I've been kept waiting at least an hour past my appointment time before she's seen me. This time was no exception. If I hadn't literally been blind in my left eye by this time I would have left and gone hunting for a new doctor. But since I didn't know how long it would take to find and get an appointment with a new ophthalmologist, I decided to grin and bear it.

Flash forward a month or so to the date of the surgery. I was told to be at the out-patient surgery center of a local hospital by 11:00 AM so I could be prepped for surgery, which was scheduled for 1:00 PM. Naturally no food after the previous midnight and no fluids except what I needed to take my morning medications. And since I couldn't eat I couldn't take any ibuprofen, which is my painkiller of choice. But okay, this is standard stuff and I'm a big boy (literally). I can deal with a little pain.

What I wasn't prepared to deal with was the wait. I got to the hospital and signed in at 10:35 AM. I then sat (with the friend who escorted me--the hospital rules stated that I needed an escort because of the sedative I was to be given) for two hours in the waiting room before I was finally taken back to a room to begin pre-op. After changing into a hospital gown (you know, the ones that flap in the back), I lay down on a gurney at around 1:00PM and waited some more.

At 2:30 PM a nurse came in and began administering five different kinds of eye drops to dilate my eye. She explained that this had to be done a total of four times at fifteen minute intervals. This obviously meant a wait of at least another hour. I asked her why my surgery was so far behind schedule and she had no answer.

Finally, at a little after 4:00 PM I was taken back to the operating room and surgery began. I'll spare you the gory details except to say that you wouldn't believe how hard it is to know which direction your eye is looking in when you can't see a damn thing (my right eye was covered with a surgical drape).

Finally, at around 5:00 PM, I was wheeled out of the operating room and into a recovery room. And after about another half hour, I prevailed upon the discharge nurse to let me (and the poor woman who was escorting me) leave. Before we left, we stopped at the hospital cafeteria to get something to eat. Big mistake. Either because of the sedative I was given to keep me calm or because getting the vision back in my left eye scrambled my brains even worse than usual, any sudden movement of my head caused vertigo and an accompanying urge to toss my cookies. I got home just in time to do that and then collapse into bed.

I was supposed to go into the office the next day (Friday) for a post-op examination but I was still too sick to do that, so I called the office and after some argument, we finally agreed to re-schedule for the following Tuesday at 1:45 PM. Naturally, when I got to the office--on time, I might add--I had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Finally, just as I was getting ready to leave at 3:30 PM, Her Highness deigned to receive me. After a few rather harsh words were exchanged, I went back to the examining room. And after another ten minutes or so and a cell phone call from someone I was supposed to meet at 3:00 PM, she examined me for five minutes, pronounced me good to go and told me to make another appointment to see her in two weeks.

The receptionist made the appointment while I sat there waiting to make a co-pay that it turned out I didn't owe (because it was a post-op visit). It was as I was waiting that I decided that I'd had enough. I didn't say anything to them at the time; given my mood and the doctor's temperment it would have degenerated into a screaming match and I wasn't up for that. But after I left the office and I was rolling home in my wheelchair I called my primary care physician (who never keeps me waiting like that) and got a recommendation for another ophthalmologist. Hopefully one who has as much respect for my time as I have for his.

Al-Zarqawi Speaks...

2006-06-10T19:25:00.000-04:00

...more or less. Iowahawk has the latest from Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (the Z-man, to us infidels) who lets us know just what we can expect if we ever end up in Paradise. (At least if we're head-lopping terrorists who send kids out to die as suicide bombers.)

Maybe the Iowahawk commentary is why he was a little less than forthcoming with Jeff at Protein Wisdom. Didn't want to use up all his best material.

Very strong language at both sites.

Update: Apparently you can't keep a good head-chopping terrorist down; the Z-man has revealed a...different side of himself and imparts a little more inside info on what it's like to be a dead mass murdering scumbag. Again, very strong language.

Where Does It End?

2006-06-03T08:12:00.000-04:00

Thursday afternoon, a baby was found in a toilet at Brighton High School in Boston Ma.

The story, which ran in the Friday Boston Herald, stated that the baby's age, race and sex couldn't be immediately determined because the child was jammed in the toilet, possibly after being flushed. The body was discovered by a janitor, who was working to clear the clogged toilet. The find comes three weeks after workers at a water treatment plant in Suffolk County discovered the severed arm of a baby. Both cases remain under investigation.

Now, according to the article, Massachusetts is one of forty-eight states that have passed a "Safe Haven" law, which allows mothers to drop off unwanted babies at hospitals, fire halls and police stations within seven days of the child's birth without fear of prosecution as long as the child hasn't been abused. And I'll bet I'm on pretty safe ground in saying Massachusetts probably has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the nation. So why did this poor baby end up jammed into a toilet?

Maybe it's because in the thirty-three years since Harry Blackmun found a non-existent right to privacy in the Constitution, we've pushed quality of life to the forefront over sanctity of life. We've managed to abort over forty million babies. The Supreme Court has put it's imprimatur on physician-assisted suicide in Oregon. Right after Terri Schiavo was put down by her husband in Florida, a woman in Georgia named Beth Gaddy decided that it was time for her grandmother, eighty-one year old Mae Magouirk, who had glaucoma and a serious but not necessarily terminal heart condition, to go home to Jesus. So she stuck her in a hospice and ordered that she be denied food and fluids. Never mind that her grandmother had a living will which stated that this should not be done unless she (Mrs. Magouirk) was terminally ill, comatose or in a persistent vegetative state. None of which she was. She eventually died after she was moved to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center by her nephew.

We've cheapened life. If a life is inconvenient (like a baby's) or we don't think it's worth living (like the enfeebled elderly or the sick) we end it. We encourage people to end their own lives if they feel it isn't worth living. In Switzerland an organization called Dignitas will help you kill yourself no matter why you want to do it. And the Dutch are euthanizing babies (only terminally ill ones--so far). Where does it end?

Hat tips to: Jay Tea & Paul at Wizbang; Jay Tea blogged on the story from Boston, while Paul blogged on the AP report on Dutch infanticide.

Linked to: Wizbang's Carnival of the Trackbacks & The Bullwinkle Blog's MooseTracks Open Trackbacks.

In Memory Of...

2006-05-29T15:20:00.000-04:00

A couple of things I ran across while surfing the Milblogs daily archives at The Mudville Gazette:

The first (h/t to Argghhh!) is a beautiful tribute to Robert D. Kent, Captain, United States Marine Corp, who didn't make it back from Vietnam.

The second, by a fellow named Steve Schippert, can best be described as The MilBlog Manifesto, a statement about why these people work so hard, not just to defeat the terrorists (not insurgents) in Iraq, but to tell the whole story of Iraq, not just what gets filtered through the MSM's prejudices and agenda.

Just as I was finishing this, I heard that a embedded CBS news crew had been hit by a carbomb in Baghdad's Tahariyat Square. An as-yet unidentified soldier in the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, was killed, as well as cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, was critically wounded. My deepest sympathies to the families of the fallen and my wishes for a speedy and hopefully full recovery for Ms. Dozier.

Correction: The car bomb that killed Paul Douglas and James Brolan and wounded Kimberly Dozier, as well as killing a U.S. Army infantryman, was in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad. My apologies for the mistake.

True Blue! TrueBlue! Come Back, True Blue!

2006-05-29T04:18:00.000-04:00

It's the end of an era.

While I was sick, my favorite left-wing blog, Blue Flypaper, went belly-up. Now this may not mean much to you, but commenting there and teasing True Blue was one of the few pleasures in my otherwise sorry existence. And I can't help but think that it's my fault. If I hadn't gotten sick and stopped blogging and commenting I might have seen it coming and helped True Blue through whatever crisis caused her to give up blogging. I let her down. How will I be able to live with myself again?!

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again ---James Taylor

If Anyone Is Out There...

2006-05-03T16:17:00.000-04:00

...and you're planning on going to see the movie United 93, how about letting me know what you think of it? I'm not sure I'm up to handling it myself.

I Have A Question:

2006-04-30T02:11:00.000-04:00

... just how much of the oil we use actually goes into our gas tanks?

Think about it for a minute. Sure, we use a lot of the oil we produce to power our cars, generate electicity and to heat our homes (thankfully, I don’t). But I’m willing to bet my last Social Security check that we use far more oil to make the plastics that have replaced wood, metal and glass in our buildings, the man-made fibers that have replaced wool, cotton and linen in our clothes and the plastics that we use for food containers, medical equipment and cooking utensils. Heck, the Australians replaced paper money with polypropylene money.

Now I’ll admit I don’t know just how much oil we use for for power generation (including cars) and how much we use for plastics, lubricants and who knows what else. But if we really want to get serious about reducing our dependence on oil, we’re going to have to start reducing–sharply–our dependence on plastics.

For a more comprehensive take on this subject, check out Jeff Harrell at The Shape of Days:

http://theshapeofdays.com/2005/09/petroleum_isnt_.html

(Originally printed in the comments' section of an open thread--the very first ever!--at Decision '08 and linked to Wizbang's Carnival of the Trackbacks LXI.)

I'm Back!!!!!

2006-04-26T18:53:00.000-04:00

Testing, testing...is this thing on?

Oh, hi there. What with cleaning the dust and cobwebs off of everything, I didn't see you sneak in there. As you can see I haven't posted anything in a long time. Between anemia and pneumonia, I've been a little busy lately just trying not to croak. But I'm sure you don't care about that. You're just trying to kill a few minutes by roaming through the blogosphere. I understand. I'll do my best not to bore you. But if I do, well...don't let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

2005-12-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

So I was listening to KDKA (AM 1020) in the 'burgh, trying to get a weather report ahead of yesterday's snow storm, and I happened to tune in near the beginning of Fred Honsberger's show.

Fred's a conservative, as am I. But he's also a smug, arrogant, self-satisfied...jerk. I almost never listen to him and usually end up regretting it when I do. But this time was different. This time, he actually said something that made sense.

Now property tax relief is a hot-button issue here in PA, and probably around the country. What Fred suggested was this: let's tax porn.

Now those who know me well will undoubtedly be surprised to hear me endorse this idea (don't bother asking why; I ain't talkin'). But aside from state sales taxes (if you buy it at a porn shop and a few on-line purveyors) and of course personal and corporate income taxes, the porn industry doesn't really pay taxes on its sales the way companies that sell, say, gasoline or cigarettes or alcoholic beverages do. So why not?

In fact, the only problem I had with the idea was that Honsberger didn't take it far enough. He proposed a twenty-five percent federal tax on porn sales which, according to Fred, amount to twelve billion dollars a year. That would bring in three billion a year, which the porn makers would simply pass on to the consumer. And of course the states could enact their own taxes as well. That's chicken feed. We need to go further. We need to legalize prostitution, gambling and most forms of recreational drugs as well, and tax them!

Think about it for a minute. We're already halfway there with gambling. Nearly every state has a lottery and lots of states allow horse racing, dog racing and off-track-betting. How difficult would it be to go the whole hog and legalize sports betting, full fledged casinos (instead of the slots parlors PA is legalizing) or anything else people might want to bet on? Why let Nevada and Atlantic City monopolize the market?

As for prostitution, the only difference between taking a woman (or a man, for that matter) out to dinner, buying them expensive gifts, taking them to movies, etc. and instead just handing them the money to do with as they please is that you cut out the middleman (or woman, as the case may be).

Now don't misunderstand me; I'm not equating what I've just described with trying to establish a long-term relationship. That's something entirely different. But how many of you have gone out with someone that you just knew wasn't Ms. (or Mr.) Right, but was Ms. (or Mr.; ain't political correctness a hoot?) Right now?

The most controversial proposal (and one I didn't get to talk about with Honsberger; the twit hung up on me) is drug legalization. Yes, I know what it's like to live with someone who abuses drugs or alcohol (both of my grandfathers and all three of my brothers) and I'm here to tell you that the fact that drugs are illegal didn't stop them, or even slow them down. All drug Prohibition does is make a pile of money for a lot of Black, Hispanic and Asian gang-bangers. Just as alcohol Prohibition made a lot of money for a lot of Italian, Jewish and Irish mobsters. Proof, I guess, that you can be a scumbag no matter what your religious, racial or ethnic background.

Now I'm not saying let's legalize all drugs. Hallucinogenics like LSD, PCP, methamphetamine and the like are too dangerous. And the date rape drugs (GHB, Rohypnol, Ketamine) serve no useful purpose except to facilitate sexual assault. But marijuana, hashish, even heroin and cocaine (including crack)? Go for it. If someone wants to destroy their brains and bodies with that garbage, then who are we to say they can't? Hopefully, they'll be too busy getting stoned to procreate, which has got to be good for the gene pool.

Full disclosure: While I did occasionally drink before I was twenty-one, I've never had a drinking "problem". I didn't like getting drunk because I usually ended up saying or doing something stupid. After one such episode over the July 4th weekend in 1986, I said "to hell with this" and quit. I haven't had a drink since. And I've never even tried recreational drugs. Not so much as a hit off of a joint. As for pharmaceuticals, most of the "good stuff" like Vicodan, Percodin, morphine and Dilaudid (all of which I've used after various surgeries) either raised my blood pressure to unacceptable levels or made me toss my cookies. So I'm not interested in legalizing this crap for my own use.

I'm not going to pretend to know how much money in taxes we'd bring in under my plan. It would, I suspect, run into the billions. Maybe tens of billions. More importantly, it would give us control over these so-called "victim-less crimes" that we just don't have now. It would also save us the cost of trying to enforce unenforcable laws and running these losers through the criminal justice system. And if you don't believe that, just ask yourself this: which worked better, the Prohibition of alcohol, or the legalization and regulation of alcohol?

Calling David Letterman

2005-12-16T02:38:00.000-05:00

Mark at Decision '08 has come up with a list of the Top Ten reactions to the Iraqi elections by commenters at the Daily Kos. And the funniest (or maybe saddest) part is, they're all real. Check it out.

What's Dave Littlefield Up To?

2005-12-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

(Ed. note--This is the first in an occasional series about my hometown baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. If you don't like baseball and/or the Pirates, you'll want to skip this one.)

The Pirates' general manager, Dave Littlefield, was fairly busy during the recent Winter Meetings in Dallas, either making, or laying the groundwork for the following deals:

He traded disappointing LHP Mark Redman (and all of his 4.5 million dollar salary) to Kansas City for two minor league pitching prospects, RHPs Jonah Bayliss and Chad Blackwell.

He traded INF/OF Rob Mackowiak to Chicago for LHP Damaso Marte, one of the better setup men in the majors.

He released disappointing Ty Wigginton, his Opening Day starter at 3B, to make room for Victor Santos, a journeyman RHP taken in the Rule 5 Draft.

He appears to have agreed to a one year deal with 41 year-old RHP Roberto Hernandez, who's coming off a pretty good season with the Mets.

But the deal that has everyone talking was the one announced Thursday, when the Bucs made it official: they had traded LHP Dave Williams, who battled back from shoulder surgery in 2002 to post the best record of any member of the Bucs' Opening Day starting rotation, for Cincinnati Reds 1B Sean Casey, a Pittsburgh native.

Now Sean Casey is, by all accounts, a genuinely nice guy, a team leader and a great clubhouse presence. Being a hometown boy, he's the perfect goodwill ambassador for the team. On the field, he's a lifetime .305 hitter and the best defensive first baseman the Pirates have had since Kevin Young still had knees. And yet...

He'll also be thirty-two by the end of the '06 season, and a free agent. While he does hit for average, in eight full seasons in the majors, he's only hit twenty or more HRs three times, never more than twenty-five, and he hit nine last year (playing with a shoulder injury that Littlefield had better pray has healed). He's never had one hundred RBI in a single year (he has had ninety-nine a couple of times). And he'll be payed eight-and-one-half million dollars in '06 (the Reds are picking up some of that). And it isn't as if the Pirates didn't have other options at first base.

There's hot prospect Brad Eldred, who hit twelve HRs and had twenty-seven RBI in one-hundred-ninety at bats last year. Of course he also hit just .221 and struck out seventy-seven times, so maybe he's not quite ready yet. But what about Craig Wilson?

Last year was a lost year for Craig. He got off to a slow start, then tore a muscle in his left hand and ended up on the disabled list. Less than a week after he was re-activated from the DL. he was hit by a pitch in the same hand, suffered a broken finger and it was back on the DL. Still, some comparisons are possible:

In one-hundred-ninety-seven at bats last year Craig had five HR, twenty-two RBI and a .264 BA. And he strikes out a lot: sixty-nine times compared to forty-eight times in five-hundred-twenty-nine AB for Casey. But his slugging percentage (.421) was about the same as Casey's (.423), while his on-base-percentage (.387) was higher than Casey's (.371). And while Casey is easily the better of the two defensively, it would be interesting to see what Craig could do if he were allowed to concentrate on one position instead of having to check the lineup card to see which glove he needs that day. And he did hit twenty-nine HRs and had eighty-two RBI in '04.

Now I'm not suggesting that Craig Wilson is the long-term answer for the Pirates at first base; Brad Eldred is (we hope). But neither is Sean Casey. Which is why I can't figure out why Littlefield, whose Grail is pitching, would trade his most successful starter (even if he was the fifth starter) for a player who (hopefully, if Eldred develops as planned) will be a one year rental. Especially given the Pirates' desperation at third base and in right field.

Ruffled Feathers

2005-12-02T09:40:00.000-05:00

Over at Random Numbers, bullwinkle is having more fun with PhotoShop.

Cocktails For One, Appetizers For None

2005-11-27T19:15:00.000-05:00

There is an organization, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, which calls itself Dignitas. Its motto? "Live with dignity, die with dignity." Its stated goal: to assist anyone who wants to die to commit suicide.

Recently, an unnamed, sixty-nine-year old woman from Augsberg, Bavaria, Germany, used the services of Dignatas to commit suicide and escape a slow, painful death from cirrhosis of the liver. Now this is legal in Switzerland, though not (I think) in Germany. But since the act took place in Zurich, there was no problem, right?

Well, not exactly. Seems the woman was suffering from depression, not cirrhosis. In fact, an autopsy conducted later in Germany showed that the woman was in good physical health, and that the medical report she used to convince Dignitas that she was dying had been falsified by her unnamed general physician.

Now the GP claims he "knows nothzing...nothzing!" (Sergeant Shultz, anyone?) and says he falsified the report so the woman could get time off from work. That'll be cold comfort to the unnamed doctor who helped the woman kill herself; he committed suicide.

Dignitas was founded by one Ludwig Minnelli, who had this to say:

"The doctor's report that I was given indicated the woman was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver as well as hepatitis. And in any case every person in Europe has the right to choose to die, even if they are not terminally ill."

Hans-Juergen Kolb, senior prosecutor for Augsberg has said that an investigation into both doctors has begun. ""We are co-operating with the Swiss authorities," said Kolb, according to the UK's Times on Line. "Post mortem reports have already shown that she was not suffering from irreversible liver damage, and if we find that her mental health was in doubt the charges could be more serious."" Hmmm...sounds like Dignitas and/or the GP needs a lawyer. I wonder if George Felos is available. (Michael Schiavo's attorney, for those of you with short memories.)

Dignitas was founded by Minnelli in 1998 and has helped four-hundred-fifty-three people commit suicide since then. An office in Hanover was opened last month, in the hopes of advancing Minnelli's pro-euthanasia agenda in Germany, which has generally resisted the pro-suicide/euthanasia movement in Europe (gee, I wonder why).

"Regional justice minister for Lower Saxony, Elisabeth Heister-Neumann, charged Minelli with being financially motivated. "Making poisonous cocktails available has deviated into pure business, and medical reports are being misused as an excuse," she emphasized."

No, I think she's wrong there. IMHO, people like Minelli and Felos do this for the thrill of knowing that they've taken a human life and that no one can touch them for it. Many even praise them for it. It must make them feel like gods.

In his own words,

"Minelli told the UK's Telegraph last year that Dignitas would gladly assist anyone to die, "irrespective of medical condition. It does not matter what people are suffering from, we do not refuse anyone.""

Creepy. But if you've got $2,400, a one-way ticket to Zurich, and you really want to get away from it all (literally), this could be the chance of a (much shorter) lifetime.

Linked to Wizbang's Carnival of the Trackbacks (I hope).

New Blogger

2005-11-25T01:15:00.000-05:00

There's a new blog on the block called WORDS. The young woman behind WORDS is an extremely compelling writer. So far her subjects have included fear of firearms, drug and/or alcohol abuse problems and sexual abuse. She deserves a wider audience, so go on over there and give her one. And a few encouraging comments wouldn't hurt either.

h/t to alandp @ Blognomicon

An Open E-Mail To Rick Santorum

2005-11-18T05:52:00.000-05:00

A copy of an e-mail I sent to Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) about this and this:

"I was both shocked and appalled by your craven decision to vote for S. Amendment 2518, which can accurately be described as the "Cowardly Senate Act ofSurrender of 2005." I always knew you were both arrogant and self-centered, even when I was volunteering for your 1994 Senate campaign and voting for you twice. But I also always thought you had a spine. Apparently I was wrong.

That, and voting for you, are mistakes I promise I won't make again."

Now I didn't bother sending any such message to Snarlin' Arlen Specter (R-PA) (he also voted for it) simply because I expected no better from him. I did expect better from lil' Ricky. So I guess it's time to make Santorum live up to the term limits pledge that was such an integral part of the GOP's *Contract With America* in 1994.

h/t to Mark at Decision '08 & Hugh Hewitt

In Their Own Words

2005-11-16T03:12:00.000-05:00

Looks like someone finally woke 'em up over at GOP.com. Click on the big button marked "PLAY NOW".

(I hope they break this up into thirty-second commercials.)

Big h/t to Rightwingsparkle.

Update: The link to GOP.com now takes you to their homepage. This one will take you to their multi-media page; scroll down to *More Video* and click on *Play Now* for the video *Democrats: Dishonest on Iraq*. And while you're in there, check out the television commercial "Harry Reid and The Democrats: Dishonest on Iraq."

Calling Mr. Ripley

2005-11-14T23:47:00.000-05:00

From WKMG, Local 6.com in Central (Orlando) Florida comes this:

"Thai Tourists Warned Of Sedative-Spitting Transvestites"

You've got to be kidding me.

"Members of a Thai transvestite gang have confessed to hiding strong sedatives in their mouths and spitting them down the throats of victims during deep kissing. Then they rob the drugged tourists."

No word on how the trannys managed to keep from being knocked out by the drugs themselves.

h/t to Paul at Wizbang

I Did It!

2005-11-12T23:48:00.000-05:00

I sent my very first trackblock to Wizbang's Carnival of the Trackbacks here, using Wizbang's Stand-Alone Trackback Tool, designed by Kevin Aylward, the Wizbang Commander-in-Chief. If not for that, I'd have been a year trying to figure it out (and probably would have failed).

Thanks, Kevin

Dear Congressman Doyle...

2005-11-12T08:17:00.000-05:00

The following will be sent to my congressman, Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA14).

Dear Mr. Doyle:

I have a small web log, or *blog* at http://htfdidthishappen.blogspot.com/ called the *The fatman chronicles--all hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here* and it has come to my attention that on November 3, 2005, the Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R.1606) was brought before a roll-call vote of the House and that you voted against it. I was wondering why.

Could it be that you truly believed that leaving blogs unregulated would lead to obscene amounts of "soft" money being spent on them to affect elections? Like the $63,000,000 that George Soros, Herb and Marion Sandler and Peter Lewis spent on various 527's trying to beat George W. Bush last November?

Maybe you figured that if you threw us bloggers a bone like H.R. 4194, which won't offer protection to unincorporated bloggers, or to incorporated bloggers who endorse candidates or urge donations to them, that we would be happy with that and lick your boots in gratitude.

Of course, if bloggers had been effectively muzzled in 2004, the lie behind Dan Rather's and Mary Mapes' TANG memo forgeries would have gone undiscovered. And "news" organizations like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Reuters, AP, Fox, the New York Times and the Washington Post would be able to keep their stranglehold on what gets into the news and how it's presented. But I'm sure those thoughts never crossed your mind.

Or maybe it's just a matter of another in the long line of back-bench lapdogs who've represented Pittsburgh following the orders of of a House leadership that seems very uncomfortable with anyone who speaks and disseminates anything other than the party line.

But I guess it doesn't really matter, since whatever you and/or the FEC do won't effect what I do. You see, I've taken the Pledge:

"If the FEC makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion on core political issues, I will not obey those rules."

Now you may point out that the Supreme Court has already ruled on this, and that's true. But the Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that seperate-but-equal was also constitutionally acceptable. Fifty-eight years later, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Court reversed that abominable decision. Hopefully it won't take that long this time.

I'm posting this as an entry on my blog, along with any comments I may get.

More Pearls Before Swine

2005-11-02T03:57:00.000-05:00

The following is a question asked by a blogger called Socialist Swine, of the blog Capitalist Pig vs. Socialist Swine. I was going to reply at that blog, but as my reply got longer and longer in my head, I decided to do it here and then offer a link. (This is going to be a long one.)

"A question for my more right wing readers....

Tonight I was reading about Samuel Alito, the new SCOTUS nominee, and, from what I've read, it seems that Alito has historically seemed to be rather unfriendly to civil rights cases. While I was reading this it occurred to me that from my experience it seems that those who lean to the far right tend to oppose (or at least don't think much of) various civil rights laws and civil rights activists. So my question is, why is this? For what reason could anybody think that furthering the cause of civil rights is a bad idea?

-Socialist Swine"

Actually, SS, you're starting from a faulty premise; that most civil rights laws are used to further civil rights, when they're actually used to foster dependency among those that they're allegedly supposed to help.

Take affirmative action for example. When it was first introduced in the late sixties, the late Senator and Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey swore that it would never become a quota system. Yet by the mid-seventies, that's exactly what it was. Non-profits, for-profit companies large and small and local, state and most federal government institutions (but not Congress; they exempted themselves) could be--and were--painted as racists and sued if they didn't hire enough minorities and promote them fast enough, regardless of qualifications. Later, this exercise in bean-counting was extended to women's rights as well, forcing, among other things, smaller colleges to cut mens' athletic programs in order to ensure that men weren't getting more opportunities to participate in such programs than women were. (Most such colleges didn't have the money to increase womens' programs.) Physical standards were lowered so women could get onto police forces and fire departments and into the military. This may sound good and fair in theory, but if you're a two hundred pound man overcome by smoke in a burning building, do you really want to trust your life to a one hundred pound fireperson, in the name of diversity and equal rights?

Then came lending laws. Banks and savings and loans were forced to relax the standards by which they determined the credit-worthiness of minorities and women. Never mind that this would drive up the number of defaults on loans. Just raise the interest rates and fees on the people who could repay their loans. And if that meant that some people had to forget about that new car or house because they couldn't afford the higher rates and fees, well them's the breaks, as my grandpappy would say. .

The long range effect of all this was to create a class of people who no longer felt it necessary to work to improve themselves. If they weren't strong enough, smart enough, well educated enough or ambitious enough, no problem. Just scream "Discrimination!" loud enough and long enough and someone like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton would show up and shake somebody down for jobs and monetary damages (including a nice little cut for themselves, like that Anheuser-Busch wholesale beer distributorship in Chicago for Jonathon and Yusef Jackson).

Though less of a race issue and more one of social and economic class, welfare had the same effect. Entire generations have grown up not knowing anything but a system that was, to paraphrase the otherwise unlamented former U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, designed by slave masters. Under the U.S. system, an unmarried woman with children who claims she doesn't know who the father(s) is/are qualifies for full cash and medical assistance and food stamps. If, on the other hand, she identifies the father and he's able-bodied and presumed employable, she may get cash, medical assistance and food stamps for a few months out of the year, depending on what state she lives in. You can guess what that's done to the percentage of kids growing up in single-parent households, especially among blacks. Boy grows up, fathers as many children by as many women as he wants and lets the state pay for it. Girl grows up, has as many children as she wants by anybody she wants and lets the state pay for it. They may not have set out to have kids like that, but that's what ends up happening. And there is no better way to ensure growing up in poverty than to be born into a single-parent household. Things are improving, thanks in no small part to the welfare reforms a Republican Congress managed to ram down Bill Clinton's throat in the mid-nineties, but it's going to take decades to undo the damage of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society".

What's really galling is the education system in the U.S. Minorities and the poor in this country are pretty much at the mercy of the public system. And thanks to unions like the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), allied with liberals sitting on school boards across the nation, it's virtually impossible to enforce minimum competency standards on teachers and schools. And where do you think most of the poorly equipped schools and burned-out teachers end up? And throwing more money at the problem won't work. Last time I checked (admittedly, it's been several years), the U.S. spends more money per student on education than any industrialized country except Switzerland. Yet we routinely end up on the short end of every measuring stick used to determine how well educated our children are.

Then there are the so-called civil rights organizations like the ACLU, which has refined its scam into a work of art. Find a small-to-medium sized city that has something like, say, a cross in its city seal. Threaten to sue over separation of church and state issues. City agrees to remove the offending cross. ACLU then bills, and is paid by the city, for attorneys' fees and legal expenses. Nice work if you can get it. And Amnesty International, which used to do good work, lost me when they compared the treatment of Islamofascist prisoners at Gitmo to the horrors of the Soviet-era gulags. Being forced to sleep in a room with the air conditioner set to maximum is not the equivalent of being beaten, starved and worked to death in Siberia.

As for Judge Alito, liberals and outright leftists fear him because they think he's an originalist. A judge who bases his rulings on statutory and constitutional issues on what the statute or constitutional article or amendment says, not on what he thinks it should say. A judge who believes that laws should be made by the people and their elected representatives, not by an unelected and unaccountable judiciary issuing fiats from the bench. That's what they fear. Because they know that their agenda--a cradle-to-grave nanny state with them in charge--hasn't got a snowball's chance of being enacted by people who have to face the voters every two, four or six years. And they may be right about him. I certainly hope they are.

Religion Of Peace?!

2005-11-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

An eight year old Iranian boy was caught stealing bread. This was his punishment.

Warning: This is not for the easily (or even not so easily) upset. I also wouldn't view this at work (unless you have your co-workers convinced you suffer from Tourette's Syndrome.)

@ Bare Knuckle Politics; h/ts to Canuckistan Chronicles & Stop The ACLU.

Update: It appears that I may have jumped the gun on this one. A number of commenters at Bare Knuckle Politics have suggested that what's happening in those photos isn't punishment, it's some form of sick, twisted, degenerate entertainment. But even if true, the perpetrators of this disgusting sideshow ought to be hung up by their ankles and flogged.

Of Gypsies, Swine And fatmen

2005-10-31T09:56:00.000-05:00

I recently ran into a commenter at the blog Capitalist Pig vs. Socialist Swine who calls herself sb gypsy. She took exception to a comment I had made about preferring our chances of dealing with Saddam Hussein militarily rather diplomatically. That, in turn, had been in to response to a post by socialist swine concerning pre-war diplomatic efforts to get Saddam to relinquish power and go into exile. (Reuters story at Yahoo! News) With two minor editing changes (see if you can spot them), this was my reply:

sb gypsy said:

"Sorry, I don't like our chances this way. That poor country is going to be experiencing war for many, many years because of what Bushco did,"

As opposed to experiencing the wars Saddam started by invading his neighbors and attacking the Kurds with chemical weapons.

"and the world will end up with all that oil controlled by theocrats."

I thought a sizable portion of the Iraqi oil fields lay in Iraqi Kurdistan. They aren't theocrats, are they? And I somehow doubt that the Iraqi Shi'ites will be able to, or even try to, run roughshod over the forty percent of the country that isn't Shi'ite. Even with the help of the Iranians, which I suspect they won't get because a) they (the Iraqi Shi'ites) have engaged in and supported the democratic process so far, and b) the Iranians aren't Arabs, they're Persians. And yes, it does matter. To Iranians, anyway.

"Women could walk the streets with their faces warmed by the sun before we got there. Not so now(or in the forseeable future)."

As opposed to being thrown into an Iraqi prison and being beaten, raped and murdered in front of their husbands, fathers and brothers. To get those men to confess to crimes that they hadn't committed. And of course, for the pleasure and entertainment of Uday Hussein. And if all Iraqi women are being forced to wear veils, I haven't noticed it in the photographs I've seen. Indeed, wearing a veil was, I believe, "discouraged" by the Hussein regime as a sign of religious extremism.

"Children could walk to school without an armed guard before we got there, not so now."

Funny, but I thought that the level of violence in Iraq had dropped dramatically. And that the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police were doing a much better job of dealing with it themselves, with Coalition troops as backup, rather than standing around waiting for the Coalition troops to bail them out. But then I read things like

http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/

and what would he know?

"Bushco messed up. He cannot even begin to clean up his mess. He blew it."

No, the only "Bushco" who "blew it" is Bush the Elder, who had the chance to support the Shi'ites and the Kurds in 1991 as THEY took out Saddam. He didn't. Leaving Bush the Younger to clean up the mess.

Remembering The Original Rosa Parks

2005-10-31T09:37:00.000-05:00

...thanks to Paul at Wizbang.

How Do You Negotiate

2005-10-31T04:03:00.000-05:00

...with animals like this?

A Last Word On Miers

2005-10-28T03:58:00.000-04:00

As hoped for (by me, at least), Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court. Some, like Hugh Hewitt in a New York Times editorial, and Mark at Decision '08, are decrying the fact that Miers never got a hearing or a vote. Others, such as David Frum at National Review Online, and Patterico's Pontifications are openly celebrating, or at least not shedding any tears.

As for me...

I'm sad that it came to this. I'm disappointed that President Bush would submit a nominee whose most ardent supporters could only come up with platitudes in her defense that I expounded on here. I'm angry that the President would open himself--and by extension, his supporters--to charges of more cronyism so soon after Michael D. Brown and the Katrina fiasco. And I'm relieved that we won't be seeing the spectacle of Arlen Specter and other Senate Republicans tearing Miers to shreds--and by all accounts she wouldn't have deserved that--in Judiciary Committee hearings and on the floor of the Senate.

As for what happens next, some have speculated that the protest of, and subsequent withdrawal of Miers has weakened the President, and by extension, the GOP. To which I say: Maybe they deserved to be weakened.

Now I don't even want to think about a Hillary presidency or Democratic control of Congress (especially at the same time; *shudder*), but after two straight Presidential election wins and control of both Houses of Congress (except for the few months after Jim Jeffords [I-VT] jumped ship) for over a decade, maybe we need a wake-up call. A reminder that if we want to continue to win elections, or more accurately, continue to deserve to win elections, we might want to start doing what we said we'd do when we were running for office. Like curbing the deficit by reducing spending and shrinking government. By securing our borders. And by appointing judges who know and understand the law (both constitutional and statutory) and who base their rulings on that knowledge and understanding. Not on their religious beliefs or what's in their hearts.

As for "where do we go from here?", I don't know. If I was running the show, I'd be trying to point out that the Miers nomination was an attempt by the President to find a nominee who was a conservative, but who wouldn't provoke another Democrat-led filibuster. About how principled conservatives value competence over everything else, even their own short-term interests. About how we, at least, don't ask "How high?" when our putative leaders say "Jump."

And then I'd start looking for the most uber-qualified nominee I could find.

Getting Your Knickers All Twisted Up

2005-10-25T17:02:00.000-04:00

Some people will steal anything. From the Boston Herald.

via Jay Tea at Wizbang. (The post is mainly about illegal immigration, but the link I got is in there.)

So You Want To Work For Peta...

2005-10-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

...here's your chance, courtesy of The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns.

"I oppose the Miers nomination."

2005-10-24T03:46:00.000-04:00

That's the answer to the question being asked at the truth laid bear . N.Z. Bear wants to know who in the blogosphere supports the Miers nomination, who opposes it and who's still sitting on the fence.

Now I'm certainly no constitutional scholar or lawyer. Heck, I never even went to college. So where do I get off thinking I'm qualified to judge Miers' (pun intended) qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court? Simple; I can read.

I've read, among other things:

Ms. Miers is a past president of the Texas Bar Association. So? The fact that she could get herself elected to that post, while a notable accomplishment, isn't particularly relevant to her qualifications for a lifetime appointment to the one Court in this country that can't be over-ruled on appeal.

She shares the President's judicial philosophy. Which is? I may be wrong, but as far as I know, the President has never practiced law and doesn't have a law degree. Which means his judicial philosophy, while it may carry more weight since he's the President, isn't any more valid than mine.

She's a deeply religous evangelical Christian. And that, I presume, is supposed to placate Christian conservatives. Now being an atheist doesn't mean that I'm opposed to deeply religious people holding public office. In fact, if they're true believers, maybe they'll be more honest and honorable in their actions. But it shouldn't be assumed that a person's strongly held religious beliefs automatically make that person competent to hold that office. Any more than not having such beliefs affects their competence.

She's contributed to pro-life causes and supported a constitutional ban on abortion. Unfortunately that doesn't tell anyone how she might vote in cases like Kelo v. New London, on whether McCain-Feingold is constitutional, or even on the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade. She could very well believe that Roe is settled constitutional law and the only way to overturn it is through an amendment. And if you don't think any of those cases are going to show up on the Court's doorstep again, consider this: In the1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court enshrined "seperate but equal" (Jim Crow segregation) as the law of the land, despite three constitutional ammendments that said otherwise (13th, 14th and 15th). In 1954, the Court revisited the issue in Brown v. Board of Education and changed its mind.

She's a stickler for detail. Not when it came to filling out the standard Senate questionaire citing her experience and qualifications. And not in her answers to Senators' questions during her courtesy calls on them, where she answered more than a few questions with "I'll have to bone up on that."

There are other reasons, most notably her apparent support for minority set-asides (not just affirmative action, which would be bad enough). But what really worries me is the fact that this is a lifetime appointment. If she turns out to be another Sandra Day O'Connor or Anthony Kennedy (even a conservative version of them, which would be just as bad), we can't do it over. We're stuck with her. Just as Dwight D. Eisenhower was stuck with Earl Warren and William Brennan. A justice who rules based on what she believes the law (constitutional or statutory) should say, not what it does say.

Blacklisted!

2005-10-23T06:12:00.000-04:00

I suppose it was bound to happen. After a couple of months of sniping back and forth, True Blue, the womyn(?) who blogs at Blue Flypaper has Blacklisted me.

No more shall I be able to draw a clean breath, now that the shame of the Blacklist is upon me. Now all the people who would have come to my blog to gaze in rapturous wonder upon the wisdom of my thoughts will shy away, frightened off by the foolish words, spoken in haste, of a naive young girl.

But all is not lost. I've been in secret communication with the only good Sith Lord, Darth Rove, and we have a plan. I can't divulge its secrets; True Blue may be reading these words even as I type them. But if we can convince True Blue of her desperate plight, then maybe, if the Force is with us, we may yet rescue her from the Dark Side.

Women: You Can't Live With Them, ...

2005-10-21T07:22:00.000-04:00

When I was about four, my family lived on the second and third floors of a three story house (another family had the basement and first floor). And I and my kid brother used to play in the front yard. One day I was playing in the yard by myself when a little girl who lived up the street from us stopped by (she was about six or seven). We started playing together, but after a while we got into an argument over a toy jeep (actually, more like a Landrover) that I had. It was painted a light green, had real rubber tires and was otherwise all metal (steel, I think). We both wanted to use it at the same time. Well, one thing led to another and she finally relented and let me have the jeep. Right across the bridge of my nose.

I spent the next little while (days or weeks--I don't remember) walking around looking like Rocky Raccoon. And ever since then, my voice has had a distinctly (and to me, annoying) nasal quality to it.

That was my introduction to relations with the fairer sex. And it's been all downhill ever since.

More Miers

2005-10-21T07:10:00.000-04:00

Check this out.

Update: Forget about it. It was a review, allegedly by Harriet Miers, of a book called "Supreme Court for Dummies", at Amazon.com. However, somebody at Amazon who was obviously born without a sense of humor must have seen it and took it down. Killjoy.

Honoring Our Troops

2005-10-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

A beautiful video here at My Take On Things. Stay until the end and click on the link to see how you can help support the troops.

h/t to Pat @ Brainster's Blog

Bork On Miers

2005-10-20T02:27:00.000-04:00

Robert Bork has written this in the WSJ (registration required):

"With a single stroke--the nomination of Harriet Miers--the president has damaged the prospects for reform of a left-leaning and imperialistic Supreme Court, taken the heart out of a rising generation of constitutional scholars, and widened the fissures within the conservative movement. That's not a bad day's work--for liberals." Strong words, perhaps, but not uncalled for.

Judge Bork writes, as have others, that Miers has no known experience with constitutional law and no (publicly stated, anyway) judicial philosphy. In short, her first few years on the court will be on-the-job training. The Supreme Court is not the place for that. Moreover:

"As president of the Texas Bar Association, she wrote columns for the association's journal. David Brooks of the New York Times examined those columns. He reports, with supporting examples, that the quality of her thought and writing demonstrates absolutely no "ability to write clearly and argue incisively."" Thus it's highly unlikely that even if Miers is a strict originalist that she'll be able to convince other justices of the soundness of her arguments.

The administration's defense of her--she's a past president of the Texas Bar Association, she shares Bush's judicial philosophy (whatever that might be), she's a deeply religious evangelical Christian who's contributed to pro-life causes-means little. None of that provides any clue as to how she'll vote on the cases that come before the court. It doesn't even guarantee "...that she would vote to overturn that constitutional travesty (Roe v. Wade-ed)." Bork noted:

"Reliance upon religious faith tells us nothing about how a Justice Miers would rule. Only a commitment to originalism provides a solid foundation for constitutional adjudication. There is no sign that she has thought about, much less adopted, that philosophy of judging." In short, we could end up with another Kennedy or O'Connor, whose judicial opinions were, and are,often based on what they think the law should be, not what the law is.

As for the advice from supporters of the nomination to wait and see how she performs at the confirmation hearings, I refer you to the Roberts hearings. Or the Ginsburg hearings. Or just about any Supreme Court confirmation hearings since Bork's. We're not going to learn a thing at those hearings, except maybe that Miers opposes "..."legislating from the bench." The Senate is asked, then, to confirm a nominee with no visible judicial philosophy who lacks the basic skills of persuasive argument and clear writing." And:

"By passing over the many clearly qualified persons, male and female, to pick a stealth candidate, George W. Bush has sent a message to aspiring young originalists that it is better not to say anything remotely controversial, a sort of "Don't ask, don't tell" admonition to would-be judges. It is a blow in particular to the Federalist Society, most of whose members endorse originalism." That's probably the worst thing this nomination has done. It tells a whole generation of potential federal magistrates, judges and justices not to dare say or do anything that could possibly come back to haunt you. If you do, you can kiss that federal judicial appointment or promotion goodby. (editor's note: Judge Bork is co-chairman of the Federalist Society.)

As for the "trust me" attitude taken by the President and his supporters, I can only ask: why? As Judge Bork observed:

"The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq aside, George W. Bush has not governed as a conservative (amnesty for illegal immigrants, reckless spending that will ultimately undo his tax cuts, signing a campaign finance bill even while maintaining its unconstitutionality)." Judge Bork suggests, for those reasons, that supporters of the Miers nomination should re-think their position.

Judge Bork closes with this:

"It is said that at La Scala an exhausted tenor, after responding to repeated cries of "Encore," said he could not go on. A man rose in the audience to say, "You'll keep singing until you get it right." That man should be our model."

Agreed.

h/t to Patterico's Pontifications

Patterico's Pledge

2005-10-18T04:18:00.000-04:00

Look up. Underneath the title of my blog. In small letters (put on your glasses), you'll see this:

"If the FEC makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion on core political issues, I will not obey those rules."

Those words first appeared at a blog called Patterico's Pontifications. Outraged, as a lot of other bloggers are, at the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, more commonly known as McCain-Feingold, Patrick Patterico (pronounced Patter-EE-koh) announced last March that he would ignore any attempts by the Federal Election Commission to regulate political speech by bloggers. This is such a hot-button issue that even polar opposites such as redstate.org and the daily Kos (no link for that slimeball) have banded together to fight it.

Potential rules by the FEC could include banning bloggers from linking to candidates websites or endorsing candidates or encouraging monetary donations to candidates.

Now, as I said, Patterico first issued his challenge to take the pledge last March. I didn't start blogging until August. And I just recently found out about the pledge. But as my grandpappy would say, "Better late than never." (He'd also say, "Better never late.", but that's a discussion for another day.) Anyway, I'm in. Who's with me?

Of Sheep and Wolves and Sheepdogs

2005-10-18T01:05:00.000-04:00

When I grow up, I want to be able to write as good as this guy.

Harriet Miers?

2005-10-14T19:05:00.000-04:00

John Hawkins of RightWing News has gathered quotes from around the ether to support his oppostion to the confirming of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. I, for one, agree with him.

Not because Miers isn't a conservative. I suspect she is. Not because of her religious views. I sure don't share them, but anybody, even an atheist like me, who says their world-view isn't shaped by the exposure to religion(s) that they've had is being disingenuous, to say the least. And not because she isn't or at least won't try to be a strict originalist at interpreting the Constitution.

I just don't think she's qualified. She's never served as a judge. She's never worked or taught as legal scholar (to my knowledge). She's never published anything about the law (again, to my knowledge). Heck, she's never even argued a case before the Court (even Roberts had done that, at least). The only thing she's got going for her is that she's George W. Bush's friend. And for me, that's just not good enough.

h/t to Kevin Aylward at Wizbang for the tip on the Hawkins piece.

Laffs From The Looney Left

2005-10-13T03:06:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Official fatman chronicles *Looney Leftist List* where we prove that liberalism is the handmaiden of insanity.

First on the list (drumroll, please): Blue Flypaper. True Blue, the "womyn" (?) who runs this blog, is certifiable. She has, in recent months, advocated John Kerry as the director of NASA, John Edwards to head up relief efforts for the victims of Katrina and Rosie O'Donnell for Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court. She also wants the minimum wage increased to $71,000 anually, says we should give plasma televisions and free Netflix subscriptions to people who might otherwise go out and commit crimes (like selling crack) and thinks that we lost our last, best chance at peace in the Middle East when Brad and Jennifer split up. Mel Brooks in his prime couldn't write better stuff than this.

Next up: Blame Bush! I'm not as familiar with Liberal Larry, the nutjob behind this blog, as I am with True Blue. Still, anyone who thinks that Bush was behind the removal of Britney Spears' jewel-encrusted brassiere from an on-line charity auction on eBay, is angry that instead of naming a cross-dresser to the Supreme Court, Bush named a woman who apparently has never had an abortion or a lesbian affair and who thinks that "Katrina + Iraq + Tax Cuts" were the cause of the collapse of an old chain link fence at a high school football stadium in Turtle Creek, PA isn't all there. Neither is someone who calls for a boycott of Fredrick's of Hollywood because one of their stores won't let him *lurk and ogle.*

That's it for now. But I'm sure I'll back with more. There's always more. (Btw, I've placed a permalink to this post in my blogroll under the above title. That way, everyone can find it easily.)

Update: I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but sometime while I was sick, True Blue folded up her tent and crept off into the night, leaving Blue Flypaper behind as a monument to her looniness. Pity. That site was more fun than a barrel full of...well, liberals! I'm gonna miss her.

Yeah, Yeah, I Know...

2005-10-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

...I haven't done anything here in a week and a half. It can't be helped. Aside from my ongoing problems with Internet Browser (I don't really want to go through the hassle of uninstalling it and installing something else, but I may have to), I've been sick. Not I'm-on-my-deathbed-call-a-priest sick; just your everyday, garden variety my-weight's-balloned-even-higher-and-I'm-having-a-bad-reaction-to-a-new-medication sick. Word to the wise; if you ever have problems with your HTL (or *good*) cholesterol being too low and your doctor prescibes Niaspan, run for the hills.

Anyway, I'm feeling a little better lately, so I think I'll be able to get things in gear here. I hope.

Take Back The Memorial

2005-09-29T05:27:00.000-04:00

From the Washington Post.

Congratulations to everybody at Take Back The Memorial who fought so hard to stop this travesty. And in doing so, exposed the International Freedom Center for what it was: an attempt to put up yet another Blame America First monument, this time on the most hallowed ground this side of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.

Update: Just noticed that I forgot to put in a link to Take Back The Memorial. Try this .

Bill Clinton's Legacy

2005-09-22T01:25:00.000-04:00

First the URL, since I'm still trying to figure out how to do links:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/20/114721.shtml

Newsmax Headline: "China Names Condom For Bill Clinton"

The Guangzhou Haokian Bio-science company "is honoring ex-president Bill Clinton by naming a new line of condoms after him - along with a companion line of condoms that will be named after his ex-girlfriend, Monica Lewinsky." Ah, Bill and Monica, together again at last.

A 12-pack of Clintons is expected to cost $5.00, with Lewinskys selling at a discounted price of just over $3.00. 12 packs?! Those Chinese must be living that old Mary Chapin Carpenter song: "I Feel Lucky Tonight." And Lewinskys (I'm not going there) being discounted to three bucks? Well, everybody said she was a cheap date. Who knew?

"The manufacturer's general manager, Liu Wenhua, told Sky News that naming his condoms for Clinton was perfectly legal, explaining that "trademarks of two foreign surnames and can't be seen as a violation of rights"" All I want to know is if they come in ribbed or unribbed varieties.

"Clinton is the only U.S. president to be honored with his own condom brand line." Gee, I wonder why.

"New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was unavailable to comment on her husband's latest achievement." Wanna bet?

Update: Where are my manners? h/t to Rightwingsparkle and Jill, one of her commenters. Don't know what blog Jill first read about it at. Sorry.

My Blog Ate My Homework

2005-09-21T22:48:00.000-04:00

I was up late last night working on a humorous post about Bill Clinton's legacy. Now I'm not the fastest writer (or typist) in the world, so this was taking awhile. But I finally got it to where I wanted it, with all the copy & paste quotes and my sly little digs in place. I hit the "Publish Post" button--and got directed to sign in again. Apparently I had timed out or something. With a sinking feeling in my gut I signed back in, went back to "Create Post"...and nothing.

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

I don't know if I want to try and reconstruct the post (I'd be crying stale fish) or just forget it and move on (all that work down the tubes! [sob]).

Oh well. Nobody ever said being a bachelor-playboy-blogger was easy.

Fun and Games with Blogrolling II

2005-09-20T12:49:00.000-04:00

Well, at least the right sidebar is straightened out. My enthralling profile (sans picture-I want to maintain my air of mystery) is back at the top where it belongs.

Soon, True Blue...very soon.Bwahahaha!

Fun and Games with Blogrolling

2005-09-19T06:05:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of setting up my blogroll (with a lot of help). It may take a couple of days, so please be patient.

Musings about fatmen

2005-09-17T10:59:00.000-04:00

I recently had a friendly exchange with The Sasquatch (the guy behind the original "Fatman Chronicles"), who posted about it and some of the items he read in my profile.

Now I'm not complaining. Heck, he gets a post, I get some free publicity. It's a win-win. But it did get me to thinking about my profile and how I got to be that guy.

The religion-to-atheist part is easy. I was lazy. Too lazy to study my Catechism. Too lazy to get up at six o'clock in the morning for an eight o'clock Mass (I don't get up at six a.m. for anything). Too lazy to develop the kind of faith you need to really believe in what, to me, sounded like the rehashed myths and legends of every other religion I ever read about. (Mostly Norse; I loved Thor, the God of Thunder.)

The card-carrying union member to a healthy distrust of unions is a little more involved. Maybe it was the attitude that unions engendered, of doing the least amount of work necessary to keep your job. Seriously. If you came in as a new hire and immediately began doing as much work as you could every day to impress the bosses, one of your union "brothers" or "sisters" would take you aside within a month and tell you to knock it off. You're making everybody else look bad. The more you do, the more they'll expect you to do. And it wasn't like you were going to get more pay, benefits or your pick of the choicer jobs. Pay scales and benefits were set in the contract. And jobs within the bargaining unit were decided by seniority. Which meant that as the newby, you got the lowest pay and the crappiest jobs no matter what you did. The only way you advanced was if the people in front of you retired, quit or died.

As for liberal to conservative-libertarian, it's not that I've moved that far to the right in the last thirty-five years, though I have moved some. It's that liberals have moved that far left. People like Joe Lieberman, Al From and (gag) Bill Clinton would have comprised the center-left wing of the Democratic Party in the sixties. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean and the like would have been consigned to the lunatic fringe or, more likely, the Socialist Workers Party. Even John F. Kennedy, an icon of the "progressive" movement, was heard to explain that lowering the top marginal tax rates was a good idea, since it would stimulate the economy and actually increase tax revenues to the government (supply side, anyone?).

There are other things as well. My opposition to abortion, for one. My opposition to most of the left's attempts at gun control, for another. My firm belief that the only way to truly control drugs (and here I part company with nearly everybody except Willam F. Buckley) is to legalize them and regulate them. Heavily.

But those are discussions for another day.

Time to Get Serious

2005-09-16T05:47:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed, I haven't been blogging much. There are a lot of reasons for this, both technical and personal, that I won't bore you with. But I've decided that if I'm going to do this, it's time to do it, rather than sit around dithering about it. But while I'm putting everything together, including my own blogroll, I was wondering if I could solicit some opinions.

1) On the subject of blogroll netiquette, if I want to add somebody to my blogroll, should I ask their permission first? My instincts say yes, and it's not like anybody's likely to notice any traffic coming their way from me. I just don't want to seem like I'm trying to hit up big sites to blogroll me.

2) Again, netiquette. I've noticed, to my chagrin, that the oh-so-clever title to my blog is already being used by someone else. Should I change the title (which will probably mean abandoning this site and starting all over) ? Should I ask him if he minds and then doing something about if he does? I wouldn't feel right just ignoring the question and hoping it goes away.

3) Technical this time. I'm using Internet Browser and Internet Explorer and on both of them the right sidebar is screwed up, with my profile, recent posts, etc. displaying at the bottom instead of at the top. If anyone not using Browser or IE comes calling, could you let me know how it looks to you?

4) Speaking of Browser, I've been having issues with it lately, and not for the first time. I'm seriously considering un-installing it and going with something else. Anyone have an alternative to suggest?

I can visualize you all rolling your eyes and muttering "rookies." I know, because I've done the same thing. But any feedback or help would really be appreciated.

Update: Check out the new title. And Google says nobody else is using it. Problem solved. (That one anyway.)

Update: I exchanged comments with The Sasquatch, who runs the other "The Fatman Chronicles." He said he didn't have a problem with me using the name, so I switched it back. And as he pointed out, if someone starts ranting about something we said, we can always blame the other guy. Heh.

In Memory Of...

2005-09-11T02:42:00.000-04:00

Four years ago today, three thousand people died when a band of religious fanatics did the unthinkable, all in the name of their "God." That it hasn't happened again (at least on our soil) is a testament to either our skill or our luck.

I don't care which it was; I just hope it holds. I wouldn't wish a sight like that--of the Towers and the Pentagon burning, of the crash site at Shanksville, PA--on my worst enemy. Unless, of course, it was the sight of Mecca and Medina burning the same way. That would be poetic justice.

Enough Already!

2005-09-09T17:57:00.000-04:00

You know, I'm getting really, really tired of this. Every time something goes wrong in this country, it must be George Bush's fault.

9/11 attacks? Bush ignored the intelligence.
Never mind that it was Jamie Gorelick, a Clinton appointee at DoD and later at the Justice Department who made it impossible for the military to share intelligence with the FBI.

No W.M.D. in Iraq? Bush doctored the intelligence so that he could get cheap oil and give Haliburton a bunch of no-bid contracts.
Never mind that it was George Tenant, the Clinton-appointed CIA director, who said W.M.D. in Iraq were a "slam dunk."

The economic recovery from the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the 9/11 attacks? It's a jobless recovery because Bush cut taxes for all his rich friends.
Which I guess is why unemployment is down to five percent the last I heard.

The leevee failures in New Orleans? Bush cut funding to projects to strengthen the leevees.
No, Congress cut funding for a study on how to strengthen the leevees. A project that wouldn't have started for years or been done for decades. And if the Louisiana congressional delegation was so worried about those leevees, than why didn't they demand that some of the 1.9 billion dollars in pork that they secured for the Army Corp of Engineers since Bush become president (More than any other state over that time, and more than they got during the last five years of the Clinton Administration) be diverted to strengthening those leevees? Oh,wait. Some of it was. And those were the leeves that failed.

The slow response of the relief efforts? Bush didn't care about the people trapped in New Orleans because they were mostly poor and black and Bush is a racist who hates poor people.
If that's true, then why haven't we heard the same complaints from Mississipi? There are just as many poor and/or black people in Gulfport and Biloxi as there are in New Orleans and we aren't hearing about them being abandoned. Could it just be that Haley Barbour has his act together and Kathleen Blanco doesn't?

The Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the heartbreak of psoriasis? We don't know how yet, but they're Bush's fault too.
Jeez.

Now I've got my fair share of complaints with the Bush administration. The huge budget deficits. The less-than-stellar planning for the post-war pacification and rebuilding of Iraq. And especially the laissez-faire attitude toward securing our borders. But to hear the left tell it, everything that's wrong in Iraq, with the economy and with the response to Katrina is Bush's fault because he's either a) a dimwit puppet of of that eeeeevil mastermind, Darth Rove, or b) he's Chimpy McHitler Bushco Shrub (take your choice of epithets) and an eeeeeevil mastermind himself.

Maybe there's a grain of truth in the left's shrill rantings. I strongly doubt it, but all things are possible. But until the left at least decides whether Bush is the consumate, evil, mastermind politician or a moronic puppet, I do wish they'd ratchet down the rhetoric and tell us how they would do things differently and better. The only thing the rest of us are getting out of this "debate" is a headache.

Singing the Blues

2005-09-07T16:59:00.000-04:00

I was strolling through the park one day,
in the merry, merry month of May...

Actually, it was sometime in August and I was scrolling through a thread at Wizbang when I came across a link provided by another commenter, True Blue. So, being open to new experiences, I clicked it.

http://%20blueflypaper.blogspot.com/

is the home page for Blue Flypaper, run by the aforementioned True Blue, who has got to be the most clueless moonbat who ever breathed.

At first I couldn't believe what I was reading. I figured "This has to be satire." But the more I read, the more I realized that this dingbat is serious.

First of all, she's a woman (or womyn, as she would put it). I have never met a woman who was any good at satire (sarcasm doesn't count). Then there's her support for Rosie O'Donnell for SCOTUS, John Edwards to head up the New Orleans relief effort, Jesse Jackson for President in '08 and a since removed (or maybe archived; I forgot to check there) post pushing John Kerry as the new director of NASA. I mean, parody is one thing, but this is beyond the pale.

She's also a militant advocate of gun control (though she's willing to make an exception for Rosie). Heck, doesn't she realize that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are the only thing standing between us and the abyss?

And when I pointed out to her that a diet of raw vegetables and spring water is a good way to keep her friends upwind of her, she called me a smarta**. Me, a smarta**? Moi???

Finally, there's the Blue Flypaper Black List, her list of Euro-centric, conservative, male-operated web sites to boycott; Euro-centric, conservative, female-operated web sites need not apply (check out True Blue's response to Next to Last Samurai in the comments' thread for "Blue Flypaper Lambasts Mr. Minority" to see what I mean). Typical liberal; worried about the motes in our eyes while ignoring the two-by-four in her own.

Well, there's nothing else for it; I have to ask--nay, demand-- that all of my loyal readers (and you know who you are) boycott Blue Flypaper. As soon as I figure out how to do it, I'm starting my own little Black List. And she'll be the first one on it.

It's a shame it had to come to this. I'd much rather sit around the campfire, hold hands and sing "Kumbaya." But some people just leave you no choice.

This Should Be Interesting

2005-08-30T10:19:00.000-04:00

I seem to have gotten into a flame war at another site called Rightwingsparkle. The commenter is going by the name anonymous (original, isn't it), though I think he/she said his/her name was Kim. She's one of the angriest, most bitter, most hate-filled and envious people I've ever run into.

Now, since I don't want to use up Sparkle's bandwith, I'm going to invite Kim/anonymous over here tonight if she shows up at Sparkle's place again. If she shows, and if she takes me up on my invitation, the fur will fly. And it won't be mine.

Update: No anonymous(Kim?). Oh well. I'll just have to try harder next time.

This Is Going To Get Ugly

2005-08-29T01:42:00.000-04:00

I remember last September 17, when what was left of Hurricane Ivan hit Pittsburgh. The remnants of Hurricane Frances had rolled through town a little over a week before, dumping more rain in a twenty-four period than had ever been recorded before.

Ivan broke that record. Easily. And since the ground was already saturated, it resulted in the worst flooding this area's seen in over thirty years.

Now imagine, if you can, what it would have been like if Pittsburgh lay twenty-five feet below sea level with major-sized lakes on three sides, a river delta on the fourth, and a full-fledged hurricane hitting.

That's what it's going to be like in New Orleans in about five or six hours.

According to Paul, who blogs over at http://wizbangblog.com, if Katrina hits at just the wrong angle, as it now appears it will, the resulting storm surge, coupled with torrential rain, could put much of the city under ten to thirty feet of water, with nowhere for it to go. It could take anywhere from ten weeks to ten months to drain off or pump it out of the natural bowl that much of New Orleans lays in. But no one knows for certain; they've never done this before.

So if you've got a deity that you're on good terms with (I don't), I suggest you try hooking up with him/her/it and seeing what he/she/it can do. Those people are going to need all the help they can get. And as my (grand)Pappy would say, "It can't hurt."

How The Heck Did This Happen?

2005-08-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

I was just trying to comment over at Rightwingsparkle's and the next thing you know BAM!!! I've got a blog!

Oh well. I've got it now, I might as well do something with it. First a few rules:

1) If I post anything at all, it'll be about the things that interest me (politics, baseball, women dancing nude). If this doesn't interest you, fine. I don't have any burly security guards at the door preventing you from leaving.

2) In the unlikely event that anyone wants to comment, watch the language. Don't leave any comments that you wouldn't want your mother to read. Think George Carlin's "Seven words you can't say on television or radio." (Or at least use ******* asterisks to get across WTF you're trying to say.)

3) No personal insults. You want to attack what someone (including me) is saying, attack what they're saying, not them. You get one warning about this (and language, for that matter). Second time it happens, you're gone.

4) Finally, keep in mind that this is not a democracy. It is a one-man dictatorship and I am the Big Kahuna and it has gone to my head. If you have a problem with that, I refer you to Rule #1.

There will probably be a few more rules and clarifications in the future. After all, I am making this up as I go along.

UPDATE: Rule #5: No posting of copyrighted material. I'm not paying huge fines and maybe going to jail just because some twit can't think of something original to say. If I even think it's copyrighted, it's getting deleted and you're getting your one warning.

Update:Rule #6: No anonymous comments. It gets too confusing. Pick a name or a handle, I don't care which, but pick something. Anonymous comments will be deleted, even the ones saying I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread.