A jarhead from El Paso

Was killed in action that day in Haditha. The Marines shot back because “it was going to be them or” the insurgents, Martin said of what his son’s fellow Marines briefly described to him. Hasta la guerra...

outliers galore

Fear and Thumos

A little stint

In the Tehran dungeons. Let's hear the tu quoque whitewash.

The French fixation

With burning cars -- continues. Is this their favorite pastime? But hey, they are the world champs, at least when it comes to vacations. So what do they do then? Burn go-carts? Here is an update.

Preparing for communism

A typical Frenchman leaves all his wordly possesions for the good of the cause. Aahhh, how the French pine for the good ole Gulag days...

boyz on a roll

Hundreds of protesters looted shops in Kabul and shouted "Death to America!"

In memoriam

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, they say, but it's still heart-breaking. Requiescat in pace.

the answer

freecounterpoint

bailing out

The axis of feeble is further disintegrating

Where is JJ?

You have been selected to be part of a special task force. Your mission is to solve an important mystery. You and your detective partners must work together to locate and communicate with J.J., who is currently lost in a far off foreign country. You must organize yourselves, find and research clues left behind, and report your findings along the way.

Well, so what's the scoop?

Zero-tolerance watch

The PC Police strikes again: Sharing coffee-laced chewing gum is BAAAD!

Love boat

Beyond the crowds besieging the barman with demands for their favourite cocktails (rum, more rum and a dash of something else), a sign warned: "Sexual harassment will not be reported here." Political correctness, it seemed, had not yet reached this corner of the British Virgin Islands. But few people were paying much attention as they lounged about the deck in various states of undress. The mix was eclectic: wealthy yacht owners with leather deck shoes and perma-tans, wannabe pirates with ponytails and tattooed torsos, muscle-bound marines and scantily clad American college girls armed with Daddy's Amex card...

The few, the proud

Darwin award

And some runner-ups. Any moral to these stories?

If he can stick to it

department of public relations

Nice job, boys.

Galloway makes a wish

The angry man on the Left surely knows who he wants rubbed out. And he knows who he wants to rub against. Is he being as slippery as a snake in salad cream?

standing firm

The wrold is standing firm, that's for sure

Yet another non-PC word

America? Verboten!

cheetah est plombee

Damn - I gotta switch back to goats.

cochons volants

2007: the year the pigs learned to fly

New Orleans ship

The USS New York is being built from steel beams taken from the ruins of the Twin Towers.

One worker, Tony Quaglino, said: “I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud.”

But, as Taranto notes, the bien-pensants are not amused:

In this way, the 2,800 souls that perished as an indirect result of an interventionist foreign policy that achieved the exact opposite of its stated aims can be honoured by a vessel built to ensure that this flawed cycle of violence continues. The USS New York will carry 360 soldiers and 700 combat-ready Marines. It puts to sea with the motto: "Never forget." Except they do. They always do. . . . In essence what is being commemorated here is failure; the failure of American foreign policy to protect fully the interests of its citizens or make their world a safer place. America came under attack because the actions of successive governments have made it the enemy to large swaths of humanity. Anti-Americanism is growing alarmingly because, since September 11, the world's most powerful nation has continued to alienate and divide even its allies. While not excusing wicked acts committed by terrorists, it would be foolish to view the behaviour of terrorists as motiveless.

Yada, yada, yada -- very Ward Churchillian. Aahhh, but they support the troops! I'll go with Tony.

Speaking of Anne

Here is a little bitchslap for that heroic student from NYC.

franco-us relations

Finally something worth fighting over.

moussaoui

was indeed just a wannabe

On the other hand, the Poles

Are bucking the trend. Even their ex-commies are more conservative than Chirac & Villepin -- duhhh. Sto lat!

the wops are bailing

Again, the onion has the healthy perspective.

Sweden: Paradise now?

Shadow cabinet

Here. Hey, with Noam Chomsky as SecDef, Jimmah as SecPeace, Bill Moyers as SecState, Conyers at Justice, Krugman at Treasury, Ted Kennedy at Transportation (!) -- well, you get the idea -- we'd be in good hands, guys. Full of backbone.

Ridiculous fear-mongering?

A counterpoint to the rhetorical question, "But stand-up to what? iran's long range missile and nuclear war heads? is it time to revive the ridiculous fearmongering from 4 years ago?"

And another counterpoint.

Anti-missile site

Link. How long before the French try to shoot it down?

The hollow men

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
[..]
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

Within a few months we've see the western elite at once censor facts about Islam while sanctioning an industry of the most destructive fictions about Christianity. They forbid laughter at Islamic culture; they encourage mockery of their own. A measure of their impious, unserious, cowardly culture is the defense they mount once any criticism comes -- that blasphemy aimed at Christianity is just good fodder for entertainment and grist for navel-gazing criticism.

The elite would never use skepticism and relativism as a defense for subjecting Islam to half-baked, provocative, and obscene speculation. But that's what they immediately use to silence and confuse Christians who object to such speculation about Christianity, and it works to a great extent since even Christians in a secularized culture come to accept everything as "debatable," a chance for "dialogue," and a test of whether they can humor criticism without looking unfashionable and foolish.

I'll take napalm in the morn'

Story here and here.

The French may like to think Chanel No 5 is their scent, but we all know that garlic and stale Gitanes are much more representative.

We demand a revision in the spirit of Apocalypse Now! Give us the smell of warm beer, tea, newly mown cricket pitches and Marmite in the morning; it smells of victory.

Slave trade

googling for news

But are all the news fit to print?

Stumping the Kufr Rube

Yup, after all frankness is clearly a Frankish vice

link

Jet swap

An interesting deal, if he can stick to it. But the claim that Sukhoi=100*F16 sounds a bit exaggerated to me. What's he smoking?

Hollywood productions

The towering intellects of the Left do us proud in Cannes:

Both films had scenes where renditions of the US national anthem were played as a way for the left-wing directors to reclaim the flag from America's ruling right. Only "Shortbus" did it in a memorable way that surely has to be a first on celluloid: bellowed into the anus of a man during a three-way gay sex romp. Mitchell said his offensive against the fears surrounding sex had much to do with living in "the era of Bush, which is about clamping down, being scared". He added by way of justification of his movie: "If you can't do elections you might as well do erections."

Bouncing czechs

Trading more than just barbs. How come we don't see such slapstick during the debates? Betcha it would drive up the ratings.

Ward Churchill and academic dishonesty

Clay Jenkinson opines:

People like Ward Churchill... make parents wary of universities - or at least humanities professors - and they lead taxpayers to wonder why they are forced to support institutions that seem to go out of their way to offend the American public. Churchill should apologize for his unprofessionalism. He should resign. Fat chance on either front.

Now that the CU investigative committee has proved that Churchill is a dishonest and sloppy scholar, a special pleader, the university must decide whether to fire him, suspend him, punish him in some other way or just reprimand him and move on.

another corner not turned?

With more of the same, isn't it time the farce be ended?

Peking duck

Explained:

She's bored of sex with her husband, so she spends his money sleeping with yazi. It's very normal. It's not cheating, because it has nothing to do with love.

Baha'ivy League

Baha'i Practices

Individual:
Daily obligatory prayers and the daily reading of Baháí scripture; a period of fasting once a year; abstaining from mind-altering drugs including alcohol except for medicinal purposes; monogamous marriage; chastity; endeavouring to apply Baháí principles in their everyday lives, teaching others about the Baháí Faith.

Collective:
Developing Baháí institutions based on principles of cooperation and consultation providing models for all levels of human interaction; disseminating these principles; education of future generations; social and economic development based on these principles wherever the opportunities arise.

This Baha'i cult is popular with a couple Ivy league professors that I know. How far does it stretch? Who knows. Have you fellahs encountered it at all?

Cruzing

Everyone alsleep at the wheel? Perhaps this movie is worth waking up for. At any rate, the above looks like a good back exercise. I'll try it one of these days.

A propitiatory sacrifice?

A squalid tale of betrayal. And a counterpoint. More on wiki.

Cool store

In the Big Apple.

Bear food

Moral #49: No monkeying around with da bear.

PJ on China

Here.

When what you're doing isn't valuable you have two options: You can try to do something that is valuable. Or you can try to make everyone else in the world do something that's worthless. You can be Chinese, or you can be French. You can build cars, or you can burn them. We don't want the Chinese doing worthless things like coming across the Yalu in hordes the way they did during the Korean War or crossing the Formosa Straits to belatedly settle Chiang Kai-shek's hash. Let's keep them busy making money.

On the way to extinction

Is Mother Russia. Can Europe be far behind?

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
...
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

The closing of the Liberal mind

Starts early. And then blooms into full glory.

Darpa cannonball, Coanda aircraft

Human cannonball, that is. This can hardly compare with Webster's definition of fixed-wing aircraft:

Among aerodynamically lifted aircraft, the largest number falls in the category of fixed-wing aircraft, where horizontal surfaces produce lift, by profiting from the Coanda effect (aeroplane or airplane).

Powwwww!

I hate it when this happens

Ouchhhh!

wet noodle

A da Vinci review. So this is the best shot the Jesus-haters could muster? Phffttt....

Europe speaks with a united voice

Thus spake JJ, before he fell asleep at the wheel. And yes, VDH agrees:

You get the overall roundup: the Europeans have simply absorbed as their own the key elements of ossified French foreign policy—utopian rhetoric and anti-Americanism can pretty much give you a global pass to sell anything you wish to anyone at anytime.

Even the Brooklyn bridge.

English as a common and unifying language

Is racist, says Harry Pelosi (or is it Nancy Reid?) So what would it take to satisfy him/her (or, them, as JJ would say)? We all switch to Esperanto?

JLo channels JJ

Asleep at the wheel...

To forget about Prodi

Think about her, instead.

Zapatero bis

Link. Have some grappa, Zarky.

homeland security

department of misoginy

De quoi vous reconcilier avec Le Monde

axis of ungratefulness

Thankless human bastards

goats are out

From now on, it's just me and cheetah

the few

the brave, the mad

The beat goes on

It's all Bush's fault, would say Le Monde, yes?

French street

Gets named after honorary Parisian. A "towering figure," they say. Aahhh, the French...

glossy rant

Anyone has paid attention to the glossy vs matte screen debate? This guy says: "Glossy screens: bad. People: idiots. Steve Jobs: insane." Has a point.

useful spam

At last, worthy spam.

Dominique Dumbres

An oldie, but goodie.

family values

and political necessity meet.

[Ed]: By unspoken rules of this blog, this requires a pic.

healthcare in america

revisiting the issue

The French implosion

Is accelerating:

Pour François Bayrou, il n'y a cependant "aucun risque" d'implosion de l'UDF. "Il y a un risque de glissement de la France dans un gouffre dont elle ne sortira pas".

You don't say!

More emotionally unstable than the French?

Hard, but possible.

Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern, in Dr. Strangelove, created just such a scenario way back in 1964, only then it was a U.S. general that was diabolically insane.

Are you talking to me?

Scrubbing chips

Story here and here. Is this sleazy, or what?

Jiaotong University in Shanghai said late on Friday it had fired Chen Jin, dean of the Microelectronics School, for faking research behind a series of chips for digital signals processing. [..] Mr Chen had taken chips produced by Freescale Semiconductor, formerly a unit of Motorola, and then used low-paid migrant workers to scrub its trademarks off and replace them with that of Hanxin. [..] Mr Chen’s own project had received Rmb114m ($14.2m) for research to develop the Hanxin chips.

Alles Klar?

A New Axis of Evil, if they can stick to it.

Für Elise

Link.

"During the 1990s, MI5 reduced its 'international terrorist' desk significantly. The then director general refused to apply the term "terrorists" to Islamic radicals whom other governments had told us were involved in terrorism. So, for instance, the Algerian radicals involved in bombing the Paris Metro, who settled in London, were not regarded as terrorists by MI5. They were seen as a French problem, not a problem for the UK.

More. What's going on?

The bear growls

Old habits die hard. But what is all this about the wolf imagery? Pop psychologists would call it projection, yes?

"We are aware of what is going on in the world. Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone."

And, by the way, where is he gonna get all those soldiers for the Red Army? Will handing out Medals of Maternal Glory do it?

Wolf in little Red Riding Hood clothing

Says the ex.

Marksman, whose home was used by Chavez to plan his coup against the Venezuelan government, says the two once shared a dream of "a prosperous Venezuela where justice would reign".

"We were preparing for the time when we would be in government," Marksman has written. "We wanted to establish a state in which the law was respected, to abolish corruption, to develop our basic industries and to do a real restructuring of the education system.

Yeah, sure -- they all say that. And when you get in bed, they eat you. Gotta learn this trick sometimes, little girl.

Russian tunnel

I'll take the Big Dig any day.

Gator food

Maybe he hated being disturbed by that woman talking on her cell phone? Update: they found the gator, arms and all. No word yet on the Razr.

Fin de règne

It's getting really bizarre. Now even the judge in the Villepin chienlit admits he (the judge!) has been lying.

The affair involves all the traditional ingredients of a French political scandal: misuse of the intelligence services; rivalries within the defence procurement industry; and poisonous hatreds between colleagues within the government.

OK, enough already of this merde. Sarkozy should get outta there before he gets dragged down with all these clowns -- looks like he's gonna do it, sooner rather than later...

Harvard's Reds have the Blues

In Cambridge, they think we are due for another Civil War.

Senator Brinton shows a lot more intestinal fortitude than the previous Democratic candidates for president who, in the book's retelling, meekly allowed themselves to be cheated out of the presidency.

"I want to keep fighting," Senator Brinton declares. "I want the Presidency with every fiber of my being - I want it for the Party, for our people who've been beaten down . . . I'm afraid that if I concede now, and I run again next time, they'll steal the election again. If they steal election after election, we have no choice but to not accept it. I'll not back down; I'll not concede like those soft men who were candidates before me conceded."
[..]
Walking around Harvard Yard, however, one may get a different sense. Sometimes it must seem like Paris in 1789 with all the politically inspired fury sprouting up among the lattes. But if Harvard professors want to storm the Bastille--or start a civil war--they'll have to do it themselves. And that's not very likely. After all, they don't even want Army recruiters on campus.

Allons enfants de Cambridge
Le jour de gloire est arrivé
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé
Entendez vous sur le Charles
Mugir ces féroces soldats
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras,
boir du Bourbon avec vos compagnes
Aux armes citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons,
Jusqu'au Square Louisbourg,
Qu'un latte impur abreuve nos sillons.

The inspiration for The Da Vinci Code

Comes from the kind of Frenchman the "reality-based community" swoons over.


Dan Brown begins The Da Vinci Code with a page labeled "Fact," on which he describes the Priory of Sion as "a European society founded in 1099, a real organization". The Priory is Brown's central focus of conspiracy, power, wealth, and historical significance; he based much of his "research" on the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, in which supposedly long-undiscovered documents (Les Dossiers Secrets) reveal the history of this society and contain an actual list of the Priory's Grand Masters-including such men as Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, and Victor Hugo.

In truth, the Priory was a club created in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, who later testified under oath that he had fabricated the entire hoax. [He was a] French fascist who did prison time for association with an anti-Semitic, anti-Masonic group called Alpha Galates; also did time for fraud and embezzlement. Plantard posed as an expert on the Knights Templar; when he was interviewed by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, his claims to be a Grand Master of the Priory of Sion were made public. These claims were based upon documents (called Les Dossiers Secrets, buried deep within the National Library in Paris) that were actually forged genealogies discreetly planted in such a way as to appear hidden. In 1993 Plantard confessed to having created both the documents and the entire Priory of Sion hoax.

Plantard and his friend Andre Bonhomme had organized the small group known as Priory of Sion, in 1956, to endorse affordable housing; they published a pamphlet entitled Circuit to promote their ideas. They abandoned their cause in 1957, and in the years after the breakup, Plantard created documents that would later be placed in the Bibliothèque Nationale as proof that a secret society guarded the identity of a royal bloodline, beginning with Mary Magdalene and Jesus and continuing through the French Merovingian kings to the present Saint-Clair family. The current descendants of Jesus supposedly included Plantard himself.

In 1989, Plantard revised some of the forged documents, adding to the list of Grand Masters the name of Roger-Patrice Pelat, a friend of French President Francois Mitterand. During a financial scandal involving Pelat, Plantard, called to testify, swore under oath that he had invented the Priory's entire history and existence.

The Opus Dei Weigh in on da Vinci

Pepe, here is what the conservatives are saying. Not all of the controversy has to do with distortions of the historical record, though they seem serious. Some of the problem is that Brown distorts what the Catholic Church is saying now. Also, perhaps I am splitting hairs, but no one would call the Catholic Church "fundamentalist". The whole fundamentalist movement was for a return to first principles away from the filtered, academic theology of the Church.

Yet another sob story

What can be done to help?

Springtime for Brunner?

Here

Went to a Cambridge Party Last Night

This was defined to be accomplished (not merely incipient) Fascism.

Not too brite

But hey, she knows how to dress, at least. Call in the lawyers!

Funny Picture

MI5 on ouzo

Here and here.

"We remain concerned that across the whole of the counter-terrorism community the development of the home-grown threat and the radicalization of British citizens were not fully understood or applied to strategic thinking," the parliamentary panel said.

You don't say!

The head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, confessed after the attacks — which killed 52 Tube and bus passengers — that they had been unexpected and had come as a surprise to her. Dame Eliza’s admission that suicide bombs were unlikely “to be the norm” has shocked other counter-terrorist agencies.

Well, Eliza, I guess we're not in Kansas any more.

Hilarious Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Here.

Study: Women Prefer Persistent Infantilism

Whatever, babe.

fundamentalists

someone dared to disturb the dogma.

I hadn't paid much attention to the hype around the da vinci code, but the reaction to it is reminiscent of
how zealots of other monotheist superstitions react to ideas contrary to the existing canons.
Of course, muslims have had more difficulty to temper their dicontent than christians have
and resorted to more headline-grabbing ways to express it, but the intolerance is present across
the board.

Interesting how the less evidence there is to back the accuracy of one's convictions, the stronger
people feel about them.

Antiquing

The Zapatero way. And a commentary.

Aid and comfort

A symbiotic relationship. Nice and cozy.

Bulgarian hot cars

Link.

In rural Bulgaria it's pretty common to see a farmer making his way to his fields in a cart pulled by a single old nag. The police in the capital, Sofia, can rely on a little more horsepower.

It's the only place I've ever seen the police drive a Porsche convertible. Completely with blue flashing light and repainted in white with smart blue stripes. This is not profligacy with public money but something odder. Like the BMW and Merc driven by the Bulgarian police, it's been stolen some where in Europe, shipped to Bulgaria by criminal gangs, and then confiscated.

So far they've been luckier than one judge, who was proudly going to work in a top-of-the-range four-wheel-drive until its German owner spotted it and demanded it back. So if this is your long lost car do contact the Bulgarian police. I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear from you.

Nanny State largesse

Knows no bounds.

"We have 5,000 troops in Afghanistan, but these hijackers are to be given the right to stay indefinitely in Britain with full access to the welfare state."

So far, the whole affair, including legal fees, asylum processing and benefits for the families, has cost the taxpayer an estimated £20 million to £30 million.

Parsing the Constitution

JJ, you have made repeatedly the case that the First Amendment supersedes (nay, renders obsolete) Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution. Setting this aside for the moment, how about the Fourth Amendment? There appear to be two contradictory
readings here -- which one do you pick?

Feu! Feu sur moi! Là!

A dated piece, for sure, but still fun.

In 2002, he published The Cry of the Gargoyle, a plangent appeal to France to rouse itself from “the temptation of resignation that threatens a nation as torpor overcomes it. . . . For many abroad, the French funeral has already been held!”

What would we do without French aristocrats telling it like it is?

it's a monarchy

this is a nightmare

Brain-Fryers and Meteorology

Here.

Taranto at His Best

Five Palestinian Arab children were shot and wounded yesterday, leading to world-wide condemnation of Israel, reports the--oh wait, there was no world-wide condemnation of Israel. That's because, as the Associated Press reports from Gaza:

Renewed clashes Tuesday between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians, including five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories could erupt in a much wider conflagration.

The Arab kids were shot by other Arabs, so there was no cause for world-wide condemnation.

Here.

Chirac's Way with Words

"The Republic is not the dictatorship of rumors, the dictatorship of false accusations. The Republic is the law,[...]"

Well Jacques, it's unfortunate that the "Republic" isn't a dictatorship since you seem to benefit only those. And while you're at it, Jacques, I don't think you should be pushing the law thing too hard or your gonna end up in prison your first day out of the Elyseé Palace.

More.

By the way, the photo above is from Paris' Prison La Santé. Whatever happened to the droits de l'homme hooey?

style

Since the repeat posts on Villepin suggest it's open season
on style, y'all should check out this site
which keeps recordings of w's utterances.

A few gems:

We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.
(pre-2002)

The goals for this country are peace in the world. And the goals for this country are a compassionate
American for every single citizen. (2002)

We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country. (2004)

We're workin' with our partners to expand prevention efforts, that emphasize abstinence, being faithful in marriage, and using condems correctly. (2005)

The enemy is a -- a bunch of cold-blooded killers -- that have taken a, a great religion -- taken parts of a great religion and converted it into a, a, an ideology that is, they perverted a great religion, and they have an ideology. (2006)

I really wish villepin was this funny.

Repent, or else

Or, perhaps, what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable? More on this theme from Spencer and Taheri.

wodka is vodka, and the results are in

The Poles have it:

Potato vodkas have never been as well-received as their grain-based competitors, but Chopin—which appeared on the American market in 1997—should go a long way toward changing their lowbrow reputation. It's the smoothest vodka we tried, with a slight oiliness (specific to potato vodkas) that cut beautifully against the briny funk of black caviar and held its own against the thickest black bread I'd been able to find. We found Chopin itself to be "slightly sweet" and "well-rounded" with "perhaps a hint of apple." Chopin also had a "medium-length, pleasing burn," but "very little aftertaste—it's remarkably clean." To top it off, Chopin's tall frosted bottle was the prettiest we'd seen.

quota and sophistry: we need some hip-hop in there

Who doesn't have hip-hop in their library?

Moreover, the whole of their [Sasha Frere-Jones and Jessica Hopper] sustained attack against Merritt is founded on the dangerous and stupid notion that one's taste in music can be interrogated for signs of racist intent the same way a university's admissions process can: If the number of black artists in your iPod falls too far below 12.5 percent of the total, then you are violating someone's civil rights.

Personally don't care for hip-hop myself. Although, while recognizing that it is some bizarre outward expression of material wealth (or whatever), I find the autos (regardless of who is driving) that slowly drive by going BoOOOOom-BoOOOom-BoOOOm with the twenty-seven inch chrome spinners quite amusing. It's a real spectacle, but only in an absurd sort of way. It seems like a waste of ear drums and time... maybe it's just me.

sob stories

Hey AI
how's that for a great healthcare system?

>>So, puhleease, spare us the sob stories about people dying on the streets for lack of medical care due to heartless U.S. Kapitalists -- I would have had sympathy for such stories if we've been living in the 1860s, but not now.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Goes to Cambridge

An OK report here.

Tex-Mex unity

Link.

But what occasion, I hear you ask, is so life-affirming, so universally themed, that it can make all the fuss over the documentation and exploitation of immigrants disappear? What could possibly bring together the flags of red, white and blue, and red, white and green?

The answer, of course, is the defeat of the French, at an obscure battle on “Cinco de Mayo”, in 1862.

Hah! Where's my cerveza caliente?

Slowly twisting in the wind

Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is.

September 11th conspiracy theorists...

...are at it. Video is a powerful tool — the next opium of the masses? — and two friends have already told me "YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS VIDEO!!! IT PROVES EVERYTHING, HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED!!!" Yes, they were this excited about this kind of "truth." Perhaps post-modernity at its finest.

This kind of shit ranks up there with the Da Vinci code, Holocaust denial, and the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory that F.D.R. knew about and secretly allowed the Japanese zeros to strike Hawaii so Americans would be swayed to enter the war.

Nearly vaporized...

...if crashing at this speed. Interstate 94 in Dakota Territory has oh-so many straight-aways, and very little traffic. Still, it's no excuse for this kind of behavior. I don't mind if someone wants to set land-speed records, but do it on the salt-flats like everyone else.

Idiot Non Savant

How gauche!

Texas double whopper

Here. Forget about quiche.

innocent

Saddam is innocent, y'bastards.

And so is Zack.

Random stuff

Lorena's bathroom, PowerBook weigh station, bathroom philosophy.

Fun on the Streets of America

Pepe sent this to me as a .wav wondering how we could share it with the blog. The answer is that I don't know how to upload anything but pictures, but I figure that as AA has become an authority of late, it is only a matter of time before we are subjected to rather prolix lessons. In the meantime, I was able to find some wags hosting the video here. Let's all thank Pepe for his contribution with an abusive comment or two regarding Villepin's hairdo or something.

Sinatra Philosophizes

Here.

But Is It Art?

Quirky and academic being weirder.

Presidente por la vida

An interesting effort - if he can stick to it.

AI and Pepe, Take Note!

Here.

Londonistan blues

Sung by Melanie Phillips. More like a dirge.

Sanctuary city

A bit pricey for auslanders, but hey, being around the leading lights of Hahvahd and MIT is priceless, yes? And, if rent is a problem, the commute from Montpellier, NH, is not so bad, all things considered.

"What's the point? Why invite people? The only people who can afford to live here are graduate students whose parents are paying their rent," John Murphy, 46, said while visiting the city's Central Square neighborhood, where he lived for 20 years before moving to Austin, Texas. "It's creating false hope."

Hmmmm...

A Russian allegory

More here and here.

The plan entailed constructing a grandiose Palace of Soviets on the site of the Cathedral. This palace was meant to be the largest building in the world - a monument to victorious socialism and Lenin - the leader of the world proletariat. A new Moscow, with no vestiges of the "cursed past and its' monuments" was to arise around this Palace. A massive wave of propaganda preceded the actual destruction. The newspapers wrote, "the Cathedral is grotesque and totally inartistic", that "the Cathedral is a poisonous mushroom on Moscow's face" and that it was "a source of slothfulness" and so forth.

The first explosions rocked the Cathedral at noon on December 5, 1931, as per the decision of Stalin's politburo. The memorial to military glory and the most important church in Russia was brutally vandalized and destroyed.

Coanda smoke eater

Can be found here.

More on the Coanda effect here and here.

Kiss of Death?

from J C?

Embracing the End

As has been said by more than one eager Imam, Notre Dame de Paris will make a very Grand Mosque. The Gargoyles will have to go though, n'est-ce pas?

link

Statesman, Climatologist, Filmmaker, Crackhead

Albert Gore

Cinco de mayo

Calls for some cerveza caliente.

Autoextraction

Dientes de ingles, or, the joys of socialized medicine.

What would we do without quantum physicists

Explaining the finer points of penalty kicks?

A softie Bush

As seen by Andrew Sullivan.

She Stands Up for Her Man

What, the The Old Grey Lady is piqued that her favorite homey was dissed?

link

North Dakota as the Moral Equivalent of Mars?

The Land Before Fargo just gets no respect.

link

[Ed]: This called for a picture. Are these Russian aluminum boots?

It's a lot of American B.S.

Says Moussaoui. He's got a point on that. And, by the way, it looks like Rich Lowry has been reading my posts, or, more likely, we're just spiritual soulmates.

Update: Now Steyn also weighs in.

And the notion, peddled by some sappy member of the ghastly 9/11 Commission on one of the cable yakfests last week, that jihadists around the world are marveling at the fairness of the U.S. justice system, is preposterous. The leisurely legal process Moussaoui enjoyed lasted longer than America's participation in the Second World War. Around the world, everybody's enjoying a grand old laugh at the U.S. justice system.

Break out the ouzo bottle!

The plot thickens

We got a Kennedy, booze and drugs, a car crash, a coverup -- what else is missing? Oh, yes, here it is:
“I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by the police or being cited for three driving infractions,” he said. “That’s not how I want to live my life.”
Despite his contention that he had no memory of the incident, Kennedy offered a detailed version of events just one day earlier - including the time he was driving and the exact street location. Murky details continued to trickle out from the congressman with a revelation to the Providence Journal that he spent the hours before the crash with an unidentified woman.

Morales Gets MedioEvo Economics

What a load of hot gas. Looks like even the LATimes says they ought not stick to it. To repeat a link that confused some of our readers since it was accompanied by a pretty, shiny picture, Hugonomics isn't any better, it seems, clout or not.
Do I hear another Allende diatribe in the distance?

Wow! Chinese Communism Is Dead

and they are serious about competition.

Not Only the Kennedys Drink

There's always the Scandinavian Hajj.

Iowahawk on Ted Kennedy's Exit Strategy

Here.

{Ed.] This needs a relevant picture. An Olds would be too trite. A Mustang convertible not appropriate, dixit JJ. OK, how about a VW?

Father and son, driving around

Jay Leno: "A Kennedy, a car accident, and no alcohol - now that has never happened." And, from Michelle Malkin:

Drinks at the Hawk & Dove: $40
Phenergan & Ambien: $75
Crashing your Mustang convertible while intoxicated: $4,000
Being driven home by Capitol Police: PRICELESS

the market

I wonder what this conservative crowd thinks of this effort at bettering public health when it conflicts with anti-regulation & free-market principles.

Traffic accident report

From the Capitol Cops.
Failure to give full time and attention to operation of vehicle: oh, duhhh!

Hitch responds to Cole

Petulantly! Audio and transcript.

A Real Le Monde Article

Here. But how many French students think Marxist economic theory is valid?

Solzhenitsyn Will Land on Their Side

this time

BC kerfuffle

Have they heard of St. Augustine at BC?


The conflict began this week when two leading theology professors circulated a letter opposing the college's invitation, asserting that Rice's views on international affairs and her actions in the Iraq war were in conflict with Roman Catholic values.

Paul Johnson

Reviews the Cold War.

Still Whacked After a Day in Cambridge

Yeah, yeah, yeah, third Rome and all that. Whatever, dude.

Hitchens, Cole, Iowahawk

Hitchens, Cole, and best of all, Iowahawk. So how do you feel about Yale offering this shithead a position?

Fascinating Petro

Venezerola? With friends like that, you think he'd know how to run a business--or at least get the valves opened on time.