I Thought They Gave Them Diplomas for That

Hitchens on Cutting and Running

The Bush Junta Strikes Back!

Kerry channels Pepe

American soldiers are peegs. Don't get ad hominem with me. [AI, I thought this needed decoration. -JJ]

Calm sea

I See New Orleans is Back to Normal

A five year plan

Old stalinist dreams never die, they just keep coming back dressed in pinko-frenchie garb.

Segolene Royal, the Socialist frontrunner for the 2007 election campaign, demanded a five-year plan to improve youth integration in the suburbs and criticized government policies.

Aahhh... the French youth. I say, give each and every one 10K, and then we talk. Do I have a taker? Anyone wants to see me and double?

crash

So much for the contention that republicans reward loyalty over competence.

Quote of the Night

"Fascism is always descending on the United States, but somehow it keeps landing in Europe" -- Tom Wolfe

I had promised, a week ago, that I would take a break from the Frontlines of FreeCounterPoint. I broke my promise....I am ashamed.
But, better belatedly than belyingly, onto that hiatus.

After this post, no more from me but sweet nothings and sour pork; at least until the Brilliant and Radiant 2007. As if the world would care [ "Roll On, and all that Victorian Jazz"].
Take care, folks, and enjoy the Newer and Kinder and Gentler AA while it lasts. [Nothing lasts].

Pax [Urbana] Unto Pepe, [Ode to] Joy Unto JJ, All's Well [With the World] Unto AI, [Tropical] Heat Unto Master MFT.

I'll keep in touch, AA

Les Trois Singes au Travail

No News is the Best News. And who provides the Best News but the MSM?

To the first strains of Ode to Joy

The Three Monkeys at Work

It didn't take long for a mainstream of Islam to find the mot juste for their response to Hirsyan Ali, eh?

A Whisper in the Dark

Now if there was a mainstream of Islam whose leaders spoke like this, there would at least be grounds for hope.

Dr. Douglas Allchin on Footnotes

University of Minnesota's History of Science and Technology department. Here it is, folks. At least one representative... (drum roll please).

perfect sunset

I wanted to use a polarizing filter but she insisted on strawberry-flavored condoms.

Pepe Thought In Islamic Action

Ah, another fine sample of gentlemen who can appreciate the Pepean insight into the True Danger that is presented by the Christers and their psychopathic adherence to "Sweet Baby Jaysus".

Reformation Day

Nailing the 95 Theses to the Church door in Wittenberg. I'm told the doors themselves served as community bulletin boards, and it was common to post happenings there. Still, it finally put into motion what a lot of folks had already thought. And about that time it marked an increase in the literacy of Western Civilization. There are some decent biographies out there on Martin Luther. The one I happen to have at the moment is Martin Marty, Martin Luther, (New York: Viking Penguin, 2004).

For a good microhistory about a 16th-century peasant-miller named Menocchio, check out Carlos Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980, 1992). Have you read this yet JJ or AI? Pretty good. Pretty good. Unlike Luther, however, Menocchio was eventually burned at the stake -- for years, the guy just wouldn't shut up about heresey!

Anyhow, happy Protestant Day.

l'antiamericanisme primaire

Pour qui tu te prends, espèce de peuple impérieux? Tu t’étends partout pas d’tact : ooouhh c’est périlleux… Ça va péter de par toutes les parties opprimées Faudra payer pour tou’és pays qu’t’as tenté d’touer Toé qui sais pas pourquoi personne peut t’supporter

Yada, yada, yada. The unbearable lightness of an empty lefty mind.

Sunset

fresh evidence of incompetence

just in time for the election.

Three Amazing Stories from the Corriere

Here, a TV show called "The Hyenas" on Berlusconi's network Italia 1 hired an actress to complain to bigshot priests that her son had been molested by some subordinate priest. None of them told the woman to go to the police, they report. I wish my colleagues would cover my classes when I'm sick!

Here the Corriere reports a study done in France saying that 2% of female university students use prostitution as a source of money. That why it's called the SoreBone, Pepe?

Here the center-left government is showing it's getting sick of Naples' perennial crime problems and is threatening to send in the Military. I suggest France do the same thing.

2005 statistics

*9193 cars burnt
*2,921 arrests
*21 nights of riots

Wow, it looks like France is losing the riot war. Pepe?

Cheech & Chong Did Part I

The report, Up In Smoke 2, updates previous research from the organisations - Oxfam, the New Economics Foundation and the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, an umbrella group of aid and green groups.

totally disconnected from reality ?

It doesn't get much more connected than this.

Claudia Fiorentini

After all this bunda, I figured it might be nice to see the other end of a girl for a change.

If it's not the Crusades, it's the cartoons.

I had given up on Steyn a little. Seems he's back in form.

Pepe! Sell the SUV! Buy a Tricycle

Another nixonian moment

The Beeb is not crammed full of pinko-lefties.

trudeau

Berkeley gurus psychoanalyze elections

AQ warns Canuckia

..over their "fanatic adherence to Christianity". Says AQ spokesman: "Despite the strong, increasing opposition to spread its forces in the fire of South Afghanistan, it seems that they will not learn the lesson easily. They will either be forced to withdraw their forces or face an operation similar to New York, Madrid, London and their sisters, with the help of Allah."

IowaHawk on the Aussie Mullah

Trade Prophylaxis from Bush

In recent years, most of the low-end condom business has moved to Asia...
These must be the bunda condoms, no?

you guys were right all along

i'm voting republican

No, Don't Listen to Him! I'm Your Mother

Don't Get Pissy with Me, Communist!

Pepe! Your Pills! You Can't Blog without Your Pills

a nixonian moment

i am not a puppet.

God Bless France

Fun with Javabunda

This is a test of the new javascript I stuck in our template. Look what happens when you click on the image. The html that goes into your posting I will write into the comments.

thanks, Dick

AA's Favorite Girl on Girl

Mark Foley was never on the radar of anyone outside the small circle of news junkies. So his fall and banishment from Washington were nothing but a drip in the torrential flood of current geopolitical problems. The way the Democratic leadership was in clear collusion with the major media to push this story in the month before the midterm election seems to me to have been a big fat gift to Ann Coulter and the other conservative commentators who say the mainstream media are simply the lapdogs of the Democrats. Every time I turned on the news it was "Foley, Foley, Foley!" -- and in suspiciously similar language and repetitive talking points.
Pepe, this is a Democrat talking. You sure the media aren't biased?

More on BBC Biting BBC

I wouldn't know where to start in tackling the political correctness of BBC drama, but I think the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves would go to Spooks, BBC1's flagship series about impossibly right-on MI5 agents. The series was originally praised (by the BBC) for its accuracy about the real work of the Security Service. So what did it kick off with on the first episode? A pro-life extremist bomber out to cause mayhem. Come on, you must know about them! No? Well, what about episode two, which tackled the equally pressing issue of racist extremists in league with Right-wing politicians plotting mass murder of immigrants? I lost interest in Spooks, but tuned in again a few weeks ago for the start of the fifth series. It was about homegrown al-Qa'eda terrorists taking over the Saudi embassy and murdering innocent people. Except that they weren't British Muslims at all, but undercover Israeli agents. Once again, the villains are a million miles away from the ones you might expect, and top-heavy with the forces of reaction.

Death of a President

So much garbage from the Boston Phoenix! It's hard to choose dumpster. Link1 link2 link3. You're right, Pepe. The NYT is not so bad after all. Back during the Kerry abort-oop-campaign for some office or another, the Phoenix did a hatchet job on Steyn. He tears them a new one here though perhaps that's exactly what they wanted. Even my favorite paragraph is too long for me to post out here so I'll put it in as a comment.

a true gem

Lupanare

Hey! What the Hell?

I am in a rush, but if the gov't is telling this idiot to shut up, I'm pissed.

The Atrocities! Abu! Mehmet!

In addition, in the 1300 Uhr breaking news below the image, I see the Deutsche Oper is gonna stage a couple Idomeneos by yearsend. Here's another front page brouhaha about little like this intended to keep the homefront jittery.
Objective, Pepe? Trumps everything including national survival?

The Other Side of Frank Rich

Obama for Prexy?

A Dem Collabo

Zipless Thoughts from Erica Jong

I don't care if you ignoramuses comment or not.

oh well

the storyline was so heartwarming... what a let down.

monty python, 2006

Uncovered Meat!

$\hookrightarrow$

A Test Case on the Media

Pepe, here's a terrible story from the war in Afghanistan. We accidentally killed a bunch of innocents, it seems. You may prefer the word 'negligently' but I will let what I wrote stand. So you have not in the past expressed opposition to the Afghan adventure. What do you think reporting like this does to the legitimate war effort over there? Do these deaths rate top story status on BBC? Mightn't already riled rags take this as yet another bit of proof that the West is at war with them qua rags?

Cars are so so Passe' among the Young & Hip & Fashionable

And who would know more of Fashion but, of course, zut alors, The French

it's the media's fault!

i am waiting for the comments to the effect that the whitewashing isn't the problem, it's the NYT.

Long NIghts Journey Into Day

Lo, it is now 5:20 AM here in Western Canuckia, and the night has passed with some of substance, some of lightness, and far too much of some of Freecounterpointillism. Now, will be returning exams to hapless souls, and then crossing the border to Amerika Satan to embrace kin. No return until Sunday eve, and so not until Monday for FCP. Enjoy the weekend, avoid the Chunda of the Bunda, and remember to seriously uphold one's ever present racism to Confound Pepe and Ad Gloriam Dis.

Journos Man the Classical Thin Red Line

A wee bit hubristic to think that journos [presumably MSM journos] hold the fate of classical music in their grubby paws.....the steadily weakening status of classical music in the West [it is surprisingly strong in East Asia] seems to have many causes, and quite a few far more difficult to overcome than letting a scribe scribble.

The Old Bad Copt, Dhimmi Copt Routine

No doubt Pepe would suggest he Copt a plea.

A Belgium Speaks to Us of Pepean Things

What better summary of Petain Pensee than this line by Belien: "People who are not prepared to resist and are eager to submit, hate others who do not want to submit and are prepared to fight. They hate them because they are afraid that the latter will endanger their lives as well. In their view everyone must submit."
At Versailles, there is only vinegar in those cups.

Give Therapeutic Violence a Chance

The Peter Principle or the Bush "Je Ne Sais Quoi" Doctrine or the Le Pewian "Petain Yesterday, Petain Today, Petain Forever" Capitulism?

Ein volk

“As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from. And as a symbol of that, the flag of Islam should be flown over the Dáil. This is symbolic of the fact that all societies will be run better according to God’s law.”

Music to Pepe's ears.

Steyn asks a direct question

“The American people were solidly behind this when you went in and you toppled the Taliban, when you go in and you topple Saddam,” columnist Mark Steyn said to the president. “But when it just seems to be a kind of thankless, semi-colonial, policing, defensive operation, with no end — I mean, where is the offense in this?”

Bundacide?

What, A Frenchman who Yet Heeds Reason?

Maybe his real name is Dusty Blazer, from Paree, .......Tejas!

It's the Finger, Mr. Bond, Not the Gold

Music for the Cringe Culture

For our Age, when "even the dogs have gone to the dogs"

Above Ancient Bunda, Was "No Tieno Agua"

At least he left his mark for posterity

MFT Called for an End to Bunda

I can't get behind him on this somehow.

Dowd

y'all are no doubt maureen fans - here's her latest pearl

Pages 1, 2.

Three Blind Vikings, See How They Run

The new Nordic Threat ain't your Mama's Berserker

Academics Doing Serious Research

Schwanzkopfen!

this looks dangerous...

The female tiger had a litter of kittens that, for one reason or another, weren't around (either died, or taken from her, or whatever). The zoo keepers dressed up some piglets in tiger garb and, well, there you go. No, the piglets were not consulted beforehand about any of this.

A non-scientific survey

What can we infer from it?

AI's Got a Thing for These

Also here, but particularly here.

Call The ACLU!

Mission Civilisatrice

Avant le génocide, qui a fait 800 000 morts, tutsis pour la plupart,"la France a mené une campagne de dénigrement et de diabolisation du Front patriotique rwandais (FPR) et de ses dirigeants", a lancé devant la commission le premier témoin, Jacques Bihozagara, un des fondateurs de la rébellion majoritairement tutsie du FPR, aujourd'hui au pouvoir. Selon lui, les autorités françaises de l'époque pensaient qu'"un pays francophone [le Rwanda] était attaqué par un pays anglophone [l'Ouganda, où le FPR avait ses bases arrière]", et ont estimé qu'"il fallait voler au secours de la francophonie". Here in English.

For Pepe, and Against the Scum of the Universe

The Wages of a Backbone and a Strategery in Lvov,

for ai

What, They Fear Putin Will Rape Her?

Above the Flowers and Challenges, above the Chiracian Putinescus currying Favors for their Favorite Sadist, is the most revealing Pravda.

Looks Like Paris, Texas

Four Years can change a man? F*&k that, four hours suffice.

Logistic Curves are for Bourgeois Swine

Life is more exciting when the Curve of Current Trends is freed from the petty constraints of post 1800 mathematics.

Los Alamos Safecrackers , from Feynman to Cheech & Chong

Tricky locks ain't what they used to be

Worms Crawl In, Worms Crawl out

Just in case you have ever thought, when you have seen a Hearse go by. that you may be the next to die.

Iraq 'success' possible, US says

The brass is coming to the rescue of the GOP.

A hilarious line: Gen Casey said that although the situation was "hard", Iraq was not "awash in sectarian violence".
Sure thing, man.

Indiana Jones stripped of his tenure

The list of grievances is formidable. Grave-robbing. Lack of standards in methodology. Cultural insensitivity. And on and on and on.

O Tempora! O Mores!

Since we have lately been on a Latin jag and have always been on a Chirac-bashing jag, I thought it well to include this article. Also it gives me a chance to bring a bit of Cicero audio to the blog. AI sent this to me a long time ago and I have conserved it. I put it in the comments yesterday in response to AA's wish that he had the expertise to post nude pictures of himself rather than tolerate images of Kristin Kreuk, but this post being as it is a bit far back is getting little attention now.

Subnota Nuntios Latinos in receptorium tuum "podcast".

Grey Lady Bites Grey Lady!

compassionate conservatism applied to food

what stayin' the course means

The president has shifted language on Iraq before. At a news conference in August, he returned to his prewar argument that Saddam Hussein harbored terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Hussein "had relations with Zarqawi," Bush said. Weeks later, the Senate intelligence committee concluded that Hussein "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye to Zarqawi" and that the U.S. government knew that before the invasion. At his next news conference, Bush was asked about that. "I never said there was an operational relationship," he said.

This is reminiscent of Brown (of "you're doing a heckuvah job brownie" fame) who claimed not knowing about the 10,000 people in the superdome. When confronted with the fact that the information had been disclosed by CNN for days, he said he didn't know it "factually".

False premises?

But British universities prefer burying their heads in the sand of political correctness. When the Foreign Office invited 100 academics to bid for £1.3 million of government funds to participate in a counter-radicalization program, the academics said no. John Gledhill, chair of the Association of Social Anthropologists, welcomed their move, saying last week that "it did appear to be encouraging researchers to identify subjects and groups involved with terrorism . . . that could be interpreted as encouraging them to become informers." Martha Mundy, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, dismissed the government plans as having "an overtly security-research agenda" starting from the (false) premise that there is a "link between Islamism, radicalization and terrorism."

Oh, yeah?

Train defecator

Strikes again!

bumper cars for the new millennium

With all our brains being fried by cell phones, even smart people won't know what to do when Jihad backpack bombs start detonating in major Western cities. At least we'll have new bumper cars for the new millennium...

Brain fryers, CXIV

They fry other things, too, JJ. Told ya.

painful tattoos / keep deborah kent outa there

[Sorry. That shit definitely had to go. I was about to puke. It's in the comments if you must see what I think should be killed. I am all for commercial shit.--JJ]

Texas Chili

You guys have almost certainly read a variation on this. Enjoy:

For those of you who have lived in Texas, you know how true this is. They actually have a Chili Cook-off about the time Halloween comes around. It takes up a major portion of a parking lot at the San Antonio City park.

The notes are from an inexperienced Chili taster named Frank, who was visiting from Springfield, IL.

Frank: "Recently, I was honored to be selected as a judge at a Chili cook-off. The original person called in sick at the last moment and I happened to be standing there at the judge's table asking for directions to the Coors Light truck, when the call came in. I was assured by the other two judges (Native Texans) that the chili wouldn't be all that spicy and, besides, they told me I could have free beer during the tasting, so I accepted."

Here are the scorecards from the advent: (Frank is Judge #3)

Chili # 1 Eddie's Maniac Monster Chili....
Judge # 1 -- A little too heavy on the tomato. Amusing kick.
Judge # 2 -- Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.
Judge # 3 -- (Frank) Holy shit, what the hell is this stuff? You could remove dried paint from your driveway. Took me two beers to put the flames out. I hope that's the worst one. These Texans are crazy.

Chili # 2 Austin's Afterburner Chili...
Judge # 1 -- Smoky, with a hint of pork. Slight jalapeno tang.
Judge # 2 -- Exciting BBQ flavor, needs more peppers to be taken seriously.
Judge # 3 -- Keep this out of the reach of children. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain. I had to wave off two people who wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver. They had to rush in more beer when they saw the look on my face.

Chili # 3 Ronny's Famous Burn Down the Barn Chili...
Judge # 1 -- Excellent firehouse chili. Great kick. Needs more beans.
Judge # 2 -- A bean less chili, a bit salty, good use of peppers.
Judge # 3 -- Call the EPA. I've located a uranium spill. My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano. Everyone knows the routine by now. Get me more beer before I ignite. Barmaid pounded me on the back, now my backbone is in the front part of my chest. I'm getting shit-faced from all of the beer...

Chili # 4 Dave's Black Magic...
Judge # 1 -- Black bean chili with almost no spice. Disappointing.
Judge # 2 -- Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for fish or other mild foods, not much of a chili.
Judge # 3 -- I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it. Is it possible to burn out taste buds? Sally, the barmaid, was standing behind me with fresh refills. That 300-lb. woman is starting to look HOT...just like this nuclear waste I'm eating! Is chili an aphrodisiac?

Chili # 5 Lisa's Legal Lip Remover...
Judge # 1 -- Meaty, strong chili. Cayenne peppers freshly ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.
Judge # 2 -- Chili using shredded beef, could use more tomato. Must admit the cayenne peppers make a strong statement.
Judge # 3 -- My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes. I farted and four people behind me needed paramedics. The contestant seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage. Sally saved my tongue from bleeding by pouring beer directly on it from the pitcher. I wonder if I'm burning my lips off. It really pisses me off that the other judges asked me to stop screaming. Screw those rednecks.

Chili # 6 Pam's Very Vegetarian Variety...
Judge # 1 -- Thin yet bold vegetarian variety chili. Good balance of spices and peppers.
Judge # 2 -- The best yet. Aggressive use of peppers, onions, and garlic.Superb.
Judge # 3 -- My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous, sulfuric flames. I shit on myself when I farted and I'm worried it will eat through the chair. No one seems inclined to stand behind me except that Sally. Can't feel my lips anymore. I need to wipe my ass with a snow cone.

Chili # 7 Carla's Screaming Sensation Chili...
Judge # 1 -- A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned peppers.
Judge # 2 -- Ho hum, tastes as if the chef literally threw in a can of chili peppers at the last moment. **I should take note that I am worried about Judge # 3. He appears to be in a bit of distress as he is cursing uncontrollably.
Judge # 3 -- You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin, and I wouldn't feel a thing. I've lost sight in one eye, and the world sounds like it is made of rushing water. My shirt is covered with chili, which slid unnoticed out of my mouth. My pants are full of lava to match my shirt. At least during the autopsy, they'll know what killed me. I've decided to stop breathing it's too painful. Screw it; I'm not getting any oxygen anyway. If I need air, I'll just suck it in through the 4-inch hole in my stomach.

Chili # 8 Karen's Toenail Curling Chili...
Judge # 1 -- The perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili. Not too bold but spicy enough to declare its existence.
Judge # 2 -- This final entry is a good, balanced chili. Neither mild nor hot.
Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge #3 farted, passed out, fell over and pulled the chili pot down on top of himself. Not sure if he's going to make it. Poor feller, wonder how he'd have reacted to really hot chili?

Get Used to It

Punching bags

The move came after a consultant in Paris was punched by a Muslim who was concerned that a male doctor wanted to examine his wife after complications in childbirth. Though incidents of gynaecologists being attacked on religious grounds remain rare, the declaration said Muslim rejection of secular norms appeared to be rising.

Get used to it, says Pepe.

What a Professional!

Your credulous assertion that OUSD "misspoke" and that their subsequent, frantic damage control statements to the media were a "clarification" doesn't pass the smirk test. It's reminiscent of the old joke about the married man who came into the doctor's office with a black eye. Asked what happened, he said "Doctor, I've had a terrible Freudian slip! My wife and I were sitting at the dinner table, and enjoying a nice peaceful dinner. I tried to say 'will you please pass the salt?' but it came out as 'f*** you bitch you've ruined my life!'"

Aahhh, the French youths

Full of so much vigor, and irrepressible élan!

"Authority is clearly needed but we also need dialogue and respect, much more than we had in those neighbourhoods."

Right---dialogue and respect is what's missing here. Go for it, that will do it!

Brazilian Poll Data

in round numbers.

More Pomes

This is a teepee
Where you do your peepee
This is not a wigwam
Where you beat your tom-tom
-Longfellow

Frank Rich

Here's the full text for those that don't pay their dues to the NYT

Obama Is Not a Miracle Elixir

By FRANK RICH
Published: October 22, 2006

THE Democrats are so brilliant at yanking defeat from the jaws of victory that it still seems unimaginable that they might win on Nov. 7. But even the most congenital skeptic has to face that possibility now. Things have gotten so bad for the Republicans that were President Bush to unveil Osama bin Laden’s corpse in the Rose Garden, some reporter would instantly check to see if his last meal had been on Jack Abramoff’s tab.

With an approval rating of 16 percent — 16! — in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Congress has matched the Democrats of 1994 or, for that matter, Michael Jackson during his own version of Foleygate. As for Mr. Bush, he is once more hiding behind children in an elementary school, as he did last week when the monthly death toll for Americans in Iraq approached a nearly two-year high. And where else could he go? Some top Republican Congressional candidates in the red state he was visiting, North Carolina, would not appear with him. When the president did find a grateful campaign mate at his next stop, Pennsylvania, it was the married congressman who paid $5.5 million to settle a lawsuit by a mistress who accused him of throttling her.

Maybe the Democrats can blow 2006 as they did 2004, but not without herculean effort. As George Will memorably wrote, if they can’t at least win back the House under these conditions, “they should go into another line of work.”

The tough question is not whether the Democrats can win, but what will happen if they do win. The party’s message in this campaign has offered no vision beyond bashing Mr. Bush and pledging to revisit the scandals and the disastrous legislation that went down on his watch. Last spring Nancy Pelosi did promote a “New Direction for America” full of golden oldies — raising the minimum wage, enacting lobbying reform, cutting Medicare drug costs, etc. She promised that Democrats would “own August” by staging 250 campaign events to publicize it. But this rollout caused so few ripples that its participants might as well have been in the witness protection program. Meanwhile, it was up to John Murtha, a congressman with no presidential ambitions, to goad his peers to start focusing on a specific Iraq exit strategy.

Enter Barack Obama. To understand the hysteria about a Democratic senator who has not yet served two years and is mainly known for a single speech at the 2004 convention, you have to appreciate just how desperate the Democrats are for a panacea for all their ills. In the many glossy cover articles about Obamamania, the only real suspense is whether a Jack or Bobby Kennedy analogy will be made in the second paragraph or the fifth. Men’s Vogue (cover by Annie Leibovitz) went so far as to say that the Illinois senator “alone has the potential to one day be mentioned in the same breath” as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Why not throw in Mark Twain and Sammy Davis Jr.?

This is a lot to put on the shoulders of anyone, even someone as impressive as Mr. Obama. Though he remains a modest and self-effacing guy from all appearances, he is encouraging the speculation about seeking higher office — and not as a coy Colin Powell-style maneuver to sell his new book, “The Audacity of Hope.” Mr. Obama hasn’t been turning up in Iowa for the corn dogs. He consistently concedes he’s entertaining the prospect of a presidential run.

There’s no reason to rush that decision now, but it’s a no-brainer. Of course he should run, assuming his family is on the same page. He’s 45, not 30, and his slender résumé in public office (which also includes seven years as a state senator) should be no more of an impediment to him than it was to the White House’s current occupant. As his Illinois colleague Dick Durbin told The Chicago Tribune last week, “I said to him, ‘Do you really think sticking around the Senate for four more years and casting a thousand more votes will make you more qualified for president?’ ” Instead, such added experience is more likely to transform an unusually eloquent writer, speaker and public servant into another windbag like Joe Biden.

The more important issue is not whether Mr. Obama will seek the presidency, but what kind of candidate he would be. If the Democratic Party is to be more than a throw-out-Bush party, it can’t settle for yet again repackaging its well-worn ideas, however worthy, with a new slogan containing the word “New.” It needs a major infusion of steadfast leadership. That’s the one lesson it should learn from George Bush. Call him arrogant or misguided or foolish, this president has been a leader. He had a controversial agenda — enacting big tax cuts, privatizing Social Security, waging “pre-emptive” war, packing the courts with judges who support his elisions of constitutional rights — and he didn’t fudge it. He didn’t care if half the country despised him along the way.

The interminable Iraq fiasco has branded the Democrats as the party of fecklessness. The failure of its leaders to challenge the administration’s blatant propaganda to gin up the war is a failure of historic proportions (as it was for much of the press and liberal punditry). When Tom Daschle, then the Senate leader, presided over the rushed passing of the war resolution before the 2002 midterms, he explained that the “bottom line” was for Democrats “to move on”; they couldn’t wait to campaign on the economy. The party’s subsequent loss of the Senate did not prevent it two years later from nominating a candidate who voted for the war’s funding before he voted against it.

What makes the liberal establishment’s crush on Mr. Obama disconcerting is that it too often sees him as a love child of a pollster’s focus group: a one-man Benetton ad who can be all things to all people. He’s black and he’s white. He’s both of immigrant stock (Kenya) and the American heartland (Kansas, yet). He speaks openly about his faith without disowning evolution. He has both gravitas and unpretentious humor. He was the editor of The Harvard Law Review and also won a Grammy (for the audiobook of his touching memoir, “Dreams From My Father”). He exudes perfection but has owned up to youthful indiscretions with drugs. He is post-boomer and post-civil-rights-movement. He is Bill Clinton without the baggage, a fail-safe 21st-century bridge from “A Place Called Hope” to “The Audacity of Hope.”

Mr. Obama has offended no one (a silly tiff with John McCain excepted). Search right-wing blogs and you’ll find none of the invective showered on other liberal Democrats in general and black liberal leaders in particular. What little criticism Mr. Obama has received is from those in his own camp who find him cautious to a fault, especially on issues that might cause controversy. The sum of all his terrific parts, this theory goes, may be less than the whole: another Democrat who won’t tell you what day it is before calling a consultant, another human weather vane who waits to see which way the wind is blowing before taking a stand.

That has been the Democrats’ fatal malady, but it’s way too early and there’s too little evidence to say Mr. Obama has been infected by it. If he is conciliatory by nature and eager to entertain adversaries’ views in good faith, that’s not necessarily a fault, particularly in these poisonous times. The question is whether Mr. Obama will stick up for core principles when tested and get others to follow him.

That’s why it’s important to remember that on one true test for his party, Iraq, he was consistent from the start. On the long trail to a hotly competitive senatorial primary in Illinois, he repeatedly questioned the rationale for the war before it began, finally to protest it at a large rally in Chicago on the eve of the invasion. He judged Saddam to pose no immediate threat to America and argued for containment over a war he would soon label “dumb” and “political-driven.” He hasn’t changed. In his new book, he gives a specific date (the end of this year) for beginning “a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops” and doesn’t seem to care who calls it “cut and run.”

Contrast this with Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, who last week said that failed American policy in Iraq should be revisited if there’s no improvement in “maybe 60 to 90 days.” This might qualify as leadership, even at this late date, if only John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, hadn’t proposed exactly the same time frame for a re-evaluation of the war almost a week before she did.

The Democrats may well win on Election Day this year. But one of their best hopes for long-term viability in the post-Bush era is that Barack Obama steps up and changes the party before the party of terminal timidity and equivocation changes him.

more impertinence from the state dept

more poetry for you heathens

The National Poetry Contest had come down to two semi-finalists: A Yale graduate, and a Redneck.

They were given a single word, then allowed two minutes to come up with a poem that contained the word.

The word they were given was "TIMBUKTU".

The Yale graduate steps to the microphone and said:

SLOWLY ACROSS THE DESERT SAND
TREKKED A LONELY CARAVAN.
MEN ON CAMELS, TWO BY TWO
DESTINATION TIMBUKTU

The crowd went crazy! No way could the Redneck top that, they thought. The Redneck calmly made his way to the microphone and recited:

ME AND TIM A HUNTIN' WENT,
MET THREE WHORES IN A POP-UP TENT.
THEY WAS THREE, AND WE WAS TWO,
SO I BUCKED ONE, AND TIMBUKTU

The Redneck won hands down.

Oh-no, JJ: in the end, all history is local...

Uh-oh, JJ. It looks like you're up against a mass of historians that, to one degree or another, march to the Total History Annales School tune. Will Fernand Braudel or Marc Bloch or Jacques LeGoff ever be more famous than Gibbon? And with Joseph A. Amato making crazy statements like "All history is local," (p. 191) we aren't dealing with one disciplinary schism, but many. How will you counter them all, JJ? Are you stocked up on enough espresso to deal with these 20th and 21st century titans? Or, as Harold Bloom said about Harry Potter, will time obliterate this rubbish? That is, do you even need to concern yourself with it?

LOB on Revs and Splitters

Brian: Excuse me. Are you the Judean People's Front?
Reg: Fuck off!
Brian: Excuse me?
Reg: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
Francis: Wankers.
Brian: Can I... join your group?
Reg: No, piss off.
Brian: I don't want to sell this stuff, it's only a job. I hate the Romans as much as anybody.
Judith: Are you sure?
Brian: Oh, dead sure. I hate the Romans already.
Reg: Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.
Brian: I do!
Reg: Oh, yeah? How much?
Brian: A lot!
Reg: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.
Stan: Yeah, the Judean People's Front.
Reg: Yeah. Splitters.
Stan: And the Popular Front of Judea.
Reg: Yeah. Splitters.
Stan: And the People's Front of Judea.
Reg: Yea... what?
Stan: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
Reg: We're the People's Front of Judea!
Stan: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
Reg: People's Front!
Francis: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
Reg: He's over there. [points to a lone man]
Reg, Stan, Francis, Judith: SPLITTER!

LOB on Early Bloggers

[A Centurion, John Cleese, has caught Brian doing some impromptu blogging on the walls of Herod's Palace]

Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go, the house?
Brian: It says, "Romans go home."
Centurion: No, it doesn't! What's the latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on !
Brian: Er, "Romanus"!
Centurion: Goes like?
Brian: Annus.
Centurion: Vocative plural of "Annus" is?
Brian: Er, er, annus, anni, anno, annum, anno, anni... "Romani"!
Centurion: [writes "Romani" over Brian's graffiti] "Eunt"? What is "eunt"? Conjugate the verb, "to go"!
Brian: Er, "Ire." Er, "eo," "is," "it," "imus," "itis," "eunt."
Centurion: So, "eunt" is... ?
Brian Third person plural present indicative, "they go".
Centurion: But, "Romans go home" is an order. So you must use... ? [twists Brian's ear]
Brian: Aaagh! The imperative!
Centurion; Which is...?
Brian: Which is...?
Brian: Aaaaagh! Er, er... "ii"!
Centurion: How many Romans?
Brian: Aaaaagh! Plural, plural... er, "ite"!
Centurion: [writes "ite" on wall] "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion toward, isn't it?
Brian: Dative! [Centurion holds a sword at Brian's throat] Aaagh! Not the dative, not the dative! Er, er... accusative, "ad domus"!
Centurion: But "Domus" takes the locative, which is...?
Brian: Er... "Domum"
Centurion: "Domum"! [writes "Domum" on wall] Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
Centurion: Hail Caesar! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.

Declensions, Declensions, Proper Forms for Small Minds

JJ, you have seen this flick, yes?

Spring Fever

Just in case any of youse needs a Break

Reality is a Paris Putaine [Pace, Pepe, Putain]

Is this where Tashio met History?

Vieta?!!

Death Has No Sting for ol' Francois!

Calcifornium?

Hey, if the blokes wanted to conjure up a glimpse of a calcified californium, all they had to do was go to LA.

Right by Smallville

[AA, You cannot mention anything related to beautiful Kristin Kreuk without providing a photo. If it happens again, you're banned. -JJ]

The Blogger Gets Pronked

Sudan knows a Crime Against Humanity when it sees one.

A Metapost

pre-election noise

just when you thought the iraq policy was an example of humility and intelligence.

AA, AI, & Vietà

While I was visiting AA last Spring, we got into a discussion about old algebra junk (God knows why) that came around to Vietà. I told AA that AI had given a lecture about the cohomology of some Lie groups that brought in as a technique something called the Vietà map. AA was shocked that an old-junk player like that could be playing rock and roll, but there it is.
I think I had told AA I would look into it but have forgotten all about it till now. The link above is to a .ps file (AA, if you want, I'll convert it to .pdf and mail it to you) of Etingoff's notes of a talk by Varchenko about Knizhnik Zamolodchikov eqn. A new section starts on the second page that's intelligible. The first is the end of the proof of a previously stated theorem.

Beeb Bites Beeb

The full account of the meeting shows how senior BBC figures queued up to lambast their employer. Political pundit Andrew Marr said: 'The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.' Washington correspondent Justin Webb said that the BBC is so biased against America that deputy director general Mark Byford had secretly agreed to help him to 'correct', it in his reports. Webb added that the BBC treated America with scorn and derision and gave it 'no moral weight'. Former BBC business editor Jeff Randall said he complained to a 'very senior news executive', about the BBC's pro-multicultural stance but was given the reply: 'The BBC is not neutral in multiculturalism: it believes in it and it promotes it.' Randall also told how he once wore Union Jack cufflinks to work but was rebuked with: 'You can't do that, that's like the National Front!' Quoting a George Orwell observation, Randall said that the BBC was full of intellectuals who 'would rather steal from a poor box than stand to attention during God Save The King'.

Mark Squires Photo

CNN and War Poetry

The Tennessee version.

the Middle of Nowhere

Yankton is located in the southeastern part of South Dakota, right near the confluence of the Missouri and James Rivers. I've been there a few times. It used to be the old Dakota Territorial capital. Many a murder case was held there in the U.S. Territorial Court, all in an attempt to bring a bit of order to the American West.

Senator Tim Johnson is only spouting half-truths: Yankton isn't the middle of nowhere. You need to travel to northeastern and northcentral South Dakota for that.

Public Order Issue

Certains diront que ce n'est qu'un lance-fusées de feu d'artifice. Mais il faut savoir que ce type d'engin est fréquemment utilisé au Pays Basque Espagnol contre les forces de l'ordre durant les guérillas urbaines.

Ça promet !

Quiz: What One Word Is Missing in This Piece?

Princeton Prof Starts Gay Hilarity!

1) The Bush administration is pro torture. The Bush administration was involved with the gay prostitute Jeff Gannon. That says that someone in the Bush administration has homosexual proclivities, and those same people have the desire to torture someone so strongly that they changed the laws of the entire country of the USA to allow them to torture people.

2) Why are a couple of posters equating being gay to being a paedophile? Homosexuality has sod all to do with molesting children.

Aahhh, the French...

"This is a unique situation because for the first time ever a union has actually acted to bring down the buying power of its members, especially those in small establishments who will see their pay cheques get smaller."

Hey, but the pinko-lefties feel oh so much better, and that's the important thing, yes?

Injured feelings

Cry me a river.

John Keegan on Vietnam and the 4th Estate = 5th Column

Pepe, before you dismiss this guy as a stooge of Amerikkka and a racist warmonger you should read some of his works. For example has been theorizing for years that it might be possible to eliminate war from the world as has almost been done with slavery (outside the muslim world?). If you want, I will dig this stuff up, though my favorite of his writings are simply about military history.

I Guess I Must Admire This Somehow

24:28 of Borat

Putain on Cazzov

Putin has been caught rhapsodizing with an open mic. The Russian newspaper Kommersant (I'll let than pun go) reports that Putin said to a visiting Ehud Olmert of Katzav,"Hey, what a man. Everyone in Russia envies him. He's raped ten women." In the meantime, Ex Pres Aznar (another pun opportunity I'll leave to you) of Spain got a wild hair and dropped a pen into the cleavage of a reporter while she asked him something. Video. Among you only Pepe and AA will get the gist of the interview, but the reportress is worth a gesture of the sort, imo.

The French go full fascist

First the Italians, now the French? Hey, Pepe, que pasa? Quick, where are the bleeding heart liberals to scream bloody murder?

[More content here--JJ]

So Ronery

Maybe Juan Carlos Was Drunk Too

In other news.

Hitchens reviews a Steadman review of Thompson

...there are only two kinds of people. There are those who have had the experience of a night at Owl Farm, at Woody Creek on the outskirts of Aspen, Colorado, and shared with “Dr” Thompson the cocktail of Chivas Regal, early-hours, high-velocity target-practice, late-night round-the-world telephone calls and associated diversions, and those who have not.

it's not JAWS we have to fear...

Beware of flying stingrays.

Heh heh heh!

This should come in handy on those crowded busses.

Les Cages aux Foley's

No Mas

"So I would just end up trying to say the same-old same-old, but in different ways. Meanwhile, none of us are getting any younger. Carpe Diem"

If the Very Bad Muslim is out of oil, is it any wonder this kufr peasant is Tankless in Gaza? This weekend will lay out the words of Pepita the Inscrutable, as oft requested. Then a short enough statement about this jaundiced eye's view of things. Then I take a few years hiatus from conversing on the Fall of the West. I'll keep up with things epiphenomenal on FCP, but if all goes well will not awake sometime before 2010 to the burning world .

They Ain't Cartesians No More

Even if they spread their merde in Amsterdam

The Face of a Man Whose Lost His City

The wages of turbulence, Navier, are not well Stoked

Guten Tag Verboten

As always, the Sixth Republic of Noam leads the way to the Brilliant and Radiant Future

In the Garden of Eden, Babha

Ahmedinejad seems to be a Man with a Plan. Quite the Horatio Alger of the Apocalypse. Unfortunately for us, we are Satan's Minions, and everyone knows Evil never wins.

Portuguese Physico-Philosophy At Work is Pathetic

For those of you who can read this muck, why dwell on the muck? For those of you who can't, then ye be verily Fortunate Sons. For those who post such things, Honi Soit. [see comments]

Is a Design ever Farious?

Nothing says Evil like that fabled Indo-Afghani Axis......but of course you need one more for a proper Axis [ever since Petain's Little War], and we know who The Third Man is, don't we?

Phuket, She/He Said

Sounds like the sort of place Burkha Boys Gone Bad would be welcome. But it is a queer thing to see a "local paper with an international audience".

Lo Yank Chow Main

Not just Taisho has a History

Hitchens on Pasha Nobel's Snow Job

Musha and Busha Get Tunkued

Yeah, no doubt Tunku also has his own agenda.........but he makes a point of pointing to points so obvious it is unsettling that so few seem to get the point of those points. This is Pointillism, Komraden

Whines Like a Dreyfus, eh Pepita?

There are those amongst us who would say "we'll dialogue with absolutely anybody. All's negotiable. Give me Ubi Mea and All's for wheelin' and dealin'." After all, if the Jew Boy don't like it, he can tell it to the "Youths".

Friends of Bill Keep on Rolling Past Our Freshly Dug Graves

Was there no one BillHill wouldn't whore themselves to for a campaign contribution? Absolutely Everything was for sale? Just how bad were the Clintons? So bad that Grant appears comparatively a sage in his choice of friends, and Bush comparatively clever at spotting the front men for terrorist organizations. In other words, BillHill were very very bad.
See "first comment"

upper Plains art: beauty right in our own backyard

Check out this Lakota Winter Count online exhibition from the Smithsonian.

A close Lakota friend of mine continues this Winter Count tradition (he hails from Standing Rock Reservation). His Count traces back at least 200 years, and he adds a new pictograph each year. There's even a picto of a space shuttle (I think the Columbia?), as the first Native was sent into space on it. If I get a photograph of it, I'll post it on our site to class up the joint a bit. Fuck Wynn and Picasso. This Lakota stuff is cooler.

Forgiving, Accomodating, Capitulating, They are all Pepitas Now

Pepita Moonlighting for The Dean's November?

Islam Militant Knows a Traitor when It Beats One

The guy has Muy Grand Cojones.....let's call him the Anti-Pepita.

New Orleans cooking

Is not very appealing. I'll stay with Boston baked beans, thank you.

Oh, shit

This idiot should be shot! Why would such a moron have to have such a painting, instead of, say, the Museum of Fine Arts? At times likes this, it gets hard to defend Kapitalism against all the pinko-lefty assaults, but one must keep one's perspective, and look at the big picture. Still, this klutz deserves the gallows, methinks -- or, at the very least, confiscation of his loot.

Jay & Silent Bob in LA

Is this the guy you were talking about, AA? Sounds like a good speech to try on the Harvard Grad Sch of Ed chickies during the Cantabrigian Octoberfest. They replace the 'k' with a 'c' to avoid giving offence to anyone.

Italy's Left Goes Full Fascist

Meanwhile in an interview with Reuters, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said that Muslim immigrant women should not be completely “hidden” behind full veils if they want to integrate and become part of Italy’s future. “You can’t cover your face. If you have a veil, fine, but you must be seen,” Prodi said, adding: “This is common sense I think, it is important for our society. It is not how you dress but if you are hidden or not.”

This How Sayings Got to Romania?

very cool

feel goodisms? or cold, hard rationale?

...personally, I'd take the latter.

In Robert Musil's magnum and unfinished opus, The Man Without Qualities, the great skeptic and contrarian Ulrich identifies every strength and weakness in, essentially, every strength and weakness. I remember the great iconoclast as saying something to this effect: Within altruism lies a certain degree of self-interest, and unintentional benefit comes to the world when even the most self-interested act.

Excerpt from the slate article: It would almost always be more effective to volunteer less, work overtime, and give more. A Dutch banker can pay for a lot of soup-kitchen chefs and servers with a couple of hours' worth of his salary, but that wouldn't provide the same feel-good buzz as ladling out stew himself, would it?

So it goes, so it goes.

Bushism for Pepe

I've done a fair shake of bashing Pepe's worldview, so I thought for once, I'd throw him a bone. Enjoy, Pepe. I only dish out one per decade.

Pepe, what gives?

"We have to simplify our product and reject an arrogant approach that was perhaps natural to us," said French winemaker, Pascal Renaudat.

I don't feel I'm getting authentic French wine unless there's some type of thick snobbish over-tone at least somewhere between the vineyard and the glass. How about you guys?

The Cobra and the Mongoose

The problem the Mongoose has is that half his compeers are now in the belly of the Snake, and his emergency resources call upon the Vision of a Bush and the Courage of a Chirac. Sure, he has a stiff upper lip, and all that, but then so did Gordon at Khartoum. How does one say "Asta La Vista Baby" in Urdu?

The French are getting ready to fight!

In what general direction?

New 7 wonders

What should they be?

Pepe! Quit reproducing!

Eye of Science

Slug Radula
Here many of these guys' shots have been accumulated.

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes duos

Poll: Support for Iraq war at all-time low

A poll conducted for CNN over the weekend suggests support among Americans for the war in Iraq is dwindling to an all-time low. Just 34 percent of those polled say they support the war, while 64 percent say they oppose it.

sampling error was plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

The WH dissed the wackos????

who woulda thunk ?

nice timing here again.

light for the children

If you find an Atheist in your neighborhood,
TELL A PARENT OR PASTOR RIGHT AWAY!

You may be moved to try and witness to
these poor lost souls yourself, however
AVOID TALKING TO THEM!

Atheists are often very grumpy and bitter and will lash out at children or they may even try to trick you into neglecting God's Word.

Very advanced witnessing techniques are needed for these grouches. Let the adults handle them.





Hey, Habu...
How many gods do you have?

Wouldn't you rather have just one God who loves you a bunch than a bunch of gods that don't love you at all?

Jesus loves everybody, even the unsaved like Habu! Remember to pray for Habu and others like him that they may find Jesus and accept Him into their hearts!

Thank God He Got Help

whose side is god on?

Last i heard, dubbyah had god's ear (if you recall, he got the almighty's ok before invading iraq). now ahmadinejad also makes the same claim.

So the questions: can god be on both sides? is one of them confused? are they both confused? does god care about either? any ideas as to how we could talk him into zappin'em both?

chavez on top

Anger management LXXXII

October Surprise LXXVII

Abysmal Guilty

if only dubbyah was a little less uptight

Regular Douchbags need not apply

Excerpt: We're looking for what one commenter refers to as "internet-buzz related douchebags," not your everyday run-of-the-mill douchebag (there are so many of those that no hall could hold them all).

Compte Audoin de Dampierre

I bought a bottle of this champagne at the Berkeley Bowl a couple of weeks ago -- it was excellent, at least as good as Veuve Clicquot, I'd say. Paid a fortune for it, though I now see one can get it relatively cheaply here. (Darn pinko-commies--always out to make a buck on my back! Soaking up AI, must be their motto.) At any rate, how about we make this the currency for future bets, and keep an honest tab? Any other suggestions?

Culanda Effect!

Sometimes, late at night, AI goes here to commune with the Great One.

wonderful new weapon

i have to try this at home

Naturally

Size Matters

Pass the ranch you little bitch.

PAY ATTENTION, bastards

Pepe, this is the same guy who you commended for having the most lucid, intelligent post on this blog to date -- he said we should listen to the leaders in the mid-East which, of course, is a statement that implies we weren't already. Now he wants the Democrats to stop obsessing over a Republican Head Hunt because NK has a frickin a-bomb. Here's what he has to say:

The American people are really having focus problems. North Korea and Iran are trying desperately to join the nuclear club, and North Korea has just detonated some kind of nuclear device under its troubled, starving soil. Meanwhile, we debate endlessly whether Dennis Hastert should resign as speaker of the House of Representatives because of a rogue congressman who has resigned in disgrace.

Is there nothing that will shake us out of our frivolity? The Foley-page scandal is serious, of course, but we all know there have been sex scandals before and there will be sex scandals again, and the republic will endure. If this one didn't involve the Internet and gay sex, it wouldn't be gripping our national attention. Remember, we were obsessing over our last congressional sex scandal, Gary Condit and Chandra Levy, just before 9-11-2001.

We need to focus. This is way more serious than the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. This is Armageddon.... If Iran and North Korea get nuclear bombs, all bets are off. Their constitutions do not contain enough checks and balances to insure that they will make rational choices.

Note: I addressed everyone as "bastards" in the most egalitarian vein, and only after I read that JJ did it too. I will refrain from bringing the phrase "little bitches" into Free Counter Point, choosing instead to use it when I ask my brother to pass the salad dressing at dinner (eg, "Pass the ranch you little bitch."). It feels good to be polite again. I've learned my lesson.

A.I. Fomenko

AI's Popovianism here has reminded me of the link above once sent me by AI himself. AA and MFT might find it particularly amusing as they are enthusiasts in the field of History and Bullshit. Here's the YouTube version and here in mathematische kunstler fassung. Steyn-Fallaci have some words for Popov as well. Who knew it was Christmas today?

Just Give Us Money without Telling Us What to Do

Fun with Unguided Rockets

Story.
A couple points about the Times story: First, the rocket club are deemed a 'cult'. OK, no harm done, I suppose. Second, it is mentioned without comment that guidance systems in these guys' birds are forbidden by federal law. I am not a big RKBA guy particularly, but how is it that anyone who wants to can own a machine gun (and an artillery piece?) but having a gyro in his hobby rocket gets the ATF (is it?) on his tail?

Cul de la Nuit

Good to have the full group back all at once now. Be nice, you bastards, or I won't post good stuff like this.

Physics is Dead

Not Even Wrong & The Trouble with Physics.

Do We Know the Mouse by its Tale?

A Nation-al Socialist mind dispassionately observing the scene

Planet Hell Found

I hope this link works

JC Loves You Longer Time, Mohmy Dearest

So a quick search for "Love" on the obligingly provided Holy Searchables JJ [or someone else] added to this site, gets this little factoid.
Love appears 657 times in the Bible I searched [some standar protestant thingy, lacking the proper deuteronomic precious bodily fluids], of which 400 times was in the Old and 257 times in the New testaments [given their respective lengths, the concentration was far higher in the new. This is particularly the case given that "Song of Solomon" did a more than manly contribution to the presence of Love in the Old Testy. No SoS and the Old has about the same as the New].
Love appears 83 times in the Quran. My copy of the Quran, and a handsome embossed Saudi authorized published translation it is, is a pretty thick beast, somewhat longer than the King James bible I have [but their are printing differences, so let's just say they are comparable in length]. Of course Gabriel was much more verbose than Trinity Guy, so when we say that the ratio of Love , New Testy contra Quran, is 257/83, we are strongly underestimating it, but hey, let's go with that.
Now, if we made it a Messiah vs Muhammad deal, then [ remember the Q. is Gabby's word, not Mo's] we would have to make a search of the Hadithas/Sunna to get a count of how much Love old Mohmy (verbally) displayed. Anybody have a searchable Haditha/Sunna [complete and unexpurgated, ya know] at hand? Still, I bet you a Canuckistani Halal Lamb Donair vs a succulent Portuguese Ameijoas na Cataplana, that the only Kristos comes close to being a Jesus Freak.
No, Pepita, to indulge in your hated preemptive warfare, I will not do an item search of every Haditha and Sunna compilation the 6 fundamental scholars collated. Dredging up the effluvia of the March-August FCP was painful enough. Your go, Burkha Boy

L'abattoir

The scene was like a human abattoir. We fought off the Taliban but were too late to save the French guys. All of us were shaking when we were flown back to base. One of the Afghan survivors said the French had been tied up, then gutted alive by the Taliban.

This is not Versailles...

Bolton's Roman Salute and Forelock Say It All

... I admit the moustache is a bit off, but...

Volokh on Gadahn

Burkha yes, X no

Says BA. AA has been warning about this for a long time, it's coming to pass now.