Chasing mountain goats under the pyramids?

Eighty-six Rules of Boozing...

#6. Buying a strange woman a drink is still cool. Buying all her drinks is dumb.

#18. Always have a corkscrew in your house.

#19. If you don't have a corkscrew, push the cork down into the bottle with a pen.

#20. Drink one girly drink in public and you will forever be known as the guy who drinks girly drinks.

#56. Screaming, “Someone buy me a drink!” has never worked.

#72. Never argue your tab at the end of the night. Remember, you're hammered and they’re sober. It's akin to a precocious five-year-old arguing the super-string theory with a physicist. 99.9% of the time you're wrong and either way you're going to come off as a jackass.

Riveting News About the Titanic...

...but not of glacial proportions:

Examining 28 rivets from the bow area, the authors found they had been made from substandard wrought iron. This usually tough material needs a little slag (a glassy byproduct) to fortify it, but too much makes it fragile.

Shut down the pissing boy!

So how do Pepe's cousins respond to the Binnie Boyz coming to get them? (1) Let them out of jail after one day. (2) Impose curfew at 6 pm on New Year's Eve. Way to go, Planet Pepe!

I love you, man!

Peggy slaps Hill, backhands Rudy

Mrs. Clinton is the most dramatically polarizing, the most instinctively distrusted, political figure of my lifetime. Yes, I include Nixon. [...] I forgot Rudy Giuliani. That must say something. He is reasonable but not desirable.

The eye of the tiger

"It would take little time for the [nuclear] command and control network to collapse if Pakistan slid toward anarchy. Should that happen, sympathisers of radical Islamists within the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies could very possibly assist militant groups in acquiring the wherewithal of a nuclear weapon."

Islam and The Fall of Science

This is something I've argued for a very long time. Islam is the death of Science. The more a land is fixed within the Ummah, the longer it abides there, the deeper it's fall into intellectual emptiness and the stagnation, and loss, of the spirit of rational inquiry into the nature of Nature. It is not alone in this, but it is the prime instance.

Seattle falls to #2!

Now that AA is leaving, the effects are starting to be felt, rather dramatically. But Minneapolis/St.Paul in #1/3? And Beantown in #10?? OK, we gotta do something to move up in the rankings the center of gravity of FCP. As for Nawlins, it's off the bottom of the chart. Ah, well -- they still have that Red #5 mixed with cheap vodka, they call Hurricane.

Year? Schmear!

Farewell to Year of Puget Sound, and Welcome to Year of Bunker Hill

Non-Raping IDF Are Showing Their Racist Arrogance, the Neocon Bastards

Yup, all's that Left on Planet Pepe is Utter Shite for Brains

Evil Under a Crescent Moon

"....and throughout the Planet of Pepe came the Word: Islam is Peace, Islam is Love"

Remember the Bus Attack after 9/11?

Ahmed, Ahmed, were you just reading your Proust?

Totalitarian Islam Strikes Again...

From what I've read, the late Benazir Bhutto was an accomplished and focused woman. This is bad news, Pakistan likely to lean towards Islamic Theocracy...

i-Fatwa

But now the growth of so-called new media fatwas has upset Egypt's religious establishment, which fears an erosion of its authority to people without solid theological credentials.

You mean, Ask-Imam.com is haram?

[PS: Is that JJ up there? We all know about gamboling in the Alps, but this is pushing it. Ask Imam.]

INFIDEL!

I've been reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel this week, and I thought I'd share at least one particular passage.

Remember this when a friend, or a colleague, or both, tells you that we, Western Civilization, have no right to tell people from another culture (or any "different" culture) what is Right, and what is Wrong. Fine. Let this smart and beautiful Somali say it then.

Also remember that when a friend, or colleague, says that we shouldn't tell others what is Right or Wrong, that they are in fact already doing what they supposedly thunder against: they are telling others what is Right and Wrong. The paradoxes are always interesting.

In one Ayaan Hirsi Ali's many passages from True Believer to outspoken Infidel who (thematically harnesses the spirit of Socrates) Questions-Questions-Questions in the pursuit of Answers-Answers-Answers:

"I found it remarkable how many esteemed [male & female] Muslim thinkers had philosophized at such length about precisely how much female skin could be bared without causing chaos to break out across the landscape. Of course, almost all these thinkers agreed that once a girl reaches puberty, every part of her body except her face and her hands must be covered when in the company of any men who are not immediate family, and at all times outside the home. This was because her bare skin would involuntarily cause men to feel an uncontrollable frenzy of sexual arousal. But not all thinkers agreed on exactly which parts of a woman's face and hands were so beguiling that they must be covered.

Some scholars held that the eyes of women were the strongest source of sexual provocation: when the Quran said women should lower their gaze, it actually meant they should hide their eyes. Another school of thought held that the very sight of a woman's lips, especially full ones that were firm and young, could bring a man into a sexual state that could cause his downfall. Yet other thinkers spent pages and pages on the sensual curve of the chin, a pretty nose, or long, slender fingers and the tendency of some women to move their hands in a way that attracted attention to their temptations. For every limitation the Prophet was quoted." (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 2007: 110)

When it comes to the above, I'm reminded of the logically deficient arguments that ran throughout the ante-bellum South, where Southern Gentlemen trying to defend and advance the Peculiar Institution of Slavery used to rail against anyone who pointed out the contradictions and inhumanity inherent in the backwards anti-abolitionist way of thinking. They also spoke of such things as State's Rights, but it ultimately was to retain the Southern State's Right to keep the Institution of Slavery.

Another example comes from Charles Darwin in his autobiography. Darwin asked Captain Fitz-Roy (of the HMS Beagle) whether he thought slavery was morally wrong. Captain Fitz-Roy said it was fine, and thought Darwin was wrong to question it. Fitz-Roy backed up his claim with a personal experience, where he asked slaves -- in front of their Master -- if they were happy. Fitz-Roy said they all responded in the affirmative, that they were happy. Darwin then asked Fitz-Roy, "Do you suppose they agreed with you because their Master was present?" The hot-headed Fitz-Roy flew into a rage, and didn't speak to Darwin for about two or three days. They eventually returned to being friends, but I'm uncertain if Fitz-Roy ever conceded to Darwin's point. I'll have to re-visit his autobiography.

The reason this is of interest bears on our own predicament today. There are similarities with the anti-abolitionists of yesteryear defending the Institution of Slavery then, and all compared with a variety of Moral Relativists(1) today telling you or I that we are not allowed to comment on forced female circumcision, forced marriages (which includes rape after the said arranged marriage), brutality that goes unpunished (the majority being towards women), and so on. Ask these women in front of their husbands if it is okay, and you'll likely get the same response that Darwin got from Fitz-Roy, and that Fitz-Roy got from the slaves when in front of their Masters.

In regards to anti-abolitionists calling for State's Rights, you'll note today that argument advanced in defense of the countries that retain and defend the way of thinking that Ayaan Hirsi Ali discusses above.

With that said, here's to Infidels and Heretics once more. I raise a heathen glass to them.

1. As for the term "Moral Relativists." Until a better name is constructed, this is what is used to categorize them.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007): 110.

Also see: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006).

Best of Steroids in Baseball, 2007!

Presents from the Pentagon...

A gift that keeps on giving...

May Your Holidays be Radiant and Bright

and a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.

Cheers, from Seattle, for the last time.

Democrats Love That Old Timey Racial Religion

Ah, two bloody good centuries of race mongering is never enough for our Donkeystas; and the bastards yet dance that ugly jig on Planet Pepe. Apparently a Byrd in the Klan beats a Rice in the Bush.

More Mars in the News

This time, it'll shine bright for Christmas Eve. There's metaphor in there somewhere: perhaps Mars will guide or provide light for the three wise AI, JJ, and AA?

Rome takes the lead away from Canterbury...

Uzbek election, Putin-style...

Elections in the middle-stan.

And now these Turkeys are doing shit like this...

Old Photos...

The guy on the left is good with metaphysics and statistics. The guy in the middle is not bad with late-19th century travel narratives. The guy on the right is capable of lecturing on nearly any topic for, at minimum, an hour. This was a meeting of the Portuguese-Belfast-Dakota minds (a term used loosely in my case) in Montana some years back.

AA, I discovered this photo while going through a pile of papers that had sat in my closet. I also discovered a couple of your papers, Part II and III of "The Age of Ambition: Two Books on the Mathematics of the 17th Century."

That's all I have to report on the latest archaeological dig in mft's closet.

MFT goes vichyssoise

Lakota this!

Martian Chaos

The god of war braces for a square off with some rock cruising through space at 8 miles/second. Or is it the milky way cruising toward that rock at 8 miles/second? Nevermind. Here's the story.

A Winter's Day Came a Traveler

This is a time of transition, or at least suspension of the old path, for at least three of us.
From goat hunting and wine drinking on the Alps to stumbling through Tejas nothingness with only a spider in that dried water jug for company; there goes JJ.
From dancing with wolves as a high plains Dakota snow drifter to playing the most berserk of Vikings in all of Ulan Bator; there goes MFT.
From watching harbor seals through the grey mists of Puget Sound to crashing and burning in spectacular fashion against the serried ranks of Russkie students [each and every one a Little Tsar] in Massachusetts; there goes AA.

Et tu AI?..........At least we may sleep secure with the certainty of Pepe Le Roi Soleil in his magnificent Versaille.

Absinthe...

I've never tried the stuff, but the story looked interesting.

Two by Two, Cheeks of Blue

A Blue Man in a Blue State: Priceless.

Being funny requires brains

"A Nervous Breakdown," by Anton Chekhov

Here's an early Christmas present for fellow FCP'ers, a story by Anton Chekhov about prostitution and ladies of the night. Enjoy.

Every Mo, Dick, and Harry

Bad Astronomy is Dada

So much for the Harmony of the Spheres

A Girl and her Scissors

I wonder how much they wasted on that study.

Modern Drunkard Magazine.com

You know you're a drunkard, when:

You can see your breath in July.

You can’t say the word sober without making air quotes.

You feel incredibly sexy despite the vomit stain down the front of your shirt.

Gin never gives you a hangover, but martini olives absolutely murder you.

You figure the cab companies are making a fortune off the cell phones, lighters and all that other shit that falls out of your pockets.



You know to put extra ice in your cocktail when you take a hot shower.

Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t drink all the time. You just enjoy having a few civilized night caps, day caps, afternoon caps and morning caps.

After eight drinks your “hugs” bear an uncanny resemblance to UFC take-downs.

You fell into a whiskey vat and bravely fought off your rescuers for three hours.

The first thing you think when you can’t find your wallet is, “Great, now how am I going to buy beer?”

You failed CPR class because your breath set the dummy on fire.

You’re having a little trouble reading this because the bar’s lighting sucks and you’re kinda loaded.

You called the cops on yourself but refused to testify because you “didn’t want to get involved."

...another one for the sidebar. JJ or AI, please?
{Later. In the meantime, I'm adding a pic to wake up AA. Where is he? --AI]

Investigative Work in Iraq with Cpt. Cook...

18 December, 2007

We are settled into our forward combat outpost... near the ancient ruins of the Assyrian capital, Ashur, along the banks of the Tigris River... Over the past year, our Troop trained really hard for the worst case scenario, which is constant gun battles and other intense fighting that often times erupts in a counterinsurgency campaign. We prepared for this contingency because you always need to be ready for such worst, but our area of operations right now is in line with the general trend across Iraq since the surge: a slow, methodical campaign to uproot insurgent networks that operate a lot like a mafia family would. It is a painstaking process with a lot of emphasis on investigative work. Fortunately, our police training with the Austin Police department’s organized crime division is paying huge dividends in this type of campaign. We use force when we have to, but we are finding that more often restraint and forbearance pays far more dividends in winning over the population to our side.

Uh-oh! Looks like AA and AI might need to modify their Sherman-esque approach?

Let my people go!

I'm with McCain on this one

“I looked into his eyes and saw three letters: a K, a G and a B." OK, he (almost) gets my vote now. If he only were as square-jawed as Mitt...

NYT WORKS!

A fan who said he was a physics teacher from Iraq gushed: “You are now my Scientific Father. In spite of the bad occupation and war against my lovely IRAQ, you made me love USA because you are there and MIT is there.”

MFT on "copacetic."

I fucking h*te this word. Anyone else?

Buy, JJ, buy

This is the gizmo you've been waiting for, breathlessly. Music to your ears. Comes with fried rice.

Finally, the site we've been waiting for

[Need kitty here, AI. Family blog, y'know. -JJ]

Sarko & Bruni

A taste for brunettes, eh?

Will and Power on the Campaign Trail

Bet he'd outpoll Kucinich and Paul combined

Minnesota Football

In America, we play real football...

Or, I guess it's time to jump back on the Viking bandwagon. Whoooo-Hooooo!!!

Zogby Poll...

...as of December 1st:

IOWA
Romney: 26%
Huckabee: 25%
Giuliani: 12%
Thompson: 8%

Clinton: 27%
Obama: 24%
Edwards: 21%
Richardson: 8%


NEW HAMPSHIRE
Romney: 35%
Giuliani: 15%
McCain: 17%
Thompson: 3%

Clinton: 32%
Obama: 21%
Edwards: 16%
Richardson: 6%

...and this is what any student of the Humanities or Hard Science can appreciate: Zogby's willingness to reveal their methodology:

Methodology:

The Zogby International telephone survey package included:

Iowa Republicans: 508 likely caucus–goers interviewed Nov. 29–Dec. 1, carrying a margin of error of +/– 4.4 percentage points.

Iowa Democrats: 514 likely caucus–goers interviewed Nov. 29–Dec. 1, carrying a margin of error of +/– 4.4 percentage points.

New Hampshire Republicans: 508 likely primary voters interviewed Dec. 1–3, 2007, carrying a margin of error of +/– 4.4 percentage points.

New Hampshire Democrats: 502 likely primary voters interviewed Dec. 1–3, 2007, carrying a margin of error of +/– 4.5 percentage points

Heart or Brain, AA?

Sell, AI! Sell!

A victory for human rights, Pepe would say

AI, any relation to our friend?

Click on the image to see who's buddies with Deiana.

OK, she can't speak Dutch, but can she spell Manneken Pis?

Pic added.

Hey Kids: Hard-work and Steriods Can Net you $45-mil too!

Your tax euro-dollar hard at work

Now that I'm Pepe, I agree with Frank Rich

How to sell a boat

Informacio? Is that Spanish, Portuguese, or Esperanto?

Mongolian Vodka Consumption: A Break-down...

Ulaan Bataar Post
November 29, 2007
by Ch.Sumiyabazar

An intoxicating drink called “1000’s vodka” has taken 24 percent of the market’s consumption in Mongolia, but organizations and specialists have not studied its contents.... 1000’s vodka is the cheapest vodka and it is prohibited to sell, but the survey result says that small shops and whole trade markets sell it.... The raw material of the 1000’s vodka is imported from China and people are talking about and saying that it is a kind of spirit used for cleaning equipment.

With a PhD in Chicken Little

Cretins

Lieberman Understandably Worried About Islam Militant...

Wonderful Story

And all without Beckham...

Hilarious!

Hey, MFT! You're over there on the big yellow pooltable next to IA. You know anyone really preferring Huckabee and Romney to Giuliani? How about wackos that like Obama over Hillary?
If it comes to Obama versus Huckabee in the Nationals, I'm moving.

We love you, AA

Hey, AA! Got a job for you!

Check out the Baptist-Islamic Department.

Flaubert, Dictionary of Received Ideas

Here's another one for the side-bar. AI or JJ, would you please do the honors.

Evolution Evolves

Peggy on Huck & Hill

Might it be that they don't miss Bill as much as everyone thought? That they don't actually want Bill back in the White House Maybe. But maybe it's this. Maybe they'd love to have him back in the White House. Maybe they just don't want him to bring her. Maybe they miss the Cuckoo's Nest and they'd love having Jack Nicholson's McMurphy running through the halls. Maybe they just don't miss Nurse Ratched. Does she have to come?

Cell-phone blues

A would-be JJ from Canuckiashows off his prowess at surfing the web on his cell phone. Bill ensues. Brains fried.

Buckley lite tears Huckabilly a new one

Hey, JJ, is this your favorite?

How to fight the flu _and_ burn calories

JJ Finally Got His Tree Up?

(note: it's important to look close at the ornaments.)

Is this for real?

I spent some time researching this story for WP. What do you guys think -- would there be enough twists and turns here for a movie (or two)? Let's try to sell the idea to Hollywood.

AA! This finger's for you!

Holiday Spirit for MFT

Microsoft Customer Help...

AA might have picked up this story (it somewhat relates to this), as he's the one who has been closest to Seattle lately.

SEATTLE-AP: A pilot and passenger were recently in a helicopter over Seattle as a dense Pac-NW fog rolled in. Due to the fog, the pilot slowly crept along, careful to avoid crashing into any of the skyscrapers and tall buildings.

The helicopter got close enough to one of the tall buildings where they caught the attention of workers inside. The pilot scribbled "Where are we?" on a sheet of paper, and held it to the helicopter window.

The workers inside held up a response that read, "You're in a helicopter." The pilot said, "Oh, right!" throttled forward, then turned to the right, and landed it safely.

The passenger asked, "That's amazing! Based off that correct but completely worthless information, how did you know where we were!?!" The pilot responded, "Upon reading their response, I knew right away it could only be the Microsoft building..."

Pepe's Off the Hook!

It looks like Rumsfield won't be able to waterboard Pepe down in Gitmo anymore. That's Pepe with a towel over his head, but they are doing it wrong: you need to get the water to go over the nose and mouth more.

Pepe will be able to continue throwing his own shit while screaming "Death to the Infidel" and "alla ahkbar!" at the MPs, though.

And what's this I hear about AA moving to start another tea-party in Boston?

Jesus Rides His Bronto-Horse Through Slate.com Blog...

Now, imagine the Calls For Death and Jihad Splendor! if Danish newspapers came up with a cartoon where Mohommad was riding a Bronto-Horse.