*** I've discovered an evidently powerful new pick-up line: "Ten fingers, ten toes, I'm employed and don't live with my parents; come get it, ladies!"

This phenomenon cuts across all demographics. You'll find it in families both rich and poor; black, white, Asian and Hispanic; urban, suburban and rural. According to the Census Bureau, fully one-third of young men ages 22 to 34 are still living at home with their parents -- a roughly 100 percent increase in the past 20 years. No such change has occurred with regard to young women. Why?

My friend and colleague Judy Kleinfeld, a professor at the University of Alaska, has spent many years studying this growing phenomenon. She points out that many young women are living at home nowadays as well. But those young women usually have a definite plan. They're working toward a college degree, or they're saving money to open their own business. And when you come back three or four years later, you'll find that in most cases those young women have achieved their goal, or something like it. They've earned that degree. They've opened their business.

But not the boys.

I still might not want to mention the blogging, however.

*** Slate explains the discomfiting details of baby seal clubbing.

Federal laws in Canada give a sealer three ways to hunt his prey. He can shoot a seal with a rifle or shotgun—provided it's above a minimum caliber or gauge; he can break its head with a blunt club (like a baseball bat) that must be at least 2 feet long; or he can smash in its brains with something called a hakapik—a 4- or 5-foot wooden pole with a bent, metal spike affixed to the end.

While not particularly squeamish about man's naturally domineering relationship with critters that are lower on the food/resource chain ... yeesh, what an unpleasant job.

*** Bush's charismatic voodoo confounds Kevin Drum, who throws some red meat to his easily agitable commenters:

But this is less a reflection on Card than it is on Bush. After all, what kind of man would allow (or force?) a loyal retainer to do something like this? Answer: The same kind of insecure blusterer who repeatedly humiliates his aides in public with remarks like, "He's a PhD, see — I'm a C student. Look who's the President and who's the advisor." (In Kevin's world, they apparently don't have "unserious ribbing with a mildly self-deprecating/aggrandizing component;" just HUMILIATION! -- ED) Or who's so famous for surrounding himself with toadies that it's considered newsworthy when he appoints someone who doesn't decorate his office with pictures of George Bush.

This is the central mystery of George Bush: How does this man-child with such an obviously mediocre mind manage to generate such intense loyalty in so many people? And yet somehow he does. Where's Sigmund Freud when you need him?

You see Kevin, it's because ... oh screw it, nevermind. Carry on.

Freud was an awful psychological theorist, by the way.

*** The Commissar goes too far! TOO FAR!

In deference to the recent flurry of reciprocal linkage, a double for Florida Cracker, who has about as big a psycho crush on Gregg Allman as I had on an adorably spunky Soleil Moon Frye, circa 1984 (relax sickos, I was only 9):

The Allman Brothers Band: Melissa (Live, Unplugged)

Such a pretty song. Takes a bit to load (I usually hit pause, wait, then play when it's finished), but well worth it.

The Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post (Live, 1970)

What live 70's rock performance would be complete without a rambling, self-indulgent guitar solo a third of the way through?

Like a rock n' roll seance, baby!

You know what irritates me the most about the recent controversy over Borders & Waldenbooks decision to not carry an issue of Free Inquiry with the Muhammed cartoons? It's just a little thing. Certainly their decision is bad enough on its own.

"For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority," Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday.

I'm sure you've heard all the commentary on this. It's giving into thuggery. Cowering in the face of threats. Here's* a good one: "Borders has set a morally irresponsible and frighteningly dangerous precedent. It has told fanatics everywhere that all they need to do in order to obliterate First Amendment rights is to growl menacingly -- at which point a leading bookstore chain in America will clear its shelves of anything that could possibly offend the thug of the moment." I agree completely.

But you want to know the thing about it that really sticks in my craw? The icing on the cake, as it were?

How much violence has there been in America over the Danish cartoons?** You know, it's one thing to cave in to threats to save your own skin. Though not particularly noble, it's at least understandable. But to cave in when there's a distinct lack of violence in the area in question, now that takes a pretty amazing lack of intenstinal fortitude to pull off.

* There's also some good links at Bidinotto's post, which includes contact info for Borders:
ccare@bordersstores.com, or "For information on products, promotions, or trends, please contact Beth Bingham at 734-477-4457 or bbingham@bordersgroupinc.com."

** I could only find one incident where somebody threw rocks at a newspaper's door.

The issue of Free Inquiry in question is currently available for purchase online for $5.95.

One more thing. Continuing the theme here, when you consider the lack of violence related to the Danish cartoon controversy here in America, Borders is basically saying American Muslims are violent and will attack people, which is contrary to the historical record.

Dean continues to brutally kick ass in the name of rationalism, and the rhetorical tolerance and distinctions that necessarily follow from rationalism.

It's a superb post, read the whole thing.

What grates the teeth of some of us, even some of us who are very much hawks on U.S. foreign policy, and very much believers in human rights, is when we start seeing people say "Islam is this," "Muslims believe that," "Sharia says this" and so on. There are Muslims all over the world who despise terrorism, repressive governments, and tyranny. There are many here at home as well. Most people I know go ballistic if they're held to answer for everything their coreligionists do or say. Rightly so. Why should muslims--or their friends--be any different?

If you want to help change a nasty part of the world, it helps to know who your real enemies are, and who your real friends are. Before you decide for sure, you should look closely.

Again from the Wall Street Journal:

There were 13 bullet holes peppered over his armored vest--the impact from any one of them enough to knock a man down. The vest's ceramic armor inserts, back and front, had been cracked in numerous places.

"Sapper Seven," the wiry, hollow-cheeked guy who had been so hard on his men in training, so exacting, so insistent on "doing it right"; the guy who had led them into battle on the first day of the war with a rock-'n'-roll tape blaring from his Humvee; the guy who had personally got down on his knees in front of their convoy to patiently, carefully extract the deadly mines when they ran into a minefield near the Karbala Gap, was dead.

Chills.

(Via the LB)

The Cure: The Love Cats (Live)

Original version here.

No surprise, Lisa Tucker gets the boot.

Sweet girl, but if America wanted the ambience of a high school production of Oklahoma! - packaged with and eclipsed by stinging memories of homework, awkward first kisses with braces, cruelly calcified social stratifications and a whirling flood of hormones which compel the disposition of a rabid, rutting pit bull - then America would go cruise its local high school parking lot in a darkly-tinted Suburban, is what America would do.

Actually, looking back from the flourescent-lit confines of adulthood's slave galley, that all doesn't seem half bad.

What did you do, America?

What did you do?!

Previous lessons here, here and here.

Andy at WWR:

Is there a handbook on idiotic protest tactics that those on the left side of the aisle pass around, all dog-eared and tattered from one failed demonstration after another?

Why, yes, yes there is. What Andy mentions is featured on page 108 of the The Art of Peace: Moonbat Trix and Tactix, between "giant paper mache puppets" (106-108) and signage that proclaims "We Support Our Troops...When They Shoot Their Officers." (109)

Click to check out the latest brilliant protest symbolism from algunos partidarios de inmigración ilegal.

Rush: Tom Sawyer (Live)

Must-Read of the day.

dorkafork butts in: He ain't kidding.

Hassan Abbasi has a dream--a helicopter doing an arabesque in cloudy skies to avoid being shot at from the ground. On board are the last of the "fleeing Americans," forced out of the Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam) by "the Army of Muhammad." Presented by his friends as "The Dr. Kissinger of Islam," Mr. Abbasi is "professor of strategy" at the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard Corps University and, according to Tehran sources, the principal foreign policy voice in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new radical administration.

For the past several weeks Mr. Abbasi has been addressing crowds of Guard and Baseej Mustadafin (Mobilization of the Dispossessed) officers in Tehran with a simple theme: The U.S. does not have the stomach for a long conflict and will soon revert to its traditional policy of "running away," leaving Afghanistan and Iraq, indeed the whole of the Middle East, to be reshaped by Iran and its regional allies.

And on the same day Democrats come out in favor of "responsible redeployment". Ouch.

UPDATE FROM BILL: Post deleted. Dorkafork's link gives Donnah's Norton (and my computer) fits:

Intrusion: Apple QuickTime and ITunes Overflow.
Intruder: 66.230.170.98(http(80)).
Risk Level: High.
Protocol: TCP.
Attacked IP: DONNAH(192*).
Attacked Port: 4289.

Intrusion detected and blocked. All communication with 66.230.170.98 will be blocked for 30 minutes.

Virus?

There are two kinds of people in this world: people that hate Kellie Pickler and people that don't hate Kellie Pickler. One of those two groups is wholly responsible for professional wrestling and industrial accidents.

I should probably pan Ace Young, but it's hard, as the dude sings very much like I make love: lots of painful falsetto screeching, interspersed with sensual scar-rubbing and smoldering stares at my reflection. And no woman in her right mind pans my love-making. Unless maybe she's really, like, a lesbian, or something.

Taylor Hicks is awful young to have grey hair, though I had a boyhood acquaintance who sported frosty locks by the tender age of 10. We called him "Frosty." But Frosty got the snow-capped 'do after stumbling across his dad wrapped around his t-ball coach like an extra tight pair of nylon shorts. Which makes me wonder what Taylor Hicks saw his daddy do.

Paris Bennett and Elliott Yamin can sing well.

UPDATE: A relevant question:

Did Ace ACTUALLY point to a scar on his upsettingly pasty chest during the “permanent scar” lyric??

Yes, I believe the cheesetastic sociopath did.

Via Dean, who has his own round-up.

"Kellie Pickler, Evil Genius"

That's going to leave a mark.

See also, "The Fukuyama Two-Step."

*** Florida Cracker reviews music videos from the 80's:

"Photograph"- Def Leppard
Did a young Joe Elliott ever take a screaming jump at me in slo-mo wearing a sleeveless Union Jack t-shirt, leather pants, and a jaunty neckerchief? Nope, nope, sadly it was just a video. Since this was one of the first videos on MTV, I'm saddling this one as being the beginning of the unfortunate "girls in cages" video motif. See, the girls have to be locked in cages or behind big wire fences (preferably topped with barbed wire) because that's how sexy the singer or band is. Get it? Well, theoretically, anyway. When later served the spectacle of girls having to be chained up because of their mad lust for John Cougar Mellencamp, I had to call bullshit.

I used to believe that I was sexy enough to require caging of womenfolk. Then it dawned on me that I was looking out, and it was no repetitive coincidence that the gals were all clad in the sassy shade of crisp khaki shared by Lee County Sheriff's deputies.

It was all still very, very hot, though. Mmmmmmmm.

*** The Commissar is evaluating Zeyad's evaluation of the situation in Baghdad ... darkly:

The shit is hitting the fan. And it is not going to be good. I fear it’s going to be like Zeyad writes, but a lot worse. There is no possible useful or potentially successful role we could play in such a conflict. What’s more, there is no way the Shi’ites (who dominate the government) are going to lose such a conflict. If “victory” is a democratically-elected Iraqi government that can stand up to the terrorists, then we are very near that point, and should begin thinking about what we are going to do, when we reach that point.

Personally, I find the situation to be so fluid as to resist confident analysis, though I'm still strategically optimistic. But in any event, it seems apparent that the Sunnis will rue the day when America disengages, as their insurgent faction opted for the strategy of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, sans the majority demographics and requisite political backing required for eventual victory. Which is none too bright, when you think about it.

*** Sean Penn is an odd, angry man:

Hollywood activist SEAN PENN has a plastic doll of conservative US columnist ANN COULTER that he likes to abuse when angry.

Via Ace, who also has an Ann Coulter doll. Except instead of abusing the doll, Ace abuses himself while looking at the doll.

*** Cripes, there are more of them!

Blur: Song 2

Filter: Hey Man Nice Shot

A man stood up
at Red America
Invaded a
foreign land

With angry sword and
righteous judgment
The social con
made his stand.

But the leftist hordes
howled with rage
They hunted the Nech
on net and page

Some called him "racist"
and "home-schooled freak"
True critique lost
amid spittle and shriek

'til an arrow sliced
clean through the glut
For rabid squirrels
had found their nut

Nech had stolen!
Nech had thieved!
The left ecstatic!
The right bereaved!

The blogs of war
put him on trial
Some chose denouncement
Some others denial

Then Ben fought back
with suspect reasons
"O'Rourke's consent?
An editor's treasons?"

Tho in the end
the facts won true
The Nech was cornered
with nothing to do

But apologize
admit the lies
Twice resigned
a writing career dies

Redstaters cried
"You cannot leave us!
Michelle Malkin is Judas
And you're like Jesus!"

"The LEFT attacked
with all the dirt they could gather
Poor Ben was simply young
and what about Dan Rather?"

"And did we mention that he was young?"

"And what about Dan Rather?"

"And young?"

"And Rather?!"

But with stolen words
all strawmen crumble
A wordsmith's heist
the WaPo's stumble

So Redstate mourns
the hunters win
Frames of reference
causing heads to spin

The aftermath
an outcome fair
The punishment sound
the truth laid bare
And should guilt stalk
with urge to care
Revisit Ben's judgment
of Jayson Blair.

Read More »

A journalist has rejected food and water for 57 days to protest the Castro government's denial of unfettered internet access to the Cuban people. The last update on his condition simply states that he's "about to die."

We'd know more about his condition, but ... well ... Cuban journalists don't have uncensored access to the internet.

Please spread the word by linking to the Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez blogburst over at babalu blog.

Background on Cuba's underground free press, including a mention of Fariñas' impact, can be found here.

Massive Attack: Live With Me

Apparently this is from their soon-to-be-released new album ...

(Via Flea)

"Leprechaun spotting" in Mobile, Alabama.

I love the guy with the "special leprechaun flute ... passed down from thousands of years ago."

Iron Maiden: Hallowed Be Thy Name (Live)

(One of those uncommon instances where the live version beats the album version)

The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize

*** Geeks, teens and Dorkafork mourn: the highly anticipated spring launch of the Playstation 3 has been officially put off 'till November.

*** What does a gutsy moderate Muslim look like? This:

Islamic televangelist Amr Khaled is young, smiling, teaches love and mercy, and is so popular he’s credited with inspiring thousands of women to take the veil.

Now he’s putting his popularity on the line by trying a new role, as a bridge between Islam and the West at a time when many are talking about a clash of civilizations.In the process, Khaled is telling the faithful something they’re not used to hearing from clerics — that Muslims aren’t blameless in the tensions, that the West is not always bad and that dialogue is better than confrontation.

More from the Commissar.

*** Battlin' church signs.

(Via Ace)

*** Hostages rescued in Iraq:

Three Christian peace activists kidnapped last year in Iraq were freed Thursday in an early morning military operation, the British Embassy in Iraq announced.

The announcement came two weeks after their colleague and fellow hostage, Tom Fox of Virginia, was shot to death and left on a Baghdad street.

The three men rescued Thursday -- two Canadians and a Briton -- were freed in a planned rescue operation by multi-national forces, a British Embassy spokesman said.

*** OTB on TB on the GWOT:

Yesterday, the British PM gave a major foreign policy speech, the first of three. That speech delineated quite clearly why he thinks we’re in a clash not of civilizations, but a clash about civilization. One could wish that GW could speak with Blair’s eloquence, but the message is the same.

One does wish ...

*** In case you missed it: newly unearthed Iraqi documents reveal that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was financing the Al Qaeda-affiliated Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Phillipines. And more ...

UPDATE: ABC News has more about Iraq's direct contact with Osama bin Laden:

Read More »

America is a beefy varsity football player that delights in cramming perfectly pleasant yet uppity nerd-children back into life's social trash can.

Where they belong.

The cosmic balance is, like, restored and such.

Goodbye, sweet Chicken Little. Charitably, you've got about a 3-month window to apply that fast fading fame towards ditching the cloying albatross of your 16 year-old man-cherry. All else failing, I'm fairly positive that you could at least round second base with Paula if you catch her on one of her charitable xanax and seabreeze nights.

NOW GO!

Secondary Lesson: AI on high-def gives off some seriously liquid light trails, man. Like a gifted 15 year-old pixie raver girl mad-swinging a set of glowsticks on shoelaces. Off the chain, little raver girl/American Idol!

Or Darth Maul, maybe.

Instaslap!

Barry Manilow has entirely too much make-up on and/or had too much plastic surgery. Something.

They have the Nurse Chapel gauze lens from the original Star Trek on this crooning bastiche, and he still looks like a cross between the malicious Skekses and the peaceful Podlings from 1982's fantasy muppet thriller, the Dark Crystal.

Which is super-trippy when you think about it, as the Skekses used to eat the Podlings.

Which in turn means ... that one of the evil razor-beaked bastards knocked up its dinner and had a kid.

...

Jesus.

...

I need to stop watching this crap. Or stop snorting ketamine.

But you know which of those two things ain't gonna happen ...

Read More »

Christopher Hitchens on the loose:

Well, if everyone else is allowed to rewind the tape and replay it, so can I. We could have been living in a different world, and so could the people of Iraq, and I shall go on keeping score about this until the last phony pacifist has been strangled with the entrails of the last suicide-murderer.

Read it all.

Les Miserables: One Day More

vs.

South Park: La Resistance (Medley)

Which is better? Tie goes to the musical that drops f-bombs and dogs Celine Dion.

Bonus Music:

Read More »

MANUTE BOL SPENT HIS ENTIRE FORTUNE TRYING TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THE NORTHERN ARAB ISLAMIST INVASION - SPENT TIME IN SUDANESE PRISON ONLY TO ESCAPE BACK TO THE US AS A PENNILESS REFUGEE.
...
Bol and his best friend went to over 39 Congressmen personally and met with the Pentagon in the 90's telling them that their people were being decimated by the Arab Muslims from the North and would disappear if the US did not help. He said they got nothing.

His friend said he told the US the greatest threat they would face in the future would be from Islamist Fundamentalism, at which most laughed.

More here.

Manute Bol has spent most of his fortune (an estimated 3.5 million) trying to help his people through his Ring True Foundation. (The phone number associated with it in many articles, 1-866-547-8326, does not appear to be correct anymore.)

(via Peeve Farm.)

Daft Punk: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Phantom of the Opera: The Point of No Return

Iraq: The Real Narrative

Don't just read Dean's summary - each link is worth your time. BTW, I'm in indefinite light posting mode, as the joie de blog has slipped through my fingers like a smoky succubus, haunting and teasing me with its fickle non-corporeality. Plus, doing my taxes is making me busy, sad, and reaffirming my Republican sympathies. Though contextually ...

Bless you, Ronnie Reagan:

High marginal tax rates discourage work effort, saving, and investment, and promote tax avoidance and tax evasion. A reduction in high marginal tax rates would boost long term economic growth, and reduce the attractiveness of tax shelters and other forms of tax avoidance. The economic benefits of ERTA were summarized by President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers in 1994: "It is undeniable that the sharp reduction in taxes in the early 1980s was a strong impetus to economic growth."
...
A middle class of taxpayers can be defined as those between the 50th percentile and the 95th percentile (those earning between $18,367 and $72,735 in 1988). Between 1981 and 1988, the income tax burden of the middle class declined from 57.5 percent in 1981 to 48.7 percent in 1988. This 8.8 percentage point decline in middle class tax burden is entirely accounted for by the increase borne by the top one percent.

Several conclusions follow from these data. First of all, reduction in high marginal tax rates can induce taxpayers to lessen their reliance on tax shelters and tax avoidance, and expose more of their income to taxation. The result in this case was a 51 percent increase in real tax payments by the top one percent. Meanwhile, the tax rate reduction reduced the tax payments of middle class and poor taxpayers. The net effect was a marked shift in the tax burden toward the top 1 percent amounting to about 10 percentage points. Lower top marginal tax rates had encouraged these taxpayers to generate more taxable income.

It's interesting to look at the history of the highest marginal tax rates, and appreciate how relatively pro-growth (and "pro-middle-income taxpayer") the last couple of decades have been.*

* Though the effective historical rates may have been quite different than some of those exorbitantly high marginal numbers indicate.

Enough is enough. Samuel L. Jackson has had it with these snakes!

UPDATE: In less important news, scientists have made breakthroughs in creating cures for Alzheimer's, asthma, and diabetes.

Way to go, Dean. Quotable:

"I'm not saying war is a good thing but it's sometimes a necessary thing and a just thing," he said. "There's such a thing as a righteous cause and this is one of them."

(Via, well, Dean)

Jeepers.

It'll be a year and a half before it comes out, though.

Could be good: Firefly & Battlestar Galactica show it's possible to do excellent sci-fi on TV. Rick McCallum also produced the Young Indy series, which I heard was decent. It's always nice to see a lightsaber duel. And most importantly, Lucas does not appear to be involved in the creative process.* (Hopefully they'll use some of the writers from KOTOR.)

On the other hand: The Star Wars series TV show track record leaves much to be desired.

(This is still my favorite fan film, though the first half is skippable.)

*UPDATE: I feel a disturbance in the Force.

Ditto, I've got nothing.

Dave Price asks tough questions of the administration's Iraq policy:

Damn you George Bush! What did the trees ever do to you?!

Answer the question, President Bush. What did they do? Why did you go to Iraq to kill all of their trees?!*

* Saddam Hussein? Had a thumb as green as the needles on a Georgia Pine, he did. Sure, things weren't perfect under his regime - what with the state killings and various regional invasions and all that unpleasantness - but boy did that mustachioed fascist dictator ever know how to nurture flora!

Heh

No matter how many times the guy gets launched into space on a giant Big Boy, he always comes back ... for another loss.

*** What would you do for internet access? What would you risk if your e-mail access was taken away by the government? If you're a dissident Cuban journalist, you go on a hunger strike. One little freedom we take for granted, and he's risking his life over it. (More posts on the subject here, here, and here, and an online petition is here. For more background on Cuba's internet access, there's this story.)

*** Someone attempted to burn down the office of The Holocaust History Project. Details here. Reading the press release, it seems extremely likely that it was a deliberate attack against THHP.

It was just the latest in a series of attacks with the apparent intent to silence THHP. For the past 18 months, the THHP website has been under an unprecedented Distributed Denial of Service attack. This cyber attack began on September 11, 2004, and is being carried out by a specially modified version of the MyDoom computer worm, programmed to target the THHP web server. See the THHP statement:

http://www.holocaust-history.org/denial/denial-of-service.shtml

*** A colorful read, even though the rest is stuff we already knew:

RIGHT AFTER 9/11, IT WAS Gary Berntsen's job to get Osama bin Laden.

Picture a real-life Jack Bauer. Strong. Focused. Committed. A guy who probably knows how to kill you with his car keys. More than 23 years as an officer in the clandestine service of the CIA. In his new book, "Jawbreaker," he says he stopped dozens of bombings and assassinations.
...
He awoke the morning of Sept. 11 in South America, where he was a station chief, and soon was called home to meet with Cofer Black, the legendary head of the Counter-Terrorism Center. Black sent him to Afghanistan to head the hunt for bin Laden, saying, "if you are not killing the enemy in 48 hours, I will pull you out."

*** I've probably mentioned the browser Firefox. Well, the best just got better, with a collection of tools that will absolutely redefine the web-browsing experience. It'll pack your browser tight with useful features. Check out this extension, if you know what I mean. I'm just trying to spread Firefox, gently and slowly spread it wide. Downsides: may increase pop-ups, if you get what I'm saying. (link via Off in the Tall Weeds)

*** Behold the grim alternate universe where Republicans control Hollywood.

*** This is a must read piece by Michael Totten you've probably already seen at Instapundit.

Ansar Al Islam’s occupation of Biara and surrounding villages ended in 2003 when the Peshmerga launched a ground invasion with U.S. air support. Biara, including the Zarqawi-occupied mosque, was bombed from the air.

“How did you feel when the Americans bombed your village?” I asked the shopkeeper.

“We were waiting to get rid of them,” he said. “We were desperate. They were the worst people ever. Many people had to close their businesses and leave this place.”

They're just trying to lull you into a false sense of security, Michael!

Three Sufi saints are buried under the mosque dome. Most of the people who pray here aren’t Sufis; they are mainstream Sunni Muslims. But they honor and venerate the mystics for whom the mosque was founded.
...
“Zarqawi destroyed the tombs,” the caretaker said. “He and his men turned this room into a toilet.” He shook his head in disgust at the filthy Islamists who fouled their Islamic shrine. Muslims who say Al Qaeda is not really Islamic may have a point.
...
I braced myself. “How do you feel about the U.S. bombing this mosque?” I said.

“I don’t know,” he said, as if he had never even pondered the question. “It’s okay, I suppose. I am grateful. If they had not done it this place would still be a toilet.”

LIES! It's all a plot! It's...

Read More »

This guy is pretty good.

Get a load of this horrific picture.

(I'm not sure if it's safe for work. Truth be told, I'm not certain that it's safe for anywhere.)

Ok, here's a little something that may cleanse the palate.

Drudge:

BOOK SALES SOS: CARVILLE/BEGALA BOOK BUST, 'TAKE IT BACK' SELLS 17,734 COPIES SINCE JAN. RELEASE, ACCORDING TO NIELSEN'S BOOKSCAN; WONKETTE ANA MARIE COX 'DOG DAYS' 5,383 COPIES SOLD... DAILY KOS 'CRASHING THE GATE' ONLY 253 COPIES PURCHASED, NIELSEN CLAIMS...

This buttresses my pet theory that the Daily Kos only has 253 individual readers that hit refresh over a half-million times per day.

Visit Dorkafork here.

Historical Reenactments with Ferrets Series: Lee Ferret Oswald is gunned down by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police headquarters, November 24, 1963.

(Thanks to Dorka for this one)

Though you can visit Dorkafork, well, here, in fact. The Dhimmi.

Now, back to historical reenactments with ferrets:

Historical Reenactments with Ferrets Series: Paris Hilton and Rick Solomon have sex on home video, Los Angeles, August, 2003. Said Hilton of Solomon after the widely publicized release of the tape: "He's a complete liar and scum bag. He is a very sick ferret. People love to talk s--- because they're jealous. I don't care. Whatever."

A four part series on a recent panel at UC Irvine. (1, 2, 3, and 4)

Any readers interested in speeding up the Clash of Civilizations, here's just a hint as to what it'll look like.

Speaker: After that chant, we're going to talk about just who the Prophet Mohammed was. Guy behind me: He was a camel driver!
...
Abed noted that the cartoons were offensive to him, and that all Muslims didn't agree with this depiction of Jews. The audience was clearly not buying it; there was some hissing and booing and general grumbling. Then Reverend Jesse got his turn to speak, and did he ever speak his mind. Jesse started out by saying that he was not at all surprised by these cartoons, showing caricatures of Jews. The reason for this, he said, was that "Islam is an evil religion". The audience went nuts, applauding for all they were worth.
...
During this time, Lee engaged in something of a crusade against Abed and against a particular Muslim member of the audience, the aforementioned person sitting a couple rows in front of Agi and me. In the process of interrupting Abed, Lee was interrupted by this Muslim protester. Lee, flying over irony at the speed of sound, accused the audience member of being a "fascist" multiple times because he would not let him finish his point.
...
Lee even went so far as to tell this man to "go back to the Middle East" (which got the biggest applause of the night to that point), and another member of the audience yelled from behind us, "sit down, Osama!". The lady next to Agi muttered almost under her breath, "this is the true Islam", and a guy behind and across the aisle from me said that "they're all just morons". (-ed. Obviously he's not from the "I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam" school)
...
By now, the people in the audience are openly mocking Abed as he speaks. Lee interrupted Abed in the middle of a point, then shouted down the moderator as she tried to give Abed the floor back. I gave up on taking notes about then, and just waited for the sorry spectacle to end.

The Disgruntled Chemist, in his summary thoughts, says "Both groups, frankly, came out looking quite bad." And I certainly agree. You can get the lgf'ers view of the panel here. Politically active Muslim groups on college campuses tend to center around Palestinian issues, and inevitably end up working with the most far left groups on campus. The worst was apparently the vaguely threatening chants of "Neocons you can’t run, we all know what you have done!" and "Muslims unite, stand and fight!".

But that was the worst of it. There was no actual violence. In fact, the closest it came to violence is when a good Christian fellow rushed towards a Muslim heckler.

I think it's safe to say that this panel was not intended to try and hear the side of moderate Muslims. "The Unveiling of the Cartoons & A Discussion to Confront Terror" was the title, which could as well have been "Muslims: Here's Some Cartoons You'll Find Offensive, Now Justify Your Existence." Nor was the Muslim fellow the only heckler, as the above described.

Anybody wants to keep arguing that Islam is the problem, that it's an evil religion, that argument quite naturally leads to this, and worse.

The feeling of hatred, of raw emotional anger, was palpable in the audience for almost the entire debate.

(Related.)

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Historical Reenactments with Ferrets Series: William Shakespeare, the Ferret of Avon, at the Blackfriars Theatre, London, Spring of 1603.

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"I did it because I'm a dirty dog ferret," he allegedly told police.

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