RLK Agrees with Obama!

Obama sez:

"I’m not a miracle worker, Barack Obama tells America at the end of his first 100 days"
Really?!? Who knew?

Rino Spector Screws The Elephant...

...for the last time.

It sez here that Arlen Spector, running significantly behind a likely GOP primary rival for the Senate in 2010, has become a Democrat in name at last. That makes the Senate filibuster proof, what with Al Franken being shoved into the Senate by fraud and all.

Well, whether America wanted a leftist government or not, it has one now.

In recognition of Mr. Spector's decision, I propose we send him a campaign contribution.

A march of dimes, as it were.

Old fashioned ones, dated 1964 or earlier.

The ones made of silver.

Thirty of them should be, oh, about right.

ADDENDUM

I really need to explain why I feel such contempt for the man.

Senator Spector was elected to represent the people of Pennsylvania because of their trust in him--in particular, their trust that they would represent them AS A REPUBLICAN. (If they wanted a Democrat in his seat they knew where to find one. Every election of his was opposed.)

Now, on his own, and simply to feed his desire to hold onto his seat at all costs, he betrays (yes, betrays) the trust of his people to advocate a stand his electors specifically demanded he abjure.

There is only one HONORABLE way to change parties in America.

You resign your seat, then stand for reelection as the candidate for the opposite party. If you're elected, fine. Fair's fair.

But jumping the line and betraying the trust of your constituents and electors, to serve your own lust for power is evil.

And Arlen Spector has shown that he is an evil man. Anathema sit.

Coming up for air

Have spent the last several days working on a legal project; work is now complete and am coming up for air.

"I have a Gift"

When Senator Harry Reid met with one Senator B.H. Obama last year, he complimented Mr. Obama on his speech.

Reid, D-Nev., writes: "'That speech was phenomenal, Barack,' I told him. And I will never forget his response. Without the barest hint of braggadocio or
conceit, and with what I would describe as deep humility, he said quietly: 'I have a gift, Harry.''

Clearly, Mr. Obama never studied German.

AWK

AWay from Keys for the next two days or so.

Back soon with some good stuff.

The Squire of Gothos: Irony Beyond Words

Charles Johnson of LGF, AKA the Squire of Gothos, quotes a refugee from HuffPost named Phil Pliatt who says:

I am embarrassed I ever wrote anything for HuffPo, which is now a cesspool of misleading misinformation.

The irony of this is just too rich.

This just in....

Bea Arthur is now a fanatical pro-lifer.

Now this.

D'Oh!

Butterfingers....

Museum curator breaks 2,200-year-old glass accessory

OTSU — A curator at a museum in Shiga Prefecture in western Japan accidentally dropped and broke an antique glass accessory estimated to be 2,200 years old, the museum said Friday. The item, designated by the government as an important cultural asset and believed to date back to the mid-Yayoi period, was unearthed in 1989 at the Yoshinogari Remains in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

It was on loan for a special display scheduled to begin Saturday at the Shiga Prefectural Azuchi Castle Archaeological Museum. ‘‘It’s a great pity,’’ said Toshihiro Kawasaki, head of the Saga prefectural board of education in charge of the management of the remains. ‘‘The accessory, with its bright light blue color, is one of the items representing the Yoshinogari Remains. We hope it will be repaired and be able to be put on display as soon as possible.’’ The accessory was made of 46 cylinder-shaped pieces of sky blue glass threaded together. The curator dropped it from a height of about 70 centimeters onto a carpeted floor, and more than 10 of the pieces of glass broke, the museum said.

George Soros, American Putz

Golden quote of the day:


When someone like George Soros, who collaborated with the Nazis, compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, am I the only one who wondered if he meant it as a compliment?

America High .... on Obama

According to the Disassociated Press, "Americans [are] high on Obama, direction of US".

I'm sure they are.

Note though that, usually, if you're high in that way, you're liable to be arrested and charged with crack possession.

Two months in, and the evidence is undeniable: this man Barack Obama is an unmitigated disaster and due to his incompetence and inexperience is unfit to serve as President of the United States.

He has declared that unborn to be untermenschen -- subhumans who can be subjected to medical experiments that would have made Josef Mengele blush.

He has declared himself a wholehearted supporter and promoter of prenatal genocide and financially supports Planned Parenthood, the leading killer of Blacks in the United States.

He is pushing to make believing Catholics either abandon the practice of medicine or actively and against the laws of God and man engage in child killing.

He has threatened bankers and financial officials with terrorism and lynching if they don't comply with his wishes.

He has revealed classified information on necessary information retrieval techniques used on outlaw pirates, including 9/11 planner Khalid Shiekh Mohammad, who was (and were) responsible for the murder of 3000 Americans.

He has ....

.... treated with homicidal Communist dictators (Cuba's Castro brothers) as if they were equals...

.... referred to open and declared enemies of the United States (Venezuela's Hugo Chavez) as "amigo" ....

... and said that he would meet "without preconditions" with a man (Iran's Ahmadinejad) who has declared that the Jews never suffered the Holocaust but should be subjected to a second one, and who is working hard to build a nuclear weapon system that may reduce Tel Aviv, Rome or, conceivably, New York to rubble.

Barack Obama is... wrong President, at the wrong time, under the wrong circumstances, and for all the wrong reasons.

Repeat of basic message: It's gonna be a looooong four years.

ADDENDUM FRIDAY 4/24/09 9:00 am

One "Liz Sidoti" (anagram the last name!) of the Dissociated Press shared the following gem with us.

It didn't take long for Barack Obama — for all his youth and inexperience — to get acclimated to his new role as the calming leader of a country in crisis.

"I feel surprisingly comfortable in the job," the nation's 44th president said a mere two weeks after taking the helm.

"The challenges are big," a sober Obama added, underscoring the foreign and domestic problems he inherited Jan. 20. "But one thing that I'm absolutely convinced about is that you want to be president when you've got big problems. If things are going too smoothly, then this is just another nice home office."

Gah. Read the whole thing... [the rest of the sentence that was formerly here violates my own 'keep your meme clean' rule and I accordingly delete it.]

Freddie Mac CFO Biography....

The Freddie Mac web page has this to say about its CFO, David Kellermann:

David Kellermann was named acting chief financial officer in September 2008. Kellermann is a member of the company's leadership team and reports directly to CEO David M. Moffett.

As acting chief financial officer, Kellermann is responsible for the company's financial controls, financial reporting, tax, capital oversight, and compliance with the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. He also oversees the company's annual budgeting and financial planning processes.

Prior to this role, he served as senior vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer. In this position, his primary responsibility was to support the business with the production of timely, accurate, and well-controlled GAAP, fair value and segment earnings financial statements and external disclosures.

Before that, Kellermann served as the senior vice president and business area controller. As business area controller, he led the organization responsible for all accounting and finance for Freddie Mac’s lines of business.

Kellermann has been with Freddie Mac for more than 16 years. He began as a financial analyst/auditor in 1992, worked for several years in the company's securities sales and trading unit, and has served in a variety of positions in the company's capital markets division, most recently serving as vice president strategy execution and integration and the Investments and Capital Markets division controller.

He holds a M.S. in Finance from George Washington University and a B.S. in Political Science and Accounting from the University of Michigan. Kellermann is a volunteer board member of the D.C. Coalition for the Homeless.


Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.

Mr. Kellermann was found dead at 5:00 AM today, a reported suicide.

Don't look for this on the TV news tonight. And have a nice day.

Hostage Rescue Email Bogus?

MSNBC reports that the SEAL email that I posted on a few days ago has been "officially debunked" by the White House.

The Email detailed how the commander on the scene essentially sat on his duff under White House handcuffs as the orders were awaited... and then exceeded orders in ordering the rescue, which the White House then took full credit for.

I did, ahem, warn that the post must be taken on a caveat emptor basis, but say that the post appeared internally consistent and that I trusted (and still trust) my intermediate source.

The White House says however that it is BS.

Two senior military officials who talked to NBC about this both said essentially they have no reason to carry President Obama's water on this, but that he and the White House responded quickly and positively to the military's request. Given some of the details included in the email, military officials say it could very well have come from a "disgruntled" Navy SEAL who had no idea what the White House and senior commanders were planning or executing.

In addition, the email was originally passed around by a former admiral who retired in 1982 who told Navy officials he doesn't know any Navy SEALS and has no idea where the original email came from.

An "alternative timeline" is given in the story as well, which is inconsistent with the text of the email I posted.

And of course, neither of the "senior military officials who talked to NBC" were identified.

Like I said, buyer beware. However, I don't consider the letters "officially debunked," merely "presidentially denied." Much as one of Mr. Obama's more obscure predecessors "never had sex with That Woman." IOW, that's his story and he's stickin' to it.

I'm reserving judgment on this "White House denial" AND on the Email. Awaiting more information.


= = = = = = =

Comments on the above story include THIS little gem:

why not chastise the republican operators for trying to politicize the military it was just a minor thing when Obama was just a Senator but now he is C-I-C and to undermine him is actually a threat to the security of the nation...

Oh really? To dissent from THIS White House occupant is "a threat to the security of the nation" but to dissent from the last one was patriotic duty?

Repeat of basic message:

It's gonna be a looong four years.

Susan Boyle: Cry Me a River

I find that they've posted a 1999 recording by Susan Boyle, "Cry Me a River," a local charity-published CD that I am sure will now become a gazillion-dollar collector's item.

You MUST hear this.

Her Wikipedia bio (extracted here) is to break the heart:

Boyle was born in Blackburn, West Lothian to Patrick, a storeman at the British Leyland factory in Bathgate, and Bridget Boyle, a shorthand typist. Brought up in a devout Roman Catholic family, she is the youngest of nine siblings, four brothers and five sisters, of whom only six now survive. She was born when her mother was 44. The Sunday Times writes that it was a difficult birth, during which Boyle was briefly deprived of oxygen leading to mild learning difficulties, which led to bullying and mockery at school. . She was labeled "Susie Simple" at school but learnt to overcome those who derided her.

After leaving school with few qualifications, she was employed for the only time in her life as a trainee cook in the kitchen of West Lothian College for six months, and took part in government training schemes. She would visit the theatre from time to time to listen to professional singers, and performed at a number of local venues. ...[I]n 1999 she made her only previous recording, singing "Cry Me a River" for a charity CD funded by the local council to commemorate the Millennium. Boyle also attended the Edinburgh Acting School, and had appeared as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.

Boyle's father Patrick died in the 1990s, and her siblings had left home, leaving Boyle to look after her aging mother Bridget, who died in 2007 at the age of 91. Boyle still lives in the family home, a four-bedroom council house, with her ten-year-old cat, Pebbles. ...

Her mother had always encouraged her to enter local singing competitions, which she won several times, and tried to persuade her daughter to enter Britain's Got Talent, urging her to take the risk of singing in front of an audience larger than her parish church. Boyle has said she did not feel ready to do it until after her mother's death saying that it was that event which propelled her to go on Britain's Got Talent and seek a musical career as it was her way of paying a tribute to her mother.

Her performance on the show was the first time she had sung since then.

What a miracle. I pray that success does not destroy this child of God.

"And Jesus Wept"

We also note that today is the fourteenth anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where 168 died and 850+ were injured.

God's love to the survivors, eternal memory to the lost.

And eternal vigilance for the future.

This, too: We. Will. Never. Forget. This. Either.

VACCINATORS WANT TO BRAIN DAMAGE BABIES!

No. Of course they don't. That is nonsense.

But if pro-vaccinist Charles Johnson, the Squire of Gothos, were as anti-vaccine as he is pro-vaccine, that is EXACTLY what he would sound like.

What was the phrase? Self-important pusbag? Yes.

Janet Reno Gets Unjust Desserts

Looks like the old exterminator got recognized for her work in support of tyranny yesterday.

Janet Reno, the former attorney general in the Clinton administration, received a lifetime achievement award Friday from the American Judicature Society, a non-partisan justice advocacy network.

Reno, 70, received the award at a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building surrounded by family, former colleagues and others who'd crossed her path during her time in public service. Several of them are affiliated with legal advocacy groups like the Justice Project, which helps exonerate those who are wrongfully convicted.

Not present at the award dinner were murder victim Terry Schiavo, kidnapping and brainwashing victim Elian Gonzalez, or 82 members of David Koresh's cult, including twenty young children who were burned alive after "General" Reno gave the needless and incompetent order that resulted in their deaths.

We. Will. Never. Forget.

State "Sovereignty" - INCLUDE ME OUT!

[EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Tenth Amendment in effect was a slavery amendment. It was superceded en toto by the Fourteenth... but many conservatives who think they support "Tenth Amendment" stuff don't realize that they're actually laying the groundwork for neosecessionism. The Tenth Amendment is as dead as Prohibitionism and we should not try to resurrect it.]

We have word that Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, in an act of unutterable political stupidity, revealed on Tax Day his support for the “sovereignty” of Texas under the Tenth Amendment and warns that secession may be the way to avoid the latest left wing moonbattery eminating from Washington.


Worse, a survey finds that some 75% of the state of Texas disagrees with him--which means that 25% agrees.

That's 24.995% too high.

Many don’t understand how one can be a conservative and hate the Tenth Amendment. However, most of us do not see the terrible evil behind the Tenth Amendment revivalist mask. In its sudden respectability, this Catcher in the Rye sees a lot of misguided conservatives running headlong toward a cliff.

I am a Federalist. Not a member of the Federalist Society (which is anything BUT Federalist!) but a Madisonian Federalist, i.e., I believe that, like it or not, the Federal Government is supreme over the states. The states have their place and their function, but they are NOT embryonic republics and we who live in them owe our central and primary loyalty not to "the Wolverine State" or wherever we happen to live, but to the United States of America.

I shudder at the thought of a revived Tenth Amendment: not merely at the political imbecility of coming out and effectively advocating secessionism, but also at the fear that secessionism may suddenly become respectable for the first time since Appomattox--and that everyone else will be so put off by this that we lose any credibility.

WHY IS THERE A TENTH AMENDMENT AT ALL?

Briefly put, the Constitution was not a done deal when it was put forth to the States for ratification after the "Miracle in Philadelphia." The fact is, when it came out, the States hated it. A number of leading non-attendees, like George Clinton and Governeur Morris, were immediately opposed to it, because they knew that meant that the 'Spirit of 76' which gave them such power and lattitude as State officials would be undermined and ultimately eliminated by a new strong central government that they feared would become as oppressive as the late Kingdom of George III.

Many Americans don't know what the Spirit of '76 really was, other than the name of an airplane or ship or something. There was a temporary nationalist mood in 1775 and 1776, as the crisis with the King came to a head, rejecting all authority from far away--a sort of a local-nationalist craze. Think of it as the political equivalent of the initial falling-in-love of an adolescent couple very recently eloped from authoritarian parents. But the Spirit of '76 national 'mood' was, if established as a ruling principle, directly inimical to the establishment of a central Federal authority to rule the States. The people in '76 didn't want to be ruled by anybody other than themselves.

Some of our constitutionalist visionaries saw the problems with this right away, and smelled endless civil war after the British would be defeated. Furthermore, it manifested itself during the Revolutionary War with the ridiculous supply problems that the Continental Army suffered under Washington. These supply problems were what made Old George a federalist, perhaps the ur-Federalist, because he saw his men needlessly die because nobody could make Georgia or the Carolinas or whoever cough up their fair share to pay the troops and get them decent blankets and sufficient weaponry with which to fight.

On the other hands, there had to be something to check local state-generated tyranny as well, some way to get the states' bureaucrats from being unchallengeably oppressive. (Best line from Mel Gibson's The Patriot illustrates this problem very well: "Why should I trade one tyrant 3000 miles away for 3000 tyrants one mile away?")

These visionaries, Madison first and foremost, but also Washington, Hamilton, Jay, John Adams Sr, etc., saw that a national government had to ride herd over the states. But how to sell it to the locals (and the localists)?

As the Constitution, initially sans Amendments, was published, many saw that there were threats to the local way of doing business; many already had a vested interest in keeping the States in control and the old Articles of Confederation in place .... and so there were a number of cries for modifications to the Constitution. Some thought that the Con-Con should reconvene and modify the text, but that proved impossible to engineer. Amendments were therefore the answer.

There were, as is rarely now remembered, actually twelve amendments to the Bill of Rights. The original Ten, plus two more: one that mandated that Congress doesn't get its pay raise until an election intervenes (eventually passed as the Twenty Seventh Amendment in 1992!) and the other requiring one Congressman for 35,000 people (which would give us a House of Representatives of over 10,000 members! Blecch!).

But it was the Slave States, which eternally feared Northern efforts to mandate slavery abolition, that mandated that they be given the final word and final call: hence what we call the Tenth Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights. They would not swallow it without a guarantee that the States could ultimately veto the Federal government. So the Tenth was included to make the southern slavers feel better about the whole business.

You see above the famous cartoon, "Join, or Die”. Metaphorically what happened was this: the parts of the Snake joined to fight John Bull, but having won, found that the connection between the parts was very weak and the parts of the snake threatened to split again. Thus was created an Egg, the Constitution, which would join the parts permanently. To swallow that Egg, they needed to cover it with 'snake saliva', the Bill of Rights, as a lubricant to allow the egg to go down and be digested. The Slavery issue mandated that that lubricant include a taste of venom: the Tenth Amendment.

The snake survived and grew strong, but the poisons remained. Later, as a nearly full-grown python, it needed to be bled to remove the accumulated poisons caused by Tenth Amendment localism (and of course slavery).

The guns aimed at Ft. Sumter were lit by the righteous flame of the Fire-Eaters: that is, the partisans of the Tenth Amendment, who felt that the states eternally be supreme to the Federal government.

The rest is history of course; our federal forces won the day. But to seal the deal, once the war ended, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed to establish the reality that no state can trump federal power in the Constitution itself. And so it was; the wording of the Fourteenth Amendment mandated that each of the original amendments of the Bill Of Rights–other than the Tenth–be operative over the states as well as the federal government. The Tenth was left, as intended, a dead letter, as inoperative as the Eighteenth (prohibition) Amendment was by the Twenty First (Repeal).

You can now see why I want to hold up a cross to a vampirically resurrected Tenth Amendment. It needs a stake through its heart. Really.

WHAT IS THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT ABOUT?

The men who wrote the Fourteenth Amendment were excellent lawyers who knew precisely what they were doing: the Federal government is supreme and must BE supreme if we are to survive as a single nation instead of a temporary, polyglot empire. By being worded the way it was, it absolutely put a stake in the heart of the Tenth Amendment. Washington's, Madison’s, and the Founders' vision was NOT a states-rights federation but a federally supreme national state where the states MUST be secondary to the national authority. A clear reading of the Federalist Papers can reveal no other way of looking at it.

But: secondary does NOT mean meaningless! Subsidiarity is a good Catholic concept here. Federal powers to where Federal powers belong, State powers for the next level down, city ordinances for the cities. I do not advocate a unitary state, or gleichschaltung, or anything like that... but someone has to have the final word, and in our nation, since Appomattox, that final word has been in Washington and must be no where else!

The Tenth Amendment was tagged on to the end of the Bill of Rights to get the States to pass the original Constitution. But it is a vestige of that original period of ratification and is now a supremely dead letter by direct operation of the Fourteenth, which makes the U.S. Constitution supreme over the states without question.

To advocate revival of the Tenth means suppression of the Fourteenth--and all evils that must follow if the Fourteenth is dead. That would entail, inter alia, making the rest of the Bill of Rights suddenly NOT applicable to the States, giving the States the power to censor, establish Churches, negate gun ownership rights, etc etc, and rendering the rest of the BoR on the Federal government only. This Is A Bad Thing.

In addition, if we make a big thing out of "Tenth Amendment states rights", that means that when (as we eventually will) we DO eventually take power back in Washington the leftists will then seize it as an issue to push THEIR secessionist agenda which--with the Hispanic states in Democrat hands--is far more likely to be pushed forward. You'll be shocked as to how respectable Jefferson Davis will become to the Left once a President Palin equivalent is sworn in.

(I can hear the next question: "What about abortion? Can't the individual states individually ban abortion? Shouldn't it be a state issue?" No. Abortion must be banned EVERYWHERE AT ONCE SIMULTANEOUSLY ON THE FEDERAL LEVEL WITHOUT EXCEPTION (and without apology!), which requires that Tenth Amendment States Rights madness not be recognized as law. The humanity of the unborn--the Unalienable Right to Life Endowed by Our Creator--is not and must not be subject to the whims of state legislatures or gods in black or white, otherwise the prochoicers are right--it's an option subject to the whims of the mob, not the absolute and universal moral requirement we know it to be, much as the prohibition of slavery is univeral and must apply everywhere. A slave-state Union today would be intolerable; so must an abortion-State Union become intolerable.)

But we must not destroy the Constitution in order to save it, and/or the children.

We must break the back of prenatal exterminationism, but we must not advocate the destruction of the Constitution in the process, for that would eventually turn us, the defenders of life, into traitors against the Constitution and allow the forces of darkness (the real ones) to destroy us on those grounds.

"Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."

Abe Lincoln. Smart man. (Shot in the back. Very sad.)

And as for me as regards Tenth Amendment revivalism: include me out!

Obama's "Hostage Rescue": D-MINUS

A few days ago I gave our illustrious young new President zero credit for the hostage rescue.

I've since received information which confirms my initial assessment.

The following appeared in the inbox of a retired Episcopal priest; the priest is a veteran, as is the source. My intermediary source for this is impeccable and I would trust him with my life, so if he says this info is good, I regard it as good.

Furthermore, although I'm not former Navy, I spent two decades in uniform and the internal consistency of the information herein is consistent with my military experience.

But. You know about what you read on the internet so buyer beware. I have translated certain slang and abbreviations from the original for benefit of our civvie readers.

[Dear Fr. X:]

Having spoken to some SEAL pals here in Virginia Beach yesterday and asking why this thing dragged out for 4 days, I got the following:

1. [Pres. Obama] wouldn't authorize the [U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group] SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on scene commander) recommendation.

2. Once they arrived, [Pres. Obama] imposed restrictions on their [Rules of Engagement] that they couldn't do anything unless the hostage's life was in "imminent" danger

3. The first time the hostage jumped, the SEALS had the [pirates] all sighted in, but could not fire due to [Rules of Engagement] restriction

4. When the navy RIB [Rigid Hull inflatable boat] came under fire as it approached with supplies, no fire was returned due to [Rules of Engagement] restrictions. As the [pirates] were shooting at the RIB, they were exposed and the SEALS had them all dialed in.

5. [Pres. Obama] specifically denied two rescue plans developed by the Bainbridge [ship captain] and SEAL teams

6. Bainbridge [ship captain] and SEAL team [commander] finally decide they have the OpArea and OSC authority to solely determine risk to hostage. 4 hours later, 3 dead [pirates].

7. [Pres. Obama] immediately claims credit for his "daring and decisive" behavior. As usual with him, it's BS.

So per our last email thread, I'm downgrading Oohbaby's performance to D-. Only reason it's not an F is that the hostage survived.

Read the following accurate account.

Philips' first leap into the warm, dark water of the Indian Ocean hadn't worked out as well. With the Bainbridge in range and a rescue by his country's Navy possible, Philips threw himself off of his lifeboat prison, enabling Navy shooters onboard the destroyer a clear shot at his captors, and none was taken.

The guidance from National Command Authority, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, had been clear: a peaceful solution was the only acceptable outcome to this standoff unless the hostage's life was in clear, extreme danger.

The next day, a small Navy boat approaching the floating craft was fired on by the Somali pirates, and again no fire was returned and no pirates killed. This was again due to the cautious stance assumed by Navy personnel thanks to the combination of a lack of clear guidance from Washington and a mandate from the commander in chief's staff not to act until Obama, a man with no background of dealing with such issues and no track record of decisiveness, decided that any outcome other than a peaceful solution would be acceptable.

After taking fire from the Somali kidnappers again Saturday night, the on scene commander decided he'd had enough.

Keeping his authority to act in the case of a clear and present danger to the hostage's life and having heard nothing from Washington since yet another request to mount a rescue operation had been denied the day before, the Navy officer, unnamed in all media reports to date, decided the AK47 one captor had leveled at Philips' back was a threat to the hostage's life and ordered the NSWC team to take their shots.

Three rounds downrange later, all three brigands became enemy KIA and Philips was safe.

There is upside, downside, and spinside to the series of events over the last week that culminated in yesterday's dramatic rescue of an American hostage.

Almost immediately following word of the rescue, the Obama administration and its supporters claimed victory against pirates in the Indian Ocean and declared that the dramatic end to the standoff put paid to questions of the inexperienced president's toughness and decisiveness.

Despite the Obama administration's (and its sycophants') attempt to spin yesterday's success as a result of bold, decisive leadership by the inexperienced president, the reality is nothing of the sort. What should have been a standoff lasting only hours, as long as it took the USS Bainbridge and its team of NSWC operators to steam to the location, became an embarrassing four day and counting standoff between a ragtag handful of criminals with rifles and a U.S. Navy warship.

It's gonna be a loooong four years.

A Tragic Loss Echoes a Family Tragedy

The Washington Post reports a tragedy for a family here in Michigan:

An Ottawa County family lost a four year old boy in an accident four years ago. Apparently he fell out of a window.

Two days ago the same family lost another boy, aged 2, falling out of the same window.

That is not as unusual as it sounds.

In my father's family, in the 1890s, our family lost two little boys in a similar scenario. Both fell in accidents at school while carrying sharpened pencils in their mouths--the falls resulted in the pencils going through the roofs of their mouths and piercing the brain case. Medical technology of the time could not cope.

The second accident happened exactly a year after the first.

They were, according to the family tree, my great-uncles, older brothers of my Grandmother Kent, nee' O'Brien. The boys' last name was also O'Brien.

I understand their deaths were cautionary tales in Catholic schools in the Detroit area for decades afterwards. (My mother heard of them far before she met my father.)

Eternal rest grant the LaMadline boys, and may their family cope with the loss.

Susan Boyle!

She's from a tiny village in Scotland where she lives alone with her cat.

And she was utterly obscure.

No longer.

If you haven't seen this yet, click this link to see her performance on the British "American Idol".
(I'd embed it but it's gone viral, so YouTube has disabled that feature, alas.)

I like it. She's 47 and said she "hasn't been kissed" ...

... and she looks like a wet floor mop ...

... BUT MY GOD, CAN SHE SING!

Cure for the Insufferably Cheery Found

This Just In ... from the Onion News Network

This is big. Really, really big.

The NYT reports.....

The nation’s two major labor federations have agreed for the first time to join forces to support an overhaul of the immigration system, leaders of both organizations said on Monday. The accord could give President Obama significant support among unions as he revisits the stormy issue in the midst of the recession.
John Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and Joe T. Hansen, a leader of the rival Change to Win federation, will present the outlines of their new position on Tuesday in Washington. In 2007, when Congress last considered comprehensive immigration legislation, the two groups could not agree on a common approach. That legislation failed.

This is terribly important. Now that the Dems have Labor on board, the GOP, with only 41 senators (now that it looks like the execrable Al Frankin is now a United States Senator) and with a rock solid minority in the House, will be completely helpless in stopping the coming immigration reform steamroller.

It's gonna happen. That's it, the end, goodbye.

I remain of two minds on immigration reform. On the one hand, as an immigration attorney, it's obvious to me that our Immigration system, as administered by the Department of Hopeless Security, is an utter train wreck that requires clearing -- a logjam that needs dynamite -- an indescribable clusterfrack beyond redemption. We need reform NOW--if only to get green cards to those who have to wait an average of 15 years so that we can start new and fresh with a new system (and hopefully, new people executing that system).

BUT. BUT. BUT. If we're going to give away green cards, that solution MUST ALSO INCLUDE a definitive sealing of the Southern border with Mexico. (Sorry, Senor, that is Mexico only, NOT Canada.) We HAVE to do this for our own safety.

But this latter point, effective closing of the southern border to exclusive access via control points, will not happen. It's clear that nobody on the Democrat side of the house recognizes the fact that the Islamist threat is not a wild fantasy of the Bush Administration, but as serious as a heart attack.

So. Upshot: We will, sooner or later, lose a city to a nuclear weapon that will likely be smuggled over the Rio Grande disguised as a bale of raw cocaine and $100 bills.

Hang onto yer hats, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

I will be posting on this subject at greater length.

Zombie Woof Dept: Porn Ad During Papal Mass

On Good Friday, in Philly, a TV station "askidentally" ran a TV ad for "Girls Gone Wild" during an early-AM broadcast of the Papal Good Friday mass in Rome.

Askidentally.

Suuuuuuurrrrrreeeeeeee..........

- - - - - - - -

NB: Every web site uses its own slang terminology for certain pet causes. I hereby dub any incident where someone knowingly craps on Christianity while claiming that they aren't a "Zombie Woof", in honor of the Zappa song.

Thank You Vitriol Expresso!

We've gotten our Official First Shout-Out. (Not counting Charles' snarks. :0))

Many thanks to "Sister Animus" at Vitriol Espresso. May your tribe increase.

Requiescat in (BEEEP)

Another, um, noted performer of my adolescence left us today: Marilyn Ann Briggs, who appeared in numerous films under the nom de porn Marilyn Chambers.

She was somewhat like Mark the Bird in that she, too, became famous for outrageous antics while participating as a leading professional in her favorite major league contact sport.

It is, however, not good to speak double-entendres of the deceased, so I'll refrain from saying anything further.

Cause of death remains unreported at this time. Her 17 year old daughter found her in her trailer-park home.

Alas.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Rest and eternal memory grant Ms. Briggs, O Lord, and may eternal light shine upon her.

Requiescat on base

We have received word that Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, the most glorious rookie ever to briefly blaze through the sky of professional baseball (his career was only 1.5 seasons long) has died suddenly; apparently he was crushed by a motor vehicle under which he was working. He was 56.

Words fail me. This has been an accursed year.

Only a true Detroiter can know the depth with which we mourn.

I saw him pitch in 1976 when I was 15 years old. I'll never forget him.

God rest you, Mark.

Zombie Woof

A "Zombie March" was scheduled in Boston on Easter Sunday.

"The parade had the walking dead entertaining and spooking residents from Davis Square to Harvard Square."

The Boston Herald reports that it was "not meant to offend" and "not anti-Christian."

Right.

/spit

Billy Carter, Paging Billy Carter......

Obama's brother Samson has been barred reentry into the U.K.....

....apparently after he was involved in the attempted rape of a 13-year-old.

Ei yei yei.

It's gonna be a LONG four years.

The Goddess in Black Speaks

Ruth Bader Ginsburg thinks that foreign law can be imposed on the United States via the Supreme Court.

E-frakking-plebnista indeed. Where is James Kirk now that we need him most? Someone needs to read something to Cloud Ginsberg.

E Plebnista!

I always thought that The Star Trek episode called "The Omega Glory" was Bad Trek at its finest. Maybe you remember it--it's the episode where a disease turns everyone on a Federation ship into rock salt, leaving one survivor, the captain, who is the badguy. This captain beams down to the conveniently near planet, and violates the Prime Directive when he phasers hundreds of savages while protecting a village. Then Kirk gets into a fistfight with badguy captain, before they all are rescued, conveniently just before the closing credits.

It's a very silly story.

The science is ridiculous; the plot, absurd.

And I haven't seen the episode in thirty years.

But I have to admit that, when watching the Remastered Edition version of this ep this weekend, I was caught flat footed by the last three and a half minutes.

Bill Shatner reading the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States is not to be missed.

It's a message for TODAY....here....NOW!

"THESE WORDS AND THE WORDS THAT FOLLOW ... MUST APPLY TO EVERYONE OR THEY MEAN NOTHING! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"



(I also like: "The Holy Words will be obeyed. I swear it." - Cloud William.)

Was Freeing the Hostage "Presidential"?

Forgive me for not joining the cheering mob, but....

No. Not particularly.

Don't get me wrong. I'm delighted that we freed him, and kudos to the individuals who pulled it off. Double kudoes to the ship crew that killed the other pirates on board.

But as for our President--

Sorry to be the dog in the manger here...

But if the zillion dollars' worth of US armed forces resources we committed can't take one isolated fuel-and-food-and-waterless dinghy adrift at sea with four pirates and one hostage, then we may as well cash in our chips.

And the decision to have them take the dinghy took absolutely no courage at all.

Furthermore, the armed forces--made combat ready by eight years of the Bush administration--who accomplished the mission won't be there in four years when the next President needs them, if all Obama's 'change' (i.e., slashing of military spending) becomes policy.

No credit to Obama here. (No discredit either, but no credit.) His decision making here was about as courageously presidential as my showing up to court tomorrow morning makes me a courageous attorney. It doesn't.

It's essential line of duty stuff, but no more extraordinary than brushing teeth. He'll have to do better than that.

This Must Be Seen To Be Believed

A statue of Jesus Christ made entirely out of Lego construction bricks stands in a church at Vasteras, Sweden, April 12, 2009. The 1.8 metre (5.9 fet) tall statue, a copy of Thorvaldsen's "Resurrected Christ", has taken parishioners 1.5 years to construct out of 30.000 tiny plastic pieces

"Come And Lego Down Your Burdens, For I shall Give You Rest"

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Christ is Risen From the Dead
By Death He Conquered Death
And To Those In The Graves He Granted Life!
- Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom

(with thanks to Donna)

Pope Benedict: Smart Man.

Pope warns of 'a desert of godlessness' in Good Friday address

Pope Benedict warned that religious sentiments are increasingly being held up to ridicule in the West

Pope Benedict XVI last night attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'. He used his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to remove religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified....
'Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed.'

Nota bene, Charlemagne.

Fridge Pic #009: Charles Johnson Has Spoken!

Requiescat in geex

We have received word that Dungeons & Dragons co-inventor Dave Arneson has been spot-promoted to demigod and transferred to the Plane of Legendary Geek Heroes, joining Mr. Gary Gygax.

Word is that once he arrived there, they immediately fell into magical combat over which of them should be noted as the first among equals.

Thanks for the gaming, Dave. Truly.

Hearing from One Lizard With A Brain

Our discussion over at THRUTCH has been very interesting. One poster, choosing to remain anonymous because he still has an active LGF account, made the following post, which I reproduce in full with his permission.

I've been posting at LGF since long before registration was required. I am still currently a poster. I have yet to be banned. I've never met Charles but met dozens of other "lizards" at meets and made friendships that will last long after LGF is a Wikipedia footnote.

That said, every bad thing you've heard about LGF lately is absolutely true. Charles is a liberal whose blog attracted thousands of conservatives wanting to fight the good fight. I think this has always embarrassed him. So his solution is systematic purges. He finds a button to press and keeps pressing until all the "undesirables" have made their feelings known, at which point he cuts off heads.

It started with Creationism. But now, the list of "isms" no longer acceptable grows daily, as Charles shakes the tree to see how many he can knock out. His purges have even reached those who argue against the myth of rapidly rising sea levels and those who do not desire Obama's success with Socializing America.

His latest target is any Conservative gaining populist traction that Charles disapproves of. Forget Glen Beck or even Ann Coulter; Charles' targets include much bigger fish, like Limbaugh, Malkin, Gingrich, and lately Sarah Palin. There is now a daily Palin-bash thread (along with a daily Obama suck-up thread) designed for Charles to play yet more Conservative whack-a-mole.

Does that sound like an even remotely conservative blog owner to you? But beyond that is the gross myth that opposing viewpoints, so long as they're respectfully stated, are welcome at LGF. Nothing could be further from the truth. Any post that disagrees with Charles is automatically an "attack" on him, and his paranoia about posters out to get him knows no bounds. He returns none of the respect he is shown until a poster finally tells Charles where he can stick it, at which point Charles will ban the poster and delete every post in the discussion.

I loved LGF for the community, but most of my friends have already been banned or simply left. I post now and again just to keep Chucky honest, but it's becoming a full-time job and it won't be long before my dissent is not tolerated. But the truth IS finally coming out. LGF was a great blog, but it was great in spite of its creator, not because of him.

Preach it brother.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Chuckles Johnson, the Squire of Gothos, is at it again--engaging in defamation so silly that I can only laugh at him.

For the record, I'm not (and never have been) a YOUNG EARTH CREATIONIST, Charles, as you assert in your Comment #347 in this thread.

I believe the Universe is 17 billion years old, give or take a zillion. (See my intro, to the right of this post.) I just happen to think that God still made it nevertheless.

And the joke is that I am as opposed to the teaching of creationism/ID in school as Charles is.

Furthermore, as a Catholic, I always have. It's one of the things I like about the One True Church. It learns from its mistakes.

Unlike certain bloggers I know.

ADDENDUM April 9, 2009 6:11 AM

A very interesting discussion of Mr. Johnson's website can be found here.

http://amitghate.blogspot.com/2009/04/attacks-on-lgf-show-religious.html

Proof That There Is A God

...and that He occasionally meddles in human affairs.

During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the move South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan.

Yessssss........

Tony Blair Gives The Pope What-For

It is reported in The Times of London that an obscure, former politician from England named Tony Blair, who has recently joined the Catholic faith, has met with His Holiness Benedict, Sixteenth of that Name, Bishop of Rome, The Vicar of Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, and Servant of the Servants of God.

Tony told His Holiness that Jesus and Paul in their teachings about sexual continence, particularly as regards homosexual behavior, were just not hip enough to suit him (Tony, not the Vicar of Christ).

Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views.

Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals.

Oh, really, Mr. Blair?
Perhaps you need to do a little more reading. Starting here:

"A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear." ...

18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Jesus of Nazareth. Smart man. (Shot in the back. Very sad.)

It's Good to Be The King!

Utterly Silly Mistake Du Jour:

On Lucianne.Com, someone posted an article from the New Leftist (I mean The New Yorker) about how they should turn over six members of the Bush administration to an international court of justice for trial for "War Crimes" in the War on Terror (now renamed by the Obamoids as The-Contingency-Operation-Against-Someone-Or-Other-To-Prevent-Man-Made-Catastrophes-Let's-Talk-About-The-Banking-Crisis-Now).

Extremely bad idea. You can guess why. I won't go into it.

Anyway, in the Lucianne.com comments section, reader Revolution76 made the following remark:

Do you really think Obama would risk turning American citizens over to some rinky dink, World Court? The American people would remind him of Louis 14th's fate if he let Europeans come into this country and arrest American citizens on trumped up charges to be tried in a kangaroo court.

Methinx Mr. Obama would find Louis XIV's fate most pleasant.... of course, Mr. Revolution surely meant Louis XVI.....

Shameless Thanks

You have to be a certain age to remember THIS poster....

But I have reason to mourn the grave illness and immanent passing of Farah Fawcett.

Leaving aside, for a moment, the above poster, which was an object of lust for every male born before about 1970.......

I was stationed in Tuzla, Bosnia, in the days following 9/11. My family had been sent home and I was forced to return to residence on base. I was feeling down, and a lot of my friends were as well.

They (whoever "they" are) organized a group of Hollywood patriots to come visit the troops in the first decent USO tour since the early 1960s. Wayne Newton organized it, and it included a number of other Hollywood and entertainment notables--Jessica Simpson, Al Franken (who made an abominable fool of himself), among others.

Among those who came to see us on the front was Farah Fawcett--then about 54 years old, and still, er, stunning.

Astonishingly so. I had no idea.

We were feeling pretty lost then. It brightened up our week considerably when they came. And when she smiled at me. (Yeah, she smiled at me, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) :0)

But. I'll never forget the fact she never forgot us.

Get well, angel, and if you can't get well, go home soon. You've earned it, and all honor.

"Jesus is dead, everybody! Let's PAAAARTY!!!"

The more things change......

The atheists at Nooseweek are canoodling with joy at the fact that Christianity is slightly less popular than it used to be.

They're crowing that "God is dead."

Again.

In case they haven't noticed, God has a habit of not staying dead.

And to the degree that they wish it were so, best remember that they should be careful what they wish for. They could get it.

(And what is the 'it' in question? Open a history book on the twentieth century and pick a major crime listed therein. Then ask: who's really responsible? Hint: not Christianity--at worst, only its absence or silence.)

Little Green Stfutball's Lizard Lounge Goes Bye-Bye

Poor, poor widdle Chawlie Jawnson. (Snurf.) It turns out that the Squire of Gothos can dish it out but can't take it.

I’ve become aware that there is a contingent of disgruntled LGF readers who have been using the Lizard Lounge — that I’ve been paying for, for the past three years — to trash and insult LGF and myself. As of right now, the Lounge is closed until further notice.

Heh.

The Tao of the Bow - Wow!

(With apologies to Larry Gonick)

What happens when the President of the United States meets two very different monarchs?

Compare and Contrast. This question is worth ten points.

You may begin.

Charles Johnson Asks a Question

Atheists: evil monsters, or immoral monsters?
Discuss.

And the answer is:

Neither, unless given unchallenged and total political power. After that, all bets are off.

bfnasd;ffj

The world's shortest book review

[Executive summary: Read it.]



The book: Art Spiegelman's Maus.

The review:

Read it.

Further deponent sayeth not.

He got mail!

Yeah, Charles does it again.

Over the course of the last few days, Mr. Charles I-Am-The-God-I-Disbelieve-In Johnson has been ranting and raving about certain individuals who are pushing the autism-is-caused-by-vaccines meme.

Unscientifically, of course.

So he spends a great deal of time explaining how these people believe a fantasy, they want to make your child die of a disease that he could be vaccinated against, etc etc.

Someone at least had the cojones to take the sumbitch to task for his complete lack of compassion on the subject.

Before you crap on people for being suspicious of vaccines, particularly the parents of autistic children, try walking a mile in their shoes, OK?

You may think they’re stupid, but frankly I wouldn’t wish autism on my worst enemy and don’t blame their suspicion— an explanation is all we really want.

I should know. All three of my kids are autistic.

You’ve turned into such a self important pusbag. Deal with your hostility or most of your audience will write you off as an asshole crank, if they haven’t already.

I've got three autistic boys myself at home and can understand (a) how these poor folks are desperate for answers, (b) how they're willing to grasp straws if those straws even give a shadow of a hope of (i) improvement and (ii) an explanation as to where the hell this bastard disease comes from, and (c) why the desperation arising from raising kids in this mode can lead one to take extreme positions.

To Charles, however, they're all anti-science fanatics who deserve nothing but scorn.

Oh, he gives the usual "Autism-is-terrible" gabble speak, but he makes no appearance of even a shadow of compassion for what they're going through.

"Self important pusbag"? Absolutely appropriate, under the circumstances. And doubly so for those flying lizard monkeys whom he allows to post to his blog. (I won't quote them but they need to be read to be believed.)

It's been a week

If anyone is out there--I have had an extraordinarily busy week or so, and have only had a little chance to catch up. Please stand by.