Thursday, August 31, 2006

On the death penalty

I don't think I've ever commented on the death penalty other than to suggest particularly vile instances of human ofal to which it might be profitably applied.

A particularly compelling argument has recently come to my attention that warrants mention.
...We humbly suggest a solution at hand that can satisfy everyone: The Schiavo Method. We simply deprive the condemned man of all food and water until he dies. The New York Times and the courts have already determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that this treatment causes the patient no pain. If it was appropriate therapy for Mrs. Schiavo, who as far as we know never actually killed anyone, who could possibly think it was cruel or unusual to apply it to a condemned murderer?...
I find this an absolutely compelling argument.

That had to hurt...

Google Video

Had there been a fatality, this would be a solid Darwin Award nomination and international fame for the ages.

Palm Beach Post fingers sheriff deputy for planned gang hit...

...and is proud of the fact that they printed his name to make it easier for the biker gang to hunt him down.

An irate reader wrote this to Pravda in Paradise's ombudsman:
“I was very disturbed by the lack of concern for the deputy’s safety,” a reader e-mailed regarding “Sheriff says deputy who shot biker in danger,” which ran Monday in the Martin and St. Lucie counties’ edition.

“Your writer quoted (St. Lucie County Sheriff) Ken Mascara as saying he was concerned about 'potential response’ from the biker club. Why is it that the PB Post thought it newsworthy to sabotage the effort to protect the deputy and put him in danger? I certainly didn’t need to know his name,” the reader said, adding, “This article reeked and reflected poorly on the PB Post.”
So the Post responds with:
“It’s our job to report the news, of course,” he said. “But it always gets sticky when a question of safety is raised. Then we have to try to balance the public’s right to know with concerns over personal safety and with a law-enforcement agency’s explanations of why they would like us not to publish something.
“In this case, there was a very public shooting in a very public place with a lot of people present,” said Mr. Rose. “We asked the sheriff’s office for the name of the deputy who fired to protect people at the event, but were denied. Then we asked the state attorney’s office, and they released the name to us.”
Laying the "blame" at the feet of the state attorney's office. Ohhh, the state AG spilled it, so that makes it OK?

This is the same thing as a child who's mother says "no" shopping for a "yes" with their father.

An $80,000 TV...


...for those with more bread than brains.

The day I would consider buying an $80,000 TV is the day I'll blow my brains out for having become a mind numbed droid with nothing left to live for. There are so many better things that $80K can be spent on, that for a market to even exist for such a device is negative commentary on society in itself.


[update]
If Ace got you here pimping the $80,000 boob tube, why not stay a while and check out the six foot long scorpions and how well Harry Reid fares against one, or how we bombed the NVA with a toilet bowl during the vietnam war.

The digital pocket Koran is kinda cool too.

That Yoplait yogurt is colored with crushed bugs is a must read.

Ted "tubes" Stevens is the "secret hold" guy


TPM Muckraker

Of course he is - who else but the "go to guy" for bridges to nowhere and airliners with fish painted on the side of them would have the stones to do something like this?

Seriously, it takes a pair, not just an ordinary pair, but a frigging shot peened, case hardened, Titanium pair.

I don't care if it costs the republicans a seat in the senate - Ted Steven has GOT TO GO. This guy is a blight, a remora, a leech, a vile unrepentent squanderer of taxpayer dollars the likes of which hasn't been seen in quite some time.

Let me retract some of that, I'm afraid I've unfairly disrespected remoras and leeches, and perhaps even blights (the jury is still out on that one).

[update]
Byrd *and* Stevens were the culprit(s)
These guys are the "dynamic duo" of pork in the US senate. Byrd, of course, LIED about it initially then backtracked. Stevens just dithered until the field was getting narrowed down considerably before coming clean.
[/update]

You know you're a leftist moron when...

When you believe...
...that Israel dictates American foreign policy--but George Bush can pick up the phone anytime and order Israel around.

...that the Constitution itself demands group profiling in law school admissions--but absolutely forbids it in jet airliner admissions.

...that the evil genius George Bush personally planted thermite in the Twin Towers--but forgot to plant WMDs in Iraq.
Lots more where those came from - go read'em all.

The Boston Red Sox death spiral

Barring Papal decrees (even that might not work) it looks like the Red Sox have imploded in spectacular fashion clearing the road for the "evil" Yankees. Lets face it -- the Red Sox are classless. Always have been, always will be.

Even the addition of Lowell(the best fielding 3rd baseman in the history of the game) and Alex(arguably the best fielding shortstop in MLB today) on the left side wasn't enough to jumpstart this festering corpse.

"He's dead Jim"

OTOH, the Marlins, are doing OK and might, if all the planets align, get the NL wildcard.

Another Fish vs Evil Empire matchup in the World Series? Its not out of the question anymore.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Nancy Pelosi -- duplicitous or just stupid?

"If Mr. Rumsfeld is so concerned with comparisons to World War Two, he should explain why our troops have now been fighting in Iraq longer than it took our forces to defeat the Nazis in Europe"
Well, one wishes Rumsfeld would have replied with something along the lines of: "Well Nancy, if the democrats allowed us to fight terrorists in the same manner we fought the Nazis this would have been wrapped up quite a while ago"

Just saying...

Nice pics at Angel Feathers

Gotta mention...

There are some very nice pictures on this recent commenter's blog. Pay them a visit.

When houses conspire to burn down

The delightfully crispy and melted recepticle pictured in the pic is one I removed from a neighbor's house in a preemptive assault before it had a chance to fully launch it's vicious jihad against him and his family.

This particular jihadi recepticle was stationed under the kitchen sink (nominally) providing logistics support for a dish washer and garbage disposal. Typically a unit of this sort would be wired up with a "split feed" (as this one was), which means the recepticle has 240V coming into it rather than the more common 120V. The top half of the plug gets 1/2 of the 240V, the bottom half gets the other half, but there is 240V on the cable feeding the offending device. [I'm vastly simplifying this lashup for non-electricians].

In this case, the "root causes" of this quashed rebellion were sown back in 1989 when the house in question was built. That's right -- it was preordained to occur even before the house had its first occupants.

  • The jihadi in question is the cheapest lowest quality available. Cannon fodder in the electrical world. Personally, I wouldn't even wire a doghouse with something this cheap.

  • The wires attached to the militant were attached using a method known as "backstab" (how apt eh?). [I refuse to use this method of hooking stuff up]

  • The circuit in question was a 20 amp one using 12 gage wire

  • An astute researcher would find that a while ago UL stopped listing recepticles for backstab using 12 gage wire, because they were tending to do as this one did trying to start fires. Naturally, there was no nationwide public information campaign launched to inform the public that there were millions of these frigging terrorist recepticles "in the field" that would inevitably fail and try to kill people. No...must not alarm the public.

    However, UL in its infinite wisdom decided to keep allowing the evil backstab scheme for the smaller 14 gage wire (found on 15 amp circuits). These too will fail over time. The only advantage of this scheme is to the installing electrician -- THERE ARE NO ADVANTAGES FOR THE CONSUMER. It allws the installation to be a tad faster than the time tested "wrap the wire around the screw" technique.

    Life as Ven

    Strange and compelling. I had to look at every single blog post here.

    Sura 17:104

    "And we said to the Children of Israel afterwards, "Go live into this land. When the final prophecy comes to pass, we will summon you all in one group."

    Curious that the Muslims usually ignore this one isn't it?

    Tara Reid

    PAST
    PRESENT
    FUTURE (if you're in a hurry, check this one first)

    H/T Gallery Of The Absurd

    Tuesday, August 29, 2006

    Reporter gets zapped by 6,000 volts

    Siskel and Ebert give the vid of this moron "two thumbs up".

    H/T Garfield Ridge It looks like Dave is back...and that is a very good thing indeed.

    Liberalism = suicide



    Click HERE for a larger version. More at The Study of Revenge

    White supremacist KKK state trooper gets job back

    SERIOUS. BLACK. EYE. FOR. NEBRASKA.
    Seattle PI
    OMAHA, Neb. -- Robert Henderson was not fired as a state trooper because he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and another white supremacist group, authorities said. Instead, he was ousted because he could not uphold public trust while participating in such groups, they said.

    An arbitrator disagreed, ordering the State Patrol to reinstate Henderson within 60 days and pay him back wages. The state went to court Friday to keep him off the force.

    "The integrity of Nebraska's law enforcement is at risk," Attorney General Jon Bruning said at news conference in Lincoln. "The Constitution does not require law enforcement to employ anyone tied to the KKK."

    In a summary of the causes for firing Henderson in March, the State Patrol said membership in the KKK "seriously compromised" Henderson's ability to do his job.

    Henderson and the state troopers union appealed and, under its contract, went to binding arbitration, to get his job back.

    Arbitrator Paul J. Caffera, a New York lawyer, last week overturned the firing...

    SAUSAGES. ON. A. BONE.

    You got sausages. You got bones. You got sausages on the bones. Its the food version of Snakes On a Plane.

    Taiwanonymous
    ...Domino's Pizza in Taiwan is selling sausages with chicken bones stuck up them. My first thought was that someone at Domino's must have had a bright idea. Maybe they already tried sticking chicken bones in dinner rolls and pizzas and potatoes and then finally decided that they worked best stuck in sausages...
    There's several more pics of SAUSAGES. ON. A. BONE. at Taiwanonymous, so pay'em a visit and check out some of the really spiffy Woldfgang Puck type "presentations" there.

    Monday, August 28, 2006

    Rabidly left wing LA Times "outsources" 250 jobs to Phillipines

    LAT
    Chicago-based Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, said it would cut 250 call-center jobs at its daily newspapers and outsource those functions to a U.S. company with operations in the Philippines.

    Tulsa time capsule -- 50 year old case of Schlitz beer!

    In 1957 in Tulsa a new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was buried as part of a "time capsule" to be opened in 2007. Not stated in the text at the site, but its mentioned in the video there -- the car was also fitted with a case of Schlitz beer and other assorted 57' vintage items. The car is nice of course, but a virgin case of vintage beer in steel cans? That is unheard of.

    BuriedCar.com
    On June 15, 1957, a new gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was buried in a time capsule in downtown Tulsa, OK. The time capsule was part of Golden Jubilee Week: Tulsa‘s celebration of Oklahoma‘s semi-centennial. The car is buried under the sidewalk in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse, approximately 100 feet north of the intersection of Sixth Street and Denver Avenue...
    H/T Dustbury

    Democrat congressman takes trip on terrorists tab


    As Ace would say - "of course he did".

    Strong. Tough. Layers ;->

    CULTURE. OF. TREASON.

    Mercury News
    Illinois congressman Danny Davis and an aide took a trip to Sri Lanka last year that was paid for by the Tamil Tigers, a group that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, law enforcement sources said.

    Davis' seven-day trip came under new scrutiny this week following the arrests of 11 supporters of the organization on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to support the terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery of U.S. officials.

    The five-term Democratic congressman said he was unaware that the Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional disclosure form he reported that the trip was paid for by a Hickory Hills, Ill.-based Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America...

    ...Davis said he always assumed that the organization had a connection with the Tamil Tigers.

    "I knew that they were associated with the Tamil Tigers, yes," he said...


    H/T Bizzy Blog

    Fascist book banning eBay thugs take aim at home schoolers


    OK, we all knew eBay managment were a bunch of left wing moonbats, but this is going too far -- this is a Stalinist approach to enforcing your political views on the public.

    I think its time to boycott eBay.

    [update] Any outfit that allows a fighter plane to be sold, but bans selling textbooks has a seriously skewed moral compass.[/update]

    WND
    A new policy by Internet trading behemoth eBay that bans homeschool teachers' texts from its auctions is prompting a tirade of complaints from the company's faithful customers...

    ..."As you may know, eBay does not permit items that are illegal, dangerous, offensive, or potentially infringing. Additionally, eBay has just recently made the decision to prohibit the sale of Teacher's Editions of textbooks and solutions manuals that are intended solely for use by teachers. Since eBay strives to be a level-playing field, all Teacher's Edition textbooks, manuals and guides will be covered under this policy. Unfortunately, home schooling Teacher's Editions are not exempt from this policy and this policy will apply to all grade levels."

    The company continued that those products often contain "special answer keys, exams, teaching tips, and guides."
    H/TBizzyblog

    Ernesto takes aim on south Florida


    [update]
    Looks like Ernesto is a wimp so far. Its slid a bit off to the west. Just breezy with some rain so far.
    [/update]

    Looks like I'm directly in Ernesto's sights with storm effects to start in ernest sometime in the next two days.

    Plywood is up on the windows. Only took about two hours today because of a fastner system I installed a few years ago. A tapcon like thing with a threaded stud that sticks out of the wall. Slap the predrilled ply into place and zip on some wingnuts and you're done. Last year I painted the plywood, so it shouldn't get as waterlogged and heavy when its time to take it down now.

    Sunday, August 27, 2006

    The Florida Marlins are for real baby


    Florida Marlins(MLB)

    This is it -- I'm officially declaring the Marlins to be the real deal. It looked shaky early in the season, but this is a whole different team, and they seem to be on a trajectory similar to that of the 2003 World Series winning team.

    They're winning come from behind games.

    The bullpen isn't collapsing as much as before.

    A wildcard is not out of the question now -- and everyone KNOWS what happens if the Marlins get the wildcard. Every Marlin team that ever got into the playoffs has WON the whole deal, and every one of them got there via the wildcard.

    Go Fish.

    Monday Update: Fish are now only two games out of the Wildcard riding an 8 game winning streak.

    Ronnie Wood slams Bono & Geldof


    I always liked Ronnie Wood. Sage words.

    The Sun
    ROLLING Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has blasted fellow rockers Bono and Sir Bob Geldof...

    ...He stormed: "I would never go into politics like Bono. Geldof and him can keep trying until the end of the earth but it won't make a difference."

    He added: "I like to make people happy. Politics doesn't do that. Art does."

    A Look at the Muslims’ Mindset

    Go read it all -- this appears to be a very good analysis. The writer is an Iranian ex-pat

    Amil Imani.com
    ...Providing a comprehensive inventory of the psychological profile of the Muslims is beyond the scope of this article. Yet, there is no question that the psychological make up of a Muslim, depending on the extent of his Muslim-ness, is different from that of non-Muslims. This difference, often irreconcilable as things stand presently is at the core of the clash of Islam with the West...

    ...* Patriarchy and authoritarianism...

    ...* Blind obedience...

    ...* Focus on goal...

    ...Slavery of the mind is as evil as the slavery of the body. Islamofacism enslaves them both.


    More Amil Imani Good stuff. This guy knows what he's talking about.

    Free NK radio threatened by thugs

    East Asia Affairs
    ... In the new South Korea, thuggery pays. It is here that bullies, enemies of free speech, of toleration, of democracy are being nourished in the country's so-called progressive democratization. Not only are they challenging the values of free speech and toleration, but now they are attacking the victims who seek asylum from the tyrannical regime in North Korea...

    ...Don't they give them every help and encouragement, to bring closer the day when all Koreans can reunite in the freedom and prosperity that the South now takes for granted?

    ...Well, no. Make that, hell no. And listen to this: on April 20, North Korean defectors opened an Internet radio station in Seoul. (Korean speakers can access it at www.freenk.net)...

    ...have been subjected to "continuous threatening phone calls" and e-mails. Station chief Kim Seong-min gets calls from an anonymous woman who says: "You traitor, you'd better be careful," and, "I won't let you get away with this."

    ...Critics get physical, too. A guard at the building said "strange people" come to protest every day. Young men arrive and menace the Institute, objecting to Free NK being given house room. They have to be driven away, "so the atmosphere has become very chaotic"...

    ...In the bad old days, woe betide you if you said anything good about North Korea in Seoul. Now it's a mirror image: If you say anything bad about Kim Jong-il, you're a traitor. Even if, like the defectors of Free NK, you've suffered grievously under the Dear Leader - and therefore know whereof you speak, unlike head-in-sand fellow-travellers living safely south of the border...

    Islam wins two new converts -- at gunpoint of course

    The Fox reporters have been released. They converted to Islam while they were "guests" though. No duress of course, all completely voluntary...NOT!

    Update:

    The Video

    Amazing what people will say when their lives are threatened.

    Paul Giamatti to play Philip K. Dick in biopic


    Philip K Dick.com
    ...Paul Giamatti has an eye towards starring as renowned sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, in a biopic being produced by his newly formed Touchy Feely Films, in collaboration with Anonymous Content's Steve Golin and Lenny Bekerman.
    Through its Electric Shepherd Productions, the Philip K. Dick Estate (Isa Dick Hackett) is also producing the authorized non-traditional bio.

    The film will interweave the author's life, his fiction,...
    More good news for PKD fans -- TOR is releasing a previously unreleased Dick story "Voices from the street".Philip K Dick.com
    Tor Books, a publisher known for science fiction and fantasy announced the pending release of the unpublished Philip K. Dick novel 'Voices From the Street' in January 2007. The mainstream novel was written in 1952-53 and is one of PKD's earliest novels...Voices from the Street is the story of Hadley’s descent into depression and madness, and out the other side."

    Saturday, August 26, 2006

    Howell Raines: NYT editorial page not biased

    I would humbly suggest that it was perhaps not CSPAN that was being watched...rather the "open mic" night tryouts at the Comedy Club. Either that or Raines is a commie tool of epic proportion.

    Heartland Murmers
    So I'm a news junkie. I admit that while flipping through the channels I'll land on CSPAN and watch long enough to see whose talking, and then some. Anyway, in doing so the other night I happened upon a Mr. Howell Raines the erstwhile editor of the New York Times who either resigned or was fired over the whole Jayson Blair journalistic fraud scandal...

    journalism. In an answer to a question regarding editorial bias he said, I'm paraphrasing here;

    "I don't believe the New York Times editorial page was biased under my management or is today, but some time ago the editorial page at the Wall Street Journal became a wholey-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party."

    Thursday, August 24, 2006

    DHS idiots give CAIR inside look at anti-terror efforts


    Seriously, are these DHS people on drugs? Have they gone over to the other side? Either way, they're obviously dangerous and need to be removed...NOW.

    Douglas Farah
    Seems like DHS, in an effort to reach out to the Muslim community to calm fears of profiling, decided to take leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on a VIP, behind-the scenes tour of its new counter-terrorism measures...

    Tuesday, August 22, 2006

    Auto "black boxes" not required in US

    Stuff(New Zealand)
    The U.S. government will not require recorders in autos but has said that car makers must tell consumers when technology that tracks speed, braking and other measurements is in the new vehicles they buy...

    ...Automakers have until September 1, 2010, to comply with the notification and other requirements in the new regulation, if they choose to equip their vehicles with recorders...

    ...Rae Tyson, a NHTSA spokesman, said the owner's manual is suitable for notifying consumers and stressed that recorder information is private property that cannot be downloaded without permission of the vehicle owner...


    It pains me to do it, but I must -- I have to H/T Prison Planet for this one.

    Stupid criminal tricks -- dumping bodies using stolen cars


    a) Why only 2nd degree murder? This seems like a slamdunk 1st degree murder rap with a "fast track" into old sparky's "hotseat".

    b) I keep telling these dumbasses, not to whack the hookers, but noooo, they gotta do the working girl anyway cuz they're too damn cheap to pay her, and then, to top it off, do it in a car you swiped and did a robbery in. Smart. Real smart.

    Seriously, I'm offended by people this violent and pathetically stupid breathing my air. Hookers aren't angels, but they deserve better than to meet their fate at the hands of some deranged retard puke like this who going to roll'em up in a sheet for a one-way trip to a remote ditch in the Everglades somewhere.

    NBC (Ft. Myers FL)
    Around 3:30 a.m. Friday, the deputy stopped at the Green Wave Motel on Palm Beach Boulevard and saw a Honda Accord he believed was involved in a robbery. He ran the plate and discovered the car had been stolen.

    The deputy called for back up. While waiting, the deputy witnessed the man leave his room carrying a large, heavy object concealed by bed sheets.

    The object in bed sheets was actually the body of a woman in her 40's from Fort Myers. Deputies say he tied her hands and feet with lace from her wig and strangled her. The woman has been arrested in the past for prostitution and drug use.

    Other deputies arrived and Rodriguez was arrested. He has been charged with second degree murder.

    Amazon customer reviews -- Tuscon milk

    AMAZON.COM
    ...This milk comes in very handy as a prop in those special "pop shots" we make in front of the video camera in our bedroom. It holds it color well under the lights and it's viscousity is marvelous. Not to mention the wife says it doesn't taste too salty...

    ...Being left-handed caused a problem here. I thought it was an industrial-sized bottle of 'correction fluid'. 6 weeks later I came to discover that my 'white out' has become very chunky and wasn't offering the same coverage as it did right after I bought it...

    ...If god spit in my mouth, I assume this is what it would taste like. It's that good...

    ...Aside from the ocassional loose stool, I've found this product to deliver as promised...

    ...Shipping was fine, and the product was not damaged in any way, but my husband and I (both of us have college degrees, mind you, his in Engineering) could not figure out how to assemble this. No instructions, no diagrams, not even a lousy cheap allen wrench. So basically, weeks after purchase, we're using it as a one gallon paper weight...


    There's lots more. 700+ "comments" on this milk. I just sampled a few. Hours of hilarity here.

    Lobsters communicate by...pissing on each other

    Random surfing led me to this. I wonder if we could get politicians to communicate with each other like this? The entertainment value would be enormous.

    Echos Of Cold Moon(Zen Kitty)

    Monday, August 21, 2006

    Pournelle on long airport lines

    And I'd have to agree...

    "...were I a terrorist I would find the enormous lines at security check points very tempting." -- Jerry Pournelle

    Russia pays off Paris Club debt early

    US foreign debt as a percentage of GDP is in the 40-50% range.

    Interfax
    The Russian federal budget will save a total of more than $12 billion in interest payments in the period up to 2020, the Finance Ministry said in a press release after Russia repaid its debt in full to the Paris Club on Monday...

    ...The relationship of Russia's foreign debt against GDP will drop to 9% after the early repayment, the release says...

    Shocker: Idiot Brits may have armed Hezbollah via Iran


    Right. The Brits give Iran NV gear ostensibly to "combat heroin smuggling" and then expect it to actually be used for that? As a Cuban friend of mine would say: "what? are you high?!?! Get off the crack pipe!"

    Either the Brits are a bunch of moronic drooling retards, or they had a good idea of where this stuff would wind up. Oh yea, it was for a "UN" program though...the Iranians would never misuse anything for "UN program" now would they?

    AP
    Britain said Monday that it is investigating a report that Israeli soldiers found British-made night-vision goggles in a Hezbollah hideout...

    ...The Times newspaper reported Monday that Israeli officials believe the goggles may be from a consignment sold to Iran by Britain in 2003.

    The sale was intended to bolster Iranian efforts to combat heroin smuggling across the Afghan border as part of the United Nations Drugs Control Program, the newspaper claimed...

    Sunday, August 20, 2006

    Man with two penises wants to cut one off

    Ahem, I would humbly suggest that Zeus has willed this guy's future to be in kinky porn. Dude, seriously, cash in for a few years, pad the bankroll, ensure your retirement, then go for the Bobbit job on the second knob.

    Reuters
    An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said Saturday...

    ..."Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary," the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying.

    The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed...

    Crazy Question of the Day???

    This question doesn't seem very crazy to me. Not much of a logical stretch at all for the statists to desire something like this.

    OneHouse
    ...How long before the Government discovers Emminent Domain could apply to intellectual property as well as real estate?...

    Saturday, August 19, 2006

    DJ Ted Stevens Techno Remix:

    Its all about the TUBES...a series of TUBES.
    US soldiers product endorsment -- HP Printers

    Note to HP execs: This is NOT the kind of word of mouth product endorsment you really need now is it? My own personal experiences with HP products is that they have gone dramatically down hill in the past 10 years. HP used to be a top of the line product, now they're just crap.

    H/T Politburo Diktat

    The "secret" blockage of S.2590

    Ace is in a tizzy and speculating wildly about the perpetrator of the "secret" blockage[Federal Times] of S.2590. Well, there's a few things about S.2590[Thomas.gov] that bother me, but they're probably not the reason its blocked. The bill, as it exists now, is clearly a not very well thought out "quickie" that needs a lot of work before any reasonable person would consider actually voting on it. To my uneducated moronic eyes, this bill looks a lot (lack of substance wise) like the originally proposed "thin gruel" Brady Bill did before the NRA was done working it over into something that might actually be useful.

    As it stands now, S.2590 is just a "feel good" bill that can't possibly deliver the promised goods on the promised timeline. The software and hardware needed to implement this bill will take at least 5 years to put together and have working in any manner that might be called reliable. The bill also creates a situation of people having to do double work since it explicitly forbids just hyperlinking to other federal web sites that already contain similar, though not identical, information.

    Some of my beefs with the bill as it exists today:
    (II) allows Federal award recipients and subaward recipients to allocate reasonable costs for the collection and reporting of subaward data as indirect costs; ..
    That section seems ripe for abuse and padding. If the people writing the checks don't know what they're writing the checks for, then why would we have to pay the recipient(s) to tell us what the check is for? Seriously -- WTF?!?

    and...
    (e) Exception- Any entity that demonstrates to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget that the gross income, from all sources, for such entity did not exceed $300,000 in the previous tax year of such entity shall be exempt from the requirement to report subawards under subsection (d), until the Director determines that the imposition of such reporting requirements will not cause an undue burden on such entities.
    So if the award goes to a smallish outfit or person (like lots of those NSF and NEA grants) all they need to do is say it would cause an undue burden to be bothered reporting on it and its up to the director of OMB to prove that its NOT an undue burden rather than the recipient having to prove it is. This is another WTF?!? -- clearly the authors of this bill intended a large class of recipients to use this loophole to slide through.

    All your studies on the sexual habits of the green spotted tree fluke and support for artists who put crosses in jars of urine will slide right by with a wink and a nod because most of those people are making less than $300K/yr...

    Of course Sec 2 (a)(2)(B) will let a lot of them off the hook anyway
    (B) does not include individual transactions below $25,000;

    Friday, August 18, 2006

    Meet the Tuatara -- 200M years old still going

    Lets give these guys some props -- any biological design that can last this long was pretty much "done right" originally.

    New Zealand govt conservation
    Tuatara are rare, medium-sized reptiles (adults ranging from about 300g to 1000g) found only in New Zealand, They are the only extant members of the Order Sphenodontia, which was well represented by many species during the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago. All species apart from the tuatara declined and eventually became extinct about 60 million years ago...

    More Tuatara sites:
    Kiwi Conservation Club
    Wiki entry for Tuatara

    What action hero are you?

    You scored as Maximus. After his family was murdered by the evil emperor Commodus, the great Roman general Maximus went into hiding to avoid Commodus's assassins. He became a gladiator, hoping to dominate the colosseum in order to one day get the chance of killing Commodus. Maximus is valiant, courageous, and dedicated. He wants nothing more than the chance to avenge his family, but his temper often gets the better of him.
    Maximus              58%
    Indiana Jones 58%
    William Wallace 54%
    Captain Jack Sparrow 46%
    Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
    created with QuizFarm.com

    Why the euros still despise the jews

    Passing Parade
    ...You might wonder why the Europeans are demonizing Jews again when they have brand new Muslim minorities they can demonize, marginalize, and otherwise treat like crap, but if I might venture a guess, it’s because the new Muslim minorities won’t just sit and take it in the neck the way the old Jewish minority did back in the days before there was a State of Israel...

    ...then, of course, there’s oil; Muslims have it and Jews don’t...

    ...So the Europeans are sticking with the tried and true prejudice they’ve come to know and love for all these millennia. They’ve just poured the nasty old witch’s brew into a new bottle and they’re calling it by another name, but no matter from what angle you choose to look at it, the vile stuff’s the same old swill it always was.

    Soviet gulag to reopen as tourist attraction



    Pravda
    ...the authorities are planning on completely restoring one of the Gulag camps and turning it into a form of hotel for tourists...

    ...The possibility of living in a Gulag as a prisoner attracts many rich foreigners. They themselves inform us of this. Last autumn, a whole train-full of tourists from America, Australia and Poland arrived, wishing to pay money to see the concentration camp...

    ...a day in such a hotel would cost in the region of $150 to $200 per night and tourists would spend at least three days there. In addition, there are also plans to organize excursion routes around the concentration camps.

    Man wrecks house with 14 ton track hoe

    Note to self: don't piss off tennents with access to heavy construction machinery.


    ...The owners of the house and the campsite, Janice Gledhill and her partner James Harvard, could only watch in horror as their home was demolished...

    Apple's iPod factory is a minimum wage sweatshop

    Why am I not suprised...

    Daily Mail
    Apple Computer Inc.'s investigation into claims of poor conditions at a Chinese iPod factory found no forced labour but revealed that labourers were exceeding the company's limits on hours and days to be worked per week, the company revealed. ...

    ...Apple said its inspection found that in at least two instances workers were made to stand at attention for disciplinary reasons...

    ...While conditions in the factories, cafeterias and most dormitories were good, the audit found overcrowded or unsuitable conditions at three offsite leased dormitories that were former factories...

    Thursday, August 17, 2006

    Kevin Drum's writing self-censored through BDS lense

    Get a fucking clue Kevin -- as much as you may hate Bush, he's a heck of a lot better than the head choppers and mullahs who would put you and your kind up against a wall in a heartbeat.

    ‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’ -- Edmund Burke

    Washington Monthly
    Kevin Drum:
    ...For example, should I be more vocal in denouncing Iran? Sure. It's a repressive, misogynistic, theocratic, terrorist-sponsoring state that stands for everything I stand against. Of course I should speak out against them.

    And yet, I know perfectly well that criticism of Iran is not just criticism of Iran. Whether I want it to or not, it also provides support for the Bush administration's determined and deliberate effort to whip up enthusiasm for a military strike. Only a naif would view criticism of Iran in a vacuum, without also seeing the way it will be used by an administration that has demonstrated time and again that it can't be trusted to act wisely.

    So what to do? For the most part, I end up saying very little...
    Al Gore's Penguin Army

    H/T RWS

    Israel asks Turkey to block Hizb weapons shipments

    What are the chances of these "negotiations" being successful? Very good. Turkey has some rather large military contracts with Israel for the upgrading of Turkish military hardware.

    ThanhNien News(Vietnam)
    Israel wants the Turkish military to impose an air and ground embargo to prevent Iran using Turkish territory to send arms to resupply Hizbollah, a senior Israeli security source said Thursday...

    ...The sources said Turkey was key because alternative arms shipment routes through Iraq and Jordan have been blocked. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because talks with the Turkish government were just getting under way...

    ...Israeli officials have estimated that between 75 percent and 80 percent of Hizbollah's long-range rockets have been destroyed, though some Western diplomats were sceptical of the initial Israeli damage assessments...

    More Glenn Greenwald asshattery

    Do yourself a favor and go read it all. I think its safe to say Mr. Greenwald has an advanced case of Stockholm Syndrome and is working actively for his enemies.

    Stockholm Syndrome explains a lot of how the left is behaving of late. Their idiotic views prevent them from recognizing who their enemy really is. Submission -- islam has beaten the left before a battle was even waged.

    Patterico
    ...Anyway, his latest disingenuous bilge pretends that the Reuters photo scandal is all about two altered photographs...

    Tuesday, August 15, 2006

    Girl's passport photo "offensive" to muslims


    So France is "muslim country" now...at least according to some UK passport official(s).

    Telegraph
    A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.

    The contentious passport photo Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.

    The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France...
    H/T Democracy Frontline

    Muslim showdown in the PRC you didn't hear about

    If this sort of community warfare can happen in the PRC, it can happen ANYWHERE. If this crap with the muslims continues, it will happen in the USA and europe. If the PRC can't suppress it, NOBODY can suppress it. Its going to be "Chicago rules".

    In These Times
    Government blocks foreign journalists from reporting on Han-Hui riot

    “Everyone here’s gone mad. … people who used to live together now want to kill each other,” ...

    ...On October 28, this small village of about 1500 Han Chinese and 500 Hui Muslims in China’s central Henan province exploded into violence after a minor altercation between members of the two communities...

    ...Fighting between the two communities raged for hours, Ma says, leaving more than 100 dead, more than 400 injured, and several houses and vehicles burned...

    ...“Thousands of [Han] people surrounded [Nanren village] with bulldozers and tractors and wanted to smash all the Hui houses,” says Zhujian Jun, 32, a carpenter in Zhongmou, a town about 20 miles south of Nanren...

    ...authorities moved quickly to quell the violence, but it was so ferocious that at least 15 policemen were killed before officials called in special paramilitary troops, sources say.
    ...

    ...foreign journalists are still banned from entering the area. Those caught trying are detained by authorities...

    Addendum(swiped from my comments at Ace's joint):

    The muslims better deal with this problem, or STUFF LIKE THIS is going to start happening in the US and UK.

    I went to SUNY Potsdam (a tiny college in the middle of nowhere near the Canadian border) for my undergrad degree. My junior year was 79' when they took over the US embassy in Tehran.

    There was one Iranian student at the college at the time (well off...undoubtedly a Shah supporting family). It didn't matter to somebody in town if his mother was Mother Theresa herself -- that poor SOB wound up drowned and floating in the Raquet river that runs through the center of town. Nominally dismissed as an "accident", everyone on campus knew somebody greased him over the embassy thing.

    It CAN get ugly. It HAS been ugly in the past. These dumbasses better wise up because what's going on now is a lot more serious than the embassy takeover was.

    May that poor guy's soul rest in peace. Its a story I needed to tell though because it hit too close to home.

    H/T Democracy Frontline

    NYT caught faking Lebanon picture

    The "motivation" for the fake is obvious to me. The NYT is trying to put a "diverse" face on the conflict. How better to do that than by injecting the black guy in the middle of a pic (indeed as probably the most prominent person in the pic)? It matters not to them that it is fake -- because it is "fake but accurate" right?

    Tyler Hicks == lying scumbag
    NYT == lying scumbag

    The MSM can not be trusted. The NYT, over the past several years, has blown any credibility it once may have had. They can now safely be lumped in with the Weekly World News. At least WWN does this kind of fakery for entertainment. The NYT does it for much darker more corrupt purposes.

    Right Winged
    As time went on, it seemed like the obviousness of the photoshop was becoming apparent to Allah, until in the end he gave up on the grounds that he didn't understand what the motivation would have been...

    ...The controversial image I'm referring to, of course, is the fauxto of Lebanese civilians taking shelter in a hospital in a town called Tibnine (alos Tibneen, Tibnin, and Tibnini), in which a black man's face was CLEARLY photoshopped on to the head of the body of an Arab woman wearing a headscarf. The image remains up at the NY Times' site, and they have not responded to any of my emails.

    Monday, August 14, 2006

    Public execution and lynching in Jenin

    For those not familiar with them, Islamic Jihad is a bunch of freedom fighters nutbars helping to implement humanitarian reforms medieval lynchings.

    Riehl World View

    Addendum:

    What we're dealing with here, is a mentality is basically in the dark ages. Burn the witch! Stone the heretic! The world is fucking flat and there be dragons and shit at the edges of the oceans.

    The typical modern western mind has trouble imagining people so primitive in this day and age, yet here they are. Even the Neanderthals had more respect for the dead.

    Sunday, August 13, 2006

    Woman with machette arrested outside Whitehouse

    CNN
    Spokeswoman Kim Bruce said Ashwak Saleh was taken into custody and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon after she displayed a 13-inch machete on the sidewalk outside the White House...

    FLASHBACK: Tuesday, December 20, 1994, outside the Whitehouse gates. Marcelino Corniel acting crazy outside the Whitehouse with a knife taped to his hand. He was shot and killed by park police.

    We must must not offend the muslims these days, but during the Clinton era it was OK to waste the crazy black guy.

    Strawberry Yoplait yogurt is colored with crushed bugs

    CRUSHED. FREAKING. BUGS.
    We're eating crushed bugs. I'll have a yogurt -- light on the bugs please.
    AOL Money
    When you dig into a strawberry Yoplait yogurt, take a moment to contemplate where the beautiful pink color comes from. Strawberries? Think again. It comes from crushed bugs. Specifically, from the female cochineal beetles and their eggs. And it's not just yogurt. The bugs are also used to give red coloring to Hershey Good & Plenty candies, Tropicana grapefruit juice, and other common foods...

    The war we're in -- the nature of the beast.

    Jarred hits a homerun here with his observations. Go read it all.

    Air Force Pundit
    ...We are going to have to learn to fight by the enemy's rules. And we aren't going to like it. The wars of the future will be won by those with the greater strength of will. And boundless determination is one weapon that Islamist extremists unquestionably possess. Do we?

    Saturday, August 12, 2006

    Proportional response

    The IBM PC turns 25 years old

    10 years of my career from the mid 80's to the mid-90's were spent mostly in Boca Raton FL working at IBM. It was a magical time in the industry when truly revolutionary new stuff was always on the horizon or lurking in a lab somewhere. Half the really amazing toys never made it out of the lab. All the stuff today seems so regular, so uniform, so commoditized. The magic is gone...

    I still have a couple of the old 5-slot original 5150 PC's (shown in the pic) tucked away that I'll boot up and play with occasionally.

    IBM
    When the IBM Personal Computer (IBM 5150) was introduced to the world 25 years ago, it was dramatically clear to most observers that IBM had done something very new and different. Here you had a large company, steeped in tradition, that had been willing and able to set aside its "business as usual" methods to produce in volume a highly competitive, tiny computer of top quality, intended for both consumers and businesses. And IBM was able to do all that and roll out its first PC in just one year...

    Electric blankets start 5,000 fires/year in the UK

    Electric blankets have always scared the hell out of me. I would never buy one or use one.

    Borough of Telford
    ...Across the 13 authorities who took part in October and November, over 5,000 electric blankets were tested, and 40% of these were condemned as being unsafe with faults such as scorched fabric, exposed heating elements and damaged insulation.

    Old or damaged blankets cause more than 5,000 fires a year. Research has shown that people are still using electric blankets that are ten years old (or older) in homes in Britain and are responsible for 99% of the fires caused by electric blankets. And each year 20 people are killed and 100 injured in such fires...

    New York City urban infrastructure

    Absolutely facinating article about the mechanics of how the city works. I work with this sort of stuff every day, but most people never give it a thought...and maybe they should. Residents should take a keen interest in infrastructure if they're living in a place running on essentially 70-100 year old technology and designs. That this ancient stuff has managed to (mostly) hold up for so long is an amazing statement about the quality and fundamental soundness of the original work.

    Gotham Gazette
    ...as I understand it the tunnels essentially can't be maintained, can't be checked, because we're so dependent on them. Nobody wants to shut off the water moving through the tunnels because we're reliant on them, but also in part because they're afraid the tunnels may implode when that pressure is removed...

    ..."The real question is: are we being as ambitious as people were 100 years ago when they set up these very elaborate systems. I don't know that we're being as visionary about infrastructure as perhaps we should be."...

    Houses made out of straw bales

    MADE. FROM. STRAW.
    This delightful strawbale home nestles into the hillside amid California Live Oaks. Operable windows in the lantern daylight the greatroom and create a thermal chimney that draws cool air into the house by night. Large south-facing windows admit winter sun to heat the house by winter and a built-in cob bench helps store the heat through the night. The house is powered by an off-grid photovoltaic electric system. Co-designed with architect Pete Gang, this house was the first permitted strawbale home in CA to use all earth and lime plasters inside and out. The house was featured in Natural Home Magazine, June-July, 2004

    Computing with wood

    Being a fan of fine woodworking I direct you to
    Eco Geek to gaze upon some real craftsmanship.

    Friday, August 11, 2006

    Woodpecker flock viciously attacks zither player


    Carolyns Clinic
    ...After 20 minutes the only thing that remained were three zither strings and a gold tooth.

    Animal uprising chronicled -- Animal Attack Files

    Facinating stuff. Time to hunker down and restock the bunker and ammo supplies.

    The Animal Attack Files

    Boa trying to eat a kangaroo

    One applauds the Boa's zeal, but suspects its judgment about what it can handle.

    Lockheed to accelerate GMLRS Unitary production


    Buildup for a new offensive in the works? Hmmm.

    Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control
    The U.S. Army has asked Lockheed Martin to accelerate production of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS Unitary) rockets.

    “The GMLRS proved itself in combat in Tal Afar and provided the regiment with tremendous capability," said Col. H. R. McMaster, commander - 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Operation Restoring Rights’ senior U.S. officer. “It not only was able to hit enemy positions with a great deal of precision, but was able to limit collateral damage. The physical and psychological effect the system had on the enemy in Tal Afar - who was trying either to successfully defend against an attack or goad the Coalition into destroying large portions of the city - was extremely valuable.”

    Lockheed Martin originally received a $108 million contract to conduct Low-Rate Initial Production-2 (LRIP-2) for GMLRS in April 2004. In January of 2005 Lockheed Martin completed delivery of GMLRS Unitary rockets to satisfy the first Army request to convert Guided MLRS rockets to Unitary warhead variants.

    To respond to the Army's latest request for additional production, existing contracts will be modified to include delivery of GMLRS Unitary rockets scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006. A second set of GMLRS Unitary are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2007.

    “Lockheed Martin will deliver the GMLRS Unitary to the warfighter as requested,” said Rick Edwards, vice president - Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This request is indicative of the capability that this weapon system provides to deployed troops, and highlights its value to our nation's warfighters. We are committed to supporting our troops.”

    GMLRS Unitary rockets have been fired in theater with overwhelming success. “When the GMLRS was used in Tal Afar, damage to surrounding buildings was almost nonexistent, and the target’s destruction was absolute,” said Lt. Col. A. J. Legg, commander - 2nd Battalion, 4th Field Artillery Regiment. “[GMLRS Unitary is the] greatest distance-capable weapon.”

    Guided MLRS Unitary integrates a 196-pound unitary warhead into the GMLRS rocket, giving battlefield commanders the ability to attack targets up to 70 kilometers away with high precision. This low-cost, low-risk program will greatly reduce collateral damage by providing enhanced accuracy to ensure delivery of the warhead to the target.

    GMLRS is an all-weather, precision-guided rocket that provides increased accuracy thus reducing the number of rockets necessary to defeat current targets by 80 percent. The GMLRS rocket provides increased precision and maneuverability, and can be fired from the MLRS M270A1 and the HIMARS launchers...

    The long feared animal uprising has indeed begun

    They're out there, they're pissed off, and they're going jihad on the human population. Screw PETA -- its time to fight back.

    Enraged squirrel attacks residents in Winter Park FL
    Residents in Winter Park, Fla., are angered over the city's response to a squirrel that attacked at least seven people this month, according to a report...
    UCF student attacked and pulled under by sea turtle
    A graduate student from the University of Central Florida is missing after he was pulled underwater by a large sea turtle, according to Local 6 News...
    Racoon bites woman 20 times
    A Lynn Haven woman is waiting for the results of rabies tests after a raccoon bit her at least 20 times, sending her to the hospital.
    ...
    MA cop attacked by vicious squirrel
    A police officer in Massachusetts was treated at a hospital after a drug suspect's squirrel attacked him during an attempted arrest, according to a Local 6 News report...
    UPDATE: Bear Attacks NJ golfer
    Several days after a bear clawed at his face on the grounds of Crystal Springs Golf Resort in Hardyston, George Petta remains unable to eat and shaken up over how an ordinary day at work led to a fearful attack.

    "I (still) have a knot in my stomach," said Petta, a resident of Basswood Drive in Vernon, by phone on Monday. "I'm still shaking, thinking about it."...
    UPDATE: Paris Hilton bitten by pet
    Paris Hilton got no love this week from her pet kinkajou Baby Luv _ in fact, the racoon-like animal bit her...
    Dophin attacks French coast (H/T Ace)

    Thursday, August 10, 2006

    Restored ME-262 flight footage


    I noticed THIS VIDEO groping around through Google videos randomly. I had no idea any ME-262's had survived in any sort of condition that would be restorable and ultimately flight worthy... Apparently at least one has.

    I'm a big fan of aircraft and flying machines of any sort and have known people who took on vintage aircraft restorations. The job is a massive one. In the case of the ME-262 and its jet engines, it must have been even harder than usual.

    Would you buy a used tractor from this man?


    Apparently caught with the goods, he tries a Cynthia McKinney and blames the competition for trying to suppress him. Riiight.
    News-Leader
    A candidate in today's Greene County presiding commissioner race was arrested Saturday at a political rally for allegedly receiving stolen property...

    Campbell faces State Rep. Brad Roark today in the Republican primary race for presiding commissioner...

    "I think this has come up to suppress my election possibilities," he said...

    TRUTH BE TOLD: Going to Hell in a Handbasket II

    TRUTH BE TOLD: Going to Hell in a Handbasket II

    People using aborted fetuses for cosmetic treatments? Icky poo if true.

    Shocker: Lebanon Hizb dead include Iranian Revolutionary Guards

    PURELY. MORAL. SUPPORT. Riiight...

    Reuters
    Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

    It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

    Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral...

    Tuesday, August 08, 2006

    Flashing back even further...

    Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

    Flashback: US is a nation of "cannibals" says DPRK

    Dateline: March 2001
    Perp : DPRK
    Source : NYT
    Rantings:
    ..."Today, calling the United States "a cannibals' nation" and charging the Bush administration with "escalating its provocative and reckless diatribe" against the North, the Communists pledged a "thousandfold revenge" if "the U.S. imperialists turn to confrontation."...

    Gotta love those commies -- always come through with the "money quote". Its really too bad 9/11 came along. The DPRK seems to have toned down the rhetoric a notch after that. This cannibal track they were taking had a lot of promise.

    Photos of 11 missing terrorists "students" revealed*




    (*)Due to political correctness issues and a liberal social taboos on "profiling", specific details may be lacking from some of these pics.


    UPDATE: Three of the 11 have been found/arrested so far.

    Monday, August 07, 2006

    Game, set, match -- bloggers notch another scalp

    Reuters reacted with (relative) speed to this scandal -- a point in their favor. Perhaps they are capable of learning from history? Dan Rather might still have a job if he'd been willing to admit promptly that he'd been played like a Steinway.

    Reuters
    Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.

    Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

    "There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement...

    Several blogs, including a number which accuse the media of distorted coverage of the Middle East conflict, said the photograph had been doctored.

    Germans working on "anti-stupid" pill

    Yea, I know its a Reuters story -- and that makes it instantly suspect these days. However, there are no photos involved here, so that is a mitigating factor in its favor.

    Reuters
    A German scientist has been testing an "anti-stupidity" pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported Saturday...

    Sunday, August 06, 2006

    The Taliban Terminator...


    The Sun
    A BRITISH sniper waging war on the Taliban is so deadly he has earned a chilling nickname — The Man Who Never Misses.

    The unerring Army sharpshooter has killed 39 rebel fighters single-handedly.

    His marksmanship is so lethal that rumours have spread like wildfire through insurgents’ camps, causing panic and confusion...
    H/T Clarity and Resolve

    Reuters excuse for fake pic is weak

    Excuse me? Right. My monitor works just fine in complete darkness. Moira Whittle must have felt like a damn fool being trotted out to pitch such a pathetic excuse as that.

    Then again, maybe these morons can become "confused" if someone plays with the brightness knob on their monitors turning it down.
    Newsdesk
    ...The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters....

    Another questionable Reuters picture

    H/T Free Republic

    UK hospital fined for giving prompt treatments

    This is not a joke. This is the inevitable result state run healthcare.

    H/T Small Dead Animals
    BBC
    A hospital has lost £2.5m in funding for treating patients too quickly....

    Ipswich Hospital agreed with the East Suffolk Primary Care Trusts, which fund treatment, that patients should wait at least four months for treatment.

    However, doctors had treated patients inside that time and the trust refused to pay the £2.5m cost of treatment...

    An Ipswich Hospital spokeswoman described the incident as a "local glitch"...

    The government has said patients should wait no longer than six months before treatment...

    Integrity is like virginity...


    ...easy to lose, very difficult to regain.

    The MSM -- self proclaimed "watchdogs of the public trust" have been doing some things of late that well...lead one to suspect they harbor a large dollop of contempt for the public and the business of reporting (actual) news itself.

    Gone are the days of Ernie Pyle, and Woodward/Bernstein when the MSM actually engaged in real reporting about real incidents. Sure, there was always some spin and a certain amount of political agenda, and a certain amount of "selectivness" in what would be reported to support that agenda and spin -- however -- the MSM wasn't often in the business of "manufacturing facts".

    In the past, the selectivness and spin was relegated to the natural biases of the people involved and wasn't allowed to alter the facts of a story (Walter Cronkite and his despicable propagandistic depiction of the Tet Offensive aside). People are people and we have to accept that fundamental truth. You can have any opinion you want, and color a story with that as long as the hard data, the raw facts, aren't altered or new "facts" cut from whole cloth to support your position.

    Now we see things like Rathergate where obviously forged documents were foisted off as real -- introducing the notion of "fake but accurate". The "Qana incident" where pictures were obviously staged (and the whole MSM narrative very suspect). SUV's rolling over being "assisted" to do so. Pickup trucks exploding being similarly "assisted". Jayson Blair, etc. The list goes on and on.

    In short, the MSM has "crossed the Rubicon" in the last say 10 years and is actively engaged in manufacturing and enhancing stories rather than reporting them as they are. That they do this apparently to support political objectives makes it even more odius. I could understand faking up something just to get a nice headline and sell more papers -- that's the business the tabloids are in and it serves them very well. Alien abductions, hoky conspiracy theories, and "bat boy" are entertaining, but nobody (who isn't a drooling moron) takes that stuff seriously.

    The MSM want us to treat them seriously, but they keep doing stuff that makes us think of them as crude propagandists. The same technology that enabled the MSM to easily engage in fabrication and manipulation is the same technology the allows we the people to realize we are being gamed.

    Curiously, the MSM seems not to have gotten wind of this technological double edged sword's implications. You would have thought that the RatherGate incident would be a warning shot across the bow to them that there are people out there "watching" the "watchdogs".

    Note to the MSM: There's more of us watching you, than there are of you trying to fool us. We have more subject matter experts than you do and we're not under the kind of time pressure that you are. We can take our time analyzing your treachery and fabrications.

    Seriously, give it up. Just play it straight and save everyone the bother.