Friday, September 30, 2005

Where the Purple Avenger stands politically/economically

You are a

Social Liberal
(68% permissive)

and an...

Economic Conservative
(75% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Libertarian




Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Mayor gives support for UFO landing strip

From WunderKraut

CNN
People in this sleepy hamlet are so sure they have been receiving other-worldly visitors, they want to build a UFO landing strip to welcome them.

...A bright green sign...two words: "Extraterrestrial Route."

...Most Puerto Ricans laughed...

...he's dedicated himself to building the UFO landing strip.

"I can't say exactly when they will come, but I know it will happen," Rios said. "I want to keep believing in my dreams."

Lajas Mayor Marcos Irizarry's support for the idea has provoked outrage among islanders who complained it would be a waste of money...
Is this a waste of money? Compared to other government projects - probably not. Certainly no worse than building $280M bridges in Alaska to islands with populations measured in the mid-double digits.

US ambassador to VE accuses Pentagon incompetence

THERE IS NO PLAN
"There is no such a thing like Plan Balboa (to invade Venezuela)," the ambassador said.

OK folks - lets chew on that heel rocking foggy bottom pinhead's remark for a few moments and consider what he is implying. This is the email I sent to the embassy asking for some clarification:

Is your statement really true?

If it is, there needs to be a congressional investigation into DoD planning shop incompetence ASAP.

As a US citizen, I DEMAND this this country's military have plausible, and periodically updated, contingency plans "on the shelf" for dealing with ANYTHING. To NOT have such a plan available for dealing with a potential VE problem is a disgrace and prima faci evidence of dereliction of duty on the part of someone at DoD.

The DoD planning aparatchick responsible for this flagrant lapse needs to be run out of town on a rail and replaced be someone competent to do the job. We do NOT need to get caught with our pants down like we did with that rush job crap in Granada.

Seriously - I would be disapointed if there weren't a contingency plan on the shelf somewhere for an invasion of Canada! This is the kind of stuff we pay Pentagon planners big bucks to think about. If we don't have a VE plan (one of the hot spots looking us in the face right now), what the hell DO we have any plans for?!?!

I really hate to think the US military is kinda "winging this shit" as it happens.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Ohhh, that had to hurt

Stunning footage - the guy survived too.

Carrier crewman sucked into jet intake

14 year old murders 4 year old!

Ha! bet I had you fooled into thinking this was just another one of those murdurous little mutant shits "socially deprived youths" we seem to be breeding in the US these days. This one happened in the oh-so-proper nation of Japan. I'm not gloating over this of course, its a tragedy. It is good to know that the USA doesn't have a monopoly on the murderous little mutant shit "socially deprived youth" business though.


Friday, September 23, 2005 at 04:00 JST
NAGASAKI — The Nagasaki Family Court put a 14-year-old male, who abducted and killed a 4-year-old boy in Nagasaki in July 2003, in detention Thursday with limited discretion for one more year.

The court apparently accepted a Nagasaki child consultation center's proposal that his detention at a self-support facility be extended another year as he has yet to reflect deeply on his actions.[Avenger's note: this is code for "he's a completely amoral batshit fucking crazy stone killer who scares the crap out of us"]

The teen, whose name is withheld as he is a minor, was accused of killing the victim July 1, 2003 by pushing him off the roof of an eight-story parking lot after molesting him. (Kyodo News)

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Massachusets cop attacked by vicious squirrel

The long predicted animal uprising has finally begun...
Local 6
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. Officer Dwayne Flowers said he and his partner was attempting to arrest a woman wanted on drug charges in Leominister, Mass., when her loose pet squirrel attacked.

Dissident Wiccan's parrot beheaded

I couldn't make up a story like this...

Death threats, parrot beheadings, Wiccan high priestess, federal lawsuits, my god what a bunch of maniac freaks!
Lancaster News
GREAT FALLS - Officials say there will be no heightened security measures enacted by police force here, despite attacks to pets and property owned by Darla Wynne, a resident suing the town council for praying to Jesus Christ before its meetings.

A parrot belonging to the Wiccan high priestess was beheaded and affixed with a note reading "You're next" at Wynne's home Wednesday. The 5-year-old bird, named "Little One," also had its heart ripped out, Wynne said. There were no signs of forced entry at Wynne's home, according to the report. The bird was kept in a cage near her bedroom, Wynne said.
...

'Dead women' elected to posts in Pakistan

Side note: The ACLU has filed suit claiming that "corporeal challenged citizens" should not be discriminated against when it comes to voting or holding office. The Pakistani dead women received strong moral support from US democrats, particularly those from Chicago where "graveyard election operations" have been a long standing local tradition. Jesse Jackson was quoted as saying "This vicious repression of dead voters and politicians must come to an end! The dead want to vote, the dead WILL vote!"

PAKISTAN ELECTIONS
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Police in northwestern Pakistan have launched an inquiry after complaints about two dead women being declared elected in a local election held last month, election officials said Monday.

The women, one of whom died 13 years ago, were elected as councilors in the Upper Dir district in the North West Frontier Province, according to the News daily newspaper. The other woman died three years ago.

Emory university's controversial "Department of War"

None of that wussy Dept of Defense shit - at least they got the name right.

Emory Wheel

Smith & Wesson "gun cam"

I watched it for an hour and didn't detect any violence. Maybe you'll have more luck.

GUN-CAM

Al Jazeera signs US military media officer

None of the MSM seems to be running with this...so I will! One should expect a smoother less blatant brand of propaganda now from Terrorist TV I suppose. This guy Rushing was smooth even when pitching obvious bullshit. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend Control Room highly.

OTOH, the reaction from my ordinarily gentle 70 year old mom upon hearing this about this, was to blurt out that she hoped we had a Spec Ops hit squad after Rushing looking to waste his sorry ass. So Josh, be glad its "W" calling shots and not my mom or you'd be a dead man right now.

AL JAZEERA signs ex-mil officer
LONDON - Former US Marine Captain Josh Rushing, who served in the US Central Command media office during the invasion of Iraq, has joined Al Jazeera International, its 24-hour English-language channel.

Rushing, a 14-year veteran of the US Marines, was the US military's leading media spokesman during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and a prominent figure in the documentary film 'Control Room', which documented his struggles at the top.

Rushing famously resigned from the US Marines after a conflict with the Pentagon and has gone on to become one of the most critical voices in broadcast and print media about the invasion of Iraq.

Nigel Parsons, managing director of Al Jazeera International, said: "Having Josh Rushing on board is important to our mission of bringing the world a fresh perspective on global news.

"Josh believes in truth of journalism and understands the importance, as well as the consequences, of providing news from all sides of the issue, a core value of the channel."

For his part, Rushing said during the war in Iraq, he witnessed how the US media was coopted by the US government's messaging.

"I am proud to be part of a news network that believes in the power of the unspun truth," he said.

Al Jazeera International, which launches in early 2006, will be the first English-language news channel based in the Middle East. Operating from Doha in Qatar, it will be available globally, and will also have a London office and bureaux in Kuala Lumpur and Washington. It aims to take on the BBC and CNN.

Al Jazeera has also approached broadcasting veteran Sir David Frost to join the English-language international news channel.

The MSM is better at covering up news than generating it.

The local TV stations and Palm Beach Post rag didn't have a single thing to say about the bomb scare that took place a few days about a mile from my place just outside the local school.

For ~2.5 hours it HALTED traffic in/out of a couple of 800+ house developments because the bomb was right at the intersection going into the places and it was all dead-end past that intersection.

It took maybe two hours for a bomb disposal crew to show up, then they futzed with whatever it was for another half hour.

Informative stuff actually - now I know for fact that Palm Beach does have a bomb disposal capability and at least two bomb disposal suits and the people doing it seem fairly competent.

The sheriff's ability to disseminate information to the hundreds of cars stuck behind this drama was *ZERO*. Rude morons were driving in the left lane to get past parked cars only to be stopped short as they got near the bomb area. Others were honking horns and getting irritable.

It wasn't until I and a couple of other guys started walking down the lines of cars dispensing info to drivers that it was a bomb situation that the rudeness started calming down. The sheriff only provided one officer on my road to run the road block - obviously he couldn't leave that post, so nobody was available to dispense info. A chopper with a bullhorn would have helped a lot.

Was it a real bomb? I can't answer that question - I had someplace to go and didn't stick around after the all-clear was given.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Engineers versus everyone else

Truer words were never spoken.

From a comment on a post on Betsy's Page:
BLOG COMMENT
My best friend is a lawyer, bright, gifted, ... PhD in law; bored with his job, he decided to study engineering. After his first quarter, he came to me and said that the two "C"s he'd achieved in Engineering Calculus 101 and Engineering Physics 101 were the first two non-A grades he'd ever gotten in college, and that he had had to study harder for them than for any other dozen classes he'd had. "I now understand", he said, "why engineers and their like are so hard to examine, whether on the stand or in a deposition. When they say a thing is possible, they KNOW it is possible, and when they say a thing is not possible, they KNOW it is not. Most people don't understand know in that way; what they know is what we can persuade them to believe. You engineers live in the same world as the rest of us, but you understand that world in a way we never will."

I don't think that you have to love math to be an engineer, but you are going to have to learn it. That means that you're going to have to do the homework, correctly. Mistakes and "close enough" are the ways to build bridges that fail.
htom | 09.26.05 - 2:10 am

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Scottish parlament member caught torching hotel

"Squiffy" - what a wonderful word!

Why can't US politicians ever do entertaining things like torch hotels? Why are we stuck with a boring crew who is just perpetually stuck on stupid completely ignoring all the "fun" aspects of politics?

Villain: Lord Watson of Invergowrie
...
Then it all went rather horribly wrong. As I'm sure you're aware, at a nosh-up (with free alcohol) for the Scottish Parliamentarian of the Year Awards in one of Edinburgh's poshest hotels, he got rather squiffy and - bizarrely - set fire to the place.

After initially denying the whole thing - "I categorically deny any wrongdoing," he said - he eventually admitted it after being shown the CCTV coverage of him crouching down next to the curtains which soon after burst into flames. He was convicted and sentenced to 16 months inside. All rather a shame...

Friday, September 23, 2005

Anti-war protestor admits war crimes

Not killing civies isn't that hard

a) Have a target
b) Know what it is
c) Refuse to obey illegal orders

That simple formula will keep even the dumbest moonbats out of trouble most of the time.

WAR CRIMES
"I don't know how many innocents I killed with my mortar rounds," Mr Viges, who served with the 82nd Airborne Division, said during a presentation this week at American University in Washington. "In Baghdad, I had days that I don't want to remember. I try to forget," he added

Beach Boys do Kosovo

Very funny - get the Amarillo song and you got a nice pair of bookends.

KOSOVO

AMARILLO

French judge caught jerking off in court

My highschool French and vast Latin vocabulary (about 50 words) was good enough to realize there was PAYDIRT here. I think he should have gone with one of those penis pumps under the bench like that US judge did. Then its only a subdued whooshing sound. Sounds like this dude gave the gallery the full monty money shot.

LEFIGARO.FR

Pumping that French news site's French text through some online translation program yielded:

Facing the Supreme Council for the Judiciary (CSM), in the impressive civil room of the final Court of appeals, the man, nevertheless magistrate himself, pains to defend itself.

The facts, that it has himself recognized, are confusing: in October 2003, the judge, then magistrate's assistant to the angoulême criminal court, is surprised delivering itself to the masturbation squarely audience. Denounced by the spouse of an answerable one, a journalist and an avocate, it as soon as is charged for sexual exhibition.

Since, it was declared penally irresponsible. The magistrate fainting, that has therefore benefitted from a non-place to the penal one, would not have no more, logically, undergo penalty disciplinaire, pled yesterday representing it ministry of justice, Patrice Davost...blah, blah, blah

Rita surfer arrested

Seriously - I can't think of a more GROSS MISAPPROPRIATION of police time and resources than chasing down peopleMORONS like this in the middle of a hurricane. Let'em ride if they want. We really don't need peopleDOPES like this polluting the gene pool anyway.

LOCAL6

A surfer off the shore of Galveston, Texas, was arrested Friday for not adhering to evacuation orders and surfing the large waves created by an approaching Hurricane Rita, according to a Local 6 News report.

The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody by police after coming out of the surf.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Corruption never sleeps

Makes you JUST YEARN for the days of "honest" Louisiana politicians -- like Huey "kingfish" Long.

Louisiana Official stole relief supplies
Officers searched Cedric Floyd's home because of complaints that city workers were helping themselves to donations for hurricane victims. Floyd, who runs the day-to-day operations in the suburb of Kenner, was in charge of distributing the goods.

Police plan to seek a charge of committing an illegal act as a public official against Floyd, and more charges against other city workers are possible, police Capt. Steve Caraway said.

The donations filled a large pickup truck four times. "It was an awful lot of stuff," Caraway said.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Oddball Names - Zappa was a piker

Thank god my parents weren't brain dead freaks.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

...staff and researchers at the Cornwall Record Office compiled a list of more than 1,000 unusual names that turned up in censuses as well as in births, deaths and marriage records going back as far as the 16th century.

"My all-time favorites are Abraham Thunderwolff and Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane," she said.

Other discoveries included Boadicea Basher, Philadelphia Bunnyface, Susan Booze, Elizabeth Disco, Edward Evil, Fozzitt Bonds, Truth Bullock, Charity Chilly, Gentle Fudge, Obedience Ginger and Offspring Gurney.

Levi Jeans was married in Padstow, Cornwall, in 1797.

Other remarkable duos found in the marriage records included Nicholas Bone and Priscilla Skin, joined in wedlock in 1636; Charles Swine and Jane Ham in 1711; John Mutton and Ann Veale in 1791; and Richard Dinner and Mary Cook in 1802.

Camp Casey stolen!


Weird.

I'm laying 10:1 they clipped the shit themselves to generate some attention. Either that, or the "honor guard" was sleeping at the switch living it up intown whoring and drugging it up and was passed out for several days while the stuff walked off on its own.

Soon to appear on eBay: "Own your own piece of Camp Casey! (buyer pays shipping)"

CAMP CASEY STOLEN


CRAWFORD — The Camp Casey Memorial on Prairie Chapel Road was removed by thieves earlier today. Not a single item is left at the memorial site.
Crew members working for McLennan County said they witnessed items being removed by an unidentified individual and contacted their office to inform commissioners.

Upon arrival at Camp Casey, honor guard members who had been at the Crawford Peace House immediately called McLennan County Sheriff’s Deputy R. Polansky to report the theft.

Among the items stolen were numerous crosses, Casey Sheehan’s boots, tents, and other items.

The 26-day vigil of Cindy Sheehan outside the Bush ranch ended with a cross-country tour to spread the anti-war message. Camp Casey became a semipermanent memorial, to remain until the Veterans For Peace organization could establish a solemn removal ceremony.


Thursday, September 08, 2005

Kofi's Kash Kramped

Here's how to decode this:

"painful" == My graft cash stream has been severely degraded.
"embarrassing" == I got caught red handed.

Annan takes responsibility
Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, on Wednesday described the findings of the investigation into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal as "painful" and "embarrassing", and underlined an urgent need for reform of the world organisation.

Annan accepted personal responsibility but made it clear he is not going to resign. He was on Wednesday formally presented with the 820-page report of Paul Volcker, head of the inquiry, during a meeting of the Security Council
...

Good riddance to bad garbage


Just taking out the trash...
Too bad the garbage collectors aren't much better than the trash they got rid of.

ARAFAT COUSIN SHOT DEAD

The Palestinian leadership was facing a major challenge to its authority in Gaza on Wednesday night after a former security chief and relative of Yasser Arafat was dragged from his home by dozens of armed men and shot dead.

Moussa Arafat was shot in the head more than 20 times after being forced into the street in his pyjamas by gunmen who blamed him for corruption and for collaborating with Israelis. They also kidnapped his son, Manhal Arafat, and said they would execute him if they decided he was also implicated in corruption.

Geeks:1        82nd Airborn: 0


Q: What was this unit doing breaking into a secured building? Looters don't bother securing a building. LiveJournal has been blogging this since the beginning. It was no secret they were camped out in the office building. Were these guys looking to maybe liberate some of that expensive office electronics for themselves? Someone has to ask the question, so I will.

US Marshals & 82nd Airborn owned by geeks


...
The Marshall claimed that one of the emergency exits -- the one on the Lafayette Square side had been open. I knew this was bullshit. For one thing, Sig and I tied down and concealed that door. It would have taken a group of guys to open it. For another Lafayette Square is to the south of our building. The only lights visisble are from Poydras to the north. Am I to believe that they bypassed the obvious entrances (also locked down) to look for one they didn't even know existed and it just happened to be open?

No, they searched for a way in, and by the time they got around back and found the emergency exit, they were ready to break in, so they did.

"Wait, we secured that exit. That means that this building might have other people in it," I told them.

They all knew what was coming next. If it was their job to check on lights and movement to look for people who didn't belong there....

I asked them to sweep the building for us.

And they did. All 27 floors of it with no elevators.

If you want to play soldier with me, I will make you play it a lot longer than you had in mind.
...