Small bytes

Well, while my Wonder Woman has a late gig at school (who schedules parent/family activity night on Valentine’s Day? Oh, right. School administrators: the stupidest people in the education establishment *sigh*), here are a few lil short takes:

updateblog.gif

Yeh, for those of you who are dropping in but still haven’t changed your blogrolls, take note. I mean you are here, so you do know the address has changed…

🙂

Just how bad is America’s Math Edcuation Pretty darned bad. As bad as America’s reading education, at least, and that’s in the toilet… just hasn’t been flushed yet as it has been elsewhere (in Britain, as per one of The Lost Posts from last week, it’s not just math and reading, the kids are getting dumber).

Islamist Bumper Stickers Some dry humor there. Another blogger who’s buckin’ for a fatwa.

Enter to Win a Legoâ„¢ PC–that actually works!

The Legoâ„¢ PC is an effort commissioned by PC Magazine and built by Nathan Sawaya Neat stuff.

Go read The Dragon of Upways Gorge. Ferdy needs to get Bruce to market his stories. Sure, they were written as kids’ stories, but it’d be useful to get ’em into Alan Greenspan’s hands, let alone into the hands of folks who could read them as bedtime stories to congresscritters…

News you’ll not hear from our Mass media podpeople: Scurrilous Is As Scurrilous Does: A Justice Primer

Nasty stuff that. Justice. Has no place in the faux left’s America–or world. To be avoided at all costs in the same manner as Truth.

Trenchant observations on memetic warfare at Armed and Dangerous: Gramscian damage

An interesting report on John Walker Lindh. It’s a view that doesn’t get much (any) press in our MMPA, so that lends it some cachet, but just because it’s contra the terrorist sympathizers in our media, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. More of the story will come out as time progresses, no doubt, that will enable folks to arrive at a sensible conclusion about this guy. I’m leaning toward thinking he’s scum, but then I think that about terrorist sympathizers in general.

Where Have you Gone Ronald Reagan has his own perspective on the Cheney hunting accident. Droll, dude. Oh, and be sure to load his front page and catch the Porky Pig post… LMAO.

More good shoot ’em up commentary from DL at TMH’s Bacon Bits. Targetting Mass Media Podpeople: Ready… Fire… Aim. Ahhh, wasn’t a lucky shot DL; you could just fire into the herd!

A lil lesson in econ 101 from Cracker over at The Wide Awakes. *shhh!* Don’t tell the politicians about this post. It’d take too long explaining the concepts in little bitty words, very, very sllllooooowwwwwllllyyyyy…

And one last thing. Be honest with me willya? How many of y’all did steal this?

Steal This Book: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Facsimile Edition

Steal This Book: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Facsimile Edition

Perspiring minds wanna know, even at The Conservative Cat.

And All the People Rejoiced!

The big kerfuffle in the last few days, of course, never quite got the headline that would place it in perspective:

Cheney shot a Lawyer!

Oh. My.

Injuries not serious

Oh, well… *sigh*

Shouting “First, kill all the lawyers!” at Common FolkUsing CommonSense

[note: I do personally know or know of five lawyers who are decent human beings, and so I infer there must surely be more of that nature. But liking and respecting five lawyers as individuals doesn’t bring me any closer to appreciating lawyers as a class… And do also note that I am well aware that the snippet lifted from Henry VI is really Shakespeare’s tribute to lawyers as a bulwark against tyrants. And yes, I know the mistaken meme I invoked when I typed the words… ]

And yet another update–From Rush Limbaugh, this lil gem:

“Would you rather go hunting with Dick Cheney or riding in a car over a bridge with Ted Kennedy? At least Cheney takes you to the hospital.”

Uhm, was that a rhetorical question, Rush? (h.t. Newsmax)

PSA: Nice one, Lady Diane!

Over at Diane’s Stuff, a good piece of info for commenters. “How to Add an Avatar”–to your comments here at twc, or any WP blog that’s configured with Dan’s Avatar Thingy.

Of course, I might add that trolls using fake IPs/email addresses still won’t have an easy time since Spam Karma 2.2 does a fine job of labeling such stupid tactics.

See Diane’s post for info on using an avatar associated with your comments here.

Helpful hint (A Free JK’s 180/Open Post)

A helpful hint for Jean Fraud sKerry… in an Open Post so that perhaps alla the linky stuff will eventually carry the help to his jackass ears.

Yep: doing this with the aid of Linkfest Haven and alla the fine bloggers linking in (hint-hint yourself, folks! :-)). Link here and trackback.

Hey! Jean Fraud (and all the skis a-slope), sorry to see you’ve been getting little press recently. Sure, sure, ya had a little press time with your fail-ibuster flop, but you really need to flip that somehow, cos you’ve had virtually zippo for the last coupla weeks.

How are you ever gonna get to be Billary’s running mate in ’08 if you can’t get more press?

Hey! Here’s an idea! Now, don’t ignore this one; it could keep your sour puss on the top o’ the news for MONTHS–it’s a blockbuster of an idea:

Release your records.

Yeh, yeh, I know you promised multiple times to do so. And I know you even said you kept that promise—first during the ’04 campaign when you said alla your records were on your website and released to the press, then nearly a year after you said that, telling us all you finally had released your records… to two “news” organs (let’s not say which organs, but anatomically speaking the LASlimes and the Boston Glob are somewhere near the end of the alimentary canal) who have since released… uh, zippo.

So, you want your mug in the news, ya hafta do something newsworthy, even completely out of character. So, how about you…. *SHOCKER*… make good on your word and *EARTH-SHATTERING NEWS* Let your records go.

If there’s nothing there, it’s still be an amazing news story, “Kerry Stops Lying!!!”

Wow. Think of the ink.

No More sKerry BS_button.jpg

Noted at Cao’s, where you too can join the Free John Kerry’s 180 Blogburst. See my sidebar for tons of other fine blogs involved.

Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!

We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

Also noted at Adam’s Blog (where Adam needs a cuppa joe… or three :-))

Old Saw

It’s an old joke, but somebody has to tell it.


An atheist was taking a walk through the woods.

What majestic trees!

What powerful rivers!

What beautiful animals!” he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him.

He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him.

He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer.

He tripped and fell on the ground.

He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out: “Oh my God!…”

Time stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky:

“You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don’t exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”

The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps could you make the BEAR a Christian?”

“Very well,” said the voice.

The light went out.

The sounds of the forest resumed.

The bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together and bowed his head and spoke:

“Lord, bless this food, which I am about to receive through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

Guard the Borders-021306

This week’s Guard the Borders Blogburst post is a crosspost, offered by Heidi of Eupjoric Reality to anyone who is a part of the GTB Blogburst for use on their blog. This week’s post by Darnell McGavock is an excellent place to start reading GTB posts, if you have not already done so. In Heidi’s words, “It debunks the common misperception that illegals come here because there is no work available for them in their own countries. Quite the opposite, in fact.” Here’s Darnell:


By Darnell McGavock at Independent Conservative Contrary to popular belief, most illegals coming to the USA already had jobs in the country that they left. Also, they are seeking much higher paying jobs than some might believe. Their days of trying to just pick fruit are over! Here are some details, although it is best to read this entire article:

Study: Most illegal immigrants had jobs The research, believed to represent the largest-ever study of undocumented migrants, contends that the vast majority of illegal immigrants from Mexico were gainfully employed before they migrated to the United States, and failure to find work in their native Mexico did not seem to be the primary reason for their departure, said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the center and author of the report. … In fact, the majority of new migrants will look for work with higher wages in industries such as construction, hotels or sales, said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center. … Only 5 percent of the 4,836 migrants surveyed were unemployed in Mexico before moving to the United States – a significantly lower number than in past studies and theories about migrants, Suro said. … Ironically, Kochhar added, immigration status (in the United States) has little to do with finding employment. Migrants without identification had the same chance of landing a job as those with valid U.S. IDs. …

So much for all that talk about illegals needing to find work.
They already had work where they came from. They just come to the USA for a higher wage. And so much for all that talk about illegals only filling jobs “that Americans will not do”. As I’ve previously explained, Americans did those jobs and can do them again. And never mind “those jobs”, now the illegals are going for YOUR JOB. They want to move up the pay scale. The illegals coming in now are better educated than prior generations and so they are seeking higher paying jobs that require a higher skill set. The actual report is available here. The complete report mentions:

Once they arrive and pass through a relatively brief period of transition and adjustment, migrants have little trouble finding work. Family and social networks play a significant role in this; large shares of migrants report talking to people they know in the U.S. about job opportunities and living with relatives after arrival. They easily make transitions into new jobs, even though most find themselves working in industries that are new to them. … There is a steady and strong demand for migrant workers from Mexico in agriculture, construction, manufacturing and hospitality. These four industries employ about two-thirds of the survey respondents, irrespective of their background in Mexico or their year of arrival. … Migrants from Mexico are responsive to regional variations in demand for their services. Construction is the dominant industry for employing migrants in Atlanta, Dallas and Raleigh; hospitality is the major employer in New York City; manufacturing in Chicago; and agriculture in Fresno. … The percentage of survey respondents employed in agriculture in the U.S. has dropped from 17% of those in country more than 15 years to 9% of recent arrivals. At the same time, the percentage employed in construction and hospitality has increased from 23% to 42%. …

The time is now to close our borders to illegal immigration.



This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

Blogs already on board:

Euphoric Reality Curley’s Corner TMH’s Bacon Bits
Part-Time Pundit The Right Track Cao’s Blog
Mover Mike In The Bullpen Stuck on Stupid
NIF Kender’s Musings Freedom Folks
Parrot Check Gribbit’s Word Right on the Right
Team Swap Gina’s Rantings The Irate Nation
Publius Rendezvous Watchman’s Words Bear Creek Ledger
Something and Half of Something Ogre’s Politics and Views Independent Conservative
The Neo-Con Blogger Ravings of a Mad Tech Third World County
A Lady’s Ruminations Mensa Barbie Welcomes You Intergalactic Source of Truth
Woman Honor Thyself Adam’s Thoughts Amboy Times
Gun Toting Liberal Right on! Blog American Daughter
Right Truth




“…a little help from my friends…”

Sgt. Pepper\'s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper\’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Hey all you Sgt. Pepper folks out there… help_fr_friends_excerpt.mp3 With a Little Help from My Friends

( J. Lennon, P. McCartney ) What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song
And I’ll try not to sing out of key,

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.

Just a lil inconsequential plea… A year ago, around the end of March, I finally (after six months’ blogging at Blogger) clued in on installing a stats engine and began using Statcounter to track visitors and pageloads, etc. Later (rather much later, as it turns out) I stumbled onto TTLB and installed Sitemeter as well. I’ve managed to roll both those stats engines over to count things here, as well, adding the stats to my former blog’s, and Statcounter has me nearing the lowly figure of 50,000 “unique” visitors. Gimme a lil hand here and nudge a few folks this way so I go over that mark before a whole year has elapsed with Statcounter, wouldya? I’ll still have no idea how many folks dropped by between October 2004 and March 2005, but it’d be one-a those milestones, ya know. And even if my traffic stays relatively low (just a lil over 1,000/week averaged out over the year, regardless of what it says at the place I “froze” Sitemeter :-)), I’ll at least be able to say I suckered 50,000 visits from somewhere. And yeh, I know I have y’all to thank for my relatively high rankings at Technoratti and TTLB in spite of my also relatively low traffic levels: lotsa linkage over the last year or so. Thanks! Yeh, yeh, I know: that will NOT mean 50,000 actually different people, cos cookies clear, folks visit from different computers, etc., but it’s as close to getting a handle on it as I’m going to get with a tightwad’s stats engines. *heh* So, how about it? For the next month, I’ll be sure and plug anyone whose site refers more than 3 readers this way, ‘K? (If I miss you and your site stats record some referrals to me, let me know.)

Blatant begging and whining sent forth at Conservative Cat, Basil\’s Blog, Stop the ACLU and Don Surber (even though this isn\’t a “best post” nominee… just bare naked begging posted at a blog with more than 3X my traffic. heh)

“Repetition aids learning”

Well, either that or it’s a sign of lack of sleep. Gonna be running on coffee today, so I’ll depend upon the good graces of my readers to link to this post and trackback, so I’ll be able to have my reading list ready for this evening, ‘K?

😉

Check out the other fine blogs hosting linkfests as noted in my left sidebar and at Linkfest Haven.Linkfest Haven

Yep. Daily backups recommended…

I still have all of the posts from last week, as well as all of the comments (which incloude trackbacks), but reloading them “breaks” the blog every time.

Sooo… I’ll try to restore as much of that as I can, bit by bit, perhaps even post/comment at a time. (Not all that much: something like 30 posts and 120 comments for just about a week.) First up will be Romeocat’s posts, the last one of which was one I do not want out of sight for long.

Meanwhile, I think I’ll take a short nap befor my Monday ramps up on me.

🙂