Drive-by post

Yeh, walking through when the TV’s babbling one of those touchy-feely “PSAs” that are totally cracked, I hear:

Friends always make you laugh.”

Riiiigggghhht.

“Hey, dude, your grandma died? That’s like, so totally hilarious, man!”

Whoah! Your dad lost his leg in a freak meteor strike? Ha-ha-ha-ha… Dude, you crack me up!” [Musta been Smallville or something]

TV, so often even when it’s trying to “be helpful” it’s like a bad comic book written by monkeys on crack.

OK, so the History Channel sometimes manages to not be ahistorical and TLC is sometimes ahysterical. OK, so Smallville is the funniest nighttime soap I’ve ever even heard about. And that includes “Soap” and “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”.

Around and About Tuesday

TMH’s Bacon Bits lays out the skinny on Jean Fraud sKerry in no uncertain terms withKerry’s 180: Profiteering on Cowardice

The French-looking (yet underived) Kerry would not know a coward if he were wearing the suit of a senator from… MA. Is Sen. sKerry afraid of abiding by his promise made 303 days ago to release those records that were to be liberated via his SF-180

See the link to Cao’s Blog at “I’ll Be Home for Christmas…” (below) or at TMH’s Bacon Bits for more on this weasel.


Two Three from Freedom Folks: “Bush Tap Dances Around Illegal Immigration

I just forced myself to sit through Bush’s speech in Arizona yesterday about border control and illegal immigration. I knew I needed to. I knew it would be difficult. I knew it would be painful. Catch it again over at The Political Teen…

Yeh, half a loaf sometimes isn’t better than none…

And, “Define Nefarious Bastard Please“:

This just in: State Department churns out super weenies!

*yawn* Dog bites man, FF, dog bites man… *S*

Last, but not least, “Illegal Immigration: From My Perspective

In a recent article I quoted Mark Krikorian as saying that we truly don’t need illegal slave labor. I’d like to expand on that a little bit from my own experience.

An IMPORTANT issue contained within the larger Guard the Borders issue. READ IT!


Adam’s Blog ranks TTLB and Technoratti inTechnorati v. The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem: The Final Showdown

There’s been a lot of talk about “The Truth Laid Bear” ecosystem as it changes its rankings to make it more complex with the intention of stopping people doing unfair things that endanger the sanctity of the Bear’s rankings.

Uhm, shouldn’t “sanctity” be in scare quotes? *smirk*


Now we know why the blog’s title is The Florida Masochist:”Now bend over, this won’t hurt

Some news from the Sun-Sentinel website. Could you imagine being one of the researchers studying this?

Nope. I have a vivid imagination, but it’s just not willing to go there. “Butt why?” you ask? Find out for yourself.

Oh, and TFM is also hosting its own awards… Come Fly with me

Wizbang is having the 2005 Weblog awards. Here at TFM we’ll be having the Knucklehead awards. For the biggest and worst of 2005. Categories will include Sports&Entertainment, MSM, Politics and our judicial system to name just a few.

More power to ya bubba. “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve” is my motto. 😉 And missing in a roundup yesterday,

Mystery solved and Case closed

For almost 13 years a mystery remained in Lantana Florida. Who killed Rita Bado and her daughter, Lisa Bado.


Romeocat, a real lady, postsMy Momma taught me not to swear“-

but I’m thinking a whole lotta four letter words right now.

When you see what brought her to this pass, you’ll want to spit… on someone’s grave. Well, at least I do.


An email correspondent at Jerry Pournelle’s place pointed out a primer on Iraq. Must-read for folks wanting to get up to speed on the history of the region, because today didn’t happen in a vaccuum, folks: Iraq: A Short History of Violence.


Also missed in yesterday’s “Around and About” was this uhm, well-crafted post from “Is It Just Me?- Self-Censorship To Continued Traffic Exchange

This post will seem vague to some – if so, ignore it. As I really appreciate your SHARING HERE, due to constraints of regulatory censorship some words will not be used to describe the ongoing activities pursued on this site to enhance traffic of those who…

Arcane enough for ya?


There’s more, of course, but I’ll either get to it later… or not.

Soapbox for a reader

Via email from a frequent commenter here who said, “ Wanted to post the following comment, but it wasn’t clear (to me) under which entry was best to post the comment… If you see fit to add it, OK.” . I’ll just let Hugh speak his piece here:

This nation really, Really, REALLY needs a major catharsis–any definition one chooses.

I’ve been a Dubya supporter for a while now. However, I’m beginning to think it’s OK for him to go down in flames–he’s kicked his conservative base in the shins too often. He started out as a Republican, but he’s transitioned into a RINO.

Most all presidents tend to move to the center, but he’s gone far overboard trying to out Dimo-crat the Democrats on domestic issues.

He was definitely the lesser of the evils in both elections. Having said that, one of my friends reminds me from time to time that voting for the lesser of the evils is still voting for evil.

No, I don’t think Dubya is evil per sé. He recognizes appeasement doesn’t work with radical Islamists who want to kill us all. Yet, he has worked “overtime” trying to appease Dimo-crats. That will never work. No amount of apppeasement ever works–it only stiffens the opposition by thinking they’ve won “one more.” So far they’ve won several more by his appeasement attempts.

Catharsis? How about cutting the federal welfare programs–all of them! When the freeloaders have to work for their food and housing, then perhaps there won’t be so many jobs available for illegal aliens that “Americans don’t want to do.”

Let the states do what they will with welfare–get the feds out! All welfare should go back to the local churches (synagogues, etc.) and charity organizations.

With the feds out of welfare we can cut both the budget and taxes.

Another budget/tax cut would come with getting the feds out of education. Again, let states and locals handle education.

To use an old aviation idiom: Dubya, being a former aviator, has “screwed the pooch.” What’s worse, he continues to do it. (That terminology ain’t got nothing to do with Lady Laura!)

There’s more, but that’s sufficient for now.

I think Hugh makes some valid points. One of the reasons President Bush got no slack from some on the Miers nomination was the perception that he was soft on “Dhimicratic Terrorism”-and all these issues certainly fed into that. Comments?

“I’ll be home for Christmas… ” (A free Kerry’s 180 OPEN POST)

(Open Post)

I’ve been wondering for a while if this poor guy needs therapy or some such. After all, he makes promises he doesn’t keep, makes wildly contradictory statements (and asserts they are not): lies out of one face while… lying out of his other face at the same time, so to speak. Surely some therapy would be in order.

But no, maybe all he needs is some time with friends and family, away from the pressures of work. It’s only a few weeks away. I think he ought to go home for Christmas.

christmas_in_cambodia
(Cox and Forkum’s excellent suggestion
for a Kerry Christmas Card… Look! Lucky Hat!)

If you’re tired of this deranged pol’s mouth-flap, encourage him to go home for Christmas. Maybe he can find those records he’s promised to release stored in a box somewhere… along with his integrity, common decency and a shred of honesty.

Go home to Cambodia, John.

This has been a Free Kerry’s 180 Blogburst post. Ya want in on the thing? Drop in on Cao and pick up the info there.

Oh, and for this Open Post, I’d especially welcome any snarky comments headed Jean Fraud sKerry’s way. By now you probably know the drill. Link to this post in your own and trackback here. I’ll try to get all the tracked back posts up in an “Around and About” later.

Linked at Those Bastards!, NIF, Don Surber, who speaks for me as well when he says,

This is an open post… IDGAF who doesn’t like them. You worry about your little blog. I will promote mine.

heh. Oh, and also linked at Right Wing Nation, Choose Life! and others as the mood takes me, maybe. 🙂

Revisiting Pournelle’s observations…

I linked to some comments by Jerry Pournelle below, but for some reason, one portion of his comments I didn’t quote has been bring Harrison Bergeron back to haunt my thoughts all day…

“And there remains the ceaseless striving, with no peaceful end: is it any wonder that bureaucrats form feudal organizations and effectively end the striving and competition? Is it any wonder that the rise of the modern egalitarian state has produced the rise of bureaucracy and rule by bureaucracy?”

Any wonder at all? If bureaucrats had to demonstrate a genuine contribution to the good of society in order to keep their jobs, we could weed their ranks by 90% over night…

Oh, and DO pop on over and read Harrison Bergeron as well. It’s a very short story, and it’s also one of the few really good pieces by Kurt Vonnegut, IMO.

Of slightly more than passing note…

See Around and About Monday, Monday’s Featured Blog-and Open Post and Almost a “Guard the Borders” post (all below) for links to more good reading I’ve noticed.

This is a short roundup of recent ping-ins that may have slipped under the radar–worthwhile reads, all.

Peakah’s Pub mistook Teach Your Children Well for an Open Post and pinged in with “Front Page News“-and I’m glad he did cos there are some good reads listed in his link roundup.

TMH’s Bacon Bits only pinged me with Guard the Borders: What Is “Practical” Interior Enforcement, Anyway?, and that’s a shame, cos while it is a powerful post on an important topic, “Democrats Eat Their Own” Is Not News by new contributor, DL, is an equally good read.

The Florida Masochist brings the issue of Cindy Sheehan’s character-and those of her detractors-into focus with Tasteless. Indeed. 😉

And last but far from least is the collection of links posted at The Carnival of True Civil Liberties. Gribbit honors my submission with the label “important” and though I’d certainly agree (or I’d not have submitted it), I’d sooner lavish such a lable on some of the other submissions. Worthy reads, all.

Well, that covers early afternoon, here. Later.

Almost a “Guard the Borders” post

Ditched my “Guard the borders” post for today, since The Tar Pit seems to have raided my hard drive for a draft and posted it as his own (Just kidding, dude: a good post on a topic I had planned to write on—not gonna duplicate the effort, though; just point folks to your post :-).
 
See this post at Diane’s Stuff for another border issue. “Homeland Security” my… *cough*
 
Drama of Atheist HumanismSo… what? Here’s a (all too short, but very pointed) brief commentary on “The Drama of Atheist Humanism” and the impact of atheist humanism on the health (or lack thereof) of Western Civilization in general and the U.S. in particular. Pournelle commenting, of course. It’s hard to excerpt any portion of Pournelle’s all-too-brief (well, he added this during the holiday to last Wednesday’s post) exposition, but here’s a sample:

…when I was young there were no public ceremonies without an invocation and a benediction, usually both with one by a Roman Catholic and the other by a Protestant Minister. For sufficiently important events there would usually be a rabbi as well. We paid public attention and deference to “Divine Providence” and saw the Hand of God in our works.

“The courts in the name of liberalism have thrown all that out. Soon after of course goes most of civility: again I refer people to the Drama of Atheist Humanism, and where it has always led. Yes, there are highly ethical atheists. Some of them tend to militancy, at least among their friends. Marvin Minsky is a great example. But The Drama of Atheist Humanism still plays out in a different way because for every Minsky there will be two Trotsky’s and a Stalin.

“Today’s liberal establishment makes war on religion, which is odd, because the roots of liberalism are in religion. The assumption of human equality makes sense only in religious terms — surely few of you feel equal to the drooling idiot who camps on your doorstep and shakes the paper cup at you asking for change? Some see the Image of Christ, but that is not a rationalist or materialist position. Some see “But for the Grace of God there go I,” but again that is not a rationalist position…”

Just go read the rest. It’s germane to the topic “Why we do NOT guard our borders… or the rest of our civilization.”

Around and About Monday

A few of the interesting reads that cropped up over the weekend…

Pray for Kender. Seriously. Saw this at Cathouse Chat. Stop a moment and pray for the guy, would ya?

The Tar Pit wrote my Monday “Guard the Borders” post (I just have to improve the security around here! 🙂 when he featured, “Fred Barnes pimps the Bush Amnesty”. Gee. Now do I go ahead and post, “Don’t Read His Lips” for my GTB post or just refer everyone to The Tar Pit? heh

And, how did I miss this important news embedded in Pirates! Man Your Women!’s Thanksgiving Day post???

“You know its [sic] Thanksgiving when the SciFi channel is showing Army of Darkness.”

*sigh*

Found via a link in a post featured in a linkfest that linked to another post that linked to (convoluted enough for ya?): The Neo Con Blogger(TM)’s: “Young Drinkers Thinner Than Non-Drinkers”. His conclusion” “Enter LSU when you’re 20 and drink your butt off for 18 years and you’ll end up skinny, drunk, and stupid!”

Just caught up with this one: Rich Casebolt liveblogging Thanksgiving Day. Okaaaayy… (But really, some good stuff.)

With the upcoming Christmas season, many folks’ll just be too busy to lay back with old favs. Lotsa people like  to catch “It’s a Wonderful Life” (for some reason that has yet to reveal itself to me). For those who like the flick but may run short on time, be sure to save this link to “Frank Cappra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ in 30 Seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies)”. I can’t tell much difference between it and the original except that it’s shorter and doesn’t have Donna Reed. 😉

Sam’s begging for votes. Help out a tad, ‘K? Meanwhile, check out her post on an activity I could never quite get a handle on.

Diane comments on a “How-to” article written by a speech-impaired piscine. heh And her post on the Asian Bird Flu pretty well reflect my own views (apart from her musical selection :-).

S’all for now. Maybe more later. Time for more coffee.

Monday’s Featured Blog—and Open Post

N.B. The Maryhunter dropped me a note to say his trackback to Guard the Borders: What Is “Practical” Interior Enforcement, Anyway? hadn’t shown up. Hmmm, I’ve heard rumbles of not-talking-nice between Moveable Type(??? Or was it another??) and Haloscan, so that might be the culprit. Anyone else attempting to TB and having no success let me know in comments, ‘K?

Today’s featured blog, introduced to me via a linkfest/tb party, is Liberal Common Sense. More about that is a second, but first, let me point you to the Open Trackback Alliance and Open Trackback Provider blogrolls on my right sidebar. Hit up those blogs listed as Monday (or daily) Open Post bloggers for links to some fine reads you might otherwise miss, won’t you? It’s how I found Liberal Common Sense, and there may be others you’ll enjoy discovering either here, on this open post or elsewhere today. And do trackback posts to this one that you want to bring to others’ attention, eh?

On to Liberal Common Sense. Some folks who have read here for a while might think I dislike liberals, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just that real liberals can’t be found among the Mass Media Podpeople and Loony Left Moonbats I so often deride for their faux liberal blather.

Lisa Renee, at Liberal Common Sense doesn’t talk “reality based fantasy” but reality based reality, apparently grounded in the kind of liberal thinking John Stuart Mill would recognize, you know, the real thing. Take “Ramsey Clark, Saddam Hussein and the Media”—a post where she sensibly and calmly argues that both the AP and Worldnet Daily twist or selectively report news according to apparent bias. (Granted, she does score the WND article more highly for quantity and quality of info—by a hair. 🙂 Good commentary. As is this, while this whimsical piece is typical of other posts.

So, now you know why Liberal Common Sense is in my blogroll.  It earned a place there.

Open Post. Trackback with a post linked to here, and I’ll work it into an “Around and About” later on today.

And do note open posts at OTA member sites, Committees of Correspondence, The Land of Ozz, Pirates! Man Your Women!, Don Surber, Bloggin’ Outloud, and others as I get around to it or they get their Monday Open Posts up.

For this Open Post, link here and trackback to this link.

Welcome, R’Cat!

Cathouse Chat’s Romeocat has long been a fav “voice” among bloggers for me. Ever since I first visited Cathouse Chat, I’ve known her “voice” was special, and as I grew to know the person behind that voice, I became aware of just how great was the honor to be called her friend.

Thanks for joining the voices, here, Romeocat.