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Personal note: CLICK HERE for a personal request for help … for someone else

(OK, Imagine a “Herve’ Villachez” voice… ) I AM…

Batman Congratulations! You scored a super 71%!

Cool, calm and powerful. Whilst your actual super abilities may not be anything too dazzling, you have earnt the respect of both friends and enemies in response to your amazing fighting skills, strategic combat and experience. Luckily you have access to the greens which can fund all your majorly cool gadgets, vehicles and weapons! Also, you’re reluctant but still accepting to the idea of having a teammate/side-kick, which just makes everything a whole lotta fun, doesn’t it now! On the down side, you’ve probably suffered some sort of trauma at a young age (that’s why we don’t talk to the old man near the swings, kids). Similar to the Wolverine, your past is a base for your current motivation, undertaking some kind of personal vow in search of justice. All in all though, you’re one tough nut. There’re not a lot of people who have the minerals to go up against you, and you’re experienced enough not to get cocky and let the little things like never finding happiness get you down!

UPDATE: I just downloaded the ~62MB mp3 file of the Ninth. One-a my very favs. What a treat (even though the direction of the choral *an freude* section—naturally my fav—was a bit choppy)!

Beethoven’s symphonies 6, 7 and 8 are ready for download NOW!

Number Nine available sometime Thursday (perhaps late tonight for USA downloaders… 🙂

*sigh* Once again I have been too eager. Number 9 will be available starting either late tonight (for U.S. and further west–up to a point 🙂 or Friday, July 1, as per:

“Symphony 9 will be broadcast on Thursday 30th June, and available to download from Friday 1st July to Thursday 7th July.”

I have downloaded and appreciated the very credible performances of numbers 1-5, as offered by the BBC. I fully expect these to be of the same caliber. I’ve also listened to the download of #6 last night. Worth burning off and saving, listening to some more. And more…

(Saudi Arabia must be destroyed.)

I’ve voiced before that I’ve been bothered for some time about the priorities in the GWOT. The President’s recent speech at Fort Bragg highlights my misgivings.

Yes, I am hopeful that eventually the price paid in blood and treasure in Iraq will be worthwhile to America in ways more substantive than simply “fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here,” but the way Bremmer botched his job made that difficult for some time.

I have no doubt whatsoever that our efforts there have already reaped an untold wealth of benefits for the Iraqi people themselves, but I still can help but wonder if the price paid in blood and treasure might have been better spent destroying the primary base of funding for Islamic jihadist terrorism.

Note (my emphasis added):

“Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others.”–President George W. Bush, 06/28/2005

I think it was a bit disingenuous of President Bush to have merely included Saudi Arabia in a long laundry list of those contributing to the terrorist base since, in addition to providing a substantial recruitment base of Wahabbists, Saudi Arabia is a HUGE source of funding for terrorism in the world. It seems that SA would long since have fallen under the Bush Doctrine stated in September of 2001:

“We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”–President George W. Bush, 09/20/2001

So, the question remains: Why is Saudi Arabia still being run by the Wahabbists who preach jihad and fund these Islamic jihadist terrorists?

Yes, there is real abuse at Gitmo. And it’s detainees abusing their priviledges and their guards

I’m not even going to quote from this article. Just go read it.

Scram. Beat it. Get gone from this place.

Out to Sea
Originally uploaded by mnmus.

Oh, and while you’re going, go here and listen to Stephen Fearing sing/play “Beguiling Eyes.”

Loop it. Listen to it again and again. A real male voice. Real guitar. Really GOOD guitar. A real tune. Lyrics to listen to.

Go on. Get outa here.

(Thanks, Kat, for introducing me to Stephen Fearing’s artistry.)

Concerning the recent Grokster decision, this comment from Robert A. Heinlein (ironically, the coiner of the work “grok”—Stranger in a Strange Land), written in 1939 in the short story, “Lifeline,” seems appropriate:

“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.”

Interesting observation, that: “Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.”

Well, it seems they have that right now…

See: SCOTUSblog

“We’ll see a careful campaign of litigation against peer-to-peer services, trying to gradually stretch the noose of inducement liability until it fits around BitTorrent’s neck. Failing that, we’ll see a push to get Congress to codify (the industries’ interepretation of) the Grokster rule…”

OK, we’ve seen what purports to be the three pages of Jean Fraud sKerry’s SF-180, but…

“Again, still and forever we’re going to be hammering on this simple request: Release your full military and medical files -and don’t release them to your biographer or the Boston Globe, ok? Release them to the American people who deserve to see them in their entirety. Or release them to ME and I’ll make sure everyone knows what’s there. After all, you have nothing to hide, right?”

Don’t just sit on your heinie griping, moaning and complaining about tax forms next year. Get off your duff and write your congresscritters.

“Simply put, HR25 would provide for the repeal of the 16th Amendment (the income tax amendment) and the dismantling of the IRS. All personal and corporate income taxes would end, as would all payroll taxes. There would not be one cent of federal taxes of any nature taken out of your paychecks. No more Social Security taxes. No more Medicare taxes. You earn $2,000 a payday; you get $2,000 a payday. The federal government would be funded through a national sales tax on goods and services sold at the retail level. No taxes on investments. No taxes on savings. You only get taxed on what you spend at the retail level. Store your earnings in a shoebox if you wish. They won’t be taxed.”

Scrapplecace’s Scott Ott gives the Supreme Communists a well-deserved kick in the pants

Court Allows 10 Commandments on Seized Land
by Scott Ott

(2005-06-27) — In a pair of rulings on the constitutionality of the 10 Commandments on government property, the Supreme Court today said the commandments may be displayed on public land if that property has been seized from private owners for ‘public purposes’ under eminent domain.

The 5-4 decision comes on the heels of last week’s court declaration that so-called “private” property is actually government land temporarily under private management until its eventual seizure…