Tag: stupid is as stupid does

From Jerry Pournelle, in a discussion about TSA, airport security and the current crackdown:

“…were I a terrorist I would find the enormous lines at security check points very tempting.”

…if your boss is a Mohammedan.

The “offensive photo” is below the fold, so as not to embarrass jackass Mohammedans too much…

Continue reading “Warning! Offensive photo! May be NSFW…”

During my sometimes-usual Friday check of TTLB and others (been more often recently since someone pointed an anomalous rapid change over at TTLB–anomalous enough to be interesting, at least), I noticed something that’s had me back every day since. One of those morbid fascination things…

Since at least last Friday, it seems the Democratic Underground and twc have been trading places in the TTLB rankings.

Of course, it doesn’t mean much of anything. I can count several dead blogs (and one not-a-blog-at-all) on the same screen, so I can tell myself, “Being ranked right next to the DUhs doesn’t mean anything, not anything at all… ”

And if I say it often enough, it starts to make sense.

*heh*

“Hu-what?”-ing over at The Bullwinkle Blog

By Heidi at Euphoric Reality

For a long time here at GTB, we have focused on the tsunami of humanity that flows over our southern border from Mexico. Mexicans, by far, are the largest group of illegals inside our borders, and their open agenda of Reconquista has place tax-funded groups like La Raza, MEChA, and LULAC under the microscope. We’ve also covered the alarming news of the number of Middle Easterners who take full advantage of our unguarded borders to infiltrate our country, paying coyotes tens of thousands of dollars to allow them to blend in with herds of illegals crossing the border. Once inside the country, they disperse and fade away into our society.

Lately, focus has shifted from clandestine border crossings to blatant visa violations as the FBI hunted and captured 11 Egyptian men who entered the country under false pretenses. Such visa violations (including overstaying visa expirations) are not unusual for Middle Easterners, particularly from Pakistan, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, etc., but we Americans are rarely aware of them. Chechens are also making concerted efforts to get into the country illegally, despite the generous visa allowances for their country.

Today, I’d like to examine our broken immigration process in the light of the current war in the Middle East. To that end, I’d like you to reference this column by Investor’s Business Daily.

Why Borders Matter

Aug 09 06

The war in Lebanon is an object lesson in border protection. Hezbollah secretly beefed up its forces there as Israel lowered its northern guard. Then Hezbollah attacked. We should take note.

Lest Americans think this is “Israel’s war,” it’s worth repeating that it was Hezbollah that bombed the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing some 250 Americans. Hezbollah also kidnapped Americans Terry Anderson and Beirut CIA Station Chief William Buckley. Buckley died in captivity with nine others. Some of the masterminds are still at large.

Hezbollah (Party of Allah) is not just a faraway threat. Its leaders have infiltrated the U.S. by breaching our own porous borders.

Continue reading “Guard the Borders”

This is Monday’s open trackback post. Link to this post and track back. More below the post body,

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Very brief background, then a critical issue. Follow carefully.

It’s a given: Mass Media Podpeople and our political masters are going to lie, obfuscate and fabricate out their kiesters in order to lead us down whatever garden path they believe best for their agendas. Don’t believe that? Just check the fake news coming from Mass Media Podpeople about any one issue–take the Lebanon war–or the primo bullshit coming from our political masters–“Read My Lips Jr.” on amnesty for illegals, for example.

Recently, bloggers and other online “alternative media” have provided some relief from the bullshit. But internet watchdogs have an Achilles heel most don’t stop to think about carefully: site and personal computer security. Continue reading “Critical Issue”

(Notice in the popup pic–just CLICK on the thumbnail–that I’ve hidden the TWO default–top and bottom–nav bars)

After multiple baffling issues (traced at last to a failing power supply, of all things), I finally installed Ubuntu Linux 6.06.1 on an old computer last night/today (yeh, starting in the evening when I should have been going to bed was likely part of the problem tracking down the eventual culprit. *heh*).

OK. “Old” computer? Well, yeh. 333mhz Slot 1; 256MB; 1 40gig HDD and another 10gig. A “nothing special” AGP vidcard, a generic sound card and an old 10mbit network card.

An old computer.

Ubuntu 6.06.1 automagically recognized and installed all of it, except for the generic sound card (I’ll fix that later). First thing I did was download and install Opera 9.0 for Linux. Slick. Browsed the network here at “twc hall” and found everything I had passwords for (urm, pretty much everything, eh? :-)). Nice interface, a little slicker GUI look right outa the box than most XP installs I’ve worked on. As snappy on the old, seriously underpowered 333mhz/256MB comp as Win2K is (yeh, it’s in a dual boot–but that’s another issue).

Altogether, I’m quite pleased with the way the OS works. I’d been cruising along for a while and noticed a lil popup notice about updates. CLICKED “OK” and the OS found the Ubuntu packages needed and handled everything slicker than goose grease.

Ubuntu 6.06.1 “Dapper Drake” comes with a bounty of good software installed by default, including my fav office software, Open Office 2, which I’m already well familiar with in its Windows version. Generated some files with OO’s text editor, saved as M$Word format and… opened ’em in Word 2000 on this computer.

Not too shabby.

Although this is by far the easiest Linux install I’ve done, there still might be some gotchas for the Aunt Tillys out there. In fact, while I think that a computer already set up with Dapper Drake might be juuuuust fine for a novice (and naive) computer user, I’d suggest that someone more familiar with computers actually set the thing up for Aunt Tilly. Not that it’s all that hard, but formatting partitions and setting up mount points (even in the really cool, REALLY EASY GParted graphic partition manager) would likely be a tad intimidating for a novice user.

Oh, for those who’ve done lotsa disk management, GParted is a dream to use. The only comparable product on the Windows platform would be Partition Magic, which is itself Pretty Darned Cool.

But GParted is FREE, folks.

Grab yourself an old clunker somewhere (but be kind to yourself and do put more memory in the thing and maybe a better vidcard :-)) and slap Ubuntu Dapper Drake on it. Depending on your computing needs, you may find you don’t even need a Windows computer any more…

Caveat: I might have had a smoother time installing Ubuntu Dapper Drake on the old machine had I used the text-based installer that’s also available for download, but then I’d not have been able to see how really slick the GUI installer is. After I finished with inputting my user info and repartitioning the hard drives (including shrinking the Win2K NTFS partition), the rest of the installation was almost completely hands off. Really slick.

Tags: dapper, dapper drake, Ubuntu, Linux.

This is an Open Trackbacks Alliance open post. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, link to this post and track back. More below the post body.

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When I began doing occasional “mending walls” posts some time ago, I didn’t stop to make the meme clear to folks who may lack the historical/cultural background to catch it.

Mea culpa. While I did at one time cite a late cultural referrence that demonstrated our society’s tension with the idea of walls (the Frost poem, of course), I thought perhaps a little more background might make the analogy to our society’s need to defend itself from predators a bit clearer.

Let’s take a pretty basic cultural reference to “mending walls” that anyone from the early 20th century and previously with just a bare literacy would almost automatically associate with “mending walls”. (They would do so, because they’d have at least a passing familiarity with the single most influential book in the English language… ) Continue reading “Mending Walls: the concept”

Words that seem conspicuously absent from linkage with “terrorism” in “news” reports I’ve seen thus far:

Muslim
Islamic

Oh, the words may appear elsewhere in some of the reports (though not in the al-reuters report here. Its only mention of Islam is in a link at the bottom of the page to an Islamic Aid organization… of course), but not in connection with terrorism.

Mass Media Podpeople’s Army Hive Mind line: “Pay no attention to the Islamic terrorist behind the curtain.” (For best effect, deliver the line in your mind’s ear with Elmer Fudd’s voice.)

Can’t fool the folks that congregate over at Diane’s Stuff, I betchya.

Yesterday, at All Things Beautiful, Alexandra makes some significant observations about the deception practiced by Mass Media Podpeople. Read it, and her commenters, one of whom pointed out this article,

How North Vietnam Won The War

North Vietnam won, of course, with lies and with the willing—eager! enthusiastic!—support of those lies by Mass Media Podpeople and Academia Nut Fruitcakes and “Entertainers/Celebrities” *spit* here in the U.S. They won by seducing America away from the truth.

Today, things have progressed much further down that line, and yet there remains some hope, because “alternative” media are looking behind the curtain at the Mass Media Podpeople’s wizardry.

But still, Kipling’s cautionary echoes in my mind’s ear: we must not forget whence we have come and to Whom we owe our very lives. And a committment to Truth—and to holding the MMP and our politicians *spit* accountable to the truth—will stand us in good stead in the days and weeks and years to come.

UPDATE: Watch as the Mass Media Podpeoples Army spins and ducks and twists the breaking news of the foiled UK terrorist plot in their own lil predictably trite ballet of lies, half-lies and misrepresentations. Sad to say, Americans (the West as a whole) needs to develop some serious antibodies to the raging epidemic of Mass Media Podpeople lies, damned lies and Ra^thergating (Lies that support reality-based fantasy and so can be—falsely, in another lie—called truth. Orwell, where are you when we need you?)

Root cause? Abandoning Truth for “True to me.”

Recessional
1897
Rudyard Kipling

GOD of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire;
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

(Oh, TMH is back in town—drop by and say “Hi!” wouldya?)

I updated “Fiddlin’ Around” yesterday to include references to the faked up photo featured in a NYT “photoessay” online. Before I put my oar in with this post, a h.t. to Michelle Malkin for the “fauxtography” neologism. (She’s the first one I’ve seen use it. Yeh, maybe I don’t get out much, but there it is… :-))

Here’s the “pieta” (again, MM, with one really obvious addition by me:

CLICK the image for a popup enlargement

Seems the NYT is now claiming the image wasn’t fake in any way, but that it was only miscaptioned.

A picture caption with an audio slide show on July 27 about an Israeli attack on a building in Tyre, Lebanon, imprecisely described the situation in the picture. The man pictured, who had been seen in previous images appearing to assist with the rescue effort, was injured during that rescue effort, not during the initial attack, and was not killed.

OK, all this you can get from Michelle Malkin’s post. But what she’s too principled to point out (I’m not–*heh*) is that this is just more lying. The picture is posed. Examine it carefully. I’ve circled one lil clue (the guy almost aping limp unconsciousness—or death—firmly clutching his green hat between his left arm and his body. Needs acting lessons and better direction, IMO).

First, the NYT strongly implies the guy was killed in the bombing, then, when it’s pointed out he was not, they retrench to a position that he was injured in the cleanup. They just can’t bring themselves to call an obviously staged picture an… obviously staged picture.

I can recall once—long ago—sitting on a jury while Cyril Wecht gave us, the jury, a short symposium on examining evidence. I’d need someone of his caliber to examine video footage of the actual event and compare it to actual injuries supposedly sustained before I’d credit the NYT’s NEW story.