Dogs and cats living together

Betsy Newmark links to a story that supports giving President Bush's judicial nominees an up or down vote in the Senate. The oddity here is that the source is the LA Times.

If this isn't a sign of The End Times, I don't know what is.

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I missed the holiday yesterday

Apparently it was Bitchslap Andrew Sullivan Day. Glenn Reynolds put down his Chihuahua smoothy long enough to deliver as pointed a smackdown as he's ever done. Excerpt:

I do confess that I think that winning the war is much more important than Abu Ghraib, and that viewing the entire war -- and the entire American military -- through the prism of Abu Ghraib is as unfair as judging all Muslims by the acts of terrorists. Andrew has chosen the role of emoter-in-chief on these subjects, and he's welcome to it, though he would be more convincing in that part if he didn't count wrapping people in the Israeli flag as torture.
...
As Mickey Kaus has noted, Andrew can be excitable. A while back he apologized to me for some of his criticisms during the election, and more recently he has apologized to his readers for his waffling and defeatism on the war last spring. Perhaps he'll apologize for this at some point in the future. But, I confess, I find the question of what Andrew thinks less pressing than I used to.

Heh. Indeed.

Update: Speaking of uncharacteristic rants, Pejman goes so far as to say "bullshit" in a column. Okay, he really said "bulls***", but reading between the lines isn't too hard when they're a few light years apart. Excerpt:

I probably shouldn't even bother to write this because life is short, but it appears to be important to point out to Andrew Sullivan and his snide and newfound fan that in all likelihood, the reason "conservative bloggers" are upset and angry about the Newsweek screwup is that it cost lives in the Middle East and it could have cost a lot more lives as well. In addition--and this is a somewhat important point, so please pay attention Political Animals and New Republic senior editors--it harmed our country's prestige and standing on the basis of a story that was entirely false. It is the kind of story that can fan rather vicious flames, and if you want to fan flames, you damn well better make sure that you have your facts right. If you do, feel free to publish the story. If you don't and you publish the story anyway and people die as a result and your country ends up suffering diplomatically . . . well . . . it ain't a good day at the office, now is it?

Update: Dean weighs in as well. Considering that he, like Glenn, has been one of Andrew's staunchest supporter, this is pretty tough stuff. Unfortunately, this won't bring Sullivan back to sanity. His newfound friends at the Daily Kos are probably begging him to come out like David Brock. Anyway, excerpt:

Jon, I'm sorry, but when you bring in stories of how a detainee had his crotch grabbed, or had lotion rubbed on him, and juxtapose that with stories of what may be very real and upsetting abuses like putting someone in solitary confinement with a light burning 24 hours a day, you weaken your argument considerably. And, to be blunt, while I've long been one of Andrew Sullivan's defenders, quoting him these days on the subject of the war is just laughable. The man is no longer rational on anything involving the war or the Bush administration. He simply isn't.

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Whenever I blow a dollar on a bottle of water, it's Perrier

Actually, I preferred the Perrier containing Benzene. I believe it was called "Classic Perrier".(I think that this was an old David Letterman joke in the 1908's). Anyway, John Stossel has more on society's infatuation with expensive water. Personally, I prefer filtered water, since I cannot abide the taste of chorine. I pretty much don't buy bottled water unless it contains caramel coloring, carbonation and caffeine. Okay, I like the frothy, amber-colored, alcoholic version, too.

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Andy McCarthy is, dare I say, en fuego

You can't stop him; you can't even hope to contain him. Excerpt:

In the affirmative-action context, conservatives have written trenchantly about the "soft bigotry of low expectations" — the promotion of a vile dependency-ethos that says "you don't need to strive for better," as a result of which many people who might, don't. Our cognate sense of the Islamic world has become the smug delusion of base expectations.

Someone alleges a Koran flushing and what do we do? We expect, accept, and silently tolerate militant Muslim savagery — lots of it. We become the hangin' judge for the imbeciles whose negligence "triggered" the violence, but offer no judgment about the societal dysfunction that allows this grade of offense to trigger so cataclysmic a reaction. We hop on our high horses having culled from the Left's playbook the most politically correct palaver about the inviolable sanctity of Holy Islamic scripture (and never you mind those verses about annihilating the infidels — the ones being chanted by the killers). And we suspend disbelief, insisting that things would be just fine in a place like Gaza if we could only set up a democracy — a development which, there, appears poised to empower Hamas, terrorists of the same ilk as those in Afghanistan and Pakistan who see comparatively minor indignities as license to commit murder.

"Minor indignities? How can you say something so callous about a desecration of the Holy Koran?" I say it as a member of the real world, not the world of prissy affectation. I don't know about you, but I inhabit a place where crucifixes immersed in urine and Madonna replicas composed of feces are occasions for government funding, not murderous uprisings. If someone was moved to kill on their account, we'd be targeting the killer, not the exhibiting museum, not the "artists," and surely not Newsweek.

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Olbermann watch

I see over at MRC that Keith Olbermann made the statement that "something smells funny to me about this Newsweek apology, then retraction" . Seems not to have occurred to Olbermann that everything smells different when your head is permanently ensconced in your ass.

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Oh, that liberal media

Nice Q&A between Scott McClellan and a reporter. And by nice I mean completely asshatted on the side of the reporter. Heavens know that he's an unbiased journalist and all. Sure he is. Excerpt:

Q Scott, the Senate has managed to function -- or not function, as the case may be -- for more than 200 years without a ban on judicial filibusters. Is the President concerned about the historic nature of what's being talked about up on the Hill?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, John, the Senate is working to move forward on their constitutional responsibility, which is to give nominees and up or down vote. One of the priorities for this President is to put people on the bench that are highly qualified and that have a conservative judicial philosophy -- people that show judicial restraint when it comes to the bench. And there are a number of vacancies that the Senate has not moved forward on.

You've had a minority of Senate Democrats blocking up or down votes for these nominees. All we're asking for is for these nominees to receive a simple up or down vote on the floor of the United States Senate. Unfortunately, there are some Senate Democrats that have played politics in taking this to an unprecedented level. We have not seen anything like this in our 214-year history in the Senate. So I would turn that around on you and look at it from the other perspective.

Q Well, let me ask two questions about what you just said. Where in the Constitution are judicial nominees guaranteed an up or down vote? And what about the impact of this whole so-called "nuclear option" on this idea of equal representation in the Senate?

MR. McCLELLAN: There are some judicial emergencies that we're talking about here, where people need to be put into these positions. There are vacancies now. And Senate Democrats have been blocking those nominees from receiving an up or down vote.

In terms of the Constitution, the role of the President is to appoint qualified individuals to the bench. The role of the Senate is to provide their advice and consent. It's not to provide advice and block. And what we have seen is that Senate Democrats are taking this to an unprecedented level, something we have not seen in those 214 years that you reference.

And so we would hope that they would move forward in giving all of these nominees an up or down vote, because all of them are well-qualified and would do an outstanding job.

Q What about this equal representation idea?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q What about the impact of this nuclear option on the equal representation idea?

Now imagine a similar exchange between this particular reporter and Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid:

Q Rep. Pelosi, you've mentioned how sacrosanct the filibuster is to the Senate. However, Senator Robert Byrd(D) once changed the number of votes needed on legislative filibusters by a simple rule change. I don't remember a similar outcry from the Democrats then. What's changed since then?
Or...

Q Senator Reid, members of your party stated during the Clinton presidency that they were completely opposed to judicial filisbusters, but now support them as a way of opposing President Bush. Can you explain the about face for any reason other than the fact that the political party of the current president differs from your's?

Can't do it, can you?

Update: Same topic at the New Criterion.

Update: And still more at Powerline.

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Quote of the day

I've gotten as many chuckles out of Jim Lampley's recurring column, Dementia On Display, over at the Huffington Post, but had decided recently to ignore his pathetic mewlings. I've got better things to do, such as cleaning the lint from by belly button. Come to think of it, I'd get more out of that process than reading Jimbo. Someone else, though, has decided to grab the bull(shit) by the horns. Money quote:

Jim I really pity you, for I never realized that someone could be so amazingly ignorant, yet come across as such a self righteous elitist prick.

It's a thing of beauty.

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This has serious implications

For home pornography, that is. Common Sense and Wonder links to an article that mentions being able to reach out and touch someone who's somewhere else. If this works, phone sex will go the way of the dodo. Okay, maybe the California Condor.

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I'm late to the party. Again.

Grim guest-posted a beaut over at Blackfive's digs: Red State, Blue Collar. Excerpt:

Taranto argues that part of the problem is the arrogance of the national party, which labels people as "working class," as if to separate the poor from themselves. Certainly, mountain folk don't like being looked down upon any more than anyone else.

But I think the real answer is this: Red-State poor do synchronize their voting with their economic interests. They simply don't agree with national Democrats as to where that interest lies. The national party doesn't understand how wealth is created in the Red States, and so it adopts an agenda that is dead-set against what poor people actually want. The worst thing that can happen for the poor is for national Democrats to get their agenda enacted -- the period of time Noah cites began with Bush I's tax increases, and continued through the Clinton administration's "reforms."

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Free Celestial Seasoning tea

Celestial Seasonings Tea is offering a coupon for a free box of Celestial Seasonings Tea at your local grocery store. Offer ends May 18, 2005. Limit one per customer.

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Whatever

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 81% Fundamentalist 50% Existentialist 50% Idealist 31% Romanticist 25% Postmodernist 25% Materialist 19% Modernist 6% What is Your World View? (corrected...hopefully) created with QuizFarm.com

I am surprised that I didn't score in the negative numbers for post-modernism. Quiz found via Pejman.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 04:31 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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National ID cards are a bad idea

I've been reading multiple posts about national ID card. My wife and I have discussed the issue at length; she's curious as to why I'm so opposed to the idea. One of my biggest problems boils down to this: I do not believe in the idea of a benevolent government. Sure, government can do some things well. By and large, though, governments tend to suffer from scope creep: they grow and grow, centralizing more power and authority to themselves. This is not, I think, a good thing. I believe that history bears me out in this regard. Anyway, Claire Wolfe has an excellent Backwoods post on this very topic. Excerpt:

Well, so what? The United States isn’t Nazi Germany -- which used a computerized national ID system to round up Jews and other “undesirables” and send them to slave labor and death. (This “civilized” bureaucratic process behind the Nazi slaughter is icily documented in Edwin Black’s 2000 book, IBM and the Holocaust.) So what’s the big deal?

The very big deal is “mission creep.” When Social Security numbers were introduced in the 1930s, the system was “voluntary.” Citizens who worried about the biblical number of the Beast (Rev. 13: 16-1 or more mundane forms of tyranny were assured that, by law, the number would never -- ever -- be used for ID.

In the tradition of nearly every limited, temporary, or voluntary government program our Social Security number eventually became our universal identifier. No law requires you to get a Social Security number, even today. But try functioning in the everyday world of work, banking, credit, schooling, home-buying, or even video rental without one.

If national ID becomes U.S. law, five years from now you wonÂ’t be able to do any of these things without submitting to various biometric scans. But thatÂ’s barely the beginning.

The new, more high-tech national ID system would enable the federal government and its contractors to follow and electronically analyze your activities in real-time -- to pinpoint your location, check your purchases, view records of your medical condition, and monitor your bank deposits and withdrawals as you make them, for instance. Worse yet, it ultimately gives government the ability to control your activities -- to (accidentally or deliberately) freeze your bank account, shut down your credit cards, deny you access to public transportation, forbid you entry into such public places as county courthouses, deny you health care, even deny you entrance to your job once your employer has (in the name of standardization, and possibly with the spur of federal subsidies or regulations) adopted the federal system. All at the click of a computer key, somewhere in Washington, D.C.

Does this sound too much like something out of the movie “Enemy of the State”?

But remember, you’re dealing with a federal government that already forbids professional licenses, drivers licenses, and even fishing licenses not to known terrorists, criminals, or illegals -- but to ordinary parents who get behind in child support. Just think what it could do to with the instant ability to monitor and cut off access to transportation or services for a variety of disobedient or “questionable“ people.

It could happen to you if you’re a “deadbeat dad,” if you’ve neglected some traffic tickets, if you fit the “profile” of a drug user or a gun owner, if you’ve stated too many controversial opinions on the Internet, if your activities appear “suspicious” by any mysterious standard, if you’ve made political enemies -- or even if there’s a glitch in the system. And have you ever tried to straighten out even a little glitch with a government agency? Good luck to you.

This is still only the beginning. Shortly (after too many people have misplaced their cards, and too many criminals continued to get useable ID), the card-borne “smart chip” would be replaced by an implanted chip -- one of which, Digital Angel, is already on the market. Periodic scanning could then be augmented by 24-hour-a-day, satellite-based tracking. People in the U.S. will be watched and controlled far more thoroughly than Winston Smith was controlled by Big Brother in 1984 -- and for the very same reasons; to impose some social manager’s ideal of order.

Read the whole thing. And then head over to Read ID Rebellion for more information.

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Slap your co-worker day is here!

Tuesday the 17th of May is the official "Slap Your Irritating Co-workers" Day. Do you have a co-worker who talks non-stop about nothing, working your last nerve with tedious and boring details that you don't care about? Do you have a co-worker who ALWAYS screws up stuff, creating MORE work for you? Do you have a co-worker who kisses so much booty, you can look in their mouth and see what your boss had for lunch? Do you have a co-worker who is SOOO obnoxious, when he/she enters a room, everyone else clears it? Well, on behalf of Ike Turner, I am so very very glad to officially announce Tuesday the 17th of May as "SLAP YOUR IRRITATING CO-WORKER DAY"!

These are the rules you must follow:

1. You can only slap one person per hour - no more.
2. You can slap the same person again if they irritate you again in the same day.
3. You are allowed to hold someone down as other co-workers take their turns slapping the irritant.
4. No weapons are allowed ... other than going at somebody's head with a stapler or a hole-puncher.
5. If questioned by a supervisor (or Police, if the supervisor is the irritant), you are allowed to LIE, LIE, LIE!

Now, study the rules, break out your list of folks that you want to slap the living day lights out of and get slapping ... and have a great day.

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Bringing tears to my eyes

God love their feckless, EU-loving souls. It turns out that most non-French Europeans feel the same way about the Frogs that I do. In their case, familiarity DID breed contempt. Excerpt:

Why the French are the worst company on the planet, a wry take on France by two of its citizens, dredges up all the usual evidence against them. They are crazy drivers, strangers to customer service, obsessed by sex and food and devoid of a sense of humour.

But it doesn't stop there, boasting a breakdown, nation by nation, of what in the French irritates them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". However, the French may be more shocked by the views of other nations.

For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".

Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty".

But the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll was conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just what they thought of them.

"Interviewees were simply asked an open question - what five adjectives sum up the French," said Olivier Clodong, one of the study's two authors and a professor of social and political communication at the Ecole Superieur de Commerce, in Paris. "The answers were overwhelmingly negative."

According to Mr Clodong, the old adage that France is wonderful, it's just the French who are the problem, is shared across Europe.

"We are admired for our trains, the Airbus and Michelin tyres. But the buck stops there," he said.

::sniff:: I'm a little choked up right now. Someone get me a tissue. ::sniff::
Ace provided the link, in addition to a savage rhetorical beating of Hysterical Andy. I started to bludgeon his silly ass yesterday, but decided he wasn't worth the effort.

I promised myself I wouldn't read Sullivan again, but I had to sneak a peek to see his reaction to the Newsweek faux story. Not surprisingly, his disgust at the current administration trumped his "outrage", if you can call it that.

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The Force is strong in this one

Chrenkoff posts an open letter to George Lucas. Excerpt:

Over the course of the last three years, the United States and her allies have managed to depose two truly despicable regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq and today are trying to bring the gift of freedom and democracy - things that you enjoy every day probably without giving them much thought - to tens of millions of people who have never known them before. You might well think that Anakin Skywalker's painful transformation into Darth Vader is somehow a perfect analogy for the political journey of George W Bush, but I have a sneaking suspicion that movie fans in Baghdad will have already recognized Darth Vader as one of their own - with a moustache rather than a black helmet. He, too, had two children, although they didn't turn up quite as cute as Luke and Leia. They names were Uday and Qusay.

I will still go and see "The Revenge of the Sith" when it opens in Australia in a few days' time, and I will not stop enjoying the other five films just because I read their message differently to what you intended.

But if in your mind, it's the United States that has slowly transformed itself into an evil Empire, and therefore, logically all those who stand up to it are our story's true heroes, than I have to say that the Dark Side is very strong indeed, and I have crossed over a long time ago. If America is the Empire, then please prepare a black helmet and uniform for me too.

Ditto.

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Mystery solved

I'll finally be able to sleep at night. No more fretting over this problem.

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Environmental news

Someone needs to inform the Kilauea volcano that it really needs to reduce its emissions if it wants to conform to the Kyoto protocols. Excerpt:

Since it began erupting on Jan. 3, 1983, the volcano has been sending an average of 1,000 metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere each day, according to the Hawaii chapter of the American Lung Association.

This is 6,000 times the amount emitted by a major industrial polluter on the mainland, making Kilauea the nation's top producer of sulfur dioxide.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 01:48 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Medieval pick-up lines

Received via email:
---------------------------
"Hey, Princess, you wouldn't happen to know where a lonely knight could scabbard his sword, would you?"

"What's a nice maiden like you doing in a dungeon like this?"

"They don't call me Lance-A-Lot for nothing, you know."

"When the Inquisition put me on the rack, my limbs weren't the only thing they stretched."

"Dost thou know? That chastity belt of yours would look great on my sleeping chambers floor."

Wench: "What's that sound?" Knight: "That's just the sound of my chain mail drawers expanding."

"Thou hast hit on me harder than the black plague!"

"Your hovel or mine?"

"Pardon me, madam, but wouldeth thou like to see my long sword in action?"

"Dost thou practice safe hex?"

"Milady, it's not the size of the wand that matters, but the magic within."

"I have the key to your chastity belt and you have the key to my heart."

"You should be glad I'm not a Viking."

"You would have been ravaged and plundered by now."

"I lost my leg in battle. Guess what I'm walking on!"

"Yes, fair maiden, I am indeed a wizard. Shall I make your clothes disappear?"

"You won't believe this but St. George just appeared to me in a vision and told me that I must bed you...the fate of England depends is on it!!"

"I'm really a prince cursed by an evil witch. Tell me, do you have sex with frogs?"

"My! But you are a beautiful damsel in distress! Allow me to help you out of it."

"I've been VERY NAUGHTY. You'll have to put me in the stocks and...er...PUNISH me, now won't you?"

"You know, I was once imprisoned in a tower very much like Repunnzel. Only it wasn't my hair that the queen asked me to let down."

"I may not be a priest, but I can get you to heaven, m'lady."

"C'mon, sweetie...didn't your mother ever tell you? A cleric a day keeps the black plague away."

"I seem to have lost my sex slave, can I borrow you for a bit?"

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Quick thinking

The pissed off cowboy walked into the bar and slammed his fist on the bar.

"Ok", he shouted, "Who's the son of a bitch that painted my horse's balls red"?

At the other end, a huge biker stood up, ripped the end of the bar out of the floor and slammed it back down. "I did asshole", he said. "What have you got to say about that"?

"Oh", said the cowboy. " I just thought I'd let you know... he's ready for his second coat."

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Dog bites man

And Lileks discusses Star Trek. Excerpt:

Next Generation has many “classic” moments, but so much drearily earnest tripe – and in retrospect the Federation looks so weak and touchy-feely it’s a wonder the Romulans didn’t just knock them over for target practice. Bad romance: Worf and Troi? The big mean feral warrior and the ship’s shrink?

I NEED TO MATE. IT IS MY TIME.
Worf, I sense you are feeling stress.
I HAVE MANIFESTED THE SWORD OF KAHLISS IN MY LOWER UNIFORM. I AM . . . CONFINED.
LetÂ’s have some tea and discuss this.
YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. MY PHOTON TORPEDO IS READY FOR THE LAUNCHING TUBE.
Sit, you silly fellow! Right here. Mind the flowers.
I DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN USE ANALOGIES TO DESCRIBE MY CONDITION.
Well, if you have to get back to work, fine, but drop by later and we can talk. Worf! Put that away! Ick!

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