VACATION

And about time too. Will return 10/27.

Vatican offers swap deal to regain site of Last Supper

The Vatican is hoping to regain control of the Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites in Christianity....

The Upper Room, where the Last Supper is said to have taken place, is held by Christians to be the place where Jesus broke bread and drank wine with the disciples on the eve of his Crucifixion and also where the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost.
....
Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, said possible reciprocal gestures include the return to Jewish control of the 12th-century synagogue in Toledo, which, after the suppression of Judaism in Spain in the 15th century, became the Church of Santa María La Blanca.

I see this as a good thing. Jews and Christians becoming more united and sharing mutual holy places. Now, it's the Muslims turn to remove that golden dome and get out of the The Temple Mount.

In Muslim tradition, the place is also identified as the "furthermost sanctuary" (Arabic, masjid al-aksa) from which the Prophet Mohammed, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, made the Night Journey to the Throne of God (The Koran, Sura Al-Isra’ 17:1).

Yeah. Right. Dr Sina says:

Whoever has been the author of the verse 17:1, was not aware that Masjid ul Aqsa did not exist during the time of Muhammad and he could not have made his trip to heaven from a place that did not exist.

And answering islam says:

These preceding factors make it highly improbable to date Sura 17:1 to the time of Muhammad. This passage could have only been written sometime after the erection of Masjid al-Aqsa. This is further substantiated by the fact that Masjid al-Aqsa contains no early references to the supposed night journey. This is a strange omission since Muslims claim that Masjid al-Aqsa was erected in commemoration of this alleged event. The inscriptions that do mention the night journey are later additions made by Abdul Hamid II in 1876, nearly eleven centuries later.

Life-and-death flu

From Charles Krauthammer:

While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers' long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the Byzantine comings and goings of the Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime -- what is left of it, as I shall explain. It was announced last week that American scientists have just created a living, killing copy of the 1918 ``Spanish'' flu.

This is big. Very big.

Not only has the virus been physically re-created. But its entire genome has now been published for the whole world, good people and very bad, to see.

Today didn't start well for me. Upsetting news on the home front, granddaughter not doing well in school, daughter quit her job, and then I read this.

Time to start living in the words like a hermit!

What a great tv ad!

I wonder if anyone has the guts to put this on American airwaves?

Bill, Keep Talking!

Clinton calls the Iraq war "a quagmire" and warns "it could go wrong."


"The administration . . . decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed - with no real urgency, no evidence that there was any weapons of mass destruction there," he complained to ABC's "This Week."

I regret ever having voted for him.

George Clooney

But while he thinks it's dangerous for actors to go public with their politics, Clooney still defends his left-leaning views, saying, “It's pretty hard to find a time when liberals were on the wrong side of an issue."

Oh really? Hard to find a time when liberals were on the wrong side of an issue? Here's more:

Clooney: Hollywood Liberals Should Shut Up Already

Let's review. Where is the left on Iraq? Oh yes. Wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time

And now? Iraqi charter gains wide backing

The poll of 3,625 Iraqis, conducted Sept. 14 to 19, showed 79 percent in favor of the draft constitution and 8 percent opposed. The remainder did not respond.

And of course, the initimitable Hitchens: Letter to the Left

How can so many people watch this as if they were spectators, handicapping and rating the successes and failures from some imagined position of neutrality? Do they suppose that a defeat in Iraq would be a defeat only for the Bush administration?

Well George, apparently you are a maroon.

Bicycle sales boom in US amid rising gas prices

Well duh, However, I am betting it is not just gas prices. What do you want to bet that there are some other influences:
1. Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France a record seven times. Against all odds. Interest in his success is at a fever pitch and highly promoted at the Discovery Channel to go biking.
2. The President has sparked new interest as the nation's cyclist in chief and called the most fit President in modern history.
3. Blog favorite Charles Johnson on www.littlegreenfootballs documents his rides and inspires (at least this) poster.

Back in the Saddle?

Snorty worthy!

Saddam is arguing through his lawyers that he could be back in power a year from now. How? A leading member of Saddam's defense team tells FOX News contributor and former Coalition advisor Dan Senor that when Saddam airs the dirty laundry of America's foreign policy over the past several decades, the U.S. will be so embarrassed, it will have no choice but to cut a deal returning him to power.

I don't think so Bubba. "Expose" away. Feel free. Enjoy yourself.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WE don't run things there. Iraqis do. They have voted, they are establishing their own Constitution. They don't want us there, and they don't want YOU regardless of what we might or might not have done in the past.

Moron.

Iraqis will run Iraq.

Do we manage Japan? Or Germany? Or any other country we have beaten? Nope. And it won't happen this time either. We can't even get Puerto Rico to join the US as a state.

You embarrass yourself, not the US.

Zombie's Latest Photo Essay In Case You Missed It

These photos were taken by zombie at the anti-war rally in San Francisco on Saturday, September 24, 2005.

A pattern emerges

Read enough blogs and not only do you become informed, but patterns emerge. The following are excerpts from blogs and essays around the web. Rather than an "echo chamber" the following articles reinforce the viewpoint that moving to the Nanny State is a BAD thing.

How did we get there and what can we do to stop the slide into the cesspool of Communism (be sure to wipe your feet, Mommy says!).

Visualize Industrial Collapse

They envision a future that is “radically cooperative and communitarian, ecological and feminist, spontaneous and wild.” A primitivist society would be decentralized, egalitarian, and self-sufficient…

Anarchists have long argued that in a free world, social, economic, and psychological pressures towards excessive reproduction would be removed. There would just be too many other interesting things going on to engage people’s time! Feminist primitivists have argued that women, freed of gender constraints and the family structure, would not be defined by their reproductive capabilities as in patriarchal societies, and this would result in lowered population levels too. So population would be likely to fall, willy-nilly.

OK, some current examples of the return of the primitive:
Miami Ink
Going Tribal

And some feminizing examples:
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy with its tag line: Official site of this weekly show where five gay men transform a style-deficient and culture-deprived straight man from drab to fab.

Ummmm, no thanks. My man has more culture and style than the five of them put together.

Calling all men

Do we really want women taking over the job market from men? Do we want a nation of stay-at-home, Oprah-watching Dads? I don't think so. I also don't think we want women dominating college education as professors (which their percentage of doctorates indicates they will). The few men remaining on campus will be educated by feminists who want a matriarchal society and hierarchy.

A Tale of Two Demonstrations

During the various festivities, the heroin-addled Steve Earle sang protest songs and Sheehan’s backers chanted, “Hey, Bush, we know you/Your daddy was a killer, too.” Unsurprisingly:

supporters of the Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site distributed thousands of copies of a statement of the SEP entitled “Katrina, the Iraq war and the struggle for socialism” and sold a large number of copies of a new WSWS pamphlet, “Hurricane Katrina: social consequences & political lessons.” They found a positive response to this intervention, which posed the necessity of building a new mass socialist movement.

UPDATE: I knew I had a point here. The two demonstrations. One, with Mommy Sheehan involved, the other, a focused, poignant rally with real men and women.

In all this Sheehan business, where is Dad? Is he somehow inconsequential? He is divorcing her and I am sure chooses not to get involved in this fracas, however, the MSM seems to ignore him. Only Mommy matters.

The ACLU vs. America

Read the wedding “vows” of ACLU founder Roger Baldwin in 1919:

“To us who passionately cherish the vision of a free human society, the present institution of marriage among us is a grim mockery of essential freedom…We deny without reservation the moral right of state or church to bind by force of law a relationship that cannot be maintained by the power of love alone…The highest relationship between a man and a woman is that which welcomes and understands each other’s loves….The creative life demands many friendships, many loves shared together openly, honestly, and joyously…” (See pages 12-13 of our book.)

Then let’s look at the words of Roger Baldwin back in 1935 when he wrote the following in his thirtieth anniversary Harvard University classbook:

“I am for Socialism, disarmament, and ultimately the abolishing of the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”

So it all makes sense now. Emasculate the men and create the Nanny State.

The Pussification Of The Western Male

Out there, there is a huge number of men who are sick of it. We’re sick of being made figures of fun and ridicule; we’re sick of having girly-men like journalists, advertising agency execs and movie stars decide on “what is a man”; we’re sick of women treating us like children, and we’re really #### sick of girly-men politicians who pander to women by passing an ever-increasing raft of Nanny laws and regulations (the legal equivalent of public-school Ritalin), which prevent us from hunting, racing our cars and motorcycles, smoking, flirting with women at the office, getting into fistfights over women, shooting criminals and doing all the fine things which being a man entails.

I want our government to be more like Dad—kind, helpful, but not afraid to punish us when we #### up, instead of helping us excuse our actions.

I want our government of real men to start rolling back the Nanny State, in all its horrible manifestations of over-protectiveness, intrusiveness and “Mommy Knows Best What’s Good For You” regulations.

But we can have THIS visualization:
Is Hillary Clinton the next Geena Davis?
Blech!

But here in the REAL world, we cannot ask the hard questions of a woman in power at fault.

Blanco asked NO QUESTIONS about Katrina

I only joined the GOP because I supported W, you know. The rest of you have been - with rare exceptions - spectacularly unimpressive.

I’m sorry…but you sit around day after day watching the opposition savage your party leadership and blame your president for every ill in the world, with the full complicity and assist of the press, and then - on two occasions in one week - you find yourself with LEGITIMATE (not spurious) reasons to do some serious jawboning with members of the opposition party, and you roll on your backs and pant, “please rub our bellies…”

I miss John Wayne.
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

File this under "You have got to be KIDDING!"

Jeb Bush says:

Bush, a brother of President Bush, said he gets a lot of e-mails from frustrated people who go through Miami International Airport. He also said the federal government should expand scholarship programs for residents in Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions to come study in the U.S.

"The United States has actually pulled back after Sept. 11 with providing visas for foreign students," he said.

Let's see, hmmmmmm, how did Mohammed Atta and "friends" get here.....hmmmmm, could it be, oh I don't know student visas?

Oh yes, let's DO relax security at Miami International!

Colombian police have found the bodies of three human foetuses hidden in statues destined for the United States.

...officials are trying to find out who sent the packages, which came from Barranquilla in Colombia and were destined for Miami in the US.

I can't wrap my head around this

To make this year's list of the top 400 fortunes in the US a minimum net worth of $900m was required - up from $750m last year.

What on earth do you need this much money for? How do you spend it? Would you even want it? How many homes do you need? How much stuff is enough? I have so much junk in my home I need to get rid of a ton. I know I am not alone on this. So far 535,266 pounds of clutter since September 16, 2005 have been flung (scroll down a little for the details).

Do these people ever have a garage sale, and if so where would it be and can I go?

Bad Blogger

Well, I have had so many deadlines, I have not posted much of anything lately. So much has happened! To sum up:

Stuck on stupid

That about says it all!

What A Maroon!!!!

Justice Ginsburg Wants Women's Activist On Court

Gee, ya think?

"I have a list of highly qualified women, but the president has not consulted me," she added during a brief interview Wednesday night.

BWHAHAHAHAHA! Who cares what you think? Do you think she is aware how many people want her off the court? (If course, maybe that is just me.) Why, in the name of all things golden, would the President consult her?

There are "some women who might be appointed who would not advance human rights or women's rights," Ginsburg told those gathered at the New York City Bar Association.

Ya think? Some women who are opposed to say, umm I don't know, abortion "rights"? Some women who are opposed to say, umm, maybe supporting the ACLU?

Maybe that's just me.

UPDATE: I was loath to post the Ginsburg wants to lower the age of consent to twelve because that sentiment appeared to have been debunked. Looks like I was wrong.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Was for Lowering the Age of Consent to 12 Years Old

Jumbled Stuff

I was reading the Ranting Ring Wing Howler as I am wont to do on a daily basis. The miscellaneous links are usually worth a look-see, they range from wierd news to unique scientific discoverys, like the one I just linked to, with an smidgeon of acerbic wit from Howler. The thrust of this particular article was deciphering how the Incans kept mathematical calculations with knots. Interesting. But was more interesting in the article to me was this speculation, among the others:

Urton speculates that these sums might record tax payments. Incans paid their taxes by working a certain number of days per year on state projects. The knotted strings could represent such days, and the sums could represent totals for all work in a certain area, Urton says.

I find that interesting that rather than pay tax, you work on some state projects. Hmm, given the choice, I might rather do that. People take pride in their handiwork, would all of us be more considerate of our public places if we contributed to them personally? I guess if it were a matter of choice, pay or work, it would depend on the work. I wouldn't mind working on a community project of beautification or some such and keep more of the money I earn, but then I wouldn't be earning any money if I were off on a project! I found it interesting, and could a version of this work in a capitalistic society?

In any event, the knots were cool.

Fit in or fly out

From the Seattle article:

But across the Puget Sound area, that's starting to change as public and private pools at times are sending home their male staff members, covering up their windows and allowing women of faith to swim alone and in private.

From Soundpolitics:

But if there's ever a reason for taxpayer dollars to be used to support an immigrant's culture, it should be to support them in learning to shed whatever aspects of their culture are incompatible with American culture. The last thing we need to teach immigrants is to expect publicly-subsidized religious apartheid.

From Dhimmi Watch

Would the Children's Home Society fund a Whites-Only Pool Night? A Christians-Only Pool Night?

Covering the windows? Men have to leave the area, so the schedules of the people who work there have to accomodate people who refuse to adapt?

Insouciant

Happily unconcerned; carefree; nonchalant.

(And don't forget to visit the Visual Thesaurus!)

Ok, for fun:

"A scoop of insouciant should remove the odor."

"Insouciant, shminsouciant! Where's my dinner?!?!"

"The new, breezy Insouciant gets 400 miles to the gallon!"

"Failing that, an insouciant should fix 'er right up."

"Ah to be young, and relive the good old days, when the insouciant would not act up."

Did DoD lawyers blow the chance to nab Atta?

The officer was very disappointed when lawyers working for Special Ops decided that anyone holding a green card had to be granted essentially the same legal protections as any U.S. citizen. Thus, the information Able Danger had amassed about the only terrorist cell they had located inside the United States could not be shared with the FBI, the lawyers concluded.

This is unbelievable. May these lawyers be infested with fleas until the day they die.

Update Aug 11: Funny how the press chooses it stories for an analysis by the Ranting Right Wing Howler.

Shut up and sing (if you really could)

Is Mick Jagger kidding? What a maroon!

"You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/ You call yourself a patriot. Well, I think your are full of sh*t!... How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con."

Maybe he should join Hanoi Jane/Bagdad Barbarella on her tour? Aging hippies on veggie oil.

Are the ACLU days numbered?

"The never-ceasing flow of litigation against cities, states, and the federal government is nothing more than fund-raising stunts," Swarthout said. "Many of the ACLU's victories come not because their complaint is just, but because the municipality budget is inadequate to match the abusive onslaught."

Ya think? It is about time if this article is true. I hope this story has legs.

A Message From Zombie

The Islamists and the communists have one thing in common: their dream of overthrowing the "West," which is shorthand for liberal democratic capitalism. So they have joined together as a team to acheive their goal.

But the communists learned a lesson between 1945 and 1991: you can't do it militarily. The Soviet Union learned that the hard way, and now no longer exists. So the communists have adapted an alternate strategy, adapting the Gramscian model for the conflict: silently and stealthily infiltrate the media, academia and local goverments without openly declaring your intentions; and once in these positions of authority, use your influence to progressively indoctrinate the Western populace to see the world through a Marxist lens. Eventually, so the theory goes, communism can take control of Western society without a shot being fired, and without anyone even knowing it was happening until it was too late. And this is exactly what they have been doing, as LGF readers know too well from our analysis of the media and the education system.

But the Islamists never got the memo. Though their communist compadres in the West insist on the need to operate in "stealth mode," the Islamists still think like medieval warriors: their goal is to conquer by fear and violence. In fact, their technique is the exact opposite of "stealth mode." They declare from the mountaintops, with every tool at their disposal and as often as they can, that they want to destroy us and everything we believe in. They do this partly out of bragadoccio, but also as an ideological stratagem, to terrify their enemies, to make them bow down in fear and submit.

But this behavior is at cross-purposes with the plan of the Marxists who control our media and academia. So every time a Muslim issues a triumphant cry of violence, the media rushes over to cover it up, and the academics twist his words to mean something else. Then (and this is the almost comical part) the Islamists get confused and frustrated that their message of terror and violence either didn't get widely disseminated, or didn't have the intended effect, or both. So they blame the West, yet they don't understand that it is not their enemies that are trying to suppress their message, but rather their allies, the Marxists who control the public discourse.

A huge proportion of what we see going on these days is this struggle playing itself out on the world stage. Islamists try to instill terror in the West, either through acts of terrorism, or through declarations of their intent to conquer us, and the Western media does everything it can to cover it up. So the Muslims try harder. And the media's lies get more outrageous. We've now reached the point where we are today; Islamic terrorists committing the most heinous acts, and making the most outrageous statements, which causes the media to spin an ever-expanding Web of ludicrous lies and distortions.

Yet it seems that only a handful of anti-idiotarians (like Charles [of www.littlegreenfootballs.com - ed.], you and I) are aware of this. Our goal should be to bring our level of awareness to everyone in the West.

This message has been brought to you by the fertile mind of zombie, who has encouraged us to broadcast it in full. I am happily complying.

potter's field

A burial place for poor or unidentified people.

The term derives from the name of the area where Judas was buried after he hanged himself. The land was bought with pieces of silver he had received for betraying Christ.

"Insert any Harry Potter reference here."

Potter's field. Well, I think I am stumped on this one. Nope, nothing, nada. I guess it is too depressing a term to play with.

Current TV is now on

Every half-hour, Current promises a news update using data from Google on news stories most frequently searched for on the Web.


Despite suspicions created by his former profession, Gore promises the network won't be advancing a political point of view.

From Google News? Non-political. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Google Discredits Itself

Google News is including Indymedia as a news source once again despite it being a completely unmoderated, totally uncontrolled and frequently vile cesspit.

Gadarene

A headlong rush.
[After the town of Gadara in a biblical story where two demon-possessed men ask Christ to send them into a herd of swine. They dash into the herd and all the animals rush violently over a cliff.]

OK, let's see what we can do.


"Gadarene". Sounds like a Dolly Parton song.

"No time to relax? Then try our new bath salts and let Gadarene wash all your cares away!"

"Meet the kids - Ishkabibble, Darrell, Darrell, and Gadarene."

"If the gaderene gets too high, you have been giving it too much water."

"Is it too much to ask that the sortilege and phlogiston get gadarened? How many times do I have to tell you people!"

Louvre Gets $20 Million for Islamic Wing

A billionaire Saudi prince has donated $20 million to the Louvre Museum to help fund a new Islamic art wing - a freeform, glassy structure that will bring a modern touch to a neoclassical courtyard.

I thought islamic art was haraam, forbidden. What the heck is this? The Louvre is obscured by that hideous glass pyramid, and now this? Why on earth does the Louvre need a "modern touch" anyway? Rip that stupid pyramid down! It obscures the neoclassical and has no architectural purpose there any way EXCEPT to impose a middle eastern mind set on Western culture. Hmmmm, let's see: Was Shakespeare a muslim? BWHAHAHAHAHA!

At 43,000 square feet, the wing will quadruple the existing space for the Islamic art collection,

French President Jacques Chirac proposed remodeling the wing three years ago, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, to bridge the divide between East and West.

Figures, chirac. This just steams my clams. How quickly are the french becoming dhimmis anyway?

Sortilege

The word today is sortilege. Ok folks, let's see what we can do with it!

1. Divination by drawing lots.

2. Sorcery; magic.

"If I don't have this file sortileged by noon, my boss is going to blow a gasket!"

"...and to complete the sortilege, add a soupçon of fresh garlic, and some parsley for garnish!"

"The Kappa Kappa Banga fraternity is throwing a millenium sortilege for the girls at the Gimme Gimme More sorority house."

"My hard drive is sortileged."

"Take a left at the McDonald's on Sortilege Drive and you're there!"

"The doctor told me that torn sortilege can be re-grown, but I don't believe him."

"If a sortilege slithers out from under that rock, I am outta here."

Boy Scouts

Can I hear another hallelujah!

The Senate voted 98-0 to approve the provision continuing the hosting of Boy Scout events as part of massive bill setting Defense Department policy for next year. 98-0! Does that mean even Shrillary voted yea? and Ted? and sKerry? Wow.

The Boy Scouts have been mercilessly targeted over the years and this is great news, especially since this year my grandson is becoming a Scout for the first time, and my Dad was a Scout and a Scout leader.

Our prayers are with the leaders who were killed on the opening day of the National Scout Jamboree.

The Cross Stays!

Well hallelujah!

"...easily surpassed the two-thirds support it needed for approval"

"But the voters' decision on Proposition A won't be the final word. The controversy heads back to court next month."

What controversy when a clear majority says "KEEP IT!"?

"Attorney James McElroy, whose client filed a lawsuit challenging the presence of the cross on city land in 1989, called the vote meaningless."

Meaningless? Who are they trying to kid?

"It still doesn't mean a damn thing," he said. "Voters should have never voted on it. It's a waste of taxpayers' money.'"

BWHAHAHAHAHA! idiot. Remind me again, just WHO is wasting the taxpayers' money?

It isn't up to the people to decide but (wait for it...)

"McElroy and Paulson preferred to wage their battle in court..."

Typical. Can't win at the ballot box, so they are hoping one judge will see it their way.

Again, BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Thanks to the Ranting Right Wing Howler.

Long Time, No Posty!

From Ranting Right Wing Howler comes a link to If World War II Was an RTS.

Very funny! Puts the new world in a whole new perspective.

Well, I gave up my coffee maker (but not my coffee). I am making coffee the "cowboy way" and it is much better than a drip coffee maker. I have a cowboy coffee pot on my stove and prepare it in the cowboy manner. Although I have read you mix the eggs, shells and all, first and THEN dump. No bitterness at all this way.

Now I have more room on my counter!

It has been a busy, busy, month. I want, for once, to ENJOY a summer. I must make a better effort with my time. I should have brought Herry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to the beach to read, but I have finished it already the day I got it. I am now anxious for the next installment.

Alas, it is looking like work, and more work for the remainder of the summer. I should take heart. I have time off at Christmas and isn't that better after all?

New Word For The Day

phlogiston theory

Definition

"Phlogisticated” substances are those that contain phlogiston and, on being burned, are “dephlogisticated.” The ash of the burned material is held to be the true material

This is my new word of the day. Let's see how I can use it in a sentence.

"Oh my goodness! I have been dephlogisticated! Call the police!"

"My plants are in need of an extra squirt of phlogisticate."

"She was the epitome of phlogistication at the New Years Eve Party."

"I ate too much phlogiston and now I have the runs."

"Phlogiston is located halfway between Crapistan and Forgetmenotville. It's principle export is phlogs, flugels, blogs, cogs, and burpguns."

"Phlogiston: phillistines who blog online."

Testing My First Post

Well, I must admit I have been inspired by James Lileks and am testing my first blog post.