The Coalition of the Swilling

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June 30, 2005

No Brewski, No Chewski ~ We're Throughski

Maybe the Dutch are finally done being sensitive.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A lunch meeting between a leading parliamentarian in Belgium and counterparts from Iran has been canceled because the beer-loving Belgian could not stomach a ban on alcohol...
... But he said lunch had been canceled because the Iranians, who as Muslims do not drink alcohol, wanted their hosts to do the same.

Then the Iranians compound their egregious lack of good manners as Global Citizens when...

...Iran's parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel insisted he would not shake hands with the female president of Belgium's Senate.

Anne-Marie Lizin, a Socialist, then canceled their meeting. She said in a statement that Iranians should respect local customs in Belgium, just as Belgians should in Iran.

Ya think?? Maybe if more people said 'bite me!', these Muslim politicians would be forced to rethink their approach. All this bowing and kowtowing simply emboldens them; feeding those fascist, fanatical egos. After all, how outrageous was a demand if the host always acquiesces?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:54 PM

A New Type Of "Extra-Credit" Assignment

High school chemistry wasn't this fun when I was in school:

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A chemistry teacher who was at least three months behind on her car payments gave passing grades to two failing students who stole and burned her car so she could collect insurance money, a fire investigator said.

It seems to me that they have demonstrated a practical, working knowledge of chemical reactions.

I have to admit at being more than a little troubled by this, however, because I can't help but think what sort of extra-credit activities would be acceptable to, say, Ward Churchill...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)

Mexico's Newest Industry

Thanks to Pravda we learn of Mexico's newest growth industry: facilitating the smuggling everyone who wants to into the US. Not a bad deal, really. The mexicans collect fees as the folks enter, a few helpful bribes along the way to get them to the border, and from those who get caught and sent back even more fees and bribes. A great business.

I want a big wall on our southern border. A very big wall.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:44 AM | Comments (2)

June 29, 2005

76 Strum-pets Led the Big Parade...

The Swede Ulf Hjertstrom, held hostage with Aussie Doug Wood, is trying to arrange a virgin or two for his former captors. He...

...has hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one...

"...I have now put some people to work to find these bastards," he told the Ten Network today.

"I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one."

Sounds like it's time to get medieval on their asses and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. I sure wish he had a Paypal donation button. Off with their heads!
A Swill Salute to the Swede and another one to: LGF.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:58 PM | Comments (9)

Ay Caramba!

Coming just a few weeks after Presidente Fox defended illegal Mexican immigration to the US on the grounds that "they do the jobs even the blacks won't do" take a look at Mexico's latest bid to host next year's NAACP convention.

Un
Be
Lieve
Able.

(but remember Bushchimpymchitler is the eeevuul republican, mmkay?)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:31 PM

Finally An Honest Politician

But of course he still weasels:

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- A New York state lawmaker says he's embarrassed, after he mistakenly sent out an e-mail message that referred to his constituents as "idiots."

Assemblyman Willis Stephens says he thought he was sending the e-mail to an aide. Instead, he sent the note to nearly 300 people on an online discussion group that focuses on the community of Brewster.

The message included the comment that he was "just watching the idiots pontificate."

Within an hour of sending the message Monday morning, Stephens sent another e-mail apologizing for the slip-up.

Yes, the usual "I'm sorry I sent the email" not "What I said was wrong."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:48 PM

Family Values

Alright, I'm an old fuddy-duddy. But this just sickens me.

An East Texas college student finally learned why she'd gained weight and was having abdominal pain — she was about to give birth.

Annie Cohen was three days shy of 19 on the morning of June 16 when, after a night of tossing and turning, she walked out into her yard to try to catch some winks in her neighbor's swing seat.

"I had been having pains for about a week," the Marshall, Texas, woman told The News-Journal of neighboring Longview. "I thought maybe it was the bed, so I went outside to lay in the swing."

She didn't even make it that far. Instead, Cohen, already the mother of a 3-year-old, figured out she was in labor and grabbed the pole of her own swing set.

"It was one big push for the baby and a little one for the placenta," Annie Cohen told the newspaper.

"It was like a natural instinct," marveled her mother, Julie Cohen. "She knew to push to turn the baby's shoulder and to get the baby out."

After the delivery, Annie Cohen ran inside, yelling at her mother to call 911.

"I said 'Why?'" recounted Julie Cohen. "She said, 'There's a baby in the yard.' I said, 'Whose is it?' She said, 'It's mine.'"

Yes, isn't my special little angel so great? 19 years old, already has a 3 year old, out and about getting knocked up and doesn't realize it ("It's a big surprise," said Julie Cohen. "I thought she was just really liking her pizza."), pops out the baby in the front yard and leaves it there to go inside.

WTF is up with these people?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:26 PM | Comments (16)

Ward Churchill: Kill Your Officers

Pirate Ballerina has the text of the latest speech by Ward:

You cannot maintain a military projection of force in the field when your own troops are taking out the line officers who are directing them in combat. It is as simple as that. Conscientious objection removes a given piece of the cannon fodder from the fray; fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect.

Nice, huh? Isn't inciting murder/mutiny somewhat outside the realm of 'free speech"? Perhaps I'm just not edjumacated enough to understand his scholarly discourse.

(hat tip Ken)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)

Bless Their 'Lil Pointy Heads

MSNBC has video link on their home page called "Explaining Shark Attacks". I shall endeavor to explain it now, saving our gentle readers time. We will title this segment: Sister Knows Sharks
First, a basic equation.
+ +

=

Got that?

Now, for my helpful "Rules of Engagement":

1. It's their ocean, not yours. Never forget that.
2. The is your friend. NEVER EVER swim before/at dawn or close to dusk. Sharks like to feed when it's dark, since fishies can't see them. And, coincidentally, neither can you.
3. Do NOT swim near a guy with a pole and a handfull of bloody bait or rotting shrimp. That trail of goo is to a shark and he will be coming to find it, especially if the guy with the pole is reeling something in. The thrashing of that fish only energizes the
' for dinner' circuit in his little shark brain. You don't want to be in the way, 'cause he's coming in a big hurry with his mouth OPEN, to chomp the very first thing his fishwips touch.
4. Never EVER get in if the water is . Sharks have shitty eyesight and won't see your lilly white in the two feet of water next to the fish their nose tells them is there.
5. Should you see in the water, don't go splashing along to see what they are, or head off in a mad frenzy toward shore. is bad. Be calm, be vertical, be still, be not a , lest you become .

Okay. I've done my civic duty. Most shark attacks are cases of people visiting the area, getting in the water come hell or high..you know...because a vacation costs MONEY and they'll be damned if they're going to miss one second of time paid for. (Especially if kids are screaming 'but it looks okaaaayyyyyy, so why nnnooottttt???!!!!!') And, in all honesty, because they just don't know any better. Now you do. So be careful out there. Aloha.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 AM | Comments (6)

Lucky For Us You're "So Arrogant"

Asked in an interview with the tabloid daily Bild if he believed in aliens, Cruise said: "Yes, of course. Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?

His interviews are providing a lot more entertainment than his movies ever have. Keep talking, Scientology Tom!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:01 AM

Here We Go Again

New York to unveil redesigned Freedom Tower NEW YORK - After concerns were raised about security at the soaring skyscraper proposed as the centerpiece of the former World Trade Center site, architects went back to the drawing board.

On Wednesday, officials were to unveil a more bomb-resistant design for the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, which is to offer 2.6 million square feet of office space and is expected to become the world’s tallest building.

Morons. Just build the frickin' thing to look like the WORLD TRADE CENTER and be done with it. 'Freedom Tower'. What kinda suck-up-candy-ass name is that anyway?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:51 AM | Comments (2)

damn, Damn, DAMN BushChimpHitler !

GDP growth revised up, beats forecasts

This kinda stuff just ruins it for everybody!

Initially, the department said gross domestic product -- the broadest measure of total economic activity within U.S. borders -- grew at a 3.1 percent rate but it pushed that up to 3.5 percent a month ago before finally revising it to match the 3.8 percent rate posted in the closing quarter of 2004.

Heartless, tax cutting bastards.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:31 AM | Comments (1)

I Shouldn't Laugh

Really, I shouldn't.

Author Terry McMillan has filed for divorce from the man who inspired the 1996 novel "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," which chronicled the romantic adventures of a 40-something woman who falls for a guy half her age.

In papers filed in Contra Costa County Superior Court, McMillan, 53, says she decided to end her 6 1/2-year marriage to Jonathan Plummer, 30, after learning he is gay.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I needed that laugh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:31 AM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2005

Dr. Strangelove...

...was a potty mouth. Dude, someone's always gonna find out.

"The Indians are bastards anyway," Kissinger told the president. "They are starting a war there."

Kissinger also told his boss that he had bested Gandhi in their meeting.

"While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too," Kissinger said. "She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to go to war."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:26 PM

"US suspected of keeping secret prisoners on warships"

Yup. It's true. I seen 'um. They've even got a blue tarp on their roof, like the rest of us. But then BushChimpHitlerEvilMinionsofRove had the thing hauled back to Texass when it looked like the Truth was about to be Told. Why do you think they had to weld all those hatches back on? Nobody wants Abdul Bin Pacman running loose at the Galleria!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:14 PM | Comments (7)

Another Stupid Link Headline

From the home page link to this MSNBC story.

Feds never learned why tiger attacked Roy Horn

I guess the tiger wouldn't take a deal and wasn't talking. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the conspiracy theories offered in explanation.

He said the casino was flooded with e-mails such as this one the USDA included in its report: “If there is audio & video of the tiger attack it should be analyzed for far-UV and or high ultra sonics, as well as other triggers that might be the work of a terrorist aiming at a high profile GAY target.”

I subscribe to the "...unhinged by a woman with a beehive hairdo" theory.
I mean, haven't we all been at one time or another?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:04 PM | Comments (3)

Justice: "The Lost Liberty Hotel"

I can't wait to spend a nice weekend here and contribute to the increased tax revenues of Weare, New Hampshire:

Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.

On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.

Heheheheheh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:37 PM | Comments (3)

Aw...

Shelby Foote has died. To anyone familiar with his trilogy "The Civil War", he was a god. To anyone who watched Ken Burns' epic PBS series, he was a national treasure and as comfortable as a pair of old socks when he told his stories. Like this one, for instance...

During World War II, he was an Army captain of artillery until he lost his commission for using a military vehicle without authorization to visit a female friend and was discharged from the Army. He joined the Marines and was still stateside when the war ended.

“The Marines had a great time with me,” he said. “They said if you used to be a captain, you might make a pretty good Marine.”

UPDATE: NPR has audio of past conversations with Mr. Foote.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:36 PM | Comments (6)

Things Look Cushy...

...for Scrushy.

Ex-HealthSouth CEO Scrushy found not guilty
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Reuters) - A federal jury on Tuesday found former HealthSouth Corp. Chief Executive Richard Scrushy not guilty of orchestrating the $2.7 billion accounting fraud at the medical rehabilitation chain he founded.

Marfa should have had his lawyers.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:24 PM

E.T. Phone Home

Steve..Steve Steve Steve:

Oscar-winning director STEVEN SPIELBERG is baffled that fewer UFO sightings are made now than were made twenty years ago - because the technology to record would-be aliens is so commonplace today.

How to break this gently?

Spielberg says, "There are millions of video cameras out there and they're picking up less videos of UFOs, alleged UFOs, than we picked up in the 1970s and 1980s. There's 150 per cent more cameras, so why are we getting less from up there?

Steve Steve Steve. Perhaps because

it's a bunch of goddamned hooey!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:47 PM | Comments (3)

Maybe Tom Cruise Will Testify For Him

Scott Krause's defense will argue that the defendant believed he was trying to escape man-eating subterranean beings when he ran into Drew Reynolds' truck on Jan. 6, 2004.

Uh, ok.

In three court-ordered evaluations, the defendant stated he was fleeing subterranean beings he called "hemadrones" when he carjacked a commercial vehicle near a Nevada City, Calif., gas station and then crashed into Reynolds' service vehicle.

"Everything had to do with his escape from the hemadrones," said Nevada County District Attorney Michael Ferguson. "According to the defendant, he wasFkF afraid they were going to put him in cargo and ship him to China to be eaten."

Sounds like a guy for the Scientologists.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:15 PM | Comments (4)

Er, I'll Pass, CNN

I was perusing CNN a few minutes ago and I saw this:

Most PopularMORE NEWS • Watch Free: Video news hourly updates

• Senate passes energy bill

• Wal-Mart heir dies in plane crash | Profile | Watch Free

• Boy's leg amputated after shark attack | Map | Watch Free

While I appreciate the thought of them not charging me to watch the Wal-Mart heir die or the poor boy's leg get amputated, I'll take a rain check.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:59 PM

I Don't Recall Getting to Vote For This...

...or even asked for my opinion, so it can't have been much of an election.

The greatest song of all time
Greil Marcus on Bob Dylan and 'Like a Rolling Stone'

Not.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:15 PM | Comments (5)

Sheesh!

Exactly which one is the 81 year old?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:00 PM | Comments (6)

Some Records Were Never Meant to Bee Broken

Irish Man Fails to Set World Bee Record
TIPPERARY, Ireland - An Irish man tried to break a world record Saturday by coaxing more than 350,000 bees to land on his body, but the bees just wouldn't settle. In nearly two hours, Philip McCabe, 59, got only 200,000 black bees — or 60 pounds of them — to cover him...

... The current Guinness Record of 350,000 yellow bees on the body, or 87.5 pounds, set in California in 1998.

Ya gotta feel for the guy. (Though the thought of this competition is enough to give me hives...)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:40 AM | Comments (4)

Somebody...

...is rolling in his grave.

Trafalgar show a poke in the eye for Nelson kin
Admiral's family upset over political correctness for bicentennial of battle
LONDON - Britain celebrated one of its greatest naval victories on Tuesday but a descendant of Admiral Horatio Nelson said the Battle of Trafalgar was trying too hard not to offend historical enemies.

After Queen Elizabeth presides over the world’s biggest navy review, two fleets will enact a 19th century sea battle.

But they will be known -- neutrally -- as the red and the blue fleet rather than by country names, which has sparked an angry shot across the bows from the great great great granddaughter of the British naval hero...

...“I think the idea of the blue team fighting the red team is pretty stupid. I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle,” she added.

The historian playing Nelson in the mock battle is equally annoyed.

“If you obliterate history for the sake of political correctness, you can’t learn from the past. Nelson thought politicians were cowards. I tend to agree,” Alex Naylor said.

Indeed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:54 AM | Comments (6)

June 27, 2005

The Only Tablets Allowed in This Courthouse...

...are Tylenol. The Supreme Court says 'nyet' to the ones Moses hauled around.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:27 AM | Comments (1)

MSM and the Connecticut Land Grab

I noticed an odd thing during our weekend viewing, but wanted to check before I shot off my mouth here. Having ascertained that my initial impression was indeed correct, I will share it with you now.
KELO has fallen off the map. In one day's time.
There. I said it.
The only political/news show to mention it from the day after the decision through the entire weekend was (drumroll) PBS's NewsHour! I mean, CNN's Inside Politics had Chris Shays (R-Conn) as a guest, for gawdssake, and NOT WORD ONE. We were back to a missing blonde in Aruba, sprinkled with intermittent Mad Cows and a shark attack, as if Kelo was merely a cosmic burp in the space/time continuum.
Something's wrong with that picture.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:03 AM | Comments (4)

Bay-Sah-Baw-Roo

I grew up a Yankees fan. Born one, still am and have no clue why. One of those things like being baptised Roman Catholic, making it to about six Masses in your life but worshipping rocks and trees as an adult. One born-again or supercilious 'Christian' f*ck says a WORD about the Virgin Mary or how Catholics are the 'ones who don't want you to read the Bible' and you still lose your mind. That's how I am about the Yankees. Defend them to the death, even if I can't name Jack One on the team. Now Ebola's Aunt Cruella ~ different side of the tracks. Mets fan, bless her little pointy head. Applies for the job every time they have a managerial opening. Gets the newsletter signed by the Manager of the Moment and, every year, really considers spending her hard earned health insurance industry dollars on the summer camp they run for adults. For $3500 a head. Eat, drink and shag flies with somebody NOBODY remembers from the '67 Mets. Well, what the f*ck. She's a FAN.

Right this second, the Mets are still a SQUeek ahead of the Yankees in Game 6 of the subway series. This could be very expensive for me, as she proposed a wager weeks ago, and I agreed, in which the loser buys dinner at Pensacola's toniest establishment AND sends a tacky city souvenir to the winner. (Oh, rock on! The Yankees won 5-4 in the 9th. Buff up that VISA, baby.) Bingley subjects NJSue to evenings at Yankee Stadium, and neither he nor myself EVER set foot inside those hallowed halls as children. Major Dad was such a natural ball player, he was scouted and recruited by colleges in high school. Baseball is the default of choice in the summer remote viewing click-a-thon. I mean, in our house, 'The Natural', 'Long Gone' (for which I wrote a well received Amazon review), 'Field of Dreams', 'Major League' and 'The Sandlot' are all movies of epic proportions.
The point of the whole dissertation being...we're fans.
But our kids aren't.
Is
a
puzzlement.

Ebola's played baseball since he was a tyke - T-Ball clean up to 8th grade. We never made him. But when he had uniform and glove on, all was right with the world. Root, root, root for the home team! It didn't matter if they sucked, if he sucked (although finding out about his near-blindness ~ and the consequent addition of glasses ~ improved his batting average/aptitude markedly) or the venue sucked...it was baseball and we were tickled to be there. As a 23 year old, he can't stand to watch it. And neither can his friends.

Major Dad and I were pondering that this evening, after Ebola'd changed from the game to Comedy Central. Once past his Dad's initial 'that's-my-remote-touch-it-again-and-you-die' direction to return to the game, it was 'why don't you want to watch baseball?' It's no fun, the answer was, unless you're playing. And that's pretty much true for his generation. There doesn't seem to be the dogged devotion to a team, any team, any sport, that we enjoy. And I do mean enjoy.
Is it because people don't live in one place long enough to feel a connection with one team? Is it because players come and go so quickly that they don't become identified as the standard bearer for their club?

Or maybe it's because kids don't get to stay out anymore until well after dark. Divvying up teams, playing ball 'til their hands and knees are raw, their voices raspy from yelling 'do-over!' With not an adult in sight to spell out rules of the game, scream at a coach or berate a teenage ump. Maybe it's because their lives are so full of structured sports that the pick-up game is a thing of our memory. And the kid who might have blossomed in that 'ollie-ollie-all-in-free' winds up swallowed by the superstars of the local 'league'; playing not because they love the game, but because their father does and expects them to excel. To be the contender he knows he could have been. Expectations. I've seen a lot of ugliness on ball fields because of parental expectations. And those memories don't make for great baseball fans either.

Pffft. I don't know. It's a shame that they won't ever be attached to something that they can share, like a baseball team. Cruella loves me enough to buy me Yankee hats, but hates them enough to only buy the street vendor $5 knock-offs, since she can't bear the thought of supplementing Steinbrenner's wallet. I send her dirt on Piazza's new stripper wife. We both laugh at how poofy Keith Hernandez looks in the 'Just For Men' commercials because we both remember what a stud muffin he was, and how Nancy Seaver (of 'Tom Seaver and his lovely wife...' fame) and Bucky Dent's brain dead spouse irritated the bejeezus out of us. Stupid stuff like that.

And now she owes me one tacky New York snowglobe and a $200 dinner. Yeah, you should cover your face. Losers. Ah. Bay-sah-baw-roo.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 AM | Comments (6)

June 26, 2005

Hanging by a Thread...

...the Democratic Party's integrity, that is. The New Hampshire Union Leader spells out in print what we noted in our 'lynching apology' post last week. Only their eloquence quotient trumps ours, so we felt we had to share.

Shifting the blame for an atrocity
JUST WHO OWES lynching victims an apology?

Judging from some of the commentaries we've seen, you'd think the eight Republicans who did not cosponsor the Senate's lynching apology — including Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu — had all been unmasked as former Ku Klux Klan members. (The bill passed on a voice vote with no objections.) But alas, the only former Klansman in the Senate is a Democrat, which brings us to the issue at hand.

Major Dad's point is reiterated"...anti-lynching bills often had majority support in the Senate throughout the 20th century. What stopped them from passing was not the collective action of the entire Senate, but repeated filibusters by a minority of Southern senators.
Who were those senators? They were Democrats."
Then the party is taken mightily to task...

...What of the Democratic Party?

It was the Democratic Party, not the U.S. Senate, that defended the institution of slavery, passed Jim Crow laws in the South, worked hand-in-hand with the Klan to repress, murder — and, yes, lynch — black Americans, and stood in the schoolhouse door to block black progress.

According to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, "Leading Democrats supported the Klan, and the party was largely indistinguishable from it. Klansmen beat, maimed, intimidated, and even killed Republicans of both colors who challenged them at the polls, or blacks and whites who tested the bounds of white supremacy by providing education or relief to the black freedmen."

Frederick Douglass in 1892 urged all blacks to support only Republican politicians...

Good stuff and wowsahs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:17 PM | Comments (6)

Adieu, Sweet Prince...

...of Darkness, that is. The Capital Gang is no more, as of last night.
For civilized political discourse, there was no better hour on the tube.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:59 PM

I'm Not Dead...Wait A Minute, Yes I Am

From the Land of the Rising Sun we get this tale of a family out for a nice drive...the only problem being that mom had been dead for a few days:

A young mother found at the scene of a car crash near Tokyo in which her husband and infant son were killed had been dead for at least a day before the accident happened, police were quoted as saying on Sunday.

I've heard of people using mannequins to get into HOV lanes, but this...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:25 PM | Comments (2)

"One, Two, Five" "Three Sir!"

Tim Blair has a very interesting discussion going occasioned by the NYT Editorial Page's grasp of math. The editorial is such a muddled mess that I can only think of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch clerics

or better yet the Spanish Inquisition sketch:

Cardinal Ximinez : NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise!

(Cardinal Ximinez of Spain regards them with a nasty grin. He is flanked by Cardinal Biggles [in aviator's helmet] and Cardinal Fang.)

...Surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our three weapons are fear, and surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our four...no...

No one expects the New York Times Editorial!

Pinch : NOBODY expects the Op-Ed! ...Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the our own brilliance, and Maureen Dowd in a nice red uniform - Oh damn!

PS- zeppenwolf's comment in Tim's thread is a must read.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:29 AM

June 25, 2005

What I'm Wearing Today

It will be curious to see how many people in Joisey make a call to WI and report on my progress...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:20 PM | Comments (4)

A Kelo Irony I Missed

As I and many much smarter folks have pointed out, a very real danger from the Kelo decision is that public officials will be bribed out the wazoo from people looking to get their hands on attractive parcels of privately held land.

Thanks to a reader at Power Line for pointing out what I in my drunken furor missed:

UPDATE: Bob Cunningham adds: "[T]he irony is that the case defers to the political process in Connecticut, where the governor has just been convicted of malfeasance from undue influence by....real estate developers!"

Heh indeed, as someone might say.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:56 AM

Hooray For Clarence Thomas

Randy Barnett at Volokh has found a beautiful summation in the dissent by Clarence Thomas of the problems with the Supreme Court in the Kelo decision:

"Something has gone seriously awry with this Court’s interpretation of the Constitution."

If Thomas were a liberal his praises would be sung to the highet heavens; since he has the misfortune to be a conservative he is pilloried.

*Update: In the comments there a reader provides this wondrous quote from "Judge Kozinski's Silveira dissent:" (I suppose that means something to lawyers - Ed.)

"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed--where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees-- however improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:36 AM | Comments (2)

June 24, 2005

Another "Mother Of The Year" Nominee?

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. -- A deputy Tasered an intoxicated 13-year-old girl who was kicking and scratching two hospital nurses, officials said.

April Rene Burleson, who is 4-foot-9 and weighs 90 pounds, had a blood alcohol level of 0.175 percent and was under the influence of marijuana and the prescription drug Xanax, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

Nice, huh? She was out wandering around at 3 am and I guess Momma wasn't too concerned, but she did agree to let the deputy take the girl to the hospoital.

No word about any charges being filed against the mother for allowing her daughter to get involved with booze...and pot...and xanax, but you know the lawsuits will be flying about them Tasering her little baby.

Disgusting.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:50 PM | Comments (14)

What Women Really Talk About In The Bathroom

Dana at Note-It Posts slips up in the midst of some well-founded child rearing guidance and reveals to men what women really talk about when they go off to the loo in a pack. Fellas, it's worse than we ever feared:

Dana: Many, many important decisions about sex and procreation and vehicle purchase have been made during those trips.

Susie: “Well, he still won’t agree to the damn minivan.”

Jill: “Asshole.”

Mary: “Yeah.”

Susie: “Yeah.”

(pause)

Susie: “I guess I’m gonna have to withhold sex.”

Mary: “Don’t be so hasty now… have you tried burning his food?”

Susie: “Yep. Every dinner this week.”

Mary: “Hmmm….”

Jill: “Fuck that. It’s time to go nuclear.”

Susie: “You mean…?”

Jill: “Yep. PMS.”

Mary: “Wow. You really want her to have that minivan.”

Jill: “Damn straight! She does carpool on Tuesdays and Thursdays!”

Susie: “OK, so it’s settled then. No sex for Bob for a week, because I have PMS. And THEN no sex NEXT week because I’m on the rag. At the end of the two weeks, he’ll be begging me to buy that fucking van, if I’ll only let him have the coochie.”

Mary: “Yeah. But… what happens the week after that, when you REALLY have your period?”

Jill: “Then she says she needs to visit the doctor to have it ‘checked out’.”

Susie: “Oh my god, he’ll shit! Think I can get leather seats out of that?”

Jill and Mary: “Toooootally.”

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:25 PM | Comments (6)

The House Says "Not So Fast There, Friendly Skies!"

House votes to block UAL pension default
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to block bankrupt United Airlines from defaulting on its pension plans and shifting them to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC)

The provision was attached to a government spending bill expected to pass the chamber later in the day. The bill would still have to pass the Senate before it could take effect

The article notes that, since the PBGC doesn't spend 'government-appropriated funds', the effectiveness of this is up in the air, but at least they're willing to put their names (30 Republicans went along) on something attempting to stop this particular form of highway robbery. We can hope they'll find the cajones to address more current injustices.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:51 PM | Comments (1)

Panties in a Wad

NOT about the the gubment takin' yo land, although one would think that would be a major topic of conversation. No, it's about Baby Bob, Quizno's cute little spokesguy with the computer generated lips...
Whoa!! Here he is.
(Wrong 'Quizno's cute little guy with computer generated lips'.)
So anyway, I'm reading about these people who have nothing better to do than say he's creepy, weird, a 'real life Chucky-doll' (??!), blahblahblah. Turns out 'he' is a 'she', but on with my story. Through the link to the Spongemonkey debate, I get nosin' around and stumble on a gem. Yes.
The Rubberband Man.

Have your speakers up and running so you can be-bop, too. Hit the TV Spots link, the 'More' rubberband ball for 2 pages and watch 'The Making of Rubberband Man'. The new ones are pretty damn funny, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:19 PM | Comments (2)

"Witsie"

NAS Pensacola is dotted with these gorgeous brick retaining walls, almost to a one filled with elderly oaks. They mimic the line of the Fort Barrancas Redoubt and the 1836 Spanish Wall, whose remaining bits snake through the oldest parts of the base.
This particular one is a hop, skip and a jump west of the old base hospital. It crowns a hill that's covered with great, stretching live oaks festooned with Spanish Moss, swale to crest. You might have seen this one and thought little of it. Or maybe the crumbling brick staircase cut into the slope, it's antiquarian risers ornamental and uncomfortable. But you'd miss something if you drove on by, like I used to do. Major Dad went for a run one day and took me up the hill, to show me what he'd found.

As soon as you step foot under that canopy and smell that 'Florida' smell - the mouldering plantlife and damp, heavy air - you're transported back in time. Running along the spine of the rise, which overlooks the Pass, is a brick pathway that's seen better days; sections of it earth hove or disappearing in miniature sinkholes. But in it's day, it had to be a saving grace for the occupants of the ancient base housing behind it. A walk along that ridge would be bathed in shade and washed cooler by the Gulf breeze wafting in off the water around four every afternoon. Oh, it's magical in itself. But then you notice an unpretentious piece of statuary tucked in behind those big trees, it's weatherbeaten countenance mirroring the trunks of the younger trees flanking it.

'Oh' you think, 'a plaque'. The DAR, Officers' Wives, or any of the myriad other plaque hangers who abound on military installations. So you read it. And your heart contracts.

He was 8.
I come by to say 'hi' as often as I can. It's a beautiful place, but awful lonely and I hate to think of him by himself for so long. I hope the kids in the houses behind him splash in the bowl and make lots of noise.

But in case they don't, I stop by to talk to Witsie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:28 AM | Comments (2)

More On Kelo

God Damn I'm pissed. Alright, I'm pissed for a variety of reasons but I'm gonna take it out on those five desicated assholes in black robes. Can someone explain this decision to me? It's like the old Monty Python "Dennis More" skit coming to life

He robs from the poor, and gives to the rich; Stupid bitch

Here you have the 5 left/liberal Justices supporting taking private property from people who will invariably be on the poorer end of the spectrum and giving their property to wealthy real estate developers. Hello?

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including -- but by no means limited to -- new jobs and increased tax revenue," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

Increased tax revenue. And think of the one institution that is always squarely in the sights of the left that pays no taxes? Churches. Any church, anywhere, regardless of denomination, is now open to this line of attack, as is any private citizen who owns any property that is attractively sited. That nice cabin on the lake? See ya!

Look, I freely admit that there is a part of me that would love to see Ted Kennedy booted out of Hyannis Port for something that would generate "taxes and jobs" like, say, I dunno, a Hooters (come to think of it, Ted might not mind that, either...), but it is so wrong for the government to take property in this manner. "Private property" has no meaning if this is allowed to stand.

I think every candidate for office should state very clearly where they stand on this. I want this to be overturned and countermanded by very clear legislation on the state and federal levels.

*update: Donald Sensing, as always, says it better.

*update: Florida Cracker has a link that will let you email your elected representatives. I did it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:00 AM | Comments (7)

June 23, 2005

Say Hello To MacInslosh™

Friends, summer is upon us, and that means good food, good friends, and lots of drinking, especially drinking of chilled wine. I admit it: in the winter I'm all about top-flight kick-butt reds. In the summer, however, I let my hair down a bit (metaphorically, mind you, as there is presently very little to let down, and no, I'm not a member) and I enjoy cold white and blush wines.

Well, about 5 years ago I had the shell of a Mac Classic lying about,

and I thought "what can I do with this thing?" I mean, MacAquariums were so 90s....what to do.

As always, my bride provided the inspiration, as she had recently bought 2 boxes of wine (an invention that we owe to our Coalition of the Swilling partner Australia). Lightning struck, and the MacInslosh was born...

The observant viewer will notice the cut-outs in the front grill, and the hints of styrofoam peeking through:

I took out the mother board, all the various guts and the crt, smoothed off all the rough edges, and added some foam insulation. To replace the screen front, I made a desktop on a working Mac SE, named the hard drive "MacInslosh" and added the text and icons that you see on the picture here:

took a screen shot of it and then printed the screen shot on an overhead projector transparency:

Oh look, 10 liters of wine have been discovered on my dining room table!

Bladders o'booze:

10 liters fits perfectly in a compact Mac's shell (and winds up looking like C3P0's dream date, to boot):

After carefully threading the taps through the holes cut into the front grill of the 'Slosh I re-attach the front piece and stand her up:

Pop her into the back fridge:

And we are in business!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:30 PM | Comments (12)

Until they come up with a bionic eye....

they won't be hearing from me yet. But I can hope.

Posted by Crusader at 03:29 PM | Comments (5)

Same Tongue, Different Pole

WunderKraut discovers that one of my favorite child actors has grown up...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:44 PM | Comments (3)

Fitting that we may not own our bodies soon...

if the AMA has their way. Of course, I am safe, since no one wants what’s left of me for medical use, though I am sure my fertilizer value is high.

Posted by Crusader at 12:47 PM | Comments (5)

The Supreme Court Outlaws Private Property

Oh good God. Now the SCOTUS says it's ok to take private property and give it to private developers.

Nothing is safe from the reach of government now. And you can thank the Gang of Five:

...Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

Thank God Congress is hard at work protecting the flag instead of, oh, say something silly like our constitutional rights that are actually mentioned in the goddamned Constitution!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:50 AM | Comments (16)

Tom Cruise

Finally, the truth has been revealed...

He is a Sith Lord!

(hat tip to Fazz Munkle)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:05 AM

Brilliance in Editorial Cartooning

(Buuhwahahahahahaha!!)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:58 AM | Comments (9)

June 22, 2005

Why is Congress wasting time on....

this? Why are they screwing with a document most seem to ignore anyway? God, I hope this goes down in flames......

Posted by Crusader at 04:37 PM | Comments (6)

Would Your Parents Accept This "Apology"?

Mine wouldn't:

"Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," the Illinois Democrat said. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies."

No "I was wrong" but just the usual "I'm sorry if I offended you" crap. Useless garbage.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:51 PM | Comments (1)

June 21, 2005

Speaking of Ships

It's gone.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:41 PM | Comments (1)

Happy Summer From Sandy Hook!

And a heartfelt Thank You to everyone who keeps her flying free.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:56 PM | Comments (3)

Solar Sailing

This announcement has everyone from the Instapundit on down all a-twitter. But if you look at the graphic illustrating the project, anybody would recognise it as this:

From 23 years ago, a little movie called 'Tron'. (Never saw it? Oh! Please do.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:32 PM | Comments (9)

So, Bingley...

How were the cheeses?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:11 PM | Comments (2)

Here's to Tears For Fears

Police: Lions free kidnapped girl

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.

The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa...

"...A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."

I know I'm a sucker, but I just love these kinda stories.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)

Tonight, CBS 8 p.m.EST/PT

(We'll see how many 'Lawrence of Arabia' quotes make the cut.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM | Comments (4)

June 20, 2005

Schmaybe, Schmaybe Not

A thought about this weekend's U.S. Open (won in magnificent form by Michael Campbell, by the way) and all the
'will Tiger beat Jack' speculation. We knocked it around a little here, too. (Had to drown out the incessant droning and reverent incantation of 'Payne Stewart this, Payne Stewart that, eerily like Payne Stewart there', taking a page out of NASCAR's Earnhardt moans and groans ~ so give it a rest already!) What we came up with was a qualified 'probably' and only for the Major win category. I mean, old Tiger's halfway there. Where we both agreed 'it will be a cold day in Hell before Tiger gets close' is the runner-up column. The Golden Bear has 18 SECOND places in Majors, on TOP of those 18 firsts. WHILE slogging around the country from tournament to tournament in a station wagon, with Nancy, the five kids and puppies for company. Tiger, on the other hand, just tied the knot this year, so his life has been golf. Even with the myriad advantages, it looks like he's only been second twice, usually ending up in the pack if he doesn't win. Now tied with Ben Hogan and Gary Player is a far from shabby spot to hold and we all know that berth is only temporary. But for overall Championship play in a Major setting, we boldly vote 'Jack'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:15 PM | Comments (3)

I May Not Live To See The Dawn

But I can not resist posting this quote:

You can take the girl out of Wellesley, but you can’t take Wellesley out of the girl.

It's been nice knowing you guys.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:32 PM | Comments (4)

...When They Pry My Cold Dead Fingers From The Mug

An incredibly condescending article in the Washington Post on Javanomics.

At a Starbucks across the street from Seattle University School of Law, Kirsten Daniels crams for the bar exam. She's armed with color-coded pens, a don't-mess-with-me crease in her brow and what she calls "my comfort latte."

She just graduated summa cum laude , after three years of legal training that left her $115,000 in debt. Part of that debt, which she will take a decade to repay with interest, was run up at Starbucks, where she buys her lattes.

Part of the $115,000 debt Kirsten Daniels of Seattle incurred to finance law school went toward her regular caffeine fix.

The habit costs her nearly $3 a day, and it's one that her law school says she and legions like her cannot afford.

David Adesnik fisks this with both barrels, and the result is lovely. As the Man says, read the whole thing.

What an interfering, nosey-assed article.

To quantify the craziness, Lim distributes coffee-consumption charts. One shows that a five-day-a-week $3 latte habit on borrowed money can cost $4,154, when repaid over 10 years. She also directs students to a Web site she helped create. The "Stop Buying Expensive Coffee and Save Calculator" ( http://www.hughchou.org/calc/coffee.cgi ) shows that if you made your own coffee and for 30 years refrained from buying a $3 latte, you could save $55,341 (with interest).

Inside the Starbucks across from the law school, Daniels seemed surprised -- but unmoved -- to hear all this. "I guess I never had done the math," she said. "On the other hand, I would be a very crabby person without my comfort latte."

Therein lies the rub for those who would curb latte consumption with pocketbook reasoning. As Lim concedes, "no one pays any attention."

Perhaps because you are a fool. Who needs internet? Who needs parking? Who needs counselors? Toilet paper? Wouldn't the money be better spent elsewhere? Why don't you just STFU and let people decide where, when, and how to spend their money? And yes, it's their money even if borrowed.

Asshat.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:17 PM | Comments (6)

GMC Redux

According to MSNBC.com, there's fixin' to be a dust up twixt the dinosaurs at GM and the always feisty UAW. Fingers are pointing like light sabers...

As GM's engine stalled this year, CEO Rick Wagoner has laid much of the blame on the automaker's runaway health-care costs.

Now, no one's here to say the UAW doesn't have the sweet deal from hell, always has (and should be looking at how to bend before it all breaks), so there's probably a fair amount of truth in that statement. A statement made all the easier to issue thanks to United Airlines, their pension default and PBGC. But our gentle readers know, as right-to-work as we are, we'd tend to go along with the union's situation assessment for the current slide in GM's fortunes.

The UAW fired back that GM can't "shrink its way" to prosperity, but instead needs to design cars people want..."

..."If we don't fix some of the basic problems that exist when it comes to the product," UAW president Ron Gettelfinger told NEWSWEEK, "then it seems to me that no matter what we did, it wouldn't be enough. Ever."

Um, yeah. Your stuff's WEAK there, Mr. Wagoner. FUGly weak. Couple that with quality problems, the much-more-appealing products from the competition (American manufactured in many instances) plus the current price of gas, and it looks like GM stands for Gumby Made.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:43 AM | Comments (5)

I Knew I Liked This Girl...

Did Tom Cruise try to recruit Scarlett Johansson to Scientology? The “Lost in Translation” star was expected to co-star with Cruise in “Mission: Impossible III” but was dropped because of “scheduling conflicts.” But it seems that there may have been other conflicts as well. Cruise invited Johansson to a Scientology center where he showed her literature about joining his controversial church, according to a report. “After two hours of proselytizing,” according to RadarMagazine.com, “Cruise opened a door to reveal a second room full of upper-level Scientologists who had been waiting to dine with the pair, at which point the cool-headed ingénue politely excused herself.”

Man, how scary was THAT? One of those hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin escapes, like trying not to get sucked up by the UFO beam even though they're saying 'do not run, we are your friends', then going missing for forty years, while the elders do weird experiments on your brain and force you to breed and birth obscene humanaliencruiseoids and then you come back in one piece, damaged but not destroyed and get a series on Fox and have to relive it over and over for 22 episodes a season...that would suck.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:18 AM | Comments (4)

June 19, 2005

Who's Your Buddy, Who's Your Pal...?

Heard about the four hostages rescued by the Marines yesterday? Gitmo does indeed sound like a Gulag if you've only read the WaPo's version. Jeez, even the headline "At Least 50 Insurgents Killed In Western Iraq, Marines Say" makes no mention of what they found. That finally appears paragraphs down, describing the unfortunate fellows only as...

"After a firefight Saturday morning, they raided a house and found four Iraqi men blindfolded, shackled and badly bruised in a room concealed by curtains." and "The rescued men, all of whom appeared to be in their twenties and thirties, had welts and bruises on their faces and backs and were taken to a medical facility for treatment, Chase said."

The Marines who found it were "shocked" and it appeared to be a "very bad place", but the guys were just 'badly bruised'? What gives? Sounds like Senator Durbin's Gitmo, doesn't it?
But then, CNN, damn their eyes, has an actual correspondant with the troops, who had a whole different take on what those four guys looked like, not to mention their headline:
"Arraf: Marines rescue tortured hostages as battle rages".
Tortured? Read on.

Jane Arraf, CNN's senior Baghdad correspondent, is embedded with U.S. troops taking part in the mission. She spoke with CNN anchor Betty Nguyen by phone during the pitched battle.

ARRAF: What I see in front of me is absolutely heartbreaking. It's two of four hostages who are being taken away, rescued. They were rescued this morning. They're Iraqi, and they were found in this complex that Marines first thought was a car-bomb factory. In fact, they did find what they believe was a potential car bomb or suicide car bomb.

But inside this complex, they found something even more sinister -- four Iraqis who were handcuffed, their hands and feet bound with steel cuffs. They're now being taken away for medical treatment, one being borne away on a stretcher.

The man in intense pain that they're trying to get into a vehicle, has been tortured, he says, and has all the marks of being tortured with electricity. His back is crisscrossed with welts. The other man is even ... in worse shape. Their crime was to be part of the border police.

The Marines came in here this morning, rescued them. The battle is still raging around us. I don't know if you can hear the gunfire, but this is a major offensive to get rid of insurgents and foreign fighters in this city near the Syrian border....

... Two young men say they don't know why they were seized. They say they didn't hear the voices of their captors, only people whispering in their ear that they were going to be killed.

But we have just watched the two who were most badly treated be carried out of here for medical equipment, one of them on a stretcher, an older man who worked for the border police, along with his colleague...the Marines showed us the room where he says he was hung by his feet, his head dipped in water and then tortured with electric shocks repeatedly.

One of the other men, the other border police, was too weak, really, to tell us what had happened. But he obviously was in very, very bad shape.

They were rescued this morning as Marines and Iraqi forces came into this complex, which included an underground bunker, weapons stockpiles and other things, and found them here. Their captors have fled.

According to Joe Biden on Meet the Press this morning, Senator Durbin has released a 'big mistake to say that' letter, but, as of this moment, I haven't seen that anywhere. The cynic in me wonders if the CNN version (and the video of Marines using bolt cutters to release emaciated ankles and wrists from shackles...) had anything to do with his sudden bout of remorse. What an ass. And he should send a big juicy fruit basket to the WaPo for trying to help him out.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:57 PM | Comments (3)

Happy Father's Day to...

the Bestest Dads I know . Those little moments with you mean the most.

Hugs and biggest kisses to my heroes ~ Major Dad, Bingley, Crusader, Mountain Man, Mr. Summers, the Squid Terrorist and the Dads who stop by here to visit. We loves ya!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:21 AM | Comments (6)

June 18, 2005

Why Radar Is A Good Thing

Coming home on Thursday we hit a thick fog bank between the Verrazano Bridge and Sandy Hook, and visibility went down to under 50'. When you're doing 30+ knots on a boat with 300 people on it across one of the busiest stretches of ocean in the US, it's nice to know (well, hope) that the Captain can see if there's anything in our path.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)

June 17, 2005

A 'Fight For The Right to Swill' Update

As a result of consumer pressure for change and the Supreme Court ruling, other states are also thoughtfully considering the model direct shipping bill, including New York and Rhode Island, to name two.

But not Michigan.

Michigan state legislators are considering two bills (House Bill 4959 and Senate Bill 600) strongly supported by the Michigan wine wholesalers that, if passed, will remove intra-state direct shipping for Michigan consumers and wineries, which is vital to the economic livelihood of the state’s 40 family-owned and operated wineries. Nida Samona, Chairwoman of the State of Michigan Liquor Control Commission, recommended to Michigan legislators that the state ban ALL shipments, a huge step backward in the 20 year trend toward augmenting the current system with legal, regulated direct shipments.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:44 PM | Comments (9)

I Thought at First...

...this headline was about Mr. Summers.

Rare chatty songbird spotted in California

Then I read...

Dropping her equipment, Lina focused her binoculars on the bird — a male perched on a branch about 30 feet away, singing and shaking his tail feathers. As she called her supervisor about the discovery, a female joined him and did a copulation dance.

...so never mind.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:32 PM | Comments (4)

I Cannot Begin to Tell You How Pissed I Am...

...that THIS is gone.
I didn't even know they had one...and it's gone.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:20 PM | Comments (14)

I'm Sorry Your Life Sucks There

But so does everyone else's, you piece of shit. At least you'll know what's coming at you. And I hope it makes you cry like a little girl.

The U.S. military charged a staff sergeant from the New York National Guard with murdering his two commanders at a base outside Baghdad, in what is believed to be the first case of an American soldier in Iraq accused of killing his superiors.

The military initially concluded that the June 7 deaths of Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, of Milford, Pa., were caused by a mortar round.

But this week the military charged Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez of Troy, N.Y., with two counts of premeditated murder, according to a statement issued in Baghdad on Thursday.

Martinez, 37, is a supply specialist with the Headquarters Company of the 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard. Esposito, 30 and the father of a 1-year-old girl, was company commander and Allen, 34 and a father of four, was a company operations officer.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:39 AM | Comments (12)

Operation Murambatsvina

What would your local civic leaders name their latest urban clean up campaign? Especially one aimed to "...weed out all criminal elements countrywide"?

Well, if your local alderman was Robert Mugabe, and you were poor and destitute and lived in a shack, he'd call it "Operation Murambatsvina" -- drive out trash, with the trash being, well, you, natch.

Police Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, quoted Tuesday in a government newspaper, said that 21,194 "illegal structures" had been demolished nationwide, and 32,435 people arrested since "Operation Murambatsvina"...began May 19.

Imagine the outcry if our Zionist Overlords demolished 200 shacks, let alone 21,000. However, this should assuage the International Community of Concerned Head Tilters:

Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere said Monday that people would be moved on to an "appropriate place," adding that there is "nobody in Zimbabwe who does not have a rural home."

That's a relief.

Update:

Gosh, it was such a success they've extended the program! Now they've displaced 250,000 people.

No word from Kofi Annan if he's "deeply concerned" yet.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)

Word of the Day

Brobdingnagian \brob-ding-NAG-ee-un\ adjective
: marked by tremendous size

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:40 AM | Comments (8)

It's Amazing How Ironic Irony Can Be

Two PETA Employees Arrested on Animal Cruelty Charges in N.C.

Police found 18 dead animals in the trash bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties in North Carolina, police said. The two were picking up animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said Thursday.

Neither police nor PETA offered any theory on why the animals might have been dumped.

Local officials and veterinarians said they were told that PETA would find homes for the animals, not euthanize them.

Nice, huh? But I guess it's ok, since they're concerned and humane and stuff; it's the "gas 'em with a smile" PETA attitude that sets them apart.

Sheesh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:14 AM | Comments (4)

When The Wolves Start Feeding On Themselves...

Is it a sign the end is near? Or does it show peevish frustration? The frothing paranoia in this editorial is amazing...amazingly reminiscent of the stuff one heard/hears from left-wing nuts in the wake of the elections in the US. Read Arthur's post. "Bin Laden an american agent." Ha! Has there been a better "What have you done for me lately?" than that? Or should that be "Who have you beheaded for me lately?"

Some other tidbits:

In addition, why is Al-Zarqawi massacring innocent Iraqi citizens and [members of] the Iraqi National Guard, the Iraqi army and the Iraqi Interior Ministry?

Because that's all he can do, and he wants to destabilize the situation so that the religious fanatic thugs who back him can take over.

Al-Zarqawi undeniably aims to harm the Iraqi people and members of the Iraqi forces, who undergo training to protect [their] homeland in the future. This massacre of the Iraqi forces and the Iraqi people is meant to strengthen the American occupation of the region

No, it's meant to kill any and all who might want a more modern, westernized Iraq emerging and thereby giving other peoples in the region some dangerous ideas about how repressive a role they want religion to play in their lives.

(Thanks to Chrenkoff)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:21 AM

Heh...

Short Bus Rampage .

Posted by Crusader at 07:33 AM | Comments (3)

June 16, 2005

How Rocky J. Squirrel...

got his start.

I may need to make one of these...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:18 PM | Comments (4)

This Is Not A "Prank"

You do not throw water balloons at moving cars. People will die; possibly even you, you ass.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:32 PM | Comments (9)

Guess Who Really Poops On Mother Nature?

Not SUV-driving Right Wing Death Beasts. No, the evil-doers are granola-chomping mountain climbers.

The unsanitary conditions created by piles of human feces on Mount McKinley can cause diarrhea among climbers, which can lead to widespread problems when combined with the physical stress of a mountain expedition, according to the report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.

Of 132 climbers interviewed on the 20,320-foot (6,200-meter) peak in the summer of 2002, more than a quarter reported having trouble with diarrhea, said the report, which was conducted by officials with the Alaska Division of Public Health.

New Jersey is more sanitary than Mt. McKinley. Take that (instead of Shinnecock), teary-eyed Native American Person!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:29 PM | Comments (7)

Did Senator Durbin Mean What He Said?

Of course he did. And I read about it and thought perhaps cooler heads would prevail. He'd say 'I didn't mean any blah, blah, blah', his supporters would say 'he never meant to blah, blah, blah' and that would be the end of it. But it seems Senator Durbin is sticking with his comments.

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime _ Pol Pot or others _ that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.

He ratcheted up the hyperbole a couple notches, managing to lump us in with every group of bad guys for the past 100 years, while reciting this:

On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

Stacked up against the abominations perpetrated against the people of Russia, Europe, Cambodia, et al, broken thermostats and Christina Aguilera seem a little weak as the basis for such withering criticisms. (Ask any Jarhead/Soldier patrolling Baghdad how hot it is, every day.) Express your concerns rationally Senator, without resorting to cheap grandstanding learned at the Ted Kennedy School of Dubious Pronouncements. Maybe someone would listen.
UPDATE: Feel free to EMAIL the Senator. I did. If you love us, let us know what you said. We're nosy that way.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 AM | Comments (17)

Reparations Are Tricky...

...so we'll settle for the golf course.

Shinnecock Indians lay claim to valuable NY land

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The Shinnecock Indian tribe said on Wednesday it was seeking billions of dollars for 150 years of back rent on land it inhabited for 12,000 years in New York state in one of the largest suits of its kind.

The area is part of the Hamptons, known as a summer playground for New York's rich and privileged classes who flock there to escape the heat of the city.

The tribe filed the lawsuit against New York State in the U.S. district court in Central Islip.

The suit, which also names the governor, a local railroad and the town of Southampton, lays claim to 3,600 acres of land encompassing the upscale Shinnecock Hills Golf Course and Long Island University's Southampton College.

Don't you long for the days when a lawsuit was just for a cup of coffee dumped in your lap?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 AM | Comments (11)

June 15, 2005

Oh, She Didn't Really Say That...

But it says she did. WTF are these people thinking when they run their mouths? (Wait. They're not. Thinking, that is.)

South Africa nevertheless has a special place in Ms Winfrey's heart.

"I'm crazy about the South African accent," she said. "I wish I had been born here."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:50 PM | Comments (2)

I'm Not Saying Anyone I Know Needs To, But...

...stock up.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:41 PM | Comments (12)

"A Whale...A Great White Whale"

I'm thinking John's gonna wilt in that North Cackalacky heat this week...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:08 PM | Comments (19)

'The Family Business'

In Newsweek this week and please read it, for the incredible families profiled. But Newsweek f*cks it up again, in all their sloppy magnificence. To wit:
There are wonderful sidebars in the print edition that aren't available online. One very un-Newsweek like example:

It's Just a Different Culture
CONTRARY TO THE IMPRESSION MADE BY MOVIEMAKER MICHAEL MOORE IN "Fahrenheit 9/11", congressmen do sometimes send their children to war. Three senators and six members of the House have children in uniform, and four of them have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Maj. John Daniel Kline, son of Minnesota rep. John Kline, is slated to fly his attack helicopter in Iraq later this year with the 101st Airborne..."

Of course, the Moore-ons writing the sidebar, being Newsweek and all, don't fact check JACK. How can I hurl such an accusation? They speak of Maj. Kline's growing up an 'Army' brat and his dad's service in the ARMY from '69 to '94, Vietnam to Somalia. The problem? There's a picture of Maj. Kline and his dad, both in uniform and...Rep. Kline is a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Whoa Nelly!! What's this?? So I rocket my puddies to Google, find the good Rep.'s webpage to verify what my lyin' eyes have told me and...

Although this marks his first elected office, Congressman Kline is familiar with Washington, where he served as a military aide to Presidents Carter and Reagan for part of his twenty-five years in the United States Marine Corps. Mr. Kline’s responsibilities during this period included carrying the nuclear “football” – the package containing launch codes for a nuclear attack. He also advised our country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including the President. Throughout a military career from which he retired at the rank of Colonel, Mr. Kline served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, commanded all Marine aviation forces in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, flew “Marine One,” the Presidential helicopter, and served as Program Development Officer at Headquarters Marine Corps.

JACKasses. I mean, how hard was that? Doesn't it click with one of the hundredandtwentysevenpairsofeyeballs associated with this article that one of 'these (uniform) things is not like the other'? (Especially since Marine Corps LtGen Conway has the same damn outfit on in his photo.) For God's sake, he even flew the President's helicopter! Pffft.

I'm so pissed, I could flush something.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:07 PM | Comments (7)

When I Read This, I Was Hoping...

...she was black and then Howard Dean would have to STFU. (As IF that would happen...right.) Oh well.

Porn star Carey attends Republican fund-raiser
Candidate for California lieutenant governor rubs elbows with D.C. high rollers

WASHINGTON - Porn star, political candidate. And now you can add one more line to Mary Carey’s résumé: Republican booster.

Carey was in Washington on Tuesday to attend the President’s Dinner, an annual fund-raiser put on by the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

A few hours before the dinner, Carey met with reporters to show off her evening gown and talk about a Republican lunch she and her boss, adult film executive Mark Kulkis, attended.

“I met a lot of nice people,” Carey said of the lunch, where presidential adviser Karl Rove spoke. “I met some people who talked about helping me with donating money to my next campaign.”

She plans to run for lieutenant governor of California next year as an independent. But her trip to Washington has swayed Carey’s political leanings. She says she’s been a Republican “for a couple of days.”

Who says we're not inclusive? Everyone's welcome under the tent. (Although, if I were Mrs. Rove, I'd make sure she was just rubbing 'elbows'.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:10 AM | Comments (7)

June 14, 2005

Today Was Flag Day

Goodnight. Sleep tight.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:24 PM | Comments (1)

I Don't Get This 'Lynching' Thing

You mean to tell me that forcibly removing someone from his home, his barn, his street or his place of incarceration to HANG HIM wasn't MURDER until this Senate vote? That a noose around someone's neck by virtue of mob rule or anything other than a jury's determination isn't criminally EXECUTING someone?

Seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynchings. Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in the first half of the 20th century. The House passed three anti-lynching measures between 1920 and 1940, but the Senate passed none.

Why did they have to 'petition'? Isn't the innate heinousness of the act of MURDER, by man or mob, criminal by every measure of our law? If it is indeed so, as I hope to God it is, and the Senate was being goaded to act because, by their very silence, they were complicit in this abomination, then shame and for shame on them, the craven cowards. What they should be apologising for is that they didn't pass ANY Civil Rights legislation. The Southern Senators should be groveling for their predecessors (and current members) who wore white sheets and hoods on weekends and blocked every attempt to pass such bills for years. While people died. For shame, indeed.

My question is for the barristers of our humble company. Do you know if lynching was legal? Not tacitly condoned or ignored by authorities (some of who may have been in those mobs) when their sworn duty was to protect the rights of citizens. But legally considered MURDER and chargeable as such, as if Congress could 'end' lynchings with legislation.

I ask in light of today's rush to enact special hate crimes and circumstance statutes that seem overwrought and unnecessary. If you are murdered for whatever reason, does the state not then owe your life every measure of justice available? You are equally as dead from the car jacker, the home invader, the homophobe and the racist are you not? Perhaps I'm simplistic, but I think every life deserves the same measure of respect and you dilute the enormous impact of the offence by categorizing it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:26 PM | Comments (10)

So, Bingley BASTARD...

...what other treasures have you hoarded on your world travels? WE get the 'fat guys picking up hookers' in Rio stories, while you keep...

Brazilian STAR WARS to yourself!! Continue on, gentle readers, for more evidence of Bingley's tricksies...

Bingley goes to Brazil. Bingley speaks Portugese. But Bingley never spoke of this, now did he??? (I thinks he also speaks with fork-ed tongue!!)

Brazilian Star Wars opens with a massive car chase. A lot of cars drive into a river for no discernable reason, so either half the people involved are narcoleptics, or more likely, the movie couldn’t afford any more stuntmen and had to fill a few driver positions with chimpanzees. Fifteen minutes of car chase later, it’s explained that one of the four tramps being chased slept with the girlfriend of the army doing the chasing. I wouldn’t put too much trust in this explanation, though. There’s a slight language barrier since the movie is in Portuguese, which I do not speak, and the subtitles are in English, which the person doing the subtitling does not speak. For example, when the tramps are discussing where to camp for the night, here’s how they reach their decision:
Tramp 1: “They wait for us there.”
Tramp 2: “This is full of gnats! Some are two-story tall.”

While the tramps are sleeping, a turtle with a candle stuck to its back wanders through their camp. Two of the tramps seem to think this is as strange as I do, but both of them go back to sleep hoping this supernatural horror will go away. Then the turtle waddles by and lights the third tramp on fire. While he’s running in circles and burning alive, it becomes clear that language barrier or not, this is going to be a seriously confusing movie.

Riveting.
Swill Saute: to Chris

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:12 PM | Comments (4)

Do You Know Why Harvard Has...

...such a HUGE endowment? No? Give up?

So they can keep important research shit on the web.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:46 AM | Comments (3)

Eight Months With The Marines

A beautiful, bittersweet Picture Story from MSNBC.com.

Swill Salute: Sgt. Grit's Marine BS for a wonderful message board full of all things Leatherneck!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 AM

June 13, 2005

I Have to Wait For The Michael Jackson Verdict...

...before I can rampage like an oliphant through this. Okay, okay, a teeny, tiny taste...

Autry hears immigrant activists
Mayor declines to apologize for using the word 'illegal' in his State of the City speech.
...A coalition of advocacy group leaders sought an apology from Autry for using the term "illegal." They told him they believed his comments last week portrayed illegal immigrants as an economic burden. They said that image fuels hatred, especially when the contributions made by immigrants are left out. Members of the coalition asked Autry to use the word "undocumented" in the future.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:10 PM | Comments (12)

Scraping Crusty Dishes I Wondered...

...why 'Palmolive'? Now I know. File under 'useless information/soap appreciation'.

In 1864, Caleb Johnson founded a soap company called B.J. Johnson Soap Co., in Milwaukee. In 1898, this company introduced a soap made of palm and olive oils, called Palmolive. It was so successful that that the B.J. Johnson Soap Co. changed their name to Palmolive in 1917.

I do these things so you don't have to.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:00 PM | Comments (1)

Hey Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

A quick word on gender inequality ~ same pay for the same job. Annika Sorenstam is a rampaging monster on the courses again this year; an immutable force of nature who just put away her third MacDonald's LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP in a row. A feat roughly equivalent to Nicklaus and his green jackets. Sergio Garcia is a twitchy putz who makes doofy commercials. He managed to eke out a win Sunday at the always dangerous Booz Allen Classic and walked away with $900,000. The purse for Annika's history making Major Championship? $270,000.
I'm so mad I'm molting.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:00 PM | Comments (24)

I Love Michael Kinsley

There. I said it. I didn't say I always agree with him, but I have always admired his 'unshriekiness', especially when he was still on Crossfire. He'd turn purple at Novak or Buchanan, but never came across a table, shout someone down or resort to inanities completely divorced from the subject at hand, burbled at 130 decibels just to drown out the other view. He's simply not a rude guy and I appreciate that in this age of classless, loudmouth louts (read Begala, O'Reily, Dean, Hannity, Lawrence O'Donnell, Katrina Vander whatever, Susan Estrich*, et al ~ 'get that sh&t off my TV' being the operative phrase). He also provides the random surprise, which makes him no friends in the Blue State city fortresses. Such was this column about the Downing Street Memo red herring being waved on every Sunday talk show, which looks more like an Icelandic fish slapping dance than 'smoking gun'. You won't see his column quoted from the left anytime soon.

But even on its face, the memo is not proof that Bush had decided on war. It says that war is "now seen as inevitable" by "Washington." That is, people other than Bush had concluded, based on observation, that he was determined to go to war. There is no claim of even fourth-hand knowledge that he had actually declared this intention.

How refreshing ~ a little integrity and a little honesty
*Note her unspeakably ill mannered feud with Kinsley. What a 'C' word and I never say that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM

Great. I Hope Ebola Doesn't See This

Apple's Jobs Tells Graduates About Dropout

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Apple Computer Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates Sunday that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made because it forced him to be innovative -- even when it came to finding enough money for dinner.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:23 AM

Looks Like Tomato Juice, Smells Like Tomato Juice...

Like the old Smothers Brothers routine says, not everything is as it seems.

RALEIGH, N.C. - 3,800 patients at two hospitals run by Duke University Health System were operated on last year with instruments that were washed in hydraulic fluid instead of detergent, hospital regulators said.

Maybe they thought they could cut corners since John Edwards was busy?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:15 AM | Comments (2)

June 12, 2005

Powerful Words 2

I can't claim that this installment of the exercise came after quiet contemplation under a steaming shower head. No, this frantic scribbling ensued after a commercial during 60 Minutes (don't even start...). It was for a special, airing Tuesday, June 21st and called "AFI 100 Years ~ Movie Quotes" and we were off to the races.

When making their selections, jurors were asked to consider

Cultural impact: Movie quotes that viewers use in their own lives and situations, thus circulating through popular culture and becoming part of the national lexicon.

Legacy: Movie quotes that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.

After winnowing their 'gimmes' from our short list, we were left with the following for starters:
1) "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." ~ Casablanca
2) "Snakes! Why'd it hafta be snakes?" ~ Raiders of the Lost Ark
3) "Shaken, not stirred." ~ Any James Bond
4) "I'll be back." ~ The Terminator
5) "You had me at hello." ~ Jerry McGuire
6) "I made him an offer he couldn't refuse." ~ The Godfather
7) "What we have here is a failure to communicate." ~ Cool Hand Luke
8) "Rosebud." ~ Citizen Kane
9) "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." ~ The Wizard of Oz
10) "Houston, we have a problem." ~ Apollo 13
11) "We're gonna need a bigger boat." ~ Jaws
12) "Go ahead. Make my day." ~ Sudden Impact
13) "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?" ~ Dirty Harry
14) "They mostly come out at night...mostly." ~ Aliens
15) "Who ARE these guys?" ~ Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
16) "Toga! Toga! Toga!" ~ Animal House
17) "Life is like a box of chocolate."
"Stupid is as stupid does." ~ Forrest Gump
18) "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." ~ Apocalypse Now
19) "Well Pilgrim..." ~ The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
20) "Sometimes, dead is better" ~ Pet Cemetary
21) "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." ~ Silence of the Lambs
22) "There's no crying in baseball!" ~ A League of Their Own
23) "I feel the need, the need for speed!" ~ Top Gun
24) "Smokin'!" ~ The Mask
25) "I'm the king of the world!" ~ Titanic
26) "It's alive!" ~ Frankenstein
27) "I am Dracula" ~ well, duh
28) "Love means never having to say you're sorry." ~ Love Story
29) "You talkin' to me?" ~ Taxi Driver
30) "You'll put your eye out!" ~ A Christmas Story

I'm sure Major Dad will be lobbing more at me, as soon as he finishes his cocktail. Even if they don't make the Top 100, it's great, great fun, isn't it?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:14 PM | Comments (17)

I Wouldn't Get Between Me...

...and my cheeseburger. I can promise you a fight to the death.

"There are attempts to create ill-conceived regulations at the state level and there will certainly be rogue lawyers filing obesity lawsuits against companies," he said. "And if Michael Jacobson has his way there will be a tax on every food product that is not a vegetable. We can't let that happen."

Pravda ran an interesting piece on Striking Back at the Food Police.

WHEN it comes to food fights, John Belushi's character in "Animal House" has nothing on Rick Berman. A prominent Washington lobbyist, Mr. Berman runs the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit advocacy group that is financed by the food and restaurant industries. Two months ago, after a report in a leading medical journal cast doubt on several assumptions about obesity, he pounced.

His group ran $600,000 worth of full-page ads in a half-dozen newspapers, gloating that the study showed that obesity was not an "epidemic" but rather a lot of hype. "Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of obesity myths by the 'food police,' trial lawyers, and even our own government," the ad said.

In recent years, Mr. Berman, who is not a scientist, has emerged as a powerful and controversial voice in the debate over the nation's eating habits. In some ways, he has become the face of the food industry as it tries to beat back regulations and discourage consumer lawsuits. Food and restaurant companies, he says, are being unfairly blamed for making Americans fat and unhealthy; he adds that people are smart enough to make their own well-informed choices.

Hmmm. Here goes that personal responsibilty thing again. Thank God it's not our fault and someone's watching out for the mindless drones that we are.

Run for 30 years by Mr. Jacobson, a tenacious Ph.D. in microbiology, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has consistently shined a bright light on the nutritional ills of the standard American diet. Last year it raised $16 million, mostly from subscribers to its monthly newsletter.

To Mr. Jacobson, food companies have followed the profit motive, making bigger sizes to encourage people to spend more money, and engineering food that is full of sugar, fat and salt - and thus has an irresistible taste. As a result, he says, people have become fat...

Mr. Berman, on the other hand, argues that potato chips and hamburger combo meals have very little to do with America's ballooning waistline. The real culprits, he says, are a lack of exercise and people's unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their own diets. He points to separate studies showing that over the last two decades, the rates of exercise among American adolescents have decreased considerably, while total caloric consumption has risen only slightly.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Jacobson cites government data that show just the opposite: that the average American consumed anywhere from 166 to 560 more calories a day in 2000 than in 1980.

Oh well, pooh. Here's where my willingness to blame everyone but me for my midriff bulge was trumped by my inability let that last paragraph pass. Hopefully readers of the article will note that the last sentence of the previous paragraph pretty much explains the 1980 statistics. Kids today sit on their tender buns a great deal of the time. Whatever social dynamics one chooses to point a collective finger at ~ working parents/daycare/latchkey, deficit ridden school systems, ad nauseum ~ the fact remains that majority of children no longer have the chance to be 'kids'. The 'shoved out the door at dawn, don't come home 'til lunch' kids. Like us. Shoved out the door after lunch, not to be heard from again until Mom yelled 'dinner'. Neighborhoods aren't safe, excess scheduling of 'activities', sports or otherwise, parents who don't stroll in the door until the stroke of 7 ~ it doesn't leave time to charge around slaying dragons. That's where we burned those calories off.

When you've worked all day and are dead dog tired, it's easy to stop at Micky D's on the way home, call for a pizza, shove a Stouffers in the oven, give Jr. the soda he's whining for, 'cause you're just so damn pooped. But it's a parent who needs to set the limits. A parent who needs to make things in bags for dinner with sodas the exception, not the rule. Exhausted as I was from my time as active military, the one thing I made sure was that Ebola had a real breakfast and I made his lunch. Dinner, with that lovely SoCal traffic was always a crap shoot, so I wanted to make sure his day started out right. (Of course it bit me in the a$$ too, since I had a child who wouldn't touch boxed cereal...) He didn't need soda at 5 years old and wasn't getting it in our house. (And he sure as hell didn't get all those Capri Sun, faux fresh juice packs. Blech.) In my humble opinion, excessively, they set a taste for sweets that only develops into problems later. It has nothing to do with the ee-ville food manufacturers making sure things have 'an irresistible taste'. Bacon is damned nigh irresistible naturally. Parents set limits; they have to, 'cause kids can't. As in 'you can't eat bacon until it puts you in a coma'.

Now, as an adult, I have my own food issues. I like to blame childbirth for the change from my 'military cheesecake' photo, but it's been the cheesecakes since that are the culprits. I also sit here typing or painting, drink my red wine with dinner and grudgingly trot my expanded, um, assets only rarely on evening constitutionals. But I'm not in denial. I know I did it to myself, just as I know what the fix is and am too indifferent to get moving. On the other hand, I never finish what's on my plate (unless it's bacon) and realize that my chair does indeed push easily away from the table. Moderation is the key. 'The low fat qualities of SnackWells doesn't mean a green light to eat the whole box' moderation.

And the group is planning a new television commercial assailing the food police. The ad shows a hand yanking an ice cream cone away from a little boy and grabbing a beer away from a guy at a bar. "Do you ever feel like you're always being told what not to do?" the ad says. "Find out who's driving the food police at consumerfreedom.com."

The Nanny State is alive and well if you have to be told what not to do. And you just abdicate one more slice of your cheesecake if you let them. Don't drop the chalupa until you want to and know you should.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:07 PM | Comments (3)

I Agree: That Is Torture.

I love the headline on Drudge:

MAG: CHRISTINA AGUILERA MUSIC USED AS TORTURE IN GITMO

We owe this scandalous insight to Time magazine, evidently.

Hate to break it to them, but teenage girls have been using this very method to break down their parents for years.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 04:52 PM | Comments (2)

'Some Will Win, Some Will Lose'

So it has ever been. Watch, listen and Rock On!

(Bingley Warms Up TIE Fighter/AP Photo)
Swill Salute: to Michele.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:45 PM | Comments (2)

Goddamn I Hate Spammers

They should all be shot. Now.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:26 AM | Comments (6)

June 11, 2005

Word of the Day

quincunx \KWIN-kunks\ noun

: an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each corner and one in the middle

And I do NOT want to see this used in a sentence, especially by Mr. Summers...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:36 PM | Comments (2)

Back to Business

MSNBC.com has finally caught up to the trendsetting Major Dad fiefdom.

ALBANY, N.Y. - A line of taps pouring elegant brews from Bass to Blue Moon beckon twentysomethings packed into Bomber’s bar. But 21-year-old Elliot Cunniff orders something homier for himself and a friend.

"Two Yuenglings," he tells the bartender, explaining the attraction after a sip from his pint glass.

"Price. Color. Flavor," he says. "And the name alone, 'ying-ling,'"

We've been quaffing copious swills of this particular bottle of ambrosia for years now. The country's oldest brewery (1829), great story and yummyyummyyumyum! (Anheuser-Busch is being a bit disingenuous in their current ad campaigns.) One more painless reason to buy American.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:23 PM | Comments (4)

sigh...

Welcome to my world...
UPDATE:...and EYE. For what we failed to receive, we are truly thankful. For those of you rumbling in the feeder bands, keep your heads down and know our prayers are with you. I am tickled to death that my one and only attempt at Hurricane blogging has thus far been a bust and I can well do without any further practice. All in all, a delightful outcome by any measure.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:44 PM | Comments (6)

June 10, 2005

Ashes To Ashes, Dust To...

Pringles? Shockingly, they are suing.

Marcelle Lieberman says she visited the niche that July and her sister visited in fall 2003.

The daughters say they returned to the mausoleum together on June 10, 2004, their father's birthday, and discovered the potato chip can in their mother's niche.

And then they commited their mistake:

A locksmith opened the niche and Houston police took custody of the can, which still contained potato chips.

But times are tough at the Houston headquarters...

Wiping his mouth with his sleave, Officer John Garcia of the Houston Police Deptartment said that, unfortunately, "We can't seem to locate the evidence in this case. Anybody have a quarter I can borrow for the soda machine?"

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:19 AM | Comments (1)

Friday's 'Words to Live By'

“If you have a cat, or a dog for that matter, be careful where they urinate,” Oyabu said. “Especially keep them away from electrical appliances and wires.”

Oh, those wacky Japanese and their feline arsonistas.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:06 AM | Comments (3)

June 09, 2005

My Roof...

...still has a lovely blue tinge to it, accented by bold, white FEMA letters. We'd figured 'Gert' would be our storm, as we tend to get schmacked by the more...um...colorfully named low pressure systems (Fran, Bertha, Ivan), but here's my damn alert radio, warbling away already about T.S. Arlene. I knew the current track had us in the pipe, five by five, but hadn't expected the coastal flood warning flags to go up so quickly. However, since most of our coastal is now ghostal thanks to Ivan, I guess prudence is the better form of valor. Nobody 'round these parts needs three foot extra of anything right now, less mind high tide.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:52 PM | Comments (5)

Great Leaping Labs!!

And I really mean 'leaping lab' but didn't have room to fit the '...with the heart of a LION.

The cops had to fire so many shots to stop the lunging pit bull, the gunpowder set off an overhead smoke detector.

Still, the dog didn't die.

But she wasn't the toughest dog on the block. That title belongs to Maya, a 74-pound black Lab who took on India, the 120-pound pit bull who was mauling a sixth-grader on the Northwest Side.

Now 5-year-old Maya is being hailed as a hero -- a selfless pooch who rushed out of her home to save a stranger and has a scarred body to prove it...

...As soon as their front door opened, Maya blew by, knocking the Montiels over "like bowling pins," she said. Montiel went down and Michael hit a wall.

Maya bounded down all eight stairs of her front porch in one leap, aimed for the pit bull and bit.

Swill Salute: to Robin Roberts for Maya's heroic TOP DOG Story.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:12 PM | Comments (4)

Guys Like My Buddy Qiu...

Give online gaming a bad name:

Shanghai Number 2 Intermediate People’s Court gave online gamer Qiu Chengwei the death sentence with a two-year reprieve after he slew another player, Zhu Caoyuan, last October, according to a report published Wednesday in the official newspaper China Daily.

The pair had argued over ownership of a virtual sword that Qiu and another player had won in the online game “Legend of Mir III.” Qiu loaned the item to Zhu, but Zhu then sold it for 7,200 renminbi (around US$870). When Qiu tried to involve the police in recovering the item or the money, he was told that such virtual items are not protected by Chinese property laws. After Zhu refused to return the item or pay compensation, Qiu went to his home and stabbed him in the heart, according to the report.

The lesson here is that you should not loan out virtual items.

I think.

Or get a friggin' life.

*Update: I would have offered Zhu some of my Nigerian Oil/Diamond/Gold Winnings to help pay off his debt to Qiu...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:42 PM | Comments (2)

Hollywood Supported Kerry?

Who knew? If only those Tinsletownians, folks whose claim to fame is being able to recite words other people write, ah if only they'd let poor simple fools like me know where they stood in the election then of course I would have followed the lead of my betters. But alas, I and 62,040,605 of my fellow bovines were left to fend for ourselves and, well, we all know how that turned out.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:19 PM

Blow Up A Synagogue?

No Biggie.
But rip a page in a book? You horrid beasts!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:13 AM | Comments (4)

June 08, 2005

Hey, We Do Have Standards, After All...

The Watchful Babbler notes the story of the fellow who came to the US border with Canada carrying a bloody chainsaw...and was let in to the US. He then notes (well, actually, he notes before quoting the story)

So, Cat Stevens' plane is forced to turn away before entering American airspace, but Customs lets in a guy carrying a bloody chainsaw?

I feel compelled to point out that this fellow harmed one head with his chainsaw, while Cat Stevens has damaged millions with his guitar.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:27 AM | Comments (5)

June 07, 2005

Bring Out Your Dead...

CUSTOMER: Here's one -- nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not dead!!

Zimbabwe's president denies he's dead
‘When did I die and where?’ Mugabe, 81, reportedly asks aide

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe denied rumors that he died of heart failure last week, the official Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.

DEAD PERSON: I don't want to go on the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don't be such a baby.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:14 AM | Comments (4)

June 06, 2005

BMW Films...

are viewable here.

And yes, I do think Clive should be the nexy Bond.

Pardon me while I go peddle what I can to save for a used M5....

Posted by Crusader at 07:03 PM | Comments (2)

Sheeee's Baaaaack!

Just when it seemed like Hill was staking out Bill's Middle-of-the-Road turf she needed to hit the ATM:

"There has never been an administration, I don't believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda," Mrs. Clinton told the audience at a "Women for Hillary" gathering in Midtown Manhattan this morning.

"I know it's frustrating for many of you; it's frustrating for me: Why can't the Democrats do more to stop them?" she continued to growing applause and cheers. "I can tell you this: It's very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they're doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don't care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth."

I guess she feels secure that as the Democratic Hawk (Ha!) in the Senate she can take up some of Howard Dean's mantra.

I loved this little bit at the end, though:

On a brighter note, she said, Democrats appear to have all but "stopped" President Bush's "scheme" to overhaul Social Security. But she decried his fiscal policies, particularly Republican-backed tax cuts, saying they were ballooning the deficit and ceding "fiscal sovereignty" to countries like China (as opposed to ceding your technology, eh Hill? - ed.), which are harder to influence when they become "your banker."

If there's anybody who has experience with the Chinese as their personal banker, it's the Clintons.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:23 PM | Comments (1)

A New Meaning For "Trouser Trout"...

Well, at least she didn't have crabs.

Did Tim order sushi?

"An examination revealed 15 plastic water-filled bags holding fish allegedly concealed inside a purpose-built apron."

This is "allegedly"?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:16 PM | Comments (8)

Homeless Vets

The Watchful Babbler has a post up about the emergence of homeless GWOT vets. I certainly agree that we owe these folks a lot and should do all we can to help all of our veterans, but I can't help but wonder about the veracity of some of these claims. Given what we know about manpower shortages and how tours of duty are being extended, it just doesn't make sense that there would be too many folks in this state quite yet (the article does state that national advocates have seen only "about 70" homeless so far). Unfortunately, with our laws being what they are, if someone is mentally ill enough that they 'want' to be homeless there's nothing that can be done about it, so any furor about the government "not doing enough" to help these poor folks is 90% posturing. While I certainly will donate to the charities Babs highlights, the fascist theocrat humanitarian in me wishes more there was a way to ensure that the people who needed mental help got it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:51 AM | Comments (5)

Pffft.

Major Dad sent this over with a note from his XO that said:
"Apparently, I was born a few years too late...or maybe this is a Taliban publication..."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:10 AM | Comments (8)

Ward's Back!

A fantastic post by the Rocky Mountain News on my bud Ward Churchill that really lays out what a 'scholar' he is. From the looks of it the RMN has done a lot more research than Ward ever did...

Thanks to David Kopel at Volokh for the pointer.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:17 AM | Comments (5)

June 05, 2005

Hey! Nice Pants!

Rory Sabbatini is a god.

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 4 - Rory Sabbatini can hear the muffled chatter that follows him through 18 holes of golf. "Nice pants," someone will say from the gallery, nodding at Sabbatini's camouflage pants dotted black, brown and green. "Be all you can be," another will say.

Sometimes, Sabbatini says thank you. Sometimes, he says nothing. But every Thursday of every PGA Tour event that he plays in, he wears the pants to promote awareness of the families of men and women in the United States military killed in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

For every birdie Sabbatini makes this season, he is donating $250 to a charity called the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, to raise money for families in need. For every eagle, he donates $1,000.

Later this year, he will auction off the pants and donate that money to the charity...

...One of the Tour's longest hitters, Sabbatini is starting to crack the leader board this season after missing the cut in 7 of 11 starts to open the year.

Dude, you're already on the leaderboard for good, in my book. Thanks.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:33 PM | Comments (4)

OH, Holy Schamoly, I CAN'T WAIT !!!

Watch the Xtra Large trailer and make sure you crank that sucker up.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:18 PM | Comments (1)

June 03, 2005

Stands Alone, No Explanations Needed

When possessing India’s entire war plans didn’t help
Pakistan lost the 1965 war despite knowing India’s war plans

Mr Gohar Ayub Khan has lobbed a ‘bombshell’ across the border. He has revealed that his father, Pakistan’s first military dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan, pulled off an intelligence coup in before the 1965 war with India, when he purchased the Indian Army’s war plans for a mere Rs 20,000.

He alleges that an Indian brigadier sold away India’s military secrets in order to indulge his wife’s expensive hobby of ‘canning fruits and vegetables’.

See what happens when you let women drive? Then they wanna start canning vegetables, ruin the country, perpetuating a cycle of despair.

Swill Salute to Rob at Crab Apple Lane.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:58 PM | Comments (4)

Spot on...

Daddy, Whats a GULAG?

Well children, gather ‘round while I tell you a bedtime story of what a “gulag” is.

Once Upon a Time, there was a group of people who lived in a far away land called the “Soviet Union” the people that lived in this fairy tale land were called “ Communists”. Communists were very odd people indeed as they didn’t have castles and palaces, oh no children in fact in the land of communists, Palaces and Castles of all types were forbidden. And to make sure they were forbidden, the leaders of the communists confiscated the very best castles and palaces for their own use, lest their corrupting influences of wealth escape into the general populace.

Frank nails it. Just read the rest, already.....

Posted by Crusader at 02:26 PM

Bingley's Gone...

...for the rest of the afternoon. Just me 'n 'Sader to mind the store.

What to do, what to do...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:05 PM | Comments (5)

Who's Our Generation's Marilyn?

Whatever you do, DON'T check out this slideshow from MSNBC.com for the answer. Whoever put it together is on crack and should be slathered in foul substances.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:58 AM | Comments (18)

"I Pray Allah Will Freeze Your Blood"

Taking text messaging to new heights, a well wisher sends his regards to the phone of Mohammad al-Zulfa in response to his suggestion that his fellow legislators "think - just think - about studying the possibility of allowing women - not all of them, just some - to drive." (Okay, so he's not the most popular guy in Riyadh now. But bless his little pointy head, he tried.) There are those who disagree with him, apparently.

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from strange men, say women in the driver's seat will be free to leave home alone and go when and where they please; to unduly expose their eyes while driving; to interact with strange men such as traffic cops and mechanics.

MeCHANICS ??? BASTARDS !! Having posted numerous times on the strangeness, perfidy and lounge-lizardoid quality of Marine Corps aircraft mechanics, I can only imagine the horrors associated with Arab...'mechanics' (Pffft, PiTU!! You kiss your mother with that mouth??).

"Driving by women leads to eee-ville*," Munir al-Shahrani wrote in a letter to the Al-Watan daily.

And credit card statements, french fry wrappers on the carpet, empty Dasani bottles, sh*t. Just a frickin' mess. Hell NO, no Sheik worth his salt mine should be subjected to that!

"Can you imagine what it would be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men."

We all know what it's like, seeking help from men. Just getting the toilet seat down on a regular basis is Homeric. Fix the thing yourself, sister. That black burqua hides grease stains like a mo-fo.
*Okay, okay, he didn't say it exactly like that. Pretend I'm writing for Newsweek.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:42 AM | Comments (3)

First Ken...Now Lisa...I'm Next!

Lisa has the sad details of an event that is getting all too close for me: my sweet little child becoming a teen.

Ken is just about out of this cloud of woe.

Update:Crusader
Tell me about it. Crusader II hits the teens on August 31. Sheesh...
Big party if you guys can make it. We will be getting the food from Matts Chicago Dog
Double Dog DARE UPDATE:THS

Matts Chicago Dog??!!
BASTARD!! Note to Bingley ~ I was first, duh.

Second Update:Crusader
Like I said, you guys are invited, so don't come cryin' to me iffin ya miss it.

Newsflash!
The popcorn you are eating has been pissed in. Film at 11.

Even BIGGER UPDATE: In the immortal words of Crusader's hero, Jar-Jar Binks, "How WUDE!"

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:26 AM | Comments (11)

Could someone please explain to me what difference this makes?

I suppose when the first ex-slave comes forward to demnd restitution, I will start caring, but until then, I have not seen a shred of proof that people 140 years later are still harmed by this. I realize that I am a knuckle-dragging neanderthal, but could someone please enlighten me?

Posted by Crusader at 09:15 AM | Comments (6)

June 02, 2005

A Melancholy Juxtaposition

I watched the groundskeepers lifting the 27,000 odd American flags from the graves at Barrancas National Cemetary today. Solitary fellows moving through the white headstones, some heartbreakingly white...new...this war. Their carts were left parked on the driveway as they bent and plucked among the rows, tucking rolled up red, white and blue under an arm then moving to the next, dronelike. Passed over the Bayou Grande Bridge a minute or two later and watched as a fatigue clad Saudi Royal Air Force flight student gassed up at the BP out the front gate.
Ebb and flow.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 PM

Excuse Me...

...as I GOUGE MY EYEBALLS OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS. In their rush to impart solemnity and gravitas to their part in the GWOT, the United States Navy has seen fit to rename the cryptological schools command at Corry Station, Pensacola, FL. Gird your loins, 'cause they are now the:

Center For Information Dominance

If I can get over my abject shame, I will get a picture of the retarded sign at their front gate. F%@kin' squids.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:16 PM | Comments (14)

Powerful Words

I'm talking about the words that stand alone, that resonate within us by their mere existence. By the sight of them scrawled on a sheet of paper or flashed on a TV screen, voiced by a moderator or spoken in conversation. Singular names ~ people, places, things ~ of such power that their mention or reading takes one to that very place or conjures that very image, without aid of date, map or explanation. Sometimes Major Dad and I will be listening/talking/reading and one of those words will strike me and I have to say to him "that is one of the most beautiful words in the English Language". And then I say that word again for good measure ~ and nod 'yeah' in satisfaction ~ before going back to whatever it was we were doing. A good word, a powerful word, is like cream to a cat.

You all are the most literate, incredible, weirdly wonderful group I've ever had the honor to call 'friends'. So bear with me. I've had this little exercise running through my brain and thought, if it made any sense at all, I'd share. Invite you to join. Maybe jangle loose some long buried treasures. Maybe make you smile and 'a-ha!' when you recollected them, if this makes any sense to you at all, celebrating words.

I thought I would start with something easy, in a profound sort of way. Consider this past weekend and all the beautiful tributes for the fallen from Bingley, Sheila, Ken's links and the B-sphere in general. It led me to battles. Those mighty struggles on hallowed bits of earth that are timeless in their right and momentous in their speaking, no matter how removed from the present. No dates, states or countries needed, nor excluded. I'll lead off. I always appreciate your indulgence, but would relish very much more your good company.

Shiloh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:26 AM | Comments (38)

Cawring Hans Brinker...

Potty pootied Dutch need to stuff a finger in it. Fresh from voting 'nee' on the EU Constitution, the Dutch have turned their societal laser beams on another serious problem.

Village cracks down on foul-mouthed Dutch
Ban imposed on swearing, except for #@$%&*( free speech.

AMSTERDAM - The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst.

Okay, let's review. We don't want no steekin' constitution and don't you dare say 'goddammit !!!'. But in the spirit of freedom and tolerance we Dutch all embrace, these strictures aren't meant to impede your living your culture to the fullest. You are still free to knife to death anyone you disagree with, as long as you keep it clean.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:53 AM | Comments (8)

June 01, 2005

There's A Curious And Sad Fact In This Year's Spelling Bee

Look at the kids who've advanced to the 5th round. Look at the words these young great kids spelled! Amazing. Now look at their names and faces. It sort of fulfills all your stereotypes, doesn't it? A smattering of metal-mouthed white kids in a sea of names and faces that suggest asian and indian-subcontinent roots...and one black girl from Jamaica.

Not a single african-american kid. Not a single hispanic kid. Not one.

Why? Obviously, there is no bias in the words that were chosen for the kids to spell. All I can think is that somehow, somewhere, these kids are not being encouraged to read, for reading is the key to spelling, and the key to so much success in later life. All this concern and money spent on 'self esteem' would be far better spent on encouraging students, and their parents, to read, it seems to me.

I know in families where both parents work that it is very hard to find the time to sit with your child to read, but it's one of the most important skills you can give your child. A skill that is also a gift.

A gift that will both last a lifetime and may very well change a life.

*Update: In the comments faithful swiller leelu, who took the time to follow the link and look at the pictures, points out several children who appear in fact to be of african-american and/or hispanic descent. However, all of those children (with one exception) have a red "E" next to their names, which indicates that they failed to make it to the 5th round, which is my criterion above. The one exception I debated about and guessed that he was philipino, and thus asian, rather than hispanic. But I have guessed wrong before...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:29 PM | Comments (13)

Sin On a Sheet...

...a cookie sheet, that is. Darkdarkdark chocolate cookies with white and semi-sweet (read:DARK) chocolate chips. If Agent XYZ agrees NOT to send Bingley any more cool Magic Hats, some might just find their way to Kuwait. Or wherever secret agents hang out these days.

UPDATED with foodie photograph for our frenzied fans and check out this week's Carnival of the Recipes, hosted by Drew at Conservative Friends. Looks and TASTES great, less filling!

A note about the ingredients ~ I tend to tweak things almost immediately, so where a staid, normal staple is called for, if I used something a bit different that affects the taste, I've noted it. (Being the tree hugging sister, the fact that the eggs, sour cream, flour etc. is all organic is a given.)

1 c +1 T unsalted butter (Land-o-Lakes baking butter)
1 3/4 c sugar (Florida Crystals natural/organic)
2 lrg eggs
2 t vanilla
1/4 c sour cream
2 c unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 c + 3 T unsweetened cocoa (dutch process)
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
12 oz white chocolate chips
6-8 oz semisweet choc chips (nestle for both)

Oven 350º

1. W/ electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream, mix thoroughly.

2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add by thirds to sugar mix in bowl, incorporating well after each addition. Stir in white and dark chips, stir until distributed evenly through.

3. Drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheets (buttered if things tend to stick to yours). Keep batter in fridge in between cookie sheet loadings. Check at 10 minutes. (In my oven they need twelve. You're looking for cooked but not crispy-crispy.) Pull cookies out, let them rest a minute or two, then remove them to a rack. Let cool completely. These will have a crumbly, brownie-like texture, so don't be horrified if they break apart a bit. It makes clean-up a snap!

UPDATE: I wanted to take one of those 'Bone Appetite' type pics, but there's a 23 year old vulture in the house. At least you can see that clean-up really is easy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:09 PM | Comments (12)

63% Say No

The Dutch say "Europe, let's go Dutch".

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:53 PM | Comments (5)

The New Florida Self Defense Law In Action

Florida Cracker has a heart-warming tale for us about this new law in action.

And it worked like a charm, I'm happy to say.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:51 PM | Comments (3)

Damn! 65 Years To Go...

U.K. Couple Marks 80th Wedding Anniversary.

Percy Arrowsmith, 105, and his 100-year-old wife Florence, were married on June 1, 1925, after meeting at their local church in Hereford, western England, where he sang in the choir and she was a Sunday school teacher.

How sweet is that?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:03 PM | Comments (6)

How 'Bout...

...a little useless fun.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:36 PM | Comments (8)

Amazon Book Reviews

Twenty some odd pages of some of the most twisted, impossibly clever one paragraph treasures I've ever read.

Tom Cruise (Overcoming Adversity) by Phelan Powell~
Pig-ignorance no bar to fame and fortune, February 11, 2002
The public only see the glamour - but Phelan Powell shows the significant obstacles Tom Cruise has overcome in order to live his life of pampered opulence. In Cruise's case dyslexia was the obstacle - it nearly cost him the part of the barman in "Cocktail" (he thought it was a film about cockatiels and told his agent he "didn't do parrots") and he bought his own wildebeeste to research the part of Lt Maverick Mitchell in "Top Gnu".

Swill Salute: to Will Collier at VodkaPundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:35 AM | Comments (4)