« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »

February 28, 2006

MacBeth, Jersey Style

What bloody man is that? Macbeth, 1. 2

What are these So wither'd and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on 't? Macbeth, 1. 3

Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top full Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose. Macbeth, 1. 5

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:14 PM | Comments (6)

She Musta Missed That Little Rule

...when reading through her conversion kit.

An Islamic association and two of its officials must pay more than $1.7 million to lawyers for a woman who successfully sued the organization for sexual discrimination, a judge has ruled.

The ruling is against the Islamic Society of Orange County, which runs the Orange Crescent School in Garden Grove where Zakiyyah Muhammad was principal for five years until she was fired in 2003.

Muhammad, 60, a convert to Islam, was awarded $788,000 in damages by a jury in September after she claimed she was dismissed for challenging her male bosses.

I'm glad it worked out for her. Her Islamic world sisters wouldn't have been so lucky.

UPDATE: Seems there may have been a cultural clash at work here. An OC Register interview with Zakiyyah Muhammad.

Q. You were fired about two months after Fazal Mirza (a Pakistani Immigrant) came on board as school board president. Why?

A.That's a good question. We concluded he chose not to work with an African-American principal. (Also) he did not appreciate the fact that I was not a subservient image who will keep very quiet.

....(Also) many (immigrant Muslims) perceive that because they've had their religion longer than many Muslim Americans, particularly African-American Muslims, that our Islam is not legitimate. But that is not what Islam says.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:21 PM | Comments (11)

And Happy Mardi Gras, Swillers!!

Kick back, flash somebody if you're up to it, parade about in your beads and feathers, then eat some red beans and rice wahed down with a VooDoo Ale or Abita. We're doin' dryrub baby backs, cornbread and red beans tonight. That is what...

Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler !!

...is all about.

Now. Drink up, Shriners.

Swill Salute to New Orleans' premiere poster artist Mousie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:47 PM | Comments (10)

He Taught He Saw a Puddy Tat

And he did! He did!

A dead cat in Germany has found to be infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus.

That's what you get for swallowing Tweety Bird, Sylvester.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM

Bungled Bond

Wow, what a mess this new Bond Pretty Boy seems to be:

JINXED James Bond star Daniel Craig has been hit by a nasty bout of prickly heat.

He suffered sunburn while topping up his tan before filming in the Bahamas.

New 007 Craig wanted a healthy glow for the movie, but ended up James Burned — and now can’t stop itching.

Two weeks ago he had two teeth knocked out while filming a fight scene in Prague.

Craig has revealed he can only drive an automatic car — so the traditional Aston Martin DB5 had to be converted.

And he previously confessed he doesn’t like guns, while speedboats make him feel queasy.

Heh. Doesn't like guns?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM | Comments (26)

February 27, 2006

15 Years Ago Last Night and Today

...they left stuff like this behind on the "Highway of Death"...

...for Major Dad to find.

Marine Aircraft Group-13 legend has it that our CO was in an F-18 heading north of Kuwait City, when he noticed a ton of traffic on the highway to Basra. He got a little closer, confirmed who was buggering out and called for some help.

Lots of it arrived.

Major Dad says there was tons of contraband ~ cars, trucks and military vehicles bulging with brand news TVs, unopened boxes of electronics, everything imaginable ~ the ground was littered with the contents of Kuwait City.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:24 PM | Comments (17)

Tilted Toward the Dark Side

The Marine Corps plans to send the troubled Osprey aircraft into combat zones within a year and is activating a squadron of the tilt-rotor planes this week.

"Obviously, due to operational concerns we don't want to tell exactly when they will deploy," said spokesman Master Sgt. Phil Mehringer at Marine Corps Air Station New River, where the squadron will be based. "But it's certainly going to happen in the near future. Definitely, within a year."

As major dad said ~ schmutzing a very cush job in the civilian sector, I'm sure ~ the program's a train wreck.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:50 PM | Comments (1)

Oh, You Betcha

...Some lawmakers have called for a change to the national response plan that gives the Red Cross the primary role and the dollars that flow with it.

I've been saying they were AFU for years. Wouldn't give them a dime or a drop of blood.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:45 PM

And When the 'Moderates' Are Overrun?

...Even after the experience of the Great War, and the Depression, people on the eve of the Hitler war could not appreciate what was coming. It is only in retrospect that we understand what happened as the 1930s progressed -- when a spineless political class, eager at any price to preserve a peace that was no longer available, performed endless demeaning acts of appeasement to the Nazis; while the Nazis created additional grievances to extract more.

...Germany was full of moderate Germans, as Hitler rose; Stalin drove his oars through a sea of moderate Russians. While we must not forget that the Muslims are the first victims of “Islamism”, and may suffer most from its triumph, we are beyond the point where we can do more for them than destroy the tyranny by which they are enthralled.

Moderation in all things is very dangerous.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:35 PM

This Is One Of The Most Disgusting Things I've Seen

I'm sorry, but what woman would do this? And what kind of a scum bag guy would want/encourage/demand that his wife do it?

Mrs Yarborough paid $5,000 (£2,860) to a cosmetic surgeon to stitch her hymen back together so she could “lose her virginity” all over again and her husband would have that thrilling conquest at the grand age of 40

Yuck yuck yuck.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:51 PM | Comments (13)

I've Done That

...a time or two myself.

...But Weir missed a change in the bus schedule, got to the arena later than planned, and, when he got on the ice, discovered he had left his “aura” back in the Olympic Village.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:15 PM | Comments (5)

If Anyone Cares to Remember

...the French government does things pretty much at their convenience...

...so this shouldn't come as any surprise, although it is nice to see the Europeans called on it in print.

Europe is the citadel of hypocrisy. Considering Europeans' contempt for the United States and George Bush for not embracing the Kyoto Protocol, you'd expect that they would have made major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions—the purpose of Kyoto. Well, not exactly. From 1990 (Kyoto's base year for measuring changes) to 2002, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, increased 16.4 percent, reports the International Energy Agency. The U.S. increase was 16.7 percent, and most of Europe hasn't done much better.

Just like voting down the EU Constitution. Once that "all for one, one for all" European Union impediment was out of the way ~ Chirac's artful breast-beating to the contrary ~ they've gone about steadily gobbling up assets in the national interest.

Suez and Gaz de France on Monday outlined the details of the shock move to create a French national energy champion by way of a €73bn merger between the state-controlled electricity group and the power and water group.

...The confirmation of the merger comes just days after Enel of Italy revealed it was considering a hostile bid for Suez. Dominique de Villepin, prime minister, on Saturday withdrew his objections to a full merger of GdF with Suez, saying his support was motivated by "the strategic importance of energy for France".

Combining GdF, which dominates the French gas market, and Suez, whose Electrabel subsidiary makes it the biggest electricity company in the Benelux region, would create Europe's second largest energy group by sales after Germany's Eon and the world's largest liquefied natural gas group. The two groups said the merger would create annual synergies of €500m.

...The merger has outraged politicians in Italy and unions in France. On Sunday Giulio Tremonti, Italy's economy minister, accused France of protectionism. "The tendency of European states to build protective barriers must be stopped. We still have time. If not, we risk an August 1914 effect," he said, referring to the start of the first world war.

Yup. For such a big, happy family, I wonder that they have any time at all to look down their Gallic proboscises at us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:58 PM | Comments (2)

There's Truth In NOLA At Last

(hat tip to reader timb. who saw it on Michelle Malkin)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:17 AM | Comments (6)

Congratulations, Ken!

On your wedding this weekend:

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal. The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

The happy couple is registered online if you are thinking of sending a gift.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:37 AM | Comments (5)

February 25, 2006

I So Fondly Remember Ebola as a Little Guy

...aping the German U-Boat commanders.

"Das LIMPET?!!"

So long to our Barney Fife ~ a really nice guy, whose movies made such fond memories.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:03 PM | Comments (7)

February 24, 2006

15 Years Ago Today

...Bush the Senior had had enough of this sh*t...

(Photo courtesy Major Dad ~ on their way into Kuwait a few days later with HMH-466.)

...and launched the ground war.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:15 AM | Comments (2)

Close

...but no cigar.

Maidstone's Medway Golf Club refused former president Bill Clinton a round of golf on Thursday because the crowded course was hosting its midweek championships.

..."We can't deprive the paying members of their golf, even for an ex-president," said 62-year-old member Wendy Alley. "But it would have been a buzz for the ladies. There's no Monica Lewinsky here -- we're better."

Ms Alley's regular golf partner, Lorraine Bramley, agreed: "We would have played with him -- golf, that is."

What saucy, naughty minxes!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:55 AM | Comments (3)

Major Dad Helped It On It's Way

...to No. 1.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The tale of a rambunctious puppy is proving its staying power in the dog-eat-dog world of U.S. best-sellers.

With more than 1 million copies in print, "Marley and Me -- Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog" has struck a chord with dog lovers who are laughing and crying over author John Grogan's account of his yellow Labrador retriever.

How wonderful a real dog story can make it to the top in this world of James Freys.

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

The Things You Learn

Take some normal soil, add a handful of charcoal, a bunch of leaves and a dollop of cow poop.

You've got modern-day terra preta, called bio-char.

Tree hugging, Swilling style.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:29 AM | Comments (5)

February 23, 2006

"Practice What You Preach"

What a lovely sentiment, but an impossible dream where Islam is concerned, I'm afraid. Very afraid.

PARIS (Reuters) - After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance toward their Christian minorities.

Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet, including one with a bomb in his turban. Most Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

After criticizing both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries...

..."If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.

Amen to that, Father.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:13 PM | Comments (1)

Duh!

Americans work more, seem to accomplish less

'Cause we're blogging and that takes time. While our readers may 'accomplish less', we like to think ~ and you can thank us ~ that they're in a MUCH better mood and more informed than your average slackers. Efficiency is overrated.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 AM

February 22, 2006

"The similarity between the names "Santa" and "Satan" is no coincidence."

Ya know, part of the fun of this whole blog thing is the interaction with folks of different stripes and ideas. Sometimes you get comments that are so...so...different in their nature that they deserve to be posts all unto themselves, for they are timeless classics that stand alone, and of course have no relevance to the threads they appeared in. That, indeed, is part of their charm. And we were blessed with one such comment today, which I reproduce below the fold in all its glory.

I have but two editorial comments before sending you to read it. Firstly, 'grandpa stole bets' sadly did not chose to grace only our humble pages with his wisdom. He hit Nightfly earlier today with a somewhat edited version, and he seems to have posted more or less the same manifesto at other sites over the past few months.

Secondly, let me leave you with the words of a commentor on one of the sites grandpa visited earlier, a wise sage named TDavis who provides the clearest analysis of grandpa:

RE: grampa stole bets

Reminds me of the time I smoked some Thai Stick and tried to read "Finnegan's Wake".

Without further delay, I present grandpa stole bets:

Jesus Christ is a false god. At best all Christians can hope for is partial credit.

Program on the emergence of civilization.

"14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. "
Favor.
And disfavor.

They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it's applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.

The roots of racism are not of this earth.

Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.

The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.

AIDS in Africa.

Organizational Heirarchy/Levels of positioning.
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:

1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as "god"
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere

Terrestrial management/positioning:

4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - The seamless transition between Cleopatra and Julius Ceasar may be a clue alluding to a partnership.
6. Mafia - the real-world 20th century interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.

Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.

Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying "He has more money than god." There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says "I'm too old and rich for this."

This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.

20 cent/hour Chinese labor, 50 cents for material.
An $80 sweater costs less than a dollar; tribute kicked upstairs vindicates the creative accounting.

I don't want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe. But these individuals become wealthy exploiting those they hurt.

They have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won't help people. They say only good (favored) would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help.

The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.

I offer an example of historical proportions:::

People point to Walmart and cry "anti-union".
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family's problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an environment where there are fewer hurdles.

Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people's belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the indistry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.

The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the disfavored, and subsequently will have no assistance from their purchases with corporate america.

The coining of the term "Uncle Sam" was a clue alluding to just this::Sam Walton's WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.

They desire a system based on duality:::good and evil. They seek to set up a system of two participants, assign them polar opposites, and give people clues alluding to their affiliation:::

BestBuy and CircutCity
Energizer and Duracell
Republican and Democrat; democracy is the true evil and these groups facilitate the will of the throne who holds americans in disfavor
The list goes on and on:::
AMD and Intel
Apple and Microsoft
Lowes and HomeDepot
Sam'sClub and Costco
WellsFargo and BofA. For the longest time in CA these two banks reigned supreme.
Pier1 and CostPlus
Borders and Barnes&Noble
PetCo and PetSmart
How many can you think of?

The truth is decisions are made on each individual based on family history and individual charecter and they either create desire with AI or, in this age, tell them to buy from good or evil corporations, depending on the decison, then use that business relationship as positioning to justiy their decision.

Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals, malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they decided who they didn't want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren't their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.

Royalty is the correct way to organize a society. Dictatorships and monarchies are a reflection of the antient's hierarchical organization.
Positions go to those who have favor with the rulers, as opposed to being elected.
Elections bring a false sense of how the world is. Democracy misleads people. This is why the disfavored rejects were sent to the shores of America::To keep them on the wrong path.

Jesus Christ is a false god. All Christians can recieve is partial credit, at best.
The Catholic Church in the tretcherous 20th century teaches of a begnign, forgiving god when quite the opposite is true.
And now they do it to disfavored people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
The seperatist churches formed because many conciencious thrones wanted their people to earn more than the paltry credit offered via worship through the Catholic Church. But because they were white the throne required worship to stay within Christianity.

Simpson's foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. "It's always the one you least suspect."
"You'll see lots of nuns where you're going:::hell." St. Wigham, Helloween VI:::missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.

The advent of the modern Christmas was a brilliant move. It created a vested interest among those who would prefer the Church be destroyed::::
As goes the Catholic Church so goes the majority of annual retail sales.
The similarity between the names "Santa" and "Satan" is no coincidence.

Jews maim the body formed in the image of "god", and inflicted circumcision upon all other white people.
I think about how Jews were used to create homosexuality among Slavics, supposedly retribution for the Holocaust.
Then I think of the Catholic Church and its troubles.
What connection is here between Jews and the Catholic church???
If it is their sinister motives that’s behind the evil that is Jesus Christ are they being used at all?
Perhaps it is them who are pulling strings.
Centuries of slavery in Egypt proves their disfavor.
For their suffering the Jew leaders were granted the right to prey on the up-and-coming Europeans to try to fix their problems with the ruling elite by imposing a false god upon white people, a recurring aspect of the elite's methodology.
Jews were ostracised for a reason.

There are consequences for the peasant's resistance:::
1. Labor unrest caused the world at war.
2. Black militancy ignited the crack epidemic and gang-related deaths.
3. Women's rights/sexual freedom produced Roe v Wade and women's exclusion from contention for Planet Immortality. But on the bright side peasants don't go. Money is one way of indicating favor, and if you're not wealthy you don't have favor, so don't sweat it::you weren't going anyways. "We're leading a lot of people on."
4. Vietnam war protests - "Era of evil republicans."

Retribution for the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, the Korean War got the disfavored United States into this socially depraved environment in the latter 20th century because the disfavored attacked an antient, revered peoples. Our continued presence keeps us in trouble.
When the disfavored americans attack the wrong people again, as they suggested they will, in Korea or elsewhere, they will pay dearly.

The disfavored americans HAVE attacked the wrong people, just as the Soviets did 25+ years ago::Afghanistan. Except our punishment has yet to be administered.
An evil republican will come forth to wreck havock upon the disfavored. The hunting incident was designed to ruin one possible candidate among his contingency, but others wait in the wings.

All peoples are ranked in terms of favor and disfavor. And when the disfavored abuse those with favor there is hell to pay.
All the groups mentioned throughout are necessary to justify the will of the managing species. They conceive a strategy, devise a plan yet need a way to implement it, and without these groups the managing species would be exposed in the course of execution. So, based upon their rank they are assigned goals to accomplish and are rewarded with favors.

I question if we would experience global warming if they didn't terraform with an ultimate goal of destroying disfavored human life on planet earth::::they terraform the weather as they did in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina (and lots of other examples) and justify it with behavior like instructing their petroleum friends to repress alternative technologies and encourage waste.
This is all happening shortly after the Exodus of 2000 (clues::Hong Kong, Panama Canal) for a reason::: they are INFLICTING it upon us, they are hastening closure. Everybody they care about has come up, replaced by clones, and they want to proceed in haste.
Just as favored European peoples got out before the ugliness of WWII, the semi-favored within the US got out before 9/11. The antient Palestinian Empire holds a claim on all who remain because of Iraq.
Armeggedon isn’t about the end of the world. Armeggedon is about the death of the disfavored left behind. And they weren’t lying::this time it is going to happen with fire. But it's not going to happen because of global warming. To silence the inevitable internal conflict it's going to happen in the blink of an eye:::::
As Edgar Cayce prophicised Earth's axis will shift breaking continental plates free and initiating mass subduction.

Posted by: grandpa stole bets at February 22, 2006 12:16 PM

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:38 PM | Comments (16)

A Little Preliminary Statistical Research

Just to set the tone for the argument. I will use "mayonnaise", since that is the subject of much ignorant derision, as well as including the brand we all know and love. Using keywords found in the ongoing contretemps, let's Google, shall we?

Miracle Whip cat piss
158,000 entries

mayonnaise cat piss
40,700 entries

Hellman's cat piss
12,400 entries

Hmmm....

Miracle Whip lesbian gorilla
26,900 entries

mayonnaise lesbian gorilla
10,700 entries

Hellman's lesbian gorilla
707 entries

One last shot at the negatives, shall we?

Miracle whip vomit
107,000 entries

mayonnaise vomit
60,800 entries

Hellman's vomit
12,100 entries

Reversing the poles...

Miracle Whip yummy

110,000 entries

mayonnaise yummy
227,000 entries

Hellman's yummy
13.500 entries

Miracle Whip American
980,000 entries

mayonnaise American
2,100,000 entries

Hellman's American
1,800,000 entries

Am I just another blonde-blue eyed-UnitedStatesMarine-American, or do I sense a trend? Somewhere in the neighborhood of a little more than 2 to 1 in mayonnaise's flavor favor?

I'm going to have to feed this into our data banks for further number crunching. Now, I was going to use the "Miracle Whip sucks" results, but they were so overwhelmingly in favor of...

"yes, it does"

...an ABSOLUTE vice a variable ~ I felt, in the best interests of the best science, that I must remove those results from consideration.

UPDATE: A note to a certain caterwauling Cracker ~ "All American" and "Southern" don't necessarily make it...

..."alright".

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:55 PM | Comments (14)

I Would Suggest They Start With the City Council Board of Supervisors*

...and then work their way down to street level.

San Francisco:City officials are hoping to harness the power of dog doo...

...The droppings will be tossed into a contraption called a methane digester, which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on feces for weeks to create methane gas.

Aw, hell. Just plop that methane Rube Goldberg thing in the council chamber and no one will have to chase Fido holding a poopie bag. If ever there was a more excrement laden environment than San Francisco, I'd be astounded. Honestly ~ those moonbats could light the world without breaking a sweat.

*A thousand thank yous to DaveJ for the terminology correction.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:33 PM | Comments (2)

What They Tell This Guy...

...and what they don't is pretty amazing sometimes.

President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.

Someone in that labyrinth has a tin ear for public sentiment.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (4)

Programming Note: Tonight PBS Earns My Tax Dollars

I could kiss them. Six glorious, magical hours sprinkled over three Wednesday evenings...

"I don't know - Mr Wentworth just told me to come in here and say that there was trouble at the mill, that's all - I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition."

(JARRING CHORD)

(The door flies open and Cardinal Ximinez of Spain (Palin) enters, flanked by two junior cardinals. Cardinal Biggles (Jones) has goggles pushed over his forehead. Cardinal Fang (Gilliam) is just Cardinal Fang)

NOBODY expects

the Spanish Inquisition!

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....
Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency....
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
Our four... no...
Amongst our weapons... Amongst our weaponry...
are such elements as fear, surprise...
I'll come in again.

(Exit and exeunt)

OY! I'm giddy with excitement! (Say no more, say no more, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:58 AM | Comments (9)

It's Different When It's Family

Danish cartoonists (Cheese be upon them) draw pictures of Mo and people are urged to take to the streets and violently protest this outrageous attack upon Islam.

Muslim terrorists (Depleted uranium be upon them) blow up a sacred mosque and the Ayatollahs call for a week of mourning.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:34 AM | Comments (2)

Odd, Isn't It?

Berdahl said Tuesday that carbon monoxide-treated meat could be left on the kitchen counter for five days and would still look bright red and fresh. Carbon monoxide "also suppresses bad odors and the presence of slime, other telltale signs that meat is spoiled," Kalsec's petition said.

Miracle Whip does that too and I'm sure it's cheaper.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:58 AM | Comments (4)

U of W Braindead College Types

...are only the tip of the incidious iceberg.

Nearly half of South Korean youths who will be old enough to vote in the country's next elections say Seoul should side with North Korea if the United States attacks the communist nation, according to a poll released Wednesday.

At the same time, 40.7 percent of the 1,000 young people surveyed said Seoul should remain neutral in the event of hostilities between Washington and Pyongyang, according to the poll by The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo dailies. Only 11.6 percent said the South should back its longtime U.S. ally.

Ask Hong Kong how fun that whole Communist/Chinese/dictatorship gig really is. When you finally jump the Dragon, you don't get a do-over.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:43 AM | Comments (15)

February 21, 2006

I Have Had Enough of a Hyphenated Citizenry

On the local 10 o' clock news, the local anchors referred to the three Ohio men arrested as "Muslim-Americans". Sorry, folks. That's the straw that breaks this baptized-Catholic-but-worships-rock-trees-recycling-and-DanielDayLewis-wonders-why-she-got-another-Scottie-one-more-glass-of-wine-cause-Blonde-Marines-do-drunk-good-cranky-Scot/Irish-who-KNOWS-MiracleWhip-ain't-mayonnaise-American's back.

That's it. I'm done with the foolishness.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 PM | Comments (8)

A "Them and Us" Installment

Dr. Helen discusses some interesting facts contained in a new book.

In Bruce Bawer's new book, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within,the side effects of the appeasement of Muslims by the Danish government are clear--as their government pumps more and more welfare money into the pockets of disgruntled Muslims, the rate of violence against "infidels" there increases.

Bawer points out that in Denmark, Muslims make up only 5% of the population but receive 40% of welfare outlays. Many of these immigrants are told by their leaders that Muslim law gives them the right to "cheat and lie in the countries that harbor them." They are told to view the benefits they receive as jizya--the tributes that "the infidel natives of Muslim-occupied countries are obliged to pay to Muslims in order to preserve their lives." And the welfare offices in Denmark can be the setting for violence--termed "culture clashes" by Danish journalists. "Some clients lay waste to social security offices and hit social workers--not out of frustration but because they've learned that bullying gets them what they want. The Danish government is not repressive; welfare workers tend to be sympathetic and eager to help. Many immigrants perceive this as weakness, and exploit it, 'tyrannizing' the social workers." The Danish solution? More PC behavior--get translators to translate not only between languages but between cultures. Yeah, that will work.

There should be more 'facts' available, on both sides ~ for instance, I've heard that there has never been a mosque constructed in Denmark. Is that true? If so, why? Have they been truly marginalized, or have they chosen to isolate themselves? Things like that ~ things like the welfare stats and the ingrained Muslim contempt for a society they freely immigrated to ~ things that flesh out the picture. We need to be able to read more of that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:37 PM

"They Just Can't Get the Rock in the Right Spot."

I'm watching curling right now: USA vs Canada. I've never seen anything more incomprehensible...or hilarious. Listening to the guys talk 'aboot' their next move is like eavesdropping on a scene from "Fargo". But...

Go USA!!

...anyhoo, okey dokey?

And to completely lower the tone ~ those chunks o' granite aren't the only hunks on that ice...
Gah-rrrrowlll...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:43 PM | Comments (9)

I'd Call That an Understatement

"It's obviously a situation that needs to be corrected."

Gov. Pataki is in dire straits.

Pataki's intestines aren't functioning and he is being given water and nutrients intravenously,...

Let's hope they get a handle on that in a New York minute. It's been a rough week for governors all around.

Fellow Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky also remained hospitalized Tuesday after contracting a blood infection while recovering from gallbladder surgery last week. The bacteria in Fletcher's blood was moderately resistant to antibiotics, but treatment seems to be working, doctors said.

In Connecticut, another Republican governor, M. Jodi Rell, was involved in a car accident Tuesday morning but escaped injury. The governor's driver and the teenager whose vehicle hit the car's driver's side were also uninjured, authorities said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:41 PM

I Wouldn't Talk to Them Either

There were about four pissy little stories and opinion pieces on MSNBC.com this morning (all gone now, of course) about how Sasha Cohen had dissed the media and not done a single interview. Well folks, since Sasha Cohen didn't exist as far as the media was concerned once La Kwan got her spot on the team, she's now supposed to forget she was chopped liver for those weeks? Even though she is (Did you know? Had you heard?) the reigning U.S Champion.

Pith on them.
UPDATE:

Cohen's first leads strong U.S. short program

Now, THAT's what I call a GREAT start! Go, girls, GO!!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:09 PM | Comments (6)

Fla. Man Killed Over Miracle Whip

Oh wait, it was toilet paper:

MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A man has been arrested for fatally beating his roommate with a sledgehammer and a claw hammer because there was no toilet tissue in the home, authorities said.

Whew. That sound you heard was Florida Cracker's sigh of relief...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:55 PM | Comments (3)

How's Yer Mum? Cuppa Tea?

Thank you, yes.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:05 PM | Comments (1)

Much Gnashing of Teeth Ensued

...watching the Fox News report on Pappy Boyington and the U of Wimpington Wish Washington stu(pi)dent senate. Scroll down to "Only on Fox" box, top right hand corner.

"Black Sheep
Video: Monument to WWII hero creates controversy at his alma mater"

Reading what these morons said was bad enough. Hearing a couple more pretentious jacka$$es is downright painful.

But I defend their right to be braindead. Just glad I don't have to pay for it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (3)

I Agree

Kresbach, however, said people "should have a right to be wrong."

While I can sympathise with Austria and Germany's desires to break the chains of hate that bind them to their Nazi past, a trial is wrong. Going to jail for being ignorant and hateful is wrong.

The verdict was welcomed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which also highlighted the issue of freedom of speech.

"While Irving's rants would not have led to legal action in the United States, it is important that we recognize and respect Austria's commitment to fighting Holocaust denial, the most odious form of hatred, as part of its historic responsibility to its Nazi past," the center's associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, said in a statement.

It said this numbnuts was the "author of nearly 30 books" ~ so? How many did he actually sell? How many more when his layer of lunatic obscurity was stripped off by this trial, giving him an international forum ~ pulling happy little haters out of the woodwork who'd never even heard of him before? It said he was getting "300 pieces of fanmail" a week from "all over the world." I'd lay money he didn't get one letter a month before they made him a martyr. Even the Wiesenthal Center spokesman calls them "rants". Like Fred Phelps' evil minions, these kinda weasels get theirs ~ if not on this plane, in the next. We don't have to give of any of our rights for that to happen. And there's real danger in picking and choosing which group gets to be defended with punitive measures when they're offended and who doesn't. I wouldn't be surprised if Muslims point to this trial when shrieking about those stoopid cartoons and I think the Simon Wiesenthal Center screwed up ~ this guy wasn't an Auschwitz gate guard or an SS member. They need to save their credibility for the bigger battles.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:43 AM | Comments (2)

Being a 'Hottie' Means

...never having to say you're sorry.

When it comes to big concerts these days -- with the escalating tickets prices leading to escalating tension -- you don't have to worry about the tattooed bad-ass biker screaming for Freebird anymore. Oh, no: It's the tan, toothy former sorority girl who knocks 'em back and then rocks out as if she owns the joint. Talking on her cell phone. Spilling her beer all over the joint. Bullying down the aisle, thumping people left and right. I go to shows all the time -- whether it's Snoop Dogg or Springsteen -- and the nastiest folks to deal with are the young white hotties who pounded too much in the parking lot. Eeeevil, I tell you.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:12 AM | Comments (1)

For God's Sake People!

You want a pet, buy a frickin' hamster!

PINELLAS PARK - One by one, the three cats died, inexplicably. No evidence of anything.

First it was Kellie Cat, then Momma Kitten and finally Gray Kitty, all in a month.

On Monday, the prime suspect emerged from a mound of dirt behind the National Auto Service Center.

It was black, 7 inches long with eight legs and a long stinger.

...The genus is not native to Florida but was imported here about 80 years ago, he said.

This one is "on the big side," he said. "They probably have no problems killing a cat."

Emperor scorpions have become increasingly popular as pets, he said.

And when you decide you don't want the one you already have, crush and flush.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:59 AM | Comments (6)

Easy Riders

...bless their hearts.

Wearing vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier's funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters.

They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals.

Phelps believes American deaths in Iraq are divine punishment for a country that he says harbors homosexuals. His protesters carry signs thanking God for so-called IEDs - explosives that are a major killer of soldiers in Iraq.

The bikers shield the families of dead soldiers from the protesters, and overshadow the jeers with patriotic chants and a sea of red, white and blue flags.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:46 AM | Comments (4)

Time to Scrub That Deal, George

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Carter backs Bush's stand on seaport-operations deal

Former President Jimmy Carter downplayed criticism of White House support of an Arab-owned company's purchase of a major seaport-operations firm.

It's got to be seriously AFU if Jimmay's behind it, wouldn't ya think? I'd fold them cards, cowboy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:36 AM | Comments (4)

"There is the Old Vulcan Proverb:"

"Only Nixon could go to China."

- Captain Spock

On this day in 1972, he did.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (2)

February 20, 2006

Damn

I loved this guy.

So long, Curt. You were the ultimate American Sportsman.
Thank you, God speed and tight lines.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:10 PM | Comments (3)

February 19, 2006

Danish Dinner II

In comparison to THS's elegant meal below, I managed to make a slight mess of things, mostly because of trying to do too many things at once. This also means that I'm missing a few pictures, as there were times when I was juggling too much to take a pic.

I started off with a nice Raven's Wood 2003 Lodi Zinfandel and the ingredients here

Actually, I didn't use everything here, this is just the danish goodies.

I started off making the Kartoffelgratin ("Potato Gratin" See? Danish is easy!) since I figured I could cook that while working on the other things, plus it would keep for awhile. So I peeled the spudlies, dried them and slice them into thin slices

and then placed them in a bowl and coated them with a mixture of salt, pepper, and nutmeg

I then grated 2 different types of cheese. For the cheese going in with the potatos I used fontina, and for the cheese that would be put on top I used havarti with chives (the recipe calls for emmentaler, but that's swiss, and I was sticking to the theme!)

in a saute pan warm up a few cups of milk and mix an egg into it as well as the fontina. Pour this over the potatos in the bowl and mix well. In a small dish melt 2 Tbs of butter (Lurpak, of course) and put some minced garlic into it. Pour this mixture into the baking dish and smear it all around using a paper towel. Pour the potato/cheese mixture into the dish, and cover with the other grated cheese.

Pop that baby into the oven at 375º for at least an hour. Check wine levels. refill as needed.

Now on to the soup. Ah, the soup. The first issue facing me was what exactly is a 'coffee spoon'? I of all people should know. So I asked my bride. And she said it was the small spoon one uses to stir espresso. Not having one of those, I decided that a small spoon we had from a condiment-serving set would have to suffice. That grave issue being decided, I put the bread crumbs and milk in a sauce pan

and cooked until they got thick, all the while teaching an egg white a lesson it would not soon forget

I then added the (now humble) egg white to the crumbs, along with salt, pepper, nutmeg, butter and ground chicken

and cooked that over medium-low heat until it got fairly thick, stirring and chopping it all the time. Then i made roughly 1 inch meatballs from the mixture.

Tragically, at this point the wine was gone, so I was forced to switch to Plan B

Now it was time to put the beef and chicken broth mixture on the stove and get that a boilin' (with some fresh parsley thrown in)

You can see from the tinfoil on the left that the potatos has already come out, but since they were nuk'ler I knew they'd keep.

Time to open the Spam Ham and get that in the oven!

Ain't that a beaut? I put it in a small baking dish (it's only a pound), scored the top, stuck cloves in and drizzled a sauce made from molasses and mustard powder over the top of it, then poured a Carlsberg over it and put a few bay leaves in for good measure. Into the oven at, oh 400º or so for 30 minutes and it came out looking like this

It's ok to switch to another type of beer if a) the previous one is finished, b) it's handy and c) you still thirst

Meanwhile, back at the soup, it was time to make the dumplings. Mix milk, egg whites, flour, butter over lowish heat until they are smooth. Slowly add in egg yolks, then mace and more parsley until it's nice and thick, and shows off the faux coffee spoon to its best advantage

Put the meatballs into the now boiling stock, and cook them for a few minutes. Then, using the coffee spoon wannabee in a deft manner plop spoonfulls of dumpling batter like the little infidels they are into the boiling meatbally stock pot

(cries for mercy are optional; ignore them in any case)

Cook for 10 minutes or so, then slice the ham, dish out the spuds and serve the soup!

Arrange everything on your finest Danish china, and enjoy a nice warm meal with your beloveds.

The verdict? The canned ham was way too salty, but that's just the nature of that type of beast. The spuds could have used some more flavor; next time I'll either use emmentaler or perhaps crumble bleu cheese on top.

The soup was excellent.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:37 PM | Comments (15)

Where Was the Outrage on ESPN's "The Sports Reporters"

... ~ regarding Bryant Gumball's clever, blatant racism ~ this morning?

It wasn't. Not one word, pro OR con. I doubt the silence would have been quite so deafening had it been, like, a Terry Bradshaw who'd said it about blacks in the summer olympics, or the NBA or whatEVER.. They'd be sizing him for a Goodyear necktie two seconds later.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:37 PM | Comments (4)

Danish Dinner Photos

Here's Tree Hugging Sister's tasty Danish sweet and sour red cabbage and apples, home made gnocchi in a Danish Blue Cheese sauce, and pawk chawp:

Mine will follow later.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:38 PM | Comments (2)

February 18, 2006

It's Danish Food Night!

I've got some potatos in the oven, and I'm about to start making Suzette's soup in a minute, to be followed by Emily's Danish Beer ham!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:58 PM | Comments (2)

February 17, 2006

Friggin' Animals

From CNN:

CNN) -- Eleven people were killed and an Italian consulate was burned in Libya on Friday night during protests to denounce the publication of cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed, sources in Libya said.

There also was a "high number" of injuries, said an official with the Italian Embassy in Tripoli.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:43 PM | Comments (2)

Mr. Summers, Your Danish Cheese is Ready

Organic, no less.

Here in Bangla-Cola, Third World Country that it is...

...we are pret-tee "Buy Danish" challenged, so I will be doing some fancy footwork to approximate a Danish evening meal. I may have to resort to a cheezy "in the spirit of..."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:49 PM | Comments (8)

A Glimpse Of Their Priorities?

I dunno, maybe it's me, but when I read a story saying that

...The corpses of at least 20 newborn babies and fetuses are found each week in the sewers of Zimbabwe's capital, some having been flushed down toilets, Harare city authorities said, according to state media Friday.

and it contains a quote like this:

"Apart from upsetting the normal flow of waste, it is not right from a moral standpoint. Some of the things that are happening now are shocking," the state Herald, a government mouthpiece, reported Chideya as saying.

I'm really not all that surprised that their country is a mess.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:10 PM | Comments (4)

A Viewing Suggestion for Saturday's DANISH Dine-In

Babette's Feast.

Simply awesome. Get the subtitled version and you will understand how...

"Boil It"

...came to be a much loved, oft repeated phrase at Casa de Major Dad.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 PM

Ya Know? At This Olympics

...we just plain suck. Buncha lily white losers.
UPDATE: Seems we get a gold medal even though I never said it precisely THAT way...
UPDATE: It's not just me

Quote of the Day: And they just talked about someone who'd...

"overcome alchoholism and Tourette's syndrome.."

Holy SH*T!!! They had to be the meanest drunk on record..

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:54 AM | Comments (5)

Blasphemy

I am a religious person. Heck, I reckon by many 'post-modern standards' I am very religious. Not only am I at church several times a week, but I'm also fairly involved in my church's governance. I'm a Presbyterian. I believe in God, and I believe that Jesus Christ was His Son. Your mileage may vary.

I am an American, and I believe in our Constitution. I especially believe that

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances

and that means to me that you or I can say whatever we like about any religion, and the government can not do anything about it. Specifically, it can not pass any laws making 'blasphemy' a crime, because to do that would clearly be making a law respecting an establishment of religion as well as abridging the freedom of speech.

And that's how it should be. A central strength of our society is that while we all have a right to different beliefs (including of course believing in, er, not believing) we do not have the right to impose the strictures of our faith on others who have not willingly signed on. And we most certainly do not have the right to get the government to force our religious beliefs or non-beliefs on others. End of story. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Worshipers of C'thulu, Pastafarians, Atheists, whatever; our freedom requires that all ideas and beliefs are subject to debate and, yes, ridicule.

If this offends you, too bad. Argue back. Try and convince others of the validity of your position. Were Christians offended by Piss Christ or the painting of the Virgin Mary covered in dung? Yes. Did they riot and destroy stores? Not that I recall. Violence is not an acceptable option. If your god or prophet or xenu master is offended by something that a non-believer says then it seems to me they should make their case, not the government and not you by throwing rocks at people. As I said in an earlier thread I could not worship a god who required humans to settle his scores for him, and I'll add nor one that runs to secular law either.

And neither should you.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:08 AM | Comments (12)

North Korean Cheerleaders

...scan the crowd with their eyes. Surreptitiously searching for signs of the supermarkets, free elections, electricity, hot running water and shelves full of Kim Chee rumored to be in the bourgeois renegade South of the Peninsula.

What they found got Fearress Reader all shook up
...because they came home and told. Vicious little minxes.
He'll teach them to frost his pom-poms! It's off to the Gulag Games, girls.
(The man's unhinged ~ Look at the North Korean propaganda released on his goat farm inspections alone. Yes ~ GOAT farms!)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:41 AM | Comments (2)

February 16, 2006

Support Denmark Dinner Saturday February 18th

I'm calling on everyone to eat only Danish foods for dinner on Saturday, February 18th, to support them in their fight against the Cartoonlic Extremists.

From havarti cheese to butter to hams and, of course, Carlsberg (don't buy Tuborg; it's brewed in Baltimore, for gosh sakesKathy K in comments assures me that I have slandered Tuborg, that it is indeed imported, so buy and drink away, dear friends!) there's enough variety and pork-filled goodness to offend darn near everyone, so eat up!

And we'll post a picture filled round up on Sunday.

ths adds: This can be a help, if you're Danish challenged like our household.

Bingley adds: Here's another great site. I mean, who could possibly resist the charms of Flødegullsch, which has both diced pork and cocktail sausages as ingredients?

Update and Bump: Here are some drink recipes.

Bumpity-bump-bump: Tonight I go cheese shopping. I can havarti wait!

Update: I knew Suzette would come through!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 04:11 PM | Comments (21)

Provocative Slut Properly Chastened By R.O.P.'ers

Via our good friend Gateway Pundit:

Female Reporter Stoned at Turkish Cartoon Protest

"We were doing our job as journalists. But apparently some people found that not covering my head was provocative. They called me a blasphemer while I was sitting on the bus. They threw stones and shoes. As a reporter from Konya I was ashamed."

Aliye Cetinkaya
Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006

...The female journalist was attacked for being ‘sexually provocative’ for not wearing a head scarf at the demonstration organised by the Peoples Education Research and Support Group in Konya (He-Da-Der) and entitled ‘Loyalty to the Prophet’.

She was also, and I blush to mention this on a family-friendly site, and I quote,

seated with her legs dangling from the back of the vehicle and taking notes.

What's next for these corrupted Whores of Satan? Scholarships to the University of Washington?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:48 PM | Comments (2)

Speaking of Haiti

...that snake pit of corruption and death has a new President again. I hope the Haitian people finally have someone who works for them, but the reports don't bode well.

Earlier in the day, AP journalists saw thousands of ballots, some marked for Preval, deep in the dump along with a vote tally sheet and four bags meant to carry returns from the election. Discovery of the ballots was initially reported by Haitian TV Tuesday night.

The discovery troubled U.N. officials because the bags were not supposed to be thrown out. “They’re supposed to be kept,” U.N. official Catherine Sung, an electoral adviser who works at the main vote tabulation center, told the AP.

Shown photographs of the signed bags, Sung said they were meant to contain annulled and blank votes. The journalists also saw a green tally sheet of votes, but U.N. officials said that was not important because it was a copy of the original given to political party representatives.

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said Tuesday night after the TV news images of the dumped ballots were shown that someone may have dumped the ransacked ballots to create an appearance of fraud.

When told by the AP Wednesday morning of the discovery of the bags and of a tally sheet at the site, he said: “That’s extraordinary.” U.N. police were dispatched to retrieve what they could.

Where's Jimmay Carter?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (2)

God Forbid Someone Mentions

...the paucity of white athletes in certain sports, like Bryant Gumbel feels free to do about blacks in the Winter Olympics. They'd crucify him.

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying ... Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."

"GOP convention". Hmmm. I guess the lack of a Jamaican/Haitian/Honduran bobsled team ~ there's only a lily white granny representing islands of any description this year ~ is Bush's fault, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:17 AM | Comments (12)

"Focus on Their P-Buckle"

*If you occasionally drop a capital letter into the middle of a word, it means you have no problem showing off your body. "These people vacuum in the nude," McKnight said.

*If you get someone's name on a bar napkin, study the loops of their lowercase E's to figure out where to go on a first date. Big loops suggest the person is a risk-taker. If there are no loops, pick something more conservative.

*People who write in both cursive and print are highly intuitive, with an appreciation for music. People who almost always print are intelligent, independent thinkers. Donald Trump's a printer.

From a teleclass called the "Nine Secret Sex Traits Found in Handwriting."

Armed with such knowledge, I wouldn't want to see Mr. Long Hot Summers' exercises in script.
It would ruin everything.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:41 AM | Comments (5)

Not An Answer to Cartoon Critique

..."not a religious tract, and it is certainly not meant to criticize any group, religious or otherwise."

...but to Opus Dei's concern about "The DaVinci Code". Now, everyone knows "Code" is a cheap, discredited slap at the Catholic Church, no matter what disingenuous, pablumatic panderings spring forth from the movie company. But these guys aren't even organizing a boycott, less mind threatening producers with "cake or death" or torching Sony headquarters.

Them and us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:38 AM | Comments (9)

February 15, 2006

The Student Senate at the University of Washington

Student senator Jill Edwards, according to minutes of the student government's meeting last week, said she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce."

...SUCKS. That would not be just any Marine she's referring to, but a wild eyed Navy Cross AND Medal of Honor winner, who also spent 20 months as a Japanese prisoner of war. When I met him, he was a cranky old drunk who could still tell stories like nobody's business. But it wouldn't have mattered if he was a deaf mute, because you were just stunned speechless to be in his presence. And when word would get out that he was at the squadron next door (He spent a lot of time dropping in on them in the early 80's ~ old Marine Corps pilots always come back if they can.), there was a mad scramble out the hangar doors to get a glimpse, damn ~ maybe even have a chance to wave at him as he left. And we envied the hell out of those lucky sonsa bitches. They had a legend who came callin' ~ their very own Marine Corps warrior god. How cool was THAT?

VMA-214 had A-4's then, but they were still Pappy's outfit, still "The Black Sheep". And that's the Marine Miss Edwards is referring to in her objection ~ Pappy Boyington.

A warm Swill Salute Michelle Malkin and our bud, the Florida Cracker.

UPDATE: A Swilling Public Safety Announcement , occasioned by comments on The Jawa Report.

To stoopid, overindulged little college girls,

In this day and age, should you choose to stand forth at a public meeting, spout utter and complete nonsense causing pain and outrage to a fair sampling of the Blogosphere, at least have the grain of common sense to remove all your personal information from your LiveJournal site prior to your opening that blackhole of an orifice. When people snoop for info about the author of such inflammatory rhetoric ~ is she a radical genius, a deep thinker, another Beat Generation poet ~ they find your telephone number and address (besides exposing how vacuous your cranial cavity truly is). That is hugely dangerous in any case, you pretentious twit. What if it had been the Fat Sucker from the X-Files looking for you instead of middle aged, conservative bloggers?! So quit with the narcissistic, braindead LiveJournal entries ~ no one could give a rat's a$$ except other Valley Girls ~ and shut the flock up, already.

T.H. Sister

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 PM | Comments (7)

Some Cheerful Economic Stats

...to make Saturday night's Danish dinner even more delightful.

A Danish reader reports:

Today's Jyllands-Posten says that the growth in 2006 in Danish exports to two countries alone is larger than our total export to the entire Muslim world. The two countries are Germany and USA, and the estimates are even made without considering the Buy Danish-campaigns, that are unfolding in these two countries. If they have an effect, it'll be an extra bonus.

A Swill Salute to The Prairie Pundit via The Gateway Pundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:26 PM | Comments (3)

Jimmies legacy...

heh.

Posted by Crusader at 11:48 AM | Comments (3)

Cartoons

...about the cartoons.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:14 AM | Comments (4)

I Would Think There's a Pretty Good Argument

...that could be started with this statement.

For example, in confinement situations men often turn to homosexuality.

From the comment section of Volokh's Valentine post, which just happens to address a subject also at Sharon's this morning.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:03 AM

Ebola

...finally showed up.

(We're waiting, Jeff...)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:47 AM | Comments (2)

I Guess Han Solo

...is starting to look more 'Millenium' than the Falcon and rougher than wookie hide.

"Firewall. " For the audience that prefers its aging action stars a la flambe.

I sniffed when I heard Virginia Madsen saying a film wife 21 years younger than him was 'more realistic' than someone Katie Holmes' age. (Don't even say it ~ I know Virginia would be the wife of choice over TomKat for any of you.) Of course, this is the same bunch who wonders what Ralph Fiennes could have possibly seen in a gorgeous woman 18 years older than him.

Hypocrites.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:18 AM

Truer Words

...were never spoken. Ed Koch quotes Bill Bennett, while adding insight of his own.

At that point, Blitzer interjected, saying to Bennett, “You can understand, Bill, that feeling among many Muslims, that this is beyond the pale when you insult the Prophet Muhammad.” Bennett, as penetrating and brilliant as Krauthammer, responded, “Sure. And if I were a Jew watching what CNN just led in with [anti-Semitic cartoons used in Muslim countries], I might be a little upset, too. But CNN doesn’t have the solicitude for Jews it has for Muslims. Your policy is not to show these cartoons that were shown in Denmark, but to show one after another of the most anti-Semitic cartoons they could come forward with. CNN -- I don’t mean to pick on CNN, just because I work for you. But NBC, The New York Times, other media -- the Virgin Mary in cow dung, that was fine. We can show that everywhere. Now, the Islamists have won, in that they have intimidated the major news media from showing these cartoons. They have lost, however, in the wider world, because people see that this is just totally nutty behavior, that these cartoons are shown and people, as a result, want to kill people, behead people, burn buildings down. And, whatever the argument with the Danes, what is the point of burning the Jewish flag? What is the point of burning the U.S. flag and saying death to Israel and death to the United States? People get a good, close look at this and say, you know, these people are unhinged.”

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:07 AM | Comments (3)

February 14, 2006

This Year's Mardi Gras

...Queen of Fools.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan staged a protest at one of the city's shuttered housing projects Tuesday, a day after 12,000 families left homeless by last year's hurricanes were forced to leave their federally funded hotel rooms.

With her back to the boarded-up St. Bernard Housing Development, Sheehan criticized President Bush's response to the storms, saying, "Everyone in America needs to come down here and see how unsafe, how insecure he's made our world."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:09 PM | Comments (8)

How Exciting!!!

The magic red glove seems to be working!

-Robert Laberge / Getty Images

Johnny Weir leapt into second place, but was still more than 10 points back.

UPDATE: Great column today backing up Lisa's point in the comments.

The thing is, for all of Weir's outrageousness, there is a sincerity to him, an ability to giggle at his own glitter. It is a tone that is missing from the bombast of, say, Bode Miller, the skier who wants to have it both ways when it comes to fame and fortune. When is the last time you heard Miller laugh at himself?

Yet, here is Weir, the guy who answers to the nickname "Tinkerbell." The guy who admits he is "princessy." The guy who referred to himself as "the prettiest flower on the pond."

Yeah, him.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:26 PM | Comments (6)

Some Medical Studies

...save lives and money.
So if someone should refer to you as "that LITTLE d*@khead"...

...just leave it alone.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:45 PM | Comments (10)

The Blogfaddah's

...little quiz reminded me of something I meant to share with ya'll.

Seems they're looking for a little encouragement for a Season Two.

UPDATE: As for my score?

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Babylon Five and how weird is that. Why, you ask? Because the debonair guy in the left hand corner looked like this...

...when we were Catholic high school seniors together ~ all he wanted to be was a "bah tendah". He's done quite a bit since.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:35 PM | Comments (8)

Not "Democratic" Enough, Perhaps?

Major Dad just sent me this.

Report: Iraq Vet Withdraws From Ohio Senate Race

Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, who gained popularity for his staunch criticism of President Bush, has dropped out of the Democratic race for U.S. Senate in Ohio, according to a published report.

Hackett told The New York Times for Tuesday's editions that the same party leaders who urged him to run for Senate after his political debut in a House race last year had turned on him.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," Hackett said.

The last thing Howard the Duck needs is another free thinker who wore a uniform. Like the old ad song says, "I see your true colors shining through..."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 AM

Another "Twixt Them and Us" Quiz

And if the uproar over the Danish cartoons were not bad enough, the chasm between the West and the Muslim world is only likely to take a turn for the worse with the emergence of new video footage showing British troops abusing Iraqi youths.

Britain is tracking down the video miscreants with billy clubs as I write this. Anyone Muslim found ANY of the video murderers with swords yet?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:31 AM

BUM Hunting?

These little bastards need to go away for a very, very long time.

Roberts begged for his life before one of the teens, Christopher Scamahorn, 14, drove a nail into his head with a wooden plank, according to the legal documents.

And how does something so predatory ~ so heinous ~ rate only second-degree murder charges? Because the guy was homeless, didn't have a family and a house in the burbs?
UPDATE: As if by magic, a name appears in the AP headlines, right after I post it in the comments.

Lawyer Wants Lionel Tate Conviction Tossed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A lawyer for convicted child killer Lionel Tate wants the original murder indictment against his client dismissed, saying the law allowing children to be tried as adults is unconstitutional.

A motion to dismiss the indictment, filed by attorney Ellis Rubin, says the authority of prosecutors to "instantly transform this child into an adult" is contradicted by state and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:05 AM | Comments (16)

Kidnapping a Radical? "Rendition Flights"?

QUESTIONABLE police practices??!!

"...police tortured the suspects with electric shocks, and hung one suspect by his feet from the fifth-floor of a building"

Who do they think they are? The FRENCH?

File this under: I Know You Are But What Am I?

Maybe Chirac et tout le reste should remember they were dinging us ("...the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bayand AbuGhraib...") as idiots sauvages for that kind of stuff.

UPDATE: The revelations concerning the French (above) bolsters this view of events.

There will be continued public furor over the American efforts in Iraq, but far greater secret efforts to coordinate with the United States—in everything from isolating the Assad regime in Syria to rethinking missile defense. For the past three years the post-colonial Europeans have wished the Americans to learn their imperial lessons by failing in Iraq. Yet it may well be that many in private will now wish us to succeed, if only in the hopes that such Middle East democracies will be less likely in the future to turn loose their mobs to burn European embassies and threaten their citizens.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:38 AM

Amazing How Little Things Have Changed

With few exceptions, the states [in the Muslim world] are marked by poverty, ignorance, and stagnation. It is full of discontent and frustration, yet alive with consciousness of its inferiority and with determination to achieve some kind of betterment.

Two basic urges meet head-on in this area, and conflict is inherent in this collision of interests. These urges reveal themselves in the daily news accounts of killings and terrorism, of pressure groups in opposition, and of raw nationalism and naked expansionism masquerading as diplomatic maneuvers.

...in 60 years.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:46 AM | Comments (1)

February 13, 2006

HAHAHAHAHA!!

A headline from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Cheney hunts quail and everyone else ducks

Now THAT'S a hilarious headline. A warm Swill Salute to jennifer in the comments at Iraq Now.

Bingley Update and bump: Rob in the comments asks

Anyone know what the bag limit on lawyers is?

Evidently Cheney may have exceeded his daily limit:

...the state Parks and Wildlife Department issued Cheney a warning for not possessing a required stamp on his hunting license...

ths UPDATE: Bingley, Rob ~ that answer would be $7 and 1 per day.
Michelle Malkin has some additional HAHAHAHAs to share. Maybe those lighthearted pranksters at CNN should've...
...used a circle.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 PM | Comments (12)

Don't Forget

Westminster tonight.

-Mary Altaffer / AP

A Chihuahua named Mouse sits on an English Mastiff named Sherman while their owner checks in at the Hotel Pennsylvania on Sunday in New York. Sherman will be competing in the 130th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show which begins Monday at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:55 PM | Comments (14)

Major Dad Asked This Very Question

...in the comments yesterday.

Uproar in the Islamic world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has prompted many in the Middle East to ask why Muslims have rarely mobilized to address other pressing issues such as democracy and human rights.

..."Don't you think that injustice, torture, illiteracy and the restrictions on freedoms (in the Muslim world) are also considered an insult to the Prophet...who called for the respect for human rights?"

No answers were forthcoming then or now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:39 PM

Another Protestor Off His Noodle

(Or his meds, as the Anchoress speculates.)

...that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong,...

Yes, ladies and gents. It really IS Al Gore, channeling Cindy Sheehan and a Danish Iman combined.
I know you're shocked, SHOCKED, but "it's the truth, it's actual, everything is satisfactual..."

UPDATE and BUMP: I guess Al-Arabia has completely forgotten when he was known as A-Gorephobic.

The Clinton-Gore Administration's Assault On Arab And Muslim Rights

THIS Just IN!! An undoctored photo has surfaced of Gorezilla's appearance at the conference in Saudi Arabia...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:20 PM | Comments (9)

People!! Have We Learned NOTHING

...from the James Frey embarassment??!! Huh? HUH?!

Greenspan in memoir talks with NY publishers

Alan Greenspan is in talks with major publishers about writing a memoir, which could net the Delphic former central banker more than $1 million, sources familiar with his proposal said on Monday.

I'd like to think the aging Fed Chairman is on the up and up, but his jacket photo proof is throwing a big RED FLAG...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:46 PM | Comments (6)

Les Bons Temps Savoureux

KBON streams their Loosiana patois, blues, swamp pop, classic country and some bitchin' Zydeco music 365 days a year. I love listenin' around Mardi Gras, especially the Zydeco/Cajun/Creole stuff. Clifton Chenille and Beausoleil, cher.

My only beef is the fade in and out of the transmission, but, with my affinity for all things internet, it's probably my fault.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:57 PM | Comments (4)

Would It Were Different

The silence was deafening and the seats were empty. The western press was nowhere to be found. The location was Baghdad and the event was a February 10th, 2006 press conference announcing the final verification of December's election results. Although the final allocation of parliamentary seats did not change from last month's tentative reports, the conference was nonetheless significant for American and Iraqi history. What was equally significant was the absence of members of the western press.

Lieutenant Colonel John M. Kanaley

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:19 PM | Comments (1)

No Need to Wait on Jay or Dave for Cheney Jokes

Jim and Sarah Brady have the guffaws covered.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney's reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.

"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," said Jim Brady. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot."

"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."

So witty and clever, I'm speechless. They should write for Scrappleface or something. Ditto the Humane Society.

"Vice President Cheney just seems to keep topping himself on the hunting front. First, he showed terrible judgment by hunting ducks with Justice Antonin Scalia when his office had business before the Supreme Court. Then, he went on an exclusive private shooting spree in Pennsylvania and shot dozens, perhaps hundreds, of stocked pheasants at a drive-thru canned hunting operation -- where the pen-raised birds were treated as nothing more than living targets. Now, he's shot a hunting companion in his latest hunting venture. We don't quite understand his obsession with shooting animals, and we'd advise him to pursue a less violent form of relaxation and get on with the important business of leading the country."

Since it appears de rigeur to issue a statment, the Swilling is working on theirs, hoping it will be a doozy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:49 AM | Comments (22)

Really?

Analysis: Targeted killings often work

Because it means schmaybe the bad guy brains of the operation are dead? It is hard to plan stuff in that condition...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:07 AM

Something I Thought I'd Never Say

...but KUDOS aplenty to whoever locked on NBC's analysts for the Olympics. They borrowed Dick Button from ABC ~ how fabulous is THAT?! NO ONE calls it on the ice like him, never has and never will again. It is a complete and utter relief (and pure, unadulterated) pleasure hearing Dick and not Shrilly Hamilton.

Major Dad was asking plaintively "Where's Peggy?" over and over again. I gently reminded him we need to be thankful for what we got. It could have been a whole lot worse ~ damn near unbearable, in fact.

Yeesh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:08 AM | Comments (3)

That Took Some Guts

2 knuckled headed fellows with all the best intentions in the world step off the curb into a sea of Muslim protestors demonstrating through the streets of Paris. They spoke not a word, made no aggressive gestures. They wore only the clothes on their backs and...one had a Danish flag with a simple 'Support Denmark', while the other had a placard that said 'Free Cartoonist' and held a faux-severed-hand-on-cardboard, a pen among the fingers. Fortunately, the French police rescued them from the religion of peace protestors. The video here, the story here. Bless their hearts.

A Swill Salute to The Gateway Pundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2006

As Much As I Adore

...Susanna and wish to support all things Danish, I'll pass on the purchase of an (admittedly snazzy) aubergine onehunnertfortyninedollah Danish toilet brush.

While I appreciate her sending it along ~ and thought maybe one of ya'll could use one ~ I'll stick to Lurpak butter.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:33 PM | Comments (8)

And I Flew Home From Brazil Last Night Why Exactly?

I go from shovelling beer in to me to shovelling snow away from me in the space of a few hours. Yeah!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:47 AM | Comments (15)

Them and Us

-Haitham Mussawi / AFP

Rage or revenge? A cleric feeds the fires in Beirut

...For Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is dominated by members of the Alawite sect often seen as heretical by other Muslims, the cartoons are an ideal distraction. By allowing the Danish and Norwegian embassies to be attacked and ransacked in Damascus, he upped the level of global televised violence. A day later, members of a Muslim group with close ties to Syrian intelligence were among the Islamic flag-wavers attacking the Danish Embassy in Beirut, where Assad is still trying to prove that the only alternative to Syrian domination is sectarian chaos. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad exulted in cartoon-inspired hysteria, allowing protesters to try to storm the Danish Embassy, and endorsing a Tehran newspaper's competition for Holocaust caricatures. His now well-established policy is to confront the West, isolate his country, then wave the flag to consolidate his grip on power

What a hideous but perfect photo ~ he might well be standing in front of the World Trade Center. Let there be no groveling for forgiveness from these people. Apologising for cartoons is tantamount to apologising for our way of life. I'm not prepared to do that.

UPDATE: Great op-ed piece from Emran Qureshi in the NYT.

...Muslim societies have paid a dear price for the militants in their midst. Many of the best and brightest within the Muslim world have had to flee to the West to avoid being silenced or killed. Fazlur Rahman, a brilliant and deeply religious Pakistani scholar of Islam, had to flee his native land for the University of Chicago. Similarly, the Islamic studies scholar Nasr Abu Zayd fled Egyptian Islamists for the Netherlands. Naguib Mahfouz, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was stabbed in the neck in Cairo and barely survived; the Egyptian writer Faraj Foda was not so lucky.

In some Western Muslim quarters, the proposed solution is more censorship — that these cartoons and similar expressions should be banned as hate speech. By that logic, shouldn't Salafist diatribes against Shiites also be banned? Shouldn't the writings of Maulana Abul Ala Maududi and his Jamaat-e-Islami, which were instrumental in persecuting the Ahmadis, a Muslim minority in Pakistan, be banned as well? Maududi's religious writings, best sellers among Muslims in the West, are suffused with an intolerant and anti-Western hue.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (16)

February 10, 2006

Got Whale?

Stick to sushi, for God's sake.

Japan's demand for whale meat declining

TOKYO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Whale meat, a cheap source of protein that helped Japan ward off malnutrition after World War II, has dropped in popularity.

Commercial freezers that store whale meat in Japan have 2,700 tons of uneaten stock, while whale burgers and whale spaghetti bologna are being served in school lunch cafeterias, distributed to old people's homes and some whale meat is ending up in pet food, the Times of London reported Friday.

Despite the lack of demand, the Japanese whaling ships say they hope to bring in a haul of almost 1,000 minke whales, a 40 percent increase from last year, when they return this spring.

The Japanese government, which has endured international condemnation for its whale fishing, has begun a campaign to promote the gastronomic delights of the "scrumptious whale."

Japanese officials have argued that it allows killing whales for scientific, not cultural or commercial, reasons.

How many things are morally wrong in this article. The first would be a government promoting commercial sale of a meat it supposedly only harvests for 'scientific reasons'. Bullsh$t! It's no fluke ~ they do it on porpoise and it's enough to make a grown man blubber like a baby.

Bastards.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:15 PM | Comments (10)

You Know

...I really don't get this whole thing. And that's a damn sorry Yahoo headline, holy day or not.

Iraqi Shi'ite mourn free of violence

Major Dad sent me the picture in the extended section. For the life of me, I can't remember the last time blood was shed on St. George's Day (probably when the dragon died) or any of the martyrs' days. The Swiss report I linked to said Ahsoura gatherings have been big suicide bombing targets, so it looks like they kill each other coming and going. If the stampede doesn't get you or you don't go a little crazy slicing yourself up with a knife, the a$$hole with the backpack will pick up the slack. They've got bigger problems than cartoons.

Yahoo here.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 PM | Comments (2)

Admission is the First Stage of Recovery

My name is Sister.

And I have a thang...

...for bowls.

If it wasn't for that jailbird Martha Stewart and her happy little magazine, I'd have more. Bitch.

No, I wouldn't. I can be strong.

Not.

The Kitchen Chronicles continue...

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

A Scene From "Sin City"

...come to life.

The police version of the 2006 Dodge Charger is seen in this photo provided by DaimlerChrysler Corp. The New York Police Department said Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006 that it plans to purchase 15 Chargers for a pilot program. Some of the new cars will be unmarked and others will be painted with NYPD colors and logo. (AP Photo/DaimlerChrysler)

Or was it "The Fifth Element", "Bladerunner" or "The Island"?
WHATever. They look B-A-D, bad.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:38 AM | Comments (4)

February 09, 2006

I Live for These Stories

Johnny Weir(d), everybody's favorite guy blade, has arrived in Torino.

He's looking for the pea.

"I am very princessy as far as travel is concerned and having a nice room and things like that. Sorry to say 'princessy,"' he added, laughing, "but that's what we do."

Known for his outspoken manner, the three-time U.S. men's champion isn't afraid to declare that the Olympic Village "is not very comfortable."

"It's a little dusty, very underdecorated, the beds aren't very soft," Weir said Tuesday, "but I'm enjoying it!"

Major Dad's apoplectic with...amusement. Seems Johnny wants to write a book when he retires.

"I've been through the wringer and I know everything and I've seen everything that goes on. There are so many skeletons in the closet in figure skating, and there's a lot of stuff that goes down that people don't know about," he said.

Goes DOWN? Oh, we've got an idea, trust me.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:12 PM | Comments (7)

Programming Note: Clear Your Viewing Schedule

...for the Dog Days of Winter.

New York gears up for ‘yappy hour’
City embraces Westminster Dog Show as true institution

This Monday and Tuesday. Be there.

We got dibs on "Best in Show".

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:40 PM | Comments (4)

Whine of the Day: Blogging's Light

...'cause Mardi Gras orders are kicking my butt. Not knocking any of the excess off, but one can always hope.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:23 PM | Comments (3)

If You Knew Harry

...like Jack knows Harry...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.

The activities _ detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press _ are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.

So's he gonna step down? I can't wait to see them spin this one.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:15 PM

The Religion of Peace With Their Version of Kumbayah

Anna one, anna two...

“Defending the prophet should continue worldwide,” Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, told the crowd. “Let (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, (President) Bush and all the tyrants shut up: We are a nation that can’t forgive, be silent or ease up when they insult our prophet and our sacred values.”

“Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration but let George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to ... we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices,” Nasrallah added.

Sing ...sing a song
A refrain
With human bombs.
Infidels burn, you are glad!
From Beirut to Baghdad.

Sing, sing a song.
Keep it simple
So street mobs go along.
Don't worry when you kill some of your own.
Who cares anyway? 'Cause
The Koran says it's "Okay!"

Big Mo's never wrong,
So make the world sing along.
Danes must say 'you da man'!
It's all in the Koran.

You call Jihad.
Twist religion to force
Others to your God.
No one will ever speak another word
That you don't want to hear.

Your power's in their fear.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:05 AM | Comments (2)

February 08, 2006

The Fear Invoking, Vindictive, Pissy Office Monster

...(aka: Lying Sack o' Sh*t) has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. By a Swede, no less.

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is one of two Americans who have been nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Last year, Democrats and a few Republicans refused to confirm Bolton to the U.N. post, forcing President Bush to resort to a recess appointment.

Bolton and Kenneth R. Timmerman were formally nominated by Sweden's former deputy prime minister Per Ahlmark, for playing a major role in exposing Iran's secret plans to develop nuclear weapons.

I wonder if Chris Dodd'll be sending along a "whoops! Wrong thread!" apology.

"I think you're going to have an awfully difficult time with Mr. Bolton building the kind of support the United States needs today at the United Nations," said Dodd, D-Connecticut, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Or Pravda?

The longer John Bolton's Senate hearing for the post of United Nations representative went on, the more outrageous it seemed that President Bush could have nominated a man who had made withering disdain for that world body the signature of his career in international affairs. Some fear that the aim is to scuttle the United Nations. It's more likely, but just as disturbing, that this is another example of Mr. Bush's rewarding loyalty rather than holding officials accountable for mistakes, especially those who helped build the case for war with Iraq.

Nah. But what a hoot. Swill salute to the the Blogfaddah.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:36 PM | Comments (3)

Children's Books Got Me Thinkin'

...about makin' a little list. My favorites: ones I found for Crusader when he was little, ones that came out when Ebola was a single celled micro unit and ones for middle schoolers that I cherish to this day. I'll start with 'read to me' and at the top. Bar none, the finest children's book ever written.

Others always on hand for evening reading snuggles on the couch? "A Woggle of Witches"

"Bears in the Night" and "The Spooky Old Tree"
Anything "Paddington" or Pooh
One can always use a wild rumpus , a soothing bedtime story
and then a not-so-quiet siesta .
And some poetry for the soul, while keeping an eye out for charging rhinocerii.

Ebola just walked in and saw Ferdinand on the monitor. "Oh, my favorite!" he said, before he even knew what I was doing. (This doesn't include "Go Dog, GO!", "One Fish, Two Fish", etc and the myriad happy little books you read your children.) He got read to quite a bit.

I'm tracking down the novels I read to him next.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:50 PM | Comments (11)

Better Watch Where You Put That Thang

What's the world coming to?

Patronizing prostitutes just got more costly
New rule means those convicted face dishonorable discharge, jail

Service members now may pay dearly for hiring a prostitute.
Under a change in the Manual for Courts-Martial, troops who patronize prostitutes can receive a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and up to a year in jail.

“Before now, there was no explicit prohibition on patronizing a prostitute,” said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice. “It’s clear they’re getting serious about this. I think it’s a sign of changing values in our society, including military society. Once upon a time, this kind of thing was rampant, like heavy drinking and smoking.”

The punishment for hiring a prostitute is now the same as the punishment for being a prostitute.

Hey! No ogling the merchandise!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:19 PM | Comments (5)

Wher's Pat Robertson on This Sign From God?

Katie Couric's new Poopie-Do.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:57 AM | Comments (4)

Monkey Business

...most FOUL...

A collaborator on the children’s book series Curious George has been found dead on the driveway of his mobile home in Florida.

Police say Allen Shalleck’s body was covered in black garbage bags. Neighbors had passed by for a least a day, thinking it was just trash.

Yeesh!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 AM | Comments (10)

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Yak (Not to be Confused With 'Goats') Fest

...to bring you a calming Zen moment of winter...

...Scottie Blogging.

We now return you to the Swilling.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:14 AM | Comments (9)

Guess I've Got to Dump the Dasani

...in order to stick to my tree hugging principles.

Tap water comes to us through an energy-efficient infrastructure whereas bottled water must be transported long distances--and nearly one-fourth of it across national borders--by boat, train, airplane, and truck. This ''involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels,'' Arnold said.

By way of example, in 2004 alone, a Helsinki company shipped 1.4 million bottles of Finnish tap water 4,300 kilometers (2,700 miles) to Saudi Arabia. And although 94 percent of the bottled water sold in the United States is produced domestically, some Americans import water shipped some 9,000 kilometers from Fiji and other faraway places to satisfy demand for what Arnold termed ''chic and exotic bottled water.''

More fossil fuels are used in packaging the water. Most water bottles are made with polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic derived from crude oil. ''Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year,'' Arnold said.

Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.

Once it has been emptied, the bottle must be dumped. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals tied to a host of human and animal health problems. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

Of the bottles deposited for recycling in 2004, the United States exported roughly 40 percent to destinations as far away as China--meaning that even more fossil fuels were burned in the process.

Meanwhile, communities from near which the water came in the first place risk running dry.

But I LOVE the stuff!! Even if it's just super pure TAP-water, it tastes better than the toxic crap around here. Do you know Bangla-cola water actually ate holes through the tinfoil I had covering a stockpot full for a hurricane? I thought it had just changed the foil's color, but oh no. Tiny pinholes, like a tin lace foil doily.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:38 AM | Comments (7)

A simple Question....

Where in the hell did all of these Danish flags all of a sudden appear from? I would have a hard time getting a handfull of them here in Charlotte, yet each of these demonstrations seems to have more than they are able to burn. You tellin me there are that many flag stores in these ME countries? I have a hard time thinking that, having been in the 'hood a time myself. As someone once said, something stinks in Denmark, but it ain't the Danes.

Update: More here.

Posted by Crusader at 06:28 AM | Comments (5)

February 07, 2006

Call Me When They Burn Down an Embassy

THE JEWISH STREET EXPLODES

...The White House continued to plead with Jews across America to stay calm.

(I'd say 'or burn Iranian anything', but I can't think of a single export except dates. Or maybe a flag, that's always flashy. But ~ as Crusader pointed out earlier this evening ~ it's not as easy to find an Iranian flag in America as it seems to be finding sh*tloads of Danish flags in any given Middle Eastern capital.)

I think it's safe to say I'll be able to get through my Wednesday night viewing schedule without interruption.

UPDATE: See what I mean?

"Yes Arabs and Muslims are uptight when you touch their religious and national symbols, but Europe has made political correctness, the cult of the Holocaust and Jew-worshiping its alternative religion and is even more uptight when you touch that," writes Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of the Belgian-based radical group.

"I am for the absolute freedom of speech everywhere, and that's why I call upon every free soul among Arabs to use the Danish flag as a substitute for toilet paper," continues the Lebanese-born agitator, calling on Muslims to "illustrate every wall with graffiti making fun of everything Europe holds as holy: dancing rabbis on the carcasses of Palestinian children, hoax gas-chambers built in Hollywood in 1946 with Steven Spielberg's approval stamp, and Aids spreading fagots (sic)."

They've got Danish flags coming out their wahzoos!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:58 PM | Comments (2)

The Left is a Class Act

KING FUNERAL TURNS POLITICAL: BUSH BASHED BY FORMER PRESIDENT, REVEREND

I'll leave it at that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:25 PM | Comments (10)

Bait and Switch

...political PARTIES? Well, you could if you wanted to, if this bill gets passed in the Florida legislature.

Hunters and anglers seeking a Florida license soon may find they can take care of other important paperwork at their favorite gun or tackle store: registering to vote.

State Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, is sponsoring a bill that would require voter registration materials be provided wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold.

UPDATE and BUMP: An explanation for Dave, who bemoans the lack of a bill number in the news piece.

They didn't put the number in this one because then beer drinking/bass fishing/bear huntin'/rootin' tootin' REPUBLICANS would KNOW what bill to tell their state representative to support, resulting in MORE REGISTERED REPUBLICANS who seen the sign-up notice at the bait shop and...

"I'll be a horny toad, PawPaw! Didja know'd we could get the voting card here at Diver Dan's? Oh, well shit howdy! I ain't voted since Goldwater won, but fer sure I am now! They done all the work for me."

...and the next thing ya know, there's REPUBLICANS running around with all the little animals up at the State House.

Democrats hate that shit. That's why they didn't put the number in there.

Only YOU can prevent REPUBLICANS.

UPDATE: Thar she blows!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:21 PM | Comments (6)

This Guy

Asked whether this self-relativization does not apply to Islam and the Danish cartoons, the Cardinal’s spokesman told the press: “One does not mock the essence of someone’s faith. It is forbidden to depict the prophet. If you do, what’s more with a bomb in his turban, then that is a provocation. Just look at the violent reactions. The cardinal does not condone this violence, but he believes our own freedom has its bounds.”

The Belgian Cardinal would be the perfect bishop for Christian dhimmis in the Muslim continent of Eurabia. We are in the closing years of the pre-Islamic era of Europe’s history, and The Brussels Journal is there to record them – so that America may hopefully gain some insights from this and learn from our fatal mistakes.

...needs a group hug BADLY. Buy Danish.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:00 PM

The Burden of the Secret

...can be too much for some people to bear. JT LeRoy unmasked.

“He’s wanted to come clean and let JT fade away,” attorney Eric Feig said of Knoop late Monday. “He wanted to take the high road.”

He’s also secured a movie deal to tell his side of the story, Feig said.

I'm sure being first to cut to the cash will salve the wounds. Pond scum. As if anyone cared.

At least I hope they don't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:05 AM | Comments (5)

Not a Town You Often See in the News

...my birthplace, prior to my two WESTPACS there as a Marine. Usually when you see us wrangling with the Japanese, Okinawa is the setting.

Iwakuni to hold plebiscite on US aircraft relocation
The western Japanese city of Iwakuni will hold a plebiscite in March asking citizens if they are willing to accept the relocation of US carrier-borne aircraft to the Iwakuni Marine base.

Although the plebiscite, which was announced on Tuesday, is non-binding, rejection would come as a huge embarrassment to Japan's national government.

And they've agreed to a nuclear carrier in Yokosuka. That's a 'sea' change.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:00 AM | Comments (3)

"The Promise of Liberty"

...beautifully explained by Fouad Ajami.

"It was with this ruinous indulgence of the Palestinians that George W. Bush was to break in the summer of 2002, when he gave the Palestinians a promise of American support contingent on their renunciation of terror. Where American diplomacy during the Clinton years had averted its gaze from Arafat's cynical use of deeds of terror, Mr. Bush had put that Palestinian leader beyond the pale. The claims of "victimhood" would no longer acquit the Palestinians; they would now be held responsible for the politics, and the history, they made."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 AM

Happy Birthday to One of My Favorite

...guys.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:45 AM | Comments (6)

February 06, 2006

There's a Difference Between a Spanking (Goat or No Goat)

...and a full-fledged SCHMACK down. This would be the super-size.

As I noted, I initially believed you shared that goal. But I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party’s effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn’t always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, Senator.

That would be a letter from Senator McCain laying it on freshman Senator Obama.

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

An Interesting Twist to the Hamas Victory

We've been myopic to an extent, focusing on how Hamas would begin to deal with Israel and the world at large. It appears others are concerned about that, too.

Israeli security officials told Haaretz that the Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah headquarters in Damascus and Beirut were streaming large sums of money into the territories to spur on terror cells to carry out attacks. The sources said they believed the most extreme Islamic groups were behind the attacks, in order to stymie efforts by Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, whose victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections would make it harder for it to support further attacks, to reach an indirect agreement with Israel regarding a long-term cease-fire.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)

Another Marine Reports In

Captain Rory Quinn for the Tampa Bay Times.

And now, as we head into the last two months, we see signs of real progress going on around us. Some of the progress is beginning to appear in the mainstream newspapers on the Internet, but only sparingly. There is significant infighting going on between the insurgents. The nationalist insurgents have had enough, it seems, of the foreign ones.

On Jan. 5, a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Sunni police recruits just a few hundred meters from where we live. This was a spectacularly stupid move by the al-Qaida in Iraq guys, for a couple of reasons: First, many locals are without work, so they'll show up for any job interview. And with so many terrorists around, the people have been clamoring for police, so offering jobs as police officers to local Sunnis was the perfect solution for both problems.

Then the suicide bomber killed over 30 of Ramadi's sons. Many more were injured. It was a gruesome scene. That's when the local Sunni citizens seemed to revolt.

Since then, there's been an increase in violence around the city, consisting mainly of Iraqis hunting down foreign terrorists (the al-Qaida in Iraq guys) and killing them. We hear about it on patrol from people on the street.

The local Iraqis want the same thing from the coalition forces as the coalition itself wants -- to train Iraqis to defend Iraq, and then to go home. We both want the Marines out of Ramadi, once conditions are right. It's a beautiful partnership.

Hopefully, we'll both soon get our wishes.

Amen to that, Marine.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:04 PM | Comments (1)

Make Sure Your's Is

40 States Re-Examining Eminent Domain

Anna DeFaria stands in front of her small bungalow, next to a neighbor's sold and boarded-up home, in Long Branch, N.J., Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006. If DeFaria doesn't willingly sell the home that she and her husband bought in 1960, officials are going use eminent domain to take it from the 80-year-old retired pre-school teacher. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Flamingo bashing bastards!

...New Jersey state Sen. Diane Allen, with bipartisan support, is pushing for a two-year ban on all eminent domain actions and for a bipartisan study group to re-examine its use in New Jersey.

"Right now government, I think, is using eminent domain to take people's private properties and hand it over to another owner," said Allen, a Republican. "It's really putting a hole in the American dream. Ownership of private property plays such a large role in that dream."

I'd have to vote for her.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:47 PM | Comments (4)

Now There's a Loaded Question

"Do you have any negative feelings or opinions about Muslims or people of Arab or North African descent?" "Do you believe Islam endorses violence to a greater or lesser extent than other religions?"

Jury selection rolls on in the life-or-death phase of Moussaoui's trial.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:00 PM | Comments (1)

How Cool Is It

That I can be sitting in the little town of Guaxupé in the state of Minas Gerais in the interior of Brazil and blog.

That was supposed to be a question, but I can~t find the darn question-mark key on this portuguese keyboard...heh.

I'm not sure if any of the other 'hotels' I'll be staying at will have broadband access.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:02 PM | Comments (3)

Just an Observation

A moment of reflection. When I hear Muslim, Islam, Allah, ad nauseum, this...

...is all I see. It's THE first image that springs to mind.

I have a sneaking suspicion that's pretty much true for the vast majority of the Western World. And until they join this century ~ the here and NOW ~ and change the mental image we all have firmly implanted thanks to their infantile, emotional, destructive, hateful...damn.

There aren't enough epithets to describe their putridity. They aren't a religion, they're a mob.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 AM | Comments (6)

So I'm At The Airport Friday Night...

I've travelled a reasonable amount, and I've seen some funny things at airports, both funny people and funny things that they bring on the flights with them. I remember being at the airport in Port Au Prince, Haiti in the late 70s and being amazed at all the folks standing in line to board the flights with live chickens in cages as their carry-on luggage. When you fly out of San Salvador back to the States you will often see many people carrying buckets of fried chicken with them, as it's a certain type that you just can't get Stateside, that special taste of home.

But I have to admit that on Friday night, as I was at Newark checking in for my flight down here, I saw something I'd never seen before. In line in front of me at the Continental counter was a family going on the flight to Puerto Rico (I think), and on their luggage cart were 4 new tires. And not little car tires, but decent sized pickup truck tires. Brand spankin' shiny black new, still with those little fuzzy-nubbly thingies sticking up all over them, resisting every attempt to be wrapped in plastic tape or to let any type of name tag besmirch their vulcanized glory.

Crazy.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:48 AM

Hilarious

...just frickin' HILARIOUS.

The Anonymous Muslim Man Complaint Box.

Dear Muslim Man Complaint Box,

My daughter was raped by my neighbor and we burned her alive because she was tainted. My issue is that I think I should be able to rape his daughter back instead of having to burn my perfectly good daughter. So she was raped, so what? All of her parts still worked. She could still cook a meal. She could still find a good husband. She could still catch a beating like a net. I think this situation is unfair.

America is the Great Satan, Death to Israel and a Swill Salute to Blogfaddah for finding this, before we burn his Infidel Body in effigy for linking to such disrespect.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:35 AM | Comments (1)

This Will Engender Some Lively Debate

...I'm thinking.

The British government wants to reduce the welfare rolls by getting the able-bodied and able-minded back to work. But that may not be so simple: Already, the idea has reignited old debates on work vs. welfare and Britain's unemployment culture.

...Under the old incapacity benefit system, long-term claimants received higher welfare payments than those who had recently been assigned incapacity benefit -- and sometimes received more in benefits than they could from working -- leading to "perverse incentives" to stay on benefits that Welfare Secretary John Hutton has called "one of the greatest barriers to social justice in Britain."

Under the new Employment and Support Allowance, however, the government will be "set(ting) a new direction, enabling and empowering people to fulfill their potential and ambitions, not consigning them to a lifetime on benefit," Hutton says.

"Essentially we want to return to fundamental principles where the welfare state is able to respond to people's abilities and help them into the work place -- not one that condemns them to a life on benefits."

The interesting thing so far seems to be that the major objection to the plan is a fear of employer discrimination. Companies don't want to hire these 'off-work' people and apparently are going to have to be coaxed or coerced. I remember the opposite problem here with 'welfare reform'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:05 AM | Comments (1)

Mail Cut Off Update From Lt. Sarah

She just emailed me that the last date the Marines will be receiving mail will be 17 Feb. Since it takes 7-10 days for things to hit over there, if you haven't sent something by Monday, you'll be cutting it close to the hair on your chinny chin chin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:00 AM

February 05, 2006

Quote of the Day

And as a Canadian, I just can't believe the Danish would treat their fellow citizens this way.

-a Canadian blogger on the current Cartoon Madness.

It's a shame he couldn't ask Theo Van Gogh for his opinion concerning those same 'fellow citizens'.

UPDATE:MARTIN WALKER

...The editor said he was sorry if he had unwittingly caused offense, but he reckoned that by the principles of a free press, he had a right to print them.

So he does, and there is a fine and politically useful tradition of caricature and satire and puncturing of all sacred cows that makes up part of the discourse of free democracies.

If Muslims who choose to live in Denmark or another European country where this tradition is valued and understood do not like it, then they are perfectly free to leave for more devout and authoritarian shores. They are also free to write letters of protest to the editor, march in protest around his newspaper, boycott the paper and its advertisers and adopt all the other forms of expressing strong, principled and peaceful dissent that are also intrinsic to democratic societies.

Muslims abroad are also entitled to express their views, although wild threats to kidnap European diplomats and the armed takeover of the European Union offices in Gaza Thursday are foolish and self-defeating. Those EU offices have disbursed over $3 billions to the Palestinians, and are one of the few life-support systems that Palestine has. If a poll were taken among Europeans today, there would probably be a considerable majority for leaving the empty offices to the gunmen and keeping the money for deserving causes in Europe.

Would that we could sit back and watch them implode.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:26 PM | Comments (3)

A Name to a Face

...and peace for his family.

Remains found in the California mountains last fall are those of an airman from Minnesota whose plane went missing during World War II, relatives said Saturday.

The U.S. Department of Defense determined the remains are those of Leo Mustonen, who was 22 when the plane he was in crashed 64 years ago in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the airman's nieces Leane Mustonen Ross and Ona Lea Mustonen told CNN.

This is a good end to this story.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:53 PM

Security is in the Eye of the Beholder

I'd ask the question "HOW ?" but I'm sure the answer is obvious.

USS Cole Bombing Mastermind Escapes Prison

LYON, France — A man considered a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in a Yemeni port in 2000 was among 23 people who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said Sunday.

The international police agency issued an "urgent global security alert" for those who escaped Friday from the prison via a tunnel. It called the escapees "dangerous individuals."

Good to have friends in low places.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM

Islamic Demonstrators Take It a Step Further

...than just melting Danish cheese. Fox News is reporting they've shot and killed a priest in Turkey. (Instapundit has posted a line confirming what I heard.). From UPI's International Editor:

"You cannot have a free media and expect to control it," said Riz Khan, one of al-Jazeera's new stars who comes to the Arabic channel from CNN.
...At a time when many in the West argue that Islam is a "violent religion" Muslim leaders should have called for a more appropriate -- and peaceful -- response. Instead, the violent reaction from Gaza to Damascus is only going to strengthen Islamophobes and raise the level of Islamophobia.

And from a Newsweek interview with Flemming Rose, the Jyllands-Posten editor

...When I go to a mosque, I behave by the rules that exist in that holy house. I will not stand up and make a cartoon of the holy prophet in a mosque. But I think if any religion insists that I, as a non-Muslim, should submit to their taboos, then I don't think they're showing me respect. I think they're asking for my submission. This is a key issue in this debate.

...NewsweekWill Jyllands-Posten apologize?
For what?

Precisely.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:05 AM | Comments (2)

February 04, 2006

On This Day in 1789

...the first George got the job.

When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President

Lucky thing for us, huh?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:59 PM | Comments (2)

Great Job Containing Inflation There, Greenspan

You musta missed Bangla-cola, where Major Dad is still in shock,

SHOCK, I TELL YOU !!

Why, you ask? Well, two days ago, the 1.75L size bottle of this much loved juice of the juniper berry was a fairly-expensive-but-still-doable $32.

Today it was...

$47.50

Do the math on that one, Alan.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:21 PM | Comments (14)

February 03, 2006

See You On The 12th

I'm off to Brazil for a week.

Please try to keep THS and Crusader restrained...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:43 PM | Comments (6)

I Want a Jihad and I Want It NOW

Because ~ unless I'm mistaken and I hardly ever am ~

This is an Arabic cartoon of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ with Saddam Hussein's Face.

Where was the State Department then, with their...

"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims CHRISTIANS,"

...line of bullshit. Two words. They WEREN'T. They were MIA ~ Missed in A$$kissing.

One of the happy little Danish clerics was on World News Tonight last night "I demand that the Dutch government prove it's liberalism by banning these offensive cartoons." Huh? I wish I was a stenographer ~ I would have had the whole thing for you. It was just another joke until I saw Bingley's post. I'm so, like, "Fatwah THIS, pal" with these people.

Swill Salute to a Little Green Footballs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:30 PM | Comments (5)

Oh The State Department Pisses Me Off

What kind of CRAP is this:

Washington on Friday condemned caricatures in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammad, siding with Muslims who are outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion....

..."These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."

This is complete and total bullshit. If Condi doesn't smack down these limp-wristed idiots she will have a very very tough time getting my vote now. How dare they encourage those bastards to riot and blow shit up.

God Bless Denmark!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 04:28 PM | Comments (10)

I'll Take "Because They Don't Have One?"

...for $500, Alex.

Why the French don't get as much heart disease

Q : What do you get when you toss a hand grenade into a kitchen in France?

A : Linoleum blownapart.

Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians. Everything inside them is color-coded."

The third surgeon says, "No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order."

The fourth surgeon chimes in, "You know, I like construction workers. They always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end and when the job takes longer than you said it would."

But the fifth surgeon, Dr. Morris Fishbein, shuts them all up when he observes, "The French are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls and no spine. Plus the head and ass are interchangeable."

I'd love to take credit for these, but I can't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:55 PM | Comments (7)

Hmmmm...

5 Ala. churches hit by fires; arson suspected
Churches had both black and white congregations

CENTREVILLE, Ala. - Fires destroyed three rural Alabama churches and damaged two others in a string of suspected arsons overnight.

The fires were set “as fast as they could drive from one location to the next,” Bibb County Chief Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Weems said of the cluster of blazes, all near U.S. 82 and Highway 139.

No clues yet.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)

Iran

Just reading all the speculation and buzz about Iran, and what we need to/can/will do about it, it brings one question to my mind. With the polls hovering right around 50% or so for some type of action, I really have to wonder, are we (the American public) prepared/willing to endure the sacrifice that may/will result from it? OIF has been pretty painless for us folks here at home, but I just don't see it being that way if we start bombing Iran back to the Stone Age. I imagine oil would jump a bunch, perhaps $90-$100/barrel? With Iran a major sponsor of jihadis all over the world, I would expect a bunch more loons with TNT strapped to them going off. Cash strapped NK would lose a customer, at least for a while. China sells a good deal of hardware to them also, so will goods at Wally World go up, more than just due to increased fuel prices? I really wonder if my generation has the steel to endure some sacrifice for a greater need. I look around me, and I am not so sure. Is my own household really prepared to sacrifice? I really have to wonder.

Posted by Crusader at 11:11 AM | Comments (1)

When I Saw This Headline

Hasselbeck 'jealous' of Polamalu's wild hairdo

...I though they meant this guy. GAH-RRROWLLLL. Made my liver quiver for a second. Then I realized I had the wrong studmuffin.

Back to sniffing paint.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:56 AM | Comments (9)

ChimpyMacLimping Along

The monthly report showed the January unemployment rate dropped to a 4-1/2-year low 4.7 percent from 4.9 percent in December. The last time the rate was lower was in July 2001 when it was at 4.6 percent.

Yeesh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:47 AM

Thanks To Everyone

For making our first year here at the Swilling a helluva lot of fun and much more successful than we ever reckoned possible.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:46 AM | Comments (21)

"Muslims In New Cartoon Protests"

That headline from the BBC sort of sums it all up, doesn't it?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:43 AM | Comments (4)

Ferry Sinks In Red Sea

More than 1400 on board.

Hopefully they'll be able to save a lot of folks.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:35 AM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2006

How Beautifully Said

A couple of poignant paragraphs from Bob Woodruff's wife Lee. They are incredibly graceful and gracious.

Your positive thoughts, prayers and good wishes have sustained us over the last 72 hours as we have experienced the highs and lows of this emotional roller coaster. Bob could not have made the progress he has to date without the unbelievable care he received from the military in Iraq, Germany and now, Bethesda. Simply put, they saved his life. There are no words to express our gratitude.

We realize that our family is going through something that thousands of military families have experienced over the last three years since the war began and throughout our history. Bob's name may be more recognizable but his story is no more important. He would be the first to insist that the attention should be focused on the members of the U.S. military whose heroic actions he has reported on for years.

Our best wishes for the happiest of outcomes.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:03 AM | Comments (5)

Things Seem to Be Tightening Up

A second report from the Labor Department suggested the job market has tightened further since the fourth-quarter. New claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly to 273,000 last week, pushing a four-week average of claims to the lowest level in nearly six years.

But productivity also dropped. Some economists are saying a it's temporary blip because of the hurricane impact in the fourth quarter, while others hold their breath about wage inflation. All eyes will be on the monthly report tomorrow. I love this stuff.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:53 AM

::sniff:: Weather Predicting RODENTS!

Everybody know winter gonna end, so who care what some rag bag nutria say, eh? Down hyah we only got one worry 'round dis hyah time an' dat would be fine weather for Mardi Gras. We also happens ta have our own Cajun prognosticator ~ T-Claude, the Cajun Crawfish!

Fame is chasing the elusive Claude the Cajun Crawfish as cameras from all over will be flashing at 10 a.m., Feb. 1, when all will converge on the banks of the Red River in front of Joe's Crab Shack at the Louisiana Boardwalk in Shreveport-Bossier City, LA, straining to get even a shot of the red-headed weather predictor.

The camera shy Claude the Cajun Crawfish shot to national stardom last year when he emerged from his hole and predicted - with 100 percent accuracy - great weather for the all-important Mardi Gras season. That bit of fortune made him a media darling, landing the usually reclusive crustacean on television.

He say it's a go, so Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler, y'all!

DISCLAIMER: A course, T-Claude, he don't say Mardi Gras clear? Den he be Gumbo, cher.

UPDATE: A Warm Swill Welcome to Pat! She shared a great link to all things Claude in the comments.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:45 AM | Comments (10)

Happy GroundHog's Day!

This is the audience-participation number, so everyone sing along!

Update:

NEWS ALERT

Bundle up! Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, which according to legend, indicates six more weeks of winter.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:35 AM | Comments (1)

Balls In Europe

Who'd a'thunk it?

PARIS, France (AP) -- A French newspaper on Wednesday republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that caused uproar in the Muslim world when they were printed in a Danish daily, saying that religious dogma has no place in a secular society.

The drawings, first printed September 30 in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and reprinted in a Norwegian magazine last month, sparked boycotts and demonstrations against Denmark throughout the Muslim world.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry.

The front page of the daily France Soir on Wednesday carried the headline "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" and a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. Inside, the paper reran the drawings.

Good for them, and they're right.

Update: Woo-hoo! The battle spreads. Cool.

Update and bump: The cowardly cringers have struck back:

The owner of French newspaper France Soir on Wednesday dismissed the publication’s managing editor after the paper reproduced a set of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first published in Denmark that have created an uproar in the Muslim world.

France-Soir owner Raymond Lakah said in a statement to AFP he “decided to remove Jacques Lefranc as managing director of the publication as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual."

More like a powerful sign of your being a disgusting toady.

(thanks as always to Tim)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:10 AM | Comments (2)

February 01, 2006

Death To Drug Smugglers

You bastards:

(CNN) -- A two-year investigation into a Colombian heroin ring netted more than 65 pounds of drugs, resulted in the arrests of more than 20 people and saved the lives of some drug-smuggling Labrador retrievers, the Drug Enforcement Agency said Wednesday.

Ten wayward pups were found during a raid on a Colombian farm in 2005, and six of them were carrying more than 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of liquid heroin in their stomachs, said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:14 PM | Comments (3)

Speaking of the Joint Chiefs

We actually watched the State of the Union last night. There was one, blazing example of the despicable Democratic disdain for the American military, regardless of the platitudes they mouth for the folks back home. President Bush was working his way through this paragraph...

Our work in Iraq is difficult, because our enemy is brutal. But that brutality has not stopped the dramatic progress of a new democracy. In less than three years, that nation has gone from dictatorship, to liberation, to sovereignty, to a constitution, to national elections. At the same time, our coalition has been relentless in shutting off terrorist infiltration, clearing out insurgent strongholds, and turning over territory to Iraqi security forces.

... finishing it with this thought.

I am confident in our plan for victory ... I am confident in the will of the Iraqi people ... I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military. Fellow citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning.

The Republican side of the house roared to their feet. The only two standing on the Democratic side of the house? General Peter Pace and General Michael Hagee, USMC, down in the front. They turned and glanced behind them and then a couple Dems abashedly struggled to their feet during the sustained applause.

That picture pretty much said it all for me. Joe Lieberman seemed to be the only Democratic Senator clapping unashamedly ~ clapping at all ~ when the military was mentioned in terms of Iraq.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:55 PM | Comments (1)

Move Over, Ted Rall

...there's a new a$$hole in town.

The Joint Chiefs have a little note for him.

Acoording to the scuttlebutt making the military rounds:

With regard to the Washington Post's response: They are processing the letter, and anticipate it will be in Thursday's edition. That is not a guarantee, but a strong likelihood.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:11 PM | Comments (7)