Monday, October 31, 2005
I feel a little like John McClane
I have this urge to look at this guy and say “Welcome to the party, pal...”
For those unfamiliar with the term, a blog, or weblog, is an online diary or journal. It can be as modest as a weekly rumination on cats for ailurophiles, or as weighty as a daily dissertation on foreign policy. There are now 10 million blogs, or maybe 35 million; no one is sure, because many get established (and perhaps rapidly abandoned) by users of free hosting services like Google Inc.’s Blogger that don’t disclose figures.
And here I have a disclosure to make.
I am a blogger.
Ooh, really? Can I have your autograph? Better gimme two, because I can get a Robby The Robot autograph for two of yours… 
One would think that Al Gore would have passed on the memo about this neat new invention of his, called “The Internet”. Or maybe that reporters would have bothered to actually, oh, I don’t know… report?
Naaaaahhhh…
Category: What Liberal Media? | Humor/Entertainment | Weirdness |
Required Reading….
...as the good Vodkapundit is apt to say every now and again. Tonight’s example is here, courtesy of Wretchard of the Belmont Club
I want you to go read the man’s superior take on what Newt Gingrich calls “The Long War”.....then come back here, and click below to hear my take on the subject.
Studying abroad
What happens when you get fired from one of the biggest left-wing newspapers in the nation? You end up with a job a Harvard.
Former LAT Editor John Carroll has been invited to spend a semester at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. There’s a good chance it will turn into a year-long gig as a Knight Visiting Lecturer, says Mark Jurkowitz at the Boston Phoenix (via Romenesko.) Carroll was headed to Harvard as curator of the Nieman Foundation before he took the Times job in 2000.
It’s much easier to indoctrinate the youth of the nation when you’re teaching at one of the best schools money can buy. I’d be royally pissed if my money was going towards a paycheck for this guy.
While we’re at it
You’ve gotta be kidding me.
I’m struck almost speechless by this, wherein is described an Islamic fatwa against football (soccer).
No, I’m deadly serious.
To quote a few of them:
3. Do not follow the heretics, the Jews, the Christians and especially evil America regarding the number of players. Do not play with 11 people. Add to this number or decrease it.
***
6. Do not play in two halves. Rather, play in one half or three halves in order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics, the corrupted and the disobedient.
***
9. You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the posts or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow him and hug him like players in America or France do, and you should punish him, for what is the relationship between celebrating, hugging and kissing and the sports that you are practising?
Sounds like a whole lot of fun to me… Or maybe “fun” is not permitted under Islam?
Hey….more Breaking News!!
Bush has nominated Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court! With a nickname like “Scalito”, this already looks to be a much more positive (and popular) pick than Ms. Miers was.
Judging by his judicial history, I think this will be a much more acceptable pick to the conservatives....and might be the thing that puts the Democrats back on the margins. I mean....if they become overly obstructionist, it will set them up (at least in the public eye) as opposing Alito just because Bush picked him....and when the Republicans overturn the Dem filibuster (which is coming), the howling from the Left will be something to see.
This choice is also going to push the SCOTUS a good bit towards the originalist side. More good news.
I also heard Harry Reid is unhappy about this pick....makes me happy just to hear that. Heh.
Here’s the reactions (pretty early for this, but...):
Lovely and talented Michelle Malkin is all over it, and she seems to like the pick. She’s also got some links.
Polipundit seems to agree with this pick.
Johnny Hawkins, over at Right Wing News, only went to bed four hours ago, but this pick is in the top echelon of those we bloggers find to be acceptable. I bet he’s happy about it.
Up on the bridge, the Captain seems to be happy with this plotted course.
Unfortunately, I am at work, so I would like any further posts of interests linked to in the Comments....or, if my co-bloggers are inclined, they can continue this as the day progresses.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
I Thought That’s What You Guys Wanted
Okay, now I am confused:
“I think the American people can see through this so clearly. The president should come forward with some middle-of-the-road person, somebody that is going to be a good Supreme Court justice, not somebody that’s going to be writing the law from the bench,” [Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid said on ABC’s “This Week.”
(My emphasis)
So, if the President nominates Samuel Alito on Monday can we assume Senator Reid would support the nominee wholeheartedly? Or am I missing something here?
Of course Chuckie Schumer gets in on the act:
The selection of someone with extreme views will not bode well “for the nomination, for the Supreme Court or for his presidency,” he told CBS’"Face the Nation.”
And a filibuster against a supremely qualified SCOTUS nominee would?
Schumer needs to be reminded his party is in the minority. Filibuster and get your ass handed to you there, Chuck.
It’s that time, folks
Set the clocks back (remember ‘Spring forward and Fall back’
and check the batteries in your smoke/CO2/radon detectors. If you are reading this and haven’t done it already, it’s time…
Just a friendly reminder from down on The Rants…
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Flu? No, I drove.
When we last left off, I was defending oil companies from the neo-communist senator Chuck Schumer, who wanted them to donate a percentage of their profits to needy people in the United States. But even I’ve reached the limits of my desire to defend the oil companies, Exxon-Mobil in particular, when it was revealed that someone decided to drop the dime on the fact that they were giving fake flu shots to 1,600 employees in their Texas depot.
The owner of a home health business faces at least 10 years in prison if found guilty of Medicare fraud charges accusing him of injecting fake flu vaccine into as many as 1,600 Baytown employees of Exxon Mobil, as well as 14 residents of a La Porte nursing home.
Iyad Abu El Hawa, the owner of Comfort & Caring Home Health in the 10100 block of Harwin, was arrested Thursday evening and is being held without bail, officials said Friday.
El Hawa, 35, made an initial appearance Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson, who scheduled a probable cause and detention hearing for 9 a.m. Monday.
“Because he intended to bill Medicare (for the nursing home shot recipients), as if he was providing a vaccine, this is a fraud on that federal program,” said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg.
“We are trying to ascertain as quickly as possible whether more victims received fake flu shots and whether they, too, are at risk,” Rosenberg said. “Other charges may follow.”
Initial tests indicate the shots given Oct. 19 and 20 contained nothing more than purified water, authorities said. There have been no reports of adverse effects from the fake vaccinations.
But because the safety of the syringes is unknown, public health officials are urging shot recipients to be tested for bloodborne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C as a precaution. Testing of the syringes and the liquid inside is continuing.
First of all, I’d be beyond pissed that some doctor injected me with some unknown fluid, that is believed to be purified water (yet still not unconfirmed). After settling down about that, I’d be even more pissed off that I could have possibly contracted HIV or hepatitis because of this dumbass doctor. Third, I’d be flipping through the yellow pages for a lawyer so I could sue the pants off Exxon-Mobil for contracting with a doctor who had the bright idea to do all of this.
Pass It Around
Fed-up with the fact that the return of communism is nowhere in sight, democrats have decided to take matters into their own hands and make oil companies pay for poor people.
With Americans facing soaring heating fuel costs this winter, Democratic senators on Thursday asked the big oil companies to donate some of their record profits to help low-income families pay their utility bills.
U.S. oil companies’ profits during the first nine months of this year are up more than 35 percent from last year. Exxon Mobil
reported it earned $9.9 billion in the third quarter alone. The Democrats asked Exxon and other major oil companies to be “good corporate citizens” and contribute 10 percent of their profits to fuel assistance programs that help poor families and the elderly cover their heating costs. Republicans have blocked attempts to boost funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to around $5 billion, up from the $2.2 billion it spent last year.
“American families need economic relief from high energy prices,” the lawmakers said in a letter to each of the companies.
“They need the security to know they will not have to decide between heating their homes or feeding their families, and paying the energy bill or buying life-saving medicines,” the senators said.
The letter was signed by 11 senators, including former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton of New York, Mark Dayton of Minnesota and Maria Cantwell of Washington.
Democrat Charles Schumer of New York said it did not make sense to fund the LIHEAP program at around $2 billion for the whole year when Exxon made almost $10 billion in just three months. “Something is wrong in this country,” he said, adding that companies “need to share a little bit” of their profits.
In a related matter, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman told a Senate committee that the Bush administration would not tax the earnings of oil companies to help fund LIHEAP.
The Energy Department has forecast that natural gas costs will jump 48 percent nationally this winter, while heating oil expenditures will be up 32 percent and propane users will pay 30 percent more for fuel.
I’m as mad as the next guy when it comes to the fact that I’m paying $3.00 dollars a gallon, which comes out to close to $30 bucks when it’s time to fill up the tank. I can remember when gas here in Southern California was less than a dollar (and that wasn’t too long ago), and you could fill up your car for about $10 dollars. But those days aren’t here anymore, and there’s no use in crying over spilled milk.
Now, are the oil companies justified in spiking oil prices, especially over the past year and a half or so? Beats me, I don’t work in the oil industry. Common sense tells me that time, combined with inflation, will equal prices that go up, so $3.00 bucks a gallon is something we’re going to have to deal with now if not later. I think you’re a fool if you believe we’re getting a bit of relief when the prices drop five cents after jumping forty-five cents, but in no way, shape, or form do I believe the oil companies should get stabbed in the ribs because they’re turning a profit, nor do I believe they should be forced to support the poor in the United States just because they have the ability to do so, or because some socialist senator is pissed-off because the oil companies are making money.
Helo’s Rant of the Day
You know what word has been making me mad for about a year now? The word ”meme," which by definition means:
A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
The only place you’ll hear that word used is in the blogosphere. In my years of post-secondary education, I never heard anyone use it in a sentence, and I think I read it one time in a textbook. Never have I heard anyone use it while talking to their friend, family member, or a coworker. When it became a word that was used fifty times in one blog post starting around the 2004 election, I assumed it was someone misspelling the word memo, until it began to spread like wildfire, mostly amongst people who thought it would bring them to the next level of blog stardome.
In other words, the only place where it’s used is the blogosphere, and its constant use by bloggers rivals the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
I’m a firm believer that using big words for the sake of using big words does not make you look more intelligent, and if someone has to break out a dictionary in order to find out what you’re talking about, it’s time to go mainstream.
Friday, October 28, 2005
To Andrew Sullivan…..
...I say “HA!”
He has been praying and hoping for Cheney to get decked in this Plame/Miller deal...and it looks as if there will be five indictments...all against ‘Scooter’ Libby, none against Cheney or Rove.
Like I said here, it doesn’t matter who is actually guilty...if they committed a crime, they should be fired and thrown in jail.
I’m just happy that Sully’s little dream of Cheney going down in flames and Bush falling into the pit of sulphur didn’t come to pass.....only because Sullivan is such a muntz.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Yeah…I did it, too.
It’s on to me…
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Your Birthdate: July 8 |
 Born on the 8th day of the month, you have a special gift for business, as you can conceive and plan on a grand scale. You have good executive skills and you’re a good judge of values. You should try to own your own business, because you have such a strong desire to be in control. You are generally reliable when it comes to handling money; you can be trusted in this regard. Idealistic by nature, you are never too busy to spend some time on worthwhile causes, especially if managerial support are needed. There is much potential for material success associated with this number. |
To Follow Drum’s Example
Eerie, I say…
It’s Like It KNOWS Me…
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Your Birthdate: May 23 |
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With a birthday on the 23rd of the month (5 energy) you are inclined to work well with people and enjoy them. You are talented and versatile, very good at presenting ideas. You may have a tendency to get itchy feet at times and need change and travel. You tend to be very progressive, imaginative and adaptable. Your mind is quick, clever and analytical. A restlessness in your nature may make you a bit impatient and easily bored with routine. You may have a tendency to shirk responsibility. Very sociable, you make friends easily and you are an excellent traveling companion. |
Stolen from Marybeth.