Monday, June 30, 2008
John Aravosis: Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?
What a dick.
Meet the latest asshole to enter the liberal publishing world, John Aravosis.
It’s not “nice” to ask the question, but it’s actually a pretty good question. Yes, we all know that John McCain was captured and tortured in Vietnam (McCain won’t let you forget). A lot of people don’t know, however, that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity. Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain’s military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief?
Hey John, this is all I’m going to say to you: you’re a dick.
Enjoy your five minutes of fame. If you’re looking for find out what a sucker John Aravosis is, read about it here. He’s nothing more than your typical liberal bomb tosser looking for a little bit of attention.
h/t Patterico
UPDATE: Via Matt Welch in the April 2007 Reason:
Any young McCain worth his salt could convert a grudge into motivational sustenance and torment his tormentors with defiant lip. So after being shot out of the sky during a risky raid over Hanoi in 1967, then pummeled by a mob of local Vietnamese and detained at the notorious prison nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, McCain comported himself heroically despite two broken arms, a mangled knee, and innards wracked by dysentery and other maladies. Every morning for two years a guard the prisoners called The Prick would demand that McCain bow to him. Every morning McCain would refuse, then brace for his beating. Herded into a made-for-propaganda Christmas Eve service in the prison yard, McCain punctured the enforced silence with repeated shouts of “Fuck you!” while raising his middle finger to the camera. Beat senseless for days on end for refusing to divulge information or accept early release (which would have given the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory and violated the Navy’s honor code), he would reveal only the names of every player he could remember from the Green Bay Packers. “Resisting, being uncooperative and a general pain in the ass,” he wrote, “proved, as it had in the past, to be a morale booster for me.”
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Aravosis.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Talk about weird
I was going through some of the files that I have recently gotten, and I was deep in the S’s, and I saw two directories side by side.
“Spaceballs” and “Supersymmetry in Particle Physics - An Elementary Introduction”.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Dust Clouds on the Horizon
Big changes coming in the next few days here at the Rants…
Stay Tuned.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
YES!!!!!
It is now official. The Heller case has been decided, and Justice Antonin Scalia has written the majority decision. (You can read the pdf file here, if you wish.)
Held
1. The Second Amendment protects and individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
There’s lots more, and I’ll be skimming through it today as circumstances allow, but this is a BIG win for the Second Amendment.
One small concern that Patterico correctly points out.
5-4. Let that sink in, folks. Even though it was expected, it’s now official. Ponder it for a moment.
If the Democrats had appointed just one more Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, there would be no individual right to possess firearms in the United States of America.
And the Revolution would have been kick-started into gear, sooner rather than later. Count on it.
Update 1:
3. The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment. The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of “arms” that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional muster. Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional
They don’t address the licensing requirement (which I have no beef with, anyway), nor does it touch any of the CCW/OC issues. Just that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
78%, beeyotches!
OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets
I’m a geek, not a nerd. Keep ‘em straight.
Let’s punish those “Evil Oil Speculators”
I mean, since they are obviously the very, very wealthy just fucking with oil prices to line their own pockets, we have every right to tax them punitively, right?
Isn’t that what the Democrats, out there working hard for “the little guy”, want to do?
Errrr, not so much.
Not the “not so much” that the Dems want to heavily tax those nasty evil speculators, but the “not so much” it being only the very wealthy.
CalPERS is the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, and provides retirement and health benefits to approximately 1.5 million public employees, retirees, and their families and more than 2,500 employers here in the State of California. And they have been investing in Commodity Speculation for the last two years. Including Crude oil.
SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) set the stage today for a potential foray into direct natural resources commodities futures and related investments in energy, metals, agricultural products and other raw materials.
At a half-day workshop, the CalPERS Investment Committee explored possibilities for a new asset class for the $210 billion pension fund besides public equity (stocks), private equity, fixed income (including bonds), and real estate.
“There may be serious money to be made by taking advantage of accelerating world demand for commodities and compelling investment opportunities in alternatives to diminishing resources, including cheap oil,” said Charles P. Valdes, CalPERS Investment Committee Chair.
Teachers. Cops. Firefighters. Retirees. These are the ones doing all that evil speculating.
When Democrats say “the rich”, they mean YOU.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Okay, I’m stumped
I’ve found a really cool mp3 file that I want to use as my custom cellphone ringtone, but I have no idea how to upload it to my phone.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this that doesn’t cost me anything (or very much) and doesn’t put my phone number on multiple spamming text lists? (I have enough people calling me, and have spent five years to almost completely purge my fax machine from such lists after signing up for ONE thing that “required” the number.)
Lots of sites only too happy to do it ”FREE”, but they seem REALLY eager to do it ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE JUST ENTER YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER HERE
(By the way you will also have to sign up for our newsletter at only $0.49 per hour charged to your cell account and by downloading this ringtone you agree to put up with this scam to empty your pockets for as long as you or anyone you know own a ringtone, or you agree to pay us triple damages plus lots of other legal mumbo-jumbo you will certainly regret not reading before you click the link.)
Help?
Update: My granddaughter (God bless her) took about three minutes of punching buttons on my cell phone to send a picture of herself to my email account, and then (in another 45 seconds) managed to reply to it, including the really cool sound attachments.
So the younger generation to the rescue!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Y’all still interested in the new trivia contest?
I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new trivia contest, similar to what we had the last time. (To be honest, I was going through some old files and found my incomplete trivia list, and want to put this one on the web.)
Let me know, folks. Real cash on the line… 
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Better swallow first
Karl, one of the comedic geniuses (geniusi?) over at Protein Wisdom, has outdone himself in Chapter 5: in which Zbiglet meets a Heffalump. Go take a walk through the Sixteen Hundred Acre Woods with Zbiglet and Christopher Warren.
Money quote: “Well,” said Christopher Warren, putting on his stripey pants and Italian loafers, “I shall go and appease it. Come on.”
Not safe for work if guffaws of laughter will get you into trouble.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Finally back up
Yay, me, right?
Been a crowded couple of days, what with trying to keep the guys busy and dealing with nurses who think that “Customer Service” is a really good idea, just one that they don’t necessarily agree with and one they wouldn’t voluntarily choose of their own accord. (Like the difference in offering a choice between Coke and Pepsi to someone who prefers Gatorade.) See, when one has no choice, the staff knows it and is not so much interested in helping the client as in finishing their discussion about last night’s “So You Think You Wanna Be An American Idol’s Wife Swapping Big Brother?”
All at taxpayer expense.
Government-run health care is a wonderful idea, ain’t it?
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Quick note
My computer is acting up again (intermittent outages). Internet access is somewhat problematic for me, so have a happy Father’s Day.
And to my daughters: I love you, too. 
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Happy Birthday, Grunts
Today is not only Flag Day (231 years ago), it is also the 233rd birthday of the United States Army, arguably the oldest military service of our nation. (I say arguably since this celebration dates back to the beginning of the Continental Army. The United States Army wasn’t actually “founded” until 1784, but they consider themselves as descended from that older group.)
This is a Patriot’s Journey post. Others participating this year are: The Bastidge, the wonderful people at The Line Is Here, Doug at Inessential Musings and Shortbus from The Edge of Reason
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read it in English, thank a veteran.
Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.—Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.—Gen. George S. Patton
What would be the difference if we retreated and let the French and Germans make decisions for the world? We tried that twice in the last century. Isolationism, refusing to accept our role in the world, and delaying our response to evildoers ultimately cost fifty-three million lives in World War 2 alone. The preemption policy of the Bush administration, taking the war to the enemy and exporting democracy and freedom, has liberated fifty million.—Tammy Bruce
Find the bastards and pile on.—unofficial motto of the 11th “Black Horse” Cavalry Regiment
It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.—Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, USMC
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.—George Orwell
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made so and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.—John Stuart Mill
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.—Theodore Roosevelt, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.—George Orwell
War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.—General William Tecumseh Sherman
We’re the Land Of The Free only because we’re also the Home Of The Brave.
Never tell an Army Ranger that he can’t do something, because it will only make him want to do it bigger, better and with an increasing sense of interest.
Far better it is to dare mighty things than to take rank with those poor, timid spirits who know neither victory or defeat.—Theodore Roosevelt, 1899
Sheep have two speeds: Grazing and Stampede—LTC Dave Grossman
If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.— Gen. Curtis LeMay
No one should pass an American in uniform without saying “Thank you, we are grateful.” Always mindful that they are prepared to risk all their dreams so that all of us can reach ours.—William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense
I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.—William Tecumseh Sherman
Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave?—John Wayne
The United States Constitution 1791. All Rights reserved.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Frog in a pot of water
There’s an old story about the trouble involved in boiling a frog. If you start a pot of water boiling, and then drop a live frog into the boiling water, the frog will be startled by the sudden change and will hop out.
But if you put him in a pot of lukewarm water, then slowly turn up the heat, the frog will ignore the slow increase and will sit there while the water begins to cook him alive.
We have a Federal Legislature writing laws that prevent American citizens from using the minerals found on our own soil.
We have a Federal Judiciary that is ignoring centuries of legal precedent by allowing The State to seize and reassign the ownership of private property for no other reason than to increase tax revenues, and has now extended Constitutional protections to hostile forces seeking to destroy that self-same Constitution.
We have a President who has signed Legislation encroaching upon the civil rights of the voting populace (endorsed by the self-same SCOTUS).
Look folks, the Constitution is a legal contract. It identifies the parties to the agreement ("We, The People of the United States..."). It identifies the reason for the contract ("… in order to form a more Perfect Union..."). It identifies the duties of all parties to the agreement. It offers compensation and various legal protections to all parties. If a sufficient quorum of the parties wish to make a change to (amend) the contract, the updated language supercedes the language of the original contract, and all parties are then bound by the updated agreement.
It is a contract, in a very real and concrete and legally binding sense.
Now when one of the parties to a contract violate one of the most basic terms of the contract, what options do we have?
Seriously. If a contract has been abrogated, what happens to the contract?
Is there a Contract Lawyer in the house?
Via the Four Right Wing Wackos comes this question:
How many times in your lifetime have you watched a film about some aspect of Hitler’s rule, and say, “Why didn’t they just stop him?” Or, “Why did they line up over those open pits without putting up a fight?”
Now think back to what it was you said you’d do in those circumstances, and do it.
Was that a splash I just heard?
Drill now, drill more, pay less
I think Bush should declare the current oil prices a “clear and present danger” (like Reagan did with The War On Drugs - which authorized the use of military forces to detain or eliminate drug runners) and open up the various oil fields by Executive Order.
There are literally billions (yes Billions. With a B.) of proven oil reserves within the land borders of the Lower 48 States, not to mention the billions located within the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Let’s not kid ourselves, folks, the ANWR is an area 19.2 million acres (30,000 sq. miles) large - an area just a bit smaller than South Carolina - and the area that the oil companies are seeking to explore and drill is a little smaller than LAX (which sprawls over 3,500 acres). Depending on the season, it is either a mosquito-infested marshland (during the summer months) or solid tundra that never sees the sun (since ANWR is located entirely north of the Arctic Circle, there are long periods during winter when the sun is never seen).
That is roughly one-fiftieth of one percent of one of the nastiest places in North America (0.01822916%). Given that the State Governor and 75% of the population of Alaska wants to start drilling right away, what are we waiting for? Is not bothering some caribou worth paying hostile foreigners for their natural resources, especially when we can become energy independent?
Yes, I support alternative fuel sources, but even if Bush were to declare the equivalent of an Apollo Program, it would take years to come up with something that delivers as many ergs per monetary cost as hydrocarbons, and we need relief NOW. If Clinton hadn’t vetoed a Bill allowing drilling in ANWR back in 1995, we would be getting that million barrels per day as we speak, but as I reported a few days ago, Democrats are deeply invested in keeping energy prices as high as possible, even if it harms our economy to do so.
But we need to force the Democrats to come right out and say that they would rather give our money to Islamic despots than drill on US soil.
Call your local Federal officials. Make your disgust known, and they will listen.
This is an election year, after all, and people are starting to remember.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Looking for input
Money is the universal symbol for Value Received, so paying a prostitute is no different than paying a psychologist.
Or a plumber.
Or a hair dresser.
Or any other vendor of an inter-personal service.
Discuss.