Not So Fast

Democratic gloom.

The proposed alternatives from those who either once voted for or supported the war are equally surreal. We should have just indicted and arrested Saddam Hussein (via the FBI or Interpol?); or withdrawn from Iraq at the end of the year (Vietnam-style with helicopters on the embassy roof?); or allowed the U.N. to take over (along the lines of its 1993-99 triumph in the Balkans?); or involved the Europeans (who announce they may send troops in the future after the U.S. has won both the war and peace — and oil concessions need to be re-allotted).

Another Dean Remix. This one’s really good.

Bush tries to explain economics to the press.

The Emperor discusses, surprisingly calmly, the kids that wanted a white kid from Africa to be the African-American student of the year, because he’s, you know, actually African and American, much to the disgruntlement of the school administration.

Spirit doesn’t want to send NASA information anymore.

UPDATE: Not to worry: “We used the classic technique for finding something,” said an unnamed NASA engineer. “We asked ourselves ‘If I were the Mars Rover, accustomed to an alien atmosphere, out of touch with the people of Earth, where would I be?’ And one of our engineers immediately phoned the Dean campaign.”

http://www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com

via Fark, naturally.

I don’t understand the fascination with Lileks Yeagh. I mean, it’s fine, but it’s not that funny.

They should have stopped Enterprise before this sort of thing happened.

Moses parting the Red Sea.

The article is about a radio station in Hungary getting banned because someone said Christians should be exterminated. But this is how it ends:

Earlier this month in another incident thousands of demonstrators called for the station to be closed.

That protest meeting stirred controversy when several participants set fire to an Israeli flag.

Because somehow it’s all Israel’s fault.

It’s all Coke. Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, 7Up, it’s all Coke.

The RIAA is suing 532 more people. I expect tomorrow we will hear the “I don’t even own a computer” or “I’m three years old” story.

Cell phone vibrates skull, rendering ears unnecessary.

via DrudgeReport.

I just hate wasting a Saturday doing sound for the dumb things.

Mr Bill’s big comeback.

How handy. I’d recommend Evidence Eliminator.

They like Bush, and they are not stupid

There is going to be a presidential election in the United States in November and George Bush is going to win. President Bush’s approval rating is around 60 per cent. That’s comparable with Ronald Reagan in 1984, who redefined the term “landslide” when he won 49 of the 50 states.

Naturally, this makes some people crazy. How can Americans vote for a guy who went to war over weapons of mass destruction that did not exist?

…

Because I live in New York, I rarely get to hear the voice of this majority. Instead, I get magazines such as Vanity Fair, which last month had a column by the editor angrily listing statistics from the war in Iraq. Such as: number of American soldiers killed: 500. Number of weapons of mass destruction found: 0.

But, as some readers pointed out, there were statistics missing from the list. These include: number of mass graves uncovered in Iraq: around 260, containing as many as 20,000 bodies. Number of people liberated from brutal, murderous leadership: 12 million. And number of times Bush lied about receiving oral sex from a White House intern: 0.

via Instapundit

But this is going too far.

Slippery Rock University’s 25-piece orchestra and 65-member choir will present In Memoriam: A Requiem for Mr. Rogers, a one-hour piece that includes English, Hebrew and Latin lyrics, poetry and dramatic readings.

Couldn’t they just have a Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood marathon or something?

In a stunning show of common sense, Microsoft admits that it may have over-reacted to Mike Rowe’s website.

Enterprise may get the axe.

If you care, here’s the audio of Dean freaking out. And video. I wouldn’t say he’s going nuts. It’s very muppet-like I think. Think Kermit at the beginning of the Muppet Show.

Dean’s loss bad for the blog community.

FYI.

Via Fark

This is so wrong.

This is just the latest example of this thinking that annoys me. How come in the Bush=Hitler camp, they only mention Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the Drudge Report? Is that the only place those people can get their news? Are they incapable of turning to CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, CSPAN, NBC, PBS, BBC, CBC, Reuters, AP, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angles Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Economist, The Guardian? They never mention the crushing of dissent by those guys. What gives?

And can you blame them?

MST3k Complete. I go weak in the knees just thinking about it. It’s just rumor. Everyone remain calm.

via Fark

Loyal readers already know. Okay, so maybe the ads on Opera do occasionally catch my eye.

At 89. I don’t know, I like Taco Bell. It might cost me a year or two. Assuming I don’t get hit by a runaway garbage truck in the meantime.

BeeGees reunion in the offing?

From Lileks.

As I have noted from time to time, I’m a Lutheran Deist. By some peculiar coincidence my concept of God flatters my own conceptions of the universe; imagine that.

Many, many others should just come out and say this. I think it would make them feel better.

There may be good reason to be paranoid. And what the freaking heck (and I mean that) does NASA have to do with airline security?

Scott was on his game this weekend. Go there and read.

So, I was watching The Aquabats’ dvd Serious Awesomeness and they showed The Edge, a seedy bar that I drive past every day. Which means The Aquabats played here and I had NO idea. Not that I would have gone. The Edge has changed its name a few times, there’s been at least one murder and it’s burned down, since I’ve lived here. I can’t think of a less likely place for The Aquabats to play.

And if you want to find out what all the hubbub is about, I recommend starting with The Fury of the Aquabats. There’s not a bad song on it.

Because Pete is nice enough to link to me fairly often, even though I have no idea what a “Bama” is.

Halliburton wins Iraqi oil contract.

Because we all wish playing video games was more like work. And find out how the nerds/geeks feel about this.

Today at lunch I learned that those moron streakers were over in Spokane. How hilarious is that. That’s what I get for not reading the story.

Why didn’t someone tell me?

Where Americans see skill and subtlety in taking out Saddam Hussein and a costly effort to liberate a people, many Iraqis, even as they taste freedom, drive new cars, and see things improve, talk instead of humiliation, hurt pride, or anger at their own impotence — whether whining over the morticians’ make-up work on Qusay, or ashamed about Saddam’s pathetic televised dental examination.

To Mars. Sign me up. That would be awesome. What skills would I bring. Umm, well, I could blog. Do they have broadband on Mars? I also make an awesome shrimp scampi. Which would be handy when Long John Silvers sets up its Martian franchise.

via Slashdot

Long John Silvers will give everyone in America a free shrimp if an ocean is discovered on Mars. Overfishing of Martian ocean soon to follow.

“It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s just a matter of ‘when’ human beings are able to live permanently on Mars. Long John Silver’s mission is to feed people with delicious seafood wherever they are — on earth or even outer space.”

via Fark

Music downloads increasing again.

“For us, the ultimate measurement of success has been, and continues to be, creating an environment where legal online music services can flourish,” Lamy said in a statement. “All indicators point in the right direction – sales of CDs, legal downloads and awareness that file sharing copyrighted music is illegal – have all increased.”

Well, now you can download movies. Legally, I mean. Of course, one drawback.

CinemaNow’s store of download-to-own films–which includes the surf documentary “Endless Summer”–is protected by Microsoft’s Windows Media digital rights management software, according to the Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based company.

Crippling digital rights management software. Now if you could download it and burn it to a DVD, that would be something. But no, you can only watch it on the machine you downloaded it on. Might as well go buy the DVD. Cause you would never download it illegally.

Yeah, I know there are none. The, er, Spokesman Review has a blog! Who knew?

UPDATE: The SR has many, many, many, many, many blogs. Almost too many to count.

via Jeff Jarvis. Ryan, you guys are the major daily to me. Your comics are waaay better than the Stress’.

Jeff Jarvis is all upset. And my opinion is: This is CBS, not PBS. They can do whatever they darn well feel like. They should have just said they didn’t want to run the ad, but I can understand them not wanting to offend their core demographic.

UPDATE: CBS is crushing dissent all over the place.

They’re going to the moon, too!

Poor Al can’t catch a break.

1 Terabyte hard drive. I’m not saying I couldn’t fill this, I’m just saying this is really big.

CAIR upset that Muslims are being singled out in a probe of terrorist financial ties.

If you are going to belong to a religion that advocates blowing people up as a means of political discourse, you have to expect this sort of thing. And don’t tell me how peaceful you personally are. If there was more condemnation of terrorism by the “peaceful” muslims, maybe this wouldn’t be quite the problem it is now.

Cops have the right to set up roadblocks seeking information from motorists.

llinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the ruling “will allow law enforcement in Illinois and across the nation to seek voluntary assistance from citizens in their efforts to solve crime.”

Forcing me to stop and answer questions is not “voluntary”.

I agree, who cares about the spouse of the President.

This sudden concern for a billion dollars a year coming from the Democrats is touching. If only they would apply that concern to everything else, I might believe it’s not just a knee-jerk reaction.

Russia says it can get to the moon by 2014 at one-tenth the price of the US.

The BBC is going to broadcast John Cage’s silent orchestra. I could write a concerto if that’s all it takes.

Someone get out there and make some news. This everything-is-going-fine does not an interesting news day make.

It seems Thailand is upset about EU shrimp tariffs. So they might switch to Boeing.

Striking a blow for personal responsibility.

“At the end of the day, we all know we’ve never driven by a Burger King or Dairy Queen and had an armed guard force us in to the drive-through window,” he said.

via Fark

Did Clinton not notice how much we hated this last time she proposed national health care?

Some doctors, hospitals and pharmacies already use electronic health records in areas like paperless prescriptions. But electronic medical records aren’t widely used, and Clinton says a government-created system with special standards could change that.

It’ll change it all right. Because we all know how efficient government systems are.

Clinton, D-N.Y., fought unsuccessfully a decade ago to expand affordable health care. The initiative died after industry interests and many members of Congress resisted to what they called a confusing bureaucracy.

What media bias?

Clinton has said she learned lessons from the failure.

Yes, she’s learned to sneak it in one piece at a time.

For the 20% of Windows users that are hopelessly behind the curve, you’re in luck. Microsoft has decided to continue support for 98.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to be made into a movie. I hope it turns out okay. The BBC worries me.

I bet the government has plans for regime change in a lot of countries. This is not something you want them doing on the spur of the moment.

Weekly World News has the best scoops.

Space aliens aren’t visiting Earth to conquer our planet, nor are they here to pass on to mankind some society-altering universal wisdom. They’re simply stopping by to pick up Krispy Kreme donuts!

Now, I’m a fan of the place on the corner of 9th and Escondido, but Krispy Kreme’s are the best I can get since I’m 1500 miles from that corner.

Space haters vs. Space lovers.

Space lovers, in contrast, are a hopeful lot. They seek to conquer space for sheer glory’s sake. And space-o-philes don’t just crave evidence of life; they intend the colonization of space to remake human society. Space lovers even expect to save the world — by giving humans a new home in case a stray asteroid, or ecological disaster, threaten Earth. Dreams like this keep the space lovers going.

I’m all for killing big government, but dang it, I want my rocket pack. I want to live on the moon. I’d love to visit Mars. If private enterprise won’t get me there, then I’ll get a ride from NASA.

Making the world a safer place.

December marked a small but significant victory in the war on terror, as Jean Chretien stepped down from his post as Canadian prime minister after ten years of casual indifference regarding the terrorist threat permeating within Canada’s borders.

Now working as a commentator on Abu Dhabi TV.

So they say. I don’t trust that Sam guy, and that bouncing smiley face.

Someone has been playing too much Red Alert.

And fascism.

Creeping fascism update.

This is pretty old, relatively speaking, but hilarious.

There is still hope for The Hobbit movie.

Is this legal? Can I start up my own little force?

I would have thought not flying these airlines would go without saying, but apparently not.

We’re back to yellow alert. I know I feel better.

VDH

We must continue hacking away the terrorist Hydra in the Sunni Triangle, and hope that the ongoing cultural, economic, and military fallout from Iraq begins to erode fascism and theocracy in Syria and Iran faster than such nearby pathologies can ruin us in Iraq.

To be fair to Canada, the US also has its fair share of fun police.

The number three link if you google John Ashcroft. I had no idea this sort of thing went on in government circles.

MRC willing to bet $1 million that Brokaw has a liberal bias.

What a loser burglar.

A good thing for the intruder that Gladys, 59, didn’t find her rolling pin. If she had, he might have had a few more bruises to add to those he got being shoved down the stairs and pummelled by Gladys’ husband Clifford, 66, and then struck repeatedly in the back by Gladys wielding her metal tea kettle.

Dean keeps on digging and digging.

Democratic front-runner Howard Dean said Wednesday that his decision as governor to sign the bill legalizing civil unions for gays in Vermont was influenced by his Christian views, as he waded deeper into the growing political, religious and cultural debate over homosexuality and the Bible’s view of it.

“The overwhelming evidence is that there is very significant, substantial genetic component to it,” Dean said in an interview Wednesday. “From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.”

Oddly enough, God does think homosexuality is a sin and says so quite clearly. And I, personally, am convinced God knows more about the genetic component of it than Dean does.

via Drudge Report

This dumb article brought back to my mind what I was thinking about this morning at the gym. What used to be solved with a verbal dressing down or a couple of punches now requires a law suit. Are Americans just wimpy nowadays or have I completely misunderstood the whole situation?

There are some mistakes that are no big deal, and there are some that are going to cause a lot of grief. Read carefully. I’ll get a screenshot here soon.

UPDATE: Here is a screenshot.

Here is the article

Most outages were small, effecting small neighborhoods.

Shouldn’t that be “affecting”? Or are they saying that it had a nice effect on the neighborhoods?

The FBI can’t use OnStar to snoop on you. Why? Because it’s unconstitutional? Nooo, don’t be silly.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the FBI is not legally entitled to remotely activate the system and secretly use it to snoop on passengers, because doing so would render it inoperable during an emergency.

Theodore Dalrymple. Someone else I like.

The case is a reductio ad absurdum of the philosophy according to which individual desire is the only thing that counts in deciding what is permissible in society. Brandes wanted to be killed and eaten; Meiwes wanted to kill and eat. Thanks to one of the wonders of modern technology, the Internet, they both could avoid that most debilitating of all human conditions, frustrated desire. What is wrong with that? Please answer from first principles only.

via National Review

Rumsfeld turned down the Times Man of the Year! I like that guy.

via Drudge Report

Since New Year’s is over, it’s time for Valentines Day! Hurray!

Truly, “BitterSweets(tm)” are the perfect gift for you OR for someone you love, especially if that special someone is one who doesn’t want to hurt your feelings but just doesn’t feel that way about you but still wants to be friends so they can torment you with stories about their crushes on someone who doesn’t appreciate them like you do, can’t love them like you can, and actually takes pleasure in corralling a herd of fawning “just friends” behind themselves as they indulge in one self-destructive relationship after another, with no hope of ever finding true love, despite an army of souls eager to lavish it upon them.

(You know what we’re talking about.)

This is classic.

via Fark

Yeah, I know, cheesy. But, this is waaay too much work for a prank.

via Fark

This isn’t exactly being given the Kobe-Peterson-Jackson treatment.

Since I just bought and SUV, I thought I would comment on this insufferable snobbery from the New Yorker.

Of course, the logic behind that argument is backward: the trip to Wal-Mart is a good deal more hazardous than fording a stream in the wilderness, and we ought to be buying cars optimized for the conditions we actually drive in.

Like carrying a month’s worth of groceries and the kids at the same time?

We have 6 inches of snow coming, please may I drive an SUV? Ground clearance is important when there’s a foot of snow. Or berms from the snow plows. And if SUVs weren’t ubiquitous, I wouldn’t be able to afford one. I would be driving a less safe vehicle, when I could get out on the roads. But getting great gas milage.

The S.U.V., on the other hand, is supposed to allow the buyer to pretend that he or she doesn?t have a family, that he or she is still a kind of rugged loner without suburban entrapments.

I don’t have any family, at least none near me, and no kids. I’m all alone, oh, so alone. So I drive that 17mpg beast all by myself. Oh, the humanity!

If every car on the road was a Mini, then the cost of an accident would be quite small: if you are in a Mini and you hit a Mini, you aren?t going to be that bad off. So, in the old days, the premium on active safety wasn?t so large. On the other hand, if every car on the road is an S.U.V., the cost of an accident grows substantially. When a Ford Explorer hits a Chevy TrailBlazer, both parties suffer enormously.

Do body shops charge less labor on smaller cars? I don’t know. It just seems odd to me.

And, if a Ford Explorer hits a Mini, the Mini driver is a dead man.

What I’m getting from that is I should have a vehicle with more metal than a tomato can to drive in.

Of course, it would be better if every car on the road was the same weight.

And you can have whatever color you want as long as it is black. So, I say 1 ton. It seems like a nice compromise.

Don’t worry, I didn’t take all the fun out of it, there’s more hilarity in the article.

Hillary Clinton makes a boo-boo.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for joking that Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in St. Louis, saying it was “a lame attempt at humor.”

Plus it has this great quote from someone important:

“Political speeches can’t be like episodes of the Simpsons,” said David Robertson, a University of Missouri-St. Louis political science professor.

It’s funny ’cause it’s true.

The mini iPod. In nasty pastel colors too. Handy since my poor mp3 player just gave up the ghost. And only $249! I’ll take three!

He has a good point. If you click on nothing else today, that is the link to click.

A rather gung-ho Mark Steyn.

Pictures of Red Planet are the same as the earlier ones, except they’re mostly red.

We’re from the government and we’re here to help.

“We’re not saying anybody should do any of this,” said Labor Department spokesman Ed Frank.

I don’t know anything about the laws, I just thought it was a great quote.

It’s a reality show full of actors. Brilliant.

Hero or goat?

Non-record-setting, but still very large, snake.

Dictators everywhere are nervous.

Oops.

Pakistan last month conceded that its technology and expertise may have helped the nuclear programmes of “rogue” states, including Iran and North Korea and possibly Libya, but blamed this on individuals motivated by “ambition or greed”.

Because normally these things are motivated by kindness and sympathy to human plight.

US wins. Canadian goalie scored the winning point.

It’s supposed to reach a balmy 11 degrees today here in beautiful Idaho.

Dean may or may not have done anything improper, but it sure looks bad.

No, not the team. You know, the nice people that help out, for free. Because someone owes the Union workers a paycheck.

But Chief Teale argues volunteers can’t just volunteer whenever they want.

“It’s always been my dream to be a volunteer anchorman. And if you will just terminate your position, and allow me to do your job,” he told me.

But why shouldn’t he get to do that? Why shouldn’t ABC get to save the money?

“Absolutely not.” Teale said, “simply because — it’s a detriment to you, and your family.” He added, “There is no reason why you shouldn’t be entitled to your salary.”

Too bad for ABC.

I’m “entitled” to my salary? And volunteers should be stopped from volunteering?

Give me a break.

The city of Townsville has a vandal problem.

Michael Crichton

The fact that the Drake equation was not greeted with screams of outrage-similar to the screams of outrage that greet each Creationist new claim, for example-meant that now there was a crack in the door, a loosening of the definition of what constituted legitimate scientific procedure. And soon enough, pernicious garbage began to squeeze through the cracks.

…

Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we’re asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?

It’s fairly long—for the internet—but well worth the read.

via Instapundit

I don’t know about this, but it’s interesting.

The Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems ( ROMS) is obviously not that picky in giving licenses to Online Music Services. New services seem to appear every day. Websites like Allofmp3.com, Club.mp3search.ru and 3mp3.ru are licensed to offer music by all artists for download at prices that seem to good to be true. Full albums for less than a dollar in an unprotected format. You would suspect that there is some kind of fraud involved, but these services have their paperwork in order to stay in compliance with Russian law.

It’s super-helpful if you read Russian when visiting those sites.

How come this isn’t getting nationwide coverage, unlike that storm in New York a few weeks ago.

Biff is about to arrive. Hopefully this one won’t land in a crater.

Britians want right to defend property and self. Seems reasonable. Lawmakers are unenthused. But they really like the runner-up, forced organ donation. There’s a joke in there somewhere.

What’s with all the earthquakes? Indonesia this time. Earlier there was Mexico, of course Iran and California. Everyone hang on.

UPDATE: Also Taiwan, Costa Rica/Panama, Japan, and Israel.

The moral of the article is, if you want to commit a robbery of an armored vehicle, use a Dodge Durango.

I don’t know if I trust this list, after all the Washington Post is not where I turn first to find out what’s cool, but hey, it’s the New Year, we need lists to keep track of what’s in. And I’m pretty sure saying, “what’s in” is out.

Today we took a trip to Suncrest. It’s a shame that we are in the midst of getting 6 inches of snow.

The US is pretty hardcore about planes these days. First Air France canceled flights, then they are providing complimentary fighter escorts for planes, turning back an Air Mexico (reg.req.) flight. Now questioning British Airways passengers and turning back those British Airways flights.

Why would the Al-Queda use the same method twice? And why would they use planes that are essentially empty, being at the end of their flight?

L.A. Times bloopers. It’s funny as long as it’s someone else.

via Instapundit