Not So Fast

You can tell this guy wasn’t feeling well.

“He started out with ‘Mom’ and surprised her and then it was ‘Pepsi’ and then it was ‘milk.’ And now it’s anything he wants to say,” Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center social director Alesha Badgley said Tuesday.

Only someone deathly ill would ask for Pepsi. Fortunately, he is recovering.

This is hilarious. The last sentence is the kicker.

The CdA Stress has this article on the EPA and field burning.

A lawsuit seeking to stop farmers from burning is on hold pending a decision by the state high court. The suit was filed on behalf of people who say they are harmed by the smoke.

While the smoke management program is intended to maintain field burning as an agricultural tool, the overriding goal should be to protect public health, Iani said.

Why? Why is the “public health” more important than the livelihood of the farmers? They have burned these fields for a long time. It’s like moving near an airport and complaining about the noise. Didn’t you know it was there? Did you not notice the giant columns of smoke every year? Quit your whining.

From the OpinionJournal Best of the Web.

A press release from Sen. Joe Lieberman’s office announces the appointment of his new communications director: the delightfully named Matt Gobush.

RFID’s make a comeback. Actually, Walmart is scaling back their RFID use. Good news for privacy buffs.

via Slashdot.

Samizdata sums up the Cato report on economic freedom.

I got a 44% on the pre-test for my Network+ test. l have no idea what the terms meant or what the questions were asking, so I don’t feel so bad.

This article talks about the ramifications of the recent Hong Kong protests.

Has China ever had a vaguely democratic form of government? What if the current government catastrophically collapses? I have a feeling it won’t improve the life of the average person there. I hope I’m wrong.

Now, I’ve always been a fan of the British. Especially since we kicked their butts back in 17-something. I don’t trust Tony though. Wasn’t he Clinton-lite back before the Iraq War? Now he’s Bush-lite. Doesn’t seem to principled. But here’s an interesting point from Denis Boyles at NRO.

But the lesson for Americans is that at least for the moment we have found our natural European allies — and they aren’t British after all. They’re the happy Italians. They don’t care about European pomposity, they dress better than the Germans, they eat better than the French, they drive better than anybody, and they make stupid jokes about American TV. They’re just like us!

Darn. Although I understand. I’m not convinced I would deliberately walk into harms way.

via Instapundit. Be sure to check out the other links.

It seems Russians are more likely to commit suicide. I could have told you that and saved all that money for the study. Just read their literature. The most depressing stuff on earth.

via Drudge Report

Drudge Report says Hollywood is thinking about a reality show with congressional staffers. I’m pretty sure if the rest of the country saw anything approaching the reality of Washington there would be another Revolutionary War. Or at least stern calls for reform. And possibly pay cuts for everyone.

UPDATE: See. People were shooting bottle rockets at me last week (because it was 4th of July, not that they hate me). Not one of them got in the least bit of trouble. It’s just a water balloon. Lighten up. Hastert must be a lot of fun at picnics.

What can you do with them? Another marketing ploy.

Apparently there’s sharks in the ocean. Who knew?

I feel the urge to compare the Times and the federal government, but passing that by, if you are fearful for your life, don’t tell the NY Times. They’ll post a picture of you on their website (evil registration required).

Zainab Muhammad Mohyialdeen works as a translator for allied forces but does not tell other Iraqis because she is “sure I will be killed.”

So the NY Times posts her picture. Genius. And you can enlarge for detail. Freaking BRILLIANT! You would think that if you gave an interview describing the fearing for your life you wouldn’t have to say something like, “Don’t put my picture on the internet where anyone with a modem can see it.” Apparently common sense is a rare commodity at the NY Times. Maybe it’s the atmosphere there, sucks the brains right out of them. Or possibly there’s something in the water. Hard to say.

hat tip:Kelsey

McDonald’s expands wifi coverage.

Starbucks is doing a similar thing. I would be more excited about this, and might actually get a wifi card, if they did this sort of thing in Idaho. But they never do. It’s hard being 5 years behind everyone else.

UPDATE: Here’s the Register’s view of things.

So says Bono.

“I’m glad to say I was wrong. Particularly evangelicals, who had seemed very judgmental to me over the years, turned out to be incredibly generous in their time and their support of this effort,” Bono said.

Foul-mouthed losers taking over the world.

According to Collins, the use of asterisks to soften the effects of industrial Anglo-Saxon may soon become a historical nicety as modern discourse sinks ever deeper into the mire.

And call me a prude if you want, but it bothers me when 7 and 8 year olds are using foul language as they run around on the playground. Don’t these kids have parents? Don’t their parents know the proper use for Ivory soap?

It’s all about Arnold and Savage. Wow. You realize of course, those aren’t actual news stories. Dinner conversation, maybe, but not news.

Patchy blogging this morning, increasing in the afternoon.

It’s 2003 where’s my rocket pack? Finally someone has invented what scifi has taken for granted forever.

Hard to believe it’s the French.

UPDATE: Eehww. What if we have to call it the “Trottoir” for the rest of history.

The latest Cocktail Report is up.

The difference between men and women (in case you were confused):

For example, Koppel’s group found that the single biggest difference is that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns-”I”, ”you”, ”she”, ”myself”, or ”yourself” and the like. Men, in contrast, are more likely to use determiners-”a,” ”the,” ”that,” and ”these”-as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers like ”more” or ”some.”

Simple, isn’t it?

via The Corner

Andrew Stuttaford, who does not like Dr. Pepper, has this article on NRO concerning “Nutrition”.

So, as we saw in the cigarette wars, notions of personal responsibility are either watered down — “dealing with overweight and obesity…is also a community responsibility,” explained (now former) Surgeon General Satcher — or denied altogether. It’s now claimed that Big Mac mavens may, like smokers, have been tricked into their unhealthy habit — all those munching and, we can be sure, litigious morons had absolutely no idea that mountains of burgers, fries, nuggets and shakes might lead them to put on a pound or two. Better still, fast food may even be, wait for it, “addictive.”

And then there’s this keen insight into youth today:

Across the fruited plain, tubby tykes (most of them, presumably, orphans: in this discussion we never seem to hear very much about parental responsibility for their kids’ diet) are waddling their way through an “obesity epidemic” all their own. The need to save them from this peril will inevitably be used to justify both litigation and, almost certainly, intrusive and patronizing legislation — the not so thin end of a very bulky wedge.

But it has a happy ending:

McDonald’s has no need to apologize for what it does best — delivering cheap, sinful, and surprisingly succulent slop to those who don’t have the time, inclination, or talent to make other arrangements. And, if, despite what the sad saga of the McLean Deluxe might suggest, there really is a demand for “healthier” food under the golden arches, the logic of the marketplace will lead McDonald’s to salad bar, tofu and side orders of carrots. For now, the company is stressing the healthiness of its salads, Fruit ‘n Yogurt parfaits (280 calories without granola!) and Chicken McGrill (300 calories without the mayo!), but, don’t worry, it has not abandoned those who prefer a fattier feast. The new bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddles (450 calories! 80 percent of your daily cholesterol, ahem, “value”!) show obvious promise and, in another exciting development, McDonalds is looking at adding more sugar to its buns (to make them toast more easily).

You just can’t beat Scott.

The lack of scandal in the Bush White House.

This site hopes to keep track of the government. Good luck, you crazy kids.

I know what you’re thinking, “Where on earth is Kristin?” See, uncanny, isn’t it. Well, I’m stuck behind my headphones. Vacation Bible School is tomorrow and I have to get the music ready, so they can make copies for the little rugrats, uh, kids. I may post you a song if I get really bored. There’s lots of news stuff to talk about, Lightning strikes at Dave Matthews Concert, c’mon, that great stuff. So more soon.

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of the Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and the Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us;

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rules into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr., Thomas Lynch, junr., Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, C. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

So far:

Uncle Sam – Madness
America the Beautiful – Ray Charles (the best ever)
No More Kings – Pavement (cover of Schoolhouse Rock)
I’m Just a Bill – Schoolhouse Rock and Deluxxe Folk Implosion cover
Surfing USA – Jesus and Mary Chain
God Bless the USA – Lee Greenwood
Redcoats – Johnny Horton
What I Want Is A Proper Cup of Coffee – Trout Fishing in America
Peaches/Lump – The Presidents of the United States of America
Fireworks – Moby

More as they occur to me.

Dung beetles use moonlight to navigate.

via Dave Barry Blog, which almost goes without saying, I think.

If I were Scott Ott, I could do something funny with this, but you’re on your own here.

Astronomers searching for signs of a Solar System like our own said on Thursday they had found a planet very similar to Jupiter orbiting a star resembling the Sun, 90 light years away.

This from WorldNetDaily. If only I, and others, would be so diligent in stopping the evil telemarketers.

Bin Laden hiding in Iran? Oh boy.

China wants to go to Mars. Good luck to them. Biff and Sandy are already on their way. via Slashdot.

I stole the title from aaronlev (685856) on /.

Good article on the history of American Imperialism by Paul Johnson. The guy has so much faith in America and Americans I can’t help but like him.

We’re gonna take over the WORLD!!!

Also from Jane’s Security News Brief:

US OFFICIALS have called Hizbullah ‘the A-team’ of terrorist organisations. Before Al-Qaeda’s 11 September attacks, Hizbullah had killed more US citizens than any terrorist group.

Those wacky US officials.

From Jane’s Security News Brief:

A POLITICAL storm, potentially violent, is gathering in Ecuador. Estimated time of arrival: some time in July. Target: President Lucio Gutierrez. The storm will come in the form of an Indian uprising, backed by oil and power workers and far-left groups — the same groups that helped propel Gutierrez to power six months ago. But their support has not translated into political power. Government policy, meanwhile, has moved in a decidedly pro-market, pro-foreign investment direction and bears little resemblance to the radical rhetoric used by Gutierrez during the election.

Not that I particularly care abou Equadoren politics, I just want to see if Jane’s is accurate.

Bush commits to some troops in Libera. AP reports dancing in the streets as rumor of America’s coming spreads.

While I’m all for kicking Taylor out, where will this end? America can do a lot of good in this world, but we can’t do it all. It’s nice to be wanted, but c’mon. Let someone else do the heavy lifting for a while. The French can get off their high horse and go do something, if the military’s not on strike of course. We’re busy trying to keep them off our backs in Iraq.

Yeah, that didn’t go well. I don’t think this will either.

The resulting embryo was part male, part female and could potentially have developed into an apparently healthy foetus.

So, they just killed that person off. You know, the experiments over, down the drain you go. That is wrong, bad, evil.

The American fertility doctor behind the experiment claimed the creation of chimeras could eventually be used to treat genetic diseases.

How? By growing them up, harvesting them, and then what? Eh? Sick, evil, twisted.

Perhaps someone should put a stop to this? Just because we can do something doesn’t make it right.

Water-free swimming pools. Okay, that’s an exageration, but remember when people could be trusted to go outside without killing themselves or suing someone?

via Inoperable Terran

A Ten Commandments display in the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building must be removed because it violates the First Amendment’s ban on establishment of religion, a federal appeals court ruled today.

via WorldNetDaily.

Don’t tell anyone that there’s stone monument with the 10 commandments outside the county building in Coeur d’Alene. I can’t begin to fathom the mental anguish it’s causing the workers and other people forced to visit that building. Oh, I’m sorry. Do absolute values make you uncomfortable? Why? If it’s not a sin, why would it bother you? Why should you care if you don’t believe in that sort of stuff? Does everyone have to think like you in order to be “fair”?

More from the “Religion of Peace”. Where’s Janet Reno when you need her? She’d bust that sort of thing up with tanks. via WorldNetDaily

Doesn’t this defeat the whole purpose of a laptop?

If you thought of a bar and holosuites, you’re a Trekkie.

Behold The Quark

The discovery of the pentaquark, also known as a new exotic baryon state, should have far-reaching consequences for our theory of particle interactions that attempt to explain the structure of matter.

But no one knows what those consequences may be yet. Probably the end of life as we know it.

P.J. O’Rourke on Living History.

But George Washington and William F. Buckley Jr. put together could not have foreseen, in their gloomiest moments, the rise of Clinton-style über-mediocrity–with its soaring commonplaces, its pumped trifling, its platinum-grade triviality.

Our internet connection’s back. I knew you were worried.

Must…find…..better…connec..tion. No more posting unless something good happens. I know you’re crushed, but it’ll be okay.

I love it that the President talks like this.

I hate it when jerks go around ruining things for the rest of us. via DrudgeReport.

Quick, there’s a special Wednesday edition of VDH over at NRO. Woohoo!

Great Bleat today. I feel the opposite of him on the office issue though. I am getting something done, doing something with my life when I’m at work. At home I’m wasting time, frittering away precious moments. Of course, I feel like I’m doing more when I have a better internet connection.

I can’t take much more of this. Bwana, I need 5 barrels of gunpowder, a keyboard, a machete and a guide that speaks Hutu. Or possibly a internet connection that is faster than the USPS.

From IMAO.

* Hurricanes used to always be given female names because hurricanes are destructive, random, and capricious, just like women. That custom was stopped, though, when women got all whiny and moody about it.

* No one is sure what causes a hurricane, but it comes from the sea so the most likely candidates are Poseidon, sea monkeys, or France. We should do a preemptive strike against all of them.

* A hurricane, unlike the platypus, does not lay eggs.

And it gets better. Or worse, depending on how you look at it.

I’ve seen this link floating around but haven’t checked it out until now. And now that I have I am highly irritated at the French. They were mildly annoying before, now they are w******.

How smart are you? Try this. I got a 124. No cheating and taking it 3 times, and no scratch paper.

It’s Canada Day. O, happy day. O, joy of joys.

I’m not convinced we should trust them though. See here and here.

Rick Brookhiser on the Catholic Church.

More “peace” from that open, tolerant religion.

Israeli police have begun to allow non-Muslims, under police escort, to enter the Temple Mount grounds in the Old City of Jerusalem, despite threats of violence by Muslim leaders.

I dunno, I think that speaks for itself.

via WorldNetDaily.

From WorldNetDaily. As always the CIA is on the cutting edge of espionage.

“Details of the memo were only recently revealed after historians compared the censored and uncensored versions of the document and realized the CIA considered a decades-old joke about Santa Claus as a matter of the utmost national security,” the report said.

Yeah, that would be the flu. This is more frightening because everything from a cold to ebola apparently has flu-like symptoms. You’d never know you’d been hit.

Alright! This is some great stuff. I love the thought of an independent America kicking butt without the hassles of France and Germany and Saudi Arabia and Turkey and China and South Korea and who ever else is whining all the time. You guys just shut up and we’ll take care of it. via DrudgeReport

UPDATE: I forgot Canada in the list of whiners. But then, Canada is so exceedingly forgetable, I don’t feel bad.

That one day small children will be able to run about freely knowing their always-on connection is ALWAYS ON. I have a dream that one day we will not be judged on the color of our skin, but on the quality of our high-speed internet access. I have a dream that dial-up connections on really lousy phone lines will be a thing of the past. I have a dream.

This just sounds wrong. via Drudge Report.

Dinesh D’Souza has this to say on America. This is my favorite part:

America, the freest nation on Earth, is also the most virtuous nation on Earth. This point seems counterintuitive, given the amount of conspicuous vulgarity, vice and immorality in America. Some Islamic fundamentalists argue that their regimes are morally superior to the United States because they seek to foster virtue among the citizens. Virtue, these fundamentalists argue, is a higher principle than liberty.

Indeed it is. And let us admit that in a free society, freedom will frequently be used badly. Freedom, by definition, includes the freedom to do good or evil, to act nobly or basely. But if freedom brings out the worst in people, it also brings out the best. The millions of Americans who live decent,

praiseworthy lives desire our highest admiration because they have opted for the good when the good is not the only available option. Even amid the temptations of a rich and free society, they have remained on the straight path. Their virtue has special luster because it is freely chosen.

Ooh. Take that!

Nooo. Not Janet Reno. The real one.

via WorldNetDaily

Well, our wireless internet service is down. So I am relying on what I can only describe as a system of hamsters and other rodents who apparently only operate at mind-numbingly slow speeds. Maybe they need bigger exercise balls.

Of course this is forcing me to do more work at my “desk”, which I mostly use just for holding papers that people hand to me.

Scrappleface solves NASA’s cork troubles. I wish they’d listen to him. Sandy’s waiting to get out there. If Biff is left on his own too long, it’s gonna get ugly.

That’s Supreme Court Of The United States…go here, here, here, here, and here to start.

Katherine Hepburn died yesterday. She was in a ton of great movies. Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, African Queen, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. Great stuff. Go rent some.

This Washington Post article describes the many financial woes of the State of California. Maybe, just maybe, the State will be forced to mind its own business and get out of everyone’s way. I doubt it though.

UPDATE: From Scrappleface

So the triathelete in front of me at Starbucks said that the volunteers for yesterday’s triathalon were the greatest. There were 4000 of them, more on the waiting list. That’s more than at any other North American Ironman. It doesn’t surprise me at all. This city is just like that. Nicest people, always willing to help. Which is handy when you get stuck in snow. On the other hand, it probably means the Ironman will be back. And that’s really bad for my road rage problem. Stupid idiot Washingtonians not knowing where they’re going, driving slow, in my way.

MSS is going to write a book. I think he should stick to Public Relations, you gotta go with your strengths. Or possibly writing for the New York Times.

via Welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com.

More at 11:00

Interesting.

“I’m not a preacher and I’m not a pastor,” Gibson said. “But I really feel my career was leading me to make this. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize.”

Ever notice how the one time you don’t turn the vibrate on your cell phone your sister calls in the middle of church? Really cuts into your ability to mock others that it happens to.

It’s Saturday. It’s gotta be nice where you are if it’s this beautiful in Idaho. Go outside and do something. I’ll be reading Emma and working on my amazing North Idaho tan.

Take this you wacky enviromentalist vegan weirdos.

My favorite part:

Most of the deforestation takes place due to burning and logging to create farms, and the jump in 2002 suggests soy farming is growing rapidly in the area.

Yeah, I used to have a rfid problem, but Ortho cleared it right up.

Endangered Privacy via microchips.

Michelin, which manufactures 800,000 tires a day, is going to insert RFID tags into its tires. The tag will store a unique number for each tire, a number that will be associated with the car’s VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). Good for Michelin, and car manufacturers, and fighting crime. Potentially bad for you. Who will assure your privacy? Do you really want your car’s tires broadcasting your every move?

The European Central Bank may embed RFID chips in the euro note. Ostensibly to combat counterfeiters and money-launderers, it would also enable banks to count large amounts of cash in seconds. Unfortunately, such a move would also makes it possible for governments to track the passage of cash from individual to individual. Cash is the last truly anonymous way to buy and sell. With RFID tags, that anonymity would be gone. In addition, banks would not be the only ones who could in an instant divine how much cash you were carrying; criminals can also obtain power transceivers.

And it gets worse.

from The Register

Internet feeling sluggish to you? Check here.

via Slashdot. But you have until the end of next year. There’s nothing like planned obsolescence to keep your customers throwing their money at you.

Also from LFG.

Good news over at LGF.

New quotes from MSS over at Welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com

It’s Friday! How did you get this far with you’re day without reading your Victor Davis Hanson

Yet even as university professors and consultants cling to such regurgitated and discredited postcolonial theories and Chomskyite drivel, the American profile abroad has made such conventional exegesis obsolete.

And

Fools! The real danger is not that we are interventionists, but rather are on the verge of a weird insularity not seen since the 1920s–a paradox of still being engaged abroad but not in the usual manner of the past. The American Street is in a strangely revolutionary–read “fed-up”–mood. It is growing distant from Europe. It is angry with the Arab world especially, and it is tired with South Korea–and most whiny nations that either take billions of dollars in direct American aid or ankle-bite under the aegis of American arms.

And it gets better. Go, go now.

From Mark Steyn. I did not know this:

America is the only country in the Western world in which the consort of the head of government is given a semiformal role, an office and a staff.

I wonder if it’s because the presidential wives saw they could do some good and did it. And in the fine tradition of American wives, roped their husbands into helping them. You know instead of wasting time protesting they weren’t getting paid as much, treated as well, etc.

Instapundit will be on vacation. How will the world get its news?

I don’t know if this is true, but why would someone make this up? (Not the Hillary part, the second half.) via IMAO

Here.

I admit I don’t keep up with the latest swear words, but I have no idea what this is supposed to mean:

He said: “Some w***** in the crowd changed the whole match and you allowed it to happen. Well done. Well done.”

From the Telegraph.

Scrappleface imitates Spongebob (scroll down to the quotes).

…attempt to make my life a living heck here.

And the obligatory human-interest story.

From the Opinion Journal Best of the Web today:

Civil laws prohibiting consensual sodomy were an anachronism, and the country is well rid of them. Yet we’d say the court got it right in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), when it ruled that the U.S. Constitution is no bar to such laws. At the time the court decided Bowers, 24 states had sodomy laws; by yesterday only 13 did. By short-circuiting the political process, which seemed to be moving in the right direction anyway, the Supreme Court took away a little bit of Americans’ democratic freedom.

Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings in his FoxNews commentary points out the problems with government-sponsored space exploration. Or whatever you would want to call what they’re doing out there. via Instapundit.

Darn.

Scrappleface: Particularly this

The Bleat.

Yep the rest of the news is discussions on the Supreme Court and it’s decisions. Click on any news site for more info concerning racism and/or gays.

This from the Mirror.via Welovetheiraqiinforamationminister.com. I think the name says it all.

This does not make me feel more like buying cd’s. Matter of fact, if the new REM boxed set were coming out sooner, I would purposely not go buy it. Neener-neener.

Those wacky kids at Samizdata.

Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too! Mecca of Dr. Pepper lovers. via the Corner. And for a guy that can’t stand the stuff Stuttaford’s rather obsessed. I say he’s a closet Pepper.

UPDATE: Stuttaford denies it in an email. Lacking further proof I am obliged to believe him. I guess I’ll have to stalk him to get a snapshot of him downing a Dr. Pepper.

The Far Reaching Ministry team in Sudan could use your prayers. From the Far Reaching Ministry prayer update:

The biggest need for prayer right now is for the team that is in the Nuba Mountains in Central Sudan re-equipping the Chaplains there with the
Word and new uniforms and their pay checks.

I’m looking for a copy of the classic show “San Diego At Large” and all I can find is that the guy that played Skippy was the millioniare on “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire”. Or whatever it’s called. Talk about weird.

This makes me proud to be from San Diego county.

The time-warping Volokh Conspiracy has now vs. then on Gephart’s statements.

The Telegraph has a report on a program designed to sift through corporate and political BS. Finally.

UPDATE: Nanotechnology keeps smelly feet at bay. There’s always a silver lining!

Right on, brotha!

More on the continuing saga of Biff and Sandy going to Mars.

John Derbyshire has an excellent piece on the future of the Anglican Church if they continue on their current path. The warning could be well taken by most liberal denominations.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame discusses tech job outsourcing in his TechCentralStation column. This is the part I like:

With all sympathy to Mr. Paris, people usually conclude that foreign competition has “gone too far” when it threatens their job. (And if we could import foreign politicians to compete with domestic ones, you’d see tariffs and protectionism that would make Napoleon’s Continental System look like free trade.)

Ain’t it the truth.

via Instapundit. Atheist=Bright. Incomprehensibly stupid.

Is Baghdad Bob back? I know I could use a laugh.

UPDATE: Scrappleface has more.

From CNN:

Some local villagers have claimed the people killed in the attack were sheep smugglers. Pentagon officials said they might have been smugglers, but said U.S. intelligence strongly suggests high-level Iraqis, not sheep, were their cargo.

Why do people smuggle sheep? Are sheep illegal in Syria? “Hey, buddy, I’ll give you $100 a head to get these Suffolks across the border…”

Maybe it’ll trick people into thinking it’s like a Jaguar or Mercedes if we just give it a couple of letters and numbers. Yeah…good idea…. They’ll never know.

Since we archive with Shorten this is interesting to me. Not interesting enough that I rabidly follow the discussion, but Slashdot has an discussion on Phish converting their music to FLAC. Naturally a lot of the /. community misses the point, but there’s some good info in there. Technologies come and go, mostly, but I don’t think it’s a big enough improvement to convert from shorten.

From the Telegraph. Belgium embarasses itself. I really like the picture of Rumsfeld.

I was going to do a diatribe on his asininity. But Scrappleface does it funnier. And nothing bothers self-important people more than being laughed at. Well, maybe not nothing, but it really bothers them.

UPDATE: Instapundit has it all. Naturally.

Interesting. And it keeps going throughout the day. Where do I stand? I’m not sure. I don’t think the laws should be there, but neither do I think that we should encourage sin. I mostly agree with what Stanley Kurtz’s been writing on this. Quite frankly, thinking about it grosses me out. I think I’ll bow out and leave it to the experts.

UPDATE: This is where compromise will get you.

Disclaimer: The last thing I saw them in was Down From the Mountain DVD.

Allison Kraus new do=bad. The one in this picture is somewhere in between.
Jerry Douglas goatee and glasses=good
Dan Tyminski still looks like Riker.

Okay, this is almost as stupid as getting fired for smoking. Why would anyone vote for someone who promises to ignore the spirit of the Constitution, if not the actual letter? More outrage tomorrow.

And a MAJOR ANNOYANCE.

From the Press

“It’s going to inconvenience some people,” said Mayor Sandi Bloem. “But a lot of fine people worked very hard to make this event happen. The benefits outweigh the negatives.”

My eye. I’m the one that has to try to drive through this mess. Look, I’ve been blocked off from civilization 3 times in the last month. Why don’t they run somewhere else, like Hawaii, it’ll be warmer there.

I can still taste it in my mind. That’s some evil stuff. I hope this doesn’t scar me for life.